WholeNote Discoveries

JAZZ AND IMPROVIZED

The Complete Improv Recordings
Tony Bennett
Concord Records CCD4-2255-2

Tony Bennett is a survivor of some sixty years in the harsh world of popular music. I think Tony’s love of jazz has had a lot to do with his longevity. He has never claimed to be a jazz singer, but works with jazz musicians and takes on projects with jazz sensibilities.

In the ’70s Bennett had sold a lot of records for Columbia and Polygram but wanted more musical control, so he joined with Buffalo businessman Bill Hassett to form Improv Records. Even the name suggests jazz, and jazz was certainly strong in the mix. Of the ten or so records the Improv made, Bennett himself appeared on four, and all are included in this 4CD boxed set.

Disc 1 has Torrie Zito (singer Helen Merrill’s husband) in charge of the orchestra, and while the actual jazz content is nearly-nil, it’s superior pop music including standards like As Time Goes By, Lost In The Stars and There’ll Be Some Changes Made. Rarer is Duke Ellington’s beautiful 1953 composition Reflections In D, here called just Reflections, with Milt Raskin lyrics. A 9-track, 14 minute Cole Porter medley is an added bonus.

The real meat for jazz lovers starts to show up on Disc 2 as Bennett joins with a working jazz group, The Ruby Braff/George Barnes Quartet.

Bennett and Braff/Barnes had prepared a concert tribute to Rodgers & Hart which Bennett wanted to preserve. In September 1973 they taped 20 of the best of the Great American Songbook, performed with such grace and intimacy - to say nothing of lyrical interpretation and rhythmic surety - that you are not likely to find better interpretations of Mountain Greenery, Spring Is Here, Blue Moon or My Romance. To hear them is to understand what the songs mean. For some reason, Lorenz Hart’s cynicism works best when someone finds the sunny optimism in his words, as Bennett does.

As to Rodger’s music, no one has ever caressed a melody more than cornetist Ruby Braff (unless it was his idol, Louis Armstrong).

If Disc 2 reaches jazz/popular Everest, Disc 3 takes Bennett into Art Music. With one of jazz’ greatest artists, Bill Evans at the piano, Tony Bennett reaches a high point in his career. Evans was as serious a jazz artist as there ever was, and he loved the best of American popular song. He had done a fine release with Tony (now on CD as Fantasy OJC 439) in June 1975, and I believe the material here from 15 months later is even better. The dozen tracks are definitely Desert Island material, with Bennett’s impeccable lyric-reading, and Evans’ deep and thoughtful understanding of the music and his role as accompanist as well as soloist (The Bad And The Beautiful). Highlights are A Child Is Born and Evans’ own The Two Lonely People, and Dream Dancing which begs comparison to the orchestra version on Disc One’s Cole Porter medley. Fifteen previously unavailable takes of ten of the tunes are included, some spilling onto Disc 4, and are of interest to all, not just musicologists.

The rest of Disc 4 is drawn from a jazz jam session at Buffalo’s Statler Hilton “Downtowner Room” in 1977. Two LPs were released, with Bennett joining up on one of them with Jimmy and Marian McPartland and jazz masters like Vic Dickenson, Buddy Tate, Herb Hall and Charlie Byrd. There are two straight-ahead Bennett performances with his trio, Watch What Happens and While We’re Young (composer Alec Wilder in attendance) and he appears on the band’s In A Mellow Tone. The rest is instrumental, and fun.

Ted O’Reilly

Double Time Jazz Collection Vol.1
Carmen McRae Live in Tokyo;
The Manhattan Transfer
Vocalese Live
Double Time EE 39074-9 (DVD)

Both events took place in Tokyo in 1986. Carmen McRae’s career began in the early 50s. Now in Japan, backed by a piano trio, her voice is a mellow Stradivarius, a gliding bullet train, a bit smoky, still capable of bluesy growling, still with many great stories to tell.

Her distinctive phrasing reveals her intimate familiarity with the repertoire. She accompanies herself on ballads, That Old Devil Called Love and As Long as I Live, and her love of Brazilian and Latin flavours brings Dindi, and Upside Down to her list. Visually, her performance is easy-going and relaxed, certainly more static than the “fully-staged” Manhattan Transfer, but it doesn’t detract from fine music-making.

The Manhattan Transfer, founded in 1972, was on their 4th tour of Japan at the time of this recording. Singers Cheryl Bentyne, Janis Siegel, Tim Hauser and Alan Paul were smooth and slick.

This “Vocalese” tour promoted their album of high-energy jazz tunes by Count Basie, Quincy Jones, Miles Davis, and others, adapting lyrics (by Jon Hendricks) to songs that were originally purely instrumental. At times, there was an unbelievable (and unintelligible, yet impressive) verbal velocity.

They eventually got back to a cappella Doo-Wop in Duke of Dubuque, Heart’s Desire, and Gloria which featured the heart-throbbing voice of Alan Paul. Tim Hauser, as the cool hipster Eldorado Caddy, worked the stage with the others in choreographed movement (not easy, remembering that the microphones had cords!).

Predictably, their hits, Birdland and Boy from New York City, got the audience up, dancing and clapping; and the band was rocking. The intricate on-stage camera work brought one almost inside this hot vocal ensemble and beautifully captured this magic moment of musical history.

My only disappointment: There are no on-screen notes, biographical details or extensive background information as promised.

Frank Nakashima

Double Time Jazz Collection, Vol. 2
Kenny Drew Trio (Live at The Brewhouse)
Diane Schuur (& The Count
Basie Orchestra)
Double Time EE 39075-9 (DVD)

This 2-part DVD release shows that Kenny Drew was the real thing, but Diane Schuur works on the periphery of jazz.

The late Kenny Drew (he died 18 months after this 1992 concert) was an under-recognized American pianist who came to full flower in Europe after moving there in the early sixties. A boppish swinger, his work in the ’50s found him working with masters like Pres and Hawk, Coltrane, Johnny Griffin and Buddy Rich, but Europe was where he proved just how good he was.

Paired in Copenhagen with bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, his broad-minded mature talent continued to develop within the jazz tradition. With NHØP he delved into Danish folk music for great releases “Duo”, “Duo II” and “In Concert”. With drummer Alvin Queen added, the trio toured and recorded all over, save North America, much is the pity.

This release shows us what we missed: a hard-driving, equally-balanced group that could dip into familiar material like Brubeck’s In Your Own Sweet Way, a wide-ranging It Might As Well Be Spring or the traditional Danish folk tune Hushabye.

This is top rank stuff…

The second programme, from 1987, has Diane Schuur singing with the Frank Foster-led Count Basie Orchestra. I’ve always found Ms. Schuur to be an artificial singer, self-indulgent, often shrill at top volume, and not much of a verse-interpreter. (“Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?”)

The band sounds good here, with veteran guitarist Freddie Green less than a week from his death, and the recording and presentation is top quality. If only Ella, or Sarah or Carmen were there…

(As was the case with Vol. 3 last month, the picture and sound are just slightly out of synch, with visuals ahead of sound).

Ted O’Reilly

Home in No Time
David Shaw
Toreador TRCD 024-2
(www.toreadorrecords.com)

The recent addition to Toronto-based Timothy Minthorn’s Toreador Records catalogue features British pianist, composer, producer, and songwriter David Shaw. The liner notes state that Shaw has scored numerous film soundtracks, has won awards for his original works, and has written three top ten hits. But success doesn’t seem to have tempted this artist to rest on his laurels, and he can now add solo jazz piano recording artist to his résumé.

In a genre pioneered by Art Tatum and expanded upon by the likes of Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea, ample room for creativity still exists. David Shaw’s airy, spacious approach to tried and true standards such as Cole Porter’s All Of You, Here’s That Rainy Day, Invitation, and Miles Davis’ Nardis reflects his extensive film-scoring experience. He avoids rapid-fire right hand technique and traditional left-hand walking bass patterns for almost the entire CD. By the ninth track, When Sunny Gets Blue he brings in subtle hints of a pulsating “four feel”, but never really digs in, so to speak. This may be disconcerting to some, but his intention to not sound like anyone else is undeniable.

Horace Silver’s Peace, Jerome Kern’s Yesterday’s, and Bill Evans’ Re, A Person I Knew, are included in this twelve song work. Almost fifty minutes of careful listening is required, but those with a keen ear for innovation will be impressed and maybe even… captivated.

Eli Eisenberg

In The Moment
Pat Collins Quartet
Cornerstone CRST CD 126

Pat Collins is a rarity these days, having waited until his forties to present himself as a leader/composer. Not that he’s without recording experience: he’s appeared on five or six dozen discs, working with Moe Koffman, Don Thompson (a pretty good bassist himself!), Jimmy Cobb, Pat LaBarbera and many others.

A BC native as are so many other top Canadian players - think Phil Dwyer, Diana Krall, Renee Rosnes, Thompson - Pat is a first-call bassist and teacher, but previously unknown as a leader or composer.

His partners on “In The Moment” are the cream of the crop: Mike Murley on tenor and soprano saxes; Reg Schwager, guitar; and drummer Barry Elmes, who co-produced the release.

Having heard Collins in many situations over the last couple of decades, I appreciate his wonderful instrumental technique and warm, full sound. He plays cleanly and clearly with musical intelligence to the front, and he seems to know “all the tunes” for the gig.

I wish he had found room for compositions other than his own, however. It’s hard for soloists to overcome unfamiliarity with the material, and they play tentatively.

There’s a generic quality to the material, and as a result it seems no one has anything to bite into, nothing to leap from. As a result, what could have been an exciting debut becomes a display of craftsmanship.

Ted O’Reilly

Drums of Avila
Vito Rezza and 5 after 4
Alma Records ACD14302

When Norman Granz first invited Oscar Peterson to participate in Jazz at the Philharmonic in the late 1940s, he opened a door for Canadian and American talent to work together in concert, recording and touring situations.

Now, almost sixty years later drummer Vito Rezza, with the help of bassist/producer Peter Cardinali, has assembled an impressive lineup of American and International players for the album “Drums of Avila”.

The difference between these two examples is that Peterson’s star was on the rise and Rezza’s hired guns are all long-standing jazz legends.

Americans Michael Brecker, Vinnie Colaiuta, and Joey DeFrancesco, Belgian harmonica player Toots Thielemans, and Cameroon bassist Richard Bona are all part of Rezza’s extravaganza. Local veterans include Guido Basso, John Johnson and Rick Lazar, among others.

In keeping with the roster’s international theme, the album’s compositions are equally varied, with neo-Weather Report jazz to Brazilian, West African, R&B, and Latin styles all part of the mix.

Aspiring drummers will love the album’s second track, Manhattan Bounce, which has Rezza and Vinnie Colaiuta doing a left channel, right channel dual drum solo.

The disc’s liner notes make mention of the Canadian Government’s Sound Recording Development Program, which, no doubt, assisted a great deal in bringing together Rezza with the jazz royalty that appear on “Drums of Avila”.

Eli Eisenberg

Concert Note: Michael Brecker joins Herbie Hancock and Roy Hargrove at Massey Hall on March 4. Students from the studio of Rick Lazar are featured at a Latin Jazz Night co-presented by Jazz.FM91 Sound of Toronto and the Humber Music Jazz Series on March 16.

New Danzon
Hilario Duran Trio
Alma Records ACD14622
The Cusp
Roberto Occhipinti
Alma Records ACD12502

Alma Records has released two jazz discs with a Latin twist that are sure to get our frozen Canadian hips swiveling.

Expatriate Cuban piano player, Hilario Duran, with his trio, gives us New Danzon, which has been nominated for a 2005 Juno award in the Contemporary Jazz Album of the Year category. The Danzon genre was born in Europe, mamboed its way through Haiti and ended up in Cuba. By incorporating jazz harmonies and extensive soloing, Duran has updated the style, but its roots are still firmly planted in Afro-Caribbean soil.

Duran is perhaps best known for his work with the great Cuban-American trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, with whom he honed his composing and arranging skills throughout the 80’s. In the 90’s, Duran collaborated with Toronto saxophone and flute player Jane Bunnett in the group Spirits of Havana. For this disc, Toronto bassist and composer Roberto Occhipinti, also known for his work with Spirits of Havana, does bass and producer duty with Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez on drums. Duran has composed two of the nine tracks, and Charlie Parker’s bop classic Segment and the standard All of Me also turn up, all treated to Cuban styling and torrential soloing from Duran.

Duran guests, along with a who’s who of Toronto players, on Roberto Occhipinti’s The Cusp. In sharp contrast to Duran’s trio work, which relies heavily on the piano work, Occhipinti doesn’t skimp on the woodwinds and horns, making The Cusp a rich listening experience. Phil Dwyer and John Johnson on saxes, Les Allt on Cubanesque flute parts and Kevin Turcotte on flugel and trumpet, Alistair Kay on trombone and James MacDonald on French horn, are all used effectively in both solo and ensemble work.

The centrepiece of the disc is a three-part suite that Occhipinti was inspired to write after a trip to Mali. The suite engages with its West African and Cuban influences and moves from 7/4 time to a moderate 4/4 for the lovely title track and ends with an exuberant mix of Afro-Caribbean sounds featuring Hugh Marsh on violin and Pedro Martinez on congas. Although the majority of the tunes are written by Occhipinti, he’s picked some very interesting compositions to cover: Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile, with a treatment reminiscent of Gil Evans, Wayne Shorter’s beautiful Ana Maria and Puccini’s Tosca (six-minutes worth) round out “The Cusp”.

Cathy Riches

Concert Note: Hilaro Duran’s student ensemble is featured at a Latin Jazz Night co-presented by Jazz.FM91 Sound of Toronto and the Humber Music Jazz Series on March 16.

WholeNote Discoveries JAZZ AND IMPROVIZED