The Collector S Jazz Modern

125243

the collector's jazz
modern

KEYSTONEjBooks in Music

THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Traditional and Swing
by John S, Wilson

THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ: Modern
by John S. Wilson

THE COLLECTOR'S BACH
by Nathan Broder

THE COLLECTOR'S HAYDN
by C. G, Burke

THE COLLECTOR'S CHOPIN AND

SCHUMANN
by Harold C. Schonberg

THE COLLECTOR'S TCHAIKOVSKY

AND THE FIVE

by John Briggs

IN PREPARATION

THE COLLECTOR'S TWENTIETH

CENTURY MUSIC

by Arthur Cohn

THE COLLECTOR'S VERDI

AND PUCCINI
by Max de Schauensee

the

collector's
jazz

modern

John S. Wilson

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

Philadelphia $ New York

Copyright 1959 by John S. Wilson

Copyright 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959
"by Audicom, Inc.

Copyright 1959 by Ziff -Davis

Publishing Company

First Edition

Printed in the United States o America

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number
59-13948

contents

FOREWORD 7

Part I THE BACKGROUND 11

Part II THE RECORDS 19

INDEX 309

foreword

LIKE ALMOST every other other attempt to pin a label
on some aspect of jazz, the term "modern jazz" is
loose and indefinite. Although it has positive mean-
ing only in the sense of "current," it is widely used
to identify the jazz styles developed during and since
World War II. It is applied in this broad sense in
this book. It should be held in mind, however, that
modernity is a relative matter. The modern jazz of
the late Forties is, in reality, no longer modern in re-
lation to the jazz of the Fifties although it is more
modern than the Swing Era performances of Benny
Goodman's orchestra or Louis Armstrong's work
with his Hot Five which, in their own days, were
modern, too (although at that time modernity per
se was not deemed a matter of importance).

This book deals with the jazz styles of the post-
World War II period, taking up where a previous
volume, The Collector's Jazz: Traditional and
Swing, left off. A few musicians who were promi-
nent in both pre- and post-war jazz and who might
have been considered in either volume have been
somewhat arbitrarily assigned to one or the other.
Thus Count Basie, Coleman Hawkins, Duke Elling-
ton and Mary Lou Williams were covered in the
first volume but Charlie Barnet will be found in
the present one. On the other hand to show that

7

8 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

the author is no narrow conformist the careers of
Woody Herman and Red Norvo have been split
into swing and modern periods and the appropriate
portions of each of their careers is discussed in both
volumes.

All the recordings discussed are twelve-inch long-
playing disks which are currently available unless
otherwise noted. Under the individual headings in
Part II will be found discussions of recordings on
which the musician in question is listed as leader
or on which his presence is of prime importance.
Reference to performances by sidemen and quon-
dam leaders in the role of sidemen can be checked
in the index.

A book such as this is the result of the coopera-
tion of a great many people. It would not have been
possible without the helpful assistance of Richard
E. Ward of ABC-Paramount Records, Dave Usher
of Argo Records, Gary Kramer of Atlantic Records,
Alfred W. Lion of Blue Note Records, Bill Muster
of Capitol Records, Deborah Ishlon of Columbia
Records, David Stuart of Contemporary Records,
Lillian Tookman of Decca Records, Robert Koester
of Delmar Records, Abbot Lutz of Design Records,
Walter S. Heebner of GNP Records, C. F. Gale-
house of Golden Crest Records, Howard Caro of
Jubilee Records, Beverly Cherner of Kapp Records,
Andy Gibson of King Records, Jack Tracy and
Sidney Shaffer of Mercury Records, Sol Handwerger
of MGM Records, David Martindell of Modernage
Records, William Avar of Period Records, Esmond
Edwards of Prestige Records, Orrin Keepnews of
Riverside Records, Dick Gersh of Rondo-lette Rec-
ords, Bud Katzell of Roulette Records, Herman
Lubinsky of Savoy Records, D. D. Montgomery of
Specialty Records, Norman W. Forgue of Stepheny
Records, Charles J. Bourgeois of Storyville Records,
Fred Glickman of Superior Records, Bernie Silver-
man of Verve Records, Herb Helman and Jack

Foreword 9

Dunn of RCA Victor Records and Richard Bock
of World Pacific Records.

I am especially grateful to the Ziff-Davis Publish-
ing Company for their courtesy in granting per-
mission to use in Part I portions of an article pub-
lished in Hi Fi Review and to Audiocom, Inc., for
allowing me to use in Part II material previously
published in High Fidelity magazine since this has
enabled me to complete a project that might other-
wise have been more than one listening writer could
accomplish.

J. S. W.

Part I

the background

THE CHANGE from jazz as it had been to jazz as it
was to be came during World War II, a bit of tim-
ing which made the cleavage between proponents
of the old and the new a great deal deeper than it
might have been otherwise. There had been schisms
in jazz before this. Followers of archaic ensemble
jazz were dismayed at the eminence given to the
soloist in the Twenties by that radical innovator,
Louis Armstrong, and later there was a good deal
of outraged sneering at the presumptuousness of
the swing bands in calling their arranged dance
music "jazz."

But this bickering was as nothing compared to
the gulf that separated the adherents of bop and
those the boppers derisively referred to as "moldy
figs" (a term to which the unreconstructed "figs"
have now adjusted so completely that they apply it
to themselves with pride). Early in the Forties Cab
Galloway was warning a young and none too cele-
brated member of his trumpet section named Dizzy
Gillespie to "quit playing that Chinese music."
Fats Waller, sitting in at Minton's Playhouse in
Harlem when the musicians who hung out there
were formulating what was eventually called bop,

11

12 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

has been credited with giving it its name when he
shouted in exasperation at the Mintonites, "Stop
that crazy boppin' and a-stoppin' and play that jive
like the rest of us guys!"

The jazz fan who went into service in World War
II was scarcely aware of what was happening at
Minton's. When he picked up his civilian life again
in the middle Forties he was, more often than not,
puzzled and confused to find that something was
being played as "jazz" that seemed to have little
relation to the jazz that he knew. This puzzlement
often led to resentment of the new music (especially
since its advocates often appeared to consider them-
selves a superior and elite group), making the
break between the old and the new sharper and
deeper than it might have been if the birth and
early development of the new jazz had not, in
effect, taken place behind their backs.

Not that there had been any lack of advance
signs of things to come before the draft boards be-
gan interfering with jazz appreciation at first hand.
Even in the late Thirties, while Swing was still the
thing, the direction that jazz was to take could be
discerned in that ultimate of swing bands led by
Count Basic.

The most important trail blazer among the Basie-
ites was tenor saxophonist Lester Young whose
light, flowing playing flew squarely in the face of
the accepted tenor style of the day Coleman
Hawkins' robust, swaggering, charging attack.
(When Hawkins left Fletcher Henderson's band in
1934, Henderson's choice for a replacement was
Young but he was blackballed by Henderson's side-
men who said he sounded as though he was playing
alto.)

Young's musical antecedents were Bud Freeman
of the Chicagoans and Frankie Trumbauer who
played C-melody saxophone in the Jean Goldkette
and Paul Whiteman bands and appeared on many

The Background 13

of Bix Beiderbecke's small group recordings. Young
has attributed his relatively light sound to his
efforts to get the sound of Trumbauer's C-melody
saxophone. From both Trumbauer and Freeman
he picked up suggestions for the leaps and swoops
and sudden flights that were part of his style, a
style that was marked by a shift in rhythmic pat-
terns so that the strong beats are not always ac-
cented.

Behind him in the Basic band drummer Jo Jones
was also working changes in rhythmic emphasis.
Most big band drummers in those days emphasized
the four beats in each measure by hitting out each
beat on the bass drum with his foot pedal. In the
Basie rhythm section, however, the bass and guitar
stroked out the steady four beats, accented here and
there by chords from the piano, while the drummer
shifted his steady four-beat activities to a cymbal.
With his bass drum foot freed of a timekeeper's
shackles, Jones was able to use it as a prod or accent
which subtly and sometimes not so subtly altered
the rhythmic direction of a soloist.

This device was expanded by Kenny Clarke, the
house drummer at Minton's. His after-hours col-
leagues there in the early 1940s included Dizzy
Gillespie, pianist Thelonious Monk, alto saxophon-
ist Charlie Parker and the guitarist in Benny Good-
man's band, Charlie Christian. These were the
musical adventurers who created bop.

These men at Minton's found a common core
around which to build in their mutual curiosity
about harmonic concepts that were new to jazz
(Monk contributed some of the most alarmingly
unorthodox) and in their leaning toward shifting
accents. Parker and Gillespie both found themselves
at home in this atmosphere. Parker's seemingly
erratic stops and starts, his furious dives into long,
overflowing passages were the outward expression
of his own arrival at the same conclusions that had

14 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

been brewing in other minds. Parker had reached
his conclusions through dogged instinct. Gillespie,
a much more articulate man, theorized his way to
much the same point and then helped to synthesize
the ferment that came out of Minton's.

The new music was further nurtured in the Earl
Hines band of 1943, a band which included both
Parker and Gillespie. Because of a recording ban
in effect that year there are no disks to document
this stage in the growth of bop. Later Billy Eck-
stine, who had been the vocalist in this band (along
with Sarah Vaughan), formed a big bop band of
his own, again with Parker and Gillespie, which
he managed to hold together from 1944 to 1947. A
subsequent effort by Gillespie to head a big bop
band also fell on barren ground but by then bop
was losing momentum and big bands of all kinds
were finding the going hard.

Bop's halcyon days occurred in the middle Forties
on New York's 52nd Street. There it excited almost
all the younger and would-be musicians and an
occasional older one. Coleman Hawkins, saxophon-
ist Benny Carter, pianist Mary Lou Williams, vibra-
phonist Red Norvo and drummer Dave Tough
were among the few stars of earlier jazz who found
fresh inspiration in the new music. A wider public
began to perk up its ears when publicity was given
to such fringe phenomena as Gillespie's capers and
the ubiquitousness of goatees, berets and dark
glasses among bop fanciers. But this public never
took to the music itself in any depth and, as an
increasing number of inept musicians passed off
their fumbling efforts as bop, the music lost what
small audience it had acquired.

In its wake bop left a shaken if not exactly re-
vitalized jazz picture. It had planted the seeds of
revitalization, however. They first became evident
in the Woody Herman band of 1944 and 1945
which is now identified as Herman's First Herd.

The Background 15

The tone for this band was set by arrangements
provided by trumpeter Neal Hef ti, an early admirer
of Parker and Gillespie, and it was amplified and
carried forward by Ralph Burns, one of the new
crop of conservatory trained musicians whose pres-
ence in jazz was to be felt more and more strongly
during the coming years. Herman's First Herd was
a virtuoso ensemble which was completely at home
in the new directions provided by bop and it
breezed through arrangements that would have
choked any other band of that day.

With its brilliant assimilation of bop, the Her-
man Herd became one of the two big bands which
managed to be in the ascendant when most of the
established big bands were going down the skids,
skids which had been greased by their own tired,
uncreative repetitiveness and by an economic situa-
tion which left no operating margin for a big band.
The other ascendant band of this moment, Stan
Kenton's, started out in a promising flurry of ad-
venturousness but soon bogged down in a swamp
of blaring pretention.

Another aftermath of bop was "cool" jazz which,
to a degree, was a reaction to the extreme frenetic-
ism of bop (legend has it that the early boppers
deliberately played extremely difficult ideas at vio-
lently fast tempos to discourage musicians outside
their clique from sitting in). Cool jazz was an intro-
verted, understated style which brought into jazz
several instruments which had never found a proper
place there before the French horn, the flute
and which reinstated such a long-forgotten jazz
instrument as the tuba.

The two instrumentalists whose playing bears the
particular hallmarks of cool jazz are the tenor saxo-
phonist Stan Getz and trumpeter Miles Davis. It
was Davis who led a short-lived group in 1948
which is held to be the keystone of cool jazz. This
group, playing arrangements by Gil Evans, John

16 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Lewis, Gerry Mulligan and Davis, was made up of
trumpet, trombone, French horn, tuba, alto saxo-
phone, baritone saxophone, piano, bass and drums.
Its sonorous quality, its dreamy legato attack had a
slightly familiar ring to those who had heard
Claude ThornhiU's orchestra a few years before.
And well it might for it was in Thornhill's essen-
tially sweet dance band that the rudiments of cool
jazz were worked out through the arrangements of
Evans and Mulligan and in the relaxed, vibratoless
alto saxophone of Lee Konitz. Getz applied this
same tone to the tenor, exemplified in his perform-
ance of Early Autumn with Woody Herman in
which it becomes apparent that the cool idea goes
back well beyond the Thornhill band to Lester
Young and, through Young, to Trumbauer and
Beiderbecke.

The cool approach caught on quickly on the
West Coast where a Davis-tempered trumpeter,
Chet Baker, acquired swift fame as a member of
Gerry Mulligan's Quartet (Mulligan himself, by
this time, had passed out of his cool period to a
guttier, earthier style). As the cool elements on the
West Coast mingled with the tightly voiced bop-
based ideas of Shorty Rogers, a onetime Herman
trumpeter who became a school in himself in the
Los Angeles area, there appeared in California a
succession of slick, emotionless jazzmen who could
rattle off an endless line of glittering, machine-
made performances.

What might be termed "a warm school of cool"
a cool surface with inner heat has been devised
by pianist John Lewis for his Modern Jazz Quartet,
a highly proper group with a strong feeling for
form, tempered by the equally strong blues roots of
Lewis and vibraphonist Milt Jackson. Much the
same effect is achieved by Paul Desmond, the alto
saxophonist in Dave Brubeck's Quartet, who is
basically a follower of Lee Konitz's limpid style

The Background 17

even while he beefs it up in the course of perform-
ance to a temperature that is straight out of the hot
jazz era.

Inevitably, cool jazz produced a reaction of its
own two reactions, in fact. One was the redis-
covery of (or, at least, the revival of interest in) the
vital roots of jazz which had been largely scorned
by the boppers. This rediscovery took two direc-
tions the passionate, blues-drenched earthiness of
the so-called "funky" school exemplified in the
minor-keyed ideas of pianist Horace Silver and the
more academicized examination of the folk roots
of jazz in the work of Jimmy Giuffre.

The other reaction, "hard bop," a fierce, at times
overpowering extension of bop lines, lodged most
firmly in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and in the
bursting-at-the-seams saxophone styles of John Col-
trane and Johnny Griffin. For a while saxophonist
Sonny Rollins could be counted among the hard
boppers but this proved to be merely a step in his
development into one of the most individual jazz
musicians of the Fifties. Rollins soon left the harsh
qualities of hard bop behind to work in a warmer,
more melodic fashion that projected such strong
implications of a swinging accompaniment that he
has been able to make effective use of what had
previously been only a novelty gimmick the un-
accompanied saxophone solo.

Rollins' emergence as a musician of importance
was a significant milestone in the development of
jazz for he was the first tenor saxophonist of conse-
quence in twenty years to have been obviously in-
fluenced by Coleman Hawkins rather than Lester
Young. His arrival suggests that jazz has reached
what amounts to a self-reviving cycle in which each
turn of the wheel brings back worthwhile elements
of the old to be blended with worthier parts of the
new.

At the same time jazz has become so established

18 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

as a listening music rather than the dancing music
it once was that the concept of extended "jazz com-
position" has ceased to be a novelty. Much of this
"composition" has been little more than trivial
sketching, particularly when it has been produced
on commission for a jazz festival. Even more of it
draws on European musical tradition rather than
on jazz and is, in effect, a latter-day extension of
those misconceptions of the Twenties which threat-
ened to make jazz "respectable." No extended com-
position has yet established a firm place in the gen-
eral jazz repertory largely because jazz is still so
much a performer's art that extended works have
only received more than one performance when
they are created for an organized group Duke
Ellington's orchestra, for example, or the Modern
Jazz Quartet which can make them a part of their
active library.

All of these styles, influences and musicians have
contributed to that jazz which is generally identified
as modern. Its actual modernity, of course, is sub-
ject to change. The early modern jazz of the Nine-
teen Forties has already gone through a winnowing
process and elements of it have taken their places
in the mainstream of jazz. Within the next decade
the jazz of this moment, today's modern jazz, will
doubtless also have been put into perspective.

Jazz, it is becoming increasingly evident, is sim-
ply jazz without qualifying adjectives a music
which flows in a steady and constantly reinvigorat-
ing stream, a music which still flourishes most bril-
liantly in the extemporaneous interplay of a small
ensemble, as it did in the beginning, and which
finds the deep well of the blues just as vital a
source of inspiration today as it was when Buddy
Bolden's cornet was rocking the rafters of Tin Type
Hall in New Orleans sixty years ago.

Part II

the records

Pepper Adams. A leading contributor to the mod-
ern loosening up of the once lead-bottomed bari-
tone saxophone has been Adams, one of the cluster
of young jazzmen who sprang out of Detroit in the
Fifties. There is a lean, sinewy quality in his play-
ing that, at his best, is brimming with vitality and
assurance. He can be heard at his intense best on
Critics' Choice, World Pacific 407 (one selection is
repeated on The Hard Swing, World Pacific JWC
508), and 10 to 4 at the 5 Spot, Riverside 12-265,
but in both cases he is spelled for long periods by
musicians of far less interest. In the company of
some fellow Detroiters on Jazzmen: Detroit, Savoy
12083, he runs an erratic course from merely pleas-
ant to disjointed efforts to jam too many notes into
his lines, and he manages to emerge successfully
from time to time from the competition of a
euphonium, a tiresome solo instrument, on The
Cool Sound of Pepper Adams, Regent 6066.

Julian Adderley. The sheer flamboyance of Adder-
ley's Parker-based playing on alto saxophone rocked
the New York jazz world when he arrived there
unheralded from Florida in the summer of 1955

19

20 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

and it has, to a large degree, sustained him since.
He pours out his music with much the same surging
flow that one hears in Sidney Bechet, although their
inner styles are totally different. Adderley's enor-
mous gusto is expressed in long, looping, tremen-
dously forceful lines but, despite his aggressive
precision, they often seem to sail back and forth
emptily over the same ground because they lack
the shading which might convey a sense of move-
ment or development. Portrait of Cannonball,
Riverside 12-269, has the merit of including two
gently paced selections which reveal a deeper,
warmer Adderley with a sensitivity for dynamics
and timing, suggesting the rewarding performer he
might be if he could transfer these qualities to his
faster work. His first disk, Julian "Cannonball"
Adderley, EmArcy 36043, reveals the provocative,
relatively varied but highly inconsistent performer
who first reached New York. On In the Land of
Hi-Fi, EmArcy 36077, Sophisticated Swing, EmArcy
36110, and Presenting Cannonball, Savoy 12018,
there are evidences of increasing sensitivity to com-
plement his basic raw vitality. Somethin* Else, Blue
Note 1595, is an oddity in that Miles Davis, in
whose group Adderley was playing at the time,
completely dominates the disk while Adderley, al-
though he manages to achieve some needed emo-
tional warmth, gets involved in more tasteless
banality than one normally expects from him. He
shows his ability to play with a beautiful, full
sound in an otherwise barren disk, Julian "Cannon*
ball" Adderley with Strings, EmArcy 36063. Adder-
ley has two selections in For Jazz Lovers, EmArcy
36086.

Nat Adderley. The cornet, once the brass staple of
the early jazzmen but now abandoned in favor of
the more brilliant trumpet even by most tradition-
alists, has been introduced to modern jazz by Nat

The Records 21

Adderley (younger brother of Julian Adderley) who
remains its only exponent. Originally a trumpeter,
Adderley switched to cornet in 1951 because he
felt he had more facility on it. He gets a swaggering,
raucous, at times uncertain sound from his horn
which is particularly effective when contrasted to
the smooth, toothpaste tone of his brother (he is
heard on many of Julian's records). Thafs Nat,
Savoy 12021 (without Julian), To the Ivy League,
EmArcy 36100 (with Julian) and Introducing Nat
Adderley, EmArcy 36091 (also with Julian), are
mixed assortments since Nat can be chargingly
effective at faster tempos but turns drab on ballads.
He has two selections in The Young Ones of Jazz,
EmArcy 36085.

Toshiko Akiyoshi. Toshiko, as she is often billed,
is a Japanese girl who came to Oscar Peterson's at-
tention during a Jazz at the Philharmonic tour of
Japan. She came to the United States to study in
1956, seemingly bent on following the musical path
of Bud Powell, an influence which began to fade
after she had been in the States two years. There
is assurance in her linear attack and her sense of
form on Toshiko Akiyoshi, Storyville 918, on which
alto saxophonist Boots Mussulli plays brilliantly.
Two later recordings, The Many Sides of Toshiko,
Verve 8273, and United Notions, Metrojazz 1001,
suggest that she has reached a plateau in her de-
velopment at which she can ring the surface
changes with professional proficiency but with little
emotional communication. Some of her earlier work
is heard on Toshiko and Leon Sash at Newport,
Verve 8236, The Toshiko Trio, Storyville 912, and
The Women in Jazz, Storyville 916.

Manny Albam. After serving an apprenticeship as
a baritone saxophonist in various big bands in the
Forties, Albam began writing late in the decade

22 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

for Charlie Barnet, Count Basic, Woody Herman
and others. During Jack Lewis' two-year tenure as
A & R man at Victor, Albam produced the bulk of
the arrangements for Lewis' recording sessions.
When Lewis left Victor, Albam moved his locus to
Coral where he did similar behind the scenes chores
until he was given his own recording sessions with
a top-notch studio band billed as his "Jazz Greats,"

Albam is at his best writing for a large group for
he has the ability to orchestrate in terms that can
be translated into a loose, swinging performance as
well as the willingness to create strong-lined en-
sembles and sturdy supporting framework for his
soloists rather than sketchy outlines which merely
serve as springboards for a succession of solo per-
formances.

His big studio band made its bow on The Jazz
Greats of Our Time, Coral 57173, which has some
notable playing by Art Farmer, trumpet, Bob
Brookmeyer, valve trombone, and Phil Woods, alto
saxophone. The Jazz Greats of Our Time, VoL 2,
Coral 57142, draws on West Coast studio men
(Harry Edison, Richie Kamuca, Lou Levy, Shelly
Manne and others) who dive with apparent pleas-
ure into the meaty, imaginative arrangements Al-
bam has given them. Levy, in particular, shows
evidence of a return to the relaxation and warmth
that have been missing from much of his work since
the Forties.

The East Coast Jazz Greats produced one of the
few valid jazz attacks on a show score, West Side
Story, Coral 57207. Albam's arrangements extend
the jazz-touched spirit of the original music so that
the mixture of agitation and tenderness in Leonard
Bernstein's music is pointed up by the surging big
band performances. Albam's soloists, notably Bob
Brookmeyer and alto saxophonist Gene Quill, rise
strikingly to their opportunities. Jazz New York,
Dot 9004, made up of more well filled out big band

The Records 23

performances, includes an indication of Albam's
exploratory turn of mind, a lovely and unusual big
band arrangement of Bix Biederbecke's piano solo,
In a Mist, which Albam turns into a gentle jazz
tone poem. The Jazz Greats also swing with ready
warmth on two selections in Down Beat Jazz Con-
cert, Dot 9003.

The exploratory aspect of Albam led him to try
to write an extended piece based on the root influ-
ence of the blues, The Blues Is Everybody's Busi-
ness, Coral 591 OL Although it is well constructed,
Albam is handicapped both by the use of a string
section and by his attempt to stretch a small piece
of material too far. Another ambitious project that
comes off more successfully is The Drum Suite,
Victor LPM 1279, on which Ernie Wilkins is joint
composer and conductor. Although it is built
around four drummers Osie Johnson, Gus John-
son, Teddy Sommer and Don Lamond Albam and
Wilkins have made it a series of instrumental pieces
written around various uses of the drums rather
than simply a set of drum exchanges. The pieces
are rapped out with driving eloquence by a band
of top-drawer studio men (roughly the same as the
Jazz Greats although this disk preceded the forma-
tion of the Greats).

In a more routine vein are Steve's Songs, Dot
9008, wherein Albam and a big band do a credit-
able job with the not particularly inspiring songs
of Steve Allen; Sophisticated Lady, Coral 57231, on
which Albam makes inventive use of the usually
glutinous mixture of voices, orchestra and ballads;
and With All My Love, Mercury 20325, quite
ordinary mood music. Two selections by the Jazz
Greats are included in Jazz Cornucopia, Coral
57149.

Joe Albany. Albany is the modern jazz equivalent
of Peck Kelly, the shy pianist of an earlier day who

24 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

never recorded and refused to leave his home
ground in Texas despite widespread reports of his
unusual prowess. Albany rarely plays in public and,
until 1957, he had apparently only been recorded
on six selections made in 1945 and 1946. His repu-
tation stems largely from the high opinion that
Charlie Parker had of his work (much as Kelly's
fame was primarily based on Jack Teagarden's
praise). The Right Combination, Riverside 12-270,
catches Albany during a living-room rehearsal ses-
sion in 1957 so that the fidelity is only about
medium and there is some fading in and out to
eliminate false starts and conversation. But despite
this and the intrusion of Warne Marsh's vague, un-
formed tenor saxophone lines, the disk shows that
Albany is as stimulating as the legend had implied.
He is a pianistic link between pre-war and post-war
styles, working much of the time in the linear,
right-handed manner of the bop-grounded pianist
but veering constantly toward, a swinging, strutting
two-handed brilliance that comes straight out of
Earl Hines. In his ballad playing, which is refresh-
ingly virile and rhythmic, there are suggestions of
another Hines-influenced middleground pianist,
Erroll Garner.

Tony Aless. On Long Island Suite, Roost 2202,
Aless, a pianist of the swing days who took post
graduate work with Woody Herman's 1945 Herd,
leads a ten-piece band through a series of straight-
forward, unpretentious but swinging performances
based on a propulsive, Basie-like rhythm and featur-
ing soloists with a middle to slightly modern tinge.

Lorez Alexandria. A potentially good jazz singer
may be lurking behind the various influences Miss
Alexandria reveals on disks. Her most noticeable
sources are EUa Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan with

The Records 25

Billie Holiday less strongly in evidence. But she
has not yet found her own means of expression on
Lorez Sings Pres, King 565, or This Is Lorez, King
542.

Mose Allison. Allison is one of the first jazz musi-
cians to be intimately acquainted with both the
primitive aspects of the blues and its more recent
extensions and to be frankly pleased with both
(Ray Charles also falls into this category). On the
surface he is a modernist whose piano style is
colored by strong reflections of Horace Silver's
"funky" school but he also claims roots in basic
country blues (he grew up in Tippo, Miss.). This
fore and aft knowledge has an interesting condi-
tioning effect: His straight-out back-country blues
are a shade more sophisticated than they might
otherwise be while his modern playing is strength-
ened by a guttiness which refuses to be denied.

The title piece of his first record, Back Country
Suite, Prestige 7091, is a collection of very brief
musical impressions which lack focus or unity. The
individual sections show off some of the more ap-
pealing aspects of his playing but they leave the
feeling that he is only nibbling at what could be a
very broad and sturdy foundation. On Local Color,
Prestige 7121, he shows a bit more substance in
both his composition and piano work and, in addi-
tion, sings in a slight but idiomatically accurate
voice and plays a muted trumpet which suggests a
tentative Harry Edison. He applies himself to mid-
dleground material standard pop tunes on
Young Man Mose, Prestige 7137, which responds
most readily to his modern side. Taking these three
disks as a group, one has the feeling that Allison
has something relatively unique to offer but that
he has not yet solved the problem of expressing
himself adequately.

26 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Laurindo Almeida. Almeida, a Brazilian, is pri-
marily a classical guitarist but, after working with
Stan Kenton's band, he turned out a set of beauti-
fully polished jazz cameos on Laurindo Almeida
Quartet, World Pacific 1204. Selections from this
disk are repeated on both Jazz West Coast, World
Pacific JWC 500, and Ballads for Background,
World Pacific JWC 503.

Trigger Alpert. A bassist who won a considerable
following for his work with Glenn Miller's service
band, Alpert leads an accurately billed "Absolutely
All-Star Seven" (Joe Wilder, Urbie Green, Tony
Scott, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Ed Shaugnessy) on
Trigger Happy, Riverside 12-225, a set of light,
swinging and pleasantly unpretentious perform-
ances. The dominant personality in the group is
Scott who covers a lot of territory, playing clarinet
in styles that range from a Goodman-like melodi-
ousness to his own very personalized Laocoonesque
runs. The Seven is also heard once on Riverside
Drive, Riverside 12-267.

Gene Ammons. A second-generation jazz star (his
father was the boogie woogie pianist, Albert Am-
mons), Gene Ammons was in the Forties and
early Fifties a strong-voiced, warm and fluent
tenor saxophonist who derived primarily from Les-
ter Young. In the middle Forties he played with
Billy Eckstine's big band and with Woody Herman.
Latterly he has had his own small groups and his
dalliance with the thin line between rhythm and
blues and rock V roll has shown up in his playing.
All Star Sessions, Prestige 7050, shows him in 1950
playing with relatively consistent taste in some well
behaved tenor battles with Sonny Stitt and in 1955
in a session in which he is overshadowed by Art

The Records 27

Fanner on trumpet, Lou Donaldson, alto saxo-
phone, and Freddie Redd, piano. He is also rela-
tively consistent and coherent on Hi Fidelity Jam
Session, Prestige 7039. The downward curve in
Ammons' taste and creative ability can be traced
through Jammin* with Gene, Prestige 7060, Funky,
Prestige 7083, Jammin* in Hi Fi with Gene Am-
mons, Prestige 7110, and The Big Sound, Prestige
7132, as he falls back on cliches and spars emptily
for time on long, vapid solos. Two selections re-
corded by Ammons in 1949 with a plodding small
group are included in Advance Guard of the
Forties, EmArcy 36016.

The Amram-Barrow Quartet. David Amram, who
plays a rough-grained French horn, a dour, angular,
Monk-derived piano and, inexplicably, the tuben,
is well matched musically with George Barrow, a
tenor saxophonist with a strong, hard but flexible
tone which sometimes rises to a glowing cry. Most
of their voicings on Jazz. Studio No. 6, Decca 8558,
have a dry, dark quality which proves very effective
in blues-derived themes and the slow, moody de-
velopment of such popular tunes as Darn That
Dream. But it can trip them up, too, and when the
balance is not exactly right the effect turns stodgy.

Ernestine Anderson. Miss Anderson is a singer who
disdains mannerisms, who respects both tune and
lyrics and who seems to feel that a melody should
fall pleasingly on the ear. Although she had been
heard in this country with several jazz groups
the bands of Lionel Hampton, Eddie Heywood
and Russell Jacquet she went relatively unnoticed
until she took a trip to Sweden in 1956 with an
American jazz group. There she found such an
appreciative audience that she stayed on by herself
after the musicians had returned home. American

28 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

audiences were made aware of her through Hot
Cargo, Mercury 20354 an utterly inappropriate
and misleading title recorded in Sweden with
Harry Arnold's excellent Swedish band providing
perceptive and imaginative accompaniment.

Andre's Cuban All-Stars. This rough, swinging
sextet mixes mild bop and Afro-Cuban rhythms on
one side of Afro-Cubano, Verve 8157 (shared with
Jack Costanzo). The group has a strong, striking
pianist, Bebo Valdes, and while the trumpet and
tenor saxophone are no more than serviceable that's
all they really have to be with this Cuban rhythm
section roaring in back of them.

Buddy Arnold. Arnold's able but scarcely distinc-
tive tenor saxophone is featured on Wailing, ABC-
Paramount 114, with a septet which gains most of
its interest from the dependably provocative pian-
ist, John Williams.

Harry Arnold. Big band jazz is not quite as dead
as the work of some American bands might lead
one to believe. It still shows signs of life in the
Swedish band led by Arnold on The Jazztone Mys-
tery Band, Concert Hall 1270, and Big Band plus
Quincy Jones Equals Jazz, EmArcy 26139. Arnold's
band, which includes several of Sweden's best jazz-
men Arne Domnerus, Bengt Hallberg, Ake
Persson among others has the sheen and power
that are Ted Heath's hallmarks but it has a much
stronger jazz sense than Heath's band. The Arnold
men storm through the Concert Hall disk with de-
servedly swaggering assurance, swinging with a
stimulatingly suave power. Quincy Jones' arrange-
ments on the EmArcy disk do not allow for such
blithe treatment they lean to the heavy character-
istics of the present Count Basie band but
Arnold's band gives them a glistening polish.

The Records 29

Dorothy Ashby. Caspar Reardon managed to entice
some effective jazz out of a harp in the Thirties (a
prime example is his work on Jack Teagarden's
Junk Man) but since then there has not been a
harpist who could swing properly until Miss Ashby
came along in the latter Fifties. On The Jazz Harp-
ist, Regent 6039, and Hip Harp, Prestige 7140, on
both of which she is assisted by Frank Wess, flute,
and a rhythm section, she has moments when she
matches Reardon but there are at least as many
when she finds the harp as obstinate as other
would-be jazz harpists. One thing she does manage
to do consistently is to provide a light, moving
background which helps to cut the starch in Wess'
flute solos.

Georgie Auld. Auld has come into the age of mod-
ern jazz as a relict of the Swing Era. In those days
his Hawkins-derived tenor saxophone added a driv-
ing surge to such bands as Artie Shaw's and Benny
Goodman's. Since the war he has played in various
dilutions of the Hawkins vein. On three selections
on Jazz Concert, Grand Award 33-316, he is stacked
up against the two masters of the heavy-toned tenor
school, Hawkins and Ben Webster, and he manages
to hold up his end, playing in a lighter, smoother
style than the other two. The disk also includes
some big band selections in which Auld plays in
muffled, drab fashion. An Auld big band of the
middle Fifties generates a gruff, rocking feeling,
tinged with Billy May-like slurs on George Auld in
the Land of Hi-Fi, EmArcy 36060, and Dancing in
the Land of Hi-Fi, EmArcy 36090.

Much of Auld's recording in the Fifties has been
dismally routine and formula-bound. There is a
little gaiety in the Latin beat he uses on Sax Gone
Latin, Capitol T 1045, but he coats almost every-
thing with syrup on That's Auld, Brunswick 54034;
I've Got You Under My Skin, Coral 57009; Lullaby

30 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

of Broadway, Coral 57029; and Misty, Coral 57032.
He contributes two selections to Under One Roof,
EmArcy 36088, and single pieces to Roost Fifth
Anniversary Album, Roost 1201, and Bargain Day,
EmArcy 36087.

Australian Jazz Quartet/Quintet. Originally the
Australian Jazz Quartet was made up of three Aus-
tralians (Bryce Rohde, piano; Errol Buddie, tenor
saxophone, bassoon; Jack Brokensha, drums, vibes)
and a versatile American, Dick Healey, a sort of
musical Christmas tree who draped himself with
tenor and alto saxophones, piccolo, flute and clari-
net while a string bass nestled against him. Their
earliest recordings, The Australian Jazz Quartet/
Quintet, Bethlehem 6002, have some novelty inter-
est in the odd pairing of flute and bassoon, but even
with the addition of a full-time bass and drums on
some of these selections and on Australian Jazz
Quartet, Bethlehem 6003, The Australian Jazz
Quartet at the Varsity Drag, Bethlehem 6012, Aus-
tralian Jazz Quartet Plus One, Bethlehem 6015, and
Selections of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Bethlehem
6022, the group keeps tripping over its basic gentil-
ity. With the help of some Teddy Charles arrange-
ments, the Australians loosen up at times on The
AJQ in Free Style, Bethlehem 6029.

Harry Babasin. Like Oscar Pettiford, Babasin is a
bassist who also plays pizzicato cello. He has led a
group of varying personnel, The Jazzpickers, which
has as its nucleus Babasin's cello plus guitar, bass
and drums, an instrumentation which has a dry,
dim quality. To offset this, Babasin usually adds
another instrument on his recordings. Red Norvo
is the guest on Command Performance, EmArcy
36123, but his task is thankless since no matter how
much he may enliven the performances The Jazz-
pickers are always on hand to drab things up when

The Records 31

the guest takes a breather. The additional horn on
The Jazzpickers, EmArcy 36111, is Buddy Collette's
flute which simply adds to the nervous monotony of
the basic group.

Don Bagley. Although Bagley is a bassist, the trio
he leads on Basically Bagley, Dot 3070, (Jimmy
Rowles, piano; Shelly Manne, drums; and Bagley)
is neither simply a background for Bagley's solos
nor a piano-plus-accompaniment group. It pro-
duces ensemble musical performances rather than
hooks for virtuoso trickery. Bagley and Manne are
admirable foils for each other since Bagley's man-
ner of drawing a wide range of tones and colors
from his bass is much like Manne's more widely
known use of the drums. He is less inventive on
Jazz on the Rocks, Regent 6061, although Eddie
Costa's piano adds a pleasantly pungent quality.

Chet Baker. Baker is certainly one of the strangest
"stars" to appear on the surface of the recent jazz
tide. Although he can occasionally muster up a
sufficiently firm tone and attack on his trumpet to
inn off attractively lyrical bits and pieces that seem
to have their roots in Bix Beiderbecke, most of his
playing is so vaporous that it seems to be drifting
aimlessly in a void. He played a functional role in
Gerry Mulligan's original quartet in 1952 but the
small, wistful sound that proved serviceable there
has found little direction since he left Mulligan.
Possibly his most consistently coherent playing is
the calm placidity he shows on Pretty /Groovy,
World Pacific 1249.

At times he responds favorably to a rhythmic
stimulus such as Russ Freeman provides for him on
The Trumpet Artistry of Chet Baker, World
Pacific 1206, and Russ Freeman and Chet Baker
Quartet, World Pacific 1232. The presence of Stan
Getz on Stan Meets Chet, Verve 8263, holds him up

32 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

part of the way and the firm guiding lines of com-
positions by Benny Golson, Owen Marshall and
Miles Davis help to steer him on Chet Baker in
New York, Riverside 12-281. During a European
trip in the winter of 1955-56 he replaced his usual
misty diffusion with some evidence of control and
definition, reported on Chet Baker in Europe,
World Pacific 1218. But even these disks are
streaked with his languid and disengaged playing.

Chet Baker and His Crew, World Pacific 1224,
rises above this pallidity at times, not because of
Baker but through the supple, flowing tone of Phil
Urso's tenor saxophone. Similarly Art Pepper's pre-
cise alto saxophone induces what lively moments
there are on Playboys, World Pacific 1234. But not
even the presence of the prodding Russ Freeman
can disperse the soporific effects of Jazz at Ann
Arbor, World Pacific 1203, nor do the surroundings
of nine and ten-piece bands improve Baker's color-
less work on Chet Baker Big Band, World Pacific
1229. Chet Baker and Strings, Columbia CL 549, is
largely leaden mood music, brightened here and
there by the tenor saxophone of Zoot Sims. Baker is
largely lost in a crowd of good jazzmen on Theme
Music from "The James Dean Story/' World
Pacific 2005.

The worst, however, is yet to come. For Baker
also sings in a flat, dead voice that is even more
despondently formless than his trumpet work. The
incredible evidence can be found on Chet Baker
Sings, World Pacific 1222, Chet Baker Sings and
Plays, World Pacific 1202, and Chet Baker Sings,
Riverside 12-278.

Baker has three selections in Jazz West Coast,
World Pacific JWC 500, two each in Rodgers and
Hart Gems, World Pacific JWC 504, and Jazz West
Coast, Vol. 3, World Pacific JWC 507, and one in
Jazz West Coast, Vol. 2, World Pacific JWC 501,
Ballads for Background, World Pacific JWC 503,

The Records S3

Solo Flight, World Pacific JWC 505, The Hard
Swing, World Pacific JWC 508, Have Blues, Will
Travel, World Pacific JWC 509, Jazz West Coast,
Vol. 4, World Pacific JWC 510, and The Playboy
Jazz Allstars, Playboy 1957.

Ronnie Ball. One of several English pianists who
have emigrated to the United States, Ball has been
biding his time since his arrival, apparently intent
on getting his musical bearings (mostly through
study with Lennie Tristano) instead of plunging
into active performance. The fruit of this fore-
bearance is splendidly displayed on All About
Ronnie, Savoy 12045, on which he reveals an un-
usually attractive blues-rooted style (out of latter-
day Tristano) and leads an equally Tristano-con-
scious quartet.

Charlie Barnet. Barnet had a frustrating twenty-
year career as the leader of a big band that always
seemed to be within reach of the top rung but never
quite made it. He came closest in 1949 with a
power-packed band that seemed destined to take
up where Woody Herman and Stan Kenton had
left off but the economics of the music business
were against him and the band broke up. Perform-
ances by this band, a frequently brilliant group,
make up Classics in Jazz, Capitol T 624.

Barnet was a bandleader in the pre-swing days
of the early Thirties although his bands did not
really begin to swing until the late Thirties and
early Forties when he came strongly under the in-
fluence of Duke Ellington and Count Basie.
Charlie's Choice, Camden 389, reports the Barnet
band of 1939-41, a gutty, jumping outfit spurred by
Barnet's slashing, digging tenor saxophone and his
sweeping soprano saxophone. The disk includes
such Barnet classics as the riotous Murder at Pay ton
Hall and his adaptation of The Habanera from

34 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Carmen (retitled Spanish Kick), along with vocals
by Lena Horne and Mary Ann McCall.

His band of the war years, which included
Howard McGhee and Dodo Marmarosa, is heard in
Hop on the Skyliner, Decca 8098. It is a band in
transition, still working in the Swing .Era vein, still
bowing to Ellington but starting to move toward
modern big band jazz. Dance Bash, Verve 2007,
Dancing Party, Verve 2027, and For Dancing
Lovers, Verve 2031, are products of the middle
Forties, brightly swinging performances of remark-
ably consistent quality.

After the financial failure of his 1949 band, Bar-
net became relatively inactive. A band organized
in 1956 has the customary Barnet punch and blast
on four numbers on Lonely Street, Verve 2040, but
the rest are diluted by a string section. Barnet, play-
ing soprano saxophone all the way, shares the
featured solo role with the expressive bass trumpet
of Dave Wells. Two years later Barnet flew to New
York from California to re-record some of his old
hits with a band made up of able New York studio
musicians on Cherokee, Everest 5008. Barnet's saxo-
phones remain as perkily and pulsingly impudent
as ever but the band, as might be expected of a
pick-up group, lacks the casual, garrulous ease of
the real Barnet bands.

Billy Bauer. After making his mark in the Forties
with a powerhouse big band (Woody Herman's)
and an experimental small group (Lennie Tris-
tano's), Bauer's guitar has been heard only occasion-
ally and not always in a particularly favorable light.
On his own disk, Billy Bauer, Plectrist, Verve 8172,
he ambles amiably in low voltage style through
some pretty and lightly swinging selections.

Billy Bean. Bean, a guitarist, has played impres-
sively with some Charlie Ventura groups but on

The Records 35

Makin' Friends, Decca 9206, he and Chico Hamil-
ton's guitarist, Johnny Pisano, are hemmed in by
stolid backgrounds.

Aaron Bell. In the late Fifties Bell, a bassist, has
been leading a capable trio built around the lean
and swinging piano of Charlie Bateman. For After
the Party's Over, Victor LPM 1876, this trio is pres-
ent on four numbers but on the rest Bateman is
replaced by Hank Jones who, for some reason, plays
in an obviously Enroll Garner manner. It is a pleas-
ant disk for background music.

Al Belletto. The Belletto Sextet plays and sings in
a slick, highly professional but bland manner.
Fred Crane, a gutty pianist, scratches away the
routine surface polish whenever he gets a chance
on Whisper Not, Capitol T 901. Belletto, an alto
saxophonist, plays a discreetly faceless role.

Louis Bellson. Bellson's ability to drive a big band
with his drumming was made quite evident during
his tenure with Tommy Dorsey in the late Forties
and with Harry James and Duke Ellington in the
early Fifties. Since then, as a leader of his own
groups, he has continued to show this lifting, rhyth-
mic pulse but he has also allowed himself far too
much leeway in taking long drum solos. One disk
on which he restrains this impulse, At the Fla-
mingo, Verve 8256, is made unfortunately drab by
trumpeter Harry Edison's lack of inspiration except
for one tightly played, sparkling piece, Flamingo
Blues. Trumpeter Charlie Shavers, with whom
Bellson and vibraphonist Terry Gibbs once jointly
led a sextet, sparks four of the selections on The
Driving Louis Bellson, Verve 8186, with some bril-
liantly fiery, crisp playing that is pure virtuoso
work but his fire dwindles to exhibitionism on The
Louis Bellson Quintet, Verve 8016. Bellson scatters

36 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

this last disk liberally with drum solos and devotes
far too much time to them on Skin Deep, Verve
8137, and Drumorama, Verve 8193. He clatters his
way through one selection on Hi-Fi Drums, Capitol
T926.

Sonny Berman. The promising trumpet star of the
Woody Herman band who died in 1947 at the age
of 23 is heard in relaxed, subdued form in some
early morning jam session recordings made in 1946
with a portable disk recorder in a New York apart-
ment on Sonny Berman Jam Session, Esoteric 532.
The disk is of more historical than musical interest.

Eddie Bert. A graduate of the Kenton trombone
brouhaha, Bert's personal style is a rather heavy,
often stolid mixture of the fragmented J. J. John-
son approach and the Swing Era lift of Jack Tea-
garden. He is an effective ensemble man but over a
distance his solos pall. He has some interesting
ensemble possibilities with tenor saxophonist Jack
Montrose on Montage, Savoy 12029, and on one
side of Encore, Savoy 12019, but their solos are dis-
appointing. On the remainder of Encore, Joe
Puma's guitar gives Bert some needed light-toned
relief but on Musician of the Year, Savoy 12015, he
works alone with a guitar-less rhythm section and
monotony waits just beyond the first few grooves.
Let's Dig Bert, Transworld 208, is a relatively
placid group of pieces enlivened by the fat-toned,
Hawkinsish tenor saxophone of Davy Schildkraut
who is known best as an alto man.

Art Blakey. Blakey is a drummer of enormous
ferocity who can (and has) carried utterly drab
groups on the virile strength of his drumming
alone. He is not, it should be noted, a show-off
soloist but is primarily the creator of a foundation
pulse which can drive ahead like a jet-propelled

The Records 37

steamroller or settle neatly into place under a
delicate ballad. It is strange to think of as complete
a product of modern jazz as Blakey as a veteran of
Fletcher Henderson's band but he just made it
(1939). He was also the drummer in Billy Eckstine's
band for the three years that it existed. In the
Forties he led his own big band, the Jazz Messen-
gers, a name he revived in the Fifties for the
quintets he has been leading through most of that
decade.

For much of this time Blakey's Jazz Messengers
was the loudest and possibly the emptiest group in
jazz with nothing to recommed it aside from
Blakey's virtuoso drumming. Even that was not as
consistent as it might have been since he was in
the unfortunate position of carrying the group.
The Messengers were spawned at a Horace Silver
session for Blue Note, Horace Silver and the Jazz
Messengers, Blue Note 1518, (Kenny Dorham, trum-
pet, Hank Mobley, tenor saxophone, Silver, Curly
Russell, bass, and Blakey) but the true progenitor
of the Messengers was an earlier Art Blakey Quintet
heard on A Night at Birdland, VoL 1 and Vol. 2,
Blue Note 1521 and 1522. This group, with Clifford
Brown and Lou Donaldson in place of Dorham
and Mobley, played with a leaping, crisp, crackling
fire that Blakey's Messengers were never able to
match until a 1958 change in personnel which
brought Lee Morgan, Benny Golson and pianist
Bobby Timmons into the band. This last group
made its recording debut on Art Blakey and the
Jazz Messengers, Blue Note 4003, an exhilarating
jazz experience which includes Golson's fascinating
composition, Blues March.

In between these two high points, Blakey held
together groups which ranged from fair to awful.
The best of these in-between Messengers was the
earliest the Dorham-Mobley group which re-
corded The Jazz Messengers at the Cafe Bohemia,

38 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Blue Note 1507 and 1508. Volume
1 is particularly effective for Dorham captures
some of the crisp fluency that might be expected
of Clifford Brown while Mobley shows an easy
warmth in developing a ballad. The downward
path of the Messengers began when Donald Byrd
replaced Dorham, leaving to Horace Silver the task
of providing what slight interest there is on The
Jazz Messengers, Columbia CL 897. Next the
Parkerized alto saxophonist, Jackie McLean, re-
placed Mobley and Bill Hardman, an immature
and undeveloped trumpeter, went in for Byrd to
produce the empty chaos of A Midnight Session
with the Jazz Messengers, Elektra 120, Ritual,
World Pacific 402, and Hard Bop, Columbia CL
1040.

The zooming if often uncontrolled enthusiasm
of tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin, who followed
into McLean's slot, gave the Messengers a little
solo life but not even the presence of Thelonious
Monk, with whom Blakey had frequently recorded
in the past, could rouse the revised Messengers to
much coherence on Art Blakey' s Jazz Messengers
with Thelonious Monk, Atlantic 1278, although
those moments when Monk and Blakey are able to
rub caustically against each other give off a glowing
jazz heat. Cu-Bop, Jubilee 1049, is more dispiriting
Messengerial work but, with Junior Mance in on
piano, the group does a sudden turnabout on Hard
Drive, Bethlehem 6023, abandoning its blatant,
sloppy, hard-muscled, unimaginative ways to play
in an unfurious, clean manner marked by a feeling
for variety and shading. The next step up from
here was the advent of Morgan, Golson and Tim-
mons.

Blakey's interest in African drumming and its
Afro-Cuban offshoot resulted in Orgy in Rhythm,
Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Blue Note 1554 and 1555, on
which Blakey and three other American drummers

The Records 39

join five Afro-Cuban drummers (plus flute, piano
and bass) in some fascinating explorations of the
melodic possibilities inherent in the mixture created
by the two drumming styles. This is drumming
that is definitely for listening. Blakey's inventive
use of the shading potential of drums even in a
roaring up-tempo comes out strongly in two drum
pieces included on Horace Silver Trio, Blue Note
1520, but the title piece on Drum Suite, Columbia
CL 1002, by the Art Blakey Percussion Ensemble
is more likely to appeal primarily to drum devotees.
Blakey has made one big band disk, Art Blakey's
Big Band, Bethlehem 6027, an adequate but in no
way distinctive session. He plays on two selections
in support of Tony Bennett on The Beat of My
Hearty Columbia CL 1079, and contributes single
pieces to Jazz Omnibus, Columbia CL 1020, Drums
on Fire, World Pacific 1247, The Jazz Giants, Vol.
8, EmArcy 36071, and The Hard Swing, World
Pacific JWC 508.

Paul Bley. On Solemn Meditation, GNP 31, Bley
shows himself to be an unusually articulate pianist
with a dark, tweedy vigor who moves in a direction
that is decidedly his own. An earlier disk, Paul
Bley, EmArcy 36092, is simply amiable swing with
no suggestion that anything out of the ordinary
may be just around the corner.

Blue Stars. This unusual French vocal group is
headed by an American, Blossom Dearie, and in-
cludes some prominent jazz-musicians-turned-sing-
ers Fats Sadi, Roger Guerin, Christian Chevalier.
They sing with a refreshing lack of mannerisms on
Blue Stars of France, EmAxcy 36067, Pardon My
English, Mercury 20329, and in one selection on
Bargain Day, EmArcy 36087, although little of it
is couched in jazz terms.

40 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Bess Bonnier. Miss Bonnier plays lean, swinging,
unflorid piano, often digging in firmly with both
hands on Theme for the Tall One, Argo 632.

Evans Bradshaw. Bradshaw, a Detroit pianist, is a
disciplined performer with a good touch and great
facility. On Look Out for Evans Bradshaw, River-
side-263, the surface elements of his playing are
impressive but there seems to be relatively little
under this surface. On the brief occasions when
he dismisses his concern for technique there are
suggestions that he can be capable of emotional
communication.

Brandeis Jazz Festival. The question of whether
the six compositions on Modern Jazz Concert,
Columbia WL 127, which were commissioned by
the 1957 Brandeis University Festival of Arts, are
in fact jazz is craftily avoided in the liner annota-
tion by Gunther Schuller, who conducts them. At
best they are a mixture of jazz and non-jazz ele-
ments, a mixture Schuller deliberately exploits in
his Transformation which is constructed as a transi-
tion from non-jazz to jazz. Of the five other com-
posers represented, two Harold Shapero and Mil-
ton Babbitt are from the longhair side of the
fence, three George Russell, Jimmy Giuffre and
Charlie Mingus are primarily associated with jazz.

What jazz there is in these works appears most
effectively and not unnaturally in the solo im-
provisations, most notably in a stirring piano solo
by Bill Evans in Russell's bright, occasionally
affecting All About Rosie. Evans is followed in this
same piece by an almost equally compelling saxo-
phone solo by John LaPorta who, with trumpeter
Art Farmer, helps stir Shapero's On Green Moun-
tain out of the doldrums.

The one piece which is most completely oriented
toward jazz is Giuffre's Suspensions despite the fact

The Records 41

that it allows for no improvisation. This is one
more of Giuffre's explorations of root jazz forms
but there is much more sinew here than in most of
his works and certainly the orchestra under Schuller
provides a fuller realization of what Giuffre seems
to be after than Giuffre's own groups do. Charlie
Mingus' Revelations (First Movement) is practically
pure Mingus and good Mingus, at that. It manages
to be ominous, adventurous, shouting and startling
in the customary Mingus manner but without
drowning in its own devices as so many of Mingus'
headlong creations are apt to. There are implica-
tions of jazz at the outset of Milton Babbitt's All
Set but it never gets going in jazz terms or, so far
as I could hear, in any terms.

If, by the usual standards, most of the music on
this disk is not jazz, that seems to be a minor point
in the face of the fact that much of it is exploratory
and, considering this, a surprising amount of it is
provocative. Schuller suggests that "perhaps it is a
new kind of music not yet named which became
possible only in America." Some such amalgama-
tion may be in the making and the most positive
evidence of it on this disk is Mingus' Revelations
which is rarely really jazz but is quite indigenously
American.

The Brass Ensemble of the Jazz and Classical Mu-
sic Society. Beneath this awesome title lurks an or-
ganization which, on one disk, Music for Brass,
Columbia CL 941, undertakes a composition in the
traditional formal vein (Gunther Schuller's Sym-
phony for Brass and Percussion, conducted by Di-
mitri Mitropoulos) and three works by jazzmen
(J. J. Johnson's Poeme for Brass, John Lewis' Three
Little Feelings and Jimmy GiufEre's Pharaoh, all
conducted by Gunther Schuller).

All three of the jazz composers make knowing
use of the tools and approach of the serious com-

42 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

poser and, in the Johnson and Lewis works, they
have been worked in so skillfully that the pieces
are filled with an undeniable jazz sense. There is
no "shoe-horning" the jazz sections in, as Rolf
Lieberman did in his Concerto for Jazz Band and
Symphony Orchestra (see Sauter-Finegan). This is
"serious" (i.e., learned) writing that swings readily
in the hands of the musicians to whom it has been
delivered.

Johnson's Poeme for Brass, the most outwardly
swinging of the three, is highlighted by contrasting
trumpet solos by Miles Davis and Joe Wilder
Davis in his close, breathy style; Wilder lithe, clear
and pure-toned. Davis is heard to even better
advantage in the second section of Lewis' Three
Little Feelings, a gentler, darker and more grace-
fully melodic composition than Johnson's. Davis'
chief contribution is a quiet, lazily reminiscent solo
worked out over the superb supporting tuba of Bill
Barber. Giuffire's Pharaoh is a stately, picture-mak-
ing piece which lacks the development and interest
of the other two. It also has the least jazz feeling
which may or may not be related to the fact that
Giuffre is the only one of the three who has studied
composition extensively. Schuller's Symphony is
beyond the context of this book but there are
moments in its jagged and soaring second movement
and in the nervous excitement of the final section
that seem to draw on Schuller's experience with
jazz.

Ronnell Bright. The twilight world between out-
right jazz and facile cocktail piano appears to be
Blight's habitat. His playing is precise and clean
and he occasionally achieves a sort of surface tension
but his lack of warmth gives it a bland, impersonal
quality on Bright Flight, Vanguard 8512, Bright's
Spot, Regent 6041, and one selection in After Hours
Jazz, Epic 3339.

The Records 43

Herbie Brock. Art Tatum and Bud Powell are the
influences that one hears most clearly in the work
of this blind pianist. There is a warm, sinewy
quality in his playing on Brock's Tops, Savoy
12069, but on Solo, Savoy 12066, and Herbie' s
Room, Criteria 2, he is closer to being a genial but
eventually tiresome cocktail pianist.

Bob Brookmeyer. A latter day product of an earlier
seedbed of jazz talent, Kansas City, Brookmeyer
has a much broader jazz perspective than most of
the jazz musicians of his age (born 1929). Having
absorbed the feeling of Kansas City jazz as a teen-
ager, he came up the old fashioned way through
big bands (he played piano with Tex Beneke,
trombone and second piano with Claude Thorn-
hill) and, since 1953, has worked in a succession of
increasingly sophisticated small groups Terry
Gibbs', Stan Getz's, Gerry Mulligan's and Jimmy
Giuffre's.

His main instrument is valve trombone which
he blows with a tweedy, stomping gruffness that
incorporates a strong beat and a hearty humor
drawn from pre-modern jazz. Mulligan has much of
this same feeling and the two complemented and
stimulated each other extremely well when they
were the two horns in the Mulligan Quartet. The
move from this outgoing atmosphere to the tight,
static mumbo-jumbo of the Jimmy Giuffre Three
drained Brookmeyer's playing of its forthright
charm even though Giuffre was ostensibly working
with the basic jazz roots to which Brookmeyer, of
all modern jazzmen, should have responded most
readily.

Strangely enough, when Brookmeyer overtly goes
back to those earlier jazz forms which are normally
strikingly present in his playing, he misses the boat
completely. Traditionalism Revisited, World Pacific
1233, is a case in point. Here Brookmeyer's Quintet,

44 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

which includes Giuffre on reeds and Jim Hall,
guitar, gives such tunes as Jada, Santa Glaus Blues,
Some Sweet Day, Honeysuckle Rose and Truckin'
an easily swinging modern treatment but it is all
rather meaningless since, after an initial statement
of the melody (often drained of its inherent char-
acter) they take off on their customary personal
solos. In themselves, these are pleasant, finger-
snapping performances but it is the kind of spiritual
depradation of traditional jazz that Freddie Martin
used to commit on defenseless concertos. In a some-
what different glance at the past, Kansas City Re-
visited, United Artists 4008, six of the members of
Brookmeyer's tired and bedraggled KG Seven show
none of the drive or spirit that is usually associated
with Kansas City jazz. Only Bostonian Nat Pierce
escapes the pall and is a swinging miracle in a
group which has a fatal failing for the grotesque.

On the other hand, Brookmeyer can assemble a
group very much like the one he led on Tradition-
alism Revisited and, on The Street Swingers, World
Pacific 1239, turn out a stimulating collection of
freshly voiced, no-school jazz built around the de-
pendable pulsation of his lilting, stomping ap-
proach to both the trombone and piano. Similarly,
when he shares the leadership of a quintet with
tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims on Whooeeee, Story-
ville 914, and Tonight's Jazz Today, Storyville 907,
he plays with a delightfully forceful attack and
dexterity at uptempos and, on ballads, develops his
lines with an imaginative continuity that is one of
the roots of jazz excitement. Teamed with Gerry
Mulligan to play Phil Sunkel's Jazz Concerto
Grosso, ABC-Paramount 225, neither Brookmeyer
nor Mulligan find much to do and are over-
shadowed in the solo portions by Sunkel's sensitive
cornet work.

The Dual Role of Bob Brookmeyer, Prestige

The Records 45

7066, is split between piano solos which have
shades of the down-home, stomping quality o his
trombone work, and pieces on which he plays
trombone backed by a rhythm section. The trom-
bone texture becomes monotonous when it is with-
out contrast for so long, a failing that is even more
apparent when the trombone goes all the way on
both sides of The Modernity of Bob Brookmeyer,
Verve 8111. He contributes single selections to The
Playboy Jazz Allstars, Playboy 1957, Jazz West
Coast, World Pacific JWC 500, Ballads for Back-
ground, World Pacific JWC 504, Solo Flight,
World Pacific JWC 505, and Jazz West Coast, Vol.
4, World Pacific JWC 510.

John Benson Brooks. Since the late Forties, Brooks,
a pianist and arranger whose past connections have
included the bands of Les Brown, Tommy Dorsey
and Randy Brooks, has been mulling over folk
song in relation to both popular music and jazz.
He has written successfully in a folk-pop idiom
(You Came a Long Way from St. Louis) and, on an
LP that is no longer available, Folk Jazz, U.S.A.,
Vik 1083, produced a collection of jazz interpreta-
tions of folk tunes based on developments of their
chord changes which manages to reflect the haunt-
ing, recollective quality of folk music and yet still
be strong jazz performances.

His most ambitious work so far is Alabama Con-
certo, Riverside 12-276, an outgrowth of an assign-
ment he had several years ago to transcribe for a
book some folk recordings made in Alabama by
Harold Courlander. He was struck then, he says,
by the light this material cast on jazz origins "a
different taste from New Orleans' urban finery.*'
Working from several rural folk themes, he de-
velops his Concerto through ensembles, written
solos and improvised solos played by a quartet

46 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

made up o Julian Adderley, alto saxophone, Art
Farmer, trumpet, Barry Galbraith, guitar, and Milt
Hinton, bass.

As an exploration of jazz origins it is a rather
peculiar work for there is very little in it that can
be identified as jazz. The only really effective jazz
moments are in some warm, firmly expressed solos
by Adderley. Farmer's playing in general is sure
and clean but his solos are inclined to a static cool-
ness that is much more drily urbane than the
"urban finery" of New Orleans. Aside from the
question of whether the concerto has any relation-
ship to jazz, it lacks movement and explicit de-
velopment. One gets the feeling that a single little
jigging riff is being bandied about over and over
again and the work becomes lost in monotony long
before the two full LP sides have been completed.

Clifford Brown. Just when he was fairly launched
on what promised to be a rewarding career, trum-
peter Clifford Brown was killed in an automobile
accident in 1956 at the age of 25. He had by then
established himself as the strongest and most in-
dividual trumpeter to come out of a bop back-
ground since Dizzy Gillespie and Fats Navarro and
had become, in effect, the progenitor of the then
rising school of hard bop. After working around
his native Philadelphia and with Tadd Dameron's
group at Cafe Society, Brown spent a year with
Lionel Hampton's band in 1953 and the following
year formed, with Max Roach, the group with
which he was working when he was killed.

Brown was an extremely fluent trumpeter who
could phrase cleanly and crisply at almost ridicu-
lously fast tempos. Yet, unlike most of his fluent,
hard-driving contemporaries, he could also develop
a ballad with warmth and feeling. On Clifford
Brown Memorial Album, Blue Note 1526, he plays
a slow ballad in which one hears suggestions of

The Records 47

both Louis Armstrong and Bunny Berigan along
with the modern trumpet fashions. The disk in-
cludes his first recording made in 1953 with a
relatively routine group as well as selections from
a much better session later in the same year on
which he shows off his dazzling speed, his firm,
strong middle register tone and his ballad style.
While he was abroad with the Hampton band in
this same year, he made some recordings with a
Swedish group, collected in Clifford Brown Memo-
rial, Prestige 7055, in which he is less impressive
than his Swedish colleagues, Lars Gullin, Bengt
Hallberg and Ake Persson.

A visit to the West Coast in 1954 produced a disk,
Clifford Brown All Stars, EmArcy 36102, on which
he shows what a thoughtful performer he could
be as he works out an easygoing but long, long,
long version of Autumn in New York which oc-
cupies one entire side of the disk. It also produced
a long, long, long and tedious blowing session,
Best Coast Jazz, EmArcy 36039 (one number per
side), and some adequate but not particularly
memorable performances with Zoot Sims and Bob
Gordon on one side of Arranged by Montr ose,
World Pacific 1214.

The disks made by the Brown-Roach group are
very much of a piece, with Brown a matured,
balanced performer much of the way but almost
always throwing in something for flash. The disks
are Brown and Roach, Inc., EmArcy 36008, Clifford
Brown and Max Roach, EmArcy 36036 (which in-
cludes Daahoud, Joy Spring and Jprdu), Study in
Brown, EmArcy 36037, Clifford Brown and Max
Roach at Basin Street, EmArcy 36070, and The
Best of Max Roach and Clifford Brown in Concert,
GNP 18. On Clifford Brown with Strings, EmArcy
36005, he battles the customary glut of gut with
the help of the Brown-Roach rhythm section. He
moves easily through this program of ballads but

48 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

his harsh, edgy tone is out of keeping with the
mood setting in which he is placed. Brown has
single selections on Jazz West Coast, World Pacific
JWC 500, The Young Ones of Jazz, EmArcy 36085,
For Jazz Lovers, EmArcy 36085, and Bargain Day,
EmArcy 36087.

Les Brown. The Brown band has evolved over a
period of years from a good dance band to an ex-
tremely slick and often swinging dance band with
a thin jazz veneer. Its strongest jazz voice for many
years has been trombonist Ray Sims who has gotten
occasional support from Ronnie Lang, alto saxo-
phone, Don Fagerquist, trumpet, and Dave Pell,
tenor saxophone. It plays a cleanly scrubbed, dis-
infected type of big band jazz with a monotony of
tonal color that frequently produces an assembly
line effect.

The best showcasing of the Brown band as a
jazz band is Concert at the Palladium, Coral CX-1,
while the reason why it has never been a particu-
larly good jazz band is summed up on The Les
Brown All Stars, Capitol T 659, devoted to per-
formances by four small, ostensibly jazz groups
drawn from the band, all of them playing a bland
form of swing. The band's hollow slickness meets
its match in the hollow and slick originals pro-
vided for it by nine Hollywood arrangers on Com-
poser's Holiday, Capitol T 886.

The Brown band is at its most engaging when it
is playing unprepossessing swing on Dance with Les
Brown, Columbia CL 539, Les Brown's In Town,
Capitol T 746, More from Les, Coral 57058, That
Sound of Renown, Coral 57030, and The Greatest,
Harmony 7100. For strictly dance sets, there are
Sentimental Journey, Columbia CL 649, College
Classics, Capitol T 659, Dancer's Choice, Capitol
T 812, Dance to South Pacific, Capitol T 1060,
Love Letters in the Sand, Coral 57165, and Les

The Records 49

Dance, Vocalion 3618. The band's innocuous versa-
tility is shown off in its slightly swung versions of
Rhapsody in Blue, The Nutcracker Suite and so
forth on Concert Modern, Capitol T 959, and it
serves as accompaniment to a grab-bag of pop
vocalists on Open House, Coral 57051. The band
plays two selections on Dance to the Bands, Vol. 2,
Capitol T 978, and one each on Dance to the Bands,
Vol. 1, Capitol T 977, Dance Craze, Capitol T 927,
and The Encyclopedia of Jazz on Records, Vol. 4,
Decca 8401.

Ray Brown. One of the most consistent and pro-
pulsive bassists in post-bop jazz and a member of
the Oscar Peterson trio in recent years, Brown
makes some adept front-line uses of his bass on Bass
Hit, Verve 8022. He manages to work his bass into
a logically prominent position in most selections,
avoiding the appearance of soloing simply for solo-
ing's sake, as he leads a large group from which
Harry Edison's trumpet emerges from time to time
with wry, biting statements. He has one selection in
The Playboy Jazz Allstars, Playboy 1957.

Ted Brown. Brown, a tenor saxophonist who has
been indoctrinated by Lennie Tristano, is joined
by two other Tristano alumni, tenor saxophonist
Warne Marsh and pianist Ronnie Ball on Free
Wheeling, Vanguard 8515. Both Brown and Marsh
and a third saxophonist, the non-Tristanoite alto,
Art Pepper, sound uncertain and tentative. It's
almost worth sitting through them, however, to
hear Ball's lean, sinewy and rhythmically insistent
playing.

Dave Brubeck. As is usually the case when a jazz
musician becomes extremely popular with a mass
audience, Brubeck's wide acclaim has almost noth-
ing to do with his jazz talents (Louis Armstrong,

50 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

for example, is not as popular as he is because he
is a brilliant jazz musician but because he is an
extremely good showman). Brubeck is, in what
seems to be his most natural and least pretentious
state, an amiably swinging cocktail pianist and a
composer of pleasant cameos (The Duke, for in-
stance). He has, however, a strong appeal to people
who "never liked jazz before" and to those who
feel that modern jazz is a good social topic but
have not previously been able to hear anything in
modern jazz that they could hang onto.

He has done this by appearing to be injecting a
familiar cultural note in jazz through references to
Bach and climaxes of Wagnerian thunder. At the
same time he has carried in his quartet one very
valid and highly creative jazz musician, alto saxo-
phonist Paul Desmond. Thus he could satisfy both
the jazz audience, through Desmond, and the mass
audience through his pseudo-culture.

Starting from this basis, it is all too easy to dis-
miss Brubeck as a musician of little consequence in
jazz. But, as is often pointed out by those who
admire Brubeck personally even though they do
not hold him in high esteem as a jazz musician,
because of his popularity he has been a great in-
fluence in the spread of interest in jazz since he
plays a great many colleges, attracts large audiences
and, by at least introducing them to Desmond,
brings many people in favorable contact with jazz
who otherwise would know nothing about it. By
the same token, of course, he misleads a great many
people who believe that his thumping and pompous
finger exercises are really jazz.

But possibly the most instructive side of Brubeck
as a jazz influence (and this reflects strongly on
Brubeck as a person) is the course he has followed
in the years since he suddenly shot to very great
fame and success. It almost always follows in such

The Records 51

circumstances that the widely heralded star be-
comes even more of a star, that the spotlight focuses
ever more intently on him and the group around
him becomes less and less important (as in the case
of Louis Armstrong). Brubeck, however, has done
almost exactly the opposite. He has slowly and
very carefully changed the personnel of his quartet
until, with the arrival of Joe Morello on drums and
Gene Wright on bass, what had once been a stolid
and drab group enlivened only by Desmond is now
an extremely good jazz combo in which Brubeck
is the point of least interest. I can think of no
other leader of a jazz group who has deliberately
put himself in this position. But then, of course,
no other leader of a jazz group has been quite as
highly regarded for as little reason as has Brubeck.

The best of the Brubeck Quartet performances,
as one might suspect, are those by the current
group, or at least since Morello joined up. The
arrival of Morello not only brought to the quartet
one of the best drummers in jazz today a man
with an alert, brimming rhythmic sense who en-
genders a constant air of excitement without leav-
ing his proper place in the group as a whole but,
by relieving Brubeck of any need to provide the
driving pulse for the group, Morello has permitted
him to relax into something closer to the amiable,
often felicitously melodic pianist that he has shown
he can be in his solo work.

On the Quartet's first disk with Morello, Jazz
Impressions of the U.S.A., Columbia CL 984, Bru-
beck sheds many of the cliches of his earlier work,
Desmond responds to the stimulation of Morello's
presence by playing with soaring brilliance and
Morello himself is a constant joy. The follow-up,
Jazz Goes to Junior College, Columbia CL 1034, is
far less satisfying except for one unusually good
selection, One Moment Worth Years, which brings

52 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

out the best in every member of the group. A still
later disk by this group, Dave Digs Disney, Colum-
bia, CL 1059, deals with cloying material.

An overseas tour in the winter of 1957-58 brought
in Gene Wright on bass to further strengthen the
group's swinging foundation and produced Dave
Brubeck Quartet in Europe, Columbia CL 1168,
and Jazz Impressions of Eurasia, Columbia CL
1251. The European disk was recorded at a concert
in Copenhagen and is, in general, pleasantly light
and airy even though Desmond sounds somewhat
tired and Morello spends one track showing that
not even as inventive a drummer as he can always
make a drum solo entertaining. The Eurasian im-
pressions (with Joe Benjamin temporarily in place
of Wright) are generally ingratiating except for
Burbeck's humorless and prissy piano passages.

Of the Quartet's pre-Morello work, Jazz Goes to
College, Columbia CL 566, is kept boiling by Des-
mond in brilliant form and on Brubeck Time,
Columbia CL 622, the pianist's Gothic side is
quiescent as he engages in several charming bits of
interplay with Desmond. Other disks from this
period include Jazz: Red Hot and Cool, Columbia
CL 699, Dave Brubeck and Jay and Kai at New-
port, Columbia CL 932. Dave Brubeck at Story-
ville: 1954, Columbia CL 590, The Dave Brubeck
Trio and Quartet, Fantasy 3240, Dave Brubeck at
Wilshire-Ebell, Fantasy 3249, Brubeck-Desmond,
Fantasy 3229, Dave Brubeck Quartet, Fantasy 3230,
Jazz at the Blackhawk, Fantasy 3210, Jazz at the
College of the Pacific, Fantasy 3223, Jazz at Oberlin,
Fantasy 3245.

Removed from his Quartet, Brubeck leaves
thumping ostentation behind to play in the man-
ner of an artful small room pianist on Dave Bru-
beck Plays, Fantasy 3259, and Brubeck Plays Bru-
beck, Columbia CL 878, both made up of unaccom-
panied piano solos. In these performances he is

The Records 53

reflective, with a leaning toward romanticism and
a greater sense of interior swing than he usually
shows with his Quartet.

Reunion, Fantasy 3268, is played by the Brubeck
Quintet, created by the addition of tenor saxo-
phonist Dave Van Kriedt, an early associate of Bru-
beck who wrote and arranged an attractive group
of melodic, occasionally piquantly quirksome and
lightly rhythmic pieces for their reunion. In many
ways these soundly constructed, unpretentious quin-
tet performances are more rewarding than the gen-
eral run of the Quartet's work.

Brubeck's early disks include Dave Brubeck Oc-
tet, Fantasy 3239, Dave Brubeck Trio, Fantasy 3204,
and Dave Brubeck Trio, Fantasy 3205. His Quartet
is heard in single selections on The Playboy Jazz
Allstars, Playboy 1957, $64,000 Jazz, Columbia CL
777, and Jazz Omnibus, Columbia CL 1020.

Max Bruel. A Danish architect who also plays jazz,
Bruel is capable of a smoothly viscous style on bari-
tone saxophone when he is cushioned on a lithe
section. He gets this needed support on the major-
ity of the selections on Max Bruel Quartet, Em-
Arcy 36062, but on three numbers the quartet's able
pianist, Bent Axen, drops out in favor of trumpeter
Jorgen Ryg who constantly over-reaches his capabil-
ities while Bruel plods doggedly through his solos.

Ray Bryant. Bryant is a facile pianist who occasion-
ally indicates that he can dig into his material with
some strength of feeling on Ray Bryant Trio, Pres-
tige 7098, and Ray Bryant with Betty Carter, Epic
3202. Ray Bryant Trio, Epic 3279, on which he has
to contend with a conga drummer, is largely surface
stuff. He has one number in After Hours Jazz, Epic
3339.

Rusty Bryant. After establishing some reputation
as a tenor saxophonist in rock 'n' roll territory,

54 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Bryant switched to jazz with moderate success on
Rusty Bryant Plays Jazz, Dot 3079. He is refresh-
ingly free of mannerisms, has the flexibility to
range from a coarse, grainy tone to a light, almost
altoish sound, from a cool, suave approach to a
sharp, slicing attack. However, the repetitive simil-
arity of his ideas eventually drains them of interest.
He is also heard on Carolyn Club Band, Dot 3006.

Milt Buckner. Buckner had been lending a stolid
pianistic thud to Lionel Hampton's band for
several years when Doug Duke, who had been play-
ing organ with Hampton, left and Buckner was
asked to shift instruments. Since then he has been
one of the most successful of the new and spreading
school of jazz organists. Buckner works from a
widely varied pallette, ranging from a dogged rock
that borders on rock 'n' roll to svelte, swoon-shaped
mood music languor. He has an unusually good
light, moving modern jazz style which shares both
Rockin' with Milt, Capitol T 642, and Rockin'
Hammond, Capitol T 722, with examples of his
heavy beat style. Send Me Softly, Capitol T 938,
does precisely that with Buckner's organ velvet sup-
plemented by purple-tinged Hodges-like scoops on
alto saxophone by Earl Warren, the onetime
Basieite.

Bob Burgess. Burgess plays a rough-toned, swing-
ing trombone in stabbing, jagged phrases on a
single selection in Jazz West Coast, Vol. 3, World
Pacific JWC 507.

Vinnie Burke. Burke is a neat, consistent bassist
who phrases melodically and does not carry soloing
too far on Vinnie Burke All-Stars, ABC-Paramount
139, and Costa-Burke Trio, Jubilee 1025, both of
which are enlivened by roaring, spitting piano
solos by Eddie Costa. Vinnie Burke's String Jazz

The Records 55

Quartet, ABC-Paramount 170, is a highly provoca-
tive disk on which Burke, Dick Wetmore, violin,
Calo Scott, cello, and Bobby Grillo, guitar, manage
to avoid the salon gentility that this instrumenta-
tion would usually bring on by using a hard, strong
attack. Wetmore is particularly interesting. He uses
a dark, misterioso tone that is very helpful in turn-
ing the usually obdurate violin in jazz directions.

Ralph Burns. Burns' arrangements were one of the
strong points of the Woody Herman band of 1945
which skyrocketed to the top of the big band heap
and he gave the band one of its most memorable
pieces in the extended Summer Sequence. Since
then he has been active as an arranger who leans
as much out of jazz as he does into it. On the "in"
side is Ralph Burns Among the JATPs, Verve 8121,
on which he provides settings in which members
of Norman Granz's frequently gauche JATP troupe
can remind listeners that they are still capable of
sensitivity, inspiration and electrifying sparks of
brilliance. Flip Phillips, Roy Eldridge and Bill
Harris are among the resuscitated. And one side of
Swinging Seasons, MGM 3613, is made up of
Burnsian frames for some fine soloists Kai Wind-
ing, Joe Wilder are the standouts. On Jazz Studio
5, Decca 8235, Burns leads a ten-piece band through
some surprisingly routine arrangements.

Less jazz-imbued is the Burns who turns up on
one side of Jazz Recital, Verve 8098 (shared with
Billie Holiday), weaving strings, woodwinds and
Lee Konitz's alto saxophone into pleasantly rhyth-
mic chamber music. Very Warm for Jazz, Decca
9207, is in much the same vein but with a more
normal jazz instrumentation (Zoot Sims and Urbie
Green are both on hand). The Masters Revisited,
Decca 8555, is a misguided attempt to rewrite
Moussorgsky and Lecuona in swing terms. Burns
has one selection in Forty-Eight Stars of American

56 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Jazz, MGM 3611, and The Encyclopedia of Jazz on
Records, Vol. 4, Decca 8401.

Kenny Burrell. Burrell is a loose, loping guitarist
who manages to swing along on almost consistently
interesting lines even though he is almost always
involved in long blowing sessions with uninspired
company. There are, fortunately, a few exceptions:
Introducing Kenny Burrell, Blue Note 1523, on
which he teams up with pianist Tommy Flanagan
and an unusually swinging rhythm section; Earthy,
Prestige 7102, with a vastly superior jamming group
which includes Art Fanner, Al Cohn, Hal Mc-
Kusick and, particularly, Mai Waldron; and Jazz-
men: Detroit, Savoy 12083, a modest set at easy
tempos with no long solos, some lean Burrell guitar
and strongly rhythmic Tommy Flanagan.

Burrell is the sole saving grace on All Night
Long, Prestige 7073; All Day Long, Prestige 7081;
Jazz for Playboys, Savoy 12095; Blue Lights, Blue
Note 1596; Two Guitars, Prestige 7119; Kenny
Burrell, Blue Note 1543; and Kenny Burrell, Pres-
tige 7088.

Joe Burton. Burton is an amiable addition to that
school of fetching, rhythmic pianists of which Er-
roll Garner is the dean. His playing is delightfully
quirksome and toe-tapping on Here I Am in Love
Again, Coral 57175, effectively simple and direct on
Joe Burton Session, Coral 57098, but he becomes a
bit too wrapped up in prettiness in Jazz Pretty,
Regent 6036.

Don Byas. A very warm, smooth, dark-toned tenor
out of Coleman Hawkins, Byas is an extroverted,
assured and purposeful purveyor of craftily con-
structed ballads and fluent, airy swingers on Jazz
. . . Free and Easy, Regent 6044, but is a little
less free and a little less easy on one side of Jazz
from St. Germain des Pres, Verve 8119 (shared with

The Records 57

Bernard Peiffer). He has two poorly recorded selec-
tions in Tenor Sax, Concorde 3012.

Billy Byers. Byers, an able, big-voiced trombonist,
is buried in Jazz on the Left Bank, Epic 3387, a pale
collection of low-keyed performances recorded in
France which also stifle the excellent French pian-
ist, Martial Solal.

Charlie Byrd. There are a few jazzmen who dabble
in serious music and several who are determined
to improve jazz by dressing it in formal clothes.
Charlie Byrd stands practically alone in the fre-
quency and ease with which he moves between the
two musical worlds. With Byrd it is not simply a
matter of being able to play good jazz guitar and
good classical guitar. In the course of a normal
evening's performance he moves readily back and
forth between the two. He avoids cross-breeding in
performance and on records he has kept his two
sides separated. His classical side will be found in
an engrossing Anthology of Guitar Music The
Sixteenth Century, Washington WR 411. He plucks
a Spanish guitar on this disk and he uses the same
delightfully unamplified instrument on many of
his jazz performances. The depths of his creative
resources and his well of melodic invention are
strikingly illustrated in the title selection on Blues
for Night People, Savoy 12116, a three-part suite
which takes up one side of the disk. For a guitarist
to extemporize at this length accompanied only
by bass (Keter Betts) and drums (Gus Johnson)
without the slightest let-down in interest is an ear-
opening display of virtuosity. Byrd carries this off
with no sense of strain, forcing or searching as he
lines out a probing series of blues variations com-
pounded of root ideas and highly sophisticated
technique. His versatility is highlighted on Jazz at
the Showboat, Offbeat 3001, on which he appears

58 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

in a variety of settings, ranging from sextet to duo
(bass and guitar) and plays both Spanish guitar
and the more customary electric guitar. He makes
swingingly economical use of the latter instrument
but his real brilliance comes through when he
takes the plug out of the guitar and fingers his way
through Satin Doll. He uses both guitars as part of
a quartet on Jazz Recital, Savoy 12099, a varied set
with some interesting blending o Spanish guitar
and flute.

Donald Byrd. For a trumpeter who has been re-
corded very often and at great, great length, Byrd
has remarkably little to say as an improvising
soloist. Part of his trouble may lie in the fact that
he is constantly cast in barren blowing sessions for
when he is given direction and guidance by the
requirements of Modern Jazz Perspective, Columbia
CL 1058, which is an attempt to trace the develop-
ment of some modern jazz styles, his playing is at
least neat and to the point. This disk was made by
the Jazz Lab Quintet which Byrd has jointly led
for some time with alto saxophonist Gigi Gryce.
They have concocted some interesting ensemble
leaping off points on Gigi Gryces, Riverside 12-229,
Jazz Lab, Columbia CL 998, and Gigi Gryce, Donald
Byrd and Cecil Taylor at Newport, Verve 98238, but
on all three disks they move from intriguing group
openings to long, wearing solos which are often
out of character emotionally with the introductory
matter. In the wide open spaces of a blowing session,
Byrd becomes a dreary mumbler: Byrd's Word,
Savoy, 12032, The Young Blood, Prestige 7080, All
Day Long, Prestige 708, All Night Long, Prestige
77073, Two Trumpets, Prestige 7062, The Jazz
Message, Savoy 12064, and in single elections on
Montage, Savoy 12029, and Know Your Jazz, Vol.
1, ABC-Paramount 115. The Jazz Lab Quintet plays
one selection in Jazz Omnibus, Columbia CL 1020.

The Records 59

Jackie Cain and Roy Krai. This husband-and-
wife team, forged when he was pianist with
Charlie Ventura's fine late Forties group and she
was the band's vocalist, has created one of the
most valid means of jazz singing in their wordless
duets and their brightly propelled, swinging ap-
proach to worded lyrics. All their best qualities
(which include Krai's lithe, moving piano work)
come through on Sing! Baby, Sing! Storyville 915,
Jackie and Roy, Storyville 904, and Bits and Pieces,
ABC-Paramount 163. On this last disk they are
accompanied by a big band, an arrangement that
is less satisfactory on Free and Easy, ABC-Para-
mount 207. The emphasis on The Glory of Love,
ABC-Paramount 120, is on non-jazz. In the Spot-
light, ABC-Paramount 267, the least satisfactory of
their disks, puts the spotlight on Miss Cain singing
ballads in an unbecomingly shrill and strident
manner. Four selections made at a reunion with
Ventura in the early Fifties on Jackie Cain and Roy
Krai, Brunswick 54026, are of interest but the re-
mainder of the disk is routine.

Al Caiola. Essentially a New York studio guitarist,
Caiola leads three groups of only minor interest
on Deep in a Dream, Savoy 12033, and Serenade in
Blue, Savoy 12057. Pianist Ronnie Ball has a few
good moments on the latter and Bernie Privin,
playing both trumpet and fluegelhorn, gives a
warm, Swing Era touch to both disks.

Candido. Since the death of Chano Pozo, who first
gave the conga drum an individual jazz voice dur-
ing the Afro-Cuban invasion of the late 1940s, his
most worthy successor has been Candido. Playing
with The Billy Taylor Trio, Prestige 7051, and
with Al Cohn on Candido, ABC-Paramount 125,
he takes full advantage of excellent opportunities
to show how well the conga can be used as an

60 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

improvisatory solo instrument rather than an en-
semble percussive element. He takes part in a
successful tour de force a duet with drummer
Kenny Clarke on Introducing Kenny Burrell, Blue
Note 1523. He has less freedom on Candida the
Volcanic, ABC-Paramount 180, and he is little more
than a section hand on The Beat of My Heart,
Columbia CL 1079. He sings and drums on Calypso
Dance Party, ABC-Paramount 178, but this is
calypso, not jazz.

Pete and Conte Candoli. The trumpeting Candoli
brothers, both veterans of modern big band jazz
(Herman, Kenton), pair off on The Brothers
Candoli, Dot 3062, in brilliantly brassy duets and
chases, interspersed by short solos. Pete's arrange-
ments keep the group (two trumpets, three rhythm)
working together all the time, avoiding long, lone-
some solos.

Conte Candoli. Candoli is a trumpeter who can,
in his better moments, bite out clipped, crisp
phrases but they mean very little since he has little
conception of construction. He is, consequently, an
occasionally prodding but eventually tiresome per-
former on West Coast Waiters, Atlantic 1268, Conte
Candoli, Bethlehem 30, Mucho Color, Andex 3003,
and in his three selections on Rhythm Plus One,
Epic 3297, and his single entry on After Hours
Jazz, Epic 3339.

Barbara Carroll. Miss Carroll is inclined to be a
glib, surface pianist who spars gracefully and in-
nocuously over a lightly swinging rhythm section.
At times, however, she takes off her polite gloves
and shows signs of a strong Powell-derived style.
There is something of this on one side of Ladies
of Jazz Atlantic 1271 (shared with Mary Lou
Williams), and in her sparkling, imaginative devel-

The Records 61

opment of that intrinsic dog, The Trolley Song,
on Barbara, Verve 2095. The rest of the latter disk
is, however, devoted to the placid front that also
dominates The Best of George and Ira Gershwin,
Verve 2092, Ifs a Wonderful World, Victor LPM
1396, Funny Face, Verve 2063, We Just Couldn't
Say Goodbye, Victor LPM 1296, and her portion
of The Wide, Wide World of Jazz, Victor LPM
1325.

Joe Carroll. Carroll is a relatively engaging bop
singer who joined Dizzy Gillespie's band in 1949
and for the next four years worked with Gillespie
to good advantage. On Joe Carroll, Epic 3272, he
is on his own and while he is fun in small doses,
his nonsense syllable songs become monotonous
and when he resorts to words he is a rather strident
singer.

Betty Carter. Miss Carter is an unformed singer
who has listened to Sarah Vaughan. On Out There,
Peacock 90, she labors through arrangements at-
tributed to Gigi Gryce, Benny Golson, Melba Lis-
ton, Ray Copeland and Tommy Gryce. They all
must have been out of town at the time.

Joe Castro. A suave, innocuous, middleground
pianist, Castro is occasionally cushioned by an
unobtrusive string section on Mood Jazz, Atlantic
1264, but on other occasions he is hounded by a
more vehement vocal group.

Bob Centano. Centano's 21-piece band on First
Time Out, Stepheny 4006, might be dismissed as a
rather fuzzily rehearsed Kenton derivative if one's
judgment were not tempered by the fact that, at
the time of recording, Centano was 20, his chief
arranger, Bob Ojeda, was 17, and the average age
of the band was 22. From this point of view, this is

62 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

a tantalizing view of an obviously promising group
of young musicians in the process of finding them-
selves.

Serge Chaloff. Chaloff's baritone saxophone was
one of the booting elements in Woody Herman's
high flying mid-Forties Herd although he was a
limited soloist. His limitations are marked in four
selections on Lestorian Mode, Savoy 12105, on
which he plays with a group in which Red Rod-
ney's biting trumpet is the major voice. Returning
in 1955 from several years of retirement caused by
illness (from which he died in 1957) , he put to-
gether a well organized, cleanly directed group on
Boston Blow-Up, Capitol T 6510, notable primarily
for the swinging alto of Boots Mussulli. The fol-
lowing year, working with only a rhythm section,
he produced a group of quiet, neatly turned per-
formances on Blue Serge, Capitol T 742, which re-
vealed a polish and dexterity that had never been
particularly noticeable in his earlier work.

Chamber Jazz Sextet. "The Chamber Jazz Sextet
was formed and organized," its leader, Allyn Fergu-
son, advises us in the liner notes on Chamber Jazz
Sextet, Cadence 1020, "with this basic purpose in
mind: the synthesis of jazz and 'serious' music."
Neither jazz nor "serious" music is particularly well
served by the cuteness and the sonic abandon in
which the group indulges on this disk (just from
the point of view of sound the sextet gets some
amusing voicings through an astounding versatil-
ity). On Pal Joey, Cadence 3015, however, with
something as sturdy as the Rodgers and Hart score
on which to build, the group becomes lively and
loose-jointed, especially in the work of Modesto
Brisano, a superior baritone saxophonist, and
Frank Leal, an alto saxophonist who swoops and
soars in the graceful Paul Desmond manner.

The Records 63

Paul Chambers. Chambers is a bassist who almost
always manages to snag a long solo for himself,
either plucked or bowed. This tendency makes
Bass on Top, Blue Note 1569, and Paul Chambers
Quintet, Blue Note 1564, heavy going. Whims of
Chambers, Blue Note 1534, is lightened by Kenny
Burrell's brightly swinging guitar but in addition
to Chambers' inevitable solos it also has tenor saxo-
phonist John Coltrane lunging around, thick-toned
and directionless.

Eddie Chamblee. Chamblee leads a compact,
tightly voiced little band with a bouncing beat and
no stylistic excesses which often accompanies Dinah
Washington, to whom Chamblee is married. On
both Chamblee Music, EmArcy 36124, and Dood-
lin', EmArcy 36131, the group plays a type of un-
pretentious ensemble jazz which was fairly common
in the Thirties but has almost died out since then.
Chamblee, a tenor saxophonist, ranges from a
light, easy ballad projection to a shrill insistence
that borders on rock 'n' roll.

Teddy Charles. Charles, a vibraphonist who caught
onto the tag end of the Swing Era as a member of
Benny Goodman's band in the late Forties and
Artie Shaw's last big band (1950), is one of the
more adamant explorers in modern jazz. He has
said that he believes jazz has exhausted most of its
harmonic resources and he feels that by emphasiz-
ing improvisation in unfamiliar harmonies good
jazz musicians can and will find fresh melodic pat-
terns. Possibly because of his swing band orienta-
tion, Charles puts great emphasis on melody in his
work no matter how far off the beaten track he may
go harmonically and he is, as a result, one of the
most accessible and communicative of the jazz ex-
perimentalists.

64 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

An excellent demonstration of the fresh, swing-
ing quality he brings to his jazz adventures is
Collaboration: West, Prestige 7028, an unusually
exciting and rewarding disk made in 1953 on which
Charles plays with two West Coast groups, one
made up of Shorty Rogers, Curtis Counce and
Shelly Manne, the other with Jimmy Giuffre added.
Charles himself plays with a fascinatingly direct
rhythmic drive and Shorty Rogers really plays in-
stead of running through the cliches that have
made up too much of his work in the later Fifties.
The rhythm section is superb and Giuffre, on one
selection, contrives a stomping hot baritone saxo-
phone solo that seems much closer to the real,
earthy quality of jazz than his more recent efforts
in that direction with his trio. A less satisfying
piece from this date turns up on Evolution, Pres-
tige 7078, which is otherwise devoted to some 1955
recordings which are enlivened by Charlie Mingus'
big, walloping bass and Charles' sensitive vibes.
Mingus and drummer Ed Shaughnessy set up a
driving momentum for the Charles Quartet which
coasts blithely through part of Word -from Bird,
Atlantic 1274. Shaughnessy also spurs a ten-piece
group which plays the rest of the disk including
the title selection which, after slogging through an
overly contrived start, becomes a swinging, straight-
forward evolvement that seems to barrel along on
its own steam as though it were just happening
instead of being deliberately played. The piece,
composed by Charles, has more body and direction
than normally occurs in jazz writing. Charles also
uses ten pieces on The Teddy Charles Tentet,
Atlantic 1229, an uneven but frequently interesting
disk which covers a broad range from George Rus-
sell's use of "the lydian concept of tonal organiza-
tion" in Lydian M-l, a ruggedly rhythmic piece, to
the relatively straightforward, melodic playing of
Jimmy Giuffre's graceful The Quiet Time and Gil

The Records 65

Evans' cohesive, flowing arrangement of You Go to
My Head.

Most Charles sessions require a good deal of writ-
ten preparation and he does not often get away
from the paper atmosphere to the relaxation of
simply blowing. When he does, on Vibe-Rant,
Elektra 136, he retains the control and sense of
rational structure that color his arranged work and
consequently he avoids the blatant emptiness of so
many blowing sessions. There are times when, ar-
rangements or no, Charles' musical vitality fails to
generate much steam. This occurs on Olio, Prestige
7084, and Prestige Jazz Quartet, Prestige 7108. On
Three for the Duke, Jubilee 1047, Charles, pianist
Hall Overton and bassist Oscar Pettiford tackle
four familiar and two lesser known pieces by Duke
Ellington without improving on the originals. On
a pair of 1954 performances attributed to the
Teddy Charles Quartet on The Dual Role of Bob
Brookmeyer, Prestige 7066, Charles plays only a
supporting role.

Charlie Christian. Christian's total career on the
bigtime jazz scene covered less than two years
(1939-41) yet in that time he established the elec-
tric guitar as a jazz instrument and made important
contributions to the groundwork on which post-
swing jazz has been built. Christian's two influen-
tial years were spent with Benny Goodman's orches-
tra and though he had ample opportunity to show
his ability in Goodman's small groups, he found
them confining, an inadequate means of expression
for the long, lean, flowing lines he wanted to play.
His most typical work was done in the relaxed
atmosphere of after hours clubs. A few samples of
this, taken down on a portable recording machine,
are reproduced on The Harlem Jazz Scene: 1941,
Esoteric 548. The fidelity is only medium but Chris-

66 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

tian's guitar cuts through cleanly and crisply,
swinging with superbly controlled ease.

Charlie Christian with the Benny Goodman Sex-
tet and Orchestra, Columbia CL 652, offers two
more instances of Christian unfettered, recordings
made while members of the Goodman groups were
warming up in preparation for a session. The
limitations against which Christian chafed in the
Goodman sextet are illustrated vividly by the
cheek-by-jowl juxtaposition here of one of these ad
lib sessions, Waitin' for Benny, in which Christian
develops a theme which later provided the basis
for the sextet's A Smo-o-o-oth One, and the sextet's
comparatively stiff, formal and flat performance of
that piece.

Keith Christie. This English trombonist, onetime
co-leader of the Christie Brothers Stompers, a
"trad" band, has effectively adapted his gruff,
pseudo-New Orleans style to a lustily forceful
modern manner on Third Festival of British Jazz,
London LL 1639.

June Christy. When June Christy joined the Stan
Kenton band in the middle Forties as the replace-
ment for Anita O'Day, she also picked up a few of
the vocal characteristics of Miss O'Day, who can
rationally be considered a jazz singer. Miss Christy,
however, only mastered the surface of the O'Day
style and later abandoned even that when she
found the commercial possibilities of singing in a
flat, hoarse monotone. She is, at her best, a good
singer of pop ballads but she has scarcely any jazz
qualities. Her records are Duet, Capitol T 656, Fair
and Warmer, Capitol T 833, Gone for the Day,
Capitol T 902, June's Got Rhythm, Capitol T 1076,
The Misty Miss Christy, Capitol T 725, Something
Cool, Capitol T 516, and This Is June Christy,
Capitol T 1006.

The Records 67

Alan Clare. With its leader at the piano, the Eng-
lish Alan Clare Quartet picks its way deliberately
through a pair of easygoing, uneventful pieces on
Third Festival of British Jazz, London LL 1639.

Kenny Clarke. With Jo Jones of the Basie band,
Clarke is generally credited with pioneering the
new conception of the drummer's role in postwar
jazz through the transferral of the steady beat from
the bass drum to the cymbal, reserving the bass
drum for sudden plunging accents. He was the
original drummer of the Modern Jazz Quartet but
left the group in 1955 when it became evident that
he was moving in a different direction from the
rest of the group. Since then he has spent most of
his time abroad.

Clarke is a steady, firmly propulsive drummer
who lends strength to any rhythm section in which
he plays. He sets a delightfully light, urging beat
on Klook's Clique, Savoy 12065, over which John
LaPorta's alto saxophone sings out in strong, soar-
ing lines and Ronnie Ball digs contentedly into the
deeper emotional recesses of the piano. Clarke's
presence also provides a good foundation for a mix-
ture of neat, concise swingers and dark, heavy blues-
bearing pieces on Kenny Clarke, Savoy 12006, high-
lighted by probing, one-note piano playing by Milt
Jackson. On Bohemia After Dark, Savoy 12017,
Clarke's front-line include Nat and Julian Adder-
ley, both freshly arrived in New York from Florida
at the time and sounding relatively subdued.

For some time Clarke, Hank Jones and Wendell
Marshall made up the house rhythm section for
Savoy Records. When they got a disk of their own,
The Trio, Savoy 12023, Clarke put down a firm
foundation with (as the bra ads say) good uplift
but Jones' faceless piano playing wears thin before
long. The Trio with Guests, Savoy 12053, adds Joe
Wilder and Jerome Richardson, among others, and

68 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

it is Wilder who makes the disk really worthwhile.

From Clarke's French period comes Kenny
Clarke Plays Andre Hodeir, Epic 3376, on which
he leads a French sextet through Hodeir's arrange-
ments of well known pieces by Thelonious Monk,
Gerry Mulligan, Tadd Dameron, Miles Davis and
others. The success of the re-cast pieces is generally
in reverse ratio to the amount of writing that
Hodeir has done. Pianist Martial Solal, who has the
major share of the solo work, plays vividly and
fluently in a variety of veins.

An unaccompanied solo by Clarke is included in
Clarke-Wilkins Septet, Savoy 12007, and a drum
and conga duet with Candido in Introducing
Kenny Burrell, Blue Note 1523. He leads a group
in one number on Know Your Jazz, Vol. 1, ABC-
Paramount 115.

Sonny Clark. After serving ably with Buddy De
Franco's group for several years during the Fifties,
Clark settled down in New York to become what
amounted to house pianist for Blue Note Records.
His churning, flowing playing was often a welcome
oasis in some of the rather drab ensembles he re-
corded with but those sessions on which he has
been the leader have not been particularly success-
ful. Art Farmer contributes some crackling solos to
Dial S for Sonny, Blue Note 1570, but he has to
fight a chomp-chomp rhythm section, while even
Farmer's crisp trumpet cannot hold up Cool
Strutting Blue Note 1588. The slick execution of
the soloists Donald Byrd, Curtis Fuller, John
Coltrane and Clark on Sonny's Crib, Blue Note
1576, fails to turn over-familiar exercises into com-
municative statements. Asked to cover two sides of
an LP by himself on Sonny Clark Trio, Blue Note
1579, the distance proves to be too much for Clark.

The Records 69

James Clay. Clay plays tenor saxophone with a big
tone out of Ben Webster but with a harder surface
in a single selection on Solo Flight, World Pacific
JWC 505.

Jimmy Cleveland. The nervous, jabbing trombone
exercises from which Cleveland usually builds his
solos are largely absent from Introducing Jimmy
Cleveland, EmArcy 36066, as he loosens up and un-
leashes a big, rough tone from time to time. Even
so, his inclination to insert pointless stutters makes
his solos needlessly officious. He has a few good
solos on Cleveland Style, EmArcy 36126, and so do
Art Farmer and tenor saxophonist Benny Golson
but the disk as a whole has a heavy, phlegmatic
quality. Cleveland has three selections on Rhythm
Plus One, Epic 3297, and one each on The Young
Ones of Jazz, EmArcy 36085, After Hours Jazz,
Epic 3339, and Know Your Jazz, Vol 1, ABC-
Paramount 115.

Johnny Coates, Jr. This 18-year-old pianist, son of
the piano man in a Trenton, N.J., Dixieland group,
moves with glib assurance among several modern
jazz piano styles on Portrait, Savoy 12082, but does
not yet have anything positive of his own.

Al Cohn. After ten years as a big band sideman,
most notably with Woody Herman in 1948 when
he became one of the Four Brothers after Herbie
Steward left, Cohn settled into free lance arranging
and playing in 1952. At his best as a performer, he
is one of the most freely flowing of those tenor
saxophonists who bear the markings of Lester
Young and he has a facility for arranging and com-
posing pieces which lend themselves to a Basie-like
propulsion.
But he is an erratic performer and is just as apt

70 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

to tramp around in a muffled din as to step out
with a bright and breezy statement. On The
Brothers, Prestige 7022, made up of sessions re-
corded in 1949 and 1952, Cohn trails along dimly
behind Brew Moore, Allen Eager and Zoot Sims.
In the middle Fifties he teamed with Sims again
with light and swinging results on Al and Zoot,
Coral 57171, but the team could not make the
sparks fly a second time on From A to Z, Victor
LPM 1282. Cohn finds an even more impressive
team-mate in valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer on
Al Cohn Quintet, Coral 57118, a disk which is com-
pletely dominated by Brookmeyer even though
Cohn is in his best airily rhythmic form.

Writing for three different groups on The Sax
Section, Epic 3278, two of them centered on tradi-
tional saxophone sections, one on a woodwind
group, Cohn draws delightfully clean, precise, puls-
ing ensembles from the saxophones which de-
velop some of the lusty zest that these sections had
in the days of big bands. Cohn's free and easy
strength as a performer flows warmly through Cohn
on the Saxophone, Dawn 1110, Cohn's Tones,
Savoy 12048, and Candido, ABC-Paramount 125.
He makes some good contributions to a superior
blowing session, Earthy, Prestige 7102, but he goes
down along with three other saxophonists under
the weight of the four long, tiresome pieces which
make up Tenor Conclave, Prestige 7074. Cohn has
single selections in Know Your Jazz, Vol. 1, ABC-
Paramount 115 (playing baritone saxophone), Jazz
Cornucopia, Coral 57149, and Critics' Choice,
Dawn 1128.

Jerry Coker. Known primarily for service in Woody
Herman's saxophone section, Coker has put to-
gether a group which is essentially a saxophone en-
semble for Modern Music from Indiana University,
Fantasy 3214. His saxophones are smooth, swinging

The Records 71

and unpretentious, a shade on the polite and re-
served side but working a worthwhile, none-too-
traveled middle road.

Cy Coleman. After being something of a prodigy
on the cocktail piano circuit, Coleman is giving
evidence of increasing sensitivity as a jazz musician.
He plays selections from the score of Jamaica,
Jubilee 1062, in a spare, rhythmic style, trimmed of
nonessentials (he sings occasionally, too, and it
doesn't hurt a bit). His work on Cy Coleman, Seeco
402, shows more evidence of his cocktail back-
ground a form of "pop jazz" that stays close to
the melody but is swinging and inventive. He has
two selections in Night Out Music for Stay-at-
Homes, Coral 57040.

Ornette Coleman. Coleman's recording of Some-
thing Else!, Contemporary 3551, represents his first
break in a long series of rejections he has experi-
enced during his search for what he calls "as free
and natural a music as possible." His ideas seem
related to some extent to another generally re-
jected but intriguing musician, Cecil Taylor, and,
by the same token, lead back to Thelonious Monk.
Coleman has assembled a surprisingly cohesive
group to project what, to most musicians, might
be strangely difficult lines and accents. He is
essentially a hard swinging alto saxophonist who
states his ideas in a series of smears, slashes and
murmurs. His trumpeter, Don Cherry, uses im-
pressionistic blasts and swipes very effectively while
in Walter Norris he has a fluent pianist who gives
indications that he can go beneath the fleet surface
he shows most of the time. Many of the group's
ensembles are voiced and accented in an early bop
manner but the soloists take off on tangents of their
own. Despite their strangeness, Coleman's pieces
hang together well.

72 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Buddy Collette. Versatility can often be a deceptive
cover for a musician with several minor talents.
Buddy Collette is a rarity a jazz musician who
stands out on at least three instruments. He is one
of the very few flutists who can project with some
strength in the jazz idiom. He is a clarinetist of
warmth and skill and on the alto saxophone his
playing is precise, polished and very flowing. Tenor
saxophone is his least satisfying horn.

He first came to notice as one of the original
members of Chico Hamilton's Quintet. As a leader
on his own, he tends to dominate whatever group
he heads and the performances generally rise or fall
on his work alone. Thus on Calm, Cool and Col-
lette, ABC-Paramount 179, with only a rhythm sec-
tion accompanying him, Undecided is brightly pro-
jected by his alto, Flute in D gains a delightfully
deliberate air from his flute while his clarinet pro-
pels The Continental in a warm, mellow manner.
But // She Had Stayed, on which he plays tenor, is
rather moribund. The presence of Shelly Manne
on drums adds a second strong personality to Nice
Day, Contemporary 3531, and Collette seems to re-
spond to his presence by getting a slightly keener
edge on his playing. The performances on Man of
Many Parts, Contemporary 3522, lean toward the
neat and well mannered but an unaccustomed
lustiness creeps into Buddy's Best, Dooto 245.
Swinging Shepherds, EmArcy 36 133, is the final
straw in the fluting fad four flutists (Collette, Bud
Shank, Paul Horn and Harry Klee) manage to
create some pleasant, lilting ensembles but after
the ensembles are gone the steady piping of one
flute solo after another produces the same effect
as the Chinese water torture.

John Coltrane. Although he has been in jazz since
the middle Forties, Coltrane suddenly lurched into
the throes of attempting to find his own personal

The Records 73

jazz voice in the latter Fifties. The search has ap-
parently been a tortured and frustrating one, judg-
ing by the garish performances Coltrane has given.
As of this writing, it is still unresolved. He often
plays his tenor saxophone as though he were deter-
mined to blow it apart but his desperate attacks al-
most invariably lead nowhere. He has moments
when he adjusts to a wanner, more communicative
style, as in his unusual treatment of a ballad, While
My Lady Sleeps, on Coltrane, Prestige 7105. But
even though his hard, fierce tone slashes through a
disk like an urgent hacksaw, he constantly finds
himself overshadowed by others by Lee Morgan's
fantastic trumpet excursions on Blue Train, Blue
Note 1577, by Red Garland's lean, swinging piano
on With the Red Garland Trio, Prestige 7123, and
John Coltrane, Prestige 7142. Neither Coltrane nor
three other tenors (Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Hank
Mobley) can make anything of the wide open blow-
ing spaces on Tenor Conclave, Prestige 7074.

Chris Connor. Miss Connor followed June Christy
into the Stan Kenton vocal spot, her apparent
recommendation being that she, too, could sing in
Miss Christy's flat, hoarse manner. To this Miss
Connor added a set of gruesome grimaces which
made her work in person seem even more tortured.
The listener to records is spared this sight although,
once seen, it can color the strained, mannered,
quivering work she does on Chris Connor, Atlantic
1228, He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, Atlantic
1240, and A Jazz Date with Chris Connor, Atlantic
1286 (a patent case of mis-labeling). She is less man-
nered but is burdened with a slow, clumpy beat
and a vocal group on / Miss You So, Atlantic 8014.
Miss Connor does herself less than justice on
these disks, however, because when she is not forc-
ing herself or being self-consciously hip she can be
a pleasant pop singer as she shows on This Is Chris,

74 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Bethlehem 20, and in four selections in Bethle-
hem's Girlfriends, Bethlehem 6006, and to a lesser
degree on The George Gershwin Almanac of Song,
Atlantic 2-601, and Chris Connor Sings Lullabys of
Birdland, Bethlehem 6004. She even manages to
swing a little on Chris Craft, Atlantic 1290.

Bob Cooper. A longtime member of the Stan Ken-
ton saxophone section, Cooper has settled into a
comfortable spot at the Lighthouse in Hermosa
Beach, Calif., during the Fifties. His work on tenor
saxophone draws to a degree from the Lester Young
school in its fullness and flow but he is less be-
holden than most of the Young followers. Both in
his playing and his writing he has a sure sense of
balance and structure, a sense which outs in Shift-
ing Winds, Capitol T 6513, on which he uses a
group of multi-instrumentalists to play a very
varied set of octet jazz which runs from a relatively
simple, bright swing to tightly wrought woodwind
ensembles. He is not one to put himself in a strait-
jacket, however, for his Jazz Theme and Four Vari-
ations, which takes up one side of The Music of
Bob Cooper, Contemporary 3544, is little more
than a group of loosely connected, thoroughly un-
pretentious pieces which have a lot of healthy
fresh air blowing through them. His saxophone,
sometimes light and glancing, at other times in-
tensely but smoothly hot, is more assertive and
personal here than in most of his recorded work.
He goes even farther in this direction on the other
side as he roars through a bright version of Some-
body Loves Me in a grandly exuberant manner.

Cooper is also the leading (and practically only)
exponent of the jazz oboe. On both Flute 'n' Oboe,
World Pacific 1226, and The Swings to TV, World
Pacific 411, his oboe is teamed with Bud Shank's
flute, a bland jazz pairing at best which is made
even more pap-like in these two instances by back-

The Records 75

ing them with strings. The Shank-Cooper team (us-
ing saxophones as well as flute and oboe) contrib-
utes four selections of merit to Jazz Swings Broad-
way, World Pacific 404, and one selection each to
Jazz West Coast, Vol. 3, World Pacific JWC 507,
Have Blues, Will Travel, World Pacific JWC 509,
and Jazz West Coast, Vol. 4, World Pacific JWC
510.

Bob Corwin. Corwin works out some pleasantly
melodic ideas on two selections on The Bob Cor-
win Quartet, Riverside 12-220, on which the quartet
is reduced to a trio by the absence of Don Elliott's
trumpet. The rest of the way Corwin plays second
banana to Elliott's rather routine blowing.

Eddie Costa. A welcome antidote to the glib, light-
fingered, right-handed tendencies of modern jazz
pianists was provided when Eddie Costa began to
be heard in the middle Fifties. He has a dark, driv-
ing, earthy style in which the notes are seemingly
hammered out and bent downward. He is also a
capable vibraphonist but he is not the distinctive
performer on this instrument that he is on piano.
Eddie Costa-Vinnie Burke Trio, Jubilee 1025, gives
his cocky, strutting piano a good showcase, allow-
ing him to stretch out and flex his lithe piano
muscles in freedom. On Guys and Dolls Like Vibes,
Coral 57230, he concentrates on vibes (Bill Evans,
who has many characteristics in common with
Costa, is on piano). In contrast to the stirring forays
into the lower register that he is fond of making on
piano, Costa's vibraphone style is light and danc-
ing, closer to the Red Norvo manner than most
current vibists. Unfortunately the work of both
Evans and Costa is diluted on the Coral disk by
selections that are too long to be sustained by only
two soloists. Costa teams with John Mehegan on A
Pair of Pianos, Savoy 12049, for occasionally stimu-

76 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

lating results and he is heard fleetingly on piano
on Eddie Costa, Mat Mathews and Don Elliott at
Newport, Verve 8237, recorded at the 1957 festival.

Johnny Costa. Costa's technical skill as a pianist is
quite evident on The Amazing Johnny Costa,
Savoy 12052, but so is his almost total debt to Art
Tatum. He leaves Tatum (and jazz) fairly well be-
hind to play a bouncy, melodious piano on The
Most Beautiful Girl in the World, Coral 57117,
while Johnny Costa, Coral 57020, is made up of
facile performances which glide easily past ear and
mind without leaving a mark.

Jack Costanzo. As a bongo flailer (a graduate of the
Kenton kollege), Costanzo holds a tenuous, back-
ground position in jazz. It is de rigeur that any
group he leads should take the Latin-American or
Afro-Cuban approach to jazz. His Afro-Cuban
Band does this extremely well on Mr. Bongo, GNP
19, playing with a very free, lively feeling much in
the manner of Machito. On Afro-Cubano, Verve
8157, he mixes the Afro-Cuban influence with
straight-out modern jazz and fails to generate steam
either way while Mr. Bongo Has Brass, Zephyr
12003, takes a swing and mood music approach to
Latin-American ideas. Costanzo has a single selec-
tion in Afro-Drum Carnival, GNP 25.

Curtis Counce. One of the most able and sensitive
bassists working the West Coast sector, Counce
leads a pleasantly relaxed group with a warm en-
semble feeling on The Curtis Counce Group, Vol.
1 and Vol. 2, Contemporary 3526 and 3539. Trum-
peter Jack Sheldon, who often has a tendency to
whimper in Bakerish fashion, rears back and takes
off with exhilarating effect on several occasions
and there is strong, warm playing by tenor saxo-
phonist Harold Land. Counce swings the group

The Records 77

along with his firm bass. Rolf Ericson replaces Shel-
don on trumpet on the group's Exploring the Fu-
ture, Dooto 247, an unfortunate change since his
flat, vague playing destroys the homogeneous qual-
ity the group shows on the Contemporary disks.

The Courtley-Seymour Orchestra. Led by Bert
Courtley, trumpet, and Jack Seymour, bass, this
English band is lithe and swinging in its single ap-
pearance on Third Festival of British Jazz, London
LL 1639.

Tony Crombie. This English drummer leads a bop-
pish band distinguished by the pungent trumpet of
Dizzy Reece on four selections in Modern Jazz at
Royal Festival Hall, London LL 1185.

Ron Grotty. Once a Brubeck bassist, Grotty leads a
trio in three selections on Modern Music in San
Francisco, Fantasy 3213, which is less notable for
his presence than that of the sprightly pianist,
Vince Guaraldi, and Eddie Duran, a sensitive gui-
tarist.

Cuban Jam Session. Cuban Jam Session, Panart
CLP 8000, is assertedly a casual come-one, come-all
drop-in jam session in Havana. It develops an ap-
propriate feeling of abandon, spurred on by an
efficient rhythm section and the hot, piping flute of
Juan Pablo Miranda.

Mike Cuozzo. Within a limited area, Cuozzo is a
capable, assertive tenor saxophonist who has based
his style on the Lester Young school but has added
nothing distinctively personal. He is fortunate in
having with him on Mike Cuozzo, Jubilee 1027,
Eddie Costa whose dancing piano peeps through
from time to time and, on Mighty Mike Cuozzo,
Savoy 12051, both Costa (playing vibes this time)

78 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

and pianist Ronnie Ball who team up to give the
disk some zooming excitement.

Jomar Dagron Quartet. Those, if any, who have
been demanding the admittance of the organo to
jazz circles will welcome Rocky Mountain Jazz,
Golden Crest 3018, by Denver's Jomar Dagron
Quartet (there is no Mr. Dagron the name is com-
pounded of syllables from the names of the mem-
bers of the quartet). Using tenor and baritone saxo-
phones, organo and drums, this crude but lusty
group has some kinship to the old ragged but
rugged Harlem jump bands but the limited voicing
of the group (the organo is strictly a cushion) soon
becomes monotonous.

Bert Dahlander. Dahlander is a Swedish drummer
(sometimes known as Bert Dale or Nils-Bertil
Dahlander) who has worked in the United States
frequently since 1954 (notably with Terry Gibbs
and Teddy Wilson). He seems to believe in pro-
pulsion rather than flash or flurry. Leading a quar-
tet on Skal, Verve 8253, he teams with bassist
Curtis Counce to set up a lithe, swinging founda-
tion for solos by Howard Roberts, guitar, and Vic-
tor Feldman, vibraphone, which are completely in
the Dahlander mode, i.e., light and rhythmic but
never ostentatious.

Tadd Dameron. Dameron is a pianist but he is
better known as an arranger and composer, dating
back to the 1930s when he was writing for Harlan
Leonard's Kansas City band. He was an active part
of the bop furor of the mid-Forties and was the
leader of the first modern group to be recorded by
Blue Note Records (reissued on The Fabulous Fats
Navarro, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Blue Note 1531 and
1532). The two LPs released under his own name
are the products of the Fifties when he was being
heard from relatively infrequently. He proves to be

The Records 79

his own best interpreter on Fontainebleau, Prestige
7037, on which five of his compositions are played
by an eight-piece band. His playing is warm and
explicit, a welcome contrast to the heavy-handed
work of most of the men in the group. The focal
point of a quintet led by Dameron on Mating Call,
Prestige 7070, is tenor saxophonist John Coltrane
whose hard-toned, leaping playing is a balancing
contrast to Dameron's very simple, economical
solos.

Hank D'Amico. We Brought Our Axes, Bethlehem
7 (shared with the Aaron Sachs Sextet), shows the
modern surface that has been acquired by D'Amico,
a clarinetist spawned in swing who still retains a
full-toned, flowing Goodman style. But 24 Short
Dances for the Tired Businessman, Golden Crest
3031, although couched in the older style, gives
D'Amico little chance to get going.

Johnny Dankworth. Although Dankworth is one
of the handful of really distinguished jazz mu-
sicians who have developed in England a brilliant
alto saxophonist who has absorbed Benny Carter's
soaring fluency he has been strangely neglected on
LP imports to this country. On Five Steps to Dank-
worth, Verve 20006, he is heard with his big band
and with two quintets drawn from the band. The
band plays written arrangements cleanly but is in-
clined to mumble on head arrangements while the
quintets are primarily showcases for the group's
major soloists Dankworth, playing with his cus-
tomary easy sweep; an amiable pianist named
Dave Lee and Dickie Hawdon, an erratic trumpeter
who, at his best, wraps a modern jazz surface
around an attack that goes back to young Louis
Armstrong. Dankworth, disguised as King John I,
also has a pair of immaculate solos on Cool Europe,
MGM 3157.

80 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Bob Davis. Davis is a dexterous, flowing pianist,
based in Minneapolis, who plays in a handful-of-
keys manner that is modern in conception but car-
ries shades of Art Tatum and particularly Earl
Hines. He seems to have instinctive taste no matter
what atrocities are going on around him. The
atrocities occur occasionally on Jazz in Orbit,
Stepheny 4000, contributed by saxophonist Dave
Karr who can play pleasantly but lacks Davis' self-
control. Davis' saxophonist on Jazz from the North
Coast, Zephyr 12001, is Bob Grea who is warmly ex-
pressive on alto but rather routine when he
switches to tenor or baritone.

Eddie Davis. This Davis is a sturdy, strong-toned
tenor saxophonist with an urgent, bursting attack
which often verges over into outright honking. He
tempers his ferocity somewhat on The Eddie Lock-
jaw" Davis Cookbook, Prestige 7141, as organist
Shirley Scott backs him up with jabbing accent
chords. Miss Scott is the main point of interest on
both Eddie Davis Trio, Roost 2227, and Eddie
Davis Trio, Roulette 52019, although she is kept in
the background on all but two selections on each
disk. A similarly set up trio, with Bill Doggett on
organ, plays one selection on Roost Fifth Anni-
versary Album, Roost 1201. Davis tangles, not too
roughly but at great length, with Sonny Stitt on
Battle of Birdland, Roost 1203. He can also be
heard on Big Beat Jazz, King 599, Eddie Davis
Uptown, King 606, Jazz with a Beat, King 566, Jazz
with a Horn, King 526, and Modern Jazz Expres-
sion, King 506.

Jackie Davis. Most of Jackie Davis' Hammond
organ performances are background ballads with
suggestions of a swinging beat (The Jackie Davis
Trio, Kapp 1030; Hi-Fi Hammond, Capitol T 686;
Chasing Shadows, Capitol T 815). There is less

The Records 81

lushness, more lean swing on Jumpin* Jackie,
Capitol T 974, and Most Happy Hammond, Capi-
tol T 1046.

Miles Davis. Although Davis has been regarded
as an important trumpet voice in modern jazz since
the middle Forties, he gained and held this reputa-
tion despite the fact that his work was extremely
erratic during much of this time. His earliest re-
cordings with Charlie Parker show him fumbling,
none too successfully, in the direction of Dizzy
Gillespie and Fats Navarro, a style which he was
not equipped technically to handle at that time
and which has proven, subsequently, not to be his
metier at all.

Davis* first significant move toward uncovering
his own musical personality can be heard in the
work of the nine-piece group that he led briefly in
1948 and which, with a few variations in personnel,
plays on Birth of the Cool, Capitol T 762 (three
selections from this disk are repeated on Cool and
Quiet, Capitol T 371). The arrangements con-
tributed to this set by Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan
and John Lewis brought back the art of ensemble
jazz which had been all but forgotten in the solo-
ists' debauch that Parker had induced. From
Claude Thornhill's band, for which Evans had
been arranging and in which Lee Konitz (a mem-
ber of the nonet) had been playing, came the in-
spiration for including tuba and French horn in
the instrumentation along with vestiges of the calm
placidity that characterized much of Thornhill's
playing. In these surroundings Davis emerged as a
trumpeter who operated sotto voce, playing with
serene deliberation. This was cool jazz, the reaction
to the driving, intransigent fury of the boppers.

But Davis' group was quite shortlived and during
the first half of the Fifties Davis followed an inde-
terminate path, sometimes attempting to rediscover

82 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

that serenity which had cropped up in his playing
with the nonet, at other times venturing out into a
strong, hard blowing style. Davis has admitted, in
retrospect, that he is dissatisfied with most of his
work during this period. It is, by any standards,
inconsistent.

On a 1951 session with Sonny Rollins, Benny
Green and John Lewis, included on Miles Davis
with Horns, Prestige 7025, Davis moves sleekly at a
fast tempo but flounders listlessly through a pair of
ballads. On the remainder of the disk, Davis, along
with Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Lewis and others, plods
vaguely through several pieces by Cohn. Davis'
playing is more assured but not particularly il-
luminating on another 1951 session, Dig, Prestige
7012, with Rollins and 19-year-old Jackie McLean.
Rollins, playing in a light, smooth rolling style, is
even more aimless than Davis here and, surpris-
ingly, it is McLean who provides the most direction
and vitality. Two more undistinguished selections
from this same date are included in Conception,
Prestige 7013.

The following year Davis recorded some flat,
soggy performances with a flaccid group which in-
cluded McLean and J. J. Johnson. They provide
the low points on both Volume 1 and Volume 2 of
Miles Davis, Blue Note 1501 and 1502. Volume 1 is
saved by a 1953 session on which Davis plays a
clean, firm, driving horn, so much so that he alone
(Johnson and Jimmy Heath, tenor saxophone, are
the other horns) is able to outshout the boiling
drumming of Art Blakey. Volume 2 is filled out
with a 1954 quartet set (with Blakey, Horace Silver
and Percy Heath) on which Davis runs a wide
gamut from an outgoing, hard driving swing
through roughly sketched, rather uncertain playing
down to painfully poor.

Early in 1953 Davis was reunited in a recording
studio with Charlie Parker who played relatively

The Records 83

undistinguished tenor saxophone on this occasion.
The results, included in Miles Davis Collectors
Items, Prestige 7044, again stress Davis' unpredict-
ably erratic playing. Suggestions of the sparse,
briefly ejaculated phrasing that was to become one
of the hallmarks of his work within the next few
years can be heard on these performances which are
highlighted by the storming backing with which
bassist Percy Heath urges on the soloists. This disk
also offers a view of Davis in 1956 with Sonny
Rollins and a rhythm section which further empha-
sizes his development of a sketchy, spitballing at-
tack.

Two quartets, a 1953 group with John Lewis,
Percy Heath and Max Roach, and the 1954 set-up
with Silver, Heath and Blakey mentioned above,
are featured on Blue Haze, Prestige 7054, on which
Davis flows with lyrical ease at a fast tempo with
the '53 foursome, manages to be clean and positive
on a slow blues with the '54 group but then, turn-
ing to a ballad, becomes drab and dismal. There is
also one selection on this disk by a 1954 group with
Dave Schildkraut on alto saxophone and a rhythm
section made up of Silver, Heath and Clarke which
swings with joyous exuberance, a quality which is
carried over to selections from the same session on
Walking Prestige 7076, reaching a high point on
Love Me or Leave Me on which Davis hits fast and
hard, making everything cleanly, and Silver roars
through a furious solo. Davis' playing is equally
certain and well directed on the remaining pieces
on this disk, played in 1954 by a group which in-
cludes J. J. Johnson and Lucky Thompson, whose
tenor saxophone is uncharacteristically static. An-
other 1954 session with Rollins, Silver, Heath and
Clarke makes up one side of Bags' Groove, Prestige
7109, with Rollins swinging aggressively and
warmly while Davis is relatively empty. The other
side, made in the same year, is devoted to two long

84 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

takes of Bags' Groove on which Milt Jackson is
working home territory, Thelonious Monk digs in
hard at the piano and Davis' playing is firm and
direct. Jackson is also present on Miles Davis All
Star Sextet/Quintet, Prestige 7034, and his domi-
nance of the disk is challenged only occasionally,
not by Davis, but by pianist Ray Bryant.

The Musings of Miles, Prestige 7007, introduces
a precursor of the group with which Davis played
during the latter Fifties. At this stage it was a
quartet with Red Garland, piano, Philly Joe Jones,
drums and, on the disk, Oscar Pettiford, bass (who
was replaced by Paul Chambers when the quartet
actually came into being). This disk is an inaus-
picious prelude to the long-delayed flowering of
Davis' equally long heralded talents. By 1956 the
quartet had expanded to a quintet with the addition
of John Coltrane's tenor saxophone. It made its re-
cording debut on The New Miles Davis Quintet,
Prestige 7014, with Davis in alert, sensitive form and
Garland sprucing up the ballads with his light, rid-
ing attack. On Cookin', Prestige 7094, Davis moves
from his earlier coolness to a hard, fierce drive with
Coltrane charging ruggedly at his side but Relaxing
Prestige 7129, is far less interesting for Davis* play-
ing is comparatively empty and Coltrane has en-
tered his period of wrestling with his horn, seeming
to gag on his own lines. Only the rhythm section
sustains the earlier level. 'Round About Midnight,
Columbia CL 949, is more of the same but Mile-
stones, Columbia CL 1193, raises the personnel to
sextet size with the accumulation of Julian Adder-
ley on alto saxophone and presents a more assured
and directly communicative Davis, minus the dif-
fidence that obscured much of his earlier work.

He had, at this point, returned to an association
with Gil Evans, one result of which was Miles
Ahead, Columbia CL 1041, for which Evans wrote
arrangements for Davis (on fluegelhorn) and a big

The Records 85

band in the calm, richly harmonic cool idiom that
had been suggested on some of the 1948 nonet
pieces. Evans' orchestrations are a constant delight
on this disk, a sinuous kaleidoscope of shifting
colors and accents over which Davis plays with
much more certainty and direction than he had
been showing in less firmly guided circumstances.
The beneficial effect of a definite framework on
Davis' playing can also be heard in his solos on
Music for Brass, Columbia CL 941, on which he is
the soloist in arrangements by John Lewis and J. J.
Johnson. There is more than a suggestion in his
playing on Milestones that he had found a new
perspective in his playing as a result of his work
with these two large groups.

One selection by Davis is included in Jazz Omni-
bus, Columbia CL 1020.

Shelby Davis. Miss Davis has all sorts of impressive
jazz backing for her singing of three selections on
Singin' and Swinging Regent 6031 Bill Russo, Art
Pepper, Bob Cooper, Shelly Manne and others
but despite this support she is less a jazz singer
than, potentially, a pleasant voice for an intimate
night club.

Wild Bill Davis. One of the pioneers in spreading
the use of the electric organ in the Fifties, Davis
flails away in an exuberant, hard swinging style
that borders on rock 'n' roll on Wild Bill Davis at
Birdland, Epic 3118, and switches to a rather bland
style that is scarcely any more appealing on Eve-
ning Concerto, Epic 3308.

Rusty Dedrick. Although he comes out of a swing
background and has something of the big, dark,
trumpet tone of Bunny Berigan, Dedrick has ac-
quired a modern surface that leaves him neither
fish nor fowl. His feeling for the Berigan style

86 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

shows in his playing of 1 Can't Get Started on
Salute to Bunny, Counterpoint 552, but the rest
of the tribute stumbles in the modernized treat-
ment that Dedrick gives to tunes associated with
Berigan. Jack Keller, a light fingered pianist, and
John LaPorta, playing an enthusiastically virile
baritone saxophone, are much more to the point.
Dedrick does much better in a situation in which
there are no odious comparisons to be made,
Counterpoint for Six Valves, Riverside 12-218, on
which he romps through some bright, humorous
two trumpet pieces with Don Elliott. He has one
solo number in Jazz for Lovers, Riverside 12-244.

Buddy De Franco. The theory that technical fa-
cility results in good jazz a theory that has been
disproved by quite a few pianists is also equally
inapplicable to the clarinet as Buddy De Franco
has been demonstrating for more than fifteen years.
When he was playing with the bands of Gene
Krupa, Charlie Barnet, Tommy Dorsey and Boyd
Raeburn in the Forties, he was working in a setting
and in a tradition in which his lack of real jazz
warmth was not particularly noticeable for in the
short solo stretches that were customary for side-
men in such bands De Franco's clean, full tone
and his precise fluency on his clarinet, coupled with
the momentum of a big band, could mask his fail-
ure to kindle a jazz feeling. Separated from this
protective cocoon, however, and laid bare in long,
long solos with little more than a rhythm section
to support him, his chilly strictness and inability
to communicate in jazz terms reduced his work to
tiresome exhibitions of technique. Possibly his
closest approach to a relaxed, unstarched jazz style
occurs on Buddy De Franco and the Oscar Peterson
Quartet, Verve 8210, in three selections on Cool
and Quiet, Capitol T 371, and a pair of ballads on
Cooking the Blues, Verve 8221. But there is a de-

The Records 87

pressing and tedious similarity about almost all
his other disks Buddy De Franco, MGM 3396;
Buddy De Franco Quartet, Verve 8159; Autumn
Leaves, Verve 8183; The Buddy De Franco Wallers,
Verve 8175; and In a Mellow Mood, Verve 8169.
Nor does the presence of a technically fluent musi-
cian who can swing with feeling, Art Tatum,
stimulate De Franco to follow his example on
Tatum-De Franco Quartet, Verve 8229. On one
side of Odalisque, Verve 8182, he is returned to
the big band setting to no avail for the band plods
listlessly through heavy-handed arrangements. A
different big band setting, Cross Country Suite, Dot
9006, is an attempt by Nelson Riddle to catch the
flavor of various sections of the United States, mix-
ing folkish themes, jazz and a Hollywood sym-
phonic concept. It is a suitable showcase for De
Franco's virtuosity but the writing is so derivative
that it tastes like warmed-over stew.

On Buddy De Franco Plays Artie Shaw, Verve
2090, and Buddy De Franco Plays Benny Goodman,
Verve 2089, the clarinetist casts a hopeful backward
glance at two of his worthy predecessors. He makes
no overt attempt to imitate either one but he fits
most readily into the context of the Shaw pieces
which hang together well. The Goodman selections
lose their essential unity by being reduced to the
role of undercarriage for a series of extended solos
which might have come out of any blowing session.

De Franco makes less ostensible efforts to be a
jazz musician in the soft lushness of Sweet and
Lovely, Verve 8224, in deliberate, string-backed per-
formances on The George Gershwin Song Book,
Verve 2022, and in Russell Garcia's slick, routine
big band arrangements on Broadway Showcase,
Verve 2033. He is buried under a vocal group on
his contributions to Baker, Mulligan, De Franco,
GNP 26, and behind the drumming of Art Blakey
and Sabu in one selection of Afro-Drum Carnival,

88 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

GNP 25. He has one selection in Forty-Eight Stars
of American Jazz, MGM 3611, and The Anatomy
of Improvisation, Verve 8230.

Angelo De Pippo. An accordionist who has an easy,
gracious approach to modern jazz lines, De Pippo
cushions them on the soft tones of the lower register
of his instrument. On The Jazz Accordion, Apollo
478, he and flutist Sam Most spice what might be
simply pleasant background quartet performances
into a smooth-textured form of jazz.

Paul Desmond. Desmond, a charter and seemingly
life member of the Dave Brubeck Quartet, was
often the saving grace of that group in the days
before Joe Morello and Gene Wright joined up.
Almost all of his recorded work has been with the
Brubeck group with two notable exceptions: The
Paul Desmond Quartet, Fantasy 3235, on which he
repeatedly shows his rare talent for working out a
really valid solo at some length (he is one of the
very few jazzmen who can do this consistently), and
Gerry Mulligan-Paul Desmond Quartet, Verve 8246,
a furiously swinging affair in which Desmond,
seemingly responding to Mulligan's strong solos,
plays with a much more leathery attack than usual
and manages to cut Mulligan through most of the
disk. He and Mulligan also appear on Paul Des-
mond Quintet, Fantasy 3220, but on separate sides.

Jimmy Deuchar. This able but scarcely exceptional
Scottish trumpeter leads a small group through
a blowing session, Pub Crawling with Jimmy
Deuchar, Contemporary 3529, which is interesting
mainly for the amiably burr-toned trombone of
Ken Wray.

Jerry Dodgion. Even though he is an alto saxo-
phonist who has obviously heard Charlie Parker,

The Records 89

Dodgion manages to phrase in a swinging fashion
that is not a slavish succession of Parkerisms. He
is brightly himself in two quartet selections on
Modern Music from San Francisco, Fantasy 3213,
but a sextet which he leads jointly with fellow
altoist Charlie Mariano gets trapped in some
strange material songs of the World War I period
treated in a modern jazz vein on Beauties of 1918,
World Pacific 1245. Single selections from this ses-
sion also appear on Have Blues, Will Travel,
World Pacific JWC 509, and Jazz West Coast, Vol.
4, World Pacific JWC 510.

Arne Donmerus. Domnerus is one of the hard-core
veterans of Swedish modern jazz. He began his
career on alto saxophone as a reflection of Benny
Carter, then turned to Charlie Parker and latterly
has returned to a well assimilated Carter style.
Some of the best examples of Domnerus' suavely
exciting alto playing are on Swedish Modern Jazz,
Camden 417, on which he also plays an intriguing
clarinet. He is heard in a modest but helpful
role on Swedes from Jazzville, Epic 3309.

Lou Donaldson. At a time when the jazz woods
are full of well publicized alto saxophonists whose
talents are only fair to middling, it is surprising
that as polished and creative a performer as Donald-
son should remain relatively obscure. He mixes a
warm, full tone, remarkable dexterity and a roaring
sense of swing but has little resort to stylistic
crutches. He soars off at amazingly fast tempos with
casual fluency, precise execution and neatly laid
out ideas and, unlike most other neo-Parkerites, he
can project a ballad with deeply felt expression. He
is usually head and shoulders above the other horns
with whom he records but on Lou Takes Off, Blue
Note 1591, he has the cogent support of pianist
Sonny Clark and bassist George Joyner while he is

90 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

joined by the driving piano of Horace Silver on
Quartet, Quintet, Sextet, Blue Note 1537. He
blithely overpowers an earthbound rhythm section
on Wailing with Lou, Blue Note 1545, but a group
of unrewarding selections finally slow him down
on Swing and Soul, Blue Note 1566.

Kenny Dorham. A trumpeter in the Dizzy Gillespie-
Fats Navarro line, Dorham played with Gillespie's
band in the Forties as well as those led by Billy
Eckstine, Lionel Hampton and Mercer Ellington.
From 1948 to 1950 he was a member of Charlie
Parker's Quintet. He was one of the original mem-
bers of the Jazz Messengers and pulled out of that
group to form his own shortlived Jazz Prophets.
He is capable of rough-toned, biting phrasing but
his lines rarely go anywhere. The two recorded
legacies of the Jazz Prophets Kenny Dorham and
the Jazz Prophets, ABC-Paramount 122, and 'Round
About Midnight at the Cafe Bohemia, Blue Note
1524 show Dorham as a routine performer leading
a group which has no particular individuality. The
same qualities characterize his other disks, none of
them of any special interest Afro-Cuban, Blue
Note 1535; Jazz Contrasts, Riverside 12-239; and
Two Horns, Two Rhythm, Riverside 12-255. He
has single selections in Jazz for Lovers, Riverside
12-244, and Riverside Drive, Riverside 12-267.

Ray Draper. Born in 1940, Draper was making a
name as a tuba player in jazz circles by the time
he was sixteen. Possibly this was a mistake for it
has resulted in placing the tuba in pointless promi-
nence on Tuba Sound, Prestige 7096. Despite his
best efforts, Draper's solos have no more jazz
qualities than Tubby the Tuba does (and Tubby
has other merits of his own).

Kenny Drew. Drew is a swirling, lean pianist who
phrases in consistently swinging fashion although

The Records 91

his ideas are rather monotonous on The Kenny
Drew Trio, Riverside 12-224. The addition of
trumpeter Donald Byrd and tenor saxophonist
Hank Mobley to his group on This Is New, River-
side 12-236, fails to break the sameness of sound
that dogs the first disk since all three become in-
volved in tiresomely long solos which they cannot
sustain. A suggestion that Drew's forte may be some-
what beyond jazz is contained in The Modernity
of Kenny Drew, Verve 8156, on which, playing
with bass and drums, he varies his light, looping
swingers with some pretty out-of-tempo pieces. Jazz
Impressions of Pal Joey, Riverside 12-249, takes
advantage of this aspect as Drew plays neat, orderly
versions of the Rodgers and Hart tunes which stem
logically from the originals. A Harry Warren Show-
case, Judson 3004, A Harold Arlen Showcase, Jud-
son 3005, and I Love Jerome Kern, Riverside 12-811,
are done in a pleasant, straightforward pop vein
with no special jazz flavor. Drew has single selec-
tions in Jazz for Lovers, Riverside 12-244, and
Riverside Drive, Riverside 12-267.

Doug Duke. One of the first to try to make a jazz
career on the organ, Duke has served with Lionel
Hampton's band and has led his own trios. He
moves between organ and piano on The Jazz Or-
ganist, Regent 6013, but what ever jazz qualities
he may have are thinly diluted on this disk.

Dorothy Dunn. An undigested Sarah Vaughan in-
fluence, some borrowings from Anita O'Day and a
seemingly greater interest in doing vocal tricks than
in singing a song effectively mark this singer's four
contributions to Singin' and Swingin', Regent 6031.

Eddie Duran. Duran can be a charmingly effective
guitarist in a light, reflective manner (as he is as a
part of The Vince Guaraldi Trio, Fantasy 3225)

92 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

but he is not quite strong enough to carry his own
album, Jazz Guitarist, Fantasy 3247, in the face of
heavy drumming and a hard-toned, static tenor
saxophonist.

Billy Eckstine. Between his career as a vocalist with
the Earl Hines band of the early Forties which
turned out to be an all-star bop school and his later
career as a gaudily inflected crooner, Eckstine led
one of the first big bop bands. His sidemen included
Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Fats Navarro, Gene
Ammons, Dexter Gordon and Art Blakey. This
was a rough, enthusiastic band with much the same
battering, lumbering attack that Gillespie's first big
band had. Four poorly recorded pieces by the
Eckstine band are on LP two on Boning Up on
'Bones, EmArcy 36083, both featuring hoarse valve
trombone solos by Eckstine, and two more on Ad-
vance Guard of the Forties, EmArcy 36016.

Kurt Edelhagen. The highly polished, versatile and
explosive German band molded by Edelhagen on
the Ted Heath pattern is sparkingly crisp and
swinging when it manages to avoid getting lost in
its own high decibel count on Jazz from Germany,
Decca 8231.

Harry Edison. The biting, astringent trumpet of
Harry Edison was a vital part of Count Basic's brass
section in the glory days of the original Basic band.
During the Fifties he has freelanced, mostly on the
West Coast, and has made several recordings in
company with other well-rooted jazzmen. On Sweets,
Verve 8097, and Gee, Baby, Ain't I Good To You,
Verve 8211, he is joined and all but outclassed by
the eminent tenor saxophonist, Ben Webster, while
on Buddy and Sweets, Verve 8129, Buddy Rich sets
up a surging support for his crackling trumpet.

The Records 93

Edison, who is particularly adept with mutes, plays
with dark intensity on all three disks and further
shows his skill with a mute on Tour De Force,
Verve 8212, an unusual blowing session in that it
is devoted to three trumpeters (Edison, Dizzy Gil-
lespie and Roy Eldridge) all playing with mutes in
a subdued, tight manner over swinging rhythm sup-
port. A reunion between Edison and his old Basie-
mate, Lester Young, on Pres and Sweets, Verve 8134,
proves to be mutually depressing. He plays one
selection on Solo Flight, World Pacific JWC 505.

Don Elliott. Elliott's versatility is inclined to get in
the way of his not inconsiderable abilities as a
swinging, modern-surfaced jazz musician. He plays
trumpet, mellophone, vibraphone, bongos, sings
and does vocal take-offs. With all these possibilities
at his beck and call, he often gets tied up in gim-
micky ideas. For jazz, his best instrument is the
mellophone although he is also a capable vibra-
phonist and, at times, a more than serviceable
trumpeter. He shows up well on all three instru-
ments on one side of Doubles in Jazz, Vanguard
8522 (shared with Sam Most), on which he has the
lifting help of Ellis Larkins' light, swinging piano.
He is more erratic as a triple-threat on Vib-Rations,
Savoy 12054.

For several years during the middle Fifties Elliott
led a quartet which was usually made up of Bob
Corwin, piano, Ernie Furtado, bass, and Jimmy
Campbell, drums. It was a cohesive group which
has a light and airy way on Don Elliott at the
Modern Jazz Room, ABC-Paramount 142, but Bob
Corwin Quartet (actually the Elliott quartet), River-
side 12-220, is less successful because Elliott plays
trumpet throughout and is constantly outswung
by Corwin. The Quartet is in fine fettle on a couple
of selections on The Voice of Marty Bell, The
Quartet of Don Elliott, Riverside 12-206, but most

94 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

of the time it is buried behind Bell, a shallow,
straining singer who sounds somewhat like Jackie
Paris. The Quartet's appearance at Newport in
1957 is reported on Eddie Costa, Mat Mat hews and
Don Elliott at Newport, Verve 8287.

Elliott's mellophone is neatly showcased in well
organized, rhythmic arrangements by Quincy Jones
on A Musical Offering, ABC-Paramount 106, and
on Don Elliott, Bethlehem 12, although the latter
is largely in the mood music vein.

He plays an amusing and invigorating group of
trumpet duets with Rusty Dedrick on Counter-
point for Six Valves, Riverside 12-218, and, shift-
ing to a different kind of gimmick, is multi-taped
into a choral group and a band on The Voices of
Don Elliott, ABC-Paramount 190. The choral group
is for real on The Mello Sound, Decca 9208, but
the soothing music that Elliott creates with these
singers has scarcely a shred of jazz in it. Music of
the Sensational Sixties, Design 69, announced on
the liner as "a step beyond progressive jazz" may
be precisely that (who knows?) but if it is then the
step beyond "progressive" jazz is a mixture of
adolescent-voiced crooning a la Elliott set in quiet,
conservative arrangements.

Like almost everyone else, Elliott has taken a
whack at a show score. His Jamaica Jazz, ABC-
Paramount 228, is one of the more rational transla-
tions of Broadway to jazz. Harold Arlen's blues
and calypso accented music for Jamaica has been
thoughtfully and modestly arranged by Gil Evans,
using a small woodwind group and the conga drum
of Candido to form an effective setting for Elliott's
full arsenal of instruments mellophone, vibra-
phone, marimba, trumpet and bongos. As usual,
he comes out best on mellophone. Elliott has single
selections in Jazz for Lovers, Riverside 12-244,
Riverside Drive, Riverside 12-267, and Concert
Jazz, Brunswick 54027.

The Records 95

Herb Ellis. In the guitar slot which he held for
many years with the Oscar Peterson trio, Ellis has
often affected a rackety, tinny style that suggested
a call to arms to the hill people. Yet the two LPs
which have appeared under his name, Ellis in
Wonderland, Verve 8171, and Nothing But the
Blues, Verve 8252, are both remarkably warm, well
directed disks. On the first assisted by Harry Edison
and Jimmy Giuffre, his guitar is cushioned on a
relatively rich ensemble. Most of the selections are
in a quiet, swinging vein, pleasantly unpretentious
and enlivened by sly ensemble and solo ideas. On
the second disk his front line companions are Roy
Eldridge and Stan Getz. The selections range from
'way back, low down blues riffs to light, lilting
swingers. Ellis is a consistently bright and driving
element on his own and when he is supporting
Getz's modest but wonderfully pulsant solos.

Frans Elsen. This Dutch pianist, a man of ap-
parently limited intentions, paws listlessly through
several surface pieces on Jazz Behind the Dikes,
Epic 3270.

Rolf Ericson. For most of the past decade Sweden's
Rolf Ericson has been an international commuter
and has worked with several big American bands
(Charlie Barnet, Woody Herman, Harry James, Les
Brown). He can be a forceful big band trumpet
man but he is a fuzzy, incoherent element in the
otherwise interesting American small group he leads
on Rolf Ericson and His American All-Stars, Em-
Arcy 36106.

Bill Evans. One of the most effective members of
the growing school of pianists who work in a dark,
minor, folk-rooted manner, Evans resorts to a glib
chomp-chomping surface on much of his only solo
disk, New Jazz Conceptions, Riverside 12-223, mak-

96 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

ing it less distinctive than his work on other oc-
casions would lead one to expect.

Gil Evans. The seemingly unlikely background of
apprenticeship with Skinnay Ennis and Claude
Thornhill has brought to modern jazz one of its
most provocative arrangers Gil Evans. Evans began
moving from the dance band field to jazz while he
was arranging for Thornhill in the late Forties
when he contributed some Charlie Parker pieces to
the Thornhill library (The Thornhill Sound, Har-
mony 7088). His contributions to the Miles Davis
nonet (The Birth of the Cool, Capitol T 762) with
their floating, shifting panels of tonal colors, a
heritage from the Thornhill band, focused atten-
tion on him as a jazz influence, an influence which
has grown through the years even though Evans
himself chose to withdraw from jazz during the
first half of the Fifties. When he returned, he
again worked with Davis, writing arrangements in
his calm, richly harmonic style for a big band which
forms the framework for Davis* fluegelhorn solos
on Miles Ahead, Columbia CL 1041. He provided
a sinuous kaleidoscope of shifting colors and accents
over which Davis plays with a certainty and direc-
tion that are not always present in less firmly
guided circumstances. In his debut as a leader, Gil
Evans and Ten, Prestige 7120, Evans shows a
stronger sense of overt swing than one finds in his
earlier work in a varied group of arrangements
played by an alert, responsive group which includes
among its more notable soloists soprano saxophon-
ist Steve Lacy, trumpeter Jake Koven and Evans
himself who plays a very high, plinking, single note
piano style.

Evans' most brilliant display as both arranger
and leader, however, is New Bottle Old Wine,
World Pacific 1246, a disk which might be consid-
ered a summation of jazz seen through the personal

The Records 97

perspective of Evans. He has orchestrated for a big
band tunes representative of both the old and the
new eras of jazz St. Louis Blues, King Porter
Stomp, Fats Waller's lovely Willow Tree, Struttin'
with Some Barbecue, Lester Leaps In, Round
About Midnight, Manteca and Charlie Parker's
Bird Feathers skillfully fusing the original spirit
of each piece with his own distinctive style. In the
process he has drawn from his featured soloist,
alto saxophonist Julian Adderley, some of his most
consistently expressive playing playing that is
more concerned with solid meat and less with
floridity than Adderley's sometimes is.

Tal Farlow. Farlow's early indication that he had
a more adventurous attitude toward the electric
guitar than most of his fellow guitarists (he includes
echoes of Django Reinhardt along with the in-
evitable Charlie Christian) are demonstrated in the
varied program that makes up The Tal Farlow
Album, Verve 8138. Since then, however, he seems
to have been content to grind out one album after
another with piano, bass and drums, mostly done
in uptempos. The lack of variety in tone, texture
and tempo makes The Interpretations of Tal Far-
low, Verve 8011, and The Artistry of Tal Farlow,
Verve 8184, needlessly dull while The Swinging
Guitar, Verve 8201, and Tal, Verve 8021, are bright-
ened by occasional refreshingly sunny break-
throughs by Eddie Costa's hot-blooded, wallopingly
percussive piano. It is also refreshing to find Far-
low working with an ensemble (trombone and two
saxophones) on A Recital by Tal Farlow, Verve
8123, but the pleasure is only momentary for these
soon turn into a trudging set of performances.

Art Farmer* In the past year Farmer has stepped
out from the rut of sheltered, pigeon-holed, one-
style trumpeters to become that rarity a jazz musi-

98 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

cian almost without school ties. He has reached a
level of assurance, skill and flexibility which make
him capable of playing practically anything unusu-
ally well, with thoughtfulness and sensitivity. His
very flexibility, however, has its drawbacks for he
tends to play within the context of whatever group
or situation he finds himself in. Thus in such
routine blowing sessions as Two Trumpets, Prestige
7062, (Donald Byrd being the other trumpet), Three
Trumpets, Prestige 7092, (add Idrees Sulieman) and
The Art Farmer Quintet, Prestige 7017, he settles
for the least common denominator. If there is to
be any rising above this, it is not done by Farmer
(pianist Duke Jordan brightens parts of The Art
Farmer Quintet). Even when he is with a distinctly
superior jamming group on Earthy, Prestige 7102,
his playing is only routine while guitarist Kenny
Burrell and pianist Mai Waldron show what can
be done positively within the limitations of such
performances.

Farmer showed flashes of promise on some of his
earliest recordings, made with some men from
Lionel Hampton's band in which he was resident
in 1953. They are included in The Art Farmer
Septet, Prestige 7031, a disk which is filled out by
an uneven 1954 group which is of interest primarily
for Horace Silver's pungent piano work. In sessions
recorded in 1954 and 1955 on When Farmer Met
Gryce, Prestige 7085, the promising flashes continue
as Fanner reaches out but does not yet seem en-
tirely certain of his direction.

It is on his most recent disks that Farmer gives
evidence of coming firmly into his own although
he is not always fortunate in his surroundings.
Leading a quartet on Portrait of Art Farmer, Con-
temporary 3554, for example, he has moments when
he rears back and lets fly with full-throated vitality
but he spends a great deal of time probing around
as though he were waiting for something to happen.

The Records 99

Except for some ballads, his work stays on a more
consistent level on Modern Art, United Artists 4007,
but the record as a whole is an in-and-out affair,
marred by Benny Golson's newly acquired lean-
ing toward the many noted, flamboyant school
of hard bop tenor saxophonists. Farmer's Market,
Prestige 8203, provides further evidence of Farmer's
forceful assurance and his sure sense of construction
but Hank Mobley's tenor saxophone is tiresomely
limited.

An attempt to put Farmer in a setting something
like that provided for Bobby Racket by Jackie
Gleason's string groups, Last Night When We Were
Young, ABC-Paramount 200, allows Farmer to show
a bigger, darker sound than one normally associates
with him but this soggy approach to ballads is not
his forte.

Victor Feldman. An Englishman of many talents
(vibes, piano and drums are his principal outlets)
Feldman was introduced to the United States as
a vibist with Woody Herman's band in the middle
Fifties. He has since settled in California and can
be heard as a sideman on numerous recordings
made there. He plays all three of his main instru-
ments on Suite Sixteen, Contemporary 3541, re-
corded while he was still in England, as he leads a
shouting, boiling big band, a subdued, reflective
quartet, and a septet. His deliberately precise way of
playing vibes is well framed by the quartet on this
disk but on The Arrival of Victor Feldman, Con-
temporary 3549, his first American LP, he shows up
best as a hard hitting, forceful pianist. Much of
his work on vibes on this disk is overshadowed by
Scott LaFaro, a bassist whose strong firm lines be-
come overbearing in this context.

Maynard Ferguson. Ferguson's ability to blast his
way around the upper reaches of the trumpet

100 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

helped him gain attention when he came to the
United States in 1948 after leading his own band in
Canada. But spearing high notes for Stan Kenton,
Charlie Barnet and Jimmy Dorsey did not help
him to develop as a jazz musician. Recordings made
with his own large and small groups since 1954
show he has been slowly moving in this direction.
He still has difficulty resolving a trumpet solo
without reaching for dogs 1 ears but in the naturally
lower tones of valve trombone, bass trumpet and
even muted trumpet he is becoming a balanced
and pleasantly earthy jazz performer.

At best, Ferguson is erratic inconsistent but full
of fire on Around the Horn, EmArcy 36076, May-
nard Ferguson Octet, EmArcy 36021, and Boy with
Lots of Brass, EmArcy 36114. His big band, which
shares most of Ferguson's merits and demerits, gives
an indication of being able to do more than merely
erupt on A Message from Newport, Roulette 52012.
Ferguson is the empty high-noter on Jam Session,
EmArcy 36002, Jam Session, EmArcy 36009, Dimen-
sions, EmArcy 36044, and Hollywood Party, Em-
Arcy 36046. He contributes one undistinguished
selection to Bargain Day, EmArcy 36087.

Jerry Fielding. An arranger and band leader who
works the West Coast TV and recording studio
circuit, Fielding leads a crisp, polished and lightly
swinging band on Jerry Fielding Plays a Dance
Concert, Kapp 1026, Fielding s Formula, Decca
8450, and Sweet with a Beat, Decca 8100. Although
Swingin f in Hi-Fi, Decca 8371, is subtitled "Rock
'n' Roll Matriculates" it actually consists of pleas-
ant, unostentatious big band pieces played with a
definite beat but not beaten to death. The oc-
casional quirks of imaginative arranging which
peek through Fielding's big band work takes com-
mand on Hollywoodwind Jazztet, Decca 8669, an
unusual and interesting use of a woodwind group

The Records 101

which is not strongly touched by jazz but is very
attractive dancing chamber music.

Herbie Fields. A capable jazzman on all the reeds,
Fields had some of Charlie Barnet's fire and drive,
some of Flip Phillips' swinging flow but, to offset
these merits, a deplorable lack of taste. This lack
reduces A Night at Kitty's, RKO-Unique 124, to
utter banality and makes his side of Blow Hot,
Blow Cool, Decca 8130, much less bearable than it
could have been.

The First Modern Piano Quartet. The Quartet is
made up of pianists who are known primarily as
jazzmen (Dick Marx, Eddie Costa, Hank Jones and
Johnny Costa). On A Gallery of Gershwin, Coral
59102, they are working within orchestral arrange-
ments written and conducted by another jazz-
oriented musician, Manny Albam, but the result is
only peripherally jazz. Except when one of the
pianists moves out from the quartet as a soloist,
this might be classified as mood music or light con-
cert music, although a superior brand of either.

Tommy Flanagan. Flanagan, a pianist, is one of
the multitude of prominent jazzmen of the Fifties
who grew up and began his career in Detroit. He
shifted to New York in 1956 and, since then, has
provided some refreshing piano interludes on nu-
merous recorded blowing sessions. Like most of his
American recordings, Jazz . . . It's Magic, Regent
6055, Jazzmen: Detroit, Savoy 12083, and All Day
Long, Prestige 7081, show him to be a pleasant
pianist who swings along easily within a limited
area. In view of this, The Tommy Flanagan Trio
Overseas, Prestige 7134, is something of a revela-
tion. On this recording, made in Stockholm in 1957
with Wilbur Ware, bass, and Elvin Jones, drums,

102 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Flanagan reveals previously unsuspected strength
and vitality, a warm, full, punching attack that
suggests he should be released from the bondage of
horn surroundings more often.

Med Flory. In both Jazz Wave, Jubilee 1066, and
four selections in Modern Jazz Gallery, Kapp KXL
5001, Flory's big band jumps with signs of rugged
enthusiasm but leans more on blast than swing.

Frank Foster- One of the two Franks who have had
long tenure in the reed section of the current Basic
band (Frank Wess is the other), Foster is a less
consistent performer than Wess. His playing on
tenor saxophone on a single selection on Montage,
Savoy 12029, is rounded and gracious, projected
with vitality and vigor. But he is pushing and
strident through most of Wail, Frank, Wail, Pres-
tige 7021, while on Jazz Studio 2, Decca 8058, he
contributes to the undistinguished series of solos
which make up the two very long selections to
which the disk is devoted. He has one number on
Jazz Is Busting Out All Over, Savoy 12123.

Stan Free. Chris Connor's able piano accompanist
plays a glib set of familiar sounding "originals" on
Free for All, King 524. They barely suggest the
warmer, deeper work of which he is capable.

Russ Freeman. Freeman is one of the founding
fathers of the West Coast school of glassy-eyed, ball-
bearing piano men but when he gets away from
fast tempos he plays with a good show of sensi-
tivity. Some examples of his early mechanical sheen
are found on one side of Richard Twardzik Trio,
World Pacific 1212, (shared with Twardzik, of
course) but on Russ Freeman and Chet Baker
Quartet, World Pacific 1232, he digs into the
earthier regions of jazz. On Double Play!, Con-

The Records 103

temporary 3537, he joins with Andre Previn in a
set of duets rolled out in long, dark-toned lines
which gallop Curiously at fast tempos and produce
blues with a sophisticated veneer. Freeman trips
lightly through two selections on Jazz Swings Broad-
way, World Pacific 404; he has two entries on Jazz
West Coast, Vol. 3, World Pacific JWC 507, and
one each in Jazz West Coast, Vol. 2, World Pacific
JWC 501, The Blues, World Pacific JWC 502, Pian-
ists Galore, World Pacific JWC 506, Solo Flight,
World Pacific JWC 505, and Have Blues, Will
Travel, World Pacific JWC 509.

Stan Freeman. Although primarily a slick pianist-
entertainer, Freeman gives two Broadway show
scores a light jazz veneer on The Music Man,
Columbia CL 1120, and Oh, Captain!, Columbia
CL 1126. He works his more customary vein on
Manhattan, Epic 3114, Stan Freeman at the Blue
Angel, Epic 3224, and Thirty All-Time Hits, Har-
mony 7067.

John Frigo. Once a member of a lightly swinging
group called The Soft Winds (which, earlier, had
been the rhythm section of Jimmy Dorsey's or-
chestra), Frigo is primarily a bassist but he is also
a violinist of unusual warmth and quirksome in-
ventiveness. On I Love John Frigo . . . He Swings,
Mercury 20285, his playing is a constant delight
urgently rhythmic, subtle, melodic and with none
of the harshness that Stuff Smith has associated
with jazz violin. He plays a little fiddle (and only
second fiddle to pianist Dick Marx) on Dick Marx
and Johnny Frigo, Coral 57088.

Tony Fruscella. The wan, withdrawn uncertain
quality of Chet Baker's trumpet is used to even less
effect by Fruscella on Tony Fruscella, Atlantic
1220, on which he is faced with the striking con-

104 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

trast of Allen Eager's strong, assured tenor saxo-
phone.

Curtis Fuller. A Detroit product, Fuller has gradu-
ally been unfreezing his trombone style in the course
of a brief recording career in the latter Fifties. The
fiat, rough tone and labored, staccato style he
showed on his first disks The Opener, Blue Note
1567, and New Trombone, Prestige 7107 give way
to a smoother, breezier approach on Bone and Bart,
Blue Note 1572, and positive evidence of outgoing
vitality on Monday Night at Birdland, Roulette
52015. If he keeps on developing, it might be only
polite to overlook all these early disks.

Barry Galbraith. Galbraith's clean-lined, precise
and propulsive guitar is supported on Guitar and
the Wind, Decca 9200, by three different groups
one dominated by four trombones, one with four
reeds, and a third made up of guitar, flute and
rhythm. The two latter groups lean toward a lan-
guid preciosity that Galbraith is not always able
to overcome but he is thoroughly at home in the
forthright, bouncing company of the trombones.
He has single entries in The Mellow Moods of Jazz,
Victor LPM 1365, and After Hours Jazz, Epic 3339.

Freddie Gambrell. Introducing Freddie Gambrell,
World Pacific 1242, is attributed to the Chico
Hamilton Trio but this is mere window dressing
which serves to launch this impressive young blind
pianist. Supported by Hamilton on drums and Ben
Tucker, bass, Gambrell has the disk to himself,
showing a very rhythmic, percussive style with an
appealingly dark, blues-bred texture and good
structural sense. He swings powerfully at moder-
ately fast tempos and on ballads reveals his deriva-
tions most clearly for he has a fondness for stating
a melody with a wry, Monkian twist, for occasional

The Records 105

splashes of Garner's ripe orchestral explosions and
for excursions into Tatum-like displays of facility.

Dick Garcia. Garcia's guitar is relatively unimpres-
sive on A Message from Garcia, Dawn 1106, espe-
cially when it is at close quarter with Tony Scott's
lithe clarinet, and he wanders through four empty
duets with guitarist Joe Puma on The Four Most
Guitars, ABC-Paramount 109.

Russ Garcia. A West Coast jack-of-all-arrangements,
Garcia leads a shouting big band which strings ade-
quate solos on a sketchy framework on four selec-
tions in Modern Jazz Gallery, Kapp KXL 5001.

Ralph Gari. Gari plays alto saxophone, clarinet,
oboe, and flute on Ralph Gari, EmArcy 36019,
emerging as a musician with a legitimate sound
who can swing nicely on alto in the clean, sweeping
Benny Carter manner. But he also plays all those
other instruments and he has chosen rather pre-
tentious small group settings in which to do it.

Red Garland. In a quiet, unobtrusive way, Garland
has carved out a niche for himself as a pianist
whose imagination, taste and swinging strength are
extremely consistent. Much of his playing time has
been spent buried behind the fireworks of Miles
Davis' group but when he works on disks with only
bass and drums he comes into his own. He has
some of the broad appeal of Enroll Garner, though
none of Garner's stylistic devices, on A Garland of
Red, Prestige 7064, Red Garland's Piano, Prestige
7086, Groovy, Prestige 7113, and Manteca, Prestige
7139. On the latter his trio is implemented by the
invigorating accents of Ray Barretto's conga drum.
John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio, Pres-
tige 7123, and All Mornin' Long, Prestige 7130,
intersperse several exceptionally worthwhile Gar-

106 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

land passages with Coltrane's strident tenor saxo-
phone solos. One drawback that runs through all of
Garland's disks is the inordinate length of the selec-
tions.

Enroll Garner. A self-taught pianist who cannot
read music, Garner has worked a magpie's collec-
tion of ideas, habits and devices into an overall
style that has proven enormously appealing to both
jazz and non-jazz audiences alike. His approach,
like that of most basic jazz pianists, is orchestral.
He is fond of big, splashy, voluminous chords, sud-
den and dramatic contrasts in texture and tempo,
and a silky romanticism straight out of Debussy.
Within this framework and bouyed on a rhythmic
projection that is one of the most compelling in
any jazz era, he works out developments of popular
tunes and his own Debussy-touched compositions
with percussive single-note phrases, the bright,
strutting chords brought to jazz by Earl Hines, and,
at times, an exaggeration of the jazzman's technique
of playing behind the beat which typifies his strong
sense of the theatrical.

Since the middle Forties he has poured out more
solo records than any other jazz pianist, maintain-
ing a surprisingly consistent level of performance
although many of his earlier disks are atrocious
examples of the recordings engineer's craft. His best
work will be found on Columbia, starting with a
disk that has stood up for several years as the
definitive example of Garner's playing, Concert by
the Sea, Columbia CL 883. The program for this
concert is varied and representative of Garner, the
recording is excellent and Garner is at the top of
his form gay, romantic, pulsating, quirksome and
completely winning.

Erroll Garner, Columbia CL 535, marked his
release from the 78 rpm three-minute straitjacket
and he made the most of it with six brilliantly
realized performances while The Most Happy Pi-

The Records 107

ano, Columbia CL 939, is still another serving of
topnotch Garner capped by a magnificent ballad
performance of Time on My Hands. Paris Impres-
sions, Columbia C2L-9, a two-disk set, might have
been edited down into a single satisfying LP but
as it is there are too many soft spots when Garner
is wrestling futilely with songs which have ap-
parently been included only because they have
French references in their lyrics and when he in-
vestigates a harpsichord with clangorous results.
Simply satisfactory and generally well recorded are
Erroll Garner Gems, Columbia CL 583, Gone
Garner Gonest, Columbia CL 617, Erroll Garner
Plays for Dancing, Columbia CL 667, Contrasts,
EmArcy 36001, Garnering, EmArcy 36026. Since
Mambo Moves Garner, Mercury 20055, is devoted
to mambos it is of less jazz interest.

On all of these disks he is accompanied by bass
and drums which give him a freedom that is miss-
ing from his unaccompanied solos on Soliloquy,
Columbia CL 1060, Erroll Garner, EmArcy 36069,
Afternoon of an Elf. Mercury 20090, and Solitaire,
Mercury 20063.

Another venture away from his customary trio
set-up, Other Voices, Columbia CL 1014, involves
the pianist with a large orchestra conducted by
Mitch Miller playing arrangements written by
Garner (written? well, he played out each part on
the piano and Nat Pierce took it all down and
assembled the pieces). The effect, at best, is that of
the usual solo Garner surrounded by a wall of
luminous sound which melts the sharp, clean edge
of his playing. Garner-on-the-rocks is definitely a
more stimulating experience than this frothy Pink
Lady. On Music for Tired Lovers, Columbia CL
651, Garner's trio backs Woody Herman's lazy-daisy
vocals on a set of ballads.

The Greatest Garner, Atlantic 1227, Penthouse
Serenade, Savoy 12002, Serenade to Laura, Savoy
12003, Back to Back, Savoy 12002 (shared with

108 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Billy Taylor), Giants of the Piano, Roost 2213
(shared with Art Tatum), Err oil Garner, Rondo-
lette 15, three selections in Night Music for Stay at
Homes, Coral 57040, two selections in Modern Jazz
Piano, Camden 384, four selections in Piano Varia-
tions, King 540, and one each in Great Jazz Pian-
ists, Camden 328, Encyclopedia of Jazz on Records,
Vol. 4, Decca 8401, and Operation Jazz, Roost OJ1,
are LP repressings of his earlier work, adequately
recorded. Jazz Piano, Grand Award 33-321 (shared
with Pete Johnson) is a good example of the dread-
ful recording Garner has sometimes been subjected
to. Early Err oil, Concert Hall 1269, is taken from
informally made tapes and, in general, sounds like
that.

Selections by Garner are also included in $64,000
Jazz, Columbia CL 777, Jazz Omnibus, Columbia
CL 1020, For Jazz Lovers, EmArcy 38086, Bargain
Day, EmArcy 36087, and Giants of Jazz, Vol. 2,
EmArcy 36049.

Morris Garner. Jokes are perpetrated so infre-
quently in current jazz that possibly one should
not quibble when one comes along. The Worst of
Morris Garner, Thunderbird 1958, is a perceptive
collection of Enroll Garner's self-made cliches per-
formed with a casually skillful clumsiness that sug-
gests this is the work of an expert pair of hands.
There are some funny moments but the joke is too
slim and repetitious to be spread over a twelve-
inch LP.

Matthew Gee. Gee's serviceable if undistinguished
trombone is heard with a pair of neat, rhythmically
churning groups on Jazz by Gee!, Riverside 12-221,
which is worth hearing for the excellent rhythm
section driven by bassist John Simmons.

Herb Geller. Geller is a heated, moving alto saxo-
phonist with a sound sense of structure and a good

The Records 109

range of moods. He is far above his associates on
Herb Geller Plays, EmArcy 36045, The Herb Geller
Sextette, EmArcy 36040, and Fire in the West,
Jubilee 1044. In somewhat sturdier company on
Jazz Studio 2, Decca 8079, he plays with suave inven-
tion. A long blowing session, Best Coast Jazz, Em-
Arcy 36039, buries any form or ideas he may have
intended to offer.

Eddie Getz. Getz is an alto saxophonist who has
found that it is possible to play modern jazz with-
out bowing too deeply to Charlie Parker. He swings
along gracefully in a light, easy, sweeping style but
on Eddie Getz Quintette, MGM 3462, he has to
carry a desultory group and a lot of dull material.

Stan Getz. Getz has done something that is almost
unique in modern jazz: Starting with the tenor
saxophone style of Lester Young, he absorbed it
and adapted it (partly by cross-breeding it with
the feathery Lee Konitz alto approach) to create
an individual style which, in turn, became enor-
mously influential on succeeding tenor men. Starting
in his middle teens, he spent five years with a
number of big bands (Bob Chester, Stan Kenton,
Benny Goodman) before he came through as an
individual with Woody Herman's band in 1947.
By then he had developed his drifting, cool sound
which, in the next few years, often became so lan-
guid that it bogged down from lack of momentum.
During much of the Fifties Getz was an erratic
performer as he went through a period of unkempt
personal problems but by the latter part of the
decade he was reasserting himself as a strong, swing-
ing voice in jazz.

One of his most completely satisfying disks is
West Coast Jazz, Verve 8028, made by a group
which existed for a week in the summer of 1955
(Conte Candoli, trumpet, Lou Levy, piano, Leroy

110 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Vinnegar, bass, Shelly Manne, drums). Getz is at
the very peak of his abilities on Shine, a perform-
ance that is freshly inventive, lustily swinging and
developed with polish and drive. The opposite side
of Getz's coin the calmer, lyric side is beautifully
expressed on Suddenly It's Spring. Two years later,
teamed with trombonist J. J. Johnson on a Jazz at
the Philharmonic tour, they both play with un-
expectedly irresistible gusto on Stan Getz and J. J.
Johnson at the Opera House, Verve 8265, while on
Cal Tjader-Stan Getz Sextet, Fantasy 3266, he leads
a giddy headlong chase through a glorious nine-
minute set-to, Ginza.

Of his earlier records, the best selections will be
found in The Stan Getz Quintet at Storyville,
Roost 2209, and Stan Getz at Storyville, Vol. 2,
Roost 2225, both played by the same light and
airy group. Getz's playing has strength and cohe-
siveness as he is spurred on by the challenge of
guitarist Jimmy Raney and pianist Al Haig and
given sound support by Tiny Kahn on drums and
Teddy Kotick, bass. Getz's trips to Sweden have
inspired at least two good sets of recordings. In
Stockholm, Verve 8213, catches him playing effort-
lessly, with spirit and with a suaveness of tone that
is not marred by the fudginess that often dims his
playing, and one side of The Sound, Roost 2207, is,
thanks to the presence of the Swedish pianist, Bengt
Hallberg (who plays on both disks) generally satis-
factory. This last disk is filled out with work by
two inconsequential Getz quartets.

Of his other early disks, Getz is fuzzy to the point
of incoherence on Stan Getz Quartets, Prestige 7002
two more selections from this same period are
included on Conception, Prestige 7013 and he is
cleaner and firmer but lacking in invention in four
selections on both Opus de Bop, Savoy 12114, and
Lestorion Mode, Savoy 12105, as well as in two
selections in Tenor Sax, Concord 3012. S tan Getz

The Records 111

and the Cool Sounds, Verve 8200, is a miscellany of
1950 recordings by three different but equally dis-
mal and dragging groups.

A quintet which featured valve trombonist Bob
Brookmeyer runs from undistinguished to good,
with both Getz and Brookmeyer contributing a
fair share to each quality, on More West Coast Jazz,
Verve 8177, Interpretations by the Stan Getz Quin-
tet, Verve 8122, and Stan Getz at the Shrine, Verve
8188-2.

Teaming with Dizzy Gillespie on Diz and Getz,
Verve 8141, Getz is in brisk and spirited form and
manages to hold his own with Gillespie except at
very fast tempos but he is much less successful
when Sonny Stitt joins them on For Musicians
Only, Verve 8198. In this sharply cutting company,
Getz retires to lifeless runs. On the other hand, on
Sittin' In, Verve 8225, with the challenges coming
from Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins and Paul Gon-
salves, Getz dances lightly and easily in contrast to
the pressing, shrill playing of Hawkins and the
pushing strain of Gonsalves. Facing a very different
type of trumpeter, Chet Baker, on Stan Meets Chet,
Verve 8263, Getz plays with easy lyricism although
a great deal of space is wasted on a ballad medley.
On one side of Getz Meets Mulligan in Hi-Fi,
Verve 8249, he switches saxophones with Gerry
Mulligan, a pointless bit of nonsense, but on the
other side, getting back to business on his tenor,
Getz soars through a long and magnificent solo on
This Can't Be Love. In still another meeting, Stan
Getz and the Oscar Peterson Trio, Verve 8251, he
has some thoughtfully lyrical moments but much of
this disk is pap. Getz contributes four perfunctory
pieces to Tenors, Anyone?, Dawn 1126, and one
each to The Playboy Jazz Allstars, Playboy 1957,
Verve Compendium of Jazz $1, Verve 8194, Roost
Fifth Anniversary Album, Roost 1201, and Opera-
tion Jazz, Roost OJ1.

112 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Terry Gibbs. Gibbs is one of the blithest, most out-
going performers in current jazz, a vibraphonist
whose basis is a driving beat, who phrases in a
rollicking, spirited manner and who can, when
called on," settle into a rationally rhythmic ballad
groove. For a short time in the Fifties he headed an
excellent quartet made up of Terry Pollard, piano,
Herman Wright, bass, and Bert Dahlander, drums,
a group which plays a superb set on Terry Gibbs,
EmArcy 36047, and Mallets A-Plenty, EmArcy
36075 (with Jerry Segal replacing Dahlander).
Gibbs shows an imagination that bubbles along
without getting entangled in fripperies but it is
Miss Pollard, an incisive pianist who generates
tremendous excitement as she builds her solos, who
raises both disks to exceptional heights. On Terry
Gibbs Plays the Duke, EmArcy 36128, Gibbs finds
another excellent foil in Pete Jolly, playing ac-
cordion, who lays down a long, soft carpet for
Gibbs, prods and punches through every apparent
opening in Gibbs' faster lines and swings out in
warm and striking fashion on his own. For Swingin'
with Terry Gibbs, EmArcy 36103, he is surrounded
by a big band that plays with the kind of hungry,
driving shout that rarely comes out of a well-fed
studio band.

There is evidence of Gibbs' tremendous drive on
Newport '58, EmArcy 36141, but it leads nowhere
and although he teams with mellophonist Don
Elliott on one roaring swinger on Jazztime, U.S.A.,
Vol. 1, Brunswick 54000, his other two selections on
this disk are trivial and so are his three offerings on
Jazztime, U.SA., Vol. 2, Brunswick 54002. A mish-
mash of groups make up Terry, Brunswick 54007
a quartet with some rolling Terry Pollard piano,
a savagely swinging sextet piece with Zoot Sims,
and some lump, thumpy big band selections. Vibes
on Velvet, EmArcy 36064, is Gibbs in an unbe-
coming mood music setting. His two selections in

The Records 113

Swing . . . Not Spring, Savoy 12062, are burdened
by a leaden rhythm section. Gibbs has single pieces
in The Encyclopedia of Jazz on Records, Vol. 4,
Decca 8401, For Jazz Lovers, EmArcy 36086, and
Bargain Day, EmArcy 36086.

Dizzy Gillespie. If Charlie Parker can be identified
as the theorizer who spurred modern jazz into be-
ing, Gillespie was the organizer and arranger who
brought order to Parker's ideas. Like Parker, Gil-
lespie's musical career goes back to the heart of
the Swing Era when he was with Teddy Hill's band
(Kenny Clarke was the drummer) and with Cab
Galloway. Starting with a style based on that of
Roy Eldridge, Gillespie gradually forged an attack
that was his own but which stemmed from Eldridge
in the same way that Eldridge drew on Louis Arm-
strong. There are some shadowy samples of Gilles-
pie's playing in this formative stage on Harlem
Jazz Scene: 1941, Esoteric 548, but his influential
playing at the height of the development of bop is
best summed up on Groovin' High, Savoy 12020,
which includes Blue 'n f Boogie from his first small
group session, five now classic pieces with Charlie
Parker, a pair with Milt Jackson and five selections
by his early big band (Dizzy Gillespie, Rondolette
11, duplicates this disk with two changes Salt
Peanuts and Emanon are on the Savoy but not on
the Rondolette which replaces them with two less
interesting pieces, Good Dues Blues and He
Beeped When He Shoulda Bopped). Gillespie,
Parker and Jackson are consistently good but the
stodginess of the big band's ensembles is increased
by muffled recording. The same is true of a 1949
recording of St. Louis Blues by this same band, in-
cluded in Fourteen Blue Roads to St. Louis, Victor
LPM 1714. A later and much more flexible big
band which Gillespie led during 1956 and 1957
has at least one tie to the earlier band the heavy,

114 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

muffled recording which coats its work on World
Statesman, Verve 8174, Dizzy in Greece, Verve
8017, Birks Works, Verve 8222, and Dizzy Gillespie
at Newport, Verve 8242. The most representative
of these disks is the Newport recording for the band
plays with raucous zest a little uncouth at times
but, as mehitabel was wont to say, "wotthehell,
wotthehell." World Statesman is rooted in a rock-
ing, swinging beat although occasionally there is a
shift to a more legato rhythm on which the band
creates a rich, smooth sauce for Gillespie's tart
trumpet and while there is a furious excitement
about much of Dizzy in Greece, it is touched with
traces of the banal side of Gillespie's humor. Birks
Works is apparently a collection of leftover odds
and ends which makes a spotty program. So is Jazz
Recital, Verve 8173, half of which is devoted to
vocals by Gillespie, Toni Harper and Herb Lance.

In a different big band situation, Gillespie is the
soloist on Manteca, Verve 8208, in arrangements by
Chico O'Fairill. One side is devoted to OTarrill's
Manteca Suite, an overblown series of variations on
Gillespie's Manteca which provides him with a
field day. The original piece as played by Gillespie's
own band is included in Afro-Drum Carnival, GNP
25, a shrill recording.

Like most other modern jazz stars, Gillespie has
been backed with vast arrays of strings to practi-
cally no avail. Johnny Richards adds brass to the
strings on Diz Big Band, Verve 8178, and on eight
selections in The Dizzy Gillespie Story, Savoy
12110 (the rest of this disk is made up of poorly
recorded but swinging pieces by the Be Bop Boys
Gillespie, Milt Jackson, James Moody and other
members of Gillespie's big band in the late For-
ties). The best that can be said of these stringed
works is that Gillespie penetrates the strings. In
Paris he made an inexplicable conjunction with
the Paris Opera-Comique Orchestra on one side of

The Records 115

Jazz from Paris, Verve 8015 (shared with Django
Reinhardt). Gillespie is relaxed, unharried and
stirringly creative and the orchestra supplies him
with a surprisingly virile background but it is, to
all practical purposes, in vain since the engineers
were apparently incapable of bringing Gillespie
and the orchestra into focus at the same time one
or the other is always out of perspective. A Concert
in Paris, Roost 2214, puts him with a small group
of Americans who play with a fresh, spontaneous
quality. Gillespie is brilliantly melodic and inven-
tive throughout the disk while he is in equally
good form on the portion of Dizzy at Home and
Abroad, Atlantic 1257, which was recorded in Paris.
Don By as is with him on this set, playing a warm
version of Blue and Sentimental, and Gillespie
shouts out an exuberantly brash blues that can
stand comparison with the work of the best of the
blues singers. The remainder of this disk, recorded
in New York, is superior as recording and retains
some of the offhand feeling of the Paris pieces.

After breaking up his big band in 1950, Gillespie
worked with various small groups, most of which
included bop singer Joe Carroll. Carroll is present
through most of School Days, Regent 6043, an un-
inspired collection. He turns up again, along with
Milt Jackson and violinist Stuff Smith on The
Champ, Savoy 12047, a very erratic collection which
runs a gamut from dreadful to brilliant. A later
meeting between Smith and Gillespie, Dizzy Gilles-
pie and Stuff Smith, Verve 8214, produced a pair of
long, churning, savagely swinging performances
which overshadow three less distinguished efforts.
One of them Rio Pakistan is a magnificently
sardonic, electrically charged mood piece that is
built to weirdly haunting heights by Smith's slash-
ing, leaping cat-like attack.

During much of the Fifties Gillespie was at loose
ends and recorded with several other individualistic

116 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

jazz stars, as a rule in loosely organized blowing
session. Tour de Force, Verve 8212, on which he
plays with two other trumpeters, Roy Eldridge and
Harry Edison, is unusual in that all three play with
mutes in a subdued, tight, chamberish fashion over
a swinging rhythm, an approach which keeps the
extremist tendencies of all three within bounds.
This is not the case on two disks featuring Gillespie
and Eldridge, Trumpet Battle, Verve 8109, and
The Trumpet Kings, Verve 8110, both of which
have some bright moments which are lost in taste-
less, squealing exchanges in pieces which are
dragged out to tedious lengths.

Gillespie has also tangled with several saxo-
phones. He plays with both spirit and sensitivity
with Stan Getz on Diz and Getz, Verve 8141; sum-
mons all his virtuosity to meet the challenge of
Getz and Sonny Stitt on For Musicians Only, Verve
8198; is neat but empty in the company of Getz,
Coleman Hawkins and Paul Gonsalves on Sittin'
In, Verve 8225; and on one side of Dizzy Gillespie
Duets with Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt, Verve
8260, joins with Stitt and pianist Ray Bryant to
play with imaginative fluency and a happy scorn
for cliches on two overlong slow pieces. On the
other side of this disk neither Gillespie nor Rollins
can find anything of interest to do.

For a battle between two different schools of jazz,
Hot vs Cool, MGM 3286, Gillespie was called on to
lead the cool forces against Jimmy McPartland's
hot men. The ham in Gillespie (he, George Shear-
ing, Gerry Mulligan and Stan Kenton are unique
among modern jazzmen in that they have a definite,
if sometimes misguided, feeling for showmanship)
responds readily to such gimmicked situations and
he pleads the cool cause with great eloquence.

Single selections by Gillespie's early groups are
included in Jazz, Vol. 11, Folkways 2811, Modern
Jazz Hall of Fame, Design 29, The Jazz Makers,

The Records 117

Columbia CL 1036, Roost Fifth Anniversary
Album, Roost 1201 (the identical selection is in the
Columbia collection), and Operation Jazz, Roost
OJ1. Three selections by his mid-Fifties big band
are in Here Come the Swingin* Big Bands, Verve
8207, one in The Playboy Jazz Allstars, Playboy
1957, and one in The Anatomy of Improvisation,
Verve 8230, along with a Gillespie-Eldridge chal-
lenge piece. A selection from the Hot vs Cool bat-
tle is in Forty-Eight Stars of American Jazz, MGM
3611.

John Gilmore, A young tenor saxophonist from
Chicago with an economical style and a relatively
good tone but little distinctiveness pairs off with
another adequate tenor, Cliff Jordan, on Blowing
in From Chicago, Blue Note 1549.

Jimmy Giuffre. Giuffre's jazz career in the decade
from the late Forties to the late Fifties has followed
an unusual pattern. He first came to more than
casual notice when he wrote Four Brothers which,
when it was picked up by Woody Herman's band
(which subsequently picked up Giuffre, too), estab-
lished a saxophone voicing that became extremely
popular. Although Giuffre has never been a partic-
ularly exciting saxophonist (he plays tenor and
baritone), he had a lithe, swinging manner on tenor
in the early Fifties when he was free-lancing on the
West Coast and playing at the Lighthouse at
Hermosa Beach.

As the years have gone by, however, Giuffre's
composing and playing have become steadily more
introverted his writing drawing farther and far-
ther away from jazz and his playing growing stiff
and muffled. As he withdrew, he found himself the
subject of enthusiastic avant garde acclaim but as
he continued to secede farther and farther from
the jazz world even this acclaim began to fade.

118 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

There are suggestions of the earlier, outgoing
Giuffre in his writing and playing on Jazz Com-
poser's Workshop, Savoy 12045, and even in two of
his earlier experimental disks, Jimmy Giuffre, Capi-
tol T 549, and Tangents in Jazz, Capitol T 634. On
the latter he explores his theory of the non-pulsat-
ing beat the avoidance of the steady pounding of
a rhythm section by getting rid of the sounded
beat. In this case, the lack of an explicit beat proves
to be no deterrent to soundly swinging perform-
ances (he uses a drummer as an ensemble rather
than a rhythm performer) but in his next phase it
contributed to a lack of movement that was often
deadening. The phase opens with Giuffre's con-
centration on the lower register of the clarinet in a
breathy manner that is explored thoroughly on
The Jimmy Giuffre Clarinet, Atlantic 1238, from
an unaccompanied solo to support by a nine-piece
group. The first of two trios Giuffre, Jim Hall,
guitar, Ralph Pena, bass is heard in The Jimmy
Giuffre Three, Atlantic 1254, in which there are
what might be termed jazz breaks in the selections
although there is little jazz feeling about them in
general. Trat/lin* Light, Atlantic 1282, is by a later
version of the trio in which Bob Brookmeyer's
valve trombone replaces Pena's bass. There are
times on this disk when Brookmeyer's basic, rugged
style and Giuffre's apparent fancy for the basic folk
roots of jazz join promisingly but much of their
playing boils down to monotonous, tuneless jigs.
This same brooding drone is much in evidence in
Giuffre's arrangements, for a nine-piece group, of
the score of The Music Man, Atlantic 1276.

Betty Glamann. Miss Glamann is a harpist who
can trip along lightly and pleasantly. But the jazz
qualities of Swinging on a Harp, Mercury 20169,
are contributed mainly by Eddie Costa's vibes and
on The Smith-Glamann Quintet Bethlehem 22, by
Barry Galbraith's guitar.

The Records 119

Johnny Glasel. A promising young trumpeter who
shifted from traditional to modern jazz between the
late Forties and early Fifties is disappointingly un-
imaginative and slapdash on Jazz Session, ABC-
Paramount 165, on which he hits a sort of middle
ground.

Tyree Glenn. The first inheritor of Tricky Sam
Nanton's wah-wah trombone chores in the Elling-
ton band has subsequently become one of the
pioneers on the polite jazz circuit. Glenn's plunger
mute tricks can quickly be carried too far (and too
often). He is more effective when he is playing his
light and lissome vibraphone. Tyree Glenn at the
Embers, Roulette 25009, is raised from the routine
by the presence of trumpeter Shorty Baker, playing
delicate muted figures. Tyree Glenn at the Round
Table, Roulette 25050, is emptier because of
Baker's absence. Neither disk makes any use at all
of the presence of Mary Osborne, an excellent
guitarist.

Sanford Gold. Some pleasant exercises in simplified
Tatum make up pianist Gold's Piano d'Or, Prestige
7019.

Lex Golden. Golden is a Hollywood studio trum-
peter, capable if undistinctive, who has put to-
gether a light, brightly played set by an effortlessly
swinging octet on Lex Golden Octet in Hi-Fi, Su-
perior 101.

Benny Golson. Golson first began to attract atten-
tion when he was in the saxophone section of
Dizzy Gillespie's mid-Fifties band, less for his play-
ing than for his writing. He quickly joined the
small group of modern jazzmen who have shown
themselves capable of striking and memorable mel-
odic creation (Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver,

120 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

John Lewis, Randy Weston and Golson) and many
of his pieces have quickly achieved the status of
jazz standards I Remember Clifford, Whisper Not,
Stablemates and, most recently, Blues March. Once
he became known as a composer it also became ap-
parent that he was a performer of great charm,
playing with much of the soft, warm tone of Lucky
Thompson and spinning out lithe, elastic lines
sprinkled with lifting quirks and stabs which
create an intense feeling of movement. During
1958 he began to be attracted away from this to a
hard, busy style that draws on both Johnny Griffin
and John Coltrane.

Both The Modern Touch, Riverside 12-256, and
New York Scene, Contemporary 3552, were, for-
tunately, made before he began to tamper with his
style. The first disk includes three of his composi-
tions, at least one of which (Out of the Past) ranks
with his best work. On the Contemporary disk there
are four of his pieces, including Whisper Not. He
plays with a quintet and a nine-piece band on the
last disk. In both groups it is Golson and trum-
peter Art Farmer who create the interest Farmer
playing with broad authority no matter what the
fare at hand while Golson's warm, dark lines flare
and glide through all the pieces.

Paul Gonsalves. After brief spells with Count
Basic's and Dizzy Gillespie's big bands, Gonsalves,
a tenor saxophonist, joined Duke Ellington in 1950
and since then has been one of Ellington's most
consistently featured and least interesting soloists.
With Ellington his solos are inclined to be pale
and formless and (since his 27 choruses on Diminu-
endo and Crescendo in Blue at Newport coincided
with an outbreak of dancing in the aisles) tediously
long. On his own and surrounded by a quartet that
is largely from the Ellington band (including trum-
peter Clark Terry in excellent form) on Cooking

The Records 121

Argo 626, Gonsalves is freer, less strained than in
his Ellington appearances but on Sittin' In, Verve
8225, in the vaunted company of Dizzy Gillespie,
Stan Getz and Coleman Hawkins, he pushes too
hard.

Bob Gordon. An unusually limber and swinging
baritone saxophonist who was killed in an auto-
mobile accident in 1955 at the age of 27, Gordon
has a single propulsive selection in Jazz West
Coast, World Pacific JWC 500.

Dexter Gordon. One of the most direct followers
of Lester Young, Gordon played his tenor saxo-
phone in Lionel Hampton's and Billy Eckstine's
bands in the early and mid-Forties and had his own
groups later in that decade. During the Fifties he
has been on the West Coast, playing sporadically.
Dexter Rides Again, Savoy 12130, drawn from
his period as a leader of small groups in the late
Forties, places him with three groups a crisp,
punching bop team which includes Bud Powell
and Max Roach, a slogging group with baritone
saxophonist Leo Parker, and a quartet in which
Gordon is backed by only a rhythm section.
Throughout the disk, Gordon mixes a smooth ver-
sion of the Young style with a yearning to honk. On
a much later disk, Dexter Blows Hot and Cool,
Dootone 207, this same erratic quality again turns
up although there are moments when he sails off
with soaring freedom. On Daddy Plays the Horn>
Bethlehem 36, he is banal and plodding while West
Coast Jazz Concert, Regent 6049, is a badly re-
corded, dull battle with Wardell Gray.

Joe Gordon. Although Gordon has traces of Dizzy
Gillespie's fleetness and Roy Eldridge's crackling
attack, he lacks their singing qualities and,
stretched out over both sides of Introducing Joe

122 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Gordon, EmArcy 36025, he reveals himself as a
grating, limited trumpeter.

John Graas. After training for symphony work on
the French horn, Graas was weaned to jazz, first
through Claude ThornhiU's band and finally with
Stan Kenton. He has done studio work in Cali-
fornia during the Fifties and has recorded as the
leader of a variety of small groups. His arrange-
ments have much of the texture of the Miles Davis
nine-piece group of 1948 but they are couched in
terms that reflect the arranging style of Shorty
Rogers. His writing tends to be very much of a
piece a heavy foundation with a frou-frou surface
and while there is occasionally a gruff charm
about his French horn solos, what interest there is
in his performances usually comes from the solos
of his sidemen. Jazz Lab I, Decca 8343, Jazz Lab 2,
Decca 8478, and John Graas French Horn, Kapp
1046, are relatively unrelieved sampling of Graas'
approach. The saxophones of Art Pepper and Bob
Cooper help to enliven Jazzmantics, Decca 8677,
Pepper saves Coup de Graas, EmArcy 36117, from
bumbling into straight monotony, Gerry Mulligan
makes three selections on Jazz Studio 3, Decca 8104,
worth hearing, and Herb Getter's alto saxophone
helps to lift Jazz Studio 2, Decca 8079. One selec-
tion by Graas is included in The Encyclopedia of
Jazz on Records, Vol. 4, Decca 8401.

Bob Graf. Grafs approach to the tenor saxophone
has something of Lester Young's early willowiness
mixed with an overly relaxed, noncommittal quality
which dilutes his basic warmth. The four far too
long selections on The Bob Graf Sessions, Delmar
401, tend to drool off to vague fuzziness.

Kenny Graham. Graham is an individualistic Eng-
lish arranger who is fond of blending his tenor

The Records 123

saxophone with flute and xylophone, a device he
uses with interesting and sometimes eerie effects in
transcribing the slithery rhythms of the New York
street musician, Moondog, on Moondog and Suncat
Suites, MGM 3544. It is much less effective on the
routine material his Afro-Cubists play on two selec-
tions on Jazz Brittania, MGM 3472.

Norman Granz. Granz is included here not, of
course, as an instrumentalist he is the impresario
of the Jazz at the Philharmonic troupes which have
been touring since the middle Forties but rather
as the instigator of a form of stereotyped jam ses-
sion featured at his concerts and concocted for his
records. Although Granz consistently uses good
jazzmen on these sessions, their playing is usually
trivial, distorted by showboating and the fanning
of false flames. Add to this the inordinate length
of each performance (one LP side is a minimum
Stompin' at the Savoy on Jam Session #6, Verve
8054, goes on for two grinding sides) and, despite
occasional good moments, this becomes an exceed-
ingly tiresome and frustrating (considering the po-
tential of the musicians involved) series of disks.

Looking first on the brighter side: Jam Session
#2, Verve 8050, offers a slow and sinuous Funky
Blues with Johnny Hodges, Charlie Parker and
Benny Carter which holds up well (another Funky
Blues by a different group on Jam Session Jfr9,
Verve 8196, is interminable) and The Slow Blues
on The JATP All-Stars at the Opera House, Verve
8267, is consistently warm and throbbing until
Illinois Jacquet goes into his windup. Otherwise
this generally unedifying set of disks is made up of
Jam Session #1, Verve 8049 (bright spots of
Hodges and Carter), Jam Session #3, Verve 8051
(good for a large part of the way but it eventually
palls), Jam Session #4, Verve 8052 (again almost a
success but drowned in its length), Jam Session

124 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Verve 8053, Jam Session #7, Verve 8062, Jam Ses-
sion $8, Verve 8094, and Midnight at Carnegie
Hall, Verve 8189-2, a particularly horrible example.
There are samples of the same by Granz's troupe in
Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl, Verve 8231-2, and A
Potpourri of Jazz, Verve 2032.

Wardell Gray. Among the numerous followers of
Lester Young in the Forties, Gray was one who used
the style with particular grace and ease. Toward the
end of the 1940s traces of Charlie Parker's influence
crept into his playing but Young remained the
dominant strain. During the Forties Gray was with
the bands of Earl Hines, Billy Eckstine, Benny
Carter, Count Basic and Benny Goodman. In the
Fifties, when he concentrated on small group work
and was frequently featured in tenor battles with
Sonny Stitt and Dexter Gordon, his tone hardened
and coarsened. He was shot to death under mysteri-
ous circumstances near Las Vegas in 1957.

Two disks, Wardell Gray Memorial, Vol. 1 and
Vol. 2, Prestige 7008 and 7009, preserve the best
period of Gray's playing. In some 1949 selections
on Vol. 1 he plays in an outgoing, smoothly swing-
ing style that is more reminiscent of Benny Carter
than it is of either Young or Parker. This supple-
ness is still present in some 1950 pieces but by
1953, playing in rather constricting circumstances
with a group which includes Teddy Charles, his
tone is turning harsh and his lines have lost their
litheness. Vol. 2 includes some 1951 performances
in which Gray plays with handsome assurance, tech-
nique and style but the group with him contains
too many undeveloped talents one is trumpeter
Art Farmer, playing his first record date. The disk
also includes a spotty 1950 session recorded in a
night club. Both West Coast Jazz Concert, Regent
6049, and Jazz Concert West Coast, Savoy 12012,
are badly recorded, tediously lengthy transcriptions

The Records 125

as indicated. Gray makes three minor contributions
to Tenors, Anyone?, Dawn 1126.

Bennie Green. In a day when jazz trombonists are
apt to be either fidgety runners o scales or mooing
products of the Kenton mill, Green stands out as a
lusty-voiced swinger who can also make his horn
sing with warmth and sweetness. He was with Earl
Hines' band and Charlie Ventura's small group in
the Forties, returned to Hines in the early Fifties
and has since had groups of his own.

Six selections made by Green in 1953 and 1954
make up one side of Blow Your Horn, Decca 8176
(shared with Paul Quinichette). With both groups
Green's trombone is fluently soaring but the 1954
group (with Billy Root playing a roaring tenor
saxophone) is more rhythmically alert than its 1953
counterpart. A group which Green led in 1955,
with Charlie Rouse in place of Root, plays a superb
set on Bennie Green Blows His Horn, Prestige
7052, as Green shows off all his facets and Rouse,
digging into his solos with sinew and strength, and
Cliff Smalls, a vigorous, two-handed pianist who
has been associated with Green on most of his
records, complement the trombonist's moods ex-
cellently. A more recent disk, Back on the Scene,
Blue Note 1587, teams him once more with Rouse
in some interestingly edgy ensembles and solos
which run from a slow, flamboyant ballad to a
swirling, shouting fast blues. Billy Root returns on
Soul Stirrin', Blue Note 1599, a disk which is high-
lighted by a furiously swinging We Wanna Cook
(a variant of an earlier Green opus, We Wanna
Blow) on which Green punches out a long, stirring
solo that is a model of neat, compact playing which
generates tremendous force. When he descends into
some impressively dark explorations of the nether
regions of the blues, he shifts to a rough-edged,
sweeping style that is extremely effective.

126 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Green is in good but not exceptional form on
Walking Prestige 7049, but the point of interest on
this disk is the quartet which accompanies him
an excellent but almost completely neglected group
led by drummer Bill English with Eric Dixon,
tenor saxophone, Lloyd Mayers, piano, and Sonny
Wellesley, bass. On Bennie Green, Prestige 7041,
his once light and fluid tone has turned heavy and
he sounds tired in his long solos. He does nothing
to raise the undistinguished level of Jazz Studio 1,
Decca 8058. Backed by the inevitable strings in a
1952 session which takes up one side of Benny
Green and Jay and Kai Quintet, Prestige 7030, he
plays four ballads with a big, fat, mocking tone
that makes the strings sound even more pale than
they normally would. Green has one selection in
The Encyclopedia of Jazz on Records, Vol. 4, Decca
8401.

Urbie Green. Although Urbie Green's trombone
first made itself widely felt in the two years (1950-
52) that he spent in the modishly modern surround-
ings of Woody Herman's band, his earlier training
had been in the Swing Era styles of the bands of
Tommy Reynolds, Jan Savitt, Frankie Carle and
Gene Krupa. After leaving Herman, he has gravi-
tated back to that more traditional side of jazz. He
is, however, an unusually flexible jazzman who can
play well in almost any style. He is smooth and
urbane on Blues and Other Shades of Green, ABC-
Paramount 101, a very relaxed set with crisp piano
work by Dave McKenna. With trumpet, two wood-
winds and rhythm, Green is subdued, moody and
a shade cool on Urbie, Bethlehem 14. All About
Urbie Green and His Big Band, ABC-Paramount
137, is much less preposterous than its title agree-
ably unpretentious and danceable big band ar-
rangements by Johnny Carisi. Let's Face the Music
and Dance, Victor LPM 1667, and Jimmy McHugh

The Records 127

in Hi-Fi, Victor LPM 1741, are further Green big
band sets in a smooth, traditional swing style.
Green duets with Lou McGarity and with Billy
Butterfield in two selections on The Mellow Moods
of Jazz, Victor LPM 1365.

Max Gregor. Gregor's easygoing little German
jump group features a saxophonist in the prelimin-
ary stages of honkery in a single selection on "Das"
Is Jazz!, Decca 8229.

Johnny Griffin. Schooled in the Lionel Hampton
Fly in' Home seminary of tenor saxophonery, Griffin
has developed a billowing, persistently impatient
manner of playing since getting away from Hamp-
ton, adding a bursting urgency to a Lester Young
foundation. He has two prime faults a high pres-
sure lack of shading and the urge to stay on too
long which make Chicago Calling, Blue Note
1533, A Blowing Session, Blue Note 1559, and The
Congregation, Blue Note 1580, monotonous.
Johnny Griffin Quartet, Argo 624, his first record-
ings on his own, show his style already taking defi-
nite shape. Way Out, Riverside 12-274, gives him
an opportunity to show a less volatile side which is
not especially stimulating.

Gigi Gryce, An alto saxophonist and composer-
arranger, Gryce's recorded work has centered
largely around his Jazz Lab Quintet, a group which
he led jointly with trumpeter Donald Byrd in the
Middle Fifties. Before this Gryce had led a group
with Art Farmer and had spent half a year with
Lionel Hampton's band although his career as a
band leader goes back to 1946 when he led a 23-
piece group in his native Hartford, a band in which
Horace Silver played piano. Gryce and Byrd have
developed quite a few interesting starting points
for performances by their Quintet but the pieces

128 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

almost always fall apart in the chilly or perfunctory
soloing. This is the basis of the failure of Gigi
Gryce, Riverside 12-229, Jazz Lab, Jubilee 1059,
and the Quintet's portion of Gigi Gryce, Donald
Byrd and Cecil Taylor at Newport, Verve 8238. On
several selections on Jazz Lab, Columbia CL 998,
the quintet is expanded to an orchestra and there
is some attempt to provide the soloists with sup-
port. This helps a bit but not enough to remove the
cold, stone-faced quality from the solos of Gryce
and Byrd. The Quintet has its best moments on
Modern Jazz Perspective, Columbia CL 1058, an
attempt to trace the development of some modern
jazz styles. It swings more explicitly and infec-
tiously than it has at other times and Gryce's alto
has a positive projection that is missing in other
performances. Gryce plays a single selection on
Know Your Jazz, Vol. 1, ABC-Paramount 115, and
the group plays single pieces on Blues for Tomor-
row, Riverside 12-243, Riverside Drive, Riverside
12-267, and Jazz Omnibus, Columbia CL 1020.

Vince Guaraldi. Guaraldi is a remarkable pianist
who can, among other worthy abilities, play in a
seemingly ethereal style that still conveys a rugged,
down-to-earth feeling. On other occasions he shows
a coaxingly swinging manner or mulls broodingly
through a ballad. There is a warm, imaginative
mixture of sophistication, basic blues, romanticism
and a stimulating touch of wry in Vince Guaraldi
Trio, Fantasy 3225, and A Flower Is a Lovesome
Thing, Fantasy 3257, on which he has the practi-
cally peerless support of Eddie Duran's light-toned,
delicately rhythmic guitar and Dean Reilly's bass.
Guaraldi is the digging, rough-hewn pianist in two
selections on Modern Music from San Francisco,
Fantasy 3213, as he leads a quartet to which Jerry
Dodgion contributes some effortless, driving alto
saxophone solos.

The Records 129

Lars Gullin. Gullin is the only foreign jazz mu-
sician who has ever won one of Down Beat's popu-
larity polls. He shot up meteorically during the
mid-Fifties but even as he was gaining international
fame his baritone saxophone work began to lose
the firmness and muscularity that had brought him
to attention. His tone is heavy but fluent on Lars
Gullin, EmArcy 36012, but on two later disks, Bari-
tone Sax, Atlantic 1246, and Lars Gullin Swings,
East-West 4003, much of his playing has an almost
leaden quality. Lars Gullin with the Moretone
Singers, EmArcy 36059, is a tiresome trifle with a
singing group.

Al Haig. Haig was one of the most ubiquitous
pianists of the emergent bop period of the middle
and late Forties and was, in effect, the house pianist
for the leading boppers. In the Fifties, however, he
has chosen to stay away from the jazz limelight and
has recorded very infrequently. One of these rare
occasions produced Jazz Will o' the Wisp, Counter-
point 551, on which he shows his characteristic
delicacy, lyricism and clean, unembellished attack.
A single sample of his style is included on Pianists
Galore, World Pacific JWC 506.

Corky Hale. Miss Hale plays flute, harp and piano
which means she has two strikes on her in a jazz
context. She plays a pleasant piano, swings gently
on the harp, particularly when she is backing an-
other soloist, but has the common jazz trouble with
the flute. All this happens on Corky Hale, GNP 17,
and there are a few more samples on Escape, GNP
27.

Jim Hall. First heard playing a flowing, Charlie
Christian-influenced guitar as part of the original
Chico Hamilton Quintet and later going folksy
with the Jimmy GiuflEre Three, Hall plays a low-

130 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

keyed, pleasant but scarcely memorable set of solos
with a rhythm section on Jazz Guitar, World
Pacific 1227. He has one selection in Jazz West
Coast, Vol. 3, World Pacific JWC 507.

Bengt Hallberg. This young Swedish pianist has
evolved from a Teddy Wilson style to a crisp, flow-
ing version of the modern linear manner. On his
only American LP solo collection, Bengt Hallberg,
Epic 3375, he leans toward the Wilsonian influence
but he exhibits warm flashes of his more modern
side on his contributions to Swedes from Jazzville,
Epic 3309.

Lenny Hambro. Hambro is known best as the
leader of the saxophone section of the late Fifties
reincarnation of the Glenn Miller band led by Ray
McKinley. He plays his alto with a light, sweeping
style that moves along gracefully and, on ballads,
has a sweet, singing tone that is, in essence, a
trimmed down version of Johnny Hodges* ballad
technique. On The Nature of Things, Epic 3361,
he is backed by a quintet which includes the de-
lightfully down-to-earth pianist, Eddie Costa.

Chico Hamilton* Hamilton, an unostentatious but
firmly swinging drummer, is the very opposite of
those flamboyant gymnasts who have made the
drum solo one of the deadliest bores in jazz. When
he does solo, the effect is usually hush-inducing as
he carefully builds a series of subdued patterns
which, without resorting to obvious devices, can
achieve a powerful cumulative effect. Similarly his
quintet has a subdued sound, almost a salon ap-
proach, but Hamilton propels it with a compel-
lingly airy rhythm.

He had been around for quite a while before the
spotlight finally found him drumming with the
original Gerry Mulligan Quartet in 1952. He was

The Records 131

with Lionel Hampton briefly in 1940 and from
then until 1948 he shuttled among various groups.
In 1948 he joined Lena Home's entourage and
stayed with her until he took up with Mulligan and
the prominent phase of his career began. He re-
turned to Miss Home in 1954 and part of 1955.
This was the year when he formed his quintet with
Carson Smith, bass, Jim Hall, guitar, Fred Katz,
cello, and Buddy Collette on flute and various
reeds. The group's first disk, Chico Hamilton Quin-
tet, World Pacific 1209, was a provocative and
promising debut which flowered on its next re-
lease, The Chico Hamilton Quintet in Hi-Fi,
World Pacific 1216 a varied bag of bits and pieces
which often have a delicate charm even when they
do not swing much but which, more often than not,
develop a light, fleeting pulse that easily covers a
slight tendency to be precious. Katz's cello is more
definitely a part of the jazz passages on this disk
than it was on the first one but his presence is
valuable largely for the tonal colorations of his
instrument rather than for his jazz contributions.
Hall's guitar is unusually rhythmic and flowing and
the best pieces in the set are those on which he cuts
loose.

In 1957 Collette and Hall were replaced by Paul
Horn and John Pisano, respectively, and the new
quintet promptly reached a peak toward which the
earlier group had been building. This occurs on
Sweet Smell of Success, Decca 8614, one side of
which is made up of pieces played by the Quintet
on the sound track of the film, Sweet Smell of Suc-
cess; the other, a long extemporized "concerto" de-
veloped from these same themes. The particular
high point is one of these themes, Goodbye Baby,
a beautifully polished work in which Katz gives a
fascinating demonstration of the moving way in
which the natural mournfulness of the cello's tone
can evoke the blues. Another set by the same group,

132 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Chico Hamilton, World Pacific 1225, is less satis-
fying although Pisano, Smith and Hamilton hold
up their ends well. On South Pacific in Hi-Fi,
World Pacific 1238, the Quintet turns frightfully
genteel and decorous and it is buried under a string
section on With Strings Attached, Warner Brothers
1245.

Before organizing his Quintet, Hamilton made
some unusual recordings with a trio (himself,
George Duvivier, a magnificent bassist, and either
Howard Roberts or Jim Hall, guitar) Chico
Hamilton Trio, World Pacific 1220 which fre-
quently develops absorbing interplay between the
three instruments. Another disk attributed to a
Chico Hamilton Trio Introducing Freddie Gam-
brell is actually a showcase for Gambrell, a pian-
ist (q.v.)-

The Quintet has two selections in Jazz Swings
Broadway, World Pacific 404, the Quintet and the
trio each have one number in The Blues, World
Pacific JWC 502, the Quintet turns up once in
Jazz West Coast, Vol. 2, World Pacific JWC 501,
and is heard behind John Carradine's reading of a
Lawrence Lipton poem in Jazz Canto, World
Pacific 1244. Hamilton drums behind Tony Ben-
nett on three numbers in The Beat of My Heart,
Columbia CL 1079, has a single selection in Drums
on Fire, World Pacific 1247, and introduces one
Freddie Gambrell selection in Jazz West Coast, VoL
4, World Pacific JWC 510.

Jimmy Hamilton. When Jimmy Hamilton joined
Duke Ellington's band to take over Barney Bigard's
clarinet chair, he replaced Bigard's lush, blue-tinted
tone with a style based on cool propriety and for-
mality. Hamilton's air of legitimacy has never ade-
quately filled the gap in the overall Ellington
sound left by Bigard (Russell Procope comes closest
to doing this when he is given a clarinet solo). Re-

The Records 133

moved from the Ellington band, however, Hamil-
ton shows greater range and warmth in playing
with various small groups on Accent on Clarinet,
Urania 1204, and Clarinet in Hi-Fi, Urania 1208.
In a pair of selections on the latter he is with an
exceptionally good group (which includes Lucky
Thompson and Ernie Royal) and shows himself to
be an imaginative writer.

Johnny Hamlin. Hamlin, an accordionist, leads a
gentle, monotoned group which rarely raises its
collective voice as it pads discreetly through Polka
Dots, Victor LPM 1379, and Powder Puff, Victor
LPM 1565.

Ken Hanna. Hanna, a onetime Stan Kenton ar-
ranger and trumpeter, leads a slick, clean, big
studio band through routine arrangements on Jazz
for Dancers, Capitol T 6512.

Bob Hardaway. Hardaway plays a light, bouncing
tenor saxophone with a slightly Getzian sound on
ballads as well as a crisp, well-formed uptempo
style with a sinuous West Coast group on Bob
Hardaway, Rep 202.

Jo Harnell. On Piano Inventions, Jubilee 1015,
Harnell neatly skirts the false lures of classical bor-
rowings and cocktail fluff in a program of percep-
tive, well-tempered performances that seem more
concerned with swinging lightly than with "raising
the level" of jazz.

Joe Harriott. This English alto saxophonist fol-
lows a simplified version of the Charlie Parker path
without adding anything of his own in two selec-
tions by his quartet on Jazz Erittania, MGM 3472.

134 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Art Harris. As a solo pianist on Jazz Goes to Post-
graduate School, Kapp 1015, Harris mixes a me-
lange of classical influences, some Tatum emulation
and a strong, striding beat which somehow comes
out as stiff-rhythmed clangor. But as co-leader with
bassoonist Mitch Leigh of the Harris-Leigh Baro-
que Band and Brass Choir on Jazz 1755, Kapp
1011, he produces amusing interpretations of the
18th Century in jazz terms.

Bill Harris (guitar). From the anonymity of accom-
panist to a rhythm and blues vocal group, the
Clovers, Harris unexpectedly turned up early in
1957 on Bill Harris, EmArcy 36097, finger-plucking
jazz on an unamplified Spanish guitar and without
accompaniment. At the time, this was quite a shock
(Charlie Byrd had not yet made his recording debut
then) because all jazz guitarists had been playing
amplified guitars, using a plectrum and a single
string style, since Charlie Christian set the modern
pattern some 17 years earlier. Although he leans
toward too much "prettiness" on this disk, it in-
cludes several selections which suggest that Harris
has a well-based jazz talent, a suggestion that is not
amplified by The Harris Touch, EmArcy 36113, on
which he is burdened with a clomping rhythm sec-
tion and uses an electric guitar in an undistin-
guished fashion on many selections.

Bill Harris (trombone). Harris* fat, blowsy, raucous
trombone tone ranges with great effectiveness from
soul-searing blues to breathless excitement and even
lusty humor. He was featured with Woody Her-
man's various bands through the middle and late
Forties and sporadically during the Fifties. The
various shades of Harris are spotlighted on Bill
Harris and Friends, Fantasy 3263, which includes
deadpan comedy (Just One More Chance) and a
romping uptempo attack on Crazy Rhythm on

The Records 135

which Harris projects an itchy excitement and
tenor saxophonist Ben Webster prods and jabs "with
furious abandon. On the other hand there are some
slow ballads through which Harris gasps his way to-
ward imminent expiration. His humorous smears
help to brighten the generally flat performances
that make up Saturday Night Swing Session, Coun-
terpoint 549. He is backed by woodwinds on a
single slow ballad on Cool and Quiet* Capitol
T 371, and turns to the valve trombone, which he
plays in a much smoother fashion than he nor-
mally uses on slide trombone, in single selections in
Advance Guard of the Forties, EmArcy 36016, and
Boning Up on Bones, EmArcy 36083.

Gene Harris. Our Love Is Here to Stay, Jubilee
1005, is made up of routine performances by a
pianist who shows more technical skill than feeling.

Hampton Hawes. Hawes has become a facile pian-
ist who jigs along in crisp, glib fashion at fast
tempos and knows the path down into the blues.
But there is a cool, impersonal surface on his work
which seals off any suggestions of emotional in-
volvement and makes one fast number sound like
any other, the next blues like the last one. He seems
to emerge from this shell most successfully when he
is in stimulating company. Larry Bunker, swinging
hard on vibraphone, provides this stimulation on
Hawes' side of Piano: East/West, Prestige 7067
(shared with Freddie Redd) and Hawes responds by
digging in in strong, two-handed fashion. Hawes
shows he can do it again in his two selections on
Lighthouse at Laguna, Contemporary 3509, when
Shelly Manne is at the drums to propel him, while
on Mingus Three, Jubilee 1054, bassist Charlie
Mingus pins Hawes down to some of the soundest,
wannest playing he has recorded.
Working with his own trio, however, Hawes is

136 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

apt to be what Whitney Balliett has aptly termed
a "chrome eater" a pianist who is clipped, hard,
consistent, initially impressive but tiresome in
quantity. This is the impression that is left by The
Trio, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Contemporary 3505 and
3515, Everybody Likes Hampton Hawes, Contem-
porary 3523, by three disks produced at one sitting,
All Night Session, Vol. 1-3, Contemporary 3545,
3546 and 3547, and in his three selections on I Just
Love Jazz Piano, Savoy 12100. Hawes has a single
selection (the same one) in both Jazz West Coast,
Vol. 2, World Pacific JWC 501, and Pianists
Galore!, World Pacific JWC 506.

Tubby Hayes. A rough-toned English tenor saxo-
phonist who uses long, flowing lines, Hayes and his
Quintet linger far too long over each piece on their
side of Changing the Jazz at Buckingham Palace,
Savoy 12111 (shared with Dizzy Reece), although
pianist Harry South manages to sustain an earthy
solo fairly well.

Roy Haynes. Haynes' crisply rhythmic drumming for
a long time brightened the accompaniment to
Sarah Vaughan and was heard more recently in
Thelonious Monk's Quintet but in his only LP ap-
pearance as a leader, on half of Jazz Abroad, Em-
Arcy 36083 (shared with Quincy Jones), the mo-
mentum is provided largely by a pair of saxophon-
ists, the American Sahib Shihab and Sweden's
Bjarne Norem. Haynes is heard in one selection
with Miss Vaughan on The Jazz Giants: Drum
Role, EmArcy 36071.

J. C. Heard. A late product of the Swing Era,
drummer J. C. Heard has played with Teddy Wil-
son, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Benny Good-
man, Woody Herman, Cab Galloway and has
toured with Jazz at the Philharmonic. After a

The Records 137

three-year stay from 1953 to 1956 in Japan and
Australia, he returned to the United States and
recorded This Is Me, J. C. Heard, Argo 633, with
an octet built around four horns from the Basic
band (Joe Newman, Benny Powell, Frank Wess,
Charlie Fowlkes). What slight interest the disk has
revolves around the shouting horns of the Basic
men. Heard does his own cause little good by sing-
ing some pieces.

Neal Hefti. The swinging sense of the Basic band
of the late Thirties has been carried into the Fifties
most successfully in Neal Hefti's arrangements
(significantly many of the latter-day Basie band's
best pieces are Hefti creations). Hefti worked his
way upstream as a trumpeter through a variety of
big bands (Charlie Barnet, Charlie Spivak, Horace
Heidt, Bobby Byrne) to a coming-of-musical-age
with Woody Herman's hot and heady Herd of
1944. During the Fifties he has devoted most of his
time to free-lance arranging although occasionally
he has put a band together for a brief run.

The band he leads on Hefti Hot 'n' Hearty, Epic
3187, has a smooth, uncluttered and moving
rhythmic pulse over which Hefti has laid out a
variety of pleasant lines. It amounts to big band
jazz which is soundly rooted in the early Basie
theory and expressed in terms which take advan-
tage of newer jazz ideas without making a fetish of
them. The Band with Young Ideas, Coral 57077, is
in much the same light, bright, riff-studded vein
although the repetitious similarity of many of
Hefti's pieces builds some monotony. Hefti has
frequently made use of vocal groups in combina-
tion with a swinging band, a parlay that reaches its
peak in Singin' Instrumental, Epic 3440, in which
Hefti's band includes Charlie JBarnet, Billy Butter-
field, Lou McGarity and Jimmie Crawford, and
the material is some of the classics of the Swing Era.

138 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Pardon My Doo-Wah, Epic 3481, applies the same
treatment to some Hefti originals created for Count
Basie.

Ernie Henry. When Henry died in 1957 at the age
of 31 he was one of the more widely heralded mem-
bers of Dizzy Gillespie's big band and was just
coming into his own as an alto saxophonist of the
hard-toned post-Parker school. His playing on Pre-
senting Ernie Henry, Riverside 12-222, is forceful
but monotonous. He warms up a bit on one side of
Last Chorus, Riverside 12-266 (the other side is
made up of excerpts from other Riverside records
on which he played), but the melodic ballads which
make up most of Seven Standards and a Blues,
Riverside 12-248, are not particularly useful
vehicles for his astringent attack. Henry has one
selection in Jazz for Lovers, Riverside 12-244.

Mort Herbert. A versatile bassist who has played
under such varied leaders as Louis Armstrong, Don
Elliott and Lester Lanin, Herbert leads a pair of
adequate groups through some uneventful pieces
on Night People, Savoy 12073.

Woody Herman has led his band along a long and
winding path for more than twenty years. The re-
cordings he made between the middle Thirties and
1944 are discussed in The Collector's Jazz: Tradi-
tional and Swing. 1944 begins his shift into modern
jazz when he moved out of his earlier status as the
leader of a pretty good band to become the leader
of one of the greatest big bands that jazz has
known.

During the fifteen years since he hit the heights
with his First Herd, he has been the most consis-
tently creative and capable band leader in jazz.
His versatility, variety and excellent judgment have
kept his bands on a generally consistent level while

The Records 139

such of his peers as Duke Ellington, Count Basie
and Stan Kenton have fumbled, stumbled and
clung desperately to withering formulas. The depth
of Herman's resources is indicated by the fact that
in the late Forties, when his contemporary of the
Swing Era Benny Goodman had reached the ap-
parent end of his creative career in jazz, Herman
was just discovering new possibilities for himself
as an alto saxophonist (like Goodman, he had been
playing clarinet all through his earlier bandleading
career).

One of the greatest single disk collections of big
band jazz is Herman's Bijou, Harmony 7013,
played by his 1945 First Herd, a vital, zestful and
colorful young band, enormously talented and
brimming with new ideas. A 1946 Carnegie Hall
concert which established the jazz supremacy of this
band is reproduced on Carnegie Hall, 1946, MGM
3043, but unfortunately inadequate recording robs
the band of much of its brilliance.

One of the earliest efforts at extended composi-
tion in the newer jazz manner and one of the
most successful is Ralph Burns' Summer Se-
quence, the principle work in Summer Sequence,
Harmony 7093, from which Herman evolved a jazz
ballad style exemplified by Early Autumn. Both
this selection and Four Brothers, one of Herman's
greatest recordings, created by the Second Herd,
are included in an excellent summation of the
work of the three bands Herman led in the Forties
and early Fifties, The Three Herds, Columbia CL
592. Early Autumn turns up again in a set which is
representative of the crisp vitality of the Herman
band in 1948 and 1949, Woody Herman, Capitol
T 324, and it is done for a third time, embellished
with one of Herman's precise yet casual vocals, on
Early Autumn, Verve 2030. This disk is one of
three collections of recordings made by Herman in
the early Fifties for his own record company, Mars.

140 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Early Autumn features Herman as a vocalist in
such varied surroundings as a roaring calypso, bal-
lads, a sort of hillbilly blues and a clever mono-
logue based on cool jazz argot. Of the other two,
Jazz the Utmost, Verve 8014, mixes full-bodied jazz
and smooth ballads while Men from Mars, Verve
8216, changes the formula to driving big band jazz,
both reasonably pure and tinged with rock 'n' roll.
One of the least exciting of Herman's bands, which
comes chronologically just before the Mars edition,
is heard on Hi Fi-ing Herd, MGM 3385. It shows
touches of the expected crisp aggressiveness but
sounds under wraps most of the time.

By 1954 and 1955 Herman was back on a power
drive much like that of his First Herd. The jazz
imaginations of the mid-Fifties, however, do not
spark as brilliantly as they did in the middle
Forties on The Woody Herman Band!, Capitol T
560, or Road Band!, Capitol T 658. Late in 1955
Herman took an eight-piece group to Las Vegas.
On Jackpot!^, Capitol T 478, this octet swings with
the forthright vigor of a big band and gives Her-
man an opportunity to play his clarinet with
warmth and meaning instead of the brief, shrill
passages he had normally been having with his full
band. The 1957 edition of the Herd is adequate but
unexciting on Featuring the Preacher, Verve 8255,
despite the presence of Herman's veteran trom-
bonist, Bill Harris. A band which he took to South
America in 1958 is much more in the Herman mode
on Herman's Heat and Puente's Beat, Everest 5010,
but the New York studio band which plays on some
selections on this disk and on all of The Herd Rides
Again, Everest 5003, is not up to the classic Herman
material it attempts to revive while the new ar-
rangements provided for it are tired and routine.

In addition to Early Autumn, Verve 2030, there
are several other disks which feature Herman as a
vocalist, usually without his band. Herman is an

The Records 141

old hand at giving a blues an ingratiating projec-
tion and he is equally adept at ballads which he
approaches not as a crooner but as a vocalist who
feels most readily at home in the blues yet is
cognizant of the difference between a blues and a
ballad. This sensitivity and some good jazz backing
by Ben Webster, Bill Harris, Jimmie Rowles and
others make Songs for Hip Lovers, Verve 2069, one
of the better sets of pop love songs. With Frank De
Vol's orchestra backing him, Herman is smoother
but still swinging on Love Is the Sweetest Thing
Sometimes, Verve 2096, but he and Enroll Garner
tend to go their separate ways in what is intended
to be a joint effort, Music for Tired Lovers, Colum-
bia CL 65 L His best vocal vein, the blues, is ex-
plored with skill on Blues Groove, Capitol T 784.

The Herman band is heard in three selections on
Here Come the Swinging Bands, Verve 8207, twice
on Hi-Fi Drums, Capitol T 926, and Dance to the
Bands, Vol. 1, Capitol T 977, and once each in
Dance to the Bands, Vol. 2, Capitol T 978, Forty-
Eight Stars of American Jazz, MGM 3611, and
$64,000 Jazz, Columbia CL 777.

A group of Hermanites toss off a few loose head
arrangements with shaky, shallow recording on The
Herdsmen Play Paris, Fantasy 3201.

Milt Hinton. Hinton's versatility and swinging
strength have made him the busiest recording bassist
in New York in the middle and late Fifties. He is
at home with almost any type of jazz from tradi-
tional (he has worked with Louis Armstrong) to
experimental modernist. After a five year associa-
tion with violinist Eddie South in the early Thirties,
Hinton joined Cab Galloway's band in 1936 and
stayed for fifteen years. On Milt Hinton, Bethle-
hem 10, he works with a relaxed, lightly swinging
quartet which includes Tony Scott, clarinet, Dick
Katz, piano, and Osie Johnson, drums. With Scott

142 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

and Katz to vary the proceedings, this is a more
balanced set than is produced by most bassists.
Hinton is also heard in a single showcase selection
for himself on After Hours Jazz, Epic 3339, and he
leads a group in a showcase piece for trombonist
Tyree Glenn on Boning Up on Bones, EmArcy
36038.

Jutta Hipp. Once one of Germany's best known
pianists, Miss Hipp underwent an attack of in-
defimtion after coming to the United States in
1956. Her German recordings on "Das" Is Jazz!
Decca 8229, with Hans Roller's group and on Cool
Europe, MGM 3157, with her own group which is
made up largely of Kollerites show her as a gently
but propulsively flowing pianist working with en-
sembles of a definitely Tristano texture. Her solo
recordings since reaching this country Jutta Hipp
at the Hickory House, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Blue Note
1515 and 1516 lack her earlier conviction and
direction. She is more at ease in the less demanding
surroundings of Jutta Hipp with Zoot Sims, Blue
Note 1530, as saxophonist Sims capably carries
most of the burden.

Bill Hitz. Music for This Swingin' Age, Decca 8392,
attributed to Bill Hitz and his orchestra, is a big
band display of the twelve-tone system devised by
Lyle Murphy. Hitz, a skillful clarinetist who is one
of Murphy's pupils, is only moderately interesting
as a soloist but the band's performances are soundly
based and pulsing. Murphy's ideas provide a fresh
flavor without getting in the way of the essential
swing.

Andre Hodeir. A series of "essais" written by
Hodeir, a French composer and critic, are per-
formed on American Jazzmen Play Andre Hodeir's
Essais, Savoy 12104, by a group which includes

The Records 143

Eddie Costa (playing earthy, blues-bred vibra-
phone), Idrees Sulieman, Donald Byrd, Frank
Rehak, Hal McKusick and Bobby Jaspar. Hodeir
hits a happy middle ground between the outright
blowing session and the cramped quarters of the
too tightly written work. He centers his attention
on the ensemble, weaving his soloists in and out of
a background written in skillfully idiomatic jazz
terms. This, admittedly, is one of the older forms
of jazz but it has been largely neglected by modern-
ists. However, what is fresh and pulsing on this
disk turns to arid over-intellectualization in an-
other collection of Hodeir arrangements, The Paris
Scene, Savoy 12113, played by the Jazz Group of
Paris. Only the vibraphonist, Fats Sadi, manages
to shake loose occasionally for a freshening romp.
Still another set of Hodeir arrangements, brightly
played in general, will be found on Kenny Clarke
Plays Andre Hodeir, Epic 3376.

Jean Hoffman. Miss Hoffman is an unostentatious,
small-voiced singer and a pleasantly prodding,
rhythmic pianist who is supported by bass and
drums on Jean Hoffman Sings and Swings, Fantasy
3260.

Joe Holiday. A tenor saxophonist who has bor-
rowed extensively from a variety of postwar sources
leads some small group performances that are
fundamentally swing with a bop surface on Holi-
day for Jazz, Decca 8487.

Bill Holman. Holman contributed many arrange*
ments to Stan Ken ton's book between 1952 and
1956 and sat in his saxophone section for some of
that time. Since then he has been a free lance
arranger and part-time performer. On The Fabulous
Bill Holman, Coral 57188, he appears in both
capacities, leading and playing with a big band in

144 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

a set of his own arrangements. He plays tenor
saxophone in a warm-voiced manner that is essen-
tially out of Lester Young although there are sur-
face suggestions of Sonny Rollins. His writing, for
the most part, is bright and serviceable. The disk
includes one inexcusably long piece which is par-
tially redeemed by a pleasantly kindling middle
section.

Elmo Hope. Hope, a pianist who follows the Bud
Powell style, catches some of the surface of the
master but misses the meat on Meditations, Prestige
7010. He is buried in the dreary expanses of a six-
man blowing session on Informal Jazz, Prestige
7043, but he leads a cleanly designed quintet in
capably played single selections on The Hard Swing,
World Pacific JWC 508, and Have Blues, Will
Travel, World Pacific JWC 509.

Kenyon Hopkins. Hopkins, a composer for the
films, uses an occasional jazz device in his ballet
score, Rooms, Cadence 1019, but the work exists
for the most part in a twilit world of its own. The
performers include Teo Macero, Wendell Marshall
and Clem Da Rosa.

Paul Horn. Horn inherited the general utility
chair in the Chico Hamilton Quintet from Buddy
Collette, adding the piccolo to the already impres-
sive arsenal of instruments that Collette had brought
to the group. His first venture on his own, sup-
ported by the Quintet plus a string quartet, piano
and vibes, The House of Horn, Dot 3091, is more
like salon music than jazz as Horn moves nimbly
from flute to piccolo to clarinet to alto saxophone
to alto flute. Only a darting, flaring piece for
clarinet and string quartet and an amusingly slinky,
blues-touched march on which Horn plays a re-

The Records 145

markably jazz-rooted piccolo get away from the
overall pastoral, subdued feeling. On Plenty of
Horn, Dot 9002, Horn is surrounded by more
legitimately jazzworthy instruments and shows a
smooth flowing style on alto saxophone in some
small group selections although there is still a sense
of preciosity about much of his playing and in his
selection of material.

Dick Hyman. Hyman is an unusually able pianist
who has been producing in whatever style a situa-
tion calls for for so long that he himself has become
lost in the shuffle. He can play almost any kind of
jazz at least reasonably well, often very well, but
his versatility has made him a repository rather
than a creator. He keeps the styles and mannerisms
of others alive but he has developed no distinctive
musical personality himself.

Supported by bass and drums he plays both piano
and organ with flowing competence and occasional
sly witticisms on one side of The Swingin' Seasons,
MGM 3613, and produces a varied and readily
identifiable version of the score of Gigi, MGM 3642.
With larger groups, he plays the amusingly descrip-
tive set of selections Feedback Fugue, Flutter
Waltz, Tweeter, Woofer, etc. which make up The
Hi-Fi Suite, MGM 3493, while in giving a jazz
treatment to the score of Oh Captain!, MGM 3650,
he has the expert assistance of Coleman Hawkins,
caught in an unusually mellow and relaxed mood,
and a romping Tony Scott. Despite all their good
efforts, however, Oh Captain! is not prime jazz
material. Hyman has also made a number of
deliberately dreary pop sets for MGM which have
served their sole purpose they have sold well.

Wes Ildten. Ilcken, a Dutch drummer who died
in 1957, led a combo which was notable primarily
for a trumpeter-saxophonist, Jerry van Rooyan. It

146 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

plays a thin, watery version of modern jazz on
Jazz Behind the Dikes, Epic 3270.

International Youth Band. Marshall Brown, who
came to notice when he put together the remark-
able Farmingdale High School band, formed the
International Youth Band with jazzmen gathered
from all over Europe specifically for the Newport
Jazz Festival of 1958. Newport 1958, Columbia CL
1246, is a recorded report of the rather lumpy, un-
formed performances the band gave at Newport,
hindered by heavy-handed arrangements but bright-
ened occasionally by such things as the stately blues
written by Bill Russo for his Newport Suite.

Chubby Jackson. The boisterous bassist who en-
livened the Herman Herd of the middle Forties
was out of jazz during much of the Fifties but,
scenting an upbeat on the scene in 1957, he re-
turned leading studio big bands studded with such
familiar names as Bill Harris, Don Lamond and
Cy Touff which seemed to be aiming at a revival
of the old Herman fervor. It comes off pretty well
on Chubby's Back, Argo 614, and in some sections
of Chubby Takes Over, Everest 5009. This last disk
is very spotty, however, and carries a numbing load
of dead wood as does I'm Entitled to You, Argo
625. Two samples of the mid-Forties Jackson will
be found on Advance Guard of the Forties, Em-
Arcy 36016, on which he leads a quietly swinging
little group. A deplorable instance of his ill-ad-
vised humor is preserved on Dixieland and New
Orleans Jazz, Camden 446.

Milt Jackson. The vibraphone was brought into
jazz by Lionel Hampton who used it at walloping
uptempos and for pretty, mood-setting effects. Later
Red Norvo shifted to it from xylophone, playing it
with swinging delicacy. But it was Milt Jackson

The Records 147

who first gave the vibes the earthy feeling that is
expected of a true jazz instrument. He is a driving
and well organized performer at fast tempos but his
prime metier is in the slower speeds of blues and
ballads. Jackson is, in fact, one of the merest hand-
ful of modern jazzmen who can maintain the
essentially balladic sense of a ballad while inter-
preting it with a jazz quality. This ability is shown
off extremely well on Ballads and Blues, Atlantic
1242, on parts of which Lucky Thompson's very
complementary tenor saxophone slithers through
some equally adept solos (Thompson is one of that
handful who can play ballads). There is more good
Jackson-Thompson balladry on The Jazz Skyline,
Savoy 12070, Jacksonville, Savoy 12080, and on
Roll 'Em Bags, Savoy 12042 (which also includes
some lumbering pieces by another less edifying
Jackson group) as well as on Meet Milt, Savoy
12061, on which the Jackson-Thompson works share
space with a selection on which Jackson plays, a
firm, gutty piano, one on which he sings dismally
and a pair of half-baked works by a fourth Jackson
ensemble.

Jackson's versatility is given a much better show-
case on Soul Brothers, Atlantic 1279, on which he
plays both piano and guitar as well as vibes. But
this disk gets its cachet from the joining of Jackson
with Ray Charles, two fellow conjurors in the
darker, more basic shades of blue. They produce a
minor masterpiece on How Long Blues which starts
off way, way down and sustains this mood miracu-
lously for nine minutes. There are more of Jack-
son's primal blues on Plenty, Plenty Soul, Atlantic
1269, on which he has the valuable assistance of
Horace Silver and Art Blakey, among others. He is
heard with variants of the Modern Jazz Quartet,
the group with which he has been associated since
1952, on Milt Jackson Quartet, Prestige 7003, on
which Horace Silver takes John Lewis' customary

148 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

piano chair in the quartet, a change which tilts
the scales strongly in the direction of funk, while
on The Modern Jazz Quartet, Savoy 12046, Lewis
is present (the sitter-in is Ray Brown on bass) and
there is a loose but recognizably MJQ feeling about
the performances. This feeling is also apparent on
one side of Milt Jackson, Blue Note 1509, in per-
formances by the original quartet plus alto saxo-
phonist Lou Donaldson.

Jackson's ballad and blues side comes through
warmly on Opus de Jazz, Savoy 12036, but his bal-
ance wheel here is Frank Wes' flute. He joins
trumpeter Howard McGhee on Howard McGhee
and Milt Jackson, Savoy 12026, in some shallowly
recorded and rather unimpressive pieces, while he
hits one of his rare low points on records leading
a quintet which has as its main point of interest
the big, fat tone of an obscure trumpeter, Henry
Boozier, on MJQ, Prestige 7059, a disk which also
includes the earliest recordings by the Modern Jazz
Quartet.

Illinois Jacquet. One of the earliest of the show-
boating tenor saxophonists, Jacquet has a tendency
to drown his definite talents (he is a smoothly flow-
ing swinger deriving from Lester Young) in out-
breaks of gross honkery. It was his misfortune to
originate the Flyin' Home fandango in Lionel
Hampton's band and even a later spell with Basie
could not completely erase the notion which seemed
fixed in his mind that if he played loudly, weirdly
and speedily enough he could be a great attraction.
Fortunately most of his excesses have been culled
from the recordings which have survived on LP
from his earlier days. Lately he seems to have
calmed down at least in recording studios.

Some recordings he made in the middle Forties
turn up on one side of Rex Stewart Plays Duke
Ellington, Grand Award 33-315 (Stewart does as

The Records 149

indicated on the other side), most of them in
Jacquet's rich ballad style and somewhat fuzzily
recorded. The calming influence of an organ
played by Count Basie on some numbers, by Hank
Jones on others helps him to level off on Port of
Rico, Verve 8085, while another organist, Gerald
Wiggins, guides him to smooth, controlled swing-
ing on Illinois Jacquet and His Orchestra, Verve
8061. With more conventional small group instru-
mentation he makes a determined and frequently
successful effort to play with taste on Swings the
Thing, Verve 8023, and maintains this pace on
Grooving Verve 8086. He turns lumpy and dull in
an effort at mood music on Jazz Moods, Verve 8084,
and although he is joined by Ben Webster on The
Kid and the Brute, Verve 8065, an association which
might have inspired Jacquet to rise to Webster's
level, the influence is the other way around for
Webster has rarely played as inadequately. Jacquet
contributes one selection to Verve Compendium of
Jazz #1, Verve 8194.

Ahmad Jamal. A Pittsburgher who has apparently
given the piano style of his fellow Pittsburgher,
Erroll Garner, a lot of thought, Jamal arrived at
a trio formula in 1958 which seemed to have a
broadness of appeal unmatched by anyone since
Garner became widely known. He shares with
Garner a melodiousness and a rhythmic drive that
are readily communicative and, like Garner, there
are surprises and twists and turns in his playing
which can be appreciated by almost anyone. He
does not, however, copy any of Garner's mannerisms
or devices but has developed a spare, highly ab-
breviated way of playing (he gains some of his best
effects by not playing at all) while the melodic line
and pulse are carried on sturdily by his excellent
bass and drum team, Israel Crosby and Vernell
Fournier.

150 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Jamal spent the better part of a decade arriving
at this combination of instrumentation and ap-
proach. After a spell with George Hudson's band
in St. Louis in the Forties (when he was known as
Fritz Jones), Jamal formed the Three Strings in
Chicago in 1950 and has been evolving from that
start in the years between. His earliest work on
LP is The Ahmad Jamal Trio, Epic 3212, some
1956 recordings with Crosby and a guitarist, Ray
Crawford, which mixes some moments of genuine
emotion with slickly contrived novelties. On Cham-
ber Music of the New Jazz, Argo 602, Crawford
is still present but he is occasionally banging his
guitar for a bongo effect (a la Herb Ellis) which
has since been picked up by Jamal's drummer.
Count 'Em 88, Argo 610, marks the switch from
guitar to drum (Walter Perkins is the drummer on
this disk) and, in his version of Easy to Remember,
the emergence of the drum and bass as front line
voices in the trio. Fournier has taken over the
drum chair on Ahmad Jamal at the Pershing, Argo
628, and this disk along with a slightly later one
Ahmad Jamal, Argo 636 (both recorded in night
dubs) represent the finished, polished Jamal style
as of 1958.

Bobby Jaspar. A Belgian tenor saxophonist and
flutist who made his jazz reputation in Paris and
subsequently came to the United States where he
has been a member of J. J. Johnson's group, Jaspar
sometimes gets a stronger jazz flavor from the
flute than other members of the piping set but he
is far better when he is rolling out the soft, pliant
saxophone lines he produces on Interplay for Two
Trumpets and Two Tenors, Prestige 7112. On a
recording made in France, Bobby Jaspar and His
All Stars, EmArcy 36105, his saxophoning slips to
aimless noodling at times and his flute work is too
fragile to carry him through Flute Souffle, Prestige

The Records 151

7101, or Flute Flight, Prestige 7124. He is also
heard on Tenor and Flute, Riverside 12-240, and in
a single selection on Blues for Tomorrow, River-
side 12-243.

The Jazz Exponents. A quartet from Upper Michi-
gan featuring two versatile musicians, Jack Gridley
on vibes, piano and trombone, and Bob Elliott on
trombonium and piano, varies between a rough-
hewn approximation of the J. J. Johnson-Kai Wind-
ing treatment and some rhythmic but derivative
pieces on The Jazz Exponents, Argo 622.

The Jazz Group of Paris (see Andre Hodeir).

Les Jazz Modes. Julius Watkins is practically the
only jazz French horn performer who has been
able to shake the instrument out of its haunting
hunting sound and make it swing. Even he is not
always successful at this (nor does he scorn the
effective use that can be made of the more normal
French horn style on a ballad) but he pulls the
trick off frequently enough on the disks he has
made with Les Jazz Modes, a quintet jointly led
by him and tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse, to
set them apart from the general run of jazz record-
ings. The group's freest, most unencumbered set of
performances are on one side of Jazzville '56, Vol.
1, Dawn 1101 (shared with the Gene Quill-Dick
Sherman Quintet) as Watkins shakes off the usual
French horn shackles and soars with brilliant ex-
hilaration. There is an abandon on this disk that is
gradually stifled on their succeeding records. Les
Jazz Modes, Dawn 1108, includes a wordless soprano
voice, used much in the Duke Ellington manner
although without Ellington's judiciousness. Mood
in Scarlet, Dawn 1117, leans self-consciously toward
the exotic while The Most Happy Fella, Atlantic
1280, traps the group in a show score that produces

152 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

no sparks. A single selection by the Modes is in-
cluded in Critics' Choice, Dawn 1123, and Jazz for
Hi-Fi Lovers, Dawn 1124.

John Jenkins. One of the many alto saxophonists
derived from Charlie Parker, Jenkins is not quite
as strident as some of his contemporaries and even
displays a certain amount of warmth at slow tempos
on John Jenkins, Blue Note 1573. On a long-winded
blowing session, Jazz Eyes, Regent 6056, he shows
more assurance and sense of direction than his fel-
low soloists, Donald Byrd and Curtis Fuller, but
Alto Madness, Prestige 7114, boils down to a re-
lentless series of shrill, empty solos by Jenkins and
a similarly derived altoist, Jackie McLean.

Dick Johnson. Within a small area and in limited
doses, Johnson is a light, bright and engaging alto
saxophonist. There is an appealingly airy spirit
and fluency in much of his playing on Music for
Swinging Moderns, EmArcy 36081, although he
fumbles a bit in the slow tempos of ballads. His
conception becomes repetitious over the length of
Most Likely . . . , Riverside 12-253, but fortunately
he has the edgy, charging pianist, Dave McKenna,
in his rhythm section to keep things moving. A
brief but swinging appearance by Johnson at New-
port in 1957 is reported on Eddie Costa, Mat
Mathews and Don Elliott at Newport, Verve 8237.

J. J. Johnson. The trombone was brought into the
modern jazz line, as set by Charlie Parker and
Dizzy Gillespie, by Johnson, a technically brilliant
musician with the ability to project great quantities
of basic jazz feeling when is so moved. A prime
problem of Johnson's as a communicator is that
he is very frequently not so moved, preferring to
mutter his way through long, dry, staccato exercises.
He was greatly admired during the height o the

The Records 153

bop period but found work so scarce during the
early Fifties that he dropped out of music for a
couple of years. He returned to form a briefly
interesting alliance with trombonist Kai Winding
and latterly has led various groups of his own.

On his recordings from the pre-Winding period,
Johnson is almost always a lesser light in the groups
with which he plays. On four 1949 pieces on Trom-
bone by Three, Prestige 7023, Johnson is vague and
muffled but trumpeter Kenny Dorham speaks out
crisply and pianist John Lewis shows the lithe,
swinging strength that is at the root of his later
work. Of the three ensembles heard on /. /.
Johnson's Jazz Quintets, Savoy 12106, one is given
vitality by Lewis* suave lightness at the piano and
shows off a young Sonny Rollins, unformed but
forceful; a second is lifted from its rut by Bud
Powell; and the third simply bogs down except
on one selection in which Johnson permits him-
self a suggestion of a shout.

The Eminent J. J. Johnson, Vol. 1, Blue Note
1505, offers some electric trumpeting by Clifford
Brown and unusually hard-driving playing by John
Lewis, while Horace Silver almost saves The Emi-
nent J. J. Johnson, Vol. 2, Blue Note 1506, but is
buried under Johnson's monotonous dryness. John-
son is also one of the principals, with Howard
McGhee and Oscar Pettiford, in a mish-mash badly
recorded on Guam, Jazz: South Pacific, Regent
6001.

The mating of the trombones of Winding and
Johnson produced a majestic exuberance, ex-
pressed in big, rich tones and sweeping melodic lines
which lifted them out of their dry, mechanistic
habits (Winding was afflicted by this almost as
much as Johnson). Jay and Kai, Savoy 12010, catches
them early in their ducting career when they were
still depending largely on solos to carry their pieces
but on Jai and Kay, Prestige 7030 (shared with

154 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Benny Green), and Kai Winding and J. J. Johnson,
Bethlehem 13, there is less soloing and what there
is is moving in a direction more consistent with
their duet style than it had been earlier. Together,
they project a strong, brash, moving quality. Their
main problem was finding tonal variety and they
tried a variety of means to reach this on Trombone
for Two, Columbia CL 742 mutes, breaks, unison,
harmony, key changes. It was evident by this fourth
disk, however, that there was a limit to the possi-
bilities of a two-trombone front line and Jay and
Kai Plus Six, Columbia CL 892, set them at the
head of an eight-trombone ensemble which gave
them greater range and flexibility. In the duo's
final appearance together, at Newport in 1956,
caught on Dave Brubeck and Jay and Kai at New-
port, Columbia CL 932, they have slick, rhythmic
but unemotional, qualities that are carried out on
the odds and ends gathered on Jay and Kai, Colum-
bia CL 973, which pads out some duo pieces with
selections by groups led by each of the trombonists.

The experience with Winding was apparently
invigorating for Johnson, however, for his playing
with the groups he has led since then has been less
introverted than it was before. His first post-Wind-
ing group, with Bobby Jaspar on tenor saxophone
and flute, plays with some measure of depth and
variety on /. 7$ for Jazz, Columbia CL 935, and
Dial J. J. 5, Columbia CL 1084. With only a rhythm
section behind him on First Place, Columbia CL
1030, he reverts to his tightly corseted, staccato
style. A later group, involving Nat Adderley's
cornet, brings out his more buoyant side again in
a concert performance on /. /. in Person!, Columbia
CL 1161.

A tempting sample of what Johnson can really
do when he is in the mood occurs on Stan Getz
and J. /. Johnson at the Opera House, Verve 8265,
as he puts aside his fidgety exercises and lets fly

The Records 155

in a lusty, virile fashion. His group featuring Jaspar
contributes one excellent selection to The Playboy
Jazz Alls tars, Playboy 1957. One selection by John-
son is included in Jazz Omnibus, Columbia CL 1020,
and single pieces by the Johnson-Winding combina-
tion are in Operation Jazz, Roost OJ1, Great Jazz
Brass, Camden 383, and $64,000 Jazz, Columbia CL
777.

Osie Johnson. A steady and imaginative small group
drummer, Johnson heads three such groups on The
Happy Jazz of Osie Johnson, Bethlehem 66. They
are drawn mostly from Count Basic's band and
their performances are highlighted by Frank Wess'
rapier-like tenor saxophone and Dick Katz's charg-
ing piano. Johnson also has a single selection in
After Hours Jazz, Epic 3339.

Pete Jolly. Jolly stems from the glib, skee-daddling
style common to West Coast pianists but he manages
to invest When Lights Are Low, Victor LPM 1367,
with a little change of pace and some suggestion of
emotion. One of his more meaty solos turns up in
Pianists Galore!, World Pacific JWC 506.

Hank Jones has become an all-around professional,
somewhat like Dick Hyman, which is good for the
pocketbook but it leaves a bland musical per-
sonality. He once showed a very strong Art Tatum
influence on Urbanity, Verve 8091 and traces of
a softened version of Teddy Wilson Have you
Met Hank Jones, Savoy 12084, The Rhythm Section,
Epic 3271, and one selection in After Hours Jazz,
Epic 3339. But he gave these up for a faceless
slickness which produces satisfactory but unexciting
background music on Hank Jones Quartet, Savoy
12087, Hank Jones Quartet and Quintet, Savoy
12037, The Talented Touch, Capitol T 1044, and

156 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Hank Jones Swings Songs -from "Gigi," Golden
Crest 3042.

Jimmy Jones. This Jones, one of the more ad-
mirable piano accompanists, steps out in reflective
style at the head of his own trio in four selections
that lean toward mood style on Escape, GNP 27.
He is the 'unobtrusive leader of a group of Basieites
who spur singer Beverly Kenney to a closer contact
with jazz than she has shown on any other record-
ings on Beverly Kenney, Roost 2218.

Jo Jones is one of the bridges from swing to bop.
He was the drummer in the great Count Basic band
of the Thirties and was one of the first to start
breaking up the bass rhythm as a contribution to
modern jazz. The Jo Jones Special, Vanguard 8053,
has the light, loose driving quality that was char-
acteristic of Basie-based small groups. Jones is one
of the more crafty, craftsmanlike, discreet and hu-
morous drum soloists and although he is given
opportunities to show off he spends most of his time
on this disk judiciously propelling the Basie rhythm
team (Walter Page, Freddie Green) while tenor
saxophonist Lucky Thompson dominates the solo
sections. Also present: Basie, Emmett Berry, Benny
Green, Lawrence Brown. Jones also plies his art
behind Tony Bennett on three selections on The
Beat of My Heart, Columbia CL 1079.

Philly Joe Jones, The problem of having two suc-
cessful drummers named Jo Jones and Joe Jones
has been brilliantly solved by leaving Jo alone and
identifying Joe by his home town. Two other
identifying characteristics of Philly Joe are his
cacophonic, battering drumming style and his abil-
ity to take off Bela Lugosi. Both are given work-
outs during Blues for Dracula, Riverside 12-282,

The Records 157

on which PJ leads a group which does well at
furious uptempos and slow blues but plods list-
lessly the rest of the way.

Quincy Jones. Once a Lionel Hampton trumpeter,
Jones is now known primarily as an arranger. His
writing at its best is bright and swinging, as in Go
West, Young Man!, ABC-Paramount 186, on which
he works with groups built around four altos, four
tenors and four trumpets. This Is How I Feel About
Jazz, ABC-Paramount 149, is made up of pleasant,
well organized big band performances highlighted
by the solos of Phil Woods and Lucky Thompson,
but a Swedish session on Jazz Abroad, EmArcy
36083 (shared with Roy Haynes) fails to jell.

Thad Jones. More or less buried in Count Basic's
trumpet section for several years, Jones (brother to
pianist Hank and drummer Elvin) reveals a warm,
rich, full-toned style when he gets away from Basic.
His development of ballads is particularly sensitive
and lyrical on The Magnificent Thad Jones, Blue
Note 1527, and Thad Jones, Blue Note 1546. De-
troit-New York Junction, Blue Note 1513, puts him
at the head of a proficiently swinging group of
Detroiters (Billy Mitchell, Kenny Burrell, Tommy
Flanagan) and Swing . . . Not Spring, Savoy 12062,
sets up the same situation (with Mitchell, Terry
Pollard, Alvin Jackson and brother Elvin) but in
this case everyone else is shaded by the incisive
Miss Pollard (playing both vibes and piano). Mad
Thad, Period 1208, is a relaxed romp for Jones in
the company of another Basie sideman, tenor saxo-
phonist Frank Foster, but gimmickry stifles The
Jones Boys, Period 1210, on which he is backed by
Jimmy, Eddie, Jo, Reunald and Quincy Jones, all
unrelated. On one selection in Modern Jazz Hall
of Fame, Design 29, Thad plays a pretty open horn
over a sawing, disjointed background.

158 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Cliff Jordan. A tenor saxophonist of the hard-toned,
driving school, Jordan's recordings are all burdened
with needlessly long solos. He gets some variety
into Cliff Craft, Blue Note 1582, and has the able
assistance of trumpeter Lee Morgan on Cliff Jordan,
Blue Note 1565, but both disks wear out their
welcome. Blowing In From Chicago, Blue Note
1549, his first recording, is an undistinguished
introduction shared with John Gilmore.

Knud Jorgenssen. This Swedish pianist contributes
a pair of percussive, agitated but undistinguished
solos to Swedes from Jazzville, Epic 3309.

Richie Kamuca. Kamuca is a tenor saxophonist of
the Lester Young school smooth-toned, ingratiat-
ing but rarely compelling. On Just Friends, World
Pacific 401, teamed with the virile tenor of Bill
Perkins, Kamuca sounds almost shy. He is more
forthright and fluent on a misleadingly titled disk,
Jazz Erotica, HiFi Record R-604, which, despite
its title and a cover portrait of a yawning, bed-ready
nude, has nothing to offer lip lickers. Kamuca con-
tributes one pleasant solo to Solo Flight, World
Pacific JWC 505.

Dick Katz. Katz is an able, self-effacing pianist who
has worked extensively with Tony Scott. His three
selections in Jazz Piano International, Atlantic 1287,
are light and graceful with occasional suggestions of
something more compelling than the bland surface
he shows much of the time.

Fred Katz. By his own account, Katz's interest in
jazz is peripheral and his recordings pay it only
glancing attention. He was the original cellist in
the Chico Hamilton Quintet which is possibly why
his recordings since leaving Hamilton continue to
be released as jazz despite his disclaimers. He can

The Records 159

play a strong, muscular cello which by its very
guttiness sometimes has a jazz implication (see his
encounter with Granada on Zen: The Music of Fred
Katz, World Pacific 1231) but the provocative as-
pects of his playing usually lie in directions other
than jazz. He offers some piquant ideas in Soul-o
Cello, Decca 9202, and 4-5-6 Trio, Decca 9213, but
the overall menu on these "mood jazz" releases is
bland. He plays one strong-lined tune on Ballads
for Backgrounds, World Pacific JWC 503.

Johnny Keating. Known primarily as one of Ted
Heath's more gifted arrangers, Keating leads twenty
hot Scots (who are some of Britain's best jazzmen)
through lustily jaunty paces on Swingin' Scots, Dot
3068, but his aim and his results are much lower on
Johnny Keatings Favorite American Dances, ABC-
Paramount 144.

Wynton Kelly. Kelly, the pianist in Dizzy Gillespie's
big band of the middle Fifties, has provided wel-
comes oases in the bleaker stretches of several re-
corded blowing sessions. On his own disk, Wynton
Kelly, Riverside 12-254, heading a quartet on one
side and a trio on the other, he plays with that
direct, strongly rhythmic, communicative quality
that is one of the great merits of Erroll Garner. The
mixture of vitality and delicacy in Kelly's work
shows up best in the trio selections on which he
does not have to compete with Philly Joe Jones'
drumming.

Stan Kenton's erratic career in jazz has run from
the invigorating creativity of his early years to a
climax of headlong extremist posturing, followed
by a full scale retreat which has taken him down
from his cloudland past the routine jazz fashions
of the moment, past the most valid aspects of his
own work to an ultra-conservatism that is just this

160 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

side of Kostelanetz. Starting as the organizer of an
excellent and distinctive big jazz band in the swing
vein its earliest, fumbling but promising efforts
are collected on The Formative Years, Decca 8259
his interests soon moved so far away from jazz
that even when he consciously tried to go back to
it his band was, at best, simply imitative of others
and, on less auspicious occasions, so musically mus-
cle-bound as to be almost paralyzed.

It is typical of Kenton's wholehearted, unquali-
fied devotion to any idea that he undertakes that
he insisted that he was playing jazz even when
almost all pretense of jazz qualities had been re-
moved from a work. Yet to call City of Glass; This
Modern World, Capitol T 738, "jazz" involves ac-
ceptance of George Orwell's "newspeak." If words
are to be used correctly it might be more accurate
to call these pieces attempts at serious composition
with occasional interludes in a jazz vein.

The Kenton who has something to say in jazz
terms will be found in excellent form on Artistry
in Rhythm, Capitol T 167, and Stan Kenton's
Milestones, Capitol T 190, and in varied form on
Stan Kenton Classics, Capitol T 358, and Encores,
Capitol T 155. Kenton's early efforts to bring new
elements into the usual jazz forms were quite
promising and there are several interesting pieces
from this period (along with several dreadful things)
on A Presentation of Progressive Jazz, Capitol T
172, but Innovations in Modern Music, Capitol
T 189, is too self-conscious to be effective.

As he began to climb back from the end of the
limb where what he calls his "highly experimental"
work had left him, Kenton fell into a relatively
anonymous modern jazz big band style (repre-
sented by New Concepts of Artistry and Rhythm,
Capitol T 383, and Contemporary Concepts, Capi-
tol T 666) and a reversion to something comparable
to the Swing Era approach to standard tunes

The Records 161

(Sketches on Standards, Capitol T 426, Portraits on
Standards, Capitol T 462, and Popular Favorites,
Capitol T 421). However, by this time the Kenton
band no longer swung it heaved. There is a sug-
gestion of a revitalization of some of the early
Kenton creativity and fire (as distinguished from
empty blast) on a pair of mid-Fifties disks, Kenton
Showcase, Capitol T 524, to which Bill Russo
contributed some compositions with a distinctively
individual character, and Cuban Fire, Capitol T
731, the ultimate in Kentonian bravura given con-
tent and form by composer-arranger Johnny Rich-
ards.

Since then Kenton has devoted himself largely to
diluting the best works of his early days. Stan
Kenton in Hi-Fi, Capitol W 724, is a re-recording as
indicated of some of his best arrangements but it
might have been better to leave well enough alone.
Ten years after it had created these pieces, the
Kenton band could move only in heavy, logy
fashion and the decorative frills that have been
added to a once directly stated number such as
The Peanut Vendor are not improvements. He re-
visits some of the same selections once again on
Lush Interlude, Capitol T 1130, draining their
vitality even more by substituting a string section
for the original trumpets which, though they may
often have been overblown, could not be charged
with generating the squashy tedium that the strings
do.

Possibly in an effort to recapture the spark that
had obvionsly been lost over the years, Kenton
went back in 1957 to the Rendezvous Ballroom in
Balboa, Calif., where his band had originated in
1941. Rendezvous with Kenton, Capitol T 932, and
Back to Balboa, Capitol T 995, are the ponderous,
lumbering products of this attempt to become a
dance band once more.

From this Kenton has descended to the pure

162 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

mood music of The Ballad Style of Stan Kenton,
Capitol T 1068, on which he doodles out some one-
finger piano meditations against lush ensembles
with more show of taste and sensitivity than had
come from him in a long time. He has also dabbled
in the vocal field on Kenton with Voices, Capitol
T 810, the Modern Men and Ann Richards get
involved in some pretty precious attempts to take
the place of the Kenton trombones, while his con-
certo-type piano accompaniment is not quite strong
enough to sustain June Christy on Duet, Capitol
T 656.

The Kenton saga from his early, loose-jointed
punching band with the rich reeds through the
Kenton of the mid-Fifties is chronicled extremely
well in a four-disk set, The Kenton Era, Capitol
WDX 569. A thinly recorded selection from a
broadcast by the Kenton band of the early Forties
is included in The Playboy Jazz Allstars, Playboy
1957, another with better sound is in The Encyclo-
pedia of Jazz on Records, Vol. 3, Decca 8400, and
there are single, relatively uninteresting selections
by later versions of the band in Dance Craze,
Capitol T 927, and Dance to the Bands, Vol. 1, and
Vol. 2, Capitol T 977 and T 978.

Barney Kessel. Among the multitude of guitarists
who have been inspired by Charlie Christian, Kessel
has picked up more of the meat of Christian's lithe,
swinging style than most. He is, in addition, a
sensitive investigator of ballad lines. In fact, his
only failing is a fondness for hillbilly twanging out
of context, a failing which he is more inclined to
show on recordings made by others, rarely on his
own. He has produced an interesting and varied
series of disks for Contemporary. Barney Kessel,
Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Contemporary 3511 and 3512,
place him with flute (Bud Shank or Buddy Col-
lette) on the first disk and oboe (Bob Cooper)

The Records 163

on the second, plus a rhythm section in both cases.
Both disks glitter with unhackneyed ideas ex-
pressed with excellent taste and impeccable musi-
cianship. Kessel uses a Basic-influenced septet (with
Harry Edison and either Bill Perkins or Georgie
Auld) on To Swing or Not to Swing, Contemporary
3513, for crisp, flowing results while The Poll
Winners, Contemporary 3535, and The Poll Win-
ners Ride Again, Contemporary 3556, are by a ne
plus ultra trio made up of Kessel, Ray Brown, bass,
and Shelly Manne, drums, which is imaginative,
suave and delightfully easygoing. The closest Kessel
has come to a miscue is Music to Listen to Barney
Kessel By, Contemporary 3521, on which his lithe,
gentle guitar is framed in the owlish solemnity of
a woodwind group. He contributes one mood piece
to The Playboy Jazz Allstars, Playboy 1957.

Tony Kinsey. An English quintet led by drummer
Kinsey has a light attack which gets much of its
floating power from the pulsing ease of tenor
saxophonist Don Rendell on Kinsey Comes On,
London LL 1672.

Al Klink. A veteran of the Glenn Miller band who
has been buried in studio bands since then, Klink
shows himself to be a graceful and forceful tenor
saxophone soloist with a tone of amazing purity on
Progressive Jazz, Grand Award 33-325. The quintet
he leads (Dick Hyman, Mundell Lowe, Trigger
Alpert, Ed Shaughnessy) is swingingly modern,
which may be what "progressive" means.

Jimmy Knepper. Knepper is a thoroughly individ-
ual trombonist who mixes a blues-tinged suaveness
that recalls Jack Teagarden with an exotic, singing
urgency that is unlike the playing of any other
jazz instrumentalist. His provocative and imagina-
tive playing highlights several Charlie Mingus disks

164 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

and his own A Swinging Introduction, Bethlehem

77.

Moe Koffman. Koffman is a Canadian alto saxo-
phonist who doubles on flute. Flute happened to
be the instrument he was playing when he recorded
The Swinging Shepherd Blues with his septet on
Cool and Hot Sax, Jubilee 1037. Koffman plays a
hard hitting saxophone through most of this disk
and his guitarist, Ed Bickert, has an appealingly
lowdown tone but the rest of the group is faceless.
Spurred by the success of Swinging Shepherd, Koff-
man followed up with The "Shepherd" Swings
Again, Jubilee 1074, which is almost completely de-
voted to piping, static flute work.

Hans Koller, Koller epitomizes the cool tenor saxo-
phone in Germany, playing with appropriately
meandering wispiness. He leads a drone-toned group
on "Das" Is Jazz!, Decca 8229, which is brightened
by the presence of pianist Jutta Hipp, and heads
a completely different group on Hans Across the
Sea, Vanguard 8509, which has no one to relieve
his soft, squashy sound.

Lee Konitz. Konitz emerged from the cool, calm
serenity of Claude Thornhill's band to the gliding,
rolling manner evolved by Lennie Tristano in the
late Forties to become the pace-setter among cool
alto saxophonists. As happened with Charlie Parker,
his least effective work has seemed to have a hyp-
notic effect on those altoists who have been in-
fluenced by him and produced, during the early
Fifties, a school of wispy, meandering saxophonists
who were all but inarticulate. Konitz himself has
followed an erratic path along a career that has
never flowered as might have been expected largely
because his playing has been inconsistent. His early
work with Tristano and with fellow Tristanoites

The Records 165

had muscle and spirit and, as a rule, form. A
collection of recordings made in 1949 and 1950,
Lee Konitz, Prestige 7004, catches Konitz at the
crest of this period while his side of Conception,
Prestige 7013, made a year later, puts him in
company with Miles Davis and a Tristano rhythm
section on pieces in which Konitz's playing is well
developed, Davis' merely serviceable.

By 1954, when he recorded Jazz at Storyville,
Storyville 901, he seemed to be reaching out toward
a wider audience, paying more attention to melody,
depending less on technique. A reunion with tenor
saxophonist Warne Marsh, with whom he played
in the Tristano sextet, Lee Konitz with Warne
Marsh, Atlantic 1217, is a reasonably complete
report on their solo and ensemble habits with
special emphasis on the aural whipped cream to
which the Tristano loops had been reduced by then.
Konitz's apparent inability either to settle on the
best aspects of what he had developed or to move
positively in any new direction shows up in Very
Cool, Verve 8209, as he frequently bogs down in
cliches. The Real Lee Konitz, Atlantic 1273, is
interesting as a laboratory piece for Konitz taped
these selections himself when he was playing at a
night club in Pittsburgh and he has preserved only
the best of what he recorded whether it was com-
pleted or not. It illustrates, one presumes, what he
wants to be doing.

A suggestion of one avenue that might be worth
exploring is found on Lee Konitz Inside Hi-Fi,
Atlantic 1258, for he plays tenor on one side, show-
ing a rough tone and a driving attack that have a
great deal of unpolished charm. Lee Konitz with
Gerry Mulligan, World Pacific 406, adds Konitz to
the early Mulligan Quartet but it is not a very good
fit. Single selections from this disk are on Jazz West
Coast, World Pacific JWC 500, and Solo Flight,
World Pacific JWC 505. A rambling Konitz ballad

166 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

is in Roost Fifth Anniversary Album, Roost 1201,
and a meandering piece in Modern Jazz Hall of
Fame, Design 29.

Paul Kuhn. This German pianist plays in percus-
sive, Garner-derived fashion in one selection with
his quartet on "Das" Is Jazz!, Decca 8229, but is
much more effective as a charging, swinging side-
man in Rolf Kuhn's group on the same disk.

Rolf Kuhn. A Benny Goodman-styled clarinetist,
Kuhn sparkles with his German All Stars on "Das"
Is Jazz!, Decca 8229. In his first recording after
coming to the United States in 1956, Streamline,
Vanguard 8510, he retains much of the Goodman
spirit but a mechanized chill seemed to settle on
him when he faced a Newport audience in 1957 as
reported on Eddie Costa, Mat Mathews and Don
Elliott at Newport, Verve 8237.

Steve Lacy. The first soprano saxophonist in the
modern jazz idiom, Lacy plays in a smooth, mocha-
toned style that carries suggestions of Sidney
Bechet's soaring quality on this instrument but
without Bechet's over-ripe vibrato. Lacy's lithe,
flowing lines are frequently effective on Soprano
Sax, Prestige 7125, but it is asking a lot for this
relatively limited instrument to carry two sides
of an LP almost by itself (pianist Wynton Kelly
steps in for an occasional ruminative solo).

Harold Land. Land, a tenor saxophonist with a
pleasant if undistinguished musical personality, is
trapped with a flat, mechanical group on In the
Land of Jazz, Contemporary 3550, and he is equally
hemmed in by a set of roaring, long-playing col-
leagues on Jam Session, EmArcy 36002.

The Records 167

Ronnie Lang. Lang is one of the slick, precise,
gentle and largely uninteresting products of the
Les Brown band. On Modern Jazz, Tops 1521, his
bland alto saxophone leads a sextet through some
churning, surface exercises that develop swinging
strength only when pianist Marty Paich cuts loose.

John LaPorta. Of all those in the avante garde wing
of jazz, LaPorta shows more inclination than most
of his colleagues to come to understandable terms
with the average, or non-avante garde, listener. His
Conceptions, Fantasy 3228, are, in most cases,
melodic and rhythmic and are played with clarity
and directness. La Porta is a clarinetist with a firm
control of his instrument who plays with a rugged,
swinging drive, possibly a reflection of his early
years with dance bands in the 1940s (Bob Chester,
Ray McKinley, Woody Herman). As an alto saxo-
phonist he lacks the clean definition he shows on
clarinet but retains the same surging lift. Concep-
tions is a varied and interesting program which
manages to explore and to swing with equal in-
tensity. On The Jazz Message, Savoy 12064, he
brings an unaccustomed feeling of easy warmth to
one of the standard blowing groups.

The breadth of LaPorta's talent is highlighted on
The Clarinet Artistry of John LaPorta, Fantasy
3248, on which he leads a trio in something equiva-
lent to the Benny Goodman vein on one side and,
on the other, sprouts long hair to play Brahms*
Sonata in F Minor for Clarinet and Piano.

A guest appearance by LaPorta at a jazz concert
in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1956 is reported on South
American Brothers, Fantasy 3237. LaPorta played
with the Charlie Nagy Quintet, led by an emigr6
Hungarian pianist, and contributed five arrange-
ments to the fifteen-piece Orquestra Casablanca.
This band, working on a broad, catholic base that
combines the rhythmic feeling of the big swing

168 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

bands with modernisms in the Woody Herman
manner, glistens with excellent soloists. A third
group, the Walter Albrecht Sextet, a Bavarian
group recently arrived in Venezuela at that time,
is also heard but its soft, cloudy playing is only of
peripheral interest. LaPorta's contributions are
consistently stimulating and thoroughly in keeping
with the varied approaches his Venezuelan hosts
were interested in trying.

Yusef Lateef. During the 1940s Lateef was known
as Bill Evans (not to be confused with the pianist,
Bill Evans) and could be found in the saxophone
sections of the bands of Lucky Millinder and Dizzy
Gillespie. Under his new name, he settled in De-
troit in the Fifties and began exploring the poten-
tials of Middle Eastern sounds in relation to jazz,
using such instruments as the one-stringed rabat,
the flute-like argol and the earthboard as well as
the more familiar bottle and balloon. On his first
LP, Jazz for Thinkers, Savoy 12109, he keeps both
his leaning toward exoticism and his strange instru-
ments under wraps, depending instead on his dark-
toned, smooth-flowing tenor saxophone to carry
his group. Subsequently on Jazz Mood, Savoy 12103,
he exploits his odd sounds as accents and mood-
setters, leaving the bulk of the development to his
tenor, his visceral flute and the trombone of Curtis
Fuller. On Prayer to the East, Savoy 12117, he
found a natural outlet for his wails, buzzes and
clanks in Night in Tunisia, a piece on which
fluegelhornist Wilbur Harden all but overshadows
Lateef.

But Lateef's most triumphant tour de force oc-
curs on The Sounds of Yusef, Prestige 7122, in a
piece called Love and Humor which is concocted
largely of bird cries produced by the manipulation
of two balloons (one balloonist works in a gusty
George Brunis style) while under this a Seven-Up

The Records 169

bottle huffs out the earth-root sound of the primi-
tive jug bands. Lateef's flute floats through this
controlled pandemonium with fey fluency. Strangely
enough, it all seems to swing.

On Jazz and the Sounds of Nature, Savoy 12120,
the sounds are beginning to run thin and Before
Dawn, Verve 8217, shows what he can do with his
intense, muscular attack without depending on odd-
ities. Yusef Lateef at Cranbrook, Argo 634, is by a
completely revamped group with the odd instru-
ments still in evidence but, much more important,
with Terry Pollard strongly present on piano. In
contrast to her driving jumpiness with Terry Gibbs'
group, Miss Pollard's playing here is very relaxed,
easily flowing and thoroughly refreshing. Lateef
has one selection in Jazz Is Busting Out All Over,
Savoy 12123.

Elliot Lawrence. When Elliot Lawrence was the
boy wonder of the name band business in the middle
Forties, he followed Claude Thornhill's dreamy
style. And when, under the influence of Gil Evans,
Thornhill began adding modern jazz touches to
his book, so did Lawrence. During most of the
Fifties Lawrence has led a weekend band made up
of some of the best big band musicians around New
York, men who like Lawrence himself are busy
in television and recording studios during the week
but don't mind doing one-nighters on weekends.
With this band, Lawrence has kept alive both the
jazz and dream sides of his book.

One of his earliest contributors of jazz arrange-
ments was Gerry Mulligan. These were fledgling
efforts on Mulligan's part and while they are not
especially distinguished and are no heralds of the
Mulligan small groups to come, they provide in
their mid-Fifties re-enactment on The Elliot Law-
rence Band Plays Gerry Mulligan, Fantasy 3206, a
serviceable foundation for such soloists as Al Cohn,

170 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Eddie Bert and Nick Travis. Zoot Sims and Urbie
Green are added starters in the band that is heard
on Elliot Lawrence Plays Tiny Kahn and Johnny
Mandel Arrangements, Fantasy 3219. Kahn had a
direct, uncomplicated and swinging approach in
his writing and the Lawrence band plays his ar-
rangements with gutty zest. Mandel's selections
have less heart, more lace around the edges and
are at their best in pretty passages by Lawrence
and Green. Sideman Al Cohn has his day in the
limelight on Swinging at the Steel Pier, Fantasy
3236, for which he has provided a capable set of
finger-snapping arrangements.

Dreamy dance music dominates the rest of Law-
rence's recordings. There are a few swinging touches
on Elliot Lawrence Plays for Swinging Dancers,
Fantasy 3246, but the dancers just dream on Dream,
Fantasy 3226, Dream On, Dance On, Fantasy 3261,
and Prom Night, Decca 8338.

Stan Levey. Bred in the heart of the bop period,
Levey has gone on to become an unusually steady
and lifting drummer. He combines with pianist
Lou Levy and bassist Leory Vinnegar to form a
stirring, stimulating rhythm section which, on This
Time the Drums on Me, Bethlehem 37, carries
along some relatively desultory soloists. Levy is re-
placed by Sonny Clark on Grand Stan, Bethlehem
71, which cuts down the ensemble jab and punch
although Clark puts some meat on his solos. But
for all Levey's pulsation, this disk falls apart on
dull pieces and, aside from Clark, vague solos.

Alonzo Levister. Levister is a young conservatory
trained pianist and composer who classifies himself
as neither a jazz nor a classical musician. His music,
he says, is the result of "a mixture of equal love o
Blues, Bartok, Bach and Baptist shouting." He
writes in a mixed jazz and classical idiom for a

The Records 171

mixed group of jazz and classical musicians. Six
short pieces on Manhattan Monodrama, Debut 125,
are most successful when his writing is least formal,
when he allows his musicians to collaborate with
him rather than forcing them down a narrow alley.
His most convincing selections are a slow, lyrical
Black Swan, a musical impression of Miles Davis,
a warmly evocative portrait built around lovely
clarinet and trumpet interplay; and Slow Dance
which provides a framework for languorous, con-
trolled improvisations by Teddy Charles and Louis
Mucci. The disk's long title piece, originally written
for a ballet, becomes mired in the background music
requirements of the assignment.

Lou Levy. Levy, a pianist of such swinging pro-
pensities when he was with Woody Herman in the
late Forties that he was known as "Count," dropped
out of jazz for a while in the Fifties and then re-
turned a changed and seemingly introverted per-
former. Playing with Conte Candoli and Bill Hoi-
man on West Coast Waiters > Atlantic 1268, he varies
between moments of dark, penetrating stomping
and periods of surface romping, while his cool and
generally colorless playing on A Most Musical Fella,
Victor LPM 1491, suggests that he is concentrating
on the inner mechanics of his performances at the
expense of the ultimate aural interest.

John Lewis. Lewis is usually heard with the Modern
Jazz Quartet for which he is musical director and
pianist but occasionally, on records, he moves into
other contexts. It appears that one of his favorite
reasons for making this move is to have the op-
portunity to have his compositions, originally
created for the Quartet in most instances, played
by larger groups or to write for a more varied
instrumentation. He wrote three pieces Midsom-
mer, Sun Dance and Little David's Fugue for a

172 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

nine-piece group, predominantly woodwinds, heard
on The Modern Jazz Society Presents a Concert of
Contemporary Music, Verve 8131 (recorded in an-
ticipation of a concert that was never held). The
disk also includes expansions of two pieces written
for the Quartet Django and The Queen's Fancy.
The arrangements by Lewis and Gunther Schuller
tend to bog down in the woodwinds but the soloists
Stan Getz, J. J. Johnson, Tony Scott and Lucky
Thompson give new perspective to the familiar
pieces. Getz and Johnson make The Queen's Fancy
swing warmly while Scott contributes a fervent solo
to Django and Thompson rolls out some of his
lovely, flowing lines on the same piece.

In the winter of 1958 Lewis had an opportunity
to try the same thing again but this time on a much
larger scale, using a 34-piece orchestra drawn from
the Stuttgart Symphony on European Windows,
Victor LPM 1742. The Queen's Fancy and Mid-
sommer are present once once more, along with
two selections from Lewis' score for the film, No
Sun in Venice, plus Two Degrees East Three De-
grees West and a variation on God Rest Thee
Merry, Gentlemen. The enlarged orchestrations
emphasize Lewis' melodiousness as a composer (it
has been said that he has the unusual ability to
create tunes that immediately sound familiar) but
they often tend to diminish the jazz qualities the
pieces had in their Quartet versions. Still this is a
striking jazz disk because of the presence, as one of
the two principal soloists, of the English baritone
saxophonist, Ronnie Ross (Czech flutist Gerry
Weinkopf is the other soloist). Ross has a full-toned,
smoothly projected fluency, a feeling for shading
and a singing quality that are unique among bari-
tone men. He also has an innate rhythmic flow that
is never pointedly pronounced but is an integrated
part of everything he plays. His solos, fascinating
examples of mature, thoughtful and emotionally

The Records 173

vigorous jazz, are such a dominant and enlivening
force that one is apt to lose sight of the relatively
pale orchestrations.

One of Lewis' most fruitful trips away from the
Quartet occurred when he and the Quartet's bassist,
Percy Heath, joined drummer Chico Hamilton,
Hamilton's guitarist, Jim Hall, and tenor saxo-
phonist Bill Perkins on Grand Encounter, World
Pacific 1217. Lewis' persuasive hand is apparent in
the tone and tempos of the three ensemble selec-
tions on the disk (there are also three solo show-
cases, one for Lewis) and he seems to have had an
almost hypnotic effect on Hall and Perkins. Love
Me or Leave Me, in particular, is a masterpiece of
subtle, swinging jazz in which everything falls
wondrously into place.

Afternoon in Paris, Atlantic 1267, takes Lewis
to Paris and the company of guitarist Sacha Distel
and tenor saxophonist Barney Wilen. The overall
style of this group might be identified as uncorseted
Modern Jazz Quartet flowing but contained, free
but controlled with solos that are strongly stated
but never overstated. Wilen, then 19, is especially
worth hearing.

Lewis' austere but kindling piano takes the solo
spotlight on The John Lewis Piano, Atlantic 1272.
He is at his most inviting on those pieces in which
he works in his MJQ vein, building simple single
note passages through increasing degrees of singing
fervor to an ultimate level that can be gently but
insistently overpowering. He also indulges himself
in some trivial romanticism during this rather
studied program. His most provocative piece is
Harlequin, an odd and extremely effective develop-
ment of a theme through a broken, stabbing series
of suggestions by Lewis' piano, held together by
Connie Kay's sensitively brush-beaten cymbal.

Two Degrees East Three Degrees West, as played
in Grand Encounter, is repeated in The Blues,

174 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

World Pacific JWC 502, while Lewis' piano solo
from the same disk, I Can't Get Started, turns up
on both Ballads for Background, World Pacific JWC
503, and Pianists Galore!, World Pacific JWC 506.

Ramsey Lewis. Lewis is a relatively sophisticated
blues pianist with an interest in frilly decorations
which send him to the verge of cocktail piano. He
plays with a trio on Ramsey Lewis and His Gentle-
men of Swing, Argo 611, and Ramsey Lewis and
the Gentlemen of Jazz, Argo 627. The hairs that
are split in these titles do not show up in the music.

Abbey Lincoln. Miss Lincoln's voice has strong sug-
gestions of the texture of the young voice of Billie
Holiday but despite the presence of a good cabal
of jazzmen on That's Him, Riverside 12-251, and
It's Magic, Riverside 12-277, she is less a jazz singer
than a ballad singer with a tendency to turn hard
and shallow.

Mundell Lowe. Lowe is a guitarist who has crammed
a remarkably broad background into a relatively
short period of playing. As a teen-ager, he was
working on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, had
a brief taste of hillbilly music with Grand OF
Opry, turned to the swing band style with Jan
Savitt and was a member of one of the best modern
big jazz bands, Ray McKinley's ill-fated postwar
group. In the past decade he has become a highly
polished studio musician, capable not only of turn-
ing his hand to almost any kind of music but and
this is the trick of shucking off the slick, casual
surface of the versatile pro whenever he wants to.
He has a leaning toward reflective, non-jazz ex-
plorations of ideas but he can, when the situation
warrants, ride out in gloriously swinging style.

This is the side he shows in The Mundell Lowe
Quartet, Riverside 12-204. His playing is spare,

The Records 175

clean, to the point and delightfully adventurous,
running from the merriment of Yes, Sir, That's My
Baby to the modernism of Far From Vanilla. With
saxophonist Gene Quill and pianist Billy Taylor
as associates, he also concentrates on the full-
blooded, earthy aspect of his work on A Grand
Night for Swinging, Riverside 12-238.

The compact, neatly turned little essays by Alec
Wilder that make up The New Music of Alec
Wilder, Riverside 12-219, are not all played as jazz
but even the least jazz-like shows the strong effect
that jazz has had on Wilder's work. They are, in a
general way, much like Wilder's earlier octet pieces
except that these are made meatier by the use of
more jazz elements. Lowe has orchestrated them
largely for a full ensemble leaving occasional op-
portunities for discreet solo work by trumpeter Joe
Wilder and himself. This is, in a sense, mood music
but it is totally unlike the things which are usually
labeled mood music and which are apparently in-
tended for someone who is about to expire. This is
music for people who are alert, alive and capable
of a stimulating variety of moods.

For Guitar Moods, Riverside 12-208, Lowe uses
a woodwind accompaniment in a skillfully played
recital of non-jazz works and continues in this
vein in the four selections he has on This Could
Lead to Love, Riverside 12-808, and a single entry
on Jazz for Lovers, Riverside 12-244. He swings
brightly on one piece in Know Your Jazz, Vol. 1,
ABC-Paramount 115, and draws some dark blue
lines in one number on Blues for Tomorrow, River-
side 12-243,

Howard Lucraft. Although Lucraft was an ar-
ranger and orchestra leader in England before com-
ing to this country in 1950, he serves only as im-
presario for Showcase for Modern Jazz, Decca 8679,
an erratic collection of pieces with the standard

176 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

West Coast names of the Fifties (Shank, Collette,
Rosolino, Cooper, Pepper, Manne, etc.).

Mary Ann McCall. Miss McCall earned her swing-
ing credentials as a singer with several bands in the
Forties, principally those of Charlie Barnet and
Woody Herman, and she shows them on Easy Liv-
ing, Regent 6040, a representative collection in
which her absorption of the Billie Holiday feeling
(which she does without imitating Miss Holiday's
mannerisms) is shown off well. In contrast, Detour
to the Moon, Jubilee 1078, is an unqualified detour,
a pedestrian collection in which nothing swings and
Miss McCall seems forced into strained imitations of
girls who cannot sing in the same league with her.
Somewhere in between these two disks lies An
Evening with Mary Ann McCall and Charlie Ven-
tura, Verve 8143, in which she resorts to talk-sing
to make up for a lack of depth in her singing voice.

Howard McGhee. A featured trumpeter with Andy
Kirk, Charlie Barnet and Lionel Hampton in the
Forties and an active figure in the bridge from
swing to bop, McGhee has not been heard from
much during the Fifties. He has a brisk, crackling
style that energizes most of the selections on which
he plays even briefly. Possibly the most representa-
tive collection of his work is The Return of Howard
McGhee, Bethlehem 42, on which he has the sup-
port of a strong rhythm section (Duke Jordan, Percy
Heath and Philly Joe Jones). He is one of the few
saving graces of a misguided attempt at a "history
of jazz" recorded on Guam, Jazz: South Pacific,
Regent 6001, and he plays with edgy deliberation
to hold his own with Milt Jackson in an adequate
but unmomentous set, Howard McGhee and Milt
Jackson, Savoy 12026. Life Is Just a Bowl of Cher-
ries, Bethlehem 61, allies him with woodwinds in

The Records 177

some pleasant background music through which
McGhee occasionally bursts with a cutting solo.

Dave McKenna. Though he is superficially a single-
note pianist, McKenna remembers he has a left
hand and he romps with delightful effervescence
through Solo Piano, ABC-Paramount 104.

Ray McKinley, McKinley is not often mentioned
in the same sentence with Coleman Hawkins or
Mary Lou Williams but he is one of that rare
handful of jazz musicians whose scope ranges from
relatively traditional to very modern. He has run
a gamut from the two-beat of the Dorsey Brothers
orchestra, the boogie-woogie basis of the band he
led with Will Bradley and his various Glenn Miller
associations to the adventurous exploratory band
he led in the late Forties. It is only the latter group
that fits in the context of this volume but it is a
band that should not be forgotten. Playing ar-
rangements by Eddie Sauter which were generally
more cogent than the ones Sauter later wrote for
his own Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, it can be heard
on Borderline, Savoy 12024, and on one side of
One Band, Two Styles, Camden 295. The perform-
ances are crisp and stimulating, many of them
spurred by Mundell Lowe's driving guitar. The
other side of Camden 295 is made up of the routine
dance music that the McKinley band was playing
in its last days before it gave up.

Hal M cKusick. It would be normal to identify Hal
McKusick as an alto saxophonist since that is the
instrument that he usually plays (he occasionally
switches to clarinet or bass clarinet). But by and
large he is such a chilly, precise performer on alto,
limiting himself to a steady emission of unin-
flected, spitballed notes, that one might seem to

178 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

slight him by identifying him with the alto when
his playing is so much warmer and more attractive
on his other instruments. The difference is pointed
up on Cross Section Saxes, Decca 9209, on which
he plays bass clarinet in some selections, and Triple
Exposure, Prestige 7135, on which clarinet is his
alternate instrument. Both are worthwhile disks
Decca 9209 because of the presence of pianist Bill
Evans, trumpeter Art Farmer and drummer Connie
Kay and arrangements by George Russell, George
Handy and Ernie Wilkins, while Prestige 7135 is
enlivened by Billy Byers' tweedy trombone and the
rashly exultant piano of Eddie Costa.

McKusick shows that he can cut loose even on
alto on Earthy, Prestige 7102, as he joins a superior
jamming group that is prodded by Kenny BurrelFs
insistent guitar and Mai Waldron's provocatively
probing piano. And he manages to loosen up, too,
within the framework of relatively formal compo-
sitions by Russell, Gil Evans, Johnny Mandel,
Manny Albam and others on Jazz Workshop, Vic-
tor LPM 1366.

But his alto is inordinately sanitary on Hal Mc-
Kusick Quartet, Coral 57131, to which Eddie Costa
and Art Farmer contribute some guts; on Jazz at
the Academy, Coral 57116, a neutral, colorless col-
lection; and on Hal McKusick Quartet, Bethlehem
16. One McKusick piece, with Costa and Farmer, is
included in Jazz Cornucopia, Coral 57149, and he
plays a ballad in The Mellow Moods, Victor LPM
1365.

Jackie McLean. McLean is one of the more strident
and empty followers of Charlie Parker. Several of
his records are worth hearing, however, because of
the presence of Mai Waldron, a consistently inter-
esting and inventive pianist, who apparently can
create fresh and provocative ideas even in the midst
of a shrilling bedlam. Waldron can be heard on

The Records 179

Jackie McLean Quintet, Jubilee 1064, 4, 5, and 6,
Prestige 7048, Jackie's Pal, Prestige 7068 (the pal is
not Waldron but Bill Hardman, a static, graceless
trumpeter), and Jackie McLean and Co., Prestige
7087. Other McLean disks are Jackie McLean and
John Jenkins, Prestige 7114, and Lights Out, Pres-
tige 7035, in which McLean suggests that he may
have the capability to develop some semblance of
tone and form.

Marian McPartlancL A wartime uxorial trophy
brought back to the United States from England
by cornetist Jimmy McPartland, Mrs. McPartland
is an assured and knowing pianist in almost any
style although she favors a modified form of mod-
ern. Her attractively lean, sometimes swirling play-
ing is heard best on In Concert, Savoy 12004, Great
Britains, Savoy 12016, The Jazz Keyboards, Savoy
12043, and Looking for a Boy, Savoy 12097. She
even manages to be bright and pulsing with string
backing on With You in Mind, Capitol T 895, but
she turns fuguey when harp and cello are added to
her basic trio on Piano Variations, King 540. She
is relatively routine on Marian McPartland Trio,
Capitol T 785, After Dark, Capitol T 699, and At
the Hickory House, Capitol T 574. Whatever
merits she might have on Lullaby of Birdland,
Savoy 12005, are buried under dreadful recording.
Her trio accompanies Hot Lips Page on four selec-
tions on Jazztime US. A., Vol. 3, Brunswick 54002,
and does one piece on its own on Popular Jazz
Gold Album, Capitol T 1034.

Carmen McRae. Miss McRae has jazz connections
she is the daughter of the Chick Webb saxo-
phonist, Teddy McRae; was once married to drum-
mer Kenny Clarke; has sung with the bands of
Benny Carter and Mercer Ellington; and has
worked as a solo pianist. This is set forth as a possi-

180 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

ble explanation for her attempt to become a jazz
singer when she branched out from solo piano per-
formances because time has proved her to be not
so much at singing in jazz terms although she has
potential as a ballad singer. The closest she comes
to a good jazz quality is in an early collection, By
Special Request, Decca 8173, on which she is mod-
est and rhythmic, and After Glow, Decca 8583, on
which she plays piano on several selections. Her
ballad approach is often marred by a cold stridency
although she is relatively warm and outgoing on
Mad About the Man, Decca 8662, Carmen for Cool
Ones, Decca 8738, Torchy, Decca 8267, and Book
of Ballads, Kapp 1117. She can also be heard on
Boy Meets Girl, Decca 8490, Blue Moon, Decca
8347, and in four selections on Bethlehem's Girl-
friends, Bethlehem 6006.

Teo Macero. An adamantly experimental composer
in that area where the outer reaches of jazz and
serious music touch, however glancingly, Macero is
also a gruffly engaging tenor saxophonist. On Teo,
Prestige 7104, he achieves more than his usual
aplomb in performance but the disk's essential in-
terest lies in his accompanying group which in-
cludes the highly effective Teddy Charles on vibes
and the practically infallible Mai Waldron at the
piano.

Machito. Frank Grillo is a singer known as Machito
who fronts a band which is primarily the creation
of trumpeter Mario Bauza, a veteran of Cab Callo-
way's orchestra. On the foundation of a magnifi-
cently complex and rocking Afro-Cuban rhythm
section, Bauza has built a band with brilliantly bit-
ing brass and languorous reeds that has produced
the most potent mixtures of Afro-Cuban rhythm
and jazz. Saxophonists Charlie Parker, Brew Moore
and Flip Phillips are featured with the band in

The Records 181

some particularly effective numbers on Potpourri
of Jazz, Verve 2032, Roost Fifth Anniversary Al-
bum, Roost 1201, The Jazz. Scene, Verve 8060, and
in a group of Chico OTarrill compositions, Ma-
chito Afro-Cuban Jazz, Verve 8073. The band's
rhythm section provides a pulsing background for
saxophonist Frank Morgan, trumpeter Conte Can-
doli and organist Wild Bill Davis in one selection
on Afro-Drum Carnival, GNP 25. The full band
achieves an oddly elegant guttiness on Kenya,
Roulette 52006, and roars through some pop tunes
on Machito Plays Mambo and Cha Cha Cha, Seeco
9075, Mambo Caravan, Tico 1007, and Mambo
Holiday, Harmony 7040. Most of Si-Si, No-No,
Tico 1033, Cha Cha at the Palladium, Tico 1002,
Asia Minor, Tico 1029, Machito Inspired, Tico
1045, and Let's Dance the Cha-Cha-Cha, Seeco
9054, are devoted to Machito's bread-and-butter
side relatively staid Cuban dance music but even
these burst into occasional flame. The band ac-
companies Harry Belafonte on one of his earliest
recordings on Operation Jazz, Roost OJL

Rob Madna. A Dutch pianist, heading a trio made
up of the rhythm section of what was once the Wes
Ilcken Combo, churns out several samples of lightly
modern swing on Jazz Behind the Dikes, Epic
3270.

Henry Mandni. Mancini was one of the first to
give jazz a reasonably steady niche on television.
The tone of his Music -from Peter Gunn, Victor
LPM 1956, might be identified as mainstream
modern. Its core is blues and swing, modestly
coated with modern jazz touches. On this disk
Mancini leads an excellent West Coast band which
makes the most of the earthier passages he has given
them and does as well as it can with the bland
pieces.

182 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Gus Mancuso. Mancuso plays the baritone horn,
which is his privilege and, occasionally, our pleas-
ure on Introducing Gus Mancuso, Fantasy 3233.
His disarmingly casual approach gives his heavy-
toned instrument a pleasantly light and airy quality
on the faster selections but, Lordy, it can be
lugubrious on a slow ballad,

Johnny Mandel. Mandel is a trumpeter, once with
Basie, who retired to arranging in the middle
Fifties and struck paydirt as a composer with his
score for the film, / Want to Live. This was the
first full length background written for a film in
jazz terms by a jazz musician and played by a jazz
group. Part of the soundtrack is reproduced on 7
Want to Live, United Artists 4005, on which Man-
del leads a big band (the remainder is played by a
small group featuring Gerry Mulligan, who see).
Mandel has developed several memorable themes in
interesting fashion but his big band collection is,
by force of circumstances, a series of snippets of
suggestive passages which -are highly effective in
the film and, by themselves on the disk, provoca-
tive and stimulating. But still only snippets.

Manhattan Jazz Septette. This compact, well con-
tained studio group plays closely knit arrangements
on Manhattan Jazz Septette, Coral 57090, which
putter along pleasantly and sputter into liveliness
when Eddie Costa's piano or Urbie Green's trom-
bone reach rudely out of the aura of politeness.

Herbie Mann. Mann has the distinction of being
the only musician who is trying to make it in jazz
by putting his best flute forward. He is, by choice,
a flutist who doubles on tenor saxophone and bass
clarinet, whereas the flute is normally a doubling
instrument for one who is primarily a saxophonist.

The Records 183

Since the flute, even in the hands of someone who
has been bred to swing on another instrument, is
an obdurately piping, non-pulsing vehicle, this
might seem to be a dubious and self-limiting act
on Mann's part. His recordings bear this out.

He fares best when he has a reasonably large
group to provide varieties of texture Salute to the
Flute, Epic 3395, and Magic Flute, Verve 8247. On
Great Ideas of Western Mann, Riverside 12-245, he
switches to bass clarinet, an instrument which has
a shade more fluidity than the flute but not enough
to go on at the length demanded when there are
only three selections on each side of the disk. To
show what he can do with a more suitable instru-
ment, he plays a few choruses of romping tenor
saxophone with an adequate Dutch group on
Herbie Mann with the Wessell lichen Trio, Epic
3499. He also trots out his tenor occasionally on
Mann in the Morning, Prestige 7136, but he is over-
shadowed by the Swedish group with which he
plays, particularly by the lusty trombonist, A3ce
Persson.

Mann's flute, relatively straight and with scarcely
any chaser, is heard on Herbie Mann Plays, Bethle-
hem 58, Herbie Mann Quartet, Bethlehem 24, Love
and the Weather, Bethlehem 63, Sultry Serenade,
Riverside 12-234, Mann Alone, Savoy 12107, and
Yardbird Suite, Savoy 12108. His basic problem is
compounded when he engages in flute duets with
Bobby Jaspar on Flute Souffle, Prestige 7101, and
Flute Flight, Prestige 7124, and with Sam Most on
Herbie Mann-Sam Most Quintet, Bethlehem 40. He
has one selection, with flute, on Jazz for Lovers,
Riverside 12-244, and one on bass clarinet on Blues
for Tomorrow, Riverside 12-243.

Shelly Manne. In his twenty-year career as a jazz
drummer, Shelly Manne has sat in the midst of the
oval bar of the Hickory House in New York back-

184 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

ing up clarinetist Joe Marsala and he has, on sev-
eral different occasions, driven the Stan Kenton
juggernaut. And while Manne has shown obvious
merits at these times, his unique talents as a jazz
drummer did not become overtly evident until the
middle Fifties when he was leading his own small
groups on the West Coast. More than any other
drummer, Manne has succeeded in giving the
drums a valid place within an ensemble, in devel-
oping a melodic approach to the drums that is not
simply a novelty. He is, beyond this, one of the
very few present-day drummers who can pull a
group together even while he is driving it with a
surging, lifting attack (Art Blakey, Ed Shaughnessy,
Joe Morello and, at times, Max Roach can be
counted on for this, too).

Some of Manne's most interesting uses of drums
occur on a ten-inch LP, The Three, Contemporary
2516, on which he joins Shorty Rogers and Jimmy
Giuffre in some unusual and provocative essays. A
series of recordings he has made at the head of a
group of varying personnel, identified as His Men,
has shown steady improvement since its inaugura-
tion in 1953. Shelly Manne and His Men, Vol. 1,
Contemporary 3507, contains two sessions made in
1953, one in 1955. Bill Russo contributes some ar-
rangements to one 1953 session that are smooth,
flowing swing under a strong Lennie Tristano in-
fluence but Shorty Rogers' writing for these dates
strains for effects. The '55 date, however, with ar-
rangements by Bill Holman and Marty Paich, is a
much more directly swinging affair in general.

Shelly Manne and, His Men, Vol. 4, Contempo-
rary 3516 (Vol. 2 is a ten-inch 1954 LP of rather
overambitious compositions, Vol. 3 is The Three
mentioned above) is a sensitively propelled 1956
session involving Stu Williamson, trumpet, Charlie
Mariano, alto saxophone, and Russ Freeman, a
trio who remain with Manne throughout the re-

The Records 185

mainder of the His Men series. These three side-
men come brilliantly into focus on Shelly Manne
and His Men, Vol 5, Contemporary 3519, a disk
which is highlighted by Bill Holman's long, four-
part Quartet. Mariano and Williamson reach un-
expected maturity in holding together Holman's
loosely organized piece. Shelly Manne and His
Men, Vol. 6, Contemporary 3536, splits one side
between an excellent 1957 session and a relatively
dull 1955 date (on which Bill Holman replaces
Mariano). The second side carries a long work by
clarinetist Bill Smith, Concerto -for Clarinet and
Combo, which is primarily a highly satisfactory
showcase for Smith, a polished clarinetist who
moves in timeless fashion his Swing Era roots are
coated with a modern point of view but he has not
picked up any obstreperous mannerisms.

Manne has also made a series of disks with His
Friends (Andre Previn, piano, Leroy Vinnegar,
bass). Previn is the dominating influence on all
their disks. On Volume One, Contemporary 3533,
Previn alternates between a glib, West Coast scam-
per and some vague fustion in working over a
standard set of tunes. Volume Two, Contemporary
3527, is his reworking of the score of My Fair Lady,
a phenomenally successful disk commercially but
nonetheless a relatively pointless exercise which
triggered the long succession of even more point-
less jazz versions of Broadway scores that have fol-
lowed. One followup is Volume Three, Contempo-
rary 3533, the score in this case being L'il Abner,
an inconsequential work which induces Previn to
swing more validly than he does on My Fair Lady.

Manne sings two selections in a genial, unpre-
tentious manner on Jazz Composers Workshop,
Savoy 12045 (this is what composers workshops are
for?), and he is represented by single selections in
The Jazz Giants: Drum Role, EmArcy 36071, and
The Playboy Jazz Alhtars, Playboy 1957.

186 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Charlie Mariano. Among the alto saxophonists
who are directly descended from Charlie Parker,
Mariano has a flowing, aggressive guttiness that dis-
tinguishes him from most other members of this
huge family. His swinging vitality is quite evident
on Charlie Mariano, Bethlehem 25, on which he is
backed by a rhythm section enlivened by John
Williams' tweedy, chomping piano, and on Beau-
ties of 1918, World Pacific 1245, where he is paired
with another somewhat shriller Parkerite altoist,
Jerry Dodgion. Their material on this disk, songs
of World War I vintage, is occasionally felicitously
amusing but by and large it ends up as novelty
material in the hands of two such modernists.
Mariano can also be heard on one side of Charlie
Mariano Sextet, Fantasy 3224, while the Mariano-
Dodgion sextet plays one number on both Have
Blues, Will Travel, World Pacific JWC 509, and
Jazz West Coast, Vol. 4, World Pacific JWC 510.

Reese Markewich. Markewich's Quintet, a rough
but spirited group from Cornell, made a good im-
pression at its introductory showing at the New
York Jazz Festival in 1957. Much of the zest and
dash of the group is transferred to New Designs in
Jazz, Modernage 134. Its rousing spirit comes pri-
marily from Nick Brignola's intense drive on bari-
tone saxophone and the jabbing fury of Marke-
wich's piano accompaniment. Occasionally they
lunge too hard and overplay their hands but this is,
on the whole, an unusually good debut recording
and a decided relief from the drained, automatic
blowing of many more experienced groups.

Warne Marsh. In the late Forties Marsh shared the
saxophone chores in the Lennie Tristano Sextet
with Lee Konitz. Since then he seems to have wan-
dered around in some musical never-never land
muttering the old Tristano runs over and over to

The Records 187

himself. He conjures up some of the Tristano glide
and swoop with a group of fellow Tristanoites on
four selections in Modern Jazz Gallery, Kapp KXL
5001, which draw most of their strength from
Ronnie Ball's dark, nudging piano. But Marsh's
vague, shapeless meanderings on Warne Marsh, At-
lantic 1291, carry inarticulateness beyond all rea-
son.

Dick Marx. A clean, precise and rather strait-laced
pianist, Marx swings easily at medium tempos. Too
Much Piano, Brunswick 54006, and Piano Solos,
Coral 57088, are weighed down by unpropulsive,
rococo designs but he trims the frills effectively on
Delicate Savagery, Coral 57151.

The Mastersounds. Using the same instrumenta-
tion as the Modern Jazz Quartet (piano, vibes, bass,
drums), this quartet gave promising indications
that it could avoid a similarity of sound on its first
disk, Jazz Showcase, World Pacific 403, showing
imagination and some lithe musical muscles which
keep everything moving along convincingly. Since
then, however, their efforts have been devoted to
somewhat self-conscious and decidedly non-swing-
ing versions of show scores: The King and I, World
Pacific 405; Kismet, World Pacific 1243; The
Flower Drum Song, World Pacific 1247. One of the
group's non-showtunes is included on Have Blues,
Will Travel, World Pacific JWC 509.

Mat Mathews. Since his arrival in the United
States from the Netherlands in 1952, Mathews has
concocted a fairly personal brand of jazz mood
music using a specially prepared accordion which
produces lush, languorous tones. He works this
pitch very effectively on Four French Horns, Elek-
tra 134, The Modern Art of Jazz, Vol. 2, Dawn
1104, and The Gentle Art of Love, Dawn 1111. He

188 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

can also move easily through bright-tempoed mod-
ern lines Mat Mathews, Brunswick 54013, and
Eddie Costa, Mat Mathews and Don Elliott at New-
port, Verve 8237. But The New York Jazz Quartet,
Elektra 115, and The New York Jazz Quartet Goes
Native, Elektra 118, fall ineffectively between his
two main veins while Music for Suburban Living,
Coral 57136, is very watery cocktail jazz. He has
one selection in Critics' Choice, Dawn 1123, and in
Jazz for Hi-Fi Lovers, Dawn 1124.

John Mehegan. Mehegan functions as pianist,
teacher and critic, thus giving himself several
avenues of retreat and an equal number of posi-
tions from which to attack. His position as a pian-
ist is only mildly fortified for he is inclined to affect
a rather casual, "comping" style which reduces al-
most everything to an amiable rolling variant of
something close to Tea for Two. This is quite
pleasant the first few times but it becomes a little
tiresome. His mulling, cudchewing attack has over-
tones of Mose Allison's country-bred piano on Re-
flections, Savoy 12028, while on I Just Love Jazz
Piano, Savoy 12100, he is prodded to spurts of
energy by the assertive presence of bassist Charlie
Mingus. Mingus, however, is inclined to walk all
over him. On two selections in Montage, Savoy
12029, Mehegan has difficulty coming to grips with
his tunes while his two-piano exercises with Eddie
Costa on A Pair of Pianos, Savoy 12049, produce
moments of warm jazz feeling but most of them
turn into the usual scampering sound of piano
duets.

Gil Melle. Melle, a baritone saxophonist who plays
with a great deal of Gerry Mulligan's delightfully
swampy, stomping quality, seems to have a yearning
for a more dignified, higher existence which comes
out, fortunately, in his liner notes rather than in

The Records 189

his music. He has covered the back liner of Primi-
tive Modern, Prestige 7040, with a forbidding mass
of technicalities but the music his quartet plays is
essentially swinging and earthy, sparked by Joe
Cinderella's buoyant guitar. Trombonist Eddie
Bert is added to the Quartet for a pleasantly gal-
lumphing set that steers clear of routine blowing,
Patterns in Jazz, Blue Note 1517, but Melle's ac-
companying ensemble on Quadrama, Prestige 7097,
is hollowly recorded. His pretentions get the better
of him on Gil's Guests, Prestige 7063, as Art
Farmer, Hal McKusick, Don Butterfield and Kenny
Dorham join him in determined readings of several
of his experimental compositions.

Melrose Avenue Conservatory Chamber Music So-
ciety. No relation to the earlier Chamber Music
Society of Lower Basin Street, this group is made
up of familiar West Coast modernists (Marty Paich,
John Graas, Stu Williamson, Jack Montrose, Bob
Gordon, Chico Hamilton) playing four moderately
interesting pieces on one side of Blow Hot, Blow
Cool, Decca 8130 (Herbie Fields has the other side),
highlighted by Hamilton's bright, clean drumming,
some excellent muted trumpet by Williamson and
Gordon's customary smoothly outgoing baritone
saxophone.

Helen Merrill. Of all those who are often listed as
jazz singers but are actually pop singers who some-
times use jazz backgrounds, Miss Merrill has shown
enough evidence of sensitivity and taste to imply
that she could be a much better pop singer than
most of her pseudo-jazz colleagues. She has had to
overcome an early tendency to sing hoarsely and to
doctor melodies pointlessly she weakens her per-
formances in this manner on Helen Merrill, Em-
Arcy 36006, Dream of You, EmArcy 36078 (with
arrangements by Gil Evans), and Helen Merrill

190 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

with Strings, EmArcy 36057 but she is pleasantly
open and outgoing on Merrill at Midnight, Em-
Arcy 36107, and The Nearness of You, EmArcy
36134. She sings two selections in For Jazz Lovers,
EmArcy 36086.

Metronome All Stars. Since 1939 Metronome maga-
zine has, sporadically, made its readers' annual
popularity polls come alive by holding recording
sessions with as many of the poll winners as possi-
ble. The recording dates have been infrequent of
late years and the results have not been compara-
ble to some of the surprisingly zestful products of
the earlier days. Two collections, The Metronome
All Star Bands, Camden 426, and Metronome All
Stars, Harmony 7044, cover the fertile years of the
Forties. The Camden disk includes the very first,
none-too-memorable session by the 1938 all-stars,
runs through a magnificently driving session by the
1940 choices, an adequate accounting by the 1945
all-stars all these were dominated by swing mu-
sicians and ends with the triumph of the boppers
in 1948 with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles
Davis, Fats Navarro and Lennie Tristano among
those present. The Harmony disk covers the win-
ners of 1939, 1941, 1946 (with vocals by Nat Cole,
June Christy and Frank Sinatra) and 1949. The
1953 stars do an unimpressive selection in Forty-
Eight Stars of American Jazz, MGM 3611, while the
1956 winners commit a JATP-style jam session on
Metronome All Stars 1956, Verve 8030.

Metropolitan Jazz Quartet. Polite, subdued, un-
ostentatious and unexciting swing by a group of
New York studio men on Great Themes from the
Classics, MGM 3730, Great Themes from TV
Shows, MGM 3729, Great Themes from Great
American Movies, MGM 3727, Great Themes from

The Records 191

Foreign Movies, MGM 3731, and Great Themes
from Broadway Shows, MGM 3728.

Jack Millman. Millman's strong, gutty-toned trum-
pet provides a direct and forceful lead for his quar-
tet in the dozen tunes that make up Blowing Up a
Storm, ERA 20005, but when he calls in a dozen
reputable jazz arrangers (Jimmy Giuffre, Shorty
Rogers, Bill Holman, Pete Rugolo, Johnny Mandel
and others) and assembles a band made up of top
West Coast men to play their writing on Jazz
Studio 4, Decca 8156, he is able to produce only a
mediocre set.

Charlie Mingus. The extremely personal musical
turmoil that roars and sputters inside bassist
Charlie Mingus has frequently wound up as little
more than shock-implemented chaos, as when he
tries to weave yowls, street noises and foghorns
into some communicative form on Pithecanthropus
Erectus, Atlantic 1237. But as he has slowly learned
how to control and direct his unusual ideas, he has
begun to create a style that owes nothing to anyone
but Mingus, that is purely jazz rather than wanned
over Europeanisms and that can be both quietly
moving and intensely exciting. So far his best effort
to make things come together on records is East
Coasting, Bethlehem 6019. The trumpet and saxo-
phone work in this disk leave a lot to be desired
but still the flavor and spirit of Mingus comes
through more strongly than on any other group of
recordings and he has the invaluable help of trom-
bonist Jimmy Knepper, the most deeply jazz-rooted
of the modern trombonists who has a unique way
of moaning with agonized soulfulness behind a
soloist and then soaring off into his own solos with
beautiful lyricism. A piece called Reincarnation
of a Love Bird, included on The Clown, Atlantic

192 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

1260, is another of Mingus' more successful efforts
but this disk's title piece is a long, occasionally
melodic work built on a remarkably banal, sup-
posedly ad lib spoken part.

Some of Mingus' earlier, less intensely different
adventures are collected on Jazz Composers Work-
shop, No. 2, Savoy 12059, which includes notably
warm alto saxophone playing by John LaPorta,
and The Jazz Experiments of Charlie Mingus,
Bethlehem 65, on which trumpeter Thad Jones
opens up in singing, soaring lyrical style. Mingus'
Quintet (billed as "The Horace Parian Quintet" in
honor of his pianist of the moment) accompanies
Langston Hughes' readings of his poems on one
side of Weary Blues, MGM 3697 (Red Allen's
totally different group serves up the backing on the
other side), making effective accenting use of the
sudden squirts of sound that Mingus relishes and
occasionally dashing off on short, astringent ex-
cursions of its own.

Mingus Three, Jubilee 1054, places him in a trio
setting in support of pianist Hampton Hawes but
Mingus seems to be holding a sensitive rein on the
pianist, steering him away from his glib, slippery
style to some of the most sensitive playing he has
recorded. Mingus' main concession to himself is a
setting for Summertime involving a Night in
Tunisia obligate, strummed piano wires, Chinese
cymbals and strange wailing cries from his bass.

Blue Mitchell. Mitchell has a clean, singing trum-
pet tone and a feeling for building solos along lyric
lines but these talents are largely kept on the side-
lines on Big Six, Riverside 12-273, a blowing session
on which he makes way for the routine solos of
saxophonist Johnny Griffin and trombonist Curtis
Fuller.

The Records 193

Red Mitchell, Simply because Red Mitchell is a
strong, steady, perceptive bassist is no special reason
for putting him at the helm of a recording session.
In fact, the reverse would seem to be true but cur-
rent fashion decrees that everybody is a star soloist
and must have a few albums to his credit. The con-
stant problem with most bass-led albums is that
they produce endless bass solos which is part of the
downfall of Presenting Red Mitchell, Contempo-
rary 3538 (the rest is accomplished by teaming him
with a dull trio of performers). The problem is
solved to a degree on Red Mitchell, Bethlehem 38,
by supplementing the Hampton Hawes Trio, in
which Mitchell happened to be playing bass, with
trumpeter Conte Candoli and alto saxophonist Joe
Maini and then having the horns sit it out most of
the time so that the Hawes Trio can play some
pleasingly rhythmic pieces.

Whitey Mitchell. Red Mitchell's younger brother,
also a bassist, takes his leader's due in solos on
Whitey Mitchell Sextette, ABC-Paramount 126, in
what are otherwise unpretentious performances of
genial, propulsive Neal Hefti arrangements. The
Sextette includes a pair of ofl>beat instruments,
Tom Stewart's tenor horn and Steve Lacy's soprano
saxophone.

Mitchell-Ruff. Willie Ruff, who doubles between
bass and French horn, and pianist Dwike Mitchell
are of that school of jazz elevation which feels com-
pelled to dress up some of its performances with
references and effects that have nothing to do with
jazz. The rest of the time they go whole hog into
the impressionist school of non-jazz. They produce
some pleasant background music which has only a
glancing relationship to jazz on Mitchell-Ruff Duo,

194 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Epic 3221, Campus Concert, Epic 3318, and Ap-
pearing Nightly, Roulette 52002.

Hank Mobley. Mobley is a faceless tenor saxo-
phonist who has worked with Max Roach, Dizzy
Gillespie and the Jazz Messengers. He has been
recorded at great length to very little purpose. At
relatively slow, meditative tempos he is sometimes
capable of warm, relaxed playing there are ex-
amples on Mobley' s Second Message, Prestige 7082,
The Jazz Message, Savoy 12064, and Hank Mobley
Quintet, Blue Note 1550. Most of his time, how-
ever, is devoted to bland, aimless noodling. He is
not helped by the fact that he is usually recorded in
long, shapeless blowing sessions which only empha-
size the emptiness of his playing. Some of his disks
are given point by the other performers on them
trumpeter Lee Morgan and pianist Barry Harris
raise the level of The Jazz Message #2, Savoy
12092, Morgan and trombonist Curtis Fuller turn
one side of Monday Night at Birdland, Roulette
52015, into a really bright, swinging session, Milt
Jackson makes Hank Mobley and His All Stars,
Blue Note 1544, worth hearing and pianist Mai
Waldron and guitarist Kenny Burrell do what they
can to salvage All Night Long, Prestige 7073. But
there are no rescuers on Mob ley's Message, Prestige
7061, Tenor Conclave, Prestige 7074, Hank Mo-
bley's Sextet, Blue Note 1540, Hank, Blue Note
1560, or Hank Mobley, Blue Note 1568.

Modern Jazz Quartet. If it does nothing else, the
task of listening and re-listening to all the record-
ings that preparation of this book required helps
to put things in perspective. There were re-evalua-
tions, discoveries, downgradings. But possibly the
most impressive revelation was that no other body
of recorded work since World War II holds up as
well as that of the Modern Jazz Quartet. The

The Records 195

group was formed in 1952 by four members of
Dizzy Gillespie's band John Lewis, piano, Milt
Jackson, vibraphone, Percy Heath, bass, and Kenny
Clarke, drums (Clarke was replaced in 1955 by
Connie Kay). Although Lewis is the dominant
musical personality in the quartet he composes
the bulk of its original pieces he is not, as is
widely believed, the group's leader. It is a coopera-
tive quartet and Lewis' position is musical direc-
tor.

In its early stages, the MJQ was a relatively free
swinging group given to extensive individual solo-
ing in a manner common to most modern jazz
groups although the fact that the soloists were
Lewis and Jackson set them apart from the com-
mon run. The Quartet's first recordings, originally
issued as by the Milt Jackson Quartet, are on The
Quartet, Savoy 12046, two ballads and two blues in
which Jackson plays a leading and strongly swing-
ing role. The first of Lewis* fuguing originals,
Vendome, is one of the four selections in their first
recording session as the Modern Jazz Quartet
which are included on MJQ, Prestige 7059, and the
steady growth of Lewis' integrating influence can
be traced on Django, Prestige 7057, a disk made up
of recordings made in 1953, 1954 and early 1955
which includes two Lewis compositions which have
since become jazz standards Django and The
Queen's Fancy.

At this point Clarke, who favored a more loosely
organized, individualistic approach, was replaced
by Kay and the group settled into a period of some-
what consciously finding itself as a unit and then,
having achieved this unity, of taking it for granted
and removing the traces of the conscious mold
within which it has been working. This process
can be seen in the quartet's increasing ability to
achieve a sinewy delicacy which mixes control and
precision with a loose and vigorously swinging at-

196 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

tack. These were qualities that had always been
apparent in Jackson's work but it took a little
while for Lewis' playing, with its firm roots in the
stomps and shouts of an earlier day, to make itself
properly felt in both his solos and his buoyant,
urging accompaniments. Concorde, Prestige 7005,
and Fontessa, Atlantic 1231, are steps leading to
the most satisfying of the group's disks, The Mod-
ern Jazz Quartet, Atlantic 1265, which shows off the
group's approach to ballads, modern jazz standards
and some hard-swinging pieces.

The Modern Jazz Quartet at Music Inn, Atlantic
1247, is a mixed package with three selections on
which Jimmy Giuffre adds his lower register clari-
net to the Quartet, some brilliantly direct jazz play-
ing by the Quartet and a few things which are not
jazz at all but which Lewis plays because he likes
them. Selections from the score written by Lewis
for a French film, No Sun in Venice, make up One
Never Knows, Atlantic 1284 (the apparent discrep-
ancy in titles is due to the fact that the French title
of the film was On Sait Jamais). They are melodic,
fugue-fringed pieces which often seem on the verge
of withdrawing completely from jazz. A relaxed
and pulsing memento of the Quartet's travels with
the JATP troupe makes up one side of The Mod-
ern Jazz Quartet and the Oscar Peterson Trio at
the Opera House, Verve 8269.

Modern Jazz Sextet. Two members of the MJQ
(John Lewis, Percy Heath) are added to two high-
flying soloists (Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Stitt) and
sound rhythm support (Skeeter Best, Charlie Per-
sip) to produce an exuberantly swinging blowing
session on Modern Jazz Sextet, Verve 8166. Lewis,
in an atmosphere decidedly different from that of
the Modern Jazz Quartet, turns in some fascinat-
ingly free wheeling solos.

The Records 197

MJT Plus 3. This brash, driving, boppish group,
which includes Paul Serrano on trumpet and Nicky
Hill, tenor saxophone, produces well articulated
solos and clean, balanced ensembles on MJT Plus
3, Argo 621, but nothing memorable results.

Thelonious Monk. Monk is a spare, gnawing, wor-
risome pianist whose reflective poking around be-
tween the keys is not at all accommodating to the
casual listener although his ideas are often haunt-
ing. He was present at Minton's in the early Forties
when bop was being forged but he was not a part
of the bop movement. He is, like Jelly Roll Morton
and Duke Ellington, an individualist who has
carved his own somewhat thorny and perverse way
through jazz.

He was so little a part of bop in the Forties that
an aura of mystery grew up around him and iso-
lated him from the main body of jazz. It was not
until well into the Fifties that he began to find a
steadily widening audience and to have a notice-
able influence on newer musicians (pianist Randy
Weston was the first Monk-descended pianist to
make a splash). Monk is also a prolific composer
with an unusual talent for creating eccentric melo-
dies which are, nonetheless, relatively easy to as-
similate.

The delay in recognition of Monk's abilities as
composer and performer was caused not because it
took him a long time to shape his style but be-
cause he presented himself as he was, undiluted by
any condescension to current taste. How firmly the
Monk mold was established in the Forties can be
seen on his earliest recordings, products of the mid-
dle and late Forties, on Genius of Modern Music,
Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Blue Note 1510 and 1511, which
provide a good cross-section of Monk as a soloist,
composer and organizer. These disks include the

198 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

original recordings of such Monk classics as 'Round
About Midnight, Off Minor, Ruby My Dear, Mis-
terioso, Well You Needn't and several examples of
his fascinating, off-center approach to standard pop
tunes.

Monk's work between 1952 and 1954 is found on
three Prestige disks. Thelonious Monk, Prestige
7027, is made up of two trio sessions, one in 1952
and one in 1954, both full-blooded, wrily accented
Monk and particularly notable for his extended
development of Blue Monk on the 1954 session.
Sessions from 1953 and 1954 make up Featuring
Thelonious Monk, Prestige 7053, this time placing
him at the head of two quintets, one of which in-
cludes the still developing Sonny Rollins. A catch-
all collection, Thelonious Monk, Prestige 7075, in-
cludes the 1953 Rollins group, a fine 1954 trio in
which Monk is supported by Percy Heath and Art
Elakey and a 1954 quartet in which Rollins, a year
after his relatively routine playing with the quintet,
reveals a sudden expansion of his talents. In this
quartet Rollins provides the meat while Monk
spreads the seasoning.

When Riverside Records began recording Monk
in 1956, they undertook to bring him into touch
with a wider audience than he had had before. The
way to do this, they reasoned, was to put him to
work on familiar tunes rather than his own rela-
tively recondite compositions. Their first effort,
Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington, Riverside
12-201, backfired largely because Ellington himself
had already set the pattern for his own tunes and
Monk's pattern proved to be too drastically differ-
ent to rest easily on a queasy ear. Next time out,
however, he was set to work on a varied set of ever-
greens Memories of You, Honeysuckle Rose, Tea
for Two, etc. which have no set standard against
which Monk's treatment had to be balanced. Sup-
ported by Oscar Pettiford, bass, and Art Blakey,

The Records 199

drums, he holds to an interesting blend of the fa-
miliar and the Monkish that manages to be steadily
provocative. In somewhat the same vein he plays
without accompaniment a mixture of popular bal-
lads and his own pieces on Thelonious Himself,
Riverside 12-235, but here he shows that no matter
how engaging his variations on others' tunes may
be, he is on more productive ground when he is
mulling through his own creations.

Monk's ability to dominate any group of musi-
cians, to impose a Monk sound on them much as
Jelly Roll Morton imposed a Morton sound on
whatever group of strays might make up his Red
Hot Peppers, is strikingly illustrated on Brilliant
Corners, Riverside 12-223, and Monk's Music,
Riverside 12-242. The first, played by a quintet
made up of Ernie Henry, Sonny Rollins, Oscar
Pettiford, Max Roach and Monk, includes what
annotator-producer Orrin Keepnews rightly calls
"a near-ballad with guts," Pannonica, which is as
haunting as a Chas. Addams cartoon while the title
selection is a fascinating mixture of lugubrious
harmonies and flighty rhythms. Monk's Music re-
prises some of his earlier works Epistrophy, Off
Minor, Well You Needn't and adds to his reper-
tory a lovely, evocative piece, Crepuscule with
Nellie. Even on the two least successful tracks (both
long, loose blowing sessions), the glorious fire that
radiates from Monk's playing seems to be stirred to
a more intense heat as things threaten to fall apart
around him and he prods and herds his soloists
(Coleman Hawkins, John Coltrane, Gigi Gryce,
Ray Copeland, Art Blakey) into position. And
when things are going as he would have them as
composer, arranger and pianist, he shines mag-
nificently. It is a fair measure of Monk's musical
personality that so strongly individual a jazz voice
as Hawkins' is completely overshadowed in Monk's
company.

200 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

A quartet which Monk led in 1958 is recorded in
performance on Thelonious in Action, Riverside
12-262, and Misterioso, Riverside 12-279. These
disks present Monk in more lightly swinging focus
than most of his studio sessions. Much of this comes
from a very able rhythm team Roy Haynes, a
drummer who keeps the rhythm going with in-
sistent vitality, and Ahmed Abdul-Malik, a big-
toned, steady bassist. The fourth man is tenor saxo-
phonist Johnny Griffin whose seam-bursting attack
seems to be subject to some Monkish discipline on
Thelonious in Action but on Misterioso he becomes
tied up in long barren solos*

A reunion of Monk and Art Blakey, who
drummed on most of his early records, takes place
on Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Thelonious
Monk, Atlantic 1278. It is too bad that the frame-
work for the meeting is the blatant pre-Benny Gol-
son and Lee Morgan Messengers since the invigor-
ating flights and crafty sparring of Monk and
Blakey are constantly interrupted by the earth-
bound trumpet of Bill Hardman and Johnny Grif-
fin's routine saxophone. Another crossing of
strains, Thelonious Monk and Gerry Mulligan,
Riverside 12-247, takes place over four Monk stand-
ards, a Mulligan variation of Undecided and the
mellow standard, Sweet and Lovely. It is the last
selection that provides the most happy common
ground as Monk evolves his lovely dissonances and
Mulligan swaggers at an easy, loping pace. But on
the other pieces Mulligan seems lost in Monk's
company. A Monk trio selection is included in
Riverside Drive, Riverside 12-267.

J. R. Monterose. Inspired originally by Tex
Beneke, Monterose is a tenor saxophonist who has
worked his way up through as unlikely a band as
Henry Busse's as well as the more likely Buddy
Rich and Claude Thornhill orchestras. He uses a

The Records 201

staccato style known as "pecking'* which, combined
with suggestions of a Sonny Rollins influence, pro-
duces some vigorous, driving pieces on /. R. Monte-
rose, Blue Note 1536.

Montgomery Brothers. The three Montgomery
brothers, two of whom (Monk and Buddy) com-
prise half of the quartet known as the Master-
sounds, are joined on The Montgomery Brothers
Plus Five, World Pacific 1240, by a quintet of
musicians from their home town, Indianapolis.
The home town guests play capably in the modern
idiom but it is vibist Buddy Montgomery who
dominates the loosely swinging performances. Like
Red Norvo, Buddy manages to imply rhythmic
strength with a light touch, dancing bright rings
around the more earthbound work of the other
members of the group.

Wes Montgomery. Wes is the third of the Mont-
gomery brothers (see above), a guitarist who swings
strongly with a mixture of single string and
chorded playing on one selection in Have Blues,
Will Travel, World Pacific JWC 509.

Jack Montrose. A tenor saxophonist and writer
whose habitat is the West Coast, Montrose is not
to be confused with the East Coast's J. R. Monte-
rose. On the basis of their records, there should be
no confusion. West Coast Montrose is a flat toned,
grinding saxophonist whose disks have bright mo-
ments solely because of the efforts of baritone saxo-
phonist Bob Gordon (Arranged by Montrose,
World Pacific 1214; Jack Montrose Sextet, World
Pacific 1208; and Jack Montrose with Bob Gordon,
Atlantic 1223) or Red Norvo (Blues and Vanilla,
Victor LPM 1451; The Horn Is Full, Victor LPM
1572).

202 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

James Moody. Moody is a far more accomplished
saxophonist (tenor and alto) than most of those
who have achieved the status of "names" during
the Fifties yet he has remained in relative obscurity.
This may be attributed partly to his decision to
remain in Europe from 1948 to 1951 after making
a strong impression with Dizzy Gillespie's band in
1947. And undoubtedly his unsettled personality
problems which led to voluntary commitment to a
New Jersey mental institution, Overbrook, in
April, 1958, had something to do with it.

Between his return to the United States and his
journey to Overbrook he led a rough, romping
band which was just this side of being a rhythm
and blues group. It was a swinging band and al-
though Moody's was the most polished solo voice
in the group, trumpeter Dave Burns could turn in
an occasional well shaped solo and baritone saxo-
phonist Pee Wee Moore brought a strong attack to
his solo lines. This band's first recordings The
Moody Story , EmArcy 36031 are shallow, tasteless
and exhibitionistic but on its later disks James
Moody's Hi Fi Party, Prestige 7011; Wail, Moody,
Wail, Prestige 7036; James Moody's Moods, Pres-
tige 7056; and Moody, Prestige 7072 Moody
moves skillfully through a complex variety of styles.
His tenor may be relatively hardtoned and biting
at one moment, floating in the Lester Young man-
ner or dark, warm and breathy a la Ben Webster;
on alto he is almost always smooth but he may soar
gently or ride like a demon. The Moody band has
two selections in Giants of Jazz, Vol. 3, Part 1, Em-
Arcy 36050.

Shortly before making his decision to go to Over-
brook, Moody heeded fashion and took up the flute.
He plays it as well as any other jazzman but it is a
futile and tiresome jazz instrument so that Moody's
Mood for Love, Argo 613, on which he plays flute
on almost every number, is one of his least effective

The Records 203

disks. However, both this collection and Flute 'n'
the Blues, Argo 603, are brightened when Moody 's
pianist, Jimmy Boyd, blows some elegantly gutty
solos on the peck horn. And while a balance is be-
ing cast, one should include the fact that all of
these Moody disks include an occasional vocal by
Eddie Jefferson, a simpering, grating singer who
devises very banal lyrics to instrumental solos in
the manner, but without the style, of King Pleasure
and Jon Hendricks.

After five months of recuperation at Overbrook,
Moody emerged to make Last Train from Over-
brook, Argo 637, with a 14-piece band especially
assembled for the occasion. There is a gratifying
tranquility and assurance in his playing here, par-
ticularly in the singing force with which he con-
jures up a strong, earthy feeling on alto.

Joe Mooney. Although he has a very small voice,
Mooney's disciplined and knowledgeable phrasing
gives his singing a jazz quality that cannot be found
in most so-called jazz singers. He shows both this
deft skill and an equally perceptive use of the or-
gan in an astutely chosen program on Lush Life,
Atlantic 1255. There is a bit too much emphasis
on novelty material in On the Rocks, Decca 8486,
although it shows what he can do with an accordion
and offers the only recorded glimpses of the excel-
lent little group he led in the late Forties.

Brew Moore. Moore is one of the truest followers
of Lester Young's soft, floating style on tenor saxo-
phone but he has not been treated particularly well
on records. The best evidence of his ability will be
found on Brew Moore, Fantasy 3264, on which he
teams up with a hard-toned tenor, Harold Wylie,
in a manner which seems mutually inspiring. These
are mid-Fifties recordings but in another set from
the same period, The Brew Moore Quartet and

204 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Quintet, Fantasy 3222, Moore's playing seems self-
effacing and negative, overshadowed by the grace-
ful force of John Marabuto's lively, note-filled
piano work. Moore's other disks are poorly re-
corded mementos of his life among the boppers in
New York in the late Forties. On Lestorian Mode,
Savoy 12105, he provides the only real spark of life
in four selections as he emerges from a dull shuffle
which passes for an ensemble (these pieces include
some very unformed Gerry Mulligan baritone saxo-
phone work) but even Moore can save only one of
the four otherwise static pieces included in In the
Beginning . . . Bebop!, Savoy 12119.

Marilyn Moore. By singing through her nose, Miss
Moore gets something of Billie Holiday's nasal
quality but not much else on Moody Marilyn
Moore, Bethlehem 73. Her singing is all surface
with little depth or projection.

Pat Moran, Miss Moran, an able if not yet distinc-
tive pianist, plays with swinging force and an obvi-
ous appreciation of the business at hand on This
Is Pat Moran, Audio Fidelity 1875.

Lee Morgan. Morgan zoomed to attention in 1957
when he was the teen-age marvel of Dizzy Gilles-
pie's big band. The fact that an 18-year-old could
successfully challenge Gillespie on one of his major
showpieces, Night in Tunisia, was undoubtedly
worthy of comment but the most interesting thing
about Morgan is the rapidity with which he has
matured from an impressively fluent trumpeter to
one who has great sensitivity and an almost in-
fallible instinct for form. At 20 he stands as one of
the most brilliant jazz trumpeters with his greatest
potential still ahead of him. Along with Benny
Golson's discerning musical direction, Morgan's
playing late in 1958 and 1959 completely trans-

The Records 205

formed Art Blakey's previously ragged Jazz Messen-
gers to a crackling, electrifying group.

Morgan's own recordings are, on the whole, il-
luminating examples of the mixture of fire, control
and insight which marks most of his playing. Possi-
bly one of his most revealing disks is Candy, Blue
Note 1590, on which he concentrates on gently
paced ballads. The inability of jazz modernists to
play a ballad with any evidence of appreciation of
the melody is one of their most common failings.
Their tendency is to state the melody in the most
banal and arid terms and then, to the relief of per-
former and listener alike, abandon it. Morgan, on
the other hand, seems to hear and understand these
tunes and he develops them with an appreciative
inventiveness that is unique among his contempo-
raries. In totally different circumstances, a rugged
blowing session on Monday Night at Birdland,
Roulette 52015, he takes prompt charge and sets a
rip-roaring, challenging pace that rouses previously
undiscovered resources in trombonist Curtis Fuller
and even inspires the generally somnolent tenor
saxophonist, Hank Mobley.

He is the spur again with some keyed-up Gilles-
pie men on Dizzy Atmosphere, Specialty 5001, but
he becomes the dominating force on Presenting Lee
Morgan, Blue Note 1538, and on The Cooker, Blue
Note 1578, on which baritone saxophonist Pepper
Adams is completely overshadowed by Morgan's
electrifying virtuosity. He is hampered somewhat
by static accompaniment on City Lights, Blue Note
1575.

Morgan has his fallible moments, too, when he
finds himself playing second fiddle. This happens
on Lee Morgan Sextet, Blue Note 1541, when an
otherwise unheralded alto saxophonist, Kenny
Rodgers, steps out with an assurance that makes
Morgan seem limp by contrast and again on Lee
Morgan, Blue Note 1557, on which the major point

206 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

of interest is the writing and playing of tenor saxo-
phonist Benny Golson. Morgan's only really inade-
quate disk is Introducing Lee Morgan, Savoy 12091,
on which, despite a live, crackling attack, his ideas
come haltingly.

Sandy Mosse. A Chicagoan, veteran of the Woody
Herman band of 1953, Mosse is a capable but un-
distinguished product of the Lester- Young-through-
Herman vein of tenor saxophone. He is heard with
alto saxophonist Ira Shulman on Chicago Scene,
Argo 609.

Sam Most. Doubling between flute and clarinet,
Most is a rather unemotional musician although
he occasionally swings reasonably well on clarinet
despite a somewhat legitimate tone. He plays both
instruments on one side of Doubles in Jazz, Van-
guard 8522 (shared with Don Elliott), and Musi-
cally Yours, Sam Most, Bethlehem 6008; clarinet
only on a single selection in Modern Jazz Hall of
Fame, Design 29, and pipes out flute duets with
Herbie Mann on Herbie Mann-Sam Most Quintet,
Bethlehem 40.

Ken Moule. This broad minded English arranger
and pianist can be boppish, swinging or moody. He
is all three in competent performances with his
Seven on Modern Jazz at Royal Festival Hall,
London LL 1185, but there is less reaching for
effects and more meat in a very pleasant set, Ken
Moule Arranges For . . . , London LL 1673, played
by an unusually good group which includes saxo-
phonists Don Rendell, Ronnie Ross and Dougie
Robinson.

Gerry Mulligan. Although he seems to be perma-
nently branded as a representative of "cool" jazz,
Mulligan is actually one of the rare jazzmen prac-

The Records 207

ticing in the modern Idiom who carries the stigmata
of "hot" jazz. He plays his baritone saxophone with
a stomping, galumphing, melodic urgency that
comes straight out of the gruff and giddy joys of
Kansas City and Jelly Roll Morton's interpretation
of New Orleans. He has, however, moved at some
length in cool surroundings. He was part of that
Miles Davis combo which existed briefly in 1948
and recorded in 1949 those pieces (in The Birth of
the Cool, Capitol T 762) which are felt to epito-
mize cool jazz. As an arranger for Claude Thorn-
hill's band and the Thornhill-influenced Elliot
Lawrence band, he worked in the pastel style which
contributed to the Davis cool effect and later, when
he formed his first Quartet in 1952, he chose as his
trumpeter a practitioner of diluted Davis, Chet
Baker.

In the late Forties, when Mulligan was still in his
early twenties (he was born in 1927) he was known
primarily as an arranger and quite secondarily as
a performer for his playing did not begin to take
firm shape until he had formed his Quartet. There
are two awkward samples of Mulligan's playing in
1950 on Conception, Prestige 7013, while Mulligan
Plays Mulligan, Prestige 7006, recorded in 1951,
shows him at the head of an unwieldy ten-piece
group in which Allen Eager's tenor saxophone is
the one really swinging horn.

Mulligan the Jazz Personality properly dates
from the formation of his 1952 pianoless quartet,
a radical idea at the time, made up of Baker,
Carson Smith, bass, and Chico Hamilton, drums.
The texture and tonal colors achieved by this
group were particularly refreshing in a period when
jazz was wandering in the limbo left in the wake
of the disintegration of bop. The subtle charms of
this quartet are reported on Mulligan Quartet,
Fantasy 3220. Larry Bunker replaces Hamilton on
drums on the remainder of the recordings by this

208 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

first version of the Mulligan Quartet which shows
a warm, swinging forthright attack on Baker-Mulli-
gan-De Franco, GNP 26, and on those portions of
Lee Konitz Plays with the Gerry Mulligan Quartet,
World Pacific 406, on which Konitz lets the Quartet
go its own merry way. The Gerry Mulligan Quar-
tet, World Pacific 1207, is less satisfying because
the unity of the group gives way to a trading off of
solos. A 1958 effort to recapture some of the group's
youthful elan on Reunion with Chet Baker, World
Pacific 1241, is less a demonstration of the maturity
and assurance that Mulligan has acquired since
then than it is a somewhat painful display of
Baker's failure to improve on what was even in the
beginning a very tentative talent.

An attempt by Mulligan to expand his quartet
style to a ten-piece group in 1953 on one side of
Modern Sounds, Capitol T 691 (shared with Shorty
Rogers), turns out instead to be a dilution of things
that the quartet did more effectively and more to
the point. Two pieces by this so-called Tentette
(and there's a tea shoppe wordde) included in Cool
and Quiet, Capitol T 371, are of special interest
because Mulligan plays a delightfully raw, thump-
ing, lazy piano instead of saxophone.

A later version of the Mulligan Quartet with
Hamilton back on drums, Jon Eardley, trumpet, and
Red Mitchell, bass, is heard in concert performances
along with a Mulligan sextet, created by the addi-
tion of Zoot Sims, tenor saxophone, and- Bob
Brookmeyer, valve trombone, on California Con-
certs, World Pacific 1201. Mulligan dominates both
groups and turns in some more gloriously thump-
ing piano on Piano Blues (which crops up again as
a pointedly effective background for an excellent
reading of Philip Whalen's poem, Big High Song
for Somebody, by Roy Glenn in Jazz Canto, World
Pacific 1244). More or less the same group, with
Eardley, Sims and Brookmeyer all present, deliver

The Records 209

the by-now expected rugged stomping quality of a
proper Mulligan performance with suave stylish-
ness on Mainstream, EmArcy 36101, and The Gerry
Mulligan Sextet, EmArcy 36056, on which the direct,
singing, bittersweet quality of Eardley's trumpet on
ballads is especially interesting.

Mulligan's next move was back to the quartet
format, this time with Brookmeyer's valve trombone
as his horn. Brookmeyer was a happy choice since,
when he is involved in a strongly pulsing setting
(as opposed to the spongy framework he found him-
self in as part of the Jimmy Giuffre Three) he has
much the same rough, stomping zest that Mulligan
has. On Paris Concert, World Pacific 1210, this
Mulligan foursome shows rare style and vitality.
They purr, they bite and they swing from the heels.
Even Laura, taken at a slow ballad pace, is prodded
so by Mulligan, urged by Brookmeyer and pushed
along by Red Mitchell and drummer Frank Isola
that it never drags its heels. Even better is a set
recorded at Storyville in Boston, Gerry Mulligan
Quartet, World Pacific 1228. Here the Quartet
produces the very essence of discerning, unmyopic
jazz jazz that flows out of both the old and new
streams without being ostentatiously a part of either
camp. Once more we get a flash of Mulligan the
pianist as he evolves a wriggling, earthy, itchy
clutch of notes on Storyville Story reflecting the
gutty quality of his horn.

No recordings by Mulligan's most recent quartet,
with Art Farmer playing trumpet in place of Brook-
meyer's trombone, had been released when this
was written but a product of this teaming can be
found on The Jazz Combo from "I Want to Live,"
United Artists 4006, in which Mulligan heads a
group, including Farmer, Bud Shank, Shelly Manne,
Frank Rosolino, Pete Jolly and Red Mitchell,
which plays themes written by Johnny Mandel for
a motion picture. They deliver some stirring jazz>

210 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

by turns agitated and jabbing or dreamily exotic,
making excellent use of the sturdily melodic mate-
rial that Mandel provided.

Between times with his quartets and sextets,
Mulligan has been kept busy on records as a
visitor. These have not always been particularly
happy occasions for him, although his appearance
with Teddy Wilson at Newport in 1957, reported
on Teddy Wilson and Gerry Mulligan at Newport,
Verve 8235, inspired him to some prodigies of
rugged swinging (but his own quartet the Brook-
meyer one turned rather tepid; it is on the same
disk). Gerry Mulligan-Paul Desmond Quartet,VeTve
8246, is a fascinating display of sparring and inter-
play between two highly cultivated jazz minds, a
furiously swinging affair for both saxophonists even
in their slow, squirming evolution of Body and
Soul Mulligan produces some typically strong solos
but it is Desmond, playing with a more definitely
leathery attack than usual, who consistently comes
out on top. A joint effort with Stan Getz, Getz
Meets Mulligan in Hi-Fi, Verve 8249, is less produc-
tive because on one side of the disk they trade horns.
Mulligan playing tenor, Getz baritone. Once this
largely pointless nonsense is out of the way and
they get down to their proper business, Getz
produces some soaring solos and Mulligan gives a
slow Ballad a few good digs but the disk as a whole
adds up to a wasted opportunity. Still another
visit, Mulligan Meets Monk, Riverside 12-247, finds
Mulligan seemingly at a loss, staggering lumpily
much of the time.

Both Mulligan and Brookmeyer were called in
to dress up trumpeter Phil Sunkel's Jazz Concerto
Grosso, ABC-Paramount 225, an overlong work
(fifteen minutes) which is brightened not by Mulli-
gan or Brookmeyer but by Sunkel's light, sensitive
playing. And to dress up a group of Mulligan's

The Records 211

compositions on The Gerry Mulligan Songbook,
Vol. 1, World Pacific 1237, he has been granted
a non-pareil saxophone section Zoot Sims, Al
Cohn, Lee Konitz, Allen Eager and himself
which, despite its spirit and polish, is constantly
outclassed by the composer as he stomps and roars
through his pieces.

There are single selections by a Mulligan Quartet
on The Blues, World Pacific JWC 502 (with Jon
Eardley), Drums on Fire, World Pacific 1247 (with
Chico Hamilton), Jazz West Coast, Vol. 4, World
Pacific JWC 510 (the Chet Baker reunion), The
Playboy Jazz Allstars, Playboy 1957 (Brookmeyer),
Jazz West Coast, Vol. 2, World Pacific JWC 501
(Brookmeyer), and two Quartet selections in Ballads
for Background, World Pacific JWC 503 (Brook-
meyer and Baker), Jazz West Coast, World Pacific
JWC 500 (Eardley and Baker; also the Baker quar-
tet plus Konitz), and Rodgers and Hart Gems,
World Pacific JWC 504 (Eardley and Brookmeyer).
A pair of Mulligan sextet selections are in Under
One Roof, EmArcy 36088, and one sextet item in
both Jazz West Coast, Vol. 3, World Pacific JWC
507, and Bargain Day, EmArcy 36087.

Lyle Murphy. Since the Thirties, when he was
known as Spud Murphy and was one of Benny
Goodman's top arrangers, Murphy has reverted to
his square handle and has developed a twelve-tone
system of his own. Gone with the Woodwinds, Con-
temporary 3506, uses this twelve-tone system but
the listener should not be scared off either by this
or by the woodwinds for Murphy's Swing Era
training is apparently too strong to allow him to
leave his audience out on a limb. He has created
lovely warm harmonies over pulsing supporting
rhythm in this set of freshly swinging, melodic
pieces.

212 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Morris Nanton, A pleasant but routine pianist
wades through a dull score on Flower Drum Song,
Warner Brothers 1256.

Fats Navarro. Navarro graduated from the Andy
Kirk and Billy Ecksrine bands in the mid-Forties
(he took Dizzy Gillespie's place with Eckstine) to
become one of the cleanest, most resolved executors
of the Gillespie trumpet style in the bop period. A
cross section of his better recorded work makes up
The Fabulous Fats Navarro, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2,
Blue Note 1531 and 1532. On these disks, which
include alternate masters as well as original re-
leases, he is heard with the Bud Powell Quintet
(with a very young Sonny Rollins), an easily swing-
ing group with a rugged ensemble punch; with the
McGhee-Navarro Boptet which showcases crisp
trumpet interplay between Navarro and Howard
McGhee and some strong, flowing piano playing
by Milt Jackson; and with the Tadd Dameron
Sextet, a stodgy group compared to the other two,
lightened by Navarro's precise, clarion solos. On
Fats Navarro Memorial Album No. 1, Savoy 12011,
Navarro is to a large extent a voice crying in the
wilderness as he plays with a pair of fumbling
groups that rarely pull together. He is in warmer
company and he himself is at his crackling best in
four selections on In the Beginning . . . Bebop!,
Savoy 12119, on which tenor saxophonist Eddie
Davis adds an enticingly sharp edge to a strongly
Lester Young attack. Navarro, as ever, is bright and
fluent in his own playing on four selections on
Opus de Bop, Savoy 12114, even though his sur-
roundings are heavy but even his own steadiness
seems to desert him in the arid surroundings of
one side of Saturday Night Swing Session, Counter-
point 549.

The Records 213

Mike Nevard. Nevard is an English counterpart of
Leonard Feather primarily a writer who also or-
ganizes recording sessions. One he held at Feather's
requests makes up one side of Cool Europe, MGM
3157 (shared with Jutta Hipp), which is worthy of
notice because of a soaring alto solo in strong
Benny Carter terms by Johnny Dankworth.

Phineas Newborn, Jr. The jazz saga of Phineas
Newborn is, so far, a rather sad one. He burst into
prominence in 1956 heralded as having the greatest
technique since Tatum. Technique Newborn cer-
tainly has and he shows on the cleanly played Here
Is Phineas, Atlantic 1235, that he has some notion
of how to apply it to jazz. Despite a disturbingly
static quality, this was a promising debut recording.
But instead of growing and absorbing more of the
jazz feeling that was his most noticeable lack, his
recordings have become steadily more arid. Phineas'
Rainbow, Victor LPM 1421, is less promising than
his first disk; on While My Lady Sleeps, Victor
LPM 1474, he is drowned in glistening strings; and
on Phineas Newborn, Jr., Plays Harold Arlen's
Music from "Jamaica," Victor LPM 1589, he seems
to have given up even bothering to try to play jazz.
Finally, in an apparent attempt to resuscitate his
jazz side, he has been cast in a pointless Enroll
Garner mold on Fabulous Phineas, Victor LPM
1873.

Joe Newman. A fixture in the Basie trumpet sec-
tion for many years, Newman, like most Basie side-
men in the present band, is rarely heard to much
advantage with the band. On outside recordings,
his playing is inclined to be neatly turned but
bland. He is bright and breezy on The Happy Cats,
Coral 57121, on which he has the inventive sup-
port of his Basiemate, tenor saxophonist Frank

214 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Wess, turns crisply pungent in some relaxed pieces
with Zoot Sims on Locking Horns, Roulette 52009,
and plays with a good show of vitality and warmth
on one side of Swing Lightly, Concert Hall 1265
(shared with Ruby Braff). He has moments of crack-
ling spirit on a generally lackadaisical disk, / Feel
Like a Newman, Storyville 905 (there is an amusing
passage in which John Lewis can be heard doing a
bit of Basie piano), but he is overshadowed by
Shirley Scott's warm organ on Soft Swingin' Jazz,
Coral 57208.

Much of his playing on these disks is done with
a mute but on Salute to Satch, Victor LPM 1324,
he shows how well he can play in an open-belled,
full-voiced style. The arrangements in this set are
adaptations in modern jazz terms of Louis Arm-
strong's originals which, despite a tendency to turn
glib, frequently maintain the Armstrong spirit re-
markably well. Newman contributes nothing of in-
terest to Jazz for Playboys, Savoy 12095, and he is
wasted on the pair of unending blowing session
which make up Jazz Studio One, Decca 8058. He
plays one easygoing, down-to-earth blues on Jazz
Cornucopia, Coral 57149.

New York Jazz Quartet (see Mat Mathews)

Herbie Nichols. For a pianist with a strongly in-
dividual quality, there are an unusual number of
derivative lines to be discerned in Nichols' playing.
He is fond of the thematic line that trickles con-
stantly downward in the Horace Silver manner
so fond that he is apt to overdo it and at the same
time, on Herbie Nichols Trio, Blue Note 1519,
there are suggestions of Monk and a line that leads
to a Monk-influenced pianist, Cecil Taylor. Yet
with all this, Nichols plays a stomping, swinging
piano in this set. The mixture on Love, Gloom,
Cash, Love, Bethlehem 81, is slightly different

The Records 215

Monk and Erroll Garner, this time, blended to
swing and sing in a bittersweet fashion. And on
three selections in / Just Love Jazz Piano, Savoy
12100, there is no evidence of Monk but instead
suggestions of the brisk, bright swing of Earl Hines
crop up. Nichols is an almost consistently interest-
ing pianist, one who communicates directly, clearly
and melodically. Why he has languished in practical
obscurity all through the Fifties is a mystery.

Lennie Niehaus. Niehaus, an alto saxophonist, is
one of those jazzmen who has shot to sudden promi-
nence and, in effect having arrived before he even
knew he was there, has stood still seemingly won-
dering what to do next. He started his professional
career when he was discharged from the Army in
June, 1954, and within a month he had made his
first LP as a leader, The Quintets, Contemporary
3518. This is a good showcase for his virtuosity (he
is a Parker descendant with a cool overlay) but
having established this he has found little room
for further expansion. He has spent much of the
intervening time as a member of Stan Kenton's
band, turning out a series of rather monotonous,
unexciting records The Octet, No. 2, Contem-
porary 3503, Zounds! The Octet!, Contemporary
3540 until he reached that inevitable deadend, a
string section, on The Quintet and Strings, Con-
temporary 3510. There is a suggestion of growing
warmth in his work on The Sextet, Contemporary
3524, and / Swing for You, EmArcy 36118, is en-
couraging in that it shows him working with a nine-
piece band which is just as interested in ensemble
work as solos.

Phil Nimmons. On The Canadian Scene, Verve
8025, clarinetist Nimmons leads an alert rehearsal
band through some imaginative arrangements which
show to best advantage in the ensembles.

216 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Lon Norman. Miami is the source of Lon Norman's
Gold Coast Jazz, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Criteria 1 and
3. He is a rather static trombonist of the J. J.
Johnson school whose groups on both disks are
run-of-the-mill. Interest perks up slightly in Volume
2 because of the rolling piano of John Williams, a
refugee from New York.

Red Norvo. Norvo's evergreen career goes back to
the days of vaudeville when xylophonists wore white
silk shirts and cummerbunds and tap-danced while
they played. He was a novelty element in Paul
Whiteman's massive organization in the early Thir-
ties, later leader of his own swing band (with wife
Mildred Bailey as vocalist). He was one of the
first of the Swing Era musicians to join hands with
the upstart boppers in the early Forties he led a
significant recording date in 1945 which brought
both elements together (Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie
Parker for bop, Teddy Wilson and Flip Phillips
for swing, Norvo for Norvo). These records, first
released on the Comet label, have been reissued on
a Dial LP which is no longer available. Four ex-
cellent performances from this period (1944) with a
sextet and septet are included in Giants of Jazz, Vol.
1, EmArcy 36048. Since then he has worked much of
the time as part of a trio, playing vibraphone as a
rule, an instrument he took up in the early Forties.
All but one of his available LP collections come
from this later period. The exception is a group of
his 1933-35 works, Red Norvo and His All Stars,
Epic 3128, which is discussed in The Collector's
Jazz: Traditional and Swing.

Norvo's various trios have two things in common:
The guitarists and bassists are of top caliber and
the performances are light, airy, extremely neat
and pulsingly swinging. But even as consistent a
performer as Norvo is not infallible. Possibly the
best of the trios was one in which he was joined by

The Records 217

Tal Farlow, guitar, and Charlie Mingus, bass. They
show themselves well on Move, Savoy 12088, but in
four selections on Midnight on Cloud 69, Savoy
12093, their playing is relatively fuzzy. A slight
variant of this group Red Mitchell in place of
Mingus lilts its way with easy aplomb through
Red Norvo with Strings (the "strings" are, fortu-
nately, simply the bass and guitar), Fantasy 3218,
and that same swinging aplomb is also present on
The Red Norvo Trio, Fantasy 319, on which Jimmy
Raney is the guitarist and Mitchell the bassist. Red
Norvo, Rondolette 28, is a poorly recorded and,
for a Norvo trio, rather plodding set of works. His
colleagues are not identified. His Farlow-Mitchell
trio of 1953 can be heard in a single selection on
The Encyclopedia of Jazz on Records, VoL 4, Decca
8401.

While the trio has been the staple setup for
Norvo's personal appearances, he has also recorded
with various larger groups during the latter Fifties.
One of his most brilliant sessions produced four
superbly relaxed selections by a sextet which in-
cluded Ben Webster, Harry Edison and Jimmy
Rowles, piano, one of them a stunning re-improvisa-
tion of a recorded classic of the Thirties in which
Norvo took part, Just a Mood. First issued by
Victor on a grab-bag disk as a Dave Garroway
presentation, the pieces have since been transferred
to Red Plays the Blues, Victor LPM 1729, which
is filled out with three selections by a big band led
by Norvo. The band works from routine arrange-
ments but it frames rich, polished solos by Norvo,
Rowles and alto saxophonist Willie Smith and
brings back the flexible, vibrant blues shouting of
Helen Humes, who sang with Count Basic's band in
the Thirties.

On HI-FIve, Victor LPM 1420, Norvo is, as might
be suspected, involved with a quintet and, in the
best Norvo tradition, the beat is light and lilting,

218 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

the tone subdued and confidential, the lines closely
woven. The only disturbing element is a flute,
played by Bob Drasnin, who is much more interest-
ing on clarinet. There is a flute again, this time
played by Buddy Collette, on Music to Listen to
Red Norvo By, Contemporary 3534, along with a
superb rhythm section Barney Kessel, Red Mitch-
ell, Shelly Manne in a group of imaginatively
devised short pieces and a long, overambitious work
by (and featuring) clarinetist Bill Smith, Diverti-
mento, which comes alive only spasmodically. In
attempting to make something of the score for the
film, Windjammer, Norvo seems at a loss on Wind-
jammer City Style, Dot 3126.

Anita O'Day. In the early Forties Miss O'Day was
one of the really valid swinging singers with a style
based on Billie Holiday with a kicking beat added.
She brightened the Gene Krupa and Stan Kenton
bands of those days and was, in her turn, the
inspiration for a school of singers (June Christy,
Chris Connor and on down) who diluted, distorted
and eventually lost all sight of what she was doing.
In the late Forties and early Fifties her career was
sidetracked by personal problems from which she
has been making a slow and, for a while, uncertain
comeback. She was not aided in the early stages of
this comeback by an apparent feeling that she had
to imitate her imitators, thus compounding an
already nerve-wracking tendency, but by 1958 she
had regained sufficient assurance to project her
songs warmly, easily and confidently and in her own
musical image.

On Anita O'Day Sings the Winners, Verve 8283,
she returns to the outgoing, swinging ways that once
came naturally to her. Half of the arrangements are
by Marty Paich, the rest by Russell Garcia, a
division which illuminates what is good for the
latter day O'Day and what isn't. Paich gives her

The Records 219

the strong beat she needs, a beat that drives her
along and allows her little time for the simpering
and agonized twists that have made some of her
other recordings choked and stumbling affairs,
whereas Garcias' more heavy-handed orchestrations
let her drag down into affectation on slow ballads.
Pick Yourself Up, Verve 2043, also has some swing-
ing imaginativeness while her singing on Anita ,
Verve 2000, is at least unstrained if not swinging.
Anita Swings the Most, Verve 8259, is, however, a
sample of the forced, mannered and coy approach
in which she was hung for a while. She sings three
songs in Here Come the Girls, Verve 2036.

Chico OTarrill. O'Farrill is a Cuban arranger and
band leader who is familiar with the American big
band idiom (he has written for Goodman, Kenton
and Gillespie) as well as his native Cuban styles.
Most of his recordings are tempered versions of
one or the other, aimed primarily at the dancer.
Jazz North and South of the Border, Verve 8083,
is a capable demonstration of both his sides. Chico' s
Cha-Cha-Cha, Panart, 3013, Mambo-Latino Dances,
Verve 2003, and Music from South America, Verve
2024, are smoothly voiced and lightly jazz-touched
Latin dance music. One sample of his crossing of
North and South American strains is included in
Verve Compendium of Jazz #1, Verve 8194.

Anthony Ortega. Although Ortega's most personal
characteristic as an alto saxophonist is a felicitous
use of a lunging, searing approach to a phrase, he
shows no evidence of his personality on two pretty
but soupy ballads with string backing on Jazz
Cornucopia, Coral 57149.

Marty Paich. Paich does a bit of everything pian-
ist, arranger, accompanist (to Peggy Lee), big band
sideman, combo sideman, leader and almost all

220 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

of it is refreshingly free from whatever may be the
cliches of the moment. He is at the head of a happy
combo that is driven by an exuberant, splashy
rhythm section (Paich, Curtis Counce, bass, Frankie
Capp, drums, Jack Costanzo, bongos) on Jazz City
Workshop, Bethlehem 44, highlighted by some wal-
loping vibes work by Larry Bunker and Herbie
Harper's rugged, chortling trombone. Marty Paich,
Cadence 3010, puts him at the helm of a big band
which plays arrangements that are in the Paich tra-
dition imaginative and off-the-beaten-track with-
out being in any way esoteric. There are a few
good spots for Paich's casual, leathery piano but,
as arranger, he repeats some devices to such an
extent that the disk, taken at one dose, becomes
tiresome. He contributes one well developed or-
chestral piece featuring Costanzo's bongos to Afro-
Drum Carnival, GNP 25, but although his four
big band selections in Modern Jazz Gallery, Kapp
KXL 5001, use a variety of approaches they result
in little really meaty playing. He is also heard on
Jazz Studio 2, Decca 8079.

Jackie Paris. Paris is a guitarist who is often referred
to as a neglected jazz singer. This is a rather in-
explicable attitude for his mincing manner of
crooning has no jazz implications. His disks are
Skylark, Brunswick 54019, and The Jackie Paris
Sound, East- West 4002. He sings two numbers on
Jazztime, U.S.A., Vol. 3, Brunswick 54002, and one
on Advance Guard of the Forties, EmArcy 36016.

Charlie Parker. The sound of jazz in the years
since the end of World War II has been colored
indelibly by the musical personality of Charlie
Parker. The major problem of most alto saxo-
phonists since his day has been getting out of Park-
er's shadow, to avoid sounding like derivation. For
other instrumentalists, the problem at first was to

The Records 221

adapt what Parker was doing on alto (and Gillespie
on trumpet) to the other jazz instruments. During
the Fifties the novelty of Parker's approach had
worn off and jazzmen began to take a less awed,
more inventive approach to the heritage Parker had
left them.

Parker came out of Kansas City with the Jay
McShann band in the late Thirties. His first records,
made with McShann (on a cut-out ten-inch LP,
Kansas City Memories, Decca 5503) show him as
a soloist seemingly influenced to some extent by
Lester Young but already exhibiting rudimentary
signs of those qualities which became the hallmark
on his playing: a light, vibratoless tone; running
phrases, perkily turned; complex rhythmic and
harmonic structure. He moved to Earl Hines' band
early in 1942, a Hines band which also included
Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughan.
Parker played tenor saxophone during the ten
months that he spent with Hines but because of a
recording ban the band left no disks.

In 1944 he started making the small group re-
cordings on which his fame now rests. Except for
a group made for the Dial label (some of which
were transferred to a pair of Dial LPs which are
now out of circulation), most of these are available
in two series on Savoy and Verve which include not
only the original releases but alternate takes and,
in the Savoy series, interrupted takes and false
starts.

The meat of Parker will be found on five Savoy
disks, recorded between 1944 and 1948. Because four
of the five include repeated takes and snatches of
each selection, the best of the group for normal
listening purposes is The Genius of Charlie Parker,
Savoy 12014, which has fourteen complete selections
showing Parker with five different groups. It includes
one of his most brilliant solos, Koko, puts him in
groups which include young Miles Davis, Dizzy

222 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Gillespie, John Lewis and Max Roach and gives
him a part in the lighthearted and swinging musical
mayhem committed by Slim Gaillard.

The Charlie Parker Story, Savoy 12079, subtitled
"The Greatest Recording Session Made in Modern
Jazz History in Its Entirety!", is the session of
November 26, 1945, on which Parker, Davis, Bud
Powell, Curly Russell, bass, and Roach produced
Billie's Bounce, Now's the Time, Warming Up a
Riff, Thriving from a Riff, the incomplete and
previously unissued Meandering and (once more)
Koko. It is apparently, as advertised, "in its en-
tirety" for there are five takes of Billie's Bounce,
four of Now's the Time, including a pair of false
starts that last approximately half a minute, and
so forth. John Mehegan has written a running com-
mentary that is acidulous but apt. This and the
three remaining Savoys are primarily for those
who want the opportunity to analyze the differ-
ences that take place in Parker's approach to a
theme even within a matter of minutes.

Charlie Parker Memorial, Vol. 1, Savoy 12000,
The Immortal Charlie Parker, Savoy 12001, and
Charlie Parker Memorial, Vol. 2, Savoy 12009, are
a jumble of original takes, new takes and short
takes, assembled in no apparent order and scat-
tered around in such fashion as to make comparison
of various versions of a single piece somewhat of a
chore. Savoy 12000 includes the lovely Bluebird
which has a very relaxed Parker solo and a sur-
prisingly good appearance by Miles Davis (Davis*
playing throughout this series is generally lacklustre
and clumsy) along with a new take of the moving
blues, Parker's Mood. On three selections on Savoy
12001 Parker is heard playing tenor in a manner
that sounds today, at least not particularly dis-
tinguished in view of his facility on alto. This disk
also includes Tiny's Tempo and Red Cross from
Parker's earliest small group session, the Tiny

The Records 223

Grimes date in 1944. The original release of Park-
efs Mood as well as the originals of Billie's Bounce
and Thriving from a Riff (both of which are in-
cluded in Savoy 12079) are high spots of Savoy
12009.

From this same period (1947) comes Charlie
Parker All Star Sextet, Roost 2210, with Davis and
J. J. Johnson, trombone, joining Parker in the
front line. Although Parker gives a masterful dem-
onstration of how to play a slow ballad with jazz
sense on Don't Blame Me and swings with roaring
frenzy through Crazeology, there is a heavy, tired
feeling about most of these pieces.

Parker's Verve series is made up of recordings
from the late Forties and early Fifties when Norman
Granz was trying to make him a more saleable
commodity. Thus we frequently find him sur-
rounded by strings and vocal groups or belaboring
ballads that are scarcely worth his attention. It was
also a period when Parker was dropping deeper
and deeper into the personal torture and confusion
that culminated in his death in March, 1955.

The series opens with a set of three disks, The
Charlie Parker Story #1, #2, and #3, Verve 8000,
8001 and 8002. Number One is a valid cross-section
of Parker's recordings for Granz the oozy mood
music of Charlie Parker with Strings, a wild big
band setting from which Parker erupts, three small
group settings, a worthwhile visit as a soloist with
Machito's band, and a pair of atrocities in which
he battles both woodwinds and a choral group.

The second disk in the set is less varied and
infinitely better. One side is lifted partly from The
Jazz Scene, Verve 8060, partly from Midnight Jazz
at Carnegie Hall, Verve 8189-2. The latter section
again pits Parker against strings but this time he
occasionally blows them out of the way and, despite
the strings, What Is This Thing Called Love really
jumps. On the reverse he is backed by three good

224 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

rhythm sections and in this free atmosphere plays
warmly, melodically, at times becoming almost
fierce in his attack. On NOUJ'S the Time, for in-
stance, supported by Al Haig, Percy Heath and
Max Roach, he is extremely aggressive, quite dif-
ferent from his earlier, more relaxed version on
Savoy.

Number Three in this set has flashes of good
Parker in the quintet selections that make up one
side (there's also some good Thelonious Monk
along with weak Miles Davis and surprisingly feeble
Dizzy Gillespie). The second side is a mish-mash of
snippets from concerts and jam sessions drawn from
Jam Session #1 and #2, Verve 8049 and 8050.

The remaining Verve disks assemble what must
be all the rest of the Parker material to which Verve
has access. There are repeats of performances in-
cluded in the first three disks and sometimes several
takes of one number. On Night and Day, Verve
8003, and April in Paris, Verve 8004, Parker once
more gets the string treatment lush dance versions
of ballads which are completely at odds with the
basic Parker idiom.

Now's the Time, Verve 8005, returns him to a
proper setting with only Haig, Heath and Roach
as accompanists. This is generally top grade Parker
but the repeated takes become tiresome. A session
that might have been expected to bloom, Bird and
Diz, Verve 8006, on which Parker and Gillespie are
joined by Thelonious Monk, Curly Russell and
Buddy Rich, drums, is dry and uninspired. The
Parker of Charlie Parker Plays Cole Porter, Verve
8007, sounds tired, prone to uncommunicative,
clumsy, flat playing. Fiesta, Verve 8008, is polite
south of the border stuff with bongo and conga.
Parker plays adequately but there seems no point
in using him on such material unless it is in context
with a strong rhythm section. Charlie Parker Jazz
Perennial, Verve 8009, glues him up with ballads

The Records 225

and a deadly vocal group although he shows signs
of life when he escapes into a blues. All things con-
sidered, the final disk in the series, Swedish
Schnapps, Verve 8010, is the best of the lot, despite
several repeated takes. He plays warmly and sensi-
tively with two congenial groups, one made up of
Red Rodney, trumpet, John Lewis, Ray Brown and
Kenny Clarke, the other of Miles Davis, Walter
Bishop, Jr., Teddy Kotick, bass, and Max Roach.
It includes his deeply moving Lover Man.

Single selections by Parker are included in Opera-
tion jazz, Roost OJ1, and The Anatomy of Improvi-
sation, Verve 8230.

Johnnie Pate. Pate is a Chicago-based bassist who
seems to have an ear carefully attuned to what's
hot. Flutes are the thing? On Jazz Goes Ivy League,
King 561, he has an intimately voiced group in
which flute, vibes and guitar are the principal
voices. They swing lightly without demanding at-
tention. Or maybe the Ahamd Jamal bit is popular.
Pate does a good Jamal derivation with pianist
Floyd Morris carrying the Jamalities on Johnny
Pate at the Blue Note, Stepheny 4005, and A Date
with Johnny Pate, King 611. In Morris' hands,
however, there is more of a suggestion of Enroll
Garner's attention to melody and beat than to
JamaTs selective highlights.

Cecil Payne. Payne is a baritone saxophonist who
has a smooth, soft tone but he is not much of an
idea man. Cecil Payne, Signal 1203, is of interest
primarily for the few brief glimpses it affords of
the drily swinging piano of Duke Jordan.

Bernard Peiffer. This Frenchman who immigrated
to the United States in 1955 is that rarity among
jazz pianists a legitimately schooled musician with
brilliant technique who can transfer much of this

226 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

brilliance to jazz performances without necessarily
falling into the trap of believing that technique is
all. He has spent several years trying to comb the
influences out of his playing. One side of Jazz from
St. German des Pres, Verve 8119 (shared with Don
Byas) is the Peiffer of a few years ago borrowing
prodigally from Enroll Garner and leaping into
unaccountable splurges of Tatumesque lacery. By
the time he made his first American recording,
Bernie's Tunes, EmArcy 36080, he had shucked off
Garner and was winnowing his Tatum leanings and
his playing surged with lightness and vitality. His
best work so far is on Bernard Peiffer Trio, Decca
8626, at those times when he is holding to direct,
straightforward exposition and is not losing the
continuity of his ideas while trying to swing a
variety of virtuoso lines. Even so, the mere dare-
deviltry of some of these efforts has its interesting
aspects. Piano a la Mood, Decca 9203, is neatly
turned, low-gear Peiffer.

Dave Pell. Pell's octet, drawn for the most part from
the Les Brown band, has contrived an approach
so bland that it can drain the life from even the
most vigorous tune. The group's polite, emotion-
less pitter patter might be classified as tea jazz.
The only suggestion of a warm voice in this cold
group comes occasionally from trombonist Ray
Sims. The wan evidence is on / Had the Craziest
Dream, Capitol T 925, Swingin' in the Ol' Corral,
Victor LPM 1394, A Pell of a Time, Victor LPM
1524, Campus Hop, Victor LPM 1662, Plays Rodg-
ers and Hart, Kapp 1025, Plays Burke and Van
Heusen, Kapp 1034, Plays Irving Berlin, Kapp 1036,
Jazz and Romantic Places, Atlantic 1216, Love
Story, Atlantic 1249.

Ralph Pena. A bassist who was part of Jimmy
Giuffre's trio for a while leads a quintet which

The Records 227

provides serviceable accompaniment to a reading of
a William Carlos Williams poem on Jazz Canto,
World Pacific 1244.

Art Pepper. Pepper is one of the most airy and
fluent of the post-Parker alto saxophonists. His
playing, which crosses elements of both Lester
Young and Parker, is, as a rule, cleanly articulated
even at very fast tempos although he is not notably
consistent. Surf Ride, Savoy 12089, serves as a use-
ful Pepper cross-section. With two of the three
groups on the disk he is in excellent form loop-
ing out fresh, imaginative idea with a dancing
gaiety. With the third group, however, he is quite
lackadaisical despite some inspiringly earthy piano
by Hampton Hawes. Dealing with a group of
ballads, Pepper's virtuosity takes a secondary posi-
tion to a light, feathery and extremely rhythmic
style that comes from the Lennie Tristano school
on Art Pepper, Sonny Redd, Regent 6069. Pepper
works in this vein with great skill, managing to in-
vest the tunes with a strong jazz feeling without
cutting out their balladic hearts. Teaming with
tenor saxophonist Bill Perkins on one side of Just
Friends, World Pacific 401, Pepper adds a delicacy
to Perkins* rugged tone that gives their playing an
interesting harmonic depth.

For Mucho Color, Andex 3002, a group of bongo-
based gavottes, he provided several of the more
useful arrangements and practically all of the
enlivening playing. Leading a gentle, bouncing
group in conjunction with Chet Baker on Playboys,
World Pacific 1234, Pepper is neat and precise but
scarcely exciting enough to keep the disk from
turning tired and uninspired in the face of Baker's
drab work, while his matter-of-fact playing on Art
Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section, Contemporary
3532, is not particularly communicative. He plays
single selections on Solo Flight, World Pacific JWC

28 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

15, Jazz West Coast, Vol. 3, World Pacific JWC
>7, and Jazz West Coast, Vol. 4, World Pacific
ATC 510, and joins Chet Baker in one number on
'ave Blues, Will Travel, World Pacific JWC 509.

ill Perkins. A tenor saxophonist who has fused a
>undation of Lester Young's light flow with a sug-
istion of Coleman Hawkins' ruggedness, Perkins
is spent most of the 1950s in the Woody Herman
id Stan Kenton bands. His mixture of Young and
iawkins is very evident on Just Friends, World
acific 401, a balanced and thoughtful program of
jiet jazz played by two different groups. One group
lirs Perkins with another Young-bred tenor, Richie
amuca, the other with the altoist, Art Pepper,
ho is in brilliant form on this disk. Perkins does
une of his finest recorded work on Love Me or
eave Me in Grand Encounter, World Pacific 1217,
i which he plays with two members of the Modern
tzz Quartet (John Lewis and Percy Heath) and
TO representatives of the Chico Hamilton Quintet
lamilton and Jim Hall). On Stage, World Pacific
121, is bogged down by pallid writing which is
jhtened somewhat by Perkins' carefully developed
los and a couple of saxophone ensembles tran-
tibed from Lester Young solos.
There are a pair of Perkins selections on Jazz
'est Coast, Vol. 2, World Pacific 501, and single
eces on Jazz West Coast, World Pacific JWC 500,
he Blues, World Pacific JWC 502, Ballads for
ickgrounds, World Pacific JWC 503, Solo Flight,
orld Pacific JWC 505, Jazz West Coast, Vol. 3,
orld Pacific JWC 507, and Jazz West Coast, Vol. 4,
orld Pacific JWC 510,

rl Perkins. A soundly based, briskly swinging
mist with an odd way of addressing the piano
; sometimes played with his entire left forearm
Dve and parallel to the keyboard), Perkins died

The Records 229

in March, 1958, at the age of 30. His only complete
LP, Introducing Carl Perkins, Dootone 211, is a fine
sampling of his weaving, bobbing style. He also
plays one selection in Pianists Galore!, World
Pacific JWC 506,

Oscar Peterson. Peterson is one of the more puzzling
musical personalities in current jazz. Starting with
a tradition-based, sledge hammer drive (exhibited
in one of his early Canadian recordings on Great
Jazz Pianists, Camden 328), he has developed
since moving to the United States in 1949 into
a musician of great range, potential resource and
superb technique. His playing, however, has a glib,
chilly quality which no amount of foot pounding,
grunting or furious fingering seems able to trans-
mute to warm-blooded jazz. As house pianist for
Verve Records, accompanying Lionel Hampton,
Ben Webster, Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Edison, Stuff
Smith, Lester Young and others, and leading his
own trio, he is one of the most frequently recorded
of today's jazz musicians yet he has produced
hardly anything that either catches or lingers in the
ear.

Of the disks on which he is featured, Peterson
communicates most readily on Recital, Verve 2044,
and Oscar Peterson Quartet, Verve 8072. Oscar
Peterson Plays Count Basie, Verve 8092, Keyboard,
Verve 2047, An Evening with Oscar Peterson, Verve
2048, and his portions of Jazz at the Hollywood
Bowl, Verve 8231-2, and Peterson, Eldridge, Stitt,
Jo Jones at Newport, Verve 8239, are diluted by
his blandly glib surface, while Oscar Peterson Trio
at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, Verve 8024,
and Oscar Peterson and the Modern Jazz Quartet
at the Opera House, Verve 8269, are dominated by
Peterson's keening and foot flailing. He turns to
straight interpretations of ballads on In a Romantic
Mood, Verve 2002, Pastel Moods, Verve 2004, No*

230 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

talgic Memories, Verve 2045, Tenderly, Verve 2046,
and Soft Sand, Verve 2079. On this last disk and on
Romance, Verve 2012, he sings in a manner that is,
superficially, like that of Nat "King" Cole but
-without the strength of Cole's projection.

Peterson plays two selections in A Potpourri of
Jazz, Verve 2032, and Midnight Jazz at Carnegie
Hall, Verve 8189-2, and one in Verve Compendium
of Jazz #1, Verve 8194.

Oscar Pettiford. Besides being an unusually stalwart
and sensitive bassist, Oscar Pettiford brought the
pizzicato cello into jazz. He was co-leader with
Dizzy Gillespie of the first bop band to play on
52nd Street in New York and later spent three years
with Duke Ellington's orchestra. He has made two
attractive disks with a big band, The Oscar Petti-
ford Orchestra in Hi-Fi, ABC-Paramount 135, and
The Oscar Pettiford Orchestra in Hi-Fi, Vol. 2,
ABC-Paramount 227.

Pettiford's rather unusual approach to the use
of such instruments as the French horn, the flute,
the harp and his own plucked cello is that they are
as useful in their own ways as the trumpets, trom-
bones or saxophones in contributing to the en-
sembles and to spots of solo color. He disdains the
show-off, Look-Ma-No-Hands attitude of trying to
make these instruments do things for which they
are not suited. He has a reasonably full comple-
ment of other instruments to take on the routine
chores on these two disks. The foundation on which
Pettiford's band works is soundly swinging jazz,
accented by many fine solos by Lucky Thompson
on Volume 1. The second volume suffers from
diffuse recording. One selection by Pettiford, play-
ing cello, is included in Operation Jazz, Roost OJ1.

Flip Phillips. Phillips' reputation as a firebrand
with Woody Herman's first Herd and particularly

The Records 231

during his long service with Jazz at the Philhar-
monic has often obscured the fact that he can be
a warmly flowing tenor saxophonist who constructs
his solos with immaculate care. He has been push-
ing the audience frenzy button with his wild honk-
ing for so long, however, that he sometimes in-
stinctively presses it by mistake (one hopes) after
he has taken the trouble to build a hard swinging
solo with taste. On Flip Phillips Quintet, Verve
8116, he is backed by Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis,
Ray Brown and Buddy Rich in a varied program
that ranges from gentle balladry to furious, churn-
ing swing while his jumpy, itchy blowing, just this
side of honkery, is set amidst a fine group of old
pros (Bill Harris, Harry Edison and Rich again)
on Flip Wails, Verve 8075. He is in an easy-going
mood on Flip, Verve 8077, which contains some
crisp if unexciting trumpet by Howard McGhee, but
an undistinguished calm settles over Swinging with
Flip, Verve 8076. His energetic contributions to
Saturday Night Swing Session, Counterpoint 549,
are nullified by a sloppy, plodding ensemble.

Stu Phillips. An arranger, conductor and pianist
known for lush mood music, Phillips' first venture
into jazz is A Touch of Modern, MGM 3391. Al-
though the instrumentation of his sextet (piano,
vibes, French horn, English horn, bass, drums)
makes these occasionally bright and bouncy per-
formances a little precious for jazz, Jim Buffington
gets in a few rugged licks on his French horn. Music
from Out of Space,, MGM 3287, is Phillips' mood
music side.

Nat Pierce. It may well be that Nat Pierce has
played on more records that feature a Basic-type
piano than has Count Basic himself. Whenever the
Basic style is to be conjured up in a recording
studio (a device in high favor during the middle

232 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Fifties) Pierce is almost invariably the pianist on
hand. He has, however, a sound and solid musical
personality of his own, swinging and unpretentious,
both as pianist and arranger which is aptly illus-
trated on one side of Easy Swing, Vanguard 8519
(shared with Mel Powell), as he leads a meaty little
band which swings airily over the groundwork set
up by the old Basic rhythm section (Freddie Green,
Walter Page, Jo Jones). Pierce is in entirely dif-
ferent territory on Chamber Music for Moderns,
Coral 57128, a highly successful group of pieces
pairing Dick Wetmore's violin and Anthony Or-
tega's volatile alto saxophone, plus a rhythm sec-
tion. Wetmore has the range and warmth to give
the violin a place in modern jazz if anyone will
listen. Ortega constructs his solos out of a fascinating
mixture of leaps, lay-backs, asides, scatter shot and
sudden splurges of sound. For one as immersed in
Basieana as Pierce is, his Kansas City Memories,
Coral 57091, is a surprisingly tepid and inap-
propriate celebration of a lusty jazz town.

Herb Pilhofer. Pilhofer is a pianist whose playing
is attractively dark in texture, lean in form and
strong in beat. His arrangements for his octet
(trumpet, trombone, French horn, two reeds and
rhythm) on Jazz from the North Coast, Vol. 2,
Zephyr 12013, are tight and smooth with an oc-
casional glimpse of a Lennie Tristano influence.

Johnny Pisano. The guitarist in one of the later
versions of the Chico Hamilton Quintet, Pisano
and another guitarist, Billy Bean, are backed in
rather stolid fashion by several different groups
built around the basic personnel of the Hamilton
Quintet on Makin* It, Decca 9206. The perform-
ances range from a slow brood to a plinkety jig.

The Records 233

King Pleasure. Pleasure (born Clarence Beeks) pio-
neered the notion of writing and singing lyrics to
well-known modern jazz solos. On King Pleasure
Sings, Prestige 7128, he gets around without the
strain of those who have followed in this idiom
but his lyrics are much less imaginative than those
created by Jon Hendricks.

John Plonsky. The fluent, blithe trumpet attack of
Plonsky shows up well on Cool Man Cool, Golden
Crest 3014, on which his lighthearted quintet
trumpet, accordion, baritone saxophone, bass, drums
gets an appealingly dark, earthy sound which
avoids the dangers of ponderousness or over-sobri-
ety. But on Dixieland Goes Progressive, Golden
Crest 3024, both Plonsky and the highly capable
Dick Gary are trapped in a gimmicky idea. The
only valid moments occur when Dixieland or the
blues is being left alone, unprogressed.

Herb Pomeroy. After serving time with Stan Kenton,
trumpeter Herb Pomeroy returned to his home
town, Boston, organized a small group and gradually
amplified it until he had a big band on call when-
ever he had dates for it. Because many of its mem-
bers hold daytime jobs, the full band has rarely
been heard very far from Boston. On Life Is a Many
Splendored Gig, Roulette 52001, it shows itself
capable of both a fierce, exultant drive and delicately
blended section ensembles. There is an independent
imagination at work in the arrangements which
skirt the easy stereotypes yet build consistently on
a swinging basis. The performances are crisp, pol-
ished and almost completely without stylistic excesses
or the leaden, lumpy quality common to big bands
in the Fifties.

Tommy Potter. One of the most ubiquitous bassists
of the bop period, Potter had to wait until he made

234 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

a trip to Sweden in the late Fifties before he got a
date under his own name. The sextet he leads on
Hard Funk, East-West 4001, half Swedish and half
American, produces three routine performances and
three which reveal that there is nothing wrong with
hard bop that a little skill and direction can't fix.
The key man is Swedish tenor saxophonist Woody
Birch, who rides through his solos like a steel-
plated banshee without losing sight of tone or form.

Bud Powell. Just as Earl Hines transferred Louis
Armstrong's jazz ideas to the piano, Bud Powell
adapted the revolutionary style of Charlie Parker.
An erratic, introspective person, Powell matured
steadily as a performer in the late Forties and early
Fifties even while combatting a mental illness which
kept him in hospitals half of that time. At his best
Powell has a crisp tone, an excellent sense of tim-
ing and phrasing and a ready flow of ideas. He is
one of the few jazz pianists who can be compared
with Art Tatum in technical fluency but his state-
ments are generally more strongly set out than the
frill-fond Tatum's. He is a busy weaver of a compact
musical web, his single note lines tightly inter-
laced, prodded and supported by interior rhythms
and colored by his brooding harmonic inventions.
His solo recordings fall into three distinct periods.
His early work is marked by a fiery attack in which
his virtuosity is teamed with a vigorous rhythmic
sense and striking sensitivity. The Amazing Bud
Powell, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Blue Note 1503 and 1504,
make a good display of both the vigor (Ornithology
and I Want to Be Happy) and the sensitivity (an
exquisite performance of 72 Could Happen to You
in which he shows how a slow ballad can be kept
alive and alert). The pieces by Powell's Quintet
(with young Sonny Rollins and Fats Navarro) in
The Fabulous Fats Navarro, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2,
Blue Note 1531 and 1532, swing easily and have a

The Records 235

strong ensemble punch. The Genius of Bud Powell,
Verve 8115, a generally good disk, includes a
fantastic version of Just One of Those Things, a
marvel of driving, Tatumesque virtuoso playing. He
is the dominating voice on four selections in Opus
de Bop, Savoy 12114, which include some shrill
Sonny Stitt and uncertain Kenny Dorham, and he
is equally exhilarating in four more selections on
Fats Navarro Memorial Album, No. 1, Savoy 1201 1,
on which Stitt redeems himself. The Bud Powell
Trio, Roost 2224, is quite bland most of the way
although Powell occasionally lights up and takes
off. A single selection in Modern Jazz Hall of Fame,
Design 29, is badly recorded and ineptly performed.

Of his recordings during the first half of the
Fifties, Jazz Giant, Verve 8153, is, on the whole, a
satisfactory collection but Jazz Original, Verve 8185,
Bud Powell's Moods, Verve 8154, Piano Interpreta-
tions by Bud Powell, Verve 8167, and his three
selections in Piano Interpretations, Verve 8127, find
him turning pretty and unimaginative and his good
points go by the board.

Past the mid-Fifties on Bud!, Blue Note 1571, he
produces one side of practically flawless, flowing,
unstrained and direct solos. The combination of
ease, assurance, swinging strength and inevitable
logic in his playing on half of this disk has rarely
been matched on records and almost certainly not
with his steady consistency. Unfortunately trombon-
ist Curtis Fuller, still in his limited and uninspired
period, joins Powell on the second side and succeeds
in reducing these performances to tired routines.
Again on Blues in the Closet, Verve 8218, one side
of firmly played, neatly stacked solos is offset by a
side marked by sloppy recording and sloppy per-
formances. Strictly Powell, Victor LPM 1423, shows
vestiges of his vital drive but they are conveyed in
relaxed fashion while his formation of ballads has
a pleasant mixture of grace and passion. Swingin*

236 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

with Bud, Victor LPM 1507, however, is so casual
that it gives the impression of having been knocked
off without much thought to balance or variety.

Powell can also be heard in single selections in
The Jazz Scene, Verve 8060, Roost Fifth Anniversary
Album, Roost 1201, Operation Jazz, Roost OJ1, and
The Anatomy of Improvisation, Verve 8230.

Seldon Powell. Starting with the basic Lester Young
approach to the tenor saxophone, Powell has hard-
ened the tone and strengthened the attack while
maintaining the grace and fluency. On both Seldon
Powell, Roost 2295, and Seldon Powell Sextet,
Roost 2220, he moves easily and creatively at fast
tempos while his ballads have a cool elegance,
never descending to sentimentality or turning over-
ripe. He is also featured on three selections in
Rhythm Plus One, Epic 3297.

Specs Powell. A drummer for CBS through most of
the Forties and Fifties, Powell gained his prime
jazz experience with several swing groups in the
late Thirties Edgar Hayes, Red Norvo, Benny
Goodman. He is not a self-indulgent leader on
Movin' In, Roulette 52004, contenting himself with
providing crisp rhythmic support for some excellent
arrangements by Ray Copeland which are given
bright, swinging performances.

Perez Prado. The "Ughh!" man gets a peripheral
jazz quality into his band's performances in his use
of solo instruments (usually a trumpet) and, to
some degree, through his rhythm section. His ad-
herence to the mambo imposes a monotonous stiff-
ness on much of his work (relieved at times by
raucous humor) and his ventures into material
from the American jazz repertory are invariably
clumsy Prez, Victor LPM 1556, Mambo for Cats,
Victor LPM 1063, and half of Voodoo Suite, Victor

The Records 237

LPM 1101. The title half of this last disk develops
slowly into a boiling bit of Afro-Cubana, his best
effort in this line. Prado's saving grace is his humor
which turns a collection of pop pap, Mambo Mania,
Victor LPM 1075, into a very funny disk. On his
home musical territory, Prado is essentially a Latin
dance band but a swinging one on Mambo by the
King, Victor LPM 1196, Havana 3 AM., Victor
LPM 1257, Latin Satin, Victor LPM 1459, Mambo
Happy, Camden 409, and Dilo, Victor LPM 1883.

Prestige Jazz Quartet. Using the same instrumenta-
tion as the Modern Jazz Quartet Teddy Charles,
vibraphone; Mai Waldron, piano; Addison Fanner,
bass; Jerry Segal, drums this group works in a
looser format than the MJQ and leans more toward
solo blowing. On Prestige Jazz Quartet, Prestige
7108, it is a surprisingly colorless group consider-
ing its make-up except when Waldron moves into
the spotlight bringing much needed warmth and
incisiveness. The merits of the disk are almost en-
tirely his.

Andre Previn. A classical musician who has fought
his way up from film backgrounds to a learned form
of cocktail piano (Andre Previn Plays Gershwin,
Victor LPM 1011, Let's Get Away from It All,
Decca 8131, Three Little Words, Victor LPM 1356,
Mad About the Boy, Camden 406, Hollywood at
Midnight, Decca 8341, and Secret Songs for Young
Lovers, MGM 3716) and eventually to jazz, Previn
shows an understanding absorption of the blues-
rooted swing idiom on Andre Previn Plays Fats
Waller, Tops 1593. His proper jazz metier, how-
ever, is a relatively catholic modern vein which he
has applied with great commercial success to a
group of show scores My Fair Lady, Contem-
porary 3527, a fantastically successful disk ^ which
set the pattern for the long line of jazz versions of

238 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

scores which have followed despite the fact that
it removes most of the charm from a delightful
score; L'il Abner, Contemporary 3533, a more ac-
ceptable effort possibly because the score of L'il
Abner is more susceptible to improvement than
My Fair Lady; Pal Joey, Contemporary 3543, a still
further improvement because the Rodgers-Hart
music lends itself readily to a jazz interpretation
and Previn often does little more than put a shim-
mering, hoppity-skippity surface on what Rodgers
has provided; and Gigi, Contemporary 3548, on
which he stays within some semblance of the spirit
of the tunes and gets magnificent drum support
from Shelly Manne who is in back of him on all
the other show scores but never so effectively as
here.

Previn joins Russ Freeman in a series of impro-
vised piano duets on Double Play!, Contemporary
3537. Using basically similar styles, they pour out
long, rolling dark-toned lines that gallop furiously
at fast tempos and give their blues a sophisticated
veneer. Collaboration, Victor LPM 1334, is a gim-
mick in which Previn and Shorty Rogers alternately
arrange a standard tune and an original based on
the same chords. The infallible Shelly Manne is a
driving force throughout the disk, the soloists
(Rogers, Previn, Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, Milt
Bernhart, Jimmy Giuffre) are generally brisk if
rarely exciting, but the arrangements tend to be
cute.

Vito Price. Price, a tenor saxophonist who is a
warm, unaffected and uncomplicated descendant of
Lester Young, is heard on one side of Swinging the
Loop, Argo 631, with a light but lusty big band and
on the other with a rhythm section. His easy, high-
spirited playing is framed best by the big band.
There is no ostentation here no extended blowing,

The Records 239

no "advanced" writing. Just pleasant, unpretentious
jazz o a kind that was not recorded very often in
the Fifties.

Robert Prince. Prince is a vibraphonist and com-
poser who shot to international attention in 1958
when his ballet, N.Y. Export: Op. Jazz, was intro-
duced in Italy by Jerome Robbins to great acclaim,
a success that was later repeated in New York. He
conducts this score, along with some of Leonard
Bernstein's ballet music for West Side Story on Jazz
Ballets from Broadway, Warner Brothers 1240. His
ballet is a thoroughgoing jazz conception even to
the use of a striking jazz approach to what might
have been simply a prettily melodic accompaniment
for a pas de deux. His music often swings with in-
tensity in the strong, disciplined performance given
by an orchestra apparently well salted with experi-
enced jazzmen. Portions of Bernstein's ballet music
are jazz-influenced to the extent of having a jazz
surface. But there is none of the depth or full emo-
tional expression that appear in the writing of
Prince who thinks from inside jazz instead of ap-
proaching it from the outside, as Bernstein must.

Tito Puente. Puente's usual metier is the mambo,
the cha cha and any other step that comes steam-
ing up from Cuba. Unlike Machito, whose band
works this same territory, Puente rarely verges over
to jazz but on the explicitly titled Puente Goes
Jazz, Victor LPM 1312, he takes just such a fling.
There are several surprisingly good big band per-
formances here direct, forceful, often genuinely
hot when the band digs into uptempo material
using its Latin rhythms simply as accents to what
are predominantly jazz pieces. But the bulk of the
disk is quite routine and sounds like any big studio
band cutting originals at sight.

240 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Joe Puma. Persuasive gentleness is the hallmark of
Puma's guitar when all is going well. He is heard
to perfection on one side of Joe Puma Quartet and
Trio, Jubilee 1070, on which with Eddie Costa,
vibes, and Oscar Pettiford, bass, he plays beauti-
fully articulated jazz which runs from light-footed
merriment to polished stateliness. The quartet with
which he plays on the other side is a more routine
affair although Puma's gently insistent solos remain
on a high level. The idea of teaming his guitar
with Mat Mathew's accordion and a bass on Wild
Kitten, Dawn 1118, produces a combination that
brings forth diffuse, throbbing helpings of un-
seasoned mush. Puma and Dick Garcia play four
rather empty guitar duets on The Four Most Gui-
tars, ABC-Paramount 109, and he contributes one
solo selection to Critics' Choice, Dawn 1123.

Gene Quill. Quill is an alto saxophonist who has
all of the Parker mannerisms down pat but he has
not been able to find much to do with them. His
work is inclined to be shrill and almost desperately
active. He is overshadowed by three trombonists
(Jimmy Cleveland, Frank Rehak and Jim Dahl) on
Three Bones and a Quill, Roost 2229, and is a tire-
some dominating influence on one side of Jazzville
'56, Vol. 1, Dawn 1101 (shared with the Jazz
Modes). Two disks on which Quill is paired with
another (but more creative) Parkerish alto, Phil
Woods, Phil and Quill with Prestige, Prestige 7115,
and Phil and Quill, Victor LPM 1284, bog down in
an overdose of alto saxophoning. The problem be-
comes almost twice as bad on Four Altos, Prestige
7116 (that "almost" is for Hal Stein who has some
individuality the other altos are Quill, Woods,
and Sahib Shihab). The problems Quill's Parker
mannerisms get him into on a ballad are illustrated
on one of his three selections in Rhythm Plus One,
Epic 3297. He can he heard in single pieces on

The Records 241

Concert Jazz, Brunswick 54027, After Hours Jazz,
Epic 3330, and Critics' Choice, Dawn 1123.

Paul Quinichette. Quinichette's position as "Vice-
Pres" was established in the Forties when he
brought to the Basic band the closest thing to the
Lester Young tenor saxophone style that it had
had since Young left the band. However, in his
playing since then Quinichette has inclined to a
coarseness of tone and ideas and an attack that
stems as much from the less palatable side of
Illinois Jacquet as it does from Young. He makes
the best of his derivative talents, surrounded by a
group of Basieites, on The Vice-Pres, EmArcy
36027, and in two selections in both Giants of Jazz,
Vol. 3, Part 1 and Part 2, EmArcy 36050 and 36051.
He is subdued, heavy- toned but not harsh on one
side of Blow Your Horn, Decca 8176 (shared with
Bennie Green) and even more subdued in a lush,
mood set, Moods, EmArcy 36003.

Both his warm lyricism and his empty flatulence
can be found on On the Sunny Side, Prestige 7103,
For Count, Prestige 7127, and The Kid from Den-
ver, Dawn 1109. He finds little to say in his two
selections on Tenors, Anyonef, Dawn 1126; he is
done in by the inordinate length of the pieces (one
per side) on Jazz Studio 1, Decca 8058; while on
Wheelin' and Dealin', Prestige 7131, his contribu-
tions are awkward and tasteless. He can also be
heard in single selections on Critics' Choice, Dawn
1123, and Jazz for Hi-Fi Lovers, Dawn 1124.

Boyd Raeburn. Raeburn led one of the earliest big
bands in the modern idiom but it never got off the
ground. Man with Horns, Savoy 12025, and Boyd
Meets Stravinsky, Savoy 12040, made up of reissues
from the Jewel label, feature arrangements by
George Handy, Johnny Richards, Ed Finckel and,
of all people, Ralph Flanagan. Today they sound

242 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

surprisingly matter-of-fact for a band that was once
considered mad as a hatter. Through the late For-
ties and early Fifties Raeburn was in the interior
decoration business but he returned to music in the
mid-Fifties with a weekend dance band heard on
Teen Rock, Columbia CL 1073, playing arrange-
ments featuring richly voiced reeds and brass over a
stolid, lunging beat.

Jimmy Raney. Amidst the jabbering clatter of
guitarists in the Fifties, Raney has emerged as one
of the very few with an identity of his own. His
most characteristic playing is highly lyrical, gentle
and relaxed although by the slightest shading of
these elements he can turn into a strongly swinging
performer. Some of his best work has been done
with a group made up of John Wilson, trumpet,
Hall Overton, piano, Teddy Kotick, bass, and Nick
Stabulas, drums, on Jimmy Raney A, Prestige 7089,
and in four selections on The Four Most Guitars,
ABC-Paramount 109.

Jimmy Raney in Three Attitudes, ABC-Para-
mount 167, places him in three different settings
with the aimiable valve trombone of Bob Brook-
meyer, with Al Cohn's sweepingly swinging tenor
saxophone and with a rhythm section an imagina-
tive and rewarding bit of programming. But on
Jimmy Raney, Featuring Bob Brookmeyer, ABC-
Parainount 129, Raney is overshadowed by the
stronger, more visceral playing of Brookmeyer and
pianist Dick Katz while his sidemen treat him
equally unkindly on two disks recorded abroad
Jimmy Raney Visits Paris, Dawn 1120, wherein
Maurice Vandair's churning, driving piano and
Bobby Jaspar's soft yet forceful tenor saxophone
lines are the focal points, and Swingin' in Sweden,
EmArcy 36121, on one side of which Raney leads a
Swedish group in which the dominant voice is the
suave, rich tenor saxophone of Goesta Theselius

The Records 243

(George Wallington has the other side). On Two
Guitars, Prestige 7119, Raney is joined by guitarist
Kenny Burrell but except for two ballads on which
they are left alone to play with some sense of form
and development, this disk is simply more of the
overly familiar long, meandering solos by Donald
Byrd, Jackie McLean and the two guitarists.

Freddie Redd. Redd follows in the Bud Powell
tradition of jazz piano, churning out a steady flow
of single notes. He can play forceful, clean-lined
piano that goes straight to the heart of jazz matters
but he has a weakness for pretentiousness that can
be fatal. This weakness reduces his ambitious San
Francisco Suite, which takes up one side of San
Francisco Suite, Riverside 12-250, to little more
than an expanded movie background stereotype,
vitalized by spots of valid jazz. On the shorter se-
lections on this disk and on his side of Piano:
East/West, Prestige 7067 (shared with Hampton
Hawes), he has moments of vitality but most of his
work is undisturbing- and unstimulating,

Sonny Redd, A collection of cliches for alto saxo-
phone make up Redd's contribution to the pair of
long selections he leads on Art Pepper-Sonny Redd,
Regent 6069. He also has one selection in Jazz Is
Busting Out All Over, Savoy 12123.

Dizzy Reece. Born in the British West Indies,
Reece has built his jazz career in England. As his
nickname suggests, he is a trumpeter who derives
from Dizzy Gillespie. His side of Changing the
Jazz at Buckingham Palace, Savoy 12111 (shared
with Tubby Hayes), shows him as alternately shrill
or plodding although there are hints that he might
be capable of a singing tone. A point of interest is
the piano work of Terry Shannon who has a light,
riding style much like that of Al Haig or John Wil-
liams.

244 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Johannes Rediske. Rediske's German quintet fol-
lows the early Shearing mold ably but uninven-
tively (except that Rediske, who is featured, is a
guitarist instead of a pianist) in one selection on
"Das" Is Jazz!, Decca 8229.

Frank Rehak. Rehak is one of the rare trombon-
ists who manage to be modern without losing the
rough, rugged qualities that made many of the
earlier trombonists so delightful. On one side of
Jazzville, Vol. 2, Dawn 1107 (shared with Alex
Smith), he leads a sextet of lusty swingers high-
lighted by some unusually fluent, firm-toned bari-
tone saxophone playing by Marty Flax.

Don Rendell. An English representative of the
Lester Young school of tenor saxophone, Rendell's
personal development of the style is somewhat ob-
scured by his chattering sextet on Modern Jazz at
Royal Festival Hall, London LL 1185, but it is
properly showcased in a pair of quartet selections
on Jazz. Britannia, MGM 3472, and with a small
group on Cool Europe, MGM 3157.

Rita Reys. Miss Reys is a Dutch singer, influenced
by Sarah Vaughan's more noticeable mannerisms,
who occasionally sings ballads with outgoing assur-
ance but no suggestion of jazz on Her Name Is Rita
Reys, Epic 3522, and on four selections in New
Voices, Dawn 1125.

Buddy Rich. If there is such a thing as a natural
drummer, Buddy Rich is that thing. He can infuse
a group with a lifting, roaring excitement that
often makes it play away over its collective heads
or, at the very least, colors its work with an aura of
excitement. Like Art Blakey, you know when Rich
is pushing an ensemble. Unlike Blakey, who breaks
up his rhythms with various startling effects, Rich

The Records 245

produces an omnipresent steadiness, an intensity
of rhythm moving constantly in one direction. He
has served with great purpose in the big bands of
Artie Shaw and Tommy Dorsey and he works equal
wonders in the small groups he has led on records
during the Fifties.

An excellent example of Rich's ability to lay
down a steadily exciting beat is Buddy Rich in
Miami, Verve 8285, on which he leads a brilliantly
swinging quartet made up of Flip Phillips, tenor
saxophone, Ronnie Ball, piano, and Peter Ind,
bass. He holds his exhibitionistic tendencies in rein
on this disk but on Buddy and Sweets, Verve 8129,
which offers some crackling Harry Edison trumpet,
and The Wailing Buddy Rich, Verve 8168, he in-
dulges in long solos which vitiate what other inter-
ests the disks may have. His soloing tendency and
his lack of sensitivity are not very helpful to This
One's for Basie, Verve 8176, but, his own lapses
aside, arranger Marty Paich and Rich's band
(Harry Edison, Jimmy Rowles, Frank Rosolino,
Bob Cooper, Buddy Collette and others) have
caught the Basie crispness the brass tight and pre-
cise, the reeds hoarse but soft and the rhythm rid-
ing with a steady flow. He gives vivid support to a
revived Lester Young on The Lester Young-Buddy
Rich Trio, Verve 8164, but despite the presence on
The Swinging Buddy Rich, Verve 8142, of Benny
Carter, Georgie Auld, Milt Bernhart and Harry
Edison, the result is quite routine swing blowing.
Krupa and Rich, Verve 8069, a double serving, is
for drum fanatics only.

Rich also sings in a strongly Sinatra-influenced
manner but with unexpected modesty on Buddy
Rich Sings Johnny Mercer* Verve 2009, and at-
tempts a more swinging set, Buddy Rich Just Sings,
Verve 2075, which shows that he does swing vocally
with ease. As a drummer, he contributes two num-
bers to The Jazz Giants: Drum Role, EmArcy

246 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

36071, and one to Midnight Jazz at Carnegie Hall,
Verve 8189-2.

Johnny Richards. A childhood in vaudeville and a
late adolescence as a film scorer is the somewhat out
of the ordinary background which made a jazzman
out of Johnny Richards. He was 30 before he
moved overtly into jazz at the head of his own
dance band. Since the middle Forties he has been
known as an "advanced" arranger for Stan Kenton,
Charlie Barnet and Dizzy Gillespie. One might
debate how much his arrangements had to do with
forming the concept of the Kenton clamor but
there is no doubt that Richards liked it for when
he organized a band of his own in the middle
Fifties the book he wrote for it, in the beginning,
was strongly flavored with the screaming brass
which typified a period of Kenton with which
Richards was closely associated. This relatively
direct transfer of Kentonisms may be sampled in
Something Else, Bethlehem 6011, but two later
disks by his band, Wide Range, Capitol T 885, and
Experiments in Sound (a title with a Kentonian
ring), Capitol T 981, provide a more varied exhibit
of Richards' writing, allowing his feeling for mel-
ody and his sensitive ensemble writing to peep
through. What might have been an unusually inter-
esting disk, The Rites of Diablo, Roulette 52008,
a long work mixing Bantu rhythms and jazz in
wild and savage fashion, is made to seem more
monotonous than it actually is by the steady thump
of drums underneath the entire work. Richards has
one piece in Operation Jazz, Roost OJ1.

Jerome Richardson. Versatility is Richardson's
forte he plays all the saxophones and flute and
it might be added that he manages to do more with
the flute than most other jazz musicians. All Night
Long, Prestige 7073, is the kind of blowing de-
signed to make everyone seem tiresome and Rich-

The Records 247

ardson settles into the mood. One selection by The
New Yorkers, a quartet made up of Hank Jones,
piano, Wendell Marshall, bass, and Shadow Wilson,
drums, with which Richardson played at Minton's
long after bop was birthed there, plays one bland
selection on Concert Jazz, Brunswick 54027.

Max Roach. Roach's career as a drummer began in
the earliest days of bop when he was playing with
Charlie Parker and was a regular visitor at Min-
ton's in Harlem. He has become one of the more
brilliant technicians on drums, a stimulating en-
semble drummer and a great flailer of everything in
sight when he solos. But in both roles he is apt to
throw a group out of balance by giving the drums
undue prominence. The group that he led jointly
with trumpeter Clifford Brown was developing
some balance and unity when Brown was killed in
an automobile accident in 1956. Brown and Roach,
Inc., EmArcy 36008, is cluttered by some very long
drum solos by Roach but he is more temperate on
Clifford Brown and Max Roach, EmArcy 36036,
Study in Brown, EmArcy 36037, Clifford Brown
and Max Roach at Basin Street, EmArcy 36070,
and The Best of Max Roach and Clifford Brown
in Concert, GNP 18.

Max Roach Plus Four, EmArcy 36098, and Jazz
in 94 Time, EmArcy 36108, are of interest because
of the presence of tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins
while Max, Argo 623, includes some of Kenny Dor-
ham's more fully realized trumpet work. Roach
produces a great deal of sound and fury but not
much communication on On the Chicago Scene,
EmArcy 36132, and Deeds Not Words, Riverside
12-280. He contributes two selections, one a badly
recorded drum solo, to Modern Jazz Hall of Fame,
Design 29, two more to The Jazz Giants, Vol. 8,
EmArcy 36071, and one to Bargain Day, EmArcy
36087.

248 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Howard Roberts. A guitarist of wide range,
Roberts runs a gamut on Mr. Roberts Plays Guitar,
Verve 8192, from a long-haired Serenata Burlesca
to a driving Indiana, using varied, unbilled groups,
one of which includes a tenor saxophonist who cuts
Roberts every time he gets the spotlight.

Betty Roch6. Once a Duke Ellington vocalist, Miss
Roch sings three songs in a blues tinged pop vein
on Dinah Washington Sings the Blues, Grand
Award 33-318, but she covers Take the "A" Train,
Bethlehem 64, with a frightful display of tasteless
scoops, twists and oobie-doobie scat.

Red Rodney. In the middle Forties young Red
Rodney was one of the bright and hopeful trum-
peters of bop. The bite and assurance he shows on
two 1947 recordings included in Advance Guard
of the Forties, EmArcy 36016, compare favorably
with a later, brilliant and equally young trumpet
man from Rodney's home town, Philadelphia Lee
Morgan. Personal problems kept Rodney out of
jazz through much of the Fifties but when he re-
turned, first on Modern Music -from Chicago, Fan-
tasy 3208, and later on Red Rodney: 1957, Signal
1206, he was a vastly matured trumpet player, a
richer, warmer performer who was digging in and
talking with a full, authoritative voice instead of
frisking through surface figures. On each of these
last two disks he receives excellent support from
Ira Sullivan on both trumpet and tenor saxophone,
and on the Fantasy disk Norman Simmons' piano
is a fascinating reflection of the Eddie Costa-John
Williams school.

Shorty Rogers. When Shorty Rogers discovered
California in the early Fifties, it was the jazz
equivalent of the discovery of Sutter's Mills. In the
Forties Rogers had been recognized as a crisp, de-

The Records 249

pendable trumpet man with Woody Herman and
Stan Kenton and an arranger with a better than
average ability to produce orchestrations that al-
most forced a band to swing. Settled in California
in 1951, he continued to show these traits, was re-
garded as a founding father of the West Coast
school of jazz, but soon spread his talents so thin
that much of his work was reduced to a set of
dreary cliches.

Aside from his work with Herman and Kenton,
some of his best playing can be found in his small
group recordings of the earlier Fifties. His side of
Modern Sounds, Capitol T 691 (shared with Gerry
Mulligan), is made up of loose, swinging pieces,
pace setters for the West Coast style which, in gen-
eral, rarely caught the Basic-based feeling of
Rogers' best work. On Jazz Composers Workshop,
Savoy 12045, Rogers contributes a rolling piece
with a tenor saxophone solo by Jimmy Giuffire
which is so strong and outgoing as to be almost
unbelievable to those who know Giuffre's later with-
drawn playing. Collaboration: West, Prestige 7028,
is an extremely exciting and rewarding meeting
between Teddy Charles and Rogers in which
Rogers plays with light, skittering skill and Giuffre
again, in one number, plays a baritone solo that is
a rarity of hot, stomping expression. Teamed with
a remarkably gutty Bud Shank on one side of Bud
Shank-Shorty Rogers-Bill Perkins, World Pacific
1205, Rogers' playing is crisp and lean.

His talents as a writer are brought into excellent
play on four big band selections on The Big Shorty
Rogers Express, Victor LPM 1350 Blues Express,
Pink Squirrel^ Pay the Piper and Home with Sweets
recorded in 1957 to fill out an earlier big band
ten-inch LP to twelve-inch proportions. On these
selections he harks back to the swirling, gutty drive
of Woody Herman's first Herd. The solos that
burst or sneak out of the ensembles are strong and

250 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

assertive, particularly when they are by Rogers or
an unbilled alto saxophonist. At roughly this time
Rogers was leading a regularly working group
called his Giants which shows the sharply-honed,
shaken-down familiarity that comes from steady
work as a group on Wherever the Five Winds Blow,
Victor LPM 1326, despite the fact that the five
selections on the disk are overlong.

The rest of Rogers' recordings are relatively pale.
On Way Up There, Atlantic 1270, he works with a
variety of small groups which play with a loose
ease that is pleasantly propulsive in a Basie-like
fashion but one is left with the feeling that the
listening foot has been induced to tap in a vacuum.
Portrait of Shorty, Victor LPM 1561, is a big band
disk with a faceless quality, played by a seemingly
listless group of men, while on Martians Come
Back, Atlantic 1232, Rogers is consistently over-
shadowed by such sidemen as Harry Edison, Lou
Levy and Jimmy Giuffire. The Swinging Mr.
Rogers, Atlantic 1212, is a disillusioning display of
the heartless, gutless tripe that Rogers seems able
to turn out by the yard while Afro-Cuban Influ-
ence, Victor LPM 1763, is a long, phony bit of
Africana with blaring brass, congas and bongos
rampant and the Hollywood studio natives wailing
their strange African cries.

In a special category of utter triviality are Shorty
Rogers Plays Richard Rodgers, Victor LPM 1428
(obviously something with a lot of thought behind
it), a lifeless "Gigi" in Jazz, Victor LPM 1696, and
an incredibly tasteless conjunction with Eartha
Kitt (in which Rogers is credited as leading a
Dixieland band which is actually the standard
West Coast Matty Matlock group), St. Louis Blues,
Victor LPM 1661.

Rogers plays a single selection on The Playboy
Jazz Allstars, Playboy 1857, and another with Bud
Shank on Jazz West Coast, World Pacific JWC 500.

The Records 251

Gene Roland. Roland was one of Stan Ken ton's
busier arrangers in the middle Forties but the writ-
ing he has provided for the octet and sextet he
leads on one side of Jazzuille, Vol. 4, Dawn 1122,
has more of the lightness and rhythmic brightness
of Count Basic's band. Roland plays trumpet, pour-
ing out several crisp, strong-voiced solos.

Joe Roland. Roland's approach to the vibraphone
is fluent but not forceful, somewhat like the glib,
surface piano work found in many West Coast
groups in the middle Fifties. He is heard with three
different groups on Joltin' Joe Roland, Savoy
12039, in one of which he is overshadowed by pian-
ist Freddie Redd and bassist Oscar Pettiford while
a second group is interesting as a curiosity in that
it is primarily a string group trying to play bop.
Redd is once more Roland's pianist on Joe Roland,
Bethlehem 17, but he is less dominant in these
gentle, unpretentious pieces. Roland plays one se-
lection on Know Your Jazz, Vol. 1, ABC-Paramount
115.

Sonny Rollins. It is not often that a jazz musician
goes through quite as public a development as Rol-
lins has during the 1950s. It is one thing (and quite
usual) to see a musician gradually polish and de-
velop his particular metier over the years but it is
something else again to watch a musician start out
on this path, then switch his style violently and
later shift once more to something that is an out-
growth of both his earlier styles but far better than
either, and produce, in the bargain, an approach
that is completely personal.

Originally an alto saxophonist, Rollins switched
to tenor when he was 19 (1948). For the next few
years he appeared to be practically the only young
tenor man who owed primary allegiance to the rela-
tively heavy-toned attack of Coleman Hawkins

252 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

rather than the prevailing light Lester Young in-
fluence. The warm, sculptured lines of his early
work can be heard in some 1951 recordings on
Sonny Rollins, Prestige 7129. The same disk also
includes several 1953 performances on which he
still has a melodious approach to a ballad but is
beginning to acquire a fiery aggressiveness at up-
tempos, an aggressiveness that is further developed
in the 1954 recordings which make up Movin* Out,
Prestige 7058.

In 1955 Rollins went into retreat in Chicago, ap-
parently to mull over the direction of his playing.
He emerged from this with some vestiges of his
richness of tone still present but in general using a
harsh, violent style which associated him with the
then emerging hard bop school. His return to pub-
lic activity was with the Max Roach-Clifford Brown
group and it is with them that he plays on Sonny
Rollins Plus Four, Prestige 7038, with a warmth
that scarcely suggests the harshness that was still to
come. With a later version of the Roach Quintet,
after the deaths of Clifford Brown and Richie
Powell, Sonny Rollins Plays for Bird, Prestige 7095,
there are still suggestions of the enlivening, melodic
Rollins but his tone is thinning out, his lines be-
coming more jagged.

In a series of recordings on which he is supported
only by a rhythm section, Rollins' increasingly
eccentric jabs and digs and his banal treatment of
ballads becomes more and more depressing al-
though on one such disk, Way Out West, Con-
temporary 3530, with only Ray Brown, bass, and
Shelly Manne, drums, he shows off the strongly de-
veloped sense of structure which was to mark his
later work. Compared to his disjointed statements
on A Night at the Village Vanguard, Blue Note
1581, and the utter emptiness of Tour de Farce,
Prestige 7126, it is some form of mild praise to say
that his unrelieved harshness is simply tiresome on

The Records 253

Tenor Madness, Prestige 7047, Sonny Rollins Quar-
tet, Prestige 7020, Saxophone Colossus, Prestige
7079, and The Sound of Sonny, Riverside 12-241.
The addition of a trumpet (Donald Byrd) on
Sonny Rollins, Blue Note 1542, and a trombone
(J. J. Johnson) on Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2, Blue Note
1558, provides some relief from Rollins' stridency
but an encounter with Dizzy Gillespie on one side
of Dizzy Gillespie Duets with Sonny Rollins and
Sonny Stitt, Verve 8260, is a wearing experience.

Through all of these disks Rollins is an erratic
performer, showing flashes here and there of a
sense of direction and style which he almost in-
variably quickly abandons in favor of a flat ugli-
ness. The conjunction of this aspect of Rollins and
of his more considered, mature playing can be
heard on Freedom Suite, Riverside 12-258. The
title piece is, on its face, a forbidding prospect a
nineteen-minute piece played by Rollins, Oscar
Pettiford, and Max Roach. In its early stages it is
saved only by the virtuoso talents of Pettiford and
Roach who play with particular skill and inven-
tiveness while Rollins plunges and dodges through
some harsh, jagged lines. But as the basic theme
continues to reappear it acquires more and more
strength and as the theme becomes stronger Rollins
gets better. He rolls through the latter half in fas-
cinating fashion. Here he is playing in a strong,
outgoing manner, discarding eccentricities for a
direct, well constructed performance. Yet on the
other side Rollins reverts to his least attractive
side, stripping four ballads of much of their natural
grace to replace it with grinding, spastic move-
ments.

What would seem to be the fully developed Rol-
lins style is heard on Sonny Rollins and the Big
Brass, Metrojazz 1002. One side, devoted to Rollins
with a big band which has no reed section, illus-
trates the difficulty of writing big band arrange-

254 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

ments around as headstrong and individual a solo-
ist as Rollins since, almost inevitably, once he gets
started everyone clears out of the way and he might
as well be playing with his bassist and drummer.
There is some surging, strong-lined Rollins in these
big band pieces but his best work is in the trio
selections on the other side. In these numbers a
long-absent warmth returns to his tone. Added to
his strong attack and his quick wittedness, this may
prove to be the rounding out of the tenor saxo-
phonist of the Fifties.

Rollins plays one selection in Blues for Tomor-
row, Riverside 12-243.

Frank Rosolino. A veteran of Stan Kenton's trom-
bone section, Rosolino often spices the fashionable
staccato exercises common to modern trombonists
with a frisky ruggedness from earlier jazz. His four
selections on Swing . , . Not Spring, Savoy 12062,
capture this quality and provide some views of
Detroit pianist Barry Harris 7 driving, two-handed
work. But Rosolino's playing on Frank Rosolino,
Capitol T 6507, boils down to jigging blandness, a
failing that crops up again on Frankly Speaking,
Capitol T 6509, except for his solo on Moonlight in
Vermont which gives some range to the potential
of his rough-toned slipperiness. / Play Trombone,
Bethlehem 26, backs Rosolino with only a rhythm
section on six selections, a long drag for one horn
playing mostly in muted and subdued tones.

Annie Ross. Now a member of the successful Hen-
dricks-Lambert-Ross trio which specializes in put-
ting lyrics to familiar instrumental jazz solos, Miss
Ross first came to attention doing this very thing
to Wardell Gray's Twisted. It is included among
the four selections she sings on King Pleasure Sings,
Prestige 7128, and in retrospect it is a rather feeble
effort. She shows herself a good scat singer on this

The Records 255

disk but she has a dreadful time with standard pop
ballads both here and in four selections in Swingin'
and Singing Regent 603 L

Charlie Rouse. Rouse, co-leader with Julius Wat-
kins of The Jazz Modes, takes off on a tenor saxo-
phone solo on his own in Know Your Jazz, Vol. 1,
ABC-Paramount 115, playing with a strong, asser-
tive tone and a pecking attack.

Jimmie Rowles. Rowles shows the delightfully
rhythmic warmth that is typical of much of his
piano work in one selection on Pianists Galore!,
World Pacific JWC 506, but a second entry on this
disk is a somnolent ballad which he prods with
mere suggestions of the greater skills that are at his
command.

Ernie Royal, Although Royal's reputation has been
made as a high-note specialist with the Hampton,
Basie, Barnet and Kenton bands, he shows a much
more interesting and relaxed side of his talent on
Accent on Trumpet, Urania 1203. With either open
horn or mutes, his playing is polished and imagina-
tive and he has a special affinity for prettily melodic
passages.

Pete Rugolo. After serving with great success as
Stan Kenton's alter ego in the late Forties, Rugolo
has been writing and arranging in a controlled
and pointed extension of the work he did for Ken-
ton, utilizing the rich voicing of his Kenton period
but without the blatancy of the finished Kenton
product. A short-lived band that Rugolo formed in
the middle Fifties plays in this manner, alternating
spurts of swinging with moments of lead-bottomed
lumbering on New Sounds, Harmony 7003. This
heaviness is also present in the work of a studio
band he leads on Music for Hi-Fi Bugs, EmArcy

256 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

36082, although it turns out some worthy big band
jazz. The spottiness of the jazz content of this disk
and most of the others that Rugolo has conducted
is not a matter of his inability to give his bands
serviceable jazz arrangements but is due largely to
his peripheral interest in jazz. He is, as he points
out in some of his liner notes, seeking "interesting
sounds" or "colorful music." He achieves both
goals, throwing in a few splashes of jazz en route,
on Out on a Limb, EmArcy 36115, Reeds in Hi-Fi,
Mercury 20260, Brass in Hi-Fi, Mercury 20261, and
Percussion at Work, EmArcy 36122. He contributes
two pieces to Under One Roof, EmArcy 36088, and
one to $64,000 Jazz, Columbia CL 777.

Marty Rubenstein. Some of the themes devised by
Chicago pianist Marty Rubenstein in the jazz score
for The Song of Songs, Audio Fidelity 1888, are
attractive and they are developed in interesting
fashion by his group. Unfortunately their work is
simply background for a frantically hot-breathed
and hammy reading of the great poem.

Howard Rtunsey. In 1949 onetime Kenton bassist
Howard Rumsey took a jazz group into The Light-
house at Hermosa Beach, Calif., and although the
personnel of his Lighthouse All-Stars has gone
through a slow but steady change over the years,
Rumsey has been there ever since. Recordings by
his groups, starting in 1952, reflect changing tastes
in jazz on the West Coast. The 1952 All-Stars, heard
on Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars, Vol. 3,
Contemporary 3508, have great verve (Viva
Zapata!), a light but pushing beat and a sense of
fun that leads Jimmy Giuffre to do an amusing
take-off on a rock 'n' roll tenor in Big Girl. The
disk is somewhat of a catchall for there are also
some slick, surface works by a 1953 delegation and
some drab 1955 representation. Sunday Jazz a la

The Records 257

Lighthouse, Contemporary 3501, is from 1953
easygoing and amiable, notable for a touching
ballad solo by Shorty Rogers and some warm, clean
tenor saxophone work by Giuffre which is a far
cry from his later muffled playing. Bud Shank and
Bob Cooper were groundbreakers when they played
a set of flute and oboe duets with the All-Stars in
1954. They are collected on Oboe/Flute, Con-
temporary 3520, along with a few 1956 duets in-
volving Buddy Collette and Cooper. What was an
interesting novelty in 1954 has since been so over-
done that it now sounds tedious and ordinary.

In 1955 and 1956 the group developed a business-
like matter-of-fact tone. It was polished, competent
but glib and unexciting. These two years are re-
ported on Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars,
Vol. 6, Contemporary 3504, Lighthouse at Laguna,
Contemporary 3509, and Music for Lighthouse-
keeping) Contemporary 3528. Spotlighting the solo-
ists in the 1954 and 1957 groups proves to be a rela-
tively futile formula on In the Solo Spotlight, Con-
temporary 3517, for aside from Cooper, '54, and
Richie Kamuca, '57, the Lighthousers are not
strong enough as soloists to carry a disk.

For Jazz Rolls Royce, Lighthouse 300, Rumsey
has surrounded his All-Stars with a big band in six
arrangements by Cooper. This results in an over-
dressed, sometimes stuffy atmosphere that Is re-
lieved when members of the small group particu-
larly Cooper on tenor saxophone, Victor Feldman
on piano, and Frank Rosolino, trombone take
over. Seemingly the small group might have done
better on its own.

George Russell. Russell is primarily a composer
with a highly personal style and a puckish sense of
humor. On The RCA Victor Workshop, Victor
LPM 1372, played by his Smalltet (that's what it
says), he has a habit of getting so intricately in-

258 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

volved in some carefully cerebrated works that they
refuse to swing readily. But there are moments
when his tightly knit writing boils up into virile,
exciting performances and these moments are good
enough to be worth waiting around for.

Bill Russo. A refugee from the Kenton trombone
section, Russo has become known latterly as a com-
poser and teacher. There are strong evidences of
his studies with Lennie Tristano in the pieces he
contributes to Jazz Composers Workshop, Savoy
12045, but his later The World of Alcina, Atlantic
1241, seems to reflect his own musical personality
more accurately. On one side he leads a septet and
a quintet through six low-keyed, rhythmic, tightly
written pieces, but the title work, taking all of the
other side, is a composition for an unchoreographed
ballet which, by its very nature, is a sort of Music-
Minus-One experience. It appears to have little
relationship to jazz.

Jorgen Ryg. Ryg is a strong-voiced, aggressive Dan-
ish trumpeter whose flowing, logical lines have
something of Bobby Hackett's controlled push and
tone even though his ideas lean more to the modern
school. And since Ryg has an eminently swinging
pianist in Jorgen Lausen with his quartet on Jor-
gen Ryg Quartet, EmArcy 36099, the group almost
always swings brightly. However, it might have had
more staying power if there had been another horn
to provide a contrasting soft texture to Ryg's hard
trumpet.

Aaron Sachs. Sachs has a sort of anonymous post-
Goodman clarinet style light, pleasant but not
memorable and his work on tenor saxophone is
much the same. The sextet he leads on one side of
We Brought Our Axes, Bethlehem 7 (shared with
Hank D'Amico) is neat and compact, brightened by

The Records 259

occasional splashes of Urbie Green's warm trom-
bone, but another sextet on one side of Jazzville,
Vol. 3, Dawn 114 (shared with Charlie Smith),
never gets up steam.

Eddie Safranski. After making a name as Stan Ken-
ton's bassist in the late Forties, Safranski retired
from the one-nighter scramble to the comfort of
New York studio work. Since then on the rare oc-
casions when he appears on records as a leader, he
is more inclined to stay in place in the rhythm sec-
tion than to give himself solo space. Thus, on three
selections in Concert Jazz, Brinswick 54027, the
focal point is the strong, stark guitar work of Mun-
dell Lowe while the Safranski group's contributions
to Loaded, Savoy 12074, are taken up largely by
Vido Musso's strident, Swing Era tenor saxophone.

A. K. Salim. An arranger who works in the mode of
the latter-day Basic band, Salim does a reasonable
job of providing a propelling setting for a pair of
flutes on Flute Suite, Savoy 12102, but he serves up
only the vaguest sketches for a long blowing session,
Pretty for the People, Savoy 12118, marked by
ragged ensembles and dull solos except for those by
pianist Wynton Kelly and, occasionally, trombonist
Buster Cooper. He has one selection in Jazz Is Bust-
ing Out All Over, Savoy 12123.

Sal Salvador. When he is leaning into a fast tempo,
Salvador plays a shrill, nagging type of guitar that
gives his work a thin, surface quality. This is the
dominant note of Frivolous Sal, Bethlehem 59, de-
spite some dark and gutty piano forays by Eddie
Costa. Costa again is the saving grace of Kenton
Presents Jazz, Capitol T 6505, but on Shades of Sal
Salvador, Bethlehem 39, he acquires several help-
mates Phil Woods, Joe Morello, Eddie Bert, John
Williams and Costa who enable him to relax into

260 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

a light and airy form which makes for more con-
sistently stimulating listening. On Colors in Sound,
Decca 9210, he leads a big band which uses his
guitar and Ray Starling's mellophone as its main
voices. However, George Roumanis' arrangements
hold to a similarity of texture and neither Salvador
not Starling are soloists of sufficient distinction to
penetrate the haze that settles over the perform-
ances.

Dennis and Adolph Sandole. The arrangements
written by the Sandole brothers for Modern Music
from Philadelphia, Fantasy 3209, are serviceable
settings with touches of brooding blues for the solo-
ists in a seven-piece group. These include John La-
Porta, sailing smoothly on alto saxophone, and
some crisp, to-the-point trumpet by Art Fanner.

Leon Sash. Sash is one of several musicians who are
pulling the accordion well into the jazz orbit (Joe
Mooney, Pete Jolly and Mat Mathews are others).
He leans toward a strongly swinging, uncompli-
cated attack, using rich tonality and flowing phras-
ing. But equally important to the effectiveness of
the Sash Quartet on This Is the Jazz Accordion,
Storyville 917, and its portion of Toshiko and Leon
Sash at Newport, Verve 8236, is Ted Robinson who
plays tenor saxophone, clarinet and flute. The
teaming of tenor saxophone and accordion in both
unison and contrapuntal passages gives the group
a unique and appealing sound. When Robinson
takes off on his own he shows himself to be a soloist
whose ideas parallel the light, mellow flow of Sash's.
Both men solo skillfully but it is their teamwork
that makes the quartet of more than passing inter-
est.

The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra. Eddie Sauter and
Bill Finegan had distinguished careers behind them

The Records 261

as arrangers for some of the leading swing bands
when they joined forces to create their own band in
1952. Sauter first came to attention with the deli-
cately provocative writing he did for the Red
Norvo-Mildred Bailey band in the late Thirties. In
the next decade he was turning out arrangements
for Benny Goodman which, by dint of ingenuity
and resourcefulness, managed to be both commer-
cial and unhackneyed, and right after the war he
provided much of the material for the excellent but
too far-out Ray McKinley band. Finegan had been
a top arranger first for Glenn Miller and later for
Tommy Dorsey.

When Sauter and Finegan went into business for
themselves they produced arrangements that were
just a shade different yet still readily assimilable.
They wrote with the then newly developing high
fidelity fad in mind, making imaginative use of ex-
tremes of sound range with tuba, glockenspiel, toy
trumpet, xylophone, tambourine, sleigh bells, tri-
angles and even tuned water glasses. Their earliest
works, gathered in New Directions in Music, Victor
LPM 1227, are lively, provocative and full of
rhythm, a combination which suggested that inter-
est might be aroused once more in the moribund
big band field. The band, which was started as a
studio creation, soon went out on the road riding
a crest of enthusiastic interest,

As it turned out, that crest of interest was to be
the band's high point. The records that followed
after the first one are, except for occasional spots, of
steadily decreasing interest. On The Sound of the
Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, Victor LPM 1009, the
gamut of peeps and grunts, of penny whistle, tuba,
triangle, recorder and wounded French horn which
were previously the means to an apt interpretation
of a piece of music became, to a large extent, the
end itself. Vocals appear on several selections (some
sung by the excellent Joe Mooney are worthwhile

262 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

additions) and there is a general feeling that an
attempt is being made to make S-F more commer-
cially acceptable.

The band got back on the track with its next
disk, Inside Sauter-Finegan, Victor LJM 1003, but
this disk unfortunately is no longer in the active cat-
alogue. The rest of the road runs downhill. Concert
Jazz, Victor LPM 1051, has some good moments in
Joe Venuto's marimba work but much of this dibk
bogs down in pretention and ponderousness. Ad-
venture in Time, Victor LPM 1240, "an album of
percussion music," is involved with things which
can be whacked, tongued wind instruments and a
stricken voice reading a poem.

This was the bottom. Sauter took off for Ger-
many with a three-year radio contract there leaving
the band, which existed only on weekends when it
existed at all, in Finegan's hands. Two disks come
from this period: Under Analysis, Victor LPM
1341, a collection of fine old tunes, most of them
associated with big bands of the past, rewritten in a
fashion that blows many of them up into pompous
nonsense; and Memories of Goodman and Miller,
Victor LPM 1634, a much more valid effort, based
on arrangements Sauter and Finegan had done for
Goodman and Miller. The Goodman pieces, which
include Benny Rides Again, Superman and Clari-
net a la King (with Walt Levinsky doing the Good-
man parts cleanly) are crisp and pulsing. The S-F
versions of Miller are often an improvement on the
originals but most of the selections lean toward
Miller's platitudinous side.

The high esteem in which the Sauter-Finegan
orchestra was held in 1954 may be judged by the
fact that it was selected to perform Rolf Lieber-
mann's briefly sensational Concerto for Jazz Band
and Symphony Orchestra, Victor LM 1888, with
Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
The sensation was brief because Liebermann's con-

The Records 263

certo grosso puts both the symphony orchestra and
the jazz orchestra under wraps although it has a few
gracious and effective moments. The jazz sections
are of only moderate interest as jazz and the non-
jazz sections are the merest bow in the direction of
symphonic composition.

Joe Saye. This Scottish pianist, now in the United
States, is colorless, unobtrusive and generally dull
on Scotch on the Rocks, EmArcy 36072, and A Wee
Bit of Jazz, EmArcy 36112. He plays two selections
on The Young Ones of Jazz, EmArcy 36085.

Hal Schaefer. Schaefer produces a slow, brooding,
angular piano version of St. Louis Blues with
flourishes on 14 Blue Roads to St. Louis, Victor
LPM 1714.

Herman Schoonderwalt. Driven by its leader's
jubilant baritone saxophone, the Herman Schoon-
derwalt Septet steams lustily through a pair of
selections on Jazz Behind the Dikes, Epic 3270.

Bobby Scott. Scott is a young (born 1937) pianist
and composer who has reached an apparent ma-
turity very quickly although he has not received
much recognition. His writing shows a feeling for
basic, earthy jazz with touches of the Ellington
influence although he is quite definitely of the
modern school. His solos intensify certain aspects
of his writing. They are stark, sometimes dissonant
but almost always heavily brooding. He achieves a
dark, roaring quality with a striking use of bass
figures on Scott Free, ABC-Paramount 102, a disk
on which he also plays vibraphone, probing
around with a firm line of attack which is rarely
waylaid by frills. Bobby Scott and Two Horns,
ABC-Paramount 148, is an effective showcase for his
writing, using a group built around tenor and

264 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

baritone saxophones which sounds very much like
those Gerry Mulligan groups which have included
Zoot Sims. A less successful effort in somewhat the
same vein is The Compositions of Bobby Scott,
Bethlehem 8, on which he leads two groups, one of
which reflects his ideas much better than the other.
Three readily swinging, sensitive solos by Scott are
included in The Jazz Keyboard, Savoy 12043.

Shirley Scott. Miss Scott is one of the pleasanter
additions to the growing school of Hammond or-
ganists who dally with some variant of jazz. She
ranges capably from a subdued pop-jazz style to
something akin to the desperate frenzy of Jimmy
Smith on Great Scott!, Prestige 7143. As one who
strikes a middle ground between Smith and the
rocking thud of, say, Wild Bill Davis, she may have
a wider appeal to jazz listeners than either of them
but to my ear the monotonous stridency of the
electric organ when it gets beyond the soft, snuffling
cushion of moody balladry keeps it from being a
satisfactory jazz instrument.

Tony Scott. Few musicians of any generation have
fought as insistently and persistently for their view
of jazz as has Scott. His devotion to Charlie Parker
is such that he once reached a bursting point of dis-
traught emotion when he failed to get a meeting of
jazz writers to agree with him that Parker was the
greatest man who had lived during the past hun-
dred years (not simply the greatest musician). Scott
spent the latter part of the Forties trying to evolve
a clarinet style which departed completely from the
Goodman concept of the Thirties and which car-
ried out the Parkerian ideas without simply copy-
ing Parker's phrasing. The result was a feathery,
long-lined, boneless style which, until the Fifties,
seemed to frustrate him by constantly escaping
from his clutches. During the Fifties, however, he

The Records 265

mastered it to such a degree that he could range
freely from the most idly drifting impressionism to
a ferocity and intensity that made some of the
"hot" clarinetists of old seem relatively frigid. De-
spite this, Scott's recorded performances have been
erratic.

The most consistent collection of Scott in a warm
and swinging vein, playing in a firm, solid tone and
with little concession to featheriness or breathiness,
is one side of Tony Scott in Hi-Fi, Brunswick
54021, on which he is backed by Dick Katz, who
plays some brilliant piano, Milt Hinton, bass, and
Philly Joe Jones, drums. The other side, featuring
a slightly different Scott group, is adequate but far
less exciting. Both Sides of Tony Scott, Victor LPM
1268, is more representative of the inconsistency of
Scott's work during the Fifties. There are two long
ad lib performances, Counterpoint Pleasant and
East Coast, West Side, that are excellent fulfillments
of the potential of the jazz clarinet, thanks to the
combination of Scott's technique, his sense of basic
swinging phrasing and his mature development of
his ideas. But when he turns to ballads even his
technical skill cannot counteract the deadly tedium
of the tempos. On The Touch of Tony Scott, Victor
LPM 1353, he is heard with a quartet, a ten-piece
group and a big band, and while he injects some
of his own particular excitement in the selections
by the larger groups, it is only the quartet pieces,
on which he is least hindered by pretentious ar-
rangements, that are really successful. High point
of the disk is a blazing virtuoso performance by
Scott, Aeolian Drinking Song.

In the late Fifties Scott began playing baritone
saxophone in a brash, driving style that was almost
poles apart from the delicacy of much of his
clarinet work. He uses both instruments in a light-
hearted and engaging attack on the Rodgers and
Hammerstein score on South Pacific Jazz, ABC-

266 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Paramount 235, and on a comparatively indifferent
set, The Modern Art of Jazz, Seeco 425.

He plays single selections on clarinet on The
Mellow Moods of Jazz, Victor LPM 1365, Know
your Jazz, Vol. 1, ABC-Paramount 115, and The
Encyclopedia of Jazz on Records, Vol. 4, Decca
8401.

Phil Seaman. Seaman's British quintet manages to
hone down Dizzy Gillespie's yawp-filled Manteca
to a modest swing piece on Third Festival of British
Jazz, London LL 1639.

Hal Serra. Serra is a pianist with a spare, throbbing
style that is occasionally stimulating but the general
impact of the group he leads on one side of Jazz-
ville, Vol. 4, Dawn 1122 (shared with Gene Roland)
is mild.

Bud Shank. As much as anyone, Shank has helped
to create the type of music that is sometimes identi-
fied as West Coast Jazz. He has been based in
California since 1947 and served a pair of seasons
with both Charlie Barnet and Stan Kenton. Since
1952 he has spent much of his time with Howard
Rumsey's Lighthouse group at Hermosa Beach. It
was while he was with Rumsey that he began
doubling from his regular instrument, alto saxo-
phone, to flute and, with Bob Cooper, created some
unusual flute and oboe duets. Shank's work on alto
has always been facile, characterized by long, loop-
ing lines, but as the years have gone by a virility
that could once be found in his attack has given way
to a sort of chattering glibness, in keeping with
the most typical of West Coast jazz sounds.

The hard swinging, outgoing Shank can be heard
in Bud Shank-Shorty Rogers-Bill Perkins, World
Pacific 1205, particularly on those numbers on

The Records 267

which he has the competition and support of some
crisp, lean trumpeting by Rogers. Bob Brookmeyer's
gutty valve trombone also prompts Shank to the
guttier side of his instrument on The Saxophone
Artistry of Bud Shank, World Pacific 1213. His best
flute-and-oboe duets with Bob Cooper will be found
on a Howard Rumsey disk (Contemporary 3520).
On both Flute *ri Oboe, World Pacific 1226, and
The Swings to TV, World Pacific 411, the natural
disinclination of their instruments to be used in
jazz terms is heightened by the use of string ac-
companiment.

What has come to be the expected Shank per-
formances glibly noodling alto and determinedly
peeping flute make up Jazz at Cal Tech, World
Pacific 1219, The Bud Shank Quartet, World Pacific
1215, and Bud Shank Quartet, World Pacific 1230.
He turns to pure syrup on a set recorded in Italy
with a local string section, I'll Take Romance,
World Pacific 1251. He is heard in a big band con-
text with an orchestra led by Johnny Mandel on
Theme Music from "The James Dean Story" World
Pacific 2005, a mixture of mood music and bongo-
paced swing in which the arrangements and themes
are of more interest than the solos.

Three selections by Shank are included in Jazz
West Coast, World Pacific JWC 500, two in Ballads
for Background, World Pacific JWC 503, one each
in Jazz West Coast, Vol. 2, World Pacific JWC 501,
The Blues, World Pacific JWC 502, Solo Flight,
World Pacific JWC 505, and The Playboy Jazz All-
stars, Playboy 1957. Four pieces by Shank and
Cooper are in Jazz Swings Broadway, World Pacific
404, and there is one Shank-Cooper selection as well
as one by Shank in Jazz West Coast, Vol. 3, World
Pacific JWC 507, Have Blues, Will Travel, World
Pacific JWC 509, and Jazz West Coast, Vol. 4,
World Pacific JWC 510.

268 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Ralph Sharon, This British pianist, now in the
United States, shows few marked personal char-
acteristics in his playing and is not very consistent.
He can be unostentatiously swinging leading an
excellent American group in his own compositions
on Around the World in Jazz, Rama 1001, and Mr.
and Mrs. Jazz, Bethlehem 13, or pleasant but anon-
ymous in Autumn Leaves and Spring Fever, Lon-
don LL 1339, as well as downright dull in Easy
Jazz, London LL 1488, and Ralph Sharon Trio,
Bethlehem 41. He sets a fine, earthy tone on a blues
on 2:38 AM., Argo 635, but the rest of the disk is
anemic and undistinguished. He has contrived some
effective arrangements to spotlight various drum-
mers in groups backing up singer Tony Bennett on
The Beat of My Heart, Columbia CL 1079.

George Shearing. Shearing has run practically the
entire jazz piano gamut from boogie-woogie and a
brilliant Hines-like strut while he was still in Eng-
land to Erroll Garner and Bud Powel devices in
his early days in this country, on through the locked
hands block chords and canons of his Quintet's first
success to the mature and largely personal pianist
who can occasionally be heard today.

There is a good, spirited summation of the pre-
success Shearing, encumbered by poor recording
and surface hiss, on Shearing By Request, London
LL 1343, and less consistent but similar collections
on Midnight on Cloud 69, Savoy 12093, and Great
Bri tains, Savoy 12016. His excellent first quintet
with Margie Hyams on vibes and Chuck Wayne,
guitar, brightens Touch of Genius, MGM 3265, /
Hear Music, MGM 3266, and You're Hearing
George Shearing, MGM 3216. A Shearing Caravan,
MGM 3175, and Shearing in Hi-Fi, MGM 3293,
feature the best group he has had since, one in
which Cal Tjader's playing on vibes is almost al-
ways brilliantly sensitive. An Evening with Shear-

The Records 269

ing, MGM 3122, and When Lights Are Low, MGM
3264, are drab odds and ends but not nearly as
drab as the sugar-coated dreariness that he later
produced for Capitol on The Shearing Spell, Capi-
tol T 648, Velvet Carpet, Capitol T 720, Latin
Escapade, Capitol T 737, Black Satin, Capitol T
858, The Shearing Piano, Capitol T 909, Night
Mist, Capitol T 943, Burnished Brass, Capitol T
1038, Latin Lace, Capitol T 1082, and Blue Chifion,
Capitol T 1124. Practically the only jazz that Shear-
ing has recorded in recent years is on In the Night,
Capitol T 1003, on which he plays with such pleas-
ant strength and spareness that it is all the more
disappointing to find him wasting almost all of his
recording time on dreary trash.

The Shearing Quintet appears in the role of
accompanist to Teddi King, Billy Eckstine and the
Ray Charles Singers on Cool Caravan, MGM 3393.
It plays a single selection on Forty-Eight Stars of
American Jazz, MGM 3611, and Popular Jazz Gold
Album, Capitol T 1034.

Jack Sheldon. A trumpeter in the Chet Baker vein,
Sheldon's playing is subdued, muffled and shows
little sense of structure in single selections on The
Hard Swing, World Pacific JWC 508, The Blues,
World Pacific JWC 502, and Jazz West Coast, VoL
2, World Pacific JWC 501.

Tommy Shepard. Shepard is a trombonist in the
Tommy Dorsey manner but the men with him on
Shepard 's Flock, Coral 57110, include such modern-
ists as Barry Galbraith, Nick Travis, Hal McKusick
and Nat Pierce. The arrangements are quite bland
but the soloists make things perk up occasionally.

Dick Sherman. Sherman's trumpet is completely
overshadowed by Gene Quill's doggedly Parkerish
alto saxophone in the quintet they jointly lead

270 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

on one side of Jazzville '56, Vol. 1, Dawn 1101
(shared with The Jazz Modes). The Quintet also
has a selection in Critics' Choice, Dawn 1123.

Sahib Shihab. Shihab is heard as a rule on baritone
saxophone, less frequently on alto, which is un-
fortunate for he plays alto with form, a sense of
direction and an enlivening lift whereas his bari-
tone is monotoned and limited. However, although
he plays alto on Four Altos, Prestige 7116, the
multiplicity of alto saxophones provides a poor
setting for his own. He splits himself in his prevail-
ing baritone and alto proportions on Jazz Sahib,
Savoy 12124. He has two selections in After Hours
Jazz, Epic 3339.

Don Shirley. In the liner notations on some of his
records Shirley is referred to as a pianist who plays
jazz, among other things. This is sheer nonsense.
Occasionally he seems to make a stab at jazz but it
is clumsy and quite unswinging. Most of his work
is overblown pseudo classicism. His records: Tonal
Expressions, Cadence 1001; Piano Perspectives,
Cadence 1004; Orpheus in the Underworld, Cadence
1009; Don Shirley Duo, Cadence 1015; Solos, Ca-
dence 3007; Don Shirley with Two Basses, Cadence
3008.

Eddie Shu. Shu has been heard as a master of many
reed instruments plus the harmonica during a long
association with Gene Krupa. Fortunately he omits
the harmonica on Eddie Shu, Rep 202, playing
tenor and alto saxophones with a pleasantly light,
tip-toeing attack. He heads a good rhythm section
which includes the dry, needling piano of Bobby
Scott.

Ira Shulman. Shulman, a Chicago tenor saxophonist
with something of the precise, stepping-stones style

The Records 271

of Hal McKusick's alto, plays in a muffled and not
particularly distinguished fashion on Chicago Scene,
Argo 609.

Horace Silver. In the early Fifties, when jazz no
longer seemed to know where it came from, much
less where it was going, pianist Horace Silver
brought the rich earthiness of the blues back to
proper attention. His probing, emotional explora-
tion of minor themes affected jazz so strongly that a
word "funk" came into use to describe it. At
faster tempos, Silver also drew from basic roots,
building his pieces with a gospel-like fervor. And
after a long period when jazz "originals" were al-
most invariably technical exercises based on the
chord structure of some favored popular tune, Sil-
ver wrote originals that were not only actually origi-
nal but memorably melodic, presaging a gradual re-
turn to melodic creativity among writing jazzmen.

Three trio sessions held in 1952 and 1953, on all
of which Art Blakey is the drummer, provide an
early view of Silver on Horace Silver Trio, Blue
Note 1520, showing his lively talent as a composer,
his pianistic wit and a lusty meeting of exuberant
jazz minds in the collaborations between Silver and
Blakey. The Jazz Messengers, a group which Blakey
led through numerous personnel changes for several
years, was first put together for a Horace Silver re-
cording date, Horace Silver and the Jazz Messen-
gers, Blue Note 1518. These original Messengers
included Kenny Dorham, trumpet, and Hank
Mobley, tenor saxophone. Silver contributed two
of his best pieces to the session The Preacher and
Doodlin' but the group is strident and empty and
Silver's piano talents are largely wasted amidst all
the pointless blowing.

Silver soon broke away from the Messengers and
formed his own Quintet. Like the Messengers, it has
gone through many changes in personnel with con-

272 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

sequent variations in quality. Silver has almost al-
ways managed to imbue his group with a furious
drive and to maintain a high level in his own solos.
But he likes to develop pieces at great length and
he has often had trumpeters and saxophonists who
have not been able to improvise for long in an
interesting fashion. Six Pieces of Silver, Blue Note
1539, includes his classic Senor Blues, a piece which
draws from trumpeter Donald Byrd some flashes
of bright, charging strength that are not always ap-
parent through the rest of the disk. Byrd is replaced
by the infinitely superior Art Farmer on The Styl-
ings of Silver, Blue Note 1562, and Further Ex-
plorations, Blue Note 1589, but several provocative
Silver creations are run into the ground on these
disks by overlong, uneventful solos. The best
touches come from Silver's piano on a minor blues,
Soulville, and an amusingly shrugging version of
III Wind. The Silver Quintet, in which Byrd plays,
drags through a drab, tired set on Silver's Blue,
Epic 3326.

Norman Simmons. Simmons plays a rhythmic piano
with a strong beat and an emphasis on melody on
Norman Simmons Trio, Argo 607. His drummer
on the session was Vernell Fournier who has since
gone on to greater glory with Ahmad Jamal.

Zoot Sims. Sims came up through the big band ranks
in the Forties he was with Bobby Sherwood, Bob
Astor, Sonny Dunham, Benny Goodman polish-
ing his tenor saxophone conception constantly so
that when he joined Woody Herman in the late
Forties as a member of the reed section which be-
came identified as the Four Brothers (Stan Getz,
Herb Steward, Serge Chaloff and Sims) he was the
most directly swinging man in the group. He has
since become one of the most consistent of saxo-
phonists (in the mid-Fifties he began to use the

The Records 273

alto frequently in addition to tenor) who focuses
his attention on long, lean, swinging lines with
almost no side comments or excursions.

Sims' development from a highly serviceable big
band musician to a mature and independent jazz
performer can be heard on The Brothers, Prestige
7022, which includes some 1949 pieces on which
Sims is joined by Getz, Al Cohn, Allen Eager and
Brew Moore (Eager and Moore overshadow the
others) as well as several 1952 selections featuring
Sims, Cohn and trombonist Kai Winding. During
the three year interval Sims' attack had become as-
sured and aggressive but without any sense of push-
ing or elbowing, a characteristic he has retained
ever since. 1952 would seem to have been the crucial
year in which Sims reached musical maturity for
the 1950 and 1951 works which make up Zoot Sims,
Prestige 7026, are pleasant but, for Sims, tame and
quite unadventurous.

Sims frequently records in tandem with other
jazz stars to get needed contrast to his smoothly
swinging tone over the length of an LP. One of the
most fruitful of these collaborations was with the
muscular valve trombonist, Bob Brookmeyer. Sims
swaggers his way through Tonight's Jazz Today,
Storyville 907, with his typically alert sense of phras-
ing while Brookmeyer plays a thoughtful and brood-
ing foil and they collaborate happily again on The
Modern Art of Jazz, Dawn 1102, but on Whooeeee,
Storyville 914, Brookmeyer takes over in no un-
certain terms and has a virtuoso's field day while
Sims, playing with his expected strength and fluidity
on fast numbers, bogs down on ballads. He also
sings in a rather disheveled manner on both Story-
ville disks.

A meeting with one of the old Four Brothers, Al
Cohn (who replaced Steward in the original group),
on From A to Z y Victor LPM 1282, found neither
saxophonist in particularly inspired form but plan-

274 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

1st Dave McKenna, rollicking along like an un-
daunted horse in blinders, doesn't even seem to
realize that everybody else is merely grinding out
mechanical performances. On Down East, Prestige
7033, Sims is matched with alto saxophonist Phil
Woods but it is trumpeter Jon Eardley's crisp,
clean, singing playing that keeps the disk moving.
Getting away from the company of saxophonists,
Sims returns to the gracefully steaming lines which
often all but obscure the intensely jumping quality
of his playing on Zoot Sims Goes to Jazzuille, Dawn
1115. The other horn on this disk, trumpeter Jerry
Lloyd, makes up in enthusiasm for some lapses
into uncertain blowing. Nick Travis is a more
steady trumpet helpmate for some good Sims solo-
ing on Zoot!, Riverside 12-228, but these long per-
formances might have been edited down to advan-
tage.

In the final analysis, Sims has proved to be his
own best team-mate the evidence is a pair of multi-
taped disks, Zoot Sims, ABC-Paramount 155, and
Zoot Sims Plays Four Altos, ABC-Paramount 198.
On the first he works his way skillfully through a
multi-track jigsaw puzzle on alto, tenor and bari-
tone in some pleasantly shaped compositions by
George Handy. But it is on the second, again in-
volving Handy compositions, that Sims really shows
his mettle as he turns himself into a complete sec-
tion of altos. After Sims had recorded an original
improvisation with a rhythm section, Handy wrote
parts for the three additional altos around this basic
line. Sims preserves a remarkable spontaneity in
dubbing in the three parts so that the ensembles
swing with a gorgeous lift and manages to vary his
solo style just enough in the course of successive
appearances in one selection so that it does not
sound like one man taking all the solos. Despite
the trickery involved, it is an unusually satisfying
collection of polished, pulsing jazz, much more so

The Records 275

than a disk on which there are four different saxo-
phonists (Sims, Cohn, John Coltrane, Hank Mobley)
Tenor Conclave, Prestige 7074 a long blowing
session which buries all four saxophones in mo-
notony. Its sole merit is Ira Gitler's excellent essay
on modern tenor saxophonists on the liner. Sims,
with only a rhythm section, is smooth and suave
on Zoot, Argo 608. He contributes two pieces to
Tenors, Anyone?, Dawn 1126, and single selections
to Jazz West Coast, World Pacific JWC 500, Jazz
for Lovers, Riverside 12-244, Jazz for Hi-Fi Lovers,
Dawn 1124, and Critics' Choice, Dawn 1123.

The Six. The key to The Six is its leader, Bob
Wilber, teen-age prodigy with the Scarsdale High
School band in the middle Forties who became
Sidney Bechet's protg and carbon copy on clarinet
and later, when traditional jazz palled, studied
with Lennie Tristano. Having sampled both ex-
tremes of jazz, Wilber, in the Fifties, settled some-
where in between with a form of swing that was
cognizant of jazz developments since the Thirties.
Thus The Six on The View from Jazzbo's Head,
Rep 210, swings, explores, follows nobody's beaten
path and produces a mixture of provocative jazz
and unfulfilled ideas.

Alex Smith. Placidity is the vein of Alex Smith's
Quintet on one side of Jazzuille, Vol. 2, Dawn 1107
(shared with Frank Rehak). Smith is a pianist who
is both placid and assured; his quintet is also
placid but its placidity leads to uncertain ensembles
and rough solos. Smith plays one selection on Jazz,
for Hi-Fi Lovers, Dawn 1124.

Charlie Smith. When a drummer forms a trio filled
out by Hank Jones, piano, and Oscar Pettiford,
bass, the least it can be is good. That's what Charlie
Smith's trio is on one side of Jazzville, Vol. 3, Dawn

276 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

1114 (shared with Aaron Sachs). The trio has one
number on Critics' Choice, Dawn 1123.

Derek Smith. Sponsored by John Lewis in a collec-
tion of piano solos. Jazz Piano International, At-
lantic 1287, Smith plays the blues with strength,
firmness and a sense of direction. But the longer
he plays the more he indicates that he has listened
closely to John Lewis. He is somewhat more inde-
pendent, in a less interesting vein, in two selections
on Jazz Britannia, MGM S472.

Jimmy Smith. Smith is credited, if that is the proper
term, with being the first organist to translate the
Parker idiom to that instrument. He has done this
through an ability to maintain a jabbing, multi-
noted style at a very fast pace. On slower selections
he attempts to convey a jazz beat by breaking up
what might normally be sustained notes to produce
an insistent, prodding beat or by going completely
"mighty Wurlitzer" on ballads. Almost all of his
performances are too long, too repetitious and too
dull. His playing has been compared to Morse code.
One LP side of his work can produce the same
result as a jumping sinus.

He normally works as part of a trio (guitar and
drums) and that is the group that is heard on A
New Star, Vol. 1, Vol. 2, and Vol. 3, Blue Note 1512,
1514 and 1525; Jimmy Smith at the Club Baby
Grand, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Blue Note 1528 and 1529,
and Groovin* at Small's Paradise, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2,
Blue Note 1585 and 1586, the latter four recorded
in night clubs; and Jimmy Smith Plays Pretty Just
for You, Blue Note 1563. On A Date with Jimmy
Smith, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Blue Note 1547 and 1548,
and The Incredible Jimmy Smith, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2,
Blue Note 1551 and 1552, he is joined by several
visitors of whom only alto saxophonist Lou Donald-

The Records 277

son and guitarist Kenny Burrell manage to play
with interest despite Smith's sputtering accompani-
ment.

Johnny Smith. Smith is given to finicky guitar
pickings at pallid ballads which become awfully
tiresome in unrelieved doses. He is, however, an
exceptionally good, light-fingered and swinging
guitarist when he wants to be and for this reason
The Johnny Smith Quartet, Roost 2203, is easily
the best of his collections. It is a cross section which
includes a few tired ballads along with several
brightly swinging pieces plus evidence that he can
explore a ballad in a lively and imaginative manner
and an interesting reworking of John Lewis' com-
position, Django. Smith's inclination to be bland
is tempered on Moonlight in Vermont, Roost 2211,
by the presence of one of three enlivening tenor
saxophonists on all the pieces Stan Getz, Zoot
Sims or Paul Quinichette.

Smith is simply, and somewhat tiresomely, bland
on Johnny Smith Plays Jimmy Van Heusen, Roost
2201, but he manages to stir up a little tedium-
breaking variety on Moods, Roost 2215, Johnny
Smith Foursome, Roost 2223, and Johnny Smith
Foursome, Vol. 2, Roost 2228. This foursome, made
up of Smith's guitar plus piano, bass and drums, is
varied on Johnny Smith and His New Quartet,
Roost 2216, which introduces Johnny Rae, vibra-
phonist, in place of the piano and produces a sug-
gestion of the Modern Jazz Quartet in some pieces.
This same quartet backs up a strident singer on
Ruth Price, Roost 2217, while the quartet-with-
piano supports a moody singer on Jeri Southern
Meets Johnny Smith, Roulette 52016. Smith con-
tributes one selection to both Roost Fifth Anni-
versary Album, Roost 1201, and Operation Jazz,
Roost OJ1.

278 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Louis Smith. Smith is a trumpeter whose influences
are primarily modern with strong evidence of a
deep basic jazz foundation. On his debut disk, Here
Comes Louis Smith, Blue Note 1584, he weaves a
melodic and fresh development of Star Dust, works
out thoughtfully accented lines at fast tempos and
digs warmly into the blues. But the follow-up,
Smithville, Blue Note 1594, buries his talents in
long, tiresome solos.

Frank Socolow. A capable and swinging tenor saxo-
phonist who has buoyed up many big band reed
sections (Boyd Raeburn, Chubby Jackson, Buddy
Rich, Artie Shaw), Socolow and his sextet flow
easily through ten low-keyed selections on Sounds
by Socolow, Bethlehem 70, with a grace and lilt
that are unpretentious and quite winning.

Larry Sonn. An almost completely self-effacing big
band leader, Sonn has turned out several pleasant
but unremarkable dance sets (Sound of Sonn, Coral
57057; It's Sonn Again, Coral 57104; and Smooth
One, Coral 57123) plus one which has some jazz
interest, Jazz Band Having a Ball, Dot 9005, be-
cause the arrangements are by Manny Albam, Bob
Brookmeyer and Al Cohn and the basic New York
studio band which Sonn fronts is buoyed by the
presence of Tony Scott and Georgie Auld as well
as Brookmeyer and Cohn.

Earle Spencer. When Sten Kenton was in his
Artistry in Rhythm phase, Earle Spencer was run-
ning a roadshow version of the same thing. The
evidence, not bad of its sort, is on Concert in Jazz,
Tops 1532, dimmed by relatively inadequate record-
ing.

Hal Stein. Stein is an alto saxophonist out of
Parker but with more warmth, greater lyricism and

The Records 279

a less frantic attitude than most of the other
descendants. On Four Altos, Prestige 7116, he is on
a blowing session in the company of three more
celebrated Parkerites (Phil Woods, Gene Quill,
Sahib Shihab) and is the only one of the four who
does not pall.

Tom Stewart. Stewart plays the tenor horn, an
instrument otherwise unheralded in jazz, with gruff
agility and in an easy swinging style on Tom
Stewart Sextette, Quintette, ABC-Paramount 117.
The tunes are mostly worthy veterans of jazz at-
tacks Rosetta, Out of Nowhere, Fidgety Feet, etc.
and, along with Steve Lacy's soprano saxophone,
Stewart has the dependable support of Dave Mc-
Kenna on piano.

Sonny Stitt. Of the multitude of alto saxophonists
who have built their playing firmly on that of
Charlie Parker, Stitt and Julian Adderley are easily
the most interesting because they have added some-
thing positive of their own to the, by now, clich6
Parker runs. It has been an extended battle for
Stitt to get away from Parker for several years he
switched to tenor to try to break the apparent
chains and there are still times when even his
energy and vitality can produce nothing more than
warmed over Parker. In Stitt's favor are a heat and
depth that most other modern altos lack; but this
is sometimes overbalanced by an inordinate fond-
ness for quoting at random and an unvarying
texture of sound which becomes monotonous. The
roaring strength that is at the heart of Stitt's playing
can be heard ^ven in his earliest recordings on
tenor Sonny Stitt, Prestige 7024, made up of 1949
and 1950 sessions in which he teams brilliantly with
Bud Powell and John Lewis. Stitt's Bits, Prestige
7133, is also of 1950 vintage but it consists largely
of plodding, uninspired ballads while Sonny Stitt

280 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Kaleidoscope, Prestige 7077, is mixed in several ways
four different sessions are represented (from 1950,
1951 and 1952); Stitt plays alto, tenor and baritone;
and he ranges from his exuberant best to heavy
dreariness.

Since then Stitt has been recorded, usually on
alto, as an outgoing, uncomplicated, hard-driving
swinger with an occasional side excursion into the
blues. One of his most brilliant sets is New York
Jazz, Verve 8219, which permits him to show off
more varied aspects of his playing than are nor-
mally caught on a single disk. The storming, slash-
ing, uptempo Stitt is present on Norman's Blues
and then, on / Know That You Know, he takes on
some of the light, floating quality that Jimmie
Noone brought to the same tune on clarinet; on
a slow version of // / Had You he displays the
deep-rooted cry that is the hallmark of the valid
jazzman; on Alone Together he rides as lightly as
a dandelion puff in Spring; and on Twelfth Street
Rag he unpretentiously turns a trick that has
baffled several modernists how to reassess a tradi-
tional jazz tune so that it is really revitalized.

On Sonny Stitt, Roost 2204, and Sonny Stitt, Argo
629, he works a more modest range very fast and
melodically slow with skill but on Only the Blues,
Verve 8250, despite the assistance of Roy Eldridge
and Oscar Peterson, Stitt becomes trapped in the
steady sameness of his sound. This problem also
plagues him on Sonny Stitt Plays, Roost 2208, but
he achieves an airiness that provides some relief on
37 Minutes and 48 Seconds, Roost 2219, and Sonny
Stitt with the New Yorkers, Roost 2226. Stitt's
amazing fleetness is highlighted on For Musicians
Only, Verve 8198, a blowing session with Dizzy
Gillespie and Stan Getz but neither Stitt nor Gilles-
pie get off the ground on Dizzy Gillespie Duets,
Verve 8260. Battle of Birdland, Roost 1203, which
pits Stitt against tenor saxophonist Eddie Davis, is

The Records 281

not as disorderly as the title would suggest but it
is not very compelling, either. A really fierce blow-
ing session at Newport in 1957, highlighted by
rough, tough, crackling performances by Stitt and
Eldridge, is caught on Peterson, Eldridge, Jo Jones
and Stitt at Newport, Verve 8239. Stitt is repre-
sented by a single selection on Roost Fifth Anni-
versary Album, Roost 1201.

Les Strand. There is a light, swinging sense in
Strand's approach to the organ none of the mighty
Wurlitzering that Jimmy Smith falls into nor the
heavy, elementary thud of a Wild Bill Davis.
Strand's playing is, rather, an updated version of
the graceful, lilting organ work of Fats Waller and
Count Basic, His Basie relationship is reflected in
his apt use of suggestive shorthand phrases. He can
and does evolve well-constructed rapid-fire runs
but these are merely decorative frills for he is not
primarily a many-noted player. His excellent rhyth-
mic sense is constantly evident, particularly on slow
ballads which he plays with a lithe, controlled
power that makes them flow smoothly but never
stickily.

Les Strand at the Baldwin Organ, Fantasy 3231,
is built around hardy show tunes and is an able
demonstration of his ability to maintain his balance
on the tightrope between cocktailism and jazz even
while listing heavily toward the jazz side. Les Strand
Plays Jazz Classics, Fantasy 3242, is more satisfying
in strict jazz terms since it is jazz without qualifica-
tions. The guitar and drums which accompany
Strand are sometimes more of a hindrance than a
help but he himself is a consistent and subtle de-
light.

Don Stratton. A bow in the direction of un-
schismitized jazz is made by Stratton, a trumpet
player, on Modern Jazz with Dixieland Roots, ABC-

282 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Paramount 118. The roots appear to be largely in
a few of the titles Royal Garden Blues, Black
Bottom, Charleston for the pieces are played at a
bright bounce by musicians who are quite modern
in attack and who, except for pianist Dave Mc-
Kenna, produce nothing especially memorable.

Idrees Sulieman. A trumpeter who has spells of
glowing lyricism balanced by times when all is
flat emptiness, Sulieman has sporadic moments of
quality in the long stretches of Interplay for Two
Trumpets and Two Tenors, Prestige 7112, and
Three Trumpets, Prestige 7092.

Ira Sullivan. Sullivan is primarily a tenor saxo-
phonist, secondarily a trumpeter, who has shown
himself a crisp and capable performer on both
instruments. On Billy Taylor Introduces Ira Sulli-
van, ABC-Paramount 162, however, his work is
relatively misty and unformed.

Phil Sunkel. Sunkel's strong, outgoing open trumpet
helps to swing the heavy-textured arrangements on
Phil Sunkel's Jazz Band, ABC-Paramount 136, but
his solos lack the shape and grace of those of one
of his sidemen, alto saxophonist Dick Meldonian.
It was apparently deemed necessary to enlist some
big name support for Sunkel's Jazz Concerto Grosso,
ABC-Paramount 225, a long work in which Sunkel
shifts to cornet and Gerry Mulligan and Bob
Brookmeyer join in on baritone saxophone and
valve trombone. The work has a pleasant basic
theme but there seems little reason for carrying it
on for fifteen minutes. Sunkel's light, sensitive play-
ing completely overshadows his two guests in the
solo sections.

Thomas Talbert. Talbert's arrangements on Bix,
Duke, Fats, Atlantic 1250, produce rather incon-

The Records 283

gruous results by clothing the compositions of
three lithe and sinewy writers (Beiderbecke, Elling-
ton, Waller) in unbecoming preciosity.

Duane Tatro. Tatro's Jazz for Moderns, Contem-
porary 3514, enlists several top West Coast musi-
cians (Jimmy Giuffre, Shelly Manne, Bill Holman,
Lennie Niehaus and others) in cleanly executed
performances of some foggy attempts by arranger-
composer Tatro to (quoting the liner notes) "move
jazz into new areas by removing some of the
harmonic limitations which have kept it ... in
the 19th Century." It's a good plug for the 19th
Century.

Arthur Taylor. Taylor, one of the more ubiquitous
drummers on modern jazz recordings, is nominal
leader on Taylor's Wallers, Prestige 7117, a blow-
ing session that is more cohesive than most of the
breed because it gains form from the use of com-
positions by Telonious Monk, Ray Bryant and Lee
Sears. Trumpeter Donald Byrd sustains his solos
more fully than he often does, tenor saxophonist
Charlie Rouse adds a thoughtful element and
Bryant's piano lays down a helpfully strong founda-
tion.

Billy Taylor. One of the ablest and most widely
informed of today's jazz musicians, Taylor's once
virile, firmly rooted playing has gradually petered
down to a slick surface which only occasionally lets
out the fire that is apparently still simmering under-
neath. The contrast between the current Taylor and
the Taylor of even the middle Fifties can be found
on The Billy Taylor Touch, Atlantic 1277, which
includes four pale, lifeless 1958 performances and
seven earlier pieces which are much warmer and
fresher.
Two examples of Taylor in the process of growth

284 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

make up one side of Back to Back, Savoy 12008
some 1943 trio performances in which the markings
of Teddy Wilson and particularly Art Tatum are
all over Taylor's playing, and a 1949 quintet in
which Taylor shows a much less derivative style
but is overshadowed by the strong Webster-like
tenor saxophone of John Hardee.

Since then the faceless quality of Taylor's play-
ing has increased steadily. There are glimpses of
the swinging strength and inventiveness of which
he is capable on A Touch of Taylor, Prestige 7001,
and Billy Taylor Trio, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Prestige
7015 and 7016. Playing a subordinate role on Billy
Taylor Introduces Ira Sullivan, ABC-Paramount
162, he displays a lithe muscularity that cannot be
found on many of his own later disks. A switch in
drummers, creating The New Billy Taylor Trio,
ABC-Paramount 226, seemingly stimulated him to
rise above the colorless broth he serves up on Ever-
greens, ABC-Paramount 112, Billy Taylor at the
London House, ABC-Paramount 134, Taylor Made
Piano, Roost 2222, and Cross-Section, Prestige 7071.
The addition of Candido's conga drum on The
Billy Taylor Trio with Candido, Prestige 7051,
serves little purpose but Taylor manages to swing
with some airiness on a 1954 concert recording,
Billy Taylor Trio at Town Hall, Prestige 7093, at
which Candido was also present.

Accompanied by an orchestra under Quincy
Jones, the Taylor trio gives considerate treatment
to the score of My Fair Lady on My Fair Lady Loves
Jazz, ABC-Paramount 177, and provides some pleas-
ant interludes between Johnny Ray's quavering
vocals on 'Til Morning, Columbia CL 1225. Taylor
also contributes two selections to Night Out Music
for Stay-at-Homes, Coral 57040, and single pieces to
Know Jour Jazz, Vol. 1, ABC-Paramount 155, Jazz-
time U.S.A., Brunswick 54000, and Roost Fifth
Anniversary Album, Roost 1201.

The Records 285

Cecil Taylor. Taylor is among the advance guards
of the new jazz piano. He has ties to Thelonious
Monk and, through Monk, to Duke Ellington's
feeling for tonal color. He works his ideas out in
a series of intense, impressionistic chords and single-
note lines which ride with striking strength over a
swinging beat. His execution is stunningly dean
even in very demanding passages. His first disk,
Jazz Advance, Transition 19, is no longer available
but it gives a more comprehensive idea of the
capabilities both of Taylor and of his quartet
(which then featured Steve Lacy on soprano saxo-
phone) than the three pieces the group played at
Newport in 1957, reported on Gigi Gryce, Donald
Byrd and Cecil Taylor at Newport, Verve 8238.

Clark Terry. Of all the men who have joined Duke
Ellington's orchestra since the great turnover in
the Forties, Terry is the only one who can be con-
sidered on a level with the great Ellingtonians of
the past. His spare, witty, melodic, pulsing playing
on trumpet and fluegelhorn is to some degree a
distillation of the style of Rex Stewart but there
are also reflections of Buck Clayton here and there.
Terry, in his turn, was one of the early influences
on Miles Davis.

A full dress display of the various aspects of
Terry's trumpet work his lusty swing, his relaxed
singing tone, the little bleeps of sound with which
he often builds his solos, and his exuberant high
spirits occurs on Out on a Limb, Argo 620. On In
Orbit, Riverside 12-271, the airy, dancing quality
of his musical thinking gives the normally solemn
sounding fluegelhorn a twinkling dignity. The disk
is also notable for the presence of Thelonious Monk
who gallops glibly along with Terry, filling out
phrases with unexpected generosity and joining
freely in the spirit of sly merriment that Terry
engenders. With a group of current Ellingtonians

286 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

(Johnny Hodges, Paul Gonsalves, Quentin Jackson,
Britt Woodman and others), Terry creates a sort
of horn chamber jazz on Duke with a Difference,
Riverside 12-246, which not only puts a new color
on some familiar Ellington tunes but allows Gon-
salves and Hodges to get away from the type of
playing with which they are usually pegged in the
Ellington band. Terry, one of those rare musicians
whose playing almost never descends beyond the
palatably adequate, is in more or less that form on
Serenade to a Busy Seat, Riverside 12-237, and
Clark Terry, EmArcy 36007. He is buried in the
turgid blowing expanses of Jam Session, EmArcy
36002. There are single selections by him on Jazz
for Lovers, Riverside 12-244, and Riverside Drive,
Riverside 12-267.

Jean Thielemans. The harmonica may be a shade
better than the flute as an instrument for modern
jazz (it has a firm and honorable place in the more
primitive areas of the blues) but this is cold comfort
to anyone contemplating a full LP of jazz har-
monica. Thielemans, a Belgian guitarist who has
spent much of the Fifties in George Shearing's
Quintet, doubles occasionally on harmonica with
that group but all of Time Out for Toots, Decca
9204, and most of Man Bites Harmonica!, River-
side 120257, is focused on his harmonica work. It
is to his credit that both records can be listened to
with some pleasure. The Decca disk is light and in
the mood music vein while the Riverside is high-
lighted by the excellent, cleanly articulated bass
playing of Wilbur Ware.

Joe Theimer, Theimer, a drummer, led a modern
styled Washington, D.C., big band called The
Orchestra, sponsored by Willis Conover, the jazz
voice of The Voice of America. The band plays
cleanly and industriously enough on Willis Cono-

The Records 287

v er*s House of Sounds, Brunswick 54003, to be con-
fused with any top-ranking modern big jazz band.

Hugh Thompson. Enroll Garner hovers over almost
everything Thompson plays on / Cover the Water-
front, Proscenium 6, a set that is just across the
jazz line from the cocktail crowd.

Lucky Thompson. Since the middle Forties Thomp-
son has been an unusually capable tenor saxo-
phonist but he has been recorded much less fre-
quently than many other saxophonists who cannot
approach his talent. His style, unobtrusive as such
but still an individual and personal manner, is
almost a summation of the history of the tenor
saxophone in jazz. One hears reflections of Coleman
Hawkins* rich, intense attack, of Lester Young's
lyricism, even of Stan Getz's light, floating drive.
He is, in the best sense, a "hot" jazzman who de-
velops his ideas with compelling logic.

He is given a good showcase on Lucky Thomp-
son, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, ABC-Paramount 111 and 171,
on both of which he is heard with a trio and a
quintet. Accent on Tenor, Urania 1206, offers a
great deal of his warm, virile playing but the over-
all quality of the set is brought down by an over-
long and eventually tiresome piece which takes up
most of one side. Backed by Gerard Pochonet's
French quartet on Lucky Thompson, Dawn 1113,
he is restricted to ballads which are good as long
as he is padding softly and sinuously through his
well constructed solos.

Claude ThornhilL The Thornhill band of the late
Forties was the seed-bed for what became known
as "cool" jazz. Arranger Gil Evans laced the es-
sentially sweet dance book of the Thornhill band
with adaptations of Anthropology, Donna Lee,
Yardbird Suite, Lover Man and Robbins Nest, all

288 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

of which are included in The Thornhill Sound,
Harmony 7088. Some of the swing-based men in the
band seem to be straining to try to catch the idiom
but Lee Konitz is right at home. Two Sides of
Claude Thornhill, Kapp 1058, is by one of Thorn-
hill's later groups (Gene Quill is a sideman), a
band that seems torn between slick, driving modern
jazz and Thornhill's passive dream world. One side
is played in his cloud-heavy dance band manner,
the other in something resembling modern jazz
although even here the ensembles have the heavy,
fudgy quality of Thornhill's ballads.

Bobby Timmons. Timmons has shown himself to
be a strong and effective pianist with Art Blakey's
Jazz Messengers but all he offers on Pianists Galore!,
World Pacific JWC 506, is a single, very brief and
almost unnoticeable ballad.

Cal Tjader. Tjader, who plays vibraphone most of
the time and drums, bongos and piano some of
the time, was a member of the early Dave Brubeck
groups and helped to give the George Shearing
Quintet a new lease on life during the two years
(1953-54) that he spent with it. His recording
career has been split between a zestfully swinging
quartet and an equally swinging variant of Latin-
American rhythms. On vibes he has a light touch
and a propulsive approach. He is not inclined to
be especially adventurous nor, on the other hand,
does he become bogged in cliches.

His quartet runs the danger of comparison with
the Modern Jazz Quartet because of the similarity
of instrumentation but the groups are basically
quite different. The Tjader quartet is less interested
in long, detailed development of a theme, more in-
terested in getting directly to a forthright rhythmic
projection of a melody. Despite personnel changes,
the quality remains relatively consistent on Vib-

The Records 289

Rations, Savoy 12054; Cal Tjader Quartet, Fantasy
3227; Cal Tjader, Fantasy 3253; and Jazz at the
Blackhawk, Fantasy 3241. Teaming with tenor
saxophonist Stan Getz and adding guitarist Eddie
Duran, the quartet becomes the Cal Tjader-Stan
Getz Sextet, Fantasy 3266, delivering a glorious nine-
minute session of gliding, darting, larruping swing
on Ginza which makes up for the surprisingly
ordinary quality of the rest of the disk. Tjader's
lusty south-of-the-border style is heard on Ritmo
Caliente, Fantasy 3216; Mas Ritmo Caliente, Fan-
tasy 3262; Mambo with Tjader, Fantasy 3202; Cal
Tjader Plays Mambo, Fantasy 3221; Cal Tjader's
Latin Concert, Fantasy 3275; The Cal Tjader Quin-
tet, Fantasy 3232; and Cal Tjader's Latin Kick,
Fantasy 3250, the last of which includes a few er-
ratic solo appearances by tenor saxophonist Brew
Moore. Tjader can also be heard on Cal Tjader
Plays Tjazz, Fantasy 3211.

Reno Tondelli. Tondelli heads a quintet which
uses a smooth clarinet-accordion voicing and falls,
in jazz terms, in between the swinging Leon Sash
and the background music of Art Van Damme. On
Reno Plays Nevada, Stepheny 4005, the clarinet
helps to cut the lushness inherent in Tondelli's
warm, rich tone and gives the group's work a bright
feeling.

Cy Touff. Touff is the first jazz musician who has
had the audacity to tie his career to the bass
trumpet. For several years during the Fifties he
was one of the more forceful factors in Woody
Herman's band. The easy, ingratiating, swinging
style that is characteristic of ToufFs playing is
caught by both an octet and a quintet with which
he works in Cy Touff, World Pacific 1211. There
are occasional routine moments when the larger
group is playing en masse but Touff, Richie Kamuca

290 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

and Harry Edison are out front most of the time
riding brightly over excellent rhythm support.
Virtually the same program has been reissued as
Havin' a Ball, World Pacific 410, and an excerpt
from it will be found in Jazz West Coast, Vol. 2,
World Pacific JWC 501. Touff shows an unexpected
affinity for Dixieland on one side of Doorway to
Dixie, Argo 606 (shared with Miff Mole), making
the bass trumpet take the trombone's customary
role in some rather lackadaisical performances.

John Towner (John T. Williams). Towner skirts
lightly into jazz on parts of his four selections in
The Modern Jazz Gallery, Kapp KXL 5001, but
he has a leaning to cocktail pastels which takes
over completely on The John Towner Touch, Kapp
1055.

Lennie Tristano. The swooping, gliding flow of
Lennie Tristano's sextet in the late Forties estab-
lished a sound which is still being emulated to
some degree by his disciples (notably Lee Konitz
and Warne Marsh) and which left its mark, even
if only briefly, on several jazz writers. The swing-
ing relaxation of the Tristano group as it was in
1949 is caught on three selections in Cool and
Quiet, Capitol T 371, a much better representation
of Tristano's work of that period than his tinnily
recorded piano solos (with guitarist Billy Bauer) in
the four selections he contributes to The Jazz Key-
board, Savoy 12043, or the two slightly more co-
herently reproduced solos (again with Bauer) on
Advance Guard of the Forties, EmArcy 36016.

The only really valid display of Tristano's work
currently available is Lennie Tristano, Atlantic
1224, which marked his return to recording after he
had been away from the studios for several years. He
is heard here both as soloist and with a group (in-
cluding Konitz) in night club performances. His so-

The Records 291

los are absorbing and compelling, with strong, fresh
rhythmic and melodic accents. The fact that they in-
volve tape manipulation is of little importance in
the face of the fascinating and stimulating piano
jazz his manipulations produce. Tristano has one
solo piece in Modern Jazz Piano: Four Views, Cam-
den 384.

Richard Twardzik. Twardzik, who died in 1955 at
the age of 24, was an original mind whose approach
to the jazz piano was imaginative and witty. He
was not hamstrung by cliches of any period but,
as he shows on one side of Richard Twardzik,
World Pacific 1212 (Russ Freeman has the other
side), his sardonic imagination seized on whatever
means of expression suited his ends. His version of
I'll Remember April is a hard, driving, two-handed
adaptation of the most familiar modern piano style
while his slily needling and carefully developed
Albuquerque Social Swim is practically devoid of
the modernist's urgent linear leanings. Yellow
Tango, the most successful of these generally ex-
cellent performances, is a delightful melange of ap-
pealingly melodic passages and varied interplays of
rhythms which give both bass and drums an equal
position with the piano. He has one selection in
Pianists Galore!, World Pacific JWC 506.

Phil Urso. One of the tenor saxophonists descended
from Lester Young, Urso can swing amiably in the
proper company but needs both prodding and help.
On The Philosophy of Urso, Savoy 12056, both his
strong and weak points are displayed as he plays
several well worked out selections in the stimulat-
ing company of valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer,
then stumbles through some long solos with only a
rhythm section behind him and bogs into languid
background music with nothing but an organ to
lift him. Sentimental Journey, Regent 6003, places

292 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

him in the company of an organ all the way and he
becomes even more moodily backgroundish. He
swings a little more freely in single selections on
Solo Flight, World Pacific JWC 505, and Jazz West
Coast, Vol. 3, World Pacific JWC 507.

Rene Urtreger. This French pianist plays three
selections in a pleasantly angular manner that is a
bit too bland to be of more than passing interest
on Jazz Piano International, Atlantic 1287.

Billy Usselton. A product of the Claude Thornhill,
Ray Anthony and Les Brown bands, Usselton has a
lithe, graceful style on tenor saxophone and a
fondness for bland arrangements that reflects his
big band experience. His First Album, Kapp 1051,
played by a small contingent drawn largely from
the Brown band, is sporadically light and bounc-
ing, sporadically pretentious. It is of interest mainly
for the unusual "bottom" sound given to ensem-
bles by Abe Aaron's bass clarinet. The four selec-
tions played by Usselton's Sextet in Modern Jazz
Gallery, Kapp KCL 5001, are occasionally amiable
in the ensembles but almost always listless in the
solos.

Jerry Valentine. Valentine, a onetime arranger for
the Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine big bands of the
Forties, has assembled on Outskirts of Town, Pres-
tige 7145, a rocking, shouting ten-piece band made
up of top-flight modernists (Art Farmer, Pepper
Adams, Jerome Richardson, Ray Bryant, Buster
Cooper, etc.). It struts through a variety of blues
with the driving swagger that once could be found
in the Harlem jump bands. The shift to pulsing
earthiness throws a new and heartening light on
some of the modernists involved who often sound
glib in their normal habitat notably the positive
punch that Adams achieves on baritone saxophone

The Records 293

and Jerome Richardson's exquisite cry on alto. This
is real meat-and-potatoes big band jazz.

Art Van Damme. Although Van Damme, an ac-
cordionist, wins jazz polls with great consistency, he
is closer to slick cocktail music than he is to jazz.
His group (usually accordion, vibes, bass, guitar
and drums) plays with a smooth, gentle swing on
most numbers but in today's jazz terms this is pop
music. His disks are all cut from the same mold:
The Art of Van Damme, Columbia CL 876, Man-
hattan Time, Columbia CL 801, Martini Time,
Columbia CL 630, They're Playing Our Song,
Columbia C2L-7, The Van Damme Sound, Colum-
bia CL 544, Cocktail Capers, Capitol T 178, More
Cocktail Capers, Capitol T 300.

Sarah Vaughan. Although she has one of the rich-
est, least restricted and most compelling voices ever
applied to jazz, Miss Vaughan has spent so much of
her career wringing the chord changes with such
grim determination that her true jazz potential has
rarely been realized. She has the flexibility, range
and knowledge to do almost anything with her
voice that she wants to and as she has matured as
an artist it has become increasingly evident that
her prime forte is the ballad. She has been doing
these songs with steadily diminishing emphasis on
eccentric mannerisms, allowing her excellent voice
to be heard in more or less unadorned beauty.

From the point of view of jazz, Miss Vaughan
reached a recorded peak on Sarah Vaughan in the
Land of Hi-Fi, EmArcy 36058, a disk on which she
is in excellent voice on both ballads and rhythm
numbers. It includes two of her most blithe jazz
performances, Cherokee and How High the Moon,
both of which are embellished with driving alto
saxophone solos by Julian Adderley. She is in re-
laxed good humor on Swingin' Easy, EmArcy

294 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

36109, and in portions of Sarah Vaughan, EmArcy
36004.

She is the superior ballad singer on After Hours,
Columbia CL 660, Sassy, EmArcy 36089, Sarah
Vaughan at the Blue Note, Mercury 20094, Won-
derful Sarah, Mercury 20219, In a Romantic Mood,
Mercury 20223, Sarah Vaughan Sings Great Songs
from Hit Shows, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Mercury 20244
and 20245, Sarah Vaughan at Mr. Kelly's, Mercury
20236, Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin, Vol.
1 and Vol. 2, Mercury 20310 and 20311. Some of
her earlier, more mannered ballads, originally is-
sued on the Musicraft label, are collected in My
Kinda Love, MGM 3274, Concert, Concord 3018,
and Sarah Vaughan, Rondo 102 (these three disks
are full of duplications).

She is wasted on trivialities on After Hours at the
London House, Mercury 20283, allows her coyness
to show too much on Sarah Vaughan in Hi-Fi,
Columbia CL 745, and is buried by a big orchestra
and a chorus on Linger Awhile, Columbia CL 914.

She sings two selections in For Jazz Lovers, Em-
Arcy 36086, and Under One Roof, EmArcy 36088,
and one each in $64,000 Jazz, Columbia CL 777,
Bargain Day, EmArcy 36087, and The Jazz Giants,
Vol. 8, EmArcy 36071.

Charlie Ventura. Ventura plays every type of saxo-
phone so far devised and can be one of the most
exhilaratingly swinging performers on the tenor
saxophone that jazz has known. However, he con-
stantly mars his performances by descending to the
coarsest type of blatency. His most consistent period
after leaving Gene Krupa's band in the middle
Forties was during the remainder of that decade
when he led several small groups which not only
had unusual merit but, in a period when most
small groups were bop-bred stereotypes of each
^ther, had character of their own.

The Records 295

Two representative collections by these groups
are East of Suez, Regent 6064, and Jumping with
Ventura, EmArcy 36015. The Regent disk includes
several examples of Buddy Stewart's very swinging
bop singing with a group of Woody Herman side-
men and with the Ventura group which included
Kai Winding on trombone. Both of these groups
also turn up on the EmArcy disk, along with Ven-
tura's excellent 1949 group which included Bennie
Green, trombone, and Boots Mussulli, alto saxo-
phone, with vocals by Jackie Cain and Roy Krai
(as well as by Stewart). On the minus side of the
EmArcy disk are four badly recorded selections by a
big band Ventura led in 1946 and 1947. The 1949
group is also heard in a set that shows off its cleanly
executed, wild drive, Charlie Ventura in Concert,
GNP 1, and on A Charlie Ventura Concert* Decca
8046, recorded two weeks before the group dis-
banded. The last disk, an inadequate display of the
group, is saved only by the amusing singing of Cain
and Krai (their classic I'm Forever Blowing Bub-
bles is included). A later, brief teaming between
Cain and Krai and Ventura (1953) is part of the
cross-section of Ventura swinging, stomping, lyri-
cal that makes up Here's Charlie, Brunswick
54025. The Ventura of the Fifties, getting excellent
support from pianist Dave McKenna and Kai
Winding, takes up one side of. An Evening with
Mary Ann McCall and Charlie Ventura, Verve
8143.

Through all these disks Ventura plays with vigor
and, for the most part, with reasonable taste. But
now Dr. Jekyll begins to turn into Mr. Hyde. As a
starting point, there is Charlie Ventura Plays Hi-Fi
Jazz, Tops 1528, on which an excellent group made
up of Dave McKenna, piano, Bill Bean, guitar,
Richard Davis, bass, and Mousie Alexander, drums,
plays what would have been an unusually good set
if Ventura had not been on hand to flaw it with his

296 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

over-broad playing. On In a Jazz Mood, Verve 8163,
Ventura manages to stay in context, whether on
ballads or flag-wavers, but his playing is vacant
while on Blue Saxophones, Verve 8165, he runs a
gamut from lacy delicacy to gross blats. Charlie
Ventura's Carnegie Hall Concert, Verve 8132, a
1947 performance, is very badly recorded and
Ventura and most of the other soloists (Charlie
Shavers in particular) devote themselves to tasteless
exhibitionism, a tendency Ventura repeats on
Saturday Night Swing Session, Counterpoint 549.

Ventura has two selections on Tenor Sax, Con-
cord 3012, one in Battle of the Saxes, EmArcy
36023, The Playboy Jazz Allstars, Playboy 1957,
Verve Compendium of Jazz $1, Verve 8194, and
The Encyclopedia of Jazz on Records, VoL 4,
Decca 8401.

Billy Ver Planck. Ver Planck has served time as a
trombonist with the bands of Tommy Dorsey,
Charlie Spivak and Neal Hefti but his main con-
tribution to recorded jazz is as an arranger. He
writes in what is essentially a solid, swing band
style tempered to frame modern jazz soloists. There
are times on Dancing Jazz, Savoy 12101, when he
uses some Sauter-Finegan peeps and cheeps but by
and large his arrangements are loose frames on
which to hang solos. In this case Joe Wilder is on
hand to play some beautifully shaded trumpet but
Ver Planck really cashes in on his formula of pro-
viding a swinging basis for swinging soloists on
Jazz for Play Girls, Savoy 12121, on which Bill Har-
ris blows his trombone with a zest and force that
date back to his Herman Herd days in the Forties,
Phil Woods' alto saxophone has a fierce vitality and
iWilder, Eddie Costa and Seldon Powell all chip
in on the driving, loose-but-intense performances.
This is hot jazz, up to date and straight down the

The Records 297

middle. Ver Planck has two selections in Jazz Is
Busting Out All Over, Savoy 12123.

Leroy Vionegar. Vinnegar has gained a reputation
as one of the steadiest bassists on the West Coast.
He lives up to it on Leroy Walks!, Contemporary
3542, as his bass stalks ominously through a group
of otherwise static selections which are fired at
times by the dark brown thoughts of Carl Perkins
at the piano.

Tony Vos. Vos' quartet forms a frame for the Dutch
saxophonist's willowy and graceful alto saxophone
lines on Jazz Behind the Dikes, Epic 3270.

Mai Waldron. After a two-year association with
Charlie Mingus, from 1954 to 1956, Waldron has
worked regularly as Billie Holiday's accompanist,
a task in which he has been a patient and steadying
influence. It is not, however, a situation which al-
lows Waldron's own musical personality to come
across very clearly. For that he has resorted to
recordings and he has expressed himself there with
great clarity even though much of his disk work has
been on banal blowing sessions. He is a fascinat-
ingly suggestive pianist who conveys a jumping,
swinging feeling with an economy of actual move-
ment. And beyond this he is an original and quite
personal writer with a flair for melody and an in-
terest in exploring textures and accents.

He has had his best opportunities to express him-
self on a series of disks on which he has been the
leader. On Mal-1, Prestige 7090, his two principal
soloists, Idrees Sulieman, trumpet, and Gigi Gryce,
alto saxophone, play unusually well while Waldron
contributes several provocative compositions and
arrangements (especially a version of Yesterdays
that is a remarkably interesting rewriting of a real

298 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

warhorse) and plays with typically dark, warm
charm. Mal-2, Prestige 7111, contains several inter-
esting ideas that are stretched out through empty
solos that drain them of interest but Mal-3 /Sounds,
Prestige 8201, finds him back in the groove, provid-
ing contexts for his soloists which are tremendously
helpful to Eric Dixon, flute, and Calo Scott, cello,
and which guide trumpeter Art Farmer to some im-
pressively positive solos. On a trio of blowing ses-
sions, All Night Long, Prestige 7073, After Hours,
Prestige 7118, and Wheelin' and Dealing Prestige
7131, Waldron is an oasis of rationality in what is
otherwise (except for Kenny Burrell's guitar work
on All Night Long) a desert of empty solos.

Jimmy Walker. Normally a tenor saxophonist, this
English jazzman plays a very tentative soprano
saxophone as he leads a quartet in a single selection
on Third Festival of British Jazz, London LL 1444.

George Wallington. Wallington was playing piano
on New York's 52nd Street in its earliest bop days
and has continued to churn out his quiet, single
note performances ever since without establishing
a particularly positive musical personality. His
work is suave and neat, technical and intellectual
rather than emotionally communicative. Some in-
differently recorded performances from the late
Forties in which Wallington is heard in a pair of
trio formats and with a small group which includes
Brew Moore's Young-bred tenor saxophone and
Buddy Stewart on vocals make up George Walling-
ton Trio and Septets, Savoy 12081. In a much later
trio recording, Knight Music, Atlantic 1275, Wal-
lington receives much better recording but his play-
ing is still business-like and matter-of-fact in a pro-
gram or originals and sophisticated ballads.

Working with a quintet which includes Phil
Woods, alto saxophone, and Donald Byrd, trumpet,

The Records 299

Wallington warms up somewhat on Jazz at Hotch-
kiss, Savoy 12122, only to have some of his best
work shattered by Nick Stabulas' bomb-bedeviled
drumming. The same group is heard on Jazz for
the Carriage Trade, Prestige 7032. A different quin-
tet on The Prestidigitator, East-West 4004, tackles
some of the down-home flavored compositions of
Mose Allison but Wallington's sophisticated piano
has little meaning in this context and neither J. R.
Monterose's harsh tenor saxophone nor Jerry
Lloyd's gruff bass trumpet catches Allison's back
country feeling. During a trip to Sweden, Walling-
ton recorded with a Swedish group on one side of
Swingin' in Sweden, EmArcy 36131 (shared with
Jimmy Raney) but his piano proves to be no match
for the warmth and rhythmic lift of his Swedish
colleagues Arne Domnerus on alto saxophone and
Ake Persson, trombone. George Wallington with
Strings, Verve 2017, is mood music with traces of
Erroll Garner in Wallington's piano. Wallington
contributes single selections to A Potpourri of Jazz,
Verve 2032, and Metronome All Stars 1956, Verve
8030.

Wilbur Ware. Ware is one of the most sensitively
swinging bassists to reach records during the latter
Fifties. He is so cognizant of the bassist's primary
pulsant role that even when he is the nominal
leader of a quintet on The Chicago Sound, River-
side 12-252, he refuses to be a tiresome solo virtuoso.
And when he does step out alone, his cleanly ex-
pressed solo lines are closely integrated with the
rest of his group. The disk is of secondary interest
in that it shows that the hard bop school, which
usually depends on overwhelming the listener with
an inescapable barrage of sound, is capable of im-
aginative development and shaded projection when
a perceptive mind is at the helm. Both tenor saxo-
phonist Johnny Griffin and alto saxophonist John

300 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Jenkins, the only horns in the group, play with un-
accustomed grace and warmth. Ware has a single
selection in Riverside Drive, Riverside 12-267.

Jimmy Watson. Watson's dark-toned, expressive
trumpet is featured with his English orchestra in an
expansive and brooding version of Body and Soul
on Jazz Britannia, MGM 3472.

Chuck Wayne. Wayne served as a propulsive force
in Woody Herman's powerhouse band of the mid-
Forties and, in gentler circumstances, with the
original George Shearing Quintet. His relaxed,
unforced and unostentatious playing were excel-
lently highlighted on String Fever, Vik 1098, a disk
which disappeared when Victor abandoned the en-
tire Vik catalogue. His light, swinging touch is ap-
parent on his four selections in The Four Most
Guitars, ABC-Paramount 109, although the settings
here are much less imaginative than those Wayne
contrived for his Vik disk.

Frank Wess. Since 1953 Wess has given Count
Basic's band one of its few strong solo voices. With
Basic he practically always plays a rugged, surging
tenor saxophone but in a recording studio he is
featured more often than not on flute which he
plays with some suggestion of zest and virility. He
is, however, a much more valid jazz musician on
tenor and it should be noted that on No Count,
Savoy 12078, he turns to the flute on only one num-
ber. He plays this disk with a group of Basic men
who also predominate on Trombones, Savoy 12086,
which has a particularly Basie-like sound, North,
South, East Wess, Savoy 12072, and Opus in
Swing, Savoy 12085, which is notable for some dark
blue Kenny Burrell guitar solos. Burrell is also the
saving factor on Jazz for Playboys, Savoy 12095,
while Wess' piping flute is completely overshad-

The Records 301

owed by Milt Jackson's vibes on Opus de Jazz,
Savoy 12-36. Wess plays one selection on Jazz Is
Busting Out All Over, Savoy 12123.

Richard Wess. Wess leads a moderate-sized orches-
tra from his piano on Music She Digs the Most,
MGM 3491 smooth, jazz-tinged arrangements
through which his piano roams with calm assur-
ance. He also appears once on Forty-Eight Stars of
American Jazz, MGM 3611.

Westlake College Quintet. An ingratiating, tightly-
knit little group sparked by the range and assur-
ance of Sam Firmature's tenor saxophone and the
gentle leatheriness of Luther MacDonald's valve
trombone represents a California music school on
Westlake College Quintet, Decca 8393.

Randy Weston. Weston's markedly melodic and
rhythmic piano work has been strongly influenced
by Thelonious Monk (Weston was the first striking
evidence that Monk was beginning to be an influ-
ence) but he is a more directly swinging pianist
than Monk. During the late Fifties Weston has
shown an increasing fondness for jazz waltzes, most
of them revolving around children or childhood
scenes. They manage to be evocative, tender and
remarkably good jazz. And Weston is his own best
interpreter for his compositions are a very direct
extension of his performing personality. When, for
instance, Melba Liston attempts to arrange some of
Weston's more charming pieces for a sextet on
Little Niles, United Artists 4011, the spirit of the
selections is dissipated and is retrieved only when
Weston has a piano solo spot.

He has free rein in trio performances on Get
Happy, Riverside 12-203, a swinging, bubbling set;
Trio and Solo, Riverside 12-227, on which Art
Blakey, a frequent colleague of Monk's, teams very

302 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

capably with Weston; and Piano a la Mode, Jubilee
1060, an impressively varied collection which in-
cludes a pair of highly charged, driving selections
on which Weston ingeniously ties together ideas
from both the basic jazz pianists and the Monk
wing of pianism to punch his points home. There
is also some lithe, looping Weston piano on The
Modern Art of Jazz, Vol. 3, Dawn 1116, Randy
Weston Trio Plus Cecil Payne, Riverside 12-214,
and Jazz a la Bohemia, Riverside 12-232, but on all
three Cecil Payne's drab, watery baritone saxo-
phone intrudes in lumbering fashion.

Weston has single selections on Riverside Drive,
Riverside 12-267, Critics' Choice, Dawn 1123, and
Jazz for Hi-Fi Lovers, Dawn 1124.

Gerald Wiggins. A onetime sideman with Louis
Armstrong, Benny Carter and Jerry Fielding, and
accompanist to Lena Home, Wiggins has a strongly
rhythmic piano style, a sensitive touch and a good
sense of construction. He gives a quick witted, sly
treatment to the score of Around the World in
Eighty Days, Specialty 2101.

Bob Wilber (see The Six).

Joe Wilder. One of the most lyrical of jazz trum-
peters runs from serene brilliance to sloppiness and
shakiness in the course of Wilder 'n' Wilder, Savoy
12063.

Ernie Wilkins. Since he left Count Basic's reed
section in 1955, Wilkins has been in constant de-
mand as an arranger, primarily for Basic, for
Tommy Dorsey and for Harry James. On his own
record dates he has built two sessions around a pair
of powerhouse trumpet sections Trumpets All
Out, Savoy 12096, uses Art Farmer, Emmett Berry,
Charlie Shavers, Ernie Royal and Shorty Baker;

The Records 303

Top Brass, Savoy 12044, has Joe Wilder, Ernie
Royal, Ray Copeland, Idrees Sulieman and Donald
Byrd. The first group makes up a muscular brass
ensemble which has a great shouting spirit without
being simply noisy. Shorty Baker (of the Ellington
band) and Emmett Berry are particularly refresh-
ing. On the other disk none of the soloists is as
creative as Wilkins has been in writing his helpful
frameworks. Wilkins splits arranging and conduct-
ing chores with Manny Albam on Drum Suite,
Victor LPM 1279, a series of imaginative pieces
played by a big band with driving eloquence.

Wilkins is both arranger and performer on
Flutes and Reeds, Savoy 12022, and Clarke-Wilkins
Septet, Savoy 12007. The first, which features both
Frank Wess and Jerome Richardson on flute and
tenor saxophone, is badly recorded but the group
swings when the flutes are set aside. Wilkins shows
a dark, gravelly singing tone on alto saxophone on
a ballad on this disk. He is much better on this
type of material than in a swinging improvisation,
a point which he makes on both disks. The Septet
disk is burdened with dull soloists.

John Williams. Although his lively, vital, churning
piano work often improves records on which he ap-
pears as a sideman, Williams does himself little
justice with his fussily constructed work on The
John Williams Trio, EmArcy 36061. He is heard
once on The Young Ones of Jazz, EmArcy 36085.

John T. Williams (see John Towner).

Claude Williamson. There is a mechanical, emo-
tionless quality in Williamson's glib, slick, single-
noted piano playing on Keys West, Capitol 6511,
'Round Midnight, Bethlehem 69, and Williamson
Mulls the Mulligan Scene , Criterion 601.

304 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Stu Williamson. A capable but relatively routine
trumpet player who is much better on valve trom-
bone, Williamson is heard on trumpet only on Stu
Williamson, Bethlehem 55, and on four selections
in Jazz Swings Broadway, World Pacific 404.

Kai Winding. The brash, blowsy trombone heard
in Stan Kenton's band in 1947 served notice of the
arrival of Kai Winding (although he had been a
sideman in several bands since the early Forties, in-
cluding that of Benny Goodman). Since a brief
stay with Charlie Ventura in 1948, Winding has
led his own groups except for a two-year period in
the Fifties when he joined forces with trombonist
J. J. Johnson. Winding has a wide range as a per-
former. He can play with rough and rugged enthu-
siasm but is more inclined to a flowing version of
the brisk, staccato manner which is typical of John-
son.

The Winding of the late Forties rough, slashing
and nervously jabbing can be heard in four
mildly boppish selections in In the Beginning . . .
Bebop!, Savoy 12119, and on Loaded, Savoy 12074,
a collaboration with Shorty Rogers and Stan Getz
which looks back to the swing days with lively en-
thusiasm. Single selections from this same period,
both featuring Gerry Mulligan, are included on
Roost Fifth Anniversary Album, Roost 1201, and
Operation Jazz, Roost OJ1.

The recordings made by the Winding Johnson
team are discussed under J. J. Johnson. After the
two trombonists went their separate ways, Winding
led a septet built around four trombones which, on
The Trombone Sound, Columbia CL 936, proves
that even a good sound can be run into the ground.
But the group gets more variety in Trombone
Panorama, Columbia CL 999, moving from lusty
shouting on The Preacher to gracefully shaded
delicacy on Come Rain or Come Shine. The disk

The Records 305

contains two long production numbers, one a nos-
talgic rundown of popular trombone styles which
is done with a surprising amount of good humor,
the other a rewrite in cool jargon of Frankie and
Johnny which is loaded with appropriately wailing
trombones but staggers under an agonizingly arch
script.

Winding's trombone group supports a busy and
glassily aggressive vocal group on The Axidentals,
ABC-Paramount 232. He contributes single selec-
tions to The Playboy Jazz Allstars, Playboy 1957,
Modern Jazz Hall of Fame, Design 29, and Forty-
Eight Stars of American Jazz, MGM 3611.

Pinky Winters. There are some reflections of Lee
Wiley and Ella Fitzgerald in the work of a gener-
ally sensitive pop singer on Lonely One, Argo 604.
She is accompanied by a quartet which includes
Chico Hamilton and Gerald Wiggins.

Jimmy Woode. Duke Ellington's bassist has the
good sense not to turn The Colorful Strings of
Jimmy Woode, Argo 630, into a bassist's holiday.
But although he keeps his bass in its place and
seems to have tried to build each piece on an idea,
the ideas are not developed into strong perform-
ances. Clark Terry is present but to no avail.

Phil Woods. Woods came to notice in 1954 bearing
all the stigmata of the lesser Parker-aping alto saxo-
phonists shrill tone, empty, clichd runs and a
doggedly fierce attack. In the years since then he
has gained in assurance and breadth and has ac-
quired some warmth but he remains a highly de-
rivative performer.

He shows his growing sense of structure and im-
proved tone on The Young Bloods, Prestige 7080,
and, on Down East, Prestige 7033, he manages to
float with such ease and smoothness that he makes

306 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

one of his colleagues, Zoot Sims, sound muscle-
bound in comparison. His playing is strong but
harsh on Four Altos, Prestige 7116, and Woodlore,
Prestige 7018. The last disk is notable for some
warm, personal piano playing by John Williams
which contrasts sharply with Woods' insensitive
slugging. An apparent attempt to move Woods into
the mild graces of ballads and easy tempos on
Warm Woods, Epic 3426, misses the mark because,
whatever the drawbacks of his uptempo playing, it
at least allows him to unleash the rousing spirit
which is his greatest asset. He is still too strident for
balladry.

A Night at the Five Spot, Signal 1204, a memo-
rial concert dedicated "to the music of Charlie
Parker," gives him a legitimate reason for returning
to his source but, aside from a pair of reflective,
probing solos by pianist Duke Jordan, the disk
settles into a monotonous sameness. On three disks
Woods pairs off with another Parker-descended
alto, Gene Quill, who has had even less success in
loosening the silver cord than Woods has. Woods
is easily the most impressive of the two on Phil and
Quill, Victor LPM 1284, and Phil and Quill with
Prestige, Prestige 7115, but on both there is much
too much very similar alto playing. On Pairing Off,
Prestige 7046, which brings the two together again,
they plod their ways through four very long blow-
ing pieces.

John Young. A Chicago pianist in the Jamal vein
spins filigrees around a solid rhythm core on Young
John Young, Argo 612.

Lester Young. One of the most effective and invit-
ing bridges from swing to modern jazz was built by
Lester Young during the late Thirties and early
Forties. For much of this time he was with Count
Basic's band, his tenor saxophone hoisted at an

The Records 307

alarming angle and pouring out smooth-edged,
floating lines that swung with an airiness that was
in complete contrast to the lunging, dark-toned
school of tenor which had been accepted as the way
to play the instrument since Coleman Hawkins had
devised it in the late Twenties. Young's influence
was so pervasive that by 1940 the Hawkins sound
could rarely be heard in the work of any of the
young tenor men. The full, mellow, singing playing
of Young with the Basie band in the late Thirties
is the focus of both Lester Leaps In, Epic 3107, and
Let's Go to Prez, Epic 3168. Two light and lusty
products of a 1943 session which preserve the Basie
atmosphere (with Johnny Guarnieri sitting in for
Basie) are included in Giants of Jazz, Vol. 3, Part 2,
EmArcy 36051. Two lesser efforts from the same
session are on Giants of Jazz, Vol. 3, Part 1, Em-
Arcy 36050.

A cross-section of Young's work in the middle
Forties makes up Blue Lester, Savoy 12068, con-
sisting of first "takes" from four different sessions,
and The Master's Touch, Savoy 12071, alternate
"takes" from the same sessions. Young is extremely
inconsistent in these performances. He is dark and
moving on the title piece of Blue Lester, for in-
stance, and brilliantly rhythmic on Exercise in
Swing (which has some superb Billy Butterfield
trumpet) and Crazy Over Jazz (originally known as
Crazy Over /-Z) but he is just as apt to be empty,
static or strained, foreshadowing the steady dwin-
dling of his creative powers in the years ahead.

From this later period the middle Forties until
his death in 1959 one of his happiest sessions was
Lester Young-Buddy Rich Trio, Verve 8164, on
which some vital rhythm support seems to spur
Young to efforts that recall his happier days. Rich
prods him effectively again in one of the three
groups heard on Pres, Verve 8162. Under Rich's
impetus, Young could still swing but his ballads

308 THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

had become swollen and fuzzy. On Lester Young,
Verve 8187, badly recorded with a dull group, his
lines have hardened and there is a noticeable lack
of ideas or development in his playing, character-
istics which make Lester's Here, Verve 8161, The
President, Lester Young, Verve 8181, The President
Plays, Verve 8144, and Pres and Sweets, Verve 8134,
depressing listening experiences. Young is heard in
single selections on The Anatomy of Improvisation,
Verve 8230, and Verve Compendium of Jazz #1,
Verve 8194.

Webster Young. Young plays a cool, fumbling
cornet, trudging breathily through a set of ballads
and blues associated with Billie Holiday on For
Lady, Prestige 7106, with scarcely a flicker of emo-
tion. He also takes part in a long blowing session,
Interplay for Two Trumpets and Two Tenors,
Prestige 7112.

index

Numbers in italics refer to pages where the musician's work as a
leader is discussed.

Aaron, Abe. 292

Abdul-Malik, Ahmed, 200

Adams, Pepper, 19, 205, 292

Addams, Chas., 199

Adderley. Julian, 19-20, 21, 46,

67, 84\ 97, 279, 293
Adderley, Nat, 20-21, 67, 154
Aldyoshi, Toshiko, 21, 260
Albam, Manny, 21-23. 101. 178,

278, 303

Albany, Joe, 23-24
Albrecht, Walter, 168
Aless, Tony, 24
Alexander, Mousie, 295
Alexandria, Lorez, 24-25
AUen, Red, 192
Allen, Steve, 23
Allison, Mose, 25, 188, 299
Almeida, Laurindo, 26
Alpert, Trigger, 26, 163
Ammons, Albert, 26
Ammons,
Amram,

Anderson, rnene, -
Andre's Cuban All Stars, 28
Anthony, Ray, 292
Armstrong, Louis, 7, 11, 47, 49,

51, 79. 113, 138, 141, 214,

234, 302
Arnold, Buddy, 28
Arnold, Harry, 28
Ashby, Dorothy, 29
Astor, Bob, 272
Auld, Georgie, 29-30, 163, 245,

Australian Jazz Quartet/Quintet,

30

Axen, Bent, 53
Axidentals, The, 305

Babasin, Harry, 30-31
Babbitt, Milton, 40-41
Bach, J. S., 50, 170

, . ., ,
Bagley, Don, SI
Bailey,

, ,

aey, Mildred, 216, 261
Baker, Chet, 16, 31-33, 76, 87,

I0i 103, 111, 207-^08, 211,

227, 269

Baker, Shorty, 119, 302-303
Ball, Ronnie, 33, 49, 59, 67, 78,

187, 245

Balliett, Whitney, 136
Barber, Bill, 42

309

Barnet, Charlie, 7, 22, 33-34, 86,
95, 100, 101, 137, 176, 246,
255, 261

Barretto, Ray, 105

Barrow, George, 27

Bartok, Bela, 170

Basic, Count, 7, 12-13, 22, 24,
28, 33, 54, 67, 69, 92, 93,
102, 120, 124, 136-138, 139,
149, 155, 156, 157, 163, 182,
213-214, 217, 229, 231-232,
241, 245, 24^-250, 251, 255,
259, 281, 300, 302, 306-307

Basin t., 47 , 247

Bateman, Charlie, 35

Bauer, Billy, 34, 290

Bauza, Mario, 180

Bean, Billy, 34^35, 232, 295

Be Bop Boys, 114

Bechet, Sidney, 20, 166, 275

Beeks, Clarence, 233

Beiderbecke, Bix, 13, 16, 23, 31,
283

Belafonte, Harry, 181

Bell, Aaron, 35

Bell, Marty, 93-94

BeUetto, Al, 35

Bellson, Louis, 35-36

Beneke, Tex, 43, 200

Benjamin, Joe, 52

Bennett, Tony, 39, 132, 156, 268

Berigan, Bunny, 47, 85

Berman, Sonny, 36

Bernhart, Milt, 238, 245

Bernstein, Leonard, 22, 239

Berry, Emmett, 156, 302-303

Bert, Eddie, 36, 170, 189, 259

Best, Skeeter, 196

Betts, Keter, 57

Bickert, Ed, 164

Bigard, Barney, 132

Birch, Woody, 234

Bishop, Walter, Jr., 225

Blackhawk, The, 52

Blakey, Art, 17, 36-39, 82-83,
87, 92, 147, 184, 198-200,
205, 244, 27l, 288, 301

Bley, Paul, 39

Blue Note, The, 294

Blue Stars, The, 39

Bolden, Buddy, 15

Bonnier, Bess, 40

310

THE COLLECTOR S JAZZ

Boozier, Henry, 148
Boyd, Jimmy, 203
Bradley, Will, 177
Bradshow, Evans, 40
Braff, Ruby, 214
Brahms, Johannes, 167
Brandeis Jazz Festival, 40-41
Brass Ensemble of the Jazz and

Classical Music Society, 41
Bright, Ronnell, 42
Brignola, Nick, 186
Brisano, Modesto, 62
Brock, Herbie, 43
Brokensha, Jack, 30
Brookmeyer, Bob, 22, 43-45, 65,

70, 111, 118, 208-211, 242,

267, 273, 278, 282, 291
Brooks, John Benson, 45-46
Brooks, Randy, 45
Brown, Clifford, 37-38, 46-47,

153, 247, 252
Brown, Lawrence, 156
Brown, Les, 45, 48-49, 95, 167,

226, 292

Brown, Marshall, 146
Brown, Ray, 49, 148, 163, 225,

231, 252
Brown, Ted, 49
Brubeck, Dave, 16, 49-53, 77,

88, 154, 288
Bruel, Max, 53
Brunis, George, 168
Bryant, Ray, 53, 84, 116, 283,

292

Bryant, Rusty, 53-54
Buckner, Milt, 54
Buddie, Errol, 30
Buffington, Jim, 231
Bunker, Larry, 135, 207, 220
Burgess, Bob, 54
Burke, Vinnie, 54-55, 75
Burns, Dave, 202
Burns, Ralph, 15, 55-56, 139
Burrell, Kenny, 56, 60. 63, 68,

98, 157, 178, 194, i43, 276,

298, 300
Burton, Joe, 56
Busse, Henry, 200
Butterfield, Billy, 127, 137, 307
Butterfield, Don. 189
Byas, Don, 56-5V. 115, 226
Byers, Billy, 57, 178
Byrd, Charlie, 57-58, 134
Byrd, Donald, 38, 58, 68, 91,

98, 127-128, 143, 152. 243,

253, 272, 2&, 285, 29, 303
Byrne, Bobby, 137

Cafe Bohemia, 37, 90

Cafe Society, 46

Cain, Jackie, 59, 295

Caiola, Al, 59

CaUoway, Cab, 11, 113, 136,

Campbell, Jimmy, 93

Candido, 59-60, 68, 70, 94, 284

Candoli, Conte, 60, 109, 171,

181. 193
Candoli, Pete, 60

Capp, Frankie, 220

Carisi, Johnny, 126

Carle, Frankie, 126

Carradine, John, 132

Carroll, Barbara, 60-61

Carroll, Joe, 61, 115

Carter, Benny, 14, 79, 89, 105,

123, 124, 179, 213, 24(5, 30^
Carter, Betty. 53, 61
Gary, Dick, 233
Castro, Joe, 61
Centano, Bob, 61-62
Chaloff, Serge, 62, 272
Chamber Jazz Sextet, 62
Chamber Music Society of Lower

Basin Street, 189
Chambers, Paul, 63, 84
Chamblee, Eddie, 63
Charles, Ray, 25, 147
Charles Singers, Ray, 269
"' * - " 30, 63-65, 124,

Charles, u^y, *

171, 180, 237, !___
Cherry, Don, 71
Chester, Bob, 109, 167
Chevalier, Christian, 39
Chicago Symphony Orchestra,

262
Christian, Charlie, 13, 65-66,

97, 129, 134, 162
Christie Brother Stompers, 66
Christie, Keith, 66
Christy, June, 66, 73, 162, 190,

218

Cinderella, Joe, 189
Clare, Alan, 67
Clark, Sonny, 68, 89, 170
Clarke, Kenny, 13, 60, 67-68,

83, 113, 143, 179, 195, 225,

303

Clay, James, 69
Clayton, Buck, 285
Cleveland, Jimmy, 69, 240
Clovers, The, 134
Club Baby Grand, 276
Coates, Johnnv, Jr., 69
Cohn, AL 26," 56, 59, 69-70, 73,

82, 169-170, 211, 242, 273,

27&, 278
Coker, Jerry, 70-71
Cole, Nat, 190, 230
Coleman, Cy, 7 1
Coleman, Ornette, 71
Collette, Buddy, 31, 72, 131,

144, 162, 176, 218, 245, 257
Coltrane, John, 17, 63, 68, 72-

73, 79, 84, 105-106, 120, 199,

275

Connor, Chris, 73-74, 102, 218
Conover, Willis, 286
Cooper, Bob, 74-75, 85, 122,

162, 176, &38, 24^ 257, 266-

267

Cooper, Buster, 259, 292
Copeland, Ray, 61, 199, 236,

303

Corwin, Bob, 75, 93
Costa, Eddie, 31, 54, 75-76, 77,

94, 97. 101, 118, 130, 143,

152, 1^6, 178, 18&, 18& 240,

248, 259, 296

Index

311

Costa, Johnny, 76, 101
Costanzo, Jack, 28, 76, 220
Counce, Curtis, 64, 76-77, 78,

220

Courlander, Harold, 45
Courtley, Bert, 77
Courtley-Seymour Orchestra, 77
Crane, Fred, 35
Crawford, Jimmie, 137
Crawford, Ray, 150
Crea, Bob, 80
Crombie. Tony, 77
Crosby, Israel, 149
Grotty, Ron, 77
Cuozzo, Mike, 77-78

D'Amico, Hank, 79, 258

Dagron, Jomar, Quartet, 78

Dahl, Jim, 240

Dahlander, Bert, 78, 112

Dahlander, Nils-Bertil, 78

Dale, Bert, 78

Dameron, Tadd, 46, 68, 78-79,

212

Dankworth, Johnny, 79, 213
Da Rosa, Clem, 144
Davis, Bob, 80
Davis, Eddie, 80, 212, 280
Davis, Jackie, 80-81
Davis, Miles, 15-16, 20, 32, 42,

68, 81-85, 96, 1(55, 122. 165

171, 190, 207. 221-22^ 285
Davis, Richard, 295
Davis, Shelby, 85
Davis. Wild Bill, 85, 181, 264,

28f

Dearie, Blossom, 39
Debussy, Claude, 106
Dedrick, Rusty, $5-86, 94
De Franco, Buddy, 68, 86-88,

208

De Pippo, Angelo, 88
Desmond, Paul, 16, 50-52, 62,

88, 210

Deuchar, Jimmy, 88
De Vol, Frank, 141
Disney, Walt, &2
Distel, Sacha, 173
Dixon, Eric, 126, 298
Dodgion, Jerry, 88-89, 128, 186
Doggett, Bill, 80
Domnerus, Arne, 28, 89, 299
Donaldson. Lou, 26, 37, 89-90,

148, 27 ? 6
Dorham, Kenny, 37-38, 90, 153,

189, &35, 24-f, 271
Dorsey Brothers, Orchestra, 177
Dorsey, Jimmy, 100, 103
Dorsey, Tommy, 35, 45, 86, 244,

261, 269, 296, 302
Draper, Ray, 90
Drasnin, Bob, 218
Drew, Kenny, 90-91,
Duke, Doug, 54, 91
Dunham, Sonny, 272
Dunn, Dorothy, 91
Duran, Eddie, 77, 91-92, 128,

289
Duvivier, George, 132

Eager, Allen, 70, 104, 207, 211,

273

Eardley, Jon, 208-209, 211, 274
Eckstine, Billy, 13, 26, 3f, 90,

92, 121, 124, 212, 221, 269,

292

Edelhagen, Kurt, 92
Edison, Harry, 22, 25, 35, 49,

95-93, 95, 116. 163, 217,

229, 231, 245, 250, 290
Eldridge, Roy, 55, 93, 95, 113,

116-117, 121, 229, 280-281
Ellington, Duke, 7, 18, 33-34,

35, 65, 119. 120-121, 132-

133, 136, 139, 148, 151, 197-

198, 230, 248, 263, 283, 285-

286, 303, 305
Ellington, Mercer, 90, 179
Elliott, Bob, 151
Elliott, Don, 75-76, 86, 93-94.

112, 138, 152, 166, f88, 20^
Ellis, Herb, 95, 150, 231
Elsen, Frans, 95
English, Bill, 126
Ennis, Skinnay, 96
Ericson, Rolf. 77, 95
Evans, Bill (piano), 40, 75, 95-

96, 178

Evans, Bill (saxophone), 168
Evans, Gil, 15-16, 65, 81, 84,

94, 96-97, 169, 178, 189, 287

Fagerquist, Don, 48

Farlow, Tal, 97, 217

Farmer, Art, 22, 27, 40, 46, 56,
68, 69, 97-99, 120, 124, 127,
178, 189, 209, 237, 260, 272,
292, 298, 302

Feather, Leonard, 213

Feldman, Victor, 78, 99, 257

Ferguson, Allyn, 62

Ferguson, Maynard, 99-100

Fielding, Jerry, 100-101, 302

Fields, Herbie, 101, 189

Finckel, Ed, 241

Finegan, Bill, 260-263

Firmature, Sam, 301

First Modern Piano Quartet, 101

Fitzgerald, Ella, 24, 229, 305

Flanagan, Ralph, 241

Flanagan, Tommy, 56, 101-102,

Flax, Marty, 244
Flory, Med, 102
Foster, Frank, 102, 157
Founder, Vernell, 149-150, 272
Fowlkes, Charlie, 137
Free, Stan, 102
Freeman, Bud, 12-13
Freeman, Russ, 31-32, 102-103,
184, 238, 291

a, ony, 103-104
Fuller, Curtis, 68, 104, 152, 168,

192, 194, 205, 235
Furtado, Ernie, 93

6, 104, 118,

269

312

THE COLLECTOR S JAZZ

Gambrell, Freddie, 104-105, 132

Garcia, Dick, 105, 240

Garcia, Russell, 87, 105, 218-
219

Gari, Ralph, 105

Garland, Red, 73, 84, 105-106

Garner, Erroll, 24, 35, 56, 105,
106-108, 141, 149, 159, 213,
215, 225, 226, 268, 287, 299

Garner, Morris, 108

Garroway, Dave, 217

Gee, Matthew, 1 08

Geller, Herb, 108-109, 122

Getz, Eddie, 109

Getz, Stan, 15-16, 31, 43, 95,
109-111, 116, 121, 133, 154,
172, 210, 272-273, 277, 280,
287, 289, 304

Gibbs, Terry, 35, 43, 78, 112-
113, 169

GiUespie, Dizzy, 11, 13-15, 46,
61, 81, 90, 92, 93, 111, 115-
117, 119, 120-121, 138. 152,
159, 168, 190, 194, 19^ 196,
202, 204, 212, 216, 219, 221-
222, 224, 230, 243, 246, 253,
266, 280

Gilmore, John, 117, 158

Gitler, Ira, 275

Giuffire, Jimmy, 17, 40-42, 43-
44, 64, 95, 117-118, 129, 184,
191, 196, 209, 226, 238, 249-
250, 256-257, 283

Glamann, Betty, 118

Glasel, Johnny, 119

Gleason, Jackie, 99

Glenn, Roy, 208

Glenn, Tyree, 119, 142

Gold, Sanfori Il3

Golden, Lex, 119

Goldkette, Jean, 12

Golson, Benny, 32, 37-38, 61,
69, 99, 11&-120, 200, 204,
206

Gonsalves. Paul, 111, 116, 120-
iai,2&

Goodman, Benny, 7, 13, 26, 29,
63, 65-66, 79, 87, 109, 124,
136, 139, 166, 167, 211, 219,
236, 258, 261-262, 264, 272,
304

Gordon, Bob, 47. 121, 189, 201

Gordon, Dexter, 92, 121, 124

Gordon, Joe, 121-122

Graas, John, 122, 189

Graf, Bob, 122

Graham, Kenny, 122-123

Grand Ol' Opry, 174

Granz, Norman, 55, 123-124,
223

Gray, Wardell, 121, 124-125,

Green, Bennie, 82, 125-126, 154,

156, 241, 295
Green, Freddie, 156, 232
Green, Urbie, 26, 55, 126-127,

170, 182, 259
Gregor, Max, 127
Gridiey, Jack, 151

Grille, Bobby, 55
Grille, Frank, 180
Grimes, Tiny, 223
Gryce, Gigi, 58, 61, 98, 127-

128, 199, 285. 297
Gryce, Tommy, 61
Guarnieri, Johnny, 307
Guerin, Roger, 39
Gullin, Lars, 47, 129

Hackett, Bobby, 99, 258
Haig, Al, 110, 129, 224, 243
Hale, Corky, 129
Hall, Jim, 44, 118, 159-130, 131-

132, 173, 228

HaUberg, Bengt, 28, 47, 110, 130
Hambro, Lenny, 130
Hamilton, Chico, 35, 72, 104,

129, 130-132, 144, 158, 173
189, 207-208, 211, 228, 232
305

Hamilton, Jimmy, 132-133
Hamlin, Johnny, 133
Hampton, Lionel, 27, 46-47, 54,
90, 9l. 98, 121, 127, 131
146, 1^8, 157, 176, 229, 255
Handy, George, 178, 241, 274
Hanna, Ken, 133
Hardaway, Bob, 133
Hardman, Bill, 38, 179, 200
Hardee, John, 284
Harden, Wilbur, 168
Harnell, Jo, 133
Harper, Herbie, 220
Harper, Toni, 114
Harriott, Joe, 133
Harris, Art, 134
Harris, Barry, 194, 254
Harris, Bill (guitar), 134
Harris, Bill (trombone), 55, 134-
135, 140-141, 146, 231, 296
Harris, Gene, 135
Harris-Leigh Baroque Band and

Brass Choir, 134
Hawdon, Dickie, 79
Hawes, Hampton, 135-136, 192,

193, 227, 243

Hawkins, Coleman, 7, 12, 14, 17,
29, 36. 46, 111, 116, 121,
145, 177, 199, 228, 251, 287,
307

Hayes, Edgar, 236
Hayes, Tubby, 136, 243
Hayes, Roy, 136, 157, 200
Healey, Dick, 30
Heard, J. C., 136-137
Heath, Jimmy, 82
Heath. Percy, 82-83, 173, 176,

195, 196, 198, 224, 225
Heath, Ted, 28, 92, 159
Hefti, NeaX 15, 137-138, 193,

296

Heidt, Horace, 137
Henderson, Fletcher, 12, 37
Hendricks, Jon, 203, 23$, 254
Henry, Ernie, 138, 199
Herbert, Mort, 138

Index

313

Herman, Woody, 8, 14-16, 22,
24, 26, 33, 34, 36, 55, 60, 62,
69, 70| 95 99, 107, 109^ 117
126, 134, 136, 137, 138-141,
146, 167-168, 171, 176, 206^

296;3 2 00' 249 ' 272>289>295:
Heywood, Eddie, 27
Hickory House, 183
Hill, Nicky, 197
Hill, Teddy, 113
Hines, EarL 14, 24, 80, 92, 106,

124, 125, 215, 221, 234, 268^

Hinton, Milt, 46, 241-145, 265
Hipp, Jutta, 242, 164, 213
Hitz, Bill, 242

Hodier, Andre, 68, 242-243, 151
Hodges, Johnny, 54, 123, 130,

Hoffman, Jean, 243

Holiday, Billie, 25, 55, 174, 176,

204, 218, 297, &)8
Holiday, Joe, 243
Holman, Bill, 243-244, 171, 184-

185, 191, 283
Hope, Elmo, 144
Hopkins, Kenyon, 244
Horn, Paul, 72, 131, 244-245
Home, Lena, 34, 131, 302
Hot Five, 7
Hudson, George, 150
Hughes, Langston, 192
Humes, Helen, 217
Hyams, Margie, 268
Hyman, Dick, 245, 155, 163

Hcken, Wes, 245-246, 181, 183
Ind, Peter, ^45

International Youth Band, 246
Isola, Frank, 209

Jackson, Alvin. 157
Jackson, Chubby, 246, 278
Fackson, Milt, 16, 67, 84, 113-

114, 246-248, 176, 194, 195-

196, 212, 301
Jackson, Quentin, 286
Facquet, Illinois, 123, 148-149,

241

Jacquet, Russell, 27
famal, Ahmad, 249-250, 225,

272, 306

James, Harry, 35, 95, 302
Jaspar, Bobby, 143, 150-151,

154-155, 183, 242
Jay and Kai, 52, 126, 153-154
Jazz at the Philharmonic, 21, 55,

110. 123, 136, 196, 230

Jazz Exponents, The, 252
azz Group of Paris, The, 252
azz Lab Quintet, 58, 127-128
azz Messengers, The, 17, 37-38,
90, 194, 200, 205, 271, 288
Jazz Modes, The, 15l~152, 240,

255,270

Jazzpickers, The, 30
Jazz Prophets, The, 90
Jefferson, Eddie, 203

Jenkins, John, 152, 179, 300
Johnson, Dick, 152
Johnson, Gus, 23, 57
Johnson, J. J., 36, 41-42, 82-83,
85, 110, 150, 151, 152-155,
172, 216, 223, 253, 304
ohnson, Pete, 108
ohnson, Osie, 23, 141, 155
oily, Pete, 112, 155, 209, 260
ones, Eddie, 157
ones, Elvin, 101, 157
ones, Fritz. 150
ones, Hank, 35, 67, 101, 149,

155-156, 157, 247, 275
Jones, Jimmy, 156+ 157
Jones, Jo, 13, 67, 156, 157, 229,

232,281
Jones, Philly Joe, 84, 156-157,

159, 176, 265
Jones, Quincy, 28, 94, 136, 157,

284

Jones, Reunald, 157
T ones, Thad, 157, 192
ordan, Cliff, 117, 158
brdan, Duke, 98, 176, 225, 306
'orgenssen, Knud, 158
oyner, George, 89

Kahn, Tiny, 110, 170

Kamuca, Richie, 22, 1 58, 228,
257,289

Karr, Dave, 80

Katz, Dick, 141-142, 155, 158,
242, 265

Katz, Fred, 131. 158-159

Kay, Connie, 1/3, 178, 195

Keating, Johnny, 159

Keepnews, Orrin, 199

Keller, Jack, 86

Kelly, Peck, 23

Kelly, Wynton, 159, 166, 259

Kenney, Beverly, 156

Kenton, Stan, 15, 26, 33, 36, 60,
61, 66, 73, 74, 76, 100, 109,
116, 122, 125, 133, 139, 143,
159-162, 184, 215, 218, 219,
228, 233, 246, 249, 251, 254,
255, 256, 258, 259, 266, 278,
304

Kessel, Barney, 162-163, 218

King John I, 79

King, Teddi, 269

Kinsey, Tony, 163

Kirk, Andy, 176, 212

Kitt, Eartha, 250

Klee, Harry, 72

Klink, Al, 163

Knepper, Jimmy, 163-164, 191

Koffman, Moe, 164

Roller, Hans, 142, 164

EConitz, Lee, 16, 55, 81, 109,
164-166, 186, 208, 211, 288,
290

Kostelanetz, Andre, 160

Kotick, Teddy, 110, 225, 24

Koven, Jake, 96

Krupa, Gene, 86, 126, 218, 270,
294

314

THE COLLECTOR S JAZZ

Kuhn, Paul, 266
Kuhn, Rolf, 266

Lacy, Steve, 96, 266, 193, 279,

285

La Faro, Scott, 99
Lambert, Dave, 254
Lamond, Don, 23, 146
Lance, Herb, 114
Land, Harold, 76, 266
Lang, Ronnie, 48, 267
Lanin, Lester, 138
Laocoon, 26
La Porta, John, 40, 67, 86, 267-

268, 192, 260
Larkins, Ellis, 93
Lateef, Yusef, 168-169
Lausen, Jorgen, 258
Lawrence, Elliot, 269-270, 207
Leal, Frank, 62
Lecuona, Ernesto, 55
Lee, Dave, 79
Lee, Peggy, 219
Leigh, Mitch, 134
Leonard, Harlan, 78
Levey, Stan, 270
Levinsky, Walt, 262
Levister, Alonzo, 170-171
Levy, Lou, 22, 109, 170, 272,

250

Lewis, Jack, 22
Lewis, John, 16, 41-42, 81-83,

85, 120, 147, 153, 272-274,

195-196, 214, 222, 225, 228,

276, 277, 279
Lewis, Ramsey, 274
Lieberman, Rolf, 42, 262
Lighthouse, 74, 117, 256, 266
Lighthouse All Stars, 256
Lincoln, Abbey, 274
Lipton, Lawrence, 132
Listen, Melba, 61, 301
Lloyd, Jerry, 274, 299
London House, 284, 294
Lowe, Mundell, 163, 274-275,

17^259

Lucraft, Howard, 174-175
Lugosi, Bela, 156

MacDonald, Luther, 301
McCall, Mary Ann, 34, 276, 295
McGarity, Lou, 127, 137
McGhee, Howard, 34, 148, 153,

276-277,212,231
McKenna, Dave, 126, 152, 277,

274, 279, 282, 295
McKinley, Ray, 130, 167, 174,

277,261
McKusick, Hal, 56, 143, 277-

278, 189, 269, 271
McLean, Jackie, 38, 82, 152,

278-279, 243

McPartland, Jimmy, 116, 179
McPartland, Marian, 279
McRae, Carmen, 179-180
McRae, Teddy, 179
McShann, Jay, 221
Macero, Teo, 144, 280
Machito, 76, 280-282, 223, 239

Madna, Rob, 181

Maini, Joe, 193

Mance, Junior, 38

Mancini, Henry, 181

Mancuso, Gus, 182

Mandel, Johnny, 170, 178, 282,

191, 209-210, 267
Manhattan Septette, 182
Mann, Herbie, 182-183, 206
Marine, Shelly, 22, 31, 64, 72,
85, 110, 135, 163, 176, 283-
185, 209, 218, 23&, 252, 283
Marabuto, John, 204
Mariano, Charlie, 89, 184-185,

186

Markewich, Reese, 186
Marmarosa, Dodo, 34
Marsala, Joe, 184
Marsh, Warne, 24, 49, 165, 286-

187, 290

Marshall, Owen, 32
MarshalLWendell, 67, 144, 247
Martin, Freddie, 44
Marx, Dick, 101, 103. 187
Mastersounds, The, 187
Mathews, Mat, 76, 94, 152, 166,

187-188, 214, 240, 260
Matiock, Matty, 250
May, Billy, 29
Mayers, Lloyd, 126
Mehegan, John, 75, 188, 222
Meldonian, Dick, 282
Melle, Gil, 188-189
Melrose Avenue Conservatory

Chamber Music Society, 189
Merrill, Helen, 189-190
Metronome All Stars, 198
Metropolitan Jazz Quartet, 290-

191
Miller, Glenn, 26, 130, 163, 177,

261-262

Miller, Mitch, 107
Millinder, Lucky, 168
Millman, Jack, 191
Mingus, Charlie, 40-41, 64, 135,

163, 188, 191-192, 2r/, 297
Minton's Playhouse, 11, 13-14,

197, 247

Miranda, Juan Pablo, 77
Mr. Kelly's, 294
Mitchell, Billy, 157
Mitchell, Blue, 192
Mitchell, Dwike, 193
Mitchell, Red, 193, 208-209,

217-218

Mitchell-Ruff, 193-294,
Mitchell, Whitey, 293
Mitropoulous, Dimitri, 41
Mobley, Hank, 37-3$, 73, 91,

99, 294, 205, 271, 275
Modern Jazz Quartet, 16, 17, 67,

147-148 171, 173, 187, 294-

296, 228, 229, 237, 277, 288
Modern Men, The, 162
Modern Jazz Sextet, 296
MJT Plus 3, 297
Mole, Miff, 290
Monk, Thelonious, 13, 27, 38,

68, 71, 84, 104, 119, 136,

Index

315

197-200, 210, 214-215, 224,

283, 285, 301-302
Monterose, J. R., 200-201, 299
Montgomery Brothers, 501
Montgomery, Buddy, 201
Montgomery, Monk, 201
Montgomery, Wes, 201
Montrose, Jack, 36, 189, 201
Moody, James, 114, 202-203
Mooney, Joe, 203, 260, 261
Moondog, 123
Moore, Brew, 70, 180, 203-204,

273, 289, 298
Moore, Marilyn, 204
Moore, Pee Wee, 202
Moran, Pat, 204
Morello, Joe, 51-52, 88, 184,

259
Morgan, Frank, 181

Morris,
Morton, J<
Mosse, Sa_
Most, Sam,
Moule, Ken,

Fayne
158, P&,

197, 199, 207
93, 183, 206

Moussorgsky, Modeste, 55

Mucci, Louis, 171

Mulligan, Gerry. 16, 31, 43-44,
68, 81, 87, 8$, 111, 116, 122,
130-131, 165, 169, 182, 188,

200, 204, 206-211, 249, 264,
282, 304

Murphy, Lyle, 142, 211
Murphy, Spud, 211
Musso, Vito, 259
Mussulli, Boots, 21, 62, 295

Nagy, Charlie, 167
Nanton, Morris, 213
Nanton, Tricky Sam, 119
Navarro, Fats, 46, 78, 81, 90,

92, 190, 212, 234-235
Nevard, Mike, 213
Newborn, Phineas, Jr., 213
Newman, Joe, 137, 213-214
New Yorkers, The, 247
New York Jazz Quartet, 188, 214
Nichols, Herbie, 214-215
Niehaus, Lennie, 215, 283
Nimmons, Phil, 215
Noone, Jimmie, 280
Norem, Biarne, 136
Norman. Lon, 216
Norris, Walter, 71
Norvo, Red, 8, 14, 30, 75, 146,

201, 216-218, 236, 261

O'Day, Anita, 66, 91, 218-219
OTarriU, Chico, 114, 180, 219
Ojeda, Bob, 61
Orquestra Casablanca, 167
Ortega, Anthony, 219, 232
Orwell, George, 160
Osborne, Mary, 119
Overbrook, 202
Overton,Hall, 65,242

Page, Hot Lips, 179

Page, Walter, 156, 232

Paich, Marty, 167, 184, 189,

218, 219-220, 245
Palladium. 48
Paris, Jackie, 94, 220
Paris Opera Comique Orchestra,

Parian, Horace, 192

Parker, Charlie, 13-15, 19, 24,

38, 81-82, 88-89, 90, 92, 96,

97, 109, 113, 123, 124, 133,

138, 152, 164, 178, 180, 186,

190, 215, 216, 220-225, 227,

234, 240, 247, 264, 269, 276,

278-279, 305-306
Parker, Leo, 121
Pate, Johnnie, 225
Payne, Cecil, 225, 302
Peiffer, Bernard, 57, 225-226
PeU, Dave, 48, 226
Pena, Ralph, 118, 226-227
Pepper, Art, 32, 49, 85, 122,

176, 227-228, 243
Perkins, Bill, 158, 163, 173, 227,

228, 249, 266
Perkins, Carl, 528-229, 297
Perkins, Walter, 150
Persip, Charlie, 196
Persson, Ake, 28, 47, 183, 299
Peterson, Oscar, 21, 49, 86, 95,

111, 196, 229-230, 231, 280-

281
Pettiford. Oscar, 30, 65, 84, 153,

198-199, 230, 240, 251, 253,

275
Phillips, Flip, 55, 101, 180, 216,

230-231, 245
Phillips, Stu, 231
Pierce, Nat, 44, 107, 231-232,

269

Pilhofer, Herb, 232
Pisano, Jonny, 35, 131-132, 232
Pleasure, King, 203, 233, 254
Plonsky, John, 233
Pochonet, Gerard, 287
Pollard, Terry, 112, 157, 169
Pomeroy, Herb, 233
Potter, Tommy, 233-254
Powell, Benny, 137
Powell, Bud, 21, 43, 60, 121,

144, 153, 212, 222, 234-236,

243, 268, 279
Powell, Mel, 232
Powell, Richie, 252
Powell, Seldon, 236, 296
Powell, Specs, 236
Pozo, Chano, 59
Prado, Perez, 236-237
Prestige Jazz Quartet, 237
Previn, Ajidre, 103, 185, 237-

23S

Price, Ruth, 277
Price, Vito, 238-239
Prince, Robert, 239
Privin, Bernie, 59
Procope, Russell, 132
Puente, Tito, 140, 239
Puma, Joe, 36, 105, 240

316

THE COLLECTOR'S JAZZ

Quill, Gene, 22, 151, 175, 240-

241, 269, 279, 288, 306
Quinichette, Paul, 124, 241, 277

Rae, Johnny, 277

Raebum, Boyd, 86, 241-242, 278

Raney, Jimmy, 110, 217, 242-

243, 299
Ray, Johnny, 284
Reardon, Caspar, 29
Redd, Freddie, 26, 135, 243,

251

Redd, Sonny, 227, 243
Red Hot Peppers, 199
Rediske, Johannes, 244
Reece, Dizzy, 77, 136, 243
Rehafc, Frank, 143, 240, 244,

275

Reilly, Dean, 128
Reiner, Fritz, 262
Reinhardt, Django, 97, 115
Rendell, Don, 163, 206, 244
Rendezvous Ballroom, 161
Reynolds, Tommy, 126
Reys, Rita, 344
Rich, Buddy, 92, 200, 224, 231,

244-246, 278, 307
Richards, Ann, 162
Richards, Johnny, 114, 161, 241,

246
Richardson, Jerome, 67, 546-247,

292-293, 303
Riddle, Nelson, 87
Roach, Mas, 46-47, 83, 121, 184,

194, 222, 224-225, 247, 252-

253

Robbins, Jerome, 239
Roberts, Howard, 78, 132, 248
Robinson, Dougie, 206
Robinson, Ted, 260
Roche, Betty, 248
Rodgers, Kenny, 205
Rodney, Red, 62, 225, 248
Rogers, Shorty, 16, 64, 122, 184,

191, 208, 238, 24^-250, 256,

266-267, 304
Rohde, Bryce, 30
Roland, Gene, 251, 266
Roland, Joe, 251
Rollins, Sonny, 17, 82-83, 116,

144, 153, 198-199. 201, 212,

234, 247, 251-254
Root, Billy, 125
Rosolino, Frank, 176, 209, 245,

254, 257

Ross, Annie, 254-255
Ross, Ronnie, 172, 206
Roumanis, George, 260
Rouse, Charlie, 125, 151, 255,

283
Rowles, Jimmy, 31, 141, 217,

245, 255

Royal, Ernie, 133, 255, 302-303
Rubenstein, Marty, 256
Rugolo, Pete, 191, 255-256
Ruff, Willie, 193
Rumsey, Howard, 256-257, 266,

267
Russell, Curly, 37, 222, 224

RujseU George, 40, 64, 178,
Russo, Bill, 85, 146, 161, 184,
Ryg, Jorgen, 53, 258

Sabu, 87

Sachs, Aaron, 79, 258-259, 276
Sadi, Fats, 39, l4s
Safranski, Eddie, 259
Salim, A, K., 259
Salvador, Sal, 259-260
Sandole, Dennis and Adolph, 260
Sash, Leon, 21, 260, 289
Sauter, Eddie, 177, 260-263
Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, 42

177, 260-263, 296
Savitt, Jan, 126, 174
Saye, Joe, 203
Schaefer, Hal, 263
Schildkraut, Davy, 36, 83
Schoonderwalt, Herman, 263
SchuUer, Gunther, 40-41, 172
Scott, Bobby, 263-264, 270
Scott, Calo, 55, 298
Scott, Shirley, 80, 214, 264
Scott, Tony, 26, 105, 141, 145,

158, 172, 264-266, 278
Seaman, Phil, 266
Sears, Lee, 283
Segal, Jerry, 122, 237
Serra, Hal, 266
Serrano, Paul, 197
Seymour, Jack, 77
Shank, Bud, 72, 74-75, 162, 176,

209, 238, 244, 257, 266-267
Shannon, Terry, 243
Shapero, Harold, 40
Sharon, Ralph, 268
Shaughnessy, Ed, 26, 64, 163,

Shavers, Charlie, 35, 296, 302
Shaw, Artie, 29, 63, 87, 244,

278
Shearing, George, 116, 244, 265-

269, 286, 288, 300
Sheldon, Jack, 76-77, 269
Shepard, Tommy, 269
Sherman, Dick, 151, 269
Sherwood, Bobby, 272
Shihab, Sahib, 136, 240, 270,

279

Shirley, Don, 270
Shu, Eddie, 270
Shulman, Ira, 206, 270-271
Silver, Horace, 17, 25, 37-39,

82-83, 90, 98, 119, 127, 147,

153, 214, 271-272
Simmons, John, 108
Simmons, Norman, 248, 272
Sims, Ray, 48, 226
Sims, Zoot, 26, 32, 44, 47, 55,

70, 73, 82, 112, 142, 170,

208, 211, 214, 264, 272-275,

277, 305

Sinatra, Frank, 190, 245
Six, The, 275, 302
Smalls, Cliff 125
Small's Paradise, 276

Index

317

Smith, Alex, 244, 275

Smith, Bill, 185, 218

Smith, Carson, 131-132, 207

Smith, Charlie, 259, 275-276

Smith, Derek, 276

Smith, Jimmy, 264, 276, 281

Smith, Johnny, 277

Smith, Louis, 278

Smith, Stuff, 103, 115, 229

Smith, Willie, 217

Socolow, Frank, 275

Soft Winds, 103

Solal, Martial, 57, 68

Sommer, Teddy, 22

Sonn, Larry, 278

South, Eddie, 141

South, Harry, 136

Southern, Jeri, 277

Spencer, Earle, 278

Spivak, Charlie, 137, 296

Stabulas, Nick, 242, 299

Starling, Hay, 260

Stein, Hal, 240, 278-279

Steward, Herbie, 69, 272-273

Stewart, Buddy, 295, 298

Stewart, Rex, 148, 285

Stewart, Tom, 193, 279

Stitt, Sonny, 26, 80, 111, 116,

124, 196, 229, 235, 253, 279-

281

StoryviUe, 52, 165, 209
Strand, Les, 281
Stratton, Don, 281-282
Stuttgart Symphony, 172
Sulieman, Idrees, 98, 143, 282,

297, 303

Sullivan, Ira, 248, 282, 284
Sunkel, Phil, 44, 210, 282
Suttees Mills, 248

Talbert, Thomas, 282-283

Tatro, Duane, 283

Tatum, Art, 43, 76, 80, 87,

105, 108, 119, 134, 155, 213,

226, 234-235, 284
Taylor, Art, 283
Taylor, Billy, 59, 108, 175, 282,

283-284
Taylor, Cecil, 58, 71, 128, 214,

285
Teagarden, Jack, 24, 29, 36,

163

Terry, Clark, 120, 285-286, 305
THE Orchestra, 286
Theselius, Gosta, 242
Thielemans, Jean, 286
Thiemer, Joe, 286

Thompson! Lucky, 83, 120, 133,
147, I5b, 157, 172, 230, 287

ThornhiU, Claude, 16, 43, 81,
96, 122, 164, 169, 200, 207,
287-288, 292

Three Strings, The, 150

Timmons, Bobby, 37-38, 288

Tin Type Hall, 18

Tjader, Cal, 110, 268, 288-289

Touff, Cy, 146, 289-290

Tough, Dave, 14

Tondelli, Reno, 289

Towner, John, 290, 303

Travis, Nick, 170, 269, 274

Tristano, Lennie, 33, 34, 49,
142, 164-165, 184, 186-187
190, 227, 232, 258, 275, 290-
291

Trumbauer, Frankie, 12-13, 16

Tubby the Tuba, 90

Tucker, Ben, 104

Twardzifc, Richard, 102, 291

Urso, Phil, 32, 297-292
Urtreger, Rene, 292
Usselton, Billy, 292

Valdes, Bebo, 28

Valentine, Jerry, 292-293

Vandair, Maurice, 242

Van Damme, Art, 289, 293

Van Kriedt, Dave, 53

Van Rooyan, Jerry, 145

Vaughan, Sarah, 14, 24, 61, 91,

136, 221, 244, 293-294
Ventura, Charlie, 34, 59, 124,

176, 294-296, 304
Venuto, Joe, 262
Ver Planck, Billy, 296-297
Vinnegar, Leroy, 11, 170, 185,

297
Vos, Tony, 297

Wagner, Richard, 50

Waldron, Mai, 56, 98, 178, 180,

194, 237, 297-298
Walker, Jimmy, 298
Waller, Fats, 11, 97, 237, 281,

283
Wellington, George, 243, 298-

299
Ware, Wilbur, 101, 286, 290-

300

Warren, Earl, 54
Washington, Dinah, 63, 248
Watkins, Julius, 151, 255
Watson, Jimmy, 300
Wayne, Chuck, 268, 300
Webb, Chick, 179
Webster, Ben, 29, 69, 92, 135,

141, 149, i02, 217, 225, 284
Weinkopf, Gerry, 172
Wellesley, Sonny, 126
Wells, Dave, 34
Wess ' Frank, 29. 102, 137, 148,

15k, 214, SOd-301, 303
Wess, Richard, 301
Westiake College Quintet, 301
Weston, Randy, 120, 197, 301-

302

Wetmore, Dick, 55, 232
Whalen, Philip, 208
Whiteman, Paul, 12, 216
Wiggins, Gerald, 149, 302, 305
WilberT Bob, 275, 302
Wilder, Alec, 175
Wilder, Joe, 26, 42, 55, 67-68,

296, 302, 303
Wilen, Barney, 173
Wiley, Lee, 305

318

THE COLLECTOR S JAZZ

WuMns, Ernie, 23, 68, 178, 302-

303
Williams, John, 28, 188, 216,

243, 248, 259, 303, 305
Williams, John T., 290, 303
Williams, Mary Lou, 7, 14, 60,

Williams, William Carlos, 227
Williamson, Claude, 303
Williamson, Stu, 184-185, 189,

304

Wilshire-Ebell, 52
Wilson, John, 242
Wilson, Shadow, 247
Wilson, Teddy, 78, 130, 134,

155, 210, 216. 284
Winding, Kai, 55, 151, 153-155,

273, 295, 304-305

Winters, Pinky, 305
Woode, Jimmy, 305
Woodman, Britt, 286
Woods, Phil, 22, 157, 240, 259,
274, 279, 296, 298, 305-306
Wray, Ken, 88
Wright, Gene, 51-52, 88
Wright, Herman, 112
Wylie, Harold, 203

Young, John, 306

Young, Lester, 12-13, 16, 17,
26, 69, 74, 77, 93, 109, 121,
122, 124, 127, 144, 148 15s!
202, 203, 206, 212, 221, 227,
228, 229, 236, 238, 241, 244!
245, 252, 287, 291, 306-308

Young, Webster, SOS