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as a composite contribution of Dom Cerulli, Jack Tynan and others. What LETTERS actually happened was that Jack Tracy, then editor of Down Beat, decided the magazine needed some humor and cre• ated Out of My Head by George Crater, which he wrote himself. After several issues, he welcomed contributions from the staff, and Don Gold and I began. to contribute regularly. After Jack left, I inherited Crater's column and wrote it, with occasional contributions from Don and Jack Tynan, until I found that the well was running dry. Don and I wrote it some more and then Crater sort of passed from the scene, much like last year's favorite soloist. One other thing: I think Bill Crow will be delighted to learn that the picture of Billie Holiday he so admired on the cover of the Decca Billie Holiday memo• rial album was taken by Tony Scott. Dom Cerulli New York City

PRAISE FAMOUS MEN Orville K. "Bud" Jacobson died in West Palm Beach, Florida on April 12, 1960 of a heart attack. He had been there for his heart since 1956. It was Bud who gave Frank Teschemacher his first clarinet lessons, weaning him away from violin. He was directly responsible for the Okeh recording date of Louis' Hot 5. He spoke to E. A. Fern, president of Okeh about his old friend Louis Armstrong. Fern directed Richard M. Jones to gather Dodds and Ory, etc. for the sessions. There was an article on Bud in Jazz Session magazine in 1947. He played on Freeman's Crazeology; Jimmy Mc- Partland's Deccas and had his own rec• ords on Signature. SUPPORT a single issue. Charles Payne Rogers I am a little annoyed at those dis• Being what may be termed a tradi• Huntington Valley, Pa. gruntled subscribers to The Jazz Review tionalist and mainstreamer, I have been who climax their grievances by threat• unable to keep abreast the changes ening to cancel their subscriptions. and developments in jazz. However, ar• NOSEGAY What do these readers expect to accom• ticles such as those by Cannonball Congratulations to Mimi Clar for her plish by withdrawing their support from Adderley and Art Farmer have been a two courageous reviews in the May is• an admirable effort to keep jazz litera• revelation to me. These musicians have sue. It is high time that there appeared ture and communication alive? Do they something to say, and they say it well. on the jazz horizon a reviewer with know what it takes in circulation to Also, the series on James P. Johnson sufficient insight and courage to debunk keep a small publication going? Do they and early Ellington will hold up as im• the pretensions of, on the one hand, realize, for instance, that publishing portant writing and documentation of the George Shearings of the jazz world costs have skyrocketed to a plateau of permanent value. Students of jazz and, on the other, those so-called vocal• diminishing returns where it is almost should complete their files of back is• ists who like Staton, are utterly ignorant impossible to make the grade? Do they sues. In fact, the early issues of The of (and indifferent to) the art they as• realize that the writers and reviewers Jazz Review are almost unobtainable. pire to practice. contribute their efforts largely through The Jazz Review should be given full If any reed or trumpet man were to dedication to the cause of jazz—and support by all of us. Petty criticism appear on the stand of any jazz club certainly not for monetary gain? should not stifle _the growth of this in the nation and were to display as The Jazz Review has made a major step healthy trend toward an overdue, ma• appalling an ignorance of his instru• forward in cutting through the parochial ture approach to the understanding of ment as does Miss Staton, or as com• thinking which has plagued writers and jazz. plete incompetence to master it as does followers of jazz for more than two George W. Kay Miss Connor, he would be hooted from decades. No other magazine has been New Bedford, Mass. the stand. Yet, out of kindness or in• able to effectively implement a broad difference (or their own simple igno• editorial policy encompassing tradi• rance?) jazz reviewers without exception tional, mainstream and modern jazz. DENIAL (until now) accept at face value the No other publication has given equal In the May '60 issue, Nat Hentoff erred assertions of these vocalists' represen• space to Oliver, Ellington and Monk in in stating that "George Crater" began tatives that they are the jazz singers

3 to whom we must turn if we are to have his guide rather than the sole basis others who in the opinion of the critic jazz singers. Why not, indeed, Bobby of his writing: Bill Crow, if he had have done something to influence the Darin and Elvis Presley, if we are to go written under a pen-name, would not artist or performance. If therefore, a so far astray from singing? easily be recognised as a musician- review of Coltrane says more about The same congratulations (but in re• critic, at least in comparison with other Rollins, or vice versa, that is the critic's verse) to Bill Crow for his singularly musician-reviewers in past issues. privilege. imperceptive review of "The Billie Holi• I must repeat that I find reviews writ• There are, of course, other reasons for day Story." Can anybody who knew ten by musicians most valuable, but I writing and reading criticism; too many Billie Holiday on the Columbia or Com• believe that they should not stand to mention. Periodic reviews of an art• modore sessions seriously recommend alone; they should rather complement ist's work informs the audience of the this Decca set (perhaps Billie's worst the writings of professional critics. I artist's progress, and while it is, of period vocally) as adequately represen• also do not mean to say that a theo• course, always desirable to hear or see tative of the work of the greatest of retical and practical knowledge of the for yourself, criticism can provide in• jazz singers? In heaping adulation upon field is not highly desirable in the formation when practical knowledge be• Lady Day is it necessary to praise her critic, and if I did not believe so, comes impossible. If we want the jazz worst work equally with her best? Would would hardly subscribe to the JR. Tech• musician to be treated as the artist he it not be better, for Billie's memory nical knowledge, thorough acquaintance is, we must treat him in the context and the sake of jazz, now and in the with the history of the field, taste, im• of criticism as we would the author of future, to say simply that here was a partiality, tolerance, and a readable a book, the composer of a symphony, great singer who, early in her life, lost style are the necessary requisites for or the creator of a painting. The Jazz her voice and carried on by the force any critic. But it is certainly not a Review is doing this admirably. of her sheer, overpowering personality requisite for the critic to be able to Harold Bohne for twenty years after her voice was do something better than the artist. If Toronto, Canada gone? complete appreciation of any art form C. H. Garragues would require the listener or viewer to We hate to disagree with a supporter, San Francisco out-create or out-perform the artist, but we think Gunther Schuller, Don then the arts would lose one of their Heckman and Dick Katz among our prime functions: to communicate with MUSICIAN AS CRITIC more frequent musician contributors an audience. What is it, that makes an I have read with great interest the dif• are very fine critics. artist great? Certainly not unintelligi- ferent views on criticism expressed in The Editors bility. Is it not the basic simplicity in your latest correspondence column their musical statements that makes (March/April) and while I agree with Who's Art? Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis the the anonymous letter writer that the RAY ELLSWORTH! WAIT MAN . . . great artists they are? To be sure, in JR has provided a great service in open• DON'T GIVE UP ON JAZZ ... I can this age of mass communications, sim• ing its review columns to performing understand the psychic impact the com• plicity in art may often prove difficult musicians, I strongly disagree with his puter had on you when it said "man to a majority whose perception has contention that only musicians can I don't dig this paragraph here . . . been blunted by rapid fire entertain• truly appreciate jazz as an art. While etc." But this is only because of your ments (viz the simple beauty of the I hope to see more and more musicians past improper conditioning re comput• Indian film "Panther Panchali" as voice their opinions in the pages of ers. One must remember that the pub• against Hollywood trying to "tell a the JR, I pray that there will never be licity concerning the computers ability story"). a time when they will replace the non- to "think" is just the merchant's and musician critic, because, judging from It is of course important to consider military's idea of how to use it. We past examples, this would offset the why and for whom reviews are written. know better. We've had one of its dis• balance of the JR quite distinctly. I believe that too many reviewers feel tinguished ancestors in the piano (info I am more interested in what an artist that they have to sell a product. Many fed in by hands and output by sound is saying as performer or creator than magazines undoubtedly provide nothing waves to ear registry). The computer's as critic, but I am also interested in more than a buying guide for readers, highest use and value is as a scien• his critical views of his art and his and their reviewers blatantly state this tifically constructed instrument useful attempts to express his feelings and fact. But the serious journal publishing in the production of art. thoughts about the work of fellow art• criticism rather than reviews has an• There's a way to program computer ists. I believe that the reader can de• other group of readers altogether. machines to improvise. As John Cage rive a certain amount of insight from Recording companies being as prolific has shown: the stages of randomness such criticism, but it is more an in• as they are, it is virtually impossible in any composition can be entirely set sight into the musician who criticizes to buy all the records one would wish by chance operations. These new MU• than the musician who is criticized. to own, or even the record output of SICAL INSTRUMENTS can be set to The musician-critic seldom has the dis• just one artist whom one particularly activate the differentials of all impro• tance and impartiality to write com• admires. To a certain extent, therefore, vised odds of pitch, time, voices, etc., pletely objective criticism. (Not many reviews are read to make a selection and with a musical typewriter attach• professional critics have either, of within the limits of one's budget. But ment to translate your numerical repre• course). He has friends and colleagues I hope that this is only one small rea• sentations into musical notation you to consider, and his own career. And son for reading reviews. I believe that can now convert your jazz frustrations a musician's view of a fellow player reading criticism of any kind can be into popularity and easy money. Just must of necessity be colored by his an aesthetic pleasure in itself. Why, imagine! you who know them can feed- own playing style. Not being a profes• otherwise, would one read all of Jerry in the formulas of all the greats and sional writer, his style may need con• Tallmer's theatre reviews in the Village then wait till you're in the right mood siderable editing or may not commu• Voice, when one does not live in New to add your own personal chance devi• nicate. One only has to consult musical York and has no hope of seeing most ation riff pattern. A potentially great histories to find that artist-critics- have of the performances? Why would a re• instrument to articulate the new age's often been the least objective. Among view sometimes be published after a sizable wail. And to the question "yes, your musician-critics only one, in my play has already closed? To be an but is it jazz?" the usual answer, ART opinion, entirely succeeds as a critic, aesthetic experience, however, a review ALONE WILL DECIDE. must be a miniature essay, an essay and he because he let his technical John Benson Brooks about the artist under review or any and practical knowledge of the field be New York City

4 VOLUME 3, NUMBER 6, JULY 1960

6 Scanning the History of Jazz Editors: Nat Hentoff Martin Williams Louis Armstrong Contributing Editor: Gunther Schuller 10 A Debate on Lee Konitz Publisher: Hsio Wen Shih Art -Director: Bob Cato Max Harrison and Michael James LU The Jazz Review is published monthly by The Jazz Review Inc., 124 White St., 13 Notes on Tristano N. Y. 13. N. Y. Entire contents copy• right 1960 by The Jazz Review Inc. Harvey Pekar Israel Young and Leonard Feldman were among the founders of the Jazz Review. 15 The Blues Price per copy 50c. One year's subscription $5.00. Two year's subscription $9.00. Unsolicited manuscripts and illustrations 16 The Symposium should be accompanied by a stamped, self- addressed envelope. Reasonable care will be Joe Goldberg taken with all manuscripts and illustrations, but the Jazz Review can take no responsi• 18 Eddie Barefield's Story bility for unsolicited material.

Frank Driggs

RECORD REVIEWS NEW CONTRIBUTORS 22 Spirituals to Swing by Martin Williams Alan P. Merriam, Ph.D., an ethnomusic- 24 Duke Ellington-Johnny Hodges by Dan Morgenstern ologist and member of the Department of Anthropology at Northwestern Uni• 25 Bill Evans by David Lahm versity, has been doing field work in 26 Andy Gibson-Mainstream Sextet by Peter Turley the Congo for the last year. Jimmy Giuffre-Herb Ellis by Don Heckman Fradley H. Garner, a part-time bass player in jazz groups and symphonies, 27 Dr. Edmond Souchon by J. S. Shipman founded and co-edited a short-lived 28 Art Tatum by Martin Williams journal, Jazz Digest, in Philadelphia. Wilbur Harden-John Coltrane by Zita Carno 29 Hard bop records by Don Heckman 30 The Country Blues by Paul Oliver 31 Sick Comics by Don Phelps 32 Shorter Reviews by H. A. Woodfin, Don Heckman and Paul Oliver

UJ BOOK REVIEWS 36 Peter Gammond's Duke Ellington by H. A. Woodfin Arnold Shaw's Belafonte by Frederick Conn X 37 Jazz in Print by Martin Williams 40 The Word Jazz by Alan P. Merriam and Fradley H. Garner

42 Concert Review by Martin Williams

Louis Armstrong became sixty on July 4, 1960. We are proud to publish on this occasion this memoir of his early days when he was a at the threshhold of the independent creative work that has become the basis of almost all jazz playing today. Through some of his well—known opinions and enthusiasms, we can see, shining, the love of life and music, the youthful joy and resilience of spirit, that have carried him, triumphant, through more than forty years of playing, that ha• ve seen so many illustrious and talented musicians falter and fail.

CD VU f fay chance to hear those great musicians such as Buddy When he played his cornet, there were always happi• Bolden— ness, and a certain closeness that he gave out when• -Joe CORNET Oliver MY IDOL ever he played and whatever he played, take Dipper- Bunk CORNET Johnson mouth for instance, no one living today could express Freddy CORNET Keppard themselves while playing that tune like Joe Oliver did. Henry CORNET Allen Sr. & HIS BRASS BAND When I played 2nd Cornet to him at the Lincoln Gardens Old Man Moret in Chicago 1922—musicians from all over the world AND HIS EXCELSIOR BRASS BAND* came to hear him. And of course, I love the man and CORNET WONDER AND LEADER AT "60" his work so very much until we made the most fabulous Frankie Dusen Trombone 'cornet team' one ever heard of. No matter where he'd Kid Ory turn while we were playing, whatever note he made I Trombone and a whole lot of the other players who always had a 2nd note to match his lead. The musicians will forever live in my mind as the greatest Musicians who hadn't heard anything like it would go wild. They that I have ever heard since I was big enough to realize were some of the top men in the business who came what was happening. Even to the Brass Bands down in to hear us. Of course there have been many steps in my home town New Orleans, to witness them Playing music since those days and in my younger days, such a funeral March will Make Something inside of you as Bop—'Music of Tomorrow—'Progressive', Cool etc. just tinkle. Even to a 6-8-March, they always expressed But not anyone of them Styles have impressed me as themselves, and their very souls in the music. Joe Oliver—and the good ol musicians played in those days CORONET Oliver (MY IDOL) and Emanuel CORONET what I am talking about. The Tail Gate those Street Perez had a brass band by the name of the Onward Parades, funeral Lawn Parties, Balls, they're called Brass Band. And 'my My' how they could play in the Dances nowadays. We didn't resort to different styles, Street Parades & Funerals. Joe Oliver to me was always etc, we just played good rag time Music, sweet when a fantastic sort of a fellow. And the Greatest Creator of necessary. All these different styles of this day doesn't them all. One Sunday Hustler and Pimps HUSTLER do anything for the up&Coming youngsters and they AND GAMBLERS in my neighborhood who had a good leaves not anything for the kids to derive on, like the Base ball team, and would go all over the city and old times did for us. Ever since this new stuff has been play other teams in other neighborhoods, one Sunday in port, I Myself has been for ever so long—trying to they went over in Algiers a little town across the Mis• figure out what the modern musicians are trying to sissippi RIVER to play the team over there. Of course prove. everywhere they'd go, the neighborhood crowd would And the only solution that I came to is, the majority follow them. Even us kids would tag along. They'd only of them are inferior musicians. Where there would be play for a large keg of beer. But it was lots of fun. a real solid note to hit right on the nose, they would And we Kids would be thrilled just to luck up on a make a thousand notes rather than attempt that one. glass of beer. Well sir—McDonald Cemetary was just Screeching at a high note an praying to God that they'd about a mile away from where the Black Diamonds hit it. The result is that very few musicians are work• (MY TEAM) was playing the Algiers team. When ever ing Nowadays. The public itself gotten so tired of hear• a funeral from New Orleans had a body to be buried ing so much modern slop until they refuse to continue in the McDonald cemetary they would have to cross paying those big checks. And now if you'll notice it, the Canal Street ferry boat, and march down the same only the fittest are surviving. No matter where—who I road right near our ball game. Of course when they play with, I never forget my first love—real good music. passed us playing a slow funeral march, we only paused That's why I am at home, when I am, playing any kind with the game and tipped our hats as to pay respect. of music. Most of the fantastic players of today can't When the last of the funeral passed, we would continue even read music. They never did want to. All they want the game. The game was in full force when the Onward to do is scream. And if they don't watch out, I'm gonna Band was returning from the cemetary, after they had scream, right along with the public. put the body in the ground, they were swingin It's a Always remember—Louis Armstrong never bothers Lonf Way To "Tipperary". They were swinging so good about what the other fellow is playing etc. A musician until Joe Oliver reached into the high register beating is a musician with me. Yea—I am just like the sister eut those high notes in very fine fashion, And broke in our church in N.O. One Sunday our pastor whom we our ball. Yea! the players commenced to dropping Bats all loved happened to take a Sunday off and sent in an. Balls, etc, And we All followed them All the way another preacher who wasn't near as good. The whole back to the New Orleans side and to their Destination. congregation "frowned on him except" one sister. She Of course there were many other greats even before my seemed to injoy the other pastor the same as she did time, And my days of the wonderful music that every our pastor. This aroused the Congregation curiosity musician were playing in New Orleans. But to me Joe so much until when Church service was over they all King Oliver was the greatest of them all. He certainly rushed over to this one sister and asked her why did didn't get his right place in the mentionings in Jazz she enjoy the substitute Preacher the same as our History as he so rightfully deserved. He was a Creator, regular one? She said, Well, when our pastor preach, with unlimited ideas, And had a heart as big as a whale I can look right through him and see Jesus. And when when it came to helping the underdog in Music such I hear a preacher who is not as good as ours—I just as me. I was just a kid, Joe saw, I had possibilities and look over his shoulder and see Jesus just the same. he'd go out of his way to help me or any other ambi• That applys to me. All through my life in music ever tious kid who were interested in their instrument as since I left New Orleans, I've been just like that Sister I was. in our church.

8 Swiss ffc^Uy \ivnt

' I /) ^_JL J7 Michael James CONTROVERSIAL From his first appearance on records with Claude Thorn- hill, Lee Konitz has been called an alto player of prom• ise. During his first stay with Lennie Tristano, he recorded with the group for Capitol and for Prestige. Max Harrison Michael James His first independent recordings were also made for Prestige. His Prestige album1 offers a representative sampling of the records Konitz made before he joined Kenton in autumn, 1952; the earliest four date from a session led by Tristano. Konitz owed less than any of his contemporaries to Parker; Tristano seems by far his most important influence. Admiration for Lester Young's concept of tone is obvious especially in Judy, but everywhere else the pianist's mark is most evident. But Konitz was no slavish copyist. Tristano's influence showed primarily in well-constructed solos. But the very fact that Konitz based his style squarely upon that of a musician using another instrument—and a piano at that—prevented his playing, at least for a while, from achieving a truly personal stamp. Subsequent record dates with his own groups showed the altoist building on this excellent foundation. The sessions with Warne Marsh give hints of what was to come, but his development is most obvious in the per• formances recorded in April, 1950. On the two slow tunes, Rebecca and You Go to My Head, he stresses an uncompromising leanness of tone, consistent through• out his range. On Palo Alto and Ice Cream Konitz he breaks up the improvised line in a very entertaining Max Harrison way, using longer pauses than before, giving a more In the liner note of "Lee Konitz inside Hi-Fi"3 the alto- definite outline to the construction. In one respect, his ist is quoted as saying, "Back in 1949 I had an unself- playing reminds one of Coltrane's; an intriguing balance conscious quality about my playing." With the exception between the masses of sound, an equilibrium that owes of a few isolated items like Cork 'n' Bib, few of his very little to normal methods of jazz construction, is a performances could realistically be called unselfcon- vital ingredient of each man's style. scious, least of all the early Prestige titles. Most artists Konitz was little concerned with swing, tonal inflection with creative gifts achieve, as the years pass, an in• or relaxation, so that his music lacked the emotional power most people look for in jazz. It is unlikely that creasingly personal, and therefore more directly com• his apparent coldness is altogether explained by the municative, mode of expression. Konitz is perhaps combination of models he favored; or, to be more exact, unique among jazzmen of considerable reputation, for let us say that its arbitrary and detached nature was while the external characteristics of his style have presumably a conscious choice on his part. The solo undergone a modest but fairly definite evolution, his on Reiteration, for example, may take on a real emo• ability to communicate remains as uncertain as ever. tional charge when considered in the light of his growth Konitz's chief formative influence was clearly Tristano. as a jazz musician, but set apart from his later work His harmonic approach is similar and so are the rest• exists only as an infinitely absorbing object. From 1951 less melodic lines. Yet in every performance they on,.Konitz slowly became more aware of the benefits recorded together, Tristano proves to be the more offered by orthodox jazz methods. A new relaxation in articulate and communicates with a certainty that is rhythm rounded off the sharper corners of his phrases. altogether lacking in Konitz. The reasons are not too His tone became less uniform, sometimes taking on a obscure. In tracks like Sub-conscious Lee the alto part startling hoarseness in the upper register. And he began has little connection with Manne's infectious beat— using longer rests between the typically intricate runs, less than Bauer's has, still less than Tristano's. Some letting the pulse of the rhythm section come through. of these early Konitz solos may have a certain formal These changes have been ascribed to the influence of cohesion but only in the sense of being well-ordered the Kenton band, but environment alone could never patterns of sounds. This is as true of the fast Marsh- have changed the outlook of such an intransigent spirit. mallow as of the very slow You Go to My Head. Each It is far more probable that his natural development of his improvisations seems hermetically sealed-off from was reinforced by playing regularly with such extrovert the rest of the music—except in technical approach— musical personalities as Zoot Sims, Stan Levey and and it is not surprising they have no emotional impact, Conte Candoli. His small, pure tone (in effect an emasculation of The Storyville lp, recorded soon after he left Kenton, . Lester Young's sound) is another aspect of Konitz's illustrates many of these changes. The contrast between curiously negative attitude to the question of commu• the theme of Hi Beck and the improvised alto line nication at that time. Indeed, the withdrawn, ethereal shows how far Konitz had moved away from the very character of Retrospection may be taken as typical compressed melodies of the Prestige records. Not that of his earliest work. diffuseness had crept into his work: the freer phrases The Storyville lp2 effectively illustrates that during the make up in quality for what they lack in the way of early fifties Konitz freed his playing from this formal concentration. Ronnie Ball strives diligently to prolong

10 ill "11

BP i I:

Lee Konitz

Max Harrison Michael James rigidity and managed to achieve some tonal variety. the mood set by the opening alto solos. There are Characteristically, however, these advances were not moments of loose counterpoint that not only underline accompanied by a growth of expressive power. The the sympathy between these two men but enrich the melodic line became 'aired out' with rests but their musical texture enough to make one wish such pas• use seems arbitrary—not a positive feature of the sages had been more frequent. It is also interesting to melodic thought, as in Parker's Quasimodo (take B), see how the rhythm section is used. On the earlier and in some cases almost led to incoherence. For ex• records the beat generated by bass and drums had ample, it is hard to find much connection between provided no more than an efficient backdrop; their role some of the too-isolated phrases of These Foolish had always been a very minor one. Now, as a comple• Things. In Sound-Lee the melodic thought has greater ment to his own interest in swing, Konitz gave his

11 Max Harrison Michael James logic but its exposition is still disrupted by the pauses; musicians more freedom. On Subconscious-Lee he even these rests do, however, allow the pulse of the rhythm trades fours with Al Levitt, and has Ball setting up a section to be felt more strongly. On Hi Beck the alto- chordal trellis over the beat of bass and drums. Free• ist's line is better related to the beat. The tone is less dom of this kind would have jeopardized the integration consistently pure, but even after many hearings, it is of the earlier records, which depended on a strict hard to see that the variations of sound have any func• though partly spontaneous design. Since Konitz was tional expressive meaning. now interested in evoking emotional flavor in his work, form in the academic sense was no longer quite so Indeed, a definite lack of conviction is evident in vital, and he was able to permit himself these everyday Konitz's part on Sub-conscious-Lee, particularly in con• extravagances without danger to musical cohesion. trast with the forceful piano. Ball, like Tristano before If the altoist's concept of a small group had moved him, communicates much more surely than the altoist closer to general practice, his own playing had not —this is most obvious in the Hi Beck chase— and his grown stale or even conventional. The greater emphasis work must be counted the most enjoyable part of these on swing and wider tonal scope caused no watering- performances. down of his originality. All the records made in the past It would be impossible for even the most determined five years indicate that his very personal manner has opponent of Konitz's work to deny that two of the At• never been compromised by wider use of the usual 3 lantic tracks, Kary's Trance and Cork 'n' Bib, reach a methods of jazz, and the last lp shows this clearly.3 level he had not previously attained in the recording The distinctive turn of phrase and the acute, probing studio. Trance is an attractive theme, less self-con• tone are wedded more closely than before to the flex• sciously involved than most of his earlier inventions, ible beat. His sense of swing may be less positive than while in Cork the altoist swings with true relaxation. Rollins', Parker's, or the generation which came before; Yet it is Bauer who irresistibly attracts the ear. His but his sinuous rhythm is by no means different in accompaniments are of great sensitivity and invention, effect from the more blatant swing of his contempo• and his solos demonstrate rhythmic flexibility and a raries. fine sense of melodic construction. Guitar and saxo• On Kary's Trance, where he switches to tenor for his phone improvisations are closely entwined throughout second solo, we find a notable continuity of mood. His and the unavoidable comparison shows rather clearly tenor playing is relatively unpolished, the tone sourer, that, despite the greater amplitude of certain aspects the articulation of notes less clean, but each solo is of his style, Konitz's problems are much the same as just as cleverly wrought. Indiana contains some brilliant ten years ago. work, capped by an intricate final phrase that does Michael James, in an essay on Lee Konitz (in Ten away with the need to repeat the theme. His unfamili- Modern Jazzmen, Cassell, London, 1960) writes, "Until arity with the larger horn might even be looked upon recently his music was in so many ways hermetically as an advantage, for the edginess of his playing intensi• sealed, an end in itself, perhaps even a refuge. There fies the appeal. All of me has solos of no little urgency, were flashes of a real concern, moments of a frail while Nesuhi's Instant, a blues, shows how well he was able to organize the content, building the tension over lyricism, but these were not truly representative: faced six slow choruses. On the other titles, the interplay with the last test, the music generally fails." If between Konitz's alto and Bauer's guitar is delightful. Konitz's work is in the last resort a failure it is not How well these two essentially diverse temperaments for lack of instrumental accomplishment, harmonic in• understand each other; the romantic and the ascetic genuity or, in his more recent performances, linear so precisely interwoven! Not that the altoist always invention. Nor is tone the primary weakness. Lester fights shy of lyricism: Everything Happens to Me dis• Young showed it was possible to communicate force• plays the tenderness that he more often merely im• fully with a timbre of unprecedented coolness. It is the plies. Notice, too, how he moves swiftly out of the absence of rhythmic invention—indeed, of positive lower register at the start of the first release, setting rhythmic character of any sort—that is the vital weak• free the spirit of optimism that pervades the whole ness running through all Konitz's music. This explains performance. Sweet and Lovely is not.of the same not only the lethargy of, say, Everything Happens To standard. Once the puckish theme is stated his ideas Me, but the absence of emotional power from his whole f»il to flow with the ease the style demands. Corks 'n' output. Bib is much better, the uncramped lines leave plenty 1. LEE KONITZ: "Lee Konitz Collates". Prestige PRLP 7004. of room for each note to do its job. Sub-conscious Lee; Judy; Reiteration; Retrospection; Ice Cream Konitz; "His tone is pale," writes Max Harrison, "and conveys You Go to My Head; Marshmallow; Fishin' Around; Tautology; Sound- little impression of his being emotionally involved in Lee; Palo Alto. Rebecca. the music." At best this criticism is a poor descrip• Lee Konitz, alto sax; Warne Marsh, tenor sax; Billy Bauer, guitar; tion of his early work, and can hardly apply to any Lennie Tristano, Sal Mosca, piano; Arnold Fishkin, bass; Shelly Manne, recent record. More misleading, though, are the charges Denzil Best, Jeff Morton, drums. (1949 & 1950) of weakness that have been brought against his work; 2. "LEE KONITZ QUARTET". Storyville LP 304. justified as they may seam at first sight, they ignore the Hi Beck; These Foolish Things; Sound-Lee; Subconscious-Lee. inner force of his playing, the way each facet makes its Lee Konitz, alto sax; Ronnie Ball, piano; Percy Heath, bass; Al Levit, drums. (January 5, 1954) • austere yet vital contribution to the whole. Konitz lays 3. "KONITZ inside HI-FI". Atlantic 1258. no claim to the massive vigor that is Hawkins' nor to

Kary's Trance; Everything Happens to Me; Sweet and Lovely; Cork 'n' the incisive power of a Charlie Parker. His is another,

Bib; All of Me; Star Eyes; Nesuhi's Instant; Indiana. less evident strength, the strength, perhaps, of grass Lee Konitz, alto and tenor sax; Billy Bauer, guitar; Sal Mosca, piano; that grows through stone.

Arnold Fishkin, Peter Ind, bass; Dick Scott, drums. 1956)

12 LENNIE Harvey Pekar TRISTANO HAS BEEN ONE OF THE REAL ORIGINALS IN

JAZZ In building his playing style, he made almost as great a break with tradition as Charlie Parker did, al• though Tristano showed, perhaps, less inventiveness within his idiom than Parker did within his. But because of the abstracted quality of his playing, and partly be• cause of his self-imposed seclusion, he has become a shadowy, semi-legendary figure. His career on records has covered a span of almost fifteen years now, and at one point in the late forties, he seemed about to be founding a school, seemed to be achieving a considerable popular success, seemed to be headed for a position of general influence. Now, ten years later, it seems safe to say that he was not and will not be a direct influence on as many musicians as some less original pianists, Horace Silver for one. His greatest influence will probably be an indirect one, on musicians who assimilate aspects of his style through the work of his disciples, particularly through Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh. Bill Evans is one musi• cian who has been indirectly influenced by Tristano in this way. Tristano's style was based on a single note melodic line, and his lines were unusually long. Even his first records, made in 1946, showed that he had broken through the tyranny of the bar line, and could construct his melodic lines with great freedom and flow. His harmonic sophistication made it possible for him to use unusually wide intervals in his lines, and sometimes only to imply resolutions. Perhaps his most significant departure from convention

13 was his method of phrasing and his way of construct• During this period Tristano recorded with a sextet which ing a solo. Tristano frequently phrases by accenting the included Bauer, Konitz, Marsh, bass and drums. first note or chord of a phrase and then releasing the Tristano has always had trouble getting the kind of tension through the rest of the phrase. Frequently such rhythm section he wants. He has a very even concep• a phrase would consist of a descending run; he used tion of time, and most frequently his drummers don't such runs as climaxes more than other jazzmen. And his play an afterbeat, or any other kind of rhythmic decora• solos were often structured, conceived as a series of tion. Jeff Morton, who often played with Tristano during climaxes and releases made up of such phrases. these years, is very much this kind of drummer; a Such devices, of course, had been used before. Art model time-keeper who is not required to offer any Tatum soYnetimes accented in this way. But if you listen inspiration to the soloist or to contribute color to the to Tatum records of the thirties carefully enough, you performance as a whole. can find a precedent for almost anything that happened Nearly all the compositions Tristano's group played ten years later. And where Tatum used such devices during this period, as during the earlier period, are occasionally and almost accidentally, Tristano made based on the chord changes of well-known standards. them into an integral style. Tristano's work is full of The two notable exceptions were the experiments in this kind of descending passages and devices. One total improvisation, Intuition and Digression, which in• related device, which was a particular Tristano favorite, volved no pre-planned harmonic basis or structural unit. was a passage played at double-time, repeated several In contrast to this kind of experiment, Tristano's own times, each time more slowly, so that the last repeti• playing style seemed to be in a period of consolida• tion gently reached the original tempo. Wow, on Capitol, tion. He was no longer the furious experimenter, and illustrates this soft let-down technique perfectly. his playing had become more introspective and grace• Tristano's playing has a very special emotional climate. ful. He began to use the upper register of the piano There is emotion in his work, but it is different from to a greater extent, and the jagged chords of his earlier any other kind of emotion I've heard in jazz. It is a style became less frequently used. Perhaps the most cool climate, like that of Lester Young (said to be one characteristic example of this middle style was the solo of Tristano's formative influences, and perhaps Tristano on Marionette (reissued on Capitol T 796). learned from Young his mastery of the use of space, I believe Konitz and Marsh have never surpassed their of when to lay out), but unlike Young, Tristano has no work on these recordings. Today, you can almost predict blue tinge at all in his work. And where Young is re• when Konitz is going to accent. His solos are still very laxed and amused, Tristano is reserved and austere. inventive and well shaped, but they have lost their But you can feel joy and pain through his reserve. supple qualities. At any rate, in 1949 both he and Marsh His recordings can be divided, perhaps rather arbi• were marvelous. trarily, into three periods. The first period includes the Since 1950, Tristano has been represented on record by trio sides on Majestic-Savoy and on Keynote-Mercury; only a single lp. Four of the nine tracks were recorded The second includes the 1949 Capitol and Prestige sides; in a studio, and on these, Tristano did considerable The third period consists of one single Atlantic lp, work with the tapes; double recording, speeding up made in the late fifties. tempos, etc. My opinion is that for once, in this kind At the time of his first trio recordings, Tristano had of trickery, the end justified the means. On Line-Up already evolved all the basic aspects of his own play• and E. 32nd Street, both up tempo 32-bar pieces, he ing style, and seemed to be concentrating on playing pre-recorded the rhythm and then superimposed his ideas which had never been heard before, taking a lot piano lines, slowing the bass lines down via tape and of chances. But he was also experimenting with an speeding up the treble. Both are full of drive and fas• ensemble style, with a trio that included Billy Bauer cinating ideas. I'd like to hear the original piano lines; on guitar and various bass players. Bauer, who was I bet they would compare favorably. The tempos would studying with Tristano, was working on a similar melodic be slower, but the dynamics would be more varied. All style. But when they try for ensemble passages of im• that pounding in the bass end of the piano gets to be provised counterpoint, they sometimes lose each other, a drag after a while. and the going gets a little disorderly. Bauer's sound Requiem is a blues dedicated to Charlie Parker. It is was then very twangy, and tended to sound inappropri• the closest Tristano has ever come to the real main• ate to his melodic ideas. And Tristano was not a very stream. He uses Bird's vocabulary movingly and with• sympathetic accompanist; he tended to dominate Bauer. out affectation. (Bauer, by the way, understood Tristano much more Turkish Mambo isn't much more than an exercise in than some people give him credit for; Tristano gets in triple tracking. It is built up of three lines, the first Bauer's way as often as Bauer in Tristano's.) But in one moving frqm 7/8 to 7/4; the second from 5/8 to spite of the roughness of the ensembles, most of the 5/4; the third from 3/8 to 4/4. It's entertaining, but time, these records have the tremendous excitement of that's all. creation. At times Tristano improvises almost furiously, The other tracks were made during Tristano's stay at as on Coolin' Off with Ulanov. the Confucius Lounge with Konitz. He wasn't in par• Since so few pianists have followed in Tristano's path, ticularly inspired form. He seemed to be trying to de• these sides seem, in retrospect, all .the more fresh. velop a more stable approach (or perhaps a more By 1949, Tristano was at the height of his popularity. middle-aged one, depending on your point of view). He had made a few records with the Metronome All- He used chord melodies much more, and played noth• Stars; he had gathered around him a group of disciples ing one hadn't heard him play before. Because this lp who included Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh; and even is either atypical or represents Tristano below par, it Bud Powell sometimes incorporated a Tristano idea or may be his least important, and it is a pity that it is two in his solos (Buttercup on Verve, is an example). the only Tristano recording currently available on lp.

14 THE BLUES GREENBACKS CAT MAN BLUES

As I was walking down the street last night. Went home last night, heard a noise, I asked my wife 'What is that?' A pretty little girl came into sight. Went home last night, heard a noise, I asked my wife 'What is that?' I bowed and smiled and asked her name. Says 'Man, don't be so suspicious, that ain't nothin' but a cat' She said hold it bud, I don't play that game. I travelled this world all over, mama, takln' all kinds of chance I reached into my pocket and to her big surprise, I travelled this world all over, mama, takin' all kinds of chance There was Lincoln staring her dead in the eye. But I never come home before, seen a cat wearin' a pair of pants On a greenback, greenback dollar bill, Just a little piece of paper coated with chlorophyll. Lord, he wouldn't call him cat man if he come round in the day Lord, he wouldn't call him cat man if he come round in the day She looked at .me with that familiar desire, But he wait till late at night when he can steal my cream away Her eyes lit up like they were on fire. She said my name's Flo and you're on the right track, Lord, I want that cat man stay away from my house, Lordy, when I'm out But look here Daddy, I wear furs on my back. Lord, I want that cat man stay away from my house, Lordy, when I'm out So if you want to have fun in this man's land, Because I think he's the cause of my woman wearin' the mattress out Let Lincoln and Jackson start shaking hands. Said I went home last night askin' 'Just what is a lamb?' On a greenback, greenback dollar bill, Said I went home last night askin' 'Just what is a lamb?' Just a little piece of paper coated with chlorophyll. I never raised no suspicion till I hear my back-door slam I didn't know what I was getting into, (Sung by Blind Boy Fuller on Melotone 7-01-56. But I popped Lincoln and Jackson too. Transcribed by Eric Townley.) I didn't mind seeing them fade out of sight, I just knew I'd have some fun last night. Whenever you in town and looking for a thrill, DRY LAND BLUES If Lincoln can't get it, Jackson sure will. I can look through muddy water, baby, an' find dry land, On a greenback, greenback dollar bill, If you don't want me, honey, let's take hand 'n hand. Just a little piece of paper coated with chlorophyll. I'm goin' so far can't hear your rooster crow, We went to night spot where the lights were low, I'm goin' so far can't hear your rooster crow. Dined and danced and I was ready to go. I got out of my seat and when Flo arose, You won't cook me no dinner, baby; you won't iron me no clothes. She said hold it Daddy, while I powder my nose. You won't do nothin' but walk the honey grove. I sat back down with a smiling face, Men, if you love your woman, better measure it in a cup, While she went down to the powder place. For she'll end up 'n quit you, boy, leave you in tough luck. With my greenback, greenback dollar bill, Men, you can take ray woman but you ain't done nothin' smart, Just a little piece of paper coated with chlorophyll. For I got more'n one woman playin' in my back yard. The music stopped and the lights came on,

I looked around and saw I was all alone. Windstorm come an' it blowed my house away. I didn't know how long Flo had been gone, I'm a good old boy, but I ain't got nowhere to stay. But a nose powder sure didn't take that long. An' there's trouble here an' there's trouble everywhere I left the place with tears in my eyes, So much trouble floatin' in the air. As I waved Lincoln and Jackson goodbye. On a greenback, greenback dollar bill, What you gonna do when your troubble get like mine, Just a little piece of paper coated with chlorophyll. What you gonna do your trouble get like mine? What you gonna do when your trouble get like mine? (By Renald Richardo. Sung by Ray Charles on Atlantic 8006. (Sung by Furry Lewis on Label "X" LVA-3032. Transcribed by H. A. Woodfin.) Submitted unsigned.)

15 THE SYMPOSIUM

Joe Goldberg

When the true jazz innovator comes along, every six section raised several questions, and for the answer to weeks or so, fearful obstacles lie in his path; too much those, we turned to Porter Smith, who can be much publicity combined with what Jon Hendricks so tell• more articulate about his music than can Ansel. "We ingly called "lack of acceptance", and the like. This don't need no rhythm," he said. magazine would like to spare the true creative artist such indignities, since too often they represent mere opportunism on the part of the jazz press and other There you have it; the background on the Jones-Smith elements in the jazz business. Therefore, when we first Duo. What follows is a cross-section of opinion from heard about Ansel Jones, we made an unprecedented some of the finest jazz commentators in the world. It's move. All the important jazz writers were contacted, a all fiction, of course, but then so is most criticism. plane was chartered (at this time we would like to Ralph Gleason: I like this group, and anybody who acknowledge with deep appreciation the assistance of doesn't had just better not ever talk to me again, that's the Fjord Foundation), and a picnic lunch was packed all. Their music has been analyzed in too much detail by the ladies auxiliary, directed by the Baroness Nica. elsewhere for me to repeat the obvious here, but just We all set forth for Beaumont, Texas, where the Ansel let me say one thing. The act of melting down pennies Jones Duo was playing. to make a trumpet, in defiance of the federal law against defacing currency, is a nose-thumbing gesture After that junket, copies of his new lp "Yesterday Is Not of the artist against authority that shows a kind of cour• the Answer" were distributed. And the reflections and age I have only found in the poetry of Jon Hendricks opinions of all of the country's most important critics and the humor of Lenny Bruce. And if you don't hear on Ansel Jones were recorded. In this way, the reader that parallel in the music, as well as overtones of Allen can compare all the conflicting opinions on Ansel Jones, Ginsberg, Dylan Thomas and Paul Klee, then your ears side by side, handy for reference. And the jazz writers are stopped up by prejudice, and I don't want to have save themselves quite a bit of trouble, for they all dis• anything to do with you. covered Ansel Jones at the same time, and therefore Whitney Balliett: Ansel Jones, a thin, diffident young have no axes to grind. man who resembles a twelve-stringed lute placed on But first, a word about Ansel Jones. He is a shy man, its end at an angle of seventy-three degrees, is getting and one is instantly impressed by his deep sincerity, music from his self-smelted horn that may radically his need to make music, and his love of jazz. As Ansel change the shape of jazz. In a typical solo, he will himself said to us—we were seated around a long table start with a sort of agonized laziness, as if he were at the Texas Dog Bar and Grill, where Ansel's group awakening from a dream caused by having eaten too was playing, and Ansel, warmed by the presence of so much welsh rarebit the night before, and then, in about many men who believe in what he is trying to say, re• the third chorus, he will, in a series of short, splatting laxed his ordinarily Spartan rule against verbalization— notes that give the effect of a catsup bottle hit once "I am deeply sincere. I love jazz, and I need to make too often on its end, abruptly switch into a fast tempo music." that belies the furry bumbling that preceded it. All this Much of Ansel's life in music is explained by his in• time, his pianist, Porter Smith, a torpid ellipse of a strument, a strange, ungainly copper trumpet that he man, lays down a firm, inky foundation that anticipates carries with him affectionately at all times. All his life, the leader's meanderings with the precision of a See• Ansel had wanted to become a serious composer, and ing Eye Dog weaving its way through a Coney Island had saved his pennies so that someday he might attend beach crowd on the Fourth of July. In one composition, the Julliard School of Music. The day after his appli• Duplicity, the two men hit the same note simultaneously cation to Julliard had been refused, Ansel walked calmly midway through the second bridge, and it had the into the metal working shop at the high school, carry• shattering emotional impact of two old friends meeting ing the pennies he had been saving. Without a word, by chance after years of aimless wandering. he tossed them into one of the huge cauldrons there. Gene Lees: I'm not as friendly with Ansel Jones as I By night, he had melted them down and had forged am with Quincy and some of the other guys, but some from the molten copper a trumpet. of the things they play remind me of tunes I've heard He and pianist Porter Smith form the entire group. in my extensive collection of Hindemith and Stravinsky Naturally, their exclusion of the conventional rhythm records. I suppose the critics will say they use counter-

16 point, because critics like that word, but they don't. next month's issue of the new Metronome, along with They use fragmentation of theme. a piercing analysis of Charles Mingus and a term paper Martin Williams: It is impossible to write about the on the role of the coffee house in jazz. music of Ansel Jones without using the word "artist." Symphony Sid: Ansel Jones is another of the great His compositions are five-strain rondos with the fourth gentlemen of jazz who has been so swinging over the strain omitted (ABACAE), and, in using this approach, years. We like his music because it is Progressive and he might seem to incorporate the sense of form that American, and he is appearing on our great swinging had previously been notable in only the work of, say, show at the Coliseum along with many of the other, a Jelly Roll Morton, a Duke Ellington, a John Lewis, a great gentlemen of jazz who have been so swinging Thelonious Monk. But Jones has, in the most natural over the years. way in the world, gone one step beyond the work of Leonard Feather: Although Ansel Jones has not yet done these masters. He has omitted the fourth strain. (A many of the things that we have come to know are strain, it should be explained at this point, is an iden• equated with jazz greatness—he has not taken a blind• tifying feature of the work of Morton, roughly corres• fold test (Down Beat), been mentioned in the Encyclo• ponding to a riff in the Ellington band of the forties, pedia of Jazz (Horizon Press) or been recorded on the an episode in the work of John Lewis, or a theme in Metrojazz label—he shows a certain amount of talent. the compositions of Thelonious Monk). Omitting the However, is talent truly a criterion? fourth strain now seems an amazingly simple step to Nat Hentoff: It is important that the world become have made, but it takes an Ansel Jones to make that aware of what is going on in Beaumont, Texas. As the step. A man might deserve the title of artist for having plane crossed the Mason-Dixon line, I noticed that cer• done much less. But there is still more to this man's tain of the passengers had been given containers with achievement. In the improvised passages, the strains- a large black "N" stenciled on them. Is this the Amer• all four of them—are abandoned in favor of blues or ica of DwigTit MacDonald? That night, at the Texas Dog, I Got Rhythm. Perhaps a word of explanation is in order I could hear little of the music over the clacking of here. If I abandon my strain, I am then not playing my typewriter (I was writing a profile on Phil Foster the song I wrote, which gives me enormous freedom, for the Daily Forward), but I did hear one shattering although it plays hell with my discipline. fragment of belles-lettres that moved me deeply. John S, Wilson: I do not understand the music of Ansel After the above comments were turned in, there was Jones, but he definitely shares a place with those men a round-table discussion on the work of Ansel Jones. who have left us an identifiable body of music—Morton, Highlights are reproduced below. Ellington, Lewis and Monk. In his execution, he gets a Feather: What do you think about this fellow, Ed? tweedy sound that is aptly suited to the cordovan tones George Crater: Don't call me by my right name. produced by his pianist, Porter Smith. It will be inter• Williams: It certainly is a relief from all the blues- esting to see what their next album produces. I have based-pseudo-funk we've been used to. not mentioned the other members of the group because Jon Hendricks: Well, man, like, that's soul, y'know? there are no other members. This suggests a similarity Gleason: You tell 'em, Jon, baby. to other duos—Don Shirley and Mitchell-Ruff—that can Lees: I think anything that extends the area of jazz is be misleading. welcome. At Downbeat, we're going to sponsor a jazz Ira Gitler: I like half of this record, the Porter Smith booth at the next Conference of Christians and Jews, half. Porter Smith is playing jazz. He has that old and get a delegation from Lexington to come and swear Horace thing going. But Ansel Jones, who sounds like they never played jazz. Miles Davis (major influence), with slight overtones of Wilson: I'd like to get back to what .Martin was saying. Don Jacoby and the merest hint of Rafael Mendez, is Martin, how do you distinguish between funk and not playing jazz. He is playing a copper trumpet. No• pseudo-funk? They employ the same harmonies, don't body ever played jazz on a copper trumpet before. I they? don't think I trust it. Hendricks: One's got soul, baby, and one hasn't. Bill Coss: This review is not appearing in the new Gleason: You tell 'em Jon, baby. Isn't this a wonderful Metronome, which contains many interesting features kid? The Sammy Davis, Jr. of jazz. and departments, such as record reviews, notes on Gitler: That sounds like something Lenny Bruce might where the bands are playing, and a crossword puzzle have said. page, because we' are all getting together, in the inter• Gleason: Where do you think I got it? est of jazz, and telling you, straight out and no holds Hentoff: Lenny Bruce is a devastating commentator on barred, what we think of Ansel Jones. That, I think, is our contemporary social scene. the true spirit of jazz. We stand right up there and Coss: That's what jazz is. A devastating comment on tell you what we think, regardless of the pain, agony, our social scene. torment and soul-tearing frustration of our inner selves. Balliett: Lenny Bruce reminds me of an overturned milk We are laying it on the line. And that is what jazz is. truck. It is more than just music. It is freedom, irrepressible Wilson: What do you mean by that? good spirits, a bottle of scotch and your girl on Satur• Balliett: If you can't see how Lenny Bruce is like an day night, and, yes, it is those here-it-is-Sunday-morn- overturned milk truck, I don't see how I can explain ing-and-where-did-the-night-go-blues, too; it is all of that, it to you. and more, too; it is the jeering laugh at the policeman's Williams: I thought we were talking about Ansel Jones. swinging club because you know you're clean, buddy, It is very important that we all decide what position so what the hell? we are going to take on this man. Because of space limitations, my review of Ansel All: Let's ask Cannonball for an opinion. He's a musi• Jones will not appear in this column, but it will be in cian. He'll know.

17 I was born and raised in Iowa and became interested in music when I was in my early teens. I had my own EDDIE group of guys my own age, called the Jimtown Ramblers. An older man named Edgar Pillows who had more ex• perience took over and changed the name to the Night Owls. We went down to New Orleans with the band, BAREFIELD'S which was just five pieces, and when we got back, I sneaked off in the middle of the night and joined Isler's Gravy Show, a traveling minstrel troup. I was not only playing saxophone in the troup, but for fifteen dollars MANY a week, I also fought in an athletic sideshow, where I had to beat all comers. I started fighting to increase my salary and took on all comers all the way down WORLDS through Texas during the summer of 1926. The show got stranded in Kansas City, and that's where I first met Bennie Moten. Lamar Wright was playing trumpet with him then. I didn't have any money, and Frank Driggs I didn't want my mother to know where I was, so I got a job washing dishes and didn't write home. Finally, a group of kids from Indianapolis came through on their way to California. One of them was Raymond Valentine, just a kid then, but a terrific trumpet player. Jhey liked me and had gotten a sax for me to rehearse with them at Lincoln Hall. Somehow, my mother found out where I was, and she sent detectives around to bring me home. I didn't do much of anything all that winter and took off for Chicago the next spring. There I was staying with a friend of mine who was a chef-cook and was also trying to learn the sax. I was playing by ear all this time and couldn't read, but he thought I was much better than he was, so he got me to come and stay with him. I was working in the stock• yards when I auditioned for a band called the Society Among the many excellent jazzmen of an older Syncopators. The first number was a jam session and generation who have managed to stay working by they liked my playing, but when it came to reading I using a variety of skills, is arranger-conductor and couldn't make it, and they wouldn't take me. But the saxophonist Eddie Barefield. Many another equally leader sent me out on some gigs with Billy Frye, a good musician would have given up and left music, piano player who played all the rent parties. We did but Eddie has managed to acquire exceptional pretty well, and from Friday to Sunday we'd make as business traits over his years in music, and that with much as fifty dollars apiece. a lot of enthusiasm has enabled him to work steadily When I got back home I received a telegram from a almost everywhere a jazzman can. He's played with band called the Virginia Ravens, famous in the Middle Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Fletcher Henderson West then. They were run by an elderly white couple, and Don Redman. He led an exceptional band of his but the band was all Negro. The telegram was very busi• own in the Los Angeles area of which Don Byas and nesslike, saying something like, "We heard about you Tyree Glenn were members during the late 'thirties. while going through Des Moines and think you are just He was musical director for Ella Fitzgerald's the man we are looking for. You must be neat and clean, orchestra. He's conducted for Street Car Named read and be able to improvise." I didn't want to go when Desire on Broadway and for night club shows at the I saw I had to read, but my friend in Chicago urged Copper Door. He has written arrangements for most me to take it. He said it was my big chance, and I of the big names in the field since the early 'thirties. could make it. He thought I was the greatest. I had to Although he is primarily known as a clarinetist, he hock my horn to make the trip by train to their head• is a much more interesting alto soloist. quarters in Genesee, Ohio. When the train pulled in at He's managed to keep abreast of the changing eight that night the whole band was there to meet me. currents in jazz and has gone through additional They thought they were getting the greatest musician training at Julliard. He listens with interest to younger in the world. Their leader was a singer named Lee, I musicians like Cannonball Adderly, whom he especially can't remember his last name. He asked me what horn likes. He misses the jam sessions which were so did I want to play, alto or tenor? Knowing my past much a part of his own training and feels they would experience in Chicago trying to play lead alto, I de• help bridge the gap between musical generations cided to try tenor because I could hide the fact I in jazz. couldn't read. I had a terrific ear and was a very good He related his experiences to me throughout the soloist for that time—you know, slap-tongue, etc. I went summer and early fall of 1959. He recently returned over like a house oh fire because I could solo well and from Europe where he toured with the Jazz Train could follow the melody. I was copying Coleman Haw• stage show as conductor. kins, just like everybody else in those years, and the Frank Driggs music wasn't as difficult as it is now.

18

The Ravens' territory was Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin, the job was over Byron Garrison, the banjo player, and and they did mostly one-nighters. I went over big, play• I stayed in Madison, because we liked the town. We ing on my back, leaning way over, etc., so the others couldn't get any work though, so he went back to Pitts• didn't pay any attention to the fact that I couldn't read. burgh, and I went to Milwaukee. The people who owned the band were wild about me, I couldn't get any work there either because there was and the people at the dances used to stop dancing when a strong union, and I wasn't a member of any local I started playing, so my head got quite big. Bill Crump, at the time. I got a job hauling stuff off a truck, and one of the other saxes and I got to be good friends. It a month later the Virginia Ravens came through and I seemed like all the other guys in the band were against rejoined them. I got Snake White in the band (he and the leader because he was older and pretty strict; they I were raised together), and we quit together in Eau set my mind against him then. Claire, Wisconsin and went to Minneapolis to join an• We had a rehearsal one day and did a stock arrange• other band called the Ethiopian Symphonians. They ment on a number called Sam, the Accordion Man. it were copying Fletcher Henderson's records and work• had an eight-bar intro and a tenor break at the end ing in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Four of us quit after of the eight. In those days, the band stopped at the a while to join Clarence Johnson's band in Bismarck, break, so when it came, I stopped too. Lee said, "No, North Dakota. That's where I first met Lester Young. there's a saxophone break there." I said, "Oh, yeah." He was with his father's band then, playing alto and So they went through it again and when the break came baritone. Lee wasn't playing then, just dancing in front I slap-tongued and went through a whole lot of notes, of the band. His mother was playing piano, and his and Lee said "No, play what's on the paper." That's sister saxophone. We used to get together and send off when the trouble started. The other guys couldn't be• from a catalog and get all of Frankie Trumbauer's rec• lieve I couldn't read. I'd been telling Bill all the time ords. That's where Prez got the basis of his style. We I couldn't read, and he'd get mad at me, telling me, stayed around Bismarck through the winter of 1927 and "Why are you Eastern guys always jiving us?" Anyway, into early 1928. Lee fired me, told me he couldn't use me if I couldn't After that, Snake and myself went to Minneapolis and read. So I packed up my horns and was starting to walk I formed my own six-piece combo and played dance out when Mr. and Mrs. Bass, the owners, came up and marathons in Minaqua, Wisconsin, and did a show for asked me where I was going. I told them Lee fired me, the Stecker Brothers. About this time Eli Rice came and they said, "Oh, no, he can't do that, you're our star through with a ten-piece band, heard our group, took attraction." When they told me that, I flipped, and my his own band back to Milwaukee, fired them and came head got even bigger. For quite a while from then on, back and picked us up. He was a big man, and a I just sat up in the band and did as I pleased. I'd powerful singer who could sing over the whole band, fluff the leader off when he asked me to do something, no matter how loud you played. He was as big as Jimmy or just turn my back. He finally came up to me and Rushing, but he was more muscular and he was tall. said, "As long as I have to keep you in the band, why He was an older man then. His son, Sylvester Rice, was don't you come over to my place for an hour a day, a very fine drummer and another son, Dick, was also a and I'll sit down with you and teach you how to read." good drummer and singer. Between 1928 and 1930 I I told him I didn't need to read and even offered to went back and forth between Eli Rice's Cottonpickers fight him. One day a little later on when I was walking and Grant Moore's band; both of them worked in and down the main street in one of those little old towns around Wisconsin and Minnesota. Rice had a terrific I started thinking what an ass I'd been. This guy was band with guys like Eddie Tompkins and Joe Thomas trying to help me and I was making a fool out of my• on trumpets, and another guy called Shorty Mack who self. No matter what the guys in the band thought about was a cross between Louis and Jabbo Smith. Shorty him, he was offering me something, and I was a fool was a dwarf with really short legs but a man's body. not to take advantage of it. So I turned around and Bert Bailey was playing tenor and Victoria Raymore was went up to the hotel where he was staying and knocked a fine pianist. She's married to Everett Barksdale now. on his door. When he saw it was me he started to shut I played with J. Frank Terry's Chicago Nightingales for the door in my face, but I pushed it open and walked a while—this was in Toledo—and I ran around with Art inside. I told him I wasn't there to fight him, but I Tatum and Teddy Wilson who were both there then. wanted to talk to him. He told me to sit down, and I Then I went back with both Grant Moore and Eli Rice said I wanted to apologize to him for the way I'd been until the winter of 1930, when I organized another combo acting and that I was ashamed of myself and wanted to of my own which I took into the Nest Club in Minne• take up his proposition for teaching me how to read. apolis. Snake White, Frank Hines and Lester Young You should have seen the change come over his face. were with me then, and we worked until the spring of And he sat down with me every day and taught me how 1931 when the job folded. I went back to Chicago to to read. I finally switched over from tenor to lead alto. join Ralph Cooper's band at the Regal Theatre. I never This job was paying five dollars a day, but in those days did work because the union pulled me and the entire you could get a room for twenty-five cents a night, a band off the job because I was called in from out' of steak for thirty-five, and you would still have money left town. Cooper, Reginald Forsythe and myself all wound over. The other alto player was leaving to take a job up sleeping in the same bed at the Hotel Trenier. That with Don Phillips' band out of Fort Wayne. They were was where Forsythe taught me how to voice for brass opening up at the Broadway Gardens in Madison, Wis• sections and started me writing for Earl Hines and consin, and they were paying sixty dollars a week. I put different bands around town then. in my notice with the other guy, and when Lee heard Bennie Moten was playing the Paradise Theatre on the I was leaving, he quit too, because I was the only friend North Side, and Ben Webster had come to town to join he had in the band. We stayed there all summer. When them. We got to be good friends. I went out with him

20 to the theatre and we started jamming and Bennie mental records before that one. Actually, I like my own liked what he heard and asked me to join the band. solo on Chinese Rhythm better. So I went back to Kansas City with them and later took We went to Europe in the early part of 1934 and did another tour East with them. We didn't make any very well. When we got back, Ed Swayzee died and money; got stranded in Columbus, Ohio; got stranded Mouse Randolph took his place in the trumpet section, some more here and there, and finally we got our break: with Doc Cheatham. I'll never know why Cab didn't use to open the Pearl Theatre in Philadelphia. Doc Cheatham more often than he did, though, because Fletcher's band was just going out, and it was a big he's always been one of the top men around. Ben. thrill for me to see Hawk and all the other guys I'd Webster was in the band then too. been idolizing since I was a kid. They were rehearsing, I fell in love with the climate in Hollywood and decided so I spent the entire day at the theatre watching them to settle there. I didn't do too many jobs because I —and all the beautiful chorus girls in the show. wasn't in the union. I started to work with Charlie While we were working the show we were tabbing Schols' band after a while, and then I decided I might everything. We didn't have any money, so we charged as well get my own band together. I took seven of his our rent, our clothes, our whiskey. And were balling it men, which was most of his band, and added some up with the girls. Payday came and Bennie drdn't get others. Tyree Glenn had just come to town, and he any money. He owed Steiffel so much that he didn't wanted to join, and Don Byas, who had been playing have any coming in. I pawned a suit and my clarinet, with Hamp's first band there the year before. I had and we wound up standing in front of the Pearl, broke. Paul Howard, the secretary of the local, on the other We,had to get to Camden to record, and along comes tenor, so we didn't have any union problems at all. I this little guy Archie with a raggedy old bus, and he turned down an offer from Frank Sebastian to play his took us there. He got us a rabbit and four loaves of Cotton Club, which was the only really important club bread, and we cooked rabbit stew right on a pool table. in town, because he wanted to put Hamp in on drums. That kept us from starving, and then we went on to I had Lee Young and told him we'd rather stick it out make the records. Eddie Durham was doing most of together since we'd come this far. A month later he Bennie's writing then; I made Toby that time. We didn't called me and told me to bring the band in on my own go back to New York again, just turned around and terms, and we stayed in there for quite a while. The made it back to Kansas City. We hung around there band was good. Dudley Brooks, the piano player, and I for a while, not doing much of anything, so I jumped did most of the arranging. We made some records for town and went to Columbus to join Zack Whyte. Al Jarvis who was doing everything he could to help Sy Oliver was doing most of the arranging for Zack us make it, but I don't know what ever happened to then, although Gus Wilson, Teddy's brother, wrote some them. We couldn't get enough work around that part of terrific stuff. Gus was also a fine trombone player. He the country, and we had to break up late in 1937. would always make an arrangement on the same tune, When Louis Armstrong was out there in 1937 for the Clementine. He'd come in every two or three days and movie Every Day's a Holiday, the union got a fifty-piece tear up the old arrangement and make a new one, but parade band together to compete for the best marching only on that one tune. He was very upset then. One band. We won the contest and got a part in the picture. night in Chillicothe, Ohio, he walked off the stand, left There's a scene in the picture with the whole band- his horn and everything, and none of us ever saw him only instead of me leading it with my clarinet, Louis again until I ran into him in Chicago a few years back. is leading the band and I'm in the back playing trom• Vic Dickenson was with Zack then, and they had a bone! I was able to get into the movie studios doing terrific trumpet player named Henry Savage who was sound tracks for Georgie Stoll along with Al Morgan, playing way up long before anyone else thought it could Marshall Royal, and a few others. be done. Fletcher Henderson came through in 1938. Jerry Blake We were stranded in Columbus and took off on a road quit the band and I took his place and came back East tour down to Chattanooga. I came down with some kind with him. I was pretty tired of Hollywood by this time. of virus, so they left me there. After I got well I did The climate was still the greatest, but there wasn't some broadcasting with one of the local stations until enough happening musically. I got a wire to join the Cotton Pickers. We went into the Grand Terrace that spring and I re• I went up to Erie, Pennsylvania to join them. They corded with Fletcher. I think I played better clarinet on finally fired McKinney and came down to Baltimore to Fletcher's records than I did on most of the others. play Carlin's Hotel. That was the best job we had. We Pete Suggs was playing drums and vibes with the band were making thirty dollars a week and stayed there until then, and Emmett Berry and Ben Webster were there too. that fall. Roy Eldridge was with the band then, and he When we got back to New York I left to join Don Red• and I used to run together. We used to jam a lot in man at the Savoy. Ed Inge was playing all the clarinet a restaurant, and one day Cab Calloway came by and solos and I made Milenburg Joys with him—that's my heard us playing and asked me to join his band. I was alto solo, and not Don's as most people thought. glad to get asked to join a band that was doing some• Chick Webb wanted me to join his band just a little thing, so I went in. He didn't have any music for me, while before he died. He wanted me to go on a ten- but I just added my part and eventually started writing week tour with him, but I told him I'd join when he them in. I made all his records until I left in 1936, in got back. He never made it. Ella took his band over Hollywood after they made a movie with Al Jolson. and I joined and became director, staying abput a year. I'll tell you how Moonglow came to be made; it was a Then I took my own combo into the Savoy. It was a big hit and it was purely by accident. One day they group more or less on the order of the Savoy Sultans. happened to have some time left over in the studio so I had Benny Carter, and me doing the arranging! we happened to make it. Cab hadn't made any all instru• I got a studio job with ABC here in New York which

21 lasted from 1942 through 1946, and I doubled into Duke's band at the Hurricane Club in 1942 when Chauncey Haughton went into the service. I also did some other gigs with Frankie Newton at the same time. I was with Duke again after the ABC gig in 1947, and was the musical director for the Broadway show Streetcar Named Desire through 1948. I was on the Endorsed by Dorsey show over WOR and with Sy Oliver at Cafe Zanzibar in 1950. Then I was back with Fletcher's last big band and small combo that played in Cafe Society in 1950-51 before he died. I went to Brazil and Uruguay with Cab in 1951 and have been writing, arranging, con• ducting, and gigging since then. I've had all of Cab's bands since that time and have made a tour of Europe again with the Jazz Train show. I took Tommy Benford with me and we used local musicians when we got there. I've always tried to keep up with whateveY developments have come along, so I followed what Bird was doing when he came to New York, and I've kept up with the other younger guys like Cannonball Adderley and Lou Donaldson. And don't forget, there's always Benny Car• ter. It's too bad he doesn't come East, because he's still upset everybody, he can play so much. I love to play; one of these days maybe I'll be able to do some recording with my alto.

Freddie Greene, guitars; Walter Page, bass; There is some gorgeous Lester Young Jo Jones, drums. in this set—and what beautiful things RECORD Good Morning, Blues; Way Down Yonder in he played in those years. But that New Orleans; Pagin' the Devil. isn't all of course; for example, the Count Basie, piano replaces Christian and Pete Johnson-Joe Turner duet is the Greene. Don't Be That Way. very best I have ever heard from them, Young plays clarinet instead of tenor; but Turner is a bit off-mike, and that REVIEWS Mortgage Stomp. Add Helen Humes, vocal: brings up the question of recorded Blues with Helen. sound. There is some bad balance and NEW ORLEANS FEETWARMERS: Sidney Rechet, occasional distortion, of course, but soprano sax; Tommy Ladnier, trumpet: Dan the only times it really got in the way Minor, trombone; James P. Johnson, piano; for me were on a couple of the Walter Page, bass; Jo Jones, drums. Goodman tracks, where Christian was "SPIRITUALS TO SWING: The I Wish I Could Shimmy Like my Sister Kate; either too close to the mike or had Legendary Carnegie Hall Concerts of Weary Blues. his amplifier up too high. 1938-9". Vanguard VRS 8523-4. James P. Johnson, piano: Mule Walk; Carolina Among the Goodman tracks there is Shout. very good Christian and Hampton on BENNY GOODMAN Sextet: Benny Goodman, Ida Cox, accompanied by Johnson, Clayton, Flying Home and Memories, and very clarinet; Charlie Christian, guitar; Lionel Young, Wells, Greene, Page, Jones. 'Fore Day good Christian on Honeysuckle (the Hampton, vibes; Fletcher Henderson, piano; Creep. version that later became Gilly and Arthur Bernstein, bass; Nick Fatool, drums. Sonny Terry and Bull City Red: The New Gone with 'What' Draft, by the way), I Got Rhythm; Flying Home; Memories of You; John Henry. Sonny Terry: Mountain Blues. and it is fine to hear the Henderson Stomping at the Savoy; Honeysuckle Rose. Joe Turner, vocal; Pete Johnson, piano: It's solo on the latter. COUNT BASIE BAND: Earl Warren, Herschel All Right Baby. Evans, Lester Young, Jack Washington, reeds; Pete Johnson, Meade Lux Lewis, Albert The Basie band things mostly don't Ed Lewis, Harry Edison, Buck Clayton, Shad Amnions, pianos; accompanied by Page and come to much. One O'clock is just Collins, trumpet; Dickie Wells, Dan Minor, Jones. Cavalcade of Boogie. some of the riffs. Rhythm Wan is a Benny Morton, trombones; Count Basie, piano; Big Bill Broonzy, vocals; accompanied by powerhouse James Mundy chart of a Freddie Greene, drums; Walter Page, bass; Ammons, Page, Jones: Done. Got Wise; Louise, kind that I think had little to do with Jo Jones, drums. Louise. the virtues of this extraordinary band. One O'clock Jump, Rhythm Man. Mitchell's Christian. Singers: What More Can However, toward the end of the mass Add Hot Lips Page, trumpet; Blue with Lips. Jesus Do?; My Mother Died Ashoutin'. Ladv Be Good there is some ragged KANSAS CITY SIX: Buck Clayton, trumpet; Goodman Sextet, Basie Band, Lewis, Pete riffing which catches on records, for Lester Young, tenor; Charlie Christian, Johnson, Ammons: Lady Be Good. once, the almost unbelievable lift and

22 ARGO TS SWINGING!

also available in stereo ARGO RECORDS • 2120 S. MICHIGAN, CHICAGO excitement one got standing and was introduced to the audience as an commercial record dates these concerts listening in front of this band in those ex-sharecropper! Ah, the thirties!) spawned, and how many careers, new years, listening especially on its last Now, Prez and associates. All is not and renewed. One of John Hammond's number of the night which was usually gold, but what is gold glows as nothing purposes, of course, was to suggest to a long "head," led off by Prez. The else in all jazz can glow. Good clarinet people what a rich heritage lay behind Lips Page track is his engaging solos by him are almost priceless, and within this "swing music" they embrochure-controlled, false-fingered and there is one on Blues for Helen. were so crazy about. And one effect medium tempo blues—and if you He uses the same initial ideas as on was to thrust many of the participants remember that Boo Woo and Woo Woo the Commodore Pagin' the Devil to a into the fringes of big time show biz jive, you will know that Harry James quite different development, and I success. Some flourished for a while; must have had his ears wide open think that perhaps I have never heard some still do. Another was to put jazz "this night. a better Lester Young solo than this into the concert hall, irrevocably, as Basie's piano shows his roots; it is in new one. Mortgage Stomp is, in effect, it turned out. Another effect that his earlier Wallerish style, with touches a quite worthy sketch for a masterpiece, perhaps occurs to us only now was of Hines. I will cop out on James P. Lester Leaps In; a constantly the astonishing comprehensiveness of because he is a big subject to me decelerating Don't Be That Way is not having Sonny Terry and Lester Young and not for now; let me lean on Dick up to that high level. The Kansas City on the same stage at the same Wellstood's comment in these pages Six" numbers with Christian come from concert. If we set ourselves to think that his earlier work was better. Bechet the 1939 concert; they sound different, about any of those things we may end is really creative on Sister Kate. are not quite as good, and there's a lot up thinking about just what part jazz Ladnier is too, there and also on the of trouble with the time on a couple of has really played, variously, in the otherwise edgy Weary Blues. He also them. But to hear Prez and Christian lives of Americans, listeners'and reminds us how many New Orleans in the same group is fascinating. musicians of all kinds. I am sure that players of Armstrong's generation Good Morning Blues generally plods no matter how we approach a question shared the rhythmic ideas he had but though they are both very good on it, like that, sooner or later, we will be used them differently with very as is Clayton. The latter is somehow faced with John Hammond, the fan, different ideas of melody. Jo Jones stuck for ideas until near the end of the collector, the enthusiast, the kids an earlier drum style on these his Way Down Yonder solo. Christian's producer, the writer, the entrepreneur, tracks but with respect and without there is brief. If Young's solo isn't the a & r man, the triend and ridicule (what a contrast to Krupa on up to his Commodore version, it only encourager of major talent. He will the Goodman Carnegie set). means it isn't one of his very best figure in our answer in many ways. The Golden Gates were fine, but after recorded performances. This Pagin' But for now, I will return to Lester hearing the same kinds of materials the Devil is very good blues playing. Young on Blues with Helen in a silent handled more spontaneously by the Finally, to go back to the Lady Be gratitude. Mitchells, you may feel the whole thing Good, only some of it makes much Martin Williams is a little too dicty. (If you merely sense to me but Christian's choruses formalize something and add nothing are excellent; his best work of the set, I'd say. Lester's are really fascinating thereby, you haven't done much. It is DUKE ELLINGTON-JOHNNY HODGES: if you know the 1936 version, and it is sort of like the difference between a "Side By Side". Verve MG V-8345. so good to hear Edison without the Dean Kinkaid arrangement of Milenberg Harry Ellison, trumpet; Les Spann, guitar, current cliches. Joys and one by Don Redman.) flute; Johnny Hodges, alto; Duke Ellington, Ida Cox here is a bit different from Young and Christian; master and pupil, piano; Al Hall, bass; Jo Jones, drums. the dramatic Ida Cox of the twenties. a great and enduring jazzman and Stompy Jones; Squeeze Me; Going Up. This is humorous vaudeville patter one not quite so great. Christian was Roy Eldridgc, trumpet, fluegelhorn; Lawrence blues and, as such, is very good—but not so great as the master, but went Broan, trombone; Johnny Hodges, alto; Ben I wonder why seven accompanists. beyond him and reflected a crisis in Webster, tenor; Billy Strayhorn, piano; Wendell Helen Humes doesn't seem to me a jazz. I think that he shows that crisis Marshall, bass; Jo Jones, drums. blues singer, although later comic stuff not in harmony, as is often said, but Big Shoe; Just a Memory; Let's Fall in Love; like Million Dollar Secret is a good in rhythm. Christian used two kinds Ruint; Band One; You Need to Rock. show. More on her track below. of rhythm. One is behind the beat, Sonny Terry's two are in his falsetto regular (almost monotonous), and he The three tracks with Duke and Sweets style and, for me, are fascinating used it when he was stringing riffs. are from the sessions which produced patterns of rhythmic sounds. Of course, (You can hear the same beat here in the excellent "Back to Back" he doesn't "get around" much on that Hampton and in Lips.) That is the (MG-V8317) reviewed by Max Harrison harmonica, as the notes say; the point crisis. The other rhythm is far less in the March/April issue. Stompy is the range of effects he gets while regular, closer to the beat, and Jones is even better than the best of getting around very little. I have spoken Christian used it for those long, flowing "Back to Back". After one of Duke's of the Turner-Johnson delight above; lines of melody that alternated with authoritative intros, Hodges takes four Joe Turner's voice rings so clearly; the riffs. The lines come from Prez, choruses, starting gently, building in they work together so completely. The of course, but go further harmonically. volume and intensity, and sounding Cavalcade of Boogie is not "the real This side of Christian points to a part almost as full as a tenor at the end. article" huckstered in the title and of the solution for the crisis. But the Sweets, with harmon mute, makes his notes; in fact it is not boogie at all real basis of the solution is rhythm, first chorus a coy dialogue with Duke but only some jivey blues. Those treble again. Seen this way Christian almost saving his best for the rideout. Spann figures mean hardly anything without becomes only a transitional figure. plays pleasantly melodic guitar with the interplay of a boogie bass. That view is not fair to Christian, but echoes of the amplified Django Big Bill's two tracks find him in very saying it does remind one that we Reinhardt. Duke's solo is a little good voice and at his urban best. It could never even think of Prez, for all masterpiece of architecture, proving is far better Broonzy than the his innovations and their importance, again (where no proof is needed) ttiat l'm-just-a-simple-country-boy bit he as a mere "historical" figure. His best his sense of form and structure is was doing in his last years. Done Got work endures because, well, because innate. In each chorus the rhythmic Wise is a first-rate "break" blues it is absolutely and always beautiful. accents are subtly shifted, and along performance; Ammons is delightful And a lot of it here is that beautiful. with this he builds in sound. In the back there on Louise. (According to A glance at the heading of this review second chorus, the wide open spaces Sam Charters' County Blues, C. Broonzy will remind you of how many left by Duke give Jo Jones plenty to do,

24 and he does it all. At times, Duke Bill Evans, piano; Scott LaFaro, bass; Paul On shows us where some of Monk's Motian, drums. ancestry lies; near the end he pays Come Rain or Come Shine; Autumn Leaves; his own respects to Hines. All join Witchcraft; When I Fall in Love; Peri's Scope; hands for the rideout with Sweets on What Is This Thing Called Love?; Spring Is ©Atlantic top, open now and without a trace of Here; Someday My Prince Will Come; Blue ennui. This is some of Sweet's best In Green. playing in recent years. The remaining tracks from this happy Evans' third Ip, as leader, gave me the impression that he uses different Great! gathering are almost anti-climactic. Still, on Squeeze Me there is some attacks depending on the tempo. On Harlem reminiscing by the maestro, ballads, especially Spring Is Here and with a bow to Willie The Lion, some Blue In Green (if that's a ballad), he gentle Hodges, and an ending with suggests how the composer might have Jo making like Zutty Singleton. done the job differently, more Understated humor, a rarity in modern pianistically if you will. Changes of jazz, is much a part of all these register and varying backgrounds are performances. Going Up moves in a brought into play on both. Spring and "modern" harmonic climate, its minor When I Fall In Love have some hues enhanced by Spann's wispy flute. beautifully altered harmonies while Johnny is utterly relaxed and definitive Blue in Green features rhythmic and Sweets swings to the utmost. variation. Evans' pianistic skill, in his use of all the keyboard, his dynamic The other session showcases the four LP 8039 horns, especially Hodges. Ben Webster sensitivity, his variety and the simply was very relaxed; his chorus on Just beautiful sounds he creates are all A Memory is superbly warm. Note how here. RAY CHARLES IN PERSON close, both in sound and conception, On up-tempo numbers, Evans becomes An exciting "live" perform• ance—an unforgettable he and Hodges can be. Roy Eldridge an improviser in a more conventional experience. fits perfectly with the Ellingtonians, manner. He has a fine rhythmic touch— Monaural only $3.98 demonstrating his skill as an ensemble quite percussive—which habitually player and the more introspective side accents alternate notes when he plays of his nature. But the passion in Roy's long lines of eighths. This reinforces playing is, happily, never submerged. the four-to-a-bar pulse of the bass, Johnny is at his lyrical best. The and a musician of less imagination romantic mood is sustained with than LaFaro could be relegated to Let's Fall in Love, opened lushly by invisibility in his company. Sometimes, Lawrence Brown. Roy takes up the Bill abandons the tempo altogether fluegelhorn for his chorus; the sound and builds tension by playing a is mellow, the mood faintly nostalgic. chromatic run out of phase with the Hodges rides on an organ-chord rhythm section. What Is This Thing background for his second chorus; he Called Love? features a section like is not beyond poking gentle fun at this. LP1327 himself in spots. Ben is imaginative An overall rhythm is present also. There 1 CHANGE OF THE CENTURY and controlled. Ruint, a short track, is no revolutionary idea of form in features Johnny Hodges and is quite Ornette Coleman Bold, brilliant, Evans' work, but the choruses of his daringly revolutionary—may well reminiscent of the work of the small up-tempo improvisations seem to take be a milestone in jazz history. Ellington groups of the thirties and shape dramatically, reaching a climax Stereo $5.98 Monaural $4.98 forties, a treasure house of jazz. The which is signalled not only dynamically horns blend but never blandly. On but by an extreme of register (usually, Bend One, Roy's chorus makes one wish a high note, once attained at the peak for more. You Must Need To Rock of a chorus, is abandoned) and by a does, with a good "hot" offering by little extra edge in the swing. Brown, who throughout sounds much This continuity has not been achieved more involved than is customary. Big without its price, for it dictates the Shoe is also the blues, and relaxed. type of idea that Evans imparts to Among other things, this Ip his choruses. The motifs are largely demonstrates Hodges' rediscovered joy functional; chosen, it seems,.for their in playing, dating approximately from exploitability on a scalar basis. The the time he rejoined Duke. The rhythm scale is the overall form and the ideas section is perfect. are attuned to it so that they grow I LP 1328 organically in a manner less pure than WOODY HERMAN'S BIG As Nat Hentoff's liner notes indicate, otherwise possible. The scale-oriented it is a pleasure to write about this approach is intrinsically more melodic- NEW HERD AT THE kind of music. The men here have left sounding than the chord-running style, MONTEREY JAZZ FESTIVAL Recorded at Monterey—captures their stamp on jazz, but they aren't but after the initial impact (which one of the great moments in ready to retire. How good it is to war achieved in his last album), Evans Woody Herman's career. have them with us still, and still at seems to be restricted still, although Stereo $5.98 Monaural $4.98 the peak of their powers. This record in a different and less strict manner. communicates; to the head, heart, feet. Write for complete LP catalogue Each scale from which he draws has and stereo disc listing. Dan Morgenstern its own duration, then the next takes over, in the manner of chords. Moreover, the scales are often serial in construction and their colorations become too easily predictable, even in TLANTIC RECORDS BILL EVANS: "Portrait in Jazz". the hands of an imaginative player 157 West 57th Street, New York 19, New York Riverside RLP 12-315.

25 like Bill Evans. The excellence of his happening, therefore, it's necessary to Bedroom Eyes, a medium-slow blues, solo on George Russell's All About throw out all preconceived notions succeeds in setting a mood reminiscent Rosie probably stems from the fact about invention and 'ideas', and try of some of the better Ellington unit the tenure of each scale was left up to listen to the music in the spirit in things from the early forties. But that to him and true chromaticism was which it's played. I don't mind long and rather banal piano intra, for thus more accessible. admitting that in my case this took example, is a bore to sit through The impression of "Portrait in Jazz" some doing, but I think—and hope— every time you want to play the number. is that Evans has perfected a style that I did it. And if all this sounds Baker plays some good trumpet on of playing which is original and patronizing, let me say that it isn't this one, and he wisely sets himself rewarding but which is really part meant to be—I'm just trying to explain up with a riff to blow over. This track of something larger. His rapid a point of view. left me with the feeling that it should development so far promises that he The big band side is the less have gone on a bit longer, which, in will not stop here. successful. It's so over-long that it a way, is exactly when it should finish. Much may be done from the start seems hardly necessary to mention it. Give the Lady is the fastest track, Evans and LaFaro have made toward The opening, which is done in a kind although still not much more than a simultaneous improvisation on Autumn of train rhythm vaguely reminiscent of medium bounce, and it has a more Leaves but as yet it amounts to free Happy-.Go-Lucky Local, is okay until attractive theme than the others. (The trading and not truly simultaneous you begin to realise that the tempo notes pass off the tunes as "brief, playing in the way the MJQ has is too fast. I couldn't stop worrying written sketches ... to serve as points demonstrated possible. about the rhythm section the whole of departure ... for the soloists". David Lahm way through—Crawford, or someone, What's wrong with writing good tunes seems to be running a race with as points of departure?) Baker has himself, and an uncomfortable tension another nice, although perhaps results. intentionally repetitious, solo; the ANDY GIBSON-THE MAINSTREAM Half the people in the band get a opening, particularly, is excellent, and SEXTET. Camden CAL 554. chance to solo, some twice. Burrell's Vic Dickenson plays well in his Prince Robinson, clarinet, tenor; George second solo has some very nice down-to-earth style. When I heard him Dorsey, Hilton Jefferson, altos; Paul Gonsalves, things, especially a little bit of on I Got Nothing, I thought that tenor; Leslie Johnakins, baritone; Jimmy interplay with the piano, despite a bad something was missing—especially Nottingham, Eirimett Berry, trumpets; Eli microphone pick-up that gives his recalling his solo on Lester's D.B. Blues, Robinson, Vic Dickenson, Dickie Wells, sound a muzzy edge, and it's one of but there seems to be a resurgence trombones; Jimmy Jones, piano; Kenny Burrell, the most satisfying things on this side. of spirit on this track. I couldn't help guitar; Milt Hinton, bass; Jimmie Crawford, Vic Dickenson plays well, but it thinking that the drumming was a little drums. certainly isn't top-drawer for him. The cushiony for what was going on up Blueprint. clarinet solo probably shouldn't have front. Jimmy Forrest, tenor; Harold Baker, trumpet; happened, and neither should Hinton's Vic Dickenson, trombone; Jimmy Greene, Dickenson's style is described on the Bugle Call Rag nonsense. There's a liner (again) as having a "high content piano; Francesco Skeets, bass; Oliver Jackson, short drum solo from Crawford, who drums. of ironic wit." Ironic? almost, but not quite, keeps the beat Peter Turley I Got Nothing but You; Bedroom Eyes; Give going right through into the next solo, the Lady What She Wants Most. by Gonsalves. Much of the criticism that can be Most of the remainder is devoted to JIMMY GIUFFRE: "The Easy Way". made of records of this sort is not Paul Gonsalves. "Serpentine", Dance Verve MG V-8337. about the musicians, but about what is calls his solo, which is as good a Jimmy Giuffre, saxophone, clarinet; Jim Hall, claimed for them. Since 'Mainstream' description as any. Is that meant to be guitar; Ray Brown, bass. now specifically refers to this type of praise? Gonsalves plays fairly well at The Easy Way; Mack the Knife; Come Rain jazz, there's no point in objecting to times, badly at others, and occasionally or Come Shine; Careful; Ray's Time; A Dream; it as a word. The idea, however, that makes horse noises. Later the brass HERB ELLIS: "Herb Ellis Meets this brand of playing constitutes some section riffs and squeals with him to a Jimmy Giuffre". Verve MG V-8331. kind of norm seems to me very 'sock' finish. This may have gone over Off Center; Montage; Time Enough. inaccurate. fine at Newport or somewhere, but in Herb Ellis, guitar; Bud Shank, alto; Art my living room it merely sounds This music is personal, at least in the Pepper, alto; Richie Kamuca, tenor; Jimmy self-conscious and loud. Maybe the sense that it's a crystallization of Giuffre, tenor; Jim Hall, guitar; Joe Mondragon, fault lies with my living room, but producer Stanley Dance's idea of what bass; Stan Levey, drums; Lou Levy, piano. "this is the kind of jazz adventure good jazz should be, and in issuing Goose Grease; When Your Lover Has Gone; which is intended to leave the listener this record, and writing a glowing Remember; Patricia; A Country Boy; You a little breathless", the liner says. liner note, he has presumably given Know; My Old Flame; People Will Say We're Oh. it his approval. Well, this is mainstream in Love. jazz all right, but it isn't the main Side two is a lot better. Though there stream of jazz any more. Today it's is imperfectly-balanced recording (the We have here two further installments simply a pretty small department. piano is often too loud) the group plays in Verve's effort to encompass the Deplorable, possibly, and unfortunate well together, gets a good, punchy Giuffre repertoire. These are at times for a lot of people, but true none the sound, and handles the material (such better, at times worse, than the ones less. as it is) very well. I Got Nothing is a that have come before, but certainly The way I hear it, this jazz is more bit too long for the tempo; what began nowhere near the quality of his new functional than creative, and I find as a relaxed beat soon sounds tired. "Ad Lib", (Verve MG V18361), with Red that it needs a certain amount of The soloists, at any rate Baker and Mitchell, Lawrence Marable and Jimmy mental readjustment to receive Forrest, seem to be conscious of having Rowles. Giuffre has always chosen to sympathetically what the men are time to spare, and they're lackadaisical. take the path of unconventionality, doing. I can't help looking for Forrest starts his solo by playing the but never, except possibly in his originality in a jazz musician—or any same lead-in phrase several times with "Tangents in Jazz" album, in an artist, for that matter—and I think minor variations. And much of his solo iconoclastic manner. He has preferred, it's true to say that originality just is borrowed; it's tiresome enough he says "the pastoral . . . the country; isn't an issue with most of these having to listen to Harry Edison play . . . Debussy and Delius . . . peaceful musicians. To find out what's really that phrase on every record he makes. moods . . ." with a preference for

26 sound that was "subtle, soft, deep DR. EDMOND SOUCHON: "Songs of and mellow" (from The Jazz Review, Minstrel Days and Blues". Golden Crest February 1960). CR 3065. Both recordings are full of that sort of Edmond Souchon, guitar and vocals, understatement. At times the subtlety accompanied on some numbers by Raymond tends toward hesitancy, perhaps even Burke, clarinet, Armand Hug, piano, and uncertainty. In competence and skill, Sherwood Mangiapane, bass. there is little fault to find. In the Ellis Give Us a Drink, Bartender; Nobody Knows album, the sax section plays well and You When You're Down and Out; Sweet Baby in tune; Giuffre's charts are finely Doll; Buckwheat Cakes; Mariuch, She make crafted. But it doesn't quite come off. da Hoochie Ma Cooch; You Cooked Your It may seem trite in this day of Goose With Me; Deacon, Deacon, Deacon; blue-hued jazz to expect more "soul" Play that Barbershop Chord; E-Blues; She than can be gotten from the usual Keeps It Up All The Time; Oh, How She "churchy" devices, but there's no Dances!; Cookie; Animules Ball; That Was reason why one shouldn't. Perhaps a All We Saw; Ella Speed Blues. little more thought should be given to the music before rushing into the If jazz had derived from the blues, recording studio. Anyhow, the album is the revivalists might have found better tasty, quiet and refined, but it could material when they went back, as well never convince me that Herb Ellis is as a great playing style; and the whole anything more than a competent movement might have turned out better *VJLP 1017 journeyman. In many ways he is than it did. And modern jazz musicians Fantastic FRANK STROZIER with representative of a kind of jazzman 1 Booker Little, Paul Chamber, Wyn- might not have, in a time of already who has emerged in recent years. badly compromised melodic material, ton Kelley and Jimmy Cobb Highly schooled, musically quite as much reverence for effete sophisticated, he parallels the popular ballads. symphony orchestra performer who can, upon demand, step tout of the But this Ip reminds us that Jelly Roll section to produce an acceptable Morton used to work on stage with a version of any concerto or sonata in dancer; that Ma Rainey toured the the popular repertoire. It would be T.O.B.A.; that Zue Robertson played in tragic if such tedious conformity should a circus band; and that many of the take the place of personal expression. songs Bessie Smith recorded weren't And this may be what bothers me about blues at all, but a kind of popular song, the album; the notes, after all, are in midway between blues and ragtime, the right places and are interpreted which seem to fit vaudeville even if with a conventional degree of they don't come from it. Nobody Knows swinginess, but the professionalism is You When You're Down and Out is too extreme, too glib, to be really more serious than most of these, but convincing. it's still not really a blues. Chris Smith's Ballin' the Jack, as one The trio album is better, mainly, I of the best known, will do as a *VJLP 1018 think, because of the presence of Ray prototype for these songs, which seem Introducing . . . WAYNE SHORTER Brown. Again the pastoral quality (an to have in common: a sixteen-bar 2 in his first solo appearance on overused word but the one that chorus divided into two eights, often VEE JAY Records immediately comes to mind when with a break in bars seven and eight, hearing Giuffre's 3s) predominates but and sometimes with a two-bar tag; a there is less emphasis on the folksy sixteen-bar verse, usually in a harmonic idiom that Giuffre employed contrasting key tinged with the minor; "m At racks' in some of his earlier records; in fact, a melodic line characterized by what several of the tracks use quite complex used to be called secondary rag alterations: The Easy Way, A Dream rhythm which probably doesn't "swing" (perhaps a trifle too impressionistic), in the current sense, but which makes Montage (really non-harmonic rather you wanna dance; and a pronounced than atonal), and Time Enough. Off harmonic rhythm which pulls strongly Center, with its Monk-like register toward the centers of harmonic gravity changes, is the most successful track, in the eighth and sixteenth bars. This and the best performance is last feature seems to be a property unquestionably Ray Browns' gutsy of the chorus and not the verse of excursion in blues on Ray's Time. many of the songs, and it gives the This recording is probably the limit chorus a momentum the verse doesn't that Giuffre can go with this particular have; it's just this that gives the first trio concept. I wish that he had half of Oliver's Ain't Gonna Tell VJLP 1021 chosen instead to develop more fully Nobody, with its alternating verse- DIXIE ON THE ROCKS with DAVE the principles advanced in his and-chorus pattern, the annoying 3 REMINGTON and the DIXIE SIX. "Tangents in Jazz" compositions. His stop-and-go effect. Dixie at its best use of meter there was particularly I imagine that audiences used to like *A/so available on Stereophonic Disc. intriguing and might have led to a freer performances of these songs, if the concept of percussion than is generally number of them Oliver recorded is any practiced. indication, and I imagine that the But Giuffre's new group sounds even musicians liked to play them, since, as more promising. One can anticipate his in Oliver's case, they triggered some coming recording activity with pleasure. of their best playing. Yet in the end I Don Heckman think Oliver and the rest were trapped VEE JAY RECORDS 1449 South Michigan, Chicago Illinois

27 by these tunes, trapped by their rather other Tatum is the same old Tatum, will prove it, excitingly and beautifully. subtle cheapness and by their confining only sometimes very much more so. And Too Marvelous For Words will form, rigid enough—in direct contrast Tatum is for me one of the most convince you that Tatum knew to the fluidity of the blues—so that in frustrating musicians in jazz, as he is everything there- is to know or could the end it was impossible to struggle obviously one of the most brilliant. The be discovered in jazz about the out of it. And they led the revivalists frustration does not come because of European harmonic system, even—and off on a bootless trip to the Gay the lack of what is usually called this is done for once with an overt and Nineties from which they never did "strong feeling" in his work, for to entirely winning humor—about atonality. come back to the job they should have expect that would be to miss the point. It is very likely that Too Marvelous is done for jazz. Nor does it come from his lack of any the greatest single Tatum performance Yet the damned things are appealing, but the most obvious kind of melodic we are fortunate enough to have. It even in the brief treatment (with imagination—but to call these dazzling is also, in the joyful feeling—even fifteen tracks on the lp the treatment decorative devices melodic at all may near-abandon—that it conveys, would have to be brief) they get from be sheer folly. There again, one would untypical; that fact almost hurts. Dr. Souchon's not always adequate be missing the point to expect more Martin Williams voice, and in spite of the silly lyrics than one gets. And I confess that I most of them have. I liked best the cannot always enjoy the rapidity of numbers with Burke, Hug, and mind with which these arpeggios are made, except at a primitive level Mangiapane behind Souchon: Sweet "JAZZ WAY OUT". Savoy 12131. of mere dazzlement. What is frustrating Baby Doll; She Keeps It Up All the Wilbur Harden, fleugelhorn; John Coltrane, is that Tatum's melodic taste is so Time; Irving Leclerec's Cookie; and a tenor; Curtis Fuller, trombone; Tommy banal. One need only look at that few others. Dr. Souchon's guitar on the Flanagan, piano; Oli Jackson, bass-, Arthur perpetual repertoire that included the blues track is pleasant, and the barker's Taylor, drums. likes of Humoresque, Elegie, Dardanella, spiel in Oh, How She Dances is funny Dial Africa; Domba; Gold Coast. enough, but the whole project, I'm or here, Danny Boy and Little Man afraid, doesn't add up to very much. You've Had a Busy Day. This kind of This is one of those records very few As Jack Farrell's notes rightly point taste is reflected in the structureless people know about, and the players out, Dr. Souchon's comments and haphazardry of some of his playing: have apparently forgotten. Then, too, playing are an entertaining, if informal, the arpeggios flutter by and the thumbs some people may have been scared off way of throwing some light on an drag along to produce some astonishing by the title, which does seem to imply important part of jazz history. (Well, mish-mashes. Then there are the music from the dark side of the moon Farrell doesn't say it in so many words, humorless interpolations—have we not and points beyond. but that's how I read him.) What I had enough of In A Country Garden These three tracks are nothing of the would like to get from Dr. Souchon is without having to be irrelevantly kind. What we have here is jazz with a more carefully worked out and more reminded of its prissy melody in the an African flavor and with none o'f the exhaustive treatment of the same middle of a decorated Cole Porter ditty? usual Herbie Mann or Machito effects. material and the era, either in print And one can only hope that the parade The only drums involved are the ones or on a record. I think he has the of tremolos on Danny Boy is intended in Taylor's usual set. The writing is equipment to do it: a good ear, a humorously—but one can't be sure. interesting and provocative. Trumpeter remarkable memory, a sharp mind, and Then there is his technique as a Harden, playing fluegelhorn here, wrote the rare privilege of having been there pianist, a technique so much admired the first two lines and Curtis Fuller when it happened. If I'm right, Dr. by concert musicians and composers Gold Coast. Dial Africa, a medium- Souchon has a lot to give as a solid that Tatum is the only jazz musician tern poed blues in B-flat, starts out with historian of a part of jazz history some some of them will allow. They admire Taylor very quietly playing a figure real buffoons have been clowing around him for the same reasons they once which almost suggests the beat of the in lately. admired Eddy Duchin, and they remind African drums and continuing it us that we may need to ask how much throughout the intra and the theme, Dick Freniere contributed the of Tatum's technique was specifically switching to the ride-cymbal rhythm caricature of Dr. Souchon on the jazz technique—as all of Jimmy when the blowing starts. The theme is album cover and got his name spelled Yancey's or Basie's or Monk's unusual, full of strange intervals, wrong on the back for his troubles. I techniques are. sounding almost like one of those tribal wish Golden Crest had let Dick do the chants—and for all that, a good blues whole cover design. On the other hand, I can cite you line. Oomba is an interesting little J. S. Shipman things in these tracks or in almost any experiment in metric changes, with an Tatum collection that will give me the improvisatory quality throughout. The lie: there is an interpolation from Earl "The ART TATUM Discoveries". meter shifts between 12/4 and 16/4, at Hines in Body and Soul that is so 20th Fox 3029. times almost obscuring the basic appropriate, so beautifully placed and Art Tatum, piano. pulsation, and an unusual effect is integrated that one wonders at his Begin the Beguine; Someone to Watch Over obtained by the horns and Flanagan artistry. (Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Me,- Body and Soul; Willow Weep For Me; each soloing in turn, with short Seen comes in later and far less well.) Too Marvelous For Words; Danny Boy; ensemble choruses—no two alike— And Willow Weep For Me is so Tenderly; You Took Advantage of Me; in between. scrupulously paced and developed that Yesterdays; I'll Never de the Same; Without one hardly wants to speak of his final a Song; Little Man You've Had a Busy Day. Gold Coast, which takes up all of the impression of You Took Advantage as second side, opens with a phrase This collection, recorded at a party, is a disarray of flourishes. which later becomes the bass line for billed as "the other Tatum" and Willow brings us to the point, of course, the channel on the blowing: 'reviewers have received it as such. The for in the past (and particularly in other Tatum is the "real Art Tatum" the version on Capitol) it has been one of the Tatum vehicles. Tatum was a whose creativity after hours or before jyi *_x. =*=c 1 just the right audience is very great jazzman because he had a different, we are told, from what we towering harmonic imagination, and, as The theme itself is a descending hear on most of his records or heard Dick Katz has written, only Charlie line with an Eastern in most of his club and concert Parker's name could be mentioned near flavor and plaintiveness, appearances. If this be so, then the Tatum's in this respect. Tenderly here divided between the piano and the

28 three horns. Again we have the Afro What's New; Let's Face the Music and beat at the beginning, switching to Dance; Stablemates; I'll Remember You; blue note the ride-cymbal rhythm for the solos, I Love You; I'll Take Romance; 116th and THE FINEST IN JAZZ returning to the original rhythm at the Lenox. SINCE 1939 i end. The theme, at the beginning and JULIAN PRIESTER: "Keep Swingin'". end, is faster than the soloing which Riverside RLP 12-316. MUCHO FUEGO ON BLUE NOTE comes in between. The channel, Julian Priester, trombone; Jimmy Heath, incidentally, has an unusual chord tenor; Tommy Flanagan, piano; Sam Jones, progression: G maj. 7—Ab maj. 7— bass; Elvin Jones, drums. B maj. 7—Cm6—Bmaj. 7— Abmaj. 7— 24 Hour Leave; The End; Just Friends; Gmaj. 7—Am7—D7. Under the Surface; Once in a While. Harden, Fuller and Jackson are ex-Yusef Priester, trombone; Flanagan, piano; S. Jones, Lateef sidemen—and Harden is an bass; E. Jones, drums. interesting trumpeter. He could never 1239A; Bob T's Blues; Julian's Tune. really be mistaken for Miles. His solo LOU DONALDSON: "The Time Is Right". on Dial Africa is especially good; he Blue Note 4025. builds up very nicely and plays some Blue Mitchel, trumpet; Lou Donaldson, alto really new ideas. sax; Horace Parian, piano; Layman Jackson, Coltrane is powerful and sure bass; Dave Bailey, drums; Ray Barretto, conga. throughout the album. His solos Lou's Blues; Be My Love; Idaho; The Nearness feature an extended use of that of You; Mack the Knife; Crosstown Shuffle; breathtaking device which has been Tangerine. FUEGO With Jackie McLean, Duke Pearson, called "sheets of sound"—this KENNY BURRELL: "At The Five Spot (FIRE)— Doug Watkins, Lex Humphries. recording was made late in 1959, Cafe". Blue Note 4021. (Fuego, Bup A Loup, Funky Mama, around the time when he really got it Tina Brooks, tenor; Kenny Burrell, guitar; DONALD Low Life, Lament, Amen) going. What he does on Dial Africa BYRD 1960 finds Donald at a musical peak, Bobby Timmons, piano; Roland Hanna, piano not only as a hornman of originality, can be described as a typical Coltrane (on Hallelujah and 36-23-36); Ben Tucker, elegance and confident spirit, but blues solo, suspenseful, constantly bass; Art Blakey, drums. also as a composer. All the com• building up to an almost terrifying peak Birks' Works; Hallelujah; Lady Be Good; positions for this album are his own. BLUE NOTE 4026 Leonard Feather of tension. In Gold Coast he's all over Lover Man; 36-23-36. the horn, but purposefully, tightly concentrated. And his playing is lent These four records give an excellent a certain feeling of inexorable representation of what is perhaps the inevitability by the steady, unwavering most popular type of jazz being played beat laid down by the rhythm section. today. It is an eclectic music, with & the jazz messengers In the midst of this solid flow of pure debts to musicians as diverse as Charlie sound there can be found here and Parker and Horace Silver and, as a there a phrase of unbelievably intense result, has only the individuality that lyricism, like this one: can be forced into it by strongly assertive performers. In many cases, of course, this means no individuality at *3 all. There is also a heavy emphasis on certain stylistic patterns: the drummer is expected to play with a heavy afterbeat on two and four, preferably by means of an accent on the high-hat; In short—very, very good Coltrane. the piano player must be able to work Fuller, at the time of this recording, in the popular "church" style; the THE BIG BEAT- As is customary in all Art Blakey soloists draw inspiration primarily from ART BLAKEY albums, this one is characterized was trying to find a direction for AND by driving passion and a whirlpool- himself, and his soloing is rather the blues of Parker, Miles Davis, THE JAZZ like swing. One of the best in Blue uneven. He is at his best on Dial Clifford Brown and J. J. Johnson; and MESSENGERS Note's Jazz Messenger series. Africa, where he has blues changes to the arrangements, above all, must draw BLUE NOTE 4029 Nat Hentoff work on, and he does things that remind heavily from the blues. All of these this listener of those solos on Blue elements are perfectly valid, but their Train and Locomotion. On Gold Coast— influence has become so pervasive that (those changes are rough) he managed they have become a mystique in to get a bit hung up on the channel, themselves. I doubt, for instance, wherein he repeats the same sequence whether an afterbeat played on a every chorus, but the fluid technique high-hat can be considered any more and the beautiful sound are there. interesting than one played as a The rhythm section is very good. rimshot, yet very few self-respecting Flanagan probably couldn't be tasteless drummers would consider playing if he tried. Jackson is a good bassist without that insistent little, (or who lays down solid lines and has some sometimes not so little) "tchick" on interesting things to say in his solos— the upbeat. but his intonation could be better. I Some percussionists have managed to get the impression that A. T. is most avoid complete regimentation of their comfortable with Coltrane. MOVIN' & These sides have an earthy, hard- meter by using the high-hat in GROOVIN'— driving quality that will make you Zita Carno combination with bass drum kick-beats HORACE jump for joy. Warmth, intensity, and snare accents, creating a softening PARLAN striking use of simplicity, a relent• of the sound and spreading the less beat are the keynotes of Hor• ace's style. JACKIE McLEAN: "Swing, Swang, rhythmic interest throughout the full BLUE NOTE 4028 Leonard Feather Swinging". Blue Note 4024. space of the bar instead of emphasizing Jackie McLean, alto; Walter Bishop, Jr., piano; the two simplest multiples. Art Taylor Complete Catalog on Request Jimmy Garrison, bass; Art Taylor, drums. on the Jackie McLean album seems to BLUE NOTE RECORDS INC. 47 Wnl 63rd St., N*w York 23 29 be particularly unintimidated by the especially because of an obvious discussed, but it is of considerable exigencies of this style of drumming. influence from Bud Powell. Blakey plays value in itself as a musical survey of The whole rhythm section, in fact, is well, particularly on Hallelujah, but the blues idiom" say the editor excellent. McLean is probably the best the feeling still haunts me that he has and author. of the Bird-followers, both in the spirit allowed his startling technical As a "documentation too important and the word of what he has to say. proficiency to replace the surging to wait for the inevitable change" etc., He has succeeded admirably in personal intensity that dominated his as an appendix "of considerable help projecting his own artistic originality earlier work. Probably few, if any, to the general reader who is being into this exceedingly rigid style. drummers in jazz could approach introduced to the country blues There is much that is similar between Blakey's creative potential, but I doubt for the first time", and as a "musical McLean and Lou Donaidson. For that he has ever made full use of it. survey of the blues idiom" which instance, starting from the same source The most disconcerting element in is "of considerable value" the record of inspiration, both have managed to these recordings is their tedious seems a boy sent to do a man's job. create something more conservative, sameness. If this were the similarity The disc succeeds best as an less fiery than the original. Both of purpose that one finds in a classical appendix to The Country Blues, for manipulate the beat less, choosing to movement then it would be something it does reflect both the merits and remain close to the actual metric else. But a classical style is able to the weaknesses of that book. impulse rather than to use it, as Bird express its vitality completely, despite Three of the most impressive tracks did, simply as a point of departure. The the external limits on its design. This are Preachin' Blues by Robert one original quality that Donaldson type of jazz does not seem to have Johnson, I'm a 'Guitar King by Tommy brings to his music is an attractive reached that point. McClennan and Fixin' to Die by wit and good humor. But I think, as a Don Heckman Bukka White* all made between matter of fact, that the strongest voice November 1936 (Johnson) and on "The Time Is Right" is Blue December 1941—which might surprise Mitchell. The lean, fluid'grace of his "THE COUNTRY BLUES." Edited by the purchaser attracted by the playing consistently reminds me of the Samuel B. Charters. RBF Records Steamboat Gothic design. These three young Dizzy Gillespie. The rhythm RBF 1. singers, all powerful, coarse-grained section does nothing for me; the and impassioned, all fairly limited addition of conga only serves to Emphatically, this is a disc to buy for technically on guitar but marvellous emphasize the heavy accents on two one's collection. As a miscellany of within their limitations, are, and four; no charts either, only blues it makes excellent listening allowing for their personal standards and blues that should be in and though a number of the titles differences, representative of the everyone's repertoire. will be familiar to collectors there same Northern Mississippi tradition. The Priester date is somewhat better. will undoubtedly be sought-after items A better example of McClennan would Arrangements are in evidence, though as well. For the general collector be easy to find but these are splendid. they are generally bland and and jazz enthusiast it will help to fill In a selection like this where the uninteresting. Priester has, however, in the blues background. compilers have ignored restrictions attained a remarkable degree of imposed by record companies, one However, there were reasons for professionalism for his first recording might justly comment that the issuing this lp beyond the desire to as leader. The most attractive element example of Sleepy John Estes, Special of his playing at this stage of make available a number of attractive Agent, is good, but a dozen better development, is his big, lusty sound, recordings of the past. "The problem records by this singer spring to mind. but the melodic content of his solos of reissues is no closer to solution Blind Willie McTell from Atlanta is leaves much to be desired. Though in 1959 than it was six years ago, but represented by Statesboro Blues, a Orin Keepnews protests to the we have felt that this documentation very fine example which illustrates contrary, Priester is very close to was too important to wait for the well his personal use of the blues J. J. Johnson, particularly in his inevitable change in attitude by the form, his essentially Negroid guitar characteristic use of a figure that runs larger companies" says the eight-page and strangely "white" voice. through a seventh chord so: booklet that goes with the disc, Another Atlanta singer, Peg Leg presumably explaining why these Howell, sings a sad and introspective items have been drawn from the past Low Down Rounder's Blues, altogether catalogues of half a dozen more sensitive and moving than the companies, all unacknowledged. This rollicking, unsubtle folk artist h sin n ill no doubt explains too, why the titles described in the book. This is drawn and names of tunes and singers only from the vocation 14000's so The generally good quality of this are listed and there is no indication unreasonably and unknowledgeably rhythm section is mainly due to the of the relationships between artists, attacked in the book, as indeed is "You Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond" presence of Sam Jones, whose long when thev were recorded, where, rolling sound is as solid as granite. by Blind Willie Johnson. But wait, or what they are intended to Tommy Flanagan also plays well, what is he doing here? represent. In fact the booklet tells Especially in the advantageous use of Blind Willie Johnson is exempted nothing about the record. But the his pedal; listen in particular to Once from the umfavorable comments on in a While. record is "intended as as appendix to the 14000 series and is the subject of the Rinehart book where the lives Kenny Burrell has somehow managed a whole chapter of The Country and the songs of the artists are to avoid the artificiality that makes so Blues. A Gospel singer and itinerant many jazz guitarists sound as though preacher, Johnson's playing shows an they have become electronic extensions undoubted relationship with the o.f their instruments. His sound is the blues, but not as certain a link as sound of a guitar, not an amplifier. In that displayed by say, Blind Gary many ways he reminds me of Tal Davis. Does he merit a chapter in a Subscribe to Farlow, particularly in the loose, twangy JAZZ book on blues or a track in a record drive of his melodic line. The rhythm which is a survey of the blues idiom famous French review section is adequate individually, but any more than an unrepentant there is something lacking in their For information write to: HOT singer of sinful blues like Bo Carter unit coordination. Roland Hanna's work The Jazz Review, would warrant a place in a survey is quite exceptional in places, of Gospel music? I don't think so. 124 White Street, N.Y. 13. N.Y.

30 THE BEST SWING IS ON The fact that Charters has also done that as an all-embracing, important admirable research on Willie Johnson documentation of the Country does not mean that his presence Blues drawn no-holds-barred from all here is really warranted. The available sources, it is not satisfactory. author-editor has done valuable and Paul Oliver PRESTIGE/SWINGVILLE thorough research on the jug bands of Memphis, or at least those associated with Shade, Burse and "The Wonderful World of JONATHAN Cannon, and the book comes to life WINTERS." Verve Records, MGV 15009. when he writes of them. But the blues "Outside SHELLEY BERMAN. Verve were only a part of their repertoire Records, MGV 15007. which also included minstrel shows MORT SAHL: "A Way of Life." Verve material and country ballads Records, MGV 15006. and songs. The two items here, LENNY BRUCE: "Togetherness." 2001 enjoyable in themselves, are extrovert Fantasy Records, 7007. country music very much on the COLEMAN HAWKINS blues fringe and for the newly "Inside humor" is an inaccurate WITH THE introduced general reader (and listener) description of the work of insinuating RED GARLAND TRIO "Walk Right In" by Cannon's Jug pervenus like Winters, Berman, Stompers and "Stealin', Stealin'" Sahl and Bruce. Anyone who knows by the Memphis Jug Band, both very Bert Lahr's fire-alarm voice or Bobby 2001— COLEMAN HAWKINS similar in character, could have Clark's water-fly grace knows that with The Red Garland Trio been more thoughtfully selected. the old-time comics were inside In view of the misleading impression entertainers first and foremost. They 2002— TINY IN SWINGVILLE of Big Bill Broonzy in the book, made of their personalities huge TINY GRIMES with Jerome with its innumerable inaccuracies and and accommodating structures of marked prejudices, it is a little which the audience was only a Richardson surprising to find him included here, necessary extension. Because their but any of a score of items with approach to their audiences was as 2003— TATE'S DATE Black Bob or Josh Altheimer on the active and unfinicky as a crop-spraying BUDDY TATE and His Band ARC labels would have been more helicopter, these comedians made suitable in this context than Key to the the most unimportant spectator feel 2004— CALLIN' THE BLUES Highway, made in 1941 with like a confidential partner in their TINY GRIMES with Eddie rambunctious craftsmanship. Washboard Sam and Jazz Gillum. "Lockjaw" Davis, J. C. This is Big Bill with many years of the The best of our present comedians city blues behind him. And I Been share with the best of the old-timers Higginbotham and Ray Bryant a genius for creating a milieu Treated Wrong by Washboard Sam 2005— COLEMAN HAWKINS ALL (and incidentally, Big Bill), made some of their own, in which they and their months later is urban blues and audience feel as natural and free STARS as minnows in a running stream. an oddly inappropriate choice for a However, these younger comics' with Joe Thomas, Vic country blues anthology. Similarly the "insideness" consists in playing a Dickenson inclusion of Leroy Carr in both book children's game with the spectator in and record is very arguable and the which the entertainer's anxieties, 2006— THE HAPPY JAZZ title of Alabama Woman Blues self-doubts and tremors are strewn REX STEWART suggests a rural nature that is not throughout the act like Easter in this or any other record of Carr's. eggs. Winters uses semi-hysteria 2007— BUCK JUMPIN' The two remaining titles are by to make you wonder whether he is AL CASEY Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lonnie using his anxieties or being used by Johnson. The Jefferson is the oft-issued them; Shelley Berman exploits 2008— SWINGIN* WITH PEE WEE Matchbox Blues, admittedly with photographically-exact dialogue with PEE WEE RUSSELL with Black Snake Moan the best recorded an insinuating emphasis that of his blues and, though familiar, makes a gag line out of ordinary Buck Clayton a classic example of one of the speech. All good art, high or low, 2009— YES INDEED greatest blues singers. It is the depends in great part upon such "opener" for the record and introduces half-intentional self-betrayal; where CLAUDE HOPKINS with the listener to the blues, stark but these entertainers sometimes Emmett Berry, Buddy Tate nonetheless adorned. Against this go wrong is in trying to adapt their Lonnie Johnson, as much city as nervous, tight-lipped humors to 2010— THE SWINGVILLE ALL STARS country singer, is forced to measure the sloppy expansiveness of sprawling AL SEARS, TAFT JORDAN, his talents. Surely no greater injustice Jolson or Durante audiences. could be done him than to follow Jonathan Winters is, I think, the HILTON JEFFERSON Lemon with Johnson's Careless Love, most likable and least monotonous of the most ineffectual of all his first the four; almost solely, I am sure, sixty-odd recordings. because he is least decided about If the foregoing comments that I where he's going, and how best PRESTIGE BRINGS YOU imply that I am opposed to this record to use remarkable energy and THE GREAT MEN OF SWING technical resourcefulness. He or the tracks themselves, than I IN A SERIES OF have given a false impression. As one combines the ingenuousness, with a passion for good blues of every mock-confidence and near-hysterics BRILLIANT PERFORMANCES! kind and form I can welcome it as I have known in several plump and LISTEN TO THE GIANTS OF JAZZ precocious prep-school boys, and most attractive collection, AS THEY SOUND TODAY. assembled with only the sketchiest also such comedians as Keaton and unifying theme. Much as I take Lloyd. Like good mimicry or pleasure in recommending it from this pantomime, his vocal effects have a 12 High Fidelity Albums $4.98 shiver of fantasy about them, his point of view I can only reiterate Send for free catalog to Prestige Records Inc. 203 South Washington Avenue, Bergenfield, N. J. 31 incredible imitation of a football So did the early Jerry Lewis; deal from them. It is particularly audience heard from afar, devoutly so, occasionally, does Mad magazine. interesting to notice how he develops mooing its team's letters, is as The trouble with these reckless four bar phrases that we expect ticklingly weird as it is accurate. high-ballers is, that so frequently to continue, only to surprise us When he has to develop anything—as they go straight down the chute with a new idea on the first beat of in the promisingly begun airplane from heedless, ruthless and exhilarating the fifth bar. The rhythm section sketch—the skit collapses like the adolescence into safe-playing, deserves all praise for its stimulating, airplane. But when he can work in a cruel-mouthed and stultifying middle capable, and sympathetic loose, permissive pattern—as in a age. Lenny Bruce does, for most of accompaniment, and Bobby Timmons for-once inoffensive hip parody of Robin this recording. Two bits—one about hip has a fine, tersely phrased solo Hood—Winters cocky insights and diseases, the other about the shark on Easy Living. sneaky throwaway lines are as problem in Miami—have the drive The blowing session is the staple exhilarating—though as short-lived—as and abandon of his better things. But, product of jazz recording; the bulk of a whole regatta of paper airplanes. like Sahl, he needs a halfway each year's jazz releases is made up of Shelley Berman's soundest talent is demanding audience, and the good, bad, and indifferent specimens audience on this record was obviously a writer's sensitivity to the gaffes, of that endemic form. A rewarding licking his hand—not unnaturally, fidgets and fallen archness of a example of it is "Tanganyika Strut" considering the sounds they were self-conscious telephone conversant (Savoy MG-12136). Wilbur Harden, John making. The epitome of Bruce's New trying suicidally to sound natural and Coltrane, and Curtis Fuller, with backing Taste is a snarlingly self-righteous from Art Taylor, Ali Jackson on bass make his point at the same time. joke about Orthodox Jews which he and Howard Williams or Tommy "Oops! Oops, there!" he mutters to wasn't permitted to make on the an operator, in the tone of a short-wave Steve Allen show: one of my Flanagan on piano, work on fairly "ham" who has nearly contacted few occasions for agreement with the routine material (Harden's B. J. and Alaska. There is a certain TV executives, although I'm sure Anedac, Once in a While, and the title self-satisfaction in this which obtrudes they remained insensitive to the tune, Fuller's composition), but like an over-sized prostate in the personal spite which made the thing everyone plays at the top of his form. beginning of his act. And a tendency really offensive. Mr. Bruce delivers The results are often more than to over-decorate his gags makes most of these inventions in a sulky, satisfactory. the amusing first and second sketches narcissistic voice which I at WILBUR HARDEN is a sadly underrated a little blowsy. But in the third—an length identified as that of the musician. His work on fluegelhorn here autobiographical skit about his "straight" Jerry Lewis. Get well again shows him to be a soloist of father, a Jewish tradesman, trying to fast, Lenny. intelligence, taste, and a conception of deter Sheldon from a stage career—Mr. his own. Basically, his style is an Berman is an almost perfect Donald Phelps extension of Miles Davis's which terms with himself and his subject. stresses a melodic flow governed by a His decent intelligence at portraying precise and unobtrusive sense of usually mishandled comic types is continuity. One feels that each note is his most winning characteristic; and placed where it is because it belongs this is one of the few recent there. Even a cursory hearing of his Jewish sketches I've heard which solo on B. J. should be enough to didn't suggest to me a guest sneering convince the sceptic. John Coltrane, of at his host's crudities in private. course, is gifted with a fantastic Mort Sahl's ironic appreciation of rhythmic skill and a harmonic ability other people's absurdity and his which allows him to explore each chord ability to corkscrew absurdity with his fully. Nevertheless, he has not as yet own nonsense-logic seems' to me far SHORTER channelled these abilities sufficiently more essentially Yiddish than to permit his work to be really Shelley Berman's East Side comedy. satisfactory melodically. There is an For reminding me of this I owe air of the incomplete about all of his thanks to this recording of an REVIEWS work even at its most impressive—as apparently shambling act at the it is on Anedac. Curtis Fuller fully Sands Hotel, where Sahl seems mostly SONNY STITT is a thoroughly displays his recently attained stature. out of breath from prostrating professional and workmanlike From a rather timid exponent of J. J. himself to the patrons. This crowd musician. As an improviser he can Johnson's style he has now become is that sloppy, raucous, over-indulgent project, for me, a feeling of deep a most adroit practitioner. His playing audience which so many comedians commitment to life and music which is marked by an excellent sense of refer to as "wonderful", for is both uncommon and gratifying— time and an air of real concern with all-to-apparent reason. Even his this is partly a way of saying that he his line and its meaning which is only usual timing and precision are way is a fine craftsman. "Personal too often absent from the work of his off, as in an over-long story of a Appearance" (Verve MG V-8324) is master. Art Taylor plays excellently, prostitute's trial, with, however, a funny one of the very best, if not the best, with force and simple good taste. payoff line by the lawyer. I've no records that he has produced, though Howard Williams is a competent pianist love for the little club audiences; but, Stiffs music has usually not been with little personality of his own; when waspishly alert and knowing, they well captured on record. All the tracks Tommy Flanagan takes his place on can obviously draw more blood from are at least good, and two of them the title tune we realize what was Mr. Sahl than can the Sands are much more. On alto in Autumn missing. Ali Jackson's bass is steady fleas with which he was burdened on In New York he embellishes, twists, and unassuming—and, hence, apt to be this jaunt. dissolves, and pulverizes the theme, overlooked. and produces his best single recorded Probably no art is ecclectic enough effort. Only slightly less effective is While I have no real aesthetic and un-static enough to accurately his tenor work on Easy Living, in complaint, I must register the economic represent American adolescence; but which he demonstrates what can complaint that five dollars is too much I've long thought that Lenny Bruce, be learned and applied from Lester for playing time of less than thirty with the recWessness and Young without imitation. The essential minutes. bumptiousness of his conversational Stitt is to bs found on these two On "Bird's Night" (Savoy MG-12138) drag-strip racing, comes very near. tracks, and one can learn a good altoist PHIL WOODS works with

32 Now a correspondence course baritonist Cecil Payne, Frank Socolow or the harmonic range of Coltrane, on tenor, and a rhythm section and his playing is only a pastiche of composed of Duke Jordan, Wendell Coltrane's more easily assimilable GEORGE RUSSELL'S Marshall, and Art Taylor. This is a mannerisms. Fuller plays well reissue of a Signal recording made at throughout, but much of the time with LYDIAN CHROMATIC the Five Spot in 1957, devoted to an offhand quality. There are moments, four Parker tunes: Parker's Mood, as in Love Your Spell is Everywhere CONCEPT FOR JAZZ Steeplechase, Buzzy, and Scrapple and Five Spot After Dark, when he from the Apple. Aside from some seems about to dig in for some IMPROVISATION of Duke Jordan's solos, the extended inventions, but his line is performances are marred by a soon dissipated. Much the same "The first important theoretical inno• verboseness and lack of concision. Phil problem seems to inhibit Tommy vation to come from jazz."—John Lewis, Woods is a capable Parker disciple, Flanagan. musical director of the Modern Jazz but his discipleship does not extend The BRUBECK Quartet is at hand again Quartet. beyond an attempt to emulate Parker's in "Gone with the Wind" (Columbia "Important for every serious jazz mu• tone—and ideas—which leads to CL-1347). The tunes are an oddly sician."—Art Farmer. irrelevancy. (The result might be just assorted group ranging from Swanee as irrelevant if Woods were able to River and Camptown Races to Georgia Taught at the School of Jazz, Lenox, suggest something of Parker's rhythmic on My Mind and The Lonesome Road, Mass. scope, which he does not.) A similar but their treatment is characteristically For information write to: lack of understanding of Parker's style Brubeckian. Brubeck is undoubtedly a mars the like attempts at playing his sincere and sympathetic man, but his Concept Publishing Company ideas of Socolow and Payne—not that work and his idea of the Quartet do 121 Bank Street, N. Y. 14, N. Y. they play badly, but their work here is not rise above triviality. His pianistics, nearly completely without originality. and they are just that, lack rhythmic Even Duke Jordan on Steeplechase and melodic significance. It has been and Buzzy is uncharacteristically said that Joe Morello is a brilliant disorganized and ragged. However, on and inspiring drummer. I cannot see Parker's Mood and Scrapple from the that his work is anything but the Apple his solos are marked by that display of a virtuoso and excessively thoroughgoing Tightness of construction mannered talent, and I think his solo which makes him such an exemplary on Shortnin' Bread provides ample musician. Art Taylor's work is, again, support for my contention. His backing remarkably cogent and a long way from and his solo lines do not support and the rather stereotyped support he has supplement the total performance as provided on so many sessions of this much as they call attention to their sort. all too obvious brilliance. As to Paul Cellist FRED KATZ in "Fred Katz and Desmond, I must admit that until I His Jammers" (Decca DL 9217) presents recently re-played his records I had a genteel and mannered session, thought him dull. I confess my error distressingly typical of certain attempts which was due to my failure to to dilute jazz into an ersatz music, penetrate beneath the superficial retaining a suggestion of the real thing. coating of imperturbability and dynamic Along with Katz are Johnny Pisano on sameness in most of his solos. He is guitar, Gene Estes on vibraphone, and a gifted and individual musician who BAY AREA Leroy Vinnegar for bass; the trumpet constantly develops melodic lines of work is divided between Pete Candoli real interest. I think that his playing and Don Fagerquist with drummers here on Georgia on My Mind for Frank Butler, Billy Higgins, and Lenny instance, is completely convincing, McBrowne filling in on various tracks. valid, and valuable. The tunes range from Katz originals in If blowing dates are sometimes Elegy and To Blow is To Know to disappointing in their repetitiousness Monk's Ruby, My Dear and Parker's and lack of originality, they are still Dexterity. far more valuable than the pretentious attempts at arranged big band The whole affair is pretty arty and JAZZ PHOTOGRAPHS profundity which in the last decade pretty pallid with Katz's basically were so plentiful. Chico O'Farrell's Send stamp for free detailed list innocuous and ineffective cello a "The Aztec Suite" (United Artists of hundreds of photos of jazzmen, constant irritation. I think archness is UAL 4062) is played by a twenty-piece as good a word as any to sum up the bands old and new, obscure blues group with ART FARMER as the featured whole thing. Ruby, My Dear turns into soloist and Al Cohn conducting. This artists, sweet bands and vocalists. an extremely fitting unconscious parody is one of those ventures into extended Traditional and modern musicians of Katz and all his works with its composition as a pseudo-art. The whole precious contrapuntal effects, spurious represented. Photos of bands add thing actually is a sequence of seriousness, and simulation of to the enjoyment of your record• Kenton-like Latin arrangements on European chamber music. insignificant themes, monotonously ings. CURTIS FULLER is to be found again undeveloped. Virtually the same on "Bluesette" (Savoy MG-12141) in the Examples: Oliver, Morton, Bechet, criticism applies to the arrangements company of Benny Golson, Tommy Lester Young, Basie, Moten, E. of standards on the other side of Flanagan, Jimmy Garrison on bass, the lp. However, the characteristic Lang, Bix w. Whitman, Waller, Earl and Al Harewood on drums, a fairly excellence of Art Farmer is immediately typical Golson session characterized by Hines 1943, Benny Goodman, apparent each time he is heard. an urbane, detached style which Dizzy with Bird, Bunny Berigan, Unfortunately, O'Farrell's work often emphasizes a gentle, easy going either overpowers him with its early St. Louis and K. C. bands. lyricism uncomplicated by emotion. sophisticated New York-Latin blatancy Golson lacks either the rhythmic agility New price schedule now in effect. Duncan P. Schiedt 2534 E. 68th St., Indianapolis, Ind. 33 or leaves him out altogether. When he certainly glad they chose an arranger group performs in a rather slick, is heard he immediately impresses with Giuffre's good taste. professional manner. one by a rather febrile dynamism ANDRE PREVIN's predilection for the The performance of the NEWPORT which seems to be a new facet of his music of Broadway is perhaps natural YOUTH BAND at the Festival is old talent. The usual Farmer attributes of for one of his training and outlook. Yet news. Yet it is still more than pleasant melodic skill, a certain subtle rhythmic it is fortunate that he brings a firm to hear the Coral record of that agility, and an underplayed but most understanding and love of jazz to this exciting event (CRL 57306). A certain impressive overall command are as material. At best, his improvisatory inconsistency in the rhythmic flow is much in evidence as ever, but in his talents are somewhat beneath the upper more obvious than it was at fi'rst playing on Delirio and Alone Together, echelon, but he has an unfailing good hearing, but the biting ensemble for example, there is equally present ear and fine craftsmanship. "Andre passages still sound excellent. Andy an assertiveness and poise that does Previn Plays Songs By Jerome Kern" Marsala is quite remarkable, and almost not solicit but demands one's attention. (Contemporary M-3567) is a solo record more impressive was the baritone solo Zoot Sims is the only other soloist to with a bit more freedom than in his work of Ronnie Cuber in his delightful be heard from at any length, and his earlier recordings; he relies less upon break in Tiny's Blues and the playing work displays a sameness of texture short bursts of rhythmic motives and throughout of pianist Mike Abene and and poverty of ideas which have mord upon a flowing melodic and drummer Larry Rosen. unfortunately damaged much of his harn'onic ornamentation. The story of "STACCATO" (Capitol recent playing. In his unfortunately titled "Impossible" ST 1287) is from the same mold as most The number of jazz "mood music" (Metrojazz E-1014), PETE JOLLY also gristle and grime melodramas; it recordings continues to grow. One of places a heavy emphasis upon show revolves around a private dick who the most recent of these popular jazz tunes, but Jolly works from what plays "jazz" piano for kicks in a efforts is JOE WILDER'S "The Pretty appears to have been a carefully Greenwich Village night club (on Sound" (Columbia CL-1372) with such organized basis. He and Ralph Pena MacDougal Street, yet). well known recording studio figures as give a sameness of interpretation to The use of jazz as a mood-setting agent Hank Jones, Urbie Green, Herbie Mann, totally unrelated selections. Another in television and films has become a Jerome Richardson, and Osie Johnson pianist, JOE CASTRO, demonstrates in common practice. In many producers' playing very prettily indeed. The bland "Groove Funk Soul" (Atlantic—1324) a minds, jazz has seemed the ideal arrangements are by Teo Macero studied familiarity with Horace Silver. accompaniment to displays of sadism. (virtuosity can move from the Castro probably has more technique Of course, this is to use jazz in the avant-garde to kitsch with no real than Silver does, but much fewer most short-sighted manner possible. difficulty) and Mike Colicchio. The ideas. Of particular interest, however, But after all, the prostitution of talent tunes are such standards as Harbor is the presence on the recording of by television is one of the spectacles Lights, Guys and Dolls, and even drummer Billy Higgins. His role is of our time. Brahms' Lullaby. There are a few good limited here, but he gives ample Fortunately, it is in the nature of the moments from Wilder on Greensleeves indication of his increasing abilities. artist to exceed the limitations of his and Green on Blue Moon. After a year of what must have been environment, no matter how atrocious Pianist DICK MARX has produced extremely complicated effort, Atlantic it may be. Shelly Manne, after all, has another of those unfortunately modish has released "Stringsville" (Atlantic recorded a satisfactory version of the show tune sets on "Marx Makes 1319) with the multiple skills of HARRY music from "Peter Gunn", but Elmer Broadway" (Omega OML-1002). Along LOOKOFSKY. For those who insist that Bernstein has concocted a score that with Buddy Collette, Red Mitchell, jazz, particularly modern jazz, cannot is loaded with the cliches of the trade; Frank Capp, Howard Roberts, Irving be played on violin, this recording is excessive echo, clanging guitars (two Ashby and others, Marx runs through required listening. Lookofsky has of them), repetitious boogie bass, rock Joey, All of You, If I Were a Bell and employed double stops, string mutes, and roll saxophones, and he uses them seven others of similar vintage. Despite vibratoless tone and innumerable other ad nauseum. The only surprise to me is the presence of jazz musicians on the devices in an admirable and mostly that John Cassevates, the star of this record, I do not see that it is really successful attempt to emulate the deplorable accident, could associate a jazz recording at all. techniques of the contemporary horn himself with such a travesty. This is man. This, of course, involved the H. A. Woodfin the same John Cassavetes who was reinterpretation of axioms that are at forthright enough to use Charlie the very core of the classical string Mingus' compositions and group for For the better part of her career, tradition. Arrangements by Bob the sound track of his own film, CHRIS CONNOR has been identified, Brookmeyer and Hank Jones incorporate "Shadows". rightly or wrongly, as a jazz singer. The the best jazz writing for strings that validity of this conclusion has always I have heard since George Handy and Don Heckman Ralph Burns. I was particularly been open to question, but rarely so When John Lee 'Sonny Boy' Williamson intrigued with Jones' chart on Round obviously as in her recent date for was murdered in 1948, singer Rice About Midnight and Bookmeyer's Atlantic, "Chris In Person" (Atlantic Miller chose to take over his name. satiric Dancing On The Grave. 8040). The peculiarities of Miss Connor's SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON No. 2 is Although many musicians of Italian intonation and phrasing do not readily talented enough not to need the descent have been associated with jazz adapt to a performance in which she doubtful advantages of reflected glory. in this country, very little has been lacks the benefit of careful engineering, Miller began his recording career with heard of the native version. Now Verve and her singing needs the resources the Trumpet label of Jackson, has released a recording by the of a considerate editor. ANITA O'DAY, Mississippi, singing and playing BASSO-VALDAMBRINI quintet (MG in her Verve recording, "Cool Heat" harmonica in the old Mississippi V-20009). The group has obviously had .(MG V-8312), fares somewhat better. Her tradition, and his Mighty Long Time much access to recordings of rough-hewn style is comfortably abetted was one of the most poignant post-war middle fifties' West Coast Jazz. by the presence of Jimmy Giuffre's blues recordings. His last Trumpet Valdambrini's style suffers from his quiet, unobtrusive charts. My own records began to show signs of rhythm choice of Chet Baker's tired platitudes preference is for Miss O'Day with the and blues influence. as a model. Basso does a bit better by Miller moved North and began to record accompaniment of only a rhythm following the Lester tradition. The section, but if it is necessary to record for Checker, and "Down and Out Blues" her with larger groups, then I'm (Checker LP-1437) is compiled from his

34 singles, including his first sides, Don't to imitate each other's phrasing for his popularity on the writers of Start Me Talking and Let Me Explain, unconsciously. But while their work sleeve notes. JIMMY REED is not "the for that label. If these are not the best can hardly be faulted, there is a certain greatest living exponent" of the blues. recordings he has made, they do lack of excitement, of any element of But "not since the fabled 'Leadbelly' constitute an impressive selection. He the unexpected. The demands of their has a folk singer attained such purity sings with pronounced vibrato, and he careers have caused them to record and so captured the true feeling of the has not lost the country flavor in his extensively in recent years and there blues," writes Sid McCoy on "Jimmy singing. It seems to me that his are mannerisms, like opening and Reed" (Vee-Jay LP-1004), inviting a harmonica playing has become more closing phrases, that occur unfailingly comparison between two totally like that of his namesake in the past time and again. All the same, this is different artists and one which few years, and if anything, he is more one of their best collections to date, inevitably reflects on Reed. A guitarist eloquent, if less fiery than Sonny Boy and there is much good work. Baby, of limited means, a harmonica player No. 1. All my Love in Vain contains a How Long? has a fine vocal and really with a fondness for screeching notes very fine 'talking' solo which well excellent harmonica; I'm Prison Bound and a singer with a rather childish demonstrates his range and and Louise, Louise are good blues to voice, he is by no means exceptional. expressiveness. This is a twelve-bar rival Pawn Shop; and Let Me Be Your But on the items included in this lp blues in the traditional style, but he Dog, though it has very standard lyrics, he does have the beat, the pulse, the often prefers to sing eight-bar verses contains much good harmonica and a feel of the blues and, unlike the with four-bar refrains, though his songs rhythmic walking bass. Brownie McGhee selection on Vee-Jay 1008, variety. are still in a blues framework and is best when he is challenged or when Boogie in the Dark is Jimmy Reed at with blues content. He avoids monotony he concentrates on playing. For this his very best; an instrumental number by the use of changes of rhythm (six reason, Back to New Orleans, with a which really swings. On the to the bar on The Key). He is usually fine vocal by Terry, is undoubtedly the instrumental he seems to play^better accompanied, rather unremarkably, by best track,.for it contains the rippling harmonica, and Roll and Rhumba with guitar, piano, bass and drums, though arpeggio work which Brownie can do its Latin-American rhythm, blue an occasional competent break so well, but so rarely does on his phrasing is an agreeable item. A large suggests changes of personnel. If this recordings these days. number of Reed's tunes are addressed lp is not as continually stimulating Well-known as a Chicago blues bassist, to "baby" and in the vocals a certain as the original Sonny Boy's lp (French WILLIE DIXON virtually makes his sentimentality creeps into both content RCA 130/238) it is because he has not recording debut as a blues singer on and delivery. It is present in Honest musicians like Joshua Altheimer, Bill "Willie's Bluest" (Prestige/Bluesville I Do, his best-selling record. You Got Broonzy, Big Maceo, Tampa Red, Blind 1003). (He has made a couple of sides Me Crying, Ain't That Loving You Baby John Davis and Ransom Knowling to already.) He has a rough, strong voice, and You're Something Else are the best give him the support he deserves. It very much in the Chicago tradition in of the vocals. is a one-man show, but a good one. spite of his Mississippi origins. The second album, "Rockin' with Reed" Miller sings a fine version of Fattening Nervous is a novelty number with a (Vee-Jay LP-1008) uses material mostly Frogs for Snakes (the Mobile Struggler, simulated trembling stutter, not an recorded since 1958. Reed's early not the Rosetta Crawford one) and especially wise choice to begin the lp. recordings for Vee-Jay (made 1953 to Wake Up is a novel treatment of the Sittin' and Cryin' the Blues tends to 1955) are more imaginative, stronger old English ballad Our Goodman which be over-dramatized, but Dixon has and more exciting than anything in this Coley Jones once recorded as plenty of ideas and his words and collection. Mississippi-born but raised Drunkard Special. The slow suspicions themes—all his own— are generally in Gary, Reed plays both guitar and of a stupid husband unfortunately are varied. He favors a verse and refrain harmonica with only moderate faded out before the punch line is structure rather than the three-line accomplishment and sings in a rather reached. A pity. Sonny Boy Williamson blues form, as on Good Understanding high, tongue-tied voice which is not No. 2 is well worth hearing. and That's All I Want Baby among immediately appealing. The latter is BROWNIE McGHEE and SONNY TERRY, others. The best tracks are Built for still less appealing to this listener in like Leadbelly, Josh White and Big Bill Comfort which is rough and fast with his later recordings when Reed Broonzy, became emissaries for the an excellent bass solo by Dixon, and introduced a breathy vibrato doubtless blues, moving out of the natural habitat Move Me, another forceful number. intended to imply barely suppressed of the blues to play to white audiences, Memphis Slim accompanies Dixon passion. A monotonous reliance on a in the concert hall and even across adequately without moments of familiar boogie rhythm makes tiresome the Atlantic. There is nothing wrong particular interest, and leads on two listening and the old rapport between with missionary work as such, but the instrumental numbers, Go Easy and Jimmy's second guitarist Eddie Taylor blues thrive best when close to the Slim's Thing, in which recollections of and himself has declined to a repetition roots, and transplanting can affect the familiar boog'e pieces like Johnson's of stock phrases. Reed composes most growth. Sonny and Brownie have toured Roll Em, Pete creep in rather too of his material, which mostly revolves as far as the Indian Antipodes, and easily. Al Ashby on tenor adds nothing around troubled love affairs, becoming that their music has remained so intact of value to the record, and Wally maudlin on A String to Your Heart but is much to their credit. But a change Richardson on guitar is unremarkable rather better on I Know It's a Sin has taken place in their new ''Down though competent. Dixon, nearer to the which also contains good harmonica Home Blues" (Prestige/Bluesville mike than on most records on which work. I think the best tracks are the 1002), well illustrated by a new version he appears mstrumentally, can be heard two instrumentals, Ends and Odds and of Fox Hunt. In their Library of well on bass through a number of the excellent Rockin' with Reed. "Jimmy Congress version and even in the tracks. Reed is for folks who like to JUMP . . . Elektra version this was still the Fox NOT BOP . . . NOT CHA CHA CHA . . . Chase, the folk blues harmonica If there is a reason for the NOT JITTERBUG, BUT PURE-DEE virtuoso piece; now it is a stage dissatisfaction that I felt on hearing JUMP" writes Frank London Brown in presentation with commentary by this record it lies I think, in the lack the abysmal, dismal, hype-hip Brownie; no longer an interpretation of any blues of real feeling or depth. sleeve-note. But there is nothing here but an attempt at a recreation of a Willie Dixon is no lightweight, that moves like Boogie in the Dark or scene. Neither artist plays the hint of physically, vocally or instrumentally, is as strong as Ain't That Lovin' a wrong note on this lp, and the years and I feel he could do justice to less You Baby. of playing together have caused them lightweight material. Fortunately a blues singer does not rely Paul Oliver

35 Peter Gammond's surveys of Ellington ship in so many of these contributions in the twenties and of A Drum is a helps to explain this lack of commen• BOOK Woman, Raymond Horricks' chronicle of tary; real criticism is heresy. Total and the forties and his study of the orches• unquestioning admiration has never tral suites, Alun Morgan's examination been a tribute to any artist; with an of the fifties, and Gerald Lascelles' artist of Ellington's stature, strength, REVIEWS views on Ellington as a pianist are and accomplishment, it is ridiculous. compilations of miscellaneous informa• H. A. Woodfin tion or discouraging displays of critical ineptitude, or both. Stanley Dance's ob• servations on Ellington's personality are Belafonte, an Unauthorized Biography commonplace. He also seems to imply by Arnold Shaw. Chilton Publishers; strongly that Ellington is above criti• New York, 1960. cism (from the samples in this book, There are many forms of opportunism, I can see why he should think so) and and one of the most annoying is the that he is to be most congratulated on kind which exploits the suffering of avoiding those nasty boppers, which others. This book, purportedly a biogra• tells us a-great deal about Stanley phy of Harry Belafonte the singer, is Dance but little about Ellington. Daniel one example. It uses the life of this Halperin's recollections of his contacts man, and a backdrop of "jazz atmos• with the Ellington band are, for the phere" to self-righteously expose the most part, singularly dull for anyone embarrassing underside of America's who is more impressed by Ellington race problem. In this it is essentially than by Halperin. Burnett James at• a political pamphlet and not biography. tempts to enlighten us on Ellington as It might not be going very far to call a composer, but he soon falls into it inflammatory trash since the author's turgidity and irrelevance. Jeff Aldam's rhetoric seems calculated to stimulate remarks on the Ellington sidemen are violence rather than understanding. elementary. There are also some kind, Yet the style of the book reveals not but unnecessary, tributes from Johnny even the honest emotion that can Dankworth, Alan Clare, and Ken Moule. infect a work of this kind. The writing Only Charles Fox and Vic Bellerby at• is strangely flat, dull, bored and bor• tempt serious criticism. Fox's study of ing, soggy with repititious constructions Ellington in the thirties is, within the and heavy with sociological and psycho• space limitations, reasonably thorough. logical cliches. The content is a reiter• However, his judgments tend to the ation of what every Negro knows for conventional more than the just. Vic himself: the endless sins of the white Bellerby in one piece surveys all of man against the black. Unfortunately, Ellington's work and in another, Such the audience one would like to reach Sweet Thunder. Unfortunately, his work on this subject—the white middle class, is marred by a series of cursory and from which almost all important social inaccurate impressionistic descriptions. action springs in the United States— Of considerable value is the condensa• will be put off by the tasteless sensa• tion of Richard Boyer's New Yorker pro• tionalism which pervades the book. For file of Ellington, "The Hot Bach," which a particularly blatant example, the little dates from 1944. This is a first rate sections called "Stereos", stuck in be• piece of journalism which tells us a tween chapters, whose only function is great deal about Ellington's music sim• to illustrate a theme which undergoes ply by Boyer's careful observation and no development, and which was obvious delineation of Ellington, his men, and from the outset. In each "Stereo" some their milieu. Boyer makes no pretense notable of the Negro world, frequently of being a jazz critic, and his work is a jazz musician, is dragged in as fur• refreshingly clear of any preconcep• ther illustration of racial persecution. tions. His description, for example, of Between interracial incidents Bela- an Ellington rehearsal is sufficiently fonte's life proceeds as that of a bright, detailed to clear up many of the puz• good-looking young man who became zling questions about the well-known a success in spite of brown skin, pov• compositional interplay between Elling• erty and all that goes with them. Some• ton and the members of the band. It how all the psychoanalytic claptrap Mr. is unfortunate that the editor chose to Shaw drags in to justify some pretty cut this piece when he could so easily egotistical and selfish behavior do not have dispensed with some of the other greatly move me. I can't help compar• contributions to make space. ing Shaw's report of Belafonte's melo- dramatics with the stoicism and beauty Duke Ellington: His Life and Music This book serves generally to point up of King Oliver's last letters. (Or Jackie edited by Peter Gammond. the lack of significant criticism of El• Robinson when he was breaking in with The idea behind this miscellany was a lington's career, from the splendid Cot• the Dodgers, for that matter.) happy one; its execution, alas, was con• ton Club style of the twenties, through This is in no way a good book except siderably less happy. With few excep• its continued successes in the thirties, as undeveloped source material to doc• tions the articles it includes are speci• to its apex in the early forties, down ument the life of a particular young mens of conventional jazz criticism, to the band of today which can alter• artist-businessman, or the general prob• which is usually not criticism at all, nate between the brilliance of Such lem of man's failure to share God's or platitudinous personal tributes. Of Sweet Thunder and the plodding qual• blessings. the fifteen pieces, only one is actually ity of many of its recent recordings. The general tone of fatuous hero wor• worthy of serious attention. Fredrick Conn

36 JAZZ IN PRINT

MARTIN T. WIT, L.I A MS

a quarterly of commenf & criticism

MARTIN WILLIAMS PAUL BOWLES

My co-editor has agreed to let me use his space ALLEN GINSBERG ERICK HAWKINS this month. Nothing special in mind, necessarily. I DONALD PHELPS CHARLES OLSON just wanted to know what it feels like. Henry Woodfin noticed Barbara Gardner's review of Duke Pearson in Down Beat. "Gate City_ Blues has single copies: 75c. RECORD CENTRE STORES all the necessary nautiness 655 Lexington Ave.. Cor. 55th St. Greenwich Village-4! West 8th St. to elevate it to enviable heights . . . His superb Subscribe—$2.50 yearly finess, spiced with the water from the well of life, ought to yield a 299 W. 12th Street, N. Y. 14, N.Y. seasoned, groundrooted performer." Well, Michigan water tastes like sherry wine. SPECIAL OFFER Robert Hatch reviewed Jazz on a Summer's Day in the TO READERS OF Nation and concluded, "As for the music, I'm not an initiate, but I think I THE JAZZ REVIEW know what jazz is about. One of these days, the boys in the audience are going A 12 MONTH SUBSCRIPTION to start handling the girls the way these musicians FOR $3.50 handle their instruments ; then the authorities will Just fill out the coupon and send it with your check or surely step in and we shall money order to: THE JAZZ REVIEW 1-24 White Street, cry "tyranny" like N. Y. 13, N. Y. Please add $1.00 for foreign postage. libertarian sheep. The dithyrambic cry is fine healthy exercise, and one Please send me the Jazz Review for 1 year. can grin for quite a while at the varieties of erotic experimentation the jazz NAME musicians can evoke ; but even dancing around the ADDRESS Maypole gets monotonous in the end, and the time may HTY ZONE. STATE come when jazz will want to look around for other appetites to feed." This offer is available to new subscribers only. Never mind about jazz. When are they going to put

37 valves on those girls? same May 26 Down Beat without unduly involving In the May Jazz Monthly, reminded me a bit of the him. Thus audiences . . . editor Albert McCarthy kind of pseudo-criticism were able ... to somehow saw a confirmation that Julian himself often congratulate themselves on for his 'mainstream* complains about. their advanced taste while position in the fact that There's a curious piece on experiencing quite Jack Cooke found some of Coleman in the first issue straightforward music . . . the Miles Davis-Gil Evans of the 'new' Metronome by The air of rather smart "Miles Ahead", "oppressive, Ted E. White (curious not disillusionment that melodramatic, and in the because I happen to figure surrounds interpretations case of the final bars of in it). White quotes John like Funny Valentine would I Don't Wanna Be Kissed, Lewis, "Ornette Coleman is also be sympathetic to ludicrous. "Later in the doing the only really new superficially sophisti• same issue, Max Harrison thing in jazz since the cated audiences." said about those who beat innovations in the mid- Not only do I not share a the mainstream drum, "They forties." Then he adds spell-my-name-right could instead have written "Ornette is not another attitude, I have the many authoritative Parker." (WHAT did John strongest misgivings about articles on the men they say?) Later he quotes the concept of 'publicity' do care about, and thereby Ornette's, "I don't know in general. However, I over the years introduced how it's going to sound confess to being quite countless new listeners to before I play it any more pleased, in principle, that music. It is than anybody else does," about The New Yorker's unfortunate they chose the and adds, "This strongly "Mostly for Music" list• other, fruitless course, suggests that Coleman is ings, though in practice, for attacks on modernists an intuitive musician." I am not quite so pleased. do not make a convincing And, "I don't suppose it is The listings aren't plea for mainstreamers." coincidental that Coleman complete. Perhaps they Hear! Hear! Except for plays a saxophone." And don't intend to be (the biographies, there are no "Coleman's way of playing movie listings frankly comprehensive essays on is not a separate thing aren't) but there are the Lunceford band, Don from his music." Yes, it things going on in Redman's music, Hender• would seem that way, Brooklyn, in the Bronx, son's, Ben Webster, Lionel wouldn't it? and even in Manhattan, if Hampton, Red Allen, the The same Metronome quoted they must be parochial, Basie style, Buck Clayton, Jimmy Giuffre's remark to that I would like to hear Vic Dickenson, Jack Howard Lucraft, "I can about. Then there are the Teagarden, Teddy Wilson, stand bad reviews because frequently inaccurate Earl Hines, Harry Edison, I haven't perfected my art blurbs: Johnny Letman at Bud Johnson, Jo Jones. at all. But one English the Metropole is a Dixie• There is_ an essay on Dickie critic said I should try land musician; so is Buck Wells, and you know who using counterpoint." He Clayton at Condon's. They wrote that. There has been meant Max Harrison in this also contain such insights only one published effort magazine, of course. as: "Chris Connor, who can at a comprehensive account Speaking (still and again) sing a song as straight of Armstrong's career. of Harrison, his essay on as a string," or "Kenny Frankly, gentlemen, your Gerry Mulligan in the Burrell's high-tension record stinks. The same Raymond Horricks book threesome." They often issue of Jazz Monthly began These Jazzmen of our Time have their share of the old a series by Jack Cooke on contains this excellent New Yorker's strained Art Blakey and the Jazz insight, "(The Mulligan cleverness. It is the sort Messengers and continues Quartet's) instrumentation of thing that used to pass Malcolm Walker's Charlie threw emphasis on clear for sophisticated wit, I Mingus discography. melodic expression and suppose, but the Speaking of Mingus: his simple rhythmic construc• masters of the style, beautiful and generous tion. The resulting lack Wolcott Gibbs or John tribute to Ornette Coleman of tension was another McCarten, manage a know- surely gives us another attraction . . . the little, care-less, reason to call him a great somewhat detached relaxa• smugness. jazzman. I confess tion of the Mulligan Examples: "Any resemblance Cannonball Adderley's Quartet entertains and to a mushroom-shaped cloud piece on Ornette in the even intrigues the listener is coincidental, but the

38 noise does come in solid Curtis Fuller had split as N. J. in the East and chunks." (The usual both pieces were in the Ernest Edwards, Jr., 718 "Goings On" metaphor for press . . . Tom Scanlan in Keenan Ave., Los Angeles, jazz is gunfire and that same Down Beat Calif, in the West. Price explosion.) "Ornette presented the following is still |1.25 for each Coleman who regards the strange proposition: booklet. Forthcoming alto saxophone as his "Current majority thinking publications from Allen whipping boy. ..." "John in jazz criticism implies, include bio-discographical Coltrane's quartet . . . and sometimes insists, that studies of Jack Teagarden even more abstract than what's new is somehow, by Howard Waters and of the paintings." I sheep• ipso facto, what's most Fletcher Henderson by Allen ishly confess a certain exciting and most himself. sympathy for this one important ..." Yeah, yeah. I have "program guides" however: "Herbie Mann, And the best essay on Duke from the all-jazz WHAT-FM Ellington is by Gunther whose flute pours oil on in Philadelphia and the Schuller, on Louis the troubled bongos." In five hour daily jazz Armstrong and Dickie Wells charge of the "Goings On" operation on WNCN-FM in New department rs Rogers by Andre Hodeir, and three York. I have the feeling Whittaker ; I think good essays on Lester Young that if classical stations criticism should be signed. are by Ross Russell, Louis tried to "sell" their music The alternate selection Gottlieb and Nat Hentoff... in the fan magazine manner for June at the Reader's The Jazz Review would like that these booklets do Subscription (a high-brow to publish more blues jazz, they would loose book club, I guess you'd lyrics of Robert Johnson. their audiences. call it) was two Thelonious Any volunteer transcribers? I have copies of the April Monk records. ... I was very surprised estrad (Sweden), the April Whitney Balliett in his to learn from Variety that Rhythme (Belgium, in review of Memphis Slim and the producer for Marlene Flemish), and the March boogie woogie, called the Dietrich's recent Jazz (Poland). I can hardly form complex. So did European tour was Norman read a word of any of them. Leonard Bernstein on What Granz. On second thought is Jazz. (So how come any I don't know why I was A complete and completely fraternity house pianist surprised. new jazz discography by Brian Rust will shortly could play it?) Balliett An article on the Col• appear in England. also called it an harmonic legiate Jazz Festival at Just to prove I'm not form, and called the Notre Dame in the May playing favorites, I will harmonies wayward. International Musician conclude with the news that Well, Slim does goof the concludes that it "provided my co-editor had a piece submedians sometimes . . . a wonderful showcase for in the May 6 Commonweal on Max Harrison (again???) new jazz groups to display concluded in a recent Jazz their musical versatility." the popularity of rock and Monthly essay that Charlie Sure. And Martha dug it roll ; he thinks it is the Parker's best Savoy the most. answer to the psychological recordings were Billie's There is a new discography needs of a disturbed Bounce (take 5), Now's The from Denmark in the Debut generation, and not a Time (4), Thriving From a Records series by Jorgen conspiracy of payola. He Riff (1), Koko (2), Donna Grunet Jepsen. It combines is right. Wait, wait, just Lee (3 and 4), Cheryl (2), Fats Navarro and Clifford one more. Nat Hentoff on Buzzy (5), Chasing the Brown — appropriately the liner notes to Andre Bird (1), Another Hair-Do enough. There are also now Previn's "King Size" : (3), Bluebird (1 and 3), revisions of the Ellington "Certainly in Previn's Bird Gets the Worm (1), volumes, the Armstrongs, work in this album there Barbados (4), Constella• and Kenton, Basie, Lester is no feeling of any tion (1 and 4), Parker's Young, Parker, and Miles admixtures of materials .or Mood (3). Davis booklets, with Billie influences alien to jazz There was disagreement Holiday, Mulligan and . . .he's emerging as a between Benny Golson's Konitz (in one volume), pianist with a story of account of the origin and Monk and Rollins in his own to tell." intent of the Jazztet in preparation. American Honest, Judge, just give the May 26th Down Beat and distributors are still me a break this time and that by Art Farmer in the Walter Allen, 168 Cedar you'll never see me in May issue of this magazine. Hill Ave., Belleville 9, here again.

39 visit to Boyes. After Hickman opened at the St. Francis, national use of the word was only a matter of time (Tamony 1939:5). A "peculiar" use of the word—but still in San Francisco—was sup• posedly reported by the American composer Ferdie Grofe. Author and critic Henry Osgood, in the first American book about jazz, said: Speaking of different meanings, Ferdie Grofe . . . tells of a peculiar use of the word jazz in San Francisco, which the word jazz. it does not seem to have obtained any• where else. Out there in the years just preceding the War there were certain large and popular cafes which main• tained orchestras and also a regular part 4 pianist, and gave cabaret performances, limited, however, to singing by young women. Each one had a solo to sing and occasionally they joined in an en• semble. They did not sing their solos from the stage where the pianist was stationed. It was part of their duties to mingle with the guests and join them at table. Whenever one of them heard the pianist begin the prelude to her number, she would rise wherever she The music may have been born in Places, Dates and Spellings happened to be and sing, but when the New Orleans, but the label "jazz" Where, when and under what circum• pianist decided it was time for an en• (or jas, jass, jaz, jasz, jascz, jaszz) stances "jazz" and music were wed semble, he would announce, "The next was first applied to it in San is almost as puzzling as where the number will be jazz," and they would Francisco. That's what some say. word came from. Remembering the all troop back to the stage. There was Others, including drummer Baby music was born in New Orleans, it no extra "pepping up" or rhythmic ex• Dodds, cite New Orleans. Chicago is surprising to see some writers aggeration in these choruses, and the and New York have also been point the finger at San Francisco. word* appears to have had no special credited. This fourth article on the There on the west coast "jazz" ana significance as regards the music, sim• history of the word reviews the music were united—if you believe ply meaning that it would be sung tutti literature on the place and date of the earliest published testimony. instead of solo (Osgood 1926a: 18). its application to music and bands Joseph K. Gorham, according to the This account has been repeated by and its various spellings. The Jazz Literary Digest of April 26, 1919, said a number of writers, Stanley Nelson Review will publish a bibliography the word was "common to the knowl• and Robert Goffin among them. after the final article in the series. edge and frequent in the vocabulary William Ludwig, in the May, 1922 of the Barbary coast" (Anon 1919e:- Metronome, claimed the word "was 47). Clay Smith concurred (Anon first used in this country by negroes 1924e=595). working on the docks and levees in the South" (Ludwig 1922:78). He ap• So did Peter Tamony: Late in February, 1913, the San Fran• parently referred to its use in music. cisco Seals went into training at Boyes More to the point, drummer Baby Springs ... Mr. Slattery, a sports edi• Dodds declared: "The word 'jazz' as tor, had heard the word jazz in craps a musical term, was born in New games around San Francisco. It is a Orleans" (Anon 1945:5). Darnell How• Creole word and means, in general, to ard said "The term 'jazz' then origi• speed up . .. Mr. Slattery, with a sports- nated in New Orleans" (loc. cit.) and writer's sense of the striking, began to Coeuroy and Schaeffner (1926:101) use "jazz" as a synonym for "ginger" said virtually the same thing. and "pep." ... In a few days the nov• But Douglas Stannard, writing in the elty was taken up by other writers and New Statesman and Nation on "The the people around the camp, and was Negro and Tin Pan Alley," categori• used in all descriptions. On the field cally denied it. "New Orleans musi• the players were full of the old jazz, cians themselves," he said, "were and there was jazz in the effervescent not familiar with the expression" waters of the springs. Everything was (Stannard 1941:83). Alan P. Merriam jazzy, including the music Art Hickman An article in Jazz Session further played for the entertainment of the complicated matters. Richard M. players and visitors . . . The music he Jones and Bud Jacobson said New and provided was his stylization of the rag• time of the day. It was an immediate York was the place (Anon 1945:5). hit. James Woods, manager of the Hotel As for the date the word first ap• Fradley H. Garner St. Francis, heard Hickman while on a peared in print, a man named Chap-

40 man is reported to have "turned up almost the same story, but dated it band in Chicago in 1915. It was playing a poster some 100 years old, with 1914: at the Lambs Club there and was at• the word Jass on it" (Anon 1958a:10). The word "jazz" as a musical term, was tracting crowds with the music that Otherwise, we have Cecil Austin's born in New Orleans. The Original Dixie• originated in New Orleans. word that "The term 'jazz' in its re• land Jazz Band, playing at the Casino He related how another band at the lation to music dates from about in the tenderloin district of New Or• club became jealous and complained this time post Civil War" (Austin leans in 1914, first employed the term. to the union. The union issued a state• 1925:258). The first time I came into direct con• ment saying that "jazz music was being tact with the term, though, was in 1919 Clay Smith detested the word, but played at Lambs," intending to dis• when I joined Fate Marable's Jazz E credit the Brown band. he didn't think it was that old. "Jazz Sazz Band on the Capitol Steamer or Instead of hurting it, Mr. Brown said, was born and christened in the low Steamer Sydney. The term definitely dance halls of our far west of three was used first in New Orleans, before the public streamed in to see what the decades ago" (Anon 1924e:595). That Chicago (Anon 1945:5). music was all about (Anon 1958b:37:l). would make it about 1900. Henry Again referring to the ODJB, Jacob- Several other writers, including Rob• Osgood, referring back to an inter• son, in the Jazz Session article, said: ert Goffin (1946:64) and James D. view with James Reese Europe, the Wilbur Sweatman . . . had a lot to do Hart (1932:245), tell just about the leader of a Negro military band in with originating the word "jazz." He same story, probably derived from World War I, said: "It is possible wrote a short article for the Chicago the same source (Jazzmen). Hart that Lieutenant Europe correctly Daily News in 1915 stating that he was said "it was not until about 3915 cited the first use of jazz as an ad• the first person to use the term in a that the word came into its present jective, for he places it about 1900- band. If so, the term undoubtedly widespread use." 1905, ten years at least before the started in New York. The ODJB might An overwhelming majority of these have picked up the term from the term 'jazz band' came into general writers favor a date sometime be• Sweatman Band while recording in New use . . ." (Osgood 1926a:14). tween 1915 and 1917. If the folk tales York, then upon returning to New Or• Richard M. Jones is quoted as say• leans, spread it around to other bands. and name corruption accounts have ing: I remember distinctly seeing the word any basis in truth, the word itself— used in Chicago in 1914; I don't believe or one that sounded almost like it— The term "jazz" originated in New Or• it was any earlier. The two words, JAZZ may have been used earlier in the leans during the early part of the cen• BAND, were pasted on a high sign South, or in other regions or lo• tury as a descriptive word. It wasn't above the Arsonia Cafe where Art Ar- cales.* until after the Original Dixieland Band seth's Band was playing at the time While it was usually spelled "jass" added the word "jass" to its title while (Anon 1945:5). or "jazz," Walter Kingsley noted in recording in New York during 1913 or 1917 that it was "variously spelled 1914 that the word spread into other Was the music christened "jazz (or Jas, Jass, Jaz, Jazz, Jasz, and Jascz" bands. It was undoubtedly a press "jass") as part of a deliberate smear (Kingsley 1917:111, 3:6-8), and Gren- agent's idea that first gave the word its campaign? That's what Tom Brown ville Vernon said it was sometimes start during the ODJB recordings. How• thought, and The New York Times spelled "'jass' and sometimes ever, the word, as a musical term, was took note of it in the Dixieland trom• 'jazz'" (Vernon 1919:1V, 5:1-2). first used in New Orleans upon the bonist's obituary. The account ap• Stanley Nelson in 1930 listed "jas, return of the ODJB from New York. The peared first in the anthology Jazz• jass, jaz, jazz, jasz or jaszz" (Goffin word then spread to other bands in men, in 1939. Charles Edward Smith, 1932:45), and Douglas Stannard said other cities (Anon 1945:5). a critic, wrote of the Tom Brown "The early spelling of the word was Peter Tamony's date for the coupling Band: of word and music, 1913, was en• alternatively jas, jass, and jazz" dorsed by Darnell Howard, though In June 1915, however, they could and (Stannard 1941:83). Few of these al• Tamony, as mentioned, located it did take a job at the Lamb's Cafe in ternate spellings ever were used in in San Francisco (Tamony 1939:5). Chicago. . . . the literature, however, and most are These recollections were offered by They didn't have union clearance on probably the orthographic inventions Howard in a Jazz Session sympo• that first Chicago job. According to Tom of the authors concerned. sium on "Origin of Term JAZZ": Brown it was an attempt by union offi• I first heard the word "jazz" used musi• cials to lowrate them that gave jazz its *The first appearance of the word "rag• name. Jazz, or jass as it was then cally in reference to the Original Dixie• time" on a music sheet, according to Hob- spelled, was a familiar word around land Jazz Band. This was in 1913, and son, who cites Rogers (Hobbson 1939:28) 22nd Street where the red lights glowed, the ODJB had just recorded Livery Sta• was "in 1895 on the cover of the Negro but it wasn't used about music. The ble Blues. That same year, while I was comedian Bert Williams's song, Oh I Don't story has it that the statement that playing with the John Wecliffe band Know, You're Not So Much." The first use jazz music was being played at Lamtfs in Milwaukee, the band's press agent of the word "blues" is reported in 1919 Cafe was a whispering campaign, the erected a huge sign above the dance purpose of which was to smear the by the Music Trade Review: hall where we were playing. The large, band. People were curious to know what An antique dealer on Twenty-eighth street has flashy letters read: JOHN WECLIFFE'S "jass" music was, and they came in a window display of old sheet music belong• JAZZ BAND. This caused quite a com• droves to find out. Presently the new ing to another generation. Of interest is one motion, for the word "jazz" at this time sign out front read: "Added attraction- sheet entitled "Regimental Blues," published was a rather shady word, used only in Brown's Dixieland Jass Band, Direct by First, Pond & Co., then located at 547 reference to sex. This was Milwaukee; from New Orleans, Best Dance Music Broadway, and dedicated the "Regimental quite a few miles north of Chicago. in Chicago" (Smith 1939:46). Blues" of Savannah, Ga. The copyright bears The ODJB was already employing the This is what the Times reported in the date of 1860 (Anon 1919b:55). word "jazz" musically. They started Tom Brown's obituary, March 26, Whether the word here refers to music or their band in New Orleans. The term 1958: to regimental uniform or colors cannot be "jazz" then originated in New Orleans Mr. Brown, a trombonist, said the term ascertained without more information about (Anon 1945). "jazz music" was first applied to his the song and its lyric. Baby Dodds, in the same article, told

41 analogy); on the second against and in Variants on a theme of Thelonious a parallel foil to them (as in a Monk was four variations on Criss Cross. CONCERT Beethoven concerto, to continue the It is my chief reason for using the analogy). word "nonsense" above, for Schuller's Almost opposite was Little Blue Devil "arrangement" of Monk's theme seems REVIEW a section of Schuller's concert work of to me in no sense a classical work. last year programmed on pictures by It is a jazz work and, I think, a Paul Klee—a written "classical" splendid one. Whatever the work may composition using jazz form and owe in form to Schuller's other life is phrasing. quite assimilated; it certainly has no Transformation, the earliest work heard, air of the "experiment" or the practice and Conversations, from last year's room. concert by the Modern Jazz and Beaux In the first section, Ornette Coleman Art quartets, take opposite approaches. improvised first and he used Monk's The former gradually transforms melody as his basis in a way I wish classical writing into jazz improvising, Monk could have heard. Bill Evans and back. Despite another excellent entered behind him to prepare for the solo by Bill Evans, the approach still second soloist, Dolphy (on bass According to the program notes, the seems to me to deny the force and clarinet); then Costa. Each soloist final concert in Charles Schwartz's uniqueness of each idiom and the began for several bars under the wholly commendable series of "Jazz alliance an almost sentimental one. previous improviser in a kind of Profiles" at the Circle in the Square Conversations, as I have said in the overlapping, free polyphony—and was to present the "Jazz Compositions" December issue, uses the conflict and hearing Ornette Coleman and Eric of Gunther Schuller. To quote Schuller's tension between the two idioms, their Dolphy improvising simultaneously on introduction, the music would "show ways of phrasing, and their separate a Monk theme was, in itself, more than the various possible ways of combining virtues, as its basis. It seems to me a most jazz concerts have to offer. jazz and classical music." Neither success—and perhaps the beginning of The second variant was slow and got a statement is a really accurate wisdom. Bill Evans achieved the very somber mood from Monk's patterns I description of what one heard that difficult task of both preceeding and would never have thought appropriate evening, and the second turned out to following a good solo by Eddie Costa or even possible. Coleman embellished be nearly nonsense. and still giving the whole written parts. The third went largely to The participating musicians were improvisational section continuity Dolphy and Scott LaFaro and their Ornette Coleman (alto); Bill Evans and wholeness. He did it, chiefly by excellent improvising included a (piano); Scott LaFaro (bass); Sticks using the same musical ideas in both wonderful spontaneous cadenza. Evans and Paul Cohen (drums); Eric his solos, but on his return he The final section began with a Monkish Dolphy (alto, flute, bass clarinet); incorporates all the tension that Costa rebuilding of the theme by the strings Barry Galbraith (guitar); Eddie Costa had built in the meanwhile. and included solos by Galbraith (who (vibraphone); Robert DiDomenica (flute); In a rather different way, Progression seems to me a better player than and the Contemporary String Quartet: in Tempo seems to me also a failure. improviser), Dolphy on flute, and Charles Tregar and Joseph Schor Perhaps I am judging a performance Coleman. Again they reflected the (violins); John Garvey (viola); and and not a composition, but a good deal creative enthusiasm with which every Joseph Tekula (cello). of the writing somehow seemed musician participated in the evening. The evening was decidedly a credit to Ravel or Gershwin-esque in effect, What I have said here about this everyone involved: the composer, the rather like those fay, blues-y pieces of "Variants" on Criss Cross is merely a jazz musicians, and the string quartet. the twenties. Costa and Evans were a few notes based on hearing one It was, from beginning to end, an contrast, of course. Also, it is true that performance. It is, I believe, a major evening of music and (let's be frank jazz groups do increase tempos and work (based on Monk's already major about this) not like many a jazz concert that, although they do not always do it piece!) not only within the jazz idiom, where something really interesting intentionally, it can be exciting. but legitimately extending it. If I have might happen one minute in ten. If the However, jazz musicians do it as a any reservations, it would be that the strings did have some trouble with response to what is happening in the writing for the strings in the first jazz phrasing at times, it is less a music. To impose it from without is a section seemed a bit thick for so discredit to them than it is a reflection different matter. (But does Schuller rhythmically provocative a theme, but, of a situation in American music—a know Will Ezell's Barrell House again, that may have been a (quite situation which, to their credit, they Woman?) forgivable) matter of performance. have undertaken to change. As I began by saying, it was an evening An evening of music, a constantly The two other pieces on the program of music, and one did not have to enjoyable and enlightening one and, I were the most important. The four wait out nine minutes for the one believe, a very important qne. Variants On a Theme of John Lewis when something really happened. Of Abstraction No. 1, with Ornette Coleman used Django. Barry Galbraith's course, except for the work of a and the string quartet as major statement of the theme was lovely, but handful of the really brilliant participants, was the most "classical" for the first time in the evening there improvisers, the only protection jazz piece: a jazz musician improvising as was a marring sluggishness in the has ever found against the possibility part of a mirror, serial composition in string quartet's playing, and I doubt of failure in those other nine minutes the contemporary idiom; a building of that Schuller wanted the second is the one Done Redman gave it so textures and rhythms to a climax, then section played with that slight schmaltz well: get something good down on an exact reversal. Abstractions was that John Garvey gave it. I also suspect paper. It has been ten years since performed twice, once before the that Eric Dolphy could have used more something this important for a group intermission, once after. Coleman's space for his solo; players his age of this size was go down on paper. grasp of the piece was so thorough just aren't used to pacing brief solos. And thanks particularly to Coleman, that he was able to find his way in Schuller's various handlings of that Dolphy, LaFaro, and to Schuller—and it not only with two different wonderful bass figure were a marvel, to Monk—it has as important a improvisations but in two different and its simple effectiveness is the relevance to the'next ten years ways. On the first performance he strongest temptation to put it to banal as to the past. improvised within the textures (an use, as other versions of Django have early Mozart concerto would be a good shown. No. Nobody got it doown on tape. Martin Williams

42 YOUR GUIDE TO 140 HOURS OF THE BEST JAZZ ENTERTAINMENT IN A A /I [J QI r\ A Leonard Feather • Nat Hentoff • Dom Cerulli • George Ml VI L.rV \\jt\ Crater • Martin Williams • Ira Gitler • S/d McCoy THE BIG SOUL-BAND JOHNNY GRIFFIN ORCHESTRA - ARRANGEMENTS BY NORMAN SIMMONS

The vibrant and large-scale sound heard here is one that achieves much of its dynamic and deeply-moving newness by reaching back to the roots and soul of jazz. It makes excitingly emotion-charged modern use of such fundamentals as spirituals, blues, and gospel-imbued jazz. This is also big music; the rich, burstingly full sound of brass and reed sections. For the very first time, a truiy big-band sound has been dramati• cally merged with the soulful earthiness of the stirring new jazz of the 1960s - music that combines down-home funk with the aggressive surge of the big city.

This startling and unique album features the JOHNNY GRIFFIN ORCHESTRA in arrangements by NORMAN SIMMONS. It spotlights the amazingly full-throated tenor saxophone "preaching" of Johnny Griffin, playing as never before in front of the fervent, larger-than-life sounds built by Norman Simmons, a young arranger whose brilliant future begins right here.