Paul Desmond: Duets and the Canadian Band Recordings

Van Morrison's Wavelength, Trombone Shorty, Charles Lloyd, Summer of Soul, Punk Planet

Look, I always wanted to be Paul Desmond. He was the perfect combination of jazz musician and writer. He dated models. He was reported to be working on a book, How Of You Are There In the Quartet? though only one (hilarious) chapter ever emerged, published by British humor magazine Punch. He spent the early 1970s living in New York City, where he was frequently found hanging out at Elaine’s, drinking scotch. Following the dissolution of the long-running Dave Brubeck Quartet, he seemed to float in a bubble of sophistication, recording albums as a leader while making the occasional live appearance with Brubeck or Gerry Mulligan or The Modern Jazz Quartet.

Jazz musician Paul Desmond here with Anna Carin Bjorck in white textured silk sheath by Rudolf, photo by Howell Conant, Harper's Bazaar, May 1960

But the early 1970s saw a resurgence of Desmond the ace jazz musician, the guy who had played all those gigs with Brubeck and who was, and always would be, a jazz player at heart. Following Skylark, an album on which the veteran saxophonist injected a bit of 1970s jazz sound into his work courtesy of Bob James and guitar solos from Gabor Szabo, and Bridge Over Troubled Water on which he played Simon & Garfunkel tunes with Herbie Hancock at the electric piano, Desmond moved to the newly revived Horizon record label where he reunited with Brubeck and played a series of live gigs as a leader that inspired him. 

In March of 1975 Desmond accepted an invitation to play some gigs in Toronto, at a new club named Bourbon Street. Desmond had played some sets in NYC in 1974, leading a quartet that included guitarist Jim Hall that was very successful. Hall was perfect for Desmond, with the guitar offering more open space for the saxophonist in a way that few pianists could do, but he was unavailable for the Toronto gig, and he suggested Ed Bickert instead. Bickert turned out to be even more simpatico than Hall had been, and the group (with the addition of Don Thompson on bass and Jerry Fuller on drums. The Toronto gigs were quite successful and the band was booked for a week of shows in October as well.

After returning to New York Desmond convinced Creed Taylor to fly Bickert to NYC for the recording of his last CTI album, Pure Desmond, which was as close as Desmond's 'Canadian Quartet' came to making a studio album. Taylor substituted Ron Carter and Connie Kay in the rhythm section, and the results are excellent. Taylor was reportedly unhappy with Kay's drumming and tried to bring in Mel Lewis to overdub some drum parts, but there was leakage between drum tracks, and John Snyder,  production assistant convinced Taylor to release the album as it was recorded. 

Snyder was made creative director of A&M's Horizon imprint which was introduced as a jazz series rather than a label. Like Creed Taylor's work at A&M and then at CTI, Horizon sought to present jazz artists in packages worthy of the same attention as pop and rock albums were getting. But they weren't as cool as CTI, with non-glossy jackets printed on thinner cardboard and with cover art that was in no way equal to the Pete Turner photos that adorned CTI albums. One reason may have been that they were originally priced at $5.99, though that was increased in short order to $6.99, and by 1977 they were retailing at $7.99. Still not bad for the substantive jazz performances they presented in a still classy package.

Meanwhile, Desmond found himself on a boat, the SS Rotterdam, on a jazz cruise to the Caribbean with former boss Dave Brubeck. In his liner notes to 1975: The Duets, Desmond notes that "our mission was to play two concerts in exchange for room and board, at least for me." Not having time to work out a ballad arrangement with the rhythm section Desmond and Brubeck decided to perform the song as a duet--after all, who would know or care out here in the middle of the ocean? Not surprisingly the two musicians, who were long acknowledged to share a kind of musical ESP, found a sense of exhilaration and freedom in playing together with no other musicians.

Brubeck and Desmond worked up a repertoire of some eight to ten standards that they were playing as duets, and they were really enjoying it. A BBC camera crew had filmed some of their performances aboard the boat and the two realized that they really had something. They ended up recording the Duets 1975 album in two days. In October, when Desmond was back in Toronto with his Canadian band, the Duets album was released as one of Horizon's first five releases. A&M marketed the releases heavily, and Duets charted in the Billboard Top 200 Pop Album Chart.

I cannot recommend Duets enough; it's a record that is essential to any jazz collection, and I was lucky enough to purchase a vinyl copy for $8 that is remarkably clean. The jacket is a little worn, not standing up as well as the CTI records in my collection, and it has some of that musty smell records get from being in a basement or a somewhat damp environment for some time. But no matter when the performances are this good. Dave Brubeck's piano playing has been re-evaluated over the years, and people have come to see more of the shades and colors in his playing, becoming deeper as he aged. The selection of tunes is really thoughtful, with gorgeous Brubeck originals like "Summer Song" and "Koto Song" (Brubeck was into the 'song' and 'singing' thing) and the traditional "Blue Dove" next to standards like "These Foolish Things," "Stardust," and "You Go To My Head." "Koto Song" is particularly evocative, with Desmond starting the track by popping the keys on his saxophone without blowing any air through it. The finale, "You Go To My Head" was recorded live on the Rotterdam and gives a good idea of what these performances were like as well as the way they were received by an enthusiastic audience. 

Desmond's Canadian band was recorded during both of their runs at Bourbon Street, and Horizon issued a double album entitled The  Paul Desmond Quartet: Live in 1976. It's a fantastic live performance from the group that maintains a consistently mellow, after-hours vibe, and it's a record I'd highly recommend, along with Duets. 

While I'd consider the Horizon recording to be the best document of this group, it wasn't the only recording released. In 1992 Telarc released the CD Like Someone In Love, which featured unreleased performances from the group's performances in March of 1975. It is perhaps more representative of the group's live set, featuring the ebullient title track and a performance of "Things Ain't What They Used To Be" that is brighter than the version on the Horizon set. Mosaic Records finally released a limited edition 7-CD set entitled The Complete 1975 Toronto Recordings. This set features all of the previously released music from the Horizon and Telarc discs as well as additional performances by the group, some of them quite extraordinary. It also is the only set recording the group's performances with Rob McConnell on valve trombone, filling in for Ed Bickert who took leave to attend his father's funeral. 

As it turns out, Desmond's resurgence as a leader and the two Horizon recordings with Brubeck and the Canadian band couldn't have come at a better time. After participating in recording sessions for Chet Baker's CTI record You Can't Go Home Again and the Art Garfunkel release Watermark, Paul Desmond succumbed to lung cancer in May 1977 at the age of 52. 

Bonus Tracks

Pat Thomas is working on an album by album book about Van Morrison, which isn't a biography, but more of a "fan-boy appreciation," and this month at Perfect Sound Forever he publishes his chapter on Wavelength. Wavelength is a good, but not great, Van Morrison album, yet it's one I've always enjoyed, and I found out some interesting things I didn't know about it.  "Despite being mainly recorded in England, Wavelength was thematically Van's most American album. There were a couple of song titles, "Venice U.S.A." (a seaside part of Los Angeles) and "Santa Fe" (the state capital of New Mexico). There's the Southern California sheen (of the album cover photo by photographer Norman Seeff - responsible for many Hollywood stars' portraits and for that striking image of Joni Mitchell on the cover of her Hejira LP. Another shot from the Seeff session was circulated in countless magazines of Van wearing the same outfit while holding that most iconic American artifact of the 1960s-70s - a portable transistor radio - inspired by the title song, which celebrated the musical airwaves as well as connections between people, as in "Are we on the same wavelength

I've been a fan of Trombone Shorty (aka Troy Andrews) since the 2010 release of Backatown, the first in a series of releases on Verve. Recording a follow-up album to 2017's Parking Lot Symphony, Vanity Fair's Brett Martin finds the New Orleans musician living with his mother and keeping his chops limber despite the lack of live performances.  "The recording studio is filled with keyboards and horns, and Andrews seems at home but restless. Last February he and his band, Orleans Avenue, worked on their upcoming album here, which they had hoped to release in time for the 2020 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Th at, of course, was canceled, along with the rest of the band’s normally relentless touring schedule. Three and a half weeks into lockdown, Andrews—one of the world’s foremost ambassadors of New Orleans music—had already been home for a longer continuous stretch than at any time since graduating from high school and going on tour in Lenny Kravitz’s band."

The magnificent Charles Lloyd and the Marvels are releasing a new album on March 12. On Tone Poem, his sixth Blue Note album since returning to the label in 2015, Lloyd presents The Marvels without guest vocalists for the first time on this dynamic nine-song set featuring new Lloyd originals alongside pieces by Ornette Coleman, Thelonious Monk, Leonard Cohen, Gabor Szabo, and Bola de Nieve.  Blue Note has released the band's rendition  of Ornette Coleman's composition "Ramblin'"

Summer of Soul is a documentary film being previewed at Sundance Film Festival 2021. Directed by Roots drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, the film features recently unearthed footage of performers at a summer music series that was put on in Harlem in what is now Marcus Garvey Park. The footage is amazing and, until recently, not known to have existed. I've read about these concerts here and there, but always mentioned briefly, as though they were more rumor than historical fact. This film will change that. "There’s a lot to talk about with Summer of Soul, and part of the story is how this extraordinary event was nearly forgotten. In 1969, a club singer, concert promoter, raconteur and very sharp dresser named Tony Lawrence convinced the New York City parks department to allow him to produce a series of summer concerts in Harlem’s Mount Morris Park (now known as Marcus Garvey Park). He found a sponsor in Maxwell House coffee and had an advocate in John Lindsey, the progressive-for-his-time mayor."

The Internet Archive announces that it will house the entire run of defunct Chicago publication Punk Planet. Punk Planet was a 16,000 print run punk zine, based in Chicago, Illinois, that focused most of its energy on looking at punk subculture rather than punk as simply another genre of music to which teenagers listen. In addition to covering music, Punk Planet also covered visual arts and a wide variety of progressive issues — including media criticism, feminism, and labor issues.  Well worth a look--lots of album and live show reviews among the other interesting articles. 

Leaving you today with a 1975 performance by Japan's funky Sadistic Mika Band, "Suki Suki Suki"

Until next time, wishing you all a wonderful day and an inspiring week.