The Jazz Workshop (George Russell album)

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The Jazz Workshop - George Russell
George Russell studio album

Publication
(s)

1957

Label (s) RCA Victor

Format (s)

LP / CD

Genre (s)

jazz

Title (number)

12/14

running time

42:29 (CD)

occupation
  • Arrangement, direction, percussion: George Russell

production

Jack Lewis , Fred Reynold, Ed Michel (Reissue), Steve Backer (Reissue)

Studio (s)

Webster Hall, New York City

chronology
- The Jazz Workshop - George Russell New York, NY
(1959)
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The Jazz Workshop - George Russell, also The Jazz Workshop - The George Russell Smalltet was the debut album of the composer, arranger and percussionist George Russell . It was created in three recording sessions with partly different line-ups from March 31 to December 21, 1956 in New York City . The record was released in 1957 by RCA Victor in the series The Jazz Workshop, also The RCA Victor Jazz Workshop .

The album

The modern jazz in the mid-1950s was divided into two camps, Steve Ellman wrote in the liner notes for the CD release of the album. Some of the musicians formed the hardbop camp around Horace Silver and Art Blakey , the other, from Lennie Tristano to Gerry Mulligan , developed the harmonious innovations of bebop and cool jazz ; They also included the composer George Russell, who was musically interrelated with the ideas of Miles Davis , Lee Konitz and Teddy Charles , but was also influenced by the composer Duke Ellington . His Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization for Improvisation, which he wrote down in the early 1950s, became the source for the modal jazz of Miles Davis and John Coltrane .

Russell was best known in 1956 for his collaborations with Gil Evans , Dizzy Gillespie , John Lewis and Charles Mingus . He had already found his musical language for the first recordings under his own name. At that time, the RCA Victor label started a series under the title The Jazz Workshop (Mingus also called his projects similarly in the mid-1950s, Jazz Composers Workshop ), which included the debut album of the alto saxophonist Hal McKusick , who was also the first one Session by Russell. The Jazz Workshop - George Russell was the first modern jazz album to be recorded under the direction of a non-executive composer; Russell was only heard in Fellow Delegates as a percussionist.

The first intake session was on March 31st; George Russell's "Smalltet" consisted of Art Farmer , Bill Evans , guitarist Barry Galbraith , bassist Milt Hinton and drummer Joe Harris . Four tracks were recorded, Ye Hypocrite, Ye Beelzebub, Jack's Blues, Livingstone I Presume and the heavily influenced by Tristano Ezz-Thetic (based on the chords of Love for Sale ), which Lee Konitz had recorded with Miles Davis in 1951 and to Russells most played piece. Barry Galbraith provided the harmonious framework, Bill Evans played a longer solo.

For his second studio session on October 17th, during which four more titles were created, the young Paul Motian joined drummer Harris . Were recorded Round Johnny Rondo, Witch Hunt, the elements of the play Jumpin 'with Symphony Sid receives the evocative title Night Sound with associations of Bela Bartok and Chopin , the swinging Concerto for Billy the Kid . Evans played an outstanding solo on the Concerto for Billy the Kid dedicated to him (similar to that in Ezz-Thetic ), but Art Farmer and Hal McKusick also had their say. The “Concerto”, which is heavily influenced by the motifs of the composer Aaron Copland , reached a high point in the work of the young pianist Bill Evans, who had recorded his debut album New Jazz Conceptions with Motian a month earlier . Russell had the "Concerto" play again at the following session in December. It later served as a prelude to his composition All About Rosie .

At the third and final studio session on December 21, 1956, Teddy Kotick replaced Milt Hinton; Osie Johnson came on for Motian. Two versions of the Ballad of Hix Blewitt (monophonic and stereophonic ), with McKusick playing the flute, The Sad Sergeant, Knights of the Steamtable and the stereo recording of Concerto for Billy the Kid were recorded . The most extraordinary piece of the December meeting was probably the atmospheric Fellow Delegates, in which Russell played chromatically tuned drums (boobams) ; According to Steve Ellman, it is the composer's only recorded drum solo.

Rating of the album

In 1999, Mátyás Kiss wrote in his review for Rondo magazine : “The term“ Jazz Workshop ”, which was overused by Mingus and various RCA artists in those years, was sometimes a mere excuse for half-baked things - different here: Russell's swinging, melodically appealing work pieces have the times and fashions brilliantly outlasted. "

Boston critic Steve Ellman points out in the liner notes that the Jazz Workshop album was the start of a promising career. Russell is a virtuoso here, not at the piano keys or as a drummer, but with his thinking and creativity: his soloists appear in unfamiliar places; the ensemble sound overrides the size of the six-person smalltet . Russell plays the group with sure hands and alert ears, he is so skillful that the written out passages sound as spontaneous as the solos. Even after listening to it a hundred times, Russell's compositions have the power of surprise.

The authors Richard Cook and Brian Morton , who gave the album the highest rating, consider the album - alongside the 1961 Ezz-thetics ( Riverside Records ) - a very good introduction to Russell's music. Allmusic gave the album the second highest rating: four and a half stars.

Ian Carr describes the album in the Rough Guide Jazz as one of the most important in the composer's discography; it contains "twelve wonderfully composed titles"; Russell's Smalltet is a “brilliant group who, with their individual playing, make the album one of the most dynamic jazz albums of all time; Bill Evans' solos in the two takes of Concerto for Billy the Kid are great. "

The music magazine Jazzwise added the album to The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook the World list ; Duncan Heining wrote:

“One of the most important jazz albums of all time. Though using only six musicians, Russell creates wonderful orchestral textures with these twelve compositions , thanks in part to guitarist Galbraith, and he introduces the world to modal jazz on the way. Strange new harmonies , polyrhythms , pantonality and extended compositions - with Russell and Gil Evans, jazz became a completely new area of ​​possibility. With its influence on the jazz community, Miles, Coltrane, and Oliver Nelson , which was bigger than what was expressed in sales, it was the album that so many musicians scrutinized. A masterpiece of ensemble play and a master class for the role of composition in music. "

- The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World

The titles

The Jazz Workshop - George Russell (RCA Victor LPM 1372)
All compositions are by George Russell.

  1. Ye Hypocrite, Ye Beelzebub (3:53)
  2. Jack's Blues (3:47)
  3. Livingstone I Presume (3:28)
  4. Ezz-Thetic (5:16)
  5. Night Sound (3:58)
  6. Round Johnny Rondo (3:31)
  7. Fellow Delegates (5:42)
  8. Witch Hunt (3:50)
  9. The Sad Sergeant (3:27)
  10. Knights of the Steamtable (2:36)
  11. Ballad of Hix Blewitt (3:18)
  12. Concerto for Billy the Kid (4:44)
  13. Ballad of Hix Blewitt [alternate take] (3:45)
  14. Concerto for Billy the Kid [alternate take] (4:46)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In 1954 he had previously recorded some titles in octet formation, which, however, only appeared later on MGM .
  2. ^ The Jazz Workshop - Hal McKusick (RCA Victor LPM 1366), including compositions by Russell.
  3. ↑ Other jazz musicians published in the Jazz Workshop series were Al Cohn Four Brass One Tenor (LPM 1161), Hal Schaefer (LPM 1199), Manny Albam (LPM 1211), Billy Byers (LPM 1269).
  4. ↑ For the origin of the title see here: List of winged words / D # Dr. Livingstone, I presume?
  5. ↑ a b Cook / Morton, 2nd ed., P. 1227.
  6. ↑ a b M. Kiss Rondo 1999.
  7. ^ Ian Carr, p. 557.
  8. ↑ In the original, The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World:

    "One of the most important jazz albums ever. Using just six players, Russell achieves wonderful orchestral textures within these 12 compositions, thanks partly to guitarist Galbraith, and introduces the world to modal jazz (and Bill Evans) en route. Strange new harmonies, polyrhythms, pantonality and extended composition - with Russell and Gil Evans, jazz just became a complete new zone of potentialities. More influential on the jazz community directly, on Miles, Coltrane and Oliver Nelson, than through its sales, this is the one that so many musicians still check out. A masterpiece of small group playing and a masterclass on the role of composition in the music. "