The RCA Victor Jazz Workshop #1

One of the most smartest and innovative recordings in the mid-1950's was produced by Jack Lewis, RCA’s A&R man in California at the time.

In August 1955, the specialized publication Down Beat was in charge of anticipating the "project":

A major new project entitled "The RCA Victor Jazz Workshop" is now under way under the direction of that company’s jazz A&R man, Jack Lewis.

Details of the plan are shrouded in secrecy, but it is known that the "Workshop" will afford an opportunity for a number of young artists, some already RCA Victor contractees and others newly signed, to indulge in experimental work. There will be groups involving unusual instrumentation. One date already known to have been cut features Al Cohn with four trumpets and rhythm. Bob Brookmeyer is also contributing a number of arrangements and will be heard with at least two different style combos. Lewis says that the “Workshop” efforts will all be on 12″ LPs and will be released at the rate of one or two a month, in addition to the regular jazz releases.

*Down Beat, August 10, 1955 (page 4)*

A month later, it was reported again with a little more detail:

RCA-Victor is undertaking the most ambitious jazz recording schedule in its history. Jack Lewis, in charge of jazz for the label, recently released further details concerning his plans for the next few months. A key Victor undertaking is a Jazz Workshop series in which a number of leading jazz writer-players will be given complete freedom in choice of instrumentation, personnel, and the range of their writing ideas.

Among the musicians set to head individual Jazz Workshop LPs are Al Cohn, Bob Brookmeyer, Billy Byers, Manny Albam, Hal Schaefer, and several others. Lewis also is cutting an album by The New York saxophone quartet, consisting of Danny Bank, Hal McKusick, Cohn, and Ray Beckenstein. No rhythm section is used with this unique unit. Lewis is commissioning original compositions for the quartet from prominent jazz writers.

*Down Beat, September 21, 1955 (page 7)* 

Finally, six months later and in an advert revealing the album covers, Down Beat announced the release of the first two albums in the series, by Al Cohn and Hal Schaefer:

Like any art form, Jazz requires space and the opportunity to grow and search for new avenues of expression. It either finds these avenues and goes forward — or it stands still and dies. There is need today in Jazz for just such space and opportunity. 

And to meet this need, RCA Victor has undertaken a program bold and unique in modern music. 

A Jazz Workshop has been established where artists can enjoy the widest latitude in composition, arrangement and performance... where new sounds can be tried ... where different directions can be explored — and all without the necessity of conforming to established modes or patterns. 

Below are the first recordings made under these exciting, stimulating conditions —forerunners of a new, unhampered kind of music from the RCA Victor Jazz Workshop. Your record dealer invites you to hear them today! 

*Down Beat, March 21, 1956 (page 17)*

In summary, there were seven Jazz Workshop albums recorded in all:

★ Al Cohn (May 1955)

★ Hal Schaefer (October 1955)

★ Manny Albam (December 1955)

★ Billy Byers (December 1955)

★ Hal McKusick (March 1956)

★ George Russell (March 1956)

★ John Carisi (April 1956)

The release led by John Carisi consisted of in three recording sessions in April, May, and June of 1956 were assigned a release number, LPM-1371, but it remained in the vault until 1988 when Executive Producer Steve Backer tapped veteran jazz producer Ed Michel to put together a CD release of sessions from the Jazz Workshop series.

Unfortunately The New York saxophone quartet session never materialized, at least there is no record in the jazz discography literature with the artists mentioned in the Down Beat column. 

That's what the next seven posts will be about and here goes the first:

Al Cohn

Four Brass, One Tenor

The appropriate sounding of brass (to be specific, four brass and one tenor) heralds the advent, with these sides, of an ambitious new venture that will be welcomed by jazz cognoscenti everywhere: the RCA Victor JAZZ WORKSHOP. 

This will be the generic phrase applied to a series of enterprises, as varied in intent and content as they will be in ideation and instrumentation. Some of the workshop ventures will be, as the saying goes, "far out"; others will be less experimental musically but will essay new ideas instrumentally. Into the latter category falls Al Cohn’s Four Brass, One Tenor. 

As far as Al or I can recall, this is the first time the idea has ever been tried out. It was RCA Victor’s Jack Lewis who suggested that four trumpets might make a unique and effective cushion for a tenor saxophone. The plan was translated into action via the swinging pens of Messrs. Cohn and Albam and brought to reality in three sessions with an almost identical personnel.

Alone or together, these are among the great horn men of jazz today; but over and above it all, the assertively swinging tenor of Al Cohn soars superbly to lend vibrant power to this novel instrumental experiment. To paraphrase a song on one of these sides, this is one of those occasions when after the song is ended the melody, the harmony and the rhythm will all linger on.

*Leonard Feather (liner notes)*

This is the better though the less ambitious of the first two LPs released in Victor’s Jazz Workshop series, a project instituted by Jack Lewis. Against a background of four brass and rhythm, Al Cohn is heard in some of his best blowing on record, and his full tone and big beat are virilely complemented by Joe Newman, Bart Valve (Thad Jones), Nick Travis, and the alternating horns of Bernie Glow, Joe Wilder, and Phil Sunkel. On several numbers, Travis doubled on valve trombone.

The equally tall rhythm section is composed of Freddie Greene, Osie Johnson, Buddy Jones, and Dick Katz. Newman takes most of the trumpet solos, but there are choruses by the others, too, (including four-trumpet chases on two tracks). There are full solo identifications in Leonard Feather’s exact notes, which should serve as a model to Victor liner writers.

Manny Albam and Cohn arranged six apiece and contributed three agreeable originals each. The writing is just right for this context, clean, uncluttered, swinging. The brass team, as a result, shouts bitingly alongside Al when the mood is up and is appropriately gentler on other tracks. The excellent engineering, as on almost all Victor jazz LPs, is by Ray Hall, who should be given liner credit. Recommended. *Nat Hentoff*

The 1955 sessions that make up this Al Cohn LP were part of RCA Victor's Jazz Workshop series. In each of the three studio dates, the tenor saxophonist is matched up with a quartet of trumpeters, with the fourth chair differing on each date. Either Manny Albam or the leader contributed the arrangements of the almost even split between standards and originals. Cohn is in terrific form, boosted by the swinging rhythm section consisting of pianist Dick Katz, bassist Buddy Jones, guitarist Freddie Green, and drummer Osie Johnson. The trumpeters include Thad Jones (who appeared under the pseudonym Bart Valve on the original issue), Nick Travis (who doubles on trombone), Joe Newman, and either Joe Wilder, Bernie Glow, or Phil Sunkel rounding out the section. Newman takes most of the trumpet solos, except for Cohn's "Haroosh" (Jones) and "Every Time" (Wilder), while "Rosetta" and "Linger Awhile" both feature a chase among all four trumpeters. This very entertaining cool jazz album. *Ken Dryden*

Side 1

1 - Rosetta

(Hines, Woode)

2 - The Song Is Ended

(Irving Berlin)

3 - Linger Awhile

(Vincent Rose, Harry Owens)

4 - Every Time

(Farrar, Kent)

5 - Haroosh

(Al Cohn)

6 - Just Plain Sam

(Manny Albam)

Side 2

7 - I'm Coming Virginia

(Heywood, Cook)

8 - Cohn Not Cohen

(Al Cohn)

9 - A Little Song

(Al Cohn)

10 - Foggy Water

(Manny Albam)

11 - Sugar Cohn

(Manny Albam)

12 - Alone Together

(Schwartz, Dietz)

Al Cohn (tenor sax); Bernie Glow [#2, #8, #9, #10,#11], Joe Newman, Joe Wilder [#1, #4, #6, #12], Phil Sunkel [#3, #5, #7], Thad Jones [a.k.a. Bart Valve] (trumpets); Nick Travis (trumpet, trombone); Dick Katz (piano); Freddie Green (guitar); Buddy Jones (bass); Osie Johnson (drums).

Recorded at Webster Hall, New York City, May 9 (#1, #4, #6, #12), May 14 (#2, #8, #9, #10,#11) and May 16 (#3, #5, #7), 1955.