LP-743

Gene Shaw - Carnival Sketches

Released 1964

Recording and Session Information

Gene Shaw, trumpet; Charles Stepney, vibes; Roland Faulkner, guitar; Richard Evans, bass,arranger; Marshall Thompson, drums; Benny Costa, conga, latin percussion
Ter Mar, Chicago, May 11 1964

13227 The big sunrise
13228 Goin' downtown
13229 Cha bossa
13230 Street dance
13231 Goin' back home

Gene Shaw, trumpet; Kenny Soderblom, flute, bass flute; Eddie Higgins, piano; Richard Evans, bass,arranger; Vernel Fournier, drums; Marshall Thompson, dums, conga
Ter Mar, Chicago, July 17 1964

13350 Soulero
13351 Ain't that soul
13352 Samba nova
13353 The days of wine and roses

Track Listing

The Big Sunrise	Richard Evans	May 11 1964
Goin' Downtown	Richard Evans	May 11 1964
Cha Bossa	Richard Evans	May 11 1964
Street Dance	Richard Evans	May 11 1964
Goin' Back Home	Richard Evans	May 11 1964
Ain't That Soul	Richard Evans	July 17 1964
Soulero	Richard Evans	July 17 1964
Days Of Wine And Roses	Henry Mancini	July 17 1964
Samba Nova	Richard Evans	July 17 1964

Liner Notes

THIS is a singular record by a musician who deserves much more recognition than he has received — Gene Shaw. He is unique, as a man and as a musician. He seldom has followed an easy or predictable path in either music or living.

For example, most musicians are well into the music profession at tender ages. Gene, however, didn't begin to play trumpet until he was in the Army. This was in the late '40's.

In the mid 'SO's, after he'd left his native Detroit to try his luck in New York City, he was a member of that boiling caldron called the Charlie Mingus Jazz Workshop — an experience seldom forgotten by musicians who've been exposed to it. Gene has good reason not to forget Mingus. After a heated run-in with the volatile bassist, Gene literally broke up his trumpet and swore never to play again. He became a silversmith, then a ceramicist, and finally a hypnotist. He and his wife opened a school of hypnotism in Greenwich Village around 1958, about a year after he had given up playing. Later, Gene finally concluded that man did not have the knowledge to use hypnotism properly, and closed his school.

Before he had stopped playing, however, Gene had made a rather remarkable record with the Mingus group. This album, "Tijuana Moods", was issued in 1962, five years after it was made. In his notes for the album, Mingus raved about the trumpeter who was known as Clarence Shaw during the time he worked with the bassist.

The critics raved too, but no one, not even Mingus, knew where Shaw had gone. Shortlv after the record was issued, Shaw, now known as Gene, showed up in Chicago leading a group at a local club. The success of the Mingus album and the consequent focus of attention on Shaw, had decided him to return to music. Or, as Gene has put it, "Mingus ended it; Mingus began it again".

Gene was soon signed to an Argo contract. This is the third Gene Shaw album on the label; and, for me, it is his best. And that isn't liner-note hyperbole, because on this album, particularly in the five-part "Carnival Sketches", Gene comes closest to expressing what he calls his others might call the self, the soul, the heart. Whatever term used, it is unmistakable when present in music, and it is present here.

The quietness of the man, his near-placidity, his impishness cloaked in poignancy (or vice versa), all are heard in the course of these two sides. One can hear in his music Gene's abiding dual interests in life: the mind-soul (his foray into hypnotism and his generally philosophical approach to living), and construction (working with silver and clay, as well as his expressed desire to be a good carpenter). In this music, Gene combines the two by building Jong-lined, melodic improvisations of emotional-intellectual depth.

In essence, his soul shines through. There are no high-register outpourings of meaningless notes — he is not that sort of man. But there is his melancholoy cry — his brooding, if you will — and there is that hard core of hope that marks all satisfying jazz performances.

The setting for Gene's trumpet is Latin-Spanish. The "Carnival Sketches" suite was A & R man Esmond Edwards' idea. "I wanted something for Gene that was not just another album of unrelated tunes", Edwards said. "I wanted some continuity, an over-all premise — at least for one side. Richard Evans, having a propensity for writing Latin things, I thought would be best to write the date."

And Evans, as the saying goes, took care of business. Besides composing all the album's tunes. with the exception of Hank Mancini's "The Days Of Wine and Roses", Evans contracted the men for the two dates. He said the two qualities for which he looked in the men were, a good reading ability and the artistry to improvise with feeling: "You can get guys with a lot of feeling, but who can't read", Evans explained, "and you can get guys who can read but can't play with the proper feeling. Any session I write, I want to be as effcient as possible. You're limited to how much you can put down on paper, and you have to depend on the musicians to interpret what you want — 'I want a thing like this...'—the guys on this record are easy to work with."

The easy-to-work-with men are generally well known among Chicago musicians and jazz listeners. Vibraharpist Charles Stepnay, also an accomplished pianist, has worked most recently with tenor saxophonist Eddie Harris, but Stepnay's talents have been displayed in many Chicago clubs, if not very many recording studios. This quiet, almost taciturn musician is the outstanding vibes player in the Chicago area. Listen particularly to his well-thought-out and sensitive work on 'Coin' Downtown", and "Street Dance".

Guitarist Roland Faulkner came to Evans' attention when the two were working in the same band at the C & C Lounge, a cavernous club on the south side. Faulkner's creativity is one of the highlights of 'Carnival Sketches", particularly in his easeful "Cha Bossa' solo.

Kenny Soderblom is one of the most adroit woodwind players in Chicago, but spends much of his time at the lucrative work to be found in transcription and recording studios. This is one of his few jazz outings. His fetching flute work is especially well done on the lilting "Samba Nova".

Pianist Eddie Higgins' experience ranges from traditional jazz (with such groups as Jack Teagarden's) to modern (usually with his own trio, which includes bassist Evans, at such establishments as the London House). His ability to play within the temper of a tune is amply evident in his plunging, blues-drenched solos on "Soulero" and "Ain't That Soul", and in his light-fingered, delicate work on "The Days Of Wine And Roses" and "Samba Nova".

The three percussionists heard in this album are among the most respected in Chicago - Marshall Thompson has worked with innumerable groups, and his devilishly subtle, dancing playing has served as a source of inspiration for many young Chicago drummers. VernelJ Fournier, best known for his work with Ahmad Jamal and George Shearing, is an impeccable accompanist, one whose taste and imagination is without rival — as his hi-hat work shows on "Samba Nova". (Incidentally, both Fournier and Thompson play the 3/4 bolero figure in the opening and closing choruses of "Souleto".) Benny Cooke, the junior member of the percussion trio, has worked with several combos around Chicago, including Higgins', and has headed his own group from time to time. This is his first recorded performance on conga drum, and one might do worse than get caught up in the cross-rhythms he and Thompson play on "Street Dance".

Gene was unstinting in his praise for Evans' work, both as composer and as organizer. He said: "It was a very smooth session — due to Richard's ability, He had it all organized, and it worked."

Evans, one of Chicago's best bassists, (and there are a number of excellent ones in the city) has displayed his compositional and arranging skills before. Some of his most notable work was done for the Paul Winter Sextet, of which he was a member during its six month State Department tour of Latin America in 1962; and for Ahmad Jamal's album (Argo #712) which the bassist composed, scored, and conducted. He also has written arrangements for the Lionel Hampton and Maynard Ferguson bands. For the most part, Evans is self taught, both in playing and writing; however, after several years of performing and composing, he enrolled at Chicago's Wilson College, "to find out what I was doing".

Evans said that two of the tracks on the second That Soul" and "Soulero" were heavily influenced by his playing with Ahmad Jamal for several months in 1962 and '63. Evans then pointed out, "Soulero", "goes into a rhythm similar to Ahmad's "Poinciana". That's one reason I used Vernell Fournier. (who worked for several years with Jamal) he was the first one to make it up. On "Ain't That Soul", the basic rhythmic structure is based on things Jamal played. I want to give credit where it's due."

"Carnival Sketches" might, in the composer's words, "represent a typical day on the town below the border. Most of the ideas were jazz influenced. The rhythm, however, is infuenced by the Latins, and the rhythm sction gets a lazy but firm beat. We were trying to get that certain feeling in the record".

Gene Shaw. Richard Evans, and friends succeeded in doing just that, and in producing a lovely, sometimes poignant, moving record.

—Don DeMicheaI