(Soul-Jazz, Hard Bop, Blues) Baby Face Willette - Stop and Listen - 1961, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

ONE of the established facts of jazz life is that the organ is here, as a not-at-all miscellaneous instrument, regardless of how various quarters are likely to welcome it. Another fact is that only a very few jazz organists have been able to work the "best" jazz rooms; all others ply their trade in a particular kind of club which has acquired the generic name, "organ room". It cannot be coincidence that many young organ players are now appearing on the scene; it means that a trend is in the making. Yet another piece of evidence is even more indicative of the future dominance of the instrument: several recordings including jazz organ are beginning to come out of the West Coast. The last time such a thing happened, if you will recall, was when the better-known West Coast musicians put away their flutes and oboes, began playing their instruments with a "harder" attack, and started recording tunes by such men as Horace Silver and Sonny Rollins. What that indicated is now history.
Many young organists are bewildered by the opposition they meet. The best reason I have ever seen given for it was in the New Statesman, and it was by British writer Francis Newton. Often it takes a tourist's-eye-view to see things the natives are too close to recognize, just as another Briton, director Alexander MacKendrick, in the motion picture Sweet Smell of Success, captured certain facets of New York which had always eluded Americans. "Uptown," Newton wrote, "there is the jazz of Harlem (the one that does not even get advertised in the New Yorker, otherwise a faithful guide to the music). This is the sort of noise you hear coming out of the dark belly of the L Bar on Broadway and 148th, the visceral sound of Marlow Morris' rhythmic organ playing, rather like crystallized glue, at the fop Club on West 145th ... It is not very ambitious music, but by God the place jumps and the clients at the bar laugh and stomp their feet as men ought to do when they are enjoying themselves. Those who listen to this music are not 'fans'; they are just people who like to have some entertainment while they drink. Those who play it are craftsmen and showmen, who accept the facts of life in the jungle with disconcerting calm." This, Newton contrasted with the reception accorded Ornette Coleman at the Five Spot, saying, "If Coleman were to blow in Smalls' Paradise in Harlem, it would clear the place in five minutes. Musicians such as he are, it seems, as cut off now from the common listeners among their people as Webern is from the public at the Filey Butin's. They depend on those who are themselves alienated, the internal emigrants of America."
A critic, who, by the nature of his profession, is somewhat alienated himself, will feel a closer affinity to Coleman than to the others of whom Newton speaks, and have more to say about his music. But there is a large and vital audience for the others, and what they have to offer cannot be ignored.
Writing on the liner of Baby Face Willette's first LP as a leader [Face To Face, Blue Note 4068), Robert Levin made the statement that ". . . on its own level his music is as representative of his experience as, say, Leadbelly's was of his." Which delineates accurately Willette's value as a musician and also points to the problems he is likely to have.
Very few writers on jazz have shared the experience which go to make up Willette's music, and are not likely to. Nor does the music have the kind of universality which will make an American audience respond to an Italian film. But it does speak to a great number of people, and it speaks to them simply and directly.
More to the point is that Willette is, in my opinion, a performer with a considerable degree of individuality on his instrument - something likely to be overlooked by those who tend to dismiss the organ out of hand. That individuality is most plainly to be heard on the title track, Stop and listen, and is even more obvious on another Willette original, Chances Are Few. One would expect the prevalent church influence on jazz to show itself more directly in organists than in players of other instruments, but that has not been the case. The majority of jazz organists - most of whom are converted pianists, as is Willette - have rejected overt ties to church organ in favor of the currently fashionable funky phrases that have less in common with church music than is generally supposed. Willette obviously makes no effort to hide his apparent ties to that music. His switch from piano to organ, he has said, was prompted by listening to two Chicago church organists, Herman Stevens and Mayfield Woods. He himself had accompanied gospel groups in the past, and told Levin, "There's not really much difference between rhythm and blues and even church music and jazz. That's where it all came from."
All of the music Willette plays here is more or less directly concerned with the blues, even the two standards. Willow Weep for Me, the lovely Ann Ronell ballad, owes an obvious debt to the form, and At Last, while further removed, has its blues affinities accurately brought out in this performance.
Mention should be made of the work of guitarist Grant Green. Less aggressively "modern" than most young guitarists, his single-note lines also reflect a deep concern and involvement with the blues. Something of a personal discovery of altoist Lou Donaldson, Green is considered among the most important of guitarists by almost everyone who has worked with him, most notably pianist Horace Parian. Green's Blue Note album as a leader {Grant's First Stand, BLP 4064) features the same personnel as the present set.
Drummer Ben Dixon, although he lists Art Blakey, Max Roach and Philly Joe Jones as influences, plays here in a style quite dissimilar to theirs. He recognizes that a different context calls for a different style, and functions accordingly. Many organists prefer to record without string bass, since they can create their own bass lines with the foot pedals, and find it an economic advantage to be able to work clubs with one less musician. Accustomed to this, the sudden presence of a bassist on a recording, who undoubtedly - simply because he is another human being playing another instrument - would not choose the same notes as the organist, would add an unwanted element of confusion to the recording situation. By the same token, the bass has become the primary pulse in most contemporary jazz groups, leaving the drummer free for embellishments. In the absence of a bassist, Dixon therefore has an additional ana unusual burden placed upon him which he handles here with considerable taste.
Willette is still a young performer, although not as young as the features which gave him his nickname would indicate, and that this second album seems superior to his first is the best indication that he will make a continuing contribution to his extremely basic, if often overlooked, style of music.

 

 

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008
EAC extraction logfile from 11. April 2009, 0:05
Baby Face Willette / Stop and Listen
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Null samples used in CRC calculations       : Yes
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        8  | 43:26.32 |  6:24.68 |    195482    |   224349
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Track  8
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All tracks accurately ripped
No errors occurred
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