35220

Duke Pearson - I Don't Care Who Knows It

Released - 1996/2018

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, June 24, 1968
Jerry Dodgion, flute, alto flute; Bobby Hutcherson, vibes; Duke Pearson, piano, arranger; Sam Brown, acoustic guitar; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Mickey Roker, drums.

3053 tk.30 Theme From "Rosemary's Baby"

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, May 5, 1969
Duke Pearson, piano; Dorio Ferreira, guitar, percussion; Bebeto Jose Souza, bass; Mickey Roker, drums; Airto Moreira, percussion; Flora Pulim, vocals.

6202 tk.29 Upa Neguinho

A&R Studios, NYC, October 3, 1969
Burt Collins, trumpet; Al Gibbons, flute; Jerry Dodgion, alto sax; Frank Foster, tenor sax; Bobby Hutcherson, vibes; Duke Pearson, piano, electric piano; Al Gafa, guitar; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Mickey Roker, drums; Airto Moreira, percussion, vocals; Stella Mars, vocals.

5220-5 Once I Loved (O Amor Em Paz)
5221-5 Xibaba

A&R Studios, NYC, November 21, 1969
Burt Collins, trumpet; Al Gibbons, flute; Jerry Dodgion, alto sax; Lew Tabackin, tenor sax; Bobby Hutcherson, vibes; Duke Pearson, electric piano; Ralph Towner, guitar; Wally Richardson, electric guitar; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Mickey Roker, drums; Airto Moreira, percussion.

5566-9 Dialogo
5567-1 Captain Bacardis
5568-5 I Don't Know

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, February 13, 1970
Burt Collins, trumpet; Kenny Rupp, trombone; Jerry Dodgion, alto sax, alto flute; Lew Tabackin, tenor sax, flute; Frank Foster, tenor sax, contra-alto clarinet; Duke Pearson, piano, electric piano; Ron Carter, bass; Mickey Roker, drums; Andy Bey, vocals #1.

5921 tk.2 I Don't Care Who Knows It
5922 tk.6 Canto Ossanha
5923 tk.15 A Beautiful Friendship
5925 tk.33 Bloos
5926 tk.36 Horn In

Session Photos

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
I Don't Care Who Knows It	Buddy Johnson	February 13 1970
Bloos	Duke Pearson	February 13 1970
A Beautiful Friendship	Stanley Styne/Donald Kahn	February 13 1970
Side Two
Horn In	Frank Foster	February 13 1970
Canto Ossanha	Baden Powell/Vinicius de Moraes	February 13 1970
Xibaba	Airto Moreira	October 3 1969
Side Three
I Don't Know	Airto Moreira	November 21 1969
O Amor En Paz (Once I Loved)	Antonio Carlos Jobim/ Vinicius de Moraes	October 3 1969
Upa Neguinho	Eduardo Lobo/ GianFrancesco Guarnieri	May 5 1969
Side Four
Captain Bacardi	Antonio Carlos Jobim	November 21 1969
Theme From Rosemary's Baby	Christopher Komeda	June 24 1968
Dialogo	Duke Pearson	November 21 1969

Liner Notes

Columbus Calvin Pearson, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia on August 17, 1932. A jazz-loving uncle nicknamed him Duke after Ellington, of course. During the next four decades, he'd earn the nickname daily. A natural musician, Duke learned the piano from his mother and went on to master the bass, the trumpet and various other brass instruments before entering high school.

Throughout high school, college and an army stint that brought him into contact with trumpeter Louis Smith and pianist Phineas Newborn and Wynton Kelly, he concentrated on trumpet. When he returned to Atlanta, he was so inspired by his exposure to Wynton Kelly that he returned to the piano.

A major force on the Atlanta scene, he was constantly encouraged to try his luck in the Big Apple. Finally, in 1959, he took the big step. But at that time, the musicians union had all too strong a foothold on the music scene. Someone from another city had to wait three months before getting a union card that would only allow work on a limited basis. Duke was forced to take a job peddling religious books while barely competent barbers and bank tellers got the union gigs. After jumping through hoops and dodging trap doors, he finally got the union's blessing to pursue the right to make a living.

That October, he joined Donald Byrd's quintet with Pepper Adams. Byrd's eye for talent is uncanny, and he quickly gave Duke an opportunity to contribute originals and arrangements to the group. Blue Note's Alfred Lion heard what Byrd heard and signed Pearson as an artist in his own right. (Two years later, Byrd would hire a young Chicago pianist named Herbie Hancock to replace Duke and Lion astutely followed suit.)

Duke's extraordinary talents as a composer and arranger first came to the forefront on Donald Byrd's A New Perspective, recorded in 1963 featuring a jazz septet and vocal choir. Duke arranged all the music and contributed two haunting, gospel-tinged tunes, Chant and Christo Redentor, named after the gigantic statue of Christ on a mountain overlooking Rio De Janiero, Brazil had already made its first impression on this musical mind.

Upon tenor saxophonist Ike Quebec's death in 1962, Duke Pearson was hired by Alfred Lion as Blue Note's resident A & R man, co-producer and all-around musical fixer. Aside from leading his own dates like Wahoo, Sweet Honey Bee, and The Right Touch, he also lent his skills as pianist, composer and organizer to countless sessions.

In the late forties and early fifties, as jazz was evolving into R & B and ultimately rock 'n roll, there were a handful of craftsmen who could voice four or five horns to sound like a big band. This tradition was carried back into jazz by Ray Charles and Hank Crawford in the late fifties and by Oliver Nelson and Pearson in the sixties.

Besides his own sextet and septet dates, Pearson created wonderfully soulful and intelligent charts for such Blue Note artists as Johnny Coles, Lou Donaldson, Hank Mobley and Stanley Turrentine. Duke was fast and creative with a pen.

Gospel music and funk were a part of Duke Pearson's music from the start. But in a series of sessions with Stanley Turrentine in 1967 his interest in Brazilian music began to show itself by his choice of material. At the time however, his own artistic focus was his big band, which he recorded twice for Blue Note.

By 1969, Duke had come into contact with many authentic Brazilian musicians, including drummer/percussionist/vocalist Airto Moreira and pianist/flutist/vocalist Hermeto Pascoal. His recording career took a more lyrical direction. Albums like The Phantom, How Insensitive and It Could Happen To You are heavily flavored with Latin and Brazilian rhythms and melodies.

This collection of previously unissued performances is drawn primarily from Duke's second-to-last Blue Note session on February 13, 1970, which shows both sides of his musical nature. On one hand, Andy Bey is belting out a backbeat-driven Buddy Johnson tune. On the other, Duke is scoring Brazilian guitarist Baden Powell's haunting Canto Ossanha for alto flute and alto clarinet. From October, 1969, on his own Xibaba (Brazilian slang for marijuana), Airto is wailing with both his voice and hands. Soul music from another part of the world.

Pianist, composer, arranger, producer, talent scout and trend setter, Duke Pearson is one of those whose talents are so pervasive that the artist becomes almost invisible in the face of his vision and contributions. Let's remember.

— Michael Cuscuna, 1995

BN-LA-317-G

Duke Pearson - It Could Only Happen With You

Released - 1974

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, February 13, 1970
Burt Collins, trumpet; Kenny Rupp, trombone; Jerry Dodgion, alto sax, alto flute; Lew Tabackin, tenor sax, flute; Duke Pearson, piano, electric piano; Ron Carter, bass; Mickey Roker, drums.

5924 tk.29 Emily

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, April 10, 1970
Burt Collins, Joe Shepley, trumpet; Kenny Rupp, trombone; Hermeto Pascoal, flute, guitar, bass; Al Gibbons, alto sax, alto flute; possibly Frank Foster, tenor sax; Duke Pearson, piano, electric piano; Theo, guitar, bass #1-3,5,6; Bob Cranshaw, bass, electric bass; Mickey Roker, drums; Flora Pulim, vocals #1,2,5.

6128 tk.5 It Could Only Happen With You
6129 tk.10 Gira, Girou (Round And Round)
6130 tk.19 Book's Bossa
6131 tk.20 Lost In The Stars
6132 tk.22 Stormy
6133 tk.27 Hermeto

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Gira, Girou (Round and Round)	Milton Nascimento	April 10 1970
Hermeto	Hermeto Pascoal	April 10 1970
Lost in the Stars	Kurt Weill, Maxwell Anderson	April 10 1970
Side Two
It Could Only Happen with You	Antônio Carlos Jobim, Louis Oliveira, Ray Gilbert	April 10 1970
Stormy	Buddy Buie, J. R. Cobb	April 10 1970
Emily	Johnny Mandel, Johnny Mercer	February 13 1970
Book's Bossa	Walter Booker, Cedar Walton	April 10 1970

Liner Notes

Romance is the word.

Combine the earthy voice of Flora Purim with the smooth and swaying latin jazz of pianist Duke Pearson and what you come up with is music as lilting and sunshine-splashed as a breezy hill overlooking the blue bay of Rio.

It is also as chic and seductive as an expensive bachelor's apartment on the Upper East Side overlooking the white night-lights of the sleeping city below.

Many have tried, but Duke Pearson has succeeded masterfully in blending the wistful and haunting melodies of South America with the urban sophistications of relaxed American jazz.

Continental is the word.

You find yourself dreaming of the lithe, honey-brown girls dancing the Latin carnivals, and then touching champagne glasses across the table with the black-eyed New York lady who wears a red gown, the ivory tip of her cigarette holder teasing her teeth just once as she smiles.

Style is the word.

Long known for his big band arrangements, his jazz and Latin compositions, and his spacially melodic piano playing, Duke Pearson now brings us a welcome and needed escape into a world where we're casual, confident, cool — in control and in demand.

International is the word.

"Round and Round," a bossa-blues, features Flora singing in her earthy Brazilian tongue. Her voice is as light and dancing as a child flinging holidays in Buenos Aires. The tenor sax solo soars like a bird, sharing with us that muscular American jazz dimension. And Duke's electric piano solo cooks with all of the economy and good humor of a modern Count Basie at Monterey.

Flora whispers and caresses "It Could Only Happen" like a Latin lover. Listen to her. She's more of a fox than Gilberto ever dreamed of being. And in the throbbing "Stormy," a classic song, she cries for her lost love. We cry right along with her, for we've all been there too.

"Hermeto" features Duke at the electric piano again, while "Book's Bossa" and "Emily" shows us his acoustic piano artistry at its best.

Of the four instrumentals, "Lost In The Stars" is a highlight. Behind the breathy long notes of the tenor sax and the golden trumpet, Duke unfolds a painted tapestry of sound. Dreamy and slow, "Lost In The Stars" is a masterpiece of longing, and aching tenderness.

Working primarily with one sax, one flute and one trumpet, Duke creates horn lines in the seven songs that weave and mesh and flow with all the strength and color of a big band.

Music — sheer music — that's the word.

With the husky and gentle vocal stylings of Flora Purim, the flame-blue instrumental solos, the deceptively simple brass arrangements, and the consistently strong and seductive South American rhythm section, you have a rich and forceful musical liqueur of Latin light-heartedness and sensual American jazz that just might make this very evening the perfect evening for falling in love all over again, just one more time.

BST 84344

Duke Pearson - How Insensitive

Released - 1969

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, April 11, 1969
Duke Pearson, piano, electric piano, flugelhorn, arranger; Al Gafa, electric guitar; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Mickey Roker, drums; Airto Moreira, percussion; Andy Bey, vocals #2; New York Group Singer's Big Band, voice; Jack Manno, arranger, conductor.

4019 tk.3 Cristo Redentor
4018 tk.9 Give Me Your Love
4017 tk.17 Stella By Starlight
4020 tk.21 Little Song

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, April 14, 1969
Duke Pearson, piano, electric piano, flugelhorn, arranger #1,2, piano #3; Al Gafa, electric guitar #1,2; Bob Cranshaw, bass #1,2; Mickey Roker, drums #1,2; Airto Moreira, percussion #1,2; Andy Bey, vocals #1; New York Group Singer's Big Band, voice #1,2; Jack Manno, arranger, conductor #1,2.

4021 tk.29 Clara
4022 tk.39 My Love Waits
4024 tk.44 How Insensitive

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, May 5, 1969
Duke Pearson, piano; Dorio Ferreira, guitar, percussion; Bebeto Jose Souza, bass; Mickey Roker, drums; Airto Moreira, percussion; Flora Pulim, vocals.

6181 tk.16 Sandalia Dela
6182 tk.24 Tears
6201 tk.34 Lamento

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Stella by Starlight	Ned Washington, Victor Young	April 11 1969
Clara	George Gershwin, Dubose Heyward	April 14 1969
Give Me Your Love	Duke Pearson	April 11 1969
Cristo Redentor	Duke Pearson	April 11 1969
Little Song	Jack Manno	April 11 1969
Side Two
How Insensitive	Antônio Carlos Jobim, Vinicius de Moraes, Norman Gimbel	April 14 1969
Sandalia Dela	Pearson, Manno	May 5 1969
My Love Waits (O Meu Amor Espera)	Pearson, Manno	April 14 1969
Tears	Eumir Deodato, Ray Gilbert, Paulo Valle	May 5 1969
Lamento	Jobim, de Moraes	May 5 1969

Liner Notes

The center of serenity of this album is Duke Pearson. Pearson as pianist (from the solo inner flight of How Insensitive to his interweaving with the New York Group Singers' Big Band). Pearson as composer (Give Me Your Love; Cristo Redentor; and, with Jack Manno, My Love Waits). And Pearson as arranger of a number of the tracks and as producer of the album as a whole.

It is also because of Duke that throughout the first side and in My Love Waits on the second, Jack Manno's New York Group Singers' Big Band has its first hearing on record. Manno, 30, born in Philadelphia, based in New York since 1962, and actively engaged as a singer in studio vocal groups since 1965, has become increasingly absorbed by the challenges of arranging.

Hearing Lambert, Hendricks and Ross some years ago started Manno thinking of the orchestral possibilities of writing for voices as instruments. But it was his frequent listening to the Thad Jones—Mel Lewis big band at the Village Vanguard, close to where Manno lives, that more directly led to the formation of the New York Group Singers' Big Band. "One night," Manno recalls, "a couple of singer friends and I were enjoying the Jones-Lewis band when it occurred to us that it was worth working on the idea of getting a vocal group to sound like a big band. Not just three voices, but a full complement of seventeen."

The subsequent result, as heard here, evolved through two years of writing and rehearsing. "I'm greatly indebted to Duke Pearson," Manno emphasizes, "because he was the one of the people in the record business I approached who responded enthusiastically to what we were trying to do and gave us this initial chance to record."

As presented in this set, the New York Group Singers' Big Band consists of eight female voices as the trumpet section; four male voices as trombones; and a reed section of two gjrls (as alto saxophones) and three men filling out the section.

"What we've done here," Manno points out, "is to indicate some of the potential of voices as an orchestra; and it's a concept which can and will take many different forms as it evolves."

For the rest, the music speaks for itself. I would note the characteristically lucid, economical and flawlessly tasteful playing of Duke Pearson throughout. (On Clara, incidentally, Duke returns to one of his earlier instruments, the Fluegelhorn). There is also the richly textured solo singing of Andy Bey on Clara and Give Me Your Love and the lithe, resilient, beguilingly resourceful work of Flora Purim on Sandalia Deja, Tears, and Lamento. Throughout, moreover, the rhythm section is a crisply supportive model of not only fluently buoyant pulsation but also a constant source of complementary, variegated coloring.

Although there is considerable diversity in the repertory — from gospel and bossa nova to refurbished popular standards and affecting originals — the pervasive ambience of the album is that of lyrical, reflective warmth -— an extension of Duke Pearson's own quintessential qualities as player and writer.

Any more verbalizing here, it seems to me, would be superfluous, except to point out that although the music is immediately assimilable, yet—because of the care with which it has been crafted, the subtle interplay of vocal and instrumental textures, and the gentling nature of the songs themselves — this is a set which should prove a durable reservoir of relaxation and easeful stretching of the imagination as each listener draws from his own reservoir of memory and desire with each hearing.

— Nat Hentoff

BST 84323

Duke Pearson - Merry Ole Soul

Released - 1969

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, February 25, 1969 Duke Pearson, piano, celeste; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Mickey Roker, drums.

3705 tk.4 Sleigh Ride

A&R Studios, NYC, August 19, 1969
Duke Pearson, piano, celeste #1-7, piano #8; Bob Cranshaw, bass #1-7; Mickey Roker, drums #1-7; Airto Moreira, percussion #1-7.

3712 (tk.4) Jingle Bells
3706 (tk.9) Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
3707 (tk.7) Go Tell It On A Mountain
3708 (tk.2) Little Drummer Boy
3711 (tk.1) Silent Night
3710 (tk.2) Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
3725 (tk.3) Wassail Song 8.
         (tk.2) O Little Town Of Bethlehem

Liner Notes

Manhattan's Eighth Avenue in the Mid-Forties has a slightly rancid quality about it. It's a worn street waiting to be reclaimed by American business in the fashion of Time & Life, Penny's and others who have erected huge stone monuments as grave markers for their future demise. Eighth Avenue bares the scars of neglect, misuse and abuse: dirty broken buildings, dirty broken movies, dirty broken parking lots and dirty broken bars that are inhabited by the defeated residents of the area who stare vacantly through the time filthied windows searching for others of their breed. They find a face, a body deflated by loss of dignity and think, "You're me, and I'm you." They're looking at you.

You feel the whole world is jaundiced — malignant — and has infected everybody and everything in it.

As you gaze back into this sea of despair you recall a farmer you once knew in a place called Sandusky, Michigan. You wouldn't know Sandusky by name unless you were from the immediate area but it's exactly like every other small town you've ever been in rural America. The farmer was in a laundromat. A laundromat usually occupies about an hour of your time because that's how long it usually takes for the average load of clothes to wash and dry and he was there for the duration. His shirt was open at the neck and there was a long sharp line around his Adam's apple that extended half the circumference of his neck. Below the line his skin was white and sallow, above it deep brown and weather-beaten (no mistaking his chosen profession). And then there were his eyes. Watching everyone coming and going — apprehensive. Not changing, not turning, just waiting. So you smile, and in return a grin passes over his whole face and the eyes come alive. God it seemed so simple. Just a smile and a man comes alive. This man, this farmer, is a human being who lives on the back eighty off some deserted road where at night the only illumination against the darkness is the blue shaded light of a television set revealing the reality that comes from a spot not far from Eighth Avenue.

So he leaves with his laundry and his wife, and you think to yourself, "What the hell difference does all the nonsense of the world make when life is so short and we dream so many dreams and long for so much response.

So you smile as you walk Eighth Avenue, and the youngster with hair down to his neck where there is no line of sun but only sweat, looks up at you, afraid to face the world without a disguise, and he sees the smile. He comes back with a grin and he's a farmer. The old man, stealing a quick look at the neat, long legs of an approaching dancer from a Broadway theatre, smiles when you catch his eye and he knows, without a word being spoken, that you caught him in a young act, and he grins and God, he too is a farmer.

Even the prostitutes, who speak with that high-pitched squeak that overcomes all bus and truck noise, grin when you smile at them. They grin and they move on, and they know and you know and they are farmers. Ha!

If you are still reading, the question, no doubt, is "What has all of this got to do with the music in this album?"

Well, this is the music that is like the grin that lights up that farmer back in Sandusky or Forestville or Deckerville or Atlanta or Eighth Avenue.

Christmas songs are an immense fishnet that drag up a thousand memories: Parents, brothers and sisters, trees, lights, gifts, food, parties, no school, late nights, kindness, charity, generosity, laughter, secrets, dreams (huge ones) ...love.

Tall, lean Duke Pearson (songwriter, band leader, football player, parent, record company executive, friend, piano player, dreamer, Christian, black) is no farmer but he smiles. And when he does, the world is a good place and that damn Eighth Avenue is no longer dirty and broken. The old buildings become monuments, and the men and women who wander the length of the street are God's creatures and the world is no longer sick and yellow with disease.

Bob Cranshaw, the bassist, smiles all the way through, as does Mickey Roker on drums and Airto Moreira on percussion.

This is a package of straight, reflective music that is happy, pensive, filled with memories, sober, joyful. Smiles along Eighth Avenue and in Sandusky and now here.

I just hope that farmer in Sandusky buys this record and reads these notes. I think he'll see himself as he listens to Duke — and smiles again.

Joy.

FATHER NORMAN O'CONNER
HOST — DIAL M FOR MUSIC
WCBS TV — NEW YORK, N.Y.

75th Anniversary Reissue Notes

Bobby Timmons beat Duke Pearson to the punch when he recorded Holiday Soul for Prestige in November 1964 with Butch Warren and Walter Perkins completing his trio. Five years later, Duke Pearson gave Blue Note its first Christmas album with 'Merry Ole Soul." The album included Bob Cranshaw on bass and Mickey Roker on drums. The magic ingredient was Airto Moreira and his imaginative array of percussive instruments.

Repertoire in holiday albums doesn't vary much; it's what you do with those holiday songs that count / Pearson strips them down to their essentials and makes them swing in a very sly, funky manner.

The album was first recorded on February 25, 1969, but only "Sleigh Ride" was used from that session. On August 19th, everyone returned to recut all the tracks. And those were the versions that made the final album. "Old Fashioned Christmas" was only recorded at the first session and left behind until the 2003 release of "Duke Pearson Mosaic Select" (MS-008) which issued this track for the first time.

Michael Cuscuna

BST 84308

Duke Pearson - Now Hear This

Released - November 1969

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, December 3, 1968
Jim Bossy, Randy Brecker, Burt Collins, Joe Shepley, Marvin Stamm, trumpet; Garnett Brown, Jimmy Cleveland, Benny Powell, trombone; Kenny Rupp, bass trombone; Jerry Dodgion, Al Gibbons, alto sax; Lew Tabackin, tenor sax; Frank Foster, tenor sax, arranger; Pepper Adams, baritone sax; Duke Pearson, piano, arranger; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Mickey Roker, drums; Andy Bey, vocals #9.

3061 tk.25 Make It Good
3062 tk.35 Amanda
3063 tk.43 Dad Digs Mom
3060 tk.47 Disapproachment
3056 tk.53 The Days Of Wine And Roses
3057 tk.54 Here's That Rainy Day
3058 tk.55 Minor League
3064 tk.60 Tones For Joan's Bones
3059 tk.62 I'm Tired Of Cryin' Over You

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Disapproachment	Frank Foster	December 3 1968
I'm Tired Crying Over You	Buddy Johnson	December 3 1968
Tones for Joan's Bones	Chick Corea	December 3 1968
Amanda	Duke Pearson	December 3 1968
Dad Digs Mom (and Mom Digs Dad)	Duke Pearson	December 3 1968
Side Two
Minor League	Duke Pearson	December 3 1968
Here's That Rainy Day	Jimmy Van Heusen, Johnny Burke	December 3 1968
Make It Good	Duke Pearson	December 3 1968
Days of Wine and Roses	Henry Mancini, Johnny Mercer	December 3 1968

Liner Notes

...

75th Anniversary Reissue Notes

This was the second album by Duke Pearson's big band (the first being Introducing The Duke Pearson Big Band). These are projects that Blue Note could not have afford on its own but that were made possible once the larger Liberty label bought Blue Note. Pearson's big band was one of several started around York as rehearsal bands. Thad Jones and Mel Lewis as well as Joe Henderson Kenny Dorham led others. Only the Jones/Lewis band survived as a live touring and recording orchestra and the Henderson/Dorham band, though legendary, never recorded. Duke Pearson however got to record two albums of his band with Blue Note and toured the band on rare occasions. An April 1969 gig at the Left Bank Jazz Society in Baltimore just surfaced on Uptown Records.

Like its predecessor, "Now Hear This" blends standards with Duke Pearson originals that have appeared on various Blue Note small group sessions by a variety of artists like "Amanda" and "Minor League." The surprise entry here is Chick Corea's "Tones For Joan's Bones" that was first recorded in an arrangement by the composer on Blue Mitchell's "Boss Horn".

Michael Cuscuna

UK Press Release

This second album from Duke Pearson's Big Band has been awaited with eager anticipation by enthusiasts who enjoyed this outfit's initial and well-received effort (Blue Note BST 84276). They will not be disappointed either because NOW HERE THIS! is even better than that first L.P. Duke's men had been together - on steady weekend gigs and regular rehearsals - for almost two years when the new set was taped. Their rapport as a unit and their understanding of Pearson's music had grown accordingly with familiarity.

A glance at the personnel will show the stability of the line-up. In the twelve months between INTRODUCING DUKE PEARSON'S BIG BAND and NOW HEAR THIS! there were only two new faces brought into the ranks - Jimmy Cleveland (trombone) replaces Julian Priester and Jim Bossy was added to the trumpet section.

To Duke himself, the band fulfils a childhood ambition. He once told me: "I've always felt I could express my music, completely achieve my aims, through the medium of an orchestra. Like so many others, I was raised on the sound of big bands - Basie, Ellington, Harry James, Goodman. They were my first musical love, so to speak, and the thrill of hearing sixteen or twenty men swinging as one has never lost its great attraction to me."

The strength of the Pearson band lies not only in the deep attractive compositions and arrangements by Duke, but also in the magnificent section work, the dynamic rhythm team and the plethora of excellent soloists. Every member of this ensemble is capable of great solos which helps to account for the variety and excitement of each performance. In passing it should be noted that three of the guys - Garnett Brown, Jerry Dodgion and Pepper Adams - are also important cogs in the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Band, another of the dedicated bands that play mainly for the kicks. Interestingly enough, Duke and Thad are close neighbours, in fact, they live in the same street and are firm friends. They come from a shrinking breed of musicians who place art before financial reward.

Several of the themes in this collection will be known already to Pearson collectors. Chick Corea's TONES FOR JOAN'S  BONES was on Blue Mitchell's, BOSS HORN (BST 84257); Duke has expanded his arrangement here. The original version of AMANDA will be found on WAHOO! (BST 84191) whilst MAKE IT GOOD was introduced on THE RIGHT TOUCH (BST 84267).

Frank Foster's DISAPPROACHMENT, featuring the composer on tenor sax, gets the album away to a spring-heeled start. Frank has learnt from Coltrane in recent years. Note his deft quotation from HAVE YOU MET MISS JONES? and his sorties into the upper limits of the horn. Garnett Brown takes a virile trombone solo and there is a sparse, gliding Pearson piano interlude. Vocalist Andy Bey (remember Andy and the Key Sisters?) is showcased on the soulful opus I'M TIRED CRYIN' OVER YOU. With Duke on electric piano, the band takes a sensitive supporting role behind Andy. Nice growl trombone from Garnett, too. TONES FOR JOAN'S BONES brings trumpeter Joe Shepley to the fore, only he is using flugelhorn on this occasion. His stark, lonely tone is reminiscent of Miles with Gil Evans. Dig the band's superb dynamics, not forgetting Duke's luminescent keyboard portion. Over an insistent beat set up by Bob Cranshaw and Mickey Roker, Pearson plays a searching introduction-cum-solo to AMANDA, ("one passionate and fiery young lady", according to Duke). There follows a forthright trombone solo by Kenny Rupp and an agile, mellow contribution from trumpeter Burt Collins, backed by appropriate Latin riffs, before we reach the delightful theme. Side One closes with a brief vignette, DAD DIGS MON (AND MOM DIGS DAD). This Pearson song has an almost Ellington0ish flavour with the restrained voicings and the piano weaving a delicate tracery.

Duke's fondness for baseball and American football are reflected in the title of MINOR LEAGUE, a genuine arrangement and not a mere succession of solos. Garnett, one of the true gentlemen of jazz, gives us a further sample of his biting, big-toned slidework. Then comes a fine scored passage opening the door to the alto sax of Al Gibbons. Stamm's cultured flugelhorn, negotiating one incredibly daring, descending run, is also prominent. The ending, like all Pearson endings, resolves perfectly. HERE'S THAT RAINY DAY belongs to Jerry Dodgion's alto sax. Love notes stream out in this tender, wistful treatment of a grade A melody. Mr. Dodgion makes one wish that the rainy day would never go away. Two of the reed section heavyweights - Lew Tabakin (tenor) and Pepper Adams (baritone) - step out front for some solid wailing on MAKE IT GOOD - and they do exactly that. Lew blows first and sends up the temperature with his heated thrusting. Pepper proves yet again that he is among the few baritone bosses. The pair get into a happy mingle at the conclusion. Rounding off this splendid package of Pearson is a fresh investigation of THE DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES replete with warm and relaxed tenor sax by Frank Foster and and a handsome bass trombone effort by Benny Powell.

Duke Pearson has said: "I believe that music gives to life in return for what life gives to music." To which one can only add that Duke Pearson has given his life to music and this in turn is imparted in joyous waves to the listener. If you doubt that - NOW HEAR THIS! Again and again.

MARK GARDNER

Jazz Journal