Bartz - Henderson - Connors - "Live at Nemu Jazz Inn - 1" (1975)

Originally posted by JN and Bacoso to "Orgy In Rhythm", April 2008

Simon says :
Many thanks to Jazz-Nekko, the much-loved Okinawan Devil, for allowing a re-post of this incredibly rare gem of an album as a follow-up to the last Norman Connors post. So this is both a re-post and a guest post! I'll hand you over to the ever-dependable JN and then add some words about 1975 ...

Jazz-Nekko says :
Gary Bartz is certainly on the top alto players of the modern generation, and like so many others - probably one of the most under-appreciated jazz artists. Eddie Henderson's horn is clearly influenced by Miles' early fusion period. Fellow Philadelphians, Elmer Gibson and Norman Connors have recorded with a "who's who" of jazz & fusion giants. It was only a year later that Connors became the Buddah Records Company's musical director.

This live set, "Live at Nemu Jazz Inn - 1", was released only here in Japan and just 500 albums were pressed. This set does not even show up in any of the artists' discographies; makes you wonder if the artists thought it worthy. For more than one reason, however, this ol' devil sure thinks it worthy: I attended this "Live at Nemu Jazz Inn" with my brother and two friends of ours.

The audience was 50% Japanese and 50% foreigners, mostly military personnel, as the club was not far from two bases. As you will hear, it was a quiet, respectful crowd but much of the raucous applause was cut out of the album. These guys were at the height of their artistic and imaginative skills. Connors led this set and personally selected the crew for their world tour. It was my first time to see Henderson in concert. Perhaps it is my bad memory or prejudice, but I cannot help but think his playing that night was a bit off. The sad part about this was that they did not include three other numbers – warm-ups – if you will, but the playing in those was also rather remarkable.



Throughout this, post-bop oriented but frequently dallying around the edges of fusion, gig, the group showed what they learned from the likes of Davis, Hancock, Roach, Sanders, Rivers, Harper and Sun Ra, marshaling polyrhythms, electronic textures, and cosmic mysticism to create a deeply spiritual jazz experience. The album kicks off with a darkish and fusion-edged version of Trane's 'Naima'. It was a ferocious attacking force by Bartz on alto, Henderson blew out the walls with his flugelhorn, Workman on bass and Connors' chameleon-like skin work; however, Bartz wins the honours on this track, in my opinion, but Workman gave him a run for his money. Bartz showed his ability to act as the group's adhesive by bopping and weaving his vamps around the others' strong solo works, as Connors continually drew out the map for the band.



The sprawling 26-minute 'Dance of Magic' spans the entirety of the flip side, capturing a memorable jam that explores free improvisation but without stepping beyond a point of no return. Connors' tremendous skins never fail to lead the band back home.

There was a certain coolness, a distorted sense of despair or subtle melancholy to this show that remains very clear in my memory to this day. Connors' oddly timed garbling/vocals perfectly suit a dark-toned feeling. I believe in the old adage that, "the only good jazz is jazz that is live" and here you will see what I mean ~ enjoy!

Simon adds :

1975 : THE TURNING POINT

What's unusual about this beautiful piece of jazz is its placement in the chronology of the main players' careers. Three years after they'd all been on "Dance of Magic", this album sounds like it could have been recorded the next day - yet in 1975 all three had just taken major, career-changing steps into jazz-influenced RnB or fusion-funk via their three individual albums of that year.

Let's check 1975 ...

Sometime in 1975, Gary Bartz recorded his album "The Shadow Do", in which the Mizell Brothers had packaged him up in their commercial jazz-RnB-funk that would continue in 1977's "Music Is My Sanctuary".

In March-April 1975, Eddie Henderson recorded "Sunburst", a funk/fusion album that was a major step away from his previous atmospheric post-Mwandishi albums.

In May 1975, all three major players - Henderson, Connors and Bartz - worked on Norman Connors' "Saturday Night Special", which was his first major RnB album, coming after the transitional "Slewfoot" on which all three had played as well.

Then in July 1975, two months later, they're in Tokyo recording this album, "Live at Nemu Jazz Inn" ....

They would have arrived back in the USA to see "Valentine Love", the single from "Saturday Night Special" with Michael Henderson and Jean Carn on vocals, hit the RnB Top Ten in the fall.

So 1975 was certainly a turning point for these three people.

While the others were putting on their dancing shoes, bass player Reggie Workman was still valiantly holding up the jazz front in 1975 - Charles Tolliver's "Impact!" (January); Marion Brown's "Vista" (February); Ken McIntyre's "Home" (June); and then after this July recording, off to Sonny Fortune's "Awakening" (August). Hopefully the others still took Reggie down to the disco occasionally.

Keyboardist Elmer Gibson (heard here on rhodes and piano) has a small catalogue of recording, but he obviously goes for quality ..... he can be heard on the wonderful and necessary 1972 "Neptune" album by The Visitors, as well as Norman Connors' "Dark Of Light" and "Slewfoot", and then this live album. He was Connors' musical director for a few years and composed "Kumekucha" on "Love From the Sun", and "Chuka" on "Slewfoot".

From what I can gather, despite leading an active life as a jazz educator and festival organiser, he then took a twenty-one year break from recording, then recorded his debut album "Generation Dance" in 1996-97, releasing it independently in 2002. And ... it features Gary Bartz, Eddie Henderson and Norman Connors. Since then he's got busy and released three more albums, as well having appeared on TC III's "Mega Jazz Explosion" from 2006 alongside Bartz and Henderson. Elmer lives here.

Also don't miss El Goog Ja's Gary Bartz discography.

TRACKLIST

01. 'Naima' (Coltrane) - 7:07
02. 'Revelation' (Hancock) - 18:10
03. 'Dance of Magic' (Connors) - 26:35

MUSICIANS

Gary Bartz - alto saxaphone
Eddie Henderson - flugelhorn
Norman Connors - drums, voice
Elmer Gibson - piano, electric piano
Reggie Workman - bass

PRODUCTION DETAILS

Recorded live on 19 July, 1975 at Nemu Jazz Inn, Tokyo, Japan.
Released 1975
Nippon Columbia/Cobblestone VQ-7509-CO

POST CREDITS

320 vinyl rip and cover scans of this album by Jazz-Nekko.

Album blog links in this post go to :
Pharoah’s Dance, Ile Oxumaré, Strata-East Fan Club, El Goog Ja, Blak’s Lair, Mwandishi, My Jazz World, Happy as a Fat Rat in a Cheese Factory. "Neptune" by The Visitors link originally at El Reza, used by permission of Reza.

Please thank and support these bloggers if you click through and download.
If links go dead, please let me know so I can re-direct and keep the page current.

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Reggie Workman First - "Conversation" (1977)

yes, that scribble is part of the design

'Mark II' excerpt


'Conversation' excerpt

I’d always imagined that REGGIE WORKMAN had been John Coltrane’s bass player for many years, but apparently it all took place in 1961. I guess it's the legacy of recordings like the Village Vanguard recordings and the Africa/Brass Sessions that makes it seem longer. I mean, I just collected my mail and there's a promo pamphlet for a new pizza delivery service called "Love Supreme", who promise "emotional pizza for one and all". Now that's cultural reach.

After Coltrane replaced him with Jimmy Garrison, Workman spent the 1960s playing on many albums by artists like Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Freddie Hubbard, Archie Shepp, Herbie Mann, Roy Ayers and Wayne Shorter. (album blog links, not bios)

Around the turn of the decade, he played on spiritual albums like Pharoah Sanders' "Karma" and Alice Coltrane's "World Galaxy", and took part in some significant Strata-East dates - Stanley Cowell's "Brilliant Circles"; Charles Tolliver's "Impact" and "Live at the Loosdrecht Jazz Festival", and Billy Harper's "Capra Black".

During the 70s Workman became more involved in education, and led the New York-based Collective Black Arts organization in New York - a community self-help project that for a while published its own newspaper, "Expansions".

"Conversation" is his first album as leader. He's joined here by Cecil Bridgewater (trumpet); Slide Hampton (trombone); George Adams (reeds); Albert Dailey (piano); Michael Carvin (drums) and Lawrence Killian (percussion), who are listed by the collective name "Reggie Workman First".

This album was recorded on December 19th, 1977, a week after the Bridgewater Brothers' "Lightning and Thunder", which also featured Workman, Bridgewater and Carvin.

Workman and CECIL BRIDGEWATER had first played together on some of the "Roy Brooks and the Artistic Truth" albums in 1973, including the amazing "Black Survival", and in 1976-77 had both joined Max Roach on four albums, including "Nommo" and "Live In Tokyo".

Pianist ALBERT DAILEY released his first solo album "Day After the Dawn" in 1972. In the few years preceding this album, he'd recorded on Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto's "The Best of Two Worlds" , Azar Lawrence's "Summer Solstice", and Charles Rouse's "Cinnamon Flower". In May of '77, Dailey and Reggie Workman had both played on Archie Shepp's "Ballads for Trane".

Drummer MICHAEL CARVIN and percussionist LAWRENCE KILLIAN individually had a wealth of percussion credits on various albums by Pharoah Sanders and Lonnie Liston Smith. They'd both played on Sanders' "Elevation", L Smith's "Expansions", and Cecil McBee's "Mutima". Apart from the Bridgewater Brothers album the week before, Carvin and Reggie Workman had also spent part of December working on Hamiett Bluett's album "Orchestra, Duo and Septet". Also a veteran of some great Norman Connors albums, Killian began a five year stint with the Village People the year after this, even appearing (uncredited) in the film "Can't Stop the Music", before heading back to the funkier zone of Pucho and the Latin Soul Brothers.

On McBee's "Mutima", Carvin and Killian had been joined by saxaphonist GEORGE ADAMS, who'd also worked with Killian on the Roy Haynes albums "Hip Ensemble" and "Senyah". Most of Adam's 70s work had been with groups led by Charles Mingus, Gil Evans and Hannibal Marvin Peterson, with some side excursions to the Fatback Band's "Keep On Steppin" and, earlier in the year, James Blood Ulmer's "Revealing". The year before, he'd released "Suite For Swingers", his debut album as a leader.

Rounding out the group was trombonist SLIDE HAMPTON, a frequent leader in his own right and a veteran of many Maynard Ferguson albums. His one previous collaboration here was with Reggie Workman on Stick Evans' 1961 album "Stick Around With Sticks Evans", although he would go on to work with several of the players over the next few years.

Things get underway with Hampton's uptempo "Mark II". Carvin and Killian set up a percussive groove over which Workman's constantly sliding around a walking vamp. The brass set up the main melody, leading into solos by Dailey, Bridgewater, Adams, Workman and Hampton. After a return of the melody, there's a percussive workout with Killian on conga and Carvin providing sensitive minimal backing - the two are really locked together on this album, as Carvin's background was as much as a percussionist as a drummer . Finally, a thankfully short drum solo finishes up the track.

Workman's compositions had been few and far between until this point, and his pretty modal piece "Deja Vu" rounds out side 1. Dailey sets up a chord backing for the main brass theme, which is followed by a Hampton solo. All instruments drop away for an extended Workman bass solo. Dailey leads the band back in for Adam's sax solo, then all flirt around the main theme to finish.

Side 2 is taken up with Workman's eighteen minute arrangement of "Conversation", written by pianist Sonelius Smith. The year before, Smith had recorded it as "Conversation Piece" on "World Of The Children", his album with Shamek Farrah. Reggie Workman would later record the track again in 1993 for his "Summit Conference" album.

Workman leads the track in with some tense, bowed crescendos and scrapes that the brass respond to with improvised bursts of colour. The main theme is introduced and leads to a sax solo from Adams, with Workman answering his impro on bass. Next, Cecil Bridgewater solos over an extended complex rhythmical interplay between Dailey and the band. His solo continues while the band break down into some almost-free, yet still controlled, patches of colour built around Dailey’s apeggios.

This breaks down further into a call and answer section between bass and piano. Killian’s varied percussion brings back the beat and calls Dailey back to the key centre, while he continues the solo. There’s another Workman-only solo, which he finishes by re-introducing the main theme, leading into a Hampton solo and a final return of the theme.

TRACKLIST 

1. 'Mark II' (Slide Hampton) 10:34
2. 'Deja Vu' (Reggie Workman) 11:32
3. 'Conversation' (Sonelius Smith, arr. by R.Workman) 18:04

PERSONNEL

Reggie Workman - bass
Cecil Bridgewater - trumpet
Slide Hampton - trombone
George Adams - tenor saxaphone
Albert Dailey - piano
Michael Carvin - drums
Lawrence Killian - percussion

CREDITS

Recorded at Sound Ideas Studios, New York City. N.Y. December 19, 1977DENON Catalogue # YX-7805-ND
Produced by Yoshio Ozawa for Nippon Columbia Co. Ltd.
Program Co-ordinator : Tsutorou Ueno (Nippon Columbia)
A&R director : Reginald Workman
Recording and Remix Engineer : Jim McCurdy
PCM Operator : Kaoru Yamamoto (Nippon Columbia)
Engineering Supervisor : Norio Okada (Nippon Columbia)

Cover photo - Tadayuki Naitoh
Artwork - Satoshi Saitoh (sign)
Cover Ilustration - Shozo Shimoda
Liner Notes - Hideki Satoh

REGGIE WORKMAN DISCOGRAPHY 

1977 'Conversation' at base of this post 
1983 'Such Great Friends' (FLAC) @ Strata-East Fan Club
1986 Bootleg concert at Inconstant Sol

1987 "Synthesis" at Avax
1989 "Images - Reggie Workman Ensemble in Concert" from E-Mile (thanks!)
1993 "Summit Conference" at Call It Anything
1995 "Cerebral Caverns" (FLAC) at Call It Anything
1995 "Cerebral Caverns" (MP3) at Musistenz2000 "Altered States"
2006 Live at St Peters Church (with Andrew Cyrille & others) at Inconstant Sol

RESEARCH CREDITS

Some information from :
Rick Lopez's Reggie Workman discography
Michael Fitzgerald's Slide Hampton discography
Marcel Safier's George Adams discography & sessionography
Tony King's George Adams discography

The thirty-five album blog links within the post are from :
Call It Anything, Pharoah’s Dance, Ile Oxumare, Seventeen Green Buicks, El Goog Ja, Orgy In Rhythm, My Jazz World, Strata-East Fan Club, Four Brothers Beats, Bari Beat Bandits ft. San Pasquale Ent., Keep on Truckin' (on the sunny side), The Roadhouse, Rocker CDs, Vlassis-13, Vibes From the Wax, The Music Jockey, The Sly Mongoose, Loronix, Mondo Musicale, Disco2Go, Rocker CDs, Jazz Archives, Fat Toro. Rapidshare link for James Blood Ulmer's "Revealing" courtesy of Burning Blue Soul, originally uploaded at "El Reza". Thanks to all these bloggers.

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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.

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