| About the Recording
The first thing to understand about the great composer/arranger/trumpeter/bandleader Thad Jones is that he was a genius. The mark of any great jazz is that it hits the ear and the brain on multiple levels: yes, there is the virtuosity of Thad’s complex voicings, his unique melodic twists, the technical challenges for the band – but his music also reaches the listener on a deeper gut level, with its bluesy, propulsive sense of underlying powerful swing and forward motion. These qualities hold true whether Thad was composing and arranging for the Count Basie Band in the 1950s, for the historic Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra that he co-led from 1966-78, in writing projects for a variety of guest solo singers or writing for his later bands in Europe.
This multi-level magnetism of Thad Jones’ little-known arrangements for the great trumpeter Harry James is no different. Harry James may be best known as a big band era trumpet virtuoso, but he was also an ardent Count Basie fan. In his later years, James entered into retainer agreements with several well-known Basie arrangers, including Thad Jones as well as Ernie Wilkins, Neal Hefti, and Bill Holman. He contracted them each for one chart a month, over a period of several years. This gave rise to no less than 25 Thad Jones compositions and arrangements, written exclusively for the Harry James Band but largely unknown or forgotten until recently. Some of these were Thad’s own takes on big band era favorites like “Cherokee,”
“Frenesi,” “Flying Home,” and “Harlem Nocturne.” Others were Thad’s own original compositions; those originals are the selections recorded so beautifully by Sean Nelson and the New London Big Band, with two virtuoso guests: the renowned trumpeter Wayne Bergeron and Vanguard Jazz Orchestra veteran drummer John Riley. It is important to note that most of these arrangements were never recorded by James himself – these are the first recordings of this music.
Most notable are Thad’s arrangements of his own tunes “Tip Toe” and “Three and One.” Both titles eventually became part of the legendary repertoire of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra – but these are earlier versions done for Harry James, apparently written three or four years before their famous later offspring! These early versions are shorter, less composed-out – but most definitely experimenting with the ideas that would soon become known as classics.
This is an important recording, not only because it brings to light Thad Jones’ artistic genius in these newly discovered arrangements, but also because of the high level of the New London Big Band’s performances with the great Wayne Bergeron and John Riley.
-Dr. David Demsey, Curator of the Living Jazz Archives at William Paterson University |
