Two-Sentence Jazz Reviews, May-June 2017—Part I

Due to a recent trip to Europe, I haven't had the chance to publish anything in Jazz Flashes, but I did write some very brief reviews of jazz albums I heard and/or purchased while overseas on my Facebook page. Now that I am back, I have compiled these two-sentence reviews on this post. I hope you find something to your liking among these outstanding records—and stay tuned for the forthcoming second part!

Buddy Tate and His Buddies (Chiaroscuro, 1994)

Saxophonist Buddy Tate's buddies—trumpeter Roy Eldridge, saxist Illinois Jacquet, pianist Mary Lou Williams, guitarist Steve Jordan, bassist Milt Hinton, and drummer Gus Johnson—are mostly jazz royalty, musicians who feel at ease in each other's company and enjoy playing together. This powerful, blues-drenched 1973 New York City date is truly a masterclass in first-rate small-group swing and blues, five selections that give all participants plenty of room to shine and surprise the listener with their inventiveness and exciting knack for improvisation.

Emil Viklicky—Live at the Box (Petr Bielicky, 2014 / Fog Arts, 2017)

Always the experimentalist, Czech jazz pianist Emil Viklicky feels at home distilling a mixture of jazz, classical, and Moravian folk music, as he does in Live at the Box, recently reissued for digital download and streaming by the Stockholm based Fog Arts label. This 2011 live date finds Viklicky in a trio setting, with Frantisek Uhlir on bass and Josef Vejvoda on drums, running through a varied selection of his highly personal compositions, the kind of eclectic jazz that surprises and grows on the listener with each play, with the highlight being bassist Uhlir's "Father's Blues."

Gerry Mulligan & Scott Hamilton—Soft Lights and Sweet Music (Concord, 1986)

Though perhaps not as well known as it deserves to be, this is a memorable tenor-baritone saxophone meeting between Scott Hamilton and Gerry Mulligan, cut in the mid-1980s for Concord in a quintet setting with Mike Renzi on piano, Jay Leonhart on bass, and Grady Tate on drums. It's a mostly uptempo affair with a fair share of Mulligan originals, and the mutual understanding between both saxophonists makes for some extremely satisfying listening.

Howard McGhee—Maggie's Back in Town (Contemporary, 1961)

After quite a spell away from the studios due to drug-related problems, trumpeter Howard McGhee came back on the jazz scene with this amazing album that showcases his bop-inflected playing in the company of fantastic musicians like pianist Phineas Newborn, Jr., bassist Leroy Vinnegar, and drummer Shelly Manne. The result is one of the best bop records of the early 1960s, an inventive, exciting run through a few standards, an original composition by McGhee, and two Teddy Edwards tunes, all of which makes it clear that Maggie (as McGhee was known to his friends) was definitely back!

Buddy Tate & Humphrey Lyttelton in London, 1974

The first Jazz Flashes post of 2016 is devoted to a little-known collaboration between trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton and saxophonist Buddy Tate, a session held in London in the 1970s. Happy New Year full of great jazz to everyone!

Not only was British trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton a fine musician, but he was also a tireless promoter of and advocate for good jazz in the British Isles, engaging in all sorts of activities, from making popular records like "Bad Penny Blues" to organizing jazz festivals to hosting radio and television shows. Steeped in New Orleans jazz and swing since he taught himself to play the trumpet, Lyttelton became one of the most prominent figures of the so-called trad jazz movement in Britain in the 1950s along with other big names such as Chris Barber and Ken Colyer. By the mid-1970s, when he cut this session with tenorist Buddy Tate, he'd been active in British jazz circles for well over 20 years and was highly respected. Born in Sherman, TX, in 1913, Tate came straight out of the Swing Era and soon became prominent through his work with the Count Basie Orchestra, where he replaced tenor saxophonist Herschel Evans. Throughout his career, Tate led a number of fantastic recording sessions, fronted a band for over 20 years at the Celebrity Club in Harlem, and was a frequent visitor to Europe. It was precisely during one of these visits, when he played the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1974, that this little-known session with Lyttelton and a host of fine British musicians took place.

The eight tracks that comprise Swinging Scorpio (Black Lion) were recorded at London's Pye Studios on July 3, 1974, and find Lyttelton (trumpet, clarinet) and Tate (tenor sax, clarinet) in the company of Bruce Turner (alto sax, clarinet), Kathleen Stobart (tenor and baritone saxes, clarinet), Mick Pyne (piano), Dave Green (bass), and Tony Mann (drums). This is the type of studio band that Lyttelton often put together for specific recording sessions, and all musicians involved have a thorough understanding of the swing idiom and are able accompanists to a giant like Tate. Legendary trumpeter Buck Clayton contributed all the original compositions and arrangements for the date, mostly because by the mid-1970s, he'd retired from playing and had concentrated on writing and arranging for medical reasons. In fact, Clayton wasn't able to attend the session due to health problems, but the charts he devised here are all the work of a master arranger with very clear ideas about how a small swing band should sound. The blues inflections we can hear on Clayton's own playing can be heard throughout this session, from "Kansas City Woman," with a lovely baritone sax solo from Stobart, to "Swinging Scorpio," which features a solid piano solo from Pyne. Clayton's ensemble writing is very exciting on uptempo numbers ("Outswinger," "Steevos," "Clarinet Lemonade") and his charts leave quite a bit of room for solos by Tate and Lyttelton. The only ballad that came out of this session, "The One for Me," shows that Clayton could also turn in sensitive slow tunes, and this one benefits from some highly restrained contributions from Lyttelton, Tate, and Pyne. All in all, this session is the work of a master saxophonist who was still in fine form in his sixties and is supported by a very sympathetic group of outstanding British musicians, and as such, it deserves to be heard.

Humphrey Lyttelton with Duke Ellington.