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The term "collectors item" seems to have died weeping on the grave
of the 78 rpm record. No longer do legions of record hunters haunt musty shops
on Saturday afternoons in hope of finding Pres playing clarinet on Texas
Shuffle, Bird with McShann, old Louies or Beiderbeckes. They are all on
LP.
It is true that many collectors lived up to the specific meaning
of the word. It was the label and master number which interested them far
beyond the music. To them records were like coins or postage stamps and this
type of collector does not concern me. It is the other fellow who used to find
a Jay Jay Johnson solo on a Savannah Churchill record, Milt Jackson with Dinah
Washington, Lester Young with Glen Hardman or Wardell Gray with Earl Hines and
rejoice in the little gems of music that he had found; he is the jazz lover who
will want this LP.
As I said before, many of the old out of print items have been
re-issued on LP. Now we "collect" LPs. In addition to bringing back the
obsolete 78s, the LP has enabled us to hear, for instance, many of Charlie
Parker's great passages through the issuance of his rejected takes which,
because of their abbreviated nature, never would have found their way on to a
78 rpm disc.
The sessions that went into the make-up of this LP were taped
three years apart and in a way the second has a lot to do with the first being
issued.
Session one, like session two, is under the leadership of Miles
Davis. Sonny Rollins is a sideman on both. However, the thing in common that
really links these sessions is the abbreviated nature of each. Separately
neither would produce enough listening time to sustain a commercial product.
(The customer expects, and should get, a certain amount of listening time on
each LP.) Together there is much music, music that without the medium of the
12-inch LP would never have been heard by the jazz public. Although you may
walk into your record shop and purchase this album without too much difficulty,
it is nevertheless a "collector's item" by its very nature.
The first session was recorded on January 30, 1953 and has Miles
flanked by the tenor saxes of Sonny Rollins and "Charlie Chan". This is only
the second
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time that Charlie had recorded on tenor and he came into the
studio with a brand new King that he hadn't touched before that day. His sound
was a deep-throated one which I'm told, moved toward a purer, lighter, albeit
big sound if he stayed with the tenor for any length of time.
Compulsion is a swinging Davis opus with two choruses
apiece by Miles, Charlie and Sonny with the group riffing at intervals during
Miles' and Charlie's choruses. Then Walter Bishop, a most flowing modern
pianist, plays two more choruses before the theme is re-stated.
The Serpent's Tooth is presented in two takes. Take I is
medium tempo and the solo order is Miles Sonny and Charlie for two choruses
apiece followed by Walter Bishop for one. Then Miles exchanges conversation
with Philly Joe Jones. On take 2 the tempo moves up a bit. The solo order and
their length is the same except that in the conversations with Philly Joe,
Charlie and Sonny, in that order, join in with Miles.
'Round About Midnight was 'round six p.m. when it was
recorded on this particular day and due to circumstances, new sadnesses were
instilled into Monk's already melancholy air. For various reasons the date had
not jelled to expectations. The engineer, who hadn't helped much, went off duty
and told us that the studio would close at 6:00 and that another engineer would
take over for the last half-hour. After a few unsuccessful attempts at Well
You Needn't, it was decided to close with Midnight. This was at a
quarter to six. Miles and Charlie are the horns with the latter playing
obligatos to the melody statement and crossing the bridges alone at both
beginning and end. His opening solo is full of the pain and disappointment he
knew too well and is an emotionally moving document as such. Miles cries some
too.
Session two is of more recent vintage (March 16, 1956) and has a
different feeling to it.
One of Miles' sensitive muted statements introduces the
captivating, reflective Dave Brubeck ballad In Your Own Sweet Way. Sonny
Rollins shows the results of three years' maturation. After Tommy Flanagan's
solo, Miles' mute restates the theme.
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Vierd Blues features an open but nevertheless subdued Miles
who once again shows that a modicum of notes call go a long way when used with
understanding. Sonny Rollins has a building solo and Tommy Flanagan
(consistancy is thy name) warms as usual in his spotlight time.
No Line is a blues of another than Vierd Blues. Miles leaps
in with a muted shade and Sonny picks it up with an alternately flowing and
time- breaking solo. Tommy Flanagan, another of the talented Detroiters (what a
well of talent the Motor City has turned out to be) and one who has helped to
make this year's piano crop such a rich one, plays a lightly-swinging solo
which shows him to be an excellent exponent of the Bud Powell through Hank
Jones style. Pianists like Flanagan, Ray Bryant, Barry Harris and Mal Waldron,
to name some of the bright young modernists who became known this year, prove
that simplicity, taste and direct emotion are much preferred to filigrees,
extraneous matter and the keyboard extravagances of technique displays. If the
latter group of characteristics comes with the "two-handed" pianists then I'll
take the "one-handed" pianists and may Phineas Newborn Jr, take the hindermost.
The digging-in, swinging of Paul Chambers and Art Taylor which is
heard throughout the session stands alone at the end of No Line as
Miles, who blows his second solo after Flanagan's, decides that he has spoken
his piece and trails off. So things end as they begun with no line (no formal
melody statement) and hence the title.
I appreciate a well integrated performance but will always prefer
moments of sincere-emotion jazz with mistakes to the slick product which is too
often palmed off as jazz today. Whether it be old jazz or new, I guess I'm kind
of a purist.
notes by IRA GITLER
supervision Ira Gitler; Bob Weinstock
1st session remastered by Van Gelder
2nd session recorded by Van Gelder
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