Art Blakey - A La Mode?
Adam Bravo
La Mode" by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. It most certainly did not
sound like Blakey or any version of the Jazz Messengers I had ever heard,
and I was able to find is no such recording anyway. I can describe the
piece - it was a medium fast swing tune, sounded modal in some minor key.
There was a tenor solo followed by a brass solo - I couldn't tell whether it
was trumpet or flugel, then a piano solo. The head was a few short riffs,
played very tightly in harmony by what sounded like alto, tenor, and
trumpet.
I know it's a huge long shot, but possibly somebody has a clue?
Martin S. Milgrim
currently available on the cd, Impulse IMPD-175. Personnel consists of
Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Curtis Fuller, Bobby Timmons, Jymie Merritt
and of course, Blakey.
Great album.
Martin
Adam Bravo
little bit more Jazz Messengers.
"Martin S. Milgrim" <mmil...@gate.net> wrote in message
news:3DE821A2...@gate.net...
JohnHassel
This piece was defintiely recorded by The Jazz Messengers - as someone else
noted, it was originally recorded on the Impulse label by the edition of the
band that included Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter and Curtis Fuller. However...from
your description - with the tune containing a trumpet and possibly two
saxophones, it might have actually been from the Jazz Messengers recording
"Keystone 3" which featured Wynton and Branford Marsalis and Billy Pierce on
the front line. This edition was recorded in about 1982.
Incidentally, the song was written by Curtis Fuller - who told me that he
titled it "A La Mode" because composing a song for his first date with Art
Blakey and the Jazz Messengers was like "the icing on the cake."
Take care,
John Hasselback
sgordon
straight-ahead bebop solo I've ever heard Shorter play. It also
has the most gorgeous-sounding recording of Blakey's ride cymbal,
before he started losing his hearing and switched from Turkish-made
Zildjians to the brighter American-made variety.
Scott
JohnHassel <johnh...@aol.com> wrote:
: This piece was defintiely recorded by The Jazz Messengers - as someone else
: Take care,
: John Hasselback
:>
Michael Fitzgerald
>Indeed, the original version with Morgan/Shorter has the best
>straight-ahead bebop solo I've ever heard Shorter play.
I'm confused about this - absolutely it's a marvelous solo and very
memorable, but it ain't bebop, not by a long shot. The tune and
Shorter's solo are the epitome of the early modal approach (post-Kind
of Blue). As with Cannonball Adderley on "Milestones," there are
occasional remnants of bebop-ish lines, but the complete absence of
ii-V progressions and the prolonged minor 7 or major 7 tonalities
pretty much preclude anything like what real bebop is. One thing that
bebop is about is chord changes and this tune hasn't got them.
For a more bebop Shorter, try the Paris concert from 1959 where Bud
Powell sits in with the Messengers and they do "Bouncing with Bud" and
"Dance of the Infidels," but even there there's quite a bit of
Coltrane sheets-of-sound influence.
Even in a situation where bebop would be very appropriate, like on
"Birdlike" with Freddie Hubbard (1961, Blue Note), Shorter really
avoids the style, even while other soloists (Hubbard, Zawadi, Tyner)
lean heavily on the (by then conventional) bebop sound.
Mike
fitz...@eclipse.net
http://www.eclipse.net/~fitzgera - Gigi Gryce book is now out!
sgordon
: I'm confused about this - absolutely it's a marvelous solo and very
: memorable, but it ain't bebop, not by a long shot.
Ok, I'll stand corrected. I guess I should have said "straight-ahead".
It's just more swinging and inside than any other Shorter solo I've heard.
Scott