This is the kind of work that has Mosaic Records remain as the gold standard of reissues. They take a musician who’s had a respectable although underappreciated career, and shine a light on a particular time period of his catalogue to make you wonder “how come I don’t have more of this guy’s stuff?”. In this case, it is tenor saxist Clifford Jordan, who played during a time when horn men like him straddled the fence between in the pocket hard bop and harmonically advanced and freer aspects of jazz. There were many guys in this realm, Jackie McLean, Billy Harper, Lew Tabackin and George Coleman to name just a handful, who could feel authoritative in a varied number of settings. Jordan lead some hard bop sessions in the 50s with John Gilmore and was a sideman with Horace Silver as well, but the defining moment of his career was when he teamed up with Charles Mingus’ band alongside Eric Dolphy, Johnny Coles and Danny Richmond for a tour de force of improvisation, swing and mind alterations. This 6 cd limited edition set comprises the next stage in Jordan’s career, the logical step of joining up with an independent label of like minded musicians looking for both a musical and social environment that was compatible with their own. Here, he serves as both a leader as well as a sidemen for genre bending albums lead by the likes of Pharoah Sanders, Wilbur Ware, Cecil Payne, Charles Brackeen and Ed Blackwell. The music from the Strata-East label is gloriously challenging and uncompromising and appeals to both the bopper and avant garder alike, and while he’s not on all of the sessions, what Mosaic is doing is giving you a feel of what the label that Jordan was associated with was focusing on.
Jordan himself leads a handful of sessions in this boxed set. The first is a 69 meeting with Don Cherry-Kenny Dorham/tp, Julian Priester/tb, Wyton Kelly/p, Wilbur Ware & Richard Davis/b, and Ed Blackwell-Albert Heath-Roy Haynes/dr. Then, you’ve got him in a 1973 studio team of Billy Higgins/dr, Stanley Cowell-Sam Jones/b, and Stanley Cowell-Cedar Walton/p. There are then a handful of sessions without the tenor saxist, but with a rotating team of (mostly) these same gents on 1968 sessions lead by Cecil Payne, Charles Brackeen , Edward Blackwell, Wilbur Ware, and a 1969er lead by Pharoah Sanders that has a truckload of newcomers including Sonny Fortune/fl-as, Lonnie Liston Smith/p, Sonny Sharrock/g, Billy Hart/dr, Cecil McBee/b and Howard Johnson/tuba. Some of these songs have never been issued , before, so there’s lots of surprises to go around.
On disc 1, Jordan leads a 1969 session that features a warm dirge on “Doug’s Prelude” with some pungent horn work by Don Cherry, while the loose and semi free 17 minute “Vienna” and the driving “Ougoudougou,” has Wynton Kelly swinging with a tinny piano while leading a fervent trio in support of the bopping horns. Disc 2 has the hard bopping baritonist Cecil Payne and the sweeter toned Kenny Dorham doing a hip boogaloo on the strutting “Girl You Got A Home” and doing some hard bop on the rapid fire “Follow Me” and straightahead “Flying Fish”
Disc 3 has pungent and passionate tenor saxist Charles Brackeen in front with Don Cherry with some playful and semi free material with the aggressively exciting team of Charlie Haden/b and Ed Blackwell/dr on a 1968 session. Blackwell is fascinatingly overachieving and busy throughout, creating an undercurrent for a herky jerky blues on “Hour Glass” and some slick and advanced bebopping on “CB Blues.” Ed Blackwell leads a band on three unissued tracks that mixa bit of post bop featuring Cherry’s splattering trumpet on “Farid,” and then puts together a percussion team that has Jordon hitting on some percussion along with Billy Higgins/dr and some other guess on more unissued material consisting of four tracks that are major percussion discussions that take you to Afro Cuban nightclubs with hypercaffeinated rhythms. On Disc 4, Pharoah Sanders on a session that gives major hints of the upcoming “The Creator Has A Master Plan” on three stretched out tunes. Leon Thomas rich baritone voice sings, pleads and yodels on a highly percussive“Prince of Peace,” as saxes screech, wail and careen in a cataclysmic “Balance” that ends in a wild avalanche of sounds and visions. Sanders’ horn is warm and passionate along with Sonny Sharrock’s wondrous guitar on the West African funk groove of “Izipho Zam.” You’ll need to catch your breath after listening to this disc in one sitting!
Jordan comes back on the scene on bassist Wilbure Ware’s 1968 session for disc 5. Ware takes a couple of long solos that mix adventure with mood and lyricism on “By Myself” and “Symphony for JR.” Cherry’s trumpet is nourish on the melancholy and spacious “A Real Nice Lady,” and Jordan is wonderfully bluesy on the post bopper “Wilbur’s Red Cross.” Jordan leads the two 1973 sessions on disc 6 on a more traditional note. Teamed with Higgins, Stanley Cowell/p and Bill Lee/b, he bops on a hint of “Giant Steps” on the lightly grooved “The Glass Bead Games” and hits the right pocket on “the lyrical and loping “Prayer to the People.” There is a vocal chorus that weaves in and out on the bass dominated “John Coltrane” while Jordan revs up some boogaloo on “Eddie Harris.” Jordan leads another quartet with Cedar Walton/p and Sam Jones/b and Higgins with the drummer sounding like Fred Astaire on the traps on the sleek “Shoulders” and the fingersnapping “ TheOne For Amos.” The backing trio is dainty under Jordan’s full toned horn on “Maimoun” and gets a bit elliptical the busy “Alias Buster Henry.”
This six cd set also includes an educational booklet with notes by Willard Jenkins, who puts this music and label in its proper perspective. Boxed sets like this make you wonder what else you may have missed on the jazz scene that deserves a second and third look. Bravo!
Mosaic Records