Resonance Records has announced the release of Thad
Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra - All My Yesterdays: The Debut 1966 Recordings at the
Village Vanguard. This first official release of these recordings capturing the
Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra in their Opening Night performance at the
legendary Village Vanguard in NYC on February 7, 1966, a performance that
launched a tradition of successive Monday night appearances by the Thad
Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra that lasted twelve years and which continues today
through the dedication of the band's musical heir, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.
This combined fifty-year residency at the Village Vanguard will be celebrated
by the release of this album. The album includes recordings from March 21,
1966, as well as those from opening night. These recordings will be released as
a deluxe 2-CD set on February 19, 2016, within two weeks of the 50th
Anniversary. This is the first official release of this material endorsed by
the estates of Thad Jones, Mel Lewis and the Village Vanguard, since some of
the recordings were unofficially exploited via a limited bootleg in 2000. This
Resonance Records release includes the best takes from the February 7th and
March 21st performances, many of which were not on the 2000 bootleg.
Resonance
Records, a multi-GRAMMY® Award winning label (most recently for John Coltraneʼs Offering: Live at Temple University
for "Best Album Notes") prides itself in creating beautifully
designed packaging to accompany previously unreleased recordings of music by
jazz icons. Such is the case for All My Yesterdays. This release includes over
100 minutes of music, with a 92 page book, and is presented in a 6-panel,
eco-friendly digi-pak. This package is one inch taller than a standard CD to
present the 2 discs and book (extensive books have become a trademark of
Resonance Recordsʼs historic releases: Wes Montgomery In the Beginning includes
a 55 page book; the upcoming 2016 Larry Young release In Paris: The ORTF
Recordings includes a 68 page book).
The All My
Yesterdays book will serve as new reference material for Thad Jones/Mel Lewis
fans providing rare, previously unpublished photos, historic essays, interviews
and memoirs. Contributors include executive producer George Klabin who recorded
the original tapes, producer Zev Feldman, associate producer Chris Smith
(author of The View from the Back of the Band: The Life and Music of Mel
Lewis), longtime Vanguard Jazz Orchestra arranger and pianist Jim McNeely, and
trombonist/educator and current member of the Vanguard Orchestra John Mosca.
All of the living musicians who played on these recordings contributed to the
notes, recounting their personal experiences of the Thad Jones / Mel Lewis
Orchestra. Included are accounts from saxophonists Jerry Dodgion, Eddie Daniels
and Marv "Doc" Holladay, trumpeter Jimmy Owens, trombonists Garnett
Brown and Tom Macintosh, along with bassist Richard Davis. The pages display
rare photos by Chuck Stewart, Raymond Ross, Ray Avery and Jan Persson.
During the
same year that Miles Davis and John Coltrane debuted at the Village Vanguard
with their newly constituted small ensembles, in early 1966 Thad Jones and Mel
Lewis made an important statement by creating a modern big band. Thad and Mel
recruited a dream lineup of talented musicians including the late pianist Hank
Jones, saxophonists Pepper Adams, Jerome Richardson, Joe Farrell and trombonist
Bob Brookmeyer. During a time of social distress in the mid - 1960s, the
ensemble also made a social statement due to its diverse mix of races, ages and
religions.
On a cold
February evening in 1966, jazz fans lined up around the block waiting for the
doors to open at the famed Greenwich Village club; a new big band formed by
Thad Jones and Mel Lewis was about to perform. Max Gordon, founder of the
Village Vanguard, invited the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra to play that
evening and for subsequent Monday nights. Inside the club was Resonance founder
George Klabin, a 19 year-old self-taught sound engineer who had already
established a reputation recording jazz music around New York City. Using a
small cocktail table by the edge of the stage near the drums, he set up his
50-pound two track Crown tape machine and portable Ampex four-channel mixing
board. He apportioned his six microphones among the various sections of the
band (for the March 21, 1966 recording he used 10 microphones). Ahead of his
time, Klabin captured astounding sound quality - he recorded directly to
two-track, while mixing the sound live, adjusting the mic volume for each of
the soloists on-the-fly. For this release, he transferred and re-mastered the
audio using the original two-track tapes as the source.
While a
student at Columbia University, Klabin was head of the jazz department at
WKCR-FM, the college radio station. His colleague Alan Grant, a jazz radio
announcer, asked him if he would record this new big band during their fist gig
at the Vanguard. Little did Klabin know that this group would become the
renowned Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra who would perform every Monday night at
the Village Vanguard for nearly 50 years under only three names: the Thad
Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, the Mel Lewis Orchestra and the Vanguard Jazz
Orchestra. As agreed, Klabinʼs recordings became a demo tape for the band, which secured
them a record deal with Sonny Lesterʼs Solid State Records, in exchange
for Klabin's being given free reign to play the recordings on his radio show on
WKCR-FM.
In his
essay, Klabin recalls the magical feel of that evening in the packed, small
club. He writes, "There is a palpable crackling energy in the room! This
is the first time they have played this innovative stuff in public. Thad is the
cheerleader, conducting, waving, shouting, clapping. You can hear it throughout
the recordings. Itʼs really special!"
One can hear
this crackling energy in the room from the start. During the opening tune
"Back Bone," a Thad Jones composition, players and audience members
are clapping and shouting encouragement for each soloist. The recordings
capture the atmosphere at the Vanguard without compromising the clarity of the
music. One can hear people laughing and shouting as they listen to these
innovative, cutting-edge arrangements and solos propelled by Mel Lewis's infectious,
driving rhythmic force. The audience and musicians alike are electrified by the
music of Thad Jones, who arranged and composed thirteen of the seventeen tunes
heard on this album.
"Big
Dipper" opens with a trumpet and alto saxophone exchange featuring Jimmy
Nottingham and Jerome Richardson. This trumpet-alto sax conversation is
followed by a brief piano solo by Hank Jones, after which the band roars in.
There is a dazzling freedom to this music; you can hear the excitement in the
room, not just from the energy of the music, but from the audience's reaction
to it. The same holds true for the ballads, which include "All My
Yesterdays," "Lover Man" and "Willow Weep for Me."
Recordings from both evening performances (February 7th and March 21st) all convey
the ebullient energy Thad, Mel and the band were expressing and the audience
was feeling.
By the mid-ʻ60s, Thad Jones had established
himself as a noted composer, conductor and a top jazz trumpet player. From
1954-1963, he performed with the Count Basie Orchestra as featured soloist,
arranger and composer for the band. As Chris Smith describes in his essay, Thad
had a unique, sophisticated writing style that is "never completely
absorbed on first listen - or hundredth, for that matter. It takes mature ears
and repetition to process Thadʼs unusual inner voices, unexpected rhythms and crunchy
harmonies . . . Simply, he heard things in his head that our ears and brains
are still trying to process 50 years later. That is an undeniable mark of
genius and one that should be consistently mentioned among the ranks of other
20th century composers such as Ellington, Strayhorn and Gershwin." Thad
Jones originally wrote many of the compositions and arrangements heard on All
My Yesterdays for the Count Basie Orchestra, but for whatever reason, Basie
didn't use them. Thad left Basie in 1963 and became an in-demand studio
musician in New York. But he'd always wanted the material he'd created for
Basie to be performed, and not quite three years later, he used it as the foundation
for the big band he formed with the celebrated big-band drummer - and his
musical colleague - Mel Lewis.
Toward the
end of 1965, Thad joined forces with Mel to assemble a rehearsal band to
perform Thad's charts for which they enlisted the top players currently working
in New York. After a couple of months of midnight rehearsals at Phil Ramone's A
& R studios, on February 7, 1966, they launched the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis
Orchestra at the Village Vanguard in the performances on this album. Regarded
as one of the finest big-band drummers of his generation, Mel Lewis developed
his solid, bedrock big-band driving style with the bands of Stan Kenton, Terry
Gibbs, and Bill Holman. He supported the rhythmic journey of Thadʼs compositions with precision and
musicality while propelling the band with fire and energy. Together Mel Lewis
and Thad Jones created an environment of innovation, as they explored new
musical territories that paved the way for big band music to come.
When All My
Yesterdays producer, Zev Feldman, started working at Resonance Records in 2009,
he learned about the existence of these Thad Jones/Mel Lewis recordings that
label president, George Klabin made as a teenager. A fan of the band since his
college days, Feldman was determined to produce an official release of this
music in an expanded edition to honor the 50th Anniversary. He always felt it
was unfortunate that in the 2000 bootleg release, many of the musicians were
not credited and no one received compensation. It's been a long journey for
Resonance to negotiate agreements with the families and estates of Thad Jones
and Mel Lewis and to secure clearances from all living members of the orchestra
and the heirs of those who had passed away. Resonance is pleased to release
this music officially with blessings from all those involved in the recordings.
Feldman
beams with excitement: "This is one of the most important large music
ensembles to ever record jazz. Some of the greatest players from the New York
jazz scene in the 1960s come out of that band. You can feel the excitement -
these recordings capture a special energy. Since I started working at
Resonance, this has been one of the albums that Iʼve been most excited to release. Itʼs also special and personal to George
Klabin, so we all wanted to go above and beyond for this project."
To engross
oneself fully in the musical experience of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestraʼs All My Yesterdays, George Klabin
suggests, "Put on a pair of good stereo headphones and immerse yourself in
the atmosphere of those two nights. You will hear all the subtleties: Thadʼs shouts, the room sound, the
musicians' camaraderie, encouraging each other and most of all the pure joy!
Now you can be there, too."
Fifty years
later on Monday, February 8, 2016, the Village Vanguard along with Resonance
Records, will commemorate this golden anniversary with a CD release
celebration. On this evening, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra will perform
compositions from All My Yesterdays to celebrate opening night back in 1966.
Although they normally play this material weekly, this evening will serve as a
special tribute. Orchestra leaders John Mosca, Douglas Purviance and the
Village Vanguardʼs Lorraine Gordon have joined together with Resonance to
celebrate this milestone in American jazz history.
TRACKS
Disc One -
Recorded Feb. 7, 1966
Back Bone
(13:21)
All My
Yesterdays (4:22)
Big Dipper
(5:51)
Mornin'
Reverend (4:49)
The Little
Pixie (14:24)
Big Dipper
(alt take) (5:44)
Disc Two -
Recorded March 21, 1966
Low Down
(4:38)
Lover Man
(5:24)
Ah, That's
Freedom (10:08)
Don't Ever
Leave Me (4:28)
Willow Weep
For Me (6:15)
Mean What
You Say (5:51)
Once Around
(12:44)
Polka Dots
& Moonbeams (4:02)
Mornin'
Reverend (5:49)
All My
Yesterdays (4:24)
Back Bone
(12:58)
