Blfles No. 2; Were You There Wl tries to keep afloat. Cmcified My Lord; Shine. ,en They One other very nice thing: McCann's .P<:rsonncl: To'!lmy Gwaltney, clarinet· Sa R,mington, clarinet, alto saxophone·' w!my vocal on Hands. Poignant, simple, and (Slide) Harris, trombone· Bob Gree.{e .a ter 1 0 • propelled sympathetically to a strong cli­ Van Perry, bass; Singleto~, drums· Job.{s P ;'!,; max. It sounds, however, like either the Ree, Jr., vocals. ' on .1.n.c- vocal or the piano was added later, be­ Rating: *** 1azz cause the piano's rhythmic direction at These sessions were .~roduced by John­ BY times runs directly counter to what Mc­ son McRee, Jr., a traditional jazz enthusi­ Cann is attempting vocally. Still, a mov­ ast and promoter of Manassas, Va. ing rendition, Veteran dru~mer Singleton, in his first Eddie Sauter demonstrated some years own LP date, 1s matched with an assem­ MPS·SABA bly of stalwart traditionalists, and though ago how strings could enhance jazz of a for collectors & there are weaknesses throughout, there are swinging, lyrical nature. With the possible connoisseurs ..• also. counterbalancing st:etches of quality from Germany, exception of a very few of Bird's string settings, no one had emerged with a work­ p~ay~ng, generated especially by Singleton, "the .Jazz musician's able melange of strings and down-with­ piamst Greene, and Rimington and Gwalt­ ney. paradise!" it jazz. Fischer, apparently, has done it. Makes the record worth hearing if not The most exciting tracks are those having. -Heineman where the clarinetists match wits. Royal Garden has the two trading slashing breaks and romping in the heated ensem­ The Mecki Mark Men ble. On Snake Rag, both turn in first-rate MECK! MARK MEN-Limelight 86054: 0 pen­ ing; Get Up; Free; I Got It; Love Your Life; I solos, . Rimington. following Gwaltney. Had a Horse; Scream; Sweet Movin'; Enlighten• Wolverme No. 1 1s the best track of the ment; Love Feeling; Please. Personnel: Hans Nordstrom, tenor saxophone; session, with the two reedmen in total Mecki Bodemark, organ, vibraharp, vocals; rapport in their duets and joyous and Thomas Gartz, vibraharp, sitar, drums; Clas singing in their solos. Svanberg, guitar; Bjorn Fredholm, drums, conga. Rating:* . Trombonist Harris is not a strong solo- The Swedish are coming! The Swedish 1st but plays good supporting figures in are coming! the ensemble. Greene has studied Jelly But not yet. The music on this record­ Roll Morton to good effect; moreover, he ing is consummately dull. Worse, it is plays the blues with great feeling. His clearly wholly inspired by Jimi Hendrix, work on 219 and Winin' Boy is excellent an inspiration evident in both the char­ but it is the superb atmosphere he create~ STUFFSMITH in his accompaniments that is most re­ Black Violin SB 15 147 ST acter of the songs and in Bodemark's at­ tempts at insinuating, half-sung, half-in­ markable. Listen to him on Marie and toned vocals. Now, Hendrix's music isn't Shine, his muscled figures pushing the all that complex, but in comparison with whole band. Bodemark's, it's positively symphonic. Singleton is cold on one track (Royal Virtually every song is built on a simp­ Garden), but strong and swinging on all listic progression expressed in one riff. others. With Baby Dodds long gone, he There aren't even many solos improvising has no peer in the New Orleans press roll from the riffs (a couple of tenor spots on department, and the device, which he uses Movin' and Enlightment, neither very im­ throughout, brings joy to the front line pressive, though the former begins with horns. On Shine, he lets loose a torrent some promise )-just ensemble variations of rolls, presses, and bombs that produces ad ·nauseam. a stomping swing and is a real measure Lots of chic effects, too: extraneous of his musicianship. Marie is almost as sound effects, feedback, a wowed-in-and­ good. out vocal on Horse, abortive sorties into There are five McRee vocals, and he ".free" playing. The most unattractive of plays a kazoo chorus on Shine. all is Bodemark's leeringly chanted intro The albums are available from Fat HAMPTONHAWES Cat's Jazz Records, P.O. Box 458, Ma­ Hamp's Piano SB 15 149 ST to Free. One can almost see the half­ closed eyes, the fixed knees the flared nasas, Va. 22110. -Erskine New Call from France nostrils, as he asks the musi~al question "Do you know about freedom? Do you? University of Illinois Jazz Band - Look and see. Get free." The sire may be IN CHAMPAIGN-URBANA-Century 33132: Moten Swint;; Fly Me to the Moon; Muddy Hendrix, but the dam is pure Dick and Water; Music For Jazz Ensemble· Blues in Jane. Frankie's. (Hoss') Flat; The Thrili Is Gone; S11mmertz_me;The Lunceford Touch. They probably mean well. The musi­ Co!lecuve Personr:iel: Ken Ferrantino, Jim cianship is competent, and there's even one Darling, Jerry Tessin, Cecil Bridgewater, Ron McWilliams, Jim Knapp, trumpets; Dave Sporny, decent track, Please, climaxed by some Larry Dwyer, Frank Harmantas, Morgan Powell, Bach-goes-to-church organ by Bodemark trombones; Rieb Rousch, bass trombone, baritone horr:i; Terry Pettijohn, French born, guitar, with a false hymn-like ending leading into ban10; John Prendergast, tuba; Howie Smith, unaccompanied chromatic clusters to take J(?hn Wonsowicz, Ron Dewar, Larry Cangelosi, B!ll Feldman, Jay Cbeville, reeds; Ron Elliston, the tune out. Nice, but hardly worth the piano; Fred Atwood, bass; Chuck Braugbam, 40-minute wait. There may be a fjord in dru_ms; Bill Fries, conga drums, percussion; Don rock's future, but the Gospel doesn't ap­ Smith, vocal, flute; John Garvey, leader. pear to have crossed the Channel at this Rating: * * * * * • SABA ·--··•--"·· SIIIWD point. -Heineman I~ STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN-Century 33173: JEF GILSON Baszcally Bl11es; Collage• Medley· The Old New Call from France SB 15 081 ST Bee!zebub Blues; Latino; 'The Shad~w of Your Smile; People Got to Be Free; Sister Sadie, Zutty Singleton Personnel : as above. ZUTTY AND THE CLARINET KINGS Vols Rating: * * * * ½ Ask your dealer• or write for 1 and 2-Fat Cat's Jazz Records FCJ 100/101: r1ake Rag; Nobody Knows You: Doctor Jazz; College big bands-the ones that won free brochures. e11 !}W Dqg_ Blues; When You Wore a Tulip', Mar\e; W,n,n' Boy Blues; Of All the Wrong; at all the festivals-used to be tight as MPS- SABA- USA You ve Done; Royal Garden Blues; You Tell hell, and rather restricted in musical out­ Me Your Dream, Vol. 2: Cakewalkin Babies• 724 N. 7th St. Allentown, Penna. 18102 Tro,uble in Mind; China~own; 219 Blues; Wol look. At their best, they could come up ver,ne Blues No. I; Corrine, Corrina; Wolverine with exciting performances and admirable 24 0 DOWN BEAT musicianship, but when taken as jazz or­ and pianist Ron Elliston, though rarely and he is a genuine asset to the band. chestras, something crucial was often miss- featured, is a sensitive and individual mu­ Behind it all, and out in front to keep ing. sician. the tempos where they should be (an­ This is the band that changed all that. Drummer Chuck Braugham's only solo other important element of the band's :Musically, it is a genuine jazz ensemble, is a tongue-in-cheek job on the Lunce­ success) is John Garvey, a remarkable and though technically excellent, it never ford salute, but his section work is bril­ man and a splendid musician. He never puts technique and craft above spirit and liant; he is a big-band drummer any lead­ seems to forget that music is something content. Its repertoire is anything but re­ er would be proud to have aboard. Dwy­ that should give pleasure, and his sense stricted, and it never gets up tight. ( Com­ er's solos, while not derivative, have some of humor never allows the band to be­ peting band directors used to mutter about of the explosiveness (and oddly fey quali­ come pompous. the band's "showmanship," as if there ty) of Bill Harris, and lead trumpeter Jim If you like big band jazz, get these were something dishonest about it. But Darling is a key man worthy of Smith albums. The first LP has a slight edge in there has never been a great jazz band and Braugham. terms of variety of programming and without that attribute, and the message is Last but not least among the band's warmth of performance and recorded beginning to sink in.) standouts is singer (and sometime flute sound, but the second has Beelzebub and Furthermore, this band has real soloists soloist) Don Smith. He has a unique a lot besides. The records can be ordered and real writers, and thus a non-synthetic ballad style, can belt the blues, and has from John Garvey, School of Music, Uni­ personalit)'.. I'd stack. it up ~gainst any of humor. People Got to Be Free, written for versity of Illinois, Urbana, IL 60801. More the survivmg profess10nal big bands save him by his namesake, Howie, is a rouser, power to him. -Morgenstern the top two, and they'd do nicely on a bill with those as well. Before the hyper-partisans of collegiate jazz begin to ooh and aah, let me point out that in and of itself there should be nothing fantastic about the fact that col­ lege students are capable of playing fine jazz. Louis Armstrong and Bix Bieder­ JtltJOVE;{divisionof becke were full-fledged pros in their teens; Horace Henderson and Benny Carter and J-Jr\i'Ji'JOtlDcorporation Don Redman had college bands; Duke Ellington had his own busy combo at 19.