1955 - August 7

Herbie Nichols Trio – August 7 1955 

 

Frank Kimbrough and Ben Allison: The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Herbie Nichols CD compilation 1997 

Of all the tunes recorded at the fourth session, only "Terpsichore" was released before the Complete Blue Note sessions were first issued in 1987 by Mosaic Records. Except for "Nick at t’s," written in August 1953, all the tunes were composed between March and August 1955, with  "Furthermore" written the day before the session. All tunes with the exception of "Terpsichore"  have standard 32-bar, AABA forms.  

There are three takes of "Furthermore." each in a different tempo. "117th Streets'" alternate title is  
"Enter Rhythm Street." "Sunday Stroll" has a friendly sound. with echoes of New Orleans brass bands. "Nick At T's" is named for tenor saxophonist Big Nick Nicholas.  

"Terpsichore," named after the Greek Muse of dance, is perhaps the most intriguing tune from this session. Its form is ABBA, with each section having eight bars, but the last A section is seven bars followed by a four-bar coda and four-bars of drums. The bridge has a Latin feel. Herbie wrote this tune with tap dancers in mind, namely Teddy Hale and Baby Lawrence.  

"Orse at Safari's" title is very specific. It refers to Floyd "Horsecollar" Wllliams, an alto saxophonist with whom Herbie had worked at Monroe's Uptown House in Harlem. Safari refers to another club in Harlem where they worked together late 1954.  

Michael Cuscuna: The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Herbie Nichols CD compilation 1997 

During 1980 and '81. I systematically listened to every tape in the Blue Note vaults. Among my discoveries were 8 previously unissued compositions by Herbie Nichols, but no titles were provided for them. Circulating tapes among musicians brought only one title, "Riff Primitif," provided conclusively by Roswell Rudd. The search for the Blue Note recording files was still on and getting nowhere.  

When Hitoshi Namekata asked me to put together a a-LP set of unissued tracks from the Blue Note 1500 series, I used "Riff Primitif" and another original that had similarities to a Herbie Nichols composition, "Argumentive". So I called it "Argumentative Variations" (it turned out to be called "Trio").  

Herbie's music is so startlingly original that making it available became something of an obsession. When there appeared to be no hope of finding Herbie's own titles for the new-found material, Charlie Lourie and I began researching a definitive set of Herbie's music. Roswell Rudd researched Nichols' life and edited the booklet for the eventual Mosaic collection, and I resigned myself to using "Untitled #1", et cetera, for the unissued material.  

Alfred Lion, Blue Note's founder and the producer of these sessions, was as disappointed as I was about the absence of titles, explaining that Herbie put a great deal of thought and meaning into his titles. But as luck would have it, while searching through the Francis Wolff photographs of Blue Note sessions that were in his possession, Alfred accidentally came upon the long-lost Blue Note session logs.  

Suddenly, we had titles. But more importantly, we had a road map to these five sessions of brilliant, complex music. With this priceless navigational chart through the session reels, soon became evident that a wealth Of worthy and different alternate takes existed. Added to the 24 tunes already issued and 6 more to come, we found 1B enlightening alternates.  

In many cases. choices between the master and the alternate were almost tosses of the coin. Alfred liked a take, Herbie liked another, and later they'd settle on one of them. In the case of "The Third World" or "The Spinning Song," the chosen master was shorter than another successful take. Often, at the end of a session, Herbie would return to tunes already completed.  
 
Sometimes, he and Alfred would stick with the first take chosen, as on "The Gig." Other times, they'd opt for the end-of-session remake as on "It Didn't Happen" or "Shuffle Montgomery". In fact, on "Shuffle Montgomery", both prefered the earlier take during the session and then later selected the remake. All of this is to say that the alternates in this collection are hardly second-class runners-up, They could have easily been the chosen masters. 

Alfred Lion had a particular appreciation for original pianist-composers. Like Monk eight years before and Andrew Hill eight years later, he was so excited by everything Herbie had written that he wanted to take him into the studio and record everything he had. Despite Blue Note's financial troubles at the time, he came close. In the space of a year. they recorded 30 compositions, originally intended to make up five 10-inch LPs.  

Since the release of the limited-edition Mosaic box, there has been renewed attention given to this innovator by critics and musicians alike. More and more versions of Nichols' tunes are being recorded by Steve Lacy and Mal Waldron, Geri Allen, Buell Neidlinger and others. One of the most exciting examples is The Herbie Nichols Project, a spin-off quintet of the Jazz Cornposers Collective led by pianist Frank Kimbrough and bassist Ben Allison. The Project has given numerous all-Nichols performances in New York and recently issued a powerful album entitled "Love Is Proximity" on Soul Note. Hearing Herbie's music with horns (tenor saxophone and trumpet), as he'd always envisioned them, is a revelation.  

With the Mosaic set long gone, it seemed to Blue Note almost criminal to allow Herbie Nichols' creations to lay dormant. So here they are again, this time with notes by Kimbrough and Allison, two very dedicated keepers-of-the-flame. 

Session Information 

Herbie Nichols, piano; Al McKibbon, bass; Max Roach, drums. 

Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, August 7, 1955 

 

tk.2, Furthermore (alternate take 1) 

tk.3, Furthermore 

tk.5, 117th Street (alt) 

tk.6, 117th Street 

tk.7, Sunday Stroll 

tk.10, Nick At T's 

tk.11, Furthermore (alt) 

tk.12, Terpsichore, Blue Note BLP 1519, BN-LA485-H2