LP-739

Baby Face Willette - Mo-Roc

Released 1964

Recording and Session Information

Baby Face Willette, organ; Ben White, guitar; Eugene Bass, drums
Ter Mar, Chicago, 27 March + 2 April 1964

13142 Dad's theme
13143 Misty
13144 Bantu penda
13145 But not for me
13146 Sight in darkness
13147 Mo-roc
13148 Unseen and unknown
13149 Zip five

Track Listing

Mo-Roc	Roosevelt Willette	27 March + 2 April 1964
Bantu Penda	Roosevelt Willette	27 March + 2 April 1964
Dad's Theme	Roosevelt Willette	27 March + 2 April 1964
But Not For Me	George & Ira Gershwin	27 March + 2 April 1964
Misty	Erroll Garner & Johnny Burke	27 March + 2 April 1964
Unseen And Unknown	Roosevelt Willette	27 March + 2 April 1964
Zip Five	Roosevelt Willette	27 March + 2 April 1964
Sight In Darkness	Roosevelt Willette	27 March + 2 April 1964

Liner Notes

THE MUSIC on this album offers strong cvidcnce of the versatility-and-greatness of Roosevelt "Baby Face" Willette. This versatility and greatness is divided into two levels, first as an instrumentalist, second as a composer.

As an instrumentalist, "Baby Face" exploits a highly rhythmic and "funky" organ sound, a sound that today is extremely popular with the record buying public, including both lovers of Rhythm and Blues and Jazz.

As a composer, all of the original tunes in the album were composed by Willette. The others, "Misty", the Errol Garner classic, and "But Not For Me" are by now jazz standards.

Roosevelt "Baby Face" Willette was born on September 11, 1933 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Like many of today's top jazz organists, He got his start playing in church. He is no newcomer to the jazz organ scene. Among earlier dues he has paid were stints with the great Joe "The Honeydripper" Liggins and "Big" Jay McNeely.

After years of traveling on the road, experiencing the pros and cons of a musician's life socially, economically and musically, Willette decided to make it on his own, and formed a trio. The group as represented on this record was formed in the fall of 1963.

The organ of Roosevelt "Baby Face" Willette is unique. It jolts with the unexpected and the new. It has something to say and uses every resource to interpret its message. Willette's organ is ingenious — gifted with musical expression — listen now to ROOSEVELT "BABY FACE" WILLETTE...

The set opens with MO-ROC, a tune which is named in short for Chicago's Moroccan Village where "Baby Face" is currently employed. Willette's driving solo sets the mood for Ben White's "cooking" guitar on this track.

In Swahili, which is an African language, BANTU PENDA means "Black Love". This track features mellowness involving contrasting elements of these two instruments, the organ and guitar.

DAD'S THEME, "Baby Face" asserts, "is a tune that was dedicated to my father who died recently". Again the soulful organ of Willette is establishing new pitches, more funk and harmony. The marching togetherness on this is beautiful.

The much recorded "BUT NOT FOR ME" has good melodic lines. Willette plays through the tune in a provocative manner, then tosses the feature spot to Ben.

An African female witch doctor was in mind when Willette recorded UNSEEN AND UNKNOWN. Notice the blending of harmonics on this one. The screaming, which connotates the voicings of the witch doctor, also enhances this set.

ZIP FIVE, another Willette original, begins with a swinging, grooving, rollicking beat. Freedom of expression is dominant here. Throughout the whole 'grooving" affair, the listener will not only get a chance to hear the tremendous virtuosity of the Willette organ, but to "dig" Ben White and Eugene Bass in a secondary but forceful role "wailing" and "pushing" the set to a successful conclusion.

Rounding out this tastily prepared album, the trio indeed reaches the essence of musical compatibility on SIGHT IN DARKNESS. Here Willette's organ and White's guitar concur ideas. On this, as well as throughout the album the skinmanship of Eugene Bass is very much appreciated.

Looking over the whole session, all of the charts on this album, which is "Baby Face" Willette's first album for Argo, you will find one of the most spirited and original organists in the "World of Jazz" today — Roosevelt "Baby Face" Willette.

Tom Reed
"THIS IS JAZZ"
KPRS FM
Kansas City, Missouri

LP-738

The Art Farmer Quartet - Perception

Released 1964

Recording and Session Information

Art Farmer, trumpet, fluegelhorn; Harold Mabern, piano; Tommy Williams, bass; Roy McCurdy, drums
Nola Studios, New York City, 25-27 October 1961

11424 Tonk
11425 Change partners
11426 Nobody's heart
11427 Ponsu
11428 The day after
11429 Lullaby of the leaves
11430 Kayin'

Track Listing

Punsu	Art Farmer	25-27 October 1961
The Day After	Tom McIntosh	25-27 October 1961
Lullaby Of The Leaves	B. Petkere & Jos. Young	25-27 October 1961
Kayin´	Art Farmer	25-27 October 1961
Tonk	Ray Bryant	25-27 October 1961
Blue Room	L. Hart & R. Rodgers	25-27 October 1961
Change Partners	Larry Coleman & Jos. Darion	25-27 October 1961
Nobody´s Heart	L. Hart & R. Rodgers	25-27 October 1961

Liner Notes

"I think of Art as 'Mr. Melody'. He has an uncanny gift for melody, and for the ways of weaving it in and out of harmonic progressions effectively, as though he were creating another composition himself. Art has a big, round, warm sound all his own, which makes his ballads seem to sing. Art doesn't compose very many tunes, but when he does, they are so meaningful...he has a vast knowledge of scales and modes, which is evidenced in his playing. I predict that before long, Art will be one of the biggest jazz trumpeters we have ever known."

Those comments were made back in 1960 by Benny Golson, shortly after he had become Art Farmer's partner in the direction of the Jazztet. Except that the word fluegelhorn may now be substituted for trumpet, all of Golson's remarks apply to the Farmer of 1964. Another important change can be made in the original text: that last sentence can safely be switched from the future to the present tense.

For the benefit of those who may have jumped on the Farmer bandwagon a few years late, a brief summation of his background may be in order. Born Arthur Stewart Farmer in Council Bluffs, Iowa, August 21, 1928, he was raised in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1945 he and his twin brother, the late Addison Farmer, moved to Los Angeles. With the exception of a 1947-8 hiatus in New York, Art remained a West Coaster for most of the next seven years, working with the bands of Horace Henderson, Floyd Ray, Johnny Otis, Benny Carter and the combo of Wardell Gray. In 1952-3 he spent a year in the memorable Lionel Hampton band that included Clifford Brown and Quincy Jones in its trumpet section; some records made in Sweden with a small group during that time were among the first to bring him national attention among jazz audiences.

Settling in New York in 1953, Art formed a group with Gigi Gryce, an alumnus of the same Hampton band. After a year or two off and on with Gryce, he joined Horace Silver's early quintet in 1956. Two years later he began an intermittent association with Gerry Mulligan that lasted several years and included a couple of motion picture assignments (I Want To Live), (The Subterraneans). After three years as co-leader of the Jazztet, Art struck out on his own again in late 1962; most recently he has been heard leading a quartet that features guitarist Jim. Hall.

During the Jazztet years, Farmer doubled between trumpet and fluegelhorn. Lately, however, he has completely abandoned the trumpet for public appearances, relegating it to practice sessions at home.

"The fluegelhorn gets the sound I want more consistently than the trumpet," he told Gene Lees in a Down Beat interview. "I like to hear the low notes. I talk in a low voice, and I like to play like that...if you want to shout and scream, then fluegelhorn is not the instrument."

If shouting and screaming is your musical meat, then this is not your album.

Art's personality is reflected in his approach to music just as surely as his softly modulated speaking voice is reflected in the sound of his horn. This is an unpretentious, mainly introspective session Of the kind that has led too often to comparisons between Art and Miles Davis. Analogies of this kind are a common ailment among jazz critics, who tend to throw names around as if to imply that every soloist has to have a stylistic genealogical tree. Farmer's is a typical case of a style that has undergone such labored analysis, while in fact the only need is for an examination of his work in its own terms. What you hear when you listen to these sides is not a Davis-influenced luminosity or a Hackett-inspired lyricism, but rather a Farmer-fashioned individuality.

Art's rhythm section is composed of men with impressive credits in the contemporary scene. Harold Mabern, whom I heard a while back as a member of Miles Davis' group, was also featured in the Jazztet during its later days and has been heard on records with Jimmy Forrest and others. As Harvey Pekar once observed. "He is a relatively unsung pianist who extracts a full, warm sonority from the instrument; he uses long, complex phrases on the up-tempo tunes, yet his work retains an aura of calm."

Roy McCurdy, a drummer so dependably effective that he has been referred to as Sturdy McCurdy, was also a member of the Jazztet and has been heard with Sonny Rollins and other combos around New York. Tommy Williams is best known for his work during the past couple of years with Stan Getz.

Punsu establishes the attractive mood of the set immediately. A simple but charming theme. it provides a framework for a long, beautifully flowing Farmer solo as vell as for a Mabem excursion that demonstrates the above-cited ability to avoid violence. Tommy Williams' chorus, too, is unspectacularly effective.

The Day After is an exquisite illustration of Art's ability to distill into a brief performance all the essence of his melodic creativity. Listening to this track, a non-musician friend of mine commented: "It seems as though he can even make a major chord sound minor."

Lullaby of the Leaver is an unorthodox treatment of the 1932 pop standard. After an opening chorus on which, except for the release, Art is accompanied only by Williams' walking bass, he yields the spotlight immediately to Tommy for a solo chorus. An unexpected and valuable-added touch is the casual commentary by Art during the second half of the bass and piano choruses, almost as if his horn were performing the comping role of a rhythm section member.

Kayin' was named for Art's manager, Miss Kay Norton. A brightish-tempoed theme on the regular 32-bar pattern, it recalls his confident comment about the mood generated with his horn: enjoy the feeling I get when I'm putting air through the fluegelhorn; the sound is natural and good, so I can stop worrying about how I sound and just worry about what I want to play and how to play it."

Tonk, not to be confused with the old Ellington-Strayhorn piano duet specialty of the same name, is based on an A-A-A-B structure in 16-bar stanzas plus an eight-bar release that is actually a variation of A. McCurdy's brush fills and general support are a bouyantly helpful element.

Blue Room, a Rodgers & Hart standard that goes all the way back to 1926, is introduced in a characteristically speculative Farmer mood, with occasional comments from Tommy Williams. In strong contrast is Change Partners, the most extrovert track of the session. McCurdy's support is a dynamic plus factor in this renovation of the 1938 Irving Berlin song.

The closing track, Nobody's Heart, offers a succinct compendium of virtues: a standard tune ideally suited to Art's idiom, a rerninder of his essentially melodic nature, a delightful interlude of quiet chording by Mabern, and, most impressive of all, the unaccompanied Farmer passages that open and close this low-key performance.

So many angry voices are being heard in jazz at present that the equanimity of an Art Farmer may seem anachronistic to the uninitiated. The truth. of course, is that the new and harsher sounds no more cancel out such values as Farmer's than James Joyce invalidates Dickens, or Baldwin Langston Hughes. As long as there is room for beauty and lyricism in jazz, such voices as Farmer's will newer be silenced.

LEONARD FEATHER

LP-737

Oliver Nelson - Fantabulous

Released 1964

Recording and Session Information

Art Hoyle, Eugene (Snooky) Young, trumpet; Ray Wiegand, trombone; Tony Studd, bass trombone; Phil Woods, clarinet, alto saxophone; Bob Ashton, clarinet, tenor saxophone; Kenny Soderblom, flute, tenor saxophone; Oliver Nelson, tenor saxophone, arranger, conductor; Jerome Richardson (baritone saxophone,flute, alto-flute; Patti Bown, piano; Ben Tucker, bass Grady Tate, drums
Universal Recording Studio, Chicago, March 19 1964

13071 Teenie's blues
13072 Daylie's double
13073 Three plus one
13074 A bientot
13075 Hobo flats
13076 Take me with you
13077 Post no bills
13078 Laz-ie Kate

Track Listing

Hobo Flats	Oliver Nelson	March 19 1964
Post No Bills	Oliver Nelson	March 19 1964
A Bientot	Billy Taylor	March 19 1964
Three Plus One	Oliver Nelson	March 19 1964
Take Me With You	Willie Jean Tate & Oliver Nelson	March 19 1964
Daylie's Double	Audrey Nelson	March 19 1964
Teenie's Blues	Oliver Nelson	March 19 1964
Laz-ie Kate	Oliver Nelson	March 19 1964

Liner Notes

OLIVER NELSON hit the jazz world like a tornado about four years ago and he's been gaining momentum ever since. Although relatively unknown when he moved to New York City from his native St. Louis, Oliver shortly established himself as one of the most sought-after reedmen in town and was constantly in demand for recording sessions, concert orchestras, stage bands and jazz club dates. On these jobs he would play alto, tenor, baritone saxophone or clarinet as the occasion required; but on one job I recall, he played third trumpet in Reuben Phillips' band at the Apollo Theatre!

For all his facility with various instruments, Oliver best likes to express himself on the tenor sax and does most of his solo work on that instrument. His style is an interesting blending of the Coltrane-modern school and the straight-ahead, it's-got-to-swing philosophy.

As this album demonstrates, Oliver plays a "lotta" tenor sax. However, most of his current reputation as a musician is based not on his performance as an instrumentalist, but on his abilities as a composer and arranger. After his first few arranging assignments the word spread that a fresh and important talent was on the scene and Oliver was soon swamped with assignments. He wrote for Brook Benton, Benny Goodman, Ray Charles, Jimmy Smith, Art Farmer, Maynard Ferguson and as the expression many more."

The Nelson tunes and arrangements are highly regarded by musicians because they are always challenging and interesting. His harmonies are fresh and often surprising and he makes effective use of shifting rhythmic patterns and the interplay of orchestral sections.

But other arrangers are capable of intriguing their fellow musicians. Oliver's work is valuable because it has also succeeded in pleasing the general public — the untrained listeners who want to be entertained and not educated—and I think Oliver achieves this by always having his arrangements swing in a forthright way. The swing isn't implied, it's there!

This album was recorded in Chicago with the band that Oliver Nelson brought from New York for a concert presented by jazz DJ, Daddy-O Daylie, (Two exceptions are the Chicagoans, Arthur Hoyle and Kenny Soderblom.)

As is normally the case with Nelson's music, the challenges presented made the musicians function at top effciency and there was a festive, enthusiastic atmosphere in the studio.

In addition to Oliver's excellent tenor work, this LP has several fine solos by members of the orchestra. Patti Bown has some wonderfully "aggressive" solos on HOBO FLATS, POST NO BILLS, DAYLIE'S DOUBLE and TEENIES BLUES. Jerome Richardson's "growl" flute solo on POST NO BILLS is a high-point in the LP and Phil Woods' alto solos on POST NO BILLS and THREE PLUS ONE are as brilliant and arresting as a view of the Northern Lights.

I won't attempt a tune by tune summary of the album, but in addition to the solo highlights I've already mentioned, I'd like to emphasize the following:

Nelson's "vocal" tenor exploration of Billy Taylor's A BIEN TOT and his own TAKE ME WITH YOU points up why the tenor saxophone has been called the instrument that most closely resembles the human voice.

The Ravel-like building of the band behind Oliver's tenor soliloquy in TAKE ME WITH YOU

Let it be noted that DAY LIE'S DOUBLE (named for the above mentioned Daddy-O Daylie) was composed by Oliver's talented wife, Audrey.

THREE PLUS ONE — a socko, curtain-raiser type of tune, reminiscent of the type of things the swing era bands used to open their sets with; is a virtuoso arrangement that would have taken most merely competent musicians days to master, but the super-pros in the band gobbled it up.

The beautiful Ellingtonish mood of LAZIE KATE...

The wild things that happen in the arrangement of TEENIES BLUES.

Chicago trumpeter Hoyle's fiery solos on THREE PLUS ONE.

This then is some of the latest work of Oliver Nelson, who has been called "fantastic" and "fabulous". We call him 'FANTABULOUS"

Esmond Edwards