The Happy Red Mitchell

Red Mitchell plucks while leader Hampton Hawes plinks in a Los Angeles club session from the mid-1950s. Unknown photographer

I don't know much about Red Mitchell. I have his Atlantic record with Harold Land and some stuff that Harry Babison recorded with him privately, but that's about it. So I was happy to find this EP in a lot I picked up on eBay a few years ago. It's one of Red's few recordings under his own name, and it's a fine example of West Coast jazz from the period. 

Born Keith Moore Mitchell in 1927, Red came from a musical family. His younger brother, Gordon "Whitey" Mitchell, was also a bassist. Red was a native New Yorker and started playing the stringed instrument late – after a stint in the army during World War II. He began his career working for vocalist Jackie Paris, and then moved on to gig with Woody Herman, Charlie Ventura, Red Norvo and eventually Gerry Mulligan's piano-less quartet. 

Here he's in a more conventional setting, with the standard rhythm section and front line. But the music is well-played and convincing, and Red gets in a few very nice solos. As always, these files have been dubbed from the original 10-inch vinyl, and they are hi-res as requested by one visitor, so they'll take a bit longer to download. Patience has its own reward!

Happy Minors
Red Mitchell
Bethlehem BCP 1033

Mitchell, b; Conte Condoli, tp; Bob Brookmeyer, tb; Zoot Sims, ts;
Claude Williamson, p; Stan Levey, d. 
Los Angeles, CA; February 1, 1955

1. Happy Minor (Mitchell)
2. Bluesology
3. Once in a While
4. Long Ago and Far Away
5. Gone with the Wind
6. Kelly Green (Mitchell)
7. Scrapple form the Apple

Find it here: https://www.mediafire.com/?fj4cnifsb0ambsr

Tales of Taylor

As a DJ on WLIB in New York City during the 1960s, Billy Taylor played music by his friends and musical associates, and shared stories of the jazz life with his thousands of listeners. Photo from "Jazz: The First Century"

Ladies and gents, Billy Taylor: jazz's forgotten jack of all trades. The guy could play like Tatum, composed and arranged over 300 tunes, performed on hundreds of record albums, hosted his own jazz radio programs locally in New York City and nationally over NPR, did television shows for NBC and NET, created Harlem's Jazzmobile, taught college level jazz courses, and could speak with the erudition of PhD candidate. Wiki says over the course of his career he amassed 23 honorary doctoral degrees. I believe it. 

So why is it that today Billy Taylor is largely overlooked when jazz aficionados congregate? Why isn't his music taken more seriously? Even Oscar Peterson, himself a Tatum follower with a tendency to indulge in easy stylistic grandstanding, gets more props than Dr. Billy. It's a mystery.

I first started listening seriously to Dr. Taylor's music back when he went on air with "Jazz Alive!" on NPR back in the mid-'70s. Every week he featured real jazz players (at least, I considered them so) in live performance. I heard Rollins, Max Roach, the Heath Brothers, Dizzy, Mingus and many others on his broadcasts. But I also heard Braxton, Sam Rivers, Chico Freeman, the Art Ensemble and other leaders of the creative music movement. I taped many of the segments and still listen to them today. Billy may not have liked all the music he featured, but he brought it to the airwaves for all of us to share regardless of his feelings. For that alone, I deeply respect him. Nobody else did that.

But then there was his playing. The guy could play, and while he was not a genius like Bud Powell or a visionary like Cecil Taylor, he could surprise and delight with the best of them. 

Case in point, this hoary Roost recording. A compendium of earlier sessions, the music comes from the early '50s and captures Taylor under the joint sway of Tatum and Powell. His performances are brisk and pyrotechnic, and if you've not really heard his early work before, this LP is for you. The sound is iffy in places, due in large part to a previous owner's bad needle, but I think the download is definitely worth the price of admission. Dubbed, as always, from the original wax, fear not!

Taylor Made Piano 

Billy Taylor
Roost LP 2222

Billy Taylor, p; Chuck Wayne*, Mundell Lowe, g; Earl May, b; Frank Colon, cnga; Zoot Sims, maracas; Charlie Smith, Jo Jones*, d. 
New York, NY; November 1, 1951; May 2, 1952; autumn 1952.

1. Just Squeeze Me*
2. Feeling Frisky (Taylor)*
3. Making Whoopee
4. Tiroro (Taylor)
5. Moonlight Saving Time
6. Cu-Blu (Taylor)*

Billy Taylor, p; Charles Mingus, b; Marquis Foster, d.
Storyville Club, Boston, MA; Autumn 1952

7. I'm Beginning to See the Light
8. All the Things You Are
9. Lady Bird

Find it here: https://www.mediafire.com/?5w2hv7x1i1b7oqw

Sims Swings Sambas

A journeyman tenor player who, according to those who know, never played a false note. John "Zoot" Sims in the '70s, about a decade after he recorded for Colpix. Unknown photographer 

I never thought much of Zoot Sims in my early days of collecting, mostly because I'd never really heard him. There were no records available, or very few anyway. I was into Archie Shepp, Coltrane, Booker Ervin, Dolphy and Ornette – the avant garde. Their LPs were hard to find too, but Zoot was all but invisible when it came vinyl. In the early '70s anyway.

But later on – much later on – I met and got to know some dedicated veterans of the jazz life, and to a man they all worshipped Mr. Sims. One in particular, a tenor player who had worked in Lionel Hampton's big band and maybe in Kenton's too, never went anywhere without his case of Zoot records. This guy – Milt Hissler was his name – never really lived anywhere, camping in hotels mostly, on the road constantly, everything he owned fitting into several neatly packed suitcases. But he took the trouble to have Sims with him always. A real testament.

What inspired Zoot Sims' colleagues to hold him in such high regard? I suppose it was because of his selfless dedication to his art form, and to the unmatched quality and consistency of his work. A disciple of the President, Zoot was no "repeater pencil." His interpretation of Lester's laconic, endlessly inventive Kansas City choruses was his own. And because he was no enigma, more approachable than Lester could ever be, he attracted a following of those who would be like Basie's star soloist but who lacked the requisite talent (and that would be nearly everybody).

In the early '60s, an unknown kid named Paul Winter sold a lot of Columbia records with jazz in a style from Brazil called "bossa nova." Stan Getz picked up its cool, sophisticated slink and hit big on the pop charts with "Girl from Ipanema" in 1964. In between, Zoot Sims was enlisted in an effort to sell the "new beat" to jazz fans by a non-jazz label called Colpix.

An imprint of Columbia Pictures, Colpix featured pop artists, many of whom worked for the parent company in movies or on TV. The label's jazz output, though often of high quality, was minimal, and sales may have suffered due to somewhat indifferent jacket graphics and liner notes. But in August of 1962, Colpix invested heavily in a session by Zoot Sims, and the results were excellent. Classic Zoot: melodic, flawlessly executed and swinging.

Here are Vols. 1 and 2 of "New Beat Bossa Nova," a Zoot Sims release featuring arrangements by Manny Albam and Al Cohn (Zoot's musical alter-ego). Guitarist Jim Hall isn't mentioned on the front covers, but he deserves second billing – the albums feature him as much as they do Zoot. One LP consists of Brazilian originals, the other of familiar jazz and pop numbers given the samba treatment. Note that Zoot pays tribute to Lester with an unlikely bossa treatment of Prez's "Tickle Toe."

As always, these tunes were ripped from the original LPs with no enhancement other than a light cleaning up of minor surface noise.

New Beat Bossa Nova, Colpix CP 435

Zoot Sims, ts; Jim Hall, g; Spencer Sinatra, pic, fl, al fl; Phil Woods, cl; Gene Quill, cl, b cl; Ronnie Odrich, fl, cl; Kenny Burrell, g; Art Davis, b; Sol Gubin, Ted Sommer, Willie Rodriguez, perc; Manny Albam, Al Cohn, arr.
New York, NY; August 20, 1962

1. Recado Bossa Nova, Pt. 1

2. Recado Bossa Nova, Pt. 2
3. Cano Canoe
4. Contando a Orquestra
5. Ciume
6. Maria Ninguen
7. Sem Saudades de Voce
8. Barquinho de Papel 

New Beat Bossa Nova, Vol. 2, Colpix CP 437
Zoot Sims, ts; Jim Hall, g; Jerry Sanfino, fl; Spencer Sinatra, pic, fl, al fl; Phil Bodner, fl; Sol Schlinger, b cl; Ronnie Odrich, fl, cl; Barry Galbraith, g; Milt Hinton, b; Sol Gubin, Ted Sommer, Willie Rodriguez, Tommy Lopez, perc; Manny Albam, Al Cohn, arr.
New York, NY; August 1962

9. Bernie's Tune

10. Poquito Cantando

11. Tickle Toe

12. Lonesome Road

13. Instant Samba

14. They Call the Wind Maria

15. Lover Come Back to Me

16. Nature Boy

17. Reaching for the Moon

18. Don't Fool with Love

Find it here: http://www.mediafire.com/?uj86i0yyb44znlv