Woody Shaw - Louis Hayes The Tour Volume One

Woody Shaw - Louis Hayes
The Tour Volume One
High Note

Word of a release of a previously unissued recording by the Louis Hayes-Junior Cook Quintet from a 1976 tour was the cause of great anticipation. Released under trumpeter Woody Shaw's name, that reflects the fact that the late Shaw became subsequently one of the most brilliant trumpeters, composers and band-leaders of the seventies and eighties. Not long after this European tour, saxophonist Cook left and Shaw took over as co-leader with Rene McLean (Jackie's son) replacing him, but with the same rhythm section of the highly under-appreciated pianist, Ronnie Matthews, Stafford James on bass and Louis Hayes on drum making for one of the most formidable rhythm sections of that times. I saw the Hayes-Shaw band at the original downstairs Tralfamadore Cafe in Buffalo in winter 1976-1977 and there is a live recording of the Hayes-Shaw group from Lausanne Switzerland from 1977 available.

That 1977 recording is very good indeed, but this March 19676 recording simply has become my favorite Shaw recording, opening with "Moontrane," which Shaw wrote when he was 18 and had recorded with organist Larry Young. Explosive is an understatement of this performance with Matthews really playing a such a high level, and then listening to James under the Shaw's solo while Hayes pushes things along. Things don't cool at all on Larry Young's "Obsequious," which features Cook's hot playing followed by Shaw along with the astounding rhythm section. Things cool down just so slightly on a terrific rendition of Walter Booker's up-tempo bossa/samba, "Book's Bossa," before the band takes flight again on pianist Matthews' burner "Ichi-ban" (the title track of a studio album the group made). This stellar recording closes with a standard by Bronislaw Kaper, "Invitation," which gets a very personalized interpretation by this group.

Listening to Shaw here one cannot help but be astonished by his ability to compose his ideas at such a fast tempo, the brilliant execution, articulation of his playing and the warmth of his tone. It is why such major trumpeters of today as Brian Lynch and Terrence Blanchard regard Shaw and his legacy so highly. Of course when you add the more than impressive playing of Cook, and the superb rhythm section that characterized what was, in it somewhat brief existence, one of the great jazz groups of seventies. Woody Shaw III, Woody's son contributes the liner notes in the accompanying booklet for this CD release which is available as a pdf file on the iTunes download of this CD (which is where I purchased this). I do not know if the liner notes accompany downloads from other sites. With the superb music here, one hopes that Volume 2 will be coming out shortly, as this music here is that good.

This was an iTunes purchase as mentioned in the review. This review originally appeared in the September-October 2016 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 368). Here is a video of this group with Joe Henderson in place of Junior Cook from 1976.

The Lost Love Cry Of Albert Ayler

Albert Ayler’s music was controversial during his life and today, four decades after his death. One of the ‘free’ jazz patriarchs of the sixties and seventies, Ayler employed a heavy vibrato and made use of overblowing  and shrieks that came off as the saxophone equivalent of speaking in tongues.  As part of the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Impulse Records, Universal/Verve released Love Cry/ The Last Album, a two LP on one CD reissue of Ayler’s second and fifth albums for the legendary label.

Love Cry has been issued on CD, and this reissue does not include the alternate takes from that reissue. With the trumpet of brother Donald Ayler, Alan Silva on bass, Milford Graves on drums with Call Cobbs on harpsichord, this disc has brief and accessible versions of some of the staples of Ayler’s repertoire like Ghosts and Bells and display the brass band march and folk song roots of Ayler’s music. The longer recordings Zion Hill and Universal Indians (the latter a personal favorite) have a bit of what some would refer to as frenzied chaos.

The Last Album represents Ayler’s final studio recordings and derives from the same sessions that produced “Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe.” These recordings included Canned Heat guitarist Henry Vestine. This opens with an untitled duet of Ayler on bagpipes and Henry Vestine on electric guitar. Besides Vestine, others on this album include pianist Bobby Few, Bill Folwell and Stafford James on bass, Muhammad Ali on drums with Mary Maria (real name Parks) on vocals). Parks is credited with Again Comes The Rising Of The Sun, which she sings a bluesy lyric with Few’s rumbling piano complemented by Ayler’s bluesy buzz saw toned sax. Toiling co-written by Parks, Vestine and Folwell is a bluesy instrumental with Vestine’s Guitar Slim influenced guitar countered by Folwell’s picked bass and Few’s spare piano before Ayler enters like a sanctified Big Jay McNeely. Desert Blood opens with some raw sax before Ayler and Parks sing a lyric with biblical references in a manner suggestive of Sun Ra and June Tyson.

The Last Album probably is viewed along with New Grass as among the least essential recordings in Ayler’s discography although packaged with Love Cry, one certainly finds more than some moments that fans of Ayler will find compelling.

I was provided a review copy from Jazz & Blues Report for whom this review was originally drafted.