Blue Note - time to seriously re-appraise this label?

[Ian Thumwood]

[Ian Thumwood]

[Ian Thumwood]

[Ian Thumwood]

[Ian Thumwood]

[Ian Thumwood]

[Ian Thumwood]

[Ian Thumwood]

[Ian Thumwood]

[Ian Thumwood]

[Ian Thumwood]

[Serial_Apologist]

SA

The statement about Hawk soldiering on seems to me a denigration of where Hawkins actually sits on the scale of things "modern."

Ian:

As one who "soldiers on" himself, it was not meant to be read that way.

Anyway, with that misunderstanding out of the way, thanks for the "rare groove" Blue Note tracks!

[Ian Thumwood]

I snapped up Horace silver's classic "Blowin' the blues away" which was available on line for peanuts. Horace Silver was one of those musicians I was staggered by when I first encountered his music but quickly over-looked for more adventurous material. I've always been a bit sceptical of him as I find his comping to be over-powering and the compositions somewhat at odds with his reputation as being "modern."

It is strange to "re-discover" this music which is far more familiar than I had thought but to find myself looking at it from another perspective thanks to some intriguing liner notes which recall Silver's approach of trying to emulate a big band. The then contemporary Basie band is offered as an interesting contrast. This has really made be revise my assessment of Silver as the records are not "blowing" vehicles for the soloists despite the simplistic harmonic framework for much of the compositions. When you listen to Silver's comping he is trying to emulate a brass section and the writing for the horns of Mitchell and Cook follows in a similar vein. It is also fascinating to find that they are playing quite deliberate arrangements with dynamics that were obviously well rehearsed. All of a sudden, his music doesn't seem quite so typical of Hard Bop and the fascination of bandleaders like Woody Herman to perform these compositions makes sense. Silver seems more akin to the modern / mainstream of his time that anything post-Parker but his quintet is drilled like a big band. I've heard Wynton Marsalis speak of Silver being a hard task-master and hard to please. This CD seems to bear witness to the fruits of someone who is endeavouring to create an extremely polished product, the kind of jazz where the sharpness and skill of the arrangement probably more important that the solos which skilfully dove-tail in to Silver's charts.

The other point made within the notes was the appeal of Silver's music within the R n/ B fraternity of the 50's / 60's with his compositions being staples when these R n/ B bands played an instrumental intermission.

Picking up from the Tristano thread somewhat, I think that I would have to say that Silver is very much a "lick" obsessed soloist and totally the opposite to how the former approached the music. I think Silver was resolutely populist but he knew how to deliver and present his product to produce the maximum effect.

Wondered if anyone else had considered the big band influence upon Silver's quintet performances.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Silver did in fact plan to record a "big" band session of prime material for Bluenote, I think in the early 60's, but he demanded extra rehearsals with the horns and Kenny Dorham said, "F this" and refused to continue, thereby subverting the date.

Horace had a reputation for being very exacting and keeping a very tight control on what Bluenote released of his. Even with the much later re-issues he strongly vetoed unreleased material he thought sub standard.

I hear (some) Horace in early/ mid Cecil Ta;ylor, The World of Cecil Taylor (Candid) being an example. And Taylor himself cited him.

Don't knock the Horace. Blistering late 60s session on Utube with Benny Maupin as one of the horns.

BN.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

recently scored addition to the library chez jazbo