LP-701

The Ramsey Lewis Trio – Country Meets The Blues

Released 1962

Recording and Session Information

Ramsey Lewis, piano; Eldee Young, bass, cello; Redd Holt, drums; Lew Douglas (dir, strings), Oliver Nelson (dir, reeds)
Bell Sounds Studios, New York, August 2+3 1962

11808 Your cheatin' heart
11809 St. Louis blues
11810 Memphis in June
11811 Country meets the blues
11812 Blueberry Hill
11813 High noon
11814 I need you so
11815 I just want to make love to you
11816 Tangleweed 'round my heart
11817 Bucket's got a hole in it

Track Listing

Your Cheatin' Heart	H. Williams	August 2+3 1962
St. Louis Blues	W. C. Handy	August 2+3 1962
Blueberry Hill	Lewis, Stock, Rose	August 2+3 1962
Country Meets The Blues	R. Lewis	August 2+3 1962
Memphis In June	Carmichael	August 2+3 1962
High Noon	Tiomkine, Washington	August 2+3 1962
I Need You So	Hunter	August 2+3 1962
I Just Want To Make Love To You	W. Dixon	August 2+3 1962
Tangleweed 'Round My Heart	Wyatt, Kelley	August 2+3 1962
My Bucket's Got A Hole In It	C. Williams	August 2+3 1962

Liner Notes

JAZZ is a feeling rather than statement. An unmistakable feeling of self expression, of independence, of the individual speaking and living in harmony with his fellow men. This is a feeling which can be communicated.

Jazz appreciation is not limited to social or economic groups. Jazz is for everybody, for everyone who will listen.

The scope of jazz has widened as it has spontaneously developed contrapuntal melodies. Jazz has an important story to tell; as such innovators as 'John Lewis, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and John "Dizzy" Gillespie'' have all given to its telling — a structure, an intellectual appeal rivaling its emotional impact. Their contributions have made jazz a rich and fertile music, exciting, alive and stimulating, to the mind as well as to the heart. The contributions to jazz did not stop With the aforementioned, but you Will find it to be ever increasing.

Young men and women are improvising, drawing from many sources, blending and putting into jazz something that was not there before...but never losing the source, the blues.

The young man today most qualified of the above mention is...Ramsey E. Lewis Jr. who was born in Chicago just 26 years ago. Ramsey has a background most musicians envy.

His studies started at the tender age of six. He continued to equip himself at De Paul University where he also became a student of the classics and thus the leader of the Ramsey Lewis Trio was born.

This trio (and I might add, is the most popular in the country today) consists of bass and cello player extraordinary, Eldee Young, who is also from Chicago.

The brilliant drummer, from Rosedale, Mississippi, raised in Chicago, is Isaac "Red" Holt. Three of the most brilliant minds ever applied to jazz.

The Ramsey Lewis Trio find themselves in a setting not familiar to some but one which find the group right at home, with the blues — and a little country feeling added for flavor.

Here, Ramsey has the assistance of strings and voices, under the leadership of Lew Douglas, and a very unique brass section lead by none other than Oliver Nelson. The "treatments" you will find to be indescribably beautiful. String and voices may lead you to believe that the group doesn't swing...quite the contrary...Ramsey is in full charge all the way and SWINGS. The group swings extra hard on "My Bucket's Got A Hole In It", making for smooth dancing and very commercial. Another highlight of the set is the trio's confession of "I Just Want To Make Love To You." The trio is into a great groove with Eldee on Cello and out front all the way.

This is Ramsey Louis utilizing Country and Blues, as a truly soulful music to underline a variety of musical situations as only Ramsey Lewis can do it, BEAUTIFUL.

Al Clarke
House Of Jazz
Radio WJMO
Cleveland, Ohio

LP-700

Al Grey Featuring Billy Mitchell – Snap Your Fingers

Released 1962

Recording and Session Information

Donald Byrd, trumpet; Al Grey, trombone; Billy Mitchell, tenor saxophone; Bobby Hutcherson, vibes; Herbie Hancock, piano; Herman Wright, bass; Eddie Williams, drums
Birdland, New York, January 31 1962

11471 Hush
11472 Minor on top
11473 African lady
11474 Grey's blues
11475 Home fries
11476 On Green Dolphin Street
Hi fly

11724 Dirty low down blues
11725 Why was I born?
11726 Nice and easy
11727 Heavy soul

Dave Burns, trumpet; Al Grey, trombone; Billy Mitchell, tenor saxophone; Bobby Hutcherson, vibes; Floyd Morris, piano; Herman Wright, bass; Eddie Williams, drums
Ter Mar, Chicago, February 19 1962
11503 Three-fourth blues
11504 On Green Dolphin Street
11505 Nothin' but the truth
11506 R.B.Q.
11507 Just waiting

Track Listing

Nothing But The Truth	Bowen	February 19 1962
Three Fourth Blues	G. Kee	February 19 1962
Just Waiting	M. Liston	February 19 1962
R.B.Q.	Gene Kee	February 19 1962
Green Dolphin Street	Kaper, Washington	February 19 1962
Minor On Top	T. Jones	January 31 1962
African Lady	M. Liston	January 31 1962
Hi Fly	R. Weston	January 31 1962

Liner Notes

IN the jazz business, friendships and alliances are formed and broken off constantly. A few long hauls in the back of a band bus together; a night off in a small town a thousand miles from New York or home; a jam session after hours in the back room of the club — a friendship is born. Not just a casual acquaintanceship, but a warm comfortable relationship during which great respect is born, dreams are shared and secrets are bared. Often as quickly it has been spawned, this friendship flutters and flitters away. There is no great hassle over quiet disappearance for months of a "good buddy". For the length of its existence, the alliance was a healthy, stimulating one.

Occasionally, the ties which formed continuous and the musicians remain in touch, and at the earliest possible time, one makes a place for his buddy in the group in which he works. Such is the case with Al Grey and Billy Mitchell. The two men have been friends for well over a dozen years. They have worked together in bands led by noted jazz leaders, and once before they attempted to co-lead a unit of their own. The venture failed, as have so many fresh, unheralded groups and Grey and Mitchell went their separate ways only to meet again in the steaming, exciting Count Basie organization in the late fifties. In 1960 the tenor saxophonist and the trombonist got that leadership urge and the Al Grey-Billy Mitchell Sextet was formed.

For weeks, the unit rehearsed, never taking gigs in any of the jazz areas. Rumors flew about New York, Chicago and as far away as Los Angeles. Everybody was talking about the group, but very few people had heard it. Finally Grey and Mitchell felt they were "ready" and the Sextet burst on the jazz scene with the most explosive, dynamic music to seep into jazz since the advent of the "cool school."

This is their second group album and it fulfills the promise and contains all of the vitality of the first. Here the co-leaders are direct and colorful and they are wise enough to share the spotlight with the exceptionally fine sidemen on the date. The tunes have been chosen with discretion, blending comfortably the familiar jazz standard with the latest time and voicing innovations.

Each of the charts has a particular qualifying merit of its own, however, several held special charm for me.

No!hing But The Truth is self-explanatory. It is a cooking blues tune built on simple, familiar blues chords taken at a smoldering pace.

R. B. Q. is a swinging uptune taken at a saucy tempo. It features some elusive Grey skittering through the changes.

Minor On Top is especially appealing to me because Of the depth and color it explores. It is a dark tune — not like a pit; rather like a summer night — warm and enveloping. Billy Mitchell has an exciting vertical solo which should stand him in good stead with the young tenor moderns.

African Lady is a quiet and stately tune for the most part. There are some interesting alterations of the tempo throughout the tune, coloring is also unusual. Al Grey solo here also reveals that the court jester of the trombone is not always growling and joking. He has his sensitive moments. Indeed, the African is a complex, intriguing lady.

Jazz is fortunate that this allßnce has flourished throughou€ the years. Its fruits are ripening and showering down in abundance. For those of you who live in the major jazz markets, I bid you hie to the nearest establishment which features the Al Grey-Billy Mitchell Sextet. For the rest of you, this recording will serve as an appetizer. Feast on its essence and enjoy yourselves.

Sid McCoy

LP-699

Eldee Young – Just For Kicks

Released 1962

Recording and Session Information

Leo Wright, alto saxophone, flute; Mal Waldron, piano; Eldee Young, bass, cello; Richard Evans, bass; Redd Holt, drums
Ter Mar, Chicago, December 28 1961

11389 Thing-a-ma-jig
11390 Untitled
11391 Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
11392 Mr. Kicks
11393 When Johnny comes marching home
11402 Blues
11403 Goodbye
11404 Crazy she calls me
11405 John Henry
11406 Cry me a river Truly
Big brother
Just for kicks

Track Listing

When Johnny Comes Marching Home	L. Lambert	December 28 1961
Goodbye	Gordon Jenkins	December 28 1961
Crazy She Calls Me	Sigman-Russell	December 28 1961
Big Brother	E. Young	December 28 1961
Cry Me A River	A. Hamilton	December 28 1961
Truly	E. Young	December 28 1961
Mr Kicks	Oscar Brown Jr.	December 28 1961
Motherless Child		December 28 1961
Just For Kicks	E. Young	December 28 1961
John Henry		December 28 1961

Liner Notes

YOUNG CARL YOUNG "blew" guitar and sang and dug jazz the most. In his middle twenties his driving dream was to make it as a musician. Naturally, he turned his Little Brother on to music. The kid was still skinning his shins in a West Side Chicago schoolyard, but he was eager to learn.

"Wash your hands and I'll let you play". Carl would say. To Big Brother, the instrument was too beautiful for dirty hands to hold. Then when the kid retutned all scrubbed and ready, the lessons would begin.

"Don't just grab the instrument any old way. Hold it just so. Now try this change. No, listen to how Lonnie Johnson does it. See? try that run again, and swing, dammit, swing!

The directions pointed by Big Brother Carl have guided Little Brother, Eldee Young all his life. He has the same deep love of music and respect for his instruments. His sounds, like his hands, are clean and correct. And above all, he swings. This album, "Just For Kicks" is a moving demonstration of how far Eldee has come and of how much farther he can go.

His recipe is simple. Take a handful of prime musicians, seasoned well. Mix with bold, but sensitive musical concepts. Pour in plenty of purpose and salt it with a sack of soul, and cook. The result is well done.

"I've wanted to make this album for a long time", Eldee explains. "I wanted to show what my instruments can do. The bass has always been part of jazz, but it's seldom used as a boss instrument. Its melodic possibilities are seldom explored and the cello is hardly used at all."

Side one is Eldee's boss bass swinging in boldly as "Johnny Comes Marching Home". "Goodbye" could be a love scene with the bass cast as boy, and Leo Wright's bittersweet alto sax as girl. Eldee grows pensive and more melodic for "Crazy She Calls Me", while "Big Brother" is full of happy memories of Carl. "Cry Me A River" features Wright's alto and reads like a dear John letter.

Side two takes us to the land of the cello, starting with some blues: "Truly", some blues. As the hip slickster, "Mr. Kicks", Eldee introduces himself both on cello and with his spoken vocal. Then comes the weep and wail of the lonely "Motherless Child". The company was perfect to swing "Just For Kicks", the title tune, and to stand tall like mighty "John Henry."

This was what Eldee wanted. A triumph? Yes — but he'd be first to tell you of the rich contributions made by Leo Wright's sensitive sax and flawless of how strong Mal Waldron is on piano and Richard Evans on bass, and of the melodic thunder drummed up by Red Holt who with Eldee and Ramsey Lewis forms one of the most formidable trios in jazz.

And there was one more musician in the group, unseen save by Eldee himself. Big Brother Carl who gave guitar in his thirties; who died at age 41 just four anonths before this album was cut, but whose spirit was in every note.

Yes, the musical Young Brothers made it — both of them.

Oscar Brown. Jr.