Jazz, Blues, Female Vocalists, and more...: PAYNE Cecil

Showing posts with label PAYNE Cecil. Show all posts

One of Sweden's finest trumpeters, Rolf Ericson (1922-1977) played in the U.S. often enough to gain a strong reputation. He started on trumpet when he was eight and, after hearing Louis Armstrong play in Stockholm in 1933, he switched to jazz. Ericson recorded in Sweden with Alice Babs and others starting in 1945, moved to New York in 1947, and played with Charlie Barnet (1949) and Woody Herman (1950). After returning to Sweden in 1950, he recorded as a leader and with Arne Domnérus and Leonard Feather's Swinging Swedes. He also toured and recorded with Charlie Parker. Back in the U.S. during 1953-1956, Ericson played with the big bands of Charlie Spivak, Harry James, the Dorsey Brothers, and Les Brown and was with the Lighthouse All-Stars. In 1956, he toured Sweden and played with Ernestine Anderson and Lars Gullin. During 1956-1965 in the U.S., Ericson was with Dexter Gordon, Harold Land, Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Maynard Ferguson (1960-1961), Buddy Rich, Benny Goodman, Gerry Mulligan, and Charles Mingus, among others. There were also occasional tours with Duke Ellington during 1963-1971 and plenty of freelance jobs. In 1971, he settled in Germany as a studio musician, but Ericson returned to the U.S. several times over the next couple of decades. His warm tone and creative yet melodic style were always considered an asset.

Ain't that enough? OK, look at his American Stars...

ROLF ERICSON & AMERICAN STARS

Rolf ERICSON tp, Cecil PAYNE bs, Duke JORDAN p, John SIMMONS b, Art TAYLOR dr,

BURN BRIGADE 1979

Three of the greatest baritone saxophonists of the post-1970 period teamed up for this jam-session date.
Recommended to fans of the bebop baritone sax.

BURN BRIGADE

Recorded 1979 for BeeHive Records

Nick BRIGNOLA & Ronnie CUBER & Cecil PAYNE bs, Walter DAVIS Jr p, Walter BOOKER Jr b, Jimmy COBB dr,

Ronnie Cuber (1941) is a baritone sax player strong enough to bring out the lyricism of the weighty instrument. While he plays traditional jazz in the style of Pepper Adams and Nick Brignola, Cuber also has led Latin sessions and appeared on dozens of pop recordings as an in-demand sideman. Cuber was born on Christmas, 1941, in New York. When he was 18, he appeared in Marshall Brown's Newport Youth Band at the Newport Jazz Festival. Three years later he was in Slide Hampton's groups and spent the 1960s working with Maynard Ferguson, George Benson, Lionel Hampton, Woody Herman and Lonnie Smith.During the next decade, Cuber performed on a slew of recordings and embraced distant ends of the woodwind family by playing flute and baritone sax on Eddie Palmieri's 1973 record, Sun Of Latin Music. While working with Lee Konitz in the late '70s, Cuber featured the clarinet and soprano sax alongside the baritone in his arsenal. He recorded his own Cuber Libre in 1976 and released a succession of traditional jazz records in the '80s and '90s, such as Live At The Blue Note and The Scene Is Clean (Milestone). In the 1980's he was a member of the Saturday Night Live Band for 5 years. The slew of pop musicians who have recruited easy-going Cuber for sessions include Chaka Kahn, Paul Simon. In 1998, Cuber played on and arranged The Three Baritone Saxophone tribute disc, Plays Mulligan on Dreyfus Records, and has arranged and recorded on 6 Mingus Big Band cd's for Dreyfus Records

Cecil Payne (1922) is a jazz baritone saxophonist born in Brooklyn, NY. Payne can also play the alto saxophone and flute. Payne recieved his first saxophone at age 13, asking his father for one after hearing Honeysuckle Rose by Count Basie, performed by Lester Young. Payne took lessons from a local alto sax player, Pete Brown. At age 19 Payne was in a high school band led by classmate Max Roach, occasionally joined by Charlie Parker doing gigs at Georgie Jay's Taproom on 78th & Broadway. Sometimes Payne would accompany Roach to Monroe's Uptown House in Harlem.
Following three years of service in the U.S. Army, Payne was introduced to Roy Eldridge by Clark Monroe, owner of Monroe's Uptown House. Eldridge was looking for someone to play alto sax for him during a 2 week gig at The Spotlite, another club owned by Monroe. But when Payne showed up for rehearsal, Eldridge had already hired someone for alto and was now looking for someone to do baritone. Payne had a baritone saxophone at home he had played during high school, and Eldridge told him to bring it the following day. Through Eldridge, Payne met the legendary bebop sensation Dizzy Gillespie, playing with him at the Savoy Ballroom. Payne spent the next two years with Gillespie playing baritone, with solos on Ow! and Stay On It.
Payne has also played with other jazz greats, such as Illinois Jacquet, Machito, Woody Herman, Randy Weston, Duke Jordan, Wynton Kelly, Kenny Dorham, Harold Mabern and Count Basie, in addition to some solo work as bandleader.

To be continued...

COLTRANE John 1957

My first Coltrane post. There will be many more if you wish. I really love this underrated debut album. A fantastic blowing session with the help of two great baritones, Cecil Payne and Pepper Adams... and John on tenor. For me he'll always be a tenor player !!!

Maybe for the youngests, a short biography.

John Coltrane is today remembered as one of the great minds and spirits of jazz. Over a musical career lasting just 12 years, 'Trane' recorded dozens of albums, working with many of the key jazz personalities of his time. Widely regarded as one of the most significant improvisers in jazz history, his experimental work was also important in the early development of the avant-garde.
John Coltrane was born on 23 September, 1926, in Hamlet, North Carolina. Following a family resettlement, he was educated in New Point, NC, and graduated from Grammar School in 1939. Later that year, after the death of his father, he joined a local community band playing clarinet and E-flat alto horn. During High School, he switched to alto saxophone, which he studied at the Ornstein School of Music after graduation in 1943. He eventually began playing gigs at local night-clubs, before being drafted into the US Navy, stationed at Hawaii in 1945. There he continued to play, and in fact made his first recording as a sea-man, with a quartet of fellow sailors in 19461.
During WWII, Coltrane had been left under the charge of family friends, while his mother moved in search of work in New Jersey. After graduating from high school, Trane had moved to Philadelphia, and it was here he returned after leaving the military in 1946.
That autumn, Trane began playing in the Joe Webb Band, switching in 1947 to the King Kolax band. The following year he moved again, playing under the alto-sax of Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson. To avoid clashing with his band leader, Coltrane was forced to switch to tenor saxophone. In mid '48, he moved again, playing with Jimmy Heath's band, until being hired by the great Bop pioneer Dizzy Gillespie's Big Band in the latter half of '49. He remained with this group through its downsizing to septet, and on 1 March, 1951, took his first recorded solo during a version of 'We Love To Boogie'.

It was around this time that Coltrane became addicted to heroin, making him difficult to employ. Still not a major voice in the world of jazz at that time, he drifted between small groups in and around Philadelphia. However, his 'big break' came in 1955, when he was taken under the wing of trumpet-player and one-time heroin addict Miles Davis. The Davis quintet (with a rhythm section of Red Garland, piano, Paul Chambers, bass, and 'Philly' Joe Jones, drums) began recording heavily for Prestige. Davis' contract owed Prestige five more albums, which the group recorded over a series of a few marathon recording sessions in 1955-6. These recordings were released over the following six years as Miles, Cookin', Relaxin', Workin', and Steamin'. This work allowed Davis to move to Columbia, an association which was to yield some of jazz's greatest ever works. However, Trane remained with Prestige as a regular sideman. In 1957, he signed formally with the label and, after being fired by Davis for failure to kick his drugs habit, was able to form his own groups. His debut, Dakar, was recorded in April 1957.

DAKAR 1957

John COLTRANE ts, Cecil PAYNE & Pepper ADAMS bs, Mal WALDRON p, Doug WATKINS B, Art TAYLOR dr,

In June, Trane joined Thelonious Monk's Quartet, an association which heavily developed the saxophonist's style and technical expertise.
One of Coltrane's personal favourites, Blue Train may never have happened if it wasn't for a chance encounter with Blue Note boss Alfred Lion, after Trane wandered into the label's offices in search of Sidney Bechet recordings in 1956. Lion's partner Francis Wolff was the man in charge of contracts, but Trane and Lion agreed to at least one disc over a handshake. A small advance was paid, but then everyone seemed to forget about it. In 1957, Coltrane remembered, and honoured the deal, recording Blue Train with Lee Morgan (trumpet), Curtis Fuller (trombone), Kenny Drew (piano) and Miles Davis' rhythm section of Paul Chambers and 'Philly' Joe Jones.
Coltrane continued, however, to record with Prestige, and was also recalled to Miles Davis' old group (which, in the meantime, had also acquired the alto-sax of Julian 'Cannonball' Adderley). As part of this group, Trane played at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. John Coltrane has long been a figure that divided opinion, particularly between his early work for Prestige, and his more avant-garde sounds in later years (see below). His performance at this festival was probably the first to evoke widespread discussion and arguments about his work; A Down Beat review described his playing as 'angry', criticizing him for weakening the Davis sextet. In rebuke, the critic Ira Gitler famously described Trane's playing as 'sheets of sound'.
In December 1958, Coltrane completed the work required for his Prestige contract, and he switched to Atlantic Records, first recording for them with vibes-man Milt Jackson on 15 January, 1959. The record was later released as the dual-billing, Bags with Trane.
In March and April that year, Trane worked with the Davis group on the seminal Kind of Blue album. The disc was a turning-point in jazz, introducing a new style of 'modal' playing - soloists improvising around 'modes' (scales) rather than chords. The album was to become the most popular album in jazz history.
Coltrane's first true Atlantic record was his fourth solo-album, yet it was the first comprising totally of Coltrane-originals. The title-piece is famous for its complex chord-changes, but the record also includes some less avant-garde bop styles, along with the now-popular ballad, Naima.

In April 1960, Coltrane left the Davis band, and formally launched his solo career, starting with a performance at the New York Jazz Gallery. His group at this time was backed by Steve Kuhn on piano, Steve Davis on bass and Pete La Roca on drums. Over the next two years (1960-1) he recorded a body of work to be released gradually on the Atlantic albums The Avant-Garde, recorded with Eric Dolphy and released in 1960, Coltrane Jazz (released 1961), My Favourite Things (1961), Coltrane Plays the Blues (1962), and Coltrane's Sound (1964). During this time, Trane developed his use of the soprano saxophone, used to immense effect on the Coltrane-standard 'My Favourite Things', taken from the Rodgers / Hammerstein musical of the same name. In 1961, Eric Dolphy became a member of the working band, which by now had acquired McCoy Tyner on piano, and Elvin Jones on drums.
Trane's final cut for Atlantic, Ole, in February 1962, was the swan-song before moving to newly-formed avant-garde label Impulse. By this time, criticisms were rising, many listeners and critics turning away from this 'New Thing'. John Tynam, writing in Down Beat described the playing as 'anti-jazz'. However, Trane's raw, intense solos attracted many fans, and in November a collection of takes recorded live at the NY Village Vanguard were released, becoming one of his most successful albums.
By the time of Impulse! Trane's 'Classic' quartet comprised McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones, plus newcomer Jimmy Garrison on bass. The band was also frequently joined by Eric Dolphy in live performances. Under the direction of producer Bob Thiele, Trane laid down extensive studio work, far beyond the capabilities of what Impulse! could profitably release - particularly since Prestige and Atlantic were still releasing new, and re-branded Coltrane works from earlier years. In 1963, Thiele organised three albums, Ballads, Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, and John Coltrane with Johnny Hartman. This detached Trane's playing from his Free Jazz sounds, and were met with warm reception.
Coltrane's Impulse! work culminated with A Love Supreme in 1965. The record was to be his best selling piece, and earned him two Grammy nominations for Best Jazz composition and performance.
Coltrane's work post A Love Supreme pushed harder and harder towards the Avant-Garde. Pharoah Sanders joined the group in 1965, after playing in the monumental Ascension. Ascension was a deep, free-playing project, based on the double-quartet system used by Ornette Coleman in his Free Jazz.
By January 1966, the Classic Quartet was no more, internal tensions causing both Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner to leave. The May '66 live album, Live at the Village Vanguard Again! saw the rhythm section replaced by Coltrane's wife, Alice, on piano, and Rashied Ali on drums.
John Coltrane's last recording was made in New York, on April 23, 1967 at the Olatunji centre of African Culture. The hour-long concert was released by Impulse! in 2001. Two months after this recording, and two days after approving release for the Expression album, John Coltrane was admitted to hospital. He died the next morning, from liver cancer.

To be continued...