1955 - March 29

Kenny Dorham Nonet – March 29 1955 

 

Leonard Feather: Afro-Cuban Liner Notes BLP 5065 

McKINLEY HOWARD DORHAM is a trumpet player who was taken for granted. 

For several years, mainly the halcyon years of the bop movement, Kenny was Mr. Available for every trumpet chair in every band and combo. If Dizzy wasn't around and Howard McGhee was out of town, there was always Kenny. And so it went from about 1945 to '51, always in the shadow of those who had been first to establish themselves in the vanguard of the new jazz. 

Slowly, in the past few years, Kenny has emerged from behind this bop bushel to show the individual qualities that were ultimately to mark him for independent honors. Numerous chores as a sideman on record dates for various small companies led to his inclusion in the important Horace Silver Quintet dates for Blue Note (BLP 5058, 5062), and, as a result of his fine work on these occasions, to the signing of an exclusive Blue Note contract and his first date for this label as a combo leader on his own. 

If the Kenny Dorham Story were ever made into a movie (and the way things are going in Hollywood at the moment, don't let anything surprise you) it would begin on a ranch near Fairfield, Texas on August 30, 1924. The actor playing Kenny as a child would be shown listening to his mother and sister playing the piano and his father strumming blues on the guitar. 

Then there would be the high school scenes in Austin, Texas, with Kenny taking up piano and trumpet but spending much of his time on the school boxing team; and later the sojourn at Wiley College, where he played in the band with Wild Bill Davis as well as majoring in chemistry. In his spare time Kenny would be seen making his first stabs at composing and arranging. 

After almost a year in the Army (during which his pugilistic prowess come to the fore on the Army boxing team) Kenny went back to Texas, joining Russell Jacquet's band in Houston late in 1943 and spending much of 1944 with the band of Frank Humphries. 

From 1945 to '48 Kenny was on the road with several big bands, including those of Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine, Lionel Hampton and Mercer Ellington in that order. Then he spent the best part of two years playing clubs as part of the Charlie Parker Quintet. Lurking on the edge of the limelight occupied by the immortal Bird, he began to lure a little individual attention as something more than the section man and occasional soloist he had been for so long. One of his important breaks was a trip to Paris with Bird in 1949 to take part in the Jazz Festival. 

Settling permanently in New York, Kenny became a free-lance musician whose services alongside such notabilities as Bud Powell, Sonny Stitt, Thelonious Monk and Mary Lou Williams gradually impressed his name and style on jazz audiences. 

For much of the past year Kenny has been working frequently around the east with a combo that constitutes the nucleus of the outfit heard on these sides — Hank Mobley, Horace Silver and Art Blakey. 

Mobley is an Eastman, Ga. product, born there in 1930 but raised in New Jersey. Making his start with Paul Gayten in 1950, he rose to prominence with Max Roach's combos off and on from 1951-53 and with Dizzy in '54. Cecil Payne, a 32-year-old Brooklynite who studied with Pete Brown, has been prominent on the jazz scene ever since he returned from the Army in 1946 and is best known for his association with Dizzy (1946-9), Tadd Dameron, James Moody and Illinois Jacquet. 

Carlos "Potato" Valdes, a newcomer to Blue Note and to the U.S. music scene, has only been over here from Cuba for a few months. Dizzy first told Kenny about him, and "Little Benny" Harris dug him up and brought him to Kenny's rehearsal. ' 'He gassed them all", recalls Alfred Lion succinctly. 

For this session with its Afro-Cuban rhythmic motif, Kenny says "I tried to write everything so that the rhythm would be useful throughout and would never get in the way." As a consequence, the Cuban touch sounds as if it is a part of the whole, rather than something that has been superimposed on a jazz scene, as is sometimes the case. 

Photo by Francis Wolff

Minor's Holiday didn't get that title only because of its minor key; it was also named for Minor Robinson, a trumpet player in New Haven. A mood-setting rising phrase characterizes the opening chorus, leading into a loosely swinging, pinpoint-toned trumpet solo that shows, like all his work on this date, the high degree of individuality Kenny has achieved. Mobley and Jay Jay also have superior solos. 

Lotus Flower, after Horace's attractive intro, shows how the Cuban percussion idea can be applied effectively to a slow, pretty melody. Jay Jay's solo, though short, has a melancholy quality that complements the mood set by Kenny's delicately phrased work here. 

Afrodisia is a title that has been used before, but this is a new composition. The theme and interpretation recall somewhat the Gillespie approach to material of this type. Like the patriot who is plus royaliste que le roi, Kenny and his cohorts achieve a more interesting and more Cuban atmosphere here than you will hear on many performances emanating direct from Havana. The "Potato" is really cooking on this one. 

The session ends with an original commissioned by Kenny from Gigi Gryce, the talented ex-Hampton reedman. Basheer's Dream has a minor mood of singular intensity sustained by Kenny, Hank and Jay Jay, with Valdes and Blakey allied as a potent percussion team and Horace, the Connecticut Cuban, contributing some discreet punctuations. 

Kenny Dorham's Blue Note debut as a leader marks an important phase in his career. After hearing these sides, the fans who for so long had been only vaguely aware of his real capabilities will learn that here is a soloist and a composer whose sound and pen are destined from now on to play a lively and stimulating role on the jazz stage. 

—LEONARD FEATHER 
(author of The Encyclopedia of Jazz) 

Cover Design by GIL MELLÉ 
Photo by FRANCIS WOLFF 

Technical Data; The greatest care 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; 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 

August 1955

Leonard Feather: Afro-Cuban Liner Notes: BLP 1535 

It has taken McKinley Howard Dorham quite a few years to earn the recognition that should have been his during the middle 1940s. For a long time, during the halycon era of the bop movement, Kenny was Mr. Available for every trumpet choir in every band and combo. If Dizzy wasn’t around and Howard McGhee was out of town, there was always Kenny. And so it went from about 1945 to ‘51, always in the shadow of those who had been first to establish themselves in the vanguard of the new jazz. 

Slowly, in the past few years, Kenny has emerged from behind this bop bushel to show the individual qualities that were ultimately to mark him for independent honors. Numerous chores as a sideman on record dates for various small companies led to his inclusion in the important Horace Silver Quintet dates for Blue Note (BLP 1518), and, as a result of his fine work on these occasions, to the signing of a Blue Note contract and his first date for this label as a combo leader on his own. 

If the Kenny Dorham Story were ever made into a movie (and the way things are going in Hollywood at the moment, don’t let anything surprise you) it would begin on a ranch near Fairfeld, Texas on August 30, 1924. The actor playing Kenny as a child would be shown listening to his mother and sister playing the piano and his father strumming blues on the guitar. 

Then there would be the high school scenes in Austin, Texas, with Kenny taking up piano and trumpet but spending much of his time on the school boxing team; and later the sojourn at Wiley College, where he played in the band with Wild Bill Davis as well as majoring in chemistry. In his spare time Kenny would be seen making his first stabs at composing and arranging. 

After almost a year in the Army (during which his pugilistic prowess came to the fore on the Army boxing team) Kenny went back to Texas, joining Russell Jacquet’s band in Houston late in 1943 and spending much of 1944 with the band of Frank Humphries. 

Photo by Francis Wolff

From 1945 to ‘48 Kenny was on the road with several big bands, including those of Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine, Lionel Hampton and Mercer Ellington in that order. Then he spent the best part of two years playing clubs as part of the Charlie Parker Quintet, lurking on the edge of the limelight occupied by the immortal Bird, he began to lure a little individual attention as something more than the section man and occasional soloist he had been for so long. One of his important breaks was a trip to Paris with Bird in 1949 to take part in the Jazz Festival. 

Settling permanently in New York, Kenny become a freelance musician whose services alongside such notabilities as Bud Powell, Sonny Stitt, Thelonious Monk and Mary Lou Williams gradually impressed his name and style on jazz audiences. 

During 1954-5 Kenny worked most frequently around the east with a combo that constitutes the nucleus of the outfit heard on these sides — Hank Mobley. Horace Silver and Art Blakey. 

Mobley is on Eastman, Ga. product, born there in 1930 but raised in New Jersey. Making his start with Paul Gayten in 1950. He rose to prominence with Max Roach’s combos off and on from 1951-53 and with Dizzy in ‘54. 

Mobley as well as Silver and Blakey are of course familiar figures at Blue Note, abundantly represented in the catalogue through their sessions with the Jazz Messengers (1507, 1508, 1518). Horace and Art are also on such other sessions as the Horace Silver trio (BLP 1520) and A Night at Birdland (BLP 1521, BLP 1522). 

Jay Jay Johnson, whose eminence was saluted on BLP 1505 and BLP 1506, was recently elected the “Greatest Ever” by a jury of 100 of his peers in the Encyclopedia Yearbook of Jazz “Musicians’ Musicians” poll. 

Cecil McKenzie Payne, a baritone sax man with a long and distinguished record in modern jazz circles, is a 34-year-old Brooklynite whose career as a bopper began right after his release from the Army in 1946 and took him through the U.S. and Europe with Dizzy Gillespie until ‘49. when he began free-lancing in New York with Todd Dameron, James Moody and Illinois Jacquet. 

Carlos “Potato” Valdes, the conga drummer, came over from Cuba a couple of years ago. It was Gillespie who first told Kenny Dorham about him and “little Benny” Harris who dug him up and brought him to Kenny’s rehearsal. “He gassed them all,” recalls Alfred Lion succinctly. 

Completing the octet, Oscar Pettiford provides the indomitable bass sound that won him the Esquire Gold Award in 1944 and ‘45 and the Down Beat Critics’ poll in 1953. 

Photo by Francis Wolff

For the four tunes with the Afro-Cuban rhythm motif, Kenny says, “I tried to write everything so that the rhythm would be useful throughout and would never get in the way.” As o consequence, the Cuban touch sounds as if it is a part of the whole, rather than something that has been superimposed on a jazz scene, as is sometimes the case. 

Afrodisia is a title that has been used before, but this is a new composition. The theme and interpretation recall somewhat the Gillespie approach to material of this type. like the patriot who is plus royaliste que le roi, Kenny and his cohorts achieve a more interesting and more Cuban atmosphere here than you will hear on many performances emanating direct from Havana. The “Potato” is really cooking on this one. 

Lotus Flower, after Horace’s attractive intro, shows how the Cuban percussion idea can be applied effectively to a slow, pretty melody. Jay Jay’s solo, though short, has a melancholy quality that complements the mood set by Kenny’s delicately phrased work here. 

Minor’s Holiday didn’t get that title only because of its minor key; it was also named for Minor Robinson, a trumpet player in New Haven. A mood-setting rising phrase characterizes the opening chorus, leading into a loosely swinging, pinpoint-toned trumpet solo that shows, like all his work on this date, the high degree of individuality Kenny has achieved. Mobley and Jay Jay also have superior solos. 

The session ends with an original commissioned by Kenny from Gigi Gryce, the talented ex-Hampton reedman. Basheer’s Dream has a minor mood of singular intensity sustained by Kenny, Hank and Jay Jay, with Valdes and Blakey allied as a potent percussion team and Horace, the Connecticut Cuban, contributing some discreet punctuations. 

Photo by Francis Wolff

Bob Blumenthal: Afro-Cuban RVG CD Reissue Liner Notes 2007 

This collection represents the first flowering of Kenny Dorham as a significant trumpet stylist and composer. As Leonard Feather points out in his original liner notes, it was a long time in coming. Despite a recording career of more than nine years when the first of the present sessions was taped, Dorham previously had been featured only once as a leader, on a 1953 session for Debut. Like many of his East Coast contemporaries, Dorham had also suffered through the economic downturn jazz experienced during the early-1950s. After his two-year stint with Charlie Parker ended in 1950, he had only made a handful of sideman appearances on record, though always in the employ of such important leaders as Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, and Lou Donaldson. 

Things began looking up in November 1954, when Dorham participated in a session under Horace Silver’s name that turned out to be the debut of the Jazz Messengers cooperative. A Blue Note contract followed, with the sextet date here intended as his leader’s debut on the label; but other music, and changes in technology, intervened. The second Silver/Jazz Messengers session, featuring the hit “The Preacher,” was made a week later, followed by the Dorham octet date in late March, all as the 10” LP format (for which each of these sessions was designed) was in the process of being phased out in favor of the lengthier 12” disc. Given the exceptional nature of the Afro-Cuban octet, Blue Note chose to release that music first, which explains why the earlier Dorham date was held back for a year, only to appear with one of its four tracks omitted for reasons of space. 

The octet date...is one of the definitive sessions of the era, and an important contribution from the jazz side in the development of the “Latin jazz” aesthetic. Among its important features are the introduction of Carlos “Patato” (not “Potato,” as the original credits had it) Valdes to the jazz world, the volcanic pairing of Valdes and Art Blakey (harkening back to the Blakey/Chano Pozo tandem on James Moody’s 1948 Modernists session for Blue Note), the exceptional collection of featured horn soloists (including J. J. Johnson, who had featured Dorham on his own 1949 New Jazz debut), and more compelling compositions and arrangements from Dorham.

“Minor’s Holiday” became the best known of the three Dorham originals, thanks in part to the exceptional subsequent version by the Messengers on their Café Bohemia session the following November. The coda Dorham employs here was turned into the new, non-Afro-Cuban original “Monaco,” which Dorham featured on his own Bohemia date in May of 1956. 

All of the soloists are consistently excellent here, which must have made it difficult for producer Alfred Lion to select between the original master and the alternate take of “Minor’s Holiday.” Session logs reveal that the alternate, which was recorded first, was in fact considered as being equal to the master. Could the clincher have been Hank Mobley’s allusion near the end of his solo on the master to “RockaBye Basie?” In any case, the citation remains among this listener’s favorite moments in jazz quotology. 

Photo by Francis Wolff

Down Beat 21 September 1955 Volume 22 Issue 19 

This is Kenny’s first LP for Blue Note under his new contract with the label. Set is called Afro-Cuban, and a major aid in making the title match with the music is conga drummer Carlos (Potato) Valdes, recently arrived from Cuba, and recommended to Kenny by Dizzy and “Little Benny” Harris. The rest of the distinguished and constantly cooking rhythm section is composed of Horace Silver, Oscar Pettiford, and Art Blakey. The horns include Cecil Payne, Hank Mobley, and J. J. Johnson. J. J. is excellent and Mobley is swingingly competent. 

  

Chief importance of this set, however, is the playing of the long-neglected Dorham. Kenny has rarely sounded as consistently at inventive ease as on this set, and I hope the LP heralds the fuller arrival of Kenny into public recognition. Kenny has worked with most of the major modern jazz innovators, and has evolved into one of the better hornmen in modern jazz, both with regard to sound and conception. First three originals are by Kenny; the fourth is by Gigi Gryce. All are pleasant, but none is outstanding as writing. The lines are good for blowing, though, and that’s what happens to warm effect here. Good recorded sound by Rudy Van Gelder, and good notes by Leonard Feather. (Blue Note BLP 5065) 

Session Information 

Kenny Dorham, trumpet; Jay Jay Johnson, trombone; Hank Mobley, tenor sax; Cecil Payne, baritone sax; Horace Silver, piano; Oscar Pettiford, bass; Art Blakey, drums; Carlos "Patato" Valdes, congas; Richie Goldberg, cowbell 

Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, March 29, 1955 

 

tk.2, Minor's Holiday (alt) 

tk.3, Minor's Holiday, Blue Note BLP 5065, BLP 1535 

tk.5, Basheer's Dream, Blue Note BLP 5065, BLP 1535 

tk.7, Afrodisia, Blue Note BLP 5065, BLP 1535 

tk.8, Lotus Flower, Blue Note BLP 5065, BLP 1535