Pullen out all the stops

[Serial_Apologist]

Sat Aug 3
4pm - Jazz Record Requests
Alyn Shipton introduces listeners' requests across the jazz spectrum, today featuring Johnny Hodges, Stan Getz and Ella Fitzgerald.

http://www.alynshipton.co.uk/blog

5pm - J to Z
Kevin Le Gendre presents classic tracks, the cream of new releases and a live performance by Hastings-based sextet Hexagonal, who celebrate Philadelphia pianist-composer McCoy Tyner and South African pianist-composer Bheki Mseleku (1955-2008). Plus the second part of an interview in which American bass guitarist Marcus Miller shares his musical inspirations, with recordings by Weather Report and Herbie Hancock.

This is a repeat.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00027cd

12midnight - Geoffrey Smith's Jazz
Virginia-born pianist Don Pullen (1944-95) moved effortlessly from avant-garde to bebop to blues. Geoffrey Smith surveys a keyboard original who starred with Charles Mingus and in his own groups, while creating such rhapsodic pieces as Ode to Life.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007c0r

Mon 5 Aug
11pm - Jazz Now
Soweto Kinch presents a concert by acclaimed French double bassist Henri Texier.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007cbs

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Sat Aug 3
4pm - Jazz Record Requests
Alyn Shipton introduces listeners' requests across the jazz spectrum, today featuring Johnny Hodges, Stan Getz and Ella Fitzgerald.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/

5pm - J to Z
Kevin Le Gendre presents classic tracks, the cream of new releases and a live performance by Hastings-based sextet Hexagonal, who celebrate Philadelphia pianist-composer McCoy Tyner and South African pianist-composer Bheki Mseleku (1955-2008). Plus the second part of an interview in which American bass guitarist Marcus Miller shares his musical inspirations, with recordings by Weather Report and Herbie Hancock.

This is a repeat.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00027cd

12midnight - Geoffrey Smith's Jazz
Virginia-born pianist Don Pullen (1944-95) moved effortlessly from avant-garde to bebop to blues. Geoffrey Smith surveys a keyboard original who starred with Charles Mingus and in his own groups, while creating such rhapsodic pieces as Ode to Life.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007c0r

Mon 5 Aug
11pm - Jazz Now
Soweto Kinch presents a concert by acclaimed French double bassist Henri Texier.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007cbs

"It's around 1980 and Don (Pullen) is at the piano playing with the repertory band Mingus Dynasty. Charles Mingus had died the year before and some of his ex-sidemen formed the group to keep their boss's music alive. A few minutes into the piano solo on "Haitian Fight Song," something amazing happens. Pullen begins throwing down a series of ferocious righthand clusters -- one of his trademarks -- when, shockingly, he dislocates a finger. In obvious pain he attempts to shake the throbbing digit back into place, all the while continuing the tonal barrage with his left hand. Without hesitation, Pullen completes his musical statement, then steps off stage to address the injury. This odd choreography comes off so matter of factly, I get the distinct impression he's done this dance before."

BN.

[Ian Thumwood]

There were some intriguing tracks on JRR.

I had read a review of the live Getz album which had similarly praised the drumming of Roy Haynes , a musician who always makes any session he is on so much better. It is staggering the volume at which "rediscovered" sessions are being discovered and released although you wonder why so much of the material has often taken over 50 years to see the light of day. These previously lost recordings are fascinating whether from the Savory collection from the mid-thirties (the first volume appear on Mosaic a few years back) through to the records of the likes of Horace Silver, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane , Cannonball Adderley and now Stan Getz. I keep wondering if these records will have the capability to allow some of these musicians to be reappraised. The Getz track was surprisingly good although I wasn't surprised to hear that it predated the Bossa Nova stuff which affords a parallel to Miles' descent into pop terrain in the 1980s. Getz is a musician whose tone is so pure that I quickly lose interest in what he is playing and the record with Gilberto is akin to pop music and perhaps a foretaste of the kind of Smooth Jazz that was to emerge in the 1980s. I liked the track on JRR which had far more integrity.

Glad to hear Jelly Roll Morton requested. I think JRR is the only place on BBC where you can hear jazz that pre-dates be-bop. The appeal of the programme is the fact that there is such a wide range of styles from different eras. Regarding "Mood indigo", I concur with the requester about the solo by Ray Nance but there is a version by Duke Ellington's orchestra that I discovered a couple of years back from an album called "Masterpieces by Ellington." The album looks really uninteresting on the face of it as it includes a lot of over familiar works such as "Sophisticated Lady" and "Solitude" as well as "Mood Indigo." However, these are also very much extended arrangements, almost re-cast as concert pieces, which are staggeringly brilliant. In addition , the disc incudes the exceptional the"Tattooed Bride" (not so shocking these days!) which is one of his finest extended pieces. I was not aware of this record beforehand and the fact in was recorded in 1950 makes it less appealing on paper as this was supposedly a period when Ellington's orchestra was in the doldrums. The reality is that this is one of the best albums Ellington made and I would say the most under-rated record in his canon. It is nothing less than exceptional and quite staggering once you have heard the music that the whole record should be so little known.

It made me laugh to hear that someone had rung up the BBC anonymously to ask for a version of Meade Lux Lewis performing Beethoven's "Ode to Joy." I just wondered if it was Nigel Farage?

As a bit of mischief, I would be curious to read SA's opinion of the excellent Roy Hargrove track and whether he considered that to be too retrospective for 2008?

[Serial_Apologist]

As a bit of mischief, I would be curious to read SA's opinion of the excellent Roy Hargrove track and whether he considered that to be too retrospective for 2008?

I think I may have fallen asleep during that particular track, which I was thinking was OK but nothing to write home about; this seems to be happening quite a lot these days - more a function of age than quality of listening experience, I should qualify; and tbh I haven't bothered to listen again to Saturday's JRR as it's been excellent cycling weather.

As regards previously unreleased recorsings now seeing the light of day, this I would think would have had as much to do with the low purchasing power of jazz afficionados at the time - something Bluesnik refers to on another thread - as (typically in the case of Miles Davis, but maybe a few others too) quality control, whether by the musicians themselves or the record companies. Jazz, as Evan Parker and others have pointed out, has more staying power than ephemeral pop designed for short termist consumerism, where quick money might, just might, subsidise long-term a more creative musican's pathway so long as the future looks promising. But just look at the present-day capitalist crisis - more busts than booms - this the result of the capitalist class thinking you could buy off working class loyalty with unsustainable fixes from the pov of both consumers sold on pigs in pokes and the system's drive to exploit itself and those who make or made its wealth, which ain't the rich, ever. With capitalism the cut is always in the thrust, and woe betide those who forget this underlying Marxist axiom. For older generations (ie me) it's often still catch-up time, as regards both worn out vinyl replacement and now having the means to spend on what one once coveted but could not be afforded. Maybe some musicians have passed on; maybe producers can see a way to making money, and probably some musicians are now thinking, hmmm, maybe I wasn't so bad back then after all.

[Ian Thumwood]

SA

I think that there may be some truth in the idea of lower purchasing power back in the 1960s albeit I would see it being more of a point of the works by one artist flooding the market. To be honest, looking at this from the point of view of a purely historical perspective I think these rediscovered live records are something of an eye-opener. One thing that I find irritating with the re-release of vintage albums is when they include discarded takes. Whilst not entirely being a waste of time as sometimes it is informative to get something out of the different takes, by and large they just represent versions of tunes the musicians had often not wished to be issued. I just find that the rediscovered live sessions that continually seem to crop up are far more insightful.

I am intrigued to thing how these live recordings may actually manifest themselves in defining the reputation of the musicians in question. As an improvised music, surely a live recording is more informative than something edited and fabricated in a studio. It is especially significant where musicians have been under-recorded as well as perhaps striking a balance that more accurately reflects what an artist is actually about as opposed to going through a studio process. I am not convinced by any politically cynical reason behind these releases, a number of which have only recently come to light and therefore would not have been held back for the benefit of reaping later financial rewards. Most of the recording which have seen the light of day appear to be extremely favourable to a musician's reputation. Putting the Getz album out under the Verve imprint may be a bit cynical although I think a good proportion of these efforts seem to be popping up on independent labels for altruistic reasons.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Roy Hargrove at midnight, "teaching" at Smalls! "Nancy"...he really was something.

http://youtu.be/ic9rWHLSqY0

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Roy vs Herbie, both suitably engaged! Coltrane's "Transition"...

http://youtu.be/Fo_5HHyPVOo