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THE
BEAT
SCENE
REVIEW
SECTION
Dexter Gordon: Dexter Blows Hot and Cool
(Boplicity)
CDB0PM 006
Curtis Counce: Exploring the Future
(Boplicity)
CDB0PM 007
West Coast Jazz. Think of Gerry Mulligan, Chet
Baker, Dave Brubeck, Chico Hamilton. Lightly swinging
sounds. Well, yes, but there was another side to what
was going on in California, though it wasn’t much
publicised at the time because it didn’t tie in with the
“cool” image that record companies liked. And, it needs
to be said, probably because it was mostly played by
black musicians. I’m talking about the hard bop that
came out of Los Angeles in the 1950s.
Tenor-saxophonist Dexter Gordon’s career had
slumped after his active role in the bop revolution of the
1940s. Drug addiction had affected his reliability and he
was in prison for a time. When he recorded for Dootone
in 1955 he was in the process of sorting himself out,
though it would be a few more years before he reestablished
a place in the forefront of jazz. But he
played well and his solos on numbers like “Silver
Plated” and “Rhythm Mad” found him improvising at a
consistently high level. Ballad performances such as
“Cry Me a River” and “Don’t Worry About Me”
showed him to be sensitive without sliding into
sentimentality.
Gordon was lucky to have strong support from
pianist Carl Perkins, bassist Leroy Vinnegar, and
drummer Chuck Thompson, who had recorded with him
in the 1940s. Perkins was a talented bop stylist but
succumbed to heroin addiction and died in 1958. Some
of the tracks also feature Jimmy Robinson, a littleknown
trumpeter. He was competent, but it’s Gordon
and Perkins who really made music of lasting value.
Another fine jazzman who was a victim of heroin was
Elmo Hope, the pianist with bassist Curtis Counce’s
group which recorded for Dootone in 1958. Critic Ted
Through our Beat
filter.....
Robert Creeley,
Jack Kerouac, Jim
Burns, Amiri
Baraka, Ed Dorn,
The Garden of Eros,
Boplicity, The
Beat Generation
boxed
Gioia once claimed that Curtis had “one of the great
neglected jazz bands of the 1950s,” and pointed to the
fact that it never really ventured out of California for its
lack of recognition. Touring on the East Coast, and
especially appearing in clubs in New York, might have
given it greater prominence and got it written about in
leading jazz magazines.
With tenor-saxophonist Harold Land, who had
established a reputation for fine solo work with the
Clifford Brown/Max Roach unit, and trumpeter Rolf
Ericson in the front line, and drummer Frank Butler
joining Hope and Counce in the rhythm section, the
group played straight-ahead hard bop that never failed
to swing. It could also perform in a relaxed way on tunes
like “Angel Eyes” and “Someone to Watch Over Me.”
Ericson was white, a Swedish musician who arrived in
America in the early-1950s and soon found employment
with Woody Herman and other big-bands. He was a
decent soloist and easily fitted in with the general
approach of the Counce band.
It’s significant, I think, that these sessions were
recorded for Dootone, a relatively small West Coast
label that mainly specialised in rhythm’n’blues and
other forms of music likely to appeal to a mainly black
audience. And it’s good that the music, which has stood
the test of time, is now available again.
Boplicity CDs are available from Ace Records, 42-50
Steele Road, London, NW10 7AS.
Jim Burns
51