Sam Most... ★1952 • 1954★

 Sam Most (1930-2003) was born in Atlantic City, NJ, and began making a name for himself in nearby New York City, where his family moved when he was four years old. Sam played several instruments, including piano, saxophone, clarinet, and flute. It was with the last two that he earned a reputation as a trendsetter among modern jazz musicians, and it is these two instruments that are featured here.

Sam's earliest influence and inspiration came from his brother Abe, ten years his senior, who was the star clarinetist in the bands of Les Brown and Tommy Dorsey. At 20, Sam briefly played also with Dorsey, and later with the bands of Shep Fields, Boyd Raeburn, and Don Redman. However, his main claim to fame was the stellar work he did with his own modern groups, where his distinctive clarinet style (notably focusing on the instrument's higher register) and his remarkable agility on the flute blended so superbly.

In the summer of 1952, Sam truly came into his own when he recorded the flute feature "Undercurrent Blues". At the time, jazz flute was little more than a novelty, rarely featured in recordings or performances in the modern bebop style. "Undercurrent Blues" showcased the instrument's potential in a fresh way and, while not a major hit, it caught the attention of many musicians, establishing Sam as the first modern jazz flutist.

Herbie Mann, the first jazz flutist to achieve widespread popularity, once said, "When I started playing jazz on flute, there was only one record out: Sam Most's Undercurrent Blues".

Sam's emergence on the jazz scene was further recognized in 1954 when he won the New Star clarinet division in the Down Beat Critics' Poll.

This CD set brings together, for the first time, Sam Most's earliest recordings as the leader of his sextets from 1952 to 1954. *Jordi Pujol*

Sam Most Sextettes 

Undercurrent Blues

Prestige, Debut And Vanguard Sessions

When LA was truly "La La Land"

Jazz musicians had it nice in LA in the 1950s and 60s, making good money playing in the studios for movies and TV shows and then hitting the clubs at night for hip gigs. And they could all afford to buy a house in the suburbs! What could go wrong?!?

Here is a Fresh Sound Records reissue that prove jazzers didn't have to suffer to be creative.

Playing flute and clarinet, Sam Most made a nice career as a studio stud, still finding time to put out an impressive number of his own albums. These sessions from 1952-54 (ironically recorded in NYC) start with Most with Doug Mttone/tp, Chuck Wayne/g, Dick Hyman/p, Clyde Lombardi/b and Jackie Moffett/dr with the leader's flute sublime on "Undercurrent Blues" and his clarinet bouncy on "Taking A Chance On Love". A larger band brings in Urbie Green/tb, Bob Dorough/p, Percy Heath/b, Mettome/tp and L ouie Bellson/dr for a classy take of "Scroobydoo" and classical "I Hear A Rhapsody". The band further expand with some charts by Quincy Jones on a hip "Skippy" and suave "Open House" with Jones' own "Blues Junction" a nice showcase for Most's licorice stick. Woodwind wonders.

When it was hep to be hip! *George W. Harris*

1 - Undercurrent Blues

(Sam Most)

2 - First With The Most

(Sam Most)

3 - Sometimes I’m Happy

(Youmans, Caesar, Grey)

4 - Takin' A Chance On Love

(V.Duke, J. La Touche)

5 - Scrooby Doo

(Bob Dorough)

6 - I Hear A Rhapsody

(Fragos, Baker, Gasparre)

7 - The Night, We Called It A Day

(M. Dennis, T. Adair)

8 - A Cuss Called Coss

(Sam Most)

9 - Eullalia

(Bob Dorough)

10 - There Will Never Be Another You

(Carl O. Begner)

11 - Notes To You

(Sam Most)

12 - Skippy

(Ronnie Woellmer)

13 - Blues Junction

(Quincy Jones)

14 - Just Tutshen

(Sam Most)

15 - My OId Flame

(Johnson, Coslow)

16 - You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To

(Cole Porter)

17 - Open House

(Ronnie Woellmer)

18 - Give Me The Simply Live

(R. Bloom, H. Ruby)

19 - Everything Happens To Me

(M. Dennis, T. Adair)

#1 to #4: from the album Introducing a New Star: Sam Most (Prestige EP-1322)

Doug Mettome (trumpet), Sam Most (flute, clarinet), Chuck Wayne (guitar),

Dick Hyman (piano), Clyde Lombardi (bass), Jackie Moffett (drums).

Recorded in New York City, June 10, 1952

#5 to #10: from the album Sam Most Quartet Plus Two (Debut DLP-11)

#11: from album Hall of Fame (Design DLP 29)

Doug Mettome (trumpet), Urbie Green (trombone), Sam Most (flute, clarinet), 

Bob Dorough (piano), Percy Heath (bass), Louie Bellson (drums).

Recorded in New York City, December 29, 1953

#12 to #19: from the album Sam Most Sextet (Vanguard VRS-8014)

Sam Most (flute, clarinet), Marty Flax(baritone sax), Bill Triglia (piano), 

Barry Galbraith (guitar), Aaron Bell (bass), Bobby Donaldson (drums).

Recorded in New York City, December 3, 1954

Duke Ellington For Christmas

 Then, in 1892, Tchaikovsky's famous ballet, The Nutcracker, debuted. Because the ballet is set on Christmas Eve and the hero is a nutcracker come to life, the products quickly became associated with holiday decor.

The story of The Nutcracker is loosely based on the Ernest Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann fantasy story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King", about a girl who befriends a nutcracker that comes to life on Christmas Eve and wages a battle against the evil Mouse King.

The San Francisco ballet performed "The Nutcracker" on Christmas Eve of 1944. But it wasn't until the 1960s that performances of the complete "Nutcracker" ballet really took off as an annual Christmas tradition around the world.

Allow me to respect the tradition accompanied by the quintessential jazz orchestra.

May this entry also serve to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Duke Ellington And His Orchestra

The Nutcracker Suite

By the time Duke Ellington recorded his holiday LP The Nutcracker Suite for the Columbia label in the summer of 1960, he had already led a four-decade career as a peerless innovator and leader of an orchestra of legendary virtuosity.

Though his fame had somewhat waned by the bebop era of the early 1950s, Ellington enjoyed a well-deserved career resurgence with the overwhelming reaction to his 1956 live date Ellington at Newport, and this renewed vitality seemed to expand his horizons still further to encompass ever more ambitious large-scale works, his concerts of sacred music, soundtrack composing, collaboration with John Coltrane and Charles Mingus, etc.

>The Nutcracker Suite< was Ellington’s first album-length project devoted to the work of another composer, but it’s not the only thing that makes this recording a standout in his discography. A cursory glance at the album cover immediately draws attention for its central image that features both Ellington and his longtime musical partner, composer, and arranger Billy Strayhorn — the first time Strayhorn’s image graced an Ellington cover — and for the listing of three surnames as the creators of the work: Ellington, Strayhorn, and Tchaikovsky. This equality of billing makes complete sense in retrospect — Strayhorn had the idea for the project in the first place and reimagined the suite to best suit the Ellington Orchestra — but to openly suggest that Duke Ellington was not the singular architect of his own work was an unprecedented (and overdue) acknowledgment of Strayhorn’s talent and his importance as a major figure in jazz in his own right.

Producer Irving Townsend contributed the liner notes to the original release, and in his opening relates a jaw-dropping, but completely apocryphal, anecdote about Tchaikovsky and Ellington meeting in Las Vegas — the Russian died six years before Duke was born and only traveled to the U.S. once in 1891 to conduct concerts on the East Coast — but Townsend most likely meant that it was during Duke’s Riviera Hotel residency that he made the decision to adapt Tchaikovsky’s work. Since Strayhorn masterminded the project, this is also not strictly accurate, but effectively gets us into the background of the album. *Rusty Aceves (sfjazz.org)*

Duke Ellington and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky met in Las Vegas while Duke's band was setting attendance records at the Riviera Hotel. For the first time in Ellington history, Duke had decided to devote an entire album to arrangements of another composer's works instead of his own, and Tchaikovsky was the natural choice.

Because the suite is a favorite form for Ellington composition, the Nutcracker was the obvious Tchaikovsky work to choose.

Duke and Billy Strayhorn needed some reassurance that nobody, including the famous Russian composer, would mind if the Suite was translated into the Ellington style, but once these fears were banished, they attacked the “Sugar-Plum Fairy” and the “Waltz of the Flowers” as if they were no more sacred than “Perdido.”

Duke's band had undergone some changes during his Las Vegas stand, and as he arrived in Los Angeles to begin the recording, the trombone section included two Ellington alumni, Lawrence Brown and Juan Tizol, back for postgraduate courses.

The rhythm section also included Sam Woodyard, back with the band after a year's absence, and Aaron Bell, one of the fine bass players in jazz. Eddie Mullins was new in the trumpet section, as was Meringuito, and Willie Cook had returned to the band. The sax section and, of course, the piano player, were unchanged.

Duke Ellington's first brush with the classics is successfully completed. It is a tribute, I think, to Duke and Billy and to Tchaikovsky. The Ellington forces have proved once again that in any setting, this great band and its strong personality pervade all the music it plays. But that Tchaikovsky has also triumphed is an indication of the perennial strength of his music. As Duke commented, "That cat was it". *Irving Townsend (liner notes)*

1- Overture

2 - Toot Toot Tootie Toot (Dance Of The Reed-Pipes)

3 - Peanut Brittle Brigade (March)

4 - Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance Of The Sugar-Plum Fairy)

5 - Entr'acte

6 - The Volga Vouty (Russian Dance)

7 - Chinoiserie (Chinese Dance)

8 - Dance Of The Floreadores (Waltz Of The Flowers)

9 - Arabesque Cookie (Arabian Dance)

 (All compositins by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and adaptaed by Duke Ellington)

Willie Cook, Fats Ford, Ray Nance, Clark Terry (trumpets), 

Lawrence Brown, Booty Wood, Britt Woodman (trombones),

Juan Tizol (valve trombone), Jimmy Hamilton (clarinet, tenor sax), 

Johnny Hodges (alto sax), Russell Procope (alto sax, clarinet), 

Paul Gonsalves (tenor sax), Harry Carney (baritone sax, clarinet, bass clarinet),

Duke Ellington (piano), Aaron Bell (bass), Sam Woodyard (drums):

Recorded at Radio Recorders, Los Angeles, California,

May 26 (#1, #5), May 31 (#2), June 3 (#4, #8), June 21 (#3, #7) and June 22 (#6, #9), 1960.

✤

And now, time for holidays.

To all blog readers, my best wishes for a great 2025.

Out Let will be back next year... exactly on January 20th.

Aaron Sachs - Quintet, Sextet And Octet Ensembles

Aaron Sachs (1923-2014) was a native New Yorker who grew up in the Bronx. After studying clarinet with private teachers, in 1941, still in his teens, Sachs landed his first job with Babe Russin, playing clarinet and alto saxophone, the latter through self-training. That same year, he joined vibraphonist Red Norvo's Septet, alongside fellow Bronx musicians Shorty Rogers and Eddie Bert. After a brief period with the Van Alexander orchestra in 1943, Aaron rejoined Norvo in January 1944, solidifying his reputation as a skilled clarinetist and earning the prestigious Esquire "New Star" award in 1945.

Between 1945 and 1946, he performed both instruments with Benny Goodman, Buddy Rich, and Charlie Ventura bands. In 1946, Sachs formed his quintet, Aaron Sachs and his Manor Re-bops, establishing himself as the first jazz musician to embrace bebop on the clarinet, preceding Tony Scott and John LaPorta.

In 1948 Aaron married singer Helen Merrill, a union that lasted only a few years, as they divorced in 1956.

His tenure with the Earl Hines sextet from 1952 to 1953 allowed him to develop his talent as a tenor saxophonist. He admitted, "I enjoy playing both instruments, but I am disappointed that the clarinet isn't used more, both in jazz and pop records today." Sachs had Lester Young as his main influence, and that's how he wanted to play both tenor sax and clarinet. Subsequently, Aaron led his own combo at Cafe Society in New York for a period. Later, he worked as a freelancer in commercial recording sessions, primarily playing the tenor saxophone. Sachs cited Lester Young as his main influence for both instruments.

Leonard Feather once remarked, "Aaron has proved that he can bring to both instruments the taste, style, and musicianship that bespeak artistry rather than mere versatility for its own sake."

This CD compilation features three albums recorded by Aaron between 1954 and 1957, showcasing his talent as an instrumentalist and composer alongside some of the finest jazz musicians from the New York scene. The arrangements of these recordings were skillfully crafted to provide a supportive backdrop for either clarinet or tenor saxophone, highlighting Sachs' versatility and artistry. *Jordi Pujol*

There was such a surfeit of great sax players in the 1950s that it’s understandable that many got overlooked. Here’s a chance to see what you’ve been missing with this rich reissue from Fresh Sound Records.

Aaron Sachs is not a household name, but he was with a number of important artists such as Shorty Rogers and Red Norvo. This single disc set finds him with some impressive company, giving his ideas to mostly originals in a sound that has “LA Cool” written all over for it, even though it was all recorded in The Big Apple.

He plays both a Lester Young-Zoot Sims inspired tenor, and a stripped down Buddy DeFranco styled clarinet, in quintet, sextet and octet settings, mixing and matching with Urbie Green/tb, Barry Galbraith-Jimmy Raney-Dick Garcia/g, Aaron Bell-Clyde Lombardi/b, Nat Pierce Hall Overton/p, Joe Roland/vibes and Osie Johnson/dr. Sachs blows like a West Coaster on "One Track" and is gorgeously fluffy on "Aaron’s Blues", fluttering on "Conversations" and sublime on "Why Shouldn’t I?" while digging in on the Basie-ish "Wiggins". His licorice stick is cool for "Kingfish" and flexible for "Gorme Has Her Day" with a nice bounce for "You're My Thrill". Warm and breezy.

*George W. Harris*

1 - One Track

(Sachs, Johnson)

2 - Helen

(Sachs, Johnson)

3 - Kingfish

(Quincy Jones)

4 - Conversation

(Sachs, Galbraith)

5 - The Bullfrog

(Quincy Jones)

6 - If You Are But A dream

(Jaffe, Fulton, Bonx)

7 - Aaron's Blues

(Aaron Sachs)

8 - You're My Thrill

(Gorney, Clare)

9 - Platter Pie

(Aaron Sachs)

10 - Why Shouldn't I?

(Cole Porter)

11 - Ah! The Pain

(Billy Ver Plank)

12 - Rondo Blues

(Phil Sunkel)

13 - Just Sick Blues

(Billy Ver Plank)

14 - Mona's Kimona

(Nat Pierce)

15 - Conversation

(Sachs, Galbraith)

16 - Blue Sophisticate

(Benny Golson)

17 - Countryfied

(Phil Sunkel)

18 - Wiggins

(Billy Ver Plank)

19 - Gorme Has Her Day

(Aaron Sachs)

20 - I Can't Believe

(Aaron Sachs)

21 - Hall's Loft

(Aaron Sachs)

22 - Nancy

(Van Heusen, Silvers)

#1 to #6, from the album Aaron Sachs Sextette (Bethlehem BCP-1008)

Aaron Sachs (clarinet [#3, #6], tenor sax [#1, #2, #4, #5]),

Urbie Green (trombone), Danny Bank (baritone sax),

Barry Galbraith (guitar), Clyde Lombardi (bass), Osie Johnson (drums).

Recorded in New York City, November 1954

#7 to #11, from the album Jazzville Vol.3 (Dawn DLP1114)

Aaron Sachs Sextet

Aaron Sachs (clarinet [#8, #19, #11), tenor sax (#7, #9),

Jimmy Cleveland (trombone), Joe Roland (vibes),

Dick Garcia (guitar), Aaron Bell (bass), Osie Johnson (drums)

Recorded in New York City, 1956

#12 to #22, from the album Clarinet and Co. (Rama RLP1004)

#12 to #18: Aaron Sachs Octet

Aaron Sachs (clarinet [#14, #17], tenor sax [#12, #13, #15, #16, #18]),

Phil Sunkel, Bernie Glow (trumpets), Frank Rehak (trombone), Gene Allen (baritone sax),

Nat Pierce (piano), Aaron Bell (bass), Osie Johnson (drums).

Recorded in New York City, February 18 and 21, 1957

#19 to #22: Aaron Sachs Quintet

Aaron Sachs (clarinet [#19-21] & tenor sax [#22]), Hall Overton (piano),

Jimmy Raney (guitar), Aaron Bell (bass), Osie Johnson (drums).

Recorded in New York City, March 4, 1957

Sam Most Sextet

One of the most difficult feats in modern jazz is the formation of a "new sound", one that will have musical validity as well a commercial acceptance. Every type of instrument, from the harmonica to de harpsichord, has been utilized, and in 1955 the flute is emerging as a favored instrument.

Sam Most is equally at home on the clarinet and flute. His brother, Abe, was for years one of the great jazz clarinetist, with Les Brown and other bands, before settling down to the security of Hollywood studio work. Sam studied at Juillard and played with a variety of orchestras before joining the Mat Matthews Quintet. 

Like many classically-trained younger jazz musicians, Sam Most is primarily concerned with experimental rhythmic and harmonic patterns. He prefers the discipline of arrangements to the usual free-wheeling collective improvisations of the Vanguard jazz sessions. The result is that three of the outstanding composer-arrangers of modern jazz did the writing for this session; Hall Overton, Quincy Jones, and Ronnie Woelmer. *John Hammond (liner notes)*

Side 1

1 - Skippy

(Woelmer)

2 - Give Me The Single Life

(Ruby, Bloom)

3 - My Old Flame

(Johnson, Coslow)

4 - Just Tutshen

(Most)

Side 2

5 - Blues Junction

(Quincy Jones)

6 - You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To

(Porter)

7 - Everything Happens To Me

(Adair, Dennis)

8 - Open House

(Woelmer)

Sam Most (clarinet, flute), Marty Flax (baritone sax), Barry Galbraith (guitar), Bill Triglia (piano), Aaron Bell (bass), Bobby Donaldson (drums).

Recorded in New York City, December 3, 1954. 

Seldon Powell - Sextet • Featuring Jimmy Cleveland

Seldon Powell (1928-1997) was not an adventurer in either conception or sound. He was a solid, consolidated modern tenorist with a big, full tone, a superb beat, and largely interesting logically structured ideas. Powell plays with invigorating straight forwardness. He has the ability to take you with him all the way, in all tempos, and on all registers of his horn. On ballads, he combines lyricism with guts, and on the up tempos, he really digs in. Barry Ulanov mentioned in his excellent notes, that Powell had a ceaseless flow of melodic inspiration, a very precise description of what is so attractive, both in his playing and in these recordings. *Jordi Pujol*

When I first heard Seldon Powell, I enthused, because the boy from Brooklyn was such a happy throwback to the great days of the tenor saxophone. Tone and taste and a consummate ease on his horn, these were his virtues — and they stili are. The ability to make everything swing, that too. And no particular school ties, but just a fine blowing tenorman with a simple, smooth, and compelling modern style of his own. 

The Powell Style? A new school, maybe? A new sound that everybody will have to pick up on to stay au courant in jazz? No, schools are not made this way, only individuals. For the components of the Seldon Powell style are gifts, not gimmicks. They cannot be bought or sold, picked up or put down, and though perhaps they can be imitated, it will only be by a similarly well endowed musician. 

Most notable of the Powell talents, it seems to me, is the ceaseless flow of melodic inspiration. Simple enough stuff, I suppose, but so felicitously put together that one’s attention stays riveted to his lines, bar after bar. Sometimes it’s a countermelody. Sometimes it’s the tune itself, superlatively re-accented or de-accented to give it a sinuous new shape. Sometimes it’s a fill-in, a cadenza. Sometimes it’s a brief introduction to a solo, sometimes the wispiest of codas. But in every case, there is no doubt about the defining element: it’s the melodic line. Seldon thinks and plays that way, consecutively, note after note, in forward melodic motion, and that’s the way one hears him. *Larry Ulanov (liner notes)*

Side 1

1 - Woodyn' You

(D. Gillespie)

2 - She's Funny That Way

(Moret, Whiting)

3 - Lolly Gag

(S. Powell)

4 - Missy's Melody

(M. Gold)

5 - I'll Close My Eyes

(Reid, Kaye)

6 - 11th Hour Blues

(S. Powell)

Side 2

7 - Undecided

(Robins, Shavers)

8 - A Flower Is A Lonesome Thing

(B. Strayhorn)

9 - It's A Cryin' Shame

(Hoffman, Blake)

10 - Sleepy Time Down South

(L. & O. Rene, Muse)

11 - Button Nose

(S. Powell)

12 - Biscuit For Duncan

(S. Powell)

Seldon Powell (tenor sax); Jimmy Cleveland (trombone); Freddie Green (guitar); Roland "Hac" Hanna (piano); Aaron Bell (bass); Osie Johnson [#1, #2, #4, #5, #6, #8, #9, #11], Gus Johnson [#3, #7, #10, #12] (drums).

Recorded in New York City, 1956.