Friday, March 24, 2023

Pete Jolly [From the Archives]

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


“For Pete, interpretation is the art of translating self. The composer's melody, harmony, and rhythm serve as his starting point; his true inventiveness stems from his ability to develop an idea into a personal statement. Every Jolly improvisation is permeated with a germ whose harmonic, rhythmic, and melodic roots lie in the original theme. But because the theme serves primarily as a vehicle for the performer's personality, his playing seems entirely natural, indeed effortless. Of course, playing jazz piano is far from effortless, but Pete makes it sound as if it were.” 

Ed Barr, sleeve notes to The Pete Jolly Trio - Yeah! [VSOP #98CD]


I always thought of Pete Jolly [1932-2004] and Lou Levy [1928-2001] as the West Coast equivalents of Hank Jones and Tommy Flanagan - out of Bud Powell but with a gift for making Bop more lyrical in terms of the melodies they improvised in their solos.


The sound of Jazz that came out of their style of playing somehow seemed lighter, prettier, and happier and helped to create a mood of satisfaction and contentment when listening to it.


It also helped to provide a nice contrast to the aggressive and energetic horn solos often associated with Bop, especially the Hard Bop form of the music.


But none of this is intended to belittle Pete’s magnificent pianism as the speed and power of his technique were virtuosic. Pete was a bona fide two-handed piano player whose ability to express himself on the instrument was seemingly unlimited.


As was the case for many musicians associated with what music historian and critic Ted Gioia refers to in the title of his book - West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California, 1945-1960 [1992] - the defining moment in Pete Jolly’s career was when he became a member of  trumpeter Shorty Rogers’ Quintet. Ted describes it this way in his seminal work on the subject of Jazz on the West Coast [paragraphing modified]: 


“Pianist Jolly, whose hard-swinging piano work made a significant contribution to this quintet, became part of the group only after Rogers's first two keyboardists departed for apparently greener pastures. Russ Freeman, who had served in Rogers's band when it first formed at the Haig, left to go on the road with Chet Baker. Freeman's replacement, Marty Paich, also departed after a brief stint because of his increasing outside commitments as a player and arranger. 


Like Paich, Jolly had followed the unusual path of learning the piano after studying the accordion, but unlike Paich, Jolly continued to play the accordion in jazz settings even after his piano career took off. On the piano Jolly boasted a crisp, hard-bodied sound and a predilection for intricate Bud Powell-inflected lines. 


Born in New Haven, Connecticut, on June 5, 1932, Jolly spent his early music career in Phoenix, Arizona, where he played with guitarist Howard Roberts. In the early 1950s, first Roberts and then Jolly made the move to Southern California. Rogers first heard Jolly, then still known by his birth name, Pete Ceragioli, when the young pianist sat in at the Lighthouse. When the piano spot in the Giants became open, Rogers brought the up-and-coming twenty-two-year-old keyboardist into the fold.”


In addition to his stint with Shorty [1954-56], Pete also played and/or recorded with tenor saxophonist Georgie Auld, clarinetist Buddy DeFranco and vibraphonists Terry Gibbs and Red Norvo, alto saxophonist Art Pepper and tenor saxophonists Buddy Collette and Richie Kamuca.


According to the Andrew Jaffe profile on Pete in Barry Kernfeld, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz:


“Jolly also recorded with his own ensembles intermittently from 1955-c.1969]. From the 1960s, he concentrated on studio work in films and television; though he continued to play with his own small groups.”


Most of what is in the Jazz literature about Pete can be found in the sleeve or insert notes of his various recordings and the editorial staff at JazzProfiles thought it might be fun to mine these for more information about Pete for this blog feature.



But we also found this early-in-his career article by Sharon A. Pease in the December 14, 1955 issue of Downbeat and thought it might be a good place to start this profile on Pete and his music.


“The sensational young pianist, Pete Jolly, is featured in a new Victor album, Jolly Jumps In. That title describes exactly what Pete has done - “jumped” into a prominent spot in the musical limelight.


The story of Pete’s success should be an inspiration to all young musicians regardless of where they live, for he didn’t make the jump from New York, Hollywood or Chicago - but from the middle of the desert, Phoenix, Ariz.


Jolly who was born in New Haven, Conn., and is now 22, began his musical training when he was 3. His first instrument was a 12-bass accordion, and his early lessons were under the tutelage of his father, Pete Jolly, Sr., a professional accordionist and teacher.


Young Jolly progressed rapidly and when he was 7, made an appearance on the network radio program, Hobby Lobby, from New York City. ‘It was on the trip to New York that we discovered that Pete had absolute pitch.’ the elder Jolly relates. ‘It was his first trip by rail and he was soon identifying the strange new sounds of the moving train in terms of musical letter names.’


When Pete was 9, he began studying piano, and his formal training continued through the next 5 years. During that time, he became interested in dance music and had started working with dance bands before he moved with his parents to Phoenix. ‘My early influences were Fats Waller, Teddy Wilson and Maurice Rocco,’ he recalls.


‘Later it was the more progressive influence of Woody Herman’s Second Herd and the Charlie Ventura group with Roy Kral and Jackie Cain. After we got to Phoenix, I learned a great deal through an association with [guitarist] Howard Roberts and Howard Heitmeyer, and the other Jazz musicians in the area. And, of course, I kept digging records - Tristano, Powell, Wallington and the others.’


During the 1952 season, a young Phoenix Jazz enthusiast, Chuck Terry, opened the Jazz mill which used a local rhythm section with Pete on piano and imported name musicians from the coast. Among those featured during the season were Chet Baker, Herb Geller, Georgie Auld, Barney Kessel, Jack Teagarden, Wingy Manone, Benny Carter, and Maynard Ferguson. Quite a diverse representation of stylists, yet Pete readily adapted to fit each need.


News of the unusual talent was carried back to the coast, and later, when he visited the Hollywood area, he was often asked to sit in with various Jazz groups. On one occasion, Shorty Rogers was one of the side-men and later when he and Shelly Manne formed the Giants, Pete was selected as the pianist, He has been with the group since, working all their engagements including the concert tour with Stan Kenton.


Since his arrival in Hollywood, Pete has recorded with Red Norvo (Label "X"), Frank Rosolino (Capitol), Jon Eardley (Prestige), Lennie Niehaus (Contemporary), Shorty Rogers (Atlantic), and now he has his own recording contract with Victor. Jack Lewis, director of jazz artists and repertoire for Victor, plans two more albums for Jolly that will be released soon.


The accompanying style example is one of Pete's original compositions included in Jolly Jumps In. Originally titled Relaxing, which accurately described the mood, it was changed to El Yorke, for the album in order to lessen the confusion with other similar titles.


The principal theme, with first ending, is a transcription of the first

16  measures of the recorded version. The repeat of the principal theme, with second ending, is from the last 17 measures of the recording. The first   and fifth measures employ a pleasing scale harmonization.


Measures three and four have a transition through the cycle of fifths, E fiat to A flat to D flat, which leads chromatically to tonic harmony. Measures eight (last count) through 14 utilize clever harmonization of the repeated melodic motif. The entire illustration is an artistic example of Pete's excellent taste and feeling for good form.”



Here are some comments by Bill Zeitung from the notes to Pete’s first album Pete Jolly Duo, Trio, Quartet [RCA Victor LPM 1125 1955 reissued on CD in 1996 as BMG Spain 74321424532].


“It sometimes seems that on the basis of its mere eighty-eight keys, the piano could not possibly give rise to such an incredible variety of jazz stylists. Yet just when it appears that limits have been set beyond which no one else can possibly go, along comes someone with a fresh approach, a different technique and more elaborate ideas who once again stretches those limits just a little bit farther. Of all types of music, jazz, by its very improvisationsal nature, offers the ideal terrain for experimentation, with the result that someone like Pete Jolly is always possible; he invariably appears overnight, and while such a talent by no means comes as a surprise, it is always pretty amazing, not to say pleasant, to discover that someone new, after all that has gone before, can still do something different and exciting with the often seemingly prosaic piano. 


Although only twenty-one, Jolly is obviously a mature pianist, and despite the fact that, in this day and age, it is next to impossible to escape being influenced by someone, he has carefully developed what is certainly a highly individual style. There is without doubt some trace of Bud Powell in Jolly's work, as well as of several others of the somewhat more abstract school, yet everything he has picked up along the way has been adapted to, and transformed by, his own personality, by his own distinctly original and refreshing ideas on the music before him. A member of that West Coast group which has been responsible for a great deal of the more stimulating innovations in modern jazz, Jolly has played, and is playing now, with various adherents of this so-called "school". 


They have, quite naturally, had their effect upon him, and in like manner, it can undoubtedly be said that he has reacted strongly upon them. In the present album, Jolly is heard in three strikingly different settings, brought about by the fact that he is accompanied, at various times, by one, two or three musicians. There is the duo (with Buddy Clark, bass) in which his piano is heard in its most severely classical vein, the trio [with Clark and Art Mardigan, drums) whose work, with the addition of percussion, is perhaps more driving and incisive; and the quartet (with Clark; Mel Lewis, drums; and Bill Perkins, tenor sax) in which there is, simply because of the added horn, a greater interweaving of the melodic line.…


On the basis of this music it is apparent that Jolly has not one style, but many. There is certainly one philosophy at the bottom of all his work, but his ideas and attack readily shift and change to meet the existing musical situation. He is apt to be abstract and classic, lyric and tender, driving and polished, sometimes all in the course of one performance. But regardless of what particular mood he is attempting to convey, he never once forgets to swing, and that, in the world of modern piano, has been a quality too often neglected in favor of aimlessness and aridity.”


These excerpts are by Shirley Hoskins Collins from the notes she wrote for Pete’s second album under his own name: Pete Jolly Trio & Sextet: Jolly Jumps In [RCA Victor LPM 1955 which was reissued on CD in 1998 as BMG France 74321592632].


The emphasis on jazz in the last year has been upon the neophytes, the newcomers, the third generation fortunate enough to have been bred upon an established jazz instead of having to struggle for the right expression of a new form- -the prodigies and the proteges. These are the "discovered" ones.


Almost everyone of any executive stature has decided it is his responsibility to find some budding musician to introduce to the musical world as his "discovery." The new find is signed by companies who hope they have a promising musician. And because people want to be considered aware, the neophyte gains followers who are too easily led by the word "new" and not enough by the word "quality." And so it goes...


It is one of those circumstances, prevalent and understandable, that the neophyte is often presented before he is ready. People do not object to some imperfections, but they do expect a certain amount of intelligent and worthwhile expression from the touted musician. Unfortunately, most discoveries are simply not yet ready for hearing. They need more working-out in the field, more of thot admittedly hard-to-get stuff called experience, more opportunity to find the right niche for their personal expression. Sometimes even one or two years chronologically will take care of the deficiency. 


So it is a pleasant experience to introduce to the jazz world a young man who might easily be considered a kind of genius. We are cautious with that appellation, but feel that the talent of this young musician will likely warrant the usage in your own estimation. Just twenty-one, he hos already served his fledgling apprenticeship and here on RCA Victor records makes his debut as one of the truly authentic and authoritative novices in the realm of jazz. His name is PETE JOLLY and we feel certain thot you will hear it often in the future of music. He has, we feel, that hard-to-come-by quality, maturity. 


With the presentation of new musician PETE JOLLY, RCA Victor feels that it has one of me most exciting of those representing the young blood of jazz. 


There is much said about whether or not contemporary music has vigor or appeal or original expression, This album is proof that inspired and intelligent thinking in modern music does exist, PETE JOLLY is one of the finest pianists to be heard and is an accordionist of merit. He is also a composer of real promise, and these three things - all done unusually well - raise him above the norm. For anyone who loves jazz, this album will supply a few moments of jay. 


[Throughout] PETE JOLLY expounds another special facet of his musical prowess - the strength and full-bodied skill of a classical musician. He shows he is a pianist. If every newcomer played as well, we would thrill to the surge of a constantly evolving jazz, and we would look forward to what is to come with great expectation.”



When Pete Jolly Trio & Sextet: Jolly Jumps In was reissued on CD in 1998 as BMG France [74321592632], the Shirley Hoskins Collins notes were replaced by those written by Francois Billard of Jazz Magazine. Here are some excerpts of his very perceptive observations about Pete and the whole West Coast Jazz scene as translated by Don Waterhouse.


“Having set the scene, what about the musical context? Jolly is generally considered a West Coast pianist, even though typical West Coast pianists, paradoxically, do not play in the West Coast style! One might contend that there is, in fact, no specifically West Coast style, whatever the instrument. But rather than pursue that particular argument, it would seem more appropriate to evoke more concrete criteria concerning Jolly himself. He frequently plays in single notes, thus revealing an avowed Bud Powell influence: moreover, as his accordion playing testifies, he remains very aware of saxophone and trumpet phrasing. What might seem an arbitrary approach for a pianist is surely much less so for an accordionist: for on the accordion, which rather regrettably is ail too rarely heard in a jazz context, Jolly is forced to square up the problems facing wind-instrumentalists, to yield to a technique that in its more usual context ihe accordion would not demand. He has to make a real effort to sound jazzy rather than like a French dance-hall artist; to enunciate clear distinct lines rather than churn out hurdy-gurdy refrains. It is interesting to note that the accordion thus emerges as a sort of halfway-house between wind and keyboard instruments.


Although Pete Jolly plays within a domain defined by Bud Powell, he is no mere disciple. On the contrary, he distinguishes himself from Powell by a certain sense of economy and sobriety. What he perhaps loses in intensity, he gains in incisiveness. As with Horace Silver, the climate of each piece is quite distinct, the execution perfectly poised between piano and rhythm section. And yet Jolly is by no means a predictably measured player, his rigour fully capable of making way for shattering lines of attack. On Will You Still Be Mine, for example, he might well remind us of the fabulous Eddie Costa


Besides its undeniable pianistic virtues, this album offers a pleasant surprise: three tracks by a sextet including Shorty Rogers and Jimmy Giuffre, and featuring Jolly on accordion. This is really swinging accordion, an unusual treat that leaves us wanting more. With an album like this, Pete Jolly shows himself firmly entrenched as a member of the jazz fold.”


Later in his career, Pete’s recording career was well-served by the release of three CD’s on VSOP [which stands for “Very Special Old Phonography”]  which are essentially compilations of both studio and in-performance recordings spanning roughly 1955-1995.


Many of these tracks feature his long-standing trio with Chuck Berghofer on bass and Nick Martinis on drums, a group that was together for almost 40 years until Pete’s passing in 2004.


Some were made for the short-lived Ava Records, a label co-owned by famed dancer Fred Astaire and choreographer Hermes Pan. 



As the insert notes to Pete Jolly and Friends [VSOP #78CD] explain:


“Three Pete Jolly albums were recorded and released by Ava/Chorco between 1963 and 1965, all of which were engineered by Bones Howe. Selections from each of these three recordings are featured on this compact disc.


During this time, he continued to perform with his trio at Sherry's on Sunset, and Shelly's Manne Hole He also had the distinction of being among the first pianists to perform at Donte's in 1965 [when the North Hollywood club first opened]. Since then, Pete has worked extensively in television and movie studios. as well as recording with Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass and under his own name for Columbia and A & M Records. In recent years he has been performing frequently at Alfonse's [Toluca Lake, CA], doing concert dates and working in the studios. His is the piano on the soundtrack to [Clint Eastwood’s film] "Bird." He also has recorded an album in Japan ("Strike Up The Band'' on Atlas), and appears on many recent recordings, including those by Shorty Rogers, Sammy Nestico and Anita O'Day.”



I got to hear Pete quite frequently during his long tenure at Sherry’s Bar on the Sunset Strip and some of his work from this period in his career is documented on Pete Jolly Live in LA: The Red Chimney and Sherry’s Bar Recordings [VSOP #91CD]. The insert notes offers this background on how these recordings came about:


“The recordings featured on this album are part of a marvelous collection of live recordings made by photographer George Jerman during the 1960s and 1970s. George Jerman's career as a highly regarded photographer of album covers, first as an independent, and later as a staff photographer for Capitol Records, brought him into close and regular proximity with many of his favorite jazz musicians.  "With jazz as my main interest next to photography, I used to hang out in a lot of clubs," Jerman recalls. "One of the projects I took on, just for the heck of it, was to do a series of live recordings for the sake of preservation. I knew that many of the musicians I followed never had the chance to record live.  I used an Ampex 960 tape recorder at 7 1/2 ips, which was by no means considered the best quality for making a record, but they came out just fine.  For the most part, my recordings were done with no more than three mikes. The few technical flaws in the sound quality do not really matter because the music is so good."


There is a great deal of truth in Jerman's final statements for the ten performances heard throughout this release have not dated nor lost their joyful power. Pete Jolly, heard in duets with bassist Ralph Pena and in a trio with bassist Chuck Berghofer and drummer Nick Martinis (who amazingly enough in 1994 are still members of Jolly's band), was clearly in his early prime. The pianist remembers: "] was at Sherry's on the Strip from 1960-64 playing six nights a week from 9-2, so I was in very good shape. I have a lot of nice memories of working there. Sherry's was one place where they tuned the piano every week and it was strictly a piano room; there are not that many like that around today. Ralph Pena was a very accomplished bass player who I had worked with at the Haig several years before. He also joined Shorty Rodger's Giants while I was there after Curtis Counce passed on and we worked many jobs as a duo. 


But by 1964 I was starting to do more studio work and it was getting difficult to work six nights a week at Sherry's. As it turned out, one of the owners of Sherry's (John Ricella) called to tell me he was buying a place in the Silver Lake area called The Red Chimney and asked if I'd like to play there with a trio three nights a week instead; by then Chuck Berghofer was on bass and we added Nick Martinis who had sometimes sat in with us at Sherry's. After we were at The Red Chimney for a year, John sold his interest and one day called to tell me he was buying a place on Lankershim Blvd. and asked if I would like to play there. So I helped open Donte's!"


Which leads us very nicely into another VSOP recording Timeless [#105CD] which was recorded on July 12, 19,25 & 26 1969 at Donte's by George Jerman this time with Nick Ceroli in the drum chair joining Pete and bassist Chuck Berghofer.


The insert notes for this recording are by bassist Whitey Mitchell who was active on the New York Jazz scene from about 1955-1965. After 1965 he largely ceased playing jazz and moved to Hollywood on advice from Lenny Bruce and André Previn to pursue a career as a television writer. He worked on shows such as Get Smart, All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Good Times, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Odd Couple, Mork and Mindy, and several Bob Hope television specials. He wrote the feature film Private Resort starring Johnny Depp.

Whitey knows what he’s talking about so I thought it appropriate to share his comments in their entirety to give you a fuller appreciation of Pete and his music.


“I remember 1969 as an extraordinary year. Nell Armstrong landed on the moon, screenwriter William Goldman turned some myths and semi-truths about a couple of small time bandits named Butch Cassidy and The Sun Dance Kid into a hit movie, The Beach Boys were still getting Good Vibrations, and I was enjoying my first staff gig writing a show called GET SMART. Rock'n roll was in and jazz was definitely beginning to be out.

But over on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood a struggling jazz club called Donte's (named after the owners' wives.. Donia and Tess) continued to buck the trend by presenting good-to-great jazz music nightly. Even though the pay was minimal, outstanding Hollywood jazz musicians, eager to forget the less-than-wonderful music they'd played that day in the studios, would line up to perform. One such player was the brilliant pianist Pete Jolly, who had been working with his favorite bassist Chuck Berghofer for so many years (starting at Sherry's, then later at the Red Chimney) they could, musically speaking, read each other's minds, complete each other's sentences, fill in the blanks., however you want to say it. In these remarkable recordings by photographer/jazz chronicler George Jerman they're joined by one of the great L.A. drummers of that era Nick Ceroli, who fit them like a glove. Nick impressed me when the two of us were on Benny Goodman's big band a few years earlier, but he was better known (and better paid) for being the drummer with Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.

Donte's is gone now, as are the Gemini Space Program, Nick Ceroli, and George Jerman. BUTCH CASSIDY &THE SUNDANCE, KID can still be seen on the Really Late Movies channels, and GET SMART is still kicking butt in re-runs. (Incidentally, Pete Jolly played keyboard on the sound-tracks of both of those projects). And, speaking of Pete [who died in 2004] … these recordings from 1969 that you're about to listen to are as modern and up-to-the-minute as anything you can hear today... and a bit better. But judge for yourself. Okay, about the music:

MILESTONES. I've heard a lot of recordings of Milestones, Miles Davis' classic jazz tune based on rotating sixteen bar phrases; the Gil Evans, Joe Pass, and Gerald Wilson versions, to name a few. But here are three guys capturing the essence of Miles' composition with just piano, bass, and drums and making an exciting performance out of it. To paraphrase Forrest Gump, Pete Jolly is like a box of chocolates... you never know what you're gonna get. For instance, if you listen closely you might just hear a few bars of Nature Boy tucked into the intricacies of Milestones.

TEA FOR TWO. This is not your business-as-usual version of Tea For Two. And it's not the one they'd use for cha-cha lessons on the Promenade Deck. This is Pete at his best doing a little Bud Powell ascending chromatic chord changes during the opening and closing choruses. Thank God he used the normal changes (which come fast enough) for the solo work, which features Pete, Chuck, Nick, and some nice trading of 'fours' between Chuck and Nick, presumably while Pete rested his chops for the onslaught to come or made a quick trip to the john. I remember in New York City in the mid-fifties a few of the bebop piano players were also using these Bud Powell changes, but not at the warp speed Pete and the guys use here. Don't try this at home, kids!

OLD DEVIL MOON. Some actors are better at improv than others, and the same applies to jazz musicians. I'm sure that Pete and Chuck and Nick Martinis (the drummer who normally works with them) have done Old Devil Moon (a great standard which lends itself well to jazz) a million times over the years they've played together. I'm equally sure never exactly like this version. These guys are capable of endless improv, endless variety, and endless interesting chord variations. In this cut they changed only 'the turnaround' (chords at the end of an eight bar or sixteen bar phrase) and Burton Lane's tune never sounded better. And, of course, Pete keeps living up to the box-of-chocolates theory as he gives us a tantalizing hint of And The Angels Sing somewhere near the coda.

DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME. A pleasing mid-tempo jazz piece based on yet another good standard tune. Chuck Berghofer gets featured here as Pete demonstrates what the thoughtful jazz pianist should do doing a bass solo: nothing. Most keyboard players (particularly the ones I work with who I haven't had the time to train yet) play interesting harmonic and rhythmic inventions which are so busy the bassist is forced to stop playing whatever he had in mind and fit his solo into the gaps thus created, and the soloist soon becomes the accompanist. I don't know much Italian, but I think the word 'solo' means 'alone'. End of sermon.

THE STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER. When I was a short fat fifteen old sophomore playing the sousaphone in the high school marching band we played The Stars And Stripes Forever by John Philip Sousa, the guy my instrument was named after. I've never played that tune since, and neither has anybody else in the jazz world except Pete (Box Of Chocolates) Jolly, who apparently is omnivorous when it comes to music. He just devours everything in sight and makes it his own wonderful special material. He's sort of a jazzy Will Rogers... never met a tune he didn't like.

I SHOULD CARE. When Axel Stordahl and Paul Weston wrote the music to I Should Care they didn't use the chords Pete and Chuck use here, but they would have loved them. The words 'tasty', 'poetic', and 'lovely' come to mind. So do the words 'burger', 'fries', and 'Diet Coke' but that's only because I haven't had lunch yet. When I talked to Pete about his early piano influences he mentioned the legendary Teddy Wilson, a giant of early jazz, but I don't really hear much of Teddy in Pete's playing, although they both play eighth-note runs beautifully and in perfect time. But Pete has his own wide ranging style, which is constantly full of surprises. You think you're hearing Bud Powell, but no, its Oscar Peterson. Wait! Its Errol Garner... no that was definitely Gene Harris. Maybe it's that those other guys all listened to Pete. Works for me.

HEY JUDE. In the late sixties, about the time these recordings were made, The Beatles, Elvis, Country & Western music, Rock-a-billy and heavy metal took their toll on me and drove me out of the music business. But not Pete. He just adapted and survived. He took this Lennon/McCartney hit of the day and turned it into another performance piece. Starting off with a shuffle rhythm, reminiscent of Louis and Keely and Sam Butera & The Witnesses, Pete and the guys soon settle into making Hey Jude into a jazz standard. Leaving the chords pretty much the way they were written except for a little half-step-up key change for one bar in the second sixteen (maybe just to see how many Donte's patrons were paying attention) and another brief onset of shuffle rhythm, they do a great job with this Beatles classic. Maybe if The Beatles could have swung like this they might have been a hit. I mean with me.

Some of the Cds in V.S.O.P.'s excellent catalogue are wonderful microcosms of the eras in which they were recorded. Not so, this album. This is no time capsule. This set could have been recorded last week. My hat is off to George Jerman for realizing way back then that Pete Jolly is really... timeless.”



Fast-forwarding to 1995 and with thirty years of working together under their collective belts, Pete, Chuck and Nick can be heard at the top of their form in The Pete Jolly Trio - Yeah! [VSOP #98CD]. Ed Barr offers these very pertinent observations about Pete and his music in his sleeve notes:


“At the heart of this trio is the very personal, highly-defined style of Pete Jolly. His playing appeals to the most ardent, hard-core jazz aficionados as well as to casual listeners, a characteristic of few jazz players. Pete's style begins with his prodigious technique and strong sense of time. It continues with his impeccable articulation and use of dynamics. He is further blessed with a gift for melody that makes his improvisations sparkle. Pete avoids cliches in favor of thematic development, tastefully balancing the use of blues and whole-tone scales, and his playing never smothers (he listener with heavy-handed pathos.


For Pete, interpretation is the art of translating self. The composer's melody, harmony, and rhythm serve as his starting point; his true inventiveness stems from his ability to develop an idea into a personal statement. Every Jolly improvisation is permeated with a germ whose harmonic, rhythmic, and melodic roots lie in the original theme. But because the theme serves primarily as a vehicle for the performer's personality, his playing seems entirely natural, indeed effortless. Of course, playing jazz piano is far from effortless, but Pete makes it sound as if it were.  He is so facile that a surface listening may fail to reveal his ability. It often sounds deceptively simple. The dialogue Jolly creates with listeners is confident, relaxed, easy-going, at times playful, but never ostentatious. Those who know Pete say that this describes the man himself. Here art accurately translates artist, and that is the hallmark of true genius.”


If you are a fan of piano-bass-drums trio Jazz, then these recordings by Pete Jolly belong in your collection. Once you do acquire them, you may have a hard time getting them out of your disc player. 







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