AprilCadence2013

1) JOE GILMAN
RELATIVITY
CAPRI 74119
THREE SPHERES / WATERFALL
/ THREE WORLDS / SMALLER
AND SMALLER / COVERED
ALLEY / ENCOUNTER / SNOW
/ DAY AND NIGHT / SKY
AND WATER / DEWDROP
/ ASCENDING AND
DESCENDING. 63:30.
Joe Gilman, p, el-p; Nick
Frenay, t, flgh; Chad
Lefkowitz-Brown, ts, b-cl;
Zach Brown, b; Corey Fonville,
d. May 2, 2010.
2) PAUL WINTER
SEXTET
COUNT ME IN 1962-
1963
LIVING MUSIC LMU 44
A BUN DANCE / PAPA ZIMBI
/ CASA CAMARA / THEM
NASTY HURTIN’ BLUES / VOCE
E EU / INSENSATEZ / MYSTERY
BLUES / CHEGA DE SAUDADE
/ ROUTEOUSNESS / COUNT
ME IN / BELLS AND HORNS /
SAUDADE DE BAHIA / CASA
CAMARA / PONY EXPRESS /
MARIA NINGUEM / TOCCATA /
COUNT ME IN. 65:35.
Paul Winter, as; Dick Whitsell,
t; Les Rout, bari-s; Warren
Bernhardt, p; Richard Evans,
b; Harold Jones, d.
New Issues
171 | CadenCe Magazine | april May June 2013
Shall we peer in at the Eminent Jazz Reviewer as he
starts a new CD by musicians he does not know? His
face balances between cheerful expectation and worried
dread. He thinks, again, of Eddie Condon’s crucial
question about music, “Does it come in through the ear
like broken glass or like honey?” And, “Will I want to
keep this disc or give it away after one playing?” With
the first few bars of (1), he relaxes and stops thinking of
himself in the third person.
“Does it sound good?” is the subjective question – and
although “good” is such a variable thing, pianist Gilman’s
RELATIVITY is a pleasure. I listened to it without looking
at the notes and heard late-Fifties onward hard bop
and exploratory music that painted lovely inquiring
pictures. The sounds here come from the largest
Jazz tradition but there is no sense that Gilman and
colleagues want to copy 1961 Blue Note or modern
classical or anything else. When I learned that each
of the original compositions was an evocation of an
M.C. Escher painting, I understood even more about
the sweet, probing music – winding, chiming, circling
lyricisms at some points, energetic, focused, vigorous
stomp at others. This would be a fascinating CD to play
for children while asking them to draw what they heard
in the music.
Michael Steinman
As someone who still searches through the bins
at used-record stores, I am familiar with the Paul
Winter Sextet, and the later Consort – at least from the
frequency with which their issues over the last fifty
years turn up. But I had never heard their music in
any concentrated way until (2). I was unprepared for
the energetic force of this small band – a small band
with all the textures and shifts of a bigger one. I can
understand what John Hammond and Dizzy heard in
this group – impassioned solos and tight ensembles.
The Sextet embodies one version of all that was good
and intriguing in late Fifties Jazz. This commemorative
issue is full of stars – Winter himself, Warren Bernhardt,
Harold Jones, Chuck Israels, Ben Riley, Gene Bertoncini,
Cecil McBee, Jeremy Steig, Freddie Waits – but I was
impressed by players I had never heard of – saxophonist