BLP 4088

The Three Sounds - Here We Come

Released - January 1962

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, December 13, 1960
Gene Harris, piano; Andrew Simpkins, bass; Bill Dowdy, drums.

tk.4 Summertime
tk.5 Here We Come
tk.11 Poinciana
tk.17 Sonnymoon For Two

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, December 14, 1960
Gene Harris, piano; Andrew Simpkins, bass; Bill Dowdy, drums.

tk.23 Just Squeeze Me
tk.25 Broadway
tk.26 Now's The Time
tk.33 Our Love Is Here To Stay

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Now's the Time	Charlie Parker	14 December 1960
Summertime	George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, DuBose Heyward	13 December 1960
Here We Come	Gene Harris	13 December 1960
Just Squeeze Me	Duke Ellington, Lee Gaines	14 December 1960
Side Two
Broadway	Billy Bird, Teddy McRae, Henri Woode	14 December 1960
Our Love Is Here to Stay	George Gershwin	14 December 1960
Poinciana	Buddy Bernier, Nat Simon	13 December 1960
Sonnymoon for Two	Sonny Rollins	13 December 1960

Liner Notes

YOU HEAR lots of things about jazz — descriptions like "soul," "funk," "gospel influenced"; and you hear jazz musicians called "leaders of new schools," etc. And there are sundry other descriptions. Yet with all the different classifications, there are a few who defy being labeled. They are not the innovators, and — what's more important — they don't try to be. They don't, as some glib, 'qualified' critic might say, seek to establish direction, per se. They play good jazz; they play good music; and in doing so, they find no need to defend nor to apologize for their musical goodwill, their natural eagerness to play well while playing jazzically.

The Three Sounds make such a group.

Yet, these Blue Note artists do innovate by bringing us back to good listening music; music to tap the foot to; harmonious sounds that are moving, emotional. And music, like religion, should be neither all emotion nor completely lacking same. When we say that the Three Sounds are coming here with happy music and that the best jazz has always been happy jazz, you catch on; we're really saying that they make the best jazz here.

The Three Sounds have been introduced on the Blue Note label in previous albums. In their brief recording career, they have gained an increasing number of loyal fans around the country. Their fans, however, are the active type, not the passive "hippies" who feel that the support of artists lies in merely saying, "Like man, I dig him." The Three Sounds' fans buy their albums and support them when they arrive on the scene. This kind of devotion is due, number one, to the music the group plays and, number two, to the group itself.

In "Here We Come!" these wonderful guys sound like an oasis in a desert looks: — Welcome. And they come here When a lot of jazz musicians are doing their best to play everything but good, swinging, listenable jazz.

They're nicely, pleasantly serious and musically dedicated to taking care of business and considering the listener. Their music tells you that they believe, as we do, that you must first LISTEN to hear — in this case — their lyrical music, their musical message, not comprised of some mysterious, unfathomable essence directed only to the initiated. Theirs has melody, beat and feeling. Only by listening to these, With the full attention of our feelings, can we absorb the music of artists in love With their Work. And being in love — with work or with one — may be "a heartache either Way, but beautiful."

Instead of comparing musicians to numerous others, instead of this insane clinical analysis of what we supposedly hear, why not listen? Musician, layman and jazz would be the better.

On this disc, the Three Sounds are better...better than others and better than they've been. And the appeal of the album is that the Three Sounds, despite the name, give one: One sound from three talented approaches, one sound from three musical souls not seeking to shatter tradition for the sake oi innovation alone. Theirs is the free-flowing testimony of artists in love With their work. They simply give to us who listen a delightful, almost wispy type of good music illustrating a firm respect for melody. They treat tunes tenderly and their performances have dignity with jazzical taste.

The group pays its respects to the great Charles Christopher Parker With their opening track of Now's the Time. Their interpretation is somewhat slower than the original I recall With Parker, Al Haig, Percy Heath and Max Roach. Gene Harris takes the solo lead on piano, supplanting the original Parker solo. Adding the block chord structure he firmly punctuates his steady, even pace. The bass work of Andrew Simpkins becomes more and more pronounced as Gene moves along. Finally Gene starts building. The team continues as the solo climaxes With Gene moving deftly into his final chorus before giving way to Andrew's solo. Finally the group returns to the original melody line, and all Parkerites will tip their hats to the fact that Now's the Time for the Three Sounds.

And their Summertime is for all time. The group gives a blue warmth to this classic from "Porgy and Bess." There are snatches here and there of a loosely sketched After Hours, the late Avery Parrish tune recorded by Erskine Hawkins. The Sounds don't permit you to linger too long because they skillfully change direction by adding a beat; the bass drum of Bill Dowdy softly thumps away. Shortly, these musical navigators shift course again — theirs and ours. And we follow so easily. They see to that by keeping us ever bound with deep, intense feeling. Here, too, is evidence that Gene Harris is not afraid of the piano.

Gene composed the title tune on the third track; it's called Here We Come and is (oh yeah!) obviously gospel influenced. The combination of tambourine and bass provides an interesting treatment; however, with all this consciousness of the tune's gospel vogue, it never quite gets in the way — it's present but never obtrusive. Finally, the group breaks away for the Sounds' standard return to the original melody line.

Just Squeeze Me from the Ellington book (first used as a showcase for the great cornetist, Rex Stewart, under the title of Subtle Slough) made its audio appearance in 1941. Here, the Three Sounds offer their sound of comfortable union which Gene guides most of the way. Listening is important here, for this track makes you feel and understand this group's easy ability to blend beautifully. Again, they respect the melody by treating it delicately. Their improvisation never obscures the beauty of the tune.

Broadway has proven to be a free, loose-wheeling outing for many jazz musicians. And here the Three Sounds are no exception. Their ability to swing on this composition gives notice that they are neatly rooted in what will be known as modern tradition. The prominence of Gene's piano is never too forceful to dim the moving support he recieves. There is never the discomfort that one instrument strides forth to leave the others behind. They're always together in their musical intent to be just that — together.

The ballad treatment Of Gershwin's Our Love Is Here To Stay is warm and lyrical that the temptation to hum the lyrics along With the group shouldn't be resisted. As the group departs momentarily to embellish basics, we're right with them. Our Sounds are quiet, subdued, lightly swinging. They add just enough spice to make this tune, so often recorded, even more welcome now. When they make their melodic return near the end, We're glad to believe that "love is here to stay."

Poinciana, the third track on side two, is a new The Latin motif of the tune makes its own reception in providing a pleasing change of pace that lends itself well to the mood of the album. In this type of arrangement there always seems to be a temptation for the percussionist to stretch out, but Bill Dowdy shows that a drummer can make himself felt and still avoid the loud and the piercing. His is a velvet touch.

Sonnymoon for Two, the Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins tune, opens the door for the group to establish the last of their offerings on this album. Again, the desire for musicians to improvise and swing does not mean they must scatter helter skelter and leave the listener alone and unguided. The group keeps us with them on this musical journey that broadens us, especially in our sensual concept of jazz.

The Three Sounds must be heard here, listened to. Appreciate the incredibly peerless performances of a team at work. They do no wrong. And they're not selfish with the joy in their work; they hopefully pass on the quiet excitement of their happiness to you, the Listener. You're automatically accepted as a member in their growing fandom after hearing these Three Sounds saying, "Here We Come." They invite themselves to your jazzical affection and, in so doing, they extend to you a warm invitation to hear their previous Blue Note releases.

"Listen to the artists — and to their art," we've been saying. In this album, Gene Harris, Andrew Simpkins and Bill Dowdy give plenty of nice, musical reasons why.

— DEL SHIELDS

Del Shields is active in radio and television in the Philadelphia area, conducting a two-hour show on WDAS-FM; he is also managing editor of "Nite Owl," a weekly entertainment tabloid for the after-dark set. His weekly TV show will be resumed on WRCV•TV (NCC) in January '62

Cover Photo by RONNIE BRATHwAITE
Recording by RUDY VAN GELDER