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 | Ed Thigpen TrioMr. TasteLabel: Justin Time | Jazz | October 21, 1991Format UPC Order # Unit Price |
TracksNo Title Duration Excerpts 04 Dewey Square 00:05:04 05 A Child Is Born 00:05:03 06 Invitation 00:05:38 07 You Name It 00:04:24 08 Ballad 00:04:58 09 Jamaican Baion 00:05:34 10 E.T.P. 00:05:26 11 'Round Midnight 00:05:25 12 Tony's Blues 00:07:40 Liner NotesA few years ago I was talking about Edmund Thigpen to Oscar Peterson, with whom Ed worked for six years. Oscar said of their time together:"Ed Thigpen was a reflective yet complete percussionist. He wasn't really a drummer, he was a percussionist. He had that feeling all the time that it wasn't just drums that he was sitting at. He sees his drums as a complete, not instrument, but orchestra. Whatever he wants it to be. Ed Thigpen has a touch on the drums that you seldom hear. Jo Jones had that same thing." The comparison is no coincidence: Jo Jones was Ed's idol, friend, and mentor. Jo Jones had an exceptional sensitivity, whether he was booting the Basie band or delicately propelling his own trio, and Ed has the same qualities. Ed can get remarkable colors from a drum set. Please note the sheer variety of them in this album, especially the way he touches the top cymbal. Ed said that Jo Jones told him that each cymbal is five cymbals. The sound it produces depends where you touch it. Ed knows all the places, and he can get what amounts to melodies out of cymbals. There is a natural tendency in drummers to play louder when they are trying to achieve power. Ed can do it without raising the volume. Miraculous. Ed's playing has changed, grown, evolved, enormously. He said, "I'm doing things I couldn't do five years ago. No, even two years ago. "Ed's intent is to participate in the work of those he's playing with. He feels a complete identification with his associates. "When Tony is playing," he said, "I'm also playing the guitar." This empathy is what knits together any group Ed is in. And when you give this kind of support and empathy to your associates, Jo Jones once told him, "You've got the best seat in the house. They'll entertain you all evening." The group you hear on this record is not guitar accompanied by bass and drums; it is a trio, an integrated unit. "Whoever the soloist is," Ed said as we listened to it, "is the leader at that moment. I wanted the drums to be a part of it. The drums are a musical instrument, not just a rhythmic instrument." He speaks glowingly of his colleagues on this album. One of them is the brilliant Danish bassist Mads Vinding. The technique of jazz bass has expanded almost exponentially since the days of Jimmy Blanton; Vinding is an example of this. It used to be said that you couldn't find a really good rhythm section in Europe. That ceased to be so long ago. There are some wonderful European bassists, and Vinding is one of the finest of them. Ed said of Tony Purrone, the Connecticut-born guitarist who spent 12 years with Jimmy Heath, "He is the best-known secret out here. He is a world-class guitarist. His sound is so musical. He has a depth and scope that are limitless. And that's true of Mads, too." The tunes are: 1. Ginger Bread Boy, a composition by Jimmy Heath. One hears instantly what Ed means about Tony Purrone's sound. It is highly personal; and the fact that this is an integrated group is immediately obvious. We also hear how powerfully Ed can swing without overwhelming his associates in what is, after all, a delicate instrumentation. 2. Some Time Ago is a lovely waltz by the Argentine composer Sergio Mihanovich. It was indeed written some time ago, about thirty years ago, but it remains fresh. It is a favorite of jazz players. Listen to Ed's brushes on the snare drum! Particularly behind the bass solo. Ed wrote a text-book called The Sound of Brushes. No one is better qualified. He gets a sound like lace. 3. Denise is Ed's daughter. Ed is a distinctive composer. The tune, a samba, is one of three Thigpen compositions on the album. When the bossa nova wave occurred in the early 1960s, American drummers were unable to get the hang of its basic eighth-note pattern. They can now, and I have never heard it done with more intensity than Ed generates here. 4. Dewey Square is a Charlie Parker tune, not one of the better-known ones. His distinctive fingerprints are all over it. You've doubtless noticed by now that aside from his sheer musicality, Tony Purrone is technically one of the best guitar-players around. Amazing player. 5. A Child Is Born is a poignant waltz by the late composer Thad Jones - brother of Elvin and Hank - who like Ed, lived for years in Copenhagen. It serves here as a vehicle for Mads Vinding. Ray Brown once said, "A bass player's life is a battle of intonation." Vinding has obviously won it. 7. You Name It, by Danish composer and pianist Thomas Clausen, is a sly tribute to American songwriters. Just when you think it's going to be My Heart Stood Still, it veers away. Then in the B section it hints at Cole Porter's I love You. Note Ed's solo with brushes. Sticks rebound from drumheads or cymbals. Brushes don't; they have to be lifted. And it takes great strength and skill to use them with the kind of facility Ed displays here. 8. Ballad is, well, a ballad by Tony Purrone. As Ed said when we were listening to it, "He sure loves changes. He has such an interesting concept." 9. Jamaican Baion is another Thigpen composition. The baion is one of the rhythms of Brazil, but Ed thought of this tune as a sort of Jamaican baion. "It's inspired by that musical Jamaican accent," Ed said. "It's a little bit inspired by Monty Alexander in some ways. The bass drum is used as in a baion." 10. ETP is the third Thigpen composition in the album. What does it mean? Ed said, "it could be Ed Thigpen Presents. It could be Ed Thigpen Productions. As my son said, it could be 'Easy to Pronounce.' Or even Energy Thrust and Projection. Who knows?" It's honest bebop, in any case, and reminds us that Ed once worked for Bud Powell. It also reminds us of a tale, possibly apocryphal, about Segovia. Someone asked him why he had played something so fast. "Because I can." is supposed to have been said. Tony Purrone, as you'll hear in this track, could give the same answer. 11. Round midnight, of course, is the classic tune by Thelonious Monk. It is completely abstracted here, played at a rapid tempo, a vehicle for complex rhythmic interplay between the trio's members. The strange-sounding drum is a tuned tom-tom whose pitch is varied by a foot pedal. 12. Tony's Blues is, obviously, a blues by Tony Purrone. But it is the blues abstracted, very "Outside", as jazz musicians say. And an interesting style of the blues it is, one that leaves no doubt why Ed is so excited about Tony's talent, both as writer and player. It occurred to me that Ed Thigpen and I have been friends for 33 years - years of enormous growth for him. It is my privilege to have been here to observe it. Gene Lees is editor and publisher of the Jazzletter, PO Box 240, Ojai CA 93023. |
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