OUTSIDER BILLY BYERS ADVENTURING IN INTELLECTUAL PARIS”
Also in this broadcast, attention is once again paid to the overseas adventures of American trombonist Billy Byers (1927-1996). In the previous broadcast, we started listening to the extraordinarily important album Kenny Clarke’s sextet plays André Hodeir. Today, the remaining six pieces are on the agenda.
But first, we’ll listen to André Hodeir the violinist, in two pieces recorded by an octet led by Kenny Clarke in Paris, May 1948. The lineup includes trumpet, two saxophones, piano-guitar-bass-drums, and, of course, André Hodeir’s violin.
Kenny Clarke is the author of Algerian Cynicism, in which Hodeir, with a business-like violin solo, is the only soloist. Hodeir, who performs as a jazz violinist under the pseudonym Claude Laurence, is the composer of Laurenzology. In this piece, in addition to the violin solo, there is also room for a solo by the robust tenor saxophonist Jean-Claude Fohrenbach (1925-2009).
Algerian Cynicism (Kenny Clarke)
Laurenzology (André Hodeir)
We make a leap in time of eight and a half years to witness -Paris autumn 1956- the embodiment of André Hodeir’s arrangements and compositions, who has since hung up his violin. He now goes through life as an author of books on jazz and classical music, but also as a fiction writer (including children’s books), as a teacher, and as a supplier of soundtracks for ultimately about four dozen films.
From the LP Kenny Clarke plays André Hodeir, we hear in this broadcast three pieces by Hodeir himself (Oblique, On a riff, and Cadenze) plus three pieces that he did not compose but used as stepping stones for his unorthodox arrangements.
In Oblique, a composition by Hodeir, there are brief starring roles for trombonist Billy Byers and pianist Martial Solal:
3. Oblique (André Hodeir)
After Oblique, it’s time for Eronel, a composition by Thelonious Monk. First, we hear the version by a quintet of Thelonious Monk (New York, July 1951):
4. Eronel (Thelonious Monk)
In the Hodeir version of Eronel, a piano solo by Martial Solal emerges, clearly intended to pay tribute to the enigmatic composer of Eronel:
5. Eronel (Monk/Hodeir)
After ‘Round Midnight (heard in the previous broadcast) and Eronel, we have one more piece by Thelonious Monk to enjoy: Bemsha Swing. The first recording, on the Prestige label, takes place in December 1952. Because the piano is so exceptionally rickety that a harmonic/melodic approach to the keys would not yield an acceptable result, Monk decides to treat this barrel as a purely percussive instrument.
6. Bemsha Swing (Thelonious Monk)
After the rough version by Thelonious Monk and Max Roach, the elegant resilience displayed by Kenny Clarke and his companions in the Hodeir version provides a striking contrast. In addition to a strong, quirky solo by Martial Solal, bassist Jean Warland also gets a solo moment:
7. Bemsha Swing (Monk/Hodeir)
“On a Riff” is another piece by Hodeir; trumpeter Roger Guérin and trombonists Billy Byers and Nat Peck play an intriguing game with lines that attract and repel each other and become entangled, to ultimately let Kenny Clarke finish off with a number of harmonious breaks:
- On a Riff (André Hodeir)
We are sitting at the front of the Royal Roost to hear Kenny Clarke work his magic. Tadd Dameron’s “The Squirrel” also doesn’t escape André Hodeir’s attention. First, we hear a sextet version from September 1948, which comes from a radio broadcast from the Royal Roost in New York: Allen Eager (tenor sax), Fats Navarro (trumpet), Rudy Williams (alto sax), Tadd Dameron (piano), Curley Russell (bass), and Kenny Clarke (drums).
During the 1948/1949 season, Tadd Dameron’s band resided at the Royal Roost for a total of 39 weeks. There is no doubt that Kenny Clarke has worked on “The Squirrel” and all those other fantastic Dameron pieces, such as “Good Bait,” “Our Delight,” “Tadd Walk,” “Anthropology,” and “Dameronia,” hundreds of times. Critic Stanley Crouch emphasizes Kenny Clarke’s role: “Much of the success of these recordings rests with the rhythm section. Kenny Clarke is fantastic, knowing just when to bear down and just when to relax and carry the band on his cymbals. (…) Just Clarke’s accents during Dameron’s introductions show that he was busy working from the unexpected, while every fill, break, or exchange is right on the music– its phrasing, texture, emotion.”
The sound quality of those live recordings may be far from perfect, but you do feel like you’re sitting in one of those iconic laboratories where bebop pioneers try out their revolutionary inventions on each other. These qualities of Kenny Clarke that Stanley Crouch already recognized in those recordings from The Royal Roost are also still evident in his playing in the Hodeir arrangements, which, especially thanks to “Klook,” still sound lively today.
- The Squirrel (Tadd Dameron)
Hodeir is wise to give Kenny Clarke and Martial Solal plenty of room in his version of “The Squirrel”; the three brass players provide a staccato-like background for a breathtaking duel in which the drummer and the pianist attack each other with unusual precision and harmony:
- The Squirrel (Dameron/Hodeir)
The last word goes to André Hodeir, who demonstrates in his own composition that he has a good handle on the art of variation. There are limited solo moments for Kenny Clarke, Martial Solal, and bassist Jean Warland:
- Cadenze (André Hodeir)
THE JUDGEMENT OF A CONTEMPORARY FROM 1957
I can imagine that you might be interested in reading the judgment of a Down Beat critic on the very unusual album Kenny Clarke plays André Hodeir: Dom Cerulli gives the record ****) and he is concise: “Curiously, I prefer this recording to a recent Savoy entry (referring to: André Hodeir: Essais—Savoy MG 12104) which, although of very high caliber, was entirely of Hodeir’s originals. (This record was also reviewed by Dom Cerulli and receives ****). It appears to me that he is most fruitful when jockeying with an established theme. The writing and conception seem less brittle, less pre-thought than in the collection of his Essais. On this collation, Byers, Solal, Clarke are positively brilliant. Solal is a pianist of tremendous talent and swing. Byers’ work on Blue Serge (heard in the previous broadcast) is luminously lovely. Jean Warland is a very big-toned bass man, heard to good advantage on Eronel and Cadenze. Hodeir’s own works are Oblique, On a riff, and Cadenze, with Riff the most exciting for me. ‘Round Midnight (in the previous broadcast) is developed beautifully, from the opening toying with the theme to its gradual emergence. This LP is worth investigation. It’s a further contribution from the gentleman who gave us one of the most perceptive tomes on jazz (referring to: Jazz: its evolution and essence, the American translation of Hommes et problèmes du jazz) and is now following through musically.”
KENNY CLARKE PLAYS PIERRE MICHELOT AS AN ENCORE
For decades, Pierre Michelot was one of the best bassists in Europe. He worked with Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, and Dizzy Gillespie, with Sidney Bechet, Don Byas, Lucky Thompson, Coleman Hawkins, Dexter Gordon, and Zoot Sims, he played a kind of Jazz meets Bach bass for years in the company of pianist Jacques Loussier, and also the chanson art of France Gall, Serge Gainsbourg, and Claude Nougaro benefited from Michelot’s contributions. Film lovers know him from ‘Round Midnight (1986) by Bertrand Tavernier, while almost thirty years earlier, in 1957, he was already part of the Miles Davis quintet that provided the soundtrack for Louis Malle’s Ascenseur pour l’ Echafaud. Pierre Michelot died in 2005 at the age of 87.
Back to 1957: Kenny Clarke plays Pierre Michelot; a mini big band of eleven musicians records four arrangements by Pierre Michelot for an e.p. In two pieces, we can hear Ack van Rooyen as a soloist in the high-quality company of, among others, Billy Byers, Lucky Thompson, and pianist Maurice Vandair. Ack van Rooyen passed away in November 2021 at the age of 91. We get to hear three pieces:
- Jackie, my little cat (first trumpet solo: Bernard Hulin, second trumpet solo: Ack van Rooyen).
- Fun for four (solos: Hubert Fol (alto sax), Billy Byers (trombone), Lucky Thompson (tenor sax), and Ack van Rooyen (trumpet).
- Fantasy for Bass (solos: Kenny Clarke (drums), Pierre Michelot (bass), Lucky Thompson (tenor sax), Maurice Vandair (piano).
As a final touch, I have chosen a quintet version of “Bemsha Swing,” recorded in December 1956 by Clark Terry (trumpet), Sonny Rollins (tenor sax), Monk (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), and Max Roach (drums and timpani). Although the piano here does not sound as disastrous as on the trio recording earlier in the broadcast, this instrument is also quite worn out. That’s not something you would expect from a label like Riverside that always pays a lot of attention to the production of its LPs. Max Roach has expanded his instrumentation with a few timpani, giving his contribution extra drama:
- “Bemsha Swing” (available on the LP “Brilliant Corners”).
