The Penguin Jazz Guide (155 page)

Previously hidden in big-band sections and sideman roles for some 20 years, the tenorman’s absolute command goes with a soft-edged tone and an undemonstrative delivery that creates a paradox at the centre of his style. Other commentators have cited Getz, Marsh and Rollins among his models, yet Perry doesn’t sound much like anyone else and his individuality takes some time to tease out; once it’s evident, though, he suddenly becomes quite distinctive, even when he pops up on someone else’s date. Perry manages to be consistent without being boring and there’s little to choose between the early dates for Steeplechase. Instead, more depends on the context.
Beautiful Love
is the pick of the three, since without a piano the skill and judicious intensity of the sax-playing come through more clearly. There
are truly marvellous improvisations on ‘Prisoner Of Love’, ‘All The Things You Are’ and ‘I Fall In Love Too Easily’ at the heart of the record, and for once eight quite lengthy tracks don’t seem a moment too long. ‘But Not For Me’ has an almost philosophical calm at the heart, and at a stroke raises Perry to the first rank of young contemporaries. Anderson and the superb Lewis are also in good order.

JOHN SURMAN
^&

Born 30 August 1944, Tavistock, Devon, England

Baritone and soprano saxophones, bass clarinet, keyboards

A Biography Of The Rev. Absalom Dawe

ECM 523749-2

Surman (reeds, ky solo) October 1994.

John Surman says:
‘It was inspired by my great-great-grandfather, who lived in Portesham, Dorset. I never met him, but I heard many, many stories as a youngster. How many were true I’ll never know – but I found inspiration in the legend at any rate.’

As long ago as 1972, the year after
Tales Of The Algonquin
, Surman had been experimenting with solo performance and with the possibilities of overdubbing.
Westering Home
is a spare, sometimes raw but very intense record. To some degree this was a necessary fix for a musician whose label contact had been severed, but it was also an aspect of music-making that fascinated him, particularly now that The Trio, his main improvising small group, was no more. New groups followed, including the all-saxophone trio SOS, but with the recording in 1975 of
Morning Glory
, and contact with the eponymous group’s Scandinavian member, Terje Rypdal, Surman was in every way embarked on a course that would lead him to ECM.

He first recorded for Manfred Eicher in 1979.
Upon Reflection
was the first in a series of multi-tracked solo projects on which he improvised horn-lines over his own synthesizer tracks. It was similar to what he had been doing with SOS, but it also saw a strong return for his baritone-playing, which had been somewhat set aside in favour of the soprano. Now, Surman was required to play right through the ‘section’. As Surman’s facility with this kind of project grew, he placed steadily less emphasis on synthesized
ostinati
and more on the detailed interplay of horn-lines. Adding alto clarinet to his armoury delivered an important new timbre and tonality, and many of these pieces seem to be lighter and more plain-spoken than the earlier ECMs. It is the same mix of jazz, folk and church themes, however, the only difference lying in the more relaxed, less stressed opposition of tension and release, and in the significance accorded to individual lead-lines. Right at the heart of the album, ‘’Twas But Piety’ marks almost a summing up of Surman’s musical explorations up to that point, an impassioned saxophone piece, but with ‘organ’ accompaniment at beginning and end and with a loose and limber approach to counterpoint.

We are admirers of all Surman’s solo ventures, but this one has a special quality that sets it apart.

& See also
Tales Of The Algonquin
(1971; p. 389);
SOS, SOS
(1975; p. 419)

RICHARD GALLIANO

Born 12 December 1950, Le Cannet, France

Accordion, piano, trombone

Laurita

Dreyfus FDM 36572

Galliano; Michel Portal (bcl); Didier Lockwood (vn); Toots Thielemans (hca); Palle Danielsson (b); Joey Baron (d). November 1994.

Richard Galliano said (1999):
‘The accordion is a travelling instrument. It’s not like a piano or an organ. You have it here, strapped to your front, on the train or in the street. That is why it is everywhere in world music.’

Ubiquitous the accordion may be, but it has surprisingly little presence in jazz, and at present Galliano is its most distinguished practitioner. His background is that of French
musette
, which he has carried forward and modernized somewhat in the way his great mentor Astor Piazzolla modernized Argentinian tango.

Piazzolla is the presiding genius of modern accordion. Galliano is by no means in thrall to him, but like any accordion-player he draws heavily on Piazzolla themes, notably ‘Libertango’ and ‘Milonga del Angel’ on the wonderful
Laurita
. The core trio has a close understanding. Baron, that most musical of drummers, plays with real grace and delicacy and Danielsson is always lyrical. The guest players deliver exactly what you would expect of them, and no more. Their presence is welcome, but not necessary. Delightfully, this isn’t just a record of swooning romanticism. A tribute to zydeco king Clifton Chenier is the penultimate track, giving the tail of the set a vibrant, upbeat, dancing quality that transforms its occasional Debussy-meets-Bill-Evans airs into something more robust and earthy. It’s an almost perfectly balanced record.

JOHN GILL

Born 28 January 1954, New York City

Banjo, trombone, voice

Looking For A Little Bluebird

Stomp Off CD 1295

Gill; Chris Tyle, Duke Heitger (t); Frank Powers (cl, v); Steve Pistorius (p); Eddy Davis (bj, v); Vince Giordano (tba); Hal Smith (d). December 1994.

Stomp Off boss Bob Erdos said (1998):
‘The label had a hand in putting this band together and what it gives you is a flavour of how Dixieland jazz might have sounded with modern audio fidelity.’

Part of the Californian revival, Gill has multi-threaded credentials in a series of groups, including the alarmingly named Novelty Orchestra Of New Orleans, but driven by a sincere passion for New Orleans music. Shading between revivalism and a straight and strict re-creation of hot dance, Gill’s outfit sometimes errs on the side of the latter, which will tend to switch off all but the more dedicated archivists. Gill plays trombone rather than banjo on the later sets, calls the group – which achieved considerable festival success in the later ’90s – The Dixieland Serenaders, and has them play the stuffing out of a repertoire brimful of Oliver, Morton, Dodds – and Lu Watters–Turk Murphy revivalism. Except that this group actually sounds better than the oldtimers of San Franciscan jazz usually did. The two-trumpet front line blows over the rest of the band like a particularly cussed zephyr, and Giordano and Smith give the group a terrific lift even when they’re playing a simple two-beat. The result is a shakedown of a lot of mothballed tunes that puts a new lease on almost all of them. We like
Looking For A Little Bluebird
for its maniacal ‘Alligator Hop’ and the beautiful extended treatment of ‘Farewell To Storyville’, and for Richard Bird’s sound, which shoves the band right in your face while still giving them a full and clear balance. The sequel,
Take Me To the Midnight Cakewalk Ball
, is almost as good.

ABDULLAH IBRAHIM
^&

Born Adolphe (Dollar) Johannes Brand, also known as Xahur, 9 October 1934, Cape Town, South Africa

Piano, flute, voice

Yarona

Tiptoe 888820

Ibrahim; Marcus McLaurine (b); George Johnson (d). January 1995.

Abdullah Ibrahim said (1993):
‘We were in Seattle when [Nelson Mandela] was set free. We knew from ANC that something was going on, that something large was going to be resolved, and by peaceful means. We watched all night on television, a very emotional time.’

Ibrahim’s career has obviously reflected to a large degree the situation in his native South Africa, which changed on 11 February 1990 when ‘Madiba’ (Nelson Mandela) was freed from jail. One does not hear an immediate loosening in Ibrahim’s music, but certain buried currents do begin to rise to the surface. He had for so long sublimated his anger into expression that there was no question of that energy abating.

Yarona
is a truly magisterial performance by the 60-year-old, bringing the house down at Sweet Basil in New York City. He still hits the piano very hard, using the bass almost as a drone, alternating narrow intervals and often allowing the drummer considerable licence to range outside the metre. The left hand is relentless and, in the other sense, timeless, the melody-lines stripped down and ritualized. ‘Duke 88’ once again acknowledges a personal debt. ‘Nisa’ is an exclamatory hymn to another, the womenfolk of South Africa. There is a reworking of ‘African Marketplace’ and a concert outing for ‘Stardance’, one of the lovelier themes from the
Chocolat
soundtrack. The love song ‘Cherry’ (not, as one critic assumed, a tribute to the trumpeter) shows his more lyrical side.

& See also
African Sketchbook
(1969; p. 366)

JIM HALL

Born 4 December 1930, Buffalo, New York

Guitar

Dialogues

Telarc CD 83369

Hall; Tom Harrell (flhn); Joe Lovano (ts); Bill Frisell, Mike Stern (g); Gil Goldstein (acc); Scott Colley (b); Andy Watson (d). February 1995.

Jim Hall said (1992):
‘When I was a young teenager, about 13 years old, I heard a Charlie Christian record: “Grand Slam”. That was it. That was my life’s calling, right there.’

Hall’s smooth, gentlemanly approach got seriously interesting only once he had passed his 60th birthday and started to work with larger groups. Totally professional, Hall delivers reliably every time, with no apparent difference in approach between live and studio sessions. The former don’t lack for polish but nor do they ramble on any longer than they need to. Hall can never be accused of redundancy, for his solos are always unimpeachably controlled. Nor can he be described without qualification as a mainstream swinger, for he has impeccable credentials with some of the key modernists, appearing on records with Jimmy Giuffre, Sonny Rollins, Art Farmer, even with John Lewis, Gunther Schuller and Ornette Coleman in a Third Stream context, and in more recent times with fellow guitarists Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell as well. He studied classical music and later took an interest in Argentinian music too, and both of those surface – often subliminally – in his mature work.

We wouldn’t suggest that Hall isn’t worth listening to before 1990, but there is a curious shortfall in the surviving discography that might suggest such a thing. Concord, Musicmasters and Creed Taylor’s CTI all recorded him, but not much survives from that time, and it wasn’t until the (almost) solo
Dedications & Inspirations
, made for Telarc in 1993 with an experimental new playback system which allowed him to duet with himself, that Hall started to sound like a major recording artist. The solo concept was to take a step further on
Dialogues
, though there are only two duet tracks, both with Goldstein on his regular and bass accordion. The rest are small-group performances designed to highlight horns and guitar, and with Colley and Watson taking pretty much a back seat. With the exception of the closing ‘Skylark’, which features Harrell in exquisite form, all the tunes are Hall originals, written with a playing partner in mind – ‘Frisell Frazzle’, ‘Calypso Joe’, and ‘Stern Stuff’ – and it is Mike Stern who delivers the surprise of the session with an offbeat blues sound on ‘Uncle Ed’. Frisell is in typically playful form on the opening dedication, reappearing on ‘Simple Things’, which has more of a country feel. The saxophonist has had more convincing days, but he manages to give his two appearances a reasonably personal slant. Telarc recordings are famously good, but on this occasion John Snyder and Jane Hall have outdone themselves. Holding back a notch on the rhythm section was a risky stratagem, but what they have produced has near-perfect balance and no loss of definition.

BRIAN LEMON

Born 11 February 1937, Nottingham, England

Piano

But Beautiful

Zephyr ZE CD 1

Lemon; Dave Cliff (g); Dave Green (b); Allan Ganley (d). January & March 1995.

Bassist Dave Green said (1996):
‘He’s solid, he’s forgotten more songs than most piano-players will ever learn, but, above all, he’s never boring.’

‘Is that a nickname?’ an American fan asked on being told who the piano-player was. ‘If so, it’s not just cruel, it’s irrelevant. He’s terrific.’ He is, indeed, and has been for five decades, though it was John Bune’s lemon-liveried Zephyr imprint that put the pianist on the recording map. The label debut throws up three bars from the first. It’s a quality record. The title-track is a model of its kind, and the medley of ‘Exactly Like You’ and ‘I Thought About You’ works at all sorts of levels. A version of Sonny Rollins’s ‘St Thomas’ doesn’t sit quite as obviously for Lemon’s technique but, following as it does the one original, ‘Blues For Suzanna’, it underlines his other gift, the pacing and direction of a set. The most common criticism of the records that followed is that they tend to be polite, perhaps a little chummy, but jazz isn’t all sparring and intrigue. Sometimes it’s possible to let the songs speak for themselves, and Lemon does this with sure-footed intuition.