James Moody - "Feelin' It Together" (1973, Muse)

Back : Kenny Barron, Larry Ridley, Freddie Waits. Front : James Moody

Although James Moody is predominantly famous as a long time saxophonist for Dizzy Gillespie and as the composer of "Moody's Mood For Love" - check Moody himself singing it at that link - he's enjoyed a career as a leader in his own right for over sixty years and is still going strong.

The clip above is an interview with 82 year old Moody, shot in August this year by the people from Blackademics ("the premiere online roundtable for young black thinkers"). While he eats his soup, Moody talks about his first musical collaborations while stationed in the Air Force in 1943; his disenchantment with racism in the USA which caused him to move to Europe for several years; contemporary racism; and bebop, swing and musical evolution. He finishes by opining “When you stop growing, you’re through”.

JAMES MOODY & the early 1970s

While Moody's albums had played around the edges of bebop, in the 1970s he both embraced and influenced the emerging paths being taken by his collaborators in structure, source and instrumentation - not travelling deep into the avante-garde, but always looking beyond jazz's perceived boundaries.

1970's wistful and laid-back "Heritage Hum" saw Moody turning more to his flute alongside his better-known tenor and alto saxaphone, at the same time as his harmonic structures in some tracks began to journey below the U.S. border.

After recording the relatively straight-ahead "Too Heavy For Words" with Al Cohn in 1971, he released "The Teachers" (1971), on which he began to embrace soul jazz, funk and some New Orleans-tinged blues elements, a smorgasbord that seemed to either reflect or grow from Dizzy Gillespie's fusions on Perception Records at the time, albums such as "The Real Thing" in which many of the same players took part.

Fellow Gillespie comrade Mike Longo, who'd been on "Heritage Hum", also brought Moody on board for his '72 album "Awakening", which furthered some of the textures established on "The Teachers" , particularly pushing up the funk quotient by incorporating Alex Gafa's wah-wah guitar.

The soul jazz factor came to the fore on Moody's first Muse record in 1972, "Never Again", with his tenor sax working hard against Mickey Tucker's great hammond organ work on tracks like "Freedom Jazz Dance".

"Feelin' It Together" was recorded on January 15th, 1973; and represents another stage in the type of growth he speaks of above.

The album opens by looking back to the players' bebop roots with a complex, frenetic nine-minute rendition of "Anthropology", composed by Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Walter Bishop, originally derived from a bebop variation of "I Got Rhythm". Moody soars on alto sax here, trading solos with Kenny Barron's acoustic piano and Larry Ridley's bass, while drummer Freddie Waits scats around Ridley's insistent walking improvs.

While the title of his previous album "Never Again" had apparently referred to his desire to stick to tenor playing from now on, "Feelin' It Together" features Moody on tenor, alto and flute for two tracks each.

Keyboardist Kenny Barron was ten weeks away from recording his debut album "Sunset to Dawn", and that album's references to latin rhythm and brazilian harmonic structures can be felt here in nascent form in his two compositions, "Morning Glory" and "Dreams", both of which feature his spacious rhodes work.

Moody's flute work is superb on "Dreams", with finely controlled and varying tremelo that initially engages directly with the inbuilt tremelo on Barron's rhodes, working around the rhodes' metered pulse with subtle variations - dancing with the machine, if you like. Likewise, his alto sax work on Barron's "Morning Glory" sits above the warm bed of rhodes chords in a whisper-to-a-scream display of dynamic virtuosity.

Barron's work with Moody went as far back as "Another Bag" (1962), and since then he'd appeared on the Moody albums “Moody and the Brass Figures” (1966) and “The Blues And Other Colors” (1969), as well as working with him on a multitude of Dizzy Gillespie albums in the 60s. He'd continue to work on at least another four Moody albums, including "Sun Journey" in 1976.

There's a nice extended version of the standard "Autumn Leaves", with an atmospheric opening built over Freddie Wait's percussion rumbling. When the theme comes in, Moody's aching tenor is counterpointed by Barron's complex chord-based improvisations. There's no clear separation to sax "solo" as Moody subtly builds his improvisations out of the song's melody, then hands over to Barron's piano for a floating series of arpeggio clouds.

Moody and Barron also trade solos throughout an interesting interpretation of Jobim's "Wave". Here's a pdf score for Moody's flute part. The track has a sparse, atmospheric opening with Freddie Waits on shakers and tin flute sliding over Barron's rhodes, before it develops into a chugging bossa with Moody on flute. (For a very different, but also great version of "Wave", see Moody performing the track with the RIAS Big Band.)

The album finishes with an unusual version of "Kriss Kross". After the theme is sparsely introduced by Moody's sax over drums, it cuts almost incongruously to a fugue-like sequence with Barron on harpsichord, then Ridley walks us into a more traditional bebop / blues take on the track, with Moody blowing a hard tenor solo. A subsequent rhodes solo from Barron makes way for a bowed sequence from Ridley, before we return to the harpsichord fugue. It's a strange finish.

Busy drummer Freddie Waits had played on Hubert Law's "Carnegie Hall" album three days before recording this one. He'd also worked on Moody's "The Blues and Other Colours" (1969), and went on with Barron to record "Sunset to Dawn" ten weeks later in April.

As a founding member of Max Roach's percussion collective M'Boom, Waits worked on Brother Ah's "Sound Awareness" around this time, and would go on to record both Mboom's "Re: Percussion" and Neal Creque's "Hands Of Time" in August.

Still two years away from recording his debut album "Sum of the Parts" for Strata-East Records, bassist Larry Ridley came to this album with a twenty year history as a sideman, playing on albums by people like Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Horace Silver and many others.

Ridley's most recent date had been as a member of the "Jazz Contemporaries" for the 1972 Strata-East album "Reasons In Tonality". He'd also played with Moody on the "Newport In New York : The Jam Sessions (Vol 3&4)" album in 1972, and had worked with Kenny Barron as far back as 1962 on brother Bill Barron's album "The Hot Line".

Later in 1973 James Moody would join up with producer Richard Evans for "Sax & Flute Man" (later re-released as "The World Is a Ghetto"), a more commercial production in the vein of Evans' production of Ahmad Jamal's "Ahmad Jamal 73", even covering two of the same tracks. Some of it's a little too easy-listening for my ears, but there's three or so good tracks, nice rhodes work and some funky moments - worth checking out.

You'll find links for "Feelin' it Together" in the comments, but also check through the sections below for many additional albums and extra treats. Hope you enjoy this one, let me know what you think.

JAMES MOODY - "FEELIN' IT TOGETHER" (1973, Muse)

TRACKLIST

01 'Anthropology' - 9:07
(D. Gillespie / C.Parker / W. Bishop)
pub : Music Sales Corp, ASCAP

02 'Dreams' - 4:59
(K.Barron)
pub : Wazuri pubishing Co. BMI

03 'Autumn Leaves' - 9:31
(J.Mercer / J.Kosma / J.Prevert)
pub : Morley Music Corp. BMI

04 'Wave' - 7:46
(A.Jobim)
pub : Corcovado Music Corp. BMI

05 'Morning Glory' - 7:21
(K.Barron)
pub : Wazuri pubishing Co. BMI

06 'Kriss Kross' - 7:21
(R.Holloway / A.Hillery)
pub : Red Holloway Publishing BMI

MUSICIANS

James Moody - alto sax, tenor sax and flute
Kenny Barron - acoustic piano, electric piano and harpsichord
Larry Ridley - bass
Freddie Waits - drums, misc. percussion, tin flute

PRODUCTION

Muse Records 5020
Produced by Don Schlitten
Recorded January 15, 1973
Recorded at Media Sound, New York City


JAMES MOODY BLOG DISCOGRAPHY 1947 "Jazz in Paris : Bebop" (w/Don Byas & Howard McGhee) at i For india or Music-a-k-o

1948 "James Moody and his Modernists" / alternate FLAC
album track : "Tin Tin Deo" DOWNLOAD

1951 "James Moody With Strings" at Call It Anything

1955 "Wail Moody Wail" at Call It Anything or jazzdisposition

1956/58 "Flute n' the Blues"/"Last Train from Overbrook" at CIA

1961 "Cookin' The Blues" donated by The Jazzmanmediafire covers here
rapidshare audio 1 2 3 4 5
or
megaupload audio 1 2 3 4 5

1962/63 "Another Bag"/"Comin' On Strong" 1 2 3
1963 "Great Day" at Guitar and the Wind

1964 "Running the Gamut" album track : "If You Grin You're In" at Office Naps (check this post on Ed Bland)

1966 "Night Flight" (w/Gil Fuller & Monterey Jazz Festival Orchestra) at CIA

1966 "Moody and the Brass Figures" at Blog O Blog

1969 "Don't Look Away Now"
album track : "Easy Living" at youtube

1970 "The Teachers" from anonymousalbum track : "Unchained" at youtube

1971 "Heritage Hum" from anonymous1971 "Too Heavy For Words" (w/Al Cohn) at Magic Purple Sunshine(released 1974)

1972 "Never Again"

1973 "Feelin' It Together" in comments here.

1973 "Sax and Flute Man" aka "World Is A Ghetto" at My Jazz World / alternate 1976 'Timeless Aura' at Jazzy Melody

1977 "Sun Journey"

1989 "Sweet and Lovely" 1 2 3 4 5

1996 "Young at Heart" at Israbox

1997 "Young at Heart" at Avax

2004 "Moody Plays Mancini" at Avax
* Further uploads or blog links for the other 34 albums appreciated!
* See full discography here
* I'd love to hear Beyond this World (1977)
COMPILATION

14 VERSIONS OF "MOODY's MOOD FOR LOVE"Donated by The Jazzman (big thanks!)
Rapidshare ONE TWO THREE

1. James Moody
2. King Pleasure with Blossom Dearie
3. Eddie Jefferson
4. Annie Ross
5. King Pleasure
6. Eddie Jefferson & James Moody
7. Queen Latifah
8. King Pleasure
9. Robert Moore
10. King Pleasure
11. George Benson
12. Bob Welch
13. Eddie Jefferson & James Moody-live
14. King Pleasure

SOME MORE MOODY YOUTUBE

With the RIAS Big Band :
"Giant Steps"
"I Can't Get Started"
"Wave"
Moody rapping at the North Sea Jazz festival

Video tribute for Moody's birthday this year with words from Moody.

James Moody general search at youtube.

JAMES MOODY's WEBSITE
is here

POST CREDITS

CD rip of "Feelin' it Together" in WAV/MP3 by Simon666CD rips of "The Teacher" and "Heritage Hum" by Anonymous"Moody's Mood for Love" compilation by The Jazzman"Cookin' The Blues" rip by The Jazzman
Special thanks to Ish for advice.

Apart from blogs noted in the discography, album links in this post go to :

ile oxumaré, El goog ja, Orgy in Rhythm, original funk music, Jazzdisposition, magic purple sunshine, Blog-o-Blog, my favourite sound, call it anything, the cti never sleeps, fm shades, jazz’n’rakugo, romanticwarrior-jazz, República de Fiume, gutar and the wind, My Jazz World, Lysergic Funk

Please thank and support these bloggers if you click through and download.

DOWNLOAD WAV - MP3