Kinsey Comes On - Tony Kinsey

 

Cambridge Blue

Kinsey Comes On

Tony Kinsey Quintet

London LL 1672

1957

Tony Kinsey - Drums

Don Rendell - Tenor Sax

Ronnie Ross - Baritone Sax

Bill le Sage - Piano & Vibes

Pete Blannin - Bass

From the back cover: Since Christmas week of 1931, when he first appeared as leader of a trio, Sutton Coldfield-born drummer Tony Kinsey has built for himself an enviable reputation as a jazz combo leader, whose various groups have invariably stood for the best in British jazz.

The Kinsey conception over the years has never favored the extremes of jazz. He has never pandered to the tastes of the "go-go-go" camp-followers. Yet, on the other hand, he has never allowed his music to become too academic or pretentious or so "far-out" that it would appeal to a limited pseudo-intellectual audience.

Though Kinsey's course is mid-way, it is more modern than mainstream.

As he puts it: "We just try to play jazz the way we feel it. First and foremost, whatever we play has got to swing. As for arrangements, well, I've always been in favor of an orderly group for several reasons. First, it enables us to get a group 'sound', which is most important. Our arrangements give the group an immediate identity and individuality. They give the fans more to hang on to, so to speak, and they can follow what's happening more easily. But under no circumstances would I ever allow the arrangements to take preference over the 'blowing' space. There has to be freedom or expression for the soloist. And, I feel, that with my most recent group, we have attained a happy medium which can readily appreciated by all modern jazz fans."

This album bears out perfectly what Kinsey says. It also serves as a permanent souvenir of one of the most interesting and people-pleasing groups that Tony has ever fronted. During its six-month existence, resident at London's "Jazz at the Flamingo" and "Florida" jazz clubs, its following reached extraordinary proportions.

Much of the popularity was due to the empathetic frontline work of tenors Don Rendell and his former tenor playing "discovery", heard on baritone sax, Ronnie Ross.

Rendell, whose playing was initially – and is still – very much influenced and inspired by that of Lester Young, has been hailed by many critics as one of the most important jazz musicians ever produced by Great Britain. Steve Race went so far as to call him "the greatest jazzman in Europe". A highly emotional, warm-sounding and inventive player, Don puts down some of his best-ever recorded performances on this record.

Rendell's influence on Ross is extremely evident throughout these selections. And they couldn't ask for more sympathetic support from a rhythm section than they receive from Kinsey's kicking, ever-listening drumming, the equally empathetic chording of pianist Bill le Sage (who doubles on vibes and is also the Quintet's chief arranger), and the deep-plunging bass line of Pete Blannin. – Tony Hall

From Billboard - September 2, 1957: Set is indicative of proficiency and growing degree of maturity of English modernist, Kinsey group, essentially in coolish modern mode essays a moving, understandable brand of jazz. Most significant solo figure is tenors Don Rendell, who compares well with top American contemporaries. Needs dealer aid, but help should be forthcoming, for the kicks are many.

Love For Sale

In A Mellow Tone

No-Name Flyer

Cambridge Blue

Take The "A" Train

Nice Work If  You Can Get It

Sweet And Lovely

You Are Too Beautiful

Caravan

The Subterraneans - André Previn, Gerry Mulligan, Carmen McRae

 

Bread And Wine

The Subterraneans

André Previn, Gerry Mulligan, Carmen McRae and Others

A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Presentation of an Arthur Freed Production

Cover Photograph by Joe Smith, Hollywood, California

MGM Records SE3812ST

1960

Soloists in this album include the following

Piano - André Previn, Russ Freeman

Vocals - Carmen McRae (Courtesy Kapp Records)

Bass - Red Mitchell, Buddy Clark

Drums - Dave Bailey, Shelly Manne (Appears by arrangement with Contemporary Records)

Trombone - Bob Enevoldsen

Baritone Sax - Gerry Mulligan

Trumpet - Art Farmer (Courtesy of United Artists Records), Jack Sheldon

Alto Sax - Art Pepper (Appears by arrangement with Contemporary Records)

Sax - Bill Perkins

From the back cover: Here is an album that showcases the many talents of André Previn, composer-conductor-arranger-and-pianist. His versatility, further extends into the performance fields where he is just as much at home with jazz, the blues, popular music and with the classics. One week, André many be heard playing jazz in a swank night club; the following week, he will be performing with one of the great symphony orchestras; and a little later on, you will find him conducting for a top Hollywood motion-picture score. He is familiar to television viewers because of his guest appearances with Dinah Shore, Dean Martin, Steve Allen, Ernie Ford, Ernie Kovacs, Rosemary Clooney and others. André has won Motion Picture Academy Awards for Gigi and for Porgy And Bess. He also won a Grammy Award for his work with David Rose on the MGM record "Like Young", a song which Mr. Previn composed.

Another award-winner spotlighted in the album is Gerry Mulligan who has won the international Jazz Critics Award as the best baritone saxophone player for 1957, 1958 and 1959. Gerry also plays a feature acting role in "The Subterraneans."

The long-playing record is a collection of Previn's original compositions (except for "Coffee Time" and for "Should I)" from the sound track of Arthur Freed's Production "The Subterraneans" played by small, medium and large orchestras with solos by some of the foremost jazz artists in the country. This album was assembled by Jesse Kaye.

From Billboard - July 11, 1960: This is a very exciting score and one that will appeal strongly to both pop and jazz fans. Much of it was written by André Pervin and it features such key names as Previn himself on piano, Carmen McRae on vocals, and Gerry Mulligan, Shelly Manne, Art Farmer, Art Pepper and others. The music has a few tunes that could become pop hits, especially "Why Are We Afraid." Strong wax, and the cover is most attractive.

Why Are We Afraid

Guido's Blackhawk

Two By Two

Bread And Wine

Coffee Time

A Rose And The End

Should I

Look Ma, No Clothes

Things Are Looking Down

Analyst 

Like Blue

Raising Caen

Basses Loaded - Milt Hinton, Wendell Marshall, Bull Ruther

 

I Poured My Heart Into A Song

Basses Loaded!

Milt Hinton, Wendell Marshall, Bull Ruther

Photos by David B. Heche

RCA Victor LPM-1107

1955

From the back cover: If the goings-on in this album seem to bear little resemblance to those of the national pastime, they are at least alike in this respect – each has its quota of truly remarkable practitioners who have reached the status of latter-day heroes. It is a well-known fact that on the sporting diamond the stratagem of loading the bases may often prove abortive – without someone to propel the sphere beyond the park's boundaries, all is naught. But the magic of the physical and musical proceedings under consideration here is that, with exactly this same situation, Milt Hinton, Wendell Marshall and Bull Ruther are all able to come to bat four times each and deliver accordingly – in baseball parlance, of course, they clear the sacks, hit a homer, belt one over the left-field fence.

Even in baseball's annual all-star affair there has seldom been such a collection of swingers as those assembled here – men who have made it their business to propel band after band, men who have given many an aggregation that extra surge of power with which every last musical object is hurdled, men who are here given the opportunity to demonstrate the artistry that has too often been hidden under massive, big-band arrangements in which their only contribution is one of rhythm. 

Perhaps because it is so cumbersome, the bass fiddle is never really considered a musical instrument – merely a necessary adjunct to the usual array of trumpets, trombones and saxophones. But the bass, like every other stringed instrument, is one of the most deeply expressive of music makers – we do not often think of it in this sense because, unlike the other members of its family, we are rarely offered an opportunity to hear what it can do. Happily for us, today's jazz scene has bred a new type of arranger, one who writes, in many instances, for individual musical voices rather than for massed instruments, and in the present instance, with three of the most proficient and exciting practitioners of the instrument on hand. Manny Albam, Billy Byers and Al Cohn have written arrangements which utilize every facet of the instrument's capabilities. They, with the musicians involved, make it talk – and in no uncertain terms.

To anyone who has been around the jazz world for the past couple of decades, Milt Hinton needs no introduction – starting with the great Cab Calloway band of the thirties. Mile has added his personable touch to a great variety of musical units, both large and small, recording with just about every name in the field. But despite the length of time that Milt has spent in the musical game, it has only been recently that he has come before a wide, popular audience – musicians have always admired his skill and dexterity, but it is safe to say that today he is known far and wide as a bass player who digs down deep and swings. His bow work, too, is of delicate and highly imaginative proportions, making of him a rounded personality such as jazz seldom sees.

Wendell Marshall, of course, has been Duke Ellington's bassist for a considerable period – it is easily understood that in the midst of such a polished aggregation he would have to be great, especially to be filling a spot once held by Jimmy Blanton. His technique is amazingly varied, his tone firm and supple – he is, in short, another of the versatile performers who have helped the instrument to its present exalted position.

Bull Ruther, it will be remembered, made his debut with one of Dave Brubeck's groups and is now bassist for Erroll Garner – to all who have every listened to one of those fantastic and exciting chases in which Erroll and Bull often indulge, there can be no question of the latter's musicality or amazing reflexes. It is impossible to lose him in no matter what musical thought – he is, like both Hinton and Marshall, in there to stay, plucking a fantastic variety of notes form what is often seemingly thin air, offering the most vital proof of the instrument's place in the jazz family – Bill Zeitung

Prelude To A Kiss, I Hear A Rhapsody, Moon Over Miami (Arranged by Al Cohn)

Milt Hinton, solo bass; Al Cohn, tenor sax; Danny Banks, baritone sax; Billy Byers, trombone; Joe Newman, trumpet; Barry Galbraith, guitar; Osie Johnson, drums

How Blue Was By Bass, Tenderly, The Continental, Careless (Arranged by Billy Byers)

Wendell Marshall, solo bass; Hal Mckusick, soprano saxophone; Danny Banks, baritone sax; Jimmy Nottingham, trumpet; Barry Galbraith, guitar: Bull Ruther, bass

Bull In A China Shop, I Poured My Heart Into A Song, Crazy She Calls Me (Arranged by Manny Albam) 

Bull Ruther, bass; Hal McKusick, alto sax and flute; Danny Banks, baritone sax; Billy Byers, trombone; Gene de Novi, piano, Al Hall, bass; Osie Johnson, drums

From Billboard - September 10, 1955: The idea of a 12-inch LP devoted to string bass playing is unlikely to prove appealing except to earnest devotees of the instrument, even tho virtuoso jazz bass men abound today in remarkable numbers. Each of the three men represented here is thoroly competent, tho only Hinton offers truly distinquished and absorbing music. All three, however, have been showcased very neatly in swinging colorful arrangements by Al Chon, Billy Byers and Manny Albam.

Moon Over Miami

I Hear A Rhapsody

Prelude To A Kiss

Fump

The Continental 

Careless

How Blue Was My Bass

Tenderly

Crazy She Calls Me

I Poured My Heart Into A Song

Bull In A China Show

Begin The Beguine

Lord Love A Duck - Neal Hefti

 

Lord Love A Duck

Arsenic In The Face

Orignal Motion Picture Sound Track

George Axelrod's Lord Love A Duck

An Act Of Pure Aggression

Music by Neal Hefti

Title Song Sung by The Wild Ones

Lyric by Ernie Sheldon

United Artists Records UAS 5137

1966

Love Love A Duck

The Wedding

Bob's March

Balboa Blast

All Night Long

Arsenic In The Face

The Year Of The Duck

Lord Love A Duck (Instrumental)

Gaudeamus - Hey, Hey, Hey

All Night Long (Part II)

Finale: Lord Love A Duck

Walkin' - Buddy Johnson

 

You're Everything My Heart Desires

You'd Better Believe Me

Walkin' 

Buddy Johnson

Mercury Records MG 20322

1957

From the back cover: Woodrow Wilson "Buddy" Johnson has been successfully leading a big band all through these years of lamentations and dour analyses in then band field. The decline of the bands didn't hit Buddy as hard as it did other large payroll-teeters, because Buddy was selling a commodity that life and the world being what they are, is never out of demand. Buddy's bands have always essentially and powerfully been blues. But the blues of whatever kind rides through nearly everything in his book. Buddy's continuing fortune is also due to his recognition of the fact that travel not only broadens one, but pays the bills. Buddy's is a road band, and is particularly conversant with the highways and not-so-highways of the South, although he has also been a familiar at times through the years at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem as well.

Buddy was born in Darlington, South Carolina, January 10, 1915, and begun to work around New York in the later '30s. He was in Europe with the Cotton Club Revue in 1937 as pianist with a washboard band called the "Tramp Band." Buddy began to record in 1939, and has been recording and working steadily since. He is often classed as a rhythm and blues performer, but his jazz credentials are sufficient to win him entrance to both Leonard Feather's Encyclopedia Of Jazz and Hugues Panassie's Guide To Jazz, books which otherwise agree on little else. Observes Panassie: "Buddy Johnson is an excellent pianist who can play as well in the style of Earl Hines as in the 'blocked chords' of Milton Buckner. His band has never contained any stars but is made up of young musicians who really know how to swing; it has real punch and hard, sharp accent on the beat somewhat in Lionel Hampton's style." And Feathers adds: "His big band records, especially those with vocals featuring his sister Ella are outstanding for their unique beat and for the melodic variety Johnson's arrangements attain within a narrow blues framework."

Rockin' Time

They Don't Want Me To Rock No More

There's No One Like You

Ain't Cha Got Me (Where You Want Me)

Buddy's Boogie

Oh! Baby Don't You Know 

You'd Better Believe Me

You're Everything My Heart Desires

So Good

Bitter Sweet 

Gone Walkin'

Let's Dance The Letkiss - S. O. Walldoff

 

Letkis Blues

Let's Dance The Letkiss 

Recorded In Sweden

Played by the Original Scandinavian Letkiss Dance Band conducted by S. O. Walldoff

A Polar Music Production

Philips PHS 600-178

1965

Letkis Jenka

Let's Kiss Kiss Kiss

Jumpin' Jenka

Around The Jenka

Letkis Blues

Tjofaderittan Jenka

Doin' The Jenka

Let's Letkis Tonight

Bugle Call Jenka

Kiss Till Jenka

Tropical Letkis

Yankee Jenka

The Natural Seven - Al Cohn

Jump The Blue Away

The Natural Seven

RCA Victor LPM 1116

Photos: David B. Hecht

1955

From the back cover: In the land of the free, most people feel, the livin' is easy. And in the land of jazz, the feeling' is free and easy when the jazz is being blown á la Count Basie. And the living' becomes pretty great, too!

The jazz that's boarded directly underneath this card you're now reading is definitely á la Basie. It's been blown into those minute grooves with great tenderness by seven musicians who feel and do quite naturally what the great Count gave to jazz: that free and easy and light and airy and, above all, that swinging music. They admit it. And they're proud of it, too.

Says their leader, Al Cohn: "We tried on these records to recapture the feeling of the Kansas City Seven – in our own way, of course." (The Kansas City Seven, just in case you're not quite sure, is a septet out of the Basie hand that made such great sounds in the mid-thirties when it first burst into the swing scene.) "The rhythm section sound a lot like theirs, we hope. That's because we were able to use their guitarist, Freddie Greene, who, so far as I'm concerned, makes the sound of the album, and makes it sound different from anything else."

Greene is considered by many jazz experts as the definitive rhythm guitarist, with his light, swinging, delicately persuasive strumming. His section-mates here are Milt Hinton, that driving, enthusiastic veteran of the string bass, who was there when Basie first made his sounds; Osie Johnson, an especially talented drummer who's also an arranger; and Nat Pierce, Woody Herman's pianist and formerly a leader of his own big band in Boston, who knows whereof Basie plays and proves it with his performances here.

The horns are the same as those used in the Kansas City Seven: trumpet, trombone and tenor sax. Joe Newman is currently the featured jazz trumpeter in the Basie band, but, as Cohn explains in pointing out the differences between the Kansas City and The Natural Seven, "he doesn't play at all like Buck Clayton," who was featured in the K.C. group. Instead, he sounds a good deal like Harry Edison who, for years, shared trumpet solos with Clayton. And Frank Repack, the former Woody Herman trombone star, "doesn't sound anything like Dickie Wells."

Which leaves just one comparison to make, the one between Al Cohn and Lester Young, the great Basie tenor saxist. There are two schools of thought here. "My wife thinks I sound a lot like him," say Al. "I don't think I do." Nevertheless, Cohn does admit that President influenced his playing greatly in his formative years, when he was with such bands as Joe Marsala's and Georgie Auld's and Buddy Rich's. Since then, Al has been starred with Woody Herman, Artie Shaw and Elliot Lawrence, and his tastes have changed. "Now I like Sonny State and Zoot Sims." – George T. Simon

A Kiss To Build A Dream On

Doggin' Around

Jump The Blues Away

Jack's Kinda Swing

The Natural Thing To Do

Baby Please

9:20 Special 

Pick A Dilly

Count Me In

Freddie's Tune

Osie's Tune

Jazz As I Feel It - Earl Bostic

 

Telestar Drive

Jazz As I Feel It

Earl Bostic

Arrangements: Earl Bostic & Buddy Collette

Audio: Dino Lappas

Production: Hal Neely

Recorded August 13 and 14, 1963 - World Pacific Studios, Hollywood, California

King Records KING 846

1963

Earl Bostic - Alto Sax

Richar "Groove" Holmes - Organ

Joe Pass - Guitar

Shelly Manne - Drums (Telestar Drive, Apple Cake, Ten Out, Fast Track)

Charles Blackwell - Drums (Don't Do It Please, A Taste Of Fresh Air, Hunt And Peck)

James Bond - Bass (Don't Do It Please, A Taste Of Fresh Air, Hunt And Peck)

From the back cover: Earl Eugene Bostic - This is a particularly articulate and quiet spoken man. Soft in manner and voice, deep in basic philosophies and prideful of the opportunities of this land, he has prepared himself well and is a credit to his fellow musicians. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he graduated from Booker T. Washington High School there, then on to Creighton University and getting his AB degree from Xavier University in New Orleans, Louisiana. These school years were the start and the foundation for his musical career as it was during these years that he made the decision to become a professional musician. The next few years saw him in the sax section of such bands as Don Redman, Cab Calloway and Lionel Hampton. Then came a stint backing Lena Horne. Joining the Paul Whiteman group on the Chesterfield Hour gave him his introduction   into big radio arranging. This led to a period of time where he arranged, free lance, for such bands as Louis Prima, Lionel Hampton and Jack Teagarden. In 1942 he made his first recording as a member of Lionel Hampton's Sextet working with Red Allen, J.C. Higginbottom, Syd Catlett, Teddy Wilson and Hampton. His first record with his own group "That's The Groovy Thing" was on the now defunct Gotham label and became a national hit. (ed. note: all these early Bostic recordings are available as collectors items on King Records). Lesser known for his songwriting and arranging than for his alto, Earl has such credits as "Let Me Off Uptown" the big Gene Krupa and Anita O'Day hits, "The Major And The Minor" by Alvino Rey, "Brooklyn Boogie" by Louie Prima, to name a few. Now making his home in Los Angeles, Earl works dates on the coast, make a national tour once a year. Instruments are all reed; trumpet, piano and guitar.

Also from the back cover: Much has been written, more has been said. about the horn – the big powerful alto – of Earl Bostic. His career has been one hard to define and to categorize. Long recognized, and through to, as a jazz artist (Earl constantly places high in the various disc jockey polls) even though his recorded work was never allowed to be completely free and personal or in the true jazz view. Most of his recordings are in the middle-of-the-road commercial kick and because of this approach his sales have been tremendous and his recordings classified as popular and dance rather than jazz. Over the years sales reports list Earl as being about the best selling instrumentalist on records for his instrument. (Over seventeen albums on the market). The reasons for this is probably best reported in Earl's own words, in a taped interview he made some months ago with Mr. Kurt Mohr, the famous jazz critic and writer from Paris, France. In answer to a question from Mr. Mohr concerning Earl's own personal feelings about jazz and why he had never recorded any pure jazz, Earl's reply was: "I like jazz, I like to play it, but I feel it's up to the record people who handle my sessions to pick the material and decide what is best for me to record and release since our main object is to sell records, and to do that it seems to me that we have to make an album that will appeal to the most people. If that's being commercial, well, then I'm that man. The music business, the record business, my fans – have been good to me. I work more than I want to. When I play gigs (ed. note: a one nighter of club date) I can then blow what I want and play jazz the way I feel it – maybe the way I feel jazz is good, maybe not, I don't know. Someday I hope to be able to pick some real good men, guys I know and want to play with, and go into a studio and cut some of the things I'd really like. You know, pure, clean, free, unrestricted. Just go. Of course I am maybe one of the few musicians who likes simple recurring melody patterns and in all my playing I try to keep a basic melody line in my mind and attempt to develop meaningful inversions and variations – pardon me if I sound egotistical, I don't want to be, but what I mean is things that are mine and me. I like the basic blues, after all don't forget that the blues chord structure, and maybe about all else, personality. The true blues lends itself to a musicians own personality and as for myself I like its easy melodic passages, its characteristic harmonic flavor of dissonance and harmonic suspensions. A lot of people ask me about the blues and they always ask "What is it?" Just what can you say to non-musicians, so I sort of hedge and say: "The blues? It's a spirit, a blues feeling, it's the start since it is one of America's basic folk forms and had its start many years ago in this country's rural south. Blues and jazz are inseparable – both are pure American.

I had remembered this interview and in setting up this album recording session the executives of King Records determined to record Earl just this way. He first decided that he would like to do an album of pure jazz... basing the whole album on variations of the blues. The first step was to pick the men. This proved to be somewhat difficult due to the conflicting schedules of some of them, but two dates were worked out. The men Earl chose were: Groove Holmes, on organ and Joe Pass on guitar. (Courtesy of World Pacific Jazz Records to whom they are under contract.) Shelly Manne and Charlie Blackwell were his choices for drummers, Jimmy Bond and Herb Gordey were choices on bass. (See notes as to tracks on which they appear). The session was recorded in Hollywood in August, 1963.

After the last session, while listening to the tape playbacks and the various takes, a discussion arose between the musicians, John Otis, a King A&R man, Freddy Stryker, a publisher; Dino the Engineer; Buddy Collete, who wrote and arranged several of the things that were recorded, and myself concerning the relationship of the blues to jazz. This was one of those good moments that happens about what he has played. Someone said, "The melody line seemed to always hang, it builds excitement and tension then it drop – building, releasing, building again"... "It's a personal identification of each man in the group"... These comments are best emphasized in track three on side one in a thing called Telsetar Drive. Groove Holmes opens with a simple organ figure against an answering guitar riff by Joe Pass which soon passes on to Shelly Manne on the drums. Bostic enters driving and the excitement builds with an apparent effect on the others as the whole mood changes with increase in tightness and tension. It drops off a little then starts to building anew as Bostic and Manne pass the rhythmic pattern back and forth. This is something new and different... it was a purely impromptu set and a one take thing. Before the take it was talked over in studio and decided to just go and let happen what may – go for free with groove leading the way. It is an amazing thing how the men all felt the same thing and how each contributed his own to the overall. The result is a spontaneous and tremendously exciting, and purely individualistic, improvised set. Running four minutes and twenty-nine seconds it was decided not to edit  or cut and to present it just as it was recorded

Rather than pick out certain passages, or to talk about specifics we have decided it best to let you go for free by yourself and decide for yourself just what Earl Bostic means when he said, "Jazz as I feel it".  – Hal Neely

Don't Do It Please

Ten Out

Telestar Drive

A Taste Of Fresh Air

Hunt And Peck

Fast Track

Apple Cake

The Charles Bell Contemporary Jazz Quartet

 

Latin Festival

The Charles Bell Contemporary Jazz Quartet

Columbia CL 1582

1961

From the back cover: In recent months the phrase "Third Stream" has been coined to describe an intellectualized form of jazz which springs as much from classical training as from the traditions of popular dance music. John Lewis's Modern Jazz Quartet has made an enormous commercial success in combining severe formal discipline with free-swinging improvisation.

Charles Bell takes his jazz very seriously, as listeners will find out from this extraordinary long-playing record. He is of the firm belief that there can be a legitimate fusion between jazz and the most serious approach to classical music. As a pupil of Nicholai Lopatnikoff, he was first immersed in the Romantic composers, but his interest soon branched out to the early composers of church music as well as the most contemporary writers. As an undergraduate at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, he was first known for his works for chamber orchestra and string quartet, and his present jazz group was formed in 1958 when it made its debut at the "Copa Club."

It was during the Intercollegiate Jazz Festival at Georgetown University in 1960 that the Charles Bell Contemporary Jazz Quartet made its first professional impact. Before a jury consisting of Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Jack Pleis and this writer, the CJQ walked off with the top honors; its astonishing young (19) drummer, Allen Blairman, won first prize as the top individual musician. Despite its intellectual approach to music, the Charles Bell Group was accorded a vociferous welcome by the crowd and proved that musical taste among undergraduates has become far more sophisticated than ever.

There are more than a few parallels between Charles Bell and the previously mentioned John Lewis. Both are essentially serious composures, although Bell makes less use of improvisation than does Lewis. Both are dedicated, abstemious souls who are striving to raise the level of public taste as well as to entertain. Even the musical balance of the group is not dissimilar. In the CJQ, the guitar replaces the vibes, but in the drummer, Allen Blairman, there is a real counterpart to the ebullient Milt Jackson of the MJQ. However, there is one significant difference between the two groups: Bell is far less blues-oriented than is John Lewis, and he approaches music even more from the classical side than does the more experience Lewis.

In the few months that have passed since the award-winning at Georgetown University, the Contemporary Jazz Quartet has had a successful engagement at New York's "Birdland" and worked around Pittsburgh. The CJQ deserves the much broader audience that only records can bring. – John Hammond

From Billboard - March 6, 1961: Charles Bell, and the young men who make up his contemporary jazz quartet, won first place at the Intercollegiate Jazz Festival in Washington last year. On this album, the group's first, they show off some of the interesting and contemporary stylings that garnered them first place. Bell, the leader and pianist, is oriented toward the classical world, and the jazz he plays here is both modern and "third-stream" style. He is backed neatly by guitarist Bill Smith, drummer Allen Blairman and Frank Traficante on bass. Tunes are original s and "Latin Festival" is outstanding.

Latin Festival 

The Gospel

Stage 13

That Last Sermon

Counterpoint Study #2

Variation 3

Happy Funky

Son Of Gunn - Shelly Manne

 

Joanna

Son Of Gunn!!

Shelly Manne & His Men

Play More "Peter Gunn"

Produced by Lester Koenig

Recorded May 21 and 26, 1959 at Contemporary Records in Los Angeles.

Sound by Roy DuNann

Cover Design: Guidi/Tri Arts

Contemporary Records M 3566

1959

Cover Photo of Shelly Manne as a super-hip private eye by Peter James Samerjan, taken at Jazz-Seville in Hollywood.

Music composed by Henry Mancini from the score of the NBC-TV series "Peter Gunn," starring Craig Stevens. The individual titles are from various characters or scenes on the program. My Manne Shelly, for example, was written to be played by Shelly Manne & His Men, who were featured in one episode.

From the back cover: The record business in the United States during the first half of 1959 was taken over by Peter Gunn, that suave, Brooks Brothers-suited private eye who digs jazz. The Henry Mancini music from the TV program was the No. 1 best-selling popular album, and Ray Anthony's record of The Peter Gunn Theme was the best-selling single in the country. Shelly Manne, long-time friend and admirer of Mancini, has been that regular drummer on the Peter Gunn show since the latter part of 1958. This, of course, is in addition to Shelly's activities as leader of his own famous jazz group. As a result of his association with Mancini, Shelly and His Men recorded their own best-selling version of the Mancini music for Contemporary in January 1959 (M3560 and stereo S7025). When Mancini came up with a new set of compositions based on his score for the TV show, it was inevitable that Shelly would record them as well.

When Shelly first thought of doing the Peter Gunn music, Mancini urged him to feel free to change the original conceptions to any direction Shelly felt he wanted to go. In fact, in both Shelly's first album and in this one, Shelly and The Men use Mancini's compositions as points of departure for their own highly personal interpretations. A comparison of each track in this album with the corresponding track in Mancini's album might prove an interesting demonstration of "jazzmen at work" for the jazz fan or critic. – Lester Young

Odd Ball

Blue Steel

Spook!

Joanna

Goofing' At The Coffee House

Walkin' Bass

My Manne Shelly

Blues For Mother

A Quiet Gass

Lightly

How Time Passes - Don Ellis

 

Improvisational Suite #1

How Time Passes

Don Ellis

Barnaby Candid Jazz

Distributed by Janus Records a Division of GRT Corp.

BR-5020

1978

From the back cover: Writing of the 1960 session of The School of Jazz in the November, 1960, Jazz Review, Gunther Schuller noted: Don Ellis has already found his own voice, which seems to consist of a fascinating blend of jazz and contemporary classical influences. In fact, his playing represents one of the few true syntheses of jazz and classical elements, without the slightest self-consciousness and without any loss of the excitement and raw spontaneity that the best of jazz always had... It seems to me that Don has found a way of expanding the rhythmic vocabulary of jazz to include rhythm pattern heretofore excluded because they couldn't be made to swing. If this is true, it would constitute a major breakthrough, and its implications would be far-reaching... Ellis's rhythmic approach is closely related to the other. It is evident that Ellis has listened to and understood the music of Webern, Stockhausen, Cage and others of the avant-grade... here again, Ellis' jazz feeling has more than survived..."

Although Ellis was a student at The School of Jazz, he had already had extensive experience in jazz and classical music. Born in Los Angeles, July 25, 1934, Ellis has a Bachelor of Music degree from Boston University, has studied privately with several major brass teachers, and has played in as well as written for all manner of combination up to and including full symphony orchestra and chorus. He has led his own jazz combos since grade school and has worked with, among others, Herb Pomeroy, Jesse Smith, the Glenn Miller orchestra under Ray McKinley, Charlie Barnet, Kenny Durham, Same Donahue, Claude Thornhill, Woody Herman, Maynard Ferguson, Lionel Hampton and George Russell.

John "Jaki" Byard, before going on the road with Maynard Ferguson in 1959, was a strong influence on a number of Boston-based jazzmen, Don Ellis among them. Byard has played as solo pianist as well as with Earl Bostic, Herb Pomeroy and others. Ron Carter, a brilliant bassist who has worked with Thelonious Monk, Randy Weston and Charlie Persip, among other combos, has a bachelor's degree from the Eastman School of Music. Charlie Persip, who became most widely known for his work with the Dizzy Gillespie big band, has been alternating wide-ranging New York studio work with leading his own driving combo. "He seemed," says Ellis, "the only choice for the date. He has so wonderful and consistent ability to swing and can also sight read just about anything as well as play all manner of phrases and time signatures, making them come out natural and relaxed." – Nat Hentoff

How Time Passes

Sallie

A Simple One

Waste

Improvisational Suite #1

Friedrich Gulda At Birdland

 

Air From Other Planets

Friedrich Gulda At Birdland

Arrangements by Friedrich Gulda

Produced for RCA Victor Records by John Hammond

RCA Victor LPM 1355

1956

Aaron Bell - Bass (Courtesy Roost Records)

Nick Stabulas - Drums

Phil Woods - Alto Sax (Courtesy Prestige Records)

Seldon Powell - Tenor Sax

Idrees Sulieman - Trumpet

Jimmy Cleveland - Trombone (Courtesy Em Arcy Records)

From the back cover: Friedrich Gulda, who has been called the greatest piano virtuoso to emerge in the last ten years, has made the switch to jazz in the multiple role of composer, arranger, pianist and bandleader. The occasion is historic, for it is the first time that a classical artist of stature had bridged the hitherto impenetrable gulf between the two hostile musical worlds.

Of Czech parentage, Gulda was born in Vienna in the Spring of 1930. In 1946 he won the international Music Competition at Geneva, the youngest artist ever to do so, playing works of Bach, Beethoven, Schumann and Debussy. The following  year he began his recording career in the pre-long play era with sonatas of Mozart and Prokofieff, and since then he has recorded ten Beethoven sonatas, all twenty-four Chopin and Debussy preludes, five major concerti, the Richard Strauss Berleske, and a minimum of encore pieces. His success has been truly world-wide, and his career in the concert world is at its peak.

Why then should Gulda desert the concert work for even a moment to have a fling at jazz? The reason is simple; he loved American jazz ever since hearing his first Count Basie record in 1946, while preparing for the Geneva competition. He feels that serious contemporary composing is at a dead end, and that swinging modern jazz may well be the most exciting musical trend of the century.

In 1955, despite a fantastically heavy concert schedule, Friedrich found tine to organize an eight piece jazz band in Vienna to play a series of six broadcasts of his fourteen jazz compositions and arrangements for the Vienna Government Radio. (On alternative weeks for the same radio program he played all thirty-two Beethoven piano sonatas) In the band were five fellow Czechs, one American, and one native Viennese, all adept improvisors. The tapes that were made of these broadcasts showed that Gulda was one of the most imaginative of all jazz composers and arrangers, and that furthermore he was an improving soloist of the very first rank. They were the direct cause of his being engaged at Birdland and the American Jazz Festival at Newport, Rhode Island, in 1956, and the formation of the truly all-star band heard on this disc. If there is a single unifying force in the concert world today it is a complete contempt for all the connotations of the word "jazz." Friedrich's decision to play jazz met with a fridge response from concert managers and classical recording executives alike. It is only because Gulda has the determination of a bulldog that he was able to override all objections to the switch. He has developed a dual musical personality, which critic Louis Biancolli of the New York World-Telegram has called "unique in piano history," and "the neatest trick of the concert decade."

In this first album ever to be released of a classical musician conquering the jazz form, Gulda is presented as the composer and arranger of six tunes, and as swinging improvising soloist in two extended, unhackeyed standards. His original compositions are his theme, Vienna Discussion; the jumping Scruby, which he is now arrranging for Count Basie's big band; the ballad Dark Glow, which features the marvelously inventive alto sax of Phil Woods; two jumping tunes, Dodo and New Shoes; and another exquisite mood piece, Air From Other Planets, which displays the warm sounds of Seldon Powell's tenor sax. Bernie's Tune is a jam number of ten minutes duration, with chorus after chorus of some of the finest improvisation ever recorded. Night In Tunisia presents Gulda as a jazz soloist, with rhythm backing.

Phil Woods, Jimmy Cleveland and Seldon Powell were last year's winners of the Down Beat Critics' Poll. Woods, who appears by courtesy of Prestige records, is the star alto saxophonist of Dizzy Gillespie's band. Powell, who is under contract to the Roost label, is the outstanding modern tenor saxophonist, and a bandleader in his own right. Jimmy Cleveland, an incredible technician and a Lionel Hampton discovery, is an Em Arcy recording artist.

Idrees Sulieman is one or New York's outstanding modern trumpeters, while Aaron Bell, a bassist who got his start with Erskine Hawkins' Bama State Collegians, is the only other member of the band with a classical background in trumpet, piano and string bass. Nick Stabulas, the drummer, is a real find who has spent much of his musical career playing in a Greenwich Village night spot.

This extraordinary group of musicians was assembled one week before the Birdland opening, and only two weeks before the actual date of this recording. The ensemble and cohesion achieved during this period is little short of history-making, and is a tribute both to Gulda as a leader and the great talent of the sidemen.

From now on Gulda will be pursuing two careers in music, one in concert and the other in jazz. He vows that he will never seek to combine the two forms, which he considers to be completely alien. He may well be the first musical schizophrenic of our time. – Jong Hammond

From Billboard - August 18, 1956: Jazznicks who caught Gulda and his fine group at Birdland or at the Newport Jazz Festival have been awaiting this set eagerly. All of the publicity about this concert pianist-turned-jazzman will undoubtedly pay off, especially since the music lives up to the hoopla. Gulda writes well for the combo, which includes such brilliant modern soloists as Phil Woods, Jimmy Cleveland, Seldon Powell and the underrated Idrees Sulieman on trumpet. He himself plays a deep-down-in-the-keys piano and demonstrates a refreshing concern for dynamic variation.

Theme Song: Vienna Discussion

Scruby

Dark Glow

Night In Tunisia

Dodo

Air From Other Planets

New Shoes

Bernie's Tune

Something Blue - Paul Horn

 

Something Blue

Something Blue

The Paul Horn Quintet

Produced by Dave Axelrod, Artist & Repertoire

HiFijazz Album J615

1960

From the back cover: The Leader - This somehow seems characteristic of Paul Horn: in providing the data for these notes, he gave in detail the history of every member of his quintet but one. He left out Paul Horn.

Not that it is necessary to be convinced that Paul is a nice guy in order to enjoy his music fully. As it happens he is, but whether a man is an admirable individual has little, if anything to do with the stature of his work. Beethoven had many narrow, petty characteristics but his music is cosmic in scope.

Indeed, it sometimes seems that an artist's personality is likely to  manifest itself in reverse in his art. It is widely known in writing circles that humorists are usually deadly serious people, while the writers of tragedy are often hellers bent on a good time. One of our finest jazz trumpeters is known for his touchy, misanthropic and angry view of the world, yet he consistently produces music of moving, introspective gentleness.

And so the personality factor in an artist's work should be viewed with some skepticism. Freud admitted that there are mysteries in the creative process that even psychoanalysis could not unravel.

As long as it is kept in perspective, however, Paul's personality is worth some thought while listening to his music.

On a stage, when someone is soloing, Paul often stands very erect, one foot in advance of the other, head thrown back a little, his eyes shut. Taken with the fact that he is impeccable in dress, this posture and expression create an impression of pride and even vanity – as if he were a character from an Oscar Wilde play looking down an aristocratic nose at the world that perversely remains a little beneath his standards.

But ten minutes of conversation will convince you that Paul is a fundamentally modest person, sensitive to criticism and yet able to take it with a remarkably good grace and, if it seems valid, to act on it.

If he is that sensitive – and he is – then it would be logical to assume that he would got out of his way to avoid criticism. But it doesn't work out that way. Paul is the experimenter, and a determined one. While others have dabbled with classical forms and techniques in jazz Paul – who has an excellent background in "classical" music – went the whole route: he adapted a number of works from the concert and recital repertories to the instrumentation of a jazz quartet. He encountered some criticism for it. "But we all like the music," he said later, "and wanted to do it. So we did."

Thus, below the layer of personality that is modest and receptive, there is obviously a direct and personal kind of drive. After all to experiment means to stick your neck out. Paul himself to the studios of Hollywood, where he lives, instead of venturing out with a jazz group in a town where it is notoriously difficult for such groups to find steady work. But venture he did, nor did he confine himself and the group to the accepted forms and sounds of jazz. He went on experimenting.

Thus you can see that the personality factor in Paul's work is very complex – as it is in any artist. Paul strikes me as being built like an onion: a layer of modesty within a layer of pride within a layer of modesty with a layer of...

And that is as it should be. For it is out of a strange amalgam of humility and drive that artists are made. After all, no one practices a musical instrument for eight or more hours a day, as most first-rate instrumentalists must do at some stage of their growth, unless he has some tremendous desire to excel.

So the man who would be an artist must be a mixture – driving  and determined to conquer his instrument (listen to the slow, controlled vibrato Paul has achieved on flute) on the one hand, humble in the face of the art that he and his instruments are trying to serve. Paul qualifies on both counts.

The Group - Paul is a native of New York, took his Bachelor of Music degree at Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, and his Master of Music degree at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Later, he performed with the Sauter-Finnegan Orchestra, where his skill on several instruments stood him in good stead. But it was with the Chico Hamilton Quintet that he achieved his greatest prominence before forming his first gourd. In 1959, he organized a quintet and took it into the Renaissance Club in Hollywood. The personnel was the one you hear on this disk.

Jimmy Bond, a 27 year-old Philadelphian, on bass. A student of bass at the New School of Music in Philadelphia at one time. Jimmy later was graduated from the Juilliard School of Music in New York. At Juilliard, he studied bass, conducting and composition as a scholarship student. He has worked with Gene Ammons, Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae, Bubby DeFranco, Nina Simone, George Shearing, Sonny Rollins and Chet Baker.

Paul Moore, a one-time rehearsal pianist and arranger for television. He worked for the Bob Hope Show, the Steve Allen Show and Desilu Productions. He also worked as arranger and pianist on a number of non-jazz albums, and has performed with such west coast jazz leaders as Shorty Rogers and Bud Shank, and at Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse.

Emil Richards, a vibist who was born Emilio Racocchia in 1932 in Hartford, Conn. He began studying xylophone at the age of six, went to the Hartford School of Music from 1949 through 1952, then was percussionist with the Hartford and New Britain symphony orchestras and the Connecticut Pops Orchestra. In 1954 and '55 he was assistant leader of the U.S. Army band in Japan, and worked with Toshiko during that period. In 1956, he worked around New York with Flip Phillips, Charlie Mingus and Chris Connor. Then he joined George Shearing, with whom he remained until 1959, when he moved to Los Angeles and began working with Paul.

Billy Higgins, whom Paul Horn calls "one of the finest young drummers to come out of L.A. in many years. He possesses that rare combination of abilities to play lightly and ate the same time with great intensity and drive. His time is impeccable and, all in all, he swings like hell." Higgins, who is still in his early twenties, has worked with Leroy Vinegar, Harold Land and other leading west coast groups. 

– Gene Lees, Editor Downbeat Magazine

From Billboard - May 23, 1960: This is a very interesting modern jazz set, featuring Paul Horn, ex-Sauter-Finnegan and Chico Hamilton organizations, leading a group of young, modern musicians thru some fragile, even exotic-type jazz items. All of the compositions are originals, and they have an impressionistic flavor that some may find avant-garde and others a throwback to early 1900's classicism. The best sides are "Dun Dune," "Tall Polynesian" and the title song. Worth exposure to jazz buffs, especially adventurous ones.

Dun Dune

Tall Polynesian

Mr. Bond

Fremptz

Something Blue

Half And Half

My Goodness - Herbie Mann

Flamingo

My Goodness

Herbie Mann Quartet

Completely Different Sound 

Bethlehem Records BCP-24

1955

From the back cover: We have been a quartet now for three months, Joe Puma, our guitarist, has worked and recorded with Artie Shaw, Louis Bellson, Don Elliott and Chris Connor, and his his own album on Bethlehem (BCP-1012). He is 28 and from the Bronx. Our bassist is the 26 year-old Chuck Andrus from Holyoke, Mass. He has worked with Terry Gibbs, Stan Getz and Claude Thornhill and recorded with Johnny Williams. Chuck is studying bass with Philip Sklar of the NBC Symphony. Harold Granowsky, our drummer, is 24 years old and hails from Indianapolis, Ind. He has worked with Lennie Tristano, Joe Roland and Charlie Barnet.

Herbie is 25 and was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. He has worked and recorded with Mat Mathews, Carmen McRae (Bethlehem BCP-1023) and Pete Rugolo. He has also recorded with Chris Connor (Bethlehem BCP-20), Sarah Vaughn and Paul Quinichette. He is studying the flute with Fred Williams in New York. Herbie's first album (BCP-1018) had my third cousin Harrison, the owl, on the cover. – Jay, The Flamingo

We started planning this album two months ago, carefully selecting each tune and then treating each one individually, utilizing the various colorings and shadings the group could produce.

I've had the idea for quite a while to get sort of a "Four Brothers-type" sound with three flutes and alto flute, instead of three tenors and baritone sax. Joe arranged "I've Told Ev'ry Little Star" on which I played all four flute parts (sounds like the Four Brothers before their voices changed!)

Love Is A Simple Thing is a beautiful melody that somehow has been over-looked. I play this on alto flute.

One of my favorite contemporary composers is the Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos. He conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra in the concert of his music at Carnegie Hall in January. I wrote this simple melody Sorimao the next day. The theme is played by the bass (being bowed) and alto flute.

Since I starred playing jazz flute, I've become a flutist doubling on tenor sax (a switch). The Influential Mr. Cohn was written for Al, my favorite tenor man.

A One Way Love is a very sad thing.

Another one of our happy songs is The Surrey With The Fringe On Top. I think this is the group at its swingingest.

Flamingo is one of my favorite ballads. I think the composer had the alto flute in mind when he wrote the melody.

Little Orphan Annie is one of our silly things. Trombonist-vibist Jack Hitchcock suggested it to me. Joe also arranged this one.

So that each 4 flute arrangement would have its own particular flavor, I called Quincy Jones and told him what I was looking for. He told me he had just written a blues waltz that he thought would be perfect. Because of it's Oriental flavor, we named Quincy's beautiful waltz Jasmin (Blues 4-flute Waltz)

I wrote the next melody for a very wonderful girl and singer, Beverly. I play this on flute, unaccompanied.

Joe wrote the swinging blues Woodchuck. This is the story of a little woodchuck (as played by Chuck Andrus) and his search for berries. He finds one (as played by Harold Granowsky) and then he finds tw more (as played by Joe Puma and I). Now this is a very small woodchuck, and these are very big berries, and he is running pretty fast – so, he has a problem holding on to them all. He keeps dropping them and picking them up. This keeps going on until the end of the record (as played by you!) – Herbie Mann

From Billboard - October 22, 1955: The Mann group features the rather unique instrumentation of flute, backed with rhythm, a grouping whose sound might be expected to wear thin thru 12 selections. Nevertheless, the boys produce some very interesting things here and Mann employs as alto flute now and then for pleasant contrasts. Those who dote on the new and experimental will enjoy hearing this collection of tunes.

I've Told Ev'ry Little Star

Love Is A Simple Thing 

There No You

Sorimao

The Influential Mr. Cohn

A One Way Love

The Surrey With The Fringe On Top

Flamingo

Little Orphan Annie

Jasmin (Blues 4 Flute Waltz)

Beverly

Woodchuck