JazzWax

Virgil Gonsalves: Sextet and Big Band

We tend to think of West Coast jazz as a style centered exclusively in Los Angeles. While much of the relaxed, contrapuntal music was inspired by the Southern California weather and lifestyle and evolved in the city's suburbs in the 1950s, San Francisco also had a West Coast sound that was slightly more intensive and a reflection of the city. Artists who emerged from the San Francisco jazz experience in the late 1940s and '50s included Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Cal Tjader, Dick Collins, David Van Kriedt, Bill Smith, Vince Guaraldi, Eddie Duran and Carson Smith. Add Virgil Gonsalves to the list. 

Many jazz fans are unfamiliar with Gonsalves. Paul Gonsalves, yes. But not Virgil. The two musicians were not related. Virgil was a baritone saxophonist who recorded only four jazz albums between 1954 and 1959. As the rock era emerged and jazz opportunities slowed in San Francisco, Gonsalves gigged and then played in rock horn bands such as the Electric Flag and Pacific Gas & Electric. In the 1970s and beyond, he gigged and taught in schools, a vocation he loved.

Now, Fresh Sound has released Virgil Gonsalves: Sextet and Big Band, a two-CD set that unites the musician's jazz output in the 1950s. These dates feature extraordinary music and sidemen. The Gonsalves albums included are Virgil Gonsalves Sextet (1954), Jazz San Francisco Style (1955), Intro to Jazz: Rudi Salvini Orchestra (1956) and Jazz At Monterey: Virgil Gonsalves Big Band Plus Six (1959). The 32 tracks are uniformly excellent.

The combo sessions are fabulous with towering players and the big band tracks are spectacular. For example, sextet session from 1954 features two great combos fused into one. Here, we have the horns of Bob Enevoldsen (v-tb), Buddy Wise (ts) and Virgil Gonsalves (bar), backed by a sterling rhythm section comprised of Lou Levy (p) Harry Babasin (b) and Larry Bunker (d).

The big band sessions are truly astonishing. One is Gonsalves with the Rudy Salvini Orchestra, a tiger outfit featuring Rudy Salvini, Allen Smith, Al Del Simone, Wayne Allen, Billy Catalano (tp) Van Hughes, Archie Lecoque, Chuck Etter, Ron Bertuccelli (tb) Charles Martin (as) Jerry Coker, Tom Hart, Howard Dudune (ts) Virgil Gonsalves (bar) John Marabuto (p) Dean Reilly (b) and John Markham (d), with Jerry Cournoyer, Jerry Mulvihill and Jerry Coker arranging.

The other features Gonsalves's sextet of Mike Downs (tp), Danny Pateris (ts), Virgil Gonsalves (bar), Merrill Hoover (p), Eddie Khan (b) and Al Randell (d) backed by Bill Cataligio, Jerry Cournoyer, John Coppola, Mike Downs and Dickie Mills (tp); Bob Davidson and Leo Wright (as); Danny Pateris and Chuck Peterson (ts); Virgil Gonsalves (bar); Merrill Hoover and Junior Mance (p); Eddie Khan (b) and Benny Barth (d).

If you're a big band head like me, you're in for quite a treat. And it's fair to say that Gonsalves is a joy to hear in all of his groups. Unlike the West Coasters who followed in Mulligan's shoes, Gonsalves has more Pepper Adams in his attack. This new set's extensive and excellent liner notes by Jordi Pujol and booklet will tell you all you need to know about the little-known baritone saxophonist.

Virgil Gonsalves died in 2008.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Virgil Gonsalves: Sextet and Big Band (Fresh Sound) here.

JazzWax clips: Here's the Virgil Gonsalves Sextet from 1954 playing It Might as Well Be Spring...

It Might As Well Be Spring

Here's one of the finest big band recordings of Benny Golson's Stablemates arranged by Jerry Cournoyer, who had the push of Oliver Nelson...

Stablemates

And here's a recording of John Coltrane's Moment's Notice arranged by Cournoyer...

Moment's Notice

Herb Geller: 1962 Paris Sessions

In late 1957, alto saxophonist Herb Geller was having a hard year that would only grow more difficult in the fall of '58 with a family tragedy. Up until the late 1950s, he had it all. Starting in 1949, Herb was an in-demand band and bop ensemble player. His big-band work in the late 1940s and very early 1950s included recordings with Earle Spencer, Billy May, Jerry Wald, Stan Kenton, Shorty Rogers and Claude Thornhill. Then he met pianist Lorraine Walsh in 1951 and the couple married and settled in Los Angeles. Lorraine Walsh became Lorraine Geller, and the pair began recording together in 1953. Over the next four years the Gellers had an amazing jazz run on the West Coast, together and separately.

In 1957, Lorraine gave birth to their first child, Lisa. According to Herb, Lorraine had come down with asthma, and Lisa's birth was difficult. Then skin didn't form on one of Lisa's legs at first and she had to remain in the hospital. Unfortunately, the Gellers' health insurance wouldn't cover their daughter's treatments. They were saddled with a massive hospital bill they couldn't pay immediately. To make this financial strain even more daunting, Lorraine's doctor insisted she take a year off to recuperate.

But the couple needed cash to pay their bills. So after six months, Lorraine went back to work accompanying singer Kay Starr against her doctor's wishes. Then in October 1958, while Herb was on tour with Benny Goodman, Lorraine collapsed at home in L.A. and died at age 28. She was found later under her overturned baby's crib in the couple's home in the Hollywood Hills. The cause, Herb told me, "was pulmonary edema, which is what happens when the lungs fill with fluid, leading to a shortness of breath. Add a terrible asthma attack on top of that and you have a disaster."

Herb tried to work through the grief and managed to power through. But by early 1962, he told me, he wanted to get away from the relentless work that had become joyless and escape the demons that lingered in Los Angeles after Lorraine's death. So in February 1962, he moved to Europe. In March of that year, he was at the San Remo Jazz Festival in Italy and then recorded for French radio in Paris from May through July.

Now, these 1962 recordings have surfaced for the first time and have been issued by Fresh Sound on an album entitled European Rebirth: Herb Geller, 1962 Paris Sessions. Herb was 38 at the time of these recordings and sounded rejuvenated. Europe agreed with him, especially the audience appreciation and soulful lifestyle, which included socializing, caring and beauty, all of which helped ease his depression and anxiety.

On the album's 17 tracks, Herb is backed by a wide range of French jazz musicians. Best of all, we hear him playing fluidly with his lyrical, West Coast bebop approach. There are standards, originals and bop pieces, but most of all, we have Herb in his prime, at a time just after all seemed lost and when possibilities and opportunities were beginning to emerge. It was the dawn of his second career and a new life. He would re-marry in Germany and start a new family. Talking about Lorraine was difficult for Herb, but he was ready to open up and share those memories with me.

Which brings us to Lisa. What happened to her when Herb moved abroad? From my interview:

JW: One last question that's been tugging at me: What happened to Lisa?
HG: My sister and her husband offered to take care of her while I was gone and then decided to adopt her. Lisa thought I was her uncle until her 16th birthday.

JW: What does Lisa do now?
HG: Lisa and her husband are lawyers. They are updating the state law books where they live.

JW: Do you stay in touch with her?
HG: Lisa, her husband and their daughter will be coming to Hamburg for a week in June. The last time I saw her was four years ago. However we talk on the phone and write emails all the time. I'm looking forward to seeing them.

Herb Geller died in 2013. To read my five-part interview with him, go here for Part 1 (a link to subsequent parts can be found by scrolling above the red date at the top).

JazzWax tracks: You'll find European Rebirth: Herb Geller, 1962 Paris Sessions (Fresh Sound) here.

You'll find more Herb Geller albums here.

JazzWax clips: Here's Greta No. 1 with Herb Geller (as), Henri Renaud (p), Michel Gaudry (b) and Teddy Martin (d)...

Gretta No. 1

And here's I Should Care, with Herb Geller (as), Jack Dieval (p), Jacques Hess (b) and Franco Manzecchi (d), in which you can hear Herb's lingering grief coming through on the ballad...

I Should Care

Tom, Artie and Helen

In the Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed actor Tom Blyth for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Tom plays Billy in the Epix drama series Billy the Kid. [Photo above of Tom Blyth by Chris Large, courtesy of Epix]

Here's the trailer...

Artie Kane (1929-2022), a distinctive West Coast studio pianist and organist who can be heard on dozens of recordings and who was a prolific TV and movie composer and arranger, died on June 21. He was 93.

Perhaps Kane's best known contribution was his opening organ part on Frank Sinatra's The Summer Wind in 1966. I interviewed Artie back in 2016 when I wrote an essay for the Wall Street Journal arguing that Strangers in the Night is Sinatra's finest and most perfect Reprise album, thanks in great measure to Artie's witty organ throughout, except on the title track. [Photo above of Artie Kane with Henry Mancini]

Why the title track was recorded first with a different arranger and orchestra and how Sinatra beat Jack Jones onto the radio with the song even though Jones recorded the song first can be found in my WSJ essay here. My JazzWax posts on the 1966 album and my conversations with Artie are here and here.

In tribute to Artie, I decided on two clips. The first gives you a brief look at Artie at work on a song with the fastest tempo ever recorded by Sinatra. The second is my send-off to Artie, who was adored by singers for his hip and sophisticated musical playfulness. As Peggy Lee says in the following clip about Artie's organ fills mid-song while looking over at him, "I like that"...

Here's Sinatra singing The Most Beautiful Girl in the World from Strangers in the Night. As the boom camera swings off to the left and pans right, watch for Artie Kane on the right side of your screen on the organ and Nelson Riddle conducting...

And here's Peggy Lee singing So What's New, a song for which she wrote the lyrics to John Pisano's music, with Artie on organ...

Jerry Lewis was in his fair share of terrific comedy scenes, but this one takes the cake, from the film Who's Minding the Store (1963). A book could be written just on how exactly this scene was shot and reshot and reshot. I haven't a clue how they did it, but the scene is mind-blowing. Go here...

Jeff Beck has a new album coming with Johnny Depp on vocals (whoops). Here's Beck live with an instrumental of Brian Wilson's Caroline, No. A terrific rendition, leaving me surprised that someone didn't urge him to cover the entire Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album. Would have been spectacular. Go here...

Joan Chamorro is a jazz giant, a high-energy multi-instrumentalist, an arranger-composer and an inspiring jazz teacher beloved by his students in Barcelona, Spain. Here he is in May 2002 on baritone saxophone with Germany's WDR Big Band playing Dizzy Gillespie's Bebop...

And finally, here's Helen Reddy in 1972. No words are needed...