Terry Gibbs - El Nutto

When I moved back to New York City from California in 1963, my agent had already booked me a 16-week tour and I had to put a quartet together. I called Herman Wright, who played double bass in my quartet with that great female piano player, Terry Pollard, from 1953-1957. Herman and Terry were from Detroit. The first thing that Herman said to me was there was another great female piano player from Detroit who was now living in NY. Her name was Alice McLeod. I don’t usually hire anybody I didn’t know her, but because of what Herman told me I set up a little jam session so I could hear how Alice played jazz, and it had to be bebop because that’s what I heard and played in jazz, and I wanted to hear Alice play bebop. I also had a drummer recommended to me by one of my good drummer friends, and so John Dentz, Herman and I went to a studio that I rented at Nola Studios.

How I usually work my songs is that, after I play the melody, the piano player solos first. After Alice played just 8 bars I knew that I was going to hire her. In 1963 Alice was an out an out be-bopper in the style of Bud Powell. Also John  Dentz gave me what I was looking for: TIME. The more we played the better Alice sounded, she was a quiet shy lady and she got more aggressive as the jam session went on, you can hear her fitting in with everything that I was looking for in a piano player. Alice worked in my band for one year until I introduced her to John Coltrane and saw a love affair happen and that was why Alice left. That one year Alice was in my quartet was really fun playing because she was, as I said before, an out and out be-bopper. *Terry Gibbs*

Before joining vibraphonist Terry Gibbs' quartet in 1962, Detroit-born pianist Alice McLeod played intermissions at the Paris Blue Note and appeared on French TV with saxophonist Lucky Thompson, reaching Gibbs' attention in a duo with vibraphonist Terry Pollard; in the quartet, she became the perfect foil for Gibbs, her understated piano making room for his intense improvisation, stepping up with her own expression when needed. El Nutto captures Alice at her best in this setting, as heard on the reveries of "El Flippo" and the title track, this solid set of Gibbs originals showing her virtuosity, composure, and curiousness, which would soon reach more cosmic highs, once she became Alice Coltrane. *forcedexposure.com*

This would be a routine Terry Gibbs quartet set except for one fact: the pianist is Alice McLeod, who after getting married would change her name to Alice Coltrane. The third of three albums she recorded with Gibbs (decades later, her son Ravi Coltrane would work for the vibraphonist's son, drummer Gerry Gibbs), McLeod sounds fine on ten obscure tunes, all Gibbs originals. Certainly, none of the songs (which include "El Nutto", "The Nightie Night Waltz", "Hey Pretty" and "Just For Laughs") caught on, and their melodies are not particularly memorable, but the solos of Gibbs and the appearance of the pianist make this album of historic interest. *Scott Yanow*

Side 1

1 - Little "S"

2 - El Nutto

3 - The Nightie Night Waltz

4 - The Young Ones

5 - El Flippo

Side 2

6 - Hey Pretty

7 - Sleepy Head Blues

8 - Lonely Days

9 - Little "C"

10 - Just for Laughs

(All compositions by Terry Gibbs)

Terry Gibbs (vibraphone), Alice McLeod [a.k.a. Alice Coltrane] (piano), Herman Wright (bass), John Dentz (drums).

Recorded at A&R Studios, New York City, April 15, 1963.