Jazz | Pint | Dave Brubeck Octet

 

Earlier in the day I was reading a little on the Gerry Mulligan Quartet over at Point of Departure (here and here), and that may have been on my mind when I pulled the Dave Brubeck Octet recording from the pile tonight. Brubeck is not usually one of my go-to artists but the octet is a pretty fascinating recording from sessions in 1946-1950 that I don’t hear getting mentioned all that often. Not sure why really, I guess it’s not that hip to drop Brubeck’s name, but from a writing/arranging angle it’s worth checking out (more so than the soloists even with the presence of a young Paul Desmond). Dated.... yes, but quite different for it’s time too. Pushing ahead in it’s own way with plenty of signs of what would become known as “Cool Jazz” and/or “West Coast Jazz”. Arranging and composing duties are split amongst about half the group (with saxophonist David Van Kriedt contributing the most... although not all the arrangements are credited). And across the 18 tracks I tend to prefer the standards which all get pretty interesting treatments, although “How High The Moon” suffers a bit as it moves through various styles in conjunction with a corny narration. There’s plenty of counterpoint, colourful harmony, and 5/4 even makes an appearance during “What Is This Thing Called Love”. A number of the octet had studied with composer Darius Milhaud and the classical influences come through across the work as a whole and on the original compositions in particular. The original compositions feel a little more forced than the arrangements of the standards, like they are really trying to do something and it comes off more stilted (there’s a bit of that in the standards too). All that said, listening tonight has made me think it’s a shame that Brubeck didn’t use some of that Time Out money to reform the octet but with all that touring, I guess there wouldn’t have been much time to write material. The listening was washed down with Zest saison from Craftwork.

Lee Konitz: An Image

Lee Konitz with Strings: An Image (reissued on Lee Konitz Meets Jimmy Giuffre)

Last semester I took a class about “West Coast/Cool/Third Stream.“ The class led me to revisit this album recorded back in 1958. Although there are a few standards (“Round Midnight,” “I Got It Bad” and “What’s New”) on the album they don’t fall into the cheesy “jazz with strings” category, there is the three-part “Music For Alto Saxophone and Strings” (this does incorporate the rhythm section) and the seven-part “An Image Of Man” (just Konitz and strings – including Billy Bauer). The album has quite a sparse feel, openness to it... uncluttered. Bill Russo’s writing throughout keeps things interesting and Lee sounds great on it - I’d forgotten how great... very lyrical and the recording captures his tone wonderfully. The Russo/Konitz combination is a good one  - they both have plenty of common ground. Aside from both being students of Tristano, when the two were with Kenton they used to hang out listening to string quartets from Bartok, Debussy and Ravel. This album made a big impact on me when I first heard it (around 1999/2000) – it had been ages since I listened to it and I’m glad I got back into it.

While I’m on the subject of Konitz, a few of his album featured in the “The Top 50 Alto Sax Recordings of All Time” from Jazz Times (June) with Motion, Live at The Half Note, Subconscious-Lee making the list. Konitz was also singled out by Phil Woods (Jazz Nocturne), Jaleel Shaw & Miguel Zenon (Motion), Grace Kelly (Live at Half Note) and JayBeckenstein (The Lee Konitz Duets) in their lists of favourite alto sax albums.

There was no place for Konitz in Down Beat’s “80 Coolest Things In Jazz Today”... not even in the “Living Masters” category.