Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Harvey Wainapel was born in Ellenville, New York on March 31, 1951. Growing up in the small town in the Catskills, he started his musical journey on clarinet at the age of eight. By high school he discovered jazz by playing along with tunes on New York City radio stations. Longing to play saxophone he didn’t get his first horn, an alto, until his freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania. Working at the college radio station, he discovered the music of Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane and Joe Henderson.
Initially intending to follow the family tradition of pursuing a career in medicine or science, he ended up taking the plunge into music at Berklee in 1971. It was a heady era, and Wainapel played with fellow students, guitarist John Scofield, pianist Kenny Werner, trumpeter Claudio Roditi, and tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano.
During his Boston years Harvey recorded and performed in Carnegie Hall with vibraphonist Gary Burton. After two years at Berklee he toured Tunisia with drummer Jamey Haddad, and made the trip to North Africa. Settling in Amsterdam, Netherlands he made a living before moving to Frankfurt, Germany with the HR Radio Big Band.
By 1979 he returned stateside, landing in New York City, and became enamored with Brazilian music. He quickly landed a gig playing with Thiago de Melo, alongside drummer Duduka da Fonseca, trumpeter Roditi and pianist Marcos Silva, the latter turning Wainapel on to other Brazilian artists. Not cut out for the city, he relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, after a year on the road with Ray Charles. He became one of the most in-de-mand players in the region while keeping his European presence. Back at home, Wainapel can often be found playing Brazilian music, performing with Rio-born vocal improviser Claudia Villela.
Saxophonist and clarinetist Harvey Wainapel, who debuted as a leader with 1994’s At Home/On the Road, leads his own post-bop combos, freelances extensively, and performs with Beth Custer’s Clarinet Thing.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Wally Schnalle was born on March 30, 1957 in Santa Clara, California. Graduating from San Jose State University he recorded early on with Francis Wong and performed with the Nova Vista and San Jose Symphonies.
In 1994 Wally recorded his debut set as a leader for the small Tree Fort label and he soon formed a regularly working quintet although the drummer had been leading groups on and off since 1989. His quintet with tenor saxophonist Dann Zinn and trumpeter John Worley appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival.
He recorded for Retlaw in 1997 and played often in northern California. In addition to his work as a drummer, Schnalle has been the music editor for the International Drum! magazine and has been active as a teacher.
Drummer and bandleader Wally Schnalle continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Hank Roberts was born on March 24, 1954 in Terre Haute, Indiana. By the early Eighties made a number of recordings for the defunct JMT label, was a featured member of the Bill Frisell Quartet, and was an important voice in many groups of saxophonist Tim Berne.
Roberts also recorded three discs with the Arcado String Trio, an improvisational chamber group featuring Mark Feldman, violin, and Mark Dresser, double bass.
The 1990s saw him leaving Frisell’s group and discontinued touring. He sporadically released records, including with the progressive folk group Ti Ti Chickapea. Leaving his hiatus in 2008, Hank began touring and performing regularly, releasing Green on the Winter & Winter label. Stefan F. Winter’s subsequent label to JMT. Three years later they released his Everything Is Alive, as well as re-releasing his entire JMT catalogue.
Cellist and vocalist Hank Roberts, who emerged with the downtown New York City jazz scene of the 1980s, continues to be associated with its post-modern tendencies.
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Requisites
Out Of This World ~ Walter Benton Quintet | By Eddie Carter
Up next from the library is a recent acquisition by a musician I first heard on two Clifford Brown albums, Best Coast Jazz (1955), and Clifford Brown All-Stars (1956). Out of This World (Jazzland JLP 28/928S) is the only album tenor saxophonist Walter Benton recorded as a leader but is brilliant swinging jazz with a stellar cast. Freddie Hubbard (listed as Freddy, tracks: A1, A2, B1, B2) on trumpet, Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, Jimmy Cobb (tracks: A2, A3, B2), and Albert Heath (tracks: A1, A4, B1, B3) on drums. Walter began playing the saxophone in high school, he’s also worked with John Anderson, Clifford Brown, Kenny Clarke, Eric Dolphy, Victor Feldman, Slide Hampton, Quincy Jones, Abbey Lincoln, Perez Prado, Max Roach, and Gerald Wilson. My copy used in this report is the 1993 Japanese Stereo reissue (Jazzland VIJJ-30049).
Side One opens with the title song, Out of This World was written in 1944 by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer. It grabs hold from the beginning of the collective midtempo melody and doesn’t let go until Freddie’s deceptively easy swing before picking up the pace for a bristling first reading. Walter comes in next exhibiting an optimistic spirit on the next solo, and Wynton works out a few logical ideas on the closer preceding the coda and fadeout. Walter’s Altar is the first of five originals by the leader, and an easy-going blues giving everyone solo space except Cobb who takes over on drums. Benton kicks off the solos leisurely but builds his tone into a delightful interpretation. Hubbard makes a terrific impression on the second solo. Kelly is superbly articulate on the third reading and Chambers takes the bass for some tuneful walking on the final statement ahead of the closing chorus and climax.
Iris is a tender ballad by Benton beginning with a brief intro by Freddie before Walter takes over on the gentle theme. The first of the leader’s two solos is slow, easy, and meaningful possessing a soulful tone. Wynton’s second solo is richly creative, then Walter returns for a few final softly, soothing comments before the close. Night Movement is an uptempo romp by Benton with a brief appearance by Hubbard during the melody, and Heath returning to the drums. The saxophonist gives two brief readings of ferocious intensity with a short speedy statement by Kelly in-between.
Side Two opens with Benton’s A Blue Mood. This tune is a midtempo blues starting with the rhythm section’s brief introduction into the ensemble’s melody. The solo order is Hubbard, Benton, Kelly, Chambers, and each man applies some down-home cooking to each of their solos, making them quite appetizing. Walter’s Azil is fast and swinging, returning the quintet to uptempo speed on the swift-footed melody. Benton begins the solos with a scintillating conversation, then Hubbard comes in for a vigorously energetic reading. Kelly closes with an electrically charged interpretation with Chambers and Cobb supplementing the power into the quintet’s ending.
Lover Man by Jimmy Davis, Roger Ramirez, and James Sherman is a timeless standard from The Great American Songbook. It ends the album with a sensuous performance by the quartet with Heath back behind the drums. Kelly and the trio begin the introduction blossoming into the foursome’s opening chorus. Walter opens with a delicately tasteful first statement. Wynton adds intimate lyricism to the second reading, then Paul performs so warmly you could bask in its glow like a sunbath. Walter wraps up the song with a beautifully phrased chorus into the coda.
Six years after recording this album, Benton retired from music altogether, becoming a real estate agent. He passed away on August 14, 2000, at the age of sixty-nine. Out of The World was originally produced by Orrin Keepnews and engineered by Ray Fowler. Victor Entertainment (formerly Victor Musical Industries) has done an exceptional job with the mastering of the album from the original tapes. The music emerges from your speakers as if the group is playing right in front of your favorite chair. If you’re looking for an excellent Hard-Bop album for your library, and have not heard Walter Benton before, I submit for your consideration, Out of This World by The Walter Benton Quintet. It’s a stellar album of the genre that’s a treat for your ears!
~ Best Coast Jazz (EmArcy MG-36039), Clifford Brown All-Stars (EmArcy MG-36102) – Source: Discogs.com ~ Lover Man – Source: JazzStandards.com ~ Out of This World – Source: Wikipedia.org
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Jazz Poems
ALMOST BLUE
Chet Baker, 1929-1988
If Hart Crane played trumpet
he’d sound like you, your horn’s dark city
miraculous and broken over and over,
scale-shimmered, every harbor-flung hour
and salt-span of cabled longing,
every waterfront, the night-lovers’ rendezvous
This is the entrance
to the city of you, sleep’s hellgate,
and two weeks before the casual relinquishment
of your hold—light needling
on the canal’s gleaming haze
and the buds blaming like horns—
two weeks before the end, Chet,
and you’re playing like anything,
singing stay little valentine
stay
and taking so long there are worlds sinking
between the notes, this exhalation
no longer a voice but a rush of air,
brutal, from the tunnels under the river,
the barges’ late whistles you only hear
when the traffic’s stilled
by snow, a city hushed and
distilled into one rush of breath,
your, into the microphone
and the ear of that girl
in the leopard-print scarf,
one long kiss begun on the highway
and carried on dangerously,
the Thunderbird veering
on the coast road glamor
of a perfectly splayed fender,
dazzling lipstick, a little pearl of junk,
some stretch of road breathless
and traveled into… Whoever she is
she’s the other coast of you,
and just beyond the bridge the city’s
long amalgam of ardor and indifference
is lit like a votive
then blown out. Too many rooms unrented
in this residential hotel,
and you don’t want to know
why they’re making that noise in the hall;
you’re going to wake up in any one of the
how many ten thousand
locations of trouble and longing
going out of business forever everything must go
wake up and start wanting.
It’s so much better when you don’t want:
nothing falls then, nothing lost
but sleep and who wanted that
in the pearl this suspended world is,
in the warm suspension and glaze
of this song everything stays up
almost forever the long
glide sung into the vein,
one note held almost impossibly
almost blue and the lyric takes so long
to open, a little blood
blooming: there’s no love song finer
but how strange the change
from major to minor
everytime
we say goodbye
and you leaning into that warm
haze from the window, Amsterdam,
late afternoon glimmer
a blur of buds
breathing in the lindens
and you let go and why not
MARK DOTY
from Jazz Poems ~ Selected and Edited by Kevin Young
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