Wilbur Ware and the Chicago Sound

My latest LP acquisition: The Chicago Sound, the Wilbur Ware Quintet featuring Johnny Griffin, on Riverside: RLP 12-252. Actually, that's not quite right; that was the number for the original release on Riverside. This is a reissue, on Milestone,  SMJ-6048M. It was bought at Enterprise Records, aka Friendly Bob's, on Congress Street in Portland, Maine. It set me back $7, in pristine condition.

(Sorry about the quality of the photos;
I need to get out my better camera.)

Aside from Wilbur Ware on bass and Johnny Griffin on tenor sax, this album has John Jenkins on alto, Junior Mance on piano, Wilbur Campbell and Frank Dunlop alternating on drums.

So who are these guys? Let's start with the leader. The name Wilbur Ware was familiar, but it took me a while to remember why. He played bass for Thelonious Monk for a while, including on the Riverside LP Monk Meets Mulligan, also on Riverside, which is one of the finest-sounding LPs I own, even if it is a bit conventional and musically boring. (I love it all the same.) Ware also played, as I have just learned, on Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane and on Monk's Music. He's also the bassist on Sonny Rollins's Night at the Village Vanguard. So: Good dates. No slouch.

Almost everything Ware recorded was between 1956 and 1959, though he did a date with Grant Green in 1961 (Standards, on Blue Note), Apparently, after hitting it rather large in the late '50s, he vanished for the rest of the decade. He reemerged briefly in 1969, appearing with Rollins, Clifford Jordan, and Elvin Jones, then vanished again. He died in 1979, of emphysema.

Dunlop, too, played with Monk: Looking through my Monk collection, I find him on Monk's Dream and Misterioso (on three tracks). The other drummer -- this combo's second Wilbur (Wilbur Campbell) was a Chicago musician who was very well known on a very vibrant local scene but didn't go on tour; he recorded with the Chicago label Delmark (owned by the guy who runs Jazz Record Mart in Chicago).* If you want to learn more about Campbell, check out this page on Delmark's site. (Here's a tidbit, after Campbell's recent death, in his obituary in the Chicago Tribune; "Jackie" DeJonette is quoted: "When [Campbell] would play the drums, he would fill up his solos like somebody was packing a suitcase with as much as he could. ... He was one of the great drummers of the world, even though a lot of people didn't know it."

John Jenkins, the alto player, is another musician who disappeared. Here's what Wikipedia says:

After leaving the jazz world he worked as a messenger in New York and dabbled in jewelry; he sold brass objects at street fairs in the 1970s. After 1983 he began practicing again and playing live on street corners; shortly before his death he played with Clifford Jordan.

Junior Mance, the pianist, is another Chicago musician. He has played with pretty much everyone. Apparently, he's still going strong. He'll turn 82 next week. 

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So what about this record? It sounds great. The music is easy to digest. This is one of those mono LPs where you absolutely do not miss the stereo. There may not be any left to right separation, but it's nice and fat, and there is enough front to back separation that you get a sense of musicians in space, even if they're not playing in stereo.

The music is pretty much straight-ahead jazz. I can't quite think of what other artists it reminds me of. One comparison, which I realize is fairly strange, is to some of the later small-group Ellington recordings. Actually, it sounds like a lot of things.

But the real story here is the sound; it's a superb-sounding LP. Unsurprisingly for an LP that has a bassist for a leader, there's a lot of solo bass, and it's clear, woody, and upfront. Both saxophones are warm and breathy; when one stops and the other starts, you can really get a sense for their distinctive sounds. Piano sound is crisp with a clear, woody tone. The top end is slightly subdued -- not really rolled off -- and this gives the whole ensemble an appealing, breathy warmth.

I have never understood it when people say they listen to music, not sound. To me, music is sound -- organized sound. The breath in a wind instrument, the wood and rosin in a bowed double bass, are for me as much a part of music as the rhythm.

But the individual characteristics of the musicians is another thing I like to listen for. That's easy when it's say, Monk, but a little trickier, maybe, when comparing less distinctive sidemen. I'm looking forward to comparing the different drummers in this ensemble, to identify their styles. I'll report back.
 
So: On a first, superficial listen, I'm hearing good playing, excellent sound, but no life-altering jazz. That's OK; I'm having a damn good time. Highly recommended. 

* One day a couple of years ago, when I was visiting Chicago on business, I visited Jazz Record Mart. While I was there, a personable old fellow struck up a conversation as I browsed the Duke Ellington bins. He told me about his video projects and his movie collection -- as in, actual films, in canisters. I didn't figure out until later that I was conversing with Bob Koester, the legend.)