JazzWax

Attila Zoller and Don Friedman

Attila Zoller (above) is another guitarist who's fame has unfairly faded with time among jazz fans. Like guitarist Gabor Szabo, Zoller was a Hungarian refugee who escaped Soviet invasion. He found his way to Austria in 1948 and moved to the U.S. in 1959 to perform, record and teach. He also had enormous influence over the jazz fusion movement that would start in the late 1960s and flower in the '70s. Among his many fascinating avant-garde albums were three recorded with pianist Don Friedman in 1964, '65 and '66.

As a child, Zoller (above) started on violin before moving to the flugelhorn and then the bass. In high school, he began playing guitar and dropped out to play clubs. After Zoller's arrival in Austria, he became a citizen and started a jazz group there. When Zoller moved to Germany, he played with pianist Jutta Hipp. Touring American jazz musicians, including bassist Oscar Pettiford and alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, urged him to move to the U.S., where greater opportunities existed for his unorthodox approach to the electric guitar.

After his arrival, Zoller studied at the Lenox School of Jazz on a scholarship. There, he studied under guitarist Jim Hall. Ornette Coleman, his roommate, got him interested in the avant-garde and free jazz. In the years ahead, Zoller bonded with specific musicians who shared his musical vision and recorded with them for a period. [Photo above of Jim Hall, left, and Attila Zoller]

Zoller and Friedman recorded three quartet albums together: Dreams and Explorations (1964), The Horizon Beyond (1965) and Metamorphosis (1966). All are wonderful, abstract journeys that are conversational and fast-paced. On the first for Riverside, Zoller and Friedman were backed by bassist Dick Kniss and drummer Dick Berk. On the second, recorded in Germany, they were backed by bassist Barre Phillips and drummer Daniel Humair. And on the third, recorded for Prestige at Rudy Van Gelder's studio, they were joined by bassist Richard Davis and drummer Joe Chambers. 

Hang in with these recordings. The music is out there, but if you just let it wash over you and float along with it, you'll hear why the albums are special. Zoller and Friedman were enormously talented, and members of the jagged quartet wrap around each like a ball of barbed wire and move forward as if shot out of a canon. 

Attila Zoller died in 1998 at age 70; Don Friedman died in 2016 at age 81.

JazzWax tracks. You'll find Dreams and Explorations here. The other two are out of print and hard to find.

JazzWax clips: Here's the entire Dreams and Explorations album (you can listen to the embedded clip or click on the video's lower right-hand column and go to YouTube. All of the tracks are in the right-hand column)...

Here's the entire The Horizon Beyond album...

Here's the entire Metamorphosis album...

Man Who Came to Dinner

One of my favorite Thanksgiving movies is The Man Who Came to Dinner, with Monty Woolley and Bette Davis. The plot, in a nutshell: A cranky, world-renowned author (Woolley) injures his back and must spend the holidays with his cosmopolitan assistant (Davis) confined to a house in small-town Ohio, ordering people around and causing trouble for those he cares about most.

This cheery and cozy wartime film has all the charm of a fireplace. Directed by William Keighley, the film features dialogue at breakneck speeds and impeccable dramatic timing. In fact, The Man Who Came to Dinner was a 1939 Broadway play by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman and starred Woolley and several other actors who had been in the stage version.

Happy Thanksgiving to my friends in the U.S. and abroad. Here's The Man Who Came to Dinner...

Gift Ideas for You and Others

Because I'm in the media, I receive a ton of new box sets, vinyl and books. I typically save the items I enjoyed most for a holiday-season post, since you're probably looking for gift ideas. Here are a few of my favorite things that are suitable for your Santa list and that you can order and wrap without leaving home...

Jazz Images by Francis Wolff (Elemental Music). Music no longer comes with album-sized photographs. So what better way to listen to Blue Note albums than looking at images by Francis Wolff, the label's co-founder. This book features more than 150 photos, many of them printed for the first time. Go here.

Jazz Images by William Claxton (Elemental Music). At the same time Francis Wolff was photographing Blue Note artists in New York, William Claxton was doing the same with musicians in California pioneering what would become known as West Coast jazz. Like Wolff, Claxton was key to giving the music and musicians a visual mystique. Go here.

John Coltrane: Giant Steps, Deluxe Edition 60 Years (Atlantic). This John Coltrane game-changer recorded in 1959 and released in 1960 has just been remastered and includes eight outtakes. This music on the album never gets old and continues to raise arm hairs. The double-CD is timeless and sounds great. Go here.

Classic Keys: Keyboard Sounds That Launched Rock Music (UNT). This 400-page hardback coffee-table book by Alan S. Lenhoff and David E Robertson features every conceivable electric keyboard produced and includes a superb, fascinating history. Plus hundreds of large color photos of the instruments, ads and other images. Best of all, you learn which rock bands used which keyboards. Set aside a couple of hours of reading and page-turning and listen as you read. Go here.

Verve's Acoustic Sounds Series. The label has been pressing 180-gram vinyl versions of classic jazz albums. The two most recent entries are Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar Peterson and Getz/Gilberto. Both classics. The albums look like the ones you would have purchased in the store decades ago, only they sound far better. For the rest of the albums in the series, go to Amazon and type in "Verve's Acoustic Sounds Series." For the albums mentioned above, go here and here.

George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters (Chicago Review). Edited by Ashley Kahn, this 574-page book is an anthology of select radio, TV and print conversations with the stern Beatle. A worthy edition for many fans who are passionate about all things considered and still find George a fascinating mystery. Go here.

Heart Full of Rhythm: The Big Band Years of Louis Armstrong (Oxford). Written by Ricky Riccardi, director of research collections for the Louis Armstrong House Museum and author of What a Wonderful World: The Magic of Louis Armstrong's Later Years. This book provides insight into Armstrong's rise from Chicago trumpeter in 1929 to national brand in 1947. A detailed look into the home life and big-band performance career of America's most complex jazz pioneer and practitioner who all but invented the jazz entertainer. Especially rewarding if you own Armstrong's music during this period or can access via streaming. Go here.

It Ain't Heavy, It's My Story: My Life in the Hollies (Omnibus). Hollies drummer Bobby Elliott writes about his life in the band and its incarnation before and after the departure of Graham Nash. A perfect book for anyone who loves the Brit band's large number of hits. Go here.

Sincerely, Ty Cobb: A Baseball Memoir (TCU). If you love baseball but don't know much about who the early greats really were or why they were special, you're in luck. Hank O'Neal has combined his mother's vast baseball scrapbook with his own passion and recollections of baseball's stars before free agency, TV broadcast rights and high-tech locker rooms. Warmly written and a wonderful trip back in time through Hank's writing, players' correspondence and loads of color images. A baseball fan's sandlot dream. Go here.   

From Elvis in Nashville (RCA). Following Elvis's 1969 recording sessions in Memphis, the King headed to Nashville in June 1970 and summoned the city's leading session musicians. What ensued were catered, marathon jam sessions that produced three albums—That’s the Way It Is, Elvis Country and Love Letters From Elvis. This new four-CD set includes all of the masters as well as alternate takes. A 28-page color book makes this focused listen a snapshot in time when the tune-out years ended and the me decade began. Sideburns not included. Go here.