Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers – Blue Note 1517

And now we reach the point in our program entitled, “What’s The Point?”

As in: You already know this album, you may already own this album, and yet here we are, discussing an album that’s 59 years old and so widely synonymous with hard bop and Blue Note Records that it was featured on the promo page of All About Jazz’s special magazine dedicated to All Things Blue Note.

In other words, it’s like trying to review “Sgt. Pepper.” Could we possibly say anything you haven’t already heard?

Well, let’s try.

For starters, the obvious: Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers is a terrific record. You can put this in the car CD player, hit REPEAT and listen to it over and over again without getting too tired of it. (OK, maybe after 3 times you’ll want to switch to the Ramones, or Willie Nelson, or Bach, just for a change of flavor.)

It is, at once, underrated and overrated. Underrated in the sense that Kenny Dorham and Hank Mobley aren’t superstars, or even first-line stars, but should be. Overrated in the sense that the Jazz Messengers, and especially this very first iteration of the band, are regarded as the founding fathers of hard bop who can do almost nothing wrong.

Yes, Art Blakey is here, though not as prominently as in later Messenger albums. Yes, Horace Silver is the leader and the guy who wrote 7 of the 8 wonderful tunes. (Hank Mobley contributed one, too, called “Hankerin.’ ”) But it is truly a group effort, the strength being not only the solos but the perfect unison themes and choruses.

The music, naturally, is all bop – or mostly bop. “The Preacher” is the standout tune, but also the anomaly. It’s a real New Orleans-style gospel-ish number that sounds vaguely like “Down by the Riverside.” (Somewhere in the TV show Treme, someone must have played this song – or should have. I miss that show!) “Creepin’ In” is a slow burner, a smoky blues noir piece that would fit nicely in any number of Humphrey Bogart movies. And, of course, there is fast, fun, funky bop galore.

You know the history. Silver soon dropped out of the band, Blakey picked up the baton and turned the Jazz Messengers into the all-time greatest school of hard bop in history. More great musicians than you can count came from this band over the decades. But it started here – the first album released under the Jazz Messengers name – and arguably it never got better.

There are no bad Messengers albums. Every one is worth hearing and owning. But there are two or three albums at the absolute pinnacle, and this is one.

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

Availability: Readily available, used and new

Cost: $4 used

Gil Melle – Patterns in Jazz – Blue Note 1517

Sometimes, Blue Note surprises you.

Often, the Blue Note catalogue is predictable, especially in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Some say it is too predictable. But if you dive deep, there are hidden gems slightly off the beaten hard-bop path.

Case in point: Gil Melle’s Patterns in Jazz.

West Coast jazz was never at home at Blue Note. Stan Getz and Dave Brubeck did not record here. But Gil Melle did, briefly, before he went on to composing movie soundtracks. The name may be unfamiliar, but this 1956 album is definitely worth hearing.

Melle played the baritone sax, sometimes sounding like a Dixieland clarinetist, sometimes like Stan Getz, sometimes like Paul Desmond. The sound was pure cool jazz. Allmusic calls it “cerebral music that swings.” That’s just about spot-on.

The instrumentation is odd. There’s not piano, but a Wes Montgomery-ish guitarist named, curiously, Joe Cinderella. There’s no trumpet, but a cool trombone. And, of course, the Melle baritone (and sometimes tenor).

The CD has only six songs, but they total 40 minutes. It’s mostly relaxing, head-bopping stuff. One track, The Arab Barber Blues, could easily be a Brubeck tune, complete with the dry-martini Desmond sound. Another track, Weird Valley, has no apparent connection to Ellington’s Warm Valley, but still a lazy, pleasant tune.

All in all, Patterns in Jazz is an intriguing album that grows on you with each re-hearing. And definitely not the same-old Blue Note thing.

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A note on pricing: Anything by Gil Melle is pretty rare, on LP or CD, so you’ll pay $45 or more for this CD, used. I grabbed the $5 MP3 Amazon download instead. Maybe someday I’ll spring for the whole shebang, to get the liner notes and whatnot. Or maybe even buy Melle’s Complete Blue Note ‘50s Sessions for $34. For now, the MP3 is nice enough.

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Availability: Rare on CD – or at least expensive

Cost: $45 for used

Jimmy Smith – A New Sound, A New Star, Vol. 1 and 2 – Blue Note 1512 and 1514

Listening to Jimmy Smith’s early recordings is like listening to Chuck Berry play “Johnny B. Goode.”  Today, every rock guitarist from junior high school on knows the riff and can play it by heart. But Chuck Berry did it first, and arguably best. There were no great rock guitar licks before Chuck Berry. He created the template.

It’s the same with Jimmy Smith. Today, there are dozens of jazz organists who can play bop, blues and beyond. They’re all funky, they all have chops. But without Jimmy Smith, there would be no jazz organ.

So listening to Jimmy’s first recordings – these two albums from 1956 – you’re tempted to think, “Yeah, I’ve heard that before. So what?” Except that in 1956, no one had heard this before. It was original. Everything else grew from this.

So… how are the albums? Not Jimmy’s best, but still pretty good. Here, Smith is experimenting. Volume 1 is the more uneven of the two, Volume 2 is the more bop-oriented. But both must have been a revelation in 1956. Sometimes it sounds like cheesy roller skating rink music, but mostly the organ-guitar-drums trio is bluesy, toe-tapping or invigorating.

Guitarist Thornel Schwartz is the surprise here. For a guy you’ve never heard of, he’s surprising cool and swinging. To my ear, he reminds me of Grant Green and Kenny Burrell – understated, tasteful and fun.

This isn’t yet the funky Jimmy Smith of Back at the Chicken Shack or Midnight Special. But it really is, as the title promises, a new sound. And Smith truly was a new star. Moving to better places, and quickly, but this is where it all starts.

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A word about buying these CDs: Don’t bother with the individual CDs, or even the two-fer package Jazz Manifesto, which includes both volumes in one CD. Yes, you can buy used copies for just 50 cents. It’s hard to argue with that. Better yet – buy Jimmy Smith’s Eight Classic Albums. You can find it on eBay for around $10. It includes all the earliest Blue Note albums from 1956 and ’57.

 

Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)

Availability: Plentiful

Cost: Around $10 for a compilation of all 8 of Smith’s first albums