Customer Reviews

Main Man

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This 1976 session is one of the rare albums Jo Jones recorded under his own name.Of course,he did two outstanding albums for Vanguard and another one for Everest in the fifties;but this extraordinary musician,the most talented drummer in jazz,one of the greatest geniuses in the history of this music,mostly recorded as a sideman during his career,which lasted some fifty five years....By the way,Rollins is 70 now,Ornette is 72,Mal Waldron,Cecil Payne or Randy Weston will soon be 80 years old.I think that this session is a very good one, with typical Kansas City swing.It's not a surprise: Edison,Dickenson,Davis,Greene and of course Jo Jones were members of the Count Basie band.At this time,Freddie Greene was still a member of Basie's orchestra;he started playing with the Count in 1937,and remained in the band until the death of the leader,in... 1984 ! Surely,one of the most admirable examples of fidelity in jazz music ( Harry Carney,baritone sax,stayed with Ellington from 1927 until 1974;he died five months after Duke).
This records has great solos by these masters of jazz; Eldridge,Edison,Dickenson,Lockjaw Davis are in top form;the younger generation,composed of bassist Sam Jones,and the great pianist,Tommy Flanagan (1930-2001),support the elders with talent.But the delight here is to listen to Jo Jones' amazing drumming,specially when he plays brushes. No one never played brushes that way,even Kenny Clarke or Frank Butler.Do you remember the terrific things Jo did once with Art Tatum on "just one of those things" ?(Art Tatum trio,1956,Verve Records).If you've never heard that perfect beat,that incredible KC swing,you've got to discover the father of all modern jazz drummers, Mr Jonathan Jones.I'm sure you'll be fascinated by him.As far as jazz drumming is concerned,Jo Jones has allways been my man,with Sam Woodyard.Let's be seduced by the juvenile playing of these guys,who were musicians for more than fourty years when this record was done.

I only have this on LP but thought that I should post to correct an erroneous impression that may be left by two of the other reviews. Admittedly this style of music wasn't all the rage in 1976 but that says nothing about its quality. The horn players exhibit great verve with Davis squeezing and mangling the sax tone in his trademark fashion. The rhythm section is positively smoking. The drums are prominent throughout with two numbers consisting entirely of drum solos framed by the ensemble. Jones is scintillating without being bombastic. Again, not the fashion of the day but.... As for the supposedly "weak charts," some are competent head arrangements, others contributed by Buck Clayton and Budd Johnson. All of them create a nice framework for the soloists. The tunes and personnel were chosen by Jones, so Granz can't reasonably be blamed for any of it.

This is a Norman Granz production. Hard to believe with all this "talent" that the results could be so mediocre. With Edison, Eldridge, Lockjaw, Flanagan, Dickensen, Green etc it should have really swung, but evidence is here that jazz started to go down hill in the 70"s and this is one of the reasons why

I appreciate what Norman Granz was trying to do in the 1970's with his Pablo label - bring together the old lions (the big band and swing era superstars now in the sunset of their careers) via some small ensemble sessions full of blues heads and standards. And indeed, between Oscar Peterson, Harry Edison and others like Zoot Sims, some fine jazz was recorded in this almost jazz-less decade. But unfortunately this is one of the lesser Pablos in terms of quality, creativity and technique. It just doesn't hold together very well despite the strong supporting cast of Edison, Eldridge, Davis, Flanagan, Green and Sam Jones. Perhaps it's the weak selection of charts but there's not much to grab onto here. I recommend it only if you're a die-hard fan of one of these legends because it does add to the overall career story.