LP-631

Vito Price - Swingin' The Loop

Released 1958

Recording and Session Information

Chicago, January 20 1958
Vito Price, tenor saxophone; Lou Levy, piano; Freddie Green, guitar; Max Bennett, bass; Gus Johnson, drums

8901 Time after time
Eye strain
Beautiful love
Credo
As long as I live

Chicago, January 25 1958
John Howell, Bill Hanley, trumpet; Paul Crumbaugh, trombone; Barrett O'Hara, bass trombone; Vito Price, tenor, alto saxophone; Bill Calkins, baritone saxophone; Lou Levy, piano; Ray "Remo" Biondi, guitar; Max Bennett, bass; Marty Clausen , drums; Bill McRae, arranger

8902 Swinging the Loop
Mousey's tune
Why was I born?
Duddy
In a mellow tone

Swinging The Loop	Vito Price	January 25 1958
Mousey's Tune	Pizzo	January 25 1958
Why Was I Born	Kern-Hammerstein III	January 25 1958
Duddy	Vito Price	January 25 1958
In A Mellow Tone	Ellington, Robbins	January 25 1958
Eye Strain	Vito Price	January 20 1958
Time After Time	Styne, Cahn, Sinatra	January 20 1958
Beautiful Love	Young, Van Alstyne, King, Gillespie	January 20 1958
Credo	Pizzo, McRae	January 20 1958
As Long As I Live	Arlan, Koehler, Mills	January 20 1958

Liner Notes

Liner note writers are a most peculiar sort.

They behave erratically much of the time, searching for the attractive approach to the subject involved. This endless proceeding from one to the next, is characterized by constant anguish and inevitable frustration.

This situation not at all unusual. After all, LPs are cranked out today with the machine-like rapidity so characteristic of our production line age.

What, then, does the liner note author do? Obviously, he searches for new new ways of interpreting music and its performers, new gags to enchant the record buyers. There are a variety of ways to accomplish these ends.

The writer with a substantial background in jazz can, for example, say that he has "discovered" the talent presented on the L.P. He can, in essence, tell his own life story.

Another approach calls for writing an extensive treatise on a subject not necessarily related to the L.P. This takes the form of discussing elementary geometry or the sartorial brilliance of Adolph Menjou.

Another writer might compare the featured performer on the LP with another performer who plays the some instrument. This allows the liner note creator to state his own preferences rather discretely. If he us not fond of the performer on the LP for which he is writing the notes, he can simply discuss another performer. This is a mild form of escapism, a kind of facing the monetary benefit without facing any of its accompanying annoyances.

The liner note writer, then, is a kind of displaced person, unable to write at great length equally unable to freely stare his views with regularity.

In this case, I'm not faced with any of these problems.

Vito Price isn't famous. He isn't the world's saxophonist. He isn't suffereing from pangs of public disapproval. He isn't a newly-discovered figure out of the past.

To state it simply, he is a musician satisfied to play the way he wants to play. He's not attempting to set precedents or unify forms or set insipirational harmonic patterns. When I asked him about this LP, his first as a leader, he said, "I'm thrilled that I finally got the chance to record. I felt ready. This is my idea of happy, swinging music."

In other words, Price is hoping that the taste of some record buyers will coincide with his own. This kind of uncluttered approach is rather rare these days.

For amateur musicologists. here are some basic facts on Price.

He's 28, New York-born, and has been playing the tenor and alto saxes since he was 14. During his high school days he worked with jazz groups in New York area. After high school, he served an apprenticeship on the road, with the bands of Bob Chester, Art Mooney, Tony Pastor, and with Chubby Jackson's small group.

On Side One, Price plays tenor on tracks except Mellow Tone, on which he plays alto. He is backed by John Howell and Bill Hanley, trumpets; Paul Crumbagh, trombone; Barrett O'Hara, bass trombone; Bill Calkins, baritone; Lou Levy, piano; Max Bennett, bass; Remo Biondi, guitar, and Marty Clausen. drums. On Side Two, Price is backed by Levy. Bennett, Freddie Green, guitar, and Gus Johnson. drums.

In 1951 he entered the marines and spent two years serving in amarine band. He enrolled at the Manhattan school of music in 1953 and stayed on for two years, supplementing his studies with work as a leader of his own group and as a member of Jerry Wald's band.

In the summer of 1933 he came to Chicago. In February, 1956, he joined the staff orchestra at station WGN and has been a member of the orchestra there ever since. He participated in both Chubby Jackson sessions for Argo in recent months.

When I solicited his thoughts on this LP, he stated them readily.

"I had wanted to record so badly," he said. "I guess I never had been at the right place at the right time. This is my first opportunity. And I given a clear road to do just whac I wanted to do.

"I'm not a far out musician. I'm not trying to blaze new paths. These sides are pure, clean. and honest. I just tried to swing. I play because I like to play. I dig it," he concluded.

It is natural that a WGN staff man would look to his compatriots at the station for assistance on his first LP as a leader. Price did iust that. Except for the rhythm sections utilized. all the members of the band on this LP work with Price ar WGN.

They're used to playing together, as Price noted to me. All the big band charts for this date were prepared by Bill McRea, another WGN staff man, making the existing compatibility that much greater.

Joining the WGN corps are Remo Biondi, a fine Chicago guitarist; Matty Clausen, the excellent drummer with the Dan Belloc band, both present on the big tracks. When Price was ready to cut this he discovered that Ella Fitzgerald was working in Chicago. Astute enough to know a rhythm section when he heard one, he persuaded Lou Levy, piano; Max Bennett, bass, and Gus Johnson, drums, to make the session. Johnson, due to illness, was able to participate in just the small group (Price-with-rhythm section) tracks, but the Levy•Bennett combination appears on all the tracks in this L.P. Finally, the incomparable Freddie Green. guitarist and pivot man of the Count Basic band, joined in to the small group tracks that much more of a delight.

Essentially. this is Price's LP. On the five big band tracks he is the malor soloist, with Levy the only other soloist. The same holds true for the five small group tracks. In addition to Eking featured on tenor (and alto on In A Mellow Tone), Price contributed three originals — Swinging the Loop, Duddy, Eye Strain (dedicated to Price's wife. who, in knitting a sweater for him, discovered that she needed glasses).

This, then, is a set highlighted by the warm-toned horn of Vito Price. It features Price in big band and small group scrings, on ballads and blues, up-tempo and medium tempo approaches.

If you've purchased this LP, the Argo Records management will be pleased. If you've read this far, I'll be pleased. But if you enjoy this LP, Vito Price would like to know. Drop him a card at his home — S61 Arlington Place, Chicago 14, Ill. After all, a little encouragement can't do any harm.

Don Gold
Managing Editor
Down Beat Magazine
COVER PHOTO AND DESIGN—DON BRONSTIEN

RECORDING DATES— JAN. 20. 1958 SMALL GROUP, JAN. 25, 1958 LARGE GROUP
RECORDING ENGINEER—JACK WIENER
RECORDING DIRECTION—BILL McREA
PRODUCER-DAVE USHER