Pretty Eyes

Jazz waltz with something of the Latin tinge. Horace Silver at his prime, with Joe Henderson on tenor. Cape Verdean Blues is a classic LP of 1960s jazz and hearing Joe Henderson stretch out and start cookin' on my favorite track from the album is priceless. Unfortunately, it lacks the all-encompassing Latin rhythms of the LP, and I can't help but wish Horace's solo wasn't so slow-paced.

Ahmad Jamal's Patterns

I'm still a novice when it comes to Ahmad Jamal, but Jamal's sense of rhythm is impeccable. This modal jam, "Patterns," illustrates this quite well for Jamal's particular sound and use of space. For Jamal, the notes he doesn't play are often as important as those he does. 

The Ninth Room

Paul Steinbeck's new book on Art Ensemble of Chicago got me listening to these legends again. "The Ninth Room" is my favorite kind of avant-garde jazz: still swinging, lots of "sound effects," and playful use of atonal and skronk elements. Steinbeck's book also challengs the assumptions we often make about Art Ensemble of Chicago's listener base being predominantly or only white. They were always connected to the community in the South Side and, as Steinbeck persuasively shows in his book, their European following in places like France often perceived the group through disturbing racial lines or stereotypes. Anywho, when I saw a performance by another avant-garde jazz artist affiliated with AACM, I'd say most of his following were African-Americans. 

Art Ensemble of Chicago's Barnyard Funk

For some bizarre reason, I missed Art Ensemble of Chicago's funky "Rock Out" during my obsessive jazz-funk phase a year or two ago. Like some of the group's blues, "Rock Out" brings a "farmyard" quality of the band doing their best to sound like roosters and other farm animals. While doing this, they pay tribute to an incredibly catchy beat from a James Brown song ("Cold Sweat," according to Paul Steinbeck). As someone who always finds funk music from avant-garde jazz artists to be the most interesting in the genre, this unique number is certainly memorable and indicates how the group always had an ear to R&B and popular music. No surprise, really. How could anyone be married to Fontella Bass and not know a thing or two about popular music?

Now He Sings, Now He Sobs

Early Chick Corea produced some great albums back in the late 1960s. I'm loving Roy Haynes on drums but Corea's sounding almost like McCoy Tyner's modal jams around the same time, but still distinct. Miroslav Vitous made the list of bassists I must check out. 

George Schuyler's Black Empire

George Schuyler's Black Empire, two novels of serial fiction printed together in a single volume, tell the magnificent tale of black unity and genius triumphing against imperialism and white supremacy in the 1930s. Using science fiction elements and the charged context of fascism, communism, and capitalism during that tumultuous decade, Schuyler's fantastic story of Carl Slater's involvement with Dr. Belsidus's Black Internationale is a tour-de-force. Satirizing elements of black nationalism and Pan-Africanism, such as Garvey, Schuyler's ruthless Belsidus brings together the best minds of the Negro race to construct new technology, build a Temple of Love religion drawing on Ancient Egypt, conquer Africa, and defeat Europe. Belsidus's 'redemption' of Africa, however, is oppressive as it mercilessly punishes and kills those suspected of betrayal, installs Belsidus as dictator, and even imposes new diets and cultural practices on local African populations. Thus, a form of "authoritarian collectivism," identified by Moses as a pattern in black nationalist politics, appears throughout the text. Surely part of it is justified in this fantastic tale because of the extreme conditions against Belsidus and blacks across the world in the 1930s, but in some sense, Belsidus resembles the Barclay and the Americo-Liberians he overthrows. Viewed in that light, one can see how this novel was clearly influenced by Garvey, as well as possibly influenced Elijah Muhammad and perhaps Sun Ra, not to mention earlier 19th century black nationalists and the redemptionist narrative of Africa within Africana thought. As entertainment, this "hokum" of Schuyler's is irresistibly exciting and one can forgive some of the lapses in chronology or sequence. My only real question is, what was going on in the West Indies? Does the Black Empire of Africa plan on liberating the West Indies and India? Delegates from those parts of the world come to Kakata at the novel's conclusion...

McCoy Tyner's All of You

McCoy Tyner playing one of my favorite standards with Bob Cranshaw and Mickey Roker at Newport. I usually prefer Tyner with at least a quartet because an additional horn or two adds some extra depth to his chromatic playing. Near the song's end, Tyner hints at his more eccentric style that I associate with his Coltrane years and solo work in the the late 1960s and 1970s. The dependable Bob Cranshaw also gets a little solo, too, which is standard but gets the job done. Unforutnately, Coltrane never recorded "All of You" with Tyner on piano, but I can see it going even better than Wynton Kelly's accompaniment. 

Lonely Woman (Ran Blake and Jeanne Lee)

I have not heard much of the music of Ran Blake and Jeanne Lee, but this approach to "Lonely Woman" is nearly perfect. The sparse sound of a duo perfectly complements the melancholia of Coleman's masterful piece in a way I have never heard elsewhere. Truly unique and beautiful, even if Jeanne Lee's vocals do require some getting familiarized with to truly appreciate.