Alto Altitude - Various

 

Minor Blues

Alto Altitude

Featuring: Pete Brown, Johnny Hodges, Hilton Jefferson, Murray McEachern, Marshall Royal & Willie Smith

EmArcy Records MG 36018

A Product of Mercury Record Corporation

1955

From the back cover: For some reason, no doubt connected with the tonal quality of the instrument, the alto saxophone has produced a far gentler generation of exponents, a more orderly and sedate crowd than the relatively roughhouse gang generated by the tenor sax. Beauty of tone, smoothness of melodic line and care of style seem to be the outstanding characteristics of the alto men.

Nevertheless, a rhythmic beat and a basic jazz feeling are just as clearly audible in some of the alto performances heard on these two exciting sides. The alto and tenor saxes have most of the same qualities in common; it's all a matter of degree, and we feel you'll go along with our theory that the mild outweighs the wild on alto more often than it does on tenor.

Most of the performances on this record have never been released before. (To be specific, the following titles are all previously unissued: Sam-Pan, Passing Me By, S'Wonderful, Funky Feelin' Blues, She Didn't Say Yes, That's My Weakness Now and It's The Talk Of The Town. And even the other five had a very limited distribution at the time of their original 78-speed release on Keynote.)

The man many people consider the greatest alto star of all time, Johnny Hodges, opens the first side with three tunes he cut while taking time out from the Ellington band. Heard with him are Emmett Berry, trumpet; Vernon Brown, trombone; Harry Carney, baritone sax; Johnny Guarnieri, piano; Billy Taylor, leader, bass and composer of Night Wind and Passing Me By; Brick Fleagle, arranger, guitar, and composer of Sam-Pan; Cozy Cole, drums. The session took place in New York on August 1, 1944, and for our money Night Wind will always rank as one of the prettiest Hodges sides ever.

Marshall Royal, leader on the next three numbers, comes as a surprise, since he's been best known as lead alto man and conductor with the Count Basie orchestra for the past four years, and is rarely thought of as an improvising jazzman. To think of Marshall playing "funky" is rather comparable with the thought of watching Porfiro Rubirosa dig a ditch; yet, amazing though it may seem, swinging solos he is aided by pianist Bobby Tucker, best known as Billy Eckstine's accompanist. Jo Jones is on drums, and the man who takes the terrific tenor on chorus on S'Wonderful is the fabulous Ben Webster. These sides were made in 1953 in New York City.

Willie Smith, the buoyant-style alto man whom you may remember from his work with the Jimmie Lunceford, Harry James and Duke Ellington bands or from his tours with JATP, takes a superb solo on Minor Blues. An exciting record from start to finish, this side was made at a session under the direction of Corky Corcoran, Willie's tenor-playing colleague in the James band. Allan Reuss plays the lovely guitar introduction. The elegant piano and muted trumpet solos are by Dodo Marmarosa and Emmett Berry respectively. Bassist Ed Mihelich and drummer Nick Fatool complete the band on this date, recorded in Los Angeles, May 15, 1945.

The next alto soloist may surprise you. He is Murray McEachern, who was originally prominent in the Benny Goodman band – as a trombonist! The Toronto-born MeEachern won medals and scholarships as a violinist, then took up clarinet, later working jobs in Canada on tenor sax, trumpet, tuba and bass. After working with Goodman, Glen Gray and Paul Whiteman he settled in California, where for the past decade he has been a high-priced studio musician. Leader Clyde Hurley on trumpet, and Tommy Todd on piano, share the solo honors with him on Out Of Nowhere, which has Babe Russin on tenor, Dave Babour on guitar, Artie Bernstein on bass and Nick Fatool on drums. This was recorded in Hollywood, April 3, 1946.

Hilton Jefferson, whose fine alto chorus in a feature of She Didn't Say Yes, comes from Danbury, Conn. and was well known in the 1930s with Chick Webb, McKinney's Cotton Pickers and Fletcher Henderson and throughout the 1940s with Cab Calloway; he was with Duke Ellington from 1952-3. Hilton is one of the finest melodic-swing alto men of the Johnny Hodges-Benny Carter school. In addition to his chorus there are solos by trumpeter Joe Thomas, who was the leader on this date; Tyree Glenn, trombone; Jerry Jerome, tenor sax and Bernie Leighton, piano. Hy White on guitar, Lee Abrams on drums and Billy Taylor on bass compete the combo, which made this date August 16, 1946 in New York.

Possibly the most infectious, humorously rhythmic alto style ever belongs to James Ostend "Pete" Brown, a mighty man in both size and repute, who offers three top-notch performances made under his own direction in New York, July 11, 1944. Joe Thomas's trumpet, Kenny Kersey's piano, Minton Hinton's bass and J. C. Heard's drums are all heard to individual advantage but it is Pete's work that stands out as his staccato, peppery assaults on these three standard tunes help to remind us that there is one of the truly great artists of the alto.

Night Wind - Billy Taylor's Big Eight with Johnny Hodges

Sam-Pam - Billy Taylor's Big Eight with Johnny Hodges

Passing Me By - Billy Taylor's Big Eight with Johnny Hodges

S'Wonderful - Marshall Royal & His Orchestra

Funky Feelin' Blues - Marshall Royal & His Orchestra

I Wanna Get Nasty - Marshall Royal & His Orchestra

Minor Blues - Corky Corcoran & His Orchestra with Willie Smith

She Didn't Say Yes - Joe Thomas & His Orchestra with Murray McEachern

It All Depends On You - Pete Brown Quintet

That's My Weakness Now - Pete Brown Quintet

It's The Talk Of The Town - Pete Brown Quintet