But It's These Two Streams and Vache's Own Polish and Assurance Costa-Both As Soloist and in the Closed, Responsive En- Make the Disc Unusually Fresh and Vital
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David Murray: Low Class Conspiracy. Michael Cuscuna, producer. A delphi AD 5002, $6.95. The popularity of disco/jazz notwithstanding, an important new generation of young jazz musicians is arriving. Tenor saxophonist David Murray, freshly minted from a mcIld that bears traces of Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, and Al- bert Ayler, is one of the most important. In the stark con- fines of a trio situation-with bassist Fred Hopkins and drummer Phillip Wilson-he plays a stunning brand of con- temporary jazz that puts music first-not commerciality. His remarkable seven -and -one -half -minute solo on Extreminity Jazz is one of the bright beacons in mid -Seventies music. D.H. Lee Ritenour: Captain Fingers. Skip Drinkwater, producer. BY DON HECKMAN & JOHN S. WILSON Epic PE 34426, $6.98. Tape: NO PET 34426,03 PEA 34426, $7.98. Paul Bley, Gary Peacock, Barry Altschul: Japan Suite. Paul Bley & Carol Goss, producers. Improvising A rusts, IA I Making the jump from ace studio musician to up -front star 373849, $6.98. has been a popular procedure ever since Mitch Miller gave up the oboe and Leon Russell began recording his own This is the revival of a trio that was one of the best avant- songs. Guitarist Ritenour joins the parade in this sadly mis- garde jazz ensembles of the Sixties. Recorded last year at a directed outing. The simple fact is that the world really isn't Japanese music festival, "Japan Suite" includes what sounds sitting around waiting for yet another overarranged, over- like two extended improvisations-one on each side of the produced, jazz/rock/disco recording. Having heard Rite- album. Pianist Bley's playing is as astonishing as ever-one nour in more modest surroundings, I know he can play- wonders why he has never received more attention. Pea- and play well. But his few pleasant moments here even- cock's return to jazz after a lengthy hiatus should enliven tually fall prey to terminal L.A. slickness. D.H. the future of the acoustic bass, and Altschul is the very model of the modern jazz percussionist. World class con- Warren Vache: First Time Out. Bill Borden & Bucky Pizza- temporary jazz playing, all around. D.H. relli, producers. Monmouth -Evergreen M ES 7081, $6.98. Tal Farlow: Second Set. Ed Fuerst & Don Schlitten, pro- Unlike most young musicians who grow up in Dixieland ducers. Xanadu 119, $6.98. surroundings, Vache is not guided by some style of the past. Although he comes out of the very active New Jersey tradi- Recorded in 1956, at the same time as Farlow's earlier disc, tional jazz scene, he is, first and foremost, a good trumpet "Fuerst Set" (Xanadu 109), this is a special treasure for fol- player who is not tied to any identity except his own. On this lowers of Eddie Costa, the brilliant pianist who died in debut disc he shows control and imagination on several 1962. With Vinnie Burke on bass and Farlow on guitar, he unaccompanied duets with guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli. He has the accompaniment and the space to fully develop the also leads a sextet, with Kenny Davern on soprano sax, that earthy, driving momentum of his urgent, hammered swings through some pop standards and combines the best phrases upon which he built his solos. Farlow and Burke get of traditional and contemporary jazz. The combination of their chances, too (it's a very relaxed session), but it's these two streams and Vache's own polish and assurance Costa-both as soloist and in the closed, responsive en- make the disc unusually fresh and vital. J.S.VV. semble passages-who makes the set special. J.S.W. Mal Waldron, Gary Peacock: First Encounter. Catalyst Paul Gonsalves: The lin11 0 S Aires Session. Catalyst CAT 7906, $6.98. CAT 7913, $6.98. Pianist Mal Waldron's roots go back to Billie Holiday and During the Ellington band's 1968 tour of South America, Thelonious Monk, but he also has been active around the two members-tenor saxophonist Gonsalves and trumpeter edges of every avant-garde jazz movement since the Fifties. Willie Cook-recorded this set with an Argentinian rhythm His collaboration with Peacock (recorded in Japan) has too section. Gonsalves gets away from the grinding cliches that many stylistic confrontations to work as a totality. But when took too much of his time with Ellington and instead em- each player spins off in his own direction-Waldron into phasizes his lovely, warm ballad style. Even an uptempo epigrammatic pointillism, Peacock into a duplicitous mix of Perdido is done with substance and taste. Still more impres- Sixties funk and Seventies modernism-there are moments sive is Cook, a trumpeter rarely recorded and almost never of rare beauty. D.H. heard to play in this light, airy muted style; he provides a beautifully balanced foil to Gonsalves. J.S.W. The World's Greatest Jazz Band: On Tour. Barker H ickox, Ronnie Laws: Friends and Strangers. Wayne Henderson, producer. World Jazz S-8, $6.98. producer. Blue Note LA 730H, $6.98. Tape: 1119 CA 730H, Considering the personnel changes in the World's Greatest EA 730H, $7.98. in recent years and a series of records that were needlessly Ronnie Laws is the latest member of his gifted family to hit hackneyed, this is a welcome recovery for both the band the big time. But his gifts have been obscured by the formu- and its approach to recording. Taped at a concert in Swe- laic success of his first two albums, "Pressure Sensitive" and den, it has some of the ensemble's most viable musicians- "Fever." Like them, "Friends and Strangers" is a predict- Ralph Sutton, Billy Butterfield, Peanuts Hucko, Al Klink, able stroll down the disco/jazz lane: Swooping synthesizers, and George Masso, in addition to coleaders Yank Lawson squeaking strings, and endlessly repetitive rhythm patterns and Bob Haggart. As a bonus, Maxine Sullivan makes an peer out from behind every bush. Dull stuff; but if all you appearance in appealingly cool -voiced form. But to wind want is to move your feet and let your brain go out to lunch, up an otherwise fresh disc with The Saints suggests that the Laws will help you do it. D.H. band is still apt to blight itself with triteness. J.S.VV. 142 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE.