It's hard to think of anything else in music that gave me as much of a thrill on first discovery as George Russell's "All About Rosie." But that thrill was magnified tenfold (I am not exaggerating) when I heard the later recording by the Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band, with Mel Lewis on drums -- the original 1957 Brandeis Festival version (collected on "Birth of the Third Stream") does not really do justice to the immense power of this piece (the famous Bill Evans solo piano break notwithstanding).
"All About Rosie" is one of the most kinetic and propulsive compositions I've ever heard. On the surface it's crazy busy, almost wildly discursive, full of intersecting lines constantly snaking in and out and around each other, all of them vying for your full attention. But underneath the roiling surface, the music is just incredibly tightly controlled. Everything comes straight out of the Alabama children's song-game "Rosie, Little Rosie," and it's the obsessive development of this theme that generates all that insane momentum. It's brilliant and earthy and thrilling and in 1957, there was nothing remotely like it in jazz.
Here's Part 1 of "All About Rosie" - still a two-minute adrenaline rush like no other:
MP3: - "All About Rosie (Part 1)" (comp/arr George Russell, performed by the Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band)
The complete version available on this (highly recommended) Gerry Mulligan CJB iTunes compilation. (Ignore the "album review" on that page, which is for a different recording entirely.)
I was fortunate enough to take George's Lydian Chromatic class and play keyboards in his ensemble at New England Conservatory in the early 2000's.
More soon.
Russell in front of the Guggenheim, perfect photo. He was like the ultimate hipster-nerd; a true intellectual who also made tremendously swinging music that never lost sight of the blues or funk.
Posted by: George Grella | 28 July 2009 at 05:31 PM
Here's a link to a remarkable television news obit - all the more so for being one of the most prominent prime-time British broadcasts there is.
Posted by: Red Colm O'Sullivan | 30 July 2009 at 01:13 PM