Leonard Feather Presents… ★1957★

There’s a Curious irony in the fact that of the thousands of jazz albums now flooding the record stores, this is the first LP to be released with bop as its main theme. The wheel has come full circle. Bop became an epithet by the end of the decade, the victim of keyhole columnists who identified it not with music but with eccentricities of clothes, personality and personal habits. Today we can examine the scene in truer perpective and observe that Bop is simply the way most people play jazz in 1959, including the "new star" awards winners in the Down Beat critics' poll.

Among the neglected elements in Bop were not people but tunes — some of the original and exciting compositions that emerged with the first of bop creativity. They were tunes you heard played along 52nd Street; tunes that spoke with a crisp, biting accent expressed in long, unison lines, leaving the harmonic moorings to the rhythm section. All the tunes you'll hear in this LP were products of the men and groups of that day, 'though only Ornithology has become a jazz standard. The others have rarely been re-recorded and a couple have been in oblivion for years.

The music on these sides evokes the atmosphere of a typical set at one of the old 52nd Street clubs, even to the fast two-chorus treatment of the "52nd Street Theme" that invariably ended every set.

To those for whom these performances represent long-overdues revivals, the music on this LP is bound to fill a gap in your collection. If your interest is minly in the instrumentalists, these sides represent an introduction to themes that belong in every jazz library. Either way they should provide a cogent reminder that the music we used to call bop, wich today is an important part of the whole jazz, endowed us with a wealth of material, of ideation and new creation that has a lasting place in the story of jazz. *Leonard Feather (liner notes)*

Leonard Feather Presents Bop 

[a.k.a. Leonard Feather Presents 52nd Street]

This pair of 1957 studio sessions features two separate groups, with alto saxophonist Phil Woods, pianist George Wallington, and bassist Curly Russell involved in both dates, with most of the music drawn from the works of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Trumpeter Idrees Sulieman and drummer Denzil Best join them on the first five selections. Wallington and Woods share the solo spotlight following the scatted group introduction to the pianist's "Lemon Drop" (one of many bop variations of "I Got Rhythm"), while Sulieman also gets a taste. Woods and Sulieman re-create the magic of Parker and Gillespie in a snappy take of "Ornithology". Sulieman switches to muted trumpet for an equally enjoyable take of "Anthropology". The quintet changes for the last five tracks, with Thad Jones on trumpet and Art Taylor on drums. It is not clear who contributed the little-boy vocal to "Salt Peanuts", but it does not distract from this potent arrangement. Taylor's effective drumming powers the cooking version of "Shaw 'Nuff". The next to last track is incorrectly listed as "Billie's Bounce"; it is actually "Now's the Time". Nothing groundbreaking takes place during these bop sessions, but the playing is at a consistently high level. This Mode LP has been reissued by VSOP and the Japanese CD label Tofrec, sometimes under the title Leonard Feather Presents Bop. *Ken Dryden*

1 - Little Benny

(Benny Harris)

2 - Be Bop

(Dizzy Gillespie)

3 - Lemon Drop

(George Wallington)

4 - Ornithology

(Charlie Parker, Benny Harris)

5 - Anthropology

(Charlie Parker)

6 - Salt Peanuts

(Dizzy Gillespie)

7 - Groovin' High

(Dizzy Gillespie)

8 - Shaw' Nuff

(Dizzy Gillespie)

9 - Billie's Bounce

(Charlie Parker)

10 - Hot House / 52nd Street Theme

(Tadd Dameron / Thelonious Monk)

Idrees Sulieman [#1 to #5], Thad Jones [#6 to #10] (trumpets);

Phil Woods (alto sax); George Wallington (piano); Curly Russell (bass);

Denzil Best [#1 to #5], Art Taylor  [#6 to #10] (drums).

Recorded in New York City, August 1957