CD1
1. I Found A New Baby
2. Once In A While
3. You're A Sweetheart
4. Sweet Sue
5. Epistrophy
6, 52nd Street Theme
7. Oo-Bop-Sh'Bam
8. Rue Chaptal (Royal Roost)
9. Confirmation
10. A La Colette (Cheryl)
11. Jumpin' There (Listen Here)
12. Jay Mac
13. Algerian Cynicism
14. Laurenzology
15. Doria
16. I'll Tell You In Any Minute
17. Working Eyes
18. Stuffy
19. The Man I Love
20. I Surrender Dear
21. Love In The Sun
22. Iambic Pentameter
23. Assy Panassy
24. Robbins' Nest
25. I'll Get You Let
26. Be Good, Girl
CD2
1. Sonor
2. Strollin'
3. Blues Mood
4. Skoot
5. Klook's Nook
6. Inhibitions
7. Baggin' The Blues
8. Telefunken Blues
9. Summer Evening
10. Oz The Wizzard
11. I Dig You The Most
12. Pru's Blooze
13. Plenty For Kenny
14. Cute Tomato
15. Now's The Time
CD3
1. With
Apologies To Oscar
2. Hear Me Talkin' To Ya
3. Willow Weep For Me
4. Bohemia After Dark
5. Chasm
6. Late Entry
7. Will Wail
8. Volcano
9. La Porta Thority
10. I Hear A Rhapsody
11. Yesterdays
12. Play, Fiddle, Play
CD4
1. Cottontail
2. Your Host
3. Tricotism
4. Tom's Thumb
5. You Turned The Tables On Me
6. Afternoon In Paris
7. Apothegm
8. 'Round Midnight
9. On A Riff
10. When Lights Are Low
11. Oblique
12. Jeru
13. Eronel
14. Tahiti
15. Bemsha Swing
16. Blue Serge
17. Swing Spring
18. The Squirrel
19. Cadenze.
Kenny Clarke - Drums, xylophone,
with groups led by himself, Michel De Villers,
Hubert Fol, Kenny Clarke/Ernie Wilkins; recorded
1938-56
Kenny
Clarke (nicknamed "Klook") was the doyen of
bebop drummers. Alongside such people as Max
Roach and Roy Haynes, he pioeered some of
the techniques which became the standard for
bebop and are still in use by many drummers
today.
Kenny
made his first recording as a leader in 1938
when he was in Edgar Hayes' band. While on
tour in Sweden, Kenny recorded four tracks
with five members of the Hayes band. These
are the first four tracks on this four-CD
boxed set, with Kenny on xylophone, not drums,
and vocalist James Anderson taking most of
the limelight with his bland singing. The
liveliest track is Sweet
Sue,
with some swinging xylophone from Kenny.
After
the 1938 tracks, there is a long gap before
the next recordings in this Properbox - a
1946 session in which Kenny led a nine-piece
group, mainly members of Dizzy Gillespie's
big band (for which Kenny played for eight
months from May 1946). These four tracks are
firmly in the bebop idiom, with dynamic solos
from Fats Navarro and Sonny Stitt. These include
the first examples of Kenny Clarke as a composer
- co-writing Epistrophy
with Thelonious Monk and composing Rue
Chaptal
on his own. Kenny's drums are not particularly
prominent, although you can sense him driving
the band along.
After
his stint with Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny joined
the Tadd Dameron band for a while before rejoining
Gillespie. This boxed set contains no recordings
by either of these bands - nor by the Modern
Jazz Quartet, for which Kenny was the original
drummer. This is a pity, as it means that
this collection fails to give a fully rounded
picture of Kenny's achievements, but the compiler
seems mainly to have chosen sessions in which
Kenny was the leader.
A
jump forward to 1948 brings us to the first
of several sessions that Kenny recorded in
Paris, a city he took to his heart. These
include Americans like Benny Bailey and Cecil
Payne, as well as such Europeans as Hubert
Fol and Pierre Michelot. Again, Kenny stays
mainly in gthe background, although he takes
a short solo on Working
Eyes
(a tune later known as How
Can You Do a Thing Like That to Me
and recorded by Erroll Garner in his famous
"Concert by the Sea".
And
Iambic
Pentameter
is predominantly a drum feature for Kenny,
where he plays a long solo based mostly on
the single- and double-stroke rolls. We can
be glad to hear these seldom-heard Paris sessions,
especially as they prove that France had abundant
jazz talent in these postwar years.
The
second and third discs in this set concentrate
on recordings made in the USA from 1954 to
1956, with such notable musicians as Milt
Jackson, Donald Byrd, Ernie Wilkins and Frank
Wess. Kenny Clarke gets more solo space on
Plenty
for Kenny
and Now's
the Time. The
first six tracks on the third CD mark the
recording debut of Cannonball Adderley and
his brother Nat - with a sextet led by Kenny
Clarke and also including Donald Byrd, Jerome
Richardson, Horace Silver and Paul Chambers.
Cannonball produces some impressively fiery
playing, as well as exhibiting his sensitivity
in Willow
Weep for Me.
The remaining six tracks on the third CD are
from the 1956 "Klook's Clique" session by
a quintet that contained trumpeter Donald
Byrd and pianist Ronnie Ball (an emigrant
from England).
The final CD consists of four tracks recorded
in the USA and 15 recorded in Paris, all in
1956. Once again, the French jazzmen prove
equal partners with the American musicians.
Highlights include Pepper Adams's sterling
work on baritone sax on the first four tracks
and Martial Solal's distinctive piano in the
Paris tracks. As the collection ends in 1956,
we hear nothing of Kenny Clarke's later work
with such people as Bud Powell or as joint
leader of the Clarke-Boland Big Band. So this
boxed set is an interesting sample of Kenny's
early years, albeit an incomplete one. It
is also interesting for the many other musicians
we hear along the way, often in little-known
recordings. We can be grateful to Proper Records
for another well-filled Properbox at budget
price, with tracks digitally remastered and
a 56-page booklet full of useful information
and evocative photos.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
Proper
PROPERBOX 120
