Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Bridgewater Brothers - "Lightning and Thunder" (1978)





We last met the Bridgewater Brothers (Cecil on brass, and Ron on reeds) as part of the Billy Parker's Fourth World album from a few weeks back. They recorded this Japan-only vinyl release in late 1977 with a pretty stellar lineup - Stanley Cowell on piano, Reggie Workman on bass, Michael Carvin on drums.

I started doing one of my who's-played-with-who jazz chronologies as part of this post, but it soon became clear that these guys have played together in so many configurations over so many years, that such a chronology would have ended up turning into some endless DNA molecule sequence that would have eventually eaten me and spat me out.

So the trivia fact of the day is that all five of these musicians played on singer Mark Murphy's 1961 album "Rah" which sounds, of course, nothing at all like this one (but is a wonderful vocal jazz album, so catch it at El Goog's blog via that link).

Also, as part of that initial search, I did come across a lovely 1975 album by drummer Michael Carvin called "The Camel", which was new to me, and you should check out at Pharoah's Dance.

Cecil and Ron Bridgewater, West Village NYC, 1976
photo by Tom Marcello

As for this album - three long tracks written by the brothers. This is the most straight-ahead jazz I've posted so far - i'll listen to Stanley Cowell play piano any place, any time. Ron Bridgewater's "Silent Rain" features solos by the brothers and by Cowell. "Dear Trane" has - you guessed it - plenty of saxaphone solos and some inspired solo bass by Reggie Workman.
Cecil Bridgewater's frenetic title track takes up the second side of the album. After some chaotic discordancy at the start, Workman's walking bass holds things together while Cowell's arpeggios go screaming all over the scale, and Carvin is all percussion and colour.

TRACKLIST 

01 "Silent Rain" - (Ron Bridgewater) - 9:09
02 "Dear Trane"- (Ron Bridgewater) - 10:37
03 "Lightning & Thunder" - (Cecil Bridgewater) - 16:41

 PERSONNEL

Cecil Bridgewater - trumpet, fluegel horn
Ron Bridgewater - tenor & soprano sax
Stanley Cowell - piano
Reggie Workman - bass
Michael Carvin - drums

 PRODUCTION DETAILS

 Artist: BRIDGEWATER BROTHERS
Title: LIGHTNING AND THUNDER
Label: DENON / NIPPON COLUMBIA
Cat #: YX7526ND
Press: JAPAN
Recorded: Dec 10, 1977, NYC
Released 1978 – japan only
Hope you enjoy it.
at

36 comments:

  1. katonahJune 18, 2008 at 7:16 AM

    i keep missing out on this on the bay. many thanks

    ReplyDelete
  2. Simon666June 18, 2008 at 8:08 AM

    I'll restrain myself from making an Otis Redding joke.

    Glad to help Katonah!
    You wouldn't happen to have "Generations Suite", their other denon one, would you?

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownJune 18, 2008 at 8:22 AM

    looks great

    thank you

    ReplyDelete
  4. ishJune 18, 2008 at 1:37 PM

    Never heard of this Simon. Thanks! Is that really true about all of them being on a Mark Murphy record? That says so much about the 15 years in between somehow.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Simon666June 18, 2008 at 5:38 PM

    Hi ish,
    I knew the Mark Murphy ref would get you :)
    Check this page, scroll down or search Mark Murphy on there, "Rah" has all five of these musicians ...

    ReplyDelete
  6. analoggedJune 18, 2008 at 8:12 PM

    Simon thanks again mate, what can i say your blog is becoming indispensable, as much for the preamble as the music itself. The things i've learnt from here!

    Brilliant man, brilliant.

    O

    ReplyDelete
  7. E-mileJune 18, 2008 at 10:57 PM

    hi Simon, some of them (SW-covers)are quite nice indeed :-) Bummer your internet is slow, have you listened to that FANTASTIC Hal Galper yet??? -over at Dr. Johnny's place- It's all killer, no filler :-)
    have fun & peace,
    E-mile

    ReplyDelete
  8. Simon666June 18, 2008 at 11:41 PM

    hey analogged thanx for the comment : )

    yes emile I grabbed the galper - took me 4 hours to download - loving it ") Will be over to grab your stevie comp tomorrow !

    ReplyDelete
  9. E-mileJune 18, 2008 at 11:43 PM

    man, that IS slow :-(
    but, is was worth the wait :-)
    did my link to catasto come though?
    in case it didn't here it is (again):
    http://catastosfriendlyfire.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  10. Simon666June 19, 2008 at 12:24 AM

    Thanks e-mile , grabbing that tomorrow as well.

    Also - El Goog Ja has now posted the Mark Murphy album i referred to in the post (as it contains the same musicians, plus more) - so check the post again for a link !

    ReplyDelete
  11. E-mileJune 19, 2008 at 12:32 AM

    simon be sure to save the link, catasto tends to be rather quick with refreshments ...
    i've seen MM on el goog ja, will check that out, your Bridgewater Bros is rather nice, tahnks!

    ReplyDelete
  12. katonahJune 19, 2008 at 3:25 AM

    hi simon, still just sitting here, watching them ships, coming in, and going out again ... reeves and mortimer?
    don't have the generations suite lp but i do have most of the max roach baystate ones ..

    ReplyDelete
  13. ishJune 19, 2008 at 3:33 AM

    Hey Katonah did you see the comment on my blog where somebody said the Strata East Max Roach (which you've been hunting down) is the same as on Baystate?

    ReplyDelete
  14. katonahJune 19, 2008 at 4:07 AM

    is that the one from a few months ago ish.? i asked around and i've been told the strata east joint is all different

    ReplyDelete
  15. ishJune 19, 2008 at 4:16 AM

    Definitely not that CBS one...that is different. But some Baystate Mboom is allegedly the same as the Strata East Mboom.

    Maybe Simon has it. :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Gianni aka Cesare BarbettaJune 19, 2008 at 4:51 AM

    another wonderful choice to share with us!
    thanks Simon!
    we love you!!!

    ReplyDelete
  17. S1KSJune 19, 2008 at 7:13 AM

    just discovered your blog today, some amazing titles here.

    looking forward to exploring the music within.

    thanks in advance.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Simon666June 19, 2008 at 8:26 AM

    Thanks Gianni, and welcome S1KS.

    Ish - no Max Roach here apart from a download of "Members..." with Andy Bey ...

    ReplyDelete
  19. rydolarueJune 19, 2008 at 3:28 PM

    THANK YOU!

    This looks wonderful. However, I am being asked for a password to extract this & I have no idea what that is.

    Thanks again & again!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Simon666June 19, 2008 at 4:39 PM

    hi rydolarue - there is no password with these files.

    ReplyDelete
  21. el googJune 19, 2008 at 8:13 PM

    Hi Simon
    Yes this sounds nothing at all like "Rah".
    But I like this, especially B side.

    By the way, Ish and Katonah
    About M'boom, I said so.
    Because I had seen here, Max Roach Catalog, I guessed like that.
    However I'm not thinking that this is the truth.
    So I will get Baystate version soon.
    If you have Strata's back cover or track list, let's compare Strata with Baystate.
    At that time, we'll get the answer, rghit?

    regards
    el goog

    ReplyDelete
  22. swboyJune 20, 2008 at 3:01 PM

    Hi Simon
    This looks great but I can't open it--tried both RS and ZS versions
    In WinRAR I get "system can't find specified path". Can you recommend a program to open this?
    thanks

    ReplyDelete
  23. Simon666June 21, 2008 at 1:49 AM

    Hi swboy -
    Sorry just seen your message!
    These are just zip files, should open fine, but both you and rydolarue are having problems - I'll upload again tomorrow at work (slowed internet at home for two more days!)

    ReplyDelete
  24. swboyJune 21, 2008 at 8:46 AM

    Simon--
    I just opened this with some new software. Thanks! This is a beautiful recording-I'm really enjoying it. My best

    ReplyDelete
  25. Simon666June 21, 2008 at 9:18 AM

    Glad that you like it, and thanks for all your great posts (and comps) at El Reza - the Harold Vick one has become my favourite Strata-East .....

    What was the 'new software' you used ? Thinking it might be a solution for rydolarue's extraction problem above.

    ReplyDelete
  26. swboyJune 22, 2008 at 2:53 AM

    Simon--
    My pleasure. The Harold Vick is one of my all-time favorites in any genre. You've been posting some great stuff here--and your research on the background of this material is wonderful...

    I believe Stuffit 12 is what opened it.

    my best--

    ReplyDelete
  27. anyatharJune 24, 2008 at 10:37 PM

    thanks very much simon and the original sharer, this sounds like a great record.

    ReplyDelete
  28. djfunkaholicOctober 5, 2008 at 7:35 PM

    Thanks Simon once again.

    ReplyDelete
  29. tom marcelloOctober 24, 2008 at 2:29 PM

    That's my photo of the Bridgewater Brothers. It was taken at Boomer's in 1976. Drummer Freddie Waits was in the band.

    Maybe a year or so later, I heard both of the Bridgewater Brothers as members of Max Roach's band in a week long stay in a ckub and Ron Bridgewater in McCoy Tyner's band in a concert I promoted.

    I'm glad you could use the photo.

    By the way, I'm also vibraphonist Joe Locke's manager.

    All the best,

    Tom Marcello
    www.joelocke.com

    ReplyDelete
  30. Simon666October 26, 2008 at 11:21 AM

    Thanks for dropping by, Tom, and for being understanding about my shameless net photo scrounging :)
    I've added a photo credit.
    All the best,
    Simon

    ReplyDelete
  31. HCMMay 15, 2010 at 9:36 AM

    So glad that found this, been looking for it for a while.. Thank you! those samples gave a good taster, hoping that the album is great also :) .. with a lineup like that, i quess you cant go wrong? downloading now..

    ReplyDelete
  32. Simon666July 20, 2010 at 1:13 PM

    hi Hoochie Coochie Man,
    Glad that you found it, thanks for stopping by :)

    ReplyDelete
  33. AnonymousJanuary 9, 2011 at 1:43 AM

    thank you for this wonderful post!

    mr. mainstream/straight ahead!

    ReplyDelete
  34. AnonymousMarch 12, 2011 at 5:33 AM

    does anybody got Generations Suite, from the bridgewater brothers ?

    I don't see it in the blogosphere, but you've got an huge cast of kozmik cats here : donald smith on vocals, flute, & electric piano (lonnie's brother) ; Hubert Eaves on keyboards, and michael carvin on drums !!!

    ReplyDelete
  35. Simon666August 14, 2014 at 9:35 AM

    The 'other' Bridgewater Brothers Denon album "Generation Suite", has appeared over here :

    http://endlessplanets.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/bridgewater-brothers-generation-suite.html

    Unfortunately sounding a little warped .....

    ReplyDelete
  36. Guitarradeplastico,scraping odditiesApril 9, 2021 at 6:10 PM

    Many thanks

    ReplyDelete