George Russell Sextet - Ezz-thetics (Japanese Riverside Vinyl LP)

Vinyl: EX
Sleeve: VG+ (hole punch)
Obi: None

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George Russell Sextet - Ezz-thetics | Vinyl LP - Japanese Riverside Records Stereo (SR-7058)

Russell published The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization in 1953, proposing that improvisers think in terms of scales rather than chord changes. The ideas went directly into Miles Davis's Kind of Blue and John Coltrane's modal explorations, but Russell didn't form his own working sextet until 1960. He assembled the group from musicians he had taught at the Lenox School of Music in Massachusetts, adding Don Ellis on trumpet and Steve Swallow on bass by recommendation. Eric Dolphy was a one-time addition: he heard the sextet at the Five Spot, visited Russell to discuss their shared interest in extended harmonic possibilities, and agreed to record. On May 8, 1961, the group went into Plaza Sound Studios and cut six tracks. "Ezz-thetic" opens the album, a Russell composition originally recorded in 1950, built on the chord changes of Cole Porter's "Love for Sale" and played here as a circuitous, angular theme with spiralling horn lines. "Nardis," the Miles Davis piece Davis gave to Bill Evans, gets a spare, haunting reading with Dolphy on bass clarinet. "Lydiot" (Russell's pun on "Lydian" and "idiot") has Russell's piano at its most Monk-like, angular and percussive. Dave Baker's "Honesty" swings hard and bluesy despite the advanced harmonic framework around it.

Baker was playing with a dislocated jaw. This session was his last recording on trombone; he had surgery shortly after and switched to cello, going on to become one of the most influential jazz educators in American history. Swallow, credited as Stephen Swallow on the pressing, was making his first major recording appearance. Dolphy plays alto on four tracks and bass clarinet on "Nardis" and "Thoughts." Russell's piano stays spare throughout, never crowding the horns, and Joe Hunt's drumming is responsive and alert. Orrin Keepnews produced for Riverside, with Ray Fowler engineering. This is the Japanese stereo pressing on Riverside SR-7058. The release date is not known but likely 1962 or 1963; the flip-back cover and SR catalogue prefix places it in the early-to-mid 1960s, contemporary with other Japanese Riverside pressings in the series.