Summer of Jazz (for Grumpy Seniors)

Lester, in the pocket.

John, searching for more.

Too Darn Hot?

I'm not a fan of summer. My comfort zone has shrunk considerably since I was a kid who loved being off from school for two months. Once school was no longer an issue, I quickly noticed that summer was HOT. And HUMID. Who knew? Air conditioning helped, except when it was too high and you'd get pneumonia. All this makes me grumpy, and that's not conducive to expanding one's horizons. Too many CDs get thrown out of windows, perhaps prematurely. 

It's just safer for me to stick to simple, energetic, and melodic music. So classical, jazz, country, and blues were all out. They were relegated to winter, when all hope is lost anyway, so you may as well learn something. Plus, it takes effort, which generates heat, which saves on the gas bill.

But my approach was no longer working. Pop music was becoming foreign to me. (The age gap alone is getting embarrassing.) My old reliable -  guitar-based pop - was sounding stale and repetitive, and I'm just tired of waiting for joy to show up. "Everything at/in its proper time and place" is wisdom I may not have time for anymore. 

I tried something differenct last time and lucked out with the blues. The key was to keep things simple. No big box sets. Just single-CD best-ofs. Big Joe Turner and Skip James did the rest. 

With that in mind, I asked myself Why not jazz? Perhaps a sax or piano could provide a respite. The guitars will just have to show up when they show up. One can't force these things.

And lo! (Always wanted to say that.) I managed to find some great jazz records I happily listen to in summer. Early summer mornings, but still summer.

Feeling Young:

Once while in college, I sat with a semi-stoner buddy. Since music was always the lingua franca of those years, we almost immediately got on the topic, and to my surprise, he told me he was into jazz.

I wasn't yet, but the explorer in me took over, and I asked him to name his favorite artist. His eyes went wide.

"Lester Young," he said. 

I made a mental note that stood dormant for oh, fifty years, because there was always someone else who would edge him out. Sure, I'd get Billie Holiday records, where LY was the main side man, but never one of his own records. But there was one I had my eye on.

And wouldn't you know it? The All Knowing Jeff F*cking Bezos (his actual name) dangled that very album in my "music library". When I tried to play it, though, I got a saying it'd play if I joined Apple Music. I have yet to take that approach to my listening habits and declined. I like to own my music. And if anything, JFB has been misbehaving lately, which led me to my current "any store but Amazon" period, so I could safely say that was never going to happen. 

But finally, one day the price was right (Yes, I checked iTunes, but it cost more. Any other suggestions would be welcome.) and I gave JFB my $7, which I believe went to his engagement ring fund.

Lester Young with the Oscar Peterson Trio (1952)

By 1952, the quality of recorded sound was improving, but it still had a way to go. This might explain my preference for late-50s jazz. By then, the clarity had improved to the point that you could hear everything - including the silence - quite clearly. So the sound on this record is less than stellar.

Once you get past that minor limitation, it's a delight from beginning to end. Right off the friggin' bat, LY bursts out of the gate with a bouquet of notes to kick off "Ad Lib Blues". Oscar Peterson and his trio are not far behind. OP is smooth, smooth, smooth, like Art Tatum. But unlike him, he's willing to take the occasional Bud Powell-like imaginative leaps instead of giving empty flourishes. Barney Kessel's guitar - despite the limited sound - is very on point, so it's not all on Lester. 

But they don't call him "Pres" (short for President) for nothing. His solos seem effortless and yet fill every available moment with a melodic ebb and flow. Unlike Coltrane, say, Young is not a searcher. He always sounds perfectly comfortable in whatever setting he's in. So he's not always riveting, but it is always rewarding and, well, reassuring.

LY was supposedly past his prime at this point. If that's the case, I'll have to dig deeper, because this is  record is simply wonderful.

A

Trying to Catch the 'Trane:

And since I have no imagination whatsoever, I then default to John Coltrane.

I recently checked my database* to see how many JC albums I have. It lists nine under his name and eight collaborations. So, work with me as I do the math, and say the total is .... seventeen. And that doesn't count the dozen or so I've got with him as part of the Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk units.

That would tie him for SECOND on my all-time list, behind the Beatles, who have 22, and that's only because that includes both American and British versions of several of their albums. He shares this honor with the elusive and frustrating Miles Davis and the frustrating and elusive Neil Young. JC can be pretty f*cking elusive, too, but he's just so much more likable as a human, it makes me willing to hear him out when he jumps off the occasional musical cliff.

And he does that a lot. Whenever I get a JC album, I brace myself because I rarely get it the first time I hear it. My first Coltrane CD was Giant Steps in 1990. It took years for me to get a hold of the title number. It was like a roller coaster I was afraid to get on. Once I did, though, oh boy! 

My favorite JC album may be Afro Blue/Impressions, which is a posthumous compilation of live dates from 1963, providing wonderful solos but also the occasional foray into space.

JC put out - and appeared as a guest or band member on - a dizzying number of albums, so I need Allmusic's help to zero in on the best ones. I noted that The Cats, Ole', and Crescent are the most highly regarded ones I didn't already have. So they would be my next stops on the Trane.

He mostly stays moored to Earth on these albums. You never know when I'll pull the trigger on one of his free jazz albums like Ascension or Interstellar Space, which carry what amounts to warning labels. Having just gotten an Ornette Coleman box set of eight early LPs, including Free Jazz, I am no longer afraid. I'm prepared to be embarrassed, though.

Tommy Flanagan, John Coltrane, Kenny Burrell, Idrees Sulieman: The Cats (1959)

Although released at the end of 1959, this was actually recorded in April 1957, right around when Miles Davis fired Coltrane because of his heroin addiction. (Coltrane's, not Davis', who'd already been there and done that.) Luckily, Coltrane had signed with Prestige, where he did a lot of work as a sideman. And that's what he is here, even if his name is on the cover.     

But right out of the gate, you know it's him. Standard Coltrane here. At first, a bit tentative, finding his way. So nothing stupendous, but nothing bad. Later, with a little more room, JC branches out and uses space and silence as much as notes. A nice trick.  The rest is mostly an inventory of his bag of tricks at this point. Perhaps he was just being polite. But not bad for a heroin addict.

And, of course, I may be judging this record on JC's performances alone, which would be unfair. The other sidemen really shine. Idrees Sulieman on trumpet, in particular. I suspect this one will be a slow burner.

B+    

John Coltrane: Ole' (1961)    

At this point JC has kicked his heroin habit, re-joined the Miles Davis group for Milestones (1958), Kind of Blue (1959), among many other records, and put out a number of collaborations and solo albums of his own, the great ones being Blue Train (1957), Giant Steps (1960), and My Favorite Things (1961), which immediately preceded this album.

The title track shares some similarities with "My Favorite Things", mainly in how JC uses it to take his clarinet out for a spin. He uses the opportunity, on MFT, he replaced the Western major and minor chords with Middle Eastern modes to make something new. On this original, he uses some (what else?) Spanish elements to build up a rather ominous tone over its eighteen epic minutes. He may have been inspired by Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain, released the prior year, although Miles goes all in with an orchestra for a full album. Here, JC just adds a second bass, and then is one and done. 

On "Dahomey Dance", he sounds a lot like Kind of Blue, but more muscular. He's given himself room to stretch out, and he's one of the few musicians who benefits from it.

McCoy Tyner's "Aisha" reminds me of "Naima" from Giant Steps. And as before, it's amazing how far he can fly on a mellow tune.

"To Her Ladyship" (on the expanded version of the album) closes things out in a very mellow mood. 

Kudos to Freddie Hubbard, who more than holds down his end on trumpet. Ditto for McCoy Tyner on piano, and Eric Dolphy for adding sweetness with the flute.

An excellent record that finds JC in a more relaxed mood.

A-

John Coltrane: Crescent (1964)

By now, JC has released Africa Brass, Live at the Village Vanguard, Live at Birdland, among many other records, and collaborated with, among many others, Duke Ellington.

Now he's approaching A Love Supreme, which would come out the following year and two years before Ascension, when he does that swan dive, or rocket launch, depending on where you're sitting.

The first two compositions here are as mellow as anything J.C. has recorded, except for the fact that he finds a way to gracefully veer from smooth sailing to heavy turbulence and back in a matter of seconds. 

The relatively short "Bessie's Blues" is more uptempo, and JC swings with it for all its worth.

Then it's back to the mellow "Lonnie's Lament", one of my very favorite JC tracks. Solemn, mournful, and yet hypnotizing. 

This is another relatively subdued Coltrane record, and a fine introduction to his work. Which is why I give it a slight edge over Ole.

A-

If things go as expected, about a year from now, I'll get the JC itch again. I always seem to be looking for more John Coltrane. 

I think I'm trying to understand him. That's a fool's errand, especially for me, the pop music fan. But it's provided me with a lot of joy as I try.

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*Not be confused with my spreadsheet. (Helpful Hint: The database is for records I own, the spreadsheet for the ones I'm considering getting.)