Living Music
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Count Me In
Unless you’ve been a jazz
fan for half a century or so, the Paul Winter Sextet likely won’t ring a bell in your memory
box. That’s a shame, for several reasons: This was the first jazz group
invited — by Jackie Kennedy, no less — to perform a concert at the White House;
it was the first jazz combo to be sent by the State Department on a six-month
tour of 26 Latin American countries; and it was one of the early bands that
initiated the bossa nova craze here in the States.
All that said, Winter’s
sextet never made it over the jazz radar: arriving, performing and disbanding during
a period of fewer than three years.
Winter was born during the
big band era, and his early influences included Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and
Stan Kenton. Winter’s primary instrument was the alto sax. He met
Dick Whitsell, who played trumpet, while attending Northwestern University.
Whitsell, who was three years older, became Winter’s mentor; they became the nexus
of the sextet that followed.
Both had chosen Northwestern
because of its proximity to Chicago, which — at the time — was one of the keystone
jazz cities. They formed a band and played fraternity and sorority dances held
throughout the Chicago area. Winter and Whitsell wanted a “little” big
band, so the sextet was voiced to include three horns — alto sax, trumpet and
baritone sax — and a standard rhythm section of piano, bass and drums. The
baritone sax was a must, as far as Winter was concerned; he loved the rich,
“bottom” sound that instrument gave the band.
Another point of interest:
This college group utilized a female vocalist for a short time, and her name
was Ann-Margret Olsson. You’ll recall that she later dropped her last name
and went on to fame and fortune in Hollywood.
The sextet was selected
carefully, although most members weren’t well known at the time. Pianist Warren
Bernhardt, a member of the Winter group during its entire life, went on to work
with luminaries such as Clark Terry, Gerry Mulligan and Kenny Burell. Baritone
saxman Les Rout became a famed teacher and writer; bassist Richard Evans remains
active in the R&B and fusion genres. Drummer Harold Jones also still plays,
and has worked with dozens of name artists.
As a group, this sextet won
the 1962 Intercollegiate Jazz Festival, was signed by Columbia Records and
released several albums, and made the State Department Tour and performed at the
White House Concert.
Although active during the
period when bebop was the rage, the group didn’t play that genre. Some
describe the style as New Age, but however you tag it, these guys swung like
crazy.
This package features two
CDs with a total of 42 tracks, including 14 that are previously
unreleased. Not even a single jazz standard is included; everything was
written by group members, or by composers and arrangers who were their
biggest fans. The melodic lines are relatively complex and tightly
orchestrated, and the solo work is brilliant.
This release is a 50th
anniversary anthology of this marvelous sextet. It’s an absolute must-have
collection for jazz fans who lived during that period, and for younger
listeners who want to learn more about the music that existed in America at
that time.
