Zoot Sims

A European tour date recorded in Sweden with a Scandinavian rhythm section and Horace Parlan on piano. Parlan, the American expatriate who had settled in Copenhagen, brings a distinctive, percussive touch to the piano chair that sets this apart from the typical Cohn-Sims studio date. His partially paralyzed right hand (the result of childhood polio) gave him a left-hand-dominant style that was rhythmically powerful and harmonically inventive.

Hugo Rasmussen and Sven Erik Norregaard were stalwarts of the Copenhagen jazz scene, and they play with the relaxed authority of musicians accustomed to accompanying visiting Americans. The two tenors are in fine form, trading solos and riffs with the easy familiarity of old friends on a working tour.

Four stars. A solid entry in the Cohn-Sims catalog that benefits from the freshness of an unfamiliar rhythm section. Tour dates like this often have a spontaneity that studio sessions lack, and this one captures that quality nicely.

Norman Granz paired Zoot with Oscar Peterson's working group for a program of Gershwin standards, and the result is one of the great Pablo releases. Peterson and Pass create a harmonic accompaniment of extraordinary richness: the piano's full-spectrum voicings and the guitar's warm chordal fills surround Sims's tenor in a cushion of sound that brings out his most lyrical playing.

The Gershwin material is ideally suited to Zoot's melodic sensibility. These are songs built on strong, singable melodies and sophisticated harmonies, and Sims treats them with the respect they deserve, never straying so far from the melody that the song is lost, but always finding fresh angles and unexpected turns. George Mraz's bass is immaculate, and Grady Tate's drumming has the quiet intensity of a master accompanist.

Five stars. This is one of the essential jazz recordings of the 1970s and the finest songbook album in Zoot Sims's discography. Every track is a small masterpiece of taste and swing.

An entire album on soprano saxophone, and Zoot brings the same warm, centered tone to the smaller horn that he always had on tenor. Where many soprano players sound pinched or nasal, Sims sounds like himself: relaxed, melodic, with a natural vibrato that gives every note a singing quality. Ray Bryant's bluesy, gospel-inflected piano is a perfect complement, adding grit and soul to the lighter soprano voice.

George Mraz and Grady Tate, returning from the Gershwin Brothers date, provide the same impeccable support. The repertoire mixes standards with a few originals, all played at tempos that allow the soprano to bloom. The instrument's higher register encourages Zoot to explore a slightly different range of melodic ideas, and the results are consistently engaging.

Four stars. Not quite as transcendent as the Gershwin Brothers, but a thoroughly enjoyable soprano showcase that demonstrates Sims's versatility and his ability to make any instrument sound like an extension of his own personality.

Jimmy Rowles was the pianist's pianist: a master accompanist whose harmonic imagination and dry, understated touch made him the first call for singers and saxophonists who valued subtlety over flash. His partnership with Zoot is one of the great piano-saxophone pairings of the late seventies. Rowles hears everything Zoot plays and responds with voicings that illuminate the harmony from unexpected angles.

George Mraz is once again flawless, and Mousey Alexander plays with the quiet, steady swing that the material demands. The repertoire is all standards, chosen with the care of musicians who know exactly which songs suit their voices. Every ballad is a miniature story, every up-tempo track a demonstration of effortless swing.

Five stars. This is late-period Zoot at his finest, with a rhythm section that matches him in taste and sensitivity. The title says it all.

A tribute to Billie Holiday, recorded in 1978 but not released until 1991, thirteen years later. The program is eleven songs associated with Holiday, and Zoot plays them with the reverence and intimacy of a musician who absorbed her phrasing deep in his bones. This is not an imitation of Holiday's vocal style on saxophone. It is something more subtle: the application of her rhythmic freedom, her way of bending a melody just enough to make it personal, to Sims's own instrumental voice.

Jimmy Rowles is once again the ideal partner. He had actually accompanied Holiday on many occasions, and his playing here has a memorial quality: tender, knowing, never sentimental. George Mraz and Jackie Williams provide discreet, sympathetic support. The whole session has an intimacy that recording studios rarely capture.

Five stars. The thirteen-year delay in release is a tragedy, because this is one of the most beautiful jazz records of the 1970s. Every note is weighed and felt.

Zoot Sims's final studio recording, made less than two years before his death from lung cancer on March 23, 1985. He was fifty-nine years old. There is no audible decline in his playing: the tone is as warm as ever, the swing as effortless, the melodic invention as fresh. If anything, there is an added depth to the ballad performances, a gravity that comes from a lifetime of playing.

Jimmy Rowles, George Mraz, and Akira Tana form the same kind of sensitive, responsive rhythm section that characterized the best Pablo dates. Rowles and Sims had by this point achieved the kind of telepathic rapport that only comes from years of playing together, and their interplay on the slower pieces is breathtaking in its simplicity and emotional directness.

Five stars. A beautiful, bittersweet final statement from one of the most naturally gifted musicians in jazz history. The spring of the title is both a season and a state of mind, and Sims captures both with a grace that makes this record an essential part of his legacy.