1959 was a year of significant events. Alaska became America's forty-ninth state. Hawaii became the fiftieth state, and Fidel Castro rose to power in Cuba. The first transatlantic telephone cables were used and ballistic missiles were tested. Cyprus gained independence from the United Kingdom, and we saw the loss of musical icon Billie Holiday. 1959 was also a significant year for the release of some iconic jazz albums. Local saxophonist Jacam Manricks will be celebrating 1959 with an expanded sextet at the Sofia on Friday, May 23 with a concert titled “1959: The Revolution of Jazz.” Manricks sat down with Excellence In Jazz host Gary Vercelli to discuss the inspiration behind his latest project.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights:
Gary Vercelli: “Kind of Blue” by Miles Davis has sold five million copies. What made it so special?
Jacam Manricks: Well, I think it was the collective group of musicians. I think it was Miles' genius in gathering those musicians and his approach to improvisation that he'd been refining. To me, in his playing, he provides just what the music needs and not anymore. And that gives a great contrast to some incredibly virtuosic soloing that is also on the album by guys like John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley. Then you have this brilliant pianist by the name of Bill Evans, supplying this impressionistic, incredibly colorful and rhythmically complex approach to jazz piano playing. So, it's really just a magical album and it's probably at the top of most people's desert island album picks.
GV: The Charles Mingus album “Ah Um,” outsold most of his other albums. It sold about 60,000 copies, which is pretty incredible for a jazz album. What made that more accessible to the public than the average Charles Mingus album?
JM: I think it's just an incredibly fresh sounding record. Mingus's music has a huge theatrical and dramatic element to it where it's changing tempos all of a sudden, there's wailing improvisations, but there's this roots, bluesy, earthy, grounded sense to it. People can kind of latch onto that bluesy earthiness while at the same time it's almost like watching a movie. All of a sudden, the tempo changes or the rhythmic feel changes. And his band, of course, was exceptional, plus his compositions and the way that he orchestrated was just brilliant.
GV: Tell us about Dave Brubeck
JM: Dave Brubeck was really one of the big pioneers, not only for West Coast cool jazz, but also changing traditions in jazz in general. He really took the music in a new direction rhythmically. He broke away from the standard 4/4 type swing rhythms that we have become used to in jazz and he started using odd meters like 5/4, 7/4, 9/8, all these sorts of things. Their biggest hit, “Take Five,” I think is the first jazz recording to sell a million copies. It was actually written by Paul Desmond, but it was that quartet on Dave's 1959 album “Time Out.”
GV: There was another tune on that iconic album called “Blue Rondo ala Turk.” Tell us about that.
JM: It's in 9/8 time and it's based on a Turkish rhythm, hence the title. It has a blues in it. It also has a rondo form, a real classical music overtone to the piece as well, and it was a smash hit in 1959.
GV: Do you think you'll ever run out of themes for future concerts, Jacam?
JM: I hope not. I love doing these thematic shows because every time I do them, I revisit these albums that I grew up listening to and have studied over the years. I feel like I'm learning new things all the time. I revisit these albums and there's nothing I find more rewarding as a human being and an artist than feeling like I've learned something.
