Al Cohn and Shorty Rogers - Two Five Stars

This is the best Al Cohn LP I have ever heard and one of the best jazz LPs in recent months. As a free-blowing session it has everything, and its appeal should be equally strong for those oriented ins wing as well as in modern jazz. Do not miss it.

The rhythm section is a perfect, pulsating, prime mover, with a grace and taste that is utterly delightful. Both Cohn and Rehak get ample opportunity to blow freely and both make the most of it. Whatever that indefinable (in words) quality is that we refer to as "soul" and "wailing" can be precisely demonstrated by Cohn's performance on this album. Both on his own compositions and on the attractive set of standards and ballads that comprise the different tracks, Cohn gets a remarkable amount of emotional charge into every one of his solos.

"Blue Lou" and "Old Blues" in particular ("We Three", too, for that matter) have that combination of urgency and relaxation that is undeniable in jazz. You can't wander from this album when you play it. It demands and holds your attention and it does it by its emotional quality. There's not a trick, not a gimmick, not an arranging device in it. There is not one bar of mannered or contrived playing. The entire content of the LP is straight ahead, honest, and irrepressibly swinging jazz that won't quit.

Aside from Cohn’s superlative performance, there are good solos by Rehak, Jones, and Hinton, and even when the drummer takes his breaks, taste is the password. This is uncomplicated blowing jazz at its best, and it should serve as a solid convincer to those who have been reluctant to admit Cohn to the hierarchy of jazz soloists. I expect to be playing this album for a long, long time.

The notes by Gary Kramer are a model of clarity and intelligence. *Ralph J. Gleason (Down Beat, March 4, 1957)*

Al Cohn

Cohn On The Saxophone

Al Cohn is one of the hardest working and most sought-after musicians in Local 802. This isn't just because he is an extremely competent technician and knowing stylist, but because, in addition, he is an "idea man". Many veins of modern jazz have been so thoroughly worked over that there gets to be a premium on miners like Cohn that can be relied upon to bring up a handful of bright new nuggets every trip down.

With all the bread-and-butter jobs available to jazzmen today, some cynics are saying (with a grain of reason), "More musicians than ever are eating now, and fewer than ever of them are thinking". That Cohn can't be included among the latter is all the more remarkable for the fact that he gets so few breathing spells between jobs. The originality and solidity of his work can easily be documented from his prolific record output. Cohn's undeniable progress is not so much a matter of "advancing" but one of broadening and deepening.

The most impressive thing about Cohn is his sense of heritage, his awareness of what elements of traditional jazz are worth preserving and synthesizing with the modern idiom. His fundamental beat, his dynamic tone and his extrovert spirit are reincarnations in modern dress of some of the permanently useful ingredients of the older jazz. Observing the frantic efforts of some musicians these days to be "modern" at any cost, Cohn remarked, "Sometimes I feel I don’t belong in the modern school at all. Lots of people try to be modern and lose sight of the path". Cohn has a conscious pride in being in the "mainstream" and is not ashamed of his debt to Armstrong, Young, Hawkins and the other giants who antedate Charlie Parker.

This program is an informal blowing session. It makes you want to dance. All of which is to say that a detailed analysis of the selections in this album, chorus by chorus, would be an academic choice not in keeping with the spirit of the date. A few random highlights might be pointed out. Like the beauty of Cohn's tone in "Softly", the simplicity and sincerity of his conception; the of "When Day is Done"; the way Cohn livens up "Blue Lou", darting in and out like a flash. Or take Cohn's slow-tempo "Blues" original for insight into his New Orleans-oriented side; or "Idaho" to see why the rhythm section rates as New York'’s finest; or listen to "We Three" if you want to know where the expression wail came from. "Be Loose" with its repeated figure exchanged by Rehak and Cohn in perpetual motion is a delight.

Here is modern jazz that continually arouses subtle associations with jazz's storied past without injecting an archaic note. The distinctive craftsmanship of all five musicians showcased here guarantees listening pleasure for connoisseur and layman alike. Swing on this. It will get good to you. *Gary Kramer (from the liner notes)*

1 - We Three

(Mysels, Robertson, Cogane)

2 - Idaho

(Jesse Stone)

3 - The Things I Love

(Barlow, Harris)

4 - Singin The Blues

(Robinson, Conrad, Lewis, Young)

5 - Be Loose

(Al Cohn)

6 - When Day Is Done

(DeSylva, Katscher)

7 - Good Old Blues

(Al Cohn)

8 - Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise

(Romberg, Hammerstein II)

9 - Abstractact Of You

(Al Cohn)

10 - Blue Lou

(Mills, Sampson)

11 - Them There Eyes

(Pinkard, Tracey, Tauber)

Al Cohn (tenor sax), Frank Rehak (trombone),

Hank Jones (piano), Milt Hilton (bass), Osie Johnson (drums).

Recorded at Webster Hall, New York City, September 29, 1956

✳✳✳

Atlantic Records' entry into the jazz field is an auspicious one this month. With Shorty, they resorted to the simple, yet previously unthought-of expedient of waxing Rogers and the group with which he works regularly in L.A. — Jimmy Giuffre, clarinet, tenor, and baritone; Pete Jolly, piano; Curtis Counce, bass, and Shelly Manne, drums.

And it turns out to be a joy to hear. Shorty plays much more distinctive trumpet when he's with a small group, for some reason, and Giuffre is a gas on clarinet (note particularly Martians Go Home, which also is recommended as the title of the year). Jolly is going to be a highly ranked pianist one day, and the work Manne has done in the last three years has caused me to completely change the opinion I had of his work at that time.

Perhaps Nesuhi Ertegun's album notes best explain what goes on here: "You can hear Shorty for the first time without changes or additions of personnel. It's evident at once that these five musicians have worked together for a long time and are thoroughly accustomed to each others' styles. There exists in this group an instinctive affinity and rapport that can never be duplicated by a band assembled just for a recording session".

For the group spirit, for Shorty's strong horn, for Giuffre’s great reed work, for Shelly's swing — all the stars.

*Jack Tracy (Down Beat, August 24, 1955)*

Shorty Rogers And His Giants

The Swinging Mr. Rogers

Who said West Coast jazz doesn't swing?

It has become terribly fashionable, of late, to make learned distinctions between jazz of the East and West, as if the two never meet, to paraphrase a time-honored platitude. Either clearly stated or vaguely implied, the theory current in vogue goes as follows: East Coast jazz is really more emotional, more driving, closer to "real jazz", whatever that may be. West Coast jazz, we are told on the other hand, takes us into a rarefied atmosphere of intellectual games, is more cerebral, more abstract; it is supposed to be too concerned with harmonic complexities, and to show too many traces of the influence of the modern classical composers; sometimes it is even, God forbid, atonal. West Coast jazz is accused of lacking the pulse and passion of jazz; jazz is lost in the shuffle, so it goes, while the ivory-tower composers of the Hollywood hills are searching for artificial forms and designing their clever collages with bits of Bartók and Berg and Schoenberg and Stravinsky.

I would be the last one to deny the existence of an important and significant experimental jazz movement in the West. It's here, it's growing, and I am all for it. That the West Coast jazz composers are keenly aware of the great modern writers (just as the East Coast and Midwestern and Swedish jazz composers are), there's absolutely no doubt about it; but does this mean, as we are led to believe, that the West Coast school has turned its back to "real jazz"? For an answer to this strange accusation, I suggest you listen to this album.

Shorty has made many records for many companies with big groups and small groups, but strangely enough, never with his own band the way it regularly appears in Hollywood night clubs. On his first Long Play for Atlantic (several more are in preparation), you can hear Shorty Rogers and his Giants for the first time without changes or additions of personnel. It's evident at once that these five musicians have worked together for a long time and are thoroughly accustomed to each others' styles. There exists in this group an instinctive affinity and rapport that can never be duplicated by a band assembled just for a recording session. It is customary for such bands, by the way, to be called All-Star bands; this happens to be a real All-Star band, although it's Shorty's regular group.

It's easily understandable that a group working steadily together achieves a high degree of unity and cohesion; in the case of the Giants, such a unity by no means eliminates the element of surprise, the sudden outburst of an unexpected idea that adds so much to the pleasures of jazz listening. Here, these "surprises" are answered and developed almost instinctively by musicians who are quick to respond to each other. Listen, for instance, to Shorty's last break on "Not Really the Blues", immediately restated by Shelly Manne's drums.

We tried in the recording studio to get a sound for the band that would be as close as possible to its sound in clubs. If that was our object, you might wonder why the recordings weren't made in a club. The fact is that most clubs have horrible acoustics, at least for recording purposes; also, I've never been one to dig crowd noises during a musical performance.

I think these recordings reflect the "in-person" sound of the group rather faithfully, under somewhat idealized conditions. By this I mean that the piano part has more clarity than you'll hear in most clubs, and the bass line is easier to follow. Otherwise, we tried not to change the natural relation of the different instruments, in order to keep an accurate perspective of different volumes and shadings. We liked the sound of the band, and tried to capture it, not "improve" it.

*Nesuhi Ertegun (from the liner notes)*

1 - Isn't It Romantic

(R. Rodgers, L. Hart)

2 - Trickleydidlier

(Shorty Rogers)

3 - Oh Play That Thing

(Shorty Rogers)

4 - Not Really The Blues

(John Mandel)

5 - Martians Go Home

(Shorty Rogers)

6 - My Heart Stood Still

(R. Rodgers, L. Hart)

7 - Michele's Meditation

(Shorty Rogers)

8 That's What I'm Talkin' 'Bout

(Shorty Rogers)

Shorty Rogers (trumpet), Jimmy Giuffre (clarinet, tenor sax, baritone sax),

Pete Jolly (piano), Curtis Counce (bass), Shelly Manne (drums).

Recorded in Hollywood, California, March 1 (#1, #3 to #6) and March 3 (#2,#7, #8), 1955