SOS 1210 Notes.txt
KEITH NICHOLS COTTON CLUB ORCHESTRA & JAZZ KINGS
"Benny Waters' Memories of the Twenties"
Stomp Off SOS 1210, 1990
LP rip (320 kbps) by Dick Baker, August 2008
PROGRAM:
Side A
1. WALK THAT THING (C. Johnson) (a) (1) (5) - 3:39
2. PARADISE WOBBLE (F. Johnson-T. Morris) (a) (1) (5) - 3:35
3. YOU AIN'T THE ONE (C. Johnson-A. Porter) (b) (2) (6) - 3:45
4. HARLEM DRAG (B. Waters) (a) (1) (6) - 3:18
5. CHARLESTON IS THE BEST DANCE AFTER ALL (C. Johnson-A. Porter) (a) (2) (6) - 2:59
6. THE BOY IN THE BOAT (C. Johnson) (a) (3) (5) - 3:43
7. HOT TEMPERED BLUES (C. Johnson-A. Porter) (a) (1) (5) - 3:50
24:49
Side B
1. BIMBO (J. Palmer-C. Williams) (c) (4) - 3:29
2. AUNT HAGAR'S BLUES (W. C. Handy-J. T. Brymn) (c) (6) - 3:56
3. LONG, DEEP AND WIDE (T. Waller) (c) (6) - 4:05
4. GOT EVERYTHING BUT YOU (J. Palmer-A. Razaf) (c) (4) - 3:48
5. GRAVIER STREET BLUES (C. Williams) (c) (6) - 3:43
6. BEAU KOO JACK (A. Hill-L. Armstrong-W. Melrose) (c) (6) - 3:15
22:16
Arrangements:
(1) Benny Waters
(2) Benny Carter
(3) Ken McComber
(4) Keith Nichols
Transcriptions:
(5) Claus Jacobi
(6) Keith Nichols
(c) 1990 Stomp Off Records
PERSONNEL:
(a) Keith Nichols Cotton Club Orchestra: Colin Smith, trumpet; Alan Elsdon, trumpet; Claus Jacobi, alto sax, clarinet; Randy Colville, alto sax, clarinet; Mac White, tenor sax, clarinet; Benny Waters, solo tenor sax; Gordon Blundy, trombone; Keith Nichols, piano, vocal (A-6); Paul Sealey, banjo; Graham Read, Bb sousaphone; Graham Collicott, drums.
(b) as (a) except Guy Barker, trumpet replaces Alan Elsdon; add Janice Day, vocal.
(c) Keith Nichols Jazz Kings: Colin Smith, trumpet except B-5; Mac White, clarinet, tenor and alto (B-6) sax; Randy Colville, clarinet, alto and tenor (B-6) sax except B-1 and B-4; Benny Waters, solo tenor sax and solo clarinet (B-5); Gordon Blundy, trombone except B-5; Keith Nichols, piano, vocal (B-4); Paul Sealey, banjo; Graham Read, Bb sousaphone.
NOTES by Peter Vacher
Originally from Charleston, Ed Smalls was at one time an elevator operator but also descended from Captain Robert Smalls, a black Civil War hero. He had first tried his hand at night club management with the after-hours Sugar Cane Club on Fifth Avenue, where trumpeter June Clark's band (with Jimmy Harrison on trombone) was featured. His new club (named after the Paradise Gardens, a successful Atlantic City cabaret) opened on October 22, 1925, and soon attracted the attention of white socialites and blacks out on the town. Record producer John Hammond painted this picture of Smalls Paradise in his autobiography: "The famous, never-to-be-forgotten Smalls was in the basement of the Dunbar Bank building. You went downstairs, under a modest marquee into a standard night club set-up: a room holding about two hundred and fifty persons, with a bar at one end, a bandstand at the other, and banquettes against the wall surrounding a dance floor. Ed had a line of eight girls--dark-skinned; the Cotton Club and Connie's Inn catered to whites and featured light-skinned Negroes--and had original music written for the show. He served good Chinese food, another plus. Smalls was popular with show people, among them George Gershwin."
Known as "Harlem's House of Mirth," Smalls was patronized extensively by blacks, unlike others of the district's best clubs, and featured dancing waiters, singers of double-entendre blues and "a real beauty ensemble of winsome maids," according to its advertisements. Sunday nights were the best attended and the Monday morning breakfast dances were legendary. Trumpeter Red Allen was just one of the great jazzmen who recalled those days with affection: "Breakfast dances at Smalls began around four or five in the morning and went on half the day." The splendid hot music was in the hands of Charlie Johnson's Original Paradise Band, a popular Atlantic City group, recruited by Smalls to open his new club, remaining there until 1934. A Philadelphian, born in November 1891, Johnson, a genial man but a pianist of modest ability, came to New York in his twenties. He worked initially as a trombonist before making a reputation as a bandleader in Atlantic City (briefly accompanying Bessie Smith in 1922), where he continued to work regularly during the Smalls off-season, moving back to the resort town for the summer.
The great success achieved by Smalls made it a favorite among musicians. Pay was good and Johnson's benign bandleading style earned him the loyalty of his sidemen, some of whom stayed with him for extended periods. All sorts of observers thought highly of the band and it frequently out-battled its rivals. The club itself was usually packed, and the wonderful trombonist Dickie Wells (a Johnson sideman in the early '30s) recalled: "Smalls did terrific business. They reserved the seats by the year."
Johnson had a keen ear for talent and recruited some of the finest instrumentalists of the day, including trumpeters Jabbo Smith, Leonard Davis and Sidney de Paris, trombonists like Charlie Irvis and Jimmy Harrison, the reedmen including Benny Carter, Edgar Sampson and Benny Waters, the whole ensemble powered by drummer George Stafford, whose prowess is still remembered by older musicians. Ill-fated, Stafford died from TB before he was forty.
Remarkably, three of the great musicians associated with Charlie Johnson during Smalls's heyday are still active today. Although Jabbo Smith (82 next December) confines himself to vocal appearances now, the urbane Benny Carter seems to have found new energies (he's 83) and tours Europe and Japan regularly, recording and writing extensively, apparently inexhaustible and marvelously capable still. Even Carter's current schedule pales alongside that of our third Johnson veteran--Benny Waters, the indefatigable alto and tenor sax star and ace clarinetist, who is featured with the British pianist Keith Nichols on these spirited recreations of classic Charlie Johnson and King Oliver sides from the 1920s.
Waters will be 89 this coming January, and although he talks of retirement, I fully expect him to continue his present pattern of wide-ranging travel and club residencies, all the while blowing up his usual storm. Benny has been based in Paris since 1952 and is a frequent visitor to many European countries, among them Britain, of course. The present collaboration with Nichols dates from a 1988 trip and is important because it allows the distinguished reedman a second look at some of his own original arrangements as they were recorded by Johnson. These were faithfully transcribed by Claus Jacobi, the German saxophonist, and Nichols, both experts in early big band jazz. As anyone who knows Benny will confirm, it would never occur to him to recreate himself so his solos are quite new. Fresh Waters, you might say.
Benny is from Maryland and gained his early experience in Philadelphia before journeying to the Boston Conservatory of Music. In Boston, Benny worked with youngsters like Johnny Hodges and gave lessons to many more, including Harry Carney. He was always a skilled technician, thoroughly understanding harmony, and continues to take a lively interest in the intricacies of the music even now. In 1925, he was recommended to Johnson by a violin player and joined him in Atlantic City before the momentous move to New York when Smalls's Seventh Avenue Club was opened. Benny remembers: "Our place was packed every night. We had three shows, and there were thirty or forty people involved. The Cotton Club had the best looking Negro girls but they couldn't dance. Ours at Smalls weren't so good-looking but they could dance better. The Cotton Club wanted to take Charlie's band, but he refused it as he was making too much money at Smalls. See, Charlie had charge of the show and the band and he was making money. He was a business man, like Duke. It could have been good for us [to go to the Cotton Club] but not for Charlie."
Talking about the great instrumentalists with whom he worked in those far-off days, Benny asserts that "Sidney de Paris was swinging more than Jabbo. Jabbo was clean as a whistle, didn't make any mistakes. He wanted to play all the choruses. Benny Carter played a lot in those days. Less now," he adds mischievously. "After Benny left the band, I did all the arranging. I was under exclusive contract for two years, two arrangements a week, which was quite a job for me when I liked those chicks and that whisky. I would sit up all night sometimes."
Charlie Johnson's band recorded for RCA Victor from 1927 through 1929, and a number of arrangements penned by Waters were waxed for posterity. "Johnson's band was one of the first Negro bands to record for Victor in those days, which was quite a high feat. Lots of bands were recording for smaller firms but not Victor. Benny Carter and I made most of the arrangements for those sessions. We went down to Camden, New Jersey, during the day to record and went back to Smalls to play the same night. I will never forget one particular day when we did three things. Early in the morning, we went down to Camden. We recorded all day and by the time we got back and ate, it was time to go to Smalls. Then after that, at 4 AM, we had to go and play a breakfast dance until nine in the morning."
Jacobi and Nichols earned Benny's admiration for their meticulous attention to detail on the transcriptions: "I think Keith (and Claus) did a great job because I used some ninth chords on those things, which was pretty advanced for those days," he emphasizes.
Johnson's orchestra usually returned to Atlantic City to play for the summer season at the Paradise Club but also made brief road tours and played for student dances at Ivy League colleges. Originally, Benny was an alto saxophonist, converting reluctantly to tenor at Johnson's behest thus setting the pattern that has persisted to this day, although Benny now also plays alto and clarinet on most of his appearances. I asked him to assess the Johnson band: "In that time, it was considered by all next to Fletcher Henderson. We were more colorful than Fletcher. We were the ones that first started the hats and the derbies and the wa-was--all those sounds. Our band was swinging."
Benny's involvement with Clarence Williams and King Oliver came about quite casually. "They called me and they kept me. I thought nothing of it. That's all there was to it. I never worked any engagements with Oliver; he didn't have any engagements. I worked in the band on account of my musical ability. I could fake fast, I had enough tone and I could play a little clarinet. I also did some arranging for Joe or Clarence, whoever had the band on those dates."
It's those QRS recordings that Keith has drawn on for the second side of this album. Here Benny's tenor is the main solo voice but look out for his fluent, spiky clarinet on "Gravier Street Blues."
Waters left Johnson in 1932 as the Depression hit, returning for two more years (1936-7) at Smalls and staying with the pianist-leader until he finally disbanded. He was to work again at the club with the Hot Lips Page big band, but by then Harlem was in decline as a playground for wealthy whites. Thereafter, Waters moved to more promising locations, spending time in rhythm and blues in California before his move to Europe. Nowadays, he commutes most years to the U.S. and expects to relocate there when he retires. For the moment, he says, "I concentrate now on tone and phrasing, I take things easier now. I don't try too much for excitement." From my viewpoint, having known Benny for nearly thirty years, I feel that his statement should be taken with the proverbial pinch of salt as Benny's vibrant playing on this rewarding album will confirm.
THE MUSIC: Keith Nichols, the pianist and leader of the Cotton Club Orchestra, has contributed to many important Stomp Off recordings. His associates in the Orchestra, a regular unit, include many of Britain's finest specialists in old-style black jazz. Here's the line-up of soloists for each number:
Walk That Thing: It's Waters on tenor over the ensemble, followed by Elsdon's hot trumpet recreating Sidney de Paris's fine solo, Blundy, Smith and Colville. Note the Mortonesque ending and the superb sousaphone playing.
Paradise Wobble: Johnson's recording included a Monette Moore vocal and Waters's tenor solo replaces this, Blundy ably evokes Charlie Irvis. Elsdon precedes Smith and it's White on clarinet.
You Ain't the One: Carter's arrangement gave the saxes a sweet-sounding chorus and our latter-day performers cope well. Waters is on tenor, Janice Day's vocal is pleasing, Blundy again and finally, an outstanding Bixian chorus from Barker, usually a modernist.
Harlem Drag: Elsdon is on his de Paris kick again and Benny's rhapsodic tenor is heard extensively before Smith leads into the final ensemble. There was no tenor on the Johnson original.
Charleston Is the Best Dance After All: Elsdon covers Jabbo Smith this time, followed by Jacobi's alto and Blundy's assertive trombone.
Hot Tempered Blues: Blundy on song again, with Elsdon easily carving Leonard Davis's solo on the original. Sealey's banjo solo substitutes for Sampson's hard-to-enjoy violin chorus.
Bimbo: Smith opens in jaunty form, Waters on tenor replaces Bennie Moten's clarinet on the original, Smith again, White and Nichols to close.
Aunt Hagar's Blues: Nichols's transcription features White on tenor, Blundy and Waters also on tenor.
Long Deep and Wide: A Fats Waller tune, with Waters heard at greater length than on the original plus Blundy and Nichols.
Got Everything but You: King Oliver recorded this without Waters. Nichols's version features his own vocal, with solos from Blundy, Sealey, White, Waters and Smith.
Gravier Street Blues: Transcribed from a Clarence Williams side (without Waters), this is now a feature for the Waters clarinet.
Beau Koo Jack: From QRS, this transcription spots Waters again, this time on tenor.
I asked Keith Nichols for the last word on these sessions: "It was Dave Bennett's idea to record Benny on these Charlie Johnson arrangements, and we're very happy with the results." Quite.
May 1990
Peter Vacher is a British jazz writer who has contributed to many U.K. and U.S. periodicals over the past 30 years. He currently writes for Jazz Express and Jazz Journal in Britain. A contributor to The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, he collaborated with clarinetist Joe Darensbourg on his autobiography, published in the United States in 1988 by Louisiana State University Press as Jazz Odyssey. He is working at present on a new book of interviews with veteran jazzmen.
CREDITS:
Recording Dates -(a) September 23, 1988; (b) September 22, 1988; (c) November 15, 1988
Recording Locations -(a) (c) The Bull's Head, Barnes, London, Eng,; (b) Pizza-On-The-Park, Knightsbridge, London, Eng.
Recording Engineer - Dave Bennett, Basingstoke, Hants, Eng.
Mastering - George Horn, Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, Ca.
Production Supervisor - Mike Cogan, Bay Records, Berkeley, Ca.
Front Cover Photographs of Benny Waters and Keith Nichols - Dave Bennett
Front Cover Photograph of Charlie Johnson's Paradise Orchestra, Nest Club, New York City, 1925 - Courtesy of Frank S. Driggs
Front Cover Drawings of King Oliver and Clarence Williams - Wally "Trog" Fawkes
Front Cover Design and Art - Dave Bennett
Producer - Bob Erdos
Stomp Off Records - P.O. Box 342, York, Pa. 17405
Special thanks to Dan Fleming of The Bull's Head and Peter Boizot of Pizza-On-The-Park.
OTHER RECORDINGS OF ORCHESTRAS
DIRECTED BY KEITH NICHOLS:
The Red Hot Syncopators
"Doctors Jazz" - SOS 1135
Nichols-Jacobi Dreamland Syncopators
"Territory Jazz" - SOS 1150
Rusty Taylor's New Jazz Review
"Let's Misbehave" - SOS 1186
The Moonlight Broadcasters
"Radio Nights" - SOS 1193
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