Records are reviewed by Chris Albertson, Don DeMicheal, Gilbert M. Erskine, Ira Gitler, Alan 'Heineman, Wayne J~~es, Lawrence Kart John li\weiler, John McDonough, Dan Morgenstern, Don Nelsen, Harvey· Pekar,_ Harvey Si~e·rs; Carol Sloane, Jim Szantor, and Pete w:lding. Reviews are signed by the wtiter$. . _ Ratings are: * * * * * excellent,'* * * * very good, * * * good, * * fair, * poor. When two catalog numbers are listed, the first is mono, and the second is stereo.
. Mon~y Alexander- of his horn and the impressive· solidity ,... disappointin·g, Is, which takes up an entire THIS IS M:ONTY ALEXANDER-Verv~ V6- of his playing. Though this is much _the side, and Jama/a contain a great deal of . 8790: Give Me Freedom; Maybe September: Jooga Booga; A Time For Love: Love Has a JJ7ay: A same player we remember so w,¥11from boring, cacophonic _ collective improvisa House Is Not A Home: I'm Gonna Make You past· efforts, the mere fact that the years tion. The coHective improvisation is gen Lon Me,· Lay It On Me; Amiisand Blues. Personnel: Alexander, piano, with unidentified of enforced seclusion have failed to mar erally -bad because the musicians partici large orchestra, arranged and conducted by John- his mastery is something to celebrate. pating in it often play uninteresting phrases ny· P.ate. -~ - Besides, there was -no need to mess with to begin with, because they do not develop Rating:* the mature and personal conception that their ideas ·well, and because they do not Succinctly stated, this is another ·strictly has for many years been synonymous with blend their ideas Well •with each other. commercial piano and orchestra-with the Ammons name. And one glimpses a In short, it is dull and chaotic. strings r<;!cord.· new emotio.qal depth in the moving rendi The album does have some virtues, how- Ale~~ander is a pianist l'1f limited im tion of I Wonder, a fine old r&b ballad. · . ever. One is the opening section of Is, provisational ability. While he plays pleas At a very,, slow tempo, which · Jug is which· is reminiscent of oriental music. antly in a Ramsey Lewis vein (pg_rticular,Iy one of the few to master, he displays· his Varied percussion effects are employed ef- . on the ballad tracks), he has nothing to gift for· melodic exposition, his abi'lity to fectively throughout. 1 say from a jazz standpoint. Pate's arrange build up tension, and his beautiful, strong It, only 27 seconds long, is a delightful ments are tasty and effective, making this tenor sound which is almost a definition Corea-Laws duet that has been influenced wh~~ it is-b-~and, easy-to.take listening of tJ;ie ;term "soulful." This track, and its by French ·impressionist n:;iµsic. music. _ / companion piece, RainY, Day (with a lovely Corea's rather exoti<;: solo work during A varied, pop-oriented fare is presented cadenza) are worth the price of admission. the beginning portion of J.amala is impres ·here, but unfortunately Alexander never Of the other tracks, Jungle'• Boss, a sive. He beg.ins by playing in a positive, develops anything beyond meandering, blues with an insinuating rock beat, offers Bill Evans-like 'manner and then gradually hackneyed restatements of the melodies. some strong preaching by Jug, aided dur and -intelligently increases the forcefulness and are beautiful bal September Home ing · the second half by two-tenpr bac~ of his playing, which is eventually ab lads; Booga generate·s some Latin excite ground •dffs. Buster Williams' fine contri sorbed in a· ·collective improvisation sec ment (good rhythm section)'; and Lay It bution deserves attention. Madame Queen tion. On and Freedom are in the_ Motown area. is a good Ammons original, but this ver This, which features the soloing of Annisand is a good funky blues, but Alex".'_ sion somehow fails to catch fire. Tastin', Corea and Maupin,. is the _best track on· an'der kills it with cliches. · I a medium blues, is pleasant but rather the LP. Corea turns in. some meaty, driv - With a number of fine young pianists' routine', while Feeling . Good, the only ing single-note line playing here. Maupin's arourid (Stanley . CO\.yell; Albert Dailey, track with organ backing, finds the tenorist choice of notes is fresh, he fragments his John Hicks,_ et al.) who have yet to record in a compelling1y _ mournful mood _and work interestingly, .and he plays quite on their own, why did Verve go to the shows_ his strength _in the upper register. vigorously. ,. - expens_e of providing a large orchestra and Mance has a few tasty solo spots but This· is an uneven· but sometimes inter- a higlily competent arr~nger, and then turn concentrates on effective comping. The esting LP. -Pekar the spotlight on a faceless mediocrity? other rhythm men do their job well, but, -Szantor as noted above, ·do not _quite manage to Monk Higgins , ignite Jug',s full fire. " · EXTRA SOUL PERCEPTION-Solid State Gene Ammons Although another . session with only 18046: Extra SouJ~Perception; The Look of Slim; /1 Good Thh;g; Watermelon . M,an;, Straight THE BOSS IS BACK !-Prestige 7739: The rhythm section backing is already in the Jungle Boss; I Wonder; Feeling Good; Tastin' Abead; Canadian · Sunset; Collman tn Black; the Jug; Here's That Rainy Day; Madame Queen. can, one hopes that Prestige will record _.ce-Just Around the Corner; Little Green Apples; Paker · Chips; Sittin' Dzick; Doing it to Delfi.. · Personnel: Ammons, tenor saxophone; Houston Jug with the fine, fiery Chicago band he Person, Prince James, tenor saxophones (track 1 Personnel: Thomas Scott, trumpet; Wilham only); Junior Mance, piano; Buster· \'{lilliams, currently leads, with emphasis on his Peterson, trumpet, fluegelhorri; David A. Duke, French horn; Higgins, tenor· saxophone, organ, bass; ·Frankie Jones, drums; Candido~ -conga drum excellent new compositions. Meanwhile, ( tracks 1, 4, 6). Track 3 only: Sonny Phillips, arranger; Jii:n Horn, flute;. Miles Grayson, piano, percussion; Dee Ervin, 1 organ, percussion; Alan organ; _Bob Eushnell, Fender bass; Bernard Purdie, it's good to have this welcome documenta 1 drums. · Estes, vibes, percussion; Freddy Robinson, Al tion of the return to action of one of the Vescovo, Arthur Adams,I guitar; Bob West, Ron Rating:***'* ttue bosses of the tenor saxophone. Brown, bass; John Guerin, drums; Jerry Wil Undoubtedly, Gene Ammons' return to -Morgenstern liams, conga; strings co9d~cted by Sidney Sharp. the scene is one of the most welcome -re- Rating:* Higgins is. a pop "¢omposer-arranger in ce'ht events in the world of jazz. -Those Chick Corea - who have been fortunate enough to hear "IS"-Solid State. SS 18055: ls; Jama/a; ·This; search of a· lyricist and . someone to sing him extensively in person during the past It. . his stuff. Ea-ch song '.here might be a hit Personnel: Woody Shaw. trumpet; Hubert few months won't have to look to this , LawJ, piccolo, flute; Benny Maupin, tenor saxo if properly sung, the five . Higgins - dittie~ - album for proof of his undiminished ohone; Corea. piano, electric piano: Dave Hol most of all: tuneless \stuff with alert rock land, bass; Horace Arriold, Jack De · Johnette, prowess, but it will help. spread the mes- drums. · · · soul changes _(how c~mld Deff, with lyrics •~...... sage. Rating:**½ added, miss copping [Higgins his first mil- Taped only a few weeks after Jug's --,A little over a year · ago _I reviewed a lion?). 1 comeback, the album, made with a studio Corea LP on the Vortex· 1abel, Tones fo'r Plenty of· little hipi touches, .one or two backup · group, 'fails to give a complete _Joan's Boneis (Vortex 2004), which con to each track: the! hillbilly guitar in picture of the tenorist's present versatility tained selections that were rather advanced Thing, Poker,·_-Duck,i· the scratching per and strength. This is mainly due to the but still not· too far removed from' post.:. cussion thing in Slim,· the· weird time sig preponderance of slow ~nd middle tempos, bop music. Corea's conception has appar nature of Collision;.! the Arthur Lyman~ and the fact that' there· was nothing par ently ..been evolving rapidly._ On this LP, .backgroµnd in· Watednelon,· the_ string sec ticularly inspirational about the musical he and his sidemen perform -new thing tion on each track that is _about half as setting for ·the date. music. _ _ . , musical, soulful, fuhky, etc., as David Still, there is much to enjoy.· For one In view of the excellence Corea has Rose, l • · · thing, there is Jug's complete command demonstrated in the past, this record is The Drifters, around 1960, were using . I·: . 24 □ DOWN BEAT