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Saturday, June 28, 2025

Tjader Plays Tjazz - Cal Tjader

 

Minor Goof

Tjader Plays Tjazz
Cal Tjader
Fantasy 3278 (F-8097)

Featuring: Brew Moore, Al McKibbon, Sonny Clark, Bob Collins, Eddie Dran, Bobby White, Eugene Wright

The Cal Tjader Quartet: Cal Tjader, drums; Bob Collins, trombone; Eddie Duran, guitar; Al McKibbon, Bass
The Cal Tjader Quintet: Cal Tjader, vibes; Brew Moore, tenor; Sonny Clakrk, piano; Bobby White, drums; Gene Wright, bass

From the back cover: IN THE 1955 CRITIC'S POLL OF Down Beat Magazine, Cal Tjader was voted New Star of the Vibes. This is doubly a tribute to Cal, because the general public has known him mainly as a leader of an excellent mambo group in the past two years. Prior to that, of course, he was featured on Latin rhythm instruments and vibraphone with the George Shearing Quintet, and before that with Dave Brubeck.

Although Cal has had an exceptionally successful career with his Mambo Quintet, he is at heart a jazz man pure and simple, and his mambo group has a solid jazz foundation. But the Latin rhythms of mambo and cha cha do not always provide the most felicitous surroundings for jazz improvisation. That's why Cal and Fantasy decided to make this album. There was another reason, too. Cal wanted the jazz public to hear three remarkable musicians who are currently living and working in San Francisco-trombonist Bob Collins, tenor saxophonist Brew Moore, and guitarist Eddie Duran.

This album gives them an opportunity to be heard in the best circumstances possible. There were two dates for this LP. The first, THE CAL TJADER QUARTET, was done at the Marines Memorial Theater in San Francisco. It fea- tures Cal on drums (long before he was known as a vibraphonist, he was an excellent drummer), Al McKibbon (Cal's old sidekick from the George Shearing Quintet), on bass; Bob Collins, brother of Dick, on trombone, and Eddie Duran on guitar. There is no piano.

The second session, THE CAL TJADER QUINTET, was held at the Berkeley Little Theater. Cal used the rhythm section of the Buddy De Franco Quartet: Bobby White, drums; Sonny Clark, piano, and Gene Wright, bass. Brew Moore is on tenor and Cal himself on vibes.

The Quartet cut four tunes: I've Never Been in Love Before, How About You, My One and Only Love and I'll Know. Collins' trombone is the featured instrument on each with occasional solos by Eddie Duran. There were six tunes by the Quintet: Moten Swing, There Will Never Be Another You, Jeepers Creepers, A Minor Goof, Imagination and Brew's Blues.

Moten Swing opens with Brew stating the theme, which is actually the closing riff from the old Bennie Moten arrangement Count Basie made famous and which is such a part of Kansas City jazz history. There are solos by Cal, Brew and Sonny Clark. On I've Never Been in Love Before, Bob Collins states the melody with Eddie Duran gently picking away in the background. It's almost straight melody and a perfect showcase for Collins' somewhat lugubrious trom- bone. There Will Never Be Another You provides Cal with an opportunity to take a long, beautiful solo. He is followed by Brew. Listen to the extra long ring of the vibes at the end of Cal's solo. It runs straight through the first four bars of Brew's solo. On How About You, which is taken up tempo, Eddie Duran plays a particularly fine chorus after Bob Collins ends his statement. The "Yeah!" you hear faintly in the background is Eddie's own exclamation when he hit a surprisingly exciting chord. On Jeepers Creepers, both Cal and Brew take swinging solos and Gene Wright is heard in a bass break.

A Minor Goof opens with a nod to Count Basie by Brew and contains excellent, swinging solos by Cal, Brew and Sonny Clark. My One and Only Love is another showcase for Collins' ballad work and there is also an Eddie Duran solo with interesting doubling up of the rhythm behind him by Cal's drums. Imagination gives Brew Moore a chance to work on a ballad and he does so with echoes of Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster and, of course, his own favorite, Lester Young. It's a very expressive solo. I'll Know, the lovely tune from Guys and Dolls, has a melodic solo by Bob Collins and a guitar bit by Eddie Duran. On Brew's Blues, a medium tempo riff tune, there's another long vibes ring. Watch for it and also listen for the quote from Fascinating Rhythm in Gene Wright's bass solo. Bobby White, the dynamic drummer, gets a chance to show off on this one, too.

A NOTE ON THE MUSICIANS: Cal Tjader was born in St. Louis in 1925 and studied at San Francisco State. He worked with the Dave Brubeck Trio and Octet and in 1950 joined George Shearing. When he left the Shearing Quintet in 1954 he formed his own group specializing in the mambo. His favorite vibraphone players are Milt Jackson (he composed a tune for the Shearing group, in honor of Milt, "Mood for Milt") and Lionel Hampton.

Brew Moore comes from Indianola, Miss. (his real name is Milton Jr.) where he was born in 1924. He studied at the University of Mississippi and started on music when his mother "bought me a harmonica on my ninth birthday." His first job was playing clarinet with a Dixieland band in New Orleans in 1942 and since then he has worked with Elliot Lawrence, Machito, Howard McGhee, Kai Winding and Charlie Parker. He has been in San Francisco since 1954 and wants to stay. "Have no tux. Will not travel," he says, and his favorite tenors are Lester Young, Zoot Sims, Allen Eager and Al Cohn.

Bob Collins (Robert Lamont, to be exact) was born in Portland, Oregon in 1922 and was taught by his father, who started Bob and brother Dick in 1936. He, too, is a veteran of the Dave Brubeck Octet and has worked with numerous small groups in Northern California. His ambitions do not include traveling, but do include spending every possible week-end sailing on San Francisco Bay with his boat partner, Cal Tjader.

Eddie Duran was born in San Francisco in 1925, is mainly self taught, and has been in and around show-business since he was eight years old and won an amateur singing contest with his brother, Manuel, now pianist with Cal Tjader's Mambo Quintet. Eddie has worked with Freddie Slack, Flip Phillips, Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, George Shearing, Red Norvo and Vince Guaraldi. He lists his hobbies simply as: Astronomy and girls.

Moten Swing (B. Moten) - Quintet
I've Never Been In Love Before (Losser) - Quartet
There Will Never Be Another You (Warren) - Quintet
How About You (Lane) - Quartet
Jeepers Creepers (Mercer, Warren) - Quintet
A Minor Goof (B. Moore) - Quintet
My One And Only Love (Mellin, Wood) - Quartet
Imagination (Van Huessen) - Quartet
I'll Know (Losser) - Quartet
Brew's Blues (Moore) - Quintet

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