Miles Davis: Steamin’ (20th Century Masterworks 350270)
Just before signing for the prestigious Columbia Records label in 1956 the Miles Davis quintet recorded their final four LPs for Prestige, fulfilling a contract obligation. Miles had been working with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones for most of that year so Cookin,’ Relaxin, Workin’ and Steamin’ represented a summary of the quintet’s work at the time. The four albums recorded at two marathon sessions were the result of about three hours of studio work and according to Ian Carr’s Miles Davis biography each track was a first take. It is noticeable how many ballads from the songbook repertoire like It Never Entered My Mind, If I Were A Bell, I Could Write A Book, It Could Happen To You, When I Fall In Love, My Funny Valentine and Surrey With The Fringe On Top were featured on these dates. Miles plays them all using a harmon mute, which created intimacy and became something of trademark.
Steamin’ was not released until 1961 and sales probably benefited from Davis’s recent Columbia masterpieces like Miles Ahead, Milestones, Porgy & Bess, Kind Of Blue and Sketches Of Spain. It opens with a super-slow version of Surrey With The Fringe which owes a little something to Blossom Dearie. Miles felt she was “the only white woman who ever had soul”. He apparently “loved” her 1955 recording of Surrey which she performed at 24 bpm. The quintet take it just a little brighter (30 bpm) but still quite slow for this show tune. Salt Peanuts is an extended drum feature for Philly Joe Jones; at approximately three and a half minutes it feels about three minutes too long. A bonus track has been included which finds Miles delicately plotting his way through the chromaticism of Thelonious Monk’s Well You Needn’t.
Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers With Thelonious Monk (20th Century Masterworks 350272)
This was very much a reunion between Art Blakey and Thelonious Monk. Their relationship began around 1943 when they were part of an informal group of musicians who used to meet at Mary Lou Williams’ Harlem apartment. Big Sid Catlett, another attendee, helped Blakey master the press roll that became one of his signature percussive effects. Over the next few years he was Monk’s drummer-of-choice on no less than nine albums, including the 1952 date that introduced Little Rootie Tootie. This was famously transcribed by Hall Overton (including the piano solo) for Monk’s 1959 New York Town Hall concert.
Monk on Blakey: ‘We made a good record but the drummer couldn’t keep time!’
Robin D. G. Kelley’s mammoth Thelonious Monk biography (596 pages) hints at problems with this recording date. Wilbur Ware turned up in no fit state to play so the 20-year-old Spanky DeBrest was pressed into service. Evidence (Monk’s dramatic reconstruction of Just You Just Me) and Blue Monk were attempted but nearly every take was unsalvageable because Johnny Griffin and Bill Hardman struggled with the music. Monk apparently snatched the lead sheets away, telling the band “they would play far better without them because they could hardly play worse”. None of these difficulties are apparent here and Hardman, displaying a distinctively Clifford Brown-like influence on In Walked Bud (a Blue Skies contrafact) and I Mean You, is pretty impressive. Griffin’s tenor is authoritative as always, notably on his own Purple Shades, a run-of-the-mill blues finding him at his most soulful.
Monk told Hardman at the end of the session “We made a good record but the drummer couldn’t keep time!” In 1998 I interviewed Stan Levey who had this to say about Blakey: “Art was like a diamond in the rough. He had that hard swing that could swing you right off the bandstand.”