Jazz | Pint | At Birdland 1950 Revisited

One of the first CDs I bought was Audio Archives Collectors Edition – Charlie Parker - 18 Reflective Recording. It was a super cheap disc I found at Tower Music not long after I started playing the saxophone that was comprised of studio and live recordings featuring Charlie Parker. Aside from the track listing, that was it... no other information. I later found out that some of the tracks that had really stood out to me we’re live recordings that Columbia had released as One Night at Birdland. The mystery musicians alongside Bird were Fats Navarro, Bud Powell, Curley Russell and Art Blakey – quite the line up. I eventually got that LP while I was in New York City studying with Richard Tabnik... and it just happened to be one of his favourites and we listened to examples from it during my lessons on more than one occasion (Hi Richard!). That LP got plenty of air time when I got home until my turntable packed up shortly before I moved back to the US and the LPs were left in a box at the folks place until my return. I eventually found it on CD and ordered it only to discover two copies of disc 1 and the Birdland session was on the missing disc 2 (or the other way round... I forget). I still haven’t replaced my turntable (I know, it will happen ), so I’ve resorted to listening to online ever since. Recently Hatology/Ezz-Thetics reissued it and last month and Charlie Parker At Birdland 1950 Revisited arrived in the mail. So it’s been getting a spin or two. It’s a must for fans of Bird, Fats, and Bud - great live energy and simply some of the very best on record from all three. I think I’ll leave it there. Just do yourself a favour and check it out. I washed it down with a Riggwelter.

Steve Lacy: Remains

On Facebook plenty of people have been posting the cover art of albums that have influenced them. Someone mentioned that the first time they heard St Germain’s Tourist was in a cafe (no surprises there.....quintessential cafe muzak of the early 2000s!). And that had me thinking.....

The best album I’ve heard playing in cafe (so far) was Steve Lacy’s Remains. I was wrapping up and about to leave, but stayed just to listen to the entire thing and purchased the album shortly after. And it remains (sorry) a favourite of mine. The cafe was Atomix. The staff were nice and the vibe was chilled out. Many blog posts were written there (and maybe some school work and job applications too), all accompanied by the consumption of tea, muffins, soup and egg sandwiches. It closed last year. It was bit of a haul to get there – about an hour walk - the added bonus was you passed Dusty Groove along the way. Well worth the walk (the bus took about the same amount of time... or longer).

For those interested, Remains is a solo album from 1991 and features one of my favourite Steve Lacy works – the Tao Cycle. The suite is a setting of selections from Witter Bynner’s 1944 translation of the Tao Te Ching – The Way of Life according to Lao Tzu.

Lacy started writing it in the late 1960s (and started recording it in the early 70s). He has recorded the entire suite a few times (with and without vocals) and would often record/perform individual movements. I think the version on Remains was the last time he recorded the song cycle in full (I need to double check that though).

 

Each of the six movements sets a particular ‘chapter’ of the Tao:

“Existence” = Chapter 4

“The Way” = Chapter 47

“Bone” = Chapter 33

“Name” = Chapter 1

“The Breath” = Chapter 6

“Life on its Way” = Chapter 40

And as highly as I rate Remains, I’m not sure I’d say it’s the place to start with the Tao Cycle. If you are interested in hearing the vocal version, check out his 1979 quintet recording, The Way (on HatHut records).

I’ve been thinking about putting together a radio programme featuring various recordings from the song cycle over the years. It's very much still in the early stages of planning, but I think it could be an interesting programme.

Is it fitting that April Fools Day kicks off Jazz Appreciation Month?

All going to plan, I am hoping to detail this month's listening as best I can. Plans were almost foiled by a computer meltdown on Thursday - hence the delay in getting this post together. Anyway, I kicked off the start of the month with Annette (HatOLOGY). The trio of Paul Bley (p) Gary Peacock (b) and Franz Koglmann (trpt/flg) tackle tunes by Annette Peacock. I find these compositions quite intriguing and I want to do some comparison listens - Bley has recorded a number of them before and Marilyn Crispell's trio (with Gary Peacock and Paul Motian) recorded and excellent double album in the 90s devoted to Peacock's tunes. Other albums that are slated for a listen this month include Quest's Circular Dreaming, One Dark Night I Left My Silent House - the duo of Marilyn Crispell and David Rothenberg, a couple of albums I picked up at Ran Blake's concert last weekend - I'm particularly looking forward to Ghost Tones featuring George Russell compositions. Steve Swell's latest (featuring Connie Crothers) arrived in the mail last week, so add that to the list. Also, I've been working my way through Wayne Shorter's Blue Note albums and I'm up to Speak No Evil so that will get some airtime too.