LP-705

The Ramsey Lewis Trio - Bossa Nova

Released 1962

Recording and Session Information

Ramsey Lewis, piano; Jose Paulo ,guitar, pandeiro; Eldee Young, bass; Redd Holt, drums; Carmen Costa, cabaca,vocals
Yamaha Studio, San Francisco, California, September 22 and 25 1962

11903 O pato
11904 Manha de carnaval
11905 As criancinhas
11906 A noite de meu bem
11907 Roda moinho
11908 Canacao para Geralda
11909 Samba de Orfeu
11910 A felicidade
11911 Care de Palhaco
Generique

Track Listing

Samba De Orpheus	Jobin, Bonfa	September 22 + 25 1962
Maha De Carnaval (The Morning Of The Carnaval)	Jobin, Bonfa	September 22 + 25 1962
A Criancinhas (The Children)	Eldee Young	September 22 + 25 1962
A Noite Do Meu Bem (The Night Of My Love)	D. Duran	September 22 + 25 1962
O Pato (The Duck)	J. Silva	September 22 + 25 1962
Generique (Happiness)	Ramsey Lewis	September 22 + 25 1962
Roda Moinho (Whirlpool)	V. Guaraldi	September 22 + 25 1962
Cara De Palhaco (The Face Of The Clown)		September 22 + 25 1962
Canacao Para Geralda (A Song For Geraldine)	R. Lewis	September 22 + 25 1962

Liner Notes

ONCE IN A LONG, long while there comes along a musician who seems to have the knack of keeping his ear and his music in tune with the broad taste of thc public. He struggles along unheeded by the teeming throng, he may become recognized as a great neglectcd artist. If he is quickly and painlessly accepted and is financially successful, more than likely he will be classified as quote "commercial" unquote. For some logic-defying reason, money and acceptance in jazz can become the kiss of death.

The Ramsey Lewis Trio has been, since its inception, a "winner." The group suffered through no "dues paying" period per se. The three healthy, normal, well adjusted family men got together in Chicago, rehearsed, worked local clubs, recorded and became a popular attraction without ever leaving home. More than five years later the original musicians still with the trio as normal, well adjused family men - (same families). Commercially, the trio is the one shining exception to Chicago's traditional indefference to homegrown talent. Lewis & Company is an ovcrwhelming favorite in the Windy City. This album is a good indication of why.

For the past eighteen months, jazz has been floundering in the dregs of the waning "soul" movement. Writers, listeners, and music fringe craftsmen have been groping feebly for new, fresh ways of saying "It's the same old groove: badly mutilated and overdone." Meanwhile the serious jazz musician has been experimenting with a new idea. The perfected product is now bombarding the airwaves under the grandiose title of Bossi Nova.

In the past, American jazzmen have drawn on the latin culture for rhythmic variation; flavor and excitement in music. In the main, however, the latin harmonic limitations were not conducive to jazz improvisation. Melodies were undistinguished and almost horizontal in structure. There few challenging chord progressions or variations. The emphasis was strictly on rhythmic development.

In the late fifties, a new musical concept was becoming prominent in certain areas of Latin America. Primarily based in Brazil, a style was emerging which still employed the latin rhythms; but displayed more extensive harmonic breadth. Gradually, the melody began to stand out with an identity of its own. With this change, the latin music of Brazil began to lend itself more readily to jazz adaptation. There were fundamental compromises to be made before jazz and the Brazilian music were to fuse into a new "school."

The latin music was still basically a percussion orientated one; while in jazz, the piano is the only prominent percussion instrument and it is employed in a melodic or harmonic capacity as well as a rhythmic one. Often jazz musicians, accustomed to playing primarily in flat keys found themselves faced with the dilemma of either transposing this music and possibly losing some of its subtle connotation or playing it in the unfamiliar, sharp keys. There were infinite variations in instrumentation to be adjuested to.

It was Ramsey's task to make these adjustments within matter of days. Having become acquainted with the music as a listener and admirer, he set about learning the technical fundamentals of the form. He was fortunate in having Josef Paulo and Carmen Costa to woodshed with the trio. These artists are two of the most sought after performers in the Bossa Nova rage. So thoroughly did the trio become entrenched in their music, that both Lewis and Eldee actually contributed original tune to this date.

By this time, "Bossa Nova" is the big thing in jazz and everyone should have become familiar with the term. For those who may not have heard yet, "nova" means new and there is no literal English translation for "bossa." Very, very loosely, it represents the equivalent of our slang "bag" or "thing." Ironically, there is a similar Russian pronunciation which means "barefoot"; that should result in an International definition "new barefoot" music. Somehow, the term seems appropriate for the Ramsey Lewis Trio whose music has always been synonymous with that which is and "of the people."

Again this unit has responded to the music of the hour. Today, the listening public is halfway between the emotional outpourings of the "soul" school and the exciting rhythmic beckoning of Bossa Nova. This album is a happy balance embodyipg both.

Barbara J. Gardner

LP-704

Thornel Schwartz With Bill Leslie – Soul Cookin'

Released 1962

Recording and Session Information

Bill Leslie, tenor saxophone; Lawrence Olds, organ; Thornel Schwartz, guitar; Jerome Thomas, drums; Donald Bailey, drums
Van Gelder Studio, New York, September 4 1962

U11866 Soul cookin'
U11867 Brazil
U11868 You won't let me go
U11869 Theme from "Mutiny on the Bounty"
U11870 Blue and dues
U11871 I'm getting sentimental over you
U11872 Don't you know I care ?

Track Listing

Soul Cookin'	E. Edwards	September 4 1962
Brazil	S.K. Russell, A. Barroso	September 4 1962
You Won't Let Me Go	B. Allen, B. Johnson	September 4 1962
Theme From Mutiny On The Bounty	B. Kaper	September 4 1962
Blues And Dues	T. Schwartz	September 4 1962
I'm Getting Sentimental Over You	Bassman, Washington	September 4 1962
Don't You Know I Care	Ellington, David)	September 4 1962

Liner Notes

GUITARIST Thornel Schwartz, though still a relatively young man, already seems ready to add a few new touches to anybody's ideas about how the jazz guitar should be played. He is the fresh new blood that always seems to happen along when the imitators have beat up on some innovator's good idea for so long that it starts to wilt under the punishment. But Thornel is no sudden overnight whiz (of which jazz has certainly had more than its share) who blossoms under the constant care of press agents and opportunistic disc jockeys, but who disappears just as quickly after the serious listeners have had a chance to sit with his records or in listening clubs and discover how weak he really is. Thornel has had to pay his dues and as a matter of fact, is still paying them. And he is coming into his reputation as one of the best young guitar men around now, only because he can play. He works very hard at it too, e.g., when I called him about this album and asked when he had picked up the guitar, he said, "I'm still trying to pick it up...I was practicing when you called me."

Thornel actually picked up the guitar some 13 years ago, when he was just about 19. after having been "got to" by some Charlie Christian records. Ironically, and as it turns out for us, happily, he really started getting serious about the instrument after he'd broken his leg playing ball. He really got into it while recuperating. "I bought the guitar at a pawnshop with my last six dollars and the accident really gave me a chance to settle down and practice."

Thornel worked with a lot of groups around Philly, playing at the various cabarets, dances and small night spots that are so integral a pact of the young jazzman's experience. One of the groups he played with, Chris Powell's band, even though it played mostly Rhythm & Blues oriented sounds, still had Clifford Brown on trumpet, Jimmy Heath on saxophone, and Jymie Merritt playing bass. (And that sounds like a swinging group no matter what they were supposed to be playing.) Thornel also worked with organist, Jimmy Smith around Philadelphia and on the road for almost three years. Smith has certainly been one of the most important reasons why the organ has re-emerged so strongly in jazz. And Thornel's long stint with Jimmy Smith was one big reason why he's always in demand to play behind the new funky breed of jazz organists that have sprung up recently. Thornel says about his work with Smith, "That group seemed to start the organ-guitar combination. It got very popular around the time I was with Jimmy, and a few guitarists even picked up on the way I was comping behind Jimmy, and almost everybody was picking up on Jimmy."

After working with Jimmy Smith, Thornel's different gigs with organists really began. In fact, any list of organists with whom Thornel Schwartz has worked reads like some kind of Who's Who in jazz organ playing. After Jimmy Smith Thornel worked with Johnny "Hammond" Smith, another pace setter on that instrument. Then he worked with two younger organists who have rising reputations for their fresh innovations on the instrument; Richard Holmes, who has been coming swiftly into his own out on the west coast. and one of the swingingest young organ players in the business, Larry Young, Jr.

When Thornel finally got his own group together, Larry Young, Jr. was certainly in it, and Thornel has been on most of Larry's recording dates. On this date, however, while he wasn't able to get Young because of contract commitments, Thornel did come up with a very fine replacement, organist Lawrence Olds. Old's ideas are remarkably like Young's and he does an amazing job of filling in.

Another musician who has played with Thornel on many occasions is young tenor man, Bill Leslie. Leslie is a musician who knows where he wants to go and is already causing a stir where he is now. Bill has a bluntly contemporary approach to his horn, and he always plays with no holds barred. He is quick to praise all the significant new voices on his instrument like Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, as well as the dynamite influence of this jazz epoch, Ornette Coleman. But even though Leslie is definitely in favor of the most contemporary approach to his music, he has still profited by playing with some of the old guard rhythm groups around Philadelphia and on the road. Bill Carney and Louis Jordan are two of the heavy-duty rhythm bands Leslie has made his way through, and their enriching influence is still solidly evident in his playing. So not only is Bill Leslie as quick and facile as any young tenor around these days, but he also has that solid blues background which seems indispensable for any good jazzman. In recognition of Bill Leslie's fast consolidating talents, Argo has just finished getting his first record date as a leader into the can. On that album he uses Thornel as well as Arthur Taylor and Tommy Flannagan, so it should really be something to hear.

The two drummers on this date are both fanliliar with Thornel's music. as well as the idea Of the guitar-organ-horn sound. Jerry Thomas is Thornel's regular drummer, working with him when these notes were written, at Philadelphia's Oasis Club. Donald Bailey is Jimmy Smith's regular drummer, and it is easy to see why behind his driving work on the title tune, Soul Cookin'.

As far as the music on the album is concerned, the title just about indicates what's going on. Everyone in this group plays with a deep and constant commitment to the blues. And it is a stirring blues pulse that dominates all the music on the album, the tune is a popular ballad like Don't You Know I Care, or a funky original like Soul Cookin'. Cookin' should really set the jukeboxes on fire. It has that "low down' flavor that's so much in evidence these days. And while organist Olds and drummer Bailey setting down a heavy, heavy rhythm line, Bill Leslie and Thornel Schwartz are free to stretch their blues legs. When Leslie solos, listen also to Thornel's persistent guitar broadening the entire bass line. Thornel really understands what a rhythm guitar function is, even though he is a brilliant soloist.

You Won't Let Me Go is put to a double purpose. Not only is it allowed to keep great deal of its original misty ballad quality, but it soon becomes evident that tune will be used as a vehicle for more home cookin'. Organist Olds also moves and steams on this tune, first keeping up a steady rolling line behind Thornel, and then stretching out on his own, letting Thornel comp behind him. It's a brilliant muscial relationship these two men have, and they almost always make the most of it.

But all the musicians take care of business admirably throughout the entire date. Mutiny On The Bounty, another juke box natural, has much more than that to commend it. Bill Leslie's sornetirne quietly intimate and then movingly raucous solo makes this tune more than just another movie theme put to jazz. Thornel's very pretty blues thinking gives the long blues Blues Aud Dues a kind of funky nostalgia that should certainly stir any sensitive listener with the delicacy and moodiness of its voicing.

It's true that Thornel Schwartz, Bill Leslie and the others on this album might be new voices, but they are voices that have to be heard. Their playing here is certainly into more than mere promise. These mu»icians, as young as they are, are already off and running, and in their own directions.

LeRoi Jones

LP-703

Ahmad Jamal – At The Blackhawk

Released 1962

Recording and Session Information

Ahmad Jamal, piano; Israel Crosby, bass; Vernel Fournier, drums
Blackhawk, San Francisco, January 31, February 1 1962

11737 The second time around
11738 (Medley :)
Alone together
Love walked in
11739 Smoke gets in your eyes
11740 We live in two different worlds
11741 The best thing for you
11742 (Medley :)
I'll take romance
My funny Valentine
11743 I'm old fashioned
11744 Like someone in love
11745 Angel eyes
11746 Darn that dream
11747 Falling in love with love
11748 On Green Dolphin Street
11749 April in Paris
11750 We kiss in a shadow
11833 Night mist blues
Like someone in love (alt #1)
Like someone in love (alt #2)
The second time around (alt #1)
The second time around (alt #2)

Track Listing

I'll Take Romance	Oakland-Hammerstein	Jan 31, Feb 1 1962
My Funny Valentine	Rodgers-Hart	Jan 31, Feb 1 1962
Like Someone In Love	Van Heusen-Burke	Jan 31, Feb 1 1962
Falling In Love With You	Rodgers-Hart	Jan 31, Feb 1 1962
The Best Thing For You	Irving Berlin	Jan 31, Feb 1 1962
April In Paris	Harburg-Duke	Jan 31, Feb 1 1962
The Second Time Around	Van Heusen-Kahn	Jan 31, Feb 1 1962
We Live In Two Different Worlds	Fred Rose	Jan 31, Feb 1 1962
Night Mist Blues	Ahmad Jamal	Jan 31, Feb 1 1962

Liner Notes

IN THE HISTORY of jazz there has been only a handful of rhythm sections that have approached perfection. Basie had such a group in the late Thirties and Forties, and Ahmad Jamal had onc from 1954 to 1961, when these marvelous sides were at the Blackhawk in San Francisco.

The death, in August 1962 of the bassist Crosby, marked the irrevocable finale to the particular trio that has given me more pleasure than any other in the past decade. At the age of sixteen Crosby made his first discs in Chicago with Gene Krupa, Benny Goodman and an all-star small combo, and from that time on there never was another bassist to equal him. His intonation was impeccable, his technique prodigious he never bothered to display it, and — most important of all — he was the complete ensemble musician. His prowess gave Jamal a freedom to experiment in a way no other pianist has dared to do.

The Ahmad Jamal Trio far transcends the jazz world, and the fact that it has been consistently the most popular trio on records has caused the self-styled jazz critics to polish off such epithets as "commercial" and "cocktail music". Pay the writers no mind, and listen to some of the most sensitive, delicate and subtle music in jazz history.

There is one track on the second side of this disc that will go down in history as one of the greatest of all blues performances: "Night Mist Blues". For me this is the crowning achievement of Ahmad's recording career, and one can only hope that it can become a two-sided single hit. Ahmad plays with a gusto he usually hides. Crosby is miraculous and Fournier on drums, nothing short of perfection.

In the days when this writer was a critic himself, nothing used to infuriate him more than superlatives on liner notes. He steers away from them on the occasional copy he writes for Columbia albums; but when confronted by a record like this plus the memory of Israel Crosby he has had to succumb to his enthusiasm.

Since Crosby's death Ahmad has been searching for the right successor, and finally in Richard Evans he has found one. If Vernell Fournier can be persuaded to return the magic of the Jamal Trio can continue. This, alas, is the final disc of that unparalleled threesome: Jamal, Fournier and Crosby.

John Hammond