LT-1044

Bobby Hutcherson - Patterns

Released - 1980

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, March 14, 1968
James Spaulding, alto sax, flute; Bobby Hutcherson, vibes; Stanley Cowell, piano; Reggie Workman, bass; Joe Chambers, drums.

2069 tk.3 Patterns
2070 tk.8 Effi
2071 tk.10 Nocturnal
2072 tk.14 Irina
2073 tk.25 Ankara
2074 tk.29 A Time To Go

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Patterns	Joseph L. Chambers	March 14 1968
A Time To Go	James Spaulding	March 14 1968
Ankana	Joseph L. Chambers	March 14 1968
Side Two
Effi	Stanley Cowell	March 14 1968
Irina	Joseph L. Chambers	March 14 1968
Nocturnal	Joseph L. Chambers	March 14 1968

Liner Notes

BOBBY HUTCHERSON

In the late fifties, still in his teens, Bobby Hutcherson worked around his native Los Angeles with the likes of Curtis Amy, Charles Lloyd and Carmell Jones. In 1961, he recorded two tunes with the Les McCann trio for Pacific Jazz and made a date of his own for the label which was never issued. In January of 1962, he joined the Al Grey-Billy Mitchell band for one year. That stint brought him to New York.

The New York scene was active and fertile. The arrival of a relative unknown who could breathe virtuosity, fire and creativity into an instrument that was moribund caused an immediate impact. And soon Hutch was working with the bands of Eric Dolphy and Jackie McLean. Throughout 1963 and 1964, he appeared on a staggering succession of classic and innovative albums on Blue Note; they include Eric Dolphy's Out To Lunch (BST 84163), Grachan Moncur's Evolution (BST 84153), Jackie McLean's One Step Beyond (BST 84137) and Destination Out (BST 84165), Grant Green's Idle Moments (BST 84154) and Andrew Hill's Judgement (BST 84159).

Bobby's thorough mastery of harmony and chords combined with his virtuosity and exploratory intuition enabled him to fulfill the function that is traditionally allocated to the piano and also remain a voice in the front line. This he did to perfection in the bands of Dolphy, McLean and Archie Shepp. His approach to the vibes was all encompassing; it was pianistic in the sense of melody and harmony and percussive in rhythmic attack and placement. He brought a fire and a passion back into the instrument that had been lost since the prime of Lionel Hampton. He was firmly rooted in the be bop tradition, but constantly experimenting and expanding upon that tradition.

Hutch's first issued album as a leader appeared on Blue Note in 1965. He continued to record steadily for the label through 1977. And in the mid and late sixties, he could also be found on other sessions for the label by Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Lee Morgan, McCoy Tyner, John Patton and Tony Williams among others.

This album Patterns, although released here for the first time, was recorded on March 14, 1968 and was a warm up to Bobby's first working band with Stanley Cowell, Joe Chambers, Reggie Johnson and Harold Land, which formed just a few months later. Cowell and Chambers, both prolific and unique composers, also contributed a great deal of material to that band, as they did on this recording. Stanley Cowell, by the time of this recording, had already made his presence felt on the Detroit scene with trumpeter Charles Moore, Joseph Jarman, Marion Brown and others. Arriving in New York in 1966, he worked with Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Gary Bartz and Max Roach before joining Hutch. The pianist continued his association with both Max and Bobby until 1970 when he formed Strata East Records with Charles Tolliver, began working with Tolliver's Music Inc. and organized the Piano Choir. He has since worked with such artists as Sonny Rollins, the Heath Brothers and Arthur Blythe as well as performing and recording under his own name in solo and trio contexts.

Bobby Hutcherson recorded ten albums as a leader for Blue Note between 1965 and 1969. All but one had Joe Chambers on drums and at least one Chambers composition in the repertoire. He and Bobby also worked together under the leadership of Joe Henderson, Archie Shepp and Dolphy. An accomplished pianist and percussionist as well as drummer and composer, Chambers gained his first taste of the professional music world on the rhythm and blues circuit with the likes of James Brown, Bobby Charles and the Shirelles. He came to New York in late 1963 and was quickly absorbed into the Blue Note stable, recording with Freddie Hubbard, Andrew Hill, Sam Rivers, Donald Byrd et al.

Chambers was a member of Freddie Hubbard's first real working band in 1964, a group that is documented on the trumpeter's Breaking Point (BST 84172). Another member of that band was James Spaulding, an extraordinary alto saxophonist and flutist from Indianapolis. He has since graced many a Blue Note date and worked extensively with Randy Weston, Max Roach, Kenny Barron and most recently Woody Shaw.

Spaulding appeared on Hutch's second album Components (BST 84213) in 1965. That same year, they worked together in Charles Tolliver's quintet for a live Impulse recording. They had a brief reunion in 1979 when James joined the vibist's band for a one week stint at the Village Vanguard.

Spaulding is an impassioned player with an exquisite tone and many ideas. He is a perfect compliment to Hutch. What makes this album an even more special event is the presence of his composition A Time To Go, Although he has written music consistently throughout his career, the reedman's only other recorded composition is Kryptonite on Wayne Shorter's Schizophrenia (BST 84297).

Reggie Workman, a master bassist not only in his choice of notes but also in his huge, rich tone, had made his reputation in the John Coltrane Quartet and as a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in the early Sixties. By 1967, he was teaching at the New Muse Community School in Brooklyn, abandonning the road and limiting his professional activities to session work and local New York appearances. Although he still teaches and directs the New Muse, Reggie has also toured with Max Roach and formed his own band Top Shelf in recent years.

All but two of the pieces on this record were composed by Joe Chambers. Those two are Spaulding's A Time To Go and Cowell's Effi. James wrote A Time To Go for Martin Luther King upon hearing of the man's assassination. Although we will never know if it was the F.B.I. or a wealthy right wing conspiracy or some combination that murdered this spiritual and humanistic leader, we do know that he was at peace with himself. And the tenderness and strong, but know- ing, resignation that this piece projects is a fitting tribute. This composition has incidentally been recently performed with a large ensemble and full choir at Rutgers University in New Jersey. On this first recording, Spaulding's flute sound and projection is astounding, reminiscent in its vibrance, passion, control and inventiveness to the work of Eric Dolphy on the same instrument.

The flute is a much maligned instrument in most musical idioms. And in jazz, James joins the all too small ranks of musicians who play the flute with a worthy sound and technique. The late Dolphy, Frank Wess, James Moody, Leo Wright and James Newton are among the others. The flute is also heard on Stanley Cowell's lovely waltz Effi.

This tune had been previously recorded by Max Roach's quintet and would later be recorded by the Charles Tolliver quartet, Music Inc. Although all of these version have the composer on piano, Hutch's version seems to me the most satisfying because the flute-vibes texture is most fitting to the mood of the tune. Although Stanley wrote it in 1964, he titled it after his first wife. He told me recently, "We got married in November of 1968, just before we recorded the Spiral album. The whole band, Bobby, Joe, Harold Land and Reggie Johnson, was there. The Contemporary Jazz Quintet with Charles Moore and Kenny Cox played the music. They did this tune and The Wedding March which I had written especially for the occasion."

Patterns is a burning Joe Chambers tune. "It came about," he explains, "from a series of chordal sequences that I was fooling around with. I eventually laid a melody on top of it. But I don't really like to analyze my tunes. They are complex and different in structure sometimes, but to explain them makes it too academic and takes away from what the music should be about, the final listening experience on an emotional level." Patterns is a perfect example of how Bobby and James can incorporate soul and creativity with virtuosity to great effect. Chambers plays with a lightness and intensity at the same time; he is both rhythmic and musical.

Ankara, a modal 7/4 piece with a fixed bass pattern, is an AABA structure repeated twice with the A and B sections being two bars long. The vibes and alto sax are the only soloists, but the band cooks extraordinarily comfortably in this time signature. And Chambers is a master juggler of rhythms, sometimes sounding as if he is impossing 8 against 7 on some of the B sections.

Irina is in 8/8 with the meter subdivided into 3-3-2 at times and 4-4 at other times. Hutch, Spaulding, Stanley and Reggie are the soloists in that order. And Reggie's solo illustrates both his gorgeous sound and his fertile imagination.

Nocturnal with Spaulding on flute as the only soloist, is Joe's Satie-influenced tone poem to the night. James' clear, rounded tone and purity of range throughout the flute's three octaves is impressive.

Happily, all five of these men continue to create and perform new music, each expanding upon the jazz tradition in his own unique way. This recording was the state of the art when it was taped in 1968 and remains such to this day.

—Michael Cuscuna

Notes for the 2012 CD Edition

The level of vibist Bobby Hutcherson's output on Blue Note in the '60s was nothing short of astonishing. The fact that four of his best, "Oblique", this album, "Spiral" and "Medina", were not released at the time is even more astonishing.  

"Patterns" is, in many ways, my favorite among these. It was recorded in March 1968 a few months before he and Harold Land started their quintet with Stanley Cowell, Reggie Johnson and Joe Chambers. The band here is ideal. James Spaulding's searing alto sax and rich flute blend magnificently with Bobby's vibes. And Joe Chambers provides the multi-layered swing and contributes the bulk of the compositions here.  

Spaulding and Cowell each contribute a tune and Reggie Workman is the deep harmonic rock for all that happens here.  

This is late '60s Blue Note at its finest.  
 
- Michael Cuscuna