Day 33: Hard Bop

Oliver Nelson
The Blues and the Abstract Truth

Encompassing much of the jazz played and recorded from the mid 50s through the 60s, hard bop is a fairly broad designation whose umbrella covers works by many of the all-time jazz greats: a few records by Miles ('Round About Midnight, Miles Ahead) and Trane (Blue Train, Giant Steps), but also many others by such artists as Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers (Moanin'), Horace Silver (Song for My Father) and Cannonball Adderley (Somethin' Else). Hard bop emerged in the wake of bebop as a subtler, more soulful idiom; the new mode of expression continued to value virtuosity but sought to reconcile it with other virtues, such as greater rhythmic fluidity and flexibility, and sustained mood. Hence, slower, more lyrical melodic lines were mixed in with feats of strength and endurance and bass parts were given more breathing room.

In 1961, arranger, composer and alto and tenor sax player Oliver Nelson brought together an all-star cast to record one of the finest records in hard bop history, The Blues and the Abstract Truth. Featuring legendary pianist Bill Evans at his peak (1961 was the same he recorded both Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby!), a young Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Eric Dolphy on flute and alto, Paul Chambers on bass, Roy Haynes at the kit, and Nelson himself on alto and tenor, the sessions were destined for greatness, and The Blues and the Abstract Truth never fails to deliver on the promise of its stellar cast. The opener, "Stolen Moments" is aptly named: it steals the show. Evans, Chambers and Haynes provide a spacious and graceful backdrop that often hearkens to that most pristine modal masterpiece, Kind of Blue, and the solos are at once masterful and emotional. "Yearnin'" betrays an even more obvious relation to rhythm and blues about a minute and half in: a start-stop rhythm section and soul-styled melodic motif are almost Staxian.

"Stolen Moments" set to some unrelated video imagery.