Leo Parker - Rollin' With Leo
Released - 1980 / 1986
Recording and Session Information
Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, October 12, 1961
Dave Burns, trumpet; Bill Swindell, tenor sax; Leo Parker, baritone sax; John Acea, piano; Stan Conover, bass; Purnell Rice, drums.
tk.1 Rollin' With Leo
tk.8 Music Hall Beat
Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, October 20, 1961
Dave Burns, trumpet; Bill Swindell, tenor sax; Leo Parker, baritone sax; John Acea, piano; Al Lucas, bass; Wilbert Hogan, drums.
tk.22 Bad Girl
tk.27 Mad Lad Returns
tk.30 Stuffy
tk.32 Jumpin' Leo
tk.37 Talkin' The Blues
tk.38 The Lion's Roar
See Also: LT-1076
Session Photos
Photos: © Francis Wolff/Mosaic Images
https://www.mosaicrecordsimages.com/
Track Listing
| Side One | ||
| Title | Author | Recording Date |
| The Lion's Roar | Leo Parker | 20 October 1961 |
| Bad Girl | Stan Conover | 20 October 1961 |
| Rollin' with Leo | Leo Parker | 12 October 1961 |
| Music Hall Beat | Illinois Jacquet | 12 October 1961 |
| Side Two | ||
| Jumpin' Leo | Leo Parker | 20 October 1961 |
| Talkin' the Blues | Leo Parker | 20 October 1961 |
| Stuffy | Coleman Hawkins | 20 October 1961 |
| Mad Lad Returns | Leo Parker | 20 October 1961 |
Liner Notes
If you talk Basie or Ellington or Kenton musicians and they mention "The Band" in passing, you know instinctively what band is under discussion. Yet, if you talk to bebop survivors and they talk about "The Band", there is only one band to consider. Dizzy may talk about "my band," but "The Band" is always the Billy Eckstine Orchestra. Almost thirty-five years after its demise, it is still a major topic of discussion. There is good reason. Consider the fact that Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro, Mules Davis, Doug Mettome, Kenny Dorham, Tommy Turrentine. King Kolax, Leonard Hawkins, and Gail Brockman were in the trumpet section at different times. Sarah Vaughan was Eckstine's girl vocalist, and Art Blakey was the drummer. Yet, inevitably, discussions focus on the reed section.
Bird was there briefly. Wardell Gray recorded with different editions, but never toured with Eckstine. Budd Johnson played with the band, but was more important as an arranger. Norris Turney, Flaps Dungee, Lucky Thompson, Cecil Payne, Frank Wess, and Tate Houston were also in the band at various times, but the key section was the one with Sonny Stitt, John Jackson, Dexter Gordon, Gene Ammons, and Leo Parker. It was a band filled with "tempestuous youth" (in Gordon's phrase). Dexter was known as the "Vice President" in that band (a nick-name that didn't stick)' Ammons was known as "Jug" (a nick-name that did stick): and Leo Porker was "The Kid."
"I remember him when he played alto," Sonny Stitt recalled. "But 'B' needed a baritone player, so he bought The Kid a horn, and that's how he came on the band. He never did go back to alto." Stitt also remembers him in the '40s sessions in Washington, D.C. jamming with Buck Hill, Leo Wllliams, and other local hotshots.
Jimmy Heath remembered seeing Parker at Minton's in a group with Lockjaw Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Max Roach in 1944. Coleman Hawkins grabbed many of those players for his Apollo Records session of February 16, 1944. This gig produced Dizzy's Woody 'n You, and is generally considered the first modern jazz record date. Leo played alto but didn't solo. (His first important solo was with Sarah Vaughan on My Kinda' Love in 1946.)
Porker didn't solo with Eckstine either, but he was a charter member of "The Unholy Four" with Gordon, Stitt, and Jackson. (See Ira Gitler's Jazz Masters of the '40s for a full discussion of this period.) In mid-1945, "The Unholy Four" split the Eckstine band and for the next year-and-a-half, Leo alternated between gigs on 52nd Street (including several with Dizzy) and work around Washington.
1947 was the year Leo really arrived with some impact. His first featured appearance as a soloist was with Fats Navarro on the famous Ice Freezes Red date for Savoy in January. He then joined Illinois Jacquet and remained with that band for over a year. To put things in perspective, one must remember that Illinois's group was the hottest jazz combo in the country at that time. The Jacquet band played The Ed Sullivan Show in 1948!
Illinois's influence as a player was enormous, and Leo definitely absorbed some of it. Jacquet, when asked whether or not his style had any effect on Leo, answered, '"Yes, I think so; but remember that Leo was one of the leaders of the bop school, so he had that going, too." Illinois, who has always named Leo as one of his personal favorites, also remembers him as a generous person who had "big ears." "You couldn't play anything that would get past him!" Leo's recorded solos with Jacquet are: "Jumpin' at The Woodside," "Music Hall Beat, "and "Diggin' the Count" (Apollo); "Embryo," "Mutton Leg," and "Symphony in Sid" (RCA); "Jivin' with Jack the Bellboy" and "For Truly" (Alladin); and "Saph" (Clef).
As one might expect, given the popularity of Illinois's group, the small jazz labels of the time began to record as much of the Jacquet band (sans Illinois) as they could. That, plus the fact that the second A.F.M. recording ban was on the horizon, insured a great deal of recording for the remainder of 1947.
There were dates with Russell Jacquet for Sensation, with Sir Charles Thompson for Apollo, and with J. J. Johnson for Savoy. Parker's first record under his own name came about while Illinois went off for a couple of weeks to play some key engagements with Jazz at the Philharmonic. Leo did a week in Chicago, with Gene Ammons, where the group recorded for Alladin under Ammons's leadership, and then a date in Detroit, where Parker's first sides for Savoy were cut.
The first release on Savoy (El Sino/Wild Leo) sold well, but the label was no' very big on promotion. However, they did feature Leo's records on their 78 r.p.m, sleeves, and even issued a 78 r.p.m. album, coupling Leo's sides with those of Charlie Parker (no relation). Leo's second Savoy session was in December (1947) and featured, essentially, the Illinois Jacquet band, with Dexter Gordon on tenor (a week or so earlier, Leo was in on the famous Gordon date that included "Settin' the Pace"). This session produced a pair of classics, in J. J. Johnson's "Wee Dot" and Leo's version of "Solitude" (his finest ballad). Leo's final sides for Savoy were cut in March 1948. But, by that time, he had acquired a second nickname, "Mad Lad."
The name came about because of Sir Charles Thompson's record of the same name, which featured Leo at his wildest. In fact, it was a big enough hit to make Parker a leader, and for most of the next six years, Leo led his own groups, but mostly outside of New York. Along the way there were record dates for Gotham, Prestige, United, Alladin, Chess (two fine sessions), and King. And then, abruptly, in 1954, it stopped.
Little is known about Leo Parker's activities during the remainder of the Fifties. Pianist John Malachi, a lifelong friend, recalled a period of hospitalization for lung problems, but didn't think that Leo ever gave up playing. In 1961, Parker came to the attention of Blue Note and an LP, Let Me Tell You About It 4087), was issued. A second album, Rollin' with Leo was recorded (about a month later), but was not released. That music is what we have here.
Of Leo's sidemen for Rollin' with Leo, Bill Swindell, Stan Conover, and Purnell Rice are holdovers from Parker's first Blue Note session. Al Lucas and Johnny Acea were one-time members of Illinois Jacquet's band. Dave Burns has appeared on several Blue Note albums through the years, including dates with James Moody (1948), George Wallington (1954), and Dexter Gordon (1962); and Wilbert Hogan has worked with Lionel Hampton, Randy Weston, and Ike Quebec.
The music here is typical of what one would expect from Leo Parker: "Stuffy" is Coleman Hawkins's tune, previously recorded for King; "Music Hall Beat" is Illinois's; "Mad Lad Returns" was originally recorded for Prestige; while "The Lion's Roar" was cut with Russell Jacquet for Sensation and also on Leo's own second date for Savoy; "Rollin' with Leo" had been waxed for Gotham.
As to the new material: Stan Conover's "Bad Girl" is a strutting minor line (it's a shame that the composer didn't get a chance to play on it); "Jumpin' Leo" is a hard-swinging, straight-ahead blues with equally driving solos by Parker, Burns, Swindell, Acea, and Lucas, before a return to the theme and a tag by the leader; "Talkin' Blues" is down, in the traditional manner, with Leo singing on his horn, separated by two choruses of Acea's fine piano. A beautiful performance!
But then almost everything Leo plays here is as good as anything he ever played. The excesses of his forties style had been replaced by a relaxation and mellowness which is especially attractive. The sidemen are all excellent, with a special nod in the direction of the underrated tenor of Bill Swindell.
It would be futile to speculate as to what would have happened to Leo Parker's music had he lived. Certainly, the albums he made for Blue Note were excellent. Leo came to New York For more recording in February 1962. Parker had completed one session with Illinois Jacquet (no solos), and was scheduled for a reunion with Dexter Gordon for Blue Note. On February 11, Leo died of a heart attack.
For Leo Parker (born on April 18, 1925), this album serves as a final chapter in a book of what was. Oh, there are still some sides for Alladin, Apollo (with Sir Charles), and United that remain unissued. Perhaps they'll be released someday. But, as good as they may be, it's unlikely that they'll add more than a note to what has already been written. What we do know is that Leo Parker, baritone saxophonist, a hard swinger, equally at home in bebop or swing-jump combos, who could also play beautiful ballads with a big sound rivaled only by Harry Carney.
Dexter Gordon was Leo's roommate in "The Band." Let's let the "Vice President" have the last word: "The Kid could play — lots of bottoms."
— BOB PORTER
RVG CD Reissue Liner Notes[edit]
A NEW LOOK AT ROLLIN' WITH LEO
Little has changed regarding the posthumous reputation of Leo Parker in the 28 years since Porter penned what remains the definitive summary of Parker's career. The belated appearance of this music in 1980, eighteen years after the LP had been announced, did not augur public recognition of his status among jazz's great baritone saxophonists; and while much of the discography which Porter alludes has also resurfaced in the ensuing decades, the deep and nimble Parker sound remains peripheral to even many of the most devoted fans of the jazz era he helped create. It is never too late, though, and the inclusion of both Parker's Blue Note albums in Rudy Van Gelder editions provides one more opportunity to lionize this most deserving player.
Blue Note certainly felt that Parker was entitled to the attention when he reappeared after nearly a seven-year absence from recorded activity. After cutting his comeback disc, Let Me Tell You 'Bout It, on September 9, 1961, Parker returned to Van Gelder's studio little more than a month later with a sextet identical in instrumentation and similar in personnel. In addition to the two tracks ultimately used on Rollin' with Leo, four additional titles were also attempted. These four, plus "The Lion's Roar" (also taped in September in a take now included as a bonus track on Let Me Tell...) and "Talkin' the Blues" were revisited on October 20, with further changes in the sextet's rhythm section. Had Parker survived to keep his scheduled reunion with Dexter Gordon, he would have recorded three albums in five months.
What we hear of the October 12 session reveals a band that, at least when the day's work began, had struck a most convincing groove. It gives the title track a more mellow reading than the 1950 original, where Kenny Drew's piano imparted a distinct boogie-woogie feel. "Music Hall Beat" is closer to the 1947 original (named by composer Illinois Jacquet for a nightclub in Parker's home town Washington, D.C.), and allows all four primary soloists to work out over the "Lady Be Good" chord sequence.
The ensemble was in synch once again eight days later, with the new but more familiar faces of bassist Al Lucas and drummer Wilbert Hogan now aboard, and the titles attempted the previous week were revisited first. "Bad Girl," written by the now absent Stan Conover, is a stealthy blues owing a lot to Horace Silver's example, with space for what would have been a chorus by the composer and Parker taking the final solo spot. "Jumpin' Leo," another blues, again makes room for all but drummer Hogan. "Stuffy" is the rare jazz standard penned by Coleman Hawkins, who employed Parker on two seminal 1944 sessions that some have called the first bebop records. "Mad Lad Returns," just as fast as the 1950 original, is "Rhythm" changes in a Jacquetian atmosphere, with Parker blowing on the first bridge, before (with some horn support) and after Acea's piano solo, and at the coda.
When the six titles attempted on October 12 were completed and it became apparent that more space was available, Parker came up with the themeless "Talkin' the Blues," an after-hours vignette that features baritone sax and piano, with Burns and Swindell only entering to riff behind the leader's second solo. The date concluded with what would be the fourth version of the blues initially known as "Lion Roars" when Parker first recorded it with several of his Jacquet associates and Dexter Gordon in 1947. Hogan gets his one bit of spotlight here, in a chorus of fours with the leader.
Porter gave special mention to tenor saxophonist Swindell, who indeed impresses here and on Let Me Tell ...; but Dave Burns deserves kudos for his contributions as well. A confrere of Parker's in the 1946 Dizzy Gillespie band with a peripatetic recording career typified by his Blue Note discography (James Moody, 1948; George Wallington, 1954; Art Taylor, 1960; and Dexter Gordon, 1962; in addition to these tracks), Burns was always tart, direct, and convincing. Among his best work here are his opening solo on "Bad Girl" and muted chorus on "Stuffy." Pianist Johnny Acea, another Gillespie and Jacquet alum, also delivers in both solo and support.
Like Ike Quebec, the man who found him for Blue Note, and like Sonny Clark, Leo Parker had an all-too-brief second act on the label cut short when years of drug abuse finally caught up with him. At least Quebec and Clark survived long enough to create a substantial body of later work, whereas Parker's sudden demise confined his final album and his reputation to a kind of purgatory. Fame has eluded Leo Parker for too long. As his more famous namesake put it, perhaps now's the time.
— Bob Blumenthal, 2008
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