Meet the Jazztet

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Meet the Jazztet
Meet the Jazztet.jpg
Studio album by Art Farmer and Benny Golson
Released 1960
Recorded February 6, 9 & 10, 1960
Nola Penthouse Studios, New York City
Genre Jazz
Length39:56
Label Argo
LP 664
Producer Kay Norton
Art Farmer chronology
The Aztec Suite
(1959) The Aztec Suite1959		Meet the Jazztet
(1960)		 Big City Sounds
(1960) Big City Sounds1960
Benny Golson chronology
Gettin' with It
(1959) Gettin' with It1959		Meet the Jazztet
(1960) Meet the Jazztet1960		 Big City Sounds
(1960) Big City Sounds1960

Meet the Jazztet is an album by the Jazztet, led by trumpeter Art Farmer and saxophonist Benny Golson featuring performances recorded in 1960 and originally released on the Argo label. [1]

The Jazztet was a jazz sextet, co-founded in 1959 by trumpeter Art Farmer and tenor saxophonist Benny Golson, always featuring the founders along with a trombonist and a piano-bass-drums rhythm section. In its first phase, the Jazztet lasted until 1962, and helped to launch the careers of pianist McCoy Tyner and trombonist Grachan Moncur III. Farmer and Golson revived the group in 1982 and it again toured extensively. Each generation of the group recorded six albums, which were released on a variety of labels.

Art Farmer American jazz trumpeter

Arthur Stewart Farmer was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. He also played flumpet, a trumpet–flugelhorn combination especially designed for him. He and his identical twin brother, double bassist Addison Farmer, started playing professionally while in high school. Art gained greater attention after the release of a recording of his composition "Farmer's Market" in 1952. He subsequently moved from Los Angeles to New York, where he performed and recorded with musicians such as Horace Silver, Sonny Rollins, and Gigi Gryce and became known principally as a bebop player.

Benny Golson American musician

Benny Golson is an American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He came to prominence with the big bands of Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie, more as a writer than a performer, before launching his solo career. Golson is known for co-founding and co-leading The Jazztet with trumpeter Art Farmer in 1959. From the late 1960s through the 1970s Golson was in demand as an arranger for film and television and thus was less active as a performer, but he and Farmer reformed the Jazztet in 1982. Several of Golson's songs have become jazz standards, including "Blues March", "Whisper Not", "I Remember Clifford", and "Killer Joe".

Contents

Background

Meet the Jazztet was the debut recording of the Jazztet, a sextet co-led by Art Farmer and Benny Golson. [2] :2 The band had first performed in public in November 1959; [2] :2 the original drummer was Dave Bailey, but he was replaced by Lex Humphries prior to the recording sessions. [2] :3

Samuel David Bailey is an American jazz drummer.

Lex Humphries was a jazz drummer. He worked with two musicians known for mixing world music with jazz: Sun Ra and Yusef Lateef. As a member of Sun Ra's "Arkestra" he appeared in the film Space Is the Place.

Recording

The album's ten tracks were recorded for Argo Records at Nola Penthouse Studios over three days: February 6, 9, and 10, 1960. [2] :18 Argo knew the commercial value of having successful jazz singles; this may have influenced the length of the tracks on the album, [2] :3 only one of which exceeds five minutes.

Argo Records was a record label in Chicago that was established in 1955 as a division of Chess Records.

The Jazztet consisted of Farmer (trumpet), Golson (tenor saxophone), Curtis Fuller (trombone), McCoy Tyner (piano), Addison Farmer (bass), and Humphries (drums).

Curtis Fuller American jazz trombonist

Curtis DuBois Fuller is an American jazz trombonist, known as a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and contributor to many classic jazz recordings.

McCoy Tyner American jazz pianist

Alfred McCoy Tyner is a jazz pianist from Philadelphia known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet and a long solo career.

Addison Gerald Farmer was an American jazz bassist. He was the twin brother of Art Farmer.

Music

"Serenata" has a chord structure that suits improvisation; Golson added an introduction and "a hard 6/8 groove on the theme chorus". [2] :3 Golson and Farmer each have a two-chorus solo. [2] :3 "It Ain't Necessarily So" is from Porgy and Bess , which had gained recent attention from the 1959 film version. [2] :3 The version recorded is at a medium tempo. [2] :3 "Avalon" is taken at a higher tempo, and features solos from piano, trombone, trumpet, and saxophone, all before the full melody is played. [2] :3 Golson's ballad "I Remember Clifford" is a feature for Farmer; he had already recorded it twice, but this version, in the words of Bob Blumenthal, is a "heartbreaking reading. The balance Farmer achieves between fealty to the melody and sympathetic variation make this [...] definitive." [2] :3 "Blues March" was also written by Golson, and first recorded two years before this version, which contains some double-timing from Farmer. [2] :3 "It's All Right With Me" is chiefly a feature for Fuller. [2] :4 "Park Avenue Petite" is a ballad written by Golson. [2] :4 "Mox Nix" is an up-tempo blues by Farmer. [2] :4 "Easy Living" features Golson's ballad playing, which was influenced by Lucky Thompson and Ben Webster. [2] :4 "Killer Joe" is "lean and mean, with Farmer's muted horn in the lead and horns blowing softly over a bridge where the rhythm is suspended". [2] :4

"It Ain't Necessarily So" is a popular song with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. The song comes from the Gershwins' opera Porgy and Bess (1935) where it is sung by the character Sportin' Life, a drug dealer, who expresses his doubt about several statements in the Bible. The song's melody also functions as a theme for Sportin' Life's character. This song came under direct critique from composer Hall Johnson for depicting African Americans as unfaithful.

<i>Porgy and Bess</i> English-language opera composed in 1934 by George Gershwin

Porgy and Bess is an English-language opera by the American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play Porgy, itself an adaptation of DuBose Heyward's 1925 novel of the same name.

<i>Porgy and Bess</i> (film) 1959 American musical film

Porgy and Bess is a 1959 American musical film directed by Otto Preminger. It is based on the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin, DuBose Heyward, and Ira Gershwin, which is in turn based on Heyward's 1925 novel Porgy, as well as Heyward's subsequent 1927 non-musical stage adaptation, co-written with his wife Dorothy. The screenplay for the film, which turned the operatic recitatives into spoken dialogue, was very closely based on the opera and was written by N. Richard Nash.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [3]

In August 1960, the album was reported as having good sales, and a single from it, "Killer Joe", with "Mox Nix" on the B side, had reportedly sold over 40,000 copies. [4] Scott Yanow of Allmusic calls the album "a hard bop classic". [3]

The album's final track, "Killer Joe", helped the Jazztet gain attention, in Golson's opinion. [2] :4

Track listing

All compositions by Benny Golson except as indicated

  1. "Serenata" (Leroy Anderson, Mitchell Parish) – 3:30
  2. "It Ain't Necessarily So" (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin) – 4:26
  3. "Avalon" (Buddy DeSylva, Al Jolson, Vincent Rose) – 3:29
  4. "I Remember Clifford" – 3:10
  5. "Blues March" – 5:16
  6. "It's All Right with Me" (Cole Porter) – 3:53
  7. "Park Avenue Petite" – 3:41
  8. "Mox Nix" (Art Farmer) – 4:01
  9. "Easy Living" (Ralph Rainger, Leo Robin) – 3:33
  10. "Killer Joe" – 4:57

Personnel

Musicians

Production

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References

  1. ↑ Art Farmer discography Archived 2012-01-15 at the Wayback Machine . accessed June 15, 2012
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Blumenthal, Bob (2004) In The Complete Argo/Mercury Art Farmer/Benny Golson/Jazztet Sessions [CD liner notes]. Mosaic MD7-225.
  3. 1 2 Yanow, S. Allmusic Review accessed June 15, 2012
  4. ↑ "The Jazztet Really Making Strides Now" (August 20, 1960) New York Amsterdam News, p. 14.
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