Sunday, April 30, 2017

Ella at 100 by Will Friedwald

© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.


The following appeared in the April 24, 2017 edition of the Wall Street Journal.

“In 1958, Frank Sinatra recorded Billy Strayhorn’s classic torch song “Lush Life”—or, rather, he attempted to. He got about halfway through it when he, in 21st-century speak, “pivoted” and decided, he declared loudly, to “put that one aside for about a year!” Upon hearing the incomplete take, one can only concur with the Chairman’s decision: This is far from a lost Sinatra masterpiece. Rather, it’s a lost Sinatra mistake.

Conversely, Ella Fitzgerald made three important recordings of “Lush Life” in three very different contexts: in 1957 with pianist Oscar Peterson, in 1973 with guitarist Joe Pass, and on a 1968 TV special with Duke Ellington —Strayhorn’s mentor and key collaborator—accompanying her on piano. Or was he? Careful analysis of the videotape by professional pianists reveals that even though it’s Duke on camera, the soundtrack accompaniment is probably actually being played by her regular accompanist at the time, Jimmy Jones.

Clearly, neither Sinatra nor Ellington was comfortable with “Lush Life”—even though Sinatra had sung many songs that were just as musically difficult (and intimately personal), and Ellington was closer to Strayhorn than anyone; he, of all people, should have been willing and able to play it.

And yet Ella Fitzgerald, whose centennial is being celebrated on the 25th of this month, boldly went where both Sinatra and Ellington feared to tread. Most performers are limited to various kinds of songs, and for the great ones that range is often very vast. We hear about a “Sinatra kind of song,” or a “ Judy Garland kind of song.” But you’ve never heard anyone speak of an “Ella Fitzgerald kind of song,” because there’s no such thing. She could and did sing everything.

In 1967-68, Fitzgerald made two of the most misguided albums of her career, “Brighten the Corner” and “Misty Blue,” which can be viewed as ill-advised attempts by the first lady of song to capture the markets of, respectfully, Mahalia Jackson and Ray Charles. The first has her doing traditional spirituals like “The Old Rugged Cross”; the second consists of country-and-western songs with lyrics like “this gun don’t care who it shoots.” Clearly, neither one is a Fitzgerald classic, but both are great in their own way—I don’t listen to them as often as I do “Ella in Berlin” or “Lullabies of Birdland,” but when I do play them I find that, to quote another C&W classic, I can’t stop loving them.

When Fitzgerald died in 1996, I was given the task of calling up her friends and musical associates for statements, and when I talked to one of her ex-husbands, bass virtuoso Ray Brown, to my surprise he quoted Bing Crosby’s famous line, “Man, woman, or child, Ella is the most!” I didn’t realize how appropriate that reference was at the time: In the 1930s, Crosby served as pop culture’s ultimate musical everyman, who sang it all—from “Pennies From Heaven” to “Rock of Ages” to “Tumbling Tumbleweeds,” and everything in between. His successor, the singer who picked up that torch in the postwar era and carried it to the furthest extremes, was Fitzgerald. Producer-manager Norman Granz knew what he was doing when he selected her as the one singer to do the major series of songbook albums by every major American songwriter, and then to do whole albums of scat singing, blues, bossa novas, show tunes—casting a wider net than even such remarkable contemporaries as Sinatra and Charles, and singing it all magnificently.

Her performances of “Lush Life” are notable for other reasons: Fitzgerald is widely celebrated for her swinging and improvisation, but not enough attention is paid to her formidable abilities as a ballad singer. As Fitzgerald’s contemporary, Jo Stafford, pointed out to me, the first lady was concerned most of all with the melody, but she also was a major interpreter of lyrics. Some performances are more emotional than others, but she was especially forthcoming on her live concert albums and tapes of the 1960s. As numbers like “A House Is Not a Home” (from a 1969 performance in Montreux, Switzerland) prove, Fitzgerald could break your heart with a song any time she wanted to. It’s no surprise that when Matt Dennis wrote his saloon-song masterpiece “Angel Eyes,” the first person he brought it to was Fitzgerald.

What’s especially remarkable is that Fitzgerald first captured our attention with nursery rhymes, beginning with her breakthrough “A-Tisket, A-Tasket.” From there she gradually expanded her purview to the point where she played a crucial role, no less than Sinatra, in helping to define the Great American Songbook, and made herself the gold standard of American popular music. Long before her centennial, it was clear that the contribution of Ella Fitzgerald to the world’s cultural legacy is so vast as to be incalculable.”

—Mr. Friedwald writes about music and popular culture for the Journal.

Friday, April 28, 2017

Lenny McBrowne and the 4 Souls

© -  Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.


There once was a time in the Land of Jazz when it seemed like everywhere you looked, small Jazz combos came together, played a few club gigs, made a record and then were gone.


The cats who made up these groups were young, enthusiastic and very good musicians, but the main reason they disbanded was usually due to a lack of work.


Some were married and had wives who supported them through day gigs. You could usually spot these caring and loving women in the club audience as they sat there beaming with pride and nursing a Brandy Alexander all night.


Occasionally, some of these young bloods would hook up with a touring big band and live out of a suitcase while traveling for a few weeks on a bus playing one-nighters “east of the Rockies” or “west of the Appalachian Mountains.”


Or, if they were musicians with special qualities, say a trumpet player like Carmel Jones or a tenor sax and fluitist like Yuseef Lateef or a pianist like Cedar Walton, they might land a gig with a Jazz combo with a national following like the groups led by Horace Silver, Cannonball Adderley and Art Blakey, respectively. But such gigs were the rare exception.


One such here-today-gone-tomorrow group that I was particularly fond of was the quintet led by drummer Lenny McBrowne. The band was known as “Lenny McBrowne and the 4 Souls.”


“Soul” was a big word in the Land of Jazz for awhile and the best Jazz musicians were the “soulful” ones who were signifying and testifying in their music. The style was an amalgam of the music then prevalent in the Southern Baptist Church and a little New York-Chicago-Detroit-Philadelphia hipness.


Lenny’s quintet got into the act with their band name which is also the title of their Pacific Jazz LP [PJ-1].


I heard Lennie McBrowne and the 4 Souls in various venues in and around Hollywood and on each occasion,  I was always impressed with the very high level of musicianship on display by each soloist and the great arrangements that pianist Elmo Hope wrote for the group.


Some of Elmo’s arrangements were included on the quintet’s Pacific Jazz LP along with the following liner notes by Tillie Mitchell, who managed the quintet and brought them to Dick Bock’s attention at Pacific Jazz.


Jazz is a fleeting medium of expression and it is made no less so by the transient nature of many of the combos that perform it.


“LEONARD LOUIS McBROWNE was born in Brooklyn, New York. Following in the footsteps of his father, Arnold who was also a drummer, Lenny began playing drums in street marching bands between the ages of 12 and 15 and took lessons on bass besides. After graduation from high school, a lifelong friend of his father's gave him a complete set of drums. From then on, his career was decided. He was, at that time, fortunate to study for a year with his idol, Max Roach.


Lenny's first professional job was with saxophonist Pete Brown, a wonderful musician and teacher. Paul Bley was also in the group. Lenny came to California after a Midwestern College Tour in 1956. He has worked and recorded with Tony Scott, Billie Holliday and Sonny Stitt. Most recently, he has worked with Harold Land, Sonny Rollins, Benny Golson and Curtis Fuller.


Throughout the last year, I have listened to Lenny and observed his tireless effort in search for new creative avenues of expression and to please his audience at all times. My knowledge of his sincerity and honesty as a man and his love for the beauty in music as well as his artistry on his instrument, made me realize that he should be heard with his own group. This feeling within me was justified while he was working with Sonny Rollins at a club in California. Miles Davis was in the room. He got up from his seat and walked up to the bandstand, spoke to Sonny, then stood in front of Lenny, feet propped "ala Miles Davis" for nearly five minutes. As he passed me, returning to his seat, he asked me "Where did he come from?" Knowing Miles as long as I have, this was quite a compliment.


About a month later, after leaving Sonny Rollins to stay in for one night. I brought in Terry Trotter, Herb Lewis and Walter Benton, saxophonist, as they had worked together before. The people at the club liked the group so much that the owner gave them two nights a week for the next eight weeks. This was a year ago. After the engagement, Terry and Herbie decided to stay with Lenny to form the quintet. Teddy Edwards recommended Daniel Jackson who in turn recommended Donald Sleet. They went into endless daily rehearsals to prepare for any club dates or recordings I could get them. I brought Lenny and the group to the attention of Richard Bock, President of World Pacific Records who heard the beauty and jazz feeling of the group and signed them for recordings.


Lenny has a deep respect for the jazz talent of Elmo Hope and was very happy that he was in California to write and arrange for this date. He composed "McBrowne's Galaxy" especially for the date and arranged "Dearly Beloved" and "Invitation." "I Married An Angel," Lenny dedicates to his wife. The other compositions are by Daniel Jackson.


TERRY TROTTER was born in Los Angeles and sang before he talked. Born to a musical family, his mother and sister play piano and his father a reed instrument. He started playing piano at the age of six and has had a thorough classical training. His teachers were Earl Voorhies and Pete DeSantos, from whom he learned jazz harmony starting at the age of twelve. He and Herbie have played together since high school. His major influences are Barry Harris, Tommy Flanagan, Bill Evans and Bud Powell. He has worked with Teddy Edwards and Buddy DeFranco.


DONALD SLEET was born in San Diego. He started playing trumpet at the age of ten. Donald also has studied piano for three years. He won the outstanding trumpet award at the Lighthouse' Festival in 1956. He returned and repeated in 1957 while leading the group that won the title. His major influences are Kenny Dorham and Miles Davis.


DANIEL L. JACKSON was also born in San Diego and started playing the "C" Melody saxophone at twelve years of age. He played in the high school band where he switched to tenor and learned to play piano with the help of his brother, Fred. He joined the Air Force in 1955 and played with the band throughout his four year hitch. He received an Honorable Discharge in 1959 whereupon he joined Lenny for his first professional job. His major influences are Harold Land, Bud Powell and Horace Silver.


HERBIE LEWIS was born in Pasadena. His musical family includes Uncles Wesley Prince (original King Cole Trio, bass) and Peppy, drummer and band leader. Herb first played trombone and then baritone horn, but couldn't feel either. Between
fluences, he began playing bass at the age of fifteen. He credits learning music to Terry Trotter, his high school chum. He has worked with Teddy Edwards and recorded previously with Harold Land.                                              


 -Tillie Mitchell”


Here are three videos which will help you experience the music of this fine band. Both tracks feature arrangements by Elmo Hope.









Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Larry Goldings – “Caminhos Cruzados” - Mais Uma Vez [Portuguese for "One More Time"]

© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.


“With a decade [now, more two decades] of playing together under their belts, Larry Goldings, Peter Bernstein and Bill Stewart must form one of the most long-lived organ trios in Jazz history.

Each member has amassed an imposing individual resume, during this period, yet their collective work has signified something more – a reaffirmation, not of the organ trio as a unit capable of satisfying a temporary fashion for things, but as an instrumentation as perfectly balanced in its way as the threesomes of piano, bass and drums or, in another realm, the string quartet.”
Bob Blumenthal, 1999

The music and the musicians on Hammond B-3 organist Larry Goldings’ Caminhos Cruzados [loosely translated from the Portuguese as “crossings paths”] have always been among my favorites.

Recorded in 1993, the compact disc seemed to come out of nowhere because its Brazilian bossa nova tunes hadn’t been in vogue for many years.

Here’s Larry description of how the recording came about.

“A few years ago, I made an interesting discovery about my early childhood. I had gone home to Massachusetts to visit my parents and brought with me a recording of the Brazilian singer João Gilberto. I had recently been introduced to his music by Jon Hendricks, with whom I was working, and instantly became somewhat of a fanatic.

At some point that weekend, I decided to play the CD for my mother, who isn't normally interested in the music I listen to, but I had an in­stinctual feeling that she would like it. After his opening guitar introduction, João started singing, and almost immediately my mother's face lit up and she said, ‘Oh, I remember this !’ I was sur­prised by her reaction and asked, ‘You mean you used to own this record?’ ‘Yes,’ she replied, ‘I used to play it for you when you were a baby. It would always calm you down.’

This startling piece of information was quite a revelation to me. Could this, I thought, ex­plain why I am so moved by João Gilbert's voice? Could it be, that upon listening to him now I experience the same feelings of innocence and security that I felt as an infant, 25 years ago?

Well, Sigmund Freud might have been better equipped to answer these questions, but all I know is that the music of Brazil is very close to my heart, and it was a pleasure to prepare and re­cord this CD. It was also a special challenge because the Hammond organ is not often heard in Bra­zilian music, although interestingly one of the early pioneers of the bossa nova was in fact an organ­ist named Walter Wanderley.

On this CD, the focus is not so much on the organ itself, but on the jazz organ trio - that is, organ, guitar and drums. The other members comprising the trio are Peter Bernstein and Bill Stewart, who are two of the most creative musicians playing today and have recorded with me on two other occasions. The group is augmented by the exceptional Brazilian per­cussionist Guilherme Franco, who, during the making of this CD had many insightful comments and suggestions that helped shape the music. Finally, listeners will be enchanted by the thoughtful play­ing of Joshua Redman.

While researching the material for this CD, I realized that there are many beautiful songs that have not been given the recognition they deserve. I discovered four such song among my João Gilberto records:  So Danco SambaHo-ha-la-la,  Avarandado, and the title track, Caminhos Cruzados. The latter, written by the prolific Antonio Carlos Jobim is perhaps my favorite on the CD. The composition is one of Jobim's most lyrical and is harmonically lush and unpredictable. Listen to Peter Bernstein's sublime statement of the melody, and the percussion accompaniment of Guilherme Franco, who, like Peter, is a master of taste. Among the other tracks are the obscure Menina-Moca. whose harmonic movement has a particularly "classical" sound, and the familiar Once I Loved, which is treated in a much slower, moodier manner than usual.

There are three selections that are not Brazilian songs at all, but naturally lend themselves to the bossa nova feeling. They are: Where or WhenUna Mas, and Serenata, on which the band could not resist the urge to swing the solos. One of the two sambas on the CD, Manine, is my own composition. Featured here is the exciting interplay between Guilherme (on the cuica) and Bill Stewart. Words is also my composition, and was inspired by a Chopin mazurka. It is a perfect vehicle for Joshua Redman, who displays his ability to interpret a ballad with finesse and a hint of the blues.

I must admit that I have never visited Brazil. I feel, however, as if I have, because as I recently discovered, the first musical sounds I ever heard were those of Brazil. Although I doubt that I was actually "listening" to my mother's João Gilberto record, (as I was only 1 or 2 years old), his voice, and the harmonies and rhythms of his guitar, were seeping into my subconscious, planting the seeds that would later become my love of music.

- written by Larry Goldings”

To give you some idea of the wonderful music on offer on Caminhos Cruzados, the editorial staff at JazzProfiles in conjunction with the crackerjack graphics team at CerraJazz and the production facilities of StudioCerra have developed the following video for you to sample.

We hope that you will enjoy this presentation of classic Brazilian bossa nova by some of today’s most accomplished Jazz musicians.


Friday, April 21, 2017

Wes Montgomery / Wynton Kelly Trio Smokin' in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse (1966)

© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.


Michael Bloom of Michael Bloom Media Relations is handling the public relations for the latest in Resonance Records continuing series of recently discovered classic recordings by Jazz Masters from halcyon days gone by and he sent along this information about:

Wes Montgomery / Wynton Kelly Trio Smokin' in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse (1966)

Previously unreleased live sets featuring jazz guitar icon Wes Montgomery with piano legend Wynton Kelly’s Trio featuring bassist Ron McClure & drummer Jimmy Cobb Recorded at Seattle’s Prestigious Jazz Club, the Penthouse, on April 14 and 21, 1966


Includes extensive book of liner notes featuring rare photos, essays by guitar icon Pat Metheny, Seattle Times writer Paul de Barros, producer Zev Feldman, original recording engineer Jim Wilke, plus interviews with Jimmy Cobb, NEA Jazz Master Kenny Barron and more.


Deluxe Limited Edition LP Released Exclusively for Record Store Day (April 22, 2017)


And Deluxe CD & Digital Editions Available on May 19, 2017


Los Angeles, CA (March 13, 2017)- Resonance Records is proud to announce the release of Wes Montgomery with the Wynton Kelly Trio - Smokin' in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse (1966) captured live at the Penthouse jazz club in Seattle, WA on April 14 and 21, 1966. Smokin' in Seattle marks the third commercially released live album of guitar icon Wes Montgomery with piano legend Wynton Kelly, recorded only seven months after their classic 1965 live album Smokin' at the Half Note, notably referred to by Pat Metheny as "the absolute greatest jazz guitar album ever made." Wynton's dynamic trio features the solid rhythm section of bassist Ron McClure -who took the place of long-time trio bassist Paul Chambers, then joined Charles Lloyd's "classic quartet" with Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette following this stint with Wes and Wynton - and the legendary drummer Jimmy Cobb, an NEA Jazz Master most well-known for Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, Sketches of Spain and Someday My Prince Will Come albums.


Available on May 19, 2017 as a Deluxe CD and digital format, this archival treasure includes an extensive liner note book featuring rare photos by Lee Tanner, Chuck Stewart, Tom Copi, Joe Alpert and others; essays by guitar icon Pat Metheny, Seattle Times writer Paul de Barros, producer Zev Feldman, original recording engineer and Seattle Radio DJ Jim Wilke , and Ron McClure; plus interviews with Jimmy Cobb and NEA Jazz Master Kenny Barron.


Located in the heart of Seattle's historic district in Pioneer Square,the Penthouse jazz club was opened in 1962 by Charles Puzzo, Sr., and quickly became a destination for iconic jazz talents such as John Coltrane, Oscar Peterson, Stan Getz and The Three Sounds to name a few. Well-known radio personality,Jim Wilke, developed a working relationship with this legendary club, which in turn allowed him to air live broadcasts from the club every Thursday night using state-of-the-art equipment of that era. His weekly radio show, Jazz from the Penthouse, aired on Seattle's NPR affiliate, KING FM from 1962 through 1968, and has never been rebroadcast. When executive producer George Klabin learned of these recordings, he couldn't believe his good fortune to come across this thrilling 1960s material of Wes Montgomery with Wynton Kelly.


Producer Zev Feldman says, "The association between Wes Montgomery and Wynton Kelly is a critical part of the Montgomery legacy. Resonance has been releasing only the guitar icon's material from the 1950s thus far, so it's very exciting for us to be moving into Wes's 1960s discography with this incredible addition to the Montgomery canon from a cherished era. It's also the only known recording known of Wes and Ron McClure together, which I think is also cause for celebration. As usual, we've gathered all the rights to make it official and have created a dynamic package worthy of this timeless music."


"The experience of playing with those guys was like being baptized," says Ron McClure in his liner notes essay. "The music was joyous. It was buoyant. It was happy; positive - like they were as people."


By the time the 1966 Wes Montgomery with the Wynton Kelly Trio gig rolled around, Wes was on top of his game. His album Goin' Out of My Head (Verve) had shot up the Billboard R&B charts to No. 12, and within a year, the album would garner a 1967 GRAMMY® Award and sell nearly a million copies. At the ripe age of 43, Wes was at the pinnacle of his career. And just one year later, he would no longer be with us.


Wynton Kelly first collaborated with Wes Montgomery in 1962 with their album Full House (Riverside), also with Jimmy Cobb on drums (McClure joined Wynton Kelly's trio a few years later in 1965, replacing Paul Chambers), followed by the legendary Smokin' at the Half Note . And now we have Smokin' in Seattle, a new chapter in the storied collaboration of these two jazz giants.


Modern day jazz guitar icon Pat Metheny writes, "The news that another example of that band in action had surfaced was headline news for those of us in the hard-core Wes community. The incredible revelations contained in Resonance's previous releases of Wes's early work have been thrilling. This release adds yet another dimension to the almost impossibly brief ten years that Wes was the jazz world's most renowned guitarist, particularly to completists like me who want to hang on to and cherish every note Wes played."


This 10-track album is indeed a "smokin'" musical exchange between Wynton and Wes, swinging with fire-cracker energy. The Wynton Kelly trio opened each set of the 9-night engagement with a couple of tunes before Wes joined them on stage. The album opens with "There Is No Greater Love," an upbeat rendition of Isham Jones's well known jazz standard. Wynton glides through seven choruses filled with his trademark lyrical legato lines, with bluesy twists and turns along the way. His joyous playing is apparent from the start. In an interview with Kenny Baron included in the liner notes, he says, "Wynton was kind of in a class by himself. His touch, his feeling, his sense of time, sense of rhythm… For me it was just very, very unique." Often underappreciated as a player, despite his years with Miles Davis, Wynton remains an iconic figure, for jazz fans and next generation of jazz players.


"It's easy to hear why these two musicians relished playing together. Bluesy, soulful, linear swingers whose solos burst forward with natural, unpretentious vigor...," describes Paul de Barros in his essay. About Wes's spritely tune "Jingles," de Barros adds, "Montgomery comes out the gate loaded for bear, executing a slithering glide up the fretboard that elicits a cry of astonished approval from someone in the crowd." Wes and Wynton's playful banter continues with Wes's compositions "Blues in F" and "West Coast Blues," mixed in with Blue Mitchell's swinging bebop tune "Sir John" and Antonio Carlos Jobim's bossa nova "O Morro Não Tem Vez." The album finishes the musical journey with Sonny Rollin's "Oleo."

Jimmy Cobb remembers the band fondly, "Wes was a nice guy, man. He was a very comedic kind of guy. Like he would say funny things and do funny things…But he was a sweet guy. Wynton was also a sweet guy. So we all got along together pretty good. And the playing was exceptional for the four of us."


With the support and friendship of the Puzzo family and Jim Wilke, Resonance is proud to bring this remarkable, previously unknown recording to the public, now the second release in a series of Resonance releases recorded at the Penthouse, following the 2016 album, The Three Sounds featuring Gene Harris - Groovin' Hard: Live at the Penthouse 1964-1968 .


Previous Wes Montgomery releases on the Resonance label include rare historical discoveries from Wes captured in the 1950's, before his ascension to icon status -Echoes of Indiana Avenue (2012),In the Beginning (2015) and One Night in Indy (2016). The label is thrilled to add Wynton Kelly to their musical library and give him the royal treatment he so deserves.
The limited-edition, hand-numbered LP pressing on 180-gram black vinyl will be released exclusively for Record Store Day's event on April 22, 2017. The LP version has been mastered by the legendary Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering and pressed at Record Technology, Inc. (RTI), and features the same liner note material as the CD version.


Personnel:
Wes Montgomery – guitar*
Wynton Kelly – piano
Ron McClure – bass
Jimmy Cobb – drums

Track Listing:
  • There Is No Greater Love (7:56)
  • Not a Tear (6:29)
  • *Jingles (4:31)
  • *What's New (4:51)
  • *Blues in F (2:44)*
  • Sir John (8:10)
  • If You Could See Me Now (5:54)
  • *West Coast Blues (3:56)
  • *O Morro Não Tem Vez (6:15)
  • *Oleo (2:08)
You can located order information by visiting www.resonancerecords.org.

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Wes Montgomery - the 1961 Ralph J. Gleason Interview

© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.


“The middle and most celebrated of the Montgomery brothers was born like the others in Indianapolis. He took to guitar late and only began Ins professional career-in Lionel Hampton's band-when he was 25.  … he developed a style in which thumb-plucked single-note lines were backed with softly strummed octaves and chords. …


Wes Montgomery gave off a sense of effortlessness that is always bad karma in jazz; a little sweat and preferably some pain is almost considered de rigueur. But Montgomery used to loose off solos as if he was sitting on his back porch talking to friends.


He used a homely, thumb-picking technique, rather than a plectrum or the faster finger-picking approach. Stylistically, he copied Charlie Christian's bop and added elements of Django Reinhardt's harmonic conception. It's interesting and ironic that Montgomery's most prominent latter-day disciple, George Benson, should have made almost exactly the same career move, trading off a magnificent improvisational sense against commercial success.”
- Richard Cook and Brian Morton, The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 6th Ed.


“Few jazz musicians have had the rise to professional acclaim that John Leslie (Wes) Montgomery, the guitar-playing member of the Indiana Montgomery family, has had in the last two years.


Up until that time almost unknown to the jazz public outside his native Indianapolis, Montgomery was heralded by Cannonball Adderley, Gunther Schuller and other musicians who heard him and was brought by Adderley to the attention of Orrin Keepnews of Riverside Records, who promptly recorded him. Since that debut (his second, for he had toured with Lionel Hampton for two years in the early '40s), Montgomery has run away with the New Star Guitar category in DownBeat’s International Jazz Critics Poll and today seems a cinch to live up to his billing as the "best thing that has happened to the guitar since Charlie Christian."


For the last year, Wes has worked with his brothers, Buddy (vibes) and Monk (bass), as the Montgomery Brothers. The other two Montgomerys are half the original Mastersounds quartet, which a few years ago won the Critics Poll as Best New Small Group.


Pinned down recently between rehearsals and pool games (shooting pool is his only hobby), Wes discussed guitar players (including himself) with the ease and familiarity born of years of listening:


"I started in 1943, right after I got married. I bought an amplifier and a guitar
around two or three months later. I used to play a tenor guitar, but it wasn't playing you know. I didn't really get down to business until I got the six-string, which was just like starting all over to me.


"I got interested in playing the guitar because of Charlie Christian. Like all other guitar players! There's no way out. I never saw him in my life, but he said so much or the records that I don't care what instrument a cat played, if he didn't understand and didn't feel and really didn't get with the things that Charlie Christian was doing, he was a pretty poor musician—he was so far ahead.


"Before Charlie Christian I liked (Django) Reinhardt and Les Paul and those cats, but it wasn't what you 'd call new. Just guitar. For the exciting new thing, they didn't impress me like that. But Charlie Christian did; I mean, he stood out above all of it to me.


"'Solo Flight' was the first record I heard. Boy, that was too much! I still hear it! He was it for me, and I didn't look at nobody else. I didn't hear nobody else for about a year or so. Couldn't even hear them.

"I'm not really musically inclined. It takes guts, you know! I was 19 and I liked music, but it didn't really inspire me to go into things. But there was a cat living in Indianapolis named Alex Stevens. He played guitar, and he was about the toughest cat I heard around our vicinity, and I tried to get him to show me a few things.


"So, eventually what I did was I took all of Charlie Christian's records, and I listened to them real good. I knew what he was doing on that guitar could be done on the one I had because I had a six-string. So I was just determined I'd do it. I didn't quit. It didn't quite come out like that, but I got pretty good at it, and I took all the solos off the records. I got a job playing just the solos, making money in a club. That's all I did—played Charlie Christian solos and then laid out! Mel Lee—he's the piano player with B.B. King—had the band, and he helped me a lot.


"Then I went on the road with the Brownskin Models and later with Snookum Russell. Ray Brown was on the band at that time. I didn't realize he was playing so much bass until I heard him with Diz!


"Hamp was the only big band I went with, 1948-'50. I didn't use any amplifier at all. He had a lot of things for the sextet, but he never got to record that group.


"I'm so limited. I have a lot of ideas— well, a lot of thoughts—that I'd like to see done with the guitar. With the octaves, that was just a coincidence, going into octaves. It's such a challenge yet, you know, and there's a lot that can be done with it and with chord versions like block chords on piano. But each of these things has a feeling of its own, and it takes so much time to develop all your technique.


"I don't use a pick at all, and that's one of the downfalls, too. In order to get a certain amount of speed, you should use a pick, I think. You don't have to play fast, but being able to play fast can cause you to phrase better. If you had the technique you could phrase better, even if you don't play fast. I think you'd have more control of the instrument.


"I didn't like the sound of a pick. I tried it for, I guess, about two months. I didn't even use my thumb at all. But after two months time, I still couldn't use the pick. So I said, 'Well, which are you going to do?' I liked the tone better with thumb, but I liked the technique with the pick. I couldn't have them both, so I just have to cool.


"I think every instrument should have a certain amount of tone quality within the instrument, but I can't seem to get the right amplifiers and things to get this thing out. I like to hear good phrasing. I'd like to hear a guitar play parts like instead of playing melodic lines, leave that and play chord versions of lines. Now, that's an awful hard thing to do, but it would be different. But I think in those terms, or if a cat could use octaves for a line instead of one note. Give you a double sound with a good tone to it. Should sound pretty good if you got another blending instrument with it.


"Other guitar players? Well, Barney Kessel. I've got to go for that. He's got a lot of feeling and a good conception of chords in a jazz manner. He's still trying to do a lot of things, and he's not just standing still with guitar, just settling for one particular level. He's still going all he can, and that's one thing I appreciate about him. He's trying to phrase, also. He's trying to get away from the guitar phrase and get into horn phrasing.


"And Tal Farlow. Tal Farlow strikes me as different altogether. He doesn't have as much feeling as Barney Kessel to me, but he's got more drive in his playing, and
his technique along with that drive is pretty exciting. He makes it exciting. I think he's got a better conception of modern chords than the average guitar player.


"A lot of guitar players can play modern chords, they can take a solo of modern chords; but they're liable to leave it within the solo range that they're in. They're liable to get away from it and then come back to it, get away from it and come back to it. Tal Farlow usually stays right on it.


"Jimmy Raney is just the opposite from Tal Farlow. They seem like they have the same ideas in mind, the same changes, the same runs, the same kind of feeling. But Jimmy Raney is so smooth. He does it without a mistake, like some cats play piano they couldn't make a mistake if they wanted to. That's the way Jimmy Raney is. He gives it a real soft touch, but the ideas are just like Tal Farlow's to me.


"And then George Henry, a cat I heard in Chicago. He's a playing cat. He asked could he play a tune, and so he gets up there, and that's the first time I ever heard a guitar phrase like Charlie Parker. It was just the solos, the chords and things he used were just like any other cat, you know. And there's another guy from Houston who plays with his thumb.


"And naturally, Reinhardt, he's in a different thing altogether. And Charlie Byrd. You know, I like all guitar players. I like what they play. But to stand out like Charlie Christian. Well, I guess it's just one of those things.


"My aim, I think, is to be able to move from one vein to another without any trouble. If you were going to take a melody line or counterpoint or unison lines with another instrument, do that and then, maybe after a certain point, you drop out completely, and maybe the next time you'll play phrases and chords or something or maybe you'll take octaves. That way you have a lot of variations, if you can control each one of them and still keep feeling it. To me the biggest thing is to keep the feeling within your playing regardless of what you play. Keep a feeling there, and that's hard to do.


"You know, John Coltrane has been sort of a god to me. Seems like, in a way, he didn't get the inspiration out of other musicians. He had it. When you hear a cat do a thing like that, you got to go along with him. I think I heard Coltrane before I really got close to Miles. Miles had a tricky way of playing his horn that I didn't understand as much as I did Coltrane. I really didn't understand what Coltrane was doing, but it was so exciting, the thing that he was doing. Then after I really began to understand Miles, then Miles came up on top.


"Now, this may sound pretty weird— the way I feel when I'm up there playing the way I play doesn't match—but it's like some cats are holding your hands. C'mon, you know, and they'll keep you in there. If you try to keep up to them, they'll lose you, you know. And I like that. I really like that.


"Sometimes I'll do nothing but listen to records. All kinds, over and over. Then, after a while, it breaks and I don't even want to hear them. Nothing. I think it's because at the times I don't want to hear, I've heard so much it's got me confused and I'm so far away from it on my instrument—from the things I've been hearing— that I've got to put it aside and go back to where I am. And try to get out of that hole!


"I was surprised to win the DownBeat thing. I think I was playing more in 1952 than I ever have."”

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Billy Mitchell: 1926-2000 - A Tribute

© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

Billy Mitchell’s musical story is a tale of two cities: Kansas City, Missouri where he was born and Detroit, Michigan where he grew up.


What the tenor saxophonist inherited from K.C. and the Motor City can be heard every time he takes a chorus. This inheritance is the roots of the Jazz tradition.


Mention Kansas City and Bennie Moten, Walter Page’s Blue Devils and Count Basie come to mind.


Bill Mitchell was a driving force and major influence during this post WWII Detroit modern jazz explosion.


Incubating in the Detroit of Billy Mitchell’s youth were a number of future great Jazz musicians including the Jones Brothers - Thad, Hank and Elvin - Yusef Lateef, Frank Foster, Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris, and Paul Chambers


"I had a band at the Blue Bird," Mitchell recalled in a conversation with Jazz author Bob Blumenthal. "It was a quartet until Thad sat in one night. The next night, he was working with us permanently. We recorded for Dee Gee Records, which was jointly owned by Dizzy Gillespie and Dave Usher. At that time, Terry Pollard was in the band — she was later replaced by Tommy Flanagan — and she played vibes and piano. When she took a vibes solo on the recording session, Thad comped for her on piano. Elvin was in the band at that time, too. In fact, Elvin had never played in a professional band before that."


The Mitchell session is a rare one, having last appeared in the '50s on a Savoy anthology called SWING, NOT SPRING, and the details are obscure. Discographies have given 1948 as its date, though Mitchell confirms that it was more likely done in 1951 or '52.”


Billy was to become best known for his work in the 1950’s and 60’s with Dizzy Gillespie’s Big Band and The Count Basie Orchestra. He also performed with the Clarke-Boland Big Band in Europe on several occasions.


Mitchell and trombonist Al Grey left Basie in late 1961 and formed the Al Grey/Billy Mitchell Sextet, which won the Downbeat Award for best new jazz band of 1962! This band also officially introduced vibraphone future star Bobby Hutcherson. Barry Kernfeld noted in The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz that this “... ensemble, in its use of swinging riffs and bop improvisation, captured in a small group context the essence of Basie’s orchestral approach.


Besides leaving and rejoining Basie's band several times in the 60's, Billy was an important figure on Long Island (his home) and Manhattan in the educational area of jazz; he was mentor and friend to alto saxophonist Charles McPherson and also worked for a time in Los Angeles where he and influenced LA trombonist/composer-arranger Richard Pulin.


With his bright, bouncy, on-the-beat improvisations, Billy has always personified Joyous Jazz to me. Jazz that’s not complicated and swings in a straight-ahead manner. It’s fun to play the music this way and equally as much fun to listen to it without having to reach for it.


Sonny Stitt, Lucky Thompson, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Johnny Griffin, Gene Ammons, Arnett Cobb, David “Fathead” Newman, Harold Land, Paul Gonsalves - the list of big-toned bluesy tenor saxophonists is as endless as it is endlessly satisfying.