Playing Favorites: Reflections on Jazz in the 1970s

[sgcim]

I read Coryell's autobiography, and it reads like a confessional. He claimed that he spent every single day of his life from 1965 to about 1971 stoned on some type of illegal drug, mostly pot and hallucinogenics, but also whatever else he could find. He confesses that he never really learned to play off of changes until way later in his recording career, maybe the late 70s.

Up until then, he said he was only capable of playing what he called modal jazz, typified by tunes like "All Blues", My Favorite Things, etc...just long vamps of a few tonal centers.Donald Fagen said the same thing about his piano playing back then, too. All I knew was that it was more interesting than the 'Neanderthal' blues/rock players back then, and I bought every record Coryell ever put out, up to the point when he started to get a little too pretentious by trying to play "The Rite of Spring" on acoustic guitar!

In Gary Burton's autobiography, Burton reams quite a few players (Getz especially, who was a living nightmare, Metheny, and Sam Brown), and he spends a page talking about how he fired Coryell for all the problems he caused by being stoned all the time.

By the end of Coryell's autobiography, you feel like you're reading a deathbed confessional, and you feel like he's begging you for forgiveness (maybe getting Emily Remler hooked on junk?). I was disappointed that he didn't include anything about his legendary meltdown during a recording session with Harry Nilsson I had heard about somewhere, but I guess I'll have to wait for that one. I guess I should be satisfied that I finally learned about the incident between Getz and Billy Bean, that wound up causing Bean to leave the business. Seek, and ye shall find...

 

[felser]

Apparently Zoot Sims said this about Getz one time"  "Stan's a nice bunch of guys".

[JSngry]

Whatever other faults Larry Coryell might have/have had, musically and/or personally, not taking care of his hair has never been one of them!

[HutchFan]

Speaking of Coryell... I once saw his son, Julian Coryell, perform as an opening act at a Richard Thompson concert.

Before he sang one of his songs, Julian said, "This song is dedicated to my father, Larry Coryell." 

The name of the song (and the vocal refrain):  "I'm Such an Asshole."

Pretty good song, actually.  Sorta Elton John-ish.

 

Edited March 11, 2020 by HutchFan

[JSngry]

4 hours ago, felser said:

 

 

OMG! That was one of the first 100 or so jazz records I bought, out of a cutout bin. Talk about getting pissed off...even then, when I was at my peak of enthusiasm for ANYTHING "jazz-rock"-y, I knew something was horribly wrong, not just with Coryell, but with Arnie Lawrence. Lawrence was (ultimately) too corny, and Coryell was just too...weirdly random.

One of the first jazz records I bought, and one of the first ones I sold, willfully and gleefully. Re-bought it again a few decades alter to listen to Davis and Haynes to see if they could override the effects of those two, and....nope. Too bad. I should be able to enjoy richard Davis & Roy Haynes playing together without qualification.

At least you didn't find a video of "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free" off of that same record. Hopefully it's not available. I need reassurance that even The Internet has a tiny shred of decency left!

I'm a little surprised that you Coryell buffs don't make mention of Spaces. That's another one that is just too....too. But at least it's of "historical interest". As is, on a somewhat completely unrelated note (other than both been released in the US on Vanguard) this one, recorded around the same time as Spaces.:

check the actual recording date:

People were hellbent on taking no prisoners there for a little while...

[felser]

43 minutes ago, JSngry said:

OMG! That was one of the first 100 or so jazz records I bought, out of a cutout bin. Talk about getting pissed off...even then, when I was at my peak of enthusiasm for ANYTHING "jazz-rock"-y, I knew something was horribly wrong, not just with Coryell, but with Arnie Lawrence. Lawrence was (ultimately) too corny, and Coryell was just too...weirdly random.

One of the first jazz records I bought, and one of the first ones I sold, willfully and gleefully. Re-bought it again a few decades alter to listen to Davis and Haynes to see if they could override the effects of those two, and....nope. Too bad. I should be able to enjoy richard Davis & Roy Haynes playing together without qualification.

At least you didn't find a video of "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free" off of that same record. Hopefully it's not available. I need reassurance that even The Internet has a tiny shred of decency left!

I'm a little surprised that you Coryell buffs don't make mention of Spaces. That's another one that is just too....too. But at least it's of "historical interest". As is, on a somewhat completely unrelated note (other than both been released in the US on Vanguard) this one, recorded around the same time as Spaces.:

 

Yeah, I have owned Watanabe's "Round Trip" in one form or another for decades.  "Spaces" has never worked for me, for whatever reason.  Everyone seems to be deferring to everyone else, from what I remember, and the whole thing has always struck me as sort of adrift.  Not a bad album, and there are some good parts, just not a compelling one for me.  I like the later ones we mentioned better, they are more focused.  Coryell/McLaughlin/Corea/Vitous/Cobham from that period should have produced fireworks, but didn't.   But of course I own it for pro forma purposes.  I'm "supposed" to own it, so I do.   Have never been sure what to make of Lawrence.  His first album was pure easy-listening schlock for the most part, and his third album, "Inside an Hour Glass", was indescribably freaky and weird.  The one that we are talking about here is all over the place.  I liked him with Chico Hamilton, and actually enjoy the cut I shared quite a bit, but understand why his albums are lost to time, never making CD (as far as I know).

[JSngry]

23 minutes ago, felser said:

Yeah, I have owned Watanabe's "Round Trip" in one form or another for decades.  "Spaces" has never worked for me, for whatever reason.  Everyone seems to be deferring to everyone else, from what I remember, and the whole thing has always struck me as sort of adrift. 

Probably becuase...:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaces_(Larry_Coryell_album)

The first day was strange’, said Larry, of the sessions. “because Chick and Billy and John had just come from…sessions with Miles. They had definitely been taking some different approaches to the music at that session, because when I threw down the first piece, “Tyrone” by Larry Young, the cats did not play it straight. They were all going into outer space…Almost nothing we played that first day made the cut: it seems as if we got most of the music that went on the record on the second day. It just took a while to get comfortable with each other and the material…

Sounds like they had to downshift (dumb down?) to play with Coryell.

At least Watanabe gave everybody their head, even if it meant him getting swallowed up whole on his own record. I've always respected him for letting that happen.

[sgcim]

6 hours ago, felser said:

Apparently Zoot Sims said this about Getz one time"  "Stan's a nice bunch of guys".

Lately, the jazz books I've been reading have all been having negative stories about Getz. In the book on Mel Lewis, "View From the Back of the Band", Lewis talks about being promised by Creed Taylor that he was going to be the house drummer for Verve, when he moved back to NY.

He was driving to the Getz date, "Reflections" with Getz, and Getz started drinking during the trip to the studio. "When we got there, he (Getz) ended up getting in all types of scenes and started picking on me, because I was the only one he knew there. And I let him have it, and Creed says, 'You can't talk to my artist like that.' I said, 'Who the hell are you, you're going to sit here and take shit from him? I ain't going to take any shit from you either.' I told them both off ... and I never worked for Creed again."

The story about Billy Bean and Getz would take too long to go into, but you can read about it in the biography of Bean by Seth Greenberg.

3 hours ago, JSngry said:

Probably becuase...:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaces_(Larry_Coryell_album)

The first day was strange’, said Larry, of the sessions. “because Chick and Billy and John had just come from…sessions with Miles. They had definitely been taking some different approaches to the music at that session, because when I threw down the first piece, “Tyrone” by Larry Young, the cats did not play it straight. They were all going into outer space…Almost nothing we played that first day made the cut: it seems as if we got most of the music that went on the record on the second day. It just took a while to get comfortable with each other and the material…

Sounds like they had to downshift (dumb down?) to play with Coryell.

At least Watanabe gave everybody their head, even if it meant him getting swallowed up whole on his own record. I've always respected him for letting that happen.

Yeah, Chick was way past Coryell in terms of jazz experience back then. Actually, the strongest cuts on that album (Spaces), IMHO, were the ones that Chick didn't play on.

I still love the non-Chick cuts on that album. As Felser said, Larry played with a lot of fire back then. I was playing with Bernard Purdie, and I asked him about the "Fairyland" date, and he said, "We were just talking about that date. We had a ball!"

 

[HutchFan]

Weekly Recap - PLAYING FAVORITES: Reflections on Jazz in the 1970s

03/17/20 - Muhal Richard Abrams – Things To Come From Those Now Gone (Delmark, 1975)

03/16/20 - Pat Martino – Head and Heart (32 Jazz, 1997)

03/15/20 - Jimmy Smith – Bluesmith (Verve, 1972)

03/14/20 - Paul Bley – Open, to Love (ECM, 1973)

03/13/20 - Richard Davis – Epistrophy & Now's the Time (Muse, 1972)

03/12/20 - James Moody – Never Again! (Muse, 1972)

03/12/20 - Chucho Valdés – Jazz Batá (Areito, 1973)

 

Sadly, no write-ups (yet) for several of these.  Work has sorta taken over my life lately.  All COVID-19 related.  12-hour workdays have become the norm, so it's hard to dedicate much time to the blog.  I'm just tuckered out, and I find myself just wanting to listen.

But I'm still trying to post each entry daily.  Even if it's just a list of titles, that's... something. 

As for the music... Nice mix of titles this week, I think.

 

[JSngry]

Solid, solid ,SOLID.

[felser]

Not familiar with the Valdes or the Smith, but I'm fully onboard with and own the other titles.  The Martino contains "Consciosness" and "Live", both gems.

Edited March 18, 2020 by felser

[JSngry]

Hey, Jimmy Smith & Teddy Edwards together, I'll take that ANYTIME!

Nice to be reminded about just how potent a label Muse was in its earliest years.

[HutchFan]

6 hours ago, felser said:

Not familiar with the Valdes or the Smith, but I'm fully onboard with and own the other titles.  The Martino contains "Consciosness" and "Live", both gems.

felser, the Chucho recording is very interesting.   I think you'd dig it. 

The band is a trio, but instead of a trap set in the percussion role, Valdés uses a batá.  So it's a trio with a Cuban a twist.  

Here's the LP in full:

One indicator of this album's enduring influence: Chucho recently reissued a follow-up called Jazz Batá 2. 

How often do you hear of a sequel that appears nearly 50 years (!) after an initial release?

 

 

 

5 hours ago, JSngry said:

Hey, Jimmy Smith & Teddy Edwards together, I'll take that ANYTIME!

Absolutely.  Honestly, I think I'd enjoy hearing Teddy Edwards play scales!  He's just got that magnetic thing going with his sound.     

An added bonus for me: I've been bingeing on Stanley Turrentine over the last month or so -- including his three discs with Jimmy Smith: Midnight Special, Chicken Shack, and Prayer Meeting.  So it's fun to do the comparo thing, hearing Mr T. with Jimmy Smith and then hearing Teddy do his very different but equally wonderful thing with Smith.  It's like I'm sitting in down for Thanksgiving and there's goodies all over the place!  Mmmm...

 

Edited March 18, 2020 by HutchFan

[sidewinder]

21 minutes ago, HutchFan said:

 

Absolutely.  Honestly, I think I'd enjoy hearing Teddy Edwards play scales!  He's just got that magnetic thing going with his sound.     

On one occasion I saw Teddy with his arm in a sling, unable to play but directing his group. That was unmissable too !

[HutchFan]

2 hours ago, sidewinder said:

On one occasion I saw Teddy with his arm in a sling, unable to play but directing his group. That was unmissable too !

The dude just had charisma, didn't he?!?!

 

[Peter Friedman]

My favorite on this weeks list is - James Moody - Never Again - Muse

Though Moody made many very good recordings, this is one that would be up high on the list of those I like best.

[HutchFan]

55 minutes ago, Peter Friedman said:

My favorite on this weeks list is - James Moody - Never Again - Muse

Though Moody made many very good recordings, this is one that would be up high on the list of those I like best.

Yes, I feel the same way about Never Again!    

[JSngry]

Yeah, that was Moody's "Newark" record.

To borrow a notion from Sonny Rollins, you can't get beeter than that, only different.

You know waht is really badass about Moody on that one? How he plays trhough the chromatic substitiuions, he doesn't fall back on just repeating a pattern across the movement, he fucking plays through it, like it's the normal changes and he's just playing his melody. You'd be surprised at how many "name" players don't have the mental reosurces at the ready to think that freely about things like that in situations like that.

 

James Moody = BADASS. Anybody who tries to get you to think otherwise, walk away from that topic, because they will be - and are - wrong.

[BillF]

[felser]

On 3/22/2020 at 5:05 AM, BillF said:

You'll have to wait six months to see if that made the list!  I like some of the Montreux '75 titles on Pablo, such as the Oscar Peterson.

[Gheorghe]

Those Pablo live jams were quite nice. Nothing really reprezentative for 70´s jazz, but still nice to hear. I have another one with Dizzy (and Jon Faddis and Milt Jackson) from 1977, but usually Dizzy played more modern 70´s style jazz than, he usually toured with a quartet with Electric guitar and Electric bass and a Drummer, mostly Mickey Roker. 

[BillF]

There were some great jazz festivals in Europe at the time. My wife and I had plans to go to the San Sebastian festival in 1977 to see Bill Evans, Konitz and Rollins, but called it off at the last moment because of Basque separatist bombings in the city. (I saw the first two elsewhere anyway.)

[sidewinder]

The Nice Festival seemed to have a pretty high profile over here at that time - Jazz Journal used to always do Festival writeups. Particularly strong on mainstream.

[HutchFan]

Weekly Recap - PLAYING FAVORITES: Reflections on Jazz in the 1970s

03/24/20 - Duke Ellington & Ray Brown – This One's for Blanton (Pablo, 1975)

03/24/20 - Dave Holland Quartet – Conference of the Birds (ECM, 1973)

03/22/20 - Stanley Cowell Trio – Illusion Suite (ECM, 1973)

03/22/20 - Catalyst – Perception (Muse, 1973)

03/20/20 - Gary Burton & Chick Corea – Crystal Silence (ECM, 1973)

03/19/20 - Gary Bartz Ntu Troop – Juju Street Songs (Prestige, 1972)

03/19/20 - Ruby Braff & Ellis Larkins – The Grand Reunion (Chiaroscuro, 1972)

 

Still putting in super-long workdays.  So practically no progress on the blog, write-up-wise.  Which is a bummer.  But I guess the world's got bigger problems right about now.

 

So...

Observations? Criticisms? Contemplative musings? Incitements to riot?  I mean... what do you think?

One note: ECM put in a strong showing this week with three stone-cold classic titles.  (And how is it that Cowell's Illusion Suite isn't in print?!?!  That is an outrage against all who hold music dear. Clearly, Manfred, you've dropped the ball on that one.)

 

 

 

2 hours ago, sidewinder said:

The Nice Festival seemed to have a pretty high profile over here at that time - Jazz Journal used to always do Festival writeups. Particularly strong on mainstream.

It seems like Black & Blue often recorded artists who were playing the Nice Festival.    

Wish I could've been there -- but I was only a kid at the time.  ... At least we have the recordings.  

 

Edited March 24, 2020 by HutchFan

[mjazzg]

Holland, Cowell and Bartz. All great recordings. Nice choices.

I didn't realise 'Illusion Suite' was oop. Always been a vinyl listen for me.