Presenting Classic Live 1970s Jazz from Chicago » PopMatters

Resonance Records celebrated Record Store Day this year by releasing four live albums recorded at Chicago’s Jazz Showcase by four of the genre’s greatest artists: tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, pianists Mal Waldron and Ahmad Jamal, and multi-instrumentalist Yusef Lateef. There is a lot of music to digest here: the Henderson and Lateef sets are three-LP sets, the Jamal a double, and the Waldron a very full single disc. The material can generally be described as “post-bop” and was made during the mid-to-late 1970s, with top-notch sonic quality for live recordings.

Jazz Showcase claims to be the oldest jazz club in Chicago, founded in 1947 by Joe Segal and now operated by his son Wayne. Many of jazz’s top performers have played there, including Larry Coryell, McCoy Tyner, Dexter Gordon, Count Basie, Jimmy Smith, Randy Weston, Bill Evans, Sun Ra, Dizzy Gillespie, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. The club still exists and maintains a schedule of impressive players from the Windy City and around the world.

The recent Record Store Day releases are not for the meek. These albums challenge listeners, even in the slower, quieter moments, such as Mal Waldron’s “All Alone”. The Great Sorcerer, as European critics referred to him, hits the keys with authority. He repeats notes and themes with a hammerlike emphasis so that the melodies get purposely lost in the forest of sound. The rest of the material on the album ranges from jazz post-World War II standards such as Miles Davis’ “Stella by Starlight” and Thelonious Monk‘s “‘Round Midnight” to older chestnuts such as “All G-d’s Chillun Got Rhythm” and “Stardust”. Accompanist Sonny Stitt’s alto saxophone solos on “Old Folks” and “Stardust” are especially noteworthy.  

Joe Henderson plays the most fiery set. The songs are long (five of the ten songs are over 20 minutes). The Phantom, as other players knew him, steps out of the shadow from the beginning and blows hard and fast. He covers John Coltrane (“Mr. P.C.”), Charlie Parker (“Relaxin’ at Camarillo”) and “Good Morning Heartache (made famous by Billie Holiday, but the most intriguing tracks are his original compositions. For example, his “Recorda Me” (Portuguese for “Remember Me”) begins with short, passionate riffs that climax midway, before the side players take over (Joanne Brackeen, piano; Steve Robby, bass; Danny Spencer, drums), allowing him to continue with longer, more mellow lines. The effect is hauntingly beautiful.

Ahmad Jamal is joined by just two accompanists: John Heard on bass and Frank Grant on drums. The minimal backing creates an intimate atmosphere. The pianist is front and center and glides over the keys like an ice skater performing an intricate routine. He turns the “Theme from M*A*S*H” (then a hit comedic TV show) into an insistent declaration of existence. Johnny Mandel’s music—the song’s composer—has always been more serious than the purposefully light-hearted lyrics. Jamal’s vibrant version reveals its underlying dynamism over its 12-minute length. He never stops for a rest and takes turns straying from the melodies of tracks like Antônio Carlos Jobim’s “Wave”—at one point in this song he breaks out into K.C. and the Band’s disco hit “That’s the Way I Like It”—and Duke Ellington’s “Prelude to a Kiss” to show the richness of the material.

Reedman Yusef Lateef creates all sorts of strange and harmonic sonic textures over the three-disc set, aided by his usual band from the 1970s, pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Bob Cunningham, and drummer Albert “Tootie” Heath. Lateef plays the tenor saxophone, flute, and oboe, taking advantage of the aural differences among these instruments. The quiet of the flute, the sweet licks from the oboe, and the husky sax tones allow him to vamp in different voices, keeping the music consistently interesting and veering into gospel and R&B territory. Barron’s piano playing is especially noteworthy, as he pushes the music forward when the others seem to have reached a standstill.

Credit should be given to Resonance Records for taking this material from the vaults and releasing it to the public with handsome packaging and extensive liner notes. Vinyl versions may be hard to find as Record Store Day is over, but the material is available on compact discs. Fans of jazz from this era should hunt them down.