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Another taste of heaven
Arts & Entertainment
_ The Jazz Condition
By KEN FRANCKLING
Forty years ago, trumpeter
and style-shaper Miles Davis took his band into Columbia's New York studio for two
days of work that became the greatest crossover album the jazz world has known.
There were no rehearsals
before this date, which resulted in his "Kind of Blue" album. Davis simply
handed his talented sidemen brief sketches or hints of what he was looking for.
What he wanted was individual
and group improvisation on open-ended modal scales rather than defined chord changes
that still dominate jazz soloing. The session established modal jazz as a playing
option for improvisers.
His band in the spring of
1959 included saxophonists John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley, bassist Paul Chambers,
drummer Jimmy Cobb and pianist Wynton Kelly. Davis had a minor key feel in mind for
most of the project, so he also brought back pianist Bill Evans, who had just left
the band to form his own unit. Evans played on four of the five tunes, with Kelly
performing only on the burning blues "Freddie Freeloader."
With its melodic warmth,
inherent beauty and intensely charged spontaneity, "Kind of Blue" became
an instant classic.
For many listeners, it was
the first introduction to this thing called jazz. And it can be found on the record
and CD shelves of many people who claim they don't like jazz.
In a genre where many players
feel they have done well if they sell 4,000 copies of a single album, "Kind
of Blue" remains the best selling jazz album of all time. It still sells some
4,000 copies a week.
Cobb, the sole surviving
player from the session, has commented that the recording "must have been made
in heaven."
Last week, as part of the
JVC Jazz Festival in New York, Cobb was joined by an intergenerational band to perform
for the first time, in order, all of the music from "Kind of Blue."
His collaborators included
pianist Geri Allen, bassist Buster Williams, tenor saxophonist Ravi Coltrane (son
of John Coltrane), alto saxophonist Vincent Herring (a musical disciple of Cannonball
Adderley), and trumpeter Wallace Roney, who became a Davis protege in the leader's
later years.
The first set gave the band
an opportunity to meld, to get the bugs out of the sound system, and to put Davis's
work in context. They opened by reinterpreting classic tunes from albums he made
around the same time as the "Kind of Blue" project. Those tunes included
"Green Dolphin Street," "Straight, No Chaser," "Milestones,"
and "I Thought About You."
The second half featured
the "Kind of Blue" material in order of recorded performance: the beautifully
haunting "So What," "Freddie Freeloader," "Blue in Green,"
"All Blues" and "Flamenco Sketches."
All of the players, leaders
in their own right, were in top form and rose to the occasion. There was no playing
by rote, no halfhearted attempt at repertory performance. Each participant brought
his or her own musical feeling and interpretation to the summit. It was a fine line
to walk, but they accomplished it.
Cobb, now 70, was as energetic
and supportive as ever, anticipating the beat, filling space with his trademark splashes
of color.
Young Coltrane and Herring
were strong soloists. Herring was particularly heated and eloquent in his "Flamenco
Sketches" solo and showed how well he has developed in recent years to be one
of the most promising alto players in the Adderley tradition.
Allen's piano work was forceful
and propulsive, adding more of her personality to the mix. In support of the music,
Williams reminded that he is one of the finest acoustic bassists on the planet. He
is blessed with a warm tone, spellbinding technique and a voice-like, melodic approach
to the instrument.
Roney, his stylish black
outfit accented by red shirt, red satin shoes and crimson horns, took on Davis's
music with a mixed challenge. For several years after Davis's death in 1991, Roney
was dogged by comparisons and questions about whether he had a style of his own or
was merely emulating Davis's tone and approach.
While he has moved deeper
into his own musical space, he found middle ground last week. During the "Kind
of Blue" set, Roney set aside for the most part his penchant to fill his solos
with cascading chromatic flurries of 16th notes that have a frustrating sameness.
He was far more melodic this time out, searching, probing, and making heated new
discoveries in Davis's blueprint.
The result was "Kind
of Blue" in a way it had never been heard before _ with roars, cheers, and applause
and an occasional whistle from one enthusiastic fan at 700-seat Symphony Space on
Manhattan's Upper West Side.
It wasn't Davis, but it was
very fine.
"This was a landmark
recording that spawned so many musical directions," Roney said at the concert's
close. "It has the distinction of being one of the most beautiful records ever
made."
Few would disagree.
"Kind of Blue"
is jazz for pop fans, jazz for purists, jazz for lovers, and jazz for the ages _
all rolled into one.
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