Listening to Prestige 628: Lightnin' Hopkins

LISTEN TO ONE: Let's Go Sit on the Lawn

 Bluesville is gone, but Prestige is not quite done with the blues, so here is Lightnin' Hopkins back in the studio for two days, and two albums' worth of songs.

The details of many early blues recordings under hastily thrown-together conditions and often for obscure fly-by-night labels are shrouded in mystery, but this is hardly an early recording or a fly-by-night label, and a certain amount of confusion abides.

Wikipedia's entry for for the first-released album,

Down Home Blues, lists it as a Bluesville release, and gives a catalog number, BVLP 1086. Stefan Wirz, the German blues discographer, lists it in his Bluesville discography, with a catalog number of 1086. Jazzdisco, the Japanese jazz discographical site, lists it as a Prestige release, catalog number PR 1086. 

Wirz's illustrated discography shows the album cover, and the same album cover can be found on the Wikipedia site and the Discogs site, so it would seem to be the only album cover. All of these covers bear the Prestige logo and not the Bluesville logo. Further, the Discogs site also shows the back cover, with the Prestige logo and the words Prestige 1086. Which should settle the matter...except...

Prestige has no PR 1000 line. And Prestige Bluesville did, and BVLP 1086, were it anywhere on the label or the packaging, would fit quite nicely into it, as the last Bluesville recording (save only BVLP 1089, the belated release of a 1961 session with Scrapper Blackwell protégé Shirley Griffith).

The rest of it is fairly straightforward. Well, maybe not. The sessions were recorded in New York City (Jazzdisco) or Englewood Cliffs (Wikipedia) with Ozzie Cadena producing (Discogs) or Sam Charters (Wikipedia). The sleeve of Soul Blues lists Ozzie as producer. 

Chris Albertson, a frequent Prestige producer who wrote the liner notes to both albums, says that:

The rhythmic accompaniment is supplied by bassist Leonard Gaskin who has recorded with Hopkins before but whose wide range of musical associations also include Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Eddie Condon, and drummer Herbie Lovell who counts Earl Hines, Arnett Cobb, Teddy Wilson and Buck Clayton among his past associates.

Which would seem to suggest that Gaskin and Lovell are once again recording with Hopkins. But The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings posits that "Gaskin and Lovelle's parts were probably added at overdub sessions." That would not have been Prestige's normal way of doing things.

 

The recording took place over two days, with all of the songs that would appear on Down Hone Blues  and some that were destined for Soul Blues recorded on May 4, and the rest on May 5 -- Monday and Tuesday.

Hopkins was probably the most-recorded of all the country blues singers, under his own name and a variety of others. He has appeared on seven earlier Prestige recordings -- as a solo, with other Houston bluesmen, with New York jazz musicians. One would have to be awfully dedicated to collect everything he ever recorded. But if one wanted to start listening to Hopkins, or add a little to an ongoing collection, any of these Prestige recordings would be good. These two albums, or the Double Blues reissue put out by Fantasy on LP or CD, with Rudy Van Gelder's sound engineering, would be excellent.

Two 45 RPM singles came from this session: "Let's Go Sit On The Lawn" / "I Like To Boogie" and "I'm Going To Build Me A Heaven Of My Own," Parts 1 & 2.

Listening to Prestige 627 - George Benson, Jack McDuff

LISTEN TO ONE: The Sweet Alice Blues

 In an interview many years later, sometime in the 1990s, George Benson begins a story by telling the interview that a long time ago, he played in a band led by a guy named Jack McDuff. The interview must have been with a non-jazz publication, as by that time Benson was a crossover star, since McDuff continued to tour and record into the 90s, and in fact Benson rejoined his old boss to play on two cuts of a McDuff album in 1992, recorded in Germany and released on Concord Jazz.

The story, as with all of Benson's stories about his days with McDuff, was about how much he had learned from the veteran organist. But it seems that Prestige was already recognizing, if not that student would outstrip the master, at least that the fledgling was ready to spread his wings and leave the nest. Benson would record a few more times with McDuff, and then go on to superstardom beyond Prestige.

In one of Benson's reminiscences about his early days with McDuff (others are referenced here), he says:

Due to the fact that I couldn’t play very well, he would only give me one or two choruses in any song. So whatever I could play, I had to cram it into a chorus or two—which made me learn to fire up very early in my solo. I said: “Well, this is gonna be short”, and I’d just rumble away at a lot of notes, and throw in funky things, pretty things, every kind of thing I could think of. And it was good for records, because when I got in the studio I could do that naturally.

McDuff himself had been mentored by Willis "Gator Tail" Jackson, who encouraged him to switch from the bass to the organ. Jackson was, by some accounts, a particularly hard man to get along with, but he had a way of discovering and shaping young talent, from McDuff and Bill Jennings in the 1950s to Pat Martino in the mid-1960s, and he seems to have passed the torch on to McDuff.

And young George Benson clearly learned a thing or two from playing those one or two choruses. 

Red Holloway and McDuff join Benson here, but the rest of the rhythm section is different, and interesting. Bassist Ronnie Boykins was just in the process of branching out after having spent seven years with Sun Ra. Roger "Montego Joe" Sanders had played on Prestige sessions before, with Willis Jackson, Ted Curson, and Ahmed Abdul-Malik.

And another instrument is added to the mix on the first two cuts, "Shadow Dancers" and "The Sweet Alice Blues." McDuff's organ and piano are absent from these two cuts, and in their place is some very active work on the bongo drums--according to Chris Albertson's liner notes, "presumably...being played by McDuff." 

McDuff stays on organ the rest of the way, with the exception of "Easy Living," where he switches to piano.  Benson gives a lot of solo space to Holloway, but ultimately this is his album, and putting his name out front does make a difference. Listening to this music from the point of view of history, we're immediately aware of Benson from the first time his name appears on a Jack McDuff album, and we immediately start to track his development. But Albertson, who of course could have had no idea of the breakout future that awaited Benson, says in the liner notes:

It is highly probable that you are unfamiliar with the name of George Benson although it is very likely that you have heard hum play, either in person or on records, as a member of organist Jack McDuff's group.

And Albertson is not about to go out on a limb and say "A star is born!", either. He hedges that bet:

The Brother Jack McDuff quartet is a highly democratic one,  allowing each member a chance to record under his own name, with leader McDuff taking on the role as sideman.

Neither is Benson about to dominate the session. Holloway has as much solo space as he does. But it is clearly an important step. He would appear on five more Prestige albums in 1964-65: Three of them under McDuff's name, one under Joe Dukes', one under Red Holloway's. The Holloway album was produced by Lew Futterman, but neither McDuff nor Dukes appear on it (the organ part is played by Lonnie Smith). Then he was on to Columbia, where they had a better star-making machine, and where he began singing as well as playing.

This album was entitled The New Boss Guitar Of George Benson With The Brother Jack McDuff Quartet. "Shadow Dancers" and "Just Another Sunday" were the 45 RPM single release. Lew Futterman produced.   

 

Listening to Prestige 625: Jack McDuff - Benny Golson

LISTEN TO ONE: The Pink Panther

 Jack McDuff's manager Lew Futterman, in the liner notes for the next session, describes how he got Golson and McDuff together:

McDuff had opened [at Birdland], and I was down there to see him...Benny and I ended up at the same table. While I was well aware of his writing, playing and arranging, we had never before met. I asked him how he liked McDuff. He said, "Great!" Since he was unaware what my relationship was to Jack, I pushed him a little farther by telling him I didn't like Jack's playing. His response was immediate. "You're entitled to your opinion. But I've never heard a jazz organist play with the feeling this man has. He shows such a great emotional quality, such a sympathy for the music that I could listen to him all night."

...He proceeded to say what I had felt since first hearing Jack play but had never been able to verbalize so succinctly--namely, that Jack McDuff exhibits a rare intuitive understanding of jazz, and of music in general. Nothing he plays seems stiff or structured, moving instinctively from one musical idea to the next, with no apparent disparity between what he feels he wants to play and what he can play. The excitement he generates is organic, rather than forced, as if he were thinking with his fingers.

At that point, Futterman outed himself to Golson, and asked if he'd consider writing some arrangements for McDuff.

"Only if I can write what I want to." I started to give him a qualified "yes," but decided better of it. A man with Golson's talent...deserves a free hand.

It seems quite certain that Golson had a free hand, because how else explain Henry Mancini's "Pink Panther Theme" on a jazz album? Or such was my first thought, on hearing it. But "Pink Panther" was a huge hit in 1964, the year of the movie's release, and a few different jazz artists covered it. There was a rhythm and bluesy version by Earl Bostic, another organ interpretation by Jimmy McGriff, and another big band arrangement by Quincy Jones.

As it turns out, they're all worth a listen. As a composer, Henry Mancini may have been a master of the obvious, but the operative word there is "master." The tune may have been perky and ubiquitous to have even become the punch line of a joke (What did the Pink Panther say when he stepped on an ant? --Dead ant...dead ant...dead ant dead ant dead ant....), but it was brilliant in its own silly way, and it responded nicely to the big band treatment, and to McDuff's bravura organ work.

The album's cover, however, promotes another movie tie-in--the theme from The Carpetbaggers, which is odd, in that although The Carpetbaggers was a blockbuster movie, its score, by the redoubtable Elmer Bernstein, was not a breakout success. Secondhandsongs, the website that keeps track of cover versions of nearly everything, cannot find a single one for the Carpetbaggers theme. YouTube turns up one other, by Jimmy Smith. Still, it's Elmer Bernstein, which means it's bound to be a decent tune (if a little too reminiscent of Bernstein's more popular theme from The Man With the Golden Arm), and Golson and McDuff certainly make it worth listening to. 

Golson takes two from the movies, two from Broadway. The Broadway tunes are both from musicals of the 1960s. "Once in a Lifetime," by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, was one of the breakout hits from the musical Stop the World--I Want to Get Off, the star vehicle for Newley which had opened in 1962 and was still running. "You Better Love Me" was from the just-opened High Spirits, composed by Hugh Martin (best known for the songs from Meet Me in St. Louis) and Timothy Gray. One has to figure that all of these not-exactly-standards were chosen by Golson for how they'd sound with Jack McDuff counterpointed against an orchestra, and the proof is in the pudding. Golson was right.

McDuff brings his regular group. Golson brings an orchestra, personnel unidentified. The four tunes were all they recorded, and the B side of the album comes from McDuff's earlier date on the West Coast. Lew Futterman produced both sessions. The album is entitled The Dynamic Jack McDuff. "Pink Panther" and "Carpetbaggers" were released on 45. The version I've linked to on "Listen to One" is the 45 RPM version. Weighing in at 3:20, as opposed to the album's 5:15, which means more theme and less improvisation, but hey, it's the Pink Panther! Dead ant...dead ant...."Once in a Lifetime" was also released on 45, as the flip side of "Rail Head," from the earlier session.

Listening to Prestige 624: Kenny Burrell

LISTEN TO ONE: Soul Call

Kenny Burrell was certainly no stranger to Prestige's album shelf, but it had been a while since the label had given him the leader's baton -- seven years. He had recently worked with Jack McDuff, Shirley Scott, Gildo Mahones, Jimmy Witherspoon.

This a slightly unusual lineup in that it's a quintet with no horns. The basic rhythm section, and Burrell's guitar, are augmented by the always-welcome Ray Barretto. The other musicians on the date are less well-known. Bill English played on a few Prestige sessions; the other two are newcomers to Prestige, but members of Burrell's working group.

Will Davis, new to Prestige, had seniority in the jazz world. Born in 1926, he joined Howard McGhee's early West Coast bebop ensemble and recorded with McGhee in 1948. Then relocating to Detroit, he became a part of that city's high-flying jazz scene. As the house pianist at the Crystal Bar, he worked with many of bebop's royalty, including Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. After his move to New York in the late 1950s, he worked often with Burrell, although this was their only recording together. 

If Davis represented the Old Guard of modern jazz, Martin Rivera had something of a different background, making his first recordings with Les Jazz Modes, the experimental group organized by Julius Watkins and Charlie Rouse. He also worked frequently with Junior Mance, recording with him as a duo, and made a few albums with Burrell, although this would be the only one on Prestige.

So it's fair to say that Burrell was looking for a flexible sound--not the trendy sound of soul jazz, although the album's title, Soul Call, would seem to suggest otherwise. But any casual jazz fancier, picking up the 45 RPM single for a jolt of the popular soul jazz of the day, might have been sorely disappointed.

Any real jazz fan, not so. "Soul Call," over a rock solid (but not aggressively funky) riff from the rhythm section, is a is a wonderful rhythmic/melodic/improvisational interplay between two masters, Burrell and Barretto.

It's a Burrell composition, as is "Kenny's Theme," which is the flip side of the 45, and another opportunity for Burrell and Barretto to interweave their talents, with rhythmic delights by Bill English and Martin Rivera thrown in.

"Mark I" was written by Will Davis, and there's room for some piano-guitar interaction, but mostly it's a vehicle for some bravura work by Burrell.

Standards comprise the rest of the album, and one not-quite-standard: "Oh Henry," written by Gil Fuller and Ernie Henry. Henry was a talented saxophone player whose promising career was cut short by heroin overdose in 1957. Fuller, though his name is not quite a household word, was a gifted composer and arranger particularly known for his work with Dizzy Gillespie. He was co-composer and arranger on "Manteca," "Tin Tin Deo" and "One Bass Hit." He gives Burrell and company a spirited beboppish romp here, to cap off an album of much originality, much virtuosity, and if the group doesn't entirely answer the soul call, they provide a refreshing change of pace.

Ozzie Cadena produced.

Listening to Prestige 623: Shirley Scott and Stanley Turrentine

LISTEN TO ONE: The Funky Fox

 By this time Shirley Scott and Stanley Turrentine are as blissfully united musically as we hope they are in their marriage life, though their marriage was destined not to last beyond 1971. But hey, you never know with marriages, and the music they recorded together remains an enduring testament to the best days of their relationship.

But just because they're perfectly attuned to each other, that doesn't mean they're slipping into too-familiar grooves. They're playing soul jazz to appeal to anyone with a pulse, but the way they play off each other gives each of them the opportunity for creativity and new discoveries. Scott, in particular, is always going to find new ways of approaching, and taking off from, a solid swinging musical idea.

Bob Cranshaw makes his Prestige debut here. He's best known for his five-decade association with Sonny Rollins, beginning in 1959, but he was always in demand for other sessions, including a number for Prestige throughout the decade with a variety of artists. One of his first recording gigs had been with Scott on a 1959 album for Impulse!, and although this is only Prestige session with her, he played with her on other albums for Impulse! and Atlantic.

"Flamingo" was first recorded by Duke Ellington in 1941, and taken to the top of the rhythm and blues charts in 1951. It became a crowd pleaser for club dates, and in fact was part of the Willis Jackson night that Prestige recorded live. "A Night at the Five Spot," a tribute to the great New York jazz club, was written by Benny Golson and recorded by Curtis Fuller and Art Farmer separately, and then by Golson, Farmer and Fuller together as the Jazztet in 1961. Scott and Turrentine made the next recording of it three years later, and after that it entered into the jazz standard repertoire. Bob Cranshaw may have brought along Sonny Rollins's "Grand Street."

The other tunes are by Scott, and they do an excellent job of showcasing the great organist and her talented husband. I particularly liked "The Funky Fox" -- perhaps a self-reference?

The album was released by Prestige as Blue Flames. Ozzie Cadena produced.