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Fantasy

The Paul Desmond Quintet - Desmond (10", Gre) (Very Good Plus (VG+))

The Paul Desmond Quintet - Desmond (10", Gre) (Very Good Plus (VG+))

Regular price $100.00 USD
Regular price Sale price $100.00 USD
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Media Condition:  Very Good Plus (VG+)
Sleeve Condition: Very Good (VG)
Country:    US  
Released:  
1955
Genre:       Jazz
Style:         Cool Jazz

Comments:
record has some very minor scratches and wear, that wont affect sound. Cover has some slight corner and ring wear, splitting and small personal sticker on the inside.
 

Notes:

Gatefold cover with interior entry. This album sometimes appears listed as The Paul Desmond Quintet with Voices. This, Desmond's first album as a leader, was remastered in 1987 and released as one side of a Fantasy LP called Gerry Mulligan/Paul Desmond (OJC 273 / F-8082). Mulligan's side featured Mulligan with Chet Baker and Chico Hamilton. Here are Paul Desmond's liner notes: (note: liner notes are transcribed exactly as they appear on the original release.) desmond notes: my name is paul desmond and here i am 30 years old and this is my first album in which i am not breathing down somebody else's neck which snicker tho you may is in many ways no small accomplishment. it comes, you will notice, in two parts - one with voices, one with a quintet, in each of which are to be found all manner of intriguing things: the fascinating unpredictable musings of dick collins, a light, sparkling and remarkably law-abiding fugue by david van kriedt, lush and lovely choral backgrounds by jack weeks and bill bates, the deft and jovial guitar picking of barney kessel and the occasional forlorn sound of an alto surrounded by microphones, all nudged along gently but firmly by the scratchings and pluckings of respectively, joe dodge and bob bates. the quintet session came about mostly as a means of recording my two favourite van kreidt compositions, originally called CHORALE PRELUDE and FUGUE IV and identified here as BAROQUE...BUT HAPPY - partly to avoid confusion with earlier fugues by van kreidt but mostly to distinguish them from fugues he is yet to write, because van kreidt writes fugues like some people write post cards. so far this one i think, comes closest to his ideal of a fugue in which the freely swinging, haphazard-sounding phrases of current jazz are woven together in accordance with the ancient, and discouragingly strict, rules of fugue writing. BAROQUE is a chorale prelude in which the original melody (played by dick collins in a corner) is taken from the bach-riemenschneider collection. against this, the alto and tenor play an interweaving counterpoint, the melody of which is related to the subject of the fugue (BUT HAPPY) which follows. in the fugue, the subject makes the rounds of trumpet, alto and tenor, is followed by a divertimento based on a fragment of the subject (a particularly charming one in this case, since the subject begins and ends in 3/4, and this development of it amounts to a pocket-size waltz thru which the jazz beat goes ahead on). now comes back the subject in the relative minor, making the rounds in reverse order with the entrances coming closer together, then another divertimento leads into what would ordinarily, in the career of a properly reared fugue, be the pedal - a point at which one tone is sustained by the bass and things happen on top. this being a jazz fugue, the pedal is replaced by short choruses from tenor and alto, after which a series of strettos (periods in which the subject and answer are brought progressively closer and closer together), separated by short divertimentos, lead eventually to the concluding real stretto, which in this case is a heavily emphasized statement of the subject. JERUVIAN is a fond tribute to gerry mulligan in which you will find a freely and fascinatingly wandering dick collins and some alto (it is my custom when listening to playbacks to cough loudly whenever i hear something coming that i played and don't like and altho things have improved since the early days - "whispering desmond" they used to call me, up at sound recorders - most editing sessions still leave me a bit horse. i mention this because there are places on this record where i almost don't have to cough at all). MISTY WINDOW is a quietly nostalgic ballad which dave wrote in 1946, borrowing the first two bars from an old standard and developing them in different directions (van kreidt develops themes like some people develop pictures). dave is a charter member of the brubeck octet, also (along with dick collins and jack weeks) of the slightly more select group within the octet, occasionally referred to as the four frenchmen, who studied with darius milhaud at mills college and in paris, in addition to which dave has studied at the college of the pacific and at san francisco state. also, come to think of it, in the army band where i first met him and in which we spent many long hours together cleaning latrines - me, because of a sort of monumental inefficiency, van kreidt mostly because he kept telling the first sergeant how miserable the band sounded. fact was never dave's forte, or for that matter even his mezzo-piano, which may be one reason why his works have not gone forth and multiplied any too much just yet. remember those comic strips they used to run on washington's birthday, where somebody tries to tell the truth all day long and disaster ensues and all? van kreidt, that's the story of his life. with, i rejoice to report (since the uncrafty approach doesn't always get it these days), a pretty groovy outlook as of now. dave lives in tahoe city california with a gorgeous and quiet wife and three beautiful kids, teaches high school and spends his spare time writing music and viewing the surroundings, which are about as idyllic as you can get. dick collins is a down-home type intellectual with whom (along with van kreidt and jack weeks) i've spent many years in san francisco blowing in one era, so to speak, and out the other. he is to be heard these days mostly with the hard driving trumpet section of woody herman (who notably agreed to do without dick for a night when the band was in reno so dick could fly to hollywood for the session). he has also recorded with a number of small groups for fantasy, as well as (most recently) for victor. and high time, too, because dick is too much. the side with voices was thought up by jack weeks, who wrote WILL I KNOW and arranged SOON and GARDEN IN THE RAIN. it was produced by bill bates, who wrote WINKY, and brightened considerably by the presence (with the kind permission of contemporary records) of barney kessel. the voices, assembled by bill bates from several of hollywood's most well-fed singing groups, belong to bill thompson, bernie parke, bill brown, sue allen, gloria wood and loulie jean norman, all of them frighteningly competent. (those ethereal sounds up on top of everything else come mostly from loulie jean, the recording angel). jack weeks, son of anson, has written for countless bands, plays trombone, piano and bass and sings but unfortunately will not travel - except maybe to paris, because he won the prix de paris for composition this year at the university of california, where he is currently working for an m.a. wonderful barney kessel who put on NEW STRINGS for this occasion and came early so's he could practice his part is definitely a joy to have around and no band should be without him. watching him is almost as much fun as listening to him. - especially his left hand, which always seems to be involved in a sort of prehensile ballet (the last chord of his solo on SOON always reminds me vaguely of an amiable spider moving over to make room for the homeward-bound altophone). bill bates lives in l.a. with 2 ampexes (ampice?), a wife, several cats and a stuffed owl, is the inventor of the unfortunately seldom-used bates system for swiss bell-ringers, which involves a toy piano equipped with a Ford coil, 12 or so lengths of copper wire and 12 or so stout-hearted bellringers, all assembled in such a fashion that when they hit an E-flat on the piano you hear an e-flat from the appropriate bell-ringer right now and no nonsense about it. his methods with singers altho occasionally less sadistic are wondrously effective and without him we would have been lost. bass and drums for both sessions were played, with their customary folksy verve, by bob bates and joe dodge. pictures of the quintet are by william claxton, pictures of the singers and all are by bob willoughby. will macfarland helped with the album notes and thought up some of the better titles. radio recorders did the recording.

 

A1. A Garden In The Rain 2:29
A2. Soon 2:18
A3. Winky 2:56
A4. Will I Know 2:52
B1. Jeruvian 3:35
B2. Baroque 1:42
B3. But Happy 3:03
B4. Misty Window 3:20
B5. Warm Cradle 2:49

 

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