BLP 4121

Don Wilkerson - Elder Don

Released - February 1963

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, May 3, 1962
Don Wilkerson, tenor sax; Johnny Acea, piano; Grant Green, guitar; Lloyd Trotman, bass; Willie Bobo, drums.

tk.5 Drawin' A Tip
tk.6 Senorita Eula
tk.9 Poor Butterfly
tk.13 Scrappy
tk.15 San Antonio Rose
tk.22 Lone Star Shuffle

Session Photos

Photos: © Francis Wolff/Mosaic Images 
https://www.mosaicrecordsimages.com/

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Señorita Eula	Don Wilkerson	03 May 1962
San Antonio Rose	Bob Wills	03 May 1962
Scrappy	Don Wilkerson	03 May 1962
Side Two
Lone Star Shuffle	Don Wilkerson	03 May 1962
Drawin' a Tip	Don Wilkerson	03 May 1962
Poor Butterfly	John Golden, Raymond Hubbell	03 May 1962

Liner Notes

THIS is Don Wilkerson's second LP for Blue Note. His first, Preach Brother! (4107) was in a more overt rhythm-and-blues groove than the present collection, and contained something of a hit in a piece with the self-explanatory title, Camp Meetin'.

On the jacket notes to that album, it was pointed out that Wilkerson played most of the tenor solos in the Ray Charles band of 1954, the band that recorded the first great Charles hits such as Halleluiah, I Love Her So and I Got A Woman. Wilkerson was to that band what another Texas tenorman, David 'Fathead" Newman is to the present one. I think it is significant that Wilkerson had such experience, and because of it, it is more than coincidental that Blue Note should be the company to record him.

Charles' overwhelming success as a singer has fairly effectively obscured the fact that for years he led one of the best small jazz bands in the business, a of successor to Louis Jordan's Tympany five. How deeply this stylistic tradition has affected contemporary jazz is indicated when one remembers that Sonny Rollins has called Jordan his first influence, and that Art Blakey has called the Charles group his favorite band. The Charles instrumentals are so similar in intent to what Blakey and Horace Silver have been doing that it seems natural that Wilkerson's music, in much the same vein, would appeal to the Blue Note people.

To continue the parallel for a moment, the main difference between the music of Jordan-Charles and that of Blakey-Silver is that the former two have spent much of their time playing music for dancing. Therefore, their music is often of a functional character, while the Messengers and Silver play what could more accurately called art music, for listening only. It is this functional quality that is happily present in Wilkerson's work. He has listed as tenor influences such men as Illinois Jacquet, Arnett Cobb, Gene Ammons, Paul Gonsalves, Sonny Rollins, Sonny Stitt, and Ike Quebec. Significantly, I think, all except Rollins have spent a good part of their professional lives playing for dancing; and certainly, Rollins has kept the quality of dance in his work more than all but a very few major jazzmen. I hear the sound of Cobb in Wilkerson more than that of anyone else, but it may be only the famous "cry' that seems indigenous to the work of Texas tenormen. And it might not be irrelevant to mention that the first great Basie band, one of the greatest of dance was largely staffed with men from that Southwest tradition.

The most recent manifestation of the jazz-dance combo has been the countless small groups which feature tenor and/or guitar with organ and drums. One of the most recent musicians of importance to emerge from the workshop of those groups has been the guitarist Grant Green, and it is entirely fitting that he should have a major role to play on this set. He has several successful Blue Note LPs to his credit, and my own more extensive comments on his playing can be found on the back of Sunday Mornin' (BLP4099). The pianist, Johnny Acea, is also admirably suited to this company. Originally a trumpeter, he worked in the band of the great Texas pianist Sammy Price. Much of his recent work has been with Illinois Jacquet, and he been Dinah Washington's accompanist. It is significant that on the LP that signalled Ray Charles' entrance into popular music, The Genius of Ray Charles, the most overt blues performance, Two Years of Torture, was arranged by Acea. Bassist Lloyd Trotman's experience includes time spent with such disparate people as Eddie Heywood, Hazel Scott, Duke Ellington, Pete Brown, Wilbur de Paris, Boyd Raeburn and Johnny Hodges. And finally, there is drummer Willie Bobo, most widely known for his part in the current popularity of Afro-jazz.

The Texas influence on Wilkerson is evident in his choice of material. The opener, Wilkerson's own Senorita Eula, is a blues With Spanish (or Mexican) overtones. Wilkerson's preaching solo more than justifies the album's title, Elder Don, but as impressive as the emotional quality is the strong order and logic he brings to his ideas. Also interesting is the economical way he brings strong support to Green's single-line solo. Green, the only holdover from Wilkerson's previous LP, shows a great affinity with the leader's approach.

Indirectly, Ray Charles can also credited with the inclusion in this album of Bob Wills' San Antonio Rose. Just as he raised so-called "rock 'n' roll" to the level of art, Charles has recently pointed out to jazzmen and pop artists alike the possibilities inherent in country-and-western music. Rose is one of the best of the songs, a classic in its field, and Wilkerson gives it an unusual and appropriate performance. The Cuban overtones in the statement Of the tune are not dropped for the solos, as many groups would do, but continue through Wilkerson's and Green's choruses to reach a peak in Johnny Acea's piano solo, which would be perfectly in place in a Cuban band. The result is a which combines country music, Cuban music and jazz into a unique, exciting whole.

Three other Wilkerson originals, Scrappy, Lone Star Shuffle and Drawin' a Tip, account for half the LP. The first is a "rhythm" number, played with fast intensity. The second, a shuffle blues, as its title implies, is typical of the power and excitement which often erupts on the bandstands of local clubs late at night, when the musicians are in good form and the audience reception has been responsible for raising the temperature of the room. The third could loosely described as a medium jump number, also a club standby.

The final number, Poor Butterfly, is a ballad. Much has been devoted to dance music in these remarks, but Wilkerson's performance here certainly necessitates further comment. Much dancing is slow dancing, of course, and the rare jazzman who can sustain the dancing feel at a slow tempo while still creating meaningful music is a valuable man to have around. Many young musicians can create nothing but funeral music at this tempo, but Wilkerson manages to be light and charming, while still properly reflective.

Taken together, these six pieces by tenor saxophonist Don Wilkerson provide a fascinating example of the fact that while many of today's jazzmen have left behind the dance origins of their music, others have retained those origins and use them as a basis to make highly direct and satisfying music.

—JOE GOLDBERG

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