James Moody And His Bop Men – October 25 1948
Michael Cuscuna – 1991 CD (CDP 7 84436 2) Reissue Liner Notes
Dizzy Gillespie kicked off his own record label in 1951 with a version of "Tin Tin Deo" and it has remained in his book ever since. Similarly, Moody recut "Workshop" in 1953 with Eddie Jefferson singing lyrics that he had written to Moody's solo on this original Blue Note version. And the tune remained a staple for both the saxophonist and the singer throughout their careers.
Although recorded under Moody's leadership, this date is an offshoot of the Gillespie band with Fuller's arrangements as the focal point. In fact, Moody doesn't even solo on every tune and shares the blowing equally with Cecil Payne, Ernie Henry and Dave Burns.
The late Ernie Henry was a vibrant bop alto saxophonist with a unique sense of economy and phrasing. He made his recording debut in '47 on Tadd Dameron's first Blue Note date. One week before the Moody date, he appeared on the Howard McGhee-Fats Navarro Boptet session for the label. He was a member of the Gillespie band from July, 1948 until the middle of '49. His originality really started to blossom in the mid-fifties as evidenced by Thelonious Monk's "Brilliant Corners" album and sessions by Kenny Dorham and Henry himself. It was during the altoist's second stint with Dizzy's big band in 1957 that he died one morning in his sleep.
Cecil Payne, like bebop's other major baritone saxophonist Leo Parker, began his professional career on alto, making his recorded debut with that instrument on a J.J. Johnson date. Gillespie hired him away from Roy Eldridge at the end of 1946. Since then, he has freelanced with just about everyone in jazz, although he is best known for his associations with Tadd Dameron, Kenny Dorham, Randy Weston and Duke Jordan.
Dave Burns, a sadly overlooked trumpeter, was an army buddy of Moody's and was responsible for bringing the saxophonist into the Gillespie band in late '46. Burns has always been a modern, logical soloist with a lyrical, fluid style. He, along with drummer Teddy Stewart, was a member of Moody's working band intermittently during the fifties. He appeared on a handful of Blue Note sessions in subsequent years by George Wallington, Art Taylor, Dexter Gordon and Leo Parker. He is still actively playing in the New York area.
The second Moody session is sparked by the team of Art Blakey and Chano Pozo. Born and raised in Havana, Pozo was a master drummer with a thorough knowledge of Cuban and West African rhythms. Within the Gillespie band, he was instrumental in shaping Afro-Cuban jazz as a composer and vocalist as well as a drummer. Some five weeks after this recording, he was shot and killed in a Harlem bar.
One discographical note: "The Fuller Bop Man" is heard on this album in two takes, the first of which is a previously unissued alternate take.
By the beginning of 1949, James Moody would move to Europe where he remained for three years, adding the alto saxophone to his music. Cecil Payne would leave the Gillespie band to join Tadd Dameron. With the death of Pozo and the exit of Burns, Payne and Moody, the complexion of Dizzy's band necessarily changed. Economic problems and pressure to record inferior material for its commercial potential weakened the band tremendously in the latter half of 1949, bringing about its dissolution.
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| Billboard February 1949 |
The Record Changer May 1949
The relation of this gang to the Gillespie band is almost exactly that of a Hodges or Bigard unit to the Ellington band; it isn't a diversion. but a miniature of the parent; in short, not a band within a band, but the original (less a paltry ten guys or so). Walter Fuller's being the power behind the throne may have something to do with that, too, because everything Dizzy's band does is colored by his theories of scoring, which are sometimes dangerously advanced. (By dangerous I mean, of course, from the point of view of an unspecialized audience or, if you'll pardon the expression. the public. To which one may say, "The public be damned," to which I reply: " Fight hard, but if you think RCA Victor is in this thing for kicks you're out of your mind.")
However, this record being a BLUE NOTE, is designed for a specialized audience, though they have no objection to the enlargement of that audience, and it should find receptive ears. Tin Tin Deo is one of Chano Pozo's last sides; he sings on it, in a voice and accent very like, of all people, Desi Arnaz's, besides stroking some voluptuous sounds from the bongo. The whole thing is very Cubano in spirit, detouring briefly behind Ernie Henry's solo—strangely enough, Moody has chosen to lay low on both sides, featuring Henry instead—and closing with some introverted trumpet by little-known Dave Burns. Oh O Henry, written by and for Ernie. with an assist from Fuller, is a quiet, low-keyed little number, with a nice beat. I like the arranged part very much. because of the full sound and relaxed swing. This is pretty cool stuff, definitely a signpost to the direction music is going in, understated; the kind of drama where you upstage by twitching an eyebrow. These guys are in the van. (Blue Note 555) (P.B)
Pete Welding - B-6503 Liner Notes 1969
When Moody was asked to set up a recording session for Blue Note, Fuller was the obvious choice as arranger. The charts he fashioned for the octet made skillful use of the tonal possibilities implicit in the two trumpet, three reed-rhythm section format of the group, which was between small and large in size. Fuller was able to exploit to the fullest the advantages of such a lineup. His arrangements knowledge- ably tread a middle ground between the freedom and looseness of the small group and the power and massed sound of the larger band. Though the group's execution is occasionally ragged, its handling of the charts is exciting and vigorous and more than makes up in brashness, enthusiasm and exuberance what it might lack in polish. Typically, most of the band the tenor saxophonist assembled for the recording sessions were recruited from the ranks of the Gillespie band: trumpeters Burns and Wright, saxophonists Henry and Payne, pianist Forman and bassist Boyd were fellow bandmates of Moody's at the time.
Moody was born in Savannah, Georgia, February 26, 1925, and his stint with the Gillespie orchestra, which he had joined in 1947 following three years of Army service, was his first musical experience with a major jazz unit. Moody, however, was well on the way to the development of a strong, mature, cohesive style solidly based in the vocabulary and inflections of bop, as his recorded work so clearly demonstrates. Not only did he have the "chops" — that is, the requisite facility to execute ideas fluently at top speed — but he also showed a growing mastery of musical construction and invention.
For all its occasional raggedness and unevenness of solo work, the music of the Moody bop octet is quite interesting for a number of reasons. Most notable are Fuller's orchestrations and the ways in which they exploited the resources of bop. "Oh Henry," for example, is on surface a rather conventionally-styled piece. The saxophones state a simple harmonized line built on the 12-bar blues structure; but notice, however, the witty and sophisticated use of rhythmic displacements in the line, knowingly implying a much more subtle underlying rhythmic scheme than would at first appear to be the case. Then, there's the very fresh approach to the responsorial role played by the trumpets in the second chorus and, too, the striking trumpet-led figures that signal the close of altoist Henry's two choruses and lead into a brief trumpet solo before returning to the theme and out. A very concise and imaginative piece of writing.
Following the serpentine unison line that introduces "The Fuller Bop Man" (and which might stand as a very definition of the idiom's characteristic approach to melody), Fuller has crafted a most intriguing contrapuntal thematic treatment, again on the blues. Then, there are the several forays into Latinate rhythms, "Tropicana" and "Cu-ba," which continue a line of development that Fuller had earlier signaled in his work with Gillespie. The arranger had come into close contact with several of the leading Afro-Cuban musicians in the mid-'40's and he had arranged for both Machito and Tito Puente, two of the leading purveyors of Latin polyrhythms, Fuller found their exciting approach to rhythm very striking and he began experimenting with a fusion of jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms for Gillespie, who shared his enthusiasm for Latin rhythms. Chano Pozo, who had been featured with the Gillespie band, was added to the Moody octet for these several forays into rhythmic cross-fertilization, and they are among the group's most exciting efforts.
Session Information
Dave Burns, Elmon Wright, trumpet; Ernie Henry, alto sax; James Moody, tenor sax; Cecil Payne, baritone sax; Hen Gates, piano; Nelson Boyd, bass; Art Blakey, drums; Chano Pozo, vocal, bongos; "Gil" Fuller, arranger.
Apex Studios, NYC, October 25, 1948
BN347-0, Tin Tin Deo, Blue Note 555, BLP 5006, BLP 1001, BST2 84429, BST 89902
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