sign in sign up
<<
Home , Adelaide Hall, Arthur Edgehill, Babs Gonzales, Bob Enevoldsen, Buck Clayton, Charlie Irvis

SPIRITUALS to SWING FROM THE FAMOUS CONCERTS — with such artists as: ORIGINAL ORCHESTRA • SEXTET • • • • • JOE TURNER • • • • • JAMES P. JOHNSON • ALBERT AMMONS • "LIPS" PAGE • MEADE LUX LEWIS • PETE JOHNSON • Mitchell's Christian Singers • • • • • • • Golden Gate Quartet • • Bull City Red • • Kansas City Six • Earl Warren • Dickie Wells • • Arthur Bernstein • • Nick Fatool • • Freddie Greene •

Regular List Price $7.96 Special Collectors Price; 39

FOR THE TWO- RECORD SET

Postage Prepaid on this item

CHESTERFIELD MUSIC SHOPS, INC. 12 WARREN STREET NEW YORK 17, N. Y.

for your Please send sets of John Hammond's To Swing at the convenience special Collectors Price of $6.39 per set. $ enclosed. in Send FREE LP Catalog.

ORDERING Name BY MAIL Address use this City Zone State handy blank Sorry no C.O.D.

Discount Records—262 Sutter St., San Francisco, Calif. Special offer also available Discount Records—201 North La Salle, , Illinois from coast to coast at: Discount Records—202 Michigan Ave., Detroit, Michigan Chesterfield Music Shops—485 Madison Avenue, , N. Y. Or take the next paragraph, same col• Naturally, when I speak of jazz, I speak umn, when I wrote, "the following prop• of a band style, an instrumental and LETTERS ositions are offered for consideration," orchestral style. It is not merely a use and what came out was "the following of scales nor for a notable proportions". What's the use of spend• rhythmic style. It is a way of playing ing time and energy badly needed for instruments, it is jazz intonation and other things in writing the piece, when manipulation of the beat within the it turns out like this? context of a "living" rhythm—and there NO CROWING There is only one thing to do, and that are many jazz musicians who have little About Bill Crow: I value very much his is for me to take a full page ad in Bill• understanding of either, though they perceptiveness and his serious concern board proclaiming "Finkelstein has can read like crazy. with the morality of good craftsmanship: stopped writing for The Jazz Review." The did not assume importance qualities which I think too many artists Sidney Finkelstein in jazz until such men as James P. today brush off quite foolishly as "rela• , N. Y. Johnson and created tive" or "temporary." I think the best major styles. (Jelly was first a sporting of Bill Crow's stuff shows that reconcili• house pianist whose style was influ• ation of good criticism with good re• ECHOES enced by such as that viewing which is to be found in the When I tore myself away from the fas• of 's band—then (1920's) a writing of Conrad Aiken and James cinating documentary—one of the many jazz pianist playing in jazz and in jazz Agee. that have appeared in The Jazz Review bands.) Isolated parallels to jazz instru• I'd like to suggest, though, that a num• —of Lester Young, I read with dismay mental usage occurred in many places ber of times in the August issue that Paul Oliver's review of Samuel Charters' —as I have noted in articles and in The Mr. Crow lets his precision and maybe Jazz, 1885-1957. The dis• Jazz Record Book—in honky-tonk music, his timidity about making judgments may arose from the fact that I've en• minstrels, etc. In fact, wherever Negro mislead him into a kind of nervous joyed Mr. Oliver's piece and one item— American music had taken root. And auditing which is not criticism nor, I I think a letter—that neatly placed a suggestion of jazz sounds undoubt• think, any valid substitute for it. To me, in the scheme of things. edly reached Europe long before the with an admittedly ephemeral musical Though sometimes dull and repetitious, first jazz bands made the trip. education, the Pepper Adams and Gene Charters' book is an important contri• So far as I know, no responsible critic- Ammons reviews were hardly more than bution to the study of jazz backgrounds. historian of jazz claims it to be a prod• jumbles of meagerly organized observa• I am in complete agreement with Mr. uct of one city, wholly and completely. tions and personal trivia ("I don't find Oliver's comment on the distorted view But it seems incontestable that New his tone lovely." "Gene and Idrees of New Orleans that results from a Orleans music was essential in the sound beautiful . . . Both have a strong, study that concentrates only on those creation of instrumental jazz and its sure feeling for the blues") which either who have remained in that city through• unique approach to timbre, phrasing don't suggest any kind of observation out their lives. Mr. Charters does not and intonation. Those who claim there or more important, which do nothing to emphasize sufficiently the fact that this is a school of historical writing that strengthen or clarify the subsequent leaves out some of the greatest New makes New Orleans not only the home criticisms. I think that what Mr. Crow Orleans musicians. of jazz but the occasion for a virgin misses here is that recreation of the birth should explain just what writings I am distressed that Paul Oliver should form, the pattern of the work under dis• (and whose) they refer to. help to perpetuate the indirect slur cussion which is the hallmark of Agee's Bands in the north, both Negro and upon jazz historians implied in the or Aiken's perception. I hope that Mr. white, were recording both while and concept of a Museum of Jazz Mythology. Crow doesn't think this comparison before King Oliver recorded. I'm afraid The reference to the jazz history proj• pompous, because I don't. At his best, no one has thought to make a compre• ect being financed by the Ford Founda• he has the self-effacing interest in hensive collection of such fascinating tion is irresponsible. I know—as do clarity and discernment of what is good historical items. Discography has a most of my colleagues—that William which distinguishes both these critics section on "other early bands" that Russell (associated with this project) from their more guru-like colleagues. should interest those concerned with is perhaps the greatest living authority And—also like them—he has the head- jazz origins, for some of these records on New Orleans jazz. He is also meticu• start on other critics of being creator in indicate the gradual influence of jazz lously, scrupulously honest. His descrip• his own right. So I wish he would leave on dance music in the north. A study tion of the parent style( The Jazz Record the school marm bits to others. of early records by the Fletcher Hen• Book) has never been surpassed. Though derson Orchestra confirms that its mas• a student of Schdnberg, he appreciated Donald Phelps tery of jazz was acquired only gradually the importance in jazz, not of written Brooklyn, N. Y. —the band did not have it to begin with. music, but of the impact of oral tra• Those who wish to cite non-New Orleans ditions. To someone who prefers to origins should cite records, and they'd think jazz just grew like Topsy this will IN AND OUT better be damned good ones. Joe Oliver not matter. To those who recognize jazz In my article, "Inner and outer jazz" is up there on the stand, leaning over as a new musical gesture it is of the (The Jazz Review, September), I don't to George Wettling (who just ran down utmost importance. object so much to the frightful number there in his Pierce-Arrow race with the of typos, although my English is poor Those who think that there is a cult of turned-down handle-bars) and is saying, enough without making it sound worse. critics who ride the tailgate should read "Hotter'n a forty-five!" Even the misplaced line that ends the with care the second paragraph of Ernest To those who may be curious as to how top paragraph on the right column of Borneman's article "Creole Echoes". As I formulate this question bf origins, I page 20, was accepted with the feeling Mr. Borneman points out, even if one did a chapter earlier this year, "New that this is the way life is. But when I has corrected errors and changed views Orleans And. Traditions In Jazz", for got to the left column on page 21 and according to new data and the con• the forthcoming Hentoff-McCarthy an• found two lines from the description of tinued activity of his little gray cells- thology. Ellington stuck into the one describing he is still likely to be quoted in terms Basie—i.e. the second and third lines of his original presentation of the sub• One further thought. I strongly endorse of the column, beginning "these con• ject. Worse still, errors of fact and out• Mr. Borneman's idea of digging. All too trasting elements", which belong in the moded concepts, however carefully they few writers seem to realize what real next paragraph, after the line "out have been re-considered in print, are research means in the way of hard rounded forms with a sensitive, planned given a new lease on life by writers work! use of . . .", I felt the entire article who haven't done extensive research Charles Edward Smith was turned into gibberish. and by polemical pole-cats. New York

3 000rim0 GTJ&CRNEWS

\/ i A M ^ Published bimonthly by Contemporary Record!, Inc., producers of Contemporary, M.„.m|,.. TOCO

VOI. NO. 1 Good Time J>IZ, , SFM and Stereo Records, and Contemporary Tape. novemper

Contemporary Re-signs Poll Winners and

Barney Kessel and Shelly Manne, Contemporary's star guitarist Carter & Hines and drummer, signed new exclusive long-term contracts with the com• pany. Both artists have been with CR since 1953, and both have won Record 1st LP numerous popularity polls, including clean sweeps of all major polls Together for CR (DOWN BEAT. METRONOME, PLAYBOY, etc.) the last three years.

Jazz giants and , who have been friends the past 30 years, got together for the very first time on record to make Carter's new CR album — SWINGIN' THE '20s (M356i; stereo S7561). With the two were , bass, and Shelly Manne, drums, and the session for them was memorable in that it was the first time either had worked with "Fatha" Hines. Out of this rare meeting came a totally improvised, spontaneous, swinging album of a dozen favor• Shelly's most recent release is SON Barney's latest album is "Car• ites of The Twenties, including OF GUNN! SHELLY MANNE & men"—the first jazz performance Hines' original of '28, A Monday HIS MEN PLAY MORE MUSIC of an opera. He adapted and ar• Date. The others are Thou Swell, FROM "PETER GUNN" (M3566, ranged nine numbers from Bizet's My Blue Heaven, Just Imagine, stereo S7566), which features his masterpiece to produce an album James P. Johnson's // I Could Be new front line of Joe Gordon, trum• that set critics and reviewers to With You, Sweet Lorraine, and pet, and , tenor. As writing such lines as "One of the (continued on page 2) on the first "Gunn," Victor Feldman five finest jazz albums in recent was added on vibes & marimba. years . ." (Stanley Robertson, L.A. The success of the initial "Gunn" Sentinel) ; "Carmen has seldom had Ornette Coleman album ensured a second once com• it so good . ." (Tom Scanlan, Army poser Mancini produced additional Times) ; "One of the fine jazz al• music for the TV crime series. bums of 1959 . ." (James Scott, 2nd LP Released (Both Shelly and Victor play the Kansas City Star) ; and the coun• weekly show.) sel to "Run, don't walk, to your Ornette Coleman now has his There are ten tunes on SON OF nearest record store and latch onto second album on CR, TOMORROW GUNN! including a moody ballad, 'Carmen'!" (Micheline Keating, IS THE QUESTION! THE NEW Joanna, which Gordon uses as a Tucson Daily Citizen.) MUSIC OF ORNETTE COLE• muted solo, an up tempo In recording "Carmen," Barney MAN (M3569, stereo S7569). With My Manne Shelly written especially used Andre Previn, piano; Buddy Ornette is his counterpart on trum• for Shelly, and Blues for Mother's, Collette, flute; Ray Linn, trumpet; pet, Don Cherry, plus the rhythm a thirty-two bar tune Richie Kamu• , alto; Justin Gordon, of Shelly Manne, drums, and either ca blows as a warm tenor solo. tenor; Bill Smith, ; Vic• or on Shelly recorded his first album tor Feldman, vibes; Joe Mondrag- t)£tSS for CR April, 1953. The album, on, bass; Shelly Manne, drums; and Ornette's first album, SOME• SHELLY MANNE & HIS MEN: several others. THING ELSE! ! ! (C3551), re• (C- "This is an album I wish I could leased just a year ago, "shook up" 3507), which features , devote an entire column to," wrote a great number of critics and musi• , , Robertson in his L.A. Sentinel re• cians. Pro or con the reaction was , and view. "The and har• violent. One critic wrote, "The cu• several others, is still available. monies are a haunting and strange rious sounds from Coleman's saxo• Since then Shelly & His Men mixture of Moorish influenced phone are not music, as I under• have recorded six more albums pre• sounds of ancient Seville, the funky stand the word." And another, senting in their varied programs blues of 'down home' Southern {continued on page '1) {continued on page 3) {continued on page 2)

Specimen page of the GTJ & CR NEWS. A free subscription to this publication is yours for returning the postpaid card enclosed in each Contemporary and Good Time Jazz factory-sealed album... on sale at dealers everywhere. Co-editors: Martin Williams Contributing Editor: Gunther Schuller Publisher: Hsio Wen Shih Art Director: Bob Cato Advertising Manager: Hank Leonardo Editorial Assistant: Margot Hentoff VOLUME 2 NUMBER 11 DECEMBER 1959 Israel Young and Leonard Feldman were I among the founders of the Jazz Review. 6 Early Duke The Jazz Review is published monthly by The Jazz Review Inc., Village Station, Box by Gunther Schuller 128, New York 14, N. Y. Entire contents copy• right 1959 by The Jazz Review Inc. Price per copy 50c. One year's subscription 14 Introducing $5.00. Two year's subscription $9.00. Unsolicited manuscripts and illustrations should be accompanied by a stamped, self- by Bill Crow addressed envelope. Reasonable care will be taken with all manuscripts and illustrations, 17 Test Your Jazz I. Q. but the Jazz Review can take no responsi• bility for unsolicited material. by Dom Cerruli NEW CONTRIBUTORS 18 Conversations with Ronald Atkins and Michael James are both frequent contributors to the Brit• by Don Gazzaway ish magazine, Jazz Monthly. Don Gazzaway is a librarian and part- 23 The Blues time student at Southern Methodist in , Texas. Dom Cerruli, a former Down Beat editor RECORD REVIEWS and contributor on jazz to many peri• odicals, is now with Warner Brothers Records. 24 by Mait Edey 25 - by Ronald Atkins 27 Benny Carter by Larry Gushee 28 by Zita Carno 29 by Michael James 29 by H. A. Woodfin 29 Jimmy Giuffre by Max Harrison 30 by Hsio Wen Shih 31 by 31 Thad Jones by Harvey Pekar 31 by H. A. Woodfin 32 by Max Harrison 32 by Don Heckman 32 Herbie Nichols by Larry Gushee 32 Alton Purnell by Paul Oliver 34 Max Roach by Michael James 34 by Zita Carno 35 Lightning Hopkins by Chris Strachwitz

36 JAZZ IN PRINT by Nat Hentoff 38 MONTEREY REPORT by Dick Hadlock 39 INSIDE MONTEREY by Gunther Schuller 42 .CONCERT REVIEW by Martin Williams

!

Nearly two decades ago gave the Early Cuke world of music his masterpiece, Ko-Ko and four years later his long-planned "musical history of the Negro," Black, Brown and Beige. Despite many and varied efforts on the part of a host of younger musi• GUNTHER SCHULLER cians, the perfection of the former and the scope and stature of the latter have as yet not been sur• passed and only rarely equalled (if at all). It may come as a surprise, then, to realize that practically This is the first of a series of articles by Mr. Schuller nothing has been written about Ellington and his on the early work of Duke Ellington. The entire works in terms of their musical and stylistic essence, series is copyright November 1959 by Rinehart and nor about the even more fascinating question of Company and is reprinted with their permission. how the leader of a band which, in its earlier days,

6 Freddy Guy Bubber Miley Duke Ellington Courtesy Roger Pryor Dodge

played primarily show and dance music came to interpretation and the injection of a performer's per• create such compositional landmarks. sonal feelings and musical attitudes. In a jazz re• The musicologist in jazz, unlike his colleagues in cording, on the other hand, we have a single specific the world of classical music, must of necessity base interpretation by the creator himself—a frozen im• his analyses primarily on recordings. This has both age, as it were, of the player's creative impulse, an advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, it image which contains both that original impulse eliminates the vexing problem of interpretation and its realization. It seems to me that once the which faces the classical musicologist. Even the artist involved has given his approval to a recording, most exacting notation—and let it be noted that it must be considered as a valid, analyzable version many composers were (and are) not very exacting, of his intentions. But this is, on the other hand, relying rather often upon the tradition and current precisely the disadvantage—the other side of the interpretational styles to complete what they have coin. For in a music where spontaneity, not only of left unwritten "between the lines"—leaves room for performance but of creation, is such a vital element,

7 any single performance is apt to give less than the "Chocolate Kiddies of 1924.' In between, of course, complete picture. Recording conditions being what the Washingtonians, as Duke's group called itself, they are, 1) recorded performances are rarely able played at jam sessions, house hops, rent parties to capture the excitement of a live performance, and an assortment of odd jobs, enough to develop where the vital element of audience reaction plays a small repertoire of their own. its important role, and 2) for a variety of reasons Even at its most indigenous, the jazz music that was countless jazz recordings are made before the per• developing in New York and the whole Northeast formances have jelled into an over-all unified con• was something quite apart from what the more cept, and too many are recorded in a decidedly blues-oriented Louisiana (and other Southern) mu• under-rehearsed state. sicians were playing. A functional music, geared In any case, a jazz musicologist has practically no specifically to social dancing and theater shows, choice. He must turn to recordings, especially in the Northeastern jazz music, whose inspirational cen• the case of Ellington, where many performances trum seems to have been (with Washing• were the result of head arrangements—collective ton not far behind), revolved primarily around experimentation on the part of Ellington and the . Ragtime and the fox trot were the rage of whole band—while, in some cases, what scores and the country, and bands, large or small, tried to em• parts were eventually copied out have seemingly body in orchestral versions at least the spirit, if not been lost. And in a band where the personalities of actually the style, of the leading ragtime pianists. the players contributed so heavily to its sound, its As late as 1927, when Ellington was still trying style and quality, even if scores existed, they would to forge an individual style, there exist samples tell us very little. (Washington Wobble, for instance) which are fairly literal transcriptions for orchestra of Duke's piano The Ellington discography starts theoretically in playing. In this they differ drastically from the work 1924,' but for all practical purposes, the first more of Jelly Roll Morton, for example, whose orchestra• or less presently available recordings- date from tions are not mere transpositions of a given set of April, 1926.:; At that time Ellington had already been notes from one instrument to several others, but are leading a number of small groups for some five or true orchestrations, reworked to fit the requirements six years, first in Washington and later in New York. of orchestral instruments. In Ellington's case, how• In the late years of World War I when Washington ever, this purely transcriptive approach had far- —Ellington's birthplace—was a beehive of activity, reaching consequences in relation to voicing, about bands providing music for dancing and all manner which I shall have more to say later. of social and political functions flourished in great In any case, by 1923 Duke's little band had made numbers. Ellington, by the time he was seventeen enough of a reputation to be offered a steady en• or eighteen, had developed a considerable local rep• gagement at the Hollywood Club, Forty-ninth and utation as a ragtime and party pianist, and often Broadway, soon to be renamed the Kentucky Club. played with some of the more famous Washington And it was about two and a half years later that orchestras. I think it is of great importance to any Ellington's Washingtonians, as they were still known investigation of Ellington's development to note then, made a number of recordings'' which in toto that most, if not all, of these were more or less com• are surely of slight musical significance, but histor• mercial orchestras—large groups, generally led by ically quite important. well-known ragtime pianists but otherwise consist• ing primarily of reading or "legitimate"1 musicians, The earliest of these seem to have been two sides since the "best gigs in town" were for society and for Gennett. Primarily a "" company, embassy affairs. However, some of the rougher, Gennett wanted blues, and got You've Got Those smaller outfits undoubtedly played more rags and "Wanna Go Back Again" Blues and If You Can't what was then beginning to be called jazz than Hold the Man You Love, which strictly speaking, waltzes and tangos. weren't blues at all but fairly catchy blues-ish tunes. Later in 1922, when Duke and his Washington The band consisted at the time of Bubber Miley friends, Otto Hardwick and Sonny Greer, came to (trumpet), Otto Hardwick (alto and baritone sax), New York, it was to play for Wilbur Sweatman, a Charlie Irvis (), Sonny Greer (drums), Fred leader who fronted a large orchestra that played Guy (banjo), Bass Edwards (tuba) and Duke on production-type theater dates and acts, although piano. For the record date Duke enlarged the band some of the music was categorizable as jazz. And in to twelve men, adding Jimmy Harrison second trom• 1924 Ellington made the first of several financially bone and vocal; Don Redman, George Thomas and unsuccessful forays into the world of musical shows, Prince Robinson (reeds); Leroy Rutledge and Harry when he wrote the music for an ill-fated show called Cooper (), the latter substituting for Miley.

8 Harrison was just starting his brilliant, short-lived music-hall material. While on the one hand these career, while Cooper had played briefly with the records prove (as many others do), that Duke's piano Bennie Moten orchestra in Kansas City. Redman, was at the time a very sloppy, helter-skelter sort of of course, was beginning to exert considerable influ• party piano, and that he and certain other members ence as an arranger. And yet, though studded with of the band had a tendency to rush tempos, the these budding names, the two sides are no more records also reveal much clearer (possibly better- than partial attempts at imitating the King Oliver prepared) ensemble work and, most important of Creole , with which Gennett had had great all, a first-rate Miley solo. success a few years earlier and whose playing had Much has been written about Miley's plunger and been setting styles ever since. If You Can't Hold the growl technique. This is understandable, but it has Man You Love, for example, has a trumpet duet tended to obscure the fact that Miley's solos are (Ex. 1) in the manner of Oliver and Armstrong, often great from the point of view of the actual notes although it lacks their stylistic grace and precision. played. His solo on Animal Crackers is a good ex• It also has a similar fuJI-band collective-ensemble ample of what I mean. Notice the daring intervals sound on the out-chorus—but again, with almost of his opening two measures, and later on in the none of the unanimity and continuity of the Creole twenty-fifth bar of his solo the D flat (flatted fifth!) Band, and with rather less of a beat. and B flat (minor third against the major third B natural in the accompaniment) (Ex. 3a and 3b). Miley uses the growl or plunger with great restraint in this solo. It is unfortunate that he pushes the tempo too hard, but it does give that part of the performance a kind of headlong, devil-may-care feeling, which, it seems to me, is less annoying than B» Gm7 6*7 Bf C7 F7 the more characterless remainder of the record. o a opto Animal Crackers, the less steady of the two records Example 1 rhythmically—by coincidence both pieces are in the same tempo—fluctuates between dragging, (in en• If one searches for embryonic Ellingtonian elements, semble passages) and rushing (in solos). It is impor• the pickings are very lean indeed, but there is at tant to note this because rhythmic unanimity and times the characteristic separation of the reeds and collective swing were not a strong point of the Elling• brass which marks the entire early Ellington period. ton organization'1 until joined the There is also, in Wanna Go Back Again, the first of band in 1939. the nostalgic train-whistle imitations which were to creep into Ellington's work from time to time; and there is, in If You Can't, a characteristic harmonic progression which—although in this case neither by Ellington nor altogether new—he was to use con• tinuously in ensuing years (Ex. 2). Wanna also fea• tures Hardwick on baritone and some rather good- natured Irvis trombone, with only a touch of growl (on one note). But on the whole, these initial sides sound more like some of the white bands of the period than the other great Negro bands, such as those of Jelly Roll Morton and King Oliver.

Example 3b Example 2

Animal Crackers and Li'l Farina, recorded two The next two recorded sides present us for the first months later, with Miley back and only Charlie time (except for Li'l Farina) with Ellington the com• Johnson (trumpet) and Prince Robinson (tenor and poser; both tunes are his. Rainy Nights has that ) added to the original personnel, already already-mentioned chord progression in the first have a shade more distinction, although the tunes three measures (see Ex. 2). It also contains a full themselves are rather undistinguished but typical chorus each by Irvis and Miley, both of which are

9 paraphrase improvisations.10 Irvis' solo is expansive, Bottom Stomp or King Oliver's Froggie Moore. big-toned, basically simple and at times quite ten• Of course Ellington was only twenty-seven, while der. Behind both solos the rhythm section plays both Morton and Oliver were just turning forty and chords on the second and fourth beat of each bar, in their prime. This accounts, certainly, for part of leaving the first and third empty, which gives the the difference in quality. But there were also funda• whole section a slightly halting, suspended feeling. mental differences in musical backgrounds, as I've (Since the playing of the band in those years was already implied. Some of the older musicians, who more the result of collective thinking than of any• were maturing in the early 1920's, verify the im• thing written down, it would be rash simply to pression that the Negro music of the South (from ascribe the idea solely to Ellington.) The record Texas to the Carolinas) was slow in reaching New ends on a ninth chord, a device that had become York, and generally reached it indirectly, via Chicago "hip" in the middle 1920's, after seventh-chord end• and St. Louis. Furthermore, there seems to have ings had begun to pale with much overuse. been a greater effort on the part of Northeastern Choo-Choo, taken as a whole, is the best of these Negros to assimilate with the whites, especially in six earliest sides. It is an Ellington tune with a lovely the field of music. set of chords on which Miley, again sticking close This accounted for the fact, for example, that in the to the melody, fashions a disarmingly simple "para• early 1920's there were several large orchestras, phrase" solo with little touches here and there of like Sweatman's and 's, that played playfulness and nostalgia, and a very discreet use what was then called "symphonic jazz." In an inter• of the plunger and growl (Ex. 4). Choo-Choo, as esting process of cross-fertilization, these orches• might be expected, ends with the inevitable train tras at first tried to emulate the big white whistle, manipulated by Greer. organizations (Whiteman, Hickman, etc.); while, in turn, by the middle and late 1920's the big white orchestras reciprocated by trying to capture the more Negroid strain which began to infiltrate the eastern bands with the spread of the New Orleans style (notably through Oliver and Armstrong). More• over, many colored bands of the time had two kinds of music in their repertoire, one for (uptown) G7 Coog7 F A 0"> and another for- Broadway (downtown). If a rough generalization can be made, one can say that the New York bands, small and large, were pretty showy, "dicty" outfits that catered primarily to white audi• ences and were slow in shaking off the ragtime milieu and adopting the New Orleans style. Ellington was part of this Northeastern tradition, as were the others in his band at-that time. It was not until Miley had heard Oliver in Chicago that he be• gan to feature the growl and plunger. Both Irvis and Nanton (who was to replace Irvis in late 1926) r> i I til l"ui ^ Jlipli learned these same techniques from Miley and a Dtf7 A»7 87 Caua.7 now-forgotten St. Louis trombonist, Jonas Walker, who was probably the first (though not necessarily the best) to apply the New Orleans "freak" sounds Example 4. The Diagonal lines Through the Stems of Some Notes Indicate the Use of the Growl to the trombone. As discussion of succeeding records will show, it Summing up these first recordings, we find rather was the influence of Miley as the leading soloist of ordinary material, a modicum of organization, one the band" and as author (or co-author)" of many lovely tune and two fine Miley solos. Although the of the Ellington numbers of 1927 to 1929, as well Ellington historian is apt to look with a kindly eye as the influence of the "jungle style" as practiced on these early efforts and find little glimpses of by Miley and Nanton, that actually brought to full future developments, there is no gainsaying the fact realization the early "Ellington effect."l:; This quality that they cannot stand up in comparison to such has too often been credited entirely to Duke. As contemporary masterpieces of both orchestration leader, of course, he had the opportunity to promote and formal structure as Jelly Roll Morton's Black or discourage these stylistic developments. It is a

10 mark of his talent and vision as leader that he let his musicians lead the way, until years later, when he had learned to use his remarkable aggregation of sounds on a more purely compositional level. The evidence of the recordings and corroboration by contemporary musicians definitely indicate that Ell• ington was very dependent upon his players, and Example 5 that they knew it. But the fierce pride and com• munal attitude within each orchestra—an attitude Ellington made many recordings of East St. Louis sorely missing in present day groups—took prece• Toodle-Oo for various record companies, and when dence over individual feelings and jealousies. The compared, these records tell us several interesting over-all collective spirit was based on the premise facts about the Ellington approach, in as much as that what was good for the band as a whole was they span a period of thirteen months. The Vocalion good for the individual. and Brunswick versions, made four months apart, On the recordings of late 1926 and early 1927 we are practically identical in quality and format. A hear the fruits of this collective spirit, especially in slightly livelier tempo and the rich tone of Bass pieces like East St. Louis Toodle-Oo, Black and Tan Edwards on the earlier recording are the only dif• Fantasy and . In all three Miley was ferences from the better-known Brunswick perform• involved to a considerable extent as co-author, and ance.1"' The Brunswick and Columbia versions were these records bear the stamp of his unique talent recorded eight days apart, and although not identi• more than that of any other member of the band, cal, are still very similar in form and musical con• including Ellington. tent. The latter is in general a bit more subdued, As I've already indicated, Miley's importance cannot mainly because of differences in studio and record• be fully appreciated solely in terms of his growl and ing equipment. The tempo is slightly faster on the plunger technique. His melodic gift was equally Brunswick master, and Braud's tuba has less punch great. One should not even separate the two, be• than Edwards', on the Columbia version. The solos cause they are inextricably one in concept. As with are virtually the same, so much so that there is even any great performer or composer, pitch and color a great similarity between Hardwick's and Jackson's derive simultaneously from the same initial inspira• clarinet solos (on Brunswick and Columbia respec• tion. If I separate the two elements in this case, it tively). Nanton's slightly stiff but good-natured solo is only to re-establish the pre-eminence of-Miley's is, except for minor technicalities, also the same, melodic gifts. To my knowledge, only Roger Pryor which indicates that once the "improvisations" were Dodge'4 has tried to show that Miley's importance set, they remained unchanged for a certain period. goes beyond the fashioning of extravagant, bizarre The later Victor version, however, shows some major muted effects. His contribution to jazz in the realm revisions. The form has changed (Ex. 6), and so have of pure classic melody has been unfortunately neg• the solos: lected.

Vocalion Intro A B A1 B1 B^ A East St. Louis Toodle-Oo is a fine example of his & J 32 18 16 18 8 + 10 8 Brunswick \ (Miley) (Nanton) (Clar.) (Brass) (Reeds-full (Miley) great gifts. The melodic line is so disarmingly & \ ensemble) simple that, except for the use of the mute and Columbia ' growl, it would sound like pure folk song; and it may Victor Intro A B B' A' B^ A 32 18 18 16 18 8 well be, as Dodge points out, that this thematic ma• (Miley) (Carney) (Nanton) (Clar.) (Brass) (Miley) terial was "common musical knowledge" at the time. It is the way in which this melody is accom• (The small numbers qualifying the letters indicate variations of the material. The other numbers indicate the number of bars.) panied, however, that for its time adds a striking note to this piece. Underneath the trumpet solo, Ellington (I presume) arranged a moaning, sus• Most important of all, the weakest part of the earlier tained passage for the and tuba, that versions, namely the trite polka-like phrase in the provides—whether it is pure jazz or not (see Dodge) reeds, arranged by Ellington (the first part of B-), —both framework and contrast to Miley's line (Ex. 5). has been eliminated. This was done by converting the arranged ensemble of B- into a Carney baritone improvisation, inserted between Miley's theme and Nanton's trombone solo to contrast a reed instru• ment with the two brass. The clarinet solo, which was in the high register in the earlier versions, has become a growly low-register solo. Unfortunately,

11 though the format is improved, the performance on discrepancy. I always found the arranged ensemble Victor (except for Mi ley's) is poorer. The tempo is passage (with its characteristic move to G flat major, draggy and slower, the intonation and balance are in the key of B flat the lowered sixth step) slightly quite miserable, and Braud's bowed brass is cum• cheap and the piano solo boring.17 bersome and too lugubrious for the occasion. Even Fortunately in Creole Love Call—famous for being Carney, still a bit green (he was only seventeen at 's first attempt at an instrumentalized, that time), is excessively reedy in tone, and his lop• wordless vocal—Ellington's role was limited strictly ing, on-the-beat rhythm is a little dated. Only Miley to orchestrating. The melancholy simplicity (again, survives the changes rather well. He has taken some blues chords) is unadulterated, though the en• of the humor out of the bridge of his theme (by semble parts cannot compare with Miley's or Rudy slurring one phrase formerly tongued), but his final Jackson's radiantly singing New Orleans-styled eight bars have become a little more aggressive solos. and dirtier in the use of the growl. A comparison of the three 1927 recordings of Black One final point about the form of East St. Louis and Tan Fantasy again shows that over a seven- Toodle-Oo. Whereas most bands of the period ended month span the "improvsed" solos changed very each number with full ensemble (sometimes col• little. Even when Jabbo Smith substitutes for Miley lectively improvised), Ellington—or Miley—chose to on the Okeh version, the over-all shape of the trum• end quietly with a short reprise of the theme, a pet part does not change drastically, though in pattern Ellington was to develop thoroughly in the terms of expression Jabbo's richer sound and looser next decade. This recapitulation really saves East ways of playing make this performance even more St. Louis from complete deterioration after the of a fantasy.'* Miley's solo on the Victor version is, tawdry ensemble passages. And it seems to me of course, one of his most striking recorded per• that the importance of this ending lies not so much formances. It makes brilliant use of the plunger in the fact that a felicitous choice was made, but mute and the growl; but it is, to our ears, thirty-two that such a choice was possible. It was possible years later, especially startling in its abundant use because East St. Louis was not a collection of of the blue notes, notably the flat fifth in the first thirty-two- or twelve-bar "take your turn" solos, nor bar of the second chorus (Ex. 7). It is also a highly was it a totally improvised ensemble piece, but in dramatic solo, equal to anything achieved up to its faltering way a composition; it had a two-part that time by the New Orleans trumpet men. and (A and B) form and a thematic statement which made such a recapitulation both logical and pleasing. Basically the same points could be made about the other two Miley-Ellington masterpieces of the pe• riod, and Creole Love Call. The former gives further evidence of the difference in artistic levels at that time between Miley and Ellington. The piece consists of Miley's twelve-bar theme based on the classic blues progression,'" F7 BP It Rb Bb three choruses on the same (two by Miley, one by Nanton), an arranged ensemble passage, a twelve- bar Ellington piano solo, and finally a recapitulation with the famous tagged-on Chopin Funeral March ending. Of these segments only two can be at• tributed to Ellington, and they are not only the Eb Bb Bb F7 weakest by far, but are quite out of character with the rest of the record. Whereas Miley's theme, his solos—and to a lesser degree Nanton's—again re• F7 T Bb Eb Bb flect an unadorned pure classicism, Ellington's two Example 7 contributions derive from the world of slick trying- Blue Notes: to-be-modern show music. a — minor third When I first heard these records in my teens, I b = flat fifth recall vaguely feeling a discrepancy between the c = minor seventh d = minor ninth Ellington and Miley sections, without at the time e is a bent tone which goes from a flat octave through the minor seven realizing (or analyzing) the exact nature of this th to the sixth degree, anticipating the return to B[>.

12 perhaps none of them ever achieved the extra• ordinary contrast produced by the intense stillness E» E BHZI of the four-bar-long high B-flat, suddenly erupting, Example 8a. Jubilee Stomp as if unable to contain itself any longer, into a magnificently structured melodic creation. Miley's contribution as composer and player in Black ^,„r7r ft ffltir^.f ff.£tf|ff^ and Tan Fantasy, East St. Louis Toodle-Oo and Creole Love Call would suffice to place him among the all-time jazz greats. His influence on the emer• 67 G7 gence of the "Ellington effect," however, was not Example 8b. Yellow Dog Blues limited to these particular pieces. He had a hand in the composing of Blue Bubbles and The Blues I Love To Sing (both 1927); Black Beauty (1928); and, in his last year with Duke (1929), Doin' the Voom Voom and Goin' to Town. Miley also left an indelible stamp on the band's style with great solos on some of the above, as well as on Jubilee Stomp, Yellow Dog Blues,11 Red Hot Band, , Rent Party Blues, and the earlier Immigration Blues and New Orleans Lowdown.20 Miley also played hundreds of nightly improvisations at the , forging (with Nanton) the "jungle style" that Example 8c. The Blues I Love to Sing was the first really distinguishing trademark of the In the period with which we are dealing at the mo• Ellington band. ment (1926-1927), the reedmen did not exert as If Miley was the prime musical inspiration of the much influence on the "Ellington effect" as the early band, was its most unique two brassmen I've discussed. Otto Hardwick, Duke's voice. Like Miley, he was a master in the use of right-hand man, although a distinctive stylist him• the growl, the plunger and wah-wah mutes, and,his self, with an unusual tone and a lithe staccato style had a similar classic simplicity. But where style, was to influence the Ellington sound not so Miley tended to be dapper and smooth, Nanton had much directly as indirectly, through his influence a rough-hewn quality in his playing which actually on Hodges and Carney, which was to be felt a few encompassed a wider range of expression. Whether years later. Rudy Jackson, a fine player in the New plaintive or humorous, his wah-wah muting often Orleans Bechet-influenced tradition, evidently did took on a distinctly human quality. His open-horn not find the Ellington approach to his liking. The work also extended from the dark and sober to the malleability and growth which Bigard, Jackson's jaunty or bucolic. But whatever he was expressing, successor in early 1928, had was not in Jackson's his distinctive vibrato and big tone gave his playing make-up, and he left to play with and a kind of bursting-at-the-seams intensity and inner other bands. beauty that made every Nanton solo a haunting But this imbalance between reeds and brass was experience. Melodically or harmonically (it comes soon to undergo changes. As Duke's band made a to the same thing) Nanton was not as advanced as success of its historic Cotton Club engagement, it Miley. But this did not prevent him from creating, began to expand and attract new players, such as over a period of twenty years with Ellington, an Bigard and Hodges. Soon Whetsol returned (after endless number of beautiful solos, many of them a leave of absence since 1924), replacing Metcalfe; marked by completely original melodic turns (Ex. 8), and in late 1928 the brass were enlarged to four all the more, unforgettable because of their sim• with the addition of Freddy Jenkins. From now on plicity. As a matter of fact, Nanton's solo work, in each player was to be chosen by Ellington for some its totality, is unique and perplexing. Here is a distinctive or unique quality; and it was in 1927 player whose solos rarely go much beyond a range and 1928—his imagination kindled by Miley and of one octave; who has some real limitations in- Nanton, and encouraged by the band's success— strumentally (compared, for instance, to a virtuoso that Ellington began to have visions of future pos• like Jimmy Harrison); and who, in a sense, plays sibilities in composition and tonal color. From now the same basic idea over and over again—but who, on his ideas were to become, in increasing measure, by some magic alchemy, manages to make each the dominant factor in the development of the or• solo a new and wondrous experience. chestra's output.

13 FOOTNOTES: BILL CROW

1 Benny H. Aasland, The Wax Works of Duke Ellington, a discog- raphy. 2 The Birth of Jazz—Riverside 12-129. •(Two old acoustical records, Trombone Blues and I'm Gonna Hang Around My Sugar, recorded (according to Aasland) in late 1925, are Introducing inconsequential items that sound like any number of bands of the period, and certainly not as good as the Fletcher Henderson band of the time, which, of course, had Coleman Hawkins and Louis Arm• Wilbur Ware strong, as well as Don Redman as alto and arranger. Both Ellington sides are typical numbers for dancing, with little "" touches and a goodly collection of the syncopated cliches of the time. The personnel, I venture to guess, consists of Hardwick on alto, Prince Robinson on clarinet and tenor (he plays what for the time was a fair solo on the second side), Charlie Irvis on trombone, Someone told me about Wilbur Ware Ellington (piano) and (banjo). The trumpet and tuba are less individual and therefore harder to identify. around 1955 when he was still in

4 Barry Ulanov, Duke Ellington, pp. 15-17. Chicago . . . that he was "something o Although this show never got to Broadway, it enjoyed an ex• else" and shouldn't be missed. When tremely successful two-year run in , played by the Sam Wood• ing orchestra. he finally came to New York I was « On the aforementioned Riverside LP. pleased to discover that he was not 7 By 1926 this was a well-established tradition among the orches• just another good bass player, but an tras that played the so-called "symphonic jazz." Entire train rides were depicted musically, evidently with considerable realism. Elling• unusually original artist. After hearing ton's own efforts in this genre, of course, culminated in the virtuosic Wilbur several times with Monk, and 1934 recording of Daybreak Express. K The A natural in bar two of Miley's solo could have been acci• with his own group at the Bohemia, dental. It is possible that Miley tried for the sixth of the chord (G) and upon listening to some of his rec• and overshot the mark, since on a trumpet the fingerings for G also give you an A. The history of on brass instru• ords, I am convinced that he is one ments is full of such chance moments, often with very fortunate results. of our truly great jazz musicians. I 0 One of the most solid players rhythmically in the early Ellington don't mean that he has invented any• days was Bass Edwards, the tuba player (1926), who had not only a thing new in the way of lines, forms, remarkably expressive tone, but a strong pungent beat. Unfor• tunately he is heard to good advantage only on four or five sides, or sound, but he has chosen an ap• some of which, like Immigration Blues and The Creeper, are very hard to obtain. proach to these elements that does i<> I am using this term in the sense that Andre Hodeir has ap• not follow the general evolution of bass plied to it, namely a type of improvisation based primarily on em• bellishment or ornamentation of the original melodic line. style from Blanton through Pettiford, 11 In this connection Ellington's own statement is very telling. Brown, Heath, Chambers, Mingus, etc. "Bubber used to growl all night long, playing gutbucket on his horn. Wilbur uses the same tools that other That was when we decided to forget all about the sweet music." (Hear Me Talkin' to Ya, Shapiro-Hentoff; p. 231.) use, but his concentration is 12 The actual extent of Miley's authorship is still a matter for more on percussion, syncopation and further research; but there seems to be little doubt that the works that bear his name along with Ellington's derive in basic content bare harmonic roots than on the predominantly from Miley. achievement of a wind-instrument i:i In the one-year period, November 1926—December 1927, out of a total of seventeen pieces recorded, only four were written by song quality in phrasing and melodic in• writers outside the band, and of the remaining thirteen, five were authored by Miley, including the three most important ones of the vention. His solos are extremely me• period. (Six others were by Ellington and two by Hardwick. It may lodic in their own way, logically de• also be that some of the six by Ellington should be attributed to others in the band, because it was a common practice—and still is veloped and well balanced, but they today—that titular heads of the organization often took full credit for a particular piece.) The "Ellington effect," incidentally, is a very are permutations of the primary triad accurate term coined by . or reshuffling of the root line rather 14 Jazz Monthly (Volume 4, No. 3), May, 1958; p. 2. than melodies built from higher notes I.">At the time Vocalion was a subsidiary of Columbia; and since Columbia re-recorded the Ellington band in East St. Louis four in the chord. Musical example 1 (from months later, I suppose the parent company intended'the new ver• his own Riverside album "The Chicago sion to supersede the earlier one; this would explain why the two Vocalion sides (the first recording of Birmingham Breakdown is on Sound" [Riverside RLP 12-252] the the B side) were never reissued. The Vocalion East St. Louis version is therefore practically unobtainable. first of two bass choruses on 31st and in As Roger Pryor Dodge explains, the melody of Black and Tan State) illustrates his approach well. Fantasy is a transmutation of part of a sacred song by Stephen Adams Which Bubber's sister used to sing. His entrance to the first bar establishes l" This is all the more annoying when one realizes that Duke's the tonality in no uncertain terms, and piano solo is in fact also based on the blues chords, but comes out his return to the figure in the second in his typical stereotyped party-ish stride style. In a still later (1930) recording of Black and Tan Fantasy, bar sets up the pattern of alternating also adheres to the original Miley choruses. strong, simple melodic phrases with in Miley's solo is based on the verse, rather unusual in those days. light, broken figures that indicate the Immigration Blues, recorded December, 1926, contains one of Miley's very greatest solos. It is unfortunately a very rare collector's chords and excite the rhythm—a sort item. Miley's chorus is highly imaginative in its simultaneous use of self-accompaniment. of growl and plunger, and is played with a penetrating, nasty tone that almost creates the illusion of speech. New Orleans Lowdown is another good Miley record, containing, in fact, two full choruses.

14 In measures 5, 6, 7, 9 and 11 (don't count the first pickup as a measure), Wilbur often deliberately uses what bass players refer to as a "short sound," that is, he uses rests between consecutive notes of a phrase rather than trying for the legato, "long sound" preferred by most jazz bassists. He uses the long sound when it will en• hance his line, but isn't at all one-way about it. Since the bass is tuned in fourths, this interval and the neighboring fifth are the easiest to finger anywhere on the instrument, and Wilbur makes use of them more frequently than any others. He does it, however, with such imagination that he has developed it into a formal style within which he functions beautifully. He often uses these intervals as double-stops, mov• ing them however the harmony will impossible fingering. It's also interest• allow parallel movement, but never al• ing to notice his use of octaves and lowing himself to be backed into a open string harmonics, as easily-fin• corner where the continuation of an gered ways to extend the basic chord idea in double-stops would require an into different registers of the instru• ment without running chords and I scales.

Because most people who read music are not familiar with the jazz player's habit of mentally re-evaluating notations that do not fit his conception of phrasing, I have written example 1 in 12/8 though the musicians are undoubtedly thinking in terms of four beats to the measure. The usual ways of writing the first measure of example 2 are inaccurate but often written for musicians who understand the liberties that must be taken with phrasing; the more accurate 4/4 rendition using eighth-note triplets (example 3) becomes cluttered with triplet signs, and incorrectly indicates the phrasing to musicians who lay way back on triplets. The disad• vantage to 12/8 is the strangeness of using dotted-quarter rests, but it can be read strictly as written and will produce quite an accurate rendition of the original.

15 On Decidedly from the "Mulligan Meets strong roots that give Monk's harmonic Monk" album (Riverside RLP 12-247) conception an added richness. there are a number of good illustrations Besides the variety and color that Wil• of Wilbur's approach to the bass line. bur creates in his lines there is the During the opening choruses he builds most obvious feature of his playing, them principally of roots, fifths and oc• a tremendous 4,4 swing that has the taves with very little scale walking. After same loose, imprecise but very alive Gerry's breaks he has the harmonic feeling of carefree forward motion that control, since Monk lays out, but rather you hear in 's drumming. than immediately walking chords he I can't describe it accurately, but the plays a counter-rhythm on a G har• best image I can think of to suggest monic through the first three changes, it is doing the where G is the fifth of the first chord, Lindy. There is flowing movement all the ninth of the second chord and an through the measure, and not just anticipation of the root that the third where the notes are. chord resolves toward (D7 to G7). Here On the albums listed above Wilbur is the pedal device sets off Gerry's mel• teamed with a number of musicians odic idea beautifully and kicks off the who represent many styles. The role chorus with great strength. of the is a little different in On Monk's first chorus of the same each case, depending on how much tune Wilbur starts with alternating or how little ground the drummers and beats of root and fifth that firmly estab• piano players like to cover. Without lish the bottom of the chord. At the altering his basic approach Wilbur beginning of the second piano chorus manages to adjust perfectly to each he uses alternating roots and major situation, relating as well to Dick John• sevenths (a half step below the root) son on Riverside RLP 12-252 and Zoot for the same purpose, then double Sims on RLP 12-228 as he does to stopped roots and fifths. His own on RLP 12-248 and Johnny chorus is walked, first into a rather in• Griffin on RLP 12-264. He is combined secure section of his high register, with some excellent pianists (Kenny then abruptly to low open strings and Drew, Monk, Wynton Kelly, Dave a few double-stopped chromatic fifths. McKenna, ) and drum• In one spot he shifts from walking on mers (PhiIly Joe, Wilbur Campbell, the beat to walking on the upbeat for Shadow Wilson, .) In the four bars, and then back again. At the main these albums are good examples end of his chorus he uses a cycle of of vigorous, swinging rhythm sections, fourths for a turn around into the next and accurate representation of Wilbur's chorus. As you see, he manages to playing both as accompanist and develop this solo melodically, rhythmi• soloist. cally and harmonically without ven• turing away from the basic form of Wilbur is, for me, a reaffirmation of four quarter-notes to the measure. the idea that deep expression can be On Monk's Straight, No Chaser in the reached through simplification of form same album, his two choruses of blues —each new discovery need not always include rhythmic figures on one note, be a more complex one. The difference double stops, syncopated downbeats, between the extremely sophisticated melodic quotes and normal trochaic simplicity of Wilbur Ware and the phrases without losing any of the sim• primitive simplicity of a beginner is as plicity, space and cleanness of line wide as that between simple drawings that mark his work. He was an ideal by Klee or Miro and those of a child. bassist for Monk, since he seems to Artistic curiosity will constantly experi• share Monk's conception of the value ment with mechanical complexity, but of open space, repeated figures, cycles it is the resolution of such construc• of intervals, rhythmic tension and re• tions into simple universal terms that laxation . . . and at the same time he is ultimately satisfying. Wilbur's terms tends to the business of providing are simple, and his artistic expression most profound. Test your jazz I.O..! In the list of names at the left, locate the one which matches the descriptive phrase on the right. To make things more difficult, there are a couple of extra descriptive phrases which do not apply to any of the names at the left, and a couple which apply to more than one name. Give yourself five points per correct answer, then check your rating as a critic against this certified chart: 100-95, Critic, class; 90-95, Critiz, Jazz Monthly class; 80-90, Critic-with-a-column-and-one-book-published class; 75-80, Critic, Down Beat or The Jazz Review or Photoplay class; 65-75, Critic, N. Y. Daily News or Madamoiselle class; 45-65, interested onlooker; 25-45, Reads too much and doesn't listen enough; 15-25, listens a lot but to easy things; 10-15, Member of U. S. State Department or a music teacher in a secondary school; 0-10, Go back to your salami-and-egg sandwich. Ready? Just pick one from column A and one from Column B:

1. John Hammond The House That Jazz Built! 2. Art Van Damme Pioneered jazz-poetry and jazz charades. 3. Shifted the emphasis off the left foot and onto the ride cymbal. 4. RCA Victor Based on the changes of Ja-Da. 5. Steve Allen Played Miles' choruses on that Savoy ses• 6. Marilyn Moore sion. 7. Bix America's only true jazz critic this week. 8. The natural link between and Freddie Slack. 9. L.A. Sounds as if he were trying to ingest a vast 10. Steve Allen again number of peanut butter sandwiches. 11. The Big Bands Former Sonny Dunham bandboy who went 12. G over high C on to have his own Ip. "Lady, if you can't feel it, then I can't ex• 13. Lud Gluskin plain it to you, but maybe that fellow over 14. Bird's Axe there with the glasses may be able to help 15. Ornette Coleman you." 16. The M. J. Q. "Newport made me!" Discovered the Ted Heath band. 17. Porta-Desks It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That 18. Mezz Swing. 19. Sophisticated Swing Invented jazz in 1902. 20. The pre-Bop Era Led his own band at Baylor, but left in his sophomore year when he learned you can get paid for playing hot! Former Down Beat editor who went on to have his own Ip. Still collects Hot. Bird's Axe. Barred from Birdland for life. Couldn't read well enough to stay with the Mound City Blue Blowers, but did anyway. Natural outgrowth of the blues. DOM CERULLI The King Of Swing. Taught how to splice tapes. Studied counterpoint with Darius Milhaud. Shifted the emphasis off the ride cymbal and back to the left foot, thereby earning his own Ip. DON GAZZAWAY

It has been eighteen years since Henry "Buster" Buster organized his own band in 1937. Charlie Smith left the New York jazz scene. There was no Parker was a member of that band. He had idolized spectacular reason; he just wanted to go home. Buster since their first meeting in 1932. The extent Buster was leaving behind a twenty year career in of Buster's influence on Parker during the latter's jazz with scarcely a qualm. As he put it, "I'd seen formative years in Kansas City can only be guessed what it was all about, and had my time. I was ready at; Buster tells the story of their relationship in to go home where a little hunting and fishing weren't Part II of this series. so hard to find time for." Since his return to Dallas in 1941, Buster has been Buster had become a professional musician in the relatively obscure, although he has led his own local early twenties playing clarinet with a trio in his group most of the time. But his semi-exile was his home town, Dallas. Leaving Dallas in 1925 with the own choice and he hasn't regretted the choice he Blue Devil band led by Ermir Coleman, Buster made. He is doing well now and still finds time for started a career as arranger, composer, as per• the fishing he enjoys so much. former on alto and clarinet, with virtually every im• The recent recognition of Buster Smith's contribu• portant band that played the free-wheeling "Kansas tion to jazz has led to the recording of his present City" style. group by Gunther Schuller for this With Ernest Williams, Buster led the Blue Devils past summer. after Walter Page left to join Bennie Moten. Buster Don Gazzaway was later in the Moten band himself, as well as a member of the bands of , , Julia Lee and others. In 1935 Buster joined Count The following is Buster's own story of his life in Basie in the Reno Club in Kansas City as co-leader jazz as he told it at his house in Dallas, in August, of the Basie group. 1959.

Tell me about your early life and background. picking cotton. I saw a clarinet in a window in town I was born down here in Ellis County—(adjacent to one day and ran all the way back home to ask my Dallas on the south)—in 1904 on a farm my family mother if I could have it. It didn't cost but $3.50 was living on and working on. Our family picked cot• so she told me I could buy it if I picked four ton. We ran back and forth between the farm and hundred pounds of cotton a day. Well, I picked over Dallas trying to raise enough money to pay for the four hundred pounds for five days, and then went home in Dallas we were buying. back and bought that clarinet. I practised around What was your first contact with music? with it for two or three months and was doing pretty Well, it was on that farm when I was about four or good when we moved to Dallas. I quit school when five. I'd come in from the fields and play an old I left Celina. I think I had finished about the seventh organ. grade. In a church around there? When we moved to Dallas I went to work to help No, it was our organ— we had one there in the make the living. My mother was alone with us five house. Yeah, my brother would get down and push boys so I had to help bring in a little money—I was the pedal's to make the notes come out, and I was up above playing the keys. My grandfather made us the oldest. get rid of that old organ because he told my mother, Was this when you first ran into professional mu• it wouldn't do anything but lead me into the worst sicians? of sin. After that I didn't get near another instru• Yeah, there were many, many good bands and musi• ment till I was about eighteen. Our family had cians around here [Dallas] then, and you'd see them moved to Celina [near Dallas] at that time—still everywhere you went. I got to playing around with

18

a little three piece band—Voddie White. Voddie What was the usual instrumentation of these small played piano, I played clarinet, and a drummer—I groups? forget his name. We played around town at a few They usually start out with piano, drums, and a clar• places and at Saturday night suppers and that sort inet. Of course we didn't have a bass player then, of thing. That was around 1923 and 1924. but sometimes a bass tuba player. Alphonso Trent Had you had any formal instruction in music or finally found a fellow out of Hot Springs or some• clarinet? where around there that played string bass and he None whatsoever, I just picked it up little by little by was the first one I saw till Walter Page came down. watching people who played that same instrument. Did you see any of the famous New Orleans musi• I'd just watch them and listen and pick up more cians around here in those days? and more. I used to hear a boy named Jesse Hooker, I saw once in a great while, and an awful good clarinet player who used to play down King Oliver too. Oliver was around here more than on the Central track at a place called the Tip-Top Louis. He used to come around with some big show. Club. He couldn't read either. I'd go down there They used to play at the L. B. Mose theatre down• and listen to him till he moved on. This was in 1922. town and the Hummingbird on Hall Street. Those About that time a little band came up from New were the big places. That's where Trent and Floyd Orleans and came in there at the Tip-Top and hired and all the big shows used to play. me and another fellow 'cause they were two men Did they play strictly for Negro audiences? short when they got there. Me and the other fellow It was always for colored audiences, although a few made five pieces. I played with them for a few weeks roadhouses for whites had colored bands once in a until they left and then I gigged around Dallas for while. They used to play at the Bagdad club in a year or so with Voddie White. Then in 1925 the Grand Prairie till the racehorses left and the place Blue Devils came to town and I joined them. folded. Were you still playing clarinet then? Some say jazz started in many places around the Clarinet and alto. I'd picked up the from country, rather than in New Orleans alone. What's our drummer in the Voddie White band. He'd tried your feeling about that? to play alto once himself, but he didn't like it so he Well, I wouldn't say it started altogether in New said, 'Buster, I've got an old alto over at my house Orleans. They had a little different sort of jazz from you can have if you want it. Take it and go ahead on what we had in Texas—not much difference—the with it' So I went and got it out of his closet; it drummer played a little different. We didn't hear as was so old it was turning green. Anyway, I cleaned much about New Orleans in those days as we did a it up, fooled around and learned it in three days. little later on. Tell me more about the Dallas and Texas scene in We called that kind of music gutbucket or barrel• those days. house. The trumpet players and clarinet players con• T-Bone Walker was around; he used to dance where centrated on that. I'll tell you, a lot of it started I played down on the Central track. He wasn't sing• around here on those medicine shows. ing much then—just dancing. was We used to have them all over town here and that's down there too. He was a dancer too at first. Of where it started. A medicine show used to have four course there were a lot of bands around here too. or five pieces: trombone, clarinet, trumpet, and a Alphonse Trent, Jap Allen, T. Holder, George E. Lee. drummer, every man blowing for himself as loud as They all made a circuit around here from Kansas he could blow to attract a crowd for the 'doctor.' City, Oklahoma City, Houston, Dallas, , Then there would be a couple of comedians clown• and a lot of the smaller town too. We had two bands ing a little bit, then the doc would have the boys here as good as you could find anywhere—Troy blow again to attract another crowd after he'd sold Floyd and Alphonso Trent. In 1926 Trent was play• the first crowd. He'd sell them this patent medicine ing at the Adolphus hotel. Another band was Fred —good for anything—at a dollar or a dollar-fifty a Cooper's. And then there was Carl Murphy's little bottle and the comedians would go through the seven-piece band; they called themselves the Sat• crowd selling it. Then the boys would get up and isfied Five or something like that when they first blow again to attract another bunch of suckers. started out. They played at the Adolphus Hotel That's how all that jazz started down in these parts. evenings and Trent played there later in the night. They tried to get me on one of those things in 1922 Then there were any number of little four and five- but I didn't go. That was when I joined Voddie White, piece bands playing around the roadhouses and and then did all that business I already told you after hours spots. Trent and Floyd were the big about until 1925 when Blue Devils came through bands and did most of the traveling. here and picked me up.

20 The Original Blue Devils, 1932. Courtesy Back Row: Leroy White, trumpet; Theodore 'Doc' Ross, alto; Lester Young, tenor; Buster Smith, alto; Reuben Lynch, What sort of deal did they offer you? guitar; Abe Bolar, bass. Front Row: Jap Jones, trombone; Leonard Well, we didn't have a salary in those days; we had Chadwick, trumpet; George Hudson, trumpet; what we called a 'commonwealth' band. We just Ernest Williams, vocalist; Charlie Washington, piano; Druie Bess, trombone; split everything down the middle. If we had thirteen Raymond Howell, drums. men, we'd count out thirteen piles, taking out our expenses first. We played around Dallas, Houston, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, and those places. In 1927 we saw Basie in Kansas City playing the piano in a show They heard you playing around? with the Whitman Sisters. There wasn't much hap• Yeah, the Blue Devils were on tour and were gigging pening there so we talked him into coming on down around Dallas at the time. Some of them heard me with us. We came on back to Dallas and stayed playing and urged me to join the band. The Devils around here till the last of 1928, went back to were being led by a guy named Coleman at the Kansas City for about three months, and then we time—Ermir was his first name. Anyway, he was a moved back to Oklahoma City and started working fine trombone player and everybody called him at the Ritz ballroom. We used to work there all win• 'Bucket.' He was from Indianapolis and he came ter and then go to the Cinderella Garden in Little down with a boy that played a whole lot of drums, Rock in the summer. We did that about three or four in fact I never heard anybody that played any mere years—steady work the whole time. We had about drums than him—a boy called 'Crack'. He was a eight days off a year. We picked up 'Hot Lips' Page great drummer, but I can't remember his name— about this time down in Tyler, Texas. He was play• just 'Crack'. They had a great trumpet player named ing in Sugar Lou's little band down there. I'm the Harry Youngblood. Then after they got down here one who stole him from Sugar Lou. He was singing they made the band up to thirteen pieces. Some of and playing trumpet then. the guys in the band were Ruben Roddy, James Lips hadn't been with us long when some of the Simpson, Harry Youngblood, , Walter boys started leaving us to join Bennie Moten. Jimmy Page, and a little later on Rueben Lynch on banjo. Rushing took off first, and then Lips, and then Basie, Page was playing string bass with a stick that he and Walter Page was the last one to leave about bumped the strings with, and he'd pluck the strings 1931. Things in a band were pretty loose in those too. Of course, he played tuba and a good baritone days, and Walter didn't think much about leaving sax. Everybody thought it was great the way he'd what was then his own band. He'd been leading it run from one instrument to another. since the last of 1927. It was on a commonwealth It all looked pretty good to me so I joined up with basis and the leader wasn't much more than just them. one of the boys, so he left.

21 After they left, Ernest Williams and myself, being there a few weeks. We didn't like it but we were the oldest men in the band, took over and carried it broke and couldn't leave. all over into Virginia and around, and kept it to• Then a guy from Beckly, West Virginia came over gether. Ernest was our drummer, he replaced 'Crack' and told us he had a steady job over there at a when he left. Ernest and I got to be real good friends. white night club. We went on over and played about We saw the band dwindle down several times to five three nights and found out he had us working on a or six pieces and we'd have to build it back up percentage. He had quoted us a straight price for again. We kept that up about three years. the job and then turned around and took a big cut We went all over Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa, out of our salary for himself. We were pretty mad Nebraska, and all around the middle part of the but we couldn't do anything about it because the country. In fact we went clear up to Minnesota one guy wasn't twenty-one. time and that's when we first heard Lester Young. Now we had a couple of taxi drivers to carry us over Was this after you and Ernest Williams took over the there to the joint every night and they were waiting till Blue Devils? the end of the week to collect their money—about Well, no, actually this was in 1930 before Walter left seventy dollars. Well, about that time Zack White the band. We had got a trumpet player out of Des came down from Cincinnati and tried to steal some Moines named Leroy White—called him 'Snake' of our boys, but we told him he'd have to take all White. (He's out in California now, arranging and of us, or nobody would go. The taxi-drivers found out doing well, I hear.) He was the one that told us about that two or three boys were going to sneak off any• Lester Young in Minneapolis. We had a date up way so the drivers went up to the police and had our there so when we got there we went over to hear instruments attached so we wouldn't get away with• him. out paying all that cab fare. We liked him so well we stole him a few days later So we had to stay there. The hotel man at our hotel from the band he was in—Frank Hine's band. heard about it too and he put us out of the hotel— He was playing tenor and baritone then; in fact he so there we were. We stayed on three or four nights played so much baritone that Walter Page lay his and the law would come down where we were play• baritone down and said he wasn't going to play it ing and bring us our instruments. We would play anymore. and then put them back in their cases and the police Lester joined us then and Walter left just a little carried them right on back and put them in jail. We later and Ernest Williams and I took over. Lester was had about thirteen or fourteen pieces in the band. with us all the time till we broke up the band in After that we decided to get away from there. So we 1933. decided to hobo away from there, go somewhere and What caused the break-up of the Blue Devils? rent some instruments till we could get enough Well, we were on tour and landed in Newport News, money to send back and get our instruments and Virginia. I guess it was the wrong time of year or pay off the money which amounted to about two something, and we were in a little speakeasy joint, hundred dollars by then. Well we hoboed all the and we couldn't do any good in a place like that. way to St. Louis and stayed around there two or The band was still on a commonwealth basis and three days and saw nothing was happening. Some• we couldn't go anywhere or accept a job unless we body stole half my book there though; sure did burn had a vote on it. And nearly always, seven of the me up. boys would pull one way and five or six would pull Bennie Moten heard about us being over there and the other way, and we would end up doing nothing sent a car over to pick some of us up. Some of the and staying where we were. We missed our best boys hoboed on home and some of them sent for opportunity around that time when money and then went on home—rode the train right. wanted us to work for him. We were in Cincinnati So four of us went on to Kansas City with Bennie's and Waller wanted us to play for him on WLW in car and joined his band in the last of 1933. Those Cincinnati. He offered us eight hundred dollars to four were Lester Young, Theodore Ross, Jap Jones, play for him on an hour and a half show and some and myself. Moten was gigging around Kansas City. of the boys thought it wasn't enough. So we didn't , Basie, "Lips", and Walter Page were get that job, but went on back to Newport News and still with Moten then. They'd been with him since started to play around there to get enough money they left the Blue Devils. to come back West. We were playing in a town called Martinsville where a guy named Dr. Baldwin had a combination store there with a dance hall. He hired us and we stayed [This is the first of a series of articles about Buster Smith.]

22 RISIN' HIGH WATER BLUES DROP DOWN, MAMA Back water risin', Drop down, babe, and let your dad have peace, Southern people can't make no sign. I know just what you're tryin' to put on me. I say back water risin', Well, mama don't 'How me to fool 'round all night long, Southern people can't make no sign. I may look like I'm crazy, but I do know right from wrong. And I can't get no hearin' Get away from my window, quit scratchin' on my screen, From that Memphis girl of mine. You's a dirty mistreater, I know just what you mean. Water in Arkansas Mama don't 'Mow me to fool 'round all night long, People screamin' in Tennessee. I may look like I'm crazy, but I do know right from wrong. Ooooo, Some of these women sure do make me tired, People screamin' in Tennessee. Got a hand full of "Gimme" an' a mouthful of "Much obliged." About the only Memphis, Well, mama don't 'How me to fool 'round all night long, Back water been over all poor me. I may look like I'm crazy, but I do know right from wrong. People say it's rainin' (Sung by Sleepy Estes on Champion 50048. And it has been for nineteen days. Transcribed by Max Harrison.) People say it's rainin' And it has been for nineteen days. DARK NIGHT BLUES Thousand people stands only here I've got the dark night blues, I'm feeling awful bad, Lookin' down where they used to stay. Got th' dark night blues, mama, 'n' feeling awful bad, Children start screamin' That's the worst old feeling a good man has ever had. Mama we ain't got no home. I followed my brown from the depot to the train, Ooooo, I followed my sweet brown from the depot to the train, Mama we ain't go no home. And the blues came down, like dark night showers of rain. Papa says to children, I drink so much whiskey I stagger when I'm 'sleep, "Back water left us all alone." Drink so much whiskey, I stagger when I'm 'sleep, Back water risin', My brains is dark and cloudy, my mind's gone to my feet. Comin' to my window and door. I got the blues so bad I can feel them in the dark, Back water risin', I got the blues so bad I can feel them in the dark, Comin' to my window and door. That one dark and dreary" morning, baby when you broke my heart. I live with the pain in my heart, Got a fair brown in , got one in Macon too; Back water will rise no more. Got a fair brown in Atlanta, got one in Macon too; (By on Paramount I got me one in Swainsboro, gimme them ol' dark night blues. 12487. Transcribed by Jacques Demetre.) Everything I told you, you went an' told your outside man, Everything I told you mama, you went and told your outside man, But I'm gonna tell you something your good man can't stand. Ridin' the Beale Street Special, mama 'n' I'm leavin' this town, Ridin' the Beale Street Special, baby an' I'm leavin' this town, Say you didn't want me, I'm gonna quit hangin' around. (By Blind Willie McTell. Victor V-38032-A. THE BLUES Transcribed by Tony Standish.) apparently was common in 1924. Only put him in the company of many Beiderbecke provokes any interest as a northern and eastern players who sound soloist—or as a part in the ensemble hopelessly rickytick and trivial today; RECORD passages, for that matter. one of the most remarkable things Bix himself was one of he four or five about Bix was that he managed to play best cornetists or trumpeters to be fine, lasting things without once recorded during the twenties, and the drawing on the soulful southern tradi• REVIEWS first white soloist we know of whose tion which ended up being the main• playing can be compared in quality to stream of that time. that of his best Negro contemporaries. These are Beiderbecke's earliest He was one'of the first men to de• records. He was only twenty-one when velop, at least on record, a truly solo, he recorded them. But although they as opposed to ensemble, concept don't include his most ambitious solo for a horn; he was second only to Louis work, they show a style which was in the extent and quality of his con• already more than mature: it was tributions to solo trumpet playing radically advanced. The set is indis• before 1930. These contributions were pensable to anyone interested either in harmonic and melodic, rather than the development of early jazz or in rhythmic. Bix's time was based on the the cornet (or trumpet, with its very white style; his rhythmic similar problems and potential) displacements were usually crude syn• as an instrument. Mait Edey copations next to those of the most advanced Negro players of the twenties like Louis, Earl Hines and Jimmy CLIFFORD BROWN-MAX ROACH: Harrison. His time was excellent in one "In Concert." Gene Norman GN LP18. lesser sense, however; although he Clifford Brown, trumpet; , tenor; didn't conceive very sophisticated pat• , piano; George Bledsoe, bass; terns, he managed to play the ones Max Roach, drums. he did conceive absolutely perfectly. Tenderly; Sunset Eyes; Clifford's Axe; All Not a note was ever misplaced to the God's Chillun Got Rhythm. Brown; Roach; slightest degree. I think it's this con• , tenor; , piano; trol, this, in the broad sense, technical , bass. brilliance which accounts for so much Jordu; I Get a Kick out of You; Parisian of the beauty of his playing. His tone Thoroughfare; I Can't Get Started (omit Land). "BIX BEIDERBECKE and the Wolver• was round and golden, with a fragile vibrato in all registers; each note, CLIFFORD BROWN-MAX ROACH. ines." Riverside RLP 12-123. Emarcy MG 36036. Bix Beiderbecke, trumpet (piano on Big. Boy because of its attack and tone, was beautiful in itself; how it functioned Brown, trumpet; Land, tenor; Powell, piano; only); Jimmy Hartwell, clarinet; George Morrow, bass; Roach, drums. Johnson, tenor; Dick Voynow, piano; Bob in relation to the notes preceding and Delilah; Jordu; Joy Springs; Parisian Thoro- Gillette, banjo and guitar; Min Leibrook, tuba; following it seems almost a secondary fare; The ; ; What Am I Vic Moore, drums. matter in Bix's case. There's a tre• Here For? Oh, Baby; ; ; mendous kick in listening to him skip CLIFFORD BROWN-MAX ROACH: Susie; Royal Garden Blues; Tiger Rag; Tia a large interval flawlessly at a fast "". Emarcy MG 36037. Juana; Big Boy. tempo, or make a subtle, lacy thing out of a dixieland tune like Sensation Rag With George Brunis, trombone added. Same personnel. just through the delicacy of his slight Sensation Rag; Lazy Daddy. Cherokee; Jacqui; Swingin'; Lands End; variations and the perfection of his ; With Al Gande replacing Brunis. George's Dilemma; Sandu Gerkin for Perkin; control, a control perhaps no greater Fidgety Feet; Jazz Me Blues. If I Ever Love Again; Take the 'A' Train. than Louis', but more instantly striking. Riverside has again made available, CLIFFORD BROWN-MAX ROACH: Actually, their success in broadening this time on a single twelve-inch Ip, "At Basin Street." Emarcy MG 36070. the melodic and formal equipment almost the entire recorded output of the , tenor replaces Land. of the soloist was just about the only Wolverine orchestra (one tune, I Need What Is This Thing Called Love?; Love Is a thing Bix and Louis had in common; in Some Petting, is not included), a group Many Splendoured Thing; I'll Remember April; other respects—time, tone, melodic whose finest hours were in 1924, Powell's Prances; Time; The Scene Is concept—they were about as far apart the year of these sides, and which is Clean; Gertrude's Bounce. as contemporary trumpeters could interesting today almost solely because be. Louis' phrasing was based largely "SONNY ROLLINS + 4." Prestige 7038. of Bix Beiderbecke. on that of King Oliver, with the addition Same personnel. Almost all of Beiderbecke's records are of grace and passing notes and short Valse Hot; Kiss and Run; I Feel a Song Comin' plagued by inadequate sidemen. De• ornamental runs— full of hesitations, 0n; Count Your Blessings; Pent-Up House. pending on how you take these things, and saturated, even at fast tempos, with These albums can be viewed in several the men here may annoy you, or you blues phrasing and inflections. When ways. They are important ones in the may be able to function as a listener Louis was making something, he careers of three of the most influential in spite of them. As a group the Wolver• let you know it. jazzmen of the decade—Brown, ines were far from matching the Roach, Rollins—and they chart the rhythmic ease that the Oliver band, say, There were the careful silences, then progress of one of the most celebrated achieved at its best, but neither were the exultant triumph of a note reached and typical groups of its time. It is they as bad as many other groups. or a beautiful phrase executed. Bix, necessary to recall how the jazz scene Some momentum is generated on the on the other hand, made everything changed in the two years that separate medium tempo tracks (nothing is taken with the same smooth, unhurried these sessions. In 1954, terms like slow); surprisingly, a lot of it is gen• aplomb. Having developed the tone he 'funky,' 'hard-bop,' and 'mainstream' erated by the banjoist, Bob Gillette, apparently wanted, he never altered were still lurking in the vaults of the who in spite of corny rolls, is very it to suit the moment; his tone was in• Institute of Jazz Semantics, or steady, and occasionally gets a fine variably beautiful, but it was not, as wherever it is they are bred. Thelonious sprung-rhythm effect. The tunes are Louis' was, an expressive tool. Bix Monk wasn't winning any polls. This dixieland standards, some of them new also lacked the blues, the primary was the twilight of the cool era. Along at that time, arranged with some care, element in Oliver's playing and only with Blakey, Silver Monk, et al, the and with rather more solo work than slightly less important in Louis'. This musicians on these recordings deserve

24 the credit for much of what has bar lines and flowing over and around happened since. the beat, while the solos are care• The Gene Norman Ip includes material fully-constructed, both in linear con• from two concerts. trast and use of dynamics. He always Tenderly, Sunset Eyes, Clifford's Axe did have the ability to piece related and All God's Chillun' Got Rhythm were ideas together to form a continuous made in April 1954 with the earliest line, or to mould short phrases Brown-Roach quintet. Although the men into a symmetrical design, but he had had been together only a short time, not always imposed the feeling of there were already some pre-set rou• overall structural unity that he did here. tines: the catchy secondary theme on It is also very noticeable that the Sunset, the interplay of the horns on genuine melodic strength of his lines is Chillun' and, most significant, the inte• founded upon a rhythmic flexibility gration of Roach's drum accents with that is rare in a trumpeter. He re• the theme statements. Clifford Brown minds one especially of was the featured soloist, of course, and in his pace-setting days—rather than of he had Tenderly and Clifford's Axe Monk, Davis, Rollins or, for that mat• to himself. The former is one of his ter, Armstrong—in that the rhythmic finest ballads on record, played with intricacy arises directly from the way more force and sense of direction than the notes are placed or accented with• he often had at this tempo. He builds in a single phrase. Hear the bridge of to an impressive climax where, un• his second chorus on Jordu, for ex• fortunately, he fluffs the crucial high ample. Given the appropriate technical note; he recovers quickly and almost command, he can be said to have gets away with it. Clifford's Axe, on the based his style on this melodic-accen• chords of The Man I Love, is a tual virtuosity. One does not expect Extended performances by one medium-tempo bounce all the way from him the tremendous power, nor of the outstanding bands of through, with Brownie light-hearted and the numerous tonal inflections, of the all-time.-An essential album at ease, if not quite showing the older trumpeters, although the con• for the jazz oriented. technical assurance of his very best trol that he exercises over his tone Davenport Blues; ; work. Roach's continual snare accents would become, from this point on, quite Chant Of The Weed; provide 'cushioning' behind the exemplary. On the last number, I Can't Ballad Of The Sad Young trumpet, an effect that becomes even Get Started, he ignores all the rules for Men; ; Straight No Chaser; Theme. more pronounced in the second concert. playing ballads, breaking into typically The other sides include some rough- involved runs and splitting some STEREO-1027 toned, charging tenor from Teddy high notes at the end in a humorous Edwards, a West Coast veteran, and fashion. some sub-standard work from Perkins, Land and Powell add little apart from sounding incredibly like a bad Red WORLD PACIFIC RECORDS Land's forthright solo on Thoroughfare. Garland at times. Brown copes well with Roach provides that rocking snare ac• the frantic tempo of Chillun', eschew• companiment on Jordu and Thorough• ing clever flourishes in favor of fare mentioned earlier, which was skillful, varied and imaginative impro• much criticised when the records first vising. Sunset Eyes, a good theme by came out. Today it sounds exactly Edwards, has an Afro-Cuban rhythm for ,, . Records shipped anywhere right, one of the logical extensions of its main-eight, which is adhered to modern drumming, and obviously a con• for the solos. Both horns treat the moDMn mu5ic-DepU tributing factor to the excellence of rhythmic contrast between the A and B Brownie's performance: 627 N. KINGSHIGHWAY sections of the tune with great Both these concerts have the virtues ST. LOUIS 8, MO.. U.S.A. sensitivity. of in-person recordings without the ALL RECORDS REVIEWED IN JAZZ REVIEW AVAILABLE THRU US—OUR SERVICE IS FAST snags: plenty of drive and guts and no For the later concert in August, the All records shipped ore factory fresh. Send for unit that stayed intact for over a year honking and screaming. details on bonus offer of LPs. was heard. It had recorded the titles The numbers on MG36036 are more Foreign Orders Welcome on MG30636 earlier in the month. By subdued, as can quickly be gathered FREE 12" LP BARGAIN LIST/TOP STARS $1.00 Deposit On CODs—No CODs Overseas now Clifford Brown had developed into from a comparison of Jordu and a distinctive jazz stylist, and the Thoroughfare with the concert versions. group's musical policy was taking Brown himself plays very well through• shape. The arrangements were seldom out, particularly on Delilah and Joy more than frameworks for a string Spring. He was undoubtedly giving the of solos, but they did contain the in• closest attention to the structure of triguing relationship between the drums his solos at this time, and this may ac• and the front line. On most numbers count for the sober nature of his the melody was re-phrased into rhyth• work here, and as a result his tone was mic patterns, strongly emphasized becoming rounder and deeper. The by Roach behind the horns* in the now fanciful flights that one associates with familiar manner. him are largely absent, and there is There is no doubt that these sides a corresponding emphasis on the contain Brownie's best recorded work tender, romantic playing. The logic of to that date. I Get A Kick Out Of You is his improvisations on this Ip is indeed taken much too fast, but he still impressive, but no more so than on manages to vary his phrasing, avoid the concert sides, while some of the cliches and bring off all the runs and feeling of spontaneity and carefree J z most of the high notes. Jordu and exuberance is missing. Perhaps the pre• Parisian Thoroughfare have some su• vailing West Coast atmosphere had BAY AREA perb trumpet: warm, lyrical, relaxed and crept into the studio—there is an always imaginative. His phrasing is absurdly reverent treatment of that loose and supple, cutting across masterpiece of kitsch—Delilah, and all

J z 25 through there seems to be an un• strength of his solos is not the result that was missing from-the Cherokee of natural concern to be "polished." How• of 'playing safe', but is achieved, in a year earlier. He does not play quite ever every track has worthwhile mo• part, through the systematic use of the as impressively on Many Splendored or ments, with Land and Powell in better most unorthodox material. Not only is April, sounding mechanical at times form than on GN 18. The first eight bars he difficult to accompany, he actually and also showing a greater dependence of Clifford's second chorus on thrives on accompanists whose ag• on the changes than Rollins. He is Thoroughfare illustrate admirably gressive personalities equal his own. obviously more at ease with the less how he can change rhythmic emphasis This quality makes his work with a hackneyed material of Kiss and, within a long, unbroken phrase. Also small group exhilarating. His recent in• especially, Gertrude's Bounce. His solo note Roach's fourth-beat accents be• sistence on a pianoless rhythm section, on the latter commences with an hind Land on Delilah, a very common which leaves him the maximum free• eight-bar phrase of an internal com• device today. dom his untimate desire is the mastery plexity that recalls Parker or Powell, "A Study In Brown" was recorded in of unaccompanied tenor, should and continues in this way—so very dif• February 1955. By now the group was not obscure the fact that he has proven, ferent from the normal "running style" established, its library was growing, as these two records, particularly the trumpet, which is rhythmically and and one could have expected some Prestige, and his astonishing Blue melodically more straightforward. great music. However the restraint, Note with J. J. and Blakey reveal, a Brownie's command of legato runs sets which was discernible on the release leading theorist of contemporary him apart from the rest, enables him discussed above, is all over this Ip. small-band style. to twist his phrases with such Since it is inconceivable that they never For the Emarcy record Powell wrote the adroitness. played like this in a club, one can originals and arranged all titles ex• Sonny Rollins was up to his own high only divide the blame between the mu• cept 's Scene Is Clean, standard of those days, though his sicians and the recording officials. which Dameron arranged and con• approach is not as daring, or as The one exceptional track, the moody ducted. The Prestige has I Feel A Song intransigent, as it has become. All his George's Dilemma, happens to require Comin' On, Count Your Blessings, Kiss trademarks crop up: the ingenious a reticent approach. This piece is And Run and two Rollins tunes— formal structure (What Is This Thing similar to Sunset Eyes, and the way Pent-Up House and Valse Hot. The mu• and Pent-Up), the passionate attack Brownie switches from the relaxed 4/4 sic on these sides is really alive; (Scene Is Clean—an illuminating con• middle-eights to the sombre Afro sec• the musicians play for, and against, trast with the trumpet chorus—and tions is really striking. Sandu, a each other in a way that at once affirms his feature, Blessings), the raucous and medium-tempo blues, is also successful, and expands the heritage of Parker sardonic humor (the anarchic middle- with two effortless choruses from and Gillespie. The riotous Feel A Song eights on What Is This Thing, April and Clifford in his mcrst lyrical manner, is the clearest example. The heavily- the afore-mentioned I Feel A Song). followed by some gutty tenor. Other• accented introduction serves a a His solo on April is perhaps the most wise, it is rather a listless Ip. Cherokee counter-melody to Brownie's theme noteworthy. He startles one by playing has a dull trumpet solo, mostly flitting statement; then Rollins takes the his first chorus in quarter-notes, in• about in the lower register with bridge in a similar vein, parodying the stead of the almost obligatory little melodic brilliance, and on Richie original melody with single staccato eighth-notes, gradually increasing the Powell's attractive Jacqui, Brownie notes punctuated by the drums; then momentum until, after the drum solo, starts beautifully and then fails com• back again, with Rollins moaning he unleashes his full force in the chase, pletely to build on the elegiac mood he behind the trumpet. Except during the where poor Brownie can hardly get a has set. Land and Powell play better trumpet-tenor chase towards the end, word in. Both horns sail into Sonny's than on the previous records, but the first half of the main phrase Valse Hot: Rollins jerky, bellowing, their talents were not yet sufficiently has staccato interpolations from Roach distorting the pulse at every opportu• developed to really impress. Roach and throughout, giving the vital sense of nity; Brownie calm and flowing, as Morrow are a swinging and versatile unity to a memorable example of if he had been waltzing all his life. team, but this date needed someone re-composition. At this racing tempo, The rhythm section now functioned per• like Blakey to wake everybody up. the solos are no more than good, but fectly, Morrow as the anchor-man, Among the disquieting features of the the whole is immeasurably greater than Roach prodding the front line with his album were the corny effects on some the sum of its components: a bitingly- springing cymbal beat and apt of the titles: Take The A Train included clear illustration of the dramatic power interpolations. His solos are always train noises, Cherokee had Western that a small group can achieve within beautifully played and constructed, if sound track music for its introduction, the bop tradition. not as rhythmically adventurous as and even the theme of George's Many of the sides show Clifford Brown those of ; the one on Valse Dilemma, which tottered near the at his best. While it would be wrong Hot is a special witness to his great brink of disaster, finally made it with to attribute final maturity to him at the artistry. Apart from some nice figures a genuine Xavier Cugat coda. The age of twenty-five, his style here is behind Rollins on Pent-Up the piano notes 'credit' Richie Powell with the mature in all essentials. He was not has a very subordinated role, but this is train effects, so perhaps he can be ac• simply a fine trumpet in the modern perhaps the place to mention Richie cused of all similar aberrations, idiom, but an important and original ex• Powell. His solos have interesting mo• including those on Delilah. His arrange• ponent of jazz trumpet, irrespective ments that suggest his own style ment of Jacqui is a good one, however, of periods. His conception of the purely was growing, and What Is This Thing and it presages better things to come. melodic use of his instrument is, in and Pent-Up indicate that he was The last two albums were recorded a certain respects, the most radically un• aware of the problems of form that year later, shortly after Sonny Rollins compromising we have yet seen, with were concerning Rollins. His talents as had joined the group. It is unfortunate his stream of attractive and personal a composer-arranger are self-evident. that the unit was not more fully ideas, so skillfully phrased. On Scene Jacqui, Powell's Prances and Gertrude's documented on record during 1955, and Pent-Up he is at his gayest and Bounce are good themes; but it is safe to say that Rollins made most lyrical; one can only admire those Time is an effective mood study and as much difference to its musical out• long, singing lines, and the insouciance his of What Is This Thing look as a comparison of these Ips bubbling out of his cutting tone. On is more than competent. If he had with "A Study In Brown" would indi• What Is This Thing, the structure of his anything to do with the arrangements cate. Rollins is now familiar to us as a solo, as well as the more expected on the Prestige album, even more to his musician who combines a rigid careful development of the individual credit. These records are as worthy a mental discipline in improvising with a ideas, proves he could almost beat memorial to him as they are to an relentless, often overpowering, thirst Rollins at his own game. His choruses outstanding and ingratiating for musical freedom. The formal here.have all the drive and urgency young trumpeter. Ronald Atkins

26 BENNY CARTER: "Jazz Giant." fect" murder and a car theft, among Contemporary C 3555. other things. Recorded in , it was Benny Carter, alto, trumpet; , awarded the 1957 Louis Delluc prize tenor; , trombone; Jimmy for the best film score and the 1958 Rowles, piano; Barney Kessel, guitar; Leroy Grand Prix du Disque for the best Vinnegar, bass; Shelly Manne, drums. recording. I don't know why it took so mtiw/my : Ray C, I'm Coming Virginia; A Walkin' Thing. long to get over here, but it was worth Andre Previn, piano for Rowles. waiting for. John L and other Old Fashioned Love; Blue Lou; How Can You It is a very spare, typically Miles Davis Lose? score, unlike any other jazz score Atlantic Jazz Champs Carter, Previn, Kessel, Vinnegar, Manne. ever used in a movie, and there are Ain't She Sweet; Blues my Naughty Sweetie none of the usual cliches and Holly- Gives to Me. woodish theatrical effects—Miles just 'JSJUJ3 JJJtiTXTCI JJJ" Here is Carter playing alto and trumpet does not think in those terms; he (on two tunes) with Ben Webster and thinks in terms of Miles Davis and members of the Contemporary house group. As a result, some of the things band: Frank Rosolino, Shelley Manne, here are going to startle a lot of people, Leroy Vinnegar, Barney Kessel and even some of his closest followers. Andre Previn. I think the myth of the For example, take the murder scehe old-timer who is really just as good, (track 2). The accompanying music 1312 if not better than any of these young consists only of a walking bass line. upstarts, has been run into the ground But who could ever have dreamed that lately, although it has a kind of dia• a walking bass line could sound like The Genius this? It is powerful and inexorable, un• lectical appeal which is hard to resist; of Ray Charles and after hearing the first side I was believably sinister. One imagines tempted to assume the role of giant terrifying things that go on. The same killer. However, the rest of the record thing happens in tracks 7 and 8 (if redeems the mess made of Old the movie, Julien, trapped in the ele• \ \ Ml '»H ^' ' . - .K»II v i- Fashioned Love, with frivolous Rosolino vator, manages to escape and, not and corny Previn, and I'm Coming a moment to soon, he disappears into Virginia, a formal etude of trumpet his cell just as the warden, who has crescendo-dimuendo by Carter. Benny momentarily left his post, returns). solos wonderfully on Ain's She Sweet Towards the end of track 8 the sus• and Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to pense is heightened all the more as Me. One particularly appreciates the Kenny Clarke's drums join the bass. 1313 fact that a second and third listening Nail-biting, breath-holding, edge-of-your- reveal melodic subtleties not audible at seat stuff. first. His tone is not so lush here as it An undercurrent of suspense and Improvised sometimes has been, and he sounds mystery runs throughout the album. Meditations & Excursions • just a little forced in the upper octave. There is one section, which returns Nevertheless, these are only quibbles several times in various guises, very iuri or in view of the general run of alto reminiscent of the classic Miles- playing. Ben Webster is not at his best, Coltrane interpretation of Dear Old and even seems to have trouble with Stockhold. It has the plaintive quality the changes of Blue Lou. Rosolino characteristic of Miles in one of his whoops it up and, when the impression blue moments, but one senses some• of plain bad taste does not predomin• thing else in it. The two up-tempo ate, plays attractively. Possibly Previn tracks—Sur I'autoroute and Diner au was not the best choice for the Motel (the latter blues in B-flat) 1317 rhythm section; his relentlessly brittle convey a sense of urgency, an unmis- style seems out of place in this mellow takeable feeling that something is atmosphere. going to happen. A lot of Hollywood The Shape of An uneven record, perhaps, but cer• composers could benefit from listening Jazz to Come • Ornette Coleman tainly enjoyable. Those distressed by to this score and seeing how Miles the supercharged, if not agonized achieves the desired effect through mm school of alto playing should certainly simplicity. give some attention to this release. Miles, to put it in a word, cooks. Play• Larry Gushee ing muted most of the time, he Published by permission of blows with his customary drive and James Lyons, editor of sensitiveness. His solos are, as usual, American Record Guide beautifully constructed and compelling. An unusual thing, incidentally, occurs on track 6—according to the liner 1303 MILES DAVIS: "Ascenseur pour notes, suddenly a piece of skin from I'echafaud". Fontant 660.213 MR his lip got caught in the mouthpiece, (10" LP). resulting in a very unusual sound that Mainstream Miles Davis, trumpet; , tenor; is, to me, like a different kind of mute. Rene Urtreger, piano; , bass; As for the rest of the group: Barney & Kenny Clarke, drums. Wilen, an exciting -Sonny & Their All-Star Jazz Groups Generique; L'assassinat de Carala; Sur Rollins- tenor man, does All Available Monaural, $4.98 I'autoroute; Julien dans I'ascenseur; Florence some nice things in his solos. The ana Stereo, $5.98 sur les Champs-Elysees; Diner au motel; rhythm section is very good, and bassist IK ^BHH Write for complete catalogue Evasion de Julien; Visite du vigile; Au bar Michelot is a genuine surprise—if I ^ BJ and stereo disc listing du petit Bac; Chez le photographe du motel. didn't know who it was I'd swear it was This is Miles Davis' complete score Wilbur Ware! He has the same big !Htlantic for "Elevator To The Gallows," a French sound, the same accurate intonation, suspense movie concerning a "per• and the same way of playing bass lines. 157 West 57th Street, New York 19, New York 27 And it's good to hear Klook again. equivalent of the young orator, nervous, scribe the record: "Saxes supply har• The liner notes are in French, but the maybe, but convinced of the truth of monic background . . . Terry spells out music speaks for itself. what he has to say. The stuttering straight statements of the songs . . . Zita Carno vocalized effect and the play with dy• lush saxes contrast. . . vibes fleetingly namics not only carry rich emotional weave in and out and around." overtones but are vital features of What we have is an album that falls KENNY DORHAM: '"Round about a cohesive form of expression. The re• under the bastard classification of Midnight at the Cafe Bohemia." markable tenor solo on Night in Tunisia "mood music." has sup• Blue Note LP 1524. is to my ears the highspot of the plied incredibly uninteresting arrange• Kenny Durham, trumpet; J. R. Monterose; record. Jabbing one moment, brooding ments for —which tenor; Kenny Burred, guitar; , with a mere modicum of notes the next, are in keeping, however, with the piano; , bass; , drums. acting out a laconic dialogue with the soporific quality of Gibbs' playing. Monaco; Mexico City-, ; piano chords, he runs through a While I have never been a great ad• Hill's Edge. whole range of effects; yet the overall mirer of either Gibbs or Albam as jazz Omit Burrell, 'Round About Midnight; Omit impression is compact and satisfying. musicians, they have here abondoned Burrell and Monterose, Autumn in New York. Burrell, whose guitar is featured only in even the slightest claim to be con• Dorham's musical language never had solo, seems out of place. In sheer sidered as jazzmen. This is strictly the idiomatic tang that makes the work swing he outdoes the other members of music for Muzak. of Gillespie, Navarro or Davis so the group, but neither tempi nor tunes There are moments in the recording recognizable; yet at times he has re• seem altogether suited to his style. when passing glances are cast at jazz corded solo passages of superb delinea• Monaco finds him most relaxed, getting in a rather wistful sort of way, but tion that compare favorably with the a good, singing tone that sets off his these moments are few. If the women's most notable achievements of his ideas very well. Throughout the record soap operas should ever feel inclined to contemporaries. On the Rollins Quintet the soloists gain impetus from Timmons' use pseudo-jazz they have only to date held on August 18, 1954 (Prestige adept chording; his accompaniment call on Albam and Gibbs who could 7058) he was in extraordinarily in• on Autumn in New York is particularly become the Mancinis of spired form. Solid, the medium-tempo good. Though not markedly individual, Portia Faces Life. blues, contains one of the finest jazz his solos are well-constructed. The From the title and Tynan's notes, trumpet solos of the decade. There teamwork of Sam Jones and Arthur Notice that this a sequel to a previous is probably no one explanation why Edgehill provides backing that is more album in the same style. There is such moments occur in the work of a than adequate, but never burns with evidently no limit to what mood music musician who does not otherwise stand the fire of and Philly buyers will put up with. Bland, out astf major figure of his generation; Joe Jones. Nor is this comparison a mediocre, and deadly dull. but it is a fair guess that their com• malicious one, for the shadow of parative rarity stems from Dorham's Davis' band lies heavily upon this group. H. A. Woodfin attitude to his music. The almost The rhythmic conception is very impossibly beautiful blend of poise and similar, not only in drumming style, but JIMMY GIUFFRE: "Seven Pieces." incisiveness that stamps his finest from a general viewpoint—the pianist Verve MG V-8307. laying out one chorus and setting up a work must be very elusive even for so Jimmy Giuffre, clarinet, tenor, baritones; regular chordal pattern the next. skilled a performer. Jazz has seldom , guitar; Red Mitchell, bass. Monterose excepted, there are better been kind to the idealist. It is all too Happy man, Lovely willow, Song of the wind, examples of all the principal soloists rarely acknowledged that the wonderful Princess, The story, The little melody, Time elsewhere on record. None the less, series of records Armstrong made in machine. the improvisation is far from negligible; the late 'twenties abound in technical With his music degree, his work with there are arresting passages on every flaws that would have embarrassed the Dallas Symphony and his long term track. Which is just as well, for neither a less determined man. The same of study in legitimate composition the arrangements nor the compositions is true of Rollin's earlier recordings. In with Wesley La Violette, Giuffre is just enhance the album's value. 'Round his quest for an amalgam of sophisti• the type of musician to recommend About Midnight and Monaco apart, the cation and starkness Dorham attempts himself to certain factions in American scoring offers little in the way of variety, something very hard; when he succeeds, jazz criticism. This has to be born and neglects the third voice Burrell's the effect is near-magical. Small won• in mind if the reception accorded his guitar in the ensembles. Though the der, then, that the trick is so difficult. trio is not to seem puzzling. The compositions are substantial enough, On this Blue Note album, recorded simplicity of its work must, presumably, they hardly seem the ideal oens for this at the Cafe Bohemia some three and a be seen as part of the diversified band. The liner notes speak of their half years back, the ace juts out 'back to the roots' movement repre• homogeneity, but a more original beneath his cuff a good deal of the sented by the playing of , choice might have yielded better re• time. On the faster tunes, the trumpet and records like the -Ray sults. Two of the tunes, in fact, are line tends to dullness, partly from re• Charles Soul Brothers or 's better known to us by other names: current uniformity in note values, partly Traditionalism Revisited. The central faced with Mexico City, Bud Powell from slightly imprecise timing. Per• point of Giuffre's attack has been the must have been as surprised as Miles haps Dorham's lip was out a little. In so-called 'folk" affiliations of his Davis confronted with Hill's Edge. any event, the music lacks relief. The music. This aspect of the group's out• long solo on Mexico City is fleet, but put has been accepted without any undistinguished, and the break after the Michael James questions of from just what passing chords on Night in Tunisia it derives. Sure enough, jazz was typifies his unadventurous thinking. created in America, but the elements Autumn in New York and 'Round About TERRY GIBBS: "More Vibes on Velvet." Mercury MG 36148. of which it is composed are of Midnight have far more attractive European or African origin and a similar trumpet work. Both melodies provide an Terry Gibbs, vibes; , alto; other personnel unlisted. Arrangements by Manny comment could be made on almost all excellent showcase for his gemmed American music. The exception is Albam. tone. Now sparkling, now sombre, it the red Indian melodies which no one Moonlight Serenade; Blues in the Night; adds depth to each song in the time- has thought to fit into jazz. There is Impossible; What Is there to Say; I Remember; honoured jazz ballad style. no clear relationship between Giuffre's Monk's tune proves an excellent vehicle The Things We Did Last Summer; You Make work and any indigenous American for Monterose. The second half of the Me Feel So Young; At Last; Lazy Sunday; folk music as there is between, for ex• opening chorus epitomizes his ap• Everyday Is Spring with You; With All My Love ample, Chopin's stylistically refined proach, for Monterose is the musical to You; Don't Cry. mazurkas and the obereks, kujawiaks John Tynan's album notes aply de•

28 and mazurs of the Polish peasantry, or of the context of West Coast groups between Bartok's compositions and the Mitchell shows himself to be a bassist folk music of Hungary. We must as• of extraordinary flexibility. Almost all sume commentators have been mislead the trio's swing derives from him and by the fugitive pastoral quality Giuffre's he improvises solos and alert accom• lines often have, and by the thick, paniments with great resourcefulness soft, acronycal tone of his clarinet. His and imagination, with some moments of baritone and tenor sounds have come to unusual harmonic insight. Hall must resemble that of his clarinet extraor• be one of the best guitar players around -7T ' > dinarily and tone has always been the now. He makes more of the instrument >"v ii-'J VI most personal single element in his sound through the electricity than BUCK HAMMER work. This is as true of such com• anyone since Charlie Christian. His paratively early records as Paicheck or solos are common place and often suf• Grass Point as of more recent ones. fer from the discontinuity, if not the All the compositions on the above studied simplicity, of Giuffre's contribu• record are Giuffre's own and in the liner tions, but his accompaniments display note he writes, "a creative artist often a ready responsiveness and group feel• finds that the most natural way to ing. At many points, e.g. in Happy Man, express himself is through his own guitar and bass make a beautiful rather than given material." This may sound together and Mitchell does much be true for some of the greatest, for to ameliorate the fragmentary nature Morton, Ellington or Monk, but one of the music. The leader's playing isn't doubts if it is true for Giuffre. Indeed, really much different from that on ••/•'I although he also maintains "seven earlier releases, but he does respond to Like Peck Kelly of Texas, and Joe diverse types of moods, tempos, forms, Mitchell's presence sometimes—as melodies and rhythms were explored," in the clarinet solo at the beginning of Abernathy of New York, Buck one of the most pressing criticisms Song of the Wind, which has better Hammer has become a legendary of this album is the uniformly similiar continuity and flow than usual. He even figure, although to what extent the character of its thematic ideas. The uses a little of the instrument's upper previous trio albums (Atlantic 1254 register and does not seem quite so event of his untimely death con• and 1282) were diversified with at least wary of being caught out in a simple, tributed to the current wave of some "given material." In any case, zestful phrase. interest in him it would be at the the themes, which are simple almost to Yet despite Mitchell the group's basic the point of commonplace, are de- present time hard to say. We faults remain. The weaknesses are velopel at too great lengths and connot most clear at slow tempos like that of must be wary, of course, in over• support the structures based on them. Lovely Willow, because here the lack of praising Hammer, or expecting too This unvarying simplicity of theme and rhythmic interest in Giuffre's ideas small vocabulary of individual phrases much of him. On the other hand, is most acute. The frequent moments seems a little disingenuous in the con• of subtlety are not denied but the lack we must savor the contents of this text of contemporary jazz where men of sustained rhythmic invention on like John Lewis, Monk, Gil Evans, album very carefully for this col• the parts of Giuffre and Hall results in Rollins and Coltrane are among the lection is all we have heard of a lack of apparent impetus. It might leading figures. be that some use of counterpoint would Buck, or all we shall ever hear. Giuffre's aim seems to be not merely prove beneficial to Giuffre, imparting Peck Kelly would not record at all, to provide a framework for sequences direction and purpose to his textural and eventually would not play at of solos but to achieve a balance be• manipulations and acting as a dis• tween composition and improvisation— cipline on the formal waywardness of all. Abernathy refused to record an interaction of two processes that his music. As it is one is left with an for long periods of time but fortu• are not quite so separate as is often impression of music that is subtle, de• nately was induced to take part in supposed. One would expect the vious and searching, but which only material to be developed mainly by communicates on a level of vague, several commercial sessions on a linear and rhythmic devices but in fact somewhat impersonal, nostalgia. few occasions. Buck Hammer for the chief means employed is variation Max Harrison many years refused all offers that of texture. A few of Giuffre's pieces, like Two Kinds of Blues and The Train BABS GONZALES: "Tales of Man• would have involved his leaving and the River, if they appear rigidly hattan." Jaro JAM 5000 Glen Springs, Alabama, and when stylised, do still have interesting tex• Babs Gonzales, monologues; , he finally consented to visit Nash• tures and a suprising variety of guitar; , bass; , sounds. However on the small scale drums; unnamed multiple reed man; arranged ville, in the winter of 1956, to re• of most jazz performances such by . cord these few sides he did so methods are dangerous if pursued to The Hat Box Chicks; Broadway—4 A.M.; with no particular enthusiasm but the detriment of melodic, rhythmic and You Need Connections; "Dem Resolution harmonic considerations and produce Liars Fable; 'Dem Jive New Yorkers; as the result of a promise made to music that is too fragmentary. This The Squares; A Dollar is your Only Friend; his brother Martin in an off-guard is especially true of the two Ip with The Cool Cat's Philosophy; Ole Braggin' moment. Brookmeyer wherein the music was so Freddie. discontinuous as to be inarticulate. This Ip of hip monologues will certainly Parker showed that discontinuity can sell as a party record, and it is cer• Available monophonic and stereo. be a valuable aid to achieving richness tainly a good one. But beyond that it of melodic construction but Giuffre's holds several lessons, for it is more fun apparent preoccupation with sound and and sharper social documentation texture seems to have led him to ig• than Hughes' Simple stories, and Babs nore the requirements of form that Gonzales cuts Jon Hendricks to ribbons composition imposes. as a hip rhymester. If this record is more enjoyable than Maybe he has an easier job in not the Atlantic collections it is because of having to cope with someone-else's the playing of Mitchell and Hall. Out phrasing and notes, but certainly he Hanover-Signature Record Corporation 119 West 57th Street, N. Y. 19, N. Y. 29 achieves the same brightness and verve, which is so fascinating to those who cians. They are at all times them• and he adds a keep satirical eye that live in want, symbols of the power that selves—I can't find any fault with that. sees the ridiculous in the real, a fine fascinates those who live in perpetual Art Farmer accurate ear with complete mastery frustration. of hip jargon, and a point of view pene• If Babs Gonzales can continue in this trated with light-hearted, slightly vein, he may succeed in articulating THAD JONES: "Detroit-New York desperate and characteristically Uptown a whole section of American life that Junction." Blue Note 1513. cynicism. has existed almost unrecorded. He Thad Jones, trumpet; Billy Mitchell, tenor; His subjects are drawn from New might serve then not only the cause of , piano; , York, and more especially the Man• the Negro in America, but the cause of bass; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Shadow Wilson, hattan of the unattached city Negro— all of us who can afford to recognize drums. the district, the hall in the plight of others what .we can ill Blue Room; Tariff; Little Girl Blue; Scratch; bedroom in the crumbling brownstone, afford to see in our own. Zee. hangin' out in the joints (There's Hsio Wen Shih THAD JONES: "The magnificent". Blue Note Tommy and Willy, and My Man Cal), 1527. the square with his day gig and the COLEMAN HAWKINS: "The High and Thad Jones, trumpet; Billy Mitchell, tenor; Cadillac boys with their nightly dues. Mighty Hawk." Felsted FAJ 7005. , piano; Percy Heath, bass-, Max His form is the skit phrased in the Coleman Hawkins, tenor; Buck Clayton, Roach, drums. traditional rhymed couplets of the trumpet; , piano; , bass; April in ; Billie Doo; If I Love Again; Dozens. It is doggerel, of course, but , drums. If Someone Had Told Me; Thedia. doggerel with sureness of touch, tough- Bird of Prey Blues; My one and only Love; Thad Jones always seems to be in mindedness and economy, and so Vignette; Ooh-Wee; Miss G. P.; You've Changed; someone's shadow. In Basie's band, Joe natural and compelling in its speech Get Set. Newman cops most of the solos, and rhythm, and accurate in its accent, that This is certainly an enjoyable record. even in his family he is thought of as it has the flow of good blank verse— To me, Coleman Hawkins is a real Hank's younger brother. Thad is although I suppose one would not com• artist of sincerity and warmth; he much more than that; he is probably ment on his accent if others were not always makes music. I've been told he one of the best trumpet players in so anxious to conceal theirs. doesn't swing, but I think he does, modern jazz. Several sketches on the record are although his rhythmic conception is not Thad Jones has a beautiful ringing commonplace inspite of verbal what I'm used to hearing. ingenuity: A Dollar, You Need Connec• sound, and uses the upper register Hawkins' performance here is one of superbly. He is a consumate technician, tions, the Runyonesque Manhattan many examples of how he can use the Fable and The Cool Cat's Philosophy and his use of technique I feel is an techniques of music and technical integral part of his originality. Many of are banal themes. But the Hat Box advances in jazz to his own advantage— Chicks has a few good moments of his pet phrases are diffifult to play. He use them and remain his own man. often plays long stacatto phrases in the observation and a wild conceit that re• (Of course he may have played this way calls Saunders King Blues. The Squares upper register at a fast tempo. The all along; if so, harmonically he was highest note in such a phrase often is at once funny and grim, and the ahead of his contemporaries.) He plays whole sequence after the square leaves comes in the middle, which means he what I call "big horn," but also a has to pop it off without setting his work is marvelously accurate. fluid horn with warmth, and I never The best tracks are in another realm. embouchure. Perhaps that is why his feel that he over-does his own style of influence on his contemporaries is Dem Jive New Yorkers is a catalogue of improvising. roccoco inventions about everybodies' negligible (though does Buck Clayton is one of the trumpet hypes, from the minister to the sometimes play like Thad). Few horn- players I envy; for the sake of my own neighborhood dope-peddler, and its men were carbons of Dizzy; they ego, I listen to him hoping he will details include the delightfully preten• couldn't reproduce his style for tech• do something wrong. He never does, so tious lady shop-lifter who owned the nical reasons. I have to be content to love him for 'zircon-diamond ring.' And Broadway— his "straight ahead" style, his taste, and In his first Blue Note Ip he was 4 A.M. is an accurate, pitiless descdip- his musicianship. accompanied largely by fellow tion of the street at closing time, Hank Jones is one of the most able Detroiters. These five numbers, with perfect and complete. accompanists for not getting in any• plenty of solo space, have more The two tracks that catch perfectly one one's way harmonically. I wish there cohesiveness than most recorded aspect of the scene are Dem Resolu• were more records which showed freely Blowing sessions, probably because the tion Liars and 'Ole Braggin' Freddie. the full use of his abilities; there are musicians are familiar with each other They are about two sides of the same already so many on which he is the and with the material (Thad recorded subject: frustration and compensation. perfect accompanist. Zee and Blue Room for the Dee Gee Dem Resolution Liars is a lesson on Ray Brown was the first bass player label with a group under Billy Mitchell's the fascination and the foolishnesess after Oscar Pettiford who seemed name.) The rhythm section is fine, of hangin' out—"You knew that was really to play the bass. With Pettiford, giving unobtrusive but steady support jivin' and stiffin', but vanity being your he deserves credit for setting a high to the soloists. Pettiford and Wilson case"—a perfect picture of the need standard of bass playing for younger play up to their usual standards and for companionship at whatever cost, the men who didn't hear Jimmy Blanton. Tommy Flanagan is the tastiest this need to be a big man even if you can't Ray is an artist of finesse on an instru• side of Hank Jones. keep it up past pay-day night, and a ment on which artistry and finesse are Billy Mitchell sounds good here; on perfect picture of the essentially difficult to achieve. Like Pettiford, Scratch and Zee he is very forceful. His anonymous easy sociability based on Charlie Mingus, and , Ray phrasing is similar to Rollins', but he mutual need that cannot afford to can give good account of himself under uses the upper register in a highly recognize its source, the need that any circumstances. In spite of the effective and original way. And he is drives the hanger-out into a world of fact that he began, as the notes say, better on the . He is an appearance, of fantasy. by winning a drum contest, Mickey experienced musician who has assimi• 'Ole Braggin' Freddie has the fantasy Sheen doesn't seem to be a drummer lated facets of many tenor men into his in its worst form. He has become, in his who would be difficult to play with. style and shows inventiveness within cups, the nonpariel lover and complete As I said, this is to me a very enjoy• the mainstream. man of the world, and he boasts of able record. It has performances of the clothes, the great big pretty car, Thad is credited with writing four of quality by all involved; they weren't travels abroad, the maid, the castle by the five tunes. They are supposed to be lacking in any respect, which is no less the sea—all the world of appearance, vehicles for extended blowing but than can be expected of these musi• are clever little lines in themselves, and

30 are well played by the horns. leads Thad into a solo that matches rblue note ^ The second side of the LP is the the Scratch side in Volume I. The better. Thad's solo on Scratch is Gillespie influence is most apparent THE FINEST IN JAZZ solidly constructed. He paces himself here. He hits a high note and L SINCE 1939 A intelligently, mixing gracefully-slurred down-slurs several times in Diz's long note passages with rapid double fashion; some of his ascending runs time phrases. His tone is full and also sound like Diz. sound throughout the range of the horn, These sets represent some of the best his execution flawless. Tommy Flana• recorded examples of Thad's work gan's solo here is a compact thing and of East Coast jazz. of beauty and he shows his sense of Harvey Pekar humor by playing an incongruous Silver-like, last bar. Zee, the up-tempo number of the set, WYNTON KELLY: "Kelly Blue." demonstrates Thad's ability to playwith Riverside 12-298. great force without becoming frantic. Wynton Kelly, piano; , cornet; Hearing it is like being pushed against , flute; , tenor; Paul a soft rubber wall by a hurricane and Chambers, bass; , drums. being held there: you aren't being hurt Kelly Blue; . but something tremendously strong Kelly, piano; Chambers, bass; Cobb, drums. is holding you. The solo is also a per• Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise; Green fect example of his high-note popping Dolphin Street; Keep It Moving; Old Clothes. THE HORACE SILVER technique. It has become increasingly obvious in QUINTET & TRIO In the second set, the front line stays Blouin' The RIUPS Aurny. No better example the past year or so that Wynton Kelly of Horace's creative talents and his range the same but the rhythm section has developed into one of the most in• as a composer and pianist than this new changes and improved by the consis• album, just released. One of the new tunes teresting pianists of the post-bop "" has already created a stir tently brilliant work of Max Roach. generation. Kelly's style is, fundamen• anil is being talked about. With Mitchell, Listen to the variety of lines he lays tally, blues-oriented, and almost all Junior Cook, Eugene Taylor, Louis Hayes. BLUE NOTE 4017 down. of his work shows it. But if this were Barry Harris resembles Flanagan, all his style, it would scarcely be whom he is supposed to have taught in as interesting as it is. Kelly, at his Detroit. His touch is possibly a bit best, possesses a sharply developed more percussive; his left hand more ability to construct a melodic solo of sparse. His solo work shows the same nearly constant interest. His solos are solidity and good taste. usually characterised by a long, Mitchell is better here than on Volume sinuous, and steadily mounting line I. His lines are generally better con• each segment of which follows neatly structed and on the fast Love Again from its predecessor. Add to this he recalls some of the exquisiteness of his nic_: sense of time and accent, and Lucy Thompson. we have a soloist of no mean ability. April in Paris is a nice contrast to the Of course, this is not to say that Basie version (but still includes the Kelly is without fault. He has a most "Pop goes the Weasel" quote). The annoying habit, when inspiration rhythm section is a model here. Max's seems to run short, of handing the brush work seems to provide exactly listener a garland of Garlandisms. This the right shading. reliance upon Garland cliches causes ART BLAKEY I've Got a Crush on You is included a certain discontinuity to appear AND in Volume III (Blue Note 1546) but was in many of his solos. Also, with all due AT "THE JAZZ CORNER OF THE WORLD" Art is back at the famous corner of Broad• apparently made during the same respect to the blues, it is trying to way and 52nd Street, this time with Lee date as the tracks on Volume II. It is find every number treated in a Morgan, Hank Mobley, Bobby Timmons and . perhaps the most fully realized example blues style. BLUE NOTE 4015 of Thad's ballad playing. He states the verse and then plays the chorus The bulk of the present rather disap• with unabashed romanticism. His pointing Ip finds him with fellow vibrato is beautifully controlled, his employees of the Miles Davis. Of the phrasing so graceful it implies a waltz. trio selections it seems to me that He departs from the melody by playing Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise and shorter notes and double timing some• Willow Weep for Me are the most con• what like Sonny Rollins. Also like sistent in quality. Green Dolphin Rollins he never completely throws the Street and Old Clothes have good melody away. Then he gives way to beginnings, but soon flag. Softly has a Harris who plays some lush chords and splendid introduction by Kelly JACKIE Mr LEAN sets him up for the final statement which leads directly to the exposition, of the verse. from which he builds his solo with a steady attention to melodic detail. Thad's full-tone recalls the Diz's beau• Here, and again in Willow which he tiful open work on Round Midnight and builds with considerable emotional I Can't Get Started in the mid 1940's, power, part of the effect is vitiated by but by now Diz's influence is more the intrusion of Red. JACKIE McLEAN implied than specific of course. New Soil. Jackie is turning over a new leaf Chambers functions well in his Billie Doo the blues tune is a cute with his first album on Blue Note. "This seemingly imperturbable fashion both is a change in my career. I'm not like I theme by Thad. His suave playing shows used to be, so I play different," he says. in accompaniment and in solo. How• Featured with Jackie are , how far the blues have come since ever, I have the feeling that Walter Davis Jr., Paul Chambers and Pete Johnny Dodds. La Roca. Chambers has not as yet displayed his BLUE NOTE 4013 Theda is probably the best thing on talents at their full strength. When Volume II. Mitchell's solo is very in• he does, it should be well worth 1 2" LP, List $4.98 tense. His tone is more like hearing since he has everything re- Complete Catalog on Request here. Heath says his piece well and , INC. 47 West 63rd St., New York 23 3 quired to produce a great bassist. instruments employed. In short, a strictly limited musician—at least Cobb, on the other hand, is academic, arrangement in the sense of transfer• in the recording studio. The earliest ex• with reference to Roach, Blakey, and ence from one medium to another is amples of his work with which I am Philly Joe. At best he appears to be a likely to serve no effective purpose for acquainted are his solos on Dameron's good time keeper, but, as yet, he this music. Hall Overton, who wrote Our delight, The Squirrel, Dameronia does not demonstrate that empathy the orchestrations under Monk's direc• and The Chase made for Blue Note in which a drummer should have with tion, has done his work competently 1947. There is no doubt he is a better a soloist. but without much imagination. Some of performer now, but the content of The sextet tracks are undistinguished the theme-derived backgrounds for his solos has hardly changed. Byrd examples of sophisticated funk solos are good but there is too much is in some respects better. His tone is which rapidly pall after the first hear• block chord scoring. One does not too small but is fairly individual. ing. Kelly has a good probing solo expect counterpoint from Monk but we The invention is quite well maintained on Kelly Blue, but his is the only one. might have had some of those oppo• but few of his ideas are really personal, On both the latter and Keep It Moving sitions of simultaneous patterns of really his own. Nor are adjacent the other soloists seem rather unin• which he is fond (e.g. the Blue Note phrases always clearly related to each terested in the whole affair. Benny Epistrophy and Evidence) of which he other, so his solos give the impression Golson has not yet resolved his is fond. In its registers the group is of being assembled out of fragments apparently conflicting interests in the bottom-heavy, but its potentialities of rather than growing of themselves. The styles of and John tone and texture are scarcely explored trumpet solos on Friday and Rootie Coltrane. I had thought he might at all, except in a very obvious way Tootie are notably formless—the latter be able to perfect a Benny Golson style in Monk's mood where the horns are containing some ill-advised double- from the two influences, and there divided into two 'opposing' groups. The timing—and Byrd would create a have been hints in some of his work seeming exception to this is the or• stronger impression if his solos were that he was doing just that. However, chestration of part of Monk's original shorter. on Kelly Blue, for instance, he divides piano solo of Little Rootie Tootie. This Monk himself is in excellent almost his solo into one part Thompson is a tour de force of considerable in• throughout. His Friday solo, all of it and one part Coltrane, with the result genuity and striking for that reason but, clearly developed from the melodic out• that the juxtaposition of the two again, it is music Monk conceived in line of the theme, is probably the is disconcerting to say the least. Nor is terms of the hard, percussive sound he best. Mood draws attention to a weak• either part of the solo particularly obtains from the piano. It is less, not ness in Monk's style. As a whole the worthy in itself. Bobby Jaspar's solos more, effective when blown up to opening piano solo is very good, with are barren of anything technique. Nat more than its natural size of sound. many instances of his individual sense Adderley, like Golson, seems torn— Another normal quality of Monk's of time, but the redundant descending here between the styles of Miles Davis work is its clarity, even hardness, of and ascending decorative runs clash and with a moment outline. The combination of piano and unsuitably with the rather unconven• or two from an unusually lively Chet seven horns on Crespescule with Nellie tional keyboard layout of the whole. In Baker in Kelly Blue. is messy and thoroughly unfortunate his second solo on this Monk para• On the whole scarcely an essential compared to the first Riverside version phrases the theme in an inimitable recording, but one worth hearing with four horns. Perhaps the nature manner. He accompanies the soloists for Kelly. of this music is such that it is best per• well—his chording is particularly formed by small groups. In Metronome, H. A. Woodfin incisive in Off Minor—but with less March 1957 Monk said he liked writ• daring than usual. This we may attrib• ing for six pieces best and perhaps ute to the unaccustomed and not really that is still true today. Certainly his appropriate surroundings. trio (Blue Note) and septet (Riverside) "THELONIOUS MONK orchestra at versions of Off Minor are superior to Max Harrison Town Hall." Riverside RLP 12-300. this new one. It is nonetheless to be Donald Byrd, trumpet; Eddie Bert, trombone; hoped that Monk will try an experiment Robert Northern, horn; Jay McAllister, tuba; of this sort again, perhaps seeking ad• WARNE MARSH. Atlantic 1291. , alto; , tenor,- vice, but doing all the writing himself. Warne Marsh, tenor; Ronnie Ball, piano; Pepper Adams, baritone; Thelonious Monk, As far as this record is concerned Paul Chambers, bass-, Philly Joe Jones, drums. piano,- Sam Jones, bass,- , drums. the liner notes are wrong in saying the Too Close for Comfort; It's All Right With Me. All compositions are by Mr. Monk and medium-sized unit "provides a much Marsh, tenor; Chambers, bass-, Paul Motian, orchestrated by Hall Overton. fuller presentation of Monk's rhythmic drums. Thelonious; Friday the 13th; Monk's Mood; and harmonic ideas than could be ,- My Melancholy Baby; Just Little Rootie-Tootie; Off Minor; Crepescule possible with the smaller groups." For Squeeze Me; Excerpt. with Nellie. the present the contrary is true. Warne Marsh was given a free hand in This Ip contains some of the items If these ensembles do have the vigour this recording to display his talents. from the concert reviewed by Gunther indispensable to the adequate per• There are no arrangements, and two of Schuller in The Jazz Review for formance of Monk's pieces they are not the tracks are not even complete June, 1959. Forgetting the concert and an extension of his most valuable 'takes.' With the exception of Yardbird listening to it simply as another qualities. Nor are the horn solos as Suite, the tunes are all standards record it appears the weakest in Monk's good as those on the best of his earlier (Extract is an improvisation based on Riverside series in that it tells us recordings. Wood's solos on Friday, the changes of I'll Remember April). nothing new about him. Each of the Mood and Off Minor have a curiously The responsibility involved in such themes orchestrates well enough for static quality. Lacking melodic im• a recording is obvious. There are few this medium-sized ensemble but pulse, they seem tied to the chords. In soloists active today who are capable their essential character is in no way Monk's Mood he decorates the theme of bringing off a half hour of practically enhanced or more clearly delineated. resourcefully enough but appears un• continuous improvisation. Marsh is One of the most motable features able to get away from it. Rouse has one not one of those few, and his perform• of Monk's best pieces is that they are or two striking moments in Friday and ance here would have been more compositions—statements and develop• gets off to a good start in Rootie Tootie satisfactory if there had been an ments of specific musical ideas—for but these are not sustained and his arranged basis. particular groups of instruments. In solos are almost as undistinguished as In the liner notes, Marsh is quoted as some of them, such as Criss Cross those of Woods. Despite his compe• saying that "music | should not be | dis• or the original Misterioso, the ideas and tence this tenor player has always been torted by any elements of your per• the manner in which they are de• sonality that might tend to take away veloped seem perfectly suited to the from it as music. That's the difference

32 between the artistic approach and far has been among men who share his the approach of the personality." What viewpoint of jazz, and with material RAE-COX Marsh fails to understand is that the that has defined limits. I hope his next two facts are not mutually irrecon• session is once again within the con• cilable. It is just this refusal to fines of this environment. recognize the importance of the in• Don Heckman dividual personality, and the influence which it can and should have upon RllMl'US improvisation, that spelled out the de• ON feat of the 'cool' jazz. And it is also HERBIE NICHOLS: "Love, Gloom, Cash, just this refusal that makes so much of Love." Bethlehem BOP 81. Marsh's playing boring and tedious. Herbie Nichols, piano; , bass; There is no question about his talent. Danny Richmond, drums. That exists in abundance. But his Too Close for Comfort; Every Cloud; Argu• consistent repression of the emergent mentative; Love, Gloom, Cash, Love; Portrait personality in his work has been the of UCHA; Beyond Recall; All the Way, 45 greatest obstacle to his artistic Angle; Infatuation Eyes; S'Crazy Pad. achievement. The reasons for comparing Herbie The immediate result of all this is Nichols with Monk are pretty obvious; that the rhythm section of Paul certainly an original stylist, he plays Chambers and Philly Joe Jones steals Rumpus on Rampart Street: Ed Hall as if conversing with himself. That is to plays throughout with an irresistibly all the marbles. It's a good one for say, he'll play a short phrase of the Marsh, though, because he plays best contagious drive and that immediately tune, interpose an angular, rather dis• on tunes that include Chambers identifiable tang that is one of the most and Jones—despite the valueless sonant motive, and so on, combining pungent and virile sounds in jazz. 'comping' of Ronnie Ball, who is com• this with elusive mumblings in the pletely overwhelmed in this kind left hand. Best selling Ips on RAE-COX of cooking session. But Nichols is far from the champion The most satisfying track on the record that Monk is. First of all, there are is probably Just Squeeze Me. Marsh a great many unassimilated borrowings, ENRICA gets into a good groove at the very out• from Garner in the first tune, Too set and swings throughout. Chambers Close for Comfort, or from the common starts out by putting everybody on, property Tatum-cocktail piano style and winds up playing a thoroughly de• passim. One has the feeling that lightful solo. As in most of his if Nichols would junk the fluttering recordings, Paul Motian's work is com• arpeggios and descending scales, or petent and workmanlike, but in this make them his own as Monk has, case it suffers by comparison with the his style would be what it should be in exciting intricacies of Philly Joe. principle. For he shows a great deal Although Marsh has a tendency to or originality in phrasing and accentua• play a bit too far under the beat, his tion, and likes to build his tunes rhythms are generally quite interesting. (seven of the ten bands are original) One of the Tristano school's main ob• around emotional situations that are at• jectives has been (as it was in a tractively heartfelt and natural. Born different way to ) the in 1919, he has the advantage of un• destruction of the bar line as an impe• derstanding and liking more than one diment to . The result way of piano playing, and the richness is that Marsh is able to play a phrase of experience and varied musical con• or motive and give it the same rhythmic tacts that all except the most gifted Garner Plays Garner: Lintqn Garner, older impetus regardless of where it origin• need. So, give Herbie Nichols his due brother of Erroll, has long been known ates in the measure, either on or off the for originality; his record deserves a among musicians as a consistently beat. This one, single technique gives listening. I think however, he needs a warm, swinging, unpretentious pianist. him an amazing amount of rhythmic drummer more sympathetic than Danny freedom, for example his solo on Richmond, one who isn't rattled so Excerpt. much by the kind of rhythmic devia• Marsh gets the peculiar sort of tone tions Nichols uses, if his playing is to BENNIE quality that comes as the result of appear in the best light. Portrait of using the mouth cavity as an extension Ucha is an intriguing piece; possibly, GREENn of the mouthpiece's resonating like the other tunes here, it fools with chamber. This type of sound is generally the beat too much to swing properly, furthered by the use of a fairly soft but I think more congenial bass and reed and is not the most ideal arrange• drums would change this. $£0 „ ment for the proper production of Larry Gushee tone. When the mouth is used for jt^" v ,* IMP, th resonance that much, the reed can no Published by permission of longer be properly controlled and tends James Lyons, editor of to produce squawks and breaks of American Record Guide. register in the octave change. Such J distractions have been a constanly dis• ALTON PURNELL: "Funky Piano—New turbing adjunct of Marsh's playing. Orleans Style." Warner Brothers W1228. Swings the Blues—featur• It's a shame that he insists upon Yancey Special; Stackolee; Pine Top's Boogie; ing Jimmy (Night Train) Forrest on tenor so many self-limiting methods. Yellow Dog Blues; Sentimental Journey; Slow sax. This is cool iazz at its best. Marsh's emphasis on the development Goin', Fast Comin' Back; Buster Anderson's of his improvisational abilities is Blues; I Want You—I Need You; Alberta; Best selling Ips on ENRICA admirable in intention, but is not justi• C. C. Rider; Someday You'll Be Sorry; St. fied by the results on this recording. Louis Blues. Rae-cox Records Inc.— His most complimentary setting thus For years Alton Purnell meant a stand- Enrica Records Inc. 1697 Broadway, N. Y. 19, N. Y. C15-06400 33 ard introduction to the . . . Westrex feedback cutters . . valve effects. Coleman is good too, Victors of 1945 (you can heat it on RIAA playback curve . . . Rolloff 13.75 the sombre feeling in his work giving Someday You'll Be Sorry) and a stand• DB at 10 KC . . . It does not tell me way eventually to some light-hearted ef• ard, soggy solo during which the however much about Alton Purnell, the fects that find an echo in the skittish- whole recording collapsed (you can identity of the saxophonist, the name ness of Dorham's last solo. Roach's hear it on Slow Goin', Fast Comin' of the drummer or that of the tuba exchanges with the horns have a logical Back). Now he lives in Southern player, the date of the recording or the pattern and swing that are never California "where his special brand of location; details that might be compromised by the very slow tempo. pure jazz has attracted a wide follow• considered of greater importance. The poorer sequences on this record are ing." This apparently is "primitive jazz To definitions of "funky" add: "inept" thrown into sharper relief than would with a kind of vulgarity perhaps, and "cliche-ridden." normally be the case by the quality but importantly a strength, a boldness, Paul Oliver of Parker's compositions. It is very dis• a vitality, a color, a sound, an attitude, appointing, for instance, that more a lot of things that gave jazz what it was not made of so beautiful a melody needed to become the great American MAX ROACH: "The Max Roach Four as Yardbird Suite. Plays Charlie Parker." Mercury art." The leader himself never falters, and MG 36127. If I have quoted at lengths that may the perfection of his work is almost a appear unneccessary it is because Kenny Durham, trumpet; Hank Mobley, tenor; reproach to Dorham and Mobley in I wish to illustrate the fundamental George Marrow, bass-, Max Roach, drums. particular. emptiness of this type of writing which Yardbird Suite; Confirmation; Apres-vous. Kenny Dorham, trumpet; George Coleman, Many, I fear, will be tempted to com• seeks to explain away major weaknesses pare these performances with the tenor; Nelson Boyd, bass; Max Roach, drums. in the music, and the inexactitude of originals: the comparison, to say the jazz terms that are divested of any real Ko-Ko; Billie's Bounce; Parker's Mood. Individual capabilities hardly enter into least, will not be flattering. meaning by such use. But I agree; Michael James there is vulgarity. Purnell vulgarises a comparison between the two dates most of what he plays: his Yancey that make up this album. The second Special is a debased version of Meade was far more productive, not because George Coleman is a superior tenor CECIL TAYLOR: "Hard Driving Jazz." Lewis' composition; in Buster Ander• United Artists 4014. son's Blues he plays a caricature of player to Hank Mobley or Nelson Boyd a better bassist than George Morrow, Cecil Taylor, piano; Kenny Dorham, trumpet; Yancey himself. Utterly devoid of new Blue Train, tenor; , bass; Louis ideas, or even sensitive interpretation but because both Dorham and Mobley sound surprisingly listless on the Hayes, drums. of old one, his jangle-box version of Double Clutching; Like Someone in Love; Pinetop's Boogie makes painful listen• first. In Confirmation Mobley shows good constructive sense, but untidy exe• Shifting Down; Just Friends. ing. To confirm how far he is from any As much as I hate having to start out real feeling for blues or boogie, compare cution makes his two choruses sound like a rehearsal of a solo rather than a on a sour note, I must. There is only one this with the original of over thirty thing really wrong with this recording, years ago. solo proper; and Dorham is worse still; his tone is ragged and his sense of but it is a major factor—Cecil Taylor's Except for his solos, Purnell's inade• timing woefully inadequate. Listen, for accompanying. He is an over-busy quacies as a pianist used to be hidden example, to the way he anticipates comper who interferes with the soloist. in the volume of sound of a full the beat on Apres-vous, better known as Mind, now, I am not speaking of band; even here he has instrumental Au Privave. Thus the complex runs Taylor's solo work. He is a fresh and support ("funky rhythm accompani• figure as so many frills. Roach provides intriguing soloist with a startling new ment" according to the label) which the main interest. For once one can be approach to jazz which is really some• consists of a poor r & b saxophonist glad the drummer got as much solo thing else. His studies of Bartok and who honks, boots and stumbles his way space as the other musicians. Stravinsky I don't need to go into; through most of the tracks with a The second session found Dorham in everybody knows about that. The influ• taste that prompts him to put a quote better form. Ko-ko, the least impressive ence of Thelonious Monk is also an old from Pee Wee Hunt's "Twelfth Street performance of the three, shows a story. These and other factors have Rag" into "Slow Goin'," a sad parody of more clearly defined production of notes been assimilated by Taylor and fused Just a Closer Walk with Thee on which on his part even at this very rapid into a highly personal, exciting style. a one-to-the-bar-and-live-for-ever tuba pace. The rhythmic conception (Boyd But he is not a good comper. The player joins in—and a loud, skin-bash• plays only on the alternate beats) liner notes on this record say that "like ing drummer who cannot cope with makes great demands on the hornmen. Monk, Taylor is an extremely percus• the tango rhythm of the release Elsewhere on the record, the absence sive and busy pianist whose harmonic in St. Louis Blues. In Purnell's vocals, of a piano might be construed as an as• and rhythmic lines present a continuous sung in a taut, nasal and unattractive set for Roach's deft accompaniment challenge to the ear of the soloist." voice are to be heard overtones of takes its place, but here, with Dorham But Monk is a very spare comper who, Armstrong, Waller and Fats Domino and Coleman failing to answer the though he may play all kinds of odd without the merits of any of them. In a tempo's challenge, one soon becomes chords, never gets in the way of the blues such as C. C. Rider his inability to aware of a dearth of melody. Such soloist. invest the lyrics or the music with is not the case with Billie's Bounce and Fortunately, there is a powerful con• any depth of meaning becomes sadly Parker's Mood. Coleman is the first trolling influence present—Coltrane, apparent, but the measure of his worth soloist on the former tune. His light who has a way of forcing the rhythm is perhaps best indicated by the fact tone and attractive if hardly personal section to adapt to him. In his solo that one can anticipate every phrase be• style lend the performance a litheness spots on this record he takes over com• fore it is played, so tired and worn are that is refreshing after the stagnancy pletely, and that is when Taylor the runs that he employs. Placed of the earlier recordings. Paradoxically doesn't get in the way so much. By the alongside, such a pianist as Willie enough, Mobley seems to be the main time they get to the last track, Taylor Perryman ceases to appear a mere imi• influence. Nelson Boyd's bass line has gotten the idea, and the soloists tator of the blues. stands out full and strong behind Cole• can breathe more easily. man's pliant phrasing and behind 'Trane, incidentally, comes up with The sleeve informs me that the recorded Dorham on Parker's Mood. After the in• channel Ampex tape recorders, some of his finest solos ever. He opens troduction the trumpeter begins his up on Shifting Down in typical Col• latest condenser microphones . . . with solo by playing Parker's first chorus and Vitaphone FNV optimum frequency trane fashion—doesn't it remind you of then goes on to create his best solo the way he starts Traneing In?—and range control are used. Electronically of the album, making apt use of half- controlled variable pitch Scully lathes goes on from there to build up a cook-

34 ing solo. His playing on the two another man. Lightnin' becomes very TWO BLUES SPECIALS standards displays, even at those emotional on Bad Luck and Trouble, tempos, that intense lyricism that is which in a sense combines two songs major characteristic of his style. which he has recorded earlier: So Long from FOLKWAYS He gets into a surprisingly relaxed (Aladdin) and Bad Luck and Trouble groove in Double Clutching but it's (RPM) for one of the most moving and Coltrane's relaxed groove, no one else's. convincing tracks on the Ip. Dorham seems a bit uncomfortable On Come Go Home With Me Lightnin' at the beginning—I noticed a certain changes his mood entirely; a shuffle tension in his solo—but by the time the rhythm lays the foundation for a won• group gets to the second track, Like derfully amusing, relaxed monologue Someone In Love, he is his old self. He about what Lightnin' thinks of this girl and Coltrane should play together about whom Papa and Mama have more; they complement each other warned him. This is the type of material beautifully. that puts him above any of his con• As I said earlier, Taylor is a fresh and temporary blues singers, his creative intriguing soloist, and he really does ability at its best. His recent single things. He gets right down and cooks on discs have not reflected this aspect of the final Just Friends. On the two blues his talent, but about eight years ago lines he takes advantage of his solo he made quite a few which I would put space to engage in some interesting with this one—his hilarious Bald harmonic explorations. This is where he Headed Woman (Sittin' in With 647) comes to mind. This talent is exhibited is most comfortable, and I have the LIGHTNIN' HOPKINS Sings the Blues. $5.95. Recorded by Samuel B. on most of his sides for Mercury. Charters. Songs include: Penitentiary Blues. Come Home With feeling that he should stay with trio Me, See That My Grave is Kept Clean, others Folkways, FS 3822. work, where he will have the greatest Possibly the best side of the Ip is 12" longplay record. Trouble Stay Away from my Door. It is "A remarkable record . . . Hopkins, who accompanies himself opportunity to expand. superbly on unamplified guitar, has a mobile voice and an ex• Bassist Israels is promising, with a a very powerful, blues pressiveness that places him in the top rank of country blues men . . . One of Ihe finest blues records ever made." good, though not particularly big, highlighted by some extremely sensitive —HIGH FIDELITY sound and accurate intonation—this and emotional guitar work. "One of the best blues records ever made. The rediscovery of Lightnin' Hopkins is an important event to those who like real last, as far as I'm concerned, is See That My Grave is Kept Clean blues."—DOWNBEAT requisite. He has ideas, and he gets a finishes the first side; it is the old SNOOKS EAGLIN, New Orleans Street Singer. $5.95. Recorded by Harry Dster. Careless Love, High Society, Trouble in Mind, The chance to express them here. He is Blind Lemon Jefferson number which Dr.,tin' Blues, , See See fiider, A Thousand Miles from Home, Look Down That Lonesome Road. Folkways, FA 2476. also an excellent rhythm man, laying Lightnin' sings straight and with little 12" longplay record personal involvement. As I mentioned down strong lines. As for Louis Hayes, Send for free catalogue of over 650 titles of folk music, I am really sorry that he didn't get more before, Lightnin' does not often sing jazz, and documenlary recordings. solo space than those fours on Double traditional tunes in their "original" Clutching; he is one of the most excit• form, and this seems to be a rare FOLKWAYS RECORDS & SERV. CORP. ing drummers around. exception. On the RPM recording of this 117 West 46th St., New York 36, N. Y. This is an interesting record, well number, titled One Kind Favor (RPM worth repeated hearings, and but for 359) he asks for his girl to give her love that one sour note, very good indeed. to him, and not for someone to keep DANCE ORCHESTRATIONS his grave clean! Here incidentally, the Zita Carno guitar at times sounds almost like COMBO ORKS . Musical Supplies church bells ringing for the funeral. Fan It is a rather monotonous item and For Free Catalog Write to: Lightnin' does not save it. Tell Me Baby Lightnin' Hopkins: is a straight, rather uneventful blues TERMINAL Folkways LP FS 3822. delivered with little of the emotion and personal concern which made the MUSICAL SUPPLY, Inc. The amplifier and the drummer were blues on side one so outstanding. left behind at a jook joint on Dowling Charters called the closing track of the Dept. J R 113 W 48 St., New York 36. NY. Street, and Lightning with only his Ip: She's Mine and this boogie begins guitar, a bottle of gin, his thoughts, and with that phrase and continues until his feelings sat down and put on tape it becomes almost monotonous, when Now available as some creative personal and emotional all of a sudden he transforms it into an a correspondence course music. On this Ip, his first, (the Score instrumental with interjected com• Ip ocnsisted of reissues and old masters ments, at times slapping the guitar with from Aladdin) we find Lightnin' his hand. This latter part is almost an GEORGE RUSSELL'S generally in a sad and reflective mood. identical performance to his Lightning His humor and his unpredictability Boogie (Gold Star 664) which was, as LYDIAN CHROMATIC as well as his incredible ability to make this one is, delightful with bright humor. his guitar become alive and talk to No doubt much-of the material which him and with him, make this a very Lightnin' develops in his songs is de• CONCEPT FOR JAZZ delightful and varied listening rived from other blues, but almost every experience. number becomes a personal experience IMPROVISATION "Penitentiary Blues" has been recorded with him; the fact that Sam Charters previouslly on a number of occasions had to give names to many of these "The first important theoretical inno• by another Texas blues singer Smokey attests to this. Here is a truly creative vation to come from jazz."—John Lewis, Hogg, and is considered by many as a Let me give credit to Sam Charters musical director of the Modern Jazz traditional Texas prison song. But and Mack McCormick who spent a great Quartet. Lightnin' is not the type to faithfully deal of time and effort in locating "Important for every serious jazz mu• reproduce old songs word for word, Sam Hopkins, and let us hope that this sician."—Art Farmer. rather he will create his own stories and Ip will lead to the presentation of make a very personal experience out Lightnin's talent on a grand scale both Taught at the School of Jazz, Lenox, of borrowed songs such as this one. He on future recordings and personal Mass. gives us his own personal experiences appearances. For information write to; on prison farms, and all through the song he insists that he is doing time for Chris Strachwitz Concept Publishing Company 121 Bank Street, N. Y. 14, N. Y. cabana jazz critic: Said JAZZ IN PRINT Sahl to John Crosby, "The hard boppers are the group that remind you that the steel mills are still open. Blakey and Miles. All the musicians are go• ing back to post-war bop. It's a hard, cruel sound, volumetrically loud, equated with honesty but mechanically erratic. I'm against it." Miles is a hard bopper like Sahl is a Republican. From a Raymond Horricks by NAT HENTOFF interview with in the Jazz monthly (September): "Duke usually puts the finishing touches to a composition Jelly Roll in Congress - for diverting it to the at the actual recording On page 15956 of the Chicago sewer system." session. This is deliber• August 31 Congressional Richard Weissman, 156 West ate, and chiefly because Record, Senator Keating 106th Street, New York voicings are an important says: "Mr. President, I 25, N.Y. is doing a part of his composing. should like to offer a master's thesis on Blind Many of the voicings he small historical footnote Blake, Gary Davis, Blind uses are based on the very to the current debate with Boy Fuller, Blind Lemon individual sounds produced respect to the Lake Jefferson and Willie John• by members of the Elling• Michigan water-diversion son. He would appreciate ton orchestra, and at a bill. I do not antici• any biographical informa• recording session he ex• pate this offering will tion or recordings that periments with these change any votes, but it readers would be willing sounds until he has the may be of interest at to submit to him for voicings he requires. least to those Senators loan or for sale. Often he arrives in the who are students or con• John S. Clement, 22 Leys- studio with only a melody noisseurs of American wood Drive, Ilford, Essex line and the chords for jazz. The late Jelly Roll is working on a Clark a composition." Martin [sic], one of the Terry discography. He Ludvik Sereda, Stalinova great pianists which New would like "band titles, 70, Prague 12— Vinohrady, Orleans gave to the personnel and instruments Czechoslovakia, would like Nation, used to sing a played, location and date to correspond about jazz. 12-bar blues song not long of recordings, tunes re• Newly published by Rutgers after the turn of the corded with matrix num• University Press is D. K. century, and the title of bers if possible, issue Wilgus' Anglo-American that song was 'Michigan numbers of American re• Folksong Scholarship Since Water Blues.* The first leases together with any 1898. It's written in the chorus went as follows: other revelant information prose of the academies, 'Michigan water tastes pertaining to any record• but is the most compre• ing sessions in which hensive and relatively ob• like sherry wine has taken part jective account of the (I mean sherry wine) ; with the exception of background of folk col• Mississippi water tastes those made with Count lecting in this country so like turpentine, Basie's orchestra and sex• far printed There's a Michigan water tastes tet and the Duke Ellington selected discography. like shery wine.' band." Newest paperback discog• "Frankly," the Senator raphy published by Debut added, "I do not know at • J In the Notes and Queries Records, Box 46, Brande, this point whether Michi• section of the July, 1959, Denmark, is on Lester gan water tastes like Western Folklore, Mimi Young. sherry wine, but even if Clar has a piece, Songs it should, that would of My California Child• Iain Lang on Billie Holi• still be no justification hood. ..Mort Sahl, Copa- day in the Sunday

36 Times; "Her wonderful gift did if somewhat overwhelm• for making a trite senti• ing Bess, and indeed, I mental song emotionally should imagine that she significant depended was much closer to the Two brand new largely on audacious dis• original, whoever she was, placements of emphasis of this portrait than any• books on effective only in relation one who has ever played to a firm rhythmic back• or sung it." ground. But here [the Paul Barbarin's story as Columbia, , told to John Norris is in with strings], with an the September Coda. Folk accompaniment as firm as Music Guide USA, edited melting ice-cream her and published by Israel voice skids precariously Young, is a new monthly over the treacherous sur• available at a dollar a face. Her greatest handi• year (ten issues) via The cap becomes evident if you Folklore Centre, 110 Mac- compare her with two other Dougal Street, New York JAZZ singers who made distin• 12, N.Y. It contains itin• Edited by Nat Hentoff and guished use of popular eraries of folk singers, Albert McCarthy. Twelve of material, concert listings, and the world's foremost jazz crit• and Pastora Pavon. Both features. Sam Charters ics present this entire field in its modern perspective. An excep• worked within well-defined writes on Moses Asch, head tionally good background book traditional patterns, in of Folkways Records, in for connoisseurs. Bessie's case the frame• the first issue (October). Illustrated, S5.95 work of the blues and in It's a deserved tribute to that of La Nina de los the creator of an invalu• THE Peines the established able company, whose re• flamenco forms. This gave cordings — unlike most of COUNTRY them a breadth of appeal the others — will have and an authority that importance so long as BLUES , dredging there are means of sound By Samuel B. Charters. Here is up her material from Tin reproduction. Editor the story of the lives of the early Pan Alley could not com• Young, in his own section, blues singers, men like Blind mand. With each song she notes that "Alan Lomax has Lemon and Big Bill Broonzy, and the music they made, told had to start from scratch, been touring the South for with deep sensitivity and great relying only on her per• two months, meeting and factual knowledge by an au• sonal emotional and talking with people he has thority in the field. musical resources." worked with over a twenty Illustrated, S4.95 Charles Fox on Ray Charles year span.' in the British Gramophone; For the first time, a and two classics "The sleeve of this LP... blues singer was the sub• HEAR ME TALKIN describes him as *a clas• ject of a feature article sical blues singer,* which in the Houston Post. Char• TO YA really is complete non• lotte Phelan did a story Edited by Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff. The fabulous story of sense. Charles'technique on Lightning Hopkins in Jazz by the men who made it — is that of the gospel the August 23 issue. She including Louis Armstrong, Bunk singer. (He was, after Johnson, Benny Goodman, tells of his spontaneity Fletcher Henderson and many all, once a member of the in making up verses, and others. Illustrated, $5.00 Five Blind Boys), a adds this anecdote: "Told baroque approach which that Queen Elizabeth II THE JAZZ MAKERS decorates and lingers over was in Chicago, the min• Edited by Nat Shapiro and Nat the melody, coming closer strel immediately com• Hentoff. Careful, candid, detailed to the technique of Span• posed Blues for Queen musical and personal portraits of twenty-one major jazz makers: ish cante hondo, especi• Elizabeth; 'Yeah you know, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Arm• ally the saeta, than it Baby, the whole world's in strong, Dizzy Gillespie, etc. $4.95 does to the sinewy direct• a tangle, It's just spin• Order today — ness of the blues." ning 'round and 'round...' for your own pleasure James Baldwin on the Gold- Chided because he called and as meaningful Christmas gifts wyn version of Porgy and the Queen of England At all booksellers Bess in Commentary (Sep• 'baby', Lightning said, 'I RINEHART & CO., INC. tember) : "Billie Holiday wasn't talking just to 232 Madison Ave., N. Y. 16 would have made a splen• her.'"

37 for solo and section work respec• tively. Yet, this superb dance band MONTEREY OUTSIDE had not a single opportunity to play for dancing. It is questionable whether a hard chair in a cold horse DICK HADLOCK show arena is a better way to enjoy jazz than dancing or even standing Now that jazz festivals are as much air, fought a valiant trouper's battle, about in a ballroom. And it seems part of the American scene as tail- and most observers thought she won. doubtful that lofty and remote out• fins and split-level homes, one must An unsuccessful George Lewis seg• door stage is a good place to bring learn to distinguish the promotion ment gave way to the best music out the best in Bill Parkins or Zoot stunts from sincere productions, the of the evening—an Earl Hines trio, Sims. Big bands do get across at opportunists from patrons of good consisting of Hines, bassist Vernon festivals because their ability to jazz. Newport, for example, has Alley and drummer Mel Lewis. project a massive wall of sound, earned its place at the top of the Although the three were brought to• propelled by a powerful drummer, commercial heap, showing higher gether with no preparation, the re• pleases the back rows. The fact re• non-profits than any other festival, sult was superior jazz as Hines threw mains, however, that large arenas while the modest affair at Long his full creative weight into the brief are used to make enough money and Island's Great South Bay in 1957 set. When Coleman Hawkins, Roy not primarily for musical reasons. was probably close to the bottom in Eldridge, Ben Webster, Woody Her• Because large orchestras and classi• gross receipts. The musical virtues man, and walked on cal ensembles seem to communicate rank in just the reverse order. How for a "," though, the mu• fairly well from outdoor shells, the far can a producer go, then, toward sical level established by Hines Saturday afternoon presentation a thoughtful presentation of good dropped to a series of reflex choruses proved successful. J. J. Johnson (El jazz without losing money? that seemed to have each man blow• Camino Real, Sketches) was the This inverse relationship of dollars ing what he had ready under his composer of the day, with Benny to aesthetics was the challenge that fingers rather than creative ideas. Golson (Portrait of Coleman Haw• faced Jimmy Lyons and his advisors Apparently large jazz audiences have kins) running a provocative second. as they planned the initial Monterey not changed much since the early ' The Big Three, written Jazz Festival in 1958. That first fes• days of JATP, when noise level and for Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster tival was guided by a cautious recipe contrived excitement were the keys and Ornette Coleman, was embar• of two parts Newport (too many big to mass acceptance. rassingly trivial and something of an names rushed on and off) and two found at Monterey what tenorman affront to altoist Coleman, whose tal• parts Monterey (serious composi• discovered at New• ent should not be measured in a tions and a superb natural setting.) port: that the closer one gets to Hawkins-Webster-Wilkins context. The crowds came, and the critics without actually Coleman, along with trumpeter Don were interested. playing it, the-more enthusiastic the Cherry, was victimized again, this audience becomes. time by John Lewis, in a composi• Moving farther out the non-commer• also reached the tion called Relays, which seemed to cial limb in 1959, Lyons and com• fans in terms they could understand have little to do with Coleman's pany appointed idealist John Lewis as he sang a set of routine but pleas• unique musical philosophy. In this as music boss and began commis• ant blues in a quasi-pop style. instance, it would have been best to sioning special works to be written Most of Friday's performers would simply allow Coleman and Cherry to for the festival. Every effort was bent have been displayed to better ad• play in their own way with their own toward making Monterey a "thinking vantage in a smaller indoor location. men, but that seems not to have man's festival," even to hiring Woody Barber and Lewis might have played occurred to anyone. Herman and a "house" band for more naturally in a dance hall; Lizzie What was done to Coleman (and several days of rehearsals before Miles would have enjoyed singing Hawkins and Webster, for that mat• the concerts. The formula shifted to with Barber, preferably in a warm ter) can be understood best by con• three parts Monterey and one part place where she could see her audi• templating what a jazz festival in Newport. The traditional parade of ence; the jam session affair was a 1937 would have been like if, say, name acts, still necessary to draw mere recitation of musical platitudes Lester Young were featured in a Ray• customers from afar, was at least because spontaneous improvisation mond Scott Portrait of Pres instead cushioned by longer sets for each of this sort does not ordinarily thrive of being allowed to blow Lady Be group and a couple of "serious" con• on an elevated stage before an open Good or I Got Rhythm with a first certs. Again the crowds came, and arena and thousands of anonymous class rhythm section. It is a question the critics smiled. faces. If festivals are to be more of preciosity versus natural artistry. Friday was, as before, "traditional" than outdoor musical reviews, they Saturday night, customarily the big night, stomping off with Chris Bar• first must consider what environ• drawing card of a weekend festival ber's warm and swinging, if not ment will be most stimulating to program, was the weakest of Mon• especially brilliant, jazz band. British individual musicians, and then fig• terey's five shows. The Herman band musicians, it seems, can play con• ure out a way to break even finan• blew well, in spite of an unnecessary vincingly in the "revivalist" groove, cially;. "Herman Hits of Yesteryear" inter• while American traditionalists in• lude. Guitarist , who variably bog down in a clamor of played well in the afternoon, seemed banjos and tubas. Take Saturday afternoon, for in• stance. The sparkling Herman band crippled by the cold night air. The Following Barber's long but crisp (those rehearsals did make a differ• looked like stand, Lizzie Miles sang some thread• ence) was quite effective on the four mechanical dolls as they tossed bare Edwardian favorites. The tire• stage of the open arena, with honors off their numbers with monotonous less Miss Miles, hampered by poor going to and Al Porcino Continued on page 41 accompaniment and the chill night for solo and section work respec-

38 one of America's most respected musicians their "musical consult• MONTEREY INSIDE ant." And not in name only. John Lewis is consulted about everything, from musical programming and per• GUNTHER SCHULLER sonnel to stage lighting. The musi• cians are thus playing for one of From the outset, it is apparent that of instruments and personnel. Be• their own—not a promoter out to this is going to be an unusual jazz hind the scrim, shadowy figures are make a fast buck. Their music def• festival. There is an air of organiza• now taking their places; while to the initely reflects their feelings on this tion, of intelligent planning and left and in front of the stage on a subject. friendliness that one looks for in separate platform, six musicians Of course, not everything in so vain at other such conclaves. There gather about their instruments and mammoth an operation goes smooth• is somehow a real festive atmos• microphones. They are a vocal trio, ly. One attraction falters badly for lack phere, an excitement generated by Annie Ross, John Hendricks and of rehearsal and planning; another the feeling that perhaps this fes• Dave Lambert, accompanied by arrives later than expected due to tival will be more than a weekend piano, bass and drums; they will in• a misunderstanding in last-minute of ill-planned jazz bouts with as troduce each group in short vocalized communications; another group per• many names thrown into the ring as quatrains. The introduction ends in forms poorly as a result of sheer possible; that instead one may an• close harmony (spelling out a ninth exhaustion and overwork. But by ticipate some genuine and even chord with the inevitable flatted and large, the performers rise to the special musical pleasures. fifth), and the scrim parts, revealing challenge implied by the festival's Even the setting is different. The at attractive stage done in a friendly promised artistic standards. Each scene is the Monterey Fairgrounds, canary yellow. The three sides of group is given its due, and can with rustic, log cabin like booths, the shell have been decorated with "stretch out" for anywhere between spacious lawns and grass carpeted a design consisting of chairs,—all thirty minutes to an hour, or more. fairways, decorously lined with color• manner of chairs, from old-fashioned Backstage there is a conspicuous ful hanging baskets filled with ger• spindly wrought-iron chairs to high- absence of hooks with which to yank aniums. backed wicket chaises, sketched performers off the stage after a lightly in key over the yellow back• During several days of rehearsals and chorus and a half. The artists get ground. One of the chairs in stage general preparation, it becomes the feel of the accoustics, of the has an occupant,—a bird, no less, abundantly clear that this festival audience, and don't have to worry and the chair next to it, in evident will differ from others in many im• that an occasional plane from a tribute to a great lady of jazz, holds portant ways. One of these is the nearby navy base will obliterate their a gardenia. manner of presentation. It has been one and only chance. There is no "one chance"; there is a relaxed, decided that there should be an On stage another six musicians stand absolute minimum of the usual unhurried, uncluttered feeling that before their individual microphones, flatters both artist and audience. time-consuming m.c.-ing, and much the latter, widely spaced, in their thought has been given to the me• Much money and time are spent in silver spindliness uncannily con• nearly a week of rehearsing with two chanics of getting the various groups tinuing the motif of the stage decor. and their instrumental parapher• separate "workshop" orchestras. For The group begins to play. At a dis• economy, the personnels overlap to nalia on and off stage. (Anyone who tance of some thirty rows, the effect has not been backstage during such some extent. These groups perform is almost startling: the music is the out-of-the-ordinary, more experi• a festival, cannot imagine the enor• good, in fact very good, the sound mity of this production problem.) It mental afternoon concerts Saturday system amplifies without distortion, and Sunday. To make the occasion is apparent, too, that the festival and for once the visual aspect has directors want to make the physical more special, truly festive ideas been taken into consideration. A have been planned. Works are com• aspects of these concerts as attrac• healthy start, somehow a truly fes• tive as possible. missioned to feature no less than tive atmosphere of well-being. Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster, On opening night you are ushered The fifty weeks of thoughtful plan• J. J. Johnson, and two California to your seat by attractive young ning that preceded the opening newcomers, Ornette Coleman and ladies, wearing specially designed concert are evident everywhere in Don Cherry. Under the supervision bright red capes or shawls, deco• the three day festival. Even more of John Lewis these workers are re• rated with the emblem of the Mon• unusual, patience, courtesy and un• hearsed intelligently and in most terey Jazz Festival. A scrim all but derstanding are the bywords. The mu• cases thoroughly. The result is su• obscures last minute activity on the sicians backstage are both pleased perb. Coleman Hawkins, rising to stage. There seems to be very little and surprised. They are treated with the challenge of Benny Golson's ex• frantic running around and no. des• respect, warmth and even reverence tended Portrait of Coleman Hawkins perate calls of "Joe, what about the" in a thousand subtle ways they are outplays even himself. From the first or "Hey, where's" leaking through made to feel that they are more than note, his great tone and bursting the huge speaker systems towering just useful "names" and exploitable ideas capture the audience and en• above the stage like oracles. Again commodities. The festival seems to thrall fellow musicians (although careful preparation seems to be the have something to do with music, of not some of the critics). Ben Web• key. Paul Vieregge, the stage man• all things, and they feel that they ster is similarly featured, with almost ager, has the exact placement of are . Indeed they are identical results. J. J. Johnson makes each group and each individual — even among highly respected a great impression as soloist in two plotted on mimeographed designs friends. In their wisdom, Jimmy new originals, and surprises audi• of the stage, specially prepared to Lyons and Ralph Gleason have taken ence and musicians alike with his help organize the constant resetting the unprecedented step of making

39 rare compositional gifts. His Ei Cam- ple tend to forget that sixteen years their solos, surely a prerequisite for ino Real, played by the workshop ago Hines had Charlie Parker and relaxed jazz blowing. Furthermore, I orchestra, admirably led by Woody Dizzy Gillespie in his band—and is am personally amazed at the fresh• Herman, gets an inspired perform• best described as brilliant and sharp. ness (and even originality) with which ance. Two further numbers feature It also makes one suspect that at Barber and his men are able to ren• trios of soloists: Ornette, Don and least two world famous pianists are der music which is, after all, no J. J. in a new piece by John Lewis, more than a little indebted to the longer the leading music of our time, temporarily entitled Relays, featur• good fatha." (t almost tempts one to reconsider ing—as the title suggests—overlap• The Chris Barber band is perhaps the idea that the whole new Orleans ping solos (an almost rock and the only group that touches off revival movement is an anachronism, roll-like feeling in this piece, in• widely divided opinions. Presented doomed to eventual extinction by cidentally); and later in the program as the opening attraction on the "tra• its very nature. The point the Barber The Big Three by Ernie Wilkins, with ditional" night, it is inevitably com• band makes for me is that any mu• well integrated solo spots for Hawk, pared to the George Lewis group, sic, if sincerely and perfectly per• Ben and Ornette, and in the last six also on the program. It is perhaps formed (as in their rendition of bars three separate two-bar breaks also inevitable that the New Orleans Chimes Blues or Rockin' in Rhythm), that are a precise capsule history of original will be automatically con• can be a joy to the ears. Within the the jazz saxophone, and perhaps of sidered superior to the English copy. limited concept idealized by Barber, jazz itself. Ornette produces puzzled In listening to both groups, I cannot perfection and imagination triumph reactions among the musicians and arrive at such an evaluation. Where over the material itself. audience, and some musicians cau• the George Lewis group (that eve• Other highlights are the indomitable tiously withhold their opinions. ning without Jim Robinson) sounds Lizzie Miles, especially in her native Sunday afternoon another experi• rhythmically listless and jogging, Creole tranlations; Roy Eldridge, mental concert features a workshop coming to life only in the leader's playing with Hawk; both Roy and orchestra consisting mostly of brass lyrical clarinet weaving. The Chris Hawk joining Ben Webster, Woody, instruments. The program features Barber band plays with a sensitivity, Urbie and Fatha' Hines to provide twelve (!) examples of the new music no-nonsense musicianship and rhyth• some excellent accompaniments for now gradually evolving out of the mic excitement rarely heard in other the forthright earthy preachings of reciprocal influence between classi• groups of this persuasion. In fact, Jimmy Witherspoon; the Oscar Peter• cal music and jazz. The concert runs I have not encountered another "re• son trio, in excellent form; the the entire gamut from undeniably vivalist" group (other than Kid Ory's) -led workshop band, pure jazz contexts to outright classi• which does not find it necessary to very good in the afternoon, under• cal music. The players combine the rely on extra-musical gimmicks for standably hampered in the evening best of Los Angeles' free-lance men, excitement, be it the outlandish by the cold Monterey temperatures one New Yorker, and a number of costuming and behaviour of several playing havoc with chops and horns; San Francisco symphony and free• well-known "dixie" groups or the Sarah, accompanied by the Ronnell lance players. The group has re• vaudevillian gymnastics of George Bright trio; and the Ross-Lambert- hearsed tenaciously six and seven Lewis' pianist who stands for his Hendricks Singers. Aside from their hours daily, some of the iron-lipped solos, playing single finger "mallet" function as the vocal m.c.'s, the lat• brass men playing in addition other style, with his hand at least two feet ter three have two sets to them• rehearsals and concerts with Woody off the keyboard between notes (mak• selves, one accompanied by the Herman. The devotion, interest and ing Rubinstein in his famous Fire Basie band. With their highly enter• physical endurance of the players Dance "act" look like an amateur). taining combination of musicianship borders on the phenomenal, and the The musical results in all such and showmanship, they receive what concert is—all things considered— cases are at best questionable. is probably the greatest audience a great success. The festival direc• At any rate, for me the excitement acclaim of the festival, and Ralph tors and musicians are very pleased in the Chris Barber band comes Gleason promptly dubbs Annie the with the warm and understanding wholly and exclusively from the mu• "Queen of Jazz." Outstanding among reception by the audience for so sic. The rhythm section (bass, drums the Singers' contributions is a long much new music. and banjo) is a joy to hear, swinging "pizzicato bass solo" improvised by The evening programs are full of with an effortless precision and bal• Jon with astonishing virtuosity. But surprises, nice surprises mostly; like ance (dynamically as well in terms the trio gets its greatest ovation the superb playing of such divergent of timbre), that reminds me of the when Annie Ross, in trying to navi• artists as Earl Hines, the Chris Bar• great Basie rhythm section of the gate off the stage through a labyrinth ber band from England, Conte Con- past. Curiously enough, this preci• of music stands and microphones doli (in a great solo on Indiana with sion is equated by some with "me• without tearing her flouncy dress, Woody's band, and the next day in chanical." It is hard for me to lifts the front hem well above her John Lewis' Three Little Feelings), believe that they really find the shapely knees. the talented Urbie Green in Skylark, spineless, looser (to the point of Regrettably one reports that the and Ray Brown (although his im• sloppiness) rhythm of the Lewis Basie band, for whatever reason, has maculate playing is, of course, no band preferable. Frankly, the latter an off night and is in comparatively longer a surprise). Hines, I suppose, bores be almost immediately, and I dull, lackluster form. The "ka-dunk deserves special mention, since find it difficult to see how the solo• ka-dunk" untogetherness of the bass many people, this writer included, ists can play freely against this and drums gets so bad that finally had forgotten how remarkable a rhythmic background. In the Barber some of the brass men begin to rib pianist and showman Hines is,— band, on the other hand, the relent• the rhythm section. At this point, quite aside from his importance in lessly perfect timing of the three which coincides more or less with the development of jazz. His playing rhythm men leaves the horn soloists Sonny Payne's circus act, all shreds is by no means old-fashioned—peo• free to concentrate exclusively on of musical discipline disappear, and

40 a rousing good time is had by all. could have been done to make the longer in need of the phony respec• Even more regrettably, the MJQ—a Monterey affair an even better jazz tability of the concert stage to bol• remarkably popular group in the festival. ster its self-esteem, there is little Frisco area—is not at its best, and Because Monterey is blessed with excuse for wasting important talent is further hampered by the only handsome grounds and a large num• in a vaudevillian succession of high- failure of the sound system. Hear• ber of outbuildings, some thought priced "acts" presenting tour-tested ing the crystalline transparent tex• might be given to setting up several routines. tures of the MJQ distorted and sessions and "workshop" situations The solution lies where promotors amplified to sound like a roaring that customers could attend accord• are loath to look—in fewer attrac• ten ton truck is a strange sound in• ing to whim and individual taste. A tions and a reduced budget to per• deed. spacious and acoustically excellent mit greater financial flexibility. The Such incidents are rare exceptions, hall could be employed to present number of performers could have however, and are easily forgotten bands that perform best before been cut in half without adverse mu• amidst the wealth of high-level mu• dancers. Young men such as Richie sical effect at Monterey, but mer• sic making. Judging by the plans for Kamuca, , and Don Lan- chants of the community might have next year, and knowing that Messrs. phere might learn directly from vet• withdrawn some of their support. Lyons, Gleason and Lewis are apt erans like Hawkins and Webster, Any measure that diminishes total to learn from the experiences gained while older musicians could try their attendance is sure to be unpopular this year, I would guess that the hand at modern jazz. Without sac• in commercial circles. Unfortunately, Monterey J azz Festival of 1960 will rificing the excellent written music the desire to push up gross receipts be, like its predecessor in '59, the concerts, more attention could be leads only to show-biz tactics and jazz festival of the year. given to creative improvisation and the kind of spiral that caused New• to providing a setting in which it port to become a pointless carnival. would flourish. For men like Roy The men behind Monterey are fond Eldridge, this might mean a small of jazz and do not want another New• MONTEREY room where jackets are removed port. With that outlook to build on, Continued and serious blowing is in the air. Monterey will probably continue to The excellent conga drummer, Mongo For some players, to be realistic the most thoughtful of all American Santamaria, saved the night by ignit• about it, a place where they can jazz festivals; it may, with a little ing both the and Woody drink between solos is required. more imagination, even help to Herman groups in a rousing, crowd- Now that jazz is of age and no shape and direct the future of jazz. pleasing finale. Sunday afternoon was given largely to classical music composed by John Lewis, Jimmy Giuffre, J. J. John• son and Gunther Schuller. Johnson again came forth with the most swinging scores (Turnpike, Poem for Brass), while Schuller stood with both feet planted firmly in modern formal music. Giuffre's works wandered about in a kind of middle-

41 thing the MJQ plays is to its members. groups. Everyone said that John There has been a lot of talk since Lewis's Sketch was well-titled; actually CONCERT the twenties about classicists having it was barely a sketch and just a bit cut themselves off from the dance. Not more than a trifle. But a very successful only in the minuet but throughout this trifle and one based on the same piece, these men were more directly kind of eloquently simple melody that in touch with dancing than half of the his best pieces have. It demonstrated jazzmen, including "mainstreamers," something perhaps learned in that REVIEW now playing in New York. And the unfortunate encounter with the Stutt• complexity of texture that four instru• gart Orchestra last year, as if Lewis ments achieve in their idiom should had said, "Very well, these men phrase be a challenge to everybody. differently. Can I write a piece in The MJQ finished the evening with a which I do not try to make them accent program that somehow seemed over- our way, but let them use their idiom long. To put second things first, I do while we use ours, and still maintain not think that the group should play unity?" The answer seems to be that he It Don't Mean A Thing and Fontessa could, at least with a sketch. (now the third section of a three-part Schuller's piece carried the same "The Comedy," which is not sustained) principal further. on the same program; their similarity The first consideration with Gunther is apt to make the latter seem a merely Schuller's Conversations seems to me trapped-up version of the former, not facile talk about "hybrids," which it is not. A new piece, Pyramid because for the very first time in such (a gospel-like blues composed by Ray efforts, one knew that one had heard Brown in tribute after a Mahalia Jack• a real composition, not an attempt but son concert) seemed more interest• a musical work. I think the secret of ing as performed, however imperfectly, its success lies in his having faced as Music Inn a month earlier. This frankly and squarely the differences in time the tempo was constant, but the quality and implicit emotional at• rhythm shifted from parade (im• titude between the two idioms and peccable press-rolls from ) made those differences the basis of his to church (Connie beautifully sug• piece. Of course, Schuller did not (as gesting triplet hand clapping). The have so many composers of pompous earlier rhythmic structure involved "symphonic jazz" nonsense from twice doubling the tempo, then twice the 'twenties on) try to recast the most halving it again (hence the title) but obvious and banal concert hall de• with no consequent disunity in the vices and structures in jazz-y phrases structure or emotional flow of the piece. sprinkled with blue notes—nor would The two themes from Odds Against he. He is not Morton Gould—nor Graas Tomorrow were called The Caper and or Macero. But neither did he (as in Cue No. 9. I had better first repeat my his Transformations) try to integrate conviction that, although jazz film or gradually ally the idioms. He seems scoring may give needed work to good to have said, "These musics are musicians, it cannot sustain really different in several ways: they sound creative people nor rally any art, be• different and emotionally they look at cause film scoring by its nature must things differently; let's meet that be a self-effacing craft. It is not difference." To outline this work briefly my purpose to review the Harry Bella- and with simplifications, he introduced fonte film, but I will remark that it strings (with some exceptionally skill• seemed to me a very skillful, very en• ful percussive and harmonic com• tertaining, essentially trashy thriller, plements from the MJQ) in his own with an either naif or corrupt moral atonal idiom to build gradually to one which I can only interpret to say of the most melodic yet believable that race prejudice prevents bank pitches of tension I have heard outside robberies. John Lewis wrote what is in Nice Distinctions at Town Hall:—etc. of Bartok, to relieve it abruptly by context a frequently superior, ingeni• The joint Town Hall concert by the some fairly free and relaxed improvis• ously unified film score; he did not, Modern Jazz Quartet and The Beaux ing by the Quartet. Soon, as the as in No Sun In Venice merely accom• Arts, one of the country's best string MJQ builds its own creative emotions pany scenes with fragments of quartets, involved, beside a new work the strings re-enter to re-introduce the Quartet performances. each by John Lewis and Gunther tension beneath them, and gradually an In concert, the Quartet simply takes Schuller written for both groups and interplay brings about a rather John the melodies heard in the movie as developments by the MJQ of themes Lewis-like resolution to finish the piece. point-of-departure. As such, they from the new movie score for Odds Faced with a piece of music like this do not seem to me among the best Against Tomorrow, one's early appre• one, I wonder if it is not best to things in the Quartet's book. hension about just what kind of music lay aside, at least for the moment, the But at least two of members of the that was going to be. question of whether or not such things MJQ are surpassing themselves. Connie The best way to begin is on the more should be done. They are obviously Kay is becoming (as everyone should familiar ground of what each group did going to be done. And that night in know by now) one of the most resource• separately. Town Hall I had the feeling that for the ful and skillful drummers in jazz. And first time they were being done well. A lovely performance of Haydn's Opus Percy Heath played with a kind of I knew, at least, that the jazz was there 74, No. 1 by the Beaux Arts Quartet deep personal involvment and imagina• honestly and unashamedly as what could teach us a lot. We do a tion. He has always been a sustaining it is, and its implicit nature was being lot of talking about group integration member of the group. That evening, he used creatively. I wanted to know what and responsiveness; these men live it, seemed one of its main creative forces. kind of music such a success would musically and visually. We also talk All of which brings us to the center lead to. about jazz as the "living" music; this of the program: the two works for both music is as alive to these men as any• Martin Williams

42 The Jazz Knob at the center of the dial in Los Angeles

FM 98 *f KNOB PS

—

t J ; II'-

The genius of modern music The master of the cool West This most popular and im• The warm, swinging surge of is represented on Riverside Coast trumpet tones has an• aginative piano star offers- his great new band vividly by ten varied, exceptional other haunting, melodic win• something really different on captured on the job at The LPs. His latest is a sparkling ner in his latest: his Riverside debut: the wild• Jazz Workshop in The CAN- quintet album featuring Thad Plays the Best of LERNER est flute-section sound! BILLY NONBALL ADDERLEY Quintet Jones: FIVE BY MONK BY FIVE AND LOEWE (RLP 12-307: also TAYLOR WITH FOUR FLUTES in SAN FRANCISCO (RLP 12- (RLP 12-305; also Stereo LP Stereo LP 1152) (RLP 12-306; also Stereo LP 311; also Stereo LP 1157) 1150RIVERSID) 1151) E