LP-756

James Moody - Cookin' The Blues

Released 1965

Recording and Session Information

Howard McGhee, trumpet; Bernard McKinney, trombone; James Moody, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, flute; Musa Kaleem, baritone saxophone; Sonny Donaldson, piano; Steve Davis, bass; Arnold Enlow, drums; Eddie Jefferson, vocals
Jazz Workshop, San Francisco, June 1961

10955 Bloozey (unissued)
10956 Little Buck
10957 Home fries
10958 Disappointed
10959 It might as well be spring
10960 One for Nat
10961 Bunny Boo
10962 The Jazz Twist
10963 Sister Sadie
Moody Flooty

Track Listing

The Jazz Twist	James Moody	June 1961
One For Nat	Gene Kee	June 1961
Bunny Boo	James Moody	June 1961
Moody Flooty	James Moody	June 1961
It Might As Well Be Spring	Rodgers & Hammerstein	June 1961
Disappointed	E. Jefferson	June 1961
Sister Sadie	Horace Silver	June 1961
Little Buck	James Moody	June 1961
Home Fries	Gene Kee	June 1961

Liner Notes

BACK in 1946, James Moody made his first recording date. He was the featured tenor saxophonist with Dizzy Gillespie's big band on a number called Emanon. Moody was cookin' the blues — to a turn.

Almost twenty years later, Moody is back with Diz, and cookin' better than ever. In between. however, he was a band leader in his own right, as anyone who is aware of Argo Records well knows. Moody's bands have always been big little bands or little big bands, depending on how you look at it. They combined musicality and swing, and certainly knew how to play the blues. This 1961 edition, recorded live at The Jazz Workshop in San Francisco, is no exception. Here the band is heard in a supporting role, save a short solo by pianist Sonny Donaldson on The Jazz Twist. The stage is Moody's for the most part, except on the two selections in which his long-time buddy, singer Eddie Jefferson, steps into the spotlight.

When Moody went to Europe in the late Forties as a member of the Gillespie band, he decided to stay on the Continent. In France and Sweden, he became a recording star on both tenor and alto, his original instrument. When he returned to the United States in 1951, Jimmy continued to utilize both horns. Later in the Fifties, he added flute to his already heavy arsenal. In this album, he uses all three weapons to cook the blues.

Moody is very "vocal" on all his instruments but perhaps no place as much as on alto. His Jazz Twist solo, at a groovy medium tempo, gets into some screaming before it's finished. On the minor-key Home Fries, he does some hard wailing and crying. Even on It Might As Well Be Spring he imparts a bluesy inflection replete with a rowdy rooster crow.

His flute has a pleasing, beautifully-controlled, but never effete sound that is as azure as his other axes. Moody is flutin' the blues on only one track in this set and that's Moody Flooty. Once again he shows how to get a jazz feeling on flute without becoming hysterical.

Moody's tenor is never harsh but has an edge that bites and a center with plenty of guts and he fingers it with the same incredible facility that he brings to the smaller alto. James is a tough man at any tempo. As fellow saxophonist Allen Eager said to me, one night at Birdland, when we were enjoying James' playing, "He can do anything he wants to on his horn."

One For Nat has Moody in full flame and a short drum break by Buddy Enlow. Bunny Boo is in a rocking, finger-popping groove with the mood for Moody set by the walking Steve Davis and Enlow. Moody's Little Buck is a terse, swift, riffy blues with a Lester Young-ish beginning and a few hints of Pres in other places.

In abetting vocalist Eddie Jefferson's portrait of Horace Silver's Sister Sadie, Moody blows a particularly hot tenor chorus. This one swings all the way with Jefferson's words even taking in Blue Mitchell's trumpet solo from Silver's original version.

Jefferson was the first singer to write words to instrumental solos and perform them. "I started doing it back around 1938 or 1939," he told me. "I used to have a record player in my hotel room and just sing along with the records for my own amusement and for the cats who always hung around." Eddie's other solo in this set is Disappointed, based on Charlie Parker's Lady Be Good solo from Jazz At The Philharmonic. The first time Jefferson recorded this, he sang: "I got in trouble foolin' around with a pretty woman." This time he tells us: "I got in trouble feelin' around with a pretty woman." That's some fancy foolin'! Eddie's sense of humor is all over this one in a demonstration of how to make a sad story amusing. It's the only track in the album where Moody doesn't solo, but Jefferson takes good care of all the business. Elsewhere, it's all Moody, and he cooks the blues with the authority and élan of a musical Escoffier.

—IRA GITLER