Davis Collection: More Misses Than Hits

A monthly roundup of recently released jazz recordings:

MILES DAVIS

“Miles Davis: The Columbia Years 1955-1985.” Columbia.

**** 1/2

During Miles Davis’s three decades with Columbia, his evolution from songs and chords to modes, abstractions and electronics was clearly spelled out. This 12-inch box, containing four CDs, includes many masterpieces representing each phase. The half-star deduction from a maximum rating is due less to musical flaws than to questionable production.

That this package may have been put together a little hastily became clear through minor errors, such as the persistent misspelling of the name of Irving Townsend, who produced such memorable sides as “All Blues,” and the absence of specific track-by-track comments.

More seriously, there seems to have been a deliberate effort to include as many albums as possible; the 35 cuts are taken from no less than 31 LPs. “Kind of Blue” and “Nefertiti” are represented by two tracks apiece; “Jazz Track.,” surely not one of the most deathless albums, is accorded three cuts.

This means that such vital sets as the three seminal collaborations with Gil Evans (“Miles Ahead,” “Porgy and Bess,” “Sketches of Spain”) are represented by only one tune each, as is the radical “Bitches Brew.” The tunes are subdivided, not chronologically, but somewhat arbitrarily under “Blues,” “Standards,” “Originals,” “Moods” and “Electric.”

Discerning Davisologists may prefer to invest in a few specific albums rather than in this somewhat odd collection; nevertheless, there is of course an abundance of memorable and influential music here, despite Davis’s insistence that everything out of his past is now irrelevant.

DUKE ELLINGTON

“Early Ellington, 1927-34.” RCA Bluebird.

*****

These 22 tunes (five are missing on the LP) offer a fascinating study of the Ellington band’s growth, from 10 to 15 men, and from relatively simplistic arrangements to works of lasting brilliance.

To some ears, the rhythm section on the early cuts, with overly loud, thudding four-to-the-bar bass (replaced by a tuba on “The Mooche”) and plunking banjo, may make for rough going, yet there are dateless delights: the scat vocal by Adelaide Hall in “Creole Love Call” (at 80, she’s still active in London), the maestro’s stride piano on “Washington Wabble,” Johnny Hodges at his early best in “Cotton Club Stomp.”

Tracks 12 through 22 (1931 and 1934) offer a bigger, crisp brass section, remarkable work singly and collectively by the sax section (Barney Bigard, Hodges, Harry Carney) and a 1931 “Rockin’ In Rhythm” that differs not too much from the version Bill Berry’s band plays today. There’s also the two-part “Creole Rhapsody,” 8 1/2 minutes, a pretentious but promising augury of later extended works, and best of all, the incredible “Daybreak Express,” light years ahead of its time, from the suspenseful opening accelerando as the train pulls out, to the majestic sax soli passage.

Along with these gems you have some of the very first versions of “Solitude” and “Mood Indigo” and such hell-for-leather 16-bar stomps as “Ring Dem Bells” and “Stompy Jones” (Cootie Williams scatting and playing trumpet). All told, it’s phenomenal proof of the elan with which Ellington led the jazz world through its parturient period.

(Note: Duke Ellington’s “Braggin’ In Brass--The Immortal 1938 Year,” a double CD set, is on CBS/Portrait No. R2K 44395.)

EARL HINES

“Piano Man.” Earl Hines, Piano & Orchestra. RCA Bluebird.

****

The first worldwide influence in jazz piano, Hines is in magnificent form in these 22 items (four of which are on the CD only). These were his most influential years, particularly the 1939-41 period when the first five cuts were recorded. “Rosetta” (his best-known composition) is a virtual definition of swinging jazz piano. “Body and Soul” and “Child of a Disordered Brain” are a curiosity, recorded on a prehistoric electric keyboard, the Storytone piano. Next comes a unique cut featuring Hines with Sidney Bechet on clarinet, “Blues in Thirds.”

Most of the other tracks are by the full orchestra Hines led in Chicago during the 1930s. “Boogie Woogie on St. Louis Blues” and “Piano Man” are built around the leader, but on too many cuts he yields inordinate footage to other soloists. The two early vocals, “Jelly Jelly” and “Stormy Monday,” showcase a youthful Billy Eckstine singing somewhat gentlemanly blues. Helpful notes by Hines’s biographer, Stanley Dance.

BIX BEIDERBECKE

“Bix Lives!” RCA Bluebird.

**

Bix Beiderbecke (1903-1931) was a cult hero in the 1930s and ‘40s just as Charlie Parker has been since the ‘50s. Like Bird, he was a genius whose unique sound and original mind were stilled by a life of self-destruction.

Most of his revelatory records were made with small groups under his own name or that of Frank Trumbauer. On the 23 numbers here (18 on the LP) his cornet can be heard for a grand total of little more than nine minutes out of 70. All but four cuts were made with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra; a few (“San,” “Louisiana”) have stood up well, but most, except for Beiderbecke’s enlightened interludes, are inept, with dreary melodies and arrangements saddled by even worse lyrics, voh-doe-dee-oh group-vocals and, on six songs, examples of an emerging Bing Crosby. Some may find it worthwhile wading through the dross for the diamonds; others may even find 1927 dance music quaintly amusing. A few solos by Trumbauer (C Melody sax) and Jimmy Dorsey (clarinet) relieve the tedium.

BENNY CARTER

“My Kind of Trouble.” Pablo.

****

No, this is not a reissue. Recorded last August, it is the first organ-backed album in Carter’s 60-year recording career. The organist, Art Hillery, works well with Joe Pass’ guitar, Andy Simpkins on bass and Ronnie Bedford on drums as support for Carter’s ever magical alto sax, most notably on his own alluring tunes, “Only Trust Your Heart” and “My Kind of Trouble is You,” and on Don Redman’s “Gee Baby Ain’t I Good To You.” A touch of confusion in the notes: “Eric’s Blues,” described as a medium-fast G blues, is “Berkeley Bounce.”