Jackie Gleason, not a name familiar to most jazz followers, was in his day a famous TV host, comedian, actor and entertainer. Between 1953 and 1960 he produced a series of top-selling albums of gentle, romantic ballads for “easy listening”. He was not a practising musician, but liked jazz – Armstrong, Gillespie, Ellington and many other jazz musicians performed live on his shows.
Gleason’s shrewd decision to hire Bobby Hackett as featured soloist on these albums, with room to improvise, has rescued them from oblivion. The large string-laden orchestras, purportedly conducted by Gleason, are not jazz orchestras, and the bland arrangements are not jazz-styled. Unvarying in approach, and at slow to dead-slow tempo, the “mood music” drifts on in a pink mist of swirling strings, seemingly doomed for a soporific future background in old peoples’ care homes.
But – and it’s a big but – the magical finesse of Hackett, perhaps the greatest ballad player in jazz, transforms these recordings and amply justifies their reissue, some for the first time on CD. His exquisitely tasteful and lyrically attractive placing of notes subtly enhances the melody line with nuanced inflections of emphasis and timing – a masterclass in the art of jazz phrasing in contrast with strict, straight notation. (His idol, Armstrong, summed this up as “Bobby’s got more ingredients!”) Silken-edged intonation encases a warm, singing tone, which carries with meticulous clarity.
There are 102 tracks in this four-CD compilation, taken mostly from seven original albums in the 50s, and they represent for the first time in one set the complete recordings of Hackett with Gleason’s orchestras. [In addition there are several tracks recorded on the album sessions which did not appear on the original LPs, but were later issued separately as singles, or as part of various compilation albums, not always with Hackett. As explained in the notes, discographical details are complicated, scant and sometimes obscure.]
In a typical arrangement of around three minutes, Hackett takes over the melody lead half-way through the opening chorus, returning a few bars later with improvised fills and accompaniment around further orchestral passages, and closing things down with a graceful Bix-like coda. Happily there’s a good percentage of top-quality ballads, with the kind of interesting chord structures which attract the attention of jazz musicians as a stimulus to improvisation.
Tracks representing Hackett’s elegant contributions at an expressive peak include When Your Lover Has Gone, Yesterdays, Time On My Hands, Lullaby Of The Leaves, Poor Butterfly, My Funny Valentine and But Not For Me. And even in ultra-slow tempo, he sounds happily at home with jazz “oldies” Cherry, Coquette and If I Could Be With You.
This release can perhaps be thought of as like a large cake – sugary, but flavoured with much very beautiful romantic melody; and not to be consumed in large portions perhaps, but savoured for the jazz in Hackett’s delectable top dressing. Whilst not a full-blown jazz release by any means, it nevertheless contains, in abundance, an important and welcome re-affirmation of Hackett’s unique skills as an outstanding jazz trumpet stylist.
Discography
CD1: Music To Make You Misty, 1953 – tracks 1-8. Music, Martinis And Memories, 1954 – tracks 9-24 (75.20)
CD2: Music To Remember Her, 1954 – tracks 1-16. Music To Change Her Mind, 1955 – tracks 17-24 (79.00)
CD3: (cont.) Tracks 1-10. Music For The Love Hours, 1957 – tracks 11-26. That Moment, 1958 – track 27 (78.55)
CD4: (cont.) Tracks 1-11. Music For Lovers Only, 1960 – tracks 12-27 (79.12)
Hackett (t) on all tracks with Jackie Gleason’s large orchestra of strings and wind instruments. No personnel details. NY, misc. dates, 1953-1960.
Essential Jazz Classics EJC55769
