HARD BOP ORIGINS: DETROIT'S HARD BOP CONNECTIONS

Calvin H. Neal, Jr. 

January 2, 2017 

During The Hard Bop era the East Coast wasn’t the only place from which top notch musicians emanated. Detroit was a main connection point in the evolution of hard bop. May important artist of the era were Detroit born and raised and had honed their skills in the many jazz venues Detroit had to offer. University of Michigan-Dearborn professor Lars Bjorn and longtime jazz broadcaster Jim Gallert have an excellent and highly informative book on Detroit’s jazz history, Before Motown- A History of Jazz in Detroit, filled with photos, anecdotes and descriptions of the myriad Detroit jazz clubs of old and the musicians, some famous, some only locally known, but just as talented that called Detroit. The book is a must have for the neophyte or novice jazz listener.

https://www.press.umich.edu/23532/before_motown

Trumpeter Donald Byrd and bassist Doug Watkins were integral parts of early incarnations of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. 

Yusef Lateef and his groups, featuring fellow Detroiters Hugh Lawson, Ernie Farrow and Frank Gant, recorded a series of excellent sessions for Riverside, Prestige and Savoy Records in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. Lateef’s titles included, Cry Tender, Before Dawn, Eastern Sounds and The Centaur and The Phoenix.  

Bassist Paul Chambers, cousin of Doug Watkins, was bassist with Miles Davis’ first “classic quintet”, as well as being a favorite of Blue Note Records head Alfred Lion, thus being part of myriad sessions for Blue Note in the hard bop era. Bass virtuoso Ron Carter, a Cass tech grad, was bassist in Miles’ “2^nd classic quintet.

        Drummer Elvin Jones, who hails from my hometown of Pontiac (and was a childhood schoolmate of my mother and Uncle Ben), was the propelling force behind the classic quartet of John Coltrane that included pianist McCoy Tyner and bassist Jimmy Garrison. His brother, trumpeter/flugelhorn/composer Thad who is most well known for his association with drummer Mel Lewis and their Big Bands. Another Motor City native who made quite a mark for himself during the era is pianist extraordinaire, Tommy Flanagan. Along with fellow Detroit pianist Barry Harris, who recorded with Donald Byrd, Cannonball Adderley and Benny Golson,  Flanagan was directly descended from the bop piano of  Pontiac native, legendary pianist Hank Jones, older brother of trumpeter Thad and drummer Elvin. Flanagan played with and recorded with J.J. Johnson, Kenny Burrell, Booker Little, Howard McGhee, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins and Coleman Hawkins among others.  Flanagan was also part of  John Coltrane’s quartet that recorded the classic Giant Steps. Flanagan went on to be accompanist and music director for Ella Fitzgerald for twenty years. Detroit trombonist Curtis Fuller became a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and many of his compositions for Blakey have become classic, including Arabia, from Blakey’s Mosaic and The Egyptian, from the Messengers’ Indestructible session. Trumpeter Donald Byrd recorded as a leader for Blue Note from 1958 until well into the 1970’s and had many outstanding sessions, including what has become  one of the hard bop era’s classic live sets. For years, Byrd and fellow Detroiter, baritone Saxophonist Park “Pepper” Adams had co lead groups and on April 15 of 1958, this version of the Pepper Adams Quintet recorded the classic live session, 10 to 4 At The 5 Spot, at New York’s famous 5 Spot Café. This quintet was composed of four Detroit natives and a swinging, bluesy cat from Philadelphia. Along with Adams’s baritone and his front line partner Byrd, Philly native Bobby Timmons helmed the piano seat and was accompanied in the rhythm section by bassist Doug Watkins and an up and coming drummer named Elvin Jones. Hastings Street Bounce and The Long Two/Four, are the standouts on this short but very rousing set of live hard bop. Two years later, November 11, 1960  the duo, this time backed by Duke Pearson on piano, Laymon Jackson on bass and Lex Humphries on drums, recorded a live set at New York’s “Half Note Café’,  for Blue Note records that was to become Donald Byrd At The Half Note Café : Jazz At The Waterfront. “My Girl Shirl”, “My Soulful Kitty” and “Between The Devil; and The Deep Blue Sea”, are my favorites from what has now become a two cd set. Adams is in fine form for his solo on “My Soulful Kitty”, Byrd is in top form throughout and the rhythm section, led by future Blue Note A&R man Pearson on piano, makes this an swinging, seminal hard bop session. This is only a small sample size of the musicians Detroit contributed to the hard bop era.