Tyree Glenn At The Embers

 

Lonely Moment

Tyree Glenn At The Embers

Recording Supervision: Joe Guercio

Production: Arnold Meyers

Photos: Chuck Stewart

Roulette R-25009

1957

Harold Baker - Trumpet

Mary Osborne - Guitar

Hank Jones - Piano

Tommy Potter - Bass

Jo Jones - Drums

From the back cover: In this era of the new sound, the cool thought, the far out prophets, and the intellectuals who approach jazz as if it were a problem in calculus, it is nothing short of a pure delight to listen, now and then,, to a musician who is purely and merely trying to make music for music's best sake. Such a musical is Tyree Glenn and such, too, are the members of his mob on this Roulette album. which is refreshing and delightful from the first riff to the last ride-out.

The Tyree Glenn combo herewith herald obviously had no personality problems whatever. Ty and Harold (Shorty) Baker stood shoulder to shoulder on the great Ellington bandstands of a past day. Ty and Jo Hones and Hank Jones explored a thousand ideas and experiments when (as well happen again) they fronted the best music group that small club has ever boasted. Ty and Mary Osborne can remember back to riffs and runs they did in the fabled, misty past when Kelly's Stable was one of the the citadels of jazz.

With old pro's like these, everything simply comes out right. The tunes on this album are as relaxed as the stars who play them. Do they feel it, they play it. Do they play it. It come out right. There's laughter in their music and there's fun in their music and, most important of all, there's real music in their music. It's what music out to be – a joyous and happy and exciting art.

Take, for instance, the riff that Ty has chosen to call "Sinbad The Sailor." This is an itty bitty thing that a fellow named Reinhold Svensseon used to play with Maestro Glenn in Copenhagen for Stockholm or Oslo). Glenn, Jo, Hank et al used to play it as a theme at the Embers. On this record they have filled it out, worked it over and made it into the kind of a memorable bit that many very likely become another "Lullaby Of Birdland."

On these records listen to the wonderful, lifting beat of Jo Jones on every song. Please dig, I implore you, the muted and jaunting horn of Shorty Baker on "What Can I Tell My Heart" and "I Want To Be Loved." Pease pay strict attention to the vital Bank Jones on – for possibly the first time – a purely melodic an musical " How Hight the Moon." Lend an ear to Tommy Potter, one of the most underrated of all rhythm musicians, on "Lonely Moment." And behind all these superb solos I implore you to go back, play them over and dig the subtle unselfish guitar of Mary Osborne.

And now for a word or several hundred words on The Mane Himself. Tyree Glenn is a musician who has no prejudices, no stubborn notions and nothing bugging him whatever. I have heard him play hillbilly music on TV shows, mambo for fun, cornball tunes for money and all the great, elevating solos he has taken on som many classic records. Glenn can play anything, and  anything he pouts his hands to seems to just sort of explode into music.

Personally, I am an old hater of mechanical instruments such as electrified fives, electric organs and what not. But Tyree Glenn somehow manages to wring something out of such instruments which, I well always be convinced, was never there to start with.

This is one helluva man with one helluva combination making, for my money, one helluva record album.

And if you don' think so too, then you're so square you can block your own hat. – Robert Sylvester - Author of syndicated column "Dream Street"

From Billboard - June 24, 1957: Extremely pleasant, tasteful program of "blue lights" jazz scaled to a fairly intimate boîte atmosphere but also most danceable. Glenn is featured mostly on his expressive, talky trombone; some on vibes. Also contributing are Hank Jones, Jo Jones, Mary Osborne, Harold Baker, etc. It's not "modern" but it's not dated, either. Good market for this if it's pushed.

Sinbad The Sailor

What Can I Tell My Heart

Lonely Moment

After The Rain

Until The Real Thing Comes Along

Without A Song

I Thought About You

How High The Moon

Too Marvelous For Words