Five-Star Collection... Herbie Mann

Herbie Mann Quartet

Flamingo, volume 2

We have been a quartet for three months. Joe Puma, our guitarist, has worked and recorded with Artie Shaw, Louis Bellson, Don Elliott and Chris Connor, and has his own  album on Bethlehem (BCP-1012). He is 28 and from the Bronx. Our bassist is the 26 year-old Chuck Andrus from Holyoke, Massachusetts. He has worked with Terry Gibbs,  Stan Getz and Claude Thornhill and recorded with Johnny Williams. Chuck is studying bass with Philip Sklar of the NBC Symphony. Harold Granowsky, our drummer, is 24  years old and hails from Indianapolis, Indiana. He has worked with Lennie Tristano, Joe Roland and Charlie Barnet.

We started planning this album two months ago, carefully selecting each tune and then treating each one individually, utilizing the various colorings and shadings the group could produce.

I’ve had the idea for quite a while to get sort of a "Four  Brothers-type" sound with three flutes and alto flute, instead of three tenors and baritone sax. Joe (Puma) arranged "I've Told Ev'ry Little Star" on which I played all four flute parts (sounds like the Four Brothers before their voices changed!). *Herbie Mann (liner notes)*

One of the best of the jazz flutists, Herbie Mann, has here produced the most varied jazz flute album to date. His close, tasty support comes from bassist Chuck Andrus, guitarist Joe Puma, and drummer Harold Granowsky. Herbie wrote the first three originals; Quincy Jones did the blues waltz, Jasmin; Mann is responsible for Beverly, and the last tune is Puma's. On all except the tenor tribute to Cohn, Herbie plays flute and alto flute, and on two numbers, he plays four flute parts via tape. On Beverly, he’s heard on flute unaccompanied.

What makes this session outstanding is Mann's lyrical musicianship and his assuredness with the flute, a difficult instrument to swing and to otherwise manipulate in the jazz idiom. There is also Mann's unusually wide-ranged personality which makes him equally convincing in happy whimsy, sorrowful ballads, hopeful ballads, swingers, the Villa-Lobos-inspired Sorimao, and even a blues waltz. He also writes well, as particularly evidenced by Sorimao, One Way Love, and Beverly. The notes are by Mann and are so much more helpful and concise that the work of some of the "professional" writers Bethlehem has been using. The up-tempo numbers in this set, by the way, would be a fine way to introduce youngsters to jazz. Oldsters, too.

*Nat Hentoff (Down Beat, November 16, 1955 [5 stars])*

1 - I've Told Ev'ry Little Star

(Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II)

2 - Love Is A Simple Thing

(Arthur Siegel, June Carroll)

3 - There's No You

(Tom Adair, Hal Hopper)

4 - Sorimao

(Herbie Mann)

5 - The Influential Mr. Cohn

(Herbie Mann)

6 - A One Way Love

(Herbie Mann)

7 - The Surrey With The Fringe On Top

(Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II)

8 - Flamingo

(Ted Grouya, Edmund Anderson)

9 - Little Orphan Annie

(Gus Kahn, Joe Sanders)

10 - Jasmin

(Quincy Jones)

11 - Beverly

(Herbie Mann)

12 - Woodchuck

(Joe Puma)

Herbie Mann (flute, alto flute, tenor sax), Joe Puma (guitar),

Charles Andrus (bass), Harold Granowsky (drums).

Recorded in New York City, June, 1955

Phil Sunkel - His Jazz Band And His Music

Phil Sunkel II born as Philip Charles Sunkel, Jr. on November 26, 1925 in Zanesville, Ohio.

After serving in the Army in WWII at age 18 (combat and playing trumpet for the Army Band) overseas, he returned home and went to the Cincinnati Conservatory on the G.I. Bill where he honed his trumpet, flugelhorn, and cornet skills. He ended up in New York City in the 1950's and 60's, which was an exciting and vibrant time for jazz. In addition to albums of his own Jazz Concerto Grosso, and Every Morning I Listen to Phil Sunkel's Jazz Band, he appeared live and on numerous jazz albums as a sideman with the likes of Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Gil Evans, Tito Rodriguez, Woody Herman, Dizzy Gillespie, Sauter-Finegan, Claude Thornhill, Charlie Barnet, Dick Meldonian, and many others. He was the trumpet player on the Merv Griffin Show in the early 1960's and played with the Playboy Club Orchestra for seven years, he played at numerous resorts, and played for Broadway musicals. He died on February 27, 2023 in his sleep in a nursing home in Queens, New York. *Walter Bruyninckx*

Phil Sunkel, cornet and trumpet player, was born in 1925 in Zanesville, Ohio. He played with the Claude Thornhill, Charlie Barnet, Stan Getz, Sauter-Finegan, Gerry Mulligan, Gil Evans and Tito Rodriguez bands. Leaving his role as a soloist aside, Phil mainly stood out as an arranger and composer of talent, being these recordings his most celebrated works and the only ones he did as a leader.

My idea of a jazzband, he said is something between a small combo and a big band incorporating the good features of both. Here we have the flexibility of a small group which allows the soloist a maximum of freedom, plus the color and drama produced by the different ensemble sounds.

The further possibilities of using a three voice group superimposed on a similarly conceived orchestral backdrop originated Sunkels most ambitious and outstanding work: "Jazz Concerto Grosso". *Jordi Pujol*

Phil Sunkel's name is unjustly missing from a lot of jazz reference works, though his considerable resume as a sideman includes recordings with Hal McKusick, Al Cohn, Lawrence Brown, Urbie Green, Gerry Mulligan, Erroll Garner, Jimmy Giuffre, Lee Konitz and Gil Evans, to name only a few. This first-call trumpeter evidently only made two records as a leader, both of them for ABC-Paramount in the mid-'50s. This album was the first under his own name, with a tentet including baritone saxophonist Gene Allen, alto saxophonist Dick Meldonian, trombonist Gene Hessler, and trumpeter Al Stewart. Sunkel's precise trumpet solos never fail to swing yet don't resort to showboating. His cool arrangements are comparable to those of Gerry Mulligan and Bob Brookmeyer, with most of the music devoted to Sunkel's tasty originals. *Ken Dryden*

Phil Sunkel's Jazz Band

Every Morning I Listen To... Phil Sunkel's Jazz Band

My idea of a jazzband is something between a small combo and a big band incorporating the good features of both. Here we have the flexibility of a small group which allows the soloist a maximum of freedom, plus the color and drama produced by the different ensemble sounds.

All the arrangements here were conceived with the purpose in mind of creating vehicles for the soloists ideas. Backgrounds were kept at a minimum and used only where they would enhance rather than distort the soloists ideas.

This album was recorded in three separate sessions — May 13, May 23, and June 14, 1956 in New York City. The same personnel was used throughout. Our intentions were to produce some happy spirited music. We had fun making this album and we hope you enjoy it.

*Phil Sunkel (liner notes)*

The set features a tight brace of three trumpets in the lead, alongside trombone, alto, tenor, and baritone — almost an extension of the sounds crafted at the tail end of the swing years, but with some nice modernist inflections too — somewhere in a space between Woody Herman and Stan Kenton, with lots of nice hues and tones in the horns. *dustygroove.com*

Side 1

1 - Jack's Theme

(Phil Sunkel)

2 - Polka Dots And Moonbeams

(Van Heusen, Burke)

3 - Train Ride

(Phil Sunkel)

4 - Old Wives' Tales

(Phil Sunkel)

5 - Every Mornin'

(Phil Sunkel)

Side 2

6 - How Strange

(Prozorowsky, Brent, Stothart, Kahn)

7 - The Animal Man

(Phil Sunkel)

8 - Chomp, Chomp Blues

(Phil Sunkel)

9 - Joe, The Architect

(Phil Sunkel)

10 - T. Blues

(Phil Sunkel)

Phil Sunkel, Al Stewart, Siggy Shatz (trumpets); Gene Hessler (trombone); Dick Meldonian (alto sax); Buddy Arnold (tenor sax); Gene Allen (baritone sax); George Syran (piano); Bob Petersen (bass); Harold Granowsky (drums).

Recorded in New York City, May 13, May 29 and June 14, 1956.

***

Gerry Mulligan And Bob Brookmeyer

Play Phil Sunkel's Jazz Concerto Grosso

I have always been fascinated by the acoustical and rhythmic possibilities of three voice writing. My first opportunity to do something professional in this direction came in 1955 when I joined the Stan Getz Sextet. Stan had previously commissioned me to write some things for his quintet and it was from this material that I now drew and enlarged upon to meet the needs of the new group. The instrumentation was valve trombone, cornet, and tenor backed by bass, drums and piano. The soft broad qualities of the valve trombone and cornet blended well with Stan's warm tenor sound and the resulting textures proved ideal for the moody intimate type things I had written.

My intentions were to retain the harmonic framework of these little songs while injecting a linear feeling into each of the individual horn parts. To do this, each voice 

was made to fall naturally and uncontrived and so designed rhythmically as to sustain the pulse and present a completeness within themselves. The bass, drums and 

piano served to underline, punctuate, and reinforce this linear harmonic activity. The further possibilities of using a three voice group superimposed on a similarly conceived orchestral backdrop soon presented itself as an interesting project for future consideration. 

About a year ago I hit upon a theme that seemed to be of a character suitable for this expanded type of treatment. 

The stark simplicity of its obvious construction made it perfect raw material for the compositional presentation I had in mind. Standing alone, this musical fragment had a naked, self-conscious air; but, after being melodically extended and placed in context, it suddenly took on a noble, earthy quality. This was exactly what I was looking for and with this good strong basic material at hand the piece began to shape itself. 

Now that the whole thing was straight in my own mind I presented the idea to the record company. Creed Taylor was immediately enthusiastic and suggested that I sound Gerry Mulligan and Bob Brookmeyer to appear as soloists. Gerry and Bob liked the idea and their acceptance pushed the work toward its final stages. The members of the band were chosen, the date set, and all that remained was the completion of the score. 

The sketches and fragments that had accumulated over the last year now shaped themselves into a meaningful whole, and we recorded the finished work on October 14, 1957.

*Phil Sunkel (liner notes)*

Although Gerry Mulligan and Bob Brookmeyer get top billing on this LP, the leader, composer, and arranger of all three compositions is cornetist Phil Sunkel. The full 15-piece band is heard on the nearly 16-minute "Jazz Concerto Grosso", with the full band supporting the solos of Mulligan (baritone sax), Brookmeyer (valve trombone), and the leader. The shorter pieces from the following day's session feature a septet with totally different personnel, except for the three major soloists. All of the music is enjoyable and falls clearly into the cool jazz genre, but it has languished in obscurity like Sunkel, though he was later a member of the acclaimed Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band. This long deleted record will be somewhat difficult to locate. *Ken Dryden*

Side 1

1 - Jazz Concerto Grosso

Side 2

2 - Something For The Ladies

3 - Song For Cornet

(All compositions by Phil Sunkel)

#1:

Phil Sunkel (cornet); Nick Travis, Al Stewart, Don Stratton, John Wilson (trumpets); Frank Rehak (trombone); Bob Brookmeyer (valve trombone); Eddie Bert (bass trombone); Don Butterfield (tuba); Dick Meldonian (alto sax); Cliff Hoff, Bill Slapin (tenor saxes); Gerry Mulligan, Gene Allen (baritone saxes); Milt Hinton (bass); Osie Johnson (drums).

#2 and #3:

Phil Sunkel (cornet), John Wilson (fluegelhorn), Bob Brookmeyer (valve trombone), Jim Reider (tenor sax), Gerry Mulligan (baritone sax), Wendell Marshal (bass), Harold Granowsky (drums).

Recorded in New York City, October 14 (#1) and October 15 (#2, #3), 1957.

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.