(This post is by Ethan.)
Dave Douglas asked recently, "Is there a writer who can take on the project of an unbiased overview of [jazz] music since the end of the Vietnam war?" (There are more recent Douglas posts on this topic here and here.)
I offer up a list of records that I copied off my shelves last week when The Bad Plus was taking a break. I’m going to cheat a little bit: instead of the end of ‘Nam, I’m going to start in 1973 (the year of my birth) in order to sneak in a few more records.
I have given the year albums were recorded, not released. (The Keith Jarrett catalog that leads off the list is the exception, since I just copied the release dates off of Wikipedia.) I am not a discographer, so there are probably some mistakes. A few items are marked with an asterisk (*). That means they are a relatively recent acquisition—since 2000 or so. The rest of them I have considered for 15 to 20 years: I bought them between the ages of 11 and 18, and have kept them in my collection ever since.
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To begin with, I believe that the courageous, outlandish, down ‘n dirty music played together by Keith Jarrett, Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, and Paul Motian to be shamefully underrated and misunderstood. Jarrett was the leader and they were informally called the "American quartet." They left a large body of work:
Birth (1971, Atlantic)
El Juicio (1971, Atlantic)
The Mourning of a Star (1971, Atlantic)
Expectations (1972, Columbia)
Fort Yawuh (1973, MCA-Impulse)
Backhand (1974, MCA-Impulse)
Treasure Island (1974, MCA-Impulse)
Death and the Flower (1974, MCA-Impulse)
Shades (1975, MCA-Impulse)
Mysteries (1975, MCA-Impulse)
Eyes of the Heart (1976, ECM)
The Survivor's Suite (1976, ECM)
Byablue (1976, MCA-Impulse)
Bop-Be (1977, MCA-Impulse)
Reid Anderson and David King also consider this to be one of the great jazz groups, right up there with the Coltrane quartet, assorted Miles Davis bands, Ornette bands, Duke Ellington bands, Basie bands, Monk bands, and whatever else.
(It was unusually easy for the three of us to get all the "American quartet" records in our teens: every person who loved the The Köln Concert as dinner music unsuspectingly bought a Dewey/Charlie/Paul album. Horrified, they would sell the offending item to Cheapo the next day, and we could pick 'em up ten years later for two bucks or less.)
I loved this band then, but as I’ve grown up, they seem to have gotten even better. (This is not true of all the music on the list below.) My pick as their best are the recordings for MCA-Impulse, now collected in two wonderful Impulse boxes. However, any of these albums have the juice.
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Here’s the rest of the list.
1973: Herbie Hancock, Headhunters (Columbia). One of the best-selling jazz albums ever is still a great party record. *Cecil Taylor, Spring of Two Blue Js (Unit Core/J-for-Jazz). Two tracks: a solo piece and a quartet with Jimmy Lyons, Alan Silva, and Andrew Cyrille. These are more tonal than you might expect: the solo begins with a couple of minutes in B minor, and the quartet is in E major before settling into a long time of F# drone in the bass and piano. Sam Rivers, Trio Sessions (Impulse). I had all the 70’s Rivers records once. My favorite was The Quest with Dave Holland and Barry Altschul, but it’s not on CD and my LP is long gone. Trio Sessions is a CD reissue of a two-record set. It's completely free, but they are listening hard, and when Rivers picks up the tenor the music really takes off. Very good Cecil McBee on the first session, and Altschul was the perfect drummer for Rivers, Paul Bley, and Anthony Braxton. Dewey Redman, The Ear of the Behearer (Impulse). The first tune, “Innerconnections,” has a shredding solo by Dewey on alto—one of the few recordings with him on that instrument. *Cedar Walton, Naima (Savoy). Originally on Muse as Live at Boomers. With the great Sam Jones, Louis Hayes, and Clifford Jordan. Walton sounds as strong as Bud Powell on “Cheryl” and “I’ll Remember April.” Any Cedar/Clifford Jordan quartet is going to be the real deal. Hayes is right in there, but ya gotta hear Billy Higgins play with Cedar, too. They are a recent passion; Ben Street showed me the light. See also my review of Cedar’s recent solo record.
1974: Weather Report, Mysterious Traveler (Columbia). Several great tunes, including the title track, “Nubian Sundance,” and the beautiful duet on “Blackthorn Rose.” I’ve heard a live tape of Zawinul, Shorter, Jaco, and Alex Acuna in Detroit playing “Scarlet Woman” that featured long and inspired solos by both Shorter and Zawinul. Wayne Shorter, Native Dancer (Columbia). Milton Nascimento is introduced with a splash. Wayne’s soprano playing is outstanding.
1975: Kenny Wheeler, Gnu High (ECM). This is one of those records that everybody has. It is fascinating to hear Keith Jarrett threading the complex Wheeler harmony. Some great Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette on here too. Oliver Lake, Heavy Spirits (Arista-Freedom). The St. Louis avant-scene. The solo track, “Lonely Blacks,” is powerful. Anthony Braxton, Five Pieces 1975 (Arista). Braxton’s working band with Kenny Wheeler, Dave Holland, and Barry Altschul. I have immense respect for Braxton, but like Cecil Taylor, I have usually preferred hearing him solo as compared to enmeshed in his group music. Somehow this album has vanished from my collection. I’d like to hear it again, since it was the one I liked best of the half-dozen I had in high school. *Steve Lacy, Axieme (Red). Justly famous as one of the great solo saxophone recitals. Stan Getz, The Master (Columbia). A good straight-ahead record. The lesser-known Albert Dailey never sounded better than he does here. Billy Hart’s groove is deep.
1976: Charlie Haden, The Golden Number (A&M). This is one of the very greatest jazz records, featuring duos with Don Cherry, Archie Shepp, Ornette Coleman, and Hampton Hawes. Every note is perfect. Hampton Hawes, At The Piano (Contemporary). Hawes died a few months later; this last trio date with Ray Brown and Shelly Manne is a superb valediction. It has brought me to tears. Hawes’ autobiography, Raise Up Off Me, is essential reading for those curious about “the jazz life.” Steve Lacy, Roswell Rudd, Beaver Harris, Kent Carter, Trickles (Black Saint). A great record for Rudd, whose extraordinary solo on “Robes” is surreally enhanced by his own over-dubbed chimes. Dexter Gordon, Homecoming (Columbia). Dex plays well, Louis Hayes burns, and Woody Shaw steals the show. Old and New Dreams, Old and New Dreams (Black Saint). This is the first recording of a fearless quartet continuing the Ornette Coleman tradition. 30 years later, Stanley Crouch’s excellent liner notes are still one of the most accurate descriptions of these four musicians and how they play together. Herbie Hancock, V.S.O.P. (Columbia). “V.S.O.P.” was the all-star band with Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams. They play very differently in V.S.O.P. than they did in the ‘60s. Larry Grenadier gave me the phrase “Stadium Jazz” to describe what they were doing. Some musicians dismiss it, but I really like it. There are several V.S.O.P. records, and at least two of them are called V.S.O.P., but the one I am listing here is the New York gig where they play “Eye of the Hurricane,” “Maiden Voyage,” and “Nefertiti.” I don’t want to melt too many minds, but I think this version of “Nefertiti” is better than the one with Miles Davis. Also on this two-record set are a couple of wonderful songs with the Mwandishi band (Hancock, Eddie Henderson, Bennie Maupin, Julian Priester, Buster Williams, and Billy Hart). They stopped recording before 1973, but Mwandishi was one of the crucial jazz bands of the 70’s. Woody Shaw, Little Red’s Fantasy (Muse). I had the whole Shaw catalog on Muse at one point. This may have been the best one. I especially liked hearing the underrated Eddie Moore on drums. Weather Report, Heavy Weather (Columbia). Every song is strong on this famous record. Ornette Coleman and Prime Time, Dancing In Your Head (A&M/Horizon) and *Body Meta (Artists House). Coleman discovers electricity. The ecstatic “Theme From a Symphony” on Dancing In Your Head should never have to stop, but at least it lasts nearly the whole record.
1977: *Air, Air Time (Nessa). There are a great many albums by this important and mysterious band. Some enterprising soul should undertake a "Dissertation and Listener’s Guide to Air." On this album, “Keep Right On Playing Through the Mirror Over the Water” is very intense, with Fred Hopkins really throwing down. McCoy Tyner, Supertrios (Milestone). Bathe in piano power! Tyner and Tony Williams’ duo performance of “I Mean You” made a serious impression on me. When I was fifteen, I went to Geoff Keezer’s house in nearby Eau Claire. He casually sat down and played though McCoy’s entire solo of “Wave” from this record. I immediately resolved to never play a pentatonic riff over a fourth chord again. Billy Hart: Enchance (A&M). Buster Williams and Hart swing hard (they are one of the music’s famous rhythm sections) under a free-form sprawl on Oliver Lake’s “Diff Customs.” Don Pullen in particular is outrageous! No other recorded music sounds like this. *Julius Hemphill, Blue Boyé (Screwgun). I am just now really beginning to study Hemphill. I had Coon Bid’ness in high school but didn’t like it that much (I like it much more now.) Many consider Dogon A.D. from 1972 his best record, but there are plenty more Hemphill discs that I haven’t heard. Blue Boyé is very interesting and easy to find. The only musician on the two-record set is Hemphill, who uses overdubbing on most of the tracks. The highlight is “OK Rubberband” with flute, two altos, and handclaps grooving along. The Great Jazz Trio, Kindness, Joy, Love, and Happiness (Inner City). See the Hank Jones post.
1978: *Bob Brookmeyer, Back Again (Sonet). Brookmeyer is famous for his composing, but he’s also one of the great jazz trombonists. This unpretentious and swinging record has some of the best Jimmy Rowles I’ve heard, too. Anthony Braxton, Alto Saxophone Improvisations 1979 (Arista). At his recent mid-size ensemble gig at Iridium, the music really took off when picked up his horn and starting blowing. This two-record set of solo Brax displays his virtuosity even more than 1969's For Alto. The Brecker Brothers, Heavy Metal Bebop (Arista). “I keep my countenance, I remain self-possessed/Except when a street piano, mechanical and tired/Reiterates some worn-out common song/With the smell of hyacinths across the garden/Recalling things that other people have desired./Are these ideas right or wrong?”—T.S. Eliot, Portrait of A Lady
1979: Sir Roland Hanna, Swing Me No Waltzes (Storyville). I had this real young—when I was 12 or some such. I still think it is one of the best “mainstream” solo piano records. The World Saxophone Quartet, Steppin’ (Black Saint). “R ‘n B” is a brilliant Hemphill tune. Near the end of the track, you hear the members talking excitedly and congratulating each other. Then they count off the slow stomp coda. *Ornette Coleman, Of Human Feelings (Antilles). Some think this is the best Prime Time record. Turn it up! To get with this music, you have to dance with it. It doesn’t really groove like a pop record should, but ignore that. Human feelings don’t always groove, either.
1980: *The World Saxophone Quartet, Revue (Black Saint). The first side is all Hemphill compositions. The title song is deep blues. Old and New Dreams, Playing (ECM). Probably their best record. A must. Dewey Redman and Ed Blackwell, In Willisau (Black Saint). The Red and the Black in flight. McCoy Tyner, 4 x 4 (Milestone). Another all-star date. Great appearances by Freddie Hubbard, Arthur Blythe, John Abercrombie, and Bobby Hutcherson. Jaco Pastorius, Word of Mouth (Warner Brothers). Big bands, small groups, and an outrageous solo version of the first part of Bach’s “Chromatic Fantasy.” Jaco was amazing by any standard.
1981: Mal Waldron, What It Is (ENJA). Clifford Jordan sounds right at home on the extended free pieces. With Cecil McBee and some great Dannie Richmond. Freddie Hubbard, Outpost (ENJA). A solid straight-ahead date with Kenny Barron, Buster Williams, and Al Foster. Their deathly slow and beautiful version of “You Don’t Know What Love Is” defines “sad and romantic jazz ballad.” Tim Berne, Songs and Rituals in Real Time (Empire). The next step from an intimate of Julius Hemphill. This great early record has Paul Motian, Ed Schuller, and Mack Goldsbury. Woody Shaw, United (Columbia). One of the cleaner and more enjoyable Shaw Columbia dates. (Recently Duane Eubanks told me Rosewood is real strong, which I don’t know.) Shaw's language is very precise, like Charlie Parker or Ornette Coleman. Many musicians sort-of play in this complex style, but Shaw is more selective with note choices than most of his followers. Bill McHenry has an astounding bootleg tape of Shaw playing "Blue Bossa" and "Invitation" at a Jamey Aebersold camp. *Pat Metheny Group, Offramp (ECM). Metheny and Lyle Mays created their own tradition of American music. I'm no PMG expert, but I got Offramp recently on a whim and was really impressed. Dewey Redman, The Struggle Continues (ECM). The presence of Ed Blackwell is always encouraging. “Turn Over Baby” delivers the Texas honk. Ben Webster told Dewey: “If you can’t outplay them, outLOUD them.”
1982: Charlie Haden/Carla Bley, The Ballad of the Fallen (ECM). Weep for the dead of El Salvador! This powerful record has outstanding performances by Dewey Redman, Don Cherry, and Paul Motian. It’s still my favorite Liberation Music Orchestra record. The suite on side one is extraordinary. *Warne Marsh, Star Highs (Criss-Cross). Most Marsh fans feel that this is one of the best examples of “Late Warne.” The band is excellent: Hank Jones, George Mraz, and Mel Lewis. "Moose the Mooche" is sick. Collin Walcott, Don Cherry, Nana Vasconcelos, Codona 3 (ECM). World music, Don Cherry style. “Clicky Clacky” is Cherry’s sung and spoken-word piece about being a kid and hearing the trains. It’s rather adorable (not the usual adjective for Don Cherry). Ron Carter, Etudes (Elektra/Musician). With Art Farmer, saxophonist Bill Evans, and Tony Williams. This may be the bassist’s best record as a leader: His cute, singsong approach as composer benefits from not having a piano, and Ron and Tony together are flamboyantly fabulous. Evans told me that it was all done in first takes. It took them from 11 to 12:30 in the morning, and then they had lunch. David Murray Octet, Murray’s Steps (Black Saint). “Flowers for Albert” is a catchy/sloppy hymn to Ayler. Instead of ever getting free, they play a gentle beat throughout. Some jazz critics consider Murray’s Steps to be one of Murray’s best records. Tommy Flanagan, Thelonica (ENJA). A good Monk tribute album, with great Art Taylor. Flanagan always pulls out some twists that you didn’t expect from his bebop line. *Elvin Jones, Earth Jones (Palo Alto). A solid date with Dave Liebman and Kenny Kirkland. Surprised that there isn’t more Elvin on this list, I checked this discography and discovered that Elvin didn’t record very much as a sideman in the seventies and eighties. (In the sixties he was in the studio every week.) However, that discography is incomplete, since I can think of Bennie Wallace, Marcus Roberts, Lew Soloff, Bill Frisell, Wynton Marsalis, Joe Lovano, and Hank Jones records that aren’t listed.
1983: Pat Metheny, Rejoicing (ECM). Metheny uses Ornette Coleman tunes and musicians (Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins) to fashion an essential guitar trio record. The highlight is Metheny’s own song “The Calling,” one of the best free jazz pieces ever recorded. If you don't like "The Calling," I can't help you. Keith Jarrett, Standards, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (ECM). Jarrett’s new trio with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette. “All The Things You Are!” Mal Waldron, You and the Night and the Music (ProJazz). The only “standards session” piano trio record with Ed Blackwell.
1984: The Art Ensemble of Chicago, The Third Decade (ECM). The "silly" AEC record. Others are probably better, but this one was a revelation for me and Dave King. “Walking In the Moonlight” is still very, very funny. See also the post on Nessa Records and The Art Ensemble. Wynton Marsalis, Black Codes (from the Underground) (Columbia). Great compositions. The rhythm section of Kenny Kirkland, Charnett Moffett, and Jeff “Tain” Watts is vicious and elemental. Mark Turner has heard bootlegs of this band that he claims are even better than this classic record.
1985: Keith Jarrett, Standards Live (ECM). Both Dave King and I obsessed over this record. Chet Baker and Paul Bley, Diane (Steeplechase). Lyric poetry and deep harmonic knowledge. While it is the most conservative Bley on record, a few wild notes always peek though that only Bley dare play. Joe Henderson, State of the Tenor, Vols. 1 and 2 (Blue Note). Joe, Ron Carter, and Al Foster are a perfect match, so it doesn’t really matter that there are too many difficult arrangements of obscure material on these "Live at the Vanguard" records. Billy Hart, Oshumare (Gramavision). Check the line up: Kenny Kirkland, Kevin Eubanks, Steve Coleman, Branford Marsalis, Mark Grey, Didier Lockwood, Bill Frisell and Dave Holland. Like Enchance, Oshumare features musicians who have never played together except on this one occasion—it seems to be “The Billy Hart Concept.” Oshumare is a charismatic and energetic record. Pat Metheny/Ornette Coleman, Song X (Geffen). The album that tried to introduce Ornette to the masses. “Kathelin Grey” and “Mob Job” are the famous tracks. Bootlegs of the tour are stunning. Dexter Gordon, The Other Side of Round Midnight (Blue Note). This is actually much better than the official soundtrack to the movie Round Midnight. Dex’s reading of “As Time Goes By” is spectacular. The closing “’Round Midnight” is probably Herbie Hancock’s best recorded unaccompanied solo. Dave Liebman/Richie Beirach, The Duo Live (Advance Music). Serious musicians with a serious concept. This album was transcribed in full by Bill Dobbins.
1986: Oliver Lake, Gallery, (Gramavision). With Geri Allen, Fred Hopkins, and Pheeroan akLaff. I loved this record in high school. “Sad Louis” is a very beautiful composition for solo alto sax. Not yet on CD except as part of Compilation, which has other interesting music from Lake’s Gramavision years too. Branford Marsalis, Royal Garden Blues (Columbia). A cast of many, with great performances by Ron Carter, Al Foster, Kenny Kirkland (whose ballad “Dienda” is a highlight) and others. Branford really takes off on the nifty arrangement of “Strike Up the Band.” The best Branford records so far are probably the mid-‘90s trio dates. Cecil Taylor, For Olim (Soul Note). I always preferred the solo discs to the ensembles. This one has short tunes and excellent sound, which is why it always shows up on “best of” lists. Benoit Delbecq tells me the scarce solo Cecil album Garden (Hat Hut?) is the one to hear. Anybody got a copy? Steve Kuhn, Life’s Magic (Black-Hawk). Kuhn sounds great, but I keep this record around for the band (Ron Carter and Al Foster). Andrew Hill, Shades (Soul Note). Like Waldron’s What It Is, this is a piano-led quartet that features outstanding Clifford Jordan (who played so well with Cedar Walton, too). This is possibly Hill’s most conservative album. It remains a fun listen. *Wynton Marsalis, Live At Blues Alley (Columbia). Marcus Roberts’ astonishing long solo on the blues “Juan” best displays where this school was trying to get to. “Knozz-Moe-King” has brilliant trumpet playing, and many consider Live at Blues Alley the best Marsalis record overall. I haven’t heard most of them made since, but I do know that this is the last one he made with a rhythm section that was a pack of wild dogs; his bands have been merely “tippin’” ever since. However, the future awaits, and he is easy artist to underrate. In 2003 I heard Marsalis play tunes at the Jazz Standard with a pick-up band including Robert Hurst. Something circa-1986 ignited between him and Hurst, and suddenly the music was abstract and inspired. Ornette Coleman, In All Languages (Caravan of Dreams). The acoustic band with Don Cherry, Billy Higgins, and Don Cherry is back! Ornette delivers some real Texas tenor on “Feet Music,” which also has great Coleman-Haden improvised counterpoint. Fred Hersch, Sarabande (Sunnyside). Hersch has deep knowledge of advanced jazz harmony, but on this album he also plays superb free music. Charlie Haden and Joey Baron sound so good that you wish they had done more playing together. Henry Threadgill Sextett, You Know The Number (RCA/Novus). A very bluesy record with Rasul Sadik, Frank Lacy, Pheeroan akLaff, Reggie Nicholson, Fred Hopkins, and Diedre Murray. “Theme from Thomas Cole” is the great jam. Later, Threadgill’s music became less bluesy but just as interesting. (See the 90's "Very Very Circus" records.) Reid, Dave and I all checked out various Threadgill discs when young. We have talked to many “straight-ahead” jazz musicians who have never heard a note of Threadgill, which is unfortunate for them since he is one of music’s important resources. There’s at least one great track on every Threadgill record we’ve heard. Mal Waldron/Steve Lacy, Sempre Amore (Soul Note). One of the better Ellington/Strayhorn tributes, with stark piano and angular saxophone. Miles Davis, Tutu (Warner Brothers). At age 60, the Dark Prince reinvented himself once again with Marcus Miller, a new record label, and one of his greatest album covers. I had this on LP as soon as it came out, and loved the first side and hated the second side (at 14 you can be a little too sure of yourself). The title track is still a guilty pleasure. All of the Miles ‘80’s albums have at least one interesting track, but sometimes plowing through the whole of every disc can be a bit arduous. Wayne Shorter, Phantom Navigator (Columbia). Whatever you think of the production values of any given record, Shorter’s harmonic imagination is always unique. I’d like to figure out how to cover “Mahogany Bird” some day.
1987: Charlie Haden/Paul Motian featuring Geri Allen, Etudes (Soul Note). One of the better versions of Ornette’s “Lonely Woman” is on this album. Allen is real strong throughout, and I’ll listen to anything with Haden and Motian together. They made other albums as a trio, but this was their first and probably their best. Gary Peacock, Guamba (ECM). I cruelly played this to Happy Apple as part of a recent blindfold test. King sat there quiet, listening for five minutes, before jumping up and yelling “Peter Erskine!” True dat. The other players on this dreamy album are Palle Mikkelborg and Jan Garbarek. Tim Berne, Sanctified Dreams (Columbia). Burning music—all the Berne/Joey Baron albums are serious. In a really lovely way, Herb Robertson doesn’t seem to think when he plays—the madness just comes out. Mark Dresser and Hank Roberts are on it too, all recent bloods strutting their stuff. “Blue Alpha” is a great tune. The Bill Frisell Band, Lookout For Hope (ECM). This was Frisell’s first “band” album, with Hank Roberts, Kermit Driscoll, and Joey Baron. It stands the test of time. Frisell’s work is vitally important to the Bad Plus. Dave Holland Quintet, The Razor’s Edge (ECM). Steve Coleman and Holland had some important years together. Kenny Wheeler is really strong (“4,5,6”). Joe Henderson, An Evening with Joe Henderson, Charlie Haden, and Al Foster (Red). This is many tenor players’ favorite Joe record. It’s one of Foster’s best, too. Mark Helias, The Current Set (ENJA). Helias is a tuneful and contrapuntal composer. Here he unites a diverse group of horn players (Tim Berne, Greg Osby, Herb Robertson, Robin Eubanks) and tethers them against the deep feel of straight-ahead master Victor Lewis. The Current Set is another serious reference for me; I know every note. Ornette Coleman and Prime Time, Virgin Beauty (Portrait/Columbia). “Unknown Artist” is mostly unaccompanied alto. If only he would grace us with an entire album of solo saxophone! Ornette Coleman is one of the two greatest composers of melody in the history of music. The other is Franz Schubert. Marc Johnson’s Bass Desires, Second Sight (ECM). John Scofield, Bill Frisell, and Peter Erskine all contribute interesting tunes to a fun record. There is real stylistic diversity on display: straight rock on “Twister,” abstract modal swing on “Thrill Seeker,” and atmospheric groove on “Sweet Soul.” Paul Motian Trio featuring Joe Lovano and Bill Frisell, One Time Out (Soul Note). One Time Out should be better known, since it has their most intense free playing on record. If you only know the recent I Have the Room Above Her, you might be surprised at how raw and aggressive One Time Out is. “The Storyteller” is a beautiful tune. A signal event in Dave and Ethan’s life was seeing this band live at the Walker Art Center in 1989. Michael Brecker, Michael Brecker (Impulse). If you are curious about what the phrase “virtuoso saxophone” means, try Brecker’s first record as a leader. It’s also a must for Kenny Kirkland and Jack DeJohnette fans (their playing together on “Syzygy” is ferocious). A very influential record.
1988: Dave Holland Trio, Triplicate (ECM). With Steve Coleman and Jack DeJohnette. At the time, Jack’s playing on “Take the Coltrane” seemed as advanced as jazz drumming was going to get. Coleman tears up the blues and “Segment” in a completely personal style, drawing on the threading styles of Coltrane, Shorter, and Konitz. Don Pullen, New Beginnings (Blue Note). Pullen had great rhythm and drew a deep, dark, bluesy sound out of the piano. This trio record with Gary Peacock and Tony Williams is the best Pullen I have heard. Paul Motian, On Broadway Volume One (JMT). Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano, Charlie Haden, and Motian show how much they love the old songs. Motian’s drums explode during his intro to “Liza.” The three tender Cole Porter songs--“My Heart Belongs to Daddy,” “So In Love,” and “I Concentrate On You”—are especially fine.
1989: Tim Berne, Fractured Fairy Tales (JMT). Joey Baron again. This album is so good, I thought everybody would know it when I moved to New York in 1991. (That didn’t exactly turn out to be true.) It features the band from Sanctified Dreams plus the devious Mark Feldman. Paul Bley, The Nearness of You (Steeplechase). Billy Hart undulates peacefully beneath the madman as he rummages though the past (it’s hard to believe Bley is playing “Lullaby of Birdland”). *Charlie Haden with Joe Henderson and Al Foster, The Montreal Tapes (Verve). “Passport” is the only long Henderson solo on rhythm changes that I know about. It is magnificent. Kenny Werner, Introducing the Trio (Sunnyside). With Ratzo Harris and Tom Rainey. The six-minute “Free Piece” was a revelation. Excellent recorded sound by Michael McDonald. John Zorn, Naked City (Nonesuch). Zorn brilliantly juxtaposed “straight” bits (Henri Mancini’s theme for A Shot in the Dark) and thrash (the terrifying vocalist Yamatsuka Eye). Take the paint off the walls with this one. With Eye, Bill Frisell, Joey Baron, Wayne Horvitz, and Fred Frith. Mulgrew Miller, The Countdown (Landmark). With Ron Carter, Tony Williams, and Joe Henderson. Mulgrew had a good relationship with Tony Williams. I remember seeing the Williams quintet play at the Artist's Quarter in Minneapolis. When Mulgrew took a solo, Williams played busy and hard but at an acceptable volume. When the horns soloed, Tony played like he just wanted to bury them. I recently re-listened to Countdown and found it good.
1990: Steve Coleman, Black Science (Novus). This was the first M-Base album with all-acoustic piano (no keyboards). Coleman developed a unique compositional language based on multi-layered rhythmic cycles and refracted pentatonic melodies. I studied with him a little bit at the Banff summer workshop in the summer of ’90 and was impressed with how thorough his conception was.
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The list now ends, since after I moved to New York in the fall of 1991 to go to college, I was broke. If I had any money, I spent it on seeing the music live, not buying records. But since he started all this, let me tip my hat:
1993: Dave Douglas, Parallel Worlds (Soul Note). I was at many of the ’92-‘93 Douglas gigs in New York. (I remember a trio hit at C.B.G.B.’s Gallery with Mark Dresser and Mike Sarin, where they played a very long and beautiful version of Monk’s “Introspection” that was completely abstracted.) When I got his first record, I already knew the tunes from seeing this band live. Douglas took the string ensemble off of Tim Berne’s Fractured Fairy Tales and added twelve-tone music and Duke Ellington. It is intricately detailed but passionate music.
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I could have made this list much longer, but how many Paul Bley and Mal Waldron records can you put on a list without looking silly? Or Weather Report or Wayne Shorter; I own almost everything, but only the albums that resonated the most with me made the cut. I've left some people out entirely, like Lee Konitz and Sonny Rollins, both of whom surely made some great music during this time frame that I haven't heard. (Maybe “What is your favorite Milestone album by Sonny Rollins and why?” should be a blog invitational.) My apologies also the entire European free jazz scene, but I just don’t know those records yet. Neither volume of Mingus Changes ever spoke to me; I'll have to relisten someday. (I will, however, lay down my life for Let My Children Hear Music from 1971.) No one is without some bias. Someone else will need to fill in Chick Corea, Bill Evans, '70's Miles Davis, Mahavishnu, and other worthy artists that I have always rejected.
