Oliver Nelson
Nocturne

Oliver Nelson's artistic caliber, although recognized—especially by industry professionals—more for his qualities as a composer/arranger than as a (multi)instrumentalist (an aspect unfortunately overlooked), did not receive the recognition it deserved. A native of Saint Louis, Nelson, in his relatively short career (he died in 1975 at the age of forty-three), nevertheless managed to channel many stylistically diverse energies into a production—his own and others—that was quite substantial and not limited solely to music discography: for example, he also worked for cinema, and the orchestrations of the soundtrack for Bernardo Bertolucci's "Last Tango in Paris" performed by Gato Barbieri were his. The blues feeling on the one hand, and the "high" studies on the other, were the true strengths that allowed him to characterize his original writing.

"Nocturne," a "confidential" album from the Prestige Moodsville series, recorded in August 1960 at Rudy Van Gelder's studios (who just turned ninety, so happy birthday), is a good synthesis of Nelson's value: a sort of ideal prelude that would open the way to "The Blues and the Abstract Truth," his most successful record (recorded a few months later), featuring figures like Bill Evans, Eric Dolphy, Freddie Hubbard, and marked especially by "Stolen Moments," one of the few standards that had the strength to stand on its own, outside the golden age of Broadway. But "Nocturne," despite less illustrious and influential companions than those mentioned earlier (apart from Roy Haynes on drums), still manages to excellently showcase Nelson's stylistic features, starting precisely with the eponymous track, arguably the manifesto of the Nelsonian visions of the album: an introductory bolero (which becomes the harmonic leitmotif at the end, punctuated by Richard Wyands' piano) where Nelson's splendid and whispered lyricism on saxophone finds its place (which for the more suggestible might recall certain passages precisely of Barbieri from Last Tango, despite the different contexts), highlighted by George Duvivier’s bow-played bass. A track that launches the second, "Bob's Blues," which, as suggested by the title, has a more "traditional" cut and features Lem Winchester on vibraphone, whom historical records reveal as one of the most curious figures in all jazz history, being a former policeman who, after leaving his badge to dedicate himself exclusively to jazz, died just a few months after this album with a gunshot, allegedly after a Russian roulette round (!). The album continues without major upheavals, showcasing with calmness and incisiveness (taste for ballad, hints of hard bop, captivating writing in the original themes) the qualities of Oliver Nelson, a giant who very much knew his stuff and who should be (re)coddled better, in various aspects, in jazz history.