Rare And Obscure Criteria Jazz Recordings (IV)

The Modern Jazz Orchestra

featuring Kenny Drew

This is the fourth of several VSOP releases of Criteria recordings. Criteria was a small jazz label founded by Mack Emerman that showcased Miami jazz musicians of the late 1950's. All Criteria LPs are extremely rare and highly sought after. The music on this CD is primarily written, orchestrated and directed by Don Vincent. Don who studied at Carnegie Mellon and under Nikolai Lapatnikoff later went on to lead the orchestra at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas and currently runs a recording studio in Los Angeles. The band is made up of Miami's all stars of the day. It is a fine jazz orchestra. Highly recommended. *magnebit.xeran.com*

The Modern Jazz Orchestra was a stage band that worked a little bit in Florida before breaking up. Its one recording, from 1960, comprises this reissue. Don Vincent contributed five of the eight selections and wrote all the arrangements for the 16-piece ensemble. The only well-known musician on this set is pianist Kenny Drew, although the musicianship is excellent. Despite its potentially forbidding name, the music is essentially bop to hard bop, including versions of "Blue Monk," "A Night in Tunisia," and Miles Davis' "Flamenco Sketches." It is very nice to have this obscurity (originally from the tiny Criteria label) back in print again. *Scott Yanow*

When Billy Ladley (drummer), Joe Galovan (conductor), and Don Vincent (composer and arranger) asked me to write the liner notes for this album I was very pleased to do so. 

The "hanger" came when I started delving into the story behind the album and found, among other things, that the story was actually an epic. For if it wasn't for Billy Ladley's knowledge that such a band could be in Miami or Don Vincent's creative talent giving the band material it needed, or Joe Galovan's dogged insistence upon the formation of such a band, it would have never been realized. But a band without the benefit of the wonderful facilities that Criteria Records offers would have been for naught.

It all started with Joe Galovan. It seems to me that Joe Galovan was born to be a catharsis. At Least that's his function with the MJO.

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 The “Band Idea” hit him in March of 1959, while he was recovering from a year and a half on the road with his friend, Don Vincent.

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Joe asked Don to write some arrangements for a band similar to the MJO. Don wrote them and together they recorded a demonstration album which Joe took to New York. New York received it with mild interest. The recording companies asked where the band was playing, and the clubs asked if the band had recorded. Joe came back to Miami in August and he and Don revamped the band through August and September. But they were met with Miami’s own special brand of apathy, and by December they were ready to throw in the towel or the baton, or just about anything. They had had it. They felt they couldn't get top notch players, and the interest Miami had exemplified was close to a minus point.

In March, Bill Ladley returned to Miami from Las Vegas, and administered a kick in the pants to the two. He showed them that since December, good musicians had been drifting into Miami, and were available for a record date. New plans were made, and in April, Don started building a straight Jazz book. In May they recorded. The men in the band were so enthused that they played their best, and subsequently, most of the cuts are first or second takes.

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As for the band, it's a great first album, and with your help, it will be followed by a second that is greater. Shall we put our collective shoulders to the wheel! *Pat O'Neil (liner notes)*

1 - Black Pits Of Luna

(Don Vincent)

2 - Flamenco Sketches  (or All Blues?)

(Miles Davis)

3 - Eulogy

(Don Vincent)

4 - Waltz For Stephen

(Don Vincent)

5 - Off The Grate

(Don Vincent)

6 - Blue Monk

(Thelonious Monk)

7 - Don's Idea

(Don Vincent)

8 - Night In Tunisia

(Dizzy Gillespie)

Gene Goe, John Georgini, Duke Schuster, Bill Robbins (trumpets); Berry Polger (alto sax, flute); 

Gus Mas, Billy Miller, Jerry Brockman , Jimmy Casals, Kirby Campbell (saxophones);

Lon Norman (trombone); Loren Reichert (french horn); Jim Lawrence (tuba);

Kenny Drew (piano); Bill Christ (bass); Bill Ladley (drums).

Recorded at Criteria Recording Co., Miami, Florida, May 1960 

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[Note: I couldn't find any reference or correction in any review that points out a curiosity: track #2 identified as "Flamenco Sketches" is, in fact, "All Blues". Both compositions are from Miles Davis' iconic Kind Of Blue which (another curiosity) on some vinyl reissues, the label switched the order for the two tracks on side two, "All Blues" and "Flamenco Sketches". *blbs*]