LP-752

Rune Ofwerman's Piano With Voices - Cool

Released 1965

Recording and Session Information

Allan Botschinsky, trumpet; Rolf Billberg, alto saxophone; Rune Ofwerman, piano; Erik Moseholm, bass; Bert Dahlander, drums; Vocal choir, Gunnar Lunden-Welden, director
Copenhagen, Denmark, January 17 1961

Whatcha Gonna Do
Amen
Bobsled
Gospel Walk
Mellow Cool
Helen's Theme

Rune Ofwerman, piano; Jimmy Woode, bass; Art Taylor, drums
Stockholm, Sweden, February 15 1961

The Man From Potter's Crossing
King's Men

Rune Ofwerman, piano; Sture Nordin, bass; Egil Johansen, drums
Stockholm, Sweden, November 21 1961

M-83

Rune Gustaffson, guitar; Rune Ofwerman, piano; Sture Nordin, bass; Egil Johansen, drums, Bjarne Nerem, latin rhythm Stockholm, Sweden, November 12 1962

Bossa Nova Sueca
Ortego Bossa Nova

Track Listing

Whatcha Gonna Do	Nat 'King' Cole	January 17 1961
Amen	Donald Byrd	January 17 1961
Bobsled	G. Lunden-Walden/R. Ofwerman	January 17 1961
Gospel Walk	R. Ofwerman	January 17 1961
Mellow Cool	Ake Hallgren	January 17 1961
Helen's Theme	George Riedel	January 17 1961
Bossa Nova Sueca	R. Ofwerman/Kurt Mark	November 12 1962
M-83	R. Ofwerman	November 21 1961
The Man From Potter's Crossing	Jimmy Woode, Jr.	February 15 1961
Ortego Bossa Nova	R. Ofwerman	November 12 1962
King's Men	R. Ofwerman	February 15 1961

Liner Notes

ALTHOUGH jazz has been appreciated and played in Europe almost as long as it has in America, it continually amazes one to discover another kindred talent from there. In the northern European or Scandinavian section, musicians of superior worth have been on the modern jazz scene almost from the very beginning. Till now, Bengt Hallberg and Rheinhold Svensson have been the outstanding Nordic pianists With the emergence of Rune Ofwerman. the field now enlarges.

Rune is featured basically in two contexts: on side one a vocal chorus is added. Side two is all instrumental. His playing is on the bright, happy side, although his fondness for the piano's lower register sometimes gives him a more somber sound. In many places Rune shows the rhythmic influence of the late great pianist, Nat 'King' Cole. Of the eleven selections in this Rune is composer (in full or in part) of six. The chorus is conducted hy Gunnar Lundén-WeIden, and all of their arrangements, excepting George Riedel's 'Helen's Theme", are by him.

The vocal approach this small group is unique in that it does not, in this imitative day and age, try to emulate any of the going singing groups such as the Double Six Of Paris or The Swingle Singers. Rather, they revert to the lyric-less statements of chordal backgrounds which were so popular during the days of the fine groups of the swing era. Their voicings are mellow, never strained, and always in tune. Sometimes they merely state the theme, other times they'll shake you with a mighty brass-type shout.

The first two tunes of side one are American compositions, "Whatcha Gonna Do" by Nat 'King' Cole shows off the strong rhythm team of deep-walking bassist Erik Moseholm and well-known drummer Bert (Dale) Dahlander. Donald Byrd's "Amen" is the only augmented selection on the vocal side of the album, with two horns added. Rune's fine solo on this is matched with a short but sweet muted one by trumpeter Allan Botsehinsky. Lundén-WeIden and Ofwerman collaborated on the creation of "Bobsled", which has an odd, minor-sounding theme that features beautiful voice parts behind the piano. It gets a little 'Bach-ish' and gives a pictorial image of a bouncing bobsled gliding happily down the moonlit face of a friendly snow-covered mountain. Rune's "Gospel Walk" opens and closes with a rich choral statement that sets the down-home mood. In between, the rhythm swings steady and hard, while the chorus sounds mellow and happy. Rune's fleet Dizzy quote during his solo fits right into the shouting groove.

On the second side, Rune Öfwerman is given the chance to match creative skills with two different rhythm sections. One tunes one, two and four, he has Sture Nordin (bass) and Egil Johansen (drums), with Rune Gustafsson (guitar) and Bjame Nerem (rhythm) added on the bossa novas. On these tunes Rune's affection for and ability in the modern Latin idiom is very evident. "Sueca" swings lightly, "Ortega" mightily, the latter remniscent in its general chord pattern to that of the standard song. "Out Of Nowhere". An odd Martian-type intro, and an up-tempo body make "M-83" an excellent vehicle for the fast-walking bass of Nordin, and the Blakey-like drum solo of Johansen.

Two expatriate American musicians, now permanent European residents, drummer Art Taylor and bassist Jimmy Woode. Jr., support Rune Ofwerman on the remaining two selections. Taylor one of the very best jazz percussionists and is well-known internationally, mostly for his work with such greats as Bud Powell and Rollins. Woode's most fame-garnering stint was the time he spent as part of the elegant Duke Ellington organization. He composed "The Man From Potter's Crossing", the theme and handling of which conjures a swinging man of mystery, with one of Jimmy's rare solos showcased. Rune's tune, "King's Men", which closes the album, is a bright-tempoed blues that swings all the way. His four-bar exchanges with Art Taylor, and his fadeout on an "Afterhours" kick make this cut outstanding.

All in all, just from listening to these few offerings by Rune Ofwerman, it seems as though American pianists now have a new talent with which to contend. So also do the pop composers, for Rune's bossa novas are very beautiful. and his "Bobsled" and "M-83" are unusual and interesting. Yes, talented and versatile Rune Ofwerrnan should be highly successful in the music business, for, as the tide of this album indicates, he is Very "COOL"!

—Joe Segal

Rune Ofwerman was born on Christmas Eve in 1933 in a small village outside Stockholm caned Vingåker. He strtated taking piano lessons at the age of six but lost interest after couple of years. A few years he heard some boogie-woogie records and again became interested in the piano. During his college years in Stockholm he organised a band which soon became very popular. After his school years, Rune decided to become a professional musician and his first job was with trumpeter Rolf Ericsson, who is now living in the U.S. Since then, Rune has played with many top bands in Sweden and is considered one of Sweden's top jazz pianists. In 1957 he played with American clarinetist Tony Scott at the famous "Nalen" in Stockholm. Scott made some recordings with a trio headed by Rune and the trio sounded so good that Swedish record company recorded an album with the trio alone. The next year Rune was signed to an exclusive recording contract with Gazell Record Company and at that time he also became A&R director for the company, supervising both pop and jazz recordings. During the following years, he had a tremendous success with his jazz trio and many of the trio's recordings have sold large quantities. A few of his own compositions have become jaw standards. He has made recordings with practically every important Swedish jazz soloist, as well as with guesting Americans like Herbie Mann and Tony Scott. For a long period Rune played on all recordings featuring the famous Swedish baritone sax player Lars Gullin, and he is often heard with the Harry Arnold Radio Studio Band. As a pianist, he lists the late Nat 'King' Cole and Clarence 'Pinetop' Smith among his strongest influences.

LP-751

Ahmad Jamal – The Roar Of The Greasepaint - The Smell Of The Crowd

Released 1965

Recording and Session Information

Ahmad Jamal, piano; Jamil Nasser, bass; Chuck Lampkin, drums
Nola Penthouse Studio, New York City, February 24+25 1965

13788 Who can I turn to?
13789 That's what it is to be young
13790 This dream
13791 The beautiful land
13792 Look at that face
13793 Where would you be without me?
13794 It isn't enough
13795 My first love song
13796 Sweet beginning
13797 A wonderful day like today
13798 Feeling good

Track Listing

Look At That Face	Bricusse/Newley	February 24+25 1965
Where Would You Be Without Me?	Bricusse/Newley	February 24+25 1965
It Isn't Enough	Bricusse/Newley	February 24+25 1965
Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me)	Bricusse/Newley	February 24+25 1965
Sweet Beginning	Bricusse/Newley	February 24+25 1965
The Dream	Bricusse/Newley	February 24+25 1965
Feeling Good	Bricusse/Newley	February 24+25 1965
My First Love Song	Bricusse/Newley	February 24+25 1965
A Wonderful Day Like Today	Bricusse/Newley	February 24+25 1965
That's What It Is To Be Young	Bricusse/Newley	February 24+25 1965
The Beautiful Land	Bricusse/Newley	February 24+25 1965

Liner Notes

BEFORE it arrived on Broadway, The Roar Of The Greasepaint—The Smell of the Crowd already had achieved a singular series of triumphs. Not only was it a spiraling hit on the road, but there were also more than fifty recordings of songs from the score (a pre-Broadway testament of optimism that exceeded even the welcoming trumpets that greeted Hello, Dolly! and Fiddler on the Roof), This album of Anthony Newley's and Leslie Bricusse's songs, however, is a distinctive tribute because the musical temperament and style of Ahmad Jamal are particularly suited to the Newley-Bricusse way of looking at life and reflecting what they see and hear in music.

Their previous American conquest was Stop the World—I Want To Get Off, a wry, poignant, irreverent morality play about the circular frustrations and self-evasions of a man "making it" in the 20th century jungle. The Roar of the Greasepaint—The Smell Of the Crowd is both a more astringent and more hopeful exploration of the game of life, At first, in an ingenious gameboard of a set, two figures are seen at the play of existence. Sir (Cyril Ritchard) represents those in power, whose basic characteristic is the over-riding desire to maintain power. Cocky (Anthony Newley) speaks for most of the rest of us — those without power or with such little power that we cannot really be in full charge of what hapens to us.

Evety time it app that Cocky may win a game, Sir changes the rules. I will not spoil your fun by detailing the rest of the plot, except to say that as new figures ppear, Cocky sees that there are other ways than his own passivity to counteract Sir. One can assert oneself; one can even refuse to play if the game is rigged. And finally, Cocky learns that he too can make his own rules so that Sir will have to learn to co-exist on equal terms rather than to dominate as if his power were a law of nature. It isn't.

The essentials of the Newley-Bricusse writing style — and of Newley's remarkably evocative skill as a performer — are disciplined simplicity, clarity of design, resiliant wit and a superb sense of timing. Without trying to make Jamal the image of them, it is nonetheless true that those same qualities describe Jamal's way of making music. Furthermore, Jamal himself is a contemplative, arching observer of the way we live now. He has strong feelings about the way things ought to be and could be and, like Newley and Bricusse, he has a firm sense of who he is and what his capacities are.

Accordingly, Jamal and this score fuse easily. Throughout, there are the immediately identifiable Jamal insignia — the plastic use of space; the lithe beat, the graceful humor and the sense of power in reserve. The propulsive force is there, as in sections of "Sweet Beginning" and "Feeling Good". He has supple sense of dynamics, and therefore, he is capable of varying gradations of climax. He swings without strain and with both subtlety and sensibility.

Tne softly glowing lyricism that is a fundamental element of Jamal's style is in evidence on every track, from the luminosity of "Where Would You Be Without Me?" to the aura of unfolding surprise he brings to "That's What It Is To Be Young". Chuck Lampkin and Jamil Nasser meanwhile provide Jamal with a crisply moving foundation on which he can play with time.

The album underlines the consistency of Jamal's firmly personal approach to music. Beginning in 1958 with his recording of a performance at Chicago's Pershing Hotel (Argo LP-628 & LPS-628), Jamal has experienced widening public delight in his work. He does not fall into any conveniently categorical "bag." He is, in sum, himself.

What Jamal has to offer musically - as in the recording — is refreshingly personal on its own terms. I mean his clarity, essentially sanguine view of life and his grace. And when you want to conjugate the possibilities of the kinds of kicks that come on a spring day, the Jamal microcosm is one place to visit. He is a singular part of today's roar of the greasepaint and smell of the crowd.

—NAT HENTOFF

LP-750

Ramsey Lewis Trio & Jean DuShon - You Better Believe Me

Released 1965

Recording and Session Information

Ronald Wilson, alto saxophone, flute; Ramsey Lewis, piano; Roland Faulkner, guitar; Eldee Young, bass; Redd Holt, drums; Jean DuShon, vocals
Universal Recording Studio, Chicago, December 19 1964

13637 Who can I turn to? [When nobody needs me]
13638 Night time is the right time
13639 Something you got
13640 He was too good to me
13641 Goodbye lover, hello friend
13642 You'd better believe me

Ramsey Lewis, piano; Eldee Young, bass,cello; Cleveland Eaton, bass; Redd Holt, drums
Universal Recording Studio, Chicago, January 14 1965

13667 Corcovado [Quiet nights]
13668 Tain't nobody's business if I do
13669 Let it be me
13670 It had better be tonight
13671 My coloring book
13672 I'm beginning to see the light

Track Listing

You'd Better Believe Me	Buddy Johnson	December 19 1964
Who Can I Turn To	Bricusse / Newley	December 19 1964
Night Time	Joe Bailey	December 19 1964
Something You Got	Chriss Kenner	December 19 1964
He Was Too Good To Me	Rodgers / Hart	December 19 1964
Goodbye Lover, Hello Friend	Norman Newell / Micharl Carr	December 19 1964
Corcovado (Quiet Nights)	Antonio Carlos Jobin / Gene Lees	January 14 1965
Ain't Nobody's Business	William York	January 14 1965
Let It Be Me	Becaud/Delance/Curtis	January 14 1965
It Had Better Be Tonight	Mancini/Mercer/Stasera	January 14 1965
My Coloring Book	John Kander/Fred Ebb	January 14 1965
I'm Beginning To See The Light	Hodges/George/Ellington/James	January 14 1965

Liner Notes

IF YOU want a good album, don't buy this one, because it's great — and "YOU BETTER BELIEVE ME"! The combination of the swinging Ramsey Lewis Trio and remarkable Jean DuShon — augmented on some tracks with flute, guitar aed sax — marks a departure for the Trio and a new high in listening pleasure for you.

Jean DuShon is making her second recorded appearance on ARGO. Her first album, which rapidly drew rave reviews and many plays from disc jockeys throughout the country, was recorded bast summer. This album can only help to add to the well-deserved praise and recognition that her first ARGO effort won for her.

Youngest of twelve children, whose parents died when she was only five, Jean attended the Detroit Conservatory of Music and began her professional career at the age of 15. In 1960, she made that legendary trip to New York with the Lloyd Price Band and since then has sung with the Cootie Williams group and the ever-popular Fats Domino aggregation. Finally, only a few months ago, she cut herself loose and began making solo appearances after gaining the valuable musical experience that only singing in front of a band can give a vocalist.

As for Jean's singing ability, just try on "Who Can I Turn To" size. There can be no doubt after the first few bars that Jean has an unusu depth and quality to her voice — and that she doesn't employ the gimmicks that have come to be standard equipment with almost every female vocalist singing today. Jean possesses an almost uncanny ability to get inside the lyric and project all the emotion, all the feeling, all real meaning — and more — that the composer meant it to have.

On this, her second ARGO outing, Jean also does a mose competent job of letting you know immediatelv that she can't be type-cast as just a ballad singer. She adequately proves this on the swinging "Something You Got" which is only recommended to the listener when all doors and windows are locked and the right person is there to share Jean's mood with you. "You'd Better Believe Me" certainly can't hurt you either, for that matter, and Jean's emotionally-packed "He Was Too Good To Me" pours a whole new supply of fuel into this great "torch" tune. If you've survived all of this emotionally, don't miss Jean's "Night Time" and a rather swing rendition of "Goodbye Lover, Hello Friend". Jean in the parlance of the trade, is "too much" and a most welcome addition to a world full of women who either rely on vocal tricks or who try to sound like someone they aren't and can never hope to be.

Backing up Jean on this album is the fabulous Ramsey Lewis Trio — and what words can describe them adequately. I think that Ramsey said it best himself several ARGO albums ago when he wrote that "After fourteen years of playing together, our trio is very close to achieving something that every group of musicians strives for. That is, to be able to think and play as one."

Ramsey, Red Holt on drums, and Eldee Young on bass and cello, have reached a point of perfection rarely touched by any jazz instrumental group. Having played together for so many years, their performance as a group is sometimes beyond belief. Their individual solos — be it funk, progressive or commercial jazz — continue to reach new heights of swinging excellence. Perhaps the best way to express it is for you to take your own hands and tightly intertwine your fingers — for that's the way they think, play, and perforrn, closely knit and almost as one.

If you've been hiding in a cave or for some reason havcn't heard this group before, treat yourself to the Trio's fresh approach to "Quiet Nights". Their rendition of this current favorite gives the tune a whole new flavor, a brand new feeling. Then there is the swinging romp through "It Had Better Be Tonight" which can only leave you breathless at best. When you hear "My Coloring Book", "Let It Be Me", or "Ain't Nobody's Business", you know that Ramsey, Red and Eldee are not only performing great music — they are enjoying themselves to the fullest.

Finally, you are again treated to another of those unique musical experiences as Eldee Young embraces his cello for a revival of that great oldie, "I'm Beginning To see The Light".

If vou haven't seen "the light" by the time you've reached this point with the Ramsey Lewis Trio, you're in big trouble. Ramsey, Red, Eldee and something new and great called Jean DuShon have said it all right here in this album. I think you'll their message.

-CHUCK TAYLOR