Records

AM RECORDS

Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra: Suite for Pops

David Leibman & Friends: Sweet Hands

Dave Brubeck & Paul Desmond: 1975, The Duets

Sonny Fortune: Awakening

Jim Hall: Jim Hall Live

It has taken jazz a long time to get adequate promotional huff 'n puff from the record companies, but the day seems finally to be at hand. The latest example is the happy collaboration between producer Ed Michel, "creative director" John Snyder, .and the large independent company A&M Records, which has given birth to the fine new Horizon Jazz series on the California-based label. They just released their first five albums, and it's a promising debut of talent and marketing finesse.

Ed Michel, of course, is the former ABC/Impulse producer who took over over Bob Thiele in 1969 and handled almost all Impulse production through 1974. Michel is best known for his work with Pharaoh Sanders, Albert Ayler. Alice Coltrane, Sam Rivers, Marion Brown, Charlie Haden (now a Horizon artist ), Michael White, Keith Jarrett, Dewey Redman, and other important musicians associated with Impulse during its second major period.

Impulse has now opted for a fairly straight pop-jazz format under new A&R director Esmond Edwards (formerly with Prestige and Cadet, among other small jazz labels), and under we won't find all the former Impulse creators under the Horizon label, the A&M sibling's interest seems to be attuned to those creative artists who already enjoy a certain commercial visibility while retaining a more-or-less "pure" direction.

Brubeck and Desmond, Jim Hall and Thad Jones/Mel Lewis band join youngsters Sonny Fortune and Dave Liebman, and all come our way packaged to the hilt containing interesting liner notes. Hopefully this dressing will make it commercially viable and consequently get it to more ears, more frequently.

The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis offering Suite for Pops. in memory of Louis Armstrong, is a many-textured affair. Their vocabulary is awesome and Thad Jones is the reason why. His writing and arranging is tense and his memory courses the best of five decades of black music.

Chromatic needs shimmer over a two-four Latin figure and trumpets cut sharply across soulful terrain of "Meeting Place", lts rousing and lively feel is immediately countered by the delicate textures of "The Summary," fertile ground for Thad's beautiful flugelhorn. One must also reckon with the almost unbelievably soulful and beautiful Dee Dee Bridgewater, whose seat-singing on "The Great One" would be enough  set the Trojan War back into gear. The music is all direct, sincerely felt and qualities that Pops Armstrong won the world's love with.

Sonny Fortune's album Awakening is a straight-forward, leaping and shimmering echo of the Blue Note 60's. lts from resembles the solid  work of Art Blakey and Lee Morgan, But it is more, to be sure, for it is guided by the talents of Sonny Fortune, a strongly emerging alto saxophone voice of the past few years.

Recent experience with McCoy Tyner and Miles Davis has been a valuable education for Sonny, and his music shares the tight development and rhythmic soreness of his former employers. "Triple Threat" is a good example, featuring the driving and cheerful wit of Sonny's alto. A tender lament is voiced on "For Duke and Cannon," an elegiac and moving remembrance of Ellington and Cannonball Adderley.

David Liebman's Sweet Hands is rich and original material, his songs varied in texture and expression, Liebman is talented composer, and his interest in Eastern musics has borne a fruitful influence on his own.

Part of that influence is due to his association with Badal Roy, familiar playing tabla recently with Miles and Pharoah Sanders. Together they composed "Sweet Hand Roy," a rightful combination of Indian-sonorities and funk rhythm, aided ably by bassist Charlie Haden. Another notable tune, "Dark Lady," was written by pianist Richie Beirach and gives Dave room for graceful and melodic playing.  

Jim Hall Live is a spirited Toronto performance by Hall and his trio improvisor. Jim is a skillful improvisor of the old soft and deep-textured guitar style. His rendering of five standards here is fresh and personal, Check out Charlie Parker's steaming "Scrapple From The Apple" for Jim's searing recollection of Bird's power of flight. Bassist Don Thompson and drummer Terry Clarke provide a muscular and steady setting for Jim's solo. A lilting "I Hear A Rhapsody" also shows the great communication between these players.

And finally, Horizon has coaxed Brubeck and Desmond out of the woodwork for another album. Those of you with worn-down copies of Time Out will be glad to see that neither player has changed appreciably, their unshakable abidingness matched only by the moon, ever-enduring Diana, Then again, for those who go for the suburban gloss of Paul Desmond's alto and Brubeck's elf-like, yo-yo rhythmic punch will be pleased with this album. Many people still cherish old "5/4" Brubeck and shall find this a welcome addition.