LP-688

The Jazztet At Birdhouse

Released 1961

Recording and Session Information

Art Farmer, trumpet; Tom McIntosh, trombone; Benny Golson, tenor saxophone; Cedar Walton, piano; Tommy Williams, bass; Albert "Tootie" Heath, drums
Live "Birdhouse", Chicago, IL, May 15, 1961

11208 Junction
11209 Farmer's market
11210 Darn that dream
11211 Shutterbug
11212 'Round midnight
11213 A November afternoon

Track Listing

Junction	B. Golson	May 1961
Farmer's Market	A. Farmer	May 1961
Darn That Dream	E. DeLange, J. V. Heusen	May 1961
Shutterbug	J.J. Johnson	May 1961
Round Midnight	B. Hanighen, C. Williams, T. Monk	May 1961
November Afternoon	T. McIntosh	May 1961

Liner Notes

THIS is the fourth album by the Art Farmer-Benny Golson Jazztet, and it's happy I am that I can tell you in all truth it continues their record-breaking Argo cavalcade.

How long it will go on the Lord only knows, but as for the present, they've once again come up with something new as well as another first-rate program of jazz music.

Not to keep you in suspense, but to tell the story from the start, the first record was set by Meet The Jazztet (Argo LP 664). Since this was the group's initial album it necessarily was something new. Even better, according to The Jazztet's manager, Kay Norton, is that the LP turned out to be a consistent good seller.

The second Jazztet album, Big City Sounds (Argo LP 672), presented a reorganized lineup, with only the leaders remaining from the original unit.

The unusual feature of the third album, The Jazztet And John Lewis (Argo LP 684), is the material: Six compositions by the internationally-famed musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet which he arranged specifically for The Jazztet.

The Jazztet's newest album — the one you're holding as you read this — is the first ever made by the group during a public performance. It also marks Art Farmer's recording debut on the fluegelhorn.

The six extended numbers that comprise this set were taped a few months ago while The Jazztet was at the Birdhouse, a jazz club on Chicago's Near North Side. Farmer and Golson have a particular fondness for the club, not only because The Jazztet opened it about a year ago, but also because of the room's superior acoustics. Hence the suggestion that Argo tape the group during performance at the Birdhouse was quickly accepted.

So far as this observer is concerned, the decision was both wise and highly rewarding. Studio sessions can eliminate the occasional fluffs and clinkers to which even the best jazz instrumentalists are subject while in the throes of spontaneous creation, but at the same time such sessions lose the emotion-gripping quality that is instilled by a performance for paying customers. Evidences of this energizing situation are to be found here in the listeners' applause for soloists and the group, in occasional out-cries by the musicians, and in the music itself.

Before dealing with the individual selections, something about The Jazztet should be noted for the benefit of those still unacquainted with the group. The Jazztet was conceived in the summer of 1959 when Farmer and Golson, separately planning to organize their own combos, each broached this idea to the other. It soon became apparent that their aims were similar: Creation Of a group that would strike a musical balance between organization, as exemplified by fresh, thoughtful writing, and extemporization, the heart of jazz. That they have been eminently successful in steering a safe course between the Scylla of a "jamming band" and the Charybdis of an "arranger's band" is the firm belief of this writer.

The Music

Jünction, an easy rocker that evokes the Count, is a Golson composition and arrangement. Benny slips into the forefront smoothly and lightly to launch a flowing tenor solo that becomes assertive near its end. Farmer joins in with some clipped observations before proceeding to speak his piece, a somewhat fragmented discourse that has the rhythm section commenting.

Farmer's Market is Golson's arrangement of the composition that Art created some ten years ago and which received its most notable expositions in the late Wardell Gray's tenor solo and in the 1952 vocal written and recorded by Annie Ross. In the present version the tune is taken at racetrack tempo. There are cooking solos by both Benny and Art. Pianist Cedar Walton, who takes the spotlight after a drum break and stage-setting ensemble passage, contributes an exceptional solo that contains some notable phrasing and intriguing shifts of meter.

Darn That Dream, the only "pop" standard in the album, is a showcase for the Farmer fluegelhorn and proves that the months Art has devoted to this instrument were well spent. It is evident that he has accomplished the unusual feat of transferring his own wide, warm trumpet sound to the horn, a quality that adds to the effectiveness Of ballads such as this. The tender mood that Farmer creates and the beautiful coda with which he ends the piece further confirms the belief that he has few peers in this romantic realm.

Shutterbug is the J.J. Johnson tune and he arranged this uptempo version for The Jazztet. A staccato introduction heralds Farmer's solo during the course of which he demonstrates his fine control of sound as well as his ability to play hot. With the rhythm section stoking the fire to keep the pot bubbling, Golson moves in for a solo that exhibits his command of high-speed technique and, more importantly, his talent for improvisation. Drummer Albert Heath gets a brief solo before the minor.feeling number is concluded with a senerous ensemble.

'Round Midnight is the longest and, to this listener, the most rewarding number on the album. Golson's arrangement of Monk's lovely composition an The Jazztet's playing of it attain the group's aims to the fullest extent. The opening horn note and brief piano passage establish the mood, which is most movingly amplified by the succeeding segment that has a passage by fluegelhorn, a three-horn voicing, a brief, rhapsodic tenor interlude and another ensemble bit. Farmer introduces a new element with a trumpet solo which seems to hint that the sun will again be shining a few hours hence. The mood changes again as Golson comes on with a tenor solo that begins with a beautiful singing quality that gradually is transformed into a soul-wrenching cry. As the rhythm moves into a more propulsive groove, the sound of the tenor expands to climax its tale of loneliness. I believe this to be one of Benny's finest recorded solos. The arrangement makes further effective use Of the instruments before conduding its provocative story.

November Afternoon was written and arranged by trombonist Tom McIntosh. A delightful piece, it hints at a ballad as it begins but quickly shifts into a romping vein. While the number gives a fine display Of McIntosh's work, Farmer and Golson are not neglected. Here too, as throughout the album, the support of bassist Tommy Williams, Walton and Heath is of high value.

Russ Wilson

LP-684

The Jazztet and John Lewis

Released 1961

Recording and Session Information

Art Farmer/Benny Golson Jazztet & John Lewis
Art Farmer, trumpet; Tom McIntosh, trombone; Benny Golson, tenor saxophone; Cedar Walton, piano; Tommy Williams, bass; Albert "Tootie" Heath, drums
New York, December 20-21, 1960 & January 9, 1961

10626 Django
10627 Milano
10628 Bel
10629 Two degrees east, three degrees west
10630 New York 19
10631 Odds against tomorrow

Track Listing

Bel	John Lewis	December 20/21 1960, January 9 1961
Milano	John Lewis	December 20/21 1960, January 9 1961
Django	John Lewis	December 20/21 1960, January 9 1961
New York 19	John Lewis	December 20/21 1960, January 9 1961
2 Degrees East, 3 Degrees West	John Lewis	December 20/21 1960, January 9 1961
Odds Against Tomorrow	John Lewis	December 20/21 1960, January 9 1961

Liner Notes

The idea of John Lewis writing for the Jazztet seems, at first blush, an improbable one.

Lewis' jazz writing in recent years has been confined largely to the Modern Jazz Quartet, of which group he is pianist and musical director. His other work — movie scores and similar large-orchestra music — has required a different palette than that available in small jazz groups.

The Jazztet, furthermore, is utterly unlike the MJQ in instrumentation, conception, and flavor. The MJQ is based on two percussion-melody instruments, vibraharp and piano, which dictates one kind of sound. The Jazztet is based on three horns — trumpet, tenor saxophone, and trombone — which dictates a vastly different one.

The one area of similarity between the two groups would appear to present a danger, rather than an advantage: both are integrated, controlled units whose music has sometimes tended to the conservative. They stand at the other end of the pole from all the tiresome freeblowing groups of today.

But what would happen when you put the conservative John Lewis together with the Jazztet? I must confess that when Art Farmer mentioned that John Lewis was writing album for the group, I had reservations. I feared the collaboration would produce some sort of apotheosis of gentlemanly reserve. Control there would surely be. But spontaneity and fire?

It gives me considerable pleasure to discover that my fears were groundless. For the John Lewis Album is, I feel, far and away the best, the freest, and the gutsiest album the Jazztet has yet made.

It came about in this way:

One evening early in 1961, Lewis went to the Village Gate in New York, where the Jazztet was working. He was asked to write an arrangement for the group. He pondered it during the course of the evening, no doubt in that quietly preoccupied way of his, and then told Benny Golson and Art Farmer that he'd rather write a whole album.

The scores were not long arriving. Lewis delivered the first of them while the group was still at the Village Gate, and had completed the remainder within a month. And yet you will find no hint of haste in them, They are beautifully-wrought pieces of jazz writing, with everything in its place — and they are full of fire.

"Benny and I have always had a great deal of respect for John's writing," Art said. "But I was surprised and delighted when wc got the scores."

"I'm intrigued by the way John reworks his material over the years, as Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk do. John will take something he wrote some time ago and do something completely different with it. Django is an example."

It is a particularly interesting example. If you know the MJQ's original version of it, you'll probably be shocked by this one, at first. The original is slow and delicate and poignantly lyrical; from the first measures of this version, you know it's a cooker. "In fact," Benny said. "the first time we played it, we thought we had it wrong. We asked John 'Is this really the tempo you want? He said, 'That's right.'"

2 Degrees East, 3 Degrees West, on the other hand, is fairly similar to the original except for the instrumentation. The other works in this set will be found to resemble the originals in varying degrees — though always the basic color is different. Bel is a new work: Lewis wrote it especially for this album.

If I may venture a personal comment (and I'd rather make it clear that it's personal, since have a growing distaste for those who try to pass off their personal observations as esthetic absolutes that they could prove to be objective realities, if only they could the right logarithmic tables), I think this album is the most moving and satisfying - in fact, exciting — piece of jazz writing that John Lewis has done in years.

Note how skillfully he will use horns behind soloists; note how nicely the lines of ensemble passages fit together; note particularly how he gets a sound much larger than the instrumentation, which is always the mark of the gifted and developed writer. While we're at it, note also the humor of which Lewis is capable, particularly in the opening track.

This album ends up being a sort of mutual showcase: the Jazztet sets a facet of Lewis' ability (after all, he was once arranger for Dizzy Gillespie's bis band) that some of us had tended to forget; and Lewis' writing in turn sets off facets ot the Jazztet's ability that many persons may previiously have been unaware of.

Certainly the group is in prime form.

In Tom Williams and Albert Heath, it has a rhythm team that works in powerful, comfortable tandem. In Cedar Walton, it has a pianist of feeling coupled with technical resourcefulness. There is no need to say to him, "Yeah, but what he was thinking is what matters." What Walton thinks, he executes and you hear.

Trombonist McIntosh is the third member of the horn team that constitutes the Jazztet's front line. A talented arranger himself he is revealed in this album to have the ability, both as soloist and ensemble player, that Art and Benny thought he had when they asked him to join the group.

As for Art and Benny themselves, it seems to me that they have found the freedom and individual expression they were looking for when they formed the Jazztet.

Reviewing a Golson album (Take a Number from 1 to 10; Argo 681) in a recent issue of Down Beat, critic John S. Wilson said of Benny, "His warm, gentle, lyrical playing...has been fairly well established for some time. What is relatively new is what appears to be some resolution of the grappling Golson has been going through to find a proper expression of himself at fast tempos. He appears to have cleared away the streaming runs that he contended with for quite a while, and now has a lean attack at up tempos that is attractively propulsive and is much more to the point than his earlier work was."

You'Il note this greater economy in Benny's playing, and the consequent increased clarity of his lines, in his fiery solo on Django.

Reviewing an Art Farmer record (Art; Argo 678) recently, Ira Gitler wrote, "Farmer is a mature, personal, sensitive lyrical trumpet artist. His sound, delicate and strong simultaneously, is integrated perfectly with the beautifully phrased content of his playing."

I would add to that the observation that Art has become increasingly individual in recent years. Whatever the tempo, there is a sort of smoked quality to his tone that reminds me, curiously enough, of Lawrence Brown's trombone. Thoughtful without being a navel-gazer, Art manages to bring the sensitive inner man out to the light of day.

The idea behind the Jazztet was to achieve organization and spontaneity at the same time.

I feel that this is urgently necessary if jazz is to retain its appeal to the public — and jazz must retain appeal if it is to survive and flourish, since jazz, unlike classical music, is not a subsidized art; it has to pay its own way or starve to death.

It seems to me that the time is fast approaching when the public will weary of 190 choruses of tenor solo followed by an equally interminable trumpet solo, all of it framed between ensemble passages that are nothing more than fore-and-aft unison statements of the melody. That is why there must be thought-out shiftings of voicing and coloration within a given piece. And that means writing.

At the same time, writing that stifled the extemporaneous spark that is the essence of jazz, would be disastrous. The Jazztet, I believe, is finding the necessary delicate balance between the two. The group's growing pains are over and, because of the balance it is achieving, it has genuine significance. It is to be hoped that other groups will get the message.

Never has the group seemed more appealing than in this set of compositions and arrangements by John Lewis. I have no hesitancy in commending it to you. It knocked me out.

Gene Lees

LP-672

The Jazztet - Big City Sounds

Released 1961

Recording and Session Information

Art Farmer/Benny Golson Jazztet
Art Farmer, trumpet; Tom McIntosh, trombone; Benny Golson, tenor saxophone; Cedar Walton, piano; Tommy Williams, bass; Albert "Tootie" Heath, drums
New York, September 16, 19 & 20, 1960
10430 The cool one
10431 My funny Valentine
10432 Hi fly
10433 Con alma
10434 Five Spot after dark
10435 Blues on down
10436 Wonder why
10437 Bean bag
10438 Lament

Track Listing

The Cool One	Benny Golson	September 16, 17 & 20 1960
Blues On Down	Benny Golson	September 16, 17 & 20 1960
Hi-Fly	Randy Weston	September 16, 17 & 20 1960
My Funny Valentine	Rodgers & Hart	September 16, 17 & 20 1960
Wonder Why	Nicholas Brodszky, Sammy Cahn	September 16, 17 & 20 1960
Con Alma	Dizzy Gillespie	September 16, 17 & 20 1960
Lament	J.J. Johnson	September 16, 17 & 20 1960
Bean Bag	Benny Golson	September 16, 17 & 20 1960
Five Spot After Dark	Benny Golson	September 16, 17 & 20 1960

Liner Notes

FEW JAZZMEN are as well-equipped for leadership tasks as Art Farmer and Benny Golson, helmsmen of The Jazztet. Both are skilled in the ways and means of jazz; both have inspired the respect of musicians and critics.

Appraising a Farmer performance in '59, Dom Cerulli wrote in Down Beat, "He is interested in music and in learning. He absorbs and builds on what he has absorbed, rather than parroting it back because it happens to be hip or in the current idiom...He is certainly one of the very few young players today who will have a great deal to do with molding the future of jazz. The often abused phrase, a major talent, must be applied to this man."

In commenting on Golson's artistry, Cerulli added that, "His playing is imaginative and bright, and he turns what could be a hip phrase into something quite fresh almost as a matter of course." Considering Golson as a composer, Cerulli commended him for "those melodic, oddly nostalgic themes which he creates so well."

Other writers have concurred. Ralph Gleason, writing in Down Beat, asserted. "Golson rapidly is assuming his place as one of the most dextrous composers in jazz today. He has a remarkable gift for ordering the talents of others into composite works of his own. As a writer of jazz tunes, his compositions are almost all touched with the quality that lasts." After auditing Farmer's playing, Gleason wrote, "As a trumpet soloist. Farmer is about the most consistently effective man of his generation."

One doesn't have to search for comparable commendations. Whitney Balliett, surveying jazz in The New Yorker, termed Farmer "one of the few genuinely individual modern trumpeters." Critic John S. Wilson noted that Farmer "has reached level of assurance, skill, and flexibility which makes him capable of playing practically anything unusually well, with thoughtfulness and sensitivity." Evaluating Golson, Wilson wrote, "He quickly joined the small group of modern jazzmen who have shown themselves capable of striking and memorable melodic creation (Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, John Lewis, Randy Weston, and Golson)...Once he became known as a composer it also became apparent that he was a performer of great charm...spinning out lithe, elastic lines sprinkled with lifting quirks and stabs which create an intense feeling of movement."

And composer George Russell, a respected figure in his own right, discussing the future of jazz in The Jazz Word anthology, comments on the influence of vital composer — Monk, for example — on the improvisers. "I can add that Benny Golson is another case of a composer influencing the thinking — in this case the harmonic thinking and the over all thinking — of the improviser," Russell stated. "Benny's a wonderful songwriter, and has written some very good songs. Songs are frames for improvisation; he has set up some very good frames for improvising, much as Mulligan has done," Russell added.

These are not casual endorsements. These are the words of jazz observers and performers. They are definite statements, not idle puffs. Critic Nat Hentoff, for example, spoke for many when he wrote: "Art Farmer, after a long apprenticeship, has matured into one of the few trumpet players of his generation who is individual and who indicates a capacity for growth that will make him an influence. Through the years, Art has sharpened his technique so that he can - and has - handled all manner of assignments from the funky, soul-flexing of the Horace Silver quintet through the polyphonic play of the Gerry Mulligan quartet to jagged experimental scores at Brandeis university, Carnegie Hall, and Cooper Union. While absorbing all this experience...and much more...Art has consistently enlarged and strengthened his own musical personality until he now cannot be accurately categorized as a member of any 'school' but his own."

Idle chatter? Hardly. These expressions are simply a few of the positive declarations made in tribute to the co-leaders of The Jazztet. What is most important, such honors are based on the dues-paying the pair experienced along the way to meriting such respect.

Farmer, at 32, has pursued a varied, but purposeful, career. Originally a student of violin and tuba, he switched to trumpet after being overwhelmed by the artistry of Roy Eldridge. He played lead trumpet with Johnny Otis' band, then, after encouragement from fellow-trumpeter Freddie Webster and study with Maurice Grupp, he moved from group to group. Among them were the bands of Jay McShann and Lionel Hampton, the Silver quintet and Mulligan quartet (with the latter, he can be seen and heard in the films I Want To Live, The Subterraneans, and Jazz On A Summer's Day). In the fall of '59, he presented The Jazztet concept to Golson. The latter, hardly idle, was intrigued and accepted. It marked another in a string of key moves in Golson's career.

Born in Philadelphia in 1929, Golson began studying music at the age of nine; he started on piano, but switched to tenor five years later. He studied music at Howard university, then embarked on the jazz road, working with groups headed by Bull Moose Jackson, Tadd Dameron, Johnny Hodges, Earl Bostic, Hampton, Art Blakey and Dizzy Gillespie. With Dizzy's big band, Golson won recognition as a composer; I Remember Clifford, Stable Mates, and Whisper Not became jazz standards. In late '59, Golson considered forming his own group; he wanted Farmer. When Farmer phoned him, the merger was made.

But The Jazztet was not conceived as a duo. As Farmer told Down Beat, "This group was created with a thought in mind of creating a framework for each member of the group, not only for Benny and me." In this group, all the members count. Trombonist Tom McIntosh, 33, left his Baltimore home to study at Juilliard; he followed that formal training with stints with James Moody and others. He now lives in Manhattan.

Dallas-born pianist Cedar Walton, just 26, attended the University of Denver for three years before deciding on a full-time career in jazz. Since making that decision, he's worked with Kenny Dorham, Gigi Gryce, and —shortly before joining The Jazztet — the J.J. Johnson quintet. He calls Brooklyn home these days. Bassist Tom Williams was born in that borough in 1933. His mother and two brothers played violin and a sister played piano. Williams worked with pianist Mary Lou Williams, singer Carmen McRae, and the Gene Rodgers trio before hitching onto The Jazztet star.

Drummer Albert Heath, 23, comes from a Philadelphia family that is well-represented in jazz. His bass-playing brother Percy is a mainstay of the Modern Jazz Quartet; another brother, Jimmy, is an able reed man who has worked with Dizzy and other prominent jazzmen. Al's first maior job was with the Chet Baker quartet; before joining The Jazztet, he also was with J. J. Johnson's fivesome.

In recent months, The Jazztet has appeared on TV, cut one of Argo's best-sellers, Meet The Jazztet, and played at key jazz events and at leading clubs throughout the country. Its popularity can be attributed to several factors: a stress on melody — not on obscure, anarchical goings-on; a meticulously-selected, intriguing repertoire; a substantial sound, based on the effective voicings achieeed within the front line; fluently-stated, memorable solos by all hands, and on an overall unity rare in contemporary jazz.

All these are evident in this set.

Four of the tunes are Golson originals: The Cool One, Blues On Down, Bean Bag, and Five Spot After Dark. All indicate Golson's philosophy, as he once summarized it: "I don't want to venture too far out. I don't want to be too complex. Basically I'd like to stay simple I'd like to write melodically, and pretty harmonically. I'm not looking for anything that's going to revolutionize music. I like, most of all in writing, beauty."

The other tunes reflect the group's aim in building a diversified library. Randy Weston's appealing Hi-Fly,; the ballad standard, My Funny Valentine; the pop vehicle, Wonder Why; Dizzy's Con Alma, and the touching Lament contribute to that end.

The performances contain a string of highlights: the subtle use of tenor and trombone - to punctuate Farmer's statement on The Cool One - the use of horns behind Walton on Blues on Down - Walton's playing, as featured soloist, on the surging staccato line of Hi-Fly - Farmer's penetratingly moving exploration of My Funny Valentine - the briskly invigorating manner in which all contribute to Wonder Why - the Latin emphasis, never heavy-handed, on Con Alma...McIntosh's weaving lines on Lament...the attractive voicing in the ensemble passages On Bean Bag...the enticing bass-drums intro and subsequent Farmer and Golson solos on the Five Spot After Dark wrap up.

Throughout, Farmer and Golson shine. But there is a cohesive nature to this group; the rhythm section and the horns emerge as a single voice. The soloists exist within a constantly-maintained framework; they don't wander hopelessly or endlessly. There is discipline inherent in all that's played — a blend of and devotion so uncommon in jazz today. It is one of several qualities that make the group one of the most compelling on the current scene.

Don Gold

LP-664

Art Farmer and Benny Golson - Meet The Jazztet

Released 1960

Recording and Session Information

The Jazztet
Art Farmer, trumpet; Curtis Fuller, trombone; Benny Golson tenor saxophone; McCoy Tyner, piano; Addison Farmer, bass; Lex Humphries, drums
New York, February 6, 9 & 10, 1960

10017 Mox nix
10018 Blues march
10019 Killer Joe (Benny Golson narration)
10020 I remember Clifford
10021 Park Avenue petite
10022 Avalon
10023 Easy living
10024 It's all right with me
10025 Serenata
10026 It ain't necessarily so

Track Listing

Serenata	Anderson, Parrish	February 6, 7 & 10 1960
It Ain't Necessarily So	George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin	February 6, 7 & 10 1960
Avalon	Jolson, DeSylva, Rose	February 6, 7 & 10 1960
I Remember Clifford	Benny Golson	February 6, 7 & 10 1960
Blues March	Benny Golson	February 6, 7 & 10 1960
It's All Right With Me	Cole Porter	February 6, 7 & 10 1960
Park Avenue Petite	Benny Golson	February 6, 7 & 10 1960
Mox Nix	Art Farmer	February 6, 7 & 10 1960
Easy Living	Robin, Ranger	February 6, 7 & 10 1960
Killer Joe	Benny Golson	February 6, 7 & 10 1960

Liner Notes

"THIS is a musical organization and we want it to sound like that, not like the usual jam session that goes under that name. The jam session can be a wonderful thing, but it's a hell of a thing to try to pull off every night!" That's the way Art Farmer thinks of the aims and ideas of The Jazztet.

"What we're actually trying to do is to get a loose sound that allows each man a chance to say what he has to say musically on his instrument, but still have uniformity and togetherness." That's the way it is for Benny Golson.

The Jazztet, in case you are meeting it for the first time is a musical organization that does not sound like the usual jam session, and in which each man has a chance to say what he has to say, but in which there is still uniformity and togetherness.

It consists of trumpeter Art Farmer, tenor saxophonist Benny Golson, trombonist Curtis Fuller, pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Addison Farmer, and drummer Lex Humphries. It was in existence only a few months when this LP was made, but it looks like it will be in business for a long, long time to come.

Farmer, born in Iowa in 1928, was raised in Arizona, went to L.A. in 1945, worked with Horace Henderson and others and joined Lionel Hampton in '52 and toured Europe with him. A Down Beat New Star trumpeter, he has recorded extensively under his own name and with Gerry Mulligan, with whom he played last year.

Benny Golson was born in Philadelphia in 1929, attended Howard university, worked with Tadd Dameron, Lionel Hampton, Johnny Hodges, and Earl Bostic. In 1956 he joined Dizzy Gillespie's big band. He's one of the best known young composers in jazz with several jazz standards (Stablemates is one) already to his credit.

The genesis of The Jazztet goes back to the summer of 1959. "Art had in mind to organize a group and approached me," Golson says, "and I had in mind to get a group and approached him!"

Farmer and Golson are both careful planners and this is reflected in the group. Arrangements are mutually discussed and plotted, and all the rest of the minutae of organizing and routining a band is a community enterprise. In a night club each member of the front line is given a feature number, and it is interesting, in view of their concept of the group as a unit, that even on such tunes the other two men are busy now and agam with little backgrounds and fills.

They have deliberately chosen a name that does not include the name of any of the men and they are willing to fight club owners and anyone else for the length of time necessary to put this name across. "Naturally I think the music itself is the important thing," Golson says. "If you're really producing the music, you can call the group anything!" But The Jazztet is what they have elected to call it and it will stick. You can mark it down in your book as one of the groups in jazz that will make it.

The Music

Serenata was a problem. "I had never heard it done in 6/8 and I decided I would try it," Golson says. "At first he couldn't get anything out of the tune," Art says, "until he thought of 6/8." It Ain't Necessarily So "is a song I've always liked," Benny says. "And I tried to make it as loose as possible. The bridge is the only time we're playing complete ensemble."

Avalon, the old standard, is a tune the band picked by mutual consent. Again it's a Golson arrangement. They picked the tune because of the melody and then took the melody out! "We just started with the solos," Benny says.

I Remember Clifford is a Golson original. Already a classic of jazz, it is dedicated to the late Clifford Brown. "When I play it," Art says, "I just try to think of what Clifford was to me. I wouldn't want to play like him on the tune because that wouldn't be my idea of him. I just try to say, 'Yes, I do remember Clifford and he was like this.' That's about all there is to it."

Blues 'March is another Golson original. "It speaks for itself," Benny says. "It's just reminiscent of the marching bands, the old New Orleans marching bands.

It's All Right With Me originated "when Curtis and I were working together," Golson says. "He used to play it all the time and I always thought he played it very well." Art Farmer adds "I think that's one of the classic trombone solos on record. We did two takes and Curtis just went through the thing and never let up. On the first take he was playing so fast the rhythm section couldn't keep up with him. He's one of the most important men around on the horn."

Easy Living was the suggestion of the group's manager, Kay Norton. "I had always thought of it as a vocal," Benny says. "But once I started playing it I began to like it." Art adds another point regarding this tune: "We want to show Benny's ballad ways."

Mox Nix is Art's tune. "I picked the expression up — it's a German expression, you know — from a girl in Brooklyn," says Farmer. "It means 'never mind, that's all right'."

Park Avenue Petite is another Golson original, one that Benny wrote back in 1934 and had forgotten about until Blue Mitchell asked for some material and Benny brought it out.

Killer Joe started this way. I just sat down at the piano one day," says Benny, "and started messing away on the two chord progressions — I had about three or four different melodies — and I eliminated the others and decided to use the one I have now. As I was doing it, it made me think of one of these hip cats — standing on the corner."

Ralph J, Gleason

Down Beat 26 May 1960 Volume 27 Issue 11

"We're going to go as far as we can. It's been pretty good so far."

That's Benny Golson speaking. The gifted composer-arranger-tenor-saxophonist who is coleader With Art Farmer of the new group known as the Jazztet is, quietly and modestly, optimistic about the future.

Only a few months old, the Jazztet has left profound impressions on audiences in New York, San Francisco, and Chicago. In Chicago, at a press reception staged at the Blue Note by Argo Records, to which the group is under contract, it sent reporters scurrying after adjectives. And an appearance on the Steve Allen Show introduced the six men in the group to audiences that might never have seen them — or any jazz group, for that matter.

But let Golson tell the story of the group and how it came into being:

"It was very sudden. I Was planning to start a sextet last fall. And I heard Art was leaving Gerry Mulligan. I planned to ask him to join the sextet.

"In the meantime, unknown to me, he was planning a quintet, and he was thinking of asking me to join him. When I called him, he started laughing. So we got together and consolidated our plans.

"What we're really aiming for is the ultimate in unity and written arrangements loose enough so that the soloist can have a free hand to exploit his instrument. Those are the main factors.

"Heretofore, most sextets that I've heard — with the exception of Miles' — have been very tight-knit and more or less straight up and down, with llttle room for the soloist to really stand out.

"I feel that with three horns, we can get any effect we want. How do we get such a big sound? It's really no trick. It's there and obvious. You just have to pick the right notes. They're there. You have to emulate the things you have in your mind.

"Another thing: Art and I both lean toward melody...I feel that if you establish a strong melody, it will be longer lasting in the mind of the listener and, linked With good, interesting harmonic structure, will prove an interesting vehicle for the soloist.

"Right now, we have 30-odd charts in the book, after five months of working. Gigi Gryce contributed some of them. I'm not rushing any of the music just to try to build the book. I want each arrangement to really have something to say. In the short while we have been together, I've already rejected some of my own arrangements because I felt that they did not possess the intrinsic value that we want for the Jazztet."

Nou about the men in the group:

"Curtis Fuller is, I think, one of the best instrumentalists of this era, and he is still climbing upward. He's 25. He is very sympathetic with Art and me, and I feel that this makes my job of organization much simpler.

"McCoy Tyner is only 21. He is one of the great discoveries of recent years. Although he is from Philadelphia, which is my home town, I didn't meet him until last year, when I was playing a couple of concerts there. I was impressed immediately and as a consequence took him to San Francisco in August of 1959 with Curtis and me. When we were planning the group. Art asked me whom I had in mind for piano. I immediately said, 'McCoy Tyner.' Since that time, he has proved to be a most important member of the Jazztet.

"Lex Humphries is someone I feel we're fortunate to have With us. Lex was with Dizzy's small group. We had a great deal of trouble getting a drummer who could read well and still swing like the dickens. Lex is one of the few drummers who listens to the soloist and complements him.

"Addison Farmer is a graduate of the Juilliard School Of Music, and as a consequence can play anything you put in front of him. Addison has been growing musically in the past few years. And aside from that, he is one of the most perfect gentlemen I've met in my life. That makes him wonderful to have with you.

"I think of Art as 'Mr. Melody'. He has an uncanny gift for melody, and for the ways of weaving it in and out of harmonic progressions effectively, as though he were creating another composition himself. Art has a big, round, warm trumpet sound all his own, which makes his ballads seem to sing. Art doesn't compose very many tunes, but When he does, they are so meaningful. Mox Nix is a very good example. He has a vast knowledge of scales and modes, which is evidenced in his playing predict that before long, Art will be one of the biggest jazz trumpeters we have ever known."

That is Golson's view. How does Art Farmer feel about the group? Very much the same. He and Golson are very close, forming in effect, a full-time mutual admiration society.

 

Will the group stay together and in this area of music? "It's got to make it," Art said with a slow grin. "I had the foresight not to prepare myself for anything else."