James Moody - Last Train to Overbrook
Released 1958
Recording and Session Information
September 7, 8, 10, 1958, Chicago"Fip" Ricard, Earl Turner, Sonny Cohn, trumpet; John Avant, trombone; Ethel Merker, french horn; Bill Adkins, Lenny Druss, alto saxophone; James Moody alto, tenor saxophone; Vito Price, Sandy Mosse, Eddie Johnson, tenor saxophone; Pat Patrick, britone Saxophone; Floyd Morris, Junior Mance, piano; John Gray, guitar; Johnny Pate, bass, arrnagements; Redd Holt, drums
9009 What's New
9010 There She Goes
9011 Don't worry About Me
9012 The Moody One (False Start)
9012 The Moody One
9013 Yvonne
9014 Last train From Overbrook
9015 All The Things You Are
9016 Tico Tico
9017 Brother Yusef
9018 Why Don't You
Track Listing
| Last Train From Overbrook | James Moody | September 7, 8, 10, 1958 |
| Don't Worry About Me | R. Bloom, T. Koehler | September 7, 8, 10, 1958 |
| Why Don't You | Johnnie Pate | September 7, 8, 10, 1958 |
| What's New | Haggart, Burke | September 7, 8, 10, 1958 |
| Tico Tico | Chas K. Harris, Drake | September 7, 8, 10, 1958 |
| There She Goes | James Moody | September 7, 8, 10, 1958 |
| All The Things You Are | J. Kern and O. Hammerstein | September 7, 8, 10, 1958 |
| Brother Yusef | Johnnie Pate | September 7, 8, 10, 1958 |
| Yvonne | Johnnie Pate | September 7, 8, 10, 1958 |
| The Moody One (False Start) | September 7, 8, 10, 1958 | |
| The Moody One | Johnnie Pate | September 7, 8, 10, 1958 |
Liner Notes
Jimmy Moody- has a right to wail his soul. As John Lewis of Chess Producing says, "Well done, baby; well done."
I remember so well the three pulse-pushing days that it took to record this album, every time I play it.
....
Jimmy took his first train to Overbrook in April of this year. In talking to him prior to his voluntary commitment at Overbrook, he sounded almost hopelessly drowned in the juice he was hung up with.
While we waited, Moody was pulling himself back toward his justified position as a great and soulful jazz man of our time. Came the end of August, Jimmy called and said he was straight and could I come to New York and talk about making the session we had discussed some months back.
Moody's voice sounded clear over the phone, and I was on my way to see him at Overbrook. Mrs. Ruby Watters, Jimmy's mother, is in my mind his spiritual force. Her trips to Overbrook on the suburban bus from Newark have given him the warmth in saying "my mom" (as corny as it may sound to some).
J. C. Heard and I went to talk with Jimmy and Dr. Munoz. The corridor between the main building and Ward 33 is where the three of us sat and The Last Train From Overbrook was assigned its cars and was preparing to depart.
After obtaining the permission of Dr. Munoz the session was originally planned for recording in New York, but the arranger that Moody had wanted to work with, was tied with prior commitments. So after some thought, permission was requested for Moody to come to Chicago and Johnny Pate was asked to write the charts. Moody caught a train from New York on Labor day and was at the studio on Tuesday morning before I got in from Detroit. He was practicing on a flute he had brought with him. We needed a tenor and alto. Through the aid of Johnny Sippel at the Billboard, the Selmer Instrument Company provided Jimmy with the horns he needed.
We were entering our third day of recording schedules. Before that, on Friday, we had completed recording the small group side of the Sandy Mosse date (Argo 639) in Chicago. Friday and Saturday nights we recorded the Ahmad Jamal Trio at the Spotlight Club in Washington (Argo 636).
Malcolm Chisholm and I had just deplaned our Capital flight 1 from Washington at 11:12 a.m., at 11:51 a.m. we arrived at our studios, 12:05 p.m. the musicians assembly had made a reality out of its first arrival. By ten minutes to one, Jimmy ascended the musical platform that Johnny Pate had put together in just five days of writing charts and calling the group for the gig.
The rest is for you to judge, the warmth of Moody and orchestra is here for you to listen to.
Jimmy, thank you!
DAVE USHER LAST TRAIN FROM OVERBROOK
The train station was empty. There was no one on the platform but James Moody. It was dark. It looked like rain. Moody's horn case and a small suitcase stood at his feet. He was waiting for the last train from Overbrook, Overbrook is a mental institution in Essex County, New Jersey.
Behind him stood the clean, quiet buildings of the hospital; behind that stood the awful memory of the alcoholic, sick, confused James Moody of the past. A train on another track howled across the New Jersey countryside, and a tremor underneath his feet marked the coming of the last train from Overbrook.
James Moody had been in the Institution for 5 months and this was his first time on his own since his family took him there for treatment.
The great Moody "Flutin' the Blues" band was gone. A big band recording dnte for Argo had been cancelled "because of darkness"...darkness in his mind. And the long, silver track seemed too long and too thin to ever carry him back to the clubs and concert halls.
Yet Moody stood there waiting for the train that would carry him across the eastern face of the land...to Chicago. Argo Records wanted that big band recording date, and had asked him to make it, and he had said yes. And the wear was upon him now as he waited to go there.
Would he make it? Or would he take the money and buy that one little drink for the road? One was all it took to start the whole scene over again.
The rumble under Moody's feet grew stronger, and the train's howl became a roar, and a white beam flashed down the track. The train came and Moody boarded it.
A train full of strangers is a lonely place to be.
The old fears crept in on him. The porter smiled and said, "The cocktail lounge is open, Sir."
Moody swallowed the dryness down his throat and pretended not to hear. The feeling was there...just one drink. Just a little taste. The wall and windows of Ward 33 came to his mind. The faces of his friends at Overbrook formed about him:
Dr. Anderson, the head doctor, Nurse Patterson, Mrs. Thompson of the Music Department. Names and Faces: Lay...Seber...Juda...Paige.
"The folks in Ward 33 are waiting to hear your album Jimmy." Somebody had said.
And the train rocked over and down the hills of New Jersey and Moody closed his eyes and rehearsed the songs he had written while waiting for this day: "Last Train From Overbrook", "There She Goes."
On Tuesday, September 8th, 1958, James Moody stepped off of the last train from Overbrook, only now it was in Chicago. The night had come and gone and he had not taken a drink.
Moody — the man, and Moody — the famous musician had become one: perhaps for the first time.
Dave Usher immediately contacted Johnny Pate; the brilliant bassist, arranger-composer, and Johnny, though leader of his own group, spent Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday writing arrangements for the 15 piece band which Argo had assembled for Moody's record date.
Johnny, an avowed disciple of Quincy Jones, said, "Moody has always been my favorite alto man. He told me to write something tasty and swinging...
Johnny Pate put everything he had into the band arrangements; contributing four of his own compositions, and transforming four standards into deeply felt portraits of emotion.
Moody stepped before the band and Dave Usher turned on the red SILENCE light and pointed his finger at Moody and Moody packed his stomach full of air and BLEW! All the tears he'd shed at Overbrook, all the happiness he felt right then was there. All the power he felt once again in his lungs, all the confidence.
Moody soared—not in the shadow of Bird but beside him in his own image.
The band crackled!
Johnny Pate, the proud, behind-the-scenes man, on bass. Red Holt on drums. The hard, clear toned trumpets of Sonny Cohn, "Fip" Ricard and Earl Turner booted Moody through ten songs. Trombonist John Avant punched out the train-like sounds of the Overbrook Express. And Ethel Merker came from the pit orchestra of "My Fair Lady" to howl the sad cry of the Overbrook train. Young Pat Patrick's baritone roared. And the tenors of Vito Price, Eddie Johnson and, of all people, Sandy Mosse roared back.
And Moody swung in front of it all, leading 14 pieces through his own wilderness and into his own light, carrying with him the altos of Lenny Druss and Bill Atkins. Two piano men took turns at jamming the chords: Floyd Morris, and the Powerhouse himself, Junior Mance and behind it all, stood guitarist John Gray...taking care of the business.
Up, up and up the band went, with Moody wailing on alto tenor and flute.
The Last Train From Overbrook is a brief history of and how one James Moody, musician, wailed...fell...got up and wailed again.
FRANK LONDON BROWN
Frank London Brown is the author of the soon to be published novel Trumbull Park and has contributed jazz articles and short stories to several disnnguished American magazines. Brown is an associate editor of Ebony Magazine. RECORDING ENGINEER MALCOLM CHISHOLM
Stereo recording made on an Ampex-30()S.
Monaural recording made on an Ampex-35().
Frequency response of equipment ± 2db 15cps—23kc.
Masters are made with little or no limiting of dynamic range, and are cut at a level of not more than 5 cm per second, to avoid overloading pickup cartridges. Masters are in all cases made to duplicate, as closely as possible, what was heard in the control room during the session. For best results, use RIAA playback equalizatjon. On this recording, use a microgroove stylus only.
