Gigi Gryce And The Jazz Lab Quintet

There is, in a group like this, solid reason for optimism about the future of jazz. For here are five musicians, all young but all well-seasoned by experience, proving by their own example that there is an almost limitless quantity of valid, moving, enjoyable music to be derived from the (more or less) standard materials of current jazz. 

It is, admittedly, rather deceptive and unfair to refer to "standard materials". For what is going on here is really altogether cut of the ordinary. On the one hand, these are not innovators and experimenters in any wild, far-out sense of those words. (They are actually a bit concerned that the name chosen for the group might give an inaccurate impression that they are trying to be a "laboratory" of arbitrary and artificial 'new sounds for the sake of newness') If you are the sort who insists on labels for music, you can safely place these men in the post-bop school of jazz. But you have to go on from there. For what is taking place in this Jazz Lab really is experimentation — of a non-esoteric, but nonetheless extremely unusual and valuable kind. It is, you can say, an attempt to push the boundaries of the kind of jazz these men love best as far forward as possible, but without making any drastic alterations of its shape or form. 

Jazz forms, no matter how radical they may have been when first introduced, inevitably tend to grow stale and cliche-ridden if they continue to be approached in the same way and from the same direction year after year. The most obvious solution to this problem is to throw the old form away, or to keep the merest shell of it, and strike out in all sorts of new directions. This is what quite a few jazz artists have been doing in the past few years, with widely varying degrees of success. But the approach that Gigi Gryce has been taking, in his writing and playing, and now in his work as the guiding hand of this quintet, is both simpler and less obvious, perhaps more difficult and surely every bit as valid. As demonstrated on this LP, it involves enriching and re-invigorating the basic bop formula, rather than abandoning it — adding fresh, rhythmic and melodic ideas, and effectively combining full-bodied arrangements with the freshness and enthusiasm of gifted young musicians who are themselves not the slightest bit stale or cliched. *Orrin Keepnews (liner notes)*

The late alto saxophonist Gigi Gryce was at his best when teamed with trumpeter–he had worked productively with Clifford Brown and Art Farmer before establishing a partnership with Donald Byrd in 1957. As the Jazz Lab Quintet, Gryce and Byrd recorded five and a half albums for five different labels within a mere six months. This was the Lab’s first session and one of its best, with the spotlight on Gryce originals including the classic "Minority" and explosive "Wake Up!" (Lee Sears, a nom de disque, is borrowed from Gryce’s wife). *concord.com*

Hard to find Riverside LP of this group led by Gigi Gryce running down nice hard bop numbers. There's no dry academic performances here, not that you'd guess that from the line-up, but the title kind of leads you in that direction. Donald Byrd and Gryce are playing nice and hard up front, with Wade Legge on piano, Wendell Marshall on bass and Art Taylor on drums cooking nicely in the rhythm section. The tracks include Legge's "Geraldine" and Gryce's "Minority" plus "Love For Sale", "Zing Went The Strings Of My Heart" and "Wake Up!". *dustygroove.com*

Side 1

1 - Love For Sale

(Cole Porter)

2 - Minority

(Gigi Gryce)

Side 2

3 - Geraldine

(Wade Legge)

4 - Zing! Went The Strings Of My Heart

(J. Hanley)

5 - Wake Up!

(Lee Sears)

Gigi Gryce (alto sax), Donald Byrd (trumpet), Wade Legge (piano), Wendell Marshall (bass), Art Taylor (drums).

Recorded at Reeves Sound Studios, New York City, February 27 (#1, #2, #3) and March 7 (#4, #5), 1957.