Kenny Burrell – March 12 1956
Leonard Feather: Kenny Burrell Volume 2 Liner Notes
KENNY BURRELL is a guitarist summa cum plectrum. His talents, first noted at length when Blue Note offered him his LP debut a while ago (BLP 1523), are even more dazzlingly displayed in the present collection, thanks to the variety of settings in which he is heard.
A total of a dozen sidemen helped to provide his accompaniments on the eight numbers in this set, though no more than five are heard jointly on any one track. Kenny can be heard in a completed unaccompanied excursion; in a simple rhythm section setting; as part of a wailing quintet; and taking part in a night club jam session that involves two horns, rhythm and himself. Clearly, then, there is no danger at any time that monotony will set in.
Get Happy, which kicks off the first side, mirrors Kenny B, as part of a five-man rhythm team. Kenny Clarke and Candido Camera, whose percussion duet entitled Rhythmorama was a sort of extra added attraction in the last Burrell collection, help to get the proceedings going with a Latin motif as Candido's eighth notes set the rhythmic and metric pattern. Piano has the melody with the guitar taking over as bridge; Flanagan's darting, dashing piano is almost as electric, figuratively, as Burrell's guitar is literally. Launched by a sequence of riffs, Candido later takes over the spotlight. Burrell, Flanagan and Chambers by the way, are old colleagues and friends from Detroit, which may explain the sympathetic rhythmic vibrations between them.
But Not For Me is a beautiful, melodic interpretation of the Gershwin standard, chorus, verse, chorus, in which chords and single note lines, melody and counterpoint are ingeniously woven to exquisitely moody effect. Does this swing? Is it jazz? Let's answer a third question - if the result is pretty and persuasive music, why should we concern ourselves?
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| Photo by Francis Wolff |
Mexico City is a product of some of the nocturnal goings on at Cafe Bohemia in Greenwich Village, one of those admirable night spots where the chef is not relied upon to do all the cooking. The ingredients of the dish served up on the bandstand this particular night included McKinley Howard Dorham, of Fairfield, Texas, who had an entire LP of the same personnel at this same club on BLP 1524, and was also featured in two other settings in BLP 1535. J.R. Monterose, the fast rising young tenor star, also has his own LP on BLP 1536. Arthur Edgehill's sticks are the first sound of which one becomes conscious in this alert, pulsing performance, for which the theme consists of minor-key bebop-type phrases. Starting with a break in the last two measures of an eight-beat interlude, Kenny sails into the first solo and keeps you just about breathless for almost three minutes of whirlwind improvisation. The light and shade of his dynamics, the fertility of his melodic resources, have never come across a microphone more effectively. He comps superbly, too, behind the Dorham solo that follows.
Moten Swing is a tune that goes back to Kansas City jazz days. A favorite of the early Basie band and of Andy Kirk and just about every other name band of the middle 1930s, it opens here with a cymbal swell, leading straight into the theme established by piano and guitar, at a tempo slower than that at which we're accustomed to hearing the tune - 28 bars per minute. Flanagan sounds most cool and swings gently in the third chorus; Kenny has the fourth and chords his way richly through the fifth. A repeat of the final four-bar phrase, sealed off with an Oscar Pettiford break, brings this one to a sedate and easy going-out.
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| Photo by Francis Wolff |
The same personnel is heard of Cheeta, an I Got Rhythm outing for guitar (four choruses) and piano (three) followed by guitar and drums in one chorus of eights and one of fours. Guitar brings back the them and there's a sudden bop end.
Now See How You Are enables us to see how Burrell, Flanagan, Pettiford and Shadow are, as they glide through five minutes and 45 seconds of sheer groovy blues, this time with a fifth man added to noodle around behind the second exposure of the theme and later take a couple of choruses of his own - Frank Foster, the youthful Basie tenor man who also is no stranger to Blue Note. Notice the effective crescendo and more biting attack toward the middle of the second of Kenny's choruses. Flanagan and Pettiford also have a pair apiece before the theme, based on the most primeval of blues phrases, returns to take this one home.
Phinupi is a fast-paced, very basic theme, played by the same three personnel but affording them a fine opportunity to show, at a challenging tempo, their ability to ally technique with ideation. Frank Foster plays particularly well here, note the articulation of his sixteenth notes, and the wonderful bounce of the phrasing in general. This is what you might call music guts - the most extrovert and compulsive brand of modern, cooking jazz, yet without any suggestion of explosive raucousness. You may agree with me that Phinupi (whatever that means - I'm afraid I neglected to investigate) is the high spot of another successful pair of sides.
How About You shows just as This Time The Dream's On Me did on the last Burrell LP, how Kenny meets the invitation to tackle the changes of an old pop song that happens to appeal to him. It's handled pretty fast, with three guitar choruses, two piano, two tenor, then some guitar-drums fours before the them returns. Again the sudden bop end. How would you like it if LP program notes had notes had sudden bop endings? 'Bye!
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| Photo by Francis Wolff |
Down Beat 25 July 1956 Volume 24 Issue 15
Burrell is a guitarist of considerable depth and talent. On this collection, he contributes a glistening ballad solo on But Not for Me. The feeling and the artistry on this track alone are well worth the price of admission.
Burrell can swing, too. On Get Happy, Where the group is a five-member rhythm section, he boots the group, and, in turn, is booted by Candido’s driving congas.
Mexico City recorded by a sextet on location at Cafe Bohemia, spots Burrell building choruses like a horn, but falling back on a repetitive cliché as a sort of breather before digging into a more creative line. Dorham disappoints on this track. After some rather aimless wandering, he appears to have settled into a line of improvisation, only to flounder again before returning to the head.
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| Photo by Francis Wolff |
Tracks 4 through 8 have the same basic rhythm section, with Frank Wess the horn on the final three. Moten Swing is easy, relaxed, not too inspired, but with fine Burrell and fair to good Flanagan. The over-all sound is in the Shearing vein.
Flanagan gets to roaring on the sides with Foster. On Phinupi and How About You?, his choruses are fleet and forceful. Burrell] also has a ball. Foster blows with taste and guts. Wilson’s fours on How About You? are more successful than on Cheetah, but his rhythm work on these tracks is excellent. Pettiford is an asset.
Burrell is a guitar man to watch. (D.C.)
Frank Foster, tenor sax; Tommy Flanagan, piano; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Oscar Pettiford, bass; Shadow Wilson, drums
Audio-Video Studios, NYC, March 12, 1956
tk.10, Phinupi, BLP 1543
tk.13, Now See How You Are, BLP 1543
tk.27, How About You, BLP 1543
tk.42, My Heart Stood Still
tk.43, Cheeta, BLP 1543
tk.64, Moten Swing, BLP 1543
All The Things You Are, rejected
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