Cello Jazz

Matt Haimovitz’s multi-faceted cello knocks down musical boundaries while scaling emotions from darkness to joy in Cello JAZZ, a wide-ranging playlist featuring some of Haimovitz’s hottest collaborators. Classics like Billy Strayhorn’s haunting Blood Count, George Gershwin’s languid Liza, and Miles Davis’s bebop Half Nelson are reborn in inventive arrangements by modern master David Sanford, who contributes his own big band cello concerto, Scherzo Grosso, and the intense Seventh Avenue Kaddish, a solo tour-de-force. Piazzolla’s Le Grand Tango and DJ Olive’s dreamy Trans resonate alongside the “brilliantly inventive” (The New York Times) AKOKA, with stellar clarinetist David Krakauer, and the jubilant musical playground of Aaron Jay Kernis’s First Club Date. Peak bliss is unlocked with two John McLaughlin tracks from the Grammy-nominated Meeting of the Spirits, with Haimovitz’s maverick band of cello warriors, Uccello.

The second album of the cellist quartet focuses on jazz, the famous themes of the legendary Errol Garner, Dave Brubeck, George Gershwin and Paul Desmond are performed.

Chico Hamilton - The Complete Pacific Jazz Recordings Of The Chico Hamilton Quintet (1954-1959) {6CD Mosaic MD6-175 rel 1997}
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© 1954-59, 1997 Mosaic / Pacific Jazz / Blue Note / EMI-Capitol | MD6-175
Jazz / Cool / West Coast Jazz / Bop / Drums / Percussion

The original Chico Hamilton Quintet was one of the last significant West Coast jazz bands of the cool era. Consisting of Buddy Collette on reeds (flute, clarinet, alto, and tenor), guitarist Jim Hall, bassist Carson Smith, and the drummer/leader, the most distinctive element in the group's identity was cellist Fred Katz. The band could play quite softly, blending together elements of bop and classical music into their popular sound and occupying their own niche. This six-CD, limited-edition box set from 1997 starts off with a Hamilton drum solo from a 1954 performance with the Gerry Mulligan Quartet; it contains three full albums and many previously unreleased numbers) by the original Chico Hamilton band and also has quite a few titles from the second Hamilton group (which has Paul Horn and John Pisano in the places of Collette and Hall).

Lots of composers fall head over heels for the cello, and Bolling's suite for classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma indicates that he finds this instrument a particularly noble, expressive vehicle for his classical/jazz musings. The distinctive Bolling formula still has plenty of mileage here, this time with a more expansive lyrical bent and no cutesy detours. "Baroque In Rhythm," in particular, sounds very fresh with its interpolations of boogie-woogie and ragtime amidst the Bachian counterpoint. "Romantique" is enlivened by some Brubeck-like chording and swinging from Bolling, and "Galop" has real panache. However, despite some inspired passages, the yawning, overlong lyrical stretches of "Concertante" and "Ballade" may try the patience of some jazz listeners.

Fred Lonberg-Holm - Cabin, Cemetery, Forest - Solo Cello (2009) {Flying Aspidistra #8}
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© 2009 Flying Aspidistra | #8
Jazz / Free Improvisation / Avant-Garde Jazz / Chamber Jazz / Cello

Fred Lonberg-Holm no longer needs an introduction, but what is worth mentioning that his own label, called Flying Aspidistra, named after the George Orwell novel "Keep The Aspidistra Flying", has now put the entire catalogue on Bandcamp. On the label, you will find other solo cello albums or string duets with Charlotte Hug, Carlos Zingaro, David Stackenäs. For those interested, he also has another Bandcamp website with even more music.

Leonard Bernstein has always loomed large among the musicians who have most fascinated me. Not only did he demonstrate huge vitality and charisma as a conductor, and compose the wonderful music that is his legacy, but he worked tirelessly as a communicator and “pedagogue”. His explanations of wide-ranging aspects of music to the viewers of his television programme for children, his lectures at Harvard University and his books have all been an enormous source of information. In recognition of the centenary of his birth, we dedicate to him this recording of his works for clarinet. At the same time, we pay homage to another musician whom I greatly admire – Benny Goodman – and include two other works directly linked to the theme of this CD – the impact of jazz on Bernstein’s output.

Harry Babasin - Harry Babasin & The Jazz Pickers with Terry Gibbs (1957) {V.S.O.P. Records #39 rel 1998}
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© 1957, 1998 Mode Records / V.S.O.P. Records | Mode 119 / #39
Jazz / Cool / Bop / West Coast Jazz

An excellent set of 50s west coast chamber jazz – featuring a quintet that includes Harry Babasin on cello, Terry Gibbs on vibes, Demsey Wright on guitar, Ben Tucker on bass, and Bill Douglass on drums. The pairing of cello and vibes in the frontline is really great – and with additional support from guitar, the instruments really swing nicely on the set. The album's the sort that you might miss, because the Premier label was sort of a budget operation – but it's a really nice little side that grooves with a keen late 50s approach that's very much in the manner of similar albums on Dawn or Bethlehem – but arguably better, as it's recorded with an open feel, and some really great sound.