CD1
Buddy DeFranco
1. Gone With The Wind
2. Sweet Georgia Brown
3. Street Of Dreams
4. Get Happy
5. Sophisticated Lady
6. Carioca
7. Lover, Come Back To Me
8. I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)
9. Just One Of Those Things
10. Cairo
11. Samia Shuffle
12. The Way You Look Tonight
Buddy DeFranco - Clarinet
Kenny Drew - Piano
Curly Russell - Bass (tracks 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12 )
Art Blakey - Drums (tracks 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12 )
Jimmy Raney - Guitar (tracks 1, 2, 4, 10, 11 )
Teddy Kotick - Bass (tracks 1, 2, 4, 10, 11 )
Art Taylor - Drums (tracks 1, 2, 4, 10, 11 )
The Artistry Of Buddy DeFranco
13. Tintoro
14. You Go To My Head
15. Mine
16. Gerry’s Tune
17. Autumn Leaves
18. Now’s The Time
Buddy DeFranco - Clarinet
Sonny Clark - Piano
Gene Wright - Bass
Bobby White – Drums
CD2
Mr. Clarinet
1. Buddy’s Blues
2. Ferdinando
3. It Could Happen To You
4. Autumn In New York
5. Left Field
6. Show Eyes
7. But Not For Me
8. Bass On Balls
Buddy DeFranco - Clarinet
Kenny Drew - Piano
Milt Hinton - Bass
Art Blakey – Drums
Jazz Tones
9. The Things We Did Last Summer
10. Jack The Field Stalker
Buddy DeFranco - Clarinet
Kenny Drew - Piano (track 9)
Milt Hinton - Bass (track 9)
Art Blakey - Drums (track 9)
Sonny Clark - Piano (track 10)
Gene Wright - Bass (track 10)
Bobby White - Drums (track 10)
Pretty Moods
11. Tenderly
12. Lover Man
13. Deep Purple
14. Yesterdays
15. If I Should Lose You
Buddy DeFranco - Clarinet
Sonny Clark - Piano
Gene Wright - Bass
Bobby White – Drums
Buddy DeFranco was one of the great jazz clarinettists of all time, whose technical proficiency far surpassed that of the better-known Benny Goodman, Artie
Shaw, and Woody Herman. He was also a transitional figure on the clarinet, as he took the instrument from the swing period to bebop, and brought a Charlie
Parker sensibility to his playing. These sessions are from his early 1950s bebop days with several of his small groups: one which featured pianist Kenny
Drew and drummer Art Blakey, and the other had the more tragic figure, pianist Sonny Clark.
Accordingly, it makes sense to talk firstly about the albums Buddy DeFranco, Mr. Clarinet and Jazz Tones (one track) that had Drew and
Blakey as the key sidemen. The tracks under the general heading Buddy DeFranco are essentially a couple of sessions originally released by either
Norgran or MGM as ten-inch LPs, and differ in that one is a quartet recording and the other a quintet offering. By the time of these recordings, DeFranco’s
style had already been established as a modernist in his accenting. This can be detected more easily in the quartet sessions on Street Of Dreams
or Lover, Come Back To Me where he has to be more dominant in the piece. Contrast that with the quintet offerings such as Gone With The Wind or Cairo with the addition of guitarist Jimmy Raney. The ensemble playing is tighter with integrated arrangements, so
that DeFranco tempers his style to a degree.
Mr. Clarinet
is a great example of DeFranco in full bop mode where he has adapted the instrument to the complexities of the music and made the clarinet relevant in that
context. This was the last recording made by this particular iteration of the quartet, and it was a solid outing starting with one of Buddy’s own
compositions Buddy’s Blues. With Milt Hinton laying down a full-toned walking bass line, and Kenny Drew in a deep groove,
DeFranco takes the twelve-bar-blues form and rides it for all its worth with expressive results. Another DeFranco original is Show Eyes, in which
he makes full use of the clarinet’s range and difficulty, thus it is a showcase for his dexterity and facility on the instrument. Regardless of whether he
is playing his own compositions or well-known standards such as It Could Happen To You and But Not For Me, Buddy was not content to stay
with a static version of what the clarinet could do, but he was willing to push the boundaries to obtain the musical results he wanted.
The Artistry Of Buddy DeFranco
and Pretty Moods are two gems, but they are only a part of the special recordings that DeFranco and Sonny Clark made during their two-and-a-half
years together in the mid-1950s. Clark was a hard-bop pianist who was an acolyte of Bud Powell but revered Art Tatum. A bright shooting star on the piano
scene for a little over a decade, he died at 31 in 1963 of a heart attack, but that was most likely brought on by both alcohol and drug abuse. When these
recordings were made in 1954, DeFranco’s style was readily recognizable as he was using the clarinet as a dramatic tool to devise complex and imaginative
solos. Throughout these two albums, which are a mixture of hard boppers, standards, and ballads, the band does some earnest playing starting with the
Latin-flavoured Tintoro on which DeFranco indulges in some upper structured triads (additional notes that belong to a basic three-note chord). On Gerry’s Tune, which is a Gerry Mulligan original, Clark lays down the groundwork with his percussive chords that
feed DeFranco into taking free rein with his strong solo. The Charlie Parker composition Now’s The Time, is the take-off point
for the band to go on the attack, with DeFranco playing with brilliant proficiency and swirling beat.
Ballads have not been neglected by the band, and a majority of the tunes on Pretty Moods fall into that category. Tenderly and Lover Man show that DeFranco is an attractive and not an imitation player. He has the capacity to add a series of nimble notes to the quickest
passages, which he shapes and bends with a true sense of taste. All of this also comes through on If I Should Lose You.
These two sessions are really quite important, not only for those individuals who are fascinated by Buddy DeFranco, but also by those who are seriously
interested in the early career of Sonny Clark.
Pierre Giroux
CD Reviews
Avid AMSC 1135
