Profile Of A Jazz Musician by The Paul Horn Quintet Columbia (CS 8722) Publication date 1962

 There will be no attempt here to compile a chronological

rundown of Paul Horn’s career. To the initiates such in-

formation is already well known; for the less informed,

whose interest may be piqued by the present sides, factual

data are available on the back liner of his previous release,

The Sound of Paul Horn (CL 1677/CS 8477*).

For the moment, it is more relevant to discuss in some

detail the music offered in this, his second Columbia @; for,

unlike the kind of fabric you would expect to find in, say»

“Benny Plays the Best of Benny” or “Joe Doakes Salutes”

Glenn Miller,” this is melodic and harmonicematerial that

calls for a somewhat inquisitive mind, an ear open to new

and provocative sounds and, to make the path <a little

smoother, something in the nature of a scorecard.

First it must be reiterated that the music of the Paul Horn

Quintet (which in essence means the music of its leader, or

music strongly influenced by the character.of his own

creations) has a beguilingly personal quality that_derives

its strength not from any gimmick of form or meter, but from

the unity of the group’s conception and execution. It is true

that like many combo leaders today Paul has been depart-

ing more often than not from the hard-shell.con n

the endless four-beat pulse. It is also true that thérejs'

most of his work a quality that has been desq y

minor-seventh-based, or modal, or moody, or a .

other adjectives, some as meaningful to the. ma

street as an astronaut’s explanation of how he got into

orbit.

Nevertheless, the construction of these works tain!

is of meaningful interest to any listener anxious a

more than a superficial appreciation of their me™t. A® in

the previous album, a strong sense of the blues pervades

much of the writing and playing, though it is usually dis-

guised so subtly that you can’t always find your way directly

to the center of the maze.

Count Your Change, for instance, is basically blues for the

first eight bars of the theme; then come six measures in

5/4 time, followed by two measures in 4/4. The same pat-

tern is followed in each of the blowing choruses. If you

think of it as though the 5/4 bars were an extension of the

ninth and tenth measures of the regular 12-bar blues, the

form will become clearer. On the other hand, if you find this

explanation boring or incomprehensible, you are at. liberty

to retort “Technicalities, shmechnicalities” and just get the

meaning by listening and enjoying.

This composition, incidentally, is featured in a recently com-

pleted television film called ‘““The Story of a Jazz Musician,”

a half-hour program built around Paul and the group, for

which he wrote the background score (featuring four cellos

and fliigelhorn) as well as supplying music by the quintet.

“The story line,” says Paul, “traces the evolution of a

typical composition. It shows Emil and me kicking around

some ideas at my home, then trying the piece out at Shelly’s

Manne Hole in Hollywood. There are scenes with the fel-

tows talking, as well as some narration by me; scenes with

my father, and Yvonne and our kids; a visit to the Down Beat

office to see John Tynan. It’s an unusual TV approach to

jazz.”

Now Hear This, for which Paul switches from alto saxo-

phone to flute, is in AB form, played at a brisk tempo, the

first part in 7/4 time (of which the initial four bars are in

stop time), the second part consisting of sixteen measures

in waltz meter. Again, as is invariably the case with this

group, the odd time values are servants rather than masters

ofthe performance. One never feels that there is any un-

comfortable attempt to fit into a mold or keep a given pat-

tern coxstantly in mind. The quintet avoids this possibility

by rehearsing until each construction becomes second

nature. Emil and Paul are again responsible for mood-

sustaining solos, and the tricky pattern offers an effective

solo vehicle for Vic Gaskin.

Gaskin, the newest member of the quintet and the only one

not heard in the previous ®, was born in New York in

November 1934. Originally a guitarist, he took up bass in

1955. He was living in San.Diego, doublingeas an -allito

mechadie, when Paul heard him at a concer® and invited

him to} joilm, the, group. As a Los Angeléno he has been

tripling between three quintets: Paul's; Harold Land’s and

the Jazz Crusaders.

Lazy Afternoon, froma show called ''The Golden Apple,’

was written in 1954 by Jerome Moross. The languid melody

PIQMIGES 2 VORIGIC TOfeaQerich=textured solo"py Pat] on the

basgmlute. THis peculiarspieéce Of plumbing is 6re of ihe

less@t known fpembéks af the Woodwindsfaraily ,At@ehi eves

its s@horous qilalitieSWre rage Bn octave Below that of the

regular flute.

Paul returns to the conventional tlute in What Now?, an orig-

inal by Paul Moer, the group’s pianist. Basically this is the

twelve-bar blues again, except that the ninth and tenth bars

are each six beats long, a fact that is negotiated so nimbly

by all hands that you might never notice it if you weren’t

looking for it. Yet it does make a delightful subliminal dif-

ference in the overall feeling of the work, both in ensembles

and solos. Moer’s own contribution displays his technique

and originality in a highly individual solo.

Straight Ahead, the Horn opus that closes the first side,

features him on alto sax again and is radical in the very

conservatism of its meter: it stays in strict 4/4 all the way.

Paul says: ‘| remember years ago | listened to Stan Ken-

ton’s record of one of the band’s most complex atonal

works. Suddenly, in the middle of all these unusual sounds,

there came a straight old-fashioned triad. | guess it may

have the same startling effect when you hear us go back to

this straight-ahead-4/4 time.” Note particularly the valuable

undercurrent of Milt Turner, the ex-Ray Charles drummer

now earning recognition as one of the best in the west.

Paul Moer’s Fun Time returns the combo to its more cus-

tomary habit of toying with bar-lines. Here the measures in

the chorus run 3-3-5 (four times) followed by 5-5-3-3-9.

“These things sound so complicated,” says Paul,.“‘that it

may scare people; yet the fact is that if you find a pattern

that flows, if you get in the right groove, you can swing

consistently. We try not to become too involved intellectu-

ally or harmonically; this compensates for the fact that our

time signatures may be unusual, so instead of having to

worry about a lot of fast-changing chords the soloists can

blow freely.”

Just Because We're Kids is a song that impressed Paul

when he heard Ruth Price sing it at the Manne Hole. One

of the writers is Dr. Seuss, author of many modern books

for children. “The words are beautiful,” says Paul, who had

his five-year-old Marlen and two-year-old Robin in mind

when he played this fluently affectionate flute solo.

The concluding track, by far the longest of the set, is

virtually a miniature suite. It was recorded in one take,

though a great deal of group telepathy seems to have been

involved. “I designed Abstraction to give the soloists plenty

of latitude. Each man picks his own tempo and meter, which

y differ each time we play it. On the record Paul Moer’s

issage happened to be in 3/4, Emil’s in 5/4 and Vic’s in

waltz time but a little faster than Paul’s. On another occa-

n Paul might have chosen to play in 4/4, Emil in waltz

eand so forth.

“The chora changes veer back and forth between major

and minor while each soloist is ad libbing; when the player

wants everyone to change chords, he just indicates it by

Modding or cueing them in some visual way.’ This enables

each man to have a complete elasticity in his solo. And the

blowing passages are connected by a series of interludes.”

This challenging concept has been drawing a warm re-

action on the quintet’s in-person appearances. The extraor-

dinarily cohesive mood retained throughout the perform-

ance reflects the depth and intensity of the intra-group

relationships.

lt the stress that has been laid on technical aspects in de-

scribing these tracks seems to be inordinate, it is because

the emotional impact needs no explanation; Paul’s music

serves as its own best salesman on that level. Those who

have heard his work on recordSmbut are not in the Los

Angeles area are advised to watch for “The Story of a Jazz

Musician” as well as for a half-hour show filmed by the

quintet for the “Jazz Scene U.S.A.” series produced by

Cig LS a

One final words.if you are not a musician and can’t tell a

bar from a saloon, don’t let this deter you. As Paul cogently

observed: ‘‘Any layman could listen to this music and tap

his foot to it without knowing there is anything so different

about our approach to time or méeter.’”’ Then he thought a

moment, smiled, and added a postscript: “Except, of

course, the layman might wonder once in a while why his

foot was out of step.” —LEONARD FEATHER