Eddie Daniels, Liben Music

Eddie Daniels

Raised in the Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn, Eddie Daniels was attracted to jazz in his teens after hearing the instrumentalists accompanying such stars as Frank Sinatra. He started out clarinet at 13 and alto sax (which had been his father’s instrument) at 15, and performed at the Newport Jazz Festival’s youth competition. Enrolled at the High School for the Performing Arts (studying clarinet and tenor sax), he became the first clarinet in New York’s All City High School Orchestra. Eddie went on to earn a BA in Music and Education at Brooklyn College and embarked on high school teaching career in New York City. A few years later, he enrolled in a Master’s degree program in clarinet and composition at Julliard. While playing a gig with Tony Scott at the Half Note, Thad Jones and Mel Lewis stopped by and invited Daniels to join their new orchestra as a tenor player, which began its long tenure at the Village Vanguard in 1966; Daniels remained with the orchestra through the early 70s. A single solo on clarinet, recorded for Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra’s Live at the Village Vanguard lead to Eddie winning Downbeat's International Critics New Star on Clarinet Award. Notes Eddie of his decision to play clarinet on “Little Pixie,” “We each had 32 bars and at the last minute I decided to dive for the clarinet and it was live and there were no other takes, and so I played that solo on the clarinet, and for some reason I won the DownBeat “New Star Clarinet” for those 32 bars.”

Over the years, Daniels received accolades for both his classical and jazz chops. In 1966, he won the saxophone prize in the International Competition for Modern Jazz; in 1989 he won a Grammy Award for his playing on the Roger Kellaway arrangement of “Memos from Paradise,” just one of many such awards and nominations. Maestro Leonard Bernstein noted that, “Eddie Daniels combines elegance and virtuosity in a way that makes me remember Arthur Rubenstein. He is a thoroughly well-bred demon," while jazz critic Leonard Feather added that “It is a rare event in jazz where one man can all but reinvent an instrument, bringing it to a new stage of revolution."

Mean What You Say

This recording date might have never occurred had it not been for IPO executive producer Bob Sarin, who had recently issued One More: The Music of Thad Jones with the legendary James Moody on sax, along with Hank Jones, Richard Davis, and Kenny Washington. In planning a follow-up, Sarin was unable to schedule Moody for all sessions, and called on Eddie Daniels to join the all-star rhythm section. Both Hank Jones and Davis had been compatriots of Daniels back in the Jones/Lewis Orchestra; Eddie also had played tenor with Hank’s trio in New Jersey. Of Jones, Daniels noted that he was “the root of the germination of this album. He is a synthesis of jazz piano from stride to bop.”

And Mean What You Say indeed reflects this synthesis as a history of not only piano but tenor and clarinet from the swing to modern bop eras. Four of the dozen tracks feature Daniels on tenor sax, a good reminder that, while he may have put modern clarinet on the jazz map, he was and still is a consummate master of straight-ahead tenor, as the sax bookends the set in grand fashion. Appropriately, the first and title track was the first solo Daniels recorded with the Jones/Lewis Orchestra. The trio runs joyously through the intro before Daniels takes over, and after trading solos with Jones, trades eights with Washington, swinging all the way. Two other up-tempo classics benefit from Daniels’ turn on tenor. “You and the Night and the Music” is a swing with transmission in 4^th gear as Eddie swirls around the changes; Hank has a field day himself, driven by Davis’ swift walk. Daniels and Washington exchange 4s with enthusiasm, the tenor closing it out with an airy cadenza. The set closer, “How Deep is the Ocean,” taken at a bright clip, gives Daniels the opportunity for one last and glorious coda.

The fourth track featuring tenor sax is one of the album highlights, and given the popularity of “My One and Only Love,” this could have been a yawn even beautifully played. But here Daniels recalls the best of the balladic tenors—Coltrane, Getz in particular. Davis’ solid resonance shines from below while Jones is (as always) an impeccable supporter floating on diaphanous wings. Daniels’ moderate vibrato adds a touch of nasality, and he takes the improv with a somewhat brusque but tender heart. The pulse from Davis and Washington swings just enough, while Jones unleashes a richly textured, elegantly traversed solo. Daniels returns to the head with a brighter step while still touched with a lingering—and pleasing—sentimentality.

The clarinet leads the remainder of the program. “It Had to be You” shows of Daniels’ silky smooth phrasing from top to bottom, while Jones’ delightful solo leads into a bassline that creats an artful collaborative statement with Davis. Washington keeps it swinging throughout, and Daniels reels of a lovely cadenza to end the track. Billy Strayhorn’s “Passion Flower” is one of the composer’s most beautiful pieces, and it really sings on clarinet. Again Daniels is supported by Jones at his most lyrical (which is saying a lot). Evokes a singing bird, Daniels covers the full range of the reed, offering one gorgeous arpeggio after another, while Washington makes a very subtle contribution with his brush strokes and Jones offers the anticipated master solo. This track makes one wonder why the clarinet is not recorded more often in service to the most lovely jazz melodies. From this very relaxed mood, Daniels throws in Harry Warren’s “Nagasaki,” a short romp (under three minutes). Daniels slides up and down without dropping a note, energizing the band as do Washington’s swinging brushes; then Jones takes the baton and swings it inside out.

“Why You” was composed by Jones and Daniels, based on the frequent movie line. “Why you [fill in the blank—you idiot, you numbskull”]—stopped in midphrase. A mere three minutes, the clarinet gets the first round, then piano. This composition has the feel of rag and boogie without really going that route, yet it does seem like it should be the soundtrack to a silent film. A short dazzling coda from Eddie brings it to a smirking finish. In contrast, The Ellington/Mills tune “Azure” is a lovely melody from the clarinet’s high end, soaring over an elegant keyboard bassline. Eddie tosses out a repetitive figure leading into a singing passage, climbing and somersaulting. The support below seems like two bass players in Jones and Davis, and Washington’s percussion is ever present but laid back. Jones adds in his own twisting lyricism, leaving Davis on his own to create the pulsating bass.

Moving along in tempo, “The Touch of Your Lips” is given a stridely intro from Jones, setting up Daniels’ clarinet stroll before moving into a more spiraling swing with apt punctuations from Washington and more assertive support from Davis as Jones takes over the melodic improvisation. The remaining clarinet tracks are similarly upbeat. On “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You,” Eddie and Hank play off each other so beautifully, their collaboration seems telepathic. And finally we get to hear more specifically from Davis on a short bridge on the out chorus, while the leader’s twisting arpeggio makes for a majestic finale. Charlie Parker’s “My Little Suede Shoes” is draped in island lilt thanks in no small part to Kenny Washington. Daniels takes us to the tropics with a dancing groove on a tune that proves to be as well suited to the clarinet as sax, and all in all a nice contrast to the typically straight-ahead swing of the set. Jones, with calypso support from Davis, runs through a solo as bedazzling as Eddie’s, who leaves us with a sweet a cappella parting line.

In sum, while much of the route traveled on Mean What You Say is comfortably familiar, that familiarity allows the listener to fully concentrate on the masterful and engaging execution, and specifically on the charming translation to clarinet. Eddie Daniels and Hank Jones make a heavenly match, one that will hopefully reconnect for an encore.

Mean What You Say will be available in retail and online outlets June 1^st. This review was previously posted on JazzINK www.jazzink.com)

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