Jazz Essentials, Part 4

Five masters of their respective instruments

By Tom Ineck

Since we began this series of features on the jazz recordings essential to any music library, we have taken a look at classic releases of 1959, five artists who shaped the music in its early days and six examples of the vocal art. This time we offer recommended CDs by five significant jazz artists who have something important to say on their respective instruments—saxophone, piano, drums, trombone and guitar.

Of these chosen five, only Sonny Rollins remains alive and active in the studio and in performance. A true titan of the tenor saxophone, Rollins cultivates a firm middle ground between the breathy quaver of Coleman Hawkins and the nimble-fingered, thinner-toned attack of Lester Young, between the lush romance of Ben Webster and the boppish twists and turns of Dexter Gordon. In a career spanning nearly 60 years, Rollins, who turns 80 in September, has raised himself to the pinnacle of the jazz art. Oscar Peterson brings a prodigious technique to the piano keyboard, and his prolific recorded output provides ample opportunity for fans to witness his astounding skills in a variety of settings, including many live sessions. His favored format was the trio—first with bass and guitar, later with bass and drums—but no one ever doubted Peterson’s role as leader. Art Blakey, besides being one of the most exciting jazz drummers of all time and an architect of the bebop movement, was a skilled band leader and mentor whose Jazz Messengers served as a finishing school for dozens of future jazz stars, including Horace Silver, Kenny Dorham, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Curtis Fuller, Cedar Walton, Bobby Watson and Wynton Marsalis. J.J. Johnson single-handedly shaped the future of the modern jazz trombone with his amazing dexterity and wealth of ideas. He made the difficult changes and hot tempos of bebop sound easy to maneuver, while bringing a resonant vocal quality to his instrument. Grant Green has too often taken a back seat to Wes Montgomery in the annals of modern jazz guitar, but his ability to combine fleet-fretted bop lines, the soulfulness of a blues player and a biting tone make him Montgomery’s equal.    

SONNY ROLLINS

Saxophone Colossus

Prestige Records

I had the great good fortune to interview Sonny Rollins in the early 1990s, shortly after the death of Miles Davis and Art Blakey. He expressed his respect and reverence for them and others who had passed on and said he felt not only honored, but obliged to uphold the jazz tradition in their memory. It is amazing to me that he remains just as dedicated and passionate about his music in 2010 as he did then and at the dawn of his career in the early 1950s. In the course of his musical mission, Rollins has recreated himself many times, most famously during a sabbatical of a couple of years in the 1960s. There are so many great Rollins recordings, it is tempting to recommend a boxed set, but I will go with “Saxophone Colossus” from 1956 because it contains the saxophonist’s great originals “St. Thomas,” “Strode Rode,” and “Blue Seven.” This early example of Rollins at his most imaginative and technically challenging also features Tommy Flanagan on piano, Doug Watkins on bass and Max Roach on drums.    

OSCAR PETERSON TRIO

At the Stratford Shakespearean Festival

Verve Records

It is difficult to go wrong with any of Oscar Peterson’s many recordings (Amazon lists 376 separate titles), released primarily on Mercury, Verve, Pablo and Telarc from 1950 to 2007, the year of his death. His staying power and talent were as prodigious as his girth. I recommend 1956’s “At the Stratford Shakespearean Festival” because it is the pinnacle of the early Peterson trio that also featured guitarist Herb Ellis and bassist Ray Brown. It captures them in thrilling live performances of “Falling in Love with Love,” “Swinging on a Star,” “How High the Moon,” “52^nd Street Theme” and others, plus two bonus tracks on the expanded 75-minute CD. This drummerless threesome was together for about five years before Ellis left and Peterson added drummer Ed Thigpen, so it documents a very significant period in Peterson’s career. I also recommend it because it is an essential that my own collection lacked for too many years.

ART BLAKEY AND THE JAZZ MESSENGERS

Moanin’

Blue Note Records

The many editions of Blakey’s Jazz Messengers—from the 1950s through the 1980s—produced some of the most memorable and historic hard-bop recordings of all time, but 1958’s classic “Moanin’” must take the prize for both outstanding compositions and exemplary musicianship. The lineup was undoubtedly one of the best, with tenor saxophonist Benny Golson, trumpeter Lee Morgan, pianist Bobby Timmons, and bassist Jymie Merritt. Since this recording, the title track by Timmons, and Golson’s “Along Came Betty” and “Blues March” have become jazz standards. The seven-and-a-half-minute “Drum Thunder Suite” is palpable evidence of Blakey’s mastery of his instrument, and even “Come Rain or Come Shine” gets a bold new arrangement. “Moanin’” is the apogee of the group sound, with all the individual talent, empathy and compatibility that implies.       

J.J. JOHNSON

Quintergy

Antilles Records

J.J. Johnson’s early ‘50s recordings on Prestige and Blue Note are worthy of mention as the first examples of his breakthrough sound on trombone, both on ballads and bebop flag-wavers, and his many two-trombone collaborations with Kai Winding are interesting, but I offer “Quintergy” as the quintessential live recording of his later years and proof positive that Johnson remained relevant and even revelatory. He was 64 when it was recorded at the Village Vanguard in 1988. Accompanied by saxophonist Ralph Moore, pianist Stanley Cowell, bassist Rufus Reid and drummer Victor Lewis, the 68-minute set represents the traditional bop quintet’s state of the art, with excellent renditions of “Blue Bossa,” “You’ve Changed” and Johnson’s own contribution to the jazz standard songbook, the beautiful “Lament.” Also recommended is the CD “Standards: Live at the Village,” taken from the same sessions and released contemporaneously.

GRANT GREEN

The Complete Quartets with Sonny Clark

Blue Note Records

A St. Louis native who only moved to New York City in 1960 and died in 1979, Green appeared on an amazing number of recordings in less then 20 years, usually accompanying such notables as Jack McDuff, Lou Donaldson, Stanley Turrentine, Hank Mobley, Jimmy Smith, Herbie Hancock and Lee Morgan. He also fronted more than two dozen of his own recordings, mostly on Blue Note. Green’s profusion of ideas is best appreciated on longer tracks, making “The Complete Quartets with Sonny Clark” an easy choice. This two-CD set includes 19 tunes totaling more than two hours of brilliant interplay among Green, pianist Clark, bassist Sam Jones and either Art Blakey or Louis Hayes on drums. Recorded during a five-week period in 1962, the sessions were shelved until 1980, and then released only in abbreviated form in the U.S. and Japan. This 1997 Blue Note package is a feast for Green fans and newcomers alike, with the guitarist soaring through extended takes on “Airegin,” “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” “The Song Is You,” “Gooden’s Corner,” “Hip Funk,” and “My Favorite Things.”