I Hear Ya Talkin' - Frank Wess

 

Opus The Blues

I Hear You Talkin'

Frank Wess

Original Session Produced by Ozzie Cadena

Recorded at Van Gelder Recording Studio

Engineer: Rudy Van Gelder

Prepared for release: Bob Porter

Dubbind and Editing: Malcolm Addey

Mastering Engineer: Joe Brescio - The Cutting Room, NYC

Cover and liner photos: Raymond Ross

Art Direction: W. Dale Cramer

Savoy Jazz SJL 1136

1984

Personnel:

Frank Wess - Flute, Tenor & Alto Sax

Thad Jones - Trumpet

Curtis Fuller - Trombone

Charlie Fowlkes - Baritone Saxophone

Hank Jones - Piano

Eddie Jones - Bass

Gus Johnson - Drums

From the back cover: Born in Kansas City, Missouri, on January 4, 1922, Wess had learned to play in a family band led by his father, who was a school teacher. Later, he joined Bill Baldwin for a time before becoming a member at the Howard Theater's pit band in Washington D.C., which was led by Coleridge Davis. He toured with Blanche Calloway for a year, then joined the Army from 1941 to 1944. When he returned to the music scene in 1944, Wess played with Billy Eckstine's band, Eddie Heywood, Lucky Millinder and Bull Moose Jackson. By that time, he was playing tenor saxophone, rather than the alto sax he had originally favored. As he told Stanley Dance in an interview for Down Beat in 1965: "When I started on tenor, I found I liked it better. I went back to alto later only because Basie asked me. I liked Chu Berry and Ben Webster, and I'd known Don Byas from the time I was 10 years old. But Lester Young was my inspiration. I jammed with Lester in Washington, and he showed me a lot of things about the horn and how to make some of the sounds he got that other people were not making. For a long time I played more like him that anybody." But eventually, he started to develop his own identity.

In 1949, Wess returned to Washington to study at Howard University's school of music. Thought he'd been attracted to the flute since he was 15 and heard Wayman Carver's recordings with Chick Webb, he had never had a chance to study the instrument. At Howard University, however, he worked under the tutelage of Wallace Mann, who was the first principal flutist with the National Symphony. But 1953 was the year when Wess replaced Paul Quinichette in Basie's band and first became widely known in jazz circles in relating the story to Stanley Dance, he noted: "Basie didn't know I played flute when I joined, but I used to practice during intermission all the time, and he couldn't help hearing me. So he told me to go ahead if I wanted to play and of my tenor spots on flute. The first number I was featured on that we recorded was "Perdido."

Leonard Feather has called him "the first jazz star to record extensively and with complete success as a flute soloist," and it is generally conceded that he as a pioneer on that instrument (Herbie Mann, Bub Shank, Sam Most, Jerome Richardson, Paul Horn and Bobby Jasper would follow soon after). And largely through his work on this instrument, Wess recorded a series of small group sessions for Savoy, Prestige and Commodore (in addition to this date, be sure to listen to Two Franks Please (SAVOY JAZZ SJL 2249).

Thad Jones, who wrote three of the five tunes on this record joined Basie's band in 1954, just one year after Wess. In 1959, at the time of this recording, he had just begun to establish himself as an important voice on the trumpet and as an equally important composer/arranger. He had perviously recorded with Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Stott – and, of course, Basie, as well as his own LPs for Blue Note and Savoy. But he hadn't yet emerged as the innovative force that he would eventually become in the 1960s.

Of the other members of the band, trombonist Curtis Fuller had virtually become part of Savoy's house band and appeared on a myriad of records for the label during this time (Blues-ette SJL 1135; Curtis Fuller – All Star Sextets SJL 2239). Pianist Hank Jones (Thad's older brother) was another popular figure at Savoy who also recorded many albums as leader (for a magnificent example of Jones' keyboard technique listen to Solo Piano SJL 1124) and whose presence always lent a highly professional status to the proceedings. Charlie Fowlkes (baritone saxophone) and Eddie Jones (bass) were both member of Count Basie's orchestra along with Wess and Thad Jones. And drummer Gus Johnson had just left the band in 1954 after having taken over for Jo Jones in 1948.

As might be expected with such personnel, the flavor of this record is strongly influenced by the Basie experience. It's all intensely swinging and joyful, and the intelligent, carefully arranged charts frequently evoke images of a band much larger than the one which actually appears.

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