Ralph Burns, “Vignette at Verney’s” (1951), Lee Konitz on alto sax
Once I started buying jazz, I never looked back. I was fifteen. My first jazz purchase was not one but two double EP albums.
The first was an EP by composer-arranger Ralph Burns: Free Forms (1951). Burns had written for Woody Herman’s famous Second Herd and was known most of all for his suite of sound impressions for the Herd, “Summer Sequence” (1948), which vaguely echoed Debussy if a full jazz orchestra ever could sound like Debussy. The concluding segment of “Sequence” made a star of tenor saxophonist Stan Getz. Later, it was retitled “Early Autumn” and words were added to it. I may even have sung it some time. I don’t remember.
The featured soloists on the Burns EP were Burns on piano and alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, who had a chiffon-like, diaphanous sound that drove me crazy when I first heard it. (Almost seventy years later, I still respond to it.)
Fast forward to 1957, six years later. I got to see Konitz perform with the Gerry Mulligan quartet. (I owned an album with Konitz and Mulligan together by that time.) It wasn’t as good an experience as I’d expected. The mike set up amplified Mulligan’s robust baritone sax and diminished Konitz’s weaker alto. Mulligan drowned out Konitz even when playing backup behind his solos.
My second purchase was a compendium of Ellington hits like “Chloe” and “The Mooche.”
The Burns album didn’t wear well. The Ellington did. The Ellington stuff was grand! The Burns stuff ephemeral.
ADDITIONAL LISTENING
Woody Herman Second Herd, with Stan Getz on tenor, Terry Gibbs on vibes, “Early Autumn” (1948)
MUSIC & ME 