The Flute in Jazz and Buddy Collette's Swinging Shepherds

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

“All in all, the Davis [Birth of the Cool] Nonet was much like a band of apostles, gathered together for a brief time before scattering in their several separate directions, each inspired to proselytize others in turn ….

Although the [West Coast Jazz] movement was never as monolithic as the term suggested, a certain convergence of aesthetic values could be seen in many of the West Coast recordings. The music was often highly structured, rebelling against the simple head charts of East Coast modern jazz and reflecting a formalism that contrasted sharply with the spontaneity of bebop. Counterpoint and other devices of formal composition figured prominently in the music. Larger ensembles — octets, nonets, tentettes — continued to thrive in West Coast jazz circles, long after they had become an endangered species elsewhere. Unusual instruments were also embraced with enthusiasm, and many of them — such as flute and flugelhorn — eventually came to be widely used in the jazz world. Relaxed tempos and unhurried improvisations were frequently the norm, and the music often luxuriated in a warm romanticism and melodic sweetness that was far afield from the bop paradigm.”

- Ted Gioia, The History of Jazz

This feature is an extension and an elaboration of Ted’s comment in the above quotation regarding the role of the flute in Jazz and how the eclecticism and experimentation that was a keynote of Jazz on the West Coast helped to establish the instrument in Jazz in general. 

Christopher Washburne offers the following synopsis of the flute in Jazz in the following excerpt from his essay Miscellaneous Instruments in Jazz in Bill Kirchner, ed., The Oxford Companion to Jazz [2000]:  

Musicians create jazz in innumerable ways, and at times have defied orthodoxy by developing their voices on instruments that have not attained a prominent role in jazz. 

The flute was used only sporadically in early jazz styles; its popularity, however, has steadily grown throughout this century. Way-man Carver, who performed with Benny Carter and Chick Webb, is known as the first jazz flutist. In 1953 he recorded one of the earliest flute solos on Carter's "Devil's Holiday" (Columbia). Webb's 1937 recording of "I Got Rhythm" (Decca) is particularly representative of Carver's work. It was not until the 1950s that the flute's use became widespread, due in part to the interest of several saxophonists—-known as "doublers," for their ability to play a variety of woodwind instruments-—to play jazz on the instrument. 

The doublers active in the 1950s who became noted as accomplished flutists include Frank Wess, James Moody, Yusef Lateef, Buddy Collette, and Bud Shank. Wess, a saxophonist with the Count Basie orchestra (1955—64), was one of the first popularizers of the instrument. His warm, breathy, rich sound and virtuosic ability are heard on the 1955 Basie recording "Midgets" (Verve). James Moody's approach to flute soloing favored a beautiful clear tone and cleanly executed virtuosic melodic lines. One of his most remarkable solos is heard on his recording of "Cherokee" (Milestone). Lateef explored more unconventional approaches to playing the instrument and popularized the multiphonic technique of simultaneously singing and playing. A good example is heard on Lateef's 1957 recording of "Take the 'A' Train" on The Sounds of Yusef Lateef (Prestige), where he alternates between playing a conventional bop solo and multiphonics. In 1958 Buddy Collette was the first to record all the instruments of the modern flute family (piccolo, flute, alto, and bass), on Buddy Collette's Swinging Shepherds (EmArcy). Bud Shank was an important figure in West Coast jazz of the 1950s, playing with Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars. His 1954 recording with Laurindo Almeida, Brazilliance (World Pacific), captures his soloing style.

Other notable doublers include Eric Dolphy, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Joe Farrell, and Lew Tabackin. Dolphy played flute in modern and free jazz settings. His work with Chico Hamilton on the 1958 recording Gongs East (Warner Bros.) showcases his expressive soloing style. Roland Kirk explored more unconventional playing styles utilizing multiphonics and circular breathing extensively. In addition to playing the modern flute, Kirk performed on a variety of wooden and ethnic flutes. His 1964 all-flute album I Talk With the Spirits (Limelight/Verve) showcases his abilities. Joe Farrell was a member of Chick Corea's Return to Forever, a group that fused Brazilian and Latin musics with contemporary jazz. Their 1972 recording Return to Forever (ECM) includes several extended flute solos, capturing Farell's light, clear, and vibratoless tone. Lew Tabackin has been a featured soloist with the Toshiko Akiyoshi Big Band and his own groups since the 1970s.

Musicians who are known primarily as flutists include Sam Most, Herbie Mann, Hubert Laws, Jeremy Steig, and James Newton. Most's first recording as a bandleader (1955), The Sam Most Sextet (Prestige), firmly established him as the first bop flutist. 

Herbie Mann was the first jazz musician to establish his career performing only on flute. Although versatile in many jazz styles, it was with his jazz-rock playing and his explorations into Latin music styles in the 1960s and 1970s, well represented on his 1968 recording Memphis Underground (Atlantic), that he attained his greatest popularity. Hubert Laws also plays flute exclusively and is accomplished in both the jazz and classical styles. His 1964 recording The Laws of Jazz (Atlantic) demonstrates his large and refined tone and impeccable intonation. Jeremy Steig was active in jazz-rock and other modern jazz settings. He favored an approach to soloing that often included the use of vocalizations; his work on Bill Evans's 1969 recording What's New (Verve) is illustrative of this. James Newton, inspired by Eric Dolphy, has been active in avant-garde and other settings since the late 1970s; his 1981 album Axum (ECM) is a good introduction to his work.”

Thanks to a disc jockey friend of the family who hosted a very successful popular music AM radio show, whenever our families got together, I was able to choose from “anything along the living room wall” a stash which usually consisted of preview Jazz LPs that would never get airplay on his radio show.

To my good fortune, one of these hauls contained an album with four flutists dressed as monks on the cover, three of whom [Buddy Collette, Bud Shank and Paul Horn] I had heard play the instrument in other settings while one [Harry Klee] was new to me.

The recording just clicked with me [I think today’s phrase is “to resonate with”] and I’ve been a fan of the instrument in a Jazz setting ever since.

And it would appear that I’m not the only one with whom the album resonated.

Buddy Collette's Swinging Shepherds 1958 LP must have been somewhat of a success as there was a sequel issued the following year entitled Buddy Collette and His Swinging Shepherds al the Cinema.

Both of these recordings have been combined on one CD in the Jazz City Series on Fresh Sound Records FSR 2258 and you can locate order information by going here.

Nat Hentoff’s Original Liner notes from the 12" album

Buddy Collette's Swinging Shepherds (Mercury SR 80005 stereo/ME 36133 mono)

“During the short but fervent recent struggle of jazz flutists to be admitted into the legitimate company of jazz instruments, the usual charge leveled against the flutists (who finally won) was that the instrument had so slight a tradition in jazz history.

Had the flutists, however, wanted to throw historical weight around, they might have pointed out that if tradition is the criterion, there have been funky flutes on the earth for many more centuries than such neophytes as the tenor saxophone or the vibes. Or, as Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians puts the case, "a visit to any representative ethnographical collection will show that the flute in some form or another is known and loved by primitive tribes all over the world." It's hard to get any more basic than that.

Actually, within jazz itself, the flute is not without some history. Wayman Carver was playing solos on flute with Chick Webb at least as early as 1937, and his work, as I had occasion to rehear during the past few months, was far from "novelty" playing. His solos swung and had a good jazz conception.

Another of the earlier jazz shepherds was Harry Klee of this present assemblage, who recorded Caravan with Ray Linn in the early '40s, was with Boyd Raeburn in the mid '40s on alto saxophone and flute, and was heard on flute in a Mary Ann McCall set in the early'50s.

The fully-committed march of the flutes into jazz, however, did not begin to shape up until about 1954. Herbie Mann and Frank Wess in the east and Bud Shank on the west coast began to demonstrate marked affection for the instrument and a degree of idiomatic jazz facility with the horn. More and more recruits were added until in the 1957 Down Beat Readers Poll—in which a separate flute category made its second annual appearance—there were 13 candidates who received enough votes to be listed.

Buddy Collette, the leader of this four-way flute album (possibly the largest single assemblage of flutists yet gathered on one jazz date), has had a considerable share in accelerating the acceptance of the flute in jazz by his work when he was with Chico Hamilton and by his recordings.

Among his converts, for example, is Edgar Jackson of the stately British Gramophone, who wrote recently of Buddy; "If my personal preference is for his flute playing it is probably because I find his tone more attractive than that of any other jazz flutist." "Versatility has been the downfall of many jazzmen, but Collette seems able to make the switch from one instrument to another with the utmost ease and without the tone of any one suffering. Always graceful, he has a flair for melody,"

William Marcell (Buddy) Collette was born in Los Angeles, August 6, 1921. He began on piano at 10, added the alto at 12, and headed his first band that year with sidemen Charles Mingus and Britt Woodman. He accumulated the clarinet at 14, went to Jordan high school, and during his last year there (he was leader of the school dance band) he began studying theory with Floyd Reese. A classmate at Jordan, by the way, was Joe Comfort, the bassist on this session.

After some professional experience in and around Los Angeles, Buddy served in the navy for 3 and half years, eventually becoming leader of military and dance units therein. He formed an all-star band in 1946 that included Mingus, Woodman, and Lucky Thompson; and later worked with, among others, Edgar Hayes, Louis Jordan, Benny Carter, and Gerald Wilson.

Starting with Jerry Fielding on the Groucho Marx Show in 1950, Collette has been in ubiquitous demand in west coast radio, TV, and recording studios. He also played for a time on tour with the Chico Hamilton quintet.

Buddy had started studying at the Los Angeles Conservatory after his 1946 band broke up, and it was there he began on the flute. He later did advanced work with Martin Ruderman and Henry Woempner while continuing his study of the other reed instruments and theory.

In addition to Harry Klee, long established in Hollywood studios, Buddy's flute associates in this session include Bud Shank, the Kenton alumnus, who is also known on alto and in recent months, has begun considerable concentration on tenor. Paul Horn is also multiple-skilled (alto, clarinet, piccolo, flute, alto flute) and became generally known in the jazz field when he replaced Collette with Chico Hamilton in September, 1956, after a previous term with the Sauter-Finegan orchestra. He has since left Chico to settle in Los Angeles,

As for the program, Buddy wrote the melodically animable Flute Diet with Bud Shank on alto flute and the rest on C flutes. Short Story is also Buddy's, with Horn and Shank on alto flutes, Klee on bass flute, and Buddy on C flute. It's a reflective story and illustrates again Buddy's skill at constructing quickly ingratiating melodies. Pete Rugolo wrote the tribute to Machito in which the opening alto flute solo is by Harry Klee. There is doubling to piccolos by members of the confraternity later in the number.

The pastoral Improvisation with conga drum opens with overtones of Ravel and involves Buddy on C flute, Horn on piccolo, Shank on alto flute, and Klee on bass flute. It was "done right on the spot," notes Buddy, "with one take." Pony Tale is by Paul Horn (all the composers, incidentally, arranged their own works) and utilizes three C flutes and one alto flute.

The Funky Shepherds (perhaps a redundancy) is by Bud Shank with two C flutes, an alto flute and one bass flute. Tasty Dish is Collette's with all the front line this time playing C flutes. The second Improvisation is without rhythm section and indicates the viability of the flute even in such multiple consanguinity. The closing The Four Winds Blow is by Paul Horn, and for the second-time in the album, all four are C flutes.

Thus endeth the flute seminar, a presentation in four-fold force of the thesis that the flute, like any other instrument, has the capacity to be part of the jazz species. It's not the instrument, after all, that determines eligibility; it's the player.”

—Nat Hentoff

John Tynan’s original liner notes from the 12" album sequel - Buddy Collette and His Swinging Shepherds al the Cinema (Mercury SR 60132 stereo / MG 20447 mono]

“In this set of songs and themes from 11 Hollywood Flickers, Buddy Collette's "Swinging Shepherds" (Bud Shank, Paul Horn and Harry Klee) combine with the leader to produce by pen and assorted flutes one of the freshest albums of movie tunes to come along in a month of cliché-ridden Sundays.

Until the release of Buddy Collette's Swinging Shepherds (Mercury MG 36133), the flute in jazz had generally been utilized in solo context. Then came the Shepherds with their unique arrangements for a quartet of flutes, blowing free and off-the-chart modern jazz as the mood dictated.

Little need be added to Nat Hentoff's comprehensive summation of the action and the personnel on the first album except to note that Collette, Horn, Shank and Klee (and, of course, the worthies in the rhythm section Bill Miller, piano, Joe Comfort, bass, and Bill Richmond, drums and conga) continue to reign supreme on their instruments in the west coast jazz sphere. All remain top studio musicians on many of the most popular television programs, motion pictures and records.

In this album, where the instrumentation is of such complexity and variability, it would appear worthwhile to list the different flute voicings and order of solos. Bassist Red Mitchell is present on all the tracks; piano and drum chores were split between Bill Miller and John T. Williams (on piano) and between Shelly Manne and Earl Palmer (on drums). Jim Hall is on guitar.

So far as the flutes are concerned, suffice to say that confusion may seem the order of the day to the casual listener. But, for the assiduous fan, here is the track-by-track breakdown:

Colonel Bogey, a light, sprightly treatment of the Bridge on the River Kwai theme (composed as a military march by K.J. Aldford and adapted for the film by Malcolm Arnold), was arranged by Bud Shank. It's very tongue-in-cheek and cheerful and is scored for Horn and Shank on E flat flutes before a switch which casts Shank on the solo C (or "regular") instrument with Collette, Horn and Klee manning an alto flute apiece behind him. Collette has a brief statement on alto flute, and the piano soloist on this track is Bill Miller. Earl Palmer is on drums.

Laura spotlights the bass flute work of Harry Klee and Pete Rugolo's richly colorful arrangement of this David Raksin composition for the Gene Tierney-Dana Andrews picture. Note the startling key change as the bass flute enters to state the theme after the C flute introduction. There is a sinuous Latin beat behind the two-part writing for the C and E flat flutes of Shank and Horn, respectively. If you listen carefully it is easily discerned that Shank is quite close to the mike here. Soloist is Collette.

Smile, the poignant theme in Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times is here given a medium-up, swinging treatment by Collette, who arranged it for two C flutes (himself and Klee) and two altos (Shank and Horn). Collette has the lead in the ensemble section before guitarist Jim Hall's fine solo, then returns to take the first flute solo. Horn plays the second flute solo, followed by Bill Miller on piano. Note on the final chorus the big, fat ensemble sound achieved by Collette in his section writing for the four flutes. Shelly Manne is on drums.

The Bad and the Beautiful, one of the most haunting movie themes of all time, is another David Raksin composition for the film of the same name starring Lana Turner and Kirk Douglas. In the picture, it may be recalled, the first full soundtrack statement of the theme was played by trombonist Si Zentner as a "mood catcher'" for actress Turner. Here the blue legato feeling is sustained in Paul Horn's sensitive arrangement for his own C flute, the altos of Shank and Collette and Klee's bass flute. Note Jim Hall's effective downward guitar slur which ends the introduction, effectively preparing the listener for the mood to follow.

The Shrike, composed originally by Pete Rugolo for this film, is the only number here arranged by the original composer. It is appropriately eerie, but swings in medium tempo to Shelly Manne's drums. A high spot of this arrangement is Horn's piccolo performance, on which instrument he doubles with the alto flute; Collette is on C flute. Shank on E flat and Klee on bass. Rugolo's reputation for "far out" writing certainly is not belied here. Note in particular the manner in which he achieves unusual tonal color by manipulating instrumental voicings; e.g., the flutes, piccolo and piano toward the close manage to suggest an almost "Moonlight Sonata" feeling. Williams is on piano.

I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me, by Clarence Gaskill and Jimmy McHugh, has been featured in a number of films, most recently in The Caine Mutiny. Always a good tune for jazz blowing, here it skips happily under Bud Shank's pen through 16-bar exchanges between the four flutists. First comes Shank, then Collette, then, finally Klee. Red Mitchell's brief but excellent string bass solo precedes a riding ensemble exercise on the final chorus.

The Trolley Song summons sentimental memories of a young, fresh Judy Garland in the picture Meet Me In St. Louis. Buddy Collette's interpretation of the Hugh Martin-Ralph Blane tune features the C flutes of himself and Klee and the altos of Shank and Horn. After motorman Earl Palmer clangs into up tempo, Klee takes the lead, then drops an octave on the first bridge. Note Bill Miller's economical and intelligent piano solo here.

Intermezzo inevitably recalls to the imagination a very young, refreshing Ingrid Bergman and the late Leslie Howard. The romantic theme is sentimentally handled by arranger Pete Rugolo who wrote for two C flutes (Collette and Shank), alto (Horn) and bass (Klee). Horn opens, followed by Collette, and Klee's is the final voice.

Ruby arranged here by Buddy Collette, was composed as a theme for the film of the same name by Mitchell Parrish and Heinz Roemheld. Guitarist Hall opens with a statement of the melody line backed by The C flutes of Collette and Horn and the altos of Shank and Klee. Following Bill Miller's piano solo, Mitchell enters for a 12-bar bass statement before the flutists command for a series of 8-bar breaks: Horn is first (note his flutter), then Klee; Collette follows and, finally, Shank. Drummer Palmer sends the ensemble riding home to the coda.

Invitation is another movie title tune — this time composed by Bronislau Kaper — was arranged by Paul Horn for his own alto flute lead, the C flutes of Collette and Shank, and Klee's bass. With drummer Palmer playing stick against tom-tom shell and guitarist Hall plinking a bongo effect at the bridge of his instrument, an exotic rhythmic pattern is achieved behind the flutes. Bill Miller is heard in a brief and tasteful piano interlude, and the piece closes with a high C flute note by Shank.

Would You Like to Swing on a Star will be remembered as the musical query posed by Bing Crosby in Goin' My Way. Composed for the film by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen, this version was arranged by Paul Horn for three C flutes and Klee's alto. Solos by all four are on the C instrument and the order is Horn, Collette, Shank and Klee. There's a wild flurry of flutes before Red Mitchell steps in for a short solo, inviting the Shepherds to pipe the album back to the fold after an uncommonly happy gambol.”