On A Misty Night with Peter Leitch - A JazzProfiles Snapshort

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

“Drawing on every available aspect of the guitar tradition, Leitch is a smooth and accomplished performer whose very facility sometimes disguises the sophistication of what he is doing. Easy in the studio, he has created a substantial body of recorded work.

Listening to the evolution of the music and the musicians on Leitch's records in a recording career stretching back to the mid-'8os shows how much Leitch has evolved from an essentially horn-based style to a much more guitaristic (his own word) approach.

When he came to Criss Cross, Gerry Teekens gave him the breadth and leeway he wanted to make swinging but intelligent records which refused to sit neatly in any currently agreed niche.

In all his Criss Cross recordings, there's the same sageness of utterance and fertility of invention that make them equally hard to resist. For the interplay of guitar and percussion, underlining Leitch's strong rhythmic instincts, they are a highly recommended showcase for a quiet and understated talent.”

- Richard Cook, Brian Morton, The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 6th Ed.

I thought it would be fun to work-up a series of brief features - what I have been referring to as JazzProfiles “snapshots” - on three musicians from what I call the Soft School of Jazz guitar playing.

The Soft School of Jazz Guitar members are made up of those guitar players who caress the instrument and who seem to gently coach a sound from it rather than the percussively pluck it and pick it alternative, which is fine, too, when I’m in the mood for that approach to guitar Jazz.

Mundell Lowe, Johnny Smith and Jim Hall generally fall into the former category while Pat Martino, Tal Farlow and Joe Pass are typically grouped into the latter category [Although to be fair Pat, Tal and Joe also fit the first category. So much for generalizations but you get the idea.]

Wes Montgomery and Barney Kessel seem to straddle both categories, but after a while one begins to understand why Duke Ellington used the phrase “beyond category” when he was pressed to answer questions of groupings regarding certain musicians.

The three guitarists that I had in mind for Soft School Snapshots [doncha just love alliterations?] are Peter Leitch, Jimmy Raney and Kenny Burrell. Let’s start with guitarist Peter Leitch who I first heard on a Criss Cross CD [1026] entitled On A Misty Night with bassist Neil Swainson and drummer Mickey Roker.

What initially attracted me to the CD was its superb track selection Jazz Standards including the Tadd Dameron’s title track, Tom McIntosh’s The Cup Bearers, Wayne Shorter’s Witch Hunt, Monk’s Crepescule with Nellie and Sonny Rollins’ Airegin, beautiful treatments of two Great American Songbook tunes, Serenata and Spring is Here and two originals by Peter - Duet and Fifty Up.   

I also learned a great deal about Peter and his approach to music from these informative insert notes by Mark Gardner which include references to other Soft School of Jazz Guitar candidates.

"A superficial study of the history of modern jazz guitar will show that this instrument has had many important and creative non-American exponents. Starting with Django Reinhardt, Europe developed a special guitar tradition which found its greatest modern exponent in the late Rene Thomas, a Belgian like Django. Ireland produced John McLaughlin and Louis Stewart. From France came Sacha Distel, and more recently Dave Cliff emerged in England.

So much for Europe, but closer to the USA Peter Leitch has now emerged from comparative obscurity in Canada to take his place with the front rank guitarists. Peter was born 41 years ago in Ottawa, but was brought up and began playing jazz in Montreal. It was on an album he made there in the early 1970s that I first heard him. He made impressive contributions to a Sadik Hakim album entitled The London Suite.

By 1977 Peter had moved to Toronto, but after five years in that city he was drawn to New York, the recognized centre of jazz. His five years in the Apple are proof enough of his talent and ability. He has worked with an astonishing range of leaders including Milt Jackson, Pepper Adams, Jaki Byard , Red Norvo, Al Grey, Jimmy Forrest and Woody Shaw. Fellow Canadian Oscar Peterson employed him for two Pablo albums.

This is the fourth released album by Peter Leitch but the first in which he has chosen to use the conventional trio instrumentation throughout. His U.S. debut record for Uptown was a quintet set with the late Pepper Adams.

It was deservedly well received. The present set was taped two years later and marks the growing maturity and expressive depth of a fluent improviser at the peak of his powers.

It's interesting that Peter names Kenny Burrell and Rene Thomas as two of his main musical influences, because, like those two, he is a guitarist who always swings. Thomas, of course, worked extensively in Canada before his untimely death, and it was Sonny Rollins who proclaimed him the greatest guitarist since Charlie Christian. Burrell has been among the most consistent creators in the art. So Peter took good models, though his playing betrays no stifling influences but rather displays a welcome freshness. His other influences were saxophonists John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and Charlie Parker, and pianists McCoy Tyner, Bud Powell and Bill Evans. That's a good listening list!

Peter Leitch ("My name is actually pronounced leech, as in the familiar aquatic blood-feeding worm") receives exceptional support in this well cooked session from bassist Neil Swainson and drum master Mickey Roker. Swainson will be a new name to many. Says Peter, "Neil is not yet widely known, perhaps because he lives in Canada. But as good as he plays, everyone's going to know about him. He's right up there with today's great bassists - just ask Woody Shaw or George Shearing, with whom Neil has been heard both in Europe and the U.S."

Mickey Roker, from Miami, Florida, has been playing drums professionally for more than 30 years during which his employers have included Milt Jackson, Clifford Jordan, Sonny Rollins and Dizzy Gillespie. Now that Philly Joe Jones has gone, Mickey keeps alive that crisp, hard-driving style which Jones propagated among his disciples, of whom Roker is one of the best.

The programme for this set incorporates four works by some of the great jazz composers - Tadd Dameron, Tom Mclntosh, Wayne Shorter and Thelonious Monk. Peter, more so than any other jazz guitarist I can think of, has a particular feel for Thelonious’ compositions. On a previous album he presented three Monk tunes. There's only one this time around but it's worth waiting for.

Peter wrote his own commentary on the music and here it is: On A Misty Night is Tadd Dameron's portrait of a damp evening sometime after Labor Day (harmonic structure September In The Rain). This version uses the interlude, out chorus and coda from Dameron's 1961 large band arrangement (on Riverside). Great drumming by Mickey Roker on the out chorus.

No More/Detour Ahead: A medley of two bittersweet ballads which were sung by Billie Holiday. They are not as well known as they should be.

Fifty Up is a simple but tricky blues line. Fifty Up is a brand of Canadian ale. This piece was written for a drummer friend who quite enjoys this particular product. This is also dedicated to the late Pepper Adams who enjoyed this blues as well as the ale.

The Cup Bearers: A harmonically and structurally interesting composition by Tom Mclntosh, a somewhat underrated composer and trombonist who has written for Dizzy Gillespie, Blue Mitchell, James Moody and Art Farmer among others.

Witch Hunt is a Wayne Shorter composition whose modal harmony lends itself well to stretching out in trio format.

Crepescule With Nellie: I have an affinity for Monk's music, perhaps unlike any other guitarist. On this, I use the steel string acoustic guitar to bring out the inherent back-country blues feel that is in much of Monk's music - particularly his solo piano works.

Spring Is Here is a somewhat reharmonized, quasi-bossa version of the Richard Rodgers standard. I have been playing this arrangement for several years, but it was new to me at the time.

Duet: This piece was originally written as a duet for guitar and piano. As you will hear, it works well for bass and guitar. It has a great bass solo by Neil Swainson.

Serenata: A piece of music I remember hearing on the radio on Sunday afternoons from my childhood, although certainly at a slower tempo than we did it here."

Sonny Rollins's Airegin has long been one of my favorites. I really am glad this is being issued on the CD; there just wasn't room for it on the LP.

The above lucid descriptions contain no references to the cogent, controlled and coursing playing of Peter Leitch. Neither does he mention his unswerving commitment to the jazz guitar tradition which comes through strongly in his improvisations. At times, as on Detour Ahead, he achieves the purity of sound and clarity of line that we associate with Jimmy Raney (whose essential works of the 1980s are all to find on Criss Cross Jazz). And if its funky, dug-in bluesology you crave, cop Peter's groovy choruses on Fifty Up.

There are many other savouries in this collection, Peter's acute chordal sense being most apparent on the theme by Mclntosh. But Crepescule With Nellie is really something special - a strikingly different solo treatment of Thelonious’ amble with his lady, but it is foursquare in the Monk mood. The modality of Which Hunt never becomes a bore as Peter's diligent digits fly. I too heard Serenata on radio as a kid, but never imagined that this piece of grist for lightweight dance bands could sound so good as to make the proverbial silk purse.

This album will surely provide many listeners with a greater awareness of the substantial and singular talent of Peter Leitch. You'll find it rewarding to string along with him.”

Mark Gardner (Author: Jam Session) Faversham, February 1987.

Countdown

Scott Wendholt: Moving The Jazz Trumpet Tradition Forward

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

I had no idea who Scott Wendholt was, but when I saw his name listed in the Criss Cross catalogue, I thought I would investigate further.

As some of you may know, Criss Cross is based in The Netherlands and owned by the late Gerry Teekens [1935-2019].

A Jazz aficionado and drummer whom Bret Primack refers to as “one of the music business’ few heroes,” beginning in the 1980s, Gerry came to New York a couple of times a year to record “some of the finest young musicians on the planet.”

The more I looked, the more I liked in terms of Scott’s background and his tastes in music.

Scott is a trumpet player and a graduate of the music program at Indiana University which has produced a number of excellent Jazz musicians, among them, drummer Jeff Hamilton, bassist and composer-arranger John Clayton and tenor saxophonist Ralph Bowen.

When I first encountered Scott, he had made three recordings for Criss Cross: The Scheme of Things [1078], Through the Shadows [1101] and From Now On… Scott Wendholt Quartet/Sextet [1123].

His choice of band mates on these dates included some of my favorite “young” musicians on the New York Jazz scene: alto saxophonists Vincent Herring and Steve Wilson, tenor saxophonists Tim Ries and Don Braden, trombonist Steve Armour, pianists Bruce Barth and Kevin Hayes, and bassists Dwayne Burno, Ira Coleman and Larry Grenadier. Billy Drummond - how’s that for the name of a drummer? - was the one constant on all of these recordings and Billy’s playing just knocks me out.

Scott included tunes from The Great American Songbook on each CD including Love for Sale, You Don’t Know What Love Is, In A Sentimental Mood, I Remember You, and Just In Time.

He also arranged treatments of Jazz Standards such as Miles Davis’ Solar, Freddie Hubbard’s Birdlike, Mal Waldron’s Soul Eyes, and Duke Jordan’s You Know I Care.

Mixed in with a healthy sampling of Scott’s original compositions, these familiar melodies give listeners a chance to set their ears and provides them with a basis of comparison for Scott’s approach to the music.

He plays with authority, has a rich, “legit” tone and constructs solos that are interesting and unique.  There is a lot of Miles Davis in his playing as well as a good sampling of Freddie Hubbard’s style, but he brings these “licks” across by incorporating them into his own approach to improvisation.

The ensemble passages are crisply executed and include a full range of dynamics both of which indicate the Scott and his colleagues know the music and how it should be played.

In his insert notes to The Scheme of Things [Criss Cross 1078], Professor David Baker, who runs the Jazz program at Indiana University, commented:

“This is one of the most exciting CDs I have heard in a long time. These are some serious young players playing great music in a most convincing way. It is obvious that they know the tradition from which they come, but their interpretation and extension of that tradition is what makes this such a strong CD. These are players on the cutting edge, chance-lakers operating at the precipice.

This is one hell of a debut recording for a super young player. He and his cohorts have thrown down the gauntlet. Scott Wendholt!! A name to remember.”

Scott made these comments to Bret Primack during the recording of Through the Shadows [Criss Cross 1101]:

“About to depart, both warmed and awakened by the music and his striking trumpet, I asked Wendholt about future plans. "I want to keep playing modern music," he explained. "I love the Jazz idiom and what's been done, but I want to continue to explore new areas of progressive harmonic creativity. I want to keep pressing forward especially with my writing. I want to keep going, of course not doing fusion music, but writing progressive things, pushing forward. At some point, I also hope to crystallize my own working group that can tour and do records steadily. Personnel always changes but I'd like to get more of my own imprint on the music. Of course I'll always be working as a sideman with other great musicians but ultimately, I'd like to be able to pick and choose my own gigs."

Trombonist Steve Armour appears on From Now On… Scott Wendholt Quartet/Sextet [1123] and he made these observations about Scott in the liner notes to the recording:

“ …, I believe that the closer an artists gets to artistic success—not financial or critical success of their art as a commodity, but success in creating the artistic statement he or she envisions—the more their art will reflect who they are as people. In his life and in his art Scott carries always an athletic grace and confidence, a certain surety of step and of motion. There is a straightforward clarity and honesty reflected in his demeanor, refreshingly free of the back-slapping, toothy-grinned veneer of so many Jazz status-seekers, as well as in his music.”

From any number of perspectives, then, getting more familiar with the music of Scott Wendholt is a gratifying experience.

As a step in that direction, a viewing of the following video will bring you closer to it as on it Scott renders a striking version of Mal Waldron’s Soul Eyes with Vincent Herring on alto saxophone, Kevin Hays on piano, Dwayne Burno on bass and Bill Drummond on drums. The track is from Scott’s The Scheme of Things Criss Cross CD [1078].

George Shearing: An Essay by Dick Katz

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

“The live performances in this collection are unusually interesting, and are in many instances, a true revelation. Far from sounding dated, they have marvelously stood the test of time. Yes, the blander selections sometimes come perilously close to sounding like what is called today, "ele­vator music." But this isn't necessarily a bad thing. After all, in today's world of excess cacophony, it can be down­right therapeutic. But the "heavy stuff is world-class jazz. Shearing's imaginative, idiomatic solos, flawless comping and arrangements sound wonderfully fresh. Also the solo contributions of the other group players are on a consis­tently high level.

Recorded live at various locations around the country, the recorded sound is uniformly excellent, and the spon­taneity generated is refreshingly evident. It is well known that it is much more difficult to capture the "of the moment" feeling in a studio, where fighting the clock, and repeating take after take can be counterproductive, and dampen spirits.”

- Dick Katz [emphasis mine]

The following feature is meant to be an homage to the courage and genius that was George Shearing and to the singular ability of Dick Katz to write about the history of Jazz piano and the particular significance of its principals.

No slouch himself as a Jazz pianist, Dick Katz had the wonderful capacity of bringing to life the musical characteristics of a Jazz pianist’s style … in words!

Dick was an essayist, educator and an erudite man who had a gift for helping you hear things in the music.

Not surprisingly, then, Michael Cuscuna, who heads up Mosaic Records, tapped Dick to prepare the insert notes for Mosaic’s 5 CD boxed set – The Complete Capitol Live George Shearing [MD5-157].

Spanning the period from 1958 to 1963, the Mosaic set includes the Shearing quintet in performance at Claremont College in CA, The Crescendo, a club on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip, the Masonic Temple in San Francisco, CA, the Santa Monica [CA] Civic Auditorium and the venerable Blackhawk which was located at the corner of Turk & Hyde Streets in San Francisco.

In these “live” performances, Shearing departs from his usual method of the vibes and the guitar sharing a chorus while he follows with a chorus and then the group takes the tune out; all of which neatly fitting into a span of three minutes or so.

The origins of this format had to do with the advent of the 33 1/3 rpm LP which allowed for about 20 minutes of recorded music on each side. George’s 3-minute-per-tune formula allowed for six tunes on each side on an LP and greatly enhanced the commercial appeal of his recordings for those who were looking for quantity rather than artistic expression.

Instead, on The Complete Capitol Live George Shearing [MD5-157], George and the members of the quintet stretch-out and it is a joy to hear the likes of guitarists Toots Thielemans, John Gray and Ron Anthony and vibraphonists Emil Richards, Warren Chiasson and Gary Burton, along with George, of course, improvising on multiple choruses.

Throughout his individual track annotations, Dick Katz elaborates on what makes George’s performances on these live dates so refreshing and interesting. The writing is as much a testimony to Dick’s “giant ears” as it is to George’s genius as a Jazz pianist.

Here are some examples of Dick’s discerning perspective:

September in the Rain – “George settles into some spacious, wonderful timeless playing that contains real Jazz ideas.”

Roses of Picardy – “Lovely Shearing piano displays his watch-maker-super-sensitive beautiful touch.”

Little Niles – “Shearing’s ease with triple meter and masterful chorded solo shows what he’s capable of when more than routinely challenged.”

Jordu  - "By Duke Jordan, was very popular in the fifties, and was recorded by many jazz greats. Aside from its nice melody, the circle-of-fifths bridge is a challenge for impro­vising. This version is distinguished by the ensemble which has some typical Bach-like counterpoint by George against the melody.  … Shearing's comping and boppish solo are standouts. He was really into it in those days. Nice arranged coda."

Nearness of You - "The beautiful Hoagy Carmichael ballad is given a trio treatment. After a real Hollywood-concerto-style intro, a la Max Steiner, Shearing settles into a delicate broken-octave statement of the melody which shows off his gorgeous touch. Only one chorus with a tag, played in G flat, a key rarely used by most pianists. Lovely simple melodic variations on the last half of the song. Even your grandmother could appreciate this kind of playing. …”

Mambo Inn -  "is a Latin standard that features Armando Peraza's congas and percussion. This is an effective Latin-jazz marriage that conjures up nights at The Palladium and Afro-Cuban Ballroom in New York where this music reigned not so long ago. Good Emil Richards vibraphone, and Shearing sounds positively like a native Cuban pianist."

In the insert booklet, Dick also provides this overview of George’s career with a special emphasis on how Shearing’s “pluck and luck” helped bring about one of the most remarkable careers in all of Jazz history. In many ways, it parallels that of another unique Jazz pianist – Dave Brubeck.

© -  Dick Katz/Mosaic Records, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“George Shearing's childhood in London was no lullaby of Birdland, or anywhere else. His rise from near-grinding poverty to lucrative musical celebrity is the stuff that rags (not the Scott Joplin variety) to riches movies were made of in the so-called golden age of Hollywood.

His beginnings were humble indeed. Born blind on August 13, 1919, he was the youngest of nine children. His father delivered coal, and his mother, in addition to caring for the children, cleaned railway cars at night.

George's education was colorful to say the least. As he told Whitney Balliett in a New Yorker article in 1987: "It appears that at the age of three I made gallant but improper attempts at producing music. I used to hit the piano with a hammer." This was at the Shillington School in Battersea, southwest London. Between the ages of twelve and sixteen he attended Linden Lodge, a residential school in the lush countryside for blind children. This was mandatory, but it was also a welcome relief from the grime of working class London. It was at Linden Lodge that he learned to play Bach, Liszt and other classical composers, and to study music theory. When he graduated he found work in a pub. Before long he joined Claude Bampton's 17-piece All-Blind Band. It was his first glamorous job, with uniforms from Saville Row, and six grand pianos for the finales! Since all but the leader were in fact blind, the music was transcribed into Braille, which Shearing had learned. This was the young pianist's first substantial contact with live jazz, and the experience of playing Lunceford, Ellington and Benny Carter arrangements left its mark on him. He also began listening to the latest recordings by Tatum, Armstrong and other top artists.

Enter a young aficionado — pianist and fledgling critic Leonard Feather. Upon hearing Shearing at a rhythm club jam session, he undertook to help the young jazz prodigy in every way he could. Feather set up his first recording ses­sion when Shearing was only nineteen and also arranged radio broadcasts for him. By 1939, Shearing was voted the top jazz pianist in England and won that title seven years in a row. By then he had absorbed the styles of all the major jazz pianists and was often billed as "England's Art Tatum" or Teddy Wilson, or as "The Number One Boogie Woogie Pianist." This gift, however, later proved to have a boomerang effect.

Encouraged by earlier support from musicians like Glenn Miller, pianist Mel Powell — even Fats Waller — and sensing he could go no further in England, Shearing went to the states in 1946 to test the jazz waters. Understandably, his expectations were high, but, as he told John S. Wilson in a 1986 New York Times article, "I went to see an agent. I played for him. I played like Teddy Wilson and Art Tatum and Fats Waller. The agent coldly asked, 'what else can you do?'"

Realizing that the originals could be heard in person almost any night, Shearing understood the need to forge an identity that would reach the public. He went home to woodshed and returned to the U.S. a year later.

His first job was at the Onyx Club on 52nd Street play­ing intermission for Sarah Vaughan. His pianistic prowess soon attracted attention, and the musicians' grapevine helped solidify his reputation. In some ways he was an astonishing performer, albeit a polished, eclectic one. However, in an era when identifiable styles were prized, Shearing had yet to establish a clear musical voice of his own.

That voice was not long in coming though. In January 1949, he led a quartet at the Clique Club on Broadway that featured clarinetist Buddy De Franco and emphasized smooth voicings and a subtle rhythmic approach. Drummer-composer Denzil Best, a master of the brushes, figured prominently in the overall group sound. After two weeks, De Franco left for other contractual commitments. Leonard Feather, who had arranged Shearing's immigration into the U.S., came up with the idea that gave the group a unique sound. Keeping drummer Best and bassist John Levy, who later became his manager, Shearing added vibraphonist Marjorie Hyams and guitarist Chuck Wayne. This proved to be an inspired move. By using an octave-unison voicing that simulated the old Glenn Miller sound, the group achieved a blend that was truly unique for a quintet. Shearing had also perfected his "locked hands" block chord technique by this time, and he utilized this chordal approach to fill out the guitar-vibraphone lines. This piano style was originated by Milt Buckner, but Shearing was (and is) harmonically more complete, and he also can move chordally at amazing speed. He never fails to dazzle audi­ences with this device in his solos. Nat King Cole also had great success with the block chord style which he used with extreme sensitivity and swing.

After some break-in gigs at Cafe Society Downtown in New York and The Blue Note in Chicago, the group played The Embers and Birdland in New York, the latter being the jazz mecca of the time. Success was imminent.

And when their MGM recording of SEPTEMBER IN THE RAIN was released in February 1949, the Shearing quintet was catapulted into instant national fame. It was a tremendous hit, and the rest is jazz and commercial music history. Many hits followed, all with essentially the same sound, using the same arranging formula. The arranging duties were originally divided between George and Marjorie Hyams, who, in addition to being a wonderful vibes player, projected a beautiful and gracefully dignified presence. And this was at a time when there were virtually no women on jazz bandstands (Mary Lou Williams and Marian McPartland excepted).

This newly-found identity lasted for twenty-nine years, and as Shearing told John S. Wilson in the aforementioned New York Times article, "The last five years I played on automatic pilot. I could do the whole show in my sleep."

The quintet disbanded in 1978, and since then, Shearing has been working mostly in a duo setting with a top caliber bassist, like Don Thompson or Neil Swainson, both Canadians. He also has expanded his activities to include such diverse projects as Mozart performances with symphony orchestras and collaborations with Mel Torme, Carmen McRae, Jim Hall and other favorites of his. He even did a stint as a disc jockey on WNEW in New York and did some teaching workshops.

Between 1949 and 1978, the quintet underwent many personnel changes, and quite a few major artists got their careers launched as group members. Among them are vibists Gary Burton and Cal Tjader and guitarists Toots Thielemans and Joe Pass. His rhythm sections have included other "bests" besides Denzil. At various times, world class musicians like bassists Al McKibbon, Israel Crosby and drummer Vernel Fournier helped make the music gleam. Crosby and Fournier also figured promi­nently in the success of the Ahmad Jamal Trio.

In 1954 Shearing added conga drummer Armando Peraza. The gradual introduction of Latin rhythms led to the group's often sounding like an authentic Afro-Cuban ensemble. Shearing, in particular, mastered the idiom.

As a composer, Shearing revealed himself to be just as adept and creative as he is as a pianist. lullaby of BIRDLAND turned out to be not only the de rigueur theme song for any artist working at that club, but it became one of the most performed and profitable jazz standards of all time. Shearing also composed complex bebop lines like CONCEPTION, (a favorite of Bud Powell's) and commercial bolero type pieces like BLACK SATIN, the title piece of one of his most popular easy listening albums.

As the quintet became more commercial sounding, the "politically correct" wing of the jazz press became almost dismissive of Shearing's talents. In this regard, he got somewhat of a bad rap. Although he was not the first major jazz artist to come under fire from the purists — even Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington took heat for bowing to the realities of show business — critics in the fifties and sixties were intolerant of the financial vagaries of the jazz life. The more successful an artist became, the more he was accused of selling out.

George Shearing's ability to play and actualize just about anything he can hear has tended to obscure his true creativity. To use a musician's phrase to describe a col­league with a good ear, George can hear paint dry. But even though he can replicate any style in or out of jazz, he is not a walking musical repertory company. Rather, he is like someone who speaks many languages fluently. In his case, swing, bebop, Latin, classical, or anything that strikes his fancy, is effortlessly translated into music either at the keyboard or to manuscript. Of course, his composing is often dictated to a sighted transcriber. That he chose to channel this embarrassment of riches into an ensemble sound is, contrary to some critical opinion, a positive thing. The quintet, on balance, left a recorded legacy that served both the jazz and general public.

1949 was the height of the bebop movement. Except for very young musicians, and a small coterie of open-eared fans, the jagged rhythms, near frenetic virtuosic solos, and hard-to-follow melodic lines were difficult to "groove" to by the majority of casual listeners. Even Dizzy and Bird had their detractors. However, the Shearing quintet made soothing consonant sounds. Even when playing bop lines like CONCEPTION or CONFIRMATION, the cushiony sound of the brushes, the blend of the vibes and guitar and Shearing's non-percussive piano made obtuse and complicated figures very accessible. Much of the success of this group as well as the Nat King Cole Trio, the Red Norvo Trio and the Modern Jazz Quartet had to do with the absence of trum­pets or saxophones, which are harsh sounding to the jazz-lite listener.

Also, Shearing wisely chose many standard songs to play, thereby inviting non-jazz fans in, instead of chasing them away, as the bop originators often unwittingly did. However, the social implications of bebop are a big sub­ject, and they are covered in depth elsewhere.

If George Shearing has one unique musical attribute, it is his piano sound. No one has produced a more beautiful or crystalline sonority from the instrument. This is a sub­jective opinion, of course, because this writer is also a jazz pianist. I think Shearing is one of the most imaginative and sensitive ballad players of our time.

Not the least of his gifts is his harmonic imagination. All jazz pianists are forever searching for different ways to re-harmonize standards. We all have our pet substitute changes. Shearing, however, rivals Tatum, Hank Jones and Bill Evans in that department. Especially interesting is the way he handles inner voicings — his voice leading is impeccable. He has written many folios of his re-harmonizations, which are a wonderful reference for any musician who wants to expand his or her harmonic vocabulary. [emphasis mine]

As far as Shearing's later attempts to reach a truly mass market with strings, etc., they are beyond the scope of this project. The popular easy-listening albums like BLACK SATIN are unfailingly musical, even if they are short on sub­stance. This collection by virtue of focusing on live recordings is, in most cases, very rich in substance. They represent the quintet at its finest.”

Herbie Mann and Jazz Flute

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

“Herbie Mann is a brilliant flutist with a light, skipping attack and an unfailing rhythmic sureness.

Mann occupies a similar position to Charles Lloyd's in recent jazz history. Influential, but cursed by commercial success and an unfashionable choice of instrument, both have been subject to knee-jerk critical put-down. Where Lloyd's flute was his 'double', Mann's concentration slowly evolved a powerful and adaptable technique which gave him access to virtually every mood, from a breathy etherealism, down through a smooth, semi-vocalized tone that sounded remarkably like clarinet (his first instrument), to a tough, metallic ring that ideally suited the funk contexts he explored in the late 1960s.”

- Richard Cook and Brian Morton, The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 6th Ed.

“Herbie Mann was the first Jazz musician to establish his career performing only on flute.”

- Christopher Washburne, Bill Kirchner, Ed. The Oxford Companion to Jazz

Herbie Mann [1930-2003] was my introduction to Jazz flute. It came in the form of an album Herbie did for Mode Records in 1956 entitled Flute Fraternity [Mode #114; reissued on CD as V.S.O.P. #38].

Joining him on the LP was fellow flutist Buddy Collette and a rhythm section comprised on Jimmy Rowles, Buddy Clark and Mel Lewis.

Over the span of his career,  Mann was a prodigiously versatile instrumentalist and one of the most talented of jazz flutists, playing Latin jazz, bop, cool jazz, and jazz-rock with equal brilliance. He has restlessly explored many other popular and ethnic styles, mixing them and changing from one to another as musical fashion and his own developing interests dictate.

Leroy Ostransky offers this synopsis of Herbie’s career in Barry Kernsfeld, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz [New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995]:

“Mann, Herbie [Solomon, Herbert Jay] (b New York, 16 April 1930). Flutist. He studied clarinet from the age of nine and later took up the flute and saxophone. He gained experience of playing during his three years' army service in Trieste, Italy, and after returning to the USA played and recorded with Mat Mathews (1953-4) and Pete Rugolo (1954). He toured France and Scandinavia in 1956, and in 1960 led a group which, under the sponsorship of the US State Department, visited 15 African countries; he became familiar with the bossa nova style on two tours of Brazil (1961—3) and in 1964 toured Japan. He then established a big band in which he played tenor saxophone and which was enthusiastically received when it appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1965. Over the next few years he used elements of ethnic music and blues in his compositions.

In 1969 Mann became a record producer for Embryo, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records. An astute sense of musical trends led him to begin playing rock music in 1971 and by 1973 he had formed his own group, Family of Mann, which incorporated sounds from many kinds of music, including Japanese court music, into its performances. In England in 1974 he experimented with rock once more and also played reggae; his disco recording Hi-jack was a hit in the USA in 1975, but after this success he immediately reverted to the style in which he had played in the early 1960s. Atlantic terminated his contract in 1979 and Mann started his own recording company, Herbie Mann Music, in 1981.”

Mann continued to lead his own groups that played a variety of musical styles including bossa-nova, reggae and Jazz fusion until his death in 2003 while occasionally celebrating his straight-ahead as was the case with a week-long residency at New York’s Blue Note Jazz club in honor of his 65th birthday.

Joe Quinn provided the following liner notes to Flute Fraternity [Mode #114; reissued on CD as V.S.O.P. #38].

“One of the happy by-products of the contemporary jazz scene has been the corporate union of identical instruments into small jazz groups. These ventures are the result of the musicians' experimental nature, and they have had wide popular acceptance as well as giving the performers an opportunity to realize fully the possibilities of their instruments. Jazz fans of varying intensity are thoroughly intrigued by the combination of two or more established jazz stars collaborating within the same framework.

The number of these sessions which have taken place after working hours is incalculable. The origin of such unions might be difficult to trace, but the impact on musician and listener alike is invariably one of stimulation and excitement. This MODE LP, featuring flutists Herbie Mann and Buddy Collette, adds still another chapter to the colorful history of fraternal instrumentation.

These two young men rank with half-a-dozen talented reed players who have lifted the flute from the confines of the classical orchestra to a place in the jazz spectrum. Independently, each man has advanced the stature of the instrument to a point where they have done LPs for various labels with everything from a trio to a full string orchestra. Musically, their lives are dedicated to enlarging the scope of the flute family because they believe that its piercing tone and subtle blending are deserving of full membership in the society of jazz instruments.

Herbie Mann has had a variety of jobs in the music business, relying on his clarinet tenor talents in the reed sections of various dance bands to sustain him during his break-in period. Once his reputation as a jazz flutist began to take shape, he formed his own group and has worked most of the major jazz clubs in America. In the late summer of 1956 he journeyed to Europe as a single and was an immediate success on the jazz-starved continent. His talents, as this LP will show, also extend to writing and arranging,

Buddy Collette is one of the most thoroughly schooled musicians to step into the jazz picture in the past decade. Although he came to national prominence as a member of the Chico Hamilton quintet, Buddy has had the respect of the music trade since his introduction. In addition to his brilliant flute work, Buddy is also proficient on clarinet and the tenor and alto saxophones. Twenty five of his original compositions have been recorded by major jazz stars, and his arrangements— two of which are heard here—have been among the most musically rewarding charts heard anywhere. At this writing, Buddy is fronting his own quartet, and is contemplating a national tour, possibly in union with Herbie Mann.

To support their collective instrumentation, Herbie and Buddy relied on the rhythm talents of three superior musicians who have attracted the approbation of jazz lovers everywhere. Pianist Jimmy Rowles has built a sterling reputation as a modernist with taste and touch adaptable to a variety of moods. Bassist Buddy Clark and drummer Mel Lewis make up 25 per cent of the Dave Pell Octet and contribute in their playing, the rapport that is born of frequent collaboration.”

My favorite track on Flute Fraternity is drummer Chico Hamilton’s bright composition Morning After which was arranged by Buddy Collette for the date and features his clarinet and Herbie's flute. The use of piano to underscore the voicing is in keeping with its classical lines.