Jazz goes to... Morey Feld

Morey Feld's Straight-Ahead Six

Jazz Goes To B'Way

Swing jazz audiences enjoyed the work of Morey Feld (August 15, 1915 – March 28, 1971) during several different periods of clarinet great Benny Goodman's career. As an elder statesman, Morey Feld was associated with several different George Wein festivals and touring projects. Eventually Feld pitched his tent in the mile-high city of Denver, Colorado and became an important spokesman for jazz among the cowboy hats. He came out of the midwest and its fertile breeding ground of bands in the '30s, playing with Ben Pollack, Joe Haymes and others. He first began playing with Goodman near the end of 1944.

The initial period with Goodman lasted a bit more than a year, followed by the beginning of another of the drummer's important relationships, this one with Eddie Condon. Condon would soon crank open his own venue in New York City, dedicated to styles of jazz that were being left behind. As might be expected, the move provided employment for drummers who played these styles with authority. As the '40s progressed, Feld revealed his mastery of various feels in the band of Buddy Morrow, behind many a guest at the Condon club and on a string of often uncredited free-lance recording sessions.

Goodman brought him back in the '50s, a decade when the drummer also held forth with Billy Butterfield, Joe Bushkin, Bobby Hackett and Peanuts Hucko. From 1955 the drummer was on staff as an ABC session player, emerging a bit more into the spotlight in the '60s when he began leading his own group. Feld's trio was well received at the 1964 New York World's Fair but his leadership activities did not prevent him from continuing the relationships with both Condon and Goodman. While working with the latter artist in 1966, Feld opened his own school of drumming. He toured all over the world with George Wein's Newport All Stars, then began trying out new environs. In 1968 he moved to California but skipped over the mountains shortly thereafter and settled in Denver. By 1969 he was well established with a band Hucko was leading out of Denver, and was also playing in a group that casually referred to itself as The World's Greatest Jazz Band. 

Feld died at age 55 while attempting to fight a fire at his Denver home. *Eugene Chadbourne*

The wedding of musical comedy songs with jazz bands, though seemingly incongruous, has survived for several decades, and, in fact, seems to be showing greater compatability than ever. It makes good common sense too, because show melodies, especially when written by such men as George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern and Cole Porter, are melodies with much musical merit, with interesting melodic structures and unusual chord changes. Jazz musicians, who play extemporaneously around the melody and the chords, find more meat in such showtunes than in the usual, stereotyped Tin Pan Alley numbers, and so, quite naturally, they prefer to play them.

All of the ten selections in Jazz Goes To B'Way were written by the composers just mentioned. They represent some of the best material from the legitimate and motion picture musical shows, and if the performances sound more than slightly inspired, you can credit the material just as much as the performers. 

Morey Feld, leader of the Straight-Ahead Six, is so fond of all the songs that he cautioned the musicians before the date not to stray too far away from the melody. Said the former Benny Goodman drummer, a product of Cleveland, Ohio, and now a fixture in the ABC network's New York studios, in explaining the purpose of the recordings: "All we were interested in was making some happy, swinging, sounds. We hope it swings and that it makes some people happy!"

*George T. Simon (liner notes)*

When jazz goes to Broadway it taps a rich and rewarding ore of fine tunes. Sticking to the more familiar show music the boys resound with some capable jazz artistry. Morey Feld's group is particularly effective with Cole Porter's great new standard, "It's All Right With Me". For cooler sounds and a much slower arrangement Jerome Kern's "Yesterdays" is a standout. Excellent material and a varied display of jazz tempo could provide successful sales. *Cashbox, January 14, 1956*

Jazz Goes To B'Way, a leader's album by Maury Feld, a drummer who was part of the Benny Goodman Orchestra. An exceptional record. This album features the vibraphone playing of Eddie Costa, the pianist and vibraphonist who died at the age of 31, with a unique improvisational style and a great sense of humor. It would not be an exaggeration to call it Eddie Costa's leader's album. Two years after its release, Eddie was voted Best New Artist in two categories, vibraphone and piano, in Down Beat magazine's international critics' poll. This hidden masterpiece, which predates his first leader's album, Eddie Costa Quintet, recorded with Phil Woods, Art Farmer, Teddy Kotick, and Paul Motian, moves with elegance and a sophisticated sense of white music. The content is a special Broadway collection of masterpieces created by great composers such as George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern, and Cole Porter. *recordsurplus.stores.jp*

Side 1

1 - Strike Up The Band

(Gershwin)

2 - Yesterdays

(Kern)

3 - I Didn't Know What Time It Was

(Rodgers, Hart)

4 - Lovely To Look At

(Kern)

5 - All Of You

(Porter)

Side 2

6 - It's All Right With Me

(Porter)

7 - Somebody Loves Me

(Gershwin)

8 - Dancing On The Ceiling

(Rodgers, Hart)

9 - Who Cares

(Gershwin)

10 - There's A Small Hotel

(Rodgers, Hart)

Peanuts Hucko (clarinet, tenor sax); Billy Byers (trombone [#3, #5, #8]); 

Billy Bauer [#1, #4, #6], Al Casamenti [#2, #7, #9, #10], Barry Galbraith [#3, #5, #8] (guitars); 

Don Elliot (mellophone [#1, #2, #4, #6, #7, #9, #10]); Eddie Costa (piano, vibes);

Jack Lesberg [#1, #4, #6], Arnold Fishkind [#2, #3, #5, #7 to #10] (basses), Morey Feld (drums).

Recorded in New York City, December 1955