California Jazz (Jazz Reference) on CD

California Jazz (Jazz Reference)

CD (Compact Disc)

Conventional CD, playable with all CD players and computer drives, but also with most SACD or multiplayers.

deliverable within 1-2 weeks(if available from supplier)

Current price: EUR 7.99

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Label:: Dreyfus
Year of recording ca.:: 1953-54
Item number:: 3140947
UPC/EAN:: 3460503678422
Release date:: 4.11.2005

*** Digipack

This album takes us back to the mid-fifties, the hottest part of the extremely cool movement known as ‘West Coast Jazz’, jazz played by musicians who had settled in and around Los Angeles. Born and bred, or more often adopted Californians lured by the mild climate and work available in the cinema studios. Statistically speaking, the true Westerners were in minority: Art Pepper alone was born in California; and if Lyle ‘Spud’ Murphy claims occidental birth, he came from Utah, rich in deserts and poor in entertainment. This new volume in the “Jazz Reference” collection is the follow-up to a kind of Californian jazz chronicle which began in 2004 with “The Best of West Coast Jazz”. We meet up once more with a number of its featuring artists – Kenton, Shelly Manne, Shorty Rogers, Art Pepper – and discover many new talented faces making their phonographic debuts, or at least starting out using their actual names. Among these newcomers we find altoist Bud Shank who signed JJaassmmiinnee, one of his master-pieces, trumpeter Jack Sheldon, who was to become one of the most original handler of his instrument before jointly and joyfully going on to song, in the same way as Frank Rosolino, a phenomenal virtuoso of the trombone discovered while with Gene Krupa and then with Stan Kenton and who, as from 1954, proved himself as a powerful Yoddle specialist. Then there were the Williamson brothers with Claude, the elder sibling, who was revealed to be a robust disciple of Bud Powell right from his first disc playing in a trio, and Stu, a trumpeter and valve trombonist who was forever struggling against narcotism. We can also cite the brilliant trumpeter Don Fagerquist as well as the omnipresent tenor and arranger Jack Montrose whose name we find with Chet Baker, Art Pepper, Lennie Niehaus, Clifford Brown and Bob Gordon. Two names brutally snatched away much too soon were the inspired trumpeter Clifford Brown, aged 24, who had stopped off in Los Angeles as guest star in a sublime session and died in a car crash two years later while at his zenith and Bob Gordon, killed in 1955 at the age of 27, just when he was becoming the indispensable baritone on the entire Pacific Coast. 1954 also marked Lennie Niehaus’ first personal sessions, in a quintet then an octet. This highly talented alto saxophonist, arranger and composer started writing a large portion of scores for Clint Eastwood films as from 1984, including “Pale Rider”, “Bird” and “Million Dollar Baby”. Another masterful artist was guitarist Barney Kessel, born in 1923 and who disappeared recently, Californian since 1942 and who, before finally recording in his name in 1953, enjoyed plenty of rich adventures with Artie Shaw, Lester Young, Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker and in the first US trio of Oscar Peterson. Kessel can be seen in the 1944 movie “Jammin’ The Blues”, a master-piece which could have been a good lesson for Hollywood. The guitarist appears as himself, a high-flying soloist and an attentive and humble accompanist.

Finally, we can appreciate the fine work of two other arrangers. The utterly ‘West Coast’ Shorty Rogers, who in Taps Miller honours Count Basie and, by means of the saxophones, the grand Lester Young. The other, Lyle “Spud” Murphy, known for his work in the thirties in a few glorious big bands, was the man behind the arrangement of JJiinnggllee BBeellllss, cut in 1935 by Benny Goodman and in the fifties he developed his own 12-tone system. His original talent is revealed in just ten recording sessions, making I Only Havee Eyes. For You, which opens this disc, all the more precious.

Reviews

T. Hintze in Stereo 2/06: "California Jazz - Jasmine", eine Zusammenstellung von West Coast Jazz. Selten habe ich so einen repräsentativen Querschniit gehört, zumal die Aufnahmen aus den Jahren 1953-54 in die Zeit des Höhe- punktes dieses Stiles fallen. Selbst Künstler, die heute schwer zu finden sind, wie Jack Sheldon oder Claude Williamson machen hier eine hinreißende Musik."