The UK-based label Avid Jazz continues to amaze me. They consistently reissue material that I never even knew existed, and then make me wonder how I could have ever missed it. They put out 2 cd sets of material mostly from the mid 40s to the early 60s, when there was such a surfeit of material being recorded that certain artists just got lost in the flood. Here are three recent blasts from the past that you’ll really like.
Gil Evans is best known for his historic trio of albums that he made with Miles Davis. Those discs put him on the map, but he wasn’t an unknown quality to the jazz cognicenti of the time. Here are 4 of the “must have” Evans sessions from about the same time period, just before and after the Miles albums. Old Bottle New Wine from 1958 and Great Jazz Standards from 1959 have Evans at piano and leading a large band through some cooking little takes of jazz standards. The music ranges from pre swing “Davenport Blues” to up to the moment “Django,” with a team that is highlighted by the underrated/Davis-sounding Johnny Coles, and exuberant Cannonball Adderley/as and a hard driving combo of Elvin Jones or Elvin Jones/dr. Adderley is hotter than a poker on “St Louis Blues,” and the band WAILS through a burning “King Porter Stomp.”
Gil Evans’ Out of the Cool has a very similar feel to what you expect from the Miles Davis sessions. Icy hot horns frame the themes like “La Nevada” and with a hipper than hip solo by overlooked trumpeter Johnny Coles and some fervent sax work by Budd Johnson, while “Sunken Treasure” and “Stratosphunk” include the fragile horn of Coles in a perfect light; he agonizingly squeezes the notes out of the closing track as if he were gasping for his last breath-simply one of the most emotional solos in modern jazz. Jimmy Knepper, known for his work with Mingus, almost steals the show on a haunting trombone solo on “Where Flamingos Fly.” The followup release, Into The Hot , is fairly quizzical, as Evans merely conducts bands led by two completely diverse artists: John Carisi and Cecil Taylor! Phil Woods, Jimmy Lyons, Bob Brookmeyer and Sunny Murray show up on this mix and match session that works as a bookend to the anthology.
Trombonist Urbie Green spent most of his time in the studios doing session work, but he did develop a reputation as a warm toned man on the horn with his stints with Herman, Goodman, Basie and Buck Clayton. These early to mid 50s sessions have him in bands both big and small, and through it all, he swings with a drive that is infectious. A ’53 septet and ’55 octet with mostly session guys also includes Oscar Pettiford on bass and Osie Johnson on drums for some of the work, and Green’s horn is verdant on “Skylark” and cleverly arranged versions of “On Green Dolphin Street” and “When Your Lover Has Gone.” A Big Band session from ’56 has some cooking charts of “Cherokee” and “Little John” include solos by Hal McKusick, Al Cohn and pianist Dave Mckenna.” A quintet with Jimmy Raney/g, McKenna, Percy Heath/b and Kenny Clarke/dr is an absolute swinger, with a couple lovely piano solos as well as a duet between Green and McKenna on “Frankie and Johnny.” What a delight, as well as a toe tapping collection of tunes.
As John Coltrane was to tenor saxists of the 70s, Lester Young was to guys like Dave Pell in the 50s. Along with Shorty Rogers, Bud Shank and Chet Baker, Pell was one of the main voices of the “West Coast Cool” sound that defined California Jazz (even though most of the guys came from the East Coast, but that’s another story). These four albums from ’55-57 have the breathy tenorist leading some lyrical and hip octets that include Bob Gordon/bs, Don Fagerquist/tp, Jack Sheldon/tp, Mel Lewis/dr, Pepper Adams/bs, Tony Rizzi-Tommy Tedesco/g and Marty Paich/p among others. The breezy material has lots of muted brass and highly arranged sections, but it works because it just swings so well. The arrangements by Andre Previn, Shorty Rogers, Jack Montrose, Bill Holman, Shorty Rogers, Peill and Paich all have a lithe flow to them, and the choice of material, ranging from “On a Slow Boat To China” to “Angel Eyes” is a clever as it is chic. Pell’s tone is stunningly gorgeous on “East of the Sun” and is as sharp as a bowling shirt on “The Continental.” Considered anemic by the snobby New Yorkers at the time, this music has aged amazingly well and could serve as a download for any party you might want to host. Hip when it was hep to be hip.
Avid Jazz Records