Five-Star Collection... The Down Beat Five-Star History (Part II)

In the previous post, we revisited the origins of Down Beat's first attempt to formalize its record-rating system through simple note symbols.

In this second part, we turn to the moment when the magazine tried to sharpen its critical tools with a short-lived but revealing experiment:

✤ 1951✤ 

A Brief Experiment in Precision:

Down Beat's 1951 One-to-Ten Rating Scale

By 1951, Down Beat felt the need for greater nuance in its reviews. The solution was a short-lived numerical scale running from 1 to 10, an attempt to introduce finer gradations of quality at a moment when the LP era was just beginning to reshape listening habits.

Here we revisit that transitional system and reproduce the magazine’s statement explaining its purpose and scope.

In the January 26, 1951 issue, the section "What’s On Wax"—written by Jack Tracy, Pat Harris, and George Hoefer—introduced a far more precise numerical scale ranging from 1 to 10.

Each reviewer assigned a score, and the final rating printed in the review was the average of the three.

The announcement read:

"With this issue, Down Beat inaugurates a new system for rating records. It is our hope that it will be of increased value to you in helping you choose those records you plan to add to your own collection.

Records are rated by each of the three reviewers on a scale of 1 to 10, with the rating increasing with the quality of the record. The final veredict is an average of the individual scores and will be found in front of the tittles listed at the head of each review. Albums will continue to be judged as a whole, with individual comments on those sides meriting them".

It was a clear attempt to bring greater objectivity and consistency to Down Beat's expanding review section.

Which was the first artist reviewed who received the highest score?

None... throughout the entire period that this criterion was applied, no record reached the level of excellence.

The only one who came close was Lee Koniz with 9 points.

p

Lee Konitz 

9 - Rebecca

7 - Ice Cream Konitz

Jack: Lee delicately and feelingly picks his way through Rebecca (My Old Flame). He's backed only by Billy Bauer's guitar. Beautifully done, thoughtfully expressive, it's some of Lee's best recorded ballad work to date. Ice Cream has Bauer, Arnold Fishkin, drummer Jeff Morton, and pianist Sal Mosca backing Lee. It's uptempo, with Lee fleet but not as fertile as usual, and Bauer and Mosca taking choruses. 

Rating: Rebecca—9; Ice Cream—7.

George: Lee's Rebecca is a note of beauty rare in the field of jazz. The delicacy of his alto tone and phrasing is brought out in bold relief by Bauer's sympathetic guitar. The side is a study in perfect execution. Ice Cream, a Konitz original, is typical Tristano fare without the participation of Lennie. Sal Mosca takes over the piano and closes the side with a sprightly solo. Nothing outstanding happening, but nice listening. 

Rating: Rebecca—9; Ice Cream Konitz—7.

Pat: Konitz' dainty alto, cool just to the point of chillness, but not quite, traces tastefully through Konitz. Note the smooth way Sal Mosca's piano takes over after Billy Bauer's solo on this one. Rebecca, named after Lee's baby daughter, is a fine fatherly tribute. Very lovely and delicate, Lee manages to be sunny and wistful at the same time. (New Jazz 834.)

Rating: Rebecca—8; Ice Cream—7

The restored version of these tracks was included on one of the CDs in the Original Jazz Classics series.

Lee Konitz

With Tristano, Marsh And Bauer

Subconscious-Lee

Of the Lennie Tristano "school" of music, which predated the Lennie Tristano School of Music, Lee Konitz is the outstanding "pupil". Naturally Lennie's music had a great influence on Lee. Other influences are lesser and have been more completely absorbed in to the mainstream of his playing. For instance, in his rhythmic figures you can hear Charlie Parker (Bird left very few untouched and unmoved,) but whatever sources Lee has drawn on have been integrated beautifully into his personal expression. His style and sound are both highly personal. The point of excellence as an individual voice is a signal triumph for any artist.

The three sessions in this LP show Lee off in many different ways with quintet, quartet and duo. The interplay with Tristano, duetting with Billy Bauer and unisons and exchanges with Warne Marsh are all self-illuminating examples of Lee's early work in this graphic collection of Konitz.

Incidentally, the Subconscious-Lee session not only launched Lee's career but was the first recording date of this company. New Jazz was then the label. *Ira Gitler (liner notes)*

One of THE key records in the Konitz school — a full length Prestige album that brings together important material from sessions originally issued on 10" LPs! The lineup here is virtually the Konitz school — with shifting lineups that include Billy Bauer on guitar, Lenny Tristano or Sal Mosca on piano, and Warne Marsh on tenor — all working as airily and fluidly as Konitz himself! How Lee managed to achieve such unity with his groups here will forever be a mystery to us — as will the freshness of the work at the end of the 40s, especially given that it's still arguably more "modern" than much of the jazz it inspired in years to come! Titles include "Progression", "Subconscious-Lee", "Rebecca", "Sound-Lee", "Fishin Around", "Palo Alto", "Ice Cream Konitz", "You Go To My Head", and "Tautology".  *Dusty Groove, Inc.*

1 - Progression

(Konitz)

2 - Tautology

(Konitz)

3 - Retrospection

(Tristano)

4 - Subconscious-Lee

(Konitz)

5 - Judy

(Tristano)

6 - Marshmallow

(Marsh)

7 - Fishin' Around

(Marsh)

8 - Tautology

(Konitz)

9 - Sound-Lee

(Konitz)

10 - Rebecca

(Konitz)

11 - You Go to My Head

(Coots, Gillespie)

12 - Ice Cream Konitz

(Konitz)

13 - Palo Alto

(Konitz)

#1 to #5:

Lee Konitz (alto sax), Billy Bauer (guitar), Lennie Tristano (piano),

Arnold Fishkin (bass), Shelly Manne (drums).

Recorded in New York City, November 1, 1949

#6 to #9:

Lee Konitz (alto sax); Warne Marsh (tenor sax); Sal Mosca (piano);

Arnold Fishkin (bass); Denzil Best [#6, #7], Jeff Morton [#8, #9] (drums).

Recorded in New York City, September, 1949

#9 to #13:

Lee Konitz (alto sax), Billy Bauer (guitar), Sal Mosca (piano),

Arnold Fishkin (bass), Jeff Morton (drums).

Recorded in New York City, July 4, 1950

Leonard Feather Presents… ★1957★

There’s a Curious irony in the fact that of the thousands of jazz albums now flooding the record stores, this is the first LP to be released with bop as its main theme. The wheel has come full circle. Bop became an epithet by the end of the decade, the victim of keyhole columnists who identified it not with music but with eccentricities of clothes, personality and personal habits. Today we can examine the scene in truer perpective and observe that Bop is simply the way most people play jazz in 1959, including the "new star" awards winners in the Down Beat critics' poll.

Among the neglected elements in Bop were not people but tunes — some of the original and exciting compositions that emerged with the first of bop creativity. They were tunes you heard played along 52nd Street; tunes that spoke with a crisp, biting accent expressed in long, unison lines, leaving the harmonic moorings to the rhythm section. All the tunes you'll hear in this LP were products of the men and groups of that day, 'though only Ornithology has become a jazz standard. The others have rarely been re-recorded and a couple have been in oblivion for years.

The music on these sides evokes the atmosphere of a typical set at one of the old 52nd Street clubs, even to the fast two-chorus treatment of the "52nd Street Theme" that invariably ended every set.

To those for whom these performances represent long-overdues revivals, the music on this LP is bound to fill a gap in your collection. If your interest is minly in the instrumentalists, these sides represent an introduction to themes that belong in every jazz library. Either way they should provide a cogent reminder that the music we used to call bop, wich today is an important part of the whole jazz, endowed us with a wealth of material, of ideation and new creation that has a lasting place in the story of jazz. *Leonard Feather (liner notes)*

Leonard Feather Presents Bop 

[a.k.a. Leonard Feather Presents 52nd Street]

This pair of 1957 studio sessions features two separate groups, with alto saxophonist Phil Woods, pianist George Wallington, and bassist Curly Russell involved in both dates, with most of the music drawn from the works of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Trumpeter Idrees Sulieman and drummer Denzil Best join them on the first five selections. Wallington and Woods share the solo spotlight following the scatted group introduction to the pianist's "Lemon Drop" (one of many bop variations of "I Got Rhythm"), while Sulieman also gets a taste. Woods and Sulieman re-create the magic of Parker and Gillespie in a snappy take of "Ornithology". Sulieman switches to muted trumpet for an equally enjoyable take of "Anthropology". The quintet changes for the last five tracks, with Thad Jones on trumpet and Art Taylor on drums. It is not clear who contributed the little-boy vocal to "Salt Peanuts", but it does not distract from this potent arrangement. Taylor's effective drumming powers the cooking version of "Shaw 'Nuff". The next to last track is incorrectly listed as "Billie's Bounce"; it is actually "Now's the Time". Nothing groundbreaking takes place during these bop sessions, but the playing is at a consistently high level. This Mode LP has been reissued by VSOP and the Japanese CD label Tofrec, sometimes under the title Leonard Feather Presents Bop. *Ken Dryden*

1 - Little Benny

(Benny Harris)

2 - Be Bop

(Dizzy Gillespie)

3 - Lemon Drop

(George Wallington)

4 - Ornithology

(Charlie Parker, Benny Harris)

5 - Anthropology

(Charlie Parker)

6 - Salt Peanuts

(Dizzy Gillespie)

7 - Groovin' High

(Dizzy Gillespie)

8 - Shaw' Nuff

(Dizzy Gillespie)

9 - Billie's Bounce

(Charlie Parker)

10 - Hot House / 52nd Street Theme

(Tadd Dameron / Thelonious Monk)

Idrees Sulieman [#1 to #5], Thad Jones [#6 to #10] (trumpets);

Phil Woods (alto sax); George Wallington (piano); Curly Russell (bass);

Denzil Best [#1 to #5], Art Taylor  [#6 to #10] (drums).

Recorded in New York City, August 1957

Jimmy Jones - The Splendid Mr. Jones

Jimmy Jones is probably best known as a singer's arranger, even though his first credited orchestration on a jazz vocal session didn't come until a live Sarah Vaughan performance in 1955 (though he had been accompanying her since the late 1940s). His first jazz vocal album as a credited arranger was Beverly Kenney Sings With Jimmy Jones and the Basie-Ites for Roost Records a year later. Going forward, his name often popped up on album covers of albums he had arranged.

But Jones was also a prolific and superlative pianist dating back to recordings with bassist Stuff Smith in 1943. A product of the swing era, Jones recorded mostly with swing instrumentalists and jazz-pop vocalists rather than beboppers. Perhaps his first standout session with a modern feel was with the Frank Wess Quintet on an album for Commodore in 1954.

As a pianist, Jones became known for his elegant playing style, an approach that was increasingly in demand as pop singers ascended to stardom with the rise of the LP in the late 1940s. Vocalists looked good on covers and were favored by listeners who didn't have to get up as often to turn over a record.

These vocalists were increasingly in need of tasteful accompaniment and ensemble arrangements as LP fidelity and phonographs improved in the mid-1950s. Pianists who joined Jones in the vocalist accompaniment lane included Stan Freeman, Buddy Cole, Jimmy Rowles, Joe Harnell and Ronnell Bright.

Now, Fresh Sound has released The Splendid Mr. Jones, a collection of early Jones recordings in the solo and trio formats. The nine solo tracks were recorded in 1947 and show off Jones's chord voicings, ear for drama and self-arranging sensibility. These tracks originally turned up on the French Chronological Classics series some years back, but they sound a lot better now with Fresh Sound's 24-bit remastering.

There are two trio sessions on the new compilation. The first featured Jones's four tracks for Escape!, a 1952 álbum for the Gene Norman Presents label that showcased Jones and several other artists. This trio session feature Jones (p), Billy Hadnott (b) and J.C. Heard (d) playing "Moonlight in Vermont", "London in July", "Autumn in New York" and "Cool in Cuba".

The second trio session is the 10-inch Jimmy Jones Trio album for the French Swing label. Recorded in Paris in 1954, the Jimmy Jones Trio was comprised of Jones (p), Joe Benjamin (b) and Roy Haynes (d). The tracks are "Easy to Love", "Little Girl Blue", "Lush Life", "Just Squeeze Me", "My Funny Valentine" and "Good Morning Heartach".

It's a shame Jones didn't record more often as a leader. Instead, he opted to sit in as a sideman or accompanist with just about every marquee jazz player and singer of the post-war period. I suspect his arranging responsibilities were too time-consuming for much more.

There were few pianists as delicate, lush and as assertive as Jones. He'd coddle songs patiently with a full understanding of their lyrics and musical personalities, using those factors to direct how he'd frame their melodies and then take them apart during his gentle, swinging improvisation.

*Marc Myers*

Jimmy Jones

The Splendid Mr. Jones

Trio & Solo

James Henry Jones (1928-1982) was born in Memphis but spent his formative years in Chicago. "I always liked music", he said. "Guess that was only natural as my father was a choir director and my mother played a little piano".

His first attempt at creating music was at the age of 13 when he started playing the guitar. Later, Jimmy became interested in harmony and began experimenting at the family piano at the age of sixteen. During his formative years, Jimmy Jones developed a deep appreciation for two influential figures in jazz: Art Tatumand Duke Ellington. He had a natural ability to play the right chords and provide accompaniment for singers in the ensembles he worked with. Gradually, he developed the necessary technique and became a proficient pianist.

Jimmy Jones first gained attention in 1943 at Chicago's Garrick, playing with Stuff Smith. His intense expression accompanied a technical skill at the piano that was bound to capture the listener's attention, whether alone or in combination with others. This talent proved to be a great asset when, later that year, he moved to New York and became exposed to the vibrant jazz scene on 52nd Street.

Primarily occupied by his celebrated and continuous work as an accompanist and arranger for Sarah Vaughan, as well as many other great voices, Jimmy Jones had limited opportunities throughout his career to showcase his remarkable abilities as a soloist. Thus, the recordings featured here serve as a testament to his uncanny ability to strike a delicate balance of restraint and richness, showcasing his nuanced playing and artistic mastery as a highly sensitive musician.

The genesis of his chordal style is the story of his musical beginnings, and it is through this journey that The Splendid Mr. Jones leaves an indeliblemark on the history of jazz and piano performance. *Jordi Pujol*

1 - Easy To Love

(Cole Porter)

2 - Little Girl Blue

(Rodgers, Hart)

3 - Lush Life

(Billy Strayhorn)

4 - Just Squeeze Me

(Ellington, Gaines)

5 - My Funny Valentine

(Rodgers, Hart)

6 - Good Morning Heartache

(Higginbotham, Drake, Fisher)

7 - Moonlight In Vermont

(Blackburn, Suessdorf)

8 - London In July

(Duke, Kahn)

9 - Autumn In New York

(Vernon Duke)

10 - Cool In Cuba

(Jimmy Jones)

11 - New World A-Comin'

(Duke Ellington)

12 - Lazy River

(Carmichael, Arodin)

13 - When I Walk With You

(Ellington, Latouche)

14 - Empty Space

(Renfrow)

15 - Zigeuner

(Noel Coward)

16 - What's New?

(Burke, Haggart)

17 - I’ll See You Again

(Noel Coward)

18 - Mad About The Boy

(Noel Coward)

19 - Someday I’ll Find You

(Noel Coward)

20 - Clair De Lune

(Claude Debussy)

21 - Lover Man

(Davis, Sherman, Ramirez)

22 - New York City Blues

(Duke Ellington)

23 - On A Turquoise Cloud

(Ellington, Brown)

24 - Bakiff

(Juan Tizol)

#1 to #6: from the 10-inch album Jimmy Jones Trio (Swing M.33.3336)

Jimmy Jones (piano), Joe Benjamin (bass), Roy Haynes (drums).

Recorded in Paris, October 28, 1954.

#7 to #10: from the 12-inch album Escape! (GNP-27)

Jimmy Jones (piano), Billy Hadnott (bass), J.C.Heard (drums).

Recorded in Los Angeles, 1952.

#11 to #24: from 78 rpm records released on Wax Records

#11:

Jimmy Jones (piano), John Levy (bass), Denzil Best (drums).

Recorded in New York City, 1947.

#12 to #15:

Jimmy Jones (piano); Al Hall (bass); Denzil Best [#12], Bill Clark [#13, #14] (drums); Al Casey (guitar [#12]); Lynn Warren (vocals [#14]).

Recorded in New York City, 1947.

#16 to #24:

Jimmy Jones (solo piano).

Recorded in New York City, 1947. 

Lennie Tristano - Classics 1947–1951

When Lennie Tristano's enclosed Capitol recordings were reissued in the mid-eighties, Alun Morgan noted that the music "is still a most remarkable piece of mind-reading and it presaged the Free Form movement which was still several years away". 

Leonard Joseph Tristano was born in Chicago, Illinois, on March 19 1919. He began playing piano as a child. At the age of nine, he lost his eyesight and spent the next ten years in a home for the blind. During these years Tristano took up the clarinet, saxophone and also practiced on cello. In addition, he played trumpet and could easily sit in as a drummer. 

Lennie Tristano received further musical education at the American Conservatory in Chicago from which he graduated as a Bachelor of Music (in piano and composition) in 1943. From the early forties on Tristano worked as a tenor saxophonist and clarinetist with various bands in his native city. In addition, he taught at the Christiansen School of Popular Music until 1945. Lee Konitz and Bill Russo were among his first and foremost students. The following year Tristano moved to New York where he appeared with a trio including another two of his pupils, Arnold Fishkin and Billy Bauer. In late 1946 Lennie Tristano also played on the West Coast before returning to New York. In 1947 he played in a band organized by critic Barry Ulanov alongside Charlie Parker. During the late forties Tristano mainly worked with his trio in New York but occasionally also played with Charlie Ventura and others. In addition, he continued to teach and a group of young musicians, including Warne Marsh and Ted Brown formed around him. In June 1951 he opened his own music school where Tristano and his circle were able to pratice and play their music, quite independently from any influences of more established institutions. After giving up his school in 1956, he taught disciples at his home on Long Island. After the mid-fifties Tristano only rarely appeared on stage or in clubs. In the late-sixties Tristano made trips to Britain and Canada for a number of solo concerts but then returned to the self-sought seclusion of his home. He died in New York, on November 18, 1978. *Anatol Schenker (liner notes)*

This anthology of Lennie Tristano from his Capitol and Prestige recordings is where the mature composer and improviser appears from his former skeleton. Beginning with the original version of "Dissonance", featuring guitarist Billy Bauer and bassist Arnold Fishkin, the set concentrates on Tristano's emerging and very complex ideas about melodic improvisation. The masters for early tracks here come from a session cut on New Year's Eve in 1947, and include clarinetist John LaPorta on such visionary compositions as "Through These Portals", with its dual melodic front line playing an extrapolated harmonic counterpoint via the piano and guitar, then being bridged by a common third line played by LaPorta, whose solo is almost a tag upon the two entwining solo lines played throughout. "Speculation" is pure chordal genius, with rhythms cascading in two directions against a nearly expressionistic melodic integration of variously shaded harmonics. The first sessions of both the quintet and quartet with Lee Konitz are here, too, with Konitz's unique phrasing on the shimmering bop of "Progression", "Tautology", and, of course, "Subconscious-Lee". Tristano was a giant of the intellect, and his knotty approach to deconstructing harmonics and creating new melodies from the ruins appealed to Konitz, who was, and remains, a melodist. Later that same year, in 1949, Tristano added second saxophonist Warne Marsh to the mix, and that magical pairing found its voice on the front lines of "Crosscurrent", "Intuition", and the stellar "Marionette". Finally, the 1951 trio sides with Roy Haynes and Peter Ind make clear that these new architectures Tristano was building could be erected by himself and a rhythm section, and in some ways were even bigger as a result of that. These ideas have never been fully integrated into the jazz canon as they should be, but nonetheless, with recordings like this abounding now, it cannot be long before they are. 

*Thom Jurek*

1 - Dissonance

(Tristano) 

2 - Through These Portals

(LaPorta)

3 - Speculation (Ear, Eyes)

 (Tristano)

4 - New Sound

(Tristano)

5 - Resemblance

(Tristano)

6 - Tautology

(Konitz)

8 - Retrospection

(Tristano)

9 - Subconscious-Lee

(Konitz)

10 - Judy

(Tristano)

11 - Wow

(Tristano)

12 - Crosscurrent

(Tristano)

13 - Yesterdays

(Tristano)

14 - Marionette

(Bauer)

15 - Sax Of A Kind

(Konitz, Marsh)

16 - Intuition

(Tristano)

17 - Digression (Intuition II)

(Tristano)

18 - Ju-Ju

(Tristano)

19 - Passtime

(Tristano)

#1 to #5:

Lennie Tristano (piano), John LaPorta (clarinet [#2 to #5]), Billy Bauer (guitar), Arnold Fishkin (bass).

Recorded in New York City, December 31, 1947.

#6 to #10:

Lennie Tristano (piano), Lee Konitz (alto sax), Billy Bauer (guitar), Arnold Fishkin (bass), Shelly Manne (drums).

Recorded in New York City, January 11, 1949.

#11, #12:

Lennie Tristano (piano), Lee Konitz (alto sax), Warne Marsh (tenor sax), Billy Bauer (guitar), Arnold Fishkin (bass), Harold Granowsky (drums).

Recorded in New York City, March 4, 1949.

#13:

Lennie Tristano (piano), Billy Bauer (guitar), Arnold Fishkin (bass), Harold Granowsky (drums).

Recorded in New York City, March 14, 1949.

#14 to #17:

Lennie Tristano (piano), Lee Konitz (alto sax), Warne Marsh (tenor sax), Billy Bauer (guitar), Arnold Fishkin (bass), Denzil Best (drums).

Recorded in New York City, May 16, 1949.

#18, #19:

Lennie Tristano (piano), Peter Ind (bass), Roy Haynes (drums).

Recorded in New York City, October 30, 1951. 

Lee Konitz - Subconscious-Lee

Of the Lennie Tristano "school" of music, which predated the Lennie Tristano School of Music, Lee Konitz is the outstanding "pupil". Naturally Lennie's music had a great influence on Lee. Other influences are lesser and have been more completely absorbed in to the mainstream of his playing. For instance, in his rhythmic figures you can hear Charlie Parker (Bird left very few untouched and unmoved) but whatever sources Lee has drawn on have been integrated beautifully into his personal expression. His style and sound are both highly personal. The point of excellence as an individual voice is a signal triumph for any artist.

The three sessions in this LP show Lee off in many different ways with quintet, quartet and duo. The interplay with Tristano, duetting with Billy Bauer and unisons and exchanges with Warne Marsh are all self-illuminating examples of Lee's early work in this graphic collection of Konitz.

Incidentally, the Subconscious-Lee session not only launched Lee's career but was the first recording date of this company. New Jazz was then the label. * Ira Gitler*

One of THE key records in the Konitz school – a full length Prestige album that brings together important material from sessions originally issued on 10" LPs! The lineup here is virtually the Konitz school – with shifting lineups that include Billy Bauer on guitar, Lenny Tristano or Sal Mosca on piano, and Warne Marsh on tenor – all working as airily and fluidly as Konitz himself! How Lee managed to achieve such unity with his groups here will forever be a mystery to us – as will the freshness of the work at the end of the 40s, especially given that it's still arguably more "modern" than much of the jazz it inspired in years to come! *dustygroove.com*

A debut for both Lee Konitz and the Prestige label, Subconscious-Lee brings together many of the students who came through Lennie Tristano's idiosyncratic "school" of jazz during the immediate postwar years. Forging a heady approach to Charlie Parker's innovations, full of lithe and at times super fast solo lines, Tristano and his favorite pupil Konitz in particular nurtured an introverted, wan, yet still swinging alternative to the frenetic muscle of bebop. Other students like tenor saxophonist Warne Marsh, pianist Sal Mosca, and bassist Arnold Fishkin staked claims as well and show up prominently here. And while Tristano's "Judy" and "Retrospection" get mired in somewhat tired contemplation, Konitz' "Subconscious-Lee" and Marsh's "Marshmallow" stand out with brisk tempos, cascading horn lines, and fetching head statements. Avoiding the meandering course of his originals, Tristano shines at the piano with a bevy of exciting and substantial solos; Mosca and guitarist Billy Bauer keep up the good work with fine contributions of their own. Good for both mind and feet and chock-full of groundbreaking work by Konitz and Marsh especially, this 1949-1950 recording makes for essential jazz listening. One bonus track, "Progression," is added to thisversiónn of  Subconscious-Lee. *Stephen Cook *

Recorded during the prime of bebop, between 1949 and 1950, Lee Konitz' Subconscious-Lee seems practically at odds with itself. It lacks the peculiarity and the exuberance that pours from the recordings of Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, and other post-swing experimentalists. It simultaneously seems old-fashioned and futuristic. Lee Konitz, who developed under the tutelage of pianist and pedagogue Lennie Tristano, was perhaps equally influenced by the technical fireworks of bebop, and Tristano's firm mindset. Tristano held that the rhythm section occupied a secondary role, and that improvisation should avoid overt sentimentality. Instead, Tristano and his students valued complexity andprecisiónn of harmony and rhythm. Their pursuit of pure musical devices, unaccompanied by emotional expression, is clearly evident on Subconscious-Lee, on which a sense of cool and detached concentration encircles the performances. The combination of impressive and inventive playing with a generally uncaring approach can be likened to the grunge rock movement of the late 1990s, when bands like Nirvana appeared to have no interest in winning over an audience, and all the while delivered powerful and deeply moving music. In other words, Konitz, Tristano, and frequent collaborator Warne Marsh, sound too cool for school. Tristano believed that a rhythm section's role was simply to provide the structure over which the improvisers could drape their melodies. He counseled drummers and bassists not to interact with soloists, and not to take the lead in musical events, such as swells in intensity. For this reason, much of this album, like others by Tristano, Marsh, and Konitz, sounds similar to antiquated practices of the hot jazz era, when the only instrumentalists given license to elaborate were the trumpeter and clarinetist. On the other hand, the rhythmic activity that Konitz and Marsh use to create winding and unpredictable lines sound as if they fit better into jazz from the 21st century. In fact, the contemporary jazz practice of disguising formal structure and steering clear of well-worn harmonic paths may have been in part influenced by this very school of improvisation.

Subconscious-Lee has one foot stubbornly planted in the past, and the other dangling in the capricious future. *Jacob Teichroew*

1 - Subconscious-Lee

(Lee Konitz)

2 - Judy

(Lennie Tristano)

3 - Progression

(Lee Konitz)

4 - Retrospection

(Lennie Tristano)

5 - Ice Cream Konitz

(Lee Konitz)

6 - You Go To My Head

(Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie)

7 - Marshmallow

(Warne Marsh)

8 - Fishin' Around

(Warne Marsh)

9 - Tautology

(Lee Konitz)

10 - Sound-Lee

(Lee Konitz)

11 - Palo Alto

(Lee Konitz)

12 - Rebecca

(Lee Konitz)

#1 to #4:
Lee Konitz (alto sax), Billy Bauer (guitar), Lennie Tristano (piano), Arnold Fishkin (bass), Shelly Manne (drums [#2, #3 out]).
Recorded in New York City, January 11, 1949.
#7, #8:
Lee Konitz (alto sax), Warne Marsh (tenor sax), Sal Mosca (piano), Arnold Fishkin (bass), Denzil Best (drums).
Recorded in New York City, June 28, 1949.
#9, #10:
Lee Konitz (alto sax), Warne Marsh (tenor sax), Sal Mosca (piano), Arnold Fishkin (bass), Jeff Morton (drums).
Recorded in New York City, September 27, 1949.
#5, #6, #11, #12:
Lee Konitz (alto sax), Billy Bauer (guitar), Sal Mosca (piano [#6 out]), Arnold Fishkin (bass [#12 out]), Jeff Morton (drums [#12 out]).
Recorded in New York City, April 7, 1950. 

Coleman Hawkins - Hollywood Stampede

Although Coleman Hawkins always denied it, he was undoubtedly one of the first and greatest of all jazz saxophonists. Hawkins, born in St. Joseph, Missouri on 21st November, 1904, was quick to point out that he was not the earliest saxophone stylist in jazz but he was nevertheless the first to establish a style on the instrument. His career, from Mamie Smith’s Jazz Hounds via the Fletcher Henderson band, the years in Europe and the countless club and concert appearances, is too well-known to warrant reiteration. Suffice it to say that when he died in New York City on 19th May, 1969, the jazz world mourned the loss of a true giant. 

The enclosed record presents the dozen titles he made for Capitol at the beginning of 1945 when he was leading a very successful small band. Hawk had not been to Hollywood since the early nineteen-twenties when he visited the west coast with Mamie Smith. Some doubt surrounded his 1945 visit and although he was tentatively booked to appear in the Philharmonic Auditorium, Los Angeles on January 17th it was subsequently discovered that he was still in New York on that date. Eventually he turned up in California and proceeded to thrill west coast jazz audiences with the power of his playing. In every respect the music heard on the enclosed LP is classic Hawkins and classic jazz. *Alun Morgan (liner notes)*

When tenor saxophonist John Coltrane recorded his composition "Giant Steps" in 1959, he created something that changed the way musicians thought about improvisation and harmony. Decades earlier, the man who took the first leaps and bounds with the tenor sax in jazz was Coleman Hawkins.

Before Hawkins arrived on the jazz scene with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra in the 1920s, the tenor sax was basically an ensemble instrument — as opposed to a improvisational instrument — mainly providing a link between the clarinets and brass instruments in military bands and big bands. Hawkins had different ideas, and through his virtuosic playing, he put the instrument front and center in the development of jazz. Hawkins' approach to music would later serve as a bridge from the era of big band swing to later developments like bebop. Put simply, Hawkins was a musical pioneer, one of the most versatile and accomplished soloists in jazz history. Hollywood Stampede shows twelve samples of his genius.

When bebop arrived on the scene, many of the musicians of the swing era dismissed it in much the same way that bebop musicians would later dismiss rock 'n' roll. Hawkins, however, was very interested in this new development and often used a mix of bop pioneers in his ensembles. For example, on this 1945 recording of Hawkins' "Rifftide," we hear Sir Charles Thompson (piano) and Allan Reuss (guitar), who both had roots in earlier eras, while the other members of the band — Howard McGhee (trumpet), Oscar Pettiford (bass) and Denzil Best (drums) — were early practitioners of bebop. Hawkins could swing with the best of the boppers. *npr.org*

Side 1

1 - April In Paris

(V. Duke, E. Y. Harburg)

2 - Rifftide

(Coleman Hawkins)

3 - Stardust

(H. Carmichael, M. Parish)

4 - Stuffy

(Coleman Hawkins)

5 - Hollywood Stampede

(Coleman Hawkins)

6 - I'm Through With Love

(M. Malneck, F. Livingston, G. Kahn)

Side 2

7 - What Is There To Say?

(V. Duke, E. Y. Harburg)

8 - Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams

(H. Barris, B. Moll, T. Koehler)

9 - Too Much Of A Good Thing

(C. Hawkins, C. Thompson)

10 - Bean Soup

(Coleman Hawkins)

11 - Someone To Watch Over Me

(G. and I. Gershwin)

12 - It's The Talk Of The Town

(J. Livingston, M. Symes, A. J. Neiburg)

Coleman Hawkins (tenor sax); Howard McGhee (trumpet); Vic Dickenson (trombone [#5, #8]); Sir Charles Thompson (piano); Allan Reuss (guitar); Oscar Pettiford [#1 to #8], John Simmons [#9 to #12] (basses); Denzil Best (drums).

Recorded in Hollywood, Ferbruary 23 (#1 to #4), March 2 (#5 to #8), March 9 (#9 to #12), 1945.