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From JazzReview.com
by Thomas Eardmann
Bassist, cellist and composer Buell Neidlinger, born in 1936, came up by playing with Herbie Nichols, Oran "Hot Lips" Page, and Vic Dickenson, among others. With his apprenticeships done, Neidlinger started working with artists like Tony Bennett, Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Rex Stewart and for seven years with pianist Cecil Taylor. After a stint in Sir John Barbirolli's Houston Symphony, Neidlinger returned to New York in 1965 to work with composers like George Crumb and John Cage. Further work included time with the Berkshire Music Center Orchestra, one Igor Stravinsky's chamber ensembles, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. A move to California in 1971 to teach at CalArts led to eventually joining the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and work in West Coast studios.
This recording finds Neidlinger's Quartet performing live at the Ravenna Jazz Festival in Italy in 1987 with soprano saxophonist and Thelonious Monk Scholar Steve Lacy sitting in. The program, 40 minutes long, contains five Monk compositions. The ensemble tears into the music with a ferociousness rarely found except in live performances. There is no taking-it-safe on these tracks; each and every moment is spent pushing the music to its limits.
Lacy is, as he always was playing the music of Monk before his untimely death in 2004, incredible. His soprano tone is solid and in-front of the mix. He rips up the rarely heard "Skippy," and makes so many twists and turns that "Epistrophy" is the highlight of the recording. Pianist Brenton Banks has also sadly passed away, but his rock solid playing lives on with this recording. While he is a fine soloist, he tears up "Criss Cross," it's his work comping, laying out the harmonic foundation for the saxophone soloists and spurring them on with jabbing rhythmic punctuations that shows him to be a true master. Drummer Billy Osborne rolls through the proceedings in a manner similar to Elvin Jones.
Tenor saxophonist Marty Krystall, perhaps inspired by Lacy's joining the band, leaves no prisoners. It's almost as if Krystall feels he's in competition with Lacy because of the wild abandon he brings to all of his solos. The hoots and honks he interjects into "Little Rootie Tootie" are not only thrilling, but their musical placement is perfection personified.
While Neidlinger takes a sweet solo on "Reflections," it is in his duet with Lacy on "Little Rootie Tootie," during Lacy's solo, that most aptly demonstrates how Neidlinger is just what his bio reflects, the consummate musician.
The problem with the recording is the sound quality. It's hard to know where the recording was taken from, maybe the sound board, but audio restorationist Marty Krystall had his hands full with this project. The end result has the sound in a compressed state with the drums coming across booming. Thankfully most jazz lovers are all about hearing what the musicians played, substituting in their heads the correct sounds of instruments learned from personally attending live concerts. Barring the sound problems, this is a great document for students of jazz demonstrating just how thrilling music can be when creative chances are taken.
From The New York City Jazz Record 9/30/2011
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From Point of Departure 9/10/2011
by Bill Shoemaker
Ensconced on a Washington island, Buell Neidlinger has little to no motivation to venture out into a jazz marketplace he concluded to be knuckleheaded more than a half-century ago. It's unsurprisingly, then, that the bassist's first CD in years is a 1987 concert recording, or that it documents a festival performance in Italy, where Neidlinger most frequently toured. Considered too flawed for release at the time, it languished for years in the vaults of K2B2, the label Neidlinger has operated with multi-instrumentalist Marty Krystall since the LP era; only recently has software innovations allowed Krystall to restore the tape adequately for release.
The headline is that the CD features a rare reunion of Neidlinger and Steve Lacy, members of Cecil Taylor's original quartet; although Neidlinger played on Lacy's first two Prestige albums and with the "School Days" quartet, it has been assumed that they did not perform together after the soprano saxophonist moved to Europe. That probably crossed the mind of Ravenna Jazz's producer, prompting the pairing. Given the pick-up nature of the gig, Monk was an obvious choice for the set. In addition to the inclusion of "Skippy" and "Reflections," which were included on Lacy's watershed '58 all-Monk album, the pairing of Lacy with Krystall's tenor promised to evoke Lacy's short stint sharing the front line with Charlie Rouse in Monk's band.
Instead of appropriating Rouse's jocular swing, however, Krystall is on a mission to burn the house down from the opening head of "Skippy." There's a sense of this conveyed through the CD tray card photo, which shows Lacy intently watching Krystall solo and readying himself for the next volley. Despite the cutting contest atmosphere, their complementary flourishes on "Reflections" and their blend on "Epistrophy" reveal Krystal and Lacy, who himself is in top form, to be a compatible front line, one that could have yielded even greater results had it been cultivated over time.
The real revelation of the set, however, is pianist Brenton Banks, who understands that access to the essence of Monk's music is through the melodies. Additionally, he taps that essence without wholesale appropriation of Monk's piano style; instead, his romping chromatic runs on "Skippy" and sparkling sweeps of the keyboard on "Reflections" are closer to what pan-stylists like Kenny Barron or John Hicks might do with the material. His real art, arguably, is as an accompanist; he always knows when a horn solo will peak and he's there first with just the right emphasis, his phrasing also creating niches that Neidlinger and drummer Billy Osborne deftly fill.
Unfortunately, Neidlinger's sound is somewhat choked throughout the set by the bass mic, diminishing the poignancy of his solo on "Reflections," which relies on his normally space-soaking long notes for much of its emotional gravity. Still, this is a very welcomed album.
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From CADENCE MAGAZINE JUL-AUG-SEPT 2011
by David Dupont |
All Monk sessions became something of a cliche after the master's death in 1982 and the contemporaneous rise of the so-called New Lions with their canonical leanings. Many of those offerings, most even, shortcutted through Monk's difficulties by focusing on his more conventional and, hence more popular, tunes, which could after the head be turned into a round of solos on the blues or rhythm changes. Though this historic date comes from that period there's none of that here. A glance at the names Neidlinger and Lacy in the personnel assures the listener that Monk's music is in good hands. Lacy, of course, has been a prime proponent, scholar, and interpreter of Monk's music, and Neidlinger is a long-time devotee as well. Working with regular Neidlinger collaborators, this session does justice to the music. Neidlinger and cohorts bring it to life while remaining true to its genius. The contrast between Lacy and tenor saxophonist Marty Krystall is striking. Lacy is ever so soulfully analytic, digging deep into the crevices and twists of the music, fashioning personal statements by manipulating and filtering the eccentric materials Monk offers. Lacy's solo on the opening, "Skippy," is a masterfrul dissection. Krystall is more rambunctious, bringing the force of his instrument's tradition to bear on the tunes at hand. His boisterous "Little Rootie Tootie" swings fiercely, and evinces a playfulness so appropriate to the song. Pianist Brenton Banks seems as rooted in the craggy terrain, avoiding both conventional piano figurations and Monkish cliches. His "Reflections" spot gushes forth with two-fisted romanticism. Neidlinger is the driving force, delivering some striking solos and working with drummer Billy Osborne to propel the quintet. Unfortunately the audio quality is only fair, and with the drummer and the bass suffering the most, Neidlinger's bass at times is ruduced to his jangling upper register. While the sound is regrettable, the session is still listenable and the high quality of the performances certainly makes amends.
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BACK TO RAVENNA JAZZ '87
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