Music Reviews
Jazz CD Music Reviews - Part 4 - July, 1997
By John Sunier
Ratings: | ||
Extraordinary | ||
Good | ||
Acceptable | ||
Mediocre | ||
Poor |
Miles Davis and Gil Evans The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings Miles Davis, trumpet; Gil Evans and his Orchestra; Arrangements and originals by Gil Evans. |
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Columbia 67397 (6 CDs, 442 Minutes) ($125 retail) | ||||
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The unique collaboration of the greatest trumpet player in modern
jazz with the most innovative large-group modern jazz arranger/composer produced some of
the most gorgeous jazz albums ever recorded, and they're all in this super-lavish, though
compact, boxed album. As Davis observed himself, Evans and Duke Ellington individually
changed the whole sound of orchestral jazz. The textures of the best of these
orchestrations are unlike anything done before, incorporating classical elements and
structure (and even actual classical pieces) yet always swinging madly. The three
masterpiece albums here are Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess, and Sketches of Spain. Also
included is the less successful but enjoyable bossa nova influenced Quiet Nights, plus two
short suites never before released, and a couple of numbers with vocalist Bob Dorough.
Over 116 tracks are here, and all of the material was newly and skillfully remastered from
the original session tapes using Sony's Super-Bit-Mapping process for greater low-level
clarity and resolution. Since some of the original LPs and CDs of these albums were not
exactly audiophile level sonically, this is a welcome offering. The new-found sonic
clarity defines and explains Evan's often complex and yet subtle orchestrations. A nearly
200-page illustrated booklet is bound into the album, with excellent liner notes by
Columbia's George Avakian (who originally signed Davis to the label), by Quincy Jones and
others. The original LP sleeves are reproduced for the CD sleeves bound into the album,
along with all the notes on the rear, which of course end up in such a small point size
that an electron microscope would be really handy for reading them. This is one of my
minor beefs with the collection. A stronger one is the way the notes and disc sleeves are
bound together with a brass (!) binding over about one inch of the material. This
impractical and clumsy arrangement makes it impossible for the booklet or sleeves to lie
flat for access or reading, the whole thing straining to constantly snap shut like a clam.
The fifth and sixth CDs are rehearsal takes, alternate takes and bits of studio patter.
There are up to a dozen takes of the same tune in some cases! Miles and Evans worked well
together, and though I became bored listening to all of the outtake material there didn't
seem to be any of the occasional violent scenes from Miles in the studio. I question the
advisability of including two complete additional CDs of these little leftovers from the
sessions, which are probably of interest primarily only to rabid-collector-types. A less
costly four-CD package in one of those LP-size boxes such as Mosaic offers would have been
preferred and would have allowed for actual-size LP jacket reproductions plus readable
original liner notes. Still, the set is very special and should convince many Davis-Evans
fans to buy this music all over again for the second or third time in spite of the
unwanted extras. (I suppose with DVD, now, the studios are going to sell us our favorite
movies yet a second or third time too!)
John Sunier
It's Right Here for You | ||||
The Swedish Jazz Kings, featuring Roy Williams, trombone | ||||
Opus 3 CD 19404 (HDCD), distr. by May Audio Marketing, 74:40 total | ||||
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Many modern jazz fans have a snooty attitude toward traditional
jazz, regarding it as "moldy fig" music, but with a group as skilled and
exciting sounding as this one, such a narrow attitude would prevent hearing one of the
best CDs of any sort of jazz released this year. The various ensembles here range from
quartets to sextets and are drawn from a group of fantastically talented Swedish players
who sometimes also appear as Tomas Ornberg Blue Five. Since the band doesn�t have a
regular trombonist, they invited American jazzman Williams to join them for these
sessions.
The fourteen tracks are mostly taken from originals of the 1920s by such as King Oliver,
Sidney Bechet, Clarence Williams, Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Jimmy Noone, Johnny
Dodds, Fletcher Henderson and King Creole. None of them are chestnuts you would find on a
typical "Dixieland" CD, e.g., Sheik of Araby, Copenhagen, etc. These are not the
slavish imitations of the British trad jazz movement of a few decades ago, but rather,
bursting with energy up-to-date treatments. For example, on Potato Head, Blues trumpeter
Bent Persson roars through a stop chorus originally played by Armstrong. While the typical
trad player would simply play Armstrong's original solo note for note, here we have a new
version that is brilliant, original, but still in the style of Armstrong.
Also up-to-date are the sonics on these sessions, mastered on highly-tweaked analog open
reel the same as all of Opus 3's product. Their purist mike techniques, and even more,
their uncanny choice of the perfect hall for each recording session, have made Opus 3 a
choice of discriminating audio buffs looking for completely natural reproduction without
"hi-fi" gimmickry. Recording engineer Jan-Eric Persson has always achieved
superb ambient information in his stereo product, which decodes for a natural surround
soundfield better than most Dolby Surround CDs. This is the first of his releases I have
heard using HDCD encoding, and with proper HDCD decoding, the ambient information is even
more pronounced and of higher resolution, as are low-level details at the front channels.
Talk about soundstaging! Close your eyes, and each instrument is right there in front of
you! Such a phenomenon was easy with many of Opus 3's superb LPs and a perfectly set up
analog turntable system, and with others, such as the famous Jazz at the Pawnshop, but not
many CDs have had quite this level of you-are-thereness until recently.
John Sunier
For Aunt Louise | ||||
David Murray Quartet: Murray, tenor sax & bass cl.; John Hicks, piano; Fred Hopkins, bass; Idris Muhammad, drums. | ||||
DIW 901, 65:25 | ||||
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This is another of the many terrific sessions with top black
American jazzmen recorded in New York or Los Angeles by the Japanese especially for their
large and enthusiastic jazz collectors, and if we're lucky, perhaps imported to the U.S.
for that minority of collectors here who care. Murray is considered by many the top voice
on the tenor sax today. He has a rich and smooth tone, and the acrobatics of some his
solos are amazing indeed. He can do the loft jazz raucousness with the best of them, but
this is a very tonal album.
Three of these seven lengthy tracks are Murray originals, with one from his matchless
pianist John Hicks. The title tune is really the subtitle to Murray's Fishin' and Missin'
You. It has a relaxed loping sort of mood that seems to fit someone waxing nostalgic and
not in a big hurry to get anywhere. Murray's basement-strolling bass clarinet solo is a
cool kick on this one; if Gerry Mulligan was still with us, I'd put the two of them
together for a session. The closing Concion de Amor en Espanol doesn't sound especially
Espanol-ish to me, but it's a lovely tune that provides plenty of melodic and harmonic
material for a variegated series of exciting solos by all members of the quartet. This is
one of those cardboard-jacket CDs, and the notes are only in Japanese, but don't let that
stop you from a very enjoyable hour-plus of some marvelous quartet jazz.
John Sunier
� Copyright 1997 Secrets of Home Theater & High Fidelity
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