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Two records made in a single day, and two opposite claims to the first take.
Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz (the Wikipedia page) was recorded on Dec 21, 1960, as one continuous take, with no overdubs and no edits. The only outtake, "First Take," came out in 1971. …
Sunday at the Village Vanguard (#19) was five half-hour sets on June 25, 1961, and the last gig Bill Evans played with Scott LaFaro, who died eleven days later.
The next record I can find that Evans led is Undercurrent, with Jim Hall: April 24 and May 14, 1962, two instruments and no Evans originals, per its Wikipedia page. He had not recorded for months. It opens with "My Funny Valentine," which the page says was the last piece recorded.
So the same pianist, a year apart: a club with a bass player who would not be there for long, then a studio with no bass at all.
I am working from the pages, not the records.
Two sessions where the keeper was not the first day's work, and not even the same kind of keeper.
On Oct 15, 1956, Monk's quartet made twenty-five takes of the title track of Brilliant Corners (#8) in about four hours, and none was complete. Orrin Keepnews built the released version from pieces.
On June 25, 1959, the Brubeck quartet spent roughly 40 minutes losing the beat on Take Five, per The Absolute Sound's Time OutTakes (#33). They came back on July 1 and got the one that was used. …
The version of Take Five on Time Out was the second try. On June 25, 1959, the Brubeck quartet spent roughly 40 minutes in Columbia's 30th Street Studio working out a tune in 5/4, with more than twenty takes that fell apart when players lost the beat. The keeper came on July 1, in two takes. That is the account in The Absolute Sound's Time OutTakes (#33) and, for the dates, the Wikipedia page for the song. …
Two leaders who showed up with almost nothing written. For Kind of Blue (#1) Miles Davis brought sketches of scales and melody lines. For Money Jungle (#30), on Sept 17, 1962, Duke Ellington gave Mingus and Roach a lead sheet per piece plus a described image to play toward, and nobody rehearsed. …
Another room, another label sound
Rudy Van Gelder's rooms (#6) are the usual explanation for why so many records of the late 1950s and 60s sound related. Peter Erskine's account of Rainbow Studio in Oslo (#26) makes the same argument for ECM in March 1987: a converted cinema, a house drum kit, a glass gobo between bass and drums, and Manfred Eicher choosing where each improvised piece starts and stops. …
Rehearsing on the clock
Two sessions where studio time was spent on the wrong thing, or the only thing.
Brilliant Corners (#8, Thelonious Monk): twenty-five takes in four hours on Oct 15, 1956, none of them finished, so the title track was assembled afterwards.
Redd's Blues (#22, Freddie Redd): on Jan 17, 1961, Redd came to Van Gelder's with six charts he hadn't fully rehearsed with the band. He worked out the arrangements while Alfred Lion's clock ran, then added trumpeter Benny Bailey after the paid rehearsal and rewrote for a third horn. Lion reportedly threatened not to release it. It came out in 1988, on Mosaic. …
Five sets, one day
Sunday at the Village Vanguard (#19) was five half-hour sets on June 25, 1961, picked over afterwards. A Love Supreme (#5) was one planned session in a studio. Same year-range, opposite rooms.
A post to write: list the choices each setup forces. In a club the engineer can't stop the take, so the editor picks among five sets. In the studio the band can retry. Then check what the 1961 record's sequencing shows about what was chosen, and why, given LaFaro's death eleven days later.
The splice and the first take
Two records from the same years, made in opposite ways. Kind of Blue (#1, Miles Davis): sketches handed out on the day, the band improvising over two sessions, the record close to what happened in the room. Brilliant Corners (#8, Thelonious Monk): twenty-five takes of the title track in four hours, none of them complete, so producer Orrin Keepnews assembled the released version from pieces. …
One room, one sound
Follow A Love Supreme (#5) back to the room it was made in: Van Gelder's studio (#6). Write an issue that listens for the room instead of the players, and lists three more records made there to compare.
The wrong piano
An issue about limits: Jarrett's worn baby grand in Köln (#3) and Davis's bare sketches for Kind of Blue (#1). In both, what was missing decided what was played. Ask readers which record they love that was made with less than it needed.
