‘Round About Midnight.
Having formed his First Great Quintet of John Coltrane (replacing temporary tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins), Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones in 1955, Miles Davis went about recording his first album for new label, Columbia. These sessions would produce ‘Round About Midnight, released two years later in a hectic period for Davis. Performing one of the most recorded jazz standards in the Thelonious Monk composed title track, the popular standard “Bye, Bye Blackbird”, as well as songs written by jazz legends Cole Porter and Charlie Parker, Davis’ quintet display the versatility and talent one comes to expect, yet is somehow still surprised by. Smooth, frantic, relaxing, chaotic, solemn, expressive, reflective, manic. Miles and co at their masterful best.
Kenya.
Cuban musical innovator Machito fuses African tribal beats and Latin jazz (a genre he was highly influential in the development of) rhythms, with improvisation and big band arrangements; the result is a hectic, energetic piece consisting of short, sweet songs that finish sooner than you’d wish, and there is little wonder since the big brass band are likely to collapse with exhaustion if they were to continue any longer. With the exception of “Tin Tin Deo”, all of the songs on Kenya are originals written for the album, performed with the help of some great guest musicians in Doc Cheatham, Eddie Bert and Cannonball Adderley. A wholeheartedly enjoyable experience from a pioneer of Afro-Cuban jazz.
Brilliant Corners.
A classic hard bop record from legendary jazz pianist Thelonious Monk. Impressively all compositions are written by Monk, with the exception of jazz standard “I Surrender, Dear”, further only “Bemsha Swing” had previously been recorded, which I’ve found is something of a novelty in jazz. The title track is an unconventional, complex arrangement, so much so that, rumour has it, after twenty five attempted recordings it was eventually pieced together from separate takes, and caused serious friction between Monk and his quintet. This same quintet, composing of Sonny Rollins, Ernie Henry, Clark Terry and Oscar Pettiford, display their virtuosic talent on personal highlight “Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are”, performing sublime extended improvisations, not to be outdone by Monk’s own genius solo. A perfect jazz album.
Saxophone Colossus.
Having dropped out of Miles Davis’ original quintet in the autumn of 1955 to battle his heroin addiction, Sonny Rollins joined the Clifford Brown-Max Roach quintet. After Brown and the band’s pianist Richie Powell died in a car accident, Rollins continued with Roach and went about recording albums under his own name, leading to the breakthrough Saxophone Colossus, accompanied by Tommy Flanagan and Doug Watkins. Of the five obscenely good tracks on the record, three are credited to Rollins, the ear worm “Strode Rode”, the bluesy “Blues 7” and “St. Thomas”, an infectious track that became a jazz standard upon the album’s release, such was the brilliance of Rollins. “Moritat” would later become a popular standard and a massive hit for Bobby Darin in 1959 as “Mack the Knife”, while “You Don’t Know What Love Is” was already a jazz standard thanks in part to Davis’ recording in 1954. These five tracks comprise what is fighting to become my favourite jazz album and, as the title would suggest, establishes Rollins as a truly prodigious talent.
The Clown.
Following up from his 1956 album, Pithecanthropus Erectus, The Clown is yet another superb album by the irrepressible Charles Mingus, featuring an entirely different quintet: Shafi Hadi taking over on alto and tenor saxophone, Wade Legge on piano duties, Dannie Richmond the man holding the sticks and the addition of a trombonist in Jimmy Knepper. Mingus’ bass playing throughout is tremendous, in particular the bass solo and hypnotic motif used in “Haitian Fight Song”, combined with Hadi and Knepper’s whaling brass create a certain sense of rage and angst. Mingus wrote all four of the tracks on the record: the swinging blues “Blue Cee”; the Charlie Parker homage “Reincarnation of a Lovebird”; and the entirely unique spoken story of “The Clown”, a “happy guy who just wants to make people laugh” but grows depressed when the crowd don’t react as he expects, told through Jean Shepherd’s expressive improvised narration. I’m growing tired of saying this, but this a jazz masterpiece, I can’t help it if the late 50’s were full of them.
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