The Magic of 2
| The Magic of 2 | ||||
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| Live album by Tommy Flanagan and Jaki Byard | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Resonance Records | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, download, double LP |
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Title (number) |
12 |
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running time |
58:12 |
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The Magic of 2 is a jazz album by Tommy Flanagan and Jaki Byard . The previously unpublished live recording was made on February 7, 1982 at the Keystone Korner jazz club in San Francisco and was released on April 9, 2013 on Resonance Records . It was (after Pinnacle: Live and Unreleased from Keystone Korner (2011) by Freddie Hubbard ) the second release in the Resonance Keystone Discoveries series .
background
In five of the total of eleven pieces in the recording, Flanagan and Byard play as a duo, in “Scrapple from the Apple”, “ Just One of Those Things ”, “ Satin Doll ”, “Our Delight” and “The Theme”. The album also contains six solo numbers, each played by one of the two pianists: The three songs by Flanagan are by Billy Strayhorn , "Something to Live For", "Chelsea Bridge" and "All Day Long"; Byard performed Stevie Wonder's "Send One Your Love", the Jule Styne standard "Sunday" and Chuck Mangione's "Land of Make Believe."
"It's a revelation how well they played together," said former Keystone owner and co-producer Todd Barkan . “They were quite different in style, but they have so much vocabulary and a frame of reference that they make their language coherent. Both relate to the same knowledge and experience in the history of the jazz piano . ”The music is“ a gift from the past that is both unique and amazing, ”said jazz historian Dan Morgenstern , one of seven authors of the booklet . "Alone and especially together, Tommy and Jaki show us what spontaneous creation is all about."
Editor's note
The recording was released on CD with a 24-page booklet, as a download with a digital booklet and as a 2-LP set. The liner notes come from jazz producers Todd Barkan and Zev Feldman , jazz historian Dan Morgenstern and jazz critic Howard Mandel , pianists Renee Rosnes and Bill Charlap and Jaki's daughter, Diane Byard. There are also photographs from the archives of Keystone photographer Tom Copi, some of which were published for the first time, complemented by work by photographers Brian McMillen and Kathy Sloane.
The album The Magic of 2 was created by a so-called sound restoration by George Klabin and the Resonance engineer Fran Gala; audio cassettes were available as starting material.
Track list
- Tommy Flanagan, Jaki Byard: The Magic of 2 (Resonance Records - HCD-2013)
- Introduction (MC Todd Barkan) 0:47
- Scrapple from the Apple (Charlie Parker) 7:19
- Just One of Those Things (Cole Porter) 9:46
- Satin Doll ( Duke Ellington , Billy Strayhorn , Johnny Mercer ) 5:16
- Something to Live For (Billy Strayhorn) 4:42
- Send One Your Love (Stevie Wonder) 4:49
- Our Delight ( Tadd Dameron ) 5:43
- All Day Long (Billy Strayhorn) 2:16
- Sunday (Krueger, Cohn, Styne, Miller) 3:17
- Chelsea Bridge (Billy Strayhorn) 2:22
- The Land of Make Believe (Chuck Mangione) 3:13
- The Theme ( Miles Davis ) 7:32
reception
Dan McClenaghan wrote in All About Jazz : “With their varied histories and styles, this could seem like an unlikely and potentially ill-fitting pairing of talent. What holds it together - and what actually makes it an exciting and truly inspired set - is their deep knowledge of the tradition of the jazz piano, from ragtime to stride to bebop and swing , along with an unmistakable zeal and joy of performing in front of a live audience play. ”The duo begins with Charlie Parker's “ Scrapple from the Apple ”; this is "a seven-minute history lesson for jazz piano that moves through the New York swing of the early 20th century to the seething nightlife of New Orleans, a happy mess with a familiar melody". Byard and Flanagan then contribute solos to Cole Porter's "Just One of That Things" and "open the melody in a measured and melancholy mood that shifts to a higher, lighter gear after three minutes - bright and lively, cheeky."
Flanagan's interpretation of Billy Strayhorn's “Something to Live For” is introspective and elegant in Flanagan's hands; a light version of "All Day Long"; and finally "Chelsea Bridge", here with a dark and wistful touch Byard takes a more modern twist and interprets Stevie Wonder's lovely "Send One Your Love" and serves a rumbling, percussive version of Chuck Mangione's "The Land of Make Belive" ". The duo closes with a Miles Davis track, "The Theme", with tricky notes shooting out of lush cascades that flow in a dense rhythm - "two piano giants at the top of their game who have the time of their lives."
Also in All About Jazz, C. Michael Bailey reviewed the album: "It is significant that it is an example of the little-heard genre of duo piano concerts." Some others are An Evening With Herbie Hancock & Chick Corea (1998) and Patricia Barber & Kenny Werner - Live In Concert (2011). The sound of the recording, which is more than 30 years old, is absolutely acceptable, considering that the intention was not to publish this concert recording commercially. Flanagan and Byard's specialty is “great lyric poetry that is gently shared, unless the gentleness is not needed here. This game is both an example and an homage to the spontaneity of jazz and the high level of creativity required to settle down and play without prior practice. " The Magic of 2 is" a remarkable addition to this new one Series of unpublished live recordings by Resonance. It's so nice that we have to ask for more of it in the future. "
Lloyd Sachs wrote in JazzTimes , “If Tommy Flanagan was a jazz poet with his impeccable lyrical touch like the title of his 1989 album, he was a jazz prophet with a gift for shaping the future of jazz by looking into its past looked. As seen on Charlie Parker's “Scrapple from the Apple”, Tadd Dameron's “Our Delight” and Miles Davis' “The Theme”, the bebop is at the heart of their game. ”While Flanagan embodies the form with elegantly shaped, linear phrases , Byard reinforces the infrastructure of improvisations with his brisk, gospel-like approach.
Flanagan, who at that time was still known as Ella Fitzgerald's longtime companion - only made his star rise as a jazz poet. Here he shows this on three songs by Billy Strayhorn; among them is the wistful, rarely heard "All Day Long" from Duke Ellington's album ... And His Mother Called Him Bill . The free-spirited Byard interpolates “ Giant Steps ” in Stevie Wonder's “Send One Your Love” and takes Chuck Mangione's carefree hit “Land of Make Believe” apart with an avant touch. As with Resonance's other reconstruction projects , The Magic of 2 offers an excellent, bell-clear sound that is remarkable given the music made from cassettes.
Web links
- Notes on the album The Magic of 2 at Allmusic (English). Retrieved March 21, 2019.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d The Magic of 2 on Resonance Records
- ↑ Discographic information at Discogs
- ↑ a b Dan McClenaghan: Tommy Flanagan / Jaki Byard: The Magic of March 2, 19, 2013, accessed on March 18, 2019 (English).
- ↑ C. Michael Bailey: Tommy Flanagan / Jaki Byard: The Magic of March 2 , 2013, accessed March 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Lloyd Sachs: Tommy Flanagan / Jaki Byard: The Magic of 2. JazzTimes, May 23, 2013, accessed on March 18, 2019 (English).