Search For The New Land - Lee Morgan

Lee Morgan - Search For A New Land (1964/66)

A surprising amount of Lee Morgan albums from the 60s were shelved. This seems absolutely absurd to me particularly when they feature the big jazz stars of the day Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Hank Mobley, McCoy Tyner, Cedar Walton and Art Blakey amongst others. Even more absurd was that there were beautifully recorded Wayne Shorter compositions just languishing in the Blue Note vaults. Miles Davis couldn't get enough Wayne Shorter tunes at the time. Shorter tracks like E.S.P. and Nefertiti were being used as titles for Miles Davis records for God's sake. 

Anyway unlike other Lee Morgan albums Tom Cat and Infinity, they didn't wait until the 80s to release this recording. 1964's Search For A New Land only gathered dust on the shelves until 1966. Despite being recorded two months after the smash crossover hit LP The Sidewinder, Blue Note immediately shelved this record and requested Morgan go back into the studio to create another boogaloo jam in an attempt to capture the mass market again. 

The title track written by Lee Morgan is a spectacular piece of kaleidoscopic spatial jazz featuring Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and unusually for Morgan guitarist, Grant Green, along with the ace rhythm section of Reggie Workman and Billy Higgins doing divine cymbal work. It's all about wide open spaces and ebbs and flows and rare tones and unfamiliar vibrations and new horizons and tense tranquility and mysterious euphoria. 

Not so much the jazzy jazz as the post-bop transforming into spiritual jazz and free-bop. Make no mistake this is peak visionary jazz.

Masqualero - Miles Davis

Masqualero - Miles Davis (1967)

The four (pre-electric) second quintet records E.S.P., Miles Smiles, Sorcerer and Nefertiti have been severely underrated by the CardrossManiac. Thirty years ago they were deemed only of interest as precursors to Miles in electric mode, not bad albums but still pretty dusty and fusty. I did not realise they were full blown artistic achievements worthy of prestigious status all of their own.   

In a way this is Wayne Shorter's band more than anyone else's but perhaps that's a misnomer as it's also definitely Tony Williams' band and it's also a Miles... Actually it really is a band, not a solo project. Jazz outfits usually always used a stars name though. We all know Can were the ultimate psychic rock band but this quintet reached extreme telepathic levels that are peerless. 

Masqualero starts out with clunks of drums and bass and keys, almost immediately Miles and Shorter begin riffing in unison, trumpet and sax going in and out of phase for a minute. Then the next six minutes are a free-bop extravaganza. Miles does his thing for a bit as do the other sans Shorter. Then Miles drops out as Shorter enters adding some of the most beautiful sounding saxophone textures and lines he ever recorded. While wonderful lowdown lulls and whirlpools of exquisite moody space are created by Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. With a minute to go Miles and Shorter come back, in off kilter unison, before a final flourish from the other three. 

While Masqualero is composed by Wayne Shorter you know that's only a blueprint and free playing is the goal. Playing (including listening) that's flexible, improvisational and cosmic yet not formless but not conventional either. Lucky for them responsiveness was collectively instinctual with each member of this quintet. 

Sorcerers indeed!

Descarga loca - Aníbal Velásquez

Aníbal Velásquez - Descarga loca (1965)

A real boogaloo scorcher. Well it's classic Columbian descarga innit. Literally a crazy jam. 

It's easy to see how jazz was waning in public opinion particularly when you hear jazz influenced tracks like this that are so much more immediate, infectious and ultimately more accessible. This is one of the reasons why the electric Miles revolution was necessary.  

The Sidewinder - Lee Morgan

Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder (1963)

The teen trumpet sensation who played on Coltrane's Blue Train and many Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers peak records including the previous post's Moanin' was a veteran in his mid 20s, making a comeback after a dalliance with the "China white" by the time he recorded this scorcher. A latin inflected hard bop boogaloo bomb!

Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers - Moanin'/Children Of The Night [Steely Dan - Aja]

Moanin' - Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers (1958)

More jazzy jazz of the ultimate jazzy jazz variety. Trumpet from Lee Morgan! Benny Golson tops on tenor sax. Composition and fa fa funky rhythm and blues jazzy piano from Bobby Timmons. Rhythm section none too shabby either with Jymie Merritt accompanying Blakey's tres jazzy drummage. I mean it is jazzy jazzy but you can't escape the fact that it's got a bluesy rock'n'roll soul too. 

Peak jazzy jazz!

Perhaps hard bop is the archetypal jazzy jazz for me because I don't go back and listen to old school bepop or swing or big band or whatever else is lurking back there. I remember having tapes of Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and other bepoppers when I was small and it just seemed too ancient because I already knew Bitches Brew, Spiritual Unity, Interstellar Space and 60s/70s James Brown. 

Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers - Children Of The Night (1961)

A Wayne Shorter composition featuring his great sax and the tremendous trombone of Curtis Fuller then the topper-most trumpet of Freddie Hubbard. Terrific tinkling of the ivories from Cedar Walton while Art & Jymie ensure the tempo and swinging dance-ability of the tune. 

These Jazz Messengers sure had a great run from the mid 50s to the mid 60s. They basically ran the jazzy jazz for that ten year period while other jazz sub genres existed adjacently. If you just followed all the members and their solo outings and collaborations along with all the Blakey And The Jazz Messengers records for that period you would be down an impeccable jazz rabbit hole. That's a big chunk of peak history for the jazzy jazz and the subsequent offshoot sub styles of the time. 

...Oh now I remember why I ended up in the jazzy jazz milieu, Steely Dan. Walter Becker and Donny Fagen loved the engineering aesthetics of Rudy Van Gelder. He recorded thousands of sessions in his New Jersey studio for labels such as Prestige, Blue Note and Impulse. The above two tunes are engineered by Van Gelder.

Steely Dan - Aja (1977)

Wayne Shorter made a cameo sax appearance on this, the title track to Steely Dan's Aja from 1977. A sprawling post-bop extravaganza like no other in rock.

This, not so much the jazzy jazz as the jazz fusion/jazz-rock. It's post-rock though really innit. 

Also notable for the exquisite improv drummage from Steve Gadd...

...and THE EVERYTHING!

Moanin' · Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus - Moanin' (1960)

It's been 25 years since I last listened to a bit of Charlie Mingus. I rarely get into jazzy jazz. When you start at fake jazz, avant-garde jazz and jazz fusion it's a bit hard to go back. When you want the mental free jazz or the funky jazz funk or the spiritual jazz or the symphonic soundtrack jazz or the fake fake jazz it's hard to do the jazzy jazz. Anyway this is the jazziest jazz I've dug in a long time. I mean it's funky and swinging and down n dirty bluesy jazz but it's also jazzy jazz. You could pop on a beret, smoke a jazz cigarette and click your fingers like a revolting hepcat beat poet turd to this. I think this is as close to Flintstones jazz that I'll ever get. Funnily enough Mingus encompassed so much more than jazz into his musical vocabulary and detested the term jazz.

The Incredible band here are:

CHARLES MINGUS, bass, leader & composer
JACKIE McLEAN, alto sax

JOHN HANDY, alto sax

BOOKER ERVIN, tenor sax
PEPPER ADAMS, baritone sax
JIMMY KNEPPER, trombone

WILLIE DENNIS, trombone

HORACE PARLAN, piano
DANNIE RICHMOND, drums

*Moanin' isn't a cover of the Bobby Timmons penned tune he performed with Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers on their 1958 self-titled LP.

Stevie - Brian Wilson

Stevie - Brian Wilson (1982)

So if you skip to 9:40 here on the infamous Trinidad Cassette (1982) we have the version we all know and love of Stevie. This tune was written around 1980/81 and was apparently about Stevie Nicks maybe (?). This topmost tune from Brian has never been properly recorded by The Beach Boys or Brian Wilson solo. 

I mean it sounds like it could be a demo for That Lucky Old Sun or Sunflower or Pet Sounds for that matter. So I guess it's just timeless classic Brian Wilson. It's incredible to me that he can have such a classic song just lying around gathering dust being neglected.

Stevie - The Beach Boys (1982)

I'm guessing here but I assume somebody has recently just cleaned up The Trinidad Cassette version of the tune but I can't help but think maybe getting rid of some of that noise and reverb it has now lost some of its magic dust. So The Trinidad Cassette is also unfortunately known as The Cocaine Sessions and sometimes also known as The Hamburger Sessions. Dennis Wilson allegedly used to offer burgers and/or cocaine to Brian to motivate him to create music. 

Stevie - Saint Etienne (2000) 

Of course Bob Stanley would do the most obscure cover possible of a Brian Wilson song for the tribute LP Caroline Now!: The Songs Of Brian Wilson & The Beach Boys (2000). Also included in the song is a touch of My Diane a tune from the much maligned Beach Boys record M.I.U. Album (1978). I'd love to find an interview of Sarah, Bob or Pete discussing this recording because it's kinda genius.

Steely Dan - My Old School

Steel Dan - My Old School (1973)

It's so joyous reading the comments sections to Steely Dan tunes because they all realise who the best band ever was. And the comment that exemplifies it all is this: One of the best things about Steely Dan is EVERYTHING!

I'm still a neophyte when it comes to Steely Dan, only converting twelve or thirtyeen years ago. So I still haven't gone back to re-investigate if The Royal Scam is actually any good or got fully on board with Gaucho yet. It's hard to pick between the other five LPs. At this point in time there does seem to be extra special magic permeating on Aja and Countdown To Ecstasy. 

I have deliberately avoided the books, magazines, videos and interweb gossip on the group. Sticking with my limited knowledge that Steely Dan were two sardonic upstarts from New York supplanted in LA spreading their acerbic perspective via deliciously idiosyncratic upbeat jazz inflected rock music of the genius variety. 

Having said that though, I had read a couple of books by Barney Hoskyns which featured Steely Dan in cameo roles so I do know there was some darkness lurking within their shenanigans when it came to excessive 70s lifestyles. Being commentators on the rock'n'roll/hollywood scene didn't make them immune to its pitfalls.

Walter Becker died a few years back so I'm disappointed that I didn't get it together to organise a trip to the big smoke to see them last time they were in Australia. What a loser I am. I feel like Becker would actually be proud of me for this failing though. I mean would this not be the perfect subject matter for a Steely Dan hit: A forty-something ex-lead singer of band deadbeat with a failed marriage and mental issues is losing his shit in a horrible dusty country town and can't even get it together to buy a plane ticket to go see his favourite band's final tour. 

Anyway Countdown To Ecstasy is one of the great singalong (in the wrong octave and out of tune yell-along really) albums for me. The irresistible melodies are just so expansive and exquisite plus you never know quite where Fagen's always surprising vocal phrasing is gonna go, which keeps you on your toes. And that's still occurring after hundreds of listens to this one LP.

Beyond that, what makes Steely Dan still so glittering and seductive in a timeless manner is a mystery. I'm sure if a music teacher explained their methods behind the notes and the performance thereof I'd still be none the wiser and it still wouldn't explain the why?. Suffice to say Donald Fagen and Walter Becker's prestigious charisma had the alchemy of synergy bubbling over within their songwriting partnership, it was just a matter of how perfect they could get their incredible vision out of their heads and onto tape [Yep I do realise Steely Dan don't need my endorsement and that I don't need to be adding to the voluminous discourse on the subject or doing a half-baked summary of why audiences of different generations have been so captivated throughout the 50 years since their inception in one paragraph but er, there it was anyway. Sorry, not sorry]

Sophistication is one thing musically but that would be nothing without the mass appeal of their thrillingly catchy hooks. This is pop music after all.

The Gentlemen - It's A Cryin Shame

(1966)

A scintillating fuzz monster. 

(A perfectly crafted slice of 6os garage rock. Many tried and many failed but the stars aligned for teen-Texans The Gentleman with this song, its performance and recording. If aliens landed and asked "What is this garage you speak of?" I would have no hesitation in pointing them in the direction of It's A Cryin' Shame for a definitive example of the genre. All the elements are present and accounted for but unlike those who failed they are all in the right place and were enthusiastically activated for peak aesthetic success.)  

Modds - Leave My House

The Modds - Leave My House (1966)

Sometimes you just go to have your 60s garage at its most primitive and raw. This neanderthal sneer is delivered with next level hostility then at 1:22 it gets even more malicious with the ugliest, most primal blown out lead break ever. A spiteful scuzz-fest of the highest order.

Rewind!