Five O'Clock Shadows by The Pete Jolly Trio MGM Records (E-4127)

 

® ©Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc./Printed in U.S.

HIGH FIDELITY

There are many ways you can classify

jazz pianists. There are the funky ones

and the lyrical ones and a few who can be

both. There are pianists of the old style

and pianists of the new, and even a few in

that oddest of approaches, the neo-new.

A simpler way to classify jazz pianists

is this: those who genuinely can play their

instrument, and those who can get by on

it. The latter have had a field day in recent

times.

For some reason, piano of late has been

often misunderstood and misappreciated.

In the unbridled admiration for “‘feeling,”’

even feeling that comes gushing out in a

State of frightful disorganization, some

astonishingly sloppy playing has managed

to get itself admired. Fortunately, there

seems to be in the making a resurrection

of respect for pianists who approach their

instrument not as a percussive imitation

of a horn but as a piano—an instrument

of great range and resources to be played

by all ten fingers. Bill Evans is partly re-

sponsible for this change in attitude

toward piano. He has made it impossible

to equate technique with coldness.

If this respect for the piano on its own

terms continues to flourish, the music

world (everyone from fans to managers)

may start paying the attention to Pete

Jolly that is his due. He is one of the pi-

anists who can play the instrument.

There is another way you can classify

pianists—indeed, all jazz musicians and,

for that matter, all musicians. There are

originators and there are synthesizers.

Both are vital to the health of music. Some

musicians, by talent and inclination, de-

vote their lives to pushing wider the

frontiers. Others, also by talent and incli-

nation, seek to encompass in a single

Style the innovations of predecessors and

contemporaries. Bach was such a sum-

mational artist. So = “scar Peterson.

30 is Pete # # «people hear

Horace Silver in’* © o J] hear a sub-

melloel

Sslhadiows

THIER (PIE DODILEAY TORUD

PE RBSOLLY. piano

RALPH PENA, bass

NICK MARTINIS, drums

side one

SAY =Si. SI”

din Sogariheyesey: ot Si’)... BMI 3:24

DOWN HOME UNDER BLUES...ASCAP 2:25

CABIN IN THE SKY...ASCAP 4:45

EASY LIVING... ASCAP 2:24

ILL WIND >

(You’re Blowing Me No Good)... ASCAP 1:45

SWINGING DOOR ... ASCAP. 4:52

side two

| DON’T WANNA BE KISSED

(By Anyone But=y¥ou).... ASCAP =~ 2:52

VARIATIONS... ASCAP 3:06

DEAR OLD STOCKHOLN ... 3:39

AS LONG AS THERE’S MUSIC...ASCAP 2:45

ONE FOR CARL... ASCAP_ 3:56

DEEP NIGHT... ASCAP 3:51

E/SE 4127

limation of the lesson of Art Tatum. And,

in the second track of this disc, Pete’s

composition Down Home Under Blues, |

hear a pianist most people seem to have

forgotten: Avery Parrish. In Say “Si SI’,

particularly during the first part of the im-

provisation, Pete pays tribute to the

harmonic-melodic conception of the afore-

mentioned Bill Evans.

Yet the overall result is ux

Jolly, if you’ve heard enoug}

know his style. The virility o

clear, ringing quality of ton:

distinctly his. iia

Jolly plays the piano brilliantly. Like

almost every virtuosic pianist, he started

playing very early. His father, an accordi-

onist, started him on accordion when Pete

was three. When he was nine, Pete began

playing piano. He still plays accordion,

and those who haven’t heard him on the

instrument aren’t aware of all that can be

accomplished with it as a jazz instrument.

Pete has lived in Los Angeles for the

best part of the last ten years (he was born

in New Haven, Conn.) After periods with

Georgie Auld, Shorty Rogers, and Buddy

de Franco, he has worked mostly in duos

and trios of his own. He has also been

much itn demand for work in the L.A.

studios.

In this set, Pete works with Raloh Pena

(pronounced pain-ya), one of the best of

California-located bassists, and drummer

Nick Martinis. Besides Pete’s Down Home

Under Blues, there is another original:

-Pena’s One for Car!. I/| Wind is an unusual

item: an unaccompanied bass solo.

Despite a long career, Pete is only 30.

He is entering what for most jazz musi-

Clans nowadays seem to be the years of

greatest growth and maturation. He has

produced a lot of good music thus far:

more and better can be expected. In the

meantime, this LP helps overcome a com-

parative dearth of Jollyana on records.

—Gene Lees

Cover photograph bv Carl Fischer e Director of Engineering: VAL VALENTIN e Produced by JESSE KAYp

"oF METRO.GoLDWYN™

FIVE O'CLOCK SHADOWS

THE PETE JOLLY TRIO

‘Stony pye™

OF METRO.goLDWYN™