BLP 4161

George Braith - Soul Stream

Released - April 1964

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, December 16, 1963
George Braith, tenor, soprano sax, stritch; Billy Gardner, organ; Grant Green, guitar; Hugh Walker, drums.

tk.10 The Man I Love
tk.15 Boop Bop Bing Bash
tk.19 Billy Told
tk.23 Outside Around The Corner
tk.26 Soul Stream

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
The Man I Love	George Gershwin	16 December 1963
Outside Around the Corner	George Braith	16 December 1963
Soul Stream	George Braith	16 December 1963
Side Two
Boop Bop Bing Bash	Billy Gardner	16 December 1963
Billy Told		16 December 1963
Jo Anne	George Braith	16 December 1963

Liner Notes

THIS album, George Braith's second, is of more than usual interest both in terms of its intrinsic musical merits and on the basis of its impressive evidence of the progress this young and resourceful artist has made since his record debut. (The first set was Two Souls In One on Blue Note 4148.)

Braith's career to date has been unusual in more than one respect. Unlike most musicians, he has not come up through the ranks as a sideman before progressing to leadership. A native New Yorker, he has always fronted groups of his own (originally under his full name of Braithwaite). As Nat Hentoff pointed out in his notes to the previous LP, as early as 1949, when Braith was only ten, he was leading his own combo on amateur-talent television programs and in neighborhood theatres.

Secondly, it is significant that Braith is unusually well traveled for a man of his comparatively tender years and short professional experience. Certainly such episodes as his three-month tour of duty in Europe in 1957, and subsequently his work on jobs that took him as far afield as Bermuda, helped to broaden his outlook on life in general and music in particular.

Thirdly, of course, there is the matter of Braith's simultaneous playing of two horns. This should not really be a subject for discussion, since the only factor that ought to be considered significant is the end result—namely, the quality and validity of the sounds created, regardless of how many horns, hands or individuals it took to produce them. Nevertheless, because of the curiosity value, this facet of his work must be taken into consideration.

The idea itself goes back about four decades; senior citizens recall a performer named Wilbur Sweatman who astonished audiences in the early 1920s by playing three clarinets at once. But this was strictly a novelty for novelty's sake; it accomplished nothing musically. The advent of Roland Kirk in 1959 put the concept on a more musical level, and with the designing by Braith of a special stritch that enables him to achieve maximum fingering facility with one hand, the process was refined still further.

This new album, however, places less stress on the multiple horn gambit and introduces the saxophonist in an important new role—as a tenor soloist.

Once again, it is less important to consider the versatility angle than to listen closely to the music and determine what Braith has accomplished via the new medium. My personal reaction on first hearing these sides was a highly favorable impression of Braith's tenor work. Though you may find touches of Rollins here and there (the earlier, more straight-ahead Rollins rather than the recent, special-effects Rollins), I don't believe there is any passage in which he could be mistaken for Sonny, nor for Trane or any of the others who have impressed him. It is too early to state categorically that he has a completely distinctive sound of his own; too early, not necessarily because it is untrue, but because it takes a long period of intensive listening before most of us (and this includes critics, musicians and fans alike) can reach a point where we can immediately identify o soloist after hearing only a few measures. It would appear, nevertheless, on the basis of his initial tenor exposure on these sides, that Braith may earn his major identification on this instrument. Certainly the groove is warm and mellow throughout and the solos have an air of authority as well as the essential soulful quality he has already displayed on the other horns.

Two of Braith's three associates on these performances were heard on the previous album. Grant Green, through his own contributions as leader as well as many appearances as a sideman, is accepted among the experts (and by this I mean fellow-musicians, for they are the experts whose judgment is most meaningful) as one of the most consistent mood-makers and blues-rooted guitarists to have emerged on the scene in the past five years. Billy Gardner, an ex-pianist like almost all other organists, has been a regular associate of Braith's for the past three years and seems to be one of the comparatively few organists capable Of finding interesting variations in the tone colors obtainable from this sometimes monochromatic instrument.

Hugh Walker, who completes the foursome, is a 20-year-old drummer from Oklahoma. He has been playing professionally for five years and came to New York City recently. "He is a remarkable and promising musician who is improving daily," comments George.

Though the group concentrated mainly on original material for this congenial session, the first side starts out with the only standard of the set, a remarkable transformation of Gershwin's The Man I Love. There must have been a hundred versions of this tune recorded by jazz groups in the past 30 years, yet nope has had an approach comparable with Braith's. The chorus length is doubled by the long-meter process to 64 bars, but the tempo is comparatively slow; as a result each chorus takes almost two and a half minutes and there is time to build and sustain a remarkable mood.

"The motivation behind the recording of this track," says Braith, "was inspired by the death of John F. Kennedy. Coincidentally, we had been in the area of Kennedy's home in Massachusetts around the time of the assassination, which added to the general feeling of sorrow and the solemnity in the air."

"The arrangement starts with an eight-bar vamp by Bill, Hugh and Grant. Then I play the melody on the stritch and the soprano saxophone. Toward the end of the first two 16-bar phrases, the alto (stritch) is used alone, then the soprano alone, both for only two bars. The organ plays the channel. In the second chorus the stritch plays a figure with the organ playing the harmony. Grant plays the second channel and we go out with soprano and stritch."

Note particularly the rhythmic variations established under this performance both by Gardner and Walker. Never is the treatment allowed to bog down into rhythmic monotony.

Outside Around The Corner is one of the more remarkable examples of Braith's burgeoning gifts as a composer. As he explains, "it is a 32-bår tune in the regular A-A-B-A format, but with pauses after four bars of each A segment. At the end of B, the introduction used in the beginning is injected once more." The horn used for the chart and the blowing solo is the tenor. The use of augmented chords gives the whole work a misterioso whole-tone-scale feeling. Later on, Braith comes in playing both tenor and soprano; Hugh is featured in the channel of this chorus. After the unison two-horn shouting, the tune is taken out by tenor and organ• Mention should also be made of the subtlety (both melodic and rhythmic) of Grant Green's solo.

Like The Man I Love, Soul Stream was inspired by, and the arrangement was written immediately following the tragedy in Dallas. "This is a mode," says Braith, "written with sadness, hollowness and lost feelings — with no bars, the whole interpretation being ad lib. The strength that I tried to capture and project in this piece was designed to correspond with the strength of character radiated by our deceased President." Braith plays tenor on this extraordinary performance. From Gardner's cascading intro through the rubato, wailing tenor evocations, with drumroll undercurrents, this is music without set beat or tempo, yet nonetheless unmistakably jazz in essence and in mood.

Billy Gardner's Boop Bop Bing Bash is a D minor romp and, by the way, an example of a minor-key tune that can sound more happy than sad. The form is A-A-B-A; Braith plays tenor throughout, except for some shouts on stritch and soprano behind Gardner's first blowing chorus.

Billy Told is a bow to Rossini, or possibly to The Lone Ranger. (If Billy told, what did William Tell?) The complete renovation of this venerable theme, from castanet-type intro to cooking solos by Gardner and Braith, is a highlight of the album, with some commendable touches of welcome humor.

Braith's Jo Anne concludes the side: "I play the introduction on soprano. The chart and shout that come after Billy's solo are played on stritch and soprano. The solo, surprising as it may seem, is played on soprano sax." (On first hearing it may sound like the stritch.) ' 'The chordal extension at the end is led by stritch and soprano."

The provocative nature of his compositions and arrangements, the intriguing character of his tenor work, and the general advance in his musicianship make this LP an important step in the career of George Braith. Still a few months short of his 25th birthday as these words are written, he has already fulfilled in substantial measure the promise indicated by his earlier effort, and has made it clear that we can continue to turn to him for music that is at once intense, inventive and different.

- LEONARD FEATHER

Cover Photo and Design by REID MILES
Recording by RUDY VAN GELDER