LP-694

Lorez Alexandria - Deep Roots

Released 1962

Recording and Session Information

Lorez Alexandria
Lorez Alexandria, vocal; John Young, piano; Vernel Fournier, bass; George Eskridge, drums
Chicago, February 13, 14 1962

11493 Almost like being in love
11494 Spring will be a little late this year
11495 Softly, as in a morning sunrise
11496 I want to talk about you
11497 Trav'lin' light
11498 Detour ahead
11499 No moon at all
11500 It could happen to you
11501 Nature boy
11502 I was a fool

Track Listing

Nature Boy	Ahbez	February 13, 14 1962
I Was A Fool	Pate	February 13, 14 1962
No Moon At All	Mann, Evans	February 13, 14 1962
Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year	Loesser	February 13, 14 1962
Softly As In A Morning Sunrise	Hammerstein II, Romberg	February 13, 14 1962
Detour Ahead	Ellis, Frigo, Carter	February 13, 14 1962
It Could Happen To You	Van Heusen-Burke	February 13, 14 1962
Travlin Light	Mundy, Mercer, Young	February 13, 14 1962
Almost Like Being In Love	Lowe-Learner	February 13, 14 1962
I Want To Talk About You	Eckstine	February 13, 14 1962

Liner Notes

MY PREDECESSORS here, on the informative side of a Lorez Alexandria album jacket have been much more professionally qualified than I, in passing musical judgment on the engraven image within; and much more informative.

Both Miss Gardener and Mr. Gleason are known for their knowledgable critiques and essays on jazz and popular music. So, when Lorez asked me to write these notes just couple of weeks after I had met her, I hastened back to the enjoyable #663 and #682 in the Argo catalog to read the Gardener, Gleason enlightenment.

Then it became apparent that the one word I have thought and felt about Lorez singing these past six or scvcn recording years was the essence of Gs and Ralph Gs annotations. They both refer to the freshness and creativity of her singing. Perhaps, that's why I've enjoyed hearing her on record these past years, since I have yet to hear her in person. Perhaps her creativity, and surely her warm, articulate voice uncluttered by trickery, have contributed to my increasing enjoyment of her records.

Most of all, I enjoy Lorcz because she sings like Lorez.

I'm getting kind of sick Of the increasing flood of new albums by young girl vocalists — those plaster of Paris copies of the originals with all the warmth and expression of ice cubes.

In her uncomplicated way, Lorez moves from the slowest ballad to the brightest swinger with amazing facility. She seems to tailor the tones of her voice to fit the pace, mood, storyline, and especially the words of a song. It is here, in what I guess they call interpretation of a song, that I find my biggest kick in listening to Lorez, Take '"Travlin' Light." How many singers try to phrase it like Billie Holiday did? Now listen to Lorez sing it. Here, the opening and tag of the tune are as arrestingly refreshing as anything I've in a long, long time. For crying out softly, this is as plaintive a treatment as the Mundy classic can get. The mood of the other ballads in here cries just as tenderly. That fragile little lament "Spring" Lorez handles so gently, you get a feeling that she is scared, and it'll shatter if dropped. And in "Detour Ahead," she warns of it like you'd have to go clear back, through and around Upper Nowhere to get back on the main drag. The same clarity of voice and lyric interpretation prevails in Johnny Pate's "I Was A Fool" and Billy Eckstine's "I Want To Talk About You." Throughout these tracks, John Young's kind of crystalline piano seems as though it's every aim is to encrust Lorez's warm lovely voice with scatters of diamond chips. Israel Crosby's bass, Vernel Fournier's drums, and George Eskridge's guitar plumping up the velvet pillows to catch the gems. It's probably the way Lorez sings the words mood I'm in" in "Almost Like Being In Love" that prompted the above, but I don't care as she evokes odd little pictures like that when I hear these tracks. Luckily I don't write for a living, and radio is so evanescent, that you get away with random vagaries like that, now and then. There's a lot of fun ahead for you in the nice, easy, loose, up-tempo "Softly", "No At All", and "It Could Happen". There's a paucity of notes in her treatment of "Moon" and then she gets that playful, childlike gleam in her voice as she romps along with Howard McGhee in "It Coud Happen" - and it does. As for "Nature Boy", he's quite a changed personality since Nat covered him years ago.

Almost every time I've played one of Lorez's tracks over the past few years I've said that I hoped that someday she would get outr to the coast so we could hear her in person, never realizing when that someday would be. Well, it happened not long ago when Carmen McRae was at the Blackhawk in San Francisco. I'm a big Carmen McRae fan and she was a tremdous hit last year at the Monterey Jazz Festival. One recent night, Carmen introduced Loret from the stage, and after the set and the initial shock was over, I went up to Lorez and introduced myself. The following day she came over to KFRC for a twenty minute interview and those are the only times I've seen or talked to her.

About seven years ago I got her first album, listened, called the all-knowing Ralph Gleason at home, and launched into a small rave. All-knowingly, he said he knew how fine Lorez sang, that she was a REAL jazz singer, and she deserved more plays on the air than she was getting. I agreed. I still do. In our format of good sounds here on KFRC in San Francisco all of the guys dig Lorez, and so do our listeners. That's a nice combination.

Jimmy Lyons
KFRC
San Francisco

LP-693

Ramsey Lewis Trio - The Sound Of Spring

Released 1962

Recording and Session Information

Ramsey Lewis Trio
Ramsey Lewis, piano; Eldee Young, bass; Isaac (Red) Holt, drums
United Studios, Hollywood, February 14, 15 1962

11522 Sound of spring
11523 Spring can really hang you up the most
11524 Blue spring
11525 Spring is here
11526 Spring will be a little late this year
11527 Spring fever
11528 It might as well be spring
11529 Soft winds
11530 There'll be another spring
11531 Truly, truly spring

Track Listing

Sound Of Spring	Ramsey Lewis	February 14, 15 1962
Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most	Tommy Wolf	February 14, 15 1962
Blue Spring	Ramsey Lewis	February 14, 15 1962
Spring Is Here	Hart, Rodgers	February 14, 15 1962
Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year	Frank Loesser	February 14, 15 1962
Spring Fever	Ramsey Lewis	February 14, 15 1962
It Might As Well Be Spring	Hammerstein	February 14, 15 1962
Soft Winds	B. Goodman	February 14, 15 1962
There'll Be Another Spring	Lee, Wheeler	February 14, 15 1962
Truly, Truly Spring	Eldee Young	February 14, 15 1962

Liner Notes

Spring has never been at a loss for musical representation. Throughout the centuries it has been interpreted in a broad range of sounds. This diversity of concepts is reflected in the vernal viewpoint of Ramsey Lewis, ranging from the gentle rustle of strings on the first side to the diversified rhythms of the trio on the second.

Because this album may bring him a substantial accumulation of new followers, some of whom may be unfamiliar with the men's backgrounds, a few vital statistics may be worth repeating. Born in Chicago May 27, 1935, Ramsey studied privately from the agc of six, later attending Chicago Musical College and De Paul University. ("However," he says, "I credit most of my musical accomplishments to Miss D, Mendelsohn, my instructress.' Music has been the focus of his life from the start: with a mother who sang in the church choir a father who directed it, as well as two sisters who studied piano extensively; he never considered the possibility of any other career. He was an early aåmirer of Art Tatum and Bud Powell, but considers John Lewis and Oscar Peterson his main influences.

Eldee Young, also Chicago-born (January 7, 1936) has a similar background. His father played guitar and mandolin. Eldee studied guitar with his brother, Carl; played guitar and bass in high school, and studied at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. He began his professional career early, going on the road with rhythm-and-blues singer Chuck Willis in 1954.

Isaac (Red) Holt, born May 16, 1932 in Rosedale, Mississippi was raised in Chicago and was a childhood friend of Ramsey and Eldee, playing with them in a teenage band. Red studied at Crane Tech., later playing in an Army band in Germany, in 1955.

Riley Hampton, a virtual fourth wheel who makes the trio move on Side 1, is best known for his skillful backgrounds for Etta James, and was previously associated with Ramsey in the Sound of Christmas album. The instrumentation here includes seven violins, three violas, two cellos and the trio. It is to Hampton's credit that instead of bogging the trio down in a mollsses-like wasteland of sirupy sounds, he has used the instrumentation to provide coloristic contrasts and orchestral variety.

The opening title number offers a striking demonstration of this mood manipulation. The piano states the theme in orthodox fashion, with obbligato comments from the strings. In the second chorus Ramsey takes over ad lib, and suddenly it swings.

Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most is one of those rare tunes that managed to become a standard Without ever having been a hit. Tommy Wolfe wrote it in 1952, and for the first couple of years couldn't even get record on it. Ramsey and Riley use this exceptional melodic vehicle in an effective wedding of piano and strings.

Ramsey's own Blue Spring impressively meets the challenge of the paradox inherent in the juxtaposition of funky blues and dignified strings. The side concludes with two durable ballads, Richard Rogers' Spring Is Here from I An Angel, and Frank Loesser's wistful Spring Will Be A LIttle Late This Year, which dates back to 11944.

The string-sectionless side is inaugurated lustily by Ramsey's attractive Spring Fever, with gospel-funk overtones as Well as Latin touches, deftly accented by the remarkable work of Red and Eldee. It As Well BeSpring, another child of spring-expert Rodgers, is notable for the contribution throughout of Eldee, from the arco introduction through the intriguing lines during the chorus, with a repeated use of four eighth notes followed by a pause.

Soft Winds has been familiar to jazzmen ever the Benny Goodman Sextet, with Christian and Hampton, cut it in 1939. This, it seems to me, is the most unremittingly swinging track of the album, with expert work by Ramsey and unflagging support from his rhythm team.

Hubie Wheeler's lovely melody There'll Be Another Spring, for which Peggy Lee wrote lyrics (and which she introduced in an album co-starring with George Shearing) is given a gentle, graceful treatment. The final track, Truly Spring, reveals that Eldee is making rapid strides as a cellist, inspired no doubt by his bass and cello favorite, Ray Brown. Eldee's composition is charming, his solo work light and nimble as if he were playing guitar, and the whole treatment, complete with tambourine effects, has an element of humor. This is a welcome quality in these sometimes unduly pompous days.

Samuel Butler once remarked that youth, like spring, is an overpraised season, "more remarkable for biting east winds than genial breezes." This was just his nineteenth century way of pointing out that it can really hang you up the most. These sides, though, prove how wrong he was. The case for youth is well served by Lewis, Young and Holt; spring is no less handsomely attended by the swinging winds of this rhythm section and the supple (even genial) zephyrs of the strings. The result is an album that will offer easy listening throughout the four seasons.

Leonard Feather

LP-692

John Young Trio - Themes and Things

Released 1962

Recording and Session Information

John Young Trio>
John Young, piano; William Yancey, bass; Phillip Thomas, drums>

Ter Mar Studios, Chicago, June 6, 7 1961

10948 Fever>
10949 Playboy theme>
10950 Weaver of dreams>
10951 Mr. Lucky>
10952 Young blues>
10953 Slow blues (unissued)>
10954 Theme from "Peyton Place">
10964 Theme from Spartacus>
10965 One-eyed Jack>
10966 Take five>
10967 Portrait of my love>
10968 My romance>
10969 When Sunny gets blue>
10970 This could be the start of something big (unissued)>
>

Track Listing

Portrait Of My Love	Ornadel, West	June 6, 7 1961
When Sunny Gets Blue	Fisher, Segal	June 6, 7 1961
Take Five	Desmond	June 6, 7 1961
Peyton Place	Yuffy, Halyate, Bass	June 6, 7 1961
Fever	Glover	June 6, 7 1961
Mr. Lucky	Henry Mancini	June 6, 7 1961
Spartacus (Love Theme)	North	June 6, 7 1961
Weaver Of Dreams	Young, Elliott	June 6, 7 1961
My Romance	Rodgers, Hart	June 6, 7 1961
Playboy Theme	Cy Coleman	June 6, 7 1961
One Eyed Jacks (Love Theme)	Friedhofer	June 6, 7 1961
M J R Blues	Thompson, Wilson, Evans	June 6, 7 1961

Liner Notes

THEMES AND THINGS is the music John Young is most apt to be called upon to play at any given moment during his usually extended stays at one or another of Chicago•s smart intimate clubs. The themes included herein, I'm sure are quite familiar to you. Their interpretation, however, is more different than ordinary, for John Young is not an ordinary performer of music. He is, rather, an astute student of awareness, whose talent lies in his ability to garner from even the most uninteresting compositions the most important elements. This is the same talent that made greats of Billie Holiday, Fats Waller, Lester Young. etc, John Young has the talent to enhance ordinary or hackneyed themes, to seek out their inner beauty, and has the taste to embroider them properly so that new life may spring from their tired tones. This is not to say that all of the this album lies in this category, although undeniably some of it does! Most the lovely "love theme" from Spartacus stands on its own merit, as does Peyton Place and One Eyed Jack.

"Things" include several standard ballads, My Romance, Portrait Of My Love, When Sunny Gets Blae, and the unusual Weaver Of Dreams. The original blues, MJR, was co-composed by three fine Chicago musicians, all of whom appear regularly on Argo; Marshall Thompson, drums; Jack Wilson, piano; and Richard Evans, bass. And its theme is not too unlike the famous Bags Groove.

A few of the musical highlites for you to pay particular attention to include the Tatm-like intro and beautiful milking of the sweet melody of When Sunny Gets Blue: the parody onsumptuous movie grandioseness in the introduction of the Peyton Place selection, and the subsequent humorous approach, through interpolation, and the tender mood-setting approach John gives the theme.

Through all of the tunes in this, John's second Argo album, he and his superb trio (Phil Thomas and William Yancey) gives forth a steady swinging sparkle that bespeaks their professionalism and as a rhythm unit. As such. I am fortunate to have been able to call upon this trio many times to propel top artists such as Sonny Stitt, Howard McGhee, Gene Ammons, Bennie Green, Ira Sullivan, and many others through their creative paces. Playing as trio is one thing. Being a successful rhythm section is quite another. John Young's trio has both attributes in abundance.

To those of us in the Chicago area, where John practices most of his musical magic, his style is quite recognizable, and his exhuberant personality continuaIIy bubbles through his musical expressions. Having had his fill Of the road early in his career, with such as the Andy Kirk band, Eddie Chamblee combo, and others, John now prefers the comparative security of Chicago club work to the uncertainty of fame-seeking around the world. That he is the dean of Chicago's modern swing pianists is generally acknowledged. "Young' John Young, now forty, is not getting any younger, high time that nation-wide recognition be his, despite his reluctance to actively it. This album and the others that follow will undoubtedly help toward this end.

John Young is one of the major mainstays of that happy style of piano playing that is too quickly dying, I, for one, am very happy to have been able to continually hear John in person through the years. Your chance is through this album. Dig it!

Joe Segal