Modern Jazz Hall Of Fame

Extrasensory Perception

Modern Jazz Hall Of Fame

Cover Photo by Philip Lustig
Design DLP 29
Division Of Pickwick Sales
1957

From Billboard - October 7, 1957: An excellent cross-section of modern jazz, mainstream to avant-garde. Set includes excerpts from Massey Hall concerts in Toronto, Canada featuring Parker-Gillespie group, Bud Powell Trio and recordings by Kai Winding with Four Trombones, Thad Jones with Strings, Mingus and Lee Konitz, Max Roach group, etc. These recordings, originally released on Debut are all the more salable now at bargain price of $1.49.

From the back cover: Here assembled for the first time Design Records presents one of the greatest assemblages of modern jazz talent ever recorded. Starring with Perdido recorded by Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charlie Mingus, Max Roach and "Charlie Chan" on sax is a true jazz classic. The recording was made in Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada, under the sponsorship of the New Jazz Society of Toronto. Comment by Nat Hentoff of Downbeat, the bible of the music world was... "This is what records are for. It would be a shame to lose this after only one performance." Perdido is a jazz classic in itself and is played or sung by nearly every great jazz artist as a show piece in their repertoire. Following are Max Roach, Gigi Gryce, Hank Mobley, Idrees Sulieman, Leon Comegys, Walter Davis II, and Franklin Skeete playing Mobley's "Orientation", a mood piece of depth and with a strange moving fever. Next on the "A" side of the album we present the great alto sax of Lee Konitz, one of the greatest in the business. Lee plays "Extrasensory Perception" with Charlie Mingus, one of the day's finest bass players, George Kourzen on Cello, Phyllis Pinkerton on Piano, and Al Levitt on the drums. The last piece on this side is Sam Most's Quartet playing "Notes To You". Sam has been voted the "New Star On Clarinet" in a nationwide poll and here is one of the reasons why. With him are Bob Dorough on piano, Percy Heath on bass and the great Louie Bellson on drums... The flip side of the disc... or as those of us who are not "hep" might say... The reverse side of the record leads off with four of the finest jazz trombonists in American today. J. and Kia... The fabulous J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding along with Bennie Green and Willie Dennis play mush trombone in a piece written for trombone by Winding. Joining them are John Lewis on piano, Charles Mingus on bass and Arthur Taylor on drums. Folloing the tribune piece we have two more cuts made at Massey Hall. The first by the Bud Powell Trio, "I've Got You Under My Skin" played by Bud on his amazing piano, Charlie Mingus on Bass and Max Roach with a real driving beat on the drums. Max really shines on the third track when he plays a drum solo titles "Drum Conversation"... One of the finest recordings of this type ever made. The clicking noises you hear in the background are Mingus clicking his heels to the tempo. Following this pair we close with "Portrait" a moody, semi-classical tone poem composed by Charles Mingus and played by the amazing Thad Jones on trumpet, Billy Taylor on piano, John LaPorta on alto sax, Jackson Wiley on cello, Smilin' Milt Hinton on bass and Joe Morello on drums. This piece in itself shows how deep the thought that goes into progressive jazz can be... – Roy Freeman

Perdido
Orientation
Extrasensory Perception
Notes To You
Kai's Day
Got You Under My Skin
Drum Conversation
Portrait