Kenny Dorham: 'Complete Café Bohemia,' 1956
Out now from Blue Note are all the tracks recorded on one night over four sets
Like most Manhattan jazz clubs in the 1950s, the Café Bohemia was in Greenwich Village. Located at 15 Barrow St. from 1955 to 1960, the club was revived at its original location in 2019 and closed in 2023. Today, it’s the Barrow Street Ale House.
Now, Blue Note has released Kenny Dorham’s The Complete ‘Round About Midnight at the Café Bohemia as part of its Tone Poet series. It’s available as a three-LP set remastered on 180-gram vinyl or as a two-CD set. The music was recorded on May 31, 1956, which means yesterday was the album’s 70th anniversary. The music sounds as fresh today as it did then.
Club owner Jimmy Garofolo had operated the space since 1949 as a restaurant and bar. In 1955, saxophonist Charlie Parker lived across the street in an apartment with poet Ted Joans, an extraordinary artist. Parker told Garofolo he’d play the club for free drinks.
The deal sounded good to Garofolo, but Parker died in March 1955 prior to the start of his engagement. The buzz surrounding his pending gig and death was sufficient to give Café Bohemia its start.
Of the many artists who recorded there, perhaps the one who stands out is Dorham on ‘Round About Midnight at the Cafe Bohemia. Dorham had been the fourth of five regular trumpeters in Parker’s ensembles—Dizzy Gillespie, Howard McGhee, Miles Davis, Dorham and Red Rodney.
At the Café Bohemia, Dorham was accompanied by J. R. Monterose (ts), Kenny Burrell (g), Bobby Timmons (p), Sam Jones (b) and Arthur Edgehill (d). Also there were recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder and Blue Note producer Alfred Lion. This early hard-bop session was Dorham’s second recording at the club.
The previous year, in November 1955, he had been a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, an early configuration of what would become Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. The musicians on the earlier date were Kenny Dorham (tp), Hank Mobley (ts), Horace Silver (p), Doug Watkins (b) and Art Blakey (d).
Dorham left the Messengers soon and formed Kenny Dorham’s Jazz Prophets, a competitive quintet with the same lineup that appears on the album that’s the subject of this post.
The 17-track release celebrates the brilliance of Dorham, whose gifts have never been fully appreciated by jazz listeners. On ballads, he’s beautifully soulful. On uptempo numbers, he’s as a fleet as a tap dancer. The group—Monterose, Burrell, Timmons, Jones and Edgehill—were perfectly suited for Dorham’s soft, muscular touch on trumpet.
Listen for Bud Powell’s influence on Timmons ; Monterose’s singular commanding style free from Lester Young or Coleman Hawkins; the influence of Charlie Christian on Burrell; Jones’s strong, pronounced bass playing; and the influence of Max Roach on Edgehill.
A few insights into the songs: Royal Roost, a blues by Bud Powell and Dorham, was first recorded by Dorham in 1946 and had been recorded a week earlier by tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins as Tenor Madness. Mexico City is a contrafact of Powell’s Tempus Fugit. K.D.’s Blues sounds like a reworking of Lean Baby. Hill’s Edge is a reworking of Tune Up.
And it’s interesting how the intro to Monaco sounds similar to the intro to The Scene Is Clean on Tadd Dameron’s Fontainebleau (recorded on March 9, 1956), a date that included Dorham. And dig how Dorham scrunches notes on the alternate track of Who Cares?
It’s fabulous to hear this live album again with great sound and additional tracks. The recording is a perfect entry point for those unfamiliar with Dorham. Most of all, we get to hear artists in their early years, clearly influenced by other jazz masters and before their own style took shape.
Kenny Dorham died in 1972 at age 48 of kidney disease.
To buy the new set as three LPs or two CDs, go here.
Here’s Who Cares?
And here’s Hill’s Edge…