Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Earl Malcolm “Jock” Caruthers Sr. was born on May 27, 1910 in Monroe, Mississippi and studied at Fisk University in the 1920s. He began playing in Bennie Moten’s ensemble in 1928.

Working in St. Louis, Missouri early in the next decade with Dewey Jackson and Fate Marable, Jock then joined Jimmie Lunceford’s band in 1932, recording often with the band. He remained a member of the orchestra until Lunceford’s death in 1947.

Following this he played with Joe Thomas and Ed Wilcox, and he worked locally in Kansas City through the 1960s. Saxophonist Earl Caruthers, who was a mainstay on the Kansas City jazz scene, passed away on April 5, 1971 in Kansas City, Kansas.

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Three Wishes

The Baroness asked Harry Carney what his three wishes would be and he replied:

1. 1. “To be healthy.”

   2. “To be happy.”

   3. “For everyone to have eternal life and healthy minds.”

*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Frank Gant was born on May 26, 1931 in Detroit, Michigan. His first gigs were with Billy Mitchell and Pepper Adams, and after working with Little John Wilson and his Merry Men at the Madison Ballroom, including four days backing Billie Holiday, he went on to join Alvin Jackson’s house band at the Blue Bird.^.

Gant recorded with Donald Byrd, Sonny Stitt, and extensively with Yusef Lateef in the late 1950s and then Red Garland before becoming a member of Ahmad Jamal’s trio from 1966 to 1976. As the house drummer at Detroit’s Club 12, with Jackson’s band, he backed Thelonious Monk and Charlie Rouse in September 1959. In the 1970s, he accompanied Jamil Nasser and Harold Mabern as the rhythm section for workshops run by Cobi Narita.

From 1955 to 1986 he recorded as a sideman or group member on twenty albums with the above-mentioned musicians, as well as several with Al Haig. There is no more information following this recording period about the drummer as he has never been a leader, however, at eighty-nine he may still be occasionally performing.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Milt Bernhart was born on May 25, 1926 in Valparaiso, Indiana and began on tuba but switched to trombone in high school. At 16 he worked in Boyd Raeburn’s band and later had some gigs with Teddy Powell. After time in the Army he worked, off and on, with Stan Kenton for the next ten years. In 1955 Bernhart recorded his first album as a leader. In 1986 he was elected President of the Big Band Academy of America.

Although known as mild-mannered or humorous, he spent a brief period with Benny Goodman, who brought out his ire. He indicated working with Goodman was “the bottom” of his first 23 years of life, except for basic training in the Army. He called Goodman a bore and claimed he did nothing about the treatment Wardell Gray faced at a segregated club in Las Vegas and he even alleges that he quit because Goodman publicly humiliated Gray in front of an audience.

The West Coast jazz trombonist recorded more than a hundred albums as a sideman working with Maynard Ferguson, Henri Rene, Shorty Rogers, Pete Rugolo, Howard Rumsey, Lalo Schifrin, Chet Baker, Sammy Davis Jr., June Christy, Astrud Gilberto, Peggy Lee, Johnny Mandel, and Henry Mancini among numerous others.

He recorded with Frank Sinatra, supplying the solo in the middle of Sinatra’s 1956 recording of I’ve Got You Under My Skin conducted by Nelson Riddle. Trombonist Milt Bernhart passed away from congestive heart failure at the Adventist Health in Glendale, California at the age of 77 on January 22, 2004.

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Requisites

New Thing At Newport: John Coltrane~Archie Shepp | By Eddie Carter

And now for something completely different!  In 1960, Creed Taylor, a producer for ABC-Paramount Records launched Impulse Records, the company’s label exclusively devoted to jazz.  This morning’s subject of discussion from the library is a 1965 live date at The Newport Jazz Festival taken from two performances by The John Coltrane Quartet and The Archie Shepp Quartet.  The album is New Thing at Newport (Impulse! A-94), it was released in 1966 and my copy used for this report is the 1968 Stereo reissue (AS-94).  Coltrane makes his only appearance on the record backed by McCoy Tyner on piano; Jimmy Garrison on double bass; and Elvin Jones on drums.  Archie Shepp composed and performs the remaining four songs supported by Bobby Hutcherson on vibraphone; Barre Phillips on double bass; and Joe Chambers on drums.

Side One starts with an Introduction of Coltrane’s group by Father Norman O’Connor, a Roman Catholic priest who was a huge jazz fan, a longtime radio host at WGBH in Boston, a weekly columnist for The Boston Globe and host of a syndicated jazz program.  The Jazz Priest, as he was known, also served as master of ceremonies of various concerts and festivals and contributed to other magazines including Down Beat and Metronome.

The quartet launches into an enthusiastic version of the saxophonist’s One Down, One Up.  Trane kicks off the song with a zestful introduction and opening chorus.  McCoy starts the soloing offering a feast of dazzling virtuosity, then John turns up the temperature with a thrilling reading making the most difficult passages between Bop and Free Jazz improvisation seem deceptively easy.

The Archie Shepp Quartet takes over for the first side finale, Rufus Swung His Face at Last to The Wind, Then His Neck Snapped.  This song portrays a lynching and made its initial appearance on his 1964 debut, Four For Trane.  The ensemble begins with a duet dialogue between the saxophonist and Hutcherson on the introduction.  Phillips and Chambers come in next for the collective theme.  Archie is up first with a lead solo ablaze with a raucous beat.  Bobby provides vigorous exhilaration on the second statement, then Paul takes a free-wheeling rollercoaster ride on the closer preceding the reprise and abrupt coda.

Side Two opens with Hutcherson leading the rhythm section on a dreamy introduction to Le Matin Des Noire.  Shepp builds the emotion gradually into the opening statement with a laid-back attitude.  Phillips and Hutcherson give two concise readings before the song’s fadeout and crowd’s ovation.  Scag is delivered with unflinching realism about the dangers of heroin and where the addiction ultimately leads, the gutter, prison, or the grave.  The two-beat delivery by Bobby, Barre, and Joe is reminiscent of the tick-tock mechanism inside a clock.  Archie recites a grim message to the audience and listener rather than playing the notes as the clock continues to beat ever louder, culminating into a crash of the cymbals that marks the end.  Shepp’s Call Me By My Rightful Name closes the album with a medium beat on the introduction and melody that’s maintained as the song unfolds.  The saxophonist makes a fine impression on a bittersweet, sensitive interpretation that receives a nice ovation from the Newport crowd at the climax.

New Thing at Newport documents one of the final live performances of The John Coltrane Quartet featuring Tyner, Garrison, and Jones.  Trane would change direction and personnel within a year moving further into Free Jazz and towards a more spiritual sound in his music.  Shepp also continued to evolve from Post-Bop towards Free Jazz, but in the years to come also recorded works of Contemporary Jazz, Modal Jazz, and Soul-Jazz.  The recording by Buddy Graham and Frank Bruno delivers a lively soundstage throughout the highs, midrange, and low-end.

My only issue with this album is the same problem I had with Miles and Monk at Newport from 1963.  Both LP’s should have been released as two-record sets spotlighting each band on one record because the listener only gets one song from Coltrane verses four tunes from Shepp.  If you’re not a fan of Avant-Garde or Free Jazz, New Thing at Newport is an acquired taste that may not be the album for you.  However, if you’re in the mood for music to challenge your emotions and intellect along the lines of The Shape of Jazz To Come by Ornette Coleman, Out To Lunch, and Outward Bound by Eric Dolphy or Point of Departure by Andrew Hill.  I invite you to audition New Thing at Newport by John Coltrane and Archie Shepp.  An album that’s still pretty amazing nearly fifty-five years after its release and one you’ll want to make room for in your library!

~ Miles and Monk at Newport (Columbia CL 2178/CS8978); Out To Lunch (Blue Note BLP 4163/BST 84163); Outward Bound (New Jazz NRLP-8236, Prestige PRLP 7311/PRST 7311); Point of Departure (Blue Note BLP 4167/BST 84167); The Shape of Jazz To Come (Atlantic 1317/SD 1317) – Source: Discogs.com

New Thing at Newport is a 1965 live album recorded July 2, 1965, at the Newport Jazz Festival featuring two separate sets from that year by tenor saxophonists John Coltrane and Archie Shepp.

1. Spoken introduction to John Coltrane’s set by Father Norman O’Connor ~ 1:08
2. One Down One Up ~ 12:28 (from Coltrane’s set)
3. Rufus (Swung His Face at Last to the Wind, Then His Neck Snapped) ~ 4:58 (from Shepp’s set)

1. Le Matin des Noire [sic] ~ 7:39
2. Scag ~ 3:04
3. Call Me by My Rightful Name ~ 6:19

• John Coltrane – tenor saxophone
• McCoy Tyner – piano
• Jimmy Garrison – double bass
• Elvin Jones – drums

• Archie Shepp – tenor saxophone, (recitation on “Scag”)
• Bobby Hutcherson – vibraphone
• Barre Phillips – double bass
• Joe Chambers – drums

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