Seventy years ago, on March 4, 1949, cool jazz was recorded for the first time. Given a mandate to record whatever new jazz was important, Pete Rugolo, Capitol's head of A&R, brought the Lennie Tristano Sextet into the studio to tape two songs—Wow and Crosscurrent. The music by Lee Konitz (as), Warne Marsh (ts), Lennie Tristano (p), Billy Bauer (g), Arnold Fishkin (b) and Harold Granowsky (d) featured the reeds playing bone dry (zero vibrato), high on the upper register and loaded with complex counterpoint lines and freewheeling harmony. Cool jazz didn't catch on the way hard bop would nor did it last long, but it established an original sound and made jazz stars of Konitz, Marsh and Tristano. [Photo above, from left, Gary Foster, Mark Turner, Putter Smith and Joe LaBarbera, courtesy of Braithwaite & Katz Communications]
Now, tenor saxophonist Mark Turner and alto saxophonist Gary Foster, backed by Putter Smith on bass and Joe La Barbera on drums, take on the cool school of the Tristano group minus the piano and guitar. On Mark Turner Meets Gary Foster (Capri), the quartet chose Marsh's Background Music, Sonny Red's 'Teef, Tristano's Lennie's Pennies and 317 East 32nd Street, the standards Come Rain or Come Shine and What's New, and Konitz's Subconcious-Lee.
Fans of cool jazz will find much to love on this album. Each track features the reeds weaving and bobbing dryly with the "driving in reverse" Konitz-Marsh feel. Background Music, Lennie's Pennies and 317 East 32nd Street steal the show, but the other tracks show enormous dexterity and affinity for the style's abstraction and arid sound. If you dig Konitz and Marsh together and how they played off each other, you'll dig this new album. Special kudos to Putter Smith and Joe La Barbera for delivering the knotty bass and persistent drums that colorized cool jazz. [Photo above of Lee Konitz]
I would have loved to have heard the quartet take on Wow and Crosscurrent, but as you'll hear, the results are a full understanding of cool and Tristano's compositional and stylistic break from bebop. [Photo above of Warne Marsh]
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Mark Turner Meets Gary Foster (Capri) here.
You'll also find the album at Spotify.
JazzWax clips: Here's the entire album. Just let it play...
Bonus: Here are the Lennie Tristano groups playing Wow and other tracks from their 1949 Capitol recordings...
Bonus2: Bill Kirchner sent along a link to Ne Plu Ultra, recorded in 1969 and featuring Warne Marsh (ts), Gary Foster (as), Dave Parlato (b), John Tirabasso (d)...
