The Joe Daley Trio At Newport '63

 

Ballad

The Joe Daley Trio At Newport '63

Produced by George Avakian and Angie Blume

Recorded at The Newport Jazz Festival, Newport, Rhode Island, on July 5, 1963

Recording Engineer: John Janus

RCA Victor LPM-2763

1963

Joe Daley - Tenor Saxophone

Russel Thorne - Bass

Hal Russell - Drums

From the back cover: One of the original ideals of the Newport Jazz Festival has been to bring to oplubic attention unknown but deserving talent. Producer George Wein has made it possible each year for such performers to appear alongside better-known "names," and, as Father Norman o'Connor (a long-tie friend of jazz who often doubles as a master of ceremonies at the Festival) observes at the beginning of this album, it often happens that the afternoon programs are more interesting and are closer to the heart of jazz than the bigger evening presentations.

Such was certainly the case when the Joe Daley Trio played at Newport on the afternoon of July 5, 1963. It had been –and, after this Chicago threesome performed, it baden again – a relatively conservative program. But while Joe was on-stage, it was like a fresh, cool breeze. (Incidentally, the paying audience didn't hear everything that' on this recording, as programing limitation did not permit the Trio to stay on-stage long enough; knowing this, we taped a rehearsal half for the purpose of balancing the sound, and this gave us material enough for a full album.)

The Joe Daley Trio walked on-stage at Newport unknown, but was quickly established as a fresh, venturesome unit of three imaginative virtuosos who worked as one. They proved that they could "blow" when they chose to, and could also go about as "far out" as anyone ever has at the Festival. But even so Abstract a piece as bassist Russell Thorne's Knell drew respectful and rapt attention from the audience; not even a passing plane (which you can hear on this recording) could break the spell.

Improvisation in the Joe Daley Trio means long-line development of a theme (or fragments of a theme), often without regard to tonality or meter in the conventional sense. The group, while it frequently plays an even more adventurous program than is heard in this album –its repertoire includes numbers that make Knell seem conservative – does not go so far as many "red-style" advocates in accepting "anything that comes out of the horn, goofs an all," in the name of artistic and philosophical freedom.

Daley, a throughly-grounded musician, points out that linear development which ignores key and bar-line restrictions can be extraordinarily free and, at the same time, quite within the framework of accepted musical practice. "Like many modern jazz musicians," he says, "we improvise developments. There is alma no limit to what you can do in this kind of form, so we don't feel restricted buy the imposition of standards of musicality." (This kind of working toward an over-all shape of the music has some pretty old advocates as well as recent ones: Beethoven and Bartok, for example, could build a development out of just one bar of music.) "But the thread of jazz must never be forgotten," Daley adds, "or else you end up with sort of chamber musics with improvising overtones."

Daley's views can be heard throughout this recording – in his original compositions, his own playing, and in the work of the Trio as a whole. Ode To Blackie (as original by Joe, dedicated to an old friend) is an easy, relaxed 3/4 piece in a modal vein, alternating between G and F harmonies, but cadencing on a D sound. His Ballad, influenced by a classical work which deserves to be better known, was composed to project a "free" blowing approach in a ballad style; a deliberately extreme breathy sound is part of the projection.

Dexterity, a Charlie Parker composition based on the harmonies of a familiar standard of the Twenties, is one of the Trio's more orthodox numbers, in which Joe's solo at the beginning does observe tonality and meter. "We play it to show that we enjoy mainstream music, too, and don't intend to discard it," says Joe. ("Mainstream" to Joe is pretty advance to most people!)

One Note is almost a reductio ad absurd demonstration of the complete simplification of thematic material for a fast-tempo tour-de-force improvisation. (Having run out of italicizable descriptions, we'll let Joe and the boys show you how it's done; it's good listening fun as well as good music!) The high-tension Knell is not written as a theme or melody with a form, but as a series of sounds (at one point, Joe sings into the mouthpiece as he blows) designed to convey a sad, mournful feeling, with a touch of blues. Ornate Coleman's Ramblin' does to the blue what Dexterity did to an earlier pop form. The breaks in the melody project a country roots feeling without disturbing the solid groove this piece generates.

The members of the Trio are representative of the jazz musician today who is a skilled technician with more than a touch of classical training and experience. Drummer Hal Russell holds a master's degree from the University of Illinois; his background ranges from playing with Miles Davis to playing with the Chicago Civic Symphony as a timpanist. He has an unusually varied kit of percussion instruments and makes full use of them; his sense of sound is a vital factor in the Trio's work. Russell Thorne is one of the most sound-conscious bassists around. His strong classical background – he is a former symphony musician who was drawn to the work of the most advanced contemporary composers as well as to jazz – is clearly discernible. His extraordinary technique is couple with a daring condition which resulted in accompaniments and solos which are often nothing less than breath-taking. At Newport, he electrified the crowd with some starling, but highly musical, effects by playing below the bridge as well as flying about the stings in more accepted fashion – only, it seemed, about twice as fast as anybody else you'd heard in a long, long time.

Joe Daley, himself, has been on the Chicago scene for many years, working with various bands (including Woody Herman's and a band that Joe Williams sang with – the two Joes had quite a happy reunion backstage at Newport). He has recorded in Chicago studios with innumerable pop artists, and has composed "serious" music as well as jazz. He, too, holds a music degree and continues to teach in Chicago although the Trio, happy to relate, is finding itself increasingly in demand on the night club and concert scene.

Something really new in jazz, with roots that are real – that's the Joe Daley Trio. – George Avakian

From Billboard - December 28, 1963: This is the avant-garde kind of music with a bit more swing and a bit more melody than has been available to the public at large previously. The Daley group is new on the jazz scene. He plays tenor and is accompanied by bass and drums. Set was recorded at Newport, 1963.

Ode To Blackie

Ballad

Dexterity

One Note

Knell

Ramblin'