The results of those sessions, which comprise the sum total of the music Monk and Coltrane created together in a recording-studio setting, have been collected in a new 2-CD Riverside set aptly titled The Complete 1957 Riverside Recordings. Due for release June 27, the package was compiled by original producer Keepnews, who also wrote a revealing essay about the making of the music. Two previously unissued alternate takes - “Crepuscule with Nellie," from the June 25 septet date with Coleman Hawkins and Art Blakey; and take 1 of the 19th-century William Monk-penned hymn “Abide with Me," recorded the following evening - are included, as is the first stereo release of “Blues for Tomorrow," which was previously issued only in mono.
http://concordmusicgroup.com/artists/album/?id=4335
Sequenced chronologically, the set commences with the ballad “Monk's Mood," with Coltrane and bassist Wilbur Ware, recorded in April 1957 for the otherwise-solo album Thelonious Himself.
On two late-June evenings, Keepnews assembled a Monk septet (with trumpeter Ray Copeland and alto saxist Gigi Gryce in addition to Coltrane, Hawkins, Ware, and Blakey) that produced the classic Monk's Music album.
The final session took place in July, with Monk, Coltrane, Ware, and drummer Shadow Wilson - the original Five Spot quartet - cutting three tracks ("Ruby, My Dear," “Nutty," “Trinkle, Tinkle"). In his notes, Keepnews explains how it happened that the group was never captured live during their extended Five Spot engagement: Coltrane had just been signed to a Prestige contract, and though Prestige's Bob Weinstock would have permitted reciprocal use of his artist to Riverside, former Prestige artist Monk - who'd had a less than amicable parting with the label - would have none of it.
At the time of the July session, the quartet had just begun their Five Spot run, the impact of which Keepnews describes as “unexpected and amazing. Somehow," he writes, “Coltrane, now becoming thoroughly compatible with (and actually enhancing) the Monk idiom, was reaching listeners in a way he had never previously achieved with Miles Davis. What I found most impressive was how immediately jazz fans with a sense of history were making comparisons to an event a quarter-century earlier, when the major New Orleans cornetist of that era had summoned his protege - twenty-two-year-old Louis Armstrong - to join his band at a club in Chicago. (To extend that parallel further, both Armstrong and Coltrane remained with their mentors for something less than half a year, but both pairings are probably permanently ranked among the most meaningful collaborations in the history of jazz.)"
In another nod to history, the cover image - Monk and Coltrane on a postage stamp - recalls the postage-stamp likeness of Monk that appeared on his Unique album. Riverside publicist Billie Wallington famously had perforated sheets of the “stamps" created and distributed, and, to the chagrin of the US Postal Service, some of these pseudo-stamps, when affixed to letters, managed to get at least a few of those letters delivered.
Due for release tomorrow (5/23): The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions by the MILES DAVIS QUINTET. The boxed set's 32 selections, on three discs, represent the complete output for Prestige by Miles's 1950s quintet (with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones). There's also a bonus disc featuring eight previously unissued radio and television audio performances by the group. The release of the new box coincides with Miles Davis's 80th birthday this Friday (5/26).
http://concordmusicgroup.com/artists/album/?id=4328
“[JOEY] DEFRANCESCO has a lot of great albums behind him, and Organic Vibes joins his best," wrote Steve Greenlee in The Boston Globe last week (5/19). DeFrancesco's guests on the new Concord Jazz CD - Bobby Hutcherson (vibes), George Coleman (tenor saxophone), and Ron Blake (reeds)- will be featured at a number of the organist's club and concert bookings later this year. Blake will augment Joey's trio at the Chicago Jazz Festival 9/3. Hutcherson will appear with DeFrancesco in Memphis (11/2), Atlanta (11/3), St. Louis (11/4), and Columbia, MO (11/5). And both Hutcherson and Coleman will help Joey close out the year at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York 12/18-23.
http://concordmusicgroup.com/artists/bio/?id=749
http://www.joeydefrancesco.com
Legends of Jazz with Ramsey Lewis, which began airing on public television stations in April, will showcase Joey DeFrancesco and Dr. Lonnie Smith in a segment called “The Killer Bs," scheduled for broadcast on or around 6/19. Check local listings for details.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
