BLP 5024

Howard McGhee - Volume 2

Released - 1953

Recording and Session Information

WOR Studios, NYC, May 20, 1953
Howard McGhee, trumpet; Gigi Gryce, alto sax, flute #1-5; Horace Silver, piano; Tal Farlow, guitar; Percy Heath, bass; Walter Bolden, drums.

BN483-2 tk.3 Shabozz
BN484-2 tk.6 Tranquillity
BN485-1 tk.8 Futurity
BN486-1 tk.10 Jarm
BN487-1 tk.12 Ittapanna
BN488-2 tk.15 Goodbye

Session Photos

Photos: Francis Wolff

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Jarm	Howard McGhee	May 20 1953
Goodbye	Gordon Jenkins	May 20 1953
Futurity	Gigi Gryce	May 20 1953
Side Two
Shabozz	Gigi Gryce	May 20 1953
Tranquillity	Howard McGhee	May 20 1953
Ittapnna	Bolden	May 20 1953

Liner Notes

...

1998 CD Reissue Liner Notes

BETWEEN HOWARD McGHEE'S 1950 Blue Note sextet session and the 1953 affair enclosed here, he made no commercial recordings as a leader. But recordings from Seoul and Guam surfaced from the Oscar Pettiford band with McGhee and J. J. Johnson that toured Korea, Japan and various Pacific Islands in the winter of 1951-52 for the armed forces. At any rate, this date, McGhee's last for the label, is one of the standout recordings of his career, thanks in part to his impeccable taste in sidemen.

Gigi Gryce was an up-and-coming alto saxophonist, flutist and composer who grew up in Hartford, Connecticut. When Stan Getz plucked Horace Silver and Walter Bolden out of Hartford in 1951 to join him in New York, the tenor saxophonist took a handful of great Gryce compositions as well including "Mosquito Knees." Gryce would soon lend his considerable talents to Blue Note dates by trumpeters Clifford Brown, Thad Jones and Lee Morgan. He later co-led The Jazz Lab with Donald Byrd and had a quintet with Richard Williams before retiring to teaching in 1961. His compositions include "Hymn To The Orient, "Nica's Tempo" and "Social Call."

A guitarist of astonishing depth and facility, Tal Farlow had already made his name with Buddy DeFranco, Red Norvo and Artie Shaw before this session. He made his debut as a leader on Blue Note with the music that completes this CD. Throughout, he is playing brilliantly, but it was the 1956 trio he led with Eddie Costa and Vinne Burke that truly achieved greatness.

Horace Silver had already made his first Blue Note session by the time of this McGhee date and went on to change the face of modern jazz and the fortunes of Blue Note Records. The rich, earthy bass of Percy Heath was a familiar sound on many Blue Note sessions at the time. A year later, he would become part of the officially formed Modern Jazz Quartet.

Walter Bolden, who composed "Ittapnna" for the date, was a busy freelance drummer in New York for years working with Gerry Mulligan, Al Cohn & Zoot Sims and Lambert, Hendricks & Ross among others. In 1978, he made an excellent album of his own for Nemperor with George Coleman and Harold Mabern among the cast.

MICHAEL CUSCUNA
1998