Customer Reviews

Les Jazz Modes Vol. 1

5 star:		(3)
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As a kid, I somehow wound up with a number of LP's from the tiny Dawn label. The sounds were of such a high quality that 35 years later they were still receiving spins on my turntable. To discover these recordings reissued on CD and to have them back in hand is a satisfying slap on the face of time.

Les Jazz Modes complemented the unusual sound of a tenor sax/French horn frontline with instruments such as harp and wordless human voice. The free and open feeling of the song forms belied their 12 and 32-bar structures, thanks in part to fugal textures and colorful orchestrations. Yet, as the presence of musicians like Oscar Pettiford, Paul Chambers, Art Taylor and Chano Pozo should testify, these were musicians who could swing and reflect the tradition.

About horn player Julius Watkins, I'm reminded of Dr. Johnson's comparison of a woman preacher to a dog walking on its hind legs: "It is not done well, but you are surprised to find it done at all." As sexist as the comment is, I'm afraid it has some application to Julius Watkins' playing. He's a fine musician, but his contribution owes as much to the unique tonal characteristics of his instrument as to his melodic ideas and execution. The French horn still sounds rather cumbersome when it attempts to play anything close to bebop. It's Charlie Rouse, a truly underrated and formidable tenor saxophonist, who takes up the slack and then some. A player practically unmatched for ceaselessly inventive, swinging and soulful melodic lines and for lightning fast articulations, he's at once the spark and life of the entire enterprise.

You don't have to be a francophile to relate to this music, though being a Frenchman may not hurt. This is mainstream American jazz, a music that has frequently found a more receptive audience on Napoleon's soil than our own. (Start with the second disc, which is easily the superior of the two.)

This CD should be mandatory listening for anyone who wants to learn to play French Horn. If it can be done, you can do it too. And Julius Watkins did it - playing jazz! What a swinging, inventive, beautifully-toned soloist. "Dancing on the Ceiling" will tell you all you need to know.

As an added caveat, the arranging on this CD is fascinating - shout choruses, send-offs, interludes, intros and ending are woven in beautifully to the tunes, with Watkins and Tenorman Charlie Rouse playing off each other like dolphins in the seas. First-class music.

I have always loved Charlie Rouse's playing but was only somewhat familiar with Julius Watkins work until I got this cd. The combination of a front line sax and french or f horn with the beautiful, almost haunting lyrical voices of Eileen Gilbert and Janet Putnam make this an incredible listening experience. With the brilliant supporting musicians Paul Chambers, Oscar Pettiford, Art Taylor, Ron Jefferson and others this is a brilliant piece of work. Les Jazz Modes was their group that was not together very long at all. This is in fact a large portion of their output as an ensemble. The horn combination works extremely well together and Watkins is an amazing soloist on the f horn and Rouse as usual is just great. The addition of the voices really took this session to another level altogether. It is a fantastic piece of jazz and it is too bad that they did not remain together longer and record more material. I highly recommend this 2 disc set for a wonderful and very unique jazz listening experience. Originally recorded in the mid-fifties for Biograph Records. Five star rating. See my other reviews if you wish.

John W. Shearer