The Modern Jazz Quartet - The Comedy (1972 Japanese Atlantic Gatefold Vinyl LP)

The Modern Jazz Quartet - The Comedy | Vinyl LP - 1972 Japanese Atlantic Stereo Reissue (P-6097A, Jazz Age series, Warner-Pioneer Corporation)

Seven pieces, one suite, and a cast borrowed from Italian street theatre. John Lewis wrote all of The Comedy around the stock figures of the commedia dell'arte, Pulcinella, Pierrot, Harlequin, Columbine, giving each its own movement and its own temperament. This is the most fully realised version of the thing Lewis chased for most of his career: European formal writing and jazz improvisation holding each other up rather than taking turns. Milt Jackson is what stops it tipping into the conservatory. His vibraphone on Harlequin and Piazza Navona carries the blues into music that on paper has no business containing it, while Percy Heath and Connie Kay keep everything moving lightly underneath. Diahann Carroll appears on La Cantatrice, the singer of the title. Listeners have been arguing about that track since 1962. The sessions were split across two years, one date in New York in October 1960 and three more in January 1962.

This is the August 1972 Japanese Atlantic stereo reissue from the Jazz Age series, catalogue P-6097A, manufactured by Warner-Pioneer Corporation in a gatefold sleeve.