George Russell on the DuPlex

The DuPlex Mystery Jazz Hour took a look at the work of this important composer/arranger/pianist on 6.22.17. Russell should be given his due as an important formulator of the modal concept in jazz,   adopted by so many musicians in the 50's and 60's. He was also a very early adopter of electronic instruments and synthesizer in jazz.

LISTEN HERE

PLAYLIST

Dizzy Gillespie and His Orchestra with Chano Pozo "Cubana Be Cumana Bop" 1947 on RCA Victor

Buddy DeFranco "A Bird in Igor's Yard" 1949 on Capital-Buddy DeFranco (clarinet), Al Cohn (tenor sax), Gene DiNovi (piano), Bernie Glow, Paul Cohen, Jimmy Pupa, Jack Eagle (trumpets), Ollie Wilson, Earl Swope, Bart Varsalona (trombones), Lee Konitz, Frank Socolow (alto saxes), Gerry Sanfino (tenor sax), Serge Chaloff (baritone sax), Oscar Pettiford (bass), Irv Kluger (drums), possibly Jimmy Raney (guitar). Composed by George Russell.

Artie Shaw & His Orchestra "Similau"  1950

George Russell Sextet "Concerto for Billy the Kid" from "The Jazz Workshop" 1956 on RCA Victor-Art Farmer (trumpet), Hal McKusick (alto), Bill Evans (piano), Barry Galbraith (guitar), Milt Hinton (bass), Paul Motian (drums), George Russell (arrange)

George Russell Sextet "Fellow Delegates" from "The Jazz Workshop" 1956 on RCA Victor Teddy Kotick -b, Osie johnson-drums

George Russell Sextet "Ezzthetic" from "The Jazz Workshop" 1956 on RCA Victor

"Manhattan" from "New York, N Y"1959  on Decca-George Russell - arranger, conductor' tpts-Art Farmer - Doc Severinson Ernie Royal Joe Wilder Joe Ferrante; tbpne Bob Brookmeyer Frank Rehak Tom Mitchell Jimmy Cleveland Hal McKusick - alto saxophones Phil Woods - tenor saxophone John Coltrane -Al Cohn Benny Golson -Sol Schlinger - baritone saxophone, bass saxophone Gene Allen - baritone saxophone Bill Evans - piano Barry Galbraith - guitar George Duvivier - bass Milt Hinton - bass Charlie Persip - drums Max Roach - drums Don Lamond - drums Al Epstein - bongos Jon Hendricks - vocals, narration

"Waltz from Outer Space" from "Jazz in the Space Age" 1960 on Decca= -George Russell: arranger, conductor;trumpet Ernie RoyalAl Kiger Marky Markowitz:tbn Frank Rehak: David Baker:Bob Brookmeyer: Jimmy Buffington: french horn Hal McKusick: alto, Dave Young: tenor, Sol Schlinger: baritone Bill Evans: piano Paul Bley: piano Barry Galbraith: guitar Howard Collins: guitar Milt Hinton: bass Don Lamond: drums Charlie Persip: drums

George Russell "The Lydiot" from "Jazz in the Space Age" 1960 on Decca

George Russell Sextet "Round Midnight" from "Ezzthetics"1961 on Riverside George Russell - piano, arranger  Don Ellis - trumpet Dave Baker - trombone Eric Dolphy - alto sax and bass clarinet Steve Swallow - bass Joe Hunt - drums

George Russell Sextet "Nardis" from "Ezzthetics" 1961 on Riverside

"The Stratus Seekers" from "The Stratus Seekers" 1962 on Riverside Stratus Seekers  -George Russell: piano, arranger, conductor Don Ellis: trumpet David Baker: trombone Paul Plummer:tenor John Pierce: alto Steve Swallow: bass Joe Hunt: drums

"Pan Daddy" from "The Stratus Seekers" 1962 on Riverside
"Othello Ballet Suite" from "Othello Ballet Suite" 1968) on Riverside- recorded November 3, 1967 at the studios of Radio Sweden in Stockholm; Alto–Arne Domnerus Drums–Jon Christensen; Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tenor– Bernt Rosengren and Jan Garbarek Trumpet – Rolf Eriksson

George Russell's Living Time Orchestra "Electronic Sonata for Souls Loved by Nature" from "Electronic Sonata for Souls Loved by Nature" 1969 on Flying Dutchman-Jan Garbarek: tenor, Manfred Schoof: tot,Terje Rypdal:  guitar, Jon Christensen: drums, Red Mitchell: bass, George Russell: piano

Lisen to the Silence- live album by George Russell originally recorded in 1971. Text Credits:"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown, "The Mark" by Maurice Nicoll, "Duino Elegies" by Rainer Maria Rilke. George Russell-timpani, arranger Stanton Davis-tpt,Jan Garbarek - tenor sax,Terje Rypdal-electric guitar,Webster Lewis - organ, Bobo Stenson-electric piano,Bjørnar Andresen- fender bass, Arild Andersen-acoustic bass Jon Christensen -percussion, Chorus of the Conservatory of Music in Oslo, Norway George Russell "Event 1" "Event II" from "Listen to the
"Event III" from "Listen to the Silence" 1971) on Concept Records
   

Mark Harvey On The Duplex

I had an interesting session with trumpeter, pianist, composer, arranger, minister, writer, educator Mark Harvey on the 1/28/16 Duplex Mystery Radio Hour on WZBC. Check out Mark's book and CD here. 

Listen to the show HERE

Woody Herman "Mo-Lasses" from "The Swinginest" (1963) on Phillips 

Charlie Parker "Cool Blues" from "Charlie Parker at Storyville" (1988) on Blue Note 

George Russell "War Gewesen" from "George Russell/7 Classic Albums" on Real Gone Jazz 

George Russell "War Gewesen" from "George Russell/So What" (1987) on Blue Note 

The Mark Harvey Group "Tarot: The Moon" from "The Boston Creative Jazz Scene 1970-1983" (2016) on Cultures of Soul 

Thing "Road Through the Wall Pts 2,3" from "The Boston Creative Jazz Scene 1970-1983" (2016) on Cultures of Soul 

Stanton Davis/Ghetto Mysticism "Play Sleep" from "The Boston Creative Jazz Scene 1970-1983" (2016) on Cultures of Soul 

Baird Hersey and the Year of the Ear "Herds and Hoards" from "Herds and Hoards" (2016) on Cultures of Soul 

Songs That Deeply Move

After my recent interview with Sheila Jordan, Jeff Turton made this comment: "She sang at my wedding and I always loved "You Are My Sunshine..."[see below]. I asked if she would sing it but she told me that she wouldn't sing it because to her it was a sad song. Growing up it was always a song that they sang when there were problems in the mines and lives were lost, which happened on a regular basis back then... Since that time I have never heard the song in the same way and I now hear that sadness in her voice."

There are often universal, or at least consensual emotional responses to music. Minor and major are more than just the mechanical act of flatting the third. But, we always bring our own backstory too, sometimes conscious, sometimes not and once in a while we are blindsided by our own reaction and deeply moved by music that other people find merely "pleasant," or "well-crafted."  

Abbey Lincoln

I'm not talking about the effect of music at the transcendental end of the spectrum-Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders and others. That music summons up large vistas and profound cosmic spaces. The songs I allude to here move us to a very personal inner space and often, a deep melancholy. Sometimes we understand why this happens, as in Jeff's story above; sometimes not. The fact that we may not know why we are emotionally stirred seems to deepen the experience.

In "Dinji," from Wayne Shorter's "Super Nova" album, a very personal vocal by Maria Booker is bookended by music evoking a wider, more cosmic palette. This deepens the effect of the vocal, which enters at about 4:00.

In the LP "Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie," comes Ella with "Good Morning Heartache," a beautiful marriage of music, lyric and musician. No surprise at its effect.

Here's "You Are My Sunshine," off the album "The Outer View." The arrangement George Russell wrote showed that he grasped the many layers of subtext in the song and Sheila Jordan's relationship to it.

Rahsaan and "A Laugh for Rory." Why this song? I'm not sure, but the combination of the real child's voice, the bubbling lightness of the head contrasted with the dramatics of the solos tripped a wire in me.

Finally, the song with a mojo that struck me like thunder is "Throw It Away," by Abbey Lincoln from "A Turtle's Dream." Why? I'll let the mystery continue to breathe.

RIP George Russell.

John Fitzerald Kennedy's favorite jazz guy now joins him in the great whatever in the sky. JFK loved "Jazz in the Space Age."

As a kid I sat in on a couple of George lectures and saw his student bands at New England Conservatory a few times.

He had an compelling and, to me, useful lecture on the acceleration of units of time from the early Jazz world of King Oliver to the present, (circa 1974) using modes of travel as his working metaphor wherein the whole note units of early jazz expressed the tempo of the day like horse drawn carriages and then the movement to half notes was Tin Lizzy and quarter notes was a Streamliner locomotive, Basie's super chief.

The 16th notes of Bird's time were fighter planes from world war two and the 32nd notes of Coltrane where jet aircraft and Ornette, why he was a rocket ship.

I folded it into my own narrative. George loved to play with time and his late period ensembles found amazing juxtapositions wherein a large ensemble might entail several sub units working in different time frames for astonishing dynamic tempo tensions.

The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization is his monument and another of the rare working texts in the small canon of reference works of value to a jazz composer. He had a very quiet voice, maybe an outcome of his debilitating wrestle with tuberculosis which compelled him to abandon his aspiration to be a drummer.

And yet this aspiration transformed into a way of thinking about sonic architecture as if ensemble sections were metaphors for toms, snares, cymbals and kick drum. He was in the center of things in the early 60s with many innovations such as sonic movies like New York, New York.

Stratusphunk, rendered by the Gil Evans Orchestra, has an unique bubbling buoyancy about it. Ezzthetic has to be one of the most gorgeous recordings ever, especially 'Nardis', a Miles tune that never found its way into Miles own recordings of the period. I can still whistle its haunting Arabesques.

Evans and Russell together were something and it's sad they didn't work together more often as Gil went off to infatuations with Jimmy Hendrix that sound like Uncle Ralph trying to wow the kids at an undergrad mixer.

Hendrix was such a singular force that attempts to repackage him often end up sounding odd and dorky as if he is impervious to them and lord knows it wasn't for lack of trying. Gil shoulda stuck with George instead of trying to wow the boomers.

George was one of the people I found on old WBUR radio before NPR wrecked it. And then I was surprised to discover someone of his stature was right here, in Boston, a school within a school and far more majestic and compelling than that odd enervated Ran Blake third stream mess that seemed to owe its existence to an effort to fabricate a form pleasing to dotty blue blood endowment dowagers.

For some reason I'm hearing Shane MacGowan in my minds ear right now.."And we tipped a glass to JFK and a dozen more besides.." That could just as well apply to George, a lingering living time vestage of Camelot now at last laid to rest.

Sleep you well.