2009 6 18 A Prehistory Of Jazz Rock

Don't gonna play that kling-kling jazz:
a prehistory of jazz-rock

By Geoff Wills

When rock and roll emerged in the mid 1950s, many jazz musicians were witheringly scornful about this supposedly moronic music. Their attitude is perhaps typified by Stan Frebergs 1956 spoof on The Platters recording The Great Pretender. When asked to play a simple riff, the hipster pianist hired for the session says, I dont wanna play that lick no more, man. I come from a different school, like Shearing, Erroll Garner, dig man, oobi-oobi-a dont bug me man, dont gonna play that kling-kling jazz.

And yet one has only to look a little closer to see that the links between jazz, on the one hand, and rock and pop on the other, have always been symbiotic. In the 1950s Dave Brubeck, Erroll Garner, Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Ahmad Jamal, Stan Kenton, Andre Previn and George Shearing all had top 20 LPs in the US top 40 album charts. From the 1950s onwards, jazz often filtered through into the world of popular music in a subtle way, wielding a subliminal influence that laid the foundations for jazz-rock.

Wailing Saxes

Jazz had an immediate influence on rock and roll via the saxophone. Arguably, the trigger for this was the work of tenorist Illinois Jacquet with Lionel Hamptons orchestra in the 1940s. His extravert honking solo on "Flying Home" made him famous and became the prototype for future rock saxophone solos. Other influential tenorists, employing a similar sound but coming more directly from a rhythm and blues background, included Big Jay McNeely, Sil Austin and Lee Allen. Altoist Earl Bostic was also influential with records like his hit version of "Flamingo" (1951). A hint of the Bostic sound can be detected in the alto playing of John Zorn, for instance on his Naked City album (1990).

Moonlighting Jazzers

As early as 1952 Shorty Rogers, whose music was the epitome of West Coast cool, was masquerading as Boots Brown on an album entitled Rock That Beat with a band called The Blockbusters, in whose ranks lurked Bud Shank, Gerry Mulligan and Shelly Manne. Jimmy Giuffre, later known for his intimate clarinet style, produced an extroverted solo on the tune Blockbuster that ranks with Illinois Jacquets work. A later Boots Brown release, Cerveza, featured Bud Shank, Jimmy Rowles and Mel Lewis in the bandand the recording reached number 23 in the US charts in 1958.

Also in 1958, veteran jazz drummer Cozy Cole had a surprise hit with Topsy, parts I and II. This undoubtedly laid the foundations for other drum-oriented instrumentals such as those by Sandy Nelson. 1958 was the year that another jazz musician, the Canadian Moe Koffman, had a hit with The Swingin Shepherd Blues. Other hit singles by jazz musicians that set precedents for jazz-rock in a variety of ways included One Mint Julep by Ray Charles (1960), Desafinado by Stan Getz, Cast Your Fate To The Wind by Vince Guaraldi and Walk On The Wild Side by Jimmy Smith, all in 1962.

The Wrecking Crew

In his book Backbeat: Earl Palmers Story, Tony Scherman states that

The original rock and rollersChuck Berry and Bo Diddley, Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly and their ragtag backup groupswere amateurs, inspired tinkerers: folk musicians, really. By the late fifties, rock was too lucrative to be entrusted to untrained labor. The manufacture of hit records required a new worker, hip enough to understand the music, disciplined enough to crank out an album a day. Talented musicians streamed into late-fifties L.A. . . . The best of the new hired guns. . . became rock and rolls Wizards of Oz, unsung, and essential in the evolution of the music.

The core of this group of musicians came to be known as the Wrecking Crew, because the older, more conservative, blue-blazered group of L.A. session musicians thought they were wrecking the session scene until their musicianship was grudgingly acknowledged. Many of these younger musiciansincluding Rene Hall, Plas Johnson, Earl Palmer, Ernest McLean, Harold Battiste and Mac Rebennackcame from New Orleans, and the majority had a background in jazz. Others included drummer Hal Blaine, guitarists Tommy Tedesco, Barney Kessel and Howard Roberts, bassists Carol Kaye, Red Callender, Lyle Ritz and Jimmy Bond, and pianists Don Randi, Larry Knechtel and Michael Melvoin.

Carol Kaye, in an article in Downbeat, provided insights into this scene when she said:

Rock and roll was a dirty word among L.A. bebop musicians in the late 1950s. . . . But if it hadnt been for the huge hidden jazz influence in the 1960s hits, that musical era might never have happened. . . . Producers asked us to improvise lines, patterns and spontaneous arrangements featuring key changes, breaks, montuno lines, riff lines, fills. . . . These arrangements came directly from jazz improvisation, the things wed do in our jazz playing and the arranging spontaneity that took place every night in the jazz clubs.

These musicians played on scores of hit records, contributing their jazz sensibilities. As Carol Kaye said: We made good money, earned a lot of respect and made the music groove.

Plas Johnson

John Plas Johnson (born 1931) has been ubiquitous in the world of rock/pop and session music and he has played on thousands of recordings. The instantly recognizable sound of his rich, rasping tenor sax has appeared on records like MoovinnGroovin and Ramrod by Duane Eddy, the original hit version of The Peter Gunn Theme by Ray Anthony, Cerveza by Boots Brown (Shorty Rogers) and The Pink Panther Theme by Henry Mancini. Yet Johnson is a tenorist (and altoist and flautist) who is equally convincing in both rock and jazz, as witness, for instance, his album The Blues (1975). As a jazz musician he is a full-toned soloist in the Hawkins/Webster/Byas tradition, and in having his feet in many camps he has been a highly influential forerunner of jazz-rock musicians like Michael Brecker and Tom Scott.

Les Baxter and Exotica

Les Baxter was a pianist, tenor saxophonist and singer who worked with Artie Shaw and Mel Torme. After working as an arranger for the Bob Hope radio show he arranged sessions at Capitol Records, and from 1950 he released some twenty albums under his own name on the label. These albums established the characteristics of the style that came to be known as exotica. Rebecca Leydon (1999) gives a vivid description of Baxters music:

Baxter depicts ghostly abandoned cities, cities in ruins, the once bustling metropolis engulfed by encroaching natural forces, as in the ephemeral Sunken City from Jewels of the Sea (1960) and Lost City from African Jazz (1958). By far Baxters most frequently recurring pictorial theme is the jungle. The hugely influential Ritual of the Savage of 1951 marks the definitive inauguration of American post-war exotica.

Within the ranks of his orchestra Baxter used jazz musicians like vibist Larry Bunker and Plas Johnson, who contributed sensuous solos on the albums Jungle Jazz and African Jazz. It is not hard to recognize echoes of exotica in much jazz-rock: the influence becomes apparent if, after listening to Amazon Falls from Jungle Jazz one turns to, for instance, Don Sebeskys The Rape of El Morro (1975), Weather Reports Black Market (1976) or Safari by Steps Ahead (1984).

Rock-Jazz

In the 1950s and early 1960s some rock musicians included the odd jazz number, however innocuous, on their albums. Duane Eddy recorded Route Number 1 in 1959, while his colleague in the Rebel Rousers, guitarist Al Casey, recorded versions of Tenderly, Laura and On Green Dolphin Street in 1960 and 1961. In England, the premier pop-instrumental group The Shadows featured a jaunty tune entitled Nivram on their first album in 1961.

One recording of note from 1961 is Image by arranger Hank Levine. Beginning life as a radio station identity theme for Los Angeles KFWB, it was developed into a full-blown instrumental featuring the ever-present Plas Johnson on alto, pianist Gene Garf, vibist Emil Richards, and drummer Earl Palmer. It reached number 45 in the British charts and was later covered successfully by British organist Alan Haven. Probably influenced by Andre Previns Like Young (1959), Image featured a theme stated by alto sax that prefigured to some extent the work of David Sanborn, and funky piano against a background of strings.

However anodyne these musical examples may appear, they do seem to demonstrate that broad-minded musicians were prepared to blend influences from the mid-1950s onwards.

Movie Jazz, Henry Mancini and John Barry

The casual fan or writer often associates jazz soundtracks with the classic films noirs of the 1940s, but its a mistake to do so. It was only when jazz attained a certain respectability in the 1950s that Hollywood was prepared to use it non-diagetically (i.e., not linked to a source of music on screen), to conjure up an atmosphere of post-World War II urban angst. The work of Alex North (A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951) and Leonard Rosenman (Rebel Without A Cause, 1955) springs to mind, and this style of music is epitomized by Elmer Bernsteins score for The Man With The Golden Arm (1955), with its nod towards Stan Kenton pieces like Minor Riff, especially in the Main Title theme.

Indeed David Butler, in his book Jazz Noir (2002) argues convincingly that Kenton was the most influential musician in shaping jazzs use in film during this period. As he states, The neuroticism and aggression of Kentons concept of jazz made it an appropriate musical model for the scores of 1950s film noir and social problem films.

The Kenton influence continued in Britain in the music of John Barry, who had studied with Kenton arranger Bill Russo via a correspondence course entitled Composition and Orchestration for the Jazz Orchestra. Barrys Main Title from the film Beat Girl (1959) might be subtitled Bill Russo meets Duane Eddy, and his recordings Beat for Beatniks, with its ominous and relentless ostinato, and Big Fella (both 1960), inspired by Elmer Bernsteins Johnny Staccato theme, bear the unmistakable Kenton stamp. Barry continued the jazz influence in his 1962 Dave Brubeck-influenced recordings Cutty Sark and Fancy Dance.

The 2is and The Flamingo

In 1956 the 2i's Coffee Bar opened in Londons Soho, and soon became the mecca for British skiffle and rock and roll. The venue acted as a magnet for Britains young rock musicians, who frequently started out as jazz fans. For instance, Brian Bennett, later to become the drummer with The Shadows, listened as a boy to Willis Conovers jazz radio program on The Voice of America.

Two significant British musicians both had inauspicious beginnings in the town of Leigh, Lancashire. These were pianist Mike ONeill and pianist/vocalist Clive Powell, later to become Georgie Fame, and their careers were destined to cross paths, as were members of their bands. In 1957 ONeill arrived at the 2is, and had soon played with a number of rock groups before forming Nero and the Gladiators, whose personnel included guitarist Colin Green and bassist Boots Slade.

Meanwhile Clive Powell had arrived in London, had played in Billy Furys backing group and been renamed Georgie Fame by manager Larry Parnes. While out of work and staying at Mike ONeills flat, Fame spent a lot of time listening to ONeills record collection, which included albums by Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, King Pleasure, Chet Baker and Cannonball Adderley. These influences proved to be significant in Fames musical direction.

Pete Frame (1997) is correct when he says:

The rise of rhythm and blues in Britain was a two-pronged affairspearheaded simultaneously by Alexis Korner. . . playing what we can call Marquee R & B, and Georgie Fame and The Blue Flames, specialising in what we can describe as Flamingo R & B. Both groups hit the scene around the same timeFebruary/March 1962. . .

Fame and The Blue Flames first played at Sohos Flamingo, then almost exclusively a modern jazz club, when they deputised at a Twist session, and did so well that they stayed on. Black American GIs who came to the club turned Fame on to Eddie Jefferson, Richard Groove Holmes, Oscar Brown, Booker T and Jimmy Smith. Tenorist Mick Eve, whose own band had included Brian Auger, John McLaughlin and baritone saxist Glenn Hughes, joined Famehe later said, It was the first time Id been in a band which could do commercial gigs as well as being musical! The Blue Flames was like a fusion of both sides jazz rock!

Personnel of The Blue Flames included, at different times, Colin Green and Boots Slade from Nero and the Gladiators; session guitarist Joe Moretti, John McLaughlin and Glenn Hughes, who all also worked with ex-Shadows Jet Harris and Tony Meehan; and jazz drummers Phil Seamen and Bill Eyden. The latter was replaced by Mitch Mitchell, later to join Jimi Hendrix. The music was a mixture of jazz, sophisticated rhythm and blues, and West Indian styles, and was very influential.

Interestingly, Pete Frame notes that by the end of 1964, Fames manager Rik Gunnell operated Europes biggest R & B agency. On his books were John Mayall, Zoot Money, The Cheynes, Ronnie Jones, Elkie Brooks, Chris Farlowe, Tony Colton and many more. All were fortunate to get maximum exposure at the Flamingo before gigging further afield.

Another musician who worked in a similar musical area to that of Georgie Fame was pianist Brian Auger. Starting off with a jazz trio featuring Rick Laird on bass and Phil Kinorra (formerly with Don Rendell and soon to become Julian Covay in a group called The Machine) on drums, he augmented the group with John McLaughlin and Glenn Hughes. Developing a liking for Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff, he bought a Hammond organ and reverted to a trio format. Rik Gunnell booked him into all the clubs and discotheques that were springing up, and, influenced by Mose Allison, Auger added vocals to his repertoire.

Over the next few years Auger moved through a series of musical developments, incorporating along the way contributions from singers Long John Baldry, Rod Stewart and Julie Driscoll in the band Steampacket. Augers Trinity, including guitarist Gary Boyle, was an excellent jazz-rock band featuring numbers like Herbie Hancocks Maiden Voyage. Boyle later left to form his own influential band Isotope.

Manfred Mann

Any survey of the pre-history of British jazz-rock would be incomplete without mentioning Manfred Mann. Born Michael Lubowitz in South Africa, he was an aspiring jazz musician who took lessons from jazz pianist and educator John Mehagen and studied theory at Johannesburg University. On arriving in Britain in 1962 he taught, and wrote a series on jazz theory for Jazz News magazine. The group Manfred Mann had a string of chart successes, but their music was always underpinned with a jazz feeling, not only from Mann, but also from the drumming and vibes playing of Mike Hugg and the alto sax of Mike Vickers. Their album Soul of Mann contained a set of instrumentals including Cannonball Adderleys Sack O Woe and Milt Jacksons Spirit Feel, and there was a strong jazz feel to their soundtrack for the film Up the Junction (1968). In 1966 jazz musicians Henry Lowther and Lyn Dobson were members of the band.

Summary

When rock and roll emerged in the 1950s, jazz began to impinge upon it in a variety of ways. In its turn, rock and roll influenced jazz, laying the foundations for the fully-fledged jazz-rock music that appeared in the 1960s.

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June 18, 2009 · 4 comments