LP-669

Roland Kirk - Introducing Roland Kirk

Released 1960

Recording and Session Information

Roland Kirk Quintet
Ira Sullivan, trumpet; tenor saxophone; Rahsaan Roland Kirk, tenor saxophone, stritch, manzello, whistle; Ron Burton (as William Burton), piano, organ; Raphael Donald Garrett, bass; Gerald "Sonny" Brown, drums
Chicago, June 7, 1960

10249 Jack the Ripper
10250 Spirit girl
10251 Our waltz
10252 The call
10253 Soul station
10254 Love is here to stay

Track Listing

The Call	Kirk	June 7 1960
Soul Station	Kirk	June 7 1960
Our Waltz	D. Rose	June 7 1960
Our Love Is Here To Stay	Gershwin & Gershwin	June 7 1960
Spirit Girl	Kirk	June 7 1960
Jack The Ripper	Burton	June 7 1960

Liner Notes

"HELLO? This is Roland Kirk,", said the apprehensive long-distance voice. "Ira Sullivan said to call you about coming up to play one of your sessions. We jammed together here in Louisville last week."

After overcoming my apprehensiveness (garnered through years of hearing "cats that had jammed with. etc.") arrangements were made and Roland Kirk did indeed play one of my sessions. Johnny Griffin was on the stand when Roland, his pianist, William Burton, his drummer, Sonny Brown (both heard herein), AND his THREE HORNS AND entered upon the heated scene. He's been keeping that scene equally heated ever since! When he burst upon Chicago he created as much or more excitement than many of the top name artists that have performed at my sessions throughout the years. He almost immediately equaled in populatity my mainstay draw attractions, Ira Sullivan, Johnny Griffin, and Gene Ammons.

Roland is 24 years of age, is from Columbus, Ohio, is blind, and has mastered the techniquc of playing up to three saxophones simultaneously!

The horns concerned are the standard tenor sax; the manzello, a sort of enlarged Sherlock Holmes pipe, related to the soprano sax (but in certain ranges also suggestive of trumpet and oboe sounds); and the strich, a straight version of almost an alto sax. He also uses a siren whistle for certain effects and signals to the other band members, and plays flute as well.

He uses no special harness, just three separate and quite ordinary saxophone neck straps. The manzello hangs around his neck tucked horizontally under his right arm while he plays either the tenor or elongated strich in legitimate fashion, and then suddenly it is flipped out and up into Roland's waiting embouchure to provide a double voicing. Other times, as in The Call, all three horns are tucked tightly in Roland's mouth as he distributes his hands back and forth amongst them creating moving lines and varying chord structures.

At times Roland sticks to one horn, as he does here on his beautiful manzello version of Our Love Is Here To Stay. The two-horn approach is not only used to create exciting backgrounds for other soloists, as behind Ira's trumpet on Spirit Girl, but is also used during Roland's own solos to switch him from one horn to another, creating the impression of two different soloists. In The Call, for example, during Roland's tenor solo he flips in the manzello with the tenor to provide a hooting chord then lets the tenor hang limp and continues full blast on the manzello.

Some important events have occurred for Roland Kirk since he first played that "cooker" for me; an important engagement at the Sutherland Lounge (one of Chicago's top jazz clubs) with his co-star Ira Sullivan; his placing second as a "New Star" in the miscellaneous instruments category of the 1960 International Down Beat Critics Poll; and a full page feature article in Down Beat (Aug. 4. 1960). Some quotes from that article about this record date seem in order:

"It turned out to be one of the wildest dates engineers and bystanders could remember. In ensemble passages, two lone horn men were creating an astonishing variety of voicings. Sometimes Kirk would be pushing out chords on his three horns with Sullivan's trumpet or his tenor to add a fourth. Sometimes Kirk would do it the conservative way: he'd play only two horns in ensembles.

"Then came the real kicker: as Sullivan took off on a stomping tenor solo ("I consider myself closer to mainstream than anything"), Kirk would take the siren whistle hung around his neck on a string and let out a wild blast.

"I quit using my whistle because cats put me down for it at sessions. They think it's a gimmick. But it's not. I hear sirens and things in my head when I play. Imet a cat said he could make me a great big one..."

"One observer in the control room gave an apt description of Kirk: 'He has all the wild, untutored quality of a street musician coupled with the subtlety of a modern jazz man."

"When the session was over, Argo recording director Jack Tracy gave his view of Roland Kirk.

'I didn't record him because he's got a gimmick," Tracy said. "I like the way he plays. He's got something to say. But let's face it, a guy who plays three horns at once isn't exactly bad commercially."

All in all, for me, and I trust for you, the new Roland Kirk fan, this LP will provide an intriguing and exciting venture into a further road of exploratory jazz.

Joe Segal

LP-668

The Quincetet – The Music Of Quincy Jones

Released 1961

Recording and Session Information

Benny Bailey, trumpet; Ake Persson, trombone; Lennart Jansson, baritone saxophone; Gunnar Svensson, piano; Gunnar Johnson, bass; Joe Harris, drums
Stockholm, October 8, 1959
1804 The golden touch

Benny Bailey, trumpet; Ake Persson, trombone; Lennart Jansson, baritone saxophone; Gosta Theselius, piano; Gunnar Johnson, bass; Joe Harris, drums
1805 I'm gone
1806 Meet Benny Bailey
1808 Plenty, plenty soul
1811 The midnight sun never sets
Benny Bailey, trumpet; Ake Persson, trombone; Arne Domnerus, alto saxophone; Bjarne Nerem, tenor saxophone; Lennart Jansson, baritone saxophone; Gosta Theselius, Gunnar Svensson, piano; Gunnar Johnson, bass; Joe Harris, drums
Jones Beach
1809 Fallen feathers

Ake Persson, trombone; Arne Domnerus, alto saxophone; Bjarne Nerem, tenor saxophone; Gosta Theselius, Gunnar Svensson, piano; Gunnar Johnson, bass; Anders Burman, drums
1810 Count 'em

Track Listing

The Golden Touch	Oscar Pettiford, Quincy Jones	October 8 1959
Jones Beach	Quincy Jones	October 8 1959
The Midnight Sun Never Sets	Henri Salvador, Quincy Jones	October 8 1959
I'm Gone	Quincy Jones	October 8 1959
Meet Benny Bailey	Quincy Jones	October 8 1959
Count 'Em	Jimmy Cleveland, Quincy Jones	October 8 1959
Fallen Feathers	Quincy Jones	October 8 1959
Plenty, Plenty Soul	Milt Jackson, Quincy Jones	October 8 1959

Liner Notes

QUINCY JONES wears many hats. He is an arranger of brilliance. He plays trumpet passably. He leads his own large orchestra, a feat that requires more than conducting, in that a leader also has to be father, mother, wife, and psychiatrist to some 16 musicians. But, most of all, he is a composer who writes with delicate melodic sense and rhythmic vigor.

He is a budding Duke Ellington, and there are many who will tell you that his orchestra will be the band of the 1960s.

He already has given impressive indication of the road he intends to take. The recent trip he made with his band revealed to listeners what his first two albums had led them to suspect — that his orchestra is precise, joyously swinging, and interested in exploring arrangements that show thought in their preparation and are written expressly for the musicians in that band, utilizing their individual capabilities.

One of those individuals created a good deal of attention on his own. That would be Benny Bailey, the trumpeter with huge tone and broad attack who went to Europe in 1953 with Lionel Hampton and stayed there until Quincy called Benny back from Sweden to join him.

Bailey's performances herein show you why Jones was so eager to get him on the band. This LP was cut in Sweden last year in the company of another American, drummer Joe Harris, and the light-quick Swedish trombonist Ake Persson, another member of the Jones band. Several combinations of Swedish all-stars make up the backing.

The Golden Touch was arranged by pianist Gunnar Svensson and features solos by Persson, followed by Bailey, baritone saxist Lennart Jansson, and Svensson.

I'm Gone is a medium blues that spots muted Benny Bailey over an ensemble background, Persson, tenor saxist Bjarne Nerem, and pianist Gosta Theselius, who plays marvelously in all his appearances here.

Jones Beach, another easy blues, follows. It's in quintet format, with Bailey and alto saxist Arne Domnerus at the horns. They start with a double-time introduction, Theselius picks up with a funky lead-in to the ensemble and later plays a nicely-built solo.

Quincy's best-known composition to date may well be The Midnight Sun Never Sets. A hauntingly pretty ballad, it has been recorded several times, but never any better than on this album as it becomes a solo vehicle for Persson. Theselius also contributes some lovely piano.

Theselius arranged Meet Benny Bailey, which again shows why Benny is meeting with such approval.

Plenty, Plenty Soul, written by Quincy especially for Milt Jackson, is treated somewhat faster here than Milt did it, and highlights Bailey and Theselius.

Fallen Feathers, Quincy's moving tribute to Charlie Parker, is all Benny Bailey save for a short intro by Theselius.

Count 'Em, an easy blues, winds everything up, and the horns of Persson and Nerem take the solo spots.

We think you'll find this combination of Quincy Jones' music and the resounding horns of Benny Bailey and Ake Persson to be a stirring mixture and one that points out yet one more facet Of Quincy's talent. He has an unerring sense Of taste when it comes to picking the right chairs. Quincy Delight Jones is something else!

Al Portch

LP-667

Jamal At The Pershing Volume 2

Released July 1960

Recording and Session Information

Ahmad Jamal Trio
Ahmad Jamal, piano; Israel Crosby, bass; Vernell Fournier, drums

Pershing Lounge, Chicago, IL, January 17, 1958

10343 Too late now
10344 All the things you are
10345 Cherokee
10346 It might as well be spring
10347 I'll remember April
10348 My funny Valentine
10349 Gone with the wind
10350 Billy Boy
10351 It's you or no one
10352 They can't take that away from me
10353 Poor butterfly

Track Listing

Too Late Now	Lerner, Lane	January 17 1958
All The Things You Are	Kern, Hammerstein	January 17 1958
Cherokee	Ray Noble	January 17 1958
It Might As Well Be Spring	Rodgers, Hammerstein	January 17 1958
I'll Remember April	Raye, DePaul, Johnston	January 17 1958
My Funny Valentine	Rodgers, Hart	January 17 1958
Gone With The Wind	Wrubel, Magidson	January 17 1958
Billy Boy	Arranged By – Jamal	January 17 1958
It's You Or No One	Styne, Cahn	January 17 1958
They Can't Take That Away From Me	Gershwin	January 17 1958
Poor Butterfly	Golden, Hubbell	January 17 1958

Liner Notes

THE nights of January 16 and 17, 1958, marked the turning point in the career of Ahmad Jamal. Argo Records took a load of recording equipment to the Lounge of the Pershing hotel on Chicago's sprawling south side and taped the entire two-night output of the then-comparatively-obscure Ahmad Jamal trio.

The album which resulted from the first night's session (But Not For Me, Argo LP 628) almost instantaneously shot Jamal into the very highest echelon of jazz performers and became one of the biggest-selling recordings in jazz history.

This album comes from the second night. How it happened to come about may be of interest to the listener.

Jamal spent literally dozens of hours selecting the selections that made up But Not For Me. He took into consideration tempos, keys, and types of tunes to make for smooth pacing. After he had finished, and the album was released, turned away from the remaining tapes with almost a sigh of relief and promptly dismissed them from his mind.

In July of 1960, some 2 1/2 years later, a couple of persons ran across some file cards which indicated there was a whole night's output untouched, pulled the tapes out of storage, listened to some three hours of unreleased material.

It took just a few minutes to discover that both nights had produced set after set of consistently remarkable music. Some of the unreleased sides fairly cried to be issued.

Jamal was consulted about the possibility of making this second volume of Pershing performances. He was reluctant. "They're over two years old," he said. "The trio is that much older now, and we don't play the same way we did then."

Then the tapes were played for him. He heard Cherokee. "I'd forgotten that one," he said. "It came out pretty nice." He heard It Might As Well Be Spring. "I listened to Tatum a lot. I guess you can tell by the ending of that." He heard Gone With The Wind. "You know where I got that introauction? Don Elliott's group played at the Modern Jazz room some time before we did the Pershing date and his pianist — I don't remember his name...Bob somebody — played it that way."

He heard Billy Boy. "Gee, we've been doing that one a long time. We recorded it for another label in 1952, then Red Garland's group did the same arrangement not long ago."

He heard Too Late Now, "That's a good tune. We should begin to use it again in our repertoire. I think that might be a good side to lead off the album."

The reluctance had disappeared.

I don't think it need ever have been there. These sides are examples of the polished skill and remarkable interplay that are the marks of the Jamal trio. Israel Crosby is onhand to give imaginative and rock-steady support. Vernell Fournier is, as ever, fluid and quick as Jamal displays all the qualities that have elicited so much vociferous respect from fellow musicians, critics, and record buyers.

Whether this album was recorded 2 1/2 years or 2 1/2 days ago makes no difference. It is fresh, swinging. inventive, and timeless.

And I have a hunch that 10 years from now, it still will be.

Jack Tracy