Leonard Feather Blindfold Tests

[Plays "Brass Bag" by Tricky Lofton, from Brass Bag, Pacific Jazz Records (1962). Personnel: Tricky Lofton: trombone; Gerald Wilson: composer, arranger.]

Oscar Brown: Now I'm supposed to say who that was huh?

Leonard Feather: Well, if you think you know who it was but the important part is what you think of it.

Oscar Brown: Well now... the use of the french horns in that... that horn sounded like things that Quincy... elements that Quincy likes to work with. Some of it didn't... it wasn't operated the way I heard Quincy do it. He gets one of those shrieks with his horn sounding, you know "weee". I think but I grew up with 'big bands', when I was in Chicago they used to have Basie and Ellington and Munsford and Hives and they had tons of them and Benny Goodman and everybody would come through town and so I have done 'big bands' and this is a modern 1962 'big band' sound that, I dig. I like the way the... I like the organization of the piece. It's returned... it's coherent all the way through you know, getting lost in it in a sort of subjective maze. They keep bringing you back to a point of reference from which they take you off and the solos are tasteful and swinging and I like that very much. I think that I'd like to hear that done more and more you know. I like to hear organized jazz in the sense of taking a scene and following it through to its logical, organized possibilities you know?

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Oscar Brown: People who say that jazz has to be all improvisation, this is a- it's not true. Jazz has big bands and its always been a combination of both. They weren't all just sitting there improvising, they would improvise at certain points. You'd have your solo flights which would be a gas-

Leonard Feather: Yeah, be a balance between the two.

Oscar Brown: And I would like to see jazz do that even in larger works you know? And I like this.

Leonard Feather: Do you know the rating system? Five is the top, four is very good, three is good, two is fair and one is mediocre.

Oscar Brown: Well, you know I say five, gold.

Leonard Feather: Careful, you might want to save the five for something even better you know?

Oscar Brown: Well.

Leonard Feather: Cause four means very good, five means sensational.

Oscar Brown: Well, all right, I'll be conservative and say four.

Leonard Feather: So.

[Plays "Day by Day" by Joe Williams, from Sentimental and Melancholy, Roulette Records (1961). Personnel: Joe Williams: vocals.]

Oscar Brown: Whoever that is has a rich kind of nice voice. And I like the arrangement of that, it's a... It doesn't say anything sensational to me.

Leonard Feather: No.

Oscar Brown: It's you know, a love song rendered tastefully enough.

Leonard Feather: Conventional.

Oscar Brown: Right. Mike, I don't know who the singer is.

Leonard Feather: Well, it's somebody you know.

Oscar Brown: O.C... O.C. Smith has that kind of voice but I haven't heard- I'm not familiar enough with him.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Oscar Brown: It's a good, strong voice. I'd like to hear him do some more, pardon the expression, ballsy material.

Leonard Feather: Yeah, yeah. So, well he used to play... Before I say, you want to rate it, what'd you give it, two fair?

Oscar Brown: Um. Well, three. It's good for what it is, as far as it goes.

Leonard Feather: It's Joe Williams.

Oscar Brown: Really?

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Oscar Brown: Why you know, it sounds like somebody imitating... it sounds like somebody who is close to Joe Williams but not Joe Williams.

Leonard Feather: Yeah, well he's making a lot of records like that now, kind of completely popped back which I think is kind of a pity cause he-

Oscar Brown: Well it's rough, I tell you, it's rough to find material.

Leonard Feather: Yeah, but Joe's...

[Plays "Anacruses" by Oliver Nelson, King Curtis and Jimmy Forrest, from Soul Battle, Prestige Records (1962). Personnel: Oliver Nelson: tenor saxophone; King Curtis: tenor saxophone; Jimmy Forrest: tenor saxophone.]

Oscar Brown: It sounded like about three tenors and you know some very nice you know, swinging solos, the ensemble you know wasn't... the ensemble wasn't much more than an excuse to get in to the tempo work. Into the solo work but as far as it went, it was groovy. I'd say as far as it went cause I'd like to see the end... and here I'm... it's not perhaps far- fair to judge these guys for what they were doing cause what I would like to see done...

Leonard Feather: Well that's all right.

Oscar Brown: But I would like to see again more thinking out of... of jazz ideas of more effort to make an emotional point.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Oscar Brown: You know, it's coherent and decisive in its way. This is very good as an illustration of the possibilities of the instrument and of each man's versatility with his horn but I would like to see him you know, do some- a little more social, useful work.

Leonard Feather: Yeah, I might see a point. So what do you say?

Oscar Brown: Oh, I say three is cool, yeah.

[Plays "Just Let Me Be" by Memphis Slim, from Memphis Slim USA, Candid Records (1961). Personnel: Arbee Stidham: voice; Memphis Slim: piano.]

Oscar Brown: I feel drunk cause I never- I you know, I'm not able to come up with the names of who is it.

Leonard Feather: Well, that doesn't matter.

Oscar Brown: But uh-

Leonard Feather: I know of somebody that probably is-

Oscar Brown: But it's like bedrock you know that's really... You know it was so beautiful there when he's talking and he's setting it up and he's talking about the- he says the great...and then...behind the piano he's yeah, you know I'm great...he acts so beautiful. That's like... I know, as I say I don't know who it is but he's one of my teachers. He's one of the guys who really laid it down and showed the possibilities of it.

Leonard Feather: That's right.

Oscar Brown: And its got that beautiful kind of poetry that's you know... this focused kind of poetry where he says "I'm not a fool, you can't put me in a harness like a mule" you know, that kind of thing which is really a vital kind of image you know, poetic image.

Leonard Feather: Yeah, that's right.

Oscar Brown: So, whoever it is, is not just... he's a street story-teller, he is in the sense of minstrel you know, not... he's in the spirit of minstrel not like the Southern minstrels this time but the early minstrel, the guy who had the story to tell and he said it through music.

Leonard Feather: As you said Bedrock, yeah.

Oscar Brown: Yeah, it's really basic, its beautiful kind of... I'd give that you know, weighting things for what they are, I would put that in four. Who is that?

Leonard Feather: His name is Arbee Stidham.

Oscar Brown: No, never heard of him.

Leonard Feather: Oh, he...

[Plays "Wee Baby Blues" by Jimmy Witherspoon, from Hey, Mrs. Jones, Reprise Records (1961). Personnel: Ben Webster: tenor saxophone; H.B. Barnum: arranger.]

Oscar Brown: Boy. Whoever he is... That's a whole man. That cat stands up to a big man and just blow he's right with it, that's beautiful. It's a big Basie type band.

Leonard Feather: Yeah. It's more sophisticated brand of blues I think make it interesting.

Oscar Brown: Yeah, plays all in the... that's where it goes today you know? With the band all in the cracks-

Leonard Feather: Yeah, that's right.

Oscar Brown: And the singers standing up to it and still shouting and still swinging and the horn or the tenor that came in there, everything was swinging and grooving...

Leonard Feather: Yeah, it's good modern-

Oscar Brown: I thought that, there again, that's where it's going you know? That's where it's going, dramatically, that's where it's going. I keep thinking of this not just for where it is you know, but where is it going to go?

Leonard Feather: Yeah, where's it going?

Oscar Brown: It's got to go in that direction you know. That's going to be on Broadway.

Leonard Feather: Yeah, that's right.

Oscar Brown: And that's going to be some swinging musicals you know, when it happens you know? And I'd like to see this cat whoever he is, with it.

Leonard Feather: Me too.

[Plays "Naturally" by Nat Adderley, from Naturally, Jazzland Records (1961). Personnel: Nat Adderley: cornet, composer; Joe Zawinul: piano.]

Oscar Brown: Yeah, now that... that's a tune that Cannon and Nat recorded, and I don't remember the name of it but as I say, I think it's a beautiful tune, it's a happy wonder you know, really happy kind of thing.

Leonard Feather: And they want you to write lyrics it's from but you didn't get around to it?

Oscar Brown: No, they didn't ask me to, I just liked it. I heard it on this record with Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley.

Leonard Feather: Oh, yeah.

Oscar Brown: And I dug it. But this isn't the version that I heard and I don't know who... whose that is although I dig it too you know, I like the... that horn is... is such a straightforward kind of statement you know, unabashed-

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Oscar Brown: Kind of musical... goes on into it and says it you know? And then cuts out like the pied piper you know and I'm going with him you know?

Leonard Feather: Yeah, it's a good sound.

Oscar Brown: It's a very nice, strong trumpet sound... musical kind of thing. I like the piano interlude. I like that record very much, that's a four star thing for me. I like that.

Leonard Feather: Okay.

Oscar Brown: Who was that?

[Plays "Told My Captain" by Harry Belafonte, from "Mark Twain" and Other Folk Favorites, RCA Victor (1954). Personnel: Harry Belafonte: voice.]

Oscar Brown: Well, I'm a Harry Belafonte fan and... So I like... I tend to like a good deal that Harry Belafonte does. I like this. It's not the strongest thing he ever did but it's a good, dramatic kind of reading and he knows how to give good readings. People kind of put Belafonte down, some people do because he is so popular, I think in a way and popularity carries with it a certain tendency towards institutionalization...

Leonard Feather: Yeah, that is true.

Oscar Brown: You become institutionalized. But that's not a vice necessarily. Here's a cat who is translating something from way back that needs to be translated and bought to the attention of masses of people.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Oscar Brown: And he's able to successfully do that.

Leonard Feather: That's true.

Oscar Brown: And this is a contribution as far as I'm concerned.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Oscar Brown: So that if he can go to a place like O'Keefe Centre in Canada and sing this before three or four or five thousand people- I don't know what the exact thing- but standing remotely every night for two weeks...

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Oscar Brown: More power to him, you know?

Leonard Feather: Yeah, that's true.

Oscar Brown: And I think that... I dig what he's able to do with this stuff. I have been really inspired by the progress that he has made in the business. First of all, that he went beyond just being oppressed in the business, he went- he became a part of the business.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Oscar Brown: And that's a gas. That's important because that's the way its got to go. There's got to be Negros in the producing end of the thing and who are able to put together packages of things...

Leonard Feather: He certainly accomplished that.

Oscar Brown: And he's accomplished that.

Leonard Feather: Yeah, that's right.

Oscar Brown: And he's done it and still remain an artist you know.

Leonard Feather: Yeah, that's right.

Oscar Brown: And whatever dues he has had to pay for... toward the institution, the establishment in becoming this mass popular figure, I don't fault him for.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Oscar Brown: I think that he is one of the important artists of the time. This particular song I would rate perhaps only about three and a half stars only because I've heard him do things that excited me much more but perhaps I should hear that some more. That's often the case.

Leonard Feather: Well, that's an album with mostly folk things.

[Plays "Blue Monk" by Jeanna Lee and Ran Blake, from The Newest Sound Around, RCA Victor (1962). Personnel: Jeanna Lee: voice and Ran Blake: piano.

Oscar Brown: And that's a singer with enough musicianship to be Betty Carter. And of course the song is Abbey's lyric to Monk.

Leonard Feather: Oh, I didn't know Abbey did those lyrics.

Oscar Brown: Yeah, that's Abbey Lincoln's words.

Leonard Feather: Oh.

Oscar Brown: And I welcome that because I think Abbey's a fine lyricist. Tried... Always in my conversations with her about writing to encourage her to do more and more because she has serious statements to make whether I agree with them all or not.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Oscar Brown: She doesn't approach the thing lightly at all.

Leonard Feather: Yeah, that's right.

Oscar Brown: Which is interesting when you consider the Blues lyric- I mean the Jazz lyric writers... The lyricists who approach jazz now and I think more and more in the future, will tend to deal with much broader kinds of themes...

Leonard Feather: Oh, sure.

Oscar Brown: Than Tin Pan Alley has done, John Hendrix when you listen to what Jon Hendricks is saying.

Leonard Feather: That's right.

Oscar Brown: It's always talking to some life point. And Abbey does this, Abbey doesn't just sit down to say "moon in June"...

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Oscar Brown: She sits down to say something about life that is more reflective than you'd find in Pop music generally. So, I'm really glad that singer, who was excellent, chose that material and Abbey has recorded the same thing much up...

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Oscar Brown: Tempo from that.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Oscar Brown: But this one is a very valid kind of statement of a serious...

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Oscar Brown: And good thing. Who's the singer?

Leonard Feather: First of all, you didn't say anything about the fact that it's just voice and piano.

Oscar Brown: Oh, yeah well you know, I got kind of lost I guess.

Leonard Feather: Yeah, that's all it is.

Oscar Brown: Yeah, well it's a piece of poetry.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Oscar Brown: And a poetic reading.

Leonard Feather: How would you rate it?

Oscar Brown: I'd like to do something like that. Well, you didn't get too involved in where you have something to say to just focus on what it is that's being said.

Leonard Feather: Yeah, that's right.

Oscar Brown: Oh, I'd give that four.

Leonard Feather: Yeah, it's an album, let's see...