Listening to Prestige 639: Jimmy Witherspoon

LISTEN TO ONE: Every Time I Think About You

 Ambitious and serious-minded Stockholm Sojourn may have been, but after he'd finished one day of it (he was to bring his International Jazz Orchestra back into the studio in August), Benny Golson wasn't above having a little fun with many of the same musicians and a visiting blues singer. July 14, a Tuesday. was Stockholm Sojourn day, and for the rest of the week he sojourned with Jimmy Witherspoon, some orchestral sounds, and eclectic selection of tunes.

Witherspoon was no stranger to eclecticism. An Arkansas native, he first achieved recognition in Calcutta, India, singing over Armed Forces Radio.

A return to the States gave him his first recording dates with the straight-ahead Kansas City swing  of Jay McShann, but he would soon become known for for his mastery of a range of styles and material.

That range is on display here, and it also raises questions. Golson and Witherspoon hadn't worked together before, as far as I can tell, and certainly neither of them had worked with the Swedish musicians beyond the rehearsals for Stockholm Sojourn. So where did the songs for these sessions come from? You can't just tell a group of 15 people who are essentially strangers to you, "I'll just hum a few bars and you can fake it."

One theory, and it's probably as good as any: they decided to record whatever songs they were able to find the sheet music for by scrounging around Stockholm. 

Here's what they came up with, and I'm spending more time than I ought to on this set list because of a fascination of the sort usually reserved for train wrecks--except that crawling from the wreckage comes a mostly very good album, thanks to the talents of Messrs. Golson and Witherspoon.

"Some of My Best Friends Are the Blues," with 'Spoon in his best seductive crooning mode, but never letting you forget he can belt out a blues with the best of them, and make it sound authentic even with the accompaniment of a brass and woodwind orchestra. And even with a somewhat manufactured song, written by Al Byron and Woody Harris. Byron is probably best known for writing one of the sappiest love songs ever recorded, Bobby Vinton's "Roses are Red." He also had one cut with Elvis, "Something Blue," a song very much in the vein of "Roses are Red." His partner Woody Harris worked extensively with Bobby Darin, in a peppier, more uptempo vein than Byron--their biggest success was "Queen of the Hop." Harris also had an Elvis cut, a song called "I Want You With Me,"first recorded by Darin. He was responsible for one of the worst examples of Tin Pan Alley's early, gingerly flirtation with rock 'n roll. "Rock-a-Billy," a sort of hit for Forties crooner Guy Mitchell, the sort of singer that the gingerly Tin Pan Alley tunesmiths were comfortable with. He also wrote a song called "Dix-a-Billy," which was probably even worse than "Rock-a-Billy," but it sounds a little better, because it was sung by LaVern Baker. And "Brand New House," originally written for Darin, became a solid blues in the hands of Otis Spann.the sort of singer that the gingerly Tin Pan Alley tunesmiths were comfortable with. He also wrote a song called "Dix-a-Billy," which was probably even worse than "Rock-a-Billy," but it sounds a little better,because it was sung by LaVern Baker. And "Brand New House," originally written for Darin, became a solid blues in the hands of Otis Spann.the sort of singer that the gingerly Tin Pan Alley tunesmiths were comfortable with. He also wrote a song called "Dix-a-Billy," which was probably even worse than "Rock-a-Billy," but it sounds a little better, because it was sung by LaVern Baker. And "Brand New House," originally written for Darin, became a solid blues in the hands of Otis Spann.but it sounds a little better, because it was sung by LaVern Baker. And "Brand New House," originally written for Darin, became a solid blues in the hands of Otis Spann.but it sounds a little better, because it was sung by LaVern Baker. And "Brand New House," originally written for Darin, became a solid blues in the hands of Otis Spann.

In spite of that, there's not much to suggest that either of these two guys would be capable of writing a real blues, much less collaborate on one. But this song waas recorded by Della Reese and Lena Horne -- both of them night club singers, but with real resources of soul--before Golson/Witherspoon.

Surely, though, this couldn't have been floating around Stockholm in sheet music form? Perhaps 'Spoon brought it with him, hoping he'd run into Golson or someone like him, or else just wanting to sing the song in some European clubs, and figuring he'd need the music for whoever he picked up to play with him.

"Every Time I Think About You" was written by Claude Demetrius--I guessed, from the name, a European, possibly even a Swede. 

I guessed wrong. Claude Demetrius was that anomaly of anomalies, an African-American from Bath, Maine, whe escaped to New York at the age of 20, where he must have felt he'd found his real home, and he began writing for, and with, Louis Armstrong. In the '40s he wrote with, and for, Louis Jordan, including the hit "Ain't That Just Like a Woman." For bookkeeping reasons, or tax reasons, Jordan assigned writing credit for this and a number of his other songs to his then wife, Fleecie Moore. When they got divorced, Fleecie lived up to her name, and Jordan never did get the credit or royalties for those songs, and "Just Like a Woman" was widely covered, including by both Fats Domino and Chuck Berry. So Demetrius did well for himself until the mid-1950s. when he started doing very well indeed. His "I Was the One" was the flip side of Elvis Presley's mega-hit "Heartbreak Hotel," and it was just the beginning of his career writing for Elvis, a career that included "Mean Woman Blues" (also covered by Jerry Lee Lewis), and a mega-hit of his own, "Hard Headed Woman."

"Every Time I Think About You" is a terrific vehicle for 'Spoon, and one of Golson's best arrangements. It may well have been another tune that 'Spoon brought with him.

"I Never Will Marry" seems a little less likely to have been in his steamer trunk. A gentle folk song, probably of traditional origin but credited to A. P. Carter and first recorded by the Carter Family, it was a staple of hootenannies and campfires, and probably best known for its rendition by the Weavers--or maybe the sly sendup by the Smothers Brothers. Golson gives him a vocal chorus (uncredited) and strings (also uncredited). Golson is having some fun here, but Witherspoon plays it straight, gives the song a sensitive, folkie treatment. 

"I Wanna Be Around" was a new song, a hit for Tony Bennett and destined to become a jazz standard, with a weird story all its own. Sadie Vimmerstedt, a grandmother from Youngstown, Ohio, was inspired by the movie magazine stories of the doomed romance of Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner, to write a song. Well, not a whole song. Sadie wasn't exactly a songwriter, but she did come up with a first line: "I want to be around to pick up the pieces, when somebody breaks your heart." That was all she had, but she was a huge Johnny Mercer fan, so she put it in an envelope and addressed it to "Johnny Mercer, New York, NY." Somehow it got to Mercer, and it tickled his fancy enough that he wrote a song around it. And here's where the story really gets good--in an industry noted for unscrupulousness and thievery,Mercer gave full co-writing credit, and one third -- some say half -- of the royalties to Sadie. Mercer turned Sadie's one line into one of the great popular songs. Bennett did right by the song's two composers, both in 1962 and half a century later, in a duet with British rocker Bono. By that time, virtually every singer of note had recorded it. By 1964, it had already been covered by Julie London, Aretha Franklin, Dinah Washington, Frank Sinatra with Count Basie, and a host of others. Still, Witherspoon and Golson were among the early admirers, and surely the sheet music would have reached Sweden. 'Spoon can croon with the best of them, and he as he assimilates some of Tony Bennett in his rendition, he never lets you forget he's a blues singer. Golson captures a Basie feeling in his arrangement,and one third -- some say half -- of the royalties to Sadie. Mercer turned Sadie's one line into one of the great popular songs. Bennett did right by the song's two composers, both in 1962 and half a century later, in a duet with British rocker Bono. By that time, virtually every singer of note had recorded it. By 1964, it had already been covered by Julie London, Aretha Franklin, Dinah Washington, Frank Sinatra with Count Basie, and a host of others. Still, Witherspoon and Golson were among the early admirers, and surely the sheet music would have reached Sweden. 'Spoon can croon with the best of them, and he as he assimilates some of Tony Bennett in his rendition, he never lets you forget he's a blues singer. Golson captures a Basie feeling in his arrangement,and one third -- some say half -- of the royalties to Sadie.Mercer turned Sadie's one line into one of the great popular songs. Bennett did right by the song's two composers, both in 1962 and half a century later, in a duet with British rocker Bono. By that time, virtually every singer of note had recorded it. By 1964, it had already been covered by Julie London, Aretha Franklin, Dinah Washington, Frank Sinatra with Count Basie, and a host of others. Still, Witherspoon and Golson were among the early admirers, and surely the sheet music would have reached Sweden. 'Spoon can croon with the best of them, and he as he assimilates some of Tony Bennett in his rendition, he never lets you forget he's a blues singer. Golson captures a Basie feeling in his arrangement,Mercer turned Sadie's one line into one of the great popular songs. Bennett did right by the song's two composers,both in 1962 and half a century later, in a duet with British rocker Bono. By that time, virtually every singer of note had recorded it. By 1964, it had already been covered by Julie London, Aretha Franklin, Dinah Washington, Frank Sinatra with Count Basie, and a host of others. Still, Witherspoon and Golson were among the early admirers, and surely the sheet music would have reached Sweden. 'Spoon can croon with the best of them, and he as he assimilates some of Tony Bennett in his rendition, he never lets you forget he's a blues singer. Golson captures a Basie feeling in his arrangement,Mercer turned Sadie's one line into one of the great popular songs. Bennett did right by the song's two composers, both in 1962 and half a century later, in a duet with British rocker Bono. By that time,virtually every singer of note had recorded it. By 1964, it had already been covered by Julie London, Aretha Franklin, Dinah Washington, Frank Sinatra with Count Basie, and a host of others. Still, Witherspoon and Golson were among the early admirers, and surely the sheet music would have reached Sweden. 'Spoon can croon with the best of them, and he as he assimilates some of Tony Bennett in his rendition, he never lets you forget he's a blues singer. Golson captures a Basie feeling in his arrangement,both in 1962 and half a century later, in a duet with British rocker Bono. By that time, virtually every singer of note had recorded it. By 1964, it had already been covered by Julie London, Aretha Franklin, Dinah Washington, Frank Sinatra with Count Basie, and a host of others. Still, Witherspoon and Golson were among the early admirers,and surely the sheet music would have reached Sweden. 'Spoon can croon with the best of them, and he as he assimilates some of Tony Bennett in his rendition, he never lets you forget he's a blues singer. Golson captures a Basie feeling in his arrangement,both in 1962 and half a century later, in a duet with British rocker Bono. By that time, virtually every singer of note had recorded it. By 1964, it had already been covered by Julie London, Aretha Franklin, Dinah Washington, Frank Sinatra with Count Basie, and a host of others. Still, Witherspoon and Golson were among the early admirers, and surely the sheet music would have reached Sweden. 'Spoon can croon with the best of them, and he as he assimilates some of Tony Bennett in his rendition, he never lets you forget he's a blues singer.Golson captures a Basie feeling in his arrangement,Still, Witherspoon and Golson were among the early admirers, and surely the sheet music would have reached Sweden. 'Spoon can croon with the best of them, and he as he assimilates some of Tony Bennett in his rendition, he never lets you forget he's a blues singer. Golson captures a Basie feeling in his arrangement,Still, Witherspoon and Golson were among the early admirers, and surely the sheet music would have reached Sweden. 'Spoon can croon with the best of them, and he as he assimilates some of Tony Bennett in his rendition, he never lets you forget he's a blues singer. Golson captures a Basie feeling in his arrangement,Spoon can croon with the best of them, and he as he assimilates some of Tony Bennett in his rendition, he never lets you forget he's a blues singer. Golson captures a Basie feeling in his arrangement,Still, Witherspoon and Golson were among the early admirers, and surely the sheet music would have reached Sweden. 'Spoon can croon with the best of them, and he as he assimilates some of Tony Bennett in his rendition, he never lets you forget he's a blues singer. Golson captures a Basie feeling in his arrangement,Spoon can croon with the best of them, and he as he assimilates some of Tony Bennett in his rendition, he never lets you forget he's a blues singer. Golson captures a Basie feeling in his arrangement,Still, Witherspoon and Golson were among the early admirers, and surely the sheet music would have reached Sweden. 'Spoon can croon with the best of them, and he as he assimilates some of Tony Bennett in his rendition, he never lets you forget he's a blues singer. Golson captures a Basie feeling in his arrangement,and he as he assimilates some of Tony Bennett in his rendition, he never lets you forget he's a blues singer. Golson captures a Basie feeling in his arrangement,and he as he assimilates some of Tony Bennett in his rendition, he never lets you forget he's a blues singer. Golson captures a Basie feeling in his arrangement,

"Teardrops From My Eyes" was written by the great rhythm and blues songwriter Rudy Toombs, and was one of Ruth Brown's first hit records for Atlantic. Its early recording history is a tribute to the bizarre catholicism of the 1950s. Cover versions include solid R&B (Wynonie Harris with Lucky Millinder), schmaltzy pop (Fran Warren with Hugo Winterhalter), a pop-country hybrid (Jo Stafford with Gene Autry), deep country (Hawkshaw Hawkins), and jazz (Ella Fitzgerald). Everyone likes a good song. 'Spoon and Golson liked it too, and it shows.

"And the Angels Sing" is Mercer again, with a somewhat more expected collaborator, swing trumpeter and Benny Goodman sideman Ziggy Elman. Originally introduced by Goodman, who swung it, it became more of a heavily orchestrated ballad in later versions, and Golson gives it all of that, bring back the backup vocalists for an angelic choir.

This one has to have come from whatever sheet music they may have been able to scrounge up in Stockholm. "Who's Sorry Now?" was written in 1923 by composer Ted Snyder and the songwriting team of Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, and became, over the years, a mildly popular if undistinguished number. People kept recording it. It was waxed two dozen times from the '20s through the '40s, almost entirely by performers who are forgotten today (Glenn Miller, Harry James and Bing Crosby all made it the flip side of 78 RPM releases). Then in 1958 it finally got its moment in the sun, as Connie Francis, a struggling young singer who had released several flops and was about to give it up and go to med school, recorded the song at the urging of her father. Francis hated the song and was looking for more contemporary material,but her father kept nagging her, and finally she stuck it in at the end of a recording session. Dick Clark played it on American Bandstand, it got a positive response, he booked Francis for the premiere telecast of his new prime variety show, and suddenly Connie Francis was the hottest thing around, and the song was a million seller, and a nice piece of change in the retirement accounts of Snyder and Ruby (Kalmar was deceased by then). But it still wasn't a very good song. Witherspoon does what one is tempted to do with mediocre material -- pushes it too hard, over-enunciates every word, over-dramatizes it. It's not the musical highlight of this session.he booked Francis for the premiere telecast of his new prime variety show, and suddenly Connie Francis was the hottest thing around, and the song was a million seller, and a nice piece of change in the retirement accounts of Snyder and Ruby (Kalmar was deceased by then). But it still wasn't a very good song. Witherspoon does what one is tempted to do with mediocre material -- pushes it too hard, over-enunciates every word, over-dramatizes it. It's not the musical highlight of this session.he booked Francis for the premiere telecast of his new prime variety show, and suddenly Connie Francis was the hottest thing around, and the song was a million seller, and a nice piece of change in the retirement accounts of Snyder and Ruby (Kalmar was deceased by then). But it still wasn't a very good song. Witherspoon does what one is tempted to do with mediocre material -- pushes it too hard, over-enunciates every word, over-dramatizes it. It's not the musical highlight of this session.Witherspoon does what one is tempted to do with mediocre material -- pushes it too hard, over-enunciates every word, over-dramatizes it. It's not the musical highlight of this session.Witherspoon does what one is tempted to do with mediocre material -- pushes it too hard, over-enunciates every word, over-dramatizes it. It's not the musical highlight of this session.   

"You're Next" is a pop song by Sid Tepper, who had a successful career in 1940s and '50s, and an even more successful career in '60s, although not exactly on the cutting edge of that decade's burgeoning musical creativity. He and his partner, Roy C. Bennett, wrote 43 songs that were sung by Elvis in his various movies. "You're Next" could well have been one of them, although it doesn't seem to have quite made the cut. Its sheet music may well have floated over to Stockholm, though. Don't forget this recording session with Benny Golson, and a bunch of Swedes who wouldn't have had all that many chances to play with an American jazz legend like Golson, lasted for almost a week, and by this time they must have been really scrounging for material. But it's fun -- more fun than "Who's Sorry Now?" -- and Witherspoon gives a little of that Elvis intonation.

"Happy Blues" has a piano, probably played by Witherspoon, since there's no piano listed in the session's credits. This has to be from 'Spoon's regular set list. He plays and sings it with gusto. Golson brings the choir back, and they complement him nicely.

"That's Why I'm Leaving" was written by Lockie Edwards Jr., who receives what may be my all-time favorite billing, on a CD of songs written by him and collaborator Larry Weiss -- "Forgotten Legendary Songwriters." The CD, a collection of 32 songs, is entitled "Unforgotten Yesterdays," but it doesn't live up to its title. Weiss and Edwards are more forgotten than legendary. They do have one more unforgettable credit -- among the genres this CD associates them with is "Belgian popcorn." "That's Why I'm Leaving" is not one of the 32 forgotten unforgottens, and it might have been forgotten had not Golson and Witherspoon needed to find one more song to fill out the record, but it's really not abad song at all.

Neither is Witherspoon's own "One Last Chance," which caps the session. 

And I've had some fun with the song selection, but this is a very good record, an unusual, unlikely, and very satisfying collaboration between two actually unforgotten jazz legends, and I'm glad I listened to it.

The album was called Some of My Best Friends Are the Blues, released on Prestige (Bluesville was now defunct). Prestige also released three 45 RPM singles,  "You're Next" / "Some Of My Best Friends Are The Blues,"  "Happy Blues" / "I Never Will Marry," and   "Oh How I Love You" (not from the session) / "One Last Chance."

Listening to Prestige 638 - Benny Golson

LISTEN TO ONE: The Call

Benny Golson edidn't bring his instrument to this date, but virtually everyone else in Sweden did, including one American expat, Benny Bailey. Golson is composer of six cuts, some new compositions and his classic "I Remember Clifford," and arranger on compositions by Gordon Jenkins, Bill Evans and Victor Young. There are 32 pieces altogether (four of them added after the fact, two in Stockholm and two--Cecil Payne and Grachan Moncur III--in New York).

Golson was the composer of some of the best-loved jazz standards such as "I Remember Clifford" and "Killer Joe," and he includes "I Remember Clifford" here, along with several pieces composed for this session, and a few jazz standards by other composers. But the real news here is his orchestration and conducting of a truly ambitious orchestra.

It's an adventurous project, pushing the boundaries of jazz. Many were pushing them in those days, but not necessariy like this Can you make a large orchestra swing? Golson does, using well-timed juxtapositions of soloists (given some room for improvisation) with the orchestral parts.

I found the familiar pieces -- Bill Evans's "Wattz for Debbie," "My Foolish Heart," and his own "I Remember Clifford" particularly interesting for a new take on those classics, and I also warmed to the pieces like the concluding one, "The Call," that used more jazz soloists. But the balance of solos and full orchestra, Golson-style, is exhilarating.

Lew Futterman, who had brought Jack McDuff to Prestige, produced this session, showing his range as a producer. He was soon to extend that range even further and in a different direction, with a successful career in the rock business.

Listening to Prestige 637: Don Patterson with Booker Ervin

LISTEN TO ONE: Just Friends

 This is not your father's organ-saxophone trio album, and anyone looking for Jimmy Smith or Brother Jack McDuff or Shirley Scott and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis is going to go away scratching their heads. And I say this with all due respect, and appreciation that every one of the above named is an individual with a unique sound.

But these two are going there own way. Booker Ervin already had forged a reputation as one of the most original and important new voices on the jazz scene--not as defiantly anti-establishment as Ornette Coleman or Albert Ayler, but definitely a new sound. Don Patterson was starting to make a name for himself, and the idea that his approach to the

organ would mesh well with Booker Ervin's fresh approach resonated with the Prestige brain trust from the start. After putting putting him on sessions with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Sonny Stitt, they gave him Ervin as a partner for his first session as leader, and it worked well enough to reunite them here.

Perhaps the most interesting result of this pairing comes on "Just Friends." The tune is a sentimantal ballad from the 1930s that served as a vehicle for the likes of Kate Smith, Russ Colombo and Morton Downey, but it became a jazz standard after Charlie Parker included it on his Charlie Parker with Strings album. After that, a number of artists picked it up--it even had a soul jazz organ treatment by Jimmy Smith--but Bird with strings is still the version most jazz fans will think of when they hear the title.

So it's hard to resist comparing the two, especially because Ervin (like every jazz man who came of age in or after the 1940s) is very aware of Bird's version, and his "Just Friends" is very much of a dialog with the master.

Bird enjoyed the lush romanticism of his string section, though he certainly was not linited by it. And

just as Bird both honored and subverted the genre, so Ervin and Patterson both honor and subvert the organ-saxophone soul jazz genre. If there is such a thing as soul jazz-free jazz fusion, they find it here.

"Sister Ruth," "Donald Duck," "Rosetta" and "Under the Boardwalk" were put together with an 18-minute jam from Patterson and Ervin's previous session, "Hip Cake Walk," and issued as an LP under that name. "Sister Ruth" and "Donald Duck" were issued as a 45 RPM single, as was "Under the Boardwalk," paired with another tune from the earlier session, "Up in Betty's Room." The cover of the newly released smash hit by the Drifters is a natural for the jukeboxes. Patterson and Billy James have a good time with it, and it shows.

"Just Friends" was saved for a later album, Tune Up!, incorporating tunes from a bunch of different sessions, and released in 1971, after Ervin's death.

Ozzie Cadena produced the session.

Listening to Prestige 636: Booker Ervin

LISTEN TO ONE: Eerie Dearie

 Booker Ervin is still in the middle of his six-year, 13-album sojourn with Prestige. Prestige knew what they had with Ervin, in more ways than one. They recognized his outsized talent--he was one of the most important young saxophone players to come along in the early 1960s. But they also could relate to his music. The label was very much staying abreast of current trends in jazz, recording some of the best of the avant gardists and the back-to-basics soul jazz artists, but its heart was still with the mainstream bebop that excited 19-year-old Bob Weinstock to form a new label in the first place. Indeed, when another decade rolled around and Weinstock sold the label, retiring from the business, he said that it was time--the music he loved wasn't being made any more.

Booker Ervin's sound, as Ira Gitler said in his liner notes to The Blues Book, was "of the '60s. but it has not lost touch with the tap roots of jazz." Gitler, one of the great chroniclers of the golden age of jazz represented by Prestige, went on to describe Ervin's sound as only he could:

Booker's phrasing (the highly-charged flurries and the excruciating, long-toned cries), harmonic conceptions (neither pallid nor beyond the pale) and tone (a vox humana) add up to a style that is avant-garde yet evolutionary, and not one that bows to fashion or gropes unprofessionally under the guise of "freedom."

 Probably the gateway album to the new avant garde was John Coltrane's Giant Steps, the first one he made after leaving Prestige for Atlantic, with new harmonic ideas but still accessible to the jazz lover raised on bebop. Ervin's "avant garde yet evolutionary" style can be said to place him in the Giant Steps generation, although Ervin's approach is nothing like Coltrane's. Like Coltrane's album of four years before, it has the thrill of the new, while still being rooted deep in solid earth--in this case, the earthy truth of the blues.

The group recorded five tunes for this session, four of which were included on The Blues Book. The fifth, "Groovin' High," would be the title cut of a later album culled from various Ervin sessions. The Blues Book has two tunes on each side of the vinyl release, one long, one short. The A side is "Eerie Dearie," checking in at 14:30, and "One for Mort," 6:24. '

"Eerie Dearie" is the whole package. It begins with a soulful piano vamp from Gildo Mahones, then a solid blues riff from the horns, opening up the door for an extended solo from Ervin. And yes, it's avant garde but evolutionary. Ervin shows just how free you can get, while still with a solid anchor in the blues. With fourteen and a half minutes to play around in, everyone gets a chance to solo, but it's Ervin you come away with.

Mahones is a solid Prestige veteran. Jones was new to the East Coast when he made this recording, and probably new to Ervin. Gitler, in his liner notes, makes a point of commending Don Schlitten as producer for putting the personnel together. 

Jones had been active on the West Coast since 1961, recording with Bud Shank, Gerald Wilson, Red Mitchell, Harold Land and others, including backing Sarah Vaughan in a series of West Coast recording dates in May and June of 1963. He came east to work with Horace Silver, and he had done one live recording with Silver's quintet, but it would not be released until 20 years later, so this was his real East Coast unveiling. He did work with Silver for a while, recording with him in late 1964 and early 1965, and he was to have a couple more Prestige gigs, one with Charles McPherson and one leading his own quintet.

Schlitten also brought in Richard Davis and Alan Dawson, about whom Gitler coments,

Although they had not met until they did The Freedom Book...and play together only in the studio on an Ervin recording, D&D are about as tightly fused a duo as you will encounter anywhere in the annals of jazz. There is no loss of rapport from one date to the next. They arrive, unpack their instruments, and they're off and flying.

They would unpack together again on Ervin's next album. Then Reggie Workman would replace Davis for a couple of sessions, and Davis would return for Ervin's last hurrah on Prestige in 1966.

 

Listening to Prestige 635: Bobby Timmons

LISTEN TO ONE: A Little Barefoot Soul

In my mind, Bobby Timmons was Blue Note. But the mind can play tricks. Timmons did record extensively on Blue Note, as a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, and before that, with Kenny Dorham's Jazz Prophets, and with Lee Morgan. But to my surprise, He never recorded as a leader with Blue Note. His first record as a co-leader (with Clifford Jordan and John Jenkins) was on New Jazz. Then, starting in 1960, he recorded a series of albums for Riverside, while continuing to play and record with Blakey through 1961. This session marked his return to Prestige, the first of seven albums he would make for the label over the next two years.

Timmons has been something of a controversial figure in jazz criticism, with "underrated" being a term applied to him with surprising regularity, while other critics have suggested there wasn't much to him below the surface--that he was basically just a guy who wrote simple tunes, a few of which have clicked to become hits and jazz standards. 

His recording career is curious also. Between 1958 and 1961, from his first emergence on the New York Scene through his associations with Art Blakey and Cannonball Adderley, he was much in demand, playing on sessions with Pepper Adams, Chet Baker, Kenny Burrell, Arnett Cobb, Kenny Dorham, Art Farmer, Benny Golson, Dexter Gordon, Lee Morgan and others. Then nothing. He continued to tour with a trio and to make records under his own name through the 1960s. Perhaps it was his heroin addiction that made him too unreliable as a sideman. His substance abuse problem was a serious one, and it led him to an early grave.

But soul jazz was marketable, and Timmons was a marketable name. "Moanin'" and "Dat Dere" had become hugely popular jazz tunes, the more so because they had had lyrics attached to them by two masters, Jon Hendricks and Oscar Brown Jr., respectively. 

Certainly his labels weren't shy about pushing the soul connection. Riverside, for whom he recorded from 1960-64, gave his albums titles like This Here is Bobby Timmons (included "Moanin'," "Dis Here" and "Dat Dere"), Soul Time, Sweet and Soulful Sounds. His debut album for Prestige was, if anything, even less subtle...Little Barefoot Soul,

There is nothing on the album anywhere near as catchy as Timmons's big three, for all the catchy titles. So this may not be the place to look for Timmons, the simple soul tunesmith. 

But it might be a good place to start considering Timmons, the underrated jazz pianist. Rather than depend on the restatement of catchy riffs, he engages here in thoughtful and often daring improvisation. He's accompanied on drums by King Curtis sideman Ray Lucas, who keeps him honest, and Sam Jones, who spurs his creativity. He would work with a variety of sidemen in his two years with Prestige, probably a result of his drug-fueled unreliability, but this is an excellent pair.

The producer credit for the session is a little ambiguous: longtime Prestige producer Ozzie Cadena is credited with "supervision," producer is listed as Joel Dorn, who also wrote the liner notes. 

Dorn was an interesting guy. He knew from age 14 that he had one ambition in life--to produce records for Atlantic, and at that young age he started writing to Nesuhi Ertegun, making his case. Ertegun finally relented, telling him he could produce one album by an artist of his choice. He chose Hubert Laws, and it was the beginning of a fabulously successful career, which included discovering the Allman Brothers and the Neville Brothers, and winning a Grammy for his production of Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly with His Song."

He recorded Laws for Atlantic in April of 1964, the fulfillment of his lifetime ambition at age 22, so one has to wonder what he was doing in Englewood Cliffs in June of that year, working with a new Prestige artist. Perhaps Ertegun was waiting to see how The Laws of Jazz did before making a commitment. And maybe the problems Dorn enumerates in his somewhat defensive liner notes for the album might not have arisen had his head not been too swiveled toward the orange, black and green of Atlantic. The album, Dorn reports,

was supposed to have been a quintet date. But when Bobby arrived at the studio only one musician, Sam Jones, was on hand. Then came the inevitable phone calls with excuses from the sidemen for not showing up...So with practically two hours of recording time eaten away...it seemed the session would have to be cancelled. Fortunately, someone remembered that Ray Lucas was in town...and within half an hour had his drums set up and ready to record.

Dorn also refers, while declining to get into specifics, to "an air of antagonism...between the artist, the A&R man, and the engineer." It's not clear whether he's referring to himself or Cadena, but in any event, he was off to the Atlantic recording studios and Tom Dowd after this, while Timmons continued working with Cadena, Van Gelder, and a different crop of musicians. And after  two tunes that had to be thrown out because Lucas had trouble finding a groove with two musicians he'd never met before, everything clicked with "A Little Barefoot Soul" (the first word was dropped for the album title), and from there on things went smoothly. Perhaps the unexpected loss of two front men forced Timmons to improvise more than he had intended to, and the results are salutary.

The title track, with "Walkin', Wadin', Sittin', Ridin'" on the flip side, was released as a 45 RPM single.

Listening to Prestige 634: Gildo Mahones

LISTEN TO ONE: Blues for Yna Yna

 

Gildo Mahones had a near-legendary career that took him from Spanish Harlem to 125th Street, where his family moved to an apartment right behind the Apollo Theater and he got his first exposure to music. to Joe Morris's rhythm and blues band, where he played on Morris's big hit, "Any Time, Any Place, Anywhere," Then to the Army, where he became good friends with another young piano player, Berry Gordy, who had this dream of finding a few streetcorner doowop groups, rehearsing them, polishing their act...and then to Minton's Playhouse, where Kenny Clarke asked him to join a trio that would be the house band

at Minton's -- a trio that was soon augmented by Minton's manager Teddy Hill to include Milt Jackson, Sonny Rollins and Percy Heath. Trumpeter Jesse Drakes, who had played with the Minton's group, was joining a new band led by Lester Young, and he brought Gildo along. That gig lasted through most of the 1950s, and then in 1959 he fell in with a newly forming vocal trio, Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, and stayed with them until they broke up in 1964.

Mahones got very little opportunity to record as a leader--two albums for Prestige, then one album in 1990 for a small label, Interplay, which put out some very good jazz records in the 1970s and '80s, but was pretty near the end of its run. Sessions by Mahones and Gil Coggins, another fine and little-remembered pianist, closed the door on Interplay. Of Mahones' two Prestige albums, the first one was intended to be a New Jazz release, but then Bob Weinstock folded New Jazz, and when the album was released on Prestige, it was barely distributed/ So this session, which became a double album, is probably the best-known example of his work.

It's enough to make one wish there were more, and certainly to make one wish that he would have gotten more recognition. This is a piano trio session of the sort that Red Garland was making a few years earlier, not the kind of funk-drenched organ/saxophone sound that was popular in 1964. But Mahones has his own approach to the blues, very individualistic and very much in the tradition, 

He's accompanied by George Tucker, very active on Prestige in this era, and no stranger to playing with Mahones, accompanying him on his own first session, and joining him in backing up Jimmy Witherspoon and Ted Curson. Sonny Brown, on drums, is even more obscure than Mahones, but people knew who he was back then, and he worked dates with Ray Bryant and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, among others.

With Ozzie Cadena producing, the trio had a full day of work, recording nearly enough songs for a double alum, and -- with the addition of a few songs from his earlier sessions, a double album it was, entitled The Great Gildo: Gildo Mahones Soulful Piano, the first part being a play on the popular radio comedy of an earlier decade, The Great Gildersleeve. I believe this is the first such packaging in Prestige's catalog. Neither the novelty of the two-disc package not the excellence of the music were enough to make Mahones' name better known, and he is one of the few Prestige artists whose work has never been rereleased on CD by Original Jazz Classics. Nor can it be found on Spotify, although, curiously, a 2018 interview, done shortly before his death, is available on Spotify. So it's up to the classic vinyl hunters, searching through the bins at places like Jim Eigo's Original Vinyl Records in Warwick, NY, to keep him alive. Let's hope that keeps happening.

Listening to Prestige 633: Oscar Peterson

LISTEN TO ONE: Tin Tin Deo

 Between 1964 and 1971 Oscar Peterson made a series of live recordings in Germany at the home of his friend Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer, before a small invited audience. The series as a whole was called Exclusively for My Friends. Brunner-Schwer began releasing them in Europe on his own label, MPS Records, in 1968, and he licensed the first two of them to Prestige for American distribution, which is how Peterson, normally exclusive to Verve and other Norman Granz labels, came under Bob Weinstock's aegis. Which is nice for a follower and chronicler of Prestige, because it gives me the opportunity to spend some time listening to the most acclaimed piano player of his era, perennial poll winner, accumulator of a dizzying number of awards, all of these laurels richly deserved.

The Brunner-Schwer sessions were mostly trio recordings (one is solo piano) made during Peterson's various European tours, so his supporting cast varies, but is always first rate. Peterson's long-term trio with Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen was nearing its finish, but it was still together for the first of these concerts for friends.

Brown had been with Peterson since 1950. As a teenager, he had already found steady work around the Pittsburgh area, but in 1945, when he graduated high school, there was only one place for a young jazz musician with progressive ideas, and that was New York. He bought a one way ticket, and it might just as well have said on it Destination: 52nd Street. He knew Hank Jones, Jones brought him to Dizzy Gillespie, and Gillespie hired him on the spot.

As instant a click as there was with Gillespie, Brown clicked in the same way with Oscar Peterson. He also clicked, musically and otherwise, with Ella Fitzgerald. Musically, their union was a success. Otherwise...they divorced in 1953, after six years of marriage, though they continued to work together.

 Their original trio was piano-bass-guitar, with first Barney Kessel and then Herb Ellis as the third musician, When Ellis departed in 1958, they decided that he was irreplaceable, so they wouldn't try. They would hire a drummer instead, and that's when Ed Thigpen came aboard.

Thigpen had drumming in his genes; his father had been the longtime drummer for Andy Kirk. He brought an impressive list of credentials to the Peterson trio, including quite a history with Prestige, and he would go on to a distinguished career after, including several years with Ella Fitzgerald (no marriage, though).

They would both be moving on not long after this--there would be only one more trio album, that one live from a concert hall in Copenhagen. This session captures them at the peak of their creative and collaborative powers, featuring the standards that Peterson excelled at, a ballad composed by Billy Taylos ("Easy Walker"), and an excursion off the beaten track, "Tin Tin Deo." Composed by the legendary percussionist Chano Pozo, it was first recorded by Pozo with James Moody, and most famously by Dizzy Gillespie. Peterson's trio essays it without Latin percussion, but Peterson's piano is rhythmically tricky, and rhythmically persuasive enough to be completely satisfactory.

Encouraged by the live and intimate audience, Peterson gives a persuasive demonstration of why led all those polls for so many years.

The 1968 German LP was the result of two different house concerts at Brunner-Schwer's home, the first in late 1963, the second in May of 1964. It was entitled Action. The Prestige release, the following year (the year Peter Fonda's Easy Rider was released) was called Easy Walker. Brunner-Schwer produced.

Listening to Prestige 632: Jaki Byard

LISTEN TO ONE: European Episode

 Prestige, in its twenty-odd years of existence, left us an amazing legacy, a portrait of two of the most fruitful periods in American jazz. The middle part of its second decade is rich with some of the key figures of the avant garde, and some of the key figures of soul jazz. But one of the richest and most wonderful parts of that legacy is surely found in the 12 albums Prestige put out by Jaki Byard, a musician who fit in neither of those categories, or any other, really. His music has been described as "spanning the 20th century from ragtime to no time," and it's an apt description. It was not just that he could play anything from the most traditional to free jazz. Other skilled technicians, other dedicated artists, could do that. Byard spoke each language, each dialect of jazz like a native, and he could express himself with subtlety and nuance, with intellect and emotion, in every one of them.

And perhaps all of that is the reason why he is not remembered as well as he ought to be. An article about him on the web page of the Music Museum of New England (Byard was born in Worcester, MA) says that he "won many awards for his contributions over the years," but then it's hard pressed to come up with anything more than:

 In 1988 Mayor Ray Flynn awarded him the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Outstanding Contributions in Black Music and Presence in Boston. In 1995 NYC Mayor Rudolph Guliani presented him with an award for his outstanding contributions with the Apollo Stompers.

 This is Byard's third album as a leader with Prestige (he'd also appeared as a supporting player on several other dates, the most recent one being with Booker Ervin, who returns the gesture on the first of these two sessions). That was the May 21 session, with Richard Williams, Williams was also well known to Prestige collectors. Williams and Ervin sit out "Lush Life," as well as all of the second session.

On bass and drums for both sessions are Bob Cranshaw and Walter Perkins. Cranshaw had made his first Prestige recording just a few weeks earlier, with Shirley Scott and Stanley Turrentine, but he had already begun his long association with Sonny Rollins, and had been with Rollins on his 1962 recording of The Bridge for RCA Victor, the album that heralded Rollins's return from self-imposed exile. Perkins was by this time a familiar face in Prestige sessions.

The album shows a good deal of Byard's range and versatility, and in fact a few different styles and voicings are in evidence on a single cut--"European Episode," at just over 12 minutes more a suite than a single tune. One more facet of his versatility is showcased on "When Sunny Gets Blue," a leftover take from Byard's maiden session for Prestige in 1961, with Ron Carter and Roy Haynes, and featuring Byard on alto sax.

Esmond Edwards had produced the earlier session; the two that make up the bulk of this album were produced by Ozzie Cadena. The album was titled Out Front! "I Like to Lead When I Dance" and "After the Lights Go Down Low" were not included on the album, but made the later CD release.

Listening to Prestige 631 - Montego Joe

LISTEN TO ONE: Dakar

 Montego Joe spent most of his life closer to Sheepshead Bay than Montego Bay, but he was in fact Jamaican-born, and his first percussion experiences were on that island, where he drummed on every flat surface he could lay his hands on, and was inspired by the playing of the brilliant and short-lived percussionist Chano Pozo. 

Moving with his family to New York when he was six, he heard the drum styles of Gene Krupa, Art Blakey and Buddy Rich. But focusing on the Latin percussion instruments, he developed quickly, and as a teenager he was already playing with some of his percussion idols, including Blakey, Max Roach

and Olatunji. He made his Prestige debut in 1962 with Ahmed Abdul-Malik in a session that blended the approaches of three very different percussionists--Joe on congas and bongos, Rudy Collins on a Western trap drum kit, and Chief Bay on African drums. In the next couple of year he would get some regular work with the label, appearing with Willis Jackson (twice), Ted Curson and Jack McDuff / George Benson.

When it came time to make his debut as a leader, Joe tapped a group of musicians who had not recorded for Prestige before, nor did they have extensive credits on the jazz scene, but they seemed to fit Joe well, because the core of them -- trumpeter Leonard Goines, reed man Al Gibbons, drummer / percussionist Milford Graves -- would be back for Joe's second and final Prestige session a year later. And, like Joe, several of them would go on to make significant marks in the fields of education and youth work.

Leonard Goines grew up in Harlem a few blocks from the Apollo Theater, where his teenage chops and ability to read music attracted sufficient notice that when the house band was short a musician, he would be called on short notice to sub. After playing professionally with Ella Fitzgerald, Donald Byrd, Duke Pearson, Yusef Lateef and Buddy Johnson in addition to Montego Joe, Goines entered academia as a visiting professor in the Black Scholars program at Pennsylvania's Lafayette College, teaching jazz history. And Goines's academic credentials went beyond his instrumental skills. According to an article in the Morning Call, Lafayette's newspaper:

Goines' background includes degrees in anthropology, psychology, counseling, political science, music education and ethnomusicology - the study of music and its relationship to culture. He's studied with Margaret Mead, the anthropologist and Nadia Boulanger, perhaps the most famous composition teacher of the 20th century.

Milford Graves, who would become a professor at Bennington College in Vermont, was another polymath. He studied to become a medical technician and  worked in a veterinary lab, where he set up and ran clinical tests to investigate new medicines. The basement of Jamaica, Queens, home became a dojo where he taught yara, a martial art of his own devising, and a laboratory, where he studied cardiology, acupuncture, and herbalism, His study of medicine and his understanding of the workings of the human body may have extended his life for a couple of years when he was diagnosed with amyloid cardiopathy in 2018 and given six months to live. He died in 2021.

Graves's extramusical interests and accomplishments should not distract one from his contributions to music. He was one of the first drummers to separate the drums from the responsibility for keeping time, a musical philosophy which he brought to the free jazz of the 1960s, playing with Albert Ayler and the New York Art Quartet, among others,

Montego Joe. after making his second album for Prestige in 1965, threw himself into youth work, with the Arts and Culture division of HARYOU-ACT (Harlem Youth Opportunities, Unliniited---associated Community Teams. He was able to record the teenage percussion group that he assembled and worked with at HARYOU-ACT, for ESP-Disc Records.

Two musicians who were on the brink of major careers in jazz were Chick Corea and Eddie (here billed as Edgar) Gomez. Corea up to this point had mainly worked with Latin groups, but his 25-Grammy-winning career would encompass everything, as his web page bio lists, "from straight ahead to avant-garde, bebop to fusion, children's songs to chamber music, along with some far-reaching forays into symphonic works."  Gomez would often work with Corea in the coming years, and with virtually every other jazz artist on the planet as well as some classical ensembles, but he is probably best known for his eleven years with Bill Evans.

Al Gibbons's musical range is shown in his list of credits, from Woody Herman and Earl Hines to Stanley Turrentine and McCoy Tyner. Robert Crowder, also known as Baba Ibekunle Bey, was known for mastery of West African drumming styles, and mentored the Women's Sekere Ensemble, a group of African percussionists dedicated to preserving the heritage of traditional West African culture. Rudy Stevenson, as a guitarist, played with Lloyd Price, Nina Simone and Mercer Ellington, but was primarily known as composer and arranger.

Lew Futterman, who tended to work separately from Bob Weinstock and Rudy Van Gelder, produced the session at Regent Sound Studios in New York City. Prestige released the album as Arriba! con Montego Joe, and "Fat Man" / "Dakar" as a 45 RPM single,

Listening to Prestige 630 - Joe Dukes

LISTEN TO ONE: Greasy Drums

 The super-popularity of Brother Jack McDuff's quartet naturally meant Prestige wanted to get more product out there, and one way of doing it without overdoing it was to give each member of the quartet his own session. Well, there's nothing wrong with giving the people what they want, but this was more than just a marketing ploy: Jack McDuff was pretty serious about giving his bandmates a chance in the spotlight, and Bob Weinstock was happy to go along with it. Red Holloway was a seasoned professional who had already recorded one album as a leader for Prestige, separate from the McDuff orbit. George Benson was a budding superstar, about to take flight.

Joe Dukes was something else, practically Jack McDuff's other self. Though he was widely regarded in jazz circles as the quintessential soul jazz drummer, his career was almost entirely circumscribed by McDuff. He appeared on very few recordings that were not with McDuff, and when his tenure with McDuff was finished, he pretty much vanished from the scene. Wikipedia, which is pretty good on having at least something for many really obscure jazz musicians, has no entry for Joe Dukes. And this was the only session he ever recorded as leader. 

But Dukes was one of the key ingredients in the huge success of the McDuff quartet, and he's a lot more than window dressing here. This session is built around showcasing him. Except for the Dizzy Gillespie/John Lewis standard "Two Bass Hit," all the compositions are credited to Dukes and McDuff, all prominently feature drum solos, and all are engineered to bring out the drum sound.

The result? You can tell why Dukes was so highly regarded by his peers.

Dukes worked on 26 sessions with McDuff for Prestige between 1961 and 1966. McDuff then recorded several sessions for Atlantic between 1966 and 1968. He used Dukes on two of them, but mostly worked with other configurations, and much of his work for Atlantic was never issued. He recorded for Cadet (no Dukes) and then for Blue Note, where he brought Dukes back on board for one 1969 album, recorded over several days. 

Beyond that, he participated in a 1966 Hank Crawford session for Atlantic (one track on Crawford's Mr. Blues album), and two 1970 Lonnie Smith sessions for Blue Note. One of these resulted in the album Drives; the other, a live session. got stuck in Blue Note's vaults and would not be released until 1995.

After that, nothing. Dukes died in 1992, and the drummer once described by George Benson as "such a magnificent drummer that there were times I thought he was one of the greatest things that ever happened to mankind" was pretty much forgotten. The organ jazz phenomenon ran its course, but it still has its aficionados, and there are still younger fans, especially drummers, picking up a McDuff album and saying "My God -- who is this Joe Dukes?"

The album was entitled The Soulful Drums Of Joe Dukes With The Brother Jack McDuff Quartet, and  yielded one 45 RPM single, "Moohah The D.J." / "Greasy Drums," in both cases considerably abridged from the album versions. As with all McDuff product, the session was produced by Lew Futterman. 

Listening to Prestige 629: Don Patterson, Booker Ervin

LISTEN TO ONE: When Johnny Comes Marching Home

 As with George Benson, Prestige groomed Don Patterson for stardom before introducing him with his name above the title. Unlike Benson, Patterson would stick around to become on of the label's bread and butter soul jazz artists of the second half of the decade.

Patterson was put together with Booker Ervin for two sessions, which would produce two albums, which would be released in quick succession--and before the year was out, there would be a third album under Patterson's name, plus another with Sonny Stitt, and several 45 RPM singles. Prestige was into Patterson big time.

The first album to be released was called The Exciting New Organ of Don Patterson, and since by 1964, the idea of an organ-led jazz group was no longer new, it had better be exciting, and to help make it so, Prestige called on another one of its young heavy hitters--the full title of the album would be The Exciting New Organ of Don Patterson with Booker Ervin.

And yes, this was a combination capable of generating excitement, pressing the tempos, churning the music, generating hot but un-clichéd solos. The group was basically a trio, with Billy James, Patterson's long time associate, on drums. Alto saxophonist Leonard Houston was added for one track, "Hip Cake Walk." This appears to have been Houston's only recording on a recognized jazz label.

Five tracks from the session went onto Exciting New Organ. "S'Bout Time" is a Patterson original, and features a soaring Ervin solo, emerging with wings out of the opening riff, and urged on by the organ of Patterson, who then, in a solo of his own, lives up to the album title's hype, and also demonstrates what he was talking about when he was quoted as saying, "What I'm trying to do is keep the piano sound when I play the organ." "Up in Betty's Room" is attributed to both Patterson and James, and features some intricate but still funky work by the two lead instruments.

The rest of the album looks elsewhere for musical inspiration, and finds it in a variety of places, some not unexpected (Sonny Rollins' jazz standard "Oleo") and sone decidedly unexpected. "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" is a patriotic marching song most closely associated with the Civil War, although the tune is probably even older than that. It's a catchy melody, as could be expected from a tune that's lasted that long, but not one that would normally catch the ear of a jazz musician. But catchy is catchy, and Patterson clearly heard something he liked in this one, and it's his baby. He starts out with another patriotic lick, then goes into a funky-slippery interpretation of the familiar melody, with James playing a funky-not-entirely-slippery version of a military snare drum. It takes a while for Ervin to get into the mood, but when he does, he enters with the kind of solo that led his contemporaries to say that you could recognize a Booker Ervin solo after two notes. Patterson and Ervin end up by finding enough inspiration for ten minutes of improvisation on "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," ending up by playing the melody straight. It's quite a performance.

The final cut for the album was French composer Sascha Distel's moody ballad "The Good Life," providing a change of pace for Patterson and Ervin. Distel's melody was first titled "Marina," then, with French lyrics, "La Belle Vie." Willis Jackson had previously given Prestige a version of "The Good Life," and the tune was probably best known to American audiences through Tony Bennet's 1963 recording.

The rest of the session was parceled off to various destinations. "Hip Cake Walk," with alto saxophonist Leonard Houston added, became the title track to an album mostly recorded in July. "Love Me with All Your Heart" made it onto an album called Patterson's People. The people--not together--were Booker Ervin and Sonny Stitt. The album was leftover tracks from this session, an earlier session with Stitt, and a later session with Ervin.

"People" is the first Prestige recording since the advent of the LP era to be only released as a single, the flip side of a 45 headed by "Love Me with All Your Heart." "Up in Betty's Room" and "Under the Boardwalk" (from the July session) were also a 45 RPM single.

Ozzie Cadena produced.

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.