Today's Jazz: April 23, 1975 @ New Jersey RVG

Apr. 23, 1975 “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To” by Jim Hall with Paul Desmond, Chet Baker, Roland Hanna, Ron Carter & Steve Gadd at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs for CTI (Concierto)

After a period of focusing on raw, acoustic sound, the 1970s saw the mainstream of jazz shift its focus toward the fusion style, which targeted a mass audience by incorporating electronic instruments such as the increasingly popular synthesizer.

Even this jazz standard by the master of popular song, Cole Porter, was influenced by this trend, resulting in an easy-listening style performance.

Jim Hall, a father figure to many of the leading white jazz guitarists active today, begins with a solo characterized by his signature tricky and elusive melodies—a style that sounds like a murmuring, squirming stream of notes that seems to wander and almost land, but never quite does, all while maintaining a sweet tone and a focus on chords.

The second solo is by Paul Desmond, famous for his performance on "Take Five," with his cool, shakuhachi-like alto saxophone style, followed by the addition of Chet Baker, a trumpeter who is also a skilled singer, who joins in with a poetic approach and exquisite interplay.

Behind Desmond, Hall provides backing following his own solo, but when Baker's solo begins, Hall stops playing and hands the backing role over to the piano, leading directly into a piano solo. I suspect this structure was chosen out of consideration for the difficulty of having piano and guitar coexist as accompaniment instruments, as their frequency ranges often overlap; however, it may also be rooted in the exclusive pact Desmond had with his close friend Dave Brubeck. The subtle backing and brilliant solo by pianist Roland Hanna are also quite pleasant.

As this work was produced by CTI, an emerging label founded in 1967 that focused on creating works for a broader audience, it follows traditional jazz in its choice of standards, instrumentation, and performers, yet the sweetness is pronounced, and the center of gravity of the sound has shifted to the mid-range. Ron Carter's bass has a stronger sense of electrical amplification, and even the drums of Steve Gadd, who would frequently serve as Eric Clapton's backing band from the 90s onward, are captured with a generally lighter touch, with the bass drum—the primary source of low-end—recorded in a way that feels somewhat detached. That said, the drumming is quite aggressive, capturing intense, rapid-fire accents that react instantly to the squirming phrases in Hall's guitar solo. The interplay between the bass and Hall during the bass solo is also a highlight to enjoy.

What is interesting is that the recording engineer and location were Rudy Van Gelder and his studio, a staple of the Blue Note label that has appeared here many times before. It shows that this genius engineer, who worked on numerous masterpieces, was able to flexibly record according to the client's wishes and the style of the era, rather than just the thick, "gritty" sound quality that Blue Note was known for, which was designed to be heard clearly over radio broadcasts.

Another highlight is the co-performance of Desmond and Baker, both of whom were recognized as true improvisers by the demanding alto sax master Lee Konitz. Their commonality with Konitz is a style that eschews clichés and habitual phrases, instead weaving notes together with a focus on melody—in other words, they are melody makers. Listening to the two of them interact, one can see they share a style of weaving notes while listening closely to each other's playing, which feels like the influence of the original cool-style tenor sax master, Lester Young.

It is clear that Hall's style—listening to other performers throughout his life and weaving precise melodies and sounds together with his own individuality, regardless of the work—remained unchanged. Hall left behind a legacy of passing on this highly adaptable, yet difficult, style to the next generation of guitarists currently at the forefront, such as Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell.

This year saw the release of Queen's masterpiece "A Night at the Opera," which includes "Bohemian Rhapsody," and Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." With the development and spread of rock, jazz found itself in an increasingly disadvantageous position, leading it to transform into styles like the one in this work.

Now, for those interested in the performance by Gadd and Clapton on these drums, please enjoy this live performance by this all-star lineup.

For those interested in the alto sax of Desmond, please look here.

Finally, for those interested in Baker, please enjoy this performance with his guitar trio.

Have a wonderful day.