Elvin Jones Is On The Mountain

[Guest akanalog]

this is a 1975 trio session led by elvin jones-gene perla is on bass and jan hammer, who is in great form, is on acoustic piano and electric keyboards.

i have a CD issue of this album by one-way records. might be tough to find now. not sure the original label for this session-P.M. i think. wish there was more P.M. stuff on CD....

today seems like a good day to offer my praise for this album-especially since most of the elvin talk is centering around the mosaic set.

this album is a lot more mellow than one might expect from a 1975 session with jan hammer as the lead voice. which is not to say it is a boring set-just more trio interplay going on than hammer just ripping those ultra fast minimoog lines.

i would still say the album has fusion elements and you can hear more of a rock thing going on in the compositions and rhythms used-so it is a good place to hear jones in a different context than usual-he isn't playing the kind of grooves which i associate with him (for example i guess on something like art peppers "the trip" or barney kessel's "feeling free")-though he does a nice job altering his approach a bit for this mostly electric trio session. jones stays in the background a lot and certainly does not hog the spotlight at all despite this being his session-he might only have one or two solos on the whole album.

hammer and perla wrote the tunes and they all have a nice sort of nostalgiac and sad quality to them-at least until the last song where everyone lets it rip and there is a nice part where perla drops out and jones and hammer just go at it.

so i would like to highly recommend this album-it is a great place to hear hammer and jones in slightly different contexts than you might be used to hearing them.

[7/4]

Love this disk, getting lot's of play around here the last few months.

[sidewinder]

Thanks for the reminder on this one, I'll pull the vinyl from the racks a bit later today. Very nice session, doesn't deserve its obscurity. Anyone who likes the BN 'At This Point In Time' session will probably like this one too.

[mikeweil]

The whole P.M. Records catalogue is available as custom CDs or MP3 from the label's website.

That trio album is great - fascinating to hear how Elvin copes with the rocky rhythms of some tunes!

[mikeweil]

... and they sell my favourite Elvin photo as a poster:

[mjzee]

Just noticed that this album is getting a re-release in Japan on May 22: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/CDSOL-46302

[Shrdlu]

I wish that Elvin had had a pianist on all of his Blue Note albums. I find sessions without a keyboard a bit on the dry side.

[felser]

2 hours ago, Shrdlu said:

I wish that Elvin had had a pianist on all of his Blue Note albums. I find sessions without a keyboard a bit on the dry side.

Different strokes for different folks - I love those piano-less sessions, and think what the bass players do on them are marvelous.  I admit they sound very different than the sessions with Corea or Hammer.

[Rooster_Ties]

6 hours ago, felser said:

Different strokes for different folks - I love those piano-less sessions, and think what the bass players do on them are marvelous.  I admit they sound very different than the sessions with Corea or Hammer.

I really like Elvin's piano-less sessions too.  I just wish more of them had a front-line that wasn't two saxophones -- but rather one of the horns being a trumpet.  That one piano-less date with Lee Morgan is especially divine, and I wish there were more like it (with Lee, or maybe Woody Shaw, or Charles Tolliver even).

Reminds me that that Elvin piano-less quartet date with Lee has only ever been on CD once (iirc), and ONLY as part of the big Elvin Mosaic set.  I sure wish that particular session was available as a single.  It might be just about my favorite sessions from that entire (BIG!) box, among many good ones.

(Reminds me I don't ever listen to that Elvin Mosaic box way near enough either.)

Edited May 2, 2019 by Rooster_Ties

[Brad]

I’m not a big fan of pianoless groups but as Felser said different strokes, etc. That doesn’t mean I don’t like them; just prefer the ivories. 

[JSngry]

It's a moot point most of the time, since the tenor players gonna play what they play either way.

I do very much enjoy that Wilbur Little guy, though, the less sound that blocks hearing that, the better!

[Stefan Wood]

On 5/2/2019 at 10:55 AM, felser said:

Different strokes for different folks - I love those piano-less sessions, and think what the bass players do on them are marvelous.  I admit they sound very different than the sessions with Corea or Hammer.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiUzv-3ypviAhWlT98KHfltASgQwqsBMAF6BAgIEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D78ZoCM-E4Hg&usg=AOvVaw2_3ZrDj0uOiYf05fobgmIO