1. Ralph's New Blues
2. All of You
3. I'll Remember April
4. Gershwin Medley: Soon; For You, For Me,
Forevermore; Love Walked In; Our Love is Here
to Stay
5. Softly As in a Morning Sunrise
6. Concorde
John Lewis - Piano
Milt Jackson - Vibes
Percy Heath - Bass
Connie Kay - Drums
It is boom time for fans
of the Modern Jazz Quartet, with reissues
coming thick and fast. This is the second
MJQ reissue I have reviewed this year. Concorde,
now reappearing in the "Rudy Van Gelder Remasters"
series, was originally recorded in 1955, soon
after Connie Kay joined as the group's drummer,
replacing Kenny Clarke and starting a long
period of stability for this particular personnel.
I touched on the history
of the Modern Jazz Quartet's in my former
review but it
is interesting to note that the group's pianist
and main composer, John Lewis, was part of
the "Third Stream" experiments of the 1960s,
which tried to mix jazz with classical idioms.
"Chamber jazz" was already a well-established
genre dating back at least to the 1930s' Benny
Goodman small groups or those led by John
Kirby. Indeed, Kirby's repertoire included
jazzed-up versions of pieces by such composers
as Grieg, Beethoven and Donizetti. At any
rate, this tendency may explain the "classical"
elements in much of the Modern Jazz Quartet's
work. And the quartet was much more successful
than many other attempts at Third Stream,
since they never lost the spirit of jazz -
thanks especially to Milt Jackson's bluesy
vibraphone playing. He blended perfectly with
the "classical" lines established by John
Lewis's arrangements.
The extrovert drumming of
Kenny Clarke tended to keep the MJQ closer
to jazz than the classics, but the arrival
of the gentler Connie Kay led the way for
a subtler approach. Several of the tunes on
this album have the quality of chamber jazz
- even the opening Ralph's New Blues,
composed by Milt Jackson. It is essentially
a straightforward blues but it opens with
structured interplay between vibes, piano
and bass and, as the sleeve-note says, is
"based on a modal motive".
Elements of counterpoint
are also present in Cole Porter's All of
You, which has the thoughtful pace that
the MJQ so often achieved. In contrast, I'll
Remember April is taken at a breakneck
tempo, although with the piano sketching in
touches of counterpoint behind the vibraphone.
This exciting track belies the image of the
quartet as strait-laced and introverted. The
Gershwin medley returns us to gentle thoughtfulness,
with Percy Heath's bass stating the melody
of Soon and definite classical hints
in John Lewis's treatment of Love Walked
In.
Counterpoint is present right
at the start of Softly As in a Morning
Sunrise, with Lewis playing a counter-melody
behind Milt's vibes. And the closing track
Concorde is a fugue which manages to
be catchy as well as complex.
The only criticism I have
of this album is its stingy length: less than
37 minutes, which is half what you can squeeze
onto a compact disc, and a poor comparison
with the double CD I previously reviewed -
which cost about the same price as this single
CD.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
Prestige
0888072306530
