The Quarantined Jazz Voyager

The Quarantined Jazz Voyager wants you to be safe and encourages your diligence in staying healthy by not rushing to get back to normal. As we continue to practice social distancing by staying home, we can listen to great music and share that music with each other weekly to give you a little insight into the music choices during this sabbatical from jet setting investigations of jazz around the globe.

The world will be back and so will I. Until that outcome comes to fruition, this week’s entry is the 1965 album Angel Eyes by tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Errol Leslie Buddle was born on April 29, 1928 and raised in Adelaide, Australia. He first learned the banjo and mandolin and began learning jazz after listening to a Bobby Limb performance in 1944. He attended the Elder Conservatorium of Music as well as the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Influenced by the sound of the bassoon in Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and The Firebird, he began playing the instrument. Over the course of his career, Buddle played fourteen reed instruments and several others. Moving to Melbourne in 1946 he began playing the radio circuit.

Relocating to Sydney by 1951 and performed weekly at the nightclub Chequers’. Another move to Windsor, Ontario in 1952 had him joining the Windsor Symphony Orchestra.

Often performing in Detroit, Michigan, he met and collaborated with Elvin Jones and Johnnie Davis. Errol performed at the jazz club Klein’s and eventually led what later became the Errol Buddle Quartet. He also founded The Australian Jazz Quartet with Jack Brokensha, Bryce Rohde and Dick Healey. The group served as the backing band to several musicians and later played throughout North America before touring Australia in 1958, then disbanded.

He also put together a quintet in various configurations with Bryce Rohde, piano; Dick Healy, flute and alto sax; Jack Brokensha, vibes; Jimmy Gannon, bass; and Frank Capp, drums. After 1958 he performed occasionally.

Bassoon and tenor saxophonist Errol Buddle, who over the course of his career played fourteen reed instruments and several others, passed away at his home in Potts Point, New South Wales on February 22, 2018, aged 89.

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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…

Preston Haynes Love, born April 26, 1921 in Omaha, Nebraska, grew up in the North Omaha and graduated from North High. He became renowned as a professional sideman and saxophone balladeer in the heyday of the big band era. He was a member of the bands of Nat Towles, Lloyd Hunter, Snub Mosley, Lucky Millinder and Fats Waller before getting his big break with the Count Basie Orchestra when he was 22. Love played and recorded with the Count’s band from 1945–1947 and played on Basie’s only #1 hit record, Open The Door Richard.

Love eventually became a bandleader and played behind Lena Horne, Billie Holiday, his friends Johnny Otis and Wynonie Harris, with whom he had several hits.

In 1952, he launched the short-lived Spin Records, as a joint effort with songwriter Otis René (When It’s Sleepy Time Down South). The label released material by the Preston Love Orchestra, among others.

As the music changed so did he and in the early 1960s Love moved to Los Angeles, California and began working with Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, eventually becoming Motown’s West Coast house bandleader with whom he played & toured with The Four Tops, The Temptations, Tammi Terrell, Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight, Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, and Stevie Wonder among others.

He recorded with Nichelle Nichols, Janis Joplin, Frank Zappa, Shuggie Otis, T-Bone Walker, Charles Brown, Ruth Brown, and many others. Preston also appears in the Clint Eastwood film Play Misty For Me with the Johnny Otis band. He toured the U.S. and Europe quite frequently into the 2000s, additionally lecturing and writing about the history he was part of.

In his later years Love moved back to Omaha, wrote a book, led bands, the last of which featured his daughter vocalist Portia Love, drummer Gary E. Foster, pianist Orville Johnson, and bassist Nate Mickels. He was an advertising agent for the Omaha Star, a local newspaper serving the city Black community.

A recipient of several awards and honors including induction into the Omaha Black Music Hall Of Fame, saxophonist, bandleader, and songwriter Preston Love, who released three albums as a leader, passed away on February 12, 2004, after battling prostate cancer.

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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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