Lennie Hambro The Complete Recordings from 1953-1957

[sgcim]

This is basically the two Hambro Quintet albums Hambro did for Epic, 'The nature of Things' and 'Message From Hambro', plus an overseas session and a latin session he also did.

Hambro gets a nice, full sound compared to most jazz alto players of the time, but I don't like the excessive vibrato he uses on the ballad cuts here. I was more interested in the sidemen he used , who include Eddie Costa, Sal Salvador, Barry Galbraith, but especially Dick Garcia, who really shines on the 'Message From Hambro' LP.

Salvador is his usually glib, unswinging self, but Costa and Galbraith are solid.

The real surprise is the mysterious Dick Garcia, who continually surprises me as a sideman as being a stronger player than he was on his only LP as a leader, whose title 'Message From Garcia' 

was either an influence on, or influenced by Hambro's title, depending on which came first (I think it was hambro's). While Garcia's playing on his own LP was fine, he seems to be on fire here and his other session with Tony Scott ('Both Sides of Tony Scott'), and gets a much stronger, Johnny Smith-like sound on the Joe Roland re-issue 'The Vibes Players of Bethlehem, Vol. 2.

Wade Legge is also very strong on this LP, bringing a much hipper feel to it than 'The Nature of Things', plus some nice tunes.

[Larry Kart]

"Message from Garcia" is a play on the title of the once-famous essay "A Message To Garcia": 
 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Message_to_Garcia

[mikeweil]

This is on my wish list for some time now - IIRC one session has Mongo Santamaria and other Latin percussionists.

https://www.freshsoundrecords.com/lenny-hambro-albums/6260-complete-sessions-1953-1957-4-lps-on-2-cds-bonus-tracks.html

[sgcim]

2 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

"Message from Garcia" is a play on the title of the once-famous essay "A Message To Garcia": 
 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Message_to_Garcia

Yeah, I knew that, but what is a Message to Hambro about?

[Larry Kart]

1 hour ago, sgcim said:

Yeah, I knew that, but what is a Message to Hambro about?

"Message from Hambro" ("from," not "to") is self-explanatory, I think -- a musical message from Hambro. Unless you think that Garcia's presence and the name of that Garcia album means that it must be a play on "Message from Garcia,"  but if so, what would be the point?  We'll probably never know for sure, but my guess is that the passing similarity of the album titles was just an accident. 

BTW, do you know this album?
 

https://www.amazon.com/Fourmost-Guitars-Jimmy-Raney/dp/B001UVSMTO

Used to have a copy but can't find it now -- can't believe I ever let it out of my hands.

[jazzbo]

Both of these have been released in Japan (in October 2015) and are still available via cdjapan. They sound great.

[sgcim]

18 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

"Message from Hambro" ("from," not "to") is self-explanatory, I think -- a musical message from Hambro. Unless you think that Garcia's presence and the name of that Garcia album means that it must be a play on "Message from Garcia,"  but if so, what would be the point?  We'll probably never know for sure, but my guess is that the passing similarity of the album titles was just an accident. 

BTW, do you know this album?
 

https://www.amazon.com/Fourmost-Guitars-Jimmy-Raney/dp/B001UVSMTO

Used to have a copy but can't find it now -- can't believe I ever let it out of my hands.

The fact that Garcia worked so closely with Hambro on Message From Hambro (a lot of times they're playing intricate lines in harmony, blowing at the same time, Garcia blowing at the same time Hambro is playing the melody on flute or alto) really surprised me. I didn't think much about the title until I recently heard Hambro's record on this re-issue.

They must have felt musically very close to each other for Hambro to use basically the same title as Garcia's fine LP. Garcia used Quill on alto on his album. It's also notable for being one of the first(if not the first) Bill Evans sideman albums. Your 'buddy' Tony Scott also plays on the LP using his real name A.J Sciacca.

The Salinger-like existence of Garcia was a mystery to even NY musicians like Aaron Sachs, whose first question to me on our first gig together was, "Whatever happened to Dick Garcia?"  I already posted the answer to that question here previously, but albums like this make we want to disturb his seclusion.

'Fourmost Guitars' is a great LP, with primo Raney with John Wilson, and a great guitar duo with Puma and Garcia. I probably posted what Puma said when I asked him when Garcia died, but it's worth repeating. "Dead? Yeah, he might as well be dead. He was in here (Gregory's jazz club) a few nights ago, leaning on the juke box with that same dead look in his eyes. Some people are dead, but they just don't know it."

Remarks like that probably explained why there was no Memorial at St. Peter's for Puma...

 

Edited May 2, 2018 by sgcim

[Big Beat Steve]

So ... time to revisit the Fourmost Guitars again, then (I've had the original LP for about 15 years now). Thanks for bringing this up.

By coincidence the other day I worked my way through a stack of 1958/59 Jazz Hot and Jazz Magazine from France (looking for specific features and reviews) and also noticed these Fourmost Guitars were reviewed. Jazz Magazine found it "all in all a very good guitar album"  and considered Dick Garcia to be "far superior to Joe Puma, having really astonishing technique and ideas".

On the other hand, in "Jazz Hot " where this LP was the subject of the monthly "Pro and con" double review, diehard discographer and researcher Kurt Mohr tore it to shreds, rating it "of no interest" (1 star), considering it an exercise in "vanity and desolation" and a "deadly bore", The way Mohr elaborated on this, he clearly preferred more "meaty" guitarists, a point his colleague André Francis (3 stars = "good") took him to task for, pointing out that "a keen follower of R&B singers will hardly be moved by the music produced by jazzmen leaning towards west coast jazz" (sic ...) "but why bother reviewing such a record at all, then?". Francis  had special praise for the interaction of the musicians on most tracks and particularly for the contributions of Dave Schildkraut with Chuck Wayne. BTW, Kurt Mohr found "Li'l Basses" most palatable (relatively speaking) of them all.

Edited May 2, 2018 by Big Beat Steve

[Fer Urbina]

On 5/2/2018 at 9:01 PM, sgcim said:

The Salinger-like existence of Garcia was a mystery to even NY musicians like Aaron Sachs, whose first question to me on our first gig together was, "Whatever happened to Dick Garcia?"  I already posted the answer to that question here previously, but albums like this make we want to disturb his seclusion.

Last year I asked vibist Warren Chiasson (still active in and around NYC - they were together in George Shearing's group in the late 1950s) and he told me that at some point Garcia left for the West Coast, became religious and left the music world.

F

[sgcim]

On 6/19/2018 at 8:34 AM, Fer Urbina said:

Last year I asked vibist Warren Chiasson (still active in and around NYC - they were together in George Shearing's group in the late 1950s) and he told me that at some point Garcia left for the West Coast, became religious and left the music world.

F

Yeah, I posted here about emailing his nephew, and he said that DG was living in seclusion, practicing Zen meditation in his parents house in Astoria, NY.

His nephew said he had some reel-to-reel tapes of his uncle playing at home at the Sunday afternoon family gathering jam sessions they used to have at his house in Queens. His wife was a vocalist. I asked him if I could check them out/copy them/buy them, or whatever, and he got all upset, so i dropped it.

BTW, I finally picked up the Oscar Pettiford CD 'Discoveries', with him, Eddie Costa and Ed Thigpen playing 'Taking a Chance on Love'- great stuff! Also Costa on A.K. Salim's, 'Blues Suite, which has a great Costa feature on it. Still looking for the Andre Hodeir date.

Edited June 20, 2018 by sgcim

[Fer Urbina]

On 6/20/2018 at 8:16 PM, sgcim said:

 Still looking for the Andre Hodeir date.

There's a reissue by Fresh Sound.

F

[sgcim]

Is it worth getting? Does Costa get piano (not just vibes) solos?

[Fer Urbina]

On 8/25/2018 at 7:54 AM, sgcim said:

Is it worth getting? Does Costa get piano (not just vibes) solos?

Costa doesn't play piano on the Hodeir record. The Fresh Sound reissue of Hodeir's American recordings sounds like a needle-drop to me (I don't think there's ever been a CD of those). As for whether it's worth getting, it is to me, but I quite like Hodeir's work.

F

[sgcim]

Thanks for getting back to me! You saved me $25. I buy ANYTHING EC plays piano on, but while the vibes are good, I much prefer his piano playing.The Hodeir French recording is available on various streaming sources.