Johnny Griffin - Live in Tokyo

“There are certain players who, from the very first note of a solo, charge the air with an infectious, crackling energy that is one of the most satisfying experiences in music. Sidney Bechet was one of them, and so - in quite another vein - was Coleman Hawkins. A powerful contemporary illustration of that kind of force is Johnny Griffin. As Brian Case and Stan Britt put it in their ‘Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz’ (Harmony): ‘His solos are a string of great breaks, cliff-hanging climaxes and startling tonal devices, all held together by his colossal drive.’

“For this writer, Johnny Griffin became a formidable present on the scene in the 1950s - through a series of steaming Blue Note albums, and as one member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers who could be just as overwhelming as the volcanic leader. Then there was a Griffin stretch - and he was stretched - with Thelonious Monk, followed by a musically rambunctious period of touring with Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis. It was amply clear by then that Johnny Griffin was going to be one of those long-distance swingers - an improviser who would be holding and riveting audiences for a long time to come, no matter what new styles or turns jazz took.

“The problem for us turn out to be, however, that this mighty shouter chose to do that swinging outside the States. Starting in 1962, Griffin became an expatriate, working in France with the Kenny Clarke-Francy Bolland big band and moving all over Europe as a free-lancer. In the 1970s Griffin moved his base to Holland, where he even acquired his own farm. The traveling and recording continued, and the albums that were released in the States demonstrated two things: 1) Griffin had kept on growing as a player in terms of conception and time-flexibility, while losing none of the sweeping ardor that had characterized his work at the start; and 2) he had been underestimated during his years here. That is, although Griffin was appreciated for his fire back then, it took his long years away for many of us to recognize how consistently and deeply satisfying a player he is.

“There is a lot more to ‘The Little Giant’, as he came to be known, than the first Roman-candle-like impact he always makes. There is substance, a lot of substance, to those long, spiraling solos. And there is a great deal of musical integrity. Now that we have more than two decades of Griffin on records to assess, it is unmistakably evident that he has created - and continues to create - one of the most durably fulfilling bodies of work in the canon of jazz tenor saxophone.

“At last, in September, 1978, Johnny Griffin came home to remind us natives of how much we had lost when he decided to change continents. Starting at the Monterey Jazz Festival and then moving around the country - at other festivals and at clubs - ‘The Little Giant’ was sure to create a greatly broadened audience for his music and a corollary appetite for his recordings.

“Inner City has already released one hotly distinctive Johnny Griffin set, ‘Blue for Harvey’ (IC 2004), a session recorded in Copenhagen. ‘Down Beat’ gave it five stars, noting that ‘with his big sound, flawless technique and perfect sense of swing, Griffin’s energetic ebullience evokes sheer joy.’

“Now, in your hands, is a two-volume celebration of ‘The Little Giant’s’ prowess - a recording of an April 23, 1976 concert in Tokyo with pianist Horace Parlan, bassist Mads Vinding and drummer Art Taylor.

“First of all there is - throughout these persistently compelling performances - Griffin’s total command of the horn. All registers, from the deep bottom to way on high. Part of that command is the clarity of articulation. There is no fuzziness. Griffin’s attack is clean, clear and unfailingly coherent. He doesn’t blur or coast; and indeed, one of the marvels of his work is that as hard and fast as he drives, his ideas do not flag. He think as swiftly as he swings.

“Furthermore, in the midst of his leaping maturity, Griffin plays with more sensitivity to dynamics than in the past. And with more overall care for nuances - as in his long, unaccompanied passage in ‘All the Things You Are’.

“Another element in Griffin’s work is his depth of emotion - soul, as they used to say. There are players who finger fast and furiously but their emotive content is about an inch thick. Griffin is always ‘saying something’, always telling a story. And the tales, moreover, are not safely predictable. These are true improvisations, and in them, ‘The Little Giant’ continually takes risks. Like Roy Eldridge, whatever fitting idea hits him in mid-flight, he’ll try to incorporate in the narrative, however far-flung the chances he has to take.

“There is also, of course, Johnny Griffin’s pulse. He is one of those players who work, in any context, is the very definition of swinging. But the bigness of his spirit - as shown in his ideas and his tone - leads to a largeness and depth of swinging that is one of the delights of jazz. Add to that a remarkable resiliency of time-sense, and you get instant wonders of the way he plays with the beat in his exchanges with Art Tayor.

“With regard to ballads - as in Griffin’s own graceful, hauntingly affecting ‘When We Were One’ - it is there that ‘Little Giant’s’ essential romanticism becomes clear. He has become a most thoughtful, lyrical and tender spinner of ballad lines; but then, being protean of skills, Griffin roars into the sizzling ‘Wee’. Set at a ferocious tempo, it results in one of the more incandescent performances in recent recorded jazz history.

“One of the reasons Griffin can so hold, and even shake, an audience is the way he -builds- throughout his solos. It is this quality of cohesiveness, fired by ceaseless intensity, that leads the listener through climax after climax. And part of experiencing each climax is the anticipation of the next one. It’s like a kinetic mystery drama, and the way it works is shown with particular vividness in ‘The Man I Love’. But on this track too, there are, as I’ve noted, interludes in which the contours of Griffin’s space change. Long, unaccompanied flights during which the intensity takes on softer colors and cadences. And that shift in mood is also part of the building, part of the constantly unexpected, that accounts for Griffin being able to sustain interest over such long performances as are in this set.

“Yet another dimension of ‘The Little Giant’s’ sensibility is his own ‘Soft & Furry’ - with its wary, cat-like beginning and its ruminative probings of the intriguing, slightly mysterious theme. And once again, Griffin’s solo work has an immediacy, a freshness, that is a fusion of highly personal ideas, sound, and a time that breathes along with each change (harmonic as well as melodic).

“It should also be noted that ‘The Little Giant’, strong and expressively wide-ranging as he is, benefits from superior support in this concert. Horace Parlan, an expatriate since 1973, made a durable mark before he left through his work with Charles Mingus, the Johnny Griffin-Lockjaw Davis hurricane, and Roland Kirk. An acutely attentive accompanist, he is also an incisive soloist and on ballads, a romantic one. Mads Vinding (who is on Griffin’s ‘Blues for Harvey’ album on Inner City) is a bassist with depth. Depth of sound and time. And clarity, as in his arrestingly, serenely structured solo in ‘Soft & Furry’.

“The most valuable sideman here is Art Taylor. Yet another expatriate, and the recent author of unprecedentedly candid interviews with jazz musicians, Taylor for a long time was one of the busiest record session drummers in New York. And during much of that time, I reviews most of the current jazz recordings for ‘Down Beat’. At night, in that period, I also covered the clubs, and Taylor was nearly always working in one of them. Despite all that constant exposure to Art Taylor, I was never less than fascinated by his work, ensemble and solo. He is not only an extraordinarily supple technician, possessed of flawless time, but he also plays with a snap, crispness, wit and just plain excitement that continue to make him one of the front-ranking, world-class jazzmen.

“In fact, those qualities also identify Johnny Griffin, and the two - along with Parlan and Vinding - have created an album that will retain its zest as long as you do yours.” (Nat Hentoff. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Johnny Griffin (t-sx), Horace Parlan (pi), Mads Vinding (bs), Art Taylor (dr)

A. All The Things You Are

B1. When We Were One

B2. Wee

C. The Man I Love

D. Soft And Furry

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Jackie McLean - McLean's Scene

“You can take the word scene, man, and make it means almost anything you want. A scene can be a place, man; a scene can be a setting, man, or a scuffle. A scene can be active or static, moving or unmoving. A scene can evan be a thing. This scene is many of those things, man; this scene Jackie McLean’s Scene.

“I first became aware of Jackie McLean on night five or six years ago in one of New York’s upholstered gin-mills. The nightclub, which is named after a famous jazz alto saxophonist, was fast falling asleep. The waiters, with nothing to do, stood off in corners and griped about tips. The famous altoist, who, paradoxically, was self booked into the joint that bore his name, was on the bandstand to play his last set. Just then, a tall, rather lean kid with nervous mannerisms climbed unto the band stand. The kid played alto too. When he played he stood with his legs wide apart; his shoulders were hunched to such a degree that his neck disappeared into the cavern between them. He held his horn pointed down, and he wrestled with it, moving it from side to side and up and down with the inflections of the line he was playing. He played long ribbons of cascading eighth-notes, violent ‘blue’ notes and familiar ‘quotes’. It was embarrassingly obvious that he had listened to and watched Charlie Parker with avidity.

“Jackie was little more than a teenager then. He was the apprentice working side by side with his chosen ‘master’. And it’s quite natural for someone that young, and that impressionable to be overwhelmed by the huge ability, imagination and strength of Charlie Parker.

“The next, impressive, time I heard Jackie he was one of the front-line craftsmen in Charlie Mingus’ Workshop and Foundry. The difference in his playing was amazing; what had once been a rather aggressive reproduction of the sound and the fury of Charlie Parker had spread in all directions; even the sound of his horn had changed somewhat. This was roughly three years ago, when Mingus’ arrangements and compositions were sensitizing audiences and musicians alike with their unusual ferocity and moodiness. The overwhelming influence in every facet of Jackie’s playing was still Parker, but something else had happened. As Mingus said of him, ‘Jackie’s got some new things to play.’ I’m sure the Workshop must have been an awesome, a frightening and a frustrating thing for him, but playing with Mingus seemed to open Jackie’s ears a little more, and it gave him the assurance to take some harmonic chances.

“There’s much of the ‘hung lover’ in Jackie’s playing these days. This is a quality of feeling that has to do with loss, with hurt and with raw tenderness. In this respect, his playing has a relationship with the singing of Billie Holiday. Of course their individual approach to music is entirely different, but in their quality of feeling, in their emotional projection, both seem to be carrying a ‘torch’ for life.

“The quality of suffering that is projected in the music of both these artists is a quality that exists beneath the tough, worldly veneer that they musically affect. In Billie’s singing, this veneer is projected as a strange kind of stoicism; in Jackie’s playing, it’s an angry defiance. What’s underneath the sound and the style, in both cases, is something distinctly human, distinctly perplexed and perplexing. Their music is a crystalization of ‘hard’ living, of pleasure without joy, of disappointment and, in some respects, frustration. Underneath the hard and ‘jaded’ exterior of their music is a deep sensitivity for what’s right with the world through an expression of what’s wrong in the world.

“When Jackie plays, he expresses himself in hard clipped phrases that, superficially, act tough and rude, but that in themselves are an expresxsion of grief. He is asking, he is wondering, he is anxious. With the notable exception of ‘Old Folks’ tension is the main ingredient in his playing. The phrases push and pull; they climb and jab with a brittle vitality that has a sharp acuteness. His sound is that of a skirling piper who cries defiance, raw compassion and human frailty in one breath. This is McLean’s Scene as I hear it.

“‘Gone with the Wind’: Hardman, Chambers, Garland… Everyone solos. Bill Hardman makes some funny remarks, Jackie wails his lament with a high brittle quality.

“‘Our Love Is Here to Stay’: Waldron, Phipps and Taylor - Jackie’s sound has broadened somewhat here, he’s less aggressive, more contemplative.

“‘Mean to Me’: Hardman, Chambers and Garland are back again. Paul plays excellently on his plucked choruses, notice how he gets a ‘rhythm guitar’ sound on some of his notes, not only on this track on the others too.

“‘McLean’s Scene’: A blues by Jackie. Hardman, Garland, Chambers all solo at an easy, quick-step tempo. Jackie’s sound is looser, more pliable but he enunciates in an emphatic staccato fashion. Going out, the two horns blend splendidly.

“‘Old Folks’: This ballad has a broad nostalgic quality to it that is unusual for Jackie. There’s a plaintive wideness to his playing.

“‘Outburst’: An original by Jackie that should have been dedicated to all the Lord’s little ones. It has a hard, punching vitality at a mad tempo.

“Jackie McLean is a 27 year old New Yorker. He has played with Bud Powell, Mingus, Art Blakey and any other number of ‘name’ groups and musicians. He has appeared on Prestige with Miles, Gene Ammons, Hank Mobley and has four other albums of his own: ‘Lights Out’, ‘Jackie’s Pal’ (with Bill Hardman), ‘Jackie McLean & Co.’ and ‘Alto Madness’ with John Jenkins.

“Bill Hardman has played notably with Mingus and Blakey (both with Jackie). He too is 27, is from Cleveland and this is his third recorded excursion for the Prestige-New Jazz combine. The other two are on the ‘Pal’ and ‘McLean & Co.’ albums.

“Mal Waldron is something of a house pianist for Prestige. He has recorded with any number of different groups from Gene Ammons to Teddy Charles and has three albums of his own on Prestige and one on New Jazz. He’s from New York and will soon be 32.

“Red Garland is originally from Dallas, Texas; he was born there May 13, 1923. His most fruitful days were spent in Philadelphia, where he backed practically every kind of jazz style. He has played and recorded with Miles Davis on Prestige, has four albums of his own on Prestige, and has been an integral part of many dates on both Prestige and New Jazz.

“Art Taylor has had many dates with all sorts of Prestige and New Jazz outfits and one album of his own: ‘Taylor’s Wailers’. He is 30 and a New Yorker.

“Paul Chambers is from Pittsburgh, but moved early to Detroit. He plays with Miles most and records with many outfits from Prestige.

“Arturo Phipps (as he prefers to be known) has been in and around jazz since he first came to New York with the Three Bips and a Bop. This same group brough Babs Gonzales to national prominence. During those days he gigged all over 52nd Street, with as he puts it, ‘Just about everybody.’ Some of those people were Sonny Rollins, Lennie Tristano, Lee Konitz; of a later date have been Don Elliott and Gigi Gryce. Arturo has a photography business of his own and still gigs all over New York. This is his first appearance on the current New Jazz series.” (Jack Maher. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Jackie McLean (a-sx), Bill Hardman (tp), Mal Waldron/Red Garland (pi), Paul Chambers/Arthur Phipps (bs), Art Taylor (dr)

A1. Gone With The Wind

A2. Our Love Is Here To Stay

A3. Mean To Me

B1. McLean's Scene

B2. Old Folks

B3. Outburst

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Jackie McLean & Co.

“The members of Jackie McLean & Co., a young but active concern, may, at times, dress in a quasi-Madison Avenue style but their product may never be termed ‘gray flannel’.

“At the least board meeting (‘Jackie’s Pal’, LP 7068), Bill Hardman was appointed to the presiding body and in this present session, Ray Draper is taken in as a junior partner.

“Ray is a young New Yorker who will reach the age of 17 on August 3, 1957. During the winter of 1956-57 he led his own group of youngsters at the Sunday afternoon bashes which a Brooklyn organisation, ‘Jazz Unlimited’, was sponsoring at The Pad and Birdland. It was in this setting that he came to the attention of the older musicians around town, some of whom brought him to the attention of Bob Weinstock. Nat Hentoff, New York editor of ‘Down Beat’ heard Draper and commented in his ‘Counterpoint’ column, ‘he blows the hottest modern jazz tuba I’ve yet heard.’

“Currently attending the High School of Performing Arts, Ray expects to continue his studies at the Manhattan School of Music after graduation in June of 1958.

“Here, Ray is heard on ‘Minor Dream’, ‘Help’ and ‘Flickers’. In his first album as leader, scheduled for release in the near future, you will hear more of Ray and also learn more about him. Among other things, you will learn that Jackie McLean is one of Ray’s favourite musicians.

“It seems that Jackie is a favorite of a lot of the young, up and coming musicians. From this statement, people who are not familiar with him might surmise that he is a jazz veteran and perhaps in his thirties. They would be right in the first part of their assumption but Jackie started very young and when he cut his first records with Miles Davis in 1951 (‘Dig’, Prestige LP 7012) he was only 19. In the last year he has started to really mature in many ways. The compelling statements emanating from his swooping, biting, hotly flowing horn have earned the admiration of his elder as well as younger cohorts.

“Bill Hardman has been Jackie’s front line associate in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messenger during the latter part of 1956 and 1957. Although the same age as Jack, he is only come lately to big league jazz and is still a rookie, albeit a highly promising one. He comes to play and the very exuberance in his playing illustrates how much he enjoys his work. Bill’s is a punching, staccato style, brassy as the instrument on which it is played.

“Head ‘idea man’ of the firm, Mal Waldron, in addition to his piano solos, had contributed two originals to this meeting. ‘Flickers’, background music for a modern silent screen melodrama, was first heard in ‘All Night Long’ (LP 7073). Here it is done at a slower tempo. ‘Mirage’ is a melancholy ballad somewhat in the vein of ‘Abstraction’, a Waldron composition which appeared in Jackie’s ‘4, 5 and 6’ (LP 7048).

“Doug Watkins and Art Taylor weld their talents together to form a solid rhythmic base as they have many times in the past. Doug has also added to the raw material for the date with his minor blues, ‘Help’, in which Ray’s lugubrious tuba portrays the creeping evil and Jackie and Bill cry for assistance.

“The tunes that round out the session are Draper’s ‘Minor Dream’ with an introduction similar to Waldrons’s ‘Dee’s Dilemma’ but with different thereafter and McLean’s ‘Beau Jack’, a blues of funky dimensions with -beaucoup- Jackie.

“After consulting the stock reports and calling my broker, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s on thing for you to do - buy a share of Jackie McLean & Co.” (Ira Gitler. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Jackie McLean (a-sx), Bill Hardman (tp), Ray Draper (tu), Mal Waldron (pi), Doug Watkins (bs), Art Taylor (dr)

A1. Flickers

A2. Help

A3. Minor Dream

B1. Beau Jack

B2. Mirage

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Jackie McLean - A Long Drink of the Blues

“For some reason, it has become traditional to apologise for the release of a blowing session. This is mostly due, I feel, to the growing influence on jazz of critics who judge the music by standards that have nothing whatever to do with it. Jazz has been judged, more and more increasingly, by standards that are most pertinent when the subject under discussion is European classical music, and it is only natural that it does not meet those standards. In the same way, if the great classical saxophonist Marcel Mule were to be judged by standards meant to apply to Jackie McLean, he would not measure up.

“All of which is to say that the little tune of the record, ‘A Long Drink of the Blues’, -is- a blowing date. As such, it is representative of the talents of the six musicians involved, how they felt at the time, and how well they played on the particular afternoon the session was recorded. The interest it holds is determined only by how well those six men play the blues. Curtis Fuller is one of the two or three of the young trombonists who have made any contribution to the instrument. Webster Young seems to have a greater understanding of Miles Davis than those countless young trumpeters who play like Miles simply because it is fashionable. Gil Coggins is a rarely recorded pianist, and this situation is somewhat inexplicable when you consider how much he has contributed to the few dates he has been on. Paul Chambers is, of course, one of the founders and the only remaining member of the great Miles Davis rhythm section. Louis Hayes is the drummer who has added so much to the groups of Horace Silver and Cannonball Adderly. And, in the area of special interest, Jackie McLean, of whom more in a moment, takes his first solo here on that instrument.

“You will also hear, under the guise of ‘A Long Drink of the Blues (take 1)’, something of what went on in the studio that afternoon. Obviously, formal organization of the type preferred by certain critics was not held in a very high esteem. Since Jackie McLean has made a very successful debut in ‘The Connection’, in which he revealed himself as an incisive naturalistic actor, it is with a certain amount of justifiable pride that we present here his first recorded performance in a speaking role.

“The other side of the LP requires, I think, slightly more extended commentary. It consists of three ballads performed by McLean on alto, Mal Waldron, Arthur Phipps and Art Taylor. Much has been made of musical empathy, and deservedly so, but apparently this quality is only considered worthy of discussion when it is possessed by recognized stars. Regardless of whether or not you happen to like their kind of music, it goes without saying that Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond play extraordinarily well together, one serving as perfect contrast for the other. And reams of copy have been written about the musical affinity that exists between Miles Davis and Gil Evans. It is my opinion that this quality, which is certainly to be desired, can be found nowhere more perfectly expressed than in the music of Jackie McLean and Mal Waldron.

“Both of them have a great understanding of dance music. Now I know that term is tossed around by writers when they wish to deprecate something (most often, they speak of a big band jazz date that didn’t quite come off as a good dance record), but the sense of dance is present in the music of some of our most important modern musicians: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins. The three ballads played here are, I think, much more danceable than many records specifically released for that purpose, and it is to the credit of McLean and Waldron that this should be the case.

“But their affinity goes much beyond that. Both men are as deeply committed to jazz as it is possible for musicians to be. As such, they have rejected certain stylistic elements that might have made their music more universally acceptable, but they have remained better jazzmen for it. Both of them, in sound and approach, project what can only be called a feeling of intense loneliness. It is that quality, I think, which is so grippingly attractive to some listeners and frightening to others. They do not play happy music, but certainly they do play an accurate reflection of the world in which they find themselves. In achieving this, they have abandoned some of what the critics are pleased to call ‘technique’, but they are both consummate musicians in that the style they have worked out is perfectly suited to the statement they have to make. This is something else they have in common with the previously mentioned Davis, Rollins and Coltrane (at an early point in his career, Jackie’s solos sounded like transcriptions for alto of Miles Davis trumpet phrases) as well as the musicians who have most directly shaped their styles: in Jackie’s case, that would be Charlie Parker; in Mal’s, without neglecting the influence of Bud Powell, it would be Thelonious Monk.

“Perhaps I have given the mistaken impression that these two men have been completely neglected in their careers. That is definitely not the case. At least part of Jackie’s situation has been a matter of personal difficulty, and for a time he was denied a New York cabaret card. But one does not need a card to perform in a theatre, and so he was able to join the cast of ‘The Connection’. Although the group which played that show was billed as the Freddie Redd Quartet, it was alto and rhythm, and it was Jackie who made the greatest impression, both as soloist and actor. Whatever merits the play itself may have had, it did prove that jazz could be an integral part of a theatrical evening, and, for once, the music used to prove such a point was uncompromising in its honesty. Surprisingly enough - or not, depending on your point of view - the critics (drama critics, this time) went for the jazz as much as for the play, and gave a much more accurate appraisal of both than the majority of jazz writers who commented on it. And one thing that was certainly accomplished was a turning point in Jackie McLean’s career.

“Mal Waldron’s is a different situation. For the last few years before her death, he was Billie Holiday’s accompanist. Although he learned much from that experience for which he is grateful, musically and otherwise, and although Billie always left a set open in the evening for Mal’s trio, the job did mean that he was absent for a while from New York’s battleground of young musicians. He is back now, and playing again, and has even more to contribute than before.

“When the smoke of the jazz battles have cleared away, when flash-in-pans have been forgotten and proper assessments have been made, I think it will be found that Jackie McLean and Mal Waldron have made some of the most valuable and durable music of their time. These three ballads will be an important part of that contribution.” (Joe Golberg. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Jackie McLean (t-sx), Webster Young (tp), Curtis Fuller (tb), Gil Coggins/Mal Waldron (pi), Paul Chambers/Arthur Phipps (bs), Louis Hayes/Art Taylor (dr)

A1. A Long Drink Of The Blues (Take 1)

A2. A Long Drink Of The Blues (Take 2)

B1. Embraceable You

B2. I Cover The Waterfront

B3. These Foolish Things (Remind Me Of You)

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Jackie McLean - Lights Out!

"To some people 'Lights Out' might bring to mind the series of radio chillers penned by Arch Oboler some years back. Perhaps these are the same people who went to sleep with the lights on when they were children. As the title of this LP and the name of a specific selection, 'Lights Out' signifies relaxation rather than terror.

"The recording bugaboo has been written about before and although the jazz musician's second home seem to be in the recording studio these days, tensions still exists for the self critical jazz artists when he is confronted with microphone, tape machine and clock.

"I don't doubt that the lights out method has been used before. I can recall two other specific instances where it was employed to good advantage. Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh recorded 'Fishin' Around' without the fluorescents (Prestige LP 7004) and Miles Davis' 'Blue Haze' (Prestige LP 161) flowed through only the light coming from the control room. Both times the absence of light helped relax the musicians and fit in with the mood of the piece. The dark can be very relaxing. You know how more perceptive your hearing becomes when your eyes are not forced to work. I'm sure that is why many musicians close their eyes when soloing.

"In this session, Bob Weinstock remembered the example of 'Blue Haze' and felt that the slow blues would be well served by a dim studio. It's more for the mood of the piece than to relax these effervescent musicians. That is how the title came about. The photograph taken at the time it was being taped proved to be an expressive reason for duplicating the title for the entire LP, although the remaining five numbers were done 'lights on'. While there is illumination let me shed some light on the featured performers.

"John Lenwood McLean (often erroneously spelled McClean) is known better as simply Jackie. A native New York (born May 17, 1932), Jackie was left a musical heritage by his father, John Sr., who played guitar with Tiny Bradshaw. He died in 1939. The incentive to further the heritage was given him by his mother when she bought him his first saxophone.

"Jackie grew up in Harlem with bop already flowering around him. He played in a neighborhood band that included Sonny Rollins and Andy Kirk Jr. on saxophones and Kenny Drew on piano. After school hours he would jam and study with Bud Powell and although he names Charlie Parker, Rollins and Kirk as his favorite saxophonists, Jackie states that 'Bud Powell is my inspiration'. In those afternoon sessions Bud taught him chord changes and imparted the important lesson of 'time'. It was in 1951 that Jackie made his first recordings. These can be heard on Miles Davis' 'Dig' (Prestige LP 7012).

"Actually it wasn't until 1955 that Jackie start playing jobs that brought his name before the public. With Paul Bley's quartet and George Wallington's quintet he started to fulfill the promise he had shown when Bud Powell unveiled him one night at Birdland some five years before. 1956 finds him with Charlie Mingus' quintet as another phase of his career opens.

"Donald Byrd is one of the young stalwarts from Detroit who have made their mark in the past year. He was studying at the Manhattan School of Music and jamming around New York when George Wallington hired him for his quintet in the summer of 1955. This is where he and Jackie played together at length for the first time. Later Donald was with anothr edition of the Wallington quintet (Prestige LP 7032) and in early 1956 replaced Kenny Dorham in the Jazz Messengers. His style is in the Dorham vein but his sonority is more akin to Fats Navarro's.

"Jocularity was in order in keeping with Jackie's and Donald's youthful personalities which blended musically and socially. Added to this combination was the exuberance of Donald's Detroit running mate from the Messengers. Doug Watkins, the whimsical self of Elmo Hope and the sarcastic, but not malicious, jibes of Arthur Taylor. This was the varied humorous climate in which the session took place.

"It is definitely what can be classified as a 'blowing session'. There are no written lines except for the ending of 'Inding'.

"'Lights Out', the show blues, starts with bass which is joined by drums four bars later and piano in the last four of the first chorus. From the beginning of the second chorus it's all solo with a short one by Elmo, then Jackie followed by muted Donald. After a longer Hope stint, Jackie and Donald take over for two choruses of two bar exchanges before Jackie takes it out.

"The medium blues, 'Kerplunk', a more modern treatment than 'Lights Out', begins with Elmo, followed by Donald and Jackie. Then Donald and Jackie take one chorus apiece for five rounds before going into 'The Peck' and out.

"'Inding' and 'Up' are based on the 'I Got Rhythm' type chord changes but in different keys. The former starts with the rhythm sections romping and Donald, Elmo and Jackie solo in that order. 'Up' begins and ends with a sort of call sounded by the horns. It's tempo is described by its title. Donald, Jackie, Elmo and Art Taylor appear in that order solowise.

"'A Foggy Day' has an intro by the horns and then Jackie comes out of his corner 'wailing'. Donald's solo is muted and he's followed by Elmo before Jackie comes in again. Everyone makes use of suspended rhythmic and harmonic interludes during their solos and the horns end it in this manner as they fade out over London town.

"'Lorraine' is the ballad and while she may not be sweet, she certainly is embraceable. Donald's solos sandwich Jackies'." (Ira Gitler. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Jackie McLean (a-sx), Donald Byrd (tp), Elmo Hope (pi), Doug Watkins (bs), Art Taylor (dr)

A1. Lights Out

A2. Up

A3. Lorraine

B1. A Foggy Day

B2. Kerplunk

B3. Inding

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Jackie McLean - 4, 5 and 6

"Jackie McLean is musically coming of age. His playing, out of Charlie Parker and Sonny Rollins, has become a personalized, more individual voice in 1956 and he has not lost any of the basic-emotion, swinging qualities which help his style live up to the second syllable of his last name so well.

"Here the vitality of the McLean alto is heard in three different size groups.

"The rhythm section remains the same for all the combinations and is made up of Mal Waldron, one of the promising pianist-composers in the East, who has been Jackie's teammate in the Charlie Mingus group at various times during 1956. Doug Watkins, the Detroit bass product who made his mark with the Jazz Messengers and more recently Horace Silver's new group. Arthur Taylor, the mustachioed swinger heard previously with Art Farmer-Gigi Gryce, Bud Powell, etc. and who has been splitting the duties as Prestige's house drummer with Philly Joe Jones.

"The quartet finds Jackie in the standards department interpreting 'Sentimental Journey', 'Why Was I Born?' and 'When I Fall in Love'. Mal Waldron contributes solos on all three and Doug Watkins travels a solo road on the 'Journey'.

"The scene shifts to the originals section as another Detroit gift to the Eastern jazz locale, Donald Byrd, makes the group a quintet. Donald, after a short stint with the Messengers, has recently been featured with the Max Roach group. He and Jackie teamed up before in 'Lights Out' (Prestige LP 7035). Both originals in this segment of the session are by pianists. The sombre beauty of 'Abstraction' was created by Mal Waldron and pulsating 'Contour' was molded by Kenny Drew.

"Originals only continue as Hank Mobley, another ex-Messenger who has been promoted to vice-president in the new Horace Silver group, swells the group to sextet size. The oirignal is Charlie Parker's classic, 'Confirmation'.

"Thus - 4, 5 and 6... hencecforth - get your kicks." (Ira Gitler. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Jackie McLean (a-sx), Donald Byrd (tp), Hank Mobley (t-sx), Mal Waldron (pi), Doug Watkins (bs), Art Taylor (dr)

A1. Sentimental Journey

A2. Why Was I Born

A3. Contour

B1. Confirmation

B2. When I Fall In Love

B3. Abstraction

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Doug Watkins - Watkins at Large

"[...] The second album, Watkins at Large, was bassist Doug Watkins first date as a leader and a great example of his confident soloing. Byrd is again in vividly dramatic form, with authoritative playing by Mobley and Burrell, sustained by a vigorous rhythm section nourished by the blues rooted drive of Watkins bass, the warmth and fluidity of Jordans piano and Taylors sturdy support. Intensity and skill are married to cohesive emotional purpose." (From a review of a multi-disc reissue from Fresh Sounds Records. See here.)

Performers: Doug Watkins (bs), Donald Byrd (tp), Hank Mobley (t-sx), Kenny Burrell (gt), Duke Jordan (pi), Art Taylor (dr)

A1. Return To Paradise

A2. Phinupi

B1. Phil T. McNasty's Blues

B2. More Of The Same

B3. Panonica

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Johnny Griffin - Do Nothing 'til You Hear from Me

"Recently, releases from tenor saxophone Johnny Griffin have begun to be increasingly more impressive. The reasons, easier to hear than to define, are apparent on this latest Griffin album, which is the most successful and consistently interesting of his that I have heard.

"Not that he has changed his style; he hasn't. As a fascinating interview with him in June 1963 issue of 'Jazz' indicated, Griffin is one of the few players not stylistically overhauled during a stay with Thelonious Monk, and is somewhat proud of the fact. But the interview was held by a Frenchman, and since the French tend to take our musicians as seriously as we take their critics, Griffin was given more of a chance to expound on his theories than usual. 'People should try to feel jazz more', he said, speaking of those who 'tried to listen to jazz in a too analytical state of mind instead of with the heart'. He also deplored 'the new thing', saying, 'Maybe I am old-fashioned, but I have heard too much good music - with beautiful tone, good intonation [...] too much. I guess jazz is very personal.' And most significant, in terms of this album, Griffin said, 'Nothing is happening in the States. I can't go out and listen to jazz anymore. Well, except Dizzy on a good night.'

I would not necessarily agree with Griffin's assessment of the scene, but his singling out of Gillespie for praise has more than casual reverence. In recent years, Gillespie has become a gifted editor. If he chooses to play only three or four notes on a given measure, we know that those few notes have been selected as most telling from among the torrent he -might- have played, for we have heard him do it. Those few notes leave a powerful impression of strength in reserve, as of a great miler laying back, an effect which, to use an example among vocalists, Peggy Lee has made into a coy cliché.

"Similarly, it is not longer necessary for Griffin to prove how many notes he can play, or how fast. It is possible that he did not feel it proper to exercise this sort of blue-pencil privilege on himself during his partnership with Eddie Davis, for the power of that group lay in the competition between the two tenors, but on his own he, too, has developed into an excellent self-editor.

"The most striking instance of the quality I am attempting to pinpoint occurs in Griffin's light and lyrical solo on Quincy Jones's 'The Midnight Sun will Never Set'. It is the kind of solo that one would ordinarily associate more with Stan Getz than with Griffin - that delicate, nostalgic filigree - but there is also an easeful suggestion of the kind of fullness and power that Getz seldom achieves. And it is achieved with admirable economy. Perhaps Griffin did learn from Monk, after all - what -not- to play.

"To say that an album does not attempt to prove anything is actually a rather sneaky cliché, by use of which the annotator or reviewer attempts to condemn other kinds of music by implication. Despite Griffin's unusually outspoken remarks in France, it would be unfair to him to emphasize such statements here, for on the whole Johnny tries to live in sort of playful, mocking peace with his fellows, and has survived in a ruthless business with a notable lack of enemies. Nevertheless, his pretensions on this album have been limited to the selections of good tunes from diverse sources, the writing of a few original lines, the choosing of good, compatible musicians and a congenial place to record, and playing as well as he can.

"The compatible place to record was Tsubo, a California coffeehouse which had served just the night before as the site for a West Montgomery album, 'Full House' (Riverside 343), on which Griffin was featured. The audience and Wes are missing from the present effort, but in their place are the rest of the Montgomery borthers: vibraphonist and pianist Buddy, and bassist Monk. Completing the contingent is one of the most ubiquitous of the post-bop recording drummers, Arthur Taylor.

"Two of the numbers are written by Griffin: 'Heads Up' (with its simultaneous suggestion of 'Autumn Leaves' and 'Dear Old Stockholm') and a blues line, 'Slow Burn', which is one of Buddy's two vibes tracks (the other being 'Midnight Sun'). The four standards, each of which contains strong potential for improvisation, come from a wide variety of sources. The title track, 'Do Nothing 'til You Hear from Me', is, of course, from Ellington. Quincy Jones's 'Midnight Sun' was written for a Scandinavian recording band. 'That's All' is by Bob Haymes, brother of vocalist Dick. 'Wonder Why' is from a Jane Powell musical, a souvenir of the days when she and José Iturbi were elevating the masses for MGM.

"All of these varied elements have gone into making a successful album. But the catalyst is Johnny Griffin. It is gratifying that by seeming to play less, the world's fastest tenor player has finally shown how much consummate taste and musicianship he really has. (Joe Goldberg. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Johnny Griffin (t-sx), Buddy Montgomery (vb/pi), Monk Montgomery (bs), Art Taylor (dr)

A1. Do Nothing 'Til You Hear From Me

A2. The Midnight Sun Will Never Set

A3. That's All

B1. Slow Burn

B2. Wonder Why

B3. Heads Up

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Dexter Gordon & Slide Hampton - A Day in Copenhagen

"In immediate succession MPS-Records is issueing two albums by two great tenor saxophonists: Lucky Thompson ('A Lucky Song-book in Europe', MPS 15231) and Dexter Gordon. These two belong so much together but are at the same time in such contrast to each other as - a generation before them - Ben Webster and Don Byas (who encounter 'Webster Meets Byas' is documented on MPS 15159 ST).

"In 1962 Dexter Gordon who, after his famous recordings made at the beginning of the fifties, lived more or less obscurely and without much attention paid to in Los Angeles, had a brilliant come-back with his Blue Note album 'Go!'. Since that time numerous Dexter Gordon records were produced both in the USA and Europe - nearly all in quartet or quintet format in order to attain the success of 'Go!' or even to surpass it.

"The 'new thing' of this 1969 MPS record is the face that here Dexter is presented for the first time in an arranged frame for three horns, drafted by Slide Hampton. This collaboration between arranger/trombonist Slide Hampton and Dexter Gordon became possible since Slide's arrival in Europe last year. He and Dexter often played together with great inspiration and enthusiasm and often expressed the wish to make a record together.

"Dexter Gordon who played in the bands of Lionel Hampton and Louis Armstrong, made his first successful record with the Bill Eckstine Big Band in 1945: the famous 'Blowing the Blues Away'. His breakthrough however came with a range of tenor-battles with Wardell Gray, who in 1955 was found dead in the desert near Las Vegas. How important Gordon's influence was became clear at the end of the fifties when - having been nearly forgotten by the great mass of Jazz fans - pioneering musicians such as Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane mentioned him as their special 'inspiration'.

"In 1963 Dexter came to Europe travelling through many European countries until finding a real home in Copenhagen. When last year - after some bad experiences the great tenorist had in Paris - the Danish authorities refused to give him a license card hundreds of young people marched on Copenhagen's Radhus-Plads demonstrating: 'We want Dexter! We want Dexter!'

"This happened about the same time when Slide Hampton came to Europe. Slide belongs to a younger generation than Dexter. In the mid-fifties he became known for his playing with Buddy Johnson and Lionel Hampton, but his breakthrough came through both his trombone-playing and his arrangements for Maynard Ferguson's 1957/59 orchestra. His most famous piece at this time was his well known 'Fugue' - perhaps the most swinging of all the Jazz fugues (the author of these notes is using it for nearly 10 years as theme-song for the SWF-Jazz-Sessions, the Jazz concert series of the Southwestern German Radio and TV Network). How brilliantly Slide can score for medium-sized bands is fully demonstrated on the records he made under his own name for RCA-Victor and Atlantic. There are recordings with an octet having the power and richness in sound of a big band (e.g. the successful 'Sister Salvation').

"Slide wrote all the arrangements for our record - with the exception of Dexter's improvised quartet contribution 'The Shadow of Your Smile'. He also composed three of the selections. A typical example for the rich sounds Slide knows to get from only three horns is 'A Day in Vienna', dedicated to the Jazz-Workshop of the Austrian Radio Network in Vienna.

"'A New Thing' is - judged by the stylistic standards many listeners may associate with the terms 'New Thing' - a complete 'Old Thing'. 'I only called it 'New Thing' because it was the newest I had written for the date with Dex' (says Slide). And it was this new-old 'New Thing' the musicians liked best when making the record.

"'My Blues' was Slide's first composition after coming to Europe in 1966; he says: 'It gave us a chance to get away from the complex chord patterns of some of the other music on the date'.

"Let's also hear what Slide himself has to say about 'What's New': 'I remember this song from many great artists, but most of all from Clifford Brown with Strings. I knew all the cats were hip to this one... it is written in a 12/8 rhythm...'

"'You Don't Know What Love Is' finall is - as every interpretation of this beautiful melody - a tribute to Billie Holiday. Slide Hampton: 'When playing this we all thought about Billie and her great album 'Lady in Satin' and also about a later recording by Miles Davis. I changed the tempo but tried to keep the same beautiful melodic and harmonic concept that Billie and Miles used.'

"The third horn on our album is Jamaica-born Dizzy Reece who sincce 1948 has been living in Europe - apart from a short American interlude - alternately in England, Germany, France and Holland, a trumpeter having been praised by such critical colleagues as Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie.

"And last not least as rhythm section we decided on the Kenny Drew Trio, to whom Dexter Gordon is since long especially accustomed from playing with at Copenhagen's 'Jazz-Hus Montmartre': Kenny Drew on piano and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen on bass and guest drummer Art Taylor from Paris." (Joachim E. Berendt, tr. Wolf-Dieter Wagner. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Dexter Gordon (t-sx), Slide Hampton (tb), Dizzy Reece (tp), Kenny Drew (pi), Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (bs), Art Taylor (dr)

A1. My Blues

A2. You Don't Know What Love Is

A3. A New Thing

B1. What's New

B2. The Shadow Of Your Smile

B3. A Day In Vienna

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Kenny Dorham - Quiet Kenny

Released six years after 'Kenny Dorham Quintet' (see below), the increase in sophistication both in arrangements and musicianship is immediately obvious here from the off (the wonderfully arranged 'Lotus Blossom'). Dorham, leading a quartet this time around, is joined by a rhythm section of fantastic players who were in peak form in 1959: Tommy Flanagan on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Art Taylor on drums. With such world class backing, Dorham's musical ideas are propelled forward seamlessly and his incredible ear for understated soloing and melody shines through. This is the 1986 OJC LP reissue featuring the bonus track 'Mack the Knife'.

Performers: Kenny Dorham (tp), Tommy Flanagan (pi), Paul Chambers (bs), Art Taylor (dr)

1. Lotus Blossom
2. My Ideal
3. Blue Friday
4. Alone Together
5. Blue Spring Shuffle
6. I Had The Craziest Dream
7. Old Folks
8. Mack The Knife

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Red Garland & Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis - Moodsville Volume 1

Another highly excellent set of ballads from Red Garland's trio, this time with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis appearing on saxophone. Garland's sensitivity for ballads is unparalleled and, with the accompaniment of the wonderful Sam Jones and Art Taylor, it seems impossible for him to miss. On the saxophone, Davis shows how his broad, breathy tone can be stretched out, languid and melancholic; a tone dripping with nectar.

Performers: Red Garland (pi), Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis (t-sx), Sam Jones (bs), Art Taylor (dr)

A1. We'll Be Together Again
A2. Stella By Starlight
A3. I Heard You Cried Last Night
A4. Softly Baby
B1. When Your Lover Has Gone
B2. Wonder Why
B3. Blue Room
B4. The Red Blues

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Red Garland - Soul Junction

"There's no grunting or pounding the blues into soul-for-sale music. This is simply unpretentious blues, the common jazz language, carried on through the decades by thousands of players", Nat Hentoff writes of Garland's playing on the title track in the liner notes of this album. He goes on: "Red gets a 'sound' from the piano that's refreshing and thoroughly pianistic. He's not one of the drummer-pianists." Certainly, we do hear the understated brilliance of Red Garland in top form here, rounded out by an excellent group. John Coltrane's blisteringly fluent and intricate playing is what land's this date a place in the history books, but Donald Byrd was of course in top form as a young hard bop player in 1957, and the combination of the stalwart George Joyner with the "steadiest and most swinging" (Garland's words) drums of Art Taylor lifts this music far beyond the ordinary.

Performers: Red Garland (pi), Donald Byrd (tp), John Coltrane (t-sx), George Joyner (bs), Art Taylor (dr)

A1. Soul Junction
A2. Woody'n You
B1. Birks' Works
B2. I've Got It Bad And That Ain't Good
B3. Hallelujah

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Red Garland - Moodsville Volume 6

Another of several fine recordings by Red Garland on the Moodsville label, this time with his trio (Volume 3, featuring solo ballads, can be found below). Paul Chambers and Art Taylor are certainly a winning combination anywhere, but with Garland they are truly at home. The interplay is as incredible to listen to as it is seamless, accenting the cool flourishes and complex, pained melancholy of the pianist's playing. 

Performers: Red Garland (pi), Paul Chambers (bs), Art Taylor (dr)

A1. I Love You Yes I Do
A2. Blues For Ann
A3. I'll Never Stop Loving You
B1. And The Angels Sing
B2. T'Ain't Nobody's Business
B3. Bass-ment Blues

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