Stanley Cowell, American Jazz Master
Matthew Shipp, Vinyl Chapters, Bandcamp, In Ten Tracks Xmas Edition
"We were all embracing the political content of the music, versus issuing the traditional and conventional...Our approaches varied. We used sounds prevalent at the time and played in a free form. Our resources were expanded as we set out to re-examine the music. The apex for me came at a concert we had in Antibes. There were great moments at that show where we combined pulses with a great deal of freedom within a fixed form. Bobby was doing these incredible cadenzas."
— Stanley Cowell---
That's pianist Stanley Cowell, who died this past week, talking about his tenure with the Bobby Hutcherson/Harold Land Quintet, a band informed by being Black and by what other Black jazz artists were exploring at the time. Hutcherson, Land, and Cowell are all steeped in the language of bebop, but they freely explore the music's post-bop landscape, including free form improvisation and deeper grooves. Hutcherson's record Now! was recorded in 1969, the same year as Cowell's debut as a leader, the trio date Blues for the Viet Cong, released on Arista's Freedom imprint. That album, (also reissued by Black Lion as Travellin’ Man) features Cowell in a piano trio with Steve Novosel (b) and Jimmy Hopps (d) playing acoustic modal post-bop, solo stride piano on "You Took advantage of Me," and electric piano on the free-ish title track and the low-key funky "Travellin Man." There's enough here to let you know that Cowell's playing is deep and wide, both intellectually and emotionally/physically.
Cowell followed up with a second Arista album, Brilliant Circles, which leans further in the direction of the avant-garde with the amazing cast of musicians (Woody Shaw, Tyrone Washington, Bobby Hutcherson, Reggie Workman, and Joe Chambers) playing a challenging repertoire comprised of Cowell's title track, two pieces by Washington, and one apiece from Shaw and Hutcherson. Black Lion reissued this one on CD, but beware: the mix is poor, with Washington's woodwinds isolated on the left channel and sometimes difficult to hear clearly. Still, it's the only CD available, so unless you are able to procure a copy of the Arista original vinyl release, you'll have to deal with it.
Next Cowell returned to the trio format for the classic ECM recording Illusion Suite. This time his colleagues were bassist Stanley Clarke, with whom Cowell meshed very well, and drummer Jimmy Hopps, who adds a lot of energy to the session. Again we are also treated to Cowell's electric piano work, which is perhaps more in line with Chick Corea's style at that time than Herbie Hancock. Regardless, Cowell is able to negotiate the changes between post-bop, modal, free, and compositional jazz, and groove-conscious electric jazz because like many musicians at the time, Cowell understood that jazz was in flux, picking up new influences but always aware of its history and its meaning.
In the mid-seventies, Cowell and Charles Tolliver created the Strata-East label, one of few labels to be started and run by Black musicians. Tolliver released several albums with Cowell at the piano; the two also worked with Novesel and Hopps, Cowell's trio comrades, the same band that recorded Tolliver's Arista recording The Ringer. Around this time Cowell recorded the solo keyboard album Musa: Ancestral Streams. Cowell plays solo versions of some of his classic compositions, including "Abscretions," "Equipoise," "Travellin Man," and "Maimoun." That recording reveals that Cowell was not only a solidly interesting composer but that his solo piano renditions of these pieces open onto his own way of playing, a style in which the piano becomes orchestral again. , as it did for Cecil Taylor or for the stride piano masters of Harlem.
On the Ancestral Streams version of 'Travellin' Man" Cowell also plays electric piano and kalimba, an African thumb piano that was popularized by several artists in the later 1960s and early 1970s. Maurice White was playing one in 1969 when he was part of Ramsey Lewis' group and the instrument continued to be integral to the sound of Earth, Wind & Fire. Musicians like White and Cowell sought to make the instrument part of a sound that would be historically Black and not some kind of novelty. Musa: Ancestral Streams has long been unavailable and sought after, with vinyl copies reportedly bringing upwards of three hundred dollars, but in 2013 it was reissued by Netherlands label Ever Land and is currently available (along with downloadable and streaming versions) through Bandcamp.
Stanley Cowell went into teaching in the seventies, but he continued to compose, perform, and record periodically. His playing and recording took a step to the forefront after his retirement from teaching in 2013. In 2012 he planned a piece of music that would celebrate the 150th anniversary of Juneteenth, the announcement of the end of slavery in Texas, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Originally it was to be for a concert band, choir, percussion, and various electronic elements, but instead, Cowell recorded it as a solo piano record at the suggestion of French record producer Philippe Ghielmetti (Ben Ratliff, Playlist, New York Times, July 9, 2015, "Stanley Cowell & Kill West Release New Albums"). The result is a major piece of work along the lines of Ornette Coleman's "Skies of America" or some of Duke Ellington's suites, and it feels as though it should have received more attention at the time of its release.
Writing about Cowell in his DoTheM@th blog Ethan Iverson concludes with an observation that was brought to our attention all too frequently this year, as jazz seemed to lose an inordinate number of practitioners both to old age and chronic illness as well as the COVID-19 virus:
"Once again, as is usually the case when an American jazz master passes, I am possessed by inchoate frustrations. As rich as Cowell’s legacy is, he should have gotten more love and appreciation from our society, creating a feedback loop that would have enabled Cowell to have gone from strength to strength in the manner of a talented (and funded!) European composer. Still, the best records are here, and future generations will always have a chance to see how a single pianist could command a whole universe of possibility."
Bonus Tracks
Pianist Matthew Shipp is an iconoclastic, unique pianist whose take on modern jazz and jazztronica has influenced many and provided listeners with a great deal of challenging and rewarding music. He recently published some thoughts about what he calls Black Mystery School pianists, and his essay is both thought-provoking and fascinating regardless of whether you agree or disagree. "So what do I mean by a Black Mystery School pianist? Well, obviously the word “Black” is in here, so for the purposes of looking at this tree, all of the practitioners I will mention except for one will be Black. That is not to imply a non-black person cannot enter this realm. I am just outlining a code—that there is a definitive tree-like formation that has seemed more often than not to go down a certain path. The word “mystery” is here also which implies a secret code, passed through an underground way of passage, a language outside the mainstream and, yes, outside the mainstream of jazz, even though the father of this school Thelonious Monk’s image has been subsumed into the mainstream of jazz after a long period of incubation." Continue Reading
People keep talking about the 'resurgence of vinyl' but it's looking more and more like it's just a popular format that isn't going away anytime soon. This piece from Vinyl Chapters looks at how the current level of sales is being met (or not) by pressing plants and the other industries that produce records just as they have since its inception. "Sales have hit a remarkable 1,472 percent since 2007 and vinyl has once again become an important part of many people’s lives. But with this steady increase in sales, it inevitably caused problems for those poor old pressing plants and machinery, many of which had to be brought back from the dead to cope with demand. With this in mind, Vinyl Chapters decided to look into how production companies and plants have been coping with the increased demand, where we are at the moment, and what the future of vinyl production could look like." Continue Reading
I missed this article when it published in June, but here is Marc Hogan's excellent breakdown on how much more money musicians earn from Bandcamp sales than on any of the popular streaming sites (Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music). You may have noticed that I've been doing more Bandcamp links lately on both the newsletter and the blog. I use Spotify for playlists and to highlight music that is difficult to find elsewhere, but overall streaming should be seen as a convenience for listeners and not a replacement for buying records, CDs, and other physical media. “This last Bandcamp day, I made $1,500, which is a shitload of money for me,” says Hether Fortune, former leader of the Oakland post-punk band Wax Idols, who now records as a solo artist. “Maybe I’ve roughly gotten that much over the last five years in total from Spotify. Maybe. But that’s being generous." Continue Reading
I haven't felt compelled to write a bunch of end of year articles, such as 'Best of' or whatever. I mean, if I've learned anything from this year it's that the world doesn't spin off lists and hot takes. But I have seen some articles that go at the year in a more creative way, such as this article from Medium Marker by Rob Walker. It's a piece I found interesting, disturbing, humorous--you know, everything we turn to good writing for. It's not specifically a music article but you can't stick to music all the time. "What follows is not a set of endorsements: Some of these objects are troubling, a few are ridiculous, many are ambiguous (though some, to be sure, are delightful). These are the objects that caused us to see the world in a new way this year — or the objects that this singular year forced us to consider anew. From heat lamps to Zoom bookshelves, these objects will be the souvenirs seared into our collective memory." Continue Reading
Today I leave you with NDIM In Ten Tracks: Christmas Edition, featuring ten of my favorite holiday songs and a YouTube playlist featuring them. Christmas makes me think of singer Patty Donahue of The Waitresses, who died of lung cancer on December 9, 1996, at the age of 40. When The Waitresses broke up, Patty continued working in the music biz as an A&R representative, nurturing new talent. Donahue was credited with 'vocals & sarcasm' on Alice Cooper's 1982 release Zipper Catches Skin--that sounds like an apt description of Donahue's attitude and style. Enjoy 'Christmas Wrapping' by The Waitresses, one of my favorites, and follow the link above to the complete list on NDIM.
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.