Listening to Prestige 604: Jack McDuff

LISTEN TO ONE: Jive Samba

Prestige Records, Ozzie Cadena and Rudy Van Gelder took a bit of a breather in the fall of 1963, between the September 17th date of Jack McDuff, without his group, joining Sonny Stitt for a session, and October 10, when McDuff regular Red Holloway recorded a date without Brother Jack. 

But in the interim, one of Prestige's mainstays was recorded live out in San Francisco, and the results released on Prestige. The club was the Jazz Workshop, and the headliner none other than Brother Jack.

San Francisco, especially the North Beach area, was a hot epicenter for jazz in the 1960s, with such a cluster of clubs that Dizzy Gillespie, playing one night at the Jazz Workshop, could tuck his horn under his arm, walk across the street to a club where Carmen McRae was headlining, and accompany her on a swinging version of "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." The Workshop was particularly fertile ground. Barry Harris recorded a live album there in 1960, and he was followed by Charles Mingus, Cannonball Adderley, James Moody, Larry Coryell, and perhaps most famously, Thelonious Monk, whose 1964 appearance was recorded but unreleased. When it finally saw the light of day in 1983, it was hailed as one of Monk's finest efforts.

Jack McDuff hit Frisco with a big sound, including his two tenormen of the moment (usually he used one or the other), Harold Vick and Red Holloway, and his hot new guitar find, George Benson, and they all came ready to play to a responsive audience.

The date included four originals by McDuff, including "Grease Monkey," a staple of his live sets, and a tune previously recorded on an album with Kenny Burrell. 

"Somewhere in the Night" was written by noted arranger Billy May as the theme music for the gritty New York-based police drama Naked City, and it had become a crowd pleaser for jazz ensembles.

"Passing Through" was from a young West Coast musician who was starting to make a name for himself as a sax player/composer/arranger with Chico Hamilton. Charles Lloyd would go on to become one of the biggest jazz stars of the rest of the century, and into the next millennium. 

Finally, "Jive Samba"  had recently been recorded by Cannonball Adderley, from the pen of his brother Nat. It had already become a hit in jazz circles, and has remained a staple of the jazz repertoire for major artists and school groups alike.

Jazz Workshop was a great place to play, and its knowledgeable and enthusiastic audiences drew the best out of the musicians that played there. This album, entitled Brother Jack at the Jazz Workshop--Live!,  produced by Lew Futterman and Peter Paul, yielded two 45 RPM singles off the initial release, "Passing Through" / "Somewhere In The Night" and  "Dink's Blues / Grease Monkey." A third single,  "Rock Candy / Grease Monkey" was released in 1969. The group is identified as the Brother Jack McDuff Quartet, despite the presence of five musicians.