VOTD 09/11/2025

 Modern Jazz Quartet: Concorde (Prestige)

Some days I seek a record or CD for the purpose of writing about it here. It's one of the reasons for the blog, right?

Other days I seek the music for my mood, or a reason. I don't just listen for writing.

I wanted something lower-key today. I don't mourn the death of Charlie Kirk. I didn't wish him harm but I consider him one of the problems, not one of the solutions. Not that I even knew much about him, being over the age of 30. 

I don't especially mourn 9/11, though I remember the day. I was living in my old house on Beechwood Blvd, sleeping in before my day at CAPA High School. My wife was already on the job. She called to say, "Just put on the TV right now." I tuned in to watch the second plane fly into the second tower. More students than not showed up that day. I didn't teach any lesson. I told the students to go online, read up on what's happening, or just sit and talk.

It's not so much that I consider the Modern Jazz Quartet to be musical comfort food, but at the same time it is. Low-key yet with concentrated intensity. My father, a big fan of MJQ, has posed the question of why they aren't better remembered or respected. I don't have an answer, any more than I do to his question why some pieces enter into standard practice as opposed to others. Maybe it's the chamber music quality that makes this less remembered than the Coltrane Quartet. 

Milt Jackson is the obvious star in the group, but that's too easy considering he's the primary melodic voice on vibes. John Lewis on piano is much more the glue. Hold things together. In this respect he reminds me of Teddy Wilson in the Benny Goodman Quartet; he's the proverbial center of the storm. Everyone else circles around him. 

I saw the Modern Jazz Quartet, I guess in this configuration (Jackson, Heath, Lewis, Kay) in 1982. It was at Heinz Hall in downtown Pittsburgh as part of the Mellon Jazz Festival. It must have been June 17, because it was Stravinsky's 100th birthday. A cake was wheeled on stage. My companion for the night, Chuck Gorman, noticed that Milt was repeatedly looking at his watch.

Opening the concert was the Wynton Marsalis Quintet. Chuck said, give these guys a year and they'll be amazing. Surely enough, I saw them almost a year to the later a Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh, and they were indeed great. My favorite player by far was pianist Kenny Kirkland. There was a loss.

And to follow up on that thread of thought, the day after MJQ at Heinz Hall, I saw Ornette Coleman & Prime Time at Carnegie Music Hall, with the Chico Freeman Quartet opening. Chico played freer than I associate with most of his records. Ornette was a free jazz funk assault: him, two guitars, two basses, two drummers. Far too amplified for the space. I saw my friend Sachiko afterwards (last time I saw her) and she remarked, "I didn't expect Ornette to play disco!"

I wish I could see her now to ask her about her current opinion. Disco it definitely was not.

MJQ plays though some standards and a few originals here. Probably like most of their records. Comfort food?