In 1955, Long Island was a checkerboard of farming and fishing communities. The longest island in the continental U.S., Long Island remained relatively sleepy and quaint until 1958, when the Long Island Expressway was completed and spanned 71 miles of the 118-mile length of the land mass. Before '58, Long Island towns just over the Queens border became bedroom communities, as young married war veterans who qualified for the G.I. Bill bought homes with low-interest, zero-down loans and commuted to jobs in the city on the Long Island Railroad. [Photo above of Tony Aless]
During this pre-boom period in 1955, Tony Aless recorded his Long Island Suite for Roost, dedicated to towns that were little more than sleepy villages back then. The only distant exceptions on the album were Riverhead and Greenport way out on the east end.
Aless's eight town tunes were Levittown, Corona, Aqueduct, Riverhead, Valley Stream, Greenport, Fire Island and Massapequa. Most were near Long Island's Route 27 along the southern shore. Other than that connection, it's hard to know why Aless chose these specific towns.
It's also unclear why Aless composed a musical valentine to Long Island, but his ability to write and arrange swinging work is evident here. What's even stranger—given his ability to compose, arrange, contract top musicians and conduct—is that Long Island Suite was his only leadership album. [Road map above from 1954]
Aless was born in 1921 and recorded on piano first with Johnny McGhee and His Orchestra in 1939 and then Teddy Powell's band in the 1940s until he joined Woody Herman's band in 1945. Then in 1946, he was with Charlie Ventura, Neal Hefti, Dinah Washington and Chubby Jackson before landing in Hefti's seminal Repetition recording session with Charlie Parker in 1947. [Photo above of Tony Aless]
Aless also played with Stan Getz in 1950, on the Parker session with the Dave Lambert Singers in 1953, George Handy's By George! (Handy, of Course) in '55 and then he recorded his Long Island Suite. Aless's recording career ended in 1958. I'm not sure why or what he did for the next 30 years. More than likely, he raised a family and held a steady teaching job to pay the bills.
Talk about an all-star band, here's who he pulled together for Long Island Suite: Nick Travis (tp), J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding (tb), Dave Schildkraut (as), Seldon Powell and Pete Mondello (ts), Billy Bauer (g), Arnold Fishkin (b), Don Lamond (d) and Tony Aless (p,ldr). According to the liner notes, Bauer, Fishkin and Lamond lived on Long Island. [Photo above of Nick Travis]
Sixty-five years later, the album remains superb on every level. Tracks jump, with sections conversing like the Basie band, while soloists are top shelf. And Aless's swinging bop piano is sensational. It's hard to understand why he wasn't given additional opportunities to record as a leader or why he didn't find a career in television given his touch. Or maybe he did. Who knows. [Photo above of Seldon Powell, with J.J. Johnson in the distance]
Tony Aless died in 1988.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Tony Aless's Long Island Suite at Blue Sounds here.
JazzWax clips: Here's Levittown...
Here's Riverhead...
And here's Aqueduct...
