Howard McGhee And Phil Porter - Two Rare And Unique Recordings

Howard McGhee (1918 – 1987), among young jazz adepts unjustly almost forgotten today, was a reliable man if you're following his steadily flowing recorded output between 1942 & 1948, which were the heydays of the bebop era. And "Maggie", so his nickname in musicians’ circles, was in the middle of it all. He was not phrasing as "mathematically" like his great successor and friend Theodore "Fats" Navarro, or the next in the line, Clifford Brown, affectionately called "Brownie" by his friends and fans, but he could express his ideas as fast, and as eloquently as the two other trumpet geniuses.

During 1945-1949, Howard McGhee was one of the finest trumpeters in jazz, an exciting performer with a sound of his own, who among the young bop players, ranked at the top with Dizzy Gillespie and Fats Navarro. The "missing link" between Roy Eldridge and Fats Navarro (Navarro influenced Clifford Brown who influenced most of the post-1955 trumpeters), McGhee originally played clarinet and tenor, not taking up trumpet until he was 17. He worked in territory bands, was with Lionel Hampton in 1941, and then joined Andy Kirk (1941-1942), being featured on McGhee Special. McGhee participated in the fabled bop sessions at Minton's Playhouse and Monroe's Uptown House, modernizing his style away from Roy Eldridge and towards Dizzy Gillespie. He was with Charlie Barnet (1942-1943), returned to Kirk (where he sat next to Fats Navarro in the trumpet section), and had brief stints with Georgie Auld and Count Basie before traveling to California with Coleman Hawkins in 1945; their concise recordings of swing-to-bop transitional music (including "Stuffy," "Rifftide," and "Hollywood Stampede") are classic. McGhee stayed in California into 1947, playing with Jazz at the Philharmonic, recording and gigging with Charlie Parker (including the ill-fated "Lover Man" date) and having an influence on young players out on the Coast. His Dial sessions were among the most exciting recordings of his career, and back in New York he recorded for Savoy and had a historic meeting on record with Navarro in 1948 on Blue Note.

Eventually, drugs began to affect McGhee's career. He traveled on a USO tour during the Korean War, recording in Guam. McGhee also had sessions for Bethlehem (1955-1956) but was inactive during much of the '50s. He recorded some strong dates for Felsted, Bethlehem, Contemporary, and Black Lion during 1960-1961, and on a quartet outing for United Artists (1962), but (with the exception of a Hep big band date in 1966) was largely off records again until 1976. He had a final burst of activity during 1976-1979 for Sonet, SteepleChase, Jazzcraft, Zim, and Storyville, but by then, McGhee was largely forgotten and few knew about his link to Fats Navarro and Clifford Brown.

Phil Porter (1944 – 2015) born in Boston and raised in Charlton and Somerville. He graduated Somerville High School with the Class of 1961 and attended Boston University.

Phil began his music career in Boston at the age of 16 as a professional pianist and organist. By the age of 19 he had recorded his first two jazz album and had performed at the Newport Jazz Festival. 

In 1971, Phil started rehearsing with the jazz-rock band, Chase. Within a few months, the band signed a record deal and moved to Chicago to record Chase, their first album on the Epic label. As a member of the band Chase, he earned a gold record, received a Grammy nomination, and performed on the Johnny Carson Show and at Carnegie Hall. After many years of performing throughout the U.S. and worldwide, he returned to the Boston area and continued his music career locally, including as the organist for the Bruins and Celtics at the Boston Garden. He was a member of Local 535 of the Boston Chapter of the American Federation of Musicians. He settled in Lynn to raise his family and lived in Andover prior to moving to Haverhill where he served as a volunteer for Merrimack Valley Hospice.

When Howard McGhee reappeared in 1962, after being away from the stage for 10 years due to narcotic use, Paul Wimley offered him the opportunity to record four titles for the Argo label with Gene Ammons (House Warmin'! by Howard McGhee and The Blazers). Confidential. But in the process, George Wein produced two quartet sessions in the fall of 1962 for United Artists, the first with piano, the second with organ. 

That's when the meeting between McGhee and Porter took place. Howard McGhee appears there in full possession of his means, with a warm and coppery timbre that is very personal and atypical of a time when trumpets were more willingly "distorted". 

Howard and Phil met only twice and those recordings, already considered rare and obscure today, are the reason for this post.

Howard McGhee

Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out

&

House Warmin'!

A contemporary of Dizzy Gillespie, Howard McGhee was one of the most stimulating trumpeters of the bop era. Although personal problems sidelined him for part of the 50s, his great experience compensated for much of the time lost when he made his comeback in the early 60s. In fact, on Nobody Knows You When Youre Down and Out, recorded in 1962, McGhee sounds even better than before - engaging and emotional without compromising his strength while supported by two excellent rhythm sections, one with pianist Jimmy Jones, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Art Taylor, and the other with organist Phil Porter, bassist Larry Ridley and drummer Dave Bailey.

On the second album included here, House Warmin'!, recorded a few months earlier. McGhee shares the front line with tenorman Gene Ammons. The rhythm section includes the quasi-urbane sound of guitarist Jake Fisher, bassist Barney Richmond and drummer Willie Mashburn, who have an essential role in building a program reflecting the infinite variety to be found in the rhythm-and-blues field. *Jordi Pujol*

You may not have ever heard of Howard McGhee, but at one time he was one of the top notch bebop trumpeters, up there with Dizzy Gillespie and Fats Navarro. He’s on Charlie Parker’s notorious “Lover Man” date, and actually had a bebop hit (is that an oxymoron?) with Coleman Hawkins with "Stuffy" in the mid 40s. He lived the life of a bebopper in more ways than one, as drugs caught up with him and sidelined him for awhile. The two recording sessions on this disc find him working on his comeback, and the music is surprisingly good.

Nobody Knows When You're Down And Out is a '62 session featuring McGhee with a trio backing, either with piano or organ, and includes Art Taylor/dr, and Ron Carter/b. The B3 band has McGhee in a bluesy mood with a desultory title track and version of  "Lonely Town" that will make you want to keep away from sharp objects. He alternates between agonizing Harmon mutes and sleek open horn, actually mixing it up in the same song as in the fascinating "Canadian Sunset". He's quite lyrical on "Tenderly" and "Fly Me To The Moon" and his tone holds up well. The House Warmin’! session is a hot jam with Gene Ammonts/ts, Jake Fisher/g, Barney Richmond/b, Willie Mashburn/d and a guy named Waco on bongos. Hey, it’s the 60s! Ammons smokes like a Romeo e Juliet on "Jazz with a Beat" and McGhee revives his old charms on "Muggin' McGhee" and the title tune. If you want to hear a rhythm team that is in sync, just give an ear to "Jivin' Around". That'll keep you going for awhile. *George W. Harris*

1 - Nobody Knows When You're Down And Out

(Cox)

2 - Lonely Town

(Bernstein)

3 - Secret Love

(Fain, Webster)

4 - Why Run Away

(Spencer)

5 - Canadian Sunset

(Heywood)

6 - Blue Bell

(McGhee)

7 - Tenderly

(Gross, Laurence)

8 - Fly Me To The Moon

(Howard)

9 - Satin Doll

(Ellington, Strayhorn)

10 - Blue Duende

(McGhee)

11 - Jazz With A Beat

(Winley, Paul)

12 - Muggin' McGhee

(Winley, Paul)

13 - House Warmin'

(Winley, Paul)

14 - Jivin' Around

(Winley, Paul)

#1 to #10: from Nobody Knows You When Youre Down and Out

(United Artists Records UAJS 15028)

#4, #5, #7, #10

Howard McGhee (trumpet), Jimmy Jones (piano), Ron Carter (bass), Art Taylor (drums).

Recorded in New York City, September, 1962.

#1, #2,  #3, #6, #8, #9

Howard McGhee (trumpet), Phil Porter (organ Hammond B3), Larry Ridley (bass), Dave Bailey (drums).

Recorded in New York City, October, 1962.

#11 to #14: from Howard McGhee and The Blazers - House Warmin'! (Argo LPS 4020)

Howard McGhee (trumpet), Gene Ammons (tenor sax), Jake Fisher (guitar), Barney Richmond (bass), Willie Mashburn(drums), Waco (bongos).

Recorded at Bell Sound Studio, New York City, probably May 1962.

***

Phil Porter

Introducing Phil Porter And His Organ

It was a snowy night in February, 1963, when jazz trumpeter Howard McGhee, jazz producer George Wein, a German Shephard dog named Sage and I climbed into Wein's car in New York. Our destination was the little town of Hopkinton, Massachusetts, 200 miles from New York and 30 miles west of Boston. 

Our purpose was to hear a 19 year old organ player named Phil Porter, and we were going on the strength of a one night stand McGhee had played with Porter in Boston nine months earlier.

To go back to the beginning, I had just brought McGhee and Wein together to make the trumpeter's first LP under his own name in several years. Both men, it turned out, had the same idea — find a good swinging jazz organist and utilize him to showcase McGhee's virtuosity. At this point Howard remembered the boy who had left such a strong impression. "He's only a kid but he can play the hell out of an organ, especially on blues!" 

That was enough to set me hunting and, through two Boston organ afficionados, John Sdoucos and Fred Taylor, Porter was located a couple of days later and we set off in the snow to hear him. What should have been a four hour trip turned into more than five and we finally walked into the club about midnight. 

We were almost crushed to find a rock and roll band at work, with about five bored customers sitting around looking like anything was better than going home. However, smiling at us from behind the Hammond was a good-looking young blonde boy complete with crew cut, and Howard confirmed that this was, indeed, Phil Porter. 

After about ten minutes, Wein managed to shoo the rest of the band off the floor and told him to play some. Two or three pieces later and we felt he had what Howard wanted, but there was one more test. He had already chosen some of the material for the date and one of the pieces was the old Bessie Smith blues "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out". At this point he dropped the tune on the music rack in front of Porter and asked him if he knew the tune. He didn't but we told him to sight read it and away he went. Half a dozen choruses of blues later we had ourselves an organist. 

Within two weeks the album was completed, but even before it was through, United Artists Records president Art Talmadge had attended the sessions, heard Phil Porter and he was under contract to make his own recordings as well. This is the first of his efforts, and he is ably guided throughout by his mentor, McGhee. In fact, his rock and roll days ended shortly after the first McGhee date when he joined McGhee's combo with which he is still on tour.

For this album, producer Wein worked very closely with Phil in the selection of material, but he allowed him: the real delight of selecting his own musicians for the dates. It was decided to use two slightly different groups, with Kenny Burrell added on guitar for several numbers. On trumpet, naturally, he chose McGhee, who also did all the arrangements. He chose tenor saxist Harold Ousley "because he has that big bluesy sound I like", plus what he calls the "All-American rhythm section", Paul Chambers on bass and Arthur Taylor on drums. 

At this point in his young life, everything is green lights and straight ahead for Phil Porter, but he is already developing into something of a philosopher. As we sat listening to the playback on this album in George Wein's office one day, Phil turned to us with a sly grin and said: "Do you remember the name of that club where you first heard me with the rock and roll group? It was called The Escape — and it sure turned out that way!". *Bob Messinger (liner notes)*

Side 1

1 - C Jam Blues

(Duke Ellington)

2 - Hard Times

(Phil Porter)

3 - Moonlight In Vermont

(K. Suessdorf, J. Blackburn)

4 - There Will Never Be Another You

(M. Gordon, H. Warren)

5 - What Did I Do To Be So Black And Blue

(T. F. Waller, H. Brooks, A. Razaff)

6 - Blue Dilemma

(Phil Porter)

Side 2

7 - Molly Belle

(Phil Porter)

8 - That's All

(Brandt, Haymes)

9 - Conversation

(Phil Porter)

10 - Candlelight

(Phil Porter)

11 - Diane

(E. Paree, L. Pollack)

Phil Porter (organ Hammond B3), Howard McGhee (trumpet), Harold Ousley (tenor sax), Kenny Burrell (guitar), Paul Chambers (bass), Art Taylor (drums).

Recorded in New York City, probably April 1963.