Lately, I’ve been fascinated by mid-1970s jazz. It feels like this decade saw the commingling of a whole range of influences from traditional jazz to the NYC loft scene, free jazz, rock, fusion, world music, latin music, soul, gospel, and R&B. It must have been an amazing time to perform and follow improvised, creative, and jazz music.
It also appears to be a time when the commercial landscape for jazz was anything but secure. The venerable Blue Note records was acquire by Liberty Records in 1971 and then EMI in 1979. In 1971, Prestige Records was sold to Fantasy Records. Atlantic, Columbia, and other labels increasingly soured on jazz as a viable commercial art form. At the same time, any number of smaller labels, from Detroit’s Tribe Records and Strata Records, to New York’s Strata-East, a revived Contemporary Jazz on the West Coast, Germany’s ECM, Italy’s Black Saint and Horo, and many other smaller independent labels attempting to carve out space in a rapidly changing musical and commercial landscape.
Among these labels, Japanese jazz critic and journalist, Masahiko Yuh, founded Whynot Records which was affiliated with the US label, India Navigation. The label released some really cool, if uneven, albums in its short existence, many of which are now available on streaming services. Last week, I mentioned the lovely Walt Dickerson album, Tell Us Only the Beautiful Things featuring Wilbur Ware and Andrew Cyrille.
Among the first recordings released by the label is George Cables’ inaugural album called Why Not? It’s a rollicking and fun recording that captures the swirling spirit of post-bop, R&B, and Blues. (By the way, I have no idea why the YouTube embeds aren’t working!):
In the same year, Whynot also released a Muhal Richard Abrams solo piano recording called Afrisong. It captures some of the spirit of his AACM work but in a more concentrated and delicate way. You can listen to the album here. I dig this track:
Joseph Bonner’s Triangle appeared the same year. It features Bonner with Clint Houston on bass and Bill Hart on drums. It’s not “essential listening” by any stretch, but it’s a nice album of fairly straight ahead jazz:
More fun is Donald Smith’s LUV with Cecil McBee and Jack de Johnette released in 1976. You can listen to it here. I really like “The Magnetic A”:
McBee, Jim McNeely, and Steve McCall joins Ted Curson on his Whynot album Blue Piccolo. I like Curson especially his 1970s output (especially his stuff with George Arvanitas group such as Pop Wine from 1971) and it goes without saying that anyone tight with Eric Dolphy is aces in my book.
Here’s Curson playing Monk’s “Round Midnight”:
I’ve not listened to the Chico Freeman album from 1976, Morning Prayer, but here it is and the supporting cast looks pretty great.
The Whynot label seems to have more or less wrapped up business by 1977, but then five years later, they release Kenny Barron’s Imo Live. This trio date with Buster Williams on bass and Ben Riley on drum and features a bit more Monk with the track “Rhythm-a-Ning” which Barron records and performs through his career:
Finally, I’d be remiss, if I didn’t include another great mid-1970s: Televisions’ Marquee Moon (1977). Tom Verlaine pass away this past week. I had a chance to hear him perform a couple times and Marquee Moon remains an album so special to me that I have to listen to it sparingly out of fear that it might start to sound familiar…