Author: Francois

The White Blinds Shimmy Sham / Fire Eater (F-Spot 2021)

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NEW RELEASE – THE WHITE BLINDS

Last of The White Blinds’s “Homage” series climaxes with thunder and lightning.

The White Blinds - Shimmy Sham : Fire Eater

Personnel

Carey Frank (organ), Matt Hornbeck (guitar), Michael Duffy (drums)

Recorded

in 2021 at Rich Uncle Records, Los Angeles

Released

as FSPT 1022 in 2021

Track listing

Side A:
Shimmy Sham
Side B:
Fire Eater


The stamp of approval that was shown online last year by the recently deceased master of Hammond Dr. Lonnie Smith most likely gave The White Blinds a solid boost. Since 2016, organist Carey Frank, guitarist Matt Hornbeck and drummer Michael Duffy have demonstrated their monster groove on the West Coast and on their full-length album Get To Steppin’. They furthermore released their “Homage” series on F-Spot Records. Cool concept. Not only did The White Blinds solidly reconsider Sly Stone’s psych soul classic Sing A Simple Song, they also, significantly, dug up “obscure” gems like guitarist Ivan “Boogaloo” Joe Jones’s Brown Bag, that delight funk jazz freaks and should appeal to general fans of good-time funky and toe-tappin’ music.

Similarly, their final installment is evenly divided between original tune and cover version, the latter being tenor saxophonist Rusty Bryant’s Fire Eater. Fire Eater was recorded on Prestige in 1971 featuring, among others, the legendary New Orleans-born drummer Idris Muhammad. To all general fans of good-time funky and toe-tappin’ music: Muhammad, formerly Leo Morris, was thé king of jazz funk drumming.

Greasy and potent as Big Mama Thornton’s kidney stew, Michael Duffy’s style is inspired by Muhammad though equally influenced by that other legend of funky drumming, Bernard Purdie (also a Rusty Bryant alumnus by the way) with chunks of David Garibaldi and Clyde Stubblefield thrown in. Duffy’s beat is rock solid and his sound is booming. Perfect foil for Carey Frank, who prefers delicately structured solo’s that rarely stretch the one-minute mark and are marked by crunchy, serpentine lines and Matt Hornbeck, who approaches the melody line with angular jabs and hooks.

The White Blinds take their uptempo original Shimmy Sham, highlighted by an intense and in-your-face Frank solo, to the bridge like the JB’s on Wodka Red Bull. Makes two jukebox favorites for the price of one.

The White Blinds

Find Shimmy Sham / Fire Eater on F-Spot Records here.

Julius Watkins Julius Watkins Sextet (Blue Note 1954/55)

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Nobody swung on the French horn like Julius Watkins.

Julius Watkins Sextet - Vol 1

Julius Watkins Sextet Vol. 2

Personnel

Julius Watkins (French horn), Frank Foster (tenor saxophone 1-4), Hank Mobley (tenor saxophone (5, 7-9), George Butcher (piano 1, 2 & 4), Duke Jordan (5-9), Perry Lopez (guitar 1-4, 6, 8 & 9), Oscar Pettiford (bass), Kenny Clarke (drums 1-4), Art Blakey (5-9)

Recorded

on August 8, 1954 and March 20, 1955 at Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey

Released

as BLP 5053 in 1954 and BLP 5064 in 1955

Track listing

Linda Delia
Perpetuation
I Have Known
Leete
Garden Delights
Julie Ann
Sparkling Burgundy
B And B
Jordu


Jazz soloists on the ‘awkward’ French horn are scarcer than the four-leaf clover. The two biggies and pioneers of modern jazz are Julius Watkins and David Amram. Amram came on the scene at the legendary Five Spot Café in The Bowery in New York City in the mid-fifties and at 90-years old looks back on a career as indigenous player and composer in jazz and popular music. Julius Watkins, born in 1921, unfortunately only went as far as 1977. Regardless, the Detroit-born French horn player must’ve looked back with pride. His legacy is impressive.

Need a French horn? Call Julius. He’s omnipresent as soloist and part of big ensembles. To give you an idea, Watkins was associated with Milt Jackson, Oscar Pettiford, Thelonious Monk (Monk, Thelonious Monk & Sonny Rollins), Donald Byrd, Quincy Jones, Miles Davis (Porgy & Bess), Gil Evans, Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Randy Weston, John Coltrane (Africa/Brass), Johnny Griffin, Tadd Dameron, Art Blakey, Charles Mingus, The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra and McCoy Tyner. Watkins co-led The Jazz Modes with tenor saxophonist Charles Rouse from 1956 till ’59.

Isn’t it wonderful how jazz musicians managed to incorporate such oblique European instruments as French horn? I love the sound of the instrument, bittersweet, silk and satin, like thin air, like the voices of angels that have slept off their wining and dining. The horn is lovely supportive to big ensembles, providing a soft landing for the crackling brass of trumpet and trombone. It was like wax in the hands of Julius Watkins. His fluidity on the instrument was virtually unparalleled. His sound is rich and flexible, varying from cushion-soft reveries to tart calls to arms. You hear those stories about how classical music pros from the big symphonic orchestras were stunned to hear what kind of unbelievable stuff legends like Louis Armstrong coaxed from their instruments and imagine many will have been fascinated by the efforts of Julius Watkins. See what Julius was able to do with the horn in this YouTube excerpt of his hand-muted solo with Quincy Jones in 1960. Fantastic.

Watkins recorded his leadership debut on Blue Note in 1954 and ’55, two 10 inch records that were belatedly repackaged on CD in 1995. At least to my knowledge Blue Note did not re-release the sessions on the new 12 inch format soon afterwards, as it usually did with their 10inch platters like the New Stars New Sounds LP’s. Am I right? Anyway, the sessions consisted of top-notch hard bop with the cream of the crop, the first session featuring tenor saxophonist Frank Foster and drummer Kenny Clarke, the second session featuring Hank Mobley, pianist Duke Jordan and drummer Art Blakey, all of them underlined by bassist Oscar Pettiford. Pleasant surprises are provided by guitarist Perry Lopez and pianist George Butcher.

The highlight of the first session is Linda Delia, which takes us down to Mexico on a beat that’s as lively and fulfilling as the smile of a baby, engendered by Kenny Clarke’s masterful finger strokes and rolls, and includes a brilliant, clattering entrance by Watkins, who sustains the jubilant feeling with a diversity of sunny colors. Guitarist Perry Lopez, a kind of mix between Kenny Burrell and Jimmy Raney throughout the two sessions, is especially cool. All-rounder Frank Foster is another asset of this top-notch BLP 5053 record.

BLP 5064 beats this to the punch, though, Blakey unusually forceful with the brushes, Mobley’s smooth sound blending particularly well with Watkins’s sweet and sour stories, Duke Jordan laying down some of his most urgent and pleasantly bouncy lines of that era. Here, amongst the sultry Garden Delight and an early version of Jordan’s instant classic Jordu, the sprightly boppish Sparkling Burgundy stands out, a title that couldn’t have been more appropriate. This band pops the cork with some bubbly, captured beautifully by the legendary Rudy van Gelder, at that time still working from the living room of his parents in Hackensack, New Jersey.

Killer sleeve of Vol.2 as well.

Septet Frans Elsen Norway (NJA 2021)

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NEW RELEASE – SEPTET FRANS ELSEN

Dutch mainstreamers turned out to be top-notch fusion funkateers.

Septet Frans Elsen - Norway

Personnel

Frans Elsen (Fender Rhodes), Eddie Engels (trumpet), Piet Noordijk (alto saxophone), Ferdinand Povel (tenor saxophone, flute 5-10), Wim Overgaauw (guitar), Rob Langereis (bass), Victor Kaihatu (bass 5-12), Eric Ineke (drums), Wim van der Beek (percussion)

Recorded

in Hilversum, Loosdrecht and The Hague in 1972/73

Released

as NJA 2101 in 2021

Track listing

Ringebu
Harpefoss
Skåbu
Otta
Mordor
Whirligig
Ah-Mooh
Ringebu II
Ringebu I
Harpefoss
Skåbu (live)
Otta (live)


At one time during the course of Norway, a session by the Septet Frans Elsen that was retrieved from the vaults by the Dutch Jazz Archive, these Dutch mainstays seem to have found themselves in a zone. It’s during their live rendition of the glowing Skåbu that a dark, brooding intensity reaches boiling point, the moody figures of Fender Rhodes player Frans Elsen leading the way and soloists Piet Noordijk, Eddie Engels and Wim Overgaauw having their sparkling say. Noordijk incorporates his fiery and lean bop lines into the fusion package, Engels plays expressive space blues and Overgaauw finds the intriguing middle ground between Sonny Sharrock and Phil Upchurch. Boiling point is partly reached by drummer Eric Ineke’s progressively intense and accentuated groove.

Frans Elsen was on the scene since the mid-1950’s, a splendid and authoritative bebop pianist but under the radar internationally. Elsen, who had amazing knowledge of jazz piano history, was one of the founders of Dutch jazz education and, feared but loved and influential on next generations, taught at varying conservatories. In the early 1970’s, Elsen was inspired by the Mwandishi band of Herbie Hancock and purchased a Fender Rhodes keyboard. His jazz funk and fusion septet was in existence till the early 1980’s.

Elsen had traveled to Norway and inspired by the surroundings written tunes which titles signified little villages in the region. By no means fluffy or floaty, his conveyance of mysterious and bucolic landscapes is grounded in strong melodies and terse rhythms. The attention of grooves like Harpefoss, Skåbu and Ringebu is held by Noordijk, who is like a bear cat, leaping this and that way and emitting the occasional screech and roar and Engels, whose fluency between registers and fire in semi-modal-funk surroundings is remarkable. AH-Mooh is Latin Nordic jazz funk, a lively contradiction in terms that is resolved excellently by the flute work of Ferdinand Povel. Throughout, Elsen proves to be a balanced Fender Rhodes player, contributing supple lines, staccato figures and decorative chords. Quite surprising, although Noordijk and bassist Rob Langereis had been part of burgeoning improv maverick Misha Mengelberg’s group and young Ineke had experienced jazz rock surroundings, how these mainstream stalwarts adapt so effortlessly to contemporary surroundings.

As a rule, the typically studious Dutch Jazz Archive produced a classy package (including liner notes by Eric Ineke) and Norway sounds clear and fresh thus should attract contemporary audiences, not least with the live recordings that climax with Otta, an Ornette Coleman-ish romp that has all soloists having serious fun and Engels kick starting his solo with a braggadocious entrance. Later on in his career, when Elsen had intensified his return to bebop piano, he referred to Norway as a youthful indiscretion. Safely said, a solid fusion imprudence.

Find Norway on the website of Nederlands Jazz Archief here.

Check out this performance at Loosdrecht in 1972 on YouTube here.

Double Dutch Delight

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BEN VAN DEN DUNGEN & JARMO HOOGENDIJK QUINTET –

Jarmo Hoogendijk & Ben van den Dungen

You get these bands from the past, when one mentions them to the other, the eyes of both jazz fans start to glow like coals on the barbecue. The Ben van de Dungen/Jarmo Hoogendijk Quintet was that kind of band. In the mid-1980’s, jazz could use a bit of spice and tenor saxophonist Ben van den Dungen and trumpeter Jarmo Hoogendijk had the right ingredients. The quintet further featured pianist Rob van Bavel. Initial bassist Anton Drukker and drummer Dré Pallemaerts were followed-up by Harry Emmery and Eric Ineke, who were there until the end in 2004.

This band was belching up vitamins. While contemporaries The Houdini’s (also a kind of ‘glow eye’ band) focused on no-nonsense hard bop, the Ben van den Dungen/Jarmo Hoogendijk Quintet veered towards progressive post-bop, the kind that was kick started by John Coltrane and McCoy Tyner and further developed by Joe Henderson, Woody Shaw, Clifford Jordan, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Cedar Walton etc. The contrast between the buoyant Hoogendijk and driving but more introspective Van den Dungen was one of the band’s main assets. Another asset was the fact that all members were strong personalities. The young Rob van Bavel, nowadays one of the great European pianists, was a very dynamic player. Drummer Eric Ineke was a middle-aged veteran who had played with a who’s who of classic jazz including Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon and Johnny Griffin and had a distinct, explosive and subtle style that incorporated Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Billy Higgins, Louis Hayes etc.

Not only did the quintet duly revive the scene and influence the next generation, it also left its mark as a superb booking machine. Van den Dungen and Hoogendijk managed themselves and hung on the phone longer than the average call center employee from Booking.com. Their energetic DIY spirit resulted in a busy schedule in the region and internationally, climaxing with successful tours with Cindy Blackman and in Canada.

Ben van den Dungen & Jarmo Hoogendijk Quintet - Double Dutch
Ben van den Dungen & Jarmo Hoogendijk Quintet - Speak Up
Ben van den Dungen & Jarmo Hoogendijk Quintet - Run For Your Wife

Eventually, Hoogendijk, also known for cooperations with Rein de Graaff, Charles McPherson, J.J. Johnson, Teddy Edwards, Afro-Cuban band Nueva Manteca and many others, unfortunately had to give up playing because of embouchure problems in 2004, a real loss for jazz. Since, Hoogendijk has been an influential teacher at the conservatory of Rotterdam. Van den Dungen has always been very active, both in small hard bop ensembles and world music-oriented big bands as Nueva Manteca and Tango Extremo. He recently released Live At Lux & Tivoli, a Coltrane tribute that features old pal Eric Ineke.

Last week Ben van den Dungen posted a YouTube link on Facebook from his late quintet, footage from the North Sea Jazz Festival in 1996, see here. It’s a great example of the quintet’s flair, virtuosity and contagious energy. It complements older footage from the same date, see here.

The Ben van den Dungen & Jarmo Hoogendijk Quintet was the cream of the crop and these guys were on par with the so-called new heroes of Neo-Bop from the USA like Terence Blanchard, Roy Hargrove, Branford Marsalis, James Carter, Wallace Roney et al. During their existence, the Ben van den Dungen & Jarmo Hoogendijk Quintet released four records, starting with 1987’s Heart Of The Matter and ending with 1995’s Double Dutch.

Dewa Budjana Naurora (MoonJune 2021)

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OUT THERE – DEWA BUDJANA

Indonesian powerhouse guitarist cuts a crafty and eloquent fusion date.

Dewa Budjana - Naurora

Personnel

Dewa Budjana (guitar, soundscapes), Paul McCandless (soprano saxophone), Joey Alexander (piano), Gary Husband (piano, synth), Carlitos del Puerto (bass), Ben Williams (bass), Jimmy Johnson (bass), Mateus Asato (guitar), Imee Ooi (vocals)Simon Phillips (drums), Dave Weckl (drums)

Recorded

in 2020 & 2021 in the USA and Jakarta, Indonesia

Released

as MJR-115 in 2021

Track listing

Naurora
Swarna Jingga
Kmalasana
Sabana Shanti
Blue Mansion


Nothing like being surprised by quirky pieces of challenging music, in this case Naurora by guitarist Dewa Budjana. Budjana has been a star performer in his home country of Indonesia with his rock band GIGI for twenty-five years. Naurora partly draws on rock, musically but also visually. The cover pictures a decidedly flower power-ish protagonist, even with a tinge of Jimi Hendrix.

Budjana is approximately twice the age that Hendrix was in his year of passing and an accomplished player. Sweeping melodies are hit with all the verve of a leaping gazelle. Budjana niftly develops the architecture of his songs, veering from melodies, secondary motives and bass intermezzos to shifts of rhythm and urgent and intelligent solos by Budjana and pianists Joey Alexander and Gary Husband and soprano saxophonist Paul McCandless. The West of Zappa’s Hot Rats, Gong, Jaco Pastorius and Billy Cobham meets the folkish East of Bali. Regardless of references, Budjana’s fusion is wholly original. Recorded remotely in the USA and Jakarta, Naurora draws on the expertise of top-notch players like heavyweight drummers Simon Phillips and Dave Weckl and bassist Carlitos del Puerto and comes off as interactive as a real time studio date.

Personally, I feel that the first part of the record is the most convincing. Naurora has all the power of classic prog and swagger of symphonic rock. Swarna Jigga features a truly masterful guitar story. Budjana alternates between two solos by overdubbing, engaging in conversation with himself. He’s fiery but balanced. Budjana’s beautifully sustained, ringing tone is like the pleading voice of a lady in waiting. Waiting to put this particular piece of Naurora on repeat time and again is out of the question. Here it goes again.

Find Naurora on Moonjune here.

Dick Morgan Trio At The Showboat (Riverside 1960)

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Crowd-pleasing is not a dirty word.

Dick Morgan Trio - At The Showboat

Personnel

Dick Morgan (piano), Keter Betts (bass), Bertell Knox (drums)

Recorded

on May 4, 1960 at The Showboat, Washington D.C.

Released

as RLP-329 in 1960

Track listing

Side A:
For Pete’s Sake
I Ain’t Got Nobody
Misty
The Gypsy In My Soul
Side B:
Will You Still Be Mine
Big Fat Mama
Like Lois
It’s All Right With Me


To the list of Lee Morgan and Frank Morgan – no relation – we now add Dick Morgan. Not as iconic as the trumpeter from Philadelphia, who was fatally shot by his common-law wife Helen, nor as hardboiled as alto saxophonist Frank Morgan, who spent approximately thirty years in jail in the “middle” part of his career and made a minor comeback in the late ‘80s, the unknown pianist Dick Morgan nonetheless put in his five cents of jazz lore. Morgan, born in Petersburg, Virginia and a mainstay in Washington D.C. until his death in 2013, recorded approximately a dozen albums, among which three records for Orrin Keepnews’s Riverside label.

The lore’s starting point is 1960, when alto star and officious A&R executive Cannonball Adderley saw a performance of the Dick Morgan Trio in D.C. and duly impressed called Keepnews and requested that Riverside record the promising pianist. The result was At The Showboat, the second album in the “A Cannonball Adderley Presentation” series, following James Clay/David “Fathead” Newman’s The Sound Of The Wide Open Spaces. Tough nut to crack that space, but Morgan gave it a good shot.

The liner notes mention the influence of Oscar Peterson. Understandably, since Morgan plays “much” (well, “very much”) piano, combining blues phrasing, striking tremolos and heated turnarounds and cadenzas all over the keys with hard, increasingly intense swing. Yet, the comparison is a little too far-fetched. Not as virtuosic and not as perfect and clean, Morgan instead has a more raw and funky edge. The feeling of Les McCann, some of the skills of Red Garland. Suits me to a T.

To be sure, “Star” is way too far-fetched, but “Exciting” definitely is a fitting description. If you can’t hold the attention of the audience, why bother, and Morgan is a pure-bred performer. Enthusiastic grunts accompany the lines of his blues, blues-based, standard and ballad tunes For Pete’s Sake, Big Fat Mama (credited to Morgan “by fault”), I Ain’t Got Nobody, The Gypsy In My Soul, Misty, It’s Alright With Me and Like Lois. Mid-to up tempo is the natural pace for Morgan and his trio, a unity of hard swing and effective rhythm and blues-devices yet subtly dynamic in Misty and ballad mode.

The Gypsy In My Soul, written by Moe Jaffe and Clay Boland for Penn University’s Wig Show in 1937 and an evergreen since, is exemplary of Morgan’s style. He’s like an inexhaustible Yorkshire Terrier running after the ball, a faultless jazz player but not one for genteel recitations. Crowd-pleaser but never bland. Down to earth and flexible. In short, a welcome addition to the Morgan jazz family.

Alexander Beets Big Sounds (Maxanter 2021)

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NEW RELEASE – ALEXANDER BEETS

Beets blows hot and husky.

Alexander Beets - Big Sounds

Personnel

Alexander Beets (tenor saxophone), Ellister van der Molen (trumpet #1, 2, 6, 7, 10 & 11), Miguel Rodriguez (piano #1, 2, 6, 7, 10 & 11), Sebastiaan van Bavel (piano #3-5, 8 & 9), Marius Beets (bass), Tim Hennekes (drums #1, 2, 6, 7, 10 & 11), Sven Rozier (drums #3-5, 8 & 9)

Recorded

on December 28 & 29, 2020 and March 25, 2021 at Studio Smederij, Zeist

Released

as Maxanter 74618 in 2021

Track listing

Blues For The Legends
Brother Hank
A Love That Never Ends
Here’s That Rainy Day
The Look Of Love
A Night That Lasts Forever
June Bug
I Love You
The Man I Love
Diplodocus
What Happened To The Days


You can’t be like Gene Ammons, Ike Quebec, Stanley Turrentine, Hank Mobley, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and Ben Webster for the simple fact that the styles of these classic tenor men reflected their times. Their styles reflected times fraught with racism and segregation and brimming with the joyful catharsis of the blues; on a more prosaic note, were born of rowdy bars and sleazy BBQ joints and union scale and the occasional jail sentence. They were the underground.

But you can get inspired by them and transform your passion into a personal voice. This is the prerequisite for a successful straightforward jazz endeavor, which by nature isn’t progressive but nonetheless valid. All around the world, fans enjoy good-time live jazz entertainment. Besides, who is going to learn youngsters where jazz comes from if no one plays the standards and the blues? Perhaps it was this sentiment that prompted Beets to byline the title of his latest record, Big Sounds, with “forgotten tenor heroes of the past”.

There’s no doubt that Alexander Beets has found a personal voice and while Big Sounds isn’t treading new ground, it is a thoroughly entertaining set of standards and original blues and hard bop compositions.

Beets is brother of acclaimed bassist Marius and renowned pianist Peter. An interview from the three brothers with Jazz Nu way back in January 1996 gives a clue about Beets’s pragmatic outlook. The article describes the work of the Ph.D business science as the band’s PR representative. “First and foremost, I’m a musician and consequently look at the industry as an artist, but that takes nothing away from the fact that I love it when my car is gassed up.”

Beets is both tenor saxophonist and jazz organizer. He holds various managerial positions and is currently the director of the Amersfoort World Jazz Festival. You can see him jammin’ after hours with the festival’s finest in his typically down-to-earth style.

1996
1996
Alexander Beets Quartet featuring Judith Nijland
Rolf Delfos, Ellister van der Molen, Ben van den Dungen & Alexander Beets
Rolf Delfos, Ellister van der Molen, Ben van den Dungen & Alexander Beets
(From l. to r.; Beets Brothers, Marius, Peter and Alexander; Beets and Judith Nijland; New York Round Midnight Orchestra, Rolf Delfos, Ellister van der Molen, Ben van der Dungen and Alexander Beets)

On record, Beets sounds similar as on stage, no pyrotechnics, but bluesy and fluent, with plenty of dirty, husky, honked and wailed asides. He uses the archetypical quintet format, including the always excellent, sweet-tart trumpeter Ellister van der Molen, thoroughly swinging pianist Miquel Rodriguez and crisp drummer Tim Hennekes, for a lively set of soul jazz and hard bop. The boogaloo of Diplodocus and classic Blue Note-ish What Happened In The Days are especially sparkling.

Ballads find him in relatively smoother mode, underlined by young pianist Sebastiaan van Bavel, whose melancholy chords and light toucher provide the backdrop to, among others, Here’s That Rainy Day and The Man I Love.

Different strokes for different folks, which works just fine, as the in-your-face tenor sax of Beets is the common thread. As far as sax goes, arguably the stop-time, r&b-drenched Brother Hank is homage not only to Mobley but, perhaps unintentionally and subconsciously, to Hank Crawford, who predominantly shone on alto and bari. After all, the sweeping A Night That Lasts Forever also oozes the soul of the late great saxophonist and musical director of the Ray Charles band. Either way, examples of sincere and uplifting straight-ahead jazz.

Find Big Sounds at Maxanter.