Re-Visited: The Legendary Recordings of Rudy van Gelder

It would be a gigantic work project, one wanted to listen to all recordings and study the Rudy Van Gelder over the course of his long life. I therefore limit myself here to a personal selection of recordings, which are very important for me in my audio biography. Great albums of jazz, partly even after a long time, to listen again, to experience them again from today's perception, is an extremely revealing and enriching activity.

 

Wayne Shorter "Speak No Evil". Which jazzmusician does not know this album? A masterpiece of timeless beauty. Rudy Van Gelder made this recording on Christmas Eve on 24.12.1964. It was published by Blue Note only two years later, 1966. Great, mysterious compositions by Shorter, played by a fantastic band. Once heard, you will never forget the interplay of Herbie Hancock and Elvin Jones, here on this recording. The bluesy crackling responses of Herbie Hancock's piano, while the theme of "Speak No Evil" and the precise, crystal-clear cymbals of Elvin Jones, are as close to the instruments as they are. This is the best picture of Rudy Van Gelder's championship. He gives the instruments their space, makes them breathe, forms the sound decisively with. A personal highlight are the snare fittings alternately on the One and the Four-And, at the beginning of Solochorus by Wayne Shorter. These powerful extracts from Elvin Jones get a wonderful sound space through the recording, seem to spread even more strongly.

In the play "Wildflower" you can hear every little detail on the snare, the polyrhythmic ideas and shifts in Wayne Shortes solo become understandable and tangible. Again, as a contrasting element, a wind instrument with long sustained notes. Trumpet and saxophone mix and rub themselves at the musical, decisive places also. The admission of Rudy Van Gelder admits both. The melancholic melody of the melody, which is reminiscent of a mourning march, is reproduced in perfect detail here. It is and remains an interesting question: how can musical expression and sentiment be captured on a recording, mapped? And how much should and should the recording intervene, change? Van Gelder's recordings listen carefully, capture the atmosphere of the music, create the necessary architecture for the sounds to unfold.

 

Horace Silver "Song For My Father". Also this album by pianist and composer Horace Silver has gained a great, popular status, not only with jazz lovers. Presumably "Song For My Father" has become almost as famous as Dave Brubeck's "Take Five". I have always liked this album very much. The piano sound of Horace Silver stayed in my memory, and I always bring his personal sound with this album.

Dipping into his dark, bluesy sound, one can very well at the piece "Que Pasa?" Silver rehearses a mystical Db minor 7 chord during the theme. The chord is the answer to the sequence of the theme - played by winds and piano - the accents of this response are played by Roger Humphries on the cymbals. For me this chord is the "silver sound". The wing is differently recorded here, as on "Speak No Evil": more embedded in the entire group sound, less beading, darker in color. The comparison of both albums is revealing. It makes musically perfect sense to record the piano differently. It is clear that Herbie Hancock's sound has a certain proximity to Silver, but is of a different kind. Rudy Van Gelder has been right here. In both recordings, he releases important musical connections. It maps the instruments so that they can answer each other. Again, the combination of piano and drums plays a decisive role in the composition of the composition. In "Que Pasa?" The Db minor 7 chord and the sound of the toms of the Latin grooves engage in a coherent manner.

The repetitive play of the chords draws Horace Silver also into his Klaviersolo. Every difference in the chord sequences is given special significance by the long repetition of the same sound; You will be surprised by the color change to Dominantseptakkorden. It opens a new space, a wonderful moment in this play - and also an important lesson for the play of the young Herbie Hancock.

You should listen to the trionummer "Lonely Woman", a great ballad by Horace Silver. The sound of the trio is compact in a special way, the instruments seem to stick together. The warmth of the sound of the piano and bass and the fine, but very softly mixed drums are first-class recorded.

I would also like to mention the recording of the percussion instruments at the beginning of "Calcutta Cutie"; The cymbals, the small gongs are among my favorite recordings of percussion instruments. Details are essential in Rudy Van Gelder's work.

 

Cecil Taylor "Conquistador!" How to make density on a recording? This famous recording of Cecil Taylor 's Ensemble from 1966 presents completely different requirements for a recording: a group with 2 basses (Alan Silva and Henry Grimes), drums (Andrew Cyrille), trumpet (Bill Dixon) and saxophone (Jimmy Lyons) and Taylor on the wing. A music of great density that pushes forward, a concentrated energy charge that collapses on the listener.

Nat Hentoff points out in his liner notes to a statement by Cecil Taylor. "One thing I learned from Ellington," emphasizes Taylor, "is that you can make the group you play with sing if you realize each of the instruments has a distinctive personality, and you bring out the singing aspect of that personality if you use the Right timbre for the instrument. " Could not this statement be decisive for the recording of this ensemble? You have to listen carefully to the sound colors of the individual instruments of the players in order to capture them. Here a sensitive question is touched: How much can the sound engineer intervene in the personal sound of the musician? Can a recording destroy the personal sound of a musician? In addition to all the great appreciation Rudy Van Gelder has received from many musicians, there were also critical voices to record his style. Charlie Mingus was perhaps the most famous critic of Van Gelder. "It destroys my sound," said the bassist. How must a recording be in order not to change the sound of a musician as faithfully as possible? Is that even possible? When is sound at all possible in its purest form? Can a recording destroy the sound of a musician at all and is Mingus wrong here? How much can a sound master contribute by his own personality? These questions have to be discussed longer and I am not sure if a debate would lead to solutions. Nevertheless, such questions are of great importance for a successful recording.

The second piece "With (Exit)" is one of the great melodies of Cecil Taylor. I would like to point out that Taylor's ensemble work is still far too little appreciated. This long, lamenting melody sheet, with its alternations, stifling gestures, flowing songs, the harsh answers of the piano, the dialogue of the basses, and the shaking out of Brushes by Andrew Cyrille, is one of the highlights of jazz in lyric poetry. The piece is tight, the instruments operate, how many single voices in a big room, there are many shorter duos, trio in the big improvisation, but also a trumpet and saxsolo. Rudy Van Gelder has also captured all the happenings in a sculptural way; he becomes tactile, the instruments have space to breathe, the wing is spatially centered, acts as a conductor from the middle, shifts the sound layers, impulses to the instruments. Andrew Cyrille plays great in and out of the interstices. The long pianoforte is of great force, crosses all the stops, sounds brilliant and earthy. The recording makes all this audible. In my opinion, this is also the great merit of Rudy Van Gelder.

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