1. Paul Chambers – Bass on Top (1957).
This is a joyous, tight, swinging collection of covers (with a Chambers original added for the CD reissue). Chambers is ably supported by a crack quartet of Kenny Burrell (guitar), Hank Jones (piano) and Art Taylor (drums). By this point Chambers was a member of Miles Davis’ group and, along with Red Garland and Philly Joe Jones, he made up The Rhythm Section who ‘met' Art Pepper the same year that Bass on Top was recorded. Chambers bows his bass through two tracks, the stately Yesterdays and the more upbeat The Theme (the Miles Davis tune). Throughout the album the bass is mixed so high and so far forward sometimes feels that Chambers could be behind you. There is no doubt about whose album this is.2.
Charlie Haden – The Ballad of the Fallen (1983).
Choosing
a Charlie Haden album for this exercise wasn’t easy and I considered two of his
beautiful duets albums, (Beyond the
Missouri Sky with Pat Metheny and Night
and the City with Kenny Barron) before settling on this one. In the same
way that MASH was set during the Korean War but is really ‘about’ Vietnam, The Ballad of the Fallen gathers
revolutionary and protest songs from Spain, Portugal and Chile, but is really
about El Salvador and the Sandinistas. Indeed, the title track is based on a
poem that was ‘found on the body of a student who was killed ‘when the US
backed National Guard of El Salvador massacred a sit in at the university in
San Salvador,’ to quote the sleeve notes. This is a largely mournful, slow
paced album that reflects the seriousness of its subject matters but there is
hope in the waltzing La Pasionara and
the defiance of La Santa Espina.
Tremendous soloing from all concerned but special mentions to Dewy Redman
(tenor sax) Gary Valente (trombone) Carla Bley (piano) and Haden himself. Dave Sayer.
No comments :
Post a Comment