Customer Reviews

Wizard of the Vibes

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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This is a great album. It's important jazz history, but it is also excellent music. There are two sessions represented here. The first is a quintet comprising alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson and what would soon be called the Modern Jazz Quartet--John Lewis (piano) Milt Jackson (vibraharp), Kenny Clarke (drums), and Percy Heath (bass). So you get MJQ with Lou. And these are wonderful renditions of Bags' tunes and standards. The "Bags Groove" is a great take on a modern jazz standard. This version is fresher and different from later takes (compare it to the classic Miles Davis recording). Jackson is indeed a wizard, and John Lewis proves why Kenny Clarke considered him the best of the bop pianists. Donaldson's solo on Ellington's "Don't Get around Much Anymore" demonstrates how many excellent alto players were completely eclipsed by Bird--in another musical universe this could have been a classic too. In any event, the album highlights Jackson's lyricism and command of a difficult instrument in his own compositions "Tahiti," "Lillie," and "Bags Groove" and in such tunes as "What's New." The second session on the album was a 1948 meeting with Thelonious Monk that includes brilliant renditions of "Misterioso," "Epistrophy," and "I Mean You." These juxtapose Monk's quirky percussive piano with Jackson's lyrical filigree work. Monk sets chords down and Bags dances weaving arabesque figures across them. All in all, this is an important collection.

Blue Note's producers Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff were really great guys.They made some of the most essential sessions of new talents,who were young musicians at this time, and who are now recognized as some of the greatest masters of jazz: Thelonious Monk,Miles Davis,Bud Powell,Dexter Gordon,Milt Jackson,Jackie McLean,Herbie Nichols,and many more.This Rudy Van Gelder's reissue of Milt Jackson's works for Blue Note includes two different sessions: first, the April 7,1952 session with John Lewis,Lou Donaldson,Percy Heath and Kenny Clarke (tracks 1-9),and great tunes: Milt's compositions,the famous "Bag's groove","Lillie",a beautiful ballad,and "Tahiti";a salute to Duke ("don't get around much anymore"),Lou's theme ("on the scene"),and the great "what's new" by Bob Haggart.
But the most important is certainly the second session,recorded on July 2,1948 : Milt Jackson,Thelonious Monk,John Simmons and Shadow Wilson.The osmosis between Milt and Monk is perfect.The masterpiece of the session is Monk's "Misterioso", a fascinating and crazy exploration of the blues.Monk's playing on this track is out of this world. Just as mad as Jimmy Yancey."I mean you","epistrophy" and "evidence"(aka "just us" or "justice") are terrific too.In the last three tracks ("all the things you are","I should care" #1 & 2), singer Kenny Hagood joins the quartet.
This cd,which includes many alternate and unissued tracks,was remastered by the great Rudy Van Gelder,and the cover of the jacket uses the drawing of the original 10 inch LP.A treasury in the Blue Note catalog.

I'll echo some of the other reviews that this is a landmark in many ways, and a great addition to your collection if you are a fan of Milt Jackson, or the MJQ, or Monk. Just be aware of some drawbacks. First, this is a mono recording. Second, the sound is not up to the quality of the other Blue Note RVG re-issues I've bought. RVG did the re-mastering, but was not the original engineer. Neither of these is a reason to avoid the album, just be aware of it when you buy. The other nuisance item is the sequence on the CD - it's inaccurate, showing most of the alternate tracks immediately after the original released version, when in fact they are at the end of each of the respective albums. I'm listening to Milt Jackson on "Don't Get Around Much Anymore"...Windows Media Player says it's "What's New"...a nuisance rather than a catastrophe, as the liner notes sequence is accurate. Overall, four stars, straight-ahead early 50's jazz, and recommended for MJQ and Monk fans without reservation.

This Blue Note release collects two sessions by Milt "Bags" Jackson--a 1948 collaboration between the vibraphonist and pianist/composer Thelonious Monk, and a '52 session with Bags's Modern Jazz Quartet cohorts John Lewis (piano), Percy Heath (bass), and Kenny Clarke (drums). On five of the nine tracks from this latter session, Jackson and company are joined by alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson (who contributes his own composition "On the Scene"). The fare on the '52 sessions is bebop with a light, consistent swing. The sophisticated sound of the MJQ, which would reach its apex in the years following this recording, is already in place here, and Donaldson's smooth alto lends balance to Lewis and Jackson's intertwining lines.
The '48 sessions are, naturally, of particular interest; the interplay between Monk's idiosyncratic, spacious playing and Jackson's fluid vibe creates a satisfying tension. Early versions of Monk classics, including "Misterioso" and "Epistrophy," are included, with Jackson's cool vibraphone coloring Monk's angular compositions. In addition, the straight phrasing and wide vibrato of vocalist Kenny "Pancho" Hagood appear on "I Should Care" and "All the Things You Are." An excellent sampler of Bags's formidable skills in two contexts, this collection is a must for fans of Jackson or any of the artists involved.

Personnel: Milt Jackson (vibraphone); Kenny "Pancho" Hagood (vocals); Lou Donaldson (alto saxophone); John Lewis, Thelonious Monk (piano); Percy Heath, John Simmons (bass); Kenny Clarke, Shadow Wilson (drums).

This album is probably the most famous with legendary vibraphonist Milt Jackson(1923-1999). It features some of the first recordings of one of the most famous groups in jazz, the Modern Jazz Quartet, and if that's not enough, how about the legendary July 2, 1948 session with the one and only Thelonious Monk(1917-1982)! This is some of the greatest music recorded in the great history of jazz and highly recomended to Bags and Monk fans.

"Wizard of the Vibes" gathers together two historic single sessions by Milt Jackson-- the first, from 1952, finds the master vibest in the company of what would become the rest of the Modern Jazz Quartet-- pianist John Lewis, bassist Percy Heath and drummer Kenny Clarke, with altoist Lou Donaldson along for the ride. The second, recorded four years earlier, places Jackson as a sideman in the Thelonious Monk quartet-- with the pair joined by bassist John Simmons, drummer Shadow Wilson, and on three cuts, vocalist Kenny Hagood.

The 1952 session is an exciting bebop performance-- clearly recorded for singles, each piece is necessarily kept under three and a half minutes, which results in a bit of a tightening of what you'd expect the performances to be. Nonetheless, there's some great playing-- Jackson asserts his brilliance throughout, but in particular on his originals-- his performances range from deft and exciting ("Tahiti") to lovely and sensitive ("Lillie") and frantically boppish ("On the Scene"). For their part, the rest of the band performs admirably, particularly Lewis, who already seems deeply in sync with Jackson.

The Monk sessions consists of four Monk originals and two standards, the latter performed with Hagood. The Monk pieces all receive pretty much universally fantastic readings-- with Jackson on top of him, the leader seems to enter an almost meditative state, picking and choosing where to play. His accompaniments throughout are delicate and widely spaced, giving room for Jackson to explore while providing support, whereas his solos are sparse, subtle and brilliant. "Misterioso" in particular is worth noting-- the piece is fantastic, with Jackson agile and excitable and Monk cooling things down without losing any intensity. The vocal pieces are pretty throwaway, Hagood's style is deeply rooted in the '30s and is somewhat grating.

This reissue is augmented with alternates from each session (a total of five pieces) and is remastered as part of the Rudy Van Gelder edition-- it's been commented that the sound on these isn't as good as other recordings in this series, and while strictly speaking this is true, it is comparable to other recordings of its era-- these are old tapes, the fact they sound as good as they do is a luxury.

I'm not widely familiar with Jackson's work-- I approached this recording as a Monk fan-- but I can state that these sessions are highly enjoyable and worth investigation. Also, anyone who enjoys the Monk/Jackson sessions would do well to dig up "Genius of Modern Music, Volume Two", which features Jackson in the company of Monk on nine further cuts. Recommended.