Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Hyderabad
Beat Street
|
This week's selections at Planet M
|
Charles Mingus: Mingus Plays Piano
Impulse/Universal Music
CD, Rs. 395
Arguably the greatest bassist in the history of jazz, Charles Mingus thought and lived music and brought to it a passion that must at times have aggravated his bouts of depression and at others enabled him and his music to triumph over it.
Mingus was also one of jazz's more famous composers and like the most famous Duke Ellington, conceived his compositions with a balancing of different instruments against one another. He used the piano for composing and, on the odd track in the occasional album, played the instrument as well as the regular pianists he worked with.
Mingus Plays Piano, on which he plays solo piano right through, is thus no surprise. Recorded in 1963, it has 11 tracks, four of them classics from the jazz canon and seven original compositions. The former, especially the hoary "Body and Soul", are all extensively improvised on, often in the basic theme. The Mingus originals of course get plenty of the same improvisatory treatment. On some tracks the seams between theme and improvisation are blurred, and at least a couple are just one long improvisation.
Although the mood throughout is deeply contemplative, as befits the title of the opening track "Myself When I Am Real", Mingus enlivens the proceedings by variations of pace and changes in volume. Mingus's passion and virtuosity both shine through, as does his urge to explore his feelings, expressed particularly well in the closing "Compositional Theme Story: Medleys, Anthems and Folklore", a series of themes and short improvisations around them.
Ella Fitzgerald: 30 by Ella
EMI/Virgin Records
CD, Rs. 199
The unusual conception of this album, credited to its arranger Benny Carter, originally had Ella Fitzgerald throwing up her hands and saying she couldn't do it. The results show she finally relented, but for me it doesn't really work as jazz.
The first six tracks are medleys each comprising six well-known pop standards.
In each medley, Fitzgerald renders five parts backed by piano, guitar, bass and drums, while one part is an instrumental with alto saxophone (Carter), tenor saxophone (Georgie Auld) or trumpet (Harry "Sweets" Edison) rendering the melody and taking a solo improvisation, in some cases followed by a guitar solo.
The last track, "Hawaiian War Chant", is a short light-hearted foray into exotica embellished by some of Fitzgerald's perky scat singing and some interesting percussion effects.
The medleys flow smoothly enough as they switch from one melody to another, even though in a couple of cases the switch goes with a change of pace. Two of the medleys are made up of tender or sad numbers, while all the others are light, swinging and lively.
Fitzgerald tackles all with her customary verve, and the accompaniment of Jimmy Jones (piano), John Collins (guitar), Bob West (bass) and Louis Bellson or Panama Francis (drums) is outstanding. So is the work of Carter, Auld and Edison. The trouble is with the straitjacket of the album's concept, which is basically classic pop with a jazz feel, too restrictive for the kind of extensive improvisation that nourishes genuine jazz.
JAZZEBEL
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Hyderabad
|
