RECORDINGS REPORTS: Jazz LPs

TITLE, PERSONNEL, DATA REPORT

American Blues Festival: Memphis Slim, pi­ "Packages" of blues singers now go on concert tours of Europe with the same kind of success jazz ano and vocal; T-Bone Walker, vocal, guitar at the Philharmonic once enjoyed. This album derives from the 1962 tour and a Hamburg recording and piano; John Lee Hooker, vocal and gui­ date that became a kind of blues jam session. When John Lee Hooker or Brownie McGhee is playing tar; Sonny Terry, vocal and harmonica; guitar, for example, T-Bone Walker forsakes that instrument and takes Memphis Slim's place at the Brownie McGhee, vocal and guitar; Willie piano. Walker makes an important contribution to the record. Whether singing or playing guitar or Dixon, vocal and bass; Jump Jackson, drums. piano, he expresses himself with taste and feeling, and his unique piano commentary adds a great Decca DL 4392, $3.98; stereo, $4.98. deal to "Let's Make It, Baby" and "Shake It, Babv."

Kenny Burrell; All Day Long. Burrell, gui­ These two sets were first issued in 1957 and have presumably reappeared because of Kenny tar; Donald Byrd, trumpet; Frank Foster, Burrell's justly increased popularity. Each has one whole side—about seventeen minutes long—devoted tenor saxophone; Tommy Flanagan, piano; to an improvised blues. The atmosphere, in both cases, is relaxed and the tempo comfortable, solo Doug Watkins, bass; , drums. honors going to Burrell, Flanagan, Waldron, and Foster in that order. As on most "blowing" sessions, Prestige 7277, mono and stereo, $4.98. there are peaks and depressions, the latter being largely due here to the inadequate form of Donald All Night Long. Same personnel except Foster Byrd. Evidence of organization, in the shape of occasional background riflfs, suggests the obvious way replaced by Hank Mobley, Flanagan by Mai in which these performances could have been strengthened and made more enjoyable. Waldron, and Jerome Richardson, flute and tenor saxophone, added. Prestige 7289, mono and stereo, $4.98.

Gary Burton, Sonny Rollins and Clark Terry: The "infinite variety" of jazz, which the liner considers "one of the musical pleasures of our time," Three in Jazz. Burton, vibraphone, with can also be an awful drag. Tepid vibraphonics by Gary Burton and caricatures by Sonny Rollins trio; Rollins, tenor saxophone, with trio; must be endured on each side before the listener arrives at two tracks by Clark Terry. His "Sounds Terry, trumpet and fliigelhorn, with quartet of the Night" and "Cielito Lindon" have their moments, but "Blues Tonight" and "When My and quintet. RCA-Victor LPM 2725, $3.98; Dream Boat Comes Home," at the end of the second side, are very good indeed. Terry at his best stereo, $4.98. is one of the special pleasures of our time and jazz like this belongs front and center.

Panama Francis: Tough Talk.. Francis, Panama Francis is aware that the younger generation deems much of today's jazz unfit for dancing, trumpets; Rudy Powell, alto saxophone; Sel- and here he has gone to some pains to rectify the situation. Themes—some of them decidedly corny don Powell, tenor saxophone; Haywood Hen­ —by Sacha Distel, Henry Mancini, Randy Weston, Duke Pearson, Benny Golson, Nat Adderley, Ray ry, bariton saxophone; Ernie Hayes, piano; Charles, and are played with a strong beat and enough repetition to establish them in Billy Buder, guitar; George Duvivier, bass. the teen-age ear. In between, there are trumpet, tenor, soprano, baritone, and piano solos, but what 20th Century-Fox 6101, $3.98; stereo, $4.98. makes the good Panama so marvelous as a leader is that he doesn't overplay. Though his drums are heard and felt with satisfaction throughout the record, there is never a drum solo. The best and final track is Panama's Party."

Dexter Gordc.n: Our Man in Paris. Gordon, Like his musical superior, Wardell Gray, was originally a disciple of Lester Young. tenor saxophone; Bud Powell, piano; Pierre Like Gray, he turned to the delights of bop with deleterious effect. After some years of absence from Michelot, bass; Kenny Clarke, drums. Blue the scene, his return has been enthusiastically welcomed. The years between were clearly not ill Note 4146, $4.98; stereo, $5.98. spent, for his playing is technically more proficient and his conception, as he himself insists, "more lucid." The true star of the record, however, is Bud Powell, whose solos are distinguished by real individualitv and irresistible drive. His talent dwarfs Gf)rdf)n's, especialiv on the two ballads

Al Grey: Having a hall. Grey, trombone; There are typically robust trombone solos (open and plunger-muted) by in this set, two Dave Burns, trumpet; Hugh Lawson, piano; brief but striking muted passages by Dave Burns, and further evidence of Calvin Newborn's increas­ Calvin Newborn, guitar; Robert Hutcherson, ing artistry. The material, significantly, includes several popular rock-'n'-roll numbers, complete with vibraphone; Herman Wright, bass; Otis their hypnotic rhythm patterns. These obviously have a restricting effect upon jazz musicians ac­ Finch, drums. Argo 718, mono and stereo. customed to a more flexible type of accompaniment, and the result is a musically inconclusive tug- of-war. What is perhaps indicated here is the beginning of a new phase, a mesalliance with rock-'n'- roll in succession to those with gosnelr^' and bossa nova.

Johnny Hartman: / ]ust Dropped By to Say Hartman, one of the successors to Billy Eckstine discovered by Earl Hines, is a relaxed singer with Hello. Hartman, vocal; Illinois Jacquet, tenor an attractive and masculine vocal quality. Though his forte would appear to be the ballad, this jazz saxophone; Hank Jones, piano; Kenny Bur­ context suggests that the time may be ripe to try again the formula Teddy Wilson and Billie Holi­ rell or Jim Hall, guitar; Milt Hinton, bass; day proved so successful. That is, one where singer and instrumental soloists work on equal terms. Elvin Jones, drums. Impulse A57, $4.98; For that matter, there was never anything intrinsically wrong with the idea of the single vocal stereo, $5.98. chorus. Hartman does well here with "Don't You Know I Care?," Harold Arlen's "Sleepin' Bee," and the tide song, but "Charade" and "Our Time" are best skipped. Illinois Jacquet, who is a model of discretion in the very professional accompanying unit, sounds particularly good on "Don't You Know I Care?"

Cyril "The Spider" Haynes: Weaves Piano One-time pianist with the Savoy Suitans, Ha> nes has an eclectic style in which old and new some­ Magic. Haynes, piano; Milt Hinton, bass; times sit uneasily side by side: the rolling "Globetrotters" and the fine, moody "Worried Spider Osie Johnson, drums. Golden Crest 3091, Blues." His feeling for delicate melody recalls that of earlier masters like Willie "The Lion" Smith, mono and stereo, $3.98. and the contrasts he creates on the fragrant but old-fashioned line of "The Flower and the Spider" are very engaging. Milt Hinton and Osie Johnson support him vigorously, but the latter's drums are at times too promi"entlv recorded.

Albert Nicholas: Albert Nicholas tvtth Art Until Barney Bigard returns to activity, Albert Nicholas is the best of the New Orleans clarinetists Hodes. Nicholas, clarinet; Art Hodes, piano; to be heard nowadays. As a soloist, he was more extensively featured in the earlier quartet record Nappy Trottier, trumpet; Floyd O'Brien, with Art Hodes (Delmark 207), but here he illumines the traditional three-horn ensemble with trombone; Marty Grosz, guitar; Mike Wal- freshness, taste, and undiminished assurance. A graceful player with good technique and a mellow, bridge, tuba; Fred Kohlman, drums. Del- pleasing tone, he uses his instrument's different registers very artistically for dramatic and color mark 209, mono only, $4.98. contrasts. The indomitable Hodes maintains the manner and spirit of Chicago's yesterdays at the piano, but O'Brien, though he discharges his ensemble duties ably, is a less incisive soloist than he was thirty years ago.

Shirley Scott: For Members Only. Shirley The first side puts Shirley Scott in the same sort of brassy settings Oliver Nelson has previously pro­ Scott, organ; with 13-piece band conducted vided for Jimmy Smith on Verve. She seems to have had no difficulty in making the necessary adjust­ by Oliver Nelson on Side I, with Earl ment, for she swings spiritedly on two shouting Nelson originals, and with finesse and appropriate May, bass, and Jimmy Cobb, drums, on Side feeling on a new Ellington number, "Blue Piano." With the trio, she establishes and sustains an ex­ 2. Impulse A51, $4.98; stero, $5.98. cellent blues mood on the six-minute openings selection. Unlike many blues performances that are marred by overstatement, this builds to a climax, casually and then just as casually diminishes in intensity. —STANLEY DANCE.

52 SR/February 15, 1964

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When Victoria de los Angeles was a little girl her uncle The career so launched has culminated in garlands of praise gave her a guitar because she loved to make music. The de­ from critics the world over. The New York Herald Tribune lighted youngster took it with her whenever she went with has called Victoria de los Angeles "a vocal delight unique her father on his rounds as caretaker at. the University of in our time." The London Times terms her "a paragon with Barcelona. Up and down the halls of the great university all the virtues." To the Washington Posty she is "one of the she would tag along, playing and singing as she went. world's greatest artists I" Today the voice that stopped classes at the University of And a strange thing began to happen. Wherever her clear Barcelona can be heard on many fine Angel recordings. Her and youthful voice was heard students would stop what Carmen, Madame Butterfly, Faust and many other roles they were doing to listen. Finally the university professors are available in both complete opera and Opera Highlights had to issue an edict: the little girl must not sing during recordings. And her' aficionados will want to hear and own lectures. They could not compete with her for their stu­ Twentieth Century Spanish Songs and Spanish Song of the dents' attention. But they were wise enough to realize they Benaissance. had heard a voice of great promise. A group united to send The little Spanish girl still loves to make music. And people the little girl to the Conservatorio del Lieeo for training. still stop what they are doing to listen.

THERE IS ONLY ONE VICTORIA DE LOS ANGELES

H' ioletta in La Traviata As Manon in Manon

As Cio-Cio-San in Madame Butterfly

SR/Febiuary 15, 1964 ,!.•? PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED MOSTLY MODERNISTS Charles is a popular artist in the sense that jazzmen no longer are. He has a truly mass audience, and his records sell in the hundreds of thou­ sands. His is a voice of profound es­ thetic humor, irony, and anguish, func­ Those Contemporary Blues tioning in a milieu of grinding triviality and delusion. He discovered his talent when he turned from crooning balladry to blues, and evolved a style strongly ERIODICALLY, the basic, so- His beat is nearly perfect, well varied, influenced by Gospel song and expand­ called country vocal blues tradi­ and never monotonous. And the whole ed by his own skilful, contemporary Ption is declared dead at the roots. performance is delivered in a calculated musicianship. Recordings from those And just as often an authentic, color­ and stylized rococo. Indeed, if one has years of discovery are collected on The fully named, and relatively young bard ever heard the Joe Williams of the late Ray Charles Story (Atlantic 2-900), —a "Muddy Waters" (McKinley Mor- Fifties do the same number twice, he surely one of the most arresting musical ganfield), a "Bo Diddley" (Elias Mc- has probably heard every effect, down and social documents in the history of Daniel), or a "Howlin' Wolf" (Chester to the last hoarse grace note, delivered American popular art. Burnett)—emerges to wail such declara­ in exactly the same place and the same Once he had gained his following, tions into nothingness. Similarly, com­ way. And one is left with the impres­ Charles seemed perfectly willing to mentators periodically discover that sion of having heard a respectful but work with any material, in any setting- singers generally thought of as wiggling mannered imitation of the vocal blues. good and bad and (worst of all) indif­ rock 'n' rollers are authentically talented More recently, Williams has gone out ferent. His recent ABC-Paramount re­ blues men—Chuck Berry and Rufus on his own and has reintroduced bal­ cord, with the tongue-clotting name Thomas, to pull two names out of a hat ladry, along with a little more sponta­ Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul (ABC/ that contains dozens. neity, into his repertory. It was this Joe S-465), is that sort of mixed bag. But it In more sophisticated areas, there Williams who returned to Newport last has an "Old Man River" which, as were during the Thirties and Forties year, with such company as Clark Ter­ Charles transmutes it, is a harrowing, several good singers who carried on an ry, Howard McGee, Coleman Hawkins, breathtaking, and finally beautiful ex­ authentic blues tradition within the and Zoot Sims, and whipped the audi­ perience. And it has "In the Evenin'," a mainstream of developed, instrumental ence into a loudly appreciative (and, superb contemporary singer's approach jazz. Chief among them were Jimmy some felt, threatening) throng. Victor to a classic blues, and, I think, one of Rushing, with the Count Basic Orches­ recorded the event and released it on the most moving vocal blues perform­ tra, and Joe Turner, whose pianistic as­ LPM/LSP-2762. Williams is broadly ances I have ever heard. sociates on recordings included such banal on a broadly banal piece like "Without a Song." The tempo is too fast disparate sensibilities as those of Art URING the past fifteen years there Tatum and Pete Johnson. on "Roll 'em Pete" and the line too clut­ D. tered with notes for a vocal version of has cropped up the practice of setting Modern jazz has had its singers from "Gravy Waltz." But Williams glides words to previously recorded jazz in- the beginning, of course, first in the re­ along at medium tempo with an unob­ strumentals. The vocal Lambert, Hen­ markable presence of Sarah Vaughan. trusive, swinging grace on "April in dricks, and Bavan (once Lambert, Hen­ But no younger bluesmen were directly Paris." And (as the audible crowd on dricks, and Ross) have brought the associated with a more or less instru­ the record knew well) he hit his level practice to its biggest audience. One can mental idiom until the mid-Fifties. with what is actually a rock 'n' roll style hardly take offense when the point of Then, two such singers appeared: Joe blues about the current dance steps, departure is hghtweight material like WilHams and Ray Charles. "Some of This "n' Some of That." There "Watermelon Man" or "Sack o' Woe," Interestingly, both these men began is also one slow blues, a beautiful tradi­ both of which are included on L.H. ir B, as ballad singers, and Charles was a tional piece by Leroy Carr called "In at Newport '63 (RCA Victor LPM/ particularly subdued stylist in the man­ the Evenin'." Ray Charles has recently LSP-2747). But wording out Lester ner of Nat "King" Cole. Ironically, when recorded the same piece, and the dif­ Young's "One O'clock Jump" solos, they switched to the blues, each of ference between WilHams and Charles melodies of a profoundly ironic joy-in- them began using crying, shouting vocal is the difference between a good per­ pain, as the jabberings of a drunken buf­ devices that echo the most earthy and former and a superb popular artist. foon is something else again. archaic country performances. A word from my side of the fence Joe Williams began singing blues about the Victor Great Scenes from with the re-formed Count Basic Orches­ Porgy and Bess (LSC-2679). Conductor tra in 1954. It was collective musician­ Skitch Henderson wisely chose musi­ ship that sustained that group, but it cians who understand jazz as the core was numbers with Joe Williams like of his orchestra. And when Leontyne "Every Day," and "All Right, Okay, You Price goes into jazzlike inflections and Win" that gave it hit records. embelhshments at the end of "Sum­ Half of a recently re-released Verve mertime," one is aware of being in for a album, The Count Basic Band with Joe very special experience. Perhaps one is Williams at Newport on Verve V/V6- reminded of the Italian past when an 8560 (the reverse is by Dizzy Gilles­ ability to make spontaneous departures pie), gives examples from 1957 of an en­ was required of a singer. But one might joyable singer doing four of his special­ do better to reflect that there is the ties. Williams can bend, quaver, and basis for a truly American musical thea­ wail a note; he can double, triple, and tre. We have the instrumentalists, the quadruple it; he can stretch and elabo­ singers. What we need, alas, is another rate one phrase and condense the next. Charles—"humor, irony, and anguish." Gershwin. —MABTIN WILLIAMS. 54 SR/February 15, 1964

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED