Customer Reviews

West Coast Sound 1

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

No one could swing a pair of brushes like Shelly Manne. No disrespect to Buddy, Gene, Jo, Mel or the other giants of the engine room, but Shelly Manne was just so smooth. This disc, a reissue of Contemporary 3507, is a gem of west coast jazz and features arrangements by several of the people who defined the style in the 1950's (Marty Paich, Bill Holman, Shorty Rogers etc.). Originally recorded in 1955, Manne has surrounded himself with several west coast studio fraternity members including Bob Cooper, Curtis Counce, Bob Enevoldsen, Russ Freeman, Jimmy Giuffre, Bill Holman, Art Pepper, Bud Shank, Marty Paich and others. 12 tracks in all and every one features nice tight clever orchestrations over swing tempos or ballad treatments. I only really disliked one track (Fugue) which was a little too experimental for me. Highly recommended, especially for lovers of California Cool.

When I was a kid, I was interested in the East Coast vs. West Coast jazz idiom. In university I even wrote my masters thesis about it. I'm a jazz musician & this controvery no longer exists, But then, in the 50s,following the "Swing Era" it was, & I hate to say it, a black-white thing. West=white East=African American. The difference was that L.A. was very laid back, the east bebop scene was more intense; "Hard Bop", you might say. I don't like the sound now but (East) but I did then. What the heck was bebop anyway? Well, here's the best definition I can give in a short review. Bebop has an 8 note scale instead of a 7. They added like a raised 5th in the major scale so instead od C-D E-F G-G sharpA-B, for that extra note. Bebop has more chromaticism, contrafacts, etc. & gives more freedom to the musician. There are no wrong notes as long as you get from point A to point B, you're Ok. It's a state of mind.As far as the tunes on this CD....there are 5 vols. I'm refering to vol.1. The only tunes you'll recognize is "Spring is here, & "You're my thrill" (maybe). It's the personnel that make the difference, Shelly on drums,Bob Cooper, Curtis Counce, Art Pepper, Marty Paich, Bud Shank.....13 in all. I liked this one, so I'll give it 3 and 1/2 stars....lol. it's got to be 3 or 4. I haven't decided yet.Thanks for reading my rexiew, although I doubt if anyone will, but that's OK too.

Shelly Manne had a distinguished career as a drummer and here he works with a kind of Who's Who in West Coast Jazz -- Bob Cooper, Jimmy Giuffre, Marty Paich, Art Pepper and Bud Shank, among others.

The sound we mostly associate with West Coast jazz comes less from the solos than from the smooth arrangements. They sound more like miniature versions of Woody Herman and Stan Kenton than like home-grown small ensembles designed around a few instruments. And they tended to use oddball instruments -- French horns and whatnot. You ought to hear Bob Cooper on another album struggling with a jazz interpretation of "I Can't Get Started" -- on an oboe!

Most of the soloists are competent and professional musicians without being particularly innovative. Gerry Mulligan (not heard here) was an exception. So was Jimmy Giuffre who went on a few years after this recording to come out with a very personal breakthrough album that included a couple of tunes by Jerome Kern in which Giuffre shook of the cliches and did some extraordinary things. And after that went on to play experimental jazz in empty night clubs because evidently no one but musical theorists could understand them.

But here everyone is pretty much at his peak. It was 1953 and 1955 after all, the heyday of West Coast Jazz and its popularity. Aficionados had Howard Rumsey and his Lighthouse All-Stars in their minds constantly.

The musicians all seemed to know one another and to have worked together at various times in different venues. This is a good example of their having fun while producing some memorable work.

Buddy Tate (1913-2001) ranks among the great masters of classic tenor sax.He played in Count Basie's orchestra after Lester left the band,and belongs to the family of the great players of the swing era, with Don Byas,Arnett Cobb,Illinois Jacquet,Ben Webster and Chu Berry.THis CD combines two different sessions originally issued on Swingville : "Tate's date" (tracks 1-6) and "Groovin' with Buddy Tate" (tracks 7-13).For the first session,Buddy plays with the rare Ben Richardson (alto,baritone and clarinet),Sadik Hakim (piano),Wendell Marshall (bass) and Osie Johnson,a very talented drummer.The second session shows us Buddy on tenor sax,of course,but also on clarinet (a magnificent version of Duke's "I'm just a lucky so and so"),with pianist Ronnell Bright,guitarist Wally Richardson,bassist George Tucker and Roy Brooks on drums.The spirit of Kansas City's music is everywhere in this record: blues and jumping tunes in which Buddy's saxophone shines from the beginning to the end.In the second session,the blues alternates with three beautiful standards: Duke's "lucky" (beautiful chorus by Wally Richardson),"East of the sun" and "makin' whoopee".The recording engineer was Rudy Van Gelder, so the sound quality is irreprochable. An essential reissue,and a milestone in Buddy Tate's very long musical carreer.

Black be bop musicians thought that whites could not pull it off. Whites also got criticised like, they weren't true jazz people, didn't have the soul and backrounds to be jazz musicians. Blacks were right, in a way. Even though just the visual difference was the color of skin, blacks had the soulful backround. Miles Davis once said, I can tell if its not black people, It just wont go through me. Blacks said go find your own music. Well, whites came to play west coast, and still got criticised. They claimed it was bland, and wasn't real. West coasts got more money, so maybee it was envy, but blacks are said to be true jazz musicians. To me, this isn't so. Blacks told WHITES to find their own way of preaching jazz, and they did and still got badly criticised. This Shelly Manne album is proof that west coast isn't bland. It swings just as violently as any other. Critic, Nat Hentoff once said west coast was bland, but to me it isn't so. Whites should have an outlet of expression. I still love Miles and Trane though.