Son Of Word Jazz - Ken Nordine

 

Looking At The Numbers

Like Word Jazz, Like Son

Son Of Word Jazz

Featuring Ken Nordine and The Fred Katz Group

Produced by Tom Mack

Engineer: Jim Cunningham

Jazz Horizons

Dot DLP 25096

1958

Fred Katz - Cello

Paul Horn - Woodwinds

John Pisano - Guitar

Harold Gaylor - Bass

Red Holt - Drums

Richard Marx - Piano

From the back cover: Word jazz is a thought followed by a thought followed by a thought ad finitum –a kind of wonder-wandering. I love to wonder-wander (it's what I am; it's what we all are) and the Word Jazz albums are two existential facts of some of my thought-travels-two collection of the truths, half-truths, and fractions of truths I wonder about. (Most of the time I'm happy with the fractions.)

One truth: I think that everybody is much more complicated than he thinks he is. Even "the idiot greens the meadow with his eye," to quote from a poem I once read. But as complicated as we are, I think we have a greater need than ever for simplicity. We may be able to get as far out as the moon, but we had better develop an "escape velocity" for some of the problems that are pretty far in. Problem like getting along with each other and with ourselves, the many selves of which each self is constituted; problems like knowing what to be for and what to be against (and, most important, what to be neutral to), and having the courage to make this knowing mean something.

To do this, I think that we need a simplicity, a wisdom that will allow each of us to allow himself to become whatever thing he should become. That's what I'm trying to do: to be my complicated multi ordinal self in as simple and understandable way as I can, and if something of this is in Word Jazz I thank whatever gods may be for the God there is. Amen. Underneath it all I think there is something of the preacher in each of us.

There are two ways to listen to this album. First, by just listening; the other way is to watch someone else listening. I hope both ways bring you some joy. – Ken Nordine

Also from the back cover: Not too long ago, the record album pictured above broke with considerable vigor upon an unsuspecting world. It was, for most of those who heard it, an introduction to the startling personality of Ken Nordine. (Other listeners may, perhaps, have already known him as a man of many voices – a Chicago-based announcer and performer in radio, television and films).

Ken Nordine's Word Jazz has proven to be peculiarly fascinating. Everybody seems to find, among the item comprising it, one that is a particular favorite, and, indeed, one that is a particular peeve. That each listener makes different choices for these honors is only one indication of the strangely penetrating and stimulating nature of the Nordine monologues.

Woven throughout is modern music, jazz-oriented, of exceptional quality, and is has, of course, been an important ingredient in the success of Word Jazz. It's creator Fred Katz, another remarkable young man, an accomplished cellist and a very talented composer in both the classical and jazz fields. Because his musical technique but also a high degree of improvisatory imagination, it is important that he has chosen his five colleagues well. They are an amazingly skillful group.

One more essential element of Word Jazz: the fantastic sound patterns fashioned by a highly creative young engineer, Jim Cunnginham. Using magnetic tape in new and exotic ways, he has contributed to these albums an other-worldly atmosphere that is the delight of this world's audiophiles and Nordineophiles alike.

The Smith Family

Miss Cone

Outer Space

Down The Drain

Secretary

Bubble Gum

Looking At Numbers

Anytime, Anytime

I Used To Think My Right Hand Was Uglier Than My Left

Lemming

The Bullfighter

Junk Man