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As a very young child, I was already quite the precocious pop music consumer. Born mere days after JFK was tragically struck down in Dallas, by 1968-69 I was an intent and conscious fan of pop music. Many of my early memories are imbued with the soundtrack of the times. Whenever I\u2019d go for a car ride with my mom or dad, the radio would be tuned to WSBR-AM in Boca Raton, FL. I\u2019d hear the Top 40 hits of the day, and I dug them.<\/p>\n
But I didn\u2019t understand them. Even in those days on AM radio, the pop songs were about love, relationships, and other weighty subjects completely alien to a four-year-old. Looking back, it\u2019s clear that the music moved me, even though I couldn\u2019t quite make any real sense of it. Still, in a real sense, those experiences were my introduction to rock\u2019n\u2019roll.<\/p>\n
This has all come rushing back to me of late thanks to a number of CDs I have received for potential review. Concord Music is on a mission these days to re-release classic jazz albums from the catalogs it now controls. Labels like Riverside, Fantasy and Prestige were, in the late 1950s and early \u201860s, home to some of the finest jazz artists of that era (or any other).<\/p>\n
When I listen to Sextet<\/em> (credited to Cal Tjader \/ Stan Getz<\/strong> but featuring others equally important), I get that late sixties feeling all over again: I don\u2019t understand this, but I love it.<\/p>\n The Sextet<\/em> album almost didn\u2019t happen. In 1958 the featured players were signed to various labels, and in a situation not unlike Hollywood\u2019s \u201cstudio system,\u201d musicians would occasionally be lent out from one label to another in reciprocal arrangements. Luckily this one-off project from tenor saxophonist Stan Getz with Cal Tjader on vibes did<\/em> come together, and the duo enlisted some soon-to-be-legendary backup (though the word \u201cbackup\u201d sells everyone involved far too short). Vince Guaraldi<\/strong> (piano) and Scott LaFaro<\/strong> (upright bass) were not yet quite the household names they\u2019d soon become (LaFaro\u2019s promising career was cut short when tragically died in a 1961 auto accident.) With Eddie Duran<\/strong> on guitar and Billy Higgins<\/strong> on drums, the session was essentially a supergroup, though that rock-centric term wouldn\u2019t come into use for another decade or so.<\/p>\n This aggregation had never played together before, and would never again. But on a single day \u2013 February 8, 1958; the date deserves highlighting on any jazz lover\u2019s calendar \u2013 the sextet produced seven tunes of exhilarating beauty.<\/p>\n Even to a rock listener\/musician\u2019s ears, Sextet <\/em>is a remarkable recording. The ad hoc group set up at Los Angeles\u2019 Marines Memorial Auditorium and played the songs \u2013 following charts prepared by Guaraldi and Tjader \u2013 live to tape. The instruments breathe in a way that rock music simply does not, cannot. Essentially an acoustic performance \u2013 though vibes do have an electric motor \u2013 the music was captured by strategically positioned microphones. It\u2019s a tired device to observe that the music \u201csounds like it\u2019s being played right in the room,\u201d but with Sextet<\/em>, it\u2019s simply true. The stereo separation captures the warm and friendly (yet note-perfect) tones of the group.<\/p>\n And then there\u2019s the songs themselves. \u201cGinza Samba\u201d positively radiates joy and carefree abandon, but it does so in a tightly constructed way. Each player gets his chance to shine, but the song is never — not for a moment \u2013 an excuse for solo spots. Every note works in service of propelling the song forward. Getz, Guaraldi, Duran and Tjader each deliver their own variation on the signature melodic line, and when it all comes together toward the end, the effect is jaw-dropping.<\/p>\n A gentle reading of \u201cI\u2019ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face\u201d features most prominently the expressive, subtle piano work of Vince Guaraldi, complemented by Tjader\u2019s mellifluous, resonating vibes. An impossibly romantic sax solo from Getz is supported by sympathetic strumming from Duran. The equally subtle brush work of Billy Higgins anchors the song without actually providing its beat (LaFaro\u2019s bass nicely does that.) When — near the track\u2019s end \u2013 everyone but Tjader drops out for a few bars, the vibes send shivers down the listener\u2019s spine.<\/p>\n \u201cFor All We Know\u201d smartly picks up that vibe (so to speak). The sequencing is perfect; it\u2019s as if no other song could better have followed the previous track. The first half of the number is a Tjader spotlight; most of the second half focuses on Getz\u2019s sax. And of course in the final minute it \u2013 once again — all comes together, flawlessly.<\/p>\n The up-tempo \u201cCrow\u2019s Nest\u201d is a workout for everyone involved. Right out of the gate, the rhythm section gets a chance to blow, freed of the restraint they\u2019ve shown on the previous tracks. While there are only six players (and no overdubs: this was 1958 after all), \u201cCrow\u2019s Nest\u201d sounds in places like the work of a much larger outfit. LaFaro\u2019s assured bass work pushes the song ahead, ahead, ahead. Guaraldi turns in his first major solo of the set, finding a wholly different (but sympathetic) melody within the grooves of the song. So, too, does LaFaro take a winning solo turn, illustrating the power and subtlety of his bass playing.<\/p>\n The romantic \u201cLiz-Anne\u201d is a short and straightforward waltzing jazz piece focusing primarily on Getz\u2019s lyrical sax work and busier-than-it-sounds guitar from Duran. On \u201cBig Bear,\u201d Getz and Duran kick things off in harmonic lockstep; though the tone colors of their respective instruments are quite different, at times it\u2019s difficult to pick out who\u2019s playing what. Tjader\u2019s extended vibes solo is masterful, as it tumbles into a Getz solo. The song\u2019s outro reprises the delightful Duran\/Getz duet.<\/p>\n \u201cMy Buddy\u201d closes the set. And a perfect closer it is. Again focusing primarily on the top-billed players, the number showcases a sexy solo from Getz; meanwhile the band pretty much swings. And then it\u2019s over. The entire session \u2013 rehearsal and performance — lasted a mere three hours<\/em>. No bonus tracks were available for the Concord 2011 reissue, but then it\u2019s hard to imagine anything truly adding to this sublime album. As Doug Ramsey<\/strong> writes in his excellent liner notes for the Concord reissue, \u201cIf you had been the producer, which of these seven pieces would you have told Tjader, Getz and friends to do over?\u201d Ramsey characterizes Sextet<\/em> as \u201c42 minutes and 47 seconds of perfection,\u201d and that\u2019s a tidy, wholly accurate summation.<\/p>\n Sextet<\/em> is an apt title for a suite of composition in which each player takes his turn in the spotlight and shows his ability to integrate into the group as a whole. No one ever fights for primacy; it\u2019s a perfectly balanced performance throughout. I don\u2019t claim to understand this stuff, but it moves me. Hearing Sextet<\/em> gives me that feeling \u2013 akin to discovering rock\u2019n\u2019roll — all over again.<\/p>\n
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