BLP 4215

Jackie McLean - Right Now!

Released - November 1966

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, January 29, 1965
Jackie McLean, alto sax; Larry Willis, piano; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Clifford Jarvis, drums.

1508 tk.2 Right Now
1509 tk.10 Poor Eric
1510 tk.15 Christel's Time
1511 tk.22 Eco

Session Photos

Photos: © Francis Wolff/Mosaic Images 
https://www.mosaicrecordsimages.com/

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Eco	Jackie McLean	January 29 1965
Poor Eric	Larry Willis	January 29 1965
Side Two
Christel's Time	Larry Willis	January 29 1965
Right Now	Charles Tolliver	January 29 1965

Liner Notes

Measure an artist in his own time, and his creative weight might be calculated by the extent to which he reflects the elements of his age, while maintaining respect for the axioms of beauty and meaning. If one is willing to accept this broad rule as a gauge for judgment, then Jackie McLean must be acknowledged as a significant interpreter of this mod and magnificent mid-century, when turbulence must be a subterranean theme in each man’s existence.

Combining an approach which he terms “creative intuition," with a high degree of technical mastery, McLean has dared to infringe upon the poet's realm, translating utterances of loneliness, despair, frustration and frenetic joy, into the penetrating pronouncements of an alto saxophone defying the sad solitude of silence.

If his music seems harsh, at times, and almost abrasive, this must be taken as an echo of the cruel chaos in the world. And if he occasionally seems to be giving vent to some internal demonic force, it is because each human being must cope with the demon in himself before he might reach a point of self-realization. Thus, his insistent and defiant statements emerge as valid reflections of what is. All this is remarkably achieved without any breach of musical logic, or lapse into muddy incoherence. Receptive to the best in all things, McLean has steered a clear course through a rugged sea bounded on one side by those so constricted by tradition that they dare not challenge any icon, and, on the other hand, by the inchoate gropers who wish to soar without having learned how to fly, seeking to substitute mere sound for substance. In an agitated age when so many fear to reject any manifestation of human expression (regardless of how tasteless), due to a personal fear of being thought ”out of it" or ”left behind,” McLean has never forgotten that a message, no matter how urgent, can not be comprehended if it can not be communicated. Equally commendable for one so sensitive to the temper of the times, is the fact that McLean has not allowed fickle fashion to dull his taste for the sweet, the soft, the subtle - of which he remains an extraordinary exponent.

So, it is, that he has maintained his musical integrity in on environment where animate and inanimate forces seem to conspire to crush the sight within the seers, the feeling within those who feel too much, the thought within the congenital thinkers, and the music within those who were conceived to sing not praises, but truth. But this is the eternal plight of the artist, and McLean has accepted it, and built upon it, and forged new visions out of his own experiences - always readily distilling the essence of those visions to any who might care to follow.

In a manner befitting an artist of his stature, McLean has refused to rest on any of the plateaus along the path of his personal evolution. Change and constant striving for the new, the untraversed, have earmarked his career and, most recently, he has conceived an impressive set of Blue Note albums which have solidified his position as a member of the avant-garde, while not sacrificing his affinity for the hard roots of swing. With a crusader's fervor, he has explained that “only with continual searching for new things can we break away from the sort of damaging stereotyping to which jazz has fallen prey. Too often, we have allowed it to slip into rigid grooves, to be stamped with titles like Dixieland, swing or bop. At least, today, we seem to be advancing toward acceptance of jazz as simply music - serious music and a potent expression of our times.”

So, with this album, Jackie McLean writes another chapter in the continuing story of his thrust toward fresh musical horizons.

Though he has worked with a number of groups, in his quest for “the right sound," he collaborates here with three artists unknown to many of those who have followed his recorded efforts. Let it be said that though the group experience is limited, cohesiveness is ever-present, and the diverse temperaments of these four strong individuals have been meshed to produce a set of consistent excellence.

Perhaps the least known is Larry Willis, a 22-year-old New Yorker who has followed the course of other precocious pianists, most notably Herbie Hancock, by seeking a maximum of formal training before branching into the complexities of jazz. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, Willis has come upon the scene truly "ready,” though his only extensive professional work has been with Hugh Masekela, the South African trumpeter whom he met at the Manhattan School. For more than a few years, McLean has served as Willis’ musical mentor. “I've been watching Larry's career since he was 18, or so," says Jackie. ”I started using him on some of my gigs, most of which have been in and around New York. I figured the time had come for him to have a broader exposure."

Bob Cranshaw is one of those highly competent but unpublicized bass players who are respected by fellow musicians, but so often are overlooked by the general public. A part of the New York jazz milieu for several years, Cranshaw possesses what McLean refers to as "a flowing, contemporary style,” flexible enough to range from stable, pulsating backing to extended solo work. However, Cranshaw’s talents have not gone unnoticed by the likes of Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, with whom he has worked.

Boston was the initial training ground for drummer Clifford Jarvis, who has spent the past six years becoming established in Gotham. Gifted with versatility, he is capable of keeping pace with both mainstream modernists and experimentalists, as evidenced by the several recordings on which he has backed trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, and his regular appearances with the often startling but searching Sun Ra. Jarvis has ”a very fiery rhythmic conception," according to McLean, and is equally effective while unobtrusively playing behind a group or driving it with a lively, erratic beat.

As for the music, no amount of commentary can convey its essence. It must simply be heard to be appreciated, which is the case with all music. However, it might be pointed out that Eco, the opening track, presents McLean playing in the style most commonly identified with him - surging full-speed ahead through carefully constructed extended phrases which reverberate with spontaneity, pitting his lean, but forceful sound against chordal punctuations of Willis' piano, while Cranshaw and Jarvis cook steadily on the rhythmic end. Christel’s Time is an unbridled romp culminating in an electrifying solo passage by Jarvis, while Right Now, with its overtones of optimism, is indicative not only of McLean's faith in the fervent movement of an anxious people toward freedom, but of his belief that he might overcome any obstacles standing in the way of his own self-knowledge. In this respect, he refers to the number as paradoxical."

The drive, the energy, the hard swing and ebullient extroversion displayed on these three tracks are, however, representative of but one side of McLean’s artistry. No better complement to this could there be than the haunting Poor Eric, a dream-like dirge penned by Willis and dedicated to the memory of the late Eric Dolphy. A heavily brooding mood is established from the opening bars when a single eerie sound is created by the bowed bass of Cranshaw, softly stating the poignant theme in unison with Jackie’s sax, leading into a solo so stark and bittersweet that it is, without doubt, one of McLean’s finest on record. This moving number also indicates the incipient depth of young Willis as composer.

Recently, McLean criticized one of his earlier discs for the reason that it failed to capture the sort of sound he finds so elusive. He hasn’t found it yet, he contends, and possibly he never will. But if, like so many who devoted their creative careers to quests for golden concepts beyond definition, he is able to produce at each point along the search, all who wish to listen will be enriched by the body of work marking his course.

-Phyl Garland

RVG CD Reissue Liner Notes

A NEW LOOK AT RIGHT NOW!

This album, one of Jackie McLean's very best, was created during a period of intense recording activity for the alto saxophonist. Between August 1964 (It's Time!) and April 1966 (the belatedly issued High Frequency), McLean paid eight visits to Rudy Van Gelder's studios as a bandleader, alternating between quartets and quintets, and between rhythm sections with piano and vibes as the chording instrument. While most of these efforts produced memorable music (two remain unissued), Right Now! stands out for its blend of winning material, supporting performances and the usual McLean intensity.

The music on previous McLean dates, together with the saxophonist's own frequent liner notes, demonstrate his concern with integrating the new approaches to improvisation that Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane had developed into his own bebop-rooted style. Using scales and modes in place of dense sequences of chord changes had proven to be a successful means for incorporating the more oblique melodic ideas and harsh tonal shadings that had been elicited by such early McLean compositions as "Quadrangle" and "A Fick!e Sonance"; but the vocabulary that McLean had developed as a leading exponent of the hard bop style in the previous decade also remained a central part of his arsenal. By speaking to both aspects of his personality, the original compositions on Right Now! provide an uncommonly complete portrait of the artist.

Three of the pieces make excellent use of contrast to create frames for the Improvisations. McLean's own "Eco" employs an imaginative 40-bar ABCCA construction, With the first two sections using scales and straight-ahead time while the extended bridge enters a different modal area and puts the rhythm into stop-time. The title track, composed by Charles Tolliver (McLean's frequent trumpet partner in the period) is a more common 32-bar form, but the main phrase is modal and played over a vamp that is retained during the solos, while the bridge swings and employs chord changes. Larry Willis' "Christel's Time" takes the structural components of its theme emphatic vamp, altered blues harmonies - and breaks them apart for a solo scheme in which 16 bars of harmonically static vamping are followed by two blues choruses. The tension and release that these designs reinforce are exploited to the fullest by McLean, who flows so effortlessly on "Christel's" that he drops blues phrases into the non-blues stretches and avant-garde sonic distortions onto the blues changes.

Willis, making his recording debut here, was one of several young players who found early exposure with McLean during the period (Tolliver, Jack DeJohnette, Bobby Hutcherson, Grachan Moncur and Tony Williams were others). To an even greater extent than his spirited piano solos and accompaniments, Willis' writing adds a character to the album, and reflects a thorough understanding of McLean's music. "Poor Eric," one of the most heart-rending themes of what was a very fertile period for jazz composition, was tailor-made for the saxophonist's undisguised anguish, and the decision to have Bob Cranshaw bow the melody in unison with the leader makes the sense of loss even more acute. That arco passage also reminds us that Cranshaw, who has spent most of the following four decades playing an electric instrument, was (and is) one hell of an acoustic bassist.

Drummer Clifford Jarvis is also at his best on Right Now! His status as drummer of choice for both Barry Harris and Sun Ra during this period indicates just how versatile a percussionist Jarvis had become, He was also totally at home in Blue Note's blowing environment, as his presence on three of Freddie Hubbard's sessions for the label indicates; but the present setting allowed the fullest display of his bold polyrhythms and inspiring swing, which are effectively showcased throughout.

The extended playing time of these performances make them excellent facsimiles of what McLean sounded like in clubs during his transition years, and underscore the obvious point that McLean does not make casual music. No one has labeled his output easy or smooth or or fit for the background. He engages his material completely and with unblinking honesty and he demands the same of his listeners. Some cannot take the heat, while others find it to be one of the most emotionally and intellectually satisfying experiences jazz has to offer. For those of us in the latter camp, McLean has always been one of jazz's most important voices. Here more proof.

- Bob Blumenthal, 2003