Blues And Vanilla - Jack Montrose & Red Norvo

 

Concertino Da Camera

Blues And Vanilla

Jack Montrose Quintet with Red Norvo

RCA Victor LPM-1451

1957

From the back cover: This is Jack Montrose's first album for RCA Victor. It will not be his last, nor his next to last, nor his fifth or tenth to last. Besides being a soloist of considerable ability, Montrose can certainly be considered one of our brightest young jazz writers. Jack, who has both a sense of humor and a lack of self-consciousness, takes his composing most seriously, and is dreaming of the day when he may yet write ballets and operas.

Briefly, Montrose was born in Detroit, played in his high school band at Chattanooga, and was graduated from the Los Angeles State College in 1953. He has played with both Jerry Gary and Art Pepper, and wrote, among other things, Etude de Concert for Shelly Manne's brass choir.

He Jack Montrose's music sounds to you is, of course, the most important thing about this album. It is also important to know who played it.

On Concertino da Camera this is the personnel:

Tenor Sax - Jack Montrose

Alto Sax - Joe Maini

Vibes - Red Norvo

Bass - Walter Clark

Drums - Shelly Manne

Supervision - Shorty Rogers

For the other pieces, the personnel is as follows:

Tenor Sax - Jack Montrose

Vibes - Red Norvo

Guitar - James Hall

Bass - Max Bennett

Drums - Bill Dolney

Supervision - Shorty Rogers

When asked for some comments about his music, Jack Montrose sent along the following:

"I have discovered, generally, that the practice of analyzing the form and structure of my compositions serves only to detract from my primary purpose, which is to have the listener devote all of his attention purely to listening and enjoying the music without any deliberate concern for form, structure, etc. Analysis, I feel, is a task for students of music composition, and such distractions must not be instigated upon the lay listener. Nevertheless it has occurred to me that because of its length and scope and some other unusual aspects to be found therein, Concertino de Camera might perhaps be made more readily accessible with the aid of a few words of explanation.

"Its sub-title, Blues And Vanilla, is derived from the fact that the composition is separated into two large, easily recognizable sections, the first of course being the "blues" section and 'vanilla' comprising section two. These two sections are constructed identically, though each, of course, is confined to its own melodic material. Section I, or The Blues, consists of three separate and distinct blues themes, each of which undergoes an individual metamorphosis and development until the three finally emerge together and are performed contrapuntally to one another, each in its entirety. Section II, or Vanilla, consists of three separate and distinct theme of the type which I like to consider as being 'vanilla,' As in section I, each theme undergoes its respective development until at length all three appear concurrently and contrapuntally, as occurred in section I. The coda consists of a re-statement of  the blues theme from section I, thus forming an over-all large compound three-part song form. The composition is almost totally contrapuntal in texture, and great caution was exercised to ascertain that each voice of the counterpoint was a complete and naturally swinging entity in its own right.

"One of the prime objectives here was to create lines for each voice of such a completely natural and plausible jazz feeling that each player, upon gaining familiarity with his part, was able immediately to convey the impression that he may have been improvising it. The entire composition is interspersed with short, frequent solos from all of the players.

"I have not attempted to prove anything to anyone, nor am I crusading for any course, nor am I competing with or trying to out-do any other composer, nor am I even experimenting musically (I do not consider my self as being iconoclastic). I compose Concertino de Camera solely because it afford me intense pleasure and satisfaction to do so. Its length happened not at all deliberately, but purely by accident, as I merely allowed it to develop mostly on its own accord. I consider it to be my most important and satisfactory recorded work to date. It's dedicated to Nesuchi Ertegen who was largely responsible for exposing me to the particular early jazz influences which inspired the work.

"It was a ball to write!"

"It was a ball to play!"

"It absolutely has got to be a ball to listen to!"

– Jack Montrose

Concerto De Camera (Blues And Vanilla)

Bockhanal

Don't Get Around Much Anymore

Bernie's Tune

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A Dandy Line