Impulse! Records
Spring 2003 reissues

Although the classic Impulse! label is most commonly associated with having released some of the finest documented free jazz of the 1960’s, it would be a mistake to assume that the label was focused solely on this genre during its heyday. This batch of five reissues should help clarify this presumption as shortsighted. Dixieland, big band, third stream, free-jazz and funk are all represented on these five discs, sometimes in surprising combinations.

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Pee Wee Russell - Ask Me Now! (Impulse! LPR) Mar 11, 2003

Dixieland icon and all around unpredictable clarinetist Pee Wee Russell debuted his groundbreaking album Ask Me Now! in 1963. In much the same way that Sonny Rollins re-invented himself on The Bridge by embracing the structural freedoms of avant garde jazz, Pee Wee Russell does much the same on Ask Me Now!. Wanting to distance himself from the traditional Dixieland scene that he had been part of all his life, Russell formed a small piano-less quartet, featuring valve trombonist Marshall Brown, to play modern jazz. Although the album is primarily a fairly straight ahead swinging affair rounded out by a few ballads, included are tunes penned by Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, and a fantastic cover of Ornette Coleman’s "Turnaround." Ironically, this may be the most timeless sounding album of the batch.

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Earl Hines - Once Upon A Time (Impulse! LPR) Mar 11, 2003

Once Upon A Time is, for all practical purposes, a scaled down version of the Duke Ellington orchestra, led by pianist Earl Hines. All the major Ellingtonians are present: Cat Anderson, Ray Nance, Jimmy Hamilton, Johnny Hodges, Paul Gonsalves and numerous others. A guest appearance by former Coltrane quartet drummer Elvin Jones comes as an unexpected surprise. This is a far more traditional setting than one would have expected to hear him involved with in 1966. His energy here is infectious and it is worth a listen just to hear him in this context. Although not a typical item in Earl Hines’ discography, Ellington fans will certainly love this hard swinging disc.

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Steve Kuhn & Gary McFarland - The October Suite (Impulse! LPR) Mar 11, 2003

Besides the odd album by Gil Evans in the mid-60’s, one does not normally expect to stumble across a third stream classical-jazz experiment on the Impulse! label. Arranger and composer Gary McFarland’s collaboration with introspective pianist Steve Kuhn, The October Suite, is one such exception. Most of the pieces were written specifically for Kuhn to improvise on, utilizing a piano trio accompanied by a small chamber music group. The first half of the album finds the trio enhanced by a string quartet. The second half features a woodwind quartet and harpist. While the first half of the disc is more tentative and searching, the second half has freer elements that border on an almost Tristano-esque kind of dissonant formalism. Once again, not a typical album for either the label or the artist, but still a gem in its own right.

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Albert Ayler - Music Is The Healing Force of the Universe (Impulse! LPR) Mar 11, 2003

Albert Ayler’s 1969 recording Music is the Healing Force of the Universe was to be his last. Recorded just before his mysterious death, Music … is also unfortunately one of his most misguided albums. Ayler had fallen on bad times and was under the influence of his eccentric wife "Mary Maria." Her “cosmic vibration” vocals dominate the album, while Ayler and his rhythm section attempt to back up her pleading declarations. The two longest cuts on the album are the only non-vocal performances, but alas they are both untypical of his better output. “Masonic Inborn” is twelve minutes of overdubbed dual bagpipes drug along by a calamitous rhythm section. Oddly, the album closes with an electric blues, featuring a member of Canned Heat. Here, Ayler’s blues shouts and growls are nowhere near as intense and revolutionary as his previous recorded legacy made implicit. An odd curiosity, this is one for completists only.

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Archie Shepp - Attica Blues (Impulse! LPR) Mar 11, 2003

Attica Blues, tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp’s response to the Attica uprising, is a much more sobering retort than one would expect from the 1960’s firebrand. Vocal ballads dominate the album, which also includes early 70’s funk, rock rhythms and some big band swing. It is a peculiarly mixed album, especially in its vocal performances. The opening title track is one of the most furious free form funk cuts one could imagine, sort of a cross between Sly and the Family Stone and late period Coltrane. The final cut “Quiet Dawn” is a tentative ballad sung by a child. Spoken word interludes between tracks unfortunately date the album even further than the instrumentation does. Uneven in spots, but not without a certain strange charm; Attica Blues is one of Shepp’s most diverse albums.

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All five of these releases are remarkable both in respect to their relationship to the individual artists typical work and the label responsible for their release. The 1960’s were a time of radical change, best exemplified by the varied approaches on these five albums.    

— TROY COLLINS

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last update 27 July 2003