Teddy Charles
The Teddy Charles Tentet
Comes a time when you begin to search anew. You've written for and played with almost every conceivable small jazz group instrumentation. You want to "stretch out" for something bigger. But it must be an ensemble consistent with your personal ideas on jazz.
You reject the standard big band formula. That was born of dancing, large ballrooms, and theatrical displays — the bigger the better (?). The ideas of Gil Evans occur to you. Gil introduced tuba and french horn to Claude Thornhill's fine band of '47, later reducing it to the jazz group proportions of the Miles Davis nine piece band of '48-'49. The innovation was a great musical success; big band and small alike haven't been the same since.
However, you play the vibes, and you want an instrumentation that may utilize the potential of your instrument, melodically, ensemblewise, and percussively. And you want to use to advantage your own experience gained in playing with everything from a vibes-bass duo with Mingus, to the Composer Workshop nine piece group and big bands.
Finally you approach it this way: what jazzmen would I like to hear blowing in a group, that would comprise an extremely flexible instrumentation adaptable for larger forms, and who in combination would produce a very distinctive sound consistent with my ideas of jazz?
Fortunately almost everyone you have in mind is available, and interested. You get Peter Urban, who played in your group a year or so ago, a swinging creative trumpeter, with big band lead experience, having a sensitive sound all his own. You think of his confrere, the fresh, lyrical, well-schooled Gigi Gryce for alto. Next, from your current group the swinging J. R. (Eastcoast Jake, NOT Westcoast Jack) Monterose; an authoritative tenor voice. On baritone, a guy who can blow, and play ensemble, from later Composer Workshop groups, George Barrow, and Sol Schlinger (when George left town on a gig) fit both requirements well. Don Butterfield, from the first C.W. was the likely choice for tuba, having a distinctive, smooth sound with a good jazz feel; a virtuoso on his horn.
Now you have two brass, a top and bottom, and three saxes having lead, bottom, and inner voice possibilities and possessed of more flexibility of articulation than trombones or french horns. For swinging strings, six of them, and one of our most creative jazz men to play them, guitarist Jimmy Raney, an earlier musical associate of mine. And under him, Bird's favorite bassist, Teddy Kotick, who plays a walking, lyrical bass line, currently with my quartet. Piano, probably a necessity for blowing in a group of this weight, would require a keyboard artist, as well as a comper and soloist. Hence, Mal Waldron, another Workshop man with a fine classical background.
Now you need a drummer-percussionist who has the ability to swing a large ensemble, yet who can play with the sensitivity required for small band blowing. Joe Harris swung the great Dizzy Gillespie big band, and we had both played in Chubby Jackson's exciting power house.
Thus the Tentet! An ensemble of individual jazz artists, all fresh, all playing jazz of today. In fact, the idea suddenly jelled. This is what I really want to present on records. Jazz of today. Not ten, or two, or fifteen years ago. Not even futuristic, experimental stuff. But a representation of many of my favorite jazz performers, using contemporary jazz means, playing in an ensemble organically the aggregate of their individual jazz talents. Fortunately, I'd been associated musically with almost every man in the Tentet in my own group or others.
(...)
Complex technical details of each composition could be given, but anybody understanding the jargon wouldn't need it. Moreover, there's only one instrument of a kind, so solo order is obvious. I think all the performers did a great and sympathetic job. You can listen to this casually, or accept it as a challenging experience in listening to undiluted jazz. Either way, I hope you are moved, as I am, by this jazz of today. *Teddy Charles (liner notes)*
Teddy's Tentet is made up of Peter Urban (Art Farmer), trumpet; Gigi Gryce, alto; J. R. Monterose, tenor; George Barrow, baritone; Don Butterfield, tuba; Jimmy Raney, guitar; Mal Waldron, piano; Teddy Kotick, bass; Joe Harris, drums; Sol Schlinger, baritone, for Barrow on sides 1, 3, 7.
The composers-arrangers: Waldron (1); Jimmy Giuffre (2); Charles (3, 4, 5); Gil Evans (6); George Russell (7).
This is one that grows on you. There is so much to hear in the writing, so much going on in the group, so many solo moments of merit that come out at you in short bursts, and so much intensity in the entire performance, that a lot of listenings are just about mandatory. Or perhaps I should say, this collection is going to be listened to often by me.
Charles' intent? Best described in his own excellent liner notes: "This is what I really want to present on records. Jazz of today. Not 10, or 2, or 15 years ago. Not even futuristic, experimental stuff. But a representation of my favorite jazz performers, using contemporary jazz means, playing in an ensemble organically the aggregate of their many individual jazz talents".
They do an excellent job of fulfilling Teddy's aim. This was a well-rehearsed session—not 10 men walking into a studio and playing some difficult music at sight. Charles chose personnel and writers wisely, with his own Green Blues, Giuffre's Quiet Time, and Gil Evans' Go to My Head particularly well adapted to the size and capability of the tentet.
Put this one up on your shelf along with the Miles Davis Capitol sides and the Gerry Mulligan Tentet album. *Jack Tracy (Down Beat, June 27, 1956 [5 stars])*
Side 1
1 - Vibrations
(Mal Waldron)
2 - The Quiet Time
(Jimmy Jiuffre)
3 - The Emperor
(Teddy Charles)
Side 2
4 - Nature Boy
(Eden Ahbez)
5 - Green Blues
(Teddy Charles)
6 - You Go To My Head
(Gillespie, Coots)
7 - Lydian M-1
(George Russell)
Teddy Charles (vibes); Art Farmer [as Peter Urban] (trumpet); Don Butterfield (tuba);
Gigi Gryce (alto sax); J. R. Monterose (tenor sax);
Sol Schlinger [#1, #3, #7], George Barrow [#2, #4, #5, #6] (baritone saxes);
Mal Waldron (piano); Jimmy Raney (guitar); Teddy Kotick (bass); Joe Harris (drums).
Recorded at Coastal Recording Studios, New York City, January 6 (#2, #4),
January 11 (#5, #6) and January 17 (#1, #3, #11), 1956
