QOW TRIO
There are numerous piano less trios, but how many can boast three generations in one trio? The answer is not many, but it is reassuring that there is at least one with QOW Trio featuring saxophonist Riley Stone-Lonergan, Eddie Myer on double bass and veteran Spike Wells on drums. Together they bring a wealth of knowledge and experience, and all bring a youthful exuberance to their music that, if their debut album QOW Trio released on Ubuntu is anything to go by, is both steeped in tradition and constantly looking to the future.
So what is the secret of producing music that acknowledges the past whilst still ensuring that the music remains current and of today? A nod to the past masters with no hint of slavish copying, but simply a fresh and exciting take on some well known tunes, and also able to make a very personal collective statement to boot.
To try and find out more, we asked the members of the Trio to pick five of their favourite albums a piece with some interesting and surprising choices among them.
So what is the secret of producing music that acknowledges the past whilst still ensuring that the music remains current and of today? A nod to the past masters with no hint of slavish copying, but simply a fresh and exciting take on some well known tunes, and also able to make a very personal collective statement to boot.
To try and find out more, we asked the members of the Trio to pick five of their favourite albums a piece with some interesting and surprising choices among them.
SPIKE WELLS
Here are five faves - not the five but a five...
Here are five faves - not the five but a five...
COUNT BASIE - The Count At The Chatterbox (Jazz Archives J-A 16)
Very early 1937. Radio broadcasts from the Hotel William Penn in Pittsburgh during a residency. The band is raw and thrilling. No Freddie Green yet (Claude Williams on guitar/violin) but Walter Page and Jo Jones are in place and the young Lester Young (my all time hero) takes some gorgeous solos.
THAD JONES-MEL LEWIS ORCHESTRA - Monday Night At The Village Vanguard (United Artists UAS 29016)
I love this band for the arrangements and the improbable but brilliantly successful rhythm section of Roland Hanna, Richard Davis and Mel. This gig contains the best ever of their versions of Mornin',Reverend. Always intrigued me that Joe Henderson sat on the end of the saxophone section and never took a solo! But Eddie Daniels is great.
TONY COE WITH THE BRIAN LEMON TRIO - Presented by Paul Keen (77 Records 77 SEU 12/41)
A live set from Ronnie Scott's in 1971. Tony Coe always knocks me out and Brian Lemon's very catchy Line-up blues (a theme he wrote as the signature tune for BBC2's "Late night line-up" is included but the main attraction for me is PHIL SEAMEN - towards the end of his life but still one of Britain's greatest drummers - who introduces the band to an unwarmed-up audience, marking them out of ten for applause and announcing that Brian Lemon is "opening the batting from the gasworks end". Inimitable Phil. And all the music is sublime.
Very early 1937. Radio broadcasts from the Hotel William Penn in Pittsburgh during a residency. The band is raw and thrilling. No Freddie Green yet (Claude Williams on guitar/violin) but Walter Page and Jo Jones are in place and the young Lester Young (my all time hero) takes some gorgeous solos.
THAD JONES-MEL LEWIS ORCHESTRA - Monday Night At The Village Vanguard (United Artists UAS 29016)
I love this band for the arrangements and the improbable but brilliantly successful rhythm section of Roland Hanna, Richard Davis and Mel. This gig contains the best ever of their versions of Mornin',Reverend. Always intrigued me that Joe Henderson sat on the end of the saxophone section and never took a solo! But Eddie Daniels is great.
TONY COE WITH THE BRIAN LEMON TRIO - Presented by Paul Keen (77 Records 77 SEU 12/41)
A live set from Ronnie Scott's in 1971. Tony Coe always knocks me out and Brian Lemon's very catchy Line-up blues (a theme he wrote as the signature tune for BBC2's "Late night line-up" is included but the main attraction for me is PHIL SEAMEN - towards the end of his life but still one of Britain's greatest drummers - who introduces the band to an unwarmed-up audience, marking them out of ten for applause and announcing that Brian Lemon is "opening the batting from the gasworks end". Inimitable Phil. And all the music is sublime.
ARNETT COBB - Party Time (Prestige 7165)
The Blue Note label was renowned for paying its artists to rehearse and produced polished and original music. PRESTIGE by contrast wanted to hustle musicians in and out and pay minimum scale. Although the recording quality was equally good (both labels used Rudy Van Gelder), inevitably Prestige albums tended to sound a bit churned out on the production line - a couple of blues, a couple of standards, a couple of ballads etc. Occasionally, as here, the formula yielded magic results. I've always dug Arnett Cobb's Texas wail and here he has Ray Bryant (er, for me the "rich man's Oscar Peterson!") on piano. Slow poke is the dirtiest low down blues you could ever hope for and the closer Cocktails for two is perfection for the tenor + rhythm + conga format.
JACKIE McLEAN - New Soil (Blue Note BLP 4013)
Jackie is perhaps an acquired taste. He plays quite sharp (must be deliberate) and his lines can be deliciously sour. To me, this combination gives him a totally hip and authentic sound. This is his very first album for Blue Note and it is one of his best. Hip strut with its figure and release structure is an excellent illustration of his dead-pan sardonic style. Donald Byrd plays explosive trumpet with descending runs from the upper register worthy of Dizzy and we are treated to three melodious originals by the pianist Walter Davis Jnr, just about the finest hard-bop composer of the sixties. Last but not least, the underrated and underexposed genius of the drums Pete La Roca. I have almost worn my copy of this record out!
The Blue Note label was renowned for paying its artists to rehearse and produced polished and original music. PRESTIGE by contrast wanted to hustle musicians in and out and pay minimum scale. Although the recording quality was equally good (both labels used Rudy Van Gelder), inevitably Prestige albums tended to sound a bit churned out on the production line - a couple of blues, a couple of standards, a couple of ballads etc. Occasionally, as here, the formula yielded magic results. I've always dug Arnett Cobb's Texas wail and here he has Ray Bryant (er, for me the "rich man's Oscar Peterson!") on piano. Slow poke is the dirtiest low down blues you could ever hope for and the closer Cocktails for two is perfection for the tenor + rhythm + conga format.
JACKIE McLEAN - New Soil (Blue Note BLP 4013)
Jackie is perhaps an acquired taste. He plays quite sharp (must be deliberate) and his lines can be deliciously sour. To me, this combination gives him a totally hip and authentic sound. This is his very first album for Blue Note and it is one of his best. Hip strut with its figure and release structure is an excellent illustration of his dead-pan sardonic style. Donald Byrd plays explosive trumpet with descending runs from the upper register worthy of Dizzy and we are treated to three melodious originals by the pianist Walter Davis Jnr, just about the finest hard-bop composer of the sixties. Last but not least, the underrated and underexposed genius of the drums Pete La Roca. I have almost worn my copy of this record out!
RILEY STONE-LONERGAN
JONES SMITH INC (LESTER YOUNG) (1936)
As one of my 2 absolute favourite musicians ever, I had to include some Lester Young, but, as Lester's best work is before albums as we know it existed, picking something for this list is hard. So I've gone for a single recording session instead. This session, which happens to be Lester's first ever, consists of 4 tracks. 2 of which are definitely Lester's most famous and among the most highly regarded of his recorded solos, Lady Be Good and Shoe Shine Boy. These two solos are part of my very soul at this point and I play them nearly daily. Lady Be Good is the best improvised solo ever recorded as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't get ANY better than this. The other two tracks, Evenin' and Boogie Woogie are much less known but also great. Lester was absolutely on fire that day, I only wish there was more of it.
PERSONEL Carl Smith tpt , Lester Young ts, Count Basie pno, Walter Paige bass, Jo Jones Drums
As one of my 2 absolute favourite musicians ever, I had to include some Lester Young, but, as Lester's best work is before albums as we know it existed, picking something for this list is hard. So I've gone for a single recording session instead. This session, which happens to be Lester's first ever, consists of 4 tracks. 2 of which are definitely Lester's most famous and among the most highly regarded of his recorded solos, Lady Be Good and Shoe Shine Boy. These two solos are part of my very soul at this point and I play them nearly daily. Lady Be Good is the best improvised solo ever recorded as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't get ANY better than this. The other two tracks, Evenin' and Boogie Woogie are much less known but also great. Lester was absolutely on fire that day, I only wish there was more of it.
PERSONEL Carl Smith tpt , Lester Young ts, Count Basie pno, Walter Paige bass, Jo Jones Drums
JOHN COLTRANE - Crescent (1964)
My other favourite musician, picking one for this was absolutely excruciating. I could have picked the first Jazz Album I ever heard (Giant Steps), the first one I bought with my own money (Blue Train), undeniably his masterpiece (A Love Supreme) or the one I've been listening to the most recently (Sun Ship), but I eventually decided on this one because it just has it all for me, fire, passion, beauty. The title track contains what I consider to be the best little bit of Rhythm Section time in Jazz history. The melody is rubato and then the band organically slips into time, its sublime and knocks me out every time. The rest of the record is just stellar as well, top to bottom. I mean, this is just about as good as music ever got for me.
ORNETTE COLEMAN - New York Is Now (1968)
This is the album that made me fall in love with Dewey Redman. Head over heels in love. I don't think anyone else plays with such glorious freedom and heart and SOUND. I'd only heard him before this in Keith Jarret's American Quartet but this record is just unbelievable. First of all, what a BAND. Elvin Jones, Jimmy Garrison, Ornette and Dewey. I honestly can't imagine a better collection of people to play this kind of music and yet it's somehow better than the sum of its parts. If you're not obsessed with Dewey Redman yet, listen to this, then listen to Old And New Dreams and Love Calls and Tarik and everything you can find and tell all your friends how brilliant he is, because the world needs to know.
My other favourite musician, picking one for this was absolutely excruciating. I could have picked the first Jazz Album I ever heard (Giant Steps), the first one I bought with my own money (Blue Train), undeniably his masterpiece (A Love Supreme) or the one I've been listening to the most recently (Sun Ship), but I eventually decided on this one because it just has it all for me, fire, passion, beauty. The title track contains what I consider to be the best little bit of Rhythm Section time in Jazz history. The melody is rubato and then the band organically slips into time, its sublime and knocks me out every time. The rest of the record is just stellar as well, top to bottom. I mean, this is just about as good as music ever got for me.
ORNETTE COLEMAN - New York Is Now (1968)
This is the album that made me fall in love with Dewey Redman. Head over heels in love. I don't think anyone else plays with such glorious freedom and heart and SOUND. I'd only heard him before this in Keith Jarret's American Quartet but this record is just unbelievable. First of all, what a BAND. Elvin Jones, Jimmy Garrison, Ornette and Dewey. I honestly can't imagine a better collection of people to play this kind of music and yet it's somehow better than the sum of its parts. If you're not obsessed with Dewey Redman yet, listen to this, then listen to Old And New Dreams and Love Calls and Tarik and everything you can find and tell all your friends how brilliant he is, because the world needs to know.
BLACK SABBATH - Sabbotage (1975)
I love Black Sabbath. I love them so much I can't describe it. There's nothing in this world I adore more than eclectic, creative, unpretentious music, and Sabbath are that in spades. Sabotage is the last truly great album the band made with Ozzy Osbourne, the band was beginning to come apart at the seams and they were in the process of being sued by their former management (hence the albums name). All that frustration and anger comes out in the music in a profound way. This is one of Sabbaths most heavy and experimental albums with Ozzy's best vocal performance ever, he's singing his heart out here. Also Bill Ward is the best rock drummer of all time, fight me.
Picking a Coltrane album was hard, but I think picking this one was even harder. Sabbaths first 6 albums are all absolute masterpieces and on any given day any one could be my favourite. But today, it's this one.
JOE HENDERSON - Mode For Joe (1966)
The fifth spot could have been any number of things but I've gone for this one because it was very formative for me. This was in my little CD collection as a kid and I completely wore it out. It's a larger ensemble than most of Joe's records, a septet including one of my favourite ever drummers, Joe Chambers who I think is criminally underrated. This album is one banger after another and I think Joe H plays like a demon on here. I can feel how inspired he was by the larger band and the tunes they're playing and no one else can channel inspiration like Joe. I adore it.
I love Black Sabbath. I love them so much I can't describe it. There's nothing in this world I adore more than eclectic, creative, unpretentious music, and Sabbath are that in spades. Sabotage is the last truly great album the band made with Ozzy Osbourne, the band was beginning to come apart at the seams and they were in the process of being sued by their former management (hence the albums name). All that frustration and anger comes out in the music in a profound way. This is one of Sabbaths most heavy and experimental albums with Ozzy's best vocal performance ever, he's singing his heart out here. Also Bill Ward is the best rock drummer of all time, fight me.
Picking a Coltrane album was hard, but I think picking this one was even harder. Sabbaths first 6 albums are all absolute masterpieces and on any given day any one could be my favourite. But today, it's this one.
JOE HENDERSON - Mode For Joe (1966)
The fifth spot could have been any number of things but I've gone for this one because it was very formative for me. This was in my little CD collection as a kid and I completely wore it out. It's a larger ensemble than most of Joe's records, a septet including one of my favourite ever drummers, Joe Chambers who I think is criminally underrated. This album is one banger after another and I think Joe H plays like a demon on here. I can feel how inspired he was by the larger band and the tunes they're playing and no one else can channel inspiration like Joe. I adore it.
EDDIE MYER
So hard to choose! This is a mix of old favourites and what I’m listening to right now. But I’ve left off the classic cornerstones - you know what they are.
So hard to choose! This is a mix of old favourites and what I’m listening to right now. But I’ve left off the classic cornerstones - you know what they are.
SONNY ROLLINS - A Night at the Village Vanguard
Sonny in top form - magisterial, witty, earthy and intellectual all at once. Bebop sensibility set free. The tenor saxophone can convey such tenderness but such authority - all my favourite players have this dual quality, from foundational masters Coleman Hawkins and Lester, to old-timers like Ike Quebec and Illionois Jacquet, to Wayne Shorter and David Murray and forwards to players like Walter Smith and Mark Turner. Sonny sits right in the middle of this tradition for me, echoing the voices that went before and foreshadowing what was to come. The rhythm team make a fascinating contrast with the Way Out West crew - Wilbur Ware and Ray Brown represent two very different directions in bass playing. Ray was more imitated, and with good reason cos he’s such a majorly slick dude, but Wilbur is so fascinating. And Elvin Jones and Pete La Roca on the same disc!
CHARLES MINGUS - Blues And Roots
Jazz LPs in the 50s and 60s often followed a formulaic programme - a blues, a ballad, a ‘funky’ original, and some standards to make up the time. This album hangs together as a whole - once you know it, each track seems to demand the next one. It’s got the sophistication of bop but the freedom and directness of gospel and the energy and spontaneity of what later became rock and roll. And what a band - Jackie McLean, John Handy, Booker Ervin, Horace Parlan, Mal Waldron! The music is so direct and forceful and there’s such individual virtuosity on display but it is worn lightly, as a means to an end and not an end in itself. Mingus Ah Um may be a better record and Blues And Roots frankly recycles some of the same material but this is the one I bought first so for me it’s the benchmark.
Sonny in top form - magisterial, witty, earthy and intellectual all at once. Bebop sensibility set free. The tenor saxophone can convey such tenderness but such authority - all my favourite players have this dual quality, from foundational masters Coleman Hawkins and Lester, to old-timers like Ike Quebec and Illionois Jacquet, to Wayne Shorter and David Murray and forwards to players like Walter Smith and Mark Turner. Sonny sits right in the middle of this tradition for me, echoing the voices that went before and foreshadowing what was to come. The rhythm team make a fascinating contrast with the Way Out West crew - Wilbur Ware and Ray Brown represent two very different directions in bass playing. Ray was more imitated, and with good reason cos he’s such a majorly slick dude, but Wilbur is so fascinating. And Elvin Jones and Pete La Roca on the same disc!
CHARLES MINGUS - Blues And Roots
Jazz LPs in the 50s and 60s often followed a formulaic programme - a blues, a ballad, a ‘funky’ original, and some standards to make up the time. This album hangs together as a whole - once you know it, each track seems to demand the next one. It’s got the sophistication of bop but the freedom and directness of gospel and the energy and spontaneity of what later became rock and roll. And what a band - Jackie McLean, John Handy, Booker Ervin, Horace Parlan, Mal Waldron! The music is so direct and forceful and there’s such individual virtuosity on display but it is worn lightly, as a means to an end and not an end in itself. Mingus Ah Um may be a better record and Blues And Roots frankly recycles some of the same material but this is the one I bought first so for me it’s the benchmark.
ANDREW HILL - Grass Roots
More roots. Many many years ago I borrowed this from the local Library and didn’t want to give it back. This isn’t one of his acknowledged classics and it has its flaws - Ron Carter is really rocking the piezo bass sound and Lee Morgan occasionally sounds like he’s thinking about something else. However, Booker Ervin is having one of those great days in the studio when everything he does catches fire, Freddie Waits gives his all, and Hill’s playing and writing has his idiosyncratic mix of honesty and mystery, like he’s telling you a secret. The title track has a kind of magic to it that is impossible to explain or to knowingly reproduce, and captures something that jazz does bette than any other form of music.
ERIC DOLPHY - Out To Lunch
This record is such a one-off, even set in the context of the anything-goes sixties vibe on Blue Note that mined a seam parallel to hard-bop and post-Sidewinder boogaloo. . A new generation of players were pushing the door wide open - Sam Rivers, Grachan Moncur, Cecil Taylor, Tony Williams, Andrew Hill - and making some fascinating music, but nothing sounds quite like this in terms of its conception, and the way the band are so free but hang together in this intricate web of phrases that’s so loose but so perfectly attuned. Dolphy can sometimes seem deliberately, offputtingly freakish but in this context his passion and honesty shine through. Like ‘Blues And Roots’ the whole thing feels like a coherent, unique whole: you can’t imagine any of the tracks being swapped out, edited or augmented in any way: expanded ‘alternative take’ editions are completely redundant.
More roots. Many many years ago I borrowed this from the local Library and didn’t want to give it back. This isn’t one of his acknowledged classics and it has its flaws - Ron Carter is really rocking the piezo bass sound and Lee Morgan occasionally sounds like he’s thinking about something else. However, Booker Ervin is having one of those great days in the studio when everything he does catches fire, Freddie Waits gives his all, and Hill’s playing and writing has his idiosyncratic mix of honesty and mystery, like he’s telling you a secret. The title track has a kind of magic to it that is impossible to explain or to knowingly reproduce, and captures something that jazz does bette than any other form of music.
ERIC DOLPHY - Out To Lunch
This record is such a one-off, even set in the context of the anything-goes sixties vibe on Blue Note that mined a seam parallel to hard-bop and post-Sidewinder boogaloo. . A new generation of players were pushing the door wide open - Sam Rivers, Grachan Moncur, Cecil Taylor, Tony Williams, Andrew Hill - and making some fascinating music, but nothing sounds quite like this in terms of its conception, and the way the band are so free but hang together in this intricate web of phrases that’s so loose but so perfectly attuned. Dolphy can sometimes seem deliberately, offputtingly freakish but in this context his passion and honesty shine through. Like ‘Blues And Roots’ the whole thing feels like a coherent, unique whole: you can’t imagine any of the tracks being swapped out, edited or augmented in any way: expanded ‘alternative take’ editions are completely redundant.
LEE KONITZ - Motion
ORNETTE COLEMAN - Live At The Golden Circle vol 1
I’m totally cheating here by including two alto-plus-bass-and-drums trio albums together in the hope that you won’t notice!.
They are so different but each in its own way is such a confident, definitive statement that embraces the possibility of accident and chance, the spontaneity of conversational interplay, and a thorough knowledge of the medium coupled with a willingness to push hard against the boundaries of the style. All the players on each record are so totally in command of their unique voices, but no one individual ever dominates the collective. Lee and Ornette may seem poles apart but these two records show how diversity and commonality can be combined in jazz - the tradition is so strong and so flexible and that’s what keeps it alive for me.
If I could get Kenny Dorham and Ernie Henry's 'Two Horns, Two Rhythms' in as well I would, but that would be pushing my luck!
ORNETTE COLEMAN - Live At The Golden Circle vol 1
I’m totally cheating here by including two alto-plus-bass-and-drums trio albums together in the hope that you won’t notice!.
They are so different but each in its own way is such a confident, definitive statement that embraces the possibility of accident and chance, the spontaneity of conversational interplay, and a thorough knowledge of the medium coupled with a willingness to push hard against the boundaries of the style. All the players on each record are so totally in command of their unique voices, but no one individual ever dominates the collective. Lee and Ornette may seem poles apart but these two records show how diversity and commonality can be combined in jazz - the tradition is so strong and so flexible and that’s what keeps it alive for me.
If I could get Kenny Dorham and Ernie Henry's 'Two Horns, Two Rhythms' in as well I would, but that would be pushing my luck!
Click on the album cover to read our review.
Album available from Bandcamp - Click for more information & to Buy
Album available from Bandcamp - Click for more information & to Buy
Click on the image to read LJN interview QOW Trio
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Click on the album cover to read our review
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