Saturday, January 5, 2008
Gloria's Step
The first tune that made me sit up and listen closer working my way through Bill Evans' The Complete Fantasy Recordings was bassist Scott LaFaro's lovely composition Gloria's Step. It is less a complete song than collection of musical figures followed by a sweet chord progression that, for me, at least, evoke a recollective memory-like emotion.
This YouTube clip is very close to the performance I heard on the Complete Fantasy Recordings, which was originally released Bill Evans Live in Tokyo. It features Eddie Gomez on bass and Marty Morrell, a drummer that one of the You Tube commentators said resembles Nacho Libre.
The lovely puzzle of Gloria's Step had me checking out the famous June 25, 1961 concerts with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian at the Vilage Vanguard. I now am beginning to understand why Jazz fans and critics praise this trio and this concert with such a high level There is really something quite significant going on with what these three musicians. As Luc Bouquet states on the Jazz Break website: "What a wonderful articulation, trust in the other, unreal alchemy ! Who is leading here ? Evans, LaFaro or Motian ? Nobody, would we be tempted to answer, as the autonomy of each musician reinforces the cohesion of the trio."
My first close listen to Motian's playing was very relevatory. As I told a friend and drummer, it feels like he creates a natural current like a river. And I can hear where LaFaro has an amazing voice creating dialog and counter-dialog with the other two musicians. LaFaro's performance on the Vanguard recordings is also often noted and legendary because it was among his very last. He was killed in an automobile crash 10 days later.
Nils Jacobson commented in his All About Jazz review of the complete 3CD set of The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961: "Pieces like LaFaro's “Gloria's Step,” with its bluesy twist and saunter, are really worth hearing three times. Likewise with the two versions of “Waltz for Debby,” with its combination of classical romanticism and vivid swing." His statement reinforced my thought that the Gloria and Debby (always listed as Evans' greatest contribution compositionally) are kind of musical cousins related from the same musical stew that makes the Vanguard recordings a kind of holy grail for piano trio jazz of the latter 20th century. Both are delicate compositions that urge the listener to explore musically, but also to stop and check out how they feel about these captured moments of light, sound, and eloquence.
posted by well-executed buffet at 7:53 AM
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