Africa/Brass - The John Coltrane Quartet

Africa/Brass
The John Coltrane Quartet
1961








Africa/Brass is a John Coltrane album that is largely only interesting as documentation of his evolving musical ideology. It has some 1950s hard bop, a little foreshadowing of what he will be doing, a la the Live at the Village Vanguard stuff, and one part trying out the larger ensembles of his later 1960s recordings. The result is a somewhat muddled effort, not bad music, but the album as a whole has a sort of tentativeness to it that makes me think that Coltrane didn't quite know what he wanted to do with it. What is interesting is that taking each song individually yields a different verdict than does considering the album as a single entity of Coltrane music.

(I am only reviewing the three tunes on the original Africa/Brass since that was what was originally released, the others will be dealt with later, when the second volume is released with the other recordings from the session.)

The track listing for this recording is confusing when you consider its gestalt, and it shows that Coltrane was only just starting to move into the next era of his music. "Africa" - a tone poem that was inspired by an African album he had been listening to; "Greensleeves" - nothing more than a cheap follow-up to "My Favorite Things"; "Blues Minor" - a tune that is the best on the album if only because it doesn't veer too much from what a Coltrane tune is expected to be and therefore benefits from the listeners comfort and familiarity.

"Greensleeves" actually makes me a bit angry because it comes across as nothing more than a weak attempt to follow up on the popular success of "My Favorite Things" from earlier in 1961 (though that was released through Atlantic). Coltrane does this at least one more time, when he records "Chim Chim Cheree" (1965) from Mary Poppins.

I suppose there are two different perspectives for these types of Coltrane-interpreted tunes. The generous one is that Coltrane decided to use them as a basis for his increasingly trippy and challenging music to increase the accessibility factor for the average fan. The less-generous perspective is that "My Favorite Things" was a popular hit and Coltrane kept beating that horse. "Chim Chim Cheree" probably deserves the more generous perspective. "Greensleeves" is too normal and straight-ahead; he record that to take advantage of his very recent success with "My Favorite Things".

"Greensleeves" just doesn't fit with the two other tunes. In fact, none of them go together. Aside from the really large ensemble used on these tracks (essentially a big band instrumentation without the saxophone section) there is no connection between these tunes. It is a muddled album.

"Blues Minor" is a pretty good hard bop tune. It isn't particularly creative, it isn't particularly boring, it is just a standard Coltrane tune that doesn't change anything about his music. There is no forward movement, which isn't always a bad thing. When I listen to it, and manage to isolate it from the rest of the Africa/Brass songs, it reminds me strongly of the stuff on Coltrane's Blue Train recording from 1957. To be fair, that is about all I can say about this one.

"Africa" is fascinating for a Coltrane devotee. It is an intellectually compelling recording for the simple fact that it is the junction of the old Coltrane, who was innovative, but who wasn't breaking all that many of the rules yet, and the new Coltrane of the 1960s who was wasn't so much going to break rules, as he was going to pile them in the center of the recording studio, douse them in gasoline and burn them to ashes. I can't say that I like this song - but it intrigues me to be able to see a little bit of the process that Coltrane went through that is going to terminate in Kulu Se Mama and Ascension and stuff like that.

Listening to this song reminds me of the quote about laws and sausages, its better not to see them being made. "Africa" isn't bad, but unless you are a serious Coltrane fan, you aren't going to get anything out of it - it is liable to just frustrate you. If you like his early stuff from the 1950s, this one is just going to be weird. If you like his crazy stuff from the late 60s, you will feel like he is just holding back.

I am a serious Coltrane fan. I like the songs on this album, I just don't like the album. Thankfully I live in the age of the iPod and I don't have to listen to the album as a whole. (I don't care what Coltrane's plan was for this record, I am in charge of what I listen to.) I have a playlist of early Coltrane stuff - that is where Blues Minor plays. I have a playlist of moderately crazy Coltrane stuff, "Chim Chim Cheree" for example - that is where "Africa" is. "Greensleeves" isn't anywhere - I have to admit I don't really like that song. But those kinds of categorizations are what you have to do sometimes with such a dynamic musician. Coltrane changed. Frequently and wildly. And sometimes he changed so quickly that you can see it in the course of one album.

Oliver Nelson - The Blues and the Abstract Truth

Oliver Nelson
The Blues and the Abstract Truth
1962

Oliver Nelson, Eric Dolphy - woodwinds
Freddie Hubbard - trumpet
Bill Evans - piano
Paul Chambers - bass
Roy Haynes - drums

I don't think I want to discuss this recording tune by tune. With one exception. "Hoe Down". And that will come at the end. I don't want to think too much about that song until I have finished with the rest of the album. There is no doubt at all that it will color the rest of the album's greatness with a darkness that I don't think is fair.

Instead, I think going through each artist will be the best way to look at this thing. There is a reason why the front of the album cover lists the personnel so prominently: this is an all-star recording session. Not to be dismissive, but of the six guys on the date, Oliver Nelson, the leader, is (at least in my perception) the least famous.You put those kinds of musicians together and you have some pretty high expectations. Which with very few exceptions they manage to meet.

So, in the order they are listed on the album cover...

Oliver Nelson

Nelson's solo on "Stolen Moments" is great - laid back, relaxed, smooth. It is a great counterpoint to the Dolphy flute solo that comes before. Nelson has this lazy arpeggio thing he does for about the first 7 bars that is understated and quiet. Those couple of bars manage to mix the melodic and harmonic ideas of the song together in a nicely balanced way.

Appreciating those sorts of things are important to really getting Oliver Nelson. Even where he is playing with more fire (see the first solo on "Butch and Butch", he is still understated.You throw in some Eric Dolphy craziness, and if you don't know what you are listening to, his abilities are going to get ignored.

I will throw this out there for discussion: Oliver Nelson, at least on this album, is for hard bob/post bob what Paul Desmond was for cool/west coast jazz. Quiet and smooth, but musically interesting. Paul Desmond is easy to listen to, just as Nelson is. At least on this album, Nelson served as a counterpoint for a more "interesting" player (Dolphy), just as Desmond did throughout his career (Brubeck - which is interesting considering that Brubeck is mostly famous for a Desmond composition - "Take Five"). But there is stuff for the more sophisticated listener to get excited over; neither of these two guys are simply ear candy.

Paul Chambers

Chambers is the least obvious thing to like about this album, short of you being a bass player. I very much enjoy the more prominent sound that Chambers has on this recording. It is, quite simply, that Chambers knows exactly how to play - when to be innovative and when the tune needs conservative backing. "Teenie's Blues" has dissonance in the head, an Eric Dolphy solo that is typical Eric Dolphy - as a whole the tune gets pretty musically crazy. Chambers keeps it all together (obviously the rest of the rhythm sections helps, but...). His solo on the song is short and intriguing and new without being trite, but keeps the tune safe enough for the average listener not to be alienated - which is his m.o. for the entire album - keep things comfortable while still doing something a little bit progressive.

Eric Dolphy

(I am limiting myself to 175 words or so on Dolphy. And I am only writing about him on this album. I could go on and on. I am going to force myself to be concise. And this aside doesn't count toward my word limit.)

Here is my guiding thought on Dolphy on this album: inflammably seditious. Dolphy manages to make music that is so far outside the normal range of what jazz is (at least in 1961) and he makes it swing. It is quite simply effulgently brilliant. I am tempted to say that he reigns it in, to keep it musically acceptable with the rest of the music and musicians, but knowing what I know about Dolphy, no way. This is exactly what he wanted to do - and it is great. "Yearnin'" is a relatively brief solo that blows me away (I love hearing the clattering of the keys...) What I love about this stuff (see again, his flute solo on "Stolen Moments") is that it is just crazy stuff that he is playing, it is crazy musically, emotionally, technically; but it is still exciting. I am not a demonstrative person, so anything that gets a reaction from me has to be good. Dolphy's stuff on this album gets a reaction.

(Less than 175, I have a few to spare, but, I am being concise.)

Bill Evans

Bill Evans greatest contribution on this album is his dynamic range. He knows when to play loud and he knows when to play soft (I know that the producing and engineering team has a lot to do with that, but, it is still the musician who ultimately influences what is on the album). This is a piano player who knows that he is part of the rhythm section - not the leader of the band. If there was only some way to get trumpets to learn that...

Roy Haynes

I am afraid I am taking the easy way out with Haynes. See Evans, Bill. Haynes doesn't try to be the center of attention. Drums are for accents and rhythm, not a constant barrage of ride cymbals and snare hits. He floats along behind the tunes, sounding the most cloud-like of any drummer I have ever heard. Haynes might be the only drummer that I would describe as being relaxing. Not always a good thing in a percussionist, but it is definitely a trait that more of them could develop. See Roach, Max. (I do love Max Roach, but I am trying to make a point.)

Freddie Hubbard

One of the things hat makes me saddest is that, because of illness, Hubbard had to cancel a show that I had tickets to the summer before he died. I never got to see him perform. (It is only of moderate consolation that shortly after that I did get to see Dave Brubeck play - hands down the most incredible live music I have ever seen.) All that I will say is that this might be the best of the early Hubbard performances. He had recorded a few solo albums when he participated in this session, but I think that being a sideman on this recording took off some of that pressure and gave him the chance to work a bit more freely, which helped Hubbard in his later recordings as a leader.

Finally, "Hoe Down". This song is a 44-bar melody that is strange. It reminds me of a 1960s television game show theme song - "Are you ready to play Hoe Down?" - that has gone horribly wrong. Its melody is just weird. If this album was the subject of a Sesame Street "One of These Things is Not Like the Others" segment, this song would be the right answer. The musicians know it too - the solos have no relation to the head, it just doesn't fit. The only reason that I don't completely pan this tune is that if you can ignore the first 44 bars and the lat 44 bars, the solos in the middle are passable. They aren't great, but they aren't bad either. Consider that this tune has no place on the album and their averageness is understandable - what can you do with thing? I won't say that I skipped over this tune when I was listening to this album this week, but I didn't look forward to it coming up.

Gil Evans - Out of the Cool

I would like to propose a bold statement. Gil Evans should be considered the source of Miles Davis' success and his musical genius. I base this on this album alone because on this album, freed from Davis' arrogance, Evans is able to create what has to be in the running for the best large ensemble jazz album of all time. When you listen to the three albums (Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess, and Sketches of Spain) that Evans did with Davis in the late 50s what you hear is Evans arrangements being played by a Miles Davis who thought he could make them better with his laconic, lackadaisical, perpetually-Harmon-muted trumpet.

Strong stuff, I know, but I use those terms to denigrate Miles to emphasize how important I think Evans is as a musician. Out of the Cool is as good an album as any that Davis ever recorded, with the sole possiblity (notice it isn't guaranteed in my view) of Kind of Blue.

(As a bit of a footnote here, please recognize that I do like Miles Davis. I just think that his brilliance lay in surrounding himself with the best musicians, and that ultimately this made Davis come out looking better than his individual contributions to the music warrant.)

"La Nevada"

I know this is probably by far the most popular tune on the album. It deserves it. Evans' piano manages to create an amazing, brilliant tension that even when the piano line changes to a standard style of chording accompaniment as the piece progresses, maintains itself in the rest of the rhythm section.

I have this tune on right now, and I have no idea what to write about it. It is a cliche, but it leaves me speechless. I know why it hits me that way, too. It says what it wants to using music. What this song is trying to communicate it isn't possible to say using words.

The trombone solo on this thing just kicked in (at the 6:02 mark). After 2 recent weeks of trombone choirs and their attendant horrors, I feel like like someone finally gets what a trombone could and should be. Thank god, I was worried that the Flying Dutchman (Winding) was going to be the last word on jazz trombone.

And now a tenor sax solo - I know it is a bit of a sacrilege (especially for me), but that solo rivals any of Coltrane's from the same time period. (Not overall, Coltrane played stuff that will make your head explode and you will love every minute of it, but from 1960 - this is good stuff even compared to Coltrane).

"Where Flamingos Fly"

I would like to believe that this album might be Gil Evans' response to the trombone-schlock that Winding and Johnson put out on impulse! before Out of the Cool. I want to believe that Evans heard those albums, reacted to them the same way I did, and then turned "Where Flamingos Fly" into a musical smackdown of Winding's and Johnson's crime against the trombone. (I feel as though the Hague should get involved with the unnatural acts that two perpetrated on that fine instrument.)

The feeling in this song would make me actually weep openly, in front of other males, if my heart was not a chunk of ice-cold granite.

"Bilbao"

Listen for the dissonances in the head - it is a small thing, but they make this tune. A perfect example of how knowing the rules, and then breaking them just a little bit, can turn something from a rather mundane piece into a piece of music that is art and not just ear candy. Breaking the rules a little bit is where so many of the avant-garde guys are going to go wrong - they break every rule and a lot of what they do is just a waste of time.

"Stratosphunk"

This tune has a nice quiet energy, that frankly doesn't excite me all that much. The walking trombone line, frankly gets a bit irritating. It does have a really great horn line at about 1:53 or so that is just a great riff that doesn't end up feeling like it was destined to be played ad infinitum by a basketball pep band.

But, honestly, I just can't get over how this song just seems to plod all the way through. It isn't a bad tune, its just that its mellowness leans towards the boring and unenergetic - not the calm and relaxed vibe that I think Evans wanted with it.

"Sunken Treasure"

I think this is my favorite song on the album. (I am a contrarian. If I was not, it would be "La Nevada", but since every body else picks that one...)

It swells. There is no other way to describe it. Having relatively recently been on several boats on the ocean, this is the musical equivalent of feeling waves pass under the keel. And the part I like best about this swelling? it isn't dynamics/volume. It is tone, timbre, chord progression, etc. He does it the hard way, not the easy way.

It is also painfully relaxing.

"Sister Sadie" (this is a bonus track from the C.D. release, and I have it, so I will talk about it, but...)

This is a bonus track for a reason. It does not fit this album. "Sister Sadie" isn't bad, but its vibe is much more Genius + Soul = Jazz by Ray Charles, than it is Gil Evans Out of the Cool. It swings much harder than the rest of the tunes, and its swingingness is much more obvious. The other tunes swing, but it is a subtle type that only a true jazz aficionado is able to appreciate.

It is not that I don't like this tune, but in the context of the rest of the material on this album, I don't. It doesn't belong, and in my humble opinion it seems pretty obvious why it wasn't included on the original release. It just feels a little too much like a red-headed stepchild - it stands out and just doesn't fit in.

If you like anything that Miles Davis did before he went crazy and plugged every damn instrument in his ensemble into an amp, you will love this. This one album pushes Davis down at least one notch in the jazz musician pantheon, to at least right below Gil Evans. Seriously, Gil Evans was the genius, Miles just knew how to take advantage of him.

Kai Winding: The Incredible Kai Winding Trombones

The Incredible Kai Winding Trombones

Personnel: Kai Winding, Johnny Messner, Ephie Resnick, Jimmy Knepper--tenor trombone; Tony Studd, Paul Faulise, Dick Lieb--bass trombone; Bill Evans, Ross Tompkins--piano; Bob Cranshaw, Ron Carter--string bass; Olatunji--conga drum; Ray Starling--mellophone; Sticks Evans, Al Beldini--drums.






I think the best way to approach this album is to remember what it is: a novelty record of a "trombone choir" (Kai Winding's term for his group), consisting of 7 trombones. It also has a mellophone. A mellophone. (As a side note, this begs someone to ask whether or not Winding ever really quit Stan Kenton's band...) If that isn't a recipe for a bunch of mid-range mushiness, I don't know what is.

A brief statement: There is a difference between being musically creative and just trying something new for the sake of something new. This album isn't creative - it is simply a random experiment that turned out rather badly for those of us who don't worship at the Church of the Holy Trombone.

That many trombones makes this a niche record - I think the guy who wrote the allmusic.com review gets it just right: "Fine straight-ahead music obviously most enjoyed by listeners who like the sound of trombones."That is a remarkably polite way of saying that if you like the distinct tone of the trombone, in all of its mushy, non-offensive blandness, this is the album for you.

I have been listening to this music for a week now, and I have spent this week with a vague sense of irritation. I know that one of the reasons for this irritation is because this is the 2nd Kai Winding trombone high holy services I have attended in 3 weeks. It is frankly a rather inauspicious start to this blogging project (and frankly to impulse!). Thankfully the next 9 or 10 weeks of albums are going to be much better. But this has been way too much trombone for me.


I think the rest of my irritation is based on how boring this album is. After I listen to an album at least once a day (and for this one it is a few more times a day than that since it is just under 40 minutes long) I would expect to be able to remember track names and at least a general idea of where the each song is going. But there is so little to engage me musically on this recording, each time I listen to it is like it is new, and I mean that in the worst possible way. That is why this review is so incredibly nonspecific. I can't remember anything about it. Nothing sticks. Nothing stands out. Not even for me to take notes while I am listening.


Bye, Bye, Blackbird is the Stairway to Heaven of jazz - just like in the guitar shop in Wayne's World, the jazz community should forbid that song from ever being played again. This version is particularly horrible. 7 trombones and a mellophone working their way through it? This can only be considered a crime against humanity.


The album also contains the same tune twice, Michie (Fast) and Michie (Slow). Other than the fact that this tune is the musical jazz version of Charlie Brown's adult-character voices being done with a trombone (undifferentiated and mushy), the slow version of this song made me physically angry. The slow version is clearly a slow-tempo ballad. The first trombone solo (and all the solos for that matter) are essentially in double time. These are professional jazz musicians - that apparently never learned to improvise in a slow tempo. Why the hell the head slow and then speed it for the solos? The result is crap.


I honestly can't write any more about this album, thinking about it anymore is going to ruin my Saturday. If I didn't know what music was coming up, I would quit this project. Whoever let Creed Taylor record to Kai Winding albums in the first 3 impulse! releases should have been fired. 


I am going to go listen to the next album at least 6 times in a row - Out of the Cool by The Gil Evans Orchestra. There are trombones on it, but the ratio of trombones to normal instruments is much lower than on this Kai Winding stuff. I am sorry if you like him, but it is just too Lawrence Welk for me.


I will write a better review next week I promise. It will probably be a good review too. But try to make me listen to Kai Winding again, and you get hurt.