Great Dates and Good Numbers with Jazz Flutes

1958 ‘Midnight Oil’ - Jerome Richardson, Prestige/New Jazz 825

Although Jerome Richardson is regarded mostly as a tenor sax player and multi-instrumentalist, he had in fact been a flute player before establishing tenor sax status. Midnight Oil marks his first recording as a band leader, and Way In Blues begins with a piccolo and double bass theme. Solos follow by top team Hank Jones, piano, Kenny Burrell, guitar, and Jimmy Cleveland, trombone, then Richardson on flute. The mood is light and bright, with everyone contributing to the total track. Delerious Trimmings, another original line featuring lower register alto flute and trombone, is a medium paced romp with some contrasting Latin style sections, and a short alto flute coda.

Tizol and Ellington's Caravan is given an inventive and convincing make-over, with Richardson's mature-toned flute to the fore. His flute solo is long and strong, with equally inspired solos from trombone and guitar, as well as Charlie Persip on drums. Lyric is a merry Artie Shaw tune in swing style, well suited to Hank Jones and the rhythm team. It's another major flute feature, and a satisfying blend of swing-bop-blues idioms. Four tracks of top flute from 1958, plus variety with the opening tenor sax feature, Minorally, to keep sax lovers happy.

1959 ‘Cry! – Tender’ - Yusef Lateef, New Jazz 8234

Beware – this CD with a cover shot of Lateef playing bamboo flute is often listed as flute and tenor sax, but there is only one flute track. Dopolous has flute lead and trumpet harmony, introing a minor blues with a Greek modal flavor. It is a small gem; moody, quiet, peaceful.

But - the real feature of this classic release is the oboe, with three tracks. If you think jazz flute recordings are hard to find, feel sorry for jazz oboe lovers! So, jazz oboe here, as well as strong jazz tenor sax from Lateef.

1961/62 ‘The Sound of Paul Horn/Profile Of A Jazz Musician’ - Paul Horn, Sony COL 7531

Paul Horn is another multi-talented musician whose main instrument was the flute, and who used flutes to explore and expand the jazz and improvised music traditions. Born in 1930, by the time these discs were recorded Horn was already well-established and creating a distinctive and personal style of jazz playing and composing. Miles Davis described him as “playing horn the way it should be played.” There are some good alto sax tracks here, and a feature of the two discs is the quintet playing. Interplay and solos support by vibraphone player Emil Richards and pianist Paul Moer are particularly apt.

Disc one opens and closes with solid alto sax. The other five tracks are flute features. Without A Song opens with a rubato introduction to the sound, style and sensitivity of Horn's gorgeous flute playing over an effective Moer's arpegiated piano and Bill Pleummer's fine bowed bass. Mirage For Miles takes this sound into a longer stronger outing, using a series of four minor seventh chords (or dorian scales) into a modal musical soundscape. Solos pass effortlessly from flute to vibes to piano to bass, and via interchanges with Maurice Miller on drums, back to a repeat of the head.

Short Politician remains in a dorian mode, but fitted to a blues format. Another exploration by the quintet using their special styling. Bass and flute walk through My Funny Valentine, with the band in exemplary ballad mode. Here, a fine vibes solo from Richards. Making more use of a modal approach, Blue On Blue also builds from shifting meters, and results in another enjoyable track by composer Horn.

Disc two has Horn's alto sax cooking on Count Your Change, which features in a TV film ‘The Story Of A Jazz Musician’. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf3q-25_ULc

Now Hear This has Horn's flute in 7/4, up-tempo, hot and strong. Then it's a bass flute outing, Lazy Afternoon. What Now?, an original from pianist Paul Moer cutely modifies the blues with some 6/4 passages, but still swings solidly. A burning Straight Ahead on alto sax marks the midway track, followed by another alto sax outing on Fun Time, which combines 5/4 and 3/4 into an effortless groove for the quintet.

Alto flute is featured on the ballad Just Because We're Kids, with delicate offerings from flute, piano, and vibes. Abstractions, the closing track, is a twelve minute suite, and has many, many fine moments as all players use contrasting moods, tempi, and tonalities to build solos and develop ideas into an attention-holding concert performance.

1970 ‘Ptah The El Daoud’ - Alice Coltrane, Impulse IMPD-201

Joe Henderson and Pharoah Sanders are well known as distinctive tenor sax stylists. However they sometimes appear on jazz flute lists. Here, they play on Blue Nile as a pair of alto flute players, and along with Alice Coltrane on harp, Ron Carter, bass, and Ben Riley, drums, they develop this music, creating what Leonard Feather describes as a ‘sense of serenity’. Hearing alto flutes in a role most often taken by saxophones or other winds is quite an experience, and in fact the open track Ptah, The El Daoud offers us that other special experience of this pair of tenor saxes. You can hear this track at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smisXZ7KVpo

For flute players wanting to explore the unique style of Alice Coltrane's jazz, Turiya And Ramakrishna, track two, offers opportunities for jamming. A great way to open up a player's ear and explore the expressive side of flute improvisation.

1993 ‘Third Stone From The Sun’ - Robert Dick, Counter Currents 80435 -2 DIDX #17317

Floating flutes shimmy us into a driving bass clarinet and bass line, and Dick recreates the original Jimi Hendrix guitar lead theme. This leads easily into a sonorous flute improvisation with vocalising over Jerome Harris's propulsive bass guitar. All in all a great trip, and more than just a tribute to Hendrix. Greenhouse, a descendant of Hendrix's Red House, is a seven minute multiphonic blues in the Hendrix and Dick traditions. An improvised tour de force to frighten and delight flute improvisers and listeners.

From the Rainbow Bridge album, Pali Gap dances beautifully along with Jim Black drumming and Harris again on various guitars. Again, well-crafted and lifted to climactic heights by Dick's inventive melodic flute work. It's Still Like It Wouldn't Be Yesterday is another Dick composition for overdubbed flutes. We are treated to a studio version of a Robert Dick flute choir, using combinations of piccolos, flutes, and alto, bass, and contrabass flutes, but with a restraint, a sense of less is more. This keeps the extended work ‘ear friendly’ and quite delicate, with several contrasting sections. Tycho, by Dick and violin maestro Dave Soldier, is based on the guitar coda of ‘Castles Made Of Sand’, and features altered sounds from the Soldier String Quartet, along with featured drums and an awesome violin solo from Laura Seaton.

The classic Purple Haze inspires Dick to dig into another astoundingly different solo improvisation. Voodoo Child (Slight Return) closes the set with the ensemble laying down a funky Delta groove that captures the sultry Southern spirit, and brings us home, strutting with a swagger. Robert Dick here presents another CD which is far more than a collection of tunes and virtuoso flute playing. It is a coherent concert, something special worth re-hearing and enjoying as a classic.

Robert Dick has a web presence at: http://www.myspace.com/robertdickmusic

2009 ‘Mercy’ - Bill McBirnie

Just out for the gift season! We will review this in 2010. Find out more from: http://www.myspace.com/billmcbirnieextremeflute

Jim Langabeer is a flute player, teacher, composer and lecturer, and a jazz specialist. He is an international multi instrumentalist with many concert and recording credits. Jim was recently recognised as a NZ Musicians' Musician for his contributions as a performer, teacher, and ensemble leader. Hear Jim on soprano sax & flute on Afro Blue at http://www.amplifier.co.nz/release/51252/africa-aroha.html