Listen to Prestige 457: Joe Newman

It's unusual for a horn man who's used to the format of a big band to make an album in a quartet setting. Basie-ites, when stepping out (as they often did) tend to gather a few other instruments around them. often other Basie-ites. Newman had recorded a lot with his own groups, during his Basie years, always following that pattern, with an ensemble or at least a quintet. His two previous Swingville  albums featured Frank Wess on one, Frank Foster on the other.

But 1961 was a year of changes for Newman, He left  the Basie band to strike out on his own. And he got involved in another project that was larger than himself, albeit of a very different sort than playing in a band. He was one of the founders of Jazz Interactions, a nonprofit group dedicated to jazz education and the promoting of jazz. Newman's wife Rigmor was the first president of the organization, and Newman the first vice president. As he explained in an interview for the National Jazz Archive:

We founded the organisation to promote jazz, because it was in such a serious plight at the time. Everybody talked about it, but nobody did anything to alleviate the problem...[we] formed Jazz Interactions with the idea of promoting jazz on an educational basis. We thought we could do that best by going into the schools, getting with the young people, and acquainting them with jazz.

Many of the kids carried pocket radios around, listening only to the rock’n’roll; there was a part of their heritage they knew nothing about. We did a pilot programme, and invited the New York State Council of the Arts, the Musicians’ Union and some people from the School Board. Finally we got a grant—the first jazz organisation to be funded. With our in–school programmes, we didn’t go there just to play for them; we went to give them some knowledge, but in a way that it didn’t bore them, listening to us talk all the time. We played, and we mixed it up.

...We have chosen to go and help the young people. In my day, musicians coming up got no help at all.  

For much of the rest of his life he was deeply involved with Jazz Interactions.

Playing on his own with just a rhythm section, he still manages to stir up the rousing fervor that comes with striking up a band--as, for example, on the Gershwin tune, "Strike Up the Band." This near-anthemic celebration of music and of celebrations was written by George and Ira for a musical of the same name that flopped. Generally a great tune from that golden age would emerge like a phoenix from the ashes of an unsuccessful show, but "Strike up the Band" went virtually unrecorded from its debut in 1927 until Sonny Stitt and Bud Powell recorded it in 1951--once again, the dreaded beboppers keeping the Great American Songbook alive when very few else were.  Chris Connor recorded it in 1957, and since then, it has taken its place among the standards.

Newman's soft and romantic side comes out with "The Very Thought of You," a tune written by British émigré and radio bandleader Ray Noble. It's a dreamy beautiful melody that's never lacked for interpreters, and with good reason. It's always nice to hear, and it's particularly nice to hear Newman and Tommy Flanagan giving it equal portions of nostalgia and innovation.

So yes, Newman can carry a quartet album, and deliver a rewarding experience. Flanagan is splendid throughout; Wendell Marshall and Billy English do fine jobs. Esmond Edwards produced for Swingville, and the album was entitled Joe's Hap'nin's.