Sonny Rollins - On Impulse!

Sonny Rollins is mostly known for his absolutely awesome solo career during the late 50s and for taking a long hiatus afterwards. His later works are almost obscure, but outstanding nevertheless. I took a look at three of his Impulse! disks (released in 1965 and 1966) and the first one, Sonny Rollins On Impulse!, seems to be the most interesting of them all.

His tone changed since Saxophone Collosus from ten years earlier but it's still good old Sonny Rollins reinterpreting old standards. Disk starts with two standards, "On Green Dolphin Street" and lenghty "Everything Happens to Me". The first one was made famous by Miles Davis, second was played by almost everyone, from Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk to Bilie Holliday. Rollins is very lyrical, especially "On Green Dolphin Street" gained my attention as a very different version to the one played by Miles (not to mention Albert Ayler ;)). It's not melancholic anymore and swings beautifully.

Then there's calypso and I just love Rollins playing Caribbean rhythms, no matter if it's "St. Thomas" or anything else. This time it's "Hold 'Em Joe" - so joyful one can't resist dancing and jumping around. Rollins' backing band may not be well-known but sure knows how to swing, they are doing their job fine. Ray Bryant plays piano, Walter Booker is on bass and Mickey Roker on drums. And I can honestly say I'm glad Sonny decided to play with piano this time, Bryant is very prominent on this disk and deserves that place very much.

Both last tunes, "Blue Room" and "Three Little Rooms" are different and even more challenging, especially the first one noted. Judge for yourself, this is forgotten Sonny Rollins at his best.

Television - Live at the Old Waldorf, San Francisco

So, I haven't written anything about Television yet? Weird, I thought I had written how magical Marquee Moon was before. So, anyway... Television was a wonderful, short-lived band in the end of 70s that played rock. Art rock, punk rock, you name it - they were masterful musicians and had two guitars (played by Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd) exchanging leads (so-called weaving). And, they were good at playing long improvisations. Doesn't certainly sound like punk, right? Oh, there's more - they loved the Stones, the Beatles and others. They were rather neglecting early 70s music like Yes and ELP, though.

And they were playing almost everything but the blues. Their idea was simple - not to play the blues. Oh well. Damn it, I forgive them. They were epic anyway. Marquee Moon from 1977 is probably the greatest LP from that decade, such a shame 1978 follow-up was much weaker. Well, nevermind. Television broke up after two releases. But we're happy to have some live releases. Both from 1978, the first one is called The Blow-Up and was released in 1982 in shameful quality, second, from 2003, is much better. It's simply called Live at the Old Waldorf, San Francisco (waldorf salad instantly comes to my mind).

What we get: two 14-minute-long wild improvisations, two of undersigned's favorite tunes, one the Rolling Stones cover (Satisfaction, of course) and four other rockers. It is unbelievable. Makes me want to jump on stage and play with the band. What a divine album. Best live 70s rock ever released.

Dave Holland - Pathways

After Vijay Iyer's Historicity I wanted to hear some more modern-day jazz, so I downloaded released this year but recorded live in 2009 album by Dave Holland Octet called Pathways.

First thought: it doesn't site like an octet, everybody waits patiently for their time and has plenty of space. Holland's band consists of Antonio Hart (alto sax and flute), Chris Potter (tenor and soprano sax), Gary Smulyan (baritone sax), Alex Sasha Sipiagin (trumpet and flugelhorn), Robin Eubanks (trombone), Steve Nelson (vibraphone and marimba) and Nate Smith (drums). This is the first time this group played together but you don't feel this - they are really swinging. My favorite cut is the longest one, "How's Never?".

Loud applause after almost every solo adds to the album very much. It was recorded at New York's Birdland and I'd love to be there, but since I'm a million miles away, I am pretty satisfied with this live document. Dave Holland said he was always a fan of Duke Ellington and dreamed about playing with such a powerful front line (3 saxes, 2 brasses). So, he made one of the best jazz releases of the year. And I don't miss piano...

Vijay Iyer - Historicity

I love piano blues and piano jazz. Hell, I just love pianos. There are many mighty solo piano LPs and this is by far my favorite setting of this instrument (start with Monk's Alone In San Francisco). But jazz trios (piano, bass and drums) can be very fine either. I guess this is the case with the rising star of 00s jazz, Vijay Iyer.

Born in 1971 in New York City, he has a very nice name and Indian roots ;) And he plays mean piano; his trio also consists of Stephan Crump on bass and Marcus Gilmore on drums. They have released a couple of disks already, many critics say their last one, Historicity (Act, 2009), is their best. Now as I listen...

It's good. Sometimes Iyer is trying too hard and intense for my liking but in overall, it's good. One can't go wrong with jazz piano trios ;) And there's "Smoke Stack" by Andrew Hill. +10 to awesomeness. (Not to mention Stevie Wonder's tune...) All in all, it's recommended stuff.

I have no idea what's going on on today's jazz scene so hearing Vijay Iyer makes me happy there's still some good music around. I missed his show in Warsaw on the other hand - my huge mistake! I'll look for his Tragicomic LP (Sunnyside, 2008) and the good news: I'm looking forward to hearing his upcoming solo album named just Solo.

PS. Vijay Iyer won Downbeat Magazine's 2009 poll for Rising Star Pianist. So, he's like really, really worth hearing.

J.R. Monterose

J.R. Monterose is remembered mostly for playing tenor sax on Mingus' Pithecantropus Erectus. His solo career was never really successful commercially, but his works were very highly rated by critics. Monterose debuted for Blue Note Records, AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine said it was "in the vein of Sonny Rollins and Coleman Hawkins" and gave it 4.5 stars. In the session participated Ira Sullivan, Horace Silver, Wilbur Ware (yay) and Philly Joe Jones. It's a really swinging date, check out "Ka-Link", it's even on YouTube. This self-titled debut album makes a great pair with Introducing Johnny Griffin LP from the same year, try to mix them!

Later J.R. Monterose recorded obscure disks with Tommy Flanagan, Pete La Roca and Jimmy Garriosn (Straight Ahead, 1959) and others which for now I'm trying to get to. Great stuff!