The Penguin Jazz Guide (39 page)

The doyen of postwar British jazz, Lyttelton was active for 60 years as a performer, broadcaster, writer, wit and general man-about-jazz, a tireless force whose early links with trad jazz soon blossomed into a shrewd pan-stylistic outlook.

The Parlophones are a must. One hundred titles are neatly spread across the four discs (available only separately), and although in absolutist terms the set isn’t complete – there are no alternative takes, and titles by the collaborative bands with Graeme Bell and Freddy Grant are being saved for a possible follow-up – what remains is a comprehensive picture of ten years of work by arguably the most influential jazzman Britain has ever produced. Even the earliest tracks show how Lyttelton wasn’t content to regard jazz as any kind of routine, and although the 1949–50 sessions are relatively formulaic, the playing is consistently creative and supple, with the rhythm sections never resorting to the trudge of regulation trad. Lyttelton’s own playing is wasteless and controlled, without losing the terminal vibrato which was a feature of the ’20s stylists he admired. Fawkes and Christie were important elements in this band, and so was Bruce Turner, a notorious recruit when he arrived in 1953 but a crucial aide in Lyttelton’s move from trad to mainstream. The progress through the ’50s is marked by milestones such as ‘The Onions’ and the great hit, ‘Bad Penny Blues’, before concluding with the 1957–9 sessions, which suggest how far Lyttelton had progressed, from the sparky trad of ‘Memphis Blues’ to the sophisticated mainstream inflexions of the likes of ‘Hand Me Down Love’. There are also glimpses of young tykes such as Tony Coe, Kathy Stobart, Jimmy Skidmore and Joe Temperley. Throughout the four discs there are surprises, such as the extraordinary, haunting ‘Jail Break’ or Lyttelton’s blues playing behind Neva Raphaello on ‘Young Woman Blues’. As a record of a crucial chapter in British jazz, it’s peerless stuff.

ELLA FITZGERALD
^&

Born 25 April 1917, Newport News, Virginia; died 15 June 1996, Beverly Hills, California

Voice

The Enchanting Ella Fitzgerald: Live At Birdland 1950–1952

Baldwin Street Music VBJH 309

Fitzgerald; Don Elliott (mel); Hank Jones, Raymond Tunia, Don Abney (p); Terry Gibbs (vib); Ray Brown (b); Charlie Smith, Jimmy Crawford, Roy Haynes (d). December 1950–August 1955.

Ella’s former husband Ray Brown said (1985):
‘She was very, very private. She’d be telling a story about herself and leave such huge gaps in it that with anyone else, you’d have jumped in and said: “Hang on, what happened then?”, but with Ella you left her to tell it her way.’

The greatest jazz singer of them all. Fitzgerald was not what is called a ‘libretto’ singer. The words, in a sense, scarcely mattered to her, and she wasn’t one of those, like Billie Holiday, who could invest a song with scouring drama. Instead, she sang note-perfect improvisations with a sense of time almost unequalled by any comparable instrumentalist. Fitzgerald’s fabled break came when she won an Apollo Theater talent contest in 1934, aged only 17, and by the following year she was singing for Chick Webb’s band. When Webb died in 1939, the singer inherited leadership of his band; by this time she was its undoubted star. But her recordings of the period are often hard to take because the material is sometimes insufferably trite. After Ella had a major hit with the nursery-rhyme tune ‘A-Tisket, A-Tasket’, she was doomed – at least, until the break-up of the band – to seek out similar songs. The calibre of her singing is consistent enough – the voice at its freshest, her phrasing straightforward but sincerely dedicated to making the most of the melody – but the tracks seem to spell the decline of what was, in the mid-’30s, one of the most swinging of big bands. The arrangements are often blandly supportive of the singer rather than creating any kind of partnership, and when the material is of the standard of ‘Swinging On The Reservation’ it’s difficult to summon up much enthusiasm.

She’d been recording for 15 years before one could say there was material in which quality of singing was matched by consistency of material and sound.
The Enchanting
brings together four Birdland broadcasts, plus ‘I Can’t Get Started’ from the Apollo, where it all started, plus a couple of tracks from a Basin Street show in 1955 by way of makeweight. Besides all the usual period charm – and it’s a pretty good airshot sound, for its time – these are rare examples of the improvising Fitzgerald in her prime. She scats her way through such set-pieces as ‘Air Mail Special’, ‘Lemon Drop’ and ‘Preview’, and when she’s on song she’s breathtaking. Plus the expected mix of ballads and whatever her new release on Decca was at the time (‘We hope you’ll buy it’). Discussion of Ella’s intelligence or lack of it are meaningless and largely insulting, but something of her personality comes down the years to us on these tapes. It’s engaging enough, but strangely remote, a shy, self-conscious woman who is momentarily transformed by the act and art of song.

& See also
Sings The Cole Porter Songbook
(1956; p. 180),
Ella In London
(1974; p. 410)

JOE BUSHKIN

Born 7 November 1916, New York City; died 3 November 2004, Santa Barbara, California

Piano, trumpet

Piano Moods / After Hours

Collectables COL 7402

Bushkin; Buck Clayton (t); Eddie Safranski, Sid Weiss (b); Jo Jones (d). July 1950, 1952.

Joe Bushkin said (1985):
‘Those songs served me well, but I got tired of writing all that late-night bar-room stuff. All those lonely guys telling me we were best friends, putting wet ring-marks on my piano and looking like they were about to barf.’

Bushkin got a good classical grounding and later brought a bouncing, almost delicate sound to Tommy Dorsey’s band. The wise-cracking New Yorker also served time with Bunny Berigan, Eddie Condon, the Armstrong All Stars and, in later years, a new generation of young swing players. He scored the stage play
The Rat Race
and wrote songs for Sinatra, and his
1955 ‘Midnight Rhapsody’ became a hit. For a whole generation of swing fogies, his novelty number ‘Ain’t Been The Same Since The Beatles’ was a rallying cry.

The keyboard touch is reminiscent in places of Nat Cole, light, springy, effortlessly melodic. Bushkin also learned trumpet after an accident almost put paid to his piano-playing. He made some good sides during the ’40s, but came to the fore as a solo artist with one of the very first releases on Atlantic. The Collectables twofer brings together a pleasing pair of old dates for Capitol. It’s not revolutionary stuff, but Bushkin had some effective harmonic ideas and listening to his work in some quantity one becomes aware of a distinct performing personality, wry, clever, but also gently debunking. There’s nothing ‘novelty’ about his work, even when the intent is comic. Clayton makes an agreeable intervention and the rhythm guys seem to enjoy working within Bushkin’s untroubled bounce.

STAN GETZ
^&

Born 2 February 1927, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; died 6 June 1991, Malibu, California

Tenor saxophone

The Complete Roost Recordings

Roost 859622-2 3CD

Getz; Sanford Gold, Duke Jordan, Horace Silver, Al Haig (p); Jimmy Raney, Johnny Smith (g); Eddie Safranski, Teddy Kotick, Bill Crow, Leonard Gaskin, Bob Carter (b); Frank Isola, Tiny Kahn, Roy Haynes, Don Lamond, Morey Feld (d); Count Basie Orchestra. May 1950–December 1954.

Stan Getz said (1983):
‘I tried to get the reediness out of my sound. I found I could project better that way and I like to stand well away from the microphone. I don’t think it comes from anyone, in particular, but listening to Lester Young maybe influenced it, unconsciously – you tend to sound like music you love – and before that maybe Benny Goodman and Tea [Jack Teagarden].’

After starring as one of Herman’s ‘Four Brothers’, and delivering a luminous ballad solo on the 1948 ‘Early Autumn’, Getz went out on his own and at first seemed much like the rest of the Lester Young-influenced tenormen: a fast, cool stylist with a sleek tone and a delivery that soothed nerves jangled by bebop. The ‘Brothers’ idea was pursued off and on for years, but Getz was destined to find himself as a sole horn, and with the dispersion of the bands it became irrelevant anyway. His phrasing was almost unbelievably fluent and legato, and his dark, rich sound, which always had a lot of breath in it, became one of the signature jazz sounds of the ’50s and ’60s and beyond.

So much attention has fallen on Getz’s later work that these magnificent sessions are often overlooked. The earliest tracks, from a session in May 1950, catch a young man with his head full of bebop and his heart heavy with swing-era romanticism. Those contrary strains come together on the headily beautiful ‘Yesterdays’, a marriage of intellect and emotion that is rare not only in Getz’s work but in jazz itself. These two early dates, one with Al Haig, one with Horace Silver, are electrifying. By 1951, he already sounds like the more settled, invincible Getz, but the short track-lengths (a relic of the 78 era) give the music considerable point and direction. The live session from Boston’s Storyville Club with Jimmy Raney has long been prized, both musicians unreeling one great solo after another. Two studio dates with a similar band are at lower voltage but scarcely less impressive. Eight tracks with Johnny Smith, including the achingly lovely ‘Moonlight In Vermont’, offer Getz the lyricist in fullest flow, while the three with Basie at Birdland are a bonus. There is so much top-flight jazz in this set that it’s quite indispensable; remastered to a consistent standard, it’s breathtaking.

& See also
Focus
(1961; p. 277),
Nobody Else But Me
(1964; p. 304)

WARDELL GRAY

Born 13 February 1921, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; died 25 May 1955, Las Vegas, Nevada

Tenor saxophone

Memorial: Volumes 1 & 2

Original Jazz Classics OJCCD 050 / 051

Gray; Art Farmer, Clark Terry (t); Sonny Criss, Frank Morgan (as); Dexter Gordon (ts); Jimmy Bunn, Sonny Clark, Al Haig, Hampton Hawes, Phil Hill (p); Teddy Charles (vib); Harper Crosby, Billy Hadnott, Dick Nivison, Tommy Potter, Johnny Richardson (b); Roy Haynes, Lawrence Marable, Art Mardigan, Chuck Thompson (d); Robert Collier (perc). November 1949, April and August 1950, January 1952, February 1953.

Clark Terry said:
‘I get the feeling the young musicians don’t even know who he was. Wardell was one of the very best, and it’s shameful that he’s so little appreciated now.’

Like his friend and collaborator Dexter Gordon, with whom he recorded ‘The Chase’, Wardell Gray often had to look to Europe for recognition. His first postwar recordings were not released in the United States. There were not to be very many more, for Gray died in 1955, perhaps killed by drug-dealers, perhaps not. The shadow cast by Bird’s passing, three months before, largely shrouded Gray’s untimely departure. Unlike Gordon, Gray was less than wholly convinced by orthodox bebop, and he continued to explore the late-swing style of Lester Young. He started out with Earl Hines, and never quite abandoned that style, which may explain a certain later resistance to his work, for all its shining qualities.

The two-volume
Memorial
remains (ironically) the best representation of his gifts. The earliest of the sessions is a quartet consisting of Haig, Potter and Haynes, and it includes ‘Twisted’, a wry blues later vocalized by Annie Ross, whose version has tended to overshadow the original. It’s a perfect place to gauge Gray’s Prez-influenced style and his softly angular approach to the changes. The CDs include some irrelevant alternative takes, but given how little there is, even pot-scrapings have some value. Too often Gray tries to duplicate what he feels are successful ideas rather than wiping the slate clean and trying again from scratch. The best of the rest is a 1952 session with Hawes and Farmer, who do interesting things with ‘Farmer’s Market’ and that Parker shibboleth, ‘Lover Man’. The sessions are also notable for the first recorded performances by Frank Morgan, who copied not just Bird’s articulation but also some of his offstage habits and found himself in San Quentin for his pains.

STAN KENTON

Born 15 December 1911, Wichita, Kansas; died 25 August 1979, Los Angeles, California

Bandleader

City Of Glass

Capitol 832084-2

Kenton; various large personnels. December 1947–May 1953.

The Innovations Orchestra

Capitol 59965-2 2CD

Kenton; Buddy Childers, Maynard Ferguson, Shorty Rogers, Chico Alvarez, Don Paladino, Al Porcino, John Howell, Conte Candoli, Stu Williamson, John Coppola (t); Milt Bernhart, Harry Betts, Bob Fitzpatrick, Bill Russo, Eddie Bert, Dick Kenney (tb); Bart Varsalona, Clyde Brown, George Roberts (btb); John Graas, Lloyd Otto, George Price (frhn); Gene Englund (tba); Bud Shank, Art Pepper, Bob Cooper, Bart Caldarell, Bob Gioga, Bud Shank (reeds); Laurindo Almeida, Ralph Blaze (g); Don Bagley, Abe Luboff (b); Shelly Manne (d); Carlos Vidal, Ivan Lopez, Stenio Orozo, Jose Oliveira, Jack Costanzo (perc); strings. February 1950–October 1951.

Saxophonist/arranger Gerry Mulligan said (1990):
‘Kenton always said: “Creativity is very closely linked to the cash register.” I know lots of musicians – Ellington especially – have said something similar, and most of us have thought it, but Kenton meant it in a different way. He understood that side of things.’