Published on Feb 20, 2003
Over the years I’ve noticed that Daily Vault Founder Christopher
Thelen and I invariably open our jazz reviews with the same “I have
no idea what the hell I’m talking about here” mea culpa. And the
truth is, we don’t – it’s one of the handicaps of growing up
suburban white bread in the years spanning 1975 to 1990. Jazz
simply wasn’t part of our teenaged musical vocabulary.
Thankfully, that has not prevented me in my adult years from
enjoying fabulous jazz albums like
Swiss Movement.
Les McCann arrived at the 1969 Montreux Jazz festival in
Switzerland as a pianist and bandleader with a reputation for
soulful, funk-infused jazz. For his part, Eddie Harris was already
well-known for his rippling, eloquent sax phrasings. Their
impromptu teaming at the festival, joined by noted trumpeter Benny
Bailey, generated one of the great live jazz albums of its day, an
all-to-brief set of five tracks that simply bubbles and froths with
the pure joy of playing.
It’s amusing now to have “Compared To What” plastered across the
airwaves as part of Coke’s latest advertising campaign, but if you
want the *real* real thing, you have to come here for it. McCann’s
take on it, besides featuring the only vocals on this album, is
simply smoking-hot. Never mind the dated ’60s lyrics; in McCann and
Harris’ hands, this thing has a groove you could drive a truck
through, and Harris and Bailey’s horns wail triumphantly between
its choruses.
Harris and especially Bailey shine even brighter on “Cold Duck
Time,” a Harris composition the band literally learned the day of
the show. The smooth swing of the basic melody doesn’t take long to
devolve into dueling solos, Harris’ sax alternately juking and
soaring before Bailey comes in and simply blows the crowd away with
a trumpet solo that starts out suave and stylish and builds to a
controlled frenzy before falling back again.
McCann’s piano work is consistently rich and effervescent,
nowhere moreso than on the aptly-named “You Got To Get It In Your
Soulness,” where his alternately playful and lyrical solo carries
the first half of the song. Harris’ smooth, masterful solo is again
the perfect complement, segueing into a blistering trumpet run from
Bailey and a closing full-out jam. The remaining two tracks
(“Kathleen’s Theme” and “The Generation Gap”) are equally
entertaining.
Swiss Movement truly caught lightning in a bottle, turning
out to be the singular highlight of not one, or even two, but three
distinguished jazz players’ careers. I’ll be the first to concede
that every well-studied jazz fan out there already has this album.
But for those of you who, like me, are relative beginners, I can’t
say it loud or often enough — if you are the least bit curious
about what great live jazz sounds like, go get this disc. NOW.