Full Disclosure, Part 4: Having Said All That

As I've said in the past my jazz sweet spot is late-fifties small combos. 40s big bands are a big learning curve for me and I find 70s fusion revolting and 80s "quite storm" boring.

Here's a sort of list of my favorite jazz albums

• Miles Davis: Kind of Blue/In a Silent Way/Jack Johnson
• Thelonious Monk: Misterioso/Genius of Modern Music
• Django Reinhardt: Djangology
• John Coltrane: Giant Steps
• Bud Powell: The Amazing Bud Powell, Vol. 1
• Keith Jarrett: The Koln Concert
• Erroll Garner: Concert by the Sea
• Charlie Christian and Benny Goodman
• Vince Guaraldi: A Charlie Brown Christmas
• Charlie Parker: Ken Burns Jazz/Legendary Dial Masters
• John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk: Live at Carnegie Hall

I'm not really sure how helpful that is, so I decided to try something else. Here's a table with several of the above, along with a couple I'm not crazy about, all scored via some not-so-well-thought-out categories, each using a scale of 1 - 5:

Accessibility: How likely you'll immediately find it catchy.

Depth: How much there is to hear in there.

Warmth: How welcoming in tone.

If I threw in all of the ones I first mentioned you'd more easily see that my favorites don't score consistently highly in any particular category. That's where my own taste comes in.

So with this in mind let me tell you about a few records, which I'll try to grade, and also score.

John Coltrane: Africa Brass (1961)

Ever the explorer, here JC is with a big band (arranged by sweet weirdo Eric Dolphy) and it is so much better than I'd expected. The big band provides a huge sound wall that JC tries to bound over. It provides an outlet for all that pent-up musical energy.

My version contains both volumes, with some resulting alternate versions. Not a problem. JC always makes them worthwhile.

The best place to start with JC? Probably not. That might be My Favorite Things. But bitching JC disc? Absolutely.

Grade: A-

Score: 4/4/4

"Song of the Underground Railroad"

Sun Ra Arkestra: Lanquidity (1978)

I could swear I caught Sun Ra for the first time on Saturday Night Live. I couldn't track it down on Youtube, but Wikipedia not on confirms it, but says that this album was recorded right after their appearance!

Buck Henry was the host that night, and I remember him introducing Sun Ra and Arkestra with all due respect and reverence. The performance was easily one of the weirdest I'd witnessed up until that time. Unless Tiny Tim counted.

SR is the classic "difficult artist with a huge back catalog" that makes the idea of finding an entry point quite daunting. I asked some on-line acquaintances where to start, and they offered some helpful suggestions, like "anywhere". I finally broke down via a mysterious now missing Christgau recommendation and got this record, with bonus alternate versions of each cut.

And I'd take it over Bitches Brew any day. That bloated monster was almost all flash and awkward funk (Yes, I just invented that oxymoronic genre.) But Lanquidity is modest, almost halting, slightly out of tune saxophone duets and slow-churned miasma. A bit funky, a bit brooding. And the alternate cuts just extend the spell. Kind of like that strange neighbor of yours who talks to himself all day. 

I'm not sure if this would be a good entry point for Sun Ra, so be warned.

Grade: A-

Score: 3/3/3

"Where Pathways Meet"

Various Artists: Roots of Jazz Funk, Vol 1 (2006)

This collection lands squarely in my jazz sweet spot, and is just wonderful.

I only own one of its eleven cuts. And the rest includes several artists who aren't quite in the pantheon but who have great performances (Lee Morgan, "The Sidewinder", Art Blakey, "Moanin", Horace Silver, "Song for My Father", Cannonball Adderly, "Work Song") and some who are, doing songs that had thus far eluded me.

The key concept: no standards (and thus, no trying to figure out the tune and what they're doing to it),  just instrumentals with memorable riffs, and ace players to drive it home. Because if you don't do it right it can be deadly dull. This one gets it right every single time.

A perfect intro to the era.

A

5/4/5

"Work Song"

Now, before I go all pop for the spring, as a parting gift, here's a performance from Sun Ra and Arkestra from about a year before the SNL appearance, where they let it all hang out: