Customer Reviews

Montreux Concert

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This CD captures Pullen in concert at Montreux during the summer of 1977. One of jazz's most creative and dramatic pianists, Pullen demonstrates his improvisational power over the course of two extended tunes. While some listeners might find the inclusion of bass, drums and percussion a respite from Pullen's free-jazz forays, I found that I'd have preferred a pure solo album.

"Richard's Tune," by Muhal Richard Abrams, the great avant-garde pianist and an inspiration for Pullen and other young artists, begins with a solo introduction of roughly 10 minutes in length. During the solo, we hear Pullen's complex approach to piano. He is alternately lyrical and discordant, gentle and violent. He splinters harmonies, delivers bursts of sound in rapidly strung together notes, hammers rhythmically with the left hand and creates labyrinthes of sound with the right. The listener can never relax.

"Dialogue Between Malcolm and Betty" refers of course, Malcolm X and his wife Betty Shabazz. Whatever political interpretations you attach to that (and Pullen in a brief spoken introduction seems to downplay them by calling it a dialogue "between man and woman"), this dialogue is a tempestuous one indeed, but one that is again tempered by stretches of lyricism. The "dialogue" can be viewed in several ways: between the Pullen's right hand with its "feminine" higher notes and his left hand, with its at times rumbling "masculine" voice; between sections of the long solo introduction, and later between Pullen's piano and the layers of percussion that answer him.

My only complaint with the performances as a whole is that the introduction of bass and drums tames them somewhat. Jeff Berlin on bass and Steve Jordan on drums are both skilled performers, but they seem unable to match Pullen's imaginative power, and the sound of Berlin's electric bass seems out of place. There is something too thin in its sound to stand up to Pullen's creations of earth, wind, sun and fire.

Full solo performances by Pullen are available; the best, though it is hard to find, is the 1975 Sackville release "Solo Piano." Still in print, and also highly recommended, is "Evidence of Things Unseen" on Black Lion. Each of these releases fulfill the promise of the great solo intros of "Montreux Concert."

In the all-too-sparse Don Pullen catalog, this live sort-of-trio date from 1977 seems to have survived over the years on the Atlantic label. The concert is something of a curiosity, with only two live numbers totaling less than 40 minutes duration, and backing by a rhythm section comprised of Steve Jordan on drums and Jeff Berlin on electric (!) bass on track 1, and the addition of Raphael Cruz and Sammy Figueroa on percussion on track 2. Both tunes start with extended solos by Pullen before the rest of the group join in, so that half of the album is really solo Pullen.

The first composition, "Richard's Tune" was first recorded on Pullen's solo album, "Solo Piano Album" in 1975, and was revisted on many live DP concerts during the late 70's. On this version, he starts casually but gets into much more complicated and free delivery, with drums and bass eventually joining in with fairly straight-ahead, swinging accompaniment behind Pullen's adverturous soloing. The electric bass sounds a little atypical and out of place in a Pullen band, and the drummer (who, if it's the same Steve Jordan, played with Stevie Wonder and SNL's Blues Brothers in the 70's and John Mayer now) just doesn't seem to have jazz chops, so that the rock-like rhthym section doesn't really mesh with Pullen's approach. Pullen's playing here is quite solid though and somewhat more accesible than some of his more free 70's work, though still featuring the kind of back-and-forth melody and free-departures typical of his style at the time.

The second tune, "Dialogue Between Malcolm And Betty," opens with Pullen introducing the piece (and having to explain that it's in reference to Malcolm X) and then playing some spare and somewhat dissonant chords before again alternating between melodic lines and free deconstuctions that feature cascading flurries, power chords, and flights of notes. The bass joins in half-way along with percussion, and after another DP solo, the band gets into a kind of breezy, fusion-inflected interchange in which all the players seem united, if not in a particularly inspiring or dynamic way. It is fairly accessible though, and given the line-up, one wonders if that wasn't the intent for this Montreux Jazz Festival outing.

This is a decent Don Pullen album, especially given how few trio recordings there are of the great DP, but compared to other albums, this band isn't particularly cohesive or even strong. Still, well worth the $4.99 Amazon is charging for MP3, and not a bad place to start to give Don Pullen a listen.