Meet the Jazztet

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Meet the Jazztet
Studio album by Art Farmer / Benny Golson Jazztet

Publication
(s)

1960

Label (s) Argo

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

jazz

Title (number)

10

running time

40:28

occupation

production

Jack Tracy

Studio (s)

Nola Penthouse Studios, New York City

chronology
Imagination - The Curtis Fuller Jazztette
(1960) 		Meet the Jazztet Big City Sounds
(1961)

Meet the Jazztet is a jazz album by the Art-Farmer / Benny-Golson -Jazztet, recorded on February 6, 9 and 10, 1960 and released on Argo Records . It was the debut album of this formation, which - with numerous line-up changes - existed until 1962. The recordings appeared in 2004 in the edition The Complete Argo / Mercury Art Farmer / Benny Golson / Jazztet Sessions on Mosaic Records .

The Art Farmer / Benny Golson Jazztet

Art Farmer and Benny Golson met in Lionel Hampton's band in 1953 and worked together several times in the late 1950s, for example on George Russell's album New York, NY 1958. At Art Blakey , Golson met trombonist Curtis Fuller and worked in his 1958/59 Curtis Fuller Jazztet (te) with (as on the album Blues-ette in May 1959), which had been a kind of forerunner ensemble of the Art Farmer / Benny Golson Jazztet .

When Benny Golson wanted to start a sextet, he took on Art Farmer as a co-leader; Curtis Fuller acted as another leader and namesake of the new Art Farmer / Benny Golson Jazztet . Farmer hired his brother, bassist Addison Farmer ; in addition there was the drummer Dave Bailey . Golson brought McCoy Tyner, only 19, into the band as a pianist ; this then made its debut in November 1959 in New York's Five Spot Club, where Ornette Coleman appeared shortly afterwards . On December 17th, the album Imagination - The Curtis Fuller Jazztette , with Golson, Tyner and Dave Bailey was created on Savoy Records under Curtis Fuller's direction ; Thad Jones played the trumpet in place of Art Farmer, and Jimmy Garrison joined his brother Addison . Dave Bailey was finally at the turn before the first recordings of the Jazztet by Lex Humphries replaced, a young drummer who previously u. a. had played with Dizzy Gillespie and Donald Byrd .

Benny Golson; 2006

Meet the Jazztet was Fuller's and Tyner's only recording with the original Art Farmer / Benny Golson Jazztet ; it lasted until 1962 and then made a brief comeback in the 1980s with Farmer, Golson and Fuller. After the recordings for Meet the Jazztet , the first line-up changes; for Curtis Fuller came Tom McIntosh , for Tyner Cedar Walton (for only one album Tommy Flanagan), for Addison Farmer the relatively unknown Tommy Williams and for Humphries Albert "Tootie" Heath . The formation recorded three more LPs for Argo . At the beginning of 1962, the Jazztet switched to the major label Mercury Records ; before the band split up, the albums Here and Now and Another Git Together were created . The collected recordings of the Jazztet including the solo projects Golsons and Farmers from this Argo / Mercury phase appeared in 2004 in the edition The Complete Argo / Mercury Art Farmer / Benny Golson / Jazztet Sessions on Mosaic Records .

The album

The small record label Argo Records had so far focused on hits by Ramsey Lewis and Ahmad Jamal and intended to continue this successful series; this explains the brevity of the ten tracks, which were created in February 1960 and had to be suitable as single releases; one such hit release was the Golson track " Killer Joe ", with the spoken introduction of the saxophonist ending their first album.

The LP began with Leroy Anderson's "Serenata" in 6/8 time of the melody, which is immediately interrupted by Golson; Golson and Art Farmer then play two choruses in 4/4 time until the original melody returns in 6/8. The 1959 film Porgy and Bess resulted in a variety of jazz adaptations of well-known George Gershwin themes; Here the Jazztet plays the jazz standard It Ain't Necessarily So , which was one of the most popular themes from Gershwin's opera. The piece is played here in medium tempo; Soloists are twice Farmer (with a stuffed and open trumpet), Golson and Fuller. The classic by Tin Pan Alley (1920), Vincent Roses and Al Jolsons Avalon is the basis for a classic hardbop blowing session at a fast pace; the melody is only recognizable in the last choruses. The following I Remember Clifford is one of Benny Golson's most famous compositions; he wrote it in memory of the fatally injured Clifford Brown , who had sat with Art Farmer in Lionel Hampton's trumpet section . Art Farmer is therefore the main soloist.

McCoy Tyner (1973)

Also from the pen of Golson comes the Blues March , which was popularized by the version of the Jazz Messengers , which emerged four Monasts later. Lex Humphries introduces characters from a parade; then it leads over to the solo choruses of Farmer and Fuller. Farmer then responds with short riffs to Fuller's solo play. Cole Porter's It’s All Right with Me was associated in jazz with the 1955 version of the Jay Jay Johnson / Kai Winding quintet ; Curtis Fuller had previously recorded the title on his Arabia album with Golson. The two co-leaders play the unison introduction here; then Fuller starts a solo, and parts of the ensemble keep interrupting his performance. Park Avenue Petite is a rather unknown composition by Golson; the ballad had shortly before recorded Blue Mitchell with the saxophonist. After Tyner's introduction, Farmer plays with the damper, as does Fuller; then Farmer returns with an open trumpet for the last eight bars. Art Farmer contributed the up-tempo piece Mox Nix ; Farmer had previously recorded the blues on his album Modern Art . Leo Robins / Ralph Rainger's 1937 Broadway classic Easy Living is a feature for Golson's ballad play after Farmer opened with a brief introduction. Golson's warm tone is reminiscent of Ben Webster and Lucky Thompson . Killer Joe was the title that made the Jazztet popular in the early 1960s . Art Farmer plays with a muted horn; Fuller integrates allusions to Little White Lies and I Remember April into his solo , and Tyner's playing is reminiscent of Red Garland .

title

Kind farmer

The Art Farmer / Benny Golson Jazztet - Meet the Jazztet (Argo LP 664)

  1. Serenata (Leroy Anderson) 3:30
  2. It Ain't Necessarily So (Gershwin) 4:28
  3. Avalon ( Vincent Rose / Al Jolson ) 3:28
  4. I Remember Clifford (Golson) 3:10
  5. Blues March (Golson) 5:17
  6. It's All Right with Me ( Cole Porter ) 3:54
  7. Park Avenue Petite (Golson) 3:41
  8. Mox Nix (Art Farmer) 4:02
  9. Easy Living ( Leo Robin / Ralph Rainger ) 3:34
  10. Killer Joe (Golson) 4:58

Rating of the album

Richard Cook and Brian Morton rated the Jazztet's recordings in the Penguin Guide to Jazz as excellent small group albums that are on the same level as the Jazz Messengers recordings made in the same era . In the liner notes for the new edition of the Jazztet sessions, the music journalist Bob Blumenthal quotes the down-beat critic Gene Lees, who spoke in a 1960 cover story of the “balanced amalgam of formally written out structures and free play - the long-sought grail of jazz” .

Scott Yanow gave the album the highest rating in the All Music Guide ; it's classic hard bop; it contains excellent solos by Art Farmer, Curtis Fuller, Benny Golson and the pianist McCoy Tyner, who made his recording debut. Highlights are the Golson compositions, the original version by Killer Joe as well as the versions by I Remember Clifford and the Blues March .

literature

Web links

References and comments

  • Remarks
  1. ↑ At the time, the Savoy Records label was evidently not so precise about the exact name of the formation under Fuller's leadership: The album, created in August 1959, was called The Curtis Fuller Jazztet with Benny Golson (MG 12143), while the one recorded in December 1959 as Imagination - The Curtis Fuller Jazztette (MG 12144) appeared. With Curtis Fuller Benny Golson took under his name - also in December 1959 - the album Gettin 'with It ; other contributors were Tommy Flanagan , who himself was briefly a member of the Jazztet in 1961 , as well as Doug Watkins and Art Taylor .
  2. ↑ 1983 to 1986 the three albums The Jazztet - Moment to Moment for Soul Note and Real Time and Back to the City for Contemporary Records were created with Golson, Fuller and Farmer
  3. ↑ Big City Sounds (Argo LP 672), The Jazztet & John Lewis (Argo LP 684) and the live album At Birdhouse (Argo LP 688); Farmer and Golson also recorded three solo albums for Argo , The Art Farmer Quartet , Argo LP 678 and Perception , Argo LP 738 and Benny Golson: Take a Number from 1 to 10 , (Argo LP 681).
  4. ↑ Cook / Morton refer in the 2001 edition to the edition Blues On Down (Chess GRP 18022), which combines the albums Big City Sounds (1960) and the live album Jazztet at Birdhouse . They awarded this album the second highest rating of three and a half stars.
  1. ↑ Penguin Guide; Farmer Article, p. 494.
  • Bob Blumenthal: liner notes 2004
  1. ↑ Blumenthal, liner notes 2004
  2. ↑ Blumenthal, liner notes 2004
  3. ↑ Blumenthal, liner notes 2004
  4. ↑ Blumenthal, liner notes 2004
  5. ↑ Quoted from Bob Blumenthal, liner notes 2004