Kenny Clarke - Klook's the man

[EKE BBB]

AAJ review:

Kenny Clarke: Klook's The Man

Kenny Clarke - Published: April 18, 2007

By Chris May

Kenny Clarke

Klook's The Man

Proper Records

2007

Of the three great African American drummers whose work in the early and mid 1940s shaped the contours of bop—Kenny Clarke, Max Roach and Art Blakey—it was “Klook” Clarke who lit the first and fattest fuse: taking timekeeping away from the bass drum and onto the ride cymbal, freeing up bass and snare drums for dialogue with soloists and establishing a paradigm which became one of the new music's defining characteristics.

Roach developed the new style, and Blakey and others recalibrated it for hard bop, but history relates that Clarke made the first moves. In Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff's Hear Me Talkin' To Ya (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1955), Clarke says he began the process in the Teddy Hill band “about 1937,” and that it reached full flower when he was playing with Roy Eldridge “around 1940.” Whatever the precise dates, by the time he was recorded at New York's Minton's Playhouse in 1941, with fellow bop pioneers guitarist Charlie Christian and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, Clarke had the key elements of the style fully down.

Despite this revolutionary innovation, and other seminal activies including membership of the original Modern Jazz Quartet, Clarke's own-name recordings, including five magnificent albums he made for Savoy in 1954 and 1956—each of which is included in Proper Records' lovingly put together, 4-disc retrospective Kenny Clarke: Klook's The Man—have in recent decades been only sporadically available, while those by Roach and Blakey have continued to prosper.

Quite why this is so is a mystery, until you factor in Clarke's emigration from New York to Paris in 1956—for back in the intensely US-centric 1950s, an American jazz musician who moved to Europe rapidly went off radar. Many of Clarke's peers who made the same journey ultimately returned to the US and “rediscovery,” but Clarke went out on a one-way ticket and continued to live and work in Paris until his death in 1985. That Clarke's reputation has continued to suffer from American self-absorption into the present era is evidenced by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns' Jazz: A History Of America's Music (Knopf, 2000). Clarke gets his propers until his departure for France (to which, incidentally, the authors ascribe the wrong year), and then, nothing—he simply ceases to exist. It's an omission shared by many other jazz histories.

Another reason for Clarke's sidelining lies in his life long aversion to drum solos. Unlike the technically virtuosic Roach or generally assertive Blakey, Clarke saw his role as supporting soloists while avoiding the limelight himself. Compared to Roach or Blakey, there are few solos in Clarke's recorded output, and despite an early propensity for dropping “bombs” (from which the nickname Klook derived), even fewer high volume fireworks—instead, Clarke concerned himself with delivering thoughtful, engaged, joyous and utterly irresistible swinging propulsion.

Whatever the cause of his declining profile, Kenny Clarke: Klook's The Man (the title comes from fellow drummer, the late Billy Higgins' appraisal of his predecessor's legacy) is hugely welcome. Spanning the years 1938-56, the set includes in their entirety the five aforementioned Savoy albums—Telefunken Blues, The Ernie Wilkins/Kenny Clarke Septet, Bohemia After Dark, Klook's Clique, Kenny Clarke Meets The Detroit Jazzmen—and, from late 1956, Kenny Clarke's Sextet Plays Andre Hodier, the first album Clarke made as leader in France (after 1956 the 50-year copyright law kicks in and Proper have to hit the pause button). The Savoy albums take up most of discs 2, 3 and 4, with disc 1 acting as a sampler of Clarke's early recordings—inevitably a sketchy one, for 26 tracks from the years 1938-1950 can't dig deep.

The first disc omits the Minton's recordings—which are documented on Proper's Charlie Christian: The Original Guitar Genius and elsewhere—in favour of more obscure releases. They couldn't get much more arcane than the opening four tracks made by Clarke's Kvintett—featuring the leader on xylophone (there's no drummer)—in Sweden in March 1938, towards the end of a four month tour of Europe with the Edgar Hayes Band. An overly mannered mix of chamber swing and Tin Pan Alley, featuring strict tempo vocalist James Anderson, the sides possess a certain period charm, but little else of note.

“Clarke wasn't a virtuoso. He didn't have the technique that Max Roach had - but he could make the band swing more”

From Sweden the disc fast fowards to New York, 1946 and four sides recorded by Kenny Clarke & His 52nd Street Boys—including trumpeters Fats Navarro and Kenny Dorham, saxophonist Sonny Stitt, pianist Bud Powell and the Christianesque guitarist John Collins. Raw, energised and still licensed to thrill, the tunes include the early bop battle cries “Epistrophy” (co-written by Clarke with pianist Thelonious Monk), “52nd Street Theme” and “Oop-Bop-Sh'Bam.”

Then it's back to Paris for the rest of the first disc (prior to his 1956 emigration, Clarke lived in the city 1948-50), and some solid, if unspectacular, recordings with a mix of visiting US musicians, including the towering swing-to-bop baritone saxophonist Cecil Payne, and local players, including bassist Pierre Michelot, both of whom loom large later in the collection (Payne on The Kenny Clarke/Ernie Wilkins Septet, Michelot on Plays Andre Hodier).

The second disc opens with the two 1954-55 sessions which comprise Telefunken Blues, having skipped Clarke's well documented years with the Modern Jazz Quartet and its forerunner the Milt Jackson Quartet (and another 115 or so New York sessions he made as a sideman 1951-55).

The five Savoy albums from Telefunken Blues to Meets The Detroit Jazzmen—which together make up the bulk of discs 2, 3 and 4—find Clarke playing the unpretentious, and generally sunny, blend of supple, swinging bop and hard bop which he majored on during the rest of his bandleading career. Made in the company of some of the most lyrical improvisers of the era—see Personnel details below for the key players—the albums are the apotheosis of Clarke's US output.

If I had to choose just one Savoy to take on a desert island, it would be the elegantly soulful Bohemia After Dark, featuring the just-out-of-Florida Adderley brothers, alto saxophonist Cannonball and cornetist Nat, who together wrote four of the six tracks, plus tenor saxophonist and flautist Jerome Richardson, trumpeter Donald Byrd, pianist Horace Silver and bassist Paul Chambers. But The Ernie Wilkins/Kenny Clarke Septet, distinguished by Count Basie arranger Wilkins' sumptuous little-big-band charts featuring Cecil Payne, runs Bohemia a close second—as does Meets The Detroit Jazzmen, made with a quintet featuring another awesome baritone saxophonist, Pepper Adams, and guitarist Kenny Burrell.

The fourth disc closes with Plays Andre Hodeir (Philips, 1956), a singular and gravely undervalued set of standards and originals arranged, and in some cases essentially re-composed, by the Third Stream-leaning Hodeir. The lineups included two French stars in the making, pianist Martial Solal, who shines quirkily and brilliantly throughout the generous solo space given him, and bassist Pierre Michelot, plus another fine baritone player, Armand Migiani. Europeans outnumber Americans on all three sessions making up the album, which is as assured and enduring as any which came out of the US at the time.

In his biography, Klook: The Story Of Kenny Clarke (Quartet, 1990), author Mike Hennessey quotes the composer Steve Reich: “(Clarke) had an extraordinary sense of time, but wasn't a virtuoso. He didn't have perhaps the technique that Max Roach had—but he could make the band swing more.” That is indeed the essence of Clarke's voodoo, and it's at full power throughout the four wonderful discs making up this box set.

Tracks and Personnel

Tracks: CD1: I Found A New Baby; Once In A While; You're A Sweetheart; Sweet Sue; Epistrophy; 52nd Street Theme; Oop-Bop-Sh'Bam; Rue Chaptal (Royal Roost); Confirmation; A La Colette (Cheryl); Jumpin' There (Listen Here); Jay Mac; Algerian Cynicism; Laurenzology; Doria; I'll Tell You In A Minute; Working Eyes; Stuffy; The Man I Love; I Surrender Dear; Love In The Sun; Iambic Pentameter; Assy Panassy; Robbins' Nest; I'll Get You Let; Be Good, Girl. CD2: Sonor; Strollin'; Blues Mood; Skoot; Klook's Nook; Inhibitions; Baggin' The Blues; Telefunken Blues; Summer Evening; Oz The Wizzard; I Dig You The Most; Pru's Blooze; Plenty For Kenny; Cute Tomato; Now's The Time. CD3: With Apologies To Oscar; Hear Me Talkin' To Ya; Willow Weep For Me; Bohemia After Dark; Chasm; Late Entry; Will Wail; Volcano; La Poria Thority; I Hear A Rhapsody; Yesterdays; Play, Fiddle, Play. CD4: Cottontail; Your Host; Tricotism; Tom's Thumb; You Turned The Tables On Me; Afternoon In Paris; Apothegm; 'Round Midnight; On A Riff; When Lights Are Low; Oblique; Jeru; Eronel; Tahiti; Bemsha Swing; Blue Serge; Swing Spring; The Squirrel; Cadenze.

Personnel: Kenny Clarke: drums, xylophone. CD1: Clarke's Kvintett (1-4); Kenny Clarke & His 52nd Street Boys (5-8); Kenny Clarke Sextet (9-12); Kenny Clarke Orchestra (13-16); Michel De Villers Et Son Orchestre (17-20); Hubert Fol Et Ses Be-Bop Minstrels (21-24); Kenny Clarke & His Orchestra (25,26). CD2: Kenny Clarke All Stars (1-4); Telefunken Blues (5-8); Kenny Clarke/Ernie Wilkins Septet (9-15). CD3: Kenny Clarke Septet (1-6); Klook's Klique (7-12). CD4: Kenny Clarke Meets The Detroit Jazzmen (1-7); Kenny Clarke's Sextet (8-10); Kenny Clarke & His Sextet (11-19). Featured musicians: Fats Navarro, Kenny Dorham, Donald Byrd: trumpet; Nat Adderley: cornet; Henry Coker: trombone; Sonny Stitt, Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, Frank Morgan: alto saxophone; James Moody, Frank Wess, Ernie Wilkins, Jerome Richardson: tenor saxophone; Cecil Payne, Pepper Adams, Armand Migiani: baritone saxophone; Milt Jackson: vibraphone; Bud Powell, Gerald Wiggins, Hank Jones, Horace Silver, Tommy Flanagan, Martial Solal, Rene Urtreger: piano; Paul Chambers, Pierre Michelot, Percy Heath: bass; others.

This one looks tempting indeed!

[Kyo]

Hmmm... I still don't have Telefunken Blues...

Has Klook's Clique ever been out on CD before?

[Bluesman]

I just ordered Telefunken Blues from an Amazon seller for $11. All the other prices I've seen are $55+ so I'm hoping it turns up OK.

I'm now thinking this set would be an even better buy.

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

Has Klook's Clique ever been out on CD before?

Sadly, no.

[Kyo]

If someone gets this set, please post something regarding the sound quality, especially for Klook's Clique.

[jazzbo]

I love Klook!

I dislike Proper.

I'm passing, I have all but Clique, and I have that on vinyl.

[mikeweil]

I wish this Savoy material would get the Mosaic treatment.

[mikeweil]

If someone gets this set, please post something regarding the sound quality, especially for Klook's Clique.

That seems to be the crucial question. It's the only music in this box missing in my collection. But I wonder where they copied it from ...

[Kyo]

Some things I noticed:

This set does not include But Not For Me from the Meets the Detroit Jazzmen session (it's only been on a pretty rare CD reissue, but I really like this version - it's a duo recording with just the two Kennys).

I've Lost Your Love from the Telefunken Blues session isn't present either (it was originally released on Meet Milt Jackson).

And Kenny Clarke - The Trio from 1955 (with Hank Jones and Wendell Marshall) isn't included at all. That one has never been on CD either, correct?

Edited April 28, 2007 by Kyo

[jazzbo]

I wish this Savoy material would get the Mosaic treatment.

Not me. I've got it all in great sound except. . . I just want them to reissue Clique.

[Tom Storer]

Kenny Clarke was perhaps the single swingingest drummer I've had the pleasure to see up close and personal, and like many of you I've seen an awful lot of them. I moved to Paris in 1979 and my jaw dropped when I saw him advertised as playing in a little club. I had no idea he was still alive, in those pre-Internet days when not everybody knew all there was to know about everything. I went and sat not ten feet from the drums and I swear my calf cramped up from too much foot-tapping. It was an organ trio with Lou Bennett on organ and Christian Escoudé on guitar. Clarke was wearing a suit and tie and I can still see him poking his tongue out of the corner of his mouth and smiling mischievously at the others as he poured on the rhythm. In the few years before his death I saw him many more times, including a great couple of nights with Walter Davis, Jr. and Pierre Michelot that was issued as "Live at Le Dreher" on some French label.

And one night I was at a posh club that Gérard Terronès ran for a while in La Défense to see David Murray, who was playing, if I remember correctly, with Alan Silva and Oliver Johnson. Clarke showed up the door and expected to be "on the list," but he wasn't, and they wouldn't let him in until someone in charge came up and basically said "Do you know who this is?" After the show he went backstage and a loud shout of "KLOOK!" could be heard, followed by joyous laughter. He and Murray emerged, arms around each other's shoulders.

[Fer Urbina]

RE: Klook's Clique I'd need to listen to it properly, but I've played it in my PC and it sounds good enough to me (not an hi-fi fanatic).

My only (minor) criticism to this set, interesting as it is for having not so common material, is that it's not very representative. There's no Teddy Hill at all, no Minton's (Klook smokes playing with Charlie Christian), no Modern Jazz Quartet (his part in La Ronde).

By the way, I've read above that Klook didn't have as much technique as Max Roach, which is probably a futile argument. Just listen to him in Bud Powell's Monk album (recorded in Paris, a trio with Pierre Michelot), on the first track, "Off Minor", he only plays the snare drum with brushes, absolutely nothing else, IIRC, and he keeps it varied, interesting and unobstrusive.

What a drummer!

F

[mikeweil]

I always found those comments about anyone in that league having more tecnique than someone else pretty boring and off point. Klook couldn't have played like Max, and vice versa - so what?

[mikeweil]

Kenny Clarke was enough of a technician to open a prestigious drum school in Paris with Dante Agostini.

Edited April 28, 2007 by mikeweil

[jazzbo]

Klook was one of the greatest minds and hearts to turn his attention and four limbs to a trap set. Period.

[ejp626]

My only (minor) criticism to this set, interesting as it is for having not so common material, is that it's not very representative. There's no Teddy Hill at all, no Minton's (Klook smokes playing with Charlie Christian), no Modern Jazz Quartet (his part in La Ronde).

F

The Minton's material (or most of it) was already on the Proper Charlie Christian box. They do generally avoid overlapping material between the boxes.

[Peter Friedman]

Some things I noticed:

This set does not include But Not For Me from the Meets the Detroit Jazzmen session (it's only been on a pretty rare CD reissue, but I really like this version - it's a duo recording with just the two Kennys).

I've Lost Your Love from the Telefunken Blues session isn't present either (it was originally released on Meet Milt Jackson).

And Kenny Clarke - The Trio from 1955 (with Hank Jones and Wendell Marshall) isn't included at all. That one has never been on CD either, correct?

Kyo,

This one has been issued on CD. I have a copy on Savoy/Denon.

The spine says: The Trio / Kenny Clarke - SV-0184

The front of the booklet says: "The Jazz Trio of HANK JONES Wendell Marshall, Bass Kenny Clarke, Drums"

[jazzbo]

That trio record was recorded the afternoon I was born!

[Tom Storer]

I always found those comments about anyone in that league having more tecnique than someone else pretty boring and off point. Klook couldn't have played like Max, and vice versa - so what?

Exactly. There are those who criticize Roach and Roy Haynes for insufficient technique, for that matter, usually in the form of a back-handed compliment. It's nonsensical.

There's "how fast and complicated can you play?" virtuosity and there's "how much incredible music can you create?" virtuosity. There's an astounding bootleg of Rollins, Henry Grimes, and Klook, recorded in Aix-en-Provence in 1959. Anybody who can fly at that level is so far up there that "technique" is a detail.

I'm reminded of a conversation I overheard at a Grover Washington concert in the mid-70's. A group of beautiful and stylish young women were discussing a party they were planning to go to after the concert. This was some sort of college function. One of them was wearing denim, but that does not begin to describe how her simple outfit was supremely elegant, hip and refined. It was a work of art. But denim. "They say no jeans allowed," her friend warned her. The one in denim gave her a look. "Honey," she said, " I am beyond jeans."

[Kyo]

Kyo,

This one has been issued on CD. I have a copy on Savoy/Denon.

The spine says: The Trio / Kenny Clarke - SV-0184

The front of the booklet says: "The Jazz Trio of HANK JONES Wendell Marshall, Bass Kenny Clarke, Drums"

Thanks! I now found out that amazon.com has it listed as a Hank Jones album.

[brownie]

Cover of the original Savoy vinyl of that Trio album:

Currently being auctioned on eBay!

[Brad]

I always found those comments about anyone in that league having more tecnique than someone else pretty boring and off point. Klook couldn't have played like Max, and vice versa - so what?

Exactly. There are those who criticize Roach and Roy Haynes for insufficient technique, for that matter, usually in the form of a back-handed compliment. It's nonsensical.

There's "how fast and complicated can you play?" virtuosity and there's "how much incredible music can you create?" virtuosity. There's an astounding bootleg of Rollins, Henry Grimes, and Klook, recorded in Aix-en-Provence in 1959. Anybody who can fly at that level is so far up there that "technique" is a detail.

I'm reminded of a conversation I overheard at a Grover Washington concert in the mid-70's. A group of beautiful and stylish young women were discussing a party they were planning to go to after the concert. This was some sort of college function. One of them was wearing denim, but that does not begin to describe how her simple outfit was supremely elegant, hip and refined. It was a work of art. But denim. "They say no jeans allowed," her friend warned her. The one in denim gave her a look. "Honey," she said, " I am beyond jeans."

Great story Tom. LOL for sure.

[fomafomic65]

Some things I noticed:

This set does not include But Not For Me from the Meets the Detroit Jazzmen session (it's only been on a pretty rare CD reissue, but I really like this version - it's a duo recording with just the two Kennys). (...)

That's a great cd for sure, with an unusual bright, warm sound for 1956. Pepper Adams is a treat to listen, here, as Kenny Burrell. A pretty different sounding Van Gelder work -I thought it wasn't his sound, comparing with the usual Blue Note work.

Some of my favourite Clarke ever

Edited May 3, 2007 by ArmandoPeraza

[mikeweil]

Well, that was Van Gelder's Savoy Sound! Cooler than his Blue Note Sound on the surface, but clear and warm at the same time.

Did he do stereo sessions for Savoy?

[Fer Urbina]

Well, that was Van Gelder's Savoy Sound! Cooler than his Blue Note Sound on the surface, but clear and warm at the same time.

Did he do stereo sessions for Savoy?

FWIW, Ozzie Cadena is a staunch defender of mono. Savoy did have a stereo series, though, it's called "World Wide". IIRC, it started c. 1958, towards the end of Cadena's time there.

I'm fairly sure that series was done by RVG too.

F