Gems of Jazz: Larry Bunker

Showing posts with label Larry Bunker. Show all posts

Monday, December 12, 2016

The Doctors Are In

The Chicago Flash, aka Gene Krupa, stares in amazement as Eddie Shu blows hot in the mid-'50s. I have no idea who the bass player is. Do you know? Unknown photographer

Sometimes, when you're flipping through odd sides in a record bin (remember those?), usually in the section marked "Miscellaneous," you come across an artist whom you've never heard of. In the case of this offering, two artists who were largely unknown, to me anyway. I was shopping in one of the few remaining record stores in Manhattan a few weeks ago, and I came across this old Bethlehem release, priced moderately enough (the only kind of price Gems' tight-wad host considers). I purchased it, even though I hadn't heard of one of the players and only knew of the other from his association with Gene Krupa.

The album was issued on Bethlehem, a '50s company that, from about 1956 until 1964 or so, issued hundreds of LPs by artists known and unknown. I don't why they put out so much product, but they covered everything from Ellington to Mingus to Herbie Nichols and Ruby Braff. They especially featured singers, the more obscure the better. Ever heard of Helen Carr? Terry Morel? Jerri Winters? How about Marilyn Moore? Me neither. But they all recorded for Bethlehem.

Stan Kenton's crew at a 1940s recording
session: from left, Bill Jurney, Lennie Mitchell,
Ken Hanna, Bob Hardaway, Bart Caldarell
and Bobby Drasnin.

So here are a couple of guys who weren't vocalists, the "Jazz Practitioners." The LP features the saxes of Eddie Shu and Bob Hardaway, a reissue of two EPs that were released earlier, one for each artist. Eddie Shu, aka Edward Shulman, worked with Tadd Dameron, George Shearing and Lionel Hampton before spending four years as part of Gene Krupa's trio. This is the only recording he made as a leader (I think), and he sounds great. A bit like Georgie Auld, maybe even a touch of Don Byas, and on alto, Eddie Harris. If you don't know him, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

The other horn man here has an interesting back story. His old man, it turns out, was "Bugs" Hardaway, the cartoon artist who created Warner Brothers' venerable wascally wabbit, Bugs Bunny. He also came up with Woody Woodpecker. You would have thought Bob would have gone into the cartoon business, but no. He's an excellent tenor player, muscular and inventive, sounding a little like Sonny Rollins (squint your ears).

The side guys are all excellent, too. Larry Bunker does double duty on drums and vibes, and Bobby Scott plays some nice piano. Roy Haynes is an added plus. Marty Paich was still paying the bills as a piano player, not yet the studio arranger and conductor he would become.

So here are the jazz docs, quite capable practitioners as it turns out. The sound quality of the files is quite good despite the LP's venerable age. The copy here is actually a reissue on the Rep label, a Crown imprint. Crown licensed Bethlehem recordings and issued a few on Rep before disappearing, as record companies tend to do. It's a certified vinyl dub, so enjoy!

Jazz Practitioners
Eddie Shu/Bob Hardaway
Rep 202

Eddie Shu, as, ts; Bobby Scott, p; Vinnie Burke, b; Roy Haynes, d.
New York, NY; November 26, 1954

1. Tom, Dick and Jim (Shu)
2. Blues for Baby (Shu)
3. Peace (Scott)
4. East Side (Burke)
5. Justice (Shu)

Bob Hardaway, ts; Marty Paich, p; Larry Bunker, vbs, d*; Max Bennet, Joe Mondragon*, b; Art Mardigan, d.
Los Angeles, CA; January 21, 22*, 1955

6. Irresistable You
7. Jr. (Paich)
8. Lou's Blue (Hardaway)
9. Out of Nowhere*
10. Indiana*

Find it here: https://www.mediafire.com/?guyxs3x6x4dvvb2

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Graas is Greener

The notoriously difficult French horn was an unlikely vehicle for jazz performance. But Julius Watkins and the lesser-known John Graas, above, used the modified brass hunting instrument very effectively in the swinging genre. Photographer unknown

This offering comes from an eBay two-fer sale that had a pair obscure John Graas recordings for one low price. A sucker for a bargain, I bid on and won the two discs, one of which is featured here. What did I know about Mr. Graas before I won the auction? Aside from his name, very little.

Turns out Graas studied with Lennie Tristano, that most pedagogic of pedagogues, did concert tours with Stan Kenton and got his start with the pioneering big band of Claude Thornhill. He also gigged with the Indianapolis Symphony and played under Serge Koussevitsky at Tanglewood in the Berkshire Mountains. As you might suspect, he was classically trained and incorporated classical influences into many of his jazz compositions. A Third Streamer he wasn't, but he occasionally crossed that line. He was also Metronome magazine's poll-winner in 1955 in their Miscellaneous Instruments category. The French horn was indeed a miscellaneous ax in those days. Maybe today, too.

So here's John Graas' first Decca release, the initial album in their "Jazz Lab" series, a project they hoped would "act as an incentive for young writers and jazz men to create more individually and freely than ever" (can you imagine a mainstream label embarking on such an endeavor today?). The company claimed that music students could write to Decca for the sheet music to many of the tunes heard here. For the price of a couple of stamps, fans could get copies of John Graas' lead sheets, which seems like a very thoughtful service. Wonder if they actually ever did it?

Included in the ensembles here are the cream of the West Coast's jazz crop – Jimmy Giuffre, Bob Enevoldsen, Dave Pell, Curtis Counce, Don Fagerquist, Howard Roberts, and many others. The music, I confess, is a bit academic in places, a bit too classically conceived for my taste. But some of the other compositions are delightful swingers, and the soloing is top-notch throughout. Mr. Graas himself is especially effective.

These files, as always, were created right from the original 61-year-old vinyl. A word of warning – there's a bit surface noise throughout Nothing too distracting, but it's there occasionally. I think the music will overwhelm whatever minor aural deficiencies are there. Enjoy!

Jazz-Lab-1
John Graas

John Graas, fr hn, arr; various groups including Herb Geller ("Bert Herbert"), as; Bob Enevolden, tbn; Dave Pell, ts; Jimmy Giuffre, Ronny Lang, bar; Marty Paitch, Claude Williamson, p; Red Norvo, vbs; Howard Roberts, g; Curtis Counce, b; Larry Bunker, d.
November 28, December 12, 1955; January 9, 1956; Los Angeles, CA; Decca DL 8343

1. Minor Call (Graas)
2. Mozartesque (Graas)
3. Le Chasse
4. Friar Tuck (Graas)
5. Canon Ball (Graas)
6. Pick Yourself Up
7. Andate (Graas)
8. Allegretto (Graas)
9. Softly the Horn Blows
10. Lighthouse 6/4 (Graas)

Find it here: https://www.mediafire.com/?029qp6r634y27ms

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Winners and Losers

Here's Georgie Auld at a session in Los Angeles in 1958, a few years before the ones offered here. He was the senior member of the group even then – a veteran of the swing era messing around with the jazz kids of a new era. Those kids are Don Fagerquist, left, and Arno Marsh. Photo from the Arno Marsh collection

OK, back to business. Here are two gems, one I've had for many years, the other I've only just acquired. A yard sale find, as so many of my favorite items are. And because these are a matched pair – little did I know the LP I've had for so long had a counterpart – I've decided to put them up as a two-fer.

Tenor sax player Georgie Auld was something of a superstar in his day. As the hot tenor man in the Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman orchestras, Auld could write his own ticket. And he could really blow.

Georgie Auld blowing with Artie
Shaw circa 1939.

Born in Canada in 1919, he moved to the USA in his first decade and took up alto in his teen years. After hearing Coleman Hawkins, he switched to tenor and developed a big, boxy sound reminiscent of the Hawk's. With Goodman he became a real star, playing in various versions of the leader's sextet. If you've checked out Gems before, you know that down the list of posts there's an offering of airchecks by BG that feature Georgie. Highly recommended if you haven't sampled it already.

In the mid-'50s, Auld made money recording yackety-sax stuff on rock 'n' roll records. But by the early '60s, he was back on the jazz track. These two records both come from 1963 and are excellent examples of Auld's mature style in a small-group setting with fine younger players.

While Georgie Auld falls somewhere in between Coleman Hawkins and Dexter Gordon stylistically, to my mind he doesn't get much credit for having evolved with the music. The guy who started out playing Bix's "Davenport Blues" with Bunny Berigan is the same guy who evokes Sonny Rollins here with "For Losers and Boozers." If you've never really heard him – or only heard him in a big band setting – these sides should be a revelation.

As always, the tunes were ripped from the original vinyl with only a very minor cleaning of occasional pops and clicks.