The History of Music according to the Compact Disc:
1. One's Own Library – The New Year's Sound
2. More Jazz Masterpieces, More Discography Confusion
3. Organizing Your Jazz Listening with Cook and Morton's Penguin Guide to Jazz
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More Jazz Masterpieces, More Discography Confusion
Several Jazz-listening adventures began to develop in February. Randomly picking Jackie McLean's One Step Beyond, I did not realize that I had made a step into murky discographical territory; nor did I predict that I find myself drawn to similar albums released on Blue Note Records in the years, 1963-1965, featuring saxophonist McLean, his regular collaborator trombonist Grachan Moncur III, pianist Andrew Hill, vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, drummer Tony Williams, and a few others.
This started because: on the Rudy Van Gelder Edition of One Step Beyond, the second track does not begin where it is supposed to. Instead, the first track seems to start again; or, one may think that, during mastering, the second track was started too soon, so that the conclusion of the first track is being heard at the start of the second. Researching this issue, I found discussions online explaining that, in fact, the extra portion of the the first track, ‘Saturday and Sunday’, is not from the first track at all, but rather, the alternate take included as the last track on the C. D. Either way, the C. D. is screwed up. In my option, it must be replaced. Call me anal retentive if you want; yes, I know the entirety of the album is all there on the disc. But I want the second track to start when the second track is supposed to start, and not have to fast-forward through a misplaced minute of another track! Turns out... the album, properly remastered, was made available as part of a Grachan Moncur box set, since One Step Beyond is one of a few McLean albums to feaure Moncur not only as a star soloist but also as co-composer.
Having clarified these annoying discographical problems, One Step Beyond, which features Hutcherson, led me back to an album that I already loved, Hutcherson's Dialogue, and brought to mind Williams' debut as a leader, Life Time, which I had not listened to enough. The latter album (not to confused with the band, Lifetime, Williams formed later) was recorded and released in 1965, showcases varying line-ups, collectively including Sam Rivers, Herbie Hancock, Hutcherson, Richard Davis, Gary Peacock, and Ron Carter. Hutcherson's, also recorded and released in '65, features Rivers, Freddie Hubbard, Hill, Davis, and Joe Chambers. Two other related albums, Dolphy's Out of Lunch (recorded and released '64, featuring Hubbard, Hutcherson, Davis, and Williams) and Hill's Point of Departure (recorded '65, released '65; featuring Dolphy, Joe Henderson, Kenny Dorham, Davis, and Williams), both regarded as highlights of their respective leader's work, are more familiar to me and I have not have time to bring them out so far this year. Two other crucial albums from this period that I have delved into are Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage, which features George Coleman, Hubbard, Carter, and Williams, and Wayne Shorter's Speak No Evil, with the saxophonist joined by Hubbard, Hancock, Carter, and Elvin Jones, and widely regarded as his finest album as a leader.
One need not be a Jazz aficionado to notice the connection between these line-ups and the Miles Davis Quintet featuring Shorter, Hancock, Carter, and Williams (earlier versions saw both Colemand and Rivers fill the saxophone chair). Though they were of course released on Columbia and, being under Davis's name, received more mainstream attention, the Quintet albums E.S.P., Miles Smiles, Sorcerer, and Nefertiti are strikingly similar to these Blue Note titles. While all of these albums are understandably not associated with the avant-garde/ Free Jazz, except Dolphy's Out to Lunch!, they often are quite "free" of the Bop standard of "playing the changes." Because Miles Davis's work of the late Fifties is considered the epitome of Modal Jazz, many of these albums definitely bear the influence of the methods associates with that style/ genre. Modal Jazz could be seen as another "new thing" revolution, with albums recorded in 1959 (Miles Davis - Kind of Blue; Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come) being early landmarks. Or not "another"—an alternate, even opposed, form of the avant-garde, one that emphasized experimentation with the overarching structure of a performance more so than the freedom of the individual player in his improvisations. Having said that, though, John Coltrane's music brought these two approaches together, seemingly nullifying the controversies among listeners and critics and the discomfort some musicians, including Miles Davis, expressed about Coleman's work.
By the way, the Mosaic set includes two other key albums, Moncur's Evolution, which features McLean, Lee Morgan, Hutcherson, Bob Cranshaw, and Williams; and McLean's Destination Out, featuring Moncur, Hutcherson, and a rhythm section of Larry Ridley and Roy Haynes. It also includes Moncur's Some Other Stuff (with Moncur leading his own variant on Miles's quintet: Shorter, Hancock, Cecil McBee, Williams), recorded and release in '65; three of five tracks from McLean's 'Bout Soul, recorded '67, released '68, with the saxophonist joined by Moncur and newer compatriots Woody Shaw, LaMont Johnson, Scotty Holt, Rashied Ali, and singer Barbara Simmons (the tracks not including Moncur are excluded—this being an obvious drawback of the box set for the consumer); and half of the McLean double set Hipnosis, recorded in '67 but not released until '78, featuring Moncur, Johnson, Holt, and Billy Higgins. (The other half of Hipnosis actually originally came out in '77 as a Japanese title simply called The Jackie McLean Quintet; it was recorded in '62 and, as it does not feature Moncur, again is omitted from the box set).
Going down a discographical "rabbit hole".... There is another Mosaic set, but it only covers McLean's 1964-1966 Blue Note sessions, so it actually does not serve as a complement to the Moncur Mosaic Select box; instead, one would need a larger box set covering McLean's 1959-1963 Blue Note sessions and a smaller one covering his 1967 Blue Note sessions.
The gist of all this is that by the end of February I was willfully allowing myself to be inundated with Jazz listening. I had to take a break, force myself to re-listen to several of the discs that I already picked out for this year of re-engagement with my C. D. collection, occupying my listening time (especially when driving, as I regularly spend at least a half an hour in the car each day) with familiar favorites. Thankfully, one of my periodic Blue Öyster Cult listening marathons manifested itself.
The online situation was different, providing me with plenty of "new to me" music, undermining any effort to focus on a few albums or artists. How did this happen? Skimming through old copies of the Penguin Guide to Jazz (more on that in the next entry), which led me to listen online to a number of albums reviewed therein, in some cases highly recommended. They were:
John Abercrombie/ Dave Holland/ Jack DeJohnette - Gateway
Paul Bley/ Evan Parker/ Barre Phillips - Time Will Tell
Arthur Blythe - Lenox Avenue Breakdown
Jan Gabarek - Dis
Stéphane Grappelli/ Joe Pass/ Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen - Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, Denmark
Lee Konitz - Motion
George Lewis [clarinetist] - Jazz Funeral at New Orleans
The Original Dixieland Jazz Band - The First Jazz Recordings 1917-1921
Evan Parker/ Paul Lytton - Collective Calls (Urban) (Two Microphones)
Evan Parker/ John Tilbury - Two Chapters and an Epilogue
Max Roach - We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite
Wayne Shorter - Speak No Evil
Lennie Tristano - Lennie Tristano/The New Tristano
Kenny Wheeler - Music for Large and Small Ensembles
Of these, nearly all were albums that I had at least once (probably superficially) listened to, except Tivoli Gardens, Jazz Funeral, and Time Will Tell (though I had a copy of the Parker/ Bley/ Phillips trio's follow-up concert album, Sankt Gerold, that I had traded in long ago).
Due to the aforementioned travel that took up three weeks of the month, only a few additional C. D.s were added for the month of April: Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway plus Haruomi Hosono reissues released a few years back by Light in the Attic. Otherwise, in the few days of April that I spent at home both before and after my trip, I listened to discs that I already picked out. Most of my downtime that I had while traveling was spent reading, but I did listen to some music online, including the albums already listened-to this year. The additional online albums:
Johnny Adams - Room with a View of the Blues
Paul Bley - Open, to Love
Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle
Bill Callahan - Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest
Grimes - Visions
David Murray - Deep River
Muggsy Spanier - Muggsy Spanier, alternately titled 1939-1944 [Giants of Jazz compilation]
Art Tatum - The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Vol. 2
Yellow Magic Orchestra - Solid State Survivor
Yellow Magic Orchestra - BGM
Yellow Magic Orchestra - Technodelic
Yellow Magic Orchestra - Naughty Boys
The Hosono listens obviously continue my Japanese fixation; they were preceded by the online Yellow Magic Orchestra listens. This legendary Japanese ensemble, one of the most popular acts ever in their native country, offer quite an aural bounty, as all three primary members (Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Yukihiro Takahashi) released solo albums concurrently with their Y. M. O. work. The large amount music that came out under either under the band's name or solo-billed during the years, 1978-1983, proves to be a monumental achievement: seven studio Y. M. O. albums plus three albums by Hosono (Paraiso, Cochin Moon, and Philharmony), four by Sakamoto (Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto, B-2 Unit, Left Handed Dream, and Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence) and five by Takahashi (Saravah!, Murdered by the Music, Neuromantic, What, Me Worry?, and Tomorrow's Just Another Day); in addition there are collaborative albums that, like the ill-fitting comedy skits on two of those Y. M. O. albums, do not add much: Hosono's Pacific, Takahashi's first forays with the Beatniks, and Sakamoto's Summer Nerves, plus Sakamoto's two albums with the group Danceries pointing to the more Classical-oriented work of his later career. There was also production and sideman work in these years, and these artists would continue to be prolific throughout their careers—indeed, Hosono more so in the years immediately after after Y. M. O. disbanded. Their later pop-oriented work does not appeal to me as much, but thankfully each branched out beyond such confines.
–Justin J. Kaw, April 2025