Search - Counce, Sheldon, Land :: Complete Studio Recordings

When it all makes sense.

Samuel Chell | Kenosha,, WI United States | 05/08/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The beauty of this music is so much greater than the sum of its parts that a listener scarcely knows where to begin. Each of the musicians, though largely unknown, was among the most gifted on his respective instrument, and yet the focus throughout was on the creation of a collaborative result that would reflect a musical universe of infinite nuance, resonance, and heretofore undiscovered possibilities within the familiar mainstream. The individual talent, three-dimensional sound of the original sessions (beckoning the listener "into" the space rather than assaulting him with a grating roar), and exceptional solo and ensemble work compare favorably with the best of Miles' contemporaneous quintets on Columbia, adding up to one of the more remarkable, unrepeatable musical events on record. If you don't have the individual recordings, who's sufficently confident to predict that another edition of this short-lived, description-defying, but little-known group will make it to another edition? After 40+ years of listening to thousands of recording sessions, the Counce recordings represent a lifetime highlight, one of the 4-5 recordings to be included in the proverbial time capsule.



I intend to make close comparisons of three sound sources, but first impressions are that the remaster has done justice by the original LP and ensuing individual CDs, though Carl Perkins' exquisite, indescribably rich piano accompaniment is occasionally unnecessarily faint in the mix while Counce's bass at times seems deprived of some of its resonance and depth. Frank Butler's drums occasionally seem a trifle attenuated but for the most part are more crisp than ever, making you wonder once again how there could possibly be a player with whom he might even be compared (no need to take my word for it--simply listen to "A Fifth for Frank"). Harold Land, who was on most (and the best) of the Clifford Brown-Max Roach recordings, is heard to even better advantage here. Jack Sheldon's trumpet is as personal, inimitable, and immediately identifiable as Perkins' piano (the latter a musician whose chord voicings and solos are simply transcription-resistant, try as hard as I can to capture some of it on paper). While playing this recording, think of a quintet--any quintet with the same instrumentation--recorded on Blue Note during this period or, for that matter, another West Coast group recorded on any label. Or think of the fidelity-deprived Bird recordings of a mere several years before this one. They don't measure up to the experience of this ineffable, scintillating music--produced by mere mortals at that (as we discovered at the passing of both Counce and Perkins several years later, if the sight of Carl's polio-crippled left hand weren't a sufficient reminder.)



Chief among my personal unsung heroes are Perkins and Land. Perkins was a musician who turned every solo into a rapturous quest, equally stirring for his singing creations as for his continual reminders of what could not be said--intimations of an imminent loveliness always eluding yet within the listener's grasp. Land was a small-toned, hard-edged player whose every solo was at once a model of efficiency and of a "mission" requiring perfect execution and measured resourcefulness for its successful completion. That combination of passion and logic, as evidenced on the opening "Landslide" (which I've tried but always failed to notate properly) and Jule Styne's "Time After Time" (taken as a ballad in concert Db), was sufficient to produce music of inexhaustible depth and beauty.



Among the many strengths of this ensemble, one to be especially attentive to is the "hand-off" from the ensemble's chorus to the soloist's first chorus. The arrangements, ensemble cohesiveness, and Butler's perfect set-ups produce a moment of dramatic tension just prior to the "break" and the first player--usually Land--flying out of the chute and into the first solo. But there's never any discontinuity, not even a moment of hesitation: Land at full speed catches the logic of the composed piece and continues to run with it while suspended in mid-air--spinning elegant, forward-leaning, purposeful lines that in turn set up the re-entry of the rhythm section. If further "proof" is needed, play "Nica's Dream" as recorded by Horace Silver's Quintet on Blue Note (it's on "Horace-Scope"); now go to the version of the same tune by the Curtis Counce Quintet (turning up the gain on your amplifier first). Notice the dramatic difference not just in the playing but in the "open" ambience and in the extraordinary sonic detail of the arrangement as well as each instrument's contribution--and on a recording made several years prior to the Blue Note/Van Gelder date. It's enough to "spoil" even the least fastidious listener--the musicianship, the audio quality, the total effect all simply unequalled, unduplicable.



As long as the producers elected to include three previously unreleased masters from a collection, "Sonority," that was released 30 years after the three major albums, it's not clear why they chose to exclude three other masters from the same collection, unless the absence of Jack Sheldon led to the decision. As the listener will no doubt discover, the three tracks (out of 26) on which Gerald Wilson replaces Sheldon on trumpet represent a falling off, demonstrating how integral each of the original members was to the ensemble sound and solo brillance of the group. Also, two previously unreleased tracks, which close out the second disc, are truncated and amateurishly recorded (with the exception of Counce's stunning solo feature on "Sophisticated Lady")--of historical interest at best and thankfully insufficient to detract from the excellence of what remains: 24 tracks and 155 minutes of music about which little more needs to be said except that it represents African-American indigenous art of the highest order. As I said, for the time capsule--and any listeners who might not care to wait that long."