Walter Bishop Jr.- "Cubicle" (1978, Muse)

Several great tracks on this 1978 Muse album by keyboardist Walter Bishop Jr. , who's mostly on rhodes here and still has some of his Black Jazz flavors intact. "Cubicle" comes the year after his Muse album 'Soul Village' and features similar instrumentation and some similar textures. It's also a nice clean piece of vinyl.

There's still some rawness here - the album doesn't have 1978 slick arrangement/production values stamped all over it, even though the vast majority of these musicians seemed to be getting most of their work on CTI albums at the time. While then-ubiquitous pop/jazz session trumpeter Randy Brecker is here, his precision is nicely balanced with the more lyrical, loose work of trombonist Curtis Fuller, and saxophonists Rene McClean and Pepper Adams.

Over the course of his solo career, Bishop tended to re-record different versions of songs by himself and others from one album to the next. "Cubicle" is no exception, with half of the tracks having appeared on previous albums in occasionally radically different forms.

The opener "Valley Land" has rarely left my turntable since I acquired the record. Previously recorded as a piano trio instrumental on Bishop's 1974 "Valley Land" album, here it's beefed up into an energetic vocal track featuring a young Carmen Lundy in one of her first recordings.

It sounds like a Strata-East track from earlier in the decade, perhaps from Billy Parker's Fourth World, or even like a Doug Carn vocal track, with Ray Mantilla's latin percussion working upfront. Check it out on the preview. (Also, check out a few different versions of Carmen Lundy singing the classic track "Time Is Love" over at Private Press).


'Summertime' excerpt 

The album features Bishop's fourth recording of the standard "Summertime". He'd given blues-infused jazz readings of the track on 1963's "Walter Bishop Trio" and the 1964 recording on "Bish-Bash", then funked it up on his 1973 Black Jazz album "Keeper of my Soul", switching from piano to a harsh hammond organ that probably demanded a heavier backline than he had there.

The "Cubicle" version of "Summertime" is his funkiest yet - Bishop switches to rhodes, and this time is ably supported by the ubiquitous Billy Hart on drums, great percussion from Ray Mantilla - who put out an excellent solo album the year before - and a nice dirty baritone solo from Pepper Adams.
"Those Who Chant" receives a similar treatment to the version on 1973's 'Keeper Of My Soul', although the unison doubling of Joe Caro's guitar with Bishop's rhodes gives the melody a slight fusion edge (but thankfully not too much!). There's some nice rhodes solo work in the track as well - Bishop had just played acoustic in the earlier version. Caro's guitar work is generally in a restrained soul-jazz style, perhaps more suited to Bishop's work than Steve Khan's was on "Soul Village".

"Now, Now That You've Left Me" is a bossa-tinged piece that recalls some of the tracks on "Soul Village", or perhaps some of Kenny Barron's work from the same period. It's written by the album's producer Mitch Farber, who later released an album called "Starclimber" (1982) on Muse.
Bishop gives the rhodes treament to "My Little Suede Shoes" a favourite standard from his Charlie Parker days, and finally returns to his bop roots with an acoustic rendition of the title track "Cubicle", pre-cursing his return to a concentration on acoustic piano work that would follow this album.

DOWNLOAD WAV - MP3

TRACKLIST

01. 'Valley Land' - 6:34 - (W. Bishop Jr.)
02. 'My Little Suede Shoes' - 4:50 - (C.Parker)
03. 'Those Who Chant' - 7:08 - (W. Bishop Jr.)
04. 'Summertime' - 8:06 - (G. Gershwin - D. Heyward)
05. 'Now, Now That You've Left Me' - 6:35 - (M. Farber)
06. 'Cubicle' - 4:12 - (W. Bishop Jr.)

MUSICIANS

Bass [Fender] - Bob Cranshaw , Mark Egan (tracks 1,4)
Drums - Billy Hart
Guitar - Joe Caro
Keyboards - Walter Bishop, Jr.
Percussion - Ray Mantilla
Saxophone (Alto, Soprano, Tenor) - Rene McLean
Saxophone (Baritone) - Pepper Adams
Trombone - Curtis Fuller
Trumpet, Flugelhorn - Randy Brecker
Vocals - Carmen Lundy (track 1)
 
PRODUCTION DETAILS 

 Producer, Arranged By - Mitch Farber
Engineer - Elvin Campbell
Art Direction, Photography - Hal Wilson
 
WALTER BISHOP Jr. DISCOGRAPHY

1961 'Speak Low' at jazzdisposition or Pharoah's Dance
1961 'Milestones' ('Speak Low' with three alternate takes added)
1963 'The Walter Bishop Trio' (FLAC) at Sic Vos Non Vobis
1964-68 'Bish Bash' (MP3) at Pharoah's Dance
1964-68 'Bish Bash' (FLAC) at Call It Anything
1971 'Coral Keys' (FLAC) at Call It Anything
1973 'Keeper Of My Soul'
1974 'Valley Land' at Ile Oxumare1975 'Soliloquy' at My Jazz World
1976 'Old Folks' at Casqueria Fina Y Menudillos de Ocasion

1977 'Hot House' at Arkadin's Ark

1977 'Soul Village' 1978 'Cubicle' in comments here
1978 'The Trio' (with Billy Hart, George Mraz)
1988 'Just in Time'
1989 'Ode to Bird'
1990 'What's New'
1991 'Midnight Blue'
1998 'Speak Low Again'

POST CREDITS

Vinyl rip by Simon666

Apart from the discography, other album links in this post go to : My Jazz World, Ile Oxumare, Orgy In Rhythm, Sic Vos Non Vobis, Pharoah's Dance, Call It Anything, Private Press and Jazz Disposition.

Please thank and support these bloggers if you download their albums.

Oh. and this is Walter reading his poem about Max Roach :
"Max The Invisible Roach" :