The Jazz Review - Jazz Studies Online

derstand, considerable influence upon
Miles) is best characterized by the
term "exquisite simplicity" and pits
the solo horn against the varying
combinations of instruments for a
prolonged question-&-answer period.
Mr. Davis plays extremely well
which, for him, is very well indeed.
A quote from the 2nd movement
of Berg's Violin Concerto segues into
The Meaning Of The Blues—along
about this time I glanced at the liner
notes and was struck by the word
"seductive"—I concur and would add
"shimmering, limpid & nocturnal"—
Gil's use of inner dissonance to create
that moonlit effect is awful nice indeed.
A sterling performance of J.
J.'s Lament moves surprisingly into
a humorous, almost giggling / Don't
Wanna Be Kissed, a relief from romance
for a while. The bizarre, rich
orchestration was beginning to wear
a little thin on me by then but I
could easily attribute it to manythings
other than the music, though
there is some validity in the "too
much cherry pie" reaction. The record
ends with Berg upside down, resolving
to a more consonant chord
and there you have it.
—Bob Brookmeyer
J I M M Y ciiFmK A: Travelin' Light,
Atlantic 1282
In the broad, overall contemporary
jazz scene this album may be classified
in a general way as belonging to
the folk jazz movement. Within the
Folk Jazz idiom it falls into a category
which Giuffre himself introduced
with his "Tangents" album,
and which, if it must he labeled, and
it must, (labeling and defining being
a vital factor in the process of expanding
human knowledge) then it
might be called "backwoods impressionism."
Correspondingly I'd say
that Giuffre is in the "backwoods
impressionistic" period in his creative
cycle.
By no means should this imply
that Giuffre, in this or any of his
albums, is merely a tone poet writing
music in which the thematic structure
is the arbitrary result of his desire to
capture the color of a cloudless blue
sky on a hot summer day etc. (see
Quiet Time, Teddy Charles Tentet).
However, here he seems to have been
more concerned with conveying one
overall mood that dominates the
emotional content of all the music.
This mood, the mood of the hill
people, prevails during the entire album,
and even Forty-Second Street.
We are allowed to know the hill
people more intimately through vari­
ations of the overall mood which
Giuffre introduces in the music from
time to time. For instance as they
rest and contemplate (Creen Country.)
Their vigorous activities are
captured in the camp meeting chants
of Swamp People. Brother Oiuffre is
taken with the holiness tongue and
utters in his ecstacy some phrases of
remarkable rhythmic virility. Brother
Brookmeyer can't contain the spirit
any longer on Pick 'Em Up and
starts preachb' an unaccompanied
jump and shout sermon that would
render any deacon's deliverance of
"Dry Bones" to a chittlin' fed congregation
as downright inhibited.
What this album has to say, it
says superbly. Listening to it, especially
while watching green things on
very late summer afternoons or again
in the A.M. one is apt to be transported
to the folk country where
this music has its origins.
But people have a tendency to get
bored even with the best of their
friends if they see them in the same
context all the time, especially if this
context is essentially uncomplicated.
Complexity is a necessary quality
of growth. Simplicity prevails when
we have settled at a certain level.
Therefore, I think that there is not
just one overall simplicity but manylevels
of complexity.
For instance, Bartok used the folk
themes of Hungary but he rejected
the idea of recreating folk music in
a newer idiom. Rather he chose to
exalt them in highly complex tonalities
and rhythms and forms. Nevertheless,
his music has a simplicity
and clarity relative to its own high
level of technical complexity.
Bartok is more worthy of our attention
and respect for having suecessfully
accented the challenge of
establishing a profound and harderto-come-by
simplicity. John Benson
Brooks, an extremely talented but
essentially unknown composer (Vik
1083 and a forthcoming Riverside
album) is now doing and for years
has done very interesting things in
the folk lore jazz idiom.
Giuffre, a totally dedicated composer
of enormous integrity and
talent, will probably abandon the security
of his present level and head
outward for distant unchartered
shores. It is a question of whether he
can maintain the simplicity he
cherishes while searching or whether
he will have to sacrifice some of it
for a new beauty.
As for the groups lack of a rhythm
section, Jim Hall plays a rhythm
instrument doesn't he? And all three
"soul brothers" are great supporting
players.
Hall is really marvelous both in
solo and support. Listen to his backgrounds
of minor sevenths plaved
chromatically or his quasi-bass lines.
—George Hussell
HORACE SILVER; The Stylings of Silver,
Blue Note BLP 1562
HORACE SILVER : Further Explorations,
Blue Note BLP 1589
Horace Silver's two latest Blue
Note albums, The Stylings of Silver
and Further Explorations by the Horace
Silver Quintet, present his group
during Art Farmer's residence with
it. Art is the shining light of both
albums, playing with a warm singing
tone and rich imagination. His strong
lyrical sense dominates the minor
Pyramid and the bluesy SoulvUle and
his ballad choruses on My One and
Only Love and /// Wind are especially
beautiful. He plays his parts on
the arrangements with superb taste,
making ordinary melodies sound extraordinary,
and giving an extra rich¬
ness to good ones.
Of the twelve tunes on these two
albums, ten are originals by Horace.
His medium tempo melodies are attractive,
and some of the things he
has done with meter are logical and
interesting. I don't enjoy his conception
of up tunes. A rigid choppiness
exists both in his writing and
playing at those tempos; fast tunes
should he relaxed and should soar.
On The Outlaw and Home Cooking
he plays more smoothly, but in general
his writing shows more imagination
than his improvising. He keeps
a certain rhythmic sparkle going, but
seems to be satisfied with melodic
banalities much of the time. His ballad
conception is strange: he plays
a separate fragment of melody on
each chord with little interconnection
other than what naturally comes with
the progression.
Hank Mobley plays competently on
the Stylings album. There is a lack of
conviction in his solos that robs his
playing of the life it should have. His
ideas are nice, but I never feel that
he is completely involved in his
playing.
On the Explorations album Cliff
Jordan is the tenor player. His style
is blatant and calculated at times, but
he has a fresh straight-ahead approach
to melodic invention that I
like very much.
Teddy Kotick and Louis Hayes
support the group with taste and feeling.
I wish Teddy had been balanced
better; he plays a good line and you
can hear all the pitches, but a little
more volume would have added the
true resonance that exists between