VOTD 5/14/2023

 Rolf Kühn: The Best Is Yet to Come, record one (MPS)

Purchased at the Strip District flea market from the vinyl guy

The 1970s were strange. I might have told this anecdote before. I was at the Electric Banana with Richard Schnap, and having an almost giddy conversation. "Didn't the 70s suck? Aren't things going to be so much better?"

Such optimism. 

It's not that I am nostalgic for that era, but in retrospect the 1970s were far more interesting than we credited then, and the 80s turned out much worse than expected. I was specifically thinking of the boom in independently produced and released music at the current time, and I'd say that was indeed positive. 

But the 1970s, generally the time of my favorite films (horror films in particular), the summer blockbuster popcorn movie had only just been invented and didn't dominate pop culture, more trips to the moon, my favorite era for Sun Ra, Miles Davis playing on billings with Steve Miller and Neil Young, Richard Nixon resigning (just imagine that now), Jimmy Carter getting elected. 

When I think of the 80s, I think of Reagan and the Reagan Revolution (whose neocon ancestors have basically led to Trumpism and QAnon), AIDS, Bush I, hedge funds, the era of greed. I can't complain too much though; I met my wife, and my daughter was born in the 1980s.

Skip to today. Beautiful day, flea market in the Strip District. The vinyl guy who's often at these things (I saw him yesterday on the street in Lawrenceville) was present, and this box set of LP reissues caught my attention. I know almost nothing about Rolf Kühn but assumed (correctly) he was Joachim Kühn's brother, who is prominent on these sessions. A few other names were listed I knew, most significantly Albert Mangelsdorff and Daniel Humair. Seven albums, two of them doubles. Reasonably priced. Okay, I bit. 

Rolf played clarinet and composed. That's a big draw for me. Clarinet was my first instrument, and I have been paying quite a bit of bass clarinet in recent years. I admire dedicated jazz clarinetists; Perry Robinson for example. It's especially interesting to hear the instrument in a more modern context.

 I chose the what turned out to be the second earliest recording (but earliest released?) on the collection, Total Space. From moment one, Bitches Brew and 70s Miles hangs over this session, in sound if not procedures. It's primarily a seven piece band, augmented by an (unnumbered) brass section. I'd put this half way between the Miles mentioned, and the funkier Maynard Ferguson arrangements of the time. More composed and big bandish than Miles, not as tightly commercial as Maynard.

Then there's the clarinet sitting on top as a featured but not dominating voice. It's strange. Much as I love the instrument, it just doesn't seem right in this context. I guess that's the 1970s for you.

Four of the five compositions were by Rolf, with Mangelsdorff contributing a single work, "Lopes". It's more free jazzish, looser and less thoroughly arranged than the rest of the album. It's pretty easily by favorite on the program. Rolf does manage to write a good groove, and the performances are solid throughout. 

But jazz rock big band clarinet? Mmm...maybe not.