1955 - February 27

Gil Melle Quintet – February 27 1955 

 

Leonard Feather: Five Impressions of Color Liner Notes: BLP 5063 

THIS IS Gil Mellé's fourth LP. In the course of his remarkable series of enterprises for Blue Note he has previously presented a quintet and a sextet, both on BLP 5020; a second quintet with an altered personnel on 5033; and a carefully organized and rehearsed quartet with which, on 5054, he introduced a delightful sample of what (if we were given to slogans) we might describe as New Jersey Jazz. 

It seems to us that Gil has progressed steadily in the course of these various excursions, and that with this new release he has found the most vivid and capacious format of all. Actually the group featured here is simply the quartet of 5054 with one man added; but that single addition is of such stature as to change the entire tonal impact of the unit. 

The addition in question is the tuba player, Don Butterfield. Since Gil and his other sidemen were introduced in previous notes, we shall dwell at length on Mr. Butterfield in order to launch properly what may turn out to be an important jazz career. 

Born April 1, 1923 in Centralia, Wash., Don had some informal teaching at high school, where he played the school band's string bass and tuba, mainly because his family could not afford to get him a trumpet. The charm of the string bass eluded him, but it might be said that he fell in love with the tuba at first sight, and by the time he entered the Army in late 1942 he had determined ultimately to turn the romance into a permanent affair. 

Discharged early in 1946, he came to New York, obtaining his first formal training at Juilliard. Though highly apprehensive about his own ability, he soon made his professional debut with the Goldman band, and before long was jobbing at CBS and NBC and playing with various symphony orchestras. He completed his studies in 1951, and since then has been heard on records with Jackie Gleason, briefly with Claude Thornhill, and lately as a member of the orchestra at Radio City Music Hall. 

As you might suspect, Don has had to live a double life in order to make a living while maintaining an interest in jazz. Having studied, as a child, records by the swing bands of Miller, Shaw, Dorsey and Herman, he often regretted that the instrument he had chosen seemed to be one not adaptable to the jazz medium. Then one day he found a record called Where's Pres? by Ray Linn's orchestra on a small, long-since defunct west coast label. It opened up a whole new jazz world to him, and after wearing it down to the last shred of the final groove, he found he knew something a40uf the chord structures of the new jazz. 

Don has five different tubas. The one he used on this session is a contrabass or Double B Flat tuba with a range just two octaves below that of the trumpet. 

Gil's confidence in the idea that a big ensemble was not essential for the inclusion of a tuba made it possible for Don to bring to light the full versatility of the instrument, and of his extraordinary talent in manipulating it, in this series of original Melle compositions. 

The first side, a suite of five color impressions by Gil, was inspired by the fact that, as Gil says, "A number of things that I had written seemed to suggest certain colors to me, so I built them up and elaborated on several themes, using the guitar to play parts along with the baritone, and employing the tuba for both melodic and rhythmic purposes. 

Spectrum Violet starts with ad lib guitar on a minor chord sequence before Gil comes in to play a unison passage with Mecca. Toward the end the tuba enters for some ultra-violet effects. There is great depth, too, in the writing of Sea Green, which makes use of parallel minor ninths. 

Royal Blue, opening with some intriguing interplay between Melle, Mecca and Butterfield, with a guitar lead on some parallel fourths, proceeds to an improvised tuba passage that brings out to astonishing effect Don's ability to make a jazz vehicle out of this cumbersome horn. His articulation and sound are as perfect as the recording, in a unique and fascinating performance. 

Ebony derives its compelling theme from a ten-bar chord pattern (reduced to eight for some of the solo passages) composed mainly of minor sixths and maior sevenths. A bass solo precedes the introduction of the theme. After solos by Gil and Lou and a short bass passage, the tuba contributes to a dark, almost brutal mood in the dramatic coda. 

Spectrum Red is mainly a percussion solo. "The idea," Gil relates, "was to show Vinnie in breaks and figures of varying lengths." The result shows this versatile artist in a series of moods, as a photographer might present his subject from every angle. 

The quintet strolls through more conventional harmonic gardens in the charming Life Begins at Midnight (titled for disc jockey Jack Walker of WOV, whose slogan this is). Gil's solo moves with the consummate ease that has been a striking feature of his big-toned, expertly controlled baritone work. Butterfield has a wild solo on this one, including an amazing gliss that seems to dip from a D down a tenth to a low B Flat. Guitar and bass also have solos that fit well into the overall mood. 

Night Train To Wildwood (named for the New Jersey town where Gil was gigging) uses two themes, the second of which revolves with ingenious rhythmic manipulations around the tonic. Mecca's solo, like all his work in this set, shows that here is a guitarist gifted both with inspiration and the technical equipment to carry his ideas into action. Lou comps superbly, too, while Billy Phillips walks through a swinging bass solo; Vinnie's brushes and Don's horn contribute individual moments. 

October 1955

The set ends with Threadneedle Street, in which the basic melodic theme is the simplest and perhaps the catchiest of the whole LP. The rich texture of the guitar chord work backing up the baritone again shows the advantages of the group's instrumentation. Notice the melodic use of the flatted fifth in the fourth bar of the main line. And the creamy purity of those four Butterfield notes that seal this one off. 

A few hearings of this set will convince you of three facts: that each Melle combo is more effective than its predecessor, that Mr. Butterfield is a force to be reckoned with in the jazz days to come, and that Gil has by now established himself in the forefront of the younger composers who have managed to blaze new and stimulating trails while never betraying a firm allegiance to the jazz idiom. 

LEONARD FEATHER 
Cover Design by GIL MELLE 
Photo by FRANCIS WOLFF  

Technical Data: The greatest core has been given to every step in the manufacture of this record. The finest available recording equipment from the U. S. and Europe has been utilized. Ampex Series 300 tape recorders, Telefunken microphones, British Grampian cutter and Scully lathe. This album is recorded with a standard R.I.A.A. recording characteristic. The most modern factory methods and the purest vinylite material insure incomparable pressings. 

Recording Engineer; Rudy Van Gelder. 

Down Beat 19 October 1955 Volume 22 Issue 21 

Gil Melle's fourth Blue Note LP enlists Lou Mecca, guitar; Billy Phillips, bass; Vinnie Thomas, drums, and the remarkable Don Butterfield, who can make a tuba speak more fluently than anyone I've heard, and in the jazz idiom yet. All the compositions are by Melle, and the entire first side is devoted to his five-part color impressions.  

Though I have an antipathy to programmatic titles and "heard" none of the colors he labels the music with, the work is rather intriguing in an impressionistic, diffuse way. lts emotional power is less than urgent to this listener, and it hardly appears to the kind of work that will reveal new subtleties with many hearings, but it has a rather interesting play of sonorities. 

The last three originals swing mildly (I rather think that rhythmically and emotionally, Melle would be more at home in the West coast scene). There's additional surprising tuba by Butterfield and very good Mecca guitar. Melle's baritone work is clean, full-bodied, and frequently quite imaginative in conception, but he lacks so far the fire and force of personality of a Mulligan. The whole scene, in short, is somewhat bland. Melle obviously has a large amount of potential. But he needs to become less inhibited emotionally. Excellent recorded sound.  

Leonard Feather's able notes put up a good case for Melle, and Leonard may right. I just don't hear that  
much here. (Blue Note BLP 5063) 

Session Information 

Don Butterfield, tuba; Gil Melle, baritone sax; Lou Mecca, guitar; Billy Phillips, bass; Vinnie Thomas, drums 

Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, February 27, 1955 

 

tk.1, Five Impressions Of Color:  

I. Spectrum Violet;  

II. Sea Green;  

III. Royal Blue;  

IV. Ebony;  

V. Spectrum Red 

tk.5, Life Begins At Midnight 

tk.7, Threadneedle Street 

tk.9, Night Train To Wildwood 

 

All selections released as Blue Note BLP 5063