LP-685

Ahmad Jamal's Alhambra

Released 1961

Recording and Session Information

Ahmad Jamal Trio
Ahmad Jamal, piano; Israel Crosby, bass; Vernel Fournier, drums
Live "The Alhambra", Chicago, IL, late June 1961

Full set list. Released as LP-685, LP-691 and LP-786
11092 Ahmad Jamal We kiss in the shadow
11093 Ahmad Jamal Sweet and lovely
11094 Ahmad Jamal The party's over
11095 Ahmad Jamal Love for sale
11096 Ahmad Jamal Snowfall
11097 Ahmad Jamal Broadway
11098 Ahmad Jamal Willow, weep for me
11099 Ahmad Jamal Autumn leaves
11100 Ahmad Jamal Isn't it romantic?
11101 Ahmad Jamal The breeze and I
11102 Ahmad Jamal You're blase
11103 Ahmad Jamal You go to my head
11104 Ahmad Jamal Desert sands
11105 Ahmad Jamal I get a kick out of you
11106 Ahmad Jamal All of you
11107 Ahmad Jamal Where or when
11108 Ahmad Jamal What is this thing called love? 11109 Ahmad Jamal Star eyes
11110 Ahmad Jamal Isn't is a lovely day
11111 Ahmad Jamal Don't worry 'bout me (unissued)
11112 Ahmad Jamal I can't get started
11113 Ahmad Jamal You're driving me crazy
11114 Ahmad Jamal Let's call it a day
11115 Ahmad Jamal Time on my hands
11116 Ahmad Jamal Angel eyes
Ahmad Jamal Medley: (unissued)
11117 Ahmad Jamal With the wind and the rain in your hair
11118 Ahmad Jamal You are my springtime
11119 Ahmad Jamal There is no greater love (unissued)
11120 Ahmad Jamal My heart stood still
Ahmad Jamal Poinciana (unissued)
Ahmad Jamal We kiss in a shadow (alt) (unissued)
Ahmad Jamal Stella by starlight (unissued)
Ahmad Jamal The lady is a tramp (unissued)

Track Listing

We Kiss In A Shadow	Rodgers, Hammerstein	June 1961
Sweet And Lovely	Charles N. Daniels, Arnheim, Tobias	June 1961
The Party's Over	Byrne, Comden, Green	June 1961
Love For Sale	Cole Porter	June 1961
Snow Fall	Thornhill	June 1961
Broadway	Woode, McRae	June 1961
Willow Weep For Me	Ronell	June 1961
Autumn Leaves	Prevert, Kosma	June 1961
Isn't It Romantic	Rodgers, Hart	June 1961
The Breeze And I	Stillman, Lecuona	June 1961

Liner Notes

ARTISTS are, by and large, a dreaming lot. Musicians are no exception; in fact, some of the world's most prolific jazz creators ply their melodic trade while envisioning castles rising high into the sky. It is the privilege of each of us to dream and dream and dream again. It falls the lot of a few of us to equip that dream with spurs of driving, realistic ambition and hardwork. And here, the sky watchers are sifted from those solid bricks, out of whom come the pillars of our society.

Reaching modestly for the sun, there stands on Chicago's once elegant Michigan Boulevard, a new structure ironically reminiscent of the old splendor. This edifice is more than a brick and mortar symbol; it is the gossamer culmination of a dream — a dream spun of webs of inspiration and talent, hung together by threads of disappointments and health-sapping devotion. Yet watching the slight, bearded owner walking with quiet pride throughout the elaborate room, one knows instantly that he is savoring the sweet smell of success, and triumph over strife.

Ahmad Jamal was at home regularly at the turn of the 5th decade. Crowds had not yet begun to for his tinkling, happy piano. He played infrequently in clubs. There stirring within him that frustrating, incomplete feeling of not knowing the total acceptance of the mass populace; yet, he was playing music and remaining at home (an ideal situation for the family man). All that was lacking was financial fruit and the broadened horizon. In the mid 50's "The Hit" was cut and with the subsequent popular demand, Jamal took to the road to become the itinerant musician.

To offset his longing for the warmth and security of his home in Chicago, travelling Jamal began spinning his dream. Cities and countries of the world began to fascinate him and he mentally catalogued the most appealing attributes of each. Of all the lands he visited, actually and vicariously, the far and middle east most impressed the pianist.

In 1960, Ahmad returned to the Windy City to begin the fulfillment of the dream. In 1961, the doors of Ahmad Jamal's Alhambra were opened to the public. Beautifully appointed, boasting a completely imported interior, continental cuisine; the club elegantly speaks of its eastern heritage. There was never a more receptive audience than the members of the press who came out that extra-warm summer afternoon to offer best wishes to the owner-musician.

It was natural and appropriate that the first musical attraction at the new Alhambra should be the Jamal Trio. It was also fitting that, during Jamal's stay there, this session should be cut. The warmth and communion of spirit which prevades throughout the club is reflected here in the harmony and togetherness of the unit. Actually, time and its passage may show that the flow of this unity went in the opposite direction. In other words, this closeknit unit might have instilled into the Alhambra a healthy shot of its own oneness. If this be true, Alhambra is extremely fortunate.

The tunes recorded here constitute music heard and enjoyed each night during the trio's engagement. Artistically, this is one of the best on-the-spot recordings the group has yet produced. All elements seemed to be right and at the right time.

We share with Jamal and Argo, extreme pleasure and pride in the production of this album which is a lanmark in the annals of jazz recording. A prominent jazz artist of national and international acclaim sits at his own piano in his own club and plays own groove; and he records the event proudly for all posterity. We doff our hat to Ahmad at the Alhambra.

Sid McCoy

LP-684

The Jazztet and John Lewis

Released 1961

Recording and Session Information

Art Farmer/Benny Golson Jazztet & John Lewis
Art Farmer, trumpet; Tom McIntosh, trombone; Benny Golson, tenor saxophone; Cedar Walton, piano; Tommy Williams, bass; Albert "Tootie" Heath, drums
New York, December 20-21, 1960 & January 9, 1961

10626 Django
10627 Milano
10628 Bel
10629 Two degrees east, three degrees west
10630 New York 19
10631 Odds against tomorrow

Track Listing

Bel	John Lewis	December 20/21 1960, January 9 1961
Milano	John Lewis	December 20/21 1960, January 9 1961
Django	John Lewis	December 20/21 1960, January 9 1961
New York 19	John Lewis	December 20/21 1960, January 9 1961
2 Degrees East, 3 Degrees West	John Lewis	December 20/21 1960, January 9 1961
Odds Against Tomorrow	John Lewis	December 20/21 1960, January 9 1961

Liner Notes

The idea of John Lewis writing for the Jazztet seems, at first blush, an improbable one.

Lewis' jazz writing in recent years has been confined largely to the Modern Jazz Quartet, of which group he is pianist and musical director. His other work — movie scores and similar large-orchestra music — has required a different palette than that available in small jazz groups.

The Jazztet, furthermore, is utterly unlike the MJQ in instrumentation, conception, and flavor. The MJQ is based on two percussion-melody instruments, vibraharp and piano, which dictates one kind of sound. The Jazztet is based on three horns — trumpet, tenor saxophone, and trombone — which dictates a vastly different one.

The one area of similarity between the two groups would appear to present a danger, rather than an advantage: both are integrated, controlled units whose music has sometimes tended to the conservative. They stand at the other end of the pole from all the tiresome freeblowing groups of today.

But what would happen when you put the conservative John Lewis together with the Jazztet? I must confess that when Art Farmer mentioned that John Lewis was writing album for the group, I had reservations. I feared the collaboration would produce some sort of apotheosis of gentlemanly reserve. Control there would surely be. But spontaneity and fire?

It gives me considerable pleasure to discover that my fears were groundless. For the John Lewis Album is, I feel, far and away the best, the freest, and the gutsiest album the Jazztet has yet made.

It came about in this way:

One evening early in 1961, Lewis went to the Village Gate in New York, where the Jazztet was working. He was asked to write an arrangement for the group. He pondered it during the course of the evening, no doubt in that quietly preoccupied way of his, and then told Benny Golson and Art Farmer that he'd rather write a whole album.

The scores were not long arriving. Lewis delivered the first of them while the group was still at the Village Gate, and had completed the remainder within a month. And yet you will find no hint of haste in them, They are beautifully-wrought pieces of jazz writing, with everything in its place — and they are full of fire.

"Benny and I have always had a great deal of respect for John's writing," Art said. "But I was surprised and delighted when wc got the scores."

"I'm intrigued by the way John reworks his material over the years, as Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk do. John will take something he wrote some time ago and do something completely different with it. Django is an example."

It is a particularly interesting example. If you know the MJQ's original version of it, you'll probably be shocked by this one, at first. The original is slow and delicate and poignantly lyrical; from the first measures of this version, you know it's a cooker. "In fact," Benny said. "the first time we played it, we thought we had it wrong. We asked John 'Is this really the tempo you want? He said, 'That's right.'"

2 Degrees East, 3 Degrees West, on the other hand, is fairly similar to the original except for the instrumentation. The other works in this set will be found to resemble the originals in varying degrees — though always the basic color is different. Bel is a new work: Lewis wrote it especially for this album.

If I may venture a personal comment (and I'd rather make it clear that it's personal, since have a growing distaste for those who try to pass off their personal observations as esthetic absolutes that they could prove to be objective realities, if only they could the right logarithmic tables), I think this album is the most moving and satisfying - in fact, exciting — piece of jazz writing that John Lewis has done in years.

Note how skillfully he will use horns behind soloists; note how nicely the lines of ensemble passages fit together; note particularly how he gets a sound much larger than the instrumentation, which is always the mark of the gifted and developed writer. While we're at it, note also the humor of which Lewis is capable, particularly in the opening track.

This album ends up being a sort of mutual showcase: the Jazztet sets a facet of Lewis' ability (after all, he was once arranger for Dizzy Gillespie's bis band) that some of us had tended to forget; and Lewis' writing in turn sets off facets ot the Jazztet's ability that many persons may previiously have been unaware of.

Certainly the group is in prime form.

In Tom Williams and Albert Heath, it has a rhythm team that works in powerful, comfortable tandem. In Cedar Walton, it has a pianist of feeling coupled with technical resourcefulness. There is no need to say to him, "Yeah, but what he was thinking is what matters." What Walton thinks, he executes and you hear.

Trombonist McIntosh is the third member of the horn team that constitutes the Jazztet's front line. A talented arranger himself he is revealed in this album to have the ability, both as soloist and ensemble player, that Art and Benny thought he had when they asked him to join the group.

As for Art and Benny themselves, it seems to me that they have found the freedom and individual expression they were looking for when they formed the Jazztet.

Reviewing a Golson album (Take a Number from 1 to 10; Argo 681) in a recent issue of Down Beat, critic John S. Wilson said of Benny, "His warm, gentle, lyrical playing...has been fairly well established for some time. What is relatively new is what appears to be some resolution of the grappling Golson has been going through to find a proper expression of himself at fast tempos. He appears to have cleared away the streaming runs that he contended with for quite a while, and now has a lean attack at up tempos that is attractively propulsive and is much more to the point than his earlier work was."

You'Il note this greater economy in Benny's playing, and the consequent increased clarity of his lines, in his fiery solo on Django.

Reviewing an Art Farmer record (Art; Argo 678) recently, Ira Gitler wrote, "Farmer is a mature, personal, sensitive lyrical trumpet artist. His sound, delicate and strong simultaneously, is integrated perfectly with the beautifully phrased content of his playing."

I would add to that the observation that Art has become increasingly individual in recent years. Whatever the tempo, there is a sort of smoked quality to his tone that reminds me, curiously enough, of Lawrence Brown's trombone. Thoughtful without being a navel-gazer, Art manages to bring the sensitive inner man out to the light of day.

The idea behind the Jazztet was to achieve organization and spontaneity at the same time.

I feel that this is urgently necessary if jazz is to retain its appeal to the public — and jazz must retain appeal if it is to survive and flourish, since jazz, unlike classical music, is not a subsidized art; it has to pay its own way or starve to death.

It seems to me that the time is fast approaching when the public will weary of 190 choruses of tenor solo followed by an equally interminable trumpet solo, all of it framed between ensemble passages that are nothing more than fore-and-aft unison statements of the melody. That is why there must be thought-out shiftings of voicing and coloration within a given piece. And that means writing.

At the same time, writing that stifled the extemporaneous spark that is the essence of jazz, would be disastrous. The Jazztet, I believe, is finding the necessary delicate balance between the two. The group's growing pains are over and, because of the balance it is achieving, it has genuine significance. It is to be hoped that other groups will get the message.

Never has the group seemed more appealing than in this set of compositions and arrangements by John Lewis. I have no hesitancy in commending it to you. It knocked me out.

Gene Lees

LP-683

Sonny Stitt - At The D.J. Lounge

Released 1961

Recording and Session Information

Sonny Stitt, alto, tenor saxophone; Johnny Board, tenor saxophone; Eddie Buster, organ; Joe Shelton, drums
"D.J. Lounge", Chicago June 1961

U11018 McKie's
U11019 It all depends on you
U11020 Blue moon
U11021 Jay Tee
U11022 I'm in the mood for love
U11023 Free chicken

Track Listing

McKie's	Sonny Stitt	June 1961
It All Depends On You	DeSylva, Brown, Henderson	June 1961
Blue Moon	Rodgers & Hart	June 1961
Jay Tee	Sonny Stitt	June 1961
I'm In The Mood For Love	Fields, McHugh	June 1961
Free Chicken	Sonny Stitt	June 1961

Liner Notes

BY THE middle of 1961, a club on Chicago's south side lying directly adjacent to the Tivoli theater and right across the street from the well-known Pershing Lounge had developed into what many considered the city's hippest jazz room.

Called McKie's Disc Jockey Lounge, it had for some months been steadily presenting the sort of talent and atmosphere that one used to be able to find in large quantity on the south side — Gene Ammons, Shirley Scott, Eddie (Lockjaw) Davis, and many perhaps lesser-known but hard-swinging musicians.

On this Saturday night in early June, Sonny Stitt was the featured attraction, and Sonny has a lot of followers in Chicago. With him on-stand was another in a long line of tough, big-toned tenor players that Chicago has developed — players like Ammons and Johnny Griffin — Johnny Board.

Board served a long apprenticeship with the Lionel Hampton orchestra, and from that affiliation alone it is obvious that not only is he a capable musician but is also well-schooled in devices designed to get a crowd to patting its collective foot. He has a good-sized trick bag. as they say.

It would seem unnecessary to mention Sonny's qualifications as an audience-waker-upper, in that he has completed nearly two decades of a most prominent jazz career.

The set recorded here starts out in fine warm-up fashion as Sonny and Johnny work over a medium-paced blues, with Sonny soloing first, then Board, then a long exchange of choruses, much in the manner of a couple of boxers staying pretty much with left jabs and hooks and an occasional exploratory right hand in the first round of a fight.

Sonny picks up the alto for It All Depends On You, stating the melody on the first chorus, then giving way to Board for the first solo. They then exchange eights for a chorus before Stitt comes back on the melody to begin what develops into a long, sinuous solo.

Blue Moon finds Stitt spelling out the melody on the first chorus with Board taking the first solo again. Sonny's entrance is coolly Getz-like, then warms up.

The tempo goes upstairs on Jay Tee, as both men begin to get their shoulders into the matter at hand. Board solos first, excellently, after which Sonny coasts in, then opens up his sound and begins to cook. A furious battle of eights between the two horn brings the performance to a climax.

I'm In The Mood For Love follows, with Sonny back on alto for a lovely solo performance that weaves beautifully through a splendid ballad.

The set-capper, Free Chicken, develops into a furiously Stormy get-together, as Board's solo triggers a bristling bunch of exchanges and hard rights that leaves the audience limp.

It is the finishing touch to an album that almost physically drags you into an old-fashioned blowing session between two tenor saxists who know what it's all about and who do not hesitate to jump into some deep musical waters to prove it.

You'll dig it.

Jack Tracy