A Little Heat from “Little” Jimmy Heath

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

We have departed a bit from our usual practice of embedding a video further into a posting so that you would have a chance to hear Jimmy Heath and his music before reading about it.

The audio track is Jimmy’s tune The Quota and is taken from the Original Jazz Classic-Riverside CD by the same name [OJCCD-1871-2;RLP 9392].

The cut features Jimmy unique tenor saxophone sound as well as his very distinctive approach to Jazz composition and arranging.

Julius Watkins provides the French Horn solo [not something you hear everyday on a Jazz record].  He is followed by finger-poppin’ solos from trumpeter Freddie Hubbard [2:19 minutes] and pianist Cedar Walton [3:00],who is joined in the rhythm section by Jimmy’s older brother Percy Heath on bass and his younger brother Albert [nicked-named “Tootie”] on drums.

The late guitarist and saloon-keeper Eddie Condon is quoted as having said that the sound coming from the legendary Bix Beiderbecke’s trumpet “Was like a woman saying, “Yes.’”  I wonder what the same woman would have said if she ever heard Freddie Hubbard play trumpet?

Over a five year period from 1959-1963, Jimmy Heath recorded six albums for Riverside, all of which have been issued on CD as Original Jazz Classics.  Since Jimmy wasn’t very known by the general public during this period, thanks are once again due to Orrin Keepnews, co-owner of Riverside, who early on in his career, appreciated Heath’s talent and found the resources to make these albums possible.

Orrin’s view of Jimmy’s work is nicely summed up this excerpt from his insert notes to The Thumper [OJCCD-1828, RLP-1160]:

“It should be immediately evident from this LP that Jimmy possesses a large handful of attributes of major jazz value: he has a full, deep, compelling sound and a fertile imagination; his playing really swings; and he is a jazz composer of considerable vigor and freshness. And, although his will undoubtedly be a new name to many, Heath is also a thoroughly experienced musician, who has been associated with Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and many other headliners.”

And here are some additional reflections by Orin from the liner notes to Jimmy’s

The Jimmy Heath Orchestra: Really Big! [OJCCD-1799, RLP-1188]on which the Heath brothers are joined by the Adderley brothers, Cannonball and Nat:

“The modern jazz artist who both 'wails' and writes is often an unavoidably split personality: enjoying his playing in the small-group context that is the normal setting for wailing these days, but often longing for the more satisfying complexity of arranged musical colorings and backgrounds that are possible only with more large-scaled bands. On the other hand, he is apt to be aware that big-band efforts can all too easily have a stiffness and formality too far removed from the easy-flowing looseness and free-blowing spirit of the best of small-group jazz.

Facing this basic dilemma, JIMMY HEATH, a man to be reckoned with both as improviser and as writer, has evolved the unique solution that is at the heart of this album. It is a combination that Jimmy describes as "a big band sound with a small-band feeling"—a richly textured musical pattern that manages to retain all the earthy ferment of a swinging quintet or sextet date.

It should be obvious that the fresh, clear-cut style of Heath's arrangements has much to do with the success of this idea. It should also be apparent that Jimmy's earthy, vigorous and emotionally compelling solo sound is ideally suited to the handling of the material he has written.”

Dan Morgenstern, the Director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University, observed in his notes to On The Trail [OJCCD-1854, RLP-9486]

“Small of frame but large of sound and soul, Jimmy Heath is a musician whose contributions to jazz have been con­sistently impressive since the halcyon days of Bebop, when he was known as "Little Bird" and specialized in the alto sax.

Jimmy made the switch to tenor many years ago, and he has long been his own man, both as an instrumentalist and as an arranger. On this album, his primary role is that of a soloist of uncommon warmth and fluency, but his arranger's sense of balance and proportion also makes itself felt.

Here, there is none of the self-indulgent loquaciousness that mars so many "blowing dates"; each track is made up of meaningful musical statements that hold and sustain the listener's interest.

That interest is heightened, too, by Heath's well-chosen and well-paced material, which adds up to an attractive program, offering a variety of moods and tempos. And no matter what the groove - a pretty ballad or an up-tempo swinger — the music flows and tells a story.”

The following listing and capsulated reviews can be located on page 694 of  The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 6^th Edition:

© -Richard Cook & Brian Morton/Penguin Books, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

**** The Thumper Original Jazz Classics OJC 1828

Heath; Nat Adderley (cl); Curtis Fuller (tb); Wynton Kelly (p); Paul Chambers (b); Albert 'Tootle' Heath (d). 9/59.

***(*) Really Big!

Original Jazz Classics OJC 1799 Heath; Clark Terry, Nat Adderley (t); Tom Mclntosh, Dick Berg (tb); Cannonball Adderley, Pat Patrick (sax); Tommy Flanagan, Cedar Walton (p); Percy Heath (b); Albert 'Tootie' Heath (d). 1960.

The middle of the three Heath brothers is perhaps and quite undeservedly now the least known. Jimmy Heath's reputation as a player has been partly overshadowed by his gifts as a composer ('C.T.A.',  'Gemini',  'Gingerbread   Boy')   and  arranger.   The Thumper was his debut recording. Unlike most of his peers, Heath had not hurried into the studio. He was already in his thir­ties and writing with great maturity; the session kicks off with 'For Minors Only', the first of his tunes to achieve near-classic standing. He also includes 'Nice People'. The Riverside compila­tion which bears that name was until recently the ideal introduc­tion to the man who was once known as 'Little Bird' but who later largely abandoned alto saxophone and its associated Parkerisms in favor of a bold, confident tenor style that is immediately dis­tinctive. Now that The Thumper is around again, the compilation album is a little less appealing.

Also well worth looking out for is the big-band set from 1960. Built around the three Heath and the two Adderley brothers, it's a unit with a great deal of personality and presence. Sun Ra's favorite baritonist, Pat Patrick, is in the line-up and contributes fulsomely to the ensembles. Bobby Timmons's 'Dat Dere', 'On Green Dolphin Street' and 'Picture Of Heath' are the outstanding tracks, and Orrin Keepnews's original sound is faithfully pre­served in Phil De Lancie's conservative remastering.

Heath's arrangements often favor deep brass pedestals for the higher horns, which explains his emphasis on trombone and French horn parts. The earliest of these sessions, though, is a rel­atively stripped-down blowing session ('Nice People' and 'Who Needs It') for Nat Adderley, Curtis Fuller and a rhythm section anchored on youngest brother, Albert, who reappears with Percy Heath, the eldest of the three, on the ambitious 1960 'Picture Of Heath'. Like Connie Kay, who was to join Percy in the Modern Jazz Quartet, Albert is an unassuming player, combining Kay's subtlety with the drive of Kenny Clarke (original drummer for the MJQ). More than once in these sessions it's Albert who fuels his brother's better solos.

***(*) The Quota

Original Jazz Classics OJCCD 1871 Heath; Freddie Hubbard (t); Julius Watkins (frhn); Cedar Walton (p); Percy Heath (b); Albert 'Tootie' Heath (d). 4/61. *** On The Trail

Original Jazz Classics OJCCD 1854 Heath; Wynton Kelly (p); Kenny Burrell (g); Paul Chambers (b); Albert 'Tootie' Heath (d). 64.

The Quota perfectly underlines Jimmy's ability to make three contrasting horns sound like a big band, or very nearly. This is a cleverly arranged session, and an agreeably fraternal one, with Percy and Tootie on hand as well. Hubbard was a killer at 23, solo­ing with fire and conviction, but it is Jimmy's own work, on his own title-track and on 'When Sonny Gets Blue', that stands out, arguably some of his best tenor-playing on record.

***On The Trail is less arresting; more of a straight blowing ses­sion, it doesn't play to Jimmy's real strengths and the production seems oddly underpowered, as if everything has been taken down a notch to accommodate Burrell's soft and understated guitar lines. 'All The Things You Are' has some moments of spectacular beauty, as when Jimmy floats across Wynton Kelly's line with a soft restatement of the melody and a tiny fragment of the 'Bird Of Paradise' contra fact patented by Charlie Parker. Good, straightforward jazz, but not a great Jimmy Heath album.

***(*) Triple Threat

Original Jazz Classics OJCCD 1909-2 Heath; Freddie Hubbard (t); Julius Watkins (frhn); Cedar Walton (p); Percy Heath (b); Albert 'Tootie' Heath (d). 1/62.

A dry run for the Heath Brothers project and another object les­son in how to give a relatively small unit an expansive sound. Jimmy takes a couple of numbers with just rhythm and even there manages to suggest a massive structure behind his elegantly linear melody lines. Watkins has an enhanced role and demon­strates once again what an exciting player he can be on an instrument usually consigned to a supportive role.

Jimmy's blues waltz, 'Gemini', is probably better known in the version recorded by Cannonball Adderley, but the little man's own solo statement confirms ownership rights. Hubbard is in quiet form, but already gives notice of what he was capable of.

***(*) Swamp Seed

Original Jazz Classics OJCCD 1904-2 Heath; Donald Byrd (t); Jimmy Buffington, Julius Watkins (frhn); Don Butterfield (tba); Herbie Hancock, Harold Mabern (p); Percy Heath (b); Albert 'Tootie' Heath, Connie Kay (d). 63.

Jimmy's genius as an arranger is evident here, where he manages to make three brass sound like a whole orchestra. With no sup­plemental reeds to support his own muscular lines, Jimmy is the most prominent voice. On 'Six Steps', 'Nutty' and 'D Waltz', he creates solo statements of genuine originality, relying on the sub­tle voicings given to Butterfield, Buffington and Watkins to sup­port his more adventurous harmonic shifts. As 'D Waltz' demonstrates, Jimmy learned a lot from listening to Charlie Parker, but also to the older bandleaders like Lunceford and

Eckstine, who understood how to give relatively simple ideas maxi­mum mileage.”

Lastly, here’s a retrospective of the highlights of Jimmy’s career including the formation of The Heath Brothers band in the 1970’s. It would intermittently continue to function as a working and recording band until the death of bassist Percy Heath in 2005.

It can be found in Kenny Mathieson’s Cookin’:Hard Bop and Soul Jazz 1954-65 [Edinburgh: Canongate, 2002, pp. 250-254].

© -Kenny Mathieson/Canongate, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“Jimmy Heath started out playing alto saxophone in the style of Charlie Parker, a model he adopted so conscientiously that he was nicknamed 'Little Bird' by his fellow musicians. Partly in an attempt to get away from that rather too close identification, and partly because it offered better job prospects, he turned to tenor saxophone, and found that he genuinely preferred the bigger horn. His name crops up at various points throughout this book, as do those of his two brothers, bassist Percy Heath and drummer Albert Tootie' Heath. Music is very often a family affair, but not too many families can boast three top class jazz professionals in their ranks (others which do come to mind are the Jones brothers of Detroit, and the more contemporary musical dynasty fathered in New Orleans by pianist Ellis Marsalis, led by Wynton and Branford).

Jimmy Heath was born on 25 October, 1926, in Philadelphia, and is the middle brother of the three (Percy, the eldest, was born on 30 April 1932, in Wilmington, North Carolina, while Albert first saw the light of day on 31 May, 1935, also in Philadelphia). The saxophonist led his own big band in Philly in late 1946, modeled on the bebop big bands of Billy Eckstine and Dizzy Gillespie. The personnel included several players who went on to bigger things, including Benny Golson, trombonist Willie Dennis, trumpeter Johnny Coles, and, most famously, John Coltrane. Heath and Coltrane formed a close relationship at this time, often practicing together (Lewis Porter describes some of their routines in John Coltrane: His Life and Music) as well as socializing.

Jimmy and Percy both played with trumpeter Howard McGhee in 1947-48, their first important musical association outside of Phila­delphia. The saxophonist then joined the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra in 1949-50, in which he took the opportunity to further develop his writing and arranging skills. His talent as both player and writer, and his natural affinity for the blues and funk, should have made him a significant contributor to the formative period of hard bop. Instead, his progress throughout the 1950s was impeded by his addiction, acquired in Philadelphia in the summer of 1949, and he spent four years in prison following a conviction in mid-decade, re-emerging on a much-changed jazz scene after being paroled in 1959.

His parole restrictions cost him the chance to tour with Miles Davis, but he set about resurrecting his own career. Heath had cut discs as a sideman, including sides with Gillespie, Miles, J. J. Johnson and Kenny Dorham, but had not recorded an album under his own name until The Thumper, his debut for Riverside on 27 November, 1959. He assembled a sextet for the date, with Nat Adderley on cornet, Curtis Fuller on trombone, Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Albert Heath on drums. The date provided a showcase not only for his strong, inventive tenor playing, which seemed entirely undiminished by his time away, but also for the high quality of his writing and arranging. The session featured five of his own compositions, including the title track and the justly celebrated 'For Minors Only', and also included a pair of emotive but unsentimental ballad readings.

It began a sequence of fine albums for Riverside. Really Big took the obvious next step and provided Heath with a larger ensemble on which to exercise his talents as an arranger. Although not a full big band, the ten-piece group on the album - which included Cannonball Adderley on alto and Pat Patrick on baritone saxophone — provided Heath with a fine platform, underpinned by the baritone and the darker brass shadings of Tom Mclntosh's trombone and Dick Berg's French horn (both Percy and Albert were in the rhythm section, with either Tommy Flanagan or Cedar Walton). The session, recorded in June, 1960, is a strong outing, with more powerful original compositions by the saxophonist, including the impressive 'Picture of Heath', alongside a selection of standards and established jazz tunes.

It was the biggest group he used in his Riverside tenure, but in the session for Swamp Seed on 11 March, 1963, he had an eight-piece band at his disposal, this time with his solitary tenor set against a brass section of Donald Byrd on trumpet, both Jim Buffington and Julius Watkins on French horns, and Don Butterfield on tuba, and another varying rhythm section, with either Harold Mabern or Herbie Hancock on piano, Percy Heath on bass, and either Albert Heath or Percy's MJQ band mate Connie Kay on drums. Like Horace Silver, Heath had the knack of making a small group sound like a fuller band, and his immaculately contrived brass voicings here give the feel of a much bigger ensemble than he actually had, and provide a springboard for his richly conceived, exploratory solos on cuts like 'D Waltz' and Thelonious Monk's 'Nutty'.

The dates which produced The Quota, recorded on 14 April, 1961, and Triple Threat, from 4 January, 1962, both featured a sextet, with Heath's tenor accompanied by hotshot young trumpet star Freddie Hubbard and the inevitable French horn, expertly played as ever by Julius Watkins, surely the best-known exponent of the horn in jazz (and one of the few to record as a leader on the instrument, for Blue Note in 1954), and a rhythm section of Cedar Walton and the other two Heath brothers. As with The Thumper, Heath achieves a beautifully balanced blend of subtle ensemble arrangements and a hard swinging, spontaneous blowing feel. Triple Threat contains his own version of 'Gemini', a jazz waltz made famous by Cannonball Adderley, which stands alongside 'For Minors Only', 'C. T. A.' and 'Gingerbread Boy' as his best known tunes.

The smallest group session in his Riverside roster was On The Trail, a quintet date from Spring, 1964, which featured Heath as the only horn in a band with Kenny Burrell on guitar, Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Albert Heath on drums. The date has a more open blowing feel than his other Riverside sessions, but their combined weight confirmed his stature as a major - if slightly belated - contributor to hard bop in this comeback period. The session included 'Gingerbread Boy' and a fine reading of 'All The Things You Are*, while the title track was a jazz arrangement of a section from Ferde Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite, which adopted a 'semi-modal' approach.

Ashley Khan reports in Kind of Blue that the arrangement was originally prepared by Donald Byrd, but a disagreement with Blue Note saw it dropped - Heath picked up on it, and Khan quotes the saxophonist: 'We wanted to experiment with modal pieces, not to the same degree as Miles, completely, like "So What." Not everyone else wanted to take those chances with something new. We weren't Miles Davis, so we said "OK, we'll do a little of that." A lot of the modal pieces we wrote were modal for a while and then they ended on a sequence of chords to get back to a certain point to be more communicative to an audience.'

Perhaps surprisingly in the light of his prominence with the MJQ, Percy Heath showed no inclination to follow his example and make records as a leader, although Albert did get around to leading a session of his own, Kawaida, for Trip Records in 1969, with a band which included Don Cherry, and followed it with Kwanza for Muse in 1973. Jimmy continued to make records throughout the ensuing decades, including sessions for Muse, Verve, Steeple Chase, and a reunion with Orrin Keepnews for his Landmark label, and also became a greatly respected educator.

The three brothers finally officially got together as The Heath Brothers in 1975, recording a number of albums for Strata East, Columbia and Antilles in the late 1970s and early 1980s (sometimes with Jimmy's son, Mtume, on percussion, although Albert was replaced by drummer Akira Tana on some of these records). They flirted a little with a more commercial approach at times, but for the

most part, remained firmly in classic hard bop territory, as refracted  through the prism of Jimmy's individual arrangements. …

Having gone their own way again in the mid-1980s, The Heath Brothers reconvened without any great fanfare in 1997, both as an occasional touring unit and in the studio, where they recorded a couple of fine albums for Concord Jazz, As We Were Saying (1997) and Jazz Family (1998), with Jimmy's stamp firmly on the music. As with his own sessions of the late 1980s and 1990s, the music has plenty to say, and does so with consummate skill, real authority and inventiveness, and a refreshing lack of bluster.”

Jimmy Heath is still a vibrant part of today’s Jazz scene, and in addition to the triple threat of performing as a saxophonist, composing and arranging he has added a fourth quality - Jazz educator.

Jimmy has a website which you can by going here.

GRP All-Star Big Band

Lately, the editorial staff at JazzProfiles has had a craving for big bands and since we have always enjoyed this version of Dizzy's Manteca by the GRP All-Star Big Band from their 10th anniversary CD, we thought we'd post a video of it to satisfy our appetite. Bob Mintzer did the arrangement. The flute solo is by Dave Valentin [1:30], the percussion soloist is Alex Acuna [3:04], Arturo Sandoval and Randy Brecker share the trumpet solos [3:21], Dave Weckl follows with drum breaks [4:46] and the late Kenny Kirkland closes it out on piano [5:02]. If you experience a technical glitch while viewing the video, trying playing it at 480p instead of 360p or click on this link to watch it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqUeFA9lqiU

The Lighthouse Café And [Other] West Coast Jazz Classics

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

The Western Regional Office [AKA: The Guest Room that serves this purpose] recently received an upgrade in the form of a new TV set and an up-scaling DVD player [more dpi’s].

In order to test out the latter, the editorial staff at JazzProfiles once again viewed Ken Koenig’s excellent film -  Jazz on the West Coast: The Lighthouse Café – the title of which is perhaps a more appropriate context in which to understand the role of the club.

As a note in passing, in a recent conversation with Ken Koenig, the producer of the Lighthouse Café film, Ken mentioned that he was down to the last 100 or so DVD copies and that he was not planning on reordering more once this batch was gone.

Should you have an interest in seeing a trailer of the film and/or wish to have information about how to order it, both can be located via this link to RoseKing Productions.

It’s hard to imagine Jazz on the West Coast or as some prefer, West Coast Jazz, without the role that this famous beachfront club located at 30 Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach, CA played in its development.

Under the musical direction of bassist Howard Rumsey and with the support and patronage of club owner John Levine, Jazz was on prominent display at The Lighthouse Café from Sunday, May 28, 1949 until after Mr. Levine’s death in 1971.

In addition to Ken’s wonderful film, there is lots more information about The Lighthouse Café, the musicians that worked it during this 22 year period and the nature of the music that was played there in these three, excellent books, although Mr. Tercinet’s treatment requires that you bring your best French language skills along in order to read it.

Mr. Gioia’s book is still available as are some used copies of Mr. Tercinet’s, but unfortunately, Bob Gordon’s book is no longer in print.  However, you can find its chapters displayed successively on JazzProfiles beginning here.

From time-to-time, the Los Angeles Jazz Institute [LAJI] captures the flavor of the music played at The Lighthouse Café with 3 and 4-day festivals during which it occasionally pays tribute to the club and the music that was performed there with featured concerts, films and panel discussions.

You can check out more information about the about the LAJI by clicking here.

Here’s an excerpt from the May, 1999 Jazz West Coast II program that indicates the variety of tributes that the LAJI sponsored in celebration of the 50^th anniversary of The Lighthouse Café:

The first-rate JazzProfiles photography staff took this snapshot of some of the former Lighthouse All-Stars who participated in the panel discussion about the significance of the club and the music created there that was moderated at the May 1999 event by Ken Poston, who heads-up the LAJI.

This YouTube will provide you with a sampling of the type of Jazz that was on offer at The Lighthouse Café:

The album covers and photographs for many of the West Coast Jazz recordings from the 1950 and 1960s form a unique genre which is fairly well-documented in the following, largely pictorial books.

Around the same time that preparations were being made to observe the 50^th anniversary of the beginning of Jazz at The Lighthouse Café, Michael Cuscuna was reissuing the following Pacific Jazz LP’s as part of the West Coast Classics, Blue Note CD series.

[Pacific Jazz along with a number of other primarily Jazz labels including Blue Note had been acquired by EMI by the time these albums were released as CDs.]

Bud Shank & Bill Perkins - CDP 93159

Jack Sheldon Quartet & Quintet – CDP 93160

Jack Montrose Sextet – CDP 93161

Cy Touff : His Octet & Quintet – CDP 93162

Bill Perkins Octet : On Stage CDP 93163

Chet Baker & Russ Freeman Quartet – CDP 93164

Original Gerry Mulligan Quartet with Chet Baker [2 CDs] – CDP 94407

Bud Shank-Bob Copper: Blowin’ Country – CDP 94846

Bob Brookmeyer: Traditionalism Revisited – CDP 94847

Teddy Edwards: Sunset Eyes – CDP 94848

Earl Anderza: Outta Sight – CDP 94849

Curtis Amy-Dupree Bolton: Katanga! – CDP 94850

You can see the cover art for all of these albums in the following video beginning at 3:36 minutes.

Entitled West Coast Jazz: A Tribute, this video offers an indication of the wider range of music and musicians playing Jazz on the West Coast in the 1950s and 60s, many of whom were also featured at The Lighthouse Café as guest artists.

Here is a discography of recordings by the Lighthouse All-Stars as well as some annotated remarks about the group and its music from Richard Cook and Brian Morton’s always helpful Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD: 6^th Edition [p. 1281]

Sunday Jazz A La Lighthouse

Original Jazz Classics OJC 151 Rumsey; Shorty Rogers (t); Milt

Bernhart(tb); Jimmy Giuffre, Bob Cooper (ts); Hampton Hawes,

frank Patchen (p); Shelly Manne (d). 7/52-2/53.

Volume 3

Original Jazz Classics OJC 266 As above, except add Rolf

Ericsson (t), Frank Rosolino (tb), Bud Shank (as&f), Herb Geller

(as), Max Roach, Stan Levey (d), Carlos Vidal, Jack Costanza

(perc). 7/52-8/56.

Sunday Jazz A La Lighthouse Vol. 2

Original Jazz Classics OJC 972 As above, except add Chet Baker

(t),Russ Freeman, Lorraine Geller, Claude Williamson (p); omit

Kosolino, Levey, Vidal, Costanza, Geller, Hawes, Patchen. 3-9/53-

Oboe /Flute

Original Jazz Classics OJC 154 Rumsey; Bob Cooper (ob, ts);

BudShank (f, as); Buddy Collette (f); Claude Williamson, Sonny

Clark (p); Max Roach, Stan Levey (d). 2/54-9/56.

In The Solo Spotlight

Original Jazz Classics OJC 451 Rumsey; Conte Candoli, Stu

Williamson (t); Frank Rosolino (tb); Bob Enevoldsen (vtb); Bud

Shank Lennie Niehaus (as); Bob Cooper, Richie Kamuca (ts);

Bob Gordon, Pepper Adams (bs); Claude Williamson, Dick

Shreve (p); Stan Levey (d). 8/54-3/57.

Volume 6

Original Jazz Classics OJC 386 Rumsey; Conte Candoli (t);

Frank Rosolino (tb); Stu Williamson (vtb); Bud Shank (as); Bob

Cooper (ts); Claude Williamson (p); Stan Levey (d). 12/54-3/55.

Lighthouse At Laguna

Original Jazz Classics OJC 406 Rumsey; Frank Rosolino (tb);

BudShank (as,f); Bob Cooper (ts); Claude Williamson,

Hampton Hawes (p); Barney Kessel (g); Red Mitchell (b); Shelly

Manne, Stan Levey (d). 6/55.

Music For Lighthousekeeping

Original Jazz Classics OJC 636 Rumsey; Conte Candoli (t);

Frank Rosolino (tb); Bob Cooper (ts); Sonny Clark (p); Stan

Levey (d). 10/56.

Mexican Passport

Contemporary 14077-2 As for OJC 151, 266,406 and 636

above. 52-56.

“Rumsey … was a canny organizer, and his Lighthouse All Stars - the name which all these CDs go under - offered the pick of the West's best in the mid-'50s. Their Sunday afternoon concerts are still talked about by veterans of the Hermosa Beach scene, effectively 12-hour jam sessions that started in the afternoon and went on into the small hours. There are live sessions on OJCs 151, 972 and 406 (though the latter was cut at Laguna Beach) and part of OJC 154; the rest are studio dates. To catch the excitement of these sessions, the best is Sunday Jazz A La Lighthouse Vol. 2: a buzzing crowd, band­stands full of the hottest players; with 25 minutes of previously unreleased material, this one's a best buy. Sound is at times more atmospheric than accurate, but it's a terrific document of those sessions. The first volume is also excellent, with some fine work by Hawes, but the Laguna set is more like a formal concert, with a guest spot by Kessel and two tracks by the Hawes-Mitchell-Manne trio.

The studio dates are more in the familiar West Coast language and are rather more efficiently styled. Considering the stellar line-up, In The Solo Spotlight is a shade disappointing, with too many of the features emerging as glib showcases. While none of the others really stands out, followers of the style will find much to satisfy, not least in the consistently superb drumming by Manne and Levey. Mexican Passport compiles the various Latinesque tracks which the band made across their albums.”

For those of us fortunate enough to have experienced the musical magic that took place during the 22 years that the Lighthouse Café featured Jazz on a regular basis, I’m sure you will find it easy to join with me in giving Howard Rumsey a big “Thank You” for his role in making all of this happen.

And thank goodness for the books, photographs, films and recordings that make it possible for everyone, then and now, to gain an appreciation of Jazz at the Lighthouse Café and Jazz on the West Coast during the vibrant and creative years of their glory days.

Given the poor documentation of so many periods in the history of Jazz, it’s a relief to know that this one wasn’t missed.

100 Years of Recorded Jazz … well, almost!

This post was originally published on August 29, 2010.

Given the fact that we are now four years closer, I thought it might be fun to have another look at "the birth of Jazz."

Hope to be able to re-post it again three years from now!

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

God willin’ and the creek don’t rise, in less than seven [7] years, Jazz recordings will be celebrating their 100^th anniversary.

Of course, we are hopeful that we will still be here on February 26, 2017 to commemorate the making of these first Jazz recordings, but we are also mindful of the admonition in the following Irish Proverb: “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”

On February 26, 1917, The Original Dixieland Jazz Band recorded Livery Stable Blues and Dixie Jass Band One-Step.  Available for sale on March 17, 1917 at a cost of 75 cents, Victor Recording #18255 was the first Jazz record ever issued.

In anticipation of this eventful day, and as a means of spending some time musing about the early years of the music, the editorial staff at JazzProfiles has put together the following audio-video tribute to the creators of Early Jazz. 

The soundtrack is After You’ve Gone played by alto saxophonists Charlie Mariano – Jerry Dodgion and their sextet that includes Victor Feldman on vibes, Jimmy Rowles on piano, bassist Monty Budwig and drummer Shelly Manne. 

The track is from their Beauties of 1918 [World Pacific WP 1245] which is made up of a collection of tunes that were popular in and around the Unites States’ entry and involvement in the First World War [1917-1918].

Checkout the improvised-in-unison chorus that begins at 4:17 and which is used to close out the tune instead of a restatement of the melody.

The following thoughts by writer-musician Richard Sudhalter may help put Jazz from this early period in its history into a broader context:

“The ‘Great War’ left a new generation of disillusioned, worldly-wise Americans, determined to enjoy the pleasures of youth, and damn the consequences.

As John F. Carter’s oft-quoted declaration in the September 1920 Atlantic Monthly so eloquently put it:

The older generation had certainly pretty-well ruined this world before passing it on to us. They gave us this thing; knocked to pieces, leaky, red-hot, threatening to blow-up; and then they are surprised that we don’t accept it with the same attitude of pretty, decorous enthusiasm with which they received it, ‘way back in the eighties.

What better vehicle to express the indignation and sense of independence those words implied than five musical roughnecks [The Original Dixieland Jazz Band] from down south, making such a racket that Mom and Pop, and just about everyone else over the age of twenty-five, retreated in horror and dismay? Rock and roll, 1918 style.”

The above quotation [pp.18-19] is taken from Mr. Sudhalter’s Lost Chords: White Musicians and Their Contributions to Jazz 1915 – 1945 [New York: Oxford University Press, 1999].

Much like Early Jazz, because of its emphasis on the contributions of White musicians, Lost Chords itself caused quite a bit of controversy when it was first published, so much so that Mr. Sudhalter wrote a defense of it which was posted on the Challenge Records website when that Dutch-based record company released a two-CD companion set to the book in 2000.

Unfortunately, Mr. Sudhalter’s astute and quite brilliant writings on the subject of Jazz will no longer be forthcoming as he passed away in 2008.

The editorial staff at JazzProfiles thought it would make its own ‘contribution’ to his memory and especially to Lost Chords’  broadening edification about some of the makers of Early Jazz by offering its readers the opportunity to read the piece he wrote for the Challenge Records website.

© -Richard Sudhalter/Challenge Records, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

Talkback – And A Modest Proposal

By Richard Sudhalter

“Saxophonist-composer Bill Kirchner, a most perceptive fellow, put it perfectly: "this book is going to be a Rorschach test," he said, "but not for you. The ways in which people respond to it will tell you a lot about themselves."

How right he was. The book, of course, was LOST CHORDS, my 870-page chronicle of the contributions made by white musicians to pre-bop jazz. The nine months it's been on the market have brought a wide range of response, from thoughtful analysis to near-apoplectic vilification. Not that the latter came as any surprise. In these self-consciously compensatory times, anyone suggesting (in public, anyway) that this great music was born of anything besides the black experience is asking for trouble. Too many folks have invested too heavily in the dogma of exclusively black creationism to allow anything as awkward as mere fact to rock their neatly-rigged yachts.

Cushioning and empowering them is the current rage for moral and cultural relativism, reflexive male-bashing, historical revisionism, presentism (judging yesterday by today's notions and precepts), outcome-justified social engineering, indiscriminate demonization of white European traditions, and countless other perversions of the multiculturalist ideal.

Scholar-pedagogue Gerald Early summed it up in one review of LOST CHORDS: "It is difficult, in most scholarly circles, to write about American whites as whites these days unless one is being very critical of them." That's been the pattern lately in jazz perception here in the pre-millennial USA: the notion of white musicians as anything but brigands and exploiters, or feckless popularizers, is rigorously abjured.

LOST CHORDS has indeed brought out the telltale ink blots: it's shown some commentators to be fair-minded, intellectually upright, attempting in good faith - even when they disagreed with some of the book's assertions - to evaluate both hypothesis and execution. It's exposed others, in sometimes disheartening ways, as self-serving, self-deceiving, deeply prejudiced (in the true Latinate sense) and, above all, intellectually dishonest.

My main response to all the complaint and contumely has been to return to questions that dominated my long-ago days as a jazz reviewer for Rupert Murdoch's New York Post: what, exactly, is the responsibility of a critic? And to whom is he responsible? Everyone acknowledges the power conferred by just appearing in print (or on radio or TV); countless artists pander and flatter, court and cajole, for the sake of a feature, a two-paragraph review, even just a mention. It's an alarmingly one-sided process. Most critics (or reviewers, to accept Byron's implied distinction) enjoy a bully pulpit that's prominent, pervasive, all but unassailable. They write pretty much what they want - and that includes venting personal tastes, touting current favorites, even settling old scores. In some notorious cases they have been known to wallow in simple, mean-spirited subjectivity.

But hold: wasn't it Stanley Baldwin who declared that "power without responsibility [has been] the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages?" Surely being a critic or reviewer, especially an influential one, suggests an obligation to ask disinterested questions: "What is this artist (writer, composer, player) trying to achieve?" "Through what means?" "How skilled is he, how successful in executing his conception?" "Who is the target audience, and how effectively did the artistic product reach that audience?" "Am I being honest, informative and fair in representing what's been done here?" Significantly and justly absent from such a formulation is, "Did I, personally, like him or her?" "Do I like this (musical, literary, visual) style?" Do I, personally, find the conception or methods appealing?" "Is any of this in keeping with my own artistic (or political, or historical) beliefs and practices?"

The critical process remains skewed, one-sided, fortressed within the utter futility of any attempt to rebut a writer's pronouncements. Sure, there are letters-to-the-editor columns. But 'fess up, now: who among us can recall seeing such a letter (when it appeared at all) that didn't sound like whining, complaint, or plain olf sour grapes? It might be interesting and productive to grant performers, composers, authors a real forum of their own, allowing them to question, weigh, challenge the judgments of those who sit in judgment of them. To ask the unasked questions ~ even, where appropriate, to examine the credentials of those who occupy the bully pulpit.

Daniel Jonah Goldhagen got that opportunity in late 1996, after his HITLER'S WILLING EXECUTIONERS touched off a worldwide firestorm of soul-searching and wild accusation. It came courtesy of The New Republic, which commissioned him to write an article that appeared under the headline, "Motives, Causes and Alibis: A Reply to My Critics" (TNR, 12/23/96). In an admirably restrained, even genial manner, Goldhagen dealt with doubters, detractors, and defamers alike, taking on issues of fact and interpretation. Exhorting one and all to define and justify their arguments about what was, after all, a deeply resonant subject.

Why, I thought, isn't this kind of platform universally available? And then, as if in answer to a prayer, along came the internet. In its very immediacy, ubiquitousness, and interactive nature, it seems an ideal medium, a tool, for use in dismantling the barricades separating critic from criticized. A chat room, perhaps, compulsorily attended one day a week by the designated critic?

Of course such a prospect confers rules and responsibilities of its own: no ad hominem (or feminam) stuff. No finger-pointing or name-calling. Just cogent, necessarily substantive questions, and honest answers. By way of illustration, a letter from one reader about my recent New York Times piece on writing jazz fiction complained that "Mr. Sudhalter's message seems clear: don't try to write about jazz unless you're a jazz musician... Are jazz musicians so unique (sic) that they fall into another category, too far beyond 'civilian' experience for a writer to reach?"

It might have been rewarding to open a dialogue with this correspondent by saying, Yes, sir, that's exactly my message. I believe that music, unlike police work or politics (the two other fields cited by the letter-writer), totally defines its surroundings and practitioners. Jazz musicians are their music. Absent that, they're just people making a living, eating meals, paying bills — no different from cops or politicos. But that's just the point: the music can't be subtracted: it's the defining essence, which sets musicians apart, makes them special and ultimately a little mysterious. Makes their various complexes and misbehaviors interesting to writers, chroniclers, fans.

Would British writer Geoff Dyer, for example, have found Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, Art Pepper, and the other walking pathologies celebrated in his BUT BEAUTIFUL (Farrar, Straus, 1996) so fascinating had it not been for the music they made? Subtract the music and you have just another chronicle of aberrant thought and behavior. In a review of his book, I wondered whether Dyer would have been similarly drawn to musicians such as Henry Allen, Dizzy Gillespie, and Red Norvo, no less brilliant, who seem to have led balanced, eminently non-neurotic lives.

It all comes back, finally, to a self-evident fact: any writer, regardless how adept, who doesn't understand music will have a tough time writing convincingly about it, either as a critic or as a novelist. Such attempts invariably wind up, as Jason Epstein put it some years ago in The New Yorker, "as though someone who had never thought of holding a brush and had never considered the problems of color and volume had attempted a life of Cezanne."

Particularly relevant to the controversy surrounding LOST CHORDS is a note in which Goldhagen alludes to negative comments by Man openly hostile reporter who argued with me about my book even while admitting that he had read only a small portion of it." One of the radio interviews I’ve done since LOST CHORDS appeared was with a jazz "expert" who rather cavalierly questioned the very need for a book glorifying white musicians. Of course, he added, he hadn't read it - but "people," unidentified, had told him what it was "about" — therefore presumably qualifying him to pass judgment.

Then, too, buried on a back page of the Sunday New York Times Book Review, was a critique by New Orleans-based writer Jason Berry. Dealing mostly with the book's introduction, and dipping only fleetingly into the text, the writer squandered precious column inches on such peripheral issues as Albert Murray's 1976 book STOMPING THE BLUES, the role of the long-ago Fisk Jubilee Singers in popularizing spirituals, the character of the legendary New Orleans figure Buddy Bolden.

"Sudhalter is right to assert a role for white musicians in jazz history," Mr. Berry declared in his final paragraph. "If only he had used more light and less heat to make his case." Heat? Search as I might, I could locate none, and none of the "strained polemic" Mr. Berry claimed to find. How sweet it might have been to counter such stuff on the spot. Strained polemic? Where, Jason? How? Show me. More heat than light, in a volume that scrupulously maintains a detached, even Olympian, tone? Chapter and verse, Mr. Berry, please.

And what, too, of the British writer who decried the book's "dense, lifeless prose, dotted through with sidetracks, points of barely relevant detail, and a great deal of repetition and deviation?" Let's place the reviewer (whose own book, launched by the same publisher and editor as mine, was not without its clunky passages) in the dock, having to support his every adjective.

Like Pip, in the still unsurpassed 1948 movie version of GREAT EXPECTATIONS, parting the drapes of Miss Havisham's musty old room to let glorious light stream in, let's bring the jazz panjandrums out from behind their curtains and screens, invulnerable no longer - held to account at last for their every utterance.

LOST CHORDS has just gone into a second printing. Retrieval Records, a branch of Challenge, has issued a two-CD companion set, supplying 49 vintage cuts in illustration of music and musicians discussed in the text. Here are Bix and Tram, Bud Freeman and Adrian Rollini, Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang, Red Nichols and Miff Mole — even such relatively obscure figures as Boyce Brown and Jack Purvis, in sometimes brilliant performances.

Never mind the racial rhetoric or quasi-authoritative edicts from "authorities" who'd have trouble finding B-flat if they stumbled across it in the dark. The music speaks eloquently for itself, calling upon those who would judge it and its players to establish criteria and credentials for doing so - or forever hold their tongues.

The defense rests - for now.”

In addition to Sudhalter’s marvelous book, for those who wish to read more widely on the subject of the beginnings of Jazz, Gunther Schuller’s Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development [New York: Oxford University Press, 1968] is highly recommended.

Here are three paragraphs from the Preface which will serve as an introduction to the work and as a conclusion to this feature:

“Although there is no dearth of books on jazz, very few of them have attempted to deal with the music itself in anything more than general descriptive or impressionistic terms. The majority of books have con­centrated on the legendry of jazz, and over the years a body of writing has accumulated which is little more than an amalgam of well-meaning amateur criticism and fascinated opinion. That this was allowed to pass for scholarship and serious analysis is attributable not only to the humble, socially "unacceptable" origin of jazz, but also to the widely held notion that a music improvised by self-taught, often musically il­literate musicians did not warrant genuine musicological research. Despite the fact that many "serious" composers and performers had indicated their high regard for jazz as early as the 1920$, the academic credentials of jazz were hardly sufficient to produce a serious interest in the analysis of its techniques and actual musical content. …

This history, the first of two volumes, attempts among other things to fill some of those gaps, to explore, as it were, the foothills as well as the peaks of jazz. In fact, this volume has been written on the as­sumption that virtually every record made, from the advent of jazz recordings through the early 1930$, has been listened to, analyzed, and if necessary discussed. A true assessment of an artist (or a particular musical development) cannot be made without reference to the totality of his work and its relation to his contemporaries. An analysis of Beethoven's Eroica or Armstrong's West End Blues without reference to musical history or the development of musical style could yield a certain amount of factual information, but a full evaluation would obviously be impossible without considering the authors' total oeuvre and that of their immediate predecessors, contemporaries, and succes­sors. The work of Johnny Dodds, for example, cannot be properly assessed without comparative listening to at least Sidney Bechet or Jimmy Noone. Similarly, jazz historians who write about the Original Dixieland Jazz Band without having listened to James Reese Europe or Earl Fuller recordings can hardly arrive at a reasonable evaluation of the ODJB.

Another approach employed here is to concentrate on those mo­ments, those performances, and those musicians who in one way or another represent innovational landmarks in the development of jazz. In a sense this book is an answer in terms of specific musical detail to a series of interrelated questions: What makes jazz work? What makes jazz different from other music? Why do so many people find jazz ex­citing? How did it get that way? It is as if I were sitting down with a friend not as yet initiated into the mysteries of jazz, listening to rec­ords, responding to the kind of questions a musician might ask, and sharing with him the excitement and beauty of this music. Thus the book attempts to combine the objective research of the historian-musicologist with the subjectivism of an engaged listener and per­former-composer. In this respect the book is directed particularly to the "classically" trained musician or composer, who may never have con­cerned himself with jazz and who cannot respond to the in-group jargon and glossy enthusiasm of most writing on jazz. Implicit in the perspective governing this history is the view that jazz is but one of many musical languages and cultures available to us in mid-twentieth century, and whether explicitly stating it or not, the book places jazz in that larger context.”

To be continued over the next seven years and, hopefully, beyond.

Milt Jackson 1923-1999: A Tribute

Here at JazzProfiles, we often pay homage to the pioneers of Jazz; those individuals who helped shape the music and left a legacy of recordings for the enjoyment of generations to come.


When it comes to playing Jazz on the vibraphone, no one left a bigger footprint that Milt Jackson.  Nicknamed "Bags" because of the noticeable pouches under his eyes, Milt Jackson was the preeminent player on the vibraphone during the second half of the 20th century.


The mere mention of "Bags" around others that played the instrument would bring a wry smile and a gentle shaking of the head in admiration.


Another continuing theme on JazzProfiles has been our effort to highlight the brilliance of many of today's young Jazz players.


This video tribute to Milt does both by honoring the memory of Bags while featuring some of the best talent on today's Jazz scene.


The tune is Bopag'in composed by tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath's about whom the late Dizzy Gillespie said: "If you know Jimmy Heath's music, then you know bebop."


Bags takes the first solo beginning at 0:46, followed by alto saxophonist Jesse Davis at 2:04, tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman at 3:23, trumpeter Nicholas Payton at 4:41 and pianist Benny Green at 6:00.


Particularly noteworthy are bassist Christian McBride's stunningly strong bass line [these are easier to hear at the beginning of the solo times listed above]. Kenny Washington's drumming holds it all together while booting things along.

Ben Enwonwu, 1921 - 1994

The JazzProfiles editorial staff enjoys listening to Jazz while viewing art, photographs and graphic images.  So while it is hard-at-work preparing a feature on pianist Ahmad Jamal that will post to the blog on Tuesday, August 17^th 2010, we thought you’d like to listen to and view its latest Jazz-set-to-art YouTube.

The artist whose work we’ve chosen to celebrate is the late Ben Enwonwu [1921-1994] of The Republic of Niger.  Mr. Enwonwu’s work currently graces the blog as the painting above the quotation by Grover Sales on Jazz & African Rhythm.

The music is pianist Ahmad Jamal’s version of Taboo and it is taken from the Ahmad Jamal Trio: Complete Live at the Spotlite Club 1958 [Gambit Records 69265]. It can also be found on The Complete Ahmad Jamal Trio Argo Sessions [Mosaic Records MD9-246]. Joining with Ahmad on these Spotlite Club dates are bassist Israel Crosby and drummer Vernel Fournier.

Here’s drummer Kenny Washington’s take on this track from his insert notes to the Mosaic Set:

“There are a few memorable jazz performances of Margarita Lecuona's TABOO, but this version for me is the most compelling. The first thing that strikes your ears that's different from any of the previous music is the addition of percussion in the form of a maraca. Believe it or not, as Ahmad has confirmed, Israel Crosby is playing bass and maraca at the same time. He is playing pizzicato with the index finger of his right hand. The maraca is placed between his fourth finger and pinky of the same hand. Somehow he's able to pluck the bass on beats 1 and 3 and move the maraca enough to make the beads inside the shell of the maraca sound on 2 and 4. An astonishing feat of precision and coordination. Ahmad seems to think that [violinist] Joe Kennedy Jr. came up with the concept after seeing some bass players in Latin bands doing this. Ahmad's approach to the melody is very interesting here. He gives it to us like a jigsaw puzzle, disbursing the pieces of the melody over the four-chorus length of the performance. Vernel was an expert at Latin rhythms. Here he changes it up sounding very much like a timbalero. Catch his dialogue with Ahmad during the vamp near the end of this performance.”