"Fatha" Blows Best - Earl Hines

 

Back In Your Own Back Yard

"Fatha" Blows Best

Earl Hines And His Quartet

Produced by Milt Gabler

Cover Photo: Marc Brody

Recorded 8th and 11th of March, 1968, New York City

Decca Records

A Division of MCA, Inc.

Decca DL 75048

Earl "Fatha" Hines - Piano

Budd Johnson - Tenor and Soprano Saxophones

Buck Clayton - Trumpet

Bill Pemberton - Bass

Oliver Jackson - Drums

From the back cover: In the uneasy '60s, it is commonplace for parental authority to be questioned, resisted and even rejected. "Make way," the teenage prophets cry, "for the wisdom and super values of the new generation!" This, of course, is a recurring situation, one both comical and sad, in which the adult never really knows whether to laugh or cry.

Jazz, as always, holds up its own mirror to the times. No straightforward mirror duplicating the scene, it is neither flat nor convex nor concave, but of an irregularity that reveals unexpected depths, lights and traits in the characters before it.

One of the happiest and most paradoxical aspects of jazz in the present decade has been the new recognition accorded Earl "Fatha" Hines. This great pianist has been viewed anew and acclaimed from San Francisco, U.S.A., to Novorossisk, U.S.S.R, in Boston, Barcelona, Baku, Buffalo and Berlin, in Monterey and Montauban, in Tiflis and Toronto, the shock of recognition has been almost identical. For, behold, after all these years, the Fatha still blows best!

Although he was born in Duquesne, Pennsylvania, and now makes his home in Oakland, California, Earl Hines will always be associated with Chicago, where he reigned for so long at the head of one of the greatest of all big bands. And in recent years his annual visits to the London House there have become important events in the city's musical life.

In this set, he looks back nostalgically at some of the songs he played – and sang – in Chicago during the early part of his career. The treatment is always affectionate, melodic quality never being sacrificed to outright virtuosity. His very firm rhythmic presence is felt on every track via a touch that identifies him as instantly as the widely copied style he created. The sound he produced from a piano – any piano, good, bad or indifferent – is uniquely personal, and seemingly inimitable.

The group rapport is also something to marvel at. Budd Johnson, Bill Pemberton and Oliver Jackson have been with Hines for some years, but at the time of those recording sessions Buck Clayton had joined the quartet for an engagement at New York's Village Vanguard. This famous trumpet player had previously worked with Hines in Europe on several occasions, and he fitted the context effortlessly and perfectly. Blowing with lyrical sensitivity, and always muted, he gives this record a special cachet.

None of the numbers played was a part of the group's regular repertoire. All were surveyed, routined and fashioned in the studio under ideally relaxed conditions. The absence of pressure is directly reflected in the absence of flag-wavers and exhibitionistic tempos. The activating principle was not to stupefy, mystify, or blow anyone's mind, but to enjoy and be enjoyed. – Stanley Dance

The One I Love (Belongs To Somebody Else)

I Love My Baby (My Baby Loves Me)

Nobody Knows (And Nobody Seems To Care)

Saturday

You're Mine

Thinking Of You

For Me And My Gal

Shine On Harvest Moon

Back In Your Own Back Yard

Everything Depends On You

Rhythm Sundae