Jackie McLean - Let Freedom Ring

“There are many reasons for which I chose to write the notes for this album. I want to give my personal opinion on the new concept in jazz today. I would also like to give a rundown on the material used, as well as the personnel.

“When Monk, Bird, Diz and Max made their appearance on the jazz scene, a new concept was born. The first steps towards freedom in improvisation were taken. The New Breed on the jazz scene are searching for new ways of expressing themselves. Many have cast aside the old and much overused chord progressions; they are searching for new foundations composition-wise. We find scales and modes more outstanding in solos. The extended form (first introduced to me by Charlie Mingus) is but another way of composing and blowing.

“When a musician reaches a certain point, he is no longer satisfied with merely copying someone else. He begins to look for his own way of expression. For example, I have always felt that Charlie Parker used a crossbreed of Don Byas, Lester Young and Buster Smith as a basis for a style that later became his own, a very original style. Some of my early influences were Lester Young, Dexter Gordon, Bud Powell, Monk and, of course, Bird. Later Sonny Rollins, Andy Kirk Jr. and Miles helped form my concept.

“I feel that emotion has taken an important step in expression on the horn. Emotion has always been present, but today it has a new importance. Towards the end of Lady Day’s career, her voice was just a shadow of what it had been, yet she still put a song over; her singing voice was gone, leaving emotion her only tool of expression.

“Getting away from the conventional and much overused chord changes was my personal dilemma. Until recently this was the reason why many things I composed in 1955 left me helpless when it came to a basis for improvisation, for example, ‘Quadrangle’ and ‘A Fickle Sonance’. Both of these tunes were just recently recorded. I used ‘I Got Rhythm’ for the solo section in ‘Quadrangle’. These changes do not fit the personality of the tune at all. Today when I play ‘Quadrangle’, I used sections of scales and modes. I try to write each thing with its own personality. I choose the outstanding notes of the composition and build a scale or a motif to fit the feeling of the tune. Today I am going through a big change composition-wise and in improvising. Ornette Coleman has made me stop and think. He has stood up under much criticism, yet he never gives up his cause, freedom of expression. The search is on.

“I hold up a deep respect for two great trumpet players, Kenny Dorham and Miles Davis. Ironically, their jazz histories are very similar; yet they have two completely different ways of expression. They worked in the same big bands in the ‘40s (Billy Eckstine and Dizzy Gillespie). Miles worked with Charlie Parker during some of Bird’s most exciting years. When Miles left, Kenny took his place next to the master. Today we find Kenny and Miles still advancing the cause. Their approach is different but their destination is the same.

“I received my first saxophone on my fifteenth birthday, a gift from my Mom. Two years later I met Bud Powell. It was Bud who gave me what musical heart and pride I possess. Through Bud I met Miles and Kenny. In my early years I wanted to sound just like Bird. He was a master saxophonist and a great man.

“Miles gave me my first professional break. I was nineteen when I entered the House of Davis. I listen closely to Dave. He always chooses just the right notes in a change. Miles can play three notes and say as much as someone playing thirty. Sonny Rollins was with the band; so between the two, my concept broadened. My sound began to change. At this point I joined Mingus. Charlie would always say, ‘Jackie, you have your own sound. Now why don’t you look for your own ideas.’ Today I can appreciate this bit of priceless advice. I began to form my own way of expression with Mingus.

“When I left ‘The Ming’, I joined the master swinger, Art Blakey. I spent two and a half years with the Messengers, happy years. Art also preached originality to me.

“I am proud to say that my musical schooling has been at the universities of Bud Powell, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Art Blakey and, of course, Bird. Many of my early days in jazz were spent at Monk’s house. Monk has been a dear friend of mine for many years.

“Jazz is going through a big change, and the listener or fan, or what have you, should listen with an open mind. They should use a mental telescope to bring into view the explorers how have taken one step beyond, explorers such as Monk, Coltrane, Mingus, Cecil Taylor, Kenny Dorham, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Ornette and, of course, Duke Ellington. I don’t have enough space to name them all.

“Klook, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Roy Haynes, Philly Joe, Elvin Jones and Arthur Taylor. These are the percussionists who have made a lyrical instrument of the drum.

“The musicians I chose for this date are: Billy Higgins on drums; Billy, who is from Los Angeles, came to New York with Ornette Coleman. I sure dig the groove Billy gets. Herbie Lewis, on bass, was born in Pasadena, California on February 17, 1941. Herbie, who is self-taught, came to New York with Les McCann and is currently working with the Jazztet. He can sure swing. On piano is Walter Davis from New Jersey. Walter has played with Max Roach’s and Dizzy’s bands, to name a few. Everybody knows ‘Humphrey’.

“The material on this date is mostly original. ‘Melody for Melonae’ is dedicated to my little girl, six years of age. It has three different mood, first the melody, then it moves a bright B-flat minor mode as a basis for solos. Each solo ends with a ballad section. ‘I’ll Keep Loving You’, composed by Bud Powell, is a beautiful ballad that reveals the depth of Bud’s emotions. ‘René’ is a blues written for my son who is studying the alto. I try to get away from the usual 12 bar blues figure. In other words, I take the roundabout way only to end up with the blues in B-flat. Finally, ‘Omega’ which means the end. I wrote this for my mother. Her name happens to be Alpha Omega McLean. The tune is in two sections. The outside is built on an F-sharp major mode and is free of tempo, to a degree. The second section swings along with a happy feeling.

“I want to thank Walter Davis, Billy Higgins and Herbie Lewis for their support. I give them ‘A’ for effort and ‘A’ for performance. The new breed has inspired me all over again. The search is on. Let freedom ring.” (Jackie McLean. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Jackie McLean (a-sx), Walter Davis Jr. (pi), Herbie Lewis (bs), Billy Higgins (dr)

A1. Melody For Monae

A2. I'll Keep Loving You

B1. Rene

B2. Omega

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Jaki Byard - There'll Be Some Changes Made

“Originally issued on vinyl LP as ‘There'll Be Some Changes Made’, for the CD they altered its name to ‘Empirical’, switched to a new cover photo of Byard, and excessively edited Doug Ramsey’s excellent liner notes. Muse evidently took the original title too seriously. 

“Jaki Byard was an underappreciated artist throughout most of his career and he especially excelled as a solo pianist on dates such as this 1972 session for Muse. ‘There'll Be Some Changes Made’ finds the pianist in a playful mood, showing off his stride piano chops. ‘Lonely Town’, a piece written by Leonard Bernstein for Broadway, is hardly a typical jazz vehicle, but Byard makes it work, incorporating some particularly moody chords to good effect. The pianist's arrangement of ‘Besame Mucho’ is hardly a bland ballad. Following a dramatic introduction, he tackles it at a brisk tempo with a catchy vamp underneath. Among the several originals written by Byard on this CD, the somewhat exotic yet rollicking ‘Spanish Tinge No. 3’ and the easygoing ‘Tribute to Jimmy Slide’ are particularly memorable.” (Review of the 1990 CD reissue by Ken Dryden for AllMusic. See here.)

Performer: Jaki Byard (pi)

A1. There'll Be Some Changes Made

A2. Lonely Town

A3. Blues Au Gratin

A4. Excerpts From Songs Of Proverb/Toni

A5. Besame Mucho

B1. Spanish Tinge #3

B2. Journey/Night Of Departure

B3. Some Other Spring/Every Year

B4. To Bob Vatel Of Paris/Blues For Jennie

B5. Tribute To Jimmy Slide

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Sam Rivers - Colours

“There is a fascinating little museum in the section of Manhattan known as Soho - the Museum of Holography. Don’t ask me how it works, but what this museum exhibits is realistic three-dimensional images and artworks that seemingly just float on thin air. Just like those cheap old science fiction movies - you see something sitting there as large as life, yet when you try to grab it, all you come up with is nothing. And to make matters worse, for somebody like me who is still amazed that a wireless radio can actually make music, the images can -move-. They tell me that holography is a thing that will be quite common in the future - you might telephone your Aunt Martha and end up with a full-sized, life-like Aunt Martha sitting in your living room.

“Now you might think I’m setting you up for one of those liner-note writer’s analogies - holography is modern and fresh, as is Sam Rivers: holography is based on simple and traditional methods, as is the music of Sam Rivers; holography is mind-boggling, as is Sam Rivers. Well, you’re right, in a way, but what brings to mind that Soho museum in conjunction with Samuel Carthorne Rivers is much more obvious: you can enter that museum, lay down your money, and leave with your very own holograph of Sam Rivers working out on the soprano saxophone. You have a choice of sizes and prices (I, cheapskate that I am, bought a teeny-weeny one), but there it is - a Sam Rivers holograph for your very own.

“Okay, what’s the point? The point is: if there’s something that is advancing art, that is new and unique, it shouldn’t be surprising to find Sam Rivers somehow involved in it.

“There is no end to the facets that make up Sam Rivers and this recording of his Wind of Manhattan ensemble adds yet another new dimension to his recorded œuvres: an entire herd of smoking reeds and woodwinds.

“About the music contained herein, Sam Rivers says, ‘When I had my studio (Studio Rivbea), one of the reasons I had it was because I had all this music and I needed a place to rehearse it and perform it. I had most of this music then, and a lot of musicians played it. I’d say I wrote most of this - about 1973, or veven earlier. And some of the members of the World Saxophone Quartet - Hamiet Bluiett and Julius Hemphill - were part of the group that played that music then. I want people to know that this music has been around for some time and no one’s heard it for lack of record exposure.

“I tell Sam that the music here reminds me, at times, of a pipe organ or calliope. He says, ‘I noticed that. The closeness of the sounds of the instruments does make it sound like that. I was surprised at some of the things that happened on it - it wasn’t altogether experimental, but there were some things that I didn’t think would work when I wrote them, because of my knowledge, earlier in my career, of so-called traditional harmonies. But then I did them anyway, and they really work. A lot of the things that I was always taught weren’t correct for arranging - like the clusters with the same timbre instrument - were not supposed to happen at all. But they do, they sound very good. And there are times when these things sound like trumpets and trombones. All these things surprised me.’

“I ask Sam why there isn’t any soloing on the album, and he explains, ‘These are all very long pieces with the improvising. I wanted to get the music in rather than the improvising and that’s why I took that out. I knew that each composition would fit on an album itself. It didn’t matter to me because I know that I’ve got too much music to get it all recorded, so I can afford to be extravagant. And I did have some good soloists. I know they’re going to be quite perturbed that I took out all the solos.’

“What we are left with is high-caloric music with Sam Rivers’ typical intensity and brilliance. There are rave-ups of counterpoint; joyous, sassy honking and testifying; and bright bouquets of lushness. When you hear writing of this calibre for a reed section, only one name comes to mind and Sam Rivers acknowledges, ‘Duke Ellington is my role model.’ It is clear to see.

“About the specific music on the album, Sam Rivers only wants to point out that ‘Colours’ is a completely written piece - 136 dense bars and every one of them is notated. I’ll also add that ‘Lilacs’ is part of a 24 song suite, ‘The Flower Suite’.

“‘I consider myself to be a pretty rounded musician in all styles,’ says Sam Rivers. ‘Just not ‘free’, which is what I’m -known- for. That’s pretty much the latest part of my thing. There’s no such thing as having music without chords or harmony. Even though you say you’re playing ‘free’, if you put that stuff down, you can put the chords right with it, whether the player knows he’s doing it or not. That’s the point.’

“The point here is that Winds of Manhattan adds another dimension to an immensely talented, determinedly individualistic musician. Sam Rivers is a force in contemporary music. There ain’t no moss on Sam Rivers. And, for yet another dimension, set up your Sam Rivers holograph before you put this album on.

“The future, here we come!!” (Lee Jeske. From the liner notes.)

A1. Lilacs

A2. Colours

A3. Spiral

B1. Matrix

B2. Revival

B3. Blossoms

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Dave Holland - Prism

“Bassist Dave Holland has been at the forefront of experimental, forward-thinking jazz ever since his formative years playing in Miles Davis’ fusion ensemble. His 2013 album, ‘Prism’, finds Holland returning to his crossover funk roots with an able-bodied quartet. Featured here are former Tonight Show guitarist Kevin Eubanks, pianist/Rhodes keyboardist Craig Taborn, and drummer Eric Harland. All of these musicians have reputations for playing adventurous, genre-bending styles of jazz, making them perfectly suited for the project at hand. Holland’s fourth outing on his own Dare2 Records, ‘Prism’ follows his 2008 sextet date ‘Pass It On’, his 2010 octet album ‘Pathways’, and his 2010 flamenco-inspired ‘Hands’. All of those records were equally engaging and progressive in their own ways, but none showcased Holland's interest in the angular, knotty funk and fusion he explores here. Tracks like the expansive ‘The Watcher’ and the roiling ‘Spirals’ feature explosive, frenetic soloing from the band as well as moments of layered group interplay. Elsewhere, cuts like ‘The Empty Chair’ and ‘Evolution’ explore a more minimalist, modal sense of atmosphere that allow for extended and far-reaching improvisational moments. For fans of Davis’ ‘Bitches Brew’ period, during which Holland was a member of the band, there is plenty of expansive, abstract soloing, Rhodes keyboard squelch, and fuzz-laden guitar. We also get several introspective songs on ‘Prism’, with the poignant, midtempo Eubanks feature ‘The Color of Iris’, and the gorgeous Harland-penned ‘Breathe’. Of course, Holland's bass is the grounding force for the ensemble, and thankfully, he gets plenty of room to stretch out from beginning to end.” (Review by Matt Collar for AllMusic. See here.)

Performers: Dave Holland (bs), Kevin Eubanks (gt), Craig Taborn (e-pi), Eric Harland (dr)

1. The Watcher

2. The Empty Chair

3. Spirals

4. Choir

5. The Color Of Iris

6. A New Day

7. The True Meaning Of Determination

8. Evolution

9. Breathe

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Miles Davis - Dig

“These are some of the first ‘long playing’ recordings made possible by the advent of the LP. Recorded on October 5, 1951, this entire session has been remastered by top engineer Rudy van Gelder. (The two remaining selections from this date, ‘Conception’ and ‘My Old Flame’ are included in ‘Conception’, PRLP 7013.)

“Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins form one of the most empathetic and powerfully moving duos in jazz. Although they had recorded together before (‘Morpheus’, ‘Down’, ‘Whispering’, ‘Blue Room’) this was their first chance to ‘stretch out’ together on records.

“These recordings have much warmth. The emotions jut out of all the solos. On ‘Paper Moon’ and ‘Bluin’ this is especially true, but it is evidence on the upper tempos too. ‘Dig’ is fluid. The chord changes lend themselves to the long melodic lines that the soloists employ. There is also a continuity of feeling from one soloist to another which points up the aforementioned empathy.

“The group is made a sextet by altoman Jackie McLean on all numbers but ‘Paper Moon’. Jackie, in his teens when these recordings were made, was then a discipline of Charlie Parker. The Bird influence is still with him but the light of it is partly directed through the prism of Sonny Rollins.

“Incidentally, Bird was present for part of this record sort of visiting his children: Miles, who gained his greatest experience and had his largest pleasures playing with him; Jackie, the young disciple; and Sonny, the reed voice who has become the foremost standard bearer and advancer of the Parker tradition.

“The swinging rhythm here features the explosive drive of Art Blakey, the subtle power of Tommy Potter and the sensitive accompaniment and solos of the unduly underrated Walter Bishop.” (Ira Gitler. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Miles Davis (tp), Jackie McLean (a-sx), Sonny Rollins (t-sx), Walter Bishop Jr. (pi), Tommy Potter: (bs), Art Blakey (dr)

A1. Dig

A2. It's Only A Paper Moon

A3. Denial

B1. Bluing

B2. Out Of The Blue

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Louis Hayes

“When a jazz group is really good, i.e. it has jelled together so that its average level of performance is high enough to mark it from the ordinary and its best level is pure excitement of a high order, every man in it is capable of standing alone and no one man carries the whole burden.

“Thus ‘Every tub on its own bottom’ as the old timers were fond of saying.

“Unaware of this, one might think that Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley would be the indispensable element in his group and with his sound absent it would not stand on its own. However, here another Law of Improvisational Music comes into effect. Change any one man and you change the group sound.

“This album is a neat illustration of both of these premises. It is the Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley group with Julian absent and it has had a shift in personnel: Yusef Lateef is the saxophonist instead of Julian. The result is an interesting listening experience. The swing and the drive, as well as the cooking feeling of soul, is retained, and yet there is a different flavor to that which is cooked, thanks to the presence of another (and different) personality whose basic recipes are the same but who adds his own touches to them for an end product with different flavor.

“This album, however, is really Lou Hayes’ album; his first as a group leader and it illustrates a very fundamental premise of his musicianship. There’s been a theory long prevalent in jazz circles that drummers make poor group leaders because once on their own with no check rein, they are unable to resist the temptation to dominate. Apparently most of them cannot prevent the drums from running away with it. Yet these same men, placed in a position where someone else has the authority and the responsibility of controlling them, are superb and imaginative musicians.

“Louis Hayes, 21 year old Detroit musician, is an exception to this rule. On his first date as a leader he is, just as he always has been with the groups in which he has worked, the drummer first. An imaginative musician with intelligently constructed solos and with sensitive awareness of what the other musicians are doing at all times, but the drummer for the band above all.

“This didn’t really surprise me, when I first heard the test of this LP. Some months back, I did an interview with Philly Joe Jones, who is really the modern drummer with the most potential influence of any. One of the very few young drummers that Joe would talk about was Louis Hayes. When I asked him to name young drummers who impressed him he named two of his own students and Louis Hayes.

“Although it is quite true, as Philly Joe says, that drums can be played with a snare drum and a cymbal, the modern drummers today, when they are functioning correctly, have added new dimensions to drumming. The maintenance of a steady, pulsating, swinging beat with a deep groove no matter what the timbre of the piece of equipment being played at any instant, the usage of the sounds of the snare, rims, tom-toms and a variety of cymbal tones to pucntuate, reinforce and emphasize what the soloist is doing, is one of the marks of modern drumming. Quick relating to the pitch, the rhythm and the shape of the solo in order to anticipate, set-off, inspire and to contrast with it is another. Governing the cross rhythms and counter rhythms and in turn setting them, like an engineer at a master control panel, is still another. These things take gifts first, gifts and instinct. But for the real growth, the real flowering, they take musical thinking. Louis Hayes has all of these and will one day be among the very top leaders on drums. He’s pushing that level right now.

“On this album he has the assistance of Sam Jones (bass), Barry Harris (piano), Yusef Lateef (sax) and Nat Adderley (cornet). They are sympathetic to his feeling for music, meld together into a single organism when playing with a high degree of flexibility. Lateef contributed ‘Hazing’ while Nat Adderley penned ‘Sassy Ann’; Barry Harris wrote ‘I Need You’ and ‘Backyard’. Julian Adderley contributed ‘Rip De Boom’ and Sammy Red Kyner wrote ‘Teef’.” (Ralph J. Gleason. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Louis Hayes (dr), Nat Adderley (cn), Yusef Lateef (t-sx), Barry Harris (pi), Sam Jones (bs)

A1. Hazing

A2. Rip De Boom

A3. Teef

B1. I Need You

B2. Back Yard

B3. Sassy Ann

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Yusef Lateef - Eastern Sounds

“It will soon be axiomatic, if it is not already, that there is a close relationship between American and Near Eastern improvisation music. For the past two or three years of his professional life, John Coltrane has devoted much of his time and energy to dramatizing that relationship. Although there had been attempts at the same thing before Coltrane - Yusef Lateef’s being one of them - it takes someone of Coltrane’s name and stature to awaken listeners to what their ears alone might have told them.

“And then, of course, this is a Moodsville album. To those accustomed to verbal rather than musical distinctions, the presence of Lateef on the Moodsville label will immediately signify that Lateef has pulled in, has become more easily palatable. And, to support this contention, there are two selections from Hollywood motion picture scores.

“Not at all - at least, not at all to this listener, who is at the very least as subjective as the next, if not more so. From the aural evidence of this album, I would suspect that Yusef Lateef has come to the core of what interests him in Eastern music, and is now presenting it in its simplest, most unadorned form. Such a presentation is often the mark of someone who finally knows what he is doing; I suspect that is the case here.

“At the time of this recording, Lateef was a member of a working unit called the Yusef Lateef-Barry Harris Quartet. That was about six months prior to the writing of these notes, but the vicissitudes of jazz are such that since then, Lateef has played with Charles Mingus and Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley. As these notes are written, Lateef is in Flint, Michigan with Adderley, and our brief telephone conversation underscored only a few of the points that this record is capable of making.

“If Lateef remains with Adderley, his music may reach a wider audience than it has previously, for Adderley is one of the most publicly fashionable of musicians, and there are undoubtedly many people who will hear Yusef only because he is a part of that unit. On the other hand, he is playing most of the several instruments at his command in that group, and may make his own impact upon it, if only through sound alone.

“But that has nothing to do with this record, which was made at a particular time under a particular set of circumstances, and is perfectly capable of standing by itself. The subsequent peregrinations of Lateef are only of interest here because the recording indicates that all information about him will soon be of interest.

“The idea of the album, as he tells it, was to have an Oriental feel. Thus, one find the two themes from motion pictures. They are both love themes; one from ‘Spartacus’, the other from ‘The Robe’. It should come as no surprise to anyone by now that the top Hollywood composers who receive such assignments as these are able to reproduce the aura of music from the time and place called for; that is why they are hired. What -is- surprising, though, is that Lateef has the skill and naïveté to take such work at its face value and imbue it with an honest intent and feeling which might very well have never been present in the original. Particularly interesting in this respect is the ‘Spartacus’ music, a lovely melody with harmonic implications that make it, in the hands of these four musicians, one of the most memorable pieces of a memorable set.

“Of the nine pieces presented here, there is only one which will be familiar to the average listener. That, of course, is ‘Don’t Blame Me’. It deserves special comment because it is the most basic performance on the album: basic because it is a standard, basic because Lateef plays tenor saxophone on it - the reed instrument from which jazz reedmen start, and to which they return again, no matter what their intermittent flirtations with flutes, oboes, etc. might be. To revert to subjective emotionalism, it is obvious from the first phrase that this is a jazz performance: the melody is going to be re-created by a musician who is using it only as a basis for mood and harmony. As happens in the best of such performances - and such a performance has to be spontaneous; perhaps Lateef could not reproduce it again if he wanted to - it makes something new and superior out of the original that will never be duplicated. The piano solo here is especially interesting. Barry Harris, when he first came to New York from Detroit (the same route traveled by Lateef), made his reputation as one of the best of the players in the idiom of Bud Powell. But it is not Powell we hear in this solo; it is a solo that could have been played by a more obviously romantic Thelonious Monk. Thus, we get not only a greater insight into Harris’s origins, but we all learn a little more about the origins of Powell himself. Obviously, Monk is a more basic musician than Powell, and the solo (which is the best of Harris I have ever heard) teaches a valuable lesson in the importance of such basics.

“The first of Lateef’s compositions on the record has its own lesson to teach about basics and the opportunity that exists to create within a strict discipline. ‘The Plum Bloss’, as its title hints, is written for and played upon a Chinese globular flute. The instrument, which is twelve hundred years old and made of clay, was found by Lateef in New York’s Chinatown after he had become interested enough to look for one after reading about it in a book on Chinese music. The instrument is, in Lateef’s words, ‘about the size and shape of a grapefruit, with a hole on top and five holes scattered promiscuously on the surface.’ The instrument has only a five-note range, and has a sound similar to that obtained by blowing into a pop bottle. Not only the tune, but Lateef’s solo, are within the limitations of that five-note range, a condition you will probably not notice until you have thoroughly enjoyed the track.

“‘Blues for the Orient’, also by Lateef, alternates straight 4/4 choruses with those in more Oriental rhythm. Although many unusual instruments have recently been introduced into jazz, this is the first successful oboe blues I have ever heard, and it has the added advantage of an unusually attractive line which could be picked up with profit by many musicians who are concerned with this line of development. It is, for this listener, the most attractive track on the set.

“‘Chinq Miau’ (aka ‘Ching Miau’) get its title from the name of a scale in Chinese music. Since Chinq is close to both the French and Spanish words for five, one wonders if the 5/4 time signature did not also play a part in the titling.

“‘Snafu’ is a hard-tenor excursion in the general manner of Rollins and Coltrane. It is the most visceral track on the set, and shows a side of the Lateef nature much more often revealed in person than on this LP.

“‘Purple Flower’ is a gentle ballad (an Oriental version of ‘Passion Flower’?) that shows the ballad artistry of Lateef within the framework of an original piece.

“The final track, ‘The Three Faces of Balal’, was written for a friend of Yusef’s who is the father of twin girls. The twins, and Balal’s wife, are the three faces. On this piece and ‘The Plum Blossom’, bassist Ernie Farrow abandons his usual instrument for the Indian rabat.

“Lateef announces himself pleased with the album; when we spoke, he was happy and slightly surprised that I liked it as much as I did. Such surprise is natural in men who finally do what they really want; Lateef will surprise the jazz public in this set; it would be nice if they surprised him with acceptance.” (Joe Goldberg. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Yusef Lateef (t-sx/fl/oboe/xun), Barry Harris (pi), Ernie Farrow (bs/rabat), Lex Humphries (dr)

A1. The Plum Blossom

A2. Blues For The Orient

A3. Chinq Miau

A4. Don't Blame Me

B1. Love Theme From 'Spartacus'

B2. Snafu

B3. Purple Flower

B4. Love Theme From 'The Robe'

B5. The Three Faces Of Balal

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Yusef Lateef - Before Dawn

"“In the past few years, a caravan of impressive young jazzmen have departed from Detroit. Most were born there: all received their jazz apprenticeship in the city of giant industry, the dauntless UAW, and a police chief who tried to ban John O’Hara. It is also a city with strong jazz roots, particularly in the modern idiom. This newest generation of jazzmen took it as natural that they grew up in an inner community of sessions, music talk, and the religion that jazz can become. Their older brothers, those that had them, had also experienced the same milieu. Sonny Stitt knows Detroit as do Thad and Elvin Jones and Billy Mitchell and Art Mardigan.

“The younger corps is composed of musicians who skill, individuality and vigor are rather rare - in complete combination - for jazzmen that young. The wider jazz world has come to recognize, respect and enjoy bassists Paul Chambers and Doug Watkins, guitarist Kenny Burrell, pianist Tommy Flanagan, baritone saxist Pepper Adams, pianist-vibist Terry Pollard (who left before most of those in the paragraph), trumpeter Donald Byrd and drummer Louis Hayes.

“Back home, other jazzmen remain. Pianist Barry Harris, for one, who encouraged and influenced a number of his contemporaries; and an older pianist, Willie Anderson whom most of the Detroit jazz musicians feel could have been one of the few titans.

“One of those who has remained, and has been working for over a year at Klein’s on the west side, one of the few jazz rooms in the city, is Yusef Lateef. Born in Tennessee in 1920, Lateef moved to Detroit with his parents, and went to school in that city. While at Miller High, he became involved with the alto saxophone. It was 1937, and he played alto for a year before switching to tenor. By 1946, he was in New York, a member of Lucky Millinder’s band. Lucky Thompson, another Detroiter, had introduced him to Millinder.

“After playing with Hot Lips Page, Roy Eldridge, Ernie Fields and other units, Lateef (then known as Bill Evans) made a cross-country tour with the Dizzy Gillespie band in 1949. (Discographies indicate, for example, that Evans was on the 1949 RCA Victor ‘Swedish Suite’.) In 1950, Yusef returned to Detroit and worked with various groups until he formed his own quintet in 1955.

“Lateef is intrigued by the possibilities of including what he terms an ‘East Indian-African flavor’ in some of his arrangements; and Lateef plays, as well as tenor, the flute, gourd, tambourine, finger cymbals and arghool (oriental flute). Farrow doubles on the rehab, a one-string guitar-like instrument.

“Lateef admires Sonny Stitt for his technical ability; Billie Holiday for her expression of emotion; Dizzy Gillespie for his creativity; and Charlie Parker for all these qualities. Lateef continues to study, and is currently at Wayne State University with Valter Paole, Assistant Conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

“Kenny Burrell, to many ears including this one the best of the younger guitarists, describes his former Detroit colleague, Lateef, as having ‘a very full sound. There’s lots of body to it. And his approach is individual. It isn’t a thing you can detect immediately, but I’ve been listening to him a long time. You can only vary so much anyway, but as you get to really hear him, you’ll feel a definite style. His thinking, incidentally, is like that of Coleman Hawkins. There are no wasted notes, and he usually builds into logical climaxes. There’s nothing showy in his work; just sincere playing.’

“I would add that Lateef is clearly conversant with modern tenor theory and practice, he also brings Hawkins and Don Byas to mind in the virile romanticism with which he can play (as on ‘Love is Eternal’). His is a strong, driving tenor in whatever context. All of the compositions here are his, and in some places there is a touch of exoticism as on the introduction to ‘Open Strings’ and the closing of ‘Before Dawn’. The flute on the LP is also played by Lateef. A further note about Lateef is by Paul Chambers who says of his playing that it is is ‘very soulful. It’s modern and yet there’s a lot of oldness in it, seasoning. A lot of roots.’

“Trombonist Curtis Fuller, not yet 25, is now in New York where he has interested Miles Davis and other musician-arbiters. Curtis has, it would appear from his playing here, been considerably influenced by J.J. Johnson. In Detroit, he worked with his own group and also with Lateef. Bassist Ernie Farrow, approaching 30, has played with Terry Gibbs, Stan Getz and Lateef. Pianist Hugh Lawson, in his early 20s, is described by Chambers as ‘full of fire and life’ and Burrell notes that Lawson indicates he has heard Flanagan and Barry Harris, and maybe is a little more funky than they. Louis Hayes is only 20; at the age of 19, he was recommended to Horace Silver by Burrell and Chambers. Louis has been a stirring part of the Silver quintet ever since. He is a crisp, stimulating and certainly swinging young drummer who should become a major figure, poll-winning or not poll-winning, before he’s 30.

“It’s difficult to determine the complex factors that make a city like Detroit produce so valuable a contingent of young players in a few years. A primary reason, however, is probably that advanced by Paul Chambers. ‘There was very much more jamming in Detroit than there is, for example, in New York. We’d jam at houses and at clubs. They were the kind of sessions where a lot could be learned. Everybody was closely knitted together, and actually, in the course of time, almost everybody worked with everybody else around town. Certain groups did stick together, but in many cases you could be a leader one night and a sideman the next.

“Kenny Burrell agrees about the fructifying advantages of the pervasive jam session in Detroit during the years of his growth. ‘The spirit seemed to be there,’ he recalls. ‘And in addition to the playing, there has always been, so far as I can remember, a certain amount of people in Detroit that appreciated and tried to promote jazz. There was never a time when no jazz was being played. There was always something happening to keep a man’s spirit up and to give him a chance.

“The musicians themselves were sometimes focal forces in organizing jazz appreciation and study. Burrell, for example, founded the New Music Society in March, 1954, which lasted for nearly three years. Other musicians and dedicated laymen helped in the organization and administration and there were concerts, workshops and other pragmatic jazz activities.

“For those Detroit musicians who remain at home, it’s probably quite heartening to hear of the impact made in this country and abroad by the voices of their former colleagues. And for those who intend eventually to leave, there is the corollary realization that when they do arrive on the Apple or in Los Angeles or elsewhere, other Detroiters have prepared a welcome for them. In other circles it helps establish instant contact to say you’re from Princeton or Mount Holyoke. In the more open terrain of jazz, it still helps these days to say you know Burrell or Chambers or Byrd, because if you do know them and have played with them, the resultant conclusion is that you’re qualified to join in and are apt to know the changes and not be intimidated by the tempo. Detroit has turned into an exacting school for other besides Walter Reuther and his associates.” (Nat Hentoff. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Yusef Lateef (t-sx/fl), Curtis Fuller (tb), Hugh Lawson (pi), Ernie Farrow (bs), Louis Hayes (dr)

A1. Passion

A2. Love Is Eternal

A3. Pike's Peak

A4. Open Strings

B1. Before Dawn

B2. Twenty-Five Minute Blues

B3. Chang, Chang, Chang

B4. Constellation

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Ornette Coleman - Town Hall 1962

“Ornette Coleman’s decision to temporarily retire from music (this ESP disc was his only recording from a four-year period) was unfortunate. His alto playing was getting stronger, and on evidence of this CD, he had plenty of original ideas that should have been documented. For this Town Hall concert, Coleman debuts with his new trio (a unit that would return in 1965) featuring the remarkable bassist David Izenson and drummer Charles Moffett. Together they perform ‘Doughnut’, ‘Sadness’, and an extensive 23-and-a-half minute version of ‘The Ark’. In addition, a string quartet performs Colemans’ ‘Dedication to Poets and Writers’. Although Ornette's string writing (which leaves no room for improvising) is pretty well outside of jazz, his playing on the other tracks holds one's interest throughout.” (Review by Scott Yanow for AllMusic. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Ornette Coleman (a-sx), David Izenzon (bs), Charles Moffett (dr)

A1. Doughnut

A2. Sadness

A3. Dedication To Poets And Writers

B. The Ark

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Ornette Coleman - Change of the Century

“Some musicians say, if what I’m doing is right, they should never have gone to school.

“I say, there is no single -right- way to play jazz. Some of the comments made about my music make me realize though that modern jazz, once so daring and revolutionary, has become, in many respects, a rather settled and conventional thing. The members of my group and I are no attempting to break-through to a new, freer conception of jazz, one that departs from all that is ‘standard’ and cliché in ‘modern’ jazz.

“Perhaps the most important new element in our music is our conception of -free- group improvisation. The idea of group improvisation, in itself, is not at all new; it played a big role in New Orleans’ early band. The big bands of the swing period changed all that. Today, still, the individual is either swallowed up in a group situation, or else he is out front soloing, with none of the other horns doing anything but calmly awaiting their turn for -their- solos. Even in some of the trios and quartets, which permit quite a bit of group improvisation, the final effect is one that is imposed beforehand by the arranger. One knows pretty much what to expect.

“When our group plays, before we start out to play, we do not have any ideas what the end result will be. Each player is free to contribute what he feels in the music at any given moment. We do not begin with a preconceived notion as to what kind of effect we will achieve. When we record, sometimes I can hardly believe that what I hear when the tape is played back to me, is the playing of my group. I am so busy and absorbed when I play that I am not aware of what I’m doing at the time I’m doing it.

“I don’t tell the members of my group what to do. I want them to play what they hear in the piece for themselves. I let everyone express himself just as he wants to. The musicians have complete freedom and so, of course, our final results depend entirely on the musicianship, emotional make-up and taste of the individual member. Ours is at all times a group effort and it is only because we have the rapport we do that our music takes on the shape that it does. A strong personality with a star-complex would take away from the effectiveness of our group, no matter how brilliantly he played.

“With my music, as is the case with some of my friends who are painters, I often have people come to me and say, ‘I like it but I don’t understand it’. Many people apparently don’t trust their reactions to art or to music unless there is a verbal -explanation- for it. In music, the only thing that matters is whether you -feel- it or not. You can’t intellectualize music; to reduce it analytically often is to reduce it to nothing very important. It is only in terms of emotional response that I can judge whether what we are doing is successful or not. If you are touched in some way, then you are -in- with me. I love to play for people, and how they react affects my playing.

“A question often asked of me is why I play a plastic alto. I bought it originally because I needed a new horn badly, and I felt I could not afford a new brass instrument. The plastic horn is less expensive, and I said to myself, ‘Better a new horn than one that leaks’. After living with the plastic horn, I felt it begin to take on my emotion. The tone is breathier than the brass instrument, but I came to like the sound, and I found the flow of music to be more compact. I don’t intend ever to buy another brass horn. On this plastic horn I feel as if I am continually creating my own sound.

“Now to the music. They are all originals. Each is quite different from the other, but in a certain sense there really is not start or finish to any of my compositions. There is a continuity of expression, certain continually evolving strands of thought that link all my compositions together. Maybe it’s something like the paintings of Jackson Pollock.

“‘Ramblin’’ is basically a blues, but it has a modern, moder independent melodic line than older blues have, of course. I do not feel so confined to the blues form as do many other jazz musicians. Blues are definite emotional statements. Some emotional situations can only be told as blues.

“‘Free’ is well-explained by the title. Our -free- group improvising is well demonstrated here. Each member goes his own way and still adds tellingly to the group endeavor. There was no predetermined chordal or time pattern. I think we got a spontaneous, free-wheeling thing going here.

“‘Face of the Bass’ begins as a vehicle for our bassist. Charlie Haden is from Missouri and he has a lot of heart. It is unusual to come across someone as young as he is and find that he has such a complete grasp of the ‘modern’ bass: melodically independent and non-chordal.

“‘Forerunner’ shows the interchangeability and flexibility of the component parts of the group. I like the way the melody here often runs through the rhythm instruments, with the melody instruments - the horns - providing rhythm accents (the traditional function of drums and bass).

“‘Bird Food’ has echoes of the style of Charlie Parker. Bird would have understood us. He would have approved our aspiring to something beyond what we inherited. Oddly enough, the idolization of Bird, people wanting to play just like him, and not make their own soul-search, has finally come to be an impediment to progress in jazz.

“‘Una Muy Bonita’, in Spanish, means ‘a very pretty girl’. I had no one in particular in mind. It is perhaps a little lighter in mood than some of our other pieces. It has a relaxed feeling and a more settled rhythm - and yes, I suppose, a ‘prettier’ melody.

“‘Change of the Century’ expresses our feeling that we have to make breaks with a lot of jazz’s recent past, just as the boppers did with swing and traditional jazz. We want to incorporate more musical materials and theoretical ideas - from the classical world, as well as jazz and folk - into our work to create a broader base for the new music we are creating.

“Every member of the group made an important and distinctly personal contribution to this album, which I think is the best we have made so far.” (Ornette Coleman, transcribed by Gary Kramer. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Ornette Coleman (a-sx), Don Cherry (p-tp), Charlie Haden (bs), Billy Higgins (dr)

A1. Ramblin'

A2. Free

A3. The Face Of The Bass

B1. Forerunner

B2. Bird Food

B3. Una Muy Bonita

B4. Change Of The Century

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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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Horace Silver - 6 Pieces of Silver

"The release of this LP by the Horace Silver quintet has more significance than might appear on the surface; for although Horace's career on records in general and on Blue Note in particular has covered a broad area of styles, performances and groups, this is the first time he has ever been able to present, and present with pride, a permanently-formed combo of his own.

"There are many of us who felt that this step was long overdue, not only in terms of his talent, but also on the strength of his personality. His mild manner, pleasant speaking voice and clean living habits seemed to equip Horace for the role of leader, and if the reaction of night club owners in recent months is any yardstick, he didn't start a moment too soon.

"Since this is, then, a milestone in the Silver career, it might be advisable to pause and recapitulate briefly the biographical backgrounds of each member of the quintet as it is heard on these sides, since the writers of liner notes tend too often to take for granted a knowledge of all these facts on the part of the fan.

"The leader was born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver in 1928 in Norwalk, Conn. After saxophone studies in high school and private piano lessons, he played gigs around Connecticut on both tenor and piano. It was after Stan Getz heard him in Hartford that he was hired to tour with the Getz quartet, staying with the group for a year in 1950-51. Settling in New York City, he worked frequently during the next year with Art Blakey, as well as with combos led by Terry Gibbs, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Bill Harris and others. From then until he formed his own group, he was most frequently a part of the Jazz Messengers.

"Hank Mobley, Horace's tenor man, was born in Eastman, Georgia in 1930, but was raised in New Jersey. After working with rhythm and blues groups until 1950, he jobbed mostly with Max Roach from 1951-53, spent several months with the Gillespie group in '54 and since then has been with Horace, first in the Jazz Messengers and now in the Silver quintet.

"Donald Byrd, Horace's trumpeter on this date, was born in Detroit in 1932, the son of a Methodist minister who was also a musician. He studied at Cass Tech High, Wayne University and Manhattan School of Music. After serving in the Air Force from 1951-53 and then working with local groups, he came to New York and played with George Wallington's group and Blakey's Messenger in 1955.

"Twenty-two-year-old Doug Watkins, also a Cass Tech man from Detroit, was schoolmate of Byrd and of bassist Paul Chmabers, who is his cousin by marriage. Leaving home with James Moody in '53, he settled in New York in August, 1954 and gigged mostly with the men in and around the Messengers.

"Louis Hayes, Horace's talented young drummer, is only 18 years old and is also a Detroiter; he replaced Art Taylor on very short notice in this group, and according to those of us who have heard him at Birdland and on other gigs, he shows signs of becoming a big name before too long.

"With the exception of one standard tune, the music heard on this first session by Horace's new group consisted entirely of Silver originals. 'Cool Eyes' is a swinging opener; notice the interesting use of the double augmented effect at the 23rd bar of the theme. The performances lend an extra sense of construction in that the solos are tied together by eight-bar unison interludes. Mobley, Byrd and Horace have extended solo space and Watkins walks a while. After the closing ensemble, in which the piano plays unison along with the horns, the last phrase is repeated effectively in descending keys.

"'Shirl', named for a young female friend, is a piano solo with rhythm, pensive and delicate, striking a sort of 'Stella by Starlight' mood.

"'Camouflage' has an unusual device in the rhyhthm pauses during the solo, as a result of which it seems to swing as much as anything in the album, yet in a slightly different way. Hank, Horace and Donald are featured in that order.

"'Enchantment' is an exotic theme that demonstrates how much can be extracted from the use of two-part harmony. Notice the use of an unorthodox Latin beat in which the third eighth not is left open; Louis Hayes's use of mallets; Horace's employment of octaves and other devices not typical of him.

"'Señor Blues' is, for this listener at least, the most exciting of the seven performances on these sides. Set in a minor key with the horns voiced, it is in a triple time, which Horace describes as 6/8, though I would be inclined to call it 12/8. The performance is full of tricky rhythmic and counter-rhythmic effects. When piano solo time arrives, the rhythm changes again and of this time signature Horace confesses, 'I don't know what you call that!' (We call it fine and funky.) Both in its solos and in the ensemble approach, this is a striking demonstration of the degree of originality to which the twelve-bar motif can be stretched.

"'Virgo', named for the sign under which Horace was born, is a fast unison theme in which the solos again are spelled by eight-measure interludes. Horace, on his solo here, is a fluent as a pianistic Charlie Parker. Louis Hayes, after trading fours with the horns, has a long solo, and there is a suddent bop-style ending.

"'For Heaven's Sake', a popular song of a few years ago, is given the same brand of treatment as 'Shirl', a piano solo in a pleasantly relaxed ballad mood.

"It need hardly be pointed out in conclusion that this record debut by the new Silver quintet augers a successful future for Horace as a leader. Assuming the main ingredients of success are talent, ambition and luck, it can safely be said that Horace is already two-thirds of the way there." (Leonard Feather. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Horace Silver (pi), Donald Byrd (tp), Hank Mobley (t-sx), Doug Watkins (bs), Louis Hayes (dr)

A1. Cool Eyes

A2. Shirl

A3. Camouflage

A4. Enchantment

B1. Señor Blues

B2. Virgo

B3. For Heaven's Sake

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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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Elmo Hope - Informal Jazz

"Friday is Prestige Day at Van Gelder's. Either recording, tape editing or master cutting is carried on. The Friday that this particular session was cut, the gathering was an informal one. Many of the musicians had played together before and the ones who hadn't were familiar with each other's work.

"Donald Byrd and Hank Mobley had played together in the Jazz Messenger and John Coltrane, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones represent, numerically, a majority vote in the Miles Davis quintet. Elmo Hope and Joe are old buddies, having played together in Joe Morris' band and in countless sessions, then and since.

"No introductions were necessary between the players but to you, the audience, it would be an oversight if they were omitted.

"Elmo Hope, the nominal leader on the date, is a native New Yorker who grew up with Bud Powell. With the Joe Morris' band in the Forties, Elmo has done mostly free-lance playing in the Fifties appearing occasionally with Dud Bascomb. [...]

"Donald Byrd is another of the recent Detroit immigrants to New York. Still in his early twenties. Donald studied at famed Cass Tech High in Detroit and continued at the Manhattan School in New York. He first appeared with George Wallington at Cafe Bohemia in 1955 and later replaced Kenny Dorham in the Jazz Messengers. [...]

"Henry 'Hank' Mobley was born in Georgia but raised in New Jersey. Played with Paul Gayten's R&B band but first attracted attention with Max Roach's combo in the early Fifties. After playing with Dizzy Gillespie for most of 1954, he joined Horace Silver's quartet late in that year. This group evolved into the Jazz Messengers of which Hank was a regular member until he left midway in 1956.

"John Coltrane is from Philadelphia. Born in North Carolina, he moved to the Quaker City at an early age. In that city he studied at both the Granoff and Ornstein music schools. 'Trane', as he is known, played with Eddie Vinson in 1947-48, Dizzy Gillespie 49-51, Early Bastic 52-53, Johnny Hodges 53-54 nad has been with Miles Davis since 1955. [...]

"Paul Chambers. Born in Pittsburgh but spent most of his life in Detroit before coming to New Yorkin 1954. Worked with Bennie Green, Jay and Kai and George Wallington. With Miles Davis group since 1955. Considered to be -the- new star on his instrument, Paul is equally adept at plucked or bowed solos. Two of the latter are his contributions in this set. [...]

"Philly Joe Jones is, as you've surmised, from the City of Brotherly Love. As mentioned before, he was with Elmo in Joe Morris' band. Joe came to prominence in the Fifties with Tony Scott's combo and Tadd Dameron's band. Since late 1955 he has been swinging the Miles Davis quintet along with Chambers. [...]

"In keeping with the informal format, the tunes are mainly vehicles for blowing. The two originals 'Weeja' and 'On It' are by Elmo. Both are riffers which expedite the blowing. 'Weeja' has everyone 'confirming' Bird's word and 'On It' is a blues. 'Polka Dots and Moonbeams' has that after a love affair feeling - a kind of reminiscing over what no longer is but how wonder were those moments, nevertheless. 'Avalon' lends itself to swinging admirably. 'Weeja' and 'On It' revive the tenor battle which died when Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons broke up. It's still a stimulating tournament and Hank and Trane make it interesting because although they are both in a general idiom they are as different as two men in a similar area can be." (Ira Gitler. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Elmo Hope (pi), Donald Byrd (tp), John Coltrane/Hank Mobley (t-sx), Paul Chambers (bs), Philly Joe Jones (dr)

A1. Weeja

A2. Polka Dots And Moonbeams

B1. On It

B2. Avalon

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