Shelly Manne & His Men at The Black Hawk

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shelly Manne & His Men at The Black Hawk
Live album by Shelly Manne & His Men

Publication
(s)

1960

Label (s) Contemporary , Fantasy , OJC

Format (s)

4 LPs, 5 CDs

Genre (s)

jazz

Title (number)

16/25

occupation

production

Lester Koenig

Studio (s)

Live recording at Black Hawk , San Francisco

chronology
Play Peter Gunn
(1959) 		Shelly Manne & His Men at The Black Hawk The Proper Time
(1960)
Shelly Manne, circa December 1946.
Photograph by William P. Gottlieb .

Shelly Manne & His Men at The Black Hawk is a jazz album by Shelly Manne & His Men ; the original edition comprised 4 LPs with live recordings from the Black Hawk jazz club in San Francisco , which were recorded on September 22, 23 and 24, 1959 and released in 1960 on Contemporary Records .

The Black Hawk recordings

The drummer founded his formation Shelly Manne & His Men in 1955 with Bob Enevoldsen , Joe Maini , Bob Cooper , Jimmy Giuffre , Russ Freeman and Ralph Peña ; The West Coast Sound was their first album on Contemporary . At the time of his guest appearance in the Black Hawk , the formation had seen numerous line-up changes; to the band u. a. also owned by Stu Williamson , Conte Candoli , Herb Geller , Leroy Vinnegar and, until 1959, Charlie Mariano . In its current line-up, Shelly Manne played with the tenor saxophonist Richie Kamuca , the pianist Victor Feldman , the bassist Monty Budwig and with the trumpeter Joe Gordon , who died only four years later, at one of the most famous jazz clubs in San Francisco ; it was one of his rare appearances outside of Los Angeles , where Manne usually worked as a busy musician in Hollywood studios for film, television and record productions.

The first week at the Black Hawk was so good for the quintet that Shelly Manne called Lester Koenig at Contemporary Records and asked if he wanted to come and record the group at the club. On September 22nd, Koenig came with the recording equipment; With the help of the Black Hawk owners Guido Cacianti and George Weiss, the microphones were installed to record the next three nightly performances.

The intention was to initially only release one album; later, while listening to the tapes in Los Angeles, it became clear that any selection would have been arbitrary. So Manne and Koenig decided to publish the entire material in the form of four records. These then contained - as a cross-section from the band's repertoire - a total of 14 compositions, eight of them by jazz musicians, such as "Our Delight" by Tadd Dameron or Duke Ellington's "Just Squeeze Me", a long improvised blues and five standards, such as George Gershwins Summertime . Two of the jazz tracks had not yet been recorded: “Blue Daniel” by Frank Rosolino and “Cabu” by Roland Alexander . They also played the currently popular titles such as " Whisper Not " and "Step Lightly" by Benny Golson ; ex-member Charlie Mariano wrote the song "Vamp's Blues". "A Gem from Tiffany" has been the band's theme song since 1955; Bill Holman wrote it in 1955 during the band's engagement in a Los Angeles club called "The Tiffany".

Encouraged by the success of the Black Hawk recordings, Contemporary had the band's appearance in The Manne Hole in May 1961 also recorded and released in the form of two albums ( Live at the Manne Hole, Volume 1 & 2 ).

Rating of the album

Richard Cook and Brian Morton gave the live recordings in their Penguin Guide to Jazz the highest grade (including the rarely awarded crown); they count the Black Hawk recordings among "the most excellent and swinging mainstream recordings ever made"; it is “club jazz at its best”, “extremely entertaining and indispensable”. Cook and Morton particularly highlighted Benny Golson's " Whisper Not "; it is "the most definitive version" of this jazz standard.

Editorial notes

The CD edition made by Fantasy Records in 1991 was expanded to include a CD; Volume 5 contains previously unpublished material from the Black Hawk recordings, such as "Wonder Why", "Pullin 'Strings" or "Eclipse of Spain".

The titles

Boyd Raeburn, circa June 1946.
Photograph by William P. Gottlieb .
  • Shelly Manne & His Men at The Black Hawk (Contemporary S 7577, S 7578, S 7579, S 7580; OJC CD 656-659)

Vol. 1

  1. Summertime (Gershwin) 11:56 (September 22)
  2. Our Delight ( Tadd Dameron ) 11:57 (September 22)
  3. Poinciana (Simon - Lliso - Bernier) 13:00 (22 September)
  4. Blue Daniel ( Frank Rosolino ) 8:33 (September 24)
  5. Blue Daniel ( alternate version from September 23) 8:06
  6. Theme: A Gem from Tiffany ( Bill Holman ) 0:17 (September 24)

Vol. 2

  • September 22, 1959
  1. Step Lightly (Golson)
  2. What's new? (Haggart - Burke)
  3. The Vamp's Blues (Mariano)
  4. Step Lightly ( alternate version from September 24th)
  5. Theme: A Gem from Tiffany (Holman)

Vol. 3

  1. I Am in Love (September 24) (Cole Porter) 12:11
  2. Whisper Not (Golson) (Sep 23) (Benny Golson) 9:44
  3. Blackhawk Blues (September 22) 6:12 PM
  4. Whisper Not ( alternate version of September 24th) 12:24

Vol. 4

  • September 24, 1959
  1. Cabu ( Roland Alexander ) 10:48
  2. Just Squeeze Me (Ellington - Gaines) 12:51
  3. Nightingale (Cugat - Rosner - Wise) 12:03
  4. Theme: A Gem from Tiffany ( alternate version of September 22) (Holman) 9:40
  5. Cabu (Alexander) ( alternate version from September 22nd) 11:45

Vol. 5

  1. How Deep Are the Roots (September 23) 11:02 am
  2. This Is Always (Parker) (September 23) 10:00
  3. Wonder Why (September 23) 8:49 am
  4. Eclipse of Spain (September 23) 10:30
  5. Pullin 'Strings (September 24th) 4:34
  6. Theme: A Gem from Tiffany (Sep 24) (Holman) 5:39

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted from Cook / Morton, p. 957.