Five-Star Collection... Lennie Tristano

Lennie Tristano

Tristano

A great many people are going to be surprised by this set. It presents a Lennie Tristano far removed from the figure of their — and the critics' — imagination. Uncompromising he may be, as has been noted many a time, in the public prints and in private discussions. But remote, inaccessible, recondit he is not, except in the sense that any first-rate artist has ideas to offer which are necessarily his own and nobody else's and hence so fresh, so crisp, so inspired as to seem — or sound — altogether new and quite thoroughly removed from any familiar thinking — or playing-pattern, No, there is nothing really obscure about Lennie's playing here, nothing really beyond the grasp of anybody with any feeling for, or fairly considerable listening experience in, jazz.

This is jazz, no mistaking it for anything else. It meets all the requirements: it is improvised, brilliantly adding ideas to ideas all the way through; it swings, rapturously, whether up or middling-up or slow in tempo; it offers, both in Lennie’s playing with bass and drums and with Lee Konitz and rhythm, that delicate internal tension, that collective creativity which is the special identifying mark of the real thing in this music.

And so it is to the jazz in this record that I suggest you listen, forgetting, if you can, any preconceived notions about what Lennie Tristano represents in modern music, anything you may have read about his personality, his ideas, his group, his students or teaching method or anything much besides, no matter how directly relevant it may seem to you. Isn't it, after all, in a man's painting, if he is a painter, in his poetry, if he is a poet, or in his music, if he is a composer, that one should look for his personality, his ideas, or anything else of any sizable significance? And isn't this particularly true of jazz, where a performer composes as he blows, if he is a genuine jazz musician, and therefore exposes himself more honestly than in most arts? And if it isn't true, then why bother — why bother painting or writing or composing or blowing in the first place? and why bother looking or reading or listening in the second?

After listening to these tracks, I think you’ll agree with me that what you have heard is impression enough of the Tristano thinking processes and that, unquestionably, Lennie's ideas must seek musical outlet, must find jazz outlet, and we must pay attention, hard, earnest attention, and do so with every sort of listening ease.

(...)

Balance all around is to be found in this collection: a trial balance of tempo and time and personality differences which accounts for the jockeying of tapes and changing of speeds and multiplication of piano lines in Lennie's solo tracks; a tested balance of soloists and tunes and tempos and personalities which accounts for the orderly procedure and unmitigated pleasure of the alto and piano solos and duos in the tracks Lennie and Lee play together. And all of it — and this I cannot insist upon too strongly — comes out jazz, real jazz, great jazz.

*Barry Ulanov (from the liner notes)*

Lennie Tristano's first LP in several years is an absorbing. The first four tracks were recorded by Lennie at his own private recording studio. On the first, he superimposed his piano over a previous tape of bassist Peter Ind and drummer Jeff Morton after he adjusted to his satisfaction what they had done. The second has paired piano lines. On the third he taped three lines, one on top of the other. On the fourth he did what he had done in the first. The last five tracks were recorded at the Sing Song room of the Confucius restaurant last summer with Lee Konitz, Gene Ramey, and Arthur Taylor.

Throughout there is every evidence of a Tristano who has continued to grow and deepen. He is still very much his own man, a man who is driven to continue searching to find and challenge more of himself in his music. He plays authoritatively with a propulsive, intensely alive forcefulness (see tracks one and four, for example.) Anyone still suspecting his ability to communicate emotion should hear the naked power in the >Requiem< blues he plays for Charlie Parker. On the ballad sides with Lee, there is a richer, deeper though never ornamental lyricism than Lennie has shown on records before. And always, there is his imaginative resourcefulness, an imagination, however, that works organically, for there is never the touch of patchwork in any Tristano performance. It all comes from inside the development of the music — and the man. Konitz is lucid, logical, unfailingly interesting, and increasingly emotional.

Two footnotes: dig the further possibilities of multirhythms as explored by Tristano in Turkish Mambo. Secondly, Barry Ulanov states in connection with Lennie's adjusting the bass and drum take before superimposing his piano to it: "The great day for jazz will be when rhythm sections — one or two or three musicians large — will be able to think and play and beat that steadily, with such regularity and rapidity and imagination, that it will be possible to record alongside them instead of over them." It's true Lennie has problems finding the exactly right rhythm section for him, but that's no reason to maintain that there aren't rhythm sections for others that can very successfully be recorded alongside instead of over. The situation rhythm-section-wise in jazz is far from that bad. There's always a need for more firstrate rhythm men, but let's not put down the strong nucleus of them we have.

The recorded sound Lennie gets in his studio excellent. Confucius sound is good but could have been better. *Nat Hentoff (Down Beat, April 18, 1956 [5 stars])*

1 - Line Up

(Lennie Tristano)

2 - Requiem

(Lennie Tristano)

3 - Turkish Mambo

(Lennie Tristano)

4 - East Thirty-Second

(Lennie Tristano)

5 - These Foolish Things

(Link, Strachey, Marvell)

6 -  You Go To My Head

(J. K. Coots)

7 - If I Had You

(Shapiro, Campbell, Connelly)

8 - Ghost Of A Chance

(Crosby, Washington, Young)

9 - All The Things You Are

(Kern, Hammerstein)

#1 to #4:

Lennie Tristano (piano), Peter Ind (bass), Jeff Morton (drums).

Recorded at Tristano's Home Studio, New York City, 1955

#5 to #9:

Lennie Tristano (piano), Lee Konitz (alto sax), Gene Ramey (bass), Art Taylor (drums).

Recorded live at The Sing Song Room, Confucius Restaurant, New York City, June 11, 1955

Five-Star Collection... John Mehegan

John Mehegan

The First Mehegan

In this album Savoy is proud to present to the Jazz listening audience, another recital by one of the finest of contemporary pianists, Johnny Mehegan. This is volume one of what we respectfully title "The First Mehegan", also noting that Johnny is a teacher of improvisation at Juilliard Conservatory in New York City where he has taught the ageless beauty of classical music and the new vitality of Jazz. As the expressive medium in this session, we choose the trio and quartet, presenting other modern Jazz giants to support Johnny's ideas. The quartet sides feature Chuck Wayne, an extremely swinging and authoritative guitarist, and Vinnie Burke on bass, plus the new drum star Joe Morello. Trio-wise we have Charles Mingus, a great bassist and personality in modern Jazz, and also a legitimate composer in his own right, plus Kenny Clarke, the "daddy" of modern drummers. Throughout, they all support the mood and add a swinging presence to the performance.

(...)

I feel that the outstanding characteristic of Mehegan's musical invention is in its simplicity, and in the exhaustive depth and subtlety of his expression. However, by simplicity, this is definitely not the connotation of "easy" or "uninspired", rather, as an artist friend has expressed, "his is a studied simplicity". That is the application of artistic restraint, wherein the musician selects with delicate skill the concise figure, offering the light stroke as opposed to the grandiose flourish or the contrived statement. (...) It has been my pleasure to know Johnny but a few months, but in that time he has earned a professional and personal respect of no small import. I suggest a similar realization of his magnitude and scope would surely benefit our Jazz-art.  *Jack McKinney (from the liner notes)*

Here is a real talent, one who has a gleaming jazz future. There is confidence in Mehegan's attack, and knowledge in his notes, and he swings. John has absorbed many influences, from Teddy Wilson and Nat Cole to Bud Powell and Lennie Tristano, but he has welded them all into an expression of his own beliefs and personality. He has a message.

First four sides have Charlie Mingus on bass and Kenny Clarke, drums. Last four spot guitarist Chuck Wayne, bassist Vinnie Burke, and drummer Joe Morello.

Aside from Mehegan, who plays superbly on all the bands, you may be as impressed as I was by Mingus on Thou Swell, Chuck Wayne on Stella, on which he and Mehegan play like Siamese twins, and by the drumming of both Clarke and Morello — always pulsating, always helpful, always tasteful.

This one Savoy calls The First Mehegan. The second is already being eagerly awaited by at least one person. *Jack Tracy (Down Beat, August 10, 1955 [5 stars])*

Side 1

1 - Cherokee

(Noble, Shapiro)

2 - The Boy Next Door

 (Martin, Blane)

3 - Blue's Too Much

(David)

4 - Thou Swell

(Rodgers, Hart)

Side 2

5 - Taking A Chance On Love

(Duke, Fetter, Latouche)

6 - Uncus

(Mehegan)

7 - Sirod

(Mehegan, Miles)

8 - Stella By Starlight

(Washington, Young) 

#1 to #4:

John "Johnny" Mehegan (piano), Charles Mingus (bass), Kenny Clarke (drums).

Recorded at Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey, January 30, 1955

#5 to #8:

John "Johnny" Mehegan (piano), Chuck Wayne (guitar),

Vinnie Burke (bass), Joe Morello (drums).

Recorded in New York City, June 10, 1954

Five-Star Collection... Art Farmer

Art Farmer

Modern Art

The young jazz musician — if he is at all serious about making his self-expression a vocation with meaning to others beside himself — has to learn a lot.

He must first, of course, know his horn, know it until, to paraphrase Yeats, it's difficult to tell where the musician ends and the horn begins. He must battle the problems of technique until his fingers execute what he thinks as he thinks, no matter how challenging or difficult the thought. And to stay fed in contemporary music, the young jazzman will be confronted with a greater variety of challenges than all of King Arthur's court dreamt of.

He must be able to read — not only precise commercial arrangements for diverse record dates but the new and unexpected turns of the growing number of modern jazz writers.

He must, unless he limits himself to only one idiom and one familiar group of players, be able to improvise over a wide and sometimes dizzying range of conditions.

When — and if — he has mastered all this, his basic problem begins. He must find himself, must be — relatively — "original." Once he has achieved enough skill to be noticed at all, the critics are likely to start calling him 'electric' or 'derivative'; other hornmen respect him but wait to hear what he's doing that they haven't heard before; and most important of all, he himself becomes intensely concerned about releasing and developing his own "voice." It's at this point that the good, skillful players become separated from the others who go beyond proficiency to become the major stylists, the musicians who influence other musicians.

Art Farmer, after a long apprenticeship, has matured into one of the few trumpet players of his generation who is individual and who indicates a capacity for growth that will also make him an influence. Through the years, Art has sharpened his technique so that he can — and has — handled all manner of assignments from the funky, driving, soul-flexing of the Horace Silver Quintet through the polyphonic play of the Gerry Mulligan quartet to jagged experimental scores at Brandeis University, Carnegie Hall and Cooper Union.

While absorbing all this experience — and much more — Art has consistently enlarged and strengthened his own musical personality until he now cannot be accurately categorized as a member of any "school" but his own. In addition to a tone that he has deepened and burnished through the years, his conception has become a direct reflection of himself. Like the man, it is thoughtful; lyrical unto — at times — a brooding introspectiveness; intensely emotional; and devoid of superfluity. *Nat Hentoff (from the liner notes)*

Here, through eight tracks covering two sides of an LP, is a set that must rank among the finest, most musical, most stimulating, and most satisfying of the year.

Three Down Beat new stars — Farmer, Golson, and Evans — literally shine with a creative brilliance that, at times, is just unbelievable. I found, too, that this quintet greets a ballad not as something to be bulled through or played with, but as a vehicle for lyrical expression. In fact, if there is one word which sums up this LP it could well be "lyrical."

Some tracks are simply beautiful. Farmer, Golson, and Evans play with warmth and deep feeling on Darn That Dream, The Touch of Your Lips, and Like Someone in Love. Every track has some superlative playing, but I found that these were extraordinary. Perhaps because the tunes are ballads and are treated as such. When jazzmen can make their horns sing as these men do, it is a rare and moving experience in jazz. The older generation of players could do it, and very well. Some of our generation can, but mostly they tend to fall into devices or tricks with time to get through the tune.

Hear, for instance, the lovely muted fills Art blows behind Golson's soulful, melodic playing of Someone in Love, then Farmer's flowing muted solo, and Benny's Hawk-like coda.

Farmer has been maturing steadily as a musician. He is interested in music and in learning. He absorbs and builds on what he has absorbed, rather than parroting it back because it happens to be hip or in the current idiom. I feel, on the basis of his performance here and of in-person hearings lately, that he is certainly one of the very few young players today who will have a great deal to do with molding the future of jazz. The often abused phrase, a major talent, must be applied to this man.

Golson, too, has come along handsomely in the last year or so. His one written contribution here, Fair Weather, is another of those melodic, oddly nostalgic themes which he creates so well. His playing is imaginative and bright, and he turns what could be a hip phrase into something quite fresh almost as a matter of course.

Evans, yet another increasingly important jazzman, displays again the workings of a creative mind. Note his solos on Weather, Breeze, and I Love You.

Addison Farmer and Dave Bailey give the soloists firm and pulsing support. Bailey, as usual, is tasteful and affirmative in his work.

The stereo version just brings more life into this excellent performance. Don’t miss this one.

*Dom Cerulli (Down Beat, January 8, 1959 [5 stars])*

1 -  Mox Nix

(Art Farmer)

2 - Fair Weather

(Benny Golson)

3 - Darn That Dream

(James Van Heusen, Eddie DeLange)

4 - The Touch Of Your Lips

(Ray Noble)

5 - Jubilation

(Junior Mance)

6 - Like Someone In Love

(James Van Heusen, Johnny Burke)

7 - I Love You

(Cole Porter)

8 - Cold Breeze

(Wade Legge)

Art Farmer (trumpet), Benny Golson (tenor sax),

Bill Evans (piano), Addison Farmer (bass), Dave Bailey (drums).

Recorded at Nola's Penthouse, New York City, September 10, 11 and 14,1958

Five-Star Collection... Herb Ellis

Herb Ellis 

Nothing But The Blues

For the past few years, there has been, among the young moderns, a renewal of reverence for the blues. For the insecure and the confidence men who tried to bore into the in-group, the blues seemed to take on the guise of a new approach to Zen Buddhism as interpreted by Jack Kerouac. They accordingly used the word "funky" as a shibboleth, but their hard-breathing gave them away; because they played the blues like Sloan Wilson writes fiction.

The point is that the blues can’t be forced. It comes naturally out of a Horace Silver or Thelonious Monk or Sonny Rollins or Barney Kessel or Herb Ellis, or it doesn't come out at all. Herb has it; there were times during ensemble lessons at The School of Jazz in the Berkshires in the summer of 1957 when Herb (the faculty played alongside the students) would play something so down home, so earthily visceral that everybody would fall out, with Dizzy Gillespie usually roaring the loudest.

(...)

And this blues-bursting date is, I feel, Ellis' best album yet and one of the most directly fulfilling sessions of the year. Roy Eldridge feels that the context of the record brought about Stan Getz's "playing the greatest I've heard him. He comes from the old school too, you know, and he proved it on that date. Most of the younger cats can't get with but one thing; Getz can fit into something like this too. Like Royal Garden and Tin Roof. He fitted there". In fact, in this session, everybody fit, and if you want to know what all this talk about the blues means, this is one place you won't get a bum steer into the semantics of hipster theosophy. *Nat Hentoff (from the liner notes)*

Gather 'round, children, and listen to the message of the blues. The whole story is right here in eight, eloquent preachments by as fine a quintet of wailers as can be assembled.

There is so much strong, red meat here that to attempt to detail its high spots would take up more space than we've available. But some of the more memorable moments include Herb's bongo-like obligato to Roy's open horn on the galloping Big Red's; the sweetly lyrical Getz tenor on Tin Roof, accorded unusual, gentle treatment; an amazingly easy and relaxed Soft Winds, and the muted trumpet in unison with single string guitar in the first chorus of Royal.

Herb seems everywhere at once, comping tastefully, riffing chords and single string behind the other soloists; pungently interjecting chorded comments, and, of course, discoursing lengthily on blues-matter in general in all his solos.

Luckily it was a good day for Stan and Roy, too. And, thanks to Ellis' alternating role, a piano is never once missed in the rhythm section. Brown and Levey take care of business in basic, no-nonsense fashion. One of the very best jazz albums this year. Don't miss it.

*John A. Tynan (Down Beat, October 16, 1958 [5 stars])*

1 - Pap's Blues

(Ray Brown)

2 - Big Red's Boogie Woogie

(Herb Ellis)

3 - Tin Roof Blues

(George Brunies, Paul Mares, Ben Pollack, Leon Roppolo, Mel Stitzel, Walter Melrose)

4 - Soft Winds

(Benny Goodman)

5 - Royal Garden Blues

(Spencer Williams, Clarence Williams)

6 - Patti Cake

(Herb Ellis)

7 - Blues For Janet

(Herb Ellis, Ray Brown)

8 - Blues For Junior

(Ray Brown)

Herb Ellis (guitar), Roy Eldridge (trumpet),

Stan Getz (tenor sax), Ray Brown (bass), Stan Levey (drums).

Recorded at Radio Recorders, Hollywood, California, October 11, 1957

Five-Star Collection... The Modern Jazz Quartet

The Modern Jazz Quartet

Plays

One Never Knows

Original Film Score for No Sun In Venice by John Lewis

In December 1956 the globe-trotting Modern Jazz Quartet found itself in Paris. Among the enthusiastic Parisians who flocked to St. Germain-des-Pres to hear the group was Raoul Levy, producer of the film And God Created Woman and other international cinema hits. Levy did not come over to the Left Bank merely to spend a pleasant evening digging jazz sounds, but to make John Lewis a business proposition. He was about to produce Sait-On Jamais, a film to star Francoise Arnoul, and wanted to know whether John would be free to write the background music and whether it would be possible to use The Modern Jazz Quartet to make the soundtrack.

John consented to write the score and worked on it assiduously during his scanty leisure hours while he and the Quartet were touring the United States in the first months of 1957. Despite the fact that some of the music was written in Los Angeles, some in Chicago, some of it in New York, the score has structural unity and a high degree of internal organization. It was John Lewis' first film score and represented a special challenge. As he put it, "Jazz is often thought to be limited in expression. It is used for 'incidental music' or when a situation in a drama or film calls for jazz, but rarely in a more universal way apart from an explicit jazz context. Here it has to be able to run the whole gamut of emotions and carry the story from beginning to end". *Gary Kramer (from the liner notes)*

This is the music composed for the sound track of a confused and trashy little French sex-pot movie, Sait-on Jamais (One Never Knows, but called No Sun In Venice by the American distributors) and even with its faults, it represents an achievement in several respects.

The role of sound-track music is, of course, entirely functional. Its basic purpose is to complement the film, comment on its action and mood, and (at base) keep the audience from becoming distracted. The moment the usual film score begins to draw attention to itself, it fails. Despite the fact that in the film one hears only what is in effect snippets of the total score, I think most of it can stand (like Virgil Thompson's The Plow That Broke the Plains, Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky, and, perhaps, Aaron Copland's Of Mice And Men) as exceptional, as a film score that ingeniously manages to be both effective in context and strong enough to stand on its own.

Second, it is now evident that the quartet has so thoroughly assimilated and transformed the 18th century fugal form that we can no longer speak of a pastiche, a novelty, or a toy, but, in its case, of a jazz-fugue. And perhaps that means a new kind of specifically jazz polyphony, such as is heard here on The Rose Truc (a blues, despite what the liner says), something Lewis and Jackson do so excitingly, may be now developed.

The two fugues (Striker and the triple fugue Windows) dramatize the fact that the rhythmic disunity heard on the quartet’s previous release is not a fact but, in retrospect, seems a flaw in engineering. Connie Kay's work is almost unbelievably integrated. He is magnificent on Striker and almost manages to overcome the parts handed to him on Windows, which did not work out as intended but became monotonous.

Knows is a lovely melody and shows again how much Lewis can make out of the simplest materials, but the performance explores it little, using it almost as a vehicle for dynamics and tone-colors. The same sort of thing happens on Cortege, which is rescued a bit too late from its lushness and returned to it too soon. At this point in its career, the quartet still seems to find it necessary to treat such exhibitions as if they were ends in themselves—which they are not. Cortege begs comparison to Django, and Django succeeds by an opening and closing condensation of theme-statement and melodic exploration where Cortege fails. Venice is another simple melody which a solo by Jackson rescues from a certain cocktail-ish impressionism; Lewis' solo therein is not up to the level of passion understatedly achieved on his recent The Bad and the Beautiful.

Finally, the recording preserves a better performance of the score than any of several recent "in person" ones that I have heard. *Martin Williams (Down Beat, July 10, 1958 [5 stars])*

1 - The Golden Striker

2 - One Never Knows

3 - The Rose Truc

4 - Cortege

5 - Venice

6 - Three Windows

(All compositions by John Lewis)

Milt Jackson (vibes), John Lewis (piano),

Percy Heath (bass), Connie Kay (drums, percussion).

Note: Connie Kay's use of triangles, finger cymbals, tambourines,

open high hats and mallets on cymbals to create gong-like effects.

Recorded in New York City, April 4, 1957

Five-Star Collection... Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus Trio

Mingus Three

Charles Mingus is the volcanic, inflammably honest virtuoso, composer and Jazz Workshop leader whose strength of musical personality has made his playing and writing instantly identifiable, however intermittently controversial. Hampton Hawes, Los Angeles-born and almost thirty, has been welcomed by several critics and a number of musicians as an unusually earthy and deeply swinging representative of mainstream modernism that flows directly from Charlie Parker, whom Hawes acknowledges as his primary influence. The drummer is Danny Richmond, a regular member of Mingus' Jazz Workshop unit.

(...)

This trio session is considerably different from most trio dates. Two strong personalities are present in Mingus and Hawes, and although there is an overall feeling of fusion, of tempered rapport, this as much a dialogue between Mingus and Hawes with punctuation from Richmond as it is a group expression.

Mingus and Hawes are contrasting spirits, musically and off the stand. Hawes is rather diffident and disinclined to verbalize about music. Mingus, on the other hand, is a celebrated writer of open letters to the music magazines, and is the Tom Paine of modern jazz in his polemical zeal to make his positions clear.

(...)

The meeting of the two in this album is provocative, all the more so because both — health and wars willing — have the major section of their futures ahead of them. Hawes continues to move in the main road; Mingus, having absorbed the map, backwards and to the present, of the main route, is striking out on his own path. In ten years, they might well meet: or the main road may have been widened, in part by Mingus' impact, so that he has become conventional; or he may have, as I believe, been found to have been in the mainstream all along — except that he was swimming deeper than most. *Nat Hentoff (from the liner notes)*

There really isn't much else to say after rating this a full five stars. These are superb performances by all hands.

Hamp plays with more warmth and brilliance than he has displayed on records in a long time. Mingus is sensitive, powerful, lyrical, and several other adjectives which make up the feel of the much-abused word soul.

If there is an essence of jazz, a marrow which sustains the bones of jazz, then it is to be found here. I found few, very few moments on this LP when the incredibly high standard set in the moving Yesterdays was not sustained. And you will have to travel far to find a deeper probing of the blues by a trio than that in Back Home Blues.

Richmond, the regular Mingus' Jazz Workshop drummer, shows on Hamp's New Blues and Summertime the awareness and musicianship that come with membership in that remarkable quintet.

This is a set that should never grow stale. *Dom Cerulli (Down Beat, March 20, 1958 [5 stars])*

1 - Yesterdays

(Otto Harbach, Jerome Kern)

2 - Back Home Blues

(Charles Mingus)

3 - I Can't Get Started

(Vernon Duke, Ira Gershwin)

4 - Hamp's New Blues

(Hampton Hawes)

5 - Summertime

(George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, DuBose Heyward)

6 - Dizzy Moods

(Charles Mingus)

7 - Laura

(Johnny Mercer, David Raksin)

Hampton Hawes (piano), Charles Mingus (bass), Dannie Richmond (drums, tambourine [#5])

Recorded in New York City, July 9, 1957

Five-Star Collection... George Wallington

George Wallington

George Wallington Trio

George Wallington, pianist, composer and arranger, was born in Palermo, Italy on October 27, 1924. He began his musical career in New York learning the mandolin and violin at the age of six. At the age of nine, he studied piano under the guidance of a private tutor. By the time he was fifteen, he was playing in various night spots in Greenwich Village. When modern music came on the scene, George played with Dizzy Gillespie's famed first bop band at the Onyx Club in 1944.

(...)

Until the release of this album, the rich aesthetic qualities of Wallington's music and playing have never truly been heard. You'll find his piano work fresh, humorous and exciting. To complement George’s performances, two of the finest musicians were selected: namely Max Roach and Curley Russell.

(...)

George took great care in creating, developing and composing the five originals "Twins", "Polka Dot", "High Score", "Hyacinth", and "Joy Bell". Each composition differs from the other in chord structure and feeling and not one is based on any standard or popular melody so commonly used by other modern composers. Certainly you will agree with us that these originals are wonderful and that this is George Wallington at his best. *Gus Grant (from the liner notes)*

George Wallington, whom we'd always thought of as just an average bop pianist, surprised us with the evident care and preparation put into this LP of five originals and three standards. This music is brittle but subtle, as different from Ellis Larkins as fire from ice, but just as successful. The originals are original, High Score being a particularly attractive riff creation.

Accompaniment by Max Roach and Curley Russell is splendid. Max takes a long solo on Fine and Dandy which was unnecessary and spoils the mood.

Important conclusion: here is one pianist who has truly approached the incisive sound and individual touch of Bud Powell. One-word summation: George!

(Down Beat, Chicago, July 16, 1952 [5 stars])

Note: Adapted from the original source; typographical and spelling errors have been corrected.

Side 1

1 - Twins

(George Wallington)

2 - Polka Dot

(George Wallington)

3 - I'll Remember April

(Ray, DePaul, Johnston)

4 - High Score

(George Wallington)

Side 2

5 - Hyacinth

(George Wallington)

6 - Joy Bell

(George Wallington)

7 - I Didn't Know What Time It Was

(Rodgers, Hart)

8 - Fine And Dandy

(Swift, James)

George Wallington (piano), Curley Russell (bass),  Max Roach (drums).

Recorded in New York City, November 21, 1951

Five-Star Collection... Power-Packed Trombones

The Trombones Inc.

Jazz has been the scene of a battle of sorts for some time now. Though semantics have generally been the weapons, musicians in the east have traveled their own route and have cast a disparaging eye on the goings on of their colleagues on the Pacific. The latter similarly have come to be identified with a movement sometimes known as "the west coast school of jazz", which they in turn consider superior to the work of musicians in the east. All to the travail of you the listener. This melange has somewhat been abated by various west coast and east coast albums, but no recorded panacea existed to settle the argument once and for all.

The idea of doing an album in which both schools of jazz were heard goes back to a part-time valve trombonist named Jim Conkling who, it might be added, had the idea once before. This reformed cornet player has been in the habit lately of doubling as president of large record companies, first Columbia Records and now Warner Bros., and having instigated the first homage to the seventh position — "Jai & Kai Plus Six" on Columbia — he thought it might be fun to have twenty trombonists do battle, coast-to-coast. The fact that only ten trombonists from each coast would blow at one time helped the mind cope with this proposition, and accordingly, plans were drafted to make this mad, mad project come true. Come true it did, but gloriously. *George Avakian (liner notes)*

If our arithmetic is correct, 27 trombonists participated in the making of this disc— divided into two groups, one on the west coast, the other on the east, and subdivided further by substitutions. The product is (a) a veritable Who’s Who of modern jazz trombone players, (b) a remarkable exercise in virtuosity for arrangers Johnson, Paich and Barker, (c) a revelation of the richness of trombone, and (d), some sort of apex in the career of the trombone itself.

There are 15th century paintings that show the instrument largely as it is today. But is wasn't until the early 19th century that composers, including Berlioz, began to explore its possibilities. And it remained for the jazz musicians of 20th century America to find out what trombones could really do. If you doubt that, listen to any average symphony trombonist struggling through the solo in Ravel's Bolero, even today.

This record is a great tribute to the skill and authority jazz musicians developed on the instrument. It is perhaps impossible to sort out the individual performances on this disc to cite them for merit, but solos and ensemble work are due for high praise. It is safe to say that no instrument but trombone has the variety of colors to permit a recording like this. So enormous are the possibilities of trombone, and so well have Paich, Barker and Johnson exploited them, that you rarely miss the other sections, rarely realize that you're hearing trombones, only trombones, and nothing but trombones (except for that tuba Paich snuck in for three tracks).

The Harvard Dictionary of Music says that "since the movement from position to position requires a certain amount of time, a true legato is not possible on the trombone". Its editor had better hear this disc before the next edition is prepared. *Down Beat, July 9, 1959 [5 stars]*

1 - Neckbones

(J. J. Johnson)

2 - Dues Blues

(J. J. Johnson)

3 - Long Before I Knew You

(Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn)

4 - Soft Winds

(Benny Goodman)

5 - Tee Jay

(J. J. Johnson)

6 - Lassus Trombone

(Henry Fillmore)

7 - It's All Right With Me

(Cole Porter)

8 - Polka Dots And Moonbeams

(Johnny Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen)

9 - Old Devil Moon

(Burton Lane, E.Y. Harburg)

10 - Impossible

(Steve Allen)

11 - Heat Wave

(Irving Berlin)

#1:

Frank Rehak, Jimmy Cleveland, Eddie Bert, Benny Powell,

Bob Brookmeyer, Melba Liston, Henry Coker, Benny Green (trombones);

Dick Hickson, Bart Varsalona (bass trombones);

Hank Jones (piano); Wendell Marshall (bass); Osie Johnson (drums).

Recorded in New York City, December 26, 1958

#2, #4:

Frank Rehak, Jimmy Cleveland, Eddie Bert, Benny Powell,

Bob Brookmeyer, Melba Liston, Bob Alexander, Benny Green (trombones);

Dick Hickson, Bart Varsalona (bass trombones);

Hank Jones (piano); Milt Hinton (bass); Osie Johnson (drums).

Recorded in New York City, December 29, 1958

#3, #5:

Eddie Bert, Jimmy Cleveland, Henry Coker,

Melba Liston, Benny Powell, Frank Rehak (trombones);

Bob Brookmeyer (valve trombone); Dick Hixson, Bart Varsalona (bass trombones);

Hank Jones (piano); Milt Hinton (bass); Osie Johnson (drums).

Recorded in New York City, December 31, 1958

#6, #9, #10:

Joe Howard, Herbie Harper, Frank Rosolino, Dick Nash, Ed Kusby,

Tommy Pederson, Murray McEachern, Marshall Cram (trombones);

George Roberts, Kenny Shroyer (bass trombones); Marty Paich (piano); 

Barney Kessel (guitar); Red Mitchell (bass); Mel Lewis (drums); Mike Pacheco (bongos).

Recorded in Los Angeles, California, December 5, 1958

#7, #8, #11:

Bob Enevoldsen, Milt Bernhardt, Bob Fitzpatrick, Joe Howard,

Lewis McCreary, Frank Rosolino, Dave Wells (trombones);

George Roberts (bass trombone), Stu Williamson (valve trombone);

John Kitzmiller (tuba); Marty Paich (piano); Red Mitchell (bass); Mel Lewis (drums).

Recorded in Los Angeles, California, December 3, 1958

Arranged by J. J. Johnson (#1 to #5), Warren Barker (#6, #9, #10) and Marty Paich (#7, #8, #11)

Five-Star Collection... Bud Shank

Bud Shank Quintet

Compositions Of Shorty Rogers

The purposes and aims of Nocturne's "Jazz in Hollywood" series have led to this presentation, featuring a group of musicians who have figured prominently in the Hollywood jazz vista. Bud Shank, brilliant ex-Kenton altoist, is featured, with a quintet made of Shorty Rogers, flugle horn and trumpet, Jimmy Rowles, piano, Harry Babasin, bass, and Roy Harte, drums, in a group of hitherto unrecorded originals by Shorty Rogers, the result being another excellent example of "Jazz in Hollywood". 

(...)

In 1953, [Bud Shank] appearing and recording with Shorty Rogers, Shelly Manne, Barney Kessel, Laurindo Almeida, Howard Rumsey’s Lighthouse All-Stars, and many others, Bud has definitely established himself as one of Hollywood's top jazz stars, of whom we are all destined to hear much. 

Among Hollywood's musicians, Shorty Rogers probably has contributed more to the jazz scene than any other who could be mentioned. Well-known talents, his swinging trumpet and writing styles, are again asserted herein, as are lesser-known talents on flugle horn and in a sensitive ballad conception. 

Rowles, Babasin, and Harte, as in Herbie Harper Quintet Album (NLP 1), again furnish that relaxed rhythmic support so conducive to sincere jazz effort. *(fom the liner notes)*

Nocturne's second LP is a joy unto the ears. First of all, it demonstrates further how excitingly inventive an altoist Bud Shank has become. And in his well-controlled, full-toned flutework on Lotus Bud, Shank indicates that he and Frank Wess would seem to be the leading contenders for the jazz flute diadem. On the other end of the front line is Shorty Rogers, blowing with his usual skilled enthusiasm and newly disclosing an incisive mastery of the flugel horn. The rhythm section (Roy Harte, Harry Babasin, and Jimmy Rowles) are as dynamically attuned as the front line, and Rowles' piano solos are always stimulating and economically conceived.

All of the tunes were written by Shorty. Thematically I prefer the slowly unfolding lines of Jasmine and Lotus Bud, but the casual figures of the up-tempo numbers lend themselves swingingly to ad lib elaboration, and Casa de Luz has particular, sharp distinction. The expressive gamut of this group is worth contrasting with the Mulligan and Baker units. There is no aura of the fragile glasshouse here. Recording is good; engineering is by John Neal. Whether there is such an entity as "west coast jazz" or not, this is fine work by any definition, geographical or just musical.

*Nat Hentoff (Down Beat, June 2, 1954 [5 stars])*

Side 1

1 - Casa De Luz

2 - Lotus Bud

3 - Left Bank

Side 2

4 - Shank's Pranks

5 - Jasmine

6 - Just A Few

(All compositions by Shorty Rogers)

Bud Shank (alto fute, ato sax), Shorty Rogers (flugelhorn),

Jimmy Rowles (piano), Harry Babasin (bass), Roy Harte (drums).

Recorded at Western Recorders, Hollywood, California, March 25, 1954

Five-Star Collection... Lester Young

Lester Young

The Jazz Giants '56

Imitation, as a wise man once put it, is never competition. Accordingly, imitation with neither understanding nor technique can bring woeful results to the young musician. To put the theory to test, no other saxophonist has had quite so strong an influence on modern-day tenor saxophonists than Lester Young, otherwise known as the "President". For many saxophonists, however, the influence has not necessarily been a good one, simply because the limitations have been merely surface.

To play a saxophone in the Lester Young manner requires — well, it requires a Lester Young, which is to say an artist with his roots immersed deeply in the mainstream of jazz. Or that failing, a musician with at least a feeling for jazz' muscular, swinging tradition. An error committed so frequently as to become commonplace finds the imitator concerned more with sound than substance.

The Lester Young sound is a very special thing, certainly, and with it is associated a kind of languor, a sophistication that often belies its basic blues foundation. But the guts of the blues — and its purposeful vigor — is also a vital part of the Young style. And without it, without this strength that is suggested rather than expressed boldly, the would-be Lester Youngs create little more than hollow, superficial and often quite banal mimicry.

The imitators could learn considerable from this album, entitled with justification The Jazz Giants '56. For in this one, Lester illustrates more graphically than ever just where the "Lester Young school" has been errant. By no means is this, as they say in the television commercials, a "new" Lester Young, but it is a Lester Young with a stronger approach than has been his very recent custom. The tone remains, lean and cool (in the best sense), but the vigor is unmistakable and the jazz ideas are, as always, fresh and imaginative. *(from the liner notes)*

The Jazz Giants '56 comprise Lester Young, Roy Eldridge, Teddy Wilson, Vic Dickenson, Jo Jones, Freddie Green, and Gene Ramey, and a better-knit assemblage would indeed be hard to conceive. As the notes point out, this is the first time Pres and Roy have recorded together, and for some 20 years, someone has been goofing.

This is one of the records of this or any other year, and it is difficult to imagine a group playing much better than this one gets on You Can Depend on Me. All the good qualities which we usually ascribe to jazz — vitality, swing, ingenuity, rhythmic variety, and impeccable improvisation — are present here. Rest of the tracks are not far below this remarkable level, and it is really unfair to pout out high spots, although the unvarying consistency of Roy and Pres should be mentioned. Especially note Young's opening statement on This Year's Kisses — it contains all the loveliness and feeling for music one could wish. Suffice it to say that this collection belong in any and every library.

The notes err, by the way in stating that Pres and Dickenson never have recorded together before — they appeared on some Philo sides under Pres' leadership a decade ago.

*Jack Tracy (Down Beat, May 30, 1956 [5 stars])*

1 - I Guess I'll Have To Change My Plan

(Arthur Schwartz, Howard Dietz)

2 - I Didn't Know What Time It Was

(Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart)

3 - Gigantic Blues

(Lester Young)

4 - This Year's Kisses

(Irving Berlin)

5 - You Can Depend On Me

(Charles Carpenter, Louis Dunlap, Earl Hines)

Lester Young (tenor sax), Roy Eldridge (trumpet), Vic Dickenson (trombone),

Teddy Wilson (piano), Freddie Green (guitar), Gene Ramey (bass), Jo Jones (drums).

Recorded at Fine Sound, New York City, January 12, 1956