Benny Golson

Like most young sax wannabes, my exposure to Golson was through a version of his Killer Joe in HS Jazz Band. It wasn't until I got serious about the saxophone, much later, that I discovered Golson for myself. The track I am uploading is a Golson original - appropriately - entitled The Stroller from his album Groovin' with Golson.

I want to say that Benny Golson was on the Art Blakey album Moanin', which also featured Along Came Betty. Golson was best known for his compositions, and for very good reason: Killer Joe, Along Came Betty, Stablemates, Whisper Not, I Remember Clifford for starters. Golson, as demonstrated on this recording, could hold his own in esteemed saxophone company, but he never rose to the first rank of tenor men born in the 1920s and, consequently, I don't think he gets his deserved credit. Coltrane and Sonny Rollins aside, Golson (along with Jimmy Heath) are unique in the impact of both their playing and their writing, for which they do receive acclaim. I recall that Golson did a significant amount of writing for TV and film, so perhaps this was held against him at some point? Nevertheless, Golson, like all the saxmen who survive, becomes a musical treasure, not only for his musical contributions, but for connecting us to the Titans, namely John Coltrane. Coltrane, Heath and Golson were all contemporaries in Philadelphia, and in Heath's own words, the three of them spent significant time together. It was either Golson's or Heath's parents who hosted the neighbourhood jam session in their living room. As a parent, try to wrap your head around presiding over that assembly. I wonder if they knew? Somebody should have pressed "record". So, not only was Golson a serious player in his day - and YouTube reveals that he still is - he wrote some very important jazz standards AND he can provide firsthand accounts of the life and playing of a youthful John Coltrane.

I was fortunate to know Ross Taggart (1967-2013), who ranked among the most gifted jazz musicians Canada has ever contributed, an equally gifted pianist and saxophonist. I recall hearing about Ross' time studying with Benny Golson; firsthand accounts are authentic, as opposed to what we read. Ross was renowned for being a kind soul and funny as h*ll. Ross spoke of Benny Golson in the highest regard, so Benny must also be a really, really great guy. Health and happiness to Mr. Golson and God rest Ross Taggart. Enjoy this track.


For more on Benny Golson, go to the source: http://www.bennygolson.com

Paul Gonsalves

I should clarify something from my last post. I mentioned that Jimmy Forrest was among the few Big Band tenors to record with both the big band icons, Basie AND Ellington. I should have qualified this with born after WWI. Paul Gonsalves was another. The significance of this point will be borne out in this post: the players born in the decade after WWI determined the path of jazz more than any generation before or after them.

Both Gonsalves and Forrest were born immediately following WWI, in 1920. An argument can be made that the decade of the 1920s was the Jazz Tenor Cambrian explosion: Jimmy Forrest, Paul Gonsalves, Illinois Jacquet, Yusef Lateef, Lockjaw Davis, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Stitt, Gene Ammons, Zoot Sims, John Coltrane, Johnny Griffin, Benny Golson, Jimmy Heath (though initially an alto player) are the players that come immediately to mind. Add Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson from the 1930s and the history of modern Jazz tenor is pretty much covered. Include Charlie Parker and Ornette Coleman - in no way am I claiming this list is exhaustive; I'm making a point - and all contemporary jazz saxophone derives from these players.

As memory serves me, Gonsalves was from Boston (as was fellow Ellingtonian, Harry Carney). I mention this because I wonder if this led to him having such a distinctive sound? The majority of the other Tenors of the Twenties came from the American mid-west or south of Pennsylvania. To my ear his sound was highly idiosyncratic, like he was always playing the sh*t out of the tail-end of a really great reed. I'm not saying he plays or sounds like the tenor man I'm about to name, but I am saying he's idiosyncratic in a similar fashion to Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. No tenor player in the history of recorded jazz sounded anything like Lockjaw and the same can be said of Gonsalves.

I've always felt that his Newport performance on Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue eclipsed his other, more important playing. In this regard, Getting' Together is a great example. Every collection of modern jazz tenor MUST contain Gordon, Coltrane and Rollins, but is should contain this album, hence the purpose of this blog. The band cooks from track one to eight, featuring two-thirds of Miles' late 50s rhythm section. The remainder comes from the Cannonball Adderley Quintet: Nat and Sam Jones. I admit to always being a sucker for Nat Adderely, as he was the first trumpeter (cornetist) I listened to frequently: I was a big Cannonball fan in high school. I suspect we tend to fill our collections with additional Coltrane, Rollins and Dexter before we consider guys like Gonsalves (outside of the Ellington band).

Do yourself - and your collection - a big favour and buy this album on iTunes. You will listen to it frequently. Though the writing and arranging is not a focus - it's no Blue Note album; it could have been called Thrown Together - the playing is stellar. I've chosen to post J. and B. Blues, the title presumably a nod to Gonsalves' beverage of choice. I went through a phase where I listened to Gonsalves first chorus over and over again, convinced it was the greatest twelve bars of a blues ever played on tenor. My perspective has become more realistic over years of listening: it's the definitive twelve bars of Gonsalves' playing, not Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue.


I found the following site that has helpful biographical information on Paul Gonsalves, as well as some fine photos.

http://paulgonsalves.org/

Jimmy Forrest

Jimmy Forrest was/is the focus of one of my other blogs, boloblues.blogspot.ca, where I hope(d) to provide the definitive online reference for Jimmy Forrest. I discovered Forrest during a period when I was studying the music of Count Basie quite intently, during the centenary of the Count's birth. Through my research I wound up watching The Last of The Blue Devils, a Bruce Ricker film. While watching this video I finally realized that Forrest was the same guy who played/wrote/borrowed Night Train. On a side note, in all the performance footage from The Last of The Blue Devils Forrest is playing on what appears to be an early Vito/Yamaha tenor. Why this is so remains a mystery for the ages, but it proves the old adage that - for serious players - the horn sounds like the player and not the other way around.

Forrest is notable for being among the few Big Band tenors to record with both iconic leaders, Basie AND Ellington. Forrest paid his dues in Kansas City in the late thirties and early forties, most certainly performing with Charlie Parker in the Jay McShann Orchestra. Regrettably, the first AFM ban came into effect at the time that Forrest and Parker were working together: to my knowledge, there is no recording of them together. Forrest ranks among my very favourite tenor players, drawing inspiration from Ben Webster at times, while drawing on the new harmonic vocabulary of post WWII jazz. Every Forrest recording from the 50s and 60s swings hard, including two of the greatest-ever jazz organ combo recordings led by Jack McDuff. I'm not sure who deserves the credit - Forrest or the A&R department - but Forrest had a knack for young jazz talent: no less than Joe Zawinul, Grant Green and Larry Young make their recording debuts with Forrest.

I could go on about Forrest, but I'll reserve boloblues.blogspot.ca for that enterprise. My final reason for putting Forrest here is for my all-time favourite classical music quote in a solo: Sabre Dance by Russian composer Aram Khachaturian (I finished a post on Russian ballet music earlier today). In The Last of the Blue Devils Forrest brilliantly works the melody into his solo on Moten Swing. Here he quotes the melody in one of his many R&B hits from the 50s, Coach 13. If you're looking for peerless straight-ahead, small group jazz, then try to find two recordings that Forrest made with Harry "Sweets" Edison, The Swinger and Mr. Swing.


I found the following site that has helpful biographical information on Jimmy Forrest, as well as some fine photos.

http://www.jazzwax.com/2012/08/jimmy-forrest-sit-down-and-relax.html
 

Harold Land

I'm starting here because the first CD I ever bought featured the Clifford Brown-Max Roach ensemble. I bought this during the lean years when recording companies were changing formats from LPs to CDs. These were dire times: I remember not being able to find Blue Train on vinyl. By the way, I'm not getting out of this chair to read the CD liner notes to verify what I'm about to write: that's the Internet's job, not mine. I recall that the CD featured the aforementioned jazz icons, as well as - I'm gonna say - Richie Powell on piano (brother of Bud?) and - with certainty - Harold Land on tenor sax. I'll take a flyer and say Doug Watkins was the bass player (I'm still refusing to verify ANY of this information). It seems to me that Sonny Rollins replaced Harold Land in this group, post 1955, making Harold Land the answer to a great jazz trivia question.

Though Land was from Texas, he spent much of his career on the West Coast, performing with, among others, Gerald Wilson's big band and recording several notable records with Bobby Hutcherson, post-corporate takeover of Blue Note Records.

The Harold Land track comes from a late 50s album entitled The Fox. The track is called Little Chris, composed by Harold Land, and is reminiscent of Syeeda's Song Flute, which, notably, was released on Giant Steps several months after The Fox. I'm sure the BMI or ASCAP website could settle any debate over the provenance of these tunes.

I found the following site that has helpful biographical information on Harold Land, as well as some fine photos.

http://haroldland.jazzgiants.net/

Introduction

The purpose of this blog is to celebrate the lights of jazz saxophone that - for any number of reasons - never burned as brightly as Charlie Parker, John Coltrane or Sonny Rollins. I will be drawing from recordings in my own library and I will be working from memory, in terms of written content. You see, there was a time when the know-it-all had currency, prior to the 1990s. I straddle epochs where all knowledge was found in a library (or an old-timer) and where all knowledge is at my fingertips. I choose to work without a net on this blog and use my accumulated, old school jazz history. Here are my guidlines for posting:

• I will post a paragraph about the saxman, drawn from my own recollections of liner notes, books, conversations
• I will link to one audio track that I will post to YouTube from my own library; the saxman will be the leader on the session
• I will only feature a saxman if he was born before the the first AFM recording ban (1942)
• I will post a track where the saxman is a sideman if I feel the track is really great (i.e. the greatest tunes you've never heard)

Good listening!