George Adams - Complete Recordings on Black Saint & Soul Note

There is some serious music in this package. If you have made it this far and even know who George Adams is, well...

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Don’t Lose Control (1979: GA, ten sx; Don Pullen, p; Cameron Brown, b; Dannie Richmond, dr.Hand to Hand (1980): GA, ten sx, voc; Jimmy Knepper, tbn; Hugh Lawson, p; Mike Richmond, b; Dannie Richmond, dr.Gentleman’s Agreement (1983): same as aboveLive at the Village Vanguard, vol 1 (1983): GA, ten sx; Don Pullen, p; Cameron Brown, b; Dannie Richmond, dr.Live at the Village Vanguard, vol 2 (1983): same as above.Black Saint has wisely parceled out its Don Pullen albums, packaging ones where the pianist played separate from tenor saxophonist George Adams from ones where Adams and Pullen and drummer Dannie Richmond recorded together. Three of the five albums in this five-CD package feature the dynamic trio of Adams, Pullen and Richmond, all just having left Mingus’s fiery bands. The bass player on all three is Cameron Brown, who was the first, or one of the first bass players, in Richmond’s heritage band, Mingus Dynasty. All three albums are great but the two recorded at the village Vanguard are marred by inconsistent acoustics: Adams’s tenor fades in and out, possibly depending on whether he leaned into or away from the mike, and Richmond’s drumming has a distant clattering sound that doesn’t do justice to its complexity and drive. The playing on all three , as on the other two albums with trombonist Jimmy Knepper (one of my favorites with Mingus), and a rhythm section of Hugh Lawson, Mike Richmond (Dannie’s brother?) and Richmond, is first-rate but it’s even more first-rate when Adams and Pullen are playing together. Though he came from Georgia, Adams was kind of an outlier of the Texas tenors like Booker Ervin (the most modern of them), Arnett Cobb, etc. His fervent, life-affirming playing incorporated all that was modern in his day, up through Coltrane and Ayler. He talked and preached through his horn. He’s good on the two recordings with Knepper, Lawson, etc., and it is a pleasure to hear Knepper’s non-bop, Tricky Sam Nanton-style wah wah trombone. But Adams and Pullen were the dream duo: ultra-modernists who yet combined with all their harshness and raggedy edges a sense of joy and bounce that made their music sunny as well as ultra.This is a very good collection featuring one of jazz’s cutting edge artists toward the end of his very short life. I don’t know exactly what Adams died of but it sounds like some sort of congestive heart or lung disorder. Whatever the cause, it didn’t stop him from creating memorable music up to the edge of his demise. That was a loss!

Well, it seems the next batch of releases from the Black Saint/Soul Note labels are here. There's a few that are well worth owning, including the (late) Julius Hemphill set-a personal favorite, or possibly the Muhal Richard Abrams set, Dave Douglas is also worth checking into. But one of the best is this collection from George Adams. As an Adams (and Pullen-who plays on several of these albums) fan, I rate this music with other examples of Adams' playing-so 3 "stars" could actually be 3 1/2 or possibly 4 "stars", especially in relation to other artists, playing roughly in the same manner. Both players contributed much to jazz-both singly and together, and an "average" album from either player is usually better than other releases from other "similar" jazz artists. You may feel a particular album (or the entire box set) worth more-to each his own.As usual, the discs slip bare into hard cardboard envelopes that mimic the LP covers. Everything sits in a thick cardboard box with the album information on the back. The remastered sound is good and crisp without being overbearing, and the various instruments sound open and clean. If you're reading this chances are that you're familiar with some of the previous releases in this series-so you know what to expect. But if this series is new to you, these are nicely done reissues of some good/great jazz albums from two of the better labels-Black Saint and Soul Note."Don't Lose Control", from 1979, starts things off pretty well. It features an artist who would continue to play a role in Adam's music, Don Pullen-piano, the fine bassist Cameron Brown, and Mingus' favorite drummer, Dannie Richmond-someone who would also continue to show up on Adams' albums. Adams and Pullen seemingly were meant to play together. They inspired each other and fed off of each others playing. Fans of both Adams and Pullen will like this set of modern straight ahead jazz. But then again, hold on to your hat. The long (15+ minutes) of "Double Arc Jake" finds Pullen (and Richmond to some extent) going off on a tangent, with Pullen playing one of his solos that threatens to fly off at any time. But there's space for both Adams and Pullen to solo and to interact with each other on this set, and with Brown (who deserves to be more well known) and the great Richmond in the rhythm section. Together they make some pretty good jazz here. And for something different, listen to the title track. It's a blues based tune with some bluesy down home vocals from Adams."Hand To Hand", 1980, features a larger group. Included are Adams, Jimmy Knepper-trombone, Mike Richmond-bass, Hugh Lawson-piano, and again, Dannie Richmond on drums. Having a second horn seems to somehow invigorate this music. Knepper is a good fit for Adams powerful style, and holds his own throughout this album. This is one of the better albums in this set."Gentlemen's Agreement" from 1983, is the same group from the previous recording. This may be the stronger of the two albums, with Lawson playing with a bit more vibrancy. The band seems to be reaching out a bit more, with both Adams and Knepper (along with Lawson) upping the fire power some. There's some fairly powerful playing here-well worth hearing.The last two discs are given over to live recordings from 1983 at The Village Vanguard. The band is Adams, Pullen, Richmond, and Brown. It probably goes without saying that there's some pretty hard charging playing on these two sets. Very occasionally there's a small stumble from someone in the band-after all it is live, but overall these two sets have some good playing from this band-who've by now played together enough to give this music the intuitive firepower it sometimes deserves. Adams and Pullen are both pretty intense at times-just pulling the music (and the rest of the group) along by their playing. There's some good moments throughout both these volumes.