Requisites
Another Monday Night at Birdland ~ Hank Mobley, Billy Root, Curtis Fuller, Lee Morgan | By Eddie Carter
This morning’s choice from the library brings us back to The Jazz Corner of The World for another live set by Lee Morgan on trumpet, Curtis Fuller (tracks: A2, B1, B2) on trombone, Hank Mobley, Billy Root on tenor sax. Another Monday Night at Birdland (Roulette R 52022/SR 52022) is the companion album to Monday Night at Birdland. Rounding out the septet is Ray Bryant on piano, Tommy Bryant on bass, and “Specs” Wright on drums. “Symphony Syd” Torin is the Master of Ceremonies, and my copy used in this report is the 1988 Spanish Mono reissue (Fresh Sound Records FSR-632).
Side One starts with an exhilarating rendition of It’s You Or No One, written in 1948 by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn. Lee leads the ensemble on the melody before Hank opens the solos energetically. Lee lays down some spirited energy on the second statement, then Billy states his case with a vigorous finale leading to the climax and Syd’s introduction of the next tune. Jamph was written by Curtis Fuller, and I first heard it on the album, Big Six (1958). The septet begins the theme at mid~tempo collectively, then Mobley soars into the lead solo with some energetic blowing. Fuller greets the next statement enthusiastically, followed by Morgan who wails mightily on a vigorous reading. Root keeps the beat on the fourth interpretation with a scene-stealing performance. Bryant takes care of business on the closer with an aggressive solo into the out chorus.
Side Two starts with Syd’s announcement of the next tune, Nutville by Lee Morgan with inspired playing by the septet on the infectious melody. Hank launches into a swinging improvisation that’s a delight. Lee exhibits his skills on a joyful excursion next. Billy comes after him with a stellar statement that made me sit up and take notice. Curtis wraps up the solos with a delightful interpretation that brings so much pleasure ahead of the ensemble’s exit and group introductions. Wee by Denzil Best is an uptempo cooker that flies out of the gate with a high-voltage melody in unison. Mobley steps into the spotlight first with a heated solo. Morgan uses a mute for the second statement and attacks with the speed of a whirlwind. Root displays some lightning-fast chops on the third presentation, and Bryant covers plenty of ground motoring in rapid-fire fashion on the next reading. Wright gets a concise comment during the theme’s reprise into the septet’s lively finale.
Another Monday Night at Birdland was produced by Rudy Taylor and like the first album, the soundstage is excellent for a live recording. This is a four-star blowing session that I’m sure any fan of Hank Mobley, Billy Root, Lee Morgan, and Curtis Fuller would dig. If you’re a fan of Hard-Bop, this album is a terrific addition to any jazz library and one of the best in the Birdland Series!
~ Big Six (Riverside Records RLP12-273), Monday Night at Birdland (Roulette R-52015/SR-52015) – Source: Discogs.com © 2021 by Edward Thomas Carter
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The Savoy Ballroom was a medium sized ballroom created for music and public dancing located between 140th and 141st Streets on Lenox Avenue in Harlem, New York City. Owned by Jewish gangster Moe Paddon, who some say it was a front for Al Capone, it was in operation from March 12, 1926 to July 10, 1958. It is estimated that the ballroom generated $250,000 in annual profit during its peak years with an admission fee being 30 to 85 cents per person.
As the Savoy was a popular dance venue many dances such as the Lindy Hop became famous here. It was known downtown as the “Home of Happy Feet” but uptown, in Harlem, as “the Track”. Unlike the ‘whites only’ policy of the Cotton Club, the Savoy Ballroom was integrated, and white and black Americans danced together. Virtuosic dancers, however, excluded others from the northeast corner of the dance floor, now referred to as the “Cat’s Corner,” although the term was not used at the time.
The ballroom was 10,000 square feet in size, on the second floor and a block long. It could hold up to 4,000 people. Generally, the clientele was 85% black and 15% white. The ballroom had a double bandstand that held one large and one medium sized band running against its east wall. Music was continuous as the alternative band was always in position and ready to pick up the beat when the previous one had completed its set. The interior was painted pink and the walls were mirrored. The floor had to be replaced every 3 years due to its constant use. The Savoy was unique in having the constant presence of a skilled elite of the best Lindy Hoppers.
Chick Webb was the leader of the best-known Savoy house band during the mid-1930s and a teenage Ella Fitzgerald, fresh from a talent show win at the Apollo Theatre in 1934, became its vocalist. 1934’s big band classic, “Stompin’ at the Savoy” was named after the ballroom.
A famous “Battle of the Bands” or “cutting contest” happened when the Benny Goodman Orchestra challenged Chick Webb in 1937. Webb and his band were declared the winners of that contest. And in 1938 the Count Basie Band did the same. While Webb was officially declared the winner, there was a lack of consensus on who actually won that night. The Savoy participated in the 1939 New York World’s Fair, presenting “The Evolution of Negro Dance”.
Despite to save it, the Savoy and the nearby Cotton Club were demolished for the construction of a housing complex, Bethune Towers/Delano Village. On 26 May 2002, Frankie Manning and Norma Miller, surviving members of Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, unveiled a commemorative plaque for the Savoy Ballroom on Lenox Avenue between 140th and 141st Streets.
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Benny Carter was born Bennett Lester Carter on August 8, 1907 in New York City. He received his first piano lessons from his mother but was largely self-taught. Growing up in Harlem under the influence of trumpeter Bubber Miley and was inspired to buy his own. Unable to play like Miley, he switched to saxophone.
By age fifteen he was sitting in at Harlem night spots and from 1924 to 1928, Carter gained valuable professional experience as a sideman in some of New York’s top bands. For the next two years he played with such jazz greats as cornetist Rex Stewart, Sidney Bechet, Earl Hines, Willie “The Lion” Smith, Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, Duke Ellington and others.
His first recordings of a prolific catalogue were made in 1928 with the Charlie Johnson’s Orchestra and he formed his first big band the following year. In the early 30s he played with Fletcher Henderson, led the McKinney’s Cotton Pickers in Detroit, then returned to New York to once again lead his own band. He would work with Sid Catlett, Chu Berry, Teddy Wilson and Dicky Wells.
Benny’s name first appeared on records with a 1932 Crown label, then on Columbia, Okeh and Vocalion. In 1935 he moved to Europe to play trumpet with Willie Lewis’s orchestra, became staff arranger for the BBC dance orchestra, made several records, returned home in 1938, formed another orchestra and spent much of 1939 and 1940 at Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom. He relocated to Los Angeles in 1943, moved increasingly into studio work and arrange for dozens of feature films and television productions, influencing and mentoring Quincy Jones, as well as arranging for Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Billy Eckstine, Pearl Bailey, Ray Charles, Peggy Lee, Lou Rawls, Louis Armstrong and Mel Torme among others over the course of his career.
Carter has been honored as a jazz master by the National Endowment for the Arts, received the National Medal of Arts from President Clinton, was a Kennedy Center honoree, was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, won six Grammy Awards, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was inducted into the Downbeat Jazz Hall of Fame.
Alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger and bandleader Benny Carter, who was a major figure known as “King” in the jazz community and the only musician to record in eight different decades, passed away on July 12, 2003 in Los Angeles, California at age 95.
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Idrees Sulieman was born on August 7, 1923, in St. Petersburg, Florida. He studied trumpet and music at the Boston Conservatory, and gained early experience playing with the Carolina Cotton Pickers and the wartime Earl Hines Orchestra in the early Forties.
Sulieman was closely associated with Mary Lou Williams, worked with cab Calloway, John Coltrane, Count Basie and Lionel Hampton. He recorded with Coleman Hawkins and gigged with Randy Weston in the 50s, toured with Oscar Dennard through Europe in 1961, and then settled in Stockholm, moving to Copenhagen in 1964.
A major soloist with The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Band in the mid-’60s through 1973, and frequently worked with radio orchestras. Idrees recorded as a leader for Swedish Columbia and SteepleChase, he played in the 1985 big band of Miles Davis on the album “Aura,” which was released in 1989. He worked and recorded some twenty-two albums as a leader and sideman with Teddy Charles, Mal Waldron, Lester Young, Cedar Walton, Sam Jones, Billy Higgins, Horace Parlan and Niels-Henning Orsted Pederson among others.
Hard bop trumpeter Idrees Sulieman’s career slowed down considerably in the ’90s as he aged and he died of bladder cancer on July 23, 2002 at St. Anthony’s Hospital in his hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida.
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Regina Carter was born on August 6, 1966 in Detroit, Michigan and is the cousin of jazz saxophonist James Carter. She began piano lessons at the age of two after playing a melody by ear for her brother’s piano teacher. After deliberately playing the wrong ending note at a concert, the piano teacher suggested she take up the violin, was enrolled at the Detroit Community Music School when she was four years old and she began studying the violin, piano, tap and ballet.
As a teenager, she played in the youth division of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and took master class with Itzhak Perlman and Yehudi Menuhin. Carter attended Cass Technical High School with jazz vocalist Carla Cook who introduced her to Ella Fitzgerald. She also played with the Detroit Civic Orchestra and the group Brainstorm.
She went on to study at the New England Conservatory of Music, switched to jazz, transferred to Oakland University, studied with Marcus Belgrave, in addition to taking viola, oboe and choir lessons. After graduating, she taught strings in Detroit public schools, moved to Europe and spent two years in Germany making connections, working as a nanny and teaching violin on a U.S. military base.
In 1987 Carter came to prominence in the all female pop-jazz quintet Straight Ahead. After three albums she went solo and moved to New York City working with Aretha Franklin, Lauryn Hill, Mary J. Blige, Billy Joel, Dolly Parton, Max Roach, and Oliver Lake and became a member of the String Trio of New York. She released her debut self-titled album in 1995 and has since followed up with a series of acclaimed recordings.
Regina is an active educator and mentor, has taught at numerous institutions, including Berklee College of Music and Stanford Jazz Workshop among others. She was awarded a MacArthur Fellows grant, has created her own violin voice and currently leads a quintet.
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