{"title":"The Great Jazz Trio","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eThe Great Jazz Trio began at the Village Vanguard, which is where most of the important things in jazz piano trio history begin. Hank Jones had started playing Monday nights at the club with bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams sometime in 1975 or 1976, three musicians who between them had been inside Miles Davis's second great quintet, Ella Fitzgerald's touring band, and the foundational rhythm sections of hard bop. The name came from East Wind Records, the Japanese audiophile label whose A\u0026amp;R men heard the trio and named them in 1976 before flying them to Tokyo and Los Angeles to document what they had. The first recording session featured Buster Williams on bass rather than Carter, but the seven sessions that followed, including three live sets at the Vanguard in 1977 and studio dates in Los Angeles and New York, established the Jones-Carter-Williams lineup as the definitive version. Ethan Iverson, writing about the East Wind records, noted that all three players \"sound like leaders,\" which is exactly right: Jones's voicings are not accompanist's piano, Carter's bass lines carry melodic weight of their own, and Williams plays with the same post-bebop rhythmic freedom he had brought to the Davis quintet a decade earlier. The Japanese label also brought guest soloists through: Jackie McLean and Sadao Watanabe both recorded with the trio during this period. East Wind's audiophile aspirations extended to direct-to-disc recording experiments, and the covers used photographs of American baseball players, most famously Boston Red Sox pitcher Roger Moret on the cover of \"At the Village Vanguard,\" an aesthetic decision that remains one of the odder footnotes in jazz sleeve design.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-great-jazz-trio-at-the-village-vanguard-1978-japanese-east-wind-vinyl-lp","title":"The Great Jazz Trio - At The Village Vanguard (1978 Japanese East Wind Vinyl LP)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Great Jazz Trio (Hank Jones, Ron Carter, Tony Williams) - \u003cem\u003eAt the Village Vanguard\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - 1978 Japanese East Wind (EW-8053, obi)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Great Jazz Trio put one of the most respected pianists in jazz in the same room as one of its most explosive rhythm sections. Hank Jones was the elder statesman, all taste and swing, and behind him sat Ron Carter and Tony Williams, the bass and drums who had driven Miles Davis's great sixties quintet. On paper it looks like a mismatch of temperaments. In practice it is thrilling, Jones's poise holding the centre while Williams detonates around him. \u003cem\u003eAt the Village Vanguard\u003c\/em\u003e catches the trio live over two February nights in 1977, and the programme is lean and intense: Charlie Parker's \"Moose The Mooch\" taken at a gallop, an eleven-minute reading of John Coltrane's \"Naima\" that opens right up, Claus Ogerman's \"Favors\", and Ron Carter's own \"12+12\". Williams is the story on this record, his drums caught in astonishing detail, his cymbals and toms crackling with a physical presence most live recordings never manage. It is a masterclass in trio interplay, three musicians listening and answering at the highest level.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEast Wind built the Great Jazz Trio around Hank Jones in the mid-seventies, and this line-up, with Carter and Williams, was the one that made the group's name before the rhythm chairs began to rotate. The Japanese labels of the era took recording seriously, and this album is one of the reasons East Wind is prized: cut by Tohru Kotetsu, it is quiet, dynamic and vivid, and collectors seek it out as much for the sound as the playing. Dan Morgenstern, the American jazz historian, wrote the notes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis copy is the Japanese original on East Wind, catalogue number EW-8053, with the obi strip and insert.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"East Wind","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43904323158075,"sku":null,"price":60.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/IMG_8118.jpg?v=1785722524"}],"url":"https:\/\/lushliferecords.com.au\/collections\/the-great-jazz-trio.oembed","provider":"Lush Life Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}