Variety (July 1955)

44 MUSIC Wednesday, July 20, 1955 Jazz Continued ftoUi ptjte 43 under the juice, the cliques began to mix and after the musiegot rolling it was “Boppitig-at Rrl- court” with, the best j^^ablglfd hf the nigfifc , r The stain ed-glasscoat- of-arms 1$ Dunois, the_Basterd ; of Orleanswblch O.. H E Belmont had adopted, promptly -tamed into a zoot stiit. Saturday's rumble began at .3 p.m. In the courtyard below the ballroom. This free attraction drew a capacity (500) crowd to hear the panel yak and The- Six, a jazz combo, elucidate medically. Look- ing down from the ballroom bal? cony, this was a mature panel-p£ jazz experts —one crew cut, one regular haircut, three in need of wall-to-wall carpeting and one grey pate—Father Norman O’Con- nor, the clerical cat from Boston who moderated, Bichard A. Waterman, the Northwestern U anthropology fire- ball, dragged back tq West Africa for a jazz root. Prof, Marshall W. Stearns, Hunter College, hipster and exec director of the Institute of Jazz Studies, had The Six play a 3,,000-year old Oriental tune, known to every Chinese since, which turned out to be “Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen” in stop-time. . • • The old Tudor-Norman court- yard, with half-timbered walls, balcony-and other medieval decor gave the chop-beating a real Old Worldsville background. Unfor- tunately the strong intellectual uice had a water- chaser. Before he questions could • be popped, rain began to splash and all the aficionados cut out for their cribs. Saturday night the b.o. hit 85% capacity, which runs 11,500 When the stadium seats are used as bleachers. P.a. system had- been dispersed around field for good results, crowd barricades — they .used snow fences—had been put Up, and the program content picked up. Opener was the Max Roach-Clifford Brown Quintet. At the field and later. at Belcourt, Boach was the talk bf the Festival. George Morrow on bass, Bichard Powell, piano, and Harold Land, tenor, backed Boach and the. fancy- lipped Brown. They were followed by Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh doing something “untitled, un- recorded—unrehearsed” and when Marsh asked Konitz “what key are we. in?” the results were predict- able. Dinah Washington sent the con- gregation like no other vocalist, except possibly Jimmy Bushing on Sunday night. Miss W. did seven numbers and bought on intermis- sion. Then m.c. John McClellan of WHDH, Boston, brought on a young _ California contingent to start the new-jazz kick. Chet Baker had Buss Freeman on piano, Bob Carter at bass, Peter Littman on drums and was joined by Gerry Mulligan to keep things cool. Following came the Eastern cool club—^-Bob Brookmeyer, the valve trombone virtuoso and A1 Cohn, with his tenor sax, to give a good accounting for New York new-jazz. Marian McPartland Trio hit big . and was joined by husband Jimmy for “a marriage of modem and traditional, both literally and' ■ musically.” Maybe this Is-the com- promise, Moofi then switched: With the appeafSitfe of Pee #ee Bussell* Wild Bill 3?avidson> Bud Freeman, Buzzy * «Drbotin f ‘ 'Vick Dfckgpsom and Ge^#ge. Wein, .wh(v p<^aaoted the Festival, at theifi^qranb bassist deluxe,-Milt Hinton. This contribution tore up the tracks. However, no where else in show business can be found the awkward, sore-thumb staging: which: stamps a stage jam-session. The perform- ers have been herded onstage like a group o? finger-popping squares. Working in chorus they don’t come off too badly, optically, but when the solos come on, the rest of the group stand about with egg-on- face. No one in the jazz concert field, apparently, has ever pulled down all the lights and spotted the solo performer. At Newport ah attempt waff made to give the little shell intimacy and warm lighting but the photogs, pro and Brownie, made it one continuous flash in the pare . Topper of the evening—and each of the three sessions had a strong topper — was the Dave Brubeck group, featuring alto saxist Paul Desmond with Joe Dodge oh drums and Boh Bates beating out the bass. Sunday Forum Because the courtyard at Bel- court had been too small the previ- ous afternoon,/the Sunday forum was moved out to the three-acre lawn in front of the bungalow. Arotrnd 70Cf attended the “Jazz From the Inside Out” jaw-session. Inability of musicians to make like so many Fred Allens or Clifton Fadimans kept the second think bit from being as entertaining and elucidating as the Saturday yak. Final concert at Freebody was something for Wein and his asso- ciates to tack up and' shoot at from now on. By tearing away at an- other-^shibboleth of the tradition- tight jazz concerto, the rotund Boston pianist-promoter was able to achieve something sensible and showmanly in his programming. "What he^did was knock away the “must” rule that a combo goes on, play until the audience is sick of its stuff, then goes off and not to reappear the balance of . the night. By mixing groups and styles for short sets the first half got off the ground immediately and didn’t come down until a late intermis- sion. Duke Ellington took over for the night as m.c. and unfortunate- ly wasn’t called on to sit in or solo. But his bland, urbane intros were a feature which could have helped the two previous concerts. ■Starter for the night was the cool Modern Jazz Quartet. They quick- ly mooded the crowd to an appre- ciation of the cerebral gymnastics of new-jazz. They were followed by an al- most facsimile recreation of the crest of Kansas City jazz—Lester Young, Jo Jones, Count Basie, Ed Jones (on bass) and Ruby. Braff making like Buck Clayton. Prez Young blew like he wanted to be re-elected and Braff impressed again as the coming horn man. In appearance and ability, this is the trumpeter to play the film biog of Bix Beiderbecke. Jimmy Bushing f'ftRIETY •'SuTV&rof retail sheet music best s&ters based on reports . obtame& from leading' stores in 12 mite* and showing c'om*. partitive sales rating for this ■itmd- last week. * ASCAP t BMl National Rating , This Last wk. wk. r**3:*. Title and Publisher 6 6 3 X i 9 <n a.* i i 0 1 O a **< m 'I .3 12 <a . . & i B et »3 a o w S' ;» to O «' 3 3 •e 3 *3 a 4> A o O o l o CO w •] « a .a a ft ft *3. $ t4 ■4i co 1 s a £ 3 .1 1 V -v 0 1 T O T A L P 0 1 N T S tromped on for a rhythm Sc blues number and ballad to complete the conversion of Newport to^K.C. If it was taped, a recording of this section is the Festival’s finest con- tribution. to jazz in 1955. The modernists who followed consisted of - both east and west coast new-jazz men. Miles Davis, with Thelonius Monk, and the Modern Jazz Quartet, blowing for the east, Mulligan, the Brubeck group, and Zoot Siiiims represent- ed the coast and Wein kept chang- ing combinations for each number. The second half started off with a traditional jamming attended iby Billy Taylor, Jo Jones, Kai Wind- ing, Bobby Hackett, Ben Webster-, Wyatt Beuther, and Peanuts Hucko. Then J. J. Johnson joined his fellow - trombonist - partner, Winding, in some precision duet- ing followed by the Coast .flashy Bud Shank; some of Billy Taylor’s ambidexterous 88ing; an excep- tional- Bobby Hacket solo, then spe- cialties by Jones,‘Webster, Beu- ther and Hucko. pick Katz took over the piano from Taylor* mid- way. Here, again, the mixing of combos paid off. Technically, this is probably the' best single advance Newport, all jazz In fact, has made. Now, if m.c.’s can be shot for announcing “the greatest,” -‘the most,” “the top,” everytime they come on, the medium will achieve some meas- ure Of maturity. Basie Hits Count Basie’s band hit the hall with the one-voice sound it has achieved, winding up the evening and the Festival. Coverage included a complete taping of everything by Voice of "America. Tapes on the three days will go out all over the World for the next three months. Tag of the whole Festival took place at 4:30 Monday a.m. Group of jive kids sneaked into Bel- court’s courtyard 'and started whamming the forum piano, ac- companying themselves with comb and paper* Caretaker woke up, padded to the concert grand in the ballroom, drove the cats away with a Bach concerto. Caretaker hates jazz. Lloyd, ’54 Decca Proxy ' Fight Head, Dies at 62 George L. Lloyd, former direc- tor of Decca Records and retired insurance company exec, died at the Peekskill Hospital in Peeks- kill, N. Y., July 15 at the age of 62. Lloyd, a native of Rhodesia, Africa, was associated with Decca almost since its beginning. He was dropped from the company’s board early in 1954 as a prelude .to his bitter proxy battle to wrest control of Decca away from prexy Milton B. Backmil. He was de- feated in that attempt last year and Lloyd made no attempt to op- pose Backmil. this year. Lloyd became involved . in the Decca operation affajrs through his wife, Martha Boswell, one of the Boswell Sisters who were among the label’s first artists. Latter survives alqng with a son, sister* brother and a grandson. Weisman Bros. Bow With Own Pop Label A new indie disk company, Pa- masons Becords, will hit the disk market this week. Label Is piloted by composer-arranger 1 Ben Weis- man and his brother, Al. ^ Diskery .will bow with a Cana- dian group tagged Terry & The Macs on a coupling of '.‘Don’t Make Me^Cry Again” and “Getaway.” Pending a New Contract, Doris Day Doing 4 for Col Hollywood, July 19. Doris Day, whose contract with Columbia Becords expired early this month, has signed an interim pact with diskery to cut four sides. Negotiations are curreiitly underway between Marty Melcher, husband-manager of the chirp, and Columbia execs James Conkling and Goddard Lieberson, who in turn are attempting to rfe-sign song- stress to a long-term contract. Mitch Miller, Col artists Sc rep- ertoir chief, will plane in from N. Y. to handle the Supervision of the session which gets underway upon completion of Miss Day’s current pic, “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” at Paramount. Frisco Jazz Spot In Cool-to-Hot Switch San Francisco, July 19. The Black Hawk, longtime mod- . ern jazz club, is taking a flyer with two-beat, Boh Scobey and his dixie- land band opened there last week for a two Iveek booking. This is the firs^ time a dixie group has worked the. cljib in over four years. * Chris Connor, singer formerly with Stan Kenton, opens there as a single on July 26 for a three week stay. The Dave Brubeck Quartet ■ continues to work week- ends and split weeks at the club between engagements in the east Strauss Retires Edward R. Strauss, vet Decca exec who has been associated with Decca for 19 years, has retired to his home in Florida. Strauss has been heading up the diskery’s special services depart- ment. .4 fj