{"id":562,"date":"2011-07-27T05:14:21","date_gmt":"2011-07-27T10:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=562"},"modified":"2011-07-27T05:14:21","modified_gmt":"2011-07-27T10:14:21","slug":"concords-jazzapalooza-2011-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2011\/07\/27\/concords-jazzapalooza-2011-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Concord\u2019s Jazzapalooza 2011, Part One"},"content":{"rendered":"

They\u2019re having a veritable jazzapalooza over at Concord Music Group<\/a>, and we\u2019re all invited. I try, but I can\u2019t keep up with the amazing rush of quality reissues from the label that\u2019s fast becoming the go-to source for thoughtful, well-put-together archival reissues.<\/p>\n

In March 2011, Concord released four reissues; at the time I managed to review my favorite of the bunch, Sextet<\/em> from Cal Tjader and Stan Getz<\/strong><\/a>. But another title from that bunch is equally amazing: Art Blakey\u2019s Jazz Messengers<\/strong>\u2019 Ugetsu<\/em>, recorded live at Birdland in June 1963.<\/p>\n

When originally released, that record offered up six tracks of incendiary, as-it-happened jazz. The reissue adds four more tracks — nearly twenty more minutes of music \u2013 from the same performance. For that alone it\u2019s worth adding to one\u2019s collection. But even in its original form, the show itself is pretty amazing. You don\u2019t need to be a jazz aficionado (good<\/em>, because I\u2019m not) to know by listening that the drummer was the leader of this six-piece outfit. Blakey is way out front in the swinging mix — crystal-clear as always, thanks to the redoubtable work of producer Orrin Keepnews<\/strong> \u2013 and that\u2019s how it should be.<\/p>\n

The other two March reissues are of no less historical import. Thelonious Monk<\/strong>\u2019s 1957 release Monk\u2019s Music<\/em> features a septet that includes Blakey as well as tenor saxophonists John Coltrane<\/strong> and Coleman Hawkins<\/strong>. The brief opening \u201cAbide With Me\u201d sounds like nothing else on the album, but it\u2019s a stunning piece of grace and beauty. After that, things get way into the swing. The compact brass section (Coltrane and Hawkins plus Ray Copeland<\/strong> on trumpet and Gigi Gryce<\/strong> on alto sax) blows in a big way, while Blakey and bassist Wilbur Ware<\/strong> hold down the rhythm. Everybody<\/em> takes solos, of course — this is<\/em> jazz — but it\u2019s clearly Monk\u2019s show. Occasional shouted cues only add to the excitement. Long tracks (two on the original album run around eleven minutes each) never fail to hold interest. Three bonus tracks add twenty-plus minutes of music that\u2019s every bit the equal of the core tracks. Of those bonuses, in addition to a pair of alternate takes, there\u2019s a thirteen-plus minute \u201cBlues for Tomorrow\u201d cut around the same time but not featuring Monk at all. It\u2019s still cool.<\/p>\n

The energy is of a decidedly different sort on Ella and Oscar<\/em>, featuring Ella Fitzgerald<\/em> on vocals and Oscar Peterson<\/strong> on piano (plus bassist Ray Brown<\/strong> on a few tracks. Peterson\u2019s deft and expressive playing is delightful on its own; having the effortlessly perfect voice of Ella Fitzgerald makes it even better. Unlike the other discs mentioned, this one has four bonus tracks, none of which has seen previous release. On \u201cMean to Me\u201d Peterson mines a ragtime\/barrelhouse style, but that\u2019s merely one of many tricks in his musical bag. The album is a veritable sampler of the range of both of these important artists. Norman Granz<\/strong>\u2019s production is worthy of mention: turn it up on a decent stereo and close your eyes: Ella and Oscar are there with you.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s what I mean about not being able to keep up: if those four March reissues weren\u2019t enough, a mere ninety days later Concord rolled out six more. We\u2019ll take a look at those next time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They\u2019re having a veritable jazzapalooza over at Concord Music Group, and we\u2019re all invited. I try, but I can\u2019t keep up with the amazing rush of quality reissues from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}