HEINER STADLER: Tribute to Bird and Monk
Labor, 1978

AVANT-GARDE – CD reissue of a session that still sounds wildly daring more than 30 years after it was recorded. Credit that to Stadler’s fearless arrangements and selection of personnel, which threw bop tradition and free jazz together in a musical pressure cooker and let them duke it out. It can sound like a drunken brawl on the surface, but this music was made with very careful control and steadfast vision.

Thad Jones : cornet & flugelhorn
George Adams : tenor sax & flute
George Lewis : trombone
Stanley Cowell : piano
Reggie Workman : bass
Lenny White : drums

Fo’s Picks: 1, 2, 4

1. 12:42 – urgent, lumpy bop drive: horns slip progressively further into free jazz, piano jumps; knotty solo bass & drum breaks round it out
2. 18:43 – thick & sinister, with melodic phrases separated by free passages; abstract piano as horns quote Monk, then all against bashing drums
3. 6:02 – bop melody warped, swinging but played in clashing keys & tempos
4. 21:02 – very loose feel: first third is laid back with trumpet, middle third has strutting rhythms, final third dominated by walking bass solo
5. 13:56 – mad drums all over this one; piano & horns walk a tightrope, and yet another impressive bass solo takes up the center
6. 5:51 – bass walks through a minefield, boppin’ flute & abstract sax

[ Fo ] 05/21/11