Movin' Easy
Movin' Easy
Jazz Renaissance Quintet
Cover Design: Marvin Glick
Mercury Records SR 60605
1961
From the back cover: Once in a while a jazz performance attains a quality of musical togetherness that sets it apart. This frequently happened with the Benny Goodman Trio/Quartet presentations and with a good many of the Duke Ellington band performances. It has taken place again on this recording by the Jazz Renaissance Quintet.
The musicians involved have a good deal in common with each other. They are all name jazz stars now freelancing in the record, radio, and TV fields; they are all around the same age and have similar backgrounds with the big bands of the 1940s, and they all live on Long Island.
Barnes, the nominal leader of the group, as well as its arranger and composer, has for many years been a consistent advocate of the use of the electric guitar as a melody instrument. The JRQ is set up with a guitar (Barnes) and a clarinet as lead instruments backed by a rhythm section made up of guitar (Bauer), bass and drums. In the hands of the musicians involved, the instrumentation offers an opportunity for the creation of harmonic unity with some, beautiful contrasts. The rhythm fill-ins complement the melodic interplay as well as maintaining the tempo.
The leader-guitarist, originally from Chicago Heights, Illinois, has been freelancing in New York City for a decade with a recent concentration on recording dates. Previously, he was on staff in the Chicago radio studios, featured as a soloist in midwestern night clubs and served a stint with tenor saxophonist Bud Freeman's large jazz orchestra. He plays most of the single note solos on this set.
Clarinetist Hank D'Amico is a native of Rochester, N.Y. and a veteran of bands led by Red Norvo, Bob Crosby, Richard Himber, Tommy Dorsey, and others. He has also led a band under his own name. After spending a half dozen years with studio bands at CBS and ABC, he began freelancing in 1955. While playing with the Bob Crosby Dixieland Band, he took over the late Irving Fazola's book. A little of Fazola can be heard in his solos on this date, especially on the slow blues titled Movin' Easy. There are some passages where it is hard to differentiate D'Amico's clarinet sound from the guitar; others where he has a flute sound. Billy Bauer, noted for his inventive solo work and considered to be one of the best rhythm guitarists in the music world, was a member of Woody Herman's First Herd. This New York- born musician was later a sideman with several Benny Goodman groups and worked extensively with the progressive unit led by pianist Lennie Tristano. Currently he maintains a teaching studio on Long Island and conducts Friday and Saturday jam sessions at the Sherwood Inn in New Hyde Park, L.I. Many well known New York City jazz musicians journey out to sit in with Bauer at these sessions. On the You Make Me Feel So Young track, Bauer is heard on bass guitar. Of Bauer, fellow guitarist Barnes says "he inevitably does the right thing."
The man playing bass on this record has made a name for himself in both the classical and jazz fields. Jack Lesberg is a frequent performer with the New York Philharmonic and has been called conductor Leonard Bernstein's favorite bassist. Jazz fans are familiar with Lesberg from the many records that list him on bass and from his association with the Eddie Condon jazz coterie. Lesberg was born in Boston and claims to be the only musician who has ever played twice in one week with different musical organizations at the Bean City's Symphony Hall. He appeared there on a Thursday night with Eddie Condon's jazz troupe and on Friday with Bernstein. He has toured Europe with the Louis Armstrong All Stars and with Jack Teagarden's Sextet. During his early musical career Lesberg studied and played violin and has since applied a violin technique to the bass. His solo work on You Make Me Feel So Young constitutes the only side in the album that features one musician more than the others.
Since leaving Portland, Maine, back in the thirties, Cliff Leeman has acquired an enviable reputation as one of the best of the big band drummers. His drumming was heard driving the swing bands led by Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey and Charlie Barnet. His subtle work on this album bears out the fact that Leeman is equally as adept drumming for small groups as for the big bands. He worked for several years in Bobby Hackett's group and was also the house drummer at Eddie Condon's club for a long spell. Barnes says in regards to Leeman, "I don't have to write down anything for him, he just feels what is correct in the right places."
The numbers on this set include five originals by Barnes and five well known standards. Side A opens with a sprightly tempoed version of Irving Berlin's Always with D'Amico and Barnes playing a sort of "chase chorus" together, rather than separately. Bauer's guitar can be heard subtly pushing Barnes along as George plays some phrases inspired by the late C-melody saxophonist Frankie Trumbauer. At the end of the tune Leeman performs a cymbal tag that is reminiscent of the famed Chicago drummer Dave Tough.
The first original, Floatin', opens with the two guitars playing in unison and then switching melodic lines. The clarinet makes a neat entry on top of the guitars. Lesberg's bass fill-ins on this track are in beautiful contrast to Barnes and Bauer. Leeman takes the tune out, or as Barnes terms it "puts it to bed," with stop time.
On the melodic I Saw Stars there is interplay between the clarinet and guitar with the former on top. Then D'Amico brings his sensitive swinging clarinet down to the level of the sound as the guitar goes up. This track also includes a sensitive Barnes solo against the rhythm background. One of the most interesting of the originals is Are You Ready? The composition has a Mozart string quartet flavor with Barnes playing the theme and D'Amico taking a difficult obbligato. Barnes said the number was quite hard for the group to learn, but after once learning it, they all enjoyed performing it. The title comes from Barnes' admonition, "Are you ready? We can't miss a cue."
The rendition of the original Private Blend has the guitar and clarinet playing in 6/4 time. Here one theme grows out of the other as they anticipate the rhythm section. This is the kind of number where everybody has to be careful not to get lost. It is on this tune where D'Amico noticeably gets a "flute sound."
The second track on the B side was actually the first number they recorded and is the longest track (5 minutes) on the album. It is also one of the most rewarding sides. The tune is a slow blues and was written by Barnes; called Movin' Easy it was selected to be the album title number. Here Barnes reverts to the blues style of guitar he played on the many accompaniments he played for blues singers back in his Chicago recording days. Many of the phrases heard here were inspired by his listening to Jimmie Noone, the late New Orleans clarinetist, who was playing in night clubs on Chicago's south side. He employs a fast trill that Noone used to play requiring a soft background furnished here by Lesberg picking the bass and the subtle playing-down by Leeman. Also on this side, D'Amico trots out some of the blues clarinet style that marked Fazola. This side also offers a good opportunity to contrast Bauer with Barnes. The bass and Bauer's guitar open the number while later Bauer can be heard backing up Barnes with the simple riffing and fingering that give him his individual guitar sound.
The comparatively recent standard, You Make Me Feel So Young, is all Lesberg's number. He uses a violin technique with a bow and the band dynamics heard on the fill-ins fits everything together nicely. Bauer is heard playing the bass guitar on this track. Barnes feels that this tune and the next one, Misty, are the only great new standards that have been written in the past decade.
Erroll Garner's wispy Misty opens with D'Amico's clarinet in the middle register. Barnes comes in on a lower register followed by Bauer for three part harmony. As Barnes' phrases begin to answer the clarinet, Bauer chords behind him. It makes for a unique and worthwhile interpretation of the popular composition.
The set winds up with a lively original entitled Frisky with Barnes and the clarinet alter- nating top and bottom.
NOTE: For stereophiles – George Barnes, guitar-Hank D'Amico, clarinet are on one channel; the rhythm trio are on the other.
Always
Floatin'
I Saw Stars
Are You Ready?
Private Blend
Pick Yourself Up
Movin' Easy
You Make Me Feel So Young
Misty
Frisky
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