George Robert - Swiss Master [From the Archives]

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

I recently received an email from George. It seems his wife Joan found this earlier posting and shared it with him. He liked it, for which I am immensely gratified. As a bonus, he is sending me some of his recent music so that I might listen to it and post reviews of it on the blog. One is a tribute CD to the memory of the late tenor saxophonist, Michael Brecker, with music arranged by Jim McNeely. Another is a duo CD that he recorded with Kenny Barron and the third is a quartet CD entitled New Life that features Dado Moroni on piano, Peter Washington on bass and Jeff Hamilton on drums. What a way to bring in 2015! Stay tuned for more on George Robert and his music.

In the meantime, please enjoy a re-posting of this feature about George Robert and his music.

It is always great fun to encounter a musician who is new to you and whose music moves your ears in different directions.

Such was the case for me with the Swiss-born alto/soprano saxophonist and clarinetist George Robert [“row-bear”-  if you are looking for a pronunciation of his last name that is closer to the French].

George’s career had been underway for some time before I discovered his work, initially due to Philip Barker’s production of George’s Tribute CD in 1994 for his Jazz Focus label [JFCD 004]. George’s quintet on this recording featured Italian pianist Dado Moroni.

I became a great fan of Dado’s playing and a few years later Philip and I co-produced Out of the Night: The Dado Moroni Trio on Jazz Focus [JFCD 032].

Philip had compiled discographies of the recordings of both George and Dado from which I learned of the 1993 recording, George Robert with The Metropole Orchestra Conducted by Rob Pronk [Mons CD 876-993], and two other CDs by George from around the same period: a collaboration between George and Dado entitled Youngbloods [1992, Mons CD 1897] and The George Robert Quartet Featuring Mr. Clark Terry [1990, TCB 90802].

It wasn’t until March, 1999 when I was in Seattle for the recordings sessions of Dado’s Out of the Night that Bill Goodwin, the drummer on the date, hipped me to two records by George that are among my enduring favorites. George made these with a quintet that he co-led with trumpeter Tom Harrell and which existed for about three years as a working group with a rhythm section made up of Dado on piano, Reggie Johnson on bass and Bill on drums.

These are Sun Dance: The Tom Harrell - George Robert Quintet [Contemporary CCD 14037-2] and Lonely Eyes: The George Robert - Tom Harrell Quintet [GPR 1002]. Bill Goodwin produced both dates.

Dan Morgenstern, the esteemed Jazz author and the Director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University [now retired], penned the insert notes to both recordings.

The editorial staff at JazzProfiles wrote to Dan requesting permission to reproduce them as part of this feature which he very graciously granted.

Together, Dan’s writings will provide you with a comprehensive and informative introduction to the engaging and exciting music of George Robert.

© -Dan Morgenstern: used with the author’s permission; copyright protected; all rights reserved.

Sundance

“At this moment in time, nothing is more important to jazz than the presence of gifted young players who know and love the true language of the music and are committed to its continuation. The list of such musicians, happily, has been growing of late, and on the evidence of this splendid record, we can safely add to it the name of George Robert.

What this young man has put together here is a band - not just a bunch of guys who met in a studio and went through the motions, but a musical collective made up of players who think and feel together, listen to each other and make their own music.

A finely matched blend of seasoned veterans and young comers is what we have here, and there may be something symbolic in the fact that the former are Americans and the latter Europeans - though the time when you could tell most European jazzmen by their accent is long since past, they still take their inspiration from this side of the pond.

Yet, for Swiss-born George Robert, jazz is something that came quite naturally, from his home environment. His American-born mother's love for jazz was shared by his father, five brothers and two sisters; the boys all played instruments, and formed a family band. George started piano at 8, took up clarinet at 10, and studied with Luc Hoffmann at a distinguished conservatory in his native Geneva.

"I would always hear jazz records at home.”' he said, "and I feel that my ears got a solid foundation from that, at a very early stage. Later on, I met a lot of American musicians passing through Geneva and played sessions with them at my home. Among them, Jimmy Woode, Sam Woodyard, and Billy Hart really encouraged me when I was just 13 or 14. And studying classical clarinet gave me discipline, control and technique that were most helpful when I picked up the saxophone."

Among the alto players who influenced young George were Johnny Hodges, Benny Carter, Charlie Parker, and Cannonball Adderley. "They all had an influence,”' he recalled, "but when ! was about 14, a Phil Woods album, Alive & Well in Paris, really caught my ear - his gorgeous sound was the first thing that attracted me.”'

Subsequently, other aspects of Woods's playing - "his lyricism, impeccable time, total command of the instrument, and beautiful musical conception" -made their impact on him, but he stressed that "besides his unique artistry, there's his commitment to the music, setting a very high standard that is so inspiring to a young musician...  I love Phil.”

A few years after coming to the U.S. in the fall of 1980 to study at Berklee, George even took a few lesson with Woods, but his major at Berklee was composing and arranging. "What was most important about my time there was being able to study with Joseph Viola - the best teacher I've ever had and an exceptional person, who taught me so much about the saxophone. Andy McGhee was very helpful and encouraging too." During this period, George played lead alto in several big band and honed his writing skills: "My masters have always been Duke Ellington, Thad Jones, Oliver Nelson, and Horace Silver. "

In 1985, George moved to New York, having accepted a scholarship at the Manhattan School of Music, from which he obtained a master's degree in 1987. He played lead alto in the MSM Big Band, but there was professional as well as academic experience. In 1984, his quartet received an "Outstanding performance" award from Down Beat and performed at the Montreux jazz Festival. In 1985, he worked with bassist Ray Drummond in Finland and recorded his first album, with Ron McClure on bass, Niels Lan Doky on piano, and Klaus Suonsaari on drums, for his own GPR label. In 1986, he performed at the American Music Festival in New York with Buster Williams and old friend Billy Hart; the same year found him in the company of Buster Williams, Billy Higgins and the wonderful Italian pianist heard on this album, Dado Moroni, at the Cully Jazz Festival in Switzerland.

The group heard here was formed in the spring of 1987 and toured in Switzerland and France; the album was recorded in Lausanne during the tour. Another European tour was set for the spring of '88, along with some summer festival appearances.

“I’ve always admired Tom, both as a player and a composer; to have him next to me is a great inspiration", the leader said. The two horns get a beautiful blend, and have a very special way of interacting, notably in the interludes of collective improvisation that are a feature of the band. "Jimmy Woode introduced me to Dado in 1985, and since then, I've always worked with him. He's a wonderful pianist. His touch is just superb, and the way he comps is a rare gift." This young man moved to Amsterdam in 1986, and I've not the slightest doubt that we'll hear much from and about him. Bassist Reggie Johnson, with whom George had worked before, was the perfect choice. "Reggie is an exceptional musician and the ideal bassist for us - we love him. And Bill has been a friend for a long time. I think he's one of the most musical drummers around." Goodwin's outstanding solo on the title cut proves that statement, and his experience as a record producer came in handy as well. In a varied program of uniformly excellent originals by Robert and Harrell, the band strikes a happy balance between ensemble and solo strength. The leader gets a fine, full sound from both his alto and soprano (he handles the latter with a fluency that reflects his clarinet training) and tells a story when he plays. So does Harrell, surely one of the most underrated and underpublicized trumpeters of our time (and quite a flugelhornist, too). The rhythm section is a delight, with a real feeling for not only time but also dynamics, and works hand-in-glove with the multihued horns.

"We always play acoustic jazz," said Robert. "That's the way we want it... to preserve the true sound of each instrument."

When you sound as good as these five guys, there's no need for artifice. This music speaks for itself; it swings and sings and it's always alive. We look forward to hearing more from George Robert and company - a new branch on the tree of jazz with exceptionally solid roots.”

Dan Morgenstern Director, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University

Lonely Eyes

“This is the second album by what is unquestionably one of the best groups on the contemporary jazz scene. This is music that radiates togetherness and reflects George Robert's statement that the quintet, together since the spring of 1987, "is like a family; everybody loves working with one another... the chemistry is there".

Indeed it is, and the music here surpasses the excellence of the quintet's impressive debut on records (Sun Dance : Contemporary C-14037), which received critical acclaim from all comers of the jazz spectrum.

As on that first record, the quintet here presents its own music. All the compositions are originals from within the group-five by Robert, three by Harrell, and one by the band's youngest member, pianist Dado Moroni - and they are not just sketches on blues or "Rhythm" changes, but genuine pieces of music with an impressive variety of moods and textures. The quintet achieves its own identity and freshness, but it does so without artifice or self-conscious striving for novelty or effect. Clearly, there is a shared language among all its members, a language solidly rooted but never mired in the jazz tradition. The music flows with a natural ease that is a pleasure to hear.

The horns of the co-leaders are splendidly matched, both in ensemble and solo roles. Doubling and skillfully varied writing allow for a textural variety quite amazing for a small group. Harrell, who finally seems to be getting some of the credit long due him as one of the most original and consistently excellent creative improvisers of our time, plays trumpet and flugelhorn and gets his own sound, at once warm and brilliant, from both. Robert's main horn is the alto sax, from which he gets a strong, personal sound, but he also has mastered the soprano and the clarinet (the latter his first horn after starting music on the piano, and heard here with the quintet for the first time on record). These two have marvelous rapport; truly together in ensemble unison, harmony or interplay, and feeding off each other in solo excursions.

The rhythm section is always finely attuned to its supporting tasks, which are far from routine-this group deals with subtle rhythmic as well as harmonic demands-but it seems inaccurate to describe this dynamic triumvirate as a mere "rhythm section". The greatly gifted Moroni is not only a wonderfully sensitive and alert accompanist, but adds solo strength (his modal ballad Adrienne reveals talent as a composer as well). Reggie Johnson's impeccable intonation and rhythmic strength would be enough, but he also steps out as a soloist, and when he does, it's not in the obligatory manner of giving the bassist some, but with lucidly musical (and never over-long) statements. Master percussionist Bill Goodwin is always there, adding colors and textures to the quintet's overall sonic meld and providing the kind of absolute rhythmic security that allows everyone to relax and play without fear of falling off the wire. On this album, Bill modestly restrains his solo role, but when he steps front and center, he makes musical sense.

There isn't a weak link in this group, and there isn't a weak track on this program. Robert's Quest for Peace and The Long Trail are parts of his "American Indian Suite"; the title track of the group's debut album rounds out this fine composition. Trail, with its haunting minor theme, has a rhythmic feel that reflects the suite's inspiration; Robert observed a ritual dance in Wyoming. It's heartening (and indicative of the universal character of jazz) that such quintessentially American music was created by a Swiss-born musician who came to the U.S. in 1980. On this piece, and elsewhere as well, Robert shows his skill at constructing solos that build in intensity and have a beginning and an end - too many players start hot and wind up with nowhere to go.

Another facet of Robert's writing is Lonely Eyes, a most attractive ballad in 3/4 ; Harrell is beautifully expressive here, both lyrical and abstract, and Robert shows he knows how to "sing" a melody. His Sensual Winds has a bossa flavor and gives us a taste of his clarinet, fluent and lively. And One for Thad is a loving tribute to one of Robert's major influences, the late Thad Jones. With a shuffle rhythm and gospel feel, it also contains the elements of surprise and humor that were part and parcel of Jones's special genius. Robert plays soprano on this (also in keeping with Thad's legacy); he keeps it in tune and displays, as on all his horns, a fine tonal quality.

Harrell weighs in with the fetching Opaling, somehow reminiscent of Tadd Dameron, but Tom's no copycat. These guys know their changes. Visions of Gaudi, inspired by the works of the visionary and eccentric Spanish architect, is a relaxed samba with lovely, open horn voicings and gently emotional solo work. The third Harrell opus, Coral Sea, presents yet another hue in the palette of this versatile ensemble : flugel and low-register clarinet combine most warmly and attractively. Robert gets a beautiful sound in the chalumeau register, and the piece ebbs and swells like the tide.

This remarkable quintet has now been together, at this writing, for more than two years; 1989 began with a successful European tour, to be followed by one of the U.S. and Canada, and another of Europe. As this record shows, they just keep getting better. "This band is committed to keep working together", says Robert.

Congratulations, gentlemen - and please do stay together ! We need you to keep the jazz flame burning bright.”

Dan Morgenstern

Director, Institute of Jazz Studies,

Rutgers University

The following video tribute to George features a track from his Tribute Jazz Focus CD on which he performs with Oliver Gannon, guitar, Dado Moroni, piano, Reggie Johnson, bass and George Ursan, drums. The tune is Kenny Barron’s Voyage.

Two from Tommy Vig [From the Archives]

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

For those of us who were fans of the music of Stan Kenton, Tommy Vig stepped into our lives on Monday, April 4, 1966.

That was the night that Stan’s highly [overly?] ambitious Neophonic Orchestra premiered Tommy’s Four Pieces for Neophonic Orchestra.

At the time of the premier, few Kenton fans knew anything about Tommy Vig.

Frankly, I would venture to say that few Jazz fans anywhere knew anything about this 28-year old percussionist, composer-arranger who had come to the United States as a refuge from the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

Ultimately, Tommy chose the vibraphone as his main instrument and gained a scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music where he studied composition.

From New York Tommy moved to Las Vegas and Hollywood, where his bold approach to arranging was well received. As a vibraphonist and a percussionist, he performed with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Tony Curtis, Miles Davis-Gil Evans big band, Woody Allen, Diana Ross, and The Carpenters, just to name a few. He is the percussionist on all the albums of the legendary Rod Stewart. 

There is more information about Tommy on his comprehensive website which you can locate by going here.

In Los Angeles in August, 1967, Tommy recorded Four Pieces for Neophonic Orchestra with his own orchestra along with five other arrangements of his original compositions. Earlier, in April, 1967, Tommy had recorded six of his charts with a band based in Las Vegas.

The Las Vegas tracks were released as Encounters with Time [Discovery LP #DS 780] and the Los Angeles tracks were issued as Sound of the 70s [Milestone LP #MSP 9007].

In 1986, Discovery/Trend coupled both albums together as a CD release entitled Space Race DSCD-925.

In order to give you a sampling of Tommy’s extraordinarily exciting big band arranging and the unusual use of percussion instruments in his scoring, here are two videos featuring soundtracks from both the Los Angeles and Las Vegas 1967 sessions.

The first features a rapid burst version of Sunrise, Sunset from the score of the Broadway show Fidler on the Roof which was subsequently also made into a Hollywood film. Charlie McLean takes the alto solo.

The second video also features Charlie Lean, this time on Tommy’s arrangement of Satan Takes a Holiday, which Larry Clinton composed as the theme for his swing era, big band. Shelly Manne is on drums.

Beginning at 1:09 minutes of this track, be sure and checkout Tommy’s solo on the 18 note chimes which are made up of 1¼” brass tubes that are struck at the top of the tube with a rawhide mallet [both pictured above]. These are usually played one note at a time, but on his solo, Tommy uses two mallets and plays the chimes as though they were a vibraphone – not an easy thing to do. He’s even figured out a way to dampen or stop the sustaining tones on the chimes!

The Terry Gibbs Dream Band - Fantastic and Full of Fun

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

Although The Terry Gibbs Big Band existed for only 3 years [1959 - 1962], performed in relative obscurity because it never toured and didn’t have most of its recorded output released until a quarter of a century after it folded, those who experienced it in person during its brief existence have come to refer to it by another name – The Terry Gibbs Dream Band.

And yet, during its existence, everyone, including the musicians who played in it, seemed to take the whole thing for granted. Nonchalance was the byword.

Let me try to explain this better so that you don’t get the idea that there was nothing special about a bunch of world class musicians getting together once a week to blow on arrangements by the likes of Bill Holman, Marty Paich, Shorty Rogers, Al Cohn, Manny Albam, Med Flory, among many others.

But that’s exactly what happened and nobody thought that anything extraordinary was going on while it did!

Mondays and Tuesdays back-in-the-day were “dark nights” which meant that most of the major restaurants, clubs, and theaters were closed. On average, people didn’t go out on these nights to cabaret. They had had their fun on the just-passed weekend and Mondays and Tuesdays were essentially backed-to-work days.

The musicians in Terry’s band basically performed for the love of working together. Because they played on “off nights,” they generally performed in front of small audiences. It’s difficult to pay 15 musicians of this caliber much of a wage when the revenue is being generated by a small cover [admission] charge and a one or two drink minimum. If the club owner met the Class B scale requirements [modest would be an understatement here], the Musicians’ Union stewards left things alone, grabbed a drink on the house [if they even showed up] and went home early to watch some television with their families.

The guys in the band worked with one another in the studios most days where they made a more considerable daily wage recording for movies, television and for radio [primarily “jingles” for advertisements]. Since there is so much money involved in the production of these entertainments, studio musicians work under a lot of pressure; they have to “get it right the first time.” Studio time is expensive and studio musicians are expected to show up on time and to be quick, accurate and free of errors in executing the music they are called on to play, whatever the context.

Enter Terry Gibbs - one of the loosest guys on the planet - offering a chance to play a bunch of swinging charts [arrangements] with a coterie of the world’s finest studio musicians playing big band Jazz for three [maybe even four, if they were in the mood] sets a night!

So there is Conte Candoli sitting up on a riser above drummer Mel Lewis dropping a handkerchief over Mel’s eyes as he tries to read the music, alto saxophonist Joe Maini shouting “Hammer, hammer” as Terry Gibbs bangs out his solo on vibes, and trombonist Frank Rosolino screaming “Work, work….” each time Stu Williamson [trumpet], Bill Perkins [tenor sax] or Pat Moran [piano] took their solos.

You had to be there to believe it. I’ve never see so many guys having so much fun playing in a big band. They laughed, smiled, played wonderful solos and pretty much swung their collective backsides off. And when Terry called the next tune, they rifled through the band book to find the arrangement all the while “hootin’” and “hollerin’” like a bunch of kids. These guys were so good that most of them had memorized the band’s exacting charts [arrangements] and didn’t need to look at the music.

Talk about taking the lid off a pressure-cooker.

Thankfully, you can hear the fantastic musicianship and the fun-filled atmosphere on a half dozen CD’s of the band in-performance that have been released since the band’s initial LP’s on Mercury, Emarcy and Verve first came out in the early 1960s.

Among these, my favorite is Terry Gibbs Dream Band, Volume Four: Main Stem [Contemporary CD 7656-2, originally released on LP as Terry Gibbs/Exciting Mercury MG-20704].

Here are Jay Roebuck’s informative insert notes to the CD:

“THE BAND

After listening to this album, two conclusions leap to mind: All big-band albums should be recorded live. And all big-band albums should be this live.

That's asking a lot, though, because Terry Gibb's band ranks with the most exciting aggregations in big-band history. It had everything: drive, spirit, great arrangements, outstanding soloists, and Mel Lewis, one of the great big-band drummers.

It also had a dynamic leader in vibraphonist Terry Gibbs, who was the band's No. 1 cheerleader.

The band's early days in 1959 have been documented on three previous "Dream Band" albums on Contemporary. As good as they were, this collection, recorded at the Summit in Hollywood in 1961, is even more exciting because the personnel had stabilized, and the band had been together for two years. Also, this time the band knew it was recording and had special arrangements for the occasion. The material for the other albums had been taped by Wally Heider for Gibbs's private use.

"This was one of the few bands that really knew the difference between an eighth and a quarter note," Gibbs says." Just listen to 'Limerick Waltz.' They even knew what beat to make a swell start and end."

By 1961, all the section leaders (saxophonist Joe Maini, trombonist Bob Edmondson, and trumpeters Al Porcino and Ray Triscari sharing lead) were in place, and "these guys called the shots on when to breathe, and they breathed together."

If there's a standout on this album, it's really the ensemble playing which even overshadows the excellent solos. The reed section of Maini and Charlie Kennedy on altos, Richie Kamuca and Bill Perkins on tenors, and Jack Nimitz on baritone is especially impressive.

"I really believe this band should go down as one of the great ensemble bands," Gibbs says. "I think it rates with Basie's band of the Fifties, Woody's Second Herd, Benny Goodman's band with Gene Krupa and Artie Shaw's with Buddy [Rich]."

The reference to Goodman is significant because Gibbs adopted Benny's strategy of having the arrangers weave his vibes in and out of numbers as Goodman's did for his clarinet. "I didn't want to just play a vibes solo and then step back and let the band play," Gibbs explains.

If a direct comparison is to be made of Gibb's exciting band, the inevitable one is to Woody Herman's Second Herd, the celebrated Four Brothers band. And, perhaps, it's not mere coincidence that most of the Gibbs musicians (including the leader) once played for Herman.

"I think you have to give Chubby Jackson a lot of credit for the spirit of the band," Gibbs says. "He always had enthusiasm, and I probably picked up some of that from him." Gibbs wasn't the only cheerleader, though. Not in a band where Frank Rosolino, Joe Maini, and Conte Candoli were constantly shouting encouragement.

That spirit is captured on this album which long has been unavailable. It was

recorded at the Summit (formerly the Sundown) with the masterful Wally Heider again at the controls. The music sounds like it was recorded yesterday instead of 29 years ago.

A year later, in 1962, Gibbs's band won the New Star Award in the annual Down Beat magazine critics' poll, an amazing achievement since the band had never toured.

Now, thanks to the herculean efforts of Gibbs and label owner Ralph Kaffel in obtaining the rights to release this material, we again can enjoy this magnificent band at its peak of performance.

THE MUSIC

Bill Holman's chart of "Day In, Day Out" gets the album off to a roaring start with a performance that sounds more like an encore than opener. But, then, this band always did play the first set like the third. The entrance by the Al Porcino-led trumpets after Terry's break will raise the hair on the back of your neck. There's also a trumpet solo by Conte Candoli and some booting tenor by Bill Perkins.

Shorty Rogers arranged "Summit Blues," which he co-wrote with Terry. Bassist Buddy Clark shares the honors with Gibbs. Holman's funky "Limerick Waltz" features some great drum work by Mel Lewis and solos by trombonist Frank Rosolino, Gibbs, and a preaching Joe Maini, who was one of Terry's favorite alto players. "I always loved Joe's playing," Terry says, "because he always had that edge."

Al Cohn's lovely arrangement of "You Don't Know What Love Is" showcases Gibbs, who works in a brief reference to "Angel Eyes." Manny Albam's "Sweet Georgia Brown" chart is a tour de force for the band.

Gibbs and Maini are the soloists on Al Cohn's "Nose Cone." Cohn apparently was fascinated with Terry's proboscis since he previously had written "Julie's Bugle" for Gibbs (a.k.a. Julius Gubenko). Holman arranged "Too Close for Comfort," a superior pop song of the day, to feature Terry, Richie Kamuca, and bassist Buddy Clark.

Albam's shouting chart on Duke Ellington's "Main Stem" gives pianist Pat Moran her only solo opportunity. (Moran, incidentally, was the third woman pianist who had worked with Gibbs. The others were Terry Pollard and Alice McLeod, who later married John Coltrane.) After Terry's solo, the brass provides a launching pad for Kamuca's tenor. "Richie always hated big bands, but he loved to play with this one," Gibbs says. The band takes this one home with Conte Candoli up top.

Holman dresses up the old warhorse "Ja-Da" for a medium-tempo romp for Terry and Conte. "T and S" stands for Terry and Shorty, who collaborated on the tune. Rogers wrote the building arrangement which features Terry and some great ensemble playing with Ray Triscari on lead trumpet. Mel Lewis provides a textbook lesson in big-band drumming.

The album ends the way it began—on a high.”

Two of my favorite tracks on the disc are Bill Holman’s arrangement of Day In, Day Out and Manny Albam’s chart on Sweet Georgia Brown and you can listen to them on the following videos.

Scott Hamilton and the Rein de Graaff Trio

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

I’ve never met tenor saxophonist Scott Hamilton, but there are three things that I know we have in common: [1] we both hail from Providence, RI; [2] we both share an affinity for mainstream, straight-ahead Jazz; [3] we both enjoy listening to pianist Rein de Graaff’s trio with Marius Beets on bass and Eric Ineke on drums.

The first is a matter of public record; the second and third were reaffirmed by the recent arrival of Scott Hamilton and the Rein de Graaff Trio at The Jazz Room, Breda, The Netherlands [Jazzroom Breda Stereo C15175].

Writing in The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, Chris Deffaa had this to say about Scott’s background and style.

“Scott Hamilton was born in Providence, RI, September 12, 1954). He began playing tenor saxophone at the age of 16, and in 1976 moved to New York, where he quickly gained public and critical acclaim. He has performed and recorded as the leader of a quintet with the guitarist Chris Flory, the drummer Chuck Riggs, the double bass player Phil Flanigan, and the pianist John Bunch; except Bunch, all these musicians worked with Hamilton in Providence.

In 1976 he began an association with Warren Vache which has continued into the 1980s. The two musicians have recorded many albums together and worked as sidemen with Benny Goodman (from 1977), Rosemary Clooney (periodically from 1978), and Woody Herman (at intervals in the 1980s). From 1982 Hamilton has worked with Ruby Braff. He has also performed with such touring bands as the Concord Jazz All-Stars, the Concord Superband, and the Newport Jazz Festival All-Stars, almost invariably with Vache.

Hamilton's playing, although not derivative, is an extension of the tradition established by Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, and Illinois Jacquet. He is a gifted improviser, and is capable of transforming the most unlikely material into memorable music. His relaxed, elegantly constructed solos… [are a trademark] of his playing.”

And has Richard Cook and Brian Morton have remarked The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 6th Ed.:

“ … [Scott Hamilton] doesn't double on soprano, bass clarinet or flute. He probably doesn't know what multiphonics are. He has never been described as 'angular', and if he was ever ‘influenced by Coltrane' it certainly never extended to his saxophone playing. And yet Scott Hamilton is the real thing, a tenor player of the old school who was born only after most of the old school were dead or drawing bus-passes. His wuffly delivery and clear-edged tone are definitive of mainstream jazz, and the affection in which Hamilton is held on both sides of the Atlantic is not hard to understand. And yet what he does is utterly original and un-slavish, not in thrall to anyone.”

I’ve heard Scott in performance and on record and each time I do, I have this image in my mind, real or imagined, of him planting his feet, rearing his head back while taking a deep breath and then blowing swinging sounds out of his tenor saxophone.

As for his affinity for working with Rein, Marius and Eric, checkout the look of pleasure on Scott’s face as he listens to them do their thing in this photograph taken during their engagement together at the Jazzroom in Breda, The Netherlands. One would venture to guess that Scott seems to be experiencing the musical equivalent of pure bliss and you will too while listening to this CD.

Both as individual soloists and as a powerful and pulsating rhythm section, the piano-bass-drum trio of Rein de Graaff, Marius Beets and Eric Ineke are as good as it gets if your taste in Jazz runs to the straight-ahead, bebop-inflected style of the music.

Another aspect of this CD that makes it so appealing is that the selected tunes and the way in which they are sequenced create an atmosphere for the listener of experiencing the perfect hour-long set [or, these days, show].

Comprised of three evergreens from The Great American Songbook and four Jazz Standards, the music on  Scott Hamilton and the Rein de Graaff Trio at The Jazz Room, Breda, The Netherlands moves along effortlessly to the point where you really never want it to end, yet when it inevitably does, you know that you’ve just heard some superbly rendered music played by four, masterful Jazz musicians.

In his sleeve notes to the CD, the noted Jazz author and critic Jeroen de Valk offers this background and these observations about this effort by Scott, Rein, Marius and Eric:

“This CD proudly features tenor saxophonist Scott Hamilton with the Rein de Graaff Trio and was recorded live at the JazzRoom Breda to celebrate its 10th anniversary. For a decade now, this cozy and intimate jazz club has been presenting high-caliber jazz artists such as Deborah Brown, Ronnie Cuber and Peter Beets, to name a few. According to musicians, the JazzRoom Breda is ‘the real thing.’

The atmosphere is informal but the audience is attentive and appreciative. As pianist Rein de Graaff puts it: ‘It is an old-fashioned jazz club supported by local businessmen. They just get together because they love that kind of music.’ …

Scott, while on tour with the trio, decided to shift from the swing repertoire to some early bebop tunes like "Apple Honey" (based on the chord progressions of "I Got Rhythm" and is a mainstay in the Woody Herman repertoire), "Move", "Groovin' High" and the more relaxed tune "Good Bait". To these, he also added these timeless evergreens: "Flamingo", "Speak Low" and "Darn that Dream".

The ballads find Scott going back to his swing heroes while the renditions of "Move" and "Apple Honey" fall somewhere in between bebop and the crowd-pleasing expression of swing tenor Illinois Jacquet.”

Scott offered his thoughts about the Jazzroom and about his musical cohorts when he wrote:

“Dear Friends:

This CD was recorded live at the Jazzroom in Breda, a fantastic room that is unique in that it is sponsored by several companies who have built it to serve as a Jazz venue. The CD was made during one evening [March 8, 2013] of my last tour with Rein de Graaff and his excellent trio, musicians with whom I particularly like working.

I hope that you will be able to hear how nice it is to play with sympathetic musicians in front of a responsive audience. Enjoy.

- Scott Hamilton”

Jazz fans can purchase the CD by emailing info@jazzcenter.nl and requesting pricing and shipping for Scott Hamilton and the Rein de Graaff Trio at The Jazz Room, Breda, The Netherlands [Jazzroom Breda Stereo C15175].

The following video will provide you with views of the Jazzroom itself, photographs of the musicians and an opportunity to listen to the Flamingo track from the CD.

Flamingo, a ballad by Ed Anderson and Ted Grouya, was first recorded in 1941 by vocalist Tony Martin with David Rose’s Orchestra and the tune has been a favorite of Jazz artists from Duke Ellington to Stan Getz ever since. This version contains one of the best bebop piano solos I’ve ever heard. Rein’s playing on this track just knocks me out. With Marius and Eric really “stepping on” the time, and Scott not missing a beat when he comes in for his solo, this performance will swing you into next week.

Philip Larkin - "All What Jazz"

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

For many years, Arthur Newman was a bookseller at a semi-annual, four-day Jazz Festival sponsored by the Los Angeles Jazz Institute which I regularly attended. He and his lovely wife sat quietly behind a table on which were arrayed a stellar collection of books on Jazz and its makers. They would enjoin browsers to “Let me know if you have any questions.”

Sadly, Mr. Newman is no longer in business having retired. But the good news is that he turns 100 today! [Happy Birthday, Arthur]

Over the years, I bought a number of books from Arthur, among them one with the defiantly provocative title of All What Jazz. by Philip Larkin. The tone and tenor of Mr. Larkin’s writing is as antagonistic as the book title implies. I rarely agree with much of what Mr. Larkin had to say in the reviews that make up his book, But I think the manner in which he writes them is exquisite. Here truly is a man of belles-lettres.

After I read the book, I placed it on a bookshelf and hadn’t thought about if for years until I encountered Joseph Epstein’s review of James Booth’s new biography of Philip Larkin in the Saturday, November 29, 2014 edition of The Wall Street Journal.

At the conclusion of his review Mr. Epstein notes that  “What … [Larkin] was opposed to, as he made perhaps too plain in the introduction to All What Jazz (1970), his collection of writings on Jazz, was modernism in the arts, as represented by such figures as Ezra Pound, Pablo Picasso and Charlie Parker. He disliked such arts ‘not because they are new, but because they are irresponsible exploitations of technique in contradiction of human life as we know it.’"

That remark reminded me of the context of Philip Larkin’s criticism which led me back to revisiting the book.

By way of background, when Philip Larkin, already well known for his poetry, began reviewing jazz for the Daily Telegraph, a leading London newspaper, in 1961, he rapidly built himself a new and considerable reputation. A collection of these writings, which constituted a highly readable diary of the record scene between 1961 and 1968, was first published in 1970 as All What Jazz: A Record Diary. A new edition contains the whole of Larkin's output on the subject from 1961 to 1971, and a discography, revised for an American audience.

The pieces are prefaced by a provocative, semi-autobiographical introduction in which Larkin recounts the difficulties he experienced in reconciling himself to post-World War II Jazz, and how he finally came to see that mode in relation to twentieth-century art in general. He finds in the history of Jazz "a capsule history of all arts — the generation from tribal function, the efflorescence into public and conscious entertainment, and the degeneration into private and subsidized absurdity.” [Larkin was never one to mince words.]

Of his commentaries on a multitude of artists from every period of Jazz history, Larkin writes: "I tried in writing them to be fair and conscientious, and there were many times when I substituted 'challenging’ for 'insolent, 'adventurous' for 'excruciating,’ and 'colourful' for Viciously absurd' in a thoroughly professional manner. Although my critical principle has been Eddie Condon's 'As it enters the ear, does it come in like broken glass or does it come in like honey?' I've generally remembered that mine was not the only ear in the world. Above all, I hope they suggest I love jazz."

These comments of Larkin's acute and lively volume are on the back of the dust jacket:

"Jazz is Larkin's first love and in the short notices collected in All What Jazz he gives his most unguarded and exultant endorsement of the kind of art he likes, along with his funniest and most irascible excoriation of the kind he doesn't.”

—Clive James, The Observer (London)

"Contains some of the best-written music criticism of its time."

—Robert Craft, The New York Review of Books

The editorial staff at JazzProfiles has plans to feature a number of Mr. Larkin’s singular reviews on various Jazz artists and recordings during the next few months. Here is the first installment.

Looking Back at Coltrane

“The obituaries produced by the sudden death of John Coltrane sent me back to some of his records, picked out more or less at random: 'Black Pearls', 'Live at Birdland', 'A Love Supreme', 'Africa/Brass'. For though I do not remembering ever suggesting that his music was anything but a pain between the ears, here were The Times and Melody Maker (...) agreeing that Coltrane stood beside Hawkins, Young and Rollins in the roll of tenor players supreme. Was I wrong?

Well, I still can't imagine how anyone can listen to a Coltrane record for pleasure. That reedy, catarrhal tone, sawing backwards and forwards for ten minutes between a couple of chords and producing 'violent barrages of notes not mathematically related to the underlying rhythmic pulse, and not swinging in the traditional sense of the term' (Encyclopaedia of Jazz in the Sixties); that insolent egotism, leading to forty-five-minute versions of 'My Favourite Things' until, at any rate in Britain, the audience walked out, no doubt wondering why they had ever walked in; that latter-day religiosity, exemplified in turgid suites such as 'A Love Supreme' and 'Ascension' that set up pretension as a way of life; that wilful and hideous distortion of tone that offered squeals, squeaks, Bronx cheers and throttled slate-pencil noises for serious consideration - all this, and more, ensure that, for me at any rate, when Coltrane's records go back on the shelf they will stay there.

Of course, a great deal of this falls into place if one reflects that Coltrane was a 'modern' jazzman. The adjective 'modern', when applied to any branch of art, means 'designed to evoke incomprehension, anger, boredom or laughter', and Coltrane was simply part of the melancholy tendency since 1945 to remove jazz from our pleasures and place it, with all the other 'modern' arts, among our duties. Much of this was doubtless due to the fact that Coltrane was an American Negro. He did not want to entertain his audience: he wanted to lecture them, even to annoy them. His ten-minute solos, in which he lashes himself up to dervish-like heights of hysteria, are the musical equivalent of Mr Stokely Carmichael. It is this side of his work that appeals to the Black-Power boys such as LeRoi Jones and Archie Shepp; towards the end of his life, he had become associated with younger players of even wilder and more excruciating exhibitionism than himself, such as Pharaoh Sanders. It is not surprising that pianist McCoy Tyner and drummer Elvin Jones, for long his associates and admirers, quietly dropped off the wagon.

Virtually the only compliment one can pay Coltrane is one of stature. If he was boring, he was enormously boring. If he was ugly, he was massively ugly. To squeak and gibber for sixteen bars is nothing; Coltrane could do it for sixteen minutes, stunning the listener into a kind of hypnotic state in which he read and re-read the sleeve-note and believed, not of course that he was enjoying himself, but that he was hearing something significant. Perhaps he was. Time will tell. I regret Coltrane's death, as I regret the death of any man, but I can't conceal the fact that it leaves in jazz a vast, a blessed silence.

Coltrane is dead: long live [Ornette] Coleman! For if Coltrane 'progressed from' (i.e. was more horrible than) Parker, who but Ornette Coleman has progressed from Coltrane? Where Coltrane had two chords, Coleman has none at all, no pitch, no rhythm, no nothing. His latest two-disc record, 'Chappaqua Suite' (CBS), has a rib-tickling sleeve-note by some Frenchman which explains that an American film director, Conrad Rooks, commissioned Coleman to 'compose' some music for his film Chappaqua. Thereupon Coleman and his two sidemen, bassist Charles Izenzon and drummer Charles Moffett, accompanied by Pharaoh Sanders and 'eleven other very fine studio musicians', entered into Ornette Coleman's world and 'served his music with love'.

Unfortunately, when Rooks heard the result, he was stricken with doubts: 'Should he use a music in itself so beautiful? Should not [sic] its strength do harm to the picture instead of serving it?' In a word, he junked it, commissioned another score and presumably cut his losses by selling the tapes to a record company. One can see what he means. Despite the comparatively large personnel (not given on the sleeve), the seeming hours of music resolve into duets or trios between a horn, Coleman or Sanders, the drums, and the rest of the band, the latter sustaining long chords behind a foreground of wailing and twittering and battering and uneven thumps. This is free form. Its drawback is that it all sounds alike. I noticed some sort of spook gutbucket at the beginning of side two, and some presumably satiric swing-era cliches at the end of side one, but in the main the effect is like watching twenty monkeys trying to type the plays of Shakespeare.

Coleman's playing is utterly free from hostility: he is gentle, light-hearted, almost zany, and his alto tone is really rather pleasant. No doubt this could have been film music, and it could well have been a nicer film that Mr Rooks actually made. Something about pond life, with plenty of tadpoles.

August 1967 (unpublished)”

Did I mention that Mr. Larkin doesn’t mince words?