Selection: Smile
Artists
Jackie McLean (as) Kenny Drew (p) Bo Stief (b) Alex Riel (d) recorded at “Jazzhus Montmartre”, Copenhagen, Denmark, August 5, 1972
Music
Jackie’s discography skips a full four years from 1968 to this recording at the age of 40, an absence of four years, during which Jackie had – well, put on a few pounds, from the looks of his cover. Another American who “sent out for a Danish” and decided to stay a while, in the company of expatriate jazzers Dexter Gordon and Kenny Drew.
1972 was not a not a promising year for jazz. With such an enormous significant body of work behind him, Mclean embodies the great artist’s problem, what to do now, as ever-restless audiences shrank or move on following the pied piper of novelty, new faces and new sounds. It’s hard not to feel some sympathy for greats whose ranks have been thinned by the grim reaper, whose raison d’etre is to play improvisational jazz, and eschew the lure of rock and electric instruments to reach ever larger concert audiences. Miles managed it (not successfully, in everyone’s opinion), but McLean?
His solution, an academic tenure, and – Copenhagen in the early Seventies – sounds a good one to me. Two years of recording for Steeplechase, a quick tour of Japan where audiences appreciated jazz, followed by peripatetic appearances back in the US recording with other greats of the bop era, now seniors.
Sample of “museum” jazz recorded at Carnegie Hall”, NYC, April 6, 1994: Jazz Masters: Roy Hargrove, J.J. Johnson, Jackie McLean, Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, Hank Jones, Kenny Burrell, Pat Metheny, Christian McBride, Ray Brown, Al Foster Museum or not, I would love to have been there to hear that, what a line up.
Vinyl: Steeplechase SCS 1001 Denmark 1972
That catalogue number – 1001 – sounds to me like the beginning of a series. Founder Nils Winter built the Steeplechase label out of recordings of visiting American Musicians to Copenhagen, and I guess this was among the first .Steeplechase are not especially rare records, nor expensive, but I had never seen this one before, and as Monmartre 1, is a little bit special
Liner Notes: Monmartre Jazz 1 – I like that.
Collectors Corner
One item from the treasure trove of a collection of quality jazz in North London in the last few weeks. Word spread out on the collector grapevine of this collection.
Soon as I heard I was on a serious of tedious bus rides and costume changes (left: headgear favoured by North London student types) to the outer northern reaches of my great city. Much seeking of directions from natives: Crouch End? Eh? Much had already gone, but that is how it goes in collecting. A few times I have been first on the scene, and it is a joyous feeling. This time, cherry-pickers had taken the obvious gems,
But there were still enough items to satisfy, which will appear here at LJC in coming weeks. If you are interested, the Coltrane Blue Train original was still on the wall as I left, at £500, too rich for me.
Postscript
The Jazzhus Monmartre, Copenhagen, is still firing on all cylinders – date coming up includes 50 years of jazz with Bo Stief, featured on this record. Looks an interesting place, and the artists a bit more interesting than our own Ronnie Scotts.
An excellent blog dedicated to recordings made in live jazz clubs is Speakeasy Around Midnight, with a section on Cafe Monmartre recordings, among a hundred or so different venues from Sweet Basil to The Five Spot, Lighthouse Hermosa Beach, The Blackhawk SF and many more. Nothing like having a good idea, only to find someone has got to it first, damn. Well worth a look.
A full listing of the Steeplechase catalogue here. Any recommendations welcome.
LJC
Recommendations on Steeplechase? Griffin’s Blues for Harvey and all the recordings from July 1973 with Jackie 😉 but I guess those are the obvious ones and you already own them…
Those I don’t own I certainly will, in the fullness of time. Those Andrew Hill titles are intriguing.
I’d highly recommend Jackie’s 1975 Steeplechase album with Michael Carvin ‘Antiquity’. It’s a very of its time album that features just the two players, The rhythmic backing allows Jackie to really explore and his soloing on ‘Antiquity’ suite is quite astounding.
Nice record and a great label. These Steeplechase LPs will be more expensive in the future. Like that Duke Jordan “flight to denmark”
Only problem I have with Steeplechase is their catalogue is so huge – nearly 800 titles – as big as Blue Note – and so many artists and unknowns, it’s difficult to know what to look for. I have uploaded a listing of the Steeplechase records adapted from their CD catalogue, to LJC’s Other European Labels page-
https://londonjazzcollector.wordpress.com/record-labels-guide/other-labels-europe/steeplechase-catalogue/
I guess not all titles were issued on vinyl, but it corresponds pretty well to those I have. I was surprised at many of the little gems in the list, few if any of which I have ever seen in the flesh.
Any recommendations welcomed
Thanks for the postscript and the tip for the blog: Speakeasy Around Midnight
Reelly great with outstanding old pictures!
As Ken Wood said: may-be to run an item of each favorite jazzclubs; old or still existing ones.
Just finished reading Max Gordon book on the Village Vanguard; again: great jazz period still going strong
Great stuff! Thanks for this interesting post. Now where to find a copy of that one?
Thanks. I’m glad you managed to find some treasures, albeit behind those who had first pick. I quite enjoyed ‘Smile’ and I’m sure this live performance would have been a fine evening. I wonder if any of your usual suspects has a picture of Club Montmatre, Copenhagen (or maybe there’s one on the reverse cover of Montmatre Jazz #2). It would help to set the context (come to think of it, I don’t know what the Village Vanguard in NYC is like). Jazz Clubs of the World- Perhaps a future seam to explore?
The cover is classic. It looks like he’s trying to negotiate his way out of a problem.
The track you posted is nice though.