Red Garland Trio
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RVG l REMASTERS GROOVY RED GARLAND TRIO RED GARLAND piano PAUL CHAMBERS bass ARTHUR TAYLOR drums 1 C-JAM BLUES 8:21 4 WILLOW WEEP FOR ME 9:35 2 GONE AGAIN 6:46 5 WHAT CAN I SAY 3 WILL YOU STILL BE MINE? 4:43 (AFTER I SAY I’M SORRY?) 7:14 6 HEY NOW 3:41 I remember the sessions well, I remember how the musicians wanted to sound, and I remember their reactions to the playbacks. Today, I feel strongly that I am their messenger. —RUDY VAN GELDER Recorded by RUDY VAN GELDER at Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ; May 24 and August 9, 1957. Supervision by BOB WEINSTOCK Remastering, 2008—RUDY VAN GELDER (Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ) All transfers were made from the analog master tapes to digital at 24-bit resolution. Notes by IRA GITLER RED GARLAND TRIO GROOVY RED GARLAND piano C-JAM BLUES WILLOW WEEP FOR ME GONE AGAIN WHAT CAN I SAY PAUL CHAMBERS bass WILL YOU STILL BE MINE? (AFTER I SAY I’M SORRY?) ARTHUR TAYLOR drums HEY NOW Despite misuse by man, but me give the groovy means great but makes it a welcome one. Arthur, in exchanges with Divided his time between the unhip and abuse old standbys like solid its connotations lean That real groovy/bluesy Red, gets a chance to Coleman Hawkins and by the overhip, the and groovy.” toward soul-warming, feeling is most evident on work out on this one. his own trios in the early colorful, highly descriptive Of course, there must mellow, and relaxed. “Willow Weep for Me” “Hey Now,” a riffy blues Fifties. With Miles Davis jazz lexicon r emains be objects for these Red Garland has and “Gone Again.” Red by Red, closes the set. from late 1955 through an effectively succinct adjectives to be lavished proven his ability to does for the latter what Red Garland: born in most of 1957. Favorite means of expression in on and feelings for create warm, happy he did for “Please Send Dallas in 1923. Studied pianists are Art Tatum, certain circles, when used them to describe. One moods in AGarland of Me Someone to Love” in clarinet, then alto sax Nat Cole, and Bud with restraint. appropriate instance is Red (Prestige LP 7064) Red Garland’s Piano. under Professor Buster Powell. Can be heard in Some words like “gone” whenever Red Garland, and Red Garland’s Piano “Will You Still Be Smith. Became lightweight albums mentioned above have done just that in the company of Paul (Prestige LP 7086). In Mine?” is a remembering prizefighter. Had 35 bouts and also Cookin’ with whereas others of even Chambers and Arthur Groovy, he reiterates all back to when Red before entering the Army the Miles Davis Quintet older vintage such as Taylor, sits down at the the basic tenets of his recorded the tune in his where he fought in an (Prestige LP 7094). “solid” (without the Steinway in Rudy Van musical philosophy to first recording date exhibition with Sugar Ray Jackson) and “groovy” Gelder’s studio and the enlightenment and with Miles Davis in Robinson and also took — IRA GITLER have survived. I remember makes the music that enjoyment of all concerned. The Musings of Miles up the piano. On his These notes appeared on the original album liner. a conversation with a comprises trio albums for Red has once again (Prestige LP 7007). discharge in 1944 he hipster friend of mine on Prestige. Van Gelder feels chosen wisely and well in Another aspect of the joined Hot Lips Page. the relative merits of that the word which best the selection of his groovy feeling is well Later worked with Billy various jazz adjectives describes Red’s playing, material. This is the first demonstrated in “What Eckstine’s band and then and nouns. He said, and the atmosphere it appearance of Duke Can I Say (After I Say as house pianist at Down shaking his head, “Gas creates, is groovy. On a Ellington’s “C-Jam Blues” I’m Sorry?).” Paul, in a Beat Club in Philadelphia and stone are fine words, simple, primary level, in quite a while and Red lengthy, bowed solo, and through the late Forties. I WAS THE ENGINEER on the recording sessions and I also made the masters Horn,” “I’m Beginning to See the Light,” and “I Don’t Wanna Be Kissed.” for the original LP issues of these albums. Since the advent of the CD, other people have “Will You Still Be Mine?” is taken at a faster clip than the one Red recorded with Miles Davis on been making the masters. Mastering is the final step in the process of creating the sound of The Musings of Miles two years earlier. The velocity, if not the phraseology, is Tatumic in nature. the finished product. Now, thanks to the folks at the Concord Music Group who have given “Willow Weep for Me” is cast in the reflective, blues-inflected mood that was one of Red’s fortes. As me the opportunity to remaster these albums, I can present my versions of the music on CD using modern technology. I remember the sessions well, I remember how the musicians I mentioned in the original notes, “Please Send Me Someone to Love” is a great example of this. wanted to sound, and I remember their reactions to the playbacks. Today, I feel strongly “Gone Again,” also the kind of piece that falls into the category of “blues ballad,” stems from the that I am their messenge r. —RUDY VAN GELDER Lionel Hampton band of the ’40s, co-composed by Curly Hamner, Hamp, and Curtis Lewis. The vocalist on the original recording was Wini Brown. As a member of Miles Davis’s Quintet from 1955-1957 Red received his first wide GROOVY REVISITED recognition. Due, in part, to his dilatory behavior, he was in and out of Miles’s groups during the latter stages of that run. Rehired for the sextet in 1958 he left the studio during a February LOOKING BACK at my original notes and reflecting on the opening comments regarding recording date after an argument with Miles. Although he had recorded in the trio format jazz argot and the way this “slanguage” changes, I noted that solid (without the Jackson) and groovy during his Davis years, it wasn’t until 1959, three months after his departure, that he began were still in use. Fifty years later those old stand-bys have all but disappeared (fly is still around), but leading his own working trio on a regular basis. remembering them brings to mind the way they were used in rhyme, precursors of the rap and hip- It is true that Miles did suggest the songs from the Jamal repertoire to Garland but it was also hop dog-eat-doggerel of today. well-known that Red was a fount of all kinds of material from the Great American Songbook and The first time I remember hearing groovy was Anita O’Day’s entreaty to Roy Eldridge (“Well blues-oriented numbers. He knew a lot of tunes. Miles, talking in retrospect about his groups and commere Roy and get groovy.”) on Gene Krupa’s recording of “Let Me off Uptown.” A bit later the explaining that although he was the leader it was never all about him, said: “Red Garland used phrase, “groovy like a Technicolor movie” emerged and solid was sometimes expanded to solidtudie, to tell me what ballads he wanted to pla y, and not the other way around.” having nothing to do with solitude but merely making solid more emphatic. Red was a team man in an ensemble but he was also an individual who would dance to his There’s no doubt that Red Garland was eminently capable of creating all kinds of grooves. For own inner drummer. His manner of dress seemed to fit his personality—plaid and hound’s openers there is his treatment of what was already an old war-horse, “C-Jam Blues,” credited wholly tooth sport jackets and stingy brim straw hats were trademarks. They echoed the insouciant to Duke Ellington but you’ve got to believe Barney Bigard figures in the equation. Red establishes the part of his piano style . simple theme with some small embellishments. Then after stating, and repeating, his own compact Not merely because some fools called him a “cocktail pianist,” I feel that Red was blues riff he takes off on a single-line solo before getting into his sparer version of the “locked- underrated both as a player and an influence. A cadre of young pianists coming up in the Fifties hands” technique associated with Milt Buckner that George Shearing adopted and employed in his and Sixties were learning from him. Just ask Chick Corea. vibes and guitar quintet. After Paul Chambers, whose well-articulated bass is in keen focus from the —IRA GITLER February 2008 number’s opening notes, plucks a solo in the same aural vein, Red returns with an even crisper single line that he alternates with shouting, orchestral riffs before returning to the theme. During the course of his journey, from head to out-chorus head, he manages to slyly quote from “The Man With the ERIC DOLPHY—Out There (PRCD-8101-2) JOHN COLTRANE WITH THE RED GARLAND TRIO— 1C-JAM BLUES 8:21 RED GARLAND piano GENE AMMONS—Boss Tenor (PRCD-8102-2) Traneing In (PRCD-30156-2) (Duke Ellington) EMI Robbins Catalog-ASCAP PAUL CHAMBERS bass ARTHUR TAYLOR drums JOHN COLTRANE—Lush Life (PRCD-8103-2) MILES DAVIS QUINTET—Cookin’ (PRCD-30157-2) 2 GONE AGAIN 6:46 MILES DAVIS—Relaxin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet (PRCD-8104-2) PAT MARTINO—El Hombre (PRCD-30158-2) (Lewis-Hamner-Hampton) Swing & Tempo Music-BMI Recorded by RUDY VAN GELDER at Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, SONNY ROLLINS—Saxophone Colossus (PRCD-8105-2) SONNY ROLLINS—Plus Four (PRCD-30159-2) 3WILL YOU STILL BE MINE? 4:43 NJ; May 24 and August 9, 1957.