BLP 4213

 Bobby Hutcherson - Components

Released - November 1966

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, June 10, 1965
Freddie Hubbard, trumpet #1,2,4-8; James Spaulding, alto sax, flute; Bobby Hutcherson, vibes, marimba; Herbie Hancock, piano, organ; Ron Carter, bass; Joe Chambers, drums.

1602 tk.2 Components
1603 tk.17 Tranquility
1604 tk.26 Little B's Poem
1605 tk.28 Juba Dance
1606 tk.37 Movement
1607 tk.41 Air
1608 tk.50 Pastral
         tk.51 West 22nd Street Theme

Session Photos

Photos: Francis Wolff

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Components	Bobby Hutcherson	June 10 1965
Tranquillity	Bobby Hutcherson	June 10 1965
Little B's Poem	Bobby Hutcherson	June 10 1965
West 22nd Street Theme	Bobby Hutcherson	June 10 1965
Side Two
Movement	Joe Chambers	June 10 1965
Juba Dance	Joe Chambers	June 10 1965
Air	Joe Chambers	June 10 1965
Pastoral	Joe Chambers	June 10 1965

Liner Notes

NO VIBIST in recent years has had so great an impact on the jazz scene — and so quickly — as has Bobby Hutcherson. Born in Los Angeles on January 27, 1941. raised in Pasadena, he started on piano when he was about eight, switched to vibes, and in his late teens, worked on the West Coast with Curtis Amy (in the same group as Carmell Jones) and Charles Lloyd. In 1961, he came to New York with Billy Mitchell and Al Grey and began to establish a reputation among musicians as a player of unusual originality and flexibility. As Herbie Hancock puts it, “Bobby has a very open mind. He hears and feels a lot of things that are beyond the limits of jazz as that term has been conventionally used. Also. he’s a very warm person — direct, candid — and that comes through in his music. What he plays has a particular lift to it because he himself is so alive, because he so digs being.”

In New York, Hutcherson has worked with Jackie McLean and Grachun Moncur, among others; and through a series of Blue Note recordings, he has become internationally known. He can be heard, for example, on Jackie McLean’s One Step Beyond (4137), Grachan Moncur III’s Evolution (4153), Grant Green’s Idle Moments (4154), Andrew Hill’s Judgment (4159), Eric Dolphy’s Out to Lunch (4136), Tony Williams’ Life Time (4180) and his own Dialogue (4198) which is a remarkable achievement in advanced collective improvisation.

Hutcherson fits easily — and always with marked individuality — into a broad range of musical contexts. "I like,” he says, “to do the best I can with anything I’m projected into. The more kinds of music in which I can be involved, the better it is. I don’t want to be tied down to any one style of playing, to any one particular groove. The more I’m able to expand, the more I’m likely to play music that’s entirely myself. When I first started, I was very impressed by Milt Jackson, but I soon decided it was pretty ridiculous to sound like Bags. It’s so much more rewarding — for yourself and for the people who hear you — to be your own man. And to keep always fresh. I try to open my ears up as much I can.”

Now, in Components, Hutcherson is heard in further jazz dimension, first in four compositions by himself and then in a series of pieces by drummer Joe Chambers. The opener, the album’s title tune, received its title, says Hutcherson, “because it has several component elements — two sections in 4/4 — each with a different melodic line; a section for drums; and the occasional use of a repeated rhythmic figure.” There is also crisply forceful improvising by Freddie Hubbard; pungent alto by James Spaulding; Hutcherson’s uniquely evocative vibes; characteristically incisive, firmly structured piano by Herbie Hancock, both a accompanist and soloist; and throughout, an infectiously lithe and limber beat sustained by Ron Carter and Joe Chambers.

Tranquility, taken at a very slow 3/4, is meant, says Hutcherson, “to be so tranquil a to almost suggest no time at all.” Listening to Bobby on this track — as on the others — I thought of what he has described as one of his goals as a vibist: “Rather than try to make a note just a note, I try to suggest things, things around us. A bouncing ball. Or a feeling of suspense in a mass of sounds moving by you. A note should evoke all kinds of feelings. Sometimes, when I’m playing a solo, I like to make a note sound like glass so that you wouldn’t think of it as a note. You’d think of it as sounding glass.”

Little B’s Poem was written by Bobby for his son, Barry, now three. “The melodic line,” Hutcherson points out. “reminds me of how he used to play. Of course, now that he’s three, he’s more devilish. This comes from his sweeter days.” The theme is immediately and charmingly appealing and moves like a cheerful mobile through the series of improvisations on it.

West 22nd Street Theme comes from a time when Hutcherson lived in the Chelsea section of Manhattan, near Tenth Avenue. “A lot of guys,” Hutcherson recalls, “used to be on my doorstep, stoned. This is a description of them. It’s a blues, but the changes are different than the usual blues chords.” As can be heard, these drunks are of the amiable, rather wistful variety.

The second side consists of compositions by Joe Chambers. an increasingly prominent drummer on the New York jazz scene. Born in Stone Acre, Virginia, on June 25, 1942, Chambers was raised in Philadelphia. He began on piano at eight, moved to drums a year later, and was a professional by the time he was twelve. Chambers remained in Philadelphia until 1960, gaining experience with such rhythm and blues combos as those connected with James Brown, the Shirelles and Bobby Charles. In 1961, he was in Washington, a member of the forceful J.F.K. Quintet; and in November, 1963, Chambers came to New York where he has worked with. among others, the late Eric Dolphy, Donald Byrd, Freddie Hubbard, Andrew Hill, Herbie Hancock, Charles Lloyd and Jimmy Giuffre.

Through the years Chambers has had considerable formal instruction. In Philadelphia, he studied piano and drums with private teachers, also received training from his band instructor at high school, and attended classes in theory at the Philadelphia Conservatory. In Washington, he studied for a year at American University, and in New York he was a member of Hall Overton’s course in composition at the New School. He attends concerts of exploratory classical music, and has been influenced by his older brother, Steve Chambers, whom Joe characterizes as “a very modern classical composer.” Chambers has also been impressed by Jimmy Giuffre’s writing — “his use of modern harmonies, his overall concept of space and the focus in a lot of his music on free counterpoint.”

Currently, as you can hear in these compositions, free counterpoint is a particular preoccupation of Chambers. There are, incidentally, linkages between the four Chambers compositions on the second side. Some of the music material in Movement, for example, can be traced in transmuted form in Air and in Pastoral. “In one sense,” Chambers adds, “thee four pieces arc independent, but in another sense, they’re related in that a similar musical concept has been applied to all of them — free counterpoint in which each voice is independent.”

Movement takes its title from the fact that there is indeed a great amount of continuous movement in piece. “No one voice has the theme,” Chambers explains. “Actually it’s like a six-part theme constantly in motion, held together by a pulse.” In addition to the fascination that comes with following ail the lines simultaneously, the intricate texture of sounds is unusually evocative. Its the kind of piece in which different listeners can find widely different visions.

Thinking of an African-style dance, Chambers called the second number, Juba Dance. It’s in 6/8, and its base is a 22-bar melody. The tonality is free or, as Chambers puts it, “there is a free use of intervals” although as a foundation. Ron Carter most of the time is playing a tonic-dominant pedal of A and E with variations thereof and Hutcherson was given a set of chords to play throughout. During much of the piece, Chambers is heard on tom-toms. The improvisation was intended — and succeeded in being — a continuation of the thematic material.

The written material in Air is only two bars long — a fragment divided between the six instruments. “Once that’s set, says Chambers, “they all jump into free counterpoint. As in all the pieces, each voice has to remain independent but in relationship to what’s going on around hum. In most instances, whatever harmony exists is determined by the ways in which the lines go.

Pastoral is all written. “It’s like a sign oil,” Chambers observes. "It’s tonal, as if to say to the listener, This is what we come back to — the beginning, the familiar.’

"What I’m working more and more in,” says Chambers, “is a fusion of free counterpoint and complex rhythm patterns that will create a sound — a core — around which each part will rotate. And with no definite rhythm. It moves in a time that could be any time, providing it’s a time that’s felt collectively.”

As for Bobby Hutcherson’s role in this challenging series of pieces, Chambers emphasizes: “To begin with, Bobby knows how to accompany. He plays behind other musicians better than anyone I’ve ever heard. And in addition to his facility, he knows how to use the vibes orchestrally. Also he’s superb in terms of creating and sustaining atmospheric passages. And of particular importance to my writing here. Bobby knows exactly what to do to be an independent voice. He has the capacity to keep going in his own direction while never losing his rapport with the other voices. Another thing about Bobby,” Chambers concluded,” is that he knows tradition, and is part of it. In his, playing. you can hear what’s gone before him. He can play the blues and he can also go places no one’s ever been before.”

That appraisal distills the sizable and growing value of Bobby Hutcherson — a jazzman with both roots and an unflagging sense of adventure. He’s already made vivid additions to the jazz discography, and now in Components, he’s surprised us again.

—NAT HENTOFF