This is one of a series of taped interviews with musicians who are asked to give a snap opinion on a set of records played to them. Although no previous information is given as to what they are going to hear, they are, during the actual playing, handed the appropriate record sleeve. Thus in no way is their judgement influenced by being unaware of what they are hearing. As far as possible the records played to them are currently available items procurable from any record shop.
Jimmy Woods is one of the fresh young musical voices that have sprung up during the past few years on America’s West Coast. His first band was a rhythm and blues group led by Homer Carter, and this was the type of music he was confined to, until he was heard by Joe Gordon and given his chance by Contemporary Records. Although Jimmy is in effect a modern musician, he is one of the few who have troubled to listen to what has gone before, and is in consequence a broad-minded player who is bound to make his mark in jazz. He came to this country with the Chico Hamilton Quartet, who worked as accompanists to Miss Lena Horne. – Sinclair Traill
Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square. Roland Kirk with Benny Golson. Mercury 126 161 MCE
I well remember the first time I heard Roland Kirk, it was in Los Angeles about four years ago. I was playing alto in an after-hours spot run by a local disc jockey, and he came in. So after I had finished the set I went down and talked to him. He is an extraordinary man, and I shall never forget that he gave me some advice that was invaluable. He told me that the reed I was using was much too stiff for the sound I should be getting on alto. I had been having trouble with the reed all night, but hadn’t realised it was obvious to the listener – it was one of a new batch I had just got. Anyway, it probably wasn’t all that obvious except to someone with an ear like Roland’s.
I go to hear him every chance I get. He’s an excellent musician and he’s still developing more and more each time I hear him. As you can hear from this record, he has a very personal sound on tenor and as you know I am very keen on the notion that every musician should develop his own sound. I am very keen on that!
To return to that record the orchestration was fantastic, everything Golson does is quite exceptionally good, and I am surprised, and not a little disappointed, that he has not gained the popularity his ability warrants. He is no doubt doing alright, but he should be doing better. I thought that group he had with Art Farmer was tremendous but they never had the recognition that was due to them. A remarkable person is Benny Golson. It was clever for someone to think up this team of Kirk and Golson for their thoughts, musical thoughts, obviously here run in the same channels. When I develop more, I would love to try and write some things and do a session just like this one. Perhaps not quite such a big band, but I’d like to use a harp and maybe a couple of French horns – but that is yet to come, in maybe two or three years time. I’m not capable yet, but I hope to develop so that I am able to express myself in the way I want to.
Hot House. Charlie Parker Memorial Album Vol. 6. Realm RM 214
Do you know, I have never owned a record by Bird. I have of course heard most of the things he has done, and he was undoubtedly one of the pioneers of the type of jazz we are plaving today. It has only been within the past three or four years that I have been able to truly appreciate, through hearing his records and also by listening to the things Coltrane and Rollins are doing, that I have come to understand more the extraordinary technical way Bird played in those days. The type of chords he utilised then were far in advance of his time, and the music he played was always so beautiful.
As far as my own playing was concerned, I was influenced far more by James Moody than I was by Bird. Of course, Moody himself was tremendously Bird influenced, so I kind of came to it second hand, as it were. But I also listened a lot to Earl Bostic and Stan Getz. And there were others. I listened to Woody Herman, whom I loved for the warmth of his playing, and to Buddy De Franco whom I admired for his tremendous technique. They, with Moody, were my major influences. I see the sleeve says that tenor was probably by Wardell Gray. I admired his playing a lot, but that didn’t sound like Wardell to me.
Mariooch. Pee Wee Russell – Jazz Reunion. Candid 8020
I bought a record of his years ago, after I heard him do a radio programme one night. Can’t remember the name of the number, but it was a simple tune which had me fascinated. Now listening to that record I was very surprised at some of the changes he played. It seemed in that blues he went from one chord to the augmented fourth chord, to the major of the augmented. I am probably wrong, but if that wasn’t the sound then it could have been the sound of a major off of the seventh, the diminished chord. A tune I wrote recently called Sidestep, I used some of the same kind of progressions, but instead of going to the seventh chord I went to the major chord off of the flat.
‘I was struck a few years ago by some of the things Jimmy Giuffre did. He tried to get that same breathy sound and did succeed in getting somewhere like what Pee Wee sounded like here’
So when you played that, I was quite surprised. I am very surprised at some of the things he played there – he is quite progressive, playing with the times and yet clever enough to retain the old flavour. It is what I believe to be the essence of good music – I believe that music and musicians should constantly grow and become a part of the modern scene without losing the older elements. That tone of his is completely personal, yet I was struck a few years ago by some of the things Jimmy Giuffre did. He tried to get that same breathy sound and did succeed in getting somewhere like what Pee Wee sounded like here. But Pee Wee was the originator. Another completely personal clarinet sound is Jimmy Hamilton’s. Quite different from Pee Wee, and yet to me they are the two outstanding clarinet sounds in jazz.
If I Should Lose You. Paul Gonsalves. Boom-Jackie-Boom-Chick. Vocalion LAE 587
First time I ever really heard Paul Gonsalves was when he did an album with Duke Ellington and Betty Roche called Take The ‘A’ Train. I was in the army at the time and the fellows used to sit around night after night and listen to that. Paul blew a long, long chorus on that record and it was the first time, or one of the first times, I had ever heard notes blown which were off the instrument. He played some of those harmonics and his tone and control were very beautiful. This is the first time I have heard Paul play a tune such as this and it sounded very good to me. It’s a Bird tune of course, but Paul gets to the real heart of the number. The rest of the boys sounded good to me. The bass player was particularly good, and that pianist sounds just like Hampton Hawes – which is high praise. For myself I think I am getting to the state when I prefer the rhythm to be more implied than anything else, but the implication has to be strong enough so that people will really feel it, without hearing it. It is difficult but it is possible – I have heard it sometimes, but it takes a great deal of empathy amongst the musicians, and they have to be very, very well aware of the time. I want to do some things for Chico’s group, some things where the rhythm is just implied, for I am sure that would suit Chico’s present style very well.
‘The new things [Coltrane] has done, those modal things, have got me very interested, but I am afraid that this way of playing could become a strait-jacket’
Sentimental Mood. Duke Ellington-John Coltrane. HMV CSD 1502
That’s a beautiful record! The thing that I admire most about Coltrane is the marvellous control he has over his instrument. The new things he has done, those modal things, have got me very interested, but I am afraid that this way of playing could become a strait-jacket, because one can begin to think only in terms of a chord to the particular pattern you may be playing. So it can become an entirely unemotional way of playing, but John usually avoids that pitfall and manages to play very beautifully. I am sure that by knowing more of this particular way of playing, it will aid the musician technically, because the majority of things I have heard the avant-garde musicians play (such as Coltrane and Eric Dolphy, and Ornette, all saxophone players), many of them are completely compatible with the modal way of playing. You know, Coltrane has always played this way, it doesn’t date, but is right for any time or era. I love Elvin’s playing, but (and I really don’t think I am qualified to judge) I thought he overplayed a little bit here – sounded that way to me. The first time I heard Elvin was on Sonny Rollins at the Village Vanguard. It was in ’57 and I couldn’t believe what I heard. Later I was fortunate to record with him, and he has been my favourite drummer ever since then. Duke’s piano, well it’s just Duke and what more can one say?
The Sidewinder. Lee Morgan. Blue Note 4157
That is the kind of playing I would like to identify myself with – the blues. I like the blues, but I would like to carry it further than that. It was just a tune to play on and they all do that kind of thing so well. I particularly like Joe Henderson – that big, big tone. I caught him with Andrew Hill and Kenny Dorham in New York before I left, and I am sure he is a very remarkable young musician who will really make a place for himself. Recently he has joined Horace Silver and that should give him some wonderful experience. There is another young player there who I think is exceptional, Billy Higgins the drummer. Good beat and sound. The only criticism I have of that record is that, like so much recorded today, it is too long. You know there aren’t many musicians who can find enough to say on a blues going on that long – it takes extraordinary ability to keep up the interest for as long as that. I remember one night on the Coast I was playing a night spot – the kind of a place it didn’t matter how long the numbers went on. We were tossing it back and forth, when suddenly a big man came striding through and without a word to anyone stalked through to the room, back of the stand. He didn’t acknowledge anyone and as far as I know no one knew who he was, until suddenly the most ferocious tenor playing came out of that back room. He never came onto the stand, but played from way back, and the sound filled that room – really filled it. Well, that was Ben Webster and as far as I am concerned he is one player who has so much to say that he could never go on too long – not for me anyway.
