George Wallington And His Band
Released - 1954
Recording and Session Information
Dave Burns, trumpet; Jimmy Cleveland, trombone; Frank Foster, tenor sax; Danny Bank, baritone sax, flute; George Wallington, piano; Oscar Pettiford, bass; Kenny Clarke, drums; Quincy Jones, arranger.
BN572-3 tk.4 Summertime
BN573-2 tk.8 Festival
BN574-2 tk.12 Christina
BN575-0 tk.13 Frankie And Johnnie
BN576-1 tk.16 Baby Grand
BN577-0 tk.19 Bumpkins
Session Photos
Photos: Francis Wolff
Track Listing
| Side One | ||
| Title | Author | Recording Date |
| Frankie and Johnnie | Traditional | May 12 1954 |
| Baby Grand | George Wallington | May 12 1954 |
| Christina | George Wallington | May 12 1954 |
| Side Two | ||
| Summertime | Gershwin | May 12 1954 |
| Festival | George Wallington | May 12 1954 |
| Bumpkins | Quincy Jones | May 12 1954 |
Liner Notes
ALTHOUGH George Wallington has been a major actor on the modern jazz stage for several years, most of his roles have been played in small stock companies, principally with rhythm trios. Now Blue Note presents him, for the first time, with a seven-piece dramatis personae of his own choosing, in which his performances stand out in fuller relief by virtue of their handsome setting.
The name Wallington, selected more or less at random by its owner, hides a colorful cosmopolitan background, for George Figlia, as they called him when he made his bow in Palermo, Sicily in 1923, was the son of an Italian opera singer and grew up in a classical setting, but grew out of it into the jazz world when he first listened to Basie and Lester Young.
George was only 15 when he quit high school to work in Brooklyn and Greenwich Village, playing with small bands for "pocket money and hot dogs," as he recalls. A chance meeting with Max Roach led to his participation in the birth rites of the bop movement. With Max, Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Pettiford and Don Byas, he became one-fifth of the first real bop combo ever to play on 52nd Street, in 1944.
Later, working with Charlie Parker, Georgie Auld, Red Rodney et al, he became a constant protagonist of the new jazz school. In recent years he has been heard most often with his own trio. He made one previous Blue Note appearance in the Gil Melle LP 5020.
In the summer of 1953 George joined Lionel Hampton's band for a trip to Europe. This was the sum total of his experience as a big band pianist, and while the musical profits may have been meager, the personal associations that resulted were indeed fruitful. Two of his colleagues in the Hampton band, Quincy Jones and James Cleveland (both of whom followed George out of the band shortly after the European tour) contributed invaluably to this LP.
Quincy's is one of the brightest and youngest minds on the new jazz scene. Born in 1933 in Chicago raised in Seattle, he went to Boston on a Schillinger scholarship in 1951 and soon began to make a name for himself as trumpeter, pianist and arranger. It is in this last capacity that he functioned on the Wallington date. George, though he has composed such popular instrumental numbers as Lemon Drop and Godcnild, leaves it to others to orchestrate his works. The collaboration with Quincy on three Wallington originals, and on the other material in t is set, was a prime factor in the success of the session.
Jimmy Cleveland will be known, before long, as one of the truly original trombone men. His entire professional experience, from 1949 to '53, was with Hampton, whom he joined soon after leaving Tennessee (he was born in 1926 in Nashville and went to Tennessee U.) He is now free-lancing around New York.
Prominently featured in this album is Frank Foster, currently with Count Basic. Now 26 years old, he comes from Cincinnati and has already achieved considerable prominence not only through his work with Basic, but also as a combo leader on his own Blue Note LP 5043. His virile tenor sax style provides some of the outstanding solo moments on this session.
Completing the Wallington front line are Dave Burns and Danny Bank. Burns, who played with Dizzy Gillespie's big band, has been featured for some time with James Moody and was heard in Moody's Blue Note LP 5006. Danny Bank, a Brooklynite who grew up with Al Cohn, has been with every top name band from Goodman and Shaw to Barnet and both Dorseys. 32 years old, he has scarcely ever been heard in a solo role (on this occasion he made an exception ).
George's rhythm teammates, Oscar Pettiford and Kenny "Klook" Clarke, are of course familiar through their long record of service to the modern movements, including many fine Blue Note sides.
It is Oscar who takes the first featured part in this set, introducing the ageless 12-bar melody of Frankie and Johnnie. Ensemble, piano, muted trumpet, tenor and a closing ensemble lend variety to this attractively voiced Quincy Jones treatment of the blues standard.
Baby Grand is a simple melody mainly in long notes, with some outstanding Foster tenor, some fleet Burns trumpet and Jimmy Cleveland soaring in from the treetops to share a chorus with George.
Christina is one of George's melodic charmers, as pretty as the young lady to whom it was dedicated (she is the three-year-old daughter of publicist Virginia Wicks). Playing the melody, George is opulently set off as the horns provide a fine background. The beauty of this work lies as much in the harmonic structure as in the melody.
Summertime acquires a Latin touch, with Danny Bank switching to flute, Cleveland peppering the horizon with sixteenth notes in an extraordinary solo, and further contributions by Wallington, Pettiford and Foster.
On Festival, a lively and catchy theme, effective use is made of a three-against four rhythmic feel (by means of dotted quarters). George, who wrote this number just after returning from Europe, must have been happy to get home. His own solo, in crisp and incisive single-note lines, is preceded by some fine Foster tenor and followed by one of Burns' best solos, after which the theme returns.
The closing opus is Bumpkins, in which a Quincy Jones 12-bar theme is the bread for which a series of superb y integrated ad lib choruses are the meat in a highly palatable blues sandwich, It is on this item that Danny Bank comes out of his shell to show that he, too, can blow the blues.
A concluding word should be added on behalf of the engineer who balanced this date. The excellence of both solo and ensemble sounds is a tribute to performers and recording alike.
George Wallington has long been one of the outstanding pianists in contemporary jazz, but this LP should add still further to his ever-rising reputation.
—LEONARD FEATHER
Cover Design by JOHN HERMANSADER
Photo by FRANCIS WOLFF
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