The Hank Bagby Soultet - Opus One

Clarance Henry "Hank" Bagby was born in Denver, Colorado in 1922 or 1923 and died in Modesto, California on December 11, 1993. He began his musical life as a singer and performed here and there in the Midwest and on the West Coast in the 1940's. It was during the late 40's in San Francisco that he took up the saxophone. He began playing with local players such as pianist Kenny Drew, and the Farmer brothers (trumpeter Art and bassist Addison), drummer Frank Butler and others around Los Angeles and became sort of an underground musician in a world of underground musicians. If you have never heard of Hank Bagby, even if you are a devoted Jazz buff, there's no shame. Bagby worked alongside some Jazz giants like Dexter Gordon, Jack Sheldon and various other greats in Onzy Matthews' big band which demonstrated his qualifications as a player but made no recordings. The only time this writer ever heard of Bagby was sometime in 1960 in Down Beat Magazine reading the only article on pianist Elmo Hope. The article was called "Bitter Hope" and was written by John Tynan. It summed up Elmo's frustrating 4 years in Los Angeles with a few bright moments thrown in. Mr. Hope was highly critical on the whole West Coast Jazz scene but had high praise for players such as Harold Land, Frank Butler, Leroy Vinnegar, trumpeters Dupree Bolton, Stu Williamson and others and mentioned that he's been working in a quartet that he co-led with Hank Bagby. He had high praise for Bagby. Soon after the article was published, Elmo and his new wife Bertha headed for New York. No recordings of the Hope/Bagby Quartet surfaced and that was it.

The Hank Bagby record was done for a one-shot label in Los Angeles in 1964. The label was Protone Records. It's his only album and a damn good one. It appears to have been done in two different sessions. One of the six original compositions by Bagby has Hank on tenor saxophone with Chuck Foster on trumpet, Dave MacKay on piano, Gary Driskell on bass and Al Levitt on drums. MacKay and Levitt are little known but MacKay played with Don Ellis' big band and Levitt has played with a variety of musicians like Lee Konitz and Stan Getz. The other two are unknowns. The rest of the 5 tunes have bassist Al Hines and drummer Charles "Chiz" Harris replacing Driskell and Levitt while the others are the same. Chiz Harris was very well known in the L.A. area and performed with a multitude of bands. That is the makeup of The Hank Bagby Soultet. The album called Opus One is his only recorded legacy and he proved to be a very solid player with a good sound that reflected a Rollins/Land/Gordon influence. The only other information on Bagby is that he eventually moved to Modesto, California and worked as a musician and a substance abuse counselor for the California Government until he retired. He was 71 when he died in 1993.

*Gavin Walker*

There's always more hardbop out there than expected. Live and learn. Die and reincarnate as the insect from Kafka's Die Verwandlung, crawl on the pavement of Sunset Boulevard and get squashed on the star tile of Hugh Hefner before, to cite Kinky Friedman, you were able to bug out for the dugout. Come back again as Mahatma Gandhi, slip into suit and tie and invest in big data. Be ashamed of yourself. Nothing to be ashamed of if you’re Hank Bagby. Hank Bagby is ok. But is Opus One an album we should be ashamed of having ignored for so long? No not exactly. It's not a milestone of mainstream jazz. But then again it’s about time it gets the attention it very well deserves.

The pulse of the album is pretty contagious, Jazz Messengers-like in spots. Moreover, both "Dee Dee" and "The Great Wall" wouldn't have been out of place on Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers albums. Perhaps most striking, the typical hard bop format of quintet line-up featuring sax and trumpet, blues-based repertoire and medium tempos is strengthened by a number of exotic flavors, the melodies of Soul Sonnet and Iborian (Nairobi spelled backwards) in particular.

Obviously, Bagby was a good writer. As a tenor saxophone player, his big hard tenor sound is exciting but his lines have a tendency to somehow pass by unnoticed. Trumpeter Chuck Foster is more impressive. His bright tone and sparkling lines lift up the fresh set of tunes. Even better is pianist Dave MacKay, who provides pulsating backing with a combination of strong-willed chords and pesky lines. As a soloist, without exactly imitating them, he’s somewhere between McCoy Tyner and Horace Silver. Not a bad place to hang around. *flophousemagazine.com*

One of our favorite "lost" albums ever – an amazing small combo jazz session that rivals the best that 60s Blue Note or Prestige had to offer! The group's led by tenor player Hank Bagby – an artist we only know from this record, but who has a rich sense of imagination that comes out right from the start – not just on his well-penned tunes for the record, but also on his inventive arrangements, and his way of leading the sharp combo through the perfect realization of his musical vision! Bagby's tenor solos alone are worth the price of admission – but the record's a cooker that really gets equal energy from the whole ensemble too – trumpeter Chuck Foster, pianist Dave MacKay, bassist Al Hines, and drummer Chiz Harris – perfect throughout on original tunes that include "Dee Dee", "The Great Wall", "Soul Sonnet", "Kiss Me Quigley", "Iborian", and "Algerian Suite". *dustygroove.com*

1 - Dee Dee

2 - The Great Wall

3 - Soul Sonnet

4 - Kiss Me Quigley

5 - Iborian

6 - Algerian Suite

(All compositions by Hank Bagby)

Hank Bagby (tenor sax); Chuck Foster (trumpet); Dave MacKay (piano); Gary Driskell [#1], Al Hines [#2 to #6] (basses); Al Levitt [#1], Chiz Harris [#2 to #6] (drums).

Recorded in Los Angeles, California, 1964.