Sonny Rollins' Birthday Celebration Centerpiece of Road Songs Vol. 2

One of the most celebrated jazz concerts of the past couple years was the 80th Birthday celebration of Sonny Rollins in New York City. Performances from that concert form the core of Rollins’ second compilation of live recordings, Road Songs Vol. 2 on his Doxy label (Doxy/Emarcy). Four of the six selections come from that September 2010, Beacon Theatre concert with the other two performances coming from Japanese concerts, less than a month later. Most of the performances feature Sonny’s band of the time with Russell Malone on guitar, Bob Cranshaw on bass, Kobie Watkins on drums and Sammy Figueroa on percussion with one track having a historic collaboration.

Opening up is a rendition of Irving Berlin’s They Say It’s Wonderful, which has a nice solo from Malone after Rollins introduces the theme. Its a typical performance that fans of Rollins live performances from the last few years will be familiar with and centers around the trading of fours with drummer Watkins. It is followed by Sonny introducing Jim Hall with Hall performing (without Sonny) In a Sentimental Mood. If a wonderful performance, it is odd that an actual collaboration between Rollins and Hall is not present on this Sonny Rollins album.

The blues, Sonnymoon For Two, with the rhythm section of Christian McBride and Roy Haynes, was the historic meeting of Rollins with Ornette Coleman, who Rollins teases the audience about as a special birthday guest after his initial solo in a trio vein, and after initially asking him to come out takes another solo before Coleman comes out and the contrast in styles and how a solo is constructed between his approach and Rollins will be immediately evident and not simply because he is playing alto sax. While the interest of the meeting on stage by the two, the performance strikes this listener as a string of a unconnected solos based on Rollins’ blues composition, with some interchanges between the two and some inspired playing from Rollins later in the performance but as a whole this sounds more interesting than it sounds magical.

I Can’t Get Started opens with Roy Hargrove opening and playing exquisitely before Sonny enters on this ballad with his robust tone providing a counterpoint to Hargrove’s lyricism. It is followed by a lively Raincheck from Billy Strayhorn’s songbook, taken at a lively tempo with a calypso-tinge. Hargrove is bright and incisive here with the two trading fours starting about two-thirds of the way through this performance.

An abbreviated performance of St. Thomas concludes this recording. The editing of the performances is seamless and it comes off to the listener as one concert even though it mixes performances from three concerts, and the order of the Beacon Theatre performances is not in order of performance. The performances sound representative of the performances by Sonny Rollins I have seen over the past few years (thankfully without the sound issues that plagued the first third to half of recent Kennedy Center performances). It is certainly welcome to have this available even if I might suggest other Rollins recordings of live performances of the past decade a bit more consistent and magical. I specifically point to Without A Song - The 9/11 Concert.

I purchased this CD as a download.

Uccello's Intriguing Chamber Group's Jazz Interpretations.

A cello ensemble playing big band arrangements is an unusual concept, but cellist Matt Haimovitz and the ensemble Uccello are heard doing material from John McLaughlin and Ornette Coleman to Gershwin on “Meeting of the Spirits,” (Oxingale Productions). This very recent release is also a 2010 Grammy nominee as a Classical Crossover product. Haimovitz and fellow cellists handle a program of arrangements by David Sanford with guest appearances by guitarist John McLaughlin, drummer Matt Wilson and the keyboards of Jan Jarczyk.

it is a fascinating collection of performances as soling cellos play against others riffing a bass melody line. Arrangements are often taken from solos on the original performances and the unusual setting makes the familiar sound new. Guitarist McLaughlin adds some of his exhilarating playing to the opening rendition of his “ Open Country Joy,” with the cello solos of Leanna Rutt and Haimovitz adding a celebratory tone. In thee notes, arranger sanford observes he tried to capture the flavor of the Birth of the Cool recordings in the arrangement of Miles Davis’ “Half Nelson.” with a lovely solo from the leader and some nice pizzicato playing by Dominic Painchaud. Sanford credits John Zorn’s punk-thrash recording of Ornette Coleman’s “W.R.U.” as the inspiration for a performance that has spirited polyphonic solos as well as crisp drums from Matt Wilson. The rendition of John Lewis’ “Blues in A Minor,” is a duet between the pizzicato playing of Haimovitz and Dominic Painchaud, both plainly precisely and clear articulation of their ideas.

“ Meeting of the Spirits” is another John McLaughlin number with Haimovitz recreating McLaughlin’s original solo, while Amaryllis Jarczyk recreates Jan Hammer’s solo on the original recording. Their solos sandwich a Fender Rhodes solo by guest Jarczyk while Wilson ‘s drums propel the performance. It is followed by Billy Strayhorn’s “Blood Count,” written from his hospital bed with Haimovitz attempting to recreate the inflections of Johnny Hodges alto saxophone to honor him here on a lovely, sober performance. An original by Haimovitz and Uccello is “Triptych,” inspired by the works of an artist friend as well as jazz pianists Vijay Iyer and Nik Bartsch, which comes across as somewhat melodramatic. A lighter tone is heard on a rendition of the Gershwin standard “Liza,” inspired by the Quintette of the Hot Club of France with Haimovitz’s pizzicato work evoking Django Reinhardt. followed by the arco playing of Leanna Rutt whose enlivening playing is a homage to Stephane Grappelli followed by spirited ensemble playing.

The final performance is of Charles Mingus’ “ Haitian Fight Song,” which scores Booker Ervin’s tenor saxophone and Jaki Byard’s piano solo,” and is another fascinating performance as they capture much of the spirit of the original performance despite the very distinct instrumentation. The performances convey a range of musical flavors and emotions. This is a change of pace for listeners well worth exploring.


A publicist for this release sent me a review copy for this release.

Noah Howard's "Schizophrenic Blues" Sounds Fresh Today.

The late alto saxophonist, Noah Howard passed away in early September leaving behind a considerable musical legacy. Born in New Orleans, he emerged in the 1960s among the first wave of ‘free jazz’ artists. He recorded a couple albums for ESP and then recorded “The Black Ark,” but finding the reception for free jazz cool at best in the United States, he relocated to Paris and spent much of the ensuing years of his life abroad, living in Brussels at the time of his death. 


Growing up in New Orleans where he played first in church, his first instrument was the trumpet which he played in the military and it wasn’t until later he started playing the alto saxophone. His recordings for ESP were among the 28 or so albums he recorded over the years. Recently, Destination Out (http://destination-out.com/), a web site devoted to free jazz, has started issuing downloads from out-of-print FMP vinyl albums that have never been made available on compact disc. Among the recent albums they have made available is a couple by Howard from the seventies.

“Schizophrenic Blues” reissues a live 1977 performance from the Quartier Latin in Berlin where Howard is joined by Itaru Ok on trumpet; Jean-Jacques Avenel on double bass and Oliver Johnson on drums. The title track is a blues that displays his bluesy tone as he and Ok play variations on the blues theme. His tone has a bit of vibrato, but not overdone, and would indicate that both Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler were influences on a composition would not be out of place on a Coleman disc.  Ok’s trumpet riffs provides a vinegary contrast to Howard, and the rhythm ably anchor the performance. “Birds of Beauty” is a slow ballad with trumpet more prominent at the lyrical opening and the two  complement and interact off the other.

“Fire March,” a tribute to Albert Ayler, opens with Johnson taking a drum solo before the tempo changes to a march like groove as Howard enters in an Ayler-esque mode as Ok evokes Donald Ayler’s trumpet with his playing while Howard exploits the upper registers of his alto and overblows producing shrieks and cries. Ok’s trumpet sounds like a swarm of very unhappy bees here. Bassist Avenel opens up “Creole Girl,” the lengthiest performance of this album, with a lengthy solo. After Johnson sets the tempo, Howard and Ok join in tstating the theme and take solid solos that do not sound to these ears as  very out.

“Solo Sax,” is a slice of saxophone exploration (but not a solo saxophone performance) with Howard employing a bit more vibrato here, as Avenel playing some buzz saw arco bass, Johnson laying an atemporal groove with brushes and Ok’s trumpet buzzes around the sax. The album concludes with a reading of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” with Howard and Ok embellishing the melody in an Ayler-esque fashion.

The performances on “Schizophrenic Blues” hold up over thirty years later. Certainly anyone familiar with the music of Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, and Old Dreams and New Dreams should find this quite accessible and even at its most Ayler-esque moments “Fire March,” there is a lyricism as well as a blues foundation that makes this release engaging. Recommended, and again this can be downloaded at http://destination-out.com. Just go to the store tab and look for this release.

Stop Smiling Turns Spotlight on Jazz

I was at a local Borders today and browsed through the magazines, coming across the new issue (#34) of a publication, Stop Smiling, which is subtitled The Magazine for High-Minded Lowlifes. Actually all I could figure out from the issue from reading it was that the issue was The Jazz Issue and that it was issued with three different covers using three different Francis Wolf images (of Ornette Coleman, Bobby Hutchinson and Eric Dolphy, my copy had the Coleman image).

Included are book excerpts (including Ben Ratliff's book on John Coltrane and John Corbett's forthcoming biography of free jazz saxophone legend Peter Brotzmann) short interviews and articles ranging from Louis Armstrong in Los Angeles; a story on the Village Vanguard; A tribute to Eric Dolphy with recollections by Sonny Rollins, Ted Curson, Bobby Hutchinson, Richard Davis and Gary Giddins; interviews with Ornette Coleman, Joe Chambers, Olu Dara, and Ron Carter; an article on Sun Ra and Moondog; and an interview with noted Jazz photographer William Claxton. A pretty varied article list with plenty of wonderful photographs throughout.

Try looking for this at Borders (and probably Barnes and Noble) in the magazine section. stop Smiling's website is www.stopsmiling.online