Bossa Nova - Eddie Harris

 

Bossa Nova

Bossa Nova

Eddie Harris

Illustration: Okamoto/London

Vee Jay Records LP3034

1962

Eddie Harris - Tenor

Lalo Schifrin - Piano and Arranger

Chuck Lampkin - Drums

Jimmy Rainet - Guitar

Jack Del Rio and Osvaldo Cigno - Latin Percussionists

Art Davis - Bass

From the back cover: Bossa nova has been given a great deal of notice in various magazines and newspapers. Some described it as a new twist in popular music; others attempted to define its name. Few have reported what has all the earmarks of an intrahemispheric skirmish that has been waged since the music first gained popularity in the United States.

One faction, the North American claims that the basis for bossa nova was heard initially in Los Angeles 10 years ago when Brazilian guitarist Laurindo Almeida recorded with alto saxman Bud Shank, bassist Harry Babasin, and percussionist Roy Harte a quartet formed by Babasin to play the off-nights at a club in Los Angeles called the Haig. The music the group played combined jazz with the Brazilian samba and baiao. The story goes that soon after the record session Almeida returned to his native country for a vacation. He carried with him several copies of the record.

"I gave copies to my friends," Almeida told John Tynan of Down Beat, "and it was given close attention."

The North American side feels that this is enough to establish the United States as the authentic birthplace of bossa nova.

"No!" cry those supporting a Brazilian claim to b.n.'s birth.

"We heard jazz and incorporated jazz ideas into our own native music, the samba," say Brazilian musicians. Some who lean toward the Brazilian claim of birth place dis- agree about which group of jazzmen were primary influences: was it the boppers Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonious Monk – or was it the West Coast jazz school?

One of the finest composers writing in the bossa nova idiom, Carlos Antonio Jobim – he and singer-composer Joao Gilberto are hailed by the Brazilian faction as the legitimate fathers of the baby – says that Gerry Mulligan was the one who proved to be the really important influence.

Both sides, however, agree that bossa nova is a combination of jazz and Brazilian music.

In the long run, where the music began, who fathered it, are unimportant. The music and how it is performed are the salient points. And it is a music requiring sensitive performance.

It was only natural, then, that Eddie Harris and bossa nova should meet.

The music cries out for musicians with a love for melody, men who not only respect a melody for its own sake but who create melodies in their improvisations.

Eddie Harris is such a musician.

"I'm playing by sound now," he says. "I'm not thinking so much in terms of chord changes and scales. When you play sound, you end up playing melodically."

A characteristic of bossa nova that caught the ears of jazz musicians was the rich harmonic construction of the lovely Brazilian melodies. These chord changes lent themselves well to jazz improvisation. But as "natural" as these chords sounded to jazzmen, the music demanded a different approach than most present-day jazz does. For in addition to being music of melodic charm, bossa nova is a music of subtlety, one in which a slight change of emphasis, a nuance, makes a great difference in a performance's effectiveness. The music must be played by those musicians who perceive the beauty that subtlety and understatement bring to any music.

Eddie Harris is that kind of musician.

"I believe in playing a tune in the manner it calls for," Eddie will explain. Aware that bossa nova necessitated an approach in keeping with its inherent spirit, Eddie did not rush into playing it simply because it was popular. Music means too much to him for that sort of thing. He wanted to become more familiar with the music.

He talked at length about the music's rhythms with Dizzy Gillespie, who was among the first North American musicians to perform bossa nova in this country. He also discussed the music with the gifted composer and arranger Lalo Schifrin, who arranged all the tunes included in this album as well as playing piano on it. Lalo, a native of Argentina, has an affinity for Latin rhythms and arranged the bossa nova songs played by

Gillespie's quintet, of which Lalo at the time was a key member.

Eddie found he could play bossa nova with free-moving ease and grace – both he and the music held in common.

"It's as free as jazz," he concluded.

This freedom of expression, along with Eddie's lithe lyricism and the heat and swing generated by the rhythm section, makes this one of the most exciting, yet melodic, albums of bossa nova jazz issued to date.

The rhythm section deserves special mention for its work on this album, for too often bossa nova rhythm sections hew so closely to the altered clave beat which is the basic b.n. rhythm that they tie themselves in knots. Not so this one. The freedom Eddie speaks of is very much a part of this section's credo.

The members, in addition to Schifrin on piano, are Jimmy Rainey, one of the significant guitarists to emerge onto the jazz scene since the death of Charlie Christian; Art Davis, whose command of his instrument led to his choice as the outstanding new bassist in the most recent Down Beat International Jazz Critics Poll; drummer Chuck Lampkin, who with Schifrin and Davis, is a former member of Gillespie's quintet; and Latin percussionists Jack Del Rio and Osvaldo Cigno.

THE MUSIC...

LOLITA MARIE was written by Eddie Harris and named for his six-month-old daughter. The composition has a playfulness in it that Eddie carries over into his song-like solo. Note the support Lalo gives Eddie in the theme statements and the graceful, flowing Jimmy Rainey solo.

CEV Y MAR (SKY AND SEA) is a 64-bar theme by the Brazilian composer Johnny Alf. The construction of the song's chords is based on the overtone series, giving rise in Eddie to another approach to bossa nova – an approach that involves skips, runs, pleadings, cries, and demands, lending a John Coltrane cast to Eddie's well-constructed three choruses, perhaps the best he's put on record to date.

WHISPERING BOSSA NOVA, another 64-bar composition, this one by Schifrin, displays the faster, more fierce side of bossa nova. Eddie and Lalo, keeping in the spirit of the theme, solo with drive, urgency, and fervor – but not at the expense of good taste and musicality. Lalo seems to dance buoyantly over the piano's keys. Art Davis" solo displays the imagination and technical facility that make him one of today's finest bassists.

MIMA is a theme from the movie of the same name, a film for which Lalo wrote the musical background while he was still living in Argentina. (He has won the equi- valent of an Academy Award for one of his film scores.)

On this track another facet of Eddie Harris' musical personality comes to the fore: his ability to coax different planes of sound from his tenor saxophone. At times, he sounds as if he were playing a soprano sax; sometimes his sound is that of an alto's. But it's tenor all the way through.

Lalo is stunning in a two-fisted piano solo that builds to a feverish pitch. Listen also for the way he and Davis musically touch hands at the end of the bass solo.

SAMBA PARA Dos is a blues bossa nova by Lalo, who said he softened the modulation to the subdominant chord in order to tone down what he called the drama of the blues. There certainly are no histrionics in the solos by Eddie, Lalo, and Rainey on this track.

TEL ECO TICO No. 2 is set in a gay mood by its introduction, which also serves as the ending. Tel eco, according to Lalo, is a rhythm similar to the samba – a very fiery samba. There's a carefree carnival flavor in the main theme that sets of a series of bright, melodic solos by Lalo, Eddie, and Rainey - a fitting close to a bright melodic venture into bossa nova. – Recording Supervised by Sid McCoy

Lolita Marie

Cev y Mar

Whispering Bossa Nova 

Mima

Samba Para Dos

Tel Eco Teco No. 2