Great jazz reads...

Wonderful article in this month's issue of Jazz Times, detailing the fusion work by drummer Tony Williams and Spectrum Road's efforts to pay it homage.  Being a jazz fan, and a former drummer, I couldn't let the article go by without a few comments on the old blog...

Williams was an incredible drummer, one of my favorites in fact, and one whose name should be mentioned with the likes of Elvin Jones, Rashied Ali and Max Roach when it comes to serious discussions concerning great jazz men who played the drums. 

As most of you will surely know...  He played on a number of Blue Note sessions, including Dolphy's iconic Out to Lunch, as well as Herbie's Empyrean Isles and Maiden Voyage.  Great stuff!  He was also the drummer for the second great Miles quintet - yes the one with Hancock and Wayne Shorter - the same group featured on Miles Smiles and In a Silent Way.  Even better stuff!

The same group also featured on last year's Live in Europe 3 cd/1 dvd set...  And marked right there on the cover, "Bootleg Series, Vol. 1"  Can't wait for the next one! 

Still, it almost overshadowed Domino's 3 disc release of 'Trane's Stockholm Concerts.  If you can, try to pick up both, starting with the Davis set!

Also in the realm of recent great jazz reads....  A nice article in LA Weekly this week by Henry Rollins, commenting on the greatness of Miles and the recent decision to honor the trumpeter's legacy with a postage stamp.  I know the USPS has had its troubles lately, but this is one thing they've gotten very right! And Rollins does a nice job celebrating that fact in his column!

As a random thought... another jazz album that's really been working for me lately is 'Trane's album with the ultra-smooth vocalist, Johnny Hartman.  It's a different record than one typically expects to hear from Coltrane.  There are few solos, and the ones that are present are extremely tame by Coltrane standards.  To hear him playing and sounding so restrained - for lack of a better term - seems almost like a waste of the saxophonist's immense talents.  And yet... there's a not a bad song on the whole album.  Every note falls into perfect place, making it a wonderful soundtrack for a Sunday afternoon.

So often, we forget just how many albums there are where 'Trane did not receive top billing.  In Miles' earlier quintet, he definitely holds his own, but those are definitely Davis' albums.  And yet sometimes we even forget that there are albums where the legend wasn't wasn't even the featured saxophonist.  On Tenor Madness, he rightly cedes the spotlight to Sonny Rollins.

Madness wouldn't be my favorite Rollins record (that would of course, be Saxophone Colossus), but they can be very interesting when paired together.  Colossus is by far the better album, but 'Trane's appearance on the Prestige set makes for an embarassment of riches that definitely deserves more attention!