Bonus liner notes
Thad Jones wrote 8 compositions and arrangements for Harry James that he never recorded. The New London Big Band has brought them back to life, with Wayne Bergeron playing the solo trumpet role of Harry James, along with John Riley, longtime drummer with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Thad Jones's legacy ensemble. In addition, the band has recorded a few more charts written by bandleader Sean Nelson.
From Dr. David Demsey, Curator of the Living Jazz Archives at William Paterson University:
The first thing to understand about the great composer / arranger / trumpeter / bandleader Thad Jones is that he was a genius. The mark of any great jazz is that it hits the ear and the brain on multiple levels: yes, there is the virtuosity of Thad’s complex voicings, his unique melodic twists, the technical challenges for the band – but his music also reaches the listener on a deeper gut level, with its bluesy, propulsive sense of underlying powerful swing and forward motion. These qualities hold true whether Thad was composing and arranging for the Count Basie Band in the 1950s, for the historic Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra that he co-led from 1966-78, in writing projects for a variety of guest solo singers, or writing for his later bands in Europe.
This multi-level magnetism of Thad Jones’ little-known arrangements for the great trumpeter Harry James is no different. Harry James may be best known as a big band era trumpet virtuoso, but he was also an ardent Count Basie fan. In his later years, James entered into retainer agreements with several well-known Basie arrangers, including Thad Jones as well as Ernie Wilkins, Neal Hefti, and Bill Holman. He contracted them each for one chart a month, over a period of several years. This gave rise to no less than 25 Thad Jones compositions and arrangements, written exclusively for the Harry James Band but largely unknown or forgotten until recently. Some of these were Thad’s own takes on big band era favorites like “Cherokee,” “Frenesi,” “Flying Home,” and “Harlem Nocturne.” Others were Thad’s own original compositions; those originals are the selections recorded so beautifully by Sean Nelson and the New London Big Band, with two virtuoso guests: the renowned trumpeter Wayne Bergeron and Vanguard Jazz Orchestra veteran drummer John Riley. It is important to note that most of these arrangements were never recorded by James himself – these are the first recordings of this music.
Most notable are Thad’s arrangements of his own tunes “Tip Toe” and “Three and One.” Both titles eventually became part of the legendary repertoire of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra – but these are earlier versions done for Harry James, apparently written three or four years before their famous later offspring! These early versions are shorter, less composed-out – but most definitely experimenting with the ideas that would soon become known as classics.
This is an important recording, not only because it brings to light Thad Jones’ artistic genius in these newly discovered arrangements, but also because of the high level of the New London Big Band’s performances with the great Wayne Bergeron and John Riley.
​​​1. Don’t Stop Now is a medium slow blues in C, with an intro that makes no doubt that this is Thad’s work, through its voicings and the basic blues foundation. This appeared on Harry James 1967 album Our Leader! The great tenor solo by Cedric Mayfield starts slow and sultry, then expands to make a strong statement, leading to a classic shout chorus.
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From Sean: Harry James's recording cuts out the first 30 seconds or so, the introductory ensemble statement. We've recorded it in its entirety.
2. Tip Toe is an mid-1960s, shorter version of Thad’s landmark composition based on the “I Got Rhythm” chord sequence. Wayne Bergeron plays a beautiful muted solo that salutes the great Snooky Young’s work on the famous 1970 Thad-Mel version. The shout chorus is completely different from the famous 1970 version but is 100% Thad, and the band plays the heck out of it. I like this ending better than the famous one!
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3. More Than Once is a heartbreakingly beautiful ballad trumpet feature for Wayne Bergeron that explores Thad’s genius at manipulating the cycle of fifths, with the melody in the evocative upper structures of those dominant chords. Although the title implores us to play the tune…more than once, it’s ironic that Thad only wrote this gorgeous melody to be played one time in this arrangement. The only drawback of this miniature gem is its brevity – you will want to play this track two times, or three!
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4. Don’t Min-us is, as the title infers, is a minor blues. It features a guitar solo by Gianni Gardner that combines great sound with equally beautiful ideas, followed by a wonderful alto solo by Erik Elligers. The powerful ending builds to a climax in a typically unexpected Thad-ish way, through an underlying riff figure and triplet brass figures that might evoke the Dizzy Gillespie big band.
5. Letter from Home is another Thad original composition, a medium-tempo swinger that takes advantage of a question-answer figure in the brass. There’s a swinging solo set by trumpeter Luke Wingfield against the kind of active Thad backgrounds that propel and inspire any soloist. The swinging vibe of Jen Allen’s and Lou Bocciarelli’s piano and bass solos continues in the sax soli, and the Bergeron-led shout chorus.
6. If I Could Be with You (One Hour Tonight) is an old standard, composed in 1926 by James P. Johnson and Henry Creamer, arranged by Thad Jones - the lone example here of Thad arranging someone else’s composition, and one of only two that was previously recorded, appearing on Harry James’ 1964 Plays New Versions of Downbeat Favorites. This tune is a classic Harry James style trumpet feature, captured beautifully by Wayne Bergeron, amid Thad’s wonderful shifting re-harmonizations. Brief interludes by tenor and piano lead to a shout chorus, and Wayne stratospheric final note.
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From Sean: Harry James's recording of this arrangement cuts out an ensemble section, after the first trumpet melody statement, that has piano and tenor solos, as well as taking out the last ensemble figure to leave room for Harry's solo lick. Here, we have recreated the entire chart as Thad wrote it.
7. About Time is a feature for the trombone section with commentary from Wayne’s trumpet, with Sean Nelson’s trombone trading solos with Cedric Mayfield’s tenor. Presumably the title is a quote from those trombonists, saying “It’s about time we got the spotlight!” The trombones are heard from again on the way out, and they even get a bit of the last word.
8. Three and One is a Thad original that first appeared as a small-group tune on the seminal “all-Jones” album Keepin’ Up with the Joneses. That first recording features the three Jones brothers (Thad, Hank, and Elvin) in a quartet with Basie bassist Eddie Jones (no relation) – thus the title: Three Joneses who were brothers and One who wasn’t. This early sixties big band version is more of a blowing session, with solos from Bergeron and Gianni Gardner’s guitar. Make note of the truly acrobatic sax soli, where 16th notes abound, handled deftly by the section. The tight rhythms of the shout section again bear Thad’s signature.
9. Hullabaloo is bandleader Sean Nelson’s composition and arrangement, a funky melody set against a stop-time rhythm section. That sets up trombone and trumpet solos, and funk-based riffs that start in the low end and build. This is a great, high-energy experience!
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From Sean: When I was able to get Wayne Bergeron to play on the record, I realized this was my chance to play a solo tune with him, so I wrote something for us to play together. Wayne is a bit of a hero of mine, and it was a real thrill to get to record this with him! I was very nervous, but he's such a sweet guy, and made it easy and fun.
10. Reply All is another Sean Nelson composition that features a slinky blues melody and solos on piano – and an unexpected unaccompanied features for the horn sections. The saxes start it, joined by the brass, and another set of solos breaks out, this time on tenor by Cedric Mayfield and Sean Nelson’s trombone. The great John Riley gets a chance to shine as well, showing his decades of experience succeeding Mel Lewis, now at the helm of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.
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From Sean: This tune is about my least favorite email function. It's a blues, because email makes me sad.
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11. Sean Nelson’s arrangement of Sweet Georgia Brown features some fine clarinet work, not only in Cedric Mayfield’s solo, but also in the shifting harmonies underneath the big band style head – perhaps inspired by Thad himself. The big band era atmosphere of this fine chart is contrasted by the shape-shifting clarinets return to offset the final shout chorus.
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From Sean: In addition to being a burning tenor player, Cedric Mayfield is a classically trained clarinet player. I've admired his clarinet playing for years, and wanted to give him a vehicle to shine. This arrangement was originally written for big band + strings, so I adapted the string parts into a 10 piece clarinet ensemble, deftly performed by our sax section.
