Smith, Brubeck, Wright and Morello - Not A Law Firm - Part 1

 © Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

I’m often asked what the source is for my blog postings or, how do I decide what to post about?

I never know how to answer that question mainly because the inspirations are so varied. They seem to come from so many sources.

As a case in point, the recent passing of bassist Eugene Wright [5.29.23 - 12.30.2020] brought to mind three recordings that he made between 1959 - 1961 featuring clarinetist Bill Smith with pianist Dave Brubeck and drummer Joe Morello.

Given the myriad recordings Gene was on with the “classic Dave Brubeck Quartet” with Joe and alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, you might ask why these three relatively obscure albums [one of which has never been issued on CD] came to mind?

And my answer would be, “I don’t know, they just did.”

So much for “the method” of  how I prepare features for the blog.

What I DO KNOW is that the music on all three of them is delightful, especially given the contrast of Bill’s magnificent clarinet playing to Paul Desmond’s equally magnificent alto sax playing and I commend all three of them if they are new to you.

As usual, Gene is his rock-solid, stay-at-home bassist “self” which makes it easy for Dave and Bill to wander all over the place seeking new and different ways to form Jazz expressions.

In tandem with Morello [talk about MAGNIFICENT], Gene and Joe made-up one of the most swinging Jazz rhythm sections that no one ever talks about.

The first of these, three recordings was issued on Columbia in 1959 as The Riddle [CL 1454] and it has sadly never been issued as a single CD by Sony.

Notes by DAVE BRUBECK 

"To me, "Hey, Ho, Nobody at Home" is more than the folk song this album uses as its basic theme, but the tune itself is evocative of friend Bill, poking his head into my living room, singing out, "Hey, anybody home!" And you know exactly who it is (who else greets you in such a way?) even though you haven’t seen him for two years since he left for Paris or Rome. He is a friend who stays close even after years of separation. 

In the summer of 1959 our paths crossed again in Lenox, Mass. This time it was I who did the "Hey Ho-ing," because I had heard that Bill was living in the woods somewhere near Tanglewood [Stockbridge and Lenox in the Berkshire hills in western Massachusetts]. One evening we were engulfed in a sudden summer deluge and I thought of the still unlocated Bill, camping somewhere out in the woods and how he might be in need of warm food, fire and friends.  I drove down to the lake campground someone had pointed out to me as a lakeshore site reserved for Tanglewood personnel. I drove the car down to the end of the dirt road and honked my horn, hollering, "Bill Smith" as loudly as I could; and suddenly, floundering out of the wet shrubbery emerged a laughing Bill, yelling, "It's me! It's me! I'm here. Don't go 'way!" 

One glance and I could see that this boy needed dry clothes and a hot meal, so we took him back with us to Music Inn, where my family and I had made our summer headquarters. That same night we began rehearsing this album.

I was intrigued with the idea Bill presented to me—a jazz LP which was basically variations on a single theme, but so skillfully devised that the listener is scarcely aware of the direct relationship. The idea of unity in an LP should intrigue jazzmen, and Bill has given us one solution to the problem by relating all the themes. This is the first riddle of the album: to discover the thematic relationship of each of the tunes. The second riddle is to detect which parts of the music are written, and which are improvised. Almost everyone who has heard this album (including Joe and Gene, our own rhythm section) has had difficulty separating the composed from the improvised sections. I take this as a real compliment, because good jazz composition sounds as though it were really improvised, and good improvisation should sound as though it was as well thought out as a composition. I think the integration of the composed and improvised

parts have been very successful. Although Bill and I do not work together regularly, and, in fact, had not played together for years, a musical rapport from previous years still existed.

I think we were able to understand and feel each other's style because we have known each other for 14 years now, and have worked together from widely divergent circumstances from "joint jobs" to studying with Milhaud, playing in the old Octet, and even teaching at U.C. extension. It was fun to be back together

Over the years I have watched Bill grow in all fields of achievement as a composer. He has developed into one of the finest "legit" clarinetists and was selected as a member of the Fromm Chamber Music Players for his ability to play modern classical works It was in this capacity that he was at Tanglewood. This same high quality of musicianship carries over into his jazz, which I find exciting, original and very personal. As a teacher, composer, arranger, classical instrumentalist and jazz performer he ranks with the best in each field and that is a broad area for any one man to cover adequately, let alone well.

Recording a session with Bill  Smith is not like going to a studio and playing the blues, or standards, or “originals” based on standards. Bill uses 9 bar phrases and odd chord progressions that keep you on your toes. They at first seem unnatural, because they are out of the usual pattern, but soon you begin to see how they fit into the overall design, and they open up new areas for improvisatory explorations. When I first saw chord sequences Bill expected us to improvise on my first reaction was to want to change everything to a sequence more natural to me. Then I recalled how some of my own tunes had been received by other Jazz musicians with the comment

 "Nobody can improvise on those changes.” And a few years later those same tunes like The Duke and In Your Own Sweet Way turned up in the Jazz repertoire of many groups who can now play them as naturally as any other tune. It just takes time to adjust to change. When Bill confronted me with the same problem, I had the same reaction. And that's exactly what it is — REACTION. If jazz is to progress some of us must venture away from the soft cushion.”

Part 2 on Brubeck a la Mode [Fantasy F-3301; OJCCD 200-2] issued in 1960 and Part 3 on Near-Myth/Brubeck-Smith [Fantasy F-8063; OJCCD 236-2] issued in 1961 to follow.