THE SOUNDS OF JAZZ
This page is about the music – favourite albums, memorable concerts, particular themes or tracks that have wowed us. This is the place for sharing the sounds that inspire us. Tell us about your jazz experience and share with us the sounds of your jazz journey. If you are an active jazz fan, tell us about the gigs that you have been to and the music that you heard there. Tell us about your favourite albums, the ones that are nearly worn out and the ones that are constantly playing. If you are a musician, tell us about your gigs, where you are playing and who you are playing with. Promote yourselves and your music through this site. Contact me on kenneth@jazzatmytable.com.
FATHER OF FOUR BROTHERS
In the jazz and swing repertoire there are obvious classics that are timeless and rightly have a place in the musical pantheon. Among these classics is “Four Brothers”, written for the Woody Herman Orchestra and premiered by the second “Thundering Herd” in 1947. Woody liked the tune but wasn’t sure at first that it was right for his Band. It wasn’t the edgy, hard-hitting stuff that he and his fan-base were used to. “Four Brothers” was cool and laid back, with sumptuous saxophone harmonies and slick solos. The Band liked it and the saxophone section worked on it until they could stand up and play it from memory. It wasn’t long before it became as notable a signature for Woody as “At the Woodchopper’s Ball”.
“Four Brothers” was written by Jimmy Giuffre, not a household name, but probably known to most jazz aficionados. Jimmy was a great experimenter, always interesting, never easy to pigeon-hole. As such he probably did not find his place among the jazz greats as notably as if he was more mainstream. But he had great pedigree. He grew up in Dallas, Texas and studied at North Texas State College. He was writing charts for bands before he played with them, in his early days most notably for Boyd Raeburn. He composed “Four Brothers” in 1947 but played with Buddy Rich before eventually joining Woody as a saxophonist in 1949. By that time the tune had been recorded and was already becoming one of Woody’s most celebrated and requested numbers.
“Four Brothers” evokes the young saxophonists that emerged in the 1940s and into the bop era as the new saxophone voices, building on the foundations laid by Lester Young as a prominent member of the Count Basie Orchestra. The tune was written by Jimmy when he was 26. He had this to say about its birth:
“The credit for inventing that blend of tenors must go to Gene Roland, the trumpet player and arranger. We were at North Texas State College together. He went to New York and used to hang out at Nola Studios, where all the young musicians went, and he told me about these hundreds of Lester-type tenor players that were coming along. Every day, they were up there at Nola, rehearsing and trying out new things, and he was writing arrangements for them.”
Dave Gelly, The Father of Four Brothers. Jazz, the Magazine, Issue 19, 1993, pp 23 and 24
Gene Roland took a band to Pontrelli’s Ballroom in Los Angeles that included four tenor players – Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Herbie Steward and Jimmy Giuffre. Woody was putting together his Second Herd, saw the potential in Roland’s band and eventually hired three of the four tenor players. Jimmy Giuffre wasn’t hired – Woody needed some weight in the sax section and so hired Serge Chaloff on baritone. So Stan, Zoot, Herbie and Serge became the original Four Brothers.
Woody and the Band recorded “Four Brothers” on 27th December 1947 in a flurry of recording activity that occurred because of an ongoing pay dispute between the record industry and the American Federation of Musicians. As Jimmy Giuffre remembers:
“It took 18 takes to get it exactly right. They knew the piece but the solo breaks at the end didn’t come off as well as they should. On the final take it all worked and if you listen you can hear that the four two-bar breaks run in perfect sequence – each one picking up the line from the one before. So it was worth it in the end. Later, when the record was due for release, Woody told Shorty (Rogers), “You know which one Columbia likes best? ‘Four Brothers’!”. Like he still couldn’t quite understand it. He really took a lot of persuading that “Four Brothers” was right for his band.”
Dave Gelly, The Father of Four Brothers. Jazz, the Magazine, Issue 19, 1993, pp 23 and 24
Of course, “Four Brothers” was kept in the band repertoire for good. Every Woody Herman Band played it, even if it was frequently a caricature of the original recording. Jimmy Giuffre went on to become a stellar soloist and arranger, always a pioneer, often experimenting with different styles and formats. His trios and quartets were always interesting, the album “The Train and the River” being outstanding. Listen to the original December 1947 Woody Herman recording of “Four Brothers” here:
Additional Source: Richard Cook, Jazz Encyclopedia. Penguin, London, 2005.
A COUNT BASIE POTPOURRI
This album is a great favourite of mine. I’m a real Basie fan and love the seminal recordings from the late 1930s through “The Kid From Red Bank” and the “Atomic Mr. Basie”, as well as the small groups. This album, however, presents Basie in different settings, including a couple of tracks where he is accompanied by strings. Other great jazzmen have been famously featured with strings (most notably Charlie Parker, I suppose) but it’s unusual for Basie. Here we get the lush “Summertime” (arranged by George Williams) and “These Foolish Things”, arranged by Quincy Jones with some sumptuous Ben Webster tenor as an added bonus. There are some swinging arrangements such as “Lullaby of Birdland” (Ernie Wilkins, arrnager) and “Swingin’ the Blues” (Frank Foster, arranger) and a rare quartet recording of “Ain’t Misbehavin'” featuring Joe Williams on vocals and Basie at the organ with a rare and surprising guitar solo from Freddy Green. Lambert, Hendricks and Ross take the vocals on “Jumpin’ At the Woodside”, mimicking the original solos of Buck Clayton and Lester Young from the great Count Basie Band of the late 1930s. “One Note Samba” is a Lalo Schifrin arrangement (who can forget his stunning score to the film “Bullitt”). The remaining tracks feature Frank Foster as both a fine tenor player and arranger on “Blue and Sentimental” (taking on the Herschel Evans role) and “Lester Leaps In” made famous by that other great Basie tenorist. “April In Paris” and “I Got It Bad” are from concerts in Sweden. “April” gets a coda but no “One More Time” this time. All recordings are from 1958 to 1962 and the album is a great celebration of all things Basie.