MADE IN JAPAN

MANHATTAN JAZZ QUINTET – (selftitled)

LP  Paddle Wheel ‎– K28P 6313  (Japan, 1984)

The Manhattan Jazz Quintet was formed in 1983 at the suggestion of Japanese jazz magazine Swing Journal and the King record label.  It was an unusual group in that they very rarely performed as a unit in the United States (much less Manhattan) but were a major hit in Japan, both for their recordings and occasional tours.

To everyone's surprise, its first recording (simply called Manhattan Jazz Quintet) became such a big seller that it was awarded Swing Journal's annual 1984 Gold Disk Award as the #1 album in Japan.   The quintet consisted originally – and on this album - of David Matthews on piano, Lew Soloff on trumpet, George Young on tenor sax, Charnett Moffett on bass and Steve Gadd on drums.  There were subsequent changes on later albums.

Due to the group's extremely limited distribution in other countries, it is not well known outside of Japan.  However this album was obviously distributed in Europe as my copy was manufactured by Bellaphon in Germany.

Tracklist.

A1       Summertime

A2       Rosario

A3       Milestones

B1        My Favorite Things

B2        Airegin

B3        Summer Waltz

Credits.

Trumpet – Lew Soloff

Tenor Saxophone – George Young 

Piano – David Matthews

Bass – Charnett Moffett

Drums – Steve Gadd

(LP rip in WAV).

MACH II

RHODA SCOTT - MACH 2

LP Barclay       France, 1971

Rhoda Scott - sometimes referred to as the Barefoot Princess because she plays the pedals of her Hammond barefoot - is an American jazz organist who made a career playing in Europe.  She has lived in France since '68.

Her output is rather large and somewhat uneven.  Her LPs are often plagued by tepid covers of hits of the day.  However, when she gets to it, she can be pretty good.

This session recorded in France in 1974 with Joe Thomas (aka The Ebony Godfather), on flute and tenor sax, and Cees Kranenburg (drums) ranks among her better LPs.  JoeThomas deserves special credit for his often inspired and funky flute work.

My favorite tracks are the Joe Thomas' composition Fire & Brimstone, Jeremy (co-written by Rhoda Scott and Joe Thomas) and Blues at the Bilboquet which is really cooking!.

  

Tracklisting

1.         Splanky

2.         Mach II           

3.         Fire And Brimstone

4.         Jeremy

5.         Delilah

6.         Blues At The Bilboquet

(Album never re-issued on CD)

RARITY # 56

LA GRANDE TWIST PARTY

25 cm Barclay (France) – 1962

A fairly rare French 10” featuring Twist songs – vocal and instrumental - done in a very French manner by very competent (studio) bands (Eddie Barclay, Jean Bouchety) with obvious jazz chops and lotsa honking sax.   The overall sound his often closer to Louis Prima’s than to rockabilly this is sax-based rock and roll rather than guitar rock.

Les Play Boys were leather-rocker Vince Taylor’s backing band.  Their take on Artistry in Rhythm (renamed Artistry in Twist) is well worth the price of admission.  The tracks by Eddie Barclay Orchestra are very enjoyable also, I really enjoy this type of “big band” rock and roll.   “Play The Thing” sounds very much like Night Train. 

Harold Nicholas was an American expat' with a long career in dancing. See here.

No idea about the identities behind The Daniels, probably a studio band “de circonstance”.  They were obviously French-speakers (listen to “Wee Wee” which sounds like “Oui Oui”) but French or Belgians?  The compositions are credited to J. Evans – N. Byl … two Belgians ! (for more info on jazz pianist Jean Evans, check here).

A better known  band is Les Chaussettes Noires feat. lead singer Eddy Mitchell who was to become a huge star in France and French speaking countries and played a major role in popularizing rock and roll, country music in France and, later on,and American B-series thru’ his TV programme La Derniere Séance in the 80s.

Play it loud and do the twist!

A1       Harold Nicholas           La Grande Twist Party (Rock'n Roll Call)         composed by: D. Gérard, R. Bernet, Hammer, Toombs

A2       Harold Nicholas           Ya Ya Twist     composed by G. Aber, Lee Dorsey

A3       The Daniels      Wee Wee         composed by J. Evans, N. Byl

A4       The Daniels      Scotch Twist    composed by J. Evans, N. Byl

A5       Les Play-Boys  Raunch Twist   composed by Singleton, Ogerman, Larry Coleman

B1        Les Chaussettes Noires Peppermint Twist (1ère Partie) composed by G. Aber, Dee, Glover

B2        Les Chaussettes Noires Peppermint Twist (2e Partie)    composed by G. Aber, Dee, Glover

B3        Eddie Barclay & Les Twisters   5th Avenue Twist        composed by G. Aber, J. Bouchéty

B4        Eddie Barclay & Les Twisters   Play The Thing      composed by   M. Morris

B5        Les Play-Boys    Artistry In Twist          composed by Stan Kenton

FINE BROWN FRAME

THE BIG BAND SOUND OF THAD JONES – MEL LEWIS featuring MISS RUTH BROWN

LP Solid State, 1968  (USA)

Being at home for a few weeks, after years overseas,  I have the time to listen to some of my “forgotten” LPs, albums that I hadn’t listened to for many years.  It is always pleasant to rediscover an album such as this one.  

When I bought it (on a flea market, as usual) some thirty years ago if not more, I was familiar with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra - I had been lucky to catch them live at one of the Middelheim jazz festivals in the seventies – and I knew Ruth Brown as a Rhythm & Blues singers, thru’ her classic sides on Atlantic in the 50s.  But I didn’t know her as a jazz singer.  And a fine jazz singer she is, and a great song stylist also.  The combination with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra works perfectly. The big band sound never overwhelms Brown’s voice.  Coming from a RnB background, Miss Brown is not one to be scared by some solid - but never overloud - big band arrangements.

AMG review (Steve Loewy): It was a great, even inspired idea to pair diva Ruth Brown with the Thad Jones & Mel Lewis Orchestra. Although the solid results speak for themselves, the listener is left with a distinct sense that more might have happened. As it is, these studio sessions showcase the vocalist to reasonably good effect, belting out several numbers with which she was intimately familiar. Whether the big band sound (with its loud brass) overwhelms Brown's voice is open to conjecture, but what isn't at issue are the fine, tight arrangements performed by a group of seasoned veterans, some of the best in the field. Jazz enthusiasts might have wished for more (or longer) solos, but the essential style and straight-ahead quality of the band are never compromised. Brown gives powerful renditions of well-known tunes such as "Bye Bye Blackbird," "Yes Sir, That's My Baby," "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town," and others. Highlights include short improvisations by Thad Jones on flugelhorn, Pepper Adams on baritone sax, and Eddie Daniels on tenor. Brown fans should be pleased, as she booms forth soul and blues in her own characteristic way.

Track listing

LP side A:

"Yes Sir, That's My Baby"

"Trouble in Mind"

"Sonny Boy"

"Bye Bye Blackbird"

"I'm Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town"

LP side B:

"Black Coffee"

"Be Anything (but Be Mine)"

"You Won't Let Me Go"

"Fine Brown Frame"

Personnel

Ruth Brown – vocals

Thad Jones – flugelhorn / Snooky Young – trumpet / Richard Williams – trumpet / Jimmy Nottingham – trumpet / Danny Moore – trumpet / Bill Berry – trumpet

Garnett Brown – trombone / Jimmy Knepper – trombone / Cliff Heather – trombone / Jimmy Cleveland – trombone

Jerome Richardson – alto saxophone / Jerry Dodgion – alto saxophone

Eddie Daniels – tenor saxophone / Seldon Powell – tenor saxophone

Pepper Adams – baritone saxophone

Roland Hanna – piano

Richard Davis – bass

Mel Lewis – drums

Produced by Sonny Lester

Ripped from the original - well played - LP.  I kept the noise reduction to a minimum, it sounds like an LP ...  If you want a cleaner sound, get the CD reissue if you can find it (as part of the OOP Mosaic set "The Complete Solid State Recordings of TJ ML  Orchestra")

MORE DANISH PASTRIES

NIELS THYBO QUINTET

SONGS FOR SASHA

LP STUNT RECORDS,  DENMARK, 1984

I haven’t seen this album anywhere in the blogsphere so far (except the track “Samba Song”).  It’s a fairly decent album.  Nice melodies, good playing, a couple of songs groove nicely (“Samba Song”).  All in all, it sounds very European / Nordic/ mid-eighties with obvious ECM influences.  Give it a listen!

Niels Thybo is a Danish pianist and composer.  His musical interest and activities encompass a wide range of  musical styles.

“... One of Denmark’s leading jazz pianists and composers.. Thybo is a world class musician with strong ties to the jazz tradition but very European roots...” (The Tenor Clef, London jazz festival)

Band members

Jan Zum Vohrde : alto & soprano saxophone / flute

Lars Togeby: flugelhorn

Bo Stief : bass

Niels Thybo: piano

Henrik Simonsen: drums

(The sleeve picture names two Henrik Simonsen, the bassplayer and the drummer but Brian pointed out that the bassman on the picture is Bo Stief.). 

Side one:

De Chuva a Sole (8:12)

Samba Song (6:08)

Gratitude (8:10)

Side two

Welcome Home (5:15)

Small Changes (5:55)

Lyon Love Song (4:10)

cratedigging again

DIGGING THE CRATES IN ANTWERP

    

Big Bands: CSULA Jazz Ensemble / Les Hooper Big Band

The ladies wanted to look at the sales in Antwerp main street stores ... I told them it was a good idea as it would leave me ample time to look for records. 

Dutch Jazz:  Henny Vonk / Gijs Hendriks 4tet feat. Michel Herr

Here come the Belgians: Sadi Big Band / Fud Candrix 

Boogiemen (NL / CH / UK)

Jap-Jazz (Jam Session  @ JUNK feat Sleepy Matsumoto) / Steve Kuhn Live in NY

A recommended address if you visit Antwerp: 

And after the cratedigging, nothing beats a "bolleke"

PAN MAN

RUDY SMITH QUARTET - STILL AROUND

S&P Records (LP) – DENMARK       1984

Another one not to miss!  And a premiere in the blogsphere, methink!

The album Still Around is the first record Rudy Smith made under his own name, and it is considered a classic and one of his best. In the long history of Pan music, both in Trinidad and internationally, this is one of the very few albums to feature Pan as the leading voice in a pure jazz setting.

His group the Modern Sound Quintet played disco/reggae/jazz fusion, changing their name to the Modern Sound Corporation in the late 1970s. After extensive touring throughout Europe, they broke up in 1980. Rudy Smith moved to Denmark in 1983, where he decided to return to the music he loved, jazz and be-bop, forming the Rudy Smith Quartet. The group included Ole Mathiessen (piano), Niels Præstholm (bass) and a South African drummer, Gilbert Matthews. There is an international inspiration for the music on the 1984 album Still Around, featuring an Asian element, mixed with a dash of European, as well as American jazz. Rudy Smith is referred to as the jazz king of steel pans, and in Denmark as the father of the steel pan.

RUDY SMITH QUARTET - STILL AROUND

TRACKS

1. Blues L Armoise

2. Ursia    (Soprano sax: “Pe We”)

3. Elise

4. Blues For Bradick

5. Be Bach

6. Still Around

7. El Vito   (acoustic guitar: Costa Apetrea)

Produced by s & p records

Recorded at montezuma recording ab, stockholm, march 28-29, 1984.

Mixed at montezuma studio by r.s.q.

DIRTY ROOSTA BOOGA

JIMMY SMITH - I’m Gon Git Myself Together

Released on MGM  (1971, USA)

Liner notes:

This is the album that answers the question “can a down-home earthy, gutsy, swinging, blues-drenched jazz giant like Jimmy Smith find happiness in that spastic, hard beat, heavily amplified, eternally youthful world on the other side of the (generation) gap – Rock and Roll?” The album is successful for a number of reasons: basically, Jimmy Smith is the type of consummate artist who never gives less than his best in live or recorded situations; secondly, Jimmy has never isolated himself in any one bag because he is too aware of other idioms, other styles, other musicians, and much too hip to the reality of change; furthermore, Jimmy’s style is so close to the nitty gritty of communication that no gap is unbridgeable (…). No doubt about it, there’s a happy Jimmy Smith contained in this album – a later-day rocksmith who has his mojo working in any style he commands it to  (Harvey Siders - edited).

Review on Soul Strut blog

Released in 1973 (actually 1971), the liner notes to the record state that it was Smith’s attempt to mold Rock with Jazz, something that was a bit in vogue in the late 1960s/early 1970s. I Know What I Want was written, conducted, arranged and produced by Johnny Pate. His band also backed up Smith. The song starts off with a funky guitar line before Smith’s singing, organ and the horns join in to turn the song more towards a soulful big band sound, although a big guitar solo towards the end makes sure the Rock influences are still apparent. Next up, Smith takes on a cover of Otis Redding’s (Sittin On) The Dock Of The Bay. Despite some wah wah guitar in the background, Smith’s singing really fails him on this rendition of the Soul classic. To make up for things, Uh Ruh starts off with a jammin’ little open drum break before going into an upbeat Soul-Jazz number.  Dirty Roosta Booga is another fast-pace groover, and there’s another drum break intro to Need Mo, which is also good. A cover of Sugar, Sugar makes a nice end to the record as well.

I may add that I quite like the title track (I'm Gon' Git Myself Together), a solid blues and that Smith’s singing fails him again badly in Spill the Wine.  Overall an uneven album but still interesting if you want to understand where the process started that yielded the fabulous live album Root Down (listen to Need Mo’).

Jimmy Smith ‎– I'm Gon' Git Myself Together (1971)

Tracklist

A1       I Know What I Want    5:21

A2       (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay        5:15

A3       Uh Ruh            2:45

A4       I'm Gon' Git Myself Together   5:30

B1        Dirty Roosta Booga      5:00

B2        Spill The Wine 5:50

B3        Need Mo'         6:16

B4        Sugar, Sugar    5:15

No detail on the personnel (Johnny Pate Orchestra).

RARITY #55

JUAN DOCANTEZ y sus companeros

TROPICAL NIGHTS

25 cm Fiesta Records 10010      Belgium, c. 1953-54

Juan Docantez is an alias for Belgian guitarist Jean Douchamps.  
Douchamps(1915-1976) had a prolific career recording swing jazz, hawaian novelties, proto-rock and roll novelty, exotica, and anything in between.  He was quick to spot a trend:  When he spotted that South American / brasilian rhythms were the next big thing (following the success of Brasilan movie O Cangaceiro in 1953-54), he didn’t hesitate to reinvent himself and his band as Juan Docantez y sus companeros (in a previous incarnation they were Hawaians ...).   He was among the first ones in Belgium to record “proto-rock and roll” (Crazy man, crazy – 1953)  The fashion was to "englicize" names:  Jean Douchamps and band became … John Sweetfield & his Petrolians!

  

Four tracks, four medley

Side 1

A1:  Tropical – O cangaceiro – la Fete des Fleurs – Somebody had stole the wedding bells

A2:  Baiao cacula – Brasileirinho – Pourquoi la Casbah a brulé

Side 2

B1 : Sway – Comedie – El negro zumbon – Delicado

B2: Uska Dara –Rio de Janeiro – Caceres – Signal Samba

Musicians : Jean Douchamps (leader, guitar)

no info on the others. Not listed in the Belgian Jazz Discography (outside the scope of the work).

Probably: Georges Clais (tp), Frans L’Eglise (as, fl?), Emile Chantrain (ts), Marcel Picavet or Gus Decock (piano), Jean Warland (bass), Jeff Deboeck or Jo Demuynck (drums) ... just on educated guess based on the composition of the Petrolians in 1953.

Yes it is the same Jean Warland who played with the Clarke-Boland big band, Peter Herbolzheimer Brass Combination & Rhythm and on countless MPS albums.

P.S : another pioneer of proto-rock n roll in Belgium was guitarist Freddy Sunder who recorded a series of great boogie in 53-54 on Ronnex records, sounding pretty close to American hillbilly boogie.  

INTERJAZZ 1970

Václav Zahradník A Hosté Jazzového Festivalu Praha 1970 - Interjazz

Supraphon ‎– 1 15 0999   (Czechoslovakia - 1971)

Fellow blogger Quimsy posted a link to this album in the comments of Interjazz-6.  I think the quality of the music is such that it deserves a full post (and Quimsy deserves a big thank!).  

Not seen often in the blogsphere, if ever!

Fantastic music!

Some of the most innovative European Jazz in the Seventies come from Eastern Europe ... and it took me half a century to discover it.

Thanks to all the fellow bloggers who introduced me to "Iron Curtain Jazz" (with a special mention to Quimsy and the Growing Bin team).

Tracklist

A1                   Foukej!            Written-By – Rudolf Dašek             7:15

A2                   Jaumeau         Written-By – Václav Zahradník      12:45

B1                   Intima               Written-By – Miljenko Prohaska    5:05

B2                   Rituál               Written-By – Andrej Tovmosjan    5:20

B3                   Podzimní Slunce        Written-By – Milčo Leviev  9:35

Credits

Arranged By, Conductor – Václav Zahradník

Trumpet – Jiří Izera, Miloslav Bureš, Václav Týfa

Trombone – Andrzej Brzeski, Hubert Katzenbeier, Zdeněk Pulec

Alto Saxophone – Ozren Depolo

Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – Mihály Ráduly

Tenor Saxophone – Dan Mindrilla*, Rajmond Raubiško*, Václav Maňas

Flute, Piccolo Flute – Simeon Štěrev*

Tuba – Petr Fleischer

Piano, Piano [Preparé] – Laco Gerhardt*

Guitar, Sitar – Rudolf Dašek

Contrabass – Klaus Koch

Timpani [Kotle] – Petr Šprunk

Drums [Bicí] – Andrzej Dabrowski*