ELVIN JONES JAZZ MACHINE- At Onkel Pö’s Carnegie Hall
NDR Info -N77041 (2 CD set)
Elvin Jones (drums) Carter Jefferson (sax) Dwayne Armstrong (sax) Fumio Karashima (piano) Marvin Horne (guitar) Andy McCloud (bass)
Recorded September 22nd 1981, Hamburg, Germany.
Elvin Jones `Jazz Machine` as heard in this live recording is a great steaming behemoth of a combo rather than a fine tooled instrument, delivering heavy duty hard-bop from a testosterone fuelled two tenor frontline, propelled by the rolling thunder of the leader’s seething cross rhythms. The two sax men on this occasion share similar origins, coming out of soul and rhythm and blues backgrounds which they translate easily into slash and burn, high energy solos of considerable duration that must have been exciting to experience on the night but which in a pure audio setting might test the patience of all but the most hard core devotees of the genre.
With several of the pieces clocking in at over 20 minutes the balm provided by the intervals of piano and guitar improvisation together with the inclusion of two quartet tracks, from which the horns take a breather, offers a very necessary diversion from the prevailing pugilistic atmosphere, though it would have been interesting to hear the saxes in ballad mode. `In a Sentimental Mood` and `My One and Only Love` are the two ballads chosen and they give the quartet ample opportunity to express their interpretive eloquence, though at over 15 minutes a piece the group are hard pressed to sustain it.
The recording captures Elvin in the Eighties well beyond his glory days with Coltrane with whom he became the architect of a new and revolutionary style of hard -bop drumming. It shows his talent and energy undiminished nor is his vision diluted by the then prevailing fashion for fusion but other manifestations of `The Jazz Machine` employed more distinctive soloists than those heard here whose best efforts were no doubt hampered by the need to keep the blowing, flowing at somewhat inordinate length.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
NDR Info -N77041 (2 CD set)
Elvin Jones (drums) Carter Jefferson (sax) Dwayne Armstrong (sax) Fumio Karashima (piano) Marvin Horne (guitar) Andy McCloud (bass)
Recorded September 22nd 1981, Hamburg, Germany.
Elvin Jones `Jazz Machine` as heard in this live recording is a great steaming behemoth of a combo rather than a fine tooled instrument, delivering heavy duty hard-bop from a testosterone fuelled two tenor frontline, propelled by the rolling thunder of the leader’s seething cross rhythms. The two sax men on this occasion share similar origins, coming out of soul and rhythm and blues backgrounds which they translate easily into slash and burn, high energy solos of considerable duration that must have been exciting to experience on the night but which in a pure audio setting might test the patience of all but the most hard core devotees of the genre.
With several of the pieces clocking in at over 20 minutes the balm provided by the intervals of piano and guitar improvisation together with the inclusion of two quartet tracks, from which the horns take a breather, offers a very necessary diversion from the prevailing pugilistic atmosphere, though it would have been interesting to hear the saxes in ballad mode. `In a Sentimental Mood` and `My One and Only Love` are the two ballads chosen and they give the quartet ample opportunity to express their interpretive eloquence, though at over 15 minutes a piece the group are hard pressed to sustain it.
The recording captures Elvin in the Eighties well beyond his glory days with Coltrane with whom he became the architect of a new and revolutionary style of hard -bop drumming. It shows his talent and energy undiminished nor is his vision diluted by the then prevailing fashion for fusion but other manifestations of `The Jazz Machine` employed more distinctive soloists than those heard here whose best efforts were no doubt hampered by the need to keep the blowing, flowing at somewhat inordinate length.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
