The Ted Brown Sextet - Free Wheeling

This classic has been long OOP, seeing occasional reissues over the years often times incorrectly credited to its most famous member, Art Pepper. Indeed it was Peppers presence that first caused me to seek out this fantastic record.
I only know of one other outing with Ted Brown as a leader. Shortly after recording this record, he headed back east to NYC, where seems to have worked intermittently in relative obscurity. Such a shame.

Not to be overlooked is the inclusion of another of my favorite saxes, Warne Marsh.

As is sometimes the case here at Hooks Gems, there is a back story to this lp. When I first moved to this area about 7 years ago, I really knew no one. I had no friends and sole mode of transportation was still a cargo van decked out for my business. At some point I found myself either watching or bidding on item on ebay with someone in my area. Im a little fuzzy on this part, but I seem to remember that you could see where the bids were coming from and even contact the ebay user. I may be way off base but anyway, I emailed this dude, out of the blue, introduced myself as another jazz fan, and asked if he would like to chat jazz sometime. He was very nice and we did indeed chat jazz. A very knowledgeable fellow but as it turned out a good 25 yrs older than me. The fellow invited me to his place for appetizers and wine one night, so I went and met him and his lovely wife. As we retired to the basement, he had a simple but astounding stereo and a jazz collection that surpassed anything I had ever seen. I asked if he listened to anything but jazz and he said "very little".
Still confident, I handed him my copy of this Ted Brown record in hopes I was bringing something he was unfamiliar with. He smiled with delight at the sight of the record, as he showed it to his wife. Apparently Ted Brown had played at their wedding. I never really pressed him on this and we spent a few fun evenings listening to jazz, with him turning me on to many a rare lp.
His name was Joe Hunt.

Sorry for the rambling. Here is a great jazz lp, from the vinyl source.

The Ted Brown Sextet
Free Wheeling

1. Aretha
2. Long Gone
3. Once We Were Young
4. Foolin' Myself
5. Avalon
6. On A Slow Boat To China
7. Crazy She Calls Me
8. Broadway
9. Arrival

Ted Brown - tenor sax
Warne Marsh - tenor sax
Art Pepper - alto sax
Ronnie Ball - piano
Ben Tucker - bass
Jeff Morton - drums

rec 11/26/56

Vanguard VRS-8515

John Zorn - Spillane

...and now for something completely different... or not. I have been trying to introduce new elements to the blog, so here's a start.

The title track is a rambling jazz track with all the cool elements of noir thrown in, while side two sports a very cool blues track and and a track with the unparalleled Kronos.

The whole mess is gonna take more time typing in players than it takes to listen to, so you will have to take my word for it that this is 50 minutes (or so) worth your effort.

Did I mention Kronos on the final track?

John Zorn - Spillane

1. Spillane
2.Two Lane Highway
3. Forbidden Fruit

Personnel track one -
Anthony Coleman - piano, organ, celeste
Carol Emanuel - harp
Bill Frisell - guitar
David Hofstra - bass, tuba
Bob James - tapes, compact discs
Bobby Previte - drums, percussion
Jim Staley - trombone
David Weinstein - sampling keyboards, celeste
John Zorn - alto sax, clarinet
John Lurie - voice of Mike Hammer
Robert Quine - voice of Hammer's conscience

recorded 6/86

personnel track two
Albert Collins - guitar, vocals
Robert Quine - guitar
Big John Patton - organ
Wayne Horvitz - piano, keyboards
Melvin Gibbs - bass
Ronald Shannon Jackson - drums
Bobby Previte - drums

recorded 6/87

personnel track three
David Harrington - violin
John Sherba - violin
Hank Dutt - viola
Joan Jeanrenaud - cello
Christian Marclay - turntables
Ohta Hiromi - voice

recorded 9/87

Nonesuch 9 791172-1

Yusef Lateef - Outside Blues

While this recording is taken from a Trip records reissue, as far as I can tell, this was originally released on the Charlie Parker label.

The lp is far more bop oriented than most of Lateef's stuff, and he tends to share the spotlight with the trumpet.

For a relatively unknown line-up this record is a great nugget. 35 minutes of hard bop.

Yusef Lateef
Outside Blues

1. Dexterity
2. Train Stop
3. Big Foot
4. Soul Blues
5. Blue Rocky
6. Trudy's Delight
7. Introlude
8. Outside Blues

Yusef Lateef - tenor saxophone
Vincent Pitts -trumpet
John Hormon -piano
Ray McKinny -bass
George Scott, Cliff Jarvis - drums


Recorded at Peter Ind Studio, New York, New York on August 14, 1961.

TLP-5018

pharaoh sanders quintet - 1st lp

Here is a copy of his 1st leader date issued on ESP. Taken directly from the lp. Recently I believe, ESP has reissued this on disc with an interview tacked on.

Buy a copy from them, then dl this copy of the lp for reference purposes.

Or just dig this lp. Should have posted it here long ago.

Pharaoh Sanders Quintet

1. seven by seven
2. bethera

Pharaoh Sanders - sax Stan Foster - trumpet Jane Getz - piano William Bennett - bass Marvin Pattillo - percussion

recorded 10/10/64

ESP 1003

Bunny Berigan and his Orchestra

Sometimes I get so wrapped up in modern jazz or hard bop from he 50s and 60s that I forget where it all started. I know it really started with Dixieland but I still struggle with that. But sometimes early swing is where it is at. Bunny seems to always reside in the shadow of Bix (who passed before him), and Louis, but for my money he was every bit as fascinating. I first became aware of Bunny when living in Wisconsin so I felt an affinity for the local boy. Too bad his weakness was stronger than he was.

Im not at all sure where these records were originally released. All the tracks but the 1st three, which were recorded in 1936, were recorded in 1938. I hadn't played this record in years when I pulled it out and it has since resided in the play pile for at least the last month. Time to share it with my friends.

Bunny Berigan and His Orchestra
1936-8

1. On Your Toes
2. Dardanella
3. That's a Plenty
4. I Never Knew
5. Wearing Of The Green
6. Sunday
7. Will You Remember Tomorrow Tonight
8. Black Bottom
9. I'll Always Be In Love With You
10. Sing You Sinners
11. Mahogany Hall Stomp
12. Taint So, Honey Taint So

Featured performers include Georgie Auld, Joe Dixon, Joe Bushkin, Ray Coniff, and Johhny Blowers.

QSR 2414 MONO

Because the record is so short, it afforded me the opportunity to also include an lp of Bunny's more commercial recordings from the same period. Who couldn't forgive me for including the absolutely golden standard I Can't Get Started. This version will never be topped.

This is why i love jazz more than any other music. I can stumbled across something that i haven't heard in years and it has lost none of its lustre. And it was recorded about the time my parents were born!!

Interesting to note is Benny Goodmans inclusion on Bix' "Davenport Blues." Kathleen Lane sang on "I Cried..."

Bunny Berigan
I Can't Get Started

1. I Can't Get Started
2. Peg O My Heart
3. Davenport Blues
4. I Cried For You
5. Ain't She Sweet
6. Walkin The Dog
7. Can't Help Lovin Dat Man
8. Night Song

QJ - 25081 MONO

Both of em

Art Pepper - The Intimate Art Pepper

What I offer today is an Analogue Productions heavy vinyl release of what are basically some AP outtakes. It is a great companion piece to his "New York Album" even though that band appears on only single track. The remastering was done at Acoustech so the bar is high.
I am always in awe at the amount of Pepper stuff that was released posthumously that is of such a high caliber.

Liberally recorded during his Artist House period (So In Love lp), these are mostly the West Coast sessions, except Yesterdays, as I mentioned earlier is the sole NY track.

Art schools us again on the clarinet on the Duke standard, while also pulling off the heart wrenching solo pieces he was doing near the end. In retrospect, you wonder if you can't hear the guy pouring his soul into some of these songs like he may never have another chance.

Yeah, I'm a big Art Pepper fan.

The Intimate Art Pepper

1. In A Mellow Tone
2. Yesterdays*
3. You Go To My Head
4. Tin Tin Deo
5. Body and Soul
6. Landscape

Art Pepper - alto and clarinet
George Cables - piano
Charlie Haden - bass
Billy Higgins - drums
Hank Jones - piano*
Ron Carter - bass*
Al Foster - drums*

recorded 2/23/79 Burbank, CA & 5/26/79 NYC

APR 3014

Red Norvo Quintet - HI-FIve

In light of my recent faux pas and not thoroughly researching musicians I had never heard, so rather than make that mistake again...here are the story on the players on this 1957 Red Norvo date...

The bass player was a scenester from 52nd St. The drummer was a Central Ave. denizen and a bit of a swing veteran. The horn player went on to compose many TV soundtracks, and the guitar player was already reknown for his western swing playing, and unfortunately passed away just earlier this year.

While only listed as "supervision", Shorty Rogers fingerprints are all over this thing.

Aaah, once again, warts and all, a mono lp copy...

Red Norvo Quintet
HI-FIve

1. First Things First
2. IF I Love Again.
3. Confessin' That I Love You
4. Everything I've Got Belongs To You
5. Live and Let Live
6. Soft Winds
7. Punkin' Head
8. I Didn't Know What Time It Was
9. Easy Does It
10. Cabin In The Sky
11. Copy Cat
12. Move

Red Norvo - vibes
Bill Douglass - drums
Bob Carter - bass
Bob Drasnin - flute, clarinet & alto sax
Jimmy Wyble - guitar
Shorty Rogers - supervision


RCA Victor LPM- 1420

Oscar Pettiford Sextet

Later reissued on cd, these are the Vogue masters. recorded in NY in 1954, these sessions are an almost perfect example of laid back swing. Straddling the line between the classic and that new bop shit, Pettiford never ceases to amaze me. Of the very short list of the stuff I have in his name, this one seems to rise to the top. I even find myself overlooking Farlow's guitar.

Oscar Pettiford
Sextet

1. Burt's Pad
2. Marcel the Furrier

3. Stardust
4. E-Lag
5. Rhumblues
6. Ondine

Oscar Pettiford - bass and cello
Al Cohn - tenor sax
Kai Winding - trombone
Tal Farlow - guitar
Henri Renaud - piano
Max Roach - drums

3/21/54, NYC

Dexter Gordon Quartet - There Will Never Be Another You.

The back story - this recording is taken from a cassette that I have carried around for what seems an eternity. I hadn't played it years for fear of wearing it out, breaking it or something else stupid since I never ran across another copy.
I suspect I dubbed it from a disc which I checked out from the library when I was living outside of Chicago. The library system in that area was fantastic and my interest in jazz had been recently rekindled by some local djs. I was dubbing off as much stuff as I could while I had access to it in an attempt to learn more about what I did and didn't like in jazz. At the time Dexter did not click with me and so it went unlistened to for a very long time. I have since rectified that mistake and filled my life with many later period sessions by Gordon. I was ecstatic to find this in a box of cassettes set aside for conversion.

A little research shows me that these tracks were originally released by Black Lion as part of "Dexter Gordon - The Montmartre Collection" - a pair of lps.

There Will Never Be Another You

1. But Not For Me
2. There Will Never Be Another You
3. Come Rain Or Come Shine
4. Doxy
5. For All We Know

Dex - tenor
Kenny Drew - piano
Al Heath - drums
Niels Orsted Pederson - bass

recorded Copenhagen 7.20.67

I have also attached an orphan track that I have had laying about for years. I'm pretty sure I got it off a Smithsonian set at some point. It has never turned up on any of Gordon's early compilations that I have. Since I am not a huge fan of his early work, chances are this will be the only way I own this track. The songs is -

6. Bikini (Blues Bikini)

and is a Dial Session. The players listed are -
Dex - tenor
Jimmy Bunn - piano
Red Callender - bass
Chuck Thompson - drums

Recorded 6/12/47 Hollywood, CA

It's all here.

Wardell Gray - Central Avenue

I really dig Wardell Gray. I love the way he embraces bebop and swing both and yet manages to be the precursor to that whole west coast sound.

Gray later became semi-famous for his battles with Dex but I think these sessions stand up as well as anything he did.

Most have been reissued in various forms but were originally released as Prestige 78's.

Everything here comes from a Prestige twofer released the year I graduated high school. I can't imagine how I missed it. Due to time constraints I have not included a couple of alternate takes.

Wardell Gray
Central Avenue

1. Twisted*
2. Easy Living*
3. Southside*
4. Sweet Lorraine*
5. Scrapple from The Apple #
   
6. Move #
   
7. A Sinner Kissed an Angel ~
8. Blue Gray ~
9. Grayhound ~
10. Treadin ~
11. April Skies ^
    
12. Bright Boy ^
    
13. Jackie ^
    
14. Farmer's Market^
15. Sweet and lovely ^
16. Lover man ^
17. The Man I Love +
    
18. Lavonne +
19. So Long Broadway +
20. Paul's Cause +
21. 
    

Wardell Gray - tenor sax with
Al Haig - piano
Tommy Potter - bass
Roy Haynes - drums
Clark Terry - trumpet
Sonny Criss - alto sax
Dexter Gordon - tenor sax
Jimmy Bunn - piano
Billy Hadnott - bass
Chuck Thompson - drums
Phil Hill - piano
John Richardson - bass
Art Madigan - drums
Art Farmer - trumpet
Hampton Hawes - piano
Harper Crosby - bass
Lawrence Marable - drums
Robert Collier - conga
Frank Morgan - alto sax
Sonny Clark - piano
Teddy Charles - vibes
Dick Nivison - bass

* nyc - 11/11/49
# hula hut, LA - live - 8/27/50
~ Detroit - 4/25/50
^ LA - 1/21/52
+ LA - 2/20/53


Prestige P-24062