Reggie Workman First - "Conversation" (1977)

yes, that scribble is part of the design

'Mark II' excerpt


'Conversation' excerpt

I’d always imagined that REGGIE WORKMAN had been John Coltrane’s bass player for many years, but apparently it all took place in 1961. I guess it's the legacy of recordings like the Village Vanguard recordings and the Africa/Brass Sessions that makes it seem longer. I mean, I just collected my mail and there's a promo pamphlet for a new pizza delivery service called "Love Supreme", who promise "emotional pizza for one and all". Now that's cultural reach.

After Coltrane replaced him with Jimmy Garrison, Workman spent the 1960s playing on many albums by artists like Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Freddie Hubbard, Archie Shepp, Herbie Mann, Roy Ayers and Wayne Shorter. (album blog links, not bios)

Around the turn of the decade, he played on spiritual albums like Pharoah Sanders' "Karma" and Alice Coltrane's "World Galaxy", and took part in some significant Strata-East dates - Stanley Cowell's "Brilliant Circles"; Charles Tolliver's "Impact" and "Live at the Loosdrecht Jazz Festival", and Billy Harper's "Capra Black".

During the 70s Workman became more involved in education, and led the New York-based Collective Black Arts organization in New York - a community self-help project that for a while published its own newspaper, "Expansions".

"Conversation" is his first album as leader. He's joined here by Cecil Bridgewater (trumpet); Slide Hampton (trombone); George Adams (reeds); Albert Dailey (piano); Michael Carvin (drums) and Lawrence Killian (percussion), who are listed by the collective name "Reggie Workman First".

This album was recorded on December 19th, 1977, a week after the Bridgewater Brothers' "Lightning and Thunder", which also featured Workman, Bridgewater and Carvin.

Workman and CECIL BRIDGEWATER had first played together on some of the "Roy Brooks and the Artistic Truth" albums in 1973, including the amazing "Black Survival", and in 1976-77 had both joined Max Roach on four albums, including "Nommo" and "Live In Tokyo".

Pianist ALBERT DAILEY released his first solo album "Day After the Dawn" in 1972. In the few years preceding this album, he'd recorded on Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto's "The Best of Two Worlds" , Azar Lawrence's "Summer Solstice", and Charles Rouse's "Cinnamon Flower". In May of '77, Dailey and Reggie Workman had both played on Archie Shepp's "Ballads for Trane".

Drummer MICHAEL CARVIN and percussionist LAWRENCE KILLIAN individually had a wealth of percussion credits on various albums by Pharoah Sanders and Lonnie Liston Smith. They'd both played on Sanders' "Elevation", L Smith's "Expansions", and Cecil McBee's "Mutima". Apart from the Bridgewater Brothers album the week before, Carvin and Reggie Workman had also spent part of December working on Hamiett Bluett's album "Orchestra, Duo and Septet". Also a veteran of some great Norman Connors albums, Killian began a five year stint with the Village People the year after this, even appearing (uncredited) in the film "Can't Stop the Music", before heading back to the funkier zone of Pucho and the Latin Soul Brothers.

On McBee's "Mutima", Carvin and Killian had been joined by saxaphonist GEORGE ADAMS, who'd also worked with Killian on the Roy Haynes albums "Hip Ensemble" and "Senyah". Most of Adam's 70s work had been with groups led by Charles Mingus, Gil Evans and Hannibal Marvin Peterson, with some side excursions to the Fatback Band's "Keep On Steppin" and, earlier in the year, James Blood Ulmer's "Revealing". The year before, he'd released "Suite For Swingers", his debut album as a leader.

Rounding out the group was trombonist SLIDE HAMPTON, a frequent leader in his own right and a veteran of many Maynard Ferguson albums. His one previous collaboration here was with Reggie Workman on Stick Evans' 1961 album "Stick Around With Sticks Evans", although he would go on to work with several of the players over the next few years.

Things get underway with Hampton's uptempo "Mark II". Carvin and Killian set up a percussive groove over which Workman's constantly sliding around a walking vamp. The brass set up the main melody, leading into solos by Dailey, Bridgewater, Adams, Workman and Hampton. After a return of the melody, there's a percussive workout with Killian on conga and Carvin providing sensitive minimal backing - the two are really locked together on this album, as Carvin's background was as much as a percussionist as a drummer . Finally, a thankfully short drum solo finishes up the track.

Workman's compositions had been few and far between until this point, and his pretty modal piece "Deja Vu" rounds out side 1. Dailey sets up a chord backing for the main brass theme, which is followed by a Hampton solo. All instruments drop away for an extended Workman bass solo. Dailey leads the band back in for Adam's sax solo, then all flirt around the main theme to finish.

Side 2 is taken up with Workman's eighteen minute arrangement of "Conversation", written by pianist Sonelius Smith. The year before, Smith had recorded it as "Conversation Piece" on "World Of The Children", his album with Shamek Farrah. Reggie Workman would later record the track again in 1993 for his "Summit Conference" album.

Workman leads the track in with some tense, bowed crescendos and scrapes that the brass respond to with improvised bursts of colour. The main theme is introduced and leads to a sax solo from Adams, with Workman answering his impro on bass. Next, Cecil Bridgewater solos over an extended complex rhythmical interplay between Dailey and the band. His solo continues while the band break down into some almost-free, yet still controlled, patches of colour built around Dailey’s apeggios.

This breaks down further into a call and answer section between bass and piano. Killian’s varied percussion brings back the beat and calls Dailey back to the key centre, while he continues the solo. There’s another Workman-only solo, which he finishes by re-introducing the main theme, leading into a Hampton solo and a final return of the theme.

TRACKLIST 

1. 'Mark II' (Slide Hampton) 10:34
2. 'Deja Vu' (Reggie Workman) 11:32
3. 'Conversation' (Sonelius Smith, arr. by R.Workman) 18:04

PERSONNEL

Reggie Workman - bass
Cecil Bridgewater - trumpet
Slide Hampton - trombone
George Adams - tenor saxaphone
Albert Dailey - piano
Michael Carvin - drums
Lawrence Killian - percussion

CREDITS

Recorded at Sound Ideas Studios, New York City. N.Y. December 19, 1977DENON Catalogue # YX-7805-ND
Produced by Yoshio Ozawa for Nippon Columbia Co. Ltd.
Program Co-ordinator : Tsutorou Ueno (Nippon Columbia)
A&R director : Reginald Workman
Recording and Remix Engineer : Jim McCurdy
PCM Operator : Kaoru Yamamoto (Nippon Columbia)
Engineering Supervisor : Norio Okada (Nippon Columbia)

Cover photo - Tadayuki Naitoh
Artwork - Satoshi Saitoh (sign)
Cover Ilustration - Shozo Shimoda
Liner Notes - Hideki Satoh

REGGIE WORKMAN DISCOGRAPHY 

1977 'Conversation' at base of this post 
1983 'Such Great Friends' (FLAC) @ Strata-East Fan Club
1986 Bootleg concert at Inconstant Sol

1987 "Synthesis" at Avax
1989 "Images - Reggie Workman Ensemble in Concert" from E-Mile (thanks!)
1993 "Summit Conference" at Call It Anything
1995 "Cerebral Caverns" (FLAC) at Call It Anything
1995 "Cerebral Caverns" (MP3) at Musistenz2000 "Altered States"
2006 Live at St Peters Church (with Andrew Cyrille & others) at Inconstant Sol

RESEARCH CREDITS

Some information from :
Rick Lopez's Reggie Workman discography
Michael Fitzgerald's Slide Hampton discography
Marcel Safier's George Adams discography & sessionography
Tony King's George Adams discography

The thirty-five album blog links within the post are from :
Call It Anything, Pharoah’s Dance, Ile Oxumare, Seventeen Green Buicks, El Goog Ja, Orgy In Rhythm, My Jazz World, Strata-East Fan Club, Four Brothers Beats, Bari Beat Bandits ft. San Pasquale Ent., Keep on Truckin' (on the sunny side), The Roadhouse, Rocker CDs, Vlassis-13, Vibes From the Wax, The Music Jockey, The Sly Mongoose, Loronix, Mondo Musicale, Disco2Go, Rocker CDs, Jazz Archives, Fat Toro. Rapidshare link for James Blood Ulmer's "Revealing" courtesy of Burning Blue Soul, originally uploaded at "El Reza". Thanks to all these bloggers.

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Bridgewater Brothers - "Lightning and Thunder" (1978)

We last met the Bridgewater Brothers (Cecil on brass, and Ron on reeds) as part of the Billy Parker's Fourth World album from a few weeks back. They recorded this Japan-only vinyl release in late 1977 with a pretty stellar lineup - Stanley Cowell on piano, Reggie Workman on bass, Michael Carvin on drums.

I started doing one of my who's-played-with-who jazz chronologies as part of this post, but it soon became clear that these guys have played together in so many configurations over so many years, that such a chronology would have ended up turning into some endless DNA molecule sequence that would have eventually eaten me and spat me out.

So the trivia fact of the day is that all five of these musicians played on singer Mark Murphy's 1961 album "Rah" which sounds, of course, nothing at all like this one (but is a wonderful vocal jazz album, so catch it at El Goog's blog via that link).

Also, as part of that initial search, I did come across a lovely 1975 album by drummer Michael Carvin called "The Camel", which was new to me, and you should check out at Pharoah's Dance.

Cecil and Ron Bridgewater, West Village NYC, 1976
photo by Tom Marcello

As for this album - three long tracks written by the brothers. This is the most straight-ahead jazz I've posted so far - i'll listen to Stanley Cowell play piano any place, any time. Ron Bridgewater's "Silent Rain" features solos by the brothers and by Cowell. "Dear Trane" has - you guessed it - plenty of saxaphone solos and some inspired solo bass by Reggie Workman.
Cecil Bridgewater's frenetic title track takes up the second side of the album. After some chaotic discordancy at the start, Workman's walking bass holds things together while Cowell's arpeggios go screaming all over the scale, and Carvin is all percussion and colour.

TRACKLIST 

01 "Silent Rain" - (Ron Bridgewater) - 9:09
02 "Dear Trane"- (Ron Bridgewater) - 10:37
03 "Lightning & Thunder" - (Cecil Bridgewater) - 16:41

PERSONNEL

Cecil Bridgewater - trumpet, fluegel horn
Ron Bridgewater - tenor & soprano sax
Stanley Cowell - piano
Reggie Workman - bass
Michael Carvin - drums

PRODUCTION DETAILS

Artist: BRIDGEWATER BROTHERS
Title: LIGHTNING AND THUNDER
Label: DENON / NIPPON COLUMBIA
Cat #: YX7526ND
Press: JAPAN
Recorded: Dec 10, 1977, NYC
Released 1978 – japan only
Hope you enjoy it.

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John Stubblefield - "Prelude" (1978)

Saxaphonist John Stubblefield is one of those musicians who spent his life moving back and forth between many types of jazz and latin forms with no straight trajectory. He started out in the 60s backing RnB acts like Jackie Wilson and Solomon Burke, before moving to Chicago at the end of the decade, working with Maurice McIntyre on "Humility In The Light Of The Creator" (1969) and working with the progressive "Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians"

In 1970 he moved to New York, and began working with people as diverse as Chico Hamilton, Abdullah Ibrahim, and Tito Puente, whose band he joined from 1972-74. In 1972 he played a range of reed and percussion instruments on Anthony Braxton's Town Hall album. He briefly joined Charles Mingus' band, but the two had a falling out, eventually reconciling many years later. He also played for a while in the Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Orchestra, alongside trumpet player Cecil Bridgewater.

Stubblefield played on many dates with the percussionist Mtume in the mid 70s. The two can first be heard on the September 1973 Miles Davis recording of "Calypso Frelimo", which ended up as one side of Davis' double album "Get Up With it". In February 1974 Mtume got Stubblefield in to play on his album "Rebirth Cycle", which also featured bassist Cecil McBee.

Later that year Stubblefield and Mtume joined forces again on McCoy Tyner's "Sama Layuca", with Stubblefield on oboe and flute, and then in 1975 they took part in Reggie Lucas' more fusion-oriented "Survival Themes". The african and eastern leanings of the Mtume and Tyner albums carried over into Stubblefield's participation in Stanley Cowell's "Regeneration" in early 1976, on which he played the "Zurna" (or "zurma"), an egyptian double-reed instrument.

Later in 1976, he joined Nat Adderley's group for the albums "Don't Look Back" and "Hummin' ", both of which also featured Onaje Allan Gumbs on acoustic piano and rhodes.

On December 8th and 9th, 1976, Stubblefield gathered Mtume, McBee, Gumbs and Bridgewater together at Blank Studios in NYC to record this album. Joining them was ubiquitous drummer Joe Chambers, who'd just completed his second album "New World". (thanks Greg!)

The upfront percussion of the Adderley and Chambers albums continues on a few tracks here. "Song For One" bursts into life like an uptempo Strata-East spiritual number, and Mtume and Chambers go into a full brazilian break in the middle of Gumbs' joyous "If Only you Knew", one of two tracks featuring rhodes. McBee's locked in with Chambers, having played on his earlier albu, "The Almoravid", and contributes a good solo to the opener. Low-key tracks like "Little Prince" and "What's Gonna Be Is Gonna Be" feature a beautiful harmony of understatement between Stubblefield and Bridgewater, particularly when they're on the flugelhorn and soprano sax. "Minor Impulse" and "Twelve for K.D." explore more standard post-bop territory, the latter a tribute to the late Kenny Dorham. The album's got great production from Marty Cann, with some unusual spatial overdubs.

TRACKLIST

01. "Song For One" (Stubblefield) - 7:18
02 "Little Prince" (Stubblefield) - 8:00
03 "Twelve for K.D." (Stubblefield) - 4:00
04 "If Only You Knew" (Gumbs) - 5:35
05 "What's Gonna Be Is Gonna Be" (Bridgewater) - 7:35
06 "Minor Impulse" (Stubblefield) - 7:10

PERSONNEL

John Stubblefield - Tenor and Soprano Sax
Cecil Bridgewater - trumpet and flugelhorn
Onaje Allan Gumbs - keyboards
Cecil McBee - contra bass
Joe Chambers - drums
Mtume - concussions (that's what it says) 

CREDITS

Storyville Records SLP-4011
Recorded in 1976, released in 1978

Produced by Marty Cann
Engineer - Bob Blank
Recorded and mixed at Blank Studios, December 8-9, 1976.
Photography - James Levin
Liner Notes - Alun Morgan

Special thanks to Onaje, Bridgewater, McBee, Sharon, Gabe, Hank, and to all who have helped me along my musical path.
Also special thanks to Howie Gabriel.
John Stubblefield plays Prestini reeds exclusively.
This album is dedicated to John Stubblefield III 1919-1976

POST CREDITS

Album links in this post go to : Vanish your Self, Bitches Brew, Sonora Aurora, Nothing Is v2.0, Ile Oxumaré, Astronation, and Orgy In Rhythm. Joe Chambers' "New World" rip by Greg.

Please thank and support these bloggers if you click through and download.

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Please leave comments, I do this for the music conversation 

Billy Parker's Fourth World - "Freedom of Speech" - (1975)

THE MUSIC

The standouts on this album are the two joyous vocal tracks that start each side.
Donald Smith and Ron Bridgewater's "Dance of the Little Children" begins with a call to children to embrace their ancestry and find peace and happiness in the everyday, in order to find a future (yes, it's 1974!). Smith's vocal and piano embrace a harder, faster swing than the mellower tones of his brother's band at that time. The Bridgewater brothers move in and out of a synchronised melody, adding improvised tones around the vocal, and McBee holds a walking beat while Parker is all shimmering cymbals and offbeat snare.

The other vocal track is Ron Bridgewater's "Get With It", featuring a killer vocal by Dee Dee Bridgewater. Cecil McBee's memorable bassline does call-and-answer with the Bridgewater brothers' sax and trumpet. Parker zooms around the kit with constantly changing patterns while Smith holds the fort with simple chord patterns.

Cecil McBee's "Home" allows all of the musicians to stretch out in considered solos, while "Gemini's Lullaby" is a more straight-ahead affair.

Finally, there's Parker's sixteen-minute "Freedom Of Speech". After a three-minute drum solo - which I have to admit I always skip over - we move into a complex series of interlocking rhythms, with the brass and sax heading off into fairly free territory. Now on Rhodes, Donald Smith seems in close communication with McBee's fast, arpeggiated basslines. The two of them would come together again the next year with drummer Jack dejohnette for the album "Luv", Smith's only date as leader.

THE HISTORY ....

Most of the musicians who gathered to record this fantastic spiritual jazz record for the Strata-East label on May 24th, 1974 had crossed each other's paths in various musical pairings over the preceding few years.

Husband and wife team Dee Dee Bridgewater (vocals) and Cecil Bridgewater (trumpet) had been working together on albums like Frank Foster's "Loud Minority", and Roy Ayers' "Coffy" and "Virgo Red".

Dee Dee was a vocalist much in demand. In the year preceding this session,she'd appeared on Carlos Garnett's funky "Black Love", Norman Connors' beautiful "Love From the Sun" and had shared memorable duet vocals with Andy Bey on Stanley Clarke's "Children of Forever" - just to name a few absolute classics!

Ten weeks before the "Freedom Of Speech" session, the couple had been joined in Tokyo by Cecil's brother Ronald Bridgewater (tenor saxaphone) to record Dee Dee's debut album, the beautiful "Afro Blue", on which the brothers had added african percussion instruments to their arsenal.

Also in the studio on May 24th, 1974 was Donald Smith, (piano, vocals), fresh from recording on his older brother Lonnie Liston Smith's "Cosmic Funk" - on which Ronald Bridgewater had also played percussion.

Cecil McBee (bass) was also there - just two weeks before, he'd completed his own Strata East date "Mutima", and in February he'd played on Mtume's "Rebirth Cycle" - with both albums also featuring Dee Dee Bridgewater on vocals. He'd also played on Lonnie Liston Smith's "Astral Travelling".

So 1974 was a huge year for all five of these people (and, seemingly, for great jazz music). Within a month of this album, the Bridgewaters would be back in the studio to take part in Thad Jones & Mel Lewis' big-band "Potpourri", before working on two McCoy Tyner albums, two O'Donel Levy albums and a couple for Roy Ayers. Donald Smith and Cecil McBee were six months away from recording on Lonnie Liston Smith's massive "Expansions", with McBee fitting in a few Pharoah Sanders albums in between.

Billy Parker - from the cover of "Freedom Of Speech"

AND THEN, THE MYSTERY ...

So with all this fervent activity, the question has to be asked ...

** Who was Billy Earl Parker Jr (drums), the leader of this session ??

Billy Parker remains unlisted as a musician on all major jazz sites. Hours of Google revealed little, and the only known photos are above. Even in the cover pic at the top of this post, his name seems to be fading into the ringwear ...

His only other recording appears to be as a percussionist on Charles Tolliver's "Impact" in 1975. Then there's nothing.

For a moment, I worried that he might be this killer, but then worked out that he would have been nine years old when he'd recorded this album.

Finally, by backtracking one of those Zoom info pages, I found a summary of a "SUNY Rockland Community College" 2002 press release that no longer exists :

"Billy Parker's Fourth World Legacy Concert 

...
The concert, Billy Parker's Fourth World Legacy, is the eighth annual tribute honoring the late percussionist and RCC educator, Billy Parker. A long-time Rockland County resident, Parker began his affiliation with RCC in 1987, building its jazz program and maintaining his life-long tradition of teaching and inspiring others. A lifelong student himself, Parker was near completion of his doctorate in music education at New York University when he died in 1996. Billy was among those rare individuals equally gifted as artist and educator and the concert series pays homage to his legacy."

Nothing on him at the actual Rockland Community College website, but a little more digging through back issues of their pdf newsletters revealed that the tenth annual "Fourth World Legacy Concert series" took place in 2005, as part of "Black History Awareness Month", but then it stopped.

So perhaps Parker was one of those musicians who shift their creative skills to teaching ? Whatever the case, his one date as leader was a special one, and he managed to bring together all these people at the peak of their powers. He's also a great drummer.

But then people began to read this blog post, and in the comments, Aaron Fuller said :

"Billy Parker was my uncle. He was an incredibly talented, smart, and kind man. I'm very happy to see that folks are still enjoying his masterpiece.

Just to give you a bit more information about him... He was born and raised in Buffalo, NY and then attended college at Michigan State University. He met my aunt in Lansing. They lived in NY and toured in Europe for quite a while. Some time later they relocated to Nyack, NY and he ended up on the faculty of the community college while he pursued advanced degrees from NYU. He was an Ellington scholar. Although his name isn't well-known even among the most avid jazz fans, I think that if you were to talk to some of the great NY musicians that were around in the late 60s and 70s you would find that most knew him. He also had a huge impact as a music educator and I have no doubt that his former students are all over the place, continuing to put his love of the art into practice." 

Then later, Aaron came back and said "Simon, I spoke with my aunt a bit more about the recording of the album. She said that one of the reasons she thinks it turned out so well is that Billy made sure to pay all of the musicians really well and give them their pay up front. Billy had apparently gotten some sort of grant from the NEA around that time that probably really helped on the funding front. I asked how he knew this group of players and she thought that he'd probably met some of them when he was playing around Europe (Italy, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen, mostly). Often times bigger American acts would come around and need to pick up a drummer for their gigs and then be thrilled to find a New York guy at their disposal. He apparently made a lot of good long-term contacts. She's been giving everyone in our family the records she still has. We told her she could probably make some good money selling them online, but she is more interested in making sure that we all have copies and keep listening to it." 

Erik Lawrence adds : "I was about 17 or 18, growing up near Nyack, NY when I met Billy in the late 70's. We played together a lot for several years... these were the 80's when it wasn't so easy to record or put out records, unfortunately. He was working a job as a sort of medical courier before diving into education with both feet. He taught me and the other local ambitious creative players a lot. From what I remember he grew up with Juni Booth and we even did a gig with him at one point, outdoors at the Edward Hopper House in Nyack. I can research the date and find out if a recording exists. I was teaching jazz history at Rockland Community College and stopped after a few years. Billy went in and began to develop a jazz studies program there and taught some young students who played in that later version of 4th World. He was an amazing spirit and only knew how to play in an uncompromising way. I don't remember exactly when he passed. I'm sure Aaron might know. (Aaron please give my best to Carol. I'l love to be in touch with her). Beautiful spirit! Ask Cecil McBee about him. We spoke about him quite a bit recently." 

Ibn Shabazz, Billy Parker's son, would like to find out more information about Billy : 

My name is Ibn Shabazz and William "Billy" Earl Parker, Jr. was my father. I was born, Paul Earl Parker in Buffalo, NY and I am his only son. I am amazed that this album has stood the test of time. I'd like to gather as much information on him as could. I keep pulling up some country singer named Billy Parker when I do a google search. If anyone could help me I would be forever grateful.

Final words from Billy Parker, from the cover notes :

"The Fourth World was born out of the need to preserve and develop on a tradition brought to these shores from Africa centuries ago."

BILLY PARKER"S FOURTH WORLD
"FREEDOM OF SPEECH"
Strata-East, Catalogue #SES-19754.
Recorded May 24th, 1974. Released 1975

TRACKLIST

01 DANCE OF THE LITTLE CHILDREN (4:56)
Arranged by - Cecil Bridgewater
Composed - Donald Smith
Lyrics By - Ronald Bridgewater

02 GEMINI'S LULLABY (6:58)
Composed By - Cecil Bridgewater

03 HOME (8:17)
Composed By, Arranged By - Cecil McBee

04 GET WITH IT (4:03)
Arranged By - Cecil Bridgewater
Composed By - Ronald Bridgewater

05 FREEDOM OF SPEECH (16:00)
Composed By - Billy Parker

CREDITS

Piano, Vocals - Donald Smith
Bass - Cecil McBee
Drums, Producer - Billy Parker
Saxophone [Tenor] - Ronald Bridgewater
Trumpet - Cecil Bridgewater
Vocals - Dee Dee Bridgewater

Artwork By [Inside Cover Design] - Vernon Grant
Engineer [Recording] - Ron Carran
Mixed By - Randy Adler
Liner Notes - Billy Earl Parker Jr.
Photography - Darnell C. Mitchell

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Thanks to all the bloggers who i've linked to in this post, hope you enjoy some traffic :)

BIG thanks to Reza for the nice new vinyl rip, replacing the crap one I've had up at Ish's wants list for a few months ...

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