Before vibraphonist Julius Wechter became a pop-rock studio musician in Los Angeles, played marimba on Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass recordings, led Alpert's Baja Marimba Band, wrote "Spanish Flea" for the Tijuana Brass and played on movie and television soundtracks in Hollywood, he was a West Coast jazz combo leader.
Born in Chicago in 1935, Wechter moved to Los Angeles when he was 8. When he was 21, he recorded two swinging albums in the mid-1950s—Linear Sketches for the Jazz West label in May 1956, and an album for Intro Records with a quintet in 1957 that went unreleased. Now, both have been issued on a single, 24-bit digitally remastered CD as The Julius Wechter Quartet & Quintet 1956-1957 by Fresh Sound.
Linear Sketches featured Cy Colley, Jr. (as), Julius Wechter (vib), James Bates (b) and Frank DeVito (d). Colley recorded this one album and then disappeared, either into the studios or another occupation. Which is rather odd given how good he is here, with a sound on his alto saxophone that's somewhere between Art Pepper and Charlie Mariano. I'm not sure if James Bates is still with us and Frank DeVito has a webpage.
The second album features a Wechter-assembled quintet: John Bambridge, Jr. (cl), Julius Wechter (vib), Dennis Budimir (g), James Bates (b) and Jerry Williams (d). Bambridge's last known recording was in 1998, Budimir died in January, and Williams' last known recording was in 1990. Bill Kirchner tells me Bambridge later played alto saxophone and arranged for the Tonight Show band in Los Angeles. So how did Fresh Sound wind up issuing what was never released?
There's a fascinating note in the booklet accompanying the new release:
Tracks 9-15 are previously unreleased and they have been taken from a unique disc (test pressing) used to test the recording quality of a vinyl master. The original sound is very good, but unfortunately, on this copy, a superficial noise appears that is sometimes quite present. We have chosen not to seek to attenuate it down at all costs, preferring to keep the sound as natural as possible. In spite of everything, we regret not having been able to include the three tracks that are missing from this album which, due to their state of deterioration, we have not been able to restore.
I didn't hear the sound referred to in the note above, so if it's there, higher-end systems may pick it up. And I count five missing tracks: Get Happy, Greensleeves, Mambo, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea and an untitled song.
The music on both albums is uniformly excellent. Here, again, is what Fresh Sound does so well—rescuing little-known jazz recordings that would never be re-issued by label conglomerates in the U.S. Can you imagine if Fresh Sound never existed? We wouldn't have had the joy and privilege to experience thousands of great jazz albums by astonishing artists simply because there's no way for U.S. labels to turn a profit. For filling this gap in jazz history, Jordi Pujol, the founder and owner of Fresh Sound, is truly a jazz hero and savior.
Julius Wechter died of cancer at age 63 in 1999.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find The Julius Wechter Quartet & Quintet 1956-1957 (Fresh Sound) here.
JazzWax clips: Here's Trousseau, from Linear Sketches...
And here's Scotch Hop from the unissued album, with Colley on clarinet...
