Stratusphunk
| Stratusphunk | ||||
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| George Russell studio album | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Riverside Records | |||
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Format (s) |
LP / CD |
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Title (number) |
6th |
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running time |
43:05 |
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| occupation |
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Studio (s) |
Plaza Sound Studios, New York City |
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Stratusphunk is a jazz album by the composer, arranger and pianist George Russell . It was recorded on October 18, 1960 in New York City and was released on the Riverside Records label . It is also the title of a jazz composition by Russell.
The album
After his debut album The RCA Victor Jazz Workshop (1956) with his Smalltet , u. a. With Hal McKusick , Art Farmer , Bill Evans and Barry Galbraith , the composer and arranger led several broader recording sessions in the late 1950s, during which the albums New York, NY (for Impulse ) and Jazz in the Space Age (for Decca ) were created .
In the summer of 1960 he was a lecturer at the summer courses at the Lenox School of Jazz in Massachusetts, where he taught his theory of the Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization . In that year Russell, who until then had always put his formations together on a project basis, began to realize his musical ideas with a permanent working band , with whom he debuted in the New York Museum of Modern Art and then three weeks on six days a week in the New York jazz club Five Spot performed before going into the recording studio. He first recorded for Decca At the Five Spot in September 1960 , which despite the title was not a live album. He later toured the American Midwest with the band , producing the Decca album George Russell in Kansas City .
The five members of his sextet were his students at the time, including trumpeter Al Kiger and trombonist David Baker , who had previously played in various big bands such as Lionel Hampton , Stan Kenton and Maynard Ferguson , and whose quartet formed the core of Russell's sextet ; he owned tenor saxophonist Dave Young, trumpeter Al Kiger and drummer Joe Hunt; Then there was the later Bill Evans bassist Chuck Israels .
The Stratusphunk album was not only George Russell's recording debut as a leader of a permanent formation, but also as a pianist; previously Russell had only used the instrument as a tool for his work as a composer or as an arranger. According to producer Orrin Keepnews, Russell's style is closely based on models such as Thelonious Monk and his long-time friend Bill Evans.
At the October session, his first for the Riverside label, Russell recorded three original compositions, including the title track and "New Donna" and "Things New". His trombonist and student Dave Baker contributed a title, "Kentucky Oysters", a "good old funky down-home blues in 3/4", according to Russell, as well as "Bent Eagle", a composition by another student of his, the young Carla Bley ; the composition is based on a simple riff figure introduced by Russell. The title "Lambskins" came from another Russell student, David Lahm.
The main influence on his contemporaries had the title track that Russell had already presented in 1958 on Billy Taylor's TV show The Subject Is Jazz ; in December it was adopted by Gil Evans for his album Out of the Cool . Another version recorded JJ Johnson with his orchestra for the RCA album Say When . Stratusphunk was also in the repertoire of the Archie Shepp / Bill Dixon Quartet, which it played at Cafe Avital in New York in late 1962. In 1964 Russell played it when he performed at the Newport Jazz Festival . In 1987 it was arranged by Franz Koglmann ( About Yesterdays Ezzthetics ) combined with the folk tune The moon has risen .
Russell continued to work with the working band in the 1960s. a. Musicians like Eric Dolphy , Don Ellis , Art Farmer , Thad Jones , Pete LaRoca , Steve Swallow and the singer Sheila Jordan . In 1964, Russell's ensemble also went on a successful tour of Scandinavia, after which the composer lived there for five years.
Rating of the album
The authors Richard Cook and Brian Morton gave the two working band albums ( At the Five Spot and Statusphunk ) the highest rating. Even Scott Yanow in Allmusic the album gave the second highest score, and highlights the swinging nature of the session.
The titles
- George Russell - Stratusphunk (Riverside RLP 9341; OJC 232-2)
- Stratusphunk - 6:06
- New Donna - 8:23
- Bent Eagle (Carla Bley) - 6:12
- Kentucky Oysters (David Baker) - 8:21
- Lambskins (David Lahm) - 7:11
- Things New - 6:52
All other compositions are by George Russell
Web links
- Stratusphunk at Allmusic (English)
swell
- Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings . 8th edition. Penguin, London 2006, ISBN 0-14-102327-9 .
Remarks
- ↑ Baker, (* 1931), worked with Russell until the 1970s, for example on his album Living Time (1972). He later switched to the cello due to muscle paralysis and taught at the Jazz Department at Indiana University , where he founded the Institute of Black Music in 1970 .
- ↑ Young, who is from Winnipeg, Manitoba, and grew up in Toronto, worked with guitarist Lenny Breau after working with Russell , as well as with Clark Terry , Zoot Sims , Nat Adderley and Oscar Peterson . In 1995 he recorded an album of duets with Peterson, Mulgrew Miller , Tommy Flanagan and Renee Rosnes ( Two by Two )
- ↑ Russell and his working band recorded three more albums for Riverside besides Stratusphunk , Ezz-thetics in May 1961, The Stratus Seekers in January 1962 and The Outer View in August 1962.
- ↑ The composition was only ascribed to David Lahm in the liner notes , but not in the title list.