ALFRED'S ROCK'N'ROLL CASHCOW?

I was on drums with Ronnie Scott’s band at one of those Oxbridge May Balls where the college hires a few pop groups to play on a lawn (weather permitting) and in several different large rooms.  

The hooray-henrys in dinner jackets and their glamorous escorts would dance the night away until they collapsed in a drunken heap and struggled to their feet for breakfast.

Often the Ball Committee would decide they ought to have some jazz as well as pop. A trad group was a safe bet but they did risk be-bop as well and of course that didn’t lend itself to twisting or jiving. 

So Ronnie’s band would start playing some standard or other and stray couples would come and listen near the door for a few minutes and then give up and disappear. After a couple of tunes, Ronnie panicked a bit at the total lack of audience and played his trump card: “We’d better do WATERMELON MAN”.

 An 8/8 beat, you see, rather than swing in 4/4 would get them shaking their booties.

 All this serves as introduction to a little nostalgia about the1960s when Alfred Lion discovered that albums on his BLUE NOTE label would sell better if they contained a little fix of 8/8 rock.

I suppose it all started with the aforesaid Watermelon man which Herbie Hancock wrote for his first Blue Note album “TAKIN’ OFF” (BLP 4109) recorded in 1962.  It’s a very catchy elongated line of 16 bars played over a rhythmic figure comprising the 3rd, 5th and 6th quavers of each bar. There’s a suspenseful break (there usually is, as we shall see) at the start of the 14th bar.

This “hit single”, so to speak, went down so well that Herbie followed it up with another 8/8 rock feel number on his next Blue Note album in 1963 “MY POINT OF VIEW” (BLP 4126)  It was called Blind man, blind man and was even more pared down. The theme is 10 bars long – with the keenly anticipated break at the beginning of the 9th bar. When the blowing starts, it’s simply an 8-bar figure repeated over and over again. Potentially boring but actually hypnotic thanks to the presence of a very young Tony Williams on drums who drives the whole thing along with a strong beat and some delightfully original fills. It’s one of our first opportunities to hear a studio recording of that gorgeous ride cymbal which Max Roach gave him and alas eventually wore out.

Blue Note BLP 4127 “UNA MAS!” by Kenny Dorham comes next in 1963. The title track is the 8/8 ear-grabber. As you might expect with Kenny, it has a slightly more Latin feel with a cowbell (probably played by Joe Henderson) prominent in the mix but once again the superb drummer is Tony Williams. Una mas! is a 16 bar theme with the (by now obligatory)  breaks at the 8th and 12th bars.

With Blue Note BLP 4157 “THE SIDEWINDER” (also 1963) by Lee Morgan, we reach the apogee of the Alfred Lion rock and roll winner. This ditty was a phenomenal hit and the album sold in totally unexpected numbers. The royalties were a Godsend to Lee while he struggled with his heroin habit and lost work.    

The sidewinder is 24 bars in length – very close to a double-length blues, and the inevitable break (which the bass player fluffs before the out chorus!) comes at the start of the 23rd bar. For me, the outstanding performance on this famous track is by pianist Barry Harris. The piano solo is relaxed and inventive – mostly pithy phrases played in unison octaves with occasional contrapuntal flourishes. The basic rhythmic figure of the whole tune is punchy accents on the 3rd and 6th quavers of the bar but, during the tenor solo, Harris changes his comping subtly to a variant  figure  over 2 bars:  3rd and 6th quavers//3rd 4th and 5th quavers.

Blue Note BLP 4186 “THE TURNAROUND” by Hank Mobley is my last favourite from 1963. The title track – notice how, after the Herbie Hancock albums , the rock “hit” has become the name of the album – is perhaps the best constructed composition in the style. A predictable 16 bar sequence is followed by a totally unpredictable key change and a mirroring passage of 18 bars – perhaps that’s what Hank (the composer) meant by a “turnaround”. Or was it just the last 2 bars? The word is often applied to those last three chords.

I now skip to 1965 and Blue Note BLP 4199 : Lee Morgan’s “THE RUMPROLLER” (whatever that might mean!). An obvious effort to cash in on The sidewinder, this is in the now time-honoured 24-bar elongated format, with the break on the expected 23rd bar. A nice relaxed tempo.

Let’s finish this exploration (for this Musing at least) with another Lee Morgan recording from 1965: Blue Note BLP 4222 “CORNBREAD”. Full advantage is taken in penning the title track of the three man front line – Lee, Jackie McLean on alto and Hank Mobley on tenor. Superb harmonised voicings add great colour to the breaks during bars 9-12 of the 20 bar theme. Another attraction here is the hip comping of Herbie Hancock. 

With Herbie on piano, we have come full circle. As I hit the age of twenty in 1966 and, although I didn’t know it, was to turn pro within two years, I loved these classic Blue Note albums, and not just or even mainly the “rock and roll” teasers. But those 8/8 tracks are so reminiscent of the era that they bring back many memories. And the ones I have picked out are really just the tip of the iceberg. Perhaps I’ll revisit the subject? Haven’t even mentioned Donald Byrd, or Andrew Hill yet…………………………….