LISTEN TO ONE: Love Song from Suzie Wong
Anastasia
Prestige adds another rhythm and blues giant to its jazz roster, proving once again that rhythm and blues is a legitimate form of jazz, and that these players fit seamlessly into a more bop-oriented context. Up this time is Samuel Leroy Taylor Jr., known as Sam "the Man" Taylor when he led Alan Freed's stage band, but simply Sam Taylor when he recorded in more respectable settings (similarly, Ellingtonian Al Sears was "Big Al" when he performed and recorded with the Alan Freed band).
Taylor had been something of a pioneer in the sax-organ combo business, having recorded an album with Dick Hyman for MGM back in 1957, with a very different approach from the soul jazz sound that had become popular in 1962. But he
eschews the sax-organ sound here, going instead with a quintet. Pianist Lloyd Mayers's carer spanned decades, and twenty years after this session, he would be named musical director of the Broadway revue of Duke Ellington's music, Sophisticated Ladies. Wally Richardson was a very active session guitarist in those days, with a number of sessions for Prestige. Art Davis, whose reputation as one of the finest bassists of his generation, classical or jazz, was matched only by his social conscience, had appeared on two previous Prestige sessions. And that a classical cat can get down with a rhythm and blues cat is as good as any tribute to the breadth of the language of jazz. And add Ed Shaughnessy to the mix and you have a pro's pro, whose best known gig, with Doc Severinsen's Tonight show orchestra, didn't begin to scratch the surface of his range.
The album's format is a little gimmicky--movie themes that celebrate women's names (or attributes, like "The Bad and the Beautiful," and it was released on Moodsville, which was sometimes accused of being a little gimmicky as a label. But I am here to say I see absolutely nothing wrong with this. It was probably a lot of fun coming up with the gimmick, and then finding the movie themes that would work. This included classics like "Laura," and tunes that had immediate popularity and proved to have legs, like "The Bad and the Beautiful," written by David Raksin and recorded by jazz musicians from Barney Kessel (1957) to Bill Frisell (2016). And a couple of sleepers. "Love Song from Suzie Wong" has never been recorded by anyone else that I know of. It was written by George Duning, a frighteningly prolific
composer with 180 film scores to his credit. In 1960 alone, the year of The World of Suzie Wong, he scored six other movies. But someone had a good ear, and "Suzie Wong" came out well enough to be the 45 RPM single release from the session, with "Anastasia" on the flip side.
"Suzie Wong" / "Anastasia" was released as a Prestige single, "The Bad and the Beautiful" as a Moodsville single. The album, with the same name, also came out on Moodsville. "Ruby" (written by Heinz Roemheld for the movie Ruby Gentry) was later released on a compilation album for Prestige's budget label, Status, entitled Lusty Moods, and credited to Sam "the Man" Taylor.
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