A great jazz musician can reduce himself to nothing if he succumbs to the false idea that he is a good composer. Many a jazz album has been spoiled because somebody on the session decides to record his own “originals” at the expense of the great American songbook.
But there is another way of inflicting a deadly compromise. Add a backing with strings. Phil Woods manages to do both here, and as a bonus somebody threw in an amateurish recording quality for the concert as well – maybe they couldn’t put their mikes where they needed to.
Phil, who died from emphysema on 29 September 2015, was captured during a popular tour at a time when audiences put a misguided value on the idea of string accompaniment. Sure such albums by Parker, Gillespie and Ben Webster flourished deservedly. Perhaps they were good because the strings were a novelty to the soloist.
But by the time such accompaniment had become routine, it could be dismissed as contrived and ersatz. We can’t tell if those albums could have been remade to advantage without the strings. I would think that they would have been.
In his prime in the 50s and 60s Phil’s clarion alto was a major jazz voice (here there are signs that his playing is not 100%). Happily and expertly he injected Parker into the classic Quincy Jones band. Bird himself, sans strings, would no doubt have substituted magical small-group tracks. Bird could surmount the cat gut.
It was a mistake for Phil in 2005 to follow in Bird’s footsteps. He would never make any improvement, as this comprehensive album shows. If you have the Parker with strings album then you know this to be so. If you don’t have it, then you should acquire it before getting this one.
Discography
CD1: Just Friends; Everything Happens To Me; April In Paris; Imitating Charlie Parker; Solitude; Presenting The Band; You Go To My Head; Meeting Charlie Parker; The Thrill Is Gone; Willow Weep For Me (44.14)
CD2: All The Things You Are; I’ll Remember April; Easy To Love; And When We’re Young; The Best Thing For You; How Deep Is The Ocean; I Get Along Without You Very Well; Repetition; The Midnight Sun Will Never Set; Rocker; Temptation (69.52)
Woods (as); Ben Aranov (p); Reggie Johnson (b); Douglas Sides (d); Zürich Chamber Orchestra. Zürich, 13 June 2005.
Storyville 1038531
