Shorty Rogers Quintet - Wherever The Five Winds Blow

In no sense whatsoever has Milton "Shorty" Rogers ever been known heretofore as a windy fellow. He blows trumpet (flugelhorn sometimes) with finesse, taste and feeling rather than with any effort to shatter glass windows; his mannerisms are gentle and exceedingly mellow, while his conversation is soft and generally as lazy as the Mississippi. “Shorty” may well be the only truly southern gentleman from Great Barrington, Massachusetts. 

For this album, however, "Shorty" Rogers quite deliberately turned meteorologist. And he did it without changing his style of anything. 

The Bible will tell you: "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth". Until comparatively recent times that was quite true — the movement of air was a mystery. Now, however, while we know a great deal about winds and what they do, we are still not able to predict faithfully what they will do next. 

Such is the nature of the winds, and this, in effect, is "Shorty" Rogers’ adventure into the atmosphere — a stunning musical salute to everywhere that the five winds blow. *Roy Morse (liner notes)*

Clever title serves as a peg on wich Rogers hangs the titles of his five originals compositions that make up the set: "Hurricane Carol", "Breezin' Along In The Trades", "Marooned In A Monsoon", etc. The blowing is not all of that earth-shaking; in fact, with Jimmy Giuffre alternating on tenor sax and clarinet, Rogers sticks pretty close to the "Cooler" side of the West Coast idiom. However, there is a flock of young people who gobble up this kind of package, and they must be accommodated. Terrific cover. *Billboard, March 16, 1957*

Side 1

1 - Hurricane Carol (North Wind)

2 - Breezin' Along In The Trades (South Wind)

3 - Marooned In A Monsoon (East Wind)

Side 2

4 - The Chinook That Melted My Heart (West Wind)

5 - Prevailing On The Westerlies (Fifth Wind)

(All compositions by Shorty Rogers)

Shorty Rogers (trumpet), Jimmy Giuffre (clarinet, tenor sax), Lou Levy (piano), Ralph Pena (bass), Larry Bunker (drums).

Recorded in Los Angeles, California, July 2, 1956.