Ronnie Mathews is barely known today, but the pianist was a distinguished sideman starting in 1960 and a leader through the years. As a sideman, he appeared on Freddie Hubbard's Breaking Point (1964), Lee Morgan's Rumproller (1965) Max Roach's Drums Unlimited (1965) and Dexter Gordon's The Homecoming (1976), as well as on albums by many leading jazz stars. As a leader, one of Mathews' finest albums was—Doin' the Thang!, recorded for Prestige in December 1963.
This album is not to be confused with Horace Silver's Doin' the Thing, recorded live at the Village Gate in 1961 for Blue Note. One of the tracks on Mathews' Prestige album is called The Thang, obviously leading a less than imaginative producer to piggyback on the Silver title. In fact, Mathews and Silver had little in common stylistically. Where Silver was percussive and arch, Mathews was a graceful chord voicer and line-runner, like Sonny Clark.
So why is Doin' the Thang! so special? Five reasons...
First, Freddie Hubbard is on here, and he's absolutely stellar. Hubbard had already made a name for himself on quite a few monumental albums, including John Coltrane's The Believer, Africa/Brass and Ole, Oliver Nelson's Blues and the Abstract Truth, Dexter Gordon's Doin' Allright and Bill Evans' Interplay.
Hubbard by late 1963 also had recorded quite a few dominant leadership dates under his belt, including Open Sesame, Goin' Up, Hub Cap, Groovy!, Ready for Freddie, Hub-Tones, The Artistry of Freddie Hubbard, Here to Stay and The Body and the Soul.
On Doin' the Thang!, Hubbard is positively brilliant, bringing along the innovation and fire he was employing in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers at the time. When this album was recorded, Hubbard was between Blakey's Ugetsu and Free for All. I'll go so far as to say that Doin' the Thang! may be Hubbard's finest little-known date. You may not have known it existed until now.
Second, the album includes little-known baritone saxophonist Charles Davis [pictured, on tenor], who recorded with Sun Ra and Dinah Washington in the late 1950s before working with Kenny Dorham, Hubbard and Silver leading up to Doin' the Thang! Davis also contributed one of the album's hard bop tunes, 1239-A. Davis is still on the scene in New York today.
Third, drummer Albert "Tootie" Heath adds enormous drive to this hard bop quintet, but without the Blakey bombast. So what you have are subtle, inventive drum figures, which leave space for you to hear Mathews. Today, Heath is still going strong, playing and recording with his brother Jimmy.
Fourth, you get to experience four of Mathews' originals—The Thang, Ichi Ban, The Orient and the effervescent Let's Get Down. Each one is devilishly melodic and complex as hard bop arrangements go.
Fifth, Mathews' treatment of Duke Ellington's Prelude to a Kiss (with the horns out) is hugely impressive. The album would be worth buying for this track alone. Mathews' risk-taking on the voicings and improvisational lines is lush and ambitious—in both 3/4 and 4/4 time. We also are able to hear bassist Eddie Khan more distinctly on this track.
Ronnie Mathews died in 2008 (his New York Timesobit is here). As Doin' the Thang! shows, he was much more than a sideman. Unfortunately, he came of age about five years too late, when jazz leadership sessions were fewer in number and the lion's share went to already established legends. He would have to wait until late in his career for that shot. Mathews, as you will hear on Doin' the Thang!, was much more than ordinary.
JazzWax tracks:Doin' the Thang! has not been reissued as a stand-alone album by Concord, which owns Prestige. But the album's tracks are here on the first half of this Prestige two-fer CD from 2002. It's paired with saxophonist Roland Alexander's Pleasure Bent (with Mathews on piano). You'll find a few Japanese imports of Doin' the Thang! at eBay (I saw one last night for $12.99).
JazzWax clip: So, how good is this album? Here's Ronnie Mathews' lead-off track, The Thang...
Here's Mathews' last performance, on May 4, 2008 at Brooklyn Hospital while being treated for pancreatic cancer. He would die about eight weeks later on June 28.
I am so grateful someone taped him here playing Barry Harris' Nascimento. Harris appears to be there in the room visiting him. The sheer poetry and spirit of this clip choked me up...
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Mathews was a member of Woody Shaw's quintet at the time Dexter Gordon's "Homecoming" was recorded, which is how he came to appear on the record. He's on some uniformly excellent Shaw albums, including "Little Red's Fantasy" and "Live at the Berliner Jazzstage"...
Quite apart from the fact that he's "my favourite", I do think that there's a large body of work out there to be looked at. Full marks for highlighting "Doin' The Thang!" (also available as a Japanese import, of course), but I'd say that his greatest record is "So Sorry, Please", trio on Nilva records, with Ray Drummond and Alvin Queen, and that the other essential disc is "Roots, Branches and Dances" on BeeHive, with some of the best Frank Foster on record, as well as Ray Drummond and Al Foster.
It's not coincidental that the best stuff is with Ray Drummond: their partnership in that Johnny Griffin quartet of the late '70s into the '80s, first with Keith Copeland and then with the great Kenny Washington, is some of the best jazz of the era. In fact, just one of my own favourite bands of all time. Check this YouTube (and the rest, I believe the whole set is up here) for immediate proof:
GREAT PIANO SOLO by Mr. Mathews that, consummate band pianist that he was (and it is no coincidence that Max, Blakey and Roy Haynes all hired him, as did T.S. Monk Jnr., for an extended period, but check Haynes' "Cracklin'" record with Booker Ervin...)
Charles Davis' gentle approach to the tenor and baritone (and sometimes alto or soprano) may have kept him from becoming a big name. Along with Wess, Heath, and Rollins, one of the few tenor giants from that great era who is still carrying the flame.
The bassist on this album, and some other important discs of the time is Ediie Kahn. Whatever happened to Eddie Kahn? I've asked around and come up with nothing... Anybody?
(Oh, and I'd further add that the Griffin band must-have record is "The Return of the Griffin", Galaxy, really the record that turned me on to Mathews and has kept me there for life, and another good example is the "Autumn Leaves, Live" that they put out latterly on Verve.
Thanks for giving Ronnie Matthews his due, Marc. I was lucky enough to hear Ronnie in person with the Johnny Griffin group when it toured Australia in the early 1980s. Happily enough, the TV cameras were on hand for the group's Sydney gig. I recorded the broadcast on tape, and have since dubbed it on to DVD. I'll watch it again tonight.
Marc, thanks for recalling the beautiful pianist Ronnie Mathews from the mud that now occupies the space wher my brain should be. Thanks to you I now remember him from the sixties as a pianist to check out further. I never got around to it then but will now. Also will listen to the last record with bassist Ray Drummond who was "inspired" by Bill Evans. The lines of inspiration are indeed long and tangled from the sixties, perhaps in this case, bound together by Freddie. Bari-saxist Charles Davis's solos of quiet character are a find for me which I'll also check out further. Thanks again.
With regard to the "lines of inspiration", I really respond to Marc's likening of Mr. Mathews to Sonny Clark - that really appealed to me. For me, though, Mr. Mathews was always coming so directly from Bud... Bud all the way, the articulation, the time... But then, also, with this most authoritative feel for Monk - yet with such clarity of linear articulation at the same time (as I say, "Bud").
Marc Myers writes regularly for The Wall Street Journal and is author of "Anatomy of 55 More Songs," "Anatomy of a Song," "Rock Concert: An Oral History" and "Why Jazz Happened." Founded in 2007, JazzWax has won three Jazz Journalists Association awards.
Mathews was a member of Woody Shaw's quintet at the time Dexter Gordon's "Homecoming" was recorded, which is how he came to appear on the record. He's on some uniformly excellent Shaw albums, including "Little Red's Fantasy" and "Live at the Berliner Jazzstage"...
Posted by: jeff helgesen | May 09, 2011 at 09:33 AM
Quite apart from the fact that he's "my favourite", I do think that there's a large body of work out there to be looked at. Full marks for highlighting "Doin' The Thang!" (also available as a Japanese import, of course), but I'd say that his greatest record is "So Sorry, Please", trio on Nilva records, with Ray Drummond and Alvin Queen, and that the other essential disc is "Roots, Branches and Dances" on BeeHive, with some of the best Frank Foster on record, as well as Ray Drummond and Al Foster.
It's not coincidental that the best stuff is with Ray Drummond: their partnership in that Johnny Griffin quartet of the late '70s into the '80s, first with Keith Copeland and then with the great Kenny Washington, is some of the best jazz of the era. In fact, just one of my own favourite bands of all time. Check this YouTube (and the rest, I believe the whole set is up here) for immediate proof:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnqeMgu1FYQ
GREAT PIANO SOLO by Mr. Mathews that, consummate band pianist that he was (and it is no coincidence that Max, Blakey and Roy Haynes all hired him, as did T.S. Monk Jnr., for an extended period, but check Haynes' "Cracklin'" record with Booker Ervin...)
Posted by: O'Sullivan, "Red" | May 09, 2011 at 01:44 PM
Charles Davis' gentle approach to the tenor and baritone (and sometimes alto or soprano) may have kept him from becoming a big name. Along with Wess, Heath, and Rollins, one of the few tenor giants from that great era who is still carrying the flame.
Posted by: David | May 09, 2011 at 08:17 PM
The bassist on this album, and some other important discs of the time is Ediie Kahn. Whatever happened to Eddie Kahn? I've asked around and come up with nothing... Anybody?
(Oh, and I'd further add that the Griffin band must-have record is "The Return of the Griffin", Galaxy, really the record that turned me on to Mathews and has kept me there for life, and another good example is the "Autumn Leaves, Live" that they put out latterly on Verve.
Posted by: O'Sullivan, "Red" | May 10, 2011 at 12:56 AM
Thanks for giving Ronnie Matthews his due, Marc. I was lucky enough to hear Ronnie in person with the Johnny Griffin group when it toured Australia in the early 1980s. Happily enough, the TV cameras were on hand for the group's Sydney gig. I recorded the broadcast on tape, and have since dubbed it on to DVD. I'll watch it again tonight.
Posted by: Alan Hill | May 10, 2011 at 02:25 AM
Put that on YouTube, Alan Hill - I beeseach you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: O'Sullivan, "Red" | May 10, 2011 at 02:43 AM
Marc, thanks for recalling the beautiful pianist Ronnie Mathews from the mud that now occupies the space wher my brain should be. Thanks to you I now remember him from the sixties as a pianist to check out further. I never got around to it then but will now. Also will listen to the last record with bassist Ray Drummond who was "inspired" by Bill Evans. The lines of inspiration are indeed long and tangled from the sixties, perhaps in this case, bound together by Freddie. Bari-saxist Charles Davis's solos of quiet character are a find for me which I'll also check out further. Thanks again.
Posted by: Win Hinkle | May 10, 2011 at 02:03 PM
Ditto to Red's beseechment to Alan to put that video on YouTube.
Posted by: Win Hinkle | May 10, 2011 at 02:07 PM
With regard to the "lines of inspiration", I really respond to Marc's likening of Mr. Mathews to Sonny Clark - that really appealed to me. For me, though, Mr. Mathews was always coming so directly from Bud... Bud all the way, the articulation, the time... But then, also, with this most authoritative feel for Monk - yet with such clarity of linear articulation at the same time (as I say, "Bud").
Posted by: O'Sullivan, "Red" | May 11, 2011 at 02:40 PM