Search - Sonny Clark :: 1954 Memorial Album

What a performance!

Swing King | Cincinnati, OH USA | 05/05/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a classic recording done by legendary jazz pianist Sonny Clark, remastered at 24-bits from the masters at high resolution. Recorded at a private party being held in Norway, during Clark's European tour of 1954, the pianist is accompanied here by Simon Brehm on bass and Bobby White on drums. "Improvisation No. 1" is exactly that, a wonderful improvised piano tune complete with inconspicuous conversations going on in the crowd. In fact you can hear the crowd throughout the entire album, though far from detracting from the material at hand it only serves to make it richer.



On this album Sonny Clark demonstrates his musical genius to listeners, a spontaneously natural piano player who is confident in his skill. Only two of the pieces, "Oslo" and "After You've Gone", feature the trio formation, while the rest of the pieces are Clark solo. Clark put his all into this performance, and it's great to see it on here at Amazon available to the wider public. Be sure to snatch this date up next time you buy, you'll thank me if you do.



Personnel:



Sonny Clark (piano)

Simon Brehm (bass)

Bobby White (drums)



Location: Oslo, Norway

Dates: January 15-16, 1954

Label: The Jazz Factory (Made in Spain)

"

Clean air zone--as pure as it gets.

Samuel Chell | Kenosha,, WI United States | 07/06/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'd have to endorse the previous reviewer's positive evaluation but stop short of guaranteeing the listener's satisfaction let alone urging him or her to purchase the album. Sonny Clark was the epitome of the no-frills, straight-ahead, "blowing" pianist ("blow" became the preferred jazz argot for "play" some time after Charlie Parker's emergence). Perhaps the best example of the foregoing on the present date is his solo on the familiar standard "After You've Gone." Taking the tune in Bb and at a medium-tempo pace, he simply gets into a "zone," a "time-stream" of primarily 8th-note phrases with all of the emphasis on the single-note melodic creations of the right hand. I didn't time the track, but it lasted me all the way from a walk to the city clinic (for a lipid panel) and back--seemingly 30 minutes of playing that's all the purer for being so rudimentary. There are no dazzling technical turns suggestive of Oscar or Bud; there's no attempt to catch the crowd's attention with octaves, blocked melodies, rolling chords; yet, as the previous reviewer remarks, you can hear members of the audience providing an appreciative affirmation every now and then.



Sonny's life was a short one, and perhaps it's not surprising that after a performance as ideal as this one (from a player's point of view) he would have to turn to drugs to once again experience anything like it. The bassist and drummer dutifully follow him all the way, providing a lesson in supportive playing or, if you will, "service." Only a brief stop-time chorus that Sonny affords the drummer interrupts but does not break the flow. Even a pianist as musically focused as Bill Evans (who was a big Sonny Clark fan) would not presume to test the patience of the audience as Sonny does with these extended choruses. As a pianist who once played as many as 50 jobs a year, I can contrast Sonny's performance with that of the week-end warrior. You (me, in this case) haul your piano, amplifier, stands and gear to the job, you set up and tear down, you scramble with a folder containing 200-600 arrangements, occasionally you're given an 8-bar (sometimes 16) solo (pack in every slick lick you've practiced, if only to impress the other musicians in the band). I haven't done the math, but on this single recording I suspect Sonny has more solo time than many of us "part-time," "jobbing" pianists can claim in an entire year!



The value of a recording like this should be apparent to a pianist of even moderate skills. It's not that the music impresses or challenges. My own experience suggests it would not be difficult for many musicians to transcribe Sonny's solos, whether writing them down or stopping every 30 seconds and simply playing back what Sonny has just played. The music is so basic, so simple, so unadorned, so totally focused on pure, uncomplicated melody that after a while it steals the listener's breath away, putting him in the same timeless zone as Sonny."