The Blues and the Abstract Truth

Music

The album is an exploration of the mood and structure of the blues, though only some of the tracks are structured in the conventional 12-bar blues form. In this regard, it may be seen as a continuation of the trend towards greater harmonic simplicity and subtlety via reimagined versions of the blues that was instigated by Miles Davis's Kind of Blue in 1959 (Evans and Chambers played on both albums).

Among the pieces on the album, "Stolen Moments" is the best known: a sixteen-bar piece in an eight-six-two pattern, even though the solos are in a conventional 12-bar minor-key blues structure in C minor. "Hoe-Down" is built on a forty-four-bar structure (with thirty-two-bar solos based on rhythm changes). "Cascades" modifies the traditional 32-bar AABA form by using a 16-bar minor blues for the A section, stretching the form to a total of 56 bars. The B-side of the album contains three tracks that hew closer to the 12-bar form: "Yearnin'", "Butch and Butch" and "Teenie's Blues" (which opens with two 12-bar choruses of bass solo by Chambers).

Nelson's later album, More Blues and the Abstract Truth (1964), features an entirely different (and larger) group of musicians and bears little resemblance to this record.

Reception

Writing in the December 21, 1961 issue of Down Beat magazine jazz critic Don DeMicheal commented: "Nelson's playing is like his writing: thoughtful, unhackneyed, and well constructed. Hubbard steals the solo honors with some of his best playing on record. Dolphy gets off some good solos too, his most interesting one on "Yearnin'."

The Jazz Journal International cited the album as "one of the essential post-bop recordings."

Other versions/Influences

The composition "Stolen Moments" has been recorded and performed by numerous musicians including Phil Woods, J.J. Johnson, Frank Zappa, Ahmad Jamal, Booker Ervin, the United Future Organization and the Turtle Island Quartet.

"Teenie's Blues" was used as a 2009 show-opener by Steely Dan.

The first eight bars of Oliver Nelson's solo on the bridge of "Hoe-Down" was quoted by Ernie Watts and Lee Ritenour in the song "Bullet Train" from their 1979 album Friendship.

In 2008 pianist Bill Cunliffe released the tribute album The Blues and the Abstract Truth, Take 2, featuring new arrangements of the original pieces.

Track listing

1. "Stolen Moments" – 8:46
2. "Hoe-Down" – 4:43
3. "Cascades" – 5:32
4. "Yearnin'" – 6:24
5. "Butch and Butch" – 4:35
6. "Teenie's Blues" – 6:33

Musicians

Production