Smith, Brubeck, Wright and Morello - Not A Law Firm - Part 2

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

“... Wright's sunny temperament lightened the mood by balancing out Morello's brooding, and the chemistry felt instantly right. Wright ironed out the problems with the role of bassist that Brubeck had identified in his "The DB Quartet—Principals and Aims'' document by turning them to his advantage. "I liked his solid bass lines that grounded that group," Brubeck wrote." "[It was] possible to play other tempos and do polyrhythmic things and he wouldn't budge from this grounded beat. Oftentimes Joe, on drums, would be playing a different counter-rhythm to what Gene was playing. Paul and I might be playing in a different rhythm from either of them. Gene would never budge [and] as it got further and further complicated .. . Joe would say [that] on a wild night the more complicated it got the bigger Gene's eyes got."

"Many bass players would have objected to having to play in such a restricted and demanding way," Brubeck continued— but Wright, a disciple of Walter Page and Jo Jones, quickly developed a working rapport and rhythmic empathy with Morello, and the two men began referring to themselves as the "Section." Brubeck reported Wright's cry of victory whenever he felt a groove lying naturally under his fingers—"I've got 'em, Joe"—and his mantra that staring at Morello's bass drum, rather than following the movement of his hands, helped shore the group up: "If my bass and your bass drum are together, nothing gonna move it."”

Philip Clark, Dave Brubeck A Life in Time

Turning now to the remaining, two recordings the late bassist Eugene Wright [5.29.23 - 12.30.2020] made between 1959 - 1961 featuring clarinetist Bill Smith with pianist Dave Brubeck and drummer Joe Morello, it’s important to keep in mind that the music on them was made at a time when modes [scales] were just beginning to replace chord progressions as the basis of improvisation on many Jazz tunes [and the subsequent recording of them].

The catalyst for this push was Miles Davis’ 1959 groundbreaking recording Kind of Blue. That same year, pianist Dave Brubeck’s “classic” quartet with alto saxophonist Paul Desmond added a second new element to the improvisation mix in the form of unusual or “odd” time signatures.

In the face of these new factors for the improvising soloist to deal with it became even more important to have a Gene Wright bass line anchoring the music as we stated in Part 1 of this piece because “Gene and his rock-solid, stay-at-home bassist “self” made it easier for Dave and Bill to wander all over the place seeking new and different ways to form Jazz expressions.

Dave Brubeck did the honors on the insert notes to The Riddle [Columbia CL 1454] and Bill Smith wrote them for Brubeck a la Mode [[Fantasy F-3301; OJCCD 200-2] and Dave is back again to annotate with the music on Near-Myth With Bill Smith: The Dave Brubeck Quartet [Fantasy F-8063; OJCCD 236-2] with commentary from Bill.

Brubeck a la Mode

“LEST THE COVER and title of this album leave the listener with the impression that this package contains ice cream, let me point out at once that the flavors contained herein are a result of various rarely used musical modes, rather than the more common major and minor. 

The recipes for these various flavors are not necessary for an enjoyment of the final product, but for those who are interested I shall include a brief description of the modes employed. To avoid technical terminology, I have placed after each title the tones of each mode as they would be if one played them only on the white keys of the piano, for example, the E—E after Soliloquy refers to a mode which one may play by starting on E and playing a scale using only white keys up to the E an octave above. It is readily apparent that the unusual half-step between the lowest two tones and the whole step between the upper two make this as different from a major scale as E major is from E minor. Each of the other modes I have used (D-D, F-F, G-G, and A-A) have equally unique characteristics.

As in all my jazz writing, my aim has been here to present simple frameworks for improvisation, with the bulk of the responsibility for success resting on the shoulders of the performing musicians. For this reason, I enjoy very much having the opportunity to work with such sympathetic and sensitive spirits as Brubeck, Morello and Wright. 

For example, the Soliloquy which I mentioned before was presented to Dave as a simple two-measure harmonic scheme with the suggestion of a thematic line. The end result is a spontaneous interpretation by Dave of my original suggestions. Likewise, in Catch as Catch Can, the general formal scheme and the recurring theme are written; the final realization is mostly a result of improvisation. I am, in a way, in the position of a playwright who suggests plots, moods, characters, etc., but leaves most spoken lines to the actors themselves. I have listed below the tunes in the order in which they appear in the album with a brief description of each:

1.  Dorian Dance (D—D) An up-tempo tune in which the piano and clarinet "mirror" each other, that is, each ascending movement in the piano is reflected by a descending motion in the clarinet and vice versa.

2.  Peace, Brother (G—G) Features a sermon by Gene Wright with a few interjections by Dave and myself.

3.  Invention  (D—D)  After Joe sets up a rhythmic pattern, two-part counterpoint between clarinet and piano.

4.  Lydian Line (F—F) A lightly swinging ballad in which the last bars of the bridge change to 3/4 before returning to the original 4/4.

5.  Catch Me If You Can (A—A) Presents a theme in the piano which is imitated four beats later by the clarinet. After an improvised section, the piano again presents the theme which is imitated two beats later by the clarinet. Another improvised section and the theme enters in the clarinet one beat after the piano. In the last section, the clarinet finally catches up with the piano, and they play the theme in unison, but now alternating two measure phrases with the drums.

6.  Frisco Fog (E—E) A slow blues with suggestions of a fog horn and surf courtesy of Wright and Morello.

7.  The Piper (G—G) A 36-measure tune in a folk style.

8.  Soliloquy (E—E) Features Dave's piano with an able assist from Gene.

9.  One for the Kids (C Major) Dedicated to the Brubeck and Smith kids (all nine of them). The basic motive of the tune should be familiar to all.

10.  Ballade (D—D) Features the clarinet in a rondo-type construction.

BILL SMITH

Cover photo was by Bob Willoughby ably assisted by Nick King. The scene was shot at WIL WRIGHTS in Los Angeles and the ice cream and other goodies were furnished by them. All compositions were written by BILL SMITH who is in Paris (France) studying and writing and tasting wines.

JOE MORELLO and EUGENE WRIGHT were the other members of the quartet that recorded this album during the merry months of May and June, 1960.

Near-Myth With Bill Smith: The Dave Brubeck Quartet

“Near-Myth is a further collabora-lion between Bill Smith and Dave Brubeck, coming after Brubeck a la Mode (OJCCD-200-2). All ten compositions here are from Smith's pen and are connected in that notes, phrases, and even parts of the songs are used in other of these mythologi-cally titled pieces. Smith's lucid clarinet is featured along Brubeck's inventive piano, Gene Wright's beatful bass, and the uplift of Joe Morello's drums. Smith and Brubeck had a special musical relationship, quite apart from the Desmond/Brubeck connection. As Brubeck says, "Near-Myth is a typical Smith concoction of humor, whimsy, classical references, and jazz."”

A SESSION with Bill Smith is always an adventure. He leads you down paths not usually traversed by jazz musicians and points out lively possibilities en route. Bill's imagination is contagious. When he flew over from Italy last winter to appear at a concert of Electronic Music (another phase of this many faceted musician) we had but a few hours to rehearse and to record an album together. On the first meeting, he handed us the lead sheets and set forth his plan of a series of tunes based on mythological characters. 

Immediately ideas began to germinate. We walked into the studio the morning of March 20, 1961 and came out that evening with a finished album and a deep sense of satisfaction that we had succeeded in making a "different" jazz LP. In addition to interesting music, which I expect and take for granted in Smith's performances, we had recorded several colorful effects unique to jazz. Nothing in the album was electronically "gimmicked" for special effect. What was performed in the studio was produced by extending the natural capabilities of the instruments. These same strange effects can be reproduced in live concerts anywhere. A recent (July 7, 1961) "Time" article, reporting on a Smith Concert in Palazzo Pio, Rome, stated: "A virtuoso on his instrument. Smith also likes to push his clarinet above top "C" or to engage in a series of strangely manipulated double and triple stopping."

As an example of "Times's" inference, the high, piercing sound of "Pan's Pipes" is produced with the aid of a mute, an age old device long associated with strings and brasses, but so far as I know never before used by a clarinetist: rarely have I heard any clarinetist, except Bill, play more than one note simultaneously on his instrument — unless it was a mistake! On this recording we not only hear two or more notes simultaneously, but also so precisely controlled that they sound within the exact chord.

The piano on "Apollo's Axe" achieves a weird sound through the sympathetic harmonic vibrations of the piano strings, or in one instance by Morello hitting tympani sticks against the strings. Also, I tried deliberately to modify my usual touch in order to get a different effect.

Since we first met when Smith and I were students of Darius Milhaud in 1947, Bill has always evinced a strange, but not necessarily incompatible, mixture of whimsy and intellectualism. (For example, his first recorded composition was "Schizophrenic Scherzo", The Dave Brubeck Octet, Fantasy 3239).

Near Myth is a typical Smith concoction of humor, whimsy, classical reference and jazz, performed by the composer himself on clarinet and my usual rhythm section of Joe Morello (drums) and Gene Wright (bass).

Bill is quoted in Time as saying "Jazz forms are usually stereotyped, like a housing project with houses all alike. We want to change the number of rooms and the size and placement of the windows and doors."

I think on this album Bill Smith opens some new swinging doors.”

DAVE BRUBECK      August 1961

Comments and Observations:

1.  THE UNIHORN (W. O. Smith)

No relation to Lena Home.

2.  BACH AN' ALL . (W. O. Smith)

A combination of good ol' time wine fest with a touch of Bach-ish counterpoint and harmony.

3.  SIREN SONG  . (W. O. Smith)

Inspired by the siren bird-girls who lured sailors to their death with their singing.

4.  PAN'S PIPES  . (W. O. Smith)

When the object of Pan's desires transformed herself into a reed to avoid his advances, he cut several of the reeds and made them into a set of pipes. Perhaps this is the trouble referred to in the second chorus?

5. BY JUPITER (W. O. Smith)

This one started out by Smith but ended up by the great Jupiter himself.

6. BAGGIN' THE DRAGON (W. O. Smith)

After a few ominous roars the boys throw their shafts straight to the mark, leaving the dragon to die after several last opera variety gasps.

7. APOLLO'S AXE (W. O. Smith)

Lacking a magical lyre, Dave plays his usual axe in an unusual manner.

8.  THE SAILOR & THE MERMAID (W. O. Smith)                 

Suggests a romantic escapade in which the sailor, the clarinet, of the  first two choruses, is joined by the mermaid, the piano, playing the Siren Song in the last one.

9.  NEP-TUNE  (W. O. Smith)

Features Gene in the guise of the Sea King.

10. PAN DANCE  (W. O. Smith) 

A sprightly dance by all.

"Perhaps not a Hollywood extravaganza, but—A NEAR MYTH"

To underline the magical aspect of some of the numbers, several new instrumental techniques have been employed. In Pan's Pipes a clarinet mute is used in the first and last choruses and makes it possible to end on an E, four notes above the highest note of the normal clarinet range. In the ending of Siren Song two and more clarinet notes are played simultaneously. Piano harmonics are used in the opening and closing of Apollo's Axe, and in Baggin’ the Dragon timpani sticks are used on the strings of the piano.

To add to the musical unity of the album the opening 4-note figure is utilized in several of the numbers. There are further interrelationships, such as the use of the Siren Song at the conclusion of the Sailor and the Mermaid, the anticipation of the opening three notes of the Siren Song in the ending of Bach an' All, and the derivation of the three-measure drum pattern of Bach an' All from the closing piano, clarinet, and bass figures of Unihorn.

W. O. SMITH Paris, France August 1961

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.