CD1
1. Summertime
2. Our Delight
3. Poinciana
4. Step Lightly
5. Black Hawk Blues
CD2
1. Cabu
2. Theme: A Gem from Tiffany
3. Blue Daniel
4. Whisper Not
5. How Deep Are the Roots
6. This Is Always
7. Wonder Why
CD3
1. Eclipse of Spain
2. Blue Daniel
3. Step Lightly
4. What's New?
5. Theme: A Gem from Tiffany
6. Vamp's Blues
7. Theme: A Gem from Tiffany
CD4
1. I Am in Love
2. Whisper Not (alternate take)
3. Cabu
4. Just Squeeze Me
5. Nightingale
6. Pullin' Strings
7. Theme: A Gem from Tiffany
Shelly Manne - Drums
Joe Gordon - Trumpet
Richie Kamuca - Tenor sax
Victor Feldman - Piano
Monty Budwig - Bass
When Shelly Manne took his quintet into San Francisco's Black Hawk
club in September 1959, he thought they played so well that he suggested
that his record company, Contemporary, should make a live album there.
Originally Contemporary intended to make just one LP but eventually
agreed to record all the sessions.
Shelly Manne & his Men had been in existence for several years,
although there were various changes in the line-up which led to the
personnel on this four-CD package. The group played typical "West
Coast" jazz, which tended to steer a middle course between the
heat of the beboppers and the laid-back style of the cool school.
The ensemble here has been compared to Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers
but, although the line-up is similar, much of the music is less thrusting
and hard-edged than that of the Messengers. Indeed, drummer Shelly
Manne mostly stays in the background, except in extrovert tracks like
Our Delight and the two versions of Cabu, which certainly
embody Messengers-style excitement. At any rate, this band was not
afraid to swing, nor to play melodic solos.
In this last respect, the outstanding players are tenorist Richie
Kamuca and pianist Victor Feldman. The latter had emigrated to the
USA two years before, when he was best-known as an exponent of the
vibraphone, but he soon established himself as a pianist of note.
On this album you can hear his clear touch, his inventiveness and
his innate rhythmic sense (which may have come from his starting out
as a drummer). These qualities are all clear in his piano feature
Wonder Why, where he is joined simply by bass and drums. As
for Richie Kamuca, his excellent solos are too plentiful to enumerate.
Suffice it to say that they are consistently fluent and thoughtful.
Trumpeter Joe Gordon sometimes seems to suffer by comparison with
these fine soloists. On the very first tune, Summertime, his
tuning can be worryingly wayward, and his solos tend to sound less
coherent than those of Kamuca or Feldman. Yet Gordon shows his best
abilities in solos on such tracks as Step Lightly.
Monty Budwig underpins everything with his dependable double bass.
His contribution is particularly vital on quieter numbers, where Shelly
Manne plays gentle brushes and the rhythm is primarily laid down by
Monty, with help from Victor Feldman's well-chosen comping.
This being a club date, several tunes are prolonged for around a
dozen minutes, and two (Black Hawk Blues and Vamp's Blues)
clock in at about 20 minutes each. This can make for longueurs,
when the listener may feel that a soloist is being too self-indulgent.
The quintet plays the theme A Gem from Tiffany several times
to mark the limits of a session, but its final appearance is stretched
out to allow solos from all the band members, including (unusually
in this set) a drum solo.
Most of the original LP liner notes are reprinted on the sleeve,
although these don't necessarily match the chronological order of
the tracks on the four CDs. The sound quality is acceptable, although
I (as a drummer) would have preferred more treble to make the drums
more audible.
These Black Hawk sessions are undoubtedly of continuing interest,
although a certain sameness creeps in if you unwisely try listening
to all four CDs in succession. This is not the only important session
recorded at the Black Hawk club, where Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis
also taped significant performances. Sadly, the Black Hawk closed
in 1963 and the site is now a car park.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
American Jazz Classics 99009
