Brass Shout

© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

The Mosiac Records boxed set  - The Complete Argo/Mercury Art Farmer/Benny Golson Jazztet Sessions [MD7-225] - brought me back in touch with one of my all-time favorite recordings - the Argo LP Meet The Jazztet [664].

The period from 1945-1965 were exciting days for Jazz when combos seemed to form and reform on a regular basis and the Jazztet was one of the best groups to come around in quite some time [at least as far as my ears were concerned].

The original Jazztet was made up of Art Farmer, trumpet, Curtis Fuller, trombone, Benny Golson, tenor saxophone, McCoy Tyner, piano, Addison Farmer, bass and Lex Humphries, drums.

What really appealed to me about the Jazztet was the writing and arranging skills of Benny Golson who has composed so many memorable tunes over the years, many of which have become Jazz standards [I Remember Clifford, Whisper Not, Along Came Betty, to name but a few].

On Meet The Jazztet Benny was at it again with intriguing original compositions including Killer Joe, Blues March, and Park Avenue Petite, the latter a lovely ballad favored by many Jazz trumpeters as a vehicle for demonstrating the richness of their tone on the instrument.

According to Lawrence Koch in The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz: “The group made six albums, most of which included compositions and arrangements by Benny Golson and one which consisted of the John Lewis. Although the arranged sections of the music were important to the group’s style, there was ample opportunity for solo improvisations, and this dichotomy resulted in balanced, interesting performances. The group disbanded in 1962 ….”

Around the same time that I was “meeting” the Jazztet, a friend, who was a trumpet player and who really favored Art Farmer’s style, loaned me a United Artist vinyl entitled Art Farmer: Brass Shout [UAL 4047]. The cover art contained this striking Hugo Bell photography with a design rendered by the Stephen Haas Studios.

What was especially delightful to me was that all of the tunes on the album were arranged, orchestrated and conducted by Benny Golson, including his intriguing original composition Minor Vamp.

I say “intriguing” because I’ve always been especially attracted to Jazz when its played in a minor key. To paraphrase Ted Gioia: “Benny Golson’s best work manages to convey both elegance and a subtle funkiness.” [The Jazz Standards, p.459] Perhaps it easier for this funkiness to manifest itself in minor keyes?

The album was subtitled seven moods in brass and Blanchard King explained the conceptual background for the recording and how the personnel of “The Art Farmer Tentet” were employed on each track in these excerpts from the original liner notes.

“Through the years, music lovers have had ample opportunity to thrill to the sombrely paced beauty of a Gabrieli brass work; to the roaring coda of a Sousa march; or to the shocking effect of massed brass in the compositions of William Shumann and Shostakovich. But, the lover of good music is rarely exposed to the many moods which dynamic and imaginative arrangements can evince from the basic jazz brass ensemble augmented with so-called miscellaneous instruments (so far as jazz is concerned) such as French horn, tuba, and baritone horn.

The seven moods of this album range from the Latin feeling of Nica's Dream to an almost Sibelian aura on Stella By Starlight, each score filled with a varying degree of shouting brass intensity. Brass Shout represents a seemingly successful attempt to bring the listener a diversified presentation of eight great jazz brass instrumentalists bulwarked by one of the most formidable rhythm sections, a presentation manifesting careful arranging, orchestration, and discipline, but preserving the basic freedom and flair of an inspired jazz performance.

Utilizing the haunting, pale tones of the French horn and the deep voice of the tuba (as a melodic rather than rhythmic device), arranger Benny Golson was able to add a new dimension of sound and a new agility to the basic trumpet-trombone voicing usual in jazz works. Julius Watkins and Don Butterfield represent the top of the mark in jazz virtuosity on French horn and tuba, respectively; Watkins playing highly articulate solos on the most difficult brass instrument, and Butterfield supplying a loosely muscled bottom sound with none of the gusty, gravelly tone of other would-be tuba stars.

Each participating artist was chosen with great care and with a definite function in mind. The solemn, intense musicianship of Art Farmer looms large in this album, in fact Golson would not undertake the project until completely assured that Art was available and willing to appear on the date.

The maturity, profound conception, and artistry increasingly associated with Farmer's work is well documented herein by a lilting, building improvisation on Nica's Dream, a moody; austerely beautiful handling of April In Paris; and tightly muted drive on Golson's classic Five Spot After Dark. Ernie Royal and Lee Morgan complete a stellar trumpet section. Royal of course can do anything on the trumpet, considered by many to be the best lead man in the business. Although chosen to act as straight-man for the section, Ernie contributes a very "down," grooving solo on Autumn Leaves; as well as marvellous lead work throughout the album. Lee Morgan was chosen for his fire. A competitor for the laurels once worn by the late Clifford Brown, Morgan is today's greatest threat to established trumpet ranks. Possessing superlative range and technique, endowed with a vivid, even prankish imagination, able to perform with the stamina of a 1st chair trumpeter, Lee needs only further development of his ballad style to insure enshrinement as one of the all time great brassmen.

The trombone section is an ideal blend of strong technical and improvisational skills. Curtis Fuller, newly crowned winner of the 1959 Down Beat Critics Poll-New Star category, plays with warm humor, big tone, and rough hewn "soul".

Constantly increasing his musical abilities, gaining stature as a composer of merit, Curtis is more than fulfilling the great promise he showed as long ago as 1955. Curtis, a hard swinger in the East Coast tradition, can be heard to fullest advantage on his new United Artists Album, Sliding Easy (Catalogue No. UAL 4041-Monaural; UAS 5041-Stereo) along with Lee Morgan.

Jimmy Cleveland was a phenomenon when I heard him in Nashville, Tennessee in 1948, where he was attending Tennessee State College. Both Diz and Hamp were extending him offers to join their bands every time they played Nashville, but Cleve stayed on to finish college. Now he is one of New York's most sought after studio musicians due to consistently high solo quality, keynoted by extremely wide range and the ability to "cut" any "chart", no matter how difficult.

Wayne Andre, a young professional, highly recommended by the 'ace musicians' contractor Chet Amsterdam, is known for his flawless performances in ensemble or as a one man section. In order to broaden and deepen the sound of the trombone section and to create the most effective blend with French horn and tuba, Golson wrote in a part for baritone horn on several selections: Minor Vamp, Moanin', Five Spot After Dark, and April in Paris. James Haughton, coming to jazz from the marching band tradition, performs robustly on that horn.

The rhythm section includes Percy Heath, the much acclaimed bassist with the Modem Jazz Quartet, and a brace of fabulously articulate drummers: Philly Joe Jones and Elvin Jones. (Elvin is heard on Autumn Leaves, Stella By Starlight, and Nica's Dream). Also, pianist Bobby Timmons plays a rollicking solo on his composition, Moanin', the album's only track with piano.

Any survey of jazz history will reveal the extraordinary importance of brassmen, particularly trumpeters and cornetists, in the evolution of the music. …

Brass Shout is a further realization of the great arranging skill of Benny Golson, who is certainly the outstanding jazz arranger of 1959.

In jazz review columns, Golson's rising importance as a source of original tenor sax improvisations is being constantly discussed. It seems fitting that he should lend his mellow, sometimes searing, comfortably traditional yet dramatically modem, but always exciting stylings to these arrangements. Herein are heard all of the Golson trade marks: the use of wind instruments instead of piano to "comp" behind soloists; thick, meaty textures exploiting the middle and lower ranges of ensembles; smoky atmospheres from which improvisations emerge and take form; special quiet effects utilizing a variety of mutes; and a pervasive feeling of concealed, coiled power and earthiness.

In the words of the arranger: ‘I tried to get a round, full sound out of the horns, instead of the usual brassy blare, employing very close voicings for warmth and togetherness; and dissonances for brilliance and freshness.’ His seven scores fit the multiple talents of an outstanding brass ensemble like fine gloves.”

In the November 26, 1959 edition of Down Beat magazine, Ralph J. Gleason gave Brass Shout a rating of **** ½ stars.

“The only reason that this LP does not draw * * * * * is that this reviewer would like to make that classification a little harder to achieve. It is certainly a better album than many that have been given ***** on these pages; it has class, order, a high degree of musicianship, and thoroughly moving solos. It is an excellent example of good work that is only a slight degree removed from being a major effort.

Golson rapidly is assuming his place as one of the most dexterous composers in jazz today. He has a remarkable gift for ordering the talents of others into composite works of his own. His settings for the appearances of Farmer and the other soloists in this excursion into brass textures are deftly handled, yet are not superficial; Golson has his roots where roots ought to be all along. As a writer of jazz tunes, his compositions, such as Minor Vamp, are almost all touched with the quality that lasts.

As a trumpet soloist, Farmer is about the most consistently effective man of his generation. He has a highly developed sense of taste that makes him, in a way, a sort of Hank Jones of the trumpet. On records he is a trifle more inhibited than in person, and the overwhelming gravity of his appearance seems to creep through somehow.

The rhythm section consistently swings beautifully on this LP, and the ballad interpretations are absolutely lovely.

- Ralph J. Gleason”

Remembering Curtis Fuller: 1934-=2021

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

“Fuller came to New York at the age of 22 with a unique style and sound. His tone was rich and full, but with an airiness that added delicacy to the weight of his instrument. He possessed great melodic invention with a strong sense of construction. And those abilities made him a wonderful, mature composer from the start. Also, it probably didn't hurt that he was one of the most personable, uplifting, kindest and funniest men around. A joy to hear and a joy to be around.”

“The results of all four albums (the first was with Hank Mobley) are extremely rewarding, due in no small part to Curtis's talent as a composer. His material has originality, variety and is soloist-friendly (i.e. the composer's cleverness never cripples the soloist).”

- Michael Cuscuna

© Copyright ® Michael Cuscuna - Mosaic Records, copyright protected; all rights reserved; used with the author’s permission.

“Curtis Fuller was born in Detroit, Michigan on December 15, 1934. He came to music late, playing the baritone horn in high school and switching to the trombone at age 16. Detroit, at the time, was the breeding ground of an astonishing pool of fresh, highly individual talent. Milt Jackson and Hank Jones had already gone to New York and made their names. But coming of age in Detroit in the early fifties were Fuller, Donald Byrd, Elvin and Thad Jones, Paul Chambers, Louis Hayes, Kenny Burrell, Barry Harris, Pepper Adams, Yusef Lateef, Sonny Red, Hugh Lawson, Doug Watkins, Tommy Flanagan and many others who would make the mid-decade migration lo New York and eventually international recognition.

In 1953, Curtis left the local scene to serve his two-year stint in the army, where he met and played with Cannonball Adderley and Junior Mance among others. When he returned home, he began working with Yusef Lateef’s quintet.

"Yusef was using that two-stringed instrument, the rebat, and a lot of other strange instruments. We were using balloons and soda bottles. He was writing tunes with astrological and mystical titles. He was really out there before we ever heard Sun Ra. This is long before Roland Kirk."

The Lateef quintet with Fuller, Hugh Lawson, Ernie Farrow and Louis Hayes came to New York in April 1957 to record two albums for Savoy and a third produced by Dizzy Gillespie for Verve. The 12-inch LP, less than two years old, was still a relatively new phenomenon. The level of recording activity was voluminous. Fortunately, the amount of jazz talent descending upon New York at the time, coupled with the great artists already in residence, was worthy of such prolific documentation.

Word of Curtis's talent spread rapidly around New York. Although he initially came under the spell of J. J. Johnson and listed Jimmy Cleveland, Bob Brookmeyer and Urbie Green among his favorites, Fuller came to New York at the age of 22 with a unique style and sound. His tone was rich and full, but with an airiness that added delicacy to the weight of his instrument. He possessed great melodic invention with a strong sense of construction. And those abilities made him a wonderful, mature composer from the start. Also, it probably didn't hurt that he was one of the most personable, uplifting, kindest and funniest men around. A joy to hear and a joy to be around.

In May, after being in town for about a month, he recorded with Paul Quinichette and made his first albums as a leader: two quintet albums for Prestige with Sonny Red featured on alto. Like the Blue Note debuts by Kenny Burrell and Triad Jones the prior year, he used mostly transplanted Detroit players. "We were a very close-knit group and stuck together more than other guys from other places. In fact, we still are to some extent. We all came up together, learned together and really trusted each other. And that trust is an important thing."

Blue Note's Alfred Lion had also heard about Fuller and went to see him at the Café Bohemia with Miles Davis's sextet. "I'd known Miles from his time in Detroit. His girlfriend in those days went to high school with me. So when I came to New York, Miles asked me to play with him. It was a sextet with Sonny Rollins and me. Sonny had just married his first wife. Anyway, Alfred dug what he heard and asked me to come by his office the next day. So I went up there. He was hung up with something, so I just sat there in the office wailing patiently to see him...you know, the new kid in town. He took me to see Freddie Redd at a lesbian club that night. I was just a country boy from Detroit. I'd never seen scenes like that.

"But we developed a relationship that you couldn't believe. There were certain guys he really enjoyed: Morgie [Lee Morgan], Tina [Brooks], [Hank] Mobley, me and a few others. Alfred liked the cats that swung. He was different, Frank was too. They used to argue so much that I started calling them the Animal Brothers, you know, Lion and Wolff."

So Curtis joined the Blue Note family, appearing on a Clifford Jordan date on June 2 and making his own, THE OPENER, on June 16. That summer Curtis was everywhere.

"Alfred brought me on dates with Jimmy Smith and Bud Powell. And then we did BLUE TRAIN with Coltrane. And I became the only trombone soloist to record with those three artists."

He played on Sonny Clark's DIAL S FOR SONNY on July 21 and did his three tracks with the Bud Powell trio on August 3. The next day, he made his second Blue Note album BONE & BARI. On August 25, Curtis played on Lee Morgan's CITY LIGHTS and with the same front line cut tracks with Smith that would appear on HOUSE PARTY and THE SERMON. Five days later, he recorded on a Jackie McLean date for Prestige.

Clark's SONNY'S CRIB with Fuller and Coltrane was done on September 1. And two weeks after that came one of the most perfect masterpieces in jazz history, John Coltrane's BLUE TRAIN. That same month, he also made another quintet album featuring Sonny Red on Savoy and appeared on a John Jenkins/Donald Byrd session for the same label.

Curtis closed out the year with his third Blue Note album with Art Farmer on December 1 [CURTIS FULLER - ART FARMER] and a sensational sextet date by Lou Donaldson entitled LOU TAKES OFF two weeks later.

So after eight months in New York, Curtis Fuller had made six albums as a leader and appeared on 15 others. Even in those prolific times, that's pretty impressive for a newly-arrived trombonist.

TWO BONES, Curtis's final album for Blue Note as a leader (he would remain an essential part of the mix as a sideman throughout the sixties), was recorded on January 22, 1958, but wasn't issued until 1978 and then only briefly in Japan. "Originally it was supposed to be me and Bob Brookmeyer. The J & K group had been popular, so Bob and I were going to do something called B & C, using valve trombones. Alfred didn't like the idea at all. He really favored black musicians and didn't like the valve trombone thing. I wasn't happy playing the valves anyway. So the only other trombonist I wanted to play with at the time was Slide Hampton. He was with Lionel Hampton or maybe Maynard Ferguson by then. In fact, he later got me into Maynard's band for a while. So that's how that record happened [TWO BONES]."

If there was anything predictable about Blue Note in the fifties, it was instrumentation. So it is interesting that Curtis was able to record quintet albums with baritone saxophone, trumpet and trombone as the second horns. The results of all four albums (the first was with Hank Mobley) are extremely rewarding, due in no small part to Curtis's talent as a composer. His material has originality, variety and is soloist-friendly (i.e. the composer's cleverness never cripples the soloist).

Curtis continued to work constantly with a variety of great artists: "I played a lot with Lester Young at Birdland. [Drummer] Willie Jones got me the gig. Erroll Garner was the pianist the first time, then Bud Powell and then Nat Pierce. Billie Holiday would come on stage and sing a few tunes with us. She wasn't allowed to work officially because she'd lost her cabaret card. But I didn't know much about that stuff then. I was as clean as the Board of Health.

"[Birdland manager] Oscar Goodstein got me on a lot of other gigs at that time. The club would usually have a big band, a singer and a small group, I ended up doing one-and two-week runs with guys like Johnny Griffin and Jimmy Forrest.

"At the same time, Miles was encouraging me to hang out at Gil Evans's apartment. He told me I should really learn that big band stuff and see what Gil was doing, which I did. I ended up on that album GREAT JAZZ STANDARDS."

At the end of 1958, Benny Golson asked Curtis Fuller to share the front line for a Riverside blowing date entitled THE OTHER SIDE OF BENNY GOLSON, which put the emphasis on Benny's tenor playing rather than his composing and arranging. The chemistry between these two hornmen clicked, and they would record an album under Curtis's name for Savoy and three under Benny's name for Prestige in 1959 with various rhythm sections. They also made two Fuller albums for Savoy with trumpet added to the front line, which laid the groundwork for the creation of the Jazztet.

Curtis closed 1959 with a United Artists sextet album sum NO EASY, produced by Tom Wilson, the creator of Transition Records, who'd become something of an Alfred Lion protégé". In fact, Alfred bought many of the Transition masters when the company was going out of business and issued the label's final session HERE COMES LOUIS SMITH on Blue Note. Wilson moved on to UA where he did a number of excellent albums, many in the Blue Note mold. (In the sixties, he went on to produce Bob Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel for Columbia and Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention for Verve.)

SLIDING EASY found Hank Mobley in the tenor chair with Benny Golson concentrating on the arrangements. Lee Morgan is on trumpet and the rhythm section is pure Detroit (Tommy Flanagan, Paul Chambers and Elvin Jones).

In February 1960, the Jazztet, a sextet under the leadership of Benny Golson and Art Farmer, made their first album. Curtis Fuller was the trombonist and McCoy Tyner made his recording debut as the pianist. The Jazztet became a very successful unit from the start, but Fuller and Tyner left a few months into the life of the band. They were headed in other directions.

McCoy found his destiny with John Coltrane's quartet. Armed with a major label contract from Columbia/Epic, Curtis formed his own quartet. But work was sparse, and he toured Europe with the Quincy Jones Orchestra and South America with an all-star package that included Zoot Sims.

In the summer of '61, Curtis made Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers a sextet for the first time. The combined writing and playing talents of Fuller, Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter and Cedar Walton, driven by Blakey and Jymie Merritt (later Reggie Workman), created one of the most exciting and distinctive bands in the history of hard bop. For three years, this group recorded one classic performance after another. With only three horns atop Blakey's volcano, they achieved a sound damn near as big as Basie's.

Curtis stayed with the Jazz Messengers until February 1965 by which time Lee Morgan had rejoined the band and John Gilmore and John Hicks had replaced Shorter and Walton. He spent the rest of that decade freelancing around New York, adding his beautiful sound to a number of Blue Note dates such as Lee Morgan's TOM CAT, Hank Mobley's A CADDY FOR DADDY, Joe Henderson's MODE FOR JOE and Wayne Shorter's SCHIZOPHRENIA.

But the jazz scene of the late fifties was unraveling economically and artistically. "Those were great times. We'll never see anything like that again. I had an apartment on 101st Street. Jimmy Heath was living with me for a while after he came back to New York. Coltrane was on 103rd. We were best friends, and he used to send guys around from his apartment to mine all the time. Sometimes, I think he just wanted to be alone and practice. But guys were coming over constantly, jamming and working on things. Paul Chambers used to drag his bass all the way in from Brooklyn on the subway just to make music. It was really something else.

"Certainly, there were a lot of special times after that. I remember one night in the late seventies. Dexter Gordon and I closed Bradley's and went on to one of those bars in the West Village. I can't think of the name of it. Anyway, Tommy Flanagan and Jimmy Rowles were there at the piano, trying to stump each other on tunes and changes. It was unbelievable how many obscure, beautiful tunes they knew. Dexter's gone. Now Rowles is dead—"

In the six years between 1957 and '62, Curtis Fuller made 19 albums as a leader. In the 34 years since, he's made six. But that is a statement on the state of the recording industry not Fuller's activity or growth. During the seventies and eighties, he was very active with the Timeless All-Stars, a superb band that included Bobby Hutcherson, Harold Land, Cedar Walton and Billy Higgins. He worked with such masters as Count Basie and Dexter Gordon and took part in all-star events built around Blakey's Jazz Messengers and Golson's Jazztet.

After some health problems in the early nineties, Curtis is active again. What is as remarkable about Curtis Fuller as his lyrical improvising and ingenious writing is his personality. On the road, on stage or in the studio, Curtis is a relaxed professional who lifts every situation with his incredible sense of humor and his natural sparkle.”

— Michael Cuscuna, June 1996