Don Goldie - Trumpet Caliente
Released 1963
Recording and Session Information
Don Goldie, trumpet; Leo Wright, alto saxophone, flute; Patti Bown, piano; Barry Galbraith, guitar; Ben Tucker, bass; Ed Shaughnessy, drums; Willie Rodriguez, prcussion; Ray Barretto, congas; Manny Albam, arranger, conductor
RVG, Englewood, New York, October 3 1962
11935 There will never be another you
11936 Nightingale
11937 Fast thought
11938 I hear a rhapsody
11939 Shiny stockings
11940 Goldie's thing
Track Listing
| Nightingale | Cugat, Rosner, Wise | October 3 1962 |
| Fast Thought | Don Goldie | October 3 1962 |
| I Hear A Rhapsody | Grgos, Baker, Gaspare | October 3 1962 |
| Shiny Stockings | Frank Foster | October 3 1962 |
| Goldie's Thing | Don Goldie | October 3 1962 |
| There Will Never Be Another You | H. Warren, M. Gordon | October 3 1962 |
Liner Notes
HOT TRUMPET," which is the translation of this album's title, characterizes only part of Don Goldie's impact. In addition to his crackling swing, Goldie is a hornman of unusually clear and mellow tone, exceptionally fluent technique and taste. There are several other trumpeters, in and out of jazz, with this kind of prodigious technical ease, but not all escape the trap of exhibitionism. As for Goldie, however, he points out: "I've always tried to remember not to let the technique get in the way of the music."From June, 1959 to September, 1962, Don was a member of Jack Teagarden's band, and with Teagarden, he learned to further deepen his conception. "With Jack," Goldie recalls, "what you leave out is often more important than what you play." Another aspect of Goldie's jazz is that, like Teagarden, he falls into no quick category. He has a broad grasp of the whole jazz tradition, and rather than staying in any one fashionable "bag," Don has developed a personal style that nonetheless fits into a wide range of musical situations.
Born in Newark, New Jersey, on February 1930, Don came from a thoroughly musical family. His father, Harry Goldfield ("Goldie") was first trumpet and assistant conductor for Paul Whiteman for eighteen years. For some of those years, his section colleague was Bix Beiderbecke. Don's mother was concert pianist. After initial instruction on violin and piano, Don switched to trumpet at ten. His first gig was with his father's orchestra When Don was fourteen. After an army term from 1951-54, Don worked with Joe Mooney, acquired more seasoning at Nick's and Condon's, headed his own combo, played with Neal Hefti, and then joined Teagarden. His base is now New York, and he hopes soon to take out his own band.
For this album, Don chose sidemen with whom he felt most in rapport. Manny Albam's scores for the three "bossa nova" numbers are also accurately fitted to Don's approach to jazz. "Manny," Don points out, "is expert at simplicity. Like Jack Teagarden, he too knows what not to put in." From the opening Nightingale on, the music moves with easeful clarity. Listening to Goldie's sweeping thrust, it's illuminating to remember that as a boy, his primary influences were Bunny Berrigan and Louis Armstrong. Added in the following years were Charlie Shavers, Billy Butterfield, Dizzy Gillespie and Clifford Brown. And now, Don is very much his own man. On this track, as throughout the album, there are incisive solos by Leo Wright, until recently member of Dizzy Gillespie's unit, and Patti Down, a forcefully economical pianist who became best known for her work with Quincy Jones' band.
Fast Thovgbt is a Goldie original, and is so titled because that's how it came into being. Built on an ingratiating riff, the tune is first elasticized by Leo Wright. Don's solo is characteristically lucid, flowing and brimming with the promise of latent power. Patti makes her distilled points, and the band swings on out.
I Hear A Rhapsody, Shiny Stockings and Goldie's Thing are in the "bossa nova" framework — a modernized, more supple samba. Barry Galbraith is vital in setting the particular "bossa nova" rhythmic direction. On Rhapsody, besides Wright's song-like flute and Don's warm, muted trumpet, there is a delightfully limber solo by Patti Down. Shiny Stockings, long a staple in the Count Basie book, also takes on an airy resiliency. Worth noting is the discretion and yet also the buoyancy of the rhythm section. Of his rhythm colleagues all through the album, Don emphasizes: "They do more than keep time. They anticipate. They're really listening hard to ererytbing that's going on." Leo Wright is still on flute in the floating Goldie's Thing. "I don't know anyone in jazz." says Goldie, "who gets better sound out of the flute than Leo."
I Hear A Rhapsody is a summing up of Don Goldie's skills — the unforced deftly accurate sense of swing; the thoughtfulness of his conception ("I try very hard to avoid clichés"); the consistent quality of tone; and the use of technique as an expressive means, not as glittering goal in itself. At base, Goldie's jazz is a combination of gracefulness and power. Finding both attributes in one player is not at all a paradox. Goldie has become sure enough of himself not to have to continually prove how hard and fast he swings. He, therefore, utilizes his resources with care and sensitivity. His is indeed a trumpet but it is also a trumpet lirica.
Nat Hentoff
