The Mojo Collection. Various Mojo Magazine
Silver Dagger; East Virginia; Ten Thousand Miles; House Of The Rising Sun; All My Trials; Wildwood Flower; Donna Donna; John Riley; Rake And The Rambling Boy; Little Moses; Mary Hamilton; Henry Martin; El Preso Numero Nuevo
Running time: 46.02
Current CD: Vanguard VMD79594 adds: Girl Of Constant Sorrow; I Know You Rider; John Riley
Further listening: Farewell Angelina (1965)
Further reading: Positively Fourth Street: The Life And Times Of Joan Baez, Bob Dyan And Mimi B (David Hajdu, 2002); www.joanbaez.com
Download: Not currently legally available
In 1960, Joan Baez (then 19) was exactly what the flat, dull and worthy folk scene needed. Unattractiveness was almost a mark of authenticity. That Joan was a striking young raven-haired beauty with a sweet, pure voice certainly did not harm the prospects of her debut album.
She had been a huge hit at the Newport Festival in July the previous year, standing apart from a bill that included Bob Gibson (who invited her there), Pete Seeger, Odetta, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. Unsurprisingly, Joan Baez was a folk revival landmark. No wonder Bob Dylan initially idolised her – his own rise would have been impossible without her. She turned a new younger generation onto folk music – kids who had no time for Pete Seeger singalongs and fresh-faced college boys singing Tom Dooley. It would have been enough if Joan Baez had simply given folk some sex appeal. Yet the content of her debut album also reflected what was happening on the campuses and in the coffee houses, and as one of the first folk soloists to achieve national (and later international) success, she brought the music into the mass market.
Joan Baez was recorded in a hotel ballroom in New York City and produced by Maynard Solomon, to whose label she signed – in preference to CBS – because Solomon was, like Joan, an idealist; he’d signed The Weavers, despite accusations that Pete Seeger was a Communist. She made her home at Vanguard for most of the decade, releasing a staggering 17 albums before a move to A&M. Despite her beautiful singing and the simple arrangements (she had to be persuaded to allow a second guitarist), the album may not be to current tastes; but at the time, its mixture of Carter Family songs (Wildwood Flower), the Negro spiritual All My Trials and a Spanish political song was quite captivating. The ballads – notably John Riley, Silver Dagger and Mary Hamilton – have lasted best.
In America, Joan Baez was an unlikely chart success. It eventually charted in the UK in July 1964, where she enjoyed a Top 10 single a year later with Phil Ochs’ There But For Fortune.
Miles Davis
Sketches Of Spain
Trumpeter and arranger combine gloriously on timeless, impressionist orchestral jazz.
Record label: CBS
Produced: Teo Macero and Irving Townsend
Recorded: 30th St Studio, NYC; November 20, 1959–March 10, 1960
Released: 1960
Chart peaks: None (UK) None (US)
Personnel: Miles Davis (t, flugelhorn); Gil Evans (ar); Ernie Royal, Bernie Glow, Louis Mucci, Taft Jordan (t); Dick Hixon, Frank Rehak (t); Jimmy Buffington, John Barrows, Earl Chapin (French horn); Jimmy McAllister, Bill Barber (tuba); Al Block, Eddie Caine (flute); Romeo Penque (oboe); Harold Feldman (clarinet, oboe); Danny Bank (bass clarinet); Jack Knitzer (bassoon); Janet Putman (harp); Paul Chambers (bs); Jimmy Cobb (d); Elvin Jones (pc)
Track listing: Concierto De Aranjuez (Adagio); Will O’ The Wisp; The Pan Piper; Saeta; Solea
Running time: 41:33
Current CD: Sony Legacy CK 65142 adds: Song Of Our Country; Concierto De Aranjuez (Part One); Concierto De Aranjuez (Part Two ending)
Further listening: Miles Ahead (1957); Porgy And Bess (1958)
Further reading: Miles The Autobiography (Miles Davis and Quincy Troupe, 1989); Miles Davis (Ian Carr, 1982); www.milesdavis.com
Download: iTunes
The Miles Davis/Gil Evans collaborations of the late ’50s were era-defining statements of orchestral jazz that continue to inspire composers and arrangers of all persuasions.
Miles: ‘I loved working with Gil because he was so meticulous and creative, and I trusted his musical arrangements completely.’
The Evans style – lugubrious, luminous brass, woodwind colours and modern shifting-sands harmony – was the ideal backdrop for the doleful splendour of Miles’s horn and the music they made together spoke to an audience beyond jazz listeners. Indeed, some jazz lovers were openly sceptical about the balance between arrangement and spontaneity, though the reputation these days of the three albums they made between 1957 and 1960 is that of unassailable classics. It would have been a remarkable period for Davis with his sextet achievements alone (1958’s Milestones and 1959’s Kind Of Blue), but the artistic success of the Birth Of The Cool (1949/50) and the first full Evans collaboration Miles Ahead (1957) added to the commercial viability of their Porgy And Bess (1958), and assured Miles that ‘Gil and I were something special together musically.’
When a friend played Miles Joaquin Rodrigo’s guitar concerto, he excitedly shared it with Evans who ran with the Spanish idea, researching flamenco and the life of the Spanish gypsy, adapting Will O’ The Wisp from Manuel de Falla’s 1915 ballet El Amor Brujo and deriving Saeta from a religious Spanish march. Concept in place, the music proved elusive and difficult to play (Miles eventually instructed the ensembles to relax, creating a powerful raggedness). With awkward instrumental balances to record (several expensive sessions resulted in nothing being salvaged), it took 15 three-hour sessions and much editing to complete. The resulting record, however, is perhaps the richest work that Davis and Evans had yet created; hypnotic percussive ostinati, drifting/hanging harmonic backdrops and Miles’s floating, haunted meditations, often on a single Spanish scale – music of ceremonial majesty.
There are resisters (‘For the listener in search of jazz, there is mighty little of that commodity evident,’ observed the New York Times, ‘Inflated light music’ maintains the respected Penguin Guide To Jazz On CD) but for generations of impartial listeners to come, Sketches Of Spain will continue to weave its spell.
Oliver Nelson
Blues And The Abstract Truth
Jazz philospher creates a bracing new blend of musical colours to inaugurate the 1960s.
Record label: Impulse!
Produced: Creed Taylor
Recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood, New Jersey; February 23, 1961
Released: May 1961
Chart peaks: None (UK) None (US)
Personnel: Oliver Nelson (as, ts); Eric Dolphy (as, flute); Freddie Hubbard (t); George Barrow (bs); Bill Evans (p); Paul Chambers (b); Roy Haynes (d); Rudy Van Gelder (e)
Track listing: Stolen Moments; Hoe-Down; Cascades; Yearnin’; Butch and Bitch; Teenies Blues
Running time: 36.43
Current CD: Impulse! 1704656
Further listening: Soul Battle (1960) – wonderful blowing session with Jimmy Forrest and King Curtis; More Blues And The Abstract Truth (1964)
Further reading: www.vervemusicgroup.com/artist.aspx?ob=per&src=prd&aid=2789