Archive for the ‘Billy Higgins’ Category
Eddie Henderson – A Tribute To Lee Morgan (1995 – NYC)
Unlike many of the other recent tribute albums, this program of the music of the late trumpeter Lee Morgan casts his compositions in familiar surroundings not all that different from the original recordings. Trumpeter Eddie Henderson, who was influenced by Morgan but found his own voice, is a good choice for the lead role and his muted outing on the one non-Morgan piece, “You Don’t Know What Love Is,” is a strong feature. Tenorman Joe Lovano, who can sound like Joe Henderson at times and hints at the passion of Coltrane on the date’s most advanced piece “Search for the New Land,” has a strong personality of his own and matches well with Eddie Henderson. The solid rhythm section (pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Billy Higgins) is a major asset while Grover Washington, Jr., makes a pair of guest appearances on soprano and shows once again that he can play swinging soulful jazz; pity that he never seems to play tenor in this type of setting. The eight Lee Morgan songs heard on this album are interpreted in the same basic hard bop style that the trumpeter spent most of his career playing, an idiom that serves as the modern jazz mainstream of today. Highlights include “Sidewinder,” “Ceora,” “Speedball” (which has some heated tradeoffs by the horns) and the infectious “Ca-Lee-So.”
Scott Yanow
01.The Lion And The Wolff
02.Sidewinder
03.Ceora
04.Speedball
05.You Don’t Know What Love Is
06.Kozo’s Waltz
07.Yama
08.Ca-Lee-So
09.Search For The New Land
Personnel:
Eddie Henderson (trumpet)
Grover Washington, Jr. (op sax)
Joe Lovano (Tenor Sax)
Cedar Walton (piano);
Peter Washington (Bass)
Billy Higgins (drums).
Release Date: Apr 24th, 1995 – Label: NYC
Recording information: Sound on Sound, New York, NY (From March, 12th 1994 to , April, 12th 1994)
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Charlie Haden – The Best Of Quartet West (2007 – Label: Verve)
It would seem a strange thing compiling the work of Charlie Haden’s decade-long Quartet West Group onto a single disc. The reason isn’t that they recorded so much material, but more because the material was themed record by record. Yet that is exactly why a compilation like this does work, because this group played music utilizing different aspects of the same theme: to evoke the spirits, ghosts and sprites of a Los Angeles that has moved off the screen of real life into the stuff of myth. That Haden and his group, which included drummer Larance Marable (who replaced Billy Higgins after the group’s first, self-titled album in 1986), saxophonist Ernie Watts, and pianist Alan Broadbent could make it all sound so present and real, gives the impression that there was truth in the images. This is not only from a West Coast point of view (though there it is imbued more with the striking visual reveries to accompany the tunes) but also in the popular culture mythos in the collective American mind. The nostalgia inherent in the quartet’s projects of playing standards and film themes, as well as original material slanted in such a way, are offset by the genuine innovative heart of jazz when performed by masters such as these men are. Higgins is here in the gorgeous reading of “Body and Soul,” and the change is measured sharply by the next album In Angel City, as Marable, a less “busy” drummer, played more in song line form. Marable’s drumming on Haden’s “First Song (For Ruth)” offers the striking difference in a number of ways, as his fills are more rounded and warm, while Higgins’ playing was sharper and more pronounced. The sense of the unit flows a bit more. Haden wrote much of the material for this group, and the obvious ease with which the ensemble plays them offers a view into the mind of the composer who could compose to the strengths of both individuals and the group — note “Our Spanish Love Song” and the title cut from Always Say Goodbye. Other well-known tunes, such as Leonard Bernstein’s “Lonely Town” from the album, The Art of the Song, with a wonderful vocal by Shirley Horn and violin solo (fronting an orchestra conducted by Broadbent), reflect not nostalgia, but the ability of a jazz quartet to evoke what is not only missing, but gone. The emptiness created between the musicians and the singer is profound, sad, and utterly beautiful. Elsewhere, Stéphane Grappelli plays a violin solo over his own taped violin solo from a 1949 performance of “Where Are You My Love,” with Django Reinhardt, Gianni Safred, Carlo Pecori, and Aurelio de Carolis. The wonders of technology being what they are, Haden makes it all sound seamless. The great moment here, however, is in the reading of Victor Young’s “The Left Hand of God,” from the 1996 album Now Is the Hour, where the quartet performs the tune nearly straight yet in front of an orchestra arranged and conducted by Broadbent. In the long lonesome tone of Watts’ saxophone, the built up emotion comes streaming from the tune with elegance and grace — these word are perhaps the best description of everything this band ever recorded. This is an excellent compilation to be sure, but it does make the listener long for more; for the total experience of Quartet West. Consider this, then, an introduction more than a summing up: there is so much more to look forward to from this group.
Released on the 5th Nov 2007 – Label: Verve Int’l
Art Farmer: Yesterday’s Thoughts (2005 – Test of Time Records)
Possibly better-appreciated in the latter period of his life and after his death, Art Farmer, along with Clark Terry, was instrumental in bringing the flugelhorn, a mellow cousin of the trumpet, to the fore. Appearing on literally hundreds of recordings and releasing over seventy albums under his own name, he may have been the perfect definition of the journeyman musician—well-known in music circles, but a name that tended to elude the larger record-buying public for many years. Still, with a lyrical style that set him apart from many of his stratosphere-reaching contemporaries, Farmer has aged incredibly well in retrospect.
Yesterday’s Thoughts is part of the fledgling Test of Time record label’s commitment to making recordings, originally released by the Japanese East Wind Music label in the ’70s—and previously only available as expensive import LPs—accessible to North American audiences. Like the first two releases on the label—Andrew Hill’s Hommage and the Great Jazz Trio’s At the Village Vanguard—Yesterday’s Thoughts has been remastered using the Direct Stream Digital process (DSD), and the result is a sound that as closely resembles what the musicians heard in the studio control room as is possible.
With an all-star cast featuring pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Sam Jones, and drummer Billy Higgins, this outing may be identified by the liner notes as a ballad recording, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The opening track, Michel Legrand’s “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life, does set the pace for a relaxed session, and the Benny Golson title track is a tender piece indeed; but there’s plenty of variety on the date, from the medium-tempo bossa of Jobim’s “How Insensitive to the at-ease swing of Mercer/DePaul’s “Namely You and Dietz/Schwartz’s “Alone Together, plus the more energetic Walton original “Firm Roots.
What makes the whole session sound so effortless may be the behind-the-beat approach of virtually everyone on the session. Farmer may demonstrate the most laid-back phrasing this side of Dexter Gordon, with Walton, Jones, and Higgins following close behind. And the sense of swing is unassailable; even on the two ballads there’s that indefinable quality that makes everything dance. Walton’s lightly funky bop approach lends a brighter element to an otherwise soft and mellow session. Even when the group takes off, as it does on “Firm Roots, there’s a complete lack of anything resembling an edge, with Higgins’ touch in particular feeling gentler than usual.
Easy on the ears, Yesterday’s Thoughts captures Farmer at particularly busy time in his career—during ’76 and ’77 he’d release no fewer than six albums under his own name. But in Farmer’s case, boosting quantity didn’t mean sacrificing quality, and Yesterday’s Thoughts is a welcome addition to the Farmer back catalogue: an album that, in its own quiet way, reaffirms Farmer’s strength as a rich-toned, melodic player who may only be receiving his proper due retrospectively.
John Kelman (All About Jazz)
1. What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life
2. How Insensitive
3. Namely You
4. Alone Together
5. Yesteray’s Thoughts
6. Firm Roots
Personnel:
Art Farmer (flugelhorn)
Cedar Walton (piano)
Sam Jones (bass),
Billy Higgins (drums)
Original Release Date: 1976 – Label: Test of Time Records
Realesed on CD: 2005
Bobby Hutcherson: Stick-Up! (1966 – Blue Note)
One of Bobby Hutcherson’s best albums, Stick-Up! was also his first official release not to feature drummer Joe Chambers, who was a major part of Hutcherson’s outside leanings. Instead, Stick-Up! stakes out the middle ground between hard bop and the avant-garde, offering a set of structured yet advanced modal pieces indebted particularly to Coltrane. Hutcherson’s originals (five out of six selections) show him at the top of his game as a composer, and the ensemble’s playing is tight and focused throughout, but what really lifts Stick-Up! to the top tier of Hutcherson’s discography is its crackling energy. It’s quite possibly the hardest-swinging album he ever cut, and part of the credit has to go to the stellar rhythm section of McCoy Tyner on piano, Herbie Lewis on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums, who lay down a driving, pulsating foundation that really pushes Hutcherson and tenorist Joe Henderson. Tyner in particular is a standout, charging relentlessly forward on the intricate “8/4 Beat” and “Black Circle” and lending a Coltrane-ish flavor to the spiritually searching “Verse.” The lone non-Hutcherson piece, Ornette Coleman’s sometimes overlooked “Una Muy Bonita,” is given a fantastic, rollicking treatment as catchy as it is progressive, proving that the piece is a classic regardless of whether it’s interpreted freely or with a steady groove and tonal center. Hutcherson’s originals are uniformly strong and memorable enough to sit very well next to it, and that — coupled with the energetic performances — ranks Stick-Up! with Dialogue and Components as the finest work of Hutcherson’s tenure at Blue Note.
Steve Huey, All Music Guide
2. 8/4 Beat
3. Summer Nights
4. Black Circle
5. Verse
6. Blues Mind Matte
Bobby Hutcherson (Vibraphone & Marimba)
Joe Henderson (Tenor Sax )
Billy Higgins (Drums)
Lee Morgan: Charisma (1966 – Blue Note)
Douglas Payne (All About Jazz)
1. Hey Chico
2. Somethin’ Cute
3. Rainy Night
4. Sweet Honey Bee
5. The Murphy Man
6. The Double Up
Personnel
Lee Morgan (trumpet)
Jackie McLean (alto sax)
Hank Mobley (tenor sax)
Cedar Walton (piano)
Paul Chambers (bass)
Billy Higgins (drums)
Original Release Date: September 29, 1966 – Label: Blue Note Records
Dexter Gordon – GO (1962 – Blue Note)
From the first moments when Dexter Gordon sails into the opening song full of brightness and confidence, it is obvious that Go! is going to be one of those albums where everything just seems to come together magically. A stellar quartet including the stylish pianist Sonny Clark, the agile drummer Billy Higgins, and the solid yet flexible bassist Butch Warren are absolutely crucial in making this album work, but it is still Gordon who shines. Whether he is dropping quotes into “Three O’Clock in the Morning” or running around with spritely bop phrases in “Cheese Cake,” the album pops and crackles with energy and exuberance. Beautiful ballads like “I Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry” metamorphosize that energy into emotion and passion, but you can still see it there nonetheless. Gordon had many high points in his five decade-long career, but this is certainly the peak of it all.
Stacia Proefroc (All Music Guide)
1. Cheese Cake
2. I Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out To Dry
3. Second Balcony Jump
4. Love For Sale 7:34
5. Where Are You 5:17
6. Three O’Clock In The Morning 5:41
Dexter Gordon (tenor saxophone)
Sonny Clark (piano)
Butch Warren (bass)
Billy Higgins (drums)
Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on August 27, 1962. Originally released on Blue Note (4112). Digitally remastered using 24-bit technology by Rudy Van Gelder (1998, Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey).
Dexter Gordon – The Other Side of Round Midnight: (1985 – Blue Note)
Across Rhythm 