Sam Noto - Entrance!

© -  Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

From 1975 - 1980, the brilliant Jazz trumpet player, Sam Noto, made four LPs for Don Schlitten’s Xanadu record label none of which have made it into broader, digital circulation.

The editorial staff at JazzProfiles thought it would be fun to highlight Sam and his Xanadu recordings in four, separate postings before combining these into one, comprehensive feature about Sam and the other recordings he played on for Xanadu as a sideman during this period, most notably on one in which he teamed up with bebop trumpet legend, Red Rodney.

Not only are Jazz fans indebted to Don for recording Sam at the peak of his career but also for turning to four knowledgeable Jazz authors to prepare the liner notes to these LPs each of which provide a wealth of information about Sam’s background, his style of playing, the musicians on the various dates and the song selections.

Recorded on March 2, 1975, Sam Noto/Entrance! [Xanadu 103] features Sam along with Barry Harris on piano, Leroy Vinnegar on bass and Lenny McBrowne on drums with the following liner notes by Mark Gardner.

Trumpeter Sam Noto has been waiting in the wings a long time to make this solo Entrance! He recorded this album, the first under his own leadership, six weeks before his forty-fifth birthday Yet his career as a professional musician began as long ago as 1947 when Sam quit high school to go on the road with the first of many big bands whose trumpet sections were graced by the Noto horn. His initial emergence as a more-than-promising soloist happened when he was with Stan Kenton in the 1950s, but he wasn't properly featured on LP until 1974 and thereby hangs a story.

In 1969 producer Don Schlitten and writer Ira Gitler were visiting Red Rodney in Las Vegas. Red. always quick to extol the virtues of gifted players, pulled the visitors coattails to Sam Noto They had to hear him and Don must record him, urgedi the enthusiastic Rodney. Don listened was gassed and later in the year booked Sam for a session in New York with saxophonist Sonny Cnss. Unfortunately, the date fell through.

Then in 1974, Schlitten was in Hollywood to produce recordings for another label. The idea for one of the dates was to pair both the trumpets of Rodney and Noto. At last Sam was heard for the beautiful player he is. You don't hear too many trumpeters now with a pure lineage that encapsulates the spirit and feeling of Dizzy, Fats, Brownie and early Miles. Here he was —a superb soloist and fully-fledged master who had been buried in the blaring, brassy showbiz musical jungle of Las Vegas for far too long.

And now we are getting undiluted Noto with a hand-picked rhythm section For when Don Schlitten founded his own Xanadu label Sam Noto was on his top priority list for recording. Hence Barry Harris and Don taking wings to Los Angeles earlier this year to give Sam the proper showcase that has been denied him for so long. Noto is a giant —that much will hit you as soon as he hits Fats Flats. The faith of Schlitten and Rodney is amply justified on these sides

Everyone likes to be right occasionally, and in the case of Sam Noto this writer must proclaim,  “I told you so.'" Reviewing a 1957 Stan Kenton album for Jazz Journal way bark in April 1961, I opined Sam Noto takes admirable warm solos on With The Wind, They Didn't Believe Me and I See Your Face Before Me. He is a musician deserving of a wider exposure. Give this a listen, by all means - if only for Sam Noto.

I didn’t get to hear Sam again until he surfaced with the Count Basie Orchestra for a brief -period during 1964/65. His occasional solo in that context emphasized his continual development but it was crumbs from the table for those even vaguely aware of Sam’s potential.

Sam Noto was born in Buffalo, New York, on April 17, 193O which made him more than a contemporary ot Clifford Brown. Only six months separated the two men.  He studied trumpet in grammar school but he says, “I don't have much of a background in straight music Most of what I learned was through self-tuition and experience on the road. "

A couple of school buddies turned him onto jazz when he-was 16. At that point in time just after World War II, jazz was bursting out of its earlier forms and bebop was already in full flower. Sam was listening hard. “The first trumpet player to move me was Dizzy and then Fats.  After them, Miles they were the first influences along with Bird. Of course Charlie Parker was probably the most important musical inspiration to me. Later it was Brownie, Coltrane and Rollins. Those are players I listened to the most.”

As a teenager he quit school and shuffled off from Buffalo on the road with some band or other for the next six years.  He worked with Louie Bellson for a time but 1953 found him gigging around Buffalo again He was in the right place at the right time as things worked out.

"I went with Kenton as a result of an accident The band bus had a very bad crash on the way to Buffalo. When the band got to Buffalo it was short of men because a number had been hurt in the accident. So I was called to play Thein the band for that night’s engagement.  I stayed with the band until 1960.” The years with Kenlon made Sam a power player of stamina. He crossed America many times and toured Europe as well. Although he was often given solo spots in the arrangements it was not exactly a satisfactory framework for such a talent.

But as Jazz  entered into a lean period in the 1960s, Sam, after a hitch with Basie was forced to seek employment in Las Vegas where no matter how crummy the music, an instrumentalist of his ability could and can earn a comfortable living. Such an environment, though, erodes one's patience. In a word it is frustrating. As 1974, closed Sam made a resolution that this year he would get out: “I left Vegas because it is a musical graveyard. All show and no music It was driving me mad,” Noto summarises succinctly.

He has chosen Toronto, Canada, as his new base of operations. "I plan to stay here in Toronto and try to work playing Jazz even it I have to travel to do it.” I always wanted my own group — had one for a spell with Joe Romano on tenor around 1965 - and to play Jazz.  As for Canada being permanent, as long as I can work and support my family I'll stay.”

Sam enjoyed making this session. “I found it very challenging me to do an album with no other horn, but I dug it. Playing with another horn can change or alter your playing. Sometimes, for the worst yet sometimes for the better. I really enjoyed Barry Harris I think he was beautiful on the date. " I am pleased that my first album as leader came off as well as it did. For putting together musicians that never played together it was good." You can say that again, Sam, even though you feel it could have been better. Like all true artists, Sam doesn’t even look back at even the most recent achievements. What he will plav and create tomorrow is of even more importance.  That spirit ensures there will he more goodies from Sam in the future

Sam tips his cap to Schlitteln and Rodney, the men who kept faith with him. Of the former Noto says: “I think Don Schlitten is a very courageous man for keeping his interest and love for the music throughout the bad times jazz has seen in more recent years We need more like him "

Rodney has said of Noto: “We finally got Sam on record and from now on I feel a great new trumpet star will be unveiled.”  For his part, Noto states, “I always thought Red Rodney was one of the best white jazz players." He has a high opinion of Freddie Hubbard but admits “Miles has lost me entirely.”

Looking back Sam feels: "My years with Kenton. Basie and other big bands were a good experience, but hardly the place to play personal music. I didn’t develop my ears and my trumpet playing.” As for the pre Kenton days, “I was travelling with very commercial bands and listening and playing as much jazz as I could.”

Sam's allegiance to the Fats/Brownie school of unadulterated bebop is most apparent on this date.  He evokes Fats on two of that great man's works which Navarro recorded in September 1947. Fats Flats is also known as Barry's Bop (an allusion to critic Ulanov and not pianist Harris), but it is here given the correct title. Nostalgia is Navarro s lovely line on Out Of Nowhere changes.  Lover Man, so emotionally associated with Bird was never recorded by Clifford Brown except in a version with JJ Johnson on which Brownie had only a couple of notes.  Here Noto does it up just as Brownie might have conceived it. I can think of no finer tribute to Sam’s artistry and no better tribute to Brownie on record Sam's two originals. Entrance! and Jen-Jen, both of which belie the composer’s assertion that he does not spend enough time at writing as he should. I do also play flugelhorn and enough piano to write my tunes. But really, I have devoted about all my efforts to trumpet through the years.”

His choice of program is rounded out by the Kern standard Make Believe from Showboat, a tune that inspired the late Kenny Dorham to record a memorable version, and Tchaikovsky’s The Things I Love, a timeless romantic melody.  We quickly recognize that Fats Flats is a fast and happy way of exclaiming What Is This Thing Called Love? Ira Gitler’s description of Sam as “an all around Jazz virtuoso” is well founded in Sam's fluent choruses here. Barry is up there with him and after his excellent solo, trumpet and piano exchange a series of thoughts in eight-bar measures.

The stately Lover Man is accorded a glistening, expressive performance by Sam’s warm and full-bodied trumpet, strong in all registers. Here is style allied to technique that is subservient to the moving emotional content. Barry charts a glowing passage through passionate waters. Sam makes a spectacular re-entry and toys with some interesting, deceptively static ideas before his splendid coda.

Sam's Entrance! is finely-flighted and melodic. a sequence that keeps throwing up challenges for the soloist, and that is what Noto and Harris.Leroy Vinnegar pulsates and Lenny McBrowne keeps it cooking in the eights. This Entrance! is so good that you are into the foyer before you barely realize it.

Etching Make Believe with precision, Sam allocates the first solo to Barry for a change of pace and Mr Harris conjures some lissome, logical ideas from the keyboard. Sam weaves in and out of the line with an agility that makes me believe he is espousing  a message that few others can convey today. They have either forgotten how or find it too demanding. Noto is a natural player whose ideas flow and resolve, but that level of craftsmanship is not gained easily. It is the result of nearly 30 years familiarity with valves, mouthpieces, fingering, air pressures, the mastery of metal by mouth and digits.

Nostalgia is not at all what that word implies, unless you interpret it as a return to true musical values In any event Sam makes something entirely new of the old and esteemed piece of material, tried but infrequently tested since Fats made it in 1947, with the notable exception of an interpretation by saxophonist Charles McPherson (on a Don Schlitten produced date, right!). Noto alters the routine by playing the first chorus sans piano, although Barry takes a break on the opening theme. Sam's solo is a gem of constructive perfection. It builds in inevitable fashion, just as Navarro's lustrous statements did. Barry is again an enhancer and extender of the mood. Leroy walks one with Harris providing the punctuation marks. The word nostalgia has become corrupted and abused. It is now used disparagingly and carries with it the taint of a sneer. Nostalgia, as played by Sam Noto. will make you want to return to it often, not to feel nostalgic but to taste again the thrill of elation.

(These Are) The Things I Love is a classic pop or a pop classic, now accorded an unmistakable jazz slant. The melody is strong and the piece trickles gently, never rushes. Sam and Barry are gentle but not cloying. Noto inserts some wringing runs into the fabric of the strain - wonderful.

Jen-Jen is bouncy and full of fizz.  It's a sound portrait of and dedication lo Sam's two-year-old daughter   "Jen-Jen is her name and she's a real beaut I might add," Sam observes. To which I can only add that he has captured his little girl's captivating qualities in this piece.   And talking ot "beauts," the solos of Sam and Barry are certainly in that category A lovely way lo exit from Entrance! and return pronto to Fats Flats for another journey through the imaginative and spellbinding musical world of Sam Nolo, a trumpet star unveiled. He's out of the wings and right in the spotlight where he belongs and the wings are on his mercurial trumpet.   At 45 Sam has well and truly arrived.”

Notes: Mark Gardner

Recording: Peter Granet

Mixing: Paul Goodman

Produced and Directed by Don Schlitten