Ike Quebec - 1962 - Easy Living

Ike Quebec

1962

Easy Living

01. See See Rider - 9:01

02. Congo Lament - 6:51

03. Que's Pills - 5:42

04. B.G.'s Groove Two - 6:12

05. I.Q. Shuffle - 9:46

06. I've Got A Crush On You - 6:40

07. Nancy (With The Laughing Face) - 7:20

08. Easy Living - 5:00

Bass – Milt Hinton

Drums – Art Blakey

Piano – Sonny Clark

Tenor Saxophone – Ike Quebec

Tenor Saxophone –Stanley Turrentine (tracks: 1 to 3)

Trombone – Bennie Green (tracks: 1 to 3Notes

Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on January 20, 1962.

The release history behind Ike Quebec's Easy Living session is pretty convoluted. Eight songs were recorded in all, five of them bluesy sextet jams and three of them ballad standards in Quebec's trademark romantic style. The LP was slated to feature three of the blues tunes and all of the ballads, but remained unissued; in 1981, all five blues were released as Congo Lament, and in 1987, Easy Living was issued on LP in its originally intended, six-song form. Blue Note's CD reissue cuts through all the confusion by gathering all eight songs, grouping the blues cuts together in the first part of the album for continuity's sake. The sextet lineup is absolutely stellar, featuring fellow tenor Stanley Turrentine, trombonist Bennie Green, pianist Sonny Clark, bassist Milt Hinton, and drummer Art Blakey -- all extremely well suited to the blues material that leads off the album. On the standards, Quebec performs with the rhythm section only, and Clark's soft touch takes over the backdrops. His lines on these selections are long and lyrical, full of harmonic details as well as atmosphere. Contrast that with the album's exuberant first half, highlighted by a raucous romp through "See See Rider," where Quebec's wide swing-era vibrato meshes fantastically with Green's down'n'dirty trombone slides. Green's two originals, "Congo Lament" and "B.G.'s Groove Two," are both winning and rhythmically infectious, while Quebec's "I.Q. Shuffle" is the most bop-tinged sextet workout. The mood isn't as unified as some of his carefully calibrated romantic dates, but Easy Living offers the two strongest sides of Quebec's musical personality in one place, encapsulating a great deal of what he did best.

Ike Quebec Carrer peaked during the 40's, and during early sixties we have a comeback of his art, this CD belongs to that period. This album shows him at his maximum maturity. Ike Quebec strength would be the blues, here the spirituality he achieves is supreme, technical mastery and the most subtle interpretations get combined, particularly in Congo Lament, Que's Pill and Easy Living.

Unfortunately, personal dificulties took Quebec out of the front-line during part of the forties and part of the fifties; that's why he is not so well known as other great tenor saxophone players like C. Hawkins, that influenced him. This album is for the greatest pleasure of every jazz, soul & blues lover. Recorded at 1962, the album also has excellent sound quality.

Lou Donaldson - 1958 - Lou Takes Off

Lou Donaldson

1958

Lou Takes Off

01. Sputnik
02. Dewey Square
03. Strollin' In
04. Groovin' High

Alto Saxophone – Lou Donaldson
Bass – George Joyner
Drums – Art Taylor
Piano – Sonny Clark
Trombone – Curtis Fuller
Trumpet – Donald Byrd

Recorded on December 15, 1957.

A cadre of young musicians, each who would, in time, evolve into a master, is caught as they begin to shine early on for this fireball 1957 set. A thinly disguised take on Cole Porter's "What Is This Thing Called Love?" is the opening tune, altoist Lou Donaldson's "Sputnik." It launches matters at full throttle, with Donaldson unmistakably reflecting Charlie Parker's then still very fresh and vibrant influence. Joining the pulsating rhythms is a young Donald Byrd, whose ebullient trumpet intonation makes for a perfect complement to Donaldson's sweet bop heat. Adding more flavor is a strong rhythm section driven by the breathtaking marathon-paced drumming of Art Taylor.

A bop classic, Charlie Parker's own "Dewey Square," includes a showcasing solo from the too-soon-gone Sonny Clark, who was already displaying his rhythmically sophisticated and seriously playful piano. Easing in and out smoothly on the tune is Curtis Fuller, who was already demonstrating the JJ Johnson-influenced technique that, as composer and trombonist, has led to his playing with a galaxy ranging from Miles Davis and John Coltrane to Count Basie and many more. On another Donaldson piece, "Strollin' In," Fuller's sound is so varied and sweet it's as if he's just invented a new instrument. And Clark's piano is so mesmerizing one can only regret, again, that his life was so short.

If Lou Takes Off is not an essential set, it is a fascinating one, if only historically. It's a welcome opportunity to savor a steaming, vivid and fascinating session when a band of young lions were clearly on the verge of greatness.

The influence of Charlie Parker can be heard in virtually every modern jazz musician, particularly players of the alto saxophone. Although considered to be one of "Bird's children," Lou Donaldson absorbed and synthesized other pre-Parker influences, such as Johnny Hodges and Benny Carter. This recording marks a period in his development prior to a stylistic shift away from bop and toward a stronger rhythm and blues emphasis. Three up-tempo tunes are pure bebop; the remaining number is a medium blues in B flat, quite characteristic of the hard bop period. The front line on this set includes Donald Byrd and Curtis Fuller; the rhythm section is Sonny Clark, George Joyner, and Art Taylor. Overall, Lou Takes Off breaks no new musical ground, but it is a solid, swinging session of high-caliber playing. [An edition remastered by Rudy Van Gelder was issued in 2008.]

Sonny Clark - 1958 - Sonny's Crib

Sonny Clark

1958 

Sonny's Crib

01. With A Song In My Heart 7:54
02. Speak Low 6:50
03. Come Rain Or Come Shine 7:29
04. Sonny's Crib 13:31
05. News For Lulu 8:34

Bass – Paul Chambers
Drums – Art Taylor
Piano – Sonny Clark
Producer – Alfred Lion
Tenor Saxophone – John Coltrane
Trombone – Curtis Fuller
Trumpet – Donald Byrd

Recorded on September 1, 1957.

Located 23 miles south-east of Pittsburgh, Herminie might seem like a small, unassuming Pennsylvanian coal mining community, but it gave the world Sonny Clark, a bona fide giant of jazz piano. Born on Friday, July 31, 1931, he was baptized Conrad Yeatis Clark and, for a few fleeting years, between 1955 and 1961, he was a prolific recording artist for Blue Note Records in New York, laying down classic albums like Sonny’s Crib, Cool Struttin’ and My Conception. But his time in the spotlight was painfully brief; the pianist died from a heroin overdose on Sunday, January 13, 1963. He was 31 years old.

Drawn to the piano as a boy and possessing a natural facility for the instrument, Clark, who was the youngest in a family of eight children, began playing in a local hotel while still in elementary school. He started his professional music career in 1951 after visiting an aunt in California, where he joined the band of saxophonist Wardell Gray. He later played with noted bassist Oscar Pettiford and also worked as a sideman for bebop clarinetist Buddy DeFranco (with whom he recorded five LPs and toured Europe) as well joining the ranks of bassist Howard Rumsey’s West Coast group, Lighthouse All-Stars.

After six years in California, Clark returned to the East Coast in early 1957, and was soon in demand as a sideman, initially as an accompanist for singer Dinah Washington, and then on a recording session for Sonny Rollins. Distilling the innovations of Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk to create his own bebop-influenced style, Clark attracted the attention of Blue Note’s boss, Alfred Lion, after impressing on a June ’57 session for saxophonist Hank Mobley. Lion then gave the pianist his first shot at leading a recording session under his own name a few weeks later, in July of that year, when he recorded his debut album, Dial “S” For Sonny, which immediately established Clark as a hard bop pianist of the first order.

By the time that Clark went back into Rudy Van Gelder’s Hackensack studio to record his second album for Blue Note – on September 1, 1957, when he laid down the tracks for what became Sonny’s Crib – the pianist had racked up several other sideman sessions for the label, including another one for Hank Mobley.

On Sonny’s Crib, Clark opted to use the sextet format that had worked so well on his debut album, though only trombonist Curtis Fuller remained from that session’s line-up. In came Donald Byrd on trumpet, John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Paul Chambers on bass and Art Taylor on drums. With a reborn, revitalized Coltrane on board, it was an impressive line-up (earlier in the year, Trane had been fired from the Miles Davis Quintet for unreliability due to drug addiction, but, by September, had quit heroin for good; in late ’57, however, he was re-establishing himself as a major force in jazz).

Three of the album’s five tracks are standards. The opener is a swinging take on Rodgers & Hart’s “With A Song In My Heart,” while a jaunty reading of Kurt Weill’s “Speak Low” is propelled by an infectious Latin groove, with Coltrane taking the first solo and displaying his absolute mastery of the tenor saxophone. A wistful take on Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer’s mournful ballad “Come Rain Or Come Shine” shows the sextet in reflective mood, with Fuller’s resonant trombone particularly effective.

For side two of Sonny’s Crib, Clark reserved two long self-penned tunes. The first is the title song, a classic piece of unadulterated hard bop where the “head” theme draws on “amen” cadences from African-American church music. It then eases into a midtempo swing groove which allows the soloists to stretch out. First in line is Coltrane, who delivers a typically robust but fluid “sheets of sound”-style solo.

Closing the LP is “News For Lulu,” another uptempo piece with Latin inflections that is distinguished by adroit ensemble work and stellar solos. Fittingly, Clark leads the first solo on this final track, which reveals his lean melodic style and right-hand melodies that are almost horn-like in their phrasing.

After Sonny’s Crib, Sonny Clark recorded six more sessions as a leader for Blue Note, including, a year later, what many critics perceive as his definitive album: Cool Struttin’. Always in demand, Clark also played as a sideman on a slew of sessions for the label, including albums by Lee Morgan, Jackie McLean, Stanley Turrentine, Grant Green, and Dexter Gordon.

Though diminutive in terms of his height (he stood only five foot, five inches), Sonny Clark was undoubtedly a man of substantial stature in the jazz world. He might have achieved even greater things had he lived longer, but as it is, Sonny’s Crib is a classic album that ensures that both his music and talent can be appreciated by future generations.

Sonny Clark - 1957 - Dial S For Sonny

Sonny Clark

1957

Dial S For Sonny

01. Dial "S" For Sonny
02. Bootin' It
03. It Could Happen To You
04. Sonny's Mood
05. Shoutin' On A Riff
06. Love Walked In

Bass – Wilbur Ware
Drums – Louis Hayes
Piano – Sonny Clark
Tenor Saxophone – Hank Mobley
Trombone – Curtis Fuller
Trumpet – Art Farmer

Recorded July 21, 1957.

A remarkable composer and pianist whose special touch and articulation makes him instantly recognizable at the piano, Sonny (Conrad Yeatis) Clark recorded so much on the Blue Note label that he was practically their in-house pianist. This hard-bop mainstay was particularly noteworthy for his virtuosic right hand lines.

Sonny was born in Herminie, PA, a small mining town 60 miles from Pittsburgh. He started piano at four, and at six was featured playing boogie-woogie on several amateur hour radio programs. He spent his teenage years in Pittsburgh, playing vibes and bass in high school as well as being featured on piano. He went to California in 1951 with his older brother, also a pianist, and worked in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, starting his recording career at age 22 in February, 1953, with Teddy Charles. He soon recorded with Art Pepper and Buddy DeFranco (traveling to Europe for a couple of months to start 1954), then returned to LA to work with Buddy, Cal Tjader, Sonny Criss, Frank Rosolino, Serge Chaloff, Lawrence Marable-James Clay quartet and Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars. He decided to work his way back East by joining Dinah Washington, arriving in NYC in April of 1957. On June 11 and 12 he did his first NY recording sessions as part of the Sonny Rollins quartet for Riverside Records. June 23, 1957, marks his first Blue Note date as a member of a Hank Mobley sextet. Within the next month, on July 21, he recorded his own first leader date for Blue Note: "Dial S For Sonny." He continued to record many more sessions for Blue Note as both sideman (with Curtis Fuller, more Hank Mobley, Johnny Griffin, Clifford Jordan, Lee Morgan, Art Farmer, Lou Donaldson, Tina Brooks, Bennie Green, Jackie McLean, Grant Green, Ike Quebec, Dexter Gordon and others) and as a leader right up to his last recording session, a Stanley Turrentine sextet date (October 18, 1962). He recorded mostly for Blue Note but did find time to also record with Philly Joe Jones (Riverside), Coleman Hawkins (Colpix), more with Bennie Green (Enrica and Time), his own leader date and a date with Stanley Turrentine on Time. We are blessed that he left us with many great recordings from both his California and New York periods. Sonny, along with bassist Butch Warren and drummer Billy Higgins, created one of the truly classic rhythm sections of this period. He was hospitalized in late 1962 with a leg infection and was released only shortly before he passed away in January. Sonny was only 31 years old when he died.

With the exception of "Love Walked In," which features piano all the way, Clark generously shares equal solo time with Mobley, Farmer, and Fuller on the other six tunes. Still, he has enough space to make the most of what was his Blue Note debut, playing with greater fluency and technical aplomb than on the more celebrated "Cool Struttin'." In fact, based on the evidence of this recording, a listener might wonder if Clark was destined to be the next Bud Powell.

But unlike Bud, Sonny is clearly more of a "session player," contributing five of the seven tunes, each of them the kind musicians love to blow on. And unlike, say, a Horace Silver, Sonny seems happy to remain in the background, showcasing his inventive soloists. Mobley is in his prime (another reason I'd pick this one ahead of "Cool Struttin'"), his warm, musky sound never captured better. Farmer is brassier and more emotional than I've ever heard him. Fuller is crisp and incisive, though I could have done with one less soloist in favor of extended choruses by the other musicians. (Clark's single-note, horn-like approach to his own solos is another reason to go with a leaner ensemble, if only to reduce the duplication of textures).

The youthful Louis Hayes plays like a veteran, even at this early stage which pre-dates his tours of duty with the Adderley brothers and Oscar Peterson. Wilbur Ware supports the legendary status he had attained as a musician's musician, a bass player who could be counted on to make any session swing (though I haven't decided whether his penchant for repeating the same note is effective tension and release or harmonic insecurity). All in all, an impressive introduction to Sonny Clark as a leader, composer, and player.

Curtis Fuller - 1957 - Bone And Bari

Curtis Fuller

1957

Bone And Bari

01. Algonquin
02. Nita's Waltz
03. Bone & Bari
04. Heart And Soul
05. Again
06. Pickup

Baritone Saxophone – Tate Houston
Bass – Paul Chambers
Drums – Art Taylor
Piano – Sonny Clark
Producer – Alfred Lion
Trombone – Curtis Fuller

Curtis Fuller emerged during the 1950s as a leading hard bop trombonist. A native of Detroit, Fuller was initially inspired by hearing J.J. Johnson, who became a mentor for the young musician. This recording was completed only weeks before Fuller went into the studio to record John Coltrane's Blue Trane. The session is unique in its pairing of trombone with the baritone sax of Tate Houston. The resultant front line sound is thick and rotund. The rhythm section of Sonny Clark, Paul Chambers and Art Taylor had a lovely rapport; individually and collectively, these three made many important recordings in the late 1950s, especially for the Blue Note label. Highlights of Bone & Bari include the title tune, penned by Fuller, and the group's rendering of the standard "Heart and Soul."