LT-1076

Leo Parker - Rollin' With Leo

Released - 1980

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, October 12, 1961
Dave Burns, trumpet; Bill Swindell, tenor sax; Leo Parker, baritone sax; John Acea, piano; Stan Conover, bass; Purnell Rice, drums.

tk.1 Rollin' With Leo
tk.8 Music Hall Beat

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, October 20, 1961
Dave Burns, trumpet; Bill Swindell, tenor sax; Leo Parker, baritone sax; John Acea, piano; Al Lucas, bass; Wilbert Hogan, drums.

tk.22 Bad Girl
tk.27 Mad Lad Returns
tk.30 Stuffy
tk.32 Jumpin' Leo
tk.37 Talkin' The Blues
tk.38 The Lion's Roar

See Also: BLP 4095

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
The Lion's Roar	Leo Parker	20 October 1961
Bad Girl	Stan Conover	20 October 1961
Rollin' with Leo	Leo Parker	12 October 1961
Music Hall Beat	Illinois Jacquet	12 October 1961
Side Two
Jumpin' Leo	Leo Parker	20 October 1961
Talkin' the Blues	Leo Parker	20 October 1961
Stuffy	Coleman Hawkins	20 October 1961
Mad Lad Returns	Leo Parker	20 October 1961

Liner Notes

If you talk Basie or Ellington or Kenton musicians and they mention "The Band" in passing, you know instinctively what band is under discussion. Yet, if you talk to bebop survivors and they talk about "The Band", there is only one band to consider. Dizzy may talk about "my band," but "The Band" is always the Billy Eckstine Orchestra. Almost thirty-five years after its demise, it is still a major topic of discussion. There is good reason. Consider the fact that Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro, Mules Davis, Doug Mettome, Kenny Dorham, Iommy Turrentine. King Kolax, Leonard Hawkins, and Gail Brockman were in the trumpet section at different times. Sarah Vaughan was Eckstine's girl vocalist, and Art Blakey was the drummer. Yet, inevitably, discussions focus on the reed section.

Bird was there briefly. Wardell Gray recorded with different editions, but never toured with Eckstine. Budd Johnson played with the band, but was more important as an arranger. Norris Turney, Flaps Dungee, Lucky Thompson, Cecil Payne, Frank Wess, and Tate Houston were also in the band at various times, but the key section was the one with Sonny Stitt, John Jackson, Dexter Gordon, Gene Ammons, and Leo Parker. It was a band filled with "tempestuous youth" (in Gordon's phrase). Dexter was known as the "Vice President" in that band (a nick-name that didn't stick)' Ammons was known as "Jug" (a nick-name that did stick): and Leo Porker was "The Kid."

"I remember him when he played alto," Sonny Stitt recalled. "But 'B' needed a baritone player, so he bought The Kid a horn, and that's how he came on the band. He never did go back to alto." Stitt also remembers him in the '40s sessions in Washington, D.C. jamming with Buck Hill, Leo Wllliams, and other local hotshots.

Jimmy Heath remembered seeing Parker at Minton's in a group with Lockjaw Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Max Roach in 1944. Coleman Hawkins grabbed many of those players for his Apollo Records session of February 16, 1944. This gig produced Dizzy's Woody 'n You, and is generally considered the first modern jazz record date. Leo played alto but didn't solo. (His first important solo was with Sarah Vaughan on My Kinda' Love in 1946.)

Porker didn't solo with Eckstine either, but he was a charter member of "The Unholy Four" with Gordon, Stitt, and Jackson. (See Ira Gitler's Jazz Masters of the '40s for a full discussion of this period.) In mid-1945, "The Unholy Four" split the Eckstine band and for the next year-and-a-half, Leo alternated between gigs on 52nd Street (including several with Dizzy) and work around Washington.

1947 was the year Leo really arrived with some impact. His first featured appearance as a soloist was with Fats Navarro on the famous Ice Freezes Red date for Savoy in January. He then joined Illinois Jacquet and remained with that band for over a year. To put things in perspective, one must remember that Illinois's group was the hottest jazz combo in the country at that time. The Jacquet band played The Ed Sullivan Show in 1948!

Illinois's influence as a player was enormous, and Leo definitely absorbed some of it. Jacquet, when asked whether or not his style had any effect on Leo, answered, '"Yes, I think so; but remember that Leo was one of the leaders of the bop school, so he had that going, too." Illinois, who has always named Leo as one of his personal favorites, also remembers him as a generous person who had "big ears." "You couldn't play anything that would get past him!" Leo's recorded solos with Jacquet are: "Jumpin' at The Woodside," "Music Hall Beat, "and "Diggin' the Count" (Apollo); "Embryo," "Mutton Leg," and "Symphony in Sid" (RCA); "Jivin' with Jack the Bellboy" and "For Truly" (Alladin); and "Saph" (Clef).

As one might expect, given the popularity of Illinois's group, the small jazz labels of the time began to record as much of the Jacquet band (sans Illinois) as they could. That, plus the fact that the second A.F.M. recording ban was on the horizon, insured a great deal of recording for the remainder of 1947.

There were dates with Russell Jacquet for Sensation, with Sir Charles Thompson for Apollo, and with J. J. Johnson for Savoy. Parker's first record under his own name came about while Illinois went off for a couple of weeks to play some key engagements with Jazz at the Philharmonic. Leo did a week in Chicago, with Gene Ammons, where the group recorded for Alladin under Ammons's leadership, and then a date in Detroit, where Parker's first sides for Savoy were cut.

The first release on Savoy (El Sino/Wild Leo) sold well, but the label was no' very big on promotion. However, they did feature Leo's records on their 78 r.p.m, sleeves, and even issued a 78 r.p.m. album, coupling Leo's sides with those of Charlie Parker (no relation). Leo's second Savoy session was in December (1947) and featured, essentially, the Illinois Jacquet band, with Dexter Gordon on tenor (a week or so earlier, Leo was in on the famous Gordon date that included "Settin' the Pace"). This session produced a pair of classics, in J. J. Johnson's "Wee Dot" and Leo's version of "Solitude" (his finest ballad). Leo's final sides for Savoy were cut in March 1948. But, by that time, he had acquired a second nickname, "Mad Lad."

The name came about because of Sir Charles Thompson's record of the same name, which featured Leo at his wildest. In fact, it was a big enough hit to make Parker a leader, and for most of the next six years, Leo led his own groups, but mostly outside of New York. Along the way there were record dates for Gotham, Prestige, United, Alladin, Chess (two fine sessions), and King. And then, abruptly, in 1954, it stopped.

Little is known about Leo Parker's activities during the remainder of the Fifties. Pianist John Malachi, a lifelong friend, recalled a period of hospitalization for lung problems, but didn't think that Leo ever gave up playing. In 1961, Parker came to the attention of Blue Note and an LP, Let Me Tell You About It BLP4087), was issued. A second album, Rollin' with Leo was recorded (about a month later), but was not released. That music is what we have here.

Of Leo's sidemen for Rollin' with Leo, Bill Swindell, Stan Conover, and Purnell Rice are holdovers from Parker's first Blue Note session. Al Lucas and Johnny Acea were one-time members of Illinois Jacquet's band. Dave Burns has appeared on several Blue Note albums through the years, including dates with James Moody (1948), George Wallington (1954), and Dexter Gordon (1962); and Wilbert Hogan has worked with Lionel Hampton, Randy Weston, and Ike Quebec.

The music here is typical of what one would expect from Leo Parker: "Stuffy" is Coleman Hawkins's tune, previously recorded for King; "Music Hall Beat" is Illinois's; "Mad Lad Returns" was originally recorded for Prestige; while "The Lion's Roar" was cut with Russell Jacquet for Sensation and also on Leo's own second date for Savoy; "Rollin' with Leo" had been waxed for Gotham.

As to the new material: Stan Conover's "Bad Girl" is a strutting minor line (it's a shame that the composer didn't get a chance to play on it); "Jumpin' Leo" is a hard-swinging, straight-ahead blues with equally driving solos by Parker, Burns, Swindell, Acea, and Lucas, before a return to the theme and a tag by the leader; "Talkin' Blues" is down, in the traditional manner, with Leo singing on his horn, separated by two choruses of Acea's fine piano. A beautiful performance!

But then almost everything Leo plays here is as good as anything he ever played. The excesses of his forties style had been replaced by a relaxation and mellowness which is especially attractive. The sidemen are all excellent, with a special nod in the direction of the underrated tenor of Bill Swindell.

It would be futile to speculate as to what would have happened to Leo Parker's music had he lived. Certainly, the albums he made for Blue Note were excellent. Leo came to New York For more recording in February 1962. Parker had completed one session with Illinois Jacquet (no solos), and was scheduled for a reunion with Dexter Gordon for Blue Note. On February 11, Leo died of a heart attack.

For Leo Parker (born on April 18, 1925), this album serves as a final chapter in a book of what was. Oh, there are still some sides for Alladin, Apollo (with Sir Charles), and United that remain unissued. Perhaps they'll be released someday. But, as good as they may be, it's unlikely that they'll add more than a note to what has already been written. What we do know is that Leo Parker, baritone saxophonist, a hard swinger, equally at home in bebop or swing-jump combos, who could also play beautiful ballads with a big sound rivaled only by Harry Carney.

Dexter Gordon was Leo's roommate in "The Band." Let's let the "Vice President" have the last word: "The Kid could play — lots of bottoms."

— BOB PORTER