LP-655

The Kenny Burrell Trio - A Night At The Village Vanguard

Released 1960

Recording and Session Information

Kenny Burrell Trio
Kenny Burrell, guitar; Richard Davis, bass; Roy Haynes, drums

Village Vanguard, New York, September 16 & 17, 1959
9759 Soft winds Argo LP655
9760 Will you still be mine? Argo LP655
9761 Blues in the closet Unissued
9762 I'm a fool to want you Argo LP655
9763 Broadway Argo LP655
9764 I can't see for lookin' (long version)
I can't see for lookin' (short version)
9765 It's easy to remember Unissued
9766 Doodlin' Unissued
9767 Well you needn't Argo LP655
9768 But beautiful Unissued
9769 How could you do a thing like that to me?
9770 Cheek to cheek
9771 All night long Argo LP655
10209 Trio Argo LP655
10210 Just a-sittin' and a-rockin' Argo LP655
Afternoon in Paris
Tricrotism

Track Listing

All Night Long	Shelton Brooks	September 16 & 17 1959
Will You Still Be Mine	Dennis, Adair	September 16 & 17 1959
I'm A Fool To Want You	Sinatra, Wolf, Herron	September 16 & 17 1959
Trio	Erroll Garner	September 16 & 17 1959
Broadway	Bird, Woode, McRae	September 16 & 17 1959
Soft Winds	Mary Jackson	September 16 & 17 1959
Just A-Sittin' And A-Rockin'	Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington	September 16 & 17 1959
Well, You Needn't	Thelonious Monk	September 16 & 17 1959

Liner Notes

KENNETH Earl Burrell, at 28, has firmly secured a position in the ranks of firstrate jazz guitarists; he's a part of an illustrious tradition that encompasses the accomplishments of such stalwarts on the instrument as Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt. For a musician as young as Burrell, this is not a trivial triumph. Yet Burrell has not simply fallen heir to the respect of musicians and jazz fans; he's won it.

A member of a music-minded Detroit family, he observed his three brothers — all muscians - in action before leaping into jazz on his own. Although he toyed with a brother's guitar as a boy, by the time he was 12 he had developed a fondness for the saxophone. When his mother declared that the family budget wouldn't justify the purchase of a horn, he settled for his first instrument, a $10 guitar, accompanied by a batch of instruction books.

Self-taught, he embarked on a career in the Motor City jazz milieu, an environment that has produced such jazzmen as the Jones boys (Thad, Hank, and Elvin), bassist Paul Chambers (who was born in Pittsburgh, but nurtured in jazz in Detroit from 1949 to 1954), tenor man Billy Mitchell of the present Basie entourage, and pianist Barry Harris, who emerged from hometown security recently to tour with Cannonball Adderley.

During the late '40s and early '50s, Burrell played session after session with local jazzmen and touring notables. He worked with the groups of Candy Johnson, Count Belcher, Tommy Barnett, and — in '51 — with Dizzy Gillespie brigade. He worked with his own group, too. In 1933, he briefly subbed for Herb Ellis in the Oscar Peterson trio.

In '55, too, he completed the requirements for a bachelor of music degree at Wayne university, a curriculum that included more than a year of formal classical guitar study. After completing college work and serving the stint with the Peterson trio, Burrell felt that the time was ripe for the move to New York. He made that invasion in late '55 and didn't attend too many sessions in the year that followed before the word on his skill was out, among critics€ Jisteners, and fellow musicians.

Nat Hentoff, writing in Down Beat in '57, noted, "Burrell...impresses me increasingly as the most important of the new guitarists. He pulls the hat trick — solid, full tone; bracing ideas and a non-nonsense, this-is-home beat. And the blues, furthermore, is a key part of his language."

With the wholehearted support of his cohorts in jazz, Burrell has made New York his base of operations. In recent years, he's participated in a string of blowing session record dates, often opening up a slot for a guitarist in rhythm sections that might otherwise have neglected the instrument. He's worked with groups of all sizes, from the traditional east coast horns-and-rhythm dates to sessions featuring big band sounds.

In this recent recording — cut during an in-person appearance by Burrell's trio at New York's Village Vanguard — Burrell emerges, without the presence of distracting horns or unsympathetic companions, as a soloist of artistry and taste and a leader who can weld a cohesive unit without obvious effort. Part of the unity achieved here, of course, is the product of devotion to duty and background in basics of bassist Richard Davis and drummer Roy Haynes.

Davis is an exceptional figure in jazz. The 30-year-old Chicagoan brought an impressive reputation as a classically-trained musician to his jazz endeavors. He studied privately for nine years, attended Vandercook college for four years, and played in several large orchestras in Chicago, including the Civic Symphony. His experience in jazz has been with various Chicago groups, as a member Of Ahmad Jamal's trio (1953-'54), as one-half of the Don Shirley duo, and as One of the accompanying crew for Sarah Vaughan. He's been an asset on many recording dates.

Haynes, 34, worked with Davis on the Sarah Vaughan team. Before that, he pursued a memorable and instructive path in jazz, working with Pete Brown in Boston (Haynes is from Roxbury, Mass.) in the mid-'40s, with Luis Russell, Lester Young, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, and various groups appearing at Birdland. Few musicians can boast more elite company in their developmental years.

In this venture, Burrell, Davis, and Haynes blend impeccably to produce sounds that are neither syrupy or crude, neither blatantly commercial nor unnaturally earthy. The groove is a mellow one throughout.

The opener — All Nite Long — perfectly states the group's attributes. Burrell, in single-lines and chordal patterns, explores the blues without descending to cliches; Davis and Haynes support him superbly. The pace quickens on the Matt Dennis-Tom Adair Will You Still Be Mine, but the creativity does not falter. Burrell, in a ballad mood, has I'm A Fool To Want You to himself; like one of the tune's composers — a guy named Sinatra — Burrell knows how to caress a melody. Trio provides a riff framework for Burrell's improvising and offers some crisp Haynes-Burrell commentary.

The Bird-Woode-McRae (not Charlie Parker, Jimmy Woode and Carmen McRae) tune, Broadway, is a sprightly romp. Soft Winds, first recorded by its composer, Benny Goodman, in 1939, is deftly handled, too, by the trio. The Strayhorn-Ellington collaboration, Just A-Sittin' And A-Rockin', offers more of the easy-going side of the Burrell threesome. And the closer, Thelonious Monk's appealing Well, You Needn't, is a medium-flowing excursion.

Throughout the LP, there are notable moments. The Burrell-Haynes exchanges, for example, are consistently incisive. Burrell resists the temptation to drown the listener with technique-for-its-own-sake; just as sensibly, he avoids being fashionably "soulful" in favor of being naturally so, without the custotnary in-group devices. In this too, melody and rhythm are both vital concerns and originality governs them both. Burrell proves the value of having taste and imagination and ascertains that if you've got the latter you don't have to worry about the former.

Critic John Wilson has written that "Burrell is a loose, loping guitarist who manages to swing along on almost consistently interesting lines..."With the more-than-able aid of Davis and Jaynes here, Burrell manages to reinforce that appraisal without sacrifcing the trio sound.

I'm sorry I wasn't at the Village Vanguard to hear the group. But I'm delighted that highlights from the performance are preserved here.

Don Gold