Miles Davis et John Coltrane, le printemps d’une révolutionMiles Davis et John Coltrane, le printemps d’une révolution
Un coffret rassemble cinq concerts de la formation des deux musiciens lors d’une tournée européenne, en mars et avril 1960.
Par Sylvain Siclier Publié le 29 mars 2018 à 09h01 - Mis à jour le 29 mars 2018 à 09h01
Une affiche de rêve pour tout amateur de jazz, le trio du pianiste Oscar Peterson, le quartette du saxophoniste Stan Getz et le quintette du trompettiste Miles Davis. Tel est, du 21 mars au 10 avril 1960, le triple plateau, une trentaine de minutes par formation, proposé par le producteur Norman Granz pour une tournée européenne. Laquelle donnera lieu à des publications de certains des concerts enregistrés par des radios. En particulier ceux de l’orchestre de Miles Davis.
Cinq d’entre eux viennent d’être réunis pour ce que les producteurs Steve Berkowitz, Michael Cuscuna et Richard Seidel présentent comme la première parution « légitime » de ces documents, et dont la prise de son a été améliorée. Ils constituent, dans un coffret de quatre CD, le sixième volume de la collection « The Bootleg Series », consacrée à Miles Davis.
Les évolutions les plus récentes de Coltrane sont encore peu connues lorsqu’il arrive en Europe
Avec le trompettiste, il y a le saxophoniste John Coltrane, le pianiste Wynton Kelly, le contrebassiste Paul Chambers et le batteur Jimmy Cobb. Tous figurent sur le récent album de Davis, Kind of Blue, sorti en août 1959 – avec Bill Evans au piano pour quatre des cinq compositions et Cannonball Adderley au saxophone, lui aussi pour quatre titres. Kelly, Chambers et Cobb ont aussi participé aux séances de Giant Steps, de Coltrane, publié en janvier 1960.
Les albums ne sortent pas alors au même moment aux Etats-Unis et en Europe, les concerts ne se retrouvent pas sur Internet quelques heures après avoir eu lieu. Les évolutions les plus récentes de Coltrane, même si son précédent album en leader, Soultrane, a donné des pistes, sont donc encore peu connues lorsqu’il arrive en Europe. C’est son premier séjour au sein du groupe de Miles Davis. Et ce sera leur dernière tournée ensemble. Lors des concerts, les interventions solistes de Coltrane, circulation autour d’une même note ou d’un groupe de notes, vibrato aux extrêmes du spectre sonore du saxophone, tranchent avec la manière plus classique de ses camarades. Miles Davis, suave, sensuel, délié, Wynton Kelly dans un superbe découpage swing.
Envols lyriques
Il est dit dans le livret que Coltrane aura suscité quelques réactions négatives. Surtout lors des deux concerts à l’Olympia, à Paris, le 21 mars. Au milieu des applaudissements, quelques siffletsà la fin des solos de Coltrane sur On Green Dolphin Street et Walkin’, plus marqués au cours de Bye Bye Blackbird. Son solo le plus avancé à Paris.
Le lendemain 22 mars, au Konserthuset de Stockholm, là aussi pour deux concerts, puis le 24 mars au Tivoli, à Copenhague, le public est plus réceptif à son art. Ces trois concerts débutent par So What, tiré de Kind of Blue, pour dire l’urgence musicale à venir. Thème esquissé, tempo plus rapide que sur l’album, Miles Davis qui entre tout de suite dans le jeu, en courtes phrases, avec des silences qui sont de la musique, avant de laisser à Coltrane toute latitude pour développer les envols lyriques, emportés, qui seront sa marque dans les années suivantes. Il est magistral durant All Blues à Stockholm, l’un des sommets de cette parution.
Miles Davis & John Coltrane, The Final Tour : The Bootleg Series vol. 6, 1 coffret de 4 CD Columbia Records-Legacy/Sony Music.
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Face the Music
Mosaic Editions Brochure 1991 on Scribd
We (Alan and Fred) have always been big photography fans and like a lot of other music nerds we were enamored with the jazz photographers like Roy DeCarava, Herman Leonard, William Gottlieb. And particularly Blue Note Records co-founder Francis “Frank” Wolff. Imagine how excited we were when Mosaic’s founders, Michael Cuscuna and Charlie Lourie –by far, our favorite friends and clients– told us that they had taken ownership of the entire Frank Wolff photography archive. After all, he’d shot virtually every Blue Note recording session from 1944 until 1967, even after they sold the company to Liberty Records in 1965!
Fred: “I had started doing a little collecting of jazz photography –probably due to our deep dive into Mosaic, and the shrinking size of CD covers– with non-vintage prints by Roy DeCrava, Bill Claxton, and Chuck Stewart. It occurred to me that a Frank Wolff archive would be a fantastic addition to body of jazz work starting to exhibit around the world.”
So we started bugging Mosaic Records to think about expanding their line from just their amazing, historically necessary box sets to amazing, historically necessary photographic history. In 1991, they started Mosaic Images, we created one of our nicest catalogs, and photography was a critical part of their business for 30 years.*
Now came the rigorous and joyous work of actually living up to the promise of a world class archive. Michael and Charlie selected three iconic photos featured on three classic Blue Notes, and did the deep dive research that helped make Mosaic famous. John Coltrane on “Blue Train,” Sonny Rollins on “Volume 2,” and Art Blakey on “The Big Beat.” One of the last analog “master printers”, Chuck Kelton’s Kelton Labs, was contracted for the limited edition prints. And since high priced photography was new to the mainstream jazz public, we also decided to release high quality, limited edition posters of the photographs at a lower price. Alan’s background as a journalist –with a unique sensitivity to artists and a pitch perfect writing talent– wrote the catalog copy and Jessica Wolf produced one of our most beautiful brochures, with printing and paper quality that gave readers the assurance that Mosaic Editions was all about quality.
Needless to say, things worked out beautifully, in all ways. Jazz fans from across the world responded overwhelmingly.
* Update: Mosaic's photography business started with this catalog in 1991. The Francis Wolff archive was acquired by the Universal Music Group, the current owner of Blue Note Records, from Mosaic Records in 2022.
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Mosaic Images
Catalog written by Alan Goodman
Production by Jessica Wolf
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You can read the scan of the original Mosaic Editions catalog above, or the entire text here. Aside from the gorgeous images, Alan does some of the first writing on the subject of Francis Wolff’s photography. It was just the beginning of his discovery by the photography and art communities –even the jazz fans– as a virtually unknown genius that was in our midsts.
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FRANCIS WOLFF PHOTOGRAPHED EVERY BLUE NOTE RECORDING SESSION FROM 1944 TO 1967.
Now for the first time you can see, own and display jazz history in the form of limited-edition, museum quality Francis Wolff photographs.
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ABOUT THE FRANCIS WOLFF COLLECTION
“Frank, you’re clicking on my record!” –Alfred Lion, during a Blue Note recording session, circa 1956
Nobody has ever documented an era more lovingly, or more thoroughly, than Blue Note founders Alfred Lion and Francis (Frank) Wolff. The era that they chronicled: the inception and rise of bebop in America.
Lion’s charge was the music. He recorded a staggering array of seminal jazz artists from 1939 through 1967.
Wolff’s contribution to history was more subtle but no less significant. Using a hand-held Leica or Rolleiflex camera, he too recorded every Blue Note artist for posterity. Yet Francis Wolff never considered himself an archivist. He took pictures simply because he loved doing it.
Even during the days of 78s in plain paper sleeves, before there appeared to be any use for his photographs, Wolff and his camera were a ubiquitous presence at every Blue Note session. Whether attempting to fade into the wallpaper, or blatantly seeing out the perfect combination of light, angle and expressions to capture an artist’s spirit, Francis Wolff never missed an opportunity to indulge his two passions in life … music and photography.
With the dawning of the LP, a new opportunity for graphic innovation arose, and 300 of Francis Wolff’s jazz photographs were artfully cropped, integrated with typography and given immortality as Blue Note album covers.
More than 5000 others went into a file drawer … never to see the light of day in any shape or form until Mosaic began publishing a few of them in its booklets.
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UNCOVERING A LOST TREASURE
Wolff began his career as a photographer, but once Blue Note was under way he found himself inundated with recording contracts, finances and the day-to-day operation of a thriving record label. Soon he considered himself a record executive first, a photographer only as a means of supplying Blue Note releases with cover art. The idea of exhibiting, or compiling a book of his unpublished photographs, was never given serious consideration.
With his death in 1971 Francis Wolff’s entire collection of priceless photographs went to his Blue Note partner and childhood friend, Alfred Lion. For years Lion couldn’t bear to go near them. It was only when Lion formed a warm friendship with the principals of Mosaic Records that anyone outside the original Blue Note family became aware of this treasure trove of Francis Wolff photographs still existed.
After Alfred Lion passed away, his wife, Ruth, turned the photographs over to Mosaic to organize and administrate. We at Mosaic spent days going through the wealth of visual images. Here were literally thousands of never-before-seen photographs of everyone from Ike Quebec and Sidney Bechet to John Coltrane and Andrew Hill.
The photographs most appropriate upcoming Mosaic reissues of Blue Note sessions have been set aside for that purpose. Many of the rest will eventually be published in a long-overdue hardcover collection. And three of the most striking and historically significant photographs are now being made available to jazz lovers and art collectors the world over in two limited edition configurations as the first offering by our new offshoot, Mosaic Editions.
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ABOUT THESE PHOTOGRAPHS
Each of the three classic Blue Note album cover photographs we’ve chose to launch Mosaic Editions with will be instantly recognizable, and have special significance, to every long-time collector of jazz recordings.
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THE COLTRANE LEGACY THAT GOT AWAY
Jazz lovers have wondered for over 30 years … what if John Coltrane had signed with Blue Note instead of Prestige? Well, it almost happened. Up at the Blue Note office to pick up some Sidney Bechet records, Coltrane was offered a recording deal by Alfred Lion … and he accepted! To clinch the oral agreement Lion paid Coltrane a small on-the-spot advance. But a short time later Coltrane was offered a firm written contract with Prestige, and he signed it. All might have been lost for Lion if Coltrane hadn’t volunteered to honor his commitment to Blue Note and record one album for the label.
The brilliantly conceived and executed music on Blue Train, along with the classic Francis Wolff photograph used for the cover, is the only evidence we have of what a Blue Note/Coltrane legacy might have sounded and looked like. The original photograph, taken on September 15, 1957, was severely cropped for the album cover. The photograph as released bu Mosaic Editions has never been shown to the public.
Edition limited to 50 numbered and authenticated custom-processed photographic prints and 3000 numbered photographic reproduction posters worldwide.
Poster dimension: 23 5/8” x 31 1/2”
Print dimension: 11” x 14”
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CAPTURING A COLOSSUS
In 1957 Sonny Rollins was a busy man at the top of his game. In addition to winding down his stint with Max Roach, he was playing in the Miles Davis group, forming his first band as a leader and recording the four Blue Note albums that would further establish his reputation as on of the all-time masters of the tenor saxophone.
It’s safe to assume that Francis Wolff was somewhat busy himself at the April 14, 1957, session for Sonny Rollins Vol. 2. Like all Blue Note sessions of that era, it took place in the living room-recording studio of optometrist-turned-engineer Rudy Van Gelder. And here, among the lamps and microphones, venetian blinds and patch cords, was Rollins leading Thelonious Monk, J.J. Johnson, Horace Silver, Paul Chambers and Art Blakey into jazz history. The pensive, moody shot of Sonny Rollins used for the album cover showed him in a relaxed moment, betweens takes, in Van Gelder’s house. It is unquestionable one of Francis Wolff’s masterpieces.
Edition limited to 50 numbered and authenticated custom-processed photographic prints and 3000 numbered photographic reproduction posters worldwide.
Poster dimension: 23 5/8” x 31 1/2”
Print dimension: 11” x 14”
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JUST A DRUMMER?
THE TRUTH ABOUT ART BLAKEY
Art Blakey never wrote a tune … yet there are scores of Blakey tunes. He didn’t play a melodic or chordal instrument … yet he brought life and shape to every tune and every sideman who passed through his Jazz Messengers. From his drums Art Blakey literally conducted the music, pacing the dynamics, controlling tension and release, and arranging each composition with just the right punctuation and drama. His sound reached beyond the drums to encompass every facet of the music that came from the the Jazz Messengers.
On March 6, 1960, Blakey’s recording career, which began with Blue Note in the late 40s, was riding high. After some 20 albums as a leader, he recorded with one of the greatest editions of the Jazz Messengers ever, featuring Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter and Bobby Timmons. As Frank Wolff’s lens peered though the drum set, Blakey’s infectious joy of playing was never more evident. Art Blakey was the happiest man alive when he was playing, and that photograph captured the magic. Cropped and tinted, it became the cover for The Big Beat, the album that introduced a legendary band as well as such jazz standards as “Dat Dere” and “Lester Left Town.” Mosaic’s photograph, untainted, embodies the essence of Art Blakey and the spirit of his music like nothing else.
Edition limited to 50 numbered and authenticated custom-processed photographic prints and 3000 numbered photographic reproduction posters worldwide.
Poster dimension: 23 5/8” x 31 1/2”
Print dimension: 11” x 14”
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THIS OFFERING
THE POSTER
To capture every nuance of Francis Wolff’s photographic originals, Mosaic Editions has gone to one of the premiere find arts presses in America, Eastern Press, the printer of choice to such prestigious and demanding organizations as the Smithsonian Institution, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Arts and the Japan Society.
The paper used for our photographic reproduction posters is heavyweight, Grade #1 coated, archival acid-free stock. Mosaic posters will not yellow or deteriorate during your lifetime … or even your grandchildren’s lifetime. The poster image is reproduced using a special scanned duotone process with the colors black and gray. Though more expensive than straight single-color reproduction, this process allows richer lights and shadings, giving the photographic image more “snap.” Each poster in our limited edition of 3000 is individually numbered and comes with a stamp of authenticity. The dimension: 23 5/8” x 31 1/2”. The price: $40.
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THE PRINT
For connoisseurs of fine photographic art we are also offering an extremely limited edition of 50 photographic print, each one individually processed to archival standards by Master Printer Chuck Kelton. This time-consuming processing regimen, previously employed by Mr. Kelton whole working with such photographers as Ansel Adams, involved a costly chemical washing process to neutralize all kids, and selenium toning to enhance the photographs natural tones. Each museum-worthy, customer-processed photographic print is numbers, and comes with stamp of authenticity signed by Mr. Kelton. The dimension: 11” x 14”. The price: $500.
These limited edition editions are numbered, authenticated and authorized by the estate of Alfred Lion. Order now. It is expected that this first-ever Mosaic Editions offering will sell out quickly. Be assured of owning a lasting monument to the jazz photography of Francis Wolff by placing your order today.
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ART FOR JAZZ’S SAKE
From the beginning, jazz lovers have come to expect, and take for granted, innovative and avant-garde photography, illustration and design on their record albums.
Maybe then it stands to reason that it too the art world, not the jazz world, to elevate the works fo William Claxton, Herman Leonard, William Gottlieb, Charles Peterson, Charles Stewart and Francis Wolff to new heights of status and monetary worth.
Well, what goes around comes around. In the past couple of years Mosaic has been receiving a growing number of requests from customers for more photographs like the ones we publish in our booklets. But unlike requests for music, we’ve been at a loss to where to send jazz lovers interested in high-quality jazz-related art.
When the entire body of Francis Wolff photographs became available to us, we had our answer. With the creation of Mosaic Editions, photographic reproduction posters and custom-processed photographic prints that abide by Mosaic uncompromising standards will allow those of us committed to jazz to satisfy and display our passion as never before.
[Signed]
Michael Cuscuna & Charlie Lourie
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MOSAIC EDITIONS PROMISES
1. Important Photographers
Mosaic Editions posters and prints will concentrate on the handful of inspired photographers who defined the “look” of jazz for all time.
2. Historic Photographs of Major Jazz Artists
Each Mosaic Editions reproduction represents a meaningful artist whose music helped shaped jazz history.
3. Powerful Visuals
Those are exciting images that capture exactly what the photographer saw through the lens.
4. Impeccable Reproduction
Mosaic is using the finest processor and printing press that our research has been able to turn up. Every Mosaic photographic reproduction poster and custom-processed photographic print is fully guaranteed to be of archival quality, to bring you pleasure throughout your lifetime.
5. Number Limited Editions
Each Mosaic photographic reproduction poster is numbered and limited to an edition of 3000 worldwide. Custom-processed photographic prints are numbered, authenticated by the processor and limited to an edition of 50 worldwide.
6. Value
The prices we charges are almost unheard of for appreciating works of art.
7. Unconditional Guarantee
If for any reason you are not pleased with you Mosaic Editions poster or print, you may return it for a complete refund.
8. Easy Ordering
Order by mail or phone or fax. Pay with VISA or MasterCard, check or money order in U.S. currency.
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“Few things in life are so uniquely original as to be instantly recognizable. There’s the singular look of a painting by Picasso, the one and only sound of a Stravinsky symphony or the unmistakeable mise-en-scene of a film by Renoir. And then there is Blue Note records.”
“A large part of the recognition factor was due to the outstanding photographs –intimate, elegant, mostly monochrome images of the jazz lions of the day– by a Berlin-born refugee from Nazi German named Francis Wolff.”
“Stylistically, Wolff’s photos are gracefully composed and full of shadow, his subjects’ faces often floating up out of an inky background.”
“Without harboring any preconceived visual concepts, he approached each session determined just to capture the best possible shot.”
“Wolff was a gifted photographer whose candid style belied a trained and disciplined eye. Neither a ‘decisive moment’ advocate like Cartier-Bresson nor a seeker of monumental photographic themes like Eugene Smith, Wolff’s talent lay in capturing his subjects’ personalities through subtleties: a telling expression or gesture that helped reveal the man behind the musician.”
“Over the years Wolff short … a body of work that can stand comparison of any collection of jazz photographs, yet his oeuvre was largely taken for granted during his lifetime, and Wolff received little recognition.”
“Finally, after too many years of languishing in obscurity, his photographic legacy will once more be brought into the public eye.”
Reprinted with permission from Darkroom Photography Magazine
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