© -
Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.
A close friend and
Jazz buff asked me recently: “When are you going to do a profile on Stu
Williamson?”
What a great idea!
But where to
begin?
There is hardly
anything written about Stu Williamson in the Jazz literature.
After playing a
significant role in the 1950s with Stan Kenton’s Orchestra, Howard Rumsey’s
Lighthouse Café All-Stars, drummer Shelly Manne’s Quintet and vibraphonist
Terry Gibbs’s Dream Band, Stu Williamson seemingly disappeared from the Jazz
scene.
During this time, Stu
had also recorded with Woody Herman, the Mel Lewis-Pepper Adams Quintet, alto
saxophonist Lennie Niehaus’ various groups and pianist Elmo Hope’s quintet,
yet, the extent of most of the evaluations about him seem to begin and end in
one word – “underrated.”
This about a guy
whom Shelly Manne was described as: “A wonderful trumpeter and valve trombonist
and an excellent all-round musician. He reads well; he has good time; and a
good sound.”
We should all be
so lucky!
I mean, what else
could a musician put on offer?
I heard Stu play
in performance on numerous occasions and he always gassed me.
He had a
beautiful, rich, round tone, the ability to create solos that were melodic and
full of invention, and enough power and clarity of sound to even play lead in a
big band trumpet section every so often [not something that is very common for
the trumpet player who holds down the solo chair as Stu often did].
His stint as a
member of Shelly Manne & His Men [1954-58] was one of Stu’s more enduing
associations. Thankfully his work with Shelly’s group is reflected on three
albums for Contemporary Records, all of which have been reissued as CD’s on Original
Jazz Classics: [1] Swinging Sounds – Shelly Manne and His Men, Vol. 4 [OJCCD-267-2],
[2] Swinging
Sounds – Shelly Manne and His Men, Vol. 5 [OJCCD-320-2] and [3] The
Gambit: Shelly Manne and His Men, Vol. 7 [OJCCD-1007-2].
There is also a
great compilation of Stu’s recordings that were made under his own name for the
Bethlehem FSR -CD 116].
The title of the
Fresh Sound disc says it all: Stu Williamson does indeed – play! – and in such a variety of compositional contexts on these
recordings that one truly gains the opportunity to hear and to appreciate his
gifts as a trumpeter and valve trombonist.
And what a great
series of original compositions by Bill Holman, Johnny Mandel, by his Shelly bandmates – alto saxophonist Charlie Mariano and
pianist Russ Freeman – and by legendary guys like Charlie Parker and
Sonny Rollins.
Stu never “mails
it in” [i.e.: gets lazy]. He’s always working; always playing with a ringing
clear tone; always getting the dynamics, just right. Like the true professional that he was,
Williamson paid attention to the smallest detail when playing a composition and
does justice to all of them. His consistency of interpretation was remarkable as
were his solos with their masterful phrasing and interesting ideas.
It seems that Stu
gravitated to the studios in the 1960s along with many other Jazz musicians and
ultimately dropped out of music by the end of that decade.
Ours is not to speculate,
but whatever the reasons for Stu’s departure from music may have been, I am certainly pleased that he left such a bountiful recorded legacy of his
work from the 1950s.
I’ll bet my Jazz
buddy is, too.
