Unforgivably forgotten these days, Illinois Jacquet (1922-2004) was one of the first of what was then called “Texas Tenors,” and it didn’t matter or not if you were from the Lone Star State. Basically, if you had a big and beefy sound that emphasized swing with an occasional dash of shouting from the pulpit, you were part of that clan. Playing at the time when swing was slowly transitioning to bebop, Jacquet made his name with Lionel Hampton via his famous solo of “Flying Home” and at subsequent crowd pleasing escapades at the extroverted Jazz At The Philharmonic concerts during the post WWII years. This cd has him co-leading a band with proto-bopping baritone saxist Leo Parker at an enthusiastic concert in Toronto along with fellow reet-petite jazzeroonies such as Joe Newman/tp, Sir Charles Thompson/p, Al Lucas/b and Shadow Wilson/dr.
The excitement over this “new music” called bebop is on display on every note during this 70 minute show. You get some Kansas City-styled shouting blues from Russell Jacquet on “Throw It Out of your Mind, Baby,” and Newman swings on the fun loving “Bottoms Up” and Parker make mincemeat of his bari on “Music Hall Beat” and “Bottoms Up.”The sound quality is what you would expect from that time period; no better and no worse than air shots of Charlie Parker during the same time. While Lucas’ bass is more felt than heard much of time, the rhythm supplied by Wilson and Thompson keep you in sync, and the trio sections such as on “Oh,Lady Be Good” have Lucas snapping along while Thompson’s clever carpals dance over the Basie-inspired ivories. The fact of the matter is, what you want this for is to hear what a tenor player is supposed to do with his horn, and you’ll be playing songs like“Robbins’ Nest” and the medley of “All the Things You Are/She’s Funny That Way/Music Hall Beat” over and over until you get each note, riff and accent down, as he epitomizes the essence of building up a solo to a climax and “telling a story” on your horn like no living tenor player around. He makes his horn cry like a bel canto Pagliacci on ‘Memories of You.” His shift of gears on “Body and Soul” from mellow to strutting will make your knees buckle, and the lithe gentle bop groove supplied by the rhythm section has the perfect lilt, something today’s cats try to emulate but simply can’t repeat since they don’t have it in their dna. You either grew up with it or you didn’t. These guys lived it and loved it. You will too.
Uptown Jazz Records