New York Sessions

During its ten years of existence between 1972 and 1982, the New York Jazz Quartet went through a number of personnel changes, though the one constant was founder Roland Hanna at the piano. This 1977 studio session includes Frank Wess, George Mraz, and a somewhat obscure drummer, Richard Pratt, who evidently didn't record many jazz sessions at all during his rather brief musical career. Like many of the group's efforts, this album sticks exclusively to originals by the band. Wess' flute is the focus of the hard-driving title track, and another of his compositions, the gorgeous ballad "Placitude," features the veteran playing alto flute in alternate choruses with Hanna. The leader contributed the funky "Big Band Henry" and the brisk post-bop "Tee Piece," the latter featuring Wess' hard-blowing tenor sax. The individual pieces written by Mraz and Pratt also measure up to those of the front line.

Months before Bob Dylan released Blood On The Tracks in early 1975, a small number of test pressings were circulated, consisting entirely of material from sessions at A&R Recording Studios in New York City. (Dylan re-recorded five of these tracks in Minneapolis for inclusion on the final album.) Those original records were soon bootlegged, and the alternate history of one of Dylan’s most acclaimed works was born. This LP is an exact duplicate of the test pressing, containing unique mixes from the New York session, available commercially for the first time.

The New York Trio consists of pianist Bill Charlap, bassist Jay Leonhart, and drummer Bill Stewart, though it exists solely as a studio band for the Japanese label Venus, as Charlap's regular trio includes Peter Washington and Kenny Washington. Even though this band only meets occasionally in the studio to record yet another release in their prolific series for the Japanese jazz market, there is plenty of chemistry between the three veterans, while the nine songs from the vast Cole Porter songbook were likely to have been a part of each musician's repertoire long before these 2005 sessions. Charlap's lyrical piano style is quite effective, capturing the nuances of Porter's humor (even though none of his lyrics are heard), while the rhythm section gels nicely with the pianist. Highlights include a jaunty "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," a dreamy "Begin the Beguine," and a snappy "From This Moment On."

It is commonly perceived that the essence of the New York Dolls was never satisfactorily captured by their two albums for the Mercury label, both of which many believe suffered from unsympathetic production. Fortunately for us all, the band's untutored rawness, unencumbered strength of purpose and unique vision is better served by the recordings that are gathered together for the first time on Personality Crisis: Live Recordings & Studio Demos 1972-1975. A trio of pre-Mercury demo sessions - arguably as close as the Dolls ever got to nailing their sound in the cold austerity of the recording studio - are joined by a collection of incendiary live shows (including two American radio broadcasts) that, despite the variable sound quality, capture their unfettered outrageousness and life-affirming vitality.

Various Artists - Newport In New York '72 [3CD] (2009) {Wax Train}
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© 2009 Wax Train Records | WT51500
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop

This release contains all known jazz performances from the 1972 edition of the Newport Jazz Festival, which took place at different venues in New York. This was the first time the Festival moved from Newport. The 1972 festival consisted of thirty concerts with 62 all-star performer, at multiple venues, which included Yankee Stadium and Radio City Music Hall. Most of the performances are long jam sessions on popular standards by a mixture of well known jazzmen, most of whom didn’t usually play together. All of this music appears here in a 3-CD deluxe digipack edition, including 12-page booklet.