Jazz / Cool, West Coast Jazz
Teddy Charles - Vibraphone, Liner Notes
Teddy Charles Tentet
Bob Dougherty Engineer
Burt Goldblatt Cover Art
Don Butterfield Tuba
George Barrow Sax (Baritone)
Gigi Gryce Sax (Alto)
J.R. Monterose Sax (Tenor)
Jimmy Raney Guitar
Mal Waldron Piano
Nesuhi Ertegun Supervisor
Peter Urban Trumpet
Sol Schlinger Sax (Baritone)
Teddy Kotick Bass
Tom Dowd Engineer
Most of this CD features vibraphonist Teddy Charles heading an advanced tentet in 1956, a unit including the likes of trumpeter Art Farmer, altoist Gigi Gryce, tenor saxophonist J.R. Monterose, pianist Mal Waldron, and guitarist Jimmy Raney. The arrangements of George Russell ("Lydian M-1"), Gil Evans (a year before Miles Ahead), Jimmy Giuffre, Mal Waldron, and Charles are quite advanced but often leave room for some swinging spots. The final three selections on the CD are actually taken from a slightly later album. Of these, "Blue Greens" is a change of pace, a quartet outing for Charles, pianist Hall Overton, bassist Charles Mingus, and drummer Ed Shaughnessy. All in all, this CD is pretty definitive of Teddy Charles' more adventurous music of the 1950s and it grows in interest with each listening. [The 2001 reissue on Collectables strips away the three bonus tracks that were appended to the original album when first released on CD by Atlantic.] ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide
Teddy Charles
Active Decades: '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s
Born: Apr 13, 1928 in Chicopee Falls, MA
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Cool, Mainstream Jazz, Post-Bop, Third Stream, West Coast Jazz
Teddy Charles is a true rarity: a jazz musician who largely retired from the business. A skillful if not overly distinctive vibraphonist and (early in his career) quite capable on piano and drums, Charles was as important for his open-minded approach in the 1950s towards more advanced sounds as he was for his playing. He moved to New York to study percussion at Juilliard in 1946, but instead became involved in the jazz world. He had short stints with the big bands of Randy Brooks, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Buddy DeFranco and Chubby Jackson from 1948-51 and then played with combos headed by Anita O'Day, Oscar Pettiford, Roy Eldridge and Slim Gaillard. He also became a member of the Jazz Composers' Workshop (1953-55) along with Charles Mingus and Teo Macero, opening his style up to the influences of classical music and freer improvising. Charles, who recorded with Mingus, Miles Davis and Wardell Gray, among many others, began leading his own stimulating record dates in 1951, and by 1953 he was also working as a record producer, a field that took much more of his time from 1956 on. He led his own sessions for Prestige, Atlantic, Savoy, Jubilee, Bethlehem (where he produced around 40 records, mostly for other artists), and Warwick from 1951-60, but was hardly heard from in the 1960s, other than a 1963 set for United Artists. Charles relocated to the Caribbean, where he opened a sailing business. After participating in a 1980 jam session, Teddy Charles eventually moved back to New York, making a "comeback" record for Soul Note in 1988, but still remaining semi-retired from music.
---Scott Yanow, All Music Guide |
