Leonard Feather Blindfold Tests

[Plays unknown song]

Leonard Feather: Okay.

Johnny Mandel: I really have no idea who this is.

Leonard Feather: Sit back. It picks up-

Johnny Mandel: It picks up good.

Leonard Feather: Sit back and relax.

Johnny Mandel: All right.

Leonard Feather: Now we can go to work.

Johnny Mandel: It sounds like it could be one of Cannonball's dates with about a nine or 10 piece band. I've never heard it before. Sounds like it's recorded in a bucket, like most of the records that are made.

Leonard Feather: You think the general sound of recording is that low?

Johnny Mandel: Yeah, I really do. I think that as far as I know, as far as recording bands or anybody, I haven't heard anyone yet who records sound nearly as well as Larry Elgart. I'll probably make a lot of enemies saying that, but-

Leonard Feather: What else he's going to play then?

Johnny Mandel: It doesn't sound natural ever. It sounds like playing a piano with a loud pedal constantly pressed down with all the echo they have. There must have been a two or three second hangover on this.

Leonard Feather: Yeah. Fine.

Johnny Mandel: Gee, I don't know who half these people could have been. Baritone, could have been Cecil Pane. The trombone played fast enough to sound like either like Jimmy Cleveland or Frank Rosolino, but it didn't sound quite like either, probably more like Cleveland. Sounded too clean. I don't know quite who it could've been. The alto sounded quite a bit like Cannonball, but it also could have been Gene Quill. Now the trumpets, first one sounded like Nat Adderley to me. The second one sounded like Ernie Royal. That's about all I can tell you.

Leonard Feather: How about the writing and the performance?

Johnny Mandel: Both of them were pretty ragged, I thought.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Johnny Mandel: Should I say, I don't think the writing was done justice too.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Johnny Mandel: And I really don't know who this was.

Leonard Feather: You know the rating system, five is sensational, four very good, three good, two fair, one lousy.

Johnny Mandel: I'd give it three.

Leonard Feather: Good.

Johnny Mandel: Potentially, it could have been much better.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

[Plays "Mobile Blues" by Jack Teagarden, Capitol Records (1958). Personnel: Jack Teagarden: trombone; Jerry Fuller: clarinet; Dick Oakley: trumpet; Don Ewell: piano; Ronnie Greb: drums; Stan Puls: bass.]

Johnny Mandel: You rolling?

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Johnny Mandel: Oh, well this one threw me too. It sounded like it was just recently made. It sounds like it could either be Peanuts Hucko or Sol Yaged, probably Peanuts. I don't know though.

Johnny Mandel: These I don't recognize either. As far as piano is concerned, I'm really thrown. It could have been Jean Schrader, could have been a couple of people. I didn't recognize the rhythm section or the trumpet player. Trombone could have been Cutty Cutshall and the trumpet was not Pee Wee Ervin, but I don't know who it was.

Johnny Mandel: The trumpet player I'd say was the weakest one of the bunch. He didn't sound like anybody I knew like Pee Wee or Wild Bill or amongst you anybody like that. This kind of sounded like a second string. Of course, I really don't know who it was and the drummer didn't sound like he was at home either.

Leonard Feather: Did you mention the trombone?

Johnny Mandel: Cutty Cutshall is who I thought it may have been. That's about it.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Johnny Mandel: Piano, I'm really thrown on. I don't know who this is. I know the style. He's got some Teddy Wilson in him, I just can't place quite who it is.

Leonard Feather: What would you think of that? I mean that class of performance it represents?

Johnny Mandel: I think it's a very jaded, it feels to me like they're playing something they don't quite... Like they're going through the motions.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Johnny Mandel: It's pretty hard to find good practitioners of this music anymore. I don't know why, I guess the enthusiasm's gone out of it. It's a shame, but I have to always turn to the older records-

Leonard Feather: That's true.

Johnny Mandel: ... to hear something I enjoy of this sort. I don't know. This sounds like it was just like they were going through the motions to me.

Leonard Feather: Yeah. What would you give it? One?

Johnny Mandel: Yeah.

Leonard Feather: One star. Okay.

Johnny Mandel: One star.

[Plays "Wonderful Thing" by Count Basie, Victor Records (1949). Personnel: C.Q. Price: composer; Harry "Sweets" Edison: trumpet; Freddie Green: guitar.]

Leonard Feather: Ever heard that before?

Johnny Mandel: No, I think you're really throwing the book at me today. Well, right off there's no question if that was Basie on top, as far as the piano player was concerned and it sounded like it could have been Freddie also with him, Freddie Green. Trumpet was Sweets, no question about that. It sounded like it might've been one of the Sweets' tunes too and it sounded like there wasn't an alto involved in this thing at all, it's tenor lead. The chart I'd say was terrible and the recording sound was bad enough to even be Norman Granz, who I think has probably put the worst sound on records ever made, with probably the best talent involved. Well, I'm not going to make friends this time.

Leonard Feather: Well, you're being honest, which makes friends.

Johnny Mandel: Well, you usually have to take your choice of one of the two.

Leonard Feather: You're so right? Please do that.

Johnny Mandel: That's about the best I could put my finger on. I'm sure that was Basie, and I'm sure that was Sweets. That's about all I know. I know it was an A flat.

Leonard Feather: Yeah. Rating?

Johnny Mandel: One star... Two stars and one of them because Basie was on it.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

[Plays "Tootsie" by Count Basie, Columbia Records (1950). Personnel: Count Basie: piano; Clark Terry: trumpet; Wardell Gray: tenor saxophone; Buddy DeFranco: clarinet; Freddie Green: guitar; Gus Johnson: drums.]

Johnny Mandel: No, I don't know what this is, but it sounds like one of the... Well it's Basie and Freddie again, sounds like one of those sextet sides Basie might've made some time during 1950. I think he did a lot of those things on Columbia. That was Buddy DeFranco on clarinet, sounded like Wardell on tenor. That sounded like Gus Johnson possibly to me, either Gus or Joe Jones. I think it was Gus Johnson on drums because it's settled enough to be Gus and as for the rest of them, I couldn't tell, nobody had anything to play though there was a trumpet in there. Let's see, there was... It was blues and one of the blues in C or something like that, a bunch of Brits that he's used on a lot of things like a gone with what wind and a Boogie Woogie called at one time and it's come out to a lot of different names and no, give it four stars for Basie. It's not a great record, but it's a good one.

[Plays "Bread" by Count Basie, Verve Records (1957). Personnel: Count Basie: piano; Freddie Green: guitar; Marshall Royal: alto saxophone; Charlie Fowlkes: baritone saxophone; Jimmy Lewis: bass; Gus Johnson: drums; Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis: tenor saxophone.]

Leonard Feather: You know what it's called?

Johnny Mandel: Yeah, and I think this thing is called Bread.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Johnny Mandel: This is kind of unfair because I played the chart many times with Basie and it's a wonderful chart. Ernie Wilkins wrote his, you know what's off.

Johnny Mandel: And Oh, I'm glad I played it otherwise, thanks to Norman again, the band sounds like it's underwater and I wouldn't have known what it sounded like. That was Joe Newman. God bless him on trumpet and Lockjaw. Eddie Davis on tenor playing his usual great. That man can whip everybody up to such a fever pitch and he's really got a tremendous drive and it was a good band and it's just a shame that it wasn't heard better. I heard Norman once say that this was a commercial sound and that it sold records in answer to someone who asked him why the sound was so bad on these records?

Leonard Feather: I know. Was it made before you joined the band or after you left the band?

Johnny Mandel: It was made before I joined it. The band got a lot better later too. It was just beginning to really shape up then, this put us-

Leonard Feather: Yeah. What year were you with the band, 53?

Johnny Mandel: 53

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Johnny Mandel: The band was just beginning to settle about this time.

Leonard Feather: Yeah. Well, if you can rate it on the basis of the... It's going to be right.

Johnny Mandel: Well, for everything else but the recording quality itself, I've got to give it five stars.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

[Plays "Ev'ry Tub" by Count Basie, Roulette Records (1958). Personnel: Count Basie: piano; Dave Lambert: vocals; Jon Hendricks: vocals; Annie Ross: vocals; Joe Williams: vocals.]

Johnny Mandel: Well this isn't a hard one to peg as far as what it is. It's a very distinctive sound, but it's a very hard one to rate. This is, I guess that part of that a Sing A Song with Basie or Sing Along with Basie. It's one of the Basie standards taken and set to lyrics. I think the lyrics were very skillfully written, but unfortunately there was such mouthfuls that it's probably the reason they took the tempo much too slow on this thing and the rhythm section, although I guess it's... Probably Basie's rhythm section sounds terribly mushy on account of it and a lot of that's the recording too. Again, it sounds like it's in a barrel. There's no presence from anybody except the singers who are right on top of it. Individually, I think the singers are all great and the lyrics are very good, and well Annie Ross I think is the best. I think she's the best damn singer I've ever heard. As far as laying, I don't mean for... Yeah, just about in all categories. I'd like to hear a lot more of her singing slow songs and everything else. I think she's a marvel and nobody can lay down time like this girl and has range. She's got a voice that just does everything from... God, she practically encompasses the old piano keyboard. She's got a freak voice, but it's correct.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Johnny Mandel: To hear this group with even almost through one tune gives me the jitters. I don't know how to rate this record. It's got more damn talent on it. And yet I can't say I like the sum total at all.

Leonard Feather: Because you have too much of a sentimental attachment to the original.

Johnny Mandel: No, not at all. I just don't like the group as a group and I love the people as individuals. Not personally, but musically.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Johnny Mandel: I like the group if they'd slipped to do a constant diet of this kind of a thing. I can't stand to listen to a whole side. I didn't mean to turn this into a personal criticism.

Leonard Feather: I see what you mean.

Johnny Mandel: Because frankly I think the group needs all the help it can get and should have it.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Johnny Mandel: I just think they should break it up more. This here, it's a... It seems to me like it's a lot of effort with not nearly as rewarding result as it should have been for what went into it. Yeah. And it was very well handled, both from John's and particularly Annie's.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Johnny Mandel: I don't know what to say. How would I rate this? Oh, I guess three stars and an E for effort.

Leonard Feather: All right. That'll do.

[Plays unknown song]

Johnny Mandel: Well, the first thing that struck me, just the sound, some how sounds kind of like Capitol. I don't know why, but it does and all I hear is brass. I guess it's done only with brass and a rhythm section. And it's hard to say who these people are. That could be Nat Pierce on piano. It's not Basie, that's for sure. It's someone who's trying to sound that way. It is somebody who's made quite a study of Basie. The rhythm section sounds nice. Again, I think there's a little too much echo on the thing, quite a bit too much. The vibes, I don't know who they sound like, they recorded funny. They sound like milk bottles almost. It didn't sound like Terry Gibbs to me. I don't know who that could have been. Guitar sounded like it could have been Jim Hall, but I don't think it was, I can't pick out any of the individuals. The rhythm felt good. The drums and bass were very nice.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Johnny Mandel: Could it have possibly been that album that Shearing did with brass or the one that Terry Gibbs did with brass? That's the only ones I know of, but it doesn't sound like Terry to me for some reason, except for the fact that he hits the instrument very hard and uses hard mallets. I give up.

Leonard Feather: Well-

Johnny Mandel: The chart was a Blues Riffs. I don't know if I could rate it at all on the basis of the chart. It was a... Couldn't say whether it was good or bad or not. It was just a head arrangement from the sound of it. All right. Three stars.

[Plays unknown song]

Leonard Feather: Okay. Some thing you said about the sound, right?

Johnny Mandel: Just more echo on... Echo on echo it sounds like. I don't know. They seem to turn it on and the same thing happens every time the brass thins out. All you hear is the trumpets. No presence, no trombones, no nothing, no middle, just garble. Well, it sounds like somebody maybe Ramp, can hear somebody playing the Benny Goodman stockroom on the One O'clock Jump.

Johnny Mandel: Okay. I got to say in 1938 it would have rated three stars, in 1948 two stars, and 58 no stars.

Leonard Feather: It's a very good rating.

[Plays "Topsy" by Count Basie, Brunswick Records (1937). Personnel: Count Basie: piano; Buck Clayton: trumpet; Jack Washington: baritone saxophone; Herschel Evans: tenor saxophone; Jo Jones: drums.]

Johnny Mandel: Well. Oh, you've been trying to really throw curves at me. This sounds like most of the Basie band and this isn't, it sounds like an original recording. Quality wise, it's flat. I don't know. I think the old recordings sound better than the new ones with all the-

Leonard Feather: Been watching and I like that playing so much so-

Johnny Mandel: Yeah. At least I know what's playing and who and almost who's playing it. Well, this sounds like Topsy. It sounds like most of the Basie band, but I know Buck Clayton played the opening, I'm sure of that. But it didn't sound like Jack Washington on baritone, sounded more like Harry Carney to me. The piano, I don't know who it was. That threw me, but it wasn't Basie. That sounded like Buddy Tate on tenor as far as the solo is concerned, and I know I heard Earle Warren wailing in the background and it sounded like Jo Jones and it sounded like it might've been recorded around 1940 or 41 that's about all I can tell you.

Leonard Feather: MM-hmm. You like it?

Johnny Mandel: I like it. I thought it was not very well played. It sounded like it was kind of thrown together and well, in retrospect I'd say for what it was at the time, four stars.

[Plays "Pharaoh" by Jimmy Giuffre, Columbia Records (1957). Personnel: Jimmy Giuffre: composer; Gunther Schuller: conductor.]

Johnny Mandel: Well, the only comments I can make on that since I don't know what it is are general ones. It's damn good and the big trouble today I guess is that they put out so many records, it's impossible to listen to everything and this is something I should know and don't. It sounds like one of those festival things and whoever recorded it, three cheers. For once, it's good. It really is. I hear everything. The brass is... It's really well recorded. It sounds like it might've been a one mic job, like a symphony, which is the way I wish they all were. It was written definitely by somebody who has... Although it's written as a legitimate piece, somebody who has his roots in jazz wrote this thing and it sounds like... It sounds a little less tame than John Lewis has been writing recently, although almost everything is his, I've heard has been for the quartet in recent years. Understood J.J. Johnson did one of these things too, and it sounds like it could be his. I really don't know who's it is, but it's awfully good. Five stars.

[Plays "The Queen's Fancy" by John Lewis and the Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra, RCA Victor Records (1958). Personnel: John Lewis: piano, conductor; Ronnie Ross: baritone saxophone; Gerry Weinkopf: flute.]

Johnny Mandel: Well, I recognize the pieces. John Lewis's. I think it's called The Queen's Fancy. I remember hearing it with The Modern Jazz, with the quartet. I don't know what to say about this, it sounds... I don't recognize any of the soloists and the interpretation of the orchestra. It tends to make me... It feels European to me, like it was done somewhere, sometime in Europe. Also, I'm kind of using economical divide, economic divining rod, because I don't think he could get that large an orchestra together here. It's awfully big. I mean, maybe he could, but it would cost somebody a mint.

Leonard Feather: Yeah.

Johnny Mandel: And I just don't know quite what to say about this. It's beautifully handled as John handles everything. Well, taste is one thing you can never take away from him. I'm just not sure of what the net total is after the whole thing is put together and played. I'm kind of... It's jumbled to begin with, the jazz never does quite settle and swing on it and then all of a sudden you get this very pompous brass figure that actually is, it sounds like something from a... Well, sounds almost like the beginning of one of the Brandenburg Concertos or else something out of a soundtrack of Hamlet. It's hard to say what this is and and why and why it was done. I don't know. This is something only John knows. All I know is that it was handled beautifully the way it was done and it was played pretty well too. What would you say? Good chart. I don't know. Three stars.

Leonard Feather: Okay.

[Plays "Nice Ice" by Randy Weston, Capitol Records (1959). Personnel: Randy Weston: piano; Melba Liston: arranger; Johnny Griffin: tenor saxophone; Roy Copeland: trumpet.]

Johnny Mandel: Sounds like Randy Weston to me. Maybe I'm being misled because it's a waltz and nobody handles waltzes better than he does, for me. He's quite a talent. Well arranged too, whoever did it. I know Melba did some things for them on one album, which I haven't really heard yet. Melba Liston. And it sounded like it might've been Johnny Griffin. Very possibly. It's polished enough to sound like Johnny which... He can sound pretty polished when he wants to. Not positive on that score. Sounds like Audrey Solomon very possibly too and it really sounds like Randy's music whether it's him or not playing. That's about as much as I can give you there. Oh, four stars.

[Plays "Quincey's Home Again" by Quincy Jones with Harry Arnold and his Swedish Radio Studio Orchestra, EmArcy Records (1958). Personnel: Harry Arnold: composer; Bengt Hallberg: piano; Egil Johansen: drums; Anne Domnerus: alto saxophone.]

Leonard Feather: Yeah. Can you give it five?

Johnny Mandel: Five.

Leonard Feather: Say again. I couldn't-

Johnny Mandel: After hearing that twice, I still couldn't tell you who it is because that doesn't really have any positive identity. There isn't a leader there that I can identify. It sounds like either the kind of abandoned Manny Albam would have put together for Carl for for one of his albums. It sounds a little like Manny's writing although below his usually a good standard. It could be Pomeroy's band. I can't recognize any of the soloists except the... The drummer sounds a little bit to me like Osie Johnson, the piano player sounds a little like Bill Evans to me, possibly. It's awfully clean and awfully good. It could be Dick Katz possibly. By the way, his judicious choice of notes as far as being able to pick his spots between ensembles is something very few piano players can do and which Bill Basie does the best. Katz is very good at it. I just can't... It could be Phil Woods playing Alto too, but I really can't put my finger on who this is. It's well played, pretty well written, not too well recorded. I'd rate it about three and a half.

Leonard Feather: Okay.

[Plays unknown song]

Johnny Mandel: Well I'm baffled again. Well this one's really in the caverns. I couldn't hear anything except I know it was an awfully good band playing. It was well played. The writing was very good and the recording was just horrible. I couldn't pick out who it was for a while. I wasn't sure if it was one trombone player playing all those things or a bunch of them because they, like I said, it's echo distorts the sound so much. You can't really get any presence or a feeling of individuals on this. I thought I might've heard Maynard Ferguson on valve trombone.