For me, it was always Antoni Tàpies, and not Joan Miró or Antoni Gaudi, who carried the true artistic soul of Catalunya, and of Barcelona. Colom’s solo trumpet tribute to him makes for a curiously personal climax to this beautifully conceived session...
I’ve just acquired the late (he died on 23 February) Ira Gitler’s master work Swing To Bop. It’s a pity I didn’t have it before I wrote the piece on...
This could quite easily have been separated into two very worthwhile and possibly more detailed books – one explaining the complexities of Afro-Cuban Jazz, and the other...
Reading Gordon Jack’s very good obituary for Bob Efford I was reminded that I saw Bob a few times in the UK (with Heath, I think) while the last time was in the US. This was in 1980 and was...
A highly superior issue by one of jazz's richest contemporary talents. If you know Chick's work with Miroslav Vitous and Roy Haynes and like that as much as I do, you may read no further: just go out and get it. His latest confrères may be less renowned, but they are comparably magnificent players, and both serve Chick and the trio's overall conception unimprovably.
Rather like Chick's ECM Trio Music dates, this album offers two distinct sides of his musical personality and rich craft. The first four cuts show how steeped he is in jazz tradition, furnishing exquisite and properly individual interpretations of songs central to the jazz canon. Here one notes how avid has been his listening to other great players, although he is of course his own man (and always was, from his auspicious mid-60s debut). One can detect Hancock, Tyner and of course especially Evans in his approach; but I would also add the name of Oscar Peterson, whose joyously incandescent, perfectly articulated rhythmic power distinguishes Chick's work too, even if the route Corea takes is noticeably different. If you feel like scoffing at this suggestion, try Autumn Leaves...
