Steve Lacy ss
Roswell Rudd trmbn
Henry Grimes bass
Dennis Charles dr

recorded 63

Nice HatHut records continues CD-releases. Ayler's Lörrach, Paris 1966 CD-release was great but does anyone have any toughts about this one? I hope!

the original CD release is fine - except for the marginal sound - unusual for a hat release

would love to know if Peter Pfister was able to work any magic on this session.

Probably not much even Pfister can do with a recording that was made on a small, handheld tape deck in a tiny New York nightspot. You gotta get over the sound and get with the music!

That said, I haven't listened to the reissue, as I have an original vinyl copy. But this is one of the only documents of the early collaboration of Lacy/Rudd, and so well worth having even if the sound is not perfect.

Now if only the bootlegs of Lacy playing with Monk would surface in a nice reissue...

Bye-ya.

Essential listening, IMHO.

Just look at that line-up!

Damn, the sound isn't even that bad! Good, even.

Yeah, the sound is good. The sound of Denis Charles, for example.

I already have both the Emanem lp edition (ca. '75) and the HATart '94 CD reissue.

The original audio is amateur-that's not important. The music is.

I remembered reading about this quartet (in DownBeat, I think) while I was still in the Army in the early 60's. I think it's a tragedy that the sessions this group allegedly cut for two different major labels never saw the light of day (I heard-or read once-that one of the labels in question was Verve).

Wouldn't it be a kick if those master tapes turned up-and were restorable?

The fabled musical blend and interplay between Rudd and Lacy is to be treasured. I suspect that it came about largely because of the nature of the music they were then assimilating together-Monk's-and the musical choices and options that evolved as a result of dealing with this music. According to Lacy, they got pretty serious about Monk's music and spent a lot of time on it.

At this point in time, they were playing more of Monk's own music than Monk himself was.

BTW: has anyone besides me ever noticed that on the version of Monk's "Bolivar Blues", Henry Grimes' bass solo ends by quoting liberally from Oscar Pettiford's solo on Monk's original version of the same piece? Not an easy feat for a bass player, since the tempo of the Lacy-Rudd version is noticeably faster than Monk's original version (contained in "Brilliant Corners", now on OJC).

I like Denis Charles playing here. He was one of my favorite 'primitive modern' drummers of this era (along with Ed Blackwell, Danny Richmond, and-of course-Blakey). Charles fits in here beautifully-much in the same way Blakey did with Monk. He and Grimes were a great match.

Note to Steve Reynolds: on my hatART CD edition, Peter Pfister is credited with the mastering and given co-credit
for the tape restoration. He was able to improve the sound a bit; it's a bit fuller and warmer. He did what he could with the technology that that was available nine years ago.

Did HatHut just re-release the '94 master? If they gave Pfister yet another shot at the mastering-with today's
digital mastering software-it would be worth hearing.

I realize that Cap'n - I was just wondering what you were - is there anything else that could be done with these tapes.


and I do realize the importance of the music - I am just a bit of stubborn one when it comes to listening to poorly sounding music - I allow the sound problems to become a distraction - so maybe it is my problem, not the music's.

I picked this up along with the re-release of We See.

Sound quality on the latter is better, but that's no excuse. Everyone should have both.

Lacy doing Monk is second nature.

That is all.

Steve R:

As I said: it would be nice if Pfister got a second pass at remastering (during which the final overall EQ can be tweaked a bit more).

But when the source tape is 40 years old and monaural, there are limits.

Also: re-mastering might not have been in the budget for this particular re-release.

Regardless: "School Days" is one of the gems among Jazz recordings of the 60's.

The Captain has hit it on the head on all counts.

Old recordings are what they are. Lately I've been listening to some old classical recordings re-issued by andante, and their remastering process actually keeps the surface noise; they assert that to attempt to eradicate it would be to change the sound of the music itself. Now, hearing a 1915 or even a 1930 recording with a strong hiss throughout might at first seem enervating, but once you get past that and listen to the *sound* of the piano (or whatever instrument), you can enjoy the *artistry* involved as much as you do on modern recordings.

Just my two cents. An interesting topic, though.

Bottom line: any Lacy is worth bad sound.

Bye-ya.

Steve, if you worried about sound then you would own a turntable.

Yes, indeedy, Mr. Hubbard. I sure do love my Sota Sapphire, along with a Blue Point Special. The sound is rich, full, and quite palpable. Still ain't nothin' like it! With over 4000 lps, we keep things clean with my old faithful VPI record cleaning machine. And how about that DEEP soundstage! Whoa, yeah!!!

Capt

Both School Days and We See where just reissued in the last month or so by Hat Hut as part of their Hatology series.

I think Peter Pfister has gotten a noticeable improvement in sound. If anyone can get great sound from limited source material it is Pfister. Look what he did with McPhee’s Tenor, which was recorded on a cassette recorder.

According to the back notes Ansgar Ballhorn and Pfister restored the tape. Than Pfister mixed and made a new master CD using the Cedar process in March 2001.

Re #15:

In that case, the result would certainly be worth hearing.

"I like Denis Charles playing here. He was one of my favorite 'primitive modern' drummers of this era (along with Ed Blackwell, Danny Richmond, and-of course-Blakey)."

Although I have an idea what you mean, could you expand on what you mean by primitive?

n<bh

Re: #16

Art Blakey & Dannie Richmond were self-taught. Richmond was originally a saxophonist until Mingus successfully persuaded him to become a drummer. Blakey began as a self-taught pianist who became a drummer to save his gig! (legend has it the pianist the club's boss decided to hire was a young Erroll Garner).

These men assertively incorporated elements drawn from ethnic percussion (mostly African and Afro-Cuban). In contrast, most of their contemporaries based their drumming primarily on rudimental-based technique, derived from European concert and military drumming.

Blakey's drumming, simple yet polyrhythmic, coupled with his fierce rhythmic drive (few drummers ever played hi-hat cymbal afterbeats as strongly as he did) was in marked contrast to the rudimentally-rooted drumming of Buddy Rich (whose virtuosity and polish, IMO, was the culmination of Swing Era drumming; there was nowhere else to go in that style after Rich. Rich was to drummers as Tatum was to pianists; both mens' instumental virtuosity was simultaneously a wonder-and a musical cul-de-sac).

Blakey came into his own at exactly the right time in Jazz;
Bebop was, as critic Martin Williams pointed out, stripping down to essentials and rebuilding. The music had started to change even before Charlie Parker's death in 1955 and Blakey, Monk, Miles, Silver, Mingus, Rollins, Milt Jackson, et al. were the new stylistic role models. Their playing was musically sophisticated yet very basic. Coincidentally, about this same time Ray Charles had suddenly become very important-both vocally and as a pianist-arranger-bandleader.

Blakey was, to me, the Jazz drumming equivalent of a Picasso; his drumming style fit with Monk like nobody else's. Monk and Blakey made many classic records together during the 50's. For me, one of the greatest sounds in Jazz is the 'conversation' between Blakey and Monk, particularly during a Monk solo (note how Monk leaves 'gaps' for Art to fill in).

Also, listen to the records Blakey made with Herbie Nichols.
Nichols mentioned often in his writings about how important drums were to his music; he spoke once of "getting rhythm to 'sound' ". This, I think, is at the heart of what I meant when I referred to the drummers in question as 'primitive moderns'.

[There are a couple of drummers that have come up in recent years that have some of this quality-an 'organic' concept on the drumset, if you will: Herlin Riley and Earl Harvin.]

Mingus and Richmond as a bass & drums unit were
the instrumental core of Mingus' music. Mingus deliberately incorporated 'primitive' elements into his bass playing, such as slapping and fingerboard buzzes. Check out the two of them together on a 1957 version of "Summertime" (on "Mingus 3", with Hampton Hawes on piano).

Denis Charles remind one of Blakey a lot, particularly on
"School Days". His solo fills 'tell a story'. His time, like Blakey's, is of the earth-not the conservatory!. And it's in perfect keeping with Monk's tunes (as was Blakey's drumming). The first time I heard "School Days" I was struck by how much Denis C. reminded me of Art B., right down to the hand muted tom-tom hits (inspired by the cuica?). He provides his own running 'commentary' to the solos of Lacy & Rudd, while Henry Grimes' bass is the anchor.

Hope this answers your question.

"Hope this answers your question."

It certainly does, thanks!

I bought both School Days and We See today. I noticed that John Betsch is on the latter. When I saw him live (playing with Mal Waldron), he struck me as something of a mix between the two schools you have described, the primitives and the rudimentary ;): his phrases definitely spoke, the groove was "of the earth", but there was also a lot of polish.

n<bh

Re: We See, a nice mix of instrumentation, breaking the sextet up into smaller ensembles throughout the record. And the solo version of Reflections, the way Lacy stretches and reconsiders his phrasing midthought, is just sacred.

Thanks everybody! I finally got this really nice CD. Jazz for early hours. There was a big need for this in my livingroom.