Mela dramatics & jazz worriers on rebounds.

[Serial_Apologist]

Sat 10 June
5pm - J to Z
Julian Joseph hears from jazz saxophonist Courtney Pine, who in the 1980s co-founded the Jazz Warriors, which featured Steve Williamson, Gary Crosby, Dennis Rollins and Julian Joseph and which offered a space for black British artists to showcase their jazz talent at a time when music avenues for such musicians had previously been limited to reggae and funk. Ahead of his festival performance at Love Supreme (30 June-2 July), he shares some of the music that has inspired him. Plus concert highlights from the Euradio Jazz Orchestra, which features talented young musicians from across the continent.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001mmjp

12midnight - Freeness
Corey Mwamba with a playlist of improvised music inspired by resonances and sonic rebounds, from Sheng Jie's guitar solos to a no-rules session led by Sergio Armaroli. Plus an extract from L Life, O Light, Vol 2 - the forthcoming album of New York-based saxophonist Zoh Amba, joined by William Parker on bass and gralla and Francisco Mela on drums. There's also a track from American bassist Sahed Sarbib's recently reissued 1975 LP Evil Season.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001mmjw

Sun 11 June
4pm - Jazz Record Requests

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

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001mmk8

Also New Generation pianist Fergus McCreadie features some way through Monday afternoon's New Generation Artists, between 4.30 and 5pm.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

JRR, Elmo Hope cut off in his prime. Next time cut & fix the dreary version of Birdland. Or put Elmo on first

[Serial_Apologist]

JRR, Elmo Hope cut off in his prime. Next time cut & fix the dreary version of Birdland. Or put Elmo on first

Weren't they both truncated? I can't now remember if JRR has rules on track lengths permitted.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Weren't they both truncated? I can't now remember if JRR has rules on track lengths permitted.

Elmo had barely take his Bernie mittens off, then ... wack. It's not like there's an Elmo track every week, or even year, and yes I know there's more coming up for his birthday, and this was just a taster but!

IT'S ELMO HOPE!

And maybe I don't like Birdland. For someone of QJ's reputation, he did shove out a lot of "big name" dross.

[Ian Thumwood]

For someone of QJ's reputation, he did shove out a lot of "big name" dross.

Quincy Jones is a really curious case in music. I believe he was another one of those musicians who studied with Nadia Boulanger whilst also having a thorough education in "the jazz tradition." He was a 17 year old prodigy when first started to work with Lionel Hampton in the early fifties and , in his time, he worked with some of the main players in jazz ranging from Hampton, Basie, Clifford Brown , Dizzy, Oscar Pettiford and Sarah Vaughan. The big band albums be produced in the late fifties and early sixties with the likes of Phil Woods are pretty essential in my opinion and I do not believe that his jazz credentials should ever be doubted. However, I just feel that by the 1970s he was trading on a lot of past credit and his music increasingly had more to do with pop. It wasn't as if he was exploring some kind of Fusion agenda either. The association with Michael Jackson seemed to cement the argument that he had left jazz behind and if there were occasional return visits to a more jazz format such as the stuff with Frank Sinatra, it seemed remote from alot of the jazz of that time. Most of his post 70's output is in the commercial field although there have been albums where he has re-visited his work with Basie.

I think that Quincy Jones is now more of a custodian of black , popular music and someone who has promoted the talents of a younger generation of talent including the likes of Jacob Collier. There was a post somewhere on this board (might have been the Classical thread) where someone made a comment about musicians whose reputation was greater than their output. I think it mght have been made by Richard Barrett - apologies in advance if I am mistaken. For me, I feel Quincy Jones probably falls in to this category from a jazz perspective and probably this is due to the fact that he comes from an era where jazz was a popular music. I think he has always been "popularist" ( witness the Basie album of pop material from the 1960s) and maybe you could argue that the post-Coltrane element of jazz holds no interest for him. Most people associated Jones with his work with Michael Jackson these days as the jazz orchestra that toured Europe is probably totally off the radar of the people who now praise him. By and large, I cannot help feeling that, from a jazz perspective, Quincy Jones has produced an uneven body of work but maybe has benefited pop music was bringing a more "musical" perspective to production. His better jazz recordings are exceptional yet the jazz element has increasingly been diluted by the pop production to the extent that it can be off-putting. I don't doubt his musicianship for one moment and just feel that he could have produced more classic jazz albums than he ultimately has. If you contrast his recent work with contemporaries like Gil Evans, Mike Gibbs, Bob Brookmeyer, Jim McNeely, Maria Schneider, Muhal Richard Abrams, Sammy Nesticoe etc to name a few working with big bands, Jones' work over the last 50 years does not really stack up to much in comparison.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I really like his earlier work, it was distinctive and effective. The Verve showcase for Sonny Stitt, his own albums, his arrangements for James Moody's little band, Ray Charles ditto, and all the vocal arrangements. But he did spread himself thin, even in the late 50s, understandable I suppose because he was much in demand. And I don't think he ever really pulled back from that. The "pop" career is someone else entirely.

*To add, the European band was a really excellent outfit, Woods et Al.

[Ian Thumwood]

The Avid collection of Elmo Hope is interesting. I like Hopes' playing and I think that he is probably closer to Bud Powell than any of the other "radical" pianists of that era such as Monk and Nichols. The Blue Note album (the one with the green cover) is interesting as I think Philly Joe Jones is a little out of time on some tracks. The 2 CDs cover 5 Lps and there is quite a bit of repetition with the material. The most diverse album is the groupwith Coltrane, Mobley and Donald Byrd which has some excellent early Coltrane albeit the original material must have been cooked up in the studio. I don;t think anyone is going to argie that "Weeja" is a great composition.

If Hope reminds me of anyone it is Richard Twadzik. Some of the recordings span in to the early sixties and , from retrospect, seem a bit behind the curve. However, I do think that Elmo Hope is under-rated and deserves more attention. More deserving that the "lost" Hassan tapes which I felt did not show this pianist to really live up to the reputation. Hope was by far the better pianist even if not on the same level as Bud Powell who I feel gets better with every listen. Not aware of any contemporary players delving in to Hopes' compositions but hope to be proved wrong.

Fans of Hope should checkut Paul Giallorenzo - a contemporary player and student of Roscoe Mitchell whose music is cut from the same cloth as Elmo.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Eric Reed is an Elmo Hope fan, here's a tribute night he put together about ten, maybe more, years ago. Elmo's compositions with Joe Lovano, Kenny Washington etc.

http://youtu.be/xQNNQXfzUCs

The late west coast pianist Paul Moer cut a full album of Elmo Hope tunes before he died (obviously!). Its a good disc.

My favourite Elmo story is in Robyn Kelly's Monk autobiography -
Monk, Bud Powell and Elmo Hope, all drinking and "debating" volubly at the top of the entrance to Monk's apartment. The concrete floor collapses and Elmo falls into the basement - Monk hails down a passing fire engine..."Save my friend! He's the genius, a real one!"

The killer Elmo session is the 1959 Contemporary date with Jimmy Bond and Frank Butler, it all came together and it is magnificent.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Elmo Hope Trio (with Jimmy Bond and Frank Butler) Contemporary 1959. Full album.

http://youtu.be/ihjY1H5XLYY

[Jazzrook]

Elmo Hope with Harold Land, Stu Williamson, Leroy Vinnegar & Frank Butler playing 'St. Elmo's Fire' in 1957:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=AKBYdTklBpk

JR

[elmo]

Elmo Hope, Ronnie Boykins and Philly Joe Jones with a brilliant version of his composition 'De Dah' (renamed Kevin) from the " Sounds from Rikers Island" 1963:

https://youtu.be/7_n23SvwLDg

elmo

[Serial_Apologist]

Many thanks, Bluesnik, Jazzrook and Elmo for the Elmo Hope tracks you've all reproduced here. He's still new to me - a gap in my listening I must find time to put right.