When Gospel Was Gospel

When Gospel Was Gospel

Various Artists – When Gospel Was Gospel Shanachie SH 6064 (2005)

A nice collection of gospel from 1946-1969 produced by Anthony Heilbut, the author of The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times.  Eight of the selections are previously unreleased live recordings, which may make this interesting to those already well familiar with the artists represented here but also less interesting to those looking for just a general introduction to gospel music.  There are plenty of great female gospel singers and groups on display here.  If this set does have a theme, it is a focus on the kinds of acts that emphasized very disciplined singing and very traditional lyrics with generally biblical tones.  That is to say, this collection steers clear of more modern gospel with more emotional, unhinged vocals.  So the title “When Gospel Was Gospel” seems to reflect a context of a lecture by an old timer to a younger “kid” about days gone by when things were good, serious, dependable, meaningful, and, from the point of view of the “kid” being lectured, entirely boring and out of date.  Well, I’m being harsh.  All the music here is really good, even the obscure live recordings.  The thing is, this set has a tendency toward the kind of dour, serious material that threatens to take all the fun out of listening to the whole thing front to back.  It would have gone a long way if different artists, or even different songs by the artists already represented here, were selected to place a few more up tempo, lively numbers here and there.  Fans of gospel music won’t be bothered by the dour seriousness, of course.  There are so many great performances, from Mahalia Jackson‘s soaring “Power of the Holy Ghost” to Marion Williams‘ “Traveling Shoes”, that there is bound to be at least something for everyone to love.  But, this set might be a little too disciplined and straight to win over many new fans of the genre.  I hesitate to add this, but felt like I should: the sound quality of this disc is a bit muffled, so you don’t hear all the great voices as clearly and crisply as you might like.

Lee Morgan – Infinity

Infinity

Lee Morgan – Infinity Blue Note LT-1091 (1981)

It’s pretty amazing that Lee Morgan’s Infinity album sat in the vaults for so long before seeing release.  In an effort to duplicate the success of The Sidewinder, Lee Morgan was making a lot of recordings in the mid-1960s.  His reputation is that he was something of a hard bop reactionary.  And I suppose that the 60s were a unique time in that there was never again to be such a large number of musical giants performing jazz at the peak of their careers combined with a comparable level of commercial interest in the music.  The commercial decline of jazz music had a profound impact on how many young musicians chose to play jazz (rather than rock or something else) and what labels and venues were willing to support.  So, for a brief moment in the 1960s, Infinity many have seemed like “just another hard bop album” and therefore not commercially viable enough for release.  And to a certain extent that might have been true.  This might have been lost in the shuffle around the time it was recorded.  But it’s also another pretty good hard bop album.  The songwriting is above average, there are some top players here, and it all comes together in some commendable performances.  While I don’t want to make it seems like this is some groundbreaking lost classic, this album does certainly hold its own with the better hard bop albums of its day.  Particularly thanks to Jackie McLean, I think this is even a bit more rewarding than some of the better-known, though overrated, hard bop albums of the period.

Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis – Two Men With the Blues

Two Men With the Blues

Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis – Two Men With the Blues Blue Note 50999 5 04454 2 4 (2008)

Two Men With the Blues pairs Willie Nelson with Wynton Marsalis at two live appearances at The Allen Room, Lincoln Center, New York City, where Marsalis is musical director.  Willie has always demonstrated a fondness for jazz, and he has recorded in that setting before, so an outing backed by a jazz combo for some bluesy vocal jazz-pop is well within his range.  He doesn’t have to reach for any of this.  Although Willie just does his usual thing, it happens to suit the music fine.  The only thing Marsalis and his band bring to the table is endless showboating.  But the problem is the showboating isn’t very impressive (perhaps only appearing so to the jazz novice).  It’s actually Willie Nelson on guitar who brings more adventurousness to bear, with much more affinity for dissonant chords than Marsalis’ hard-bop puritanism permits.  Perhaps more time playing together would have allowed a better rapport amongst the musicians.  As it stands, this is adequate, but falls well short on creativity.  A pairing of Nelson with someone like saxophonist James Carter might be more interesting.

Preservation Hall Jazz Band – New Orleans’ Sweet Emma and Her Preservation Hall Jazz Band

New Orleans' Sweet Emma and Her Preservation Hall Jazz Band

Preservation Hall Jazz Band – New Orleans’ Sweet Emma and Her Preservation Hall Jazz Band Preservation Hall Records VPH/VPS-2 (1964)

They call Dixieland jazz made after its time “moldy fig” music.  The Preservation Hall Jazz Band played their first touring gigs in Minneapolis, and Sweet Emma is a recording of one of them.  The band was started to provide jobs for aging musicians who played a style of jazz that had long since fallen out of commercial favor.  A venue named Preservation Hall was opened as a kind of museum and tourist attraction to showcase Dixieland jazz.  The band has featured a rotating cast of local New Orleans musicians through the years.  If you’ve listened to old, first-generation Dixieland records, this will probably not impress you much.  But it’s all still good fun.  This is unpretentious music that is exactly what it claims to be, no more, no less.

Paul Robeson – Paul Robeson [Pearl]

Paul Robeson

Paul Robeson – Paul Robeson Pearl GEMM CD 9356 (1993)

An excellent collection of early Robeson recordings for His Master’s Voice.  There are a large and confusing number of Robeson compilations available.  This one focuses exclusively on recordings from the 1920s and 1930s (and then mostly from the 30s).  The bulk of this consists of showtunes/pop, but there are some spirituals as well.  Though these recordings are so old as to have nowhere near the fidelity of Robeson’s 1940s recordings for Columbia Records, they, along with associated stage and screen appearances, are what helped first make him famous.  The songs included here are well selected.  It’s important to note that at this early stage Robeson was forced to record racist, condescending material in order to make a living in Jim Crow America.  So the version of “Ol’ Man River” from the musical “Show Boat” that is so closely associated with Robeson opens with the lyrics “Niggers all work on the Mississippi / Niggers all work while the white folks play.”  It is crucial that these bigoted lyrics not be excised from history and forgotten, as if it all never happened, but remembered for what burdens an artist like Robeson had to deal with.  Yet, this compilation does a huge service by sequencing “Ol’ Man River” (possibly the reason some might pick up this album) as the last song.  It’s worth noting that in later years when Robeson’s stature was assured, he changed the words of “Ol’ Man River” to be more dignified when he performed and recorded it.