Mort Weiss Meets Sam Most

[GA Russell]

Within the space of five weeks SMS Jazz Records has released two CDs by a clarinetist I had never heard of before named Mort Weiss. Here's his story:

Weiss was born in 1935, so that makes him 71. In the late 40s he played tenor sax alongside Frank Morgan in Freddie Martin's orchestra backing up the band's singer Merv Griffin. He scraped along until 1965 when he realized that his life was a mess with vodka and Benzedrine. So he started a new life, cleaned up and stopped playing music. Weiss got a job at a music store called Wallach's Music City and worked his way up to District Manager until the chain went bankrupt. So in 1979 he started his own store The Sheet Music Shoppe, which he says in now the premier print music store in the West.

After 35 years of not playing, he took up the clarinet again in 2001. He recorded a jam he did with a regular customer, a guitarist named Ron Eschete', and released it on his own record label (SMS stands for Sheet Music Shoppe).

So far, it's an interesting story with a happy ending, but it doesn't make we want to listen to him. Now get this: In 2003 Joey DeFrancesco called him up out of the blue after hearing about him. They recorded an album together called The Mort Weiss Quartet.

Prior to August Weiss had released four albums of himself. On August 8 he relased his fifth album called Mort Weiss Meets Sam Most. This was a quintet jam session recorded live at a club (I think in L.A.) called Steamers March 1 of this year.

Very mainstream, it could have been recorded in 1958. It swings throughout, and is perfect for late at night.

There are ten songs (all familiar: five popular standards and five jazz standards) totalling 75 minutes. This was a true jam session. Weiss had never played with Sam Most before.

Most is on a roll. I hadn't heard anything he has done for thirty years. Then last year he recorded on the popular Terry Gibbs album of bebop songs and now this.

The remaining members of the group were Eschete' on guitar, Luther Hughes on bass and Roy McCurdy on drums. (I saw McCurdy play with Cannonball Adderley about 1970, when the band's current album was Country Preacher.)

Now here's the surprise. Weiss is good. He has a great tone. He's not perfect. A few times he bit off more than he could chew, and did not play a run of sixteenth notes cleanly.

Most does a fine job, although not much is asked of him. Most of his solos are on the flute, but some are on the tenor sax.

Eschete' appears to be a man over 50. I don't know what he has been doing all of these years, but he deserves to be heard more often. He too has a great tone. Like Weiss he is not perfect. On a few of his fast runs he always hits the notes cleanly but fails to keep up that beautiful tone that he otherwise creates.

Luther Hughes on bass is a find. He's great, both with his comping and his solos. Why have I never heard of him before?

I suppose much of the credit for the swinging should go to Roy McCurdy. The great ones make it look easy.

CD Universe has this for $12.85. If you are in the market for a clarinet album or music which is straight from the 50s, I can recommend this one.

I'll start another thread to talk about the new album with Joey DeFrancesco.

[Larry Kart]

The series of albums that Sam Most recorded for Xanadu in the late 1970s -- mostly (so to speak) on flute --are all worthwhile IMO: "Mostly Flute" (with Duke Jordan, Tal Farlow, Sam Jones, and Billy Higgins); "Flute Flight" (with Lou Levy, Monty Budwig, and Donald Bailey); and "Flute Talk" (with Joe Farrell, Mike Wofford, Bob Magnusson, and Roy McCurdy). Most is also on Sam Noto's Xanadu album "Noto-Riety" (with Dolo Coker, Budwig, and Frank Butler). Most is a technically and musically very agile/clever bebopper; the only problem some might have with him is that it seems like his lines are almost conceived the way a whistler would do so -- that is, the actual physical flute participates a bit less in the process than one is used to. (I know that's imprecise, but whjen you hear him, you'll know what I'm referring to.) In line with this, Most is credited by Roland Kirk with being among the first flutists to do the "humming through the flute" thing that Kirk popularized.

[wigwise]

Sam's style of humming goes back to his childhood and is a result of "trying not to make too much noise" while practicing in his parents house. For those interested in Sam, you should check out hs website http://www.sammost.com.

[Lazaro Vega]

Multiphonics....

[garthsj]

I have all of Mort Weiss's albums, being the jazz clarinet fanatic that I am. I think that he is very good, but quite rough, as one would expect, and certainly does not have the same control that someone like Eddie Daniels has, for example. But .. THAT may be why he is interesting to listen to, much as Pee Wee Russell was interesting to listen to. One is never quite sure what is going to happen with that damnably difficult instrument.

One complaint however, if Mort Weiss can put out five albums in about 18 months, how come we have had no Buddy DeFranco albums for several years? And Buddy continues to be the world's best jazz clarinetist, bar none! With all the fans that Buddy continues to have, I am surprised that he has not gone the route of putting out his own music, where he could go back to producing the kind of jazz he plays so magnificantly in his public appearances --- sublime bop clainet.

Edited October 5, 2006 by garthsj

[jazztrain]

I have all of Mort Weiss's albums, being the jazz clarinet fanatic that I am. I think that he is very good, but quite rough, as one would expect, and certainly does not have the same control that someone like Eddie Daniels has, for example. But .. THAT may be why he is interesting to listen to, much as Pee Wee Russell was interesting to listen to. One is never quite sure what is going to happen with that damnably difficult instrument.

One complaint however, if Mort Weiss can put out five albums in about 18 months, how come we have had no Buddy DeFranco albums for several years? And Buddy continues to be the world's best jazz clarinetist, bar none! With all the fans that Buddy continues to have, I am surprised that he has not gone the route of putting out his own music, where he could go back to producing the kind of jazz he plays so magnificantly in his public appearances --- sublime bop clainet.

Garth:

Buddy apparently has a recording session set up for next month in New York:

http://www.buddydefranco.com/itinerary.html

[garthsj]

I have all of Mort Weiss's albums, being the jazz clarinet fanatic that I am. I think that he is very good, but quite rough, as one would expect, and certainly does not have the same control that someone like Eddie Daniels has, for example. But .. THAT may be why he is interesting to listen to, much as Pee Wee Russell was interesting to listen to. One is never quite sure what is going to happen with that damnably difficult instrument.

One complaint however, if Mort Weiss can put out five albums in about 18 months, how come we have had no Buddy DeFranco albums for several years? And Buddy continues to be the world's best jazz clarinetist, bar none! With all the fans that Buddy continues to have, I am surprised that he has not gone the route of putting out his own music, where he could go back to producing the kind of jazz he plays so magnificantly in his public appearances --- sublime bop clainet.

Garth:

Buddy apparently has a recording session set up for next month in New York:

http://www.buddydefranco.com/itinerary.html

Thanks very much for pointing his out to me .. I have not visited Buddy's site for some time now .... This promises to be a great session .. BUT .. I would still like to hear him in a quartet setting with a crackerjack rhythm section.

[GA Russell]

In the past couple of days I have listened to both of the Mort Weiss albums that we have discussed here as well as Disc 3 of the Buddy DeFranco Mosaic box.

I was surprised to realize that although DeFranco is an extraordinary musician, I find Weiss's tone to be much more warm and pleasant.