Five-Star Collection... Miles Davis

Miles Davis

Seven Steps To Heaven

This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

                                                  "Hamlet"

Miles Davis believes that a performer's first responsibility is to himself, and that if he becomes disturbed by the opinions and advice of others he will make very little headway.

Amplifying this credo, he once pointed out that "critics write whole columns and pages of big words and still ain't saying nothing. If you have spent your life getting to know your business and the other cats in it, and what they are doing, then you know whether a critic knows what he's talking about. Most of the time they don't. I pay no attention to what the critics say about me, the good or the bad. The toughest critic I got, and the only one I worry about, is myself. My music has to get past me, and I'm too vain to play anything I think is bad".

Miles' indifference to critics, and to critical audiences, is coupled with a complete lack of concern for the comments accompanying his albums. He believes in letting the music act as its own spokesman. As a concession to this precept, Someday My Prince Will Come was issued with nothing on the jacket but the personnel, a candid shot of Miles on the back, and a portrait of his princess, Frances Davis, on the front. The music remained unharmed. Fortunately for the penmen, it is still widely believed that contrary to Miles' views, informative commentary can help acquaint the listener with the artist and may thereby aid in an understanding of the music.

To gain an accurate perspective of Miles it is advisable to consider only his musical and personal background, rather than to evaluate him in terms of the curious cult that has taken root around him. There is a growing circle of hipsters who dress as he dresses, curse as they think he curses, copy everything off his old records including the clinkers, and get their masochistic kicks by waiting for him to do, in a nightclub or onstage, something they think they can point out as rude or unconventional. These pseudo-sophisticates, in most cases, are totally unaware of what Miles Davis is or was, for although the what and the how of Miles today fascinates them, the why of yesterday concerns them hardly at all.

His career since 1957 has moved upward in a sort of two-pronged spiral. Experiments with Gil Evans and a large orchestra have alternated with informal performances by his own quintets and sextets. During these years, Miles has matured into a brilliant, complex man shaped by the ironies of a society that could Jim Crow him on a variety of private and professional levels while simultaneously giving him a healthy shove toward his first million dollars.

It is a miniature musical education to watch the creative processes at work during a Miles Davis session. Miles talks very little, expecting the musicians to follow his plans by intuition. It takes a sensitive and intelligent artist to follow the leader under these conditions, and it was the very demands he placed on his men that brought out the best in them.

In a way, it was symbolic of the attitude Miles has developed toward music and life. If one were asked to epitomize in one phrase his uncompromising approach to the horn, the answer would be simple again: Let the chops fall where they may. Miles' music is his own just as he is his own man; never has it been made clearer than in these starkly eloquent musical statements, uttered 360 years after "Hamlet". *Leonard Feather, 1963 (from the liner notes)*

This LP is the result of two sessions held this spring, the first in Los Angeles, the other in New York City. The Los Angeles session, with Feldman, Carter, and Butler, produced Basin, Love, and Baby; the other three titles stem from the second date, with the trumpeter's present group — Coleman, Hancock, Carter, and Williams. Davis played exceptionally well on both dates, though each brought out a different facet of his artistry.

There is a spell of melancholy cast over the Los Angeles performances, partly because the three selections are slow tempoed and balladic in nature, partly because Davis plays only muted — and he tends to play "sadder" muted than he does open. But more than anything, it is what he plays and how he phrases it that casts the spell.

On each of the three tracks, there is a general downward curve to his solos; that is, the phrases may rise, but at the critical point they descend, either in a short run or a slur, and even as they rise there are innumerable points where Davis slurs individual notes downward. It's as if he were continually turning down the corners of his highly melodic improvisations.

Davis also often uses the low register of his horn, sometimes in breathy fashion, on Basin, Love, and Baby — on the last named he ends his solo with what must be termed a sigh. And as always, his playing is very human, with voicelike inflections that give his work a "singing" quality, not unlike that of a Billie Holiday or an Edith Piaf.

On the other hand, his playing at the New York session is almost joyous. Certainly there are turned-down corners, but not as many as on the other three tracks.

It should be noted that Seven, So Near, and Joshua are not taken at slow tempos, but this is not necessarily the reason for the joy evident in Davis' playing—he's conjured up melancholy at fast tempos before. There is a shift in his playing here, a general upward curve to his solos— rising phrases and runs up scales to the high register. He also uses the upper register more on these tracks than the others —and he makes what he goes for, which is something one could not always say about some of his other recordings.

Both sessions resulted in classic Miles. All three tracks from the Los Angeles session are superb. And there is a remarkable Joshua solo that must stand as a model of how to construct a solo— there is one part, for example, where he uses a scale first in its entirety and then returns to it periodically but only uses part of it to make his point—which is a simple enough idea, but how many jazzmen think of something like that?

And so strong is Davis' playing on both sessions that one never bothers about how many choruses he plays, how long or short his phrases are, how he gets through a certain set of chords—just as long as he keeps playing. Which, I guess, is the mark of a true artist at work.

Of the others on the album, Feldman, who wrote Joshua and collaborated with Davis on Seven, and Carter are the more sympathetic accompanists, though Hancock solos brilliantly, particularly on Seven and Joshua.

Feldman combines parts of Bill Evans and Red Garland in his solos but plays harder than either of those two former Davis sidemen. In general, he does an excellent job of following Davis' unpredictable twists and turns.

Butler occasionally seems at a loss as to what to play behind Davis, sometimes double-timing for a few bars and then dropping back; he sounds more comfortable backing Feldman. Williams, however, goes straight ahead in his accompaniment, and the young Boston drummer displays mature taste in his Seven solo, which is a characteristic uncommon to most other 17-year-olds.

Coleman is unimpressive in his solos, though I've heard him play very well with the group in live performances since the record was made. The tenorist also falls victim to a recording imbalance in the stereo version that brings out Hancock's often busy accompaniment much too strongly, to the point of distraction, in fact.

But these are minor carps in light of the stunning performances by Davis on the record.

*Don DeMicheal (Down Beat, September 12, 1963 [5 stars])*

1 - Basin Street Blues

(Spencer Williams)

2 - Seven Steps To Heaven

(Victor Feldman, Miles Davis)

3 - I Fall In Love Too Easily

(Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne)

4 - So Near, So Far 

(Tony Crombie, Benny Green)

5 - Baby Won't You Please Come Home

(Charles Warfield, Clarence Williams)

6 - Joshua

(Victor Feldman)

7 - So Near, So Far

(Tony Crombie, Benny Green)

8 - Summer Night

(Al Dubin, Harry Warren)

Miles Davis (trumpet), with:

#1, #3, #5, #7, #8:

George Coleman (tenor sax), Victor Feldman (piano),

Ron Carter (bass), Frank Butler (drums).

Recorded at Columbia Studios, Los Angeles, California,

April 16 (#1, #3, #5, #7) and April 17 (#8), 1963

#2, #4, #6:

George Coleman (tenor sax), Herbie Hancock (piano),

Ron Carter (bass), Tony Williams (drums).

Recorded at Columbia 30th Street Studio, New York City, May 14, 1963

Five-Star Collection... Don Ellis

The Don Ellis Quintet

New Ideas

It was my intention to present in this album a variety of moods, settings and approaches. These are all separate pieces but they were chosen with the effect of the album as a whole in mind. All five musicians do not play on every composition. Certain moods and ideas are more effective in different settings. There is no reason why, just because you have five members of a group, you have to keep five musicians playing all the time.

I believe in making use of as wide a range of expressive techniques as possible. I have been working to develop my playing, writing and personality to this end. Jazz is supposed to be expressive. Why place limits on expressiveness? Why not endeavor to make music as interesting as possible for the performer and listener? All the players here have a thorough control over their respective instruments and the techniques of "standard" jazz improvising (playing on chord progressions) and they are able as well to create without chord progressions and on tone clusters and tone rows. They are not limited in their approach to a mere ignoring of the changes to sound "far out", but have the ability to control both the horizontal and vertical elements of the music. I do not believe that lack of technique and/or knowledge gives "freedom" in improvising, but rather, the more technique and knowledge we have — the more choices are open to us in our improvising — and therefore the "freer" we are, because we are less limited. *Don Ellis (from the liner notes)*

Some seven months elapsed after the recording of Ellis' controversial first album, How Time Passes (Candid 8004), before this Prestige/New Jazz collection was done. Ellis' work here is, if anything, even more stimulating and exhilarating — certainly it's thorny enough! — than his provocative writing and improvising in the earlier collection.

There are several reasons for this. For one, this disc attempts a far-wider-ranging program of moods and effects than did the Candid. It seems to me that they're brought off more successfully here, too.

As far as the technical means used to achieve these effects are concerned, this collection is more ambitious in scope and realization and, in this sense, is more truly representative of Ellis' sure mastery of several disciplines. These range from near-conventional improvising (Natural H.) through atonal and serial techniques (Tragedy and Imitation), on to a wholly improvised ensemble piece based on indeterminacy principles (Despair to Hope), and a lengthy extemporized trumpet Solo that is completely effective.

This collection I find brilliant in every respect. Ellis' compelling music warrants complete attention if only for the freshness, ingenuity, and striking originality of its conception. The five-star commendation might legitimately be awarded for this reason alone.

Yet, beyond this, the execution of the music is itself particularly stunning. The five men play together remarkably well, as if with a single mind, reflecting a unity of conception, a rapport, and a desire to serve the best ends of the music. The results certainly rank with the finest jazz of the last decade.

Ellis and vibraharpist Francis, who, with this disc, makes an impressive debut, and pianist Byard are members of the steadily swelling jazz avant garde, leading proponents of the "new thing". They are younger musicians who have come to the fore in the last two years and who, it has been said, are breaking with traditional jazz practices in their explorations. This album offers a gripping illustration that what Ellis, at least, is doing hardly constitutes a break with jazz' past but, rather, represents a brilliantly logical development of jazz conventions and practices.

There is no reason why a jazz musician should not bring the whole of his musical sensibility, the totality of his musical experience, to bear on his jazz writing and playing.

This is what Ellis has done here, and he brings to his jazz work a thorough understanding and appreciation of contemporary "serious" music concepts and practices, precepts that have been unselfconsciously, inevitably, and totally assimilated into his playing and writing approaches, so much so that they have become his natural mode of expression. "Natural" is the crucial word here, for were these classical influences merely grafted on, his music would ring false and pretentious. Such is not the case. Ellis works from within them. They are integral components of his fully shaped approach.

On first listening, the music in this collection might appear a bit forbidding or bewildering. After a few plays, however, it loses much of its strangeness, and one begins to absorb Ellis' rationale. The best piece with which to begin is Natural H., his fleet, coruscating reworking of Sweet Georgia Brown and the one piece in the album nearest to a conventional jazz performance, with its easily followed harmonic framework.

From this, one might proceed to the blues Uh-Huh and the sprightly trio piece Four and Three with its attractive alternation of 3/4 and 4/4 rhythms.

Imitation and Tragedy have as their basis the use of tone centers or clusters, and once the ear acclimates itself to their sound, the music is easily grasped and can be appreciated on its own terms. "It is interesting to notice", Ellis writes of the atonal Tragedy, "that after playing on these clusters for a while, they become 'tonal' to the ear, and you hear melodic ideas that can be either close to the sound of the cluster (sonorous) or further away from the sound (more dissonant), so it is actually exactly like improvising on slow moving chords".

The most interesting number in the collection — because of its daring and its success — is Despair, a piece of group improvisation that is based in John Cage's indeterminacy principles.

The selection is wholly extemporized by the quintet and had no guiding framework save an emotional one: the idea of progressing musically from despair to hope. It is largely successful in its evocation of this emotional progression and in its incorporation of certain natural sounds not normally accorded any musical value (for example, human sighs, splintering sounds, toy slide whistle) into the over-all structure of the piece.

This stimulating LP is one in which there are no loose ends, an album motivated by a strong, sure, and wholly unique conception. It has something to say and states it with force, directness, sensitivity, and conviction despite its variance with prevalent "trends" in jazz.

If Ellis' music requires a reorientation of the listener, it more than repays the effort with some of the most forthright, intense, and rewarding jazz listening in some time.

*Pete Welding (Down Beat, February 15, 1962 [5 stars])*

1 - Natural H.

2 - Despair To Hope

3 - Uh-Huh

4 - Four And Three

5 - Imitation

6 - Solo

7 - Cock And Bull

8 - Tragedy

(All compositions by Don Ellis)

Don Ellis (trumpet, piano [#8]), Al Francis (vibraphone),

Jaki Byard (piano), Ron Carter (bass), Charlie Persip (drums).

Recorded at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, May 11, 1961

Charles Bell - Three albums and more...

Charles Bell was a well-trained classical pianist who graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology in the early 1950s.  He turned his attention to jazz at around 20 years of age and soon made his mark on the jazz scene with his Charles Bell Contemporary Jazz Ensemble landing a contract with Columbia Records.

Charles was commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony to write a three movement jazz symphony called "Concerto in Miniature of Jazz Quartet and Orchestra" that was conducted by Dr. William Steinberg in 1963. The Charles Bell quartet released several recordings on the Columbia and Atlantic labels and toured the world during the 1960s.

Charles lived rather quietly and obscurely in his New York City apartment at the time of his passing. *Dr. Nelson Harrison*

He wasn't an innovator, star or major figure, but pianist Charles Bell made some solid records in the early and mid-'60s. Influenced by the then emerging soul-jazz and funky schools, Bell's playing was vibrant, often exciting and full of blues licks, gospel phrases and inflections, plus some bop tinges. He called his first combo a contemporary jazz quartet, and their menu included vamp numbers, standards and originals. His trio albums were more dense, and emphasized his harmonic abilities. *Ron Wynn*

A very interesting compilation from 3 LPs of this group dating from 1960 thru 65. The DownBeat Record Review in 1961 gave it the full 5 stars and I quote "Bell's music avoids the coldness that condemned the offerings of Tristano. It's intellectual, but it's got heart". A Collectors Rarity on Vinyl brought back to life. *amazon.co.jp*

The Charles Bell Contemporary Jazz Quartet

Formed in 1958, Charles Bells quartet made its recording debut on Columbia with The Charles Bell Contemporary Jazz Quartet after being acclaimed at the 1960 Georgetown University Intercollegiate Jazz Festival. The groupall extremely proficient musicians who knew how exploit the potentialities of their instruments to the fullwas something new in jazz, with an approach to theme, variation and rhythmic pulse that seemed to set it apart.

Charles Bell (1933-2012) was a classically trained pianist of undeniably lush and harmonic abilities. Smith contributed impressively to the singular contrapuntal interplay between piano and guitar, while bassist Traficante, a good soloist, provided a solid rhythmic fulcrum, with Blairman a tasteful and intelligent drummer.

On the second groups album, Another Dimension recorded almost two years later for Atlantic Recordsa young and promising bassist named Ron Carter joined the group. On this set Bells approach is somewhat more eclectic, with the cerebral rather than the emotional more to the fore in a music that shares certain contemporary classical concepts, without forsaking the pulse at its core.

The remaining tunes of this compilation are trio performances recorded live on two different Pittsburgh Jazz Festivals. Bell plays a mix of jazz and popular standards with an individual and relaxed style that proves he was a deep and sensitive pianist of considerable talent. *Jordi Pujol*

*CD 1*

1 - Latin Festival

(Charles Bell)

2 - The Gospel

(Charles Bell)

3 - Stage 13

(Charles Bell)

4 - The Last Sermon

(Charles Bell)

5 - Counterpoint Study #2

(Charles Bell)

6 - Variation 3

(Charles Bell)

7 - Happy Funky

(Charles Bell)

8 - Theme

(Charles Bell)

9 - Bass Line

(Charles Bell)

10 - Satan Said

(Charles Bell)

11 - Portrait Of Aunt Mary

(Charles Bell)

*CD 2*

1 - Oleo

(Sonny Rollins)

2 - Django

(John Lewis)

3 - My Favorite Things

(R. Rodgers, O. Hammerstein II)

4 - Green Dolphin Street

(N. Washington, B. Kaper)

5 - Tommy's Blues

(Tommy Sewell)

6 - Summertime

(G. and I. Gershwn)

7 - Prancing

(Miles Davis)

8 - Work Song

(Brown, Adderley)

9 - Whisper Not

(Benny Golson)

10 - Memories Of Home

(Charles Bell)

11 - Take Five

(Paul Desmond)

12 - Whisper Not

(Benny Golson)

13 - Bluesette

(Toots Thielemans)

#1 to #7 [CD 1]:

from the album The Charles Bell Contemporary Jazz Quartet (Columbia CS8382)

Charles Bell (piano), Bill Smith (guitar), Frank Traficante (bass), Allen Blairman (drums).

Recorded in New York City, July 8, 1960.

#8 to #11 [CD 1] and #1 to #3 [CD 2]:

from the album Another Dimension (Atlantic SD1400)

Charles Bell (piano), Bill Smith (guitar), Ron Carter (bass), Allen Blairman (drums).

Recorded in New York City, March 9 and 10, 1962.

#4 to #11 [CD 2]:

from the album The Charles Bell Trio in Concert (Gateway SLP7012)

Charles Bell (piano), Tommy Sewell (bass), William Harris (drums).

Recorded live at Carnegie Lecture Hall, Pittsburgh, November 9, 1963.

#12 [CD 2]:

from the album The Jazz Piano (RCA-Victor LSP3499)

#13 [CD 2 - not issued on LP]:

Charles Bell (piano), Larry Gales (bass), Ben Riley (drums).

Recorded live at the Jazz Piano Workshop of the Pittsburg Jazz Festival, June 20, 1965.

Howard McGhee And Phil Porter - Two Rare And Unique Recordings

Howard McGhee (1918 – 1987), among young jazz adepts unjustly almost forgotten today, was a reliable man if you're following his steadily flowing recorded output between 1942 & 1948, which were the heydays of the bebop era. And "Maggie", so his nickname in musicians’ circles, was in the middle of it all. He was not phrasing as "mathematically" like his great successor and friend Theodore "Fats" Navarro, or the next in the line, Clifford Brown, affectionately called "Brownie" by his friends and fans, but he could express his ideas as fast, and as eloquently as the two other trumpet geniuses.

During 1945-1949, Howard McGhee was one of the finest trumpeters in jazz, an exciting performer with a sound of his own, who among the young bop players, ranked at the top with Dizzy Gillespie and Fats Navarro. The "missing link" between Roy Eldridge and Fats Navarro (Navarro influenced Clifford Brown who influenced most of the post-1955 trumpeters), McGhee originally played clarinet and tenor, not taking up trumpet until he was 17. He worked in territory bands, was with Lionel Hampton in 1941, and then joined Andy Kirk (1941-1942), being featured on McGhee Special. McGhee participated in the fabled bop sessions at Minton's Playhouse and Monroe's Uptown House, modernizing his style away from Roy Eldridge and towards Dizzy Gillespie. He was with Charlie Barnet (1942-1943), returned to Kirk (where he sat next to Fats Navarro in the trumpet section), and had brief stints with Georgie Auld and Count Basie before traveling to California with Coleman Hawkins in 1945; their concise recordings of swing-to-bop transitional music (including "Stuffy," "Rifftide," and "Hollywood Stampede") are classic. McGhee stayed in California into 1947, playing with Jazz at the Philharmonic, recording and gigging with Charlie Parker (including the ill-fated "Lover Man" date) and having an influence on young players out on the Coast. His Dial sessions were among the most exciting recordings of his career, and back in New York he recorded for Savoy and had a historic meeting on record with Navarro in 1948 on Blue Note.

Eventually, drugs began to affect McGhee's career. He traveled on a USO tour during the Korean War, recording in Guam. McGhee also had sessions for Bethlehem (1955-1956) but was inactive during much of the '50s. He recorded some strong dates for Felsted, Bethlehem, Contemporary, and Black Lion during 1960-1961, and on a quartet outing for United Artists (1962), but (with the exception of a Hep big band date in 1966) was largely off records again until 1976. He had a final burst of activity during 1976-1979 for Sonet, SteepleChase, Jazzcraft, Zim, and Storyville, but by then, McGhee was largely forgotten and few knew about his link to Fats Navarro and Clifford Brown.

Phil Porter (1944 – 2015) born in Boston and raised in Charlton and Somerville. He graduated Somerville High School with the Class of 1961 and attended Boston University.

Phil began his music career in Boston at the age of 16 as a professional pianist and organist. By the age of 19 he had recorded his first two jazz album and had performed at the Newport Jazz Festival. 

In 1971, Phil started rehearsing with the jazz-rock band, Chase. Within a few months, the band signed a record deal and moved to Chicago to record Chase, their first album on the Epic label. As a member of the band Chase, he earned a gold record, received a Grammy nomination, and performed on the Johnny Carson Show and at Carnegie Hall. After many years of performing throughout the U.S. and worldwide, he returned to the Boston area and continued his music career locally, including as the organist for the Bruins and Celtics at the Boston Garden. He was a member of Local 535 of the Boston Chapter of the American Federation of Musicians. He settled in Lynn to raise his family and lived in Andover prior to moving to Haverhill where he served as a volunteer for Merrimack Valley Hospice.

When Howard McGhee reappeared in 1962, after being away from the stage for 10 years due to narcotic use, Paul Wimley offered him the opportunity to record four titles for the Argo label with Gene Ammons (House Warmin'! by Howard McGhee and The Blazers). Confidential. But in the process, George Wein produced two quartet sessions in the fall of 1962 for United Artists, the first with piano, the second with organ. 

That's when the meeting between McGhee and Porter took place. Howard McGhee appears there in full possession of his means, with a warm and coppery timbre that is very personal and atypical of a time when trumpets were more willingly "distorted". 

Howard and Phil met only twice and those recordings, already considered rare and obscure today, are the reason for this post.

Howard McGhee

Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out

&

House Warmin'!

A contemporary of Dizzy Gillespie, Howard McGhee was one of the most stimulating trumpeters of the bop era. Although personal problems sidelined him for part of the 50s, his great experience compensated for much of the time lost when he made his comeback in the early 60s. In fact, on Nobody Knows You When Youre Down and Out, recorded in 1962, McGhee sounds even better than before - engaging and emotional without compromising his strength while supported by two excellent rhythm sections, one with pianist Jimmy Jones, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Art Taylor, and the other with organist Phil Porter, bassist Larry Ridley and drummer Dave Bailey.

On the second album included here, House Warmin'!, recorded a few months earlier. McGhee shares the front line with tenorman Gene Ammons. The rhythm section includes the quasi-urbane sound of guitarist Jake Fisher, bassist Barney Richmond and drummer Willie Mashburn, who have an essential role in building a program reflecting the infinite variety to be found in the rhythm-and-blues field. *Jordi Pujol*

You may not have ever heard of Howard McGhee, but at one time he was one of the top notch bebop trumpeters, up there with Dizzy Gillespie and Fats Navarro. He’s on Charlie Parker’s notorious “Lover Man” date, and actually had a bebop hit (is that an oxymoron?) with Coleman Hawkins with "Stuffy" in the mid 40s. He lived the life of a bebopper in more ways than one, as drugs caught up with him and sidelined him for awhile. The two recording sessions on this disc find him working on his comeback, and the music is surprisingly good.

Nobody Knows When You're Down And Out is a '62 session featuring McGhee with a trio backing, either with piano or organ, and includes Art Taylor/dr, and Ron Carter/b. The B3 band has McGhee in a bluesy mood with a desultory title track and version of  "Lonely Town" that will make you want to keep away from sharp objects. He alternates between agonizing Harmon mutes and sleek open horn, actually mixing it up in the same song as in the fascinating "Canadian Sunset". He's quite lyrical on "Tenderly" and "Fly Me To The Moon" and his tone holds up well. The House Warmin’! session is a hot jam with Gene Ammonts/ts, Jake Fisher/g, Barney Richmond/b, Willie Mashburn/d and a guy named Waco on bongos. Hey, it’s the 60s! Ammons smokes like a Romeo e Juliet on "Jazz with a Beat" and McGhee revives his old charms on "Muggin' McGhee" and the title tune. If you want to hear a rhythm team that is in sync, just give an ear to "Jivin' Around". That'll keep you going for awhile. *George W. Harris*

1 - Nobody Knows When You're Down And Out

(Cox)

2 - Lonely Town

(Bernstein)

3 - Secret Love

(Fain, Webster)

4 - Why Run Away

(Spencer)

5 - Canadian Sunset

(Heywood)

6 - Blue Bell

(McGhee)

7 - Tenderly

(Gross, Laurence)

8 - Fly Me To The Moon

(Howard)

9 - Satin Doll

(Ellington, Strayhorn)

10 - Blue Duende

(McGhee)

11 - Jazz With A Beat

(Winley, Paul)

12 - Muggin' McGhee

(Winley, Paul)

13 - House Warmin'

(Winley, Paul)

14 - Jivin' Around

(Winley, Paul)

#1 to #10: from Nobody Knows You When Youre Down and Out

(United Artists Records UAJS 15028)

#4, #5, #7, #10

Howard McGhee (trumpet), Jimmy Jones (piano), Ron Carter (bass), Art Taylor (drums).

Recorded in New York City, September, 1962.

#1, #2,  #3, #6, #8, #9

Howard McGhee (trumpet), Phil Porter (organ Hammond B3), Larry Ridley (bass), Dave Bailey (drums).

Recorded in New York City, October, 1962.

#11 to #14: from Howard McGhee and The Blazers - House Warmin'! (Argo LPS 4020)

Howard McGhee (trumpet), Gene Ammons (tenor sax), Jake Fisher (guitar), Barney Richmond (bass), Willie Mashburn(drums), Waco (bongos).

Recorded at Bell Sound Studio, New York City, probably May 1962.

***

Phil Porter

Introducing Phil Porter And His Organ

It was a snowy night in February, 1963, when jazz trumpeter Howard McGhee, jazz producer George Wein, a German Shephard dog named Sage and I climbed into Wein's car in New York. Our destination was the little town of Hopkinton, Massachusetts, 200 miles from New York and 30 miles west of Boston. 

Our purpose was to hear a 19 year old organ player named Phil Porter, and we were going on the strength of a one night stand McGhee had played with Porter in Boston nine months earlier.

To go back to the beginning, I had just brought McGhee and Wein together to make the trumpeter's first LP under his own name in several years. Both men, it turned out, had the same idea — find a good swinging jazz organist and utilize him to showcase McGhee's virtuosity. At this point Howard remembered the boy who had left such a strong impression. "He's only a kid but he can play the hell out of an organ, especially on blues!" 

That was enough to set me hunting and, through two Boston organ afficionados, John Sdoucos and Fred Taylor, Porter was located a couple of days later and we set off in the snow to hear him. What should have been a four hour trip turned into more than five and we finally walked into the club about midnight. 

We were almost crushed to find a rock and roll band at work, with about five bored customers sitting around looking like anything was better than going home. However, smiling at us from behind the Hammond was a good-looking young blonde boy complete with crew cut, and Howard confirmed that this was, indeed, Phil Porter. 

After about ten minutes, Wein managed to shoo the rest of the band off the floor and told him to play some. Two or three pieces later and we felt he had what Howard wanted, but there was one more test. He had already chosen some of the material for the date and one of the pieces was the old Bessie Smith blues "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out". At this point he dropped the tune on the music rack in front of Porter and asked him if he knew the tune. He didn't but we told him to sight read it and away he went. Half a dozen choruses of blues later we had ourselves an organist. 

Within two weeks the album was completed, but even before it was through, United Artists Records president Art Talmadge had attended the sessions, heard Phil Porter and he was under contract to make his own recordings as well. This is the first of his efforts, and he is ably guided throughout by his mentor, McGhee. In fact, his rock and roll days ended shortly after the first McGhee date when he joined McGhee's combo with which he is still on tour.

For this album, producer Wein worked very closely with Phil in the selection of material, but he allowed him: the real delight of selecting his own musicians for the dates. It was decided to use two slightly different groups, with Kenny Burrell added on guitar for several numbers. On trumpet, naturally, he chose McGhee, who also did all the arrangements. He chose tenor saxist Harold Ousley "because he has that big bluesy sound I like", plus what he calls the "All-American rhythm section", Paul Chambers on bass and Arthur Taylor on drums. 

At this point in his young life, everything is green lights and straight ahead for Phil Porter, but he is already developing into something of a philosopher. As we sat listening to the playback on this album in George Wein's office one day, Phil turned to us with a sly grin and said: "Do you remember the name of that club where you first heard me with the rock and roll group? It was called The Escape — and it sure turned out that way!". *Bob Messinger (liner notes)*

Side 1

1 - C Jam Blues

(Duke Ellington)

2 - Hard Times

(Phil Porter)

3 - Moonlight In Vermont

(K. Suessdorf, J. Blackburn)

4 - There Will Never Be Another You

(M. Gordon, H. Warren)

5 - What Did I Do To Be So Black And Blue

(T. F. Waller, H. Brooks, A. Razaff)

6 - Blue Dilemma

(Phil Porter)

Side 2

7 - Molly Belle

(Phil Porter)

8 - That's All

(Brandt, Haymes)

9 - Conversation

(Phil Porter)

10 - Candlelight

(Phil Porter)

11 - Diane

(E. Paree, L. Pollack)

Phil Porter (organ Hammond B3), Howard McGhee (trumpet), Harold Ousley (tenor sax), Kenny Burrell (guitar), Paul Chambers (bass), Art Taylor (drums).

Recorded in New York City, probably April 1963.