Walkin'

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Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross, "Walkin'," (download until 1/7/09) from "The Hottest New Group in Jazz."

I've only known a few people who were into Lambert, Hendrick, and Ross before. Lots who knew the name, others who'd heard that great take of "In Walked Bud" on Monk's "Underground" that Jon Hendricks cut, some who had the LP years ago, and then just a couple who were straight-up fanatics. One was a friend in college who was a jazz buff for different musicians that me--into Dexter Gordon where I preferred Sonny Rollins, etc.--and the other is my wife. I use this to point out that an old dog can learn new tricks.

I'd never been much into vocal jazz growing up--I got into Jazz in the seventh grade, via "Kind of Blue" like so many--and I sort of felt myself hardcore saying, as a seventh grader, that yes, it was Miles' record but Coltrane took all the best solos. I suppose that that was in fact pretty hardcore for a seventh grader, but I developed all the predictable kind of a sense of superiority that I really only did the instrumental stuff, not anything that reeked of "pop." I could do Billie Holliday because of the Lester Young connection and hipster cred, but because my mom liked Ella Fitzgerald--now my favorite singer, I hasten to say--I avoided even her.

I also allowed myself to dig that cut Jon Hendricks did on the Monk record. Monk was and at some level continues to be the musician who speaks to me above all others. I had read a little bit about "Underground" and liked that it was an autumnal renaissance of sorts for Monk, loved the cover (of course), dug the tunes, and made an exception to my no-vocals policy for the last cut, because it was a little different thing to distinguish the record from other Monk records and because it was so undeniably good. I then proceeded not to investigate the singer who made it happen. In college, the aforementioned friend was very, very into Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross, and I impressed him by saying in conversation, "oh yeah, isn't that the guy who cut that cool track on the Monk record?" and then went back to my room to listen to Ornette Coleman, no doubt worth a listen then as now.

Fast forwarding twenty years, having not taken the opportunity to get into Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, I approached my new relationship with my future wife with intelligence, and when she had this disc and wanted to play it in the car, I said, "oh yeah, I know Jon Hendricks. He cut this cool track with Monk back in '68. Let's dig it." And dig it we did.

So this is as good an example about why the jazz buff types who can't loosen up enough to really connect to the vocal stuff need to check themselves. You could say, correctly, that, oh, it's not like the band is as good as the quintet Miles had with Philly Joe Jones. But you'd be an idiot to say that. This is the thing that makes Jazz the gift that keeps on giving. The level of musicianship, and not just in a technical sense but the kind of musicianship that connects to the music and the audience from a spirit of love and community, from your average working jazz player in New York in the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's was really astonishing. So you had working players backing up the vocal group, and while you can say that they weren't the finest players there were--it's not Jackie McLean taking that alto solo--the sheer quality of the performance is overwhelming. The lightness of it is one of those "knock me over with a feather" things. That's the secret of jazz--this is hardly an original observation--the lightness of it.

And of course "vocalese" is a singular creation. Jon Hendricks, still, last I'd checked, performing, really did have something to offer, and is certainly one of the two absolutely great singers still working, alongside Jimmy Scott. Yes, this was Hendricks' group, his act, his concept, and that takes nothing at all away from Annie Ross or Dave Lambert. It's almost unfair to say that I would rather have an Annie Ross record than a Dave Lambert record, but it's true. Nonetheless, the group wouldn't have happened without Lambert, and really the key is how they worked together. This is what people who know both how to rehearse and how to let things go sound when they get together and make music. It's a lost art.