JazzWax

Kenny Baker: Blowin' Up a Storm

Looking up at the sky at night, I often wonder whether there's another us out there in a parallel universe. You know, like on the Twilight Zone or in science fiction novels. A world where there are people who look and sound like us but have had different outcomes and made different contributions. When it comes to jazz, America's parallel universe is the U.K.

Listening to British jazz artists such as Tubby Hayes, Johnny Birch, Ronnie Scott, Harold McNair, Dick Morrissey, Phil Seaman, Bill McGuffe and dozens of others, I can't help but think how remarkable they play and how much they share the American jazz sound and ambition. Mind you, I'm not saying that each American jazz artist has a British sound-alike. Just that the London jazz scene was remarkably similar to ours in the 1950s and '60s, largely because the British jazzers were highly gifted swingers and adept at absorbing the American idiom.

One of these British jazz artists was Kenny Baker (above). A professional musician at 17, the trumpeter played in the Royal Air Force band during World War II. After the war, Baker joined Ted Heath's band and often was featured on songs such as the rip-roaring Bakerloo Non-Stop in 1946. Heath, of course, was Britain's answer to Stan Kenton. Throughout the 1950s, Baker performed and recorded with a wide range of British musicians and led his own ensemble called the Baker's Dozen.

One of Baker's finest albums is Kenny Baker and the Baker's Dozen: Blowin' Up a Storm. Recorded for Columbia in February 1959, Baker's band featured Kenny Baker, Albert Hall, Stan Reynolds and Ron Simmonds (tp); Eddie Harvey and Ken Wray (tb); Ray Premru (b-tb,b-tp); Mike Senn (as); Don Rendell and Art Ellefson (ts); Johnny Scott (fl,ts); Ronnie Ross (bar); Bill LeSage (vib); Norman Stenfalt (p); Jack Seymour (b) and Jackie Dougan (d).

Baker arranged all of the songs on the album: his Blowin' Up a Storm, the standard More Than You Know, Call of the Flute (with Johnny Scott on flute), Le Sage's Cambridge Blue, his Influential Character, Andre Previn's Jazzman, Ray Bryant's Threesome, and the Glenn Miller hit Sunrise Serenade. 

Baker could swing, and his horn crackled with enthusiasm. He was soulful and stratospheric on power ballads and hard-charging on uptempo numbers. The beauty of the Baker's Dozen here was the diversity. They could sound West Coast (More Than You Know) or East Coast (Blowin' Up a Storm), or cook with the flavor of Ellington (Influential Character) Glenn Miller (Sunrise Serenade) or Kenton (The Call of the Flute), especially on brassier numbers. There even was a loping British touch featured on Cambridge Blue. 

Kenny Baker was a pretty player and is well worth investigating. Blowin' Up a Storm is a good entry point. Baker died in 1999 at age 78.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Kenny Baker's Blowin' Up a Storm paired with Bill Russo's Russo in London here.

To read my post on Russo in London, go here.

JazzWax tracks: Here's Jazzman..

Jazzman

And here's Blowin' Up a Storm...

Blowin' Up a Storm

Bonus: Here's Ted Heath in 1946 playing Bakerloo Non-Stop, with Kenny Baker's non-stop solo...

Gil Goldstein in 10 Albums

A careful reader of liner notes will recognize the name Gil Goldstein. Gil started out his recording career in 1976 playing piano on albums led by guitarist Pat Martino. Then came albums with Eric Kloss, Billy Cobham, Stan Getz, James Moody, Gil Evans and many others. I first met Gil in the green room of New York's Blue Note in the late 1990s, when I took my eight-year-old daughter back to meet James and Linda Moody. Gil was playing with him at the time along with bassist Todd Coolman and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington. We took a group photo that remains dear to my heart. [Photo above of Gil Goldstein]

As a long-time fan of Gil's playing and arranging, I've often wondered which of his many album projects were among his favorites. So I asked. Here's what Gil said:

Michael Brecker's Wide Angles (Verve). I worked closely with Mike on this 2003 project, which I arranged, conducted and produced. It was a once in a lifetime experience. Go here.

Esperanza Spalding's Chamber Music Society (Heads Up). There was a great deal of musical collaboration with Esperanza for this album in 2010. She won the Grammy for Best New Artist the year the album was released. Go here.

Bobby McFerrin's Spirityouall (Sony). Bobby's voice in 2013 took my arrangements to another level. Go here.

Abbey Lincoln's Abbey Sings Abbey (Verve). I had the rare opportunity to arrange and play accordion on this 2007 album, which turned out to be Abbey’s last. Go here.

Jim Hall's All Across The City (Concord). I played with Jim for a week in 1989 at New York's Village Vanguard accompanied by Steve LaSpina on bass and Terry Clarke on drums. We recorded everything live. Go here.

Boz Scaggs's Speak Low (Decca). We had a dream quartet (Boz on guitar, me on keyboards, Scott Colley on bass and Alex Acuna on drums) while recording at Skywalker Sound, the studio at director George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch near Nicasio, Calif. I loved Boz's take on familiar tunes. Go here.

Pat Martino's Exit (32 Jazz). My first albums were the three Pat and I recorded together. This one was my favorite, particularly the track I Remember Clifford. Go here.

Anna Maria Jopek's Polanna (Universal). The most amazing singer from Poland asked me in 2011 to produce, arrange and play on this tribute to the folk music of her country. Go here.

Juliette Gréco's Le Temps D’une Chanson (Sunnyside). I wrote the arrangements and played some accordion for this legendary French singer and personality in 2007. Go here.

Miles & Quincy: Live At Montreux (Warner). Quincy Jones asked Gil Evans's wife Anita to recommend someone to reconstruct the classic Gil and Miles Davis arrangements. She turned to me. To this day, the 1991 experience was more than a thrill. Go here.

Bill Evans: Munch Museum, 1966

Today, a 30-minute video of Bill Evans performing in Oslo, Norway, at the Edvard Munch Museum on October 28, 1966. The trio consisted of Evans, bassist Eddie Gomez on bass and Danish drummer Alex Riel. Filmed by the Norwegian Broadcasting Co., the trio performed in a hall just below Munch's massive work, The Researchers, and features one of Evans's finest performances of Nardis. The songs performed, in order, are Very Early, Stella by Starlight, If You Could See Me Now, Autumn Leaves, Time Remembered, Nardis and Five.

Here's the Bill Evans Trio in 1966...