The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
  1. #1

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    While surfing YouTube last night, I came across the “Jazz Time with Jarvis X” channel and discovered that he has a treasure trove of early ‘50s Voice of America (VOA) jazz recordings. One of VOA’s programs was called Jazz Club U.S.A., hosted by Leonard Feather. From what I can tell, Jazz Club U.S.A. shows are assembled recorded radio show segments; live broadcasts from Birdland, the Embers and other clubs; and interviews with jazz artists.

    On Episode 52, I was excited to find the Johnny Smith Quintet from a 1952 radio show called "Saturday Night Review." Until something else surfaces, this is as probably as close as we’ll get to a live JS performance at that point in his career. (For all of his TV and radio work, not to mention endless gigs at Birdland and other clubs, you'd think there would be other material somewhere.)

    Smith and Stan Getz were the only performers from the Moonlight in Vermont / Jazz at N.B.C. quintet on the recording. Here the pianist is Joseph Kahn; Dave Walter on bass; and the interestingly named Bunny Shocker (yes, you read that name correctly) on drums. The show featured 5 tunes that were on the Moonlight in Vermont / Jazz at N.B.C. record, but are definitely not the same recordings:


    • Cherokee
    • Taboo
    • Where or When
    • Speaking for Myself (more about this below)
    • Sometimes I’m Happy


    Here’s the link, and the Smith material is right up front for the first 15 or so minutes:


    As a huge Smith fan, here’s what I’ve been able to discern thus far:


    1. The broadcast versions of all the songs were more up-tempo.
    2. Based on the evidence provided by this broadcast, I believe we can say that the first and last choruses of the songs on the Moonlight in Vermont were definitely arranged. This actually does not surprise me. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think many small groups work from arrangements for the first and last chorus, and improvise on the others.
    3. Johnny’s solos on the broadcast versions are different than those on the album. While he did use some of the melodic themes used in the LP version, they weren’t note-for-note. He actually makes a few mistakes on a couple of tunes!
    4. To my ears, Johnny’s playing was technically brilliant as always, but flashy too much of the time, which I personally dislike. At times, I found it annoying. There are a couple of early recordings of his (one with Mary Lou Williams, for example) that were similar. As the decade marched on I believe his playing evolved and “calmed down” as he learned to apply his incredible technical ability more tastefully.
    5. The tune “Speaking for Myself” is known as “Jaguar” on the Moonlight in Vermont album. This leads me to conclude that this broadcast likely occurred before the album was recorded.


    Now I need to go through the other VOA material on that channel to see what else I can find.

    Enjoy!

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    thanks for posting, very interesting to compare to the original studio recordings
    it's also as you say a good example of the fact that even though he does borrow some of the same devices, he actually DID improvise more than a lot of people think.
    btw, I always thought Jaguar was a knucklebuster

  4. #3

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    Jeez, that's brilliant. What a find!

    I don't find JS flashy as such here, but that's a matter of taste. That arrangement of "Tabu" is as "modern" as anything you'd find being played today, anywhere. And the technical proficiency of the entire quintet puts most musicians to shame, now or then (other than Getz, the rest of the musicians were probably first call studio aces JS played with. And JS got Getz a studio orchestra job when he wanted to stop touring).

  5. #4

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    WOW! You don't post that often John, but when you do, it's always a Great one!
    What a find!
    I get your point about JS' early stuff being kind of on the flashy side. It's almost like JS was trying to be, and maybe was perceived as being the John McLaughlin of his day. There was nobody even close to his technical ability back then (even now, there aren't many guitarists who could play even half of what he played in his solos and ensemble parts as clean and perfectly articulated at those insane tempos that he played them at, without resorting to lowering the treble too much, like Chuck Wayne and his school, and using sweep picking. Whether we like it or not, the guitar is a percussion instrument, like the piano), and JS tended to write outside sounding devices (aug11ths, triadic superimposition, etc..) in all of his ensembles, which could also be looked on as 'flashy', in the sense of telling everyone, "Hey, I'm hip to all the modern techniques" that Kenton and others were using, who were considered in the 'avant-garde' back then. JS even said in an interview that Schoenberg(!) was his favorite composer!
    I almost never listen to JS of that period.

    The only sloppiness I could pick out on first hearing was on "Cherokee", which they took at a tempo which was insane.
    As always, JS makes me want to throw my guitar out my terrace window. Jimmy Bruno, Barney Kessel, and many other guitarists' claim that JS was and still is the greatest plectrum guitarist that ever lived, still stands.
    Hope you're doing okay through this nightmare. Take care.

  6. #5

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    What a treat! Thanks for this.

    He recorded on sax and trumpet too? (From the interview.) Jeez. What a man, what a man!

  7. #6

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    JS learned to play trumpet in the service (Air Force, I think, but his eyesight wasn't good enough to be a pilot)- there was no place for guitar, he was handed a trumpet and a book and given two weeks to play well enough to qualify for the band. Or head to the infantry.