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Home , Art Tatum, Harold Mabern, Jimmy Rushing, Prestige Records, Two Tenors, Willow Weep for Me

monies were explored with a sense of approaching a musical dead end. For the surprise, but the shifts from one harmonic benefit of the musicians and the music as color to another soon become predictable. a whole, I hope I'm wrong. -Kart Unfortunately the design of the emphasizes Hancock's deficiencies. The tracks with horns feature opening and A FEW MILES f'ROM MEMPHIS-Prestige closing statements by the ensemble, sand­ 7568: A l',w Miles from Mem/ihis; WrrJk;,,• Bark• A Treat /or Bea; Syder, Bln,; There's a Ki,,d oi wiched around Hancock's playing. There Jllub; B & B; To Wane. are no other solos, although the horns Personnel: George Colcm~n. Buddy Ter ry, ten. or saxophones; Mabern, ; , bass• occasionally contribute a background fig­ \Valter Perkins, drums, 1 ure, Rating: * * l/2 Hancock's "bluesy" playing on First Trip Harold Mabern 's first album as a leader BOTTOMSVP sounds like updated . On the is an unpretentious, -based date­ two ballad-like pieces, Speak Like a Child three of the tunes are blues. BARRYHARRIS/BENTUCKl:~/ALANDAWSON and Goodbye to Childhood, the rhythmic Mabern has done some clever writing impulse almost disappears, and the play­ for the . On To Wane, the ing anticipates the Muzak of the 1970s. effect of voicing the horns in parallel har­ Tyner is more successful. His music is mony and then having one tenor move almost as melodicalp' barren as Hancock's, away from his previous harmonic posi­ but he can achieve rhythmic variety by tion while the other stays put is especially tying his phrases to the drummer's accents. pleasing. The voicings on A Treat for Bea, On one of his best recorded solos, Afro­ however, are a little cure. Blue (from Coltrane Lil'e at Bird/and), his Coleman is the better of the two tenors phrasing is so inspired by Elvin Jones' and he is thoughtful and swinging through­ rhythmic patterns that it almost sounds as out. Terry plays well on To Wane, but if Jones is playing the piano as well as the elsewhere he employs some effects that drums. seem calculated. Tyner plays best here when the tune Other than To Wane, on which every­ or drummer Joe Qhambers provide him body plays well, the best track is B & B, with a fairly compfex pattern of accents. a pretty ballad dedicated to Clifford Brown When the time evens out, he can be as and . Mabern's playing here is dull as Hancock. Man from Tanganyika, openly romantic, and, while he becomes for example, alternates from 6/8 to 4/4 cloying in spots, he never loses the rhyth• during the solos. Tyner's playing sparkles mic flow. Lee's accompaniment to Ma­ during the 6/8 sections and becomes bland FOR FREECATALOG SEND TO bern's solo is excellent. each time the 4/4 pattern returns. The liner notes identify the tenor solo• Inc. Tyner has done all the writing here. He ists on all tracks except B & B, where my seems to have divided the ensemble into 203 So. Washington Ave. ear tells me that Coleman takes the solo. high- and low-pitched instruments, without If you are looking for pleasant, dance• Bergenfield, New Jersey much regard for their individual timbres, able music with an occasional solo that an approach that works well on Tangan­ will catch your ear, then Mabern is your yika and Utopia. man. - Kart The High Priest is a largely unsuccess­ ful reflection of . Tyner ,\ ·..., imitates some of Monk's harmonic colors, Al'l Tatum PIANO ST ARTS HERE-Columbia CS 9655: but Monk's structural unity and use of Tea l'Qr Two; St. Loui, Blues; ; So• ~-.-~-..-. :_:.. ~ •..A· harmonies to tell a story escape him. The phisticated Lad'Y; How 1-ligb the Moon; Humor· ' , ·.( esque· Someone to Watch Over Me; Ye,terd~y,; ·-·~-- ... •·.• .. melody of the bridge seems to have no I Kn;w That You Know; ; particular relation to the rest of the com­ Tatum Pole Boogie; The Kerry Dance; The MatJ I Love. position, an error that Monk would never Personnel: Tatum , piano. Greatnew cymbalsound. have made. Racing:***** The other soloists range from fair to has produced a number of astonish• You"II like the sound. You'll like the very good. Spaulding's work is consistently ing virtuosi. The majority of these in· price. Compare with the one• that cost inventive on both alto and flute. His alto vented new approaches to and techniques far more. playing, which combines legato phrasing for their chosen instruments ( trumpet, Brilliant. Resonant. Responsive. with an acrid, expressive tone, sounds like trombone, the saxophones, guitar, string a weird cross between and and brass bass, and drums). Someti~es See your favorite dealer. Jackie McLean. they even invented (or modified) the in· I've always liked 's rhythmic strument itself ( the amplified guitar; the TROPHYMUSIC CO. zest and humorous tonal effects, but he is jazz drum set). ' 1278 West Ninth Street. . 44113 too often content with decorative playing. Few, however, brought to jazz a vir(uoso i I !· i. His best work here is on Utopia, where he technique from an already estabhshed I , develops a solo ,that really flows from be­ tradition, and the piano has the rnost ginning to end. 's virtues elaborate virtuoso tradition of them all.. . I II are similar to Morgan's, but his one solo, was a bona fide virtuoso JD on Tanganyika, is not on a level with his this tradition-the greatest jazz bas prod best playing. duced, To conclude from this, as Leonar Helps promote last healing. Early application aids in preventing unsightly cold sore•lever The album as a whole ranges from very Feather does in his notes to this album, blister formation. Effectively curtails irritation good (Tanganyika and Utopia) to fair that Tatum "was the greatest soloist 1,0 of nose-mouth-chin cold ione area. (High Priest and ). The jazz history, regardless of · instrumen t", IdIS FORDRY. CHAPPED latter track has Tyner's version of 1970's to furnish grounds for debate. One cou CRACKEDLIPS ■,ult:,,("'#".,_.4f•) .... ,~ Muzak. It is as dull and "pretty" as Han­ certainly argue the cases for Louis Arm· A most highly medicated1 lip balm. Quick heal­ ing combats infection. Keeps lips smooth, son, cock's. strong and , but none (ex· moist in wind, cold or suo. In plastic ca1e. While Hancock has been a fine accom­ cept, perhaps, the hyper-fastidious An~~~ BLISTEX-BLISTIK panist in other contexts, and Tyner can Hodeir) could argue that Tatum was . produce good music when the rhythm in­ the greatest virtuoso in jazz bis· spires him, these give an over-all tory. t waso't VOTEsee page 36 VOTE impression of good musicians who are This is not to say that Ta um re-much more-than a great techni­ ~on Had virtuosity been all he had to cia.tier he would most certam. I y h ave b e- om; a kind of Jose Iturbi, for even blues& thbigs ~ioughhe was black and almost sig_htless, bis gifts were such that a career m the opular concert field would have been is a "greatrecord:'* ppen to him. (Attempts, in fact, were made ~osteer him in this direction.) Blues and Things is available only by mail. But Tatum was a black man, and heard the music his people were making. Born The critics are unanimous in their praise of Blues and Things: in 1910, he wa_s exposed in his !ormative ""A great record"-Hugues Panassie. "****½"-Down Beat. "The yearsto a creative ferment, a musical revo­ Hines-Rushing collaboration is informal and happy"-Leonard lution, and the path he cho~e was one of commitment to that revolnlton. Feather. "It's a fine record"~. "A pair of jazz patriarchs It was not an easy path, for jazz was have combined their Olympian talents on Blues and Things­ first and foremost a collective music, and excellent"-Playboy. "A happy studio reunion between two great Tatum was first and foremost a soloist. jazz artists who never previously recorded together"-Stanley Dance. furthermore, his formal studies and phe­ "Master Jazz Recordings is a new company that plans to emphasize nomenalear enabled him to imagine and mainstream music. If Blues and Things is an example of the sort of execute musical ideas of a sophistication performances they will produce, we can look forward to future beyond the grasp of almost all his con­ temporaries. Even the most gifted and releases with considerable pleasure."-Don Heckman. "The LP is a skilled among them were awed by his showcase for a brilliant and varied set of performances by Hines, presence,and inhibited by his almost mon­ his quartet, and, particularly Budd Johnson. Rushing can still summon strous ( and almost a 1ways pitiless) displays those provocative vocal leaps that are a hallmark of his singing. of brilliance. This obviously was a happy occason and its spirit is caught and Thus, Tatum had to go his own way, projected on this exceptionally well made disc."-John S. Wilson. thoughhe was the most sociable and com­ petitive of musicians, and loved nothing Blues and Things: The Quartet with Jimmy Rushing­ better than cutting contests and jam ses­ Mono MJR 101 or Stereo MJR 8101 $5.00 postpaid sions. He had to go his own way, too, in Earl Hines (piano); Budd Johnson (tenor and soprano saxophone); Bill the world of commerce, for once he had Pemberton (bass); Oliver Jackson (drums); Jimmy Rushing (vocal). committed himself to be a jazzman first, Recorded July , 1967 in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. he had to carve a niche for his unusual and demanding art within the constricting Exactly Like You (vocal); Louisiana; Am I Blue (vocal); Summertime; framework of the jazz marketplace. Changin' the Blues; Save Jt Pretty Mama (vocal); Please Don't It is ironic and embittering that Tatum Talk About Me When I'm Gone; One Night in Trinidad; St. Louis , never made a concert tour as a solo at­ Blues (vocal) traction, that he played most of his en­ gagementsin nightclubs ( where he would New-Just released in the MJR J:<'irst J_amarchan