Grachan Moncur III

[Serial_Apologist]

Slight departure from the topic, the connection here being time of recording - within a year or so - and the 18-year old Tony Williams: just can't get enough of his playing at this particular juncture...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bisN-z_4CnA

Sam has often been cited as influenced by 'Trane but I hear a fascinating cross between Dolphy and Rollins, especially on this album. And not just a few pre-echoes of Jarrett in Jackie. The changes on this title song seem to be "Night and Day".

[Ian Thumwood]

I think Jackie McLean was one of the best things to happen to Blue Note - "Let freedom ring" has to be amongst the Top Five for that label. I haven't heard a lot of her earlier stuff although I love Sonny Clark's "Cool Struttin'" which is an archetypal Hard Bop record made before this oeuvre started to be repetitive and formulaic. The curious thing about the classic Jackie McLean quintet with Hutcherson (another one the "great" Blue Note artists along with McLean, Hancock, Shorter, Nichols and Hill who produced the best work for Alfred Lyons) was that the ensemble had a great sound and, as far as I know, the only other group with the same instrumentation has been Dave Holland's exceptional Quintet. I have quite a few records by DH's band and am intrigued just how much the band stretches out on the live double-CD. There are some quite breath-taking moments on this record which surpasses the studio efforts, as good as they are. It makes you wonder just how different the McLean band might have sounded in a live context. I think that Dave Holland's band has a much "cooler" approach and the soloists are quite capable of soloing or dueting without the bass and drums. It is a more considered band that the strudent McLean group and is perhaps a tad more conservative for it's time that the 1960's group. That said, the level of musicianship in Dave Holland's quintet is nothing short of staggering and, along with Wayne Shorters' quartet, Dave Douglas' quintet, The Paul Motian trio , Branford's quartet and perhaps the David S Ware quartet, one of the best groups perfroming in the first decade of the 21st century.All of these bands were regular working groups for a number of years and I think this tells in the music they produced. I've never read when Dave Holland was inspired by Jackie McLean's group or whether he simply wanted certain musicians and they happened to play the same instruments.

[Tenor Freak]

Strange - my copy of the vinyl says Bob Cranshaw on the front

Hmm....

Compare this:



with this:




A lot of the cover shots on teh net have the misspelt "Crenshaw" variant.