125243 the collector's jazz modern KEYSTONEjBooks in Music THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Traditional and Swing by John S, Wilson THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ: Modern by John S. Wilson THE COLLECTOR'S BACH by Nathan Broder THE COLLECTOR'S HAYDN by C. G, Burke THE COLLECTOR'S CHOPIN AND SCHUMANN by Harold C. Schonberg THE COLLECTOR'S TCHAIKOVSKY AND THE FIVE by John Briggs IN PREPARATION THE COLLECTOR'S TWENTIETH CENTURY MUSIC by Arthur Cohn THE COLLECTOR'S VERDI AND PUCCINI by Max de Schauensee the collector's jazz modern John S. Wilson J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY Philadelphia $ New York Copyright 1959 by John S. Wilson Copyright 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959 "by Audicom, Inc. Copyright 1959 by Ziff -Davis Publishing Company First Edition Printed in the United States o America Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 59-13948 contents FOREWORD 7 Part I THE BACKGROUND 11 Part II THE RECORDS 19 INDEX 309 foreword LIKE ALMOST every other other attempt to pin a label on some aspect of jazz, the term "modern jazz" is loose and indefinite. Although it has positive mean- ing only in the sense of "current," it is widely used to identify the jazz styles developed during and since World War II. It is applied in this broad sense in this book. It should be held in mind, however, that modernity is a relative matter. The modern jazz of the late Forties is, in reality, no longer modern in re- lation to the jazz of the Fifties although it is more modern than the Swing Era performances of Benny Goodman's orchestra or Louis Armstrong's work with his Hot Five which, in their own days, were modern, too (although at that time modernity per se was not deemed a matter of importance). This book deals with the jazz styles of the post- World War II period, taking up where a previous volume, The Collector's Jazz: Traditional and Swing, left off. A few musicians who were promi- nent in both pre- and post-war jazz and who might have been considered in either volume have been somewhat arbitrarily assigned to one or the other. Thus Count Basie, Coleman Hawkins, Duke Elling- ton and Mary Lou Williams were covered in the first volume but Charlie Barnet will be found in the present one. On the other hand to show that 7 8 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ the author is no narrow conformist the careers of Woody Herman and Red Norvo have been split into swing and modern periods and the appropriate portions of each of their careers is discussed in both volumes. All the recordings discussed are twelve-inch long- playing disks which are currently available unless otherwise noted. Under the individual headings in Part II will be found discussions of recordings on which the musician in question is listed as leader or on which his presence is of prime importance. Reference to performances by sidemen and quon- dam leaders in the role of sidemen can be checked in the index. A book such as this is the result of the coopera- tion of a great many people. It would not have been possible without the helpful assistance of Richard E. Ward of ABC-Paramount Records, Dave Usher of Argo Records, Gary Kramer of Atlantic Records, Alfred W. Lion of Blue Note Records, Bill Muster of Capitol Records, Deborah Ishlon of Columbia Records, David Stuart of Contemporary Records, Lillian Tookman of Decca Records, Robert Koester of Delmar Records, Abbot Lutz of Design Records, Walter S. Heebner of GNP Records, C. F. Gale- house of Golden Crest Records, Howard Caro of Jubilee Records, Beverly Cherner of Kapp Records, Andy Gibson of King Records, Jack Tracy and Sidney Shaffer of Mercury Records, Sol Handwerger of MGM Records, David Martindell of Modernage Records, William Avar of Period Records, Esmond Edwards of Prestige Records, Orrin Keepnews of Riverside Records, Dick Gersh of Rondo-lette Rec- ords, Bud Katzell of Roulette Records, Herman Lubinsky of Savoy Records, D. D. Montgomery of Specialty Records, Norman W. Forgue of Stepheny Records, Charles J. Bourgeois of Storyville Records, Fred Glickman of Superior Records, Bernie Silver- man of Verve Records, Herb Helman and Jack Foreword 9 Dunn of RCA Victor Records and Richard Bock of World Pacific Records. I am especially grateful to the Ziff-Davis Publish- ing Company for their courtesy in granting per- mission to use in Part I portions of an article pub- lished in Hi Fi Review and to Audiocom, Inc., for allowing me to use in Part II material previously published in High Fidelity magazine since this has enabled me to complete a project that might other- wise have been more than one listening writer could accomplish. J. S. W. Part I the background THE CHANGE from jazz as it had been to jazz as it was to be came during World War II, a bit of tim- ing which made the cleavage between proponents of the old and the new a great deal deeper than it might have been otherwise. There had been schisms in jazz before this. Followers of archaic ensemble jazz were dismayed at the eminence given to the soloist in the Twenties by that radical innovator, Louis Armstrong, and later there was a good deal of outraged sneering at the presumptuousness of the swing bands in calling their arranged dance music "jazz." But this bickering was as nothing compared to the gulf that separated the adherents of bop and those the boppers derisively referred to as "moldy figs" (a term to which the unreconstructed "figs" have now adjusted so completely that they apply it to themselves with pride). Early in the Forties Cab Galloway was warning a young and none too cele- brated member of his trumpet section named Dizzy Gillespie to "quit playing that Chinese music." Fats Waller, sitting in at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem when the musicians who hung out there were formulating what was eventually called bop, 11 12 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ has been credited with giving it its name when he shouted in exasperation at the Mintonites, "Stop that crazy boppin' and a-stoppin' and play that jive like the rest of us guys!" The jazz fan who went into service in World War II was scarcely aware of what was happening at Minton's. When he picked up his civilian life again in the middle Forties he was, more often than not, puzzled and confused to find that something was being played as "jazz" that seemed to have little relation to the jazz that he knew. This puzzlement often led to resentment of the new music (especially since its advocates often appeared to consider them- selves a superior and elite group), making the break between the old and the new sharper and deeper than it might have been if the birth and early development of the new jazz had not, in effect, taken place behind their backs. Not that there had been any lack of advance signs of things to come before the draft boards be- gan interfering with jazz appreciation at first hand. Even in the late Thirties, while Swing was still the thing, the direction that jazz was to take could be discerned in that ultimate of swing bands led by Count Basic. The most important trail blazer among the Basie- ites was tenor saxophonist Lester Young whose light, flowing playing flew squarely in the face of the accepted tenor style of the day Coleman Hawkins' robust, swaggering, charging attack. (When Hawkins left Fletcher Henderson's band in 1934, Henderson's choice for a replacement was Young but he was blackballed by Henderson's side- men who said he sounded as though he was playing alto.) Young's musical antecedents were Bud Freeman of the Chicagoans and Frankie Trumbauer who played C-melody saxophone in the Jean Goldkette and Paul Whiteman bands and appeared on many The Background 13 of Bix Beiderbecke's small group recordings. Young has attributed his relatively light sound to his efforts to get the sound of Trumbauer's C-melody saxophone. From both Trumbauer and Freeman he picked up suggestions for the leaps and swoops and sudden flights that were part of his style, a style that was marked by a shift in rhythmic pat- terns so that the strong beats are not always ac- cented. Behind him in the Basic band drummer Jo Jones was also working changes in rhythmic emphasis. Most big band drummers in those days emphasized the four beats in each measure by hitting out each beat on the bass drum with his foot pedal. In the Basie rhythm section, however, the bass and guitar stroked out the steady four beats, accented here and there by chords from the piano, while the drummer shifted his steady four-beat activities to a cymbal. With his bass drum foot freed of a timekeeper's shackles, Jones was able to use it as a prod or accent which subtly and sometimes not so subtly altered the rhythmic direction of a soloist. This device was expanded by Kenny Clarke, the house drummer at Minton's. His after-hours col- leagues there in the early 1940s included Dizzy Gillespie, pianist Thelonious Monk, alto saxophon- ist Charlie Parker and the guitarist in Benny Good- man's band, Charlie Christian. These were the musical adventurers who created bop. These men at Minton's found a common core around which to build in their mutual curiosity about harmonic concepts that were new to jazz (Monk contributed some of the most alarmingly unorthodox) and in their leaning toward shifting accents. Parker and Gillespie both found themselves at home in this atmosphere. Parker's seemingly erratic stops and starts, his furious dives into long, overflowing passages were the outward expression of his own arrival at the same conclusions that had 14 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ been brewing in other minds. Parker had reached his conclusions through dogged instinct. Gillespie, a much more articulate man, theorized his way to much the same point and then helped to synthesize the ferment that came out of Minton's. The new music was further nurtured in the Earl Hines band of 1943, a band which included both Parker and Gillespie. Because of a recording ban in effect that year there are no disks to document this stage in the growth of bop. Later Billy Eck- stine, who had been the vocalist in this band (along with Sarah Vaughan), formed a big bop band of his own, again with Parker and Gillespie, which he managed to hold together from 1944 to 1947. A subsequent effort by Gillespie to head a big bop band also fell on barren ground but by then bop was losing momentum and big bands of all kinds were finding the going hard. Bop's halcyon days occurred in the middle Forties on New York's 52nd Street. There it excited almost all the younger and would-be musicians and an occasional older one. Coleman Hawkins, saxophon- ist Benny Carter, pianist Mary Lou Williams, vibra- phonist Red Norvo and drummer Dave Tough were among the few stars of earlier jazz who found fresh inspiration in the new music. A wider public began to perk up its ears when publicity was given to such fringe phenomena as Gillespie's capers and the ubiquitousness of goatees, berets and dark glasses among bop fanciers. But this public never took to the music itself in any depth and, as an increasing number of inept musicians passed off their fumbling efforts as bop, the music lost what small audience it had acquired. In its wake bop left a shaken if not exactly re- vitalized jazz picture. It had planted the seeds of revitalization, however. They first became evident in the Woody Herman band of 1944 and 1945 which is now identified as Herman's First Herd. The Background 15 The tone for this band was set by arrangements provided by trumpeter Neal Hef ti, an early admirer of Parker and Gillespie, and it was amplified and carried forward by Ralph Burns, one of the new crop of conservatory trained musicians whose pres- ence in jazz was to be felt more and more strongly during the coming years. Herman's First Herd was a virtuoso ensemble which was completely at home in the new directions provided by bop and it breezed through arrangements that would have choked any other band of that day. With its brilliant assimilation of bop, the Her- man Herd became one of the two big bands which managed to be in the ascendant when most of the established big bands were going down the skids, skids which had been greased by their own tired, uncreative repetitiveness and by an economic situa- tion which left no operating margin for a big band. The other ascendant band of this moment, Stan Kenton's, started out in a promising flurry of ad- venturousness but soon bogged down in a swamp of blaring pretention. Another aftermath of bop was "cool" jazz which, to a degree, was a reaction to the extreme frenetic- ism of bop (legend has it that the early boppers deliberately played extremely difficult ideas at vio- lently fast tempos to discourage musicians outside their clique from sitting in). Cool jazz was an intro- verted, understated style which brought into jazz several instruments which had never found a proper place there before the French horn, the flute and which reinstated such a long-forgotten jazz instrument as the tuba. The two instrumentalists whose playing bears the particular hallmarks of cool jazz are the tenor saxo- phonist Stan Getz and trumpeter Miles Davis. It was Davis who led a short-lived group in 1948 which is held to be the keystone of cool jazz. This group, playing arrangements by Gil Evans, John 16 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Lewis, Gerry Mulligan and Davis, was made up of trumpet, trombone, French horn, tuba, alto saxo- phone, baritone saxophone, piano, bass and drums. Its sonorous quality, its dreamy legato attack had a slightly familiar ring to those who had heard Claude ThornhiU's orchestra a few years before. And well it might for it was in Thornhill's essen- tially sweet dance band that the rudiments of cool jazz were worked out through the arrangements of Evans and Mulligan and in the relaxed, vibratoless alto saxophone of Lee Konitz. Getz applied this same tone to the tenor, exemplified in his perform- ance of Early Autumn with Woody Herman in which it becomes apparent that the cool idea goes back well beyond the Thornhill band to Lester Young and, through Young, to Trumbauer and Beiderbecke. The cool approach caught on quickly on the West Coast where a Davis-tempered trumpeter, Chet Baker, acquired swift fame as a member of Gerry Mulligan's Quartet (Mulligan himself, by this time, had passed out of his cool period to a guttier, earthier style). As the cool elements on the West Coast mingled with the tightly voiced bop- based ideas of Shorty Rogers, a onetime Herman trumpeter who became a school in himself in the Los Angeles area, there appeared in California a succession of slick, emotionless jazzmen who could rattle off an endless line of glittering, machine- made performances. What might be termed "a warm school of cool" a cool surface with inner heat has been devised by pianist John Lewis for his Modern Jazz Quartet, a highly proper group with a strong feeling for form, tempered by the equally strong blues roots of Lewis and vibraphonist Milt Jackson. Much the same effect is achieved by Paul Desmond, the alto saxophonist in Dave Brubeck's Quartet, who is basically a follower of Lee Konitz's limpid style The Background 17 even while he beefs it up in the course of perform- ance to a temperature that is straight out of the hot jazz era. Inevitably, cool jazz produced a reaction of its own two reactions, in fact. One was the redis- covery of (or, at least, the revival of interest in) the vital roots of jazz which had been largely scorned by the boppers. This rediscovery took two direc- tions the passionate, blues-drenched earthiness of the so-called "funky" school exemplified in the minor-keyed ideas of pianist Horace Silver and the more academicized examination of the folk roots of jazz in the work of Jimmy Giuffre. The other reaction, "hard bop," a fierce, at times overpowering extension of bop lines, lodged most firmly in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and in the bursting-at-the-seams saxophone styles of John Col- trane and Johnny Griffin. For a while saxophonist Sonny Rollins could be counted among the hard boppers but this proved to be merely a step in his development into one of the most individual jazz musicians of the Fifties. Rollins soon left the harsh qualities of hard bop behind to work in a warmer, more melodic fashion that projected such strong implications of a swinging accompaniment that he has been able to make effective use of what had previously been only a novelty gimmick the un- accompanied saxophone solo. Rollins' emergence as a musician of importance was a significant milestone in the development of jazz for he was the first tenor saxophonist of conse- quence in twenty years to have been obviously in- fluenced by Coleman Hawkins rather than Lester Young. His arrival suggests that jazz has reached what amounts to a self-reviving cycle in which each turn of the wheel brings back worthwhile elements of the old to be blended with worthier parts of the new. At the same time jazz has become so established 18 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ as a listening music rather than the dancing music it once was that the concept of extended "jazz com- position" has ceased to be a novelty. Much of this "composition" has been little more than trivial sketching, particularly when it has been produced on commission for a jazz festival. Even more of it draws on European musical tradition rather than on jazz and is, in effect, a latter-day extension of those misconceptions of the Twenties which threat- ened to make jazz "respectable." No extended com- position has yet established a firm place in the gen- eral jazz repertory largely because jazz is still so much a performer's art that extended works have only received more than one performance when they are created for an organized group Duke Ellington's orchestra, for example, or the Modern Jazz Quartet which can make them a part of their active library. All of these styles, influences and musicians have contributed to that jazz which is generally identified as modern. Its actual modernity, of course, is sub- ject to change. The early modern jazz of the Nine- teen Forties has already gone through a winnowing process and elements of it have taken their places in the mainstream of jazz. Within the next decade the jazz of this moment, today's modern jazz, will doubtless also have been put into perspective. Jazz, it is becoming increasingly evident, is sim- ply jazz without qualifying adjectives a music which flows in a steady and constantly reinvigorat- ing stream, a music which still flourishes most bril- liantly in the extemporaneous interplay of a small ensemble, as it did in the beginning, and which finds the deep well of the blues just as vital a source of inspiration today as it was when Buddy Bolden's cornet was rocking the rafters of Tin Type Hall in New Orleans sixty years ago. Part II the records Pepper Adams. A leading contributor to the mod- ern loosening up of the once lead-bottomed bari- tone saxophone has been Adams, one of the cluster of young jazzmen who sprang out of Detroit in the Fifties. There is a lean, sinewy quality in his play- ing that, at his best, is brimming with vitality and assurance. He can be heard at his intense best on Critics' Choice, World Pacific 407 (one selection is repeated on The Hard Swing, World Pacific JWC 508), and 10 to 4 at the 5 Spot, Riverside 12-265, but in both cases he is spelled for long periods by musicians of far less interest. In the company of some fellow Detroiters on Jazzmen: Detroit, Savoy 12083, he runs an erratic course from merely pleas- ant to disjointed efforts to jam too many notes into his lines, and he manages to emerge successfully from time to time from the competition of a euphonium, a tiresome solo instrument, on The Cool Sound of Pepper Adams, Regent 6066. Julian Adderley. The sheer flamboyance of Adder- ley's Parker-based playing on alto saxophone rocked the New York jazz world when he arrived there unheralded from Florida in the summer of 1955 19 20 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ and it has, to a large degree, sustained him since. He pours out his music with much the same surging flow that one hears in Sidney Bechet, although their inner styles are totally different. Adderley's enor- mous gusto is expressed in long, looping, tremen- dously forceful lines but, despite his aggressive precision, they often seem to sail back and forth emptily over the same ground because they lack the shading which might convey a sense of move- ment or development. Portrait of Cannonball, Riverside 12-269, has the merit of including two gently paced selections which reveal a deeper, warmer Adderley with a sensitivity for dynamics and timing, suggesting the rewarding performer he might be if he could transfer these qualities to his faster work. His first disk, Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, EmArcy 36043, reveals the provocative, relatively varied but highly inconsistent performer who first reached New York. On In the Land of Hi-Fi, EmArcy 36077, Sophisticated Swing, EmArcy 36110, and Presenting Cannonball, Savoy 12018, there are evidences of increasing sensitivity to com- plement his basic raw vitality. Somethin* Else, Blue Note 1595, is an oddity in that Miles Davis, in whose group Adderley was playing at the time, completely dominates the disk while Adderley, al- though he manages to achieve some needed emo- tional warmth, gets involved in more tasteless banality than one normally expects from him. He shows his ability to play with a beautiful, full sound in an otherwise barren disk, Julian "Cannon* ball" Adderley with Strings, EmArcy 36063. Adder- ley has two selections in For Jazz Lovers, EmArcy 36086. Nat Adderley. The cornet, once the brass staple of the early jazzmen but now abandoned in favor of the more brilliant trumpet even by most tradition- alists, has been introduced to modern jazz by Nat The Records 21 Adderley (younger brother of Julian Adderley) who remains its only exponent. Originally a trumpeter, Adderley switched to cornet in 1951 because he felt he had more facility on it. He gets a swaggering, raucous, at times uncertain sound from his horn which is particularly effective when contrasted to the smooth, toothpaste tone of his brother (he is heard on many of Julian's records). Thafs Nat, Savoy 12021 (without Julian), To the Ivy League, EmArcy 36100 (with Julian) and Introducing Nat Adderley, EmArcy 36091 (also with Julian), are mixed assortments since Nat can be chargingly effective at faster tempos but turns drab on ballads. He has two selections in The Young Ones of Jazz, EmArcy 36085. Toshiko Akiyoshi. Toshiko, as she is often billed, is a Japanese girl who came to Oscar Peterson's at- tention during a Jazz at the Philharmonic tour of Japan. She came to the United States to study in 1956, seemingly bent on following the musical path of Bud Powell, an influence which began to fade after she had been in the States two years. There is assurance in her linear attack and her sense of form on Toshiko Akiyoshi, Storyville 918, on which alto saxophonist Boots Mussulli plays brilliantly. Two later recordings, The Many Sides of Toshiko, Verve 8273, and United Notions, Metrojazz 1001, suggest that she has reached a plateau in her de- velopment at which she can ring the surface changes with professional proficiency but with little emotional communication. Some of her earlier work is heard on Toshiko and Leon Sash at Newport, Verve 8236, The Toshiko Trio, Storyville 912, and The Women in Jazz, Storyville 916. Manny Albam. After serving an apprenticeship as a baritone saxophonist in various big bands in the Forties, Albam began writing late in the decade 22 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ for Charlie Barnet, Count Basic, Woody Herman and others. During Jack Lewis' two-year tenure as A & R man at Victor, Albam produced the bulk of the arrangements for Lewis' recording sessions. When Lewis left Victor, Albam moved his locus to Coral where he did similar behind the scenes chores until he was given his own recording sessions with a top-notch studio band billed as his "Jazz Greats," Albam is at his best writing for a large group for he has the ability to orchestrate in terms that can be translated into a loose, swinging performance as well as the willingness to create strong-lined en- sembles and sturdy supporting framework for his soloists rather than sketchy outlines which merely serve as springboards for a succession of solo per- formances. His big studio band made its bow on The Jazz Greats of Our Time, Coral 57173, which has some notable playing by Art Farmer, trumpet, Bob Brookmeyer, valve trombone, and Phil Woods, alto saxophone. The Jazz Greats of Our Time, VoL 2, Coral 57142, draws on West Coast studio men (Harry Edison, Richie Kamuca, Lou Levy, Shelly Manne and others) who dive with apparent pleas- ure into the meaty, imaginative arrangements Al- bam has given them. Levy, in particular, shows evidence of a return to the relaxation and warmth that have been missing from much of his work since the Forties. The East Coast Jazz Greats produced one of the few valid jazz attacks on a show score, West Side Story, Coral 57207. Albam's arrangements extend the jazz-touched spirit of the original music so that the mixture of agitation and tenderness in Leonard Bernstein's music is pointed up by the surging big band performances. Albam's soloists, notably Bob Brookmeyer and alto saxophonist Gene Quill, rise strikingly to their opportunities. Jazz New York, Dot 9004, made up of more well filled out big band The Records 23 performances, includes an indication of Albam's exploratory turn of mind, a lovely and unusual big band arrangement of Bix Biederbecke's piano solo, In a Mist, which Albam turns into a gentle jazz tone poem. The Jazz Greats also swing with ready warmth on two selections in Down Beat Jazz Con- cert, Dot 9003. The exploratory aspect of Albam led him to try to write an extended piece based on the root influ- ence of the blues, The Blues Is Everybody's Busi- ness, Coral 591 OL Although it is well constructed, Albam is handicapped both by the use of a string section and by his attempt to stretch a small piece of material too far. Another ambitious project that comes off more successfully is The Drum Suite, Victor LPM 1279, on which Ernie Wilkins is joint composer and conductor. Although it is built around four drummers Osie Johnson, Gus John- son, Teddy Sommer and Don Lamond Albam and Wilkins have made it a series of instrumental pieces written around various uses of the drums rather than simply a set of drum exchanges. The pieces are rapped out with driving eloquence by a band of top-drawer studio men (roughly the same as the Jazz Greats although this disk preceded the forma- tion of the Greats). In a more routine vein are Steve's Songs, Dot 9008, wherein Albam and a big band do a credit- able job with the not particularly inspiring songs of Steve Allen; Sophisticated Lady, Coral 57231, on which Albam makes inventive use of the usually glutinous mixture of voices, orchestra and ballads; and With All My Love, Mercury 20325, quite ordinary mood music. Two selections by the Jazz Greats are included in Jazz Cornucopia, Coral 57149. Joe Albany. Albany is the modern jazz equivalent of Peck Kelly, the shy pianist of an earlier day who 24 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ never recorded and refused to leave his home ground in Texas despite widespread reports of his unusual prowess. Albany rarely plays in public and, until 1957, he had apparently only been recorded on six selections made in 1945 and 1946. His repu- tation stems largely from the high opinion that Charlie Parker had of his work (much as Kelly's fame was primarily based on Jack Teagarden's praise). The Right Combination, Riverside 12-270, catches Albany during a living-room rehearsal ses- sion in 1957 so that the fidelity is only about medium and there is some fading in and out to eliminate false starts and conversation. But despite this and the intrusion of Warne Marsh's vague, un- formed tenor saxophone lines, the disk shows that Albany is as stimulating as the legend had implied. He is a pianistic link between pre-war and post-war styles, working much of the time in the linear, right-handed manner of the bop-grounded pianist but veering constantly toward, a swinging, strutting two-handed brilliance that comes straight out of Earl Hines. In his ballad playing, which is refresh- ingly virile and rhythmic, there are suggestions of another Hines-influenced middleground pianist, Erroll Garner. Tony Aless. On Long Island Suite, Roost 2202, Aless, a pianist of the swing days who took post graduate work with Woody Herman's 1945 Herd, leads a ten-piece band through a series of straight- forward, unpretentious but swinging performances based on a propulsive, Basie-like rhythm and featur- ing soloists with a middle to slightly modern tinge. Lorez Alexandria. A potentially good jazz singer may be lurking behind the various influences Miss Alexandria reveals on disks. Her most noticeable sources are EUa Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan with The Records 25 Billie Holiday less strongly in evidence. But she has not yet found her own means of expression on Lorez Sings Pres, King 565, or This Is Lorez, King 542. Mose Allison. Allison is one of the first jazz musi- cians to be intimately acquainted with both the primitive aspects of the blues and its more recent extensions and to be frankly pleased with both (Ray Charles also falls into this category). On the surface he is a modernist whose piano style is colored by strong reflections of Horace Silver's "funky" school but he also claims roots in basic country blues (he grew up in Tippo, Miss.). This fore and aft knowledge has an interesting condi- tioning effect: His straight-out back-country blues are a shade more sophisticated than they might otherwise be while his modern playing is strength- ened by a guttiness which refuses to be denied. The title piece of his first record, Back Country Suite, Prestige 7091, is a collection of very brief musical impressions which lack focus or unity. The individual sections show off some of the more ap- pealing aspects of his playing but they leave the feeling that he is only nibbling at what could be a very broad and sturdy foundation. On Local Color, Prestige 7121, he shows a bit more substance in both his composition and piano work and, in addi- tion, sings in a slight but idiomatically accurate voice and plays a muted trumpet which suggests a tentative Harry Edison. He applies himself to mid- dleground material standard pop tunes on Young Man Mose, Prestige 7137, which responds most readily to his modern side. Taking these three disks as a group, one has the feeling that Allison has something relatively unique to offer but that he has not yet solved the problem of expressing himself adequately. 26 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Laurindo Almeida. Almeida, a Brazilian, is pri- marily a classical guitarist but, after working with Stan Kenton's band, he turned out a set of beauti- fully polished jazz cameos on Laurindo Almeida Quartet, World Pacific 1204. Selections from this disk are repeated on both Jazz West Coast, World Pacific JWC 500, and Ballads for Background, World Pacific JWC 503. Trigger Alpert. A bassist who won a considerable following for his work with Glenn Miller's service band, Alpert leads an accurately billed "Absolutely All-Star Seven" (Joe Wilder, Urbie Green, Tony Scott, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Ed Shaugnessy) on Trigger Happy, Riverside 12-225, a set of light, swinging and pleasantly unpretentious perform- ances. The dominant personality in the group is Scott who covers a lot of territory, playing clarinet in styles that range from a Goodman-like melodi- ousness to his own very personalized Laocoonesque runs. The Seven is also heard once on Riverside Drive, Riverside 12-267. Gene Ammons. A second-generation jazz star (his father was the boogie woogie pianist, Albert Am- mons), Gene Ammons was in the Forties and early Fifties a strong-voiced, warm and fluent tenor saxophonist who derived primarily from Les- ter Young. In the middle Forties he played with Billy Eckstine's big band and with Woody Herman. Latterly he has had his own small groups and his dalliance with the thin line between rhythm and blues and rock V roll has shown up in his playing. All Star Sessions, Prestige 7050, shows him in 1950 playing with relatively consistent taste in some well behaved tenor battles with Sonny Stitt and in 1955 in a session in which he is overshadowed by Art The Records 27 Fanner on trumpet, Lou Donaldson, alto saxo- phone, and Freddie Redd, piano. He is also rela- tively consistent and coherent on Hi Fidelity Jam Session, Prestige 7039. The downward curve in Ammons' taste and creative ability can be traced through Jammin* with Gene, Prestige 7060, Funky, Prestige 7083, Jammin* in Hi Fi with Gene Am- mons, Prestige 7110, and The Big Sound, Prestige 7132, as he falls back on cliches and spars emptily for time on long, vapid solos. Two selections re- corded by Ammons in 1949 with a plodding small group are included in Advance Guard of the Forties, EmArcy 36016. The Amram-Barrow Quartet. David Amram, who plays a rough-grained French horn, a dour, angular, Monk-derived piano and, inexplicably, the tuben, is well matched musically with George Barrow, a tenor saxophonist with a strong, hard but flexible tone which sometimes rises to a glowing cry. Most of their voicings on Jazz. Studio No. 6, Decca 8558, have a dry, dark quality which proves very effective in blues-derived themes and the slow, moody de- velopment of such popular tunes as Darn That Dream. But it can trip them up, too, and when the balance is not exactly right the effect turns stodgy. Ernestine Anderson. Miss Anderson is a singer who disdains mannerisms, who respects both tune and lyrics and who seems to feel that a melody should fall pleasingly on the ear. Although she had been heard in this country with several jazz groups the bands of Lionel Hampton, Eddie Heywood and Russell Jacquet she went relatively unnoticed until she took a trip to Sweden in 1956 with an American jazz group. There she found such an appreciative audience that she stayed on by herself after the musicians had returned home. American 28 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ audiences were made aware of her through Hot Cargo, Mercury 20354 an utterly inappropriate and misleading title recorded in Sweden with Harry Arnold's excellent Swedish band providing perceptive and imaginative accompaniment. Andre's Cuban All-Stars. This rough, swinging sextet mixes mild bop and Afro-Cuban rhythms on one side of Afro-Cubano, Verve 8157 (shared with Jack Costanzo). The group has a strong, striking pianist, Bebo Valdes, and while the trumpet and tenor saxophone are no more than serviceable that's all they really have to be with this Cuban rhythm section roaring in back of them. Buddy Arnold. Arnold's able but scarcely distinc- tive tenor saxophone is featured on Wailing, ABC- Paramount 114, with a septet which gains most of its interest from the dependably provocative pian- ist, John Williams. Harry Arnold. Big band jazz is not quite as dead as the work of some American bands might lead one to believe. It still shows signs of life in the Swedish band led by Arnold on The Jazztone Mys- tery Band, Concert Hall 1270, and Big Band plus Quincy Jones Equals Jazz, EmArcy 26139. Arnold's band, which includes several of Sweden's best jazz- men Arne Domnerus, Bengt Hallberg, Ake Persson among others has the sheen and power that are Ted Heath's hallmarks but it has a much stronger jazz sense than Heath's band. The Arnold men storm through the Concert Hall disk with de- servedly swaggering assurance, swinging with a stimulatingly suave power. Quincy Jones' arrange- ments on the EmArcy disk do not allow for such blithe treatment they lean to the heavy character- istics of the present Count Basie band but Arnold's band gives them a glistening polish. The Records 29 Dorothy Ashby. Caspar Reardon managed to entice some effective jazz out of a harp in the Thirties (a prime example is his work on Jack Teagarden's Junk Man) but since then there has not been a harpist who could swing properly until Miss Ashby came along in the latter Fifties. On The Jazz Harp- ist, Regent 6039, and Hip Harp, Prestige 7140, on both of which she is assisted by Frank Wess, flute, and a rhythm section, she has moments when she matches Reardon but there are at least as many when she finds the harp as obstinate as other would-be jazz harpists. One thing she does manage to do consistently is to provide a light, moving background which helps to cut the starch in Wess' flute solos. Georgie Auld. Auld has come into the age of mod- ern jazz as a relict of the Swing Era. In those days his Hawkins-derived tenor saxophone added a driv- ing surge to such bands as Artie Shaw's and Benny Goodman's. Since the war he has played in various dilutions of the Hawkins vein. On three selections on Jazz Concert, Grand Award 33-316, he is stacked up against the two masters of the heavy-toned tenor school, Hawkins and Ben Webster, and he manages to hold up his end, playing in a lighter, smoother style than the other two. The disk also includes some big band selections in which Auld plays in muffled, drab fashion. An Auld big band of the middle Fifties generates a gruff, rocking feeling, tinged with Billy May-like slurs on George Auld in the Land of Hi-Fi, EmArcy 36060, and Dancing in the Land of Hi-Fi, EmArcy 36090. Much of Auld's recording in the Fifties has been dismally routine and formula-bound. There is a little gaiety in the Latin beat he uses on Sax Gone Latin, Capitol T 1045, but he coats almost every- thing with syrup on That's Auld, Brunswick 54034; I've Got You Under My Skin, Coral 57009; Lullaby 30 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ of Broadway, Coral 57029; and Misty, Coral 57032. He contributes two selections to Under One Roof, EmArcy 36088, and single pieces to Roost Fifth Anniversary Album, Roost 1201, and Bargain Day, EmArcy 36087. Australian Jazz Quartet/Quintet. Originally the Australian Jazz Quartet was made up of three Aus- tralians (Bryce Rohde, piano; Errol Buddie, tenor saxophone, bassoon; Jack Brokensha, drums, vibes) and a versatile American, Dick Healey, a sort of musical Christmas tree who draped himself with tenor and alto saxophones, piccolo, flute and clari- net while a string bass nestled against him. Their earliest recordings, The Australian Jazz Quartet/ Quintet, Bethlehem 6002, have some novelty inter- est in the odd pairing of flute and bassoon, but even with the addition of a full-time bass and drums on some of these selections and on Australian Jazz Quartet, Bethlehem 6003, The Australian Jazz Quartet at the Varsity Drag, Bethlehem 6012, Aus- tralian Jazz Quartet Plus One, Bethlehem 6015, and Selections of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Bethlehem 6022, the group keeps tripping over its basic gentil- ity. With the help of some Teddy Charles arrange- ments, the Australians loosen up at times on The AJQ in Free Style, Bethlehem 6029. Harry Babasin. Like Oscar Pettiford, Babasin is a bassist who also plays pizzicato cello. He has led a group of varying personnel, The Jazzpickers, which has as its nucleus Babasin's cello plus guitar, bass and drums, an instrumentation which has a dry, dim quality. To offset this, Babasin usually adds another instrument on his recordings. Red Norvo is the guest on Command Performance, EmArcy 36123, but his task is thankless since no matter how much he may enliven the performances The Jazz- pickers are always on hand to drab things up when The Records 31 the guest takes a breather. The additional horn on The Jazzpickers, EmArcy 36111, is Buddy Collette's flute which simply adds to the nervous monotony of the basic group. Don Bagley. Although Bagley is a bassist, the trio he leads on Basically Bagley, Dot 3070, (Jimmy Rowles, piano; Shelly Manne, drums; and Bagley) is neither simply a background for Bagley's solos nor a piano-plus-accompaniment group. It pro- duces ensemble musical performances rather than hooks for virtuoso trickery. Bagley and Manne are admirable foils for each other since Bagley's man- ner of drawing a wide range of tones and colors from his bass is much like Manne's more widely known use of the drums. He is less inventive on Jazz on the Rocks, Regent 6061, although Eddie Costa's piano adds a pleasantly pungent quality. Chet Baker. Baker is certainly one of the strangest "stars" to appear on the surface of the recent jazz tide. Although he can occasionally muster up a sufficiently firm tone and attack on his trumpet to inn off attractively lyrical bits and pieces that seem to have their roots in Bix Beiderbecke, most of his playing is so vaporous that it seems to be drifting aimlessly in a void. He played a functional role in Gerry Mulligan's original quartet in 1952 but the small, wistful sound that proved serviceable there has found little direction since he left Mulligan. Possibly his most consistently coherent playing is the calm placidity he shows on Pretty /Groovy, World Pacific 1249. At times he responds favorably to a rhythmic stimulus such as Russ Freeman provides for him on The Trumpet Artistry of Chet Baker, World Pacific 1206, and Russ Freeman and Chet Baker Quartet, World Pacific 1232. The presence of Stan Getz on Stan Meets Chet, Verve 8263, holds him up 32 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ part of the way and the firm guiding lines of com- positions by Benny Golson, Owen Marshall and Miles Davis help to steer him on Chet Baker in New York, Riverside 12-281. During a European trip in the winter of 1955-56 he replaced his usual misty diffusion with some evidence of control and definition, reported on Chet Baker in Europe, World Pacific 1218. But even these disks are streaked with his languid and disengaged playing. Chet Baker and His Crew, World Pacific 1224, rises above this pallidity at times, not because of Baker but through the supple, flowing tone of Phil Urso's tenor saxophone. Similarly Art Pepper's pre- cise alto saxophone induces what lively moments there are on Playboys, World Pacific 1234. But not even the presence of the prodding Russ Freeman can disperse the soporific effects of Jazz at Ann Arbor, World Pacific 1203, nor do the surroundings of nine and ten-piece bands improve Baker's color- less work on Chet Baker Big Band, World Pacific 1229. Chet Baker and Strings, Columbia CL 549, is largely leaden mood music, brightened here and there by the tenor saxophone of Zoot Sims. Baker is largely lost in a crowd of good jazzmen on Theme Music from "The James Dean Story/' World Pacific 2005. The worst, however, is yet to come. For Baker also sings in a flat, dead voice that is even more despondently formless than his trumpet work. The incredible evidence can be found on Chet Baker Sings, World Pacific 1222, Chet Baker Sings and Plays, World Pacific 1202, and Chet Baker Sings, Riverside 12-278. Baker has three selections in Jazz West Coast, World Pacific JWC 500, two each in Rodgers and Hart Gems, World Pacific JWC 504, and Jazz West Coast, Vol. 3, World Pacific JWC 507, and one in Jazz West Coast, Vol. 2, World Pacific JWC 501, Ballads for Background, World Pacific JWC 503, The Records S3 Solo Flight, World Pacific JWC 505, The Hard Swing, World Pacific JWC 508, Have Blues, Will Travel, World Pacific JWC 509, Jazz West Coast, Vol. 4, World Pacific JWC 510, and The Playboy Jazz Allstars, Playboy 1957. Ronnie Ball. One of several English pianists who have emigrated to the United States, Ball has been biding his time since his arrival, apparently intent on getting his musical bearings (mostly through study with Lennie Tristano) instead of plunging into active performance. The fruit of this fore- bearance is splendidly displayed on All About Ronnie, Savoy 12045, on which he reveals an un- usually attractive blues-rooted style (out of latter- day Tristano) and leads an equally Tristano-con- scious quartet. Charlie Barnet. Barnet had a frustrating twenty- year career as the leader of a big band that always seemed to be within reach of the top rung but never quite made it. He came closest in 1949 with a power-packed band that seemed destined to take up where Woody Herman and Stan Kenton had left off but the economics of the music business were against him and the band broke up. Perform- ances by this band, a frequently brilliant group, make up Classics in Jazz, Capitol T 624. Barnet was a bandleader in the pre-swing days of the early Thirties although his bands did not really begin to swing until the late Thirties and early Forties when he came strongly under the in- fluence of Duke Ellington and Count Basie. Charlie's Choice, Camden 389, reports the Barnet band of 1939-41, a gutty, jumping outfit spurred by Barnet's slashing, digging tenor saxophone and his sweeping soprano saxophone. The disk includes such Barnet classics as the riotous Murder at Pay ton Hall and his adaptation of The Habanera from 34 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Carmen (retitled Spanish Kick), along with vocals by Lena Horne and Mary Ann McCall. His band of the war years, which included Howard McGhee and Dodo Marmarosa, is heard in Hop on the Skyliner, Decca 8098. It is a band in transition, still working in the Swing .Era vein, still bowing to Ellington but starting to move toward modern big band jazz. Dance Bash, Verve 2007, Dancing Party, Verve 2027, and For Dancing Lovers, Verve 2031, are products of the middle Forties, brightly swinging performances of remark- ably consistent quality. After the financial failure of his 1949 band, Bar- net became relatively inactive. A band organized in 1956 has the customary Barnet punch and blast on four numbers on Lonely Street, Verve 2040, but the rest are diluted by a string section. Barnet, play- ing soprano saxophone all the way, shares the featured solo role with the expressive bass trumpet of Dave Wells. Two years later Barnet flew to New York from California to re-record some of his old hits with a band made up of able New York studio musicians on Cherokee, Everest 5008. Barnet's saxo- phones remain as perkily and pulsingly impudent as ever but the band, as might be expected of a pick-up group, lacks the casual, garrulous ease of the real Barnet bands. Billy Bauer. After making his mark in the Forties with a powerhouse big band (Woody Herman's) and an experimental small group (Lennie Tris- tano's), Bauer's guitar has been heard only occasion- ally and not always in a particularly favorable light. On his own disk, Billy Bauer, Plectrist, Verve 8172, he ambles amiably in low voltage style through some pretty and lightly swinging selections. Billy Bean. Bean, a guitarist, has played impres- sively with some Charlie Ventura groups but on The Records 35 Makin' Friends, Decca 9206, he and Chico Hamil- ton's guitarist, Johnny Pisano, are hemmed in by stolid backgrounds. Aaron Bell. In the late Fifties Bell, a bassist, has been leading a capable trio built around the lean and swinging piano of Charlie Bateman. For After the Party's Over, Victor LPM 1876, this trio is pres- ent on four numbers but on the rest Bateman is replaced by Hank Jones who, for some reason, plays in an obviously Enroll Garner manner. It is a pleas- ant disk for background music. Al Belletto. The Belletto Sextet plays and sings in a slick, highly professional but bland manner. Fred Crane, a gutty pianist, scratches away the routine surface polish whenever he gets a chance on Whisper Not, Capitol T 901. Belletto, an alto saxophonist, plays a discreetly faceless role. Louis Bellson. Bellson's ability to drive a big band with his drumming was made quite evident during his tenure with Tommy Dorsey in the late Forties and with Harry James and Duke Ellington in the early Fifties. Since then, as a leader of his own groups, he has continued to show this lifting, rhyth- mic pulse but he has also allowed himself far too much leeway in taking long drum solos. One disk on which he restrains this impulse, At the Fla- mingo, Verve 8256, is made unfortunately drab by trumpeter Harry Edison's lack of inspiration except for one tightly played, sparkling piece, Flamingo Blues. Trumpeter Charlie Shavers, with whom Bellson and vibraphonist Terry Gibbs once jointly led a sextet, sparks four of the selections on The Driving Louis Bellson, Verve 8186, with some bril- liantly fiery, crisp playing that is pure virtuoso work but his fire dwindles to exhibitionism on The Louis Bellson Quintet, Verve 8016. Bellson scatters 36 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ this last disk liberally with drum solos and devotes far too much time to them on Skin Deep, Verve 8137, and Drumorama, Verve 8193. He clatters his way through one selection on Hi-Fi Drums, Capitol T926. Sonny Berman. The promising trumpet star of the Woody Herman band who died in 1947 at the age of 23 is heard in relaxed, subdued form in some early morning jam session recordings made in 1946 with a portable disk recorder in a New York apart- ment on Sonny Berman Jam Session, Esoteric 532. The disk is of more historical than musical interest. Eddie Bert. A graduate of the Kenton trombone brouhaha, Bert's personal style is a rather heavy, often stolid mixture of the fragmented J. J. John- son approach and the Swing Era lift of Jack Tea- garden. He is an effective ensemble man but over a distance his solos pall. He has some interesting ensemble possibilities with tenor saxophonist Jack Montrose on Montage, Savoy 12029, and on one side of Encore, Savoy 12019, but their solos are dis- appointing. On the remainder of Encore, Joe Puma's guitar gives Bert some needed light-toned relief but on Musician of the Year, Savoy 12015, he works alone with a guitar-less rhythm section and monotony waits just beyond the first few grooves. Let's Dig Bert, Transworld 208, is a relatively placid group of pieces enlivened by the fat-toned, Hawkinsish tenor saxophone of Davy Schildkraut who is known best as an alto man. Art Blakey. Blakey is a drummer of enormous ferocity who can (and has) carried utterly drab groups on the virile strength of his drumming alone. He is not, it should be noted, a show-off soloist but is primarily the creator of a foundation pulse which can drive ahead like a jet-propelled The Records 37 steamroller or settle neatly into place under a delicate ballad. It is strange to think of as complete a product of modern jazz as Blakey as a veteran of Fletcher Henderson's band but he just made it (1939). He was also the drummer in Billy Eckstine's band for the three years that it existed. In the Forties he led his own big band, the Jazz Messen- gers, a name he revived in the Fifties for the quintets he has been leading through most of that decade. For much of this time Blakey's Jazz Messengers was the loudest and possibly the emptiest group in jazz with nothing to recommed it aside from Blakey's virtuoso drumming. Even that was not as consistent as it might have been since he was in the unfortunate position of carrying the group. The Messengers were spawned at a Horace Silver session for Blue Note, Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers, Blue Note 1518, (Kenny Dorham, trum- pet, Hank Mobley, tenor saxophone, Silver, Curly Russell, bass, and Blakey) but the true progenitor of the Messengers was an earlier Art Blakey Quintet heard on A Night at Birdland, VoL 1 and Vol. 2, Blue Note 1521 and 1522. This group, with Clifford Brown and Lou Donaldson in place of Dorham and Mobley, played with a leaping, crisp, crackling fire that Blakey's Messengers were never able to match until a 1958 change in personnel which brought Lee Morgan, Benny Golson and pianist Bobby Timmons into the band. This last group made its recording debut on Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Blue Note 4003, an exhilarating jazz experience which includes Golson's fascinating composition, Blues March. In between these two high points, Blakey held together groups which ranged from fair to awful. The best of these in-between Messengers was the earliest the Dorham-Mobley group which re- corded The Jazz Messengers at the Cafe Bohemia, 38 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Blue Note 1507 and 1508. Volume 1 is particularly effective for Dorham captures some of the crisp fluency that might be expected of Clifford Brown while Mobley shows an easy warmth in developing a ballad. The downward path of the Messengers began when Donald Byrd replaced Dorham, leaving to Horace Silver the task of providing what slight interest there is on The Jazz Messengers, Columbia CL 897. Next the Parkerized alto saxophonist, Jackie McLean, re- placed Mobley and Bill Hardman, an immature and undeveloped trumpeter, went in for Byrd to produce the empty chaos of A Midnight Session with the Jazz Messengers, Elektra 120, Ritual, World Pacific 402, and Hard Bop, Columbia CL 1040. The zooming if often uncontrolled enthusiasm of tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin, who followed into McLean's slot, gave the Messengers a little solo life but not even the presence of Thelonious Monk, with whom Blakey had frequently recorded in the past, could rouse the revised Messengers to much coherence on Art Blakey' s Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk, Atlantic 1278, although those moments when Monk and Blakey are able to rub caustically against each other give off a glowing jazz heat. Cu-Bop, Jubilee 1049, is more dispiriting Messengerial work but, with Junior Mance in on piano, the group does a sudden turnabout on Hard Drive, Bethlehem 6023, abandoning its blatant, sloppy, hard-muscled, unimaginative ways to play in an unfurious, clean manner marked by a feeling for variety and shading. The next step up from here was the advent of Morgan, Golson and Tim- mons. Blakey's interest in African drumming and its Afro-Cuban offshoot resulted in Orgy in Rhythm, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Blue Note 1554 and 1555, on which Blakey and three other American drummers The Records 39 join five Afro-Cuban drummers (plus flute, piano and bass) in some fascinating explorations of the melodic possibilities inherent in the mixture created by the two drumming styles. This is drumming that is definitely for listening. Blakey's inventive use of the shading potential of drums even in a roaring up-tempo comes out strongly in two drum pieces included on Horace Silver Trio, Blue Note 1520, but the title piece on Drum Suite, Columbia CL 1002, by the Art Blakey Percussion Ensemble is more likely to appeal primarily to drum devotees. Blakey has made one big band disk, Art Blakey's Big Band, Bethlehem 6027, an adequate but in no way distinctive session. He plays on two selections in support of Tony Bennett on The Beat of My Hearty Columbia CL 1079, and contributes single pieces to Jazz Omnibus, Columbia CL 1020, Drums on Fire, World Pacific 1247, The Jazz Giants, Vol. 8, EmArcy 36071, and The Hard Swing, World Pacific JWC 508. Paul Bley. On Solemn Meditation, GNP 31, Bley shows himself to be an unusually articulate pianist with a dark, tweedy vigor who moves in a direction that is decidedly his own. An earlier disk, Paul Bley, EmArcy 36092, is simply amiable swing with no suggestion that anything out of the ordinary may be just around the corner. Blue Stars. This unusual French vocal group is headed by an American, Blossom Dearie, and in- cludes some prominent jazz-musicians-turned-sing- ers Fats Sadi, Roger Guerin, Christian Chevalier. They sing with a refreshing lack of mannerisms on Blue Stars of France, EmAxcy 36067, Pardon My English, Mercury 20329, and in one selection on Bargain Day, EmArcy 36087, although little of it is couched in jazz terms. 40 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Bess Bonnier. Miss Bonnier plays lean, swinging, unflorid piano, often digging in firmly with both hands on Theme for the Tall One, Argo 632. Evans Bradshaw. Bradshaw, a Detroit pianist, is a disciplined performer with a good touch and great facility. On Look Out for Evans Bradshaw, River- side-263, the surface elements of his playing are impressive but there seems to be relatively little under this surface. On the brief occasions when he dismisses his concern for technique there are suggestions that he can be capable of emotional communication. Brandeis Jazz Festival. The question of whether the six compositions on Modern Jazz Concert, Columbia WL 127, which were commissioned by the 1957 Brandeis University Festival of Arts, are in fact jazz is craftily avoided in the liner annota- tion by Gunther Schuller, who conducts them. At best they are a mixture of jazz and non-jazz ele- ments, a mixture Schuller deliberately exploits in his Transformation which is constructed as a transi- tion from non-jazz to jazz. Of the five other com- posers represented, two Harold Shapero and Mil- ton Babbitt are from the longhair side of the fence, three George Russell, Jimmy Giuffre and Charlie Mingus are primarily associated with jazz. What jazz there is in these works appears most effectively and not unnaturally in the solo im- provisations, most notably in a stirring piano solo by Bill Evans in Russell's bright, occasionally affecting All About Rosie. Evans is followed in this same piece by an almost equally compelling saxo- phone solo by John LaPorta who, with trumpeter Art Farmer, helps stir Shapero's On Green Moun- tain out of the doldrums. The one piece which is most completely oriented toward jazz is Giuffre's Suspensions despite the fact The Records 41 that it allows for no improvisation. This is one more of Giuffre's explorations of root jazz forms but there is much more sinew here than in most of his works and certainly the orchestra under Schuller provides a fuller realization of what Giuffre seems to be after than Giuffre's own groups do. Charlie Mingus' Revelations (First Movement) is practically pure Mingus and good Mingus, at that. It manages to be ominous, adventurous, shouting and startling in the customary Mingus manner but without drowning in its own devices as so many of Mingus' headlong creations are apt to. There are implica- tions of jazz at the outset of Milton Babbitt's All Set but it never gets going in jazz terms or, so far as I could hear, in any terms. If, by the usual standards, most of the music on this disk is not jazz, that seems to be a minor point in the face of the fact that much of it is exploratory and, considering this, a surprising amount of it is provocative. Schuller suggests that "perhaps it is a new kind of music not yet named which became possible only in America." Some such amalgama- tion may be in the making and the most positive evidence of it on this disk is Mingus' Revelations which is rarely really jazz but is quite indigenously American. The Brass Ensemble of the Jazz and Classical Mu- sic Society. Beneath this awesome title lurks an or- ganization which, on one disk, Music for Brass, Columbia CL 941, undertakes a composition in the traditional formal vein (Gunther Schuller's Sym- phony for Brass and Percussion, conducted by Di- mitri Mitropoulos) and three works by jazzmen (J. J. Johnson's Poeme for Brass, John Lewis' Three Little Feelings and Jimmy GiufEre's Pharaoh, all conducted by Gunther Schuller). All three of the jazz composers make knowing use of the tools and approach of the serious com- 42 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ poser and, in the Johnson and Lewis works, they have been worked in so skillfully that the pieces are filled with an undeniable jazz sense. There is no "shoe-horning" the jazz sections in, as Rolf Lieberman did in his Concerto for Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra (see Sauter-Finegan). This is "serious" (i.e., learned) writing that swings readily in the hands of the musicians to whom it has been delivered. Johnson's Poeme for Brass, the most outwardly swinging of the three, is highlighted by contrasting trumpet solos by Miles Davis and Joe Wilder Davis in his close, breathy style; Wilder lithe, clear and pure-toned. Davis is heard to even better advantage in the second section of Lewis' Three Little Feelings, a gentler, darker and more grace- fully melodic composition than Johnson's. Davis' chief contribution is a quiet, lazily reminiscent solo worked out over the superb supporting tuba of Bill Barber. Giuffire's Pharaoh is a stately, picture-mak- ing piece which lacks the development and interest of the other two. It also has the least jazz feeling which may or may not be related to the fact that Giuffre is the only one of the three who has studied composition extensively. Schuller's Symphony is beyond the context of this book but there are moments in its jagged and soaring second movement and in the nervous excitement of the final section that seem to draw on Schuller's experience with jazz. Ronnell Bright. The twilight world between out- right jazz and facile cocktail piano appears to be Blight's habitat. His playing is precise and clean and he occasionally achieves a sort of surface tension but his lack of warmth gives it a bland, impersonal quality on Bright Flight, Vanguard 8512, Bright's Spot, Regent 6041, and one selection in After Hours Jazz, Epic 3339. The Records 43 Herbie Brock. Art Tatum and Bud Powell are the influences that one hears most clearly in the work of this blind pianist. There is a warm, sinewy quality in his playing on Brock's Tops, Savoy 12069, but on Solo, Savoy 12066, and Herbie' s Room, Criteria 2, he is closer to being a genial but eventually tiresome cocktail pianist. Bob Brookmeyer. A latter day product of an earlier seedbed of jazz talent, Kansas City, Brookmeyer has a much broader jazz perspective than most of the jazz musicians of his age (born 1929). Having absorbed the feeling of Kansas City jazz as a teen- ager, he came up the old fashioned way through big bands (he played piano with Tex Beneke, trombone and second piano with Claude Thorn- hill) and, since 1953, has worked in a succession of increasingly sophisticated small groups Terry Gibbs', Stan Getz's, Gerry Mulligan's and Jimmy Giuffre's. His main instrument is valve trombone which he blows with a tweedy, stomping gruffness that incorporates a strong beat and a hearty humor drawn from pre-modern jazz. Mulligan has much of this same feeling and the two complemented and stimulated each other extremely well when they were the two horns in the Mulligan Quartet. The move from this outgoing atmosphere to the tight, static mumbo-jumbo of the Jimmy Giuffre Three drained Brookmeyer's playing of its forthright charm even though Giuffre was ostensibly working with the basic jazz roots to which Brookmeyer, of all modern jazzmen, should have responded most readily. Strangely enough, when Brookmeyer overtly goes back to those earlier jazz forms which are normally strikingly present in his playing, he misses the boat completely. Traditionalism Revisited, World Pacific 1233, is a case in point. Here Brookmeyer's Quintet, 44 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ which includes Giuffre on reeds and Jim Hall, guitar, gives such tunes as Jada, Santa Glaus Blues, Some Sweet Day, Honeysuckle Rose and Truckin' an easily swinging modern treatment but it is all rather meaningless since, after an initial statement of the melody (often drained of its inherent char- acter) they take off on their customary personal solos. In themselves, these are pleasant, finger- snapping performances but it is the kind of spiritual depradation of traditional jazz that Freddie Martin used to commit on defenseless concertos. In a some- what different glance at the past, Kansas City Re- visited, United Artists 4008, six of the members of Brookmeyer's tired and bedraggled KG Seven show none of the drive or spirit that is usually associated with Kansas City jazz. Only Bostonian Nat Pierce escapes the pall and is a swinging miracle in a group which has a fatal failing for the grotesque. On the other hand, Brookmeyer can assemble a group very much like the one he led on Tradition- alism Revisited and, on The Street Swingers, World Pacific 1239, turn out a stimulating collection of freshly voiced, no-school jazz built around the de- pendable pulsation of his lilting, stomping ap- proach to both the trombone and piano. Similarly, when he shares the leadership of a quintet with tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims on Whooeeee, Story- ville 914, and Tonight's Jazz Today, Storyville 907, he plays with a delightfully forceful attack and dexterity at uptempos and, on ballads, develops his lines with an imaginative continuity that is one of the roots of jazz excitement. Teamed with Gerry Mulligan to play Phil Sunkel's Jazz Concerto Grosso, ABC-Paramount 225, neither Brookmeyer nor Mulligan find much to do and are over- shadowed in the solo portions by Sunkel's sensitive cornet work. The Dual Role of Bob Brookmeyer, Prestige The Records 45 7066, is split between piano solos which have shades of the down-home, stomping quality o his trombone work, and pieces on which he plays trombone backed by a rhythm section. The trom- bone texture becomes monotonous when it is with- out contrast for so long, a failing that is even more apparent when the trombone goes all the way on both sides of The Modernity of Bob Brookmeyer, Verve 8111. He contributes single selections to The Playboy Jazz Allstars, Playboy 1957, Jazz West Coast, World Pacific JWC 500, Ballads for Back- ground, World Pacific JWC 504, Solo Flight, World Pacific JWC 505, and Jazz West Coast, Vol. 4, World Pacific JWC 510. John Benson Brooks. Since the late Forties, Brooks, a pianist and arranger whose past connections have included the bands of Les Brown, Tommy Dorsey and Randy Brooks, has been mulling over folk song in relation to both popular music and jazz. He has written successfully in a folk-pop idiom (You Came a Long Way from St. Louis) and, on an LP that is no longer available, Folk Jazz, U.S.A., Vik 1083, produced a collection of jazz interpreta- tions of folk tunes based on developments of their chord changes which manages to reflect the haunt- ing, recollective quality of folk music and yet still be strong jazz performances. His most ambitious work so far is Alabama Con- certo, Riverside 12-276, an outgrowth of an assign- ment he had several years ago to transcribe for a book some folk recordings made in Alabama by Harold Courlander. He was struck then, he says, by the light this material cast on jazz origins "a different taste from New Orleans' urban finery.*' Working from several rural folk themes, he de- velops his Concerto through ensembles, written solos and improvised solos played by a quartet 46 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ made up o Julian Adderley, alto saxophone, Art Farmer, trumpet, Barry Galbraith, guitar, and Milt Hinton, bass. As an exploration of jazz origins it is a rather peculiar work for there is very little in it that can be identified as jazz. The only really effective jazz moments are in some warm, firmly expressed solos by Adderley. Farmer's playing in general is sure and clean but his solos are inclined to a static cool- ness that is much more drily urbane than the "urban finery" of New Orleans. Aside from the question of whether the concerto has any relation- ship to jazz, it lacks movement and explicit de- velopment. One gets the feeling that a single little jigging riff is being bandied about over and over again and the work becomes lost in monotony long before the two full LP sides have been completed. Clifford Brown. Just when he was fairly launched on what promised to be a rewarding career, trum- peter Clifford Brown was killed in an automobile accident in 1956 at the age of 25. He had by then established himself as the strongest and most in- dividual trumpeter to come out of a bop back- ground since Dizzy Gillespie and Fats Navarro and had become, in effect, the progenitor of the then rising school of hard bop. After working around his native Philadelphia and with Tadd Dameron's group at Cafe Society, Brown spent a year with Lionel Hampton's band in 1953 and the following year formed, with Max Roach, the group with which he was working when he was killed. Brown was an extremely fluent trumpeter who could phrase cleanly and crisply at almost ridicu- lously fast tempos. Yet, unlike most of his fluent, hard-driving contemporaries, he could also develop a ballad with warmth and feeling. On Clifford Brown Memorial Album, Blue Note 1526, he plays a slow ballad in which one hears suggestions of The Records 47 both Louis Armstrong and Bunny Berigan along with the modern trumpet fashions. The disk in- cludes his first recording made in 1953 with a relatively routine group as well as selections from a much better session later in the same year on which he shows off his dazzling speed, his firm, strong middle register tone and his ballad style. While he was abroad with the Hampton band in this same year, he made some recordings with a Swedish group, collected in Clifford Brown Memo- rial, Prestige 7055, in which he is less impressive than his Swedish colleagues, Lars Gullin, Bengt Hallberg and Ake Persson. A visit to the West Coast in 1954 produced a disk, Clifford Brown All Stars, EmArcy 36102, on which he shows what a thoughtful performer he could be as he works out an easygoing but long, long, long version of Autumn in New York which oc- cupies one entire side of the disk. It also produced a long, long, long and tedious blowing session, Best Coast Jazz, EmArcy 36039 (one number per side), and some adequate but not particularly memorable performances with Zoot Sims and Bob Gordon on one side of Arranged by Montr ose, World Pacific 1214. The disks made by the Brown-Roach group are very much of a piece, with Brown a matured, balanced performer much of the way but almost always throwing in something for flash. The disks are Brown and Roach, Inc., EmArcy 36008, Clifford Brown and Max Roach, EmArcy 36036 (which in- cludes Daahoud, Joy Spring and Jprdu), Study in Brown, EmArcy 36037, Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street, EmArcy 36070, and The Best of Max Roach and Clifford Brown in Concert, GNP 18. On Clifford Brown with Strings, EmArcy 36005, he battles the customary glut of gut with the help of the Brown-Roach rhythm section. He moves easily through this program of ballads but 48 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ his harsh, edgy tone is out of keeping with the mood setting in which he is placed. Brown has single selections on Jazz West Coast, World Pacific JWC 500, The Young Ones of Jazz, EmArcy 36085, For Jazz Lovers, EmArcy 36085, and Bargain Day, EmArcy 36087. Les Brown. The Brown band has evolved over a period of years from a good dance band to an ex- tremely slick and often swinging dance band with a thin jazz veneer. Its strongest jazz voice for many years has been trombonist Ray Sims who has gotten occasional support from Ronnie Lang, alto saxo- phone, Don Fagerquist, trumpet, and Dave Pell, tenor saxophone. It plays a cleanly scrubbed, dis- infected type of big band jazz with a monotony of tonal color that frequently produces an assembly line effect. The best showcasing of the Brown band as a jazz band is Concert at the Palladium, Coral CX-1, while the reason why it has never been a particu- larly good jazz band is summed up on The Les Brown All Stars, Capitol T 659, devoted to per- formances by four small, ostensibly jazz groups drawn from the band, all of them playing a bland form of swing. The band's hollow slickness meets its match in the hollow and slick originals pro- vided for it by nine Hollywood arrangers on Com- poser's Holiday, Capitol T 886. The Brown band is at its most engaging when it is playing unprepossessing swing on Dance with Les Brown, Columbia CL 539, Les Brown's In Town, Capitol T 746, More from Les, Coral 57058, That Sound of Renown, Coral 57030, and The Greatest, Harmony 7100. For strictly dance sets, there are Sentimental Journey, Columbia CL 649, College Classics, Capitol T 659, Dancer's Choice, Capitol T 812, Dance to South Pacific, Capitol T 1060, Love Letters in the Sand, Coral 57165, and Les The Records 49 Dance, Vocalion 3618. The band's innocuous versa- tility is shown off in its slightly swung versions of Rhapsody in Blue, The Nutcracker Suite and so forth on Concert Modern, Capitol T 959, and it serves as accompaniment to a grab-bag of pop vocalists on Open House, Coral 57051. The band plays two selections on Dance to the Bands, Vol. 2, Capitol T 978, and one each on Dance to the Bands, Vol. 1, Capitol T 977, Dance Craze, Capitol T 927, and The Encyclopedia of Jazz on Records, Vol. 4, Decca 8401. Ray Brown. One of the most consistent and pro- pulsive bassists in post-bop jazz and a member of the Oscar Peterson trio in recent years, Brown makes some adept front-line uses of his bass on Bass Hit, Verve 8022. He manages to work his bass into a logically prominent position in most selections, avoiding the appearance of soloing simply for solo- ing's sake, as he leads a large group from which Harry Edison's trumpet emerges from time to time with wry, biting statements. He has one selection in The Playboy Jazz Allstars, Playboy 1957. Ted Brown. Brown, a tenor saxophonist who has been indoctrinated by Lennie Tristano, is joined by two other Tristano alumni, tenor saxophonist Warne Marsh and pianist Ronnie Ball on Free Wheeling, Vanguard 8515. Both Brown and Marsh and a third saxophonist, the non-Tristanoite alto, Art Pepper, sound uncertain and tentative. It's almost worth sitting through them, however, to hear Ball's lean, sinewy and rhythmically insistent playing. Dave Brubeck. As is usually the case when a jazz musician becomes extremely popular with a mass audience, Brubeck's wide acclaim has almost noth- ing to do with his jazz talents (Louis Armstrong, 50 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ for example, is not as popular as he is because he is a brilliant jazz musician but because he is an extremely good showman). Brubeck is, in what seems to be his most natural and least pretentious state, an amiably swinging cocktail pianist and a composer of pleasant cameos (The Duke, for in- stance). He has, however, a strong appeal to people who "never liked jazz before" and to those who feel that modern jazz is a good social topic but have not previously been able to hear anything in modern jazz that they could hang onto. He has done this by appearing to be injecting a familiar cultural note in jazz through references to Bach and climaxes of Wagnerian thunder. At the same time he has carried in his quartet one very valid and highly creative jazz musician, alto saxo- phonist Paul Desmond. Thus he could satisfy both the jazz audience, through Desmond, and the mass audience through his pseudo-culture. Starting from this basis, it is all too easy to dis- miss Brubeck as a musician of little consequence in jazz. But, as is often pointed out by those who admire Brubeck personally even though they do not hold him in high esteem as a jazz musician, because of his popularity he has been a great in- fluence in the spread of interest in jazz since he plays a great many colleges, attracts large audiences and, by at least introducing them to Desmond, brings many people in favorable contact with jazz who otherwise would know nothing about it. By the same token, of course, he misleads a great many people who believe that his thumping and pompous finger exercises are really jazz. But possibly the most instructive side of Brubeck as a jazz influence (and this reflects strongly on Brubeck as a person) is the course he has followed in the years since he suddenly shot to very great fame and success. It almost always follows in such The Records 51 circumstances that the widely heralded star be- comes even more of a star, that the spotlight focuses ever more intently on him and the group around him becomes less and less important (as in the case of Louis Armstrong). Brubeck, however, has done almost exactly the opposite. He has slowly and very carefully changed the personnel of his quartet until, with the arrival of Joe Morello on drums and Gene Wright on bass, what had once been a stolid and drab group enlivened only by Desmond is now an extremely good jazz combo in which Brubeck is the point of least interest. I can think of no other leader of a jazz group who has deliberately put himself in this position. But then, of course, no other leader of a jazz group has been quite as highly regarded for as little reason as has Brubeck. The best of the Brubeck Quartet performances, as one might suspect, are those by the current group, or at least since Morello joined up. The arrival of Morello not only brought to the quartet one of the best drummers in jazz today a man with an alert, brimming rhythmic sense who en- genders a constant air of excitement without leav- ing his proper place in the group as a whole but, by relieving Brubeck of any need to provide the driving pulse for the group, Morello has permitted him to relax into something closer to the amiable, often felicitously melodic pianist that he has shown he can be in his solo work. On the Quartet's first disk with Morello, Jazz Impressions of the U.S.A., Columbia CL 984, Bru- beck sheds many of the cliches of his earlier work, Desmond responds to the stimulation of Morello's presence by playing with soaring brilliance and Morello himself is a constant joy. The follow-up, Jazz Goes to Junior College, Columbia CL 1034, is far less satisfying except for one unusually good selection, One Moment Worth Years, which brings 52 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ out the best in every member of the group. A still later disk by this group, Dave Digs Disney, Colum- bia, CL 1059, deals with cloying material. An overseas tour in the winter of 1957-58 brought in Gene Wright on bass to further strengthen the group's swinging foundation and produced Dave Brubeck Quartet in Europe, Columbia CL 1168, and Jazz Impressions of Eurasia, Columbia CL 1251. The European disk was recorded at a concert in Copenhagen and is, in general, pleasantly light and airy even though Desmond sounds somewhat tired and Morello spends one track showing that not even as inventive a drummer as he can always make a drum solo entertaining. The Eurasian im- pressions (with Joe Benjamin temporarily in place of Wright) are generally ingratiating except for Burbeck's humorless and prissy piano passages. Of the Quartet's pre-Morello work, Jazz Goes to College, Columbia CL 566, is kept boiling by Des- mond in brilliant form and on Brubeck Time, Columbia CL 622, the pianist's Gothic side is quiescent as he engages in several charming bits of interplay with Desmond. Other disks from this period include Jazz: Red Hot and Cool, Columbia CL 699, Dave Brubeck and Jay and Kai at New- port, Columbia CL 932. Dave Brubeck at Story- ville: 1954, Columbia CL 590, The Dave Brubeck Trio and Quartet, Fantasy 3240, Dave Brubeck at Wilshire-Ebell, Fantasy 3249, Brubeck-Desmond, Fantasy 3229, Dave Brubeck Quartet, Fantasy 3230, Jazz at the Blackhawk, Fantasy 3210, Jazz at the College of the Pacific, Fantasy 3223, Jazz at Oberlin, Fantasy 3245. Removed from his Quartet, Brubeck leaves thumping ostentation behind to play in the man- ner of an artful small room pianist on Dave Bru- beck Plays, Fantasy 3259, and Brubeck Plays Bru- beck, Columbia CL 878, both made up of unaccom- panied piano solos. In these performances he is The Records 53 reflective, with a leaning toward romanticism and a greater sense of interior swing than he usually shows with his Quartet. Reunion, Fantasy 3268, is played by the Brubeck Quintet, created by the addition of tenor saxo- phonist Dave Van Kriedt, an early associate of Bru- beck who wrote and arranged an attractive group of melodic, occasionally piquantly quirksome and lightly rhythmic pieces for their reunion. In many ways these soundly constructed, unpretentious quin- tet performances are more rewarding than the gen- eral run of the Quartet's work. Brubeck's early disks include Dave Brubeck Oc- tet, Fantasy 3239, Dave Brubeck Trio, Fantasy 3204, and Dave Brubeck Trio, Fantasy 3205. His Quartet is heard in single selections on The Playboy Jazz Allstars, Playboy 1957, $64,000 Jazz, Columbia CL 777, and Jazz Omnibus, Columbia CL 1020. Max Bruel. A Danish architect who also plays jazz, Bruel is capable of a smoothly viscous style on bari- tone saxophone when he is cushioned on a lithe section. He gets this needed support on the major- ity of the selections on Max Bruel Quartet, Em- Arcy 36062, but on three numbers the quartet's able pianist, Bent Axen, drops out in favor of trumpeter Jorgen Ryg who constantly over-reaches his capabil- ities while Bruel plods doggedly through his solos. Ray Bryant. Bryant is a facile pianist who occasion- ally indicates that he can dig into his material with some strength of feeling on Ray Bryant Trio, Pres- tige 7098, and Ray Bryant with Betty Carter, Epic 3202. Ray Bryant Trio, Epic 3279, on which he has to contend with a conga drummer, is largely surface stuff. He has one number in After Hours Jazz, Epic 3339. Rusty Bryant. After establishing some reputation as a tenor saxophonist in rock 'n' roll territory, 54 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Bryant switched to jazz with moderate success on Rusty Bryant Plays Jazz, Dot 3079. He is refresh- ingly free of mannerisms, has the flexibility to range from a coarse, grainy tone to a light, almost altoish sound, from a cool, suave approach to a sharp, slicing attack. However, the repetitive simil- arity of his ideas eventually drains them of interest. He is also heard on Carolyn Club Band, Dot 3006. Milt Buckner. Buckner had been lending a stolid pianistic thud to Lionel Hampton's band for several years when Doug Duke, who had been play- ing organ with Hampton, left and Buckner was asked to shift instruments. Since then he has been one of the most successful of the new and spreading school of jazz organists. Buckner works from a widely varied pallette, ranging from a dogged rock that borders on rock 'n' roll to svelte, swoon-shaped mood music languor. He has an unusually good light, moving modern jazz style which shares both Rockin' with Milt, Capitol T 642, and Rockin' Hammond, Capitol T 722, with examples of his heavy beat style. Send Me Softly, Capitol T 938, does precisely that with Buckner's organ velvet sup- plemented by purple-tinged Hodges-like scoops on alto saxophone by Earl Warren, the onetime Basieite. Bob Burgess. Burgess plays a rough-toned, swing- ing trombone in stabbing, jagged phrases on a single selection in Jazz West Coast, Vol. 3, World Pacific JWC 507. Vinnie Burke. Burke is a neat, consistent bassist who phrases melodically and does not carry soloing too far on Vinnie Burke All-Stars, ABC-Paramount 139, and Costa-Burke Trio, Jubilee 1025, both of which are enlivened by roaring, spitting piano solos by Eddie Costa. Vinnie Burke's String Jazz The Records 55 Quartet, ABC-Paramount 170, is a highly provoca- tive disk on which Burke, Dick Wetmore, violin, Calo Scott, cello, and Bobby Grillo, guitar, manage to avoid the salon gentility that this instrumenta- tion would usually bring on by using a hard, strong attack. Wetmore is particularly interesting. He uses a dark, misterioso tone that is very helpful in turn- ing the usually obdurate violin in jazz directions. Ralph Burns. Burns' arrangements were one of the strong points of the Woody Herman band of 1945 which skyrocketed to the top of the big band heap and he gave the band one of its most memorable pieces in the extended Summer Sequence. Since then he has been active as an arranger who leans as much out of jazz as he does into it. On the "in" side is Ralph Burns Among the JATPs, Verve 8121, on which he provides settings in which members of Norman Granz's frequently gauche JATP troupe can remind listeners that they are still capable of sensitivity, inspiration and electrifying sparks of brilliance. Flip Phillips, Roy Eldridge and Bill Harris are among the resuscitated. And one side of Swinging Seasons, MGM 3613, is made up of Burnsian frames for some fine soloists Kai Wind- ing, Joe Wilder are the standouts. On Jazz Studio 5, Decca 8235, Burns leads a ten-piece band through some surprisingly routine arrangements. Less jazz-imbued is the Burns who turns up on one side of Jazz Recital, Verve 8098 (shared with Billie Holiday), weaving strings, woodwinds and Lee Konitz's alto saxophone into pleasantly rhyth- mic chamber music. Very Warm for Jazz, Decca 9207, is in much the same vein but with a more normal jazz instrumentation (Zoot Sims and Urbie Green are both on hand). The Masters Revisited, Decca 8555, is a misguided attempt to rewrite Moussorgsky and Lecuona in swing terms. Burns has one selection in Forty-Eight Stars of American 56 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Jazz, MGM 3611, and The Encyclopedia of Jazz on Records, Vol. 4, Decca 8401. Kenny Burrell. Burrell is a loose, loping guitarist who manages to swing along on almost consistently interesting lines even though he is almost always involved in long blowing sessions with uninspired company. There are, fortunately, a few exceptions: Introducing Kenny Burrell, Blue Note 1523, on which he teams up with pianist Tommy Flanagan and an unusually swinging rhythm section; Earthy, Prestige 7102, with a vastly superior jamming group which includes Art Fanner, Al Cohn, Hal Mc- Kusick and, particularly, Mai Waldron; and Jazz- men: Detroit, Savoy 12083, a modest set at easy tempos with no long solos, some lean Burrell guitar and strongly rhythmic Tommy Flanagan. Burrell is the sole saving grace on All Night Long, Prestige 7073; All Day Long, Prestige 7081; Jazz for Playboys, Savoy 12095; Blue Lights, Blue Note 1596; Two Guitars, Prestige 7119; Kenny Burrell, Blue Note 1543; and Kenny Burrell, Pres- tige 7088. Joe Burton. Burton is an amiable addition to that school of fetching, rhythmic pianists of which Er- roll Garner is the dean. His playing is delightfully quirksome and toe-tapping on Here I Am in Love Again, Coral 57175, effectively simple and direct on Joe Burton Session, Coral 57098, but he becomes a bit too wrapped up in prettiness in Jazz Pretty, Regent 6036. Don Byas. A very warm, smooth, dark-toned tenor out of Coleman Hawkins, Byas is an extroverted, assured and purposeful purveyor of craftily con- structed ballads and fluent, airy swingers on Jazz . . . Free and Easy, Regent 6044, but is a little less free and a little less easy on one side of Jazz from St. Germain des Pres, Verve 8119 (shared with The Records 57 Bernard Peiffer). He has two poorly recorded selec- tions in Tenor Sax, Concorde 3012. Billy Byers. Byers, an able, big-voiced trombonist, is buried in Jazz on the Left Bank, Epic 3387, a pale collection of low-keyed performances recorded in France which also stifle the excellent French pian- ist, Martial Solal. Charlie Byrd. There are a few jazzmen who dabble in serious music and several who are determined to improve jazz by dressing it in formal clothes. Charlie Byrd stands practically alone in the fre- quency and ease with which he moves between the two musical worlds. With Byrd it is not simply a matter of being able to play good jazz guitar and good classical guitar. In the course of a normal evening's performance he moves readily back and forth between the two. He avoids cross-breeding in performance and on records he has kept his two sides separated. His classical side will be found in an engrossing Anthology of Guitar Music The Sixteenth Century, Washington WR 411. He plucks a Spanish guitar on this disk and he uses the same delightfully unamplified instrument on many of his jazz performances. The depths of his creative resources and his well of melodic invention are strikingly illustrated in the title selection on Blues for Night People, Savoy 12116, a three-part suite which takes up one side of the disk. For a guitarist to extemporize at this length accompanied only by bass (Keter Betts) and drums (Gus Johnson) without the slightest let-down in interest is an ear- opening display of virtuosity. Byrd carries this off with no sense of strain, forcing or searching as he lines out a probing series of blues variations com- pounded of root ideas and highly sophisticated technique. His versatility is highlighted on Jazz at the Showboat, Offbeat 3001, on which he appears 58 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ in a variety of settings, ranging from sextet to duo (bass and guitar) and plays both Spanish guitar and the more customary electric guitar. He makes swingingly economical use of the latter instrument but his real brilliance comes through when he takes the plug out of the guitar and fingers his way through Satin Doll. He uses both guitars as part of a quartet on Jazz Recital, Savoy 12099, a varied set with some interesting blending o Spanish guitar and flute. Donald Byrd. For a trumpeter who has been re- corded very often and at great, great length, Byrd has remarkably little to say as an improvising soloist. Part of his trouble may lie in the fact that he is constantly cast in barren blowing sessions for when he is given direction and guidance by the requirements of Modern Jazz Perspective, Columbia CL 1058, which is an attempt to trace the develop- ment of some modern jazz styles, his playing is at least neat and to the point. This disk was made by the Jazz Lab Quintet which Byrd has jointly led for some time with alto saxophonist Gigi Gryce. They have concocted some interesting ensemble leaping off points on Gigi Gryces, Riverside 12-229, Jazz Lab, Columbia CL 998, and Gigi Gryce, Donald Byrd and Cecil Taylor at Newport, Verve 98238, but on all three disks they move from intriguing group openings to long, wearing solos which are often out of character emotionally with the introductory matter. In the wide open spaces of a blowing session, Byrd becomes a dreary mumbler: Byrd's Word, Savoy, 12032, The Young Blood, Prestige 7080, All Day Long, Prestige 708, All Night Long, Prestige 77073, Two Trumpets, Prestige 7062, The Jazz Message, Savoy 12064, and in single elections on Montage, Savoy 12029, and Know Your Jazz, Vol. 1, ABC-Paramount 115. The Jazz Lab Quintet plays one selection in Jazz Omnibus, Columbia CL 1020. The Records 59 Jackie Cain and Roy Krai. This husband-and- wife team, forged when he was pianist with Charlie Ventura's fine late Forties group and she was the band's vocalist, has created one of the most valid means of jazz singing in their wordless duets and their brightly propelled, swinging ap- proach to worded lyrics. All their best qualities (which include Krai's lithe, moving piano work) come through on Sing! Baby, Sing! Storyville 915, Jackie and Roy, Storyville 904, and Bits and Pieces, ABC-Paramount 163. On this last disk they are accompanied by a big band, an arrangement that is less satisfactory on Free and Easy, ABC-Para- mount 207. The emphasis on The Glory of Love, ABC-Paramount 120, is on non-jazz. In the Spot- light, ABC-Paramount 267, the least satisfactory of their disks, puts the spotlight on Miss Cain singing ballads in an unbecomingly shrill and strident manner. Four selections made at a reunion with Ventura in the early Fifties on Jackie Cain and Roy Krai, Brunswick 54026, are of interest but the re- mainder of the disk is routine. Al Caiola. Essentially a New York studio guitarist, Caiola leads three groups of only minor interest on Deep in a Dream, Savoy 12033, and Serenade in Blue, Savoy 12057. Pianist Ronnie Ball has a few good moments on the latter and Bernie Privin, playing both trumpet and fluegelhorn, gives a warm, Swing Era touch to both disks. Candido. Since the death of Chano Pozo, who first gave the conga drum an individual jazz voice dur- ing the Afro-Cuban invasion of the late 1940s, his most worthy successor has been Candido. Playing with The Billy Taylor Trio, Prestige 7051, and with Al Cohn on Candido, ABC-Paramount 125, he takes full advantage of excellent opportunities to show how well the conga can be used as an 60 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ improvisatory solo instrument rather than an en- semble percussive element. He takes part in a successful tour de force a duet with drummer Kenny Clarke on Introducing Kenny Burrell, Blue Note 1523. He has less freedom on Candida the Volcanic, ABC-Paramount 180, and he is little more than a section hand on The Beat of My Heart, Columbia CL 1079. He sings and drums on Calypso Dance Party, ABC-Paramount 178, but this is calypso, not jazz. Pete and Conte Candoli. The trumpeting Candoli brothers, both veterans of modern big band jazz (Herman, Kenton), pair off on The Brothers Candoli, Dot 3062, in brilliantly brassy duets and chases, interspersed by short solos. Pete's arrange- ments keep the group (two trumpets, three rhythm) working together all the time, avoiding long, lone- some solos. Conte Candoli. Candoli is a trumpeter who can, in his better moments, bite out clipped, crisp phrases but they mean very little since he has little conception of construction. He is, consequently, an occasionally prodding but eventually tiresome per- former on West Coast Waiters, Atlantic 1268, Conte Candoli, Bethlehem 30, Mucho Color, Andex 3003, and in his three selections on Rhythm Plus One, Epic 3297, and his single entry on After Hours Jazz, Epic 3339. Barbara Carroll. Miss Carroll is inclined to be a glib, surface pianist who spars gracefully and in- nocuously over a lightly swinging rhythm section. At times, however, she takes off her polite gloves and shows signs of a strong Powell-derived style. There is something of this on one side of Ladies of Jazz Atlantic 1271 (shared with Mary Lou Williams), and in her sparkling, imaginative devel- The Records 61 opment of that intrinsic dog, The Trolley Song, on Barbara, Verve 2095. The rest of the latter disk is, however, devoted to the placid front that also dominates The Best of George and Ira Gershwin, Verve 2092, Ifs a Wonderful World, Victor LPM 1396, Funny Face, Verve 2063, We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye, Victor LPM 1296, and her portion of The Wide, Wide World of Jazz, Victor LPM 1325. Joe Carroll. Carroll is a relatively engaging bop singer who joined Dizzy Gillespie's band in 1949 and for the next four years worked with Gillespie to good advantage. On Joe Carroll, Epic 3272, he is on his own and while he is fun in small doses, his nonsense syllable songs become monotonous and when he resorts to words he is a rather strident singer. Betty Carter. Miss Carter is an unformed singer who has listened to Sarah Vaughan. On Out There, Peacock 90, she labors through arrangements at- tributed to Gigi Gryce, Benny Golson, Melba Lis- ton, Ray Copeland and Tommy Gryce. They all must have been out of town at the time. Joe Castro. A suave, innocuous, middleground pianist, Castro is occasionally cushioned by an unobtrusive string section on Mood Jazz, Atlantic 1264, but on other occasions he is hounded by a more vehement vocal group. Bob Centano. Centano's 21-piece band on First Time Out, Stepheny 4006, might be dismissed as a rather fuzzily rehearsed Kenton derivative if one's judgment were not tempered by the fact that, at the time of recording, Centano was 20, his chief arranger, Bob Ojeda, was 17, and the average age of the band was 22. From this point of view, this is 62 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ a tantalizing view of an obviously promising group of young musicians in the process of finding them- selves. Serge Chaloff. Chaloff's baritone saxophone was one of the booting elements in Woody Herman's high flying mid-Forties Herd although he was a limited soloist. His limitations are marked in four selections on Lestorian Mode, Savoy 12105, on which he plays with a group in which Red Rod- ney's biting trumpet is the major voice. Returning in 1955 from several years of retirement caused by illness (from which he died in 1957) , he put to- gether a well organized, cleanly directed group on Boston Blow-Up, Capitol T 6510, notable primarily for the swinging alto of Boots Mussulli. The fol- lowing year, working with only a rhythm section, he produced a group of quiet, neatly turned per- formances on Blue Serge, Capitol T 742, which re- vealed a polish and dexterity that had never been particularly noticeable in his earlier work. Chamber Jazz Sextet. "The Chamber Jazz Sextet was formed and organized," its leader, Allyn Fergu- son, advises us in the liner notes on Chamber Jazz Sextet, Cadence 1020, "with this basic purpose in mind: the synthesis of jazz and 'serious' music." Neither jazz nor "serious" music is particularly well served by the cuteness and the sonic abandon in which the group indulges on this disk (just from the point of view of sound the sextet gets some amusing voicings through an astounding versatil- ity). On Pal Joey, Cadence 3015, however, with something as sturdy as the Rodgers and Hart score on which to build, the group becomes lively and loose-jointed, especially in the work of Modesto Brisano, a superior baritone saxophonist, and Frank Leal, an alto saxophonist who swoops and soars in the graceful Paul Desmond manner. The Records 63 Paul Chambers. Chambers is a bassist who almost always manages to snag a long solo for himself, either plucked or bowed. This tendency makes Bass on Top, Blue Note 1569, and Paul Chambers Quintet, Blue Note 1564, heavy going. Whims of Chambers, Blue Note 1534, is lightened by Kenny Burrell's brightly swinging guitar but in addition to Chambers' inevitable solos it also has tenor saxo- phonist John Coltrane lunging around, thick-toned and directionless. Eddie Chamblee. Chamblee leads a compact, tightly voiced little band with a bouncing beat and no stylistic excesses which often accompanies Dinah Washington, to whom Chamblee is married. On both Chamblee Music, EmArcy 36124, and Dood- lin', EmArcy 36131, the group plays a type of un- pretentious ensemble jazz which was fairly common in the Thirties but has almost died out since then. Chamblee, a tenor saxophonist, ranges from a light, easy ballad projection to a shrill insistence that borders on rock 'n' roll. Teddy Charles. Charles, a vibraphonist who caught onto the tag end of the Swing Era as a member of Benny Goodman's band in the late Forties and Artie Shaw's last big band (1950), is one of the more adamant explorers in modern jazz. He has said that he believes jazz has exhausted most of its harmonic resources and he feels that by emphasiz- ing improvisation in unfamiliar harmonies good jazz musicians can and will find fresh melodic pat- terns. Possibly because of his swing band orienta- tion, Charles puts great emphasis on melody in his work no matter how far off the beaten track he may go harmonically and he is, as a result, one of the most accessible and communicative of the jazz ex- perimentalists. 64 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ An excellent demonstration of the fresh, swing- ing quality he brings to his jazz adventures is Collaboration: West, Prestige 7028, an unusually exciting and rewarding disk made in 1953 on which Charles plays with two West Coast groups, one made up of Shorty Rogers, Curtis Counce and Shelly Manne, the other with Jimmy Giuffre added. Charles himself plays with a fascinatingly direct rhythmic drive and Shorty Rogers really plays in- stead of running through the cliches that have made up too much of his work in the later Fifties. The rhythm section is superb and Giuffre, on one selection, contrives a stomping hot baritone saxo- phone solo that seems much closer to the real, earthy quality of jazz than his more recent efforts in that direction with his trio. A less satisfying piece from this date turns up on Evolution, Pres- tige 7078, which is otherwise devoted to some 1955 recordings which are enlivened by Charlie Mingus' big, walloping bass and Charles' sensitive vibes. Mingus and drummer Ed Shaughnessy set up a driving momentum for the Charles Quartet which coasts blithely through part of Word -from Bird, Atlantic 1274. Shaughnessy also spurs a ten-piece group which plays the rest of the disk including the title selection which, after slogging through an overly contrived start, becomes a swinging, straight- forward evolvement that seems to barrel along on its own steam as though it were just happening instead of being deliberately played. The piece, composed by Charles, has more body and direction than normally occurs in jazz writing. Charles also uses ten pieces on The Teddy Charles Tentet, Atlantic 1229, an uneven but frequently interesting disk which covers a broad range from George Rus- sell's use of "the lydian concept of tonal organiza- tion" in Lydian M-l, a ruggedly rhythmic piece, to the relatively straightforward, melodic playing of Jimmy Giuffre's graceful The Quiet Time and Gil The Records 65 Evans' cohesive, flowing arrangement of You Go to My Head. Most Charles sessions require a good deal of writ- ten preparation and he does not often get away from the paper atmosphere to the relaxation of simply blowing. When he does, on Vibe-Rant, Elektra 136, he retains the control and sense of rational structure that color his arranged work and consequently he avoids the blatant emptiness of so many blowing sessions. There are times when, ar- rangements or no, Charles' musical vitality fails to generate much steam. This occurs on Olio, Prestige 7084, and Prestige Jazz Quartet, Prestige 7108. On Three for the Duke, Jubilee 1047, Charles, pianist Hall Overton and bassist Oscar Pettiford tackle four familiar and two lesser known pieces by Duke Ellington without improving on the originals. On a pair of 1954 performances attributed to the Teddy Charles Quartet on The Dual Role of Bob Brookmeyer, Prestige 7066, Charles plays only a supporting role. Charlie Christian. Christian's total career on the bigtime jazz scene covered less than two years (1939-41) yet in that time he established the elec- tric guitar as a jazz instrument and made important contributions to the groundwork on which post- swing jazz has been built. Christian's two influen- tial years were spent with Benny Goodman's orches- tra and though he had ample opportunity to show his ability in Goodman's small groups, he found them confining, an inadequate means of expression for the long, lean, flowing lines he wanted to play. His most typical work was done in the relaxed atmosphere of after hours clubs. A few samples of this, taken down on a portable recording machine, are reproduced on The Harlem Jazz Scene: 1941, Esoteric 548. The fidelity is only medium but Chris- 66 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ tian's guitar cuts through cleanly and crisply, swinging with superbly controlled ease. Charlie Christian with the Benny Goodman Sex- tet and Orchestra, Columbia CL 652, offers two more instances of Christian unfettered, recordings made while members of the Goodman groups were warming up in preparation for a session. The limitations against which Christian chafed in the Goodman sextet are illustrated vividly by the cheek-by-jowl juxtaposition here of one of these ad lib sessions, Waitin' for Benny, in which Christian develops a theme which later provided the basis for the sextet's A Smo-o-o-oth One, and the sextet's comparatively stiff, formal and flat performance of that piece. Keith Christie. This English trombonist, onetime co-leader of the Christie Brothers Stompers, a "trad" band, has effectively adapted his gruff, pseudo-New Orleans style to a lustily forceful modern manner on Third Festival of British Jazz, London LL 1639. June Christy. When June Christy joined the Stan Kenton band in the middle Forties as the replace- ment for Anita O'Day, she also picked up a few of the vocal characteristics of Miss O'Day, who can rationally be considered a jazz singer. Miss Christy, however, only mastered the surface of the O'Day style and later abandoned even that when she found the commercial possibilities of singing in a flat, hoarse monotone. She is, at her best, a good singer of pop ballads but she has scarcely any jazz qualities. Her records are Duet, Capitol T 656, Fair and Warmer, Capitol T 833, Gone for the Day, Capitol T 902, June's Got Rhythm, Capitol T 1076, The Misty Miss Christy, Capitol T 725, Something Cool, Capitol T 516, and This Is June Christy, Capitol T 1006. The Records 67 Alan Clare. With its leader at the piano, the Eng- lish Alan Clare Quartet picks its way deliberately through a pair of easygoing, uneventful pieces on Third Festival of British Jazz, London LL 1639. Kenny Clarke. With Jo Jones of the Basie band, Clarke is generally credited with pioneering the new conception of the drummer's role in postwar jazz through the transferral of the steady beat from the bass drum to the cymbal, reserving the bass drum for sudden plunging accents. He was the original drummer of the Modern Jazz Quartet but left the group in 1955 when it became evident that he was moving in a different direction from the rest of the group. Since then he has spent most of his time abroad. Clarke is a steady, firmly propulsive drummer who lends strength to any rhythm section in which he plays. He sets a delightfully light, urging beat on Klook's Clique, Savoy 12065, over which John LaPorta's alto saxophone sings out in strong, soar- ing lines and Ronnie Ball digs contentedly into the deeper emotional recesses of the piano. Clarke's presence also provides a good foundation for a mix- ture of neat, concise swingers and dark, heavy blues- bearing pieces on Kenny Clarke, Savoy 12006, high- lighted by probing, one-note piano playing by Milt Jackson. On Bohemia After Dark, Savoy 12017, Clarke's front-line include Nat and Julian Adder- ley, both freshly arrived in New York from Florida at the time and sounding relatively subdued. For some time Clarke, Hank Jones and Wendell Marshall made up the house rhythm section for Savoy Records. When they got a disk of their own, The Trio, Savoy 12023, Clarke put down a firm foundation with (as the bra ads say) good uplift but Jones' faceless piano playing wears thin before long. The Trio with Guests, Savoy 12053, adds Joe Wilder and Jerome Richardson, among others, and 68 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ it is Wilder who makes the disk really worthwhile. From Clarke's French period comes Kenny Clarke Plays Andre Hodeir, Epic 3376, on which he leads a French sextet through Hodeir's arrange- ments of well known pieces by Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Tadd Dameron, Miles Davis and others. The success of the re-cast pieces is generally in reverse ratio to the amount of writing that Hodeir has done. Pianist Martial Solal, who has the major share of the solo work, plays vividly and fluently in a variety of veins. An unaccompanied solo by Clarke is included in Clarke-Wilkins Septet, Savoy 12007, and a drum and conga duet with Candido in Introducing Kenny Burrell, Blue Note 1523. He leads a group in one number on Know Your Jazz, Vol. 1, ABC- Paramount 115. Sonny Clark. After serving ably with Buddy De Franco's group for several years during the Fifties, Clark settled down in New York to become what amounted to house pianist for Blue Note Records. His churning, flowing playing was often a welcome oasis in some of the rather drab ensembles he re- corded with but those sessions on which he has been the leader have not been particularly success- ful. Art Farmer contributes some crackling solos to Dial S for Sonny, Blue Note 1570, but he has to fight a chomp-chomp rhythm section, while even Farmer's crisp trumpet cannot hold up Cool Strutting Blue Note 1588. The slick execution of the soloists Donald Byrd, Curtis Fuller, John Coltrane and Clark on Sonny's Crib, Blue Note 1576, fails to turn over-familiar exercises into com- municative statements. Asked to cover two sides of an LP by himself on Sonny Clark Trio, Blue Note 1579, the distance proves to be too much for Clark. The Records 69 James Clay. Clay plays tenor saxophone with a big tone out of Ben Webster but with a harder surface in a single selection on Solo Flight, World Pacific JWC 505. Jimmy Cleveland. The nervous, jabbing trombone exercises from which Cleveland usually builds his solos are largely absent from Introducing Jimmy Cleveland, EmArcy 36066, as he loosens up and un- leashes a big, rough tone from time to time. Even so, his inclination to insert pointless stutters makes his solos needlessly officious. He has a few good solos on Cleveland Style, EmArcy 36126, and so do Art Farmer and tenor saxophonist Benny Golson but the disk as a whole has a heavy, phlegmatic quality. Cleveland has three selections on Rhythm Plus One, Epic 3297, and one each on The Young Ones of Jazz, EmArcy 36085, After Hours Jazz, Epic 3339, and Know Your Jazz, Vol 1, ABC- Paramount 115. Johnny Coates, Jr. This 18-year-old pianist, son of the piano man in a Trenton, N.J., Dixieland group, moves with glib assurance among several modern jazz piano styles on Portrait, Savoy 12082, but does not yet have anything positive of his own. Al Cohn. After ten years as a big band sideman, most notably with Woody Herman in 1948 when he became one of the Four Brothers after Herbie Steward left, Cohn settled into free lance arranging and playing in 1952. At his best as a performer, he is one of the most freely flowing of those tenor saxophonists who bear the markings of Lester Young and he has a facility for arranging and com- posing pieces which lend themselves to a Basie-like propulsion. But he is an erratic performer and is just as apt 70 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ to tramp around in a muffled din as to step out with a bright and breezy statement. On The Brothers, Prestige 7022, made up of sessions re- corded in 1949 and 1952, Cohn trails along dimly behind Brew Moore, Allen Eager and Zoot Sims. In the middle Fifties he teamed with Sims again with light and swinging results on Al and Zoot, Coral 57171, but the team could not make the sparks fly a second time on From A to Z, Victor LPM 1282. Cohn finds an even more impressive team-mate in valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer on Al Cohn Quintet, Coral 57118, a disk which is com- pletely dominated by Brookmeyer even though Cohn is in his best airily rhythmic form. Writing for three different groups on The Sax Section, Epic 3278, two of them centered on tradi- tional saxophone sections, one on a woodwind group, Cohn draws delightfully clean, precise, puls- ing ensembles from the saxophones which de- velop some of the lusty zest that these sections had in the days of big bands. Cohn's free and easy strength as a performer flows warmly through Cohn on the Saxophone, Dawn 1110, Cohn's Tones, Savoy 12048, and Candido, ABC-Paramount 125. He makes some good contributions to a superior blowing session, Earthy, Prestige 7102, but he goes down along with three other saxophonists under the weight of the four long, tiresome pieces which make up Tenor Conclave, Prestige 7074. Cohn has single selections in Know Your Jazz, Vol. 1, ABC- Paramount 115 (playing baritone saxophone), Jazz Cornucopia, Coral 57149, and Critics' Choice, Dawn 1128. Jerry Coker. Known primarily for service in Woody Herman's saxophone section, Coker has put to- gether a group which is essentially a saxophone en- semble for Modern Music from Indiana University, Fantasy 3214. His saxophones are smooth, swinging The Records 71 and unpretentious, a shade on the polite and re- served side but working a worthwhile, none-too- traveled middle road. Cy Coleman. After being something of a prodigy on the cocktail piano circuit, Coleman is giving evidence of increasing sensitivity as a jazz musician. He plays selections from the score of Jamaica, Jubilee 1062, in a spare, rhythmic style, trimmed of nonessentials (he sings occasionally, too, and it doesn't hurt a bit). His work on Cy Coleman, Seeco 402, shows more evidence of his cocktail back- ground a form of "pop jazz" that stays close to the melody but is swinging and inventive. He has two selections in Night Out Music for Stay-at- Homes, Coral 57040. Ornette Coleman. Coleman's recording of Some- thing Else!, Contemporary 3551, represents his first break in a long series of rejections he has experi- enced during his search for what he calls "as free and natural a music as possible." His ideas seem related to some extent to another generally re- jected but intriguing musician, Cecil Taylor, and, by the same token, lead back to Thelonious Monk. Coleman has assembled a surprisingly cohesive group to project what, to most musicians, might be strangely difficult lines and accents. He is essentially a hard swinging alto saxophonist who states his ideas in a series of smears, slashes and murmurs. His trumpeter, Don Cherry, uses im- pressionistic blasts and swipes very effectively while in Walter Norris he has a fluent pianist who gives indications that he can go beneath the fleet surface he shows most of the time. Many of the group's ensembles are voiced and accented in an early bop manner but the soloists take off on tangents of their own. Despite their strangeness, Coleman's pieces hang together well. 72 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Buddy Collette. Versatility can often be a deceptive cover for a musician with several minor talents. Buddy Collette is a rarity a jazz musician who stands out on at least three instruments. He is one of the very few flutists who can project with some strength in the jazz idiom. He is a clarinetist of warmth and skill and on the alto saxophone his playing is precise, polished and very flowing. Tenor saxophone is his least satisfying horn. He first came to notice as one of the original members of Chico Hamilton's Quintet. As a leader on his own, he tends to dominate whatever group he heads and the performances generally rise or fall on his work alone. Thus on Calm, Cool and Col- lette, ABC-Paramount 179, with only a rhythm sec- tion accompanying him, Undecided is brightly pro- jected by his alto, Flute in D gains a delightfully deliberate air from his flute while his clarinet pro- pels The Continental in a warm, mellow manner. But // She Had Stayed, on which he plays tenor, is rather moribund. The presence of Shelly Manne on drums adds a second strong personality to Nice Day, Contemporary 3531, and Collette seems to re- spond to his presence by getting a slightly keener edge on his playing. The performances on Man of Many Parts, Contemporary 3522, lean toward the neat and well mannered but an unaccustomed lustiness creeps into Buddy's Best, Dooto 245. Swinging Shepherds, EmArcy 36 133, is the final straw in the fluting fad four flutists (Collette, Bud Shank, Paul Horn and Harry Klee) manage to create some pleasant, lilting ensembles but after the ensembles are gone the steady piping of one flute solo after another produces the same effect as the Chinese water torture. John Coltrane. Although he has been in jazz since the middle Forties, Coltrane suddenly lurched into the throes of attempting to find his own personal The Records 73 jazz voice in the latter Fifties. The search has ap- parently been a tortured and frustrating one, judg- ing by the garish performances Coltrane has given. As of this writing, it is still unresolved. He often plays his tenor saxophone as though he were deter- mined to blow it apart but his desperate attacks al- most invariably lead nowhere. He has moments when he adjusts to a wanner, more communicative style, as in his unusual treatment of a ballad, While My Lady Sleeps, on Coltrane, Prestige 7105. But even though his hard, fierce tone slashes through a disk like an urgent hacksaw, he constantly finds himself overshadowed by others by Lee Morgan's fantastic trumpet excursions on Blue Train, Blue Note 1577, by Red Garland's lean, swinging piano on With the Red Garland Trio, Prestige 7123, and John Coltrane, Prestige 7142. Neither Coltrane nor three other tenors (Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Hank Mobley) can make anything of the wide open blow- ing spaces on Tenor Conclave, Prestige 7074. Chris Connor. Miss Connor followed June Christy into the Stan Kenton vocal spot, her apparent recommendation being that she, too, could sing in Miss Christy's flat, hoarse manner. To this Miss Connor added a set of gruesome grimaces which made her work in person seem even more tortured. The listener to records is spared this sight although, once seen, it can color the strained, mannered, quivering work she does on Chris Connor, Atlantic 1228, He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, Atlantic 1240, and A Jazz Date with Chris Connor, Atlantic 1286 (a patent case of mis-labeling). She is less man- nered but is burdened with a slow, clumpy beat and a vocal group on / Miss You So, Atlantic 8014. Miss Connor does herself less than justice on these disks, however, because when she is not forc- ing herself or being self-consciously hip she can be a pleasant pop singer as she shows on This Is Chris, 74 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Bethlehem 20, and in four selections in Bethle- hem's Girlfriends, Bethlehem 6006, and to a lesser degree on The George Gershwin Almanac of Song, Atlantic 2-601, and Chris Connor Sings Lullabys of Birdland, Bethlehem 6004. She even manages to swing a little on Chris Craft, Atlantic 1290. Bob Cooper. A longtime member of the Stan Ken- ton saxophone section, Cooper has settled into a comfortable spot at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, Calif., during the Fifties. His work on tenor saxophone draws to a degree from the Lester Young school in its fullness and flow but he is less be- holden than most of the Young followers. Both in his playing and his writing he has a sure sense of balance and structure, a sense which outs in Shift- ing Winds, Capitol T 6513, on which he uses a group of multi-instrumentalists to play a very varied set of octet jazz which runs from a relatively simple, bright swing to tightly wrought woodwind ensembles. He is not one to put himself in a strait- jacket, however, for his Jazz Theme and Four Vari- ations, which takes up one side of The Music of Bob Cooper, Contemporary 3544, is little more than a group of loosely connected, thoroughly un- pretentious pieces which have a lot of healthy fresh air blowing through them. His saxophone, sometimes light and glancing, at other times in- tensely but smoothly hot, is more assertive and personal here than in most of his recorded work. He goes even farther in this direction on the other side as he roars through a bright version of Some- body Loves Me in a grandly exuberant manner. Cooper is also the leading (and practically only) exponent of the jazz oboe. On both Flute 'n' Oboe, World Pacific 1226, and The Swings to TV, World Pacific 411, his oboe is teamed with Bud Shank's flute, a bland jazz pairing at best which is made even more pap-like in these two instances by back- The Records 75 ing them with strings. The Shank-Cooper team (us- ing saxophones as well as flute and oboe) contrib- utes four selections of merit to Jazz Swings Broad- way, World Pacific 404, and one selection each to Jazz West Coast, Vol. 3, World Pacific JWC 507, Have Blues, Will Travel, World Pacific JWC 509, and Jazz West Coast, Vol. 4, World Pacific JWC 510. Bob Corwin. Corwin works out some pleasantly melodic ideas on two selections on The Bob Cor- win Quartet, Riverside 12-220, on which the quartet is reduced to a trio by the absence of Don Elliott's trumpet. The rest of the way Corwin plays second banana to Elliott's rather routine blowing. Eddie Costa. A welcome antidote to the glib, light- fingered, right-handed tendencies of modern jazz pianists was provided when Eddie Costa began to be heard in the middle Fifties. He has a dark, driv- ing, earthy style in which the notes are seemingly hammered out and bent downward. He is also a capable vibraphonist but he is not the distinctive performer on this instrument that he is on piano. Eddie Costa-Vinnie Burke Trio, Jubilee 1025, gives his cocky, strutting piano a good showcase, allow- ing him to stretch out and flex his lithe piano muscles in freedom. On Guys and Dolls Like Vibes, Coral 57230, he concentrates on vibes (Bill Evans, who has many characteristics in common with Costa, is on piano). In contrast to the stirring forays into the lower register that he is fond of making on piano, Costa's vibraphone style is light and danc- ing, closer to the Red Norvo manner than most current vibists. Unfortunately the work of both Evans and Costa is diluted on the Coral disk by selections that are too long to be sustained by only two soloists. Costa teams with John Mehegan on A Pair of Pianos, Savoy 12049, for occasionally stimu- 76 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ lating results and he is heard fleetingly on piano on Eddie Costa, Mat Mathews and Don Elliott at Newport, Verve 8237, recorded at the 1957 festival. Johnny Costa. Costa's technical skill as a pianist is quite evident on The Amazing Johnny Costa, Savoy 12052, but so is his almost total debt to Art Tatum. He leaves Tatum (and jazz) fairly well be- hind to play a bouncy, melodious piano on The Most Beautiful Girl in the World, Coral 57117, while Johnny Costa, Coral 57020, is made up of facile performances which glide easily past ear and mind without leaving a mark. Jack Costanzo. As a bongo flailer (a graduate of the Kenton kollege), Costanzo holds a tenuous, back- ground position in jazz. It is de rigeur that any group he leads should take the Latin-American or Afro-Cuban approach to jazz. His Afro-Cuban Band does this extremely well on Mr. Bongo, GNP 19, playing with a very free, lively feeling much in the manner of Machito. On Afro-Cubano, Verve 8157, he mixes the Afro-Cuban influence with straight-out modern jazz and fails to generate steam either way while Mr. Bongo Has Brass, Zephyr 12003, takes a swing and mood music approach to Latin-American ideas. Costanzo has a single selec- tion in Afro-Drum Carnival, GNP 25. Curtis Counce. One of the most able and sensitive bassists working the West Coast sector, Counce leads a pleasantly relaxed group with a warm en- semble feeling on The Curtis Counce Group, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Contemporary 3526 and 3539. Trum- peter Jack Sheldon, who often has a tendency to whimper in Bakerish fashion, rears back and takes off with exhilarating effect on several occasions and there is strong, warm playing by tenor saxo- phonist Harold Land. Counce swings the group The Records 77 along with his firm bass. Rolf Ericson replaces Shel- don on trumpet on the group's Exploring the Fu- ture, Dooto 247, an unfortunate change since his flat, vague playing destroys the homogeneous qual- ity the group shows on the Contemporary disks. The Courtley-Seymour Orchestra. Led by Bert Courtley, trumpet, and Jack Seymour, bass, this English band is lithe and swinging in its single ap- pearance on Third Festival of British Jazz, London LL 1639. Tony Crombie. This English drummer leads a bop- pish band distinguished by the pungent trumpet of Dizzy Reece on four selections in Modern Jazz at Royal Festival Hall, London LL 1185. Ron Grotty. Once a Brubeck bassist, Grotty leads a trio in three selections on Modern Music in San Francisco, Fantasy 3213, which is less notable for his presence than that of the sprightly pianist, Vince Guaraldi, and Eddie Duran, a sensitive gui- tarist. Cuban Jam Session. Cuban Jam Session, Panart CLP 8000, is assertedly a casual come-one, come-all drop-in jam session in Havana. It develops an ap- propriate feeling of abandon, spurred on by an efficient rhythm section and the hot, piping flute of Juan Pablo Miranda. Mike Cuozzo. Within a limited area, Cuozzo is a capable, assertive tenor saxophonist who has based his style on the Lester Young school but has added nothing distinctively personal. He is fortunate in having with him on Mike Cuozzo, Jubilee 1027, Eddie Costa whose dancing piano peeps through from time to time and, on Mighty Mike Cuozzo, Savoy 12051, both Costa (playing vibes this time) 78 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ and pianist Ronnie Ball who team up to give the disk some zooming excitement. Jomar Dagron Quartet. Those, if any, who have been demanding the admittance of the organo to jazz circles will welcome Rocky Mountain Jazz, Golden Crest 3018, by Denver's Jomar Dagron Quartet (there is no Mr. Dagron the name is com- pounded of syllables from the names of the mem- bers of the quartet). Using tenor and baritone saxo- phones, organo and drums, this crude but lusty group has some kinship to the old ragged but rugged Harlem jump bands but the limited voicing of the group (the organo is strictly a cushion) soon becomes monotonous. Bert Dahlander. Dahlander is a Swedish drummer (sometimes known as Bert Dale or Nils-Bertil Dahlander) who has worked in the United States frequently since 1954 (notably with Terry Gibbs and Teddy Wilson). He seems to believe in pro- pulsion rather than flash or flurry. Leading a quar- tet on Skal, Verve 8253, he teams with bassist Curtis Counce to set up a lithe, swinging founda- tion for solos by Howard Roberts, guitar, and Vic- tor Feldman, vibraphone, which are completely in the Dahlander mode, i.e., light and rhythmic but never ostentatious. Tadd Dameron. Dameron is a pianist but he is better known as an arranger and composer, dating back to the 1930s when he was writing for Harlan Leonard's Kansas City band. He was an active part of the bop furor of the mid-Forties and was the leader of the first modern group to be recorded by Blue Note Records (reissued on The Fabulous Fats Navarro, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Blue Note 1531 and 1532). The two LPs released under his own name are the products of the Fifties when he was being heard from relatively infrequently. He proves to be The Records 79 his own best interpreter on Fontainebleau, Prestige 7037, on which five of his compositions are played by an eight-piece band. His playing is warm and explicit, a welcome contrast to the heavy-handed work of most of the men in the group. The focal point of a quintet led by Dameron on Mating Call, Prestige 7070, is tenor saxophonist John Coltrane whose hard-toned, leaping playing is a balancing contrast to Dameron's very simple, economical solos. Hank D'Amico. We Brought Our Axes, Bethlehem 7 (shared with the Aaron Sachs Sextet), shows the modern surface that has been acquired by D'Amico, a clarinetist spawned in swing who still retains a full-toned, flowing Goodman style. But 24 Short Dances for the Tired Businessman, Golden Crest 3031, although couched in the older style, gives D'Amico little chance to get going. Johnny Dankworth. Although Dankworth is one of the handful of really distinguished jazz mu- sicians who have developed in England a brilliant alto saxophonist who has absorbed Benny Carter's soaring fluency he has been strangely neglected on LP imports to this country. On Five Steps to Dank- worth, Verve 20006, he is heard with his big band and with two quintets drawn from the band. The band plays written arrangements cleanly but is in- clined to mumble on head arrangements while the quintets are primarily showcases for the group's major soloists Dankworth, playing with his cus- tomary easy sweep; an amiable pianist named Dave Lee and Dickie Hawdon, an erratic trumpeter who, at his best, wraps a modern jazz surface around an attack that goes back to young Louis Armstrong. Dankworth, disguised as King John I, also has a pair of immaculate solos on Cool Europe, MGM 3157. 80 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Bob Davis. Davis is a dexterous, flowing pianist, based in Minneapolis, who plays in a handful-of- keys manner that is modern in conception but car- ries shades of Art Tatum and particularly Earl Hines. He seems to have instinctive taste no matter what atrocities are going on around him. The atrocities occur occasionally on Jazz in Orbit, Stepheny 4000, contributed by saxophonist Dave Karr who can play pleasantly but lacks Davis' self- control. Davis' saxophonist on Jazz from the North Coast, Zephyr 12001, is Bob Grea who is warmly ex- pressive on alto but rather routine when he switches to tenor or baritone. Eddie Davis. This Davis is a sturdy, strong-toned tenor saxophonist with an urgent, bursting attack which often verges over into outright honking. He tempers his ferocity somewhat on The Eddie Lock- jaw" Davis Cookbook, Prestige 7141, as organist Shirley Scott backs him up with jabbing accent chords. Miss Scott is the main point of interest on both Eddie Davis Trio, Roost 2227, and Eddie Davis Trio, Roulette 52019, although she is kept in the background on all but two selections on each disk. A similarly set up trio, with Bill Doggett on organ, plays one selection on Roost Fifth Anni- versary Album, Roost 1201. Davis tangles, not too roughly but at great length, with Sonny Stitt on Battle of Birdland, Roost 1203. He can also be heard on Big Beat Jazz, King 599, Eddie Davis Uptown, King 606, Jazz with a Beat, King 566, Jazz with a Horn, King 526, and Modern Jazz Expres- sion, King 506. Jackie Davis. Most of Jackie Davis' Hammond organ performances are background ballads with suggestions of a swinging beat (The Jackie Davis Trio, Kapp 1030; Hi-Fi Hammond, Capitol T 686; Chasing Shadows, Capitol T 815). There is less The Records 81 lushness, more lean swing on Jumpin* Jackie, Capitol T 974, and Most Happy Hammond, Capi- tol T 1046. Miles Davis. Although Davis has been regarded as an important trumpet voice in modern jazz since the middle Forties, he gained and held this reputa- tion despite the fact that his work was extremely erratic during much of this time. His earliest re- cordings with Charlie Parker show him fumbling, none too successfully, in the direction of Dizzy Gillespie and Fats Navarro, a style which he was not equipped technically to handle at that time and which has proven, subsequently, not to be his metier at all. Davis* first significant move toward uncovering his own musical personality can be heard in the work of the nine-piece group that he led briefly in 1948 and which, with a few variations in personnel, plays on Birth of the Cool, Capitol T 762 (three selections from this disk are repeated on Cool and Quiet, Capitol T 371). The arrangements con- tributed to this set by Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan and John Lewis brought back the art of ensemble jazz which had been all but forgotten in the solo- ists' debauch that Parker had induced. From Claude Thornhill's band, for which Evans had been arranging and in which Lee Konitz (a mem- ber of the nonet) had been playing, came the in- spiration for including tuba and French horn in the instrumentation along with vestiges of the calm placidity that characterized much of Thornhill's playing. In these surroundings Davis emerged as a trumpeter who operated sotto voce, playing with serene deliberation. This was cool jazz, the reaction to the driving, intransigent fury of the boppers. But Davis' group was quite shortlived and during the first half of the Fifties Davis followed an inde- terminate path, sometimes attempting to rediscover 82 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ that serenity which had cropped up in his playing with the nonet, at other times venturing out into a strong, hard blowing style. Davis has admitted, in retrospect, that he is dissatisfied with most of his work during this period. It is, by any standards, inconsistent. On a 1951 session with Sonny Rollins, Benny Green and John Lewis, included on Miles Davis with Horns, Prestige 7025, Davis moves sleekly at a fast tempo but flounders listlessly through a pair of ballads. On the remainder of the disk, Davis, along with Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Lewis and others, plods vaguely through several pieces by Cohn. Davis' playing is more assured but not particularly il- luminating on another 1951 session, Dig, Prestige 7012, with Rollins and 19-year-old Jackie McLean. Rollins, playing in a light, smooth rolling style, is even more aimless than Davis here and, surpris- ingly, it is McLean who provides the most direction and vitality. Two more undistinguished selections from this same date are included in Conception, Prestige 7013. The following year Davis recorded some flat, soggy performances with a flaccid group which in- cluded McLean and J. J. Johnson. They provide the low points on both Volume 1 and Volume 2 of Miles Davis, Blue Note 1501 and 1502. Volume 1 is saved by a 1953 session on which Davis plays a clean, firm, driving horn, so much so that he alone (Johnson and Jimmy Heath, tenor saxophone, are the other horns) is able to outshout the boiling drumming of Art Blakey. Volume 2 is filled out with a 1954 quartet set (with Blakey, Horace Silver and Percy Heath) on which Davis runs a wide gamut from an outgoing, hard driving swing through roughly sketched, rather uncertain playing down to painfully poor. Early in 1953 Davis was reunited in a recording studio with Charlie Parker who played relatively The Records 83 undistinguished tenor saxophone on this occasion. The results, included in Miles Davis Collectors Items, Prestige 7044, again stress Davis' unpredict- ably erratic playing. Suggestions of the sparse, briefly ejaculated phrasing that was to become one of the hallmarks of his work within the next few years can be heard on these performances which are highlighted by the storming backing with which bassist Percy Heath urges on the soloists. This disk also offers a view of Davis in 1956 with Sonny Rollins and a rhythm section which further empha- sizes his development of a sketchy, spitballing at- tack. Two quartets, a 1953 group with John Lewis, Percy Heath and Max Roach, and the 1954 set-up with Silver, Heath and Blakey mentioned above, are featured on Blue Haze, Prestige 7054, on which Davis flows with lyrical ease at a fast tempo with the '53 foursome, manages to be clean and positive on a slow blues with the '54 group but then, turn- ing to a ballad, becomes drab and dismal. There is also one selection on this disk by a 1954 group with Dave Schildkraut on alto saxophone and a rhythm section made up of Silver, Heath and Clarke which swings with joyous exuberance, a quality which is carried over to selections from the same session on Walking Prestige 7076, reaching a high point on Love Me or Leave Me on which Davis hits fast and hard, making everything cleanly, and Silver roars through a furious solo. Davis' playing is equally certain and well directed on the remaining pieces on this disk, played in 1954 by a group which in- cludes J. J. Johnson and Lucky Thompson, whose tenor saxophone is uncharacteristically static. An- other 1954 session with Rollins, Silver, Heath and Clarke makes up one side of Bags' Groove, Prestige 7109, with Rollins swinging aggressively and warmly while Davis is relatively empty. The other side, made in the same year, is devoted to two long 84 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ takes of Bags' Groove on which Milt Jackson is working home territory, Thelonious Monk digs in hard at the piano and Davis' playing is firm and direct. Jackson is also present on Miles Davis All Star Sextet/Quintet, Prestige 7034, and his domi- nance of the disk is challenged only occasionally, not by Davis, but by pianist Ray Bryant. The Musings of Miles, Prestige 7007, introduces a precursor of the group with which Davis played during the latter Fifties. At this stage it was a quartet with Red Garland, piano, Philly Joe Jones, drums and, on the disk, Oscar Pettiford, bass (who was replaced by Paul Chambers when the quartet actually came into being). This disk is an inaus- picious prelude to the long-delayed flowering of Davis' equally long heralded talents. By 1956 the quartet had expanded to a quintet with the addition of John Coltrane's tenor saxophone. It made its re- cording debut on The New Miles Davis Quintet, Prestige 7014, with Davis in alert, sensitive form and Garland sprucing up the ballads with his light, rid- ing attack. On Cookin', Prestige 7094, Davis moves from his earlier coolness to a hard, fierce drive with Coltrane charging ruggedly at his side but Relaxing Prestige 7129, is far less interesting for Davis* play- ing is comparatively empty and Coltrane has en- tered his period of wrestling with his horn, seeming to gag on his own lines. Only the rhythm section sustains the earlier level. 'Round About Midnight, Columbia CL 949, is more of the same but Mile- stones, Columbia CL 1193, raises the personnel to sextet size with the accumulation of Julian Adder- ley on alto saxophone and presents a more assured and directly communicative Davis, minus the dif- fidence that obscured much of his earlier work. He had, at this point, returned to an association with Gil Evans, one result of which was Miles Ahead, Columbia CL 1041, for which Evans wrote arrangements for Davis (on fluegelhorn) and a big The Records 85 band in the calm, richly harmonic cool idiom that had been suggested on some of the 1948 nonet pieces. Evans' orchestrations are a constant delight on this disk, a sinuous kaleidoscope of shifting colors and accents over which Davis plays with much more certainty and direction than he had been showing in less firmly guided circumstances. The beneficial effect of a definite framework on Davis' playing can also be heard in his solos on Music for Brass, Columbia CL 941, on which he is the soloist in arrangements by John Lewis and J. J. Johnson. There is more than a suggestion in his playing on Milestones that he had found a new perspective in his playing as a result of his work with these two large groups. One selection by Davis is included in Jazz Omni- bus, Columbia CL 1020. Shelby Davis. Miss Davis has all sorts of impressive jazz backing for her singing of three selections on Singin' and Swinging Regent 6031 Bill Russo, Art Pepper, Bob Cooper, Shelly Manne and others but despite this support she is less a jazz singer than, potentially, a pleasant voice for an intimate night club. Wild Bill Davis. One of the pioneers in spreading the use of the electric organ in the Fifties, Davis flails away in an exuberant, hard swinging style that borders on rock 'n' roll on Wild Bill Davis at Birdland, Epic 3118, and switches to a rather bland style that is scarcely any more appealing on Eve- ning Concerto, Epic 3308. Rusty Dedrick. Although he comes out of a swing background and has something of the big, dark, trumpet tone of Bunny Berigan, Dedrick has ac- quired a modern surface that leaves him neither fish nor fowl. His feeling for the Berigan style 86 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ shows in his playing of 1 Can't Get Started on Salute to Bunny, Counterpoint 552, but the rest of the tribute stumbles in the modernized treat- ment that Dedrick gives to tunes associated with Berigan. Jack Keller, a light fingered pianist, and John LaPorta, playing an enthusiastically virile baritone saxophone, are much more to the point. Dedrick does much better in a situation in which there are no odious comparisons to be made, Counterpoint for Six Valves, Riverside 12-218, on which he romps through some bright, humorous two trumpet pieces with Don Elliott. He has one solo number in Jazz for Lovers, Riverside 12-244. Buddy De Franco. The theory that technical fa- cility results in good jazz a theory that has been disproved by quite a few pianists is also equally inapplicable to the clarinet as Buddy De Franco has been demonstrating for more than fifteen years. When he was playing with the bands of Gene Krupa, Charlie Barnet, Tommy Dorsey and Boyd Raeburn in the Forties, he was working in a setting and in a tradition in which his lack of real jazz warmth was not particularly noticeable for in the short solo stretches that were customary for side- men in such bands De Franco's clean, full tone and his precise fluency on his clarinet, coupled with the momentum of a big band, could mask his fail- ure to kindle a jazz feeling. Separated from this protective cocoon, however, and laid bare in long, long solos with little more than a rhythm section to support him, his chilly strictness and inability to communicate in jazz terms reduced his work to tiresome exhibitions of technique. Possibly his closest approach to a relaxed, unstarched jazz style occurs on Buddy De Franco and the Oscar Peterson Quartet, Verve 8210, in three selections on Cool and Quiet, Capitol T 371, and a pair of ballads on Cooking the Blues, Verve 8221. But there is a de- The Records 87 pressing and tedious similarity about almost all his other disks Buddy De Franco, MGM 3396; Buddy De Franco Quartet, Verve 8159; Autumn Leaves, Verve 8183; The Buddy De Franco Wallers, Verve 8175; and In a Mellow Mood, Verve 8169. Nor does the presence of a technically fluent musi- cian who can swing with feeling, Art Tatum, stimulate De Franco to follow his example on Tatum-De Franco Quartet, Verve 8229. On one side of Odalisque, Verve 8182, he is returned to the big band setting to no avail for the band plods listlessly through heavy-handed arrangements. A different big band setting, Cross Country Suite, Dot 9006, is an attempt by Nelson Riddle to catch the flavor of various sections of the United States, mix- ing folkish themes, jazz and a Hollywood sym- phonic concept. It is a suitable showcase for De Franco's virtuosity but the writing is so derivative that it tastes like warmed-over stew. On Buddy De Franco Plays Artie Shaw, Verve 2090, and Buddy De Franco Plays Benny Goodman, Verve 2089, the clarinetist casts a hopeful backward glance at two of his worthy predecessors. He makes no overt attempt to imitate either one but he fits most readily into the context of the Shaw pieces which hang together well. The Goodman selections lose their essential unity by being reduced to the role of undercarriage for a series of extended solos which might have come out of any blowing session. De Franco makes less ostensible efforts to be a jazz musician in the soft lushness of Sweet and Lovely, Verve 8224, in deliberate, string-backed per- formances on The George Gershwin Song Book, Verve 2022, and in Russell Garcia's slick, routine big band arrangements on Broadway Showcase, Verve 2033. He is buried under a vocal group on his contributions to Baker, Mulligan, De Franco, GNP 26, and behind the drumming of Art Blakey and Sabu in one selection of Afro-Drum Carnival, 88 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ GNP 25. He has one selection in Forty-Eight Stars of American Jazz, MGM 3611, and The Anatomy of Improvisation, Verve 8230. Angelo De Pippo. An accordionist who has an easy, gracious approach to modern jazz lines, De Pippo cushions them on the soft tones of the lower register of his instrument. On The Jazz Accordion, Apollo 478, he and flutist Sam Most spice what might be simply pleasant background quartet performances into a smooth-textured form of jazz. Paul Desmond. Desmond, a charter and seemingly life member of the Dave Brubeck Quartet, was often the saving grace of that group in the days before Joe Morello and Gene Wright joined up. Almost all of his recorded work has been with the Brubeck group with two notable exceptions: The Paul Desmond Quartet, Fantasy 3235, on which he repeatedly shows his rare talent for working out a really valid solo at some length (he is one of the very few jazzmen who can do this consistently), and Gerry Mulligan-Paul Desmond Quartet, Verve 8246, a furiously swinging affair in which Desmond, seemingly responding to Mulligan's strong solos, plays with a much more leathery attack than usual and manages to cut Mulligan through most of the disk. He and Mulligan also appear on Paul Des- mond Quintet, Fantasy 3220, but on separate sides. Jimmy Deuchar. This able but scarcely exceptional Scottish trumpeter leads a small group through a blowing session, Pub Crawling with Jimmy Deuchar, Contemporary 3529, which is interesting mainly for the amiably burr-toned trombone of Ken Wray. Jerry Dodgion. Even though he is an alto saxo- phonist who has obviously heard Charlie Parker, The Records 89 Dodgion manages to phrase in a swinging fashion that is not a slavish succession of Parkerisms. He is brightly himself in two quartet selections on Modern Music from San Francisco, Fantasy 3213, but a sextet which he leads jointly with fellow altoist Charlie Mariano gets trapped in some strange material songs of the World War I period treated in a modern jazz vein on Beauties of 1918, World Pacific 1245. Single selections from this ses- sion also appear on Have Blues, Will Travel, World Pacific JWC 509, and Jazz West Coast, Vol. 4, World Pacific JWC 510. Arne Donmerus. Domnerus is one of the hard-core veterans of Swedish modern jazz. He began his career on alto saxophone as a reflection of Benny Carter, then turned to Charlie Parker and latterly has returned to a well assimilated Carter style. Some of the best examples of Domnerus' suavely exciting alto playing are on Swedish Modern Jazz, Camden 417, on which he also plays an intriguing clarinet. He is heard in a modest but helpful role on Swedes from Jazzville, Epic 3309. Lou Donaldson. At a time when the jazz woods are full of well publicized alto saxophonists whose talents are only fair to middling, it is surprising that as polished and creative a performer as Donald- son should remain relatively obscure. He mixes a warm, full tone, remarkable dexterity and a roaring sense of swing but has little resort to stylistic crutches. He soars off at amazingly fast tempos with casual fluency, precise execution and neatly laid out ideas and, unlike most other neo-Parkerites, he can project a ballad with deeply felt expression. He is usually head and shoulders above the other horns with whom he records but on Lou Takes Off, Blue Note 1591, he has the cogent support of pianist Sonny Clark and bassist George Joyner while he is 90 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ joined by the driving piano of Horace Silver on Quartet, Quintet, Sextet, Blue Note 1537. He blithely overpowers an earthbound rhythm section on Wailing with Lou, Blue Note 1545, but a group of unrewarding selections finally slow him down on Swing and Soul, Blue Note 1566. Kenny Dorham. A trumpeter in the Dizzy Gillespie- Fats Navarro line, Dorham played with Gillespie's band in the Forties as well as those led by Billy Eckstine, Lionel Hampton and Mercer Ellington. From 1948 to 1950 he was a member of Charlie Parker's Quintet. He was one of the original mem- bers of the Jazz Messengers and pulled out of that group to form his own shortlived Jazz Prophets. He is capable of rough-toned, biting phrasing but his lines rarely go anywhere. The two recorded legacies of the Jazz Prophets Kenny Dorham and the Jazz Prophets, ABC-Paramount 122, and 'Round About Midnight at the Cafe Bohemia, Blue Note 1524 show Dorham as a routine performer leading a group which has no particular individuality. The same qualities characterize his other disks, none of them of any special interest Afro-Cuban, Blue Note 1535; Jazz Contrasts, Riverside 12-239; and Two Horns, Two Rhythm, Riverside 12-255. He has single selections in Jazz for Lovers, Riverside 12-244, and Riverside Drive, Riverside 12-267. Ray Draper. Born in 1940, Draper was making a name as a tuba player in jazz circles by the time he was sixteen. Possibly this was a mistake for it has resulted in placing the tuba in pointless promi- nence on Tuba Sound, Prestige 7096. Despite his best efforts, Draper's solos have no more jazz qualities than Tubby the Tuba does (and Tubby has other merits of his own). Kenny Drew. Drew is a swirling, lean pianist who phrases in consistently swinging fashion although The Records 91 his ideas are rather monotonous on The Kenny Drew Trio, Riverside 12-224. The addition of trumpeter Donald Byrd and tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley to his group on This Is New, River- side 12-236, fails to break the sameness of sound that dogs the first disk since all three become in- volved in tiresomely long solos which they cannot sustain. A suggestion that Drew's forte may be some- what beyond jazz is contained in The Modernity of Kenny Drew, Verve 8156, on which, playing with bass and drums, he varies his light, looping swingers with some pretty out-of-tempo pieces. Jazz Impressions of Pal Joey, Riverside 12-249, takes advantage of this aspect as Drew plays neat, orderly versions of the Rodgers and Hart tunes which stem logically from the originals. A Harry Warren Show- case, Judson 3004, A Harold Arlen Showcase, Jud- son 3005, and I Love Jerome Kern, Riverside 12-811, are done in a pleasant, straightforward pop vein with no special jazz flavor. Drew has single selec- tions in Jazz for Lovers, Riverside 12-244, and Riverside Drive, Riverside 12-267. Doug Duke. One of the first to try to make a jazz career on the organ, Duke has served with Lionel Hampton's band and has led his own trios. He moves between organ and piano on The Jazz Or- ganist, Regent 6013, but what ever jazz qualities he may have are thinly diluted on this disk. Dorothy Dunn. An undigested Sarah Vaughan in- fluence, some borrowings from Anita O'Day and a seemingly greater interest in doing vocal tricks than in singing a song effectively mark this singer's four contributions to Singin' and Swingin', Regent 6031. Eddie Duran. Duran can be a charmingly effective guitarist in a light, reflective manner (as he is as a part of The Vince Guaraldi Trio, Fantasy 3225) 92 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ but he is not quite strong enough to carry his own album, Jazz Guitarist, Fantasy 3247, in the face of heavy drumming and a hard-toned, static tenor saxophonist. Billy Eckstine. Between his career as a vocalist with the Earl Hines band of the early Forties which turned out to be an all-star bop school and his later career as a gaudily inflected crooner, Eckstine led one of the first big bop bands. His sidemen included Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Fats Navarro, Gene Ammons, Dexter Gordon and Art Blakey. This was a rough, enthusiastic band with much the same battering, lumbering attack that Gillespie's first big band had. Four poorly recorded pieces by the Eckstine band are on LP two on Boning Up on 'Bones, EmArcy 36083, both featuring hoarse valve trombone solos by Eckstine, and two more on Ad- vance Guard of the Forties, EmArcy 36016. Kurt Edelhagen. The highly polished, versatile and explosive German band molded by Edelhagen on the Ted Heath pattern is sparkingly crisp and swinging when it manages to avoid getting lost in its own high decibel count on Jazz from Germany, Decca 8231. Harry Edison. The biting, astringent trumpet of Harry Edison was a vital part of Count Basic's brass section in the glory days of the original Basic band. During the Fifties he has freelanced, mostly on the West Coast, and has made several recordings in company with other well-rooted jazzmen. On Sweets, Verve 8097, and Gee, Baby, Ain't I Good To You, Verve 8211, he is joined and all but outclassed by the eminent tenor saxophonist, Ben Webster, while on Buddy and Sweets, Verve 8129, Buddy Rich sets up a surging support for his crackling trumpet. The Records 93 Edison, who is particularly adept with mutes, plays with dark intensity on all three disks and further shows his skill with a mute on Tour De Force, Verve 8212, an unusual blowing session in that it is devoted to three trumpeters (Edison, Dizzy Gil- lespie and Roy Eldridge) all playing with mutes in a subdued, tight manner over swinging rhythm sup- port. A reunion between Edison and his old Basie- mate, Lester Young, on Pres and Sweets, Verve 8134, proves to be mutually depressing. He plays one selection on Solo Flight, World Pacific JWC 505. Don Elliott. Elliott's versatility is inclined to get in the way of his not inconsiderable abilities as a swinging, modern-surfaced jazz musician. He plays trumpet, mellophone, vibraphone, bongos, sings and does vocal take-offs. With all these possibilities at his beck and call, he often gets tied up in gim- micky ideas. For jazz, his best instrument is the mellophone although he is also a capable vibra- phonist and, at times, a more than serviceable trumpeter. He shows up well on all three instru- ments on one side of Doubles in Jazz, Vanguard 8522 (shared with Sam Most), on which he has the lifting help of Ellis Larkins' light, swinging piano. He is more erratic as a triple-threat on Vib-Rations, Savoy 12054. For several years during the middle Fifties Elliott led a quartet which was usually made up of Bob Corwin, piano, Ernie Furtado, bass, and Jimmy Campbell, drums. It was a cohesive group which has a light and airy way on Don Elliott at the Modern Jazz Room, ABC-Paramount 142, but Bob Corwin Quartet (actually the Elliott quartet), River- side 12-220, is less successful because Elliott plays trumpet throughout and is constantly outswung by Corwin. The Quartet is in fine fettle on a couple of selections on The Voice of Marty Bell, The Quartet of Don Elliott, Riverside 12-206, but most 94 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ of the time it is buried behind Bell, a shallow, straining singer who sounds somewhat like Jackie Paris. The Quartet's appearance at Newport in 1957 is reported on Eddie Costa, Mat Mat hews and Don Elliott at Newport, Verve 8287. Elliott's mellophone is neatly showcased in well organized, rhythmic arrangements by Quincy Jones on A Musical Offering, ABC-Paramount 106, and on Don Elliott, Bethlehem 12, although the latter is largely in the mood music vein. He plays an amusing and invigorating group of trumpet duets with Rusty Dedrick on Counter- point for Six Valves, Riverside 12-218, and, shift- ing to a different kind of gimmick, is multi-taped into a choral group and a band on The Voices of Don Elliott, ABC-Paramount 190. The choral group is for real on The Mello Sound, Decca 9208, but the soothing music that Elliott creates with these singers has scarcely a shred of jazz in it. Music of the Sensational Sixties, Design 69, announced on the liner as "a step beyond progressive jazz" may be precisely that (who knows?) but if it is then the step beyond "progressive" jazz is a mixture of adolescent-voiced crooning a la Elliott set in quiet, conservative arrangements. Like almost everyone else, Elliott has taken a whack at a show score. His Jamaica Jazz, ABC- Paramount 228, is one of the more rational transla- tions of Broadway to jazz. Harold Arlen's blues and calypso accented music for Jamaica has been thoughtfully and modestly arranged by Gil Evans, using a small woodwind group and the conga drum of Candido to form an effective setting for Elliott's full arsenal of instruments mellophone, vibra- phone, marimba, trumpet and bongos. As usual, he comes out best on mellophone. Elliott has single selections in Jazz for Lovers, Riverside 12-244, Riverside Drive, Riverside 12-267, and Concert Jazz, Brunswick 54027. The Records 95 Herb Ellis. In the guitar slot which he held for many years with the Oscar Peterson trio, Ellis has often affected a rackety, tinny style that suggested a call to arms to the hill people. Yet the two LPs which have appeared under his name, Ellis in Wonderland, Verve 8171, and Nothing But the Blues, Verve 8252, are both remarkably warm, well directed disks. On the first assisted by Harry Edison and Jimmy Giuffre, his guitar is cushioned on a relatively rich ensemble. Most of the selections are in a quiet, swinging vein, pleasantly unpretentious and enlivened by sly ensemble and solo ideas. On the second disk his front line companions are Roy Eldridge and Stan Getz. The selections range from 'way back, low down blues riffs to light, lilting swingers. Ellis is a consistently bright and driving element on his own and when he is supporting Getz's modest but wonderfully pulsant solos. Frans Elsen. This Dutch pianist, a man of ap- parently limited intentions, paws listlessly through several surface pieces on Jazz Behind the Dikes, Epic 3270. Rolf Ericson. For most of the past decade Sweden's Rolf Ericson has been an international commuter and has worked with several big American bands (Charlie Barnet, Woody Herman, Harry James, Les Brown). He can be a forceful big band trumpet man but he is a fuzzy, incoherent element in the otherwise interesting American small group he leads on Rolf Ericson and His American All-Stars, Em- Arcy 36106. Bill Evans. One of the most effective members of the growing school of pianists who work in a dark, minor, folk-rooted manner, Evans resorts to a glib chomp-chomping surface on much of his only solo disk, New Jazz Conceptions, Riverside 12-223, mak- 96 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ ing it less distinctive than his work on other oc- casions would lead one to expect. Gil Evans. The seemingly unlikely background of apprenticeship with Skinnay Ennis and Claude Thornhill has brought to modern jazz one of its most provocative arrangers Gil Evans. Evans began moving from the dance band field to jazz while he was arranging for Thornhill in the late Forties when he contributed some Charlie Parker pieces to the Thornhill library (The Thornhill Sound, Har- mony 7088). His contributions to the Miles Davis nonet (The Birth of the Cool, Capitol T 762) with their floating, shifting panels of tonal colors, a heritage from the Thornhill band, focused atten- tion on him as a jazz influence, an influence which has grown through the years even though Evans himself chose to withdraw from jazz during the first half of the Fifties. When he returned, he again worked with Davis, writing arrangements in his calm, richly harmonic style for a big band which forms the framework for Davis* fluegelhorn solos on Miles Ahead, Columbia CL 1041. He provided a sinuous kaleidoscope of shifting colors and accents over which Davis plays with a certainty and direc- tion that are not always present in less firmly guided circumstances. In his debut as a leader, Gil Evans and Ten, Prestige 7120, Evans shows a stronger sense of overt swing than one finds in his earlier work in a varied group of arrangements played by an alert, responsive group which includes among its more notable soloists soprano saxophon- ist Steve Lacy, trumpeter Jake Koven and Evans himself who plays a very high, plinking, single note piano style. Evans' most brilliant display as both arranger and leader, however, is New Bottle Old Wine, World Pacific 1246, a disk which might be consid- ered a summation of jazz seen through the personal The Records 97 perspective of Evans. He has orchestrated for a big band tunes representative of both the old and the new eras of jazz St. Louis Blues, King Porter Stomp, Fats Waller's lovely Willow Tree, Struttin' with Some Barbecue, Lester Leaps In, Round About Midnight, Manteca and Charlie Parker's Bird Feathers skillfully fusing the original spirit of each piece with his own distinctive style. In the process he has drawn from his featured soloist, alto saxophonist Julian Adderley, some of his most consistently expressive playing playing that is more concerned with solid meat and less with floridity than Adderley's sometimes is. Tal Farlow. Farlow's early indication that he had a more adventurous attitude toward the electric guitar than most of his fellow guitarists (he includes echoes of Django Reinhardt along with the in- evitable Charlie Christian) are demonstrated in the varied program that makes up The Tal Farlow Album, Verve 8138. Since then, however, he seems to have been content to grind out one album after another with piano, bass and drums, mostly done in uptempos. The lack of variety in tone, texture and tempo makes The Interpretations of Tal Far- low, Verve 8011, and The Artistry of Tal Farlow, Verve 8184, needlessly dull while The Swinging Guitar, Verve 8201, and Tal, Verve 8021, are bright- ened by occasional refreshingly sunny break- throughs by Eddie Costa's hot-blooded, wallopingly percussive piano. It is also refreshing to find Far- low working with an ensemble (trombone and two saxophones) on A Recital by Tal Farlow, Verve 8123, but the pleasure is only momentary for these soon turn into a trudging set of performances. Art Farmer* In the past year Farmer has stepped out from the rut of sheltered, pigeon-holed, one- style trumpeters to become that rarity a jazz musi- 98 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ cian almost without school ties. He has reached a level of assurance, skill and flexibility which make him capable of playing practically anything unusu- ally well, with thoughtfulness and sensitivity. His very flexibility, however, has its drawbacks for he tends to play within the context of whatever group or situation he finds himself in. Thus in such routine blowing sessions as Two Trumpets, Prestige 7062, (Donald Byrd being the other trumpet), Three Trumpets, Prestige 7092, (add Idrees Sulieman) and The Art Farmer Quintet, Prestige 7017, he settles for the least common denominator. If there is to be any rising above this, it is not done by Farmer (pianist Duke Jordan brightens parts of The Art Farmer Quintet). Even when he is with a distinctly superior jamming group on Earthy, Prestige 7102, his playing is only routine while guitarist Kenny Burrell and pianist Mai Waldron show what can be done positively within the limitations of such performances. Farmer showed flashes of promise on some of his earliest recordings, made with some men from Lionel Hampton's band in which he was resident in 1953. They are included in The Art Farmer Septet, Prestige 7031, a disk which is filled out by an uneven 1954 group which is of interest primarily for Horace Silver's pungent piano work. In sessions recorded in 1954 and 1955 on When Farmer Met Gryce, Prestige 7085, the promising flashes continue as Fanner reaches out but does not yet seem en- tirely certain of his direction. It is on his most recent disks that Farmer gives evidence of coming firmly into his own although he is not always fortunate in his surroundings. Leading a quartet on Portrait of Art Farmer, Con- temporary 3554, for example, he has moments when he rears back and lets fly with full-throated vitality but he spends a great deal of time probing around as though he were waiting for something to happen. The Records 99 Except for some ballads, his work stays on a more consistent level on Modern Art, United Artists 4007, but the record as a whole is an in-and-out affair, marred by Benny Golson's newly acquired lean- ing toward the many noted, flamboyant school of hard bop tenor saxophonists. Farmer's Market, Prestige 8203, provides further evidence of Farmer's forceful assurance and his sure sense of construction but Hank Mobley's tenor saxophone is tiresomely limited. An attempt to put Farmer in a setting something like that provided for Bobby Racket by Jackie Gleason's string groups, Last Night When We Were Young, ABC-Paramount 200, allows Farmer to show a bigger, darker sound than one normally associates with him but this soggy approach to ballads is not his forte. Victor Feldman. An Englishman of many talents (vibes, piano and drums are his principal outlets) Feldman was introduced to the United States as a vibist with Woody Herman's band in the middle Fifties. He has since settled in California and can be heard as a sideman on numerous recordings made there. He plays all three of his main instru- ments on Suite Sixteen, Contemporary 3541, re- corded while he was still in England, as he leads a shouting, boiling big band, a subdued, reflective quartet, and a septet. His deliberately precise way of playing vibes is well framed by the quartet on this disk but on The Arrival of Victor Feldman, Con- temporary 3549, his first American LP, he shows up best as a hard hitting, forceful pianist. Much of his work on vibes on this disk is overshadowed by Scott LaFaro, a bassist whose strong firm lines be- come overbearing in this context. Maynard Ferguson. Ferguson's ability to blast his way around the upper reaches of the trumpet 100 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ helped him gain attention when he came to the United States in 1948 after leading his own band in Canada. But spearing high notes for Stan Kenton, Charlie Barnet and Jimmy Dorsey did not help him to develop as a jazz musician. Recordings made with his own large and small groups since 1954 show he has been slowly moving in this direction. He still has difficulty resolving a trumpet solo without reaching for dogs 1 ears but in the naturally lower tones of valve trombone, bass trumpet and even muted trumpet he is becoming a balanced and pleasantly earthy jazz performer. At best, Ferguson is erratic inconsistent but full of fire on Around the Horn, EmArcy 36076, May- nard Ferguson Octet, EmArcy 36021, and Boy with Lots of Brass, EmArcy 36114. His big band, which shares most of Ferguson's merits and demerits, gives an indication of being able to do more than merely erupt on A Message from Newport, Roulette 52012. Ferguson is the empty high-noter on Jam Session, EmArcy 36002, Jam Session, EmArcy 36009, Dimen- sions, EmArcy 36044, and Hollywood Party, Em- Arcy 36046. He contributes one undistinguished selection to Bargain Day, EmArcy 36087. Jerry Fielding. An arranger and band leader who works the West Coast TV and recording studio circuit, Fielding leads a crisp, polished and lightly swinging band on Jerry Fielding Plays a Dance Concert, Kapp 1026, Fielding s Formula, Decca 8450, and Sweet with a Beat, Decca 8100. Although Swingin f in Hi-Fi, Decca 8371, is subtitled "Rock 'n' Roll Matriculates" it actually consists of pleas- ant, unostentatious big band pieces played with a definite beat but not beaten to death. The oc- casional quirks of imaginative arranging which peek through Fielding's big band work takes com- mand on Hollywoodwind Jazztet, Decca 8669, an unusual and interesting use of a woodwind group The Records 101 which is not strongly touched by jazz but is very attractive dancing chamber music. Herbie Fields. A capable jazzman on all the reeds, Fields had some of Charlie Barnet's fire and drive, some of Flip Phillips' swinging flow but, to offset these merits, a deplorable lack of taste. This lack reduces A Night at Kitty's, RKO-Unique 124, to utter banality and makes his side of Blow Hot, Blow Cool, Decca 8130, much less bearable than it could have been. The First Modern Piano Quartet. The Quartet is made up of pianists who are known primarily as jazzmen (Dick Marx, Eddie Costa, Hank Jones and Johnny Costa). On A Gallery of Gershwin, Coral 59102, they are working within orchestral arrange- ments written and conducted by another jazz- oriented musician, Manny Albam, but the result is only peripherally jazz. Except when one of the pianists moves out from the quartet as a soloist, this might be classified as mood music or light con- cert music, although a superior brand of either. Tommy Flanagan. Flanagan, a pianist, is one of the multitude of prominent jazzmen of the Fifties who grew up and began his career in Detroit. He shifted to New York in 1956 and, since then, has provided some refreshing piano interludes on nu- merous recorded blowing sessions. Like most of his American recordings, Jazz . . . It's Magic, Regent 6055, Jazzmen: Detroit, Savoy 12083, and All Day Long, Prestige 7081, show him to be a pleasant pianist who swings along easily within a limited area. In view of this, The Tommy Flanagan Trio Overseas, Prestige 7134, is something of a revela- tion. On this recording, made in Stockholm in 1957 with Wilbur Ware, bass, and Elvin Jones, drums, 102 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Flanagan reveals previously unsuspected strength and vitality, a warm, full, punching attack that suggests he should be released from the bondage of horn surroundings more often. Med Flory. In both Jazz Wave, Jubilee 1066, and four selections in Modern Jazz Gallery, Kapp KXL 5001, Flory's big band jumps with signs of rugged enthusiasm but leans more on blast than swing. Frank Foster- One of the two Franks who have had long tenure in the reed section of the current Basic band (Frank Wess is the other), Foster is a less consistent performer than Wess. His playing on tenor saxophone on a single selection on Montage, Savoy 12029, is rounded and gracious, projected with vitality and vigor. But he is pushing and strident through most of Wail, Frank, Wail, Pres- tige 7021, while on Jazz Studio 2, Decca 8058, he contributes to the undistinguished series of solos which make up the two very long selections to which the disk is devoted. He has one number on Jazz Is Busting Out All Over, Savoy 12123. Stan Free. Chris Connor's able piano accompanist plays a glib set of familiar sounding "originals" on Free for All, King 524. They barely suggest the warmer, deeper work of which he is capable. Russ Freeman. Freeman is one of the founding fathers of the West Coast school of glassy-eyed, ball- bearing piano men but when he gets away from fast tempos he plays with a good show of sensi- tivity. Some examples of his early mechanical sheen are found on one side of Richard Twardzik Trio, World Pacific 1212, (shared with Twardzik, of course) but on Russ Freeman and Chet Baker Quartet, World Pacific 1232, he digs into the earthier regions of jazz. On Double Play!, Con- The Records 103 temporary 3537, he joins with Andre Previn in a set of duets rolled out in long, dark-toned lines which gallop Curiously at fast tempos and produce blues with a sophisticated veneer. Freeman trips lightly through two selections on Jazz Swings Broad- way, World Pacific 404; he has two entries on Jazz West Coast, Vol. 3, World Pacific JWC 507, and one each in Jazz West Coast, Vol. 2, World Pacific JWC 501, The Blues, World Pacific JWC 502, Pian- ists Galore, World Pacific JWC 506, Solo Flight, World Pacific JWC 505, and Have Blues, Will Travel, World Pacific JWC 509. Stan Freeman. Although primarily a slick pianist- entertainer, Freeman gives two Broadway show scores a light jazz veneer on The Music Man, Columbia CL 1120, and Oh, Captain!, Columbia CL 1126. He works his more customary vein on Manhattan, Epic 3114, Stan Freeman at the Blue Angel, Epic 3224, and Thirty All-Time Hits, Har- mony 7067. John Frigo. Once a member of a lightly swinging group called The Soft Winds (which, earlier, had been the rhythm section of Jimmy Dorsey's or- chestra), Frigo is primarily a bassist but he is also a violinist of unusual warmth and quirksome in- ventiveness. On I Love John Frigo . . . He Swings, Mercury 20285, his playing is a constant delight urgently rhythmic, subtle, melodic and with none of the harshness that Stuff Smith has associated with jazz violin. He plays a little fiddle (and only second fiddle to pianist Dick Marx) on Dick Marx and Johnny Frigo, Coral 57088. Tony Fruscella. The wan, withdrawn uncertain quality of Chet Baker's trumpet is used to even less effect by Fruscella on Tony Fruscella, Atlantic 1220, on which he is faced with the striking con- 104 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ trast of Allen Eager's strong, assured tenor saxo- phone. Curtis Fuller. A Detroit product, Fuller has gradu- ally been unfreezing his trombone style in the course of a brief recording career in the latter Fifties. The fiat, rough tone and labored, staccato style he showed on his first disks The Opener, Blue Note 1567, and New Trombone, Prestige 7107 give way to a smoother, breezier approach on Bone and Bart, Blue Note 1572, and positive evidence of outgoing vitality on Monday Night at Birdland, Roulette 52015. If he keeps on developing, it might be only polite to overlook all these early disks. Barry Galbraith. Galbraith's clean-lined, precise and propulsive guitar is supported on Guitar and the Wind, Decca 9200, by three different groups one dominated by four trombones, one with four reeds, and a third made up of guitar, flute and rhythm. The two latter groups lean toward a lan- guid preciosity that Galbraith is not always able to overcome but he is thoroughly at home in the forthright, bouncing company of the trombones. He has single entries in The Mellow Moods of Jazz, Victor LPM 1365, and After Hours Jazz, Epic 3339. Freddie Gambrell. Introducing Freddie Gambrell, World Pacific 1242, is attributed to the Chico Hamilton Trio but this is mere window dressing which serves to launch this impressive young blind pianist. Supported by Hamilton on drums and Ben Tucker, bass, Gambrell has the disk to himself, showing a very rhythmic, percussive style with an appealingly dark, blues-bred texture and good structural sense. He swings powerfully at moder- ately fast tempos and on ballads reveals his deriva- tions most clearly for he has a fondness for stating a melody with a wry, Monkian twist, for occasional The Records 105 splashes of Garner's ripe orchestral explosions and for excursions into Tatum-like displays of facility. Dick Garcia. Garcia's guitar is relatively unimpres- sive on A Message from Garcia, Dawn 1106, espe- cially when it is at close quarter with Tony Scott's lithe clarinet, and he wanders through four empty duets with guitarist Joe Puma on The Four Most Guitars, ABC-Paramount 109. Russ Garcia. A West Coast jack-of-all-arrangements, Garcia leads a shouting big band which strings ade- quate solos on a sketchy framework on four selec- tions in Modern Jazz Gallery, Kapp KXL 5001. Ralph Gari. Gari plays alto saxophone, clarinet, oboe, and flute on Ralph Gari, EmArcy 36019, emerging as a musician with a legitimate sound who can swing nicely on alto in the clean, sweeping Benny Carter manner. But he also plays all those other instruments and he has chosen rather pre- tentious small group settings in which to do it. Red Garland. In a quiet, unobtrusive way, Garland has carved out a niche for himself as a pianist whose imagination, taste and swinging strength are extremely consistent. Much of his playing time has been spent buried behind the fireworks of Miles Davis' group but when he works on disks with only bass and drums he comes into his own. He has some of the broad appeal of Enroll Garner, though none of Garner's stylistic devices, on A Garland of Red, Prestige 7064, Red Garland's Piano, Prestige 7086, Groovy, Prestige 7113, and Manteca, Prestige 7139. On the latter his trio is implemented by the invigorating accents of Ray Barretto's conga drum. John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio, Pres- tige 7123, and All Mornin' Long, Prestige 7130, intersperse several exceptionally worthwhile Gar- 106 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ land passages with Coltrane's strident tenor saxo- phone solos. One drawback that runs through all of Garland's disks is the inordinate length of the selec- tions. Enroll Garner. A self-taught pianist who cannot read music, Garner has worked a magpie's collec- tion of ideas, habits and devices into an overall style that has proven enormously appealing to both jazz and non-jazz audiences alike. His approach, like that of most basic jazz pianists, is orchestral. He is fond of big, splashy, voluminous chords, sud- den and dramatic contrasts in texture and tempo, and a silky romanticism straight out of Debussy. Within this framework and bouyed on a rhythmic projection that is one of the most compelling in any jazz era, he works out developments of popular tunes and his own Debussy-touched compositions with percussive single-note phrases, the bright, strutting chords brought to jazz by Earl Hines, and, at times, an exaggeration of the jazzman's technique of playing behind the beat which typifies his strong sense of the theatrical. Since the middle Forties he has poured out more solo records than any other jazz pianist, maintain- ing a surprisingly consistent level of performance although many of his earlier disks are atrocious examples of the recordings engineer's craft. His best work will be found on Columbia, starting with a disk that has stood up for several years as the definitive example of Garner's playing, Concert by the Sea, Columbia CL 883. The program for this concert is varied and representative of Garner, the recording is excellent and Garner is at the top of his form gay, romantic, pulsating, quirksome and completely winning. Erroll Garner, Columbia CL 535, marked his release from the 78 rpm three-minute straitjacket and he made the most of it with six brilliantly realized performances while The Most Happy Pi- The Records 107 ano, Columbia CL 939, is still another serving of topnotch Garner capped by a magnificent ballad performance of Time on My Hands. Paris Impres- sions, Columbia C2L-9, a two-disk set, might have been edited down into a single satisfying LP but as it is there are too many soft spots when Garner is wrestling futilely with songs which have ap- parently been included only because they have French references in their lyrics and when he in- vestigates a harpsichord with clangorous results. Simply satisfactory and generally well recorded are Erroll Garner Gems, Columbia CL 583, Gone Garner Gonest, Columbia CL 617, Erroll Garner Plays for Dancing, Columbia CL 667, Contrasts, EmArcy 36001, Garnering, EmArcy 36026. Since Mambo Moves Garner, Mercury 20055, is devoted to mambos it is of less jazz interest. On all of these disks he is accompanied by bass and drums which give him a freedom that is miss- ing from his unaccompanied solos on Soliloquy, Columbia CL 1060, Erroll Garner, EmArcy 36069, Afternoon of an Elf. Mercury 20090, and Solitaire, Mercury 20063. Another venture away from his customary trio set-up, Other Voices, Columbia CL 1014, involves the pianist with a large orchestra conducted by Mitch Miller playing arrangements written by Garner (written? well, he played out each part on the piano and Nat Pierce took it all down and assembled the pieces). The effect, at best, is that of the usual solo Garner surrounded by a wall of luminous sound which melts the sharp, clean edge of his playing. Garner-on-the-rocks is definitely a more stimulating experience than this frothy Pink Lady. On Music for Tired Lovers, Columbia CL 651, Garner's trio backs Woody Herman's lazy-daisy vocals on a set of ballads. The Greatest Garner, Atlantic 1227, Penthouse Serenade, Savoy 12002, Serenade to Laura, Savoy 12003, Back to Back, Savoy 12002 (shared with 108 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Billy Taylor), Giants of the Piano, Roost 2213 (shared with Art Tatum), Err oil Garner, Rondo- lette 15, three selections in Night Music for Stay at Homes, Coral 57040, two selections in Modern Jazz Piano, Camden 384, four selections in Piano Varia- tions, King 540, and one each in Great Jazz Pian- ists, Camden 328, Encyclopedia of Jazz on Records, Vol. 4, Decca 8401, and Operation Jazz, Roost OJ1, are LP repressings of his earlier work, adequately recorded. Jazz Piano, Grand Award 33-321 (shared with Pete Johnson) is a good example of the dread- ful recording Garner has sometimes been subjected to. Early Err oil, Concert Hall 1269, is taken from informally made tapes and, in general, sounds like that. Selections by Garner are also included in $64,000 Jazz, Columbia CL 777, Jazz Omnibus, Columbia CL 1020, For Jazz Lovers, EmArcy 38086, Bargain Day, EmArcy 36087, and Giants of Jazz, Vol. 2, EmArcy 36049. Morris Garner. Jokes are perpetrated so infre- quently in current jazz that possibly one should not quibble when one comes along. The Worst of Morris Garner, Thunderbird 1958, is a perceptive collection of Enroll Garner's self-made cliches per- formed with a casually skillful clumsiness that sug- gests this is the work of an expert pair of hands. There are some funny moments but the joke is too slim and repetitious to be spread over a twelve- inch LP. Matthew Gee. Gee's serviceable if undistinguished trombone is heard with a pair of neat, rhythmically churning groups on Jazz by Gee!, Riverside 12-221, which is worth hearing for the excellent rhythm section driven by bassist John Simmons. Herb Geller. Geller is a heated, moving alto saxo- phonist with a sound sense of structure and a good The Records 109 range of moods. He is far above his associates on Herb Geller Plays, EmArcy 36045, The Herb Geller Sextette, EmArcy 36040, and Fire in the West, Jubilee 1044. In somewhat sturdier company on Jazz Studio 2, Decca 8079, he plays with suave inven- tion. A long blowing session, Best Coast Jazz, Em- Arcy 36039, buries any form or ideas he may have intended to offer. Eddie Getz. Getz is an alto saxophonist who has found that it is possible to play modern jazz with- out bowing too deeply to Charlie Parker. He swings along gracefully in a light, easy, sweeping style but on Eddie Getz Quintette, MGM 3462, he has to carry a desultory group and a lot of dull material. Stan Getz. Getz has done something that is almost unique in modern jazz: Starting with the tenor saxophone style of Lester Young, he absorbed it and adapted it (partly by cross-breeding it with the feathery Lee Konitz alto approach) to create an individual style which, in turn, became enor- mously influential on succeeding tenor men. Starting in his middle teens, he spent five years with a number of big bands (Bob Chester, Stan Kenton, Benny Goodman) before he came through as an individual with Woody Herman's band in 1947. By then he had developed his drifting, cool sound which, in the next few years, often became so lan- guid that it bogged down from lack of momentum. During much of the Fifties Getz was an erratic performer as he went through a period of unkempt personal problems but by the latter part of the decade he was reasserting himself as a strong, swing- ing voice in jazz. One of his most completely satisfying disks is West Coast Jazz, Verve 8028, made by a group which existed for a week in the summer of 1955 (Conte Candoli, trumpet, Lou Levy, piano, Leroy 110 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Vinnegar, bass, Shelly Manne, drums). Getz is at the very peak of his abilities on Shine, a perform- ance that is freshly inventive, lustily swinging and developed with polish and drive. The opposite side of Getz's coin the calmer, lyric side is beautifully expressed on Suddenly It's Spring. Two years later, teamed with trombonist J. J. Johnson on a Jazz at the Philharmonic tour, they both play with un- expectedly irresistible gusto on Stan Getz and J. J. Johnson at the Opera House, Verve 8265, while on Cal Tjader-Stan Getz Sextet, Fantasy 3266, he leads a giddy headlong chase through a glorious nine- minute set-to, Ginza. Of his earlier records, the best selections will be found in The Stan Getz Quintet at Storyville, Roost 2209, and Stan Getz at Storyville, Vol. 2, Roost 2225, both played by the same light and airy group. Getz's playing has strength and cohe- siveness as he is spurred on by the challenge of guitarist Jimmy Raney and pianist Al Haig and given sound support by Tiny Kahn on drums and Teddy Kotick, bass. Getz's trips to Sweden have inspired at least two good sets of recordings. In Stockholm, Verve 8213, catches him playing effort- lessly, with spirit and with a suaveness of tone that is not marred by the fudginess that often dims his playing, and one side of The Sound, Roost 2207, is, thanks to the presence of the Swedish pianist, Bengt Hallberg (who plays on both disks) generally satis- factory. This last disk is filled out with work by two inconsequential Getz quartets. Of his other early disks, Getz is fuzzy to the point of incoherence on Stan Getz Quartets, Prestige 7002 two more selections from this same period are included on Conception, Prestige 7013 and he is cleaner and firmer but lacking in invention in four selections on both Opus de Bop, Savoy 12114, and Lestorion Mode, Savoy 12105, as well as in two selections in Tenor Sax, Concord 3012. S tan Getz The Records 111 and the Cool Sounds, Verve 8200, is a miscellany of 1950 recordings by three different but equally dis- mal and dragging groups. A quintet which featured valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer runs from undistinguished to good, with both Getz and Brookmeyer contributing a fair share to each quality, on More West Coast Jazz, Verve 8177, Interpretations by the Stan Getz Quin- tet, Verve 8122, and Stan Getz at the Shrine, Verve 8188-2. Teaming with Dizzy Gillespie on Diz and Getz, Verve 8141, Getz is in brisk and spirited form and manages to hold his own with Gillespie except at very fast tempos but he is much less successful when Sonny Stitt joins them on For Musicians Only, Verve 8198. In this sharply cutting company, Getz retires to lifeless runs. On the other hand, on Sittin' In, Verve 8225, with the challenges coming from Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins and Paul Gon- salves, Getz dances lightly and easily in contrast to the pressing, shrill playing of Hawkins and the pushing strain of Gonsalves. Facing a very different type of trumpeter, Chet Baker, on Stan Meets Chet, Verve 8263, Getz plays with easy lyricism although a great deal of space is wasted on a ballad medley. On one side of Getz Meets Mulligan in Hi-Fi, Verve 8249, he switches saxophones with Gerry Mulligan, a pointless bit of nonsense, but on the other side, getting back to business on his tenor, Getz soars through a long and magnificent solo on This Can't Be Love. In still another meeting, Stan Getz and the Oscar Peterson Trio, Verve 8251, he has some thoughtfully lyrical moments but much of this disk is pap. Getz contributes four perfunctory pieces to Tenors, Anyone?, Dawn 1126, and one each to The Playboy Jazz Allstars, Playboy 1957, Verve Compendium of Jazz $1, Verve 8194, Roost Fifth Anniversary Album, Roost 1201, and Opera- tion Jazz, Roost OJ1. 112 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Terry Gibbs. Gibbs is one of the blithest, most out- going performers in current jazz, a vibraphonist whose basis is a driving beat, who phrases in a rollicking, spirited manner and who can, when called on," settle into a rationally rhythmic ballad groove. For a short time in the Fifties he headed an excellent quartet made up of Terry Pollard, piano, Herman Wright, bass, and Bert Dahlander, drums, a group which plays a superb set on Terry Gibbs, EmArcy 36047, and Mallets A-Plenty, EmArcy 36075 (with Jerry Segal replacing Dahlander). Gibbs shows an imagination that bubbles along without getting entangled in fripperies but it is Miss Pollard, an incisive pianist who generates tremendous excitement as she builds her solos, who raises both disks to exceptional heights. On Terry Gibbs Plays the Duke, EmArcy 36128, Gibbs finds another excellent foil in Pete Jolly, playing ac- cordion, who lays down a long, soft carpet for Gibbs, prods and punches through every apparent opening in Gibbs' faster lines and swings out in warm and striking fashion on his own. For Swingin' with Terry Gibbs, EmArcy 36103, he is surrounded by a big band that plays with the kind of hungry, driving shout that rarely comes out of a well-fed studio band. There is evidence of Gibbs' tremendous drive on Newport '58, EmArcy 36141, but it leads nowhere and although he teams with mellophonist Don Elliott on one roaring swinger on Jazztime, U.S.A., Vol. 1, Brunswick 54000, his other two selections on this disk are trivial and so are his three offerings on Jazztime, U.SA., Vol. 2, Brunswick 54002. A mish- mash of groups make up Terry, Brunswick 54007 a quartet with some rolling Terry Pollard piano, a savagely swinging sextet piece with Zoot Sims, and some lump, thumpy big band selections. Vibes on Velvet, EmArcy 36064, is Gibbs in an unbe- coming mood music setting. His two selections in The Records 113 Swing . . . Not Spring, Savoy 12062, are burdened by a leaden rhythm section. Gibbs has single pieces in The Encyclopedia of Jazz on Records, Vol. 4, Decca 8401, For Jazz Lovers, EmArcy 36086, and Bargain Day, EmArcy 36086. Dizzy Gillespie. If Charlie Parker can be identified as the theorizer who spurred modern jazz into be- ing, Gillespie was the organizer and arranger who brought order to Parker's ideas. Like Parker, Gil- lespie's musical career goes back to the heart of the Swing Era when he was with Teddy Hill's band (Kenny Clarke was the drummer) and with Cab Galloway. Starting with a style based on that of Roy Eldridge, Gillespie gradually forged an attack that was his own but which stemmed from Eldridge in the same way that Eldridge drew on Louis Arm- strong. There are some shadowy samples of Gilles- pie's playing in this formative stage on Harlem Jazz Scene: 1941, Esoteric 548, but his influential playing at the height of the development of bop is best summed up on Groovin' High, Savoy 12020, which includes Blue 'n f Boogie from his first small group session, five now classic pieces with Charlie Parker, a pair with Milt Jackson and five selections by his early big band (Dizzy Gillespie, Rondolette 11, duplicates this disk with two changes Salt Peanuts and Emanon are on the Savoy but not on the Rondolette which replaces them with two less interesting pieces, Good Dues Blues and He Beeped When He Shoulda Bopped). Gillespie, Parker and Jackson are consistently good but the stodginess of the big band's ensembles is increased by muffled recording. The same is true of a 1949 recording of St. Louis Blues by this same band, in- cluded in Fourteen Blue Roads to St. Louis, Victor LPM 1714. A later and much more flexible big band which Gillespie led during 1956 and 1957 has at least one tie to the earlier band the heavy, 114 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ muffled recording which coats its work on World Statesman, Verve 8174, Dizzy in Greece, Verve 8017, Birks Works, Verve 8222, and Dizzy Gillespie at Newport, Verve 8242. The most representative of these disks is the Newport recording for the band plays with raucous zest a little uncouth at times but, as mehitabel was wont to say, "wotthehell, wotthehell." World Statesman is rooted in a rock- ing, swinging beat although occasionally there is a shift to a more legato rhythm on which the band creates a rich, smooth sauce for Gillespie's tart trumpet and while there is a furious excitement about much of Dizzy in Greece, it is touched with traces of the banal side of Gillespie's humor. Birks Works is apparently a collection of leftover odds and ends which makes a spotty program. So is Jazz Recital, Verve 8173, half of which is devoted to vocals by Gillespie, Toni Harper and Herb Lance. In a different big band situation, Gillespie is the soloist on Manteca, Verve 8208, in arrangements by Chico O'Fairill. One side is devoted to OTarrill's Manteca Suite, an overblown series of variations on Gillespie's Manteca which provides him with a field day. The original piece as played by Gillespie's own band is included in Afro-Drum Carnival, GNP 25, a shrill recording. Like most other modern jazz stars, Gillespie has been backed with vast arrays of strings to practi- cally no avail. Johnny Richards adds brass to the strings on Diz Big Band, Verve 8178, and on eight selections in The Dizzy Gillespie Story, Savoy 12110 (the rest of this disk is made up of poorly recorded but swinging pieces by the Be Bop Boys Gillespie, Milt Jackson, James Moody and other members of Gillespie's big band in the late For- ties). The best that can be said of these stringed works is that Gillespie penetrates the strings. In Paris he made an inexplicable conjunction with the Paris Opera-Comique Orchestra on one side of The Records 115 Jazz from Paris, Verve 8015 (shared with Django Reinhardt). Gillespie is relaxed, unharried and stirringly creative and the orchestra supplies him with a surprisingly virile background but it is, to all practical purposes, in vain since the engineers were apparently incapable of bringing Gillespie and the orchestra into focus at the same time one or the other is always out of perspective. A Concert in Paris, Roost 2214, puts him with a small group of Americans who play with a fresh, spontaneous quality. Gillespie is brilliantly melodic and inven- tive throughout the disk while he is in equally good form on the portion of Dizzy at Home and Abroad, Atlantic 1257, which was recorded in Paris. Don By as is with him on this set, playing a warm version of Blue and Sentimental, and Gillespie shouts out an exuberantly brash blues that can stand comparison with the work of the best of the blues singers. The remainder of this disk, recorded in New York, is superior as recording and retains some of the offhand feeling of the Paris pieces. After breaking up his big band in 1950, Gillespie worked with various small groups, most of which included bop singer Joe Carroll. Carroll is present through most of School Days, Regent 6043, an un- inspired collection. He turns up again, along with Milt Jackson and violinist Stuff Smith on The Champ, Savoy 12047, a very erratic collection which runs a gamut from dreadful to brilliant. A later meeting between Smith and Gillespie, Dizzy Gilles- pie and Stuff Smith, Verve 8214, produced a pair of long, churning, savagely swinging performances which overshadow three less distinguished efforts. One of them Rio Pakistan is a magnificently sardonic, electrically charged mood piece that is built to weirdly haunting heights by Smith's slash- ing, leaping cat-like attack. During much of the Fifties Gillespie was at loose ends and recorded with several other individualistic 116 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ jazz stars, as a rule in loosely organized blowing session. Tour de Force, Verve 8212, on which he plays with two other trumpeters, Roy Eldridge and Harry Edison, is unusual in that all three play with mutes in a subdued, tight, chamberish fashion over a swinging rhythm, an approach which keeps the extremist tendencies of all three within bounds. This is not the case on two disks featuring Gillespie and Eldridge, Trumpet Battle, Verve 8109, and The Trumpet Kings, Verve 8110, both of which have some bright moments which are lost in taste- less, squealing exchanges in pieces which are dragged out to tedious lengths. Gillespie has also tangled with several saxo- phones. He plays with both spirit and sensitivity with Stan Getz on Diz and Getz, Verve 8141; sum- mons all his virtuosity to meet the challenge of Getz and Sonny Stitt on For Musicians Only, Verve 8198; is neat but empty in the company of Getz, Coleman Hawkins and Paul Gonsalves on Sittin' In, Verve 8225; and on one side of Dizzy Gillespie Duets with Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt, Verve 8260, joins with Stitt and pianist Ray Bryant to play with imaginative fluency and a happy scorn for cliches on two overlong slow pieces. On the other side of this disk neither Gillespie nor Rollins can find anything of interest to do. For a battle between two different schools of jazz, Hot vs Cool, MGM 3286, Gillespie was called on to lead the cool forces against Jimmy McPartland's hot men. The ham in Gillespie (he, George Shear- ing, Gerry Mulligan and Stan Kenton are unique among modern jazzmen in that they have a definite, if sometimes misguided, feeling for showmanship) responds readily to such gimmicked situations and he pleads the cool cause with great eloquence. Single selections by Gillespie's early groups are included in Jazz, Vol. 11, Folkways 2811, Modern Jazz Hall of Fame, Design 29, The Jazz Makers, The Records 117 Columbia CL 1036, Roost Fifth Anniversary Album, Roost 1201 (the identical selection is in the Columbia collection), and Operation Jazz, Roost OJ1. Three selections by his mid-Fifties big band are in Here Come the Swingin* Big Bands, Verve 8207, one in The Playboy Jazz Allstars, Playboy 1957, and one in The Anatomy of Improvisation, Verve 8230, along with a Gillespie-Eldridge chal- lenge piece. A selection from the Hot vs Cool bat- tle is in Forty-Eight Stars of American Jazz, MGM 3611. John Gilmore, A young tenor saxophonist from Chicago with an economical style and a relatively good tone but little distinctiveness pairs off with another adequate tenor, Cliff Jordan, on Blowing in From Chicago, Blue Note 1549. Jimmy Giuffre. Giuffre's jazz career in the decade from the late Forties to the late Fifties has followed an unusual pattern. He first came to more than casual notice when he wrote Four Brothers which, when it was picked up by Woody Herman's band (which subsequently picked up Giuffre, too), estab- lished a saxophone voicing that became extremely popular. Although Giuffre has never been a partic- ularly exciting saxophonist (he plays tenor and baritone), he had a lithe, swinging manner on tenor in the early Fifties when he was free-lancing on the West Coast and playing at the Lighthouse at Hermosa Beach. As the years have gone by, however, Giuffre's composing and playing have become steadily more introverted his writing drawing farther and far- ther away from jazz and his playing growing stiff and muffled. As he withdrew, he found himself the subject of enthusiastic avant garde acclaim but as he continued to secede farther and farther from the jazz world even this acclaim began to fade. 118 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ There are suggestions of the earlier, outgoing Giuffre in his writing and playing on Jazz Com- poser's Workshop, Savoy 12045, and even in two of his earlier experimental disks, Jimmy Giuffre, Capi- tol T 549, and Tangents in Jazz, Capitol T 634. On the latter he explores his theory of the non-pulsat- ing beat the avoidance of the steady pounding of a rhythm section by getting rid of the sounded beat. In this case, the lack of an explicit beat proves to be no deterrent to soundly swinging perform- ances (he uses a drummer as an ensemble rather than a rhythm performer) but in his next phase it contributed to a lack of movement that was often deadening. The phase opens with Giuffre's con- centration on the lower register of the clarinet in a breathy manner that is explored thoroughly on The Jimmy Giuffre Clarinet, Atlantic 1238, from an unaccompanied solo to support by a nine-piece group. The first of two trios Giuffre, Jim Hall, guitar, Ralph Pena, bass is heard in The Jimmy Giuffre Three, Atlantic 1254, in which there are what might be termed jazz breaks in the selections although there is little jazz feeling about them in general. Trat/lin* Light, Atlantic 1282, is by a later version of the trio in which Bob Brookmeyer's valve trombone replaces Pena's bass. There are times on this disk when Brookmeyer's basic, rugged style and Giuffre's apparent fancy for the basic folk roots of jazz join promisingly but much of their playing boils down to monotonous, tuneless jigs. This same brooding drone is much in evidence in Giuffre's arrangements, for a nine-piece group, of the score of The Music Man, Atlantic 1276. Betty Glamann. Miss Glamann is a harpist who can trip along lightly and pleasantly. But the jazz qualities of Swinging on a Harp, Mercury 20169, are contributed mainly by Eddie Costa's vibes and on The Smith-Glamann Quintet Bethlehem 22, by Barry Galbraith's guitar. The Records 119 Johnny Glasel. A promising young trumpeter who shifted from traditional to modern jazz between the late Forties and early Fifties is disappointingly un- imaginative and slapdash on Jazz Session, ABC- Paramount 165, on which he hits a sort of middle ground. Tyree Glenn. The first inheritor of Tricky Sam Nanton's wah-wah trombone chores in the Elling- ton band has subsequently become one of the pioneers on the polite jazz circuit. Glenn's plunger mute tricks can quickly be carried too far (and too often). He is more effective when he is playing his light and lissome vibraphone. Tyree Glenn at the Embers, Roulette 25009, is raised from the routine by the presence of trumpeter Shorty Baker, playing delicate muted figures. Tyree Glenn at the Round Table, Roulette 25050, is emptier because of Baker's absence. Neither disk makes any use at all of the presence of Mary Osborne, an excellent guitarist. Sanford Gold. Some pleasant exercises in simplified Tatum make up pianist Gold's Piano d'Or, Prestige 7019. Lex Golden. Golden is a Hollywood studio trum- peter, capable if undistinctive, who has put to- gether a light, brightly played set by an effortlessly swinging octet on Lex Golden Octet in Hi-Fi, Su- perior 101. Benny Golson. Golson first began to attract atten- tion when he was in the saxophone section of Dizzy Gillespie's mid-Fifties band, less for his play- ing than for his writing. He quickly joined the small group of modern jazzmen who have shown themselves capable of striking and memorable mel- odic creation (Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, 120 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ John Lewis, Randy Weston and Golson) and many of his pieces have quickly achieved the status of jazz standards I Remember Clifford, Whisper Not, Stablemates and, most recently, Blues March. Once he became known as a composer it also became ap- parent that he was a performer of great charm, playing with much of the soft, warm tone of Lucky Thompson and spinning out lithe, elastic lines sprinkled with lifting quirks and stabs which create an intense feeling of movement. During 1958 he began to be attracted away from this to a hard, busy style that draws on both Johnny Griffin and John Coltrane. Both The Modern Touch, Riverside 12-256, and New York Scene, Contemporary 3552, were, for- tunately, made before he began to tamper with his style. The first disk includes three of his composi- tions, at least one of which (Out of the Past) ranks with his best work. On the Contemporary disk there are four of his pieces, including Whisper Not. He plays with a quintet and a nine-piece band on the last disk. In both groups it is Golson and trum- peter Art Farmer who create the interest Farmer playing with broad authority no matter what the fare at hand while Golson's warm, dark lines flare and glide through all the pieces. Paul Gonsalves. After brief spells with Count Basic's and Dizzy Gillespie's big bands, Gonsalves, a tenor saxophonist, joined Duke Ellington in 1950 and since then has been one of Ellington's most consistently featured and least interesting soloists. With Ellington his solos are inclined to be pale and formless and (since his 27 choruses on Diminu- endo and Crescendo in Blue at Newport coincided with an outbreak of dancing in the aisles) tediously long. On his own and surrounded by a quartet that is largely from the Ellington band (including trum- peter Clark Terry in excellent form) on Cooking The Records 121 Argo 626, Gonsalves is freer, less strained than in his Ellington appearances but on Sittin' In, Verve 8225, in the vaunted company of Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz and Coleman Hawkins, he pushes too hard. Bob Gordon. An unusually limber and swinging baritone saxophonist who was killed in an auto- mobile accident in 1955 at the age of 27, Gordon has a single propulsive selection in Jazz West Coast, World Pacific JWC 500. Dexter Gordon. One of the most direct followers of Lester Young, Gordon played his tenor saxo- phone in Lionel Hampton's and Billy Eckstine's bands in the early and mid-Forties and had his own groups later in that decade. During the Fifties he has been on the West Coast, playing sporadically. Dexter Rides Again, Savoy 12130, drawn from his period as a leader of small groups in the late Forties, places him with three groups a crisp, punching bop team which includes Bud Powell and Max Roach, a slogging group with baritone saxophonist Leo Parker, and a quartet in which Gordon is backed by only a rhythm section. Throughout the disk, Gordon mixes a smooth ver- sion of the Young style with a yearning to honk. On a much later disk, Dexter Blows Hot and Cool, Dootone 207, this same erratic quality again turns up although there are moments when he sails off with soaring freedom. On Daddy Plays the Horn> Bethlehem 36, he is banal and plodding while West Coast Jazz Concert, Regent 6049, is a badly re- corded, dull battle with Wardell Gray. Joe Gordon. Although Gordon has traces of Dizzy Gillespie's fleetness and Roy Eldridge's crackling attack, he lacks their singing qualities and, stretched out over both sides of Introducing Joe 122 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Gordon, EmArcy 36025, he reveals himself as a grating, limited trumpeter. John Graas. After training for symphony work on the French horn, Graas was weaned to jazz, first through Claude ThornhiU's band and finally with Stan Kenton. He has done studio work in Cali- fornia during the Fifties and has recorded as the leader of a variety of small groups. His arrange- ments have much of the texture of the Miles Davis nine-piece group of 1948 but they are couched in terms that reflect the arranging style of Shorty Rogers. His writing tends to be very much of a piece a heavy foundation with a frou-frou surface and while there is occasionally a gruff charm about his French horn solos, what interest there is in his performances usually comes from the solos of his sidemen. Jazz Lab I, Decca 8343, Jazz Lab 2, Decca 8478, and John Graas French Horn, Kapp 1046, are relatively unrelieved sampling of Graas' approach. The saxophones of Art Pepper and Bob Cooper help to enliven Jazzmantics, Decca 8677, Pepper saves Coup de Graas, EmArcy 36117, from bumbling into straight monotony, Gerry Mulligan makes three selections on Jazz Studio 3, Decca 8104, worth hearing, and Herb Getter's alto saxophone helps to lift Jazz Studio 2, Decca 8079. One selec- tion by Graas is included in The Encyclopedia of Jazz on Records, Vol. 4, Decca 8401. Bob Graf. Grafs approach to the tenor saxophone has something of Lester Young's early willowiness mixed with an overly relaxed, noncommittal quality which dilutes his basic warmth. The four far too long selections on The Bob Graf Sessions, Delmar 401, tend to drool off to vague fuzziness. Kenny Graham. Graham is an individualistic Eng- lish arranger who is fond of blending his tenor The Records 123 saxophone with flute and xylophone, a device he uses with interesting and sometimes eerie effects in transcribing the slithery rhythms of the New York street musician, Moondog, on Moondog and Suncat Suites, MGM 3544. It is much less effective on the routine material his Afro-Cubists play on two selec- tions on Jazz Brittania, MGM 3472. Norman Granz. Granz is included here not, of course, as an instrumentalist he is the impresario of the Jazz at the Philharmonic troupes which have been touring since the middle Forties but rather as the instigator of a form of stereotyped jam ses- sion featured at his concerts and concocted for his records. Although Granz consistently uses good jazzmen on these sessions, their playing is usually trivial, distorted by showboating and the fanning of false flames. Add to this the inordinate length of each performance (one LP side is a minimum Stompin' at the Savoy on Jam Session #6, Verve 8054, goes on for two grinding sides) and, despite occasional good moments, this becomes an exceed- ingly tiresome and frustrating (considering the po- tential of the musicians involved) series of disks. Looking first on the brighter side: Jam Session #2, Verve 8050, offers a slow and sinuous Funky Blues with Johnny Hodges, Charlie Parker and Benny Carter which holds up well (another Funky Blues by a different group on Jam Session Jfr9, Verve 8196, is interminable) and The Slow Blues on The JATP All-Stars at the Opera House, Verve 8267, is consistently warm and throbbing until Illinois Jacquet goes into his windup. Otherwise this generally unedifying set of disks is made up of Jam Session #1, Verve 8049 (bright spots of Hodges and Carter), Jam Session #3, Verve 8051 (good for a large part of the way but it eventually palls), Jam Session #4, Verve 8052 (again almost a success but drowned in its length), Jam Session 124 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Verve 8053, Jam Session #7, Verve 8062, Jam Ses- sion $8, Verve 8094, and Midnight at Carnegie Hall, Verve 8189-2, a particularly horrible example. There are samples of the same by Granz's troupe in Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl, Verve 8231-2, and A Potpourri of Jazz, Verve 2032. Wardell Gray. Among the numerous followers of Lester Young in the Forties, Gray was one who used the style with particular grace and ease. Toward the end of the 1940s traces of Charlie Parker's influence crept into his playing but Young remained the dominant strain. During the Forties Gray was with the bands of Earl Hines, Billy Eckstine, Benny Carter, Count Basic and Benny Goodman. In the Fifties, when he concentrated on small group work and was frequently featured in tenor battles with Sonny Stitt and Dexter Gordon, his tone hardened and coarsened. He was shot to death under mysteri- ous circumstances near Las Vegas in 1957. Two disks, Wardell Gray Memorial, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Prestige 7008 and 7009, preserve the best period of Gray's playing. In some 1949 selections on Vol. 1 he plays in an outgoing, smoothly swing- ing style that is more reminiscent of Benny Carter than it is of either Young or Parker. This supple- ness is still present in some 1950 pieces but by 1953, playing in rather constricting circumstances with a group which includes Teddy Charles, his tone is turning harsh and his lines have lost their litheness. Vol. 2 includes some 1951 performances in which Gray plays with handsome assurance, tech- nique and style but the group with him contains too many undeveloped talents one is trumpeter Art Farmer, playing his first record date. The disk also includes a spotty 1950 session recorded in a night club. Both West Coast Jazz Concert, Regent 6049, and Jazz Concert West Coast, Savoy 12012, are badly recorded, tediously lengthy transcriptions The Records 125 as indicated. Gray makes three minor contributions to Tenors, Anyone?, Dawn 1126. Bennie Green. In a day when jazz trombonists are apt to be either fidgety runners o scales or mooing products of the Kenton mill, Green stands out as a lusty-voiced swinger who can also make his horn sing with warmth and sweetness. He was with Earl Hines' band and Charlie Ventura's small group in the Forties, returned to Hines in the early Fifties and has since had groups of his own. Six selections made by Green in 1953 and 1954 make up one side of Blow Your Horn, Decca 8176 (shared with Paul Quinichette). With both groups Green's trombone is fluently soaring but the 1954 group (with Billy Root playing a roaring tenor saxophone) is more rhythmically alert than its 1953 counterpart. A group which Green led in 1955, with Charlie Rouse in place of Root, plays a superb set on Bennie Green Blows His Horn, Prestige 7052, as Green shows off all his facets and Rouse, digging into his solos with sinew and strength, and Cliff Smalls, a vigorous, two-handed pianist who has been associated with Green on most of his records, complement the trombonist's moods ex- cellently. A more recent disk, Back on the Scene, Blue Note 1587, teams him once more with Rouse in some interestingly edgy ensembles and solos which run from a slow, flamboyant ballad to a swirling, shouting fast blues. Billy Root returns on Soul Stirrin', Blue Note 1599, a disk which is high- lighted by a furiously swinging We Wanna Cook (a variant of an earlier Green opus, We Wanna Blow) on which Green punches out a long, stirring solo that is a model of neat, compact playing which generates tremendous force. When he descends into some impressively dark explorations of the nether regions of the blues, he shifts to a rough-edged, sweeping style that is extremely effective. 126 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Green is in good but not exceptional form on Walking Prestige 7049, but the point of interest on this disk is the quartet which accompanies him an excellent but almost completely neglected group led by drummer Bill English with Eric Dixon, tenor saxophone, Lloyd Mayers, piano, and Sonny Wellesley, bass. On Bennie Green, Prestige 7041, his once light and fluid tone has turned heavy and he sounds tired in his long solos. He does nothing to raise the undistinguished level of Jazz Studio 1, Decca 8058. Backed by the inevitable strings in a 1952 session which takes up one side of Benny Green and Jay and Kai Quintet, Prestige 7030, he plays four ballads with a big, fat, mocking tone that makes the strings sound even more pale than they normally would. Green has one selection in The Encyclopedia of Jazz on Records, Vol. 4, Decca 8401. Urbie Green. Although Urbie Green's trombone first made itself widely felt in the two years (1950- 52) that he spent in the modishly modern surround- ings of Woody Herman's band, his earlier training had been in the Swing Era styles of the bands of Tommy Reynolds, Jan Savitt, Frankie Carle and Gene Krupa. After leaving Herman, he has gravi- tated back to that more traditional side of jazz. He is, however, an unusually flexible jazzman who can play well in almost any style. He is smooth and urbane on Blues and Other Shades of Green, ABC- Paramount 101, a very relaxed set with crisp piano work by Dave McKenna. With trumpet, two wood- winds and rhythm, Green is subdued, moody and a shade cool on Urbie, Bethlehem 14. All About Urbie Green and His Big Band, ABC-Paramount 137, is much less preposterous than its title agree- ably unpretentious and danceable big band ar- rangements by Johnny Carisi. Let's Face the Music and Dance, Victor LPM 1667, and Jimmy McHugh The Records 127 in Hi-Fi, Victor LPM 1741, are further Green big band sets in a smooth, traditional swing style. Green duets with Lou McGarity and with Billy Butterfield in two selections on The Mellow Moods of Jazz, Victor LPM 1365. Max Gregor. Gregor's easygoing little German jump group features a saxophonist in the prelimin- ary stages of honkery in a single selection on "Das" Is Jazz!, Decca 8229. Johnny Griffin. Schooled in the Lionel Hampton Fly in' Home seminary of tenor saxophonery, Griffin has developed a billowing, persistently impatient manner of playing since getting away from Hamp- ton, adding a bursting urgency to a Lester Young foundation. He has two prime faults a high pres- sure lack of shading and the urge to stay on too long which make Chicago Calling, Blue Note 1533, A Blowing Session, Blue Note 1559, and The Congregation, Blue Note 1580, monotonous. Johnny Griffin Quartet, Argo 624, his first record- ings on his own, show his style already taking defi- nite shape. Way Out, Riverside 12-274, gives him an opportunity to show a less volatile side which is not especially stimulating. Gigi Gryce, An alto saxophonist and composer- arranger, Gryce's recorded work has centered largely around his Jazz Lab Quintet, a group which he led jointly with trumpeter Donald Byrd in the Middle Fifties. Before this Gryce had led a group with Art Farmer and had spent half a year with Lionel Hampton's band although his career as a band leader goes back to 1946 when he led a 23- piece group in his native Hartford, a band in which Horace Silver played piano. Gryce and Byrd have developed quite a few interesting starting points for performances by their Quintet but the pieces 128 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ almost always fall apart in the chilly or perfunctory soloing. This is the basis of the failure of Gigi Gryce, Riverside 12-229, Jazz Lab, Jubilee 1059, and the Quintet's portion of Gigi Gryce, Donald Byrd and Cecil Taylor at Newport, Verve 8238. On several selections on Jazz Lab, Columbia CL 998, the quintet is expanded to an orchestra and there is some attempt to provide the soloists with sup- port. This helps a bit but not enough to remove the cold, stone-faced quality from the solos of Gryce and Byrd. The Quintet has its best moments on Modern Jazz Perspective, Columbia CL 1058, an attempt to trace the development of some modern jazz styles. It swings more explicitly and infec- tiously than it has at other times and Gryce's alto has a positive projection that is missing in other performances. Gryce plays a single selection on Know Your Jazz, Vol. 1, ABC-Paramount 115, and the group plays single pieces on Blues for Tomor- row, Riverside 12-243, Riverside Drive, Riverside 12-267, and Jazz Omnibus, Columbia CL 1020. Vince Guaraldi. Guaraldi is a remarkable pianist who can, among other worthy abilities, play in a seemingly ethereal style that still conveys a rugged, down-to-earth feeling. On other occasions he shows a coaxingly swinging manner or mulls broodingly through a ballad. There is a warm, imaginative mixture of sophistication, basic blues, romanticism and a stimulating touch of wry in Vince Guaraldi Trio, Fantasy 3225, and A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing, Fantasy 3257, on which he has the practi- cally peerless support of Eddie Duran's light-toned, delicately rhythmic guitar and Dean Reilly's bass. Guaraldi is the digging, rough-hewn pianist in two selections on Modern Music from San Francisco, Fantasy 3213, as he leads a quartet to which Jerry Dodgion contributes some effortless, driving alto saxophone solos. The Records 129 Lars Gullin. Gullin is the only foreign jazz mu- sician who has ever won one of Down Beat's popu- larity polls. He shot up meteorically during the mid-Fifties but even as he was gaining international fame his baritone saxophone work began to lose the firmness and muscularity that had brought him to attention. His tone is heavy but fluent on Lars Gullin, EmArcy 36012, but on two later disks, Bari- tone Sax, Atlantic 1246, and Lars Gullin Swings, East-West 4003, much of his playing has an almost leaden quality. Lars Gullin with the Moretone Singers, EmArcy 36059, is a tiresome trifle with a singing group. Al Haig. Haig was one of the most ubiquitous pianists of the emergent bop period of the middle and late Forties and was, in effect, the house pianist for the leading boppers. In the Fifties, however, he has chosen to stay away from the jazz limelight and has recorded very infrequently. One of these rare occasions produced Jazz Will o' the Wisp, Counter- point 551, on which he shows his characteristic delicacy, lyricism and clean, unembellished attack. A single sample of his style is included on Pianists Galore, World Pacific JWC 506. Corky Hale. Miss Hale plays flute, harp and piano which means she has two strikes on her in a jazz context. She plays a pleasant piano, swings gently on the harp, particularly when she is backing an- other soloist, but has the common jazz trouble with the flute. All this happens on Corky Hale, GNP 17, and there are a few more samples on Escape, GNP 27. Jim Hall. First heard playing a flowing, Charlie Christian-influenced guitar as part of the original Chico Hamilton Quintet and later going folksy with the Jimmy GiuflEre Three, Hall plays a low- 130 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ keyed, pleasant but scarcely memorable set of solos with a rhythm section on Jazz Guitar, World Pacific 1227. He has one selection in Jazz West Coast, Vol. 3, World Pacific JWC 507. Bengt Hallberg. This young Swedish pianist has evolved from a Teddy Wilson style to a crisp, flow- ing version of the modern linear manner. On his only American LP solo collection, Bengt Hallberg, Epic 3375, he leans toward the Wilsonian influence but he exhibits warm flashes of his more modern side on his contributions to Swedes from Jazzville, Epic 3309. Lenny Hambro. Hambro is known best as the leader of the saxophone section of the late Fifties reincarnation of the Glenn Miller band led by Ray McKinley. He plays his alto with a light, sweeping style that moves along gracefully and, on ballads, has a sweet, singing tone that is, in essence, a trimmed down version of Johnny Hodges* ballad technique. On The Nature of Things, Epic 3361, he is backed by a quintet which includes the de- lightfully down-to-earth pianist, Eddie Costa. Chico Hamilton* Hamilton, an unostentatious but firmly swinging drummer, is the very opposite of those flamboyant gymnasts who have made the drum solo one of the deadliest bores in jazz. When he does solo, the effect is usually hush-inducing as he carefully builds a series of subdued patterns which, without resorting to obvious devices, can achieve a powerful cumulative effect. Similarly his quintet has a subdued sound, almost a salon ap- proach, but Hamilton propels it with a compel- lingly airy rhythm. He had been around for quite a while before the spotlight finally found him drumming with the original Gerry Mulligan Quartet in 1952. He was The Records 131 with Lionel Hampton briefly in 1940 and from then until 1948 he shuttled among various groups. In 1948 he joined Lena Home's entourage and stayed with her until he took up with Mulligan and the prominent phase of his career began. He re- turned to Miss Home in 1954 and part of 1955. This was the year when he formed his quintet with Carson Smith, bass, Jim Hall, guitar, Fred Katz, cello, and Buddy Collette on flute and various reeds. The group's first disk, Chico Hamilton Quin- tet, World Pacific 1209, was a provocative and promising debut which flowered on its next re- lease, The Chico Hamilton Quintet in Hi-Fi, World Pacific 1216 a varied bag of bits and pieces which often have a delicate charm even when they do not swing much but which, more often than not, develop a light, fleeting pulse that easily covers a slight tendency to be precious. Katz's cello is more definitely a part of the jazz passages on this disk than it was on the first one but his presence is valuable largely for the tonal colorations of his instrument rather than for his jazz contributions. Hall's guitar is unusually rhythmic and flowing and the best pieces in the set are those on which he cuts loose. In 1957 Collette and Hall were replaced by Paul Horn and John Pisano, respectively, and the new quintet promptly reached a peak toward which the earlier group had been building. This occurs on Sweet Smell of Success, Decca 8614, one side of which is made up of pieces played by the Quintet on the sound track of the film, Sweet Smell of Suc- cess; the other, a long extemporized "concerto" de- veloped from these same themes. The particular high point is one of these themes, Goodbye Baby, a beautifully polished work in which Katz gives a fascinating demonstration of the moving way in which the natural mournfulness of the cello's tone can evoke the blues. Another set by the same group, 132 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Chico Hamilton, World Pacific 1225, is less satis- fying although Pisano, Smith and Hamilton hold up their ends well. On South Pacific in Hi-Fi, World Pacific 1238, the Quintet turns frightfully genteel and decorous and it is buried under a string section on With Strings Attached, Warner Brothers 1245. Before organizing his Quintet, Hamilton made some unusual recordings with a trio (himself, George Duvivier, a magnificent bassist, and either Howard Roberts or Jim Hall, guitar) Chico Hamilton Trio, World Pacific 1220 which fre- quently develops absorbing interplay between the three instruments. Another disk attributed to a Chico Hamilton Trio Introducing Freddie Gam- brell is actually a showcase for Gambrell, a pian- ist (q.v.)- The Quintet has two selections in Jazz Swings Broadway, World Pacific 404, the Quintet and the trio each have one number in The Blues, World Pacific JWC 502, the Quintet turns up once in Jazz West Coast, Vol. 2, World Pacific JWC 501, and is heard behind John Carradine's reading of a Lawrence Lipton poem in Jazz Canto, World Pacific 1244. Hamilton drums behind Tony Ben- nett on three numbers in The Beat of My Heart, Columbia CL 1079, has a single selection in Drums on Fire, World Pacific 1247, and introduces one Freddie Gambrell selection in Jazz West Coast, VoL 4, World Pacific JWC 510. Jimmy Hamilton. When Jimmy Hamilton joined Duke Ellington's band to take over Barney Bigard's clarinet chair, he replaced Bigard's lush, blue-tinted tone with a style based on cool propriety and for- mality. Hamilton's air of legitimacy has never ade- quately filled the gap in the overall Ellington sound left by Bigard (Russell Procope comes closest to doing this when he is given a clarinet solo). Re- The Records 133 moved from the Ellington band, however, Hamil- ton shows greater range and warmth in playing with various small groups on Accent on Clarinet, Urania 1204, and Clarinet in Hi-Fi, Urania 1208. In a pair of selections on the latter he is with an exceptionally good group (which includes Lucky Thompson and Ernie Royal) and shows himself to be an imaginative writer. Johnny Hamlin. Hamlin, an accordionist, leads a gentle, monotoned group which rarely raises its collective voice as it pads discreetly through Polka Dots, Victor LPM 1379, and Powder Puff, Victor LPM 1565. Ken Hanna. Hanna, a onetime Stan Kenton ar- ranger and trumpeter, leads a slick, clean, big studio band through routine arrangements on Jazz for Dancers, Capitol T 6512. Bob Hardaway. Hardaway plays a light, bouncing tenor saxophone with a slightly Getzian sound on ballads as well as a crisp, well-formed uptempo style with a sinuous West Coast group on Bob Hardaway, Rep 202. Jo Harnell. On Piano Inventions, Jubilee 1015, Harnell neatly skirts the false lures of classical bor- rowings and cocktail fluff in a program of percep- tive, well-tempered performances that seem more concerned with swinging lightly than with "raising the level" of jazz. Joe Harriott. This English alto saxophonist fol- lows a simplified version of the Charlie Parker path without adding anything of his own in two selec- tions by his quartet on Jazz Erittania, MGM 3472. 134 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Art Harris. As a solo pianist on Jazz Goes to Post- graduate School, Kapp 1015, Harris mixes a me- lange of classical influences, some Tatum emulation and a strong, striding beat which somehow comes out as stiff-rhythmed clangor. But as co-leader with bassoonist Mitch Leigh of the Harris-Leigh Baro- que Band and Brass Choir on Jazz 1755, Kapp 1011, he produces amusing interpretations of the 18th Century in jazz terms. Bill Harris (guitar). From the anonymity of accom- panist to a rhythm and blues vocal group, the Clovers, Harris unexpectedly turned up early in 1957 on Bill Harris, EmArcy 36097, finger-plucking jazz on an unamplified Spanish guitar and without accompaniment. At the time, this was quite a shock (Charlie Byrd had not yet made his recording debut then) because all jazz guitarists had been playing amplified guitars, using a plectrum and a single string style, since Charlie Christian set the modern pattern some 17 years earlier. Although he leans toward too much "prettiness" on this disk, it in- cludes several selections which suggest that Harris has a well-based jazz talent, a suggestion that is not amplified by The Harris Touch, EmArcy 36113, on which he is burdened with a clomping rhythm sec- tion and uses an electric guitar in an undistin- guished fashion on many selections. Bill Harris (trombone). Harris* fat, blowsy, raucous trombone tone ranges with great effectiveness from soul-searing blues to breathless excitement and even lusty humor. He was featured with Woody Her- man's various bands through the middle and late Forties and sporadically during the Fifties. The various shades of Harris are spotlighted on Bill Harris and Friends, Fantasy 3263, which includes deadpan comedy (Just One More Chance) and a romping uptempo attack on Crazy Rhythm on The Records 135 which Harris projects an itchy excitement and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster prods and jabs "with furious abandon. On the other hand there are some slow ballads through which Harris gasps his way to- ward imminent expiration. His humorous smears help to brighten the generally flat performances that make up Saturday Night Swing Session, Coun- terpoint 549. He is backed by woodwinds on a single slow ballad on Cool and Quiet* Capitol T 371, and turns to the valve trombone, which he plays in a much smoother fashion than he nor- mally uses on slide trombone, in single selections in Advance Guard of the Forties, EmArcy 36016, and Boning Up on Bones, EmArcy 36083. Gene Harris. Our Love Is Here to Stay, Jubilee 1005, is made up of routine performances by a pianist who shows more technical skill than feeling. Hampton Hawes. Hawes has become a facile pian- ist who jigs along in crisp, glib fashion at fast tempos and knows the path down into the blues. But there is a cool, impersonal surface on his work which seals off any suggestions of emotional in- volvement and makes one fast number sound like any other, the next blues like the last one. He seems to emerge from this shell most successfully when he is in stimulating company. Larry Bunker, swinging hard on vibraphone, provides this stimulation on Hawes' side of Piano: East/West, Prestige 7067 (shared with Freddie Redd) and Hawes responds by digging in in strong, two-handed fashion. Hawes shows he can do it again in his two selections on Lighthouse at Laguna, Contemporary 3509, when Shelly Manne is at the drums to propel him, while on Mingus Three, Jubilee 1054, bassist Charlie Mingus pins Hawes down to some of the soundest, wannest playing he has recorded. Working with his own trio, however, Hawes is 136 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ apt to be what Whitney Balliett has aptly termed a "chrome eater" a pianist who is clipped, hard, consistent, initially impressive but tiresome in quantity. This is the impression that is left by The Trio, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Contemporary 3505 and 3515, Everybody Likes Hampton Hawes, Contem- porary 3523, by three disks produced at one sitting, All Night Session, Vol. 1-3, Contemporary 3545, 3546 and 3547, and in his three selections on I Just Love Jazz Piano, Savoy 12100. Hawes has a single selection (the same one) in both Jazz West Coast, Vol. 2, World Pacific JWC 501, and Pianists Galore!, World Pacific JWC 506. Tubby Hayes. A rough-toned English tenor saxo- phonist who uses long, flowing lines, Hayes and his Quintet linger far too long over each piece on their side of Changing the Jazz at Buckingham Palace, Savoy 12111 (shared with Dizzy Reece), although pianist Harry South manages to sustain an earthy solo fairly well. Roy Haynes. Haynes' crisply rhythmic drumming for a long time brightened the accompaniment to Sarah Vaughan and was heard more recently in Thelonious Monk's Quintet but in his only LP ap- pearance as a leader, on half of Jazz Abroad, Em- Arcy 36083 (shared with Quincy Jones), the mo- mentum is provided largely by a pair of saxophon- ists, the American Sahib Shihab and Sweden's Bjarne Norem. Haynes is heard in one selection with Miss Vaughan on The Jazz Giants: Drum Role, EmArcy 36071. J. C. Heard. A late product of the Swing Era, drummer J. C. Heard has played with Teddy Wil- son, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Benny Good- man, Woody Herman, Cab Galloway and has toured with Jazz at the Philharmonic. After a The Records 137 three-year stay from 1953 to 1956 in Japan and Australia, he returned to the United States and recorded This Is Me, J. C. Heard, Argo 633, with an octet built around four horns from the Basic band (Joe Newman, Benny Powell, Frank Wess, Charlie Fowlkes). What slight interest the disk has revolves around the shouting horns of the Basic men. Heard does his own cause little good by sing- ing some pieces. Neal Hefti. The swinging sense of the Basic band of the late Thirties has been carried into the Fifties most successfully in Neal Hefti's arrangements (significantly many of the latter-day Basie band's best pieces are Hefti creations). Hefti worked his way upstream as a trumpeter through a variety of big bands (Charlie Barnet, Charlie Spivak, Horace Heidt, Bobby Byrne) to a coming-of-musical-age with Woody Herman's hot and heady Herd of 1944. During the Fifties he has devoted most of his time to free-lance arranging although occasionally he has put a band together for a brief run. The band he leads on Hefti Hot 'n' Hearty, Epic 3187, has a smooth, uncluttered and moving rhythmic pulse over which Hefti has laid out a variety of pleasant lines. It amounts to big band jazz which is soundly rooted in the early Basie theory and expressed in terms which take advan- tage of newer jazz ideas without making a fetish of them. The Band with Young Ideas, Coral 57077, is in much the same light, bright, riff-studded vein although the repetitious similarity of many of Hefti's pieces builds some monotony. Hefti has frequently made use of vocal groups in combina- tion with a swinging band, a parlay that reaches its peak in Singin' Instrumental, Epic 3440, in which Hefti's band includes Charlie JBarnet, Billy Butter- field, Lou McGarity and Jimmie Crawford, and the material is some of the classics of the Swing Era. 138 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Pardon My Doo-Wah, Epic 3481, applies the same treatment to some Hefti originals created for Count Basie. Ernie Henry. When Henry died in 1957 at the age of 31 he was one of the more widely heralded mem- bers of Dizzy Gillespie's big band and was just coming into his own as an alto saxophonist of the hard-toned post-Parker school. His playing on Pre- senting Ernie Henry, Riverside 12-222, is forceful but monotonous. He warms up a bit on one side of Last Chorus, Riverside 12-266 (the other side is made up of excerpts from other Riverside records on which he played), but the melodic ballads which make up most of Seven Standards and a Blues, Riverside 12-248, are not particularly useful vehicles for his astringent attack. Henry has one selection in Jazz for Lovers, Riverside 12-244. Mort Herbert. A versatile bassist who has played under such varied leaders as Louis Armstrong, Don Elliott and Lester Lanin, Herbert leads a pair of adequate groups through some uneventful pieces on Night People, Savoy 12073. Woody Herman has led his band along a long and winding path for more than twenty years. The re- cordings he made between the middle Thirties and 1944 are discussed in The Collector's Jazz: Tradi- tional and Swing. 1944 begins his shift into modern jazz when he moved out of his earlier status as the leader of a pretty good band to become the leader of one of the greatest big bands that jazz has known. During the fifteen years since he hit the heights with his First Herd, he has been the most consis- tently creative and capable band leader in jazz. His versatility, variety and excellent judgment have kept his bands on a generally consistent level while The Records 139 such of his peers as Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Stan Kenton have fumbled, stumbled and clung desperately to withering formulas. The depth of Herman's resources is indicated by the fact that in the late Forties, when his contemporary of the Swing Era Benny Goodman had reached the ap- parent end of his creative career in jazz, Herman was just discovering new possibilities for himself as an alto saxophonist (like Goodman, he had been playing clarinet all through his earlier bandleading career). One of the greatest single disk collections of big band jazz is Herman's Bijou, Harmony 7013, played by his 1945 First Herd, a vital, zestful and colorful young band, enormously talented and brimming with new ideas. A 1946 Carnegie Hall concert which established the jazz supremacy of this band is reproduced on Carnegie Hall, 1946, MGM 3043, but unfortunately inadequate recording robs the band of much of its brilliance. One of the earliest efforts at extended composi- tion in the newer jazz manner and one of the most successful is Ralph Burns' Summer Se- quence, the principle work in Summer Sequence, Harmony 7093, from which Herman evolved a jazz ballad style exemplified by Early Autumn. Both this selection and Four Brothers, one of Herman's greatest recordings, created by the Second Herd, are included in an excellent summation of the work of the three bands Herman led in the Forties and early Fifties, The Three Herds, Columbia CL 592. Early Autumn turns up again in a set which is representative of the crisp vitality of the Herman band in 1948 and 1949, Woody Herman, Capitol T 324, and it is done for a third time, embellished with one of Herman's precise yet casual vocals, on Early Autumn, Verve 2030. This disk is one of three collections of recordings made by Herman in the early Fifties for his own record company, Mars. 140 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Early Autumn features Herman as a vocalist in such varied surroundings as a roaring calypso, bal- lads, a sort of hillbilly blues and a clever mono- logue based on cool jazz argot. Of the other two, Jazz the Utmost, Verve 8014, mixes full-bodied jazz and smooth ballads while Men from Mars, Verve 8216, changes the formula to driving big band jazz, both reasonably pure and tinged with rock 'n' roll. One of the least exciting of Herman's bands, which comes chronologically just before the Mars edition, is heard on Hi Fi-ing Herd, MGM 3385. It shows touches of the expected crisp aggressiveness but sounds under wraps most of the time. By 1954 and 1955 Herman was back on a power drive much like that of his First Herd. The jazz imaginations of the mid-Fifties, however, do not spark as brilliantly as they did in the middle Forties on The Woody Herman Band!, Capitol T 560, or Road Band!, Capitol T 658. Late in 1955 Herman took an eight-piece group to Las Vegas. On Jackpot!^, Capitol T 478, this octet swings with the forthright vigor of a big band and gives Her- man an opportunity to play his clarinet with warmth and meaning instead of the brief, shrill passages he had normally been having with his full band. The 1957 edition of the Herd is adequate but unexciting on Featuring the Preacher, Verve 8255, despite the presence of Herman's veteran trom- bonist, Bill Harris. A band which he took to South America in 1958 is much more in the Herman mode on Herman's Heat and Puente's Beat, Everest 5010, but the New York studio band which plays on some selections on this disk and on all of The Herd Rides Again, Everest 5003, is not up to the classic Herman material it attempts to revive while the new ar- rangements provided for it are tired and routine. In addition to Early Autumn, Verve 2030, there are several other disks which feature Herman as a vocalist, usually without his band. Herman is an The Records 141 old hand at giving a blues an ingratiating projec- tion and he is equally adept at ballads which he approaches not as a crooner but as a vocalist who feels most readily at home in the blues yet is cognizant of the difference between a blues and a ballad. This sensitivity and some good jazz backing by Ben Webster, Bill Harris, Jimmie Rowles and others make Songs for Hip Lovers, Verve 2069, one of the better sets of pop love songs. With Frank De Vol's orchestra backing him, Herman is smoother but still swinging on Love Is the Sweetest Thing Sometimes, Verve 2096, but he and Enroll Garner tend to go their separate ways in what is intended to be a joint effort, Music for Tired Lovers, Colum- bia CL 65 L His best vocal vein, the blues, is ex- plored with skill on Blues Groove, Capitol T 784. The Herman band is heard in three selections on Here Come the Swinging Bands, Verve 8207, twice on Hi-Fi Drums, Capitol T 926, and Dance to the Bands, Vol. 1, Capitol T 977, and once each in Dance to the Bands, Vol. 2, Capitol T 978, Forty- Eight Stars of American Jazz, MGM 3611, and $64,000 Jazz, Columbia CL 777. A group of Hermanites toss off a few loose head arrangements with shaky, shallow recording on The Herdsmen Play Paris, Fantasy 3201. Milt Hinton. Hinton's versatility and swinging strength have made him the busiest recording bassist in New York in the middle and late Fifties. He is at home with almost any type of jazz from tradi- tional (he has worked with Louis Armstrong) to experimental modernist. After a five year associa- tion with violinist Eddie South in the early Thirties, Hinton joined Cab Galloway's band in 1936 and stayed for fifteen years. On Milt Hinton, Bethle- hem 10, he works with a relaxed, lightly swinging quartet which includes Tony Scott, clarinet, Dick Katz, piano, and Osie Johnson, drums. With Scott 142 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ and Katz to vary the proceedings, this is a more balanced set than is produced by most bassists. Hinton is also heard in a single showcase selection for himself on After Hours Jazz, Epic 3339, and he leads a group in a showcase piece for trombonist Tyree Glenn on Boning Up on Bones, EmArcy 36038. Jutta Hipp. Once one of Germany's best known pianists, Miss Hipp underwent an attack of in- defimtion after coming to the United States in 1956. Her German recordings on "Das" Is Jazz! Decca 8229, with Hans Roller's group and on Cool Europe, MGM 3157, with her own group which is made up largely of Kollerites show her as a gently but propulsively flowing pianist working with en- sembles of a definitely Tristano texture. Her solo recordings since reaching this country Jutta Hipp at the Hickory House, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Blue Note 1515 and 1516 lack her earlier conviction and direction. She is more at ease in the less demanding surroundings of Jutta Hipp with Zoot Sims, Blue Note 1530, as saxophonist Sims capably carries most of the burden. Bill Hitz. Music for This Swingin' Age, Decca 8392, attributed to Bill Hitz and his orchestra, is a big band display of the twelve-tone system devised by Lyle Murphy. Hitz, a skillful clarinetist who is one of Murphy's pupils, is only moderately interesting as a soloist but the band's performances are soundly based and pulsing. Murphy's ideas provide a fresh flavor without getting in the way of the essential swing. Andre Hodeir. A series of "essais" written by Hodeir, a French composer and critic, are per- formed on American Jazzmen Play Andre Hodeir's Essais, Savoy 12104, by a group which includes The Records 143 Eddie Costa (playing earthy, blues-bred vibra- phone), Idrees Sulieman, Donald Byrd, Frank Rehak, Hal McKusick and Bobby Jaspar. Hodeir hits a happy middle ground between the outright blowing session and the cramped quarters of the too tightly written work. He centers his attention on the ensemble, weaving his soloists in and out of a background written in skillfully idiomatic jazz terms. This, admittedly, is one of the older forms of jazz but it has been largely neglected by modern- ists. However, what is fresh and pulsing on this disk turns to arid over-intellectualization in an- other collection of Hodeir arrangements, The Paris Scene, Savoy 12113, played by the Jazz Group of Paris. Only the vibraphonist, Fats Sadi, manages to shake loose occasionally for a freshening romp. Still another set of Hodeir arrangements, brightly played in general, will be found on Kenny Clarke Plays Andre Hodeir, Epic 3376. Jean Hoffman. Miss Hoffman is an unostentatious, small-voiced singer and a pleasantly prodding, rhythmic pianist who is supported by bass and drums on Jean Hoffman Sings and Swings, Fantasy 3260. Joe Holiday. A tenor saxophonist who has bor- rowed extensively from a variety of postwar sources leads some small group performances that are fundamentally swing with a bop surface on Holi- day for Jazz, Decca 8487. Bill Holman. Holman contributed many arrange* ments to Stan Ken ton's book between 1952 and 1956 and sat in his saxophone section for some of that time. Since then he has been a free lance arranger and part-time performer. On The Fabulous Bill Holman, Coral 57188, he appears in both capacities, leading and playing with a big band in 144 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ a set of his own arrangements. He plays tenor saxophone in a warm-voiced manner that is essen- tially out of Lester Young although there are sur- face suggestions of Sonny Rollins. His writing, for the most part, is bright and serviceable. The disk includes one inexcusably long piece which is par- tially redeemed by a pleasantly kindling middle section. Elmo Hope. Hope, a pianist who follows the Bud Powell style, catches some of the surface of the master but misses the meat on Meditations, Prestige 7010. He is buried in the dreary expanses of a six- man blowing session on Informal Jazz, Prestige 7043, but he leads a cleanly designed quintet in capably played single selections on The Hard Swing, World Pacific JWC 508, and Have Blues, Will Travel, World Pacific JWC 509. Kenyon Hopkins. Hopkins, a composer for the films, uses an occasional jazz device in his ballet score, Rooms, Cadence 1019, but the work exists for the most part in a twilit world of its own. The performers include Teo Macero, Wendell Marshall and Clem Da Rosa. Paul Horn. Horn inherited the general utility chair in the Chico Hamilton Quintet from Buddy Collette, adding the piccolo to the already impres- sive arsenal of instruments that Collette had brought to the group. His first venture on his own, sup- ported by the Quintet plus a string quartet, piano and vibes, The House of Horn, Dot 3091, is more like salon music than jazz as Horn moves nimbly from flute to piccolo to clarinet to alto saxophone to alto flute. Only a darting, flaring piece for clarinet and string quartet and an amusingly slinky, blues-touched march on which Horn plays a re- The Records 145 markably jazz-rooted piccolo get away from the overall pastoral, subdued feeling. On Plenty of Horn, Dot 9002, Horn is surrounded by more legitimately jazzworthy instruments and shows a smooth flowing style on alto saxophone in some small group selections although there is still a sense of preciosity about much of his playing and in his selection of material. Dick Hyman. Hyman is an unusually able pianist who has been producing in whatever style a situa- tion calls for for so long that he himself has become lost in the shuffle. He can play almost any kind of jazz at least reasonably well, often very well, but his versatility has made him a repository rather than a creator. He keeps the styles and mannerisms of others alive but he has developed no distinctive musical personality himself. Supported by bass and drums he plays both piano and organ with flowing competence and occasional sly witticisms on one side of The Swingin' Seasons, MGM 3613, and produces a varied and readily identifiable version of the score of Gigi, MGM 3642. With larger groups, he plays the amusingly descrip- tive set of selections Feedback Fugue, Flutter Waltz, Tweeter, Woofer, etc. which make up The Hi-Fi Suite, MGM 3493, while in giving a jazz treatment to the score of Oh Captain!, MGM 3650, he has the expert assistance of Coleman Hawkins, caught in an unusually mellow and relaxed mood, and a romping Tony Scott. Despite all their good efforts, however, Oh Captain! is not prime jazz material. Hyman has also made a number of deliberately dreary pop sets for MGM which have served their sole purpose they have sold well. Wes Ildten. Ilcken, a Dutch drummer who died in 1957, led a combo which was notable primarily for a trumpeter-saxophonist, Jerry van Rooyan. It 146 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ plays a thin, watery version of modern jazz on Jazz Behind the Dikes, Epic 3270. International Youth Band. Marshall Brown, who came to notice when he put together the remark- able Farmingdale High School band, formed the International Youth Band with jazzmen gathered from all over Europe specifically for the Newport Jazz Festival of 1958. Newport 1958, Columbia CL 1246, is a recorded report of the rather lumpy, un- formed performances the band gave at Newport, hindered by heavy-handed arrangements but bright- ened occasionally by such things as the stately blues written by Bill Russo for his Newport Suite. Chubby Jackson. The boisterous bassist who en- livened the Herman Herd of the middle Forties was out of jazz during much of the Fifties but, scenting an upbeat on the scene in 1957, he re- turned leading studio big bands studded with such familiar names as Bill Harris, Don Lamond and Cy Touff which seemed to be aiming at a revival of the old Herman fervor. It comes off pretty well on Chubby's Back, Argo 614, and in some sections of Chubby Takes Over, Everest 5009. This last disk is very spotty, however, and carries a numbing load of dead wood as does I'm Entitled to You, Argo 625. Two samples of the mid-Forties Jackson will be found on Advance Guard of the Forties, Em- Arcy 36016, on which he leads a quietly swinging little group. A deplorable instance of his ill-ad- vised humor is preserved on Dixieland and New Orleans Jazz, Camden 446. Milt Jackson. The vibraphone was brought into jazz by Lionel Hampton who used it at walloping uptempos and for pretty, mood-setting effects. Later Red Norvo shifted to it from xylophone, playing it with swinging delicacy. But it was Milt Jackson The Records 147 who first gave the vibes the earthy feeling that is expected of a true jazz instrument. He is a driving and well organized performer at fast tempos but his prime metier is in the slower speeds of blues and ballads. Jackson is, in fact, one of the merest hand- ful of modern jazzmen who can maintain the essentially balladic sense of a ballad while inter- preting it with a jazz quality. This ability is shown off extremely well on Ballads and Blues, Atlantic 1242, on parts of which Lucky Thompson's very complementary tenor saxophone slithers through some equally adept solos (Thompson is one of that handful who can play ballads). There is more good Jackson-Thompson balladry on The Jazz Skyline, Savoy 12070, Jacksonville, Savoy 12080, and on Roll 'Em Bags, Savoy 12042 (which also includes some lumbering pieces by another less edifying Jackson group) as well as on Meet Milt, Savoy 12061, on which the Jackson-Thompson works share space with a selection on which Jackson plays, a firm, gutty piano, one on which he sings dismally and a pair of half-baked works by a fourth Jackson ensemble. Jackson's versatility is given a much better show- case on Soul Brothers, Atlantic 1279, on which he plays both piano and guitar as well as vibes. But this disk gets its cachet from the joining of Jackson with Ray Charles, two fellow conjurors in the darker, more basic shades of blue. They produce a minor masterpiece on How Long Blues which starts off way, way down and sustains this mood miracu- lously for nine minutes. There are more of Jack- son's primal blues on Plenty, Plenty Soul, Atlantic 1269, on which he has the valuable assistance of Horace Silver and Art Blakey, among others. He is heard with variants of the Modern Jazz Quartet, the group with which he has been associated since 1952, on Milt Jackson Quartet, Prestige 7003, on which Horace Silver takes John Lewis' customary 148 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ piano chair in the quartet, a change which tilts the scales strongly in the direction of funk, while on The Modern Jazz Quartet, Savoy 12046, Lewis is present (the sitter-in is Ray Brown on bass) and there is a loose but recognizably MJQ feeling about the performances. This feeling is also apparent on one side of Milt Jackson, Blue Note 1509, in per- formances by the original quartet plus alto saxo- phonist Lou Donaldson. Jackson's ballad and blues side comes through warmly on Opus de Jazz, Savoy 12036, but his bal- ance wheel here is Frank Wes' flute. He joins trumpeter Howard McGhee on Howard McGhee and Milt Jackson, Savoy 12026, in some shallowly recorded and rather unimpressive pieces, while he hits one of his rare low points on records leading a quintet which has as its main point of interest the big, fat tone of an obscure trumpeter, Henry Boozier, on MJQ, Prestige 7059, a disk which also includes the earliest recordings by the Modern Jazz Quartet. Illinois Jacquet. One of the earliest of the show- boating tenor saxophonists, Jacquet has a tendency to drown his definite talents (he is a smoothly flow- ing swinger deriving from Lester Young) in out- breaks of gross honkery. It was his misfortune to originate the Flyin' Home fandango in Lionel Hampton's band and even a later spell with Basie could not completely erase the notion which seemed fixed in his mind that if he played loudly, weirdly and speedily enough he could be a great attraction. Fortunately most of his excesses have been culled from the recordings which have survived on LP from his earlier days. Lately he seems to have calmed down at least in recording studios. Some recordings he made in the middle Forties turn up on one side of Rex Stewart Plays Duke Ellington, Grand Award 33-315 (Stewart does as The Records 149 indicated on the other side), most of them in Jacquet's rich ballad style and somewhat fuzzily recorded. The calming influence of an organ played by Count Basie on some numbers, by Hank Jones on others helps him to level off on Port of Rico, Verve 8085, while another organist, Gerald Wiggins, guides him to smooth, controlled swing- ing on Illinois Jacquet and His Orchestra, Verve 8061. With more conventional small group instru- mentation he makes a determined and frequently successful effort to play with taste on Swings the Thing, Verve 8023, and maintains this pace on Grooving Verve 8086. He turns lumpy and dull in an effort at mood music on Jazz Moods, Verve 8084, and although he is joined by Ben Webster on The Kid and the Brute, Verve 8065, an association which might have inspired Jacquet to rise to Webster's level, the influence is the other way around for Webster has rarely played as inadequately. Jacquet contributes one selection to Verve Compendium of Jazz #1, Verve 8194. Ahmad Jamal. A Pittsburgher who has apparently given the piano style of his fellow Pittsburgher, Erroll Garner, a lot of thought, Jamal arrived at a trio formula in 1958 which seemed to have a broadness of appeal unmatched by anyone since Garner became widely known. He shares with Garner a melodiousness and a rhythmic drive that are readily communicative and, like Garner, there are surprises and twists and turns in his playing which can be appreciated by almost anyone. He does not, however, copy any of Garner's mannerisms or devices but has developed a spare, highly ab- breviated way of playing (he gains some of his best effects by not playing at all) while the melodic line and pulse are carried on sturdily by his excellent bass and drum team, Israel Crosby and Vernell Fournier. 150 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Jamal spent the better part of a decade arriving at this combination of instrumentation and ap- proach. After a spell with George Hudson's band in St. Louis in the Forties (when he was known as Fritz Jones), Jamal formed the Three Strings in Chicago in 1950 and has been evolving from that start in the years between. His earliest work on LP is The Ahmad Jamal Trio, Epic 3212, some 1956 recordings with Crosby and a guitarist, Ray Crawford, which mixes some moments of genuine emotion with slickly contrived novelties. On Cham- ber Music of the New Jazz, Argo 602, Crawford is still present but he is occasionally banging his guitar for a bongo effect (a la Herb Ellis) which has since been picked up by Jamal's drummer. Count 'Em 88, Argo 610, marks the switch from guitar to drum (Walter Perkins is the drummer on this disk) and, in his version of Easy to Remember, the emergence of the drum and bass as front line voices in the trio. Fournier has taken over the drum chair on Ahmad Jamal at the Pershing, Argo 628, and this disk along with a slightly later one Ahmad Jamal, Argo 636 (both recorded in night dubs) represent the finished, polished Jamal style as of 1958. Bobby Jaspar. A Belgian tenor saxophonist and flutist who made his jazz reputation in Paris and subsequently came to the United States where he has been a member of J. J. Johnson's group, Jaspar sometimes gets a stronger jazz flavor from the flute than other members of the piping set but he is far better when he is rolling out the soft, pliant saxophone lines he produces on Interplay for Two Trumpets and Two Tenors, Prestige 7112. On a recording made in France, Bobby Jaspar and His All Stars, EmArcy 36105, his saxophoning slips to aimless noodling at times and his flute work is too fragile to carry him through Flute Souffle, Prestige The Records 151 7101, or Flute Flight, Prestige 7124. He is also heard on Tenor and Flute, Riverside 12-240, and in a single selection on Blues for Tomorrow, River- side 12-243. The Jazz Exponents. A quartet from Upper Michi- gan featuring two versatile musicians, Jack Gridley on vibes, piano and trombone, and Bob Elliott on trombonium and piano, varies between a rough- hewn approximation of the J. J. Johnson-Kai Wind- ing treatment and some rhythmic but derivative pieces on The Jazz Exponents, Argo 622. The Jazz Group of Paris (see Andre Hodeir). Les Jazz Modes. Julius Watkins is practically the only jazz French horn performer who has been able to shake the instrument out of its haunting hunting sound and make it swing. Even he is not always successful at this (nor does he scorn the effective use that can be made of the more normal French horn style on a ballad) but he pulls the trick off frequently enough on the disks he has made with Les Jazz Modes, a quintet jointly led by him and tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse, to set them apart from the general run of jazz record- ings. The group's freest, most unencumbered set of performances are on one side of Jazzville '56, Vol. 1, Dawn 1101 (shared with the Gene Quill-Dick Sherman Quintet) as Watkins shakes off the usual French horn shackles and soars with brilliant ex- hilaration. There is an abandon on this disk that is gradually stifled on their succeeding records. Les Jazz Modes, Dawn 1108, includes a wordless soprano voice, used much in the Duke Ellington manner although without Ellington's judiciousness. Mood in Scarlet, Dawn 1117, leans self-consciously toward the exotic while The Most Happy Fella, Atlantic 1280, traps the group in a show score that produces 152 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ no sparks. A single selection by the Modes is in- cluded in Critics' Choice, Dawn 1123, and Jazz for Hi-Fi Lovers, Dawn 1124. John Jenkins. One of the many alto saxophonists derived from Charlie Parker, Jenkins is not quite as strident as some of his contemporaries and even displays a certain amount of warmth at slow tempos on John Jenkins, Blue Note 1573. On a long-winded blowing session, Jazz Eyes, Regent 6056, he shows more assurance and sense of direction than his fel- low soloists, Donald Byrd and Curtis Fuller, but Alto Madness, Prestige 7114, boils down to a re- lentless series of shrill, empty solos by Jenkins and a similarly derived altoist, Jackie McLean. Dick Johnson. Within a small area and in limited doses, Johnson is a light, bright and engaging alto saxophonist. There is an appealingly airy spirit and fluency in much of his playing on Music for Swinging Moderns, EmArcy 36081, although he fumbles a bit in the slow tempos of ballads. His conception becomes repetitious over the length of Most Likely . . . , Riverside 12-253, but fortunately he has the edgy, charging pianist, Dave McKenna, in his rhythm section to keep things moving. A brief but swinging appearance by Johnson at New- port in 1957 is reported on Eddie Costa, Mat Mathews and Don Elliott at Newport, Verve 8237. J. J. Johnson. The trombone was brought into the modern jazz line, as set by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, by Johnson, a technically brilliant musician with the ability to project great quantities of basic jazz feeling when is so moved. A prime problem of Johnson's as a communicator is that he is very frequently not so moved, preferring to mutter his way through long, dry, staccato exercises. He was greatly admired during the height o the The Records 153 bop period but found work so scarce during the early Fifties that he dropped out of music for a couple of years. He returned to form a briefly interesting alliance with trombonist Kai Winding and latterly has led various groups of his own. On his recordings from the pre-Winding period, Johnson is almost always a lesser light in the groups with which he plays. On four 1949 pieces on Trom- bone by Three, Prestige 7023, Johnson is vague and muffled but trumpeter Kenny Dorham speaks out crisply and pianist John Lewis shows the lithe, swinging strength that is at the root of his later work. Of the three ensembles heard on /. /. Johnson's Jazz Quintets, Savoy 12106, one is given vitality by Lewis* suave lightness at the piano and shows off a young Sonny Rollins, unformed but forceful; a second is lifted from its rut by Bud Powell; and the third simply bogs down except on one selection in which Johnson permits him- self a suggestion of a shout. The Eminent J. J. Johnson, Vol. 1, Blue Note 1505, offers some electric trumpeting by Clifford Brown and unusually hard-driving playing by John Lewis, while Horace Silver almost saves The Emi- nent J. J. Johnson, Vol. 2, Blue Note 1506, but is buried under Johnson's monotonous dryness. John- son is also one of the principals, with Howard McGhee and Oscar Pettiford, in a mish-mash badly recorded on Guam, Jazz: South Pacific, Regent 6001. The mating of the trombones of Winding and Johnson produced a majestic exuberance, ex- pressed in big, rich tones and sweeping melodic lines which lifted them out of their dry, mechanistic habits (Winding was afflicted by this almost as much as Johnson). Jay and Kai, Savoy 12010, catches them early in their ducting career when they were still depending largely on solos to carry their pieces but on Jai and Kay, Prestige 7030 (shared with 154 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Benny Green), and Kai Winding and J. J. Johnson, Bethlehem 13, there is less soloing and what there is is moving in a direction more consistent with their duet style than it had been earlier. Together, they project a strong, brash, moving quality. Their main problem was finding tonal variety and they tried a variety of means to reach this on Trombone for Two, Columbia CL 742 mutes, breaks, unison, harmony, key changes. It was evident by this fourth disk, however, that there was a limit to the possi- bilities of a two-trombone front line and Jay and Kai Plus Six, Columbia CL 892, set them at the head of an eight-trombone ensemble which gave them greater range and flexibility. In the duo's final appearance together, at Newport in 1956, caught on Dave Brubeck and Jay and Kai at New- port, Columbia CL 932, they have slick, rhythmic but unemotional, qualities that are carried out on the odds and ends gathered on Jay and Kai, Colum- bia CL 973, which pads out some duo pieces with selections by groups led by each of the trombonists. The experience with Winding was apparently invigorating for Johnson, however, for his playing with the groups he has led since then has been less introverted than it was before. His first post-Wind- ing group, with Bobby Jaspar on tenor saxophone and flute, plays with some measure of depth and variety on /. 7$ for Jazz, Columbia CL 935, and Dial J. J. 5, Columbia CL 1084. With only a rhythm section behind him on First Place, Columbia CL 1030, he reverts to his tightly corseted, staccato style. A later group, involving Nat Adderley's cornet, brings out his more buoyant side again in a concert performance on /. /. in Person!, Columbia CL 1161. A tempting sample of what Johnson can really do when he is in the mood occurs on Stan Getz and J. /. Johnson at the Opera House, Verve 8265, as he puts aside his fidgety exercises and lets fly The Records 155 in a lusty, virile fashion. His group featuring Jaspar contributes one excellent selection to The Playboy Jazz Alls tars, Playboy 1957. One selection by John- son is included in Jazz Omnibus, Columbia CL 1020, and single pieces by the Johnson-Winding combina- tion are in Operation Jazz, Roost OJ1, Great Jazz Brass, Camden 383, and $64,000 Jazz, Columbia CL 777. Osie Johnson. A steady and imaginative small group drummer, Johnson heads three such groups on The Happy Jazz of Osie Johnson, Bethlehem 66. They are drawn mostly from Count Basic's band and their performances are highlighted by Frank Wess' rapier-like tenor saxophone and Dick Katz's charg- ing piano. Johnson also has a single selection in After Hours Jazz, Epic 3339. Pete Jolly. Jolly stems from the glib, skee-daddling style common to West Coast pianists but he manages to invest When Lights Are Low, Victor LPM 1367, with a little change of pace and some suggestion of emotion. One of his more meaty solos turns up in Pianists Galore!, World Pacific JWC 506. Hank Jones has become an all-around professional, somewhat like Dick Hyman, which is good for the pocketbook but it leaves a bland musical per- sonality. He once showed a very strong Art Tatum influence on Urbanity, Verve 8091 and traces of a softened version of Teddy Wilson Have you Met Hank Jones, Savoy 12084, The Rhythm Section, Epic 3271, and one selection in After Hours Jazz, Epic 3339. But he gave these up for a faceless slickness which produces satisfactory but unexciting background music on Hank Jones Quartet, Savoy 12087, Hank Jones Quartet and Quintet, Savoy 12037, The Talented Touch, Capitol T 1044, and 156 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Hank Jones Swings Songs -from "Gigi," Golden Crest 3042. Jimmy Jones. This Jones, one of the more ad- mirable piano accompanists, steps out in reflective style at the head of his own trio in four selections that lean toward mood style on Escape, GNP 27. He is the 'unobtrusive leader of a group of Basieites who spur singer Beverly Kenney to a closer contact with jazz than she has shown on any other record- ings on Beverly Kenney, Roost 2218. Jo Jones is one of the bridges from swing to bop. He was the drummer in the great Count Basic band of the Thirties and was one of the first to start breaking up the bass rhythm as a contribution to modern jazz. The Jo Jones Special, Vanguard 8053, has the light, loose driving quality that was char- acteristic of Basie-based small groups. Jones is one of the more crafty, craftsmanlike, discreet and hu- morous drum soloists and although he is given opportunities to show off he spends most of his time on this disk judiciously propelling the Basie rhythm team (Walter Page, Freddie Green) while tenor saxophonist Lucky Thompson dominates the solo sections. Also present: Basie, Emmett Berry, Benny Green, Lawrence Brown. Jones also plies his art behind Tony Bennett on three selections on The Beat of My Heart, Columbia CL 1079. Philly Joe Jones, The problem of having two suc- cessful drummers named Jo Jones and Joe Jones has been brilliantly solved by leaving Jo alone and identifying Joe by his home town. Two other identifying characteristics of Philly Joe are his cacophonic, battering drumming style and his abil- ity to take off Bela Lugosi. Both are given work- outs during Blues for Dracula, Riverside 12-282, The Records 157 on which PJ leads a group which does well at furious uptempos and slow blues but plods list- lessly the rest of the way. Quincy Jones. Once a Lionel Hampton trumpeter, Jones is now known primarily as an arranger. His writing at its best is bright and swinging, as in Go West, Young Man!, ABC-Paramount 186, on which he works with groups built around four altos, four tenors and four trumpets. This Is How I Feel About Jazz, ABC-Paramount 149, is made up of pleasant, well organized big band performances highlighted by the solos of Phil Woods and Lucky Thompson, but a Swedish session on Jazz Abroad, EmArcy 36083 (shared with Roy Haynes) fails to jell. Thad Jones. More or less buried in Count Basic's trumpet section for several years, Jones (brother to pianist Hank and drummer Elvin) reveals a warm, rich, full-toned style when he gets away from Basic. His development of ballads is particularly sensitive and lyrical on The Magnificent Thad Jones, Blue Note 1527, and Thad Jones, Blue Note 1546. De- troit-New York Junction, Blue Note 1513, puts him at the head of a proficiently swinging group of Detroiters (Billy Mitchell, Kenny Burrell, Tommy Flanagan) and Swing . . . Not Spring, Savoy 12062, sets up the same situation (with Mitchell, Terry Pollard, Alvin Jackson and brother Elvin) but in this case everyone else is shaded by the incisive Miss Pollard (playing both vibes and piano). Mad Thad, Period 1208, is a relaxed romp for Jones in the company of another Basie sideman, tenor saxo- phonist Frank Foster, but gimmickry stifles The Jones Boys, Period 1210, on which he is backed by Jimmy, Eddie, Jo, Reunald and Quincy Jones, all unrelated. On one selection in Modern Jazz Hall of Fame, Design 29, Thad plays a pretty open horn over a sawing, disjointed background. 158 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Cliff Jordan. A tenor saxophonist of the hard-toned, driving school, Jordan's recordings are all burdened with needlessly long solos. He gets some variety into Cliff Craft, Blue Note 1582, and has the able assistance of trumpeter Lee Morgan on Cliff Jordan, Blue Note 1565, but both disks wear out their welcome. Blowing In From Chicago, Blue Note 1549, his first recording, is an undistinguished introduction shared with John Gilmore. Knud Jorgenssen. This Swedish pianist contributes a pair of percussive, agitated but undistinguished solos to Swedes from Jazzville, Epic 3309. Richie Kamuca. Kamuca is a tenor saxophonist of the Lester Young school smooth-toned, ingratiat- ing but rarely compelling. On Just Friends, World Pacific 401, teamed with the virile tenor of Bill Perkins, Kamuca sounds almost shy. He is more forthright and fluent on a misleadingly titled disk, Jazz Erotica, HiFi Record R-604, which, despite its title and a cover portrait of a yawning, bed-ready nude, has nothing to offer lip lickers. Kamuca con- tributes one pleasant solo to Solo Flight, World Pacific JWC 505. Dick Katz. Katz is an able, self-effacing pianist who has worked extensively with Tony Scott. His three selections in Jazz Piano International, Atlantic 1287, are light and graceful with occasional suggestions of something more compelling than the bland surface he shows much of the time. Fred Katz. By his own account, Katz's interest in jazz is peripheral and his recordings pay it only glancing attention. He was the original cellist in the Chico Hamilton Quintet which is possibly why his recordings since leaving Hamilton continue to be released as jazz despite his disclaimers. He can The Records 159 play a strong, muscular cello which by its very guttiness sometimes has a jazz implication (see his encounter with Granada on Zen: The Music of Fred Katz, World Pacific 1231) but the provocative as- pects of his playing usually lie in directions other than jazz. He offers some piquant ideas in Soul-o Cello, Decca 9202, and 4-5-6 Trio, Decca 9213, but the overall menu on these "mood jazz" releases is bland. He plays one strong-lined tune on Ballads for Backgrounds, World Pacific JWC 503. Johnny Keating. Known primarily as one of Ted Heath's more gifted arrangers, Keating leads twenty hot Scots (who are some of Britain's best jazzmen) through lustily jaunty paces on Swingin' Scots, Dot 3068, but his aim and his results are much lower on Johnny Keatings Favorite American Dances, ABC- Paramount 144. Wynton Kelly. Kelly, the pianist in Dizzy Gillespie's big band of the middle Fifties, has provided wel- comes oases in the bleaker stretches of several re- corded blowing sessions. On his own disk, Wynton Kelly, Riverside 12-254, heading a quartet on one side and a trio on the other, he plays with that direct, strongly rhythmic, communicative quality that is one of the great merits of Erroll Garner. The mixture of vitality and delicacy in Kelly's work shows up best in the trio selections on which he does not have to compete with Philly Joe Jones' drumming. Stan Kenton's erratic career in jazz has run from the invigorating creativity of his early years to a climax of headlong extremist posturing, followed by a full scale retreat which has taken him down from his cloudland past the routine jazz fashions of the moment, past the most valid aspects of his own work to an ultra-conservatism that is just this 160 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ side of Kostelanetz. Starting as the organizer of an excellent and distinctive big jazz band in the swing vein its earliest, fumbling but promising efforts are collected on The Formative Years, Decca 8259 his interests soon moved so far away from jazz that even when he consciously tried to go back to it his band was, at best, simply imitative of others and, on less auspicious occasions, so musically mus- cle-bound as to be almost paralyzed. It is typical of Kenton's wholehearted, unquali- fied devotion to any idea that he undertakes that he insisted that he was playing jazz even when almost all pretense of jazz qualities had been re- moved from a work. Yet to call City of Glass; This Modern World, Capitol T 738, "jazz" involves ac- ceptance of George Orwell's "newspeak." If words are to be used correctly it might be more accurate to call these pieces attempts at serious composition with occasional interludes in a jazz vein. The Kenton who has something to say in jazz terms will be found in excellent form on Artistry in Rhythm, Capitol T 167, and Stan Kenton's Milestones, Capitol T 190, and in varied form on Stan Kenton Classics, Capitol T 358, and Encores, Capitol T 155. Kenton's early efforts to bring new elements into the usual jazz forms were quite promising and there are several interesting pieces from this period (along with several dreadful things) on A Presentation of Progressive Jazz, Capitol T 172, but Innovations in Modern Music, Capitol T 189, is too self-conscious to be effective. As he began to climb back from the end of the limb where what he calls his "highly experimental" work had left him, Kenton fell into a relatively anonymous modern jazz big band style (repre- sented by New Concepts of Artistry and Rhythm, Capitol T 383, and Contemporary Concepts, Capi- tol T 666) and a reversion to something comparable to the Swing Era approach to standard tunes The Records 161 (Sketches on Standards, Capitol T 426, Portraits on Standards, Capitol T 462, and Popular Favorites, Capitol T 421). However, by this time the Kenton band no longer swung it heaved. There is a sug- gestion of a revitalization of some of the early Kenton creativity and fire (as distinguished from empty blast) on a pair of mid-Fifties disks, Kenton Showcase, Capitol T 524, to which Bill Russo contributed some compositions with a distinctively individual character, and Cuban Fire, Capitol T 731, the ultimate in Kentonian bravura given con- tent and form by composer-arranger Johnny Rich- ards. Since then Kenton has devoted himself largely to diluting the best works of his early days. Stan Kenton in Hi-Fi, Capitol W 724, is a re-recording as indicated of some of his best arrangements but it might have been better to leave well enough alone. Ten years after it had created these pieces, the Kenton band could move only in heavy, logy fashion and the decorative frills that have been added to a once directly stated number such as The Peanut Vendor are not improvements. He re- visits some of the same selections once again on Lush Interlude, Capitol T 1130, draining their vitality even more by substituting a string section for the original trumpets which, though they may often have been overblown, could not be charged with generating the squashy tedium that the strings do. Possibly in an effort to recapture the spark that had obvionsly been lost over the years, Kenton went back in 1957 to the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa, Calif., where his band had originated in 1941. Rendezvous with Kenton, Capitol T 932, and Back to Balboa, Capitol T 995, are the ponderous, lumbering products of this attempt to become a dance band once more. From this Kenton has descended to the pure 162 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ mood music of The Ballad Style of Stan Kenton, Capitol T 1068, on which he doodles out some one- finger piano meditations against lush ensembles with more show of taste and sensitivity than had come from him in a long time. He has also dabbled in the vocal field on Kenton with Voices, Capitol T 810, the Modern Men and Ann Richards get involved in some pretty precious attempts to take the place of the Kenton trombones, while his con- certo-type piano accompaniment is not quite strong enough to sustain June Christy on Duet, Capitol T 656. The Kenton saga from his early, loose-jointed punching band with the rich reeds through the Kenton of the mid-Fifties is chronicled extremely well in a four-disk set, The Kenton Era, Capitol WDX 569. A thinly recorded selection from a broadcast by the Kenton band of the early Forties is included in The Playboy Jazz Allstars, Playboy 1957, another with better sound is in The Encyclo- pedia of Jazz on Records, Vol. 3, Decca 8400, and there are single, relatively uninteresting selections by later versions of the band in Dance Craze, Capitol T 927, and Dance to the Bands, Vol. 1, and Vol. 2, Capitol T 977 and T 978. Barney Kessel. Among the multitude of guitarists who have been inspired by Charlie Christian, Kessel has picked up more of the meat of Christian's lithe, swinging style than most. He is, in addition, a sensitive investigator of ballad lines. In fact, his only failing is a fondness for hillbilly twanging out of context, a failing which he is more inclined to show on recordings made by others, rarely on his own. He has produced an interesting and varied series of disks for Contemporary. Barney Kessel, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Contemporary 3511 and 3512, place him with flute (Bud Shank or Buddy Col- lette) on the first disk and oboe (Bob Cooper) The Records 163 on the second, plus a rhythm section in both cases. Both disks glitter with unhackneyed ideas ex- pressed with excellent taste and impeccable musi- cianship. Kessel uses a Basic-influenced septet (with Harry Edison and either Bill Perkins or Georgie Auld) on To Swing or Not to Swing, Contemporary 3513, for crisp, flowing results while The Poll Winners, Contemporary 3535, and The Poll Win- ners Ride Again, Contemporary 3556, are by a ne plus ultra trio made up of Kessel, Ray Brown, bass, and Shelly Manne, drums, which is imaginative, suave and delightfully easygoing. The closest Kessel has come to a miscue is Music to Listen to Barney Kessel By, Contemporary 3521, on which his lithe, gentle guitar is framed in the owlish solemnity of a woodwind group. He contributes one mood piece to The Playboy Jazz Allstars, Playboy 1957. Tony Kinsey. An English quintet led by drummer Kinsey has a light attack which gets much of its floating power from the pulsing ease of tenor saxophonist Don Rendell on Kinsey Comes On, London LL 1672. Al Klink. A veteran of the Glenn Miller band who has been buried in studio bands since then, Klink shows himself to be a graceful and forceful tenor saxophone soloist with a tone of amazing purity on Progressive Jazz, Grand Award 33-325. The quintet he leads (Dick Hyman, Mundell Lowe, Trigger Alpert, Ed Shaughnessy) is swingingly modern, which may be what "progressive" means. Jimmy Knepper. Knepper is a thoroughly individ- ual trombonist who mixes a blues-tinged suaveness that recalls Jack Teagarden with an exotic, singing urgency that is unlike the playing of any other jazz instrumentalist. His provocative and imagina- tive playing highlights several Charlie Mingus disks 164 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ and his own A Swinging Introduction, Bethlehem 77. Moe Koffman. Koffman is a Canadian alto saxo- phonist who doubles on flute. Flute happened to be the instrument he was playing when he recorded The Swinging Shepherd Blues with his septet on Cool and Hot Sax, Jubilee 1037. Koffman plays a hard hitting saxophone through most of this disk and his guitarist, Ed Bickert, has an appealingly lowdown tone but the rest of the group is faceless. Spurred by the success of Swinging Shepherd, Koff- man followed up with The "Shepherd" Swings Again, Jubilee 1074, which is almost completely de- voted to piping, static flute work. Hans Koller, Koller epitomizes the cool tenor saxo- phone in Germany, playing with appropriately meandering wispiness. He leads a drone-toned group on "Das" Is Jazz!, Decca 8229, which is brightened by the presence of pianist Jutta Hipp, and heads a completely different group on Hans Across the Sea, Vanguard 8509, which has no one to relieve his soft, squashy sound. Lee Konitz. Konitz emerged from the cool, calm serenity of Claude Thornhill's band to the gliding, rolling manner evolved by Lennie Tristano in the late Forties to become the pace-setter among cool alto saxophonists. As happened with Charlie Parker, his least effective work has seemed to have a hyp- notic effect on those altoists who have been in- fluenced by him and produced, during the early Fifties, a school of wispy, meandering saxophonists who were all but inarticulate. Konitz himself has followed an erratic path along a career that has never flowered as might have been expected largely because his playing has been inconsistent. His early work with Tristano and with fellow Tristanoites The Records 165 had muscle and spirit and, as a rule, form. A collection of recordings made in 1949 and 1950, Lee Konitz, Prestige 7004, catches Konitz at the crest of this period while his side of Conception, Prestige 7013, made a year later, puts him in company with Miles Davis and a Tristano rhythm section on pieces in which Konitz's playing is well developed, Davis' merely serviceable. By 1954, when he recorded Jazz at Storyville, Storyville 901, he seemed to be reaching out toward a wider audience, paying more attention to melody, depending less on technique. A reunion with tenor saxophonist Warne Marsh, with whom he played in the Tristano sextet, Lee Konitz with Warne Marsh, Atlantic 1217, is a reasonably complete report on their solo and ensemble habits with special emphasis on the aural whipped cream to which the Tristano loops had been reduced by then. Konitz's apparent inability either to settle on the best aspects of what he had developed or to move positively in any new direction shows up in Very Cool, Verve 8209, as he frequently bogs down in cliches. The Real Lee Konitz, Atlantic 1273, is interesting as a laboratory piece for Konitz taped these selections himself when he was playing at a night club in Pittsburgh and he has preserved only the best of what he recorded whether it was com- pleted or not. It illustrates, one presumes, what he wants to be doing. A suggestion of one avenue that might be worth exploring is found on Lee Konitz Inside Hi-Fi, Atlantic 1258, for he plays tenor on one side, show- ing a rough tone and a driving attack that have a great deal of unpolished charm. Lee Konitz with Gerry Mulligan, World Pacific 406, adds Konitz to the early Mulligan Quartet but it is not a very good fit. Single selections from this disk are on Jazz West Coast, World Pacific JWC 500, and Solo Flight, World Pacific JWC 505. A rambling Konitz ballad 166 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ is in Roost Fifth Anniversary Album, Roost 1201, and a meandering piece in Modern Jazz Hall of Fame, Design 29. Paul Kuhn. This German pianist plays in percus- sive, Garner-derived fashion in one selection with his quartet on "Das" Is Jazz!, Decca 8229, but is much more effective as a charging, swinging side- man in Rolf Kuhn's group on the same disk. Rolf Kuhn. A Benny Goodman-styled clarinetist, Kuhn sparkles with his German All Stars on "Das" Is Jazz!, Decca 8229. In his first recording after coming to the United States in 1956, Streamline, Vanguard 8510, he retains much of the Goodman spirit but a mechanized chill seemed to settle on him when he faced a Newport audience in 1957 as reported on Eddie Costa, Mat Mathews and Don Elliott at Newport, Verve 8237. Steve Lacy. The first soprano saxophonist in the modern jazz idiom, Lacy plays in a smooth, mocha- toned style that carries suggestions of Sidney Bechet's soaring quality on this instrument but without Bechet's over-ripe vibrato. Lacy's lithe, flowing lines are frequently effective on Soprano Sax, Prestige 7125, but it is asking a lot for this relatively limited instrument to carry two sides of an LP almost by itself (pianist Wynton Kelly steps in for an occasional ruminative solo). Harold Land. Land, a tenor saxophonist with a pleasant if undistinguished musical personality, is trapped with a flat, mechanical group on In the Land of Jazz, Contemporary 3550, and he is equally hemmed in by a set of roaring, long-playing col- leagues on Jam Session, EmArcy 36002. The Records 167 Ronnie Lang. Lang is one of the slick, precise, gentle and largely uninteresting products of the Les Brown band. On Modern Jazz, Tops 1521, his bland alto saxophone leads a sextet through some churning, surface exercises that develop swinging strength only when pianist Marty Paich cuts loose. John LaPorta. Of all those in the avante garde wing of jazz, LaPorta shows more inclination than most of his colleagues to come to understandable terms with the average, or non-avante garde, listener. His Conceptions, Fantasy 3228, are, in most cases, melodic and rhythmic and are played with clarity and directness. La Porta is a clarinetist with a firm control of his instrument who plays with a rugged, swinging drive, possibly a reflection of his early years with dance bands in the 1940s (Bob Chester, Ray McKinley, Woody Herman). As an alto saxo- phonist he lacks the clean definition he shows on clarinet but retains the same surging lift. Concep- tions is a varied and interesting program which manages to explore and to swing with equal in- tensity. On The Jazz Message, Savoy 12064, he brings an unaccustomed feeling of easy warmth to one of the standard blowing groups. The breadth of LaPorta's talent is highlighted on The Clarinet Artistry of John LaPorta, Fantasy 3248, on which he leads a trio in something equiva- lent to the Benny Goodman vein on one side and, on the other, sprouts long hair to play Brahms* Sonata in F Minor for Clarinet and Piano. A guest appearance by LaPorta at a jazz concert in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1956 is reported on South American Brothers, Fantasy 3237. LaPorta played with the Charlie Nagy Quintet, led by an emigr6 Hungarian pianist, and contributed five arrange- ments to the fifteen-piece Orquestra Casablanca. This band, working on a broad, catholic base that combines the rhythmic feeling of the big swing 168 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ bands with modernisms in the Woody Herman manner, glistens with excellent soloists. A third group, the Walter Albrecht Sextet, a Bavarian group recently arrived in Venezuela at that time, is also heard but its soft, cloudy playing is only of peripheral interest. LaPorta's contributions are consistently stimulating and thoroughly in keeping with the varied approaches his Venezuelan hosts were interested in trying. Yusef Lateef. During the 1940s Lateef was known as Bill Evans (not to be confused with the pianist, Bill Evans) and could be found in the saxophone sections of the bands of Lucky Millinder and Dizzy Gillespie. Under his new name, he settled in De- troit in the Fifties and began exploring the poten- tials of Middle Eastern sounds in relation to jazz, using such instruments as the one-stringed rabat, the flute-like argol and the earthboard as well as the more familiar bottle and balloon. On his first LP, Jazz for Thinkers, Savoy 12109, he keeps both his leaning toward exoticism and his strange instru- ments under wraps, depending instead on his dark- toned, smooth-flowing tenor saxophone to carry his group. Subsequently on Jazz Mood, Savoy 12103, he exploits his odd sounds as accents and mood- setters, leaving the bulk of the development to his tenor, his visceral flute and the trombone of Curtis Fuller. On Prayer to the East, Savoy 12117, he found a natural outlet for his wails, buzzes and clanks in Night in Tunisia, a piece on which fluegelhornist Wilbur Harden all but overshadows Lateef. But Lateef's most triumphant tour de force oc- curs on The Sounds of Yusef, Prestige 7122, in a piece called Love and Humor which is concocted largely of bird cries produced by the manipulation of two balloons (one balloonist works in a gusty George Brunis style) while under this a Seven-Up The Records 169 bottle huffs out the earth-root sound of the primi- tive jug bands. Lateef's flute floats through this controlled pandemonium with fey fluency. Strangely enough, it all seems to swing. On Jazz and the Sounds of Nature, Savoy 12120, the sounds are beginning to run thin and Before Dawn, Verve 8217, shows what he can do with his intense, muscular attack without depending on odd- ities. Yusef Lateef at Cranbrook, Argo 634, is by a completely revamped group with the odd instru- ments still in evidence but, much more important, with Terry Pollard strongly present on piano. In contrast to her driving jumpiness with Terry Gibbs' group, Miss Pollard's playing here is very relaxed, easily flowing and thoroughly refreshing. Lateef has one selection in Jazz Is Busting Out All Over, Savoy 12123. Elliot Lawrence. When Elliot Lawrence was the boy wonder of the name band business in the middle Forties, he followed Claude Thornhill's dreamy style. And when, under the influence of Gil Evans, Thornhill began adding modern jazz touches to his book, so did Lawrence. During most of the Fifties Lawrence has led a weekend band made up of some of the best big band musicians around New York, men who like Lawrence himself are busy in television and recording studios during the week but don't mind doing one-nighters on weekends. With this band, Lawrence has kept alive both the jazz and dream sides of his book. One of his earliest contributors of jazz arrange- ments was Gerry Mulligan. These were fledgling efforts on Mulligan's part and while they are not especially distinguished and are no heralds of the Mulligan small groups to come, they provide in their mid-Fifties re-enactment on The Elliot Law- rence Band Plays Gerry Mulligan, Fantasy 3206, a serviceable foundation for such soloists as Al Cohn, 170 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Eddie Bert and Nick Travis. Zoot Sims and Urbie Green are added starters in the band that is heard on Elliot Lawrence Plays Tiny Kahn and Johnny Mandel Arrangements, Fantasy 3219. Kahn had a direct, uncomplicated and swinging approach in his writing and the Lawrence band plays his ar- rangements with gutty zest. Mandel's selections have less heart, more lace around the edges and are at their best in pretty passages by Lawrence and Green. Sideman Al Cohn has his day in the limelight on Swinging at the Steel Pier, Fantasy 3236, for which he has provided a capable set of finger-snapping arrangements. Dreamy dance music dominates the rest of Law- rence's recordings. There are a few swinging touches on Elliot Lawrence Plays for Swinging Dancers, Fantasy 3246, but the dancers just dream on Dream, Fantasy 3226, Dream On, Dance On, Fantasy 3261, and Prom Night, Decca 8338. Stan Levey. Bred in the heart of the bop period, Levey has gone on to become an unusually steady and lifting drummer. He combines with pianist Lou Levy and bassist Leory Vinnegar to form a stirring, stimulating rhythm section which, on This Time the Drums on Me, Bethlehem 37, carries along some relatively desultory soloists. Levy is re- placed by Sonny Clark on Grand Stan, Bethlehem 71, which cuts down the ensemble jab and punch although Clark puts some meat on his solos. But for all Levey's pulsation, this disk falls apart on dull pieces and, aside from Clark, vague solos. Alonzo Levister. Levister is a young conservatory trained pianist and composer who classifies himself as neither a jazz nor a classical musician. His music, he says, is the result of "a mixture of equal love o Blues, Bartok, Bach and Baptist shouting." He writes in a mixed jazz and classical idiom for a The Records 171 mixed group of jazz and classical musicians. Six short pieces on Manhattan Monodrama, Debut 125, are most successful when his writing is least formal, when he allows his musicians to collaborate with him rather than forcing them down a narrow alley. His most convincing selections are a slow, lyrical Black Swan, a musical impression of Miles Davis, a warmly evocative portrait built around lovely clarinet and trumpet interplay; and Slow Dance which provides a framework for languorous, con- trolled improvisations by Teddy Charles and Louis Mucci. The disk's long title piece, originally written for a ballet, becomes mired in the background music requirements of the assignment. Lou Levy. Levy, a pianist of such swinging pro- pensities when he was with Woody Herman in the late Forties that he was known as "Count," dropped out of jazz for a while in the Fifties and then re- turned a changed and seemingly introverted per- former. Playing with Conte Candoli and Bill Hoi- man on West Coast Waiters > Atlantic 1268, he varies between moments of dark, penetrating stomping and periods of surface romping, while his cool and generally colorless playing on A Most Musical Fella, Victor LPM 1491, suggests that he is concentrating on the inner mechanics of his performances at the expense of the ultimate aural interest. John Lewis. Lewis is usually heard with the Modern Jazz Quartet for which he is musical director and pianist but occasionally, on records, he moves into other contexts. It appears that one of his favorite reasons for making this move is to have the op- portunity to have his compositions, originally created for the Quartet in most instances, played by larger groups or to write for a more varied instrumentation. He wrote three pieces Midsom- mer, Sun Dance and Little David's Fugue for a 172 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ nine-piece group, predominantly woodwinds, heard on The Modern Jazz Society Presents a Concert of Contemporary Music, Verve 8131 (recorded in an- ticipation of a concert that was never held). The disk also includes expansions of two pieces written for the Quartet Django and The Queen's Fancy. The arrangements by Lewis and Gunther Schuller tend to bog down in the woodwinds but the soloists Stan Getz, J. J. Johnson, Tony Scott and Lucky Thompson give new perspective to the familiar pieces. Getz and Johnson make The Queen's Fancy swing warmly while Scott contributes a fervent solo to Django and Thompson rolls out some of his lovely, flowing lines on the same piece. In the winter of 1958 Lewis had an opportunity to try the same thing again but this time on a much larger scale, using a 34-piece orchestra drawn from the Stuttgart Symphony on European Windows, Victor LPM 1742. The Queen's Fancy and Mid- sommer are present once once more, along with two selections from Lewis' score for the film, No Sun in Venice, plus Two Degrees East Three De- grees West and a variation on God Rest Thee Merry, Gentlemen. The enlarged orchestrations emphasize Lewis' melodiousness as a composer (it has been said that he has the unusual ability to create tunes that immediately sound familiar) but they often tend to diminish the jazz qualities the pieces had in their Quartet versions. Still this is a striking jazz disk because of the presence, as one of the two principal soloists, of the English baritone saxophonist, Ronnie Ross (Czech flutist Gerry Weinkopf is the other soloist). Ross has a full-toned, smoothly projected fluency, a feeling for shading and a singing quality that are unique among bari- tone men. He also has an innate rhythmic flow that is never pointedly pronounced but is an integrated part of everything he plays. His solos, fascinating examples of mature, thoughtful and emotionally The Records 173 vigorous jazz, are such a dominant and enlivening force that one is apt to lose sight of the relatively pale orchestrations. One of Lewis' most fruitful trips away from the Quartet occurred when he and the Quartet's bassist, Percy Heath, joined drummer Chico Hamilton, Hamilton's guitarist, Jim Hall, and tenor saxo- phonist Bill Perkins on Grand Encounter, World Pacific 1217. Lewis' persuasive hand is apparent in the tone and tempos of the three ensemble selec- tions on the disk (there are also three solo show- cases, one for Lewis) and he seems to have had an almost hypnotic effect on Hall and Perkins. Love Me or Leave Me, in particular, is a masterpiece of subtle, swinging jazz in which everything falls wondrously into place. Afternoon in Paris, Atlantic 1267, takes Lewis to Paris and the company of guitarist Sacha Distel and tenor saxophonist Barney Wilen. The overall style of this group might be identified as uncorseted Modern Jazz Quartet flowing but contained, free but controlled with solos that are strongly stated but never overstated. Wilen, then 19, is especially worth hearing. Lewis' austere but kindling piano takes the solo spotlight on The John Lewis Piano, Atlantic 1272. He is at his most inviting on those pieces in which he works in his MJQ vein, building simple single note passages through increasing degrees of singing fervor to an ultimate level that can be gently but insistently overpowering. He also indulges himself in some trivial romanticism during this rather studied program. His most provocative piece is Harlequin, an odd and extremely effective develop- ment of a theme through a broken, stabbing series of suggestions by Lewis' piano, held together by Connie Kay's sensitively brush-beaten cymbal. Two Degrees East Three Degrees West, as played in Grand Encounter, is repeated in The Blues, 174 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ World Pacific JWC 502, while Lewis' piano solo from the same disk, I Can't Get Started, turns up on both Ballads for Background, World Pacific JWC 503, and Pianists Galore!, World Pacific JWC 506. Ramsey Lewis. Lewis is a relatively sophisticated blues pianist with an interest in frilly decorations which send him to the verge of cocktail piano. He plays with a trio on Ramsey Lewis and His Gentle- men of Swing, Argo 611, and Ramsey Lewis and the Gentlemen of Jazz, Argo 627. The hairs that are split in these titles do not show up in the music. Abbey Lincoln. Miss Lincoln's voice has strong sug- gestions of the texture of the young voice of Billie Holiday but despite the presence of a good cabal of jazzmen on That's Him, Riverside 12-251, and It's Magic, Riverside 12-277, she is less a jazz singer than a ballad singer with a tendency to turn hard and shallow. Mundell Lowe. Lowe is a guitarist who has crammed a remarkably broad background into a relatively short period of playing. As a teen-ager, he was working on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, had a brief taste of hillbilly music with Grand OF Opry, turned to the swing band style with Jan Savitt and was a member of one of the best modern big jazz bands, Ray McKinley's ill-fated postwar group. In the past decade he has become a highly polished studio musician, capable not only of turn- ing his hand to almost any kind of music but and this is the trick of shucking off the slick, casual surface of the versatile pro whenever he wants to. He has a leaning toward reflective, non-jazz ex- plorations of ideas but he can, when the situation warrants, ride out in gloriously swinging style. This is the side he shows in The Mundell Lowe Quartet, Riverside 12-204. His playing is spare, The Records 175 clean, to the point and delightfully adventurous, running from the merriment of Yes, Sir, That's My Baby to the modernism of Far From Vanilla. With saxophonist Gene Quill and pianist Billy Taylor as associates, he also concentrates on the full- blooded, earthy aspect of his work on A Grand Night for Swinging, Riverside 12-238. The compact, neatly turned little essays by Alec Wilder that make up The New Music of Alec Wilder, Riverside 12-219, are not all played as jazz but even the least jazz-like shows the strong effect that jazz has had on Wilder's work. They are, in a general way, much like Wilder's earlier octet pieces except that these are made meatier by the use of more jazz elements. Lowe has orchestrated them largely for a full ensemble leaving occasional op- portunities for discreet solo work by trumpeter Joe Wilder and himself. This is, in a sense, mood music but it is totally unlike the things which are usually labeled mood music and which are apparently in- tended for someone who is about to expire. This is music for people who are alert, alive and capable of a stimulating variety of moods. For Guitar Moods, Riverside 12-208, Lowe uses a woodwind accompaniment in a skillfully played recital of non-jazz works and continues in this vein in the four selections he has on This Could Lead to Love, Riverside 12-808, and a single entry on Jazz for Lovers, Riverside 12-244. He swings brightly on one piece in Know Your Jazz, Vol. 1, ABC-Paramount 115, and draws some dark blue lines in one number on Blues for Tomorrow, River- side 12-243, Howard Lucraft. Although Lucraft was an ar- ranger and orchestra leader in England before com- ing to this country in 1950, he serves only as im- presario for Showcase for Modern Jazz, Decca 8679, an erratic collection of pieces with the standard 176 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ West Coast names of the Fifties (Shank, Collette, Rosolino, Cooper, Pepper, Manne, etc.). Mary Ann McCall. Miss McCall earned her swing- ing credentials as a singer with several bands in the Forties, principally those of Charlie Barnet and Woody Herman, and she shows them on Easy Liv- ing, Regent 6040, a representative collection in which her absorption of the Billie Holiday feeling (which she does without imitating Miss Holiday's mannerisms) is shown off well. In contrast, Detour to the Moon, Jubilee 1078, is an unqualified detour, a pedestrian collection in which nothing swings and Miss McCall seems forced into strained imitations of girls who cannot sing in the same league with her. Somewhere in between these two disks lies An Evening with Mary Ann McCall and Charlie Ven- tura, Verve 8143, in which she resorts to talk-sing to make up for a lack of depth in her singing voice. Howard McGhee. A featured trumpeter with Andy Kirk, Charlie Barnet and Lionel Hampton in the Forties and an active figure in the bridge from swing to bop, McGhee has not been heard from much during the Fifties. He has a brisk, crackling style that energizes most of the selections on which he plays even briefly. Possibly the most representa- tive collection of his work is The Return of Howard McGhee, Bethlehem 42, on which he has the sup- port of a strong rhythm section (Duke Jordan, Percy Heath and Philly Joe Jones). He is one of the few saving graces of a misguided attempt at a "history of jazz" recorded on Guam, Jazz: South Pacific, Regent 6001, and he plays with edgy deliberation to hold his own with Milt Jackson in an adequate but unmomentous set, Howard McGhee and Milt Jackson, Savoy 12026. Life Is Just a Bowl of Cher- ries, Bethlehem 61, allies him with woodwinds in The Records 177 some pleasant background music through which McGhee occasionally bursts with a cutting solo. Dave McKenna. Though he is superficially a single- note pianist, McKenna remembers he has a left hand and he romps with delightful effervescence through Solo Piano, ABC-Paramount 104. Ray McKinley, McKinley is not often mentioned in the same sentence with Coleman Hawkins or Mary Lou Williams but he is one of that rare handful of jazz musicians whose scope ranges from relatively traditional to very modern. He has run a gamut from the two-beat of the Dorsey Brothers orchestra, the boogie-woogie basis of the band he led with Will Bradley and his various Glenn Miller associations to the adventurous exploratory band he led in the late Forties. It is only the latter group that fits in the context of this volume but it is a band that should not be forgotten. Playing ar- rangements by Eddie Sauter which were generally more cogent than the ones Sauter later wrote for his own Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, it can be heard on Borderline, Savoy 12024, and on one side of One Band, Two Styles, Camden 295. The perform- ances are crisp and stimulating, many of them spurred by Mundell Lowe's driving guitar. The other side of Camden 295 is made up of the routine dance music that the McKinley band was playing in its last days before it gave up. Hal M cKusick. It would be normal to identify Hal McKusick as an alto saxophonist since that is the instrument that he usually plays (he occasionally switches to clarinet or bass clarinet). But by and large he is such a chilly, precise performer on alto, limiting himself to a steady emission of unin- flected, spitballed notes, that one might seem to 178 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ slight him by identifying him with the alto when his playing is so much warmer and more attractive on his other instruments. The difference is pointed up on Cross Section Saxes, Decca 9209, on which he plays bass clarinet in some selections, and Triple Exposure, Prestige 7135, on which clarinet is his alternate instrument. Both are worthwhile disks Decca 9209 because of the presence of pianist Bill Evans, trumpeter Art Farmer and drummer Connie Kay and arrangements by George Russell, George Handy and Ernie Wilkins, while Prestige 7135 is enlivened by Billy Byers' tweedy trombone and the rashly exultant piano of Eddie Costa. McKusick shows that he can cut loose even on alto on Earthy, Prestige 7102, as he joins a superior jamming group that is prodded by Kenny BurrelFs insistent guitar and Mai Waldron's provocatively probing piano. And he manages to loosen up, too, within the framework of relatively formal compo- sitions by Russell, Gil Evans, Johnny Mandel, Manny Albam and others on Jazz Workshop, Vic- tor LPM 1366. But his alto is inordinately sanitary on Hal Mc- Kusick Quartet, Coral 57131, to which Eddie Costa and Art Farmer contribute some guts; on Jazz at the Academy, Coral 57116, a neutral, colorless col- lection; and on Hal McKusick Quartet, Bethlehem 16. One McKusick piece, with Costa and Farmer, is included in Jazz Cornucopia, Coral 57149, and he plays a ballad in The Mellow Moods, Victor LPM 1365. Jackie McLean. McLean is one of the more strident and empty followers of Charlie Parker. Several of his records are worth hearing, however, because of the presence of Mai Waldron, a consistently inter- esting and inventive pianist, who apparently can create fresh and provocative ideas even in the midst of a shrilling bedlam. Waldron can be heard on The Records 179 Jackie McLean Quintet, Jubilee 1064, 4, 5, and 6, Prestige 7048, Jackie's Pal, Prestige 7068 (the pal is not Waldron but Bill Hardman, a static, graceless trumpeter), and Jackie McLean and Co., Prestige 7087. Other McLean disks are Jackie McLean and John Jenkins, Prestige 7114, and Lights Out, Pres- tige 7035, in which McLean suggests that he may have the capability to develop some semblance of tone and form. Marian McPartlancL A wartime uxorial trophy brought back to the United States from England by cornetist Jimmy McPartland, Mrs. McPartland is an assured and knowing pianist in almost any style although she favors a modified form of mod- ern. Her attractively lean, sometimes swirling play- ing is heard best on In Concert, Savoy 12004, Great Britains, Savoy 12016, The Jazz Keyboards, Savoy 12043, and Looking for a Boy, Savoy 12097. She even manages to be bright and pulsing with string backing on With You in Mind, Capitol T 895, but she turns fuguey when harp and cello are added to her basic trio on Piano Variations, King 540. She is relatively routine on Marian McPartland Trio, Capitol T 785, After Dark, Capitol T 699, and At the Hickory House, Capitol T 574. Whatever merits she might have on Lullaby of Birdland, Savoy 12005, are buried under dreadful recording. Her trio accompanies Hot Lips Page on four selec- tions on Jazztime US. A., Vol. 3, Brunswick 54002, and does one piece on its own on Popular Jazz Gold Album, Capitol T 1034. Carmen McRae. Miss McRae has jazz connections she is the daughter of the Chick Webb saxo- phonist, Teddy McRae; was once married to drum- mer Kenny Clarke; has sung with the bands of Benny Carter and Mercer Ellington; and has worked as a solo pianist. This is set forth as a possi- 180 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ ble explanation for her attempt to become a jazz singer when she branched out from solo piano per- formances because time has proved her to be not so much at singing in jazz terms although she has potential as a ballad singer. The closest she comes to a good jazz quality is in an early collection, By Special Request, Decca 8173, on which she is mod- est and rhythmic, and After Glow, Decca 8583, on which she plays piano on several selections. Her ballad approach is often marred by a cold stridency although she is relatively warm and outgoing on Mad About the Man, Decca 8662, Carmen for Cool Ones, Decca 8738, Torchy, Decca 8267, and Book of Ballads, Kapp 1117. She can also be heard on Boy Meets Girl, Decca 8490, Blue Moon, Decca 8347, and in four selections on Bethlehem's Girl- friends, Bethlehem 6006. Teo Macero. An adamantly experimental composer in that area where the outer reaches of jazz and serious music touch, however glancingly, Macero is also a gruffly engaging tenor saxophonist. On Teo, Prestige 7104, he achieves more than his usual aplomb in performance but the disk's essential in- terest lies in his accompanying group which in- cludes the highly effective Teddy Charles on vibes and the practically infallible Mai Waldron at the piano. Machito. Frank Grillo is a singer known as Machito who fronts a band which is primarily the creation of trumpeter Mario Bauza, a veteran of Cab Callo- way's orchestra. On the foundation of a magnifi- cently complex and rocking Afro-Cuban rhythm section, Bauza has built a band with brilliantly bit- ing brass and languorous reeds that has produced the most potent mixtures of Afro-Cuban rhythm and jazz. Saxophonists Charlie Parker, Brew Moore and Flip Phillips are featured with the band in The Records 181 some particularly effective numbers on Potpourri of Jazz, Verve 2032, Roost Fifth Anniversary Al- bum, Roost 1201, The Jazz. Scene, Verve 8060, and in a group of Chico OTarrill compositions, Ma- chito Afro-Cuban Jazz, Verve 8073. The band's rhythm section provides a pulsing background for saxophonist Frank Morgan, trumpeter Conte Can- doli and organist Wild Bill Davis in one selection on Afro-Drum Carnival, GNP 25. The full band achieves an oddly elegant guttiness on Kenya, Roulette 52006, and roars through some pop tunes on Machito Plays Mambo and Cha Cha Cha, Seeco 9075, Mambo Caravan, Tico 1007, and Mambo Holiday, Harmony 7040. Most of Si-Si, No-No, Tico 1033, Cha Cha at the Palladium, Tico 1002, Asia Minor, Tico 1029, Machito Inspired, Tico 1045, and Let's Dance the Cha-Cha-Cha, Seeco 9054, are devoted to Machito's bread-and-butter side relatively staid Cuban dance music but even these burst into occasional flame. The band ac- companies Harry Belafonte on one of his earliest recordings on Operation Jazz, Roost OJL Rob Madna. A Dutch pianist, heading a trio made up of the rhythm section of what was once the Wes Ilcken Combo, churns out several samples of lightly modern swing on Jazz Behind the Dikes, Epic 3270. Henry Mandni. Mancini was one of the first to give jazz a reasonably steady niche on television. The tone of his Music -from Peter Gunn, Victor LPM 1956, might be identified as mainstream modern. Its core is blues and swing, modestly coated with modern jazz touches. On this disk Mancini leads an excellent West Coast band which makes the most of the earthier passages he has given them and does as well as it can with the bland pieces. 182 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Gus Mancuso. Mancuso plays the baritone horn, which is his privilege and, occasionally, our pleas- ure on Introducing Gus Mancuso, Fantasy 3233. His disarmingly casual approach gives his heavy- toned instrument a pleasantly light and airy quality on the faster selections but, Lordy, it can be lugubrious on a slow ballad, Johnny Mandel. Mandel is a trumpeter, once with Basie, who retired to arranging in the middle Fifties and struck paydirt as a composer with his score for the film, / Want to Live. This was the first full length background written for a film in jazz terms by a jazz musician and played by a jazz group. Part of the soundtrack is reproduced on 7 Want to Live, United Artists 4005, on which Man- del leads a big band (the remainder is played by a small group featuring Gerry Mulligan, who see). Mandel has developed several memorable themes in interesting fashion but his big band collection is, by force of circumstances, a series of snippets of suggestive passages which -are highly effective in the film and, by themselves on the disk, provoca- tive and stimulating. But still only snippets. Manhattan Jazz Septette. This compact, well con- tained studio group plays closely knit arrangements on Manhattan Jazz Septette, Coral 57090, which putter along pleasantly and sputter into liveliness when Eddie Costa's piano or Urbie Green's trom- bone reach rudely out of the aura of politeness. Herbie Mann. Mann has the distinction of being the only musician who is trying to make it in jazz by putting his best flute forward. He is, by choice, a flutist who doubles on tenor saxophone and bass clarinet, whereas the flute is normally a doubling instrument for one who is primarily a saxophonist. The Records 183 Since the flute, even in the hands of someone who has been bred to swing on another instrument, is an obdurately piping, non-pulsing vehicle, this might seem to be a dubious and self-limiting act on Mann's part. His recordings bear this out. He fares best when he has a reasonably large group to provide varieties of texture Salute to the Flute, Epic 3395, and Magic Flute, Verve 8247. On Great Ideas of Western Mann, Riverside 12-245, he switches to bass clarinet, an instrument which has a shade more fluidity than the flute but not enough to go on at the length demanded when there are only three selections on each side of the disk. To show what he can do with a more suitable instru- ment, he plays a few choruses of romping tenor saxophone with an adequate Dutch group on Herbie Mann with the Wessell lichen Trio, Epic 3499. He also trots out his tenor occasionally on Mann in the Morning, Prestige 7136, but he is over- shadowed by the Swedish group with which he plays, particularly by the lusty trombonist, A3ce Persson. Mann's flute, relatively straight and with scarcely any chaser, is heard on Herbie Mann Plays, Bethle- hem 58, Herbie Mann Quartet, Bethlehem 24, Love and the Weather, Bethlehem 63, Sultry Serenade, Riverside 12-234, Mann Alone, Savoy 12107, and Yardbird Suite, Savoy 12108. His basic problem is compounded when he engages in flute duets with Bobby Jaspar on Flute Souffle, Prestige 7101, and Flute Flight, Prestige 7124, and with Sam Most on Herbie Mann-Sam Most Quintet, Bethlehem 40. He has one selection, with flute, on Jazz for Lovers, Riverside 12-244, and one on bass clarinet on Blues for Tomorrow, Riverside 12-243. Shelly Manne. In his twenty-year career as a jazz drummer, Shelly Manne has sat in the midst of the oval bar of the Hickory House in New York back- 184 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ ing up clarinetist Joe Marsala and he has, on sev- eral different occasions, driven the Stan Kenton juggernaut. And while Manne has shown obvious merits at these times, his unique talents as a jazz drummer did not become overtly evident until the middle Fifties when he was leading his own small groups on the West Coast. More than any other drummer, Manne has succeeded in giving the drums a valid place within an ensemble, in devel- oping a melodic approach to the drums that is not simply a novelty. He is, beyond this, one of the very few present-day drummers who can pull a group together even while he is driving it with a surging, lifting attack (Art Blakey, Ed Shaughnessy, Joe Morello and, at times, Max Roach can be counted on for this, too). Some of Manne's most interesting uses of drums occur on a ten-inch LP, The Three, Contemporary 2516, on which he joins Shorty Rogers and Jimmy Giuffre in some unusual and provocative essays. A series of recordings he has made at the head of a group of varying personnel, identified as His Men, has shown steady improvement since its inaugura- tion in 1953. Shelly Manne and His Men, Vol. 1, Contemporary 3507, contains two sessions made in 1953, one in 1955. Bill Russo contributes some ar- rangements to one 1953 session that are smooth, flowing swing under a strong Lennie Tristano in- fluence but Shorty Rogers' writing for these dates strains for effects. The '55 date, however, with ar- rangements by Bill Holman and Marty Paich, is a much more directly swinging affair in general. Shelly Manne and, His Men, Vol. 4, Contempo- rary 3516 (Vol. 2 is a ten-inch 1954 LP of rather overambitious compositions, Vol. 3 is The Three mentioned above) is a sensitively propelled 1956 session involving Stu Williamson, trumpet, Charlie Mariano, alto saxophone, and Russ Freeman, a trio who remain with Manne throughout the re- The Records 185 mainder of the His Men series. These three side- men come brilliantly into focus on Shelly Manne and His Men, Vol 5, Contemporary 3519, a disk which is highlighted by Bill Holman's long, four- part Quartet. Mariano and Williamson reach un- expected maturity in holding together Holman's loosely organized piece. Shelly Manne and His Men, Vol. 6, Contemporary 3536, splits one side between an excellent 1957 session and a relatively dull 1955 date (on which Bill Holman replaces Mariano). The second side carries a long work by clarinetist Bill Smith, Concerto -for Clarinet and Combo, which is primarily a highly satisfactory showcase for Smith, a polished clarinetist who moves in timeless fashion his Swing Era roots are coated with a modern point of view but he has not picked up any obstreperous mannerisms. Manne has also made a series of disks with His Friends (Andre Previn, piano, Leroy Vinnegar, bass). Previn is the dominating influence on all their disks. On Volume One, Contemporary 3533, Previn alternates between a glib, West Coast scam- per and some vague fustion in working over a standard set of tunes. Volume Two, Contemporary 3527, is his reworking of the score of My Fair Lady, a phenomenally successful disk commercially but nonetheless a relatively pointless exercise which triggered the long succession of even more point- less jazz versions of Broadway scores that have fol- lowed. One followup is Volume Three, Contempo- rary 3533, the score in this case being L'il Abner, an inconsequential work which induces Previn to swing more validly than he does on My Fair Lady. Manne sings two selections in a genial, unpre- tentious manner on Jazz Composers Workshop, Savoy 12045 (this is what composers workshops are for?), and he is represented by single selections in The Jazz Giants: Drum Role, EmArcy 36071, and The Playboy Jazz Alhtars, Playboy 1957. 186 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Charlie Mariano. Among the alto saxophonists who are directly descended from Charlie Parker, Mariano has a flowing, aggressive guttiness that dis- tinguishes him from most other members of this huge family. His swinging vitality is quite evident on Charlie Mariano, Bethlehem 25, on which he is backed by a rhythm section enlivened by John Williams' tweedy, chomping piano, and on Beau- ties of 1918, World Pacific 1245, where he is paired with another somewhat shriller Parkerite altoist, Jerry Dodgion. Their material on this disk, songs of World War I vintage, is occasionally felicitously amusing but by and large it ends up as novelty material in the hands of two such modernists. Mariano can also be heard on one side of Charlie Mariano Sextet, Fantasy 3224, while the Mariano- Dodgion sextet plays one number on both Have Blues, Will Travel, World Pacific JWC 509, and Jazz West Coast, Vol. 4, World Pacific JWC 510. Reese Markewich. Markewich's Quintet, a rough but spirited group from Cornell, made a good im- pression at its introductory showing at the New York Jazz Festival in 1957. Much of the zest and dash of the group is transferred to New Designs in Jazz, Modernage 134. Its rousing spirit comes pri- marily from Nick Brignola's intense drive on bari- tone saxophone and the jabbing fury of Marke- wich's piano accompaniment. Occasionally they lunge too hard and overplay their hands but this is, on the whole, an unusually good debut recording and a decided relief from the drained, automatic blowing of many more experienced groups. Warne Marsh. In the late Forties Marsh shared the saxophone chores in the Lennie Tristano Sextet with Lee Konitz. Since then he seems to have wan- dered around in some musical never-never land muttering the old Tristano runs over and over to The Records 187 himself. He conjures up some of the Tristano glide and swoop with a group of fellow Tristanoites on four selections in Modern Jazz Gallery, Kapp KXL 5001, which draw most of their strength from Ronnie Ball's dark, nudging piano. But Marsh's vague, shapeless meanderings on Warne Marsh, At- lantic 1291, carry inarticulateness beyond all rea- son. Dick Marx. A clean, precise and rather strait-laced pianist, Marx swings easily at medium tempos. Too Much Piano, Brunswick 54006, and Piano Solos, Coral 57088, are weighed down by unpropulsive, rococo designs but he trims the frills effectively on Delicate Savagery, Coral 57151. The Mastersounds. Using the same instrumenta- tion as the Modern Jazz Quartet (piano, vibes, bass, drums), this quartet gave promising indications that it could avoid a similarity of sound on its first disk, Jazz Showcase, World Pacific 403, showing imagination and some lithe musical muscles which keep everything moving along convincingly. Since then, however, their efforts have been devoted to somewhat self-conscious and decidedly non-swing- ing versions of show scores: The King and I, World Pacific 405; Kismet, World Pacific 1243; The Flower Drum Song, World Pacific 1247. One of the group's non-showtunes is included on Have Blues, Will Travel, World Pacific JWC 509. Mat Mathews. Since his arrival in the United States from the Netherlands in 1952, Mathews has concocted a fairly personal brand of jazz mood music using a specially prepared accordion which produces lush, languorous tones. He works this pitch very effectively on Four French Horns, Elek- tra 134, The Modern Art of Jazz, Vol. 2, Dawn 1104, and The Gentle Art of Love, Dawn 1111. He 188 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ can also move easily through bright-tempoed mod- ern lines Mat Mathews, Brunswick 54013, and Eddie Costa, Mat Mathews and Don Elliott at New- port, Verve 8237. But The New York Jazz Quartet, Elektra 115, and The New York Jazz Quartet Goes Native, Elektra 118, fall ineffectively between his two main veins while Music for Suburban Living, Coral 57136, is very watery cocktail jazz. He has one selection in Critics' Choice, Dawn 1123, and in Jazz for Hi-Fi Lovers, Dawn 1124. John Mehegan. Mehegan functions as pianist, teacher and critic, thus giving himself several avenues of retreat and an equal number of posi- tions from which to attack. His position as a pian- ist is only mildly fortified for he is inclined to affect a rather casual, "comping" style which reduces al- most everything to an amiable rolling variant of something close to Tea for Two. This is quite pleasant the first few times but it becomes a little tiresome. His mulling, cudchewing attack has over- tones of Mose Allison's country-bred piano on Re- flections, Savoy 12028, while on I Just Love Jazz Piano, Savoy 12100, he is prodded to spurts of energy by the assertive presence of bassist Charlie Mingus. Mingus, however, is inclined to walk all over him. On two selections in Montage, Savoy 12029, Mehegan has difficulty coming to grips with his tunes while his two-piano exercises with Eddie Costa on A Pair of Pianos, Savoy 12049, produce moments of warm jazz feeling but most of them turn into the usual scampering sound of piano duets. Gil Melle. Melle, a baritone saxophonist who plays with a great deal of Gerry Mulligan's delightfully swampy, stomping quality, seems to have a yearning for a more dignified, higher existence which comes out, fortunately, in his liner notes rather than in The Records 189 his music. He has covered the back liner of Primi- tive Modern, Prestige 7040, with a forbidding mass of technicalities but the music his quartet plays is essentially swinging and earthy, sparked by Joe Cinderella's buoyant guitar. Trombonist Eddie Bert is added to the Quartet for a pleasantly gal- lumphing set that steers clear of routine blowing, Patterns in Jazz, Blue Note 1517, but Melle's ac- companying ensemble on Quadrama, Prestige 7097, is hollowly recorded. His pretentions get the better of him on Gil's Guests, Prestige 7063, as Art Farmer, Hal McKusick, Don Butterfield and Kenny Dorham join him in determined readings of several of his experimental compositions. Melrose Avenue Conservatory Chamber Music So- ciety. No relation to the earlier Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street, this group is made up of familiar West Coast modernists (Marty Paich, John Graas, Stu Williamson, Jack Montrose, Bob Gordon, Chico Hamilton) playing four moderately interesting pieces on one side of Blow Hot, Blow Cool, Decca 8130 (Herbie Fields has the other side), highlighted by Hamilton's bright, clean drumming, some excellent muted trumpet by Williamson and Gordon's customary smoothly outgoing baritone saxophone. Helen Merrill. Of all those who are often listed as jazz singers but are actually pop singers who some- times use jazz backgrounds, Miss Merrill has shown enough evidence of sensitivity and taste to imply that she could be a much better pop singer than most of her pseudo-jazz colleagues. She has had to overcome an early tendency to sing hoarsely and to doctor melodies pointlessly she weakens her per- formances in this manner on Helen Merrill, Em- Arcy 36006, Dream of You, EmArcy 36078 (with arrangements by Gil Evans), and Helen Merrill 190 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ with Strings, EmArcy 36057 but she is pleasantly open and outgoing on Merrill at Midnight, Em- Arcy 36107, and The Nearness of You, EmArcy 36134. She sings two selections in For Jazz Lovers, EmArcy 36086. Metronome All Stars. Since 1939 Metronome maga- zine has, sporadically, made its readers' annual popularity polls come alive by holding recording sessions with as many of the poll winners as possi- ble. The recording dates have been infrequent of late years and the results have not been compara- ble to some of the surprisingly zestful products of the earlier days. Two collections, The Metronome All Star Bands, Camden 426, and Metronome All Stars, Harmony 7044, cover the fertile years of the Forties. The Camden disk includes the very first, none-too-memorable session by the 1938 all-stars, runs through a magnificently driving session by the 1940 choices, an adequate accounting by the 1945 all-stars all these were dominated by swing mu- sicians and ends with the triumph of the boppers in 1948 with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Fats Navarro and Lennie Tristano among those present. The Harmony disk covers the win- ners of 1939, 1941, 1946 (with vocals by Nat Cole, June Christy and Frank Sinatra) and 1949. The 1953 stars do an unimpressive selection in Forty- Eight Stars of American Jazz, MGM 3611, while the 1956 winners commit a JATP-style jam session on Metronome All Stars 1956, Verve 8030. Metropolitan Jazz Quartet. Polite, subdued, un- ostentatious and unexciting swing by a group of New York studio men on Great Themes from the Classics, MGM 3730, Great Themes from TV Shows, MGM 3729, Great Themes from Great American Movies, MGM 3727, Great Themes from The Records 191 Foreign Movies, MGM 3731, and Great Themes from Broadway Shows, MGM 3728. Jack Millman. Millman's strong, gutty-toned trum- pet provides a direct and forceful lead for his quar- tet in the dozen tunes that make up Blowing Up a Storm, ERA 20005, but when he calls in a dozen reputable jazz arrangers (Jimmy Giuffre, Shorty Rogers, Bill Holman, Pete Rugolo, Johnny Mandel and others) and assembles a band made up of top West Coast men to play their writing on Jazz Studio 4, Decca 8156, he is able to produce only a mediocre set. Charlie Mingus. The extremely personal musical turmoil that roars and sputters inside bassist Charlie Mingus has frequently wound up as little more than shock-implemented chaos, as when he tries to weave yowls, street noises and foghorns into some communicative form on Pithecanthropus Erectus, Atlantic 1237. But as he has slowly learned how to control and direct his unusual ideas, he has begun to create a style that owes nothing to anyone but Mingus, that is purely jazz rather than wanned over Europeanisms and that can be both quietly moving and intensely exciting. So far his best effort to make things come together on records is East Coasting, Bethlehem 6019. The trumpet and saxo- phone work in this disk leave a lot to be desired but still the flavor and spirit of Mingus comes through more strongly than on any other group of recordings and he has the invaluable help of trom- bonist Jimmy Knepper, the most deeply jazz-rooted of the modern trombonists who has a unique way of moaning with agonized soulfulness behind a soloist and then soaring off into his own solos with beautiful lyricism. A piece called Reincarnation of a Love Bird, included on The Clown, Atlantic 192 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ 1260, is another of Mingus' more successful efforts but this disk's title piece is a long, occasionally melodic work built on a remarkably banal, sup- posedly ad lib spoken part. Some of Mingus' earlier, less intensely different adventures are collected on Jazz Composers Work- shop, No. 2, Savoy 12059, which includes notably warm alto saxophone playing by John LaPorta, and The Jazz Experiments of Charlie Mingus, Bethlehem 65, on which trumpeter Thad Jones opens up in singing, soaring lyrical style. Mingus' Quintet (billed as "The Horace Parian Quintet" in honor of his pianist of the moment) accompanies Langston Hughes' readings of his poems on one side of Weary Blues, MGM 3697 (Red Allen's totally different group serves up the backing on the other side), making effective accenting use of the sudden squirts of sound that Mingus relishes and occasionally dashing off on short, astringent ex- cursions of its own. Mingus Three, Jubilee 1054, places him in a trio setting in support of pianist Hampton Hawes but Mingus seems to be holding a sensitive rein on the pianist, steering him away from his glib, slippery style to some of the most sensitive playing he has recorded. Mingus' main concession to himself is a setting for Summertime involving a Night in Tunisia obligate, strummed piano wires, Chinese cymbals and strange wailing cries from his bass. Blue Mitchell. Mitchell has a clean, singing trum- pet tone and a feeling for building solos along lyric lines but these talents are largely kept on the side- lines on Big Six, Riverside 12-273, a blowing session on which he makes way for the routine solos of saxophonist Johnny Griffin and trombonist Curtis Fuller. The Records 193 Red Mitchell, Simply because Red Mitchell is a strong, steady, perceptive bassist is no special reason for putting him at the helm of a recording session. In fact, the reverse would seem to be true but cur- rent fashion decrees that everybody is a star soloist and must have a few albums to his credit. The con- stant problem with most bass-led albums is that they produce endless bass solos which is part of the downfall of Presenting Red Mitchell, Contempo- rary 3538 (the rest is accomplished by teaming him with a dull trio of performers). The problem is solved to a degree on Red Mitchell, Bethlehem 38, by supplementing the Hampton Hawes Trio, in which Mitchell happened to be playing bass, with trumpeter Conte Candoli and alto saxophonist Joe Maini and then having the horns sit it out most of the time so that the Hawes Trio can play some pleasingly rhythmic pieces. Whitey Mitchell. Red Mitchell's younger brother, also a bassist, takes his leader's due in solos on Whitey Mitchell Sextette, ABC-Paramount 126, in what are otherwise unpretentious performances of genial, propulsive Neal Hefti arrangements. The Sextette includes a pair of ofl>beat instruments, Tom Stewart's tenor horn and Steve Lacy's soprano saxophone. Mitchell-Ruff. Willie Ruff, who doubles between bass and French horn, and pianist Dwike Mitchell are of that school of jazz elevation which feels com- pelled to dress up some of its performances with references and effects that have nothing to do with jazz. The rest of the time they go whole hog into the impressionist school of non-jazz. They produce some pleasant background music which has only a glancing relationship to jazz on Mitchell-Ruff Duo, 194 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Epic 3221, Campus Concert, Epic 3318, and Ap- pearing Nightly, Roulette 52002. Hank Mobley. Mobley is a faceless tenor saxo- phonist who has worked with Max Roach, Dizzy Gillespie and the Jazz Messengers. He has been recorded at great length to very little purpose. At relatively slow, meditative tempos he is sometimes capable of warm, relaxed playing there are ex- amples on Mobley' s Second Message, Prestige 7082, The Jazz Message, Savoy 12064, and Hank Mobley Quintet, Blue Note 1550. Most of his time, how- ever, is devoted to bland, aimless noodling. He is not helped by the fact that he is usually recorded in long, shapeless blowing sessions which only empha- size the emptiness of his playing. Some of his disks are given point by the other performers on them trumpeter Lee Morgan and pianist Barry Harris raise the level of The Jazz Message #2, Savoy 12092, Morgan and trombonist Curtis Fuller turn one side of Monday Night at Birdland, Roulette 52015, into a really bright, swinging session, Milt Jackson makes Hank Mobley and His All Stars, Blue Note 1544, worth hearing and pianist Mai Waldron and guitarist Kenny Burrell do what they can to salvage All Night Long, Prestige 7073. But there are no rescuers on Mob ley's Message, Prestige 7061, Tenor Conclave, Prestige 7074, Hank Mo- bley's Sextet, Blue Note 1540, Hank, Blue Note 1560, or Hank Mobley, Blue Note 1568. Modern Jazz Quartet. If it does nothing else, the task of listening and re-listening to all the record- ings that preparation of this book required helps to put things in perspective. There were re-evalua- tions, discoveries, downgradings. But possibly the most impressive revelation was that no other body of recorded work since World War II holds up as well as that of the Modern Jazz Quartet. The The Records 195 group was formed in 1952 by four members of Dizzy Gillespie's band John Lewis, piano, Milt Jackson, vibraphone, Percy Heath, bass, and Kenny Clarke, drums (Clarke was replaced in 1955 by Connie Kay). Although Lewis is the dominant musical personality in the quartet he composes the bulk of its original pieces he is not, as is widely believed, the group's leader. It is a coopera- tive quartet and Lewis' position is musical direc- tor. In its early stages, the MJQ was a relatively free swinging group given to extensive individual solo- ing in a manner common to most modern jazz groups although the fact that the soloists were Lewis and Jackson set them apart from the com- mon run. The Quartet's first recordings, originally issued as by the Milt Jackson Quartet, are on The Quartet, Savoy 12046, two ballads and two blues in which Jackson plays a leading and strongly swing- ing role. The first of Lewis* fuguing originals, Vendome, is one of the four selections in their first recording session as the Modern Jazz Quartet which are included on MJQ, Prestige 7059, and the steady growth of Lewis' integrating influence can be traced on Django, Prestige 7057, a disk made up of recordings made in 1953, 1954 and early 1955 which includes two Lewis compositions which have since become jazz standards Django and The Queen's Fancy. At this point Clarke, who favored a more loosely organized, individualistic approach, was replaced by Kay and the group settled into a period of some- what consciously finding itself as a unit and then, having achieved this unity, of taking it for granted and removing the traces of the conscious mold within which it has been working. This process can be seen in the quartet's increasing ability to achieve a sinewy delicacy which mixes control and precision with a loose and vigorously swinging at- 196 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ tack. These were qualities that had always been apparent in Jackson's work but it took a little while for Lewis' playing, with its firm roots in the stomps and shouts of an earlier day, to make itself properly felt in both his solos and his buoyant, urging accompaniments. Concorde, Prestige 7005, and Fontessa, Atlantic 1231, are steps leading to the most satisfying of the group's disks, The Mod- ern Jazz Quartet, Atlantic 1265, which shows off the group's approach to ballads, modern jazz standards and some hard-swinging pieces. The Modern Jazz Quartet at Music Inn, Atlantic 1247, is a mixed package with three selections on which Jimmy Giuffre adds his lower register clari- net to the Quartet, some brilliantly direct jazz play- ing by the Quartet and a few things which are not jazz at all but which Lewis plays because he likes them. Selections from the score written by Lewis for a French film, No Sun in Venice, make up One Never Knows, Atlantic 1284 (the apparent discrep- ancy in titles is due to the fact that the French title of the film was On Sait Jamais). They are melodic, fugue-fringed pieces which often seem on the verge of withdrawing completely from jazz. A relaxed and pulsing memento of the Quartet's travels with the JATP troupe makes up one side of The Mod- ern Jazz Quartet and the Oscar Peterson Trio at the Opera House, Verve 8269. Modern Jazz Sextet. Two members of the MJQ (John Lewis, Percy Heath) are added to two high- flying soloists (Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Stitt) and sound rhythm support (Skeeter Best, Charlie Per- sip) to produce an exuberantly swinging blowing session on Modern Jazz Sextet, Verve 8166. Lewis, in an atmosphere decidedly different from that of the Modern Jazz Quartet, turns in some fascinat- ingly free wheeling solos. The Records 197 MJT Plus 3. This brash, driving, boppish group, which includes Paul Serrano on trumpet and Nicky Hill, tenor saxophone, produces well articulated solos and clean, balanced ensembles on MJT Plus 3, Argo 621, but nothing memorable results. Thelonious Monk. Monk is a spare, gnawing, wor- risome pianist whose reflective poking around be- tween the keys is not at all accommodating to the casual listener although his ideas are often haunt- ing. He was present at Minton's in the early Forties when bop was being forged but he was not a part of the bop movement. He is, like Jelly Roll Morton and Duke Ellington, an individualist who has carved his own somewhat thorny and perverse way through jazz. He was so little a part of bop in the Forties that an aura of mystery grew up around him and iso- lated him from the main body of jazz. It was not until well into the Fifties that he began to find a steadily widening audience and to have a notice- able influence on newer musicians (pianist Randy Weston was the first Monk-descended pianist to make a splash). Monk is also a prolific composer with an unusual talent for creating eccentric melo- dies which are, nonetheless, relatively easy to as- similate. The delay in recognition of Monk's abilities as composer and performer was caused not because it took him a long time to shape his style but be- cause he presented himself as he was, undiluted by any condescension to current taste. How firmly the Monk mold was established in the Forties can be seen on his earliest recordings, products of the mid- dle and late Forties, on Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Blue Note 1510 and 1511, which provide a good cross-section of Monk as a soloist, composer and organizer. These disks include the 198 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ original recordings of such Monk classics as 'Round About Midnight, Off Minor, Ruby My Dear, Mis- terioso, Well You Needn't and several examples of his fascinating, off-center approach to standard pop tunes. Monk's work between 1952 and 1954 is found on three Prestige disks. Thelonious Monk, Prestige 7027, is made up of two trio sessions, one in 1952 and one in 1954, both full-blooded, wrily accented Monk and particularly notable for his extended development of Blue Monk on the 1954 session. Sessions from 1953 and 1954 make up Featuring Thelonious Monk, Prestige 7053, this time placing him at the head of two quintets, one of which in- cludes the still developing Sonny Rollins. A catch- all collection, Thelonious Monk, Prestige 7075, in- cludes the 1953 Rollins group, a fine 1954 trio in which Monk is supported by Percy Heath and Art Elakey and a 1954 quartet in which Rollins, a year after his relatively routine playing with the quintet, reveals a sudden expansion of his talents. In this quartet Rollins provides the meat while Monk spreads the seasoning. When Riverside Records began recording Monk in 1956, they undertook to bring him into touch with a wider audience than he had had before. The way to do this, they reasoned, was to put him to work on familiar tunes rather than his own rela- tively recondite compositions. Their first effort, Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington, Riverside 12-201, backfired largely because Ellington himself had already set the pattern for his own tunes and Monk's pattern proved to be too drastically differ- ent to rest easily on a queasy ear. Next time out, however, he was set to work on a varied set of ever- greens Memories of You, Honeysuckle Rose, Tea for Two, etc. which have no set standard against which Monk's treatment had to be balanced. Sup- ported by Oscar Pettiford, bass, and Art Blakey, The Records 199 drums, he holds to an interesting blend of the fa- miliar and the Monkish that manages to be steadily provocative. In somewhat the same vein he plays without accompaniment a mixture of popular bal- lads and his own pieces on Thelonious Himself, Riverside 12-235, but here he shows that no matter how engaging his variations on others' tunes may be, he is on more productive ground when he is mulling through his own creations. Monk's ability to dominate any group of musi- cians, to impose a Monk sound on them much as Jelly Roll Morton imposed a Morton sound on whatever group of strays might make up his Red Hot Peppers, is strikingly illustrated on Brilliant Corners, Riverside 12-223, and Monk's Music, Riverside 12-242. The first, played by a quintet made up of Ernie Henry, Sonny Rollins, Oscar Pettiford, Max Roach and Monk, includes what annotator-producer Orrin Keepnews rightly calls "a near-ballad with guts," Pannonica, which is as haunting as a Chas. Addams cartoon while the title selection is a fascinating mixture of lugubrious harmonies and flighty rhythms. Monk's Music re- prises some of his earlier works Epistrophy, Off Minor, Well You Needn't and adds to his reper- tory a lovely, evocative piece, Crepuscule with Nellie. Even on the two least successful tracks (both long, loose blowing sessions), the glorious fire that radiates from Monk's playing seems to be stirred to a more intense heat as things threaten to fall apart around him and he prods and herds his soloists (Coleman Hawkins, John Coltrane, Gigi Gryce, Ray Copeland, Art Blakey) into position. And when things are going as he would have them as composer, arranger and pianist, he shines mag- nificently. It is a fair measure of Monk's musical personality that so strongly individual a jazz voice as Hawkins' is completely overshadowed in Monk's company. 200 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ A quartet which Monk led in 1958 is recorded in performance on Thelonious in Action, Riverside 12-262, and Misterioso, Riverside 12-279. These disks present Monk in more lightly swinging focus than most of his studio sessions. Much of this comes from a very able rhythm team Roy Haynes, a drummer who keeps the rhythm going with in- sistent vitality, and Ahmed Abdul-Malik, a big- toned, steady bassist. The fourth man is tenor saxo- phonist Johnny Griffin whose seam-bursting attack seems to be subject to some Monkish discipline on Thelonious in Action but on Misterioso he becomes tied up in long barren solos* A reunion of Monk and Art Blakey, who drummed on most of his early records, takes place on Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk, Atlantic 1278. It is too bad that the frame- work for the meeting is the blatant pre-Benny Gol- son and Lee Morgan Messengers since the invigor- ating flights and crafty sparring of Monk and Blakey are constantly interrupted by the earth- bound trumpet of Bill Hardman and Johnny Grif- fin's routine saxophone. Another crossing of strains, Thelonious Monk and Gerry Mulligan, Riverside 12-247, takes place over four Monk stand- ards, a Mulligan variation of Undecided and the mellow standard, Sweet and Lovely. It is the last selection that provides the most happy common ground as Monk evolves his lovely dissonances and Mulligan swaggers at an easy, loping pace. But on the other pieces Mulligan seems lost in Monk's company. A Monk trio selection is included in Riverside Drive, Riverside 12-267. J. R. Monterose. Inspired originally by Tex Beneke, Monterose is a tenor saxophonist who has worked his way up through as unlikely a band as Henry Busse's as well as the more likely Buddy Rich and Claude Thornhill orchestras. He uses a The Records 201 staccato style known as "pecking'* which, combined with suggestions of a Sonny Rollins influence, pro- duces some vigorous, driving pieces on /. R. Monte- rose, Blue Note 1536. Montgomery Brothers. The three Montgomery brothers, two of whom (Monk and Buddy) com- prise half of the quartet known as the Master- sounds, are joined on The Montgomery Brothers Plus Five, World Pacific 1240, by a quintet of musicians from their home town, Indianapolis. The home town guests play capably in the modern idiom but it is vibist Buddy Montgomery who dominates the loosely swinging performances. Like Red Norvo, Buddy manages to imply rhythmic strength with a light touch, dancing bright rings around the more earthbound work of the other members of the group. Wes Montgomery. Wes is the third of the Mont- gomery brothers (see above), a guitarist who swings strongly with a mixture of single string and chorded playing on one selection in Have Blues, Will Travel, World Pacific JWC 509. Jack Montrose. A tenor saxophonist and writer whose habitat is the West Coast, Montrose is not to be confused with the East Coast's J. R. Monte- rose. On the basis of their records, there should be no confusion. West Coast Montrose is a flat toned, grinding saxophonist whose disks have bright mo- ments solely because of the efforts of baritone saxo- phonist Bob Gordon (Arranged by Montrose, World Pacific 1214; Jack Montrose Sextet, World Pacific 1208; and Jack Montrose with Bob Gordon, Atlantic 1223) or Red Norvo (Blues and Vanilla, Victor LPM 1451; The Horn Is Full, Victor LPM 1572). 202 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ James Moody. Moody is a far more accomplished saxophonist (tenor and alto) than most of those who have achieved the status of "names" during the Fifties yet he has remained in relative obscurity. This may be attributed partly to his decision to remain in Europe from 1948 to 1951 after making a strong impression with Dizzy Gillespie's band in 1947. And undoubtedly his unsettled personality problems which led to voluntary commitment to a New Jersey mental institution, Overbrook, in April, 1958, had something to do with it. Between his return to the United States and his journey to Overbrook he led a rough, romping band which was just this side of being a rhythm and blues group. It was a swinging band and al- though Moody's was the most polished solo voice in the group, trumpeter Dave Burns could turn in an occasional well shaped solo and baritone saxo- phonist Pee Wee Moore brought a strong attack to his solo lines. This band's first recordings The Moody Story , EmArcy 36031 are shallow, tasteless and exhibitionistic but on its later disks James Moody's Hi Fi Party, Prestige 7011; Wail, Moody, Wail, Prestige 7036; James Moody's Moods, Pres- tige 7056; and Moody, Prestige 7072 Moody moves skillfully through a complex variety of styles. His tenor may be relatively hardtoned and biting at one moment, floating in the Lester Young man- ner or dark, warm and breathy a la Ben Webster; on alto he is almost always smooth but he may soar gently or ride like a demon. The Moody band has two selections in Giants of Jazz, Vol. 3, Part 1, Em- Arcy 36050. Shortly before making his decision to go to Over- brook, Moody heeded fashion and took up the flute. He plays it as well as any other jazzman but it is a futile and tiresome jazz instrument so that Moody's Mood for Love, Argo 613, on which he plays flute on almost every number, is one of his least effective The Records 203 disks. However, both this collection and Flute 'n' the Blues, Argo 603, are brightened when Moody 's pianist, Jimmy Boyd, blows some elegantly gutty solos on the peck horn. And while a balance is be- ing cast, one should include the fact that all of these Moody disks include an occasional vocal by Eddie Jefferson, a simpering, grating singer who devises very banal lyrics to instrumental solos in the manner, but without the style, of King Pleasure and Jon Hendricks. After five months of recuperation at Overbrook, Moody emerged to make Last Train from Over- brook, Argo 637, with a 14-piece band especially assembled for the occasion. There is a gratifying tranquility and assurance in his playing here, par- ticularly in the singing force with which he con- jures up a strong, earthy feeling on alto. Joe Mooney. Although he has a very small voice, Mooney's disciplined and knowledgeable phrasing gives his singing a jazz quality that cannot be found in most so-called jazz singers. He shows both this deft skill and an equally perceptive use of the or- gan in an astutely chosen program on Lush Life, Atlantic 1255. There is a bit too much emphasis on novelty material in On the Rocks, Decca 8486, although it shows what he can do with an accordion and offers the only recorded glimpses of the excel- lent little group he led in the late Forties. Brew Moore. Moore is one of the truest followers of Lester Young's soft, floating style on tenor saxo- phone but he has not been treated particularly well on records. The best evidence of his ability will be found on Brew Moore, Fantasy 3264, on which he teams up with a hard-toned tenor, Harold Wylie, in a manner which seems mutually inspiring. These are mid-Fifties recordings but in another set from the same period, The Brew Moore Quartet and 204 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Quintet, Fantasy 3222, Moore's playing seems self- effacing and negative, overshadowed by the grace- ful force of John Marabuto's lively, note-filled piano work. Moore's other disks are poorly re- corded mementos of his life among the boppers in New York in the late Forties. On Lestorian Mode, Savoy 12105, he provides the only real spark of life in four selections as he emerges from a dull shuffle which passes for an ensemble (these pieces include some very unformed Gerry Mulligan baritone saxo- phone work) but even Moore can save only one of the four otherwise static pieces included in In the Beginning . . . Bebop!, Savoy 12119. Marilyn Moore. By singing through her nose, Miss Moore gets something of Billie Holiday's nasal quality but not much else on Moody Marilyn Moore, Bethlehem 73. Her singing is all surface with little depth or projection. Pat Moran, Miss Moran, an able if not yet distinc- tive pianist, plays with swinging force and an obvi- ous appreciation of the business at hand on This Is Pat Moran, Audio Fidelity 1875. Lee Morgan. Morgan zoomed to attention in 1957 when he was the teen-age marvel of Dizzy Gilles- pie's big band. The fact that an 18-year-old could successfully challenge Gillespie on one of his major showpieces, Night in Tunisia, was undoubtedly worthy of comment but the most interesting thing about Morgan is the rapidity with which he has matured from an impressively fluent trumpeter to one who has great sensitivity and an almost in- fallible instinct for form. At 20 he stands as one of the most brilliant jazz trumpeters with his greatest potential still ahead of him. Along with Benny Golson's discerning musical direction, Morgan's playing late in 1958 and 1959 completely trans- The Records 205 formed Art Blakey's previously ragged Jazz Messen- gers to a crackling, electrifying group. Morgan's own recordings are, on the whole, il- luminating examples of the mixture of fire, control and insight which marks most of his playing. Possi- bly one of his most revealing disks is Candy, Blue Note 1590, on which he concentrates on gently paced ballads. The inability of jazz modernists to play a ballad with any evidence of appreciation of the melody is one of their most common failings. Their tendency is to state the melody in the most banal and arid terms and then, to the relief of per- former and listener alike, abandon it. Morgan, on the other hand, seems to hear and understand these tunes and he develops them with an appreciative inventiveness that is unique among his contempo- raries. In totally different circumstances, a rugged blowing session on Monday Night at Birdland, Roulette 52015, he takes prompt charge and sets a rip-roaring, challenging pace that rouses previously undiscovered resources in trombonist Curtis Fuller and even inspires the generally somnolent tenor saxophonist, Hank Mobley. He is the spur again with some keyed-up Gilles- pie men on Dizzy Atmosphere, Specialty 5001, but he becomes the dominating force on Presenting Lee Morgan, Blue Note 1538, and on The Cooker, Blue Note 1578, on which baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams is completely overshadowed by Morgan's electrifying virtuosity. He is hampered somewhat by static accompaniment on City Lights, Blue Note 1575. Morgan has his fallible moments, too, when he finds himself playing second fiddle. This happens on Lee Morgan Sextet, Blue Note 1541, when an otherwise unheralded alto saxophonist, Kenny Rodgers, steps out with an assurance that makes Morgan seem limp by contrast and again on Lee Morgan, Blue Note 1557, on which the major point 206 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ of interest is the writing and playing of tenor saxo- phonist Benny Golson. Morgan's only really inade- quate disk is Introducing Lee Morgan, Savoy 12091, on which, despite a live, crackling attack, his ideas come haltingly. Sandy Mosse. A Chicagoan, veteran of the Woody Herman band of 1953, Mosse is a capable but un- distinguished product of the Lester- Young-through- Herman vein of tenor saxophone. He is heard with alto saxophonist Ira Shulman on Chicago Scene, Argo 609. Sam Most. Doubling between flute and clarinet, Most is a rather unemotional musician although he occasionally swings reasonably well on clarinet despite a somewhat legitimate tone. He plays both instruments on one side of Doubles in Jazz, Van- guard 8522 (shared with Don Elliott), and Musi- cally Yours, Sam Most, Bethlehem 6008; clarinet only on a single selection in Modern Jazz Hall of Fame, Design 29, and pipes out flute duets with Herbie Mann on Herbie Mann-Sam Most Quintet, Bethlehem 40. Ken Moule. This broad minded English arranger and pianist can be boppish, swinging or moody. He is all three in competent performances with his Seven on Modern Jazz at Royal Festival Hall, London LL 1185, but there is less reaching for effects and more meat in a very pleasant set, Ken Moule Arranges For . . . , London LL 1673, played by an unusually good group which includes saxo- phonists Don Rendell, Ronnie Ross and Dougie Robinson. Gerry Mulligan. Although he seems to be perma- nently branded as a representative of "cool" jazz, Mulligan is actually one of the rare jazzmen prac- The Records 207 ticing in the modern Idiom who carries the stigmata of "hot" jazz. He plays his baritone saxophone with a stomping, galumphing, melodic urgency that comes straight out of the gruff and giddy joys of Kansas City and Jelly Roll Morton's interpretation of New Orleans. He has, however, moved at some length in cool surroundings. He was part of that Miles Davis combo which existed briefly in 1948 and recorded in 1949 those pieces (in The Birth of the Cool, Capitol T 762) which are felt to epito- mize cool jazz. As an arranger for Claude Thorn- hill's band and the Thornhill-influenced Elliot Lawrence band, he worked in the pastel style which contributed to the Davis cool effect and later, when he formed his first Quartet in 1952, he chose as his trumpeter a practitioner of diluted Davis, Chet Baker. In the late Forties, when Mulligan was still in his early twenties (he was born in 1927) he was known primarily as an arranger and quite secondarily as a performer for his playing did not begin to take firm shape until he had formed his Quartet. There are two awkward samples of Mulligan's playing in 1950 on Conception, Prestige 7013, while Mulligan Plays Mulligan, Prestige 7006, recorded in 1951, shows him at the head of an unwieldy ten-piece group in which Allen Eager's tenor saxophone is the one really swinging horn. Mulligan the Jazz Personality properly dates from the formation of his 1952 pianoless quartet, a radical idea at the time, made up of Baker, Carson Smith, bass, and Chico Hamilton, drums. The texture and tonal colors achieved by this group were particularly refreshing in a period when jazz was wandering in the limbo left in the wake of the disintegration of bop. The subtle charms of this quartet are reported on Mulligan Quartet, Fantasy 3220. Larry Bunker replaces Hamilton on drums on the remainder of the recordings by this 208 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ first version of the Mulligan Quartet which shows a warm, swinging forthright attack on Baker-Mulli- gan-De Franco, GNP 26, and on those portions of Lee Konitz Plays with the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, World Pacific 406, on which Konitz lets the Quartet go its own merry way. The Gerry Mulligan Quar- tet, World Pacific 1207, is less satisfying because the unity of the group gives way to a trading off of solos. A 1958 effort to recapture some of the group's youthful elan on Reunion with Chet Baker, World Pacific 1241, is less a demonstration of the maturity and assurance that Mulligan has acquired since then than it is a somewhat painful display of Baker's failure to improve on what was even in the beginning a very tentative talent. An attempt by Mulligan to expand his quartet style to a ten-piece group in 1953 on one side of Modern Sounds, Capitol T 691 (shared with Shorty Rogers), turns out instead to be a dilution of things that the quartet did more effectively and more to the point. Two pieces by this so-called Tentette (and there's a tea shoppe wordde) included in Cool and Quiet, Capitol T 371, are of special interest because Mulligan plays a delightfully raw, thump- ing, lazy piano instead of saxophone. A later version of the Mulligan Quartet with Hamilton back on drums, Jon Eardley, trumpet, and Red Mitchell, bass, is heard in concert performances along with a Mulligan sextet, created by the addi- tion of Zoot Sims, tenor saxophone, and- Bob Brookmeyer, valve trombone, on California Con- certs, World Pacific 1201. Mulligan dominates both groups and turns in some more gloriously thump- ing piano on Piano Blues (which crops up again as a pointedly effective background for an excellent reading of Philip Whalen's poem, Big High Song for Somebody, by Roy Glenn in Jazz Canto, World Pacific 1244). More or less the same group, with Eardley, Sims and Brookmeyer all present, deliver The Records 209 the by-now expected rugged stomping quality of a proper Mulligan performance with suave stylish- ness on Mainstream, EmArcy 36101, and The Gerry Mulligan Sextet, EmArcy 36056, on which the direct, singing, bittersweet quality of Eardley's trumpet on ballads is especially interesting. Mulligan's next move was back to the quartet format, this time with Brookmeyer's valve trombone as his horn. Brookmeyer was a happy choice since, when he is involved in a strongly pulsing setting (as opposed to the spongy framework he found him- self in as part of the Jimmy Giuffre Three) he has much the same rough, stomping zest that Mulligan has. On Paris Concert, World Pacific 1210, this Mulligan foursome shows rare style and vitality. They purr, they bite and they swing from the heels. Even Laura, taken at a slow ballad pace, is prodded so by Mulligan, urged by Brookmeyer and pushed along by Red Mitchell and drummer Frank Isola that it never drags its heels. Even better is a set recorded at Storyville in Boston, Gerry Mulligan Quartet, World Pacific 1228. Here the Quartet produces the very essence of discerning, unmyopic jazz jazz that flows out of both the old and new streams without being ostentatiously a part of either camp. Once more we get a flash of Mulligan the pianist as he evolves a wriggling, earthy, itchy clutch of notes on Storyville Story reflecting the gutty quality of his horn. No recordings by Mulligan's most recent quartet, with Art Farmer playing trumpet in place of Brook- meyer's trombone, had been released when this was written but a product of this teaming can be found on The Jazz Combo from "I Want to Live," United Artists 4006, in which Mulligan heads a group, including Farmer, Bud Shank, Shelly Manne, Frank Rosolino, Pete Jolly and Red Mitchell, which plays themes written by Johnny Mandel for a motion picture. They deliver some stirring jazz> 210 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ by turns agitated and jabbing or dreamily exotic, making excellent use of the sturdily melodic mate- rial that Mandel provided. Between times with his quartets and sextets, Mulligan has been kept busy on records as a visitor. These have not always been particularly happy occasions for him, although his appearance with Teddy Wilson at Newport in 1957, reported on Teddy Wilson and Gerry Mulligan at Newport, Verve 8235, inspired him to some prodigies of rugged swinging (but his own quartet the Brook- meyer one turned rather tepid; it is on the same disk). Gerry Mulligan-Paul Desmond Quartet,VeTve 8246, is a fascinating display of sparring and inter- play between two highly cultivated jazz minds, a furiously swinging affair for both saxophonists even in their slow, squirming evolution of Body and Soul Mulligan produces some typically strong solos but it is Desmond, playing with a more definitely leathery attack than usual, who consistently comes out on top. A joint effort with Stan Getz, Getz Meets Mulligan in Hi-Fi, Verve 8249, is less produc- tive because on one side of the disk they trade horns. Mulligan playing tenor, Getz baritone. Once this largely pointless nonsense is out of the way and they get down to their proper business, Getz produces some soaring solos and Mulligan gives a slow Ballad a few good digs but the disk as a whole adds up to a wasted opportunity. Still another visit, Mulligan Meets Monk, Riverside 12-247, finds Mulligan seemingly at a loss, staggering lumpily much of the time. Both Mulligan and Brookmeyer were called in to dress up trumpeter Phil Sunkel's Jazz Concerto Grosso, ABC-Paramount 225, an overlong work (fifteen minutes) which is brightened not by Mulli- gan or Brookmeyer but by Sunkel's light, sensitive playing. And to dress up a group of Mulligan's The Records 211 compositions on The Gerry Mulligan Songbook, Vol. 1, World Pacific 1237, he has been granted a non-pareil saxophone section Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Lee Konitz, Allen Eager and himself which, despite its spirit and polish, is constantly outclassed by the composer as he stomps and roars through his pieces. There are single selections by a Mulligan Quartet on The Blues, World Pacific JWC 502 (with Jon Eardley), Drums on Fire, World Pacific 1247 (with Chico Hamilton), Jazz West Coast, Vol. 4, World Pacific JWC 510 (the Chet Baker reunion), The Playboy Jazz Allstars, Playboy 1957 (Brookmeyer), Jazz West Coast, Vol. 2, World Pacific JWC 501 (Brookmeyer), and two Quartet selections in Ballads for Background, World Pacific JWC 503 (Brook- meyer and Baker), Jazz West Coast, World Pacific JWC 500 (Eardley and Baker; also the Baker quar- tet plus Konitz), and Rodgers and Hart Gems, World Pacific JWC 504 (Eardley and Brookmeyer). A pair of Mulligan sextet selections are in Under One Roof, EmArcy 36088, and one sextet item in both Jazz West Coast, Vol. 3, World Pacific JWC 507, and Bargain Day, EmArcy 36087. Lyle Murphy. Since the Thirties, when he was known as Spud Murphy and was one of Benny Goodman's top arrangers, Murphy has reverted to his square handle and has developed a twelve-tone system of his own. Gone with the Woodwinds, Con- temporary 3506, uses this twelve-tone system but the listener should not be scared off either by this or by the woodwinds for Murphy's Swing Era training is apparently too strong to allow him to leave his audience out on a limb. He has created lovely warm harmonies over pulsing supporting rhythm in this set of freshly swinging, melodic pieces. 212 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Morris Nanton, A pleasant but routine pianist wades through a dull score on Flower Drum Song, Warner Brothers 1256. Fats Navarro. Navarro graduated from the Andy Kirk and Billy Ecksrine bands in the mid-Forties (he took Dizzy Gillespie's place with Eckstine) to become one of the cleanest, most resolved executors of the Gillespie trumpet style in the bop period. A cross section of his better recorded work makes up The Fabulous Fats Navarro, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Blue Note 1531 and 1532. On these disks, which include alternate masters as well as original re- leases, he is heard with the Bud Powell Quintet (with a very young Sonny Rollins), an easily swing- ing group with a rugged ensemble punch; with the McGhee-Navarro Boptet which showcases crisp trumpet interplay between Navarro and Howard McGhee and some strong, flowing piano playing by Milt Jackson; and with the Tadd Dameron Sextet, a stodgy group compared to the other two, lightened by Navarro's precise, clarion solos. On Fats Navarro Memorial Album No. 1, Savoy 12011, Navarro is to a large extent a voice crying in the wilderness as he plays with a pair of fumbling groups that rarely pull together. He is in warmer company and he himself is at his crackling best in four selections on In the Beginning . . . Bebop!, Savoy 12119, on which tenor saxophonist Eddie Davis adds an enticingly sharp edge to a strongly Lester Young attack. Navarro, as ever, is bright and fluent in his own playing on four selections on Opus de Bop, Savoy 12114, even though his sur- roundings are heavy but even his own steadiness seems to desert him in the arid surroundings of one side of Saturday Night Swing Session, Counter- point 549. The Records 213 Mike Nevard. Nevard is an English counterpart of Leonard Feather primarily a writer who also or- ganizes recording sessions. One he held at Feather's requests makes up one side of Cool Europe, MGM 3157 (shared with Jutta Hipp), which is worthy of notice because of a soaring alto solo in strong Benny Carter terms by Johnny Dankworth. Phineas Newborn, Jr. The jazz saga of Phineas Newborn is, so far, a rather sad one. He burst into prominence in 1956 heralded as having the greatest technique since Tatum. Technique Newborn cer- tainly has and he shows on the cleanly played Here Is Phineas, Atlantic 1235, that he has some notion of how to apply it to jazz. Despite a disturbingly static quality, this was a promising debut recording. But instead of growing and absorbing more of the jazz feeling that was his most noticeable lack, his recordings have become steadily more arid. Phineas' Rainbow, Victor LPM 1421, is less promising than his first disk; on While My Lady Sleeps, Victor LPM 1474, he is drowned in glistening strings; and on Phineas Newborn, Jr., Plays Harold Arlen's Music from "Jamaica," Victor LPM 1589, he seems to have given up even bothering to try to play jazz. Finally, in an apparent attempt to resuscitate his jazz side, he has been cast in a pointless Enroll Garner mold on Fabulous Phineas, Victor LPM 1873. Joe Newman. A fixture in the Basie trumpet sec- tion for many years, Newman, like most Basie side- men in the present band, is rarely heard to much advantage with the band. On outside recordings, his playing is inclined to be neatly turned but bland. He is bright and breezy on The Happy Cats, Coral 57121, on which he has the inventive sup- port of his Basiemate, tenor saxophonist Frank 214 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Wess, turns crisply pungent in some relaxed pieces with Zoot Sims on Locking Horns, Roulette 52009, and plays with a good show of vitality and warmth on one side of Swing Lightly, Concert Hall 1265 (shared with Ruby Braff). He has moments of crack- ling spirit on a generally lackadaisical disk, / Feel Like a Newman, Storyville 905 (there is an amusing passage in which John Lewis can be heard doing a bit of Basie piano), but he is overshadowed by Shirley Scott's warm organ on Soft Swingin' Jazz, Coral 57208. Much of his playing on these disks is done with a mute but on Salute to Satch, Victor LPM 1324, he shows how well he can play in an open-belled, full-voiced style. The arrangements in this set are adaptations in modern jazz terms of Louis Arm- strong's originals which, despite a tendency to turn glib, frequently maintain the Armstrong spirit re- markably well. Newman contributes nothing of in- terest to Jazz for Playboys, Savoy 12095, and he is wasted on the pair of unending blowing session which make up Jazz Studio One, Decca 8058. He plays one easygoing, down-to-earth blues on Jazz Cornucopia, Coral 57149. New York Jazz Quartet (see Mat Mathews) Herbie Nichols. For a pianist with a strongly in- dividual quality, there are an unusual number of derivative lines to be discerned in Nichols' playing. He is fond of the thematic line that trickles con- stantly downward in the Horace Silver manner so fond that he is apt to overdo it and at the same time, on Herbie Nichols Trio, Blue Note 1519, there are suggestions of Monk and a line that leads to a Monk-influenced pianist, Cecil Taylor. Yet with all this, Nichols plays a stomping, swinging piano in this set. The mixture on Love, Gloom, Cash, Love, Bethlehem 81, is slightly different The Records 215 Monk and Erroll Garner, this time, blended to swing and sing in a bittersweet fashion. And on three selections in / Just Love Jazz Piano, Savoy 12100, there is no evidence of Monk but instead suggestions of the brisk, bright swing of Earl Hines crop up. Nichols is an almost consistently interest- ing pianist, one who communicates directly, clearly and melodically. Why he has languished in practical obscurity all through the Fifties is a mystery. Lennie Niehaus. Niehaus, an alto saxophonist, is one of those jazzmen who has shot to sudden promi- nence and, in effect having arrived before he even knew he was there, has stood still seemingly won- dering what to do next. He started his professional career when he was discharged from the Army in June, 1954, and within a month he had made his first LP as a leader, The Quintets, Contemporary 3518. This is a good showcase for his virtuosity (he is a Parker descendant with a cool overlay) but having established this he has found little room for further expansion. He has spent much of the intervening time as a member of Stan Kenton's band, turning out a series of rather monotonous, unexciting records The Octet, No. 2, Contem- porary 3503, Zounds! The Octet!, Contemporary 3540 until he reached that inevitable deadend, a string section, on The Quintet and Strings, Con- temporary 3510. There is a suggestion of growing warmth in his work on The Sextet, Contemporary 3524, and / Swing for You, EmArcy 36118, is en- couraging in that it shows him working with a nine- piece band which is just as interested in ensemble work as solos. Phil Nimmons. On The Canadian Scene, Verve 8025, clarinetist Nimmons leads an alert rehearsal band through some imaginative arrangements which show to best advantage in the ensembles. 216 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Lon Norman. Miami is the source of Lon Norman's Gold Coast Jazz, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Criteria 1 and 3. He is a rather static trombonist of the J. J. Johnson school whose groups on both disks are run-of-the-mill. Interest perks up slightly in Volume 2 because of the rolling piano of John Williams, a refugee from New York. Red Norvo. Norvo's evergreen career goes back to the days of vaudeville when xylophonists wore white silk shirts and cummerbunds and tap-danced while they played. He was a novelty element in Paul Whiteman's massive organization in the early Thir- ties, later leader of his own swing band (with wife Mildred Bailey as vocalist). He was one of the first of the Swing Era musicians to join hands with the upstart boppers in the early Forties he led a significant recording date in 1945 which brought both elements together (Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker for bop, Teddy Wilson and Flip Phillips for swing, Norvo for Norvo). These records, first released on the Comet label, have been reissued on a Dial LP which is no longer available. Four ex- cellent performances from this period (1944) with a sextet and septet are included in Giants of Jazz, Vol. 1, EmArcy 36048. Since then he has worked much of the time as part of a trio, playing vibraphone as a rule, an instrument he took up in the early Forties. All but one of his available LP collections come from this later period. The exception is a group of his 1933-35 works, Red Norvo and His All Stars, Epic 3128, which is discussed in The Collector's Jazz: Traditional and Swing. Norvo's various trios have two things in common: The guitarists and bassists are of top caliber and the performances are light, airy, extremely neat and pulsingly swinging. But even as consistent a performer as Norvo is not infallible. Possibly the best of the trios was one in which he was joined by The Records 217 Tal Farlow, guitar, and Charlie Mingus, bass. They show themselves well on Move, Savoy 12088, but in four selections on Midnight on Cloud 69, Savoy 12093, their playing is relatively fuzzy. A slight variant of this group Red Mitchell in place of Mingus lilts its way with easy aplomb through Red Norvo with Strings (the "strings" are, fortu- nately, simply the bass and guitar), Fantasy 3218, and that same swinging aplomb is also present on The Red Norvo Trio, Fantasy 319, on which Jimmy Raney is the guitarist and Mitchell the bassist. Red Norvo, Rondolette 28, is a poorly recorded and, for a Norvo trio, rather plodding set of works. His colleagues are not identified. His Farlow-Mitchell trio of 1953 can be heard in a single selection on The Encyclopedia of Jazz on Records, VoL 4, Decca 8401. While the trio has been the staple setup for Norvo's personal appearances, he has also recorded with various larger groups during the latter Fifties. One of his most brilliant sessions produced four superbly relaxed selections by a sextet which in- cluded Ben Webster, Harry Edison and Jimmy Rowles, piano, one of them a stunning re-improvisa- tion of a recorded classic of the Thirties in which Norvo took part, Just a Mood. First issued by Victor on a grab-bag disk as a Dave Garroway presentation, the pieces have since been transferred to Red Plays the Blues, Victor LPM 1729, which is filled out with three selections by a big band led by Norvo. The band works from routine arrange- ments but it frames rich, polished solos by Norvo, Rowles and alto saxophonist Willie Smith and brings back the flexible, vibrant blues shouting of Helen Humes, who sang with Count Basic's band in the Thirties. On HI-FIve, Victor LPM 1420, Norvo is, as might be suspected, involved with a quintet and, in the best Norvo tradition, the beat is light and lilting, 218 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ the tone subdued and confidential, the lines closely woven. The only disturbing element is a flute, played by Bob Drasnin, who is much more interest- ing on clarinet. There is a flute again, this time played by Buddy Collette, on Music to Listen to Red Norvo By, Contemporary 3534, along with a superb rhythm section Barney Kessel, Red Mitch- ell, Shelly Manne in a group of imaginatively devised short pieces and a long, overambitious work by (and featuring) clarinetist Bill Smith, Diverti- mento, which comes alive only spasmodically. In attempting to make something of the score for the film, Windjammer, Norvo seems at a loss on Wind- jammer City Style, Dot 3126. Anita O'Day. In the early Forties Miss O'Day was one of the really valid swinging singers with a style based on Billie Holiday with a kicking beat added. She brightened the Gene Krupa and Stan Kenton bands of those days and was, in her turn, the inspiration for a school of singers (June Christy, Chris Connor and on down) who diluted, distorted and eventually lost all sight of what she was doing. In the late Forties and early Fifties her career was sidetracked by personal problems from which she has been making a slow and, for a while, uncertain comeback. She was not aided in the early stages of this comeback by an apparent feeling that she had to imitate her imitators, thus compounding an already nerve-wracking tendency, but by 1958 she had regained sufficient assurance to project her songs warmly, easily and confidently and in her own musical image. On Anita O'Day Sings the Winners, Verve 8283, she returns to the outgoing, swinging ways that once came naturally to her. Half of the arrangements are by Marty Paich, the rest by Russell Garcia, a division which illuminates what is good for the latter day O'Day and what isn't. Paich gives her The Records 219 the strong beat she needs, a beat that drives her along and allows her little time for the simpering and agonized twists that have made some of her other recordings choked and stumbling affairs, whereas Garcias' more heavy-handed orchestrations let her drag down into affectation on slow ballads. Pick Yourself Up, Verve 2043, also has some swing- ing imaginativeness while her singing on Anita , Verve 2000, is at least unstrained if not swinging. Anita Swings the Most, Verve 8259, is, however, a sample of the forced, mannered and coy approach in which she was hung for a while. She sings three songs in Here Come the Girls, Verve 2036. Chico OTarrill. O'Farrill is a Cuban arranger and band leader who is familiar with the American big band idiom (he has written for Goodman, Kenton and Gillespie) as well as his native Cuban styles. Most of his recordings are tempered versions of one or the other, aimed primarily at the dancer. Jazz North and South of the Border, Verve 8083, is a capable demonstration of both his sides. Chico' s Cha-Cha-Cha, Panart, 3013, Mambo-Latino Dances, Verve 2003, and Music from South America, Verve 2024, are smoothly voiced and lightly jazz-touched Latin dance music. One sample of his crossing of North and South American strains is included in Verve Compendium of Jazz #1, Verve 8194. Anthony Ortega. Although Ortega's most personal characteristic as an alto saxophonist is a felicitous use of a lunging, searing approach to a phrase, he shows no evidence of his personality on two pretty but soupy ballads with string backing on Jazz Cornucopia, Coral 57149. Marty Paich. Paich does a bit of everything pian- ist, arranger, accompanist (to Peggy Lee), big band sideman, combo sideman, leader and almost all 220 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ of it is refreshingly free from whatever may be the cliches of the moment. He is at the head of a happy combo that is driven by an exuberant, splashy rhythm section (Paich, Curtis Counce, bass, Frankie Capp, drums, Jack Costanzo, bongos) on Jazz City Workshop, Bethlehem 44, highlighted by some wal- loping vibes work by Larry Bunker and Herbie Harper's rugged, chortling trombone. Marty Paich, Cadence 3010, puts him at the helm of a big band which plays arrangements that are in the Paich tra- dition imaginative and off-the-beaten-track with- out being in any way esoteric. There are a few good spots for Paich's casual, leathery piano but, as arranger, he repeats some devices to such an extent that the disk, taken at one dose, becomes tiresome. He contributes one well developed or- chestral piece featuring Costanzo's bongos to Afro- Drum Carnival, GNP 25, but although his four big band selections in Modern Jazz Gallery, Kapp KXL 5001, use a variety of approaches they result in little really meaty playing. He is also heard on Jazz Studio 2, Decca 8079. Jackie Paris. Paris is a guitarist who is often referred to as a neglected jazz singer. This is a rather in- explicable attitude for his mincing manner of crooning has no jazz implications. His disks are Skylark, Brunswick 54019, and The Jackie Paris Sound, East- West 4002. He sings two numbers on Jazztime, U.S.A., Vol. 3, Brunswick 54002, and one on Advance Guard of the Forties, EmArcy 36016. Charlie Parker. The sound of jazz in the years since the end of World War II has been colored indelibly by the musical personality of Charlie Parker. The major problem of most alto saxo- phonists since his day has been getting out of Park- er's shadow, to avoid sounding like derivation. For other instrumentalists, the problem at first was to The Records 221 adapt what Parker was doing on alto (and Gillespie on trumpet) to the other jazz instruments. During the Fifties the novelty of Parker's approach had worn off and jazzmen began to take a less awed, more inventive approach to the heritage Parker had left them. Parker came out of Kansas City with the Jay McShann band in the late Thirties. His first records, made with McShann (on a cut-out ten-inch LP, Kansas City Memories, Decca 5503) show him as a soloist seemingly influenced to some extent by Lester Young but already exhibiting rudimentary signs of those qualities which became the hallmark on his playing: a light, vibratoless tone; running phrases, perkily turned; complex rhythmic and harmonic structure. He moved to Earl Hines' band early in 1942, a Hines band which also included Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughan. Parker played tenor saxophone during the ten months that he spent with Hines but because of a recording ban the band left no disks. In 1944 he started making the small group re- cordings on which his fame now rests. Except for a group made for the Dial label (some of which were transferred to a pair of Dial LPs which are now out of circulation), most of these are available in two series on Savoy and Verve which include not only the original releases but alternate takes and, in the Savoy series, interrupted takes and false starts. The meat of Parker will be found on five Savoy disks, recorded between 1944 and 1948. Because four of the five include repeated takes and snatches of each selection, the best of the group for normal listening purposes is The Genius of Charlie Parker, Savoy 12014, which has fourteen complete selections showing Parker with five different groups. It includes one of his most brilliant solos, Koko, puts him in groups which include young Miles Davis, Dizzy 222 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Gillespie, John Lewis and Max Roach and gives him a part in the lighthearted and swinging musical mayhem committed by Slim Gaillard. The Charlie Parker Story, Savoy 12079, subtitled "The Greatest Recording Session Made in Modern Jazz History in Its Entirety!", is the session of November 26, 1945, on which Parker, Davis, Bud Powell, Curly Russell, bass, and Roach produced Billie's Bounce, Now's the Time, Warming Up a Riff, Thriving from a Riff, the incomplete and previously unissued Meandering and (once more) Koko. It is apparently, as advertised, "in its en- tirety" for there are five takes of Billie's Bounce, four of Now's the Time, including a pair of false starts that last approximately half a minute, and so forth. John Mehegan has written a running com- mentary that is acidulous but apt. This and the three remaining Savoys are primarily for those who want the opportunity to analyze the differ- ences that take place in Parker's approach to a theme even within a matter of minutes. Charlie Parker Memorial, Vol. 1, Savoy 12000, The Immortal Charlie Parker, Savoy 12001, and Charlie Parker Memorial, Vol. 2, Savoy 12009, are a jumble of original takes, new takes and short takes, assembled in no apparent order and scat- tered around in such fashion as to make comparison of various versions of a single piece somewhat of a chore. Savoy 12000 includes the lovely Bluebird which has a very relaxed Parker solo and a sur- prisingly good appearance by Miles Davis (Davis* playing throughout this series is generally lacklustre and clumsy) along with a new take of the moving blues, Parker's Mood. On three selections on Savoy 12001 Parker is heard playing tenor in a manner that sounds today, at least not particularly dis- tinguished in view of his facility on alto. This disk also includes Tiny's Tempo and Red Cross from Parker's earliest small group session, the Tiny The Records 223 Grimes date in 1944. The original release of Park- efs Mood as well as the originals of Billie's Bounce and Thriving from a Riff (both of which are in- cluded in Savoy 12079) are high spots of Savoy 12009. From this same period (1947) comes Charlie Parker All Star Sextet, Roost 2210, with Davis and J. J. Johnson, trombone, joining Parker in the front line. Although Parker gives a masterful dem- onstration of how to play a slow ballad with jazz sense on Don't Blame Me and swings with roaring frenzy through Crazeology, there is a heavy, tired feeling about most of these pieces. Parker's Verve series is made up of recordings from the late Forties and early Fifties when Norman Granz was trying to make him a more saleable commodity. Thus we frequently find him sur- rounded by strings and vocal groups or belaboring ballads that are scarcely worth his attention. It was also a period when Parker was dropping deeper and deeper into the personal torture and confusion that culminated in his death in March, 1955. The series opens with a set of three disks, The Charlie Parker Story #1, #2, and #3, Verve 8000, 8001 and 8002. Number One is a valid cross-section of Parker's recordings for Granz the oozy mood music of Charlie Parker with Strings, a wild big band setting from which Parker erupts, three small group settings, a worthwhile visit as a soloist with Machito's band, and a pair of atrocities in which he battles both woodwinds and a choral group. The second disk in the set is less varied and infinitely better. One side is lifted partly from The Jazz Scene, Verve 8060, partly from Midnight Jazz at Carnegie Hall, Verve 8189-2. The latter section again pits Parker against strings but this time he occasionally blows them out of the way and, despite the strings, What Is This Thing Called Love really jumps. On the reverse he is backed by three good 224 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ rhythm sections and in this free atmosphere plays warmly, melodically, at times becoming almost fierce in his attack. On NOUJ'S the Time, for in- stance, supported by Al Haig, Percy Heath and Max Roach, he is extremely aggressive, quite dif- ferent from his earlier, more relaxed version on Savoy. Number Three in this set has flashes of good Parker in the quintet selections that make up one side (there's also some good Thelonious Monk along with weak Miles Davis and surprisingly feeble Dizzy Gillespie). The second side is a mish-mash of snippets from concerts and jam sessions drawn from Jam Session #1 and #2, Verve 8049 and 8050. The remaining Verve disks assemble what must be all the rest of the Parker material to which Verve has access. There are repeats of performances in- cluded in the first three disks and sometimes several takes of one number. On Night and Day, Verve 8003, and April in Paris, Verve 8004, Parker once more gets the string treatment lush dance versions of ballads which are completely at odds with the basic Parker idiom. Now's the Time, Verve 8005, returns him to a proper setting with only Haig, Heath and Roach as accompanists. This is generally top grade Parker but the repeated takes become tiresome. A session that might have been expected to bloom, Bird and Diz, Verve 8006, on which Parker and Gillespie are joined by Thelonious Monk, Curly Russell and Buddy Rich, drums, is dry and uninspired. The Parker of Charlie Parker Plays Cole Porter, Verve 8007, sounds tired, prone to uncommunicative, clumsy, flat playing. Fiesta, Verve 8008, is polite south of the border stuff with bongo and conga. Parker plays adequately but there seems no point in using him on such material unless it is in context with a strong rhythm section. Charlie Parker Jazz Perennial, Verve 8009, glues him up with ballads The Records 225 and a deadly vocal group although he shows signs of life when he escapes into a blues. All things con- sidered, the final disk in the series, Swedish Schnapps, Verve 8010, is the best of the lot, despite several repeated takes. He plays warmly and sensi- tively with two congenial groups, one made up of Red Rodney, trumpet, John Lewis, Ray Brown and Kenny Clarke, the other of Miles Davis, Walter Bishop, Jr., Teddy Kotick, bass, and Max Roach. It includes his deeply moving Lover Man. Single selections by Parker are included in Opera- tion jazz, Roost OJ1, and The Anatomy of Improvi- sation, Verve 8230. Johnnie Pate. Pate is a Chicago-based bassist who seems to have an ear carefully attuned to what's hot. Flutes are the thing? On Jazz Goes Ivy League, King 561, he has an intimately voiced group in which flute, vibes and guitar are the principal voices. They swing lightly without demanding at- tention. Or maybe the Ahamd Jamal bit is popular. Pate does a good Jamal derivation with pianist Floyd Morris carrying the Jamalities on Johnny Pate at the Blue Note, Stepheny 4005, and A Date with Johnny Pate, King 611. In Morris' hands, however, there is more of a suggestion of Enroll Garner's attention to melody and beat than to JamaTs selective highlights. Cecil Payne. Payne is a baritone saxophonist who has a smooth, soft tone but he is not much of an idea man. Cecil Payne, Signal 1203, is of interest primarily for the few brief glimpses it affords of the drily swinging piano of Duke Jordan. Bernard Peiffer. This Frenchman who immigrated to the United States in 1955 is that rarity among jazz pianists a legitimately schooled musician with brilliant technique who can transfer much of this 226 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ brilliance to jazz performances without necessarily falling into the trap of believing that technique is all. He has spent several years trying to comb the influences out of his playing. One side of Jazz from St. German des Pres, Verve 8119 (shared with Don Byas) is the Peiffer of a few years ago borrowing prodigally from Enroll Garner and leaping into unaccountable splurges of Tatumesque lacery. By the time he made his first American recording, Bernie's Tunes, EmArcy 36080, he had shucked off Garner and was winnowing his Tatum leanings and his playing surged with lightness and vitality. His best work so far is on Bernard Peiffer Trio, Decca 8626, at those times when he is holding to direct, straightforward exposition and is not losing the continuity of his ideas while trying to swing a variety of virtuoso lines. Even so, the mere dare- deviltry of some of these efforts has its interesting aspects. Piano a la Mood, Decca 9203, is neatly turned, low-gear Peiffer. Dave Pell. Pell's octet, drawn for the most part from the Les Brown band, has contrived an approach so bland that it can drain the life from even the most vigorous tune. The group's polite, emotion- less pitter patter might be classified as tea jazz. The only suggestion of a warm voice in this cold group comes occasionally from trombonist Ray Sims. The wan evidence is on / Had the Craziest Dream, Capitol T 925, Swingin' in the Ol' Corral, Victor LPM 1394, A Pell of a Time, Victor LPM 1524, Campus Hop, Victor LPM 1662, Plays Rodg- ers and Hart, Kapp 1025, Plays Burke and Van Heusen, Kapp 1034, Plays Irving Berlin, Kapp 1036, Jazz and Romantic Places, Atlantic 1216, Love Story, Atlantic 1249. Ralph Pena. A bassist who was part of Jimmy Giuffre's trio for a while leads a quintet which The Records 227 provides serviceable accompaniment to a reading of a William Carlos Williams poem on Jazz Canto, World Pacific 1244. Art Pepper. Pepper is one of the most airy and fluent of the post-Parker alto saxophonists. His playing, which crosses elements of both Lester Young and Parker, is, as a rule, cleanly articulated even at very fast tempos although he is not notably consistent. Surf Ride, Savoy 12089, serves as a use- ful Pepper cross-section. With two of the three groups on the disk he is in excellent form loop- ing out fresh, imaginative idea with a dancing gaiety. With the third group, however, he is quite lackadaisical despite some inspiringly earthy piano by Hampton Hawes. Dealing with a group of ballads, Pepper's virtuosity takes a secondary posi- tion to a light, feathery and extremely rhythmic style that comes from the Lennie Tristano school on Art Pepper, Sonny Redd, Regent 6069. Pepper works in this vein with great skill, managing to in- vest the tunes with a strong jazz feeling without cutting out their balladic hearts. Teaming with tenor saxophonist Bill Perkins on one side of Just Friends, World Pacific 401, Pepper adds a delicacy to Perkins* rugged tone that gives their playing an interesting harmonic depth. For Mucho Color, Andex 3002, a group of bongo- based gavottes, he provided several of the more useful arrangements and practically all of the enlivening playing. Leading a gentle, bouncing group in conjunction with Chet Baker on Playboys, World Pacific 1234, Pepper is neat and precise but scarcely exciting enough to keep the disk from turning tired and uninspired in the face of Baker's drab work, while his matter-of-fact playing on Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section, Contemporary 3532, is not particularly communicative. He plays single selections on Solo Flight, World Pacific JWC 28 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ 15, Jazz West Coast, Vol. 3, World Pacific JWC >7, and Jazz West Coast, Vol. 4, World Pacific ATC 510, and joins Chet Baker in one number on 'ave Blues, Will Travel, World Pacific JWC 509. ill Perkins. A tenor saxophonist who has fused a >undation of Lester Young's light flow with a sug- istion of Coleman Hawkins' ruggedness, Perkins is spent most of the 1950s in the Woody Herman id Stan Kenton bands. His mixture of Young and iawkins is very evident on Just Friends, World acific 401, a balanced and thoughtful program of jiet jazz played by two different groups. One group lirs Perkins with another Young-bred tenor, Richie amuca, the other with the altoist, Art Pepper, ho is in brilliant form on this disk. Perkins does une of his finest recorded work on Love Me or eave Me in Grand Encounter, World Pacific 1217, i which he plays with two members of the Modern tzz Quartet (John Lewis and Percy Heath) and TO representatives of the Chico Hamilton Quintet lamilton and Jim Hall). On Stage, World Pacific 121, is bogged down by pallid writing which is jhtened somewhat by Perkins' carefully developed los and a couple of saxophone ensembles tran- tibed from Lester Young solos. There are a pair of Perkins selections on Jazz 'est Coast, Vol. 2, World Pacific 501, and single eces on Jazz West Coast, World Pacific JWC 500, he Blues, World Pacific JWC 502, Ballads for ickgrounds, World Pacific JWC 503, Solo Flight, orld Pacific JWC 505, Jazz West Coast, Vol. 3, orld Pacific JWC 507, and Jazz West Coast, Vol. 4, orld Pacific JWC 510, rl Perkins. A soundly based, briskly swinging mist with an odd way of addressing the piano ; sometimes played with his entire left forearm Dve and parallel to the keyboard), Perkins died The Records 229 in March, 1958, at the age of 30. His only complete LP, Introducing Carl Perkins, Dootone 211, is a fine sampling of his weaving, bobbing style. He also plays one selection in Pianists Galore!, World Pacific JWC 506, Oscar Peterson. Peterson is one of the more puzzling musical personalities in current jazz. Starting with a tradition-based, sledge hammer drive (exhibited in one of his early Canadian recordings on Great Jazz Pianists, Camden 328), he has developed since moving to the United States in 1949 into a musician of great range, potential resource and superb technique. His playing, however, has a glib, chilly quality which no amount of foot pounding, grunting or furious fingering seems able to trans- mute to warm-blooded jazz. As house pianist for Verve Records, accompanying Lionel Hampton, Ben Webster, Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Edison, Stuff Smith, Lester Young and others, and leading his own trio, he is one of the most frequently recorded of today's jazz musicians yet he has produced hardly anything that either catches or lingers in the ear. Of the disks on which he is featured, Peterson communicates most readily on Recital, Verve 2044, and Oscar Peterson Quartet, Verve 8072. Oscar Peterson Plays Count Basie, Verve 8092, Keyboard, Verve 2047, An Evening with Oscar Peterson, Verve 2048, and his portions of Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl, Verve 8231-2, and Peterson, Eldridge, Stitt, Jo Jones at Newport, Verve 8239, are diluted by his blandly glib surface, while Oscar Peterson Trio at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, Verve 8024, and Oscar Peterson and the Modern Jazz Quartet at the Opera House, Verve 8269, are dominated by Peterson's keening and foot flailing. He turns to straight interpretations of ballads on In a Romantic Mood, Verve 2002, Pastel Moods, Verve 2004, No* 230 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ talgic Memories, Verve 2045, Tenderly, Verve 2046, and Soft Sand, Verve 2079. On this last disk and on Romance, Verve 2012, he sings in a manner that is, superficially, like that of Nat "King" Cole but -without the strength of Cole's projection. Peterson plays two selections in A Potpourri of Jazz, Verve 2032, and Midnight Jazz at Carnegie Hall, Verve 8189-2, and one in Verve Compendium of Jazz #1, Verve 8194. Oscar Pettiford. Besides being an unusually stalwart and sensitive bassist, Oscar Pettiford brought the pizzicato cello into jazz. He was co-leader with Dizzy Gillespie of the first bop band to play on 52nd Street in New York and later spent three years with Duke Ellington's orchestra. He has made two attractive disks with a big band, The Oscar Petti- ford Orchestra in Hi-Fi, ABC-Paramount 135, and The Oscar Pettiford Orchestra in Hi-Fi, Vol. 2, ABC-Paramount 227. Pettiford's rather unusual approach to the use of such instruments as the French horn, the flute, the harp and his own plucked cello is that they are as useful in their own ways as the trumpets, trom- bones or saxophones in contributing to the en- sembles and to spots of solo color. He disdains the show-off, Look-Ma-No-Hands attitude of trying to make these instruments do things for which they are not suited. He has a reasonably full comple- ment of other instruments to take on the routine chores on these two disks. The foundation on which Pettiford's band works is soundly swinging jazz, accented by many fine solos by Lucky Thompson on Volume 1. The second volume suffers from diffuse recording. One selection by Pettiford, play- ing cello, is included in Operation Jazz, Roost OJ1. Flip Phillips. Phillips' reputation as a firebrand with Woody Herman's first Herd and particularly The Records 231 during his long service with Jazz at the Philhar- monic has often obscured the fact that he can be a warmly flowing tenor saxophonist who constructs his solos with immaculate care. He has been push- ing the audience frenzy button with his wild honk- ing for so long, however, that he sometimes in- stinctively presses it by mistake (one hopes) after he has taken the trouble to build a hard swinging solo with taste. On Flip Phillips Quintet, Verve 8116, he is backed by Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown and Buddy Rich in a varied program that ranges from gentle balladry to furious, churn- ing swing while his jumpy, itchy blowing, just this side of honkery, is set amidst a fine group of old pros (Bill Harris, Harry Edison and Rich again) on Flip Wails, Verve 8075. He is in an easy-going mood on Flip, Verve 8077, which contains some crisp if unexciting trumpet by Howard McGhee, but an undistinguished calm settles over Swinging with Flip, Verve 8076. His energetic contributions to Saturday Night Swing Session, Counterpoint 549, are nullified by a sloppy, plodding ensemble. Stu Phillips. An arranger, conductor and pianist known for lush mood music, Phillips' first venture into jazz is A Touch of Modern, MGM 3391. Al- though the instrumentation of his sextet (piano, vibes, French horn, English horn, bass, drums) makes these occasionally bright and bouncy per- formances a little precious for jazz, Jim Buffington gets in a few rugged licks on his French horn. Music from Out of Space,, MGM 3287, is Phillips' mood music side. Nat Pierce. It may well be that Nat Pierce has played on more records that feature a Basic-type piano than has Count Basic himself. Whenever the Basic style is to be conjured up in a recording studio (a device in high favor during the middle 232 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Fifties) Pierce is almost invariably the pianist on hand. He has, however, a sound and solid musical personality of his own, swinging and unpretentious, both as pianist and arranger which is aptly illus- trated on one side of Easy Swing, Vanguard 8519 (shared with Mel Powell), as he leads a meaty little band which swings airily over the groundwork set up by the old Basic rhythm section (Freddie Green, Walter Page, Jo Jones). Pierce is in entirely dif- ferent territory on Chamber Music for Moderns, Coral 57128, a highly successful group of pieces pairing Dick Wetmore's violin and Anthony Or- tega's volatile alto saxophone, plus a rhythm sec- tion. Wetmore has the range and warmth to give the violin a place in modern jazz if anyone will listen. Ortega constructs his solos out of a fascinating mixture of leaps, lay-backs, asides, scatter shot and sudden splurges of sound. For one as immersed in Basieana as Pierce is, his Kansas City Memories, Coral 57091, is a surprisingly tepid and inap- propriate celebration of a lusty jazz town. Herb Pilhofer. Pilhofer is a pianist whose playing is attractively dark in texture, lean in form and strong in beat. His arrangements for his octet (trumpet, trombone, French horn, two reeds and rhythm) on Jazz from the North Coast, Vol. 2, Zephyr 12013, are tight and smooth with an oc- casional glimpse of a Lennie Tristano influence. Johnny Pisano. The guitarist in one of the later versions of the Chico Hamilton Quintet, Pisano and another guitarist, Billy Bean, are backed in rather stolid fashion by several different groups built around the basic personnel of the Hamilton Quintet on Makin* It, Decca 9206. The perform- ances range from a slow brood to a plinkety jig. The Records 233 King Pleasure. Pleasure (born Clarence Beeks) pio- neered the notion of writing and singing lyrics to well-known modern jazz solos. On King Pleasure Sings, Prestige 7128, he gets around without the strain of those who have followed in this idiom but his lyrics are much less imaginative than those created by Jon Hendricks. John Plonsky. The fluent, blithe trumpet attack of Plonsky shows up well on Cool Man Cool, Golden Crest 3014, on which his lighthearted quintet trumpet, accordion, baritone saxophone, bass, drums gets an appealingly dark, earthy sound which avoids the dangers of ponderousness or over-sobri- ety. But on Dixieland Goes Progressive, Golden Crest 3024, both Plonsky and the highly capable Dick Gary are trapped in a gimmicky idea. The only valid moments occur when Dixieland or the blues is being left alone, unprogressed. Herb Pomeroy. After serving time with Stan Kenton, trumpeter Herb Pomeroy returned to his home town, Boston, organized a small group and gradually amplified it until he had a big band on call when- ever he had dates for it. Because many of its mem- bers hold daytime jobs, the full band has rarely been heard very far from Boston. On Life Is a Many Splendored Gig, Roulette 52001, it shows itself capable of both a fierce, exultant drive and delicately blended section ensembles. There is an independent imagination at work in the arrangements which skirt the easy stereotypes yet build consistently on a swinging basis. The performances are crisp, pol- ished and almost completely without stylistic excesses or the leaden, lumpy quality common to big bands in the Fifties. Tommy Potter. One of the most ubiquitous bassists of the bop period, Potter had to wait until he made 234 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ a trip to Sweden in the late Fifties before he got a date under his own name. The sextet he leads on Hard Funk, East-West 4001, half Swedish and half American, produces three routine performances and three which reveal that there is nothing wrong with hard bop that a little skill and direction can't fix. The key man is Swedish tenor saxophonist Woody Birch, who rides through his solos like a steel- plated banshee without losing sight of tone or form. Bud Powell. Just as Earl Hines transferred Louis Armstrong's jazz ideas to the piano, Bud Powell adapted the revolutionary style of Charlie Parker. An erratic, introspective person, Powell matured steadily as a performer in the late Forties and early Fifties even while combatting a mental illness which kept him in hospitals half of that time. At his best Powell has a crisp tone, an excellent sense of tim- ing and phrasing and a ready flow of ideas. He is one of the few jazz pianists who can be compared with Art Tatum in technical fluency but his state- ments are generally more strongly set out than the frill-fond Tatum's. He is a busy weaver of a compact musical web, his single note lines tightly inter- laced, prodded and supported by interior rhythms and colored by his brooding harmonic inventions. His solo recordings fall into three distinct periods. His early work is marked by a fiery attack in which his virtuosity is teamed with a vigorous rhythmic sense and striking sensitivity. The Amazing Bud Powell, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Blue Note 1503 and 1504, make a good display of both the vigor (Ornithology and I Want to Be Happy) and the sensitivity (an exquisite performance of 72 Could Happen to You in which he shows how a slow ballad can be kept alive and alert). The pieces by Powell's Quintet (with young Sonny Rollins and Fats Navarro) in The Fabulous Fats Navarro, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Blue Note 1531 and 1532, swing easily and have a The Records 235 strong ensemble punch. The Genius of Bud Powell, Verve 8115, a generally good disk, includes a fantastic version of Just One of Those Things, a marvel of driving, Tatumesque virtuoso playing. He is the dominating voice on four selections in Opus de Bop, Savoy 12114, which include some shrill Sonny Stitt and uncertain Kenny Dorham, and he is equally exhilarating in four more selections on Fats Navarro Memorial Album, No. 1, Savoy 1201 1, on which Stitt redeems himself. The Bud Powell Trio, Roost 2224, is quite bland most of the way although Powell occasionally lights up and takes off. A single selection in Modern Jazz Hall of Fame, Design 29, is badly recorded and ineptly performed. Of his recordings during the first half of the Fifties, Jazz Giant, Verve 8153, is, on the whole, a satisfactory collection but Jazz Original, Verve 8185, Bud Powell's Moods, Verve 8154, Piano Interpreta- tions by Bud Powell, Verve 8167, and his three selections in Piano Interpretations, Verve 8127, find him turning pretty and unimaginative and his good points go by the board. Past the mid-Fifties on Bud!, Blue Note 1571, he produces one side of practically flawless, flowing, unstrained and direct solos. The combination of ease, assurance, swinging strength and inevitable logic in his playing on half of this disk has rarely been matched on records and almost certainly not with his steady consistency. Unfortunately trombon- ist Curtis Fuller, still in his limited and uninspired period, joins Powell on the second side and succeeds in reducing these performances to tired routines. Again on Blues in the Closet, Verve 8218, one side of firmly played, neatly stacked solos is offset by a side marked by sloppy recording and sloppy per- formances. Strictly Powell, Victor LPM 1423, shows vestiges of his vital drive but they are conveyed in relaxed fashion while his formation of ballads has a pleasant mixture of grace and passion. Swingin* 236 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ with Bud, Victor LPM 1507, however, is so casual that it gives the impression of having been knocked off without much thought to balance or variety. Powell can also be heard in single selections in The Jazz Scene, Verve 8060, Roost Fifth Anniversary Album, Roost 1201, Operation Jazz, Roost OJ1, and The Anatomy of Improvisation, Verve 8230. Seldon Powell. Starting with the basic Lester Young approach to the tenor saxophone, Powell has hard- ened the tone and strengthened the attack while maintaining the grace and fluency. On both Seldon Powell, Roost 2295, and Seldon Powell Sextet, Roost 2220, he moves easily and creatively at fast tempos while his ballads have a cool elegance, never descending to sentimentality or turning over- ripe. He is also featured on three selections in Rhythm Plus One, Epic 3297. Specs Powell. A drummer for CBS through most of the Forties and Fifties, Powell gained his prime jazz experience with several swing groups in the late Thirties Edgar Hayes, Red Norvo, Benny Goodman. He is not a self-indulgent leader on Movin' In, Roulette 52004, contenting himself with providing crisp rhythmic support for some excellent arrangements by Ray Copeland which are given bright, swinging performances. Perez Prado. The "Ughh!" man gets a peripheral jazz quality into his band's performances in his use of solo instruments (usually a trumpet) and, to some degree, through his rhythm section. His ad- herence to the mambo imposes a monotonous stiff- ness on much of his work (relieved at times by raucous humor) and his ventures into material from the American jazz repertory are invariably clumsy Prez, Victor LPM 1556, Mambo for Cats, Victor LPM 1063, and half of Voodoo Suite, Victor The Records 237 LPM 1101. The title half of this last disk develops slowly into a boiling bit of Afro-Cubana, his best effort in this line. Prado's saving grace is his humor which turns a collection of pop pap, Mambo Mania, Victor LPM 1075, into a very funny disk. On his home musical territory, Prado is essentially a Latin dance band but a swinging one on Mambo by the King, Victor LPM 1196, Havana 3 AM., Victor LPM 1257, Latin Satin, Victor LPM 1459, Mambo Happy, Camden 409, and Dilo, Victor LPM 1883. Prestige Jazz Quartet. Using the same instrumenta- tion as the Modern Jazz Quartet Teddy Charles, vibraphone; Mai Waldron, piano; Addison Fanner, bass; Jerry Segal, drums this group works in a looser format than the MJQ and leans more toward solo blowing. On Prestige Jazz Quartet, Prestige 7108, it is a surprisingly colorless group consider- ing its make-up except when Waldron moves into the spotlight bringing much needed warmth and incisiveness. The merits of the disk are almost en- tirely his. Andre Previn. A classical musician who has fought his way up from film backgrounds to a learned form of cocktail piano (Andre Previn Plays Gershwin, Victor LPM 1011, Let's Get Away from It All, Decca 8131, Three Little Words, Victor LPM 1356, Mad About the Boy, Camden 406, Hollywood at Midnight, Decca 8341, and Secret Songs for Young Lovers, MGM 3716) and eventually to jazz, Previn shows an understanding absorption of the blues- rooted swing idiom on Andre Previn Plays Fats Waller, Tops 1593. His proper jazz metier, how- ever, is a relatively catholic modern vein which he has applied with great commercial success to a group of show scores My Fair Lady, Contem- porary 3527, a fantastically successful disk ^ which set the pattern for the long line of jazz versions of 238 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ scores which have followed despite the fact that it removes most of the charm from a delightful score; L'il Abner, Contemporary 3533, a more ac- ceptable effort possibly because the score of L'il Abner is more susceptible to improvement than My Fair Lady; Pal Joey, Contemporary 3543, a still further improvement because the Rodgers-Hart music lends itself readily to a jazz interpretation and Previn often does little more than put a shim- mering, hoppity-skippity surface on what Rodgers has provided; and Gigi, Contemporary 3548, on which he stays within some semblance of the spirit of the tunes and gets magnificent drum support from Shelly Manne who is in back of him on all the other show scores but never so effectively as here. Previn joins Russ Freeman in a series of impro- vised piano duets on Double Play!, Contemporary 3537. Using basically similar styles, they pour out long, rolling dark-toned lines that gallop furiously at fast tempos and give their blues a sophisticated veneer. Collaboration, Victor LPM 1334, is a gim- mick in which Previn and Shorty Rogers alternately arrange a standard tune and an original based on the same chords. The infallible Shelly Manne is a driving force throughout the disk, the soloists (Rogers, Previn, Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, Milt Bernhart, Jimmy Giuffre) are generally brisk if rarely exciting, but the arrangements tend to be cute. Vito Price. Price, a tenor saxophonist who is a warm, unaffected and uncomplicated descendant of Lester Young, is heard on one side of Swinging the Loop, Argo 631, with a light but lusty big band and on the other with a rhythm section. His easy, high- spirited playing is framed best by the big band. There is no ostentation here no extended blowing, The Records 239 no "advanced" writing. Just pleasant, unpretentious jazz o a kind that was not recorded very often in the Fifties. Robert Prince. Prince is a vibraphonist and com- poser who shot to international attention in 1958 when his ballet, N.Y. Export: Op. Jazz, was intro- duced in Italy by Jerome Robbins to great acclaim, a success that was later repeated in New York. He conducts this score, along with some of Leonard Bernstein's ballet music for West Side Story on Jazz Ballets from Broadway, Warner Brothers 1240. His ballet is a thoroughgoing jazz conception even to the use of a striking jazz approach to what might have been simply a prettily melodic accompaniment for a pas de deux. His music often swings with in- tensity in the strong, disciplined performance given by an orchestra apparently well salted with experi- enced jazzmen. Portions of Bernstein's ballet music are jazz-influenced to the extent of having a jazz surface. But there is none of the depth or full emo- tional expression that appear in the writing of Prince who thinks from inside jazz instead of ap- proaching it from the outside, as Bernstein must. Tito Puente. Puente's usual metier is the mambo, the cha cha and any other step that comes steam- ing up from Cuba. Unlike Machito, whose band works this same territory, Puente rarely verges over to jazz but on the explicitly titled Puente Goes Jazz, Victor LPM 1312, he takes just such a fling. There are several surprisingly good big band per- formances here direct, forceful, often genuinely hot when the band digs into uptempo material using its Latin rhythms simply as accents to what are predominantly jazz pieces. But the bulk of the disk is quite routine and sounds like any big studio band cutting originals at sight. 240 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Joe Puma. Persuasive gentleness is the hallmark of Puma's guitar when all is going well. He is heard to perfection on one side of Joe Puma Quartet and Trio, Jubilee 1070, on which with Eddie Costa, vibes, and Oscar Pettiford, bass, he plays beauti- fully articulated jazz which runs from light-footed merriment to polished stateliness. The quartet with which he plays on the other side is a more routine affair although Puma's gently insistent solos remain on a high level. The idea of teaming his guitar with Mat Mathew's accordion and a bass on Wild Kitten, Dawn 1118, produces a combination that brings forth diffuse, throbbing helpings of un- seasoned mush. Puma and Dick Garcia play four rather empty guitar duets on The Four Most Gui- tars, ABC-Paramount 109, and he contributes one solo selection to Critics' Choice, Dawn 1123. Gene Quill. Quill is an alto saxophonist who has all of the Parker mannerisms down pat but he has not been able to find much to do with them. His work is inclined to be shrill and almost desperately active. He is overshadowed by three trombonists (Jimmy Cleveland, Frank Rehak and Jim Dahl) on Three Bones and a Quill, Roost 2229, and is a tire- some dominating influence on one side of Jazzville '56, Vol. 1, Dawn 1101 (shared with the Jazz Modes). Two disks on which Quill is paired with another (but more creative) Parkerish alto, Phil Woods, Phil and Quill with Prestige, Prestige 7115, and Phil and Quill, Victor LPM 1284, bog down in an overdose of alto saxophoning. The problem be- comes almost twice as bad on Four Altos, Prestige 7116 (that "almost" is for Hal Stein who has some individuality the other altos are Quill, Woods, and Sahib Shihab). The problems Quill's Parker mannerisms get him into on a ballad are illustrated on one of his three selections in Rhythm Plus One, Epic 3297. He can he heard in single pieces on The Records 241 Concert Jazz, Brunswick 54027, After Hours Jazz, Epic 3330, and Critics' Choice, Dawn 1123. Paul Quinichette. Quinichette's position as "Vice- Pres" was established in the Forties when he brought to the Basic band the closest thing to the Lester Young tenor saxophone style that it had had since Young left the band. However, in his playing since then Quinichette has inclined to a coarseness of tone and ideas and an attack that stems as much from the less palatable side of Illinois Jacquet as it does from Young. He makes the best of his derivative talents, surrounded by a group of Basieites, on The Vice-Pres, EmArcy 36027, and in two selections in both Giants of Jazz, Vol. 3, Part 1 and Part 2, EmArcy 36050 and 36051. He is subdued, heavy- toned but not harsh on one side of Blow Your Horn, Decca 8176 (shared with Bennie Green) and even more subdued in a lush, mood set, Moods, EmArcy 36003. Both his warm lyricism and his empty flatulence can be found on On the Sunny Side, Prestige 7103, For Count, Prestige 7127, and The Kid from Den- ver, Dawn 1109. He finds little to say in his two selections on Tenors, Anyonef, Dawn 1126; he is done in by the inordinate length of the pieces (one per side) on Jazz Studio 1, Decca 8058; while on Wheelin' and Dealin', Prestige 7131, his contribu- tions are awkward and tasteless. He can also be heard in single selections on Critics' Choice, Dawn 1123, and Jazz for Hi-Fi Lovers, Dawn 1124. Boyd Raeburn. Raeburn led one of the earliest big bands in the modern idiom but it never got off the ground. Man with Horns, Savoy 12025, and Boyd Meets Stravinsky, Savoy 12040, made up of reissues from the Jewel label, feature arrangements by George Handy, Johnny Richards, Ed Finckel and, of all people, Ralph Flanagan. Today they sound 242 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ surprisingly matter-of-fact for a band that was once considered mad as a hatter. Through the late For- ties and early Fifties Raeburn was in the interior decoration business but he returned to music in the mid-Fifties with a weekend dance band heard on Teen Rock, Columbia CL 1073, playing arrange- ments featuring richly voiced reeds and brass over a stolid, lunging beat. Jimmy Raney. Amidst the jabbering clatter of guitarists in the Fifties, Raney has emerged as one of the very few with an identity of his own. His most characteristic playing is highly lyrical, gentle and relaxed although by the slightest shading of these elements he can turn into a strongly swinging performer. Some of his best work has been done with a group made up of John Wilson, trumpet, Hall Overton, piano, Teddy Kotick, bass, and Nick Stabulas, drums, on Jimmy Raney A, Prestige 7089, and in four selections on The Four Most Guitars, ABC-Paramount 109. Jimmy Raney in Three Attitudes, ABC-Para- mount 167, places him in three different settings with the aimiable valve trombone of Bob Brook- meyer, with Al Cohn's sweepingly swinging tenor saxophone and with a rhythm section an imagina- tive and rewarding bit of programming. But on Jimmy Raney, Featuring Bob Brookmeyer, ABC- Parainount 129, Raney is overshadowed by the stronger, more visceral playing of Brookmeyer and pianist Dick Katz while his sidemen treat him equally unkindly on two disks recorded abroad Jimmy Raney Visits Paris, Dawn 1120, wherein Maurice Vandair's churning, driving piano and Bobby Jaspar's soft yet forceful tenor saxophone lines are the focal points, and Swingin' in Sweden, EmArcy 36121, on one side of which Raney leads a Swedish group in which the dominant voice is the suave, rich tenor saxophone of Goesta Theselius The Records 243 (George Wallington has the other side). On Two Guitars, Prestige 7119, Raney is joined by guitarist Kenny Burrell but except for two ballads on which they are left alone to play with some sense of form and development, this disk is simply more of the overly familiar long, meandering solos by Donald Byrd, Jackie McLean and the two guitarists. Freddie Redd. Redd follows in the Bud Powell tradition of jazz piano, churning out a steady flow of single notes. He can play forceful, clean-lined piano that goes straight to the heart of jazz matters but he has a weakness for pretentiousness that can be fatal. This weakness reduces his ambitious San Francisco Suite, which takes up one side of San Francisco Suite, Riverside 12-250, to little more than an expanded movie background stereotype, vitalized by spots of valid jazz. On the shorter se- lections on this disk and on his side of Piano: East/West, Prestige 7067 (shared with Hampton Hawes), he has moments of vitality but most of his work is undisturbing- and unstimulating, Sonny Redd, A collection of cliches for alto saxo- phone make up Redd's contribution to the pair of long selections he leads on Art Pepper-Sonny Redd, Regent 6069. He also has one selection in Jazz Is Busting Out All Over, Savoy 12123. Dizzy Reece. Born in the British West Indies, Reece has built his jazz career in England. As his nickname suggests, he is a trumpeter who derives from Dizzy Gillespie. His side of Changing the Jazz at Buckingham Palace, Savoy 12111 (shared with Tubby Hayes), shows him as alternately shrill or plodding although there are hints that he might be capable of a singing tone. A point of interest is the piano work of Terry Shannon who has a light, riding style much like that of Al Haig or John Wil- liams. 244 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Johannes Rediske. Rediske's German quintet fol- lows the early Shearing mold ably but uninven- tively (except that Rediske, who is featured, is a guitarist instead of a pianist) in one selection on "Das" Is Jazz!, Decca 8229. Frank Rehak. Rehak is one of the rare trombon- ists who manage to be modern without losing the rough, rugged qualities that made many of the earlier trombonists so delightful. On one side of Jazzville, Vol. 2, Dawn 1107 (shared with Alex Smith), he leads a sextet of lusty swingers high- lighted by some unusually fluent, firm-toned bari- tone saxophone playing by Marty Flax. Don Rendell. An English representative of the Lester Young school of tenor saxophone, Rendell's personal development of the style is somewhat ob- scured by his chattering sextet on Modern Jazz at Royal Festival Hall, London LL 1185, but it is properly showcased in a pair of quartet selections on Jazz. Britannia, MGM 3472, and with a small group on Cool Europe, MGM 3157. Rita Reys. Miss Reys is a Dutch singer, influenced by Sarah Vaughan's more noticeable mannerisms, who occasionally sings ballads with outgoing assur- ance but no suggestion of jazz on Her Name Is Rita Reys, Epic 3522, and on four selections in New Voices, Dawn 1125. Buddy Rich. If there is such a thing as a natural drummer, Buddy Rich is that thing. He can infuse a group with a lifting, roaring excitement that often makes it play away over its collective heads or, at the very least, colors its work with an aura of excitement. Like Art Blakey, you know when Rich is pushing an ensemble. Unlike Blakey, who breaks up his rhythms with various startling effects, Rich The Records 245 produces an omnipresent steadiness, an intensity of rhythm moving constantly in one direction. He has served with great purpose in the big bands of Artie Shaw and Tommy Dorsey and he works equal wonders in the small groups he has led on records during the Fifties. An excellent example of Rich's ability to lay down a steadily exciting beat is Buddy Rich in Miami, Verve 8285, on which he leads a brilliantly swinging quartet made up of Flip Phillips, tenor saxophone, Ronnie Ball, piano, and Peter Ind, bass. He holds his exhibitionistic tendencies in rein on this disk but on Buddy and Sweets, Verve 8129, which offers some crackling Harry Edison trumpet, and The Wailing Buddy Rich, Verve 8168, he in- dulges in long solos which vitiate what other inter- ests the disks may have. His soloing tendency and his lack of sensitivity are not very helpful to This One's for Basie, Verve 8176, but, his own lapses aside, arranger Marty Paich and Rich's band (Harry Edison, Jimmy Rowles, Frank Rosolino, Bob Cooper, Buddy Collette and others) have caught the Basie crispness the brass tight and pre- cise, the reeds hoarse but soft and the rhythm rid- ing with a steady flow. He gives vivid support to a revived Lester Young on The Lester Young-Buddy Rich Trio, Verve 8164, but despite the presence on The Swinging Buddy Rich, Verve 8142, of Benny Carter, Georgie Auld, Milt Bernhart and Harry Edison, the result is quite routine swing blowing. Krupa and Rich, Verve 8069, a double serving, is for drum fanatics only. Rich also sings in a strongly Sinatra-influenced manner but with unexpected modesty on Buddy Rich Sings Johnny Mercer* Verve 2009, and at- tempts a more swinging set, Buddy Rich Just Sings, Verve 2075, which shows that he does swing vocally with ease. As a drummer, he contributes two num- bers to The Jazz Giants: Drum Role, EmArcy 246 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ 36071, and one to Midnight Jazz at Carnegie Hall, Verve 8189-2. Johnny Richards. A childhood in vaudeville and a late adolescence as a film scorer is the somewhat out of the ordinary background which made a jazzman out of Johnny Richards. He was 30 before he moved overtly into jazz at the head of his own dance band. Since the middle Forties he has been known as an "advanced" arranger for Stan Kenton, Charlie Barnet and Dizzy Gillespie. One might debate how much his arrangements had to do with forming the concept of the Kenton clamor but there is no doubt that Richards liked it for when he organized a band of his own in the middle Fifties the book he wrote for it, in the beginning, was strongly flavored with the screaming brass which typified a period of Kenton with which Richards was closely associated. This relatively direct transfer of Kentonisms may be sampled in Something Else, Bethlehem 6011, but two later disks by his band, Wide Range, Capitol T 885, and Experiments in Sound (a title with a Kentonian ring), Capitol T 981, provide a more varied exhibit of Richards' writing, allowing his feeling for mel- ody and his sensitive ensemble writing to peep through. What might have been an unusually inter- esting disk, The Rites of Diablo, Roulette 52008, a long work mixing Bantu rhythms and jazz in wild and savage fashion, is made to seem more monotonous than it actually is by the steady thump of drums underneath the entire work. Richards has one piece in Operation Jazz, Roost OJ1. Jerome Richardson. Versatility is Richardson's forte he plays all the saxophones and flute and it might be added that he manages to do more with the flute than most other jazz musicians. All Night Long, Prestige 7073, is the kind of blowing de- signed to make everyone seem tiresome and Rich- The Records 247 ardson settles into the mood. One selection by The New Yorkers, a quartet made up of Hank Jones, piano, Wendell Marshall, bass, and Shadow Wilson, drums, with which Richardson played at Minton's long after bop was birthed there, plays one bland selection on Concert Jazz, Brunswick 54027. Max Roach. Roach's career as a drummer began in the earliest days of bop when he was playing with Charlie Parker and was a regular visitor at Min- ton's in Harlem. He has become one of the more brilliant technicians on drums, a stimulating en- semble drummer and a great flailer of everything in sight when he solos. But in both roles he is apt to throw a group out of balance by giving the drums undue prominence. The group that he led jointly with trumpeter Clifford Brown was developing some balance and unity when Brown was killed in an automobile accident in 1956. Brown and Roach, Inc., EmArcy 36008, is cluttered by some very long drum solos by Roach but he is more temperate on Clifford Brown and Max Roach, EmArcy 36036, Study in Brown, EmArcy 36037, Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street, EmArcy 36070, and The Best of Max Roach and Clifford Brown in Concert, GNP 18. Max Roach Plus Four, EmArcy 36098, and Jazz in 94 Time, EmArcy 36108, are of interest because of the presence of tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins while Max, Argo 623, includes some of Kenny Dor- ham's more fully realized trumpet work. Roach produces a great deal of sound and fury but not much communication on On the Chicago Scene, EmArcy 36132, and Deeds Not Words, Riverside 12-280. He contributes two selections, one a badly recorded drum solo, to Modern Jazz Hall of Fame, Design 29, two more to The Jazz Giants, Vol. 8, EmArcy 36071, and one to Bargain Day, EmArcy 36087. 248 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Howard Roberts. A guitarist of wide range, Roberts runs a gamut on Mr. Roberts Plays Guitar, Verve 8192, from a long-haired Serenata Burlesca to a driving Indiana, using varied, unbilled groups, one of which includes a tenor saxophonist who cuts Roberts every time he gets the spotlight. Betty Roch6. Once a Duke Ellington vocalist, Miss Roch sings three songs in a blues tinged pop vein on Dinah Washington Sings the Blues, Grand Award 33-318, but she covers Take the "A" Train, Bethlehem 64, with a frightful display of tasteless scoops, twists and oobie-doobie scat. Red Rodney. In the middle Forties young Red Rodney was one of the bright and hopeful trum- peters of bop. The bite and assurance he shows on two 1947 recordings included in Advance Guard of the Forties, EmArcy 36016, compare favorably with a later, brilliant and equally young trumpet man from Rodney's home town, Philadelphia Lee Morgan. Personal problems kept Rodney out of jazz through much of the Fifties but when he re- turned, first on Modern Music -from Chicago, Fan- tasy 3208, and later on Red Rodney: 1957, Signal 1206, he was a vastly matured trumpet player, a richer, warmer performer who was digging in and talking with a full, authoritative voice instead of frisking through surface figures. On each of these last two disks he receives excellent support from Ira Sullivan on both trumpet and tenor saxophone, and on the Fantasy disk Norman Simmons' piano is a fascinating reflection of the Eddie Costa-John Williams school. Shorty Rogers. When Shorty Rogers discovered California in the early Fifties, it was the jazz equivalent of the discovery of Sutter's Mills. In the Forties Rogers had been recognized as a crisp, de- The Records 249 pendable trumpet man with Woody Herman and Stan Kenton and an arranger with a better than average ability to produce orchestrations that al- most forced a band to swing. Settled in California in 1951, he continued to show these traits, was re- garded as a founding father of the West Coast school of jazz, but soon spread his talents so thin that much of his work was reduced to a set of dreary cliches. Aside from his work with Herman and Kenton, some of his best playing can be found in his small group recordings of the earlier Fifties. His side of Modern Sounds, Capitol T 691 (shared with Gerry Mulligan), is made up of loose, swinging pieces, pace setters for the West Coast style which, in gen- eral, rarely caught the Basic-based feeling of Rogers' best work. On Jazz Composers Workshop, Savoy 12045, Rogers contributes a rolling piece with a tenor saxophone solo by Jimmy Giuffire which is so strong and outgoing as to be almost unbelievable to those who know Giuffre's later with- drawn playing. Collaboration: West, Prestige 7028, is an extremely exciting and rewarding meeting between Teddy Charles and Rogers in which Rogers plays with light, skittering skill and Giuffre again, in one number, plays a baritone solo that is a rarity of hot, stomping expression. Teamed with a remarkably gutty Bud Shank on one side of Bud Shank-Shorty Rogers-Bill Perkins, World Pacific 1205, Rogers' playing is crisp and lean. His talents as a writer are brought into excellent play on four big band selections on The Big Shorty Rogers Express, Victor LPM 1350 Blues Express, Pink Squirrel^ Pay the Piper and Home with Sweets recorded in 1957 to fill out an earlier big band ten-inch LP to twelve-inch proportions. On these selections he harks back to the swirling, gutty drive of Woody Herman's first Herd. The solos that burst or sneak out of the ensembles are strong and 250 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ assertive, particularly when they are by Rogers or an unbilled alto saxophonist. At roughly this time Rogers was leading a regularly working group called his Giants which shows the sharply-honed, shaken-down familiarity that comes from steady work as a group on Wherever the Five Winds Blow, Victor LPM 1326, despite the fact that the five selections on the disk are overlong. The rest of Rogers' recordings are relatively pale. On Way Up There, Atlantic 1270, he works with a variety of small groups which play with a loose ease that is pleasantly propulsive in a Basie-like fashion but one is left with the feeling that the listening foot has been induced to tap in a vacuum. Portrait of Shorty, Victor LPM 1561, is a big band disk with a faceless quality, played by a seemingly listless group of men, while on Martians Come Back, Atlantic 1232, Rogers is consistently over- shadowed by such sidemen as Harry Edison, Lou Levy and Jimmy Giuffire. The Swinging Mr. Rogers, Atlantic 1212, is a disillusioning display of the heartless, gutless tripe that Rogers seems able to turn out by the yard while Afro-Cuban Influ- ence, Victor LPM 1763, is a long, phony bit of Africana with blaring brass, congas and bongos rampant and the Hollywood studio natives wailing their strange African cries. In a special category of utter triviality are Shorty Rogers Plays Richard Rodgers, Victor LPM 1428 (obviously something with a lot of thought behind it), a lifeless "Gigi" in Jazz, Victor LPM 1696, and an incredibly tasteless conjunction with Eartha Kitt (in which Rogers is credited as leading a Dixieland band which is actually the standard West Coast Matty Matlock group), St. Louis Blues, Victor LPM 1661. Rogers plays a single selection on The Playboy Jazz Allstars, Playboy 1857, and another with Bud Shank on Jazz West Coast, World Pacific JWC 500. The Records 251 Gene Roland. Roland was one of Stan Ken ton's busier arrangers in the middle Forties but the writ- ing he has provided for the octet and sextet he leads on one side of Jazzuille, Vol. 4, Dawn 1122, has more of the lightness and rhythmic brightness of Count Basic's band. Roland plays trumpet, pour- ing out several crisp, strong-voiced solos. Joe Roland. Roland's approach to the vibraphone is fluent but not forceful, somewhat like the glib, surface piano work found in many West Coast groups in the middle Fifties. He is heard with three different groups on Joltin' Joe Roland, Savoy 12039, in one of which he is overshadowed by pian- ist Freddie Redd and bassist Oscar Pettiford while a second group is interesting as a curiosity in that it is primarily a string group trying to play bop. Redd is once more Roland's pianist on Joe Roland, Bethlehem 17, but he is less dominant in these gentle, unpretentious pieces. Roland plays one se- lection on Know Your Jazz, Vol. 1, ABC-Paramount 115. Sonny Rollins. It is not often that a jazz musician goes through quite as public a development as Rol- lins has during the 1950s. It is one thing (and quite usual) to see a musician gradually polish and de- velop his particular metier over the years but it is something else again to watch a musician start out on this path, then switch his style violently and later shift once more to something that is an out- growth of both his earlier styles but far better than either, and produce, in the bargain, an approach that is completely personal. Originally an alto saxophonist, Rollins switched to tenor when he was 19 (1948). For the next few years he appeared to be practically the only young tenor man who owed primary allegiance to the rela- tively heavy-toned attack of Coleman Hawkins 252 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ rather than the prevailing light Lester Young in- fluence. The warm, sculptured lines of his early work can be heard in some 1951 recordings on Sonny Rollins, Prestige 7129. The same disk also includes several 1953 performances on which he still has a melodious approach to a ballad but is beginning to acquire a fiery aggressiveness at up- tempos, an aggressiveness that is further developed in the 1954 recordings which make up Movin* Out, Prestige 7058. In 1955 Rollins went into retreat in Chicago, ap- parently to mull over the direction of his playing. He emerged from this with some vestiges of his richness of tone still present but in general using a harsh, violent style which associated him with the then emerging hard bop school. His return to pub- lic activity was with the Max Roach-Clifford Brown group and it is with them that he plays on Sonny Rollins Plus Four, Prestige 7038, with a warmth that scarcely suggests the harshness that was still to come. With a later version of the Roach Quintet, after the deaths of Clifford Brown and Richie Powell, Sonny Rollins Plays for Bird, Prestige 7095, there are still suggestions of the enlivening, melodic Rollins but his tone is thinning out, his lines be- coming more jagged. In a series of recordings on which he is supported only by a rhythm section, Rollins' increasingly eccentric jabs and digs and his banal treatment of ballads becomes more and more depressing al- though on one such disk, Way Out West, Con- temporary 3530, with only Ray Brown, bass, and Shelly Manne, drums, he shows off the strongly de- veloped sense of structure which was to mark his later work. Compared to his disjointed statements on A Night at the Village Vanguard, Blue Note 1581, and the utter emptiness of Tour de Farce, Prestige 7126, it is some form of mild praise to say that his unrelieved harshness is simply tiresome on The Records 253 Tenor Madness, Prestige 7047, Sonny Rollins Quar- tet, Prestige 7020, Saxophone Colossus, Prestige 7079, and The Sound of Sonny, Riverside 12-241. The addition of a trumpet (Donald Byrd) on Sonny Rollins, Blue Note 1542, and a trombone (J. J. Johnson) on Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2, Blue Note 1558, provides some relief from Rollins' stridency but an encounter with Dizzy Gillespie on one side of Dizzy Gillespie Duets with Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt, Verve 8260, is a wearing experience. Through all of these disks Rollins is an erratic performer, showing flashes here and there of a sense of direction and style which he almost in- variably quickly abandons in favor of a flat ugli- ness. The conjunction of this aspect of Rollins and of his more considered, mature playing can be heard on Freedom Suite, Riverside 12-258. The title piece is, on its face, a forbidding prospect a nineteen-minute piece played by Rollins, Oscar Pettiford, and Max Roach. In its early stages it is saved only by the virtuoso talents of Pettiford and Roach who play with particular skill and inven- tiveness while Rollins plunges and dodges through some harsh, jagged lines. But as the basic theme continues to reappear it acquires more and more strength and as the theme becomes stronger Rollins gets better. He rolls through the latter half in fas- cinating fashion. Here he is playing in a strong, outgoing manner, discarding eccentricities for a direct, well constructed performance. Yet on the other side Rollins reverts to his least attractive side, stripping four ballads of much of their natural grace to replace it with grinding, spastic move- ments. What would seem to be the fully developed Rol- lins style is heard on Sonny Rollins and the Big Brass, Metrojazz 1002. One side, devoted to Rollins with a big band which has no reed section, illus- trates the difficulty of writing big band arrange- 254 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ ments around as headstrong and individual a solo- ist as Rollins since, almost inevitably, once he gets started everyone clears out of the way and he might as well be playing with his bassist and drummer. There is some surging, strong-lined Rollins in these big band pieces but his best work is in the trio selections on the other side. In these numbers a long-absent warmth returns to his tone. Added to his strong attack and his quick wittedness, this may prove to be the rounding out of the tenor saxo- phonist of the Fifties. Rollins plays one selection in Blues for Tomor- row, Riverside 12-243. Frank Rosolino. A veteran of Stan Kenton's trom- bone section, Rosolino often spices the fashionable staccato exercises common to modern trombonists with a frisky ruggedness from earlier jazz. His four selections on Swing . , . Not Spring, Savoy 12062, capture this quality and provide some views of Detroit pianist Barry Harris 7 driving, two-handed work. But Rosolino's playing on Frank Rosolino, Capitol T 6507, boils down to jigging blandness, a failing that crops up again on Frankly Speaking, Capitol T 6509, except for his solo on Moonlight in Vermont which gives some range to the potential of his rough-toned slipperiness. / Play Trombone, Bethlehem 26, backs Rosolino with only a rhythm section on six selections, a long drag for one horn playing mostly in muted and subdued tones. Annie Ross. Now a member of the successful Hen- dricks-Lambert-Ross trio which specializes in put- ting lyrics to familiar instrumental jazz solos, Miss Ross first came to attention doing this very thing to Wardell Gray's Twisted. It is included among the four selections she sings on King Pleasure Sings, Prestige 7128, and in retrospect it is a rather feeble effort. She shows herself a good scat singer on this The Records 255 disk but she has a dreadful time with standard pop ballads both here and in four selections in Swingin' and Singing Regent 603 L Charlie Rouse. Rouse, co-leader with Julius Wat- kins of The Jazz Modes, takes off on a tenor saxo- phone solo on his own in Know Your Jazz, Vol. 1, ABC-Paramount 115, playing with a strong, asser- tive tone and a pecking attack. Jimmie Rowles. Rowles shows the delightfully rhythmic warmth that is typical of much of his piano work in one selection on Pianists Galore!, World Pacific JWC 506, but a second entry on this disk is a somnolent ballad which he prods with mere suggestions of the greater skills that are at his command. Ernie Royal, Although Royal's reputation has been made as a high-note specialist with the Hampton, Basie, Barnet and Kenton bands, he shows a much more interesting and relaxed side of his talent on Accent on Trumpet, Urania 1203. With either open horn or mutes, his playing is polished and imagina- tive and he has a special affinity for prettily melodic passages. Pete Rugolo. After serving with great success as Stan Kenton's alter ego in the late Forties, Rugolo has been writing and arranging in a controlled and pointed extension of the work he did for Ken- ton, utilizing the rich voicing of his Kenton period but without the blatancy of the finished Kenton product. A short-lived band that Rugolo formed in the middle Fifties plays in this manner, alternating spurts of swinging with moments of lead-bottomed lumbering on New Sounds, Harmony 7003. This heaviness is also present in the work of a studio band he leads on Music for Hi-Fi Bugs, EmArcy 256 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ 36082, although it turns out some worthy big band jazz. The spottiness of the jazz content of this disk and most of the others that Rugolo has conducted is not a matter of his inability to give his bands serviceable jazz arrangements but is due largely to his peripheral interest in jazz. He is, as he points out in some of his liner notes, seeking "interesting sounds" or "colorful music." He achieves both goals, throwing in a few splashes of jazz en route, on Out on a Limb, EmArcy 36115, Reeds in Hi-Fi, Mercury 20260, Brass in Hi-Fi, Mercury 20261, and Percussion at Work, EmArcy 36122. He contributes two pieces to Under One Roof, EmArcy 36088, and one to $64,000 Jazz, Columbia CL 777. Marty Rubenstein. Some of the themes devised by Chicago pianist Marty Rubenstein in the jazz score for The Song of Songs, Audio Fidelity 1888, are attractive and they are developed in interesting fashion by his group. Unfortunately their work is simply background for a frantically hot-breathed and hammy reading of the great poem. Howard Rtunsey. In 1949 onetime Kenton bassist Howard Rumsey took a jazz group into The Light- house at Hermosa Beach, Calif., and although the personnel of his Lighthouse All-Stars has gone through a slow but steady change over the years, Rumsey has been there ever since. Recordings by his groups, starting in 1952, reflect changing tastes in jazz on the West Coast. The 1952 All-Stars, heard on Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars, Vol. 3, Contemporary 3508, have great verve (Viva Zapata!), a light but pushing beat and a sense of fun that leads Jimmy Giuffre to do an amusing take-off on a rock 'n' roll tenor in Big Girl. The disk is somewhat of a catchall for there are also some slick, surface works by a 1953 delegation and some drab 1955 representation. Sunday Jazz a la The Records 257 Lighthouse, Contemporary 3501, is from 1953 easygoing and amiable, notable for a touching ballad solo by Shorty Rogers and some warm, clean tenor saxophone work by Giuffre which is a far cry from his later muffled playing. Bud Shank and Bob Cooper were groundbreakers when they played a set of flute and oboe duets with the All-Stars in 1954. They are collected on Oboe/Flute, Con- temporary 3520, along with a few 1956 duets in- volving Buddy Collette and Cooper. What was an interesting novelty in 1954 has since been so over- done that it now sounds tedious and ordinary. In 1955 and 1956 the group developed a business- like matter-of-fact tone. It was polished, competent but glib and unexciting. These two years are re- ported on Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars, Vol. 6, Contemporary 3504, Lighthouse at Laguna, Contemporary 3509, and Music for Lighthouse- keeping) Contemporary 3528. Spotlighting the solo- ists in the 1954 and 1957 groups proves to be a rela- tively futile formula on In the Solo Spotlight, Con- temporary 3517, for aside from Cooper, '54, and Richie Kamuca, '57, the Lighthousers are not strong enough as soloists to carry a disk. For Jazz Rolls Royce, Lighthouse 300, Rumsey has surrounded his All-Stars with a big band in six arrangements by Cooper. This results in an over- dressed, sometimes stuffy atmosphere that Is re- lieved when members of the small group particu- larly Cooper on tenor saxophone, Victor Feldman on piano, and Frank Rosolino, trombone take over. Seemingly the small group might have done better on its own. George Russell. Russell is primarily a composer with a highly personal style and a puckish sense of humor. On The RCA Victor Workshop, Victor LPM 1372, played by his Smalltet (that's what it says), he has a habit of getting so intricately in- 258 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ volved in some carefully cerebrated works that they refuse to swing readily. But there are moments when his tightly knit writing boils up into virile, exciting performances and these moments are good enough to be worth waiting around for. Bill Russo. A refugee from the Kenton trombone section, Russo has become known latterly as a com- poser and teacher. There are strong evidences of his studies with Lennie Tristano in the pieces he contributes to Jazz Composers Workshop, Savoy 12045, but his later The World of Alcina, Atlantic 1241, seems to reflect his own musical personality more accurately. On one side he leads a septet and a quintet through six low-keyed, rhythmic, tightly written pieces, but the title work, taking all of the other side, is a composition for an unchoreographed ballet which, by its very nature, is a sort of Music- Minus-One experience. It appears to have little relationship to jazz. Jorgen Ryg. Ryg is a strong-voiced, aggressive Dan- ish trumpeter whose flowing, logical lines have something of Bobby Hackett's controlled push and tone even though his ideas lean more to the modern school. And since Ryg has an eminently swinging pianist in Jorgen Lausen with his quartet on Jor- gen Ryg Quartet, EmArcy 36099, the group almost always swings brightly. However, it might have had more staying power if there had been another horn to provide a contrasting soft texture to Ryg's hard trumpet. Aaron Sachs. Sachs has a sort of anonymous post- Goodman clarinet style light, pleasant but not memorable and his work on tenor saxophone is much the same. The sextet he leads on one side of We Brought Our Axes, Bethlehem 7 (shared with Hank D'Amico) is neat and compact, brightened by The Records 259 occasional splashes of Urbie Green's warm trom- bone, but another sextet on one side of Jazzville, Vol. 3, Dawn 114 (shared with Charlie Smith), never gets up steam. Eddie Safranski. After making a name as Stan Ken- ton's bassist in the late Forties, Safranski retired from the one-nighter scramble to the comfort of New York studio work. Since then on the rare oc- casions when he appears on records as a leader, he is more inclined to stay in place in the rhythm sec- tion than to give himself solo space. Thus, on three selections in Concert Jazz, Brinswick 54027, the focal point is the strong, stark guitar work of Mun- dell Lowe while the Safranski group's contributions to Loaded, Savoy 12074, are taken up largely by Vido Musso's strident, Swing Era tenor saxophone. A. K. Salim. An arranger who works in the mode of the latter-day Basic band, Salim does a reasonable job of providing a propelling setting for a pair of flutes on Flute Suite, Savoy 12102, but he serves up only the vaguest sketches for a long blowing session, Pretty for the People, Savoy 12118, marked by ragged ensembles and dull solos except for those by pianist Wynton Kelly and, occasionally, trombonist Buster Cooper. He has one selection in Jazz Is Bust- ing Out All Over, Savoy 12123. Sal Salvador. When he is leaning into a fast tempo, Salvador plays a shrill, nagging type of guitar that gives his work a thin, surface quality. This is the dominant note of Frivolous Sal, Bethlehem 59, de- spite some dark and gutty piano forays by Eddie Costa. Costa again is the saving grace of Kenton Presents Jazz, Capitol T 6505, but on Shades of Sal Salvador, Bethlehem 39, he acquires several help- mates Phil Woods, Joe Morello, Eddie Bert, John Williams and Costa who enable him to relax into 260 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ a light and airy form which makes for more con- sistently stimulating listening. On Colors in Sound, Decca 9210, he leads a big band which uses his guitar and Ray Starling's mellophone as its main voices. However, George Roumanis' arrangements hold to a similarity of texture and neither Salvador not Starling are soloists of sufficient distinction to penetrate the haze that settles over the perform- ances. Dennis and Adolph Sandole. The arrangements written by the Sandole brothers for Modern Music from Philadelphia, Fantasy 3209, are serviceable settings with touches of brooding blues for the solo- ists in a seven-piece group. These include John La- Porta, sailing smoothly on alto saxophone, and some crisp, to-the-point trumpet by Art Fanner. Leon Sash. Sash is one of several musicians who are pulling the accordion well into the jazz orbit (Joe Mooney, Pete Jolly and Mat Mathews are others). He leans toward a strongly swinging, uncompli- cated attack, using rich tonality and flowing phras- ing. But equally important to the effectiveness of the Sash Quartet on This Is the Jazz Accordion, Storyville 917, and its portion of Toshiko and Leon Sash at Newport, Verve 8236, is Ted Robinson who plays tenor saxophone, clarinet and flute. The teaming of tenor saxophone and accordion in both unison and contrapuntal passages gives the group a unique and appealing sound. When Robinson takes off on his own he shows himself to be a soloist whose ideas parallel the light, mellow flow of Sash's. Both men solo skillfully but it is their teamwork that makes the quartet of more than passing inter- est. The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra. Eddie Sauter and Bill Finegan had distinguished careers behind them The Records 261 as arrangers for some of the leading swing bands when they joined forces to create their own band in 1952. Sauter first came to attention with the deli- cately provocative writing he did for the Red Norvo-Mildred Bailey band in the late Thirties. In the next decade he was turning out arrangements for Benny Goodman which, by dint of ingenuity and resourcefulness, managed to be both commer- cial and unhackneyed, and right after the war he provided much of the material for the excellent but too far-out Ray McKinley band. Finegan had been a top arranger first for Glenn Miller and later for Tommy Dorsey. When Sauter and Finegan went into business for themselves they produced arrangements that were just a shade different yet still readily assimilable. They wrote with the then newly developing high fidelity fad in mind, making imaginative use of ex- tremes of sound range with tuba, glockenspiel, toy trumpet, xylophone, tambourine, sleigh bells, tri- angles and even tuned water glasses. Their earliest works, gathered in New Directions in Music, Victor LPM 1227, are lively, provocative and full of rhythm, a combination which suggested that inter- est might be aroused once more in the moribund big band field. The band, which was started as a studio creation, soon went out on the road riding a crest of enthusiastic interest, As it turned out, that crest of interest was to be the band's high point. The records that followed after the first one are, except for occasional spots, of steadily decreasing interest. On The Sound of the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, Victor LPM 1009, the gamut of peeps and grunts, of penny whistle, tuba, triangle, recorder and wounded French horn which were previously the means to an apt interpretation of a piece of music became, to a large extent, the end itself. Vocals appear on several selections (some sung by the excellent Joe Mooney are worthwhile 262 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ additions) and there is a general feeling that an attempt is being made to make S-F more commer- cially acceptable. The band got back on the track with its next disk, Inside Sauter-Finegan, Victor LJM 1003, but this disk unfortunately is no longer in the active cat- alogue. The rest of the road runs downhill. Concert Jazz, Victor LPM 1051, has some good moments in Joe Venuto's marimba work but much of this dibk bogs down in pretention and ponderousness. Ad- venture in Time, Victor LPM 1240, "an album of percussion music," is involved with things which can be whacked, tongued wind instruments and a stricken voice reading a poem. This was the bottom. Sauter took off for Ger- many with a three-year radio contract there leaving the band, which existed only on weekends when it existed at all, in Finegan's hands. Two disks come from this period: Under Analysis, Victor LPM 1341, a collection of fine old tunes, most of them associated with big bands of the past, rewritten in a fashion that blows many of them up into pompous nonsense; and Memories of Goodman and Miller, Victor LPM 1634, a much more valid effort, based on arrangements Sauter and Finegan had done for Goodman and Miller. The Goodman pieces, which include Benny Rides Again, Superman and Clari- net a la King (with Walt Levinsky doing the Good- man parts cleanly) are crisp and pulsing. The S-F versions of Miller are often an improvement on the originals but most of the selections lean toward Miller's platitudinous side. The high esteem in which the Sauter-Finegan orchestra was held in 1954 may be judged by the fact that it was selected to perform Rolf Lieber- mann's briefly sensational Concerto for Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra, Victor LM 1888, with Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The sensation was brief because Liebermann's con- The Records 263 certo grosso puts both the symphony orchestra and the jazz orchestra under wraps although it has a few gracious and effective moments. The jazz sections are of only moderate interest as jazz and the non- jazz sections are the merest bow in the direction of symphonic composition. Joe Saye. This Scottish pianist, now in the United States, is colorless, unobtrusive and generally dull on Scotch on the Rocks, EmArcy 36072, and A Wee Bit of Jazz, EmArcy 36112. He plays two selections on The Young Ones of Jazz, EmArcy 36085. Hal Schaefer. Schaefer produces a slow, brooding, angular piano version of St. Louis Blues with flourishes on 14 Blue Roads to St. Louis, Victor LPM 1714. Herman Schoonderwalt. Driven by its leader's jubilant baritone saxophone, the Herman Schoon- derwalt Septet steams lustily through a pair of selections on Jazz Behind the Dikes, Epic 3270. Bobby Scott. Scott is a young (born 1937) pianist and composer who has reached an apparent ma- turity very quickly although he has not received much recognition. His writing shows a feeling for basic, earthy jazz with touches of the Ellington influence although he is quite definitely of the modern school. His solos intensify certain aspects of his writing. They are stark, sometimes dissonant but almost always heavily brooding. He achieves a dark, roaring quality with a striking use of bass figures on Scott Free, ABC-Paramount 102, a disk on which he also plays vibraphone, probing around with a firm line of attack which is rarely waylaid by frills. Bobby Scott and Two Horns, ABC-Paramount 148, is an effective showcase for his writing, using a group built around tenor and 264 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ baritone saxophones which sounds very much like those Gerry Mulligan groups which have included Zoot Sims. A less successful effort in somewhat the same vein is The Compositions of Bobby Scott, Bethlehem 8, on which he leads two groups, one of which reflects his ideas much better than the other. Three readily swinging, sensitive solos by Scott are included in The Jazz Keyboard, Savoy 12043. Shirley Scott. Miss Scott is one of the pleasanter additions to the growing school of Hammond or- ganists who dally with some variant of jazz. She ranges capably from a subdued pop-jazz style to something akin to the desperate frenzy of Jimmy Smith on Great Scott!, Prestige 7143. As one who strikes a middle ground between Smith and the rocking thud of, say, Wild Bill Davis, she may have a wider appeal to jazz listeners than either of them but to my ear the monotonous stridency of the electric organ when it gets beyond the soft, snuffling cushion of moody balladry keeps it from being a satisfactory jazz instrument. Tony Scott. Few musicians of any generation have fought as insistently and persistently for their view of jazz as has Scott. His devotion to Charlie Parker is such that he once reached a bursting point of dis- traught emotion when he failed to get a meeting of jazz writers to agree with him that Parker was the greatest man who had lived during the past hun- dred years (not simply the greatest musician). Scott spent the latter part of the Forties trying to evolve a clarinet style which departed completely from the Goodman concept of the Thirties and which car- ried out the Parkerian ideas without simply copy- ing Parker's phrasing. The result was a feathery, long-lined, boneless style which, until the Fifties, seemed to frustrate him by constantly escaping from his clutches. During the Fifties, however, he The Records 265 mastered it to such a degree that he could range freely from the most idly drifting impressionism to a ferocity and intensity that made some of the "hot" clarinetists of old seem relatively frigid. De- spite this, Scott's recorded performances have been erratic. The most consistent collection of Scott in a warm and swinging vein, playing in a firm, solid tone and with little concession to featheriness or breathiness, is one side of Tony Scott in Hi-Fi, Brunswick 54021, on which he is backed by Dick Katz, who plays some brilliant piano, Milt Hinton, bass, and Philly Joe Jones, drums. The other side, featuring a slightly different Scott group, is adequate but far less exciting. Both Sides of Tony Scott, Victor LPM 1268, is more representative of the inconsistency of Scott's work during the Fifties. There are two long ad lib performances, Counterpoint Pleasant and East Coast, West Side, that are excellent fulfillments of the potential of the jazz clarinet, thanks to the combination of Scott's technique, his sense of basic swinging phrasing and his mature development of his ideas. But when he turns to ballads even his technical skill cannot counteract the deadly tedium of the tempos. On The Touch of Tony Scott, Victor LPM 1353, he is heard with a quartet, a ten-piece group and a big band, and while he injects some of his own particular excitement in the selections by the larger groups, it is only the quartet pieces, on which he is least hindered by pretentious ar- rangements, that are really successful. High point of the disk is a blazing virtuoso performance by Scott, Aeolian Drinking Song. In the late Fifties Scott began playing baritone saxophone in a brash, driving style that was almost poles apart from the delicacy of much of his clarinet work. He uses both instruments in a light- hearted and engaging attack on the Rodgers and Hammerstein score on South Pacific Jazz, ABC- 266 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Paramount 235, and on a comparatively indifferent set, The Modern Art of Jazz, Seeco 425. He plays single selections on clarinet on The Mellow Moods of Jazz, Victor LPM 1365, Know your Jazz, Vol. 1, ABC-Paramount 115, and The Encyclopedia of Jazz on Records, Vol. 4, Decca 8401. Phil Seaman. Seaman's British quintet manages to hone down Dizzy Gillespie's yawp-filled Manteca to a modest swing piece on Third Festival of British Jazz, London LL 1639. Hal Serra. Serra is a pianist with a spare, throbbing style that is occasionally stimulating but the general impact of the group he leads on one side of Jazz- ville, Vol. 4, Dawn 1122 (shared with Gene Roland) is mild. Bud Shank. As much as anyone, Shank has helped to create the type of music that is sometimes identi- fied as West Coast Jazz. He has been based in California since 1947 and served a pair of seasons with both Charlie Barnet and Stan Kenton. Since 1952 he has spent much of his time with Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse group at Hermosa Beach. It was while he was with Rumsey that he began doubling from his regular instrument, alto saxo- phone, to flute and, with Bob Cooper, created some unusual flute and oboe duets. Shank's work on alto has always been facile, characterized by long, loop- ing lines, but as the years have gone by a virility that could once be found in his attack has given way to a sort of chattering glibness, in keeping with the most typical of West Coast jazz sounds. The hard swinging, outgoing Shank can be heard in Bud Shank-Shorty Rogers-Bill Perkins, World Pacific 1205, particularly on those numbers on The Records 267 which he has the competition and support of some crisp, lean trumpeting by Rogers. Bob Brookmeyer's gutty valve trombone also prompts Shank to the guttier side of his instrument on The Saxophone Artistry of Bud Shank, World Pacific 1213. His best flute-and-oboe duets with Bob Cooper will be found on a Howard Rumsey disk (Contemporary 3520). On both Flute *ri Oboe, World Pacific 1226, and The Swings to TV, World Pacific 411, the natural disinclination of their instruments to be used in jazz terms is heightened by the use of string ac- companiment. What has come to be the expected Shank per- formances glibly noodling alto and determinedly peeping flute make up Jazz at Cal Tech, World Pacific 1219, The Bud Shank Quartet, World Pacific 1215, and Bud Shank Quartet, World Pacific 1230. He turns to pure syrup on a set recorded in Italy with a local string section, I'll Take Romance, World Pacific 1251. He is heard in a big band con- text with an orchestra led by Johnny Mandel on Theme Music from "The James Dean Story" World Pacific 2005, a mixture of mood music and bongo- paced swing in which the arrangements and themes are of more interest than the solos. Three selections by Shank are included in Jazz West Coast, World Pacific JWC 500, two in Ballads for Background, World Pacific JWC 503, one each in Jazz West Coast, Vol. 2, World Pacific JWC 501, The Blues, World Pacific JWC 502, Solo Flight, World Pacific JWC 505, and The Playboy Jazz All- stars, Playboy 1957. Four pieces by Shank and Cooper are in Jazz Swings Broadway, World Pacific 404, and there is one Shank-Cooper selection as well as one by Shank in Jazz West Coast, Vol. 3, World Pacific JWC 507, Have Blues, Will Travel, World Pacific JWC 509, and Jazz West Coast, Vol. 4, World Pacific JWC 510. 268 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Ralph Sharon, This British pianist, now in the United States, shows few marked personal char- acteristics in his playing and is not very consistent. He can be unostentatiously swinging leading an excellent American group in his own compositions on Around the World in Jazz, Rama 1001, and Mr. and Mrs. Jazz, Bethlehem 13, or pleasant but anon- ymous in Autumn Leaves and Spring Fever, Lon- don LL 1339, as well as downright dull in Easy Jazz, London LL 1488, and Ralph Sharon Trio, Bethlehem 41. He sets a fine, earthy tone on a blues on 2:38 AM., Argo 635, but the rest of the disk is anemic and undistinguished. He has contrived some effective arrangements to spotlight various drum- mers in groups backing up singer Tony Bennett on The Beat of My Heart, Columbia CL 1079. George Shearing. Shearing has run practically the entire jazz piano gamut from boogie-woogie and a brilliant Hines-like strut while he was still in Eng- land to Erroll Garner and Bud Powel devices in his early days in this country, on through the locked hands block chords and canons of his Quintet's first success to the mature and largely personal pianist who can occasionally be heard today. There is a good, spirited summation of the pre- success Shearing, encumbered by poor recording and surface hiss, on Shearing By Request, London LL 1343, and less consistent but similar collections on Midnight on Cloud 69, Savoy 12093, and Great Bri tains, Savoy 12016. His excellent first quintet with Margie Hyams on vibes and Chuck Wayne, guitar, brightens Touch of Genius, MGM 3265, / Hear Music, MGM 3266, and You're Hearing George Shearing, MGM 3216. A Shearing Caravan, MGM 3175, and Shearing in Hi-Fi, MGM 3293, feature the best group he has had since, one in which Cal Tjader's playing on vibes is almost al- ways brilliantly sensitive. An Evening with Shear- The Records 269 ing, MGM 3122, and When Lights Are Low, MGM 3264, are drab odds and ends but not nearly as drab as the sugar-coated dreariness that he later produced for Capitol on The Shearing Spell, Capi- tol T 648, Velvet Carpet, Capitol T 720, Latin Escapade, Capitol T 737, Black Satin, Capitol T 858, The Shearing Piano, Capitol T 909, Night Mist, Capitol T 943, Burnished Brass, Capitol T 1038, Latin Lace, Capitol T 1082, and Blue Chifion, Capitol T 1124. Practically the only jazz that Shear- ing has recorded in recent years is on In the Night, Capitol T 1003, on which he plays with such pleas- ant strength and spareness that it is all the more disappointing to find him wasting almost all of his recording time on dreary trash. The Shearing Quintet appears in the role of accompanist to Teddi King, Billy Eckstine and the Ray Charles Singers on Cool Caravan, MGM 3393. It plays a single selection on Forty-Eight Stars of American Jazz, MGM 3611, and Popular Jazz Gold Album, Capitol T 1034. Jack Sheldon. A trumpeter in the Chet Baker vein, Sheldon's playing is subdued, muffled and shows little sense of structure in single selections on The Hard Swing, World Pacific JWC 508, The Blues, World Pacific JWC 502, and Jazz West Coast, VoL 2, World Pacific JWC 501. Tommy Shepard. Shepard is a trombonist in the Tommy Dorsey manner but the men with him on Shepard 's Flock, Coral 57110, include such modern- ists as Barry Galbraith, Nick Travis, Hal McKusick and Nat Pierce. The arrangements are quite bland but the soloists make things perk up occasionally. Dick Sherman. Sherman's trumpet is completely overshadowed by Gene Quill's doggedly Parkerish alto saxophone in the quintet they jointly lead 270 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ on one side of Jazzville '56, Vol. 1, Dawn 1101 (shared with The Jazz Modes). The Quintet also has a selection in Critics' Choice, Dawn 1123. Sahib Shihab. Shihab is heard as a rule on baritone saxophone, less frequently on alto, which is un- fortunate for he plays alto with form, a sense of direction and an enlivening lift whereas his bari- tone is monotoned and limited. However, although he plays alto on Four Altos, Prestige 7116, the multiplicity of alto saxophones provides a poor setting for his own. He splits himself in his prevail- ing baritone and alto proportions on Jazz Sahib, Savoy 12124. He has two selections in After Hours Jazz, Epic 3339. Don Shirley. In the liner notations on some of his records Shirley is referred to as a pianist who plays jazz, among other things. This is sheer nonsense. Occasionally he seems to make a stab at jazz but it is clumsy and quite unswinging. Most of his work is overblown pseudo classicism. His records: Tonal Expressions, Cadence 1001; Piano Perspectives, Cadence 1004; Orpheus in the Underworld, Cadence 1009; Don Shirley Duo, Cadence 1015; Solos, Ca- dence 3007; Don Shirley with Two Basses, Cadence 3008. Eddie Shu. Shu has been heard as a master of many reed instruments plus the harmonica during a long association with Gene Krupa. Fortunately he omits the harmonica on Eddie Shu, Rep 202, playing tenor and alto saxophones with a pleasantly light, tip-toeing attack. He heads a good rhythm section which includes the dry, needling piano of Bobby Scott. Ira Shulman. Shulman, a Chicago tenor saxophonist with something of the precise, stepping-stones style The Records 271 of Hal McKusick's alto, plays in a muffled and not particularly distinguished fashion on Chicago Scene, Argo 609. Horace Silver. In the early Fifties, when jazz no longer seemed to know where it came from, much less where it was going, pianist Horace Silver brought the rich earthiness of the blues back to proper attention. His probing, emotional explora- tion of minor themes affected jazz so strongly that a word "funk" came into use to describe it. At faster tempos, Silver also drew from basic roots, building his pieces with a gospel-like fervor. And after a long period when jazz "originals" were al- most invariably technical exercises based on the chord structure of some favored popular tune, Sil- ver wrote originals that were not only actually origi- nal but memorably melodic, presaging a gradual re- turn to melodic creativity among writing jazzmen. Three trio sessions held in 1952 and 1953, on all of which Art Blakey is the drummer, provide an early view of Silver on Horace Silver Trio, Blue Note 1520, showing his lively talent as a composer, his pianistic wit and a lusty meeting of exuberant jazz minds in the collaborations between Silver and Blakey. The Jazz Messengers, a group which Blakey led through numerous personnel changes for several years, was first put together for a Horace Silver re- cording date, Horace Silver and the Jazz Messen- gers, Blue Note 1518. These original Messengers included Kenny Dorham, trumpet, and Hank Mobley, tenor saxophone. Silver contributed two of his best pieces to the session The Preacher and Doodlin' but the group is strident and empty and Silver's piano talents are largely wasted amidst all the pointless blowing. Silver soon broke away from the Messengers and formed his own Quintet. Like the Messengers, it has gone through many changes in personnel with con- 272 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ sequent variations in quality. Silver has almost al- ways managed to imbue his group with a furious drive and to maintain a high level in his own solos. But he likes to develop pieces at great length and he has often had trumpeters and saxophonists who have not been able to improvise for long in an interesting fashion. Six Pieces of Silver, Blue Note 1539, includes his classic Senor Blues, a piece which draws from trumpeter Donald Byrd some flashes of bright, charging strength that are not always ap- parent through the rest of the disk. Byrd is replaced by the infinitely superior Art Farmer on The Styl- ings of Silver, Blue Note 1562, and Further Ex- plorations, Blue Note 1589, but several provocative Silver creations are run into the ground on these disks by overlong, uneventful solos. The best touches come from Silver's piano on a minor blues, Soulville, and an amusingly shrugging version of III Wind. The Silver Quintet, in which Byrd plays, drags through a drab, tired set on Silver's Blue, Epic 3326. Norman Simmons. Simmons plays a rhythmic piano with a strong beat and an emphasis on melody on Norman Simmons Trio, Argo 607. His drummer on the session was Vernell Fournier who has since gone on to greater glory with Ahmad Jamal. Zoot Sims. Sims came up through the big band ranks in the Forties he was with Bobby Sherwood, Bob Astor, Sonny Dunham, Benny Goodman polish- ing his tenor saxophone conception constantly so that when he joined Woody Herman in the late Forties as a member of the reed section which be- came identified as the Four Brothers (Stan Getz, Herb Steward, Serge Chaloff and Sims) he was the most directly swinging man in the group. He has since become one of the most consistent of saxo- phonists (in the mid-Fifties he began to use the The Records 273 alto frequently in addition to tenor) who focuses his attention on long, lean, swinging lines with almost no side comments or excursions. Sims' development from a highly serviceable big band musician to a mature and independent jazz performer can be heard on The Brothers, Prestige 7022, which includes some 1949 pieces on which Sims is joined by Getz, Al Cohn, Allen Eager and Brew Moore (Eager and Moore overshadow the others) as well as several 1952 selections featuring Sims, Cohn and trombonist Kai Winding. During the three year interval Sims' attack had become as- sured and aggressive but without any sense of push- ing or elbowing, a characteristic he has retained ever since. 1952 would seem to have been the crucial year in which Sims reached musical maturity for the 1950 and 1951 works which make up Zoot Sims, Prestige 7026, are pleasant but, for Sims, tame and quite unadventurous. Sims frequently records in tandem with other jazz stars to get needed contrast to his smoothly swinging tone over the length of an LP. One of the most fruitful of these collaborations was with the muscular valve trombonist, Bob Brookmeyer. Sims swaggers his way through Tonight's Jazz Today, Storyville 907, with his typically alert sense of phras- ing while Brookmeyer plays a thoughtful and brood- ing foil and they collaborate happily again on The Modern Art of Jazz, Dawn 1102, but on Whooeeee, Storyville 914, Brookmeyer takes over in no un- certain terms and has a virtuoso's field day while Sims, playing with his expected strength and fluidity on fast numbers, bogs down on ballads. He also sings in a rather disheveled manner on both Story- ville disks. A meeting with one of the old Four Brothers, Al Cohn (who replaced Steward in the original group), on From A to Z y Victor LPM 1282, found neither saxophonist in particularly inspired form but plan- 274 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ 1st Dave McKenna, rollicking along like an un- daunted horse in blinders, doesn't even seem to realize that everybody else is merely grinding out mechanical performances. On Down East, Prestige 7033, Sims is matched with alto saxophonist Phil Woods but it is trumpeter Jon Eardley's crisp, clean, singing playing that keeps the disk moving. Getting away from the company of saxophonists, Sims returns to the gracefully steaming lines which often all but obscure the intensely jumping quality of his playing on Zoot Sims Goes to Jazzuille, Dawn 1115. The other horn on this disk, trumpeter Jerry Lloyd, makes up in enthusiasm for some lapses into uncertain blowing. Nick Travis is a more steady trumpet helpmate for some good Sims solo- ing on Zoot!, Riverside 12-228, but these long per- formances might have been edited down to advan- tage. In the final analysis, Sims has proved to be his own best team-mate the evidence is a pair of multi- taped disks, Zoot Sims, ABC-Paramount 155, and Zoot Sims Plays Four Altos, ABC-Paramount 198. On the first he works his way skillfully through a multi-track jigsaw puzzle on alto, tenor and bari- tone in some pleasantly shaped compositions by George Handy. But it is on the second, again in- volving Handy compositions, that Sims really shows his mettle as he turns himself into a complete sec- tion of altos. After Sims had recorded an original improvisation with a rhythm section, Handy wrote parts for the three additional altos around this basic line. Sims preserves a remarkable spontaneity in dubbing in the three parts so that the ensembles swing with a gorgeous lift and manages to vary his solo style just enough in the course of successive appearances in one selection so that it does not sound like one man taking all the solos. Despite the trickery involved, it is an unusually satisfying collection of polished, pulsing jazz, much more so The Records 275 than a disk on which there are four different saxo- phonists (Sims, Cohn, John Coltrane, Hank Mobley) Tenor Conclave, Prestige 7074 a long blowing session which buries all four saxophones in mo- notony. Its sole merit is Ira Gitler's excellent essay on modern tenor saxophonists on the liner. Sims, with only a rhythm section, is smooth and suave on Zoot, Argo 608. He contributes two pieces to Tenors, Anyone?, Dawn 1126, and single selections to Jazz West Coast, World Pacific JWC 500, Jazz for Lovers, Riverside 12-244, Jazz for Hi-Fi Lovers, Dawn 1124, and Critics' Choice, Dawn 1123. The Six. The key to The Six is its leader, Bob Wilber, teen-age prodigy with the Scarsdale High School band in the middle Forties who became Sidney Bechet's protg and carbon copy on clarinet and later, when traditional jazz palled, studied with Lennie Tristano. Having sampled both ex- tremes of jazz, Wilber, in the Fifties, settled some- where in between with a form of swing that was cognizant of jazz developments since the Thirties. Thus The Six on The View from Jazzbo's Head, Rep 210, swings, explores, follows nobody's beaten path and produces a mixture of provocative jazz and unfulfilled ideas. Alex Smith. Placidity is the vein of Alex Smith's Quintet on one side of Jazzuille, Vol. 2, Dawn 1107 (shared with Frank Rehak). Smith is a pianist who is both placid and assured; his quintet is also placid but its placidity leads to uncertain ensembles and rough solos. Smith plays one selection on Jazz, for Hi-Fi Lovers, Dawn 1124. Charlie Smith. When a drummer forms a trio filled out by Hank Jones, piano, and Oscar Pettiford, bass, the least it can be is good. That's what Charlie Smith's trio is on one side of Jazzville, Vol. 3, Dawn 276 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ 1114 (shared with Aaron Sachs). The trio has one number on Critics' Choice, Dawn 1123. Derek Smith. Sponsored by John Lewis in a collec- tion of piano solos. Jazz Piano International, At- lantic 1287, Smith plays the blues with strength, firmness and a sense of direction. But the longer he plays the more he indicates that he has listened closely to John Lewis. He is somewhat more inde- pendent, in a less interesting vein, in two selections on Jazz Britannia, MGM S472. Jimmy Smith. Smith is credited, if that is the proper term, with being the first organist to translate the Parker idiom to that instrument. He has done this through an ability to maintain a jabbing, multi- noted style at a very fast pace. On slower selections he attempts to convey a jazz beat by breaking up what might normally be sustained notes to produce an insistent, prodding beat or by going completely "mighty Wurlitzer" on ballads. Almost all of his performances are too long, too repetitious and too dull. His playing has been compared to Morse code. One LP side of his work can produce the same result as a jumping sinus. He normally works as part of a trio (guitar and drums) and that is the group that is heard on A New Star, Vol. 1, Vol. 2, and Vol. 3, Blue Note 1512, 1514 and 1525; Jimmy Smith at the Club Baby Grand, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Blue Note 1528 and 1529, and Groovin* at Small's Paradise, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Blue Note 1585 and 1586, the latter four recorded in night clubs; and Jimmy Smith Plays Pretty Just for You, Blue Note 1563. On A Date with Jimmy Smith, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Blue Note 1547 and 1548, and The Incredible Jimmy Smith, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Blue Note 1551 and 1552, he is joined by several visitors of whom only alto saxophonist Lou Donald- The Records 277 son and guitarist Kenny Burrell manage to play with interest despite Smith's sputtering accompani- ment. Johnny Smith. Smith is given to finicky guitar pickings at pallid ballads which become awfully tiresome in unrelieved doses. He is, however, an exceptionally good, light-fingered and swinging guitarist when he wants to be and for this reason The Johnny Smith Quartet, Roost 2203, is easily the best of his collections. It is a cross section which includes a few tired ballads along with several brightly swinging pieces plus evidence that he can explore a ballad in a lively and imaginative manner and an interesting reworking of John Lewis' com- position, Django. Smith's inclination to be bland is tempered on Moonlight in Vermont, Roost 2211, by the presence of one of three enlivening tenor saxophonists on all the pieces Stan Getz, Zoot Sims or Paul Quinichette. Smith is simply, and somewhat tiresomely, bland on Johnny Smith Plays Jimmy Van Heusen, Roost 2201, but he manages to stir up a little tedium- breaking variety on Moods, Roost 2215, Johnny Smith Foursome, Roost 2223, and Johnny Smith Foursome, Vol. 2, Roost 2228. This foursome, made up of Smith's guitar plus piano, bass and drums, is varied on Johnny Smith and His New Quartet, Roost 2216, which introduces Johnny Rae, vibra- phonist, in place of the piano and produces a sug- gestion of the Modern Jazz Quartet in some pieces. This same quartet backs up a strident singer on Ruth Price, Roost 2217, while the quartet-with- piano supports a moody singer on Jeri Southern Meets Johnny Smith, Roulette 52016. Smith con- tributes one selection to both Roost Fifth Anni- versary Album, Roost 1201, and Operation Jazz, Roost OJ1. 278 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Louis Smith. Smith is a trumpeter whose influences are primarily modern with strong evidence of a deep basic jazz foundation. On his debut disk, Here Comes Louis Smith, Blue Note 1584, he weaves a melodic and fresh development of Star Dust, works out thoughtfully accented lines at fast tempos and digs warmly into the blues. But the follow-up, Smithville, Blue Note 1594, buries his talents in long, tiresome solos. Frank Socolow. A capable and swinging tenor saxo- phonist who has buoyed up many big band reed sections (Boyd Raeburn, Chubby Jackson, Buddy Rich, Artie Shaw), Socolow and his sextet flow easily through ten low-keyed selections on Sounds by Socolow, Bethlehem 70, with a grace and lilt that are unpretentious and quite winning. Larry Sonn. An almost completely self-effacing big band leader, Sonn has turned out several pleasant but unremarkable dance sets (Sound of Sonn, Coral 57057; It's Sonn Again, Coral 57104; and Smooth One, Coral 57123) plus one which has some jazz interest, Jazz Band Having a Ball, Dot 9005, be- cause the arrangements are by Manny Albam, Bob Brookmeyer and Al Cohn and the basic New York studio band which Sonn fronts is buoyed by the presence of Tony Scott and Georgie Auld as well as Brookmeyer and Cohn. Earle Spencer. When Sten Kenton was in his Artistry in Rhythm phase, Earle Spencer was run- ning a roadshow version of the same thing. The evidence, not bad of its sort, is on Concert in Jazz, Tops 1532, dimmed by relatively inadequate record- ing. Hal Stein. Stein is an alto saxophonist out of Parker but with more warmth, greater lyricism and The Records 279 a less frantic attitude than most of the other descendants. On Four Altos, Prestige 7116, he is on a blowing session in the company of three more celebrated Parkerites (Phil Woods, Gene Quill, Sahib Shihab) and is the only one of the four who does not pall. Tom Stewart. Stewart plays the tenor horn, an instrument otherwise unheralded in jazz, with gruff agility and in an easy swinging style on Tom Stewart Sextette, Quintette, ABC-Paramount 117. The tunes are mostly worthy veterans of jazz at- tacks Rosetta, Out of Nowhere, Fidgety Feet, etc. and, along with Steve Lacy's soprano saxophone, Stewart has the dependable support of Dave Mc- Kenna on piano. Sonny Stitt. Of the multitude of alto saxophonists who have built their playing firmly on that of Charlie Parker, Stitt and Julian Adderley are easily the most interesting because they have added some- thing positive of their own to the, by now, clich6 Parker runs. It has been an extended battle for Stitt to get away from Parker for several years he switched to tenor to try to break the apparent chains and there are still times when even his energy and vitality can produce nothing more than warmed over Parker. In Stitt's favor are a heat and depth that most other modern altos lack; but this is sometimes overbalanced by an inordinate fond- ness for quoting at random and an unvarying texture of sound which becomes monotonous. The roaring strength that is at the heart of Stitt's playing can be heard ^ven in his earliest recordings on tenor Sonny Stitt, Prestige 7024, made up of 1949 and 1950 sessions in which he teams brilliantly with Bud Powell and John Lewis. Stitt's Bits, Prestige 7133, is also of 1950 vintage but it consists largely of plodding, uninspired ballads while Sonny Stitt 280 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Kaleidoscope, Prestige 7077, is mixed in several ways four different sessions are represented (from 1950, 1951 and 1952); Stitt plays alto, tenor and baritone; and he ranges from his exuberant best to heavy dreariness. Since then Stitt has been recorded, usually on alto, as an outgoing, uncomplicated, hard-driving swinger with an occasional side excursion into the blues. One of his most brilliant sets is New York Jazz, Verve 8219, which permits him to show off more varied aspects of his playing than are nor- mally caught on a single disk. The storming, slash- ing, uptempo Stitt is present on Norman's Blues and then, on / Know That You Know, he takes on some of the light, floating quality that Jimmie Noone brought to the same tune on clarinet; on a slow version of // / Had You he displays the deep-rooted cry that is the hallmark of the valid jazzman; on Alone Together he rides as lightly as a dandelion puff in Spring; and on Twelfth Street Rag he unpretentiously turns a trick that has baffled several modernists how to reassess a tradi- tional jazz tune so that it is really revitalized. On Sonny Stitt, Roost 2204, and Sonny Stitt, Argo 629, he works a more modest range very fast and melodically slow with skill but on Only the Blues, Verve 8250, despite the assistance of Roy Eldridge and Oscar Peterson, Stitt becomes trapped in the steady sameness of his sound. This problem also plagues him on Sonny Stitt Plays, Roost 2208, but he achieves an airiness that provides some relief on 37 Minutes and 48 Seconds, Roost 2219, and Sonny Stitt with the New Yorkers, Roost 2226. Stitt's amazing fleetness is highlighted on For Musicians Only, Verve 8198, a blowing session with Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz but neither Stitt nor Gilles- pie get off the ground on Dizzy Gillespie Duets, Verve 8260. Battle of Birdland, Roost 1203, which pits Stitt against tenor saxophonist Eddie Davis, is The Records 281 not as disorderly as the title would suggest but it is not very compelling, either. A really fierce blow- ing session at Newport in 1957, highlighted by rough, tough, crackling performances by Stitt and Eldridge, is caught on Peterson, Eldridge, Jo Jones and Stitt at Newport, Verve 8239. Stitt is repre- sented by a single selection on Roost Fifth Anni- versary Album, Roost 1201. Les Strand. There is a light, swinging sense in Strand's approach to the organ none of the mighty Wurlitzering that Jimmy Smith falls into nor the heavy, elementary thud of a Wild Bill Davis. Strand's playing is, rather, an updated version of the graceful, lilting organ work of Fats Waller and Count Basic, His Basie relationship is reflected in his apt use of suggestive shorthand phrases. He can and does evolve well-constructed rapid-fire runs but these are merely decorative frills for he is not primarily a many-noted player. His excellent rhyth- mic sense is constantly evident, particularly on slow ballads which he plays with a lithe, controlled power that makes them flow smoothly but never stickily. Les Strand at the Baldwin Organ, Fantasy 3231, is built around hardy show tunes and is an able demonstration of his ability to maintain his balance on the tightrope between cocktailism and jazz even while listing heavily toward the jazz side. Les Strand Plays Jazz Classics, Fantasy 3242, is more satisfying in strict jazz terms since it is jazz without qualifica- tions. The guitar and drums which accompany Strand are sometimes more of a hindrance than a help but he himself is a consistent and subtle de- light. Don Stratton. A bow in the direction of un- schismitized jazz is made by Stratton, a trumpet player, on Modern Jazz with Dixieland Roots, ABC- 282 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ Paramount 118. The roots appear to be largely in a few of the titles Royal Garden Blues, Black Bottom, Charleston for the pieces are played at a bright bounce by musicians who are quite modern in attack and who, except for pianist Dave Mc- Kenna, produce nothing especially memorable. Idrees Sulieman. A trumpeter who has spells of glowing lyricism balanced by times when all is flat emptiness, Sulieman has sporadic moments of quality in the long stretches of Interplay for Two Trumpets and Two Tenors, Prestige 7112, and Three Trumpets, Prestige 7092. Ira Sullivan. Sullivan is primarily a tenor saxo- phonist, secondarily a trumpeter, who has shown himself a crisp and capable performer on both instruments. On Billy Taylor Introduces Ira Sulli- van, ABC-Paramount 162, however, his work is relatively misty and unformed. Phil Sunkel. Sunkel's strong, outgoing open trumpet helps to swing the heavy-textured arrangements on Phil Sunkel's Jazz Band, ABC-Paramount 136, but his solos lack the shape and grace of those of one of his sidemen, alto saxophonist Dick Meldonian. It was apparently deemed necessary to enlist some big name support for Sunkel's Jazz Concerto Grosso, ABC-Paramount 225, a long work in which Sunkel shifts to cornet and Gerry Mulligan and Bob Brookmeyer join in on baritone saxophone and valve trombone. The work has a pleasant basic theme but there seems little reason for carrying it on for fifteen minutes. Sunkel's light, sensitive play- ing completely overshadows his two guests in the solo sections. Thomas Talbert. Talbert's arrangements on Bix, Duke, Fats, Atlantic 1250, produce rather incon- The Records 283 gruous results by clothing the compositions of three lithe and sinewy writers (Beiderbecke, Elling- ton, Waller) in unbecoming preciosity. Duane Tatro. Tatro's Jazz for Moderns, Contem- porary 3514, enlists several top West Coast musi- cians (Jimmy Giuffre, Shelly Manne, Bill Holman, Lennie Niehaus and others) in cleanly executed performances of some foggy attempts by arranger- composer Tatro to (quoting the liner notes) "move jazz into new areas by removing some of the harmonic limitations which have kept it ... in the 19th Century." It's a good plug for the 19th Century. Arthur Taylor. Taylor, one of the more ubiquitous drummers on modern jazz recordings, is nominal leader on Taylor's Wallers, Prestige 7117, a blow- ing session that is more cohesive than most of the breed because it gains form from the use of com- positions by Telonious Monk, Ray Bryant and Lee Sears. Trumpeter Donald Byrd sustains his solos more fully than he often does, tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse adds a thoughtful element and Bryant's piano lays down a helpfully strong founda- tion. Billy Taylor. One of the ablest and most widely informed of today's jazz musicians, Taylor's once virile, firmly rooted playing has gradually petered down to a slick surface which only occasionally lets out the fire that is apparently still simmering under- neath. The contrast between the current Taylor and the Taylor of even the middle Fifties can be found on The Billy Taylor Touch, Atlantic 1277, which includes four pale, lifeless 1958 performances and seven earlier pieces which are much warmer and fresher. Two examples of Taylor in the process of growth 284 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ make up one side of Back to Back, Savoy 12008 some 1943 trio performances in which the markings of Teddy Wilson and particularly Art Tatum are all over Taylor's playing, and a 1949 quintet in which Taylor shows a much less derivative style but is overshadowed by the strong Webster-like tenor saxophone of John Hardee. Since then the faceless quality of Taylor's play- ing has increased steadily. There are glimpses of the swinging strength and inventiveness of which he is capable on A Touch of Taylor, Prestige 7001, and Billy Taylor Trio, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Prestige 7015 and 7016. Playing a subordinate role on Billy Taylor Introduces Ira Sullivan, ABC-Paramount 162, he displays a lithe muscularity that cannot be found on many of his own later disks. A switch in drummers, creating The New Billy Taylor Trio, ABC-Paramount 226, seemingly stimulated him to rise above the colorless broth he serves up on Ever- greens, ABC-Paramount 112, Billy Taylor at the London House, ABC-Paramount 134, Taylor Made Piano, Roost 2222, and Cross-Section, Prestige 7071. The addition of Candido's conga drum on The Billy Taylor Trio with Candido, Prestige 7051, serves little purpose but Taylor manages to swing with some airiness on a 1954 concert recording, Billy Taylor Trio at Town Hall, Prestige 7093, at which Candido was also present. Accompanied by an orchestra under Quincy Jones, the Taylor trio gives considerate treatment to the score of My Fair Lady on My Fair Lady Loves Jazz, ABC-Paramount 177, and provides some pleas- ant interludes between Johnny Ray's quavering vocals on 'Til Morning, Columbia CL 1225. Taylor also contributes two selections to Night Out Music for Stay-at-Homes, Coral 57040, and single pieces to Know Jour Jazz, Vol. 1, ABC-Paramount 155, Jazz- time U.S.A., Brunswick 54000, and Roost Fifth Anniversary Album, Roost 1201. The Records 285 Cecil Taylor. Taylor is among the advance guards of the new jazz piano. He has ties to Thelonious Monk and, through Monk, to Duke Ellington's feeling for tonal color. He works his ideas out in a series of intense, impressionistic chords and single- note lines which ride with striking strength over a swinging beat. His execution is stunningly dean even in very demanding passages. His first disk, Jazz Advance, Transition 19, is no longer available but it gives a more comprehensive idea of the capabilities both of Taylor and of his quartet (which then featured Steve Lacy on soprano saxo- phone) than the three pieces the group played at Newport in 1957, reported on Gigi Gryce, Donald Byrd and Cecil Taylor at Newport, Verve 8238. Clark Terry. Of all the men who have joined Duke Ellington's orchestra since the great turnover in the Forties, Terry is the only one who can be con- sidered on a level with the great Ellingtonians of the past. His spare, witty, melodic, pulsing playing on trumpet and fluegelhorn is to some degree a distillation of the style of Rex Stewart but there are also reflections of Buck Clayton here and there. Terry, in his turn, was one of the early influences on Miles Davis. A full dress display of the various aspects of Terry's trumpet work his lusty swing, his relaxed singing tone, the little bleeps of sound with which he often builds his solos, and his exuberant high spirits occurs on Out on a Limb, Argo 620. On In Orbit, Riverside 12-271, the airy, dancing quality of his musical thinking gives the normally solemn sounding fluegelhorn a twinkling dignity. The disk is also notable for the presence of Thelonious Monk who gallops glibly along with Terry, filling out phrases with unexpected generosity and joining freely in the spirit of sly merriment that Terry engenders. With a group of current Ellingtonians 286 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ (Johnny Hodges, Paul Gonsalves, Quentin Jackson, Britt Woodman and others), Terry creates a sort of horn chamber jazz on Duke with a Difference, Riverside 12-246, which not only puts a new color on some familiar Ellington tunes but allows Gon- salves and Hodges to get away from the type of playing with which they are usually pegged in the Ellington band. Terry, one of those rare musicians whose playing almost never descends beyond the palatably adequate, is in more or less that form on Serenade to a Busy Seat, Riverside 12-237, and Clark Terry, EmArcy 36007. He is buried in the turgid blowing expanses of Jam Session, EmArcy 36002. There are single selections by him on Jazz for Lovers, Riverside 12-244, and Riverside Drive, Riverside 12-267. Jean Thielemans. The harmonica may be a shade better than the flute as an instrument for modern jazz (it has a firm and honorable place in the more primitive areas of the blues) but this is cold comfort to anyone contemplating a full LP of jazz har- monica. Thielemans, a Belgian guitarist who has spent much of the Fifties in George Shearing's Quintet, doubles occasionally on harmonica with that group but all of Time Out for Toots, Decca 9204, and most of Man Bites Harmonica!, River- side 120257, is focused on his harmonica work. It is to his credit that both records can be listened to with some pleasure. The Decca disk is light and in the mood music vein while the Riverside is high- lighted by the excellent, cleanly articulated bass playing of Wilbur Ware. Joe Theimer, Theimer, a drummer, led a modern styled Washington, D.C., big band called The Orchestra, sponsored by Willis Conover, the jazz voice of The Voice of America. The band plays cleanly and industriously enough on Willis Cono- The Records 287 v er*s House of Sounds, Brunswick 54003, to be con- fused with any top-ranking modern big jazz band. Hugh Thompson. Enroll Garner hovers over almost everything Thompson plays on / Cover the Water- front, Proscenium 6, a set that is just across the jazz line from the cocktail crowd. Lucky Thompson. Since the middle Forties Thomp- son has been an unusually capable tenor saxo- phonist but he has been recorded much less fre- quently than many other saxophonists who cannot approach his talent. His style, unobtrusive as such but still an individual and personal manner, is almost a summation of the history of the tenor saxophone in jazz. One hears reflections of Coleman Hawkins* rich, intense attack, of Lester Young's lyricism, even of Stan Getz's light, floating drive. He is, in the best sense, a "hot" jazzman who de- velops his ideas with compelling logic. He is given a good showcase on Lucky Thomp- son, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, ABC-Paramount 111 and 171, on both of which he is heard with a trio and a quintet. Accent on Tenor, Urania 1206, offers a great deal of his warm, virile playing but the over- all quality of the set is brought down by an over- long and eventually tiresome piece which takes up most of one side. Backed by Gerard Pochonet's French quartet on Lucky Thompson, Dawn 1113, he is restricted to ballads which are good as long as he is padding softly and sinuously through his well constructed solos. Claude ThornhilL The Thornhill band of the late Forties was the seed-bed for what became known as "cool" jazz. Arranger Gil Evans laced the es- sentially sweet dance book of the Thornhill band with adaptations of Anthropology, Donna Lee, Yardbird Suite, Lover Man and Robbins Nest, all 288 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ of which are included in The Thornhill Sound, Harmony 7088. Some of the swing-based men in the band seem to be straining to try to catch the idiom but Lee Konitz is right at home. Two Sides of Claude Thornhill, Kapp 1058, is by one of Thorn- hill's later groups (Gene Quill is a sideman), a band that seems torn between slick, driving modern jazz and Thornhill's passive dream world. One side is played in his cloud-heavy dance band manner, the other in something resembling modern jazz although even here the ensembles have the heavy, fudgy quality of Thornhill's ballads. Bobby Timmons. Timmons has shown himself to be a strong and effective pianist with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers but all he offers on Pianists Galore!, World Pacific JWC 506, is a single, very brief and almost unnoticeable ballad. Cal Tjader. Tjader, who plays vibraphone most of the time and drums, bongos and piano some of the time, was a member of the early Dave Brubeck groups and helped to give the George Shearing Quintet a new lease on life during the two years (1953-54) that he spent with it. His recording career has been split between a zestfully swinging quartet and an equally swinging variant of Latin- American rhythms. On vibes he has a light touch and a propulsive approach. He is not inclined to be especially adventurous nor, on the other hand, does he become bogged in cliches. His quartet runs the danger of comparison with the Modern Jazz Quartet because of the similarity of instrumentation but the groups are basically quite different. The Tjader quartet is less interested in long, detailed development of a theme, more in- terested in getting directly to a forthright rhythmic projection of a melody. Despite personnel changes, the quality remains relatively consistent on Vib- The Records 289 Rations, Savoy 12054; Cal Tjader Quartet, Fantasy 3227; Cal Tjader, Fantasy 3253; and Jazz at the Blackhawk, Fantasy 3241. Teaming with tenor saxophonist Stan Getz and adding guitarist Eddie Duran, the quartet becomes the Cal Tjader-Stan Getz Sextet, Fantasy 3266, delivering a glorious nine- minute session of gliding, darting, larruping swing on Ginza which makes up for the surprisingly ordinary quality of the rest of the disk. Tjader's lusty south-of-the-border style is heard on Ritmo Caliente, Fantasy 3216; Mas Ritmo Caliente, Fan- tasy 3262; Mambo with Tjader, Fantasy 3202; Cal Tjader Plays Mambo, Fantasy 3221; Cal Tjader's Latin Concert, Fantasy 3275; The Cal Tjader Quin- tet, Fantasy 3232; and Cal Tjader's Latin Kick, Fantasy 3250, the last of which includes a few er- ratic solo appearances by tenor saxophonist Brew Moore. Tjader can also be heard on Cal Tjader Plays Tjazz, Fantasy 3211. Reno Tondelli. Tondelli heads a quintet which uses a smooth clarinet-accordion voicing and falls, in jazz terms, in between the swinging Leon Sash and the background music of Art Van Damme. On Reno Plays Nevada, Stepheny 4005, the clarinet helps to cut the lushness inherent in Tondelli's warm, rich tone and gives the group's work a bright feeling. Cy Touff. Touff is the first jazz musician who has had the audacity to tie his career to the bass trumpet. For several years during the Fifties he was one of the more forceful factors in Woody Herman's band. The easy, ingratiating, swinging style that is characteristic of ToufFs playing is caught by both an octet and a quintet with which he works in Cy Touff, World Pacific 1211. There are occasional routine moments when the larger group is playing en masse but Touff, Richie Kamuca 290 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ and Harry Edison are out front most of the time riding brightly over excellent rhythm support. Virtually the same program has been reissued as Havin' a Ball, World Pacific 410, and an excerpt from it will be found in Jazz West Coast, Vol. 2, World Pacific JWC 501. Touff shows an unexpected affinity for Dixieland on one side of Doorway to Dixie, Argo 606 (shared with Miff Mole), making the bass trumpet take the trombone's customary role in some rather lackadaisical performances. John Towner (John T. Williams). Towner skirts lightly into jazz on parts of his four selections in The Modern Jazz Gallery, Kapp KXL 5001, but he has a leaning to cocktail pastels which takes over completely on The John Towner Touch, Kapp 1055. Lennie Tristano. The swooping, gliding flow of Lennie Tristano's sextet in the late Forties estab- lished a sound which is still being emulated to some degree by his disciples (notably Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh) and which left its mark, even if only briefly, on several jazz writers. The swing- ing relaxation of the Tristano group as it was in 1949 is caught on three selections in Cool and Quiet, Capitol T 371, a much better representation of Tristano's work of that period than his tinnily recorded piano solos (with guitarist Billy Bauer) in the four selections he contributes to The Jazz Key- board, Savoy 12043, or the two slightly more co- herently reproduced solos (again with Bauer) on Advance Guard of the Forties, EmArcy 36016. The only really valid display of Tristano's work currently available is Lennie Tristano, Atlantic 1224, which marked his return to recording after he had been away from the studios for several years. He is heard here both as soloist and with a group (in- cluding Konitz) in night club performances. His so- The Records 291 los are absorbing and compelling, with strong, fresh rhythmic and melodic accents. The fact that they in- volve tape manipulation is of little importance in the face of the fascinating and stimulating piano jazz his manipulations produce. Tristano has one solo piece in Modern Jazz Piano: Four Views, Cam- den 384. Richard Twardzik. Twardzik, who died in 1955 at the age of 24, was an original mind whose approach to the jazz piano was imaginative and witty. He was not hamstrung by cliches of any period but, as he shows on one side of Richard Twardzik, World Pacific 1212 (Russ Freeman has the other side), his sardonic imagination seized on whatever means of expression suited his ends. His version of I'll Remember April is a hard, driving, two-handed adaptation of the most familiar modern piano style while his slily needling and carefully developed Albuquerque Social Swim is practically devoid of the modernist's urgent linear leanings. Yellow Tango, the most successful of these generally ex- cellent performances, is a delightful melange of ap- pealingly melodic passages and varied interplays of rhythms which give both bass and drums an equal position with the piano. He has one selection in Pianists Galore!, World Pacific JWC 506. Phil Urso. One of the tenor saxophonists descended from Lester Young, Urso can swing amiably in the proper company but needs both prodding and help. On The Philosophy of Urso, Savoy 12056, both his strong and weak points are displayed as he plays several well worked out selections in the stimulat- ing company of valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, then stumbles through some long solos with only a rhythm section behind him and bogs into languid background music with nothing but an organ to lift him. Sentimental Journey, Regent 6003, places 292 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ him in the company of an organ all the way and he becomes even more moodily backgroundish. He swings a little more freely in single selections on Solo Flight, World Pacific JWC 505, and Jazz West Coast, Vol. 3, World Pacific JWC 507. Rene Urtreger. This French pianist plays three selections in a pleasantly angular manner that is a bit too bland to be of more than passing interest on Jazz Piano International, Atlantic 1287. Billy Usselton. A product of the Claude Thornhill, Ray Anthony and Les Brown bands, Usselton has a lithe, graceful style on tenor saxophone and a fondness for bland arrangements that reflects his big band experience. His First Album, Kapp 1051, played by a small contingent drawn largely from the Brown band, is sporadically light and bounc- ing, sporadically pretentious. It is of interest mainly for the unusual "bottom" sound given to ensem- bles by Abe Aaron's bass clarinet. The four selec- tions played by Usselton's Sextet in Modern Jazz Gallery, Kapp KCL 5001, are occasionally amiable in the ensembles but almost always listless in the solos. Jerry Valentine. Valentine, a onetime arranger for the Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine big bands of the Forties, has assembled on Outskirts of Town, Pres- tige 7145, a rocking, shouting ten-piece band made up of top-flight modernists (Art Farmer, Pepper Adams, Jerome Richardson, Ray Bryant, Buster Cooper, etc.). It struts through a variety of blues with the driving swagger that once could be found in the Harlem jump bands. The shift to pulsing earthiness throws a new and heartening light on some of the modernists involved who often sound glib in their normal habitat notably the positive punch that Adams achieves on baritone saxophone The Records 293 and Jerome Richardson's exquisite cry on alto. This is real meat-and-potatoes big band jazz. Art Van Damme. Although Van Damme, an ac- cordionist, wins jazz polls with great consistency, he is closer to slick cocktail music than he is to jazz. His group (usually accordion, vibes, bass, guitar and drums) plays with a smooth, gentle swing on most numbers but in today's jazz terms this is pop music. His disks are all cut from the same mold: The Art of Van Damme, Columbia CL 876, Man- hattan Time, Columbia CL 801, Martini Time, Columbia CL 630, They're Playing Our Song, Columbia C2L-7, The Van Damme Sound, Colum- bia CL 544, Cocktail Capers, Capitol T 178, More Cocktail Capers, Capitol T 300. Sarah Vaughan. Although she has one of the rich- est, least restricted and most compelling voices ever applied to jazz, Miss Vaughan has spent so much of her career wringing the chord changes with such grim determination that her true jazz potential has rarely been realized. She has the flexibility, range and knowledge to do almost anything with her voice that she wants to and as she has matured as an artist it has become increasingly evident that her prime forte is the ballad. She has been doing these songs with steadily diminishing emphasis on eccentric mannerisms, allowing her excellent voice to be heard in more or less unadorned beauty. From the point of view of jazz, Miss Vaughan reached a recorded peak on Sarah Vaughan in the Land of Hi-Fi, E