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8481 MELROSE PLACE 46. for a jazz-oriented audience, why does he regularly take such pains to describe the personal appearance of the artist under review? Is it really necessary to write an insulting description of for people who, if they haven't actually seen him in person, must have seen at least a thousand photographs of him? Whoever Whitney Balliett thinks he is- writing for, the fact is that his work is read by a general (as opposed to jazz- minded) audience, which naturally must include a few jazz enthusiasts as well as other interested parties. For one thing, the jazz reviews only appear every weeks or so, and sometimes at even longer intervals that that. Very few jazz enthusiasts are going to take out a subscription to a magazine solely to catch a critic who isn't in it 75% of the time—especially if they aren't particularly interested in the rest of the magazine. Apart from a few people who happen to be jazz enthu• siasts and regular New Yorker readers, it is the general reader who is on the receiving end of Mr. Balliett's articles, and it is for the benefit of this same reader that well-known musicians have LETTERS their names prefaced by descriptions like 'the saxophonist', and that ex• planations of expressions like 'lay out' are given. PERSONNEL PROBLEM (tp); Herbie Fields (as); In regard to Mr. 's review of (ts); (pi); Mr. Balliett may feel that he is en• the Miles Davis discography by Jorgen Al Casey (g): Slam Stewart (b); Fred riching the English language with Grunnet Jepsen. Radcliffe (d). words like 'thunk' (isn't 'thunk' the First, never recorded 5818 Just Relaxin' Sav 592 past tense of 'think'?), and maybe he with the Eckstine band; the personnel 5819 Run Down (remake?) Sav 591 is, but he still hasn't explained what a listed was given by him• 5820 Camp Meeting (remake?) Sav 591 'tufted' tone is, and if he should ever self and published in The Discophile 5821 Four O'Clock Sav 592 decide to do so, he might also explain some time back! , May 6, 1945. what 'tweedy' chords are, or what Josh Jackson is Josh Jackson and he 'snaky' emotion is. He should not as• plays tenor sax on the recording listed; (Note: masters 5805-5808 are by Rub• sume that because he has great skill Josh also recorded with ber Legs Williams; no .) with words, his creations carry some on Decca. John Jackson, alto sax, was Miles once stated in Down Beat that kind of built-in expiicitness. It's pos• on some earlier Eckstine recording be• his first record date was with Fields, sible to know what a crab is, and what fore Miles joined . but that he was too nervous to play, grapesfiot is (a grapeshot?), and still As in the Ellington discography there and only played in the ensembles, no fail to see the connection, or be en• are a few minor typographical errors, solos. lightened by their use as an attempt which are partly my fault, for I sent Ernie Edwards, Jr. at musical description. " information to Mr. Jepsen, when we Los Angeles, Calif. frequently turns the beat inside out, as first started compiling these disco- if looking for change in it" is a very graphies. clever idea, I suppose, but what does Below is the correct information on HIPPY it convey, apart from the fact that its the Herbie Fields Savoys. author has been working hard? Please remove my name from your "My style is ... an attempt to describe (tp); Al Hayes (tb); mailing list. I've discovered a magazine Herbie Fields (as, ts); music, an essential that has fallen which is much hipper than your—one largely into disuse," says Mr. Balliett. (bs); (p); Billy Mackel which uses the term "mother" at least (g); Charlie Harris (b); Freddy Rad- But you can't describe music this way, five hundred times per monthly issue: if at all. You can only try to get across cliffe (d). The Ladies Home Journal. 5774 Jumpin' For Savoy Sav 560 to the reader what certain things sound 5775 How Herbie Feels Bob Freedman like to you. Observations such as "the 5776 Mel's Riff Sav 540 Medford, Mass. bass drum (in ) . . . gives off a 5777 Buck's Boogie Woogie pinched, final sound, like a distant New York, January 16, 1945. door slamming," and, "Sidney Catlett's cymbals . . . sound like curtains rustling Fields (as, ts); John Mehegan (p); Al in the breeze" may be very good as BROADSIDE? Casey (g); Slam Stewart (b); Lionel 'poetry', but from a musical point of Hampton, Fred Radcliffe (d). It was kind of Whitney Balliett to reveal view, the end result of this sort of 5809 OK Sarge Sav 654 that he is trying to make his readers writing can hardly amount to more 5810 It's The Talk Of the Town uniss. hear what jazz is. Which readers would than a catalog of insignificant irrele- 5811 Star Dust Sav 654 those be? , Pee Wee vancies. 5812 Camp Meeting (???) Sav 591 Russell, and the others he mentions, 5813 Run Down (???) Sav 591 or the non-jazz audience alleged by Peter Turley New York, May 4, 1945. Max Harrison? If Mr. Balliett is writing

3 Press' next list? JAZZ IN PRINT The Newport Youth Band ostensibly is primarily an educational undertaking, but education for what? I cite this Billboard review of their Coral single of Jazz Me Blues: "The young jazz ork turns to a rock on this catchy theme..." Is Marshall going to try a rock arrangement of 'Round Midnight soon?... Cashbox reviews Paul Clayton's Monument single of This Land Is Your Land as a "fine inspirational- patriotic oldie." The trade didn't always say that when the Weavers used to sing it. Songs of Work and Freedom Not generally advertised (Roosevelt University, are Victor's Gold Standard , Labor Education series of $1.29 EPS: Division.) Most of the Ellington's I Got It Bad vintage anthems are here and three other tunes ; with music and lyrics in a 's Your Feet's loose-leaf binding that is Too Big and three others ; geared for racks. and Great Theme Songs. Talking Union. The Boll including 's Weevil, Dark as a Dungeon Nightmare... Jet reports: - all the songs of my "A new law forbids the militant, ineffectual beating of tom-toms and youth... The State the holding of tribal University Press, which is dances on public days in building a record as the the West African French- by publisher of the worst books on jazz (Stephen associated Dahomey Republic. From now on Longstreet' s The Real Jazz t Old and Hew appeared under citizens who wish to beat its imprint) is now tom-toms must apply for responsible for H. 0. a special permit." Brunn's The Story of the Washington Square, yes, Fred Ramsey's Been Here Original Band. but Congo Square? and Gone, a record of his A couple of years ago, Said to Southern trips, will be another publisher (also a Ralph Gleason in the published by Rutgers university press) asked me San Francisco Chronicle: University Press in June. to read the manuscript, "... was a Pictures and text. Sam and I strongly advised great influence on me. Charters, who has seen the against their publishing I had two of her records proofs regards it as the it. I feel the same way when I was a kid and best boot k of its kind yet. now. The book reads as if almost wore them out. I ...Paul Oliver's book on and King used to listen to them "the meaning and content Oliver had never existed over and over. She was of the blues," Blues Fell and that the derivative wonderful. I didn't know This Morning, has been ODJB was a focal unit in her then ; later when I published in England by the evolution of jazz. got to know her, she Cassell. A review will How about Earl Long on helped me. She was a great follow...Edith Fowke and Martin Luther King for the singer." Joe Glazer have compiled Louisiana University (continued on page 38)

4 VOLUME 3 / NUMBER 4 / MAY 1960 Co-editors: Nat Hentoff Martin Williams Contributing Editor: Gunther Schuller ; a Very Personal Memoir Publisher: Hsio Wen Shih Edmond Souchon, M.D. Art Director: Bob Cato s published monthly 12 Paying Dues; the Education of a Combo Leader The Jazz Review by The Jazz Review Inc., 124 White St., Julian N. Y. 13. N. Y. Entire contents copy• 16 The Blues right 1960 by The Jazz Review Inc. 17 Farewell to Jazz Young and Leonard Feldman were among the founders of the Jazz Review. Ray Ellsworth Price per copy 50c. One year's subscription Introducing $5.00. Two year's subscription $9.00. 19 Unsolicited manuscripts and illustrations Hsio Wen Shih should be accompanied by a stamped, self- addressed envelope. Reasonable care will be taken with all manuscripts and illustrations, but the Jazz Review can take no responsi• RECORD REVIEWS bility for unsolicited material. NEW CONTRIBUTORS 22 by Mait Edey Ray Ellsworth, a former reviewer of LaVern Baker by J. S. Shipman concert music for Down Beat, did not make the jazz scene in time to hear 23 by Max Harrison Hoke Smith playing stride piano at by Don Heckman Lil's Place in Great Post, before 24 by Ronald Atkins was born. Billie Holiday by Jack H. Batten is an attorney practic• ing in Toronto, Canada and a longtime 25 John Lee Hooker by Dick Weissman and Paul Oliver follower of jazz. by Don Heckman 27 by Don Heckman 28 by The by I. W. Stone by J. S. Shipman 29 by Don Heckman 30 by Mimi Clar by Chuck Israels by Chuck Israels 31 and by Stanley Dance 32 Chris Connors, Dakota Staton and Annie Ross by Mimi Clar 33 Shorter Reviews by Martin Williams

BOOK REVIEWS

LU 34 The Baby Dodds Story by Bill Crow Just Jazz 3 by H. A. Woodfin 35 The Jazz Word by Joe Goldberg

I MOVIE REVIEW

37 The Story by Jack H. Batten

40 The Word Jazz, Part II by Fradley H. Garner and Alan P. Merriam Minor Hall/Honore Dutrey/ King Oliver/ Lil Hardin/ David Jones/ / Jimmy Palao/ . California/ 1921. am® ©awns

Dr. Souchon was born and raised in in, as he puts it below, "the citadel of white caste privileges". In 1901, at four, he was captivated by the music, soon to be called jazz, that he heard in the city streets. His reminiscences of one man who played that music are probably unique in jazz writing for they not only tell us about Joe Oliver, they give us insight into how it felt then, and how it feels now after over fifty years for a man so born, so raised and still living in the city of Edmond Souchon, M.D. his birth, to have been so captivated.

6 Courtesy Duncan Schiedt

Charles Jackson/ Clifford 'Snags' Baby Dodds/ Honore Dutrey/ Jones/ Buster Bailey/ King Oliver/ King Oliver/ Louis Armstrong/ Zue Robertson/ Louis Armstrong/ Bill Johnson/ Johnny Dodds/ Lil Armstrong. Lil Armstrong/ Rudy Jackson. Chicago/ 1922-3. Chicago/1924.

Bert Cobb/ King Oliver/ Bob Shoffner/George Filhe/ / Paul Barbarin/ Darnell Howard/ / / . Chicago/ 1925.

Courtesy Dr. Edmond Souchon

7 vileged world. Surrounded by my corduroy breeches, knee-high leather leggings, stiff starched Lord Fauntleroy col• lar with soft flowing tie, I suddenly found myself relegated to the care of Armotine. All that was miss• ing from my picture was a foreign governess who spoke several languages. In her stead was Armotine, Tine to me. Thank God she was colored, or this story could never have been. Tine was many-facetted. She was my boss, my in• structor, and my protector. She was also the most interesting person to cross my life up to that point. Undoubtedly, she was one of the finest cooks in the city of New Orleans. When starting to prepare the evening meal, she would keep her eye on my play in the side yard beneath her kitchen window. The ritual of a spicy fine herb sauce or the preparation of a roux for grillarde was accompanied by hours of never ending song. Her deep contralto was clear and soft, with a rhythm that often made me stop playing to listen and pat my foot. Her songs were and admixture of Creole folk songs, church hymns, and up-to-date hits of the late '90s or early 1900's. One refrain she repeated so often that I remember Three ages of Dr. Souchon. the words perfectly. It went: "Ain't that man got a funny walk, Doin' the 'Ping-Pong' 'round Southern park. This is a memoir about a great musician, Joe Oliver. Nigger man, white man, take him away, It begins in the molten period of a magnificent I thought I heard them say." American art before Oliver's star had begun its There were innumerable verses to this song. Tine ascent. It is written by a surgeon who, by the for• would shush me if I started to sing any of the less tunes of birth, came to life within the citadel of refined ones along with her. And there was another Southern white caste privileges and who has song which she seemed to like almost as well as reached middle-age following the main course of the wonderfully proud, prejudiced and all-too-human the first. I always sang it for people if I was certain oligarchs (the books have called them so) who were they would not go tell my mother; I knew I could his forebearers. But it also springs from a turbu• always get a laugh, although I hadn't the slightest lence of honest feelings from the heart and mind idea of its meaning. of one who, regardless of birth, luck, privileges, I have learned many verses to this song since then, place or time, was fortunate enough to hear the but I still like the one Tine taught me the best: great Joe Oliver blasting the heavens and shaking "I'm Alabamy bound, I'm Alabamy bound, the hackberry leaves in funeral parades through the I'm Alabamy bound, fringes of his neighborhood. And if you want my cabbage patch, A rather pampered and sheltered child I was, You gotta hoe the ground." arrayed in the ridiculous trappings of that Little Every afternoon, Tine would take me for a walk, Lord Fauntleroy era of "Southern aristocracy" which either up or down St. Charles Avenue, seldom on the now seems unbelievable. So I was dressed—in about side streets. Occasionally, when she fancied she 1901-2 at the age of four or five—when my Negro needed something very special for preparing dinner, nurse first took me walking into the dense Negro Mom would grant me permission to accompany Tine neighborhood to hear Joe Oliver play. The impact to Terrell's Grocery on First and Dryades. By coinci• of this experience—the power and beauty of that dence (or was it?) a thrilling thing happened every music—has never left me. I followed the career of time we went to Terrell's Grocery; Tine's intuition, this New Orleans artist with a fidelity at least as or the grapevine, passed the word along. Invariably, great as that which I gave to medical faculties or the most exciting parade went by. And always Tine to the gentle pomp and circumstances of my pri• and I marched along with a long black wagon, ac-

8 companied by men in tinselled uniforms, plumed mence—"Let them poor newsboys make a livin', hats and sabers. A hundred kids my age skipped you " that he let us go. We told him we along. There were plenty grown-ups too, following were only going as far as Joe Oliver's saloon to on the sidewalks and in the streets. I never got bring him his paper. It seemed to satisfy him. tired, even when I missed my afternoon nap. We could now hear that music from half a block Someone mentioned that the heavy man playing away; it probably would have taken more than one that short, stubby, instrument at the head of the policeman to stop us. The place was twice as long band was working for a family a few houses down as it was wide. It was a one story wooden frame the street from ours. He was their butler-yardman, building at sidewalk level, lengthwise parallel to and only played music on his time off. I did not the street. There was a bar at the Iberville end, understand all this at all. Everybody seemed to love and a sort of dance hall to the rear, nearer Canal this man. Somehow I thought that possibly I did Street. Quick glances through the swinging doors too. That man was Joe Oliver. showed us that the inside was fairly well lighted. By 1907, I had grown to the point where I was tak• But outside the building there were many deep ing street cars all by myself and making my way shadows, and the sputtering carbon arc-light on the around the city, and a few months before Tine's corner was out more than on. Gutters three feet death, I heard one of her friends tell her that "Joe wide and almost as deep ran alongside the side• Oliver was playing at a cabaret down in the district." walk. A tall telegraph pole stood just in front of My heart beat fast. I had not heard him in a long the dance hall, across the gutter. In its shadow time, and I missed his music. I knew that the we sought refuge until someone discovered us and "district" was spoken of vaguely and in whispers. told us to move on. After listening to the music for It was a place where no "nice people" went. Maybe almost an hour and a half, with reluctance we I heard mention of it because my mother's sister turned homeward. That trip was just the beginning. had married an alderman who had passed the law We came there many Friday nights. They got to restricting a certain element (the prostitutes) to know us and hardly noticed that we were there. this area. We sat on the gutter's edge, our feet dangling, and drank in that sound. I learned that kids were never allowed in that sec• tion of the city, but that newsboys were an excep• Sometimes Oliver would come outside for a tion, tolerated "along the fringe" but not in the breather. We wondered how we might approach main streets. Afraid to venture on my escapade him to get him to say a few words to us. Finally, , I prevailed on one of my more venturesome I ventured, "Mr. Oliver, here is the paper you pals to accompany me. We dug up the oldest clothes ordered." I'll never forget how big and tough he we could find, tore them in many places, and looked! His brown derby was tilted low over one rubbed them in the dirt; a half dozen copies of The eye, his shirt collar was open at the neck, and a Daily States or the New Orleans Item under our bright red undershirt peeked out at the V. Wide arms, and the disguise was complete. suspenders held up an expanse of trousers of un• The "Big 25" where Oliver was playing was just believable width. He looked at us and said, "You one block from Basin Street, and about three quar• know damn well, white boy, I never ordered no ters of a block from Canal. The time was just after paper." We thought the end of the world had come. dusk. Our objective was reached without so much Suddenly, we realized that he had not spoken loud as a side glance of suspicion from the grown-ups enough for anyone to hear but us! Then he went along the way. The streets were practically deserted. on, much more friendly, "I been knowin' you kids But our hearts were in our throats! When we arrived, were hanging around here to listen to my music. not one sound was issuing forth. We were crest• Do you think I'm going to chase you away for that? fallen: the music started at 9 P.M. This is a rough neighborhood, kids, and I don't A couple of Friday nights later we were at it again, want you to get into trouble. Keep out of sight and this time after dark. Except for faint red lights go home at a decent time." We were in! We had that shone through half-drawn shutters and the really made it! sputtering carbon lights , there was But gradually, the city law agencies and police not much illumination. We could see strange figures began to adopt a tougher policy in the district. We peering out through half-open doorways. A new cop thought it best that we quit. But, we tapered off; on the beat immediately tried to chase us, but the we couldn't stop all of a sudden. peeping female figures behind the blinds came to Ten fast years went by. Then came Tulane Uni• our rescue. They hurled invective of such vehe• versity from 1913 to 1917. None of us had forgotten

9 Oliver, and the memory of his music. We were was greeting us. invited to the regular Saturday night "script" dances A rather pretentious floor show was in progress as at the Tulane Gymnasium. For one dollar, you got we made our way to our table. A brilliant spotlight yourself and your best girl in from eight to twelve. followed the performers on the dance floor, but On the bandstand, surrounded by his entire band, gloom made the faces of the musicians undistin- was Joe Oliver! My bunch, jazz lovers all, scarcely guishable. The bandstand supported about ten missed a Saturday night for the next four years. chairs, and the musicians were decked out in tux• There were seven of us who hardly danced at all, edos or dress suits (I am not sure which) with much but surrounded the bandstand the whole evening. tinsel and fancy braid. A heavy man was their In retrospect, its hard to believe that we were so leader, and he was following the cues of the dancers lucky. Gradually, we learned the player's names, and singers. The floorshow star that night was and they learned ours. We got special kicks out Frankie "Halfpint" Jackson. of listening to the little drummer who quietly sang Suddenly we realized we were looking at someone risque parodies on the tunes the band was playing. on the bandstand who greatly resembled Joe Oliver. A bunch of white boys in the deep South, second We could hardly wait for the floor show to stop, lining with utter rapture to a Negro band! In those so the lights would go up for dancing. narrow times, such a thing was unheard of! It was Oliver alright. But his was a much more We were so imbued with the music, that as soon impressive figure now. The transition from the red as the dance was over, and we had absorbed all undershirt and suspenders of Storyville's "Big 25" we could, we'd go over to somebody's house and to the clean white shirt at the Tulane gymnasium attempt to imitate on string instruments what to the formidable figure he now presented, was Oliver's band had been doing on brass and wood• almost too much to believe! He was now "King", wind. The fact that fifty years later, four of that the most important personage in the jazz world, sur• same group still play together many of the old rounded by his own hand-picked galaxy of sidemen. tunes which Oliver featured is evidence, I think, His cordial welcome to two old New Orleans friends of how deeply the experience imbedded itself. It almost made us ashamed of the lumps in our is also proof—to ourselves and to others—that we throats—the same lump I had had when, in news• were actually there; it was no figment of our imag• boys' clothes, we offered him a newspaper. His inations. affability that night equaled his kindness to us youngsters who had braved the terrors of Storyville Then World War I. The district was closed by order to hear him play. of the Secretary of the Navy, and all the good musicians moved away. For us, France, back to The turmoil and excitement which was going on America, and, for me, medical school. On grad• around us in that speakeasy was nothing compared uation, I was in Chicago to finish a two-year intern• to what was going on within our hearts. The realiza• ship. It was late 1924, I believe, that my passing tion of the very privilege which had been ours all final exams called for special celebration. A over these 30 years suddenly burston us. Joe party began to shape up. Someone heard us brag• Oliver is long dead. His body lies in an almost ging about the great bands to which we had danced unmarked grave. I have all the records he ever in New Orleans and informed us that in a black- made. These are brittle and fragile. The Big 25 has and-tan joint on the south side the greatest jazz been torn down. I've taken pictures of that, but band of all times was currently playing. There was these too are perishable. What remains for me is no further discussion. the sound of Joe Oliver. Perhaps auditory memory Prohibition was at its maudlin height. The place is better than visual. It is easy for me to recall many, was far from inviting from the outside, dingy and many tunes which the Oliver band played in the needing several coats of paint. Ancient paper de• very early days at Big 25. Maybe when our first corations and faded flowers hung dejectedly from venturesome escapades into Storyville were going unpainted walls and peeling columns. A long, wind• on, we were too excited—perhaps not interested— ing ill lit hallway seemed to take us in back of we do not recall one name at Big 25 other than some large hotel or building. The place smelled Joe Oliver. But the tunes, yes! of last week's beer. But the closer we got to the At Tulane, it was different. Every man in the band dance hall, the more excited we became. No one was known to every one of us. Names such as had mentioned the name of the band playing there, Johnny Dodds, , Johnny St. Cyr, Kid but it was only necessary for a few musical strains Ory, Baby Dodds, Pops Foster, Tilman Braud, Ar- to meet us for us to realize that something familiar mand J. Piron, Clarence Williams, Steve Lewis.

10 There were many others, too, in Joe's Tulane groups, band. Each member was a star, imbued with mak• for personnels varied from week to week. But the ing the over-all sound of the band good. Each, too, sound of the band remained just as thrilling with was a fine soloist in his own right. But Joe Oliver each group. And Joe Oliver was always there, or saw to it that nobody outshone him. The sidemen's the band wouldn't have been hired. And the tunes solos were few and shorter than those Oliver appro• they played were always the same. priated to himself. It was without doubt the very I believe without fear of memory-tricks that by the best music in Chicago at that time and, they still time Oliver was playing at Tulane gymnasium, he had that beat. had acquired a technique that was much more The records which I have, made during the Chicago smooth, and that his band was adapting itself to stage and afterwards, seem to be collectors items, the white dances more and more. At Big 25 it was a yardstick by which the neophyte judges other a hard-hitting, rough and ready, full of fire and drive. He subdued this to please the different bands, and which many attempt to copy. I disagree patrons at the gym dances. It is easy to recall this sadly that these are representative of Oliver at his when I recall a transition which one of jazz's most greatest. By the time Oliver had reached Chicago popular tunes underwent. Sometimes, when Joe and the peak of his popularity, his sound was not would be playing for a private party at a home or the same. It was a different band, a different and a ball, a midnight supper would be served to the more polished Oliver, an Oliver who had completely guests. In order to get the couples into line and lost his New Orleans sound. stop the dancing, Oliver was requested to play a Regressing in our discussion, and trying after fifty march to which no one could dance. He would use years to conjure up as fairly as a sexagenarian can High Society. It was played at a very slow, march• do, I had these thoughts: ing tempo, the same tempo his band used in march• In Chicago Joe Oliver was at his most popular and ing funerals and processions. It was a shuffle, easy polished, but he was already on the way out. Instead to walk to. And the first part seemed interminable, of realizing the treasure that was his in playing before he broke into the chorus which has im• New Orleans music, he was trying to sound like a mortalized Alphonse Picou. You couldn't even do a big white band! "slow drag" to it, as it was played then. Gradually, Even at Tulane Oliver's style was beginning to the tempo of this tune was quickened, and it was change. It was still very great music, but something converted into a dance tune, almost the same as in the inner feeling of the band was shaking itself we know today; the 'transition' probably took three loose from the roots from which it had sprung. or four years! Perhaps playing together too often is the reason, for who can dispute that head arrangements, re• Historians have often said that the early New Or• peated night after night with the same musicians, leans bands entirely played almost an ensemble can become just as deadly as the written score can? style, with few if any solos. I am afraid that I must Perhaps it was a desire to "improve" (let's not disagree. However, the manner in which solos began use the word "progress"). finding their way into such bands as Joe Oliver's There are no bands playing today whose sound was without plan from the leaders or of the sidemen. faintly resembles that of Oliver's band at "Big 25". Early New Orleans groups were trained to play en• Jazz histories have many times told me whom I semble almost entirely, with occasional 'breaks' for had been listening to in that bistro and possibly a particular instrument. But during parades and at I now call up the sound of these men by sugges• dances the cornet or trumpet might get tired and tion; I doubt my own memory. We kids were not without warning simply drop out. Or maybe he had interested in who was playing in the band, as long blown a few bad ones, so he simply stopped playing as it was Joe Oliver's band. Even if I readily admit and blew saliva out of his horn. Immediately, as he I knew the name only of Joe Oliver, I still have my stopped, either the or the took complete and honest belief that this first Oliver I the lead—sometimes both instruments did this, heard was the most thrilling. It was rough, rugged, playing unison lead. When the trumpet man decided and contained many bad chords. There were many his lip was rested, he resumed playing at any time fluffed notes, too. But the drive, the rhythm, the and at any place in the piece. It was not those wonderfully joyous New Orleans sound was there Chicago musicians, or the New Yorkers who first in all its beauty. This is what the recordings made started passing it around; New Orleans did it, long in Chicago missed. Those records even miss con• ago. veying the way that Oliver was playing in Chicago ThelChicagoOlivergroup was a magnificently drilled when I heard him. 11 PAYING DUES the education of a combo leader

Julian 'Cannonball' Adderley

I had been in after my first trip to New York to finish my teaching assignments. I formed my first band toward the end of 1955. Having worked in New York, I was—naively—sure that the best Florida musicians could meet the challenge of the major club circuit. I also had , an old Army buddy with the group. We had a few warmups in Florida, and then my manager, , booked us in . We had rehearsed two and a half weeks. We spent a couple of days in New York before hitting Philadelphia, and during that time my Florida men heard the New York musicians. Then, in Philadelphia, they also had to cope with the fact that Philadelphians like John Coltrane and , home for the weekend, were standing around listening. It was soon clear that being competent in Florida had nothing to do with New York competition. (In my own case, for example, guys who seemed to me to swing when I was in Florida no longer do.) By the second day in Philadelphia, John Levy decided to fire everyone. (This was January, 1956). Jack Fields, an ex-musician and then owner of the , was also somewhat upset. I had gotten great response in that room on the way to Florida with , Jimmy Mobley and pianist Hen Gates, but on the way back, I found out that you can't fool anybody in Philadelphia. Jack lent me some money, and I hired as drum• mer, but I had to keep the bass player for a while or give him two weeks' pay. He couldn't keep an even tempo on fast numbers so we had to stop playing fast things for a while. We went on to and for two weeks each, and when we got to New York, I eventually hired . We kept going for the rest of the year with a book based in large part on what my brother, Nat, and I wrote and some of the usual jazz standards. We began to record, but there were

12 problems at Mercury. The man then in charge of me when I wasn't especially a draw. Some of the jazz there pretty largely decided what we recorded, other musicians forget too quickly. A leader, by the arrangers would be, and who would publish way, doesn't have to depend on an owner's figures any originals we brought in. I tell you frankly that to tell how much business is going on. He can tell I didn't know at that time that I could protest and by the activity of the waiters and by seeing whether I didn't at first go to John Levy with the problem. the people are drinking. A place can be packed, I had signed a five-year contract with the company but if the waiters aren't busy, nothing's happening. and the options were entirely at their discretion. It's very simple. (I later found out the union wouldn't allow more than three-year contracts). At first, being unknown, For example, there was a time when Miles drew a 1 didn't even get any advances for my dates. Then lot of one-beer drinkers. would there was a publicity splash of sorts, and they come in, not draw as much, but an owner would started that business about "the new Bird" which make as much as money —then, not now — with has plagued me ever since. Chico as with Miles because Chico drew more We were able to keep working fairly steadily through drinkers, and he cost $1,000 less. 1956. There was one stretch with two weeks off and Anyway, we finally broke up that first band. After various periods with a week layoff. We had come twenty months, we still couldn't get more than to New York with a little money and Nat and I both $1,000 a week. At that time, was also had cars, so that transportation was no problem. scuffling; so were (the group The sidemen were paid only when we worked; there Blakey had with ) and Les Jazz Modes. was no one on retainer, so to speak. Nobody was really making it except for Miles, Chico I learned that year how important is to keep the and Brubeck. I had gotten an offer from Dizzy to books accurately and to keep accounts separate. go with his small band. I was opposite Miles at the We were getting about $1,000 a week for five men. Bohemia, told him I was going to join Dizzy, and Out of that came $150 commission for my manager Miles asked me why I didn't join him. I told him and booking office, $75 in union taxes a third of he'd never asked me. which we eventually got back, about $125 in Fed• Miles had helped me when I first came to New eral withholding taxes and maybe another $15 in York. He told me whom to avoid among the record social security taxes. Now we should have deposited companies, but unfortunately I didn't take his ad• the money due the government in a separate ac• vice. Al Lion of Blue Note was one man he recom• count every week. But after a while, we began mended and Miles also told me about John Levy. spending that money because we also had gasoline Miles began telling me something musically about bills, hotel bills (for ourselves, etc.). We were pay• chords, but I sort of ignored him. I was a little ar• ing the sidemen $125 out of which they had to pay rogant in those days. Then, about three months their hotel bills. later, 1 saw an interview in which Miles had said I could swing but I didn't know much about chords. By September of the next year, 1957, although we But by that time I'd begun to listen to had been working steadily, we were about $9,000 and others, and I had realized I knew very little in debt. We had had no royalties from our record• about chords. You can play all the right changes and ings and had only made scale for making them. still not necessarily say anything. Finally, I learned Besides, a lot of recording costs were charged a- how to use substitute chords to get the sound I gainst us which shouldn't have been. The band had wanted. not been particularly successful in that we had done Well, Miles kept talking to me for two or three about the same amount of business all the time. months to come with him, and when I finally de• Very few clubs lost money on us, but they didn't cided to cut loose in October, 1957, I joined Miles. make a hell of a lot either. That's another thing I figured I could learn more than with Dizzy. Not I've learned. A combo's price should be geared so that Dizzy isn't a good teacher, but he played more that everybody can make money. If a leader can't commercially than Miles. Thank goodness I made make it except for a bigger figure than is wise for the move I did. the club, he just shouldn't play that club. Some I was with Miles from October, 1957 to September, guys, once they become successful, double their 1959. Musically, I learned a lot while with him. price, but although we draw better now than we've About spacing, for one thing, when playing solos. ever done, I prefer to gear my price—in specific Also, he's a master of understatement. And he cases— to the room. I mean to men like Charlie taught me more about the chords, as Coltrane did Graziano at the Cork 'n' Bib who took chances on too. Coltrane knows more about chords than any-

14 one. John knows exactly what he's doing; he's gone just doesn't believe in bowing, etc. I feel it's O.K., into the melodic aspects of chords. He may go so I smile or something. He would tell us to leave "out of the chord", so-called, but not out of the the stand if we had nothing to do up there. pattern he's got in his mind. From a leader's view• As for polls and critics, from what I gathered while point, I learned, by watching Miles, how to bring with Miles and as a leader, the polls as such have new material into a band without changing the style little effect on a musician, but they do have an of the band. And when it*was necessary at times effect on potential customers who don't know much to change the style somewhat, Miles did it subtly about jazz. That's why the Playboy poll is probably so that no one knew it. the most important of them all, which is why I get disgusted with some of the results. In a way, I suppose, I was a kind of stabilizing Economically, the reviews of critics in The New influence on the band. Two of the men he had— Yorker, Saturday Review or Hi-Fi/Stereo Review fine musicians—weren't always exactly on time or mean more than those in Down Beat or The Jazz dependable. As in most groups, not all the sidemen Review. The musicians, however, respect the trade made the same amount of money. When he heard paper writers, by and large, more than the others. I was going to leave, Miles did offer to guarantee A review in Playboy means nothing in contrast to me an annual salary of $20,000, which was more a vote for me in the Critics' Poll but it may mean than I was making. more money eventually. Especially when he started to use Bill Evans, Miles changed his style from very hard to a softer ap• Getting back to the problems of being a leader, I proach. Bill was brilliant in other areas, but he had planned when I joined him to stay with Miles couldn't make the real hard things come off. Then about a year. But I stayed longer. Miles was getting Miles started writing new things and doing some more successful and there was the business reces• of Ahmad's tunes. When Philly Joe left the band, sion. I was functioning meanwhile as a kind of road Miles at first thought wasn't as excit• manager—paying off the guys, collecting money. ing on fast tempos, and so we did less of those. Meanwhile I'd been getting inquiries from club own• And although he loves Bill's work, Miles felt Bill ers about when I'd start my own band again because didn't swing enough on things that weren't subdued. they kept noticing the response when my name was When Bill left, Miles hired Red again and got used announced. I told John Levy I'd try it again if he to swinging so much that he later found Wynton could get the group a minimum of $1500 a week. Kelly, who does both the subdued things and the Nat helped me in the recruiting. I gave him the list swingers very well. Wynton is also the world's great• of the guys I'd contacted. John got about two est accompanist for a soloist. Bill is a fine pianist, months for us at $1500 a week. We broke in at Peps and his imagination is a little more vivid so that in Philadelphia, then went on to the Jazz Workshop he tries more daring things. But Wynton plays with in San Francisco. To start with, we had about twelve the soloist all the time, with the chords you choose. to fourteen things in the book. It just happened to He even anticipates your direction. Most accom• work out that we had several gospel-type numbers. panists try to lead you. Red is another excellent Nat and I had some originals in the book, and we accompanist. He fits well with the drummer always got more material from of Atlanta, and doesn't leave you anything to do but go where now in New York, and . The album you want to. we made for Riverside at the Jazz Workshop is the As for rehearsals, we had maybe five in the two biggest seller I've ever had, and one big factor is years I was there, two of them when I first joined ' This Here in it. Bobby wrote the the band. And the rehearsals were quite direct, tune in San Francisco although he'd been working like, "Coltrane, show Cannonball how you do this. on it before. The tune sort of gave us a sendoff, All right, now let's do it." Occasionally, Miles would and everything else seemed to fall in. The album tell us something on the stand. "Cannonball, you went into five figures within five weeks. It has al• don't have to play all those notes. Just stay close ready sold more than all my Mercury albums com• to the sound of the melody. Those substitute chords bined—except for the string album. sound funny." Now we're booked into the summer, plan to go to I certainly picked up much advantage as a poten• then and play the Cannes Festival, and tial leader from the exposure of being with Miles. come back for several of the American festivals. We differed somewhat about acknowledging ap• We haven't got it made yet though. I'm still looking plause, but he let us do what we wanted do. He for real security, but I haven't been able to figure really does care what the audience thinks, but he out yet how to get it—not in this business.

IS THE BLUES

MILLION DOLLAR SECRET Now I'm gonna tell all you girls a secret, please keep it to yourself. Yes, I'm gonna tell all you girls a secret, please keep it to yourself. Now it's a million dollar secret, so please don't tell nobody else! Now if you're a real young girl, and you wanna get rich quick, Get you an old, old man, girl, and that'll be the lick! For old, old men are fine, yes, they really know just what to do, Now they'll give you lots of lovin', but they'll give you a whole lot of money too Now he'll tickle you under your chin and crack you on your side, He'll say, "Wake up you fine young thing and give me my morning's exercise!" Oh, old, old men are fine, yes, they really know just what to do. Now they'll give you lots of lovin', but they'll give you a whole lot of money too Now I've got a man, he's seventy-eight, and I'm just twenty-three, Everybody thinks I'm crazy, but his will's made out to me! That old man is fine, yes, he really knows just what to do, He'll give you lots of lovin', but he'll give you a whole lot of money too! (Sung by on Jazz Selection 685. Transcribed by Max Harrison.)

SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT OR NINE I've got misery, baby and I'm worried and blue I've got misery, baby and I'm worried and blue Yes, my life is a drag and it's all on account of you. You made me love you, baby; then you started playin' around You made me love you, baby; then you started playin' around I'm your white-horse ace in the hole, and also your clown. We got a housefull of Children, baby six, seven eight or nine We got a housefull of Children, baby six, seven eight or nine They're all runnin' round an yellin', and I don't know which one is mine. (Sung by on Commodore 574. Transcribed by Dan Morgenstern.)

THE SADDEST BLUES Mama, I rolled and I tumbled and I cried the whole night long, Mama, I rolled and I tumbled and I cried the whole night long, Well, I woke up this morning, didn't know right from wrong. The night she quit me, I walked right straight back home, The night she quit me, I walked right straight back home, Well, I rolled and I tumbled and I cried the whole night long. Now, you don't need to worry about me when I'm gone, Now, you don't need to worry about me when I'm gone, Well, you know you got the best beau(?), ain't gone do nothin' wrong. Well, I told my baby before I left that town, Well, I told my baby before I left that town, Baby, don't let nobody tear my playhouse down. (By Memphis Slim. VAL 3050. Transcribed by John Szwed.)

16 to

Jazz

Ray Ellsworth

After I got my B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from of Music, Nat Hentoff and Martin Williams agreed to let me subscribe to The Jazz Review. So I got out my pipe and slippers, and settled down in my modest pad to read the first issue granted me under this more legitimate arrangement (pre• viously I had to sidle up to a blind newsdealer, sneak a coin into his hand, and get the hell out of there), and the first thing my eye fell upon was the following paragraph: "The implications from paragraph (3) run from nonchro- matic unimodality into chromatic polymodality or pantonal- ity. Note George (Russell's) contrapuntal building-up and dissolution; these harmonic lines (mono or homophonic) have become subject to control since Stravinsky laid down the Petrushka (?) chord (C-F#) in 1911. Take your choice; the interval between any two axis notes is consonant to less consonant from thirds to tritone and Schillinger has a four-fold harmonic correlation which specified the scales on any two axis notes as unitonal (or polymodal). (U-U, UP, P-U, P-P). Schoenberg's use of the P5th down for his Shape Transpositions also reacts on this situation. So; the tonal gravities of complex patterns of chromatic modalization follow the laws of counterpoint (interdependent vertical and horizontal tonal spheres in motivic and rhythmic integration) and the permutations here may take as much as a century to work out." I quietly laid aside my pipe, doffed my slippers, bought a hair shirt, and laid myself out on a bed of nails. Then I called Bill Schuman at Juilliard and asked him to take me back. On second thought, I called Bill again and told him to forget it; I just didn't have a century to spare. And would he give me a refund, please. Thus my exit from the world of jazz.

17 Of course, I'd never really been of —for ridiculous sums like ten cents a record.) jazz, but I'd always had hopes. Not as a performer, I appreciated. I appreciated Duke, Diz, Bird, Jelly, you understand—I didn't aspire to that Olympian Prez, Count, King, Fats, Punch, Satchmo, Buster, height—but at least as a dedicated listener. One and Lightnin'. At least, I appreciated them until of the millions who lift that barge, tote that bale, they got famous and didn't need to be appreciated and pay six dollars for a record. anymore. I had come to jazz the usual way, up the Mississippi I made the concert, scene—, Town to Chicago, then over to New York, landing first in Hall, all the scenes. Play any Jazz at the Philhar• Harlem, and later on (with a side trip to Kansas monic side and you'll hear me. I'm the guy down City), 52nd Street and eventually (showing my di• front by the mike, yelling "Go! Go! Go!" I was there. plomas at the door) Birdland. I knew all the beau• I made the Festivals, too. Man, they were the great• tiful legends. I also knew, of course, that they were est! Newport, French Lick, Monterey, Playboy—the legends—that jazz had not really begun in New names alone bring back memories. Black Butte, Orleans and moved up the river (had not Leonard Indiana—that was the one, though; better than New• Feather heard Hoke Smith play stride piano at Lil's port, man. But out of the way—on U. S. 86, a couple Place in Great Post, Texas before Jelly Roll Morton miles past Jack Filmore's Silo, on the turnoff toward was born?—but just the same, I went along and Harlansville. Not many people knew about it. They loved the ride. had a giant Ferris Wheel at this one, and shot the I was a conscientious fan. If Nat Hentoff demanded Dukes of Dixieland out of a cannon. Pum! Pum! to know why Wilmer Fanchette had never been al• Pum! Just like that. lowed to record an album of his own, I, too, de• But I'm through with all that now. It was fun, and manded to know why Wilmer Fanchette had never I never minded the hard knocks and the sacrifices. been allowed to record an album of his own. I But life isn't simple anymore, and I can see that wrote to Ip companies, haunted record shops, I'll never measure up. Much as I like to be on the fixed my friends with a piercing gaze and demanded scene, keep up with trends and appreciate, its no to know why Wilmer Fanchette had never been al• use. It wasn't just that bit from The Jazz Review. lowed to record an album of his own. And like all There've been other things. Like, I bought an Or- other dedicated jazz fans, when somebody finally nette Coleman record, and then spent $429.02 on did allow Wilmer Fanchette to record an album of repairs for my hi-fi rig before I discovered that he his own (mono $4.98; stereo $5.98), I did not, of plays that way, for God's sake. course, buy it. I let Nat Hentoff buy it. I admit I wavered in my resolution to give up jazz I did my bit all down the years. When Benny Good• after making the decision in my pad that night. man swung at the New York Paramount, I jitter- I felt nostalgia, thought maybe I should make one bugged dutifully in the aisles and took my broken more try. A few more years at Juilliard, with post• leg and six months in the hospital without a mur• graduate work at Eastman or someplace, might put mur. When 's brass played sixteen me back on the scene. But then I had a sobering choruses on Peanut Vendor, I put the pieces of my experience. ear-drums into an envelope and carried on with I had to go see the IBM people on some business, stereo hearing aids. No one can say I didn't make and one of the executives took me into their show• an effort. I subscribed to Le Jazz Hot, Le Jazz Cool, room to let me have a at one of their fabulous Le Jazz Lukewarm, Das Jassen Wunderhorn, Down thinking machines. It happened that I had left my Beat, Metronome, The Record Changer, Jazz Today, glasses in my other suit, so I wasn't seeing too well Jazz Yesterday and Jazz Tomorrow. I bought the that day. Just the same, I swear it happened. There British-issued, seventeen volume discography of was this thinking machine squatting in the show• . I cleaned innumerable attics for room, the best one they had, with an instrument innumerable relatives without charges, on the off- case at its feet, reading The Jazz Review. As I chance of locating a mint copy of a Beiderbecke came up to it, the darn thing looked up at me or a LeRoy Carr. (Found some things, too. Bought and said: them from my square relatives for ridiculous sums "Say, man, I don't dig this paragraph here. It says like ten cents a record. Eventually, I sold them, too The implications from paragraph (3) run ..."

18 you can have any one horn playing in front of the rhythm section, or any combination of the three horns, and that gives the ensemble a lot of pos• sibilities for change and variety. And of course, with Benny writing for the INTRODUCING THE JAZZTET group, we'd certainly be able to ex• plore some of the ensemble possibili• ties of the instrumentation'. My interest in working with a sextet comes pretty naturally from my past experience. I've I've known since 1953, worked with all kinds of groups, and when he joined Hamp's band for a few I know the group affects the way I play weeks. I've always liked his writing, and the feeling I get playing. When I and he did the arrangements for my recorded Aztec Suite with a date. Then, last year, Ben• behind me, it felt completely different ny and Curtis Fuller had been working from playing in a big band. Playing together. They had some arrangements inside a big band is like being in for the two of them, but after they'd prison, but in front of that big band I worked a while, they decided they felt there was room to expand. There's would like a third voice, a trumpet, and something psychological about small they thought of me. I was in California groups that doesn't induce you to let then, after a tour of Europe with Gerry out as a rule. And I'm always looking Mulligan last spring, waiting to start for contrasts in volume in playing. work on a movie with Gerry, and they When I was working with Gerry, playing were working at the Jazz Workshop in with just brass and drums, the trumpet San Francisco when Benny first called would stick out if I played too loud. me about the sextet idea. As it turned With , I could scream as out, the movie took a long time to get loud as I wanted. When I was with started, and the sextet idea really de• Horace, I had to play louder than I did veloped in the meantime. with Gerry, but we didn't have as much I had a pretty quiet summer. I went to contrast in volume as in Gerry's group. Mexico for a while, and then I recorded It seems to me this sextet with Benny for U-A, but I didn't and Curtis gives both the possibility have any definite plans after that. Ger• of contrast in volume and that feeling ry had disbanded the quartet, and he of support. was talking about a big band, but I So we got together and decided to do wasn't too enthusiastic about playing it. We decided early in our talks that in a big band again. I was almost set we wanted a real piano player in the on doing a more personal kind of group, for whom-we would write out a thing—playing solo with just a rhythm real part to go along with the horns, section. That's a real challenge, be• instead of just a member of the rhythm cause you can't just call in the tenor section; he could give us that much player when you run out of ideas. But more versatility. We had decided to I was still thinking about the Jazztet ask several piano players we all liked, idea. Bill Evans, and Ray By the time Benny called me the sec• Bryant, but as it worked out, all three ond time, I'd come to feel that the had other plans. So then Benny and idea of a sextet came closer to what I Curtis suggested McCoy Tyner, a young wanted to do musically than anything Philadelphian who'd worked with them else I could think of. There's a lot of earlier, and after I heard him play, I versatility in a sextet with three horns; agreed that he was perfect for the job.

19 The Jazztet invoking the Muse. / / Curtis Fuller/ McCoy Tyner. Benny Golson Art Farmer

My brother Addison was a natural Of course, we're more concerned with choice on bass, and drummer Lex ensemble playing than most modern Humphries, who's worked with Dizzy groups have been. When I talk about Gillespie, has fitted in very well. working on the foundation, I mean we Of course, we're still working on the are trying to establish a musical basis foundation with the Jazztet, but it's we can work out from and go back to, already an organized group and a ser• not necessarily anything conservative, ious one from the point of view of but a basic groove. Things like Benny's music. And we haven't had any dis• Whisper Not, that's our basic groove. agreements musically in taste, aims or And we're working on really playing policy. together for a musical blend.

20 subtle, we're lucky to get ten percent of it down on the record, because to play a thing right, you must get into Some listeners comment that we sound it, go to the heart of it. like a big band at times, but that's not I'd like to see more reflection than you what we're after. We want to sound get in making recordings today. As it like a sextet, just what we are. Maybe is, nine times out of ten it doesn't come they say that because people have out right. What we need is to play a gotten used to small groups playing tune on the job for a few months, like unison ensembles. But when you have we did when I was with Horace's group, three horns, unison gets pretty boring before we record. Now, people will go —it just doesn't take advantage of the into a studio and play something, and possibilities. With a harmonic approach they don't know why they're playing it. we can get a lot more variety. Of Horace used to write out the line, the course, I have the lead most of the changes and the interludes, and we'd time, Curtis does most of the counter- play it down a few times. We never lines, and Benny is mostly in the lower rehearsed except on new tunes, and register in ensemble, but we can still then only one time. But we'd work get a lot of variety in ensemble sound things out on the job, using the music by the use of color—I'll use a Harmon the first two or three nights, but we'd mute, or we'll use hats; there are a lot have played a tune on jobs for several of possibilities. In fact there are so months by the time we recorded it. many that we aren't even thinking That's one kind of thing we hope to do about a contrapuntal approach for the with the Jazztet—to work on something time being. There are a lot of ensemble until we get into it. ideas that aren't used in modern jazz. We were happy that we had eight weeks We want to work with various combina• between the Five Spot and the Jazz tions of instruments within the group, Gallery, because that gave us lots ot do some things without the rhythm time to work into our book. We've section, do some pieces without solos travelled quite a bit since then, and —sketches. We also want to do some when we were in Chicago recently, we pieces by other writers beside Benny, cut our first record for Argo. We record• George Russell for one. ed five standards and five originals, in• That's one kind of thing that decided cluding Benny's Killer Joe, I Remember me on this group—there are some Clifford and a new ballad called Park things that you can only do with an Avenue Petite, and my tune Mox Nix. organized group. For example, George But everyone in the group is still de• Russell has always suffered on records veloping. And all of us agree that we from under-rehearsal. He's always had have to satisfy our own needs as musi• to get the best guys in town, and on cians. We have to satisfy the public too, one record, that Brandeis Concert on but our own needs come first. We'd Columbia, we rehearsed once a week like to play anywhere we can get the for months before recording, but even public to really listen, but we don't that record could still have been better. ever want to feel that we have to That's the whole trouble with making lighten up on what we are doing. We records today. If I'm going to make a believe that what we are doing has record with four or five horns, I'll call musical merit, that it's right for us, and an arranger and work with him on the we think that we can reach a sizeable arrangements. Then I'll have to call audience by doing just what we want the best guys in town, and I'll thank to do. God they're there, that they're open the day of the session. It takes the best guys in town to play the arrangements down. And if it's anything the least bit

21 Energy and harmonic sophistication melodic and tonal. Melodically, may be important, but they are not he seems to be breaking up his lines RECORD sufficient. more than formerly, and balancing Then there is the question of his one against another for a more tone. There is no point in getting cohesive overall structure. There is sidetracked in a discussion about still that incessant flow of notes, but REVIEWS whether or not his tone is a "good" fewer vacant scales and more one (it seems to me that any kind fascinating turns. And there is an of tone can be appropriate in certain increased variety in the length of his context); the point is that Coltrane's lines, more short, pithy statements use of tone has been remarkably to balance the long convoluted ones. limited. Any real range of expressive Finally, there is a wonderful, and shading is, or was, foreign to it. growing, sense of cadence, of This is an important restrictive inevitable resolution. His tone, of handicap, whether voluntarily assumed course, is fundamentally unchanged, or not, particularly to a saxophonist. although I do hear a general softening, I'm not objecting to any single kind and a new use oi terminal vibrato of tone as measurable in reed- on some of those sustained notes mouthpiece combination, vibrato, and which used to be about as expressive type of embouchure; the so-called as an old automobile horn. But hard tenor tone can be beautifully I'm jumping with joy to hear his tone variable as, for example, in Sonny extending in scope. There are Rollins' work. But if it isn't variable, passages here where he sounds if it is always the same, a potential tender, even wistful, and not only dimension is lost, and musical scope on the ballad . He floats notes restricted. A player who can give the out where at one time he would same note two or more different have had to, or chosen to, push kinds of bare sound can do twice as them out. Listen to his beautiful use much, express twice as much, as one of timbre on the theme of Spiral, who can't or doesn't. I guess the the new touches of gentleness on the most striking example of contemporary theme of the up-tempo , tonal virtuosity is , and the subtle shifts in sound between whose sound shifts purposefully from harshness and poignancy on Cousin phrase to phrase. He builds with his Mary. JOHN COLTRANE: "Giant Steps". tone and it's this ability more than Atlantic 1311. The rhythm section is close to perfect any other which makes his music Coltrane, tenor; Tommy Flanagan, piano; Paul throughout. I can't overstate Tommy as rich as it is, regardless of any Chambers, bass; Arthur Taylor, drums. Flanagan's importance to the success unrelated weaknesses he may or may Giant Steps; Cousin Mary; Countdown; Spiral; of the session; with the possible not have. In addition to limiting Syeeda's Song Flute; Mr. P. C. exception of Bill Evans, he is my the expressiveness of his own and Jimmy Cobb replace favorite of all the pianists I might have playing, Coltrane's tonal uniformity Flanagan and Taylor on Naima. expected Coltrane to use. He doesn't has had a deplorable effect on some have Evan's harmonic daring and of the young tenors he has influenced. unpredictability, but he has a I have never heard Coltrane play so This can't be held against him, of consistency and absolute relaxation well, and think for the first time that course; I bring it up because Coltrane Evans hasn't yet fully attained. His all that roaring of praise (which has has been interesting for me largely comping is excellent, simultaneously seemed somewhat indiscriminate in in spite of his tonal inflexibility, and rich and unobtrusive, and, although the past) is becoming fully justified. if another man assumes that limitation he could hardly sound less like Everyone, even those who have had in the hope of sounding like Coltrane, Monk, he has a similar ability to reservations about Coltrane, should he arbitrarily denies himself the slide in softly (that is, softly in hear this set. use of a very important expressive Flanagan's case) surprising supporting Having declared this so enthusiastically, technique. He denies himself a certain chords. His solo work has a kind of I should make my own former freedom. Some players, like lovely surface polish, the result, I reservations explicit. Until now, Cannonbalt Adderley and Benny guess, of a very subtle sense of Coltrane has never seemed to me Golson, have absorbed many of time and a pearly touch few other to be a really complete musician. Coltrane's virtues without feeling pianists can match. His dynamic Granted, he has been playing those that they have to restrict themselves range is fairly restricted—that is, he lines of striking originality and in this peculiar way. And the point chooses to never play loud or hard— harmonic richness, but concentration in best made, of course, by the fact but within that range he makes the on these virtues apparently cost him that Coltrane himself now seems to most perfectly delicate discriminations others. His time has had a certain be extending his tonal resources. of accent and volume. Although some stiffness, his use of timbre has been This brings me to his playing on this of his lines are long, there is never curiously unvarying and clumsy, and album. As I said, all my past gripes a trace of rambling or misdirection; (this one is pretty subjective) he are evaporating. I don't mean to each is a unit, ending where it should seems to have lacked, in spite of that suggest that this is a "new" Coltrane, with optimum effect. And he never, daring, the ability to construct far from it. The differences are not never has any use for the current memorable and unified melodies. great, but I do think they are of the fad of voicing like Red Garland or Of course, you can legitimately ask utmost importance. (They may strike Ahmad Jamal. The playing of Paul what makes one line a beautiful me particularly because I don't have Chambers and is by now melody and another not. Perhaps in the opportunity to hear him live, so familiar that comment isn't Coltrane's case the trouble was the and haven't been able to follow necessary, other than to note that relentlessness of the stream of scales, his development month by month, or they are at their best here. all those notes with so little variety week by week.) The old explorations All the tunes are originals by Coltrane, of time value and no relieving rests, have not been diluted, just enriched, and he proves to be such a fine no punctuating silences. And I feel and the enrichment has been both composer that I see no earthly these are vital elements of melody.

22 reason why the Miles Davis book doubt, Atlantic supplied her with Prof. ends by respecting Evans considerably, wasn't full of his things. My favorite Alex Bradford and his Singers, who both for having the confidence and tracks are Giant Steps, which is are much less fun to listen to than independence to wait, and for up-tempo and has a lovely Flanagan to watch. (Their turn at the 1959 . . . progressing so much in that period. solo, Cousin Mary, which is a swinging Folk Festival was saved from disaster The first is a quite promising debut, almost-blues, rich and earthy, but by their movement, which disarmed showing Evans to be a highly with none of the grotesque criticism, just as 's competent craftsman with an extensive exaggerations of some modern movement made his act at the 1958 and reliable command of his and Spiral, a relatively gentle piece . . . Jazz Festival). But for all her instrument and a good harmonic with recurring descending cadences. straining, LaVern doesn't achieve on sense. Originality is not, however, Flanagan's work on Syeeda's Song In the Upper Room the powerful much in evidence. Tracks like I Love Flute is not his best, and Mr. P. C, sincerity Mahalia projected in her 1951 You demonstrate his technique and though fine, lacks the original concepts version (Apollo), nor does her voice his ability to construct linear of the others. Countdown is a short on Precious Memories have anything improvisations efficiently out of chord tour de force at a blazing tempo. like the vibrancy or the fabulous sequences. Speak Low gives a good The only slow piece is Naima, on control Georgia Peach shows on her idea of his approach to keyboard which Wynton Kelly, who replaces version (Classic Editions). LaVern's texture, even if it is hardly a Flanagan for this track only, has the level is more that of the Drinkards, sympathetic treatment of the piece. In solo space. His playing there is misty and her Somebody Touched Me neither case is there any real melodic and romantic, like some of Bill compares favorably with theirs. Both freshness. The two best performances, Evans's ballad work, and not entirely performances generate plenty of heat, perhaps not surprisingly, are based to my taste. if little light, but after all, that is on the two best compositions. Any Coltrane album would be what modern gospel is all about. Evans's virtuoso treatment of Shearing's important if only because he has All this is fairly obvious and entirely Conception is still conventional but, recently become such a pervasive to be expected. What I wish I could even in the out-of-tempo introduction, influence. This one is important explain better is why I liked the has a boldness of execution that for the more substantial reason that hammy Just a Closer Walk with Thee the later Ip shows to be important in it is very beautiful. (the beautiful melody aside) almost the projection of his rhythmic ideas. as much as the even hammier Touch Dameron's Our Delight is the best of Mait Edey Me, Lord Jesus. all and hints at later developments Atlantic has furnished the album in the use of dynamics in the theme chorus and in the construction and LA VERN BAKER: "Precious Memories". cover with a sort of trompe I'oeil with continuity of phrases in the Atlantic 8036. water photograph of the Holy Bible improvisation. Precious Memories; Carrying the Cross for (I. P. Hereford's copy), a bookmark My Boss; Just a Closer Walk with Thee; Touch ('With the—picture of a harp—praise The above performances show Evans Me, Lord Jesus; Didn't It Rain; Precious Lord; the Lord'), lace, and lilies-of-the-valley as a craftsman thinking primarily in Somebody Touched Me; In the Upper Room; —not taking any chances. But they terms of his instrument (listen to the Journey to the Sky; Everytime I Feel the fail to list the composers of the songs, coda of I Love You); when the second Spirit; Too Close; Without a God. either on the liner or the . Ip was made he had become a LaVern Baker, vocals, accompanied by Prof. J. S. Shipman creative improvisor whose work, while Alex Bradford and his Singers and an orchestra it represents a most sensitive conducted by Reggie Obrecht. utilisation of some of the instrument's BILL EVANS: "". resources, is conceived primarily in Riverside RLP 12-223. Great critics get right to the heart of musical, not pianistic, terms. Minority Bill Evans, piano. their subjects; the rest of us fight and Night and Day are probably the with the liner notes. Especially the I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good; Waltz for outstanding achievements here. The kind that let us know that this Ip is Debby; My Romance. presentation and later restatement of "the one thing I have wanted to do Evans, piano; , bass; , the Night and Day theme are strikingly all my life" (LaVern Baker). All it drums. original, showing it in a new light takes is a remark like that and a I love you; Five; Conception; Easy Living; on melodic, rhythmic and harmonic few hints about the singer's Displacement; Speak Low; Our Delight; planes, and the improvisation is a true exceptional voice, dedicated No Cover, No Minimum. development of the theme. Philly understanding mind, extensive vocal Joe Jones drums superbly throughout range, sumptuous tone, intense "Everybody Digs BILL EVANS". the Ip but nowhere more so than emotional force, driving rhythmic Riverside RLP 12-291. here. Minority shows that Evans has vitality, flair for the dramatic, Bill Evans, piano. an uncommon power of varied but technique and strict religious Lucky to be Me; ; Epilogue. always disciplined melodic invention upbringing—and in reference to a Evans, piano; Sam Jones, bass; , at fast tempo. Tenderly illustrates not singer who is, as far as I know, a drums. only the variety of melodic construction R & R tinged pop vocalist—to make Minority; Young and Foolish; Night and Day; but also the ability to build a series me suspect that the project is one Tenderly; What is there To Say; Oleo. of tellingly diversified phrases towards great big camp. I would be certain a climax. His originality is not only manifest in the actual invention of except that, of all the numbers, I Both in the liner notes of RLP 12-291 musical material but in the surprisingly liked best Touch Me Lord Jesus, the and in Nat Hentoff's piece on Evans personal keyboard voicings he has one in which they lay it on with a in the October Jazz Review quite a developed in slow performance—note shovel, and Didn't It Rain, which point is made of the fact that the clarity and richness of Tenderly. should be the easiest thing in the twenty-seven months separate the While he has profited from the world to fake, doesn't come off at all. making of the two above discs, and freedom of accentuation bop brought LaVern Baker lets you know she's that the interval was due to the to the jazz language, Evans has singing gospel, and not pianist's own wishes. If one becomes developed some rather individual or Blues Ballads, by her phrasing acquainted with both of these records rhythmic devices, the use of delayed (Touch . . . touch me, Lord Jesus/With at once, as I did, there appears to accents being especially sensitive. The . . . thy hand of mercy), the swoops, be little to choose between them expression of melodic and harmonic climactic growls and the final gliding initially. Yet as familiarity grows the qualities is aided by an unusually ritardandi. And if there's any lingering differences become very clear, and one

23 personal touch; Evans obtains a sound has by now practically become a jazz Instead of letting these young veterans from the piano that is as characteristic standard. The orchestrated 'comping' of countless blowing sessions have as the music he plays, a sound that is not so successful as ' yet another fling, United Artists got is, in fact, an integral part of that use of this device, perhaps because and Benny Golson to provide music. Golson uses a in the root of his arrangements—Gryce doing Down It is scarcely a criticism to say that chords, spaced far enough away from Home and C.T.A., and Golson the rest. the other performances do not come the other voices to exert a ponderous One knows by now what to expect up to the level of those three. Peace retardation upon the rhythm. Bobby from Golson: lush, minor-key, romantic Piece is an arresting, fragmentary Timmons (whom no one bothered to themes encased in brooding, improvisation over an ostinato bass list in the personnel) plays a good pastel-tinged scores. Since he wrote and recalls Chopin's Berceuse. Listening piano solo in the conventionally none of the melodies himself he has to this one understands Miles Davis's popular 'churchy' style. had to do some adapting, and it is remark (in The Jazz Review, December, April in Paris opens like the reprise significant that his most successful 1958) that when Evans plays a chord in a Broadway musical. Golson again arrangement is on Fuller's Bit Of he plays a sound rather than a chord. seems concerned with harmony for Heaven, a theme patently inspired by There are elements here, and in its own sake and derives a variation in Benny's own work. He has written a Epilogue, of a more original harmonic tone color only by the use of such typical, attractive counter-melody and style than Evans has elsewhere relatively common devices as a french uses what he terms "piano-type 'comp' attained, but a more positively formed horn obligate and tuba counterpoint. passages" for the accompanying melodic development would have The harmonic changes fall evenly on horns with skill; elsewhere this device been desirable. the beat, their clock-like regularity gets in the way. Lights, which again Max Harrison making it extremely difficult to sustain has Miles' and not 's any kind of emotional reaction to the middle-eight, has a characteristic but music. The same is true of Stella by most incongruous waltz introduction, ART FARMER: "Brass Shout". United Starlight, which is treated similarly. as if Golson realised that the tune Artists UAL 4047. In some cases the obligatos that was so different from anything he had Art Farmer, , , ; Golson uses are more detraction than composed that he had to put his Curtis Fuller, , . addition to the success of the stamp on it somehow. Gryce is a more James Haughton, ; , arrangements. vesatile, less idiosyncratic arranger, trench horn; , tuba; Percy Five Spot After Dark was the theme and his writing emphasizes the Heath, bass; Philly Joe Jones, drums. used by the Jazztet at the Five Spot; gospel-funk of Fuller's Down Home, replaces Cleveland on April in this version seems to be an expansion and the ebullience of 's Paris, Haughton on Nica's Dream, Autumn of a small group chart. Curtis Fuller's C.T.A. Leaves and ; solo is technically competent but is Of the soloists, Mobley is near his replaces Watkins on April in Paris; almost embarrassingly derivative of best on Lights and Heaven, the replaces Philly Joe Jones on Nica's Dream, J. J. Johnson. In Autumn Leaves the outstanding track all told, but dire Autumn Leaves and Stella by Starlight. preponderance of sounds in the lower elsewhere. He misses his entry on Nica's Dream; Autumn Leaves; Moanin'; April range is massive enough to detract Bongo Bop (incredibly written 'Pop' in Paris; Five Spot After Dark; Stella by from the establishment of any rhythmic on label and sleeve), and is quite at Starlight; Minor Vamp. continuity. Julius Watkins' solo here, sea on Down, showing again that All arrangements by Benny Golson. as throughout the record, is notable this type of funk is foreign to him. only because of the mechanical On Heaven, though, everything comes For some time, Benny Golson has difficulties involved in playing jazz on off, and one can savor the been one of the more exciting active the . Although he plays at melancholy beauty of his tone without arranger-composers. His Jazztet times with driving rhythm, Watkins' the stumbling and the faulty time collaboration with Art Farmer and subject matter is for the most part that often plagues him. Curtis Fuller Curtis Fuller has been interesting unoriginal. has an impressive technique, an because of his charts. While his playing A few words should be added about individual approach and some is a trifle derivative, it has been more the liner notes, which are among ideas, but his deep sound is too than adequate to place him in the the worst I have ever seen. Some monochromatic for the plodding, J. J. second echelon of jazz performers. examples: "It seems fitting that influenced, style he seems to be It comes as a distinct disappointment, [Golson] should lend his mellow, making his own. He lacks Johnson's then, to find this record so lacking in sometimes searing, comfortably ability to vary his phrases, lacks his any evidence of his very real talent. traditional yet dramatically modern, range and also his clean articulation. Practically all of the charts give the but always exciting stylings to these As a result his ballad feature, Wonder, impression of hurried, deadline writing arrangements". And such adjectival is dull, while his best solos are (which may well be the case) devoid excesses as "thick, meaty textures" actually those on Heaven and Lights, of the fine concern for detail that "coiled strength", all of which are where he closely copies J. J., and on has been evident in Golson's other somehow referred to as "Golson Bop where he moves from J. J. to work. Art Farmer, nominally the leader, trademarks". When I read of Don Jimmy Cleveland. plays consistently well throughout the Butterfield's "loosely muscled bottom Lee Morgan is the real star of the album, but hardly up to the level of sound", I begin to wonder if this record. His Bop solo is well constructed his other recent recording efforts. recording is intended for the home. and played with tremendous verve, In Nica's Dream, Golson regretably Don Heckman building from an astonishingly- chooses to incorporate the same Latin conceived staccato chorus to a shout, rhythmic elements that have always and back again. He is full of ideas been associated with the line, and the CURTIS FULLER: "". United and willing to take chances; his range arrangement suffers from a poor Artists UAL 4041. is expanding all the time, and he performance. Minor Vamp is similar Lee Morgan, trumpet; , tenor; is one follower of who and, although Golson's heavy sound Curtis Fuller, trombone; Tommy Flanagan, has begun to assimilate Brownie's combinations are a trifle more effective, piano; , bass; Elvin Jones, lyricism—as on Bit Of Heaven. As one the use of muted trumpets over open drums. would expect from his Moanin' solo trombones is disconcertingly like a Bit Of Heaven; Down Home; I Wonder Where with the Messengers he romps through fuzzy voicing used by 's Our Love Has Gone; Bongo Bop; When Lights Down with abundant zest. arrangers a few years ago. Moanin' Are Low; C.TA The rhythm section is a credit to 24 Detroit. Flanagan has several neat, a trumpet, four saxes and four THE BEST BLUES ARE ON melodic solos, and it seems harsh to rhythm. This pattern was kept for criticise him for not having a stronger That Old Devil Called Love (Nov. '44) PRESTIGE / BLUESVILLE musical personality when he plays so and Don't Explain (Aug. '45). By 1946 unpretentiously with such imagination. () both the Elvin Jones is clearly becoming a writing and the violinists had improved remarkable drummer. Not quite as considerably, and Billie continued to 'advanced' as on some other Ips, his sing like the great artist she was. backing is always sympathetic to the In April, 1946, Billy Kyle's small group soloist's line and he has two backed her on I'll Look Around, with stimulating choruses on Bop on which Kenny Clarke and trumpeter Joe Guy he shifts the rhythm about most helping recapture the relaxed ingeniously. The overall tautness of atmosphere of her early Columbia his sound appears vital to his sides. In 1947 Bob Haggart organized expression, though I hope that every four saxes, four rhythm and Billy other drummer doesn't copy it. Butterfield on some decent, cleanly Chambers does everything well, played arrangements, Easy Living, Deep including his inevitable bowed solo, Song, No Greater Love, and Solitude. an art which he is improving steadily. Two of my favorite sides, My Man and A far from momentous record but Porgy were cut in Dec. 1948 with BVLP 1001 HEAR MY BLUES one worth hearing, particularly for Bobby Tucker, John Levy and Denzil "His voice has that earthy quality found Bit Of Heaven and Lee Morgan. Best. Tucker, also the pianist on the in the best blues artists. It is most Ronald Atkins Haggart sides, is extremely sensitive to pleasing on the 12-bar takes. On the Billie's most delicate shadings. ballad tracks, Love, All Right, and Go, Baby Get Lost, Ain't Nobody's he quiets down a bit and his gospel background shines through." "The BILLIE HOLIDAY Story". Decca Business, Them There Eyes, Keeps DXB 161. On Rainin', Gimme A Pigfoot, Do Your Duty and Now Or Never were made Them There Eyes; Lover Man; Easy Living; with a big band led by Sy Oliver in Baby Get Lost; You're My Thrill; No Greater 1949. I assume the arrangements are Love; That Ole Devil Called Love; I'll Look his. They are characterized by the Around; Gimme a Pigfoot; My Man; Don't heavy, parallel seventh-flat fifth Explain; Ain't Nobody's Business; Deep Song; voicings used on the Gillespie band Crazy He Calls Me; Keeps On Rainin'; No More; in those days, and by 1938 swing band Do Your Duty; Now Or Never; Good Morning figures. The intimate nature of Billie's Heartache; Somebody's On My Mind; Porgy; voice evidently caused the band to Solitude; This Is Heaven To Me; God Bless try to soft pedal the heavy shout The Child. figures. The trumpets sound strained, the tempos seem too slow for the To those of us who knew and loved arrangements, and consequently the Billy Holiday only through her band sounds at odds with Billie. The recordings, the story of her troubled pained, clumsy ensembles lead me life and heartbreaking death seems to suspect that the band was much less real than her recorded self; uncomfortable with what they were BVLP 1002 DOWN HOME BLUES when her singing fills our ears and given to play. At any rate these seven Two of the finest artists in the blues field. Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry touches our hearts, how can we think sides are the weakest in the collection. of her as anything but a living, with eleven great blues sides. These The songs themselves are not are the as told by the feeling, beautiful woman? particularly inspiring, the arrangements best storytellers of them all. Billie's musical ear, her rhythm and work against the mood of the singer, phrasing, her instinct for form were the band is poorly rehearsed and WILLIES BLUES excellent, but even with less musical WILLIE DIXON >! seems divided in its interpretation MEMPHIS SLIM • sense she would have touched us of the arrangements. In spite of all deeply. Songs that strongly expressed this, Billie sings well. her feelings moved her to inspired The three sides cut in Oct. 1949, projection of those feelings. Her Somebody's On My Mind, Crazy He sadness, her joy, her hope and despair Calls Me and You're My Thrill, are tidy we recognize instantly as the genuine little charts for strings, saxes and human article, and to whatever extent Bobby Hackett. Despite the tendency we have experienced those emotions of the bass player to clump along, ourselves we understand her. the framework is sympathetic to Billie, We have heard all the songs in this and she sings beautifully. On the last collection before on Decca releases. date, This Is Heaven and God Bless Billie's performances range from good The Child, there is in addition to to fantastically good, the general the saxes and strings a vocal group pattern being, the better the material which goes "Oooo" very nicely, but the better the singing. Most of the makes all the lyrics assigned it sound BVLP 1003 WILLIE'S BLUES pertinent information about the music like a Marx Brothers satire on a ladies' Willie Dixon and Memphis Slim, two is listed, either on the label or on aid production of HMS Pinafore. forceful personalities from Chicago, the an enclosed roster of personnels. Though their sanctimonious intoning home of the blues. There is much The cuttings were made between Oct. of phrases like "this is heaven" and warmth and humor in the voice of the 1944 and March 1950 and include "god bless the child" is humorless big Mr. Dixon and the several types of accompaniment. The of Memphis Slim is the perfect blues and irritating, Billie steps out and lays instrument. earliest (Lover Man, No More) were her message right on us, bless her. made with Camarata, who provided The two records are packaged in a 12 High Fidelity Albums $4.98 pleasantly innocuous writing for a double jacket, sprinkled inside with Send for free catalog to hotel-type dance band with six strings, Inc. 203 South Washington Avenue, Bergenfield, N. J. 25 candid shots of Billie, an eulogy by the while the is playing out electric guitar. William Dufty, and short pertinent the feeling, and a powerful mood is A singer, Hooker seldom excerpts from Billie's autobiography built. Another device Hooker features echoes the work of others, and on beneath the title of each song. The is to present a series of rhymed verses, this disc he is most effective when cover portrait, a low key profile and then, as though talking, to sing he is himself: on the jumping Wobblin' showing an incredibly soft expression another verse that does not rhyme. Baby or the moody Behind the Plow. of eye and mouth, is one of the On High Priced Woman for example: But most of the record is comprised loveliest I have seen. "I got a map of the highway/ Move it of echoes, of Leroy Carr on How Long Bill Crow down the line/ You're a high priced Blues or I'm Prison Bound; of Bessie chick/ And I got to let you go." Smith on I Rowed a Little Boat, of Hooker must have the loudest foot Memphis Minnie on Good Mornin' John Lee Hooker: "House Of The tap of any singer in history, and it is Little School Girl, of on Blues". Chess Ip 1413. always audible on his recordings. She's Long, She's Tall, She Weeps Like John Lee Hooker performs two kinds It serves almost as a drum support, a Willow Tree, of Victoria Spivey on of material, in two rather different and after awhile one stops noticing it. Black Snake, of Lemon Jefferson on ways. When singing slow blues Hooker Lastly I should point out that Hooker Church Bell Tone, of Thommy uses a variety of intonations and sings is actually able to use that monster, McClennan on Bundle Up and Go, of with a seriousness that is unequalled the electric guitar, for his own Will Shade on Pea Vine Special. If he among contemporary blues singers. purposes, rather than having it control hasn't played the records one feels His guitar playing is simple, but him. The vibrating strings, powerful that Hooker was asked to "sing the he uses certain devices that are bass lines and unison string runs are o.'d-time country folk-blues you used to characteristically his own, such as all more effective than they would hear, John." Somehow, in spite of a fourth with a conventional seventh be on an acoustic guitar. Only on an the fine, warm, rich voice and the chord, and vibrating the strings to get occasional boogie number does one deep throbbing notes of the guitar it an echo effect. On faster tunes there wish that the amplifier were turned doesn't really come over as Hooker is the big city jive approach that so 'way, 'way down. unadulterated. many other rock and roll singers have If you like to listen to blues, get And now, because John Lee Hooker is popularized. Here the best is the thing this record. John Lee Hooker let me say that and the quality of the words and Dick* Weissman there are some fine things on this music are subordinated to it. But Ip and Black Snake is great by any even in the faster tunes, Hooker can standards. startle you with a phrase rich in "The Folk-blues of JOHN LEE Paul Oliver feeling. HOOKER." Riverside RLP 12-838. This recording is a good sampling of To quote from the sleeve notes: Hooker's work, and it has a few really "Actually, this album stems from the QUINCY JONES: "The Birth of a Band". notable performances. The words to fact that Riverside's Bill Grauer has Mercury MG 20444. Down At The Landing are particularly long been a Hooker fan. When the , , Benny Golson, Zoot nice; and notice how Hooker, always opportunity to record John Lee Sims, , saxes; Jimmy Cleveland, his own man, brings in a modern presented itself, there was initially , Melba Listen, , touch when he says "my baby, she some thought of having him do a trombones; Quincy Jones, , Ernie might have got hung up, people." group of tunes associated with Royal, , trumpets; Milton Hinton, Somehow this expression does not Leadbelly." Fortunately "it turned out bass; , drums; Patricia Anne seem out of place alongside the other, that Hooker didn't know Leadbelly's Bowen, piano. more traditional lyrics. The Groundhog songs as such . . ." for which we can The Birth of a Band; Moanin'; I Remember Blues is about the traditional back be grateful. As it is, it seems that Clifford; Along Came Betty; Tickletoe; Happy door stranger who is after the singer's the dead hand of the idea man has Faces; Whisper Not; The Gypsy; A Change of woman. It is sung with a very low weighed heavily on Hooker. On the Pace; . intonation which actually suggests the front cover this Ip is "The Country rooting of a groundhog which the Blues"; on the liner it is entitled After years of standing by while other words describe. Rambling By Myself "The Folk-Blues". Country Folk-Blues leaders eagerly employed his talents, builds a mood of searing intensity at all costs, and neither Hooker nor Quincy Jones has got a band of his virtually by the power of presentation the listener is permitted to forget it. own. And it's a pretty good one, too. alone. The words are rather ordinary, For the past dozen years Hooker has This group is not exactly the one that but the whole is so deeply felt that the lived in Detroit and for the previous eventually went to Europe (the liner images are communicated beautifully. ten years he had been a factory notes do not give an accurate listing High Priced Woman, Women and worker in Memphis and Cincinnati. His of the different sessions that made Money, Walkin The Boogie, It's My Detroit bands have been tough, up this recording), but the spirit of Fault, and Leave My Wife Alone are jumping, wild groups with tenor saxes, Jones' work remains intact. His place fast, strong beat songs, good for electric , electric basses, electric is secure in that select circle of dancing, but mostly without any harmonicas, even vibes and organ composer-arrangers who can make qualities of special interest. In Walkin' at one time or another. And Hooker studio bands sound as though they The Boogie there is a strange figure himself of course, plays electric are not studio bands. The music is on the electric guitar which sounds guitar, not because of commercial described as a cross-section of the almost like a mandolin and is eerily pressures but because he likes it. type the band will play while on effective. Many of his recordings have been tour and is aimed at a danceable style. solo though often he has rhythm For once this isn't a limitation. Jones Several devices which recur in Hooker's accompaniment, harp, or work are worth noting. One is the has never been much of an innovator, supplementary guitar to support him. but the enthusiasm and exhuberance spoken phrase that is accompanied Here he plays acoustic guitar and by the guitar. This device is not unique that he brings to his music are far he is alone. Somehow he never seems more important qualifications for with Hooker, but is used especially to get off the ground; his rhythms well by him. In the dramatic Union success as a dance band leader. are labored, or simply strummed, his Bobby Timmon's Moanin' adapts Station Blues Hooker says while melodic fill-ins are hammered-on but playing a fine guitar part, "Lord you surprisingly well to a dance groove they do not produce the whining, (for all the pseudo-hipsterisms in the know how I feel—my baby gone down talking notes that he gets out of his the line—She left this morning." All ghosted liner notes attributed to

26 , they give no indication Lewis, piano; , bass; Connie Kay, of any composer credits). The style drums. of the arrangement, as in Doodlin', has become pretty well standardized by John Lewis, perhaps more than most the tune's popularity, but the band composer-performers, has concerned plays cleanly and in tune. Not so himself with structural development as with Happy Faces, one of those a primary goal. His compositions for the ubiquitous Basie-type blues. The Modern Jazz Quartet and for motion brilliant difficult ensemble writing in the center picture underscoring have adequately sections results in the record's least demonstrated his competence in satisfactory performance, despite a doing so. As a performer, his biff-band fine tenor solo by . improvisatory conception has generally The Birth of a Band makes a good been subordinated to the organic opener (but oh, those damned PR unity of the work under consideration, bash man titles), with Zoot and Jerome and, as a result, the M.J.Q. has Richardson swinging freely through an characteristically reflected the stamp express train tempo. 's of his personality. In this new Atlantic that realty chart of The Gypsy is a richly textured recording, we are given an opportunity accompaniment to Phil Woods alto to hear Lewis in a setting which solo. The soft sensuality of the felicitously displays his individual wails! harmonization does not prevent Woods skills. from playing with the brittle extroversion that characterizes his One of the real delights of his playing style. The contrast is effective. is the emphasis on tone, the result I Remember Clifford, the other ballad of a more 'classical' touch on his on the set, is a lovely example of instrument than is used by most of the beauty that a sensitive soloist can his contemporaries. Variation in touch, evoke when he is given the proper attack, pedaling and duration of sound setting. 's arrangement is give him a formidable arsenal of well written, but hardly comes up to tonal subtleties. Three of the numbers the level of Clark Terry's solo. Whisper are particularly interesting in this Not and Along Came Betty bear the respect; Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, stamp of Jones' personality. Long Yesterdays and September Song all interweaving contrapuntal lines leading open in out-of-tempo Tatum style and into unison trumpet and tenor playing then fall into nice rocking grooves. dotted eighth-note figures characterize Love Me exemplifies Lewis' urbane Benny Golson's Whisper. Zoot once wit. Very few pianists since Teddy again blows exceptionally well, Wilson have been able to give us so demonstrating his talent for well sophisticated an interpretation. organized solos which are not cramped Lewis' explorations in more basic areas by the episodic nature of big band are not quite so successful. Charlie jazz. Betty has an interesting second Parker's Now's the Time suffers from chorus employing humorously effective an almost effete underplaying of doo-wah brass. Woods' solo is a trifle emotional content. Lewis apparently too much for the arrangement. insists at all times upon the rigid 's charts have, for some control of his conception and by doing peculiar reason, always typified New so prevents the work from soaring York big band jazz for me, and forth on its own head of steam. It is Tickle Toe is no exception. He difficult to be critical with a composer somehow manages to evoke the who feels strongly enough about his essence of the old 52nd St., Charlie's music to want to keep it in hand at Tavern and the exchange floor. all times, but somehow I have the The primary difference between Jones' feeling that this just isn't the blues. musical perception and that of most Delaunay's Dilemma, on the other other dance band leaders is that hand, gets into a nice head-rocking Quincy starts with the proposition that groove. Notice particularly Lewis' use jazz is danceable rather than that of riff patterns; he will take the most dance music can sound jazzy. The basic sort of rhythmic device and use net result is that his exuberant music it to suggest a complex series of variations. In this sense the album seems far closer to the heart of youth ATLANTIC LP 1305 than the derivative, watered-down is well titled. The skeletal framework Mingus is known for a number of styles of most of today's other dance stated by Lewis may eventually serve bands. This may well become one of as the basis of future explorations. important experimental efforts in the the major factors in his success. The least successful number on the modern idiom, but he wanted, on this set is How Long Has This Been Going occasion, to get back to what he calls On. Lewis avoids a direct statement Don Heckman "blues & roots." He wanted to show of the melody and plays an elaborate how much he can swing . . . and in series of variations upon the theme. this LP he really wallops his point In this case the fragmentation of home! JOHN LEWIS: "Improvised Meditations riff-like patterns is somewhat annoying, & Excursions". Atlantic 1313. probably because the rhythms usually Available monaural $4.98 and stereo $5.98 Now's the Time; Smoke Gets in Your Eyes; duplicate the two-beat feeling of the Delaunay's Dilemma; September Song. bass. His playing would be more Write for complete catalogue and stereo disc listing. John Lewis, piano; , bass; consistently attractive if he would not Connie Kay, drums. indulge in such a calculated avoidance ^SZItlantic records Love Me; Yesterdays; How Long Has This Been of long lines. 157 WEST 57th STREET, NEW YORK 19, N. Y. Going On? The record is hardly a major item in the inherent muddiness and lack of of blues and blues derived music. Lewis' artistic achievements, but it definition of such a deep-toned However, it is also* true that I have does furnish an interesting insight into instrument by his strong, clear attack. in the past bought five Ips by this the manner in which an important Jones does his job well. Chambers does group of my own, presumably artist develops his concepts. his easily, and is always doing much free, will. Don Heckman more besides. In this album, composer-arranger Lewis I have a composer friend who once was faced with what is essentially a earnestly asked me what the bass new problem for him, to adapt and BLUE MITCHELL: "Out of the Blue". player and drummer contributed to reorchestrate for the Quartet music he Riverside, RLP 12-293. the music of a small jazz group besides composed and orchestrated Blue Mitchell, trumpet; Benny Golson, tenor keeping time, which he felt shouldn't for an orchestra as accompaniment sax; Wynton Kelly, piano; Paul Chambers or be necessary. I explained that this to a suspense gangster film in a Sam Jones, bass; , drums. time-keeping function was very twentieth century setting. He does a Blues on my Mind; It Could Happen to You; important in jazz, because it served most tasteful, imaginative and Boomerang; Sweet-cakes; Missing You; When as a reference by which the soloist's genuinely inspired job. It seems ironic the Saints go Marching in. rhythmic liberties were more acutely that I find Cue #9 originally set off. What's more, in the work of the written as a part of the action of the best rhythm sections a lot more goes film, the least interesting in the album. Blue Mitchell, a good trumpet player on than mere time-keeping. I would The complete emergence of John and soloist, is nominally the leader of certainly have had a good example in Lewis as a principal soloist is this date, but he contributes nothing When the Saints Go Marching In here. particularly gratifying and noteworthy; to this record in the role of leader. The rhythm section makes a real in the presence of this It suffers from too little preparation contribution, from the subtly played is no small feat for anyone. Lewis and no unified point of view. Being head in two-beat and Chambers' is the featured soloist on A the leader of a record date these days syncopated accents in the second and A Cold Wind is Blowing. A Social often means that your name and chorus, right through to the end of the Call, which seems to have some probably your photograph are on the piano solo. Kelly accompanies spiritual connection with Ellington's cover; you are paid more; and maybe superbly, increasing the density of his Dancers In Love, is to my way of you choose the other musicians on playing and pushing the section as thinking a very high example of piano the date. When musicians take no Golson enters, and the mood gets art in its lucidity, charm and ravishing more responsibility for their recordings more exciting. Everything works, the simplicity. A Cold Wind is Blowing is than that, they neglect a good intensity builds throughout Golson's also of a very high order, but it opportunity for expression. There is solo, until he takes a stacatto arpeggio contains some non-jazz business (as nothing particularly distinguished about pickup into his , and Kelly does Skating in Central Park) that I the writing, or the playing of any of punctuates with perfectly spaced, could have done without. the soloists, and without the help of ringing chords. Chambers' bass line Jackson blows real hard and generally some thread of a unifying idea (even glides and soars below all this, well on the three other pieces. Dig if it were only a good ensemble sound) occasionally pushing with his habitual especially his solo on No Happiness this record has the lack of syncopated quarter notes for a bar for Slater; it's almost the same old character of most "blowing sessions". or two. Blakey's fourth beat rim shots thing, but it is a great thing he Benny Golson's playing has continue tastefully through the two does do. been described as a cross between horn solos where there is too much and John Coltrane, When the rules of the game call for going on for him to do much else, a heavy cross to bear. He is out of it, Heath and Kay do breathe as one; but he finally breaks loose from this tune in the higher register, and his they invariably contribute what is pattern to provide the accents behind rough, full sound often burdens him required gracefully and authoritatively. Kelly's solo. The momentum, which during his fast sixteenth-note passages. is so beautifully built up through I. W. Stone Trying to play Coltrane-like runs Golson's solo and sustained through without his liquid sound and phrasing Kelly's, is lost when Kelly and Blakey has a disastrously nervous result. fail to give Chambers the usual Red "KID ORY Plays W. C. Handy". Verve Golson sounds best at his most Garland-Philly Joe Jones send off to MG V-1017. economical. Wynton Kelly is his very cover the difficult transition into the Kid Ory, trombone; Teddy Buckner, trumpet; professional self, and Art Blakey is bowed solo, and everything falls down Frank Haggerty, guitar; Cedric Haywood, piano; subdued and musical. a little. Up to this point a good case Charles Oden, bass; Jesse John Sailes, drums; Sam Jones and Paul Chambers are has been presented for the defense Caughey Roberts (according to the listing) alternate on this date, and of the rhythm section. or William Shea (according to the notes), this presents an interesting opportunity clarinet. for comparison. As a soloist, Jones Chuck Israels sounds as comfortable in Blues on my Mind as I have ever heard him, and The old jazz criticism may have been uninformed, narrow, cantakerous, he plays very well. Unfortunately, he THE MODERN JAZZ QUARTET: "Odds immature, and damned near illiterate, suffers from a poor sound. Perhaps Against Tomorrow". United Artists but at least you knew where you it is his bass. He has short, thumpy UAL 4063. stood. New Orleans, boogie-woogie sounding notes that leave too much Milt Jackson, vibraharp; John Lewis, piano; space, except in fast tempos. pianists, and certain blues singers Percy Heath, bass; Connie Kay, drums. embraced nearly all the best jazz: that Chambers, on the other hand, seems Skating In Central Park; No Happiness For to. attach the tail end of one note to was that, and no nonsense. The Slater; A Social Call; Cue #9; A Cold Wind Is New Jazz Criticism, dedicated to the beginning of the next, giving a Blowing; Odds Against Tomorrow. wonderful buoyant and smooth quality Keeping Up, never stands still long to his lines. His time seems to fly, enough to find out, like, what it's leaving lesser bassists back on the I am, in theory at least, opposed to trying to say. ground, sounding rather pedestrian the idea of The Modern Jazz Quartet, The New Criticism line on jazz com• comparison. Chambers has found a essentially on the ground that John posers has gyrated like the Popular very good instrument, with a sustained, Lewis has presented to the public a Front at the time of the Hitler-Stalin singing tone. He takes full advantage too genteel, overly rehearsed music pact: the last time I could make it of its potentialities while avoiding combining coyly stated 18th and 19th out, Scott Joplin, Jelly-Roll Morton, Century forms with a solid valid base , and a host of modern 28 rblue note ~ musicians too numerous to mention trills. Ory is, as ever, a rock in en• were Great Jazz Composers. How these semble, but he still plays variations THE FINEST IN JAZZ things are decided is of course not on his 1926 Snag It in the solo spots. L SINCE 1939 I divulged to the laity; I suppose they Add a nondescript (but pleasant) are simply Revealed. There are, biueish piano, a drummer who flails nevertheless, certain standards away on the weak beats as if he through which those lacking True were beating a rug, a sluggish bass, Vision can try to reach some con• and a guitar player who has taken clusions, the most interesting of which Carmen Mastren as his model and (the standards, I mean) suggests that you get something less than Ory's the way to judge a piece of jazz Jade Room band. composition is to see what it sounds Aunt Hagar's Blues, which is paradig• like in the hands of inferior musi• matic, begins most promisingly with cians. By doing this, the argument the ensemble run-through of the two runs, you take away all that a great strains they use, but comes apart improvisor can add, and you are left when the string of solos commences. with the piece itself. If it still sounds The horn choruses are punctuated, good, it is probably music of con• Nicksieland style, with a beat or siderable strength. two of ensemble, the guitar and In this light, some of the Oliver Creole tired-bass solos are stop-time, and a Jazz Band tunes, which are not real New Orleans ostinato eighth-note usually mentioned in Higher Discus• riff makes up most of the final sions about jazz compositions, turn choruses. The fragment from the THE MUSIC FROM out to be excellent pieces. As a case opening strain as coda is a nice little "THE CONNECTION" - in point, I have on a cheap Ip version touch. FREDDIE REDD QUARTET of Workingman Blues done by an Well, there's nothing to be done about WITH JACKIE McLEAN unidentified band (foreign, I suspect) style now, no way to give Buckner Seldom, if ever, has a musical score been of no apparent accomplishments. But back some of the discipline he had as important to a play's dramatic effect simply by playing Workingman through when he first played with Ory, no way — dynamically employed to ignite a with some not very good solos in to make a clarinet player out of play's action — as in The Living Thea• the appropriate spots they manage Roberts/Shea. But a little could have tre's production of Jack Gelber's hit play to create satisfying music. On the been done about the choice of "The Connection". If at the beginning of other hand many Ellington numbers, tunes, and about what the band does its long run the play has received con• excluding a few of the good ones with its material. Harlem Blues troversial criticism, most critics conceded he wrote with Bubber Miley, do not sounds like Steady Roll in its first that it's music, written by Freddie Redd, seem to stand up so well under strain and Atlanta Blues in its second; is "brilliant", "remarkable"' "memorable", "striking", and "expert jazz". Effective this kind of treatment. Way Day South is just a 32-bar pop as the score is in the play, it is still From the point of view of either tune (although, oddly enough, Ory powerful when heard out of context, composition or improvisation, W. C. plays his best solo on it). There are because primarily it is good music fully Handy's better tunes are first rate better Handy tunes than those. (I capable of standing on its own. jazz pieces, whether the New Criti• can understand wanting to get away BLUE NOTE 4027 cism admits it or not. Since they from the warhorses, but if St. Louis, have more shape than much of why not Memphis or Beale Street?) Ellington, they have something even On Atlanta Blues, and Loveless Love RECENT RELEASES: in mediocre performance; since they only one strain (the chorus) is used. are not as confining as so much of The interesting lines in Yellow Dog are Joplin, they are good vehicles for smeared out, and the band just At The Five Spot Cafe. With Tina improvisation. Unfortunately, the breezes through Friendless Blues. (Lu Brooks, Bobby Timmons, , present Ip has neither as many Watters treatment of Friendless may , Art Blakey. of the better tunes nor as much have been ponderous, especially in BLUE NOTE 4021 good improvisation as it should. the chorale-like first strain, but at JACKIE McLEAN To begin with, the playing style, a least it showed some understanding Siving Swang Swingin'. With Walter sort of jazz lingua franca which seems of the nature of the melodies and Bishop Jr., , Art Taylor. to have developed in recent years— the essential difference between the BLUE NOTE 4024 it avoids the stylistic excesses of strains.) To Ory's men, blues is DUKE PEARSON both traditional and modern schools blues, and only a few of Ory's solos Profile. With . Lex Hum• along with all the virtues of the (Loveless Love is one) are not phries. former—doesn't help. Teddy Buckner interchangeable. BLUE NOTE 4022 is all right in the opening ensembles, Really, something could have been but when he gets out on his own done, and the Ip could have been a . With Blue Mitchell, his tone broadens until it sags at little better than it is. Who's the A Horace Parian, Laymon Jackson, Dave the edges. He almost always begins Bailey, . & R man at Verve anyhow? climbing toward the end of his first BLUE NOTE 4025 J. S. Shipman solo chorus, and is screaming by the WALTER DAVIS JR. second; most of his final ensemble Davis Cup. With , Jackie work is frantic. (A notable exception McLean, Sam Jones, Art Taylor. is a brace of soft choruses toward HOWARD RUMSEY'S LIGHTHOUSE BLUE NOTE 4018 the end of Altanta Blues). The clari• ALL-STAR BIG BAND: "Jazz Rolls nettist, whichever he is, is the horrors, Royce". Lighthouse Records Concert Movin' And Groovin'. With Sam combining the worst features of Series CS-300. Jones, . and Barney Bigard, if Bob Cooper, tenor sax, oboe; , BLUE NOTE 4028 that can be imagined. His ensemble trombone; , trumpet; Vic work is full of pointless runs and Feldman, piano, vibes, drum; , Complete Catalog on Request empty doodling, and his solos are drums; Howard Rumsey, bass; , full of pointless growls and empty , Ed Leddy, George Worth, trumpets; INC. , Harry Betz, Hoyt Bohannon, 47 West 63rd St., New York 23

29 trombones; Marshall Cram, bass trombone; Oh. Well, how about Bruinsvilie, USA. Shearing, unlike Monk or Parker, has , tympani, vibes; , No? All right man, all right, don't get been accepted all along by the public tuba. salty. You want something dignified at large; it should have been up to Strike Up The Band; Prelude To The Queen; you'll get it, already. Yeah, yeah, here him to assume the responsibility The Clown's Dance; "Coop" Salutes The Coop; it is: Bruinville, My Bruinville. Yeah, of educating the public ear. As a Bruinville My Bruinville; Mambo Del Quad-o. it's perfect. And then we gotta have public idol he has had the opportunity a montuna ... Of course, baby, to lead his listeners higher; instead, everybody digs montunas. Yeah. he continues to entice them downhill. "Look, if I told ya once I told ya a How about we tie up the Latin thing Men like Shearing are capable of thousand times, I can't get the with a collegiate motif? Yeah . . . like, opening the door for jazz musicians Kingston Trio. They're booked solid for Mambo Del Quad-o. You like? It's (like Monk and Parker) to let the the next two years. What's that? yours; the contract'll be in the mail audience in on what jazz is all about, Homecoming? Look, sweetheart, I tomorrow. Yeah. So long doll . . ." not only to take the easy way and don't care if they're gonna ball in the make excuses that the- public isn't streets, I just can't help ya. Now Don Heckman ready for real jazz, or give out the why don't y'take my advice and pick "economics" routine. up on this group I got. Like it's the The George Shearings of jazz are a cream of with the GEORGE SHEARING: "Latin Affair." real disappointment, in more ways toughest charts you ever . . . what? Capitol ST 1275. than just musically. ? Y'know baby I don't All Or Nothing At All; Let's Call the Whole think you appreciate what I'm trying Thing Off; Afro #4; Magic; It's Easy to Mimi Clar to do for you . . . No, Jones is out. Remember; Estampa Cubana; You Stepped That's right, and you know what the Out of a Dream; Mambo Balahu; Dearly scene is with Brubeck. I mean, like, Beloved; Cuando Sono El Gaznaton; This Is STUFF SMITH: "Have Violin, Will if you just listen for a minute, daddy's ; Anywhere. Swing". Verve, MG V-8282. gonna lay it on the line, baby, No personnel listed. Stuff Smith, violin; , piano; Red promotion and all. First off y'gotta Callender or , bass; Oscar Bradley or , drums. sign this group I got, like I say, a real Sometimes it's hard for the public It's Wonderful; Comin' Thru the Rye; Jada; ring-a-dinger. Right away you're to fight back when the lower forms Indiana; Calypso; Blow Blow Blow; I wrote ahead, on accounta that's what gets of entertainment are unceasingly my Song; Oh but it is; Stop-Look; Would the kiddies, an ALL STAR BAND . . . peddled in a daily kitsch campaign. y'know baby I might even get ya a And so the public takes what it is You Object. poll winner or two. So then ya take given. and . . . What'd y'say was the name I am of the opinion that, this being Critical jazz listeners may be interested a' that joint? Royce hall? Sweetheart the case, it is up to executives and in this recording for what it contains how can y'be so thick? It's a natural! artists who produce mass of the work of the late Carl Perkins, I can see it now, a big concert bit entertainment to try to raise the level of who plays here with his customary with posters all over the place and their product as much as possible, warmth and swing—after Smith's then right spang in front y'have this not to force feed the most inferior out-of-tune schmaltz. There is nothing big Rolls Royce with a sign over it material available simply because much else here for the serious that says, "Jazz Rolls Royce"! What's someone has decided that it is listener. The rhythm sections are that? Like did I say I was handlin' economically risky to back "art" or good, in the Granz studio tradition; things or not? Baby, there're a "culture" or that the public isn't Carl plays well; the rest is Stuff and hundred car dealers that'd wi&for "ready" for such material. Nonsense, nonsense. th'opportunity. Not only that, I'll if the public buys what is available, Chuck Israels probably even get'ya a record date, what it is given. The public is never too. Of course I mean it, man don't "ready"; the public must be made you dig? This is West Coast Jazz, like, ready. CAL TJADER: "San Francisco Moods". which can sell anywhere, baby, Shearing is an excellent case in Fantasy, 3271. anywhere. Look! Is Ornette Coleman Cal Tjader, and piano; Eddie Duran, gassin' everybody in the Apple or isn't point. He started out with a fresh guitar; John Mosher, or Jack Weeks, bass; he? Well, sweetheart, yours truly once ensemble sound, and by recording John Markham, drums. got him a club date when he was diluted bop, became a popular jazz Running Out; Raccoon Straits; The Last Luff; a nobody! That's right, a nobody! figure. The early Shearing sides— Sigmund Stern Groove; Coit Tower; Triple T But dig, here's the capper, for this September in the Rain, Someone to Blues; Union Square; Skyline Waltz; Viva concert we have a program of Watch Over Me, etc.—did contain a special music . . . Yeah, that's right, sparkle and interest, and more Cepeda; Grant Avenue Suite. and we give the music special titles important, a genuineness which for the kiddies, you dig the bit? disappeared from his later efforts. If this record is typical San Francisco Of course the cat won't mind; he's Shearing began to decline when his jazz, then I am hard put to distinguish gettin' scale for 'em, isn't he? I got quintet sound developed into an end it from the Los Angeles west coast some great titles in mind. We could in itself, a trademark rather than an variety. Most west coast record dates start out with a flagwaver just to get identity—Roses of Picardy is the which use the better bass players in everybody in their seats, something trademarked Shearing. Then sound that area, such as Leroy Vinegar and like Strike Up The Band . . . yeah, began wearing thin, and it was decided Red Mitchell, have one common that's it. But then we cool it for the that George should add something. characteristic—an ultra-relaxed quality queen, some sorority chick, huh? He added bongos and a conga drum. about the playing of the rhythm Something solemn and serious, like What this amounts to is formula on section. On this record, John Mosher maybe Prelude to the Queen, you top of formula. The Latin treatment of is apparently responsible for the know, with dignity. Yeah, then we tunes is deadly; the music is propagation of this style of rhythm break it up with something humorous, plodding, static and stultifying, and section work. There is a relaxed mood like, maybe a clown's dance or the tunes themselves remain and an unobtrusive quality throughout something. Hey—it just hit me—do unpenetrated. The Latin "originals" the record. The musicianship is of a they have some kind of mascot or are repetitive, unimaginative, frenzied. generally high, though not exciting, something there that we could use? Basically Shearing is a good musician, level. Tjader, a good vibraphonist, . . . Bruin? . . . What's that, man? . . . and he must have more to say than makes his piano debut here, but shows this cha-cha jive he's handing us. less facility with this instrument at

30 Now a correspondence course the moment. When he is at the piano, recorded improvisation, whereas at an the rhythm section takes on a nice in-person performance they may be neo-Basie groove, in which Mosher's erased from memory by succeeding beautiful, deep-toned bass playing is triumphs. Yet since progress has GEORGE RUSSELL'S instrumental in providing the swing. denied us the old kind of creative jam His long notes sustain the swing sessions, today's "blowing sessions" LYDIAN CHROMATIC through John Markham's competent, in record studios should be valued as but chunky drumming. Eddie Duran records of contemporary improvisatory CONCEPT FOR JAZZ has kissed the Barney stone of west ability. For the producer, they remain coast guitar playing, and employs very much of a gamble, but with the IMPROVISATION his resultant gift musically, but exception of gimmick specials and unimaginatively. those bearing commercial names, all "The first important theoretical inno• This is well-played, mostly happy jazz records are that. Of these two, vation to come from jazz."—John Lewis, (though not overjoyed) commercial I think one paid off and one did not. musical director of the Modern Jazz jazz, which will neither offend nor Other mundane, economic aspects of Quartet. particularly interest the serious listener. jazz recording have to be considered, "Important for every serious jazz mu• The one track recorded by Tjader's too. If records could be distributed sician."—Art Farmer. Cuban-oriented group is little more in plain brown bags, if the money Taught at the School of Jazz, Lenox, exciting. In spite of the fact that the spent on gaudy packaging could be Mass. Cuban rhythms take it out of the applied to rehearsal time and a litle For information write to-. general groove of the other material writing, well then you might get a presented here, it still belongs in the more distinguished product. Meanwhile, Concept Publishing Company slick, easy to consume genre of many it's a case of doing in the jungle west coast releases. Only Vince as the big cats do. 121 Bank Street, N. Y. 14, N. Y. Guaraldi's too short solo threatens On the first of these albums, two big momentarily to break out of these cats of another kind do right well. confines. He seems to be influenced They produce easygoing, relaxed music by" the late Carl Perkins in parts of that may even be considered too his small solo spot. relaxed in some circles. The ending of Of the ten selections, all originals Blues For Yolande, for that matter, written by the performers, only bassist is quite careless, and the first side Jack Weeks's pretentious Grant Avenue is generally somewhat disappointing. Suite deserves strongly negative The slow blues opener has the criticism. It is naive program music, hard overtones of rock 'n' roll, an using the simplest, least original idiom I suspect of exerting a idioms to "describe" in musical bigger subconscious influence on terms some typical San Francisco contemporary jazz than most of us scenes. Unfortunately, it tells us like to admit. Both tenors make some nothing new, and nothing specifically tough, harsh statements here, and San Franciscan. in this vein or mood Ben sounds more Chuck Israels like Hawk than elsewhere. On the ballad which follows, Ben achieves a pretty effect, but Hawk, with his more "COLEMAN HAWKINS Encounters direct approach, seems to wrap up Ben Webster". Verve MG V-8237. the heart of the matter. On Rosita, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, tenor saxes; Hawk is far away in Andalusia, doing a , piano; , guitar; stately tango and killing the locals. Ray Brown, bass; , drums. Homesick, and neglected by his Blues For Yolande; It Never Entered My Mind; compatriot, Ben breaks into a swinging Rosita; You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To; four, but not for long. Prisoner of Love; Tangerine; Shine On, The second side is all meat. On the BAY AREA Harvest Moon. first two tracks, Ben is too close to the mike. The breathy sounds, "BEN WEBSTER and Associates". suggesting a loose gasket, add nothing Verve MG V-8318. to his supercharged style. The Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, , numbers and tempos chosen are all tenor saxes; , trumpet; Jimmy good, however, and on all four he and Jones; piano; , guitar; Ray Brown, Hawk blow and swing attractively. bass; , drums. Better, perhaps, than their alternating ; Young Bean; Budd Johnson; solos, the exchange of fours in the Time After Time; De-Dar. last chorus of Shine On, Harvest Moon illustrates how marvellously related, A great deal of lip-service is paid to yet how superbly differentiated, these the concept that improvisation is two great musicians are. the lifeblood of jazz, yet when Where the music requires heated improvisation is encountered au treatment, Ben gives a violent, virtually naturel, as it were, on records, it rude touch; where lyrical, a warm, seldom meets with sympathy or surging sensuousness. At all times, he DANCE ORCHESTRATIONS understanding. Of course we are comes on with a feeling of expansive spoiled by the vast number of records, generosity, but there is command, COMBO ORKS . Musical Supplies but increasingly it is not spontaneous too, and he has everything in his tone For Free Catalog Write to: expression that is esteemed, not the to go with these qualities. joy as it flies, but the polished result But when the Hawk spreads his wings TERMINAL of rehearsal or of many takes, and his shadow falls, he exercises another form of rehearsal. Certainly, an incontrovertible authority. Like MUSICAL SUPPLY, inc. one has to live with the flaws in a Oept JR. 113 W 48 St.,New York 36. N.Y.; 31 Armstrong and Hodges, he has gift And Budd Johnson was just the man the imagination or the artistry to for the definitive conception. Allied to have written them. make tracks of his own. to this is a breadth of tone as Stanley Dance Dakota Staton, on the other hand, unequalled as his fabulous musical requires of the listener patience, a long vocabulary. The many developments attention span, a broad mind, his tone has undergone in the past CHRIS CONNOR: "Witchcraft". Atlantic unswerving optimism, and a strong thirty years have reflected his 8032. constitution. Apparently Miss Staton's non-conforming interest in the musical Witchcraft; I'll Never Be Free; The Lady Sings fans have these qualities; I have world around him. Through his early the Blues; ; When watched them go wild with delight at ebullience to the stormy passions of Sunny Gets Blue; How Little We Know; I Hear her concert appearances. Miss Staton the thirties, to the drive of the forties the Music Now; Oriole; Just In Time; works very hard and yells loudly and and the tensions of the fifties, an Like a Woman; Skyscraper Blues; Vou Don't obviously enough to garner enthusiastic uncompromising personal note has Know What Love Is. acceptance. Her emotional scale been steadfastly sounded. ranges from frantic (Willow Weep For Incidentally, when this album was DAKOTA STATON: "Time to Swing". Me, But Not For Me) to hysterical released in England early in 1959, it Capitol ST 1241. (Best Thing For You, Song Is You). carried a couple of extra performances: When Lights Are Low; ; At present she sounds like an Maria and Cocktails For Two. But Not For Me; You Don't Know What Love Is; overstylized with The second album was recorded a The Best Thing For You; The Song Is You; touches of Dinah Washington thrown year and a half later with Ben as Avalon; Baby Don't You Cry; Let Me Know; in. Comparing her Baby Don't You Cry nominal leader and two horns added. Until the Real Thing Comes Along; If I Should with Charles Brown's with Johnny explains in the notes Lose You; Gone With the Wind. Moore's Three Blazers (Aladdin 111A), how Budd Johnson came to be on we see that Dakota is thinking about the date, and it is Budd, curiously, ANNIE ROSS: "Gypsy". World Pacific how she's singing, Brown about what who shines most surely. His bright, WP-1276. he's singing. Dakota's performance resonant and unforced sound contrasts orchestra. is self-centered; she is aware only agreeably with those of the other two Overture; Everything's Coming Up Roses; of Dakota. Brown directs the song tenors. Stylistically, he is closer to You'll Never Get Away; Some People; All I Need somewhere outside of himself, at Lester—and post-Lester—as the lyric Is a Boy; Small World; Together; Let Me someone. Brown is singing the blues; reference to Pres at the beginning of Entertain You; Reprise. Dakota is just singing another song. his solo on Budd Johnson clearly She improves somewhat on You Don't indicates. His ability to create With these albums we have three types Know What Love Is simply because distinctive atmosphere is also of mediocrity willingly accepted by she stops throwing herself around demonstrated in the course of his the jazz public today. and takes time to digest the meaning three choruses on De-Dar. Budd often Of the three, Miss Connor is the of what she sings and to project surprises with his continuing invention, easiest to listen to. Generally, she some of that meaning into her with his own individual range of chooses good material to work with, performance. offbeat, seldom-heard numbers or expression, and it seems time he was On her "Gypsy" Ip Annie Ross' voice standards favored by musicians, and accorded more recognition for his is consistently flat and hollow; it lacks then her style has already been contributions to jazz, something that substance; it is chapped, coarse and worked out so thoroughly by Anita might be facilitated by the re-issue unresilient; and when not hidden O'Day and . In choosing of his later recordings with . behind scat singing and riffs created the O'Day-Christy route, Chris has run Apart from Budd's solos, the music by others, her vocal ability is exposed herself up a dead-end. Several years inclines to be disappointing. Roy's for what it is. ago, it seemed every aspiring female best solo is on De-Dar. Where he lands Now, the above is hardly criticism. jazz vocalist sang like June Christy. on a wrong note in bar two of the No critic should be put in the They soon discovered this wasn't such second twelve, he comes out in position of having to make a good idea, for by then Miss Christy's modern style. (Ain't no wrong notes such statements. A critic's task style had stagnated considerably and anymore!) Ben's ballad feature, Time should be to decide how well that the young ladies were left high and After Time, is pretty enough, but again individual performs, whether he has dry. It is amusing that few attempted the mike picks up too much breath. improved or regressed as time passes, to emulate Anita O'Day, but doubtless Or is this a new gimmick? The tempos whether he adds anything to the they sensed that Anita, the root of of In a Mellow Tone and De-Dar are tradition of his art, etc., not whether the whole thing, is the only singer of too slow, those of Young Bean and a performer has bothered to master ability and note that the school has Budd Johnson a shade too fast, and his craft or whether a performer produced and that Anita is the only neither Ben nor Hawk sounds at all even posses the ability to master it. one who has grown at all stylistically inspired. On Young Bean, Ben settles Perhaps the public has developed an within recent years; she was too for eighth notes as the easier way inferiority complex and doesn't wish hard to copy. out, but Hawk stays with sixteenths, to be excelled in anything by anyone. hitting them on the head in the Chris Conner not only has (or had) Thus the public thinks, "I'm just as rhythmic style natural to him, which the rest of the Christy herd to compete good as she is—I could do that too, results in a constrained effect. The with, but she failed to realize the but I'm just too busy to get around to routining of In a Mellow Tone is shortcomings of the style before she doing it." And the fact that the unimaginative. After two fairly too had succumbed to them. As public could do it, too, makes it all promising ensemble choruses, there personified by Chris, the style has but the more readily understandable and are five from members of the rhythm two emotional and dynamic shadings: palatable to them. section, none of whom swings much, dispassionate whispering and tasteless The music from "Gypsy", I might add, before a sequence of two-chorus solos yelling. The whole, particularly the I find flabby. Only a real artist could by the horns. Since the performance yelling, is horribly off-key, lacks depth bring these songs to life and make extends over an entire side, the routine or flexibility, and is always delivered them say anything. The combination was important, and with four horns, in a hoarse, breathy timbre of which of Annie Ross and "Gypsy" is a few backgrounds could have done the ear soon tires, and which causes something less than inspiring. What a much to relieve the tedium. Similarly, all songs to sound alike. In addition, pity this stuff is connected with some backgrounds would have done there are the drawbacks faced by jazz in any way. much to improve the dirge-like De-Dar. one who steps in the footprints of Or has jazz singing really come to this? another performer and has not shown Mimi Clar 32 he could never be merely safe. the lamentably unsung Adrian Rollini. That's how we know he is still Unquestionably a performance like SHORTER an artist. the Teagarden-dominated Shiek of If you got MILT JACKSON on one of Araby survives. It also contains a those New York "jam session" record lesson: Teagarden's playing sometimes dates a few years ago, he would show risks a kind of decorativeness, but he REVIEWS himself for what he is: one of the could never sound so adroitly best players in all of jazz. He did it frivolous as does again recently with the decidedly following him. The experimental pieces maturing Cannonball Adderley on like Ida and Feelin' No Pain certainly ' "Things Are Getting Better" (Riverside surpass the merely workmanlike standards which are their basis. On One would get few arguments by 12-286). On the other hand, under several tracks, drummer Berton saying that the BILLIE HOLIDAY the formal discipline of playing with remains, for me, very provocative— records were those now owned by the MJQ, he not only loses nothing, and very square. Columbia and those made for but has obviously gained enormously Commodore. An earlier collection from in range and resourcefulness. Few of 'S records the latter group left out four: However, when he manages his own convey the power and dignity of her , I Love My Man record dates (am I saying "provides work, and most of her Columbia (Billie's Blues), As Time Goes By, and his own discipline?"), under the fully records don't even remotely suggest it. I'm Yours. These are now collected praiseworthy care and patience that An exception is the Newport volume on Commodore FL 30,011, and the Atlantic exercises, that love of playing (CL 1244), of course. Otherwise one Ip is filled out by eight largely that is the essence of his art may can scrounge around among the fatuously conceived tracks of Eddie somehow not come through. "Bags reissues of the sides she made for Heywood. Of course, Doc Cheatham, and Flutes" (Atlantic 1294) seems to Apollo in the mid-forties, now available Vic Dickenson and Sidney Catlett can me a case in point. The earlier on a variety of labels. Listening to almost salvage many a misguided best-seller by Jackson and Frank Wess, her Columbia recital called "Great conception, and, in case you never " (Savoy 12036) was Gettin' Up Morning" (CL 1343), it is noticed, that Carry Me Back To Old hardly a great record but it was an hard to believe that so great a Virginny is a kind of hearty lampoon enjoyable and frequently eventful one. singer gave these possibly inhibited, one would hardly think Heywood One can say that about half of the frequently tame, and almost mechanical capable of. tracks on "Bags and Flutes" do and contrived performances. A track come off: Sandy, Midget Rod, The like When I've Done My Best makes The first side of DUKE ELLINGTON'S Masquerade Is Over, Sweet and Lovely. one wonder if Miss Jackson perhaps "" (Columbia CL 1323) is 'S last Columbia, allowed herself to be coerced by a suite, (or rather, is five pieces), "Songs for Swingers" (CL 1320) someone with an eye on the rock and beginning with some lightly intended seemed to me a very uneven Ip. Dickie roll juke boxes—where it probably and engaging interplay of rather Wells verged on self-parody (a real got lots of action. Then one like standard riff figures by a "legitimate" temptation for so humorous a player) God Put A Rainbow In The Sky makes percussion section. It ends with on Swinging At the Copper Rail but one know how very good it all might another of those almost insultingly was beautiful indeed on Outer Drive. have been. banal puffing sessions by Paul Somehow pianist Al Williams was Gonzalves. Enroute, over-busy, unswinging, and he was I doubt if has ever plays the very well scored Red Carpet often accompanied by loud afterbeating been tempted to "broaden" his with loving care, but the rest seems from Herbie Lovell. 's lampoons, but probably a lot of people hardly up to the passing cleverness current playing is more than the have told him that if he did he would of the title, Toot Suite. On the reverse, merely capable it has seemed. reach a wider audience. The truth is the percussion section again enjoys Then there are Clayton and Emmett more likely that if they were a hair more itself with more riff patterns and this Berry: both of them on Buchini and obvious, his routines would disappear time comes closer to swinging. The Berry on Moonglow. Without solos like in a loud pointlessness. As they are, first guest, Dizzy Gillespie, plays far those jazz would be poor indeed. they are somehow, for all their better on the blues than on his Brunswick has repackaged its RED surface energy, strangely fragile. They "featured" assignment, U.M.M.G. NICHOLS Ip (BL-54047) in honor of seldom come across on records as gets over-decorous on you-know-what. Nichols is often one remembers them from public what has been a near-masterpiece for dismissed as a sort of second-string performance. Perhaps, as with Mahalia him on recent occasion, All of Me. Beiderbecke. That estimate may be Jackson, the audience is too crucial On the aforementioned blues, Jimmy inaccurate in itself, and it ignores the a participant for the event to take Rushing slaps together three unrelated fact that he had definite and influential place before only a microphone and verses which he delivers with ideas about refinement and order an a & r man. Gaillard's first record in accumulating strain, and within the styles of the 'twenties. several years, "Slim Gaillard Rides makes a better accompanist than Of course, good results will not Again" (Dot DLP 3190), does not soloist. Certainly one of the things necessarily come about when one's leave his talent entirely uncaptured, that makes Ellington a great popular first principles include only the to be sure. There is his burlesque artist is his ability to please at all standards of craftsmanship: good of the staged "jam session" on How levels, usually at once. But I have the intonation, clean execution, Vic High the Moon at its almost devastating feeling that in the up-tempo Gonsalves Berton's neo-classic jazz percussion, best, and a Don't Blame Me that (which may have started in part as etc. What does bring Nichols close to parodies a parade of pop singers so a kind of joke on certain audiences, the heart of the matter is his subtly that it may take a second I suspect) Ellington has become dependable gift for melody—a good listening before one realizes just how the victim of something which one and more personal than is usually pointed, how really funny, and how could not stand a moment's reflection. admitted. It salvages a frequently jerky very skillful it is. There is also the But even in that, and in his rhythmic conception of the kind that usual dead-pan Gaillard nonsense of frequent re-hashing (as opposed to easily fragments and defeats the Chicken Rhythm (with the Gaillard reinterpreting) of 1939, there is a kind melodic lines of less gifted players. bridge, of course), Sukiyaki Cha Cha, of integrity not to be heard in the And then he often used the likes of a Leo Watsonish Lady Be Good—but bland, complacent slickness that Basie , , and I don't want to turn this into a list. now peddles. Ellington may fail, but Martin Williams

33 on the conception and completion of the project. It is unfortunate that he BOOK REVIEWS did not solve the problem of trans• ferring spoken prose to the written page in a manner that would more accurately evoke the quality of the original. Without making disastrous ex• cursions into dialect, it should have been possible to retain more of the rhythm of speech. When an extremely colloquial turn of phrase crops up among these neatly tailored sentences it looks as startling as a pumpkin on a cucumber vine, and causes one to suspect that Baby's narrative was origi• nally a whole pumpkin patch of musical speech patterns. My only other quarrel with the inter• viewer is about his preface. The first two paragraphs tell us all we need to know about the book and its purpose. From there on he should have let Baby tell it. Instead, Gara gives us a resume of what we are about to read, restating many of Baby's remarks in the third person. In doing so, he removes Baby's opinions on music from their relation• ship with events and circumstances, leaving us with the implication that these are basic postulates about music. All of the summarized "fundamentals of jazz" in Gara's preface are much more reasonable as told in context by Baby, and I feel that the summary makes the understanding of Baby's playing as it relates to the drumming one hears today more difficult to the THE BABY DODDS STORY as told to word and she will understand. Well, layman. Larry Gara. Contemporary Press, Los that's the way an organization of mu• In the last part of the preface, a Angeles,- 1959. sicians should be ... To really under• statement by Baby's old friend Natty We are fortunate that Larry Gara's in• stand, one must study each and every Dominique has been included. Natty's terest in Baby Dodds led him to tape person until he knows what will bring devotion is understandable, but his a series of interviews in 1953, six contentment or discontent." tendency to deify Baby distorts what• years before Baby's death. This volume, Baby's musical rationale centered on ever information he may have to share Gara's edited transcript of those inter• the welfare of the group expression; he with us. He talks as if no other drum• views, contains Baby's recollections of admired musicians who sought to im• mer had ever played well, and repeat• forty-five years of drumming, with com• prove it, was most at home in "family" edly compares Baby's work with how ments on his musical inspiration, pur• bands and felt compelled to leave both badly "most drummers" play. If out• pose and achievement, his contact with Fate Marable and King Oliver when side comment was desired to add per• other jazzmen and the resulting effect the group rapport was severed, even spective, it's a pity Mr. Gara didn't on his playing, and recollections of though those were two of the most choose a more objective commentator. numerous experiences in New Orleans, satisfying organizations in his career. Comparisons of Baby's work with that on the Streckfus riverboats, in Chicago Throughout his story we see how of other good drummers would have and New York. His narrative is a valu• Baby's desire to become an integral been more revealing than the implica• able addition to the mosaic of jazz part of each unit he played with led tion that he was the only one. history. him to try to listen creatively, to re• At the end of the volume there are Musicians will be interested in Baby's spond inventively and to work toward the improvement of his craft. By his eight pages of interesting photographs account of the development of his snapped along the way. craft. He tells us what he heard, what own account he was a fun lover who he tried to play, the problems he solved liked the taste of whisky, but he also Bill Crow for himself, and reveals his philoso• loved his work, and was proud of his phies and his prejudices about playing ability to play well. He frequently refers music. I like his feeling for ensemble to his desire to be a "well-rounded playing, his efforts toward group em• musician" who can play any kind of pathy. At one point he says, "The way music. Though he was nearly sixty JUST JAZZ 3. Edited by Sinclair Traill I tried to drum required a good brain when these interviews were made he and Hon. Gerald Lascelles. Four Square and a sharp ear. And it was always spoke with enthusiasm about playing. Books, London, 1959. necessary to keep a sense of humor, He expressed his regret that his failing This is the third in a series of year• for God's sake, so that if something health had limited his activity, and felt books edited by Traill and Lascelles. didn't sound right I could always "confident that someday I will again Some ninety pages are devoted to change it or quickly insert something carry out with my drumsticks and drum essays while the balance of the book in it's place." And further on, "Musi• sets the ideas that I am now carrying is made up of the inevitable citations cians should really understand each around in my head." of important events and a one hundred other like a man and wife. Your wife The preparation of this book no doubt and thirty page discography of the can look at you and you understand took a lot of sympathetic, painstaking year's recordings in England. what she means. You can say only one work, and Gara is to be congratulated Dan Morgenstern reviews iazz events 34 in America and does the THE JAZZ WORD. Edited by Dom Ce- quote: "Not all jazz writing is enthusi• same for England. Tony Standish has rulli, Burt Korall, and Mort Nasatir. astic or impressionistic. Much of it is uncovered further evidence of the ter• Ballantine Books, 1960. documented, serious work, drawn from rible 'modernist' conspiracy to stifle Nat Hentoff has been fighting a sniper a background of years of study. The good old honest jazz. Or as he puts it, action against various excesses of jazz fan has -given way to the student, and ". . . no one cares to stomp any more journalism as they appear on his hori• the student is likely to give way to the in the old, soul-tearing manner." Hum• zon, and I am sure he would be over• critic." This is, more or less, the same phrey Lyttleton contends that jazz joyed by this anthology which could thing that is said in the introductions critics are sometimes not too bright. fill his column for months. But it has to the recent anthologies put out by Sinclair Traill has an interview with fallen to me to talk about it, and we the editors of this magazine, the differ• which contains little of are (so I learn from this book) talking ence being that Hentoff and Williams value. Graham Boatfield berates the about jazz, man, and that is very free proceeded to present such work. The critics. Marion McPartland reminisces and loose and spur-of-the-moment, like, key to the material in the present vol• for several dull pages. None of this so we will just take the book as it ume appears just a little later on: "The material pretends to be jazz criticism; comes and see what turns up. fact that 's poetry appears it is typical yearbook twaddle for its Let us skip the arrogance it takes for in this volume does not necessarily own market. three men to write separate dedications constitute endorsement of his jazz has a short critical study to an anthology of the work of others. philosophy by the editors. Thank you." of Lester Young in which he concludes, The book includes an epigraph (from And then, in the next sentence, "The with little documentation, that Young's Doctor Zhivago)—the most recent at• chapter, five, Blues: They Died of best work was done in the late 'thirties. tempt to make jazz respectable by any Everything, sort of sums up our tribute I do not think that an examination of method except recourse to the music to four late and great jazz personali• Young's recorded work from the 'forties itself, and to list it in the Table of ties." This is Kerouac's jazz philosophy, on will verify this contention. Certainly Contents, so as to make the reader and the neo-romantic, gods-die-young Young had his share of failures, but, aware that he is about to Witness attitude is exactly what links Kerouac in a sense, he was taking more Something Important, is typical of the to such various works as this anthol• chances. Nevertheless, Green is a critic pretentiousness that characterizes this ogy, Metronome and Young Man With and shows some musical interest in effort. A Horn. his subject. Then we have the introduction,'which That attitude appears quintessentially Panassie has another of his diatribes is called Setting Up. Like for a session, in the first article, a transcript from on 'modern' jazz. I think we all know you dijg? After that, each set, I suppose tape of Charlie Mingus talking to his how these go; 'modern' jazz, particu• I should call it, is prefaced by a briefer audience at the Five-Spot. Mingus, pos• larly bop, is a misnomer, for it is not introduction, called . I sibly self-indulgently, accuses the audi- jazz at all. Astuteness has never been a quality of Panassie's 'criticism', and I think his 'method' is too well known to require further comment. Ernest Borneman examines the blues in a piece which adds little that is new and continues his tried and true device—many of Borneman's articles consist almost entirely of song titles. Here, half of the article is an anthol• ogy of blues lyrics. But the expository section is not his usual compilation of non sequiturs. Max Harrison surveys the recorded career of . Oddly enough, in view of Harrison's consider• able acumen, this essay is unsatisfac• tory. Part of the difficulty may well have come from considerations of length, for the piece has a cursory quality which suggests that the writer was attempting to say a great deal in a small space. Even so, his appraisal seems to miss main points about Monk. Such really significant works as Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (quintet version), Brilliant Corners, and Let's Call This are either barely mentioned or pass completely unnoticed. Also, Harrison does not seem to appreciate that a part of Monk's significance lies pre• cisely in his being a leader of the new Noted jazz historian, MARSHALL STEARNS, author, of the STORY OF JAZZ, takes notes jazz vanguard. If it is true, and I think for his new book on jazz and the dance from an interview tape that he plays back on it is, that performers as diverse as his NORELCO 'Continental' tape recorder. DR. STEARNS is Director of the INSTITUTE Mingus, , and Ornette Cole• OF JAZZ STUDIES and Associate Professor of English at HUNTER COLLEGE. "I make man are taking the most important constant use of my NORELCO 'Continental' when doing field work for my books and step forward in jazz since Parker in articles," states DR. STEARNS. "Here, the most significant feature is three speed their rebellion against the tyranny of versatility. I find that the extremely economical l7/s speed is ideal for recording harmonic density, then the influence interviews from which I later take material needed for my work. The other speeds and example of Monk simply cannot be are exceptional for their ability to capture the full fidelity of music and voice." discounted. The NORELCO 'Continental' is a product of North American Philips Co., Inc., High H. A. Woodfin Fidelity Products Division, Dept. Iee5, 230 Duffy Avenue, Hicksville, L. I., N. Y.

35 ence of self-indulgence in the cry of writing publicity releases for a summer best and worst album covers ever the misunderstood artist: "Should I like camp, and other writings by musicians. made: 's "Jazz Odys• to play my music for blind ears that Outstanding are 's sey" cover, and a picture of someone are clogged up with the noises and thoughts on his father, which give in• named Vito Price, in cap and raincoat, frustrations of their own daily problems teresting information and a naked standing in the middle of a Chicago and egos?" Mingus has said he makes glimpse of what must be one of the street blowing his . his music out of his daily problems. most devastating psychological prob• There are articles on, and examples of, A little later we come to a fine ap• lems any young musician ever had. jazz-and-poetry. Despite the attempts praisal of by Hentoff, The next section contains three pieces to give this practice an honorable line• who, accurately I feel, places her of fiction. I disqualify myself here from age (Heine and Chopin used to impro• among pop singers. Then, in his own a discussion of Sonny's Blues because vise simultaneously at parties), this version of the Pasternak quotation, he I am opposed to the much-praised particular manifestation seems an out• sums up his feelings for Ella in a quo• James Baldwin for reasons which lie growth of the widespread dying-god tation from Thomas Nashe. outside this review. Destination (K.C.) linkage of and Dylan Next is a piece by called by , I find to be further evi• Thomas. A line here by William Morris "The Responsibility of the Artist." and dence that the author was moved by is an example of one of the main when I came across the line, "The late the death of Charlie Parker, an emo• faults in the poetry, "you listen to Charlie Parker had only himself to tion he must hold public title to. Then Coltrane in the night." Coltrane is blame that he wasn't healthy and there is the first chapter of John Clel- forced to do the work of the poet. His wealthy," I thought that perhaps a lon Holmes' novel The Horn. The ro• name, then his music, register in your bomb had been planted, and that manticism is thick, the inaccuracies mind and whatever emotion you re• someone was going to say that talent are many ("they would take only six- ceive will come from Coltrane, not from is no excuse for excess and self-in• bar breaks from then on, to tighten the the poem. Jack Kerouac's poem on dulgence but a gift to be nurtured and time, and finally only three"), and the Charlie Parker appears in a transcrip• cared for. But Mr. Simon only com• difference between Mr. Holmes' Lester tion the editors made from a recording. plains that jazz musicians do not rec• Young and Robert Penn Warren's Huey They have cleaned it up to judge by a ognize that they are in show business, Long could almost define the difference comparison with the version in Mexico that they do not dress well enough, between the work of a reporter and City Blues. Kerouac says "holy piss," announce their numbers properly or that of an artist, but the anthropologi• and the editors say "holy mists." stage their groups attractively. It is cal description of the cutting session, Kerouac says, "and die/ One after one, rather like suggesting cough medicine stripped of its romanticism, could serve in time," and the editors, attuned to to a tubercular. as a guide-post for jazz writing. the cosmos, say "and die/ one after There is a short picture section which one/ in Time." The poem opens, Then there is a liner note by Bob manages to encompass some of the "Charlie Parker looked like Buddha," , who always appears to be and continues, "Charlie Parker forgive me/ Forgive me for not answering your eyes. . . . Charlie Parker pray for me." I doubt that Bird, who was often not responsible for himself, would now, SPECIAL OFFER wherever he is, wish to be responsible for Kerouac. TO READERS OF The section called "The Blues" opens with an attempt to achieve pathos through radio-documentary understate• THE JAZZ REVIEW ment: "Big Bill Broonzy died in Chicago on August 15, 1958. Billie Holiday died in New York City July 17, 1959. Lester A 12 MONTH SUBSCRIPTION Young died in New York City on March 15, 1959. Charlie Parker died in New York City March, 1955. Four people FOR $3.50 lived and died. They are connected only by three things: their art, their Just fill out the coupon and send it with your check or greatness, and the blues. The blues . . . money order to: THE JAZZ REVIEW 124 White Street, they sang them, they played them, they lived them." N. Y. 13, N. Y. Please add $1.00 for foreign postage. In Studs Terkel's story on Broonzy, we find 1930's trade-union romanticism Please send me the Jazz Review for 1 year. brought into the picture. He tells of stopping at "a workingman's hangout" with Broonzy for a drink. He was sure NAME . they would be served. "After all, these were hard-working guys, decent men." They were not served. ADDRESS Bill Coss' piece on Bird, written origi• nally for a "Jazz at Massey Hall" Ip, is CITY ZONE STATE a classic of its type. At every turn, pseudo-religious mystery is used to shroud the figure of Parker. Here Coss surpasses himself: "A strange God. A creature wanting and suggesting self-destruction ... he did as the religious have always done; he made sacrifice, being at once peni• This offer is available to new subscribers only. tent, victim, and deity. None were ap-

36 peased, none were satisfied, the victim In the final section of the book, eighteen on sound track), a big band was more burnt than offering, but it "Routes and Detours," the best pieces playing Indiana over and over, a drum was over and there could be no more appear. The authors are Nat Hentoff, battle between Krupa and Shelly Manne bowing of head, no more scraping of Gunther Schuller, and George Russell. (or maybe it was and Dave soul . . . , driven mad by While I am not shilling for The Jazz Tough). beauty or a policeman's club . . ." Review, which often errs in the direc• Jazz—or "jazz"—is again used, with• I submit, with this as evidence, that at tion of solemnity, it is notable that out dignity or value, to work up an least some of the sociological ills at• these men are associated with it. atmosphere of hysteria and sexiness tributed to jazz should be laid instead An anthology like this, which is roughly and moral confusion. The hysteria is at the doorstep of the jazz writer, with analagous to Modern Screen, does little easy: all those teenagers and jitter• his idolization of the talented neurotic. but perpetuate the false myths and bugs ("Go Gene Go", they apparently There is also a section of jazz humor, gutter glamour that has always sur• used to say in 1935), and all that most of it consisting of inside humor rounded jazz. I do not think that doc• sweaty flailing. The sex is the Playboy- that someone at the office laughed at, toral dissertations are the alternative, Esquire-jazz sort (that alliance) and the little of it worth reprinting. but too much good writing has gone movie plays it for all it's worth. Just And there is an article by Gary Kramer unnoticed while pieces like these are so everyone gets the idea, the camera on jazz and narcotics. It is not nearly anthologized. The answer, perhaps, lies on one drum solo, early on in the so profound or carefully documented in—well, perhaps I had better express story, looks across the heaving bosom as the editors claim but deserves in• it in the language that continued con• of an admirer for almost the entire clusion and wide-spread reading for centration on this book has made me scene, and the jam session sequences one paragraph, which I hope will coun much too aware of: If jazz, a spon• are really done as music to make your teract all of the well-meaning disagree• taneous, deeply-felt folk-art, highly per• girl by. (Did we have to have those ments to it. I quote it here so that sonal and individualistic, is ever to get nuzzling couples and all that decol- it will have even wider circulation: out of the smoky night-club and into letage every time?) "What is really gained by trying to the concert-hall, we may need valid, cover up the fact that use of mari• searching, probing criticism, such as As for the marijuana—which got to juana and narcotics has been very we have had elsewhere from, say, a be fairly central to the plot—it is widespread in certain periods of jazz Harold Clurman, an Edmund Wilson, handled in such a funny way that history? This is a well-documented fact a James Agee. (fortunately I guess) no one can take it very seriously. Krupa's first encoun• and is commonplace knowledge to any• Joe Goldberg one who has kept up any serious asso• ter with pot is hysterical, and the ratty ciation with the jazz world. Examine a little guitar player who tries to turn list of all the musicians who have run Gene on is a real comedy turn. But afoul of the law between, say, 1945 so many people kept telling Krupa and the present! The roster is neither that he couldn't play the drums "that small nor unrepresentative. It makes, way" unless he were "on something" in fact, an abridged jazz Who's Who." MOVIE that pretty soon I began to believe it. It is, I think, as dangerous to deny this Also a sociological note: the director as it is to advance the opposite myth seems to have gone along with the that all jazzmen are addicts. new Hollywood "liberal" line at least The section on New York contains a REVIEW far enough to allow an occasional fine transcription of a bit of the auto• Negro into the story. The bass play• ers, for instance, are usually Negroes, biographical recording Coleman Haw• THE GENE KRUPA STORY and a colored actor (who must have kins made, and reprints a poem by It isn't just that The Gene Krupa Story studied under the Treniers) keeps : "But lack of acceptance has very little to do with jazz; it doesn't turning up on tenor. Then, too, in a is less like somethin' to hide from/ have much to do with people either. party scene, one or two colored girls And more like somethin' Bird died And I think that Krupa deserves some• can be seen floating around in the from." To hand back wish-fulfilling thing better. Granted that he has never background, and when the dancing mythology to the public from the "in• been the most musical drummer, es• starts, one of them even does a little side" is a technique developed by pecially when Jo Jones, Sid Catlett, jiving in a distant sort of way with a Hollywood, a technique that Hendricks Dave Tough, etc. were on the same white girl. By the time things have is expert in. scene; still he isn't trying to put any• gotten down to the nuzzling stage, one on with his show-biz things; all however, both girls have disappeared The next section finds the editors play• that flash and sweat and simple emo completely. ing games. They asked several jazz tion that got him his popularity are writers to list three indispensable rec• sincerely intended. There are a few historical goofs in ords, a task which many of the critics It appeared to me that the director the picture. These lapses are curious first said was impossible. The sec• and script writer decided to play it safe when one considers how scrupulous tion contains few surprises; establishes by tossing in all the current movie the director has been in other ways. Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington and cliches that could possibly fit: the dope In a scene that takes place in 1931, Louis Armstrong as the three most bit, teenagers, the 'twenties, a dash of a band playing in a smart New York indispensable musicians; and once religion (Krupa as novitiate), the come• club is all-ofay except for the pianist again gives cause for concern about back story, and of course, "jazz", that and a trombone player, both Negroes. Ralph J. Gleason, who apparently tends popular commodity. In the confusion, No one seemed to be leading the band, to think that the greatest record ever Krupa's life is reduced to that musical so the courageous pioneer must go made is the last one he listened to. comedy chestnut about the kid who nameless. In another glorious scene, His nominations are: "Black Brown and makes it big, cuts his old pals, is led three men carrying instrument cases Beige" by Ellington Orchestra with Ma- astray by evil companions, suffers a arrive at a party in Krupa's apartment haiia Jackson, "Milestones" by Miles little, and finally makes it back. (Dan —the year is about 1935 since we Davis, and any Dizzy Gillespie Ip. I Dailey could have walked through the have been told that Gene has already doubt that anyone would agree that part.) The music is no news either— joined Goodman—and one of the visi• either of the first two selections are Leith Stevens did the score, and if it tors turns out to be . the best work of the musicians in• isn't precisely interchangeable with the In all fairness, I should report that the volved, and the first is not even repre• one from The Wild One, it is just as actors did look surprised to see old sentative. But Mr. Gleason has always skillful, slick and empty. There are Bix. been more fan than critic. "jam sessions" (five guys on camera, Jack H. Batten

37 ,own field, but is as Gillespie is dictating the JAZZ IN PRINT square as the rest of us manuscript for an when she tries an area in autobiographical volume. (continued from page 4) which she's unqualified. According to Jet, Jon For example, her notes for Hendricks said in Victor's The Fabulous explaining "why most Negro Josephine Baker: "... On jazz musicians don't that first night in accept whites as greats November, 1925, she founded in the jazz field": "Man, Paul Nossiter sent in a the European cult for you gotta have more than column, Business Outlook, jazz." Josephine and technical skill; you gotta by J. A. Livingston in Matisse? have soul, funk, humility, ; and the whites simply "...GM executives don't The University of won't put down the whip." confirm, but they no Washington Press, Seattle And how often do Dave and longer deny, that this fall 5, Washington) is Annie have to use that they will provide Buick, publishing The Anatomy of whip, Jon? Olds, and Pontiac dealers Jazz by Leroy Ostransky... each with a small car. Hugues Pannasie's Histoire Also, according to Jet — Buick calls these cars the du Vrai Jazz has been and why didn't any of the Bops, after Buick-Olds- published in paperback by white show—biz columnists Pontiac. If so, this will Robert Laffont, 30, rue protest to the Diners be the lineup: GM ten - de 1'Universite, Paris. Club? - "although thousands Cadillac ; Buick, Buick Bop ; The imprimatur, of course, of Negroes belong to the Oldsmobile, Olds Bop; is by the author...A most Diners Club, sepia Pontiac, Pontiac Bop; useful book (paperback) newsmen were ignored when Chevrolet, Corvair, is Negro Songs from the club polled more than Corvette." Alabama, collected by 1500 theatrical and night And Rolls-Royce presumably Harold Courlander with club editors to vote for will have the Ornette music transcribed by John the top cafe performers Special. Benson Brooks and published to receive their annual The School of Jazz season with the assistance of awards." this year will run from the Wenner-Gren Foundation British musician-critic August 14 to September 2. for Anthropological Benny Green (The Observer, A number of $100 Research. If you want to Record Mirror) thinks scholarships will be know how to get a copy, that what Cecil Taylor available to students for write Courlander, care of plays isn't music, but of the first time this year Folkways Records, 117 West John Coltrane he writes: in addition to the special 46th Street, N.Y., N.Y. "...Behind his notes is awards which are annually They're all taken from the implication of a granted. For full Courlander's superb shriek which, although it information, contact Jules six-volume Negro Folk never actually appears Foster, Dean, School of Music of Alabama on lends an element of > Jazz, Lenox, Massachusetts. Folkways, a basic set for excitement to his solos A letter from Mr. Trombly's any jazz library. which make them quite Fifth Grade, City School According to folk music individual affairs."... District, Plattsburgh, expert Bruno Nettl in the Harry Oster, Department of N.Y.: "Why don't more January, 1960, issue of English at Louisiana Americans like jazz? Ethnomusicology. "the best, State University, has (We do.)"...The long letter or at least the most recorded several useful in the February, 1960, ethnomusicological study albums in Louisiana Jazz in Print about what of jazz to have appeared prisons, particularly sets musically untrained so far" is Per Jazz by of work songs, blues and listeners can absorb from Alfons M. Dauer (Erich cut at Angola, jazz was by Walter von Roth Verlag, Kassel, where the Lomaxes (John Bebenburg, a German 1958). Seventy musical and his son, Alan) found post-doctorate fellow at numbers are transcribed... Leadbelly in 1933. For a the chemistry department Another new paperback is catalogue, write Folk- of State University... Jazzrevy by Leif Anderson Lyric Recording, 3323 Janet Flanner lThe_New and Bjorn Fremer (Ab Morning Glory, Baton Yorker's Genet) is often Nordiska, Musikforlaget, Rouge, Louisiana...Charles a brilliant writer in her Stockholm)...Dizzy Suber, the publisher of

38 Down Beat. is exercised act itself which is Department. They wanted that I mentioned on effortless if it is good. me to go to the Middle WNCN-FM that the current There are things you can't East and Japan on a rapid "George Crater" is Ed explain, thank God. The schedule and without any Sherman. ("Crater" began effort I make is in the Negroes in my group. They as a composite contribution preparation I make. It is said too many Negroes of Dom Cerulli, Jack one mostly of thought. had been touring. I felt Tynan and others on the The technique I acquired that running through these staff). 1 am opposed to when I was 7." countries at rocket speed any use of pseudonyms A fragment of a manuscript. and with what I considered whereby a man can attack I don't know who wrote a rigged combo was an and insult others (as it: "Creation cannot take odd way to make friends Sherman has Ornette Coleman place in jazz without and build cultural in a particularly boorish deferment of climax until understanding. Jack way) with impunity. One the end."...The only New Teagarden made the tour difference between Sherman York newspaper columnist instead - with an all- and Lenny Bruce (whom who continues to badger white band." Sherman wisely admires) the police about their A note from is that Bruce has the harrassment of certain that is really addressed guts to use his own name. folk and jazz night clubs to Variety, and I'm According to the March 7 and their administration delighted to pass it on Los Angeles Mirror—News. of the cruel, double- to Abel Green: "In 1905, sent by Mimi Clar "Don jeopardy cabaret card or whatever date, your Fisher and Don Erjavec, rules for musicians, paper started labeling two teachers at Dominguez waiters and others who talent 'Negro.' Isn't High School,have formed work where liquor is sold that day now past?"... the American Jazz Society is Bob Sylvester of the A superb article by Mack to create jazz interest Daily News: "The only McCormick in January 1960 among teen-agers. The thing that bothers me is Caravan (The Magazine of Society, in operation on a law which stops a man Folk Music): A Who's Who 68 campuses in 36 states from working at the only of the Midnight Special, and Canada, plans an trade he knows. What is the background of Texas all-star high school jazz he supposed to do, go out prison blues. We hope to orchestra for the Monterey and rob a bank?"... Gene reprint it in The Jazz Jazz Festival next fall. Chronopoulos, 1751 No. Review. Scholarships for promising Mariposa, Apt. 2, The January, 1960, issue young musicians will be Hollywood, California, of the French medical set up with proceeds from wants any article or magazine, Aesculape, is a series of concerts..." record review ever printed devoted entirely to an Jazz Street with about Billie Holiday... article by Frank Tenot, photographs by Dennis Whitney Balliett in The Le Jazz, sa place dans Stock and text (small) by New Yorker on jazz dancer une civilization. It can this writer will be Baby Lawrence one night be ordered from Stechert- published by Doubleday in with Charlie Mingus at the Hafner, 31 East 10th St., the fall of this year. Showplace on West Fourth New York 3, N. Y. Atten• It's already out in Street: "...he did, in a tion: Mr. Lessing. Europe...Look for an matter of minutes, what ...Charles Edward Smith important two-volume lp celebrated workers like has a feature on J. J. to be issued by Doug and Gene Johnson in the April Dobell's "77" Label in Kelly have only dreamed Nugget...Billie Wallington England — A Treasury of of these many years." Herb is responsible for Field Recordings by Mack Abramson's new label, Newsleak, a fairly funny McCormick, who is mainly Triumph Records, has semi-newsletter issued by responsible for the recorded Baby for the Riverside...An axiom that Lightnin' Hopkins first time. ought to be repeated on renaissance...Nathan Congratulations to Tony occasion. By Shaw, I think. Milstein, in a conversation Scott for the directness "Impersonal criticism... with Bennett Schiff of of his statement to a is like an impersonal fist the New York Post: "The Variety reporter in Tokyo: fight or an impersonal effort is in the process marriage, and as of arrival, not in the "In 1958 I was offered... a tour by the State successful." Did "jazz" take its name from the of his cornet it seemed as if the mu• fraient des verre de genievre. Et lui name of a real or mythical musician sic with its strange, quivering pulsa• criaient: "Encore, Jasbo!" et, par abre- —like Jasper or "Chas"? These two tions came from another world. viation: "Encore, Jazz!" (Schneider popular stories and a number of Patrons offered Jasbo more and more 1924:223-24). related accounts are examined in the gin. First it was the query "More, Jasbo?" directed at the darky's thirst; Variations on the Jasbo theme ap• second of a series on the history of then the insistence, "More, Jasbo!" peared again in 1925 when an Amer• the word. directed at the darky's music, and ican scholar, J. A. Rogers, shortened then just plain "more jazz!" (Anon the story and added a trombone: 1919d:32.) Then came Jasbo Brown, a reckless How fast a yarn can travel and what musician of a Negro cabaret in Chi• can happen to it en route—even in cago, who played this and other blues, blowing his own extravagant moods print—is illustrated by what hap• and risque interpretations into them, the word jazz9 pened to Jasbo. Less than two while hilarious with gin. To give further months after this account appeared meanings to his veiled allusions, he in Music Trade Review, it was picked would make the trombone "talk" by up, apparently by the New York Tele• putting a derby hat and later a tin graph, then by Current Opinion: can at its mouth. The delighted pa• part II trons would shout, "More, Jasbo. More, Other less erudite musical authorities Jaz, more." And so the name origi• are satisfied that jazz is purely of nated (Rogers 1925:219): American origin. We find the New York Telegraph, Broadway's own gazet, for In 1926 Jasbo was credited as the instance, giving the credit to Chicago. master of several instruments and ". . . And Chicago presents as Exhibit the father of jazz (music): Fradley H. Garner and A, Jasbo Brown, a negro musician, who Toute le monde est maintenant d'ac- doubled with the cornet and piccolo. cord outre-Atlantique: c'est a Chicago, Alan P. Merriam When he was sober ... he played dans la 31e Avenue, au cafe Schiller, orthodox music, but when he imbibed qu'est ne S.M. le Jazz. Le proprietaire freely of gin . . . he had a way of Part II. Folk adaptions de I'establissement, un certain Sam screaming above the melody with a No reputable authority will vouch for Have [sic], avait engage en 1915 un strange barbaric abandon. One eve• negre: Jasbo Brown. Celui-ci jouoit tour them, but by far the most intriguing ning a young woman frequenter of the a tour, pour distraire les clients, de explanations for the word "jazz" hark cafe where he held forth, tired of the plusiers instruments: piston, flute, cla- back to the names of musicians or conventional manner in which the mu• rinette, hautbois. A jeun, I'artiste' exe- vaudeville phrases popular in the late sic was played, called out, 'A little cutait des melodies agreables, mais nineteenth and early twentieth cen• more Jasbo in that piece!' The cry was lorsque les cocktails faisaient leur turies. With these names goes a taken up, 'Jazz! Jazz!' and Jazz music oeuvre, il soufflait dans un instrument, was christened" (Anon 1919c:97). group of fascinating folk tales, passed en saisissait brusquement un autre et along by spoken and printed word, Jasbo popped up again in 1923 in en tirait des sons cacophoniques autant and almost all incorporate practically no less an authority than the Lavig- qu'ahurissants. Ce negre, comme tous identical turns of plot and incident. nac Encyclopedie de la Musique et ses congeneres, avait un sentiment puissant du rythme. Et ses improvisa• The first "proper name corruption" Dictionnaire du Conservatoire (Single• account in print, so far as we know, tions d'homme ivre amusaient les ton 1923:3327), which translated consommateurs qui lui criaient: 'Allez, was in Music Trade Review, June 14, into French, almost word for word, 1919. The central character was Jasbo!' II eut bientot de nombreux the original Music Trade Review ver• imitateurs a travers I'Amerique. Ils Jasbo Brown, and the story is told sion of 1919. It is undoubtedly from firent comme Jasbo. D'ou I'abreviation as follows: this source that Louis Schneider "jas", devenue "jazz" (Anon 1926: Chicago, III., June 9. Roger Graham, picked up the story and, with a twist 144). Chicago music publisher, has his own here and a turn there, set it down This version has been quoted, gen• pet theory of the origin of jazz music again in 1924 in the journal, Con- erally without question, by James D. and firmly believes it to be the true ferencia: Hart in a 1926 issue of American one. Five years ago, in Sam Hare's Schiller Cafe on Thirty-first Street, C'etait a Chicago, au cafe Schiller, Speech; Coeuroy and Schaeffner in "Jasbo" Brown and five other alleged tenu par un nomme Sam Hare, dans Le Jazz (1926); Robert Goffin in the musicians, members of what might le 31e avenue. II y avait la un negre Sixth Edition of his Aux Frontiers du have been called, with the aid of imag• nomme Jasbo Brown, quit avait re- Jazz (1932), and others. ination, an orchestra, dispensed "mel• crute un orchestre. Jasbo jouait du ody" largely for the benefit of Sam piccolo (le piccolo est un instrument The first and to our knowledge only Hare's patrons. aigu de la famille des bugles); il jouait flat rejection came from the French Jasbo doubled with the piccolo and aussi du cornet a pistons, pour varier music critic Irving Schwerke in 1926. cornet. When he was sober Jasbo les plaisirs de ses auditeurs. Quand il Said M. Schwerke: "Le jazz n'a pas played orthodox music, but wrapped n'avait pas bu, la musique de ses de date, et toutes les tentatives qu'on around three or four glasses of gin instruments etait a peu pres possible. a faites pour luj en donner une sont Jasbo had a way of making his pic• Mais quand il avait absorbe quelques sans portee . . ." (p. 679). He char• colo produce strains of the wildest, cocktails ou quelques verres de ge- acterized it as "ridicule et fantai- nievre cela devenait de la musique most barbaric abandon. Strange to say, siste" (loc. cit). though, Mr. Hare's patrons, if they exasperee, quelque chose comme les could help it, never allowed Jasbo to cornets a bouquin de nos Mardi Gras Jasbo Brown had many stand-ins. maintain sobriety while on the job. d'autrefois. Et les clients du cafe raf- Paul Whiteman kept the Brown but They liked the thrilling sensation of folaient des sonorites desordonnees du dignified the Christian name: the piccolo's lawless strains, and when piccolo de Jasbo. Plus c'etait faux, plus There is also a legend that a particular Jasbo put a tomato can on the end ils etaient contents, et plus ils lui af- jazz darky player named 40 and called "Jas" from the abbrevia• ed of a barytone horn, a trombone, a told and most generally believed tion of his name, was the source of cornet, and an instrument made out among musicians has to do with a cor• the peppy little word that has now of the chinaberry-tree . . . Somehow ruption of the name "Charles." In gone all over the world (Whiteman and in the passage of time Razz's Band Vicksburg, Miss., during the period McBride 1926:122). got changed into 'Jazz's Band,' and when rag-time was at the height of its from this corruption arose the term popularity and "blues" were gaining A year earlier, New York Sun critic 'jazz.' " (Vernon 1919:5). favor, there was a colored drummer of Walter Kingsley had called the man rather unique ability named "Chas. Jasper and placed the incident in the The vigilant Literary Digest snapped Washington." As is a very common first third of the nineteenth century: up the story (Anon 1919a:28) and it custom in certain parts of the South' received at least honorable mention he was called "Chaz." "Chaz" could In the twenties and thirties of the last by James D. Hart (1932:245) and not read music, but he had a gift for century there was a retired planter in by Stanley R. Nelson (Goffin 1932: "faking" and a marvelous sense of New Orleans whose delight it was to syncopated rhythm. It was a practice entertain visiting show folk. He had a 45). Irving Schwerke, of course, de• bunked it: to repeat the trio or chorus of popular dancing darky of superhuman vitality numbers, and because of the catchi- and joie de vivre who was his star ex• Egalement ridicule et fantaisiste est la ness of "Chaz's" drumming he was hibit whenever he threw a party. This called on to do his best on the repeats. hoofing phenomenon was named Jas• theorie (si toutefois elle merite ce titre) suivant laquelle le mot jazz devrait son At the end of the first chorus the per and the other slaves called him leader would say: "Jazz" or "Jass" for short. Jasper origine a un ensemble de quatre in• struments qui se trouvait il y a quinze could put life into a cemetery with his "Now, Chaz!" ans environ a la Nouvelle-Orleans, et quaint steps, his songs, his mugging From this small beginning it soon be• que Ton connaissait sous le nom de and clowning. His fame was carried far came a widespread habit to distinguish '•Razz's Band!' (c'est-a-dire, orchestre and wide by strolling troupers. When• any form of exaggerated syncopation de Razz) . . . Le 'Razz's Band' passa ever a party showed up the old planter as "Chaz." (Anon 1924e:520). called in the sure-fire slave and shout• par degres des plus petits cafes de la ed: "Jazz it up, Jasper" (Kingsley Nouvelle-Orleans auz plus grands Osgood examined the plot and found 1925: Editorial section 3:1). hotels de cette ville, d'ou il gagna it wanting: New York. C'est la qu au bout d'un Very pretty, indeed, though it will Characters, time and locale here are certain temps, Razz's Band fut meta• morphose en Jazz's Band! II ne serait hardly stand examination . . . Leaving different. Only the plot remains the out of consideration the chronological same. A listener is carried away by pas superflu, pour completer I'histoire de nous dire pourquoi les habitants de question as to whether the "blues" the improvisations of a Negro per• New York trouverent la conso nne 'J' were already known when was former and calls out to him, using his plus agreable a leur palais que le con- "at the height of its popularity," (it is nickname, and the nickname eventu• sonne 'R'. Et Ton pourrait rapporter possible they may have been—in Vicks• ally is taken over as a generic name quantite de contes aussi fantastiques burg) analysis of the musical elements for the new music or musical style. que les precedents, si toutefois ceux- of the story make it impossible. Few The opera critics and early jazz his• ci ne suffisaient pas a montrer le popular ragtime numbers had "trios" torians, Henry Osgood and Robert caractere ridicule de ce qu'on a ecrit to repeat, except marches (two-steps) like "The Georgia Camp-meeting," and Goffin, both told the Jasbo story in sur le jazz et le peu de prix qu'on doit y attacher (Schwerke 1926:679). when they were repeated there was their respective books. Goffin also in• little emphasis placed upon them . . . troduced another member of the Henry Osgood also objected on lin• (Osgood 1926a:14-15). Jasbo clan, Jess: guistic grounds, though he liked the In 1934 a professional philologist story well enough: Le mot jazz, doit-il son origine a un and criminologist, Dr. Harold H. musicien noir nomme Jess qui jouait This is a good story and as an ex• Bender of Princeton University and d'une certaine facon saccadee, qui se planation ingenious enough, though Webster's International Dictionary, popularisa au point que Ton dit com- there is no hint as to what reason spoke disparagingly of Chaz. He fav• munement To play like Jess, To play there could be for the changing of the ored an African origin for the word. Jess par abreviation, puis jazz par rugged R of Razz into the softer J of So, three years later in the Saturday deformation, c'est la I'explication que jazz; as a rule the progression is the m'en donnerent plusiers negres que other way, toward strength. Incidental• Evening Post, did the writer James j'avais interroges (Goffin 1932:44). ly, that J at the beginning of jazz is H. S. Moynahan: "I dismiss with a leer the canard once attributed— Jess apparently didn't rate among not so soft; much harder than before any other vowel except O. Say jazz and wrongly, I am sure (sic)—to Vincent other writers, for none we have read, jolt out loud and compare them with Lopez, that he had heard the word except Goffin, ever mentioned him. jelly, jib and juice. Had we (which we Goffin talked about Jess again in a 'jazz' originated as a corruption of haven't) a soft G before A, as before the name of a famous drummer call• later book, Jazz: From the Congo to E and I (geode, gin), "gazz" would be ed 'Chas'—short for 'Charles' " the Metropolitan (1946:62). a much more suggestive and correct Jasbo had more relatives than the spelling than jazz (Osgood 1926a:14). (Moynahan 1937:15). Chas (or "Chaz") was mentioned without com• Kalikaks. In 1919 Grenville Vernon Another member of the clan was in• ment by Hart (1932:245) and by of The New York Tribune quoted troduced in Etude in 1924 in a sym• Nelson (Goffin 1932:45-6). from an interview with James Reese posium entitled, "Where Is Jazz As with the more persistent Jasbo Europe, the leader of an all-Negro Leading America?" His name was military band in World War I. During Charles Washington and his mentor tale, the Lopez version itself sprouted the interview, according to Vernon, was the bandleader Vincent Lopez: at least one variation containing all Europe said: I have been for a long time making a the essential elements of the original. This is from an article called "I believe that the term 'jazz', . . . study both of the word "jazz" and of "Triumph of the Jungle," by Jasp originated with a band of four pieces the kind of music which it represents. which was found about fifteen years The origin of the colloquial word jazz Kool, Living Age, February 7, 1925: ago in New Orleans and which was is shrouded in mystery. The story of If we may trust a mere story, the word known as 'Razz's Band' ... It consist• its beginning that is most frequently "jazz" comes from a band in a water-

41 front resort in Philadelphia, which used Record gives the following explanation: sources for the word jazz have been to have a Negro named Jack Wash• There was once a trio of dusky musi• suggested, including ... the old min• ington playing the drums. This Negro cians, one a player, one a singer strel-show term jasbo, meaning antics had developed a rhythm so fierce that and the third a maker of melodies by guaranteed to bring applause—when the band, as a joke, used to stop play• means of an empty tin can. This un• ing entirely and let Jack rage on the usual trio came to be called the Jass- new numbers were flopping the back• drums alone. When the time came for acks Band, the name being the popular stage cry might be 'give 'em the Jack to play his percussion solos, the inversion of the jackass, the famous jasbo' or 'jas it up' " (Hobson 1939: sailors would cry in delight, "Jack! solo singer of the Southern States. 94-5). Jack!"—and from this cry of theirs the Soon the name, according to the pro• Douglas Stannard used the same- odd name "jazz" is derived (Kool verbial lore for inaccuracy, was spelling in the New Statesman and 1925:339). changed to the Jassacks and by the usual method of abbreviation develop• Nation: Moynahan spun a yarn he had heard ed finally into just plain jazz (Anon "It seems likely that the word as a where the performers were the well- 1919f:50). known Dixieland Jazz Band and the musical term derives from the old spectator was an "old fellow": Minstrel Show and Vaudeville minstrel show backstage cry: 'Give 'em The possibility of "jazz" getting its the jasbo' (meaning to introduce pep The story usually doled out for popular name from the minstrel or vaudeville into an act)" (Stannard 1941:83). consumption is the one about the show apparently was first raised in Dixieland Jazz Band's job at the Boost• Another account referring indirectly, er's Club in Chicago. The band, brought print by a newspaper man, Walter at least, to the minstrel origin, was from New Orleans, was still unnamed Kingsley, in 1917. While he felt its reported in Down Beat: when an old fellow in the audience, homeland was Africa, Kingsley in the Mutual's [radio network] Answer Man stirred to high excitement by their New York Sun spoke of its use in came up with what many jazz students shrill, unprecedented style of playing, vaudeville and touched off a flurry of have been waiting for: an explanation jumped to his feet and shouted: articles ascribing the word to that of the origin of the word jazz ... in "Come on, boys, jazz it up!" It makes source: pre-Civil War days, Georgia Negro men a good story, even when the reciter competed in strutting contests for their Curiously enough the phrase "Jaz her goes on to explain that the word choice of cakes, and ladies, in cake up" is a common one today in vaude• "Jazz" was an old vaudeville (!) term, suppers. The strutting contest became ville and on the circus lot. When a meaning "to stir things up" (Moyna• known as the Cake Walk, and the han 1937:15). vaudeville act needs ginger the cry winner was dubbed Mr. Jazzbo. from the advisers in the wings is "put Further research traced the word to There seems to be no end name cor• in jaz," meaning add low comedy, go ruptions. Jezebel is accorded the final to high speed and accelerate the New Orleans during the 1830s, when indignity in this etymology, submit• comedy spark. "Jazbo" is a form of chasse beaux was a popular French ted in 1927 by a sociologist and the word common in the varieties, expression denoting a dandy, or a hip educator, Dr. Guy B. Johnson: meaning the same as "," or Gallic Don Juan (Anon 1958a:10). low comedy verging on vulgarity The writer would like to add one more We have not been able to verify the (Kingsley 1917:111, 3:7). to the list of rather asinine theories on existence of the alleged one-time the origin of the term jazz. It is his Others speculated along the same "popular French expression." If the opinion that the word was suggested line, but Kingsley alone spelled the minstrel term "jazzbo" (regardless of by Negro preachers in their tirades on word "Jazbo." When Paul Whiteman spelling) is assumed to be the father the wicked woman, Jazebel (Johnson got hold of it, he said, in the Etude of the word "jazz," we are still left 1927:15). symposium on "What Is Jazz Doing with the problem of "jazzbo's" own The Jasbo stories have been widely to American Music?": ancestry. This leads us up another circulated in the and I am often asked, "What is jazz?" I blind alley—unless we agree with Europe. The signs point to a single know of no better definition than that Chapman and others that the root of source, probably the June 14, 1919 given by Lieut. Comm. John Philip "jazz" lies in the first three letters Music Trade Review. Jasbo, James, Sousa, U.S.N.R.F. He derives the word of the French verb "jaser"—"to Jasper, Jess, Razz, Chaz and Jack from "Jazzbo," the term used in the prattle," or unless we subscribe to look very much alike. While the scene old-fashioned minstrel show when the Walter Kingsley's (and Dr. Harold is set variously in Chicago, New performers "cut loose" and improvised Bender's) African thesis, or one of Orleans, Vicksburg and Philadelphia, upon or "Jazzboed" the tune (White- the other trans-language etymologies. it forms the backdrop for just about man 1924:523). Of course if "jazzbo" were spelled the same story. A folk tale, by defi• Henry Finck, a music critic and writer jassbo or jasbo and broken into two nition, is an account of persons, for Etude, evidently borrowed his ac• syllables, jass bo, and if it were as• places and incidents which the tellers count from Kingsley's original article sumed that the last syllable was a themselves are inclined to take with in the Sun. But he used the word a grain of salt. "jazz". "Just so in vaudeville, 'jazz phonetic spelling of the early South• her up' means 'put in pep and gin• ern Negro pronunciation of "boy," One other story bears repeating. It is we could say jas bo' originally meant slightly different from the others and ger.' Not necessarily speed, for an extremely popular jazz is the slow Jass boy—or Jasper boy or even it may be more plausible. It appear• Chas boy—and that would lead us ed, to our knowledge, only once in drag" (Finck 1924:527). We have al• straight back into the valley of name the literature—in Music Trade Re• ready quoted Moynahan to the effect corruption. If we insist on this hypo• view, May 3, 1919—though the that jazz "was an old vaudeville (!) thesis there is no escape. We do not. journal credits The Columbia Record term, meaning 'to stir things up' " as the source: (Moynahan 1937:15). This is the second of a series of Most people are aware of the fact that Wilder Hobson, the jazz writer, articles on the origins of the word "jazz" music originated in the South, critic, and sometime trombonist, uses jazz. A bibliography giving the but perhaps few know just how the still a different spelling in identifying sources of references in the text will name itself started. The Columbia the word as a minstrel term: "Various be published with the last article. 42 / WES MOfUTGQME&Y BOBBY TIMIWOniS PERCY HEATH SAM JONES

The Incredible of NAT ADDERLEY: Uptown Compelling, striking and richly Billy in rare wailing form, as his A real swinger featuring the man earthy sounds, as Nat's cornet new trio is caught in an exciting Ralph Gleason calls "the best thing blends with Wes Montgomery's on-the-job session at 'The Prelude' to happen to the guitar since guitar and Sam Jones' cello. in Harlem. "! (RLP 12-318; also Stereo LP 1167) (RLP 12-319; also Stereo LP 1168) (RLP 12-320; also Stereo LP 1169)

JOHN LEE HOOKER: That's My Story The real blues: old as the hills and modern as today. That's the deeply soulful story that Hooker sings and plays here. With Sam Jones, . (RLP 12-321)

JULIAN PRIESTER: Keep Swingin' Introducing a deep-rooted trombon• ist with a sound of his own, ably aided by Jimmy Heath on tenor. (Dig Jimmy's blues: 24-Hour Leave!) (RLP 12-316; also Stereo LP 1163)

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