a

ell ane me

ie i

with

DONALD BYRD

ART TAYLOR

WENDELL MARSHALL

WADE LEGGE

—

Avail abls) |

RIVERSIDE. STEREOPHONIC -— °° GIGI GRYCE

and the JAZZ LAB QUINTET

RLP 1110

‘Donald Byrd, trumpet; Gigi Gryce, alto sax; Wade Legge, piano; Wendell Marshall, bass; Art Taylor, drums. New York; February 27 and March 4, 1957.

SIDE 1

(Cole Porter/arr. Doriald Byrd) 1. Love for Sale

2. Minority (Gigi Gryce)

02 | 1. Geraldine

2. Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart (J. Hanley/arr. Donald Byrd)

. Wake Up! - (Lee Sears/arr. Donald Byrd) — Oe p 7

(Wade Legge)

_. There is, in a group like this, solid reason for optimism about the future of jazz. For here are five musicians, all young but all well-seasoned by experience, proving by their own example that there is an almost limitless quantity of valid, moving, enjoyable music to be derived from the (more or less) standard materials of current jazz.

li is, admittedly, rather deceptive and unfair to refer to “standard materials.” For what is going on here is really altogether cut of the ordinary. On the one hand, these are not innovators and experimenters in any wild, far-out sense of those words. (They are actually a bit concerned that the name chosen for the group might give an inaccurate impression that they are trying to be a “laboratory” of arbitrary and artificial ‘new sounds for the sake of newness.’) If you are the sort who insists on labels for music, you can safely place these men in the post-bop school of jazz. But you have to go on from there. For what is taking place in this Jazz Lab really is experimentation—of a non-esoteric, but nonetheless ex: tremely unusual and valuable kind. It is, you can say, an attempt to push the boundaries of the kind of jazz these men love best as far forward as possible, but without making any drastic alterations of its shape or form.

Jazz forms, no matter how radical they may have been when first introduced, inevitably tend to grow stale and cliche-ridden if they continue to be approached in the same way and from the same direction year after year. The most obvious solution to this problem is to throw the old form away, or to keep the merest shell of it, and strike out in all sorts of new directions. This is what quite a few jazz artists have been doing in the past few years, with widely varying degrees of success. But the approach that Gigi Gryce has been taking, in his writing and play- ing, and now in his work as the guiding hand of this quintet, is both simpler and less obvious, perhaps more difficult and surely every bit as valid. As demonstrated — on this LP, it involves enriching and re-invigorating the basic bop formula, rather than abandoning it—adding fresh, rhythmic and melodic ideas, and effectively com- bining full-bodied arrangements with the freshness and enthusiasm of gifted young musicians who are themselves not the slightest bit stale or cliched.

The two horns here, Gryce and the exceptionally rich- toned young trumpeter Donald Byrd, possess extremely lyrical and melodic talents; they, and the rhythm section they are working with, have a great deal of fire and

swing. And they all have the imagination and musical courage to. take material that doesn’t necessarily seem particularly jazz-oriented (like the two standards in this album, Love for Sale and Zing Went the Strings of My Heart) and transform them into quite exciting jazz adven- tures. Take for example Love for Sale, as arranged b Byrd (with some assistance from Gryce and Ed Thigpen).

. Not only is it put into 6/8 time, but careful listening reveals that each of the fivée-instruments is developing a separate melodic line. : Loe Another “non-standard” feature is Gryce’s belief

(much more unique these days than it probably should be) in the importance of having a group entirely made up of men mature enough to “mean business,” men who work well together and respect each other’s musical ideas.

Some notes on the personnel: Gigi Gryce, born in Florida (in 1927) and raised in Hartford, Connecticut, has studied composition at the Boston Conservatory and, as a I'ulbright Scholar, in Paris. A close friend of Charlie

_ Parker’s during his last years, Gigi is nevertheless one of the few current alto players to speak with his own voice more than with Bird’s . . . Donald Byrd, part of the recent wave of highly promising young jazz talent to come East from Detroit, is a trumpeter of great warmth and impressive technical skill, and widely regarded as the coming star on his instrument ... Art Taylor, a hard swinger in the Blakey-Roach vein, but with a still- developing subtlety of his own, is currently among the most in-demand drummers for record dates in New York ... Wendell Marshall, who was with Duke Ellington for seven years, has also provided a firm beat on innumerable recordings . . . Wade Legge, an impressive young pianist who spent two years with Dizzy Gillespie, also indicates his writing abilities here with the ballad Geraldine.

Other Riverside STEREOPHONIC LPs offer a variety of outstanding sounds and music—

SPORTS CARS in STEREO (RLP 1101)

Monk’s Music: THELONIOUS MONK Septet, with Gigi Gryce, Coleman Hawkins (RLP 1102)

A HIGH FIDELITY STEREOPHONIC Recording — River- side-Reeves SPECTROSONIC High Fidelity Engineering. Produced, and notes written by, ORRIN KEEPNEWS. Cover by PAUL WELLER (photography) and PAUL BACON (design). Engineer: JOHN BEAUMONT (Livingston Elec- tronics).

RIVERSIDE RECORDS are released by

BILL GRAUER PRODUCTIONS. Inc. 593 West SIst Street _ New York 19, N. Y

PHANTOM SPEAKER

AAAS eee

CHANNEL A CHANNEL B

RIVERSIDE STEREOPHONIC

_ Stereophonic discs permit the re-creation of full dimensional sound. Riverside stereo recording is designed to achieve a true spacial effect through proper microphone placement. Avoiding the so- called “ping pong” effect (an extreme left-right division by which sound is heard through the two

_ speakers only, with a silent “hole” between them), our aim is to retain the natural sounds as you would. hear them originally. This recording method, plus the finest of re-recording techniques, enables us to provide you with a truly three dimensional experience in sound, in which a “phantom” speaker seems to exist between your two actual speakers, providing a continuous arc of sound. The equipment used in recording Riverside Stereo includes: Multi-channel Ampex tape recording ma- chines; Telefunken and Western microphones. The 45/45 system is used in re-recording Riverside Stereo. aoe: For proper sound reproduction and longer life, a stereo cartridge should be used.

Mulligan Meets Monk: THELONIOUS MONK and Gerry Mulligan (RLP 1106)

Whoopee Makers’ Jazz: CARL HALEN’S Gin Bottle Jazz (RLP 1103)

10 to 4 at the 5-Spot: PEPPER ADAMS Quintet at the Five Spot Cafe (RLP 1104) |

Jazz Contrasts: KENNY DORHAM, with Sonny Rollins, Max Roach (RLP 1105)

ABBEY LINCOLN sings, with Sonny Rollins, ,Ken- ny Dorham (RLP 1107)

Duke with a Difference: CLARK TERRY, with Johnny Hodges (RLP 1108) |

Hooray for Bix: MARTY GROSZ Jazz Band, fea- turing CARL HALEN (RLP 1109)

Beeind

LONG PLAYING

RIVERSIDE STEREOPHONIC

ic} ic) ic] :a fed 3 and the Jazz Lab Quintet

RLP SIDE 1110 1

1. LOVE FOR SALE 2. MINORITY

Donald Byrd, trumpet; Gigi Gryce, alto sax; Wade Legge, piano; Wendell Marshall,

bass; Art Taylor, drums.

(RLP.1110 A)

BILL GRAUER PRODUCTIONS NEW YORK CITY

KP Yeolot- pole}. peli)

LONG PLAYING

gig RIVERSIDE

STEREOPHONIC

ic} ic) Mic] 4 fe 3 and the Jazz Lab Quintet

RLP SIDE 1110 2

1. GERALDINE 2. ZING! WENT THE STRINGS OF

MY HEART 3. WAKE UP! Donald Byrd, trumpet; Gigi Gryce, alto sax;

Wade Legge, piano; Wendell Marshall, bass; Art Taylor, drums.

(RLP 1110 B)

BILL GRAUER PRODUCTIONS NEW YORK CITY

< V Volet-fotet- bel) ||