BLP 4150

Stanley Turrentine - A Chip Off The Old Block

Released - July 1964

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, October 21, 1963
Blue Mitchell, trumpet; Stanley Turrentine, tenor sax; Shirley Scott, organ; Earl May, bass; Al Harewood, drums.

tk.9 Cherry Point
tk.17 Blues In Hoss' Flat
tk.20 Midnight Blue
tk.25 One O'Clock Jump
tk.30 Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most

Session Photos

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

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
One O'Clock Jump	Count Basie	21 October 1963
Midnight Blue	Neal Hefti	21 October 1963
Side Two
Blues in Hoss' Flat	Basie, Frank Foster	21 October 1963
Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most	Fran Landesman, Tommy Wolf	21 October 1963
Cherry Point	Hefti	21 October 1963

Liner Notes

ACCORDING to some self-appointed authorities (and I am happy to admit that I am among them) one of the more regrettable developments in jazz during the past few years has been the apparent tendency on the part of many of the musicians, to be constantly intent on proving some new point.

Obviously no art will make any headway if it remains at a stand-still: complacency can easily lead to stagnation. But a line must be drawn between complacency and composure. Once a musician has, so to speak, gotten himself together and established his musical image, whether it be cast in the avant-garde, hard bop, mainstream, traditional or any other mold, there is absolutely no need for him to be self-conscious about maintaining that image.

These reflections were occasioned by the receipt of this new album by Stanley Turrentine and Shirley Scott, who since 1960 have been Mr. and Mrs. Turrentine.

The "old block" off which most of the material for these sides was chipped is a solid foundation, rooted in the past but revered in the present - the Count Basie orchestra. The music of the Turrentines, though essentially modern in the sense that it is technically well—grounded and improvisationally fluent, never loses touch with the firmly swinging approach and emotionally communicative feeling that has always been a part of the Basie mystique.

In the case of Shirley Scott, the Basie association is particularly appropriate, since much of her early experience in New York was gained as a member of the Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis Trio when they played at Count Basie's Bar, one of the hipper bistros of Upper Seventh Avenue in Manhattan. (Lockjaw laid down his horn in the summer of 1963 and surprised the music world by becoming a booking agent: among his clients, less surprisingly, are the Turrentines.)

For the present session a special quintet was assembled. As Stanley points out, "Blue Mitchell and I were old friends and musical associates. We played together in Earl Bostic's band back around 1954, so this session was like old times for us, Blue was between gigs With Horace Silver's Quintet when we made the date, and we were happy to be able to arrange the reunion."

The other two members of the group lend both strength and suppleness to the sounds. Earl May, prominent at one time with Billy Taylor's trio and well known later as Gloria Lynne's bassist and musical director, has been freelancing for some time around New York. Al Harewood, a veteran of many Blue Note sessions, has been working recently with Stan Getz's Quartet.

One O'Clock Jump, which kicks off the proceedings, is so the blues what Jackie Robinson was to baseball (except that unlike Robinson it seems unlikely ever to retire). It was the first orchestral blues work of Negro origin ever to become a national favorite. Almost three decades have passed since the original Count Basie orchestra introduced it in Kansas City.

After the opening ensemble riffs, Blue solos in a spare, thoughtful style, with sympathetic comping by Shirley. Each of the succeeding solos is carefully built: Stanley, for instance, is joined at one point by some supporting figures from Blue, and Shirley, after a smoothly flowing sequence of single note lines, is complemented by horn-riffing and moves on to an excitingly conceived chordal passage. Stanley returns and is joined by Blue for the out rifling. The last two or three choruses are an unexpected and effective small group translation of the big band Basie version.

Midnight Blue is a blues in E flat that displays to the fullest possible advantage Turrentine’s melodic blues skill. The arrangement (or perhaps it would be more fitting to call it a sketch) was supplied by pianist Duke Pearson. The atmosphere is subdued, blue—light style, yet without any of the quasi-funk, pseudo-soul quality that pervades so many so-called blues currently being perpetrated on records. Stanley’s long solo is rich in both tonal quality and continuity of ideas, and throughout Shirley offers backing that is sympathetic and unobtrusive. At one point Al Harewood slips almost imperceptibly into double-time, but when Shirley takes over the spotlight he resumes the slow straight four — another of those seemingly unimportant touches that help to lend variety to a thoroughly convincing performance by all involved. Shirley’s solo, similarly is aided by the brief addition of the horns playing long notes. The last chorus brings Blue to the forefront, with Stanley offering supplementary comments in an attractive two—line conclusion.

Blues in Hoss's Flat is of comparatively recent Basie origin, having been introduced in the Basie band by tenor saxophonist Frank Foster a couple of years ago. It is played at a moderate pace with a touch of shuffle rhythm. Note the effective contribution of Earl May's bass. Though many organists prefer to work without a string bass player and Shirley usually does, on this occasion there is much cooperation and no conflict. Again there is a carefully simulated orchestral ensemble by the two horns for the climax.

Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most is a sensitive composition by Tommy Wolf and Fran Landesman that originated in the l950s as a song too hip and subtle to be nationally popular, though it has caught on as a standard among jazz singers, and more recently among instrumentalists also. Again credit is due to Duke Pearson for a simple but valuable arrangement that provides the framework for some gentle melodic work by Stanley. Except for a channel by Shirley in the second chorus, this is tenor all the way and a striking illustration of Stanley’s full-bodied sound and relaxed yet firmly-swinging style on ballads.

Cherry Point goes back to the Basie library for a Neal Hefti number the band used to feature in the early 195Os. Essentially it is a very simple blues based for the most part on a series of three-note figures. Again the touches of arrangement lend color strength to the performance, especially in the horns support during Shirley’s vital, continuously pulsating solo.

Listening to these sides, I was reminded of a recent visit to the Play House (better known a Minton’s), where Stanley and Shirley play regular return engagements three or four times a year. Teddy Hill, who established the club’s modern sounds policy in October 1940, feels that music like that of the Turrentines represents the direction in which jazz should continue to go if it is to retain its adherents and gain new converts.

"Watch those people over at the bar", he said. "They feel something! With this kind of music, you just tap your feet and pop your fingers spontaneously. Last Friday night it was pouring down rain, but you couldn’t get a seat in this place. People come to listen to Stanley and Shirley because they can dig this music — they get a message from it. They don’t have to go out and take a whole course to figure out what’s happening. If there were more of this kind of thing being played, there wouldn't be so many night clubs in trouble."

Since the kind of music Teddy was talking about is precisely the kind performed in this album, the truth of his observations is now placed in your hands, speaking very eloquently for itself. — LEONARD FEATHER

Cover Photo and Design by REID MILES
Recording by RUDY VAN GELDER
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, October 21, 1963.
Produced by ALFRED LION

SHIRLEY SCOTT PERFORMS BY COURTESY OF PRESTIGE RECORDS

RVG CD Reissue Liner Notes

A NEW LOOK AT A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK

The Sixties was the "we" decade for Stanley Turrentine and Shirley Scott. Not only did they share a working band in the years of their matrimony, but each was also a regular participant in the other's recordings. There were independent studio projects for both artists, and, with a couple of exceptions on Prestige, the pair never received co-billing, but they were most certainly a team. And a productive one at that, with 15 albums recorded for four labels (Blue Note, Prestige, Impulse! and Atlantic) between 1961 and 1968.

A Chip Off the Old Block is one of the best titles in the Turrentine/Scott discography, with its concept of paying tribute to Count Basie perfectly suited to both the couple and their guest Blue Mitchell. Turrentine may be closer to Herschel Evans's burly authority than to Lester Young's more oblique poetry, but like Basie himself, he is an East Coast native who earned his blues stripes while working in the midwest/southwest "territories." Beyond the affiliations cited by Leonard Feather in his original liner notes, Scott had a touch that was the closest of all modern organists to Basie in his occasional use of the organ. Trumpeter Mitchell, in addition to his early experiences with Turrentine, also contributed the benefit of his time with hard bop's Basie, Horace Silver. So empathy with the material was not at issue.

Yet production of the album got off to a rocky start. Duke Pearson, in one of his first assignments arranging for other artists, originally wrote charts for a septet that taped at Rudy Van Gelder's studio on October 12, 1963; but after producing the two alternate takes heard here, as well as a still-unreleased version of "Midnight Blue," the music failed to jell and the session was cancelled. Both alternate takes remained unreleased until Mosaic Records collected several of Turrentine's Blue Note sessions in 2002. "Cherry Point," the first product of the septet session, finds the horns inspiring some memorable playing from Scott when they enter midway through her solo, and the band builds to a strong climax when Turrentine returns; but the alternate "One O'Clock Jump" sports some of the ragged work that ultimately sabotaged the session.

A week later (and six days after Turrentine and Scott had visited Van Gelder's to record Soul Shoutin' for Prestige), a downsized unit nailed the Basie material and the ballad "Spring Can Realty Hang You Up the Most." Mitchell, still aboard, was again the soul of compatibility; a jazz populist based in the modern idiom (as were the host couple) whose sound and lyrical inclinations imparted a timeless quality to all of his work. Scott's organ provided all the colors and dynamic range necessary to suggest the music's big-band sources without need of additional brass or reed reinforcement. Pearson still had input, and his sketches (Feather's well-chosen word) contributed to the loose head-arrangement feeling of the date. Finally, the clean, incisive beat of Al Harewood was a major plus in the reconfigured ensemble. What resulted was one of Turrentine's most successful albums in any context.

While the four Basie-related tracks are all blues, only the vintage 1937 "One O'Clock Jump" comes from the "Old Testament" Basie band. The New Testament edition is represented by two Neal Hefti originals, "Cherry Point" (1953) and "Midnight Blue" (1957), and by Frank Foster's "Blues in Hoss' Flat" (1958). Little need be added to Feather's original commentary, save that the Foster piece was named for Nashville deejay Hoss Allen and gained wide circulation as the soundtrack for a pantomime sequence in Jerry Lewis's 1961 film The Errand Boy; and that "Midnight Blue" should not be confused with either the Burke-Leslie composition of the same name (as per the original LP credits) or the Kenny Burrell "Midnight Blue" that featured Turrentine to such great effect earlier in 1963. This "Midnight" features one of the finest solos in Turrentine's substantial discography, plus Scott sustaining the late-night mood over Pearson's imaginative counterlines. Mitchell, who does not solo, contributes a lead on the final chorus that inspires further eloquence from Turrentine.

The album's ballad feature departs from the Basie theme in its choice of a tune that was only beginning to enter into wide use by jazz singers and instrumentalists. Jackie and Roy did it first, in 1955. Speaking of the Cain/Kral duo, they are one of the few jazz partnerships that can stand beside Turrentine and Scott (Mildred Bailey and Red Norvo, Jimmy and Marian McPartland, how many others?) as a couple that played together as musical equals.

—Bob Blumenthal, 2008