1948 - September 13

The Tadd Dameron Septet – September 13 1948

 

Richard Cook – Blue Note Records 

For the second date, Dameron assembled his outstanding Royal Roost band, with Navarro, tenor saxophonist Allen Eager and drummer Kenny Clarke, along with a guest in the shape of the swing-to-bop saxophonist Wardell Gray. Although Dameron's sessions are rather better remembered for Navarro's contributions, and often take second place in discussions to Navarro's later sessions with Howard McGhee, the music here is outstanding. 'Jahbero' is a Latinised theme, abetted by an appearance from conga player Chino (brother of Chano) Pozo. Navarro's solo bursts excitingly out of the crisp, mid-tempo setting. On 'Lady Bird' and 'Symphonette', with the tempos again not too demanding, the trumpeter is measured and skilful. There's a studious quality in his playing to go with the fireworks expected in bebop. Eager and Gray are no slouches, but their playing seems more facile, and Gray especially seems an inappropriately lazy partner to the trumpeter. 

Ira Gitler – Fats Navarro Prime Source Liner Notes  BN-LA-507-H2 1975 

A year later it was the band from the Roost that went into the studio. Diverse players like trombonist Kai Winding and alto saxophonist Rudy Williams had filled the third horn spot but here it was Wardell Gray, who had come out of the West and recordings with Dexter Gordon and Charlie Parker, to New York to star with the Benny Goodman Sextet First inspired by Lester Young he cross-pollinated his style with Charlie Parker like so many other players of the period, One of these was Allen Eager, a New Yorker who had gained invaluable experience on 52nd Street. Gray and Eager had similar ingredients in their respective styles but given the similarities there were also differences in tone and attack. The drummer is bebop pioneer and percussion master Kenny Clarke, former house band leader at Minton's; ex-Gillespie band propellor; and later-to-be charter member of the Modern Jazz Quartet. The bassist is Curly Russell, participant in some of the most important Parker-Gillespie collaborations and a strong cog in the Bud Powell trio. Lady Bird is one of Tadd's beauties. The chords later served as the base for Half-Nelson. Fats is the lead-off man and his solo on the original take is a perfect gem, followed by Allen's ethereal, floating swing and Wardell's slightly deeper sound and more assertive approach. Jahbero is an exotic treatment of All the Things You Are with an authentic Latin beat from bongo player Chino Pozo, a cousin of Chano Pozo's, who had played with Machito, but was with the Jack Cole dancers at the time of this date. Wardell has the first solo; then Fats with a send-off from Pozo (dig Fats' bridge on the alternate); and finally Allen. Symphonette was a nickname for disc jockey Symphony Sid's comely blonde wife, Lois. The solo order is the same as on Jahbero. Fats is remarkable throughout this date. If it had been done in the days of the LP, how everyone would have stretched out with the tenors no doubt engaging in a spirited "battle."

Carl Woideck - The Complete Blue Note And Capitol Recordings Of Fats Navarro And Tadd Dameron 

 

September 13, 1948, Tadd Dameron recorded his second date with his star soloist Fats Navarro. Dameron had just begun an engagement at a newly-opened New York night club called the Royal Roost, and the Roost group formed the core of this recording ensemble. Dameron’s group (often with guest stars) broadcast every week from the club, and live recordings of this radio broadcasts made over a six-month period form the largest part of Tadd’s discography. In addition to Tadd and Fats, present from the Roost group were tenor saxophonist Allen Eager, bassist Curly Russell and pioneer modern jazz drummer Kenny Clarke. Tenor saxophonist Wardell Gray, although not part of the core group, played with them at the Roost on at least one occasion. 

Added starter Chino Pozo (conga drum), a cousin of the more famous Chano Pozo, begins the exotic “Jahbero.” This sinuous melody is one of Dameron’s best, and yet never solidly found its way into the modern jazz repertoire. The song is based on “All The Things You Are,” but with creatively modified chords for the head (and a few for the solos.) Fats solos authoritatively, beginning each take with the same idea. He had clearly worked out some ideas that he liked on this chord progression, on the alternate take, his second 8 bars are nearly identical to his final 8 bars, only a lower fourth lower as the chords require. On that take, listen also for some great double-time phrases from Fats. Allen Eager solos later. Both shared Lester Young as a model with Wardell displaying more Charlie Parker influence. Although Eager and Gray do not solo back-to-back here, live recordings of the band display the two inspiring one another in friendly competition. “Lady Bird” is a short, 16-bar Dameron piece (reportedly written in 1939) with an original chord progression, as was Tadd’s norm. Fats’s solo on the master take is more deliberate and poised; on the alternate take, he lets loose with a few double-time phrases during his second chorus. On this track, Eager solos before Gray. “Symphonette” is another AABA piece with Wardell soloing before Allen. Fats shows a bit of his Dizzy Gillespie influence in the originally-issued take. With words and music by Dameron, “I Think I’ll Go Away” is an example of his attempt to weld bop harmonic and melodic practices with popular-song sentiment and accessibility. It was recorded at a time when parts of the jazz community were concerned that modern jazz was losing the audience that the swing-era music had built. Certainly the song is not as strong as “If You Could See Me Now” and the interpretation by singer Kenny Hagood is strained, but the effort was worthwhile. Hagood was an eager singer who was sympathetic to bebop musicians; in the 1940s he also recorded with Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis. Navarro’s warm, cup-muted passages suggest that he would have been a great jazz ballad player, but ironically, Fats never soloed on an instrumental ballad performance in the studio. 

The Record Changer – June 1949 Volume 8 No. 6 

Progress, or something closely akin, has been made by Tadd in the direction of refinement and restraint, in these sides, which are indicative of his present motif. (He has stated many times that his dream is to own a real full size orchestra—he is one of the ones who believe that bop is only a staging area for things to come, which can best be handled by bigger and better orchestras. Possibly he feels that there is little in bop which can't be expressed by arrangers and competent musicians. Personally, I don't believe in the validity of so-called "slow bop," or "pretty bop" as a direct appendage to the informal music that we think of as bop; I think Sarah Vaughn and Billy Eckstine are great. but I don't think they're bop singers, exactly. Something tells me I'm giving the wrong impression here—what I mean is that Tadd, and others like him. seem to feel that bop has been chiefly useful as a shove away from the stagnation and inventive paralysis which the music of the 'thirties and early 'forties had symptoms of, and that the real stuff is yet to come, in the form of a music which will be palatable to the public,  digestible by musicians and inoffensive to cultists—in whose ranks we all are numbered. I say no. Bop is a stopgap, you can bet your behind on it, what will follow is not necessarily every man's dream. More on that later.)  

This record, if you compare it to The Squirrel, is almost reticent in its calm, professional performance. Like the other, it features Fats Navarro, probably the best all-around trumpet man in the business; two of the best tenor men in Wardell Gray and Allen Eager (though Eager is just as likely to leave me cold as not) and, on Jahbero, Chino Pozo, who assumed much of the responsibility of being the best bongo player around when Chann (no relation) was killed. Ladybird is a pretty job that Tadd wrote some time ago, and would be almost instantly recognizable as his even if Scott Joplin were listed as composer. Tadd writes good stuff, and it has an original flavor. 

Fats has a quiet solo, very expressive and musicianly in his effortless manner, and I'd say that Eager comes off a mite ahead of Wardell this one. On both sides, as a matter of fact.  

Jahbero is not precisely what I'd call Afro-Cubano, being more Cubano-Dameron. It features excellent bongo, at an easy tempo, and good Fats; it would be a fine dance record, I may add, and the melody is quite insinuating. (Blue Note 559) (P. B. [Paul Bacon]) 

Down Beat – 26 December 1957 Volume 24 Issue 26 

The Fabulous Fats Navarro Volume II Blue Note 12” BLP 1532 

Navarro's untimely death in 1950 at the age of 26 robbed the jazz world of an exciting trumpet voice. This collection, and Vol. Note BLP 1531), Navarro's first 12-inch LPs, constitute the bulk of his recorded legacy. The use of alternate masters, in this volume seven are presented, shows the pattern of retaining and discarding used by Fats in building his solos.  

Navarro's was a lyric bop horn. Its sound was flowing, although the tension crackled underneath. A good illustration is his solo on Jahbero, in which he retains the basic introduction on both the original and the alternate, but he improves his phrasing on the former.  

The Double Talk alternate master here is almost as exciting as the original, which covered two sides of a 10-inch 78, and is included in the earlier volume. 

Fats' soloing on thig alternate, however, isn't as cohesive as on the original. McGhee is equally persuasive on both versions.  

As colleague Leonard Feather notes in the liner, these sides were termed progressive when first issued but now can be seen "as part of an honorable past, now to be heard nostalgically.. " As an afterthought, I might add that Navarro seemed destined, had he lived, to outgrow the strictures of straight bop and become an important voice in the modern school. But that, too, must be left to theory. All we really gave are these sides, somewhat yellowed by time, but still brisk and swinging. 

Session Information 

Fats Navarro, trumpet; Allen Eager, Wardell Gray, tenor sax; Tadd Dameron, piano; Curley Russell, bass; Kenny Clarke, drums; Chino Pozo, bongos; Kenny 'Pancho' Hagood, vocals

Apex Studios, NYC, September 13, 1948 

BN332-0, Jahbero (alt.), Blue Note BLP 1532, BN-LA507-H2 

BN332-1, Jahbero, Blue Note 559, BLP 1532, BN-LA507-H2 

BN333-0, Lady Bird, Blue Note 559, BLP 5004, BLP 1532, BN-LA507-H2 

BN333-1, Lady Bird (alt.), Blue Note BLP 1532, BN-LA507-H2 

BN334-1, Symphonette, Blue Note 1564, BLP 1532, BN-LA507-H2 

BN334-2, Symphonette (alt.), Blue Note BLP 1532, BN-LA507-H2 

BN335-1, I Think I'll Go Away