For the month of January, BMG is reissuing four jazz albums from the 1950s originally released by the Bethlehem label: East Coasting by Charles Mingus (available 1/13), Hard Drive by Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers (available 1/20), Duke Ellington Presents… (available 1/20), and John Coltrane in the Winners Circle (available 1/27). While none of the four rank in the top tier of ’50s jazz, each record is a worthy acquisition for collectors devoted to the jazz landscape of the era.
As a defining artist of the big band-era, pianist, composer and bandleader Duke Ellington is distinct in this august company, so we’ll start with his album, a somewhat unusual 1956 date (recorded in February) in which standards (Summertime,” “Laura,” “I Can’t Get Started,” “My Funny Valentine,” “Deep Purple,” and “Indian Summer”) dominate the program. This results in a set that’s a bit reserved, at least until the rip-roaring take of “Cotton Tail” on side two.
Interestingly, the album’s Duke compositions are all sequenced consecutively, “Everything But You” (featuring vocalist Jimmy Grissom) wrapping up side one and “Frustration” and “Day Dream” bookending “Cotton Tail” on the flip. The set closes with “Blues,” and if generically titled, the playing on that cut is amongst the record’s very best.
Not that any of the playing is subpar. In fact, trumpeters Cat Anderson and Clark Terry, altos Johnny Hodges and Russell Procope, tenor Paul Gonsalves, baritone Harry Carney, and clarinetist Jimmy Hamilton are in fine form as they raise the bar on the standards. Especially worthwhile is Duke’s piano and Ray Nance’s violin and vocal in “I Can’t Get Started. But in comparison to what transpired just a few months later at Newport, this record, as said, is a bit reserved, if still quite worthwhile.
Similar to Ellington, Art Blakey is known as much as a bandleader as he is for his consummate skill as a drummer, with a substantial number of records by Blakey & the Jazz Messengers helping to shape the Modern Jazz canon. Hard Drive, recorded and released in the autumn of 1957, isn’t one of them, but it is noteworthy as the final recording of Blakey’s second incarnation of the Messengers, featuring Bill Hardman on trumpet, Johnny Griffin on tenor, Junior Mance, and (on one track) Sam Dockery on piano, Spanky DeBrest on bass, and of course Blakey behind the kit.
Records by the Jazz Messengers are very much about the elevation of form, and some rise up higher than others, with the more lauded discs in their discography attaining the sublime. Hard Drive doesn’t quite make it to that level, but it does inhabit the core competency that all of Blakey’s group’s share, with swinging hard bop a constant.
But given the number of times Hard Drive has been reissued, the set isn’t exactly obscure, as Griffin, a key saxophonist from this era who seems to be somewhat underrated today, is blowing at a very high level throughout, with his two compositions a treat, particularly the quite catchy “Right Down Front.” Hardman is also a strong presence, his two compositions sharp, as “Deo-X” is a tight spotlight for Blakey. If not essential, there’s still a whole lot to like on Hard Drive.
Bassist and composer Charles Mingus is also deservedly renowned as a bandleader, with this 1957 session build upon regulars in his group of the era. There’s trumpeter Clarence Shaw, saxophonist Shafi Hadi, trombonist Jimmy Knepper, and drummer Dannie Richmond. The outlier is pianist Bill Evans, participating in his only session with Mingus (though it’s worth noting that he plays on A Swinging Introduction to Jimmy Knepper, which was recorded and released in ’57 by Bethlehem).
It’s interesting to hear Evans in such an occasionally boisterous and even raw-toned setting (see standout “West Coast Ghost”), although it’s true that Mingus hadn’t fully developed (i.e. hit his wildest stride) at this point (but “Celia” does get pretty close). The reality is that the young Evans is quite adaptable to what Mingus is up to (and he recorded regularly as a non-Miles sideman early in his career), even if he’s not as deeply communicative of Mingus’ thing as Horace Parlan or Jaki Byard.
With one exception, the opening ballad “Memories of You,” East Coasting is all Mingus compositions, five in total, and the group tackles them with assurance and verve (it surely helped that they had time to get it right). Mingus’ bass is big in the mix, and he does get a few moments in the foreground, but like Blakey (and Duke, for that matter), he’s not a showboat. Instead, he’s striving for beauty and stiff-arming complacency.
John Coltrane in the Winner’s Circle (originally issued simply as Winner’s Circle) is a feature for two studio bands made up of players who placed first or second in Down Beat magazine’s 1957 critic’s poll, which is important to distinguish from the reader’s poll, with that list a rather predictable batch of players, many of whom would’ve been unlikely to gel in anything other that the loosest of jam sessions.
And Winner’s Circle is definitely not a jam session, as the music played by both bands was arranged by Harry Tubbs. The band on the record’s odd numbered tracks consists of trumpeter Art Farmer, clarinetist Rolf Kühn, vibraphonist Eddie Costa, guitarist Kenny Burrell, bassist Oscar Pettiford, and drummer Ed Thigpen.
The even numbered tracks belong to the band of trumpeter Donald Byrd, trombonist Frank Rehak, tenor saxophonist Coltrane and baritone saxophonist Al Cohn, with Pettiford and Thigpen doing double duty and Costa switching to piano. On “Not So Sleepy,” Gene Quill plays alto sax and Freddie Green plays guitar, while Thigpen sits out and Philly Joe Jones steps in on drums.
Alternating the bands in the sequence rather than giving each a side of the record was a curious choice destined to damage the album’s flow, but the two bands gel together rather appealingly. All-star sessions rarely live up to expectations, but this one is a rare exception. Befitting their status as poll winners, everybody plays well, even if nobody’s sticking their neck out very far. Even without a bandleader, John Coltrane in the Winner’s Circle offers a vivid portrait of jazz circa 1958.
Duke Ellington Presents…
B+
Art Blakey, Hard Drive
B+
Charles Mingus, East Coasting
A-
John Coltrane in the Winner’s Circle
B+
