Ollie, Author at JAZZ IMPRESSIONS

Cannonball Adderley – The Black Messiah

The year before pianist George Duke featured on Frank Zappa’s The Grand Wazoo, he recorded two solo albums and spent the best part of the year playing in the Cannonball Adderley Quintet. If Zappa was Duke’s mentor in all things rock, Cannonball was his teacher in jazz and soul. Joining Adderley’s Quintet gave the young Duke an opportunity to develop not only as a performer, but also as a composer and arranger. In the summer of 1971, Cannonball and his band recorded a live album at The Troubadour club in West Hollywood, Los Angeles. The album was named after its title track, a composition by Duke, and was released later that year as a double album on Capitol Records.

George Duke – Peace

Our last post looked at Billy Cobham’s fusion classic ‘Heather’ from his album Crosswinds (1974) which featured the mellow tones of keyboardist George Duke. Flashing back a couple of years earlier to January 1971, a young George Duke had just left Frank Zappa’s group The Mothers Of Invention and joined saxophonist Cannonball Adderley’s new quintet, replacing pianist Joe Zawinul. The months that followed would prove formative for this young pianist and in this year he recorded two albums: Solus and The Inner Source, originally intended to be two separate albums but were later merged, released on German jazz label MPS in 1973.

John Abercrombie – Timeless

‘Changeless’ and ‘endless’ were the defining terms of our last post on virtuoso pianist Keith Jarrett. Continuing this theme, we follow with ‘Timeless’, the beautiful final track on guitarist John Abercrombie’s 1975 album of the same name, which like Jarrett’s Changeless, was also released on ECM and featured Jack DeJohnette on drums.

Steely Dan – Gaucho

In our previous post, Dan wrote on the Steely Dan (not to be confused with British folk rock group Steeleye Span) Silver-inspired classic ‘Rikki Don’t Lose That Number’. Last weekend marked the 40th year anniversary of their 1980 album Gaucho and so it seemed a natural way to continue our journey of musical connections.

The Horace Silver Quintet – Song For My Father

In October 1963, coinciding with the recent release of his debut album as leader on Blue Note, a young Joe Henderson was scouted by influential pianist Horace Silver to play in a new quintet he was putting together. From the sessions which followed came Song For My Father (1965), Silver’s most famous album and a bona fide Blue Note classic.

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.

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.

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.

Joe Henderson – Power To The People

From two great tenor sax players to another, today’s post focusses on Joe Henderson’s politically titled track ‘Power To The People’ from his album of the same name, released on Milestone in 1969. Mainly compromised of Henderson originals, this album was the first in a string of political albums Henderson released in the late 60s and early 70s which were inspired by an increased awareness of black issues and the Black Power movement which reached its peak at the beginning of the 70s.

Bobby Hutcherson – Black Heroes

Our last post explored We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite (1960), a pivotal work which set the blueprint for many protest records to follow. Bobby Hutcherson’s album Now!, released on Blue Note in 1970, was one of those records which continued to build on the powerful political and musical statement Roach had made ten years prior.