LP-657

The Herb Pilhofer Trio

Released 1960

Recording and Session Information

The Herb Pilhofer Trio
Herb Pilhofer, piano; Stuart Anderson, bass; Dale Olinger, guitar
Ter-Mar Recording Studios, Chicago, 8th and 9th September 1959

Valse Hot
Sweets
More than you know
The Duke
My Ship
Trio
A ship without a sail
Isn't it romantic?
It might as well be spring
Godchild

Track Listing

Valse Hot	Sonny Rollins	September 8 & 9 1959
Sweets	Bill Russo	September 8 & 9 1959
More Than You Know	Youmans, Rose, Eliscu	September 8 & 9 1959
The Duke	Dave Brubeck	September 8 & 9 1959
My Ship	Weill, Gershwin	September 8 & 9 1959
Trio	Herb Pilhofer	September 8 & 9 1959
Ship Without A Sail	Rodgers, Hart	September 8 & 9 1959
Isn't It Romantic	Rodgers, Hart	September 8 & 9 1959
It Might As Well Be Spring	Rodgers, Hammerstein	September 8 & 9 1959
Godchild	George Wallington	September 8 & 9 1959

Liner Notes

A GOOD PORTION of American jazz, like many other areas of entertainment, is embroiled in a star-system that exults the individual performer and discourages ensemble efforts.

Many groups have no choice but to build their work around a featured performer because they lack the ability to perform as an integrated unit. Such groups are quickly transformed into the promotion man's "personality" product.

And so it is indeed refreshing to find a group like the Herb Pilhofer trio that produces that scarce commodity, ensemble jazz, and with such extremely good taste. So emphatic is Pilhofer about the group concept that he rejected several bookings that would have featured him with bass and guitar. It was the group or nothing, a decision that delayed wider recognition, but kept Herb's musical philosophy intact.

Argo has, with this album, acknowledged the honesty and integrity of Pilhofer's bias. As one observer remarked while listening to the tapes, "it's the whole cloth, without any superfluous embroidery."

It is a good metaphor for describing the trio's work, comparing its music to a rich and finely woven fabric. No matter what the trio cuts from the bolt it applies its craft masterfully.

This album demonstrates Pilhofer's theories Of unity, There are no exhibits of individual talent at the expense of thc trio. It's the total instrumentation — piano, a guitar, and a bass — that prevails. One exception is Pilhofer's solo performance of It Might As Well Be Spring. Still, this an obvious showcase for the piano and not misappropriation of the unit.

The son of a building contractor, Pilhofer was born April 18, 1931, in Nuernberg, Germany. He began studying at the family box-styled piano when he was 17 with thoughts of being commercial artist (illustrator) still in his mind.

"I was sparsely trained, but developed an early interest in jazz from listening to American recordings. I used to try and play like Teddy Wilson, but I soon realized that what I was doing wasn't honestly me, I guess I developed my own style gradually."

Pilhofer resists efforts to identify him with any particular school of pianists. His strong individuality happily defies most labels.

He organized his own small combos, trios and quartets, and played in the Nuernberg area and in USO Camp shows. He arranged and recorded for Radio Munich where he learned the rudiments of composition arranging.

An army captain from Baltimore, Md., sponsored Pilhofer's trip to the United States. The day he left Germany he married an Albert Lea, Minn., girl who was studying in Vienna. "I got stranded in the Twin Cities because she (his wife, Margery) was from Albert Lea."

Shortly after settling in Minneapolis he organized a trio that has, at times, tripled its size. The Pilhofer groups have in constant demand by club owners, concert directors, and civic promoters.

Pilhofer has continued to grow musically. In January, 1960, he added a drummer to the trio and appeared with the Minneapolis Symphony orchestra in the premier performance of his Three Pieces For Jazz Quartet and Orchestra. The success of the composition, which daringly allows improvisation within the orchestral framework, was immediately apparent when audience called the group back to repeat the third piece.

While working six nights a week at various Twin Cities clubs, attending school and teaching, producing commercial recordings and composing, Pilhofer has found time to write arrangements for Chico Hamilton and Art Van Damme. A Minneapolis church uses a children's songbook composed by Pilhofer.

Dale Olinger, a 38.year-oId Minneapolis native, was first a trumpeter and during the late 1940s with the Claude Thornhill band. He returned to Minneapolis and played with local groups including the Lou Levy quartet. His playing is undergoing steady improvement with particular attention to developing his technique. A member Of the trio for the last two years, Olinger has done some writing for the group, He teaches guitar and piano.

Stu Anderson, leads a double life as an English and speech teacher by day and bassist by nighL A University of Minnesota graduate, he majored in English and music. He also worked with Levy, the late Serge Chaloff, and Conte Candoli

"The most admirable feature of both is their lack of musical prejudices. Both are willing to experiment. That's a healthy attitude that adds to our strength," Pilhofer said.

"Since the guitar and piano are both chordal well as melodic instruments they can really get in each other's hair. This problem — which I often encountered with other guitarists — never seems to arise with Dale. We complement each other.

"And Stu has such a good harmonic rhythmic sense. So many younger bassists play their instruments like violin. They ignore its basic purpose. Stu never gets in the way and always seems to when you need him."

Pilhofer thinks his partners in the trio have the proper philosophy of trio jazz. "We've agreed that we are not intercstcd in 'manufacturing' a style at the cost of becoming stereotyped. We don't want to straight-jacket a tune for the sake of a sound, something that may be commercially good but musically restricting."

Charles Hanna

LP-656

Various Artists - Fanfare Of Hits

Released 1959

Recording and Session Information

5287 M-3000 The Pastels Been So Long
5257 8225 Paul Gayten Music Goes Round and Round
5289 8569 Clifton Chenier My Soul
5309 8746 Eddie Fontaine Nothin’ Shakin’
5249 7964 The Daps When You’re Alone
5277 8540 Paul Gayten/Oscar Wills Flat Foot Sam
5276 8537 The Ravens That’ll Be The Day
8568 Clifton Chenier Bayou Drive
8132 Bobby Charles Time Will Tell
8252 5265 Earl Zeb Hooker Frog Hop
8071 5256 Billy Stewart Billy’s Blues
8773 5300 Paul Gayten Tickle Toe

Track Listing

Been So Long	The Pastels	Pastels
Music Goes Round and Round	Paul Gayten	Farley, Riley, Hodgson
My Soul	Clifton Chenier	Chenier, James
Nothin’ Shakin’	Eddie Fontaine	Colacrai, Lampert, Fontaine, Gluck
When You’re Alone	The Daps	Smith
Flat Foot Sam	Paul Gayten	Wills, Lewis
That’ll Be The Day	The Ravens	Holly, Allison, Petty
Bayou Drive	Clifton Chenier	Chenier
Time Will Tell	Bobby Charles	Guidry
Frog Hop	Earl Zeb Hooker	Hooker
Billy’s Blues	Billy Stewart	Stewart, Williams
Tickle Toe	Paul Gayten	Gayten

Liner Notes

SOME OF THE GREAT songs and recordings of recent years have been released on the Argo Aabel. Artists like The Pastels, The Ravens, Bobby Charles, and Paul Gayten have presented their best work in that time, and so many have been the requests from record-buyers the country over to assemble some of their recordings in LP form, this album is the result.

And there is a great variety of selections here, from The Pastels' haunting version of Been So Long to Paul Gayten's rocking treatment of Music Goes 'Round And 'Round, the sensational song hit of the mid-1930s brought up to date in Gayten's inimitable modern fashion; from Clifton Chenier's moving Bayou Drive to the rollicking Billy's Blues by Billy Stewart, also well-known as the pianist with the great Bo Diddley when this side was cut.

You'll hear the sensational stylings of two outstanding young singers — Eddie Fontaine and Bobby Charles. Eddie romps through Nothin' Shakin' in the style that opened his door to hitdom and Bobby tells his message on Time Will Tell.

Two more vocal groups come to the fore on That'll Be The Day and When You're Alone. The former is given a foot-patting arrangement by The Ravens, the long-established hit-makers, while Alone is given respectful and moody ballad treatment by The Daps.

Three other instrumentals played with a tremendous dance beat round out this collection of winners. One is Earl Zeb Hooker's Frog Hop, the others ale Flat Foot Sam and Tickle Toe, done by the old master pianist, Paul Gayten.

You'll have a ball hearing some of these chart-topping recordings again, all assembled on one rhythm-packed, ear-catching album. It's great listening!

Notes:

Eddie Fontaine - Nothin' Shakin'
From: https://www.discogs.com/master/666159-Eddie-Fontaine-Nothin-Shakin
Fontaine went into the studio at his own cost and cut a demo of a song he had written (or at least, he has always claimed that he was the sole writer), "Nothin' Shakin'", using guitarists George Barnes and Eddie O'Connor, drummer Cozy Cole and two others. He submitted the demo to publisher Gene Goodman in the hope that he would get the song placed with a record company, but there were no takers initially. Eddie then signed with Tommy Valando's Sunbeam label and rerecorded "Nothin' Shakin'" for them. Soon after the release of this new version he found out - to his dismay - that his original demo had been sold to Chess Records without his knowledge and had acquired three additional writing credits : by Diane Lampert, John Gluck, Jr (later co-writer of "It's My Party") and Cirino Colacral. This original (and superior) version came out on Argo 5309 in August 1958 and climbed to # 64 on Billboard's Hot 100, the only chart entry of Eddie's career. "Nothin' Shakin'" was also released in the UK (London HLM 8711) and was later recorded by the Beatles (for the BBC), Billy Fury and Craig Douglas, among others.

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