Unearthed In The Atomic Attic: Far Out Near In

Friday, December 25, 2020

Far Out Near In - Johnny Eaton

Lover Man

Far Out

Near In

Johnny Eaton and His Princetonians

Columbia Records CL 996

1957

Personnel

I've Got Plenty O' Nuttin'

Summertime

Swat The G-Man

Johnny Eaton - Piano

Richard Lincoln - Vibes

Edward White - Bass

Allen Bergman - Drums

The Lamp Is Low

Quite Early One Morning

All the above, plus John Solum, Flute and Mel Kaplan, Oboe

Georgia On My Mind

Love Man

Just Wedging

Johnny Eaton - Piano

Herbert Mann - Flute

Bob Price - Vibes

Simon DeMuth - Bass

Charles Spies, Jr. - Drums

From the back cover: Johnny Eaton is an intrepid musical theorist, and all of the Princetonians are classically-based musicians – which brings me to a characteristic I find common to most "chamber jazz" groups. When you se phrases like "Progressive Workshop" or "Modern Experimental" or other euphemisms which avoid the word "jazz," you can lay even money that the groups so described are occasionally going to get self-consciously studious or sententious. But this is another mistake the Princetonians don't make – they wear their learning lightly. They never sacrifice the indispensable swinging feeling of jazz in pushing their off-beat ideas to their logical conclusions. As he title "Far Out, Near In" indicates, Johnny and the boys often go pretty far out to find what they need – all the way to Satie, Milhaud and Schoenberg – but they always bring it back in near enough to jumping to call it jazz without having to get semantic.

The instrumental line-up of the Princetonians is a unusual as everything else about them. The way the oboe and flute trace their thin, supple line through the floating aura created by piano, vibes, bass and drum is something like the technique of Chinese painting. At least, it's like nothing you ever heard before. Herbie Mann, who is probably the best-known name here, is runner-up for flute in this year's All-Star Metronome Jazz Poll. The rest of the boys are so far out of this world that polls haven't reached there yet. – Anatole Broyard

From Billboard - June 12, 1957: Veering to the soft, well-mannered sound and techniques associated with MJQ, Chico Hamilton, etc., group has its fluid moments but, for the most part, tends to be overly concerned with the creation of effects for its own sake. Good soloing by flutist H. Mann and vibist Bob Prince lend an earthiness this act could have used in much larger quantities. For he desperately "far-out" crowd.