Ed Thigpen's "The Element of Swing": Find It!

Ed Thigpen Rhythm Features
The Element of Swing
Stunt Records 2002

Find this disc, put it on, and listen to a simply great session among the three trio members -- Thigpen on drums, Jesper Bodilsen on bass, and Carsten Dahl on piano -- and the featured guest, Joe Lovano, on tenor sax, and once on bass clarinet. This is a great live session, recorded beautifully at the Copenhagen Jazz house in 2001.

I am not so sure everyone remembers who Ed Thigpen was (he passed away at age 79 in 2010), as he lived in Copenhagen since 1972 and mostly toured and taught in Europe, and recorded only a few times on some smaller or foreign  labels like Stunt or Japan's Pony Canyon. In his heyday,  Ed Thigpen was most famous for his longtime work in the Oscar Peterson Trio, but he got his start earlier playing with Cootie Williams from 1951-1952, Dinah Washington (1954), Lennie Tristano, Johnny Hodges, Bud Powell, and Billy Taylor's Trio (1956-1959).  He was known for his quiet yet swinging style and brushwork, and was a perfect team member with Peterson and bassist Ray Brown for 10 years. After leaving Peterson, Thigpen worked with Ella Fitzgerald during 1966-1972, and finally settled in Copenhagen in 1972.  In Europe, he continued playing with the who's who of jazz, and then the group Rhythm Features in 1998.

The two Danes in the trio, Carsten Dahl and Jesper Bodilsen, are also not well known here in the U.S. but are major players on the European scene. Dahl actually began his career as a drummer, studying with Thigpen, but quikly changed to piano and has led countless trios on the Stunt and Storyville labels. I would recommend a listen of his 2011 recording on Storyville "Effata." in particular. Bodilsen has been mostly a support player, but his support has been for many of the top names in jazz piano like Kasper Villaume, Stephano Bollani, and George Colligan.

For the band's second recording, tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano joins, and the live concert is nothing short of spectacular. While Lovano is out front on many of the songs, there is ample oportunity for each of the others to demonstratae thier abilities and proclivities to swing. The works were written by band members along with a pair of great songs, "Lonnie's Lament" by John Coltrane and Billy Strayhorn's "Chelsea Bridge," the latter played so gorgeously it can make you cry.   The group struts its stuff on the toe-tapping opener "Sweet Mama", plays a great bop song with solos by Dahl and Lovano on "Hello Joe" demonstrates a great feel for the blues on "Like Blues", and burn it out on ETP.

Simply put, this is great stuff by great players and should be high up on anyone's list of purchases. Great melodies are played mostly inside for the traditionalists, but there is so much great improvisation that it will please those who want the music to burn a bit. Lovano's tenor is controlled, round, and warm throughout, even when he burns, and Dahl's mastery of the keyboards will surprise those who have never heard him

Put this on your must list.

Introduction

I am an avid jazz listener, CD buyer, blog and magazine reader, with a simple objective: to get more people to listen to jazz, and to be willing to listen to new artists that they otherwise might not ever hear. I play a couple of instruments for my own pleasure, the piano and the bass clarinet, have some understanding of the technical aspects of music and its history, but make no pretense that I am a critic in the professional sense of the word. I simply know what I like and what I don't like. I probably purchased in the neighborhood of 500 CDs this past year of both historical recordings as well as new recordings. And by the way, that is specifically CDs and not downloads -- I love the physical presence of the disc, the written materials, the list of players, etc. And I try to support my local music store, an independent seller with an encyclopedic knowledge of the music who is fighting the good fight in this era of downloads and spotify, etc.

I will try to use this blog to feature some of the many recordings that intrigued me this past year, or even earlier, particularly those that may not get much play here in the U.S. With the demise of the large labels and more and more small labels and self-published music, it has to be hard for artists to be recognized. By researching the blogs, reading the distributors catalogues at my local store, cruising cdbaby, and going to clubs, I have been able to purchase a lot of interesting CDs this past year by American players.

At the same time there is a plethora of music being creataed outside the U.S. that may never get here. Sure, a lot of European jazz comes to us from ECM, ACT, Pirouet, and other labels; but even more never reaches the U.S. market. And sure, many players do get recognition in the U.S., and come here and play; but many never are heard here. This past year, for example, I travelled to Iceland and found a very robust jazz scene there. Many readers may know of Sunna Gunnlaugs, but how about Agnar Magnusson, Arni Forchammer Quartet, or Gunnar Gunnarsson? Similarly, recent recordings of Brit Gwilym Simcock are beginning to pop up in the U.S. either solo or with the Impossible Gentlemen, but what about Kit Downes, Curios, and others? Tricotomy and The Necks, Australians by the way? I love Italian jazz, but labels like Philology, EGEA, or Auand area hard to find here, and costly in many cases to order from abroad. Some of the familar names like Rava, Piernunzi, Battaglia, or Bollani are know from their ECM recordings or Camjazz, but there are many others as well playing wonderful, lyrical music.

My tastes are fairly widespread, although I do shy away from electronics and, to me at least, the extremes of the avant garde. As this blog unfolds I am sure that my likes and dislikes will become evident. Remenber though, they represent my tastes, they do not represent actual jazz criticism/reviews. I leave that for the professionals. But eventually, I hope folks who read this will understand where I am coming rom, and if they understand that then maybe they will try some of the music.

I hope I can bring new discoveries to those who find this blog, and encourage some risk taking among those looking for interesting music.  In the next few days I am going to add to the over-abundance of end of year lists and develop one of my own featuring those discs that really struck me during the past year. what the heck, that's as good a way as any to introduce myself.