Jazz – My Take

• From “Ellington is Forever, Vol. 1″     Amazon.com

Music is about listeners and dancers. Yep, even jazz (though with jazz too often the only listeners are the musicians on stage). But there is an audience out there, one that can easily lose interest in a performance. Too many solos by less than stellar musicians, repetitive song forms, repetitive arrangements and (the real kicker) solos that go on waaaaay too long can drive a crowd out the door.

This track is a great lesson on how not to have that happen. Recipe: a great song; an infectious rhythm played without bombast; fine musicians soloing over sympathetic backing; tight arranging. From the start, with Jimmy Smith’s Orientalized tongue-in-cheek organ intro it’s a toe-tapper done as a hasty samba. It just makes you feel good.

It’s hard to miss with a song like Caravan, and this arrangement does the Duke proud. The ensemble horn melody is voiced like an Ellington arrangement, and the trumpet bridge (Jon Faddis?) bows respectfully to Cootie Williams.

There are 7 solos, none too long, all interesting. The backing is never intrusive. On the first couple of solos (Faddis and Joe Henderson, I believe) the Jimmy Jones on piano does some sparse chord punctuation; his voicings and timing had to make the musicians smile during the session. Jimmy Smith’s organ comes in during the Henderson solo (anybody know what Henderson is quoting in the second half of his solo?); Burrell’s guitar isn’t really noticeable until the fourth solo by Jerome Richardson (soprano sax).

Jimmy Smith solos like he just came from watching a Clint Eastwood western. It’s a treat when a soloist takes you out of the song for a few bars. It’s also nice when a soloist catches himself wandering into cliche land, which Smith does, cutting off an ascending chromatic figure that gets repetitious.

If this was a live track, it’s a sure thing the audience would be smiling the whole way through, never losing interest.

After a restating of the theme Burrell plays an understated solo. What makes final this section  of the track work is the trumpet riffing. They’re having fun.

Kenny Burrell is generally considered a bop guitarist, more for his early association with Dizzy Gillespie than for his style. He helped define the jazz guitar sound in the late ’50s and ’60s, and with Oscar Peterson and Jimmy Smith was important in establishing the small-group guitar/keys format. Much in demand as a sideman, he avoided both the flurry-of-notes technique of Barney Kessel and the almost too laid-back quality of Jim Hall. He has a clean attack and and awareness of the blues much like Herb Ellis.

Starting in 1978 he began teaching a course in “Ellingtonia” at UCLA. His “Ellington Is Forever” albums grew out of great respect for the music. “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” is featured on his myspace page. For a concise bio, check Jazz Improv Magazine.

Tags: burrell, caravan, ellington, guitar, jazz

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.