Milt Jackson and the Thelonious Monk Quintet – Blue Note 1509

And now, a crossroads: At what price do I pass?

It’s the dilemma all collectors face eventually. At first, you buy the commons. A used CD at $4 is a no-brainer. A new CD at $10 or $12, easy to justify. But what do you do when the easies are gone and the price makes you think twice?

I’ve reached that point. My mission is to collect all the Blue Note CDs in the classic 1500 series. For stubborn, stupid reasons, I’ve decided to do this chronologically. So I started with 1501 and worked my way forward.

The first bunch was easy – Miles Davis, Bud Powell, J.J. Johnson, Art Blakey, Thelonious Monk. (I did skip ahead a little to get Thad Jones’ Detroit-New York Junction. I just liked the title.) And now we reach a decision point: Milt Jackson – the man and the CD.

It’s not rare, but not exactly common either. Used CDs are $15 and up, for reasons that totally escape me. Amazon lists 44 copies, so it’s not hard to find. At $15, I can sleep OK. In the old days, that was the cost of a new CD. Fair enough.

But soon, I can already see, some rares are coming. Some are $25, some $35. That makes me hesitate. How badly do I want Jutta Hipp’s At the Hickory House? Gil Melle’s Patterns in Jazz? I dunno, but I’m about to find out.

* * *

And then there’s the record. More like two records, really.

First, the band that eventually became the Modern Jazz Quartet: Jackson, pianist John Lewis, bassist Percy Heath and drummer Kenny Clarke… plus Lou Donaldson. It’s not the MJQ yet, but the seeds are there. Cool vibes, a couple of sedate ballads, a boppish toe-tapper, and the classic “Bags Groove.” Very nice. Very conventional.

Walk out, come back – and now for something completely different. Thelonious Monk with Jackson, bass and drums. What the…? Jackson always the smooth bopper, but Monk behind him, all elbows and awkward pauses and odd chords. They almost don’t fit together – the cool cucumber and the weird piano plunker. (Plus two schmaltzy vocal ballads with singer Kenny “Pancho” Hagood that completely don’t fit.) The whole thing works, but it sure ain’t the MJQ. It’s funky, and a little funny, too.

Makes you wonder how they ever got together in the first place.

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Availability: Many copies on Amazon, but oddly expensive

Cost: $15 used

 

Thad Jones: Detroit-New York Junction – Blue Note 1513

Before he became famous as the leader of a big band, Thad Jones was a trumpet player, and a damn good one.

In 1956, Jones led his first jazz group. It was a small sextet – unlike his later, more celebrated ensemble, co-led by Mel Lewis. This short album, which chronicles that session, has only five songs and runs just 34 minutes. There are no alternate takes.

It’s a pleasant album, but not a great one. There is nothing innovative here, or particularly memorable. Jones has a nice tone and decent chops, but he won’t make you forget Dizzy Gillespie or Miles Davis, at least not on this CD.

In fact, while listening to the first two songs, you might forget that Jones is the leader of this group. On “Blue Room” (a Rodger-and-Hart tune) and “Tariff” (a Jones original), the leader let’s everyone else take the early solos. So we hear guitarist Kenny Burrell, saxman Billy Mitchell and pianist Tommy Flanagan before we ever hear Jones play alone. All the more confounding, Burrell, Mitchell and Flanagan sound more interesting.

The most unusual piece is also the best. “Little Girl,” another Rodgers-and-Hart song, is utter simplicity, and very simply arranged: just guitar and trumpet, with bass lurking somewhere deep in the background. It’s an unassuming ballad, not especially sentimental or soulful. But it’s fascinating in its simplicity. At just under three minutes, it’s the shortest cut on the CD. Too bad.

Two more Jones originals – the 10-minute “Scratch” and the 8-minute “Zec” – finish the disc. Both are upbeat, the latter boppish, and Jones properly takes the lead and plays interesting solos. And then it’s over, too soon.

Jones recorded two more sessions for Blue Note, both better than this first one. Turns out Detroit-New York Junction (named for Jones’ hometown and adopted new town), was just a warm-up.

Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)

Availability: Many copies on Amazon, new and used

Cost: About $4 used

 

The Best of Lou Donaldson, Volume 1 – 1957-1967

I’m not a huge fan of Best Of albums. God did not create Best Of albums for human consumption. Artists make albums of music – some with themes, some without – and you go with it. One album generally equals one mood, so why mix them up?

But then…

Lou Donaldson is an alto sax player who spent virtually his entire career at one label: Blue Note. Bigger names have recorded on Blue Note – Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins – but none so extensively, from the 1950s to ‘70s.

Trouble is, there are several flavors of Lou Donaldson. That’s a good thing; who wants to hear the same artist play the same songs over and over? But it does make it difficult to choose the Lou you like. And if you’re coming at Donaldson cold, as I did many years ago, you wonder: Where to start?

Start here. This best-of album covers Donaldson’s best decade, before he became synonymous with soul-funk-R&B jazz albums that were, too often, just mediocre.

There are three moods of mid-50s-to-mid-60s Lou Donaldson, and this CD covers each briefly. It starts with a Donaldson original, “Grits and Gravy,” a slow, draggy blues. The third cut, another Donaldson original, “Blues Walk,” covers the same territory, with perhaps a more sensual feel. The mood is laid-back and warm.

Then there’s straight-ahead bebop/hard bop Lou Donaldson, obviously influenced by Charlie Parker. The second cut on this CD, “Groovin’ High,” is a Parker number that Donaldson handles adeptly. He won’t make you forget Bird, but he’s in the same ballpark. Very good, if not memorable. “Light Foot,” another Donaldson original, treads the same ground.

Then there’s my favorite, the organ-combo Donaldson. It’s an acquired taste, but there’s something about a Hammond B3 organ with a tasteful blues guitar and soulful sax that touches my buttons. A bit groovy and dated, true, but so much fun. “Here ‘Tis,” from the album of the same name, starts with a languid bluesy groove. “Sow Belly Blues” is in a more funky toe-tapping cut. And “Alligator Boogaloo” is the start of Donaldson’s transition to full-time funky man, a path he continued down for the rest of his career.

Like all Best Of albums, this is an introduction, and a short one at only nine tracks. For anyone new to Lou Donaldson, it’s a good place to start, and has some of his best numbers. Then, pick the Lou you like and find a real album, the way Donaldson wanted you to hear it.

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Availability: Many copies on Amazon, new and used

Cost: Around $4 to $7, used

 

Thelonious Monk: Genius of Modern Music, Volume 1 – Blue Note 1510

There’s bebop, there’s hard bop – and then there’s Thelonious Monk.

It’s not hard to imagine where the bebop pioneers found their new sound in the late 1940s, after World War II. It emerged from the big bands, which were dying. It was a natural progression. Hard-charging, uber-fast soloists pushed the limits of speed and rhythm, to the chagrin of the jazz establishment, but to the thrill of listeners. It was new, but it wasn’t a giant leap – more of an incremental step.

Thelonious Monk was there. But it’s clear from Genius of Modern Music, Volume 1, that Monk was hearing something very different in his head than what Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Bud Powell were hearing. This CD chronicles the first recording sessions with Monk as leader in 1947, and it’s clear that Monk, even at this very early date, was creating something no one had heard before.

It’s hard to put the Monk sound into words. It’s off-kilter, with unusual rhythms and unexpected notes. It’s melodic, but not of the standard Tin Pan Alley/Great American Songbook variety. It is fast and improvisational, but just a little bit different than the usual bebop flights of fancy.

Genius of Modern Music, Volume 1, features the first recordings of many classic Monk tunes by Monk. Each runs about 3 minutes, so there are no lengthy solos. Each is simply a nugget of angular melody, followed by short solo sprints, then it’s off to the next tune.

Oh, but what’s there is choice. While the horns play the expected bebop riffs, Monk is off doing something almost completely different. It’s not that the horns don’t get Monk. It’s that Monk, even in 1947, was already pushing past the standard bebop tropes.

And what a selection of classic Monk tunes. There’s “Thelonious” and “Off Minor” and “Ruby My Dear” and “Well You Needn’t” and the all-time Monk ballad pleaser, “Round Midnight.” These are the first takes ever by Monk on record and they are fully formed. Historically, these are comparable to Louis Armstrong’s Hot Fives and Sevens, or Ellington’s jungle bands of the 1920s and 1930s – but with much better sound.

The horns are OK, but not all-star quality. Idrees Sulieman and George Taitt on trumpet, Danny Quebec West and Sahib Shihab on alto, Billy Smith on tenor are good, but not great. The drumming by Art Blakey is innovative. But it’s Monk you came to hear, and his piano sound is as original and, yes, fun as you’d expect. It’s heard best on the 10 sides with just a piano-bass-drums trio.

There’s more where this came from. Volume 2 features Monk sessions from 1951 and ’52, including one with Kenny Dorham on trumpet and Lou Donaldson on alto. And there another CD featuring Monk and vibist Milt Jackson. You can find them all on the box set of Monk’s Complete Blue Note Recordings – a very worthwhile investment.

But for a one-disc treat of historic Monk that is extremely listenable, you can do much worse than Genius of Modern Music, Volume 1.

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

Availability: Many copies on Amazon, new and used

Cost: Under $4