Archive for the ‘Horace Parlan’ Category
Archie Shepp – Black Ballads (2000 – Timeless Holland)
Tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp, who was one of the enfant terribles of the free jazz generation in the 1960s, once said, seemingly uncharacteristically, “You can hear every minute of every hour of every day of every year a player puts into practicing his horn when he plays a ballad.” He was being prophetic, of course, as this date from 1992 suggests. Teamed with pianist Horace Parlan — with whom he recorded the magnificent duet of spirituals Goin’ Home — bassist Wayne Dockery, and drummer Steve McCraven, Shepp leads the quartet through an astonishing series of ballads that are as revelatory for their understatement as they are for their musical aplomb. Shepp takes the Ben Webster approach on these 11 sides and comes off as a singer of songs (he is not singing) rather than as a saxophone player. His readings of “Angel Eyes,” “All Too Soon,” and “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” and his souled-out cover of “Georgia on My Mind,” are stunning for the restraint and nuance they contain. Parlan’s comping slips toward fills of uncommon texture and dimensionality in the bridges of these tunes, and on Shepp’s own “I Know About the Life,” he reinvents the tune itself. The high point of this glorious record is Shepp’s own “Déjà Vu,” as it comes out of an uncommonly long “Lush Life,” where the lyric of both compositions becomes a kind of recitation on the blues in stretched time. Issued on the Timeless label, this is a must-have for all Shepp fans, but more importantly, it is for all followers of the development in harmonic thinking about the ballad form in Jazz.
Thom Jurek, Rovi
01.Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?
02.I Know About The Life
03.Georgia On My Mind
04.Embraceable You
05.Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
06.How Deep Is The Ocean
07.Lush Life
08.Déjà Vu
09.Angel Eyes
10.All To Soon (5
11.Ain’t Misbehavin’
January 01, 2000
Archie Shepp: Ten and Alto Sax
Horace Parlan: Piano
Wayne Dockery: Bass
Steve McRaven: Drums.
Released on January 1, 2000 – Label: Timeless Holland
Doug Raney Sextet: Meeting The Tenors (1983 – Criss Cross)
Doug Raney is probably fed up with being described as the son of Jimmy Raney, but that’s the way it goes when your father is one of the most revered guitarists in jazz. This set was recorded in 1983, when Doug was 26 and still very much under Jimmy’s musical influence. The connection is less marked in his playing today. The tenors in question are Ferdinand Povel, perhaps best known for his work with Dutch Radio’s Metropole Orchestra, and Bernt Rosengren, a leading Swedish player. The session was recorded at the end of a tour, and has the ease and looseness that comes from playing together regularly. The arrangements are neat but not elaborate and the rhythm section of Horace Parlan, Jesper Lundgaard and Ole Jacob Hansen steams along nicely. No one would describe this album as a towering classic, but it is thoroughly enjoyable, none the less. It also contains that great rarity: a literate and informative insert-note.
Mark Gardner
1.: Up In Quincy’s Room
2.: Blues For Bart
3.: Waltz Number One
4.: Arrival
5.: Lover Man
6.: The Night Has A Thousand Eyes
Personnel:
Doug Raney (Guitar)
Horace Parlan (Piano)
Bernt Rosengren (Ten Sax / Flute)
Ferdinand Povel (Ten Sax)
Jesper Lundgaard (Bass)
Ole Jacob Hansen (Drums)
Recorded April 29, 1983 in Monster, The Netherlands by Max Bolleman – Label: Criss Cross
Across Rhythm 