Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Trevor Ramsey Tomkins was born May 12, 1941 in London, England. As a young teenager, he first took up the trombone before switching to the drums on which he made his first professional appearance. Although he studied extensively, mostly in the classical vein, he was deeply interested in jazz, studied harmony and music theory, and in the early 60s moved permanently into this field.

Trevor worked and recorded several albums in small groups with trumpeter Ian Carr, as well as pianist Michael Garrick and saxophonist Don Rendell in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In the Seventies, he was a member of the jazz-fusion group Gilgamesh that was part of the Canterbury scene in Kent, England. He also performed and recorded with saxophonist Barbara Thompson, pianist Mike Westbrook, and others.

After spending some time in the United States, he returned to England and became one of the most sought after jazz drummers in the UK. Tomkins worked with Ian Carr’s Nucleus, Giles Farnaby’s Dream Band, David Becker, and Henry Lowther’s Quaternity. He appears on the 1971 album First Wind by Frank Ricotti and Mike de Albuquerque and on Tony Coe’s 1978 album Coe-Existence. He is also in demand as accompanist to American jazzmen visiting the UK, amongst them Lee Konitz.

Mainstream and bop drummer Trevor Tomkins, who has never been a leader and was a member of various trios and other line-ups with Roy Budd, remains a first call drummer and much-respected teacher on the jazz scene.

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Requisites

Up next from the library is a recent acquisition by a member of The Jazz Messengers and a superb tenor saxophonist of the first order.  Hank Mobley steps into the spotlight with his 2020 release Poppin’ (Blue Note Tone Poet Series B0030597-01). It was the third of four dates Hank recorded that year and he leads an outstanding sextet consisting of Art Farmer on trumpet; Pepper Adams on baritone sax; Sonny Clark on piano; Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums.  The title tune by Mobley kicks off Side One with a vigorously energetic melody in unison. Sonny is up first, delivering each note with radiant heat, illustrating he was maturing and developing the style that would make him one of Blue Note’s most frequently recorded musicians. Pepper steps in next, building each verse with zestful virtuosity, then Art attacks the next solo with great relish.  Hank executes a knockout performance next and Philly closes with propelling force ahead of the reprise and coda.

Darn That Dream, written in 1939 by Jimmy Van Heusen and Eddie De Lange made its debut in the Broadway musical Swingin’ The Dream that premiered that year.  The sextet opens with a brief introduction by the trio and a pensive opening chorus led by Mobley who begins with a softly expressive interpretation.  Farmer also gives a voluptuously pretty muted performance revealing his intimate feelings. Adams follows with a reading exhibiting sensual beauty, then Clark takes the final spot on a deeply enticing solo leading to Hank’s poignantly affecting ending.  Getting’ Into Something, also by the leader ends Side One with the ensemble presenting a lively melody.  Hank goes first with a vibrant performance that starts the listener’s finger-snapping and foot-tapping.  Art follows with a dazzling display of fireworks, then Pepper takes over for a captivating presentation of creative excitement and Sonny caps the solos with electrifying enthusiasm driving straight into the closing chorus.

Tune-Up by Miles Davis starts Side Two, giving everyone a chance for extensive solos starting with a brief introduction by Jones leading the way into the sextet’s collective melody.  Miles wrote it in 1953 and it originally appeared on the ten-inch LP, Miles Davis Quartet a year later. Farmer brings the heat on a fiery hot opening solo, then Pepper takes flight next proceeding swiftly through an exhilarating statement.  Clark fills the next spot of a hard-driving performance with a spontaneous lyricism that burns brightly and strongly. Paul heats up the fourth solo, walking briskly with blazing bass lines, then Hank raises the temperature a few degrees higher on the next solo with electrical energy.  Philly puts the exclamation point on the song with a short statement of ferocious intensity leading to the summation. Hank’s East of Brooklyn closes the album with a soulful Latin flavor on the melody by the sextet.  The leader starts the solos with a charismatic performance, then Art steps up next to spread a little joy on the second statement.  Pepper displays his remarkable gift for straight-ahead bop on a gorgeous reading next, and Sonny reveals the hands of a master in a splendid interpretation that’s a treat to hear.  Paul provides the perfect ending in a nicely conceived, well-executed presentation that says something succinctly before the ensemble’s reprise and exit.

Hank Mobley was also a prolific and gifted composer, whether he wrote tender ballads or torrid uptempo tunes, each work is so eminently enjoyable to listen to and several have become jazz standards.  He recorded a total of twenty albums for Blue Note from 1955 to 1970, and also made records for Prestige, Roulette, Savoy and one LP for Cobblestone as co-leader of The Cedar Walton-Hank Mobley Quintet.  His time with The Jazz Messengers, Miles Davis, Horace Silver and as a leader served him well as one of the best and most sought-after tenor saxophonists in Hard-Bop and Soul-Jazz during the sixties and early seventies.  Lung problems from smoking would force Hank to retire in the mid-seventies. He worked only two more times performing once in 1985 and an engagement a few months before his death from pneumonia at the age of fifty-five on May 30, 1986.

The music on Poppin’ was exquisitely recorded by Rudy Van Gelder and the sound quality is simply breathtaking.  The album was analog remastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from the original master tapes, and the reissue was supervised by Joe Harley of Music Matters Jazz.  The result is the sextet emerges from your speakers with superb detail and fidelity from each of the instruments as if they’re playing right in front of you. Like their MMJ cousins, the Blue Note Tone Poet Series reissues utilize 180-gram audiophile vinyl, are plated and pressed at RTI, and come in deluxe gatefold packaging with photos worthy of hanging on your listening room wall.  The three-horn lineup of Pepper Adams, Art Farmer, and the leader make a formidable front line together and are all excellent soloists. The music swings throughout each selection with the superb ensemble work provided by Sonny Clark, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones. In short, Poppin’ by Hank Mobley is a stellar fifties session that I not only recommend but feel will be welcomed in the libraries of any new or seasoned jazz fan!

~ Miles Davis Quartet (Prestige PRLP-161); The Complete Blue Note Hank Mobley Fifties Sessions (Mosaic Records MQ10-181) – Source: Discogs.com

~ Darn That Dream, Swingin’ The Dream – Source: JazzStandards.com

~ RTI is the abbreviation for Record Technologies, Inc.

~ Hank Mobley – Source: Wikipedia.org

1. Poppin’ ~ 6:33
2. Darn That Dream (DeLange, VanHeusen) ~ 6:10
3. Gettin’ Into Something ~ 6:33
4. Tune-Up (Davis) ~ 10:53
5. East Of Brooklyn ~ 10:09

• Hank Mobley – tenor saxophone
• Art Farmer – trumpet
• Pepper Adams – baritone saxophone
• Sonny Clark – piano
• Paul Chambers – bass
• Philly Joe Jones – drums

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Digby Fairweather was born Richard John Charles Fairweather in Rochford, Essex, England on April 25, 1946. Before becoming a professional musician, he was a librarian, which embarked him on a lifetime interest in jazz bibliography and archiving.

In 1971 he led his first band, Dig’s Half Dozen, and recorded in 1973 with Alex Welsh. Four years later he was a member of the band Velvet with Ike Isaacs, Len Skeat, and Denny Wright, then a member of the Midnite Follies Orchestra and the Pizza Express All-Stars.

The early 1980s saw Fairweather starting a band that performed music by Nat Gonella. He worked as a sideman for George Chisholm, Alex Welsh, Tiny Winters, and Brian Priestley. Through the 1980s and ’90s he led the Jazz Superkings, the Great British Jazz Band, and the Half Dozen.

From 1992 to 1998 he pursued a parallel career as a broadcaster on BBC Radio and Jazz FM, occasionally deputizing Humphrey Lyttelton on his show Best of Jazz and successively presenting Jazz Parade and Jazz Notes. He was also part of the Salute to Satchmo.

Fairweather and Stan Barker started the Jazz College charity to introduce improvisation in schools. He established the Association of British Jazz Musicians and the National Jazz Foundation Archive. He wrote Jazz: The Essential Companion in 1987 with Brian Priestly and Ian Carr. In 2000 it was renamed The Rough Guide to Jazz.

Digby’s Half Dozen toured and recorded with singer George Melly, and in the later years of his career from 2003 to 2007. Apart from his playing and group leading, Fairweather wrote the book How to Play Trumpet. In 2016, founded The Jazz Centre (UK), a charity whose aim is to promote, preserve and celebrate the culture of jazz in all its forms.

Cornetist, author, and broadcaster Digby Fairweather, who has recorded nineteen albums as a leader, published four books and has received several awards for jazz, continues his career as a musician.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Cecilia Wennerström was born on April 21, 1947 in Stockholm, Sweden and studied saxophone at the music academies in Malmoe and Gothenburg. In 1997 she released her first self-titled album as a leader, Cecilia Wennerström/Minor Stomp on the Four Leaf Records label. Joining her were Ann Blom on piano, Filip Augustson on bass, and Henrik Wartel on drums. Enjoying the small group format she explores classical, bebop/cool-oriented jazz.

Cecilia is currently a member of the Wennerstrom Larsson Explicity with her husband Sven Larsson, who released their first album Tussilago in September 2011. She is also part of the octet LARS 8 which plays compositions by Lars Gullin and other Swedish jazz icons.

In 2013 she released her fourth solo compact disc Lydian Mars with pianist Maria Kvist, bassist Filip Augustson, and drummer Jonas Holgersson. The band on the recording session evolved into the Cecilia Wennerström New Quartet with Chris Montgomery replacing Holgersson on drums.

Saxophonist, flutist, and composer Cecilia Wennerström continues to compose, perform, and record.

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Requisites

The Sermon! is a 1959 album by jazz organist Jimmy Smith. It was produced by Alfred Lion for the Blue Note record label. The album was recorded at The Manhattan Towers Hotel Ballroom on August 25, 1957 (#2) and February 25, 1958 (#1, 3). The engineer, Rudy Van Gelder, used the ballroom as a recording studio for ensembles to large for his parents’ Hackensack, New Jersey home studio where he recorded artists for Blue Note. Reid Miles designed the cover, Francis Wolff took the photograph and Ira Gitler wrote the liner notes.

Track Listing | 40:10

1. The Sermon (Jimmy Smith) – 20:12
2. J.O.S. (Jimmy Smith) – 11:56
3. Flamingo (Edmund Anderson, Ted Grouya) – 8:02

Track 1 ~ Jimmy Smith – organ, Lee Morgan – trumpet, Lou Donaldson – alto saxophone, Tina Brooks – tenor saxophone, Kenny Burrell – guitar, Art Blakey – drums

Track 2 ~ Jimmy Smith – organ, Lee Morgan – trumpet, George Coleman – alto saxophone, Eddie McFadden – guitar, Donald Bailey – drums

Track 3 ~ Jimmy Smith – organ, Lee Morgan – trumpet, Kenny Burrell – guitar, Art Blakey – drums

As Johnny Hodges, Charlie Parker and Sonny Stitt were to the alto sax; Clifford Brown, Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie to the trumpet; John Coltrane, Coleman Hawkins and Sonny Rollins to the tenor sax; Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell were to the piano; Jimmy Smith was to the Hammond B-3 organ.  From his 1956 Blue Note debut, A New Sound, A New Star until 1962 when he left the label moving to Verve Records and throughout the remainder of the decade, any release by the organist was praised as a major event in Jazz. Smith’s contributions to the development of modern jazz on the organ are as many fans and critics alike called him, “incredible”.  An accomplished pianist originally, he didn’t begin playing the organ until he was twenty-eight years old but established and personified a jazz language for the instrument by mastering his approach of playing chords with his left hand, harmonic and rhythmic lines with his right hand while walking bass lines with his left foot.

I began my love affair with Jazz at the age of eight and my education into this extraordinary music on Jimmy’s 1959 LP, The Sermon (BLP 4011).  It’s the companion to Houseparty, recorded at the same session but released a year earlier in 1958! The all-star group supporting Smith are Lee Morgan on trumpet (tracks: A1, B1, B2); Lou Donaldson (track: A1), George Coleman (track: B1) on alto sax; Tina Brooks on tenor sax (track: A1); Kenny Burrell (track: A1, B2), Eddie McFadden (track: B1) on guitar; Art Blakey (tracks: A1, B2), Donald Bailey (track: B1) on drums.  My copy used in this report is the 1992 Toshiba-EMI Limited Japanese Stereo reissue (BST 84011-BN 4011). Jimmy begins the sidelong title tune (dedicated to label mate, Horace Silver) at a bluesy groove with a cool lyricism introducing the melody tastefully supported by Kenny and Art. Smith sustains the momentum on the opening solo at a low flame, building each phrase gradually and enveloping each beat to a marvelous conclusion.  Kenny imprints his unmistakable stamp on the next reading with emphasis. Tina is beautifully captured on the third performance with considerable zest and joyous feeling. Lee preaches the next statement of this marathon jazz service with an exquisite interpretation. Lou taps the same impeccable vein on the final solo with a sinuous blues workout into the sextet’s collective summation and Jimmy’s slow fade into nothingness.

Smith opens Side Two, hitting a lively beat that doesn’t let up on his uptempo composition, J.O.S., titled for his full name, James Oscar Smith.  Jimmy’s trio of Eddie McFadden and Donald Bailey sets the tone with a high-spirited introduction, blending into the opening statement by Coleman who cooks with boundless energy that’s rocking all the way.  Morgan elevates the next solo with the burning intensity of a raging inferno fueling the rhythm section into a high-octane culmination. McFadden is given plenty of space on the next reading and doesn’t disappoint with electrically charged energy that pulls no punches.  Smith cooks so hard with a sweltering, soulful closing performance so infectiously swinging, he’s almost unstoppable preceding the ferocious climax. The LP concludes with the lovely ballad, Flamingo by Edmund Anderson and Theodor Grouya, a favorite tune and regular feature of bandleader Duke Ellington.  Lee leads the quartet on the theme, setting down a subtle melody that’s absolutely gorgeous. He also reveals his more lyrical side on the first statement with an intimate interpretation, succeeded by Kenny who gives a brief, elegantly articulated reading over Jimmy and Art who anchor with reflective tenderness into the theme’s reprise and finale.  These are three excellent reasons why the jazz world referred to him as “The Incredible Jimmy Smith”. His highest praise came from Miles Davis who after hearing him, paid Jimmy the greatest compliment by saying, “this cat is the eighth wonder of the world”. The sound quality is superb with a brilliant soundstage throughout the treble, midrange, and bass spectrum that puts your sweet spot in the center surrounded by the musicians enjoying their music first hand.  The Sermon is a must for anyone who loves jazz organ, and an essential acquisition for your jazz library that’s perfect to experience on Sunday, or any other day of the week!

After Smith’s enormous hit of Walk on The Wild Side from his Verve Records debut, Bashin’, Alfred Lion capitalized on his popularity by issuing nine albums by the organist from 1962 to 1968.  Jimmy Smith Plays Fats Waller came out in 1962; Back At The Chicken Shack, and Rockin’ The Boat in 1963; and Prayer Meetin’ hit the stores in 1964! The other five titles were previously unissued because of his healthy Blue Note catalog of LP’s that was still selling well: Softly As A Summer Breeze came out in 1965; Bucket and Open House in 1966; I’m Movin’ On in 1967 and Plain Talk in 1968!  In 1979 as a reissue label under United Artists Records, Blue Note Classic released Confirmation and Cool Blues in 1980 and On The Sunny Side in 1981! King Record Company released a Japanese Mono compilation album of 45-rpm records titled The Singles. In 1984, Blue Note released another Japanese album consisting of unreleased tracks, Special Guests. Jimmy eventually resigned with Blue Note after the label’s resurgence in 1985, recording four studio albums and two live performances, Go For Whatcha Know in 1986; *The Master in 1994; *The Master II; *Standards in 1998; *Six Views of The Blues in 1999 and the final Blue Note album, *Straight Life was released in 2007, two years after his death in 2005!

~ A New Sound, A New Star (Blue Note BLP 1512-BST 81512/BLP 1514-BST 81514); Back At The Chicken Shack (BLP 4117/BST 84117); Bashin’ (Verve Records V-8474/V6-8474); Bucket (BLP 4235/BST 84235); Confirmation (Blue Note Classic LT-992); Cool Blues (LT-1054); Go For Whatcha Know (BT-85125); Houseparty (BLP 4002/BST 84002); I’m Movin’ On (BLP 4255/BST 84255); Jimmy Smith Plays Fats Waller (BLP 4100/BST 84100); On The Sunny Side (LT-1092); Open House (BLP 4269/BST 84269); Plain Talk (BST 84296); Prayer Meetin’ (BLP 4164/BST 84164); Rockin’ The Boat (BLP 4141/BST 84141); Six Views of The Blues (CDP 21435); Softly As A Summer Breeze (BLP 4200/BST 84200); Special Guests (BNJ-50101); Standards (CDP 21282); Straight Life (Blue Note Connoisseur Series CDP 85192); The Master (CDP 30451); The Master Two (CDP 554662); The Singles (K18P-9280) – Source: Discogs.com

*CD-albums ~ Flamingo – Source: Wikipedia.org © 2020 by Edward Thomas Carter

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