AOTW June 29-July 5 Warne Marsh / All Music

[Peter Johnson]

First off, thanks to Marcus for tapping me to choose the AOTW this week. Sorry for the belated post! Is there enough time for everyone to get to this, or should it be for next week?

In any event, as a recent recipient of this tasty side of music received "straight from the source," Chuck Nessa, I thought it would be nice to tuck into this record (which I'd never heard until last week) for a little critical listening, and see what you all have to say. Enjoy!

Edited June 30, 2004 by Peter Johnson

[Peter Johnson]

I think this slipped off the screen due to the crash. Let's try again!

[couw]

maybe next week would be a better choice than last week.

[Peter Johnson]

Ooooooooops. Title edited to reflect the change. Duuuuuuuh.

[Nate Dorward]

It's a tremendously welcome reissue--not sure I have much to add to what I said here but I'll reproduce it below:

Warne Marsh

ALL MUSIC

Nessa NCD-7

Even before the advent of the CD, some jazz musicians spent their lives creating boxed sets. Their music falls into "periods", there are "pivotal albums" and "masterpieces", and there's an orderly progression from record label to record label; the current stream of blockbuster Miles Davis reissues on Columbia and the Coltrane sets on Impulse! and Atlantic were preordained from the start. Other discographies never quite snap into focus, and this has a lot to do with why tenor saxophonist Warne Marsh - whose work is scattered among various, mostly small, record labels, and doesn't divide into stylistic "periods" - remains elusive, despite a sizeable recorded output (see Jack Goodwin's lovingly assembled discography at www.warnemarsh.info). Despite my enthusiasm for Marsh's work I've heard only a portion of that discography; but it's safe to say that All Music, a quartet date recorded in 1976 for Nessa, represents one of its highpoints.

Marsh had been involved for several years with West Coast bop big band Supersax; for this album he drew on the Supersax rhythm section of pianist Lou Levy, bassist Fred Atwood, drummer Jake Hanna. The saxophonist opens proceedings with a themeless improvisation on "It's You or No-One" called "I Have a Good One for You". The alternate takes included at the end of the disc are (for once) actually worth hearing. Though the basic outlines are present from the start, you can hear the rhythm section trying different tacks with each take: they change their minds several times about whether to use half-time or play the head straight, gradually sort out the coda, even try it with an electric piano at one point. Even with these sympathetic partners Marsh is operating on a different level: his approach to the introductory cadenza is sufficiently oblique that he finds it necessary to progressively iron it out from take to take for their sake. The released take comes from the second and final day of the session, by which time Marsh's opening is more leisurely, giving little warning of the barrelling momentum of his solo choruses. At the end of the piece, Marsh returns for a simultaneous improvisation with Levy, a procedure repeated elsewhere on the album - and a welcome change from the usual jazz convention of trading fours.

The rest of the program includes the older Marsh tune "Background Music" (marked by a hair-raising Levy solo), Konitz's "Subconscious-Lee" and Tristano's "317 E. 32nd", a gorgeous reading of the ballad "Easy Living", and two tunes from Levy's pen. "Lunarcy" sounds like what would happen if Carla Bley got her hands on "How High the Moon" - Levy has it descending in half-steps rather than whole steps - and when it kicks into double-time it's as electrifying as any of the classic bop records. The alternate take of Levy's "On Purpose" reveals that it began life as a brisk two-handed blues à la Red Garland or Wynton Kelly; the released version is taken at an after-hours lope, allowing Marsh more time to chew over the modified blues changes. After Atwood's solo (his best of the album) there's no re-entry of the band, just a single feather-light phrase from Marsh to tie things together.

This reissue of All Music is an important addition to the roster of Marsh CDs: up to this point little of his work except the Storyville and Criss Cross dates of the 1970s and 1980s has consistently made the leap from vinyl to CD. Nessa has gone to a fair bit of trouble to get things right: the tapes have been carefully remastered, there are fresh liner notes by Jim Sangrey and Chuck Nessa in addition to the original notes by Lawrence Kart, and there's a generous helping of session photographs. The music itself is outstanding, and in this model reissue comes across clearer than ever.

[catesta]

I love this damn CD, can't seem to get enough of it.

[Lazaro Vega]

The nuances of each note as they string together shading the phrase are like negative and positively charged molecules, sharp, natural, or flat, giving the inner workings of the line a very subtle tension and release ("Easy Living" ).

[JohnS]

Essential in any collection imo. The original album was great but with the additional tracks and remastering it's now something else. If you don't have it-get it and marvel.

[JSngry]

Yeah. I usually find added tracks and remasterings "enhancements" to the original, but in this case they create an entirely new experience and perspective.

The original album was essential. The cd reissue is... uberessential!

[couw]

uberessential!

sehr kühl!

[Clunky]

very nice indeed, I really enjoy Warne's unique sound and approach. All Music is the tops of his latter material ( that I've heard).

[Gary]

(Gulp)

I think I need to sit down & listen to this CD a few more times , it just doesnt seem to grab me at all.

Either that or book an appointment at the doctors to have my ears checked out.

I think Mr Marsh's music works on a higher level that I cannot understand.

[Clunky]

(Gulp)

I think I need to sit down & listen to this CD a few more times , it just doesnt seem to grab me at all.

Either that or book an appointment at the doctors to have my ears checked out.

I think Mr Marsh's music works on a higher level that I cannot understand.

too much time with the humourous rodent thread methink

[JSngry]

I think Mr Marsh's music works on a higher level that I cannot understand.

Well now, the question is - is this lack of understanding a permanent, incurable condition, and if not, is it a voluntary affair that you have no interest in changing?

There are no right answers, but it has to be asked.

[Gary]

(Gulp)

I think I need to sit down & listen to this CD a few more times , it just doesnt seem to grab me at all.

Either that or book an appointment at the doctors to have my ears checked out.

I think Mr Marsh's music works on a higher level that I cannot understand.

too much time with the humourous rodent thread methink

I've not fully submerged just yet!

[Clunky]

(Gulp)

I think I need to sit down & listen to this CD a few more times , it just doesnt seem to grab me at all.

Either that or book an appointment at the doctors to have my ears checked out.

I think Mr Marsh's music works on a higher level that I cannot understand.

too much time with the humourous rodent thread methink

I've not fully submerged just yet!

Not to get too distracted by whether rats can swim or not, you do need to listen to this. Warne has beauty in his tone and phrasing that is simply inspiring.

[Clunky]

welcome to Mrs Marsh, the latest member, there's plenty of love round these parts for Warne

[Gary]

I think Mr Marsh's music works on a higher level that I cannot understand.

Well now, the question is - is this lack of understanding a permanent, incurable condition, and if not, is it a voluntary affair that you have no interest in changing?

There are no right answers, but it has to be asked.

Its definitely not voluntary & hopefully not permanent or incurable.

Part of the appeal & enjoyment of the music is the my love of the new & unknown , so my ears are not closed.

My fear of lack of understanding comes from seeing posts made by the guys that I have a respect for their opinion knowing they have been listening for far longer than I have & knowing they have a deeper technical knowledge of the music.

So I was a bit surprised when this CD didnt yank me by the ears like the previous titles I've heard from the same label.

Like I said perhaps I just need to sit down & listen a few more times.

[Chuck Nessa]

welcome to Mrs Marsh, the latest member, there's plenty of love round these parts for Warne

Yes, welcome. Happy to see you here. I hope you choose to enter the discussions.

[ajf67]

This is a nice one. Good pick. I have the LP, but the alternate takes sound intriguing, so there may be another Nessa CD in my future....

[JohnS]

Gary, are you coming to Marsh for the first time here?

[Gary]

Yes mate,

I have the Kontiz etc Mosaic , but only have had chance to listen to that briefly.

[couw]

Played this one again today and was very much impressed (again). Gary, listen to how Marsh pushes and pulls on the melody line, one time he's behind it, dragging it all down, at the next moment, he's in front, stumbling to meet his point as if running too fast dowhill. This in-front/behind thing sort of applies to the melodic development itself: Sometimes Marsh is developing one new line after the next all in linear logic progression and sometimes he lingers in the one line he just arrived at for a while. There is no real logic to these things besides that it all sounds damn good.

This music cannot take it up with the emotional Trane on that specific level. It functions on another emotional plane that one gets at through a more cerebral approach. The emotion is still there, but you need a little twitch to get at it. Pretty amazing stuff this is and I like it a lot.

[Chuck Nessa]

Gary, listen to how Marsh pushes and pulls on the melody line, one time he's behind it, dragging it all down, at the next moment, he's in front, stumbling to meet his point as if running too fast dowhill.

Warne also does the same thing with pitch.

Some insight to his rigorous methods is reflected in Pete Christlieb's notes to the Criss Cross disc called Conversations With Warne vol 1: "One day he played something very melodic and dissonant at the same time while offsetting or displacing the phrase in double time feel. 'How do you do that?' I asked him. He said 'You don't want to get involved, it will only confuse you.' He did however agree to write out a lesson plan for me to look at later.

The plan called for a phrase to be composed four bars long and memorized. You start the metronome at a reasonable tempo and begin playing your phrase an eighth of a beat later. Now start your phrase on the quarter and so on. Be sure to take plenty of change along with you to phone home. Designed to develop your mental dexterity, this exercise was set aside because it was, in fact, confusing to me at the time, I needed to be fluent and uninhibited."

This all sounds really cold, but Warne felt the more you know, the closer you can come to pure "expression of feelings" and he took great care to let you know "feelings" and "emotion" are distinct things.

[Chuck Nessa]

Gee, over 50 "views" since I posted the previous message last night and it seems to have stopped the thread.