THE JAZZ REVIEW CD The Style of John Coltrane Part II Don Redman: Jazz Composer-Arranger Wayne Shorter Muddy Waters Barnewe're proud to say... y KesseMM l• ^ firsMetronomt placee 1956,195 and Playbo7 yan polld 195s 8 Down Beat, recordexclusivelsy for Contemporary I —and has since 1953! MUSIC TO LISTEN TO BARNEY KESSEL BY "to swing or not to swing" CONTEMPORARY C3521 ',ys^.v,,,„;.;; ••• • Barney Kessel Vol. 3 contemporary C3513 Barney's first CR album, with Barney & quintet featuring Barney in a free-wheeling ses- Barney and his arrangements Bud Shank or Buddy Collette Bob Cooper, oboe & tenor sax, sion with "Sweets" Edison, Bill of standards for woodwind or- featured on alto sax & flute, on 12 favorites like My Old Perkins, Georgie Auld, Red chestra. 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M3563, Stereo S7563 monophonic albums, $4.98; stereophonic albums, $5.98 —at dealers everywhere (nationally advertised manufacturer's suggested tist prices) 8481 MELROSE PLACE CONTEMPORARY RECORDS LOS ANGELES 46, CALIFORNIA age listener. In all the hours I've lis• by soft zephyrs through the broken tened to WHAT-FM in Philadelphia, I've pane" needs to be declaimed. One LETTERS heard very little of the jazz recorded might forgive a declamatory interpreta• before the days of the 15-20,000 cycles tion of this line by one of the younger hi-fi, in proportion to the amount of primitive poets, but never a critic.) mass-produced trivia which most musi• And finally, Miss Clar's well nigh in• cians are indulging in today. Unlike comparable explanation of swing, (be• as in other classical forms, you can't re- fore which she generously informs us record pieces in high-fidelity, and have that jazz and Gospel do swing). "This to accept the fact that an important movement is achieved in two ways: first, part of our jazz heritage was produced by retarded entries and delayed attacks before good recording techniques were of notes (in other words, the performer developed. These stations (partly, I plays a shade behind the strict metro• suppose, because their long schedules nomic beat of the music so that the make it hard for the programmers to beat becomes an exterior force which listen to the records and make up cre• pulls the music after it); second, by the ative programs) are bringing up the simultaneous presence of tension and APPEAL public to a jazz that does without relaxation in the player—that is, the Trumpeter Punch Miller is very ill, broke, Parker, Young, most of Ellington, Bessie player makes an effort to relax in order and unable to play in New Orleans. He Smith, Tatum, and many others who to maintain the loose flow of the rhythm, and his niece are being evicted from recorded little, if anything in good yet at the same time he is on edge in her house, and he is inelligible for wel• sound. I personally think that 25 min• order to avoid a structural disintegra• fare because he doesn't have resident utes a week on WQXR with John Wilson tion of the rhythmic and melodic status in Louisiana. are more valuable than 12 hours a day phrases (which would occur were he to Bill Russell (600 Chartres St., New on ten all-jazz stations across the coun• play too far behind the beat or were he Orleans, La.) has set up a fund to help try, at least in this important aspect. to anticipate it.)" I think this not only him. Roland Hirsch slovenly and unclear, but misleading, Punch is a fine person and doesn't de• Georges Mills, N.H. the reader who needs to be told that serve the rotten breaks life has tossed Gospel swings may naively suppose that at him. anticipation of the beat always de• Tony Standish OUR SEVEREST FRIEND stroys swing, which is absurd; or that London, England I've been reading this magazine of there is a given place behind the beat yours since the first issue, mainly be• where the notes must be attacked—an cause there's nothing else. It is un• equally absurd idea, held by many DEFENSE fortunate, though, that the stickum you Concerning your reference to Ralph young saxophone players I suspect. The use to hang the parts together must be approach to and holding back from the Gleason's "slashing review" of THE JAZZ this bright and wearying snobbery, so STORY I should greatly appreciate it if beat (acceleration and retardation) form unsupportable in view of your failings. flexible patterns, and it is in the sophis• you corrected the erroneous impression I was shocked at Mr. Keepnews' attack Mr. Gleason gave his readers (and now tication of these patterns, and their re• on John Holmes' book, The Horn, and lation to melody, that swing exists. yours) that my reason for narrating this shock reverberates a bit more Leonard Feather's script represented I am sure you yourselves can supply somehow by virtue of your cozy and more criticism of this kind; so please "one of the most horrendous efforts to rather nauseating little gossip column grab a buck that an industry where stop coming on with all this jive like by Mr. Hentoff (worth a letter in itself), you know everything. People who are profit is the main motive has ever pro• who presumes to discuss a reform of duced." hip knew about Monk, Miles, Philly Joe the language of jazz, himself employing and the Ward Singers long before you Somewhat apologetically I direct your a syntax and vocabulary ("transocciate") started waving the flag. And it's de attention to the fact that my income so tasteless as to be a kind of satire on rigeur these days to stroke the chin from television is (how do I say this the style which grows out of them. thoughtfully while listening to James without seeming gauche?) well, ridic• When Nat gets around to straightening P. and Jelly—you didn't invent that ulously high. To date I recall receiving out (after a course in Freshman Rhet• either. In fact, there's really not a great no royalties whatever from THE JAZZ oric), I think that before enlightening deal in your little Magazine that hasn't STORY album, and when I do they will, the world of jazz criticism at large, he been said before, and frequently more as anyone familiar with the record busi• might first pass the word to his own clearly, with less pretense. You ought ness should know, either be very small staff, particularly to Miss Clar, a Critic to think about these things, and stop or else materially non-existent because so completely mastered by the aca• paying attention to these fan letters of the custom whereby the artist-pays- demic style that she is able to write from the innocents. for-the-date. dully about the most forthright and This having been stated, I must now Mr. Gleason's usual sensitivity and in• vigorous music. admit that The Jazz Review does have telligence would seem to have deserted I think perhaps the whole staff should more spirit, knowledge and precision him in this particular instance. He get together and turn each other's mal• than any other magazine in the (Ameri• would have been much wiser to simply evolent insecurity on the monthly offer• can) field. The interviews of older jazz• criticize the album itself (which was by ings, so as to eliminate such things as men are interesting and otherwise un• no means perfect) and not stoop to these: available documents. Occasional arti• imputing base motives to the party nar• "There's Bird in spots in the timbre of cles by Mr. Williams are among the rating it. his tone." (Mr. Farmer) best jazz criticism (no caps) I have ever Steve Allen "If it (Mr. Russo's critical position) read, and Wellstood's review of the Hollywood needs a name, it can be called a rela• Monk's Music transcriptions was beyond tional-absolute view." (Mr. Russo) any disparagement I can form. But bear ALL JAZZ RADIO " . his (Webster's) sonority alone is in mind that Mr. Holmes was able, at I have some comment about these music to read F. Scott Fitzgerald by." times, to write very poetically, about "all-jazz" radio stations. These stations (Mr. Coulter not only provides us with some things in the world of jazz that are rapidly becoming mere purveyors of this fine occasion for embarrassed nobody else has yet got close to, in• background music, playing only the laughter, but later feels obliged to cluding yourselves. most recent records, making sure that display his irrelevant and incomplete there is a minimum of music that knowledge of Hopkins, Pope, and Roy Frederick Conn would catch the attention of the aver• Harris in a discussion of how "Lulled Brooklyn N.Y.