Rare And Obscure Argo Recordings (VI)

Benny Golson

Take A Number From 1 To 10

Benny Golson is already strongly established as one of the most consistently fresh and personal composer-arrangers in jazz. What this uniquely challenging album accomplishes — in addition to re-emphasizing his writing capacities — is to focus on Benny's equally individual power and warmth as a player. 

It is by far his most impressive achievement on record as a tenor saxophonist as he ranges from an unaccompanied solo to the leadership of a 10-piece band. 

When I first became particularly aware of Benny's playing in Dizzy Gillespie’s big band five years ago, I was struck by the invigorating fact that he was one of the very few of the younger players with a big, full tone and a surging lyricism. Although modern in conception, he recalled the richness of Don Byas and the sinewy linear imagination of Lucky Thompson. For a time in recent years, Benny's playing style became less distinctive. There were explosive, multi-noted passages and less concern than before with melodic improvisation.

Now, however, Benny has decided on the direction he prefers; and this album heralds not only the return of his basic, warmly lyrical style but also marks its strengthening. He hasn’t lost in any degree his adventurousness, but all elements in his work are now part of an integrated, thoroughly distinctive whole.

The format of the album is unlike any that  Benny — or any other player — has attempted before. Beginning with one instrument, Benny's, an instrument is added on each track culminating in the exciting 10-piece arrangement, Time. The idea was conceived by Benny's manager, Kay Norton, as a frame for Benny's talent as an instrumentalist as well as a composer-arranger.

"It's not a gimmick", Benny emphasizes. "I did all of these with a strong conviction and feeling, because I wanted to try them. I'd  never recorded before all by myself or with a duo or a trio. And on the last three numbers, there were several techniques I wanted to develop for the first time on records".*Nat Hentoff (liner notes)* 

A record with a gimmick – but one that's totally great, and really unique for the time! The "1 to 10" in the title is the way that the album spins out – as track 1 features Golson blowing solo tenor, track 2 features him in duet, track 3 a trio – and so on, until track 10, which features a ten-piece group! One of the best things about the record is the way it really lets you focus on Golson's tone and phrasing – as even some of the bigger group tunes have a nicely laidback feel that's really dominated by Benny's solo work – and in a way, the record's a nice bridge between the more tightly arranged Golson sessions of the late 50s, and some of his looser sides of later years. Players include Cedar Walton, Curtis Fuller, Freddy Hubbard, and Albert Heath – among ohters – and titles include the Golson originals "Little Karin", "Swing It", "The Touch", "Impromptune", and "Time", plus versions of "You're My Thrill", "Out Of This World", and "I Fall In Love Too Easily". *Dusty Groove, Inc.*

Side 1

1 - You're My Thrill

(Lane, Washington)

2 - My Heart Belongs To Daddy

(Cole Porter)

3 - The Best Thing For You Is Me

(DeSylva, Henderson, Brown)

4 - Impromptune

(Benny Golson)

5 - Little Karin

(Benny Golson)

6 - Swing It

(Benny Golson)

Side 2

7 - I Fall In Love Too Easily

(Styne, Cahn)

8 - Out Of This World

(Arlen, Mercer)

9 - The Touch

(Benny Golson)

10 - Time

(Benny Golson)

Benny Golson (tenor saxophone); Art Farmer [#10], Bernie Glow [#9, #10],

Freddie Hubbard [#5 to #7], Nick Travis [#8 to #10] (trumpets);

Willie Ruff  (French horn [#8 to #10]); Bill Elton [#8 to #10],

Curtis Fuller [#6, #7] (trombones); Hal McKusick (alto sax [#8 to #10]); 

Sol Schlinger [#8 to #10], Sahib Shihab [#7] (baritones saxes);

Cedar Walton (piano [#4 to #7]); Tommy Williams (bass [#2 to #10]);

Albert Heath (drums [#3 to #10]).

Recorded at Nola's Penthouse Sound Studio, New York City, December 13, 1960 (#1 to #4),

December 14, 1960 (tracks #5 to #7) and April 11, 1961 (#8, #9, #10).

Art Farmer • Benny Golson - Meet The Jazztet

"This is a musical organization and we want it to sound like that, not like the usual jam session that goes under that name. The jam session can be a wonderful thing, but it’s a hell of a thing to try to pull off every night!" That’s the way Art Farmer thinks of the aims and ideas of The Jazztet. 

"What we’re actually trying to do is to get a loose sound that allows each man a chance to say what he has to say musically on his instrument, but still have uniformity and togetherness". That’s the way it is for Benny Golson. 

The Jazztet, in case you are meeting it for the first time is a musical organization that does not sound like the usual jam session, and in which each man has a chance to say what he, has to say, but in which there is still uniformity and togetherness.

The genesis of The Jazztet goes back to the summer of 1959. "Art had in mind to organize a group and approached me", Golson says, "and I had in mind to get a group and approached him!"

Farmer and Golson are both careful planners and this is reflected in the group. Arrangements are mutually discussed and plotted, and all the rest of the minutae of organizing and routining a band is a community enterprise. In a night club each member of the front line is given a feature number, and it is interesting, in view of their concept of the group as a unit, that even on such tunes the other two men are busy now and again with little backgrounds and fills.

They have deliberately chosen a name that does not include the name of any of the men and they are willing to fight club owners and anyone else for the length of time necessary to put this name across. "Naturally I think the music itself is the important thing", Golson says. "If you re really producing the music, you can call the group anything!" But The Jazztet is what they have elected to call it and it will stick. You can mark it down in your book as one of the groups in jazz that will make it. *Ralph J. Gleason (liner notes)*

The first album of "Meet Jazztet" is a musical manifesto of the first order. Meet The Jazztet must undoubtedly be placed among the jewels of modern jazz. Essential. *Ernest Stevenson*

When people discuss the cream of the hard-bop crop, names such as Clifford Brown and Max Roach, Art Blakey, and Horace Silver usually rise to the top. Without question, the Jazztet deserves inclusion in that discussion. Co-leaders Farmer and Golson had already made names for themselves before the sextet's 1960 recording debut; upstarts Curtis Fuller and McCoy Tyner were well on their way. Benefiting from Golson's usual crafty arrangements, the ensemble rolls through 10 cuts, offering a nifty combination of down-home funk and lyrical flair. Two of Golson's most revered compositions — the gentle "I Remember Clifford", led by Farmer's silky trumpet, and the urgent "Blues March" — accompany the original recording of Golson's "Killer Joe", which includes his verbal description of the title character. The band also rips merrily through Cole Porter's "It's All Right with Me" and struts easily through Gershwin's "It Ain't Necessarily So". *Marc Greilsamer*

One of the top hard bop contingents of the '50s and '60s, the Art Farmer and Benny Golson co-led group known as the Jazztet featured some of the best original charts and soloing of the entire era. While the group was only in existence between 1959-1962, its excellent reputation could rest on this stunning disc alone. Cut in 1960, the ten-track date features four of Golson's classic originals ("I Remember Clifford", "Blues March", "Park Avenue Petite", and "Killer Joe") and one very fetching Farmer-penned cut ("Mox Nix"). The rest of the standards-heavy mix is given the golden touch by the sextet. And what a combo this is — besides Farmer's svelte trumpet lines and Golson's frenetically vaporous tenor solos, one gets a chance to hear a young but already very accomplished McCoy Tyner, the tart and mercurial trombonist Curtis Fuller, and the streamlined rhythm tandem of Addison Farmer and Lex Humphries. An essential hard bop title. *Stephen Cook*

Here is the swinging debut of the Jazztet, the group that set the jazz world on fire just a few months after they made their official first public appearance on November 16, 1959 in New York’s Five Spot café.

Art Farmer and Benny Golson led this sextet that sounds like a big band, with the idea of giving ample space to each soloist, but within a framework that did more than set up lines at the beginning and end in a jam session type of group. With composer-arranger Golson doing the majority of the writing, this was fully accomplished. "I feel that with three horns, we can get any effect we want. How do we get such a big sound? It’s really no trick. It’s there and obvious — you just have to pick the right notes. They’re there. You have to emulate the things you have in your mind", said Golson.

The Jazztet won the new star award among jazz groups in the 1960 Down Beat International Jazz Critics poll. *Jordi Pujol*

Side 1

1 - Serenata

(Anderson, Parrish)

2 - It Ain't Necessarily So

(G. and I. Gershwin)

3 - Avalon

(Rose, DeSylva, Jolson)

4 - I Remember Clifford

(Golson)

5 - Blues March

(Golson)

Side 2

6 - It's All Right With Me

(Porter)

7 - Park Avenue Petite

(Golson)

8 - Mox Nix

(Farmer)

9 - Easy Living

(Robin, Rainger)

10 - Killer Joe

(Golson)

Art Farmer (trumpet), Benny Golson (tenor sax, narrator [#10]), Curtis Fuller (trombone), McCoy Tyner (piano), Addison Farmer (bass), Lex Humphries (drums).

Recorded at Nola Penthouse Studios, New York City, February 6, 9 and 10, 1960.