Both the preparations for this festive time of the year and the song with that title which the late pianist Vince Guaraldi wrote in celebration of it are once again ubiquitous.
Department stores, car radios, television commercials - one can’t go anywhere without hearing some or all of the twelve [12] tracks for the CBS television special “A Charlie Brown Christmas” that pianist Vince Guaraldi laid down on October 26, 1964 at Glendale, CA Whitney Studios with his reunited “classic trio” of Monty Budwig, bass [whom he’d worked with during a stint with Woody Herman’s band in the mid-1950’s] and drummer Colin Bailey.
The full details of how Vince’s role in the television special came about and what went into the development of his score for it can be found in Darren Bang’s masterful biography - Vince Guaraldi at the Piano.
Another perspective on the artistic value of what Vince achieved from the music he wrote for the television program can be gleaned from the following excerpts from the liner notes that respective Jazz columnist RJG wrote for the original Fantasy LP - A Charlie Brown Christmas: Vince Guaraldi Trio.
For those of you who may not be familiar with Ralph and his accomplishments, Ralph along with San Francisco Jazz radio DJ Jimmy Lyons, was the co-founder of the Monterey Jazz Festival which began in 1958.
A long-time Jazz columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle Ralph also covered Rock ‘n Roll for the paper when the “San Francisco Sound” first appeared in the 1960’s. He was the founding editor of Rolling Stone Magazine and authored books on both Jazz and Rock. His work was honored with three Deems Taylor Awards for excellence in music journalism, two Grammy nominations for liner notes and two Emmy nominations for his documentaries on Duke Ellington. He died in 1975. He was only 59-years old at the time of his death.
The note Jazz author and critic Ira Gitler said of Ralph: “... he was both avuncular and avant-garde. He was the younger brother of one of your parents who talked to you about things that they didn't, took you places they wouldn't, and brought you presents other than socks or underwear. I didn't have an uncle like that.”
RALPH J. GLEASON - “The hardest task an artist faces is not just to achieve self-expression; that almost comes by definition even if it's difficult to hone that self-expression into something good enough to be art.
It is another kind of thing altogether (and it strikes me as more difficult) to look at, hear, feel and experience somebody else's artistic expression and then make something of your own which shows empathy, which relates to the other but which still has your own individual artistic stamp.
This is what, is seems to me, Vince Guaraldi achieved with his scores for Charlie Brown. He took his inspiration from the creations of Charles Schultz and made music that reflects that inspiration, is empathetic with the image and is still solidly and unmistakably Vince Guaraldi.
It was natural for him to do this — he's been reading Peanuts for years, as who hasn't? — but he brought some very special talent along to the process.
Vince has big ears, a wide range of feeling and a poetically lyrical manner of playing and of writing jazz music. Off stage he's flip and funny, salty and serious and sometimes stubborn. At the piano, he's all music, all lyricism and all jazz.
In the Educational Television three-part film, "Anatomy of a Hit," Vince was shown as a sensitive introspective little man whose dreams became music. This is true. Ever since he was a student at San Francisco State College he has dreamed music and music has been his dream. In the years of apprenticeship he spent with Cal Tjader and Woody expressed only in their own playing. With Vince, the personal sound, the personal voice and the individual musical personality is expressed not only in his playing but in his composing as well.
All the characters in Peanuts are artists confronted with the illogical, blind and mechanistic world. It was natural that Vince Guaraldi's music should fit so well.
Incidentally, “The Hit” that’s referenced in the title of the 3-part film refers to Vince’s 1962 recording of Cast Your Fate to the Wind from the movie Black Orpheus. Vince was awarded a Grammy for this recording in 1963
It was this tune the producer Lee Mendelson heard on his car radio one day while crossing the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, CA that prompted him to hire Vince to write the music for the TV Special - A Charlie Brown Christmas. The hiring would begin a long collaboration between Guaraldi and Mendelson that would see Guaraldi compose for numerous Peanuts television specials until his death in 1976.
On the off-handed chance that you haven’t heard the Guaraldi-Peanuts-Christmas music in a while, you can listen to the entire album on YouTube via this link [and skip the commercials rather quickly].
“The nice thing about this record is the choice of material. Davis on alto along with Nicholas Payton on trumpet, Robert Trowers on trombone ably supported by a rhythm section of Dado Moroni on piano, Peter Washington on bass and Lewis Nash on drums all contribute to a record that sounds confident, unfussy and … completely individual. This is how contemporary Jazz is supposed to sound: balance, wry and aware.” [Richard Cook and Brian Morton, The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 6th Ed.]
As Gary Giddins so succinctly put it - “Davis is a commanding presence out of Parker and Adderley.”
And that’s exactly why I like Jesse’s playing in general and in particular on High Standards [Concord Jazz CD 4624].
Ken Franckling offers these interesting perspective on Jesse and performing Jazz in a group context in the 1990s when this recording was made [1994] at the conclusion of which you’ll find a video montage made up of CD cover art and photographs as set to Isms, one of Jesse original compositions featured on the recording.
“Given the economics of jazz in the 1990s, it is difficult for any musician today to hold together a full-time working band. And if you are a young player, that prospect is near-impossible regardless of your name or abilities.
Jazz for the most part has become a freelance performance world. Lineups shift from city to city as players grab whatever opportunities come their way. While that may expose individual players to many varied musical situations over the course of a year, Jesse Davis finds it unsettling.
"The band mentality doesn't seem to be around anymore," laments Davis, one of the most promising journeyman alto saxophonists on the scene today. "The purpose for having a band is to bring together players who could grow together as musicians and grow to a point where they could achieve a distinctive sound."
The concept worked well for many bands in the 1950s and '60s and a lot longer for some, including Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. It still works for the Modern Jazz Quartet and outfits led by high-profile leaders like Dave Brubeck, Phil Woods and Jackie McLean — but even they don't perform as regularly as they used to.
Suffice it to say, Jesse Davis doesn't have a working band of his own despite being blessed with the talents and temperament to lead one. For this recording, his fourth as a leader on Concord Jazz since 1991, Davis did the next best thing.
He brought together the five people he'd like to have in a permanent Jesse Davis band: fellow New Orleans native Nicholas Payton — a stunning young voice on trumpet — Basie Band veteran Bob Trowers on trombone, pianist Dado Moroni — with whom Davis often works in Europe — and two of the best and busiest young rhythm aces in jazz, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash.
Much like Davis, each is a gifted player and knows how to make music that swings mightily. All of them have crossed musical paths frequently in various performance settings. As a result, this recording has the feel of a true working band from start to finish.
Jesse's alto sound is bittersweet yet leans more toward the joyful side of expression. At times, I can hear traces of Jackie McLean and Phil Woods in his playing. But mostly I hear Jesse Davis, a young man whose purposeful sound is always ready to explode with musical passion.
His credentials speak volumes about his talent: Studies with Ellis Marsalis at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts; a raft of outstanding musicianship awards during and after college; tours with George Wein's Newport All-Stars, the Philip Morris All-Stars and Clark Terry; guest opportunities with Wynton Marsalis at Lincoln Center in New York; and collaborations with pianist Walter Bishop, Jr.
For this recording, Jesse wanted to put a fresh imprint on the traditional values of jazz. The most natural starting point was standards from the American Songbook and jazz repertoire and a handful of spirited originals. …”
“Vito Price isn't famous. He isn't the world's finest saxophonist. He isn't suffering from the pangs of public disapproval. He isn't a newly-discovered figure out of the past.
To state it simply, he is a musician satisfied to play the way he wants to play. He's not attempting to set precedents or unify forms or set inspirational harmonic patterns. When I asked him about this LP, his first as a leader, he said, "I'm thrilled that I finally got the chance to record. I felt ready. This is my idea of happy, swinging music."
- Don Gold, Managing Editor, Down Beat Magazine
Youth provides a different view of the world.
On the one hand, this view is broad and all-encompassing brought on by a wide-eyed fascination with the world and everything in it. It all seems so fresh and exciting.
On the other hand, it’s limited because there is little judgment based on experience or the ability to discern based on acquired knowledge.
As a case in point, the first time I heard the music on tenor saxophonist Vito Price’s 1958 Swinging the Loop [Argo LP 631] album, it really thrilled me. I thought it swung like mad and I just couldn’t get enough of it. I played it all the time.
Although I came to own the LP as a gift from a family friend, a DJ who was always passing on “Demo” copies that he couldn’t play on his AM radio show which featured more popular music, I had no idea who Vito Price was.
Frankly, neither did any of the other musicians in my circle of friends at the time. Mention the name “Vito Price” and it was sure to be greeted with a number of blank stares.
And yet, for a while, I knew more about the tenor sax playing of Vito than I did that of Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young; chronologically, knowledge of the music of these “Giants” of the tenor was to come later after my view of the Jazz world had become a bit more sophisticated and informed.
Swinging the Loop is made up of 5 tracks that were recorded with a 9-piece group with Vito out front on tenor and 5 cuts using a combo: each set of 5 tunes comprised Side One and Side Two of the LP, respectively.
For some reason, I only played the side featuring the quintet made up of Vito along with Freddie Green on guitar, Lou Levy on piano, Max Bennett on bass and Gus Johnson on drums. Too lazy to get up from my practice pads [used in lieu of actual drums to keep the neighbors from rushing the front door] and turn the record over on the changer?
As its title would imply, the album was recorded in Chicago, which was to later become an oft-visited city for me due to business and professional activities. One of the great things about most Jazz LPs from the 1950s was that they included informative liner notes. The honors for Vito’s album go to Don Gold who, at the time, was the Managing Editor of Down Beat Magazine.
So that you, too, might become more familiar with Vito Price and the music on this album in the same manner as I did, the editorial staff at JazzProfiles has reprinted Don’s insert notes below.
It also asked the crackerjack graphics team at CerraJazz LTD to develop the video at the conclusion of this feature using the Beautiful Love quintet track from the LP.
Ironically, after playing the album on an almost daily basis after it was first issued, I had all but forgotten about it until one day, when a Jazz buddy picked me up for a luncheon get-together with mutual friends and the music from it was playing on his car CD changer!
Much to my delight and surprise, Jordi Pujol had reissued Swinging the Loop on his Fresh Sound label [FSR CD #110].
I couldn’t believe my ears: after 50 years, it seemed that there were now three people familiar with the music of Vito Price!
They behave erratically much of the time, searching for the attractive approach to the specific subject involved. This endless search, proceeding from one LP to the next, is characterized by constant anguish and inevitable frustration.
This situation is not at all unusual. After all, LPs are cranked out today with the machine-like rapidity so characteristic of our production line age.
What, then, does the liner note author do? Obviously, he searches for new adjectives, new ways of interpreting music and its performers, new gags to enchant the record buyers. There are a variety of ways to accomplish these ends.
The writer with a substantial background in jazz can, for example, say that he has "discovered" the talent presented on the LP. He can, in essence, tell his own life story.
Another approach calls for writing an extensive treatise on a subject not necessarily related to the LP. This takes the form of discussing elementary geometry or the sartorial brilliance of Adolph Menjou.
Another writer might compare the featured performer on the LP with another performer who plays the same instrument. This allows the liner note creator to state his own preferences rather discreetly. If he is not fond of the performer on the LP for which he is writing the notes, he can simply discuss another performer. This is a mild form of escapism, a kind of facing the monetary benefit without facing any of its accompanying annoyances.
The liner note writer, then, is a kind of displaced person, unable to write at great length and equally unable to freely state his views with regularity.
In this case, I'm not faced with any of these problems.
Vito Price isn't famous. He isn't the world's finest saxophonist. He isn't suffering from the pangs of public disapproval. He isn't a newly-discovered figure out of the past.
To state it simply, he is a musician satisfied to play the way he wants to play. He's not attempting to set precedents or unify forms or set inspirational harmonic patterns. When I asked him about this LP, his first as a leader, he said, "I'm thrilled that I finally got the chance to record. I felt ready. This is my idea of happy, swinging music."
In other words, Price is hoping that the taste of some record buyers will coincide with his own. This kind of uncluttered approach is rather rare these days.
For the amateur musicologists, here are some basic facts on Price.
He's 28, New York-born, and has been playing the tenor and alto saxes since he was 14. During his high school days he worked with jazz groups in the New York area. After high school, he served an apprenticeship on the road, with the bands of Bob Chester, Art Mooney, Tony Pastor, and with Chubby Jackson's small group.
In 1951 he entered the marines and spent two years serving in a marine band. He enrolled at the Manhattan school of music in 1953 and stayed on for two years, supplementing his studies with work as leader of his own group and as a member of Jerry Wald's band.
In the summer of 1955 he came to Chicago. In February, 1956 he joined the staff orchestra at station WGN and has been a member of the orchestra there ever since.
He participated in both Chubby Jackson sessions for Argo in recent months.
When I solicited his thoughts on this LP, he stated them readily.
"I had wanted to record so badly," he said. "I guess I never had been at the right place at the right time. This is my first opportunity. And I was given a clear road to do just what I wanted to do.
"I'm not a far out musician. I'm not trying to blaze new paths. These sides are pure, clean, and honest. I just tried to swing. I play because I like to play. I dig it," he concluded.
It is natural that a WGN staff man would look to his compatriots at the station for assistance on his first LP as a leader. Price did just that. Except for the rhythm sections utilized, all the members of the band on this LP work with Price at WGN.
They're used to playing together, as Price noted to me. All the big band charts for this date were prepared by Bill McRea, another WGN staff man, making the existing compatibility that much greater.
Joining the WGN corps are Remo Biondi, a fine Chicago guitarist; Marty Clausen, the excellent drummer with the Dan Belloc band, both present on the big band tracks. When Price was ready to cut this LP, he discovered that Ella Fitzgerald was working in Chicago. Astute enough to know a good rhythm section when he heard one, he persuaded Lou Levy, piano; Max Bennett, bass, and Gus Johnson, drums, to make the session. Johnson, due to illness, was able to participate in just the small group (Price-with-rhythm section) tracks, but the Levy-Bennett combination appears on all the tracks in this LP. Finally, the incomparable Freddie Green, guitarist and pivot man of the Count Basic band, joined in to make the small group tracks that much more of a delight.
Essentially, this is Price's LP. On the five big band tracks he is the major soloist, with Levy the only other soloist. The same holds true for the five small group tracks. In addition to being featured on tenor (and alto on In A Mellow Tone), Price contributed three originals — Swinging the Loop, Duddy, Eye Strain (dedicated to Price's wife, who, in knitting a sweater for him, discovered that she needed glasses).
This, then, is a set highlighted by the warm-toned horn of Vito Price. It features Price in big band and small group settings, on ballads and blues, up-tempo and medium tempo approaches.
If you've purchased this LP, the Argo Records management will be pleased. If you've read this far, I'll be pleased. But if you enjoy this LP, Vito Price would like to know. Drop him a card it his home—561 Arlington Place, Chicago 14, ILL. After all, a little encouragement can't do any harm.”
Another quality that Gene Harris garnered from his role models was an ethos of professionalism, of performance consistency … [Pianist Benny] Green himself observed this about 25 years ago during his first sustained road-time with Harris on a One Hundred Golden Fingers tour in Japan.
"We were doing one-night concerts, and we'd only get to play for maybe 12 minutes each night; barely get a chance to touch the piano or warm up during the day" Green recalls. "My God, every night Gene Harris would play a different piece with the trio, and to say that he rocked the house is an understatement. It was a sermon. Whether he was playing a ballad or a groover, his spirit never, ever let up. I don't know how the man did it. His performance ethic was like nothing else I've ever seen.
"It's essential for a master to know their own limitations and his strengths and I don't think we have any recorded examples of Gene attempting to do something that he could not do well. The music he chose to play, the tempos, the keys and just the feeling that he instilled in his performances, was a homerun every time. He went deep-deep-deep into what he could do well, which was a whole lot. He's known, rightfully, as a blues master, but his ballad playing would give you goosebumps, cause you to tear up.
He understood on a very profound level that music is an emotional transference. It's some kind of spiritual channeling. I think at all times, with the Three Sounds and in later years, he had no inner conflict, intellectually speaking, that led him to subdue elements of the Black Baptist Church experience, where he came from, in favor of more esoteric jazz elements.
There's an art to creating that balance with taste. He knew what he was, what he had to offer, and that's what he gave us. So at the end of the day, when we think of Gene, we're not talking about how fast he could play or how much of an innovator he was, but we all have to say, 'Hallelujah, what a spirit. His music makes me feel like nothing else.' That's no small feat."
- Pianist Benny Green as told to Ted Panken, excerpted from the insert notes to “Groovin’ Hard: Live at The Penthouse 1964-68.
As the decade of the 1950’s drew to a close, Blue Note Records executives Alfred Lion and Frank Wolff went on recording and releasing. Blue Note recorded sixty-eight sessions during 1958-9, not all of them producing results which Lion deemed worthy of release, but still setting an extraordinarily high standard for the label. There were several new names to add to the leadership roster: saxophonists Tina Brooks and Jackie McLean, trombonist Bennie Green, trumpeters Dizzy Reece and Donald Byrd, and pianists Walter Davis and Duke Pearson. But the most important additions to the ranks were two groups.
One was Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers which had originally recorded on the label in 1955 and which returned to Blue Note after stints with Columbia, RCA, Bethlehem, and Atlantic
The other was the Three Sounds.
As explained in Richard Cook’s Biography of Blue Note Records: “The piano trio was becoming one of the most popular of jazz units. Small enough to offer the kind of closely focused sound which wouldn't deter listeners who didn't want to try too hard with their jazz, it was still able to carry all the sophistications which a more committed follower expected. At least two figures outside the hard-bop arena - Oscar Peterson and Erroll Garner - had won huge audiences with the format, often made up of people who rarely listened to any other kind of jazz (which is why Garner's Concert By the Sea album can still be found in old LP accumulations as a lone example of a jazz album). But besides Garner and Peterson, many younger pianists were following the format to considerable success, and soon every jazz label had at least one such trio on its books, playing what was often a kind of hip cocktail music: Red Garland at Prestige, Ahmad Jamal at Argo, Bill Evans at Riverside (though Evans was perhaps more self-consciously 'artistic', he probably appealed to much the same people who bought the other records).
Blue Note hadn't gone too far in that direction, but when he heard the trio from Washington DC called the Three Sounds, Lion went after that market in a serious way. The group had made a single set for Riverside with Nat Adderley, and when they arrived in New York, Lion signed them and cut some initial sessions on 16 and 28 September 1958, eventually released as Introducing The Three Sounds (BLP 1600). The trio was Gene Harris (piano), Andrew Simpkins (bass) and Bill Dowdy (drums), and that is the group which eventually cut sixteen albums for Blue Note over a ten-year period (only later on were Dowdy and then Simpkins replaced).
Although they had originally featured a saxophonist, it was when Harris took centre stage and began making the most benign and good-hearted improvisations on popular material that the Sounds began to click. Light, bluesy, discreetly swinging - Dowdy was a drummer who believed in gentle persuasion, not bullying or bravado - their music was almost a definition of jazz formula. Harris would state the melody, maybe out of tempo, maybe with his partners there; then take a chorus or two where he gradually built the genteel intensity and fashioned a modest improvisation, probably with some locked-hands touches along the way; then a return to the tune, with a tag at the close. The steady mid-tempo lope was the normal setting, but ballads -where Harris would really arpeggiate the melody line - might follow a funereal beat and double the duration.
As a result, all their records were the same. If you liked one of them, you'd like any one of them, and in one of those curious situations where the law of diminishing returns doesn't seem to apply, the Three Sounds sold consistently well over their Blue Note life. It didn't hurt that Lion released more than twenty singles off the various albums. As smart background music, the Three Sounds were as fine as anybody could wish.
Long after the trio ended, Harris continued as an old-school jazz entertainer, having spent most of his adult life pleasing crowds of one sort or another. The Scottish guitarist Jim Mullen, who toured with him in later years, recalled how it worked:
“Gene used to say that these people have come out to see us, and it's our job to give them a fantastic time. He used to say at the end of the evening, 'If you leave here with a smile on your face, remember that Gene Harris put it there.' I've never seen anyone turn a room of strangers into family that way. We never rehearsed. He'd do this big rubato solo piano introduction with no clue as to what's coming up. Then he'd just start playing and you had to be ready to jump in there. That's how he wanted it.””
The Three Sounds disbanded in 1973. Bassist Andy Simpkins died in 1999 and Gene Harris died a year later in 2000. Bill Dowdy is still with us aged 83.
But thanks to the ever resourceful George Klabin and Zev Feldman and their team at Resonance Records, the story of The Three Sounds lives on with the scheduled release on January 13, 2017 of deluxe CD and digital editions of a never-before-issued album by the group entitled “Groovin’ Hard: Live at The Penthouse 1964-68.
Included with be a 20-page insert booklet with rare photos of the group and essays by producers Klabin and Feldman, Seattle radio personality, Jim Wilke and noted Jazz journalist, Ted Panken.
Antje Hübner of Hubtone PR is handling the public relations for the project and she sent along the following media release about the forthcoming recording.
Los Angeles, December 2, 2016 - Resonance Records is proud to announce the release of Groovin’ Hard: Live at the Penthouse 1964 - 1968, a soulful collection of never-before-heard live recordings made over the course of five years during four separate engagements by the legendary Three Sounds featuring Gene Harris at Seattle's long-time local treasure, Charles Puzzo, Sr.'s now late, lamented jazz club, the Penthouse. This album stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the best titles in the Three Sounds' illustrious and extensive recorded catalog.
The Three Sounds, led by pianist Gene Harris, was one of the preeminent "soul jazz" piano trios from the mid-'50s through the 1960s. In its heyday, the Three Sounds was one of the top-selling jazz acts in the world with a string of hit records on Blue Note Records between 1958 and 1962; indeed, during that period, no other Blue Note act sold as many records as the Three Sounds. After they left Blue Note, the Three Sounds also made a number of acclaimed, top-selling albums for Verve, Mercury, Limelight and other labels.
In addition to the Three Sounds' own immensely successful albums recorded over the course of their 15 years together, Harris and his mates also collaborated on recordings with many of the foremost figures in jazz of the era such as Lester Young, Sonny Stitt, Stanley Turrentine, Johnny Griffin, Anita O'Day, Lou Donaldson and others. The Three Sounds' collective recorded catalogue occupies an important place in the history of recorded jazz.
As a jazz pianist, Gene Harris was not only popular with fans, he was an important influence on a generation of pianists who followed him, such as Monty Alexander, Benny Green and many others. He had monumental technique, but that technique was always put in the service of deep feeling and groove. Monty Alexander notes, "His touch on the piano was crystal clear, immediately bringing up the feeling of blues as well as that cross between church and blues. He was greasy! He brought up soulful emotions." Harris's ever-present groove explains why the Three Sounds have remained relevant into the hip-hop era; a sample of their "Put On Train" was prominently featured in the Beastie Boys song, "What Comes Around" from their album, Paul's Boutique.
Resonance Records' own connection with the Three Sounds goes back to founder George Klabin's childhood. Klabin recounts, "When I was 13 years old I fell in love with modern jazz. One of the very first jazz groups I discovered was the Three Sounds featuring pianist Gene Harris. I purchased many of their records and listened to them over and over, to the point where I could play them in my head. The Three Sounds were my introduction to bluesy, funky style jazz and I have cherished them and collected their recordings ever since."
So it should come as no surprise that Resonance's first forays into discovering and releasing archival recordings were two Gene Harris albums, live recordings made in London after Harris resumed his music career after a short-lived retirement: Live in London (issued in 2001) and Another Night in London (issued in 2006). Those two albums came to be after Gene Harris's widow, Janie, knowing how much George Klabin loved the Three Sounds, sent copies of the tapes to Klabin.
Shortly after the release of Live in London, producers Zev Feldman and George Klabin began exploring in earnest the idea of going deeper into the pursuit of searching out and releasing previously unheard archival material by top jazz artists. Feldman says "It's been so exciting working on these projects with George over the years, and he's certainly made me an even bigger Gene Harris fan than I already was! What's interesting is that this was actually one of the very first projects we talked about when we started on the journey of releasing archival material, and it's taken all these years to bring it to fruition, which is very fulfilling."
In the course of this project Klabin met and befriended Jim Wilke, the Seattle-based jazz radio personality, producer and engineer. Wilke had amassed a large library of tapes by top jazz artists in live performance at the Penthouse during the 60s, recorded during live broadcasts of his KING-FM radio show, Jazz From The Penthouse. Fifty years later Wilke is still active in jazz radio and live recording on location, and estimates he's recorded and produced well over a thousand recordings at clubs, concerts and festivals. When Klabin learned of the existence of this extraordinary Penthouse library, given his affinity for the Three Sounds, his attention was immediately drawn to the several recordings of the group preserved for posterity by Wilke. Klabin determined that the first title Resonance would release from this archive would be this album Groovin' Hard: Live at the Penthouse 1964 - 1968.
The material on this album — hand-picked by George Klabin — is made up of jazz standards: ("Bluesette," "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" and "Yours Is My Heart Alone"); soulful treatments of popular tunes of the day ("The Shadow of Your Smile," "Girl Talk" and the theme from "Caesar and Cleopatra"); and the soulful originals, "Blue Genes"; "Rat Down Front" and "The Boogaloo." The repertoire is rounded out by Ray Brown's rousing jazz waltz, "A.M. Blues." Four of the compositions in the album's repertoire have never been released on any other Three Sounds' album: "The Shadow of Your Smile," "Rat Down Front," "Bluesette" and "The Boogaloo."
"Gene Harris was a guy that brought such feeling and emotion to the piano," Feldman says. "He had a groove, and he played for the people. It's really hard not to enjoy what he's doing. There's something very special about him and these recordings illustrate an important part of his legacy."
Resonance is proud to be able to bring this remarkable previously unknown recording to the public. We are particularly pleased to have been able to do so with friendship and support of the Puzzo family and Jim Wilke.
Once again, consistent with its mission to honor the traditions of great American music, Resonance Records has pulled out all the stops in creating this release. The deluxe CD package includes a 20-page book, presented in a beautifully designed digipak by Burton Yount, with rare photos by Francis Wolff, Ray Avery and Howard Lucraft, as well as essays by Resonance producers Zev Feldman and George Klabin, jazz radio personality and recording engineer Jim Wilke, who originally recorded all of the material on the album, and noted author and jazz journalist, Ted Panken, who interviewed pianists Monty Alexander and Benny Green for his essay. The limited-edition, hand-numbered LP pressing on 180-gram black vinyl was released on Record Store Day's Black Friday event on November 25, 2016 and was mastered by the legendary Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering and pressed at Record Technology, Inc. (RTI).
Resonance Records — a multi-GRAMMY® Award-winning label (most recently for John Coltrane's Offering: Live at Temple University tor "Best Album Notes") — prides itself in creating beautifully designed, informative packaging to accompany previously unreleased recordings by the jazz icons who grace Resonance's catalog. Such is the case with The Three Sounds Featuring Gene Harris/Groovin' Hard: Live at the Penthouse 1964 - 1968.
ABOUT THE LABEL - Resonance Records continues to bring archival recordings to light. Headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA, Resonance Records is a division of Rising Jazz Stars, Inc. a California 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation created to discover the next jazz stars and advance the cause of jazz. Current Resonance Artists include Richard Galliano, Polly Gibbons, Tamir Hendelman, Christian Howes and Donald Vega. www.ResonanceRecords.org
The following video features The Three Sounds on the Blue Genes track from the forthcoming CD that was issued on a Resonance Records sampler entitled Jazz Haunts and Magic Vaults.
