sign in sign up
<<
Home , Addison Farmer, Allan Ganley, Al McKibbon, Al Sears, Barry Harris, Benny Harris

VOLUME 3, NUMBER 9, NOVEMBER, 1960 Editors: Nat Hentoff 4 , an Ageless Jazzman Contributing Editor: Frank Driggs Publisher: Hsio Wen Shih Art Director: Bob Cato Ul 8 , a Biography in Interviews The Review is published monthly Bob Reisner by The Jazz Review Inc., 124 White St., N. Y. 13 N. Y. Entire contents copy• right 1960 by The Jazz Review Inc. 12 on Charlie Parker Israel Young and Leonard Feldman were among the founders of the Jazz Review. Dick Hadlock Price per copy 50c. One year's subscription $5.00. Two year's subscription $9.00. Unsolicited manuscripts and illustrations 14 Two Reports on The School of Jazz should be accompanied by a stamped, self- addressed envelope. Reasonable care will be Gunther Schuller and Don Heckman taken with all manuscripts and illustrations, but the Jazz Review can take no responsi• bility for unsolicited material. 20 The

RECORD REVIEWS

21 -Charlie Parker by Ross Russell 23 by Martin Williams 24 Ornette Coleman by Hsio Wen Shih 26 by Harvey Pekar 27 Buddy deFranco by Harvey Pekar by Zita Carno by Louis Levy 28 by Martin Williams by Don Heckman 29 George Russell by Max Harrison 31 Mai Waldron by John William Hardy 32 by Ross Russell Jimmy Rodgers and Ray Charles by Mimi Clar 33 Shorter Reviews by Henry Woodfin

34 Jazz In Print by Nat Hentoff I 36 The Cork'N'Bib by Al Fisher BOOK REVIEW 37 Jazz in Britain by Jerry DeMuth BUDD JOHNSON AGELESS JAZZMAN

Budd Johnson is one musician who has moved with I was just in my teens when I started playing music, the growth of jazz, from the music of the twenties in Dallas, where my brother Keg and I -were born. Jazz through to modern jazz. But most followers of jazz was just getting started there at the time. Our band know little about him because very little has been was called the Moonlight Melody Six; I started out on written about either his long career or his stature as drums, and Keg was on . We worked for a a soloist. Beside playing all the reed instruments — lady named Miss Puckett who would take us out on and playing fluent solos on all of them — he is a weekends to places like Waxahatchie. She sold "chock" notable composer and arranger, and he has directed beer, a mixture of beer and wine, in the different the musical policies of two great orchestras — the clubs, and always kept our attention diverted so we Earl Hines band of 1939-42 and the band would never know where the money was. We were in 1945. He and Eckstine, who was also with Hines' satisfied just to be playing and kept together for nearly band, persuaded Hines to hire the younger musicians a year by playing school dances and that sort of thing. of modern jazz, and he himself moved This was back in the early twenties. smoothly from swing to modern jazz, both as a soloist A year or so later our band had grown, and we got a and as arranger. large variety of sounds because several of us doubled. His successful conversion to modern jazz was demon• I was doubling on tenor sax and trombone as well as strated recently, when he became a member and soloist playing drums, and Tresevant Sims, the player, in the that played Birdland in 1959, was beginning to double on bass. We played all over and when he went to Europe in late 1959 with Quincy Texas as the Blue Moon Chasers. We were really pretty Jones' band as one of the brightest soloists in a band good, considering we were still in our teens, and we full of fine soloists. He has made recordings with both used to battle all the bands around there. We had a of these bands. In Europe, he got offers to play regu- specialty number called The Country Picnic, on which arly, which he has not been able to find in . I played all the instruments in , that used to Here, he often finds arranging work, and occasionally knock everybody out. (We got stranded in Tulsa one plays on jazz or rhythm and blues record dates, but time when we were ballyhooing incoming acts at a he has not really had a chance to show how well he local theatre and we were just making eating money can play in many years. Only Hughes Panassie has and that was all. One day a guy came through there tried to outline his career on records, and only Leonard and offered to drive us back to Texas for sixty dollars. Feather has given him credit for the contributions he We were staying at the Benton Hotel and we figured made to the development of modern jazz. out a way to get our bags down the airshaft without being seen, so we all managed to cut out without pay• ing the tab.) Around 1927, Ben Smith came down from Little Rock, took our band over, and added a couple of men. He o was from Memphis and had studied under Captain Dry at Tuskegee. He was an exceptional musician on z all the reed instruments, and he also played oboe. He tightened up what was already a good band and got us a job at the Country Club at Ypsilanti for $35 a week ui plus room and board; that was exceptional pay back in those days. He played alto in our band and wrote some great things for us and taught us a lot about music. We went over very well and then traveled with Ben to El Paso and to Mexico. I stayed with him until Frank Driggs 1928 and then went home to Dallas. Soon after, they m

got a shot at the first colored night club in Dal'as, beating all the other bands around there, but we Thomason Hall. The club was importing a big show couldn't get set in town, so Jesse took us with him to from , and they sent to Kansas City to get St. Joseph so we could get some work through his for• , the great arranger. They also sent for me, mer manager, Frank Rock. We had to bum rides in order but I'd gone to Amarillo to join Gene Coy's Happy to stick together, but when we got there he knew this Black Aces. That was another terrific band. Gene was woman who ran the Charleston Hotel down by the the drummer, and his wife Marge played a great , river and she had two rooms for all of us. We had a a lot like Mary Lou. That's where I first ran into Ben fourteen-piece band then, so it was seven to a room. Webster, who was playing piano for the silent pictures! The first four cats who got in the room got on the bed He used to heckle me to death to show him the scales and wouldn't get off it, so the rest had to pull chairs on the sax, which I did. Keg and I went back and forth together or sleep on the floor. between many a band in those years, and we got Eddie Tompkins and Paul Webster were both in that stranded with Gene. We came back to Dallas to join band, and Eddie was really great way back then. This Jesse Stone, who had just taken over a band which was during the time when the old Red Nichols style actually had belonged to the trumpet player T. Holder. was the thing, and Eddie could play it better than Red. Holder was considered sensational then; he had made He was really wonderful. He hurt himself later on, in a reputation while he was in Alphonso Trent's band an accident. just the same way Harry did with Benny years A gig in those days used to pay a dollar from seven to later. He had the Original Clouds of Joy, who were seven, and we had a kitty. We worked just like waiters modelled somewhat after Trent. Let me tell you about used to work; if we didn't have anything in the kitty, Trent; that was the greatest band I'd ever heard! They all we had was that dollar. We didn't dare spend any used to thrill me. They were gods back in the twenties, of it, but we had to bring it back to Jesse who would just like Basie was later, only many years ahead of him. go out with a witness and buy cheese and crackers Nobody else had gold instruments in those days; his and split them up among us evenly. whole band had them! They made $150 a week a man. George E. Lee was coming out from Kansas City to Imagine! They worked nothing but the biggest and open up a new Ballroom called the Frog Hop, and his finest hotels in the South. band had to eat at the hotel we were staying at. I A. G. Godley was their drummer; he and a guy who remember they came to town in big long cars and we used to be called "Twin", who played with the Blue watched them come in the hotel. Lee was very big in Devils, were the greatest drummers in the business the midwest then. He was a terrific singer. He came then. We used to idolize those guys, and I'll never for• by our rehearsal one day and liked what he heard. I get the day when Godley came up to me in Dallas made friends with him that day, and it finally helped when I was still playing drums and said, 'So you're me get in the band a little later on. During this time, trying to beat your way through the world too.' Jesse was helping me get started arranging. And Snub Mosely was the greatest trombone player Lee went back to Kansas City, and we ran out of I'd ever heard in my life. He could do anything then, work around town, so Jesse took a job in Dallas, and he can still do it. In fact he'd shake up a lot of Missouri, which was on the outskirts of Kansas City. guys today if he could get a record date. That slide He was going around with a girl who had a little Whip• sax of his is his own invention, and I never saw anyone pet coupe and he came out just like a mother hen and else play anything like it. took us there, two or three at a time. We had a job Crooke was a great banjo player in those days. They playing at this big beautiful club but for only room all used to wear silk — nothing else — and Crooke was and board — no salary, just what we could get by with the fashion plate in the band. Then they got Stuff on tips. We had a band like Basie has now, believe Smith; he was playing just as great then as he does me, and you can ask Basie about this band, because today, and he really upset Dallas. You have no idea he came out one night and sat in with us. He said he'd just how fabulous that band was! They were years never heard such a band. We stayed there until we ahead of their time. couldn't make it anymore, and then we came on to In those times in Dallas, there was a trumpet player Kansas City. We had just enough to get one apartment, named Benno Kennedy who was a bad man. He was and that was for all the guys, and to buy bologna and with Trent's band and also with Troy Floyd. He had all cheese. When our money ran out, we slept in the park. the tricks and the strange sounds—like , I got so doggone hungry that I went to George Lee's only he was doing it way before Rex. Don Albert, who rehearsals. When he wasn't there I'd take out my horn had a beautiful tone, replaced him in Troy's band. I and start playing his parts. He'd come in and say, was playing drums for Frenchy then—his real name was 'What're you trying to do, take my job?' I said, 'You Polite Christian. He was very powerful, just like Louis have no more job ..." and he hired me then and there. Armstrong, and was popular all over Texas. I even re• The men in the band were getting seven dollars a day, member when started playing with that and I helped get Jesse in the band later on. family band of all his relatives. He was a much better George Lee used to compete with Bennie Moten. He alto player in those days. was just as good as far as the Midwest was concerned, Getting back to Jesse Stone, he didn't want the band, but Bennie had the bigger name, because he was num• and eventually got most of the men. Jesse ber one best-seller on Victor at the time. They were up got some other musicians together and we scuffled and down favorites throughout the Midwest, and no a while and finally made it back to Kansas City. Jesse one band was in favor more than a year at one time. was a perfectionist and he rehearsed the band all day I remember we brought the first into long, every day, but that's all we had to do. We started Kansas City when I was with Jesse Stone, because

6 neither Bennie nor George Lee knew what an arrange• the time. The job lasted for a few months until Earl ment looked like. They all played heads. We had the came back, and then I'd still go and sit in with Earl. first arrangements on paper. I had to get another job so I joined Eddie Mallory's We worked so much I used to beg for a night off. We band late that year at the Granada Cafe. He was a worked every night, seven dollars a night clear, some• trumpeter and his band was pretty good. Keg and times more because I'd get eight or ten for arrange• also joined with me. After we'd been ments. It was great because I was paying a dollar and there for a month we went into Albert Bouchet's Villa a half a week for my rooms and twenty-five cents for Venese following Guy Lombardo. This was a fabulous my meals — and those meals were the best you ever place, some thirty-two acres. Bouchet used to have the wanted to eat in your life. best acts there. Most of them were foreign, Bennie Moten always wanted the best, and he wanted but he had Sally Rand. Teddy was writing some terrific to get the best musicians all the time, so he tried to arrangements for the band, and about that time his hire some of us away from George Lee. But he couldn't brother Gus was just about the last word as an ar• so he raided the Blue Devils and got some of them ranger. I'd like to have some of Gus Wilson's stuff away from . That was really, along with today, because it would live forever. He wrote and Trent, the best band of that time. That was when played trombone with Zack Whyte and Alphonso Trent. Bennie got Basie, Rushing and away That's one place where got some of his ideas from Walter Page — and in later years that's where for Lunceford later on. Basie's band came out of, the old Blue Devils. Buster We had to drive thirty-two miles to get to work at the Smith was with the Blue Devils then, and he was Villa Venese, because it was on the other side of Lyons already playing the same lope-along style, way before Township. We had to close all the windows and lock Bird ever came on the scene. They called him "Prof," the doors and go driving through there as fast as we and he never was too aggressive. When he got in• could. That was Capone's territory, and anyone who terested in writing he would write like mad. It took him saw colored musicians driving through would pull them a month to make an , but when he made out of their cars and beat them up just for sport. We it, it would live forever. He was really one of the great played there two or three months before we got kicked arrangers. He did come East later on in the thirties out of the union and fined two hundred dollars. The and worked with Lips Page and Snub Mosely, but he Union people wanted to save that job for white musi• finally went back to Dallas after that and stayed. cians and promised to send some goons around if we Another guy they didn't write up in the books was didn't get out. The owner was a real and offered Albert Hinton. He was with George Lee before I left, to keep us right there, and provided some strong-arms and he'd been in one of Jesse's bands too. He was the for us. It was really just Teddy, Keg and myself who only one to challenge Jabbo Smith when we were were fined. When we paid up we got back in the union playing in Milwaukee. Hinton's name was all I heard and stayed on the job through the winter. when I first came to Kansas City, but he never made it. Teddy, Keg and myself lived together in Chicago, and I left Kansas City on January 9, 1932 and came to we all joined around the first of 1933. Chicago to join Earl Hines. George Lee was reorganiz• He had a horrible band but he didn't pay much atten• ing then, and he was making big jumps and not tion to it. He'd always say "You pay attention to yours, getting set in any one place. My brother Keg had gone and I'll watch mine." He worked real hard himself, but to Chicago before me and was playing with Ralph didn't do anything to help the band. The band was Cooper's band at the Regal Theatre and also working actually Mike McKendrick's, the banjo player, and he for Cass Simpson, a great piano player. He took me wasn't much help either. Z. T. Randolph was the ar• around town and introduced me to everybody. At that ranger, and he really used to write some hard stuff. He time Earl Hines had a great band, one of his greatest. was a fine person and very well schooled, but some• Teddy Wilson was starting to write some arrangements what academic. We were only making $40 a week on for the band then and they sounded great. They were the road, which was nothing, although Louis made his. at the Grand Terrace, and I'd always pictured what they He's a great cat, one of the greatest, but he's strictly looked like. So, being real ambitious at the time, I went an artist and didn't know anything about running a down there and asked if I could sit in. At the time, band then. We were supposed to go into Castle Farms Earl played with the band, and continued playing by in Cincinnati, and since we weren't working every day himself right through intermission. I got a chance to in the week, McKendrick wanted to put us on pro rata, play with him during intermission and he dug me, and but we said nothing doing and struck. He was going to asked me if I wanted to join the band. I said I would, report us to the union, but we stuck it out and finished and he said, "Be at the bus depot at ten the next up the gig and came back to Chicago. We made a morning, because we're leaving for New York." Earl whole gang of records with him until he broke up told me to get some white pants and some white shirts the band to go to Europe. and to be on time. The next morning when I got there at ten and looked around, they were halfway to New York. Why he did this, I'll never know, but I was very hurt and felt very bad. Even though I was hurt, I'd still have to work, so I joined Clarence Moore's band which took their place at the Grand Terrace. Teddy Wilson, Keg and a great trumpet man named Guy Kelly were all in the band. I did some writing for them and we broadcasted all This is the first of a series of articles.

7 on their way to work, and there was the "sportin life" set who never worked, and musicians of any big band that was in town—like Dorsey or Garber. Sometimes there would be as many as a hundred musicians wait• ing to get on the stand. In K.C. there is a wonderful BIRD tradition where a more experienced musician tries to help a new one. An alto player called Prof. Smith used A Biography In Interviews by Bob Reisner to help Bird get to his horn better. Efferge Ware, a guitarist, coached a whole group of us, teaching us cycles, chords, and progressions. We would sit in the park practicing all night long. In the summer of 1937 Bird underwent a radical change musically. Before that he had had his share of musical embarrassment in which he was made a goat. Jam sessions in a sense were constant trials of man• hood. Different sections of the band would set difficult riffs behind a soloist and sometimes they see if they could lose each other; usually it was one man who became the goat. He might then come in for some kid• ding. Charlie would shoot back to his teasers and censors remarks like "play your own horn" or "stick to your script." One time he made no answer. once tossed a cymbal over his head which crashed to the floor. Major Bowes was popular then, and Jo Jones had given contestant Parker the gong like The Amateur Hour maestro used to do. Charlie stood up, packed his horn and left. As I say in the summer of 1937 he got a job with a little band led by a singer, Georgie Lee. They played at country resorts in the mountains. Charlie took with him all the records with Gene Ramey solos on them and learned Lester cold, note for note. When he came home he was the most popular musician in K.C. He lost his Sweet Lucy sound, which is like a combination of a man talking and drinking wine at the same time (Sweet Lucy was what we called wine). He Bassist Gene Ramey first met Parker when they were became the darling of K.C, but unfortunately it was at both on Jay McShann's band. He has been in New York this period he acquired the "monkey" and frequently since the early forties, and has played with many fine was strung out. jazz groups during the past fifteen years. Bird was the most receptive being. He got into his I was like his guardian; being a little older I had to music all the sounds around him, the swish of a car keep my eye on him. Once in later years he said to speeding down a highway, the hum of wind as it goes me, "Gene, I'm gonna punch you in the mouth to get through the leaves—and he also absorbed some en• you off me; you're too much like a daddy." vironmental evils. Naturally we petted him and babied We first met in 1935. In those days there were a lot him, and he traded on this love and esteem we had of mock band battles. They were judged by enthusiasm for him until he developed into the greatest con man and loyalty rather than musical ability. When you played in the world. His own wolf cries tripped him on occa• in your home town you won. Charlie was in a group sion; for he later said to me, "I'll never forgive you. from K.C., Missouri, and I was in one from K.C., Kansas. Once you refused me when I was really hungry." Later in 1935 he played regularly at a place called We would jam every possible moment, even on trains Green Leaf Gardens in K.C. He was very anti-social going to jobs. Bird kept everybody on the stand happy and belligerent; he would fight with all the guys about because he was a wizard at transmitting musical mes• music. He was an only child, sheltered and coddled sages to us which made us fall out laughing. All musi• and was not used to getting along with people. He cians know certain musical phrases that translate played a whole year at the Green Leaf Gardens, and I themselves into "Hello, beautiful," or when a young was playing at a nearby place called Bar-Le-Duc. I got lady ambles to the powder room "I know where you're to know him real well and could see him start to de• going." Well, Bird had an ever increasing repertoire of velop as a musician and a person. In K.C. there was these. During induction days he'd salute a band mem• an institution known as "spook breakfasts"; they were ber who got tagged with a phrase which translated said jam sessions held every morning. The ones Bird and "Bring enough clothes for three days." Jay McShann I attended faithfully were held at a place called The gave him latitude because as Bird explained to Jay, Reno Club where Count Basie was playing then. Basie "If you let me act a little happy, you'll have me playing at that time had a nine piece band and they worked a few good notes for you." When McShann criticized a tough schedule—from 8:30 to 5 in the morning. After his appearance he once answered "How would you like that the jam sessions would begin. People stopped by me looking like a doctor and playing like a doctor?"

8

K.C. was a metropolis for drugs. I wish I knew the real NEW YORK answer to why people goof so I could help a lot of people. Part of it is that they all think they are much 1942-43 smarter than the next fellow. They think they can.beat it even if nobody else has beaten it. Three out of five hundred actually beat it. Taking drugs was not part of being in the in-group as far as getting jobs was concerned. No; strictly ability. If my own brother wasn't good, I wouldn't hire him. Drugs do tend to make a tightness — it is something in common. My lip went bad after a year in the Earl Hines band. They swung so hard and played so much. We re• hearsed so much that every man knew what every one else was doing, and if you fluffed a note someone else would play something that swung it into line. The Earl Hines band had no cliques in it. Everyone hung out together. It was a real close knit organiza• tion. There was never any animosity. We used to get to "Little Benny" Harris started playing trumpet under Bird when it looked like Earl was going to fire him for Dizzy Gillespie's guidance in 1937, and Benny, in turn, goofing; fourteen of us ganged up on him in one room. was the first to persuade Dizzy to listen to Charlie We said, "You just don't want to straighten up, and Parker by playing him Parker's solo on one of Jay the man has promised to fire you." And with that we McShann's records. Harris played on the Earl Hines would start punching him around the shoulders — not band that included both , composed maliciously; just so he could feel it. "You're not gonna several classic bop lines, including Crazeology and straighten up are you?" And he said, "I'm mad enough Ornithology, and later played with Charlie Parker's to kill someone." "Well if you can whip the fourteen small groups in the fifties. of us, go ahead. If you want to fight, Bird, take a shot Charlie Parker first came to New York when he was at someone and get your ass kicked in." about seventeen. He worked as a dishwasher because He behaved after that. he didn't have a horn and couldn't get any work. He I got the same treatment myself when I started on a worked for , Mary Lou's husband, who crazy kick of taking nembutals. Those yellow pills kept owned a barbecue shack. I met him then, and again me real goofed. The guys pushed me against the wall when he came to New York the second time. and started nudging and poking and keeping me frus• I pulled on Dizzy's coat tails about this guy. I was trated. You can't lash back, cause if you did, then they always preaching Yard. I brought Scoops Carry to hear would really hit you. Their therapy worked too. him and be was amazed. Dizzy at that time was always preaching till I got him to hear Bird. I would say that I was very tight with Charlie. He lived at my house on the East Side with me and my family. He liked company. He has always been accepted every• where. He had just as many white friends as colored. Everyone adored him. We used to discuss white musi• cians who played so much better than other white Jerry Lloyd musicians and we wondered, why couldn't the rest play that well? Once in Baltimore there was a rhythm section that Trumpeter Jerry Lloyd (Jerry Hurwitz) is little known was so bad no one wanted to play with them. They to most jazz fans today, but in the early days of bop, approached Bird, and he said, "I'll be glad to play," and even before, on the scene, he was one and he did. I asked him how he could play with such of the most respected trumpeters among a group of a pitiful trio, and he said, "All you got to do is make musicians who later went on to wider fame. the wrong chords; don't try to play the right ones be• It was Benny Harris who first told me about Bird. "You cause there'll be three playing wrong and one playing know there's a player out in Kansas City right — be with them, play the wrong chords with who plays more horn than any other horn player you them." If a guy would blame his instrument about a ever heard." To show me the way he sounded he put performance Bird would say, "A great musician never on a Lester Young record called Shoe Shine Boy. He complains about his tools." had a machine that could speed up the revolutions Everyone loved him so much; they spoiled him. I loved until the tenor sax sounded like an alto. "That's a him but would never take any jive from him. I was rough idea of how he sounds." Not much later, he was pretty tough at the time anyway; I was a hood when I in town, and I met the man in person. He was different. was a kid. I boxed professionally. I always stood up to He was skinny-, he had bad feet — he could hardly him. If he refused to share something I would take it walk at the time. and threaten to destroy the whole thing. If he got wise, He was staying at the Woodside Hotel. He wanted a I'd challenge him and tell him I'd whip his ass, and place to blow, so Benny Harris and I took him down he would back down — not out of cowardice but just to play at MacDougal's Tavern in . out of his own good sense. There were two guys, I remember, playing with Jarvis

10 and Skeets. I thought I could play with anybody at At another time, after I knew him awhile, I walked up the time. We went down and started playing; played a to him once at a place where he was working and couple more tunes; he started playing. I started listen• asked him if he would play a tune I loved to hear him ing. I walked off the stand. I put my horn in the case do, Embraceable You. He looked me dead in the eye and zipped up the zipper. Those guys in the rhythm as if he never met or knew me and he said, "I don't section used to work hard for me but they really were know that song." working hard for Bird. My ego went down about forty percent. He blew about forty choruses. I got Bird one of his first jobs in New York. He was desperate. Some days he'd go without eating. I got him a job in a joint called the Parisian Dance Hall. On some days when he'd go without eating, he'd sit at the White Rose bar chiseling drinks. When I first met him through Benny, I was working on 52nd Street. George Wellington It was daylight and people looked at us — we were a weird looking trio. He was pretty frantic about things like borrowing (Georgio Figlia) was one of the first money. One time he slapped me in the face for re• pianists to play modern jazz in the early days. His fusing him. "If I didn't respect you so much as a parents brought him here from Italy when he was one player I would beat the hell out of you," I told him. year old. He comes from a musical family — his father He used to walk a little bent over, but when he was an opera singer — and by the time he was fifteen, fattened up he also straightened up. He could eat four he had started working jazz gigs in Brooklyn and in times to your one. Greenwich Village. In 1944, he was a member of the first bop group on 52nd Street, the Gillespie-Pettiford quintet at the Onyx Club. His pieces Godchild and Lemon Drop are well known. He now plays in New York clubs, usually with a trio. I first heard Bird and Diz in 1942 down in the Village at a place called MacDougal Tavern. In the years between '42 and '48 the fellows lived only to play. We were obsessed by the new music. There was such Idrees Suleiman pleasure in the faces. We would play our regular jobs until three in the rooming, then go to an after hours place till seven and then wait around a few hours till Idrees Dawud Ibn Suleiman (Horace Graham) was, ac• Nola Studios would open at nine, rent a studio and cording to Mary Lou Williams, one of the first to play practice some more. Our bodies were sustained by modern jazz. He started in music with the Carolina enthusiasm and when that could not carry Cotton Pickers and Fess Clarke in his home town of through a weaker physique a little barbituate pill St. Petersburg, Florida, and has worked with Benny helped. But dope never made any one a better musi• Carter, , Earl Hines, Count Basie, Lionel cian. It does something to your coordination. Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie, , and Theloni- I remember Bird tapping on my window at five in the ous Monk, among others. morning to get me up to play. If that didn't do it Bird I played with Bird in the Earl Hines band; I also used would start yelling, like a little boy, "George Walling• to jam with him back in 1941 at a place called the ton!" under the window. Kentucky Club. We would meet there every Monday at Bird was the friendliest guy, always wonderful company four in the morning and play till about one in the except once "when he was sick, and needed some junk. afternoon. Bird seemed to avoid the topic of race. About the The things that stand out the most in my memory of South, he said, "The only way to get around down there him are the complex moods of the man. Among the is with a gun. Why should any one live down there while men of the Hines band he was looked upon as a jolly there's a place like New York?" Statements like those fellow, full of buoyant spirits. With me he was a man were rare. Usually when someone brought up the topic of infinite patience when it came to explaining a point Bird would smile and say, "Why discuss these things? in music. He seemed at times the most serious person Let's get high." I have ever met, the most intense—without any type of When died, Bird felt that his friends were superficiality. He seemed to know the insides of every• getting too worked up over an inevitable part of ex• thing. I've seen him stagger into a club, drunk, his istence. "Why should we feel sorry? Let's not get emo• head drooping over his horn, seemingly asleep, and tional about it." This was just Bird's armor. then he would come in and play perfectly, constructing It is tragic that no one ever got the full impact of masterful chouses and bringing what might have seem• Bird's genius through records. Some evenings he was ed mistakes into line. so inspired. One night he blew twenty-five straight I've known the good natured Bird. Once a group of choruses of Cherokee. One week he played differently young kids were jammin' in a club and they were every evening. It was at the Deuces, a club where he terrible. Other musicians were yelling for them to get was once thrown out by an unhip manager who was off the stand. Bird turned to them and said, "I hear going by the holes in Bird's socks. He sort of sat way what they're trying to do," and then he went up on in the corner of the bandstand and played like a little the stand and he demonstrated it. boy. He had such a cuteness.

II we'd put it away. We decide to play it that night, every• body got the music but Charlie; he's sittin over there on the end with his tenor. I'd say, "Look, Charlie, when you goin' to get the tune out?" He says, "I know that." "I mean that new number." "I know it." And sure enough, he knew the arrangement backwards. I never understood that guy had such a mind. Charlie used to take his alto in the theater between shows — and have an exercise book, that's all he did — sit down; between he and Dizzy, they ran over these EARL BINES ON BIRD exercises in these books they're studying up. One day they'd have the trumpet book, and one day they'd have the alto book. They'd change around. And I think that Dick Hadlock was where actually Charlie got his particular style from, was from the different inversions and phrases in these exercises he had. They'd insert these passages that they would play in tunes that would come up. Whenever a chord would strike them, with the memories both of them had, why they'd just take one of these passages from one of these exercises and insert them in one of these tunes. And I think that is the reason for them to create the style that they got. And they seemed to be in a little claque all to them• selves. They got a kick out of themselves — not to I don't remember exactly when Charlie Parker joined set a style — they just played like that because they my band. I do know it was in the forties, because it enjoyed it, and they continued to do it. was in wartime, when we needed a tenor man. One of Well, I think by hitting prominent spots, and then play• my musicians used to go down Minton's quite a lot, ing in jam sessions as much as they did, I think is and he wanted me to come down and listen to a saxo• the cause of that style catching hold. And then all phone player, and maybe he might fit the bill. But the musicians wanted to find out how fast they could they said he plays alto. I said, "That's not goin' to help get over that horn, listening to Charles. But you see, us much." He said, "But he plays tenor, too." That many of them made so many mistakes, because so was Scoops Carry, our first alto man — he's very many reed players didn't realize this was music he was prominent now; he's a lawyer in Chicago. His word was playing! They thought it was just out of his mind, and the authority, because he actually knew what it was whatever they did was all the same as Charlie. And if about when it came to reed men, so I went down one there's any mistake made, why they blamed it on the night. Incidentally, Basie was with me, and we sat back style they called bop. "Why that was bop!" But Charlie in the corner until the young fellow came up. Mean• knew what he was playing, and when he made these time, he'd been playing so much horn that I said, flatted fifths and what have you, it was written in those "Well, who's that man?" The guy said, "Well, that's the exercises, and Charlie was playing actually what he boy I wanted you to hear. That's Charlie Parker!" remembered from those exercises. So many musicians Actually I had heard Charlie Parker in Detroit with a make a mistake by thinking Charlie was picking it up band out of K. C, Jay McShann's band, but he only out of the air, and I think that's one of the things that had about a chorus and a half. That was at the Para• hurt so-called bop — I'm sorry they even named it that. dise Theater. He said to me, "Gee, I'd like to get in They should have named it something else, because your organization sometime." that name added a little extra salty taste, that name. "Right at the time, things don't look too good." But one of the things that hurt that kind of music was "If you have an opening, I'd like you to give me an the fact that musicians, instead of goin' to Charlie and opportunity." I said, "Oh, first chance I have." askin' Charlie how he did those things, or tryin' to sit Well, that was the first time I heard him, and I never around home long enough to know he actually studied thought any more about it. It was months later when these things, they went home and picked it out of the we needed this tenor man. So after hearing him, I air and played what they thought sounded good. And talked with him a minute, and I said, "Do you play they were so wrong until it was obnoxious to the aver• tenor?" age ear, until the people began blaming it all on the particular style. It wasn't actually the style; it was just "Yeah!" he says. they didn't know what they were playing. And they So I went down and got him a tenor the next day. were too big at the time, some of the musicians were Truthfully speaking, I never heard so much tenor horn I know for a fact, to come and ask the man. in my life, I want to tell you. You know how the guy I think that's the only thing that hurts the average got all over that alto; you know that he was just as musician today. Years ago — we're not comparing, I bad on tenor. don't like the idea — I don't want people to think I'm The remarkable thing about Charlie, he had such an trying to make a comparison, but I want to make it advanced mind that when we rehearsed an arrangement back to the friendship that musicians had many years that no one had seen before, we'd run it down once or ago that they don't have now. twice, or whatever time we had to run it down, and

12 Years ago, when guys like , Coleman Haw• don't let it get the best of you. That's the bad part of kins, all got together, we played with each it. Have a good time! Sure! You got to have a good other, together, because we'd get ideas, to keep on time in this business! But there's a time for everything, advancing. We didn't envy the guys that actually knew see? more. We tried to find out what he was doin', and we Now Diz, Diz did some fine writing for us. In fact, a could. Today, it's one of those things where a guy little tune, he wrote the number and didn't know what says "Ah! Who's he think he is?" That's very wrong. to call it, and I thought, since we're hearing so much For instance, today, every idea I can possibly get — about the war in Europe, let's call it Night in Tunisia; like might do something I like — I say, and he left it like that. That's one of the tunes he "Erroll, some afternoon, come over my house; we'll sit wrote for the band. And this . He used to sing down have a little tete-a-tete. Few little things I want that. And a couple of others. I still have them in the you to show me. Somethin' you doin' — I don't know book. what it is, but I like it." Same thing, I'll go down to the Happy go lucky group! Blackhawk and say to Oscar, "Oscar, what'd you do Yeah, we all used to go to Minton's then. If you wanted with your left hand there?" And they're so amazed to to hear something, somebody was really terrific, we all hear me ask that because we did that years ago. And went to Minton's. same way with all the other musicians; they passed it I'm sorry that's not being allowed today because that on. They kept advancing, and the reason they kept really brought the musicians out. When you went there, advancing was because we're all friendly. All together; you ran into some stiff competition, so the only thing happy to see each other get ahead; if a guy did some• you could do was go somewhere in the wood-shed and thing, everybody was happy for the guy. Same thing brush up on the horn if you wanted to compete with happened to Parker when he joined our band. Every• these guys. I think it made an awful lot of musicians body was happy for him, in fact all the members of out of these boys. the group. I think that's why they were so successful. Of course everything is commercial. The minute that Benny Green; Charlie; this guy who's with Louis, Trum- all these proprietors found out that these musicians my Young; and in arranging Jimmy Mundy. They were love to blow, instead of being big-hearted and hiring all happy. I made them stand out because I made a few musicians — if they'd hire six or seven boys in them realize that we all appreciated it as much as the the band and then let the others sit-in, it's a different audience. "We got a kick out of hearing you play." You thing — all they do is hire a piano player. But these see, that you don't find today. kids had music at heart, and the proprietor realized But getting back to Charlie. Charlie stayed with my that. I had one guy say, "I had eight or ten musicians band, oh, a year and a half. But Charlie was so every night, and didn't pay them a quarter." advanced. And then, too, around New York there was But Charlie! Charlie was a very good section man, and a certain little group of musicians that sort of stayed a very good reader. Well, that guy reads the best. He's with themselves. And it seems as though Charlie got the last one. I mean, he was a musician! with that group — and then besides, settling down as I didn't hear anybody else play that way then. They far as marriage was concerned, why I think that's one weren't playing out of the books this guy had. And if of the reasons he decided to stay around New York. they could find those books, and find the passages But I just don't like to say these things as far as Charlie was doing, they would play like Charlie. Be• musicians are concerned. The man was such an artist. cause just like you and I were to study music, and we It's too bad that the public doesn't let a man like that could look at 9th chords and double augmented chords, alone, so that he can see the other side of good living. maybe we can add a — a 6th in there, and see what He would have been with us yet. happens. And maybe it sounds kind of good. Might Now sometimes people don't intend to do things, but sound kind of weird, but maybe that's what you want sometimes you'll find people follow a boy around, and for the ear. That's the same thing with Charlie; Charlie if he hasn't got a strong will-power, why then he's played them passages in there in his own way; in his easily to go off on the wrong foot. Well, we just loved style of breathing, being able to go for five or six him so much, but you can't very well talk to him like measures without taking a breath; and his way of that. After all, you're in the same profession, and a few phrasing would have a lot to do with it. It was his own years older, but you're not his father; you see what I idea. mean? So — much as I did — I talked to him as much There are things I heard Charlie do, he didn't amaze as I could. I tell him, "You got the world lookin' at you, only the people he was playing in front of, but he Charlie, and you're setting a standard. You've done amazed the musicians who were workin' with him; something nobody else has done, and you can go so nightly that happened. Because we didn't know what far." he was going to do, and when he did it, it would seem He was happy to let me know, when I came to New impossible. York, that he had a string section with him. Well, that His only real bad nights were when he over-indulged. tickled me to death. I thought that was the greatest He was very consistent; he had it all the time. But like thing I'd heard in years. And I thought, "He's really if we ate too much or we drank too much, why we on his way." aren't at our top average. But that was the only thing But the wrong crowd was running with an artist. The I found wrong. He was very consistent, because the wrong crowd was running with an artist, and he was guy knew what he wanted to do, and he could play that such a good-natured guy, and he didn't realize it. Same horn automatically. Sometimes even when he indulged thing happened with Fats Waller; the wrong crowd. The too much, you could put that horn into his hand, and wrong crowd with ; the wrong crowd. And once he got the feel of the horn, he could still do all we all have our own faults, but the story is this; you the things he wanted to do.

13 VIEWS SCHOOL OF JAZZ

Gunther Schuller

This year's three week session of the School of Jazz at Lenox, Mass. proved once again the school's validity and importance in American musical life. It seems to me that it fulfilled notably its twofold function as a place of learning and a kind of clearing house, where new ideas can be exchanged verbally or put into actual practise in a sympathetic environment. There was a different atmosphere at school this year. This was not the result of different physical surround• ings (the school took place entirely at Wheatlegh, an old baronial mansion, rather than at Music Inn, the site of previous years' sessions). Nor was it determined by changes in the faculty and a somewhat curtailed curriculum. It was the student body itself which gave this year's session a special cast. Whereas last year everyone (including the faculty) seemed to be stunned into a single unified reaction by the impact of Coleman and Cherry, this year's student body seemed to be more heterogeneous. As a consequence there was an atmos• phere of musical ferment, with several of the more advanced students clearly striking out in independent and diverse directions. I have always felt that the character of a "school of jazz" should be determined as much by its extracur• ricular jam sessions and the excitement of its final concert as by its everyday academic patterns. The latter, of course, are the main raison d'etre of the school, and as such are of inestimable importance. It is unfortunately not generally realized that there is today a great need for the kind of finishing school in jazz that Lenox represents. At a time when jazz is the single most exportable item this country has to offer (every foreign tour by U.S. jazz musicians bears this out), and at a timee when European musicians are be• ginning to find their own voices, so that the American monopoly will not be a preordained certainty much longer, it is wise to give this problem some thought. In bygone days the young player could gain experience, routine and discipline in the big traveling bands or in jam sessions. Now that both of these institutions are no longer with us, the young professional has no place

14

to turn. I think this accounts to a great extent for the and the others. This would indeed seem to be inevi• appalling gaps in the musical training of so many table. All of which is not to imply that the school could young players now before the public. There does not not be improved. But it does represent a sound basic seem to be any dearth of talent; far from it. But very approach, which has proven its validity beyond a doubt. little of this talent seems to be channeled into en• If the curriculum at Lenox attempts to satisfy the during, communicating music. In today's peculiar eco• basic practical and intellectual needs of students, its nomic climate, every young player is immediately hailed final concert and the jam sessions supply the neces• as a "star," and the status that, at one time, it took sary creative and emotional stimuli. a musician many years to establish, is now achieved The concert simulates rather accurately the actual play• with one record date. Or at least the player is deluded ing conditions a young player may expect to face. The into thinking so. Aside from the exceptional talent, competitive spirit, built up gradually over a period of such years of hard-fought struggle are a necessary path three weeks, is fierce, and accounts for considerable to the maeturity and humality upon which greate art excitement at the concert, even when the student body feeds and grows. A record date and a spate of good re• is as uneven as this year's. As a teacher at Lenox, it views by critics, eager to be the discoverer of a new is most gratifying to experience the excitement and voice, are hardly substitutes for this maturing process. youthful spontaneity generated by the students as they In fact, egos have been known to feed rather vora• buckle down and stake their all on the 25 minutes of ciously on this dangerous illusory nourishment. playing alloted to each ensemble. The hard work of the At any rate, the School of Jazz since its inception has three previous weeks seems suddenly to focus into a hoped to provide a partial answer to this problem, and single effort, and seems to take on a meaning it may as such, it and its counterparts are sorely needed. For not have had earlier. And from this "baptism of fire" here the young player, about to become professional, something remains, something rubs off. can learn much about his music and its presentation If the concert is the launching pad, so to speak, the through personal direct, contact with some of the jam sessions are the practise firing range, where new great names of jazz. A student who may be a big fish ideas are tried out and the players get to know each in a little pond at home may learn that his place in the other better musically. In most cases they learn a new musical world is as yet quite modest, that this world respect for each other. Jam sessions at Lenox were is full of equal or greater talents, and that the requi• very slow in getting started this year, because of a sites of the professional life are often inordinately lamentable lack of strong bass players among the stu• tough. dents. Eventually arrived on the scene, The curriculum is therefore designed to give the young and Susan Freeman, a talented girl from , was player as much individual attention in terms of his literally imDorted to alleviate the situation. These two, instrument and his musical concepts as is possible in plus Earl Zindars and Joe Hunt of the Russell-Baker three weeks. The curriculum also assumed that a certain group, provided two rhythm sections strong enough to amount of theoretical and historical knowledge will back the bold experiments the first jam session un• broaden the students' outlook and perspective, and leashed. For me it was an evening almost as memorable will give him a clearer .realization of where he stands. as last,year's marathon session between Ornette Cole- It assumes, I believe correctly, that this is all part of eman and , in which both played like two learning one's craft. battling wounded animals until a state of utter exhaus• tion had been reached. The faculty and directors of the school are aware of the fact that many young players take a kind of stubborn This year's group was less concerned with such a soul- pride in "going it alone." And there is always the old shattering catharsis. While also driven by the spiral of saw that goes "jazz can't be taught" or "too much know• competitive inspiration, it did on occasion unite into ledge will inhibit you, man," and similar gems of mis• collective efforts, which were among the highlights of apprehension. To many jazz players it is still shamefully the session. "unhip" to study seriously. According to them, jazz is The players that evening were, aside from the double supposed to infiltrate your being by a kind of osmosis, rhythm sections already mentioned, Don Ellis and Al which allows you to continue "goofing off" in unper• Kiger (trumpet), Dave Baker (trombone), Dave Young turbed escapism. and Steve Marcus (tenor), and Hal McKinney (piano). I think such viewpoints were possible once upon a They were rather evenly matched. The session took place time. But jazz is growing and developing, perhaps faster in the "poodle tower", the ground floor of which com• than any other form of music. It is natural that its prises a small circular area about 20 ft. in diameter. requirements should be more stringent today than Under the circumstances the players took up almost twenty years ago. The musical and personal disciplines the entire area, and the "audience" spilled out beyond demanded of the jazz musician of today are greater the entrance and up the spiral staircase leading to the than ever before, and anyone who chooses to disregard top of the tower. this fact is simply deluding himself. The playing went beyond the usual jam session, riff- I don't think it would be extravagant to claim that the inspired excitement by giving glimpses of musical de• majority of the students in the school's four year exist• velopments which are about to add another "turn" in ence left with a great deal more than when they came. the evolutionary process that keeps jazz vital and alive. Excepting a few self-styled "hippies" (representatives In Ellis' and Baker's playing two divergent approaches of this breed are somehow always on hand), who came to rhythm were revealed. Of the two Ellis' seems to me and left "knowing it all," the students through the the one with more far-reaching possibilities, primarily years have been enriched by their contracts with such because it is closely related to the other elements in as , , J. J. Johnson, Percy Heath his style. Don Ellis has already found his own voice,

16 which seems to consist of a fascinating blend of jazz number that Baker and Ellis were able to get their ideas and contemporary classical influences. In fact, his play• across. The result was a magnificent atonal collective ing represents one of the few true syntheses of jazz improvisation, which gave a glimpse of the kind of free• and classical elements, without the slightest self-con• dom jazz will undoubtedly one day achieve. At that sciousness and without any loss of the excitement and moment the music seemed not so far removed from raw spontaneity that the best of jazz always had had. the most advanced "serial" scores of contemporary I hear in Ellis' playing occasional rhythmic figures which composers. I know that some readers may now be. derive clearly from the world of , which, groaning in agony and thinking "Oh no, not THAT!" however, are interpreted with an impulsive infectious My only answer can be, I wish they could have heard swing that never stops. It seems to me that Don has the tremendous excitement and naturally generated found a way of expanding the rhythmic vocabulary of rhythmic drive. There was never any doubt that we jazz to include rhythmic patterns heretofore excluded were listening to jazz—very much so, for mere choice because they couldn't be made to swing. If this is true, of notes (i.e. pitches) has never determined whether a it would constitute a major break through, and its im• thing was jazz or not. plications would be far-reaching. Other jam sessions took place, but none of them As I have said Ellis' rhythmic approach is closely re• achieved the feverish momentum of that memorable lated to the harmonic-melodic one. In fact, the one is evening. One had the feeling one was present at an inseparably related to the other. It is evident that Ellis historic occasion. It provided the necessary emotional has listened to and understood the music of Webern, equilibrium to the academic courses. These, however, Stockhausen, Cage and others of the avantgarde. One in conjunction with occasional evening lectures (going of his compositions, in fact, is based on an article in as far afield as improvisational techniques in Eastern the German magazine "Die Reihe", a house organ of music) and an inspiring "open rehearsal" of the MJQ, the electronic and serial composers which specializes produced an environment in which animated discus• in the most rarified (and at times obscure) intellectual- sions and experimental sessions could thrive side by ism thus far perpetrated in- the name of music. Yes, side with the more formal approach. here again, Ellis' jazz feeling has more than survived As long as the School at Lenox can contribute to the what would seem to be a strange partnership. His play• development of jazz on such a broad and catholic basis, ing that evening also indicated that he can sustain long its place in American musical life seems to me assured. solos based on one or two central ideas and hold your interest through his imagination and considerable com• mand of his horn. gave a sample of his bi-rhythmic approach, which is based on the soloist playing at a tempo other Don Heckman than that of the rhythm section—both holding their respective tempi. The "changes" occur within the speed In many respects jazz is the most elusive of the arts; of the soloist, not the rhythm section. The effect is it is suspended between enteretainment and artistry very curious, and at first somewhat unsettling for the like all forms that use the dramatic moment. Impro• listener. Baker himself has some serious woodshedding visation and inadequate techniques of notation, have yet to do in bringing a greater clarity (technically and complicated things further. Perhaps because of its musically) into his solo work. It would therefore be short history, or because of the exceptional importance premature to make an evaluation of the musical import of spontaneity, a central score of tradition has begun of this approach, although it obviously has in it the to take shape only lately. Jazz history has often been seeds of some very interesting possibilities. It also organized erraticly, toally unrelated to chronological meets up somewhere with the free-tempo things Ornette order. The result has been a confusion of identity, even has been doing and with Don Ellis' experiments with to people directly involved in jazz. increasing and slowing up the time. At any rate, this All of this makes the teaching of jazz very difficult. The jam session was symptomatic of a trend to overthrow prospective teacher of jazz may be condemned on one the tyranny of the 4/4 meter, which has dominated hand by "child of nature" fanatics, who insist that the jazz until now. heart of jazz is a crude, untutored spontaneity, and There were other excellent though more orthodox solos that the imposition of pedagogical techniques would by the very musical Al Kiger, Dave Young, one of the distort its meaning. On the other hand lie the cate- fastest minds (and fingers) in jazz, and young Steve gorizers for whom the organization of material is the Marcus who stylistically has yet to outgrow his adora• sine qua non of art, and who would control the body tion of Coltrane. The two drummers also entered the and soul of jazz by removing the freedom and re• fray with a long series of competitive, often related, solo sponsibility of the individual. and fours exchanges. Since they were situated on oppo• The problem in teaching jazz is not only one of steer• site sides of the room, the antiphonal effects were often ing a course between these extremes, but also of find• rather fascinating, and the audience looked a little like ing suitable teaching material. Few scores of important spectators at a tennis match, with heads turning regu• jazz compositions of the twenties and thirties, for in• larly from one side to the other. stance, are readily available, and the recordings have In the out-choruses, Baker and Ellis attempted several often never been reissued. So the teaching material times to launch simultaneous improvisations by all the must be hand assembled. Of the various attempts to horns. But both drummers mistook this as a cue for establish broad principles for teaching jazz, hardly any a free-for all, and mowed down the horns with ear- have been more than moderately successful. Students shattering volleys of drum forte. It wasn't until the final often seem to have learned to play jazz in spite of

17 their education. stant availability cost him valuable hours, but he has The School of Jazz in Lenox, Mass. has been one of the earned this student's gratitude, and I'm sure that of most interesting experiments in teaching jazz. As a many others. student at the 1960 session, my own interest was two• The ensemble rehearsals were continuously interesting. fold; first, my own development as a composer and Careful grouping of students by Mr. Lewis had re• performer, and second, to grasp the principles of sulted in ensembles each with specific problems to be teaching jazz at the school—how, why and if they solved. One stimulus given to all groups was the pros• worked. pect of the final benefit concert for all to hear their The school reflects and benefits from the ideas of its accomplishments. There are, of course, many ways to Director, John Lewis. By insisting upon academic dis• teach. One of these is to arrange a situation in which cipline, with careful scheduling and organization, Mr. a man is expected to produce some definite result by Lewis has made the important basic step of setting up a given time, in this case a finished performance at a situation, combining classroom teaching with work• the benefit concert. But emphasis on the rehearsal of shop ensembles, in which things can happen. But the specific material for the sake of immediate results can balance is an extremely delicate one; the sense of lead to a sacrifice of more basic teaching and learning organization must not be allowed to overcome the free situations. In practice, the results depended on the expression of ideas. Perhaps the single most important individual instructor and what he chose to offer of him• contribution the school has to offer is the creation of self to the group. In most cases, the results were an atmosphere favorable to discussion and experiment exceptional; John Lewis, for instance, made may valu• provoked by intimate contact with musicians of widely able suggestions about the problems of improvisation; divergent musical ideas and opinions. The school was Herb Pomeroy, the most experienced teacher on the held in the most beautiful place imaginable. Lodgings, faculty, emphasized the responsibilities of the indi• classrooms and practice areas were all located at vidual in ensemble playing; J. J. Johnson, with more Wheatleigh Hall, owned by Philip and Stephanie Barber professionals in his ensemble, worked on creating an who were among the school's initial organizers, outside atmosphere conducive to unhampered improvising. Milt of Lenox, Mass, only a mile or so from Tanglewood, Jackson unfortunately was forced to leave the school surrounded by the wooded hills of the Berkshires. Most in mid-session because of a family emergency, but with of the students responded admirably to the relaxed the help of student-composer Margo Gurian and of atmosphere. The student body was divided into four Gunther Schuller, his group came through. playing groups: an octet led by John Lewis, a septet led The most exciting single experience, as might be ex• by J. J. Johnson, a quartet led by Milt Jackson, and a pected, was a jam session. After almost two weeks of nonet led by Herb Pomeroy and . Also pres• carefully organized rehearsals and classes, it was per• ent were George Russell's sextet, which included several haps appropriate that the whole thing exploded in a former students of the school, and a string ensemble wild burst of music-making. The main participants were led by violist John Garvey of the University of . David Baker, trombone; David Young, tenor; Al Kiger, The individual abilities and experience of the students trumpet; Joe Hunt, drums and Church Israels, bass, of varied widely, as might be expected, but the older the George Russell sextet and students Don Ellis, trum• students seemed to have an exceptional awareness of pet; Earl Zindars, drums; Steve Marcus, tenor; Hal the broader musical environment, and in many of the McKinney, piano; Sue Freeman, bass; and David Lahm, informal discussions one could feel a kind of ferment piano. The session started slowly, confining itself, of curiosity that encompassed musical problems be• strangely yet somehow logically, to early bop lines like yond the limitations of jazz that are generally accepted, and . Mostly by accident thinking that promises well for the future. The wide the session got under way with two rhythm sections, range of personal achievement, from beginners to pro• facing each other across the room. At up tempos, they fessionals who were already recording under their own would shift back and forth, tossing the time across the names, caused some knotty teaching problems. For in• room without the loss of a beat. About an hour after stance, it is difficult to explain a theory with the com• the session began, a building excitement began to take plex implications of George Russell's Lydian Concept hold, and on Monk's Straight No Chaser it broke loose. to students .with limited technical backgrounds. Also, A rhythmic electricity moved from the players to those students with sophistication in theory will require more who listened. And then these sophisticated listeners, than elementary explanations, and may even be con• most of whom would never tap their feet in a club, cerned with the basic philosophy of the system. Some began almost unanimously to clap their hands with the reconciliation of such widely separated interests and music. But the real work was yet to come. Obviously backgrounds must be made. It seemed to me, that in stimulated by each other, trumpeters Al Kiger and Don this case, that Mr. Russell's theory might better be Ellis, urged on by the trombone of Dave Baker, moved taught in private lessons. more and more into atonal areas; chord changes were dropped by the wayside, melodic lines became frag• Much more successful—it required nothing more than mented, rhythms became jagged and complex. On the wide open ears—was Gunther Schuller's history of jazz next to last tune, Baker began a solo in a time that class. By his excellent choice of musical examples and was completely unrelated to the pulse of the group. As refusal to get bogged down in unnecessarily pedantic he developed his solo he gradually made references to explanations, Mr. Schuller was able to present one of the basic time but meanwhile remained firmly in his the most interesting courses of the school session. own rhythmic groove. Finally, he completed this re• Aside from his classroom stints and private composi• markable tour de force by bringing his solo to a logical, tion lessons, Mr. Schuller was also the most acces• consistent rhythmic resolution with the group pulse. sible of the faculty members. Unquestionably his con•

18 The climax of the evening came in the last chorus of tion performed by the string ensemble. Next came the the last tune, when all of the horns jointly created what J. J Johnson group, a loose, free-swinging septet of amounted to an improvised atonal composition, in one professional calibre. Both Don Ellis and J. R. Monterose of the most remarkable spontaneous, creative group played well, and Ellis also showed considerable skill as act that I have ever witnessed. I doubt that an evening a composer with an excellent line, Homeless. His is an• at Minton's in the early forties could have been more other talent which will be heard from. Pianist Hal exciting. McKinney, is still finding his own voice but certainly There were other moments, of course, the magnificent shows promise. The most surprising musician by far, performance of the MJQ in an open rehearsal; the however, was bassist Sue Freeman; playing with a swing sense of accomplishment that came from the final con• and a dexterity that one doesn't associate with mu• cert; the endless hours of discussion, always about sicians of her sex, she gassed everybody. music, music. The Milt Jackson group, after a somewhat shaky start, The experiment in the use of strings in jazz was some• settled down to an effective, lightweight performance, what puzzling. At first the ensemble of three violins, the group received its main impetus from the catchy, two violas and two cellos, devoted most of its time to Vibist Gray Smith made good use of his solo space, but material from Harry Lookovsky's "Stringsville" foot-tapping lines of Margo Guryan. on Atlantic, the intention being apparently for the The last group to appear before intermission was the strings to learn to phrase and sound like jazz horns. George Russell Sextet. Mr. Russell has chosen to em• When the difficulties of this task and the technical phasize the soloists in his group rather than his writ• problems it raised became evident, the group began to ing. While they are all highly competent, even exciting rehearse the material it was to perform on the concert. new talents, there is a certain lack of cohesion and Six students were BMI composition scholars for the continuity that leaves one with a feeling of incomplete• year, but only one student composition was performed ness, of wondering just what, if anything, he has heard. by the string group at the concert, the rest of their In this performance Mr. Russell's turned material coming from faculty members or composers out to be the best thing the group played. not directly connected with the school. There may have The second half of the concert opened with the string been good reason for this but, if so, it was never made group. joined them as guest soloist in his clear to the students. And it could not have been that composition, Piece For and Strings, which all those pieces were too difficult. Also, it was an• showed a good understanding of string technique. The nounced that students would be assigned to perform piece tended at times to sentimentality, but it was on at rehearsals with the string group. A few students did the whole, very successful. The most ambitious, and rehearse with the strings, and a few others performed certainly the most outstanding, composition performed with them on the concert, but the majority had prac• by the strings was Gunther Schuller's Variants On A tically no contact with the string ensemble. The primary Theme by John Lewis. Starting with John Lewis' benefit came when Mr. Schuller arranged to have the as basic thematic material, Mr. Schuller evolved a ensemble tape a number of student compositions. Per• series of increasingly complex variations. By using im• haps, since this was the first year with a string en• provised guitar, bass, vibes, and alto sax choruses, he semble in residence, the problem of just what they was able to maintain a strong jazz character through• were to do was never quite clear. If the intention is out. to present an opportunity for the prospective jazz Last of all was the Herb Pomeroy-Connie Kay Nonet. musician-composer to broaden his scope, then the Mr. Pomeroy was unable to stay for the concert; Ed string ensemble should certainly have been more ac• Summerlin substituted and played tenor. Mr. Pomeroy's cessible to the general student body. If the intention trumpet chair was occupied by , who was to study the development of jazz phrasing tech• had appeared at the school with J. J. Johnson's pro• niques for string instruments, then it seems to me fessional group. This was perhaps the most conven• foolhardy to expect results in three weeks. The subt• tional ensemble on the program. Although somewhat leties of jazz rhythms are such that a horn man may tired by the long wait before their appearance, the take years of blowing to assimilate them. A classical nonet swung freely. A rich ensemble sound showed the musician cannot learn them in the same manner he thoroughness of the rehearsals that had lasted only a might learn a new way of bowing. It is difficult enough few weeks. for most classically trained musicians to even feel these rhythms. But experiments in the use of strings Jazz is a young, vital and sometimes onerous art, and in jazz should, of course, be explored further, and the it does not take easily to the sort of codification that School of Jazz has made a commendable effort. is required for a successful educational establishment. Except for its length, the benefit concert came off ex• Undoubtedly, the School of Jazz, with its many achieve• tremely well. Mr. Lewis organized the evening to ensure ments, will continue to make some mistakes in manage• variety and he was able to devise a well balanced ment and judgement. But there would probably be more program. cause to worry if all of the decisions made up until now had been unquestioned, because then the maverick The ensembles rose to the occasion with skill. In the spirit of jazz might have been pushed aside in favor of first group, Mr. Lewis', tenor man Steve Marcus proved organization. a soloist to watch. His developing proficiency, if chan• I am happy to have attended the school at an early neled in a more individual direction, will assure his time in its history. It is an accomplished fact now and future as a jazzman. Vibist Gary McFarland no only a force for the future. As such, it deserves the warm proved to be an excellent soloist, but also contributed and whole-hearted support of everyone with in interest two fine arrangements and the only student composi• in jazz.

19 THE BLUES GOODBYE BABY Good night everybody, I've got that on my mind. Good night everybody, EVOLUTION BLUES I've got that on my mind. I'm gonna leave you baby, Nature made man out of a monkey, There ain't no need of cry in'. According to ancient history. Nature made man out of monkey, I was sittin' at the station, According to ancient history. Hear the train pass by. But it took a beautiful woman Want to tell you, baby, To make a monkey out of me. I've got to wave my hand goodbye. Bye bye, baby; She'll give you a little sweet talk, I've got to say goodbye. And a great big hug and squeeze. I'm gonna leave you, baby, Yes, she'll give you little sweet talk, There ain't no need to cry. And a great big hug and squeeze. And before you know it, I just want to talk to you, baby, That woman will have you climbing trees. Before the train leave. I want to tell you, baby, Now you take Samson; I've got something up my sleeve. He was the strongest man. I've got to leave you this morning, baby, Yes, you take Samson; Ain't no need to cry. He was the strongest man. I just want to talk to you now, baby, But Delilah made him shave his head I hate to say goodbye. As clean as his hand. I just want to talk to you, baby, You can be strong as an ox, Tell you what I need. Or as big as a whale. I want to love you, baby. Yes, you can be strong as an ox, I'll be seldom seen. Or as big as a whale. You know I'm gonna leave in the morning But when that woman gets through with you, On that Southbound train. All you need is a tail. Yes I'm gonna leave now, baby, There ain't no need to cry. Now according to ancient history, So it was told to me, I've got two things to tell you, It took a thousand years for nature, Want you to realize. To make man out of monkey. And I leave you, baby, But it took a very short time And there ain't no need to cry, For woman to make a monkey out of a man. Cause I'll be leavin', baby, There ain't no need to cry. You don't need a map of the world Yes when I cross the Mason-Dixon line, baby, Or a blueprint to understand. I'll be satisfied.

(Sung by Pleasant Joseph on Brunswick 87504. (Sung by on Columbia WL 111. Transcribed by Ronald Carno.) Transcribed by Jacques Demetre.)

20 By rigid standards the last musician attraction, but there were a number to whom great could rightly apply of very good reasons for building RECORD was Charlie Parker. The bird had the concert around Dizzy. Old Diz some important contemporaries, was then experimenting with the but there was no one in his time first of his big bands and of course that he did not cut, out-invent, ranked as an outstanding practitioner and out-play. Viewed against the of the new style. More, important, REVIEWS entire profile of jazz history he he was eminently employable, which, was one of three or four soloists at no stretch of the imagination of unmistakenly major stature could be said about Parker. It was and influence—nor is there anyone often a matter of pure chance if today of whom quite as much may Parker showed up for a booking at be said. Therefore it is welcome all (an advance was usually a fatal news when some new fragments mistake), let alone with his horn, of his record work comes to and the promoters had understandably light. put their money on the jovial and Ironically enough, Parker is not reliable trumpeter. 'The Bird was much played on the air these days. strictly an added starter, "Guest Many of his commercial recordings Artist" according to the program, are no longer in the catalog and and was alloted a single twenty the rest have oecome old hat to minute spot just before the the so-hip disc jockeys. These intermission. fellows can only survive on the As things turned out, the Bird New. Then, too, although the Bird showed up all right; really bugged— was required listening for a whole hopping mad, offended at having generation of working musicians, been passed over, and loaded with he was not always easy listening. aggression for his old friend and On the good nights the listener had protector. The concert, with its the uneasy impression not so much auld lang syne overtones, developed of notes, as a stream of molten more than scheduled; metal showering from a crucible. not so much a formal presentation Hearing him on those occasions of the new music, as an embittered could be a numbing, even shattering, duel between its two leading affair, often taking on the overtones exponents; the weapons were of a religious experience; a trumpet and alto saxophone; the phenomenon that may account common ground such established for the fanaticism of his followers but still cryptic bop classics as who, after his death in 1955 (at the Night in Tunisia and Ornithology; age of 34), went around writing on and the seconds, if you will, the the walls and posts of the New dismayed members of Gillespie's York subways: "Bird Lives!" big band rhythm section, big bemused The new issues are an unexpected Al McKibbon on bass, bomb-dropping windfall. From dark places have Joe Harris on drums, and cool, come three whole Ips of Parker wiggy John Lewis. Add a bewildered "DIZ'N'BIRD in Concert". Roost previously unavailable, at least to audience, and a small, vociferous, LP 2234. any large audience—real vintage near-lunatic Parker claque seated Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet; Charlie Parker, alto; Parker! well down front, and you have a John Lewis, piano; Al McKibbon, bass; Acoustically all three suffer in very "weird backdrop for the creation Joe Harris drums. various degrees from semi-professional of music. And indeed, weird music ; Dizzy Atmosphere; or amateur engineering, but even it is that one hears on these Groovin' High; Confirmation. with these handicaps they are Roost grooves. "CHARLIE PARKER in historical worth almost any quantity of jazz But before turning our attention Recordings, Vol. I". Le Jazz Cool Ips which pour forth in such to the music, a word about the JC-101. dreary sameness today. Still one history of these records. There's a Ko-Ko; 'Round about Midnight; Cool Blues; must put up with disadvantages. choice footnote to the story there, Ornithology; Move; White Christmas; For reasons best known to the too. these same sides Ornithology; ; Groovin' High; manufacturers, no dates or appeared on the market around Theme. personnels are given, so a little 1949 on a label whimsically called "CHARLIE PARKER in historical detective work was required on the "Black Deuce"! The private Recordings, Vol. II". Le Jazz Cool backgrounds. recordings were made by a studio JC-102. The Roost sides derive from a near located in the Carnegie Hall building ; Salt Peanuts (II); -, scandalous Carnegie Hall concert which offered this service to Rifftide; Big Foot; Salt Peanuts (l); Out dated September 29, 1947. Gosh, artists, mainly recitalists, performing of Nowhere; Perdido. that long ago? I was pleased when there. Obviously, in this instance, The collective personnel for the two Le Jazz I found the concert program intact in they fell into the hands of someone Cool Ips has been given by G. H. Jepsen my files. The occasion was the first with an eye for the market, and it in his Discography of Charlie Parker as attempt to present pure bop to a is to this nameless rogue that the Charlie Parker, alto; Miles Davis, Fats large audience in concert. Remember, jazz collecteor is presently beholden. Navarro, Kenny Dorham, ; Bud this was 1947, and the big names The records appeared in a few Powell, piano; , bass,- Max of jazz were Roy Eldridge, Don jazz-specialty stores and enjoyed Roach, , drums. Byas and . Bop was very a brief, limited, almost clandestine much a poor relation, husbanded sale. No effort was made to compen• by a hard core claque, more annoying sate the artists or clear contractual The adjective great gets thrown than effective. By divine right, difficulties. (Dizzy was under contract around rather freely these days by according to these hipsters, the to Musicraft at the time.) But a writers and commentators on jazz. Bird should have been the main rumble of protests soon arose and

21 the sale of the records came to a Bird created new melodies which thrilling indeed. Hearing them play halt, the result of a threatened stretched over the bar framework together one realizes how close Fats injunction, or perhaps because of like a shining piece of fabric. And was on the horn to Bird and how possible prosecution under a this of course is why he is one of much more suitable complement statute then before the state the really great improvisors of all his trumpet was than. Miles' or legislature which would make it a jazz, as well as one of the great Dizzy's. felony to sell pirated recordings innovators. Miles seems to be on Volume Two. for profit. (There was then no Except for the music they have to The material includes Out of Nowhere legislation covering such shenanigans offer, the Le Jazz Cool Ips are and Giant Swing (Big Foot), which —one gifted entrepreneur had just amateur productions, but the music Charlie worked up for the Dial startled the industry by bootlegging is simply tremendous. This writer recording dates in the fall of 1947, an entire Verdi opera broadcast supervized some 36 sides of what just before the Petrillo recording from the Met!) In any event the are considered to be among Parker's ban (or one of them) shut down "Black Deuce" sides disappeared finest commercial records for Dial, the recording industry. The group from the market. They became, in a but he was never able to capture the also plays Cheryl, probably recorded matter of months collector items, sweep and force that distinguishes about the same time for Savoy (Savoy much to the delight of their few these performances. This is how never gave out the dates), Perdido, proud possessors. Now, some thirteen small band jazz really sounded in Rifftide (Bird's earlier Street Beat), years after the event, the sides that day when the chips were down, How High the Moon and two versions are available to the general and the quality and the inspiration of Salt Peanuts. The mood and public. were on the bandstand. So again, performance of these tracks is In some respects they are still we are beholden to some, here, quieter than those on Volume One. pretty sensational performances nameless one and his recording The trumpet often has a round tone which managed to capture some of machine. The technical difficulties and is used mostly in the middle the electricity that broke loose, include distortion, faulty balance, register, and there is a preference like chain lightning, when Charlie damage done by playings, and they for oblique statements. But perhaps are trying. But they do not cancel Parker was putting out. Night in these sides will seem superior to out the music. Generally the tracks Tunisia opens with all hands joining those who have grown up on a diet are tolerable, and certainly those in for a routine opening chorus— of . Comparison of the two on Volume One. This seems to me everyone except Parker, that is; volumes will interest those trying one of the finest examples of the the Bird plays strange riff figures, to trace out the "" somehow connected with the modern style. The trumpet player here is almost certainly Fats and Miles' essential role in the theme, in an incredible kind of movement. Chalumeau lower register. The Navarro and, if this surmise is The last Dial and Savoy recordings phrasing and intonation were intended correct, it marks the sole occasion brought to a close the great period to un-nerve and confound, and a that this very wonderful musician of Charlie Parker's recording career. lesser musician than Dizzy would recorded with Charlie. (Like Bird, During the Petrillo embargo period have been routed at the outset. he was in his later years a junkie; his group lost its spirit and began Dizzy wisely retires to gather his a shy, nocturnal character of forces after the ensemble bit. There unpredictable humors and lamentable to disintegrate. An unhappy incident follows one of Bird's breathless reliability.) Yet, in many respects, followed in the foyer of a leading four-bar breaks, then a long chorus Fats was the ideal brass companion night club in Detroit with the result played with fierce, hard, professional for Bird. Fats was a player of that Charlie found himself on a brilliance. The trumpet reprise is impeccable taste, faultless execution, trade "don't book" list. He was of the same quality, lustrous, at home at any tempo, and his dropped from the circuit where chiseled, perhaps even more ac• ravishing veiled tone has never instrumental jazz stars were being curately articulated. This exchange been equalled. So this Ip is a rare featured and paid prices usually sets the style of the following meeting of kin. They perform Move reserved for name vocalists. Unable performances. in a wildly ebullient fashion and their to record, he confined his activities version of Ornithology is, I must The duel is at its hottest on Dizzy to playing gigs around New York. admit, superior to the famous Dial. Atmosphere (Dynamo) which is Key men like Max and Miles drifted The fact remains that Parker, when taken at a preciptious tempo. The away. When he resumed recording, confronted with a bare recording feinting, surprise twists and musical under the royalty-fund system, the studio and its cold, impersonal gambits there are heady stuff. Parker price of Petri No's peace, Parker microphone, was as much a slave is always the aggressor and Dizzy signed with Granz and such to conservatism as any other the counter-puncher. All this is the productions as "Charlie Parker with jazzman. But here he plays in one more remarkable when it is recalled Strings" and "South of the Border" of the free wheeling moods that that these liberties were being soon resulted. He seemed abandoning came on him those certain evenings taken with material which only a the trail blazed with the help of when everything, the time, the handful of musicians had mastered Dizzy, Max and a few others. place, the crowd and above all, the at all in 1947. Variations upon The existence of these "amateur" quality of his musical companions, variation, and the theme itself pretty recordinges raises the very interesting was just right. There is a rousing far out at that! While the salient possibility that there are undoubtedly reading of Koko, a very fine Cool quality of the performances is one more of them still around. This Blues, and Parker's only performance of brilliant jousting, striving to trip might be a good time to broadcast on record of Monk's beautiful up and to surpass, there are some a general alarm for such material. 'Round About Midnight. Parker's very moving passages, too. Despite Several of the better independent solos are not rationed to a their animus, Parker's solos retain jazz labels (Riverside, Prestige, parsimonious 32 bars, as happened that completeness of form and Atlantic, Blue Note, Pacific, in the recording studio. He lets go melodic continuity that marks his Contemporary) would no doubt be here and really blows. On the first best work and makes it unique. Ornithology, for example there are only too happy to assist in the He was the first jazz improviser to four straight choruses, with surprise evaluation, renovation and release think in terms of total melody, as heaped on surprise. And the chase of such recordings. Few people are pointed out here. Previously fours between Bird and Fats are aware that Charlie Parker had one the player had been bound by the musical Boswell in a fellow named restrictions of bar divisions. The Dean Benedetti who used to follow

22 Bird around, usually by Greyhound MUSIC bus, from one end of the country to LP 1345 the other, for the sole purpose of recording Parker's solos on a The & Guests partable machine. And, of course, there were always the odd "home (The Jimmy Giuffre 3 cooking" dates like the one used and The Beau* Arts to make up the tracks of that name String Quartet) on Dial LP No. 905. Ross Russell <

ORNETTE COLEMAN: "Tomorrow is the THE GOIDEN MKKER Question". Contemporary M 3569. Ornette Coleman, alto; , trumpet; LP 1334 Percy Heath, Bass; , drums. Tears Inside; Mind and Time; Compassion; John Lewis Conducts Giggin'; Rejoicing. < Music For Brass Red Mitchell, bass, replaces Heath. Lorraine; Turnaround; Endless.

This record was made before the formation of the Ornette Coleman quartet with Charlie Haden and (now La Faro and ) and before all the things that have PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST been happening in their music since, but it should certainly not be over• LP 1320 looked. It contains a superior compo• sition, for one thing, in Lorraine Bob Brookmey and an exceptional blues line, for which Tears Inside is a superb title. (The ideas in the lines of things like Compassion and Rejoicing seem the ones with the greater possibilities, Sister Salvation however.) The record also has a THE cohesion, which the first Contemporary, SLIDE with its apparently inhibiting and HAMPTON SISTER SALVATION OCTET certainly clashing piano, did not have, and which the first Atlantic LP 1339 record, though made in the first a) excitement that now four players The Octet were grasping the nature of this music, did not have either. The cohesion here is conservative com• pared either to the possibilities suggests or the developments and order that have come since, but JMZ** MAKERS it is here. Perhaps it is because of MISSIS Manne, Heath and Mitchell. Whatever THE JAZZ MAKERS their understanding of the music, they are more than sympathetic and LP 1333 M.UW* enthusiastic. & Manne seem to me to understand Allan Ganley least in that he speaks in the notes of being "free" in this music, but plays, at least in his solo on Lorraine and behind Cherry on Turnaround, almost carelessly. Both bassists think tonally, of course. Heath carries j.w vr J VZZ.LTII. a heavy rhythmic and emotional burden beautifully; one can feel his enthusiasm in every note. He JAZZ AT JAZZ, LTD. seems to grab onto a tonal area but LP 1338 when he does stray from it, he does it almost boldly. That is in contrast (Available monaural only) to Mitchell who is, as one would expect, more interested in lyric melody per se. He is more conservative about leaving tonality, as if he had to work his way through intervals Available stereo $5.98 and monaural $4.98 before leaeving them. Write for complete LP catalogue and stereo disc listing. Don Cherry's problems as an improvisor so far are ideas themselves. Certainly not stating them. I think his solo TLANTIC RECORDS on Tears would have its logic for 157 West 57th Street, New York 19, N. Y.

23 any ears, and his use of the theme that are standard equipment to the which may help continuity, but also melody itself on his Giggin' solo classical musician. Perhaps jazz may be a sign of an over- might be an excellent introduction has refused to accept these inversions dependence on Ornette's vision that to how this music goes. and has rushed through European does not necessarily speak well for Ornette seems to be just the opposite. harmony in only sixty years because, the future of this young man's It is curious to hear even musicians as George Russell says, it never playing. Haden's bass solo, mostly say that he "plays anything that really was a tonal-harmonic music in double stops, shows us that he pops into his head; it doesn't in the . is technically a masterful bassist, matter." Of course what pops into But who will play Ellington to and also suggests how much wider his head includes a lot, and he may this Armstrong? and more rewarding his sources are try out most of it, as he certainly It is absurd to ask at this point of than those of most jazz bass should. But, again of course, it does course. And I would not ask if I players; he may be the first bassist or it will, matter. (But don't forget did not wonder if George Russell since to move away that what pops into most people's might be the man to make such a from the Blanton-Pettiford-Brown heads is old Louis Armstrong, contribution. axis. And Billy Higgin's very original Lester Young or Charlie Parker Martin Williams cymbal accompaniment to the bass phrases.) He solos last on Turnaround; solo is a delight for energy, perhaps it is the relative conservatism steadiness, and variety. of all that has preceeded him, ORNETTE COLEMAN: "Change of Most of the other tunes are rather but he starts with interpolation of the Century." Atlantic 1327. badly played, especially the ensemble Do I Love You (he seldom interpolates Ornette Coleman, alto; Don Cherry, trumpet; parts. Bird Food is an exception, I am glad to say) and is quite abrupt Charlie Haden, bass; Billy Higgins, drums. but it's just one of those synthetic and startling in the way that he Ramblin'; Free; Face of the Bass; Fore• Charlie Parker tunes concocted out breaks down that conservative runner; Bird Food; Una Muy Bonita; Change of some of Bird's favorite intervals atmosphere. But soon there is an of the Century. and rhythmic figures, and routined area of rhythm and melody that he Few jazzmen have the fertility of like his quintet recordings with has outlined and is exploring. invention to write seven originals Miles, improvised bridge and all. It seems to me that every valid for a single Ip, and even fewer have Cherry's fine solo, after the first innovation in jazz (by which I chiefly the sense of musical direction to chorus, seems to show the kind of mean Armstrong and Parker) has record an Ip entirely made up of music in which he still feels most had a rhythmic basis. (And every their own originals. Duke, Monk, at ease. attempt at innovation that failed Mingus; how many more? The head to Change of the Century did not.) A couple of years ago there At least three of the seven tunes is played especially badly—ragged seemed two possibilities. There was (compositions?) here are highly enough to sound full of unintended Coltrane's way accenting and phrasing accomplished and intriguing. dissonances and the kind of clashes his short notes which seemed to Ramblin' is a good hillbilly flavored of overtones that Coleman has used want to subdivide Parker's eighth- jazz tune, an interesting study in deliberately and well elsewhere. note rhythm into sixteenths. The contrasting meters, and an effective Even Ornette's solo sounds a little other was the very free reorganization display piece for a virtuoso bass ill at ease with the tempo, and of rhythm and meter of Monk, most player. Free is almost no more than Cherry's is practically chaotic. strikingly used in that Bags' Groove a boogie woogie bass line, but who But most of Ornette's solo work, solo. (It was in Rollins too and, as would have expected those quarter especially on Ramblin' and Free, Dick Katz once said, something notes on the beat, mostly broken should remind us that he is a highly very like it seemed to be in Lester chords, to be played to give that traditional player; that he loves Young's later work.) Rhythmic effortless soaring quality? It's cer• some of the strong and simple subdivision seems possible in tainly a horn player's conception, rhythmic ideas of the thirties as Ornette's work, but free meters seem rather than that of a pianist or a much as he does the more complex far more likely. They certainly put manuscript paper writer. Una Muy and subtle conceptions that Parker fewer inhibitions on melody. Bonita may be the most melodic and introduced. I cannot imagine most Of course this is not a "finished" accessible of Coleman's tunes so far, players of his generation using some music, nor is what one can hear and the contrast between the of those patterns that are so far now from the Coleman quartet charming folkish melody and the from the hip and the modern. His "finished" improvising, nor has anyone bass figure is typical of Coleman's solo on Forerunner, with its extreme suggested that it is. Hearing this ability to get a great variety of dynamic contrasts, and that music now is like hearing Armstrong texture from this quartet. ascending phrase, sharply increasing before Chicago or hearing Parker in Ramblin' is probably the only in volume, that almost explodes at Kansas City—perhaps not even like unqualified success on the record, the listener, shows a love of contrast that, since what Coleman is working theme, ensembles, solos and all. that runs through all his music. on represents in a sense an even Coleman's solo, which emerges so Next to Ornette, the date is Haden's. more radical departure from smoothly from the head, may not On Ramblin', Bonita, and the rather established convention. be on changes, but it is a model commonplace tune called Face of Coleman's group is bound to attract of logical construction and a fine the Bass, he shows a vivid and that curious fringe that automatically example of how his solos work. Listen dramatic talent in his solo work, wants whatever is "new" and those to the way he works with and his accompaniments are always to whom any outpourings of the fragments of the theme, pokes them, simple, always fitting, always intuition or the unconscious are nudges them, extends them into a uncluttered. Higgins swings automatically "art". run or a single, long, sustained throughout, and in several places For the rest of us it is a question note, rephrases the notes on the responds to the other players in a of hearing a group passionately, beat like Pete Brown, and then way that one does not always find receptively and effectively working shifts his time conception to give in drummers, especially young out something very, very important his playing relief and variety. drummers. and, even now, very beautiful. Cherry opens his solo with the same This is Coleman's fourth Ip in less One may regret that these men motif which also closes Ornette's take jazz beyond tonality before jazz than two years, and the ragged solo; here, and elsewhere, he uses ensemble work suggests that several had completely absorbed those a lot of material in his solo that resourceful and enriching inversions of the tunes were recorded too Ornette has already worked over, soon. Of course the compositions

24 (tunes?) should have been recorded, has been interesting. Although he blue note and of course the session did take had made splendid contributions to THE FINEST IN JAZZ place last October before the group Thornhill's band and Miles' Nonet, began working regularly, but is no one had listed him among the L SINCE 1939 , Ornette falling into the easy trap of top composer-arrangers. Indeed, becoming bored with the tunes comparatively few, among the public himself before the group has really at least, had heard of him until gotten comfortable playing them? Andre Hodeir's book, Jazz: Its Evo• And is he in the danger, since his lution and Essence came out. solos are free of the normal One chapter in Hodeir's book disciplines of repetitive chord discussed the Miles Davis Capital structure, of making all his solos record in which Evans participated. too much in the same pattern? Hodeir said that Evans' work on There seems to be evidence in this Boplicity alone had earned him a recording for both suspicions. I hope high place in the rank of the jazz I'm wrong, for this musician, and his arrangers. That set the ball rolling. collaborators, have a completeness Who is Gil Evans? Go into the in their approach to all the aspects canebreak and find him. Offer him of their music which is both rare trinkets, farm implements, a set of and promising. teeth and a new horn if necessary. Incidentally, Ornette has said (in a But get him. recent issue of Metronome) that Perhaps it is not fair to compare none of his recordings have been Gil in detail with , doctored by splicing in the studio. the greatest jazz writer. Their AND This is not entirely accurate, for one musical conceptions are different. AT "THE JAZZ CORNER OF THE of the trumpet solos on this Ip was I would like to use such a comparison WORLD" spliced in from another take. I as a point of departure to discuss With , , Bobby was there. some aspects of Gil's style, Timmons, Jymie Merritt. BLUE NOTE 4016, Vol. 2 Hsio Wen Shih however. First, Duke attempts more than Gil. What Evans does, he does well, and MILES DAVIS & GIL EVANS: "Porgy his failures are never pretentious and Bess." Columbia CL 1274. and embarrassing like Ellington's Miles Davis, solo trumpet; Gil Evans (that largely unsuccessful attempt arrangements and conductor; Louis Mucci, at Shakespeare, "Such Sweet , John Coles, Bernie Glow, Thunder" is an example). But when trumpets; Willie Ruff, , Ellington succeeds, he is the great Gunther Schuller, French horns; Jimmy jazz composer-arranger. , Joseph Bennett, Dick Hixon, #1 In a stimulating letter published -4! , ; or last October in The Jazz Review, Jerome Richarsdon, Romeo Penque, flutes; Don Heckman said that he thought , tuba; Julian Adderley, Danny it unfair to qualify Evans' brilliance m Banks, ; , bass; as a jazz arranger-composer by his or , drums. association with Miles Davis. "The The Buzzard Song; Bess, You Is My Woman alliance of Ellington with his Now; Gone, Gone, Gone, Gone; Summertime; orchestra ... in no way detracts Bess, Oh Where's My Bess; Prayer (Oh from the specific jazz talent HORACE-SCOPE Doctor Jesus); Fisherman, Strawberry, and involved." Can Evans be compared THE QUINTET Devil Crab; My Man's Gone Now; It Ain't as a composer to Duke—or even With , , Gene Necessarily So; Here Comes de Honey Man; and , to Taylor, . I Loves You, Porgy; There's a Boat That's mention two others connected with BLUE NOTE 4042* Leaving Soon for New York. big band jazz writing? He has written FUEQO In some respects a discussion of a few attractive originals like DONALD this record seems unnecessary. Blues For Pablo, but are these as BYRD with Almost everyone says it is an important thematic material as say, JACKIE McLKAN outstanding achievement and I would the more numerous and advanced DOUG WATKINS agree wholeheartedly. Similarly, I compositions of or ANIl 1 would just as soon not say much George Russell? Evans may have the LEX HUMPHRIES * about Miles' playing. It is superb, ability to compose as well as he and I probably couldn't add much arranges, but hasn't been to what men like Dick Katz and demonstrated on records to my Andre Hodeir have already written. knowledge. Does Miles include Gil Evans, however, remains a subject the hillbilly sounding Jambangle in of considerable discussion and his repertoire? And why does Evans controversy, and I will use this work with material like Struttin' record only as a point of departure With Some Barbecue or Ella Speed? for comment. He is good, but just (That he makes them sound undated how good? Is he another Duke? Is is a tribute to his skill of course.) he the best since Duke? Is it fair About Heckman's second comment, FUEGO or worthwhile to compare him with his question of how much the Duke—or with anyone? "Porgy" album would lose if Donald With Jackie McLean, Duke Pearson, Doug Watkins, Lex Humphries. Evans is a jazz "mind"; he makes Byrd or even were cast his major contribution to jazz by BLUE NOTE 4026* in Miles' role? Listen to "Old Bottle, *also available in Stereo composing, arranging, orchestrating. New Wine" (World Pacific 1946). It's His history in the eyes of the jazz good, but not as successful as Gil's Complete Catalog on Request public, critics and probably musicians, collaborations with Miles, partly , INC. 43 West 61st Street, New York' 23, N. Y. 25 because the featured soloist, vocabulary, but this isn't a the usual jazz recordings built , is not as close tremendous shortcoming in view of around a "subject". Every track in conception to Gil as Miles is. He his rhythmic and technical mastery. shows the freshness, vitality and is more extravagant and extroverted. (Consider how much interest Louis warmth of spring which fits so well Some of the selections, Lester Leaps Armstrong created on the first version Dorham's approach to jazz. In is one, sound overwritten and of I Can't Give You Anything but Four of the tunes are by Dorham, corny. It's hard to blame anyone Love even though he stayed close and in them are reflected the same specifically but there are too many to the melody.) Edison lacks clean-lined construction, the same notes. Of course, when a man like Armstrong's intuitive good taste, down-to-earth feeling, and the Rehak follows a Cannonball there's however, and he has run into the same wonderful lyricism and bound to be some letdown. ground certain phrases that he sensitivity of his trumpet. He scored Of course, Ellington can't be given picked up during the fifties. How the two standards as well, employing credit for the skill of his soloists, many times has he ruined the some unusual voicings designed for but he created permanent roles for continuity of a passage by quasi-hip the sonorities of the horns he has them in his band. It's no accident squeezed tones or graces notes? This working with him, including Paul that with his half valve day he was in better than average Chambers' strong upper register. In work replaced Rex Stewart; that form. His solo on Devil and the particular the somewhat overworked , and Paul Deep Blue Sea is beautifully paced— It Might As Well Be Spring gets a Gonsalves have similar sounds; that the best I have ever heard him neW lease on life. he's always had a growl trumpet play. He uses several modern Dorham planned everything carefully and a growl trombone man whether melodic phrases which fit in nicely. and rehearsed the group thoroughly. it be Nanton, Butter Jackson, Cootie Unfortunately, he does not maintain There is a cohesion, and there is Williams or ; that he this high level of improvisation; his also that particular kind of relaxation always had a clarinetist and only solo on Funky Uncle is just a series that makes for good blowing. one full time tenor man in contrast of cliches. Dorham's trumpet is in excellent to other modern reed sections. Jimmy Rowles' playing is consistently form. Cannonball and Ellington and his orchestra are good. He has an odd, almost are the other two frequent soloists. wedded like nothing else in jazz. "arranger's" piano style reminiscent Cannonball comes up with some Duke also has a wider palette of of Tad Dameron. Rowles' approach fine playing. It is interesting to moods and emotions than Gil. He has is vertical and percussive rather notice how his association with created introverted moods in than linear. Miles Davis and has compositions like Blue Serge and DeFranco is really off form. The helped him find his own style. Reminiscing In Tempo, but Evans made-to-order blandness of some of Walton is a thoughtful soloist. He has never produced things with the the West Coast musicians has crept could be described as a harder wild power, the sumptuousness, the into his solos, and this Kansas City —listen to his solo on open sense of humor, the raw drama Seven format doesn't help. He plays Blue Spring. He is also my idea of of a Harlem night, the carnival best in an introverted, disciplined a good accompanist—alert, sure, atmosphere that Duke has. I could group like the one he had with always there but never overpowering cite masterpieces such as Main Jimmy Rainey and and never getting hung up with Stem, Harlem Air Shaft, Cottontail, ten years ago. the changes. , in a brief A Train, Giddybug Gallop as Hardaway is a disciple of , solo bit, still has that light sound illustrations. which means everything he plays that is more like a heavy tenor than But what I have said is not a has been heard many times. a baritone. criticism of Evans. Men like is a real mystery— Chambers lays down those strong Ellington come along once every every year he wins all kinds of polls bass lines and solos on the blues fifty or one hundred years and if and gets all kinds of credit—but and Spring Is Here. Philly Joe comes Evans's talent does not match what has he done that hasn't been up with a brief but exciting solo on Ellington's, it probably comes as done as well or better by Irving Spring Cannon. close or closer than anyone elses, Ashby, Oscar Moore (among the older Zita Carno except maybe . No guys), , Rainey, or one has utilized instruments ? Some of his best playing heretofore associated only with was done in '47 with Parker. Now, HARRY EDISON: "Mr. Swing". so-called serious music (flutes, oboe, like DeFranco, he's a robot. His tone Verve 8353. ) as well as he. His has always been too twangy and now Harry Edison, trumpet; , tenor; orchestrations are continually fresh he is using ersatz funky chords a la , piano; Freddy Greene, guitar; and original. And most important Andre Previn. , bass; , drums. his work is sincere and always And since when is dictatorship Love Is Here To Stay; Short Coat; Baby moving. commercial? Won't You Please Come Home; Impresario; III Wind. Harvey Pekar Harvey Pekar Harry Edison has the "presence" which distingushes a star from a BUDDY DeFRANCO: "Generalissimo". KENNY DORHAM: "Blue Spring". lesser performer. He has a wonderfully Verve 8363. Riverside 12-297. idiosyncratic singing jazz tone, Buddy DeFranco, ; Harry Edison, Kenny Dorham, trumpet, arranger; Cannon- beautiful phrasing, and a dramatic trumpet; Bob Hardaway, tenor; Barney ball Adderley, alto; Cecil Payne, baritone; sense of timing. Unfortunately, he is Kessel, guitar,- , bass; Alvin David Antram, french horn; Cedar Walton, also a master of deja-vu, to a degree Stoller, drums; Jimmy Rowles, piano. piano; Paul Chambers, bass; Jimmy Cobb, that anyone with any past familiarity Sunday; Between the Devil and the Deep Philly Joe Jones, drums. with his playing can sing-along-

Blue Sea; Tea for Two; Blue Lou; Funky Blue Spring; It Might As Well Be Spring; with-Harry Edison as he is playing Uncle; Round Midnight; You Don't Know Poetic; Spring Is Here; Spring Cannon; a "new" improvisation for the first What Love It; How Can We Be Wrong; Passion Spring. time. This paramnesiac quality is Lullaby of the Leaves; Yesterdays. This thoughtfully conceived and heightened by the reappearance of Harry Edison dominates this set. executed Ip shows the other side of one of his favorite war horses, Love The other hornmen are pallid and Kenny Dorham, Dorham the composer is Here to Stay, in a lengthy track, dull. Edison has been criticized and arranger, as well as Dorham and two originals which are unfamiliar recently for having a limited melodic the trumpeter. And it isn't really only in their titles.

26 Jimmy Forrest is the only other horn Albany learned from Wilson; Monk player in this group. A full-toned found his own way. But Powell didn't cross between Jacquet and Webster, do either, and many of his slow he succeeded the latter briefly in pieces even sound like bad Tatum. serais the Ellington Band, and stayed just I suspect a fear of lyricism, if fear long enough to fuse strains from is the right word, was perhaps Happy-Go-Lucky Local and I Don't involved; if you take some of the Know What Kind of Blues I Got into ideas that Powell used at other Night Train, which bought him a tempos and slow them down, they THvinE PRESTIGE/SWINGVILLE LABEeL IS DEDI • first-class ticket on rhythm-&-blues turn out to be most beautifully CATED TO KEEPING THE SWING TRADITION circuits for several years. He lyrical melodic fragments. The way ALIVE, NAMELY, SMALL COMBO SWING returned to jazz and Edison's group Powell played them, they seem STYLE. ON THE SWINGVILLE LABEL WE when his carfare ran out. Without ingenious, appropriate and compulsive rock & roll vulgarities, he is warm, fast bop lines. On the Argo record, HAVE RECORDED AND WILL CONTINUE TO confident, and hackneyed. Harris did achieve an order and RECORD SOME OF THE OLD TIME SWING Hightlighted soloist in the good flow on All the Things You Are, GREATS, AS WE BELIEVE THEY STILL HAVE Basie-oriented rhythm section is chiefly by being very inventive A LOT TO SAY. ALSO, THERE ARE MANY Jimmy Jones, here an interesting, melodically, and filling in with ideas MUSICIANS PLAYING TODAY THAT ARE updated stride pianist. constantly, but this Don't Blame Me CARRYING ON THE SWING TRADITION EVEN In brief, a pleasant, unpretentious seems to amble and falter, as Powell THOUGH THEY ARE MODERN AND WE WILL minor album; a typical, if not did in such moods, and one gets INCLUDE THESE MUSICIANS IN THE SWING• particularly incandescent the image of a man undecided VILLE SERIES. IN THE SHORT TIME THIS Edison date. about whether he really wants to LABEL HAS BEEN OUT IT HAS RECEIVED Louis Levy play such pieces or not. And on the medium bounce Is You Is, ideas ACCLAIM FROM CRITICS, DJs AND FANS appropriate to a ballad mood FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD. BARRY HARRIS: "At the Jazz alternate with medium boppish The following is a list of SWINGVILLE Workship". Riverside RLP 326. improvisations, so that the Barry Harris, piano; , bass; performance seems to fall between releases to date: , drums. two stools. Part of the trouble 2001— Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby; may be caused by Louis Hayes; he Curtain Call; Star Eyes; Moose ; is a more than commendable with The Red Garland Trio Lolita, Morning Coffee; Don't Blame Me; drummer in the currently hip 2002— TINY IN SWINGVILLE New York style, but his even brush Woody'n You. with Jerome The first thing to say is that Barry work here seems to me out of Harris is recorded here with a sympathy with Harris' more complex Richardson microphone so close up that his rhythmic ideas. 2003— TATE'S DATE touch and sound are badly A tense hardness of touch, and what BUDDY TATE and His Band distorted. has always seemed to me a kind of 2004— CALLIN' THE BLUES Harris was a kind of legend for extra-musical compulsiveness in his several years as a leader, teacher, playing have often bothered me in TINY GRIMES with Eddie and inspiration to the young Powell's work, but hearing Harris "Lockjaw" Davis, J. C. Higgin- modernists in Detroit. If an outlander play on with a botham and Ray Bryant asked how Harris played, he was different touch (distorted by usually told that recording) and different emotional 2005— COLEMAN HAWKINS ALL STARS "learned from Barry". Well, I would tone made me realize how intrinsic with , say that Flanagan is his own man those very qualities are to the 2006— THE HAPPY JAZZ by now, and that Harris' roots are in urgent continuity Powell did achieve and seem to go no at his best. On the other hand, REX STEWART further and no deeper. Of course, Curtain Call takes the very fast 2007— BUCK JUMPIN' playing that way with Harris' unique Powell of ten years ago and gentle touch can produce a different produces a cohesive performance AL CASEY effect in itself, but, as I say, you with a feeling quite its own—and to 2008— SWINGIN' WITH PEE WEE can't hear much of that touch have done that with a style that with Buck here. Powell evolved for quite different The version of Ornithology on Harris' content is remarkable. And Woody'n Clayton recent Argo Ip seemed to be too You is very well paced, and logically 2009— YES INDEED literally close to Bud Powell's Blue and compellingly developed, in a with Emmett Note version for anybody's comfort, way that makes many Powell even if we call it a tribute. On this followers seem mere phrase mongers Berry, Buddy Tate record, there are references to by comparison, something that could 2010— THE SWINGVILLE ALL STARS Un Poco Loco in the treatments of only be achieved by a player of AL SEARS, , both Woody'n You and Lolita, and personal and musical integrity within Morning Coffee cops part of the line his chosen style. of Thelonious, but the borrowing Martin Williams 2011— isn't wholesale. with Few pianists who derive from Powell can play ballads, but that may not STAN KENTON: "Standards In 2012— be so important; after all, it would Silhouette". Capitol T 1394. with not have occurred to any jazz Stan Kenton, piano; John Bonnie, Marvin pianist before the late twenties to Holladay, , Jack Nimitz, 12" High Fidelity even attempt such pieces, at least Bill Trujillo, saxes; Bud Brisbois, Bill Chase, SEND FOR FREE CATALOGUE not in a real jazz style. The pianists , Roger Middleton, Dalton of the thirties learned how from Smith, trumpets; Jim Amlotte, Bob Knight, INC. Kent Larsen, Archie LeCoque, Don Sebesky, Earl Hines, and Teddy Wilson did it 203 So. Washington Avenue most brilliantly. and Joe trombones; Pete Chivily, bass; Jimmy Bergenfield, New Jersey

27 Campbell, drums; Mike Pacheco, William more than skim the surface, using GEORGE RUSSELL: "Jazz Workshop". Rodriguez, percusion. ( for a unison statement of the theme RCA Victor LPM-1372. Dalton Smith on The Meaning of the Blues in a sort of psuedo-waltz time, but Art Farmer, trumpet; Hal McKusick, alto; and Lonely Woman.) in 4/4. Harmonization is simple, , piano; Barry Gailbraith, guitar;

Willow Weep For Me; The Thrill Is Gone; relying on altered chords and thick , bass; Joe Harris, drums. The Meaning of the Blues; When Sunny Gets orchestration. The central devlop- Ye Hypocrites, Ye Beelzebub; Jack's Blues; Blue; III Wind; Django-, I Get Along Without ment is given to an alto solo with Livingston I Presume; Ezz-thetic. You Very Well; Lonely Woman. a peculiarly distracting insertion of , drums, replaces Harris. It would be foolish and short-sighted the well-known bass theme in the Night Sound; Round Johnny Rondo; Witch to deny that this is a very good middle. When the alto finishes, the Hunt; Concerto for Billy the Kid. band. I suspect that they could band builds in this figure, stamping , bass, and , perform almost any piece of music Kenton's screaming brass trademark drums, replace Hinton and Motian. one would care to place before on the chart. Not really a bad Fellow Delegates; The Sad Sergeant; them. But how much of music is arrangement, but a characterless Knights of the Steamtable; Ballad of Hix performance alone? It was not one. Like the vapid faces of the Blewitt. performance alone that made such Rheingold girls, all the elements (McKusick plays flute on Fellow Delegates great musical organizations of the are in the right places, but their and Hix Blewitt.) Ellington and Basie bands of the total is less than the sum of the GEORGE RUSSELL: "New York, N. Y.". thirties. It was rather a matter of parts because they reflect inner Decca DL 9216. the heart; of the genuine individual emptiness. The Evans chart, as I've Art Farmer, Doc Sevrinson, Ernie Royal, spirit. That is why Duke's band, for mentioned previously here is quite trumpets; Bob , Frank Rehak, instance, sounded different when different. From the concisely inter• Tom Mitchell, trombones; Hal McKusick, there was a personnel change: the woven piano and soprano solos to John Coltrane, Sol Schlinger, reeds, Bill balance was altered, sometimes ever the final explosive climax, it is a Evans, piano; , guitar; so slightly, but here was a new man model of developing musical Milt Hinton, bass; Charlie Persip, drums. with a new story of his own that complexity. All of the parts look both had to come together with all the inward and out, balancing feeling Farmer, , Royal, trumpets: others. I don't know; maybe it was and emotion with logic and form. Brookmeyer, , Mitchell, a reflection of the times. But in Perhaps it is too much to expect trombones; , McKusick, , this day of secure, organized group even a modicum of this sort of , reeds; Evans, piano; Galbraith, conformity, other needs must be met. concern for musical values from a guitar; , bass; , Art sems no longer to be a symbolic man who professes to hold artistic drums. A Helluva Town. projection of intense individualism. considerations above all others, but , replaces Roach; Al Epstein, The collective has come into Kenton has shown little in the way bongoes; George Russell, chromatic drums, its own. of musical results to justify added. Manhattan-Rico. Kenton reflects his times. He his words. Farmer, Wilder, Joe Ferrante, trumpets; presents a catalogue of readily The other piece common to this Brookmeyer, Rehack, Mitchell, trombones; available and superficial emotions recording and Evans' "Miles Ahead" Woods, McKusick, , Schlinger, for the taking; a quick thrill for album is The Meaning of the Blues. reeds; Evans, piano; Galbraith, guitar; the safe inhabitants of this Herald Again the difference is obvious, Hinton, bass; Persip, drums. Tribune-ized America; feeling without specifically in intention. Evans' Big City Blues; East Side Medley; Autumn experience, the cheapest, most voicings, despite their richness, are in New York; How About You. abundant commodity in popular never static, but have a continuous At its best, jazz composition presents entertainment today. movement, both in color and in a fusion between writing and I do not mean to detract from complexity. Bill Matheiu's chart is extemporisation. In the outstanding Bill Matheiu's considerable talents, considerably more prosaic, relying recordings of , but I think he is rather typical of principally on Ericson's trumpet Ellington, Monk and John Lewis, the arrangers Kenton has used in the and an accompaniment of thick the pre-determined and improvised past (with the possible exception of trombones and harmon-muted sections appear mutually dependent ). The vision has been trumpets. It never becomes more extensions of each other. Achieving primarily Kenton's, and the arrangers than a pleasant, but turgid, dance such a relationship has depended, have, in the main, only been used band ballad. The remaining numbers for Ellington and Lewis, to fill out the gaps in a picture are of similar quality, with little on having under their that is not their own. So much of movement or change in attitude. direction, for greater or lesser periods, this music since the "Artistry" days There are, however, several good groups of performers whose has been constructed so as to give moments: Archie LeCoque's trombone potentialities they know intimately— the greatest degree of emotional on III Wind, Charlie Mariano's alto men who are completely familiar impact to the widest possible on I Get Along Without You Very with, and generally sympathetic to, audience. This is "talking down" at Well and the ensemble on When their leader's approach. Denied these its worst and Kenton has often been Sunny Gets Blue. ideal conditions—which can allow so guilty of it. And, the notes for his Although this is neither the best much scope for experiment—the "Kenton Era" recordings indicates nor the worst he has ever had, this best a jazz composer can hope to do that he still retains an incredibly is unquestionably a Kenton band. is to assemble for recordings a distorted viewpoint of his own All the trademarks are there, obvious pick-up group which will interpret contributions. to the most casual listener. I wonder his work, more or less unfamiliar to them, with intuitive sympathy and Two of the numbers here have been what this group of talented musicians produce improvisations which, recently arranged and recorded by would sound like if they were although personal, accord with the Gil Evans. The contrast between allowed to gain their own personality. character of the compositions. This this- recording and the Gil Evans Their musical aptitude is excellent, is a lot to expect, but it has been versions is self-evident. The emotional and it is only those elusive factors achieved fairly often, as the finest coloration in Evans' music is only of character and individuality that Morton and Monk records—Doctor one element of design and develops are missing. Perhaps if Kenton were Jazz, The Chant or the Blue Note naturally as its many parts all come able to use his qualities of leadership Evidence and Misterioso—show. In together; never as an end in itself. in this direction, he would acquire his remarkable RCA Victor "Jazz Django is a good example. The his first real jazz band. Workshop" Ip George Russell, while Kenton arrangement does nothing Don Heckman

28 not reaching the depth of original stock arranging techniques in those expression achieved by the composers scores at all. Night Sound is a mentioned above, has nonetheless similar blues-based piece with 206—WALT GIFFORO'S NEW YORKERS achieved a group of performances shifting tonal centers. More evocative with JOHNNY WINDHURST, tpt; Ed Hubble, tbn; Bob Mitchell, clt; Dick which give us an accurate idea of still is The Sad Sergeant, with its Cary, p; Walt, d. and others: his powers of composition, and help trumpet calls and drum rolls which— - I Can't Believe That You're to define his very individual position amusingly and at a distance— In Love With Me - Fidgety Feet - At in jazz writing. He picked his suggest the parade ground. The The Jazz Band Ball - , Here musicians extremely well. As far as imaginative way in which these I Come - Girl Of My Dreams - That's one can tell, Farmer, Evans, Galbraith rolls and trumpet figures are varied A Plenty - Struttin' With Some Bar• and McKusick understand his and used in conjunction with the becue - It All Depends On You. "Johnny Windhurst, who adds sugges• intentions fully and are wholly spiritual Ye Hypocrites, ye Beelzebub (upon which another track also is tions of Wild Bill Davison's swagger to sympathetic to his ideas. Time, also, a base of Beiderbeckian lyricism. He was on Russell's side, for the Ip was based) form a good illustration of is capably supported..." John S. Wil• recorded in three sessions spread Russell's unfettered accomplishment. son, HIGH FIDELITY-8/60. out over 1956. Contrasting with these are Livingstone List $4.98 — Our Price $3.98, postpaid. Regular readers of The Jazz Review and a full treatment of Ye Hypocrite. Here, in place of the sensitive SOUTHLAND RECORDS — $2.98 each, postpaid. will be familiar with elements of Excellent catalog of — Russell's tonal language from John melodic lines of Jack's Blues and LP's featuring top jazz artists: Night Sound, strongly differentiated 200—JOHNNY WIGGS New Orleans Kings — Tom Benson Brooks's article in the Brown, Harry Shields, Stan Mendelson February, 1960 issue. No detailed patterns are set against each other 205— SHARKEY'S KINGS OF DIXIELAND with Jack and against the basic beat. Never, Delaney, Mendelson, Abbie Brunies, etc. examination can be made here of 206— PAPA CELESTIN'S NEW ORLEANS MUSIC with though, does the texture become how this is applied in practice, nor Ed Pierson, etc. dense or cluttered. As much can be 207— MAROI GRAS MUSIC FROM NEW ORLEANS— of precisely how it affects the said of the exhilerating Round 8 great bands: Hirt, Sharkey, Almerico, Fountain, musicians in their extemporisations. Wiggs, Pecora, etc. Johnny Rondo, which has an 208— GEORGE LEWIS N.0. RHYTHM BOYS—Marrero, But the foremost impression this Watkins, Drag, Robinson, Howard, etc. unusually diverse theme section. 209— RAYMOND BURKE — Jazz' most under-rated record gives is one of freshness- The horns are used contrapuntally— clarinet with A. Alcorn, Mendelson, Brunies, Thos. Russell is in a new tonal world Jefferson, Jack Delaney, etc. and very interesting dissonant 210— NEW ORLEANS JAZZ — GEORGE BRUNIS, (or a world of new relationships) counterpoint it is, too—antiphonally, OCTAVE CROSBY, LEON PRIMA bands with Pecora, which has nothing contrived or Matty Matlock, Ted Buckner, Albert Burbank, and combined in opposing Bouchon, Hazel, etc. freakish about it, but, on the contrary, patterns. 211—A L HIRT'S NEW ORLEANS JAZZ BAND with is natural, self-sufficient, and Harry Shields, Bob Havens, etc. Different again is Ballad, which 212—JOHNN Y ST. CYR HOT 5/PAUL BARBARIN possesses enormous possibilities. J.B. with Jim Robinson, Joe Avery, Thos. Jeffer• This record demonstrates that, once has a fine, open air feeling. It begins son, Willie Humphrey, Marrero, etc. with unaccompanied flute and guitar 213— SANTO PECORA AND HIS NEW ORLEANS one has mastered it, the Lydian RHYTHM KINGS with Thos. Jefferson, Harry Shields, concept, far from being a lines, the piano enters later with intriguing harmonies, and there is a 214— DIXIELAND — WAY DOWN YONDER IN NEW constricting discipline, affords great ORLEANS with Lee Collins, , Ray• freedom in a number of directions. sharply contrasting, and humorous, mond Burke, Mendelson, J. Delaney, etc. Within this very large framework pseudo-dixie section. Ezz-thetic, with 215— PETE FOUNTAIN — NEW ORLEANS TO LOS its convoluted melodic line, is ANGELES with Eddie Miller, , Bauduc, Abe Russell is extremely inventive— Lincoln, Stan Wrightsman, etc., etc. another gay yet powerful piece. This inventive of themes and developments 216— NEW ORLEANS DIXIELAND — SHARKEY, is, incidentally, a far more satisfying SANTO, GIRARD with Burke, Shields, Hug, Mend., of distinctive character and performance than the version Lee varied mood. 217— MONK HAZEL AND HIS NEW ORLEANS KINGS Konitz recorded in 1951. (It is with Al Hirt, Pete Fountain, Monk Hazel, and Perhaps Jack's Blues displays the many others unfortunate that Russell did not 218—THRE E MORE NEW ORLEANS GREAT BANDS— scope of the composer's resources include Odjenar, also recorded by DOC S0UCH0N/J0HNNY WIGGS/ARMAND HUG with as well as anything here. This Ray Burke, St. Cyr, , Paul Barbarin, Konitz, on this disc in place of Lester Bouchon, etc. manages to combine the unified Concerto, the one inferior composition 219—TO M BROWN AND HIS JAZZ BAND with Ray expression of contrasting moods in Burke, Mike Lala, Mangiapane, etc., etc., etc. here.) This new performance of 220— JOE CAPRAR0 — DIXIELAND DOWN SOUTH— quite a short time. The theme section Ezz-thetic includes Evans's best solo Chas. Cordilla, Bob Havens, Ray Burke, etc. is slow, but conveys the impression 221— ARMAND HUG/EDDIE MILLER — with Havens, on the disc—a very good one. Indeed, Lala, Harry Shields, Chink, Monk, etc. of a shifting, indefinite tempo, and throughout Evans and Farmer appear 222— SHARKEY AND HIS KINGS OF DIXIELAND— features a beautiful, blues-derived to be entirely at home with Russell's with Hug, Shields, Havens, Capraro, etc. 223— EMILE CHRISTIAN N.0. JAZZ BAND — Hug, melody. A firmer pace is set for the music and, while retaining all the Havens, Shields, Hazel, Lala, Capraro, etc., etc. alto solo, a brief linking ensemble 224— ARMAND HUG — DIXIELAND FROM NEW identifying characteristics of their ORLEANS — Harry Shields, Havens, Emile X, etc. provides contrast, a jaunty piano styles, improvise solos that are real 225— PAPA CELESTIN with Picou, Matthews, etc. solo follows, the guitar is accompanied extensions of the composed material. JUST A FEW HARD-TO-GET TRADITIONAL JAZZ LP'S by the horns, and the theme returns. (The accord between the writing and at $3.98 postpaid: The form here and on most of the the best of the improvising is shown Stephany 4002—DANNY ALVIN with Floyd O'Brien, etc. (STEREO 50c extra) other tracks—theme, solos, theme— on Livingstone, where the return of Stephany 4011—MIFF MOLE — with Signorelli, is conventional enough, yet the the involved thematic section sounds Castle, Lytell, etc. Replica 1006—NO SAINTS — FRANZ JACKSON relationship between written and perfectly natural following the relative band with Bob Schoffttner, Albert Wynn, Bill improvised material is never static, simplicity of the solos.) McKusick Oldham, L. Dixon, etc. Omega 1056—GEORGE LEWIS — special price, for Russell places the solos differently is equally sympathetic, equally only $2.98 postpaid. and supplies varied bridges and competent, but his lack of Sorry, as of this writing, we are out of most individuality as a soloist is one of of the $1.98 specials advertised last month, contrasting backgrounds. However, and very low on Tone's PRIMITIVE PIANO LP, no words can adequately delineate the weak points of this record. but can still supply: Folk Lyric — Stinson — Louisiana Folklore the subtle originality with which Galbraith is less obviously prominent Society — Carnival Commodore — Paramount the horn, piano, and guitar parts are but plays an important part in the 10" ($3.85 ppd.) — and all the major and minor jazz and folk labels at 20% OFF. (Labels speci• organized on this and several other ensembles and was, I think, a fied here will be shipped postpaid, all other, tracks. Nor can they describe the considerable factor in the success of please add 50c postage and handling fee PER SHIPMENT (not per LP) changing and diversified textures; these performances. AMERICA'S JAZZ CENTER Russell's individuality is everywhere Many other notable passages on this AMERICA'S JAZZ CENTER in evidence; nothing is determined record could be mentioned, for by mere formulae, and there seem example, the duet-extemporisation SEYMOUR'S RECORD MART for wood drums and chromatic drums to be no commonplace sounds or 439 S. Wabash, Chicago 5, III.

29 in Fellow Delegates, but the foregoing on some sections—especially Medley— dynamics always good, his should indicate sufficiently that it or was he persuaded to do so by construction in producing a solo is an exceptional Ip of "composed Decca? Only Big City Blues is really masterful, and his improvisation and improvised" jazz. It is not simply worthy of him, and it would be as nearly pure and free from a question of Russell's mastery of unfortunate if people heard this personal and public cliches as one the mechanics of a particular mode record and thought it represented is likely to encounter. I still prefer of composition, but of his being able the best of his powers. The compro• M/1 through M/3 because in to express a variety of moods in mising, relatively commercial nature those albums you get to hear other pieces which afford the soloists of parts of "New York, N. Y." seems good men (Farmer, Sulieman, plenty of scope and which always the more regrettable when one Gryce, and ) explore swing. Russell's scoring may be quite recalls the curiously evocative Waldron's structures; but M/4 is complex at times, but it is never the atmospheres of pieces like Night a fine example of how musical kind of complexity that is inimical Sound, The Sad Sergeant or Ballad qualities in the absence of to swing. of Hix Blewitt. If Russell had technical excellence can buoy up Set against the achievement of the written a kind of tone-parallel (to a 12 inch Ip performance so that "Workshop" Ip, "New York, N. Y." is use Ellington's term) of New York it can be listened to a disappointment. Hendricks' spoken City on that level it would have repeatedly. commentary, which prefaces each been a memorable composition Waldron's supporters here track, is superfluous and, with indeed. Max Harrison are not the best in the business repeated hearing, annoying. The by any means. is music should be allowed to speak a musical bassist whose sound for itself. Manhattan, like several of : "Mal/4 Trio". is more fully recorded here than the tracks, contains scoring that is New Jazz 8208. in the past, although he still tends good, yet seldom distinguished. The Mai Waldron, piano; Addison Farmer, bass; to be chunky at times, and uses too trombone solos (Brookmeyer and Kenny Dennis, drums. small a portion of the possible Rehack) are empty, but Bill Evans Splidium-Dow; Like Someone in Love; range of his instrument compared is excellent. So is Coltrane in this Get Happy; J. M.'s Dream Doll; Too Close to Mingus, Chambers, Mitchell, rather unexpected context. Better for Comfort; By Myself; Love Span. LaFaro, et al. Dennis' sense of than most of the writing on this This Ip by Mai Waldron is a trio dynamics is narrow, his playing track are the bridges between the recording because in the leader's throughout this Ip stays in just solos, especially the forceful one own opinion (and apparently in that about the same groove—a medium linking Evans and Coltrane. Note also of New Jazz) his playing technique hard one—except on the slow the unusual positioning of the guitar has improved sufficiently to warrant ballads. Dennis swings, but he above the full ensemble between it. Says Waldron: "There was a time doesn't seem to be accustomed Coltrane's and Farmer's solos. Big when my writing was way ahead of to playing in a trio. Some of his City Blues is considerably superior, my playing. But now I've learned to punctuation, in the middle choruses and is in fact easily the best track. use the same techniques I use when of Too Close For Comfort and The theme is a haunting one, and is I'm writing when I'm performing." elsewhere, is labored. enhanced by much more personal I agree that Mal does employ the The range of material here is good, scoring and harmony, skillfully same techniques in writing and starting with a hard moaning blues, developed in a lengthy passage playing. But the first part of the Splidium Dow, on which Waldron's deploying the entire ensemble; the above quote implies that Waldron ability to take a simple phrase and, tempo doubles for the solos. Golson believes he has achieved a technical through repetition, slight alteration, remains a puzzling soloist. His tone facility at the keyboard up to the and change in accent, create is clearly derived from the Don level of his writing. Reviews of a moving blues statement seems Byas- modes of Waldron's series of discs for unsurpassed in contemporary tenor playing, yet his phrases attempt Prestige-New Jazz indicate that the jazz. Like Someone in Love is at to imitate Coltrane. Such tone and playing of this artist has gradually first deliberate and very slow. such phrasing go ill together (this improved from Mal/1 to Mal/4. On At this tempo many jazz pianists is the more obvious after Manhattan, the whole I cannot agree. The only tend to become excessively in which Coltrane himself soloed noticeable change in Mai's piano flowery, or to fall apart twice) and so direct an imitation is work is that his confidence appears funereally. But Waldron is both unworthy of the talent Golson has to have improved, making his spare and poignantly moving in shown as a writer. There is some performances less shaky; the same the opening, stepping it up a fine scoring behind Evans's solo on atrocious fingering, the scuttling shade for the improvisational this track. Manhatta-Rico is brittleness of his lines, and the segments, but not changing the unremarkable thematically,- the inability to produce flow in execution basic mood. Get Happy is taken at scoring is good, but is far from the are there, and I suspect they will a tempo that so far out-distances best the composer can do. Even so, remain. Mai's keyboard facility that it it still maintains a level of personal is painful; even Waldron's other These technical characteristics craftsmanship considerably above qualities are hard to discern here probably make Mal Waldron's playing the work of a number of better-known while he is concerned with largely unaccepteable to listeners arrangers. There is good playing on keeping up. Too Close for Comfort who demand technical excellence bongos and chromatic drums, and is my favorite track; it is the above all else, and who are aware Farmer and Evans once more come longest of all the performances, of no other criterion for judging off best in the solos. Medley largely but though Mal is as spare and their favorites. features Evans in a kind of superior functional as can be, he maintains cocktail playing and reflects little But I am happy to say that there interest chorus after chorus, credit on anyone concerned. More are several other very important each time finding a slight variant good scoring—but not on the level criteria by whicn a jazz artist of the tune without resorting of Blues—can be heard on Helluva may be judged, and that M/4 is to contrivance or change of mood. Town, and there is a fine solo by an excellent jazz record and Mal Each of the other selections Roach. Waldron an excellent jazz musician illustrates Waldron's jazz talents, because he is superlative in some adequately, some It is hard to decide in just what these other facets of the art. superbly. spirit "New York, N. Y." was produced. His conception is unfailingly Did Russell deliberately write-down moving, his sense of overall I have refrained from trying to

30 place Mal Waldron into a specific I find the results disturbingly uneven. inconsequential country songs, all niche in the contemporary jazz The first class talents in jazz are recorded between 1927 and 1944. piano scene. His only obvious and consistent. They have arrived at The yodels contain familiar admitted influence is Monk, but a system of phrasing, rhythmic fragments which Rodgers intersperses the relationship to the latter is projection, and intonation that is with yodeled refrains. The form of probably one mainly of a mature all of one piece: It may come from these yodels became so firmly recognition by Waldron of the several antecedents, but it comes established that singers, both similarity in harmonic approach out whole. There would be no clash commercial and folk, later followed that he and Monk have, and a of vibrato as one finds in Miss its outlines. Thus Rodgers acted resulting inspiration to further Washington; no abandonment of as a sort of middle man, an agent his work in this direction, rather beat to satisfy the dramatic who carried material from the folk than an active attempt to emulate posture; no wavering of intention to the non-folk level, from which Monk. The fact is that Mal Waldron or use of devices for the sake of it then filtered back into folk is as much his own man as anyone virtuoso display. The intent to tell tradition. on the scene, only secondarily, I a story in musical terms is never, In contrast to the Negro blues believe, a jazz piano player; I feel, uppermost in Miss Washington's singers of the thirties, who sang primarily a distinctive jazzman, mind; her main concern seems to be many of the same verses which quite apart from his chosen in selling a song in the most appear in Rodgers' yodels, Jimmie instrument. dramatic way possible. The seems musically pretty cut and John William Hardy audience, not the art, comes first dried. Melody and rhythm are in her performance. straight forward, almost square, with This Ip is a very fair sample of few of the tricky rhythmic shifts DINAH WASHINGTON: "After Hours her work, certainly as good as her and nebulous melodic areas. with Miss 0". Emarcy MG-36028. live performances. Dinah has a In fact, what Jimmie sings is Dinah Washington, vocals; Clark Terry, formidable presence that takes actually blues in ragtime, but with a trumpet; Gus Chappell, trombone; Rick charge in the recording studio as hillbilly flavor. Henderson, alto; Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, readily as it does in the concert To listen to Rodgers is at times , tenors, or hall. The material is very well a bit jolting, because his premature S. Anderson, piano; Keter Betts, bass; chosen and such seems always to entrances and his chord changes , drums; Candido, bongos, be true, for even if, in fact, in the middle of a measure give Jackie Davis, organ. someone picks it for her she has the effect that he is out of meter, Blue Skies; Bye Bye Blues; Am I Blue; the master showman's intuition but if studiously counted out, the Our Love is Here to Stay; A Foggy Day; concerning what is suitable for her pieces come out right in the end. I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart; Pennies kind of performance. The backgrounds Besides coming in ahead of time, from Heaven; Love for Sale. are excellent, too; free and Rodgers often extends his lines Dinah Washington has almost no spirited, with a fine overall sound. beyond where they should end; and rival as Queen Bee of the jazz- Clark Terry and Lockjaw Davis again, rather than furthering rhythmic concert circuit. She is personable, provide the big, muscular, brawling interest through this device, like has presence, and knows how to sort of lines that help point up the "country" blues men, he sounds sell her vocal material, be it blues Miss Washington's hard-sell delivery. somewhat amateurish, as though he or ballad. Billed with (or above) Jackie Davis comes on very strong hadn't yet learned to count. the top draw groups on the with his rampant electric organ. Rodgers' work resembles that of hard-blowing auditorium circuit, Like the liner notes say, man, it wails. Ray Charles in that Charles' pieces Dinah usually appears with Ross Russell also contain familiar stanzas that quality accompaniments and float from song to song. Charles, presumably is a serious jazz singer. like Rodgers, has molded this An important name on records, too. JIMMIE RODGERS: "My Rough and material into an individual style. In attempting to evaluate this Rowdy Ways". RCA Victor LPM-2112. With Charles, though, to a far greater highly successful singer, one is Jimmie Rodgers' Last Blue Yodel (The extent than with Rodgers, the challenged by her eclectic style. Women Make a Fool Out of Me); style has become a formula. Her truest tone is like Billie Holiday's, Moon; My Rough and Rowdy Ways; Blue Rodgers used the material to small, pure, and insinuating. Yodel No. 9 (Standin' on the Corner); high-light his own abilities and his At such times as she uses it, her My Blue Eyed Jane; The One Rose; Southern performances (which in themselves beat is strong and her phrasing Cannonball; Long Tall Mamma Blues; In the are nothing startling); while Charles sinuous; she is initimate and highly Jaimouse Now No. 2; Peach Picking Time lately has permitted the material effective. Down in Georgia; Blue Yodel No. 1 (T For to blot out his considerable talents. Sarah Vaughn, of course, Texas); Travellin' Blues; Mule Skinner Blues Charles' material has never measured represents the major style change (Blue Yodel No. 8); My Carolina Sunshine up to his ability—the melody, and since Billie Holiday. A cross of Billie Girl; The Brakeman's Blues (Yodeling the even more the text, of his classic and a touch of Sarah suggests real Blues Away); Away Out on the Mountain. I Got a Woman are nothing but possibilities, that might add warmth "RAY CHARLES in Person". cliche after cliche—but Ray and intimacy to the cool objectiveness Atlantic 8039. upholsters his songs with a musical of the modern school. But Dinah Ray Charles, piano and vocals; Marcus covering arresting enough to draw Washington employs this mode in Belgrave, John Hunt, trumpets; David attention completely away from the a minor way, more to add flavor and Newman, tenor; Bennie Crawford, baritone; banalities. When he's trying to piquancy than to carry the main Edgar Willis, bass; Teagle Fleming, drums; mesmerize a crowd, however, as is part of her performance. Her real vocal acompaniment by The Raylettes; vocal the case with the "In Person" album, emphasis is on the big, earthy, solo on The Right Time and Tell The Truth Ray is no better than his material, dramatic delivery that goes back by Marjorie Hendricks and hardly better than many another rock and roller. Charles, in albums to the twenties and originated with The Right Time; What'd I Say; Yes Indeed!; such as this, fails to live up to his Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. And The Spirit-Feel; Frenesi; Drown in my Own earlier promise. there is no question that as she Tear; Tell The Truth. uses it, it is highly effective with The late Jimmie Rodgers' forte The liner on the Rodgers album large audiences. Subtlety and small, appears to be his blue yodels (four says Earl Hines and Louis Armstrong pure sounds are more suitable in of which are included in this album) play on Blue Yodel Number 9. That the cabaret than the auditorium. along with other blues, and some could be debated. Mimi Clar

31 and features some bars from Pres, entirely the case. It is a well Eldridge, Phillips, Carter, etc. It also coordinated, driving group, with SHORTER has a long pedestrian drum solo somewhat unsteady but able soloists from . Peterson has no who try to speak with their own solo. voices. They do not always succeed, Sentimental big bands enthusiasts but their efforts are commendable. REVIEWS should be elated by ' The best soloist is unquestionably "Swing is Here" (Verve MG-2134) McKenzie. He has obviously studied with charts by such stalwarts as and learned much from Milt Jackson, Bill Holman, Al Cohn, Marty Paich, but he has made good use of his and ; slick, carefully study. His improvisations are ably "The HERB PILHOFER Trio" (Argo tailored work without novelty or wrought and well developed with LP-567) is, as far as I know, the feeling. Ubiquitous performers neat melodic figures and without initial recording of this group with Conte Candoli, Stu Williamson, embroidery or faking. I think his guitarist Dale dinger and bassist , Bill Perkins, and work on his own composition Stu Anderson. The unit is a tightly Mel Lewis are among the sidemen. Floretta is a good example of his integrated one and depends for much Gibbs is his usual bland self and playing, but unfortunately, the tune of its effectiveness upon the close provides simulated swing. is a sort of pastiche of John Lewis. polyphonic interplay of the voices. "The Guitar Artistry of TAL FARLOW" Multi-instrumentalist Hampton is They have chosen material which is (Verve MG V-8370) is a sort of best on alto which he plays with good in itself and has not been artsy-craftsy, intime affair with quasi-Parker ideas and agitated overplayed: Valse Hot, The Duke, flutists-saxophonists Bobby Jasper grace, but on Lover Man he uses My Ship, Godchild. Their playing is and Frank Wess and pianist Dick some obvious, melodramatic runs. always in good taste and their ideas Hyman. It is too bad, for Farlow As a pianist he functions well, but are clearly defined and consistently can be an interesting soloist. In his not memorably here; his clarinet is developed. Each player seems to best work his lines have melodic pleasant but little more. I think the understand the others and to know direction and impeccable, if somewhat wood flute and the track X-A-Dose how to work in with them. Pilhofer stiff, time. There is a good example was a mistake. Clarke integrates his and Olinger bear most of the solo here in his unamplified playing on bongos and conga with the drums burden and they acquit themselves Telefunky. However, the rest of his to complement Hunter and does not well. Nevertheless, most of the work, both amplified and unamplified, play them for gratuitous effects. performances seem to lack what I seems somehow only competent. Hunter and Williams seem somewhat would call vitality. Everything is well A Foggy Day, Sweet Lorraine, and indecisive, but they provide the done, but one is conscious of what Telefunky have a trio of guitar, bass, necessary support. seems a desire to be correct at all and flute or saxophone and Milt Hinton "Singin' the Blues" (Camden CAL-588) costs, and neither the solos nor the is thoroughly admirable on these is a collection of from RCA polyphonic passages seem to have compiled by Leonard Feather. It feeling of deep engagement. The ADDERLEY BROTHERS are back includes Leadbelly's Good Morning The title "LES McCANN Plays the again with "" Blues; Lizzie Miles' Yellow Dog Gal Truth" (Pacific Jazz PJ-2) should be (Riverside RLP 12-322), a rather Blues; Hot Lips Page's Just Another enough to tell you what to expect; disheartening experience, particularly Woman; Li I Green's Why Don't You that and titles like A Little 3/4 for when one considers the extent Do Right; Waller's Bessie, Bessie, God and Co. and Fish This Week Cannonball had developed as a Bessie; Manone's How Long Blues; But Next Week Chittlings. McCann is soloist before forming this group—a Armstrong-Teagarden's 50-50 Blues; a funky pianist. His touch is somewhat good, consistent player, reliable for an Johnny Moore's How Blue Can You lighter than most, but his playing even level of performance. His Get; Eckstine's Jelly, Jelly; Rushing's has no originality, and he nowhere playing here seems almost a Walking Slow Behind You; Lucy shows signs of being able to develop mish-mash of casually tossed out Reed's You've Got A Date With the a solo. He depends on the standard ideas of which the vulgarity of Blues; The Rhythm Club of London's figures dear to all pianists of his Easy Living is, unfortunately, a Mighty Like the Blues. I would say persuasion. When he turns from good example. There are the the Leadbelly and the Armstrong- 'church' music to ballads the result ersatz-Davis sounds of brother Nat, Teagarden warrant reissuing. The is weltschmerz on I'll Remember and on three tracks, the carefully Leadbelly has a hint of the April, glib blankness of How High manufactured funk of Bobby "Popular Front" of the thirties, and the Moon, and banality on This Can't Timmons. The book is full of sterling the other is a vocal trifle with some Be Love. provides a Silver, but it does make one appreciate good solos work from the two. Some stable background, while drummer Silver and the Jazz Messengers. case can be made for Lil Green, Ron Jefferson seems to be a Four of the tracks here Johnny Moore, and Page, but if these, performer of some skill and poise. have Barry Harris on piano, but and the poorer remainder of the From Frank Evan's liner notes I even this estimable musician seems tracks are all that you can garner learn that McCann has learned from defeated, and the promising Louis from those bulging files of blues and is admired by Miles Davis; I Hayes has fallen off since his days recordings at RCA, why bother? can't hear what and I don't hear with Silver. Sam Jones does what is Feather has been a jazz critic for why. expected, but he can do more. over twenty years; does this set "The Trio at the The BUCK CLARKE Quintet is a new reflect his ideas of the blues and JATP" (Verve MG-8368) is from an group from Washington, D.C., with blues singing? Eckstine? Lizzie Miles? undated concert when the trio was Clarke on bongoes and conga drum; That Manone? There is much better Brown and Kessel plus the leader. Don McKenzie, vibraphone; Charles Rushing to be found elsewhere! If Peterson's flashy technique and inept Hampton, piano, alto, clarinet, and you're going to do Waller, why this ideas are displayed at length; wooden flute; Fred Williams, bass; one? But why go on when there are Cheek to Cheek is an extremely apt Roscoe Hunter, drums. Their only Lucy Reed with illustration of the emptiness and recording debut, "Cool Hands" and the Sextet of the Rhythm Club tastlessness he is so prone to. (Offbeat OJ-3003), is moderately of London with Hazel Scott as Kessel and Brown do their jobs. interesting. The instrumentation may vocalist and pianist to go on to? The last track, , is from suggest either a cocktail unit or an Leonard Feather is listed as pianist one of those P. T. Barnum finales MJQ derivative, but neither is and composer on Just Another Woman

32 and composer on Mighty Like the Blues, while Jane Feather is given Toseanini?} No one has time to hear every MUNCH? composer credit for You've Got a new disc as it appears. For Date With the Blues. Feathering the nest? the kind of reliable help you The concert recording need to make up your own from the 1958 Fair (Columbia CL 1410) is plagued by a poor mind before buying, read ... rhythm section, Arvell Shaw, and Kansas Fields and pianist . Wein is prone to lugubrious solos, and there is a tasteless arco solo from Shaw on Society Blues. .The American Then, too, there seems to be a lack of understanding among Bechet and Clayton and Dickenson so that the ensemble passages are usually badly Record Guide conceived, particularly on St. Louis incorporating THE AMERICAN TAPE GUIDE Blues and a poor When the Saints Go Marching In. Bechet grandstands untidily on St. Louis Blues, and his great skill and superb melodic sense • truly encyclopedic in its coverage oi the month's releases are the victims. Much of his work on • for two dozen years the collector's most trusted counselor Sewanee River is virtually a parody • the oldest independent journal oi opinion in the field of his Summertime. (Of course, the • and more than just reviews—comparisons! melody is abysmal, but why play it?) Vic Dickenson performs largely with Special Introductory Offer To New Readers hes mannerisms; on he coasts along, blithe and Please enter my trial subscription for eight months. I enclose $2fJ. Bill me • tricky, on snorts and smears. The best moments of the set come from Name .. whose completely developed solo on Society Blues is beautiful enough to compensate for Address his obvious playing on All of Me. He is also the voice of taste, reason, City Zone State and moderation in St. Louis Blues. MAIL TO: P. 0. Box 319 • Radio City Station • Hew York 19, N. Y. is certainly the best » known and most popular of the "Kansas City" blues singers. His voice is large but flexible and he adds a wistful, rather sad air to the hard, sophisticated Midwestern blues that he sings. I feel that in his occasional attempts with popular songs he is unable to rework them into appropriate vehicles for his essentially realistically melancholy mode of expression. "Rushing Lullabies" (Columbia CL 1401) uses a small Uptown-styled group, variously with Buddy Tate, Ray Bryant, , Jo Jones, and Sir Charles Thompson to back him. They play functionally. Rushing's singing on most of the tracks seems almost disinterested; he runs through I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me and Good Rockin' Tonight without conviction. This sort of treatment is more obvious in the unsuitable numbers like Russian Lulaby and . However, on more appropriate songs like One Evening, You Can't Run Noted jazz historian, MARSHALL STEARNS, author of the STORY OF JAZZ, takes notes Around, and Did You Ever his real for his new book on jazz and the dance from an interview tape that he plays back on ability gives depth to some of the his NORELCO 'Continental' tape recorder. DR. STEARNS is Director of the INSTITUTE varieties of human disillusion and OF JAZZ STUDIES and Associate Professor of English at HUNTER COLLEGE. "/ make the stoic weariness in coping with constant use of my NORELCO 'Continental' when doing field work for my books and them. You Can't Run Around has an articles," states DR. STEARNS. "Here, the most significant feature is three speed ambience of passive suffering and versatility. I find that the extremely economical l7/s speed is ideal for recording abasement that is harrowing—and interviews from which I later take material needed for my work. The other speeds artistically successful. are exceptional for their ability to capture the full fidelity of music and voice." The NORELCO 'Continental' is a product of North American Philips Co., Inc., High H. A. Woodfin Fidelity Products Division, Dept. leeS, 230 Duffy Avenue, Hicksville, L. I., N. Y. 33 him an injustice by insist• themselves alienated, JAZZ IN PRINT ing on the revolutionary the internal emigrants character of the sounds of America." which, in defiance of all Leonard Feather is quoted the rules of all musical in Variety as having games, he produces out of decided to leave criticism his plastic alto-sax, and and concentrate on which can only be described music composition and in words which carry un• work. "His contention now wanted overtones of de• is that jazz, as well as preciation: squeaking, being an art form is part neighing, honking and such• of show business. The like. Widening the techni• problem, he asserts, is cal range of an instrument that the majority of jazz is not enough to make a reviewers stress the by NAT HENTOFF player more than freak. The In the New Statesman, esoteric importance and unforgettable thing about dismiss the entertainment Francis Newton, the British this very dark, soft- values." history professor who handed man playing with Good-bye, Leonard, but taught in America this past a vertical fold over his when were you here? summer, reported on jazz nose, is the passion with Records are now available in New York: "... New York which he blows. I have of modern African jazz. jazz is at least two minori• heard nothing like it in ties ; and it is disturbing modern jazz since Parker. Gallo (Africa) Ltd., that they have so little He can and does play the 161 President Street, relation with each other. chorus of a standard Johannesburg, South Africa Uptown there is the jazz of straight - with an intense, has released Jazz Epistle Harlem (the one that does voiced, lamenting feeling - Verse 1 (Continental 14) not even get advertised in for the blues which lays and two volumes of Jazz , otherwise this critic flat on his in Africa Featuring a faithful guide to the back. He swings. Beside John Mehegan (Continental music). This is the sort of him his trumpeter and 9 and 10). Issued in noise you hear coming out pupil Don Cherry sounds Britain but not yet avail• of the dark belly of the like a thin piper of able in this country is L Bar on Broadway and experimental exercises. Charlie Parker in 148th, the visceral sound Coleman is a big thing in (Collector Records, a of Marlow Morris' rhythmic jazz, and it is to the division of Selection, organ-playing, rather like credit of New York that it Charing Cross Road, crystallized glue, or in has recognized him in a London, W.C.2 England). the Toe Club on West 145th few months, after years of The record was made in ...It is not very ambitious lonely playing in the Autumn, 1950. music, but by God the place wilderness of the Gene Lees' Down Beat re• jumps and the clients at west. the bar laugh and stomp port of the Newport their feet as men ought "But who has recognized rebellion at the Cliff to do when they are enjoying him? The public at the Walk Manor is one of the themselves. Those who Five Spot is overwhelm• worst examples of selec• listen to this music are ingly young, white, and tive reporting I've ever not 'fans' ; they are just intellectual or bohemian. seen. Lees has made Down people who like to have Here are the jazz fans Beat brighter and more some entertainment while (white or colored) with readable - if no less they drink. Those who play the 'Draft Stevenson' superficial - but he might it are craftsmen and show• buttons, lost over their try to keep his personal men, who accept the facts $1.50 beer. If Coleman piques out of the news of life in the jungle with were to blow in Small's columns. His humorist, disconcerting calm." The Paradise in Harlem, it George Crater, continues other "minority" Newton would clear the place in to be as self-deluding describes is downtown at five minutes. Musicians "inside" as a band chick. the Jazz Gallery, the such as he are, it seems, Crater-Sherman is the echt Five Spot, etc. as cut off now from the examples of the kind of Newton writes of Ornette common listeners among squeaky hippie that Babs Coleman - and contrast their people as Webern is Gonzales loves to put on. it with the adoles• from the public at the The 1960 edition of N. W. cent gaucheries of Down Filey Butin's. They de• Ayer & Son's Directory of Beat - "The far-out boys do pend on those who are Newspapers and

34 Periodicals indicate that issue is dated May, 1950. vein. Disc Collector is Down Beat's circulation, It's $1.50 a year from at P.O. Box 169, Crest- as of its March and June, Albert J. McCarthy, The wold, Delaware, and as I 1959, Audit Bureau of Old Bakehouse, Back Road recall, a subscription is Circulation statements, East, St. Ives, Cornwall, $1 a year. The very best - is 35,671. The year before England. First issue has or at the least, the it had been 44,509. In a listing with personnel freshest and most knowl- 1958: 35,707. of the records made by edgable - folk music magazine now publishing Whatever happened to the Charlie Mingus's former Debut label - with record• in America is The Little proceeds of the Billie ing dates - as well as Sandy Review, 3220 Park Holiday marker fund? other departments. Second Ave. So., Minneapolis, Ralph Gleason suggested issue (July) has a list• Minnesota. It's $3 in the ing of Sunset Records a year. Chronicle that "jazz fans which put out some in• who want to do something Chris Strachwitz has teresting jazz in the formed the International in memory of Billie Holiday mid-forties, a blues might send their dollars Blues Society. The society forum, etc. McCarthy will record blues singers (or more) to CORE welcomes contributions. (Congress of Racial and has pooled resources with Paul Oliver and Equality), 38 Park Row, Another new discographical Jacques Demetre who have New York 38, N. Y. I sus• magazine is a bi-monthly, been recording in this pect Billie would dig that Jazz-Disco, published and country this past summer. more than a headstone." edited by Christer Borg, An annual membership is Tessinsvag lc, Malmo V, If you want copies of the $12 a year to Chris biographical booklets BMI Sweden. First issue has a Strachwitz, 17650% Navajo has been publishing on discography Trail, Los Gatos, Cali• such of its jazz writers and a listing of musicians' fornia. For the fee, a as , George who have recorded under member gets three IBS LPs Russell, John Lewis, etc., Moslem names (the con• and periodic research write to Russell Sanjek, temporary equivalent in bulletins...Record BMI, 589 Fifth Avenue, discography of decipher• Research meanwhile has New York 17, N. Y. In ing blues players' published the third edi• addition to a biographical pseudonyms). Matrix (in• tion of its Blues Research sketch of the composer, corporating The Dis- bulletin. (Available from each booklet contains a cophile) continues. For Record Research, 131 Hart list of his BMI composi• subscription information, Street, Brooklyn, 6, N. Y.) tions and a discography. contact Peter Russell, The agency that gives the 93 Union Street, Stone- most immediate and direct Cannonball Adderley, who house, Plymouth, Devon, help to Negroes in the should know, spoke to a England. Yet another South who are being New York World Telegram useful journal in the economically crushed for reporter about New York field is Jazz Statistics. attempting to register to as a jazz testing ground: A recent issue had dis- vote is the National "...no matter what they cographies of Cootie Committee for Rural bring here, New York Williams, Sonny Boy Schools, Inc., 112 East shakes them. A young Wiliamson, and Howlin' 19th Street, New York 3, tenor player was com• Wolf. It's $1 a year (six N. Y. Contributions can plaining to me that issues) from Otto be sent to Rae Brandstein. Coleman Hawkins makes Fluckiger, Bifangstrasse him nervous. Man, I told 6, Reinach BL, Switzer• If you deal with British him Hawkins was SUPPOSED land. In this country, records shops - and it's to make him nervous. I'd recommend Disc easy to do - Volumes 7 and Hawkins has been making Collector ("The Country 8 of Fontana's Treasures other sax players nervous Record Collectors Bible") of North-American Negro for 40 years...This town for anyone interested in Music have been released. is like a world governing bluegrass and other Seven has four sides by body of jazz." . Number 14, Texas Alexander. Eight for example, includes a (they're all EPs) is by Albert McCarthy has begun 1 a new international discography of Lester Sam Morgan s New Orleans discographical magazine - Flatt & Earl Scruggs & band. Does anyone keep a Discographical Forum: A

35 nebulous at best. Says Charlie, "I hap• "It was Radio City Music Hall all the pen to love the sounds and had hopes way," he recalls. that jazz could make it on Long Island The C 'n B's March 1954 attraction was if properly presented. There have been Coleman Hawkins. The Bean has been some pretty rough times. In fact, we're back several times since, playing better a long way from being a runaway than ever. On his last date, some smash right now. No, I can't tell you months ago, he walked into the spot, why Betty and I sunk our worldly goods looked around and said, "Man, this is into this club. It was just something a friendly groove!" we'd dreamed about for a long time. Charlie and Betty's personal favorite We'd both been in show business as was Billie Holiday. They like to recall performers and figured we'd like to a wonderful evening in 1956, just be• Al Fisher have our own place to stay close to the fore Billie's Carnegie Hall concert. A excitement of living entertainment, girl singer was featured that evening, The Cork 'n Bib was the answer." but pretty soon Dizzy showed, then A card placed on every table at the I looked around the room. The general ( couldn't make Cork 'n Bib in Westbury, Long Island, decor is neo-Spanish out of early F. it), , and finally Lady Day probably sums up the atmosphere of Scott Fitzgerald. The main hall is and her husband. The group immedi• the place rather well. The card thanks large enough to seat 200 for dinner. ately jelled into one of those sessions the customer for his patronage but It has a high, beamed ceiling, acousti• that a jazz fan dreams about. Charlie requests that he refrain from unneces• cally ideal for jazz. The bandstand is announced at three A.M. that the bar sary noise while the musicians are a foot-high platform covered with was closed and locked the doors. A playing. The request is not just talk. deep-pile carpeting, heavy drapes roomful of thirsty people sat until Occasionally a hard-nosed square has along the back and sides and an or• seven while the boys blew, and Billie been asked to leave when seized with namental overhang. The construction sat on the edge of the stand, wailing a sudden urge to discuss Schopen• of the room and its small stage, plus her heart into a hand mike. hauer in strident tones, or to pound an excellent sound system, makes it "Billie sang here many times," Charlie out off-tempo paradiddles on the table possible for a jazz artist to be pre• recalled. "Often she'd just drop in with top with the silver. sented at his best. friends though, and work harder than The Cork 'n Bib, one of the longest- Just in front of the main room is a the group I'd hired. More than once lived jazz nightclubs in the East, oc• small cocktail lounge with a few tables, too, when I'd booked her, she'd sing cupies the ground floor of an unim- usually filled with performers during an extra set for a handful of people posing frame building on Post Avenue, breaks. The barroom just off the who arrived late. She always gave a the town's main traffic artery and what street, is a typical gin mill scene little something extra. She was a great passes for its business section. West- with booths, a time-scarred bar and artist and a fine person." bury lies at the heart of the North the hippest juke box on Long Island. Billie received a standing ovation that Shore's "mink and manure" belt and This is the refuge of the college set night, something that has happened at its principle thoroughfare, named for who flock in to hear , the Cork on only one other occasion. one of the pioneer millionaires, re• Horace Silver, Don Elliot and other The audience refused to let Konitz, flects the horsey interests of the resi• favorites over the P-A speakers, where and leave dents. At its southern end, it passes they can nurse their bottle of beer all the stand at the end of a fiery set. the inviting gates of Roosevelt Race• night and by-pass the 3.50 minimum "Lennie was moving that night, and way, where in season, the men are (for food OR liquor) which is im• although he bugged me about our separated from the ribbon clerks at posed on Fridays and Saturday nights. piano being out of tune, he blew a lot the fifty dollar windows. Further north, I asked Charlie about his relations with of up-tempo stuff and sounded better it runs by Nino's, a favorite inn of the musicians. I had discussed the club than I've heard him in years." polo set, noted for its exotic menu with people like . Ferguson Charlie admits that his suburban loca• which boasts such far out items as and some of his sidemen, the late tion has delayed general acceptance, chocolate covered ants, rattlesnake Lester Young, pianists Herb Rainey and especially by the trade press, but he meat and broiled agave worms; and Bobby Corwin—all agreed that working isn't bitter about it. "Away from New also as residence-in-exile of jockey conditions at the club were something York, everything's Bridgeport," he said. Earl Sande, rider of Man 0' War and else. The owner explained his ap• "What the hell, there are two or three Twenty Grand, who is known as "the proach. critics living within ten miles of here Bird of the winner's circle" to C 'n B "If club owners have trouble with the who have never darkened my door step habitues. players, they probably create it them• nor written a line about the place. I guess they have their reasons, but off Among the C 'n B's other neighbors are selves. Sure they'll show up late or get hand, I can't guess what they are. May• three saddlery shops. Now where else their dates mixed now and then. I try be they figure that jazz stops at the can you buy a silver-inlaid saddle to remember that I'm dealing with city line." However, Graziano points out right off the counter? talented people, artists. These people that he is close to the new Long Island At its northern end, Post Avenue be• have a different attitude about dead• Expressway and the Northern State comes a winding country road, wander• lines, about rules and regulations Parkway. For a fan without wheels, the ing past the bucolic beauties of the which a banker, for instance, might Long Island Railroad rumbles within Whitney, Phelps and Bostwick estates, consider all-important. Don't get me 75 yards of the swinging threshold of with their herds of Blanck Angus cat• wrong; nobody puts me on. I'm fair with the C 'n B. tle, Arabian steeds, polo fields and the musicians, and they reciprocate." sprawling barns and stables. One of He walked behind the bar. "Look at Charlie is proud of the Italian-Ameri• these equine hostelries boasts a clock these, postcards from all over the can cuisine dished up by chef Pepi. tower and carillon. How chic can you world, sent to me by guys who have "Too many jazz clubs serve swill and get? worked here. Lee Konitz, Gerry Mulli• let it go at that." Charlie feels that a In this environment, Charlie Graziano gan, Roy Eldridge—they all want to good dinner and a guarantee of tasty and his attractive wife Betty have know how 'our place' is doing." jazz should encourage hardy jazz fans operated a successful jazz club since To date, the greatest drawing attrac• to travel out from the city. "We've had March 1954. tion the club has had was the George people here from Philly," he observes. The Grazianos have no ready explana• Shearing small group. Charlie recalls "I have them on my mailing list and tion of how they got into an enterprise that Shearing pulled tumaway crowds, they think nothing of trekking out here whose future, five years ago, seemed with fans lining up down the street. on a week-end when a particular fa-

36 vorite is in. In fact, most of my cus• jazz in the late twenties. Soon British tomers are regulars. I have a current musicians were teaching themselves mailing list numbering around 1200. I BOOK how to play it, and articles, reviews advertise in a metropolitan daily and and books on jazz began to appear— buy occasional radio spots. If it weren't many of them written by musicians. for my regulars though, plus the good By the late thirties, jazz playing in word passed around by the musicians REVIEW Britain once again was in a decline. In themselves, I'd be selling takeout piz• the early forties, the New Orleans re• zas and getting my jazz kicks out of vival began. Boulton attempts to ex• records." plain why a revival, which began in the Graziano opens his place to jazz on U.S., took hold so firmly and remained Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Satur• entrenched in England. The ban on day. Monday is set aside for the airing American musicians playing in England of local musicians and old hands like (which recently ended) started in 1935 former Levittown resident Konitz show as the result of a quarrel between the up to blow along and appraise the American Federation of Musicians and talent. Wednesday is session night, Britain's Musicians Union. This, he with a group of pros hired as "discus• says, put an end to personal contacts sion leaders." Honest attempts are between musicians of the two coun• made on these occasions to encourage tries. The war probably created other visitors to jam. Mony of these attempts hindrances. But the British fans come off very well. On week-ends, name listened atentively to neo-New Orleans groups are booked, and the place jazz. They didn't begin to dance to the swings. music until 1947 when an Australian The C'nB employs about a dozen folks band—also created during the revival— regularly. Five years ago, most of them arrived and to play at a ballroom. couldn't believe that people would pay JAZZ IN BRITAIN by David Boulton. The idea of the Englishness of English money to listen to the "noise" at Gra- W. H. Allen, London. jazz may surprise; Boulton mentions ziano's. Now they've all become such Many books have been written about the different regional styles in Ameri• dedicated fans that Charlie can hardly the history of jazz, yet few tell of jazz ca. Why should English jazz be almost keep the joint open when the Randalls outside of its native country. Thus Jazz totally like American jazz? Isn't "Chi• Island Festival is running. On the other in Britain is welcome. David Boulton cago jazz," which was played by mu• hand, both bartenders are frustrated writes with none of the anti-modern sicians inspired by New Orleans musicians and often jam with their prejudices of many British commenta• musicians, different from New Orleans boss after the last customer has been tors, and he has a background of knowl• jazz? All are are influenced by the ushered out. Charlie plays trumpet al• edge which critics of anything should culture in which they are exist. most as well as Mickey, his eleven year have, but which is often lacking among Boulton defends the co-existence of old son, whose two idols in music are jazz critics. both modern jazz and the revival and Terry Gibbs and Art Farmer. Jazz in Britain is divided into four continuance of traditional jazz against 'My place has stability," says Charlie. parts: "Four Decades of Jazz in Brit• the argument that present day musi• "I can name two dozen places around ain," "Table Talk," "British Bands To• cians shouldn't play New Orleans jazz New York that have opened and closed day," and the appendices which include just because it is music of a different in the past five years. I'm not trying to a helpful list of British magazines and time and cannot be truthfully re-cre• be the Billy Rose of jazz. There are books. "Table Talk," the most interest• ated. Boulton reveals that commercial many things I'd like to try, but I won't ing part, contains penetrating and music, manufactured for a middle class until the time is just right. That way I original thoughts on "What is Jazz?" taste, is created the same way in hope to be able to keep the place run• "The Englishness of English Jazz," Britain as it is here and follows the ning and the boys gainfully employed "Trad, and Mod.," "The Field of same fads. But one British fad never until jazz becomes the fabulous com• Pseudo-Jazz," "Skiffle," and "The Future took hold in the U.S., skiffle, a sort of mercial hit it's bound to be." of Jazz." folk-jazz. It soon went through as many He waved his hand. "These walls have In "What is Jazz?" Boulton discusses forms and mergers as rhythm and seen some pretty memorable things, the prearrangement and technical pro• blues, country and western and rock like the Billie Holiday session I told ficiency in music which came with in• and roll in America, and Boulton ex• you about. Francoise Sagan, on her first dustrialism. This, he believes, put an amines them all. Boulton traces skiffle trip to the States, rolled in here with end to freedom and improvisation in from its American beginnings in her entire entourage, just to hear Billie. folk music, taking away some of its spasm, blue-blowing and jug bands to Sal Mineo, and their life. But now it has given players a its British present when it was merged agents, arranging the final details of new impulse to play jazz in reaction. by force with pop and rock and roll "The Gene Krupa Story" here. Lambert- Boulton says in the historical section music for public consumption. He Hendrick-Ross made their first night• that Britain got its first impression of compares skiffle with the status of club appearance here. Seeing local col• Negro folk music from American min• jazz around 1917, suggesting that true lege students getting up there and strels in 1848. Then in 1873 the first skiffle may soon gain a wide following. playing on equal terms with the pros Negro group—eight singers—arrived in Because of the strong essentially folk because of their drive and thorough London bringing spirituals to Britain's element in skiffle, I doubt it. technical backgrounds. Blase pros for• knowledge of the music. In 1912 white While neo-New Orleans fans were be• getting themselves and playing over• and Negro ragtime groups began to ginning to dance, a British counterpart time sets, moved by the enthusiastic appear and within several years dozens to Minton's was started by altoists response of our customers. We're going of British "jazz" groups appeared play• Johnny Dankworth and . to be around for a while, make no ing a highly syncopated music. But it was not until 1950 that modern mistake." With the arrival of the Original Dixie• jazz became a strong force. Thus, in You can't argue too much with a man land Jazz Band in London in 1919, a list of British jazz groups in 1958, who set up a modern jazz club over funny hats and antics became identi• only eight play modern while thirty- five years ago and made it come off. fied with "jazz." There was a decline one play traditional, and two play But it's encouraging to have someone of interest by the early twenties. But mainstream. around who can prove that a jazz club the appearance of a scored jazz with run with integrity can survive. improvised solos revived the interest in Jerry DeMuth

37 to create on my record. have done. And rightly so, for the Mary Anne Jackson growth from improvisation to notation LETTERS Van Nuys, Cal. will be, in its beginning, hesitant as it must be if it is going to be of any value at all. We must remember that WRITE THAT THING the compositional efforts of the early I am writing this in the hope of en• lutenists and harpsichordists were not listing the sympathies of revivalists, world-shaking, and as a matter of fact dixielanders, or whatever the proper did not compare with the brilliance of name, in helping me with a project I the actual improvisational perform• feel to be important to jazz. ances. These early compositions were I have never been one of those critics hesitant; there was nothing bold in who believed in holding to the status the result, only in the venture. In this quo of some particular period—usually, connection I quoted in the Hound and with such critics, the jazz of the Horn (Summer 1934) the impressions twenties. I have always believed that of the 17th century writer Andre Mau- jazz should have taken the historical gars on hearing Frescobaldi (1583-1644) course, that is a course like the one play: ". . . to judge of his profound that gave us the great music of the learning, you must hear him improvise." Western world. This course consisted But if it were not for the men who, mainly in the development of impro• for whatever reason, notateed their vised 16th century dance music, first compositional works we would never into simple pieces, later into suites, have had the music of Bach, or for and finally into more extended com• that matter of any classical music positions. since then. Since composition is constantly being Admittedly there have been some new made use of in modern jazz it might possibilities with the invention of be argued that jazz is following the phonograph recording, but again this historical procedure. But while Western is not the place for me to go into music developed slowly at first without arguments as to why I feel that the too marked a change in the melodic possibilities of recorded improvisation content, jazz ran the gamut of scalar have not displaced development by development (with the model of classi• means of notated composition. cal music always before it) that had When I go to a live jazz concert today taken Western music four hundred I can never be treated to anything but years, without developing in construc• the present, unsatisfactory stage of its tion. As for my views on modern jazz, development. And if there is a dixie• I have stated them before and al• land band present, even if it could though I naturally keep finding new play some of the classic jazz pieces arguments against it, this is not the well, the chances are that I will get place to air them. renditions "in the style of something However I think it is important to else," somewhat similar to a pianist playing a little tune in the styles of PROPHET'S HONOR say that I feel the jazz of the twenties, Beethoven, Mozart or Bach. As apt as May a Philadelphian join in the praise however great its value in the musical such performance may be, they are a (The Jazz Review, August 1960) of Chris scene, failed to develop its potentiali• far cry from the great music of these Albertson of WHAT-FM? Only the sta• ties. Instead it continually changed composers. tion management seems unaware of for the worse and I believe that what his value and potential. Men like Chris will finally emerge subsequent to these If there are any players, composers or Albertson are few and hard to find— changes will not have the great and arrangers who share my assessment of and this unfortunately also true of jazz unique character that distinguished the development of jazz to date and on WHAT-FM. jazz in its early stages. Clearly the who feel as I do about the promise historical procedure as applied to jazz Francis Verna for its future that the historical pro• must start at a much earlier stage Philadelphia, Pa. cess offers, please get in touch with than the one at which the modern jazz me through The Jazz Review. musicians began applying composi• Roger Pryor Dodge tional techniques. NEVER APOLOGIZE, NEVER EXPLAIN As much as I enjoy listening to the In his review of my album, H. A. Wood- present-day dixielanders I feel that ASK A SILLY QUESTION fin refers to my "lack of ideas". I they are at a dead end and have long It will be a while before I (and how think that what he should have said is since oroved their point: that it is pos• many others?) can take myself seriously that there were ideas there, but he sible for contemporary players to come again, after 's master• didn't like them. As proof, I submit close to the jazz of the past. Of course piece of irreverence (The Jazz Review, that when he says "she sounds vaguely besides proving this point they do ful• August, 1960). To strike exactly the like an oddly distorted and curdled fill a need in the same way a classical right tone in that sort of thing—I mean Tristano", he gets closed to the truth. orchestra does when it plays a con• mostly the responses—is the mark of I admire Lennie Tristano very much cert of music of the past. But my be• genius. Anybody can be flip, and that's and have been influenced by him some• lief is that the best of these bands what most of us are when we try that what. Critics have often said that they could be still better and their music, sort of thing. You see now that while didn't understand Tristano, and now as a whole, could be raised to a higher it's good to ask questions, not all ques• they're saying they don't understand level of significance. tions are good. What are you, on some me or Ornette Coleman. I'm still learn• I have already made a start in an kind of Zen kick? Wellstood's also ing and I expect to be criticized, but attempt to apply the historical pro• worked with Taft Jordan and the Geor• critics should have at least an open cedure to jazz with four pieces, but gia Peach. mind when they hear things that sound unless one has sympathy for the pro• J. S. Shipman "distorted" or "curdled". Fresh dis• ject to begin with, he is not going to Waban, Mass. sonance was exactly what I was aiming see that anything is proved by what I

38