Symbiotic aural vagabonds sauntering magnetic, melodic soundscapes in rhythm to Time (or) Jazz is Good

MOG Post: 1/6/2008
Artist: Bill Evans Trio
Album: Waltz For Debby
Track: Milestones
1961 Riverside Records

MOG wakes up in 2008 to many posts about good hangover music. I happen to mention Bill Evans on Bartleby's post, then I go listen to dermahrk's good tune, and suddenly my email invites me to a most beautiful Bill Evans post just then upped by mogger DLuebbert*. Karmic - perhaps. I hearkened to a mood that hit me during the Christmas week. I was enjoying a (rare) post by my good friend MasonJar just the week prior when MOG informed us with moovyphreak's post about Oscar Peterson's passing on December 23rd. With the festivities downstairs wrapping up (so to speak), I went into a depressed and very introspective state up in my stereo confines and quiet speakers. With lack of proper Oscar Peterson cuts I then steeped myself in Bill Evans the rest of the night - getting stupid drunk and loving every key I heard. It raped my soul in a warmth so, so forgiving of the pain of these feelings of "loss." We all suffer - it seems especially true during the holidays. Either a loved one inevitably passes during the season or we become overwhelmed from the lost presence of someone during the celebrations. I suppose the sense is karmic. The solstice of winter is a death toll. We have once again hit the coldest, darkest part of the year and all is frigid and still. To a coming equinox and a return to the other side of this circle game we spin - so it goes and so the music soothes the emotions through every turn.

I will expurgate (and relieve you) my junk writing and my thoughts about this cut vis-à-vis Miles Davis' 1958 staccato renditions. Besides, Mr. Luebbert writes much finer jazz reviews. I want you to really listen to that Evans' performance. Try and sense what is going through his head as he plays that song in 1979 - watch his brow. He is feeling the loss of someone. That someone is the man playing the bass in this tune. Scott LaFaro died untimely and Bill really never recovered. The song, "RE : Person I Knew" is the first track from Evans' first release after LaFaro's death (this track here recorded only three weeks before the car accident). When you hear the interplay in this track you'll catch a glimpse of the symbiosis that jazz is all about. Scott LaFaro was a virtuoso (think of him like a Django Reinhardt of the upright bass) - matching Bill at such levels of communication that we can only imagine. We listen from afar and bask in the beauty of the musical interplay. We share in the joy of interacting with life in moving harmony and live dynamics. It is, truly sad when it is no longer. We miss all of them. Oh such keys...



On a local sad note, this tune is similar to what we regularly hear here every Sunday at a club called Shakespeare's. Like family, we gathered around beautiful piano jazz and clinking glasses for some 12 years. Jerry had to close the doors to the establishment last Sunday night (economy) - it was a bittersweet evening. To an uncharacteristically packed house he kidded us "I should'a put up a closing sign every week!" Our local legend Neil Bridge and his hot trios often had Neil's former students sitting in - it was always something live and new for the ears. I feel bad for Neil (and our grateful ears) .. where's he gonna score a cool regular weekly gig like that again .. we're losing cool stages and hangouts like this to choose from anymore - depressingly shameful for arts and culture not to converge and imbibe somewhere.
Here's to good jazz clubs everywhere - may you thrive, prosper, and live long. Cheers! I sure wish I could have been at the Village Vanguard, New York, June 25, 1961.



Paul Motion





Re*

James Marshall Hendrix (November 27, 1942 - September 18, 1970)

MOG Post: 09/18/2007
Artist: Jimi Hendrix
Album: Nine To The Universe
Track: Nine To The Universe
1980 Reprise Records

Here are some late, great, creative juices for your ears - a nice audio spectrum from Jimi Hendrix' luscious guitar palette and virtuoso hands. Underscored by Jimi's studio man Alan Douglas, I think this title cut is ultimately the most pure jamming session - and my favorite from the L.P. record. I love the progression the song goes through and the amazing control of Stratocastor and the sound Jimi wrenches from it. I busted to get this vinyl copy of the album in my collection because the clarity had long since worn out on my cassette. Sadly - Nine To The Universe has not yet been released on CD! Let me just type for you from the phenomenal Joe Robinson and Gene Sculatti review (on the back of this here 12 3/8" cardboard sleeve):

"... He had outraged, menaced, seduced, evoked a generation. In three years. He'd done Monterey, Woodstock, the Isle of Wight, Johnny Carson. And in the translation from musician to pop deity he was feeling increasingly hemmed in. He couldn't take one more "Foxy Lady."
And so it was that he wound up on a very different stage in 1969, in a swank jazz club in London's West End, Ronnie Scott's. Known as the place for jazz in London by those who have the money to get in it, Ronnie Scott's was at least several light shows from the circuit the rock-guitarist had begun three years prior right down to the rain-slicked streets in Soho.
But, true to form, Hendrix had chosen the perfect traveler with whom to clearly state his growing interest in jazz, Rahsaan Roland Kirk. The late Kirk, who could play three instruments at once and was every bit the innovator in his realm that Hendrix was in his. They hit it off. They planned to record together, but Hendrix didn't live to see it out.
When Hendrix went back to the Record Plant in New York he continued to complain about the restrictions, contractual and managerial, that kept him from stretching out beyond pop confines. Despite the pressures he couldn't deny his own evolution, which was leading inevitably to an embryonic fusion of jazz and rock.
The sparks of fusion were already cracking through the Record Plant. John McLaughlin, who had switched to electric guitar with a vengeance, would often drop by to trade notes with Hendrix. Larry Young and Tony Williams were frequent guests. Miles Davis, whose music guided all of these players - and was a Hendrix favorite - was an important visitor.
In many ways, it was no surprise when Hendrix changed personnel in the spring of 1969, recruiting army buddy Billy Cox on bass and drummer Buddy Miles. In between sessions for his last pop album, Hendrix jammed with his new band and his many visitors, thus creating the music that now makes up Nine To The Universe.
... If Hendrix had become restless within the confines of his public role as evidence indicates, this set gives indication of some of the specific directions he wanted to take.
Planned recordings with Kirk, Gil Evans and other jazz luminaries offer prospects of even more imaginative Hendrix music, music which, sadly, we can only speculate about."

Recorded 5/29/69 - Record Plant, N.Y.
Jimi Hendrix - Guitar
Billy Cox - Bass
Buddy Miles - Drums