GXF-3070

Kenny Burrell - Swingin'

Released - 1980

Recording and Session Information

Audio-Video Studios, NYC, March 12, 1956
Frank Foster, tenor sax; Tommy Flanagan, piano; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Oscar Pettiford, bass; Shadow Wilson, drums.

tk.42 My Heart Stood Still

Manhattan Towers, NYC, May 14, 1958
Louis Smith, trumpet; Tina Brooks, Junior Cook, tenor sax; Duke Jordan, piano; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Sam Jones, bass; Art Blakey, drums.

tk.1 I Never Knew

"Five Spot Cafe", NYC, 1st set, August 25, 1959
Roland Hanna, piano; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Ben Tucker, bass; Art Blakey, drums.

tk.3 If You Could See Me Now

"Five Spot Cafe", NYC, 2nd set, August 25, 1959
Tina Brooks, tenor sax; Bobby Timmons, piano; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Ben Tucker, bass; Art Blakey, drums.

tk.8 Swingin'

"Five Spot Cafe", NYC, 3rd set, August 25, 1959
Roland Hanna, piano; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Ben Tucker, bass; Art Blakey, drums.

tk.14 Beef Stew Blues

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
I Never Knew	Gus Kahn, Ted Fio Rito	May 14 1958
My Heart Stood Still	Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers	March 12 1956
Side Two
Beef Stew Blues	Randy Weston	August 25 1959
If You Could See Me Now	Tadd Dameron, Carl Sigman	August 25 1959
Swingin'	Clifford Brown	August 25 1959

Liner Notes

First, a few points about Kenny Burrell. A few years ago, Cadet Records collected some of Burrell's Argo recordings in a double album reissue entitled Cool Cookin'. It was an especially appropriate title. Burrell, like his contemporaries Grant Green and Wes Montgomery, never lets things get out of control. Even at rapid tempos, such as "I Never Knew" and '"Swingin"' in this collection, his is a quiet fire. His recordings in recent years may make some wonder whether the fire is now merely hot coals, but all through the 1950s Burrell was playing the best guitar out there.

Another interesting feature of Burrell's work is something we are beginning to understand with the discovery of the previously unissued music in this and other collections. He would record certain tunes, for different labels, in different situations, until he felt they had been done properly. I first became aware of this when researching Kenny Clarke's Savoy session with the Detroit jazzmen, and I discovered a still-unissued treatment of '*But Not For Me" which was essentially a guitar solo with discreet brushes from Clarke. The performance was not fully formed, but just about a month later he recorded his solo version for Blue Note (1543). We know now that he recorded his own "Loie" for the first time on the March 27, 1963, Blue Note session (Freedom, GXF 3057), rather than the version with Gil Evans on Verve. With this album we discover two more instances where this has happened.

It is hard to think of Burrell playing "I Never Knew" with- out thinking of his classic version on New Jazz which also featured John Coltrane. Yet here we are listening to a treatment of "I Never Knew" recorded two months after the version with Coltrane. Unlike the similar treatments of '*But Not For Me", the versions of "I Never Knew" are very different. The New Jazz was taken at medium tempo, but the presentation here is hard driving. The tune comes from the May 14, 1958, date that produced Kenny's Blue Lights albums (Blue Note 1596 and 1597). Kenny opens up with three smoking choruses followed by an absolutely fantastic Tina Brooks solo with Blakey really opening up behind him. Louis Smith follows with a hard-swinging solo out of Clifford Brown as Kenny sets a riff behind him. Junior Cook was a brand new member of the Horace Silver Quintet when this was recorded, and he cooks in the Silver tradition. The elegant Duke Jordan is next followed by "Mister Thunder" — Art Blakey — before a return to the theme and a brief tag. Twelve and a half minutes of dynamic jazz!

"My Heart Stood Still" is from the sessions that produced Kenny's first album. The March 12 date is correct and published discographies are all wrong. They list the date as December 3, and that probably resulted from the different ways that people abbreviate dates since European custom is to list the day before the month. At any rate, there is additional music unissued from Kenny Dorham's Café Bohemia session (1524) with Burrell and that also features another treatment of this fine standard. Frank Foster who provides the warm mellow tenor here was a frequent partner of Kenny's in the 50s (They did albums together for Prestige and Savoy). This is the only tune in mono on the album. Blue Note did not begin stereo recording until 1957.

The contributions of Tommy Flanagan and Oscar Pettiford should not be overlooked. Any music made by those two is worth hearing.

All three tunes from the second side are from the session recorded by Kenny at The Five Spot August 25, 1959. The rhythm sections here are an especially interesting blend. Ben Tucker had recently come to New York from Los Angeles where he had recorded with Art Pepper and gigged with Joe Albany. The effervescent Roland Hanna led a trio at The Five Spot a bit later in the year and recorded his second Atco album (with Ben Tucker) just about a month after this. I can remember hearing Art Blakey's Messengers at Birdland no more than two weeks after this session was made. Timmons was still his pianist at the time, but he would soon leave to join the reconstructed Cannonball Adderley Quintet. Blakey, himself, was probably rehearsing prior to the Birdland opening. He had just returned from Europe where he used the excellent Barney Wilen on tenor (Hank Mobley left in the spring), and his new man, Wayne Shorter, was getting ready for his first major exposure.

The music here is an interesting mixture. Randy Weston was known as the "Waltz King of Jazz" in the late 50s since so many of his tunes were written in 3/4 time. His "Beef Blues Stew" is in waltz time which doesn't seem to hinder any of the players. It is quite interesting to hear Blakey playing in 3/4 because it rarely happened in his own groups.

Kenny Burrell has always favored ballads with interesting changes, and Tadd Dameron never wrote anything without beautiful harmonic structure, so the Burrell treatment of "If You Could See Me Now" seems especially apt. Roland Hanna's style, which would become quite distinctive in time, tended to reflect Erroll Garner in his solos here.

With "Swingin'", we come to the final performance and Clifford Brown country. By this time it should not surprise any reader to discover that "'Swingin"' is based on the chord changes of "I Never Knew." The late Tina Brooks joins the group (with Timmons now at the piano), so we have a chance to compare Burrell, Brooks and Blakey on the same changes on the same album! Brooks, who had some of Wardell Gray's flowing swing in his playing, opens up with a splendid effort (not quite as good as his earlier solo however) followed by Kenny, Timmons (a very nice solo) and some Burrell-Blakey-Brooks exchanges and a return to the swingin' "Swingin"' theme.

A final note...because of the fact that so many discoveries have been forthcoming from the golden days of Blue Note, it is inevitable that some people may bring up a point that perhaps these are rejected performances. One listen to the music should dispel any attitudes along those lines, but the relationship between Alfred Lion and Rudy Van Gelder, a special one, brings out more information as to why there was so much Blue Note music unissued.

Van Gelder, then and now, likes to limit the amount of playing time on an LP side feeling that once the time gets past nineteen minutes, he cannot obtain optimum mastering quality. That would account for a number of individual titles not issued and finally when Lion found Blue Note with a hit LP (as he frequently did with Jimmy Smith, Lou Donaldson and others), he would slow down his release schedule while maintaining his recording schedule. Alfred Lion, according to Van Gelder, never missed a week without recording a new Blue Note album.

Thus it is the special relationship between artist, label and engineer that allows us to hear remarkable music such as this, more than twenty years after it was recorded. Aren't we lucky?!

- BOB PORTER

Original sessions produced by ALFRED LION
Produced for release by MICHAEL CUSCUNA
Recording engineer : RUDY VAN GELDER
Photo: K.ABÉ