BLP 1549

 Clifford Jordan - Blowing in from Chicago

Released - March 1957

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, March 3, 1957
John Gilmore, Clifford Jordan, tenor sax; Horace Silver, piano; Curly Russell, bass; Art Blakey, drums.

tk.2 Evil Eye
tk.3 Status Quo
tk.7 Bo-Till
tk.9 Everywhere
tk.12 Blue Lights
tk.13 Billie's Bounce

Session Photos

Rehearsal

Photos: Francis Wolff

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Status Quo	John Neeley	03/03/1957
Bo-Till	Clifford Jordan	03/03/1957
Blue Lights	Gigi Gryce	03/03/1957
Side Two
Billie's Bounce	Charlie Parker	03/03/1957
Evil Eye	Clifford Jordan	03/03/1957
Everywhere	Horace Silver	03/03/1957

Credits

Cover Photo:	FRANCIS WOLFF
Cover Design:	HAROLD FEINSTEIN
Engineer:	RUDY VAN GELDER
Producer:	ALFRED LION
Liner Notes:	JOE SEGAL

Liner Notes

“Blowing In From Chicago" represents another step forward being made by Blue Note to the purpose of placing Chicago’s musical talent on the map of respected recognition... Not since the days of the original “Chicago Jazz” style, a wide-open and raucously swinging evolvement of “New Orleans Jazz”, has there been such a wealth of young spirited Jazz talent from this mid-west area... As in the earlier style, a general feeling of uninhibitedness and eager experimentation dominates this new musical generation. Remember, it was here that Bird first made an impression, after leaving Kansas City, before he hit New York; here that the Earl Hines band organized and spawned the fabulous Billy Eckstine crew; here that Gene Ammons, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Stitt and Fats Navarro played many of their formative period gigs. Gene and Sonny most certainly hove been the major influences in this area, with the more recent saxophonists favoring Sonny Rollins... It is here also that John Coltrane said to me, “I haven’t heard so many good young tenor men anywhere else in the country.”... Here, then, are two of the most exciting of these new tenor men, Clifford Jordan and John Gilmore...

Like the scholastic background of Blue Note’s first Chicago import, Johnny Griffin (BLP 1533 and BLP 1559), both Clifford and John were taught their musical ABC’s by Capt. Walter Dyett at DuSable High School on Chicago’s Southside...(Two of their classmates were bassist Richard Davis, now with Sarah Vaughan, and altoist, John Jenkins, soon to appear on a Blue Note LP, BLP 1560. with Honk Mobley.) . . . Both are 25 yrs. of age, and have had varied experiences playing most every type of popular music; Clifford with many of the over-worked blues bonds that infest the area; John, most notably as solo clarinetist for two years in an Army Air Force Bond, and more recently as featured tenor soloist with a large bond that Earl Hines assembled for a nation-wide tour as part of a show with the Harlem Globetrotters (He is now featured with the exciting experimental octet of Sun Ra)... Clifford has been playing 11 years, John, 10....

Both fellows list practically the same saxophonists as their favorites, including Pres, Byas, Lucky Thompson, Gene Ammons, Dexter Gordon, and of course, and most prominently, Bird and Sonny Rollins. However, two very special tenor men have influenced these seasoned youngsters as to the intenseness of their playing, the late Wardell Gray, and Sonny Stitt. This happened mostly when John and Cliff played with those two, on the famous Monday night sessions at the now defunct BeeHive, in “sink or swim” competition... (Wardell and Sonny have certainly caused many a young musician to get his feet wet, and both the musicians concerned, and the music world in general have benefited greatly)....

The rhythm section assembled by Blue Note for this session is a superlative one, indeed... Returning, on bass, from the Griffin LP, is Curly Russell, who, and we are very thankful for this, is finally getting enough recording dates and Jazz gigs to keep him from the myriad R & B jobs which virtually held him prisoner the post few years... Leader of “The Jazz Messengers”, Art Blakey, is our percussionist for the date, and his reunion with pianist Horace Silver, grooved herein for posterity, is an electrifying one . . . Both seemed to feel greatly the nuances and anticipations so necessary to create on integrated arid interesting rhythmic pulse . . . Their help in stabilizing a young nervousness, most naturally encountered on a first solo record date, is of inestimable value... Horace, incidentally. is greatly responsible for bringing John and Clifford to Blue Note’s attention. He became enamored of their talents jamming with them, while appearing here with “The Messengers”....

Clifford plays the lead parts in all of the ensemble work, and his mellower tone is readily distinguishable from Gilmore’s harder, more punching sound....

Status Quo, an original by John Neely (another fine Chicago tenor man), kicks off side 1 in a bright, hard driving manner, with Gilmore taking the first tenor solo... Art’s gutty fill-ins and solo are standouts in this cut which exhibits just how beautifully happy good Jazz con be...

Clifford Jordan's Latin flavored Bo-Till follows. His is the first solo, and it sings as prettily... Horace presents here one of the most reflective and simply swinging solos of his entire recording career....

Side 1 closes with Gigi Gryce’s Blue Lights, quickly becoming a Modern Jazz standard... Gilmore solos first, and plays some very challenging chord changes. During Horace’s solo, he and Art build the tension to an almost unbelievable pitch with their famous “double timing”, only to swing twice as much when they resume the regular time. In this tune, Curly reminds the Jazz world that he deserves more solo space....

Billie’s Bounce, taken a little faster than usual, creates an in-person jam session feeling with its unrestrained flow of biting solos and exploding rhythmic decapitations....

Clifford’s Evil Eye (minor blues), relaxes the tempo into an easygoing bounce, with John following Cliff, and leading into another superbly well stated Horace Silver solo.

Horace’s lone composition for the date, a show-type tune he calls Everywhere, closes the LP, and in many respects is the smoothest flowing selection in the set.

Throughout the album, I think you will feel the sincerity of these two young horn men, their obvious difference in tone and conception, and the freshness of their mid-west approach... For, with the brilliantly creative musical background that Chicago has given them, it is inevitable that John Gilmore, and Clifford Jordan will make an important contribution to the world of Modern Jazz tenor playing... I agree with “Trane”, how about you????

—JOE SEGAL
(Chicago Columnist, Metronome)

Photo by FRANCIS WOLFF
Cover Design by HAROLD FEINSTEIN
Recording by RUDY VAN GELDER

RVG CD Reissue Liner Notes

A NEW LOOK AT BLOWING IN FROM CHICAGO

Tenor sax conclaves were something of a cottage industry at Rudy Van Gelder's studio around the time this album was recorded. Much of the activity took place on Prestige sessions, where John Coltrane and Hank Mobley had worked together with Elmo Hope and in a four-tenor jam with Al Cohn and Zoot Sims, where Coltrane joined Sonny Rollins for the immortal "Tenor Madness" face-off, and where Gene Ammons and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis would confront two or three additional tenors on a few of their sessions. During the first half of 1957, Blue Note also had occasion to stockpile tenors on this date; Johnny Griffin's A Blowing Session (with Coltrane and Mobley), and the self-titled Hank Mobley sextet that also featured Curtis Porter (aka Shafi Hadi) on tenor and alto.

In this context, the double-bill of John Gilmore and Clifford Jordan may not appear particularly imposing. Yet the music they produced stands up very well indeed, thanks to the compatibility of the featured horns, the fire of the all-star rhythm section and a well-chosen program of music.

As Joe Segal's notes indicated, both tenors were products of the music program that Capt. Walter Dyett ran at Chicago's DuSable High School. Dyett, who was already established as a mentor to the likes of Gene Ammons, Nat Cole, Bennie Green and Von Freeman before Griffin, Gilmore, Jordan and their post-bop confreres matriculated at DuSable, clearly had a gift for imparting the basics of musicianship without stifling the individuality that jazz demands. Gilmore and Jordan are cases in point, both being fluent on the horn yet distinctive even at this early point in their careers. Gilmore, who has a more emphatic, on-the-beat attack and a quirkier melodic imagination, is the first soloist on "Status Quo," "Blue Lights" and "Everywhere," while the more bop-centered Jordan leads on the other titles, including the bonus track "Let It Stand."

They rise to the occasion throughout on top of a rhythm section that makes no concessions for the youth or inexperience of the featured players. This is the same trio that lit the fire on Blakey's historic A Night At Birdland recordings, and they perform here with the same intensity. The mood is particularly Messengeresque on "Billie's Bounce," which Blakey opens and galvanizes throughout. There is also lots of solo room for Silver, who would only make two more appearances as a sideman (with Mobley and Sonny Rollins) before turning to bandleading exclusively.

The compositions bring out the best in the players, and are programmed to surround the three blues titles with originals based on the changes of such standards as "There Will Never Be Another You" ("Status Quo") and "What Is This Thing Called Love?" ("Bo-Till"). We also get two minor-key blues lines surrounding the major-key "Billie's Bounce, " which sustains variety. It is not particularly surprising that a composition by hometown friend John Neely is included; as Chicagoans, Griffin and Wilbur Ware were also in the habit of calling upon lesser-known Windy City associates for material. Gigi Gryce's beautiful "Blue Lights, " first recorded by the Gryce/Art Farmer quintet in 1955, was also a staple Of the Gryce/Donald Byrd Jazz Lab group that existed at the time of this recording.

The featured tenors here went on to substantial, though quite different careers. Jordan (1931-93) stayed in New York after this Session, where he was featured in the bands of Max Roach, Silver, J.J. Johnson, Kenny Dorham, and Charles Mingus over the course of the next decade. During the '70s, he worked frequently with the Cedar Walton/Sam Jones/Billy Higgins rhythm section that became known as the Magic Triangle, and in the following decade he often appeared with Barry Harris and Art Farmer. He was also widely recorded by Blue Note (two more albums after this one), Riverside/Jazzland, Atlantic, Muse, SteepleChase and Mapleshade, and also produced his own Dolphy Series for Strata East. While he generally worked under his own name in small groups, at the end of his life Jordan was leading an impressive big band in New York.

John Gilmore (1931-95) had his moments as a small-group sideman as well, with the likes of Blakey, Mingus, Elmo Hope, McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard and Andrew Hill, but the bulk of his career Was spent as the most celebrated sideman in Sun Rats Arkestra, and as the Arkestra's co-leader (with Marshall Allen) in the two years between Sun Ra's death and Gilmore's own. Sun Ra was notorious for the control he exerted over his sidemen, which explains in large part why Gilmore never recorded again under his own name. When Jordan was under contract to Muse Records in the '70s, producer Joe Fields suggested recreating the present album. Jordan was agreeable, but Gilmore had to run the idea by Sun Ra, and Sun Ra said no.

— Bob Blumenthal, 2002