jazz track

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33803, 27 March 1975, Page 4

jazz track

Many of the great artists of jazz, some long one. are again featuring on record shop she ves. Pianists Art Tatum, Nat "King" Cole, the Joe Venuti-Eddie Lang Orchestra. Louis, the Ellingtons. Dizzie and Tom Dorsey are back paying their way on the currene wave of nostalgia. We are ihe luckier for it. for people like Tatum. Parke-. Ellington and Armstrong, catalysts in their own era. have also influenced today's leading artists. Latest of the batch are a series of double albums from jazz critic-author Leonard Feather, pressed on M.C.A. and released bv Pv e. First up should be Art Tatum s Masterpieces a remastered selection of numbers recorded in 1941-1944 Tatum has a deft touch, fast hands, an ear for a good phrase and wit. enough to weave divergent melodies into rich textures in the most unexpected places. Tatum -mgs on the album too. The voice doesn't compare to his immeasurable taient on piano, but he's more than a match for Mose Allison. Nat "King” Cole, first a fine pianist with a creative trio, later a famous and much more popular vocalist. was onlv ore of four musician brothers. With the gradual success of his piano bass guitar trio, a format later adopted hv Tatum's most fervant admirer Oscar Peterson, he became a small combo poll winner from 1944-194 S and fina'ly -truck rich with “Mona Lisa." “Too Young." “Sweet Lorraine 'and manv others. On From the Very Beginning his trio, his bi'ther- band and his early singing efforts are well represented Cole might have had to moditv

(By ]OHN McNEIL) his piano style slightly to get work today, but guitarist Oscar Moore and bass player Wesley Prince would be eligible immediately Armstrongs career was remarkably similar to that of Cole's— Jazz musician to star vocalist. Sadly At The Crescendo has no biographical or session details, perhaps Mr Feather didn't know them The lack of notes does not detract from a free blowing live session with L uis though, and but for “Saints." there are some more interesting numbers than those pops we associate with the master. Most interesting of these albums for me was New York N.Y. and Jazz in the Space Age by' George Russell and his Orchestra. Bill Evans. John Coltrane. Bob Brookmyer, Art Farmer and others collaborate on the N.Y. piece to make this quite the most exciting music we heard from that town, including Peterson’s version of West Side Story. Waltz From Outer Space is listening music too. It's got bite, verve and interest, and originality that makes it a more worthy vehicle for jazz performance than anything of Bernsteins. And detailed cover notes. This album is not history: it is highlyrecommended. Tw<> releases that excited me less but which will have their own devotees are Black and Tan Fantasy, rcer Ellington’s Orchestra. and A Jazz Holiday, a pot-pourri of Goodman. Red Nichols and his Five Pennies. Joe VenutiEddie Lang and their All Stars, and Adrian Rollini's Orchestra. Mercer, the Duke's son, has put together on one LP. music of his won. and his fathers played by some of the Ellington greats —

Cat Anderson, JohnnyHodges and Ben Webster to name but three. Its verynice, well recorded for 1958, and smoothly played, but I still prefer The Golden Duke (Prestige) a double taker from all those 78s long ago worn out. Good biograph,cals too.

Jazz Holliday did little to excite me, but the sound is acceptable and artist and liner notes are well scribed. If 1925-35 is your bag, pack this one in it.

Two double albums from Prestige feature Dizzy Gillespie. One In the Beginning has Dexter Gordon Shelley Manne, Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt and the makings of the M.J.Q. as side row and is good value. The other, with Parker, Bud Powell Max Roach and Charlie Mingus is billed as The Greatest Jazz Concert Ever. Get it?. Remember 1 ommy (Century 45313/4) gives the opportunity to go back with the Dorsey Orchestra. The performances are smooth (they probably 7 always: were) but there is some bite from the soloists, and! for your listening pleasure, it's been “electronically re-! channeled to simulate stereo.”

Fastest mover in the London charts this week is "Bye Bye Baby,” byScotland's Bay City Rollers, which shot up to sixth place from twenty-second in only a week.

Another tast mover, but more promising, is “Pick Up The Pieces” by the Average White Band, which has moved from twenty-first position to number 10 and will probably go higher. The actor, Telly Savalas. stays top of the pops with his “IP’ and the British group Fox move up a place into the second spot with "Onlv You Can.”