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.
Born Peter Sims in Harlem, New York, he adopted the name Pete La Roca (‘La Roca’ literally meaning ‘The Rock’) early in his career when he played timbales in latin bands. Basra was La Roca’s debut album as leader having already enjoyed a busy career as a sideman. By 1965, he had already appeared on nine Blue Note sessions including saxophonist Sonny Rollins’ legendary session A Night at the Village Vanguard (1957), Jackie McLean’s New Soil (1959) on which he is sometimes credited for the first freeform drum solo, and Freddie Hubbard’s Blue Spirits (1964). In the early 60s, following a recommendation from Miles Davis, La Roca enjoyed a brief stint drumming in an early Coltrane quartet alongside pianist Steve Kuhn and bassist Steve Davis.
For Basra, La Roca assembled a formidable team: Joe Henderson on tenor sax, Steve Swallow on bass and his old friend Steve Kuhn on keys. The lineup on Basra is unique and unusual for a Blue Note record. Steve Kuhn, a fantastic pianist and no doubt a musician we’ll revisit in a future post, only ever made a couple of appearances on Blue Note recordings with Basra as his most notable contribution. As writer Ira Gitler observes in the album’s liner notes, this record featured ‘one of the most attuned rhythm sections in jazz’ and its a real shame that this quartet didn’t record more albums together. However, what they managed to produce was a beautiful modal jazz gem which, in my opinion, is one of the best records Blue Note has ever released.
Much like other 60s Blue Note masterpieces such as Herbie Hancock’s Maiden Voyage or Bobby Hutcherson’s Happenings, La Roca’s Basra is a rich and rewarding listen from start to finish. The album opens with the Cuban inspired ‘Malaguena’, a tribute to La Roca’s latin roots but with a dark, modal edge where Henderson’s saxophone shrieks and growls in a style reminiscent of Coltrane. This is followed by the bluesy ‘Candu’ and the cool, swinging ‘Tears Come From Heaven’ which showcases Kuhn’s dextrous soloing abilities.
It is on the second side of this record that things really heat up. It begins with the album’s namesake track ‘Basra’, a 10 minute hypnotic, modal meditation which revolves around one chord, foreshadowing the sound of Miles Davis’ In A Silent Way (1969) and Bitches Brew (1970). As critic Greg Simmons notes, the track is ‘trippy, deeply grooving and exotic’. This is a contrast to the comparably upbeat ‘Eiderdown’ which closes the album. However, in my opinion, it is the penultimate track of the album which is the highlight.
On ‘Lazy Afternoon’, La Roca and his band gel together to produce a beautiful and serene moment of calm following the storm of ‘Basra’. The track has a floating quality to it. La Roca’s restrained use of brushes and cymbals creates a sort of shimmering effect, and conjures up images of running water whilst Swallow’s minimalist but deliberate bass notes provide a strong rhythmic backbone to the music. Steve Kuhn’s nimble and emotive piano lines ebb and flow, at times receding to give room for Henderson’s tender melodic lines, a sharp contrast to the intensity of his playing on ‘Malaguena’. At around three minutes, the rhythm of track subtly shifts as the band take on more of a swing, but all the while retains that feeling of slowly drifting downstream. As Gitler remarks in the liner notes, the track ‘does not use a wide harmonic area but its arresting beauty is not in need of searching far.’
Similarities can be drawn between ‘Lazy Afternoon’ and the work of Bill Evans. The interplay between the four players on ‘Lazy Afternoon’ echoes the way Bill Evans and his trio weave in and out of one another whilst remaining locked together and moving as a musical unit. However, Gitler notes that on the album as a whole, Kuhn moves away from his Bill Evans influence and pursues a more personal musical voice. To quote La Roca: “Simplicity is the key. If we worked regularly as a group, the base might get even simpler but what we did on it would be more complex.”
Named after a city in Iraq, this album draws inspiration from Middle Eastern music, reflected in the modal nature of the music. Throughout his career, like many jazz musicians of the time, La Roca looked to other countries and continents for inspiration – ‘Basra’ (Middle Eastern), ‘Malaguena’ (Cuban), Drum Town (African), Nihon Bashi (Japanese) and Turkish Women A The Bath (1967) (Middle Eastern and Turkey).
In addition, La Roca was particularly interested in Indian music and its philosophies. As Gitler mentions in the liner notes, La Roca experiments with how much monotony can be used without having a detrimental effect on the music and the way repetition can create the illusion of the music ‘standing still’. In La Roca’s own words, this music can be ‘listened to in the foreground or in the background with your third ear […] You tune in what part of it you like. It’s like listening to the world – it’s always going on.’ The ambient and meditative qualities of Basra are summed up nicely by writer and musician Hank Shteamer who refers to the album as ‘a reverie with no defined beginning or end. It’s a sensation you step into, along with the players: a group trance, a collective prayer.’
After Basra, La Roca went on to release only two further albums as leader, Turkish Women At The Bath (1967), a sort of companion piece to Basra, and the much later session SwingTime (1997). By 1968, La Roca had become frustrated with being pigeonholed as a sideman, and as a loyal disciple of the swing tradition, was unwilling to experiment with fusion and free jazz that were both becoming increasingly popular. The repetitive backbeats and shuffles of fusion and rock bored him and the lack of time and rhythm in free jazz left him cold. As he once remarked: “I love the challenge and the discipline of playing time.”
Disillusioned with the state of jazz and struggling to support himself financially, La Roca took up a job as a taxi driver and studied to become a lawyer. This later proved useful when Turkish Women At The Bath was released without La Roca’s consent under Chick Corea’s name as Bliss, which resulted in La Roca taking the label to court. After reconvening with Kuhn and Swallow in 1975 for the Steve Kuhn Trio’s album Three Waves, La Roca finally returned to music again in 1979 and enjoyed a second career mainly performing live until his passing in 2012.
Basra is a special album because it represents the peak of La Roca’s career. With its unique lineup and musical variety, this is an album that once acquired, never leaves a record collection. Basra captures a ephemeral moment in jazz where four fantastic players at the top of their game managed to create something timeless. To quote Gitler: “It also is a demonstration of how to do new things in jazz without losing sight of the music’s entire tradition and spirit.” Furthermore, Basra is a masterclass on how to make simple, accessible music which maintains musical depth and complexity. Whilst maybe not as famous as the likes of Art Blakey or Elvin Jones, La Roca is an unsung hero of jazz and Basra one of the crown jewels of the Blue Note catalogue. In the words of La Roca:
“Music is the result of bow on string, breath through metal, fingers on ivory, sticks and mallets on brass and strings – all applied by real people who’ve taken the time to learn the skill and magic of it”
Find more from La Roca in our ‘In A Tranquil Mood’ and ‘In The Pocket’ playlists over on Spotify!
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