GENE ROLAND - The Untold Story by Bill Coss

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

“Roland, Gene (b Dallas, 15 Sept 1921; d New York, 11 Aug 1982). Composer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist. He first worked for Stan Kenton, composing songs for June Christy and playing his own new fifth trumpet parts (1944). After brief periods with Lionel Hampton and Lucky Millinder he rejoined Kenton as an arranger and trombonist, again on a new fifth part (1945). He began writing arrangements for four tenor saxophones while in New York in 1946, and continued his experiments in Los Angeles (where he played piano with Stan Getz, Jimmy Giuffre, Herbie Steward, and Zoot Sims); this innovation later led to the distinctive grouping of the Four Brothers within the Woody Herman Orchestra. In the late 1940s Roland played trombone with Georgie Auld and trumpet with Count Basie, Charlie Barnet, and Millinder; he also wrote arrangements for Claude Thornhill and Artie Shaw. In 1950 he led a 26-piece big band which included Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and other prominent bop musicians, but it was unsuccessful and he resumed work as an arranger for Kenton (from 1951) and Herman (1956-8), In writing for four mellophoniums he introduced a new sound to Kenton's band; he also played as a soloist on mellophonium and soprano saxophone in his compositions for Kenton's album Adventures in Blues (1961). Roland visited Copenhagen in 1967 to compose for and conduct the Radiohus Orchestra. He toured with Kenton again in 1973, but thereafter worked in New York, playing piano, tenor saxophone, and trumpet, and writing arrangements for his own big bands. A fine example of his trumpet playing and an unusual instance of his singing may be heard on Jimmy Knepper's Gee baby, ain't ! good to you on the album A Swinging Introduction to Jimmy Knepper (1957, Beth. 77).” 

• Barry Kernfeld, The New Groove Dictionary of Jazz [1988, 1994]

© Introduction Copyright ® Bill Coss, copyright protected; all rights reserved, used with permission.

The following appeared in the August 28, 1963 edition of Downbeat magazine and we are lucky to have it as aside from this piece, the above citation in The New Groove Dictionary of Jazz and a 1982 obituary in JazzJournal, one would be hard pressed to find any other sources about one of the more innovative musicians in the history of modern Jazz in the second half of the 20th century.

I mean, check out his multi-instrumentalist abilities, “four brothers sound” credentials, innovative Kenton arrangements and the development of the mellophonium sound, the “nine hot weeks” reference in the following Bill Coss article; the man was a creative force in Jazz in many ways and for many years.

And yet, mention his name in Jazz circles, and very few fans know anything about him.

Perhaps the following posting will help to draw back the veil of anonymity obscuring his legacy.

“GENE ROLAND made one of the most important innovations in big-band jazz, the Four Brothers sound. But until recently (DB, April 25), this had never been mentioned in print, and few musicians knew it.

Gene Roland may have written more arrangements in his life than anyone else, but practically no one knows that either.

Gene Rolland is responsible for changes in the Stan Kemon Band that are almost beyond belief, but nobody knows that — as a matter of fact, he isn't even credited for Kenton's Capitol album Viva Kenton that was arranged, in its entirety, hy him.

Gene Roland can play, and play well, almost every instrument, but practically no one has ever been informed of this.

Gene Roland is one of those persons only a few others know exist. Musician, arranger, composer, he is hardly ever given the curious privilege of being criticized.

Fortunately for Roland, he is concerned only with the music he writes and the band for which it is written. Even more fortunately, he has only rarely been without work.

The chasm between what he has done and the degree to which his accomplishments are recognized is a fascinating one, made only a bit clearer by the rambling biography that is his life.

He was born in Dallas, Texas, on Sept. 15, 1921. No one in his family was musical. His father was a fine and successful commercial artist. But Gene early found a fondness for jazz. He remembers that "at 11 or 12 I had piano lessons. I never took them seriously. I was a typical American boy. But I began to pick up an interest in jazz after I stopped piano lessons, around 1937. A cartoonist for the school paper introduced me to records by Benny Goodman, Count Basie, and Jimmie Lunceford.

"I think now, looking back at it, that my early influences were Louis Armstrong, Trummy Young. Coleman Hawkins, and Benny Goodman. I always liked Basie, but his band was always too raucous for me. I looked to Jimmie Lunceford for progress."

In 1939, he began playing trumpet, "very badly," he said, and with no lessons from anyone but apparently well enough so that local musicians urged him to study. So in 1941, when he was to make a choice of colleges to attend, musician friends convinced him to go to North Texas State (wherefrom fine musicians have been graduated in large numbers).

Roland said he feels especially lucky. "Within a short time" he said, "I landed in an off-campus cottage with Jimmy Giuffre, Herb Ellis, Harry Babasin, and some other guys [“the" other guys" all died in World War II].

"We had a group you couldn't believe. We would play for hours, sometimes until we fell asleep. Then we would get up again and play some more. We lived mostly on home brew that was usually over fermented and cheese sandwiches. But the thing we did most was play,

"There's a little piece of jazz history in that house. We were followers of Sam Donahue and Jimmie Lunceford. Jimmy Giuffre was our unnamed leader —he should have been. Sometimes he was the only one who would go to class. The rest of us would just sit around all day playing and miss all of school. Anyway, due to being in such fast company, I progressed very much faster than I ordinarily would have. I was concentrating then on trumpet and arranging."

Fast company or demands have always watched over Rolland. In 1942, the war broke up the group. Giuffre went into the Air Force, and so did Roland, to the Eighth Army Air Force Band, a 60-piece orchestra, in which he stayed for two years, and in which his primary job was to write dance-band libraries. He wrote six different ones.

Out of the service in the summer of 1941, he immediately joined Stan Kenton, almost exclusively writing arrangements for the band's girl singers, Anita O'Day and later June Christy, and, incidentally, adding a fifth trumpet — and a fifth-trumpet book—to the Kenton band during that year (the five-man trumpet section continues in that band).

Then Roland joined Lionel Hampton as an arranger. "Arnett Cobh got me in," he said, "but I spent six frustrating weeks trying to get the band together for one rehearsal."

It was then summer, 1945, and Roland joined Lucky Millinder for a short time, playing third trumpet and arranging, before again returning to Kenton, this time arranging for Miss Christy and playing fifth trombone chair, adding parts for that chair to the band's book. (Five trombones also remain a feature of Kenton's band.)

"In early 1946," he said — and Giuffre and Stan Getz have corroborated this —"I came back to New York and organized the first four-tenor saxophone band I know of. It had Al Cohn, Joe Magro, Stan Getz and Louis Ott. Nothing much happened with it, but it was an exciting sound.

"So, anyway, I got back out to the West Coast, and I was writing for Vido Musso's big band. The tenor saxophones there were Getz, Giuffre. Herbie Steward, and Zoot Sims. We worked weekends as an eight-piece group — I played piano for $10 a night, and trumpeter Tommy DeCarlo was the leader— at a place called Pontrelli's Ballroom in Los Angeles. That was where a lot of people heard that four-tenor sound."

It worked for several months, but then Roland went back to Kenton. In that summer of 1947 he worked in a Kenton all-star group, led by Musso, at the Hotel Sherman in Chicago. Pete Rugolo was on piano with trumpeters Buddy Childers and the late Ray Wetzel, saxophonists Boots Mussulli and Bob Gioga in addition to Musso, and drummer Roy Harte.

That was just before returning to New York to work with Georgic Auld, playing valve trombone with a nine-piece band that included bassist Curly Russell, trumpeter Red Rodney, and the late drummer Tiny Kahn. Then he played bass trumpet for Count Basie, and arranged for the band, and played the late Al Killian's chair in Charlie Barnet's Orchestra.

Most of 1948 was taken up with arranging for Claude Thornhill and Artie Shaw, Then followed another tour with Lucky Millinder, playing jazz trumpet in a band that also included [drummer] Art Blakey.

Finally, in 1950, there came what Roland calls "nine hot weeks." This consisted of an experimental band playing his arrangements and rehearsing at New York's Nola studios. It was a huge band, few people remember it, only a few pictures exist of it, and only rumors attest to the assertion that some recordings were made of it.

But in the band were eight trumpets, six trombones, eight reeds, and seven rhythm. And among its personnel it numbered Dizzy Gillespie, Red Rodney, Miles Davis, Al Porcino, trumpets; Jimmy Knepper, Eddie Bert, trombones; Charlie Parker (playing lead alto), Joe Maini, Al Cohn. Zoot Sims, Charlie Kennedy, Gerry Mulligan, Billy Miles, saxophones; Sam Herman, guitar; Buddy Jones, bass; and Phil Arabia, Charlie Perry, drums.

This remarkable aggregation came to nothing, and, in 1951, Roland returned to Kenton for two years, writing a host of arrangements.

In 1953 he met Dan Terry (formerly known as Kostraba) and wrote 20 arrangements for that band, some of which were later released on Harmony as Teen Age Dance Party. Roland said, “I’m still getting royalty checks from that album. I've earned over $10,000 from that album one way or the other; more than I ever have."

He returned again, in 1955, to Kenton but after a year left for Chicago and Ralph Marterie ("Ralph sure tried hard for me in Chicago"). And in 1957-58 he was a salaried arranger for Woody Herman and has played trombone for him, too, at times since.

All during those years, from 1956 until 1962, he was writing and planning for Kenton. He introduced the mellophonium section in the band, or, as Roland puts it, "It was the third different horn I played for him."

So now he is with the new Dan Terry Band. In Roland's words, "I wanted something important to do."

Because there is no doubt about what Roland has done and the influence he has wielded, a few of his observations on past associates are in order:

Stan Kenton: "My father in the music business. He taught me how to organize my thinking. He was a counselor and adviser, for which I will be forever grateful."

Vido Musso: "Very talented, very high-strung but likeable. He should have made it, but he was too honest and naive."

Count Basie: "He's only used one arrangement of the 20 I've written for

him and been paid for. He wastes so much, but God bless him. I love him."

Claude Thornhill: "The original pixie of this business. He's very hard to analyze, very complex. He's a controversial guy, but we got along well."

Charlie Barnet:  "He's lots of fun."

Woody Herman: "He's the strongest influence of the old, tried and true bandleaders next to Kenton. Woody's still blowing strong: God bless him."

Sam Donahue: "I think he's the greatest of the big-name rebels. He's still got the bit in his teeth."

"My strongest personal influence was Lester Young. Among the arrangers I most appreciate are Al Cohn, Bill Holman, Neal Hefti, Nat Pierce, and Gil Evans. Gil got me with Claude. I'm grateful for that and just knowing Gil."

Those brief quotes should give a concept of the lean, balding Roland. He is normally off-beat, gentle, and quixotic, and in this may lie the problem, for apparently very few have known what he has done and fewer have thought about what he might be able to do. It only can be said now that some indication of the accomplishment and potential have finally been put in print.”