hep
CD2095
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Oh You Crazy Moon (Van Heusen,Burke) 2.54 Strollin' (Silver) 7.29 Baby Won't You Please Come Home (Warfield,Williams) 5.47 Antonia (Griffith) 6.45 That's All (Haymes,Brandt) 4.25 Shine (Mack,Brown,Dabney) 5.21 Body and Soul (Green,Heyman,Eyton,Sour) 5.36 JCC (Griffith) 7.37 Holland Park (Griffith) 6.42 Travellin' Light (Young, Mundy, Mercer) 4.27 Ricochet (Griffith) 6.58 These Foolish Things (Strachey,Maschowitz) 2.27
(vocal Tina May)
(vocal Tina May)
(vocal Tina May)
Frank Griffith (leader, clt, Ten sax,arranger) Tony Dixon (lead tpt) Freddie Gavita, Steve Fishwick, Ed Benstead (Tpts) Adrian Fry, Simon Walker, Mattias Eskilsson (tmbs), Roger Williams (Bs tmbs) Chris Gower (tmb – only on These Foolish Things for Adrian Fry) Sam Mayne, Matt Wates (alt sax,flute) Bob Sydor, Karen Sharp (ten sax, Clt) Richard Shepherd (bar sax, bs clt) John Turville (pno) Spencer Brown (bs) Matt Home (dms) Recording Engineer Dave Moore. Aug 17th 2010.Phoenix Sound, Pinewood Studios. Recording /Mixing Engineer, Dick Lewzey, Jan 10/11,2011 Phoenix Sound. Mastered 1 February, 2011 at Red Gables Studio, Greenford. Dick Lewzey and Dick Hammet. Production – Frank Griffith, Alastair Robertson. Score supervisor - August & January sessions – Paul Fawcus. Photography – Robin Holland. Tina May portrait – Richard Blanshard. CD design – James Hutcheson.
‘Holland Park Non-Stop’
THE FRANK GRIFFITH BIG BAND
At one time, it was unusual for American jazz musicians to live and work here in the UK. In earlier days, of course, there were inter-union rivalries; Britons were prevented from performing in the United States and Americans were banned from taking employment here. Not so today. The explosion of jazz education in our music academies has opened up all sorts of new possibilities for qualified US jazz players to put down roots here and flourish. Which brings us to Frank Griffith, the leader of the big band featured on this new Hep recording. He’s from Oregon originally and enjoyed a considerable jazz career in the US before arriving in this country in 1996. Balancing performing experience with hardwon academic credentials, Frank is both a practising musician
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and an imposing presence on the local jazz education scene. He is
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Director of Performance in the School of Arts at Brunel University in Uxbridge in outer London and an ideal help-mate to aspiring young musicians embarking on a professional career. Ever the jazz activist, Frank is also liable to pop up in a variety of local playing situations. There’s his long-established Nonet whose ‘‘Live’ Ealing Jazz Festival 2000’ album was released on Hep CD 2081 following an earlier US-based all-star session entitled ‘The Suspect’ also on Hep (CD 2077). Aside from festivals, the Nonet plays Ronnie Scott’s and Pizza Express in Dean Street and as many clubs as can be mustered. And that’s not to overlook Frank’s appearances fronting duos, trios and sundry small groups and his diverse work as an arranger. But of course, it’s for the big band format itself that he retains a special loyalty and affection. Frank’s big band know-how came to the boil once he’d arrived in New York in the 1980s. A case of being in the right place at very much the right time; his studies at City College (where he
later taught) allowing him the opportunity to sit in with a host of rehearsal ensembles. He even fitted in a nation-wide tour with the Glenn Miller orchestra in 1984 as the band’s lead alto. Having gained his Bachelor of Music degree at City College Frank moved on to the Manhattan School of Music for his Master’s, again deputising in big bands led by pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi (“Really hard charts,” he recalled) and drummer Mel Lewis. In what might be termed a starting point for his present role, he also co-led a brilliant ensemble with trumpeter Bill Mobley, this featuring such star players as tenorist Billy Pierce, pianist James Williams, and trumpeters Joe Magnarelli and Kenny Rampton. The cream of the Big Apple crop, you could say. Frank sums up his continuing desire to compose and arrange thus: “The reason we write is because we want to hear a certain tune played our own way.” This desire to present music of one’s own was furthered once Frank had re-located permanently to the UK and first got to know (and write for) drummer-bandleader Pete Cater. Then came the present-day Frank Griffith Big Band, packed with
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fine players, whose debut on record this is. His biggest kick, Frank
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says, is “Standing in front of my own band, conducting the ‘monster’ and letting the band play my arrangements. Learning that the less you play yourself the better. Leading a big band that is also a jazz band and hearing these guys getting to blow a lot, among people they respect. That’s something to celebrate.” A professed admirer of Duke Ellington and Thad Jones and the way they featured principle solo voices, Frank sees his clarinet like a “roving narrator” reporting and commenting on the surroundings. Look out for that reportorial touch on many of these tracks. Oh You Crazy Moon was producer Alastair Robertson’s choice. He had liked an earlier version by the US singer Teddi King and Frank’s distinctive arrangement provides the ideal setting for Tina May’s reading of this attractive song. As he says, “It sounds like the song was written for her,” adding “Tina doesn’t blink an eye when you ask her to sing something new. She’s the ultimate professional.” Widely feted here and on the continent (she performs and records in French), Tina is clearly as much at home amid the clamour of a
big band as she is in more intimate performing situations. Easily one of the best of our home-grown jazz vocalists, her sheer joiede-vivre shines out every time she sings. Frank’s warm-sounding tenor is the perfect complement. Strollin’ is from the Horace Silver book and features “young trumpet sensation” Freddy Gavita in fluent form amid some brassy shouts. Pete Cater helped with this easy-paced arrangement and the other solos are by Sammy Mayne (alto) and trombonist Adrian Fry. Baby Won’t You Please Come Home is given a 1960s Basie feel by Frank with “the entire ensemble closely voiced within one octave.” As he says, “Not as easy as it sounds!” Same goes, I suppose, for Frank’s lovely low-register clarinet. Muted trumpet by Steve Fishwick. Antonia is a Griffith original and recalls a past friendship; it’s a bright Latin number with a series of catchy motifs and features what he rightly calls “A scintillating solo by Matt ‘The Peach’ Wates” culminating in a lively joust between Wates and Gavita. Frank learned that That’s All was written by Bob Haymes, uncle to the singer Dick Haymes Jr for whom Frank was working as
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musical director. Haymes senior recorded it but Frank has slowed
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it down and Tina takes to it beautifully. The lyrical baritone is by recent-NYJO graduate Richard Shepherd. Shine is another 1920s holdover: “The tune lays nicely on the clarinet (as long as we keep it in the key of Eb!). Brass are muted and drums ‘brushed’ the whole journey. Not every chart has to be crash, bang, wallop, does it?” John Turville’s quick-thinking accompaniment to Frank’s final clarinet chorus stands out. Johnny Green’s Body and Soul has been a tenor test-piece ever since Coleman Hawkins stunned everyone way back in 1939 with his imperious version so to Frank “it had to be done…what can I say?” More bright piano here, too. JCC is short for ‘Jazz Corner Comrade’ and recalls the days when Birdland in New York was truly the ‘Jazz Corner of the World’. It’s a cleverly-voiced medium blues “with a few bass melodies strewn about and hard sockin’ tenor solos (by Bob Sydor)”. And don’t overlook another excellent Turville solo, Ed Benstead’s relaxed trumpet, Spencer Browns’ supple bass lines and oh yes, FG’s clarinet. His jazz waltz, Holland Park was
commissioned by Cardinal Vaughan School (based, reasonably enough, in London’s Holland Park) for their big band and includes impressive solo playing by Gavita (on flugelhorn) and Mayne, ahead of Matt Home’s turbulent breaks. Frank’s swinging chart for Travellin’ Light was written for the late Eileen Scott, who sang for so long with the Sound of Seventeen big band. This time it’s Tina May’s “sassy swagger” that is its principal joy. The virtuoso trombone is by Mattias Eskillsson, with Sydor’s tenor and more throaty clarinet comments from the bandleader. Ricochet is an “up-tempo I Got Rhythm romp featuring a completely blinding solo by Steve Fishwick, some sweet and meticulous tenor by Karen Sharp and Home’s solid drum breaks.” Altoist Wates jumps in ahead of Eskillsson’s robust trombone, Turville and Griffith (on tenor) adding their own succinct commentaries, the rhythm section pushing hard. The climactic high note finish comes courtesy of ace lead trumpeter Tony Dixon. Finally, These Foolish Things was arranged by Frank for “1940s balladeer David Allyn for a club residency we had at the Red Blazer in New York. I arranged it for
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tenor as a quick in-an-out good-nite for listeners.� And discerning
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record buyers!
Peter Vacher / March 2011