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On March 17 Ornette Coleman played a concert in the same theatre with a quartet. To his usual trio of Charles Moffett on drums and David Izenzon on bass, Charlie Haden on bass was added. Coleman played alternately with the Philadelphia Woodwind Quintet, (the first chair woodwind players of the Philadelphia Symphony orchestra), which performed works by Villa-Lobos and a young New York composer, S. A. Chambers. Now I am by no means an expert on this type of chamber music, but it blended quite nicely with Ornette Coleman’s music. Coleman was especially strong on trumpet that evening, very lyrical on Just For You and very precise and articulated in A Capella For Three Wise Men And A Saint. In Buddha Blues Coleman played a - for him - new instrument, a musette, which has a high, somewhat pinched and plaintive sound. Possibilities of improvisation seemed limited on it though. Still, the two numbers played on alto, Love And Sex, beautifully paced from slow to nearly frenetic, and the breakneck speed Atavism, held the most tension and excitement. The last work Forms And Sounds, composed by Ornette Coleman, was played by the Woodwind Quintet with intermittent solos by Ornette on trumpet. The written parts, although melodically interesting, seemed a bit long-winded but the trumpet solos were all the more sparkling. Presentations like these are interesting though, even if only to show the difference in creativity and spirit between the jazz and so-called longhair musicians. I realise that this is a dangerous statement, but what a difference to hear the woodwind Quintet very expertly play from paper Villa Lobos, and then see and hear and feel Ornette drive into one of his own brain children.
Then, we were faced with the John Handy phenomena. Arriving in New York, much publicised and laureated, we went to hear him at the Half Note Club. Not too impressed with his records, it took a while to realize that really not much was going to happen after all. It was all rather long winded and when Handy, sitting on a chair, would suddenly seem to perk up, there was no base, no force to sustain him. Drummer Terry Clarke and bassist Don Thompson never really cleared that “beat”, which hung as a straight jacket around the strings of Calo Scott’s cello and Sonny Greenwich’s guitar. It all sounded very technical, very competent, but there seemed to be a depressive discipline in the group that had little to do with free group communication. Since I had been hearing such good things about Greenwich I asked his reaction: “You know, it’s as if he doesn’t want to let us out, as if he doesn’t want us to play spiritual music” . . . When on a Sunday afternoon the young Dutch violin player Michel Sampson was invited to play with the group, the whole affair took on the look of a boxing ring. Michel only wanted to play whatever and however he wanted to play it and with all his bravado plied Scott and Greenwich from their chairs. It became quite a fiery afternoon and Handy, caught in this cross fire, played some of the best solos I heard him do in New York.
Some nice happenings in Slugs where Jackie McLean worked with Billy Higgins, drums; Scott Holt on bass and Lamont Johnson on piano. Holt and Higgins had fun sending Jackie “out” there and he went, once in a while, and if he didn’t he was just beautiful, emotional and exciting Jackie McLean. The week before Grachan Moncur III’s quintet was featured. Actually I think Grachan is of foremost importance as a composer. He had written some great new tunes of which “Hypnosis” was particularly successful (recently recorded on a Jackie McLean date). Tenorist Bennie Maupin added a lot of fire to Grachan’s basically pensive style. Dave Burrell, piano; Norris Jones, bass and Robert Kapp, drums are rapidly becoming one of the most intense rhythm sections in New York.
Wayne Shorter played a week with Charles Tolliver on trumpet, James Spaulding on alto and flute, Freddie Waits on drums and Cedar Walton on piano. The one who was most exciting was strangely enough the bass player, Herbie Lewis. Since Miles Davis played in the Village Vanguard the same weekend that Shorter played Slugs, Bennie Maupin sat in for him during those days.
Joe Henderson’s quintet plays Slugs regularly these days. Once there was hope that Henderson would develop into a strong new voice but he mostly plays extended bebop - if that makes it clear. His rhythm section of Mickey Roker, drums; Ronnie Matthews, piano and Arthur Harper, bass, kept the beat solidly down. But even in this combination, Grachan Moncur III, with his round and woolly tone, managed to give some character to even the skimpiest of tunes.
The Dom is finished as a jazz club except for the Sunday afternoon sessions organised by D. J. Alan Grant. Freddie Hubbard and Bobby Hutcherson caused a lot of excitement with their respective sextets. Hubbard is in Europe these days as a “single” and reports are he is very successful. Tony Scott, who had been playing in the Dom for more than a year finally had to evacuate the premises in favor of Andy Warhol’s “Velvet Underground”, a rock group. However Scott was not idle for long because he popped up in a new club, Pookie’s Pub, across from the Half Note, with a financially less stringent policy.
An interesting experiment in the Filmmakers Cinemateque: tenorist Gato Barbieri with his group (Norris Jones, bass; Bobby Kapp, drums and Dewey Johnson, trumpet) were invited to join a film workshop, which meant that the group would play behind a screen while on and through that screen a variety of films were projected. It sounds a bit complicated and that was precisely what it was. Again, I’m no expert on films but it was not only my impression that whatever was happening behind that screen was so forceful that one could see large parts of the audience drift on stage, behind the screen, to get closer to the music that was domineering the happening. While colours and forms splashed over the musicians they were often pushed to great heights of intensity and collective tension. It is a pity that this type of experiment was not better guided because very interesting things might come out if the music was given an adequate place and function within the film.
And then, Sun Ra and his Astro-Infinity Orchestra is still playing in Slugs every Monday night. It is very interesting to be able to see the group so often since the possibilities they have are many and so varied. Every Monday evening becomes a different adventure. One night the emphasis may be on drums - with a tremendous, over-sized conga drum instead of the normal set of drums. The whole band works at the rhythm which pours out with great ease and subtlety. The music sounds African. The next night a lot of string instruments are used and the mood becomes eastern, Indian. And although Sun Ra’s musicians know so well how to make the music happen together, there is always delight in the performance of singled out musicians. Marshall Allen is especially impressive on oboe these days, whereas James Jackson is developing into a virtuoso on anything that has the remotest connection with drums. I could go on and on describing particular happenings on those Monday nights, but what remains every time is that grand infinity - and I am not using the word because Sun Ra does but because it is indeed the best word to describe his music.
- Elisabeth van der Mei Articles |
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