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 | Dave YoungTwo By Two - Piano-Bass Duets Volume OneLabel: Justin Time | Jazz | September 1, 1995Format UPC Order # Unit Price |
Credits Tommy Flanagan piano (on tracks 05 and 06) John Hicks piano (on tracks 07 and 08) Mulgrew Miller piano (on tracks 09 and 10) Oscar Peterson piano (on tracks 01 and 02) Cedar Walton piano (on tracks 03 and 04) Dave Young double bass Production Credits | TracksNo Title Duration Excerpts 04 Smoke Gets In Your Eyes 00:05:58 05 Milestones 00:06:34 06 In A Sentimental Mood 00:08:46 07 Stablemates 00:06:42 08 Passion Flower 00:06:08 09 One By One 00:08:06 10 Hot House 00:06:23 Liner Notes"This is my greatest wish ... after all these years of playing music, to be able to play with these kind of guys. Piano and bass is a comfortable musical setting for me: I can express myself. I don't have to fight volume and funny rhythm. If you have the right piano player, it's there. No worry about time or chords, you just play, and the music is there."This time the veteran bassist Dave Young has five of the right piano players, masters all, who understand the situation. Dave explained "I picked four tunes for each of them, and they all came in, not to play their way, with me following along. With two instruments you compromise, and each in his own way made that compromise. "Oscar is the particular surprise in that; you think of him as such a strong Leo-type personality, 'This is the way you do that ...', but on this date he went with what I was doing. He offered the ideal sideman personality. He's probably the best accompanist in jazz, as he knows how to play the right chords with the right intensity. He's really something." Peterson also offered an original, OP&D, which summarizes the more-than-two-decades that the pianist and bassist have worked together, reaching a peak in the eighties when Young traveled the world with Oscar. Young has worked less often with Cedar Walton. "It's the first time I've recorded with him, but I used to go down to the Café des Copains (in Toronto) and sit in, and he's been to my house, where we played for 2 or 3 hours. I like his blues influence, the way he swings I like everything he does as a piano player, and I like the way he writes." Indeed, the Walton original NPS can also be found on another Justin Time album, "Fables And Dreams", by Dave Young and co-leader Phil Dwyer. The second master encountered in a busy day in New York was Tommy Flanagan. I produced a quartet record a few years back with an under-recognized tenor man, Art Ellefson, which had Flanagan at the piano and Young on bass, so Dave knew what to expect with Tommy. "He knew exactly the two tunes he wanted to do", the original 1948 Miles Davis composition called Milestones, and the Ellington standard. "He's so efficient in what he does; nothing is forced. It's so elegant!" And so different from John Hicks who was next that day. Dave had found himself in Bradley's the night before, listening to old pal Peter Leitch with Rufus Reid and Hicks, and invited John aboard. "I had worked with John for a week in Toronto, and I admired his energy. His playing is so emotional, and for-the-moment. And John has a great sense of humour." The last session was in Montreal, and both Young and Mulgrew Miller had some fun getting there. "I drove through a major snowstorm the day before," remembers Dave, and Mulgrew was working all week in New York, so "he flew in and out of Montreal the same day to make the session." The youngest of the five pianists, Miller has a sense of swing that Young finds many of the younger players are missing. "They have a lot going on, but they don't swing. Mulgrew has it rhythmically; his music always has a groove, on top of everything else. Mulgrew is very precise - he's very exact about what he does, the way he articulates, and the things he plays. There's no delay, no sense of 'well, maybe I'll go around here ...' ; he just goes BOOM, and you get the immediate response, the way he's thinking." This project shows the way Dave Young is thinking too, and the way he has made jazz for three-plus decades, sharing the stage with most of the great players around. Dave is a thorough professional, bringing to every engagement the right attitude, a complete knowledge of music, and probably the cleanest, most-centred real bass sound in jazz. If this CD has satisfied Dave's greatest wish, I must say it has created a new one in me: he has a list of other fine pianists he would like to make music with, so, can we do this again? Ted OReilly Ted OReilly has presented jazz on CJRT-FM in Toronto since 1965. |
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