Sunday Afternoon Jazz

Yesterday I was able to enjoy a couple of really excellent albums while I half-watched (with the TV sound off) the dismal Seahawks season opener.

Jim Hall's Concierto is one of the best the CTI label's releases in the early 70's. One of the things that appeals to me about Hall's playing is his economy of notes - why play two or three notes if one will make the point better? The guitar work on this release is simply sublime.

Hall's band here is rock solid. The great Ron Carter is on bass, with Steve Gadd on drums, Chet Baker on trumpet, Paul Desomd on sax, and Roland Hanna on piano. The mood is melow and relaxed, and arranger Don Sebesky keeps things basic, avoiding the prchestration he would often add to albums of this period.

Certainly the highlight of this album is the 19 minute Concierto de Aranjuez, and achingly beautiful piece that does not feel even one second too long. Simply an amazing piece of music.

Next up was Billy Cobham's 1974 release "Crosswinds". This was Cobham's follow-up to his awesome "Spectrum" album from the previous year, and while there are some similarities Crosswinds stands well on its own. All of the tunes here are Cobham compositions, and range from mellow & reflective to downright funky (no surpise with George Duke in the keyboard seat).

Duke's playing on the Fender Rhodes is very nice indeed, if you're a fan of the "Rhodes sound" then you'll enjoy this release for sure. John Abercrombie's guitar work is immediately recognizable, and the Brecker Brothers both supply some nice solos. The album also features Garnett Brown on trombone, Lee Pastora on percussion, and John Williams on bass.

The album opens with the 17-minute "Spanish Moss - A Sound Portrait', which is essentially four distinct pieces with varying textures and atmospheres. The piece is very solid and enjoyable. The other highlights for me are the uptempo "The Pleasant Pheasant" and the relaxed and mellow "Heather".

Spectrum may be a better know Cobham album, but I find Crosswinds to be its equal musically.

Miles Davis - the "Lost Quintet"

There was a recent thread over at Head-Fi regarding peoples' favorite Miles Davis albums. "Kind of Blue" (of course!) and "In a Silent Way" (my personal favorite) both were mentioned a lot, but a few people named "Filles de Kilimanjaro" from 1968 because of how it was such a transitional record for Miles, bridging the gap between his acoustic jazz past and the impending move to electric jazz.

This got me to thinking about Miles' "Lost Quintet", its nickname owing to the fact that it never recorded as a quintet in the studio. Only Wayne Shorter remained from the "Second Great Quintet" of 1964-1968, with Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette comprising the remaining members. The quintet was Miles' live band from early 1969 through March of 1970 when Wayne Shorter left the band. And as one would expect from a lineup as stellar as this one, the music kicked ass, with an echo of more straight-ahead jazz remaining amid the electric maelstrom.

While there are no studio releases of music by this lineup, the band was widely recorded in concert and a number of unofficial releases exist. Several years ago a "Lost Quintet Tree" distributed about a dozen CDs of live shows, primarily taken from radio broadcasts over the course of 1969. Some of the recordings are excellent FM pulls and offer a glimpse into Miles' live music right at the time he turned music on its ear with "Bitches Brew".

Several of the shows have recently been upped on the Dime torrent site. The 11/9/69 Rotterdam show and the two sets from Paris six days earlier are probably the best sounding, with the two shows from Rome on 10/27 being pretty solid as well. Start with this great remastered version of the Rotterdam show, and then grab some others as well if you like what you hear. If you don't do bittorrent, then a little Googling should find some links to where you can download some of this killer music from the web.