1956

[Jazzrook]

Chet Baker & Crew from '56 with tenorist Phil Urso deserves a mention.
Also, Complete Playboy Sessions with Art Pepper, Phil Urso & Richie Kamuca.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQbCdBZ4ywA

JR

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

'Orace - "Six pieces of Silver" : Bluenote.

"The first classic album by the Horace Silver Quintet, this set is highlighted by "Señor Blues" and"Cool Eyes." The early Silver quintet of 1956 was essentially the Jazz Messengers of the year before, with trumpeter Donald Byrd, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, and bassist Doug Watkins(while drummer Louis Hayes was in Blakey's place), but already the band was starting to develop a sound of its own."Señor Blues" officially put Horace Silver on the map, and the album is a hard bop and gospel-tinged jazz gem".

I think Serge Chaloff's "Blue Serge" was also 1956.

BN.

[elmo]

'Orace - "Six pieces of Silver" : Bluenote.

"The first classic album by the Horace Silver Quintet, this set is highlighted by "Señor Blues" and"Cool Eyes." The early Silver quintet of 1956 was essentially the Jazz Messengers of the year before, with trumpeter Donald Byrd, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, and bassist Doug Watkins(while drummer Louis Hayes was in Blakey's place), but already the band was starting to develop a sound of its own."Señor Blues" officially put Horace Silver on the map, and the album is a hard bop and gospel-tinged jazz gem".

I think Serge Chaloff's "Blue Serge" was also 1956.

BN.

Yes that "Six pieces of Silver" really set the standard for his quintets - also bears out Ian's point that Horace managed to get the balance of arranged passages and free blowing just about right. I think the lesser celebrated " Silvers Blue" on Columbia also recorded in 1956 is equally fine.

How about-

Sun Ra "Super sonic Jazz" and "Sun Song" Both recorded in 1956 for Saturn - The first authentic Hard Bop big band recordings

Curtis Counce Quintet - Equal of any East coast hard boppers - Harold Land and Carl Perkins, marvellous.

Dizzy's Big Band - the Verve's and especially the live recordings from the S America.

Quincy Jones - "This is how I fell about Jazz"

Oscar Pettiford/Lucky Thompson "Tricotism"

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Yes that "Six pieces of Silver" really set the standard for his quintets - also bears out Ian's point that Horace managed to get the balance of arranged passages and free blowing just about right. I think the lesser celebrated " Silvers Blue" on Columbia also recorded in 1956 is equally fine.

How about-

Sun Ra "Super sonic Jazz" and "Sun Song" Both recorded in 1956 for Saturn - The first authentic Hard Bop big band recordings

Curtis Counce Quintet - Equal of any East coast hard boppers - Harold Land and Carl Perkins, marvellous.

Dizzy's Big Band - the Verve's and especially the live recordings from the S America.

Quincy Jones - "This is how I fell about Jazz"

Oscar Pettiford/Lucky Thompson "Tricotism"

ALL wonderful, esp the Curtis Counce et Harold and Carl...and Jack Sheldon is no slouch on those albums.

I really think Horace Silver has far more depth than is often credited. I think he said somewhere " Simplicity but with meaning", the meaning was always there if you listened. And the classic later Junior Cook/Blue Mitchell line up was tight and fluid. Not merely "workmanlike". The more I listen, the more I REALLY like Junior's tenor. Another "misunderstood".

BN.

[Old Grumpy]

1956

A good year then - shame I wasn't around...



... but I was waiting, just around the corner


OG

[Ian Thumwood]

Picking up on SA's reference, it is a shame that Sandy Brown is so little remembered know. I think he was a real original and certainly a musician I would like to hear more of. "Oxford George" used to be a staple of JRR years ago. His clarinet sounds like the wild and unruly offspring of Pee Wee Russell and Woody Herman and I feel was someone who transcended the modernist's perceived limitations of Trad. With the passage of time, he seems more and more of a distinctive soloist and easier to consider in his own context. I would imagine that he was one of the few musicians associated with Traditional Jazz in the 50's and 60's who would have had an appeal for followers of the then contemporary scene. His playing has the kind of eccentricity that you associate with the likes of Monk ,Pee Wee Russell, Errol Garner, Clark Terry and alto player Rudy Williams in that it belongs to it's own school and really has nothing to do with any particular idiom. I love the oddness of his clarinet playing.

[Serial_Apologist]

Picking up on SA's reference, it is a shame that Sandy Brown is so little remembered know. I think he was a real original and certainly a musician I would like to hear more of. "Oxford George" used to be a staple of JRR years ago. His clarinet sounds like the wild and unruly offspring of Pee Wee Russell and Woody Herman and I feel was someone who transcended the modernist's perceived limitations of Trad. With the passage of time, he seems more and more of a distinctive soloist and easier to consider in his own context. I would imagine that he was one of the few musicians associated with Traditional Jazz in the 50's and 60's who would have had an appeal for followers of the then contemporary scene. His playing has the kind of eccentricity that you associate with the likes of Monk ,Pee Wee Russell, Errol Garner, Clark Terry and alto player Rudy Williams in that it belongs to it's own school and really has nothing to do with any particular idiom. I love the oddness of his clarinet playing.

He was greatly admired and respected by a number of those from his contemporaries' field who themselves could be regarded as representing their own singularity when it comes to pinning down: people such as Humph Lyttelton, Mike Garrick, Stan Tracey, Bruce Turner, Tony Coe and Kenny Wheeler. Kenny played on Sandy's "Hair at its Hairiest" of 1969, and if ever there was a jazz recording that transcended the current categories of even those transitional times, it was that one!

[Jazzrook]

'Orace - "Six pieces of Silver" : Bluenote.

"The first classic album by the Horace Silver Quintet, this set is highlighted by "Señor Blues" and"Cool Eyes." The early Silver quintet of 1956 was essentially the Jazz Messengers of the year before, with trumpeter Donald Byrd, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, and bassist Doug Watkins(while drummer Louis Hayes was in Blakey's place), but already the band was starting to develop a sound of its own."Señor Blues" officially put Horace Silver on the map, and the album is a hard bop and gospel-tinged jazz gem".

I think Serge Chaloff's "Blue Serge" was also 1956.

BN.

The overlooked 'Silver's Blue'(EPIC/LEGACY) from 1956 is also an interesting one featuring two different quintets with Joe Gordon, Hank Mobley, Doug Watkins on 'To Beat Or Not To Beat' & 'Shoutin' Out':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiNDxRRc4Ig

JR

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

He was greatly admired and respected by a number of those from his contemporaries' field who themselves could be regarded as representing their own singularity when it comes to pinning down: people such as Humph Lyttelton, Mike Garrick, Stan Tracey, Bruce Turner, Tony Coe and Kenny Wheeler. Kenny played on Sandy's "Hair at its Hairiest" of 1969, and if ever there was a jazz recording that transcended the current categories of even those transitional times, it was that one!

And lest we forget...


"Sandy Brown Associates was the first major UK
buildings acoustics consultancy practice. Sandy's
work, and that of the practice that survives him,
has had a major influence on the development of
building acoustics both in the UK and throughout
the world."

BN.

[Serial_Apologist]

And lest we forget...


"Sandy Brown Associates was the first major UK
buildings acoustics consultancy practice. Sandy's
work, and that of the practice that survives him,
has had a major influence on the development of
building acoustics both in the UK and throughout
the world."

BN.

A man of sound judgements, evidently then.

(I'll get me ear muffs)

[burning dog]

Hear Hear!

[Jazzrook]

There are two tracks from 1956 on JRR today(30/1/16). The closer is from The Jimmy Giuffre Clarinet and is for all boredees:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHhUkmTwW3s

[Ian Thumwood]

May be 1956 was such a good year because, as mentioned by Ian, this was the time that LP's came on stream.

For the influence of recording techniques upon the kind of music that got preserved on record I would really recommend Richard Lee Kennedy's book about the Gennett label. This was a revelation when I read it. The books explains how the label came to record so many classic jazz and blues artists and reveals that there was no altruism involved with the bands simply being snapped up as the owners thought that the artists might sell. It was just like the novelty of the internet so records of school choirs, sermons, opera, or even rantings by Klu-Klux Klan ended up being preserved in wax. With the Depression and the advent of radio, many small, independent record labels had vanished by the early 1930s and those that remained needed to be more commercial and exercise greater control. As a result dance bands and singers became more popular as the reins were tightened on the type of music companies wanted to sell. With LPs arriving, you could see a change to more organised and themed records with sessions being far more balanced than those that had gone before for the production of 78 rpms.

After reading this book, it did open my eyes as to how record companies had a major impact on the kind of music that was recorded for posterity and ultimately influenced how the music developed and what became influential. Perhaps this is the untold story of jazz insofar that we are now in a position where anyone can issue a record these days whereas even in to the 1960s you hear of brilliant jazz musicians who influenced a good number of other players or who taught the next generation of jazz musician but who never made it in to the studio. According;y, their influence tends to get over-looked. It would also think that it would be very interesting to find out what wasn't recorded by those musicians active in studios , especially around the 1920's and 30's and how this has influenced our perception of jazz.

[Jazzrook]

Miles & Pres together in 1956!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xewzFyT5WuA

[Serial_Apologist]

Miles & Pres together in 1956!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xewzFyT5WuA

Interesting. Listening to that Lester's way of thwarting the underlying rhythmic structure might have been more down to health reasons than feeding off Miles, but it actually sounds more avant-garde than a good many of his smoother followers of the time such as Getz.