*** Tyrone Washington Corner ***

[Rooster_Ties]

I happen to know that two or three people here have very recently gotten a hold of Tyrone's one and only Blue Note album "Natural Essence ".

So, those of you who are hearing it for the first time ever – what think you??? (And the rest of you too, for that matter.)

For those not in the know, here's the 411...

Tyrone Washington -- Natural Essence

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ;  December 29th, 1967

Tyrone Washington - ts; Woody Shaw - tp; James Spaulding - as, fl; Kenny Barron - p; Reggie Workman - b; Joe Chambers - dr.

1.  Natural Essence (Washington)

2.  Yearning for Love (Washington)

3.  Positive Path (Washington)

4.  Soul Dance (Washington)

5.  Ethos (Washington)

6.  Song of Peace (Washington)

Certainly open to discussion of the rest of his output too (his other two albums as a leader, both from the 70's -- along with his sideman work), most of which is pretty damn amazing (IMHO).

Edited November 12, 2003 by Rooster_Ties

[Chuck Nessa]

It sounds like the prelude to a train wreck to me.

[John L]

It sounds like the prelude to a train wreck to me.

A good-sounding prelude to a bad train wreck or a bad sounding prelude to a good train wreck?

I've never heard it myself, but I am intrigued.

[Rooster_Ties]

A good-sounding prelude to a bad train wreck or a bad sounding prelude to a good train wreck?

Only Michael, and/or maybe Herbie, Jack, and Herbie Lewis know for sure.

T Y R O N E  W A S H I N G T O N

© 1968 Blue Note [unissued]

MUSICIANS

---------

Tyrone Washington: Tenor Saxophone

Herbie Hancock: Piano

Herbie Lewis: Bass

Jack DeJohnette: Drums

TITLES

------

1. Untitled (medium tempo)

2. Untitled (3/4)

3. Rene

4. T

5. Untitled (9/4)

Recorded August 16, 1968, Englewood Cliffs

[undergroundagent]

The mystery that surrounds this album is what I believe generates much of the hype. While I don't propose that this album is bad, it wasn't quite up to what I expected. The playing is a bit off for my tastes from what I remember (I've owned the TOCJ twice)...and unless you've heard it first, I wouldn't recommend paying the inflated prices (including that which I sold it for..) for a mediocre date.

There's much better in the Blue Note catalogue than this one...get through them first!

Edited November 5, 2003 by undergroundagent

[connoisseur series500]

My "score" on half.com has not yet arrived. The seller has informed me that it is on backorder.

In another 30 days or whatever, I'll be able to join in on this discussion. -_-

[Larry Kart]

As the idiot who gave "Natural Essence" a ***1/2 review (out of *****) for Down Beat when it came out (in a review that coupled it with the first or second Steve Miller album!!!) and who then grew to love the album in general and Washington in particular, let me quote from a piece I wrote back in '86 that touches upon "Natural Essence" by way of a Stanley Crouch remark about the then-current band Out of the Blue:

"These young men aren't about foisting the clichés of twentieth-century European music on jazz," writes Crouch of a group called Out of the Blue, which tries very hard to sound like the clock had been turned back to 1965. "It is an ensemble luminously in tune with integrity." But if "integrity" and "foisting" are indeed the issues, it seems fair to ask how the music of Out of the Blue's eponymous first album stands up alongside a representative and stylistically similar album from the late 1960s: tenor saxophonist Tyrone Washington's Natural Essence, which includes trumpeter Woody Shaw and alto saxophonist James Spaulding. The two groups share the same instrumentation and the same musical techniques, as the heated rhythmic angularities of bebop are linked to free-floating modal harmonies. And even if Out of the Blue's trumpeter Mike Mossman and alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett haven't directly modeled themselves on Shaw and Spaulding, they certainly sound as though they have. But the emotional tone of the two albums is quite different. While most of the members of Out of the Blue sound as though they thought of their music as a style (that is, as a series of rules one must adopt and accept), the music of Washington and his partners is fundamentally explosive, a discontented elegance that keeps zooming off in search of extreme emotional states. In fact a passionate need to exceed itself lies at the heart of Washington’s music. And while stylistic patterns can be found on Natural Essence, they only emphasize the mood of turbulence and flux--defining the brink over which Washington constantly threatens to jump. So even though the music of Washington and his mid-sixties peers was less openly radical than that of Albert Ayler and Ornette Coleman, it was by no means a separate phenomenon. Indeed, the strains of transition that supposedly were confined to the jazz avant garde may have been even more violently felt in the music that lay, so to speak, just to the Right of it.

[doubleM]

I'm still waiting for my order to go through from that establishment that undergroundagent recommended. Based on what I've read below, I can afford to be somewhat patient. I think it's my Woody Shaw completist tendencies that led me to purchase this. I will report back when it comes.

[Free For All]

Rooster, as one of those you initially referred to, please accept my eternal gratitude for laying a copy of this on me. Now I'll be happy to comment just as soon as I finish this hellish unpacking process. I have a stack of waiting-to-be-heard CDs that I'm looking forward to checking out in my new listening space. I finally can stay up late and listen to tunes w/o driving my wife crazy! We found a house where my "jazz cave" is far removed from the bedroom.

Anyway, I'll post on this as soon as I can. Promise. And thank you again.

[jazzbo]

I love this album. It is one of those Blue Notes that are different, step away from the label's formulas, and for that I dig it. Washington is a player that I dig very much as well, and he really shines here on this soulful release. A good job by all really, if you ask me; I have had this for some years thanks to Greg mailing me a copy bought from a Tower in California. . . and I've found two other Washington dates since that I like, but not as well as this.

Hard to describe really, it's a soulful jazz date that veers at time to the freejazz world. . . . I'm hoping that it is reissued in America one fine day. I've heard tales of Michael and Bob Belden laughing away while listening to Washington's unreleased session. . . I'd still love to hear it one day. . . maybe one day after Michael is no longer custodian of the vaults. . . . I'm convinced that I will at least enjoy the hearing once. . . and possible enjoy replaying it a lot. I'm very interested to hear what those cats put down that day.

[Joe]

I am still trying to completely understand NATURAL ESSENCE, which I own but which I do not listen to with anything like regularity. Like Lon says, it is another of those BN sessions from the period which is remarkable for the way in which it -- maybe not BREAKS, but offers a very unique parsing and reinterpretation of certain formulas.

I do know that is Washington had never recorded anything other than the solos to be heard on Horace Silver's THE JODY GRIND, however, he'd still be an important and frustratingly under-recognized figure. If ONLY there was more material by that edition of the Silver Quintet; if ONLY, as I''ve heard, Horace had not lost his patience with the increasing "unruliness" (in terms of musicianship, you understand) of his front-line...

[jazzbo]

I agree Joe; more recordings from that Silver group would be really welcome!

[Rooster_Ties]

"The Jody Grind" is by far one of my favorite Horace Silver albums, precisely for all the reasons that Horace must have been getting frustrated with his front-line.

I 'like' lots of other Silver BN albums, but I only 'love' a few of them.

[connoisseur series500]

I'm still waiting for my order to go through from that establishment that undergroundagent recommended. Based on what I've read below, I can afford to be somewhat patient. I think it's my Woody Shaw completist tendencies that led me to purchase this. I will report back when it comes.

I suspect my back order is coming from the same place, Matt, even though I ordered through half.com. Not sure what to think about ordering from a seller through half only to discover that he has the cd on backorder himself! Rather strange...

[JSngry]

BRAINS ON FIRE!!!!

[undergroundagent]

Paul,

I'd cancel that order...if he's ordering through that site and trying to make money off it, forget about it.

I'd use musicselection. They're reliable and have filled every order of mine except 2! $1 S/H is pretty hard to beat as well.

[Larry Kart]

Just listened to Natural Essence (the old LP with its murky sound--this due to the Liberty-era pressing I assume, not RVG). The great track for me is "Yearning For Love"--the piece itself (the relationship between Shaw's part and main line!), and then Washington's appropriately yearning/explosive just barely on the rails at times solo. However you want to characterize what Washington is playing, that's the kind of stuff that can't be faked.

[connoisseur series500]

Paul,

I'd cancel that order...if he's ordering through that site and trying to make money off it, forget about it.

I'd use musicselection. They're reliable and have filled every order of mine except 2! $1 S/H is pretty hard to beat as well.

Thanks for the recommendation, Al, but it's only a few bucks more and I assume his order stands early in the backorder qeue. Wouldn't want to start at the back of the line once again.

Strange way to deal with a half.com order though.

[connoisseur series500]

"Natural Essence" just arrived yesteday and I had the chance to give it a quick spin. Definitely need to listen to it more as there's obvious depth to the music. Early impressions indicate a very good session. Tyrone Washington sounds a lot like Joe Henderson. It's amazing. More comments later after I spin it a few more times.

[Rooster_Ties]

Excellent!!

Really glad 1) that you got this CD (and as (relatively) quickly as you did), and 2) that you didn't loose your money on the deal. Looking forward to your further comments (Connie) about this date, as I think this is one that you'll really like.

[Chuck Nessa]

Tyrone Washington sounds a lot like Joe Henderson. It's amazing. More comments later after I spin it a few more times.

One of the high points, for me, is that Tyrone does NOT sound like Joe Henderson.

[jazzbo]

B)

[connoisseur series500]

  Tyrone Washington sounds a lot like Joe Henderson.  It's amazing.  More comments later after I spin it a few more times.

One of the high points, for me, is that Tyrone does NOT sound like Joe Henderson.

Well that's a first impression, Chuck. Haven't been able to listen closely yet.

BTW, what's wrong with Joe Henderson??

[connoisseur series500]

Listened a couple more times. Still not enough to come up with any kind of educated analysis, but I can see why Rooster likes this one so much. This is good music for sure. The last track is the most "out," and I don't care for that so much, but the others are terrific.

Interesting with Kenny Barron on piano. He plays wonderfully, but one wouldn't imagine that he would have been a good fit going in. As it stands, his contributions are a welcome addition. Shaw is his usual brilliant self. Washington seems to be really exploring. The TOJC recording seems nice enough though I would have preferred to be able to hear the piano a little louder relative to the drums, but I see that Rudy did this one. Good drumming by Joe Chambers. I'll continue to listen to this disc which seems to promise so much.

[Larry Kart]

I won't presume to speak for Chuck, but because I share his mixed to negative feelings about Joe Henderson and admire T. Washington, I'll take a shot. About JH: He was IMO a very formulaic, licks-bound player (albeit a hip one at times, for what being hip did for you at that time and place), his sound was the saxophone equivalent of the sound of a "mike" singer (I heard him once live paired with Johnny Griffin in the mid-'80s, and next to Griffin he was close to inaudible), and especially in the '60s I couldn't stand the way he'd bounce between "inside" and "outside" playing in the course of a single solo, as though the "outside" stuff was more or less a noise element. It's in that realm that T. Washington is an utterly different player--when TW goes "out," he goes to a place that he has to go and that's no less logical to him, if sometimes bizarrely logical, than where he's been before; when JH goes "out", it's like he's saying "Excuse me, I have to go the mens room for a while, but when I come back you can be sure I'll have washed my hands." That said, JH does have his moments. I like some of his Milestone stuff; loved a live performance by the band of that era that included Curtis Fuller and Stanley Clarke and found some of his late wispy Verve stuff kind of touching.