Curtis Fuller: I Will Tell Her

Curtis Fuller (trombone; b. 1934)
I Will Tell Her (Capri Records)

Keith Oxman (sax)
Al Hood (trumpet)
Chip Stephens (piano)
Ken Walker (bass)
Todd Reid (drums)

As some may know I am a huge fan of Curtis Fuller and I try to recommend his music to anyone who asks me about jazz. Probably the most definitive document of Fuller's ability is still his debut, The Opener (Blue Note) he continues to record stellar albums without really missing a beat.

Curtis Fuller continues an illustrious career with his new release I Will Tell Her (Capri Records). It's an impressive and expressive double album filled with a nice mixture of mainly Fuller originals and only three standards. The Detroit native has a style built out of the J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding framework. He has worked with host of legends including John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Kenny Burrell and Benny Golson to name just a few.

I Will Tell Her a killer set featuring a fairly new sextet for Fuller (they had recorded one album previously under saxophonist, Oxman's name). The album is split between one studio recording and one live recording. Both sets move at breakneck speed with the classic Kenny Dorham piece "Minor's Holiday" and Sonny Rollins' "Tenor Madness" as points of upward flight. The title track, "I Will Tell Her" (and the album itself) is a loving tribute to Fuller's wife, Cathy and showcases the distinct beauty and agility Curtis Fuller has built on the trombone.

The live date was recorded at the Denver jazz club, Dazzle. Four of the six songs on the second disc are included on the studio side but these versions are drastically different due to the live setting and the pacing in fierce. On the Fuller original "The Court" Keith Oxman really shines during his solos. I had really heard Keith Oxman before but now that I have he seems to be someone worth keeping an eye on. The live version of "I Will Tell Her" is just as moving if not more. There is more emotion pour into this version (mainly because of the live setting and the inspiration of the audience) that really makes it an extremely memorable moment of the recording.

On "Maze", Oxman again lays down some heavy movements that feel almost like Coltrane. Al Hood also displays some great chops here as well. The band has only been together a short time (since 2005) but it sounds like they have been at for decades. The always romantic piece "I Want To Talk About You" starts to bring the live proceedings to close in comfortable fashion. And the whole disc closes as hot as it began with "Minor's Holiday", this time with some emphatic playing from Chip Stephens and guided by Oxman and Fuller's incredible interplay.

I Will Tell Her is a pristine document of two killer sessions and a loving overture to his beloved wife. I would now say anyone who doesn't own a Curtis Fuller record, you can't go wrong with either The Opener or I Will Tell Her. This is vintage hard bop at its best.

Phil Ranelin

Phil Ranelin (trombone; b. 1939)
Sounds From The Village: The Phil Ranelin Anthology (Blue Interactions)

Phil Ranelin may be one of the most under-rated trombonist of them all. He is widely known in the jazz circles as one of the co-founders of the TRIBE movement out of Detroit, along with Detroit native Marcus Belgrave (trumpet). The Tribe was a collective which included a magazine, music label and more. But Ranelin's unfortunate infrequency of recording has probably contributed to the lack of notoriety of his superb albums and live performances. Ranelin while influenced by J.J. Johnson probably owes more to trumpet legend Freddie Hubbard, with whom he has worked with on numerous occasions, in addition to the spiritual influence of John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy.

Ranelin's first recordings, Message From The Tribe, The Time Is Now and Vibe From The Tribe (all reissued under Hefty Records) are bold and improvising in the realm of late Coltrane and Dolpy records. These albums were wonderful microcosms of 70s jazz. Tracks like "Sounds From The Village," "For The Children," "Black Destiny' and "Time Is Now" all incorporate psychedelia, blues, poetry and African themes, which show Ranelin while influenced by the great legends was also beginning to find his voice. Ranelin would record sporadically throughout the latter 70s and 80s in addition to doing some teaching.

Ranelin returned to recording in the 90s with a series of albums which still included touch of heavy grooves and began to appeal to the underground soul jazz circuit. Albums such as Close Encounters Of The Very Best Kind, Love Dream and Inspiration all demonstrate a distinct voice, growth and well structured vision from the trombonist.

Ranelin recently recorded his first live album, Reminiscence (Wide Hive Records) which spans tour dates from 2002 and 2005. Featuring mostly original material and a few covers of Miles Davis, Duke Ellington as well as his sublime tribute to Eric Dolphy entitled "Shades Of Dolphy", Reminiscence is a killer live album well worth checking out.

Overall, if you are interested in finding other creative trombone players in the same vein as Curtis Fuller, J.J. Johnson and Steve Davis, Phil Ranelin should definitely be on list of artists to seek out. A really great place to start is a Japanese compilation called Sounds From The Village: The Phil Ranelin Anthology (Blues Interaction Inc.; 2004). Sound From The Village covers all the albums above excluding Reminiscence. It's an awesome compilation which really does touch on all the important tracks from his solo records.

Ranelin is still one of those underground artists deserving wide recognition and I hope at some point more people get a chance to hear his records. Ranelin has a voice and vision that really needs to be experienced.

Steve Davis

Steve Davis (trombone; b. 1967)

Dig Deep (Criss Cross)

Jim Rotundi (trumpet)

Eric Alexander (sax)

David Hazeltine (piano)
Nat Reeves (bass)
Joe Farnsworth (drums)

Steve Davis is regarded in the jazz scene as the heir-apparent to Curtis Fuller and J.J. Johnson. He is also one of the co-founding members of the sextet, One For All. Davis has the great distinction of performing in the final Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers and Jackie McLean lineups as well as with Chick Corea's Origin Sextet. Bold, confident and expressive are all the things one will say after listening to a Steve Davis record.

Steve Davis has recorded over 15 albums to his name but the one that I wanted to focus on is his third album, Dig Deep (Criss Cross; 1997).

A few weeks ago I was doing my unfortunate/fortunate rummaging through used record stores for little gems. I found Dig Deep on that day and it made my eyes pop out of my head. And it was four dollars (US)!

Dig Deep is from what I can tell the first actually studio recording of the One For All band. This is significant in that up to this point they had only been performing live. Davis captures that live energy and the early unity of the band perfectly on this record. Dig Deep is fluid and diverse with the majority of the album written by Davis but each member contributes solid interplay and solo work throughout. It is a brilliant record documenting One For All in their early stages. At this point the most well known in the group was Eric Alexander. But everyone here is in crisp, solid form and up to the challenge. This a killer post hard bop date that pretty much anyone will enjoy.

The coolest thing about Dig Deep is the chemistry the band exudes. The opening track, aptly titled. "One For All," was written by Davis (originally when he was with The Jazz Messengers) is remarkably fresh, pounding and lively. The cover of "I Should Care" is beautiful and upbeat, featuring some incredible arrangements by David Hazeltine. In addition, another Davis penned number, "Payne's Window" is awesome and illustrates Davis great ability as band leader. The closing number, "Trippin'" is a barn-burner of a number at just over seven minutes. Joe Farnsworth and Eric Alexander really light up this piece and make it a perfect bookend to the opening track.

Dig Deep is definitely the first chapter in what would led to the long history for the entire group culminating a few more months later on the very first "official" One For All album. This a must have album even if you don't own a One For All album. It's a great modern hard bop date that is rare and hard to come by nowadays from most jazz groups. Seek it out. Indeed, sometimes when you find history no matter what genre you have to pick it up. You will regret it if you don't.

One For All: Continuing The Tradition

One For All (group; formed 1997)

Incorrigible (JLP)

Eric Alexander (sax)

Jim Rotondi (trumpet)

David Hazeltine (piano)

Joe Farnsworth (drums)

John Weber (bass)

Steve Davis (trombone)

For more than a decade, One For All have been one of the most exciting and swingin' hard bop groups on the jazz scene. The sextet have consistently been compared to the great Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers--a bold comparison but probably pretty accurate. Each member of this band is also a renowned solo artist so when they do record together it is always special.

One For All have been a permanent fixture in the New York jazz scene with frequently individual live performances (mostly at Smoke Jazz Club) in addition to their yearly performances as One For All at the famous Uptown venue. The group have just released their 15 album, Incorrigible (Jazz Legacy Productions) and it continues the groups string of straight-ahead hard bop with the same phenomenal results.

Incorrigible begins with the standard "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" but things really get jumping on the second piece "Petite Angel" penned by pianist David Hazeltine and featuring some lovely solo work from saxophonist, Eric Alexander and trombonist, Steve Davis. Upbeat with a slightly mid tempo groove "Petite Angel" is a signature example of how ease it is to fall in love this amazing sextet.

One of the most important and delightful things I have enjoyed all my years of listening to One For All is the fact that each member of the band writes material for the albums. So the listener tends to get a good overview of the depth this band possesses. There is no difference on Incorrigible. The loving tribute to the great trumpeter, Freddie Hubbard entitled "voice", written by trumpeter Jim Rotondi is sublime, touching and emotionally perfect.

The title track written by Eric Alexander is another standout moment as this is where the group begin to really to smokin' and you feel the power of their musicianship. Steve Davis (trombone) has been one of my favourtie musicians of the last ten years. He is definitely taking up the mantle of Curtis Fuller and J..J. Johnson with great ease. The track "Spirit Waltz" which originally featured on his 2001 album, Systems Blue (Criss Cross) is revisited here with the same vigour as its predecessor. In addition to always pitch perfect modality of Davis, drummer Joe Farnsworth helps drive this piece along with some nice timing accompanied by the rest of the groups precision work. For me "Spirit Waltz" is the second standout moment on Incorrigible.

The album rounds out with Rotondi and Davis numbers, "Back To Back" and "So Soon" respectively, where former is an upbeat latin-tinged soul-filler. The closer, "So Soon" reinforces the group ethos with each member practically highlighted throughout. It has an almost classic Blue Note Records quality to it. The perfect way to end the session.

One For All are that rare breed in jazz circles--a consistent group that has stuck together for years and continues to challenge each other and you can hear the fun they have playing together. This is a band that enjoys being in the studio as well on stage and every single record every record captures this magnificently. One For All continue to carry the straight ahead tradition of hard bop and of the small batch of new records so far this year, Incorrigible is by far in my top five.

Jazz on Screen: ZigZag & The Super Cops

Zigzag / Oliver Nelson
The Super Cops / Jerry Fielding

Film Score Monthly can't be accused of playing it safe. After all, Zigzag and The Super Cops aren't exactly "classic films," and I'd bet that the only people who'll buy it will be a) fans of obscure crime jazz scores and/or b) fans of Oliver Nelson and/or Jerry Fielding. In other words, freaks like me. ;-)

Zigzag, starring George Kennedy, actually had a LP release at the time of the film's release in '70. Nelson's cachet with jazz audiences (who know him best for the landmark Impulse recording Blues and the Abstract Truth, '61) must have encouraged the release. But Zigzag isn't a straight jazz score. Nelson, who held degrees in theory and composition, brought a sophisticated ear to the film, providing both propulsive Latin jazz and meditative modernist string passages, often blending the two. The action-oriented passages will remind some listeners of '70s shows like The Six Million Dollar Man, which should come as no surprise since Nelson composed for that show shortly before he died at the age of 43. FSM includes not only the original score but also the album program, which features an unrelated song called "Zigzag" sung by Roy Orbison. There are songs sung by Bobby Hatfield as well.

Closing out the first disc are Anita O'Day jazz vocal tracks from Zigzag and the hard-boiled crime movie The Outfit ('73). The latter film previously served an FSM release featuring Fielding's score. What is at first a seemingly random inclusion becomes an odd transition into Fielding's score for The Super Cops on Disc Two.

The Super Cops isn't among Fielding's better known scores (such as The Wild Bunch), in part because the film is fairly obscure. It's based on a true story of two New York cops who are more super-dedicated to fighting crime than "super" in the comic book sense. Fielding busts out the funky crime jazz with hard blowing brass, wah-wah guitar and an almost blaxploitation vibe. Still, one wouldn't mistake Fielding for J.J. Johnson, Isaac Hayes or Curtis Mayfield. He works a groove well enough, but like Lalo Schifrin he tends to infuse his compositions with a broader spectrum of tonal color. Still, it's very much an action score with interesting references to militarism and the Old West (the latter of which was a strong suit for him).

Disc Two closes out with selections from Fielding's scores for the short-lived folksy attorney show Hawkins, starring James Stewart (think of it as a prototype for Matlock). These cues are by turns abstract and dramatic ("Life for a Life") and pure pastiche ("Harmonica Source"). The CD also contains Fielding's country western and jazzy pop source cues for the cafe scene in The Outfit.

All in all, it's a worthwhile diversion and very well packaged with thorough liner notes.

Originally published at http://www.scorebaby.com/

The Felonious Funk of J.J. Johnson

Jazz trombone great J.J. Johnson composed and played on a number film and television soundtracks during the feloniously funky 1970s, ranging from blaxploitation potboilers such as Shaft (with Isaac Hayes) and Trouble Man (with Marvin Gaye) to episodes of TV's Starsky & Hutch and The Six Million Dollar Man.

Johnson worked with Bobby Womack on one of the best blaxploitation soundtracks ever, Across 110th Street. It opens with all the drama and soul one could ever hope for in a title theme. If it were the only good track, it would still be worth the price. Thankfully, it isn't -- this is a well rounded score. From there you get Johnson's funky instrumentals ("Harlem Clavinette"), mellow soul ("If You Don't Want My Love"), wise-ass dialogue ("Punk Errand Boy"), catchy up-tempo soul ("Hang on in There" vocal and instrumental versions!) and righteous blues ("Do It Right").

Johnson's score for Cleopatra Jones is funky, soulful and memorable, featuring instrumentals and songs sung by Joe Simon and Millie Jackson. This score's soulful groove never lets up. Most importantly, there's a great theme and great chase music, featuring the wah-wah rhythms, brash brass, jagged string arrangements, rolling bass, fatback drumming, funky keys, heavy flute.

J.J. Johnson also delivered a soulful and riveting score for the pimptastic Willie Dynamite in 1974. Featuring four vocal performances by Martha Reeves & The Sweet Things, Willie Dynamite strikes the ideal blaxploitation balance of soul and funk. While the vocal tracks are fine but not particularly essential, Johnson's action-packed instrumentals are the real attraction. Cuts like "Willie Chase," "Willie Escape" and "Parade Strut" combine big band brass with dynamic percussion, wailing organ solos and unusual harmonica effects.

All three killer scores place Johnson alongside such the blaxploitation masters as Isaac Hayes, Willie Hutch and Curtis Mayfield.

Jazz Soundtracks — Part 9

The following are excerpts from the book Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979 (McFarland, 2008) by Kristopher Spencer, founder of Scorebaby.com.

When considering European sexploitation, Great Britain probably isn’t the first country that comes to mind (except for The Benny Hill Show, a saucy variety comedy hour that premiered in ’69 and ran for 20 years). Compared to relatively liberated countries like Denmark and Sweden, Great Britain hasn’t been a particularly productive sexploitation film exporter. But there are several independent and mainstream British films of the ’60s that reflect in the influence of the sexual revolution...

One British film that deals with sex and the single man is Alfie (’66) that uses frank sexual content to examine the foibles of a promiscuous bachelor. Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David contributed the theme song, but much of the score belongs to Sonny Rollins and his conductor Oliver Nelson. The soundtrack release does not contain the Bacharach tune.

Rollin’s “Alfie’s Theme” captures the main character’s beguiling ways with women through its jaunty tempo and minor key. It’s the sort of theme that winds its way through the listener’s brain long after hearing it. Rollins’ nine-piece band includes such veteran jazz greats as Kenny Burrell (guitar), J.J. Johnson (trombone) and Jimmy Cleveland (trombone). Heard within the film, this jazz score reinforces the sense that Michael Caine’s incorrigible philanderer is constantly improvising his way in and out of trouble. Heard on its own, one might think that Alfie is a merely a wonderful but not especially cinematic jazz record of the ’60s.

Jazz Soundtracks — Part 8

Portions of the following are excerpts from the book Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979 (McFarland, 2008) by Kristopher Spencer, founder of Scorebaby.com.

Another couple of jazz legends who cut soundtracks during the ’60s and ’70s are Herbie Hancock and J.J. Johnson.

On Blow Up (’66) — Michelangelo Antonioni’s existential crime film about a hip London fashion photographer who thinks he’s witnessed a murder — Hancock draws upon his hard bop and rare groove chops. The results aren’t particularly cinematic — one could easily be fooled into thinking this is one of Hancock’s Blue Note recordings from the same period — but they are kicky nonetheless. One of the best tracks is the bouncy “Bring Down the Birds,” which dance pop group Dee-lite sampled for their early ’90s hit “Groove is in the Heart.” The soundtrack also features “Stroll On” by The Yardbirds, who appear in a riveting club scene.

By the time Hancock scored Death Wish (’74), he’d already moved on to fusion. For this Charles Bronson vigilante flick, Hancock creates a mood of sophisticated yet funky suspense. The densely arranged and tension-mounting main theme is worth the price of admission alone. On “Do a Thing” and “Paint Her Mouth,” he opts for more minimalistic arrangements to more disturbing effect. The centerpiece of Death Wish is the 9-minute “Suite Revenge,” which explores stylistic cues from atonal symphonic, as well as African tribal drumming and Hancock’s penchant for synth sounds. Hancock’s score for Death Wish, while not as immediately accessible as the groovier Blow Up, is an intriguing, richly detailed crime score every bit as gritty as the movie.

One of the best soundtracks of ’72 and of the blaxploitation era is Across 110th Street, featuring music by legendary jazz trombonist J.J. Johnson and songs performed by Bobby Womack & Peace. Hit-maker Womack’s theme song boasts a memorable hook, a sweeping arrangement and a lyrical message that doesn’t pull punches about organized crime and the drug epidemic. Womack also contributes a tender ballad (“If You Don’t Want My Love”), an up-tempo pop number (“Quicksand”), a bit of hard funky rock (“Do It Right”) and raucous feel good soul (“Hang On In There”). Johnson performs instrumental versions of most songs, but his contribution is most noticeable on “Harlem Clavinette,” which raised the bar on cinematic funk with its pulsating rhythm and bubbly mix of brass, wah guitar, clavinet keyboard, percussion and electronics. J.J. Johnson also contributed excellent soundtracks for Cleopatra Jones, Trouble Man (with Marvin Gaye) and Willie Dynamite.

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