Rare And Obscure Argo Recordings (XVII)

Dorothy Ashby

Dorothy Ashby

A jazz harpist is a rare thing. First of all the harp is a rather unlikely instrument to swing. It's an awfully difficult instrument to play really well and it demands technique that is incongruous with swinging. Perhaps as important is the thinking that the harp, by the very nature of the instrument, is likely to attract musicians who, in themselves, are improbable swingers. Dorothy Ashby is, then, a rare thing. She is indeed a jazz harpist and she does swing.

Dorothy is a Detroit musician and in some circles that, in itself, is some claim to fame. Detroit has produced an uncommon group of splendid muicians… Milt Jackson, Paul Chambers, Kenny Burrell, Pepper Adams, all those Joneses, Frank Rosolino and many more — rather a strong group to stand out among. Cannonball Adderley recently made the remark that any musician who makes it among that Detroit crowd has got to be saying something. Dorothy is much loved and respected among her Detroit contemporaries and has surely distinguished herself in their company.

This is a trio album.  With Dorothy are  Herman Wright playing bass, and John Tooley on drums. Again Dorothy is with men of stature. Herman Wright has been a firmly established musician for a long time and appears in an enormous number of albums, but is probably best know for his work with Terry Gibbs and George Shearing. John Tooley's creddits include that coveted experience of accompanying Billy Holiday.

This is not hard jazz. This is an album that says jazz can, after all, be melodic, that a thing can be gentle without being weak and can be sweet without being saccrine. What is done here is done well, the improvisation is creative, and in typical Dorothy Ashby thinking — it’s done in beautiful taste. 

She is indeed a jazz harpist and she does swing. *Jim Rockwell (liner notes)*

One of the most stripped-down albums from legendary jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby — and one of her earliest records too! The set's got Dorothy right out front in a trio setting — working with bassist Herman Wright and drummer John Tooley — in a wonderfully jazzy take on the sound of the harp — an instrument used here in a way that's never flowery, or linked to classical modes at all — but instead in a very unique space that's somewhere between jazz bass and guitar — as Ashby plucks these hip notes with a very soulful vibe! The album's got a special Chess/Argo sort of vibe — one that really opens up Ashby's Detroit roots. Dorothy wrote two originals for the set — "John R" and "Booze" — and other titles include "Lonely Melody", "Django", "Gloomy Sunday", and "Lil Darlin". *Dusty Groove, Inc.*

Side 1

1 - Lonely Melody

(Arr. O. McLaughlin)

2 - Secret Love

(Webster, Fain)

3 - Gloomy Sunday

(Seres, Javor, Lewis)

4 - Satin Doll

(Ellington)

5 John R.

(D. Ashby)

Side 2

6 - Li'l Darlin'

(Neal Hefti)

7 - Booze

(D. Ashby)

8 - Django

(J. Lewis)

9 - You Stepped Out Of A Dream

(Lane, Washington)

10 - Stranger In Paradise

(Wright, Forrest)

Dorothy Ashby  (harp), Herman Wright (bass), John Tooley (drums).

Recorded at Ter-Mar Recording Studios, Chicago, Illinois, August 8, 1961

Terry Gibbs - El Nutto

When I moved back to New York City from California in 1963, my agent had already booked me a 16-week tour and I had to put a quartet together. I called Herman Wright, who played double bass in my quartet with that great female piano player, Terry Pollard, from 1953-1957. Herman and Terry were from Detroit. The first thing that Herman said to me was there was another great female piano player from Detroit who was now living in NY. Her name was Alice McLeod. I don’t usually hire anybody I didn’t know her, but because of what Herman told me I set up a little jam session so I could hear how Alice played jazz, and it had to be bebop because that’s what I heard and played in jazz, and I wanted to hear Alice play bebop. I also had a drummer recommended to me by one of my good drummer friends, and so John Dentz, Herman and I went to a studio that I rented at Nola Studios.

How I usually work my songs is that, after I play the melody, the piano player solos first. After Alice played just 8 bars I knew that I was going to hire her. In 1963 Alice was an out an out be-bopper in the style of Bud Powell. Also John  Dentz gave me what I was looking for: TIME. The more we played the better Alice sounded, she was a quiet shy lady and she got more aggressive as the jam session went on, you can hear her fitting in with everything that I was looking for in a piano player. Alice worked in my band for one year until I introduced her to John Coltrane and saw a love affair happen and that was why Alice left. That one year Alice was in my quartet was really fun playing because she was, as I said before, an out and out be-bopper. *Terry Gibbs*

Before joining vibraphonist Terry Gibbs' quartet in 1962, Detroit-born pianist Alice McLeod played intermissions at the Paris Blue Note and appeared on French TV with saxophonist Lucky Thompson, reaching Gibbs' attention in a duo with vibraphonist Terry Pollard; in the quartet, she became the perfect foil for Gibbs, her understated piano making room for his intense improvisation, stepping up with her own expression when needed. El Nutto captures Alice at her best in this setting, as heard on the reveries of "El Flippo" and the title track, this solid set of Gibbs originals showing her virtuosity, composure, and curiousness, which would soon reach more cosmic highs, once she became Alice Coltrane. *forcedexposure.com*

This would be a routine Terry Gibbs quartet set except for one fact: the pianist is Alice McLeod, who after getting married would change her name to Alice Coltrane. The third of three albums she recorded with Gibbs (decades later, her son Ravi Coltrane would work for the vibraphonist's son, drummer Gerry Gibbs), McLeod sounds fine on ten obscure tunes, all Gibbs originals. Certainly, none of the songs (which include "El Nutto", "The Nightie Night Waltz", "Hey Pretty" and "Just For Laughs") caught on, and their melodies are not particularly memorable, but the solos of Gibbs and the appearance of the pianist make this album of historic interest. *Scott Yanow*

Side 1

1 - Little "S"

2 - El Nutto

3 - The Nightie Night Waltz

4 - The Young Ones

5 - El Flippo

Side 2

6 - Hey Pretty

7 - Sleepy Head Blues

8 - Lonely Days

9 - Little "C"

10 - Just for Laughs

(All compositions by Terry Gibbs)

Terry Gibbs (vibraphone), Alice McLeod [a.k.a. Alice Coltrane] (piano), Herman Wright (bass), John Dentz (drums).

Recorded at A&R Studios, New York City, April 15, 1963.

Chet Baker - Comin' On

 

Baker’s period in Europe should probably be forgotten by everyone. The lurid stories of his addiction problems and incarcerations were splashed through the second rate girlie magazines with great frequency. The endless recitation of ugly stories was not heartening to the jazz fan.

His return to New York has been well chronicled by Ira Gitler (...) Suffice to say, that Baker’s playing retained the extraordinary lyricism he has always possessed but, by this time, there was more assurance, more guts in his playing. For me, he sounds more like Fats Navarro at this time. 

This is third in the series of five albums which Baker recorded under the auspices of Richard Carpenter who has served as Baker’s manager and has worked in a similar capacity for Gene Ammons. Carpenter has supplied most of the originals in the series and is represented here by the title track, "Comin’ On" and a vintage tune from the 1950's, "Chabootie", recorded many years ago by Ammons. Jimmy Mundy wrote No Fair Lady but perhaps the outstanding composition here is Tadd Dameron’s seldom heard "Choose Now". 

If one is surprised that Baker would tackle a vehicle of Gene Ammons, it should be no shock that he also could get into Tadd. Baker has expressed a great deal of admiration for Dameron both as a composer and pianist. Dameron is the premier composer of modern jazz and the graceful, swinging lines have, in Baker, one of the most sensitive jazz interpreters. 

Individually, the sidemen on this date are outstanding jazzmen. Collectively they give Baker the support and inspiration which may have been lacking in earlier efforts. Chet Baker is an unusual musician in that his early work was conservative compared to his more adventuresome playing here. Normally, a musician will have more fire and daring when he is young before settling into a comfortable bag as he grows older. Chet Baker has proved in these recordings that he has the fire. Let us hope that there will be more fire in the future. It would be a heavy blow to jazz should he be removed from the scene. *Bob Porter (Liner notes)* 

Side 1

01 - Comin' On

(Carpenter, Bruce)

02 - Stairway To The Stars

(Malneck, Parrish, Signorelli)

03 - No Fair Lady

(Mundy)

04 - When You're Gone

(Bruce, Johnson)

Side 2

05 - Choose Now

(Dameron)

06 - Chabootie

(Carpenter)

07 - Carpsie's Groove

(Carpenter, Stitt)

Chet Baker (flugelhorn), George Coleman (tenor sax), Kirk Lightsey (piano), Herman Wright (bass), Roy Brooks (drums).

Recorded at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, August 23, 25 and 29, 1965.