Irving Townsend

pla. ing artist I know who can do an original ccntly. “It's quite a jump," he noted, die Con piece in a studio and play it better than “from recording a 17-year-old kid sing oid < on- it'll ever be done in club ” Moreover, ing rock and roll to Sandburg, who's h-quality MEET 4 IA the a&r man said. Davis usually prefers 83.” With typically quiet New England to do a number in just one take. “And,” humor, he added, “You can't exactly an S500 Townsend added, “even if there are a make an 83-year-old man change his einforce- few clams in it. we'll accept it if the style.” be heard T-MAN over-all feeling is good." Townsend's approach to his work is ot 11 in- As an example of what Townsend highly personal in terms ot his relation amphfier called "the sheer inventive ability” of ships with artists. “There's not an artist fand berg IRVING TOWNSEND Miles and the men in his group, he in the world who doesn't have his own nncro- cited the session that produced the peculiarities,” he explained “Every 'ice 636 An artists and repertoire man who album, Kinda Blue. body’s different. Some like to be let limits himself to recording jazz is not "For one tune—I forget which one alone: some need to be pampered, to be are hung only being deprived of a better liveli just now—Miles came to the studio guided so as to bring out the best in in t ronl hood. he's missing greater personal with six staffs written on a sheet of them So the a&r man must know how 12 feet satisfaction as well. manuscript paper. He tore off each to handle each one. You don't handle de stereo This is the firm opinion of Irving staff and handed one to each guy. And Doris Day as you do Mahalia, for d it into Townsend. Columbia Records' a&r ex example.” er ampli- ecutive producer on the west coast, and Townsend doesn't pretend to be an tereo sig it may be considered slightly ironic in engineer, being content to leave the speakers view of his long association with Duke technical work to technicians. “But," Ellington and his more recent profes he declared with decided emphasis. about 10 sional alliances with Miles Davis and “I'm against splicing unless absolutely down to- other top jazz musicians. necessary.” ling area, “I’m not exclusively a jazz a&r man,” In jazz recording, Townsend favors »hone is he emphasized recently, “and I don't letting the soloist blow naturally into the djustablc- want to be, either.” He stated his rea mike, just as he plays in a club. (Many ir soloists son simply: "Not all the music I'm a&r men and engineers doctor the interested in is jazz.” natural sound of the horn from the lew York "Nobody,” he continued, “who sticks recording booth Not Townsend.) las an ef- to jazz exclusively is going to make any Citing Johnny Hodges and Ben Web rt D Lug- money in the record business. There ster as examples, he commented dryly. ed to im- isn't that much business in jazz anyway. “A little air doesn't hurt the music had been Even though Columbia is the major Is there an ideal way, a perfect and setup. His jazz seller, there aren’t more than a foolproof way to record jazz? he size of half-dozen jazz people who're selling Said Townsend flatly, “The best thing filings and really well on the label.” to do with jazz is to let it alone.” et in each To the critics and disc jockeys who “sound off on the jazz record output,” Producer’s Choice y outdoor Townsend merely says. “They should Irving Townsend, one of the most rs (Mode' have some idea of the economics of the prolific a&r producers in the indus d tweeter) thing.” Jazz production, he amplified, try, selects the following three al the band- is by no means a cut-and-dried affair IRVING TOWNSEND the room whereby dates are called on a moment's bums, out of the welter of discs icrophones notice without any planning or pre this is what they built that particular supervised by him during the past E-V 664) conception. performance on. The musicians played 15 years, as particular personal ging mike “Most jazz dates are chaotic, any from the scraps of paper curling on favorites: In the con- way,’ he said. “I suppose this is because the music stands ” A Drum Is a Woman, recorded iable-speed jazz musicians don’t seem to feel the Outside jazz, Townsend's duties in by Duke Ellington and his orchestra, a Western need for self-discipline. But all art must clude an extremely diversified recording Columbia CL 951. Townsend com ie resulting have self-discipline Duke does; most schedule He is responsible tor record mented, "This is a jazz allegory. It ent oi the men in his band don’t. That's why ing some 25 artists on the west coast, a represents Duke personally more id system, he s u here he is and why they're where much greater number, he explained, than anything he's ever made. There’s icral pnn- they are.” than is usual. These performers include more musical autobiography in that Frankie Laine, Vic Damone, Johnny than in anything he's done.” hnician to C tressing the validity of hard, serious- Mathis, Doris Day, Jimmy Rushing, Kinda Blue, recorded by the Miles lintain thi minded work, he pointed out, “The Big Miller (a new Columbia acquisi Davis Quintet, Columbia CL 1355 great jazz people are working guys. You tion) and Mahalia Jackson. (Though Townsend commented, “This is a equipment don’t find Miles showing up drunk at Miss Jackson lives in Chicago, she is jazz album that did sell very well." o choosing a date, for example. He's there to work, Townsend's responsibility.) The Power and the Glory, record ranteed to not to tool around.” Of Miss Jackson, Townsend ad ed by Mahalia Jackson with the Expanding on the subject of Davis, mitted, "1 love to record her. She's far Percy Faith Orchestra, Columbia CL nit fanwise • ownsend continued, "Ele must have more satisfying to record than many 1473. Townsend commented, "This one speak everything right when he shows up at jazz artists, for example. A lot of jazz was the first time she'd ever recorded ) and over- the studio He wants to feel right, and lacks humor and spontaneity; Mahalia with orchestral accompaniment, that itting near- he wants the guys in the band to feel never.” is, without having the melody behind fight. If this feeling is absent, he’ll just her: Mildred is always playing nd man at go home “ A s an example of his varied assign melody on piano. This was a real i’s in use- Warming to the subject, Townsend x * ments, Townsend referred to a triumph for her—and for me nder declared, "Miles Davis is the only jazz session with poet Carl Sandburg re- February 2. 1961.

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