Fresh and fun 50+ years later
John Grabowski | USA | 09/13/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"It's hard to believe these recordings from the Modern Jazz Quartet and Jimmy Giuffre are more than 52 years old! The Beatles weren't even the Quarrymen yet. Listen to most other music from the same period and tell me how dated it sounds. Now listen to this--fresh and inventive and still daring and original.
At this juncture in the MJQ's history, John Lewis was still more dominant than Milt Jackson in the quartet, despite the fact that the group had just morphed from a group led by Milt (called the Milt Jackson Quartet--hence they were able to keep the initials MJQ). That shows here--the tunes are filled with fugues, intricate counterpoint and other elements that dominate European "classical" music. Giuffre is also rather "cool" and academic, furthering the baroque cool of many of these pieces. For a few numbers another clarinetist, the more traditional Pee Wee Russell, joins in, and oddly the very old and the very new mix without difficulty (such is often not the case, which is another thing that makes this album so extraordinary). On the remaining tracks, we have Herbie Mann, Oscar Pettiford, Pee Wee Russell, Rex Stewart--again the old mixing with the new. Some of these musicians we don't hear enough of, and have been unjustly neglected in the jazz world.
Lewis' interest in forms and textures manifest themselves in such wonderful compositions as Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West and A Fugue for Music Inn--pieces that meld jazz and classical without ever forcing either into unnatural contortions, unlike a good deal of the "Third-Stream" material of the 50s and early 60s. DaCapo, Finé and Fun show how well Lewis can build drama and excitement in the leisurely way classical music does as a matter of course but which jazz rarely tries, probably because jazz was born and nurtured in loud, busy nightclubs and not in quiet concert halls. It's true that if like more hard-driving or funky jazz, the quiet reserve of the MJQ may not be for you. But I still think that in the Lewis and Giuffre compositions in particular we have some of the best cool jazz of the time. The standards, Body and Soul and In A Mellotone, are less successful in my opinion, and the ultimate reading of England's Carroll (here called God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen) is to be found on the MJQ's Last Concert album on Atlantic. Then there's the gorgeous Where's My Bess? in which Lewis, who wrote the arrangement, captures perfectly the qualities of pathos and reflection of Gershwin's opera perfectly.
I have a slight complaint with the remastering. I originally had the Giuffre material on an Altantic LP from the 1980s and I can tell you the distortion one hears in Lewis' comping on Two Degrees was not nearly as bad on that album. More bass is also needed; one can barely hear Heath in many of these performances, and again, he was louder (though still a little deficient) in the vinyl release. In short, despite the age of this recording, the sound could have been better.
But this is nonetheless a valuable release, with great liner notes. If you love the MJQ, John Lewis' compositions, Third-Stream music, or Giuffre, Russell and Stewart, this album is a must-have.
"
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1