Leonard Feather Blindfold Tests

Leonard Feather: Herb Ellis blindfold test record one.

Herb Ellis: Do I start?

Leonard Feather: Yeah, go ahead.

Herb Ellis: Well, I think that sounded very much Charlie Byrd to me.

Leonard Feather: Mm-hmm.

Herb Ellis: And he's one of my favorite players. Although I thought the arrangement was a little trite.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Herb Ellis: For his standard. And I thought that the tune was a little trite also. But, I thought his performance was very good. However they didn't get too good a sound on him. They got a little too much metallic and finger noises. So, I give it three stars, mainly because of Charlie. And he does play so very well.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Herb Ellis: It's beautiful. I think that's Wes Montgomery and George Shearing. I know they did an album together. I have never heard anything from it. To my eyes, that's who it is.

Leonard Feather: Mm-hmm.

Herb Ellis: And, I think it's beautiful. I've got to give it four stars.

Leonard Feather: Who do you think composed it?

Herb Ellis: I don't know. I think George composed it. But it's well recorded and all the soloists come off beautifully. Wes Montgomery is definitely one of my favorite jazz guitarists. So, that's a four star.

Leonard Feather: Oh, fine.

Herb Ellis: Wes and George think melodically similar, composing, not necessarily improvising.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Herb Ellis: But, composing they think very similar.

Herb Ellis: Well, from that bass guitar, it's hard to tell who played it, because I don't particularly like the sound of it.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Herb Ellis: I think it's Barney Kessel. The only reason I do think it's Barney, is because the arrangement sounds like Barney. And, a couple of the times the comping behind the soloist sounded like Barney.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Herb Ellis: But that's the only way I could tell. Anyway, I think it's worth about two stars. If it is Barney, he also is one of my favorite players, but that's not one of my favorite-

Leonard Feather: You don't like the type of-

Herb Ellis: I don't like that type of record.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Herb Ellis: Well, I don't know. I don't know who it was. The bass player sounded very good. I like the bass player. And the tenor solo sounded good. The trumpet solo, he's a good player, but I though he's a little too obvious a copy, of Miles.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Herb Ellis: Not that that's not good, but I mean he's just copying a little too much on this particular record. Maybe he doesn't do that all the time. And the trombone didn't come off too well. The piano come off fair. It's a fairly nice little composition. I'd rate it three stars.

Leonard Feather: Otherwise, no particular comment on the composition?

Herb Ellis: Yeah, the composition is pretty nice. I liked it pretty good.

Leonard Feather: Okay.

Herb Ellis: The writing is pretty good.

Herb Ellis: Yeah right. Go ahead now.

Leonard Feather: I'll pick up the phone. Hello. Yes. Oh Tony, how are you? It's quite a... No, I'd like to get on the other phone. Just hold on one moment. What number are you at? Well I tried to get you at home this morning. Did you get the message from my office yesterday? From your office? Yeah, because I didn't know you weren't there. And I was very surprised and wanted to find out what was happening. No kidding. I'd like to hear about it. Probably, yeah. Very often it is the people who get out of there. Well, will you be home later? All right, fine. Because I'm in the middle of an interview now. Will you be home? I can call you. Is it Crest view 123 [crosstalk 00:37:29]. Oh, I wouldn't have got you anyway, because I was calling your old number. 0846363. Well, it didn't refer this morning, it just rang, as far as I recall. All right, well I'll talk to you later anyway Tony. Okay. Bye. Tony Newman, you know him?

Herb Ellis: No. [crosstalk]

Leonard Feather: ...son?He was at Capitol.

Herb Ellis: Oh no, I don't know him.

Leonard Feather: And he just got aced out of a job there as A&R man at Capitol. Oh, we're running.

Herb Ellis: Well, first of all the composition is beautiful. We used to play it with Oscar, when I was with Oscar. I can't think of the name right now, but I love that. There's certain things about it. It's got a pretty nice feel. The record has. It feels pretty good. And the french horn player tried some very adventurous-

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Herb Ellis: ...things. And some of them came off.

Leonard Feather: That's right.

Herb Ellis: That's a hard instrument. I know because that was my first instrument.

Leonard Feather: Oh yeah.

Herb Ellis: I started it in college. It was too late. I know how hard it is. So I got to give him some skin for it.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Herb Ellis: Making something. And the guitarist, I don't think it could be Wes Montgomery. If it is, it's Wes on day that's not too good. But, the guy plays with a thumb, and he plays the chords, and he plays the octaves, and everything.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Herb Ellis: But, if it is Wes, I don't think it is, but if it is, it just wasn't one of his days, in my opinion.

Leonard Feather: But for anybody else, you think it'd be a good day?

Herb Ellis: Anybody else it'd be pretty good.

Leonard Feather: All right.

Herb Ellis: But, I would say it's about three stars. It's not a bad record at all.

Leonard Feather: Yeah, okay.

Herb Ellis: Are you recording?

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Herb Ellis: Yeah, I forgot to say that I thought the bass player sounded excellent on that record.