Red Holloway - Red Holloway & Company (1987)

Underestimated as a bop or straight jazz player. This CD finds Red in a quartet setting where the group plays two originals and six others more or less familiar tunes. Highlights: "But Not For Me", which starts off with a mellow first chorus before Red displays his individualistic improvisation while still retaining the melody. The group really wrings out all the possibilities of "Caravan". "Passion Flower" sounds good as a tenor sax spotlight almost as well as the unforgettable alto treatment by Johnny Hodges. Holloway shows some break-neck chops on a burning "Well, You Needn't". "Summertime" has a real unusual treatment with the lead off beat and first few notes which had me thinking of "St. Louis Blues". On "What's New?" Red switched to alto sax and from what I heard, he's one of those few players that is equally adept at playing both tenor and alto. The rhythm section on this set is tremendous, led by pianist Cedar Walton. The best accolade for Cedar is a comment made by Sonny Stitt, "If you play with Cedar, be sure to solo first. He sure is a tough man to follow". Bassist Richard Reid and drummer Jimmie Smith are the other two members of this superb section. ~ Extract by Robert J. Ament, Amazon.com. 

Concord Jazz, CCD-4322, 1987
Recorded January, 1987 at Coast Recorders, San Francisco, California 

Musicians:
Red Holloway - Alto & Tenor Saxophones
Cedar Walton - Piano
Richard Reid - Bass
Jimmy Smith - Drums 

Tracks:
1. But Not For Me {George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin} (6:14)
2. Caravan {Duke Ellington, Irving Mills, Juan Tizol} (5:37)
3. Passion Flowers {Billy Strayhorn} (5:02)
4. Blues For C.J. {Red Holloway} (5:38)
5. Well, You Needn't {Thelonious Monk} (4:21)
6. What's New? {Johnny Burke, Bob Haggart} (6:37)
7. Summertime {George & Ira Gershwin, DuBose Heyward} (5:46)
8. Tokyo Express {Red Holloway} (4:52) 

Total Time: 44:07 

Credits:
Producer - Carl E. Jefferson
Recording & Mixing Engineer - Phil Edwards
Cover Photograph - Don Saban
Art Direction - Tom Burgess

Jon Hendricks & Company - Love (1982) [vinyl>flac]

Here’s another rare Muse Records LP. This time it is particularly important to honour the recent passing of Jon Hendricks, aged 96. He was a gifted vocal improviser in his own right, Mr. Hendricks was best known for adding words to the improvisations of others. He took pieces recorded by jazz ensembles like the Count Basie Orchestra and the Horace Silver Quintet and, using their titles as points of departure, created intricate narratives and tongue-in-cheek philosophical treatises that matched both the melody lines and the serpentine contours of the instrumental solos, note for note and inflection for inflection. Mr. Hendricks did not invent this practice, known as vocalese - most jazz historians credit the singer Eddie Jefferson with that achievement - but he became its best-known and most prolific exponent, and he turned it into a group art. ~ New York Times. This album is a great example of his work, Enjoy!

Muse Records, MR 5258, 1982

Recorded August, 1981 (#A4,B3) At P-D Recorders, Hollywood, California;

Sept & Nov, 1981 (#A5,B2,B4,B5) At Russian Hill Recording, San Francisco;

and January & February, 1982 (#A1-A3,A6-B1) At Sundragon Studio, NYC

Personnel:

Jon, Judith and Michele Hendricks; Leslie Dorsey, Bob Gurland - Vocalists

Harry "Sweets" Edison - Trumpet (#A4,B3)

Jerome Richardson - Tenor Saxophone (#A4,B3)

David Hazeltine - Piano (#A1-A3,A6,B1)

Jimmy Smith - Piano (#A4,B3)

Eric Doney - Piano (#A5,B2,B5)

Jon Burr - Bass (#A1-A3,A6,B1)

John Williams - Bass (#A4,B3)

James Leary - Bass (#A5,B2,B5)

Marvin Smith - Drums (#A1-A6,B1-B3,B5)

Tracks:

A1. Royal Garden Blues {Cootie Williams} (3:06)

A2. Bright Moments {Rahsaan Roland Kirk} (3:38)

A3. Willie's Tune {Randy Weston} (4:32)

A4. Good Ol' Lady {Jon Hendricks} (3:28)

A5. Lil' Darlin {Neal Hefti} (4:22)

A6. I'll Die Happy {Jon Hendricks} (2:03)

B1. Love [Berkshire Blues] {Randy Weston} (4:37)

B2. Tell Me The Truth {Jon Hendricks} (3:36)

B3. The Swinging Groove Merchant [Groove Merchant] {Jerome Richardson} (5:30)

B4. Angel Eyes {Matt Dennis} (4:29)

B5. In A Harlem Airshaft [Harlem Airshaft] {Duke Ellington} (2:55)

Note:

Michele Hendricks - Solo Vocals (#B4)

Credits:

Producer - Jon Hendricks

Recording Engineer (#A4,B3) - Robert Grogan

Recording Engineer (#A5,B2,B4,B5) - Richard Greene

Recording (#A1-A3,A6-B1) & Mixing Engineer - Buddy Pollock

Assistant Engineer - Germahn T. Santiago, Glenn Dubois

Mastering Engineer - George Piros (Atlantic Recording Studio, NYC)

Photography - Heidi McGurrin

Album Design - W. Dale Cramer

Newport in New York '72 vol 5, The Jimmy Smith Jam

A look at the pictures on the cover would lead one to believe that this was a lovely outdoor event with everyone in good spirits and grooving on this dynamite band eh? Yeah, well that is not exactly how it went down; things may well have been pleasant and relaxed when these guys played that day but hardly ANYONE would have seen it!

Here is what happened: My buddy and I had popped the whole $7 for the floor of the stadium (see ticket ad below) and we arrived around 6:00 (as you can see it was scheduled for 7:00) only to find the doors already open and to our horror the music already started! We rushed in only to manage to catch the last 5 minutes of this set which ENDED at 6:25!!!!! When we and the others now filling the stadium realized what was happening we protested loudly - This Sucked! How could they possibly justify opening the doors and hour and a half to two hours early and have this act play for about 1000 people?

As more and more people poured in and were informed what had been done the mood turned ugly - people were shrieking obscenities at George Wein who made some lame apologies and a vague promise to bring them back later in the show (THAT never happened!). One particularly loud New Yorker must have harangued Wein for 2 hours minimum, following him everywhere, calling him a fat toad and demanding his money back. It got so bad Wein couldn't continue as MC over the waves of booing.

Sadly for us and seemingly everyone around us the evening had been poisoned beyond repair and the bad vibes continued, tempers were short, things got too crowded and the whole thing continued to go badly. Bad vibes, fights, Police taking on the bad mood too, it was a mess! I remember a few nice moments during Nina Simone but little else. We actually ended up leaving early and junking our plans to go back the following day; my first and last stadium show and only time in Yankee Stadium was an unmitigated disaster and we fled New York entirely the next morning. I went back the next year but nothing could ever temp me into a stadium show ever again.

Listening to this set now 40 years later, it is a shame that they couldn't have played for all of us because it is a lovely set and I'm sure that had it started at the proper time, the whole evening would have gone much better and some of the other music would be on these records too. You will notice that NOTHING else played that day has ever been published despite the big names - Hopefully the second day went a little better, it couldn't have been much worse.