Ezz-Thetics

George Russell | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 12, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ojc
• ASIN: B000000Y4B
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #362,202 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Ezz-Thetic

2. Nardis

3. Lydiot

4. Thoughts

5. Honesty

6. 'Round Midnight

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic date, November 7, 2000

By 

N. Dorward "obsessive reviewer" (Toronto, ON Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ezz-Thetics (Audio CD)

For this Riverside date, George Russell assembled one of the most formidable lineups of the early 1960s--Eric Dolphy on sax and bass clarinet, Don Ellis on trumpet, David Baker on trombone, a youthful Steve Swallow on bass, and the fine & now forgotten Joe Hunt on drums. Russell had by this time moved (rather in the manner of Gil Evans) from the almost bewilderingly dense arrangements & compositions of his early work ("Lydian M-1", "All About Rosie", the Workshop disc, &c.) to a more openended approach. While "Thoughts" is a stunning close-knit arrangement, the rest of the pieces place more stress on improvisation within traditional jazz structures. "Honesty" is one highlight: it's a blues piece (by Baker) that splits each solo between a completely free section & a climactic old-time blues solo. Fine stuff. "Round Midnight" is a beautifully crafted showcase for Eric Dolphy, who leaps out of the quiet and eerie opening to deliver one of his most notable performances. "Ezz-Thetic" and "Lydiot" are angular, unpredictable themes that spur all the soloists on. "Nardis" is given a very individual colouring, taken at a much slower pace than I've heard anyone else play it.

This is one of Russell's most successful recordings; it is a great pity he never recorded again with Dolphy, in particular, as the altoist's grasp of the music is palpable. Russell was always skilled at constructing arrangements around musicians, rather than vice versa, like Ellington before him; he'd worked similar magic with Bill Evans before & with Sheila Jordan later. Don Ellis was to contribute to Russell's next few Riverside albums, however: his highly individual & expressive playing here & on albums like _The Outer View_ is a pleasure to hear. _Ezz-Thetics_ remains a landmark in postwar jazz: while it's less well-known than _Blues and the Abstract Truth_ or Gil Evans' work with Miles Davis, it deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as them.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jazz theorist composes ravishing music, June 3, 2001

By 

Ricard Giner ([e-mail]) (Brighton, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ezz-Thetics (Audio CD)

Jazz has produced few theorists among its practitioners. George Russell wrote an influential book, The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization (1953, out of print), that was to become the reference point for the modal experiments of Miles Davis. It was an attempt to argue that the theoretical framework of jazz was sui generis. It constructed a theory around the diatonic progression from F to F on the white keys of the piano.

Ezz-thetics stands out among Russell's early recordings for the presence of Eric Dolphy and of the underrated Dave Baker. Baker's dizzying solo on the opening "Ezz-thetic" should have made trombonists of the time look beyond the post-bop clichés that they were too often resorting to.

Eric Dolphy is heard here on sparkling form, brimming with hypnotic power. "Ezz-thetic" provides a polytonal background that is ideal for Dolphy's exploration of the inner space of the harmonies. Dolphy is often regarded as a major exponent of "out" playing - he used the word in three of his album titles - taking the harmonies of a theme beyond their implied natural parameters. But this characterisation fails to account for his phenomenal ability to open up the inner attributes of chord or scale progressions in concentrated bursts of slurred scales and arpeggios.

This is particularly evident in his playing on "'Round Midnight", which here gets an unusual, simultaneously frenzied and languid treatment. It didn't appear on the original release, and its welcome addition to the current CD rounds off a session that marks a fascinating inflection in the direction that jazz was experiencing in the early 1960s.

Steve Swallow, who at the age of 20 had appeared on just two records for Jimmy Giuffre and one for Don Ellis earlier that year, provides a soft swinging groove to Russell's piano on "Lydiot", a kind of self-penned pun on Russell's own theory. "Honesty" is remarkable for starting like an ending. It makes ironic use of solemn changing tempos to suggest the end of a rather formal composition, only to reveal that this mock "finale" was in fact an introduction.

George Russell's Ezz-thetics is a complete stand-alone classic.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Under-Appreciated Jazz Classic, August 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Ezz-Thetics (Audio CD)

I am an avid collector of jazz music of all types (from swing to bop to post bop to even some of the fusion crap) and even with the 300+ cds I own this albums stands out as one of the bests. The compositions are all phenominal (examples being "Thoughts" and "Ezz-thetics"), the arrangements are some of the best I've ever heard in a combo situation (examples being "Nardis" and what I consider the absolute best recording of "Round Midnight" ever [from the instrument banging and strumming to Dolphy's amazing flight that just seems to single-handedly make a case for the whole post-bop school of jazz]). I am amazed every time I listen to this album and have trouble seeing why it hasn't received the wide-spread recognition that albums like "A Love Supreme," "Kind of Blue," and "Bitches Brew" have.