Five-Star Collection... Herbie Mann

Herbie Mann Quartet

Flamingo, volume 2

We have been a quartet for three months. Joe Puma, our guitarist, has worked and recorded with Artie Shaw, Louis Bellson, Don Elliott and Chris Connor, and has his own  album on Bethlehem (BCP-1012). He is 28 and from the Bronx. Our bassist is the 26 year-old Chuck Andrus from Holyoke, Massachusetts. He has worked with Terry Gibbs,  Stan Getz and Claude Thornhill and recorded with Johnny Williams. Chuck is studying bass with Philip Sklar of the NBC Symphony. Harold Granowsky, our drummer, is 24  years old and hails from Indianapolis, Indiana. He has worked with Lennie Tristano, Joe Roland and Charlie Barnet.

We started planning this album two months ago, carefully selecting each tune and then treating each one individually, utilizing the various colorings and shadings the group could produce.

I’ve had the idea for quite a while to get sort of a "Four  Brothers-type" sound with three flutes and alto flute, instead of three tenors and baritone sax. Joe (Puma) arranged "I've Told Ev'ry Little Star" on which I played all four flute parts (sounds like the Four Brothers before their voices changed!). *Herbie Mann (liner notes)*

One of the best of the jazz flutists, Herbie Mann, has here produced the most varied jazz flute album to date. His close, tasty support comes from bassist Chuck Andrus, guitarist Joe Puma, and drummer Harold Granowsky. Herbie wrote the first three originals; Quincy Jones did the blues waltz, Jasmin; Mann is responsible for Beverly, and the last tune is Puma's. On all except the tenor tribute to Cohn, Herbie plays flute and alto flute, and on two numbers, he plays four flute parts via tape. On Beverly, he’s heard on flute unaccompanied.

What makes this session outstanding is Mann's lyrical musicianship and his assuredness with the flute, a difficult instrument to swing and to otherwise manipulate in the jazz idiom. There is also Mann's unusually wide-ranged personality which makes him equally convincing in happy whimsy, sorrowful ballads, hopeful ballads, swingers, the Villa-Lobos-inspired Sorimao, and even a blues waltz. He also writes well, as particularly evidenced by Sorimao, One Way Love, and Beverly. The notes are by Mann and are so much more helpful and concise that the work of some of the "professional" writers Bethlehem has been using. The up-tempo numbers in this set, by the way, would be a fine way to introduce youngsters to jazz. Oldsters, too.

*Nat Hentoff (Down Beat, November 16, 1955 [5 stars])*

1 - I've Told Ev'ry Little Star

(Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II)

2 - Love Is A Simple Thing

(Arthur Siegel, June Carroll)

3 - There's No You

(Tom Adair, Hal Hopper)

4 - Sorimao

(Herbie Mann)

5 - The Influential Mr. Cohn

(Herbie Mann)

6 - A One Way Love

(Herbie Mann)

7 - The Surrey With The Fringe On Top

(Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II)

8 - Flamingo

(Ted Grouya, Edmund Anderson)

9 - Little Orphan Annie

(Gus Kahn, Joe Sanders)

10 - Jasmin

(Quincy Jones)

11 - Beverly

(Herbie Mann)

12 - Woodchuck

(Joe Puma)

Herbie Mann (flute, alto flute, tenor sax), Joe Puma (guitar),

Charles Andrus (bass), Harold Granowsky (drums).

Recorded in New York City, June, 1955