DECEMBER 7

          MAX ROACH
   Featuring the Legendary Hasaan

         Recording Date:
            December 4, 1964  tk 1,4,5  
            December 7, 1964 tk 2-3,6-7
         
          Personnel:
              Hasaan Ibn Ali  P
              Art Davis         B
              Max Roach       D


         LINK






Review by Scott Yanow
Pianist Hasaan Ibn Ali only made one recording in his life, this trio set with drummer Max Roach and bassist Art Davis. A very advanced player whose style fell somewhere between Thelonious Monk and Cecil Taylor (with hints of Herbie Nichols), Hasaan actually had a rather original sound. His performances of his seven originals on this set (a straight CD reissue of a long out-of-print LP) are intense, somewhat virtuosic and rhythmic, yet often melodic in a quirky way. This is a classic of its kind and it is fortunate that it was made, but it is a tragedy that Hasaan would not record again and that he would soon sink back into obscurity.

DECEMBER 6

              LESTER YOUNG
       Washington, DC, v2
          
            Recording Date: 
                  December 3-9, 1956

             Personnel:
                 Jim Lucht           D 
                  Bill Potts            P 
                  Norman Williams B 
                  Lester Young      TS

           LINK

Review by Cub Koda
The second installment of four projected volumes, this once again captures latter-day Lester Young in top form, relaxed and playing with impeccable phrasing and swing. Ably backed by the Bill Potts Trio during his week-long stand at Olivia's Patio Lounge in Washington, these live tapes put the lie to the longstanding jazz myth that Young was well past his prime in the final decade of his life.

If anything, this second volume captures even more adventurous playing by Prez, with fast paced takes on his "Jumpin' With Symphony Sid" and "Lester Leaps In." But, as always, Young positively shines on midtempo and ballad material like "Three Little Words," "I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)," "These Foolish Things" and "Almost Like Being In Love." Lester shares much of the soloing space with all three members of the trio, and his swapping of four-bar phrases with drummer Jim Lucht can get a little wearing on repeated listens, but the group provides such a comfortable cushion for him to relax and stretch out that it's a minor niggle at best. This also includes Young's only known full-length treatment of "Lullaby of Birdland," almost worth the price of admission alone. Nobody could swing like Lester Young, and given the right setting and circumstances like he was on these dates, he was evidently swinging right to the end.
 

DECEMBER 5

                 ROY HAYNES
        Fountain of Youth
             
              Recording Date: 
                  December 4-5, 2002
                  Birdland, NYC

              Personnel:
                 Martin Bejerano P
                 Roy Haynes       D
                 John Sullivan     B 
                 Marcus Strickland
                                CL,SS,TS
                

         LINK

Review by Rick Anderson
Drummer Roy Haynes chose a perfect title for this album: at 79 years of age, he is an undisputed elder statesman of jazz and one of the few surviving ambassadors from the bebop past; at the same time, he plays with the kind of energy and unflagging invention that would be the envy of a drummer one-third his age. Fountain of Youth was recorded live in December of 2002 at the legendary Birdland club in New York City. Haynes leads a quartet that also features pianist Martin Bejerano, saxophonist Marcus Strickland, and bassist John Sullivan. The program opens with a brilliant jazz-waltz setting of the traditional English tune "Greensleeves," and then proceeds to survey both bebop standards (there are no fewer than three Thelonious Monk compositions on the nine-track program), Tin Pan Alley classics (Irving Berlin's "Remember"), and even a Pat Metheny tune (the lovely "Question and Answer"). Everyone plays with both fire and elegance, especially on the dancing "Butch and Butch" and a lovely, meditative rendition of Monk's "Ask Me Now." And while Haynes always plays with consummate taste and never consciously upstages his young bandmates, a listener paying any attention at all will be constantly surprised by his inventive and exquisitely tasteful rhythmic exclamations and subtle prods. Very highly recommended.
 

DECEMBER 4

      ORNETTE COLEMAN
     At the Golden Circle
       Stockholm, Vol. 2

          Recording Date: 
             December 3, 1965  tk 2,4
             December 4, 1965  tk 1,3

          Personnel:
            Ornette Coleman TP.VLN, AS
            David Izenzon      B 
            Charles Moffett    D

     LINK

Review by Thom Jurek
The second night of Ornette Coleman's two-week stand in Sweden was even fierier than the first, if the recorded documents are to be believed. For starters, December 4 was the night that Coleman brought out the violin and the trumpet on the first tune; "Snowflakes and Sunshine" must have taken club-goers by surprise. Those first notes skitter across the neck as the bow goes "scree" in the middle registers and bassist David Izenzon moves to create an atonal bed of rock for Coleman, while Charles Moffett plays in the triple time to a cipher of a time signature. And just as the violin starts to create a tension that is difficult for the other two members of his trio to endure musically, Coleman switches to trumpet and hauls it back inside, or at least to the ledge's edge before returning to the violin a few minutes later. The rhythm sect tries to rein him in, but he careens off Izenzon's arco playing and into an entirely new harmonic language. For the rest of the gig, it's back to the alto, with Coleman even going as far as to goof on Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" on the opening bars of "Morning Song" before playing a ballad every bit as tender and angularly beautiful as one of his. "Riddles" is one of Coleman's Eastern screamers, played modally with the same kind of breathy acrobatics Coltrane used on the music that made it onto the posthumous Sunship. There are several drone modes created by Izenzon, with off-measure rhythmic figures cut by Moffett. Coleman plays the alto as one would a Tibetan oboe or a thighbone trumpet, reaching deep into the lower register to touch the drone and then sail off into scalar abandon. There is more than enough fire, but the astonishing thing is the color and texture Coleman gets from the horn. The set closes with a lovely, knotty piece called "Antiques," in which Izenzon and Coleman match modes for an interesting meeting of the minds in a dramatic wash of color and mood. This is the stronger of the two evenings, but they are both fine records by an under-recognized band in Coleman's development.
 

DECEMBER 3

               JAMES MOODY
        His Saxophone And His Band

             Recording Date:
                December 3, 1947

             Personnel:
                 Howard McGhee TP
                 James Moody     TS
                 Milt Jackson       VB
                 Hank Jones         P
                 Ray Brown         B
                 J.C. Heard         D

           LINK

DECEMBER 2

     MARY LOU WILLIAMS
      Featuring Don Byas

            Recording Date:
                  December 2, 1953

            Personnel:
                Mary Lou Williams   P
                Don Byas                TS
                Gerald Pochonet     D
                Alvin Banks             B

              LINK

Review By King Cake
The record preserves a historic Paris reunion of two seminal figures in Jazz history who first met and played together in the early 30's. Here they play with French drummer Gerald 'Dave' Pochonet (remember him from the Lucky Thompson series?) and another ex-patriot Alvin 'Buddy' Banks on bass. Of the very few Byas albums I've heard from the 50's, this is the best. Eight of these tracks can be found on a Vogue issue but this one includes two MLW solos pieces, Yesterdays and Round Midnight.

DECEMBER 1

           BILL COLEMAN
            Live in Milan

              Recording Date:
                  December 1-2, 1972

              Personnel:
                Bill Coleman   TP,FG,Vo
                Lino Patruno  G,B tk1,3,7
                Gianni Acocella  TB
                Bruno Longhi     CL
                Sergio Rigon      TS,FT
                Paolo Tomelleri TS tk 5,7
                Mario Rusca       P
                Giancarlo Cinti   B
                Giorgio Vanni     D

LINK

Obituary by NY Times:

Bill Coleman, Jazz Trumpeter With Top Bands, Dead at 77

AP

Published: August 26, 1981

TOULOUSE, France, Aug. 25— Bill Coleman, a prominent American jazz trumpeter, died yesterday. He was 77 years old. Born in Paris, Ky., Mr. Coleman played with many top bands of the 1920's and with Fats Waller in 1935.

He left the United States in 1948 and spent the rest of his career in France. ''A number of black musicians became expatriates to escape segregation in the States,'' he once told an interviewer. Mr. Coleman played with many of the great names of jazz, including Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins and Django Reinhardt. He was well known for his renditions of such classics as ''Down by the Riverside'' and ''Jericho.''

Mr. Coleman was made a Chevalier of the French Order of Merit in 1974. For the last three years Mr. Coleman had lived in the village of Cadeillan in the Gers region of southwestern France. Despite his illnesses, friends said, Mr. Coleman was virtually never separated from his trumpet. They said he had played for the last time with friends on July 25, but he was so weak he had to play while seated.