LP-677

Al Grey - The Thinking Man's Trombone

Released 1961

Recording and Session Information

Joe Newman, trumpet; Al Grey, Benny Powell, trombone; Billy Mitchell, tenor saxophone; Charlie Fowlkes, baritone saxophone; Freddie Green, guitar; Eddie Higgins, piano; Eddie Jones, bass; Sonny Payne, drums
Chicago, August 23, 24 & 25, 1960

10385 Tenderly
10386 When I fall in love
10387 Don't cry baby
10388 Al-amo
10389 Rompin'
10390 King Bee
10391 Salty papa
10392 Stranded

Track Listing

Salty Papa	Al Grey	August 23-25 1960
Don't Cry Baby	Johnson, Bernie, Unger	August 23-25 1960
Stranded	Frank Foster	August 23-25 1960
Rompin'	Frank Foster	August 23-25 1960
King Bee	Al Grey	August 23-25 1960
When I Fall In Love	Victor Young	August 23-25 1960
Al-amo	Thad Jones	August 23-25 1960
Tenderly	Lawrence, Gross	August 23-25 1960

Liner Notes

AL GREY is the thinking man, acquainted with all kinds of musical facts, and "The Thinking Man's Trombone" is what Barbara J. Gardner calls his axe. It was in 1945 that Al first started thinking on the stand, when he joined Benny Carter's band.

"Benny Carter was the first band I played with. That's where I got the foundation. He used t'stay on me so, he's such a masterful cat — a teacher, really."

When Benny quit it and went into the Hollywood studios where the giggin' is easy and the bread more steady, Al and the rest of the band were on notice, so when the magnificent Jimmie Lunceford came, saw, and offered Al a chair, Al was ready.

"Jimmy and I had the same birthday, June 6, so we always celebrated together. With Benny everything had been played long, but with Jimmy everything teas played short, altogether different. He was somethin'!"

After Mr. Lunceford's untimely demise in 1947, Al went with Lucky Millinder, a bandleader who didn't play note one on any kind of horn, but whose band included — at one time or another — practically every present-day great jazz musician ever born. To drop names is not my intention. Besides, they really ARE too numerous to mention.

"We was always swingin."

After Al departed the Millinder camp, he went with Hamp.

"We played that hand-clappin' music - them crows-pleasers."

From Lionel Hampton, Al, tired of roamin' and ready to rest a bit, entered the studios with Sy Oliver and for awhile that was it. Then, tired of sittin' on someone else's stand, Al formed his own band.

"We played the southern circuit...like B.B. King an' them...seldom got up home for any length of time. We were mostly playin background for rhythm-and-blues...Gatemouth Brown was shoutin' blues with us for awhile...seldom chance to play..."

So Al quit, retired to Philly, then joined Bullmoose Jackson. From that job Al went with Arnett Cobb, and from there to a most exciting stand with Dizzy Gillespie's big band.

"That was it."

Then, in 1957, when Diz called it quits, Al went with Basie, where he now sits.

After being with practically every thinking man in jazz, except Duke Ellington, it's no wonder Al Grey is a thinking man. It's hard to remember when he wasn't sitting with a band full of thinking men, each of them with his own way, and each of them teaching Al another way t'play, so that, even though he's still in tender days, he can play all different ways!

Salty Papa Blues is the instrumental introduction to a Dinah Washington blues that got it every ounce, especially around Hastings Street in Detroit, where Paul Williams turned it into The Hastings Street Bounce. Don't Cry, Baby was an Erskine Hawkins hit, sung by Jimmy Mitchell in his way, sung here by Al Grey, arranged for tenor, trumpet, baritone, and two bones by Thad Jones. Stranded, is composed and ranged by Frank Foster, and you can hear the cats cryin' because the promoter done dealt with 'em underhanded, split with the bread, and left 'em stranded. Rompin' is Frank Foster's sequel, tellin' what the cats were doin' on the very next gig, after bein' stranded outa' their wig.

King Bee is Al Grey's all the way, composition. arrangement, and gig to play, written for Clifton (King Bee) Smith, a Houston, Texas deejay.

"Clifton was a big help in those days (southern barnstorming.) He helped so much until I said, 'One day I'm gonna' write a tune and name it for him and record it."

When I Fall In Love is arranged by Nat Pierce, the other piano player with the Basie crew, and it's pretty. too.

Al-Amo composed and arranged by Thad Jones, is a light, bright, crisp, smooth, modern ditty — very pretty.

Tenderly was arranged by Clare Fischer, pianist with the Hi-Lo's, America's prettiest-sounding vocal quartet. It is played a capella, and Thad is directing, don't forget.

"People like to listen to music, and sometimes they like to have somethin' to dance by too, just that good feelin'."

That's what Al says. That's the way it was, and in this album, giving that good feelin', is just what Al Grey does.

Jon Hendricks