Roger Guérin - Paris Meetings

At the end of the 1940s, young French jazz musicians started flocking towards the two styles of modern jazz — bebop and cool. Paris was the capital of European jazz, and the talent of the local musicians playing in Parisian clubs was often comparable to that of their American colleagues. In that league, we found mostly French and some Belgian names, such as Bobby Jaspar, Martial Solal, Pierre Michelot, Maurice Vander, Jean-Louis Viale, Benoit Quersin, René Thomas, Barney Wilen, René Urtreger, and several others.

This album is dedicated to one of them in particular: trumpeter Roger Guérin (1926-2010). Despite having very few recordings under his name and spending most of his career as a sideman, Guérin was never underappreciated by jazz fans and critics: after all, he was chosen as the best French jazz trumpeter ten years in a row (1955-65) by the "Jazz-Hot" readers' and critics' poll. In these sessions we find him alongside great American jazzmen like James Moody, Jimmy Raney, Benny Golson and Bobby Timmons, but also in the company of his French comrades, giving his best in every performance.

He was involved in many of the projects that pushed the evolution of modern jazz in France. An arranger of the stature of Billy Byers, who worked in Paris for a while in 1956, described him like this: "There are some very good musicians in France: Roger Guérin is a great jazzman".

*Jordi Pujol* 

Roger Guérin

Le Formidable Roger Guérin

Paris Meetings

Best known for his stint with Quincy Jones' Big Band, Roger Guérin had a formidable career in Paris, being first call to sit in with the likes of Don Byas, Django Reinhardt and James Moody. This collection of sessions from the 50s has him co-leading a hard bop team with Benny Golson, leading his own quartet along with Christian Grros, Pierre Michelot and Martial Solal and fitting in as a sideman for guitarist Jimmy Raney or saxist James Moody.

The sessions with Moody have the Parker disciple  bouncing to "Deep Purple" and swooning on "More Than You Know", and with Raney at the helm the team gets more lithe and open sounding with Guerin and Raney doing winders with "Too Marvelous For Words" and luminescent on "What’s New". Golson's band sounds a lot like an Art Blakey session with Bobby Timmons at the piano, and the quintet does material from the drummer's songbook with muscular reads of "Blues March", "I Remember Clifford" and a hot "Moanin'". Guerin mixes the lyricism of Miles Davis with the gentleness of Chet Baker. You’re gonna like this cat! *George W. Harris*

1 - Deep Purple

(Peter De Rose)

2 - Bootsie

(James Moody)

3 - More Than You Know

(Youmans, Rose, Eliscu)

4 - Too Marvelous For Words

(Whiting, Mercer)

5 - Night And Day

(Cole Porter)

6 - Dinah

(Akst, Lewis, Young)

7 - What's New

(Haggart, Burke)

8 - Night In Tunisia

(Gillespie, Pappareli)

9 - Sweet Feeling

(Pierre Michelot)

10 - Ça Tourne

(Roger Guérin)

11 - Buggy And Soul

(Christian Chevallier)

12 - Vline

(Christian Chevallier)

13 - Chet

(Pierre Michelot)

14 - Mythe

(Pierre Michelot)

15 - Blues March

(Benny Golson)

16 - I Remember Clifford

(Benny Golson)

17 - Stablemates

(Benny Golson)

18 - Moanin'

(Bobby Timmons)

19 - Not Serious

(Roger Guérin)

#1 to #3:

originally issued as part of the album James Moody Quintet (Vogue LD 036)

Roger Guérin (trumpet), James Moody (alto sax), Raymond Fol (piano), Pierre Michelot (bass), Pierre Lemarchand (drums).

Recorded in Paris, July 27, 1951.

#4 to #7:

originally issued as part of the album Jimmy Raney Visits Paris (Dawn DLP-1120)

Roger Guérin (trumpet), Jimmy Raney (guitar), Maurice Vander (piano), Jean-Marie Ingrand (bass), Jean-Louis Viale (drums).

Recorded in Paris, February 10, 1954.

#8 to #10:

from the álbum Roger Guérin Quartet (Versailles 90 S 128)

Roger Guérin (trumpet), Martial Solal (piano), Pierre Michelot (bass), Christian Garros (drums), Dave Rivera (conga [#8, #10]).

Recorded in Paris, July 1956.

#11 to #14:

from the album Christian Chevallier Jazz Quartet (Columbia ESDF 1139)

Roger Guérin (trumpet), Christian Chevallier (piano), Pierre Michelot (bass), Christian Garros (drums).

Recorded in Paris, November 13, 1956.

#15 to #19:

from the album Roger Guérin-Benny Golson with Bobby Timmons (Columbia FP 1117)

#15 to #18:

Roger Guérin (trumpet), Benny Golson (tenor sax), Bobby Timmons (piano), Pierre Michelot (bass), Christian Garros (drums).

Recorded in Paris, December 12, 1958.

#19:

Roger Guérin (trumpet), Michel Hausser (vibes), Martial Solal (piano), Pierre Michelot (bass), Christian Garros (drums).

Recorded in Paris, December 18, 1958.

Chet Baker - Big Band

It would be pleasant to be able to write that Rickard Bock, the chief panjandrum of  Pacific Jazz Enterprizes, heard Chet Baker playing with a big band years ago and thereupon resolved to some day record him in this context —as he has done so felicitiously in the present album. The fact is, however, that when Chet was part of the big band scene not a single recording company was setting up mikes and tape machines to impound his blowing for posterity. This is understandable when you consider that the groups with which the young hornman was associated were such as a junior high school orchestra and U.S. Army military bands.

Chet, who got his start in Yale (Oklahoma, that is) on December 23, 1929, became a Californian in 1940 when his family moved to the Los Angeles area. He began playing in junior high and within only a few years came to national attention of sorts. That was when the draft board pulled his number from the barrel. This stroke of good fortune eventually landed Baker in Berlin with the 298th Army Band. He is reputed to have been better than adequate as a member of the brass ensemble on "Stars and Stripes Forever" and "When the Caissons Go Rolling Along". And his solo work on that rousing selection, "Reveille", was so respected by those who heard it that literally hundreds rose to their feet.

In September, 1955 Chet began a European tour which was scheduled for four months but which was stretched to eight, so responsive was Baker's reception.  During this tour, the longest yet made by an American jazzman, Chet made some radio appearances with Kurt Edelhagan's Orchestra. Several air checks of these performances subsequently came to the attention of Bock and Woody Woodward, general manager of Pacific Jazz Enterprises. Both immediately noted that Chet was playing in a much more aggressive manner than they ever had heard him employ. Out of this came the idea of recording Chet with groups which, while relatively small, still would produce a big band sound and provide a suitable showcase for Baker’s lustier blowing. 

Herewith you have the result, and I believe you will find it one of the most intriguing albums Chet yet has made. Three of the tracks are done by an eleven-piece group. On the five other sides Chet leads a nontet.

The arrangements not only capture the big band sound which was sought but, even more importantly, provide a variety of tonal textures, rhythmic patterns and tempos, along with ample solo space, which the top jazz artists who made this date exploit to the fullest.

Adding everything up, there’s only one answer: a most listenable album. *Russ Wilson (liner notes)*

These tracks — essentially by two different sized groups, one of nine and one of 11 musicians — presented Chet to an American record-buying public in an unfamiliar setting, given that hitherto his producer Richard Bock had unstintingly promoted Baker's small group persona. But Chet's lengthy 1955-56 stint in Europe had teamed him up with Kurt Edelhagen's orchestra and more tellingly with a Parisian octet for Barclay Records. Hearing these discs, and realising he had missed a trick, Bock celebrated the trumpeter's return to the West Coast with this pair of sessions, that put his uncharacteristically aggressive trumpet at the head of these larger ensembles. Some of the charts are by Baker's regular small group colleague Phil Urso, some by Jimmy Heath, and some —the least conventional— by the French bassist Pierre Michelot, who had played on the Barclay sessions.

Not surprisingly, Michelot's composition "Chet" makes much of Bond's skilled bass playing, but there are also fine moments crafted to show off Bob Burgess's trombone in this and Michelot's other piece, "Mythe". *Alyn Shipton*

Releasing an entire album under the moniker Chet Baker Big Band is a bit of a misnomer, as only the first four sides actually incorporate an 11-person configuration. The remaining tracks from the long-player feature a slightly smaller nonet configuration. Among the luminaries joining Baker (trumpet) and participating in the big-band arrangements are Art Pepper (alto sax), Bud Shank (alto sax), Phil Urso (tenor sax), and Bobby Timmons (piano). The critical argument proposing that Baker's style is more akin to bop —and the residual post-bop— than the West Coast cool that he is often connected with gets tremendous validation throughout not only the four big-band tracks, but also the remainder of the album. The band bops with tremendous verve behind Baker's unmistakable leads. Jimmy Heath's ultrahip arrangements —especially of "Tenderly" and "A Foggy Day"— allow the soloists to improvise fluidly from within the context of the larger unit. The Pierre Michelot composition "Mythe" is notable for some outstanding soloing from Baker and Timmons. It is a shame that poor master tape editing —a motif that haunts many Dick Bock productions— mars the overall aesthetic. Of the nonet sides, the band really jumps and responds best to the original compositions such as Phil Urso's "Phil's Blues" and "V-Line". The horn blend on these recordings is likewise striking. *Lindsay Planer*

Side 1

1 - A Foggy Day

(George and  Ira Gershwin)

2 - Mythe

(C. H. Chevallier)

3 - Worrying The Life Out Of Me

(Mole, Signorelli, Russell)

4 - Chet

(Pierre Michelot)

5 - Not Too Slow

(C. H. Chevallier)

Side 2

6 - Phil's Blues

(Phil Urso)

7 - Darn That Dream

(DeLange, Van Heusen)

8 - Dinah

(Lewis, Young, Akst)

9 - V-Line

(C. H. Chevallier)

10 - Tenderly

(Gross, Lawrence)

#2, #4, #5, #6, #8, #9:

Chet Baker (trumpet), Bob Burgess (trombone), Phil Urso (alto and tenor saxes), Bob Graf (tenor sax), Fred Waters (alto sax), Bill Hood (baritone sax), Bobby Timmons (piano), Jimmy Bond (bass), Peter Littman (drums).

Recorded in Los Angeles, California, October 18, 1956.

#3:

Chet Baker (trumpet), Bob Burgess (trombone), Phil Urso (alto and tenor saxes), Bob Graf (tenor sax), Fred Waters (alto sax), Bill Hood (baritone sax), Bobby Timmons (piano), Jimmy Bond (bass), James McKean (drums).

Recorded in Los Angeles, California, October 19, 1956.

#1, #7, #10:

Chet Baker, Conte Candoli, Norman Faye (trumpets); Frank Rosolino (trombone); Art Pepper, Bud Shank (alto saxes); Bill Perkins, Phil Urso (tenor saxes); Bobby Timmons (piano); Jimmy Bond (bass); Lawrence Marable (drums).

Recorded in Los Angeles, California, October 26, 1956.