BLP 4072

The Three Sounds - Feelin' Good

Released - September 1961

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, June 28, 1960
Gene Harris, piano, celeste; Andrew Simpkins, bass; Bill Dowdy, drums.

tk.3 I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart
tk.12 Two Bass Hit
tk.16 It Could Happen To You
tk.17 Straight, No Chaser
tk.18 Blues After Dark
tk.20 Parker's Pad

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
When I Fall in Love	Edward Heyman, Victor Young	28/06/1960
Parker's Pad	Gene Harris	28/06/1960
Blues After Dark	Benny Golson	28/01/1960
I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good)	Duke Ellington	28/01/1960
Side Two
Straight, No Chaser	Thelonious Monk	28/06/1960
I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart	Duke Ellington, Irving Mills	28/06/1960
It Could Happen to You	Johnny Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen	28/06/1960
Two Bass Hit	John Lewis, Dizzy Gillespie	28/06/1960

Liner Notes

A-A-H! WOW! U-M-M!

Very descriptive, yes? There's not a single word in the lot, just sounds — three inviting, suggestive sounds. They all imply pleasure and satisfaction. The album you are now holding contains alternate moments of bubbling pleasure and calm, relaxed satisfaction. It is a recording, appropriately enough, by a sure-footed, swinging unit known as The Three Sounds.

As groups go these days, this one is a veteran crew. Welded together in 1956, the trio has remained intact and has managed to survive a Down Beat reviewer panning, the jazz economic depression and the onslaught of the Third Stream. Add to this survival the fact that no member of the group is over 28 years old and you arrive at an unbeatable combination of endurance, perseverance and youth.

The Three Sounds have another element working for them. They casually exhibit a singlemindedness of purpose and a "togetherness" which would create happy havoc within the walls of Home and Family Circle. The three individual musicians instinctively jell from the count-of to the tag and all points in between. Each man is conceptually attuned to the other two. Whatever the mood expressed, there is never the feeling that one man is constantly carrying the load and the duo supporting. The mood is perfectly conveyed by the subtle intershifting of the weight within the trio.

Take the opening track for instance. The trio begins brightly with Harris apparently out front. Just when you're convinced that he is leading the parade, you hear Simpkins walking strongly behind him and Dowdy's cymbal sizzling along, almost melodically. When I Fall In Love is a group effort and the happy mood created belongs to all three men.

Parker's Pad is played as a basic medium tempo blues. The most remarkable feature of this track is the evidence of Simpkins' growth and development since his first recorded efforts three years ago.

Benny Golson's jazz standard, Blues After Dark, is usually recorded with horns. This trio arrangement, with the three men all digging in, is a powerful reworking of the tune. It emerges with body and strength and for the duration of their version, the horns are not missed.

There's no preliminary warmup to prepare you for the trio's working over of I Got It Bad. They plunge right in and before you know it, you're in the midst of the most soulful heartbaring you've ever heard. This shall perhaps remain the favorite version of the Ellington classic for many listeners. It is embarrassingly candid. While Harris' contribution walks right off the record and you immediately, you have to sit back awhile and feel the unintrusive pulse that is Simpkins. When the tune reaches the bridge — Wham! — there he is and, you recall, he's been there all the time.

Thelonious Monk's Straight No Chaser really belongs to Simpkins. Definitely in the fore for the first time on the album, he builds a solid granite solo, no tricks, no flash, just accomplishment and imagination. Apparently his groove fires the other two musicians, for Harris is burning when he re-enters, Dowdy jumps in smoking and the trio really cooks. (There is just no neat, precise and conventional way to describe this.)

The trio returns to the light, bubbling mood of the opening track with I Let A Song Go of My Heart. Swinging ever so slightly, they merely hint, from time to time, at the strength and power of the unit.

lt Could Happen to You is another torcher. The over-all mood is exquisitely blue and delicate. Harris throws himself headlong into the cautioning tune and you can almost see the finger wagging in your smug face.

The set is concluded with Dowdy taking the fore. Two Bass Hit places the swift drummer squarely in the spotlight. Although he has an extended solo, the tune is his from the word "Go." He pushes and drives the unit all the way.

This is One of the most exciting trio sessions it has my pleasure to earcheck this year. Correction — THE most exciting trio this year. Blue Note was extremely fortunate to record this tightknit unit when all the members were playing well and FEELIN' GOOD.

—BARBARA J. GARDNER

Photos by FRANCIS WOLFF
Cover Design by REID MILES
Recording by RUDY VAN GELDER