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Jazzmatazz Newsletter
#193

13 September 2004

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New Issues for 31 August 2004

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31 August 2004
Capsule Reviews

     Adobe is a beautiful album of improvisational interplay based on compositions by tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby, plus a couple standards and a tune by Angelica Sanchez. Malaby shows some of the spirit of Ornette Coleman in the melodic intricacies and vocal quality of his playing (and the album opens with Ornette's "Humpty Dumpty.") In spite of not having had a rehearsal, the group, with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Paul Motian, has the fluid interaction of a trio of master musicians conversing as equals.     — ALAN LANKIN

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     The Water Records label deserves kudos for their well-packaged reissues of lesser-known jazz gems from the 1960s and early 1970s. (In July, they released the first CD issues of a pair of Blue Note titles, Duke Pearson's The Phantom from 1968 and Reuben Wilson's A Groovy Situation, from 1970.) This week, they have released another pair of titles, a Les McCann 1971 Atlantic album and a new CD of vintage material by vocalist Patty Waters.

     Vocalist Patty Waters recorded two 1965 albums for ESP and then was not really heard from again until a 1996 collaboration with pianist Jessica Williams, Love Songs (Jazz Focus ). And now we have You Thrill Me, a collection of previously unreleased recordings from Waters' archives, including an amazing 1964 Jax Beer commercial, as 1964 demo session for producer Tom Wilson and private recordings from the 1970s made in San Francisco and Seattle. While her legendary ESP albums showed her avant garde style full of vocal pyrotechnics, this new collection has more emphasis on her haunting balladic style.

The sixteen page booklet includes previously unpublished vintage photos, an introduction by Masaki Batoh of "Ghost," an essay by Byron Coley and new notes by Patty herself.     — ALAN LANKIN

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     Taking a cue from Miles Davis's electric efforts (e.g., "In A Silent Way," "Jack Johnson" and "Bitches Brew"), keyboardist Les McCann took twelve musicians into the Atlantic Records studio in NYC in 1971 and created the twenty six minute improvisation "The Lovers" that took up one side of the original LP issue of Invitation to Openness. Starting with McCann's ringing Rhodes playing, the group adds reverberating guitars, layers of percussion and Lateef's haunting oboe for a spacey jam full of beautiful textural interplay. (The second half features a pair of stretched out tunes of about thirteen minutes each that are worth hearing, but don't attain the heights of the first tune.)

This reissue includes a sixteen page booklet with a new essay by Peter Relic. In addition to commenting on McCann's background and the origins of the sessions, he's also interviewed some of the original musicians. McCann thought of the "The Lovers" as a jazz "Bolero."     — ALAN LANKIN

Personnel: Les McCann (piano, keyboards, synthesizer); Yuseff Lateef (flute, tenor saxophone, oboe, bells); Cornell Dupree, David Spinozza (electric guitar); Corky Hale (harp); Jodie Christian (keyboards); Bill Salter (electric bass); Jimmy Rowser (bass); Alphonse Mouzon, Bernard Purdie, Donald Dean (drums, percussion); Ralph MacDonald (percussion).

31 August 2004

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Japanese imports

other recent jazz releases
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upoming jazz releases
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earlier 2004 jazz releases
(Jan-June)
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[jazzmatazz.home.att.net/releases/jazzmatazz_cds2004.zip]

non-jazz items of interest

2003 jazz releases
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[jazzmatazz.home.att.net/releases/jazzmatazz_cds2003.zip]

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last update 13 September 2004