LP-673

Listen To The Ahmad Jamal Quintet

Released 1961

Recording and Session Information

Ahmad Jamal Quintet
Ahmad Jamal, pinao; Ray Crawford, guitar; Joe Kennedy, violin; Israel Crosby, bass; Vernel Fournier, drums
Chicago, August 15 & 16, 1960

10363 Who cares?
10364 Ahmad's waltz
10365 Hallelujah
10366 Tempo for two
10367 Yesterdays
10368 It's a wonderful world
10369 You came a long way from St. Louis
10370 Valentina
10371 Lover man
10372 Baia

Track Listing

Ahmad's Waltz	Ahmad Jamal	August 15 & 16 1960
Valentina	Christine, Reynolds	August 15 & 16 1960
Yesterdays	Kern, Harbach	August 15 & 16 1960
Tempo For Two	Joe Kennedy	August 15 & 16 1960
Hallelujah	Grey, Robin, Youmans	August 15 & 16 1960
It's A Wonderful World	Adamson, Savitt, Watson	August 15 & 16 1960
Baia	Barroso	August 15 & 16 1960
You Came A Long Way From St. Louis	Russell, Brooks	August 15 & 16 1960
Lover Man	Davis, Sherman, Ramirez	August 15 & 16 1960
Who Cares	George & Ira Gershwin	August 15 & 16 1960

Liner Notes

REMEMBER when the record people talked so incessantly about finding a "new sound?" The search went on wildly and weirdly, with tapes that were speeded and slowed and doubled back upon themselves, echo chambers and wind tunnels and bullwhips and other gimmicks. The engineers didn't say they were looking for a "good" sound—just a "new" one.

The fad faded, but Ahmad Jamal fans, whose number is so great that they have snapped up tremendous volumes of the pianist's long-playing records in the last three years, will find a different kind of "new sound" on this record. It's not only new; it's good.

Ahmad has sold a schmillion LPs as the head man of a trio that long has included Israel Crosby on bass and Vernell Fournier on drums. Why, then, add violin and guitar strings to what bas been an essentially percussive and artistically and financial successful combination?

For the ample reason that there is more than one way to say a thing, more than one volume or tone of voice. Everybody knows Ahmad Jamal has something to say musically, Herewith he embellishes his message without losing the simplicity and sense of understatement that zoomed him up the ladder at an amazing rate of speed.

Ahmad's piano, Israel's bass, and Vernell's drums greet the violin of Joe Kennedy and the guitar of Ray Crawford, and you can hear them assert (in naval parlance): "Happy to have you aboard!"

The newcomers to the ensemble (and please let's not start calling it the Ahmad Jamal trio plus two) join the group gracefully. They are not obtrusive and they aren't bashful either, You'll hear them lurking in the background much of the time. When it's their turn to take the tiller, they step into poised if momentary command.

Jamal devotees may find Ahmad has put more impact and a richer flavor than usual into this first record session with a fivesome, and they're likely to agree that the added strings are a worthwhile experifilcnt. The youthful veteran continues to be a musician who speaks softly but carries a subtle wallop.

These are not just so many tunes in one mood, with a few at different tempo stuck in for contrast. They're a package filled with variety—bright or brooding, racy or reflective, carefree or cautious.

Ahmad's Waltz is a pointed exercise that has nothing in common with the three-quarter time of Johann Strauss. Jamal's piano is the captain of this cruise, but Crawford's guitar has no hesitancy about making its presence known.

Ahmad's Valentina bears slight resemblance to the young lady of that name whose praises Maurice Chevalier sang a generation ago. Fournier's virile drums make it sound more like Son Of Valentina in their heated discussion with the piano. When the violin enters it's a swinging party that grows more upbeat as it goes along.

The unhurried Yesterdays, an evergreen ideal for a reworking, gets a pensive introduction before wiggling off in several directions With the maestro's touch embroidering it elaborately.

Tempo For Two answers decisively the question: "Why the violin?" Now you know! Joe Kennedy fiddles a forthright argument before piano, drums, bass, and guitar voice their agreement in beautiful balance.

In Halleluiah, Ahmad shows how deftly he can maintain touch of delicacy even When he and his teammates are in a hurry. That violin steals brief scene again in It's A Wonderful World when, after a deep-throated bass idyll, it picks up the scene both saucily and plaintively.

Some feverish dialogue between piano and drums marks Ahmad's piano extends a tentative feeler into Memory Lane in You Came Long From St. Louis with a wistfulness that could be a recollection of the Browns of that town, but the cnsemblc jars the keyboard into today with an assertiveness that makes for a strong finish.

Lover Man is frankly sentimental, with violin courting piano to the soft voiced accompaniment of the other three. Who Cares? the venerable Gershwin gem, ends this cavalcade with a rousing romp in which each says his say in turn, almost like instrumentalists in an oleltime Dixieland band.

Yep, this session has variety. And — any more questions about why Ahmad Jamal decided to try adding a violin and guitar?

William Leonard

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-671

The Ramsey Lewis Trio in Chicago

Released 1960

Recording and Session Information

Ramsey Lewis Trio
Ramsey Lewis, piano; Eldee Young, bass; Redd Holt, drums
Live "The Blue Note Club", Chicago, IL, April 30, 1960

10113 Bags' groove (unissued)
10114 I'll remember April
10115 What's new?
10116 Delilah
10117 Greensleeves (unissued)
10118 Blues
10119 Old devil moon
10120 Put your little feet right out (unissued)
10121 Embraceable you (into) (unissued)
10122 You don't know what love is (unissued)
10123 Scarlet ribbons (unissued)
10124 C. C. Rider [See See Rider]
10125 Sandu (unissued)
10126 Summertime (unissued)
10127 The more I see you (unissued)
10128 Bei mir bist du schon
10129 Carmen
10130 Folk ballad
10131 Where or when (unissued)
10132 Two degrees east, three degrees west (unissued)
10133 My ship (unissued)
10134 Song of India (unissued)
10135 Here 'tis (unissued)

Track Listing

Old Devil Moon	Lane, Harburg	Aptil 30 1960
What's New	Haggart, Burke	Aptil 30 1960
Carmen	Arranged By – Ramsey Lewis	Aptil 30 1960
Bei Mir Bist Du Schon	Cahn, Chaplin, Secunda	Aptil 30 1960
I'll Remember April	Raye, De Paul, Johnson	Aptil 30 1960
Delilah	Nicholls	Aptil 30 1960
Folk Ballad	Arranged By – Young, Lewis, Holt	Aptil 30 1960
But Not For Me	Gershwin & Gershwin	Aptil 30 1960
C. C. Rider	Arranged By – Young, Lewis, Holt	Aptil 30 1960

Liner Notes

MENTION the Blue Note to any jazz fan, especially one who lives around Chicago, and you're likely to be answered by, "Wasn't that a shame!"

Because just a few weeks after this album was recorded there, the club that for more than a decade had hosted every top name in jazz had to shut down. The entertainment center of Chicago moved from The Loop across the river to the Near North side, and the Blue Note was left isolated, head still high but without a nickel in its jeans.

A lot of us who had been regulars at Frank Holzfeind's establishment ever since he first opened remembered the big years and were unhappy. Years when it was just about the only game in town, and you could walk in and hear Basic or Kenton or Woody or Brown or James or even Elliot Lawrence or Charlie Parker with strings or Lester Young carefully picking his way through the audience after a set to head back to the dressing room where the gin was poured in larger than one ounce quantities.

Or the one bill some years ago that featured Maxine Sullivan, Doc Evans' band, Slim Gaillard's trio, and a young, good-looking pop singer named Harry Belafonte. Or Charlie Ventura in the halcyon days with Jackie and Roy singing those wild lines and drawing crowds of the size that Miles and Jamal do now. Or Lee Wiley and Bobby Hackett, or Red Norvo, or Lennie Tristano, or Duke Ellington playing the annual Christmas parties at which kids who could barely walk heard their first big band and were big-eyed. Or Sarah Vaughan coming in time after time, year after year.

It was one helluva club, believe me, and if you never made it there you missed something.

Ramsey Lewis got there just under the wire and it was almost like old times the Saturday night we recorded him. Al greeted you at the door and Frank was already in his office (first table to the right as you walked in), martini at hand.

The audience was of healthy size, and it included a couple of disc jockeys who dropped in to see what was happening and a night life columnist who used to fall by almost every night for a quick blast before being subjected to such indignities as having to review Liberace.

The trio was comfortably set up on the big bandstand that was really designed for Kenton and Basic and those-type housewreckers.

Not much happened the first set. Ramsey and Eldee and Red were conscious of the recording mikes and were playing safe. They skated easily through Bags' Groove and Greensleeves and two or three more, sounded good, got a nice hand, and that was about it.

The next two sets were something else. The trio forgot about the mikes and began playing to the audience. They had no diffnculty establishing the warm rapport they almost always get with people, and thus nourished by sincere applause and attention, they opened up.

This 38 minutes of music is the cream of those two sets. By the fourth set the crowd had thinned considerably, the piano was drifting noticeably out of tune (Ramsey and Oscar Peterson not only play pianos, they almost destroy them at a single sitting), and the party was just about over.

You judge for yourself how good the music is. I am of the opinion it's the best the group has ever sounded on records. Happy, dynamic, swinging, colorful, it is the sort of trio you are not likely to forget once you it.

At the end of the evening. Frank, fresh martini held in steady grip. mentioned idly, "You know, in all the years we've been going, no one has ever cut an album at the Blue Note before. Ramsey's will be the first."

It will also be the last. But it's a good one, and that's the way it should be.

Jack Tracy