The Modern Jazz Quartet – Django (1984 Japanese Prestige Mono LP)

Vinyl: EX
Sleeve: VG+
Obi: VG+

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MJQ - Django | Vinyl LP - 1984 Japanese Prestige Mono Reissue (VIJ-207, Prestige Jazz Golden 50 No. 7, Victor Musical Industries, Inc.)

The Modern Jazz Quartet had started as the rhythm section behind Dizzy Gillespie in 1946. By 1952 they were working as an independent group, Percy Heath on bass, Kenny Clarke on drums, Milt Jackson on vibraphone and John Lewis on piano. Their Prestige recordings from 1953 to 1955 were first issued on two 10-inch LPs; when Prestige moved to 12-inch records in 1956, they combined the best of the two volumes onto this LP under the title Django.

Lewis wrote in memory of Django Reinhardt for the December 1954 title track. The composition opens in a slow dirge, moves through improvised sections built on the opening theme's material, and returns to the dirge to close, a structure Lewis described as having "perfect pyramid-like symmetry." "One Bass Hit" is Dizzy Gillespie's, a feature for Percy Heath, who takes the intricate melody with Heath's bass runs at the centre. "Milano" is a Lewis ballad from the same session, Milt Jackson's vibraphone given the lead.

The La Ronde Suite, recorded in January 1955, divides into four movements, each giving one member of the quartet extended solo space while the others provide support. The suite grew out of "Two Bass Hit," a Lewis theme written for Gillespie. It was Clarke's final session with the group.

The four June 1953 tracks, "The Queen's Fancy," "Delaunay's Dilemma," "Autumn in New York" and "But Not for Me", come from the quartet's earliest work as a co-operative unit. "Autumn in New York" is Vernon Duke's 1934 standard; "But Not for Me" is Gershwin and Gershwin from Girl Crazy (1930), both given the chamber-jazz quality the MJQ was already developing.

This is the 1984 Japanese Prestige mono reissue (VIJ-207), Prestige Jazz Golden 50 No. 7, manufactured by Victor Musical Industries, Inc.