BN-LA-451-H2

Paul Chambers / John Coltrane - High Step

Released - 1975

Recording and Session Information

United Western Recorders, Los Angeles, CA, March 1 or 2, 1956
John Coltrane, tenor sax #1-3,5,6; Kenny Drew, piano; Paul Chambers, bass; Philadelphia Joe Jones, drums.

IM-3532 Dexterity
IM-3533 Stablemates
IM-3534 Easy To Love
IM-3535 Visitations
IM-3536 John Paul Jones
IM-3537 Eastbound

Boston, MA, April 20, 1956
Curtis Fuller, trombone; John Coltrane, tenor sax; Pepper Adams, baritone sax; Roland Alexander, piano #2; Paul Chambers, bass; Philly Joe Jones, drums.

High Step
Trane's Strain
Nixon, Dixon And Yates Blues

Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, September 21, 1956
Donald Byrd, trumpet; John Coltrane, tenor sax; Horace Silver, piano; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Paul Chambers, bass; "Philly" Joe Jones, drums.

tk.3 We Six
tk.5 Omicron
tk.9 Nita
tk.11 Just For The Love

See Also: BLP 1534

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Dexterity	Charlie Parker	March 1/2 1956
Stablemates	Benny Golson	March 1/2 1956
Easy To Love	Cole Porter	March 1/2 1956
Visitation	Paul Chambers	March 1/2 1956
Side Two
John Paul Jones	Shapiro-Pascal-Charig	March 1/2 1956
Eastbound	John Coltrane	March 1/2 1956
Nita	John Coltrane	April 20 1956
Just For The Love	John Coltrane	September 21 956
Side Three
We Six	Donald Byrd	September 21 1956
Omicron	Donald Byrd	September 21 1956
High Step	B. Harris	April 20 1956
Side Four
Trane's Strain	John Coltrane	April 20 1956
Nixon, Dixon And Yates Blues	John Coltrane	April 20 1956

Liner Notes

Aside from the presence of the immortal saxophonist himself, what unifies these three sessions from John Coltrane's first year as a featured soloist on records is the of Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones.

At the time, all three were members of the Miles Davis Quintet, one of the most influential groups in the history of modern music. For someone already well into jazz in the fall of 1955, it is startling to realize that it will soon be 20 years since the group made its debut.

It is equally startling to recall the controversy aroused by the playing of the almost unknown 29 year-old tenorist in the group. What Coltrane was offering when he first joined Miles seems starkly simple in the light of what came later. Nonetheless, his sound and style struck many listeners as abrasive, and few critics knew what to make of the music of this intense, serious man. In his playing on the first LP with Miles, Nat Hentoff found "a general lack of individuality" (!), while Ralph J. Gleason's assessment of the disc containing the first six items on this album included these lines:

"Coltrane sounds best on Visitation, where his tone and attack are not so freakish."

It may not be cricket to second-guess one's colleagues, but the point here is not one-upmanship, but historical perspective. I wasn't yet writing about jazz in 1955, but my first reaction to Coltrane was not much more perceptive. I was put off mainly by his tone, which seemed dry and harsh.

Miles knew what he was doing. "When he was with me the first time," the trumpeter told Hentoff in 1959, "people used to tell me to fire Coltrane. They said he wasn't playing anything...I also don't understand this talk about Coltrane being difficult to understand. What he does...is to play five notes of a chord and then keep changing it around, trying to see how many different ways it can sound. It's like explaining something five different ways."

That was after Trane had rejoined Miles following a leave of absence during most of 1957, which included crucially important work with Thelonious Monk and a less significant stay in a quintet with Donald Byrd and Red Garland. The music heard on this record stems from a more formative stage, Nevertheless, Miles' comments are applicable, for Trane had already embarked on one of the most adventurous and restless explorations of the secrets of harmony and invention in the history of music.

He was a late bloomer; most of the great seminal players in jazz found their voice and made their mark at an age while Coltrane was still searching. When Miles gave him his chance to be heard, he had been a professional musician for a decade. No doubt he learned important things about his art and craft from work with Eddie Vinson, the Texas blues shouter and Parker-tinged alto saxophonist, and he acknowledged that Earl Bostic, in whose successful combo he spent a year or so, had taught him a great deal about saxophone technique of the kind you don't learn in school. And from the period with Johnny Hodges, that supreme master of melodic exposition, came a legacy he cherished and applied in his own distinctive way.

The potentially most significant pre-Miles association was with Dizzy Gillespie, but the bulk of that was spent playing third alto in Dizzy's big band, though there was a short stretch in a combo Diz put together after the band broke up. Trane was back on tenor for this, and Milt Jackson, Kenny Burrell and Percy Heath were also aboard. There were also brief stints with Bud Powell and Jimmy Smith before Miles beckoned. By then, he was ready, and even if the world of jazz wasn't ready for him, acceptance would have to be on his terms.

Paul Chambers never had such problems. He was a natural, in the major leagues at 20, and almost instantly in demand. Born in Pittsburgh, he moved to Detroit after the death of his mother, switched from tuba to string bass in 1949, played both jazz and classical music, and left for New York in 1954 with Paul Quinichette. Gigs with George Wallington, J. J. Johnson and Kai Winding, and trombonist Benny Green preceded the call from Miles in '55.

During more than seven years with Davis, Chambers became one of the top practitioners of his demanding instrument. Equally accomplished with fingers and bow, he was a real virtuoso but also a real improviser — qualities that not always go hand in hand. And every rhythm section he played in acquired a special lift. He left Miles with cohorts Wynton Kelly and Jimmy Cobb, and the three formed a cooperative group, later joining forces with Wes Montgomery. From 1966 on, he freelanced in New York. In 1968 he became ill; it was discovered that he was suffering from tuberculosis and other grave ailments. He died on January 4, 1969, in his 34th year.

Paul was the junior member of the 1955 Miles Davis Quintet. The senior member was not the leader, but drummer Philly Joe Jones, born July 15, 1923. He'd been around; first with Ben Webster, later with, among others, Lee Konitz, Zoot Sims and Tadd Dameron, but he, too, really came into his own with Miles. His playing on this album is consistently superb and demonstrates why he was the most influential drummer of the period. He and Chambers worked hand-in-glove.

These are our principals, Let's take a brief glance at the supporting cast, in the process sorting out the three sessions involved in this uncommonly interesting compendium.

Kenny Drew, the only non-Milesian on what was Chambers' first date as a leader, was then a 27-year-old who'd worked with Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker and Lester Young (some thumvirate). Stan Getz and Buddy De Franco. He was freelancing in California at the time: after stints with Dinah Washington, Buddy Rich and Art Blakey, he settled in Europe and has made his home in Copenhagen since 1964.

Chambers is again the leader on our next session, which also produced several showcase pieces for his bass and a feature for Donald Byrd not included here. Byrd, at 24, had come to New York the year before from his native Detroit, played with George Wallington and Blakey's Jazz Messengers, and was well on the way toward becoming the most prolifically recorded trumpeter of the day—not least because his style was very close to Clifford Brown's. His later career, including forays into the academic world and eventual commercial success on a large scale, is too well known to require documentation here.

Kenny Burrell, also from Detroit (the city that spawned so much great jazz talent ripening in the mid-'50's), had settled in New York in '55 after work with various Motor City groups, Dizzy Gillespie, and briefly Oscar Peterson, and was well on the way toward establishing himself as one of the leading guitarists in the music — a position he has held since then and shows no signs of relinquishing.

Horace Silver, not from Detroit but a native of Norwalk, Connecticut — not known as a jazz Mecca — had, after being discovered and brought to New York by Stan Getz, played with some of the greatest musicians in jazz, and led his own groups, one of which became the Jazz Messengers in '55. In the following year, he formed his own quintet and has been at the helm of various editions since, excepting a sabbatical devoted to composing and recording. All along, he's been a Blue Note artist, by the way — something of a record, I believe. His presence in a rhythm section is a guarantee of swing and musicality.

Two other Detroiters, Pepper Adams and Curtis Fuller, play leading roles in our last and perhaps most intriguing date, two-thirds of which is released here for the first time. Produced by Tom Wilson for his pioneering but unfortunately short-lived Transition label, this session presents discographical problems as to location, date and nominal leadership, but no musical difficulties of any sort (Wilson was headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., which indicates Boston, but other facts point towards Detroit.)

The single issued track, Trane's Strain, was part of a Transition sampler. Fuller, an early associate of Burrell in their hometown, arrived in New York a bit later than the other men on this record, in '57. If I'm not mistaken, and if the proposed recording dates aren't off (and the musical evidence says they're not), this is his recording debut work with Dizzy Gillespie, Gil Evans, the Art Farmer-Benny Golson Jazztet, Quincy Jones, Art Blakey, etc, followed. After some years in relative obscurity, Fuller recently surfaced again in New York, in person and on records, sounding as good as ever in his robust style.

Pepper Adams was only 17 when Lucky Thompson hired him; he played with all the Detroit cats mentioned here and then some, served time with Stan Kenton and Maynard Ferguson, divided his time between New York and California for a while, then settled in the Apple, and for a time co-led a group with Donald Byrd, later becoming a mainstay of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Band, When his photo was published for the first time in a French jazz magazine, there was a stir in critical circles; his playing had led everyone to assume that he wasn't white.

Roland Alexander, who appears on Trane's Strain only, is better known as a tenor and soprano saxophonist than in the role he takes here, but proves himself a competent pianist. He's worked with Sonny Rollins, Blue Mitchell, Charlie Persip and his own groups and is active on the Brooklyn scene.

It is appropriate that some of the music on this album should come from a label called "Transition." While still solidly rooted in the tradition of Charlie Parker and his disciples, jazz was moving in new directions. There is nothing very radical about the sounds heard here, despite the prominent role played by John Coltrane, who was to become the prime mover towards uncharted shores. Yet, when you hear his already unmistakably individual sound, the beauty of which is so apparent now (though he had not yet achieved the degree of control and range that was to come), and particularly when you hear him play the blues, you hear the sound of things to come.

On that marvelous time-machine we call the phonograph, we can take trips into the past with the hindsight of the present. We can re-hear, we can re-capture, we can re-discover. And all the time, new listeners enter, hearing in new ways, for how you hear is determined by what you've heard, and when.

Here, then, is some old-new music, sounding strong and fresh, not knowing just where it's about to go, but pretty sure of where it's been. Some of the men who made it are gone, but their music is still here to be discovered and re-discovered; the others, still with us, are still creating, linking past and future in the present.

John Coltrane's search has ended. We enter here at the point where it began in earnest, still contained within given frames, yet pointing to new horizons. Perhaps he never found what he sought with such passionate sincerity, but in the search, he created a unique identity as an artist. From what he set down here, we can be certain that he knew where he came from.

Some specifics:

Dexterity, taken quite a bit slower than its composer used to do it, is one of Charlie Parker's many lines on I Got Rhythm changes. Trane and Paul play the head in unison, and Drew's solo has a really nice time-feel. Stablemates had been recorded by the Davis Quintet just a few months earlier and was a staple in its repertoire. Very relaxed Trane here, very Bud Powellish Drew, and very melodic Chambers. Easy To Love is a Chambers feature, with very good bowing, and Visitation is also all Paul; a medium blues featuring pizzicatto bass with a light comp from Drew and lovely brushwork by Philly (a nearly lost art)- John Paul Jones is Coltrane's piece; a down blues, and he gets into it. His Dexter Gordon roots show here. Paul gets lowdown, too, and Drew's voicings are almost Monkish. A great performance. Eastbound is Drew's; the title is prophetic. A good up-tempo groove here, and a nice drum solo. In all, a relaxed session by compatible players.

Nita, another Coltrane composition, is straight-ahead except for an interesting rhythm pattern: At the 23rd measure of each chorus, there are six bars of suspended rhythm, followed by a two-bar break. Philly is in fine fettle. Just For The Love is also by Trane; a 12-bar structure, but not really the blues. All hands have solo spots, and a boppish atmosphere prevails. We Six. Donald Byrd's tune, has a basis quite similar to Lester Young's Tickle Toe. Strong solo by Trane, and Byrd at his most Cliffordish, plus fine bowing by Chambers and good bits by Burrell and Silver. Omicron, also a Byrd opus, moves along lines that should be familiar to Gillespie fans. The introduction and ending are in 6/8, unusual in '56, and Silver cops solo honors. This group took care of business.

High Step, a nice line by Detroiter Barry Hanis, has no piano. Solos (in order) by Pepper, Fuller, Trane, Chambers and Philly and a pleasing blend of horn textures, Trane's Strain. a variant of Walkin', has a piano intro with the aura of an old Bird side, Fuller solos at length; Trane, more concise, has a strangely high-pitched sound here; again, he plays some real blues, Pepper, mellow: Alexander, in a sort of Herbie Nichols bag: Chambers arco with humor and fine Philly backing, and then the drummer man himself, with a military ling, mostly on snare, Nixon. Dixon and Yates Blues has reference to a political scandal of the Eisenhower years (something to do with government contracts, if I remember correctly). This is a slow blues, again without piano, and the highlights are Trane's wonderful solo, from dramatic entrance, unaccompanied, to the hints at Parker's Mood that conclude it, and the horn take-your-turns with Philly (a few eights, then fours), who excels at making exciting constructions at a tempo quite unusual for drum solos. Don't miss his final four, with a brilliantly executed singlestroke roll. This blues is quite a discovery (thanks to producer Mike Cuscuna), and the whole album is quite a trip. Take it.

DAN MORGENSTERN

Notes

Dexterity Originally released on Chambers' Music (Aladdin/Jazz West - JWLP-7)
Stablemates Originally released on Chambers' Music (Aladdin/Jazz West - JWLP-7)
Easy to Love Originally released on Chambers' Music (Aladdin/Jazz West - JWLP-7)
Visitation Originally released on Chambers' Music (Aladdin/Jazz West - JWLP-7)
John Paul Jones Originally released on Chambers' Music (Aladdin/Jazz West - JWLP-7)
Eastbound Originally released on Chambers' Music (Aladdin/Jazz West - JWLP-7)

Nita Originally released on Whims of Chambers (Blue Note BLP 1534)
Just for the Love Originally released on Whims of Chambers (Blue Note BLP 1534)
We Six Originally released on Whims of Chambers (Blue Note BLP 1534)
Omicron Originally released on Whims of Chambers (Blue Note BLP 1534)
High Step 8:05
Trane's Strain Originally released on the sampler Jazz in Transition ( Transition Records, TRLP 30 )
Nixon, Dixon and Yates Blues 8:25