Ever since Candid Records relaunched in 2021, the label has been busy remastering and re-issuing jazz albums from its back catalog and from its acquisition of Choice Records, a 1970s imprint. It also has been releasing new albums, including Eliane Elias's magnificent Quietude, which I wrote about for The Wall Street Journal (go here). The album has just been nominated for a Grammy. [Photo above of Lee Konitz at New York's Barney Greengrass in 2013 by Marc Myers]
This past week, Candid has reissued three more remastered jazz albums from its Choice catalog—Jimmy Giuffre's Music for People, Birds, Butterflies and Mosquitos (1972); Lee Konitz's Tenorlee (1978); and Toots Thielemans's Captured Alive (1974).
By the 1970s, acoustic jazz was largely on the ropes following the surge in popularity of electric rock and soul. What was left of the jazz recording business and market shifted to younger artists who were pioneering fusion and jazz-rock.
Older musicians who had made a name for themselves in the 1940s and '50s found recording opportunities harder to come by and often turned up on pop and disco studio dates. The smaller number of jazz recording opportunities existed mostly on small independent labels like Choice and in European studios.
In 1972, Giuffre was performing with a newly formed Jimmy Giuffre 3. On his album Music for People, Birds, Butterflies and Mosquitos (1972), Giuffre. who's on flute, clarinet and tenor saxophone, was backed by Kiyoshi Tokunaga (b) and Randy Kaye (d,perc). This pastoral album tends to have a spiritual feel, and Giuffre's flute plays a major role mimicking the feeling of flight. Overall, the recording is really a double-sided suite with avant-garde improvisation. The music holds up well, even though it's out there in places.
In 1977, on Tenorlee, Lee Konitz put down his alto saxophone and picked up the tenor for a largely duo recording with pianist Jimmy Rowles (bassist Michael Moore was added on I Remember You, Thanks for the Memory and Lady Be Good). Tenorlee was recorded over two days—one in January and the other in July. The delicious quality of this album is centered in the contrast between Lee's bone-dry tenor and the juiciness of Rowles's magnificent piano.
Ten of the 11 songs are standards and mostly ballads: I Remember You, Skylark, Thanks for the Memory, You Are Too Beautiful, Handful of Stars, Autumn Nocturn, Tangerine, Lee's Tenorlee, Lady Be Good, The Gypsy and 'Tis Autumn. What's most interesting is that Lee and Rowles aren't trying to fit into a traditional duo format but instead sound like a couple of old friends on a porch having a conversation.
Toots Thielemans's Captured Alive was recorded in 1974 with Thielemans on harmonica backed by Joanne Brackeen (p), Cecil McBee (b) and Freddie Waits (d). This one sounds a little forced, with Thielemans trying hard to climb out of his pop box and shimmy into a jazz feel, while the experimental Brackeen tries hard to lean pop to provide Thielemans with cover. In some ways, it's really Brackeen's album, in that I most want to hear her and the trio, and less of Thielemans struggling harmonica. Perhaps the high point is Sonny Rollins's Airegin, where the artists find a mutual groove. A fascinating meeting of jazz abstractionists and a Euro-harmonicist trying to change lanes.
JazzWax tracks: The three albums are available in all formats and on streaming platforms. You'll find Jimmy Giuffre's Music for People, Birds, Butterflies and Mosquitos here; Lee Konitz's Tenorlee here; and Toots Thielemans's Captured Alive here.
JazzWax tracks: Here's the Jimmy Giuffre 3's Flute Song...
Here's Lee Konitz and Jimmy Rowles playing Autumn Nocturne...
And here's Toots Thielemans with Joanne Brackeen, Cecil McBee and Freddie Waits playing Airegin...
