JazzWax

Sonny Rollins & Monk

Tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins didn't record much with pianist Thelonious Monk, but what they did record together remains remarkable. It's a shame they weren't brought together for several albums or recorded live, but the timing was never quite right. By the late 1950s both Sonny and Monk were towering jazz leaders, blazing paths on their own sessions. [Album photo above by Prestige founder Bob Weinstock]

For Sonny and Monk's first pairing in November 1953, three tracks were recorded for Prestige—Let's Call This, Think of One and Friday the 13th. The first two appeared initially on a Prestige 45 entitled Thelonious Monk Quintet. All three also were released on a 10-inch LP called Thelonious Monk Quintet Blows for LP, Featuring Sonny Rollins. The musicians were Julius Watkins (fhr), Sonny (ts), Monk (p), Percy Heath (b) and Willie Jones (d).

Sonny and Monk's second session came in October 1954, when they again recorded three tracks—I Want to Be Happy, The Way You Look Tonight and More Than You Know. These songs were added to a Monk 10-inch LP entitled Work! The quartet featured Sonny (ts), Monk (p), Tommy Potter (b) and Art Taylor (d).

Sonny and Monk's first 12-inch LP together was Monk's Brilliant Corners, recorded for Riverside in October 1956. The songs were Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-are, Pannonica, Brilliant Corners and Bemsha Swing. The first three featured Ernie Henry (as), Sonny (ts), Monk (p,celeste), Oscar Pettiford (b) and Max Roach (d). The last featured Clark Terry (tp), Sonny (ts), Monk (p), Paul Chambers (b) and Max Roach (d,tymp).

Their last two collaborative studio tracks appeared on Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2 (Blue Note), recorded in April 1957. The songs were Monk's Reflections and Misterioso. The musicians were J.J. Johnson (tb), Sonny (ts), Horace Silver and Monk (p) on different tracks, Paul Chambers (b) and Art Blakey (d).

Of the 12 songs they recorded together, my favorites are The Way You Look Tonight and More Than You Know. On the former, Sonny opens low briefly and then jumps high into the melody, sailing along flawlessly, unspooling a long ribbon of muscular, sandpaper-y improvisation with Monk comping behind him. Then Monk chisels away at the song on his solo. When Sonny returns, he works his way up the song's chords and quotes a little-known standard, Whispering Grass (Don't Tell the Trees). Sonny's command is terrific, and his confident lines are breathtaking. Dig what he does on the second half and the outro. Frighteningly great.

The ballad More Than You Know opens with a Chambers bass solo. Then Sonny plays a bluesy reading of the standard. Here again, Sonny is strong and loaded with seamless ideas. Monk takes a lengthy solo halfway in, which is surprisingly straight-forward, with fascinating chord work. On the rebound, Sonny's horn is mighty and seductive, especially on the double-timed passages. And dig that final upturned punctuation note by Sonny at the tail end. [Photo above of Sonny Rollins and Thelonious Monk]

Listening to Sonny and Monk together is jazz at its finest—two thick textures, two spirited reworkings of original melodies, and plenty of swing. The resulting art is timeless. [Photo above, from left, drummer Roy Haynes, pianist Thelonious Monk, saxophonist Sonny Rollins and bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik at New York's Five Spot]

JazzWax tracks: You'll find The Way You Look Tonight and More Than You Know on Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins here and on Thelonious Monk-Sonny Rollins Complete Recordings here.

They also are on Spotify.

JazzWax clips: Here's The Way You Look Tonight...

And here's More Than You Know...

Peter, Paul and Andy

In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed James Patterson, the country's bestselling author of adult fiction, for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). What you may not know about Jim: His father didn't give him a hug until he was on his deathbed, Jim was the head of J. Walter Thompson's U.S. operations for a time and he came up with the ad line, "I'm a Toys 'R' Us Kid." His latest novel is Murder Games.

Also in the WSJ, I interviewed bestselling thriller author Lisa Scottoline for my "Playlist" column in the Review section (go here). Lisa talked about her Joni Mitchell conversion in college and what happened once she grasped the quality of singer's songs. Her latest book is One Perfect Lie. [Photo above of Lisa Scottoline courtesy of Lisa Scottoline]

Peter, Paul and Mary with Andy Williams. Before you spit up your coffee, this pairing was quite fascinating, Courtesy of Jim Eigo of Jazz Promo Services...

Love Paris? I do, too. And so does someone else online who has assembled dozens of album covers between 1957 and 1963 that used Paris as a theme (go here).

Peter, Paul and Mary appeared on the Jack Benny Program in January 1964. Once again, before you cringe, check it out. The clip is touching and we get to hear the folk trio in skits. The generation gap narrowed before it widened...

Baden Powell. Steve Barrow sent along a link to Saravah, a 1972 documentary directed by Pierre Barouh about Brazilian music in 1969. According to IMDB, the film features "the only color footage of Pixinguinha; images of João da Baiana, one of the fathers of samba; Maria Bethânia rehearsing at Barroco nightclub; Baden Powell playing his acoustic guitar; Paulinho da Viola showing his masterpiece, Coisas do Mundo, Minha Nega that he just finished; and Márcia, a singer from São Paulo." Go here...

You'll find the Saravah documentary as a DVD here.

Bill Kirchner radio. On Saturday evening (June 17), Fritz Byers will broadcast a three-hour program of Bill's albums on his long-running show, Jazz Spectrum 91. The show will air on WGTE-FM 91 in Toledo, Ohio, from 9 p.m. to midnight (EDT). You can listen on your computer or phone from anywhere in the world by going here. Click on "listen live" in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

What the heck. Here are the Intruders performing Cowboys to Girls on Soul Train in November 1971...

Oddball album cover of the week.

As we can tell by the expression on this cover model's face, women of the 1950s really enjoyed loud brass and woodwind instruments blaring in close proximity to their ears.

Video: Maynard Ferguson

In the fall of 1969, Maynard Ferguson toured Europe with a great book of arrangements and top European musicians. On Nov. 29, Ferguson's European Dream Band was in Vienna at the Konzerthaus, a formal hall that dates back to 1913. The band included Maynard Ferguson (tp, vtb), Dusko Goykovich (tp), Heinz Hermann (as), Brian Smith (ts, ss), Ferdinand Povel (ts); Pete Jackson (p), Toni Barnthaler (b) and Randy Jones (d).

The songs performed were Take the A Train (arr. Don Sebesky), Blues (arr. Ernie Wilkins), Watermelon Man (arr. Sebesky), Somewhere (arr. Keith Mansfield), The Fox Hunt (arr. Mike Abene), Italian Suite (arr. Don Menza), Got the Spirit (arr. Slide Hampton) and Go East Young Man (arr. Slide Hampton).

Here's a video uploaded last month of the concert in its entirety...

Hank Mobley: Roll Call

Starting with Soul Station, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley embarked on a powerful series of recordings for Blue Note in the 1960s. His sixteen releases recorded during the decade tapped into virtually every musical trend, including bossa nova, boogaloo, funk and soul. All featured Mobley at his peak, exhibiting a bossy muscularity with a smooth, slippery articulation on solos. What's more, he was paired with a wide range of top artists, giving each album a different energy and feel.

One of the finest (and I hesitate even to use that word, since all of his albums during the '60s had admirable qualities) was Roll Call. Recorded in November 1960, the album featured Mobley (ts), Freddie Hubbard (tp), Wynton Kelly (p), Paul Chambers (bs) and Art Blakey (d). Everyone on this session was at his peak. Blakey's drumming will raise hairs on your arm. Kelly's piano is frighteningly fluid. Chambers is rock solid. Hubbard is searing. And listening to Mobley is like watching a heavyweight boxer hit a heavy bag. His commanding strength and agility on his horn are remarkable.

As Roll Call proves, Mobley also was a terrific hard-bop composer. On the album, Mobley was responsible for the title track, My Groove Your Move, Take Your Pick, A Baptist Beat and The Breakdown. The balance was a standard, The More I See You. In the '60s, Mobley's originals were so strong that the prerequisite ballads that Blue Note added to sell records were almost always predictable letdowns.

On Roll Call, Mobley's originals are sterling. The title track is a minor-key tour de force, with Blakey driving the show with cymbal crashes, press rolls and intricate rhythms. My Groove, Your Move is a sassy walker with standout solos, particularly by Mobley. Take Your Pick features a moving gospel-flavored hard-bop line that sounds as if it belonged on Freddie Redd's The Connection album released earlier in the year. And dig Kelly's piano solo! Smooth as glass. A Baptist Beat is a funky blues. And the album's closer, The Breakdown, is a barn burner with Blakey dropping random drum bombs and cymbal crashes. At one point, Blakey sounds as if he kicked his entire kit down a flight of stairs. Incredible work.

It goes without saying that Mobley's 1950s releases were solid and engaging. But for me, they're not quite as explosive, determined and eclectic as his 1960s work. There's a maturity in the latter recordings that put him squarely in charge of his instrument and what he wanted to do with it, even as the audience dwindled. Best of all are his originals during this period, demonstrating once again that Mobley was a vastly underrated quintet composer.

Hank Mobley died in 1986.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Hank Mobley's Roll Call (Blue Note) here or at Spotify.

JazzWax clips: Here's The Breakdown...

Baden Powell: Tristeza on Guitar

In the States, guitarist Baden Powell remains one of the least known bossa nova pioneers of the late 1950s and 1960s. Rather than play the smoothed-out, laid-back samba popularized by João Gilberto, Luiz Bonfá, Carlos Lyra, Roberto Menescal, João Donato and Antonio Carlos Jobim, to name just a few, Powell favored a more percussive attack that mixed Brazilian and African rhythms with a classical guitar approach. Powell also didn't travel much to New York, which by 1964 had become the commercial center of bossa nova recording thanks largely to Creed Taylor at Verve and CTI/A&M.

Perhaps Powell's best-known composition was Samba Saravah, which appeared on the 1966 soundtrack to the movie A Man and a Woman. Other major original words include Samba Triste, Samba em Prelúdio, Berimbau and Tristeza. One of his finest albums was for the German MPS label—Tristeza on Guitar, recorded in 1966. The album has just been re-issued as a download by Edel AG, which acquired the MPS label in January 2014. It's also available on CD and vinyl.

The album features Powell on guitar, agogo and surdo; Copinha on flute and agogo; Sergio on bass; Alfredo Bessa on atabaque and guica; Amauri Coelho on pandeiro and atabaque; and the great Milton Banana on drums. Powell's playing is masterful on every track. There is a pensive Manha De Carneval, a stunning Round About Midnight and a gorgeous classical piece called Invencao Em 7 1/2. My favorite, though, is Das Rosas (And Roses and Roses). To be honest, the only way to listen to Tristeza on Guitar (Sadness on Guitar) is from start to finish. It's much more rewarding when you treat it as a concept album in which all the songs are tied together.

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1937, Powell was a guitar virtuoso at a young age. He purloined his aunt's guitar when he was 8 and was playing professionally by age 15. His grandfather was black and led the first all-black orchestra in Brazil. Powell's father played violin and was the leader of a Brazilian Boy Scouts troop. He idolized Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the British scouting movement, which is how Powell got his name. Powell gained visibility in Brazil and worldwide when he teamed with Vinicius de Moraes, who wrote lyrics for most of Powell's compositions. A jazz devote, Powell said he was most influenced by Django Reinhardt and Barney Kessel.

This album is a powerful masterclass in the Brazilian guitar, with samba, jazz and classical elements. All these years later, it remains vital listening for anyone who appreciates melancholy and has an ear for joy.

Baden Powell died in 2000.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Baden Powell's Tristeza on Guitar (MPS) here and on Spotify.

JazzWax clips: Here's the title track...

Here's Samba Saravah from A Man and a Woman...

Rolf Ericson & American Stars

If you check the personnel of Charlie Barnet's band in 1949—the killer one with arrangements by Bobby Sherwood, Manny Albam, Pete Rugolo, Gil Fuller, Dave Matthews and Johnny Richards—you'll find a guy named Rolf Ericson in the trumpet section. Ericson sat next to horn players such as Maynard Ferguson, Lammar Wright Jr., Doc Severinsen, Ray Wetzel and Shorty Rogers among others as the personnel shifted on the road and in the recording studio. Ericson had come over to the States in 1947 from Sweden to play with Barnet as well as Woody Herman's Second Herd before returning home. He was back in the States starting in 1952 to record with a bunch of other top bands as well as the Lighthouse All-Stars on the West Coast.

Then in the spring of 1956, Ericson popped back to Sweden to record with two extraordinary rhythm sections for the country's Metronome label. On those session in May and June, he recorded with Cecil Payne (bar), Duke Jordan (p), John Simmons (b) and Art Taylor (d). They cut 10 tracks, including one with vocalist Ernestine Anderson. But this studio group apparently ran afoul of the Swedish drug laws and were sent back to the States. In July, they were replaced on the road in Sweden by Lars Gullin (bar), Freddie Redd (p), Tommy Potter (b) and Joe Harris (d), with Ernestine Anderson (vcl) remaining. The group was recorded live.

All of this astonishing music appeared on the EmArcy label in the States as part of Mercury's distribution deal with Sweden. Now, it can be heard on the just released Rolf Ericson and His All American Stars (Fresh Sound). Interestingly, the point of gathering the American artists for the Stockholm studio session was to tour the many Swedish folk parks during the summer months of '56. The studio rhythm section was exceptional—Jordan, Simmons and Taylor. Interestingly, all three would never record together after this encounter. Simmons and Taylor would appear on trombonist Matthew Gee's Jazz By Gee, recorded after the ejected musicians returned to New York in '56. But that was it. [Photo above, from left, Chet Baker, Miles Davis and Rolf Ericson at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, Calif., in 1953 by (c)Cecil Charles/CTSImages]

All of the musicians on the session are superb, particularly Cecil Payne and Duke Jordan. But the big surprise is Ericson. He played a tight, lyrical trumpet, reminiscent in some ways of Buddy Childers, and his idiomatic feel was pure Birdland. He complete understood the American vernacular. If you dig Ernestine Anderson, the six vocal tracks on this release are solid, but unfortunately there are few breaks in the vocals for instrumental solos, so we hear little of the touring group. 

The original songs on the album were by Duke Jordan—three on his own (Forecast, Jordu and Flight to Jordan) and two co-written with Cecil Payne (Visby Groove Alley and Vacker Flicka).

Rolf Ericson died in 1997.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Rolf Ericson and His All American Stars (Fresh Sound) here, here and at Spotify.

JazzWax clip: Here's This Time the Dream's on Me...

Bud Shank and Three Trombones

Bud Shank was among the most widely recorded West Coast jazz reed players. He was on more than 600 known jazz recording sessions, according to Tom Lord's Jazz Discography, and several hundred pop and movie sessions in the 1960s and beyond. Heard most often on alto saxophone, Bud began his recording career in 1947 with Ike Carpenter and then with Charlie Barnet in 1948 before he joined Stan Kenton's neo-classical Innovations Orchestra in 1950. He left the band with Shorty Rogers and others in 1952 to pioneer a more swinging West Coast jazz sound through small ensembles, recording largely with groups and bands led by Rogers and Maynard Ferguson in '52 and '53.

In 1954, Bud was featured as the leader of a septet album for Pacific Jazz—Bud Shank and Three Trombones—that included Bob Enevoldsen, Maynard Ferguson and Stu Williamson (v-tb), Bud Shank (as), Claude Williamson (p), Joe Mondragon (b) and Shelly Manne (d) playing Bob Cooper's arrangements. In April, four songs were recorded—Mobile, Baby's Birthday Party, You Don't Know What Love Is and Sing Something Simple. The band regrouped in June to record Valve in Head, Cool Fool, Little Girl Blue and Wailing Vessel. These were initially issued on a 10-inch LP.

This album would be Bud's first pure leadership session, excluding the earlier Bud Shank/Shorty Rogers Quintet date of March 1954, with Rogers on flugelhorn, Bud on flute and alto sax, Jimmy Rowles on piano, Harry Babasin on bass and Roy Harte on drums. On the three-trombones date, you can hear the West Coast energy virtually leaping through the speakers. In most cases, Bud is cast as the fox to the trombone hounds, staying several lengths in front of the snapping horns. But on the ballads Little Girl Blue and You Don't Know What Love Is, Bud's alto sounds as if it's almost crying, with the trombones giving up the chase to surround him and play harmony in support.

Overall, Cooper's trombone arrangements are sterling and peppy. Enevoldsen, Ferguson and Williamson were tough-tiger valve players, meaning Bud had to work hard to sail above their basso growls and grunts, and sail he does. Among the album's highlights are Wailing Vessel and the song's alternate take. The West Coast produced quite a few trombone-heavy recording sessions, among them Four Freshmen and Five Trombones (1955), Russ Garcia's Four Horns and a Lush Life (1955), Trombones Inc.'s Power-Packed Trombones (1958), Jackie Davis Meets the Trombones (1959) and Pete Rugolo's Ten Trombones Like Two Pianos (1960). Bud's leadership session led the way.

Bud died in 2009. I had a chance to interview Bud multiple times in 2008. For a sampling of posts and interviews, go here, here, here, here, here and here.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Bud Shank and Three Trombones here and here.

JazzWax clip: Here's Wailing Vessel...

Kareem, Alan and Dion

He's 7-foot 2 and loves jazz. In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for my "House Call" column (go here). We talked about growing up in the Inwood section of Manhattan (where I grew up), listening to jazz and how Kareem gravitated to basketball. It all started with Go Man Go...

Also this week in WSJ, I interviewed a towering figure of another sort—actor Alan Alda, on the Beatles' She's Leaving Home from Sgt. Pepper and the song's personal connection (go here). One of my favorite Alan Alda roles...

Hal Blaine, the Wrecking Crew drummer who's on more than 40 #1 Billboard singles and 150 top-10 hits, sent along a link to a new Modern Drummer magazine interview on the birth of rock drumming (go here).

Harry Warren radio. On-air jazz maven Sid Gribetz presents a five-hour radio broadcast celebrating the career of composer Harry Warren on “Jazz Profiles” this Sunday from 2-7 p.m. on WKCR-New York. You can access Sid's special show on the great American Songbook composer on your computer or smartphone from anywhere in the world by going here.

Saxophonist Bill Kirchner's four CDs are now available at YouTube and Spotify: Old Friends, with Bill Kirchner and Marc Copland (here); One Starry Night, featuring the Bill Kirchner Nonet with Sheila Jordan (here); Lifeline, featuring the Bill Kirchner Nonet (here); and An Evening of Indigos (here).

Pop CD picks. In past weeks, I've come across a bunch of solid pop albums that you may want to check out at Spotify, YouTube or Amazon:

Dion—Kickin' Child: The Lost Album 1965 (Norton). Dion's #1 hit Runaround Sue in 1962 for Laurie Records landed him a five-year contract with Columbia. But the music shifted radically during those five years, forcing Dion to branch out. In 1965, between Runaround Sue and his hit Abraham, Martin and John in 1968, Dion recorded a strong-voiced folk-country album that was never released (though a few singles were). Universal producer Rob Santos found the album in Sony's vaults and released it. The album is Dion like you've never heard him before singing coffee-house flavored originals and three Bob Dylan songs, including It's All Over Now, Baby Blue. Highly introspective and sensitive music from the artist who influenced every male singer-songwriter who followed. Go here.

Glen Campbell—Adiós (Universal). In 2011, Campbell announced he had Alzheimer's and began a series of farewell albums and performances as he coped with his illness. This album features Campbell in superb voice recording favorites in 2012 and 2013 that he never had an opportunity to record. The album is heartbreakingly beautiful for a range of reasons. Go here. Here's Everybody's Talkin' at Me...

Chuck Berry—Chuck (Dualtone). In October 2016, the king of rock 'n' roll announced that he was going to release an album in 2017 featuring previously unreleased material recorded between 1991 and 2014. It would be his first album in 38 years. When Berry died on March 18 of this year, the album was scheduled for released on June 9. It's out now, and the album is fresh and strong, with old-school beats and Berry's lanky vocals. The album has a few soft spots (You Go to My Head, Enchiladas and Jamaica Moon, for example), but for the most part, it has plenty of back-beat energy and rock guitar. (Go here).

What the heck. Here's New Orleans soul artist King Floyd singing Groove Me, a #1 R&B hit in 1971...

Oddball album cover of the week.

Seems our suitor is gnawing on the cover model's face. And judging by her expression, he may have slipped something in her drink. What is this thing called love, indeed.

Videos: Diahann Carroll

Diahann Carroll is best known as an African-American actress who appeared in movies in the 1950s and then on TV in the'60s and beyond—most notably on Julia and Dynasty. Julia aired on NBC from 1968 to 1971 and starred Carroll as a widowed nurse who worked in a white doctor's office (Lloyd Nolan). It was the first network TV show to feature an African-American woman in the lead role (Gail Fisher, Mannix's secretary, played a supporting role).

But Carroll also was a highly accomplished singer and entertainer, and she appeared often on TV variety shows and at top supper clubs as a pop vocalist. Adults then knew she could sing but not kids, who were tuned into rock and soul. As a result, she's not as well known today as a singer as she should be among former kids who now are graying adults.

By the early 1960s, she was an A-list celebrity who was invited to JFK's inauguration party in January 1961 and sang for the new president. She's still with us today. Here are videos of Carroll singing over the years:

Here's Diahann Carroll with Judy Garland in Feb. 1964...

Here's Carroll on the same show, singing Quiet Nights...

Here's Carroll in 1967...

Here's Carroll with Tom Jones in 1969...

Here's Carroll with Cher singing Ease on Down the Road in 1976...

And here's Carroll in concert in 2010...

Hampton Hawes: All Night Long

I've never been a huge fan of pianist Hampton Hawes. His keyboard attacks on many leadership trio albums are frantic, uneven and overly concerned with speed and percussive impact than harnessed intensity. The result is a jarring listen often followed by a headache. Dazzling jazz pianists who skillfully held their emotional horses include Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Al Haig, Erroll Garner and Billy Taylor, to name just a few. For whatever reason, the burner under Hawes's proverbial pan was up way too high when he recorded solely with bass and drums.

Interestingly, this high-strung approach was calmed when Hawes led a quartet with a guitar. Yesterday I spent more than 12 hours listening to most of Hawes's albums. His finest recordings, by far, were the three All Night Session albums recorded on November 12 and 13 in 1956. This live studio date for Contemporary Records featured Hawes (p), Jim Hall (g), Red Mitchell (b) and Bruz Freeman (d).

For some reason, when the guitar was along for the ride, Hawes was kept in check, with the guitar serving as an instrumental chaperone. With the guitar, Hawes had to listen and remain in sync with another lead player. Another example of a flawless Hawes quartet album with guitar is Four!, with Hawes (p), Barney Kessell (g), Red Mitchell (b) and Shelly Manne (d).

Of course, Hawes also was superb as a sideman, especially when in the mix on albums led by Art Pepper, Shorty Rogers, Warne Marsh, Lennie Niehaus and Curtis Fuller. Unfortunately, Hawes only led quartet recordings with a guitar twice—the two just mentioned. The only other examples were two tracks for guitarists John Ashby and John Collins's Guitar Players in 1976, recorded just months before Hawes's death in 1977 at age 48.

The All Night Session was a stunning achievement and remains a landmark recording. Though the three volumes have been largely forgotten today, the albums are a splendid entry to jazz and further evidence of why jazz is such extraordinary music. So why were these albums called All Night Session? From Arnold Shaw's liner notes in 1958:

"As a group, the three albums and sixteen selections comprising All Night Session represent a most unusual achievement in the annals of jazz recordings. The almost two hours of music were recorded at a single continuous session in the order in which you hear the numbers and without editing of any kind. This seems like an impossible feat. Playing steadily for several hours is a taxing physical experience at best, but improvising continually for that length of time is an exhausting one, mentally and emotionally. Yet the later selections in All Night Session reveal no flagging of spontaneity or inventiveness."

Actually, Shaw's notes are a little deceptive. For one, Hawes wrote in his autobiography, Raise Up Off Me: A Portrait of Hampton Hawes, "I got together a quartet, using Jim Hall on guitar. We recorded twelve tracks in one continuous session from 9 at night to 8:30 the next morning." Clearly there were alternate takes or lengthy breaks, since 11 1/2 hours in the studio by Hawes's accounting was needed to record two hours of music on vinyl. For another, Hawes's drug addiction during this period left him "in bad shape" by his own admission. Which means he was likely using during the session (stunning, given how impeccable the material is). This, of course, leads one to jump to a conclusion—that the reason for All Night Session was because Hawes needed money. He may have suggested he give Contemporary enough music for three albums all at once for three cash paydays up front.

No matter how you slice this marathon session, it remains one of the finest recordings in jazz history. Not only are the three albums perfect in every way, the set is an exemplary collaboration between two jazz giants—Hawes and Jim Hall. If all I could do was listen to this set for a week straight, I'd be fine with that. See what you think.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find all three All Night Session albums together in sets here and here.

It looks like just Volume 1 is available at Spotify.

JazzWax clip: Here's April in Paris, which after Charlie Parker's version with strings in 1949 and Count Basie's 1955 rendition, is my third favorite jazz interpretation of the standard...

April in Paris