Saturday May 4th, 2024, 10:00 PM – Deep Jazz.
Deep Jazz is a programme by bassist and musicologist Hans Mantel. He presents a wide range of appealing jazz every week, from historical to contemporary. Each piece is provided with relevant, substantive information. Mantel also draws from his personal treasure trove, filled with wonderful anecdotes.
You will hear music by altoist Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley with pianist Bill Evans, Miles Davis with orchestra, and vocalist/pianist Diana Krall.
Waltz for Debby
Pianist Bill Evans composed this ‘waltz’ in 1956. The piece, dedicated to his niece Debby, became a standard. Evans and altoist Adderley worked together in Miles Davis’ quintet in 1959, in the line-up that created the iconic album Kind of Blue. Now, in 1961, they meet to record the album Know What I Mean? in the name of Cannonball Adderley. Bassist Percy Heath and drummer Connie Kay – the mainstays of the Modern Jazz Quartet – complete the group. The opening, a solo by Evans, can hardly be called an intro. He plays the complete piece, and only then the intro. The three-quarter time of the waltz then makes way for a meter in four. Enter altoist Adderley, with his well-known, ‘jubilant’ tone. This Adderley record is one of the few recordings where there is no second horn player – a trumpet player – at the front.
The entire album exudes a pleasantly light, relaxed atmosphere. This even seems to be expressed in the title of a Gershwin composition, also on this record: Who Cares?
Miles Davis’ Summertime
We also hear that relaxed atmosphere in Summertime, one of the pieces from Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess. For this 1958 production, Davis (photo) collaborates with arranger/bandleader Gil Evans. The two get along well musically. Evans is certainly not an average arranger. He likes ‘mixing colours’; less often he contrasts different orchestral groups such as brass/reed instruments. Evans has done a lot of tinkering with George Gershwin’s original score. Davis stays close to the melody in his solo – with mute, a damper. In the orchestra we find: Cannonball Adderley, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb. Three musicians who are in the studio together a year later for Davis’ Kind of Blue.
“I’ll String Along with You You may not be an angel, ‘Cause angels are so few, But until the day that one comes along, I’ll string along with you.”
This is what vocalist/pianist Diana Krall sings in 1999 on her award-winning album When I look in Your Eyes. It takes little effort for Krall to reach the music-sensitive listener. Soft, but inescapable.
Also in this hour: Bill Charlap, Milt Jackson, João Gilberto, Michael Brecker, and the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis orchestra.
Details in the Guide.
Deep Jazz – Hans Mantel
