Charles Gayle, William Parker & Rashied Ali

Touchin’ On Trane
Jazzwerkstatt JW024

By Any Means

Live at Crescendo

Ayler Records aylCD- 077/078

Almost 16 years to the day separate these two live sessions, yet not one member of this trio of veteran players appears to have lost his edge or gusto.

Dispelling once again the old shibboleth that jazz is a young man’s game, saxophonist Charles Gayle, 68, drummer Rashied Ali, 73, and bassist William Parker, 56, create enough fire and commitment – mixed with experience – on both sets to enliven any program of improvised music.

Perhaps it’s because none has ever given in to the blandishments of more commercial music, but continues to follow a self-defined path, no matter the consequences. Senior statesman Ali is still best-known for his 1960s collaborations with John Coltrane, but he has participated in a variety of exploratory sessions since then. A fearless proselytizer and organizer for Free Jazz, Parker’s ensembles range from duos to big bands, yet he still finds time to help organize New York’s annual Vision Festival. Most mystifying of the three is Gayle, who seemed to suddenly materialize in New York in his forties, fully formed and ready to extend unadulterated Free Jazz into the 21st Century. Since then he has also revealed a quirky piano style. However – and this appears to be the trio’s only concession to advancing years – his characteristic screaming timbres are now the product of the alto saxophone’s upper reaches, rather than that of the tenor saxophone he formerly favoured

Recorded in Berlin in 1991, Touchin’ On Trane is the touchstone for this trio: an announcement of how well the hitherto unconnected three improvised together. Parker rhythmically walks through most of the five tunes; Ali’s strategy is low-key, encompassing vibrating rim shots, hi-hat slashing and press rolls, while Gayle’s trills, squeaks and reed bites extend Sonny Rollins’ work of the mid-1960s – rather then that of Trane. Listening to this CD in retrospect however, reveals just how much “in the tradition” the three were – and are – despite the neo-con mainstream rhetoric that was its nosiest at that time.

Parker’s sul ponticello sweeps mixed with slaps push Gayle to an even higher plane on “Part C” as the saxophonist’s whinnying and double-tonguing escalates from gritty growls to ejaculating juicy, splayed split tones – as if the suddenly released emotion had been saved up for years – as perhaps it had been. Following an episode of clattering pops and emphasized ruffs from Ali, the spotlight shifts back to Gayle who responds with screeching, squealing sopranino-pitched cries.

All and all however, the CD’s defining track is “Part D” which packs nearly every permutation of reed-bass-drums interface that can be imagined into slightly-less-than-28 minutes. Following the drummer’s quasi-parade-ground intro and Parker’s stolid walking Gayle’s exposition includes hocketing pauses, emphasized note clusters and repeated snorts. Lab scientist-like, he seems to be evaluating every centimetre of his instrument and testing every sound that can be forced from it. At the same time he moves from cerebral to pure expressiveness, exposing lengthy passages in altissimo as well as paint-varnish-stripping-styled keening.

Beside him Parker also works up from spiccato sweeps to double and triple stops, finding original spots below the tuning pegs or beneath the bridge to emphasize as he plays. Initially Ali sticks to blunt stroke and paradiddles. Multiplying his strokes so they become more complex however, he eventually creates a drum solo that is both a confirmation of the tune and a connection to the others’ popping runs.

Eventually Gayle reaches a crescendo of otherworldly glossolalia, replicating in curt passages a bugle cry, an infant’s wail and a wounded animal’s bay. Answering himself with low-pitched, vibrato notes, he doesn’t so much overblow, but stretch these splintered tones and wails to their maximum elasticity so that they are distended but never broken.

Despite turning to the smaller horn, and more than 15 years of existence, the saxophonist continues with this prescription on the two CDs of Live at Crescendo. On tracks such as “Hearts Joy”, his own composition and Parker’s “Eternal Voice”, polite musicians’ self-restraint and self-editing never enter into his solo construction.

On the later tune, Gayle begins his solo at the uppermost pitch at which the bassist has just concluded a bowed solo of swelling pulsations, and then the saxophonist moves the resulting notes higher into the stratosphere. Growling and vibrating, with spittle-encrusted split tones and skeletal abstractions, he toys with the lines, pitches and tessitura ‘way past the expected time period until it appears as if he can go no further. Then miraculously he downshifts to a warmer tone and begins playing in tandem with Parker.

On “Hearts Joy” committed to an altissimo output, Gayle begins piling notes upon notes, timbres upon timbres and runs upon runs. Operating agitato and staccato, the reed exposition is carved up into shorter and more fortissimo shards, climbing ever higher in pitch and becoming more dissonant. Avoiding solipsism, despite an inner-directed sound blurring, the jagged double-tonguing and grating guttural intonation eventually rights itself into complementary split-tones and ghosts notes as the tune decelerates with Ali’s cross-pulsed, restrained cymbal and wood-block thwacks and Parker’s measured slap coloring.

At points Gayle verbally exhorts the others. But, another change from the past, these asides are garbled enough so that you can’t hear whether they’re musical or ecclesiastical. Additionally, over the course of 11 tracks – the shortest of which clocks in at slight less than 6½ minutes – the three continue to prove that time hasn’t diminished their skills or original thought processes. Trane-like with wiggling split tones and cries, at one point, there’s a section in Parker’s “Zero Blues” where Gayle’s solo construction is so down-home that it makes him a sonic ringer for R&B altoist Tab Smith. Parker negotiates thick chording to flying spicatto with equal ease – sometimes on the same tune, sometimes within seconds of one another. Likewise Ali belies his septuagenarian status by advancing the date’s rhythmic component not only with reverberating cymbals and thumping bass drums but with unique permutations of cross-bounding beats, echoing flams and rifle shot-like snare raps.

Accepting Free Jazz innovations means that despite the time line, the only choice between these two exceptional sessions is whether you want the end-product in single or double-pocket form.

-- Ken Waxman

.

Track Listing: Touchin’: 1. Part A 2. Part B 3. Part C 4. Part D 5. Part E

Personnel: Touchin’: Charles Gayle (tenor saxophone); William Parker (bass) and

Rashied Ali (drums)

Track Listing: Live: Disc 1: 1. Introduction 2. Zero Blues 3. Hearts Joy 4. We Three 5. Different Stuff 6. Love One Another 7. Straight Ahead Steps Disc 2: 1. Peace Inside 2. Machu Picchu 3. Cry Nu 4. Eternal Voice 5. No Sorrow

Personnel: Live: Charles Gayle (alto saxophone); William Parker (bass) and Rashied Ali (drums)

August 15, 2008

By Any Means

Live at Crescendo
Ayler Records aylCD- 077/078

Charles Gayle, William Parker & Rashied Ali

Touchin’ On Trane

Jazzwerkstatt JW024

Almost 16 years to the day separate these two live sessions, yet not one member of this trio of veteran players appears to have lost his edge or gusto.

Dispelling once again the old shibboleth that jazz is a young man’s game, saxophonist Charles Gayle, 68, drummer Rashied Ali, 73, and bassist William Parker, 56, create enough fire and commitment – mixed with experience – on both sets to enliven any program of improvised music.

Perhaps it’s because none has ever given in to the blandishments of more commercial music, but continues to follow a self-defined path, no matter the consequences. Senior statesman Ali is still best-known for his 1960s collaborations with John Coltrane, but he has participated in a variety of exploratory sessions since then. A fearless proselytizer and organizer for Free Jazz, Parker’s ensembles range from duos to big bands, yet he still finds time to help organize New York’s annual Vision Festival. Most mystifying of the three is Gayle, who seemed to suddenly materialize in New York in his forties, fully formed and ready to extend unadulterated Free Jazz into the 21st Century. Since then he has also revealed a quirky piano style. However – and this appears to be the trio’s only concession to advancing years – his characteristic screaming timbres are now the product of the alto saxophone’s upper reaches, rather than that of the tenor saxophone he formerly favoured

Recorded in Berlin in 1991, Touchin’ On Trane is the touchstone for this trio: an announcement of how well the hitherto unconnected three improvised together. Parker rhythmically walks through most of the five tunes; Ali’s strategy is low-key, encompassing vibrating rim shots, hi-hat slashing and press rolls, while Gayle’s trills, squeaks and reed bites extend Sonny Rollins’ work of the mid-1960s – rather then that of Trane. Listening to this CD in retrospect however, reveals just how much “in the tradition” the three were – and are – despite the neo-con mainstream rhetoric that was its nosiest at that time.

Parker’s sul ponticello sweeps mixed with slaps push Gayle to an even higher plane on “Part C” as the saxophonist’s whinnying and double-tonguing escalates from gritty growls to ejaculating juicy, splayed split tones – as if the suddenly released emotion had been saved up for years – as perhaps it had been. Following an episode of clattering pops and emphasized ruffs from Ali, the spotlight shifts back to Gayle who responds with screeching, squealing sopranino-pitched cries.

All and all however, the CD’s defining track is “Part D” which packs nearly every permutation of reed-bass-drums interface that can be imagined into slightly-less-than-28 minutes. Following the drummer’s quasi-parade-ground intro and Parker’s stolid walking Gayle’s exposition includes hocketing pauses, emphasized note clusters and repeated snorts. Lab scientist-like, he seems to be evaluating every centimetre of his instrument and testing every sound that can be forced from it. At the same time he moves from cerebral to pure expressiveness, exposing lengthy passages in altissimo as well as paint-varnish-stripping-styled keening.

Beside him Parker also works up from spiccato sweeps to double and triple stops, finding original spots below the tuning pegs or beneath the bridge to emphasize as he plays. Initially Ali sticks to blunt stroke and paradiddles. Multiplying his strokes so they become more complex however, he eventually creates a drum solo that is both a confirmation of the tune and a connection to the others’ popping runs.

Eventually Gayle reaches a crescendo of otherworldly glossolalia, replicating in curt passages a bugle cry, an infant’s wail and a wounded animal’s bay. Answering himself with low-pitched, vibrato notes, he doesn’t so much overblow, but stretch these splintered tones and wails to their maximum elasticity so that they are distended but never broken.

Despite turning to the smaller horn, and more than 15 years of existence, the saxophonist continues with this prescription on the two CDs of Live at Crescendo. On tracks such as “Hearts Joy”, his own composition and Parker’s “Eternal Voice”, polite musicians’ self-restraint and self-editing never enter into his solo construction.

On the later tune, Gayle begins his solo at the uppermost pitch at which the bassist has just concluded a bowed solo of swelling pulsations, and then the saxophonist moves the resulting notes higher into the stratosphere. Growling and vibrating, with spittle-encrusted split tones and skeletal abstractions, he toys with the lines, pitches and tessitura ‘way past the expected time period until it appears as if he can go no further. Then miraculously he downshifts to a warmer tone and begins playing in tandem with Parker.

On “Hearts Joy” committed to an altissimo output, Gayle begins piling notes upon notes, timbres upon timbres and runs upon runs. Operating agitato and staccato, the reed exposition is carved up into shorter and more fortissimo shards, climbing ever higher in pitch and becoming more dissonant. Avoiding solipsism, despite an inner-directed sound blurring, the jagged double-tonguing and grating guttural intonation eventually rights itself into complementary split-tones and ghosts notes as the tune decelerates with Ali’s cross-pulsed, restrained cymbal and wood-block thwacks and Parker’s measured slap coloring.

At points Gayle verbally exhorts the others. But, another change from the past, these asides are garbled enough so that you can’t hear whether they’re musical or ecclesiastical. Additionally, over the course of 11 tracks – the shortest of which clocks in at slight less than 6½ minutes – the three continue to prove that time hasn’t diminished their skills or original thought processes. Trane-like with wiggling split tones and cries, at one point, there’s a section in Parker’s “Zero Blues” where Gayle’s solo construction is so down-home that it makes him a sonic ringer for R&B altoist Tab Smith. Parker negotiates thick chording to flying spicatto with equal ease – sometimes on the same tune, sometimes within seconds of one another. Likewise Ali belies his septuagenarian status by advancing the date’s rhythmic component not only with reverberating cymbals and thumping bass drums but with unique permutations of cross-bounding beats, echoing flams and rifle shot-like snare raps.

Accepting Free Jazz innovations means that despite the time line, the only choice between these two exceptional sessions is whether you want the end-product in single or double-pocket form.

-- Ken Waxman

.

Track Listing: Touchin’: 1. Part A 2. Part B 3. Part C 4. Part D 5. Part E

Personnel: Touchin’: Charles Gayle (tenor saxophone); William Parker (bass) and

Rashied Ali (drums)

Track Listing: Live: Disc 1: 1. Introduction 2. Zero Blues 3. Hearts Joy 4. We Three 5. Different Stuff 6. Love One Another 7. Straight Ahead Steps Disc 2: 1. Peace Inside 2. Machu Picchu 3. Cry Nu 4. Eternal Voice 5. No Sorrow

Personnel: Live: Charles Gayle (alto saxophone); William Parker (bass) and Rashied Ali (drums)

August 15, 2008

Trumpeting the Art of Jazz

Art of Jazz Organization Aims To Raise Jazz’s Profile in Canada
for CODA

Flautist Jane Bunnett and singer Bonnie Lester want to make things perfectly clear. Even though their organization, the Art of Jazz (AOJ), is putting together a five-day celebration of jazz and its master musicians in Toronto in May, AOJ is much more than that.

While the celebration that takes place in Toronto’s Distillery District May 17 to May 21 serves as an introduction to AOJ, the group is formulating ambitious plans for educational and outreach programs as well as regular concerts throughout the year.

Established in 2005, by flautist Bunnett, trumpeter Larry Cramer, pianist/ educator Howard Rees and Lester, whose background encompasses marketing communications, AOJ plans to build the audience for jazz. Regular concerts are part of this, but so is an educational component that will see professional musicians – local and international – mentoring students as well as other musicians.

“We have a rich history of jazz in Canada and we want to raise its profile locally so that it’s treated as an art form like opera, ballet and the symphony,” explains Lester, AOJ president. Too much attention in the Toronto area is directed towards once-a-year jazz festivals, with the music almost ignored other times. It’s to fill this gap that AOJ’s outreach programs are directed, she adds. New mid-size venues are needed as well, adds Bunnett. “There has to be something between the Rex [jazz bar] and Massey Hall. Jazz should receive the same respect as [chamber ensemble] Tafelmusik”.

That situation will be rectified during the celebration with concerts taking place in locations in the Distillery District, including the 385-seat Marilyn and Charles Baillie Theatre at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, home of the Soulpepper Theatre Company.

The first jazz ever to be performed at that venue, the initial tribute on May 18 is for pianist and educator Barry Harris, with performances by pianist Hank Jones, alto saxophonist Charles McPherson, bassist Earl May, drummer Leroy Williams and tap dancer Jimmy Slyde. The next night bassist Don Thompson is honored by a band featuring saxophonist John Handy, guitarist Jim Hall, saxophonist Phil Dwyer, bassist Dave Holland and drummer Terry Clarke. “This is the first time Jim Hall has been here in 26 years, and it’s because of respect for Don”, notes Bunnett.

Saturday night is an Afro-Cuban Dance Party with Bunnett’s Spirits of Havana plus percussionist Ray Vega, tuba player Howard Johnson and the Ricky Franco Salsa Orchestra; while Sunday is the debut of the Art of Jazz Orchestra, featuring arrangements by Bunnett, Holland and others.

Jazz duos perform on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, with singer Shelia Jordan and bassist Cameron Brown plus saxophonist Sonny Fortune and drummer Rashied Ali on the first day and pianist Kenny Barron and trumpeter Eddie Henderson plus saxophonist Ravi Coltrane and pianist Luis Perdomo on the second. Chicago guitarist Fruteland Jackson hosts Kids Can Swing Saturday afternoon and the Soul Rebels band headline a benefit performance for New Orleans musicians on Sunday. After hours jam sessions, projection of jazz films, readings and clinics take place in various venues during the weekend, including the first-ever piano clinic by Jones. A gala fundraiser May 17, with performances by Thompson, Harris, Jones, Slyde and vocalist Denzal Sinclaire launches the celebration. (Details: www.artofjazz.org).

Although the organization is committed to honoring one international and one local jazz master annually, that’s just the beginning, explains Lester. Regularly during the year AOJ will host concerts featuring the AOJ orchestra, young artists, Latin jazz players, jazz vocalists and visiting jazz masters. Veteran musicians who are also educators will participate in clinics, master classes and other programs when they’re in Toronto.

This fits in with the AOJ’s objective of year-round education for students of jazz and the general public. These clinics/workshops will take place in the distillery district as well as at selected school and community centres. Outreach to areas in which youngsters lack exposure to jazz will be a particular focus, notes Lester. Within a coupe of years the group hopes to launch a summer jazz camp and a high school jazz orchestra.

Chartered as a not-for-profit charitable organization, AOJ began with seed money from private donors. Now it’s seeking more funding, and so far the response from corporations has been positive, reports Lester.

Never losing sight of its dual goals AOJ will “lay the foundation for a strong home for jazz in Toronto and across the country,” she states.

-- Ken Waxman

May 12, 2006

JOHN COLTRANE

The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording
Impulse! 314 589 120-2

What's probably the most unexpected surprise about this more than 34-year-old music recorded by saxophonist John Coltrane final band at the Olatunji Center of African Culture in Harlem, and finally legitimately released, is just how powerful it is.

Although taped just three months before he died of liver cancer at 40, when the saxophonist was so out of sorts that he had to play sitting down, you'd never realize the extent of his infirmity from this performance.

Coltrane was improvising at the same exalted level on this April afternoon in 1967 as well as he ever he did during most of his short life. With such seem-bursting compatriots as tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and drummer Rashied Ali could he have done anything else?

Not that he would have wanted it any other way. Underlying this fearless performance is the conviction that, despite rumors to the contrary, Coltrane was firmly committed to following the exploratory path he had embarked upon a couple of years earlier. Note the performance locale as well. Neo-con revisionists who contend that Trane was going to return to a more simplistic sound had he lived, are the same ones who declares knowingly that most black fans had abandoned his music by end of his life. So who made up the members of the wildly enthusiastic crowd in the club on Manhattan's 125th street that day?

Sanders and Ali's contributions come into stronger focus as well on this date, recorded in sometimes uneven, but mostly professional, sound. With his ceaseless motion and ability to never let the tempo flag, plus his ingenuity in marshalling the other percussionists who clustered around the saxophonist -- there's at least one, possibly two more on this date -- Ali may really have been Trane's perfect percussion partner. Elvin Jones, famous for defining the sound of the so-called classic Coltrane quartet, subsequently rigidly stuck to that, for him, comfortable format. Compare his subsequent recordings and bands to Ali's and you'll hear a masterful percussionist content to build variations on the Coltrane sound on one hand, as opposed to someone unafraid of different partners or contexts on the other. That's why Ali's in-your face press rolls and constant thrashing is so necessary here; rather than seeking to nudge the saxophonist back into a comfortable position, he's ready to follow him no matter where the spirit leads.

Sanders, admitted Coltrane in interviews, was there to spell him, during the course of the wrenching performances of music like the compositions on this disc, which clock in at either side of half an hour each. Certainly the second saxophonist's ability to seemingly blow his horn apart while producing what could be cries of a wounded predator every time he set out to make a statement made him one of the most exciting performers of the time. You can witness that on "Ogunde" and then marvel at the combination of speedy multiphonics and R&B-style honking he brings to "My Favorite Things". Still, these tendencies point out his inescapable weaknesses as well. Like some over-exuberant Dixieland players blasting out of an ensemble, he usually "gets hot" far too quickly and is left restating his scorched earth offensive over and over again. Too often his soloing resembles that of an operatic tenor in showy recital, straining for those high notes just slightly out of reach.

Like Paul Desmond, who was canny enough to limit his solo forays, Sanders was best heard as the perfect sideman, useful for his sparkplug quantities, but too inconsistent to provide superlative leadership. Is it any wonder that his most memorable sessions since his Trane tenure have seen him playing second banana to his supposed sidemen such as Leon Thomas or Lonnie Liston Smith?

Compare that to Coltrane's performance. Even on "Favorite Things" which he must have played thousands of times by then, he's still elaborating new variations on the theme and keeping his lines and ideas in constant motion. On the other tune he invokes great cascading, middle range horn swoops while the massed percussionists' accent every phrase with cymbal and snare polyrhythms. If split tones are exhibited by the saxophonist, it's without the signs of obvious strain that Sanders seems to display.

Alice Coltrane's and Jimmy Garrison's contributions are simpler to describe. In the pianist's case, once the saxophonists and drummers get started, she almost disappears into the mix, only reappearing as on "Ogunde" for dense, ascending note stairsteps. In truth, her heavily accented modal style doesn't appear to be that different from the method McCoy Tyner developed during his years with Coltrane.

Unheard most of the time, Garrison makes his outstanding -- and most audible --contribution in his introduction to "Favorite Things". Did someone shut a window or a door to allow him to be heard, you wonder? His solo is actually a much longer version of

what he played on LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD AGAIN, recorded in the previous year. With only the vaguest of Spanish flamenco modulations, the bassist offers a lucid elaboration of a centred motif. When he turns jauntier at the end, it seems as if he's been creating some breathing space to prepare everyone for Trane's famous soprano flowering.

All in all, rather than being long-rumored splinters of the true cross suddenly on display, this concert CD appears to be merely what a standard nightclub set by the Trane band would be like at the time. Of course, the performance is given added poignancy by his impending death. Moreover, the disc shouldn't be oversold as more than an hour of breathless revelation. It adds little new to what we already know about Trane's reign.

But, considering that most of what Coltrane created was so far superior to other music of that day and this one, it's still a noteworthy and important disc. More to the point, as a musical dispatch from a man who seemed incapable of mediocrity, it's a precious artifact that most jazz fans will want to own.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Introduction by Billy Taylor 2. Ogunde 3. My Favorite Things

Personnel: John Coltrane (tenor and soprano saxophones); Pharoah Sanders (tenor saxophone); Alice Coltrane (piano); Jimmy Garrison (bass); Rashied Ali (drums); Algie DeWitt (bata drum); possibly Jumma Santos (percussion)

October 8, 2001