Modern Jazz Quartet - The Complete Modern Jazz Quartet Prestige & Pablo Recordings [2023] [2023] (4 x CDs)

SUNDAY JAZZ

MODERN JAZZ QUARTET

Modern Jazz Quartet - The Complete Modern Jazz Quartet Prestige & Pablo Recordings [2023] [2023] (4 x CDs)

Issued in 2023, The Complete MJQ on Pablo Records is a landmark archival release that gathers the full body of work recorded by the Modern Jazz Quartet for Pablo Records between 1974 and 1983. It documents the final chapter of one of jazz’s most refined and enduring ensembles, John Lewis (piano), Milt Jackson (vibraphone), Percy Heath (bass), and Connie Kay (drums) whose chamber jazz aesthetic reached its most introspective and elegant form during this period.

Founded by Norman Granz, Pablo Records offered the MJQ a sanctuary of artistic freedom and high-fidelity recording. Granz’s minimalist production ethos, no overdubs, no gimmicks, just clean sound—allowed the quartet to record with clarity and nuance, preserving the acoustic purity that defined their approach. The Pablo years were not about reinvention but refinement: a return to the group’s core values of balance, restraint, and contrapuntal interplay, honed over decades.

Musically, the set traverses a wide emotional and stylistic range. Blues on Bach (1974) stands as a conceptual high point, weaving Bach chorales with blues originals in a seamless dialogue between European form and African-American expression. Lewis’s arrangements are crystalline, and Jackson’s improvisations, rooted in bebop but tempered by lyricism, float above the harmonic scaffolding with soulful grace. The album’s structure, alternating between classical and blues pieces, reflects the MJQ’s lifelong commitment to third-stream ideals.

The Last Concert (1974), recorded live at Avery Fisher Hall, is both a farewell and a reaffirmation. The group revisits canonical works like “Django,” “Bags’ Groove,” and “Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise” with emotional depth and rhythmic subtlety. Jackson’s solos are more spacious, Lewis’s voicings more distilled, and the ensemble’s dynamic control, especially Kay’s brushwork and Heath’s melodic bass lines, speaks to a lifetime of shared listening.

Other Pablo sessions, such as The Complete Last Concert, Echoes, and Reunion at Budokan, reveal the MJQ’s evolving relationship with silence, space, and form. Lewis’s use of pedal points, modal harmony, and minimalist motifs anticipates later developments in ECM-style jazz, while Jackson’s blues vocabulary remains a grounding force. The group’s interplay is never showy, it’s conversational, architectural, and quietly virtuosic.

The box set includes both studio and live recordings, many previously scattered across out-of-print LPs. The remastering is sympathetic, enhancing tonal clarity without sacrificing analog warmth. Accompanying liner notes provide discographical detail, session dates, and historical context, making the set ideal for archival use. It’s not just a retrospective, it’s a document of artistic continuity, where each phrase, pause, and counterpoint reflects decades of shared musical language.

In their Pablo years, the MJQ weren’t chasing trends, they were refining a legacy. This set captures that quiet revolution: music of restraint, depth, and enduring beauty. It stands as a testament to jazz as chamber art, and to the power of collective listening over time. (B)

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Track lists

CD1

01 Modern Jazz Quartet - All The Things You Are 3:15

02 Modern Jazz Quartet - La Ronde 3:08

03 Modern Jazz Quartet - Vendome 3:13

04 Modern Jazz Quartet - Rose of The Rio Grande 2:14

05 Modern Jazz Quartet - The Queen's Fancy 3:12

06 Modern Jazz Quartet - Delaunay's Dilemma 3:57

07 Modern Jazz Quartet - Autumn in New York 3:39

08 Modern Jazz Quartet - But Not for Me 3:44

09 Modern Jazz Quartet - In A Sentimental Mood 3:18

10 Modern Jazz Quartet - The Stopper 2:57

11 Modern Jazz Quartet - Almost Like Being in Love 3:23

12 Modern Jazz Quartet - No Moe 3:29

13 Modern Jazz Quartet - Django 7:03

14 Modern Jazz Quartet - One Bass Hit 2:59

15 Modern Jazz Quartet - Milano 4:22

16 Modern Jazz Quartet - La Ronde Suite 9:37

17 Modern Jazz Quartet - Ralph's New Blues 7:09

18 Modern Jazz Quartet - All of You 4:29

CD2

01 Modern Jazz Quartet - I'll Remember April 5:08

02 Modern Jazz Quartet - Gershwin Medley 7:57

03 Modern Jazz Quartet - Concorde 3:40

04 Modern Jazz Quartet - Softly, as in A Morning Sunrise (1955) 8:01

05 Modern Jazz Quartet - Softly, as in A Morning Sunrise (1981) 6:06

06 Modern Jazz Quartet - The Cylinder 5:35

07 Modern Jazz Quartet - Really True Blues 5:33

08 Modern Jazz Quartet - The Golden Striker 5:53

09 Modern Jazz Quartet - Odds Against Tomorrow 8:30

10 Modern Jazz Quartet - The Jasmine Tree 3:38

11 Modern Jazz Quartet - Bag's Groove 5:36

12 Modern Jazz Quartet - Django (Budokan) 5:31

13 Modern Jazz Quartet - Django (Montreux) 5:50

CD3

01 Modern Jazz Quartet - The Jasmine Tree 4:51

02 Modern Jazz Quartet - Odds Against Tomorrow 8:54

03 Modern Jazz Quartet - The Cylinder 5:31

04 Modern Jazz Quartet - The Martyr 9:00

05 Modern Jazz Quartet - Really True Blues 5:42

06 Modern Jazz Quartet - Monterey Mist 4:27

07 Modern Jazz Quartet - Bags' New Groove 4:28

08 Modern Jazz Quartet - Woody'n You (live at Montreux, July 25, 1982) 4:11

09 Modern Jazz Quartet - Echoes 7:09

10 Modern Jazz Quartet - The Watergate Blues 6:08

11 Modern Jazz Quartet - The Hornpipe 8:19

12 Modern Jazz Quartet - Connie's Blues 7:31

CD4

01 Modern Jazz Quartet - Sacha's March 7:55

02 Modern Jazz Quartet - That Slavic Smile 8:04

03 Modern Jazz Quartet - Reunion Blues 4:11

04 Modern Jazz Quartet - D and E (take 5, alternate) 9:46

05 Modern Jazz Quartet - Rockin' in Rhythm (take 16) 7:31

06 Modern Jazz Quartet - Valeria 6:48

07 Modern Jazz Quartet - Le Cannet 8:19

08 Modern Jazz Quartet - Nature Boy 5:06

09 Modern Jazz Quartet - Milano 5:53

10 Modern Jazz Quartet - Topsy 4:43

11 Modern Jazz Quartet - D and E (re-take 1, master) 8:30

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Music weaves itself into the fabric of our emotions, dances through the corridors of memory, and whispers to the soul of who we are. Sharing these stories deepens the connection, turning the experience into something timeless and profound.

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