Search - Thad Jones :: Magnificent Thad Jones (Reis)

Exemplary, textbook trumpet playing yet riveting and emotion

Samuel Chell | Kenosha,, WI United States | 04/30/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When asked about some of the noteworthy living trumpet players in a Down Beat interview, Miles Davis was quick to dismiss practically all of them (by name, which I'll refrain from repeating), with the exception of Thad Jones. The endorsement was all the more remarkable at the time, since Thad was primarily thought of, by many observers of the music, as the guy sitting next to Joe Newman in the Basie Band. But listening to a recording such as this is conclusive proof of Miles' good taste as well as a bit of a puzzler: why didn't Thad assume a more central role in the '50s and early '60s--especially given, in addition to his undeniable playing facility and inventiveness, his talents as composer-arranger? Once Diz, Miles and Clifford are accounted for, the focus on major modern mainstream players of the day is pretty much restricted to Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan, and Freddie Hubbard.



Not that any of the three is undeserving, and not that Thad was the only comparatively neglected trumpet great during this time (Jack Sheldon was launching shooting stars on the West Coast, and Kenny Dorham and Bill Hardman on the East--though far too infrequently in the recording studio, at least as featured players). Listen to "April in Paris" or "I'll Remember April" (collected on "The Fabulous Thad Jones") again--even if you think you've heard enough of either spring tone-poem from Basie, Bird, Clifford, Errol, Red Rodney. Thad's versions of both April tributes is closer to the composers' intentions--a trembling spring wind giving birth, then bringing life to, the nascent new season--than any other (though Johnny Hartman's vocal interpretation of "I'll Remember April" comes close) that comes to mind. In fact, his solo emulates the creative spirit responsible for the season as much as it expresses the celebrant --listen for the careful attention to dynamics, the employment of circular breathing to a wholly musical end, the very design of the solo, which is less about performance than creating a thing of beauty. There are no extra dramatics, gratuitous high notes, calculated climaxes--the creator has identified so completely with his creation that separating the two is difficult and quite beside the point.



In some respects, this is one of the most valuable of the RVG remasters. Rather than mere audio tweaking of a familiar recording, it rescues one of the most valuable sessions of the time (1956, the year of Brownie's death) and incorporates two absolutely breath-taking tracks that were excluded from the original LP. Perhaps both tunes--Gershwin's "I've Got a Crush on You" and the undeniably sentimental "Something to Remember You By"--were considered too "square" at the time of the recording. But Thad employs circular breathing along with the purest tone of any jazz player to breathe new life into both numbers (without question, he had to have been influenced by the phrasing of Sinatra and Tommy Dorsey). Billy Mitchell, another underrated member of the Basie sax section, provides flawless front-line assistance throughout; Barry Harris, as yet to make an impression outside the Detroit area, is equally sensitive; finally, Max Roach, who could be all speed, fire and thunder with Bird and later Brownie, is especially restrained and tasteful on this occasion.



Intended or not, "Magnificence" is a word particularly appropriate to a musician like Thad. Its close etymological cousin is the word "Magnificat," which is a liturgical canticle also known as the "Song of Mary." It's enough to make you wonder if someone at the time of this recording had an intimation that this Detroit trumpet player would some day compose a song that would, like Duke's "Come Sunday," become a jazz standard, which in turn would become a modern-day hymn. More remarkably, "A Child Is Born" is without question the only Christmas Magnificat to have arisen from an indigenous African-American music once consigned, along with its practitioners, to the worshippers of Satan."