Records are reviewed by Don De Micheal, Gilbert M. Erskine, Ira Giller, Ralph Johnson, Bill Mathieu, Marian MtPartland, Dan Morge s10 Don Nelsen, Harvey Pekar, Bob Porter, Bill Quinn, William Russo, Horvey Siders ., Carol Sloane, Pele Welding, and Michael z" ~ri, . Reviews are signed by the writers. Wenri. Ratings are: * * * * * excellent, * * * * very good, * * * sood, * * fair, * poor. When two catalog numbers are listed, the first is mono, and the second Is stereo.
Sonny Criss crop that seem to have special appeal for World, Care and his feature, whil UP, UP AND AWAY-Prestige 7530: Up, jazz musicians, are given elegant and swing salves is superb on Friends and ~nGon. Up dllil All11i-y;Willofll Wup for Me; Tl,is is for Bt11111; Su,my; Serappt• from the AppJe; ing treatment. Walton's solo .on the former form on Dream, Lose, and his feat fine Paris Blues. will pin your ears back if you're listening. an old favorite of his. T.he openin Ure-_ Personnel: Criss. alto saxophone; Cedar Wal nd ton, piano; Tal Farlow, guirar; Bob Cranshaw, (The piano needed tuning, though.) And closing cadenzas on Friends are som!th~ bass; Lenny McBrowne, drums. Paris is not the Ellington tune, but a down to hear. 10g home, juicy slow blues with Sonny and Tai Hanna's bridge on Together is the n] Rating: * O Criss' third and best* * album* * for -Prestige in a preaching mood. non-tenor solo spot. The pianist co Y would be something else even without Tal Roses to Cranshaw and McBrowne, flawlessly, Barksdale (an underr ated to~~ Farlow, but the great guitarist's presence solid keepers of the time and taste. Could old pro) plays perfect fills, and Tuck!~ on record for the first time in more than a it be that swinging is here to stay? As yet, and Tate, a seasoned team, do just Wh decade does add special interest. there's no substitute-and not for honest they should. at Though he isn't featured on every track, music-making, either. -Morgenstern Nothing here will startle the rest! his solos on Willow, Benny, Blues, and seekers for new thrills or shocks :s: especially Apple show that he has lost there's some mighty pleasant listeni~g f~r nothing in the intervening years, and per Lockjaw Davis-Paul Gons!llves - a relaxed mood. - Morgenstern haps even gained. His playing is as unique, LOVE CALLS-RCA Victor LSP-3882: Love ls Here to Star When Sunny Gets JJ/ue; If I fresh, and startling as. ever; his agility as Ruled the Wo,lJ.; Time After Time; Jusl, Jlriends; Do,,'t Bltim• Me; I S/1011/d Car•; The Man with Teddy Edwards lbe Hom; We'll IJ• l'og•th f r Agai11; Weaver of IT 'S AU RIGHT I-Prestige 7522 · It's Al Dre11rt1t;If l Should T.ose -You. Righi: Go/11g Hom,; Afraid of love: lPh•f)f, ! Persoahel: Dav~s, Gonsalves, tenoc saxophones; ,md DMli11'; l'tlatJ111r.itaU sa; lJaek AJl~y B/u,n Roland Hanoa, piano; Everett Barksdale, guitar; The Cellar Dfllel/er; i\1911i11gfo. 'J Ben Tucker, bass; Grady Tate, drums, Personnel: Jimoiy Owens , trumpet, Ouogclhorn• Garnett Brown, uombone; ndwa.rd s, tenor SilX-0: Rating:***½ phone: Ccda.r Walton, piano; Ben Tuck er b:w· Two warm tenors, 11 warm ballads, a Lenny McB.townc, drums. • • gently firm rhythm section-these ingredi Rating:**** ents add up to a warm, pleasing, definitely Edwards put a lot of good work into romantic album. this session. All but one of the tunes Lesser lµld less virile players might have (Mamacita is by Freddie Hill) and all the turned this kind of program into mush, arrangements are his, and he takes the but Davis and Gonsalves are balladeers in lion's share of the solo work. the great jazz tradition-which means sen The session was perfectly cast, and it timent, yes; sentimentality, no. adds up to a generous helping of well• c Stylistically, the two men are closely crafted, well-played contemporary jazz ~ related (both were strongly touched by without convenient labels. I'm not clair• ~ Ben Webster, and only seven months sep voyant, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised l'i arate their birthdates), but this makes their if an album such as this will make more ~ meeting (the first on record) the more in meaningful listening 10 or 20 years from m teresting, proving as it does that an authen now than the bulk of currently fashionable astonishing. Welcome back to a great tic style is like a living language-it allows experiments in "widening the boundaries artist; let's hope more will be heard soon. for an endless variety of personalized ex- of music," or whatever. But this is Criss' record, and he takes pression within a shared framework of This mu~ic is straight ahead but not charge with the authority that is the mark meaning. cut and dried. It makes no bones about of a real player. He is a sound-man, with Both men have rich, full sounds, but wanting to swing, and it does. Everybody a tone of the sort one rarely hears these one needs no scorecard to tell them apart. on the date can play, and all came to play. days, except from the old masters. It sings The sound of each is like a signature, and Nothing needs to be explained; the music with a golden voice. so are their inflections and turns of phrase speaks for itself. Criss plays like he means it. His con- -so close and yet so different. Each has Edwards plays very well throughout, ception is crystal clear, and he doesn't his own story, yet they converse; they hear but must have been conscious of how bis hesitate. He likes melodies, and he states each other. If you've got something to say, charts were being interpreted and of bis them with conviction. On Willow, a tune you don't have to look for freakish ways general leader's duties, and has been more he is fond of, he puts his personal stamp to get it across. "': relaxed. in other contexts. When he does on familiar territory. Passionate may be a Nor do you need a lot of space, and let loose (Moving; Whee/in') he flows, and shopworn term, but none fits his playing even the shorter tracks (six are less than he is never at a loss for ideas. Love shOIV' here better. three minutes) have a message. But the cases his warm ballad playing, and on The masterpiece in this collection, how- best performances are those that leave a Back Alley, he goes down home for ~on1j ever, is Scrapple. The rhythm· section lays bit more room to stretch: Friends and good old blues. His writing is functlOJla down a swinging carpet, giving a sure Man, which the tenors share, and the two and always to the point. d Owens shines. He is in top form, 00 footing to the soloists -even at this highly individual features, Blame (Gonsalves) 0 caloric speed, and Criss steps out in style. and Together (Davis). comes up with some of his best work ! record. His beautiful fluegelhorn so~nd :: The notes from his horn cascade like a Davis is the gruffer, more direct of the 1 waterfall, but there's beauty with the two horns, using slurs and emphatic pro well displayed on Mamacita, as 1s ~! 1 speed. Farlow and Walton keep up the jection of sound to underscore his state melodic sensibility. (Some recent re~ \. pace. ments. Gonsalves is silkier, more oblique, have tagged him with a Miles Davis .~. Benny is an attractive Horace Tapscott more often surprising. Both know how to fluence, but what I hear, aside from Ji original, giving Criss a chance to show he renew a familiar theme by means of my Owen; is Clifford Brown.) d 011 On trumpet, he is crisp and bol . can be modal a la mode. Up, Up and nuance, not distortion. 00 Sunny, two good tunes from the current Jaws is at his best, I think, ori Love, Moving, the album's high point-a Ol ~ .26 0 DOWN BEAT. fectuous drive and spirit; it would have fresh blowing line on Sweet Georgia Art Farme1· Brown changes. Few young trumpeters made Bud Powell smile. THE ART FARMER----~~11111• QUINTilT ••-PLAYS- Z:....- have Owen's brilliance of sound and bold Tucker's rock-solid time and first-class GREAT JAZZ HlTS-C~lumbia 2746/ 9516· °l'l'll! jnV tor M1 l'atbor; 'R.01111d Mid11igb1; Sid~,;,So,,, jng ness of attack, and he doesn't just scatter intonation make themselves felt, and Mc i\fon11ill'; W attrmt/011 l\l,111; l\1ercy, Mtr? "1~••)' I sibl notes-he makes music. Dig his slow blues Browne is not only a superior timekeeper cy; /{M,ombtr Clifford; Talu Fivo; G,,,, 11f; . .,,,••• In Crowd. ' ~'h• tha chorus on Back All ey, on which he holds but also a tasteful, listening, feeling mu- Pcnonnc l: Farmer, trumpet, Rucgelborn, . my Heath, tenor saxophone; ·cedar Walton •p.JJrti of a fat note and lets go of it with a smack, Walicr Booker, bass; Mickty Roker , dru~s.'ano; then dips into lower register. of Radnc: Brown has little solo space, but gets a ** wn Talent such as ];'arme r's hould not be uni chance to cut loose on Moving. He, too, squa ndered on other m,1sicians' trati aro is a brass player in the grand tradition, marks. Imltation m~y . be the sincere~; six with chops to spare and blisteri ng speed . sician. All told , a feather in Edward s' form o:f flattery, but 1l ts also the neares Walton has really come into his own (and producer Don Schlitten's) cap. How thing to bankruptcy. In this instance th1 mu lately, and contributes some superior solos, ard McGhee, who was at the session, is bankruptcy of ideas must be blamed ~ sol 0 in addition to performing brilliantly in the quoted thusly in the liner notes: "Anybody producer Teo Macero. the rhythm section. His Whee/in' solo (a good, who wouldn't enjoy this mu sic has got to The only element that keeps one from ly boppish head launches this up-tempo have something wrong with him." Amen. cringing when listening to this record is In sel track) is playing of a high order, with in- -Morgenst ern quality of the solo work. That Farrnee tic: and Heath could rise above suc.h a ells~ acl mal format is a tribute to their instincl of for swinging. Ditto for the comping oe the Walton and Booker. The best effort is• d BRUCEPHILP Farmer's G/iff ord. fao 1vir/11/w In a series of sketchy arrangements is Heath ha s done his best to stray slight~ a Glenn Miller Orchestra wi ,mde r tl,c clirrx li on of from the original "hit" version s but re. main faithful to the sounds that put these Bl!JDDYDE FRANCO numbers on the jazz/pop charts. Therein fol lies the main weakness of the album. If al Farmer and Heath were to play these m tunes voluntarily at all, they would not an play them this way. Each would put his foi own stamp on them. Hence, it will come as no surprise that most tracks are played with the same inspiration one might find Tl on a visit to the dentist. -Siders Sa, So, I J•i Victor Feldman •---- -•- -- THE VENEZUELAN JOROPO-Pacific Jazz 10128 / 20128: Caracas Nights; El Gavi/an; The Shadow of Your Smile; Pavan.e,· Pasion; Sum mer Island; Por El Camillo Real; Obsessio11 a W't1llz; l'rtt1osi. re. Personnel: BiU l>crkfos, Oure, nlto Autcj Feld fr llllln, vibraharp, marimba, ckcrric bups1chotdi Emil Ric.bards, vibrnbup m~rimbn; Dorothy d Remsen, harp; Al HcndricJ