by Don Berryman
This year’s Record Store Day on April 18th has many exclusive jazz LP offerings, including reissues and newly discovered recordings from Ahmad Jamal, Bill Evans, Buster Williams, Cecil Taylor, the Charles Tolliver All Stars, Chet Baker, Cyrus Chestnut, Don Cherry, Gil Scott-Heron, James Carter, Joe Henderson, John Coltrane, Mal Waldron, McCoy Tyner, Roy Ayers, Roy Hargrove, Vince Guaraldi, Yusef Lateef, and rare gems like The New Sounds, Miles Davis’ first recording as a leader released on Prestige in 1951, remastered and reissued on 10” LP by Craft records.
But I want to focus on the historical Jazz Showcase recordings produced by Zev Feldman on Resonance Records. When I first heard about these tapes, I was very excited to hear performances from four of my favorite musicians, Joe Henderson, Yusef Lateef, Ahmad Jamal, and Mal Waldron. I should also say four of my favorite pianists since Kenny Barron appears with Yusef Lateef and the dazzling Joane Brackeen with Joe Henderson. All were taped live at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago. All are packaged with booklets containing extensive liner notes and photos.
The Jazz Showcase was founded by Joe Segal who was the recipient of the 2015 A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship for Jazz Advocacy. He began showcasing music at many locations in 1947. In the early 1970s Segal opened the Jazz Showcase on Rush Street in Chicago (It has since moved to Dearborn Station). Now owned and operated by his son Wayne Segal, it remains one of the world’s most revered jazz venues. Luckily tapes of some of those early performances were archived and Resonance records has mastered these and is releasing four great LP sets for Record Store Day on April 18th – with CD and digital releases following on April 24th, which is the 100th anniversary of Segal’s birth.
Joe Henderson – Consonance: Live at the Jazz Showcase
Joe Henderson – Consonance: Live at the Jazz Showcase is a 3-LP set featuring saxophone titan Joe Henderson and his quartet with pianist Joanne Brackeen, bassist Steve Rodby, and drummer Danny Spencer, recorded in February of 1978. Included is a booklet with photos and liner notes by co-producer John Koenig, alongside interviews with Brackeen, Rodby, Spencer, and Wayne Segal, son of Joe Segal
Both Joe Henderson and Joanne Brackeen have been recognized by the NEA as Jazz Masters. Henderson is one of the greats and his sound influenced scores of tenor saxophonists who followed. Joanne Brackeen is high on my list of artists deserving further recognition. She is absolutely brilliant on piano. She joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in 1969, becoming the first and only female member of the group, staying until 1972. Brackeen then performed extensively with Joe Henderson (1972-75) and Stan Getz (1975-77). After leaving Stan Getz’s quartet, she emerged as a leader. But she rejoined Joe on this tour and he returned the favor appearing in her group and recording Ancient Dynasty. Joe Henderson’s rich tone and strong sense of rhythm are complemented by Brackeen’s bold harmonic landscape. They are both aggressive players and on this recording they present captivating and complex improvisations.
They open with Coltrane’s “Mr. PC” taken at break-neck speed. Henderson’s “Inner Urge” follows and opens wide with everyone having a chance to stretch. On Charlie Parker’s “Relaxing At Carillo” and Henderson’s “Isotope” Brackeen sits out mostly allowing Henderson to work in trio format like he would do on his State Of The Tenor recordings at the Village Vanguard 16 years later with Ron Carter and Al Foster. Henderson is in great form throughout. This a fabulous record and the whole band pushes to expand the boundaries.
Ahmad Jamal – At The Jazz Showcase: Live in Chicago
Ahmad Jamal – At The Jazz Showcase: Live in Chicago is a 2-LP set featuring the iconic pianist with bassist John Heard and drummer Frank Gant recorded on March 20-21, 1976.
The NEA said that Ahmad Jamal was “One of the subtlest virtuosos of jazz piano” when awarding him the NEA Jazz fellowship and continued saying “his uncanny use of space in his playing and leadership of his small ensembles were hallmarks of his influential career”. Ahmad Jamal not only influenced pianists. Miles Davis in his autobiography said of Jamal “He knocked me out with his concept of space, his lightness of touch, his understatement and the way he phrased notes and chords and passages….I loved his lyricism on piano, the way he played and the spacing he used in the ensemble voicing of his groups.
On At The Jazz Showcase: Live in Chicago Jamal’s notes sparkle as his hands dance across the keyboard with the rest of the trio in lock-set – this was indeed a special date. Joe Alterman says in the liner notes: “The Jazz Showcase was a room built for listening and for Jamal, rooms like that were a joy to play. You hear that joy throughout this set — in the pacing, in the patience and in the way the band allows the music to unfold naturally.”
In 2022 and 2023 Zev Feldman released Ahmad Jamal’s Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse Volumes 1-3 on his Jazz Detective label. They were recorded live in the mid 1960’s and I love them (See my reviews here and here). But I think this is even better because of the performance. It was recorded over a decade later. I believe this is Jamal near his peak. In the notes, his daughter Sumaya Jamal agrees saying, “ I believe that these performances are truly some of my father’s best”.
My favorite track is Duke Ellinton’s “Prelude To A Kiss” .
Yusef Lateef – Alight Upon The Lake: Live at the Jazz Showcase
Yusef Lateef – Alight Upon The Lake: Live at the Jazz Showcase 3-LP set featuring Lateef with pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Bob Cunningham, and drummer Albert “Tootie” Heath was recorded live at the Jazz Showcase in June of 1975.
Yusef Lateef, Kenny Barron, and Albert “Tootie” Heath have all been recognized by the NEA as Jazz Masters, the nation’s highest honor in jazz. Along with Bob Cunningham this was Lateef’s working band in the 70’s for both tours and studio recordings. Kenny Barron had joined Yusef Lateef’s band in early 1971 and that experience Barron acknowledges as having been a key influence on his improvisational skills. This is the same quartet that did Atlantis Lullaby: The Concert in Avignon three years earlier (see my review here). For this recording they had been together for four years and their sound was even more cohesive. Barron’s improvisational skills were certainly on display.
On the opening track, Barron’s “The Untitled” is a half hour trip that begins briskly and boppish with Lateef on tenor over the modal structure, then slows as Barron switches to a dronish strumming of piano strings and Lateef improvises over petal-point bass, evoking a mood somewhere between Lateef’s Eastern Sounds and Coltrane’s Ole. Barron then takes an extended solo soaring over a bowed bass, then just solo piano, ranging from baroque motifs leading to an explosive climax before Lateef rejoins and they return to the opening theme. For me this track alone is worth the price of the album. But these tracks are all gems. Lateef’s haunting beautiful flute “Opus 1 and 2” is another highlight.
Mal Waldron – Stardust & Starlight: At The Jazz Showcase
Mal Waldron – Stardust & Starlight: At The Jazz Showcase is a 2-LP set featuring Waldron with bassist Steve Rodby, drummer Wilbur “the Chief” Campbell, and saxophonist Sonny Stitt and was recorded in August of 1979.
From the opening track, Waldron’s “All Alone” with its brooding somber tone, you know immediately that it’s Mal Waldron at the piano. As Ethan Iverson describes his sound in On Mal Waldron, “Waldron’s best music also has a darker side that’s not decipherable in sense-based or spiritual terms. H. P. Lovecraft’s word unnamable might be appropriate. The piano playing seethes and burbles without coming to a climax.”
Waldron’s piano work here is mesmerizing. On his upbeat tune “Fire Waltz” he plays repeating motifs that drive the rhythm while slowly expanding the harmony like a flower unfolding. “I thought About You” and “It Could Happen To You” are both solo piano performances that reveal Monk’s influence. But then he plays Monk’s “Round Midnight” and while honoring Monk’s influence he totally makes it his own. For the last two tracks, “Old Folks” and “Stardust” saxophone legend Sonny Stitt sits in.
Link to original jazz police article
