Return to Blue Note: Tony Williams in the Late 1980s
Posted in Shows on Jan 27th, 2007
On this program we highlight the late-1980s acoustic quintet recordings of drummer Tony Williams. Williams was one of the great prodigies of jazz, playing with both Sam Rivers and Jackie McLean as a teenager before joining Miles Davis as part of the trumpeter’s great mid-1960s group. Williams also recorded two dates as a leader for Blue Note and went on to form the pioneering fusion trio Lifetime (with organist Larry Young and guitarist John McLaughlin). After a sabbatical in the early 1980s to hone his compositional skills, Williams came back to Blue Note…
Jazz criticism first emerged in the 1930s, accompanied by the rise of “hot clubs” and collector groups, often consisting of young white men who gathered to listen to recordings, argued feverishly over the merits of their favorite players, and pursued an obsessive interest in what came to be known as the science of discography. Some critics, such as Leonard Feather and John Hammond, became agents of influence in the jazz world, promoting musicians in the jazz press, producing record sessions, and organizing…
J.R. Monterose is a saxophonist rarely heard even by jazz fans, and his most well-known recording, Charles Mingus’ Pithecanthropus Erectus, is one that Monterose himself later all but disowned. He recorded only sporadically as a leader and withdrew from the jazz world several times, woodshedding or playing in towns distant from the music’s metropolitan centers. His sound, although influenced by other tenor horns such as…
This program focuses on two unique early-1960s albums made by guitarist Joe Pass and pianist Elmo Hope. Pass’ 1961 Pacific Jazz LP Sounds of Synanon was his debut as a leader; although he’d begun to play professionally as a teenager in the late 1940s, stays in prison and rehabilitation centers for drug addiction had hampered his career throughout the 1950s…
