Joe Gordon and Confreres

On the 4.11.17 edition of the DuPlex Mystery Jazz Hour, WZBC, guest Dick Vacca and I took a look at the work and life of trumpeter Joe Gordon. We seeded the program with the work of some of his influences, as you will see by the discography.

LISTEN HERE

DISCOGRAPHY

Charlie Parker "Scrapple from the Apple" from "Boston 1952" on Uptown

Joe Gordon "Lady Bob" from "Joe Gordon: Early Sessions" 1954 on Fresh Sounds

Fats Navarro "Barry's Bop" from "Vol. 2 Nostalgia" 1947 on BYG

Joe Gordon & Scott LaFaro "Evening Lights" from "Joe Gordon Early Sessions" 1954 on Fresh Sounds

Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie "Trumpet Blues" from "Roy and Diz" 1954 on Verve

Horace Silver "Shoutin Out" from "Silver's Blue" 1956 on Cbs

Dizzy Gillespie Big Band "A Night in Tunisia" from "Birks Works" 1956 on Verve

Clifford Brown "Stockholm Sweetnin" from "Metronome and Vogue Masters" 1953 on Definitive

Herb Pomeroy Big Band "Feather Merchant" from "Life is a Many Splendored Gig" 1957 on Fresh Sounds

Herb Pomeroy Big Band "Less Talk" from "Life is a Many Splendored Gig" 1957 on Fresh Sounds

Lambert Hendricks and Ross "Centerpiece" from "Hottest New Group in Jazz" 1960 on Columbia

Shelly Manne and His Men "Nightingale" from "Live At the Black Hawk" 1959) on ‪Contemporary‬

Thelonius Monk "Four In One" from "T. Monk at the Black Hawk"1960 on Ojc

Kenny Dorham "The Prophet" from "Live at the Cafe Bohemia Vol2" 1956 on Blue Note

Harold Land "Don't Explain" from "West Coast Blues" 1956 on OJCCD

Joe Gordon "Non-Vienese Waltz Blues" from "Lookin' Good!" 1961 on ‪Contemporary‬

Blue Mitchell "I'll Close My Eyes"  from Blues Moods, 1960 on Riverside

Joe Gordon "Mariana" from "Lookin' Good!" 1961 on ‪Contemporary‬

Jimmy Woods "Anticipation" from "The Awakening" 1961 on ‪Contemporary‬

Mute-a-bility (Pt.3) by Steve Provizer

Mute regrets, I've had a few. Like, Why did the great Roy Eldridge start using a harmon mute?

Roy's tone was a pile-driver; epic, a mover of mountains. It vibrated at the highest energies. Just listen to what I think is the ripest performance in the history of swing:

Fats Navarro-An Appreciation-w. a New Track.

Today's the birthday of Fats Navarro, jazz trumpet hero (1923-1950).

A quick timeline has him growing up in Florida; after high school, hooking in to Snookum Russell's territory band in Indianapolis, joining Andy Kirk in Kansas City and ending up in NYC.

I think that's Fats in the middle of Snookum's tpt. section

Roy Eldridge was father to the 1940's generation of trumpet players and Dizzy Gillespie moved it to bop. Like Diz and Roy, Fats, along with Howard McGhee, was able to play with piercing power in the upper register and also seriously address the (chord) changes. Fats and Maggy were foundational for the next generation, as was Freddie Webster (a less brilliant lead player). Throughout the 40's, apart from small group playing, Fats continued to play lead with the best big bands-Earl Hines, Billy Eckstein, Illinois Jacquet, Lionel Hampton.

With no early recordings, we don't know how Fats sounded as a teenager, but we know he learned Dud Bascomb solos from the Erskine Hawkins' band. That's essentially simplified Eldridge territory. Fats' first recorded solo was on "Shorty Boo," with Andy Kirk, which I can't find online. Please post it if you got it.

Here he is in 1945, with Eckstine, on the ballad "Long, Long Journey." solo at the end.


It wasn't long before he was doing sessions with smaller groups and really digging into the changes. Here he is in a Tadd Dameron sextet: in 1947:

 

Here's another Dameron group, a year later, with a very unusual tune:

 

And 1949, with the Metronome All-Stars (the trumpet "chase" is between Fats and Dizzy, despite what the graphics of the video say about Miles).


We'll close with probably the last recording extant of Fats, with Bird, May 1950. It's an air check, so you hear these guys stretch out much more than in the usual 3:00 wax:


A tragic combination of tuberculosis and heroin did in Fats. He wasn't just a "key figure," he was an end in himself.

For everything about Fats, check out this website. 

Homage a Eldridge

Can't be effusive enough about the great Roy Eldridge and thought I'd mark his birthday with a few comments and a small sampling of his playing.

Roy was sneaky influential. That is, musicians-especially other trumpet players-knew what he meant to jazz, but the public knew him more as showman and less as musical genius (I suppose complicated parallels might be drawn with Louis Armstrong's career).

Roy accessed all the power implicit in the trumpet, but articulated with extraordinary dexterity. He played right in the pocket, even when shape shifting the rhythm of a phrase. He was a more than able vocalist, although he scatted less often than Louis or Dizzy. He tested himself over and over in the crucible of the cutting contest and sent many JATP sessions over the top. Any session he made was pushed into a higher level of commitment. I saw him a few times near the end of his playing career and he blew with intense ferocity. There was nothing little about this man except his nickname. Happy Birthday, Roy.



Listen To more...

Up from the Basement. Or, Lower Register-Philia by Steve Provizer

I was talking with friends about vocalist Johnny Hartman and his justifiably esteemed 1962-63 recording with John Coltrane. Dan said: "Very few things send chills up my spine like his entrance on My One and Only Love. Up out of the basement..."




That got me thinking about other phrases that move dazzlingly up and down and out of the basement. The first two are on I Can't Get Started:

Bunny Berigan (The shift between the basement starting about 3:30 and the stratosphere at about 3:50 is dramatic):

Charlie Shavers: Decided. by Steve Provizer

[I first wrote about Charlie Shavers a couple of years ago and since then, have noticed signs that increased attention is being paid to this great trumpet player (pure coincidence, I'm sure). I have expanded that piece, added new links and new commentary]

I first heard Shavers many years ago playing on Billie Holliday''s Verve LP "Solitude"- my favorite Lady Day record. Charlie's playing, both open and muted, was beautiful. I don't know why I didn't pursue his discography at that point; it just kind of spun out over time and I have grown to increasingly dig Shaver's facility, creativity and tone.

The only other swing trumpet players who could give Charlie Shavers a run for his money as both soloist and lead player were Roy Eldridge, Harry Edison and Buck Clayton. If you happened to like the particularities of their sounds, you might say Harry James, Cootie Williams, Bunny Berigan or Red Allen were in his league. Shavers' tone was basically 'poppin', but rounder, slightly less edged and with a touch more vibrato than the others. His range was unsurpassed, except by Eldridge. He used mutes to great effect throughout his career.

Shavers was an alumnus of the Tiny Bradshaw, Lucky Millinder and John Kirby, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman bands and Jazz at the Philharmonic. He recorded and sounded perfectly at home in many styles-blues, traditional, swing, semi-bop.

There's a dearth of info out there about the man. There is one very cool interview with him here, and what he says about the trumpet will surprise you. In this interview with Bobby Shew, there is a reference to Charlie's having what seems to be narcolepsy.

Whether or not he had that kind of medical condition or not he seems to have been an extremely laid back possibly even passive, guy. It's interesting to speculate on how his personality interacted with his career-especially his recording career-as many of the recordings he made in mid-to-late career (he died at age 50) were not very good. Producers put him in settings they thought would make him appeal to a bigger audience. On some of these, he is simply a high note guy and on some, a "beautiful music" guy. He probably had neither the clout nor the personality that would have made him push back against any of these musical follies.


Here's Charlie with Johnny Dodds in 1938 playing the mistitled tune "Melancholy."

This is the Charlie Shavers Quintet in 1947 doing "Dizzy's Dilemna."

Here's Charlie and Lady Day, 1952, on "Moonglow."

Here he is in 1952 with Eldridge in one of the classic JATP "battles."

One of the few clips of Charlie has him here in another fantastic "battle" with Buck Clayton:

Here he is holding down the solo and first chair at the same time for the Dorseys:



Here he is with his first major gig-John Kirby. Sid Catlett is fantastic:




And finally, here he is not long before his death. Dig the violinist Svend Asmussen. You might also recognize the bass player and the tenor player:

Comfort-Food Jazz by Steve Provizer

As Flann O'Brien once wrote, in "At-Swim-Two-Birds":


"When things go wrong and will not come right,
Though you do the best you can,
When life seems black as the hour of night,
A pint of plain is your only man."


Well, the man was an alcoholic, so his RX for the blues was a little narrow.


Jazz may not be the magic elixir. It may not make the lame strap on roller blades. It may not even make ugly people look better at closing time, but still we turn to it for succor.


In this needy state, you may find your choices are less adventurous than usual. If it was food you chose to fill the hole in your soul, you might pass on the escargots and go for the beef stew. It's it's music, you might opt for cozy over adventurous-at least I do. What do I want for my "comfort jazz"? Allowing myself the obligatory ten choices:


Mulligan, Getz and Brookmeyer together.
Late Billie Holiday
Early Ellington
Coltrane's Crescent
Miles on Prestige
Dizzy singing
Clifford's "Ghost of a Chance"
King Pleasure
Ella doing ballads during the 50's
Eldridge-"After You've Gone"

What's your jazz for solace?