September 2020 - JAZZ IMPRESSIONS

Pete La Roca – Lazy Afternoon

One of the many attractive qualities of jazz, more than any other musical genre, is how the same song can be interpreted in many different ways. Whether this is Bill Evans and Yusef Lateef offering their personal takes on a classic soundtrack, or Ahmad Jamal and Bobby Hutcherson reworking a Herbie Hancock original, the musical freedom that underpins jazz allows its musicians to constantly reinvent and offer fresh perspectives on popular classics. In his last post, Dan wrote on guitarist Grant Green’s version of the ballad ‘Lazy Afternoon’. Whilst Green’s version is excellent, the definitive version in my opinion of this well known standard is found on drummer Pete La Roca’s album Basra, released in 1965 on Blue Note.

Grant Green – Lazy Afternoon

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Bobby Hutcherson’s genius graced some of Blue Note’s finest sessions, from McCoy Tyner’s Time for Tyner (1969) to Grant Green’s Street of Dreams (1967).

Bobby Hutcherson – Rosewood

For those who have been following our musical journey so far, the name Woody Shaw should sound familiar. A fantastic trumpeter and composer, we first encountered his compositional talents on Jackie McLean’s ‘Sweet Love Of Mine’ and more recently his contributions to the first draft of Andrew Hill’s album Grass Roots. Vibesman Bobby Hutcherson is also a frequent Jazz Impressions favourite and so it was only a matter of time until we’d end up meeting both Shaw and Hutcherson on the same record.

Andrew Hill – MC

Idris Muhammad only recorded one date with the great pianist/composer/teacher Andrew Hill (last heard from on Jazz Impressions on Bobby Hutcherson’s Dialogue (1965)) and it nearly never saw the light of day. Many of Hill’s 1960s Blue Note recordings were shelved by the commercially-minded Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, and although 1968’s Grass Roots was released at the time, a “first draft” recorded 4 months earlier sat in the vaults until the CD release in 2000. The quality of these unissued sessions tells you as much about Blue Note as the albums they actually released, if not more.

Idris Muhammad – Piece Of Mind

After a couple of months in hibernation, we’re back! In our last post, Dan chose Freddie Hubbard’s fusion classic ‘Red Clay’, released on CTI Records in 1970. A year after this album was released, CTI founded Kudu Records, a sub-label intended to showcase artists with a more commercial appeal to their CTI counterparts. Consisting of mainly black musicians, Kudu’s releases were often rooted in the soul jazz sound that was popular at the time. Drummer Idris Muhammad’s defining masterpiece Power Of Soul, released on the label in 1974 is one of the standout albums of the Kudu catalogue.