A Decade Of Jazz - Volume Three - 1959-1969
Released - 1973
Recording and Session Information
Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, April 25, 1960
Stanley Turrentine, tenor sax; Jimmy Smith, organ; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Donald Bailey, drums.
tk.16 Back At The Chicken Shack
Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, December 16, 1961
Ike Quebec, tenor sax, piano; Grant Green, guitar; Paul Chambers, bass; Philly Joe Jones, drums.
tk.28 Blue And Sentimental
Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, January 8, 1963
Stanley Turrentine, tenor sax; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Major Holley Jr., bass; Bill English, drums; Ray Barretto, congas.
tk.23 Chittlins Con Carne
Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, January 12, 1963
Donald Byrd, trumpet; Hank Mobley, tenor sax; Donald Best, vibes; Herbie Hancock, piano; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Butch Warren, bass; Lex Humphries, drums; unidentified chorus, Coleridge Perkinson, director; Duke Pearson, arranger.
tk.5 | 14283-E Cristo Redentor
Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, December 21, 1963
Lee Morgan, trumpet; Joe Henderson, tenor sax; Barry Harris, piano; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Billy Higgins, drums.
tk.25 The Sidewinder
Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, February 25, 1964
Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; Eric Dolphy, alto sax, bass clarinet, flute; Bobby Hutcherson, vibes; Richard Davis, bass; Anthony Williams, drums.
1312 tk.17 Out To Lunch
Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, October 26, 1964
Carmell Jones, trumpet; Joe Henderson, tenor sax; Horace Silver, piano; Teddy Smith, bass; Roger Humphries, drums.
1457 tk.26 Song For My Father
Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, April 14, 1965
Ernie Royal, Snooky Young, trumpet; Clark Terry, trumpet, flugelhorn; Jimmy Cleveland, J.J. Johnson, Tony Studd, trombone; Jerry Dodgion, alto sax, flute, alto flute, clarinet, piccolo; Phil Woods, alto sax, clarinet; Stanley Turrentine, tenor sax; Robert Ashton, tenor sax, clarinet; Budd Johnson, tenor, soprano sax, clarinet, bass clarinet; Danny Bank, baritone sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, alto flute; Herbie Hancock, piano; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Grady Tate, drums; Oliver Nelson, arranger, conductor.
1569 tk.30 River's Invitation
"Gyllene Cirkeln", Stockholm, Sweden, afternoon set, December 4, 1965
Ornette Coleman, alto sax, trumpet, violin; David Izenzon, bass; Charles Moffett, drums, glockenspiel; Frank Wolff, producer.
1694 tk.14 European Echoes
Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, October 27, 1967
Blue Mitchell, trumpet; Lou Donaldson, alto sax; Lonnie Smith, organ; Jimmy Ponder, guitar; Leo Morris, drums.
1972 tk.10 Peepin'
Liner Notes
The third decade in the annals of Blue Note Records was, as might have been expected, the most eventful in the company's history.
This was a period during which revolutionary changes took place, both in the music itself and in the technological systems for bringing it to the ear of the listener. This was the decade during which the "soul" element, though it had been present in the better performances ever since jazz began, finally was recognized as a vital emotional component of the music. It was, too, a period in which musicians achieved peaks of technical virtuosity unlike anything previously heard in jazz, as the Jimmy Smith track vividly illustrates, Additionally, of course, this was the decade of stereophonic sound, in which the performance on record brought much more of the illusion of actual in-person reality than had ever been feasible in the 78 rpm products of the first decade or the monophonic albums of the second.
The instrumental spectrum broadened immensely during the 1960s. First and foremost was the complete acceptance of the electric organ, a development for which Jimmy Smith was largely responsible. Back At The Chicken Shack, the title number of one of his most successful albums, was released shortly after a Down Beat readers' poll had elected Smith to first place in the "Miscellaneous Instruments" category. It was Jimmy's first such victory, and no organist before had won any magazine poll. He must be credited for the fact that in due course the organ was eliminated from the miscellaneous category and given a classification of its own.
Back At The Chicken Shack is a performance thoroughly representative of everything which Jimmy Smith has stood for in his contribution during the past 15 years. Though technically extraordinary, it has a down home feeling and complete lack of pretension. A moderately slow blues in F, it makes extensive use of the blues scale. Stanley Turrentine, heard later in this album as leader of his own group, is heard repeating the theme with Smith and later heightens the intensity of the mood with an inspired solo. Kenny Burrell, another sideman who has since emerged to prominence as a leader, contributes a similarly blues-drenched statement. Toward the end, helped by the discreet support of Donald Bailey's drums, the small ensemble builds up in a manner typical of Smith's various combos.
The 1960s will also be remembered, many years hence, as an era when many jazz stars of the '40s and '50s, pushed aside by the on-rush of progress, made valiant and sometimes successful attempts at a comeback. One of the best examples is Ike Quebec, who during the year or two before his death in 1963 was reintroduced on Blue Note Records, in a series of performances that brought his warm traditional sound to the attention of a new generation.
Quebec named Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster and Stan Getz as his favorites. On Blue And Sentimental another possible influence may be detected, since his sound is evocative of the late Herschel Evans. It was Evans who played the historic solo on the original 1939 recording of this Count Basie composition, during his three years with the Basie band. Though Herschel died in 1939, he is well remembered and respected by those who were his contemporaries or his juniors during the early Basie years.
After a tasteful introduction by Grant Green Ike plays the short chorus twice. Grant's solo, in which you may notice a couple of surprising touches of Diango Reinhardt, includes quotes from Can't We Talk It Over?, an old ballad to which this tune bore a striking resemblance. Ike uses part of the original Evans solo in his out chorus, before playing a Hawkins-like coda.
Kenny Burrell, the Detroit-born guitarist who has established himself firmly in recent years both as a studio musician and recording band-leader, owes much of his prominence to the many sessions he has made for Blue Note during the past decade, with his own groups and various others.
Chittlins Con Carne, a C minor blues, is a simple theme, played by Stanley Turrentine and Kenny in unison. The balance of the performance is devoted to individual solos by the two of them, followed by alternations and overlapping duels in which the empathy between the two men achieves a deeply moving conviction. Ray Barretto, a master of conga drum techniques, sets and maintains a spirited Latin mood, with a touch of bossa nova, though essentially this is strictly the blues.
Cristo Redentor set a remarkable precedent with its use of an eight piece chorus and a modern hymnal, coupled with the solo work of Donald Byrd's trumpet. The album was called A New Perspective, as indeed it was, in terms of a fresh approach to Afro-American music. There is a serene, reflective quality to this Duke Pearson composition and arrangement, with eloquent support from Herbie Hancock's piano.
The Sidewinder was the record that expanded Lee Morgan's place in jazz from that of a musically repected artist to a higher and broader plateau as a hit maker The tune is simply a longmeter blues, 24 measures to the chorus, with an unexpected minor chord at bars 17-18, The intriguing rhythm figure established during the opening ensembles is sustained through the solos. Lee's solo, fluent and sensitively constructed, never becomes over-complex and relies at times on basic devices such as the repeated B flat in the last of his three choruses. Joe Henderson's tenor solo is rich in melodic variety and Barry Harris' piano, aided on his third chorus by the horns' backing, keeps the momentum going. From a five year perspective, we can see that the commercial success of this fascinating track was well merited.
Out To Lunch, one of the most famous tracks by the late Eric Dolphy, was recorded only four months before his death. As A B. Spellman observed, Dolphy's supporters found in him "...an exciting tone colorist whose technical dexterity was practically unmatched, an imaginatively advanced improviser, and a vital alternative to the melodic cliches and rhythmic orthodoxy of the hardbop mainstream."
Though Dolphy's alto saxophone is the centrifugal element in this performance, it is particularly interesting to note the contributions of Tony Williams and Bobby Hutcherson, who at the time of this session were only 18 and 23 years old respectively. Freddie Hubbard here shows signs of the individuality he was to achieve as the possible successor to Miles Davis. The bass work of Richard Davis is preeminently important, reminding us that Eric at the time said: "Everyone is a leader in this session."
Song For My Father is yet another example of an artist who, under the Blue Note aegis, was catapulted from in-group musical success to mass recognition. Horace Silver's composition, a big hit for him personally, was subsequently recorded by so many other artists that it has become a jazz standard of the late 1960s. Horace said of it: "This tune has a flavor that makes me think of my childhood days. Some of the family, including my father and my uncle, used to have musical parties with three or four stringed instruments; my father played violin and guitar. Those were happy, informal sessions.
"When I was in Brazil, I was very much fascinated by the authentic bossa nova beat. Not just the monotonous tick-tick-tick, tick-tick, the way it's usually done, but the real bossa nova feeling, which I've tried to incorporate into this number."
The theme has an even, placid quality; its mood is plaintive rather than mournful. Horace's piano solo is restrained, with a touch of the blues in the chordal work, and Joe Henderson's solo swings effortlessly.
River's Invitation, like Cristo Redentor, marked an important initiative. It was Stanley Turrentine's first record date backed by a fine, funky swinging big band. This Percy Mayfield composition, a long-meter blues like The Sidewinder, represents a compelling illustration of how effectively a sensitive instrumentalist and brilliantly textured lines can be meshed for optimum effect. Notice particularly the economy of Stanley's statements in the first chorus or two, made possible by the coordination of the orchestral context. Then when he gets to the flowing passages, the warmth and excitement of his work is strengthened by the build from rhythm backing to brass punching and reed interjections. The intensity and drive of this track must be heard to be believed.
European Echoes, recorded late in 1965 in Stockholm, is part of the famous album that was acclaimed as Record of the Year in the Down Beat critics' poll the following summer. By this time Ornette Coleman, the Thomas A. Edison of the avant garde, had become as great a world-wide influence as had Sonny Rollins in the 1950s and Charlie Parker in the 1940s.
The trio starts in a deceptively simple manner, with Ornette's two-note statements on a fast waltz foundation. Soon, Charles Moffitt eases the group into a passage marked by freer statements, the meter changing to four. Ornette has the spotlight for more than half the track, after which Izenzon and Moffitt take over for all but the final minute. The two rhythm men indulge in no virtuoso displays but are obviously digging each other with lynx-like perceptiveness before Izenzon drops out and the performance turns into an intricate percussion solo.
Lou Donaldson's Peepin', with Lonnie Smith as both organist and composer, provides a happy reminder that even in the jazz of the late 1960s there are certain fundamental earlier values that still apply. Though Ornette made a break from tonality and found new areas far beyond the blues, the type of music represented by Peepin' is likely to be with us for many years after the arguments for and gainst the "new thing" have subsided.
Lou's alto, fats Ponder's guitar and Lonnie's organ all have solos in a relaxed groove, with a piquant ensemble statement as the bread in this blues sandwich.
Of course, it would be impossible in ten tracks, perhaps even in fifty, to offer a comprehensive perspective of what happened during the catalytic years of Blue Note Records' third decade. There is, however, ample evidence here of the forces that have been at play in jazz during the 1960s to keep this durable American art form alert, alive and ready for the challenge of the future.
—LEONARD FEATHER
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