First an apology. A regular feature of my year-end wrapup is a discussion of the DownBeat poll winners for the year. I usually count on the amazing folks at the NY Public Library music division, but they are on skeleton staff for the duration of the pandemic. And once again, as I do every year, I bemoan the fact that the DownBeat archives have not been digitized. This is a national treasure. What's wrong with the Smithsonian?
When I am able to get hold of them, I will add an addendum to the wrapup. Meanwhile....
The year in Prestige saw the addition of a couple more short-lived Prestige subsidiaries that had nothing to do with jazz or blues, so I'll list them here briefly for the record.
On Prestige International, Spero Spyros and His Modern Greek Ensemble. I have no further information on them. And--oddly for the International imprint -- Ramblin' Jack Elliott, the Brooklyn cowboy and Woody Guthrie follower who became a beloved elder statesman of American folk music, accompanied by brilliant folk instrumentalists Ralph Rinzler and John Herald.
On Prestige Lively Arts, two albums. One was by Hermione Baddeley, a British actress best known, according to Wikipedia, for playing "brash, vulgar characters," and for her boisterous parties which included mixed naked bathing in the goldfish pond. Her songs included "I Changed My Sex a Week Ago Today" and "Poor Little Cabaret Star." The other was by Billy Dee Williams, a decade before he became Gale Sayers in Brian's Song, and two decades before he was Lando Carissian in The Empire Strikes Back, He was breaking in to theater and television then. If he had a singing career other than this album, there's no record of it that I could find, and his stage work did not include musicals other than an appearance with Lotte Lenya at age ten. Probably concentrating on dramatic roles was the right decision, although his singing voice isn't bad, his style owing debts to Sammy Davis Jr. and Mel Tormé. Some very good jazzmen, including Frank Socolow and longtime Nina Simone accompanist al Schackman, back him up.
Back to jazz. The year some greats from the old guard passing, including New Orleans' Alphonse Picou and Nick LaRocca, and trombone pioneer Miff Mole. Also Wilber Sweatman, one of the first black bandleaders to have hit records (going back to the beginnings of recorded music, in the first decade of the 20th century), and the executor of Scott Joplin's estate. And Stick McGhee, whose "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee" was an early rhythm and blues hit for Atlantic records.
A couple were taken before their time. Bassist Scott LoFaro was 25. He died in an auto accident on July 6, four days after appearing with Stan Getz at Newport, but his closest musical collaboration was with Bill Evans, with whom he had played a two week engagement at New York's Village Vanguard in late June (the albums Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby, both on Riverside, came from those sessions). Evans was so distraught at the young bassist's death that he could not play again for several months.
Booker Little died of uremia on October 5 at age 23. His performances with Eric Dolphy at the Five Spot in the summer of 1961 were captured on two New Jazz releases, Eric Dolphy at the Five Spot Vols. 1 and 2, which promised greater things to come...a promise never fulfilled.
1961 was a year in which the bifurcation of jazz was in full flight. The new sounds of modal jazz, or free jazz, which moved away from bebop's structure of improvising around a series of chords in a certain key. allowed for a music that some found liberating, others confusing. But it was here to stay, and artists who chose this experimental route were producing records that could not be ignored. And the funky sounds of soul jazz provided an earthy and satisfying alternative. Jazziz magazine, looking back and choosing the five most important albums of the year, shows this bifurcation in action. Their top spot goes to John Coltrane's My Favorite Things, followed by Ornette Coleman, Free Jazz, Oliver Nelson, Blues and the Abstract Truth, Eric Dolphy, Out There, and Art Blakey, A Night in Tunisia.
David Brent Johnson, in his Night Lights blog for Indiana Public media, sums up the years highlights like this:
Pianist Bill Evans and saxophonist John Coltrane led groundbreaking groups at the Village Vanguard in New York City, saxophonist Stan Getz and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie recorded challenging orchestral LPs, and clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre and pianist George Russell fronted small, progressive ensembles, while West Coast bop hero Dexter Gordon returned to the scene, and jazz giants Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington teamed up for a memorable studio encounter.
He adds:
Tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins began to re-emerge from his self-imposed two-year sabbatical, just as avant-garde pioneer Ornette Coleman began a long retreat from the recording studio...
The Village Vanguard would play host to another notable gig later in the year, by tenor saxophonist John Coltrane. Coltrane was pushing musical boundaries with a quintet that included the cutting-edge, liquid-flame sound of alto saxophonist, bass clarinetist and flutist Eric Dolphy. The group would inspire one of the most famous, or infamous, critical attacks in jazz history, when writer John Tynan. In the November 23, 1961 issue of Downbeat, Tynan wrote:
Go ahead, call me a reactionary. I happen to object to the musical nonsense currently being peddled in the name of jazz by John Coltrane and his acolyte, Eric Dolphy. They seem bent on pursuing an anarchistic course in their music that can but be termed anti-jazz.
The article provoked such a pro-and-con storm that Coltrane and Dolphy sat down with Downbeat several months later to respond at length to the charge that they were out to destroy swing, tonality, and other elements of the music.
Johnson's entry is
so good it should be read in its entirety. He touches on the Armstrong/Ellington collaboration, albums by Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz "with orchestral backing that ventured into the realm of the Third Stream" (Gunther Schuller conducted the brass ensemble for Dizzy); Jimmy Giuffe's trio with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow within which, as Giuffre told DownBeat, "traditional functions of the instruments have been eliminated...what we do is a matter of collective improvisation wherein individual roles are constantly shifting from dominant to subordinate;" Dexter Gordon's return to jazz with a new, forward look; and George Russell's 1961 album
Ezz-thetic, featuring (once again) Eric Dolphy.
And although I can't do the DownBeat poll, with its snapshot of what jazz fans were thinking then, I can look at the rateyourmusic.com list of the top albums of 1961. There are a lot of top this and top that fan-voted lists on the internet, and they don't all demonstrate good taste, but rateyourmusic's is consistently the quirkiest, most eclectic, and most interesting. It's a contemporary take on music made 60 years ago, as voted on by Lord knows who. Well, who knows who voted in the DownBeat poll, or the Esquire poll, or the Playboy poll, back then? Rateyourmusic lists all genres of music together in one glorious hodgepodge, but jazz enthusiasts tend to dominate. Here are the top forty, with other genres culled out, and only the jazz remaining. Since this is an ongoing vote, the rankings can change from day to day, but the ones at the top have enough votes that they stay pretty stable.
1 My Favorite Things, John Coltrane (Atlantic)
Coltrane was starting to emerge as The Man even then. His reputation has only grown in succeeding years.
2 Olé Coltrane, John Coltrane (Atlantic)
As I said, his reputation has only grown. Rateyourmusic's subscribers really like Coltrane. With Freddie Hubbard, McCoy Tyner, Reggie Workman, Elvin Jones.
3 Africa / Brass, The John Coltrane Quartet (Impulse!)
They really really like Coltrane. With a large ensemble.
5 Free Jazz, The Ornette Coleman Double Quartet (Atlantic)
The double quartet, one in each stereo channel.
6 We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite
A collaboration with Oscar Brown Jr. Roach was one of the first to use jazz to make an overtly political statement.
7 The Blues and the Abstract Truth, Oliver Nelson (Impulse!}
11 A Night in Tunisia. Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers (Blue Note)
With Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter, one of his best groups. But they were all good.
13 Out of the Cool, The Gil Evans Orchestra (Impulse)
Surely showing this group of voters' gift for eclecticism (and their good taste).
14 Explorations, Bill Evans Trio (Riverside)
16 This Is Our Music, The Ornette Coleman Quartet (Atlantic)
Ornette, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell. This is the Ornette I remember, from the Five Spot.
17 Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane (Riverside)
Not just Coltrane. You also get Coleman Hawkins and Gigi Gryce.
18 Roll Call, Hank Mobley (Blue Note)
20 Ezz-thetics, George Russell Sextet (Riverside)
21 The World of Cecil Taylor (Candid)
22 Steamin' With the Miles Davis Quintet (Prestige)
From the Contractual Marathon sessions.
23 Leeway, Lee Morgan (Blue Note)
Perhaps the Lee Morgan bio on Netflix and other streaming services influenced contemporary voters.
24 Percussion Bitter Sweet, Max Roach (Impulse!)
25 Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus (Candid)
26 Out Front, Booker Little (Candid)
28 Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Song Book (Verve)
29 Whistle Stop, Kenny Dorham (Blue Note)
30 Flight to Jordan, Duke Jordan (Blue Note)
31 Undercurrent, Kenny Drew (Blue Note)
32 Straight Ahead, Oliver Nelson with Eric Dolphy (Prestige)
33 Time Further Out, The Dave Brubeck Quartet (Columbia)
35 Motion, Lee Konitz, Verve
36 Bags & Trane, Milt Jackson & John Coltrane (Atlantic)
39 Green Street, Grant Green (Blue Note)
40 João Gilberto (Odeon)
You can bet that this wouldn't have been on a list of the top 40 jazz albums of the year back in 1961. Even the greatest Latin jazz musicians like Tito Puente were not getting any consideration from DownBeat readers (not even in the dance band poll). And Gets/Gilberto was still two years in the future. Probably Giberto's death in 2019 resulted in a spike of interest in him that held over to 2020--if I check this page two years from now, good chance he will have slipped back down. But this is terrific music in the Brazilian style which came to be so defined by Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim.
What's missing from this top 40 that surely would have been part of a comparable list in 1961? There are no organ combos. That was such a hot sound back then, but its popularity faded. For 2020's jazz enthusiasts, the top organ album--something of a surprise to me--is Baby Face Willette at number 66. Hard to believe he's remembered today ahead of Jimmy Smith or Jack McDuff, but Smith only rates 74 and again 85 on the list, and after him Richard (Groove) Holmes at 141 (with Gene Ammons), McDuff at 143 (with Roland Kirk). Grant Green is featured on the Willette album.
Here are some other names in jazz and blues that were worth a mention by the newer generation of listeners in 2020:
Freddie Redd, Django Reinhardt, Nina Simone, Henry Mancini, Booker Ervin. Dexter Gordon, Blind Gary Davis, Steve Lacy, Wes Montgomery (surprised he's not higher), Dizzy Gillespie. Frank Sinatra, Stanley Turrentine, Coleman Hawkins, John Lee Hooker, Straight Ahead, Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington, Jimmy Reed, Lightnin' Hopkins, Gunther Schuller & Jim Hall, Jimmy Giuffre, Jimmy Smith, Charles Mingus, Freddy King, Gerry Mulligan and Johnny Hodges, Buddy Rich, Sarah Vaughan, B. B. King, Roy Eldridge, Jo Jones, Ray Charles, Hampton Hawes, Jackie McLean, Robert Pete Williams, Cannonball Adderley, Paul Desmond, Clark Terry, Mal Waldron, Pink Anderson, Etta James, Carmell Jones, Ahmed Abdul-Malik, Bo Diddley, Gil Evans Orchestra, Mark Murphy, Slim Harpo, Johnny Griffin, Joe Harriott, Ron Carter, J.J. Johnson, Lou Donaldson, Eddie Harris, Art Taylor, Kai Winding, Jimmy Heath, the Jazztet, Peggy Lee, Paul Gonsalves, Latin Jazz Quintet, Helen Humes, Pepper Adams, Donald Byrd, Howard McGhee, Don Friedman, Ahmad Jamal, Duke Pearson, Teddy Edwards, Wynton Kelly, Dorothy Ashby, Terry Pollard, Pee Wee Russell...
and a lot more.
A side note on the incredible cross-pollination of jazz at mid-century. An album called Newport Rebels (Candid) is described as "avant garde jazz." It features Charles Mingus, Max Roach and Eric Dolphy, all with impeccable avant-garde credentials...and Roy Eldridge and Jo Jones.
On to 1962!
No comments:
Post a Comment