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

Tracklist:
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)

 Buy at Amazon
Listen for Once, Delete, then Buy:         Download

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)

Tracklist
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

Buy at Amazon 
Listen for once, delete, then buy

Freddie Hubbard: Here To Stay (Blue Note – 1962)

This album has certainly had a sad history. It was left in the Blue note vaults for fourteen years. Then it was reissued in a double-vinyl set with Hub Cap, a coupling that doesn’t reveal either session in the best light.Then a decade later, it finally was released as a single album. And that brings us to the present version, on which occasion the devout Bob Blumenthal seems to say in his liner notes (well, he hedges around the fact) that this is just fine, but he’d might rather listen to other Hubbard Blue Notes. That leaves the impression that perhaps Blue Note was right for keeping this in the vaults for so long.
Here’s an attempt to redeem “Here to Stay,” perhaps one of Hubbard’s finest ever, and surely misunderstood as well as undervalued. The case for this album’s value can be built simply. Forget the original track sequence. Begin with Hubbard’s cover of “Body and Soul,” a completely remarkable ballad performance marked for the maturity of the individual interpretation the young trumpeter (who was 24 years old in 1962) brings. Hubbard is thinking hard—harder than most trumpeters double his age have thought—about the lyrics, holding a lot of passion in reserve while maintaining a determined, probing tone. I think only the classic Coleman Hawkins’ original recording outclasses Hubbard’s reading.
While Hubbard recorded with drummer Philly Joe Jones on a number of sessions, I think their chemistry was never as intensely pitched as on this session, particularly on the opening “Philly Mignon,” written by Hubbard for the fiery drummer. This is one of Philly Joe Jones’ supreme moments in the studio, and this CD deserves top-drawer billing for that alone. If you listened to “Body and Soul” first, then skip to “Philly Mignon,” where you’ll drop the cliche of the young Hubbard as all brassy confidence with brio to the brim, and instead hear a mature musical intelligence at work that is as questioning and questing, as conflicted as Lee Morgan’s.Another indication of Hubbard’s well-seasoned taste on this session is revealed in using two of Cal Massey’s most memorable compositions, “Father and Son” and “Assunta.” Listen to the solos by Hubbard and Shorter on “Assunta” and ask yourself if they haven’t slipped to a new phase of their growth, apart from Blakey’s band at this juncture, that’s more darkly introspective.
Norman Weinstein (All About Jazz)

Track List:
1. Philly Mignon
2. Father and Song
3. Body And Soul
4. Nostrans And Fulton
5. Full Moon And Empty Arms
6. Assunta

Personnel:
Freddie Hubbard (trumpet)
Wayne Shorter (tenor sax)
Cedar Walton (piano)
Reggie Workman (bass)
Philly Joe Jones (drums)

Blue Note Records 1962 – Original Release Date: September 12, 2006

Buy at Amazon
Download

Dexter Gordon – The Other Side of Round Midnight: (1985 – Blue Note)

 

After seeing “Round Midnight,” I knew I had to have the soundtrack, and if you too have seen the movie, you know what I mean. All the recordings on here were recorded live for the movie, which gives it a great intimate feeling. At the same time, the sound quality  is surprisingly good. If you haven’t seen the movie you should know that even though much of the soundtrack does features Dexter, the supporting cast is just as important, featuring Herbie Hancock, as well as occasional appearances by the likes of Cedar Walton, Bobby Hutcherson, Bobby McFerrin, Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, and others. But, as I see it,  apart from making allusion to Dexter’s genius, the other virtuoso performance on this album is Herbie Hancock playing Round Midnight. The realism of his piano is quite stunning. You can tell that the top of the piano is open. With each of the chords struck, you get that immediacy or sharp striking of the hammer to the string. The leading edge of the notes comes quickly. They don’t sound the least bit harsh or mechanical or worse yet, they don’t sound soft and mushy. There is also a completely believable sustain of the chords. The harmonic structure of the notes played, especially in the lower octaves, is very exacting. Overall, a very solid soundtrack with memorable versions of many standards and some of Dexter Gordon’s and Herbie Hancock’s finest playing.

Track List:

1. Round Midnight

2. Berangere’s Nightmare #2

3. Call Sheet Blues

4. What Is This Thing Called Love

5. Tivoli

6. Society Red

7. As Time Goes By

8. It’s Only a Paper Moon

9. Round Midnight – (solo piano)

Personnel:

Dexter Gordon (soprano & tenor saxophones)

Bobby McFerrin (vocals)

Wayne Shorter (soprano & tenor saxophones)

Palle Mikkelborg, Freddie Hubbard (trumpet)

Herbie Hancock, Cedar Walton (piano)

Pierre Michelot, Ron Carter, Mads Vinding (bass)

Billy Higgins, Tony Williams (drums)

Buy at Amazon

Download