(Swing) Frank Wess - North, South, East... Wess and No Count - 1956 (2012), FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

There's no Count Basie here, but his spirit pervades these relaxed, swinging sessions, not least because five Basie alumni - Frank Foster, Frank Wess, Benny Powell, Henry Coker and Eddie Jones - splendidly lead the way. Aided by guitarist Kenny Burrell and drummer Kenny Clarke, with arrangements that offer plenty of space for soloists, this is a typically accomplished, unpretentious Basie-type small group blowing session. The piano-less rhythm section is buttressed by the solid bass of Eddie Jones and a cooking Kenny Clarke, while Kenny Burrell proves a fine comper and a down-home blues player.
Original liner notes from the Savoy album "North, South, East...Wess" (MG 12072)
From all points of the Jazz compass comes the unanimous acclaim that has maintained Count Basie's band once again the tops in the land. From all sections of Basie's band come the unanimously acclaimed sidemen who compromise the band on this date. With the exception of veteran drummer Kenny Clarke and Detroit guitarist Kenny Burrell, the performers on this date are the nucleus of Bill Basie's swingingest band of all. The fact that these men, though young in years for the most part, have been with Basie for 3 years, 5 years, 6 years, on the average, again supports the all-time acclaim of every Basie-ite, Joe Jones, Lester, Sweets Edison, and scores more, that this is truly a happy home for jazzmen. The band's place is unique in jazz history. Since its inception it has swung with force, based its library on the blues, and been renowned for the rhythm section sound. Times and eras change. Joe Jones is replaced by a succession of drummers, Lester and Herschel Evans are replaced by the two Franks... Foster and Wess here, Walter Page is replaced by young Eddie Jones, Buck Clayton and Harry Edison are replaced by Thad Jones and Joe Newman... but the sound continues! Ernie Wilkins and Neal Hefti use advanced harmonies, still the flavor, the bite of the brass, the wailing of the solo saxes, the pulsating rhythm is eternal, as if the individuals who perform them can do no wrong... 'cause they're on Basie's band! Yet, on careful analysis, it IS the men who make this band. Their individual talent, their fire, their enthusiasm... sparked by the genius at the key board with the vestpocket style of playing! Let's meet our local heroes on this date: FRANK WESS, leader, on the date is familiar to Savoy fans from OPUS DE JAZZ, his outstanding chamber jazz flute date. Born in 1922 in Kansas City, he's played with Billy Eckstine, Lucky Millinder, Eddie Heywood orks, joining Basie in 1953. Has the distinction of being the first Jazzman to utilize the flute extensively in modern jazz. Tenor-mate FRANK FOSTER also arranges for the Basie band. Hailing from Cincinnati, he joined Count upon Eckstine's and Ernie Wilkins' recommendation in '53 also. He's a college graduate who broke in professionally with the late Wardell Gray. EDDIE JONES is a former Redbank neighbor of Basie's who studied at Howard University, then taught school in South Carolina before joining the band.
Texan HENRY COKER played with Illinois Jacquet and Benny Carter tor many years. Youngster BENNY is a New Orleans boy who's been on Lionel Hampton's band, and a former Canadian resident before joining THE band. The non-use of piano on this LP is no mere coincidence. No, the piano man scheduled didn't goof! No, we're not trying to ape Mulligan's sound. Savoy A & R chief OZZIE CADENA, who masterminded the date, is merely combining a lifelong admiration for the Count's place in a rhythm section by allowing no comparisons, and experimenting with a non-piano rhythm section that is funky, without being contrived. Excellent guitarist Kenny Burrell comps quietly in a Basie style, without copying piano notes, and contributes to the general quiet swing of the section. Kenny Clarke needs no further bouquets from this writer. He's just the END in a rhythm section! 'Nuff said? It would behoove the listener to study carefully the solo credits given under the accompanying titles, so that he can better feel the development of these mature and prime quality jazz performers.
H. Alan Stein
Original liner notes from the Savoy album "No Count" (MG 12078)
The enclosed album is a dream set! Extracting the solo power of the fabulous 1956 Count Basie band, we find a swinging septet of fabulous sidemen earning singular honors in what was planned as a tribute to that man from Redbank, ever-lovin' Bill Basie. Only guitarist Kenny Burrell, a swinging Detroiter, and veteran drummer Kenny Clarke, are non-members of the band that swings the blues, as they say in the publicity blurbs. No piano was used on the date out of respect for Count's irreplaceability in a rhythm section of this type. Rather, Burrell's quiet comping on guitar is used as a suggestive note in the proceedings. Incidentally, Savoy MG 12072 NORTH EAST SOUTH WESS utilizes this same combination of men, and this album is intended as the logical sequence to same. You'll recognize the swinging Franks... Foster and Wess, and Benny Powell and Henry Coker, tenor and trombone stalwarts of the Basie aggregation. Big-toned Eddie Jones rounds out the combo. It's difficult to itemize the points of outstanding solo achievement from tune to tune throughout the date. Let me point out a few high spots and insert a complete listing of solos in sequence so that the listener may hear each man and decide for himself. Of particular note throughout is the rhythm itself. Kenny, Eddie and Klook maintain a constantly moving, busy yet unobtrusive effect that kicks each side without pointing up a lack of piano or an unbalanced section. Klook's intra solo and traded 4's on "Alternative" are fine. Eddie Jones only solo is on the medium-tempoed "Casa de Marcel". Kenny Burrell solos on almost every track in single-noted style, but of particular note is his chorded solo that sounds almost unamplified on the walking blues "Stop Gap". In addition to their full solos, the two tenors trade exciting 4's on Casa de Marcel and the trombones do likewise. Incidentally, listen to the way a jazz group does the Latin-flavored "Serenata". Arrangements are credited in the tune listings alongside here, but of particular note are the big-band use of unison riff against voiced endings. I call attention to the wailing slow blues with pedal-toned trombones a la Woody Herman's 1939 band, and the wailing counterpoint in the lines of "Alternative".
H. Alan Stein