#ed bickert

Nineteen Seventy-Five wasn’t an easy year, either. The protracted and polemical Vietnam War had finally ended with the fall of Saigon in April. Rampant inflation persisted, resulting unemployment rate of 9.2% in the United States. Removed from the societal strife by an upscale mid-Manhattan residence, altoist Paul Desmond was also basically retired. Resting on the laurels of his long tenure with Brubeck and still raking in royalties from the cash cow that was “Take Five,” he indulged in a steady diet of Scotch, cigarettes, steaks and the intimate company of fashion models. 

Even the most solvent and satisfied of individuals isn’t immune to the encroachment of ennui and boredom. Beset by doldrums, Desmond decided that he needed a renewed creative outlet. The set documents the results of two week-long tenures at Toronto’s Bourbon Street club in March and October. Old friend Jim Hall wasn’t available, so Desmond conscripted Canadian guitarist Ed Bickert’s trio as rhythm section at his colleague’s suggestion. Bassist Bob Thompson, also a seasoned audio engineer, had a tape machine rolling over the succession of nights. 

Approximately three-hours of material circulated on three different labels over the next several years, garnering acclaim as a return to form for Desmond and shining an expedient spotlight on Bickert and his bandmates that led to an interim stint by Hall with Thompson and drummer Terry Clarke in June. The other five-plus hours of music sat in cans for four decades until plans for this box set began to coalesce under the Mosaic aegis. Thompson went back to the tapes, remastered the music and the aperture on the quartet’s stands suddenly became a whole lot wider. 

Desmond officiates the action in his usual self-effacing way, taking solo honors often, but also deferring to both Bickert and Thompson with regularity. The set lists are mergers of standards and originals including a series of tunes named after ladies in Desmond’s life including “Emily,” “Wendy,” and “Audrey.” The last is a minor-keyed blues dedicated to the actress answering to Hepburn rendered through a noirish filter that sets it intriguingly apart from the balladic contours of the others. Pull quotes from a stack of other tunes abound in the fluid improvisations. 

An inventive arrangement of the obligatory “Take Five” that draws on modal Middle Eastern influences is arguably the most adventurous entry, but Desmond, Bickert and Thompson take quiet and creative liberties on many of the other tracks. Bickert’s father passed away in the midst of the band’s second Bourbon Street stint necessitating the guitarist’s departure and the addition of valve trombonist Rob McConnell. The shift marks one of the few recorded occasions where Desmond played in the absence of a conventional chordal instrument.

Eight-hours of ethereal alto-led cocktails-conducive jazz may seem excessive, but in these times of extraordinary ongoing angst its effectiveness as an aural means of temporary escape make this set feel at once opportune and essential.