From: hellers@cs.wisc.edu (Joe Hellerstein)
Subject: Recent listening (mini-reviews)
Organization: Univ. of Wisconsin @ Madison, CS Dept.
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 07:26:41 GMT


Just some random reactions to things I've bought or heard recently.
Apologies in advance for flip judgements...

Jack DeJohnette:  ZEBRA
	Yuck!  I saw this CD in a K-Mart type store for about $5, and
bought it.  It's Jack on synths and Lester Bowie on trumpet.
Mostly Jack just sets up a rhythm pattern and Lester contributes
typical but uninspired Lesterisms.  No fire here at *all*, although
some mildly interesting textures.  It was soundtrack music for a video
program ("Tadayuki Naito/Zebra"), and sounds like it.

Duke Ellington -- HAPPY BIRTHDAY DUKE!  THE BIRTHDAY SESSIONS.
	This is that LaserLight 5 CD $25 set that people were
discussing recently.  The sound quality is good, considering the era
and that it's live; a little mix-down to cut the highs would have been
nice, but hey, for $5 a disk I'm not going to complain too much.  It's
interesting to hear the band in a dance setting.  I don't think this
ranks as a classic set of recordings, but it's fun and there are
fairly regular flashes of beauty.  Every Paul Gonsalves solo is a gem.
The trumpet playing was kind of disappointing to me, a lot of Cat
Anderson grandstanding, and Ray Nance playing comfortably in his bag.
Biggest gripe -- nowhere on the box or in the notes do they say what
years these recordings are from!!  If they didn't know, an educated
guess would have been helpful!

Herb Robertson -- CERTIFIED
	I was blown away by Herb Robertson's playing on Tim Berne's
FRACTURED FAIRY TALES, so I picked this up.  This is not as good.  It
certainly doesn't have the kinds of weird-but-funky grooves and
melodies that FFT (no geeky pun intended) does.  I probably need to
give this a few more listenings, but I miss the messy
Harmon-with-plunger growling that I heard on FFT.  On a related note,
any reactions to Berne's PACE YOURSELF?

Fats Navarro -- NOSTALGIA
	This is a rerelease of a Savoy LP by Nippon Columbia.  It was
cheap, $9, although it's only 34 minutes long.  Contains nice playing
by Fats, and some entertaining heads that I never heard before.
People always say that Fats was a distinct sound for his era, that he
was working on a different thing than Dizzy.  I hear a *lot* of Dizzy
in his playing here, moreso than on the Milestone "Fats Navarro" CD I
have with Tadd Dameron's band.  Eddie Lockjaw Davis is up to his usual
stunts; it's interesting to hear bop meet r 'n' b that way.  Dexter
Gordon plays nicely on the tracks he's on.  Not an earth-shattering
set of recordings, but quite good.  These Savoy re-releases are nice
and cheap -- I saw one of the Charlie Parker ones for $6.99 in the
"new releases" bin!  And they do a good job with the packaging --
original artwork, and original liner notes printed nearly full size
(the CD insert folds out to be 4x as big, and the liner notes are on
there).

David Murray -- SHAKILL'S WARRIOR
	OK, this was supposed to be *great* according to the net
wisdom, and I found it to be OK-to-good.  The first tune (Blues for
Savannah) has the most disposable blues head I've heard in a long
time.  "Song From the Old Country" is nice, I like the introduction in
particular.  What is that rap at the beginning of "High Priest?"
Who's doing that?  It's not really happening, it's just a novelty
thing.  Not as bad as Jumpworld, but I didn't see the point.
Generally there wasn't much stretching on this album, and the grooves
were happening, I guess, but not really smoking.  Pullen seemed
particularly reserved.  It's definitely worth picking up, but there's
other David Murray and Don Pullen to get before this.

Roscoe Mitchell -- SONGS IN THE WIND
	I dunno, this didn't get me at all.  Features local
Madison/Milwaukee drummer Vincent Davis, who I recently got a chance
to play with.  He's a terrific drummer; keep your eyes open for him.
Anyway, this album feature Roscoe, Vincent, and instruments by some
inventor (name escapes me) called Bullroarers and WindWands.  The
pieces are relatively short (for Roscoe), and I can't think of any
highlights to describe, it just didn't catch me.  I had to return the
CD to its owner; I'd be willing to believer that it grows on you with
repeated listenings.

Enrico Rava -- ANIMALS
	Hmm.  This is the only Rava I've heard, although I know he's
associated with the free-era Steve Lacy.  This album is a quartet of
Rava, Augusto Mancinelli on electric and synth guitars, Furio di
Castri on acoustic bass and 16-year-old Mauro Beggio on drums.  The
concept is tight, circular melody patterns with extremely clean
playing.  Too clean for my taste, and the synth guitars and mixdown
add to that.  Some interesting and fluid playing by Rava, but the
texture is cold and it gets monotonous.  I got this CD for $2, BTW.

--- 
Well, mostly gripes I guess.  Sorry about that.  On a happier note, I
finally dug into the end of the BROWNIE box set, to listen to the last
disc or two (which I never seemed to get to in the 2 years I've had
it).  WOW!!!!!!  This is incredible stuff, Clifford is *smoking* -- fast
and comfortable and full of ideas.  Sonny Rollins finally shows up to
give the band some serious contrast.  When Sonny slows down and works
with texture and motivic development he really complements Brownie's
more linear, flowing playing.  Max Roach has mastered that
"energy-without-volume" thing that nobody I play with seems to have :-( 
This was just one amazing, amazing band.  And absolutely required
listening for trumpet players -- time for me to do a little
transcribing.  The rehearsal takes of "Flossie Lou" include some band
chatter, Clifford in particular, as well as some solo playing by
Clifford when the band lays out after a take gets cut.  This stuff is
really heart-rending; Clifford sounds so damn happy when he speaks.
Just like when he plays.  Wow.


Joe Hellerstein


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