Thelonious Monk, Howard McGhee, Roy Eldridge, and Teddy Hill at Minton’s Playhouse in New York, ca. September 1947
Photography by William P. Gottlieb
Zuerst nochmal was zur Frühzeit von McGhee, das ich zufällig hier gefunden habe:
Bop Pioneers in Detroit
FROM THE VERY BEGINNING Detroit contributed to the development of bop. Some Detroit jazzmen played with the early bop pioneers in New York and on the road, while others helped form a viable modernist circle of musicians in Detroit after 1945.
The bop pioneers got their start in the national big bands in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and Detroit was part of the circuit for these bands. This meant that Detroit was in contact with what was going on musically in New York and that Detroit musicians were recruited by the name bands. Visiting bands met local musicians backstage, often at the Paradise Theatre, and at clubs and after-hours spots in Paradise Valley. The level of musicianship in Detroit was so high that young talent was continually snapped up. Some Detroit bands acted as virtual transmission belts for bebop talent and none more than the band at the Club Congo in the early 1940s.The Club Congo Orchestra
THIS BAND WAS AN IMPORTANT STEP in the careers of trumpeter Howard McGhee; tenor saxophonists George „Big Nick“ Nicholas, Wardell Gray, and Teddy Edwards; and bassist Al McKibbon. Nicholas, McGhee, and Gray had earlier been members of the Jimmy Raschel territory band, so landing a job at the Club Congo represented a step up.
Both McGhee and Gray were born in Oklahoma, in 1918 and 1921, respectively, but moved to Detroit at a young age. They both attended Cass Tech, as did Al McKibbon (born 1919), but only Gray graduated. McGhee traveled more widely than the others, who tended to stay in the Midwest and in Michigan in particular.
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The Raschel band was filled with talent, but the Congo orchestra was a further step up the band pyramid that was firmly in place by the late 1930s. The location of Club Congo in Paradise Valley, still a vibrant center of nightlife in Detroit, was part of the equation.
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The Club Congo was an upscale establishment that continued the „Jungle Nights“ theme of the Plantation [the club it replaced in the basement of the Norwood Hotel]. For a nominal cover charge, patrons got a full floor show, which included a headline act, chorus girls, a comedian, one or two „not ready for headline status“ acts, and music for dancing. The chefs knew their business, and the food was good. „The Congo was a very classy club,“ pianist Johnny Allen recalled. „There was a bar to the left as you entered from the street. The dance floor was in the middle and was lower [than the surrounding floor]. Tables and chairs were on either side of the dance floor. The bandstand was at the back end of the dance floor, between the kitchen and dressing rooms.“ „That was a very small bandstand,“ bassist Al McKibbon recalled. McKibbon, a burly man, had to stand near the front due to the low ceiling. The piano was on the dance floor, and Allen would cue the band during the show. A single microphone was available for singers and saxophone soloists. „The brass would just stand up and play,“ McKibbon said. „Unless he used a mute, then he’d walk out to the mike.“
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Allen (born 1917) grew up in East Chicago, Indiana, and caught Earl Hines’s radio broadcasts from the Grand Terrace nightclub in Chicago. The sound of Hines’s band, and the leader’s unique keyboard style, deeply impressed young Allen. Allen tried to capture the fresh, crisp sound of the Hines orchestra in his orchestration for the Congo band. He wrote four-beat arrangements of current pop tunes and jazz numbers such as „Second Balcony Jump“ (composed by Earl Hines’s arranger, Jerry Valentine) and „C Jam Blues.“ Trumpeter Lester Current also arranged music for the band but „It wasn’t as ‚heavy‘ as what we’d been doing,“ McKibbon said. Howard McGhee contributed „McGhee Special,“ which he had written on an earlier job with Allen. Allen gave solo space to most of the musicians, except Al McKibbon, in his arrangements. „Bass players didn’t solo back then,“ McKibbon remembered. „Only Blanton, and maybe Milt Hinton.“
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The musicians‘ talents, the rigorous schedule, and Allen’s arrangements helped the band jell into a cohesive unit, one that could execute tricky show arrangements and swing out. „We had a hell of a band,“ said McKibbon. „Once, Cab Calloway’s band played the Paradise. The acts on the bill came over to the Congo with their music. Everybody but us was worrying about whether we could play the charts. We ate that music up.“ Howard McGhee, assessing the band 40 years later, agreed. „That band was swingin‘. We had all the big names comin‘ in, all the cats that didn’t have band… nobody knew none of us, but we were playin‘.“
The Club Congo Orchestra developed a distinctive sound, as McKibbon recalled. „We played like Lunceford, we played like Basie, but we sounded like ourselves.“ In the opinion of Teddy Edwards, „We were a jazz band.“ The Congo band was seen as a harbringer of things to come by the younger musicians in the city. And, like Earl Hines’s band, the Club Congo Orchestra served as Detroit’s incubator for the incipient musical style later dubbed „Bebop“ by the music press. „We weren’t playing Bebop then,“ Edwards said. „But it was in the air.“
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Of all the members of the Congo orchestra McGhee had the most direct impact on the course of bebop. He was an important sideman on classic recordings by both Coleman Hawkins (1945) and Charlie Parker (1946-47). Gray, who left Detroit in 1943 to join Earl Hines’s orchestra, also recorded with Parker and McGhee. Interestingly enough, McGhee, Gray, and Edwards played central roles on the modern jazz scene in Los Angeles after 1945. Another key player on LA’s Central Avenue was tenorist Lucky Thompson, who grew up on Detroit’s East Side.~ Lars Bjorn with Jim Gallert: Before Motown. A History of Jazz in Detroit, 1920-60, Ann Arbor 2001, pp. 77-81.
Das sieht nach einem äusserst lesenswerten Buch aus – muss ich mir mal besorgen!
Das eigentliche Comeback von McGhee fand ja erst 1960 statt. Das obige Album gehört zu jenen, die wir nicht hören sollen… Mosaic musste seine Pläne, eine Felsted-Box zu veröffentlichen, leider aufgeben.
Diese Version von The Connection mag nicht so zwingend sein wie jene, die Freddie Redd für Blue Note eingespielt hat (mit Jackie McLean als einzigem Bläser), aber sie bietet eine willkommene Gelegenheit, einmal mehr Tina Brooks zu hören. Freddie Redd spielte unter dem Pseudonym „I. Ching“ (das ist ja noch wesentlich blöder als „Felix Krull“!) Piano, Milt Hinton Bass und Osie Johnson sass am Schlagzeug.
Die sieben Stücke sind exakt dieselben wie auf dem Blue Note Album, auch gewisse arrangierte Teile sind exakt gleich – aber eben: McGhee und Brooks statt McLean sind eine schöne Abwechslung!
Das zweite Album des Jahres 1960, Dusty Blues, entstand für Bethlehem. McGhee wurde begleitet von Tommy Flanagan (p), Ron Carter (b) und Walter Bolden (d), sowie auf vier der neun Stücke von Bennie Green (tb), Roland Alexander (ts,fl) und Pepper Adams (bari). Arrangiert hat erneut Frank Hunter, der Mitte der 50er schon die Kirschenschüssel für McGhee arrangiert hatte.
Die meisten Stücke sind kurz gehalten, McGhee steht im Zentrum – und hat das ja auch sehr wohl verdient. Seine Originals „Dusty Blue“ (der Opener) und „Sleep Talk“ werden von Bolden mit Latin-Rhythmen unterlegt, Carter macht sich sofort spürbar mit grossem Sound und tiefen Tönen. Flanagan ist der ideale Begleiter für ein Album, das McGhee auf der Höhe seines lyrischen Könnens zeigt… ich bin versucht, zu kalauern: „I Concentrate on Blue“… jedenfalls regen „I Concentrate on You“ und „Sound of Music“, die beiden Quartett-Nummern zwischen den erwähnten Stücken, McGhee zu tollen, lyrischen Solo-Ausflügen an.
Roland Alexander ist auf „Dusty Blue“ im Thema an der Flöte, für ein ganz kurzes Solo aber am Tenor zu hören, und auch Tommy Flanagan spielt ein kurzes Solo. Sehr schön der relaxte, sanfte Latin Beat in „Sleep Talk“. Auf Benny Golsons „Park Avenue Petite“ ist Alexander nach McGhees Solo mit Dämpfer an der Flöte zu hören. Er spielt mit sehr feinem, etwas dünnen (unsicheren?) Ton und wird von Carter toll begleitet.
Im dritten und letzten McGhee-Original, „Flyin‘ Colors“, ist Alexander dann in einem ausgedehnten Tenorsolo zu hören – sehr schön! Es folgen Green und Flanagan. Carter fällt erneut durch seine starke Begleitung auf. Tom McIntoshs „With Malice Towards None“ wird als walking ballad gespielt, Flanagan glänzt in seiner Begleitung – das alles mag beim oberflächlichen hinhören harmlos klingen, aber ist eben doch grosse Balladenkunst, was McGhee hier abliefert. Auf dem schnellen „Groovin‘ High“ klingt McGhee für einmal fröhlicher als sonst, weniger nachdenklich und blue – sein Ton verliert aber keineswegs seine anrührenden Qualität. Alexander steigt am Tenor als erster Solist ein, mit leicht verhangenem Ton. Schade, dass er nicht besser bekannt geworden ist! Es folgt Bennie Green mit einem kurzen Solo, dann McGhee, und schliesslich hören wir endlich auch noch Pepper Adams‘ Barisax.
Zum Abschluss spielt McGhee mit Dämpfer das bittersüsse „Cottage for Sale“ von Willard Robison – ein wunderschöner Abschluss für ein kleines aber feines Album.
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"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #158 – Piano Jazz 2024 (Teil 1) - 19.12.2024 – 20:00; #159: Martial Solal (1927–2024) – 21.1., 22:00; #160: 11.2., 22:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tba