Al Cohn JL 23.iv.11

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Al & Zoot or Tubby & Ronnie? ... or Lockjaw & Johnny ... any others .... [Gray & Gordon were one hit wonders]

... i confess to not having experienced any great excitement listening to Al Cohn on various discs including Shorty Rogers's small groups ... but will listen to see if my enthusiasm can be roused a notch or two ...

[Ian Thumwood]

Calum

I tend to share your lack of enthusiasm for Al Cohn's playing but I think you will find that he is more of an interesting musician than the numerous "Al & Zoot" recordings might suggest. I can never tell these two musicians apart - add Flip Philips to the mix and I have absolutely no idea who is who. Cohn was heavily involved in contracting in the 1960's and this is why he often crops up in big band line ups in that era as he was organising the musicians for the studio gigs. I'm pretty sure that he also compose charts for Woody Herman's band too and am sure that writing always was a pretty important string to his bow. However, I tend to associate him very much with the mainstream / modern scene of the 1950's which does sound ultra-conservative in comparison with what Miles, Mingus or even Coltrane were doing at the same time let alone what labels like Blue Note were issuing. The album "A-Z" is one my father has and it is actually quite good. It is good-natured jazz that won't challenge anyone with being too difficult but I suppose is now the kind of jazz that is championed by the likes of Harry Allen or Scot Hamilton. For me, this kind of jazz reinforces my impression of a lot of jazz in the 1950's being more conservative than most fans looking through rose-tinted spectacles would want to believe. You could level this criticism at Rogers as well, of course, although the writing for his ensembles was always interesting or quirky. Of the names you have listed, Ronnie Scott is probably the most equivalent but I regret I much prefer the likes of Griffin and (especially) Dexter Gordon from your list.

Wondered if you had checked the playlist? The mixing of more modern players withmany musicians from the "Swing Era" is certainly suggestive that musicians were definately not quite in camps separated by the Bebop revolution of the 40's. The quality of the bass and drum teams on the selection is quite telling.

[Tenor Freak]

Looking forward to this one, as Al Cohn is a player I know almost nowt about, except that he recorded a lot of sessions with Zoot Sims. I guess Cohn is another of Pres' "grey boys" and I don't mean that perjoratively.

[Serial_Apologist]

Zoot and Al were my introduction to jazz at intimate quarters, courtesy of Ronnie's 1965. By no means jazz to thrill, but one found grateful pleasure in logically built, logically worked out solo narratives, as in the case of Getz but rather less so, and the mild "ooh" factor of unexpected bitonal juxtapositions when the improvised horn lines crossed. Cohn was the more extrovert of the two.

S-A

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

well i really enjoyed the programme ... easy on an Easter Sunday with the sun shining! ...if all Al C ever did was to write and arrange Lady Chatterley's Mother he would be a star in my book


for the spotify fans there is a pile of stuff if you search for Al Cohn and there is this which features his work with Zoot and Brookmeyer in the fifties ... and is probably cheap on big river ...

[charles t]

As one who saw Al & Zoot at The Five Spot (probably), these guys were jUIcErs (excl'm mark)

I'm talking about when they are on the stand, playing a set...can still see Cohn flipping his (emptied) shot glass back to the bartender (excl'm mark)

[Ian Thumwood]

I enjoyed the programme much more than I thought I would. There was a bouncy joyfulness about the music which made the music sound like great fun. I thought John Altman's insights were extremely revealing and he made a very good guest drawing your attention to details that you would have otherwise never picked up. He has been one of the best in this respect - definately worth penciling in on future programmes where writing / composition is to the fore. The point about whether composing assists or detracts from a soloist's ability is interesting and will certianly provide some food for thought on this board. Probably the least interesting track for me was the one from the "Tenor Conclave" album which certatainly had the least amount of writing in the chart. (Coltrane always seems so much better than everyone else on this record even though i prefer his work in the 60's to his earlier stuff.) The stand out tracks were "Cohn not Cohen" and the brilliant track by Gerry Mulligan's Concert Jazz Orchestra. Although I can appreciate that there is an element in Stan Getz's playing that probably marks him out as a greater jazz soloist than Cohn, I think this programme made Cohn appear more human and certainly much more good-natured.

It is becoming an increasing feature, I feel, that the record companies are deleting albums from the catalogues which would otherwise be highly recommended by "Jazz Library." I suppose this reflects current demand and it is obviously not practical for the record companies to keep minority interest albums in print. I am sure that there are probably plenty of jazz musicians whose music is no longer available at all on disc. However, when you learn that Al Cohn and Zoot Sims did an album on clarinets the prospect is so intriguing that you really regret that so many interesting albums are no longer available. I never knew that such an album existed but my appetite is whetted to discover just how much their playing resembled Lester Young's on that instrument. I've always thought that Young's poignant work on the clarinet was one of the most beautiful sounds in jazz. The prospect of two of his "disciples" dueting on clarinet sounds like an interesting record.

BTW: I'm sure I've heard the track "Five brothers" by another band but can't recall exactly what record it comes from.