Afro- Cuban: Parts Unknown Part 1

       Yesterday marked an important day in the discography and music of Kenny Dorham: the first session off his iconic second album, Afro-Cuban.

KD’s first album as leader was called the Kenny Dorham Quintet. Originally released on the Debut label, it was recorded on December 15, 1953 with brothers Jimmy and Percy Heath on tenor/alto sax and bass respectively, Walter Bishop Jr. on piano, and Kenny Clarke on drums. The album Afro-Cuban had a less traditional configuration: it is comprised of two different recording sessions with two different bands entirely.

With the 59^th anniversary of this session from the album having just passed, there’s no better time to explore some of the lesser-known facts about the album. The first group of personnel for the January 30th session included Hank Mobley on tenor saxophone, Cecil McKenzie Payne on baritone saxophone, Horace Silver on piano, Art Blakey on drums, and Percy Heath on bass. Mobley, Silver and Blakey were the common denominators with which KD performed regularly between 1954 and 1955. In fact, KD was still a member in good standing with Art Blakey and Jazz Messengers during the January 30th and March 29th sessions – the last known recording Kenny did with the Messengers was the Live at the Cafe Bohemia Volume 3 recorded on November 23, 1955.

            The three tunes that were recorded on the January 30th date is as follows: “Venita’s Dance,” “K. D.’s Motion,” and “La Villa.” According to the “Commentary on the Tunes” section by Michael Cuscuna from The Other Side of the Blue Note 1500 Series, a Blue Note Japan release from the early 1980s, the above tunes were supposed to be released on a 10” disc. The operative word here is “supposed.” It is unknown why these three tunes were never released on a 10” disc, while the latin-infused tunes “Minor’s Holiday,” “Lotus Flower,” “Afrodisia” and “Basheer’s Dream” were released on a 10” disc the very year: 1955. Additionally, a fourth tune has emerged from the ether from the January 30th date which was released on The Other Side of the Blue Note 1500 Series 3-LP set and several cds with release dates ranging from 1987 to 2012 according to “www.discogs.com.” This fourth tune, a KD original composition, has some controversy over its title. The title that was used on the Blue Note Japanese release and thereafter was “K. D.’s Cab Ride.” Prior to the Japanese release, the composition had no name according to Michael Cuscuna. Unbeknownst to Cuscuna, KD already assigned a name to the tune which was “Echoes of Spring.” Interestingly, Cuscuna was the mastermind in coming up with “new” name “K. D.’s Cab Ride” from conferring with Hank Mobley that “it was a Kenny Dorham composition and was the sort of tune he [Kenny Dorham] might write in the cab on the way to a record date.”  This addendum  by Cuscuna can be found in the notes of every issuance since the Japanese release. The quotation from Cuscuna can be found in the notes of the 1987 Blue Note CDP 7-46815-2 release.

            Switching gears to actually discuss the music itself, The Penguin Jazz Guide: The History of the Music in 1,001 Best Albums by Brian Morton and Richard Cook points out that Dorham was “self-evidently a Dizzy disciple, particularly as on Afro-Cuban where there are extra beats and half-beats to the measure.” Those instances would most likely be prevalent in the four latin-flavored tunes due the already established relationship Dizzy had with Afro-Cuban and latin rhythms via percussionists such as Machito, Chano Pozo, Mongo Santmaria, and Carlos “Patato” Valdes just to name a few. (A more comprehensive look into the Afro-Cuban side of the album will be in part two of this posting.) Morton and Cook go on to say that even though Dorham was a pupil of Gillespie, “…Dorham had a nice rounded tone and even attack which make him more distinctive than is usually thought.” Here is a concise survey of the four compositions from the the first session: “Venita’s Dance” has an almost melancholy theme and to supplement that feeling is KD’s solo, consisting mainly of descending lines. Just as everything must come to an end, the pastoral mood is then thwarted by Mobley’s distinct attack in relation to his timbre and style. The solos by Silver and Payne also followed suit. “La Villa,” a Dorham original composition, had the promises of traversing genres to become a pop hit according to Leonard Feather in the liner notes for the 1957 Afro-Cuban lp. Although Feather’s high hopes were made in the late-1950s, the probability of a bop tune to jump genres and simultaneously grab the hearts of the general public would have been slim to nil due the advent of new musics like rock and roll. Consequently, the tempo would have another issue to contend with, for the fast tempo was ideal for KD’s and the other winds’ solos with the ever-energetic Silver comping behind them. An amazing musical display occurs between KD and Blakey when they trade fours for twenty-four measures before the out-chorus. “K. D.’s Motion” is a burning blues where KD takes four choruses to display his prowess for the idiom. Not only KD shine in his solo, Payne, Mobley and Silver also exhibit superb solos in the blues tradition.

            Looking back now, the tunes from the January 30th session are all quintessential Blakey and the Jazz Messengers charts with the addition of Cecil Payne, of course. Payne is an added gem to this already smoking coterie! With the blazing and swing drums of Blakey, bluesy interpretations of Mobley, funky stylings of Horace Silver, and the rhythmically driven bass of Percy Heath, there is no denying that KD and the Messengers have stamped their mark in jazz history.

             

KD, Whistle Stop, Blue Note, Oh My!

Fun news! SFM has a new intern, Jeremiah Briley. And Jeremiah happens to be something of an expert on Kenny Dorham. So without further ado, here’s Jeremiah’s take on a classic album–

It’s January 15: the 53rd anniversary of one of Kenny Dorham’s seminal recordings as leader, Whistle Stop. We pause to reflect on the sheer genius of Kenny and this album, composed entirely by leader KD himself. 1961 was the year and as Ira Gitler put it in the liner notes for the original release of the LP, “It seems that every time you read about Kenny Dorham, someone is referring to him as ‘a greatly underrated trumpeter.’ I’ve probably been guilty of this myself. I say guilty because if all the energy expended by Jazz writers and commentators in lamenting Kenny’s lack of proper recognition was turned toward a more positive extolling of his many virtues, perhaps he would be much further ahead in his career. Certainly, he is one of the very best trumpeters in Jazz.”

With that being said, let us turn a new leaf for Kenny and his music by expressing some uplifting thoughts on Whistle Stop. The album, recorded for Blue Note Records, brought together an all-star cast of musicians: Kenny Drew on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums (all of which played on John Coltrane’s Blue Train from September 15, 1957 also on Blue Note). On top of that killer rhythm section was the incomporable tenorman Hank Mobley, whose musical relationship with KD stretches back all the way to the Horace Silver Quintet in 1954. Each member is a complement to the others in the band, giving the entire album its fiery, swinging, bluesy hard bop-ness.

The first tune on this romping album is “Philly Twist,” a fitting dedication to the drummer Philly Joe and in the Parkerian style. According to the original liner notes from the album, Gitler points out another meaning for the title where Kenny says, “There is also a play on words with filly, a young horse.” This adaptation of the word “Philly” by Kenny reverts back to his younger days in his hometown of Post Oak, Texas where he was a cowhand and had aspirations of becoming a cowboy. Philly Joe relentlessly drives the beat as KD and Hank Mobley take their solos. KD’s facility and clarity while playing at very fast tempos never cease to amaze me!

The next tune “Buffalo” is a drastic contrast to the first tune insofar as the tempo has slowed to a near dirge within the blues idiom. The horns voiced a fourth apart gives “Buffalo” a Middle Eastern flavor. Also, Kenny remarks in the liner notes in reference to the naming of this tune that, “the buffalo is a pretty earthy animal.” This earthiness is a direct correlation to the essence of the this deeply bluesy tune. This tune reminds me of Donald Byrd’s title track “Slow Drag.” Hank Mobley, KD, and Kenny Drew each take solos reinterpreting the blues in their own way which gives way for some interesting interplay of ideas.

Following “Buffalo,” the modal tune “Sunset” really encapsulates the imagery KD achieved through this piece. KD’s mute work drives this sentiment home creating the mood that is reminiscent of the approaching summer night in the southwest. Each band member incorporates a softer, more sensitive touch to their playing, be it playing the head, soloing or accompanying.

The title track, “Whistle Stop” is a definite barnburner set to “rhythm changes” which KD has a strong proficiency in due to the backbreaking tempo of the tune. Philly Joe is the undeniable force responsible in holding it all together throughout the tune even when, at times, the drums may sound like a cacophony of sound. In the the beginning and end of the tune Kenny reveals the way in which he created the locomotive sound by using “compound quarter notes or half note triplets— this can be also done with eighth note triplets.”  Even the soloists may have caught the train at different times, they are all on the same train arriving at the same destination.

In “Sunrise in Mexico, ” the bass represents the ascending sun, as the front voices (trumpet and tenor saxophone), by contrast, are descending. Again, from the liner notes, Kenny says, “the skies are low down there, and everything looks different.” KD’s efforts has not gone awry in capturing the imagery for each of his compositions.

“Windmill,” a perfect supplement to the other Parkerian tune on the album (“Philly Twist”) , has each musician give their own interpretation of the “Windmill.” Specifically, KD and Hank Mobley speak candidly through their instruments about past romantic relationships that all of us can relate to while Kenny Drew tinkers away with “adroit single lines” and Chambers bows his story. Jones displays his impression of the windmill with his precise technique of circular motion. KD concludes the description of the tune by saying that “the windmill, a weathered, gray-wood affair, is represented in the last four bars of the track.”

The last track of the album, “Dorham’s Epitaph” is approximately a minute in length meant to be the everlasting link to his name after he has left this earth. KD adds, “Other trumpeters have had identifying songs— and memorials like I Remember Clifford.” According to the liner notes, Gitler says that KD was in the process of expanding “Dorham’s Epitaph” for 60 or 70 pieces (40 of which would have been strings). Interestingly, by the behest of Dorham’s wife, Rubina, the title was changed to “Fairy Tale.” Unfortunely, the finished may never be seen again due to the fact that, according to Don Sickler, Gunther Schuller was in possession of the only copy of the score and left it in a cab! What a loss! There is always hope for things like that to pop up out of the blue many, many years later.

Having done a brief survey of this album, it is interesting how KD uses the application of programmatic music, just as Ellington did in his long form works. The use of the music as a vehicle to tell a story or paint a picture from beginning to end is no small feat. Let us continue to bask in the genius of Kenny Dorham!