The Great Jazz Trio - At The Village Vanguard (1978 Japanese East Wind Vinyl LP)

The Great Jazz Trio (Hank Jones, Ron Carter, Tony Williams) - At the Village Vanguard | Vinyl LP - 1978 Japanese East Wind (EW-8053, obi)

The 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. At the Village Vanguard 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.

East 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.

This copy is the Japanese original on East Wind, catalogue number EW-8053, with the obi strip and insert.