I'm in the process of developing features for the 3rd Volume of my Jazz West Coast Reader that will include a section of articles focused on the musicians who established their careers on The Left Coast in the early 1960s.
This brought to mind this earlier piece on Paul Horn [1930-2014] and its description of a quintet he led from around 1959-62.
The feature originally posted to my blog on July 4, 2014.
I've made some revisions to the text and added a video of the full "Something Blue" HiFi Jazz album which marked the first appearance by the group on record.
A much expanded version of this piece will appear in the JWC V.3 compilation.
“The Paul Horn album, entitled Something Blue, was obviously influenced by the Miles Davis album, and indeed the Paul Horn group was one of the first fully to explore the new territory opened by Miles.
Paul Horn's 'Dun-Dunnee', for instance, is a forty-bar AABA tune with but one chord or scale for the eight-bar A sections. (It can be thought of as either one long G7 chord or a mixolydian scale; that is, a scale starting on G using the white keys of the piano.)”
- Bob Gordon, Jazz West Coast: The Los Angeles Jazz Scene of the 1950’s
“Though the Paul Horn Quintet has a readily identifiable sound through the blending of the leader's alto saxophone or flute with Richards' vibraphone, it is the writing rather than the instrumentation that lends these performances their most personal quality. Paul and his sidemen alike, instead of relying on horizontal melodic values alone, tend to create compositional structures in which the harmonic setting, and often the metric variations, are striking characteristics that give these works much of their originality of color and mood.”
- Leonard Feather, The Sound of Paul Horn
“One final word: if you are not a musician and can't tell a bar from a saloon, don't let this deter you. As Paul cogently observed: ‘Any layman could listen to this music and tap his foot to it without knowing there is anything so different about our approach to time or meter.’ Then he thought a moment, smiled, and added a postscript: ‘Except, of course, the layman might wonder once in a while why his foot was out of step.’"
- Leonard Feather, Profile of a Jazz Musician
Some of this has been previously posted on these pages, but I just realized that this is a 50th anniversary year in my life and I wanted to revisit some of these memories on the blog.
Or to put it another way, my goodness, where have the last 50 years gone?!
In April, 1962 during what was then called "Easter Week", I was the drummer in a quintet that won the Intercollegiate Jazz Festival which was held annually at The Lighthouse Cafe located in Hermosa Beach, CA.
Much of the music that our quintet played was inspired by and/or derived from the Paul Horn Quintet. Although it was formed in 1959, our quintet didn't catch-up to Paul's group until 1961 when Paul started to make a regular mid-week gig at Shelly's Manne Hole in Hollywood. Once we heard Paul's group, its music was to have a huge and lasting impression on us.
The original group consisted of Paul Horn [alto sax/flute], Emil Richards [vibes], Paul Moer [piano], Jimmy Bond [bass] and Billy Higgins [drums], although by the time it made the gig at Shelly's, Billy Higgins was in New York making all of those wonderful Blue Note recordings and Milt Turner had replaced him as the drummer.
The quintet that I performed with at the 1962 Lighthouse Intercollegiate Jazz Festival had the same instrumentation as Paul Horn's quintet except that guitar replaced vibes.
By 1962, nearly every Jazz fan was familiar with the modal Jazz played by the Miles Davis Sextet in the Kind of Blue album, and with "unusual" time signatures immortalized by the Dave Brubeck Quartet's Time Out! album.
Modal Jazz uses scales instead of chord progressions as the basis for its themes [melodies] and improvisations. For “unusual time signatures” think the 5/4 of Paul Desmond’s Take Five or Dave Brubeck’s Blues Rondo a la Turk which is in 9/8 time but counted as 2-2-2-3 . In other words, those in other than the more standard 2/4 and 4/4 time.
What made the Paul Horn Quintet particularly appealing to our us was that it was playing modal Jazz in combination with unusual time signatures, just the thing to peak the musical interest of 5 young lads ranging in ages from 18-22.
So there we were for almost a year, spending our Wednesday nights [or was it Thursdays?] straddling chairs with their backs turned toward the stage, nursing Coca Colas for over four hours while we soaked in this wonderfully different music. On many nights, the five of us made up half the crowd at the opening set and the entire crowd by the closing set!
Of course, none of these tunes were available as published music so we had to memorize them and later notate them, correcting any flaws through subsequent listening at the club.
To their credit, both Paul, Emil and Paul Moer, who composed all of the group's original music, were extremely helpful in correcting mistakes and explaining alternatives how their music worked.
And they couldn't have been nicer about stopping at our table when a set had concluded to answer any questions before going out for a smoke or to visit the den of metabolic transmigration.
Sometimes we had so many questions that they didn't get treated to a break between sets. I guess our enthusiasm and energy was contagious and they were pleased to be with others who shared their musical interests.
We listened to this music so often that thinking and playing modal Jazz in complex time signatures became almost second-nature to us.
By the time of our 1962 performances at the Lighthouse Intercollegiate Jazz Festival no one in our group needed to count the unusual time signatures - we just felt them!
We effortlessly breezed through Count Your Change, a blues in 4/4 time for the first 8 bars of the theme followed by six measures in 5/4 time concluding with two measures again in 4/4. I mean, your basic 16 bar blues, right!?
Or how about Half and Half with its two introductions, the first centered around the piano and bass improvising on two chords and the second introduction consisting of a 12-bar section in 6/8 time with the tune breaking down into three phrases: [1] the first 12-bar phrase in 4/4 and is made up of 8 bars of ensemble or horn solo and 4 bars of drum solo, [2] an 8-bar phrase in 6/8 and [3] a final 8-bars in 4/4.
I particularly liked this one because as the drummer I got to finish the last four bars of every one's solo in the first 12-bar phrase. :)
By the time we started playing Paul Moer's Fun Time it was imperative that we "felt" the time instead of having to count it as the measures in the choruses run 3/4,3/4,/5/4 [repeated 4 times] followed by a chorus of 5/4,5/4,3/4,3/4.5/4!
I could continue with many more of these musical roller coaster rides contained in the quintet's musical repertoire, but I hope you get the idea from these brief descriptions about how intriguing and adventurous this music was and how proud we felt to be able to accomplish it.
I think perhaps the uniqueness of the music that our group featured at the 1962 Lighthouse Intercollegiate Jazz Festival may have played a major role in our wining the competition both as a group and on all of our individual instruments, respectively; another reason for us to be indebted to the Paul Horn Quintet.
Much of this wonderful and intriguing music is preserved on the Collectibles two-fer CD that includes the Columbia albums Profile of a Jazz Musician and The Sound of Paul Horn [Collectibles COL-CD-7531, SonyAZ61328] and Something Blue [HiFijazz J-615 reissued on CD as OJCCD 1778-2].
The Paul Horn Quintet will always have a special place in my heart for making this musical journey possible in my life.
“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.”
According to Leroy Ostransky in The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz [Barry Kernfeld, ed/1994], Paul Horn, Paul (1930 - 2014] was a flutist, clarinetist, and saxophonist. He learned piano from the age of four and took up saxophone when he was twelve. He studied flute at Oberlin College Conservatory [BM 1952) and received the master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music (1953). He then joined the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra as tenor saxophone soloist.
From 1956 to early 1958 he played in Chico Hamilton's quintet, and later worked in film studios in Hollywood. In 1965 he was the principal soloist in Lalo Schifrin's Jazz Suite on the Mass Texts, a role that brought him national publicity, and shortly afterwards he performed with Tony Bennett (1966).
In 1967, after studying in India, Horn became a teacher of transcendental meditation. The following year he recorded unaccompanied flute solos in the Taj Mahal at Agra, India, using to full advantage the acoustic properties of the building, where the reverberation time is nearly half a minute; he also played in the Great Pyramid of Cheops, near Cairo. A collection of transcriptions of Horn's solos on the album Inside was published as P. Horn: Inside (New York, 1972).
He moved in 1970 to an island near Victoria, British Columbia, where he formed his own quintet; he also had his own weekly television show and wrote film scores for the Canadian National Film Board, from whom he received an award for his music to Is and Eden. Horn toured China in 1979 and the USSR in 1983, and from 1981 he has managed his own record company, Golden Flute. His experiments have included recording the sounds made by killer whales as an accompaniment to his playing, but, although such innovations have earned him many admirers, critics have generally not been enthusiastic. Horn's style is cool and restrained, and he refers to his work as "universal" music.”
Surprisingly, not included in the discography accompanying Mr. Ostransky’s annotations about Horn are a series of recordings that Paul made from circa 1959 to 1965 with a quintet he front for the hifijazz, Columbia and RCA labels.
In addition to featuring his artistry on alto sax, flute and clarinet, Paul’s primary group at the time the hifijazz and Columbia albums were made was made up of Emil Richards on vibraphone, Paul Moer on piano, Jimmy Bond or Victor Gaskin on bass and either Billy Higgins or Milt Turner on drums.
The group’s 1960 hifijazz album - Something Blue - was one of the first recordings to combine the modal [scalar] approach introduced in Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue with the unusual or odd time signatures from the Dave Brubeck Quartet’s Time Out. Both recordings were issued in 1959.
As a result of his meetings with the sitar player Ravi Shankar a third element began to feature in Paul’s music in the early 1960s - transcendental meditation.
You can get a sense of the presence of the TM influence by reading the following introduction by Paul to his 1965 RCA recording Cycle.
Also reflected in Cycle is Paul’s growing interest in ethnomusicology which, along with his practice of transcendental meditation would help to transition him to the world or universal music which played such a large role in his later career.
Although the instrumentation for Paul’s quintet would remain the same - reeds/woodwinds, vibes, piano, bass and drums, on Cycle Paul brought onto his band some of the younger guys who were beginning to make a name for themselves in L.A. Jazz circles in the early 1960s and they are introduced in the following notes by Marv Newton.
I’m still wondering about the inclusion of bagpipes on two of the tunes on Cycle? Perhaps they can be attributed to the ethnomusicology influence?
“Everything is a cycle. The universe is a cycle. Life is a cycle. Evolution is a cycle. All is one. One is all. All is God. God is all. God is love.
Love is the motivating force behind creative expression. Music is God's love expressing through his creations to his creations. Music from any period of time and from any part of the world when played with the spirit of love is homogeneous and will be understood. Music is love's messenger. Love is God's message.
The very gifted young musicians with me—Lynn Blessing, Bill Plummer, Mike Lang and Bill Goodwin-all have a message for you. Come listen with us.
Om!
Peacel”
The horizons of jazz in our time stretch into the infinite. They are bound only by the imaginations of such jazz-makers as Paul Horn. At thirty-five, Horn is one of the most vigorously creative artists in the field. Ever discontented with, and intolerant of, the static in jazz, Horn is constantly probing, search-home that point.
There is more than a scent of Highland heather in two of the selections here, Greensleeves and In the Bag. Not for the sale of mere novelty, but for a valid musical reason, Paul Horn made a marriage between his jazz quintet and the Scots bagpipes of master pipers John Turnbull and James Thomson. The result is for the listener to judge, yet we're certain of one thing: this is modern jazz with a difference — modern jazz with an excitement rarely heard on recordings. Only on one track, Cycle, is Horn's alto saxophone employed; the album in effect serves as a showcase for the leader's capacity as one of the leading flutists in jazz. In Shadows, he is heard on alto flute, exploiting that instrument's rich, velvet sound in these two tracks dedicated by Horn to Ravi Shankar, virtuoso Indian sitarist and that nation's leading composer. "I decided to do Shadows," said the leader, "on the spur of the moment. I thought of it at 7 p.m.; we recorded it at 8." His thinking, he says, was guided by consideration of the problem often posed: where does writing end in jazz, in music generally, and improvisation begin? Thus, while the opening statement of Shadows is the same on both tracks, the mid-section is wholly free-form improvisation between flute, vibraharp and bass. The dedication, Horn said: “Is because of my recent meeting and recording with Ravi Shankar and because he is one of the greatest musicians in the world.” Hence the inner spirit of the piece. One hears the vibraharp simulate the manner by which a sitarist strums periodically the basic tone row or scale of the Indian raga to establish a tonal base for improvisation. And one hears also the slurring string bass intoning, murmuring, commenting on the flute’s intentions. Oh his decision to release both takes of Shadows in the same album, Paul said: "Both were so good and so different, I couldn't make up my mind in the editing. So finally we decided to use both."
There is evident in Paul Horn's playing now a maturity that manifests itself to a great degree in his flute sound on Chim Chim Cheree, hard and penetrating, challenging the instrument's natural tone; it makes the difference between the pastoral pipe and the jazz horn. And in Cycle, the dry and driving sound of his alto sax is also illustrative of this growth.
Horn discovered the bagpipers, he says, following "some research" into the matter that disclosed a regular Tuesday night piping session at a rendezvous in Santa Monica, California. When approached by Paul with his rather unorthodox notion, the two pipers, he said, "were quite willing to try it." At the session, a pitch problem developed immediately, the pipes being a full half tone sharp, necessitating the Quintet's transposing. "At first," recalled Paul, "it looked like instant panic but we worked it out in the end." The other musicians in this album — "a group of young, talented fellows from the Coast," according to Paul-bear watching, Lynn Roberts Blessing, the vibraharpist, was born December 4, 1938, in Cicero, Indiana. At the age of eight, he had already decided on music as a career and started out on drums. At seventeen, he switched to vibes. Arriving in Los Angeles in 1959, Blessing played with the groups of Joe Loco and Ray Crawford before joining the Horn Quintet in June 1963.
Michael Anthony Lang [pianist] was born into a show business family in Los Angeles, December 10, 1941. His father, Jennings Lang, is a TV executive at Universal City (MCA, Revue Productions); his mother is Monica Lewis, the singer-actress. Mike began piano study at the age of four-and-a-half and continues his studies to this very day despite a B.A. in music and numerous awards. Mike has worked with Jack Montrose, Terry Pollard, Howard Rumsey, Leroy Vinnegar and Red Mitchell.
William "Bill" Plummer (bass) is a native of Boulder, Colorado, born March 27, 1938, but has lived in Los Angeles most of his life. A bassist for eighteen years, he studied music throughout school, making music his major subject at Los Angeles City College. Bill played with Miriam Makeba, Mavis Rivers, Herb Jeffries, Anita O'Day, Pete Jolly, Buddy De Franco, George Shearing, Shelly Manne and Nancy Wilson, among others, before joining the Horn Quintet in July 1963. He has been studying sitar for some time with Hari Har Rao, a former pupil of Ravi Shankar.
Bill Goodwin (percussion) is a native Los Angelean, born January 8,1942. He heard jazz as a child, he says, and "became interested." His late father was a jazz record collector,records led in turn to study of piano and saxophone, then to drums at the age of fifteen when he proceeded to teach himself percussion. Among those with whom Bill has worked are Frank Rosolino, Bud Shank, Art Pepper, Clare Fischer, Shorty Rogers, and the Lighthouse All-Stars.”
“Paul Horn — who, in Chico Hamilton's words, was a ‘man of many reeds and woodwinds’ — proves here that he was more concerned with playing music of differing emotional styles than he was in sticking to a certain, well-defined rut. There is constant change in this set; ebullience and restraint; soft, provocative swing and bucolic lushness. Everyone does extremely well, supporting and joining Horn in a variety of orchestral settings. Exceptional musicianship, fluidness, sensitivity and a thoughtful approach made these, Paul Horn's first recordings as a leader, a showcase of the range and the technical prowess of his playing.”
- Jordi Pujol, insert notes to Paul Horn Plenty of Horn
The title of this piece is derived from reed and woodwind player Paul Horn’s first two LPs as a leader on the Dot label - Plenty of Horn [DLP 9002] and House of Horn [DLP 3091].
Both have been reissued as a double CD - Paul Horn Plenty of Horn [FSR CD 523] - on Fresh Sound Records along with tracks from Paul’s Quintet September 15, 1958 appearance on the Stars of Jazz TV Show and his quartet’s part in a concert put on by Down Beat Magazine at Town Hall in NYC on May 16, 1958.
The LPs have been difficult to locate as they were originally issued in a very limited pressing so to have this music available again is a real treat.
You can preview excerpts from the 29 tracks that make up this CD 2-fer as well as locate order information on the Fresh Sound website by going here.
Paul Horn was born March 17, 1930, in New York City. Both his parents loved music. His mother, Frances Sper, was associated with Irving Berlin and was a well-known pianist and singer in Tin Pan Alley; his father, Jack Horn, gave Paul's career invaluable support. Paul began studying piano when he was four, but shelved that for the clarinet at eleven, and took up alto sax at thirteen. He played in the band and orchestra at high school, and took a Bachelor's Degree in Music at Oberlin College. He studied further at the Manhattan School of Music (with classmates including Max Roach, John Lewis and Julius Watkins) and earned his Master's Degree. After a term of military service Paul played with the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra (or nearly a year, where his skill on several reed instruments stood him in good stead). In September, 1956, Paul left the orchestra to join the Chico Hamilton Quintet, with which he achieved his greatest prominence, and was acclaimed as one of the most versatile reed players on the scene.
These recordings were Horn's first effort as a leader. He chose a variety of settings to present his considerable talents on flute, saxophone, and clarinet. His debut album "House of Horn" was recorded in September 1957, while Paul was still a member of Chico's quintet, and his efforts were highly praised by the trade papers. Metronome made a particularly fitting comment when they said ".-.it's an album that's meant to be music, with styles falling where they may."
Early in 1958, Paul left the drummer's unit to become a freelance, and in April he recorded "Plenty of Horn," another stimulating and elaborated album, full of musical contrasts. The imaginative writing that pervades this 2-CD set is admirable, in both jazz and non-jazz contexts, in which all concerned turn in superior performances, with ample room for wailing too.
Horn contributed five originals (House of Horn, Pony Tale, To a Little Boy, A Parable, Blues for Tom), and three arrangements (Chloe, Yesterdays, Invitation) -, Allyn Ferguson arranged Day by Day, and composed A Soldier's Dream and the ambitious Moods for Horn, a compositionally sound, brassily exciting showcase for the reedman on alto sax (Effervescence), moody alto flute (Reminiscence), soaring piccolo (Exuberance) and clarinet (Ebullience). Fred Katz wrote three non-jazz pieces, The Golden Princess,Siddhartha, Romanze. but in The Smith Family, he revealed an abrupt switch in content and mood, with a guileless, down-on-the-farm line that swings off into a simple blues theme; Pete Rugolo arranged Sunday, Monday or Always and composed Interlude.
For Paul Horn, nominated by Playboy, Down Beat and Metronome magazines as one of the nation's top jazz musicians, this was obviously a worthy record debut.
The set is complemented with two appearances by the Paul Horn Quintet recorded during the TV show "Stars of Jazz" in Los Angeles, and a live performance at the Town Hall theater in New York, which was part of a concert organized by the "Down Beat" jazz magazine. For the latter, Paul Horn trekked east with bassist Don Bagley and they teamed with pianist Dick Katz and drummer Osie Johnson. This East/West quartet led by Paul Horn offered Give Me The Simple Life, a crisp and pulsing performance, and a moody rendition of Willow Weep For Me embellished by Horn's liquid-like variations.
-Jordi Pujol
The following are the unsigned original liner note; from the 12" album House of Horn Dot DIP 3091.
“As this album plainly indicates, Paul Horn is building a most impressive musical house. It rests, of course, on a solid foundation of academic training; appropriately for a House of Horn, the supporting members (he uses five here) are all of the woodwind family; and a formidable element in the structure is Paul's newly-revealed talent as a composer-arranger-leader. A versatile builder, this young man.
The five instruments Paul plays here are alto saxophone, clarinet, piccolo, flute, and alto flute. Actually he has mastered even more of the woodwinds, and one might well wonder why this diversity of effort. Paul's answer is quite clear: "There are emotions you can register on a flute," he points out, "that just wouldn't come off on, say, a piccolo or alto sax. Each has an individual sound. And I never feel satisfied with substitutes."
This discerning musical taste has made Paul his own sternest taskmaster.
Having postponed earlier opportunities to record a first Paul Horn album, he now presents this album's inventive, wide-ranging program with the confidence of someone who knows at last where he stands, an artist who has clearly defined his terms.
The acquisition of this musical identity, Paul feels, came about when he left the relative anonymity of the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra for the creative explorations of the Chico Hamilton Quintet. Though he credits every member of that group with stimulating help, Paul singles out Fred Katz (who, remarkably, works simultaneously as jazz cellist, classical cellist, and serious composer) as the most important influence of all.
"I live just two doors from Fred," he relates, "and we spend a great deal of time together. We talk about our kids, about politics, about people, places, and economics. But mostly we talk about music."
And, of course, they play music. The result, in both writing and performance, is an unusual amalgam of what most people call jazz and the classics, of improvisation and composition. To those who would ask what, really, to call his music, Paul has this reply:
"I think," he says, "that it's unfortunate when any music must carry a label.
"If a person begins to listen to music with preconceived notions of the category it ought to fall into, that person isn't giving himself or the music a fair chance.
"A musician has to satisfy his own musical desires and most of the time that can be difficult enough.
"In this particular case —in House of Horn— I'm doing what really satisfies me. I can't ask for more than that."
Three of the album's nine selections have been composed and arranged by Paul himself; for the six remaining, Paul has called on three superb young modernists, Fred Katz, Pete Rugolo, and Allyn Ferguson, to write a brace of selections each.
Pony Tale gives Paul a opportunity to demonstrate his amazing flute technique. He wrote the tune for his wife, who often ponytails her blonde tresses.
Day By Day is an Allyn Ferguson arrangement for a near-standard ballad. Horn's alto sax is set against cello, then bass, and finally against the string quartet. There are two notable drum passages in this tune, the drum being heard first with bass, then with piano.
A Soldier's Dream is another Ferguson work, an original composition based on a marching ballad of Civil War vintage. The theme is first stated m its marching context by Horn's piccolo and the drums. But Ferguson quickly brings guitar, vibes and piano into the picture and the proceedings take on a finger-snapping excitement. The addition of the string quartet fails to halt the rollicking, swinging feel which continues to the close. Shortly before the coda. Horn's piccolo and the drums again state the march theme while everyone else continues in the |azz groove. Another composer also utilized this theme with excellent results — listen to the final movement of Darius Milhaud's "Suite Provencale."
House Of Horn is another virtuoso flute performance designed by Paul. Except for a 16-bar establishment of tempo near the end, it is a completely improvised flute solo — and an amazingly minute detailing of Paul's capabilities on the instrument. He plays pensively, with gusto, uncovers an amazing vibrato and a consistently level double-tonguing of the flute; he even inserts a four-bar passage of very difficult flutter-tonguing.
The Golden Princess is a colorful musical picture painted by Fred Katz. Paul's flute works against a piano-vibes unison that creates a celeste-like pattern and there is a remarkable shuffling of twelve-tone figures near the halfway mark. Another mark of the keen Katz pen is noted in the vivid piano-flute-vibes counterpoint shortly before the close.
Sunday, Monday, Or Always almost fails to fall into the "standard" category with this reworking by Pete Rugolo's pen. Alto and guitar are most prominent here, and the cello blends nicely with both. Toward the end a little fugue-ish theme alternates between 2/4 and 4/4, creating an intriguing and eccentric movement.
To A Little Boy is Paul's third composition for this album and it is dedicated to his very young son. Marlen. Flute is spotlighted against string section, augmented by "chiming" vibes.
Siddhartha is a monumental composition for Paul's clarinet and string quartet. Using the twelve-tone system, Fred Katz has fashioned a work that ignites in flashing emotional fire between cello and clarinet. The scoring for the viola and twin violins is masterfully subtle. Near the conclusion there is a certain moroseness that suggests Alban Berg or Bela Bartok: Katz admits to heavy influence from both of these modern masters — an influence that in this case is solid and vital. Especially noteworthy are the enormous clarinet passages Paul plays here, passages made more remarkable by the fact they are almost all (80 percent, says Katz) total improvisation.
Interlude, an original composition by Pete Rugolo, belies its title by concluding the album, Rugolo employs Paul's alto flute, in company with cello and rhythm, for a melody that is wholly new, yet continues at each rehearing to sound mysteriously evocative.
The following are the unsigned original liner notes from the 12" album Plenty of Horn Dot DLP 9002 Paul Horn's recent album debut was select by Metronome magazine as "Best of the Month" in March 1958. This and other similar recognition constituted a challenge when it came to preparing a second album, for such an auspicious bow could hardly be followed by anything less than a notable encore. Paul Horn has met the challenge head-on in Plenty of Horn, in which there is, indeed, plenty of Paul—Paul playing flute, alto flute, piccolo, clarinet and alto sax; Horn set in trios, quartets, quintets, sextets, and a brass choir; Horn composing; Horn arranging; Paul conducting. The cornucopia is bountiful with Paul Horn and friends in a wide range of moods and tempi.
The acknowledged virtuosity of the young woodwinder, who has since left the Hamilton group to freelance, is again evident in these well-charted courses, which this time wend their way almost exclusively through the realm of "jazz of the day-in-day-out variety." Romanze, by Fred Katz, is this album's only venture into the domain of atonality-sans-rhythm, but that is not to say that there exists any dearth of imagination; only that the beat continues throughout, solid and exciting.
One side is largely devoted to an ambitious jazz composition by Allyn Ferguson, Moods for Horn, each part of which frames a different Horn. Effervescence, for example, features Paul playing his alto sax with increased assurance and maturity, and with great drive. Reminiscence evokes a more appropriately lush mood for the contemplative sounds of his alto flute, while in Exuberance Paul and his piccolo engage in a rollicking romp. The moods are rounded out with Ebullience, which features both the clarinet and the alto sax. All four of these are cushioned, punctuated and enhanced by the brass choir, for which Ferguson has created a demanding score.
This balanced and rewarding second collection serves as a marker in the development of a talented man en route to his goal: consummate artistry in all the facets of jazz—as instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and judicious organizer. This development and the certainty of that goal are amply demonstrated here.”
Mention should be made of the many wonderful West Coast based musicians who accompany Paul on these recordings including drummers Chico Hamilton and Shelly Manne, guitarists John Pisano and Billy Bean, pianist Gerald Wiggins, vibraphonist Larry Bunker and bassist Red Mitchell.
I was particularly impressed with Paul Horn’s alto sax playing on these recordings, especially with the edginess of his tone and the fluid expression of his improvised ideas which all full of original phrases. It is regrettable that he would give up reed instruments in the later years of his career to concentrate almost exclusively on flute.
