Marion Brown - Passion Flower (1978 Japanese Baystate Vinyl LP)

Marion Brown - Passion Flower | Vinyl LP - 1978 Japanese Baystate (RVJ-6024, RVC Corporation)

Marion Brown came out of the 1960s avant-garde. He played on John Coltrane's Ascension (1965), recorded for ESP-Disk' and Impulse!, worked with Archie Shepp, and made abstract, texturally adventurous albums like Afternoon of a Georgia Faun for ECM. So an album of Ellington and Strayhorn ballads, played with warmth and restraint, is not what his reputation would lead you to expect. That's what makes Passion Flower interesting. Brown approaches this material as a melodist, letting the beauty of the tunes carry the performances rather than deconstructing them. His alto tone here is soft and vocal, closer to the lyrical tradition of Johnny Hodges (to whom the album is dedicated) than to the fractured phrasing of his free jazz work. "Passion Flower," the Strayhorn composition that Hodges made famous, opens the album, Brown stating the melody with a tenderness that honours the original. "Smada" (Strayhorn's "Adams" spelled backwards) follows. "Prelude to a Kiss" is one of Ellington's most harmonically sophisticated ballads, and Brown navigates its chromatic melody with care.

The rhythm section is superb. Stanley Cowell, one of the most harmonically rich pianists of his generation (and a founder of the Strata-East label), provides sophisticated, supportive accompaniment. Reggie Workman, who played bass in Coltrane's group during the same period Brown was recording Ascension, anchors the quartet with a deep, resonant tone. Roy Haynes, one of the most versatile drummers in jazz history, plays with the brushwork and sensitivity that ballad interpretation demands. Side B continues the tribute with "Solitude," one of Ellington's most enduring compositions, and "Day Dream," another Strayhorn piece associated with Hodges. This is one of a series of albums Brown recorded for the Japanese Baystate label in the late 1970s (Zenzile, Passion Flower, Soul Eyes, November Cotton Flower), part of the wave of Japanese labels documenting American jazz musicians who found more support in Japan than at home.

This is the 1978 Japanese release on Baystate RVJ-6024, manufactured by RVC Corporation.