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

Before this year's final post, it may be helpful to take a brief look at the history of how Down Beat has judged music over the years and how it eventually arrived at its classic five-star system, which we have used so far for the series we came up with to pay tribute to the publication's celebrated reviewers.

Throughout its long history, Down Beat not only chronicled the evolution of jazz— it also refined the very tools it used to evaluate recordings. Between 1946 and 1952, the magazine tried three different rating systems, each one formally announced to readers in its pages.

What follows is the first part (of three) of that sequence, along with the original texts that introduced each change.

✤ 1946 ✤ 

How Down Beat First Retooled Its Rating Method:

The 1946 Note-Symbol System

When Down Beat entered the postwar era, it sought a clearer, more flexible way to judge the rapidly growing stream of new releases. In early 1946, the magazine abandoned its older, loosely defined evaluation practices and introduced a system based on musical note symbols—a concise visual code meant to give readers an immediate sense of a record’s merit.

What follows is a simple presentation of that first experiment, along with the original editorial text that announced the change.

The first attempt at a consistent rating system appeared in the May 20, 1946 issue, in Michael Levin's section "Diggin' the Discs with MIX".

Down Beat introduced a simple visual code based on eighth notes, giving readers a quick sense of the reviewer's verdict. The scale ran as follows:

♪♪♪♪ — Tops

♪♪♪ — Tasty

♪♪ — Pleasing

♪ — Boring

The magazine presented the new system with this note of caution to readers:

"For the first time, Down Beat is using symbols to tell you at a glance something about each record reviewed by 'Mix', who, of course, is Michael Levin. One word of caution about their use: review symbols are as bad as B's used to be on grammar school report cards; namely, drawing the fine lines between a fair and a good record is a difficult process. A 4 note rating one week might draw only 3 notes if issued the following week, solely because the whole group of releases the next week might be better on an average. No critic can carry comparative ratings from week to week, save in an approximate fashion".

The system was short–lived, but it marked Down Beat's first effort to formalize its critical criteria.

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

Coleman Hawkins!

Coleman Hawkins All-American Four

♪♪♪ Make Believe

♪♪♪♪ Just One of Those Things

First chorus here is a sample of liquid, lovely Coleman with no squawking or reaching for high ones. Same goes for the Wilson chorus that follows. Hawk comes on again and can’t top himself. It’s a topnotch side. Flipover has that fantastically crystalline left hand of Theodore Wilson at a fast bounce tempo, with Hawk's following chorus getting a trifle tangled in the middle; though the way Wilson plays on this side would be enough to scare anybody—everything and not an ounce extra is there (Keynote 1317).

*Michael Levine (Down Beat, May 20, 1946)*

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

Coleman Hawkins

The Chronogical • 1944

It is one of the lucky coincidences in jazz history that Coleman Hawkins was in truly stupendous 1944/45, and that at the same time many small, new record-companies entered business, managing to entice the saxophonist into recordings so frequently — and almost always music of everlasting quality.

This volume of the recordings of Coleman Hawkins, presented in chronological order, opens with a fine set for the Keynote label. Hawk's perfect combination of virtuosity and swing is evident on the fast "Flame Thrower" and "Cattin'", his combination of elegance and finesse on the ballads. The boppish "Disorder" is followed by another one of the saxophonist's intricate compositions, plus "Rainbow Mist" a rather free improvisation of "Body And Soul". Less familiar but equally thrilling, the "Saxtet" session pairs Hawk with Georgie Auld and Ben Webster for some hot blowing. On "Pick Up Boys", a simple yet effective riff, Charlie Shavers first launches an unusually gruff Ben Webster, then Georgie Auld and Hawkins, into some sizzling solo work. The next four recordings, by the "Sax Ensemble", offer magnificent solos by Hawkins, Byas and Harry Carney. Tab Smith's efforts, on the other hand, are rather strange, his bizarre playing culminating in a curious run at the end of "Sunny Side". He later recorded a similar version of this same number under his own name. The CD ends with a set of unusually relaxed performances by Hawkins, backed by Teddy Wilson, John Kirby and Sid Catlett. Although recorded a bit off-microphone, Wilson's elegant playing has rarely been more impressive, his work on "Don't Blame me" rivaling his unforgettable 1937 solo version of this same song. *Anatol Schenker, July 1995 (from the liner notes)*

During the mid-'40s Coleman Hawkins was hitting another peak, seasoned by many years in big bands both in the States and Europe. He wasn't out of fashion during those early bop years, either, as he often played with the music's young Turks; their sound was a mix of the big band era's refined combo swing and bop's new, angular energy. This Classics disc captures some of the tenor great's best sides from the period, including an early bop milestone featuring Dizzy Gillespie and Don Byas ("Disorder at the Border") and tracks with Ben Webster and a variety of small bands graced by the likes of Byas, Teddy Wilson, Harry Carney, and Cozy Cole. Essential listening.

*Stephen Cook (allmusic.com)*

1 - Flame Thrower

(Hawkins)

2 - Imagination

(Burke, Van Heusen)

3 - Night And Day

(Porter)

4 - Cattin' At Keynote

(Lim)

5 - Disorder At The Border

(Hawkins)

6 - Feeling Zero

(Hawkins)

7 - Rainbow Mist

(Hawkins)

8 - Pick-Up-Boys

(Feather)

9 - Porgy

(Fields, McHugh)

10 - Uptown Lullaby

(Feather)

11 - Salt Peanuts

(Gillespie, Clarke)

12 - On the Sunny Side Of The Street

(Fields, McHugh)

13 - Three Little Words

(Ruby, Kalmer)

14 - Battle Of The Saxes

(Hawkins)

15 - Louise

(Whiting, Robin)

16 - Make Believe

(Kern, Hammerstein II)

17 - Don't Blame Me

(McHugh, Fields)

18 - Just One Of Those Things

(Porter)

19 - Hallelujah

(Robin, Grey, Youmans)

Coleman Hawkins (tenor sax) with:

#1 to #4:

Teddy Wilson (piano), Israel Crosby (bass), Cozy Cole (drums).

Recorded in New York City, February 17, 1944

#5 to #7:

Leo Parker, Leonard Lowry (alto saxes); Don Byas, Ray Abrams (tenor saxes);

Budd Johnson (baritone sax); Clyde Hart (piano); Oscar Pettiford (bass); Max Roach (drums)

Recorded in New York City,  February 22, 1944

#8 to #11:

Charlie Shavers (trumpet), Georgie Auld (alto sax, tenor sax),

Ben Webster (tenor sax), Hy White (guitar),

Bill Rowland (piano), Israel Crosby (bass), Specs Powell (drums).

Recorded in New York City, May 17, 1944

#12 to #15:

Tab Smith (alto sax), Don Byas (tenor sax),Harry Carney (baritone sax),

Johnny Guarnieri (piano),  Al Lucas (bass),  Sidney Catlett (drums).

Recorded in New York City, May 24, 1944

#16 to #19:

Teddy Wilson (piano), John Kirby (bass), Sidney Catlett (drums).

Recorded in New York City, May 29, 1944

Duke Ellington For Christmas

 Then, in 1892, Tchaikovsky's famous ballet, The Nutcracker, debuted. Because the ballet is set on Christmas Eve and the hero is a nutcracker come to life, the products quickly became associated with holiday decor.

The story of The Nutcracker is loosely based on the Ernest Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann fantasy story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King", about a girl who befriends a nutcracker that comes to life on Christmas Eve and wages a battle against the evil Mouse King.

The San Francisco ballet performed "The Nutcracker" on Christmas Eve of 1944. But it wasn't until the 1960s that performances of the complete "Nutcracker" ballet really took off as an annual Christmas tradition around the world.

Allow me to respect the tradition accompanied by the quintessential jazz orchestra.

May this entry also serve to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Duke Ellington And His Orchestra

The Nutcracker Suite

By the time Duke Ellington recorded his holiday LP The Nutcracker Suite for the Columbia label in the summer of 1960, he had already led a four-decade career as a peerless innovator and leader of an orchestra of legendary virtuosity.

Though his fame had somewhat waned by the bebop era of the early 1950s, Ellington enjoyed a well-deserved career resurgence with the overwhelming reaction to his 1956 live date Ellington at Newport, and this renewed vitality seemed to expand his horizons still further to encompass ever more ambitious large-scale works, his concerts of sacred music, soundtrack composing, collaboration with John Coltrane and Charles Mingus, etc.

>The Nutcracker Suite< was Ellington’s first album-length project devoted to the work of another composer, but it’s not the only thing that makes this recording a standout in his discography. A cursory glance at the album cover immediately draws attention for its central image that features both Ellington and his longtime musical partner, composer, and arranger Billy Strayhorn — the first time Strayhorn’s image graced an Ellington cover — and for the listing of three surnames as the creators of the work: Ellington, Strayhorn, and Tchaikovsky. This equality of billing makes complete sense in retrospect — Strayhorn had the idea for the project in the first place and reimagined the suite to best suit the Ellington Orchestra — but to openly suggest that Duke Ellington was not the singular architect of his own work was an unprecedented (and overdue) acknowledgment of Strayhorn’s talent and his importance as a major figure in jazz in his own right.

Producer Irving Townsend contributed the liner notes to the original release, and in his opening relates a jaw-dropping, but completely apocryphal, anecdote about Tchaikovsky and Ellington meeting in Las Vegas — the Russian died six years before Duke was born and only traveled to the U.S. once in 1891 to conduct concerts on the East Coast — but Townsend most likely meant that it was during Duke’s Riviera Hotel residency that he made the decision to adapt Tchaikovsky’s work. Since Strayhorn masterminded the project, this is also not strictly accurate, but effectively gets us into the background of the album. *Rusty Aceves (sfjazz.org)*

Duke Ellington and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky met in Las Vegas while Duke's band was setting attendance records at the Riviera Hotel. For the first time in Ellington history, Duke had decided to devote an entire album to arrangements of another composer's works instead of his own, and Tchaikovsky was the natural choice.

Because the suite is a favorite form for Ellington composition, the Nutcracker was the obvious Tchaikovsky work to choose.

Duke and Billy Strayhorn needed some reassurance that nobody, including the famous Russian composer, would mind if the Suite was translated into the Ellington style, but once these fears were banished, they attacked the “Sugar-Plum Fairy” and the “Waltz of the Flowers” as if they were no more sacred than “Perdido.”

Duke's band had undergone some changes during his Las Vegas stand, and as he arrived in Los Angeles to begin the recording, the trombone section included two Ellington alumni, Lawrence Brown and Juan Tizol, back for postgraduate courses.

The rhythm section also included Sam Woodyard, back with the band after a year's absence, and Aaron Bell, one of the fine bass players in jazz. Eddie Mullins was new in the trumpet section, as was Meringuito, and Willie Cook had returned to the band. The sax section and, of course, the piano player, were unchanged.

Duke Ellington's first brush with the classics is successfully completed. It is a tribute, I think, to Duke and Billy and to Tchaikovsky. The Ellington forces have proved once again that in any setting, this great band and its strong personality pervade all the music it plays. But that Tchaikovsky has also triumphed is an indication of the perennial strength of his music. As Duke commented, "That cat was it". *Irving Townsend (liner notes)*

1- Overture

2 - Toot Toot Tootie Toot (Dance Of The Reed-Pipes)

3 - Peanut Brittle Brigade (March)

4 - Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance Of The Sugar-Plum Fairy)

5 - Entr'acte

6 - The Volga Vouty (Russian Dance)

7 - Chinoiserie (Chinese Dance)

8 - Dance Of The Floreadores (Waltz Of The Flowers)

9 - Arabesque Cookie (Arabian Dance)

 (All compositins by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and adaptaed by Duke Ellington)

Willie Cook, Fats Ford, Ray Nance, Clark Terry (trumpets), 

Lawrence Brown, Booty Wood, Britt Woodman (trombones),

Juan Tizol (valve trombone), Jimmy Hamilton (clarinet, tenor sax), 

Johnny Hodges (alto sax), Russell Procope (alto sax, clarinet), 

Paul Gonsalves (tenor sax), Harry Carney (baritone sax, clarinet, bass clarinet),

Duke Ellington (piano), Aaron Bell (bass), Sam Woodyard (drums):

Recorded at Radio Recorders, Los Angeles, California,

May 26 (#1, #5), May 31 (#2), June 3 (#4, #8), June 21 (#3, #7) and June 22 (#6, #9), 1960.

✤

And now, time for holidays.

To all blog readers, my best wishes for a great 2025.

Out Let will be back next year... exactly on January 20th.