BN-LA-645-G

Barbara Carroll

Released - 1976

Recording and Session Information

Kendun Recorders, Burbank, CA, May 25, 1976
Barbara Carroll, piano; Chuck Domanico, bass; Colin Bailey, drums.

17471 Prelude To A Kiss
17466 At Seventeen

Kendun Recorders, Burbank, CA, May 26, 1976
Barbara Carroll, piano; Chuck Domanico, bass; Colin Bailey, drums.

17467 I Can't Get Started
17468 Baubles, Bangles And Beads

Kendun Recorders, Burbank, CA, May 27, 1976
Barbara Carroll, piano; Chuck Domanico, bass; Colin Bailey, drums.

17469 Feelings
17472 Send In The Clowns (From "A Little Night Music")
17473 It Never Entered My Mind

Kendun Recorders, Burbank, CA, May 28, 1976
Barbara Carroll, piano; Dennis Budimir, guitar #2; Chuck Domanico, bass; Colin Bailey, drums; Victor Feldman, percussion #1.

17465 In Some Other World
17470 Blues For Artie

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
In Some Other World	B. Carroll	May 28 1976
At Seventeen	J. Ian	May 25 1976
I Can't Get Started	I. Gershwin-V. Duke	May 26 1976
Baubles, Bangles And Beads	R. Wright-G. Forrest	May 26 1976
Feelings	M. Albert	May 27 1976
Side Two
Blues For Artie	B. Carroll	May 28 1976
Prelude To A Kiss	Gordon-Mills-Ellington	May 25 1976
Send In The Clowns	S. Sondheim	May 27 1976
It Never Entered My Mind	R. Rodgers-L. Hart	May 27 1976

Liner Notes

6/16/76

Barbara Carroll has kept the faith.

Some of her contemporaries, who came up through the ranks during the modern jazz revolution, have long since forgotten their roots. Others have allowed time to dry up their creative juices; yesterday's innovations become today's clichés. But this svelte and graceful lady, who emulated Bud Powell on 52nd Street before she charmed diners at the Embers on New York's East Side, did not merely survive the changing times; she has grown demonstrably, and this in spite of a long, self-imposed retirement.

Barbara Carroll, of Worcester, Mass., erstwhile New England Conservatory student, former actress and pianist in a Broadway show called Me and Juliet, a prolific recording artist through the 1950s, married Bert Block, a prominent show business manager, in 1960. years later, when her daughter was born, she became semi-inactive.

"I enjoyed doing the domestic thing',' she says. "It was productive in its own way, and of course I never stopped playing at home; but I also never stopped wishing I were working."

Barbara recorded her last album some eight years ago, and starting in 1972 made a gradual return to the night club and concert stages. Reviewing her in a solo recital at the Los Angeles Music Center, I observed that "The Carroll style is compounded of East Side delicacy, powerful shows of superbop technique, delightful altered harmonies in the left hand, improbable intervals in the right..." All these aspects are detectable on the present sides.

As Barbara herself points out, she has attempted over the years to make a breakthrough into new harmonic and rhythmic horizons. "I'm hearing and playing things on a broader scale; I believe I'm doing more than I used to in terms of exploiting the full potential of the instrument.'

The particular instrument on this occasion, she recalls joyfully, was "a gorgeous nine foot Yamaha concert grand." Her companions were the stalwart British born drummer Colin Bailey, who worked the above-mentioned concert, and a superlative bassist Chuck Domanico, who has lent his supple sound and imaginative pizzacato to countless hundreds of small combo records and gigs.

The opening track, In Some Other World, was of special interest to me, not only because it is an adventurous and attractive Carroll composition, but because of the effortless ease with which she outlines the opening theme in 3/4 time. Back in 1949, when I hired Barbara for her very first record date, one of the tunes was a bop waltz I had written for the session; this at a time when the very phrase "jazz waltz" seemed like a contradiction in terms. What then seemed to be a challenge, now is a normal way of life.

"I wrote the first part of In Some Other World, says Barbara, "then I had to stop working when I broke my right wrist. My arm was put in a cast from the knuckles to the upper middle arm, but my fingers were exposed, and the doctor advised me to keep moving them as much as possible. That was when I wrote the slow second movement." This haunting passage, and the later resumption of the original mood, lends the piece a classical sense of form.

Her ears constantly on the alert for the best contemporary writing in every field, Barbara chose Janis Ian's At Seventeen because "she is a great talent, and most really good songs lend themselves well to a jazz interpretation, so you don't have to stick to any one particular repertoire."

On this track an effective additional rhythmic impetus is furnished by Victor Feldman. Though equally gifted as a pianist, Feldman is one of the busiest percussionists ever to emerge from the Hollywood studios. Thus At Seventeen has a two-man, all-British percussion section.

I Cant Get Started, though it has become the imprimatur of various trumpeters for four decades (it was Bunny Berigan who gave the song jazz immortality), is a natural vehicle for a pianist with Barbara's harmonic imagination. The use of block chords, the beautifully planned buildup toward the bridge of the last chorus, the settled-back feeling as she completes the performance unaccompanied, all are facets of a superbly eloquent interpretation. "I decided to include at least one tune by several of my favorite composers, and Vernon Duke of course is one of them. I also love Ira Gershwin's lyrics, and on ballads I am always very much aware of the words of the song when I play; in some abstract way this helps me shape the way I phrase it. We did this in just one take, and after the playback Colin and Chuck said 'Don't touch it!' And George Butler — who by the way was absolutely marvelous to work with — agreed."

Baubles, Bangles and Beads, introduced in a musical called Kismet and a best seller for Peggy Lee in 1953, begins with a contemplative, out-of-tempo introductory chorus that enriches this already opulent melody. A four-bar single-note-line break serves as a link into the following choruses with rhythm, during which Domanico plays so freely that at times it becomes almost a duet — but never a duel. Again Barbara's adventurous harmonic imagination is displayed, particularly in the final chords. "Bert always loved this song," she says, "after hearing Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan play it."

Feelings was a late starter on the session. "I wasn't completely familiar with it, so a record was brought in, then I went in and cut it as a solo — we wanted to end each side with a number showing me on my own. George Butler suggested the little touches of overdubbing with the Fender Rhodes piano, which I think made a nice extra dimension."

Blues for Artie is named for Artie Mogull, the president of United Artists, who signed Barbara to her Blue Note contract — "I know Artie has always loved the blues, so this one's for him." The discreet addition of Dennis Budimir, a Los Angeles born guitarist well known through his work with Bud Shank and Peggy Lee, adds an almost subliminal undertone to this track.

Prelude to a Kiss has been a musicians' favorite ever since Duke Ellington wrote it in 1938. "Bert and I knew Duke well; he was at our home many times, and he heard me at the Embers. I'll never forget when I was in England and we went backstage to see him at a theatre in London. He insisted on bringing me out from the wings and introduced me with some beautiful Ellington statement like 'This lady plays piano the way I wish that could play.' Barbara is not sure whether Duke ever heard her play Prelude to a Kiss, but he would surely have been delighted at the sensitivity with which she applies herself to this exquisite melody.

Of Send in the Clowns, Barbara observes: "I saw the show, A Little Night Music, and fell in love with this Stephen Sondheim song. He's another of my special songwriters. There are very few instrumental versions, and I felt it lent itself to this almost blues-type treatment."

Rodgers & Hart being members of Barbara's special pantheon, they are represented with the 1940 masterpiece It Never Entered My Mind, which she calls "one of the most touching love songs ever written, lyrically and musically. This has always been a very special song for me and I felt it lent itself to a solo version."

Summing up her feelings about this too long delayed return to records, Barbara says: "I came to California to record, because I knew I could have these marvelous musicians. In company like this the chemistry is there. There was no need for explanations or rehearsals. Chuck was very inspiring; he has that intangible quality that makes you want to play. And Colin's so enthusiastic, he wants to complement everything you do.

"One other point: for a long time during the early years of my career, I had this feeling that I needed to prove a point, because as a woman musician I was inevitably exposed to certain attitudes, to prejudices. Today, thanks to the women's liberation movement, that kind of situation is being eliminated and we are no longer victims of a chauvinistic society. All I want to do nowadays is play for my own satisfaction, and if the people listening are happy too, so much the better."

—LEONARD FEATHER
(Author of The Pleasures Of Jazz, Horizon Press)