Archive for the ‘Philly Joe Jones’ Category
Hank Mobley: Workout (1961 – Blue Note Records)
Miles Davis dissed him, Leonard Feather called him the middleweight champion, and most people thought that John Coltrane outshone him. Because of these and a few other real or imagined slings and arrows, a kind of victim support group vibe has gathered around Hank Mobley in recent years. He’s in danger of going down in history as a tragic figure.
But hey! Here’s another perspective to consider. Mobley recorded an astonishing 25 albums as a leader or co-leader for Blue Note (not even Grant Green comes close), was featured on around another 35 Blue Notes as a sideman, and made his mark on Columbia and a few other labels too. Where’s the victim?
Mobley had some good times outside the studio as well. He was married twice, by all accounts on both occasions to stunningly beautiful women, and lived until he was 56—not a massive span, true, but for a black hard bop saxophonist born in 1930 who had intermittent heroin problems, longer than many. Mobley did alright, as history should record.
Fact is, Mobley wasn’t one of the all-time greats. His style was an amalgam of others before and around him, and his technique was no better than average. His tone was thin more often than it was fat, and he squeaked on fast passages or when negotiating tricky intervals. He was, though, an exhilaratingly ragged and abandoned tenor saxophonist and a solid blues-based composer who made one all-time great album, Soul Station, and half a dozen very good ones.
Workout, from 1961, is one of the very good ones, and it’s now being released with a lethal Rudy Van Gelder remaster. The headlong charges which are “Workout” (pure bop) and “Smokin'” (pure hard bop) showcase Mobley at his best: passionate, wild and 100% in the moment. “Workout” is further distinguished by Philly Joe Jones’ door-rattling presence and Grant Green’s straight out of Minton’s, more Christian than Christian, jetstream of a solo. “Uh Huh” (brisk soul-jazz, in which Mobley acknowledges and recalibrates his R&B roots) and “Greasin’ Easy” (moderato hard bop blues) are almost as good. Mobley wrote all four of these tracks. (The two standards, “The Best Things In Life Are Free” and “Three Coins In A Fountain,” are by comparison merely pleasant).
Chris May (All About Jazz)
1. Workout
2. Uh Huh
3. Smokin’
4. The Best Things In Life Are Free
5. Greasin’ Easy
6. Three Coins In The Fountain
Personnel:
Hank Mobley: (tenor saxophone)
Grant Green: (guitar)
Wynton Kelly: (piano)
Paul Chambers: (bass)
Philly Joe Jones: (drums)
Original Release Date: March 26, 1961 – Label: Blue Note Records
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)
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
Miles Davis – Milestones (1958) (Original recording remastered, Extra tracks – Sony)
The caliber of personnel Miles Davis enlisted for his Sextet was the very best. Davis knew he couldn’t keep this unit together for long. It was obvious to him that each was developing into a sensation. This was 1958, and history was being made with the emergence of Davis’ modal sound. His sweet, open trumpet tone reflects what Davis stood for and explains why he’s still the top vote getter in jazz polls around the world. The way he, Cannonball Adderley, Red Garland, and John Coltrane weave melodic lines together has set a standard for those who have followed. The pianist demonstrates his well-developed bebop chops on “Billy Boy,” a popular folk tune that Davis included to let the rhythm section shine. Paul Chambers’ arco bass and Philly Joe Jones’ proud fours lend credence to the theory that this album represents the very peak of bebop. There are three alternate takes on this reissue. Each possesses a full, rich sound quality. It’s interesting to compare, as the solo order changes from track to track. Typically, Coltrane starts it off, Davis bares his intended aim, and Adderley draws inspiration from both. For this milestone album, Davis used no mutes, no electronics, and no echo. Milestones is a seminal album that helped shape jazz history. (Jim Santella)
Track List:
4. “Milestones” – (Davis)
Original Release Date: 1958 Label: Sony
John Coltrane – Blue Train (2003 – Blue Note Records)
Blue Train gives a taste of what that might have been like, as well as a taste of what was to come. This reissue of the 1957 album finds Trane blowing hard on one of his first albums as a band leader. With one foot still in the Charlie Parker catalog and one ear turned toward hard bop, the album sounds like a typical club set. The album is best known for the title track, Coltrane’s first notable composition. His solo starts off with an announcement that he has something to say, but quickly moves toward Birdland. “Moment’s Notice” and “Locomotion” also demonstrate that, even before his work was informed by his eventual stylistic uniqueness and spiritual depth, Trane could write a compelling, well-organized tune.
The group’s rendering of the Kern/Mercer ballad “I’m Old Fashioned” and Trane’s “Lazy Bird” are a let down after the first three, although each has some nice playing by various band members.
The album benefits from Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones from Miles’ band laying down the bass and drums. Kenny Drew’s plays bluesy piano completes the excellent rhythm section. A young Lee Morgan contributes to the boppish flavor of the album with his Gillespie-ish licks (he even played a bent up horn). Curtis Fuller passes up the rapid fire riffing trombonists sometimes employ in trying to keep up with their more nimble bandmates in favor of a more nuanced, rhythmic variety. And he burns when he has to.
07 Lazy Bird (alternate take)
Personnel:
Across Rhythm 