Demon's Dance
| Demon's Dance | ||||
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| Studio album by Jackie McLean | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Blue note | |||
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Format (s) |
LP, CD |
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Title (number) |
6th |
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running time |
36:08 |
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Studio (s) |
Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs , New Jersey |
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Demon's Dance is a jazz album by Jackie McLean that was recorded on December 22, 1967 in Englewood Cliffs , New Jersey and released on Blue Note Records in 1970 .
The album
Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean recorded a large number of albums for the Blue Note label from the early 1960s, starting with Swing, Swang, Swingin ' (1960). Demon's Dance came about during the last session he recorded an album that Blue Note released (later recordings of the saxophonist for the label in July 1968 were unreleased). Since Jackie McLean's albums no longer sold successfully in the period around 1967/68, the label, under the new leadership and direction of Liberty Records, withheld the release until 1970.
McLean would not release an album until five years later. Demon's Dance thus stands for the end of his first phase of his career and was created at a turning point in McLean's career; he stopped playing in nightclubs and took up a part-time position as a lecturer at the University of Hartford , which later led to the Department of Afro-American Studies .
A contributing musician to the December 1967 session was the young drummer Jack DeJohnette , who was then well employed as a member of Charles Lloyd's band and who would become popular two years later through the Bitches Brew sessions with Miles Davis . His membership in McLean's band since 1965 was his first major job since leaving Chicago ; it was first heard on McLean's album Jackknife .
Second wind player was trumpeter Woody Shaw , who had previously been a member of the Horace Silver Quintet ( The Jody Grint , 1967). Shaw wore two pieces to the session at Boo Ann's Grand, dedicated to his wife Betty-Ann, and Sweet Love of Mine, which was influenced by Clare Fischer's composition Pensativa. McLean's favorite composer at the time was Cal Massey , from whom two titles in the session came: "Message from Trane", which took up the harmonic ideas of " Giant Steps "; Jackie McLean also played his ballad "Toyland". McLean himself contributed the title track and the title "Flogeeh".
Rating of the album
The music takes back the radicalism of the free playing of New and Old Gospel (1967) with Ornette Coleman and Bout Soul and focuses more on more structured chord progressions. Leonard Feather described this style in the liner notes with the title "Sweet love of Mine"; the piece has a pulsating, “boiling” and inherently coherent character, in contrast to McLean's outside experiments in productions like Destination ... Out! with Grachan Moncur III or Old and New Gospel . However, the whole session has a very swinging character, to which Jack DeJohnette contributes a lot, and two relatively unknown musicians, the pianist LaMont Johnson and the bassist Scott Holt , who have already participated in New and Old Gospel , support DeJohnette's rhythm work, while trumpeter Woody Shaw who played in a fiery, powerful way rivaled alto saxophonist and bandleader McLean, said Steve Huey in the All Music Guide , who gave the album the second highest rating.
Track list
- Jackie McLean Quintet - Demon's Dance (Blue Note BST 84345)
- Demon's Dance (McLean) - 7:06
- Toyland (Cal Massey) - 5:21
- Boo Ann's Grand (Shaw) - 6:53
- Sweet love of Mine (Shaw) - 6:01
- Floogeh (McLean) - 5:19
- Message from Trane (Cal Massey) - 5:29
Discographic notes
The album was reissued in 2006 as part of The Rudy Van Gelder Edition series, with new liner notes from Bob Blumenthal . It was the first new CD release since Jackie McLean's death in late March 2006.
literature
- Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD . 6th edition. Penguin, London 2002, ISBN 0-14-051521-6 .
- Bob Blumenthal: Liner Notes New Edition 2006
- Leonard Feather, Original Liner Notes 1970.
Web links
- Steve Huey: Review of the album in the All Music Guide
References and comments
- ^ Huey: All Music Guide .
- ↑ Shaw recorded the title again in 1969 with Stanley Cowell and in 1970 on his album Blackstone Legacy . See Blumenthal.
- ↑ Shaw recorded the title again in 1982 with his quintet and guest soloist Bobby Hutcherson for his album Master of the Art , and in his final years with the Paris Reunion Band . See Blumenthal.