SOUND PROJECTIONS
AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE
EDITOR: KOFI NATAMBU
SUMMER, 2018
VOLUME FIVE NUMBER THREE
BOBBY HUTCHERSON
Featuring the Musics and Aesthetic Visions of:
DOROTHY ASHBY
(April 21-27)
MILFORD GRAVES
(April 28-May 4)
LOUIS JORDAN
(May 5-11)
JOSEPH JARMAN
(May 12-18)
OTIS BLACKWELL
{May 19-25)
MARION BROWN
(May 26-June 1)
THE ROOTS
(June 2-8)
BILLY BANG
(JUNE 9-15)
STEFON HARRIS
(JUNE 16–22)
MEMPHIS MINNIE
(June 23-29)
HAROLD LAND
(June 30-July 6)
WILLIE DIXON
(July 7--13)https://www.allmusic.com/artist/harold-land-mn0000665944/biography
Harold Land
(1928-2001)
Artist Biography by Scott Yanow
Harold Land
is an underrated tenor saxophonist whose tone has hardened with time
and whose improvising style after the 1960s became influenced by (but
not a copy of) John Coltrane.
He grew up in San Diego and started playing tenor when he was 16. After
working locally and making his recording debut for Savoy (1949), Land had his first high-profile gig in 1954 when he joined the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet. Land
performed and recorded with the group until late 1955 when due to
family problems he had to return home to Los Angeles (where he has been
based ever since). He played with Curtis Counce's
band (1956-1958), recorded a pair of memorable albums for Contemporary
(1958-1959), led his own groups in the 1960s, and co-led groups with Bobby Hutcherson (1967-1971) and Blue Mitchell (1975-1978). Harold Land continued freelancing around Los Angeles up until his death in 2001. Land
recorded as a leader (in addition to Savoy and Contemporary) for such
labels as Jazzland, Blue Note, Imperial, Atlantic, Cadet, Mainstream,
Concord, Muse, and Postcards. His son, Harold Land, Jr., occasionally
played piano with his groups.
https://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/haroldland
The West Coast saxophonist known for his associations with the masterful quintet led by trumpeter Clifford Brown and drummer Max Roach in the mid-50's and with the internationally acclaimed quintet he co-led with Bobby Hutcherson in the late '60s. He engaged in an individualistic style and an expressive tone, mixing compelling melody readings with alluring improvisations.
Land, born in Houston and raised in San Diego, moved to Los Angeles in the early '50s. In 1954, he joined the famed Brown-Roach quintet, with which he toured the United States and recorded several albums for EmArcy (all of which are available as reissue CDs). After two years with the ensemble, Land felt the need to be closer to his family, which was in Los Angeles, and so he returned and resided there ever since.
He soon began to establish himself as one of the most singular and powerful of jazzmen, making albums with bassists Red Mitchell and Curtis Counce and then, in 1958, making his solo debut (he had recorded four selections in 1949 that were released by Savoy). “Harold in the Land of Jazz,” was issued on Contemporary Records, and was followed a year later by “The Fox,” which many consider his best early recording. He did an impromptu date in the spring of 1960, rising star Wes Montgomery was living in San Francisco and the Cannonball Adderley Quintet—with its Barry Harris/Sam Jones/Louis Hayes rhythm section was all brought in for a classic blowing session that resulted in “West Coast Blues.”
He also began performing with Gerald Wilson's orchestra, and with pianists Hampton Hawes and Carl Perkins, becoming an essential element in the Los Angeles jazz scene. Nonetheless, the saxophonist didn't really get much exposure outside LA until he formed a quintet with vibes player Bobby Hutcherson in the late '60s. The band recorded for Blue Note and toured the US and Europe.
Also during the '60s, Land, like so many saxophonists, became enamored with John Coltrane, and he found that both his smooth sound and his approach to improvising changed during this period. “John definitely inspired me with his intense spirit, and I usually say that spirit moved me so much that I became a little more intense in my own musical presentation,” says Land. “At the same time, I was trying to maintain a certain individuality that I hope I have managed to do.”
In the late '70s and '80s, Land joined the Timeless All-Stars, which also included Higgins, Hutcherson, Cedar Walton (piano), and Curtis Fuller (trombone). In and around performances with the Timeless band, Land fronted fine quintets that featured trumpeters Blue Mitchell (their “Mapenzi,” on Concord Jazz, is a classic) and Oscar Brashear (documented on “Xocia's Dance” on Muse). Land remains one of the most impressive and deep improvisers in jazz.
He recorded “A Lazy Afternoon,” (1994) a collection of soothing standards backed by a string orchestra. In 2001 he returned from a seven year recording hiatus to offer up “Promised Land,” featuring Mulgrew Miller on piano, Ray Drummond on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums. Sadly, this would be one of Higgins's last sessions, and Harold Land would also go on to pass in July of 2001.
http://articles.latimes.com/print/1988-11-15/entertainment/ca-23_1_harold-land
http://articles.latimes.com/print/1992-08-07/entertainment/ca-5002_1_clifford-brown
https://jazztimes.com/departments/overdue-ovation/harold-land/
Many of jazz’s best practitioners have had serious problems with blowing their own horns. Saxophonist Harold Land is no exception.
Land is an extremely private person and no matter how penetrating or elaborate a question you ask him, he will reflect, gaze at you-or right through you-and reply with the shortest, most honest, noncommittal answer possible. Put a horn in his mouth, and he is no longer the minimalist. When he plays, he erupts with information. The man is a Vesuvius of ideas; everything you wanted to know about sax, but were afraid to ask.
Minus the embouchure, Land’s an introvert, but what pours through his axe is everything you could hope to know about his personal gentility, his musical aggressiveness, his romantic nature and his deep spirituality-a dedication to Zen Buddhism that permeates his life and career. It’s also the one subject he loves to discuss.
“That was the major change in my life and the greatest thing that ever happened to me and my family. I can thank Buster Williams for getting me interested in it. Buster was staying with us when he was working with Herbie Hancock, who is also a practicing Buddhist. That’s 27 years ago, Lydia [my wife] just informed me because I can’t remember what happened 27 minutes ago. She’s been chanting with me for the past 20 years, and our son, Harold Land Jr., has been doing it ever since I began.
“It has affected me spiritually, physically and materially, but I didn’t realize that it influenced my music until different people began coming up to me and they’d say, ‘Wow, I really hear something different about your playing-it sounds so great-there seems to be another source of energy.’ Consequently I would tell them what they were hearing was the result of my chanting two times a day-from the Daimoku.”
As Land explains, “It’s the eternal law of life. You can chant it any number of times each day, or all through the day. You chant ‘Gongyo,’ which is the essence of the ‘Lotus Sutra.’ Buster chanted with me the first time, then he had to go on the road and while he was gone I tried it myself. By the time Buster returned, I was convinced this was the way. I can tell you we have received many benefits from this practice.”
Harold’s talk of Buddhism segued to his famous original “The Peace-maker,” the title track of the album he recorded for Cadet in 1967. “Those thoughts must have been deep in my subconscious for a long time. It’s kind of ironic, isn’t it, that I would write ‘The Peace-maker’ even before Buster officially introduced [Buddhism] to me. It’s like I had been searching for something, leaning towards it, then I found Buster.
“That was probably the most significant tune I’ve written because of its connection to my Buddhist practice. In addition to chanting for good health, good fortune and safety, there’s world peace. That’s one of our main goals.
“I have no way of knowing how ‘The Peace-maker’ affects people listening to the recording, but in clubs I notice the place quiets down, people seem to be moved-they get reflective and maybe they’re looking within themselves and at the world around them and thinking what peace is all about.”
Paradoxically, when Land introduces the tune, he never explains what the title means or the depth of his personal philosophy that led to its composition. That’s a tragic omission, considering the ineffable quality of his music making. “You know,” Land admits, “maybe I should explain it, but I don’t usually talk too much, as you might have noticed from these interviews.”
Oh how well I noticed. Except for stretching out on his involvement with Buddhism, our conversation was like trading four or eight bar solos-but it never achieved the intensity of those famous chase choruses between Land and Clifford Brown. The dialogue between them on a series of Emarcy sessions by the Max Roach-Clifford Brown Quintet between 1954 and 1956 is still considered to be some of the most instinctive bop conversations ever recorded. Check out Study in Brown, More Study in Brown, Brown and Roach, Inc., Best of Max Roach and Clifford Brown or Brownie: The Complete Emarcy Recordings of Clifford Brown and you’ll hear what Harold described as “trading eight-bar choruses, then four bars apiece, even two bars at a time, and it just flowed from one to the other.”
Despite the excitement generated during those heady days with Brownie, Land’s low-key nature probably led to what so many colleagues consider undeserved neglect. Harold’s own diagnosis indicates that geography didn’t help either. “I know I would have received much wider acceptance if I had been based in New York.”
Fate intervened at a time when the Houston-born, Los Angeles-based Land was on the verge of making it in New York. In 1954, during a jam session at the L.A. home of his friend Eric Dolphy, Clifford Brown heard Land play and the two established an instant rapport. The next day, Brownie brought Max Roach by and that led to Harold’s joining the fabled Brown-Roach quintet. Touring up and down the East coast, recording much memorable music, the jazz community’s movers and shakers were just beginning to take notice of the promising new tenor when Harold got word that his grandmother was dying. As he told one writer, “After being away from Lydia and my son for two and a half years, I figured the best thing for me was to go back home and stay.” Naturally, Clifford and Max wanted Harold to return, but they had to settle for a consolation prize in the form of replacement Sonny Rollins.
Lydia Land claims fate stepped in more ominously at that time. “If Harold had not come back when he did, he probably would have been in that car with Brownie. He and Brownie always drove together.” The incident she is referring to happened June 26,1956. Brownie and pianist Richie Powell, Bud’s brother, were driving to Chicago when their car veered off the road killing both men. Brown was 26; Powell, 25.
Speculating on that tragedy, many critics feel Brown was on his way to surpassing Dizzy Gillespie in bop pyrotechnics and it reminded Land of a conversation he and Brownie had one night. “We were driving around-can’t even recall where-but I asked him who his favorite trumpeter was and you know who he said? Not Dizzy, not Miles. Fats Navarro. And I told him Fats is my favorite, too. As a matter of fact, there’s a solo that Fats takes on ‘Out of Nowhere’-it’s a Tadd Dameron arrangement-that whenever I listen to it, it brings tears to my eyes. There was a certain quality to his playing that always moved me.”
Land’s favorite tenor player is no contest: “Of course, Trane. But early influences included Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Don Byas, Lester Young and a guy who never got his just due, Lucky Thompson. I can’t name any tenor players who are saying much today because I don’t listen to radio or play new albums much. But John Coltrane, I always liked his constant dedication and constant searching.”
The searching and dedication are qualities easily identified with Harold throughout a 55-year career that began with small dance bands in San Diego at the Creole Palace and Club Romance. “I met Lydia at Club Romance. She was staring at me and staring at me one night and I ended up walking her home, carrying my horn-for 24 blocks!”
By ’54, married and with a son, they moved to L.A. where Harold soaked up the happenings on Central Ave. There was always more to West Coast jazz than the less frenetic, more intellectual, cool sounds of the Gerry Mulligan/Chet Baker/Shelly Manne/Shorty Rogers studio swingers.
Land’s debut recording as a leader, Harold in the Land of Jazz, came in 1958 while he was working with Curtis Counce. He quickly outdid himself the following year with The Fox, perhaps the best example of L.A. hard bop. It set a standard for Land that he maintained throughout his subsequent whirlwind adventures with Gerald Wilson’s big band; co-leading combos with Red Mitchell, Bobby Hutcherson, Blue Mitchell; leading his own combo with Harold Jr. (Junior, now 50, also works with his own combo); making some memorable recordings with Elmo Hope, Kenny Burrell, Thelonious Monk; touring annually for five years throughout Europe with an Italian rhythm section that included bassist Marco Marzola, a fellow Buddhist who chanted with him. The ’60s and ’70s were good to Harold as his hard-edged bop sounds graced a number of excellent albums for Mainstream, Cadet and Concord Jazz.
Today, at 72, Land is just as busy, just as dedicated, just as happy. One of his half-hearted complaints is that he is so much in demand that gigs keep getting in the way of his tennis game. He maintains a regimen of playing tennis every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The only things that can possibly interfere are weather (not likely in Southern California) or minor annoyances such as festivals, tours, club dates and recording sessions. The “net” effect is that Harold remains in top shape. (That can be verified by a Sears repairman who came to fix Land’s washing machine during one of our of interviews. He exclaimed, “I know you from somewhere. Oh yeah, you busted my butt on the tennis court, and I’m only 35!”)
Those interruptions to Land’s love affair with tennis have been going on steadily since the ’80s, when he toured with the Timeless All Stars: trombonist Curtis Fuller, vibist Bobby Hutcherson, bassist Buster Williams, pianist Cedar Walton and drummer Billy Higgins.
More lucrative intermissions in his tennis playing found Land playing all the major European festivals with the T.S. Monk Tentet. He joined the Tentet after Monk went the rock route and trumpeter Don Sickler took over the ensemble. Sickler invited Harold to join the combo as featured soloist. Last year, Harold was featured again with the Tentet, but it was followed immediately by a most significant concert and workshop at Stanford University with pianist Mulgrew Miller, bassist Ray Drummond and drummer Billy Higgins.
Enter Dan Atkinson, an A&R VP with Audiophoric, a new jazz label. When Atkinson learned that the Land quartet was at Stanford, he convinced Audiophoric CEO David Philips that he had the ideal first release. They flew the foursome down to their state-of-a-new-art studio in La Jolla, just outside of San Diego, and put together Promised Land, featuring a new audiophile recording process. “There’s no compression at all, no noise reduction, no equalization and no over-dubbing,” Philips says. “There aren’t even any mikes, in the conventional sense. Just one sound-capturing device instead of individual mikes that the musicians play into.”
Land is tentative about the new technology, claiming, “the sound is modified somewhat, not as bright as it could be.” Drummond, on the other hand, is sold on it. “The process is absolutely amazing, coming from an apparatus that looks like part of a NASA space probe.” If the jury is still out for Land, acoustically, he’s heartened by Audiophoric’s business approach. Audiophoric will pay royalties as soon as the first CD sells, rather than wait until production and marketing costs are recouped.
As for other projects, Land’s dance card is full: He and Curtis Fuller enjoyed a reunion thanks to a week at Ruth Price’s Jazz Bakery, in Culver City, in May. In September, another reunion will find Land and Teddy Edwards with the Gerald Wilson band for the Chicago Festival. And Land teaches jazz improvisation in Kenny Burrell’s ethnomusicology department at UCLA. Sorry, Harold: Wimbledon seems to be out, at least this year.
Listening Pleasures
“I got so many favorites, I’d hate to hurt anyone’s feelings by leaving them out, but the first two that come to mind are Lester Young and Fats Navarro.”
Gearbox:
“I got my first tenor, a Conn, when I was 16-played in the high school band. Later I traded it in on a Selmer and then I got a second Selmer. It’s over 25 years old, and that’s what I play today. I’ve had it overhauled twice and relacquered, so it doesn’t look like it’s over 25 years old. Originally I used a Berg Lawson [mouthpiece] and recently I switched to Otto Link.”
https://www.nationaljazzarchive.co.uk/stories?id=157
In Conference
LAND: Jazz
has a lot to do with the vibrations of the moment. Perhaps with the
communication between the group that’s participating, which would be
aside from the amount of creative ability within each individual on the
stand at that moment. It’s just, if things start working—or if they
don’t. Which can happen at any given time, no matter what music is being
played.
A lot of times I think musicians can feel on the stand that it’s really happening, but the audience might not be aware of what they’re feeling. Then it can often be reversed; the audience can be completely bowled over, yet the musicians won’t feel that way. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I guess—or rather, the ear of the listener.
Do you think that the tendency with a lot of musicians nowadays, especially the younger ones, to play in a more uninhibited way has, at times, demanded too much of an audience?
LAND: You could possibly arrive at that conclusion.
HUTCHERSON: The best answer to that, really, is not to ask us; but you have to ask yourself, being part of the audience. Like, you can have an audience listening to some music and because one person among them might feel strong enough to start, maybe, shouting or clapping loud or saying things from the audience. . .
.
LAND: He’ll lead about fifty others with him.
HUTCHERSON: Right. You take a comedian and you put him on the stage in a theatre that might have a seating capacity for 700 people, and there are fifteen people sitting out there scattered around, and as he’s making his delivery you’ll hear very few laughs. Fill that place up, and it’s entirely different.
An audience can easily be led. Once we get into a pack, we tend to lose our inhibitions. Those who are inhibited, if there’s just a few people around, might feel embarrassed to make noise, thinking somebody’s going to turn round and see them letting their feelings go. Whereas within a large audience no one can really dig me, I’m just a member of this pack, you see.
LAND: The strangest phenomenon that I can think of in regard to audience reaction is playing at a place where a sizeable audience doesn’t respond that strongly, but then when you come down off the bandstand people come up in droves telling you how beautiful the music was. There weren’t those type of loose individuals in the audience, apparently, to start the leadership that in some instances it takes to set a crowd off to responding in action, rather than just sitting there. This doesn’t happen that often, I would say, but it’s happened on enough occasions for me to take note of it and to be amazed by it.
HUTCHERSON: I can give you an example. One night just a little while ago, we were working in Slug’s and we had just started to play; there was a good crowd in the club, but nobody was really talking or making that much noise.
LAND: And in walked Ron—right?
HUTCHERSON: In walked Ron Jefferson, who is immediately into a lot of things. When he comes through the door he’s talking to the band, shouting phrases out. And just by him being in the club, he completely stimulated the whole audience and everything loosened up.
LAND: But I guess in most instances where you’re playing for a jazz audience, they’re usually aware and are there for that specific purpose; the situation I just mentioned is not a regular one.
A lot of jazz audiences get hung up on this idea that jazz is meant for studious listening; they feel they’ve got to take it all in, and make sure they don’t miss anything.
LAND: That’s just a segment of them. In the main, the strong jazz enthusiast is really loose. He’s got to be, because everybody he digs has got to be somewhat loose to be able to express themselves strongly jazz wise. It’s just a certain percentage that think they’re supposed to sit there and listen without moving a muscle.
Might this be connected with jazz playing so much in concert halls, rather than in clubs? Presumably you prefer to play to a more uninhibited crowd.
HUTCHERSON: Sometimes. People can be a bug; they can distract you.
LAND: Yes, it can be overdone. They might be jumping up and down right in front of you, touching your mstrument while you’re playing.
HUTCHERSON: If that happens, I feel as though I should stop playing.
LAND: When an individual gets that far out, he’s no longer really listening; music is secondary to his own exhibitionism. If a person is thoroughly involved in what’s going on, he might want to respond to it, but he doesn’t want to do anything that might detract or slow down the momentum of what he’s feeling and what anyone else might be feeling. He’s got to have that much insight to even be digging it.
HUTCHERSON: I’d rather have them listen without reacting than for them to react at the time they should be listening.
You must have both played in places where people were dancing. Do you like to see an audience expressing itself that way?
HUTCHERSON: Sure, if the music is bending itself towards that way, to be danced to, and they’re enjoying themselves. Like, if they’re in a club, it’s good to look out and see them using their bodies to express their feelings, instead of sitting there and clapping or saying things.
LAND: I feel the same way, but it would seem that the powers–that–be have put the thought down that jazz is completely undanceable.
It’s never made sense to me. When you think about the psychology behind pop music of the day, and rock, you’d be inclined to think from the promotional area of that phase of music that it’s exclusively dance music. Whereas jazz is represented as something apart.
HUTCHERSON: The thing is, the popular dances that are coming out now are all geared to records. They’ll say “Do the Boogaloo” and everybody will do it, because they associate it with a certain record.
LAND: So it’s a planned thing, not spontaneous.
HUTCHERSON: But if they put it behind a jazz record and said: “Do the such–and–such” it could be the same thing happening. Right now, you wouldn’t think of doing the Boogaloo to a jazz record.
LAND: You could have, though, if it hadn’t been psychologically planned that you’d be looking ridiculous doing it.
HUTCHERSON: A dance could be developed to go with a jazz record as it came out; then you’d have the relationship between the record and the dance step and the people.
It’s something that would just have to happen naturally for it to get as big as the popular dances are.
LAND: Yes, but my point is that it’s not going to be allowed to happen. Each new dance they come up with is another commercial proposition to stimulate a multimillion dollar capitalisation.
HUTCHERSON: See, there’s a lot of people who say that they can’t understand jazz. . . .
LAND: How can they, when they get so little chance to hear it?
HUTCHERSON: One reason for them saying that, I feel, is that in understanding something you have to be able to relate it to you personally. Like, there was a definite identification when they started rock’n’roll, as they were calling it then. Rhythm and blues was a different thing, but that’s where it all came from.
LAND: If you think back through the years, the strongest identification for jazz with the general public has been that every jazz musician is a dope addict. The biggest publicity is always given to the bad side; so that’s why the jazz artist’s stature has remained so far beneath that which he deserved. Because there have been other people, in many walks of life, who have risen to great heights and have received full recognition for their accomplishments, but who have also had problems with drugs.
In fact, with such as movie stars, they even seem to accept them even more. The more notoriety the bigger they get.
But it doesn’t work that way with the jazz musician; it just blackens his image to a greater degree.
The general public is sufficiently misguided not to know that they should listen to the individual’s contribution first, even if his personal life doesn’t fit their mould.
This is so unforgivable when you realise that jazz is possibly the sole original art form to come from the United States. Why should it be blackened, when all the jazz musician has done is produce it? Why should his reputation be lowered for giving one of the greatest contributions on the planet? I believe this can be said of jazz, not because I’m a musician myself, but just trying to be objective about it. It’s done things that other modes of communication between people all over the world haven’t been able to do. Jazz has made brotherhood meaningful, where politicians have failed.
HUTCHERSON: To show you how people in general look upon jazz musicians: when I first went to New York I wanted to get a telephone in my apartment. So I called the company. They said: “Okay, what’s your occupation?” I said “I’m a jazz musician” and they told me: “Your deposit will be 75 dollars,” So I said: “Well, I don’t think I’ll get a phone right now” and I hung up. Five minutes later I called back and, when they asked my occupation, I said “I’m a janitor at the Chase Manhattan Bank.” “Oh, well, your deposit is 15 dollars.”
LAND: That’s a perfect example of it. And what have you done to warrant that? The same applies for insurance; if you’re a musician, you have to pay more.
HUTCHERSON: And yet you’ll find these same people who are putting down these rules for the musicians are the ones, when they want to go out and enjoy themselves, who say: “Let’s go hear some music.” It’s utter hypocrisy—taking and not giving.
LAND: Jazz is not going to change, no matter how much anybody attempts to blacken it. Jazz has been here for quite some time, and it doesn’t seem to be rubbed out, despite the obstacles it has to get over. It still thrives; there’s still millions of youngsters in the new generation coming up who want to play jazz. Even though they know they can go out and get a guitar, learn three changes and make thousands of dollars, their ambition is still to be jazz players. Why? That shows what a strong quality jazz has as an art. It’s no mirage—it’s for real.
Copyright © 1969 Les Tomkins. All Rights Reserved.
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/30/arts/harold-land-73-saxophonist-who-made-a-splash-in-the-bop-era.html
But in late 1955, when he learned that his grandmother was dying in Los Angeles, he quit and moved back there to be with his family. He was an archetypal example of a musician whose career might have taken off if he had stayed in the New York area.
http://articles.latimes.com/print/1997-02-08/entertainment/ca-26524_1_harold-land
http://hardbop.tripod.com/land.html
A soft-spoken man whose personality rarely suggests the incandescence of his instrumental sound, Harold Land was born in 1928 in Houston, Texas. The family moved to San diego when he was five; it was during his high school years there he became interested in music and in 1945 was presented with his first saxophone.
His early influences were the big, warm tones of Coleman Hawkins and Lucky Thompson; later Charlie Parker's new concepts helped determine his direction. He was just out of high school when a bass player named Ralph Houston helped him join the Musician's Union.
After working in Houston's band, he spent a long while soaking up experience at the Creole Palace where a small combo, usually five or six pieces, was led by Froebel Brigham, a trumpeter. "During both these jobs my closest friend and musical colleage was the drummer, Leon Petties," Harold remembers. "We played the floor show and jazz sets too. Sometimes men like Hampton Hawes, Teddy Edwards and Sonny Criss came down from Los Angeles and worked with us--this provided a great stimulus."
Later, Land and Petties went on the road for about a year, first with a group led by guitarist Jimmy Liggins, and then in the band of his celebrated brother, Joe "Honeydripper" Liggins. Harold recalls this rhythm-and-blues experience as valuable in rounding out his musical education. After putting in additional time back at the Creole Palace, Harold decided in 1954 to try his luck in Los Angeles. For several months there were various odd jobs, none very rewarding.
The turning point came one night when Clifford Brown took his combo-leading partner, Max Roach to hear Harold play in a session at Eric Dolphy's house. "Eric had known me since the San Diego days, and after I moved to L.A. we became good friends," Harold says. "He was beautiful. Eric loved to play anywhere, any hour of the day or night. So did I. In fact, I still do."
The unofficial audition led to Harold's being hired by Brown and Roach. As jazz night club audiences around the country were exposed to the freshness and vitality of Land's playing, he seemed to be well on his way; but in 1956 he had to leave the quintet and return to Los Angeles because of illness in the family.
If, during the balance of the 1950s, he had continued to tour with name groups, there is little doubt that his reputation would have been established sooner and much more firmly on an international level.
Tenor Saxophone
http://www.thejazzrecord.com/records/2017/2/20/the-harold-landblue-mitchell-quintet-mapenzi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Land
Harold de Vance Land (December 18, 1928 – July 27, 2001)[1] was an American hard bop and post-bop tenor saxophonist. Land developed his hard bop playing with the Max Roach/Clifford Brown band into a personal, modern style; often rivalling Clifford Brown's instrumental ability with his own inventive and whimsical solos. His tone was strong and emotional, yet hinted at a certain introspective fragility.[2]
Land was born in Houston and grew up in San Diego. He started playing at the age of 16. He made his first recording as the leader of the Harold Land All-Stars, for Savoy Records in 1949. In 1954 he joined the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet, with whom he was at the forefront of the hard-bop/bebop movement.[3] Because of family problems he moved to Los Angeles in 1955. There he played with Curtis Counce, led his own groups, and co-led groups with Bobby Hutcherson, Blue Mitchell, and Red Mitchell. From the 1970s onwards his style showed the influence of John Coltrane.
In the early 1980s through to the early 1990s he worked regularly with the Timeless All Stars, a group sponsored by the Timeless jazz record label. The group consisted of Land on tenor, Cedar Walton on piano, Buster Williams on bass, Billy Higgins on drums, Curtis Fuller on trombone and Bobby Hutcherson on vibes. Land also toured with his own band during this time, often including his son, Harold Land Jr., on piano and usually featuring Bobby Hutcherson and Billy Higgins as well. During these years he played regularly at Hop Singhs in Marina Del Rey in the L.A area and the Keystone Korner in San Francisco.[3]
Land was a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. He joined the UCLA Jazz Studies Program as a lecturer in 1996 to teach instrumental jazz combo. "Harold Land was one of the major contributors in the history of the jazz saxophone," said jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell, founder and director of the UCLA Jazz Studies Program.
Land died in July 2001, from a stroke, at the age of 72.[1]
The progressive rock band Yes included a song "Harold Land" on their eponymous debut album in 1969. In a news/blog post on 20 September 2010, Bill Bruford commented about the song - "Harold Land was a hard-bop tenor saxophone player, dead now, but quite why we named a song after him I can’t remember."[4]
With Red Garland
With Billy Higgins
With Les McCann
Thedeadrockstarsclub.com - accessed September 2010
Allmusic Biography
latimes.com - accessed July 2017
Bill Bruford's official website Retrieved 11 May 2013.
https://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/haroldland
Harold Land
The West Coast saxophonist known for his associations with the masterful quintet led by trumpeter Clifford Brown and drummer Max Roach in the mid-50's and with the internationally acclaimed quintet he co-led with Bobby Hutcherson in the late '60s. He engaged in an individualistic style and an expressive tone, mixing compelling melody readings with alluring improvisations.
Land, born in Houston and raised in San Diego, moved to Los Angeles in the early '50s. In 1954, he joined the famed Brown-Roach quintet, with which he toured the United States and recorded several albums for EmArcy (all of which are available as reissue CDs). After two years with the ensemble, Land felt the need to be closer to his family, which was in Los Angeles, and so he returned and resided there ever since.
He soon began to establish himself as one of the most singular and powerful of jazzmen, making albums with bassists Red Mitchell and Curtis Counce and then, in 1958, making his solo debut (he had recorded four selections in 1949 that were released by Savoy). “Harold in the Land of Jazz,” was issued on Contemporary Records, and was followed a year later by “The Fox,” which many consider his best early recording. He did an impromptu date in the spring of 1960, rising star Wes Montgomery was living in San Francisco and the Cannonball Adderley Quintet—with its Barry Harris/Sam Jones/Louis Hayes rhythm section was all brought in for a classic blowing session that resulted in “West Coast Blues.”
He also began performing with Gerald Wilson's orchestra, and with pianists Hampton Hawes and Carl Perkins, becoming an essential element in the Los Angeles jazz scene. Nonetheless, the saxophonist didn't really get much exposure outside LA until he formed a quintet with vibes player Bobby Hutcherson in the late '60s. The band recorded for Blue Note and toured the US and Europe.
Also during the '60s, Land, like so many saxophonists, became enamored with John Coltrane, and he found that both his smooth sound and his approach to improvising changed during this period. “John definitely inspired me with his intense spirit, and I usually say that spirit moved me so much that I became a little more intense in my own musical presentation,” says Land. “At the same time, I was trying to maintain a certain individuality that I hope I have managed to do.”
In the late '70s and '80s, Land joined the Timeless All-Stars, which also included Higgins, Hutcherson, Cedar Walton (piano), and Curtis Fuller (trombone). In and around performances with the Timeless band, Land fronted fine quintets that featured trumpeters Blue Mitchell (their “Mapenzi,” on Concord Jazz, is a classic) and Oscar Brashear (documented on “Xocia's Dance” on Muse). Land remains one of the most impressive and deep improvisers in jazz.
He recorded “A Lazy Afternoon,” (1994) a collection of soothing standards backed by a string orchestra. In 2001 he returned from a seven year recording hiatus to offer up “Promised Land,” featuring Mulgrew Miller on piano, Ray Drummond on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums. Sadly, this would be one of Higgins's last sessions, and Harold Land would also go on to pass in July of 2001.
Obituaries
Harold Land; Tenor Saxophonist Was Key Player in L.A. Jazz
Harold
Land, a tenor saxophonist with a forthright sound who was a key figure
in several vital jazz groups dating to the 1950s and a strong presence
in the L.A. jazz scene, died Friday. He was 72.
Land suffered a stroke at his home early Friday and was taken to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in West Los Angeles, said a friend, Clint Rosemond. He died at the hospital.
When Land burst into the jazz spotlight in the 1950s with the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet, his dark, muscular tone, angular approach to melody and unadulterated sense of swing immediately identified him as an original voice.
When most tenor saxophonists were either swinging in a loose, Lester Young-influenced manner or working their way through the harmonic mazes of bebop, Land insisted upon retaining the buoyant drive and outspoken communicativeness of the swing era in his solos.
Land suffered a stroke at his home early Friday and was taken to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in West Los Angeles, said a friend, Clint Rosemond. He died at the hospital.
When Land burst into the jazz spotlight in the 1950s with the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet, his dark, muscular tone, angular approach to melody and unadulterated sense of swing immediately identified him as an original voice.
When most tenor saxophonists were either swinging in a loose, Lester Young-influenced manner or working their way through the harmonic mazes of bebop, Land insisted upon retaining the buoyant drive and outspoken communicativeness of the swing era in his solos.
Although
his approach softened in later years, the influence of hard-edged
players such as Coleman Hawkins, Don Byas and Lucky Thompson always
lurked beneath the surface of his music.
A native of Houston, Land grew up in San Diego and became interested in music after hearing Hawkins' classic version of "Body and Soul." His parents bought him a saxophone when he was 16 and he made his first record at 21.
He moved to Los Angeles, which was then a hotbed of jazz. He would later recall that Central Avenue was jumping with music on practically every block.
"I would drive up from San Diego to catch the bands or maybe sit in. People like Dizzy [Gillespie] and Bird, working at Billy Berg's (a now-defunct nightclub) had us all in awe. It was inevitable that I would settle here."
Initially, Land had trouble finding work, recalling that the first couple of months were a diet of "crackers and peanut butter," until one day the noted trumpeter Brown brought drummer Roach to hear Land in a jam session at saxophonist Eric Dolphy's house.
Land was hired and he joined the quintet, traveling throughout the East and living in Philadelphia with the group's pianist Richie Powell and his brother, piano giant Bud Powell.
Land missed his family and quit the group to return to Los Angeles. A year later Brown and Richie Powell were killed in an automobile accident.
Back in Southern California, Land joined a group led by bassist Curtis Counce before taking a lead or co-lead role in bands with another bassist, Red Mitchell, and later the vibraphone player Bobby Hutcherson. He played with Gerald Wilson's big band and also led a quintet with trumpeter Blue Mitchell.
Through the 1980s, Land was a mainstay of the Timeless All-Stars, a six-piece band that included Hutcherson, trombonist Curtis Fuller, pianist Cedar Walton, drummer Billy Higgins and bassist Buster Williams.
While appearing on his own the last few years in Los Angeles and at festival dates in Europe, Land also taught informally, at Los Angeles high schools and in the jazz studies program at UCLA.
Survivors include his wife, Lydia; his son, Harold Land Jr., a jazz pianist; and a grandson, Alvin.
Funeral arrangements were pending.
A native of Houston, Land grew up in San Diego and became interested in music after hearing Hawkins' classic version of "Body and Soul." His parents bought him a saxophone when he was 16 and he made his first record at 21.
He moved to Los Angeles, which was then a hotbed of jazz. He would later recall that Central Avenue was jumping with music on practically every block.
"I would drive up from San Diego to catch the bands or maybe sit in. People like Dizzy [Gillespie] and Bird, working at Billy Berg's (a now-defunct nightclub) had us all in awe. It was inevitable that I would settle here."
Initially, Land had trouble finding work, recalling that the first couple of months were a diet of "crackers and peanut butter," until one day the noted trumpeter Brown brought drummer Roach to hear Land in a jam session at saxophonist Eric Dolphy's house.
Land was hired and he joined the quintet, traveling throughout the East and living in Philadelphia with the group's pianist Richie Powell and his brother, piano giant Bud Powell.
Land missed his family and quit the group to return to Los Angeles. A year later Brown and Richie Powell were killed in an automobile accident.
Back in Southern California, Land joined a group led by bassist Curtis Counce before taking a lead or co-lead role in bands with another bassist, Red Mitchell, and later the vibraphone player Bobby Hutcherson. He played with Gerald Wilson's big band and also led a quintet with trumpeter Blue Mitchell.
Through the 1980s, Land was a mainstay of the Timeless All-Stars, a six-piece band that included Hutcherson, trombonist Curtis Fuller, pianist Cedar Walton, drummer Billy Higgins and bassist Buster Williams.
While appearing on his own the last few years in Los Angeles and at festival dates in Europe, Land also taught informally, at Los Angeles high schools and in the jazz studies program at UCLA.
Survivors include his wife, Lydia; his son, Harold Land Jr., a jazz pianist; and a grandson, Alvin.
Funeral arrangements were pending.
http://articles.latimes.com/print/1988-11-15/entertainment/ca-23_1_harold-land
Jazz Reviews : Land Quintet at Windows on Hollywood
Displaying
the class and imagination that has kept him in the upper echelon of
jazz improvisers for almost 40 years, tenor saxophonist Harold Land led
his quintet through several spirited numbers Sunday at the brunch at
Windows on Hollywood.
Though the band--composed of longtime partners Oscar Brashear, trumpet, Harold Land Jr., bassist Richard Reid and drummer Fritz Wise--hadn't performed in five months, one could hardly tell. The ensemble passages, even on the most complex melodies, were crisp and tight, and the interplay between rhythm section and soloist was cohesive yet spontaneous.
Though the band--composed of longtime partners Oscar Brashear, trumpet, Harold Land Jr., bassist Richard Reid and drummer Fritz Wise--hadn't performed in five months, one could hardly tell. The ensemble passages, even on the most complex melodies, were crisp and tight, and the interplay between rhythm section and soloist was cohesive yet spontaneous.
The
senior Land's approach mixed a Coltrane-ish angularity with smooth,
rounded bebop phrasing that never strayed from the swinging essence of
the music. On a break-neck "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" and the
medium tempo "Lazy Bird," he played an artistic array of ideas that
included speedy scale lines, turn-on-a-dime ideas and an oft-repeated
albeit distinctive cliche--a ricocheting series of notes that sounded
like they were being bounced off walls.
On both "Night" and "Lazy Bird," Brashear also played solos that were chock full of listenable moments, cooking with relaxation and poise and invention. Land Jr., working with a high degree of musicality, soloed with sweet, singing lines that were often followed by attractive, dancing block chords. Reid and Wise were ideal partners in this most flavorful of musical stews, offering accompaniment that buoyed the proceedings.
An ace band like Land's, certainly one of the area's top ensembles, deserves to be heard more than a few times a year.
On both "Night" and "Lazy Bird," Brashear also played solos that were chock full of listenable moments, cooking with relaxation and poise and invention. Land Jr., working with a high degree of musicality, soloed with sweet, singing lines that were often followed by attractive, dancing block chords. Reid and Wise were ideal partners in this most flavorful of musical stews, offering accompaniment that buoyed the proceedings.
An ace band like Land's, certainly one of the area's top ensembles, deserves to be heard more than a few times a year.
http://articles.latimes.com/print/1992-08-07/entertainment/ca-5002_1_clifford-brown
There's a Jazzed-Up Land--Overseas : Tenor Saxophonist Put Down Musical Roots With Likes of Dolphy, Roach, Clifford Brown
Back
in the '50s, tenor saxman Harold Land spent almost all his free
timeover at Eric Dolphy's pad, jamming with the local heavies. Dolphy,
the revered, Los Angeles-born saxophonist, flutist, clarinetist and
musical pioneer who died in 1964, held long-running jam sessions that
have taken on legendary status, first at his parents' home, then at his
own apartment near Exhibition and La Cienega boulevards. Land, who plays
tonight at the Hyatt Newporter in Newport Beach, remembers the scene
well.
"Eric
was the kind of individual who just had boundless playing energy,"
Land, 63, said this week from his home in Los Angeles. "As soon as he
got up in the morning, he'd be playing, even if he was there by himself.
"Musicians would just be coming by all through the day and night. (Drummer) Larance Marable, (pianist) Hampton Hawes, (saxophonists) Walter Benton and Frank Morgan all dropped by at different times. All of us were that hungry to play, so we just spent many hours, many days, just going over to Eric's and playing."
Trumpeter Clifford Brown showed up once and was so impressed with Land that he brought drummer Max Roach to hear him. Roach was equally struck, and suddenly Land found himself a member of the groundbreaking Clifford Brown-Max Roach quintet. After traveling the world with Brown and Roach for a couple years, Land left the gig--one of the most coveted of the last 50 years --to return to Los Angeles to be with his family.
He still thinks he did the right thing. "At the time, my grandmother was ill--she passed (away) before I could get back--and my son was still very young. I'd been back East for quite a while with Max and Clifford. So I came back to be with my wife and my son."
Regrets or no, he acknowledged that the move affected his career. "No doubt about it. There probably would have been much more progress if I had stayed in New York, because there are so many opportunities available to musicians there. That's where the music is."
Born in Houston, Land developed an appetite for jazz as a teen-ager growing up in San Diego. Coleman Hawkins' version of "Body and Soul" got him started. "That really made me want to play the saxophone. Then I started to hear the other great saxophonists like Lester Young, Don Byas, Ben Webster, Chu Berry. So many of them just bowled me over."
In the early '50s, Los Angeles' active jazz scene drew him north. "I had been able to play quite a bit down in San Diego but there was just so much jazz happening all over Los Angeles during that time. (Saxophonist) Teddy Edwards, (drummer) Roy Porter, Hampton Hawes and many other talented musicians were here, not to mention when Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Lucky Thompson all came to town. I knew I had to be in that environment if I could."
That visiting group of New Yorkers made a special impression on Land. "Bird really did a number on me, as well as everyone else who's ever picked up the saxophone. But Lucky was really an inspiration in my early years--such a great, fluid saxophonist."
After the Brown-Roach quintet, Land stayed active in L.A., working with the Curtis Counce band and recording a pair of albums for Contemporary Records in the late '50s, "Harold in the Land of Jazz" and "The Fox," a nickname he'd been given by Marable.
On the discs (both have been reissued), Land displays a style counter to the then-prevailing stereotype of West Coast jazz. Rather than cool and laid-back, he plays with decidedly be-bop inspired aggression, often with a tough-sounding tone and no-holds-barred expression.
In the liner notes to one of the albums, Land offered some advice to young musicians: "Be a plumber"--a view which, like his sax tone, has softened over the years. "That was probably just some ridiculous joke I was making," he says now. "It really depends on how much the individual loves the music, if he's willing to pay the dues that go along with it. If you love it enough, you don't mind paying the dues. You have to dedicate you life to it and just hope that things work out well for you."
For Land, things have. He has played on three well-respected albums by the Timeless All Stars, a band that also includes pianist Cedar Walton, vibist Bobby Hutcherson, drummer Billy Higgins, bassist David Williams and trombonist Curtis Fuller. "We'd like to work together more," Land said, "but everybody's been so active, we just can't get together."
Just this year, Land already has been to Europe twice--to Italy for nearly a month with Walton and Higgins and to France with fellow saxophonist Steve Grossman, bassist Reggie Johnson and drummer Jimmy Cobb. He goes to Holland in September, then to the United Kingdom in October with saxophonist Red Holloway. "I've been more active (overseas) than at home," he said. "Things are so quiet in Los Angeles compared to the way it used to be. There used to be so many clubs."
He blames the media. "They're just not pushing it as much as other forms of music. People's awareness of the music has been weakened to some degree over the years. There just isn't the exposure. That's not the case in Europe and Japan. There, people consider jazz to be a true art form. The media here doesn't support that concept."
The Harold Land Quartet plays tonight at 7:30 at the Hyatt Newporter, 1107 Jamboree Road, Newport Beach. $8. (714) 729-1234.
"Musicians would just be coming by all through the day and night. (Drummer) Larance Marable, (pianist) Hampton Hawes, (saxophonists) Walter Benton and Frank Morgan all dropped by at different times. All of us were that hungry to play, so we just spent many hours, many days, just going over to Eric's and playing."
Trumpeter Clifford Brown showed up once and was so impressed with Land that he brought drummer Max Roach to hear him. Roach was equally struck, and suddenly Land found himself a member of the groundbreaking Clifford Brown-Max Roach quintet. After traveling the world with Brown and Roach for a couple years, Land left the gig--one of the most coveted of the last 50 years --to return to Los Angeles to be with his family.
He still thinks he did the right thing. "At the time, my grandmother was ill--she passed (away) before I could get back--and my son was still very young. I'd been back East for quite a while with Max and Clifford. So I came back to be with my wife and my son."
Regrets or no, he acknowledged that the move affected his career. "No doubt about it. There probably would have been much more progress if I had stayed in New York, because there are so many opportunities available to musicians there. That's where the music is."
Born in Houston, Land developed an appetite for jazz as a teen-ager growing up in San Diego. Coleman Hawkins' version of "Body and Soul" got him started. "That really made me want to play the saxophone. Then I started to hear the other great saxophonists like Lester Young, Don Byas, Ben Webster, Chu Berry. So many of them just bowled me over."
In the early '50s, Los Angeles' active jazz scene drew him north. "I had been able to play quite a bit down in San Diego but there was just so much jazz happening all over Los Angeles during that time. (Saxophonist) Teddy Edwards, (drummer) Roy Porter, Hampton Hawes and many other talented musicians were here, not to mention when Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Lucky Thompson all came to town. I knew I had to be in that environment if I could."
That visiting group of New Yorkers made a special impression on Land. "Bird really did a number on me, as well as everyone else who's ever picked up the saxophone. But Lucky was really an inspiration in my early years--such a great, fluid saxophonist."
After the Brown-Roach quintet, Land stayed active in L.A., working with the Curtis Counce band and recording a pair of albums for Contemporary Records in the late '50s, "Harold in the Land of Jazz" and "The Fox," a nickname he'd been given by Marable.
On the discs (both have been reissued), Land displays a style counter to the then-prevailing stereotype of West Coast jazz. Rather than cool and laid-back, he plays with decidedly be-bop inspired aggression, often with a tough-sounding tone and no-holds-barred expression.
In the liner notes to one of the albums, Land offered some advice to young musicians: "Be a plumber"--a view which, like his sax tone, has softened over the years. "That was probably just some ridiculous joke I was making," he says now. "It really depends on how much the individual loves the music, if he's willing to pay the dues that go along with it. If you love it enough, you don't mind paying the dues. You have to dedicate you life to it and just hope that things work out well for you."
For Land, things have. He has played on three well-respected albums by the Timeless All Stars, a band that also includes pianist Cedar Walton, vibist Bobby Hutcherson, drummer Billy Higgins, bassist David Williams and trombonist Curtis Fuller. "We'd like to work together more," Land said, "but everybody's been so active, we just can't get together."
Just this year, Land already has been to Europe twice--to Italy for nearly a month with Walton and Higgins and to France with fellow saxophonist Steve Grossman, bassist Reggie Johnson and drummer Jimmy Cobb. He goes to Holland in September, then to the United Kingdom in October with saxophonist Red Holloway. "I've been more active (overseas) than at home," he said. "Things are so quiet in Los Angeles compared to the way it used to be. There used to be so many clubs."
He blames the media. "They're just not pushing it as much as other forms of music. People's awareness of the music has been weakened to some degree over the years. There just isn't the exposure. That's not the case in Europe and Japan. There, people consider jazz to be a true art form. The media here doesn't support that concept."
The Harold Land Quartet plays tonight at 7:30 at the Hyatt Newporter, 1107 Jamboree Road, Newport Beach. $8. (714) 729-1234.
https://jazztimes.com/departments/overdue-ovation/harold-land/
Harold Land
Jimmy Katz
Harold Land
Many of jazz’s best practitioners have had serious problems with blowing their own horns. Saxophonist Harold Land is no exception.
Land is an extremely private person and no matter how penetrating or elaborate a question you ask him, he will reflect, gaze at you-or right through you-and reply with the shortest, most honest, noncommittal answer possible. Put a horn in his mouth, and he is no longer the minimalist. When he plays, he erupts with information. The man is a Vesuvius of ideas; everything you wanted to know about sax, but were afraid to ask.
Minus the embouchure, Land’s an introvert, but what pours through his axe is everything you could hope to know about his personal gentility, his musical aggressiveness, his romantic nature and his deep spirituality-a dedication to Zen Buddhism that permeates his life and career. It’s also the one subject he loves to discuss.
“That was the major change in my life and the greatest thing that ever happened to me and my family. I can thank Buster Williams for getting me interested in it. Buster was staying with us when he was working with Herbie Hancock, who is also a practicing Buddhist. That’s 27 years ago, Lydia [my wife] just informed me because I can’t remember what happened 27 minutes ago. She’s been chanting with me for the past 20 years, and our son, Harold Land Jr., has been doing it ever since I began.
“It has affected me spiritually, physically and materially, but I didn’t realize that it influenced my music until different people began coming up to me and they’d say, ‘Wow, I really hear something different about your playing-it sounds so great-there seems to be another source of energy.’ Consequently I would tell them what they were hearing was the result of my chanting two times a day-from the Daimoku.”
As Land explains, “It’s the eternal law of life. You can chant it any number of times each day, or all through the day. You chant ‘Gongyo,’ which is the essence of the ‘Lotus Sutra.’ Buster chanted with me the first time, then he had to go on the road and while he was gone I tried it myself. By the time Buster returned, I was convinced this was the way. I can tell you we have received many benefits from this practice.”
Harold’s talk of Buddhism segued to his famous original “The Peace-maker,” the title track of the album he recorded for Cadet in 1967. “Those thoughts must have been deep in my subconscious for a long time. It’s kind of ironic, isn’t it, that I would write ‘The Peace-maker’ even before Buster officially introduced [Buddhism] to me. It’s like I had been searching for something, leaning towards it, then I found Buster.
“That was probably the most significant tune I’ve written because of its connection to my Buddhist practice. In addition to chanting for good health, good fortune and safety, there’s world peace. That’s one of our main goals.
“I have no way of knowing how ‘The Peace-maker’ affects people listening to the recording, but in clubs I notice the place quiets down, people seem to be moved-they get reflective and maybe they’re looking within themselves and at the world around them and thinking what peace is all about.”
Paradoxically, when Land introduces the tune, he never explains what the title means or the depth of his personal philosophy that led to its composition. That’s a tragic omission, considering the ineffable quality of his music making. “You know,” Land admits, “maybe I should explain it, but I don’t usually talk too much, as you might have noticed from these interviews.”
Oh how well I noticed. Except for stretching out on his involvement with Buddhism, our conversation was like trading four or eight bar solos-but it never achieved the intensity of those famous chase choruses between Land and Clifford Brown. The dialogue between them on a series of Emarcy sessions by the Max Roach-Clifford Brown Quintet between 1954 and 1956 is still considered to be some of the most instinctive bop conversations ever recorded. Check out Study in Brown, More Study in Brown, Brown and Roach, Inc., Best of Max Roach and Clifford Brown or Brownie: The Complete Emarcy Recordings of Clifford Brown and you’ll hear what Harold described as “trading eight-bar choruses, then four bars apiece, even two bars at a time, and it just flowed from one to the other.”
Despite the excitement generated during those heady days with Brownie, Land’s low-key nature probably led to what so many colleagues consider undeserved neglect. Harold’s own diagnosis indicates that geography didn’t help either. “I know I would have received much wider acceptance if I had been based in New York.”
Fate intervened at a time when the Houston-born, Los Angeles-based Land was on the verge of making it in New York. In 1954, during a jam session at the L.A. home of his friend Eric Dolphy, Clifford Brown heard Land play and the two established an instant rapport. The next day, Brownie brought Max Roach by and that led to Harold’s joining the fabled Brown-Roach quintet. Touring up and down the East coast, recording much memorable music, the jazz community’s movers and shakers were just beginning to take notice of the promising new tenor when Harold got word that his grandmother was dying. As he told one writer, “After being away from Lydia and my son for two and a half years, I figured the best thing for me was to go back home and stay.” Naturally, Clifford and Max wanted Harold to return, but they had to settle for a consolation prize in the form of replacement Sonny Rollins.
Lydia Land claims fate stepped in more ominously at that time. “If Harold had not come back when he did, he probably would have been in that car with Brownie. He and Brownie always drove together.” The incident she is referring to happened June 26,1956. Brownie and pianist Richie Powell, Bud’s brother, were driving to Chicago when their car veered off the road killing both men. Brown was 26; Powell, 25.
Speculating on that tragedy, many critics feel Brown was on his way to surpassing Dizzy Gillespie in bop pyrotechnics and it reminded Land of a conversation he and Brownie had one night. “We were driving around-can’t even recall where-but I asked him who his favorite trumpeter was and you know who he said? Not Dizzy, not Miles. Fats Navarro. And I told him Fats is my favorite, too. As a matter of fact, there’s a solo that Fats takes on ‘Out of Nowhere’-it’s a Tadd Dameron arrangement-that whenever I listen to it, it brings tears to my eyes. There was a certain quality to his playing that always moved me.”
Land’s favorite tenor player is no contest: “Of course, Trane. But early influences included Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Don Byas, Lester Young and a guy who never got his just due, Lucky Thompson. I can’t name any tenor players who are saying much today because I don’t listen to radio or play new albums much. But John Coltrane, I always liked his constant dedication and constant searching.”
The searching and dedication are qualities easily identified with Harold throughout a 55-year career that began with small dance bands in San Diego at the Creole Palace and Club Romance. “I met Lydia at Club Romance. She was staring at me and staring at me one night and I ended up walking her home, carrying my horn-for 24 blocks!”
By ’54, married and with a son, they moved to L.A. where Harold soaked up the happenings on Central Ave. There was always more to West Coast jazz than the less frenetic, more intellectual, cool sounds of the Gerry Mulligan/Chet Baker/Shelly Manne/Shorty Rogers studio swingers.
Land’s debut recording as a leader, Harold in the Land of Jazz, came in 1958 while he was working with Curtis Counce. He quickly outdid himself the following year with The Fox, perhaps the best example of L.A. hard bop. It set a standard for Land that he maintained throughout his subsequent whirlwind adventures with Gerald Wilson’s big band; co-leading combos with Red Mitchell, Bobby Hutcherson, Blue Mitchell; leading his own combo with Harold Jr. (Junior, now 50, also works with his own combo); making some memorable recordings with Elmo Hope, Kenny Burrell, Thelonious Monk; touring annually for five years throughout Europe with an Italian rhythm section that included bassist Marco Marzola, a fellow Buddhist who chanted with him. The ’60s and ’70s were good to Harold as his hard-edged bop sounds graced a number of excellent albums for Mainstream, Cadet and Concord Jazz.
Today, at 72, Land is just as busy, just as dedicated, just as happy. One of his half-hearted complaints is that he is so much in demand that gigs keep getting in the way of his tennis game. He maintains a regimen of playing tennis every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The only things that can possibly interfere are weather (not likely in Southern California) or minor annoyances such as festivals, tours, club dates and recording sessions. The “net” effect is that Harold remains in top shape. (That can be verified by a Sears repairman who came to fix Land’s washing machine during one of our of interviews. He exclaimed, “I know you from somewhere. Oh yeah, you busted my butt on the tennis court, and I’m only 35!”)
Those interruptions to Land’s love affair with tennis have been going on steadily since the ’80s, when he toured with the Timeless All Stars: trombonist Curtis Fuller, vibist Bobby Hutcherson, bassist Buster Williams, pianist Cedar Walton and drummer Billy Higgins.
More lucrative intermissions in his tennis playing found Land playing all the major European festivals with the T.S. Monk Tentet. He joined the Tentet after Monk went the rock route and trumpeter Don Sickler took over the ensemble. Sickler invited Harold to join the combo as featured soloist. Last year, Harold was featured again with the Tentet, but it was followed immediately by a most significant concert and workshop at Stanford University with pianist Mulgrew Miller, bassist Ray Drummond and drummer Billy Higgins.
Enter Dan Atkinson, an A&R VP with Audiophoric, a new jazz label. When Atkinson learned that the Land quartet was at Stanford, he convinced Audiophoric CEO David Philips that he had the ideal first release. They flew the foursome down to their state-of-a-new-art studio in La Jolla, just outside of San Diego, and put together Promised Land, featuring a new audiophile recording process. “There’s no compression at all, no noise reduction, no equalization and no over-dubbing,” Philips says. “There aren’t even any mikes, in the conventional sense. Just one sound-capturing device instead of individual mikes that the musicians play into.”
Land is tentative about the new technology, claiming, “the sound is modified somewhat, not as bright as it could be.” Drummond, on the other hand, is sold on it. “The process is absolutely amazing, coming from an apparatus that looks like part of a NASA space probe.” If the jury is still out for Land, acoustically, he’s heartened by Audiophoric’s business approach. Audiophoric will pay royalties as soon as the first CD sells, rather than wait until production and marketing costs are recouped.
As for other projects, Land’s dance card is full: He and Curtis Fuller enjoyed a reunion thanks to a week at Ruth Price’s Jazz Bakery, in Culver City, in May. In September, another reunion will find Land and Teddy Edwards with the Gerald Wilson band for the Chicago Festival. And Land teaches jazz improvisation in Kenny Burrell’s ethnomusicology department at UCLA. Sorry, Harold: Wimbledon seems to be out, at least this year.
Listening Pleasures
“I got so many favorites, I’d hate to hurt anyone’s feelings by leaving them out, but the first two that come to mind are Lester Young and Fats Navarro.”
Gearbox:
“I got my first tenor, a Conn, when I was 16-played in the high school band. Later I traded it in on a Selmer and then I got a second Selmer. It’s over 25 years old, and that’s what I play today. I’ve had it overhauled twice and relacquered, so it doesn’t look like it’s over 25 years old. Originally I used a Berg Lawson [mouthpiece] and recently I switched to Otto Link.”
https://www.nationaljazzarchive.co.uk/stories?id=157
Bobby Hutcherson and Harold Land
Interview Text or Transcript
Les Tomkins interviews the jazz vibraphone and marimba player (Bobby Hutcherson) and tenor saxophonist (Harold Land) about their musical pairing in 1969. Source: Jazz Professional
L-R: Bobby Hutcherson and Harold Land
A lot of times I think musicians can feel on the stand that it’s really happening, but the audience might not be aware of what they’re feeling. Then it can often be reversed; the audience can be completely bowled over, yet the musicians won’t feel that way. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I guess—or rather, the ear of the listener.
Do you think that the tendency with a lot of musicians nowadays, especially the younger ones, to play in a more uninhibited way has, at times, demanded too much of an audience?
LAND: You could possibly arrive at that conclusion.
HUTCHERSON: The best answer to that, really, is not to ask us; but you have to ask yourself, being part of the audience. Like, you can have an audience listening to some music and because one person among them might feel strong enough to start, maybe, shouting or clapping loud or saying things from the audience. . .
.
LAND: He’ll lead about fifty others with him.
HUTCHERSON: Right. You take a comedian and you put him on the stage in a theatre that might have a seating capacity for 700 people, and there are fifteen people sitting out there scattered around, and as he’s making his delivery you’ll hear very few laughs. Fill that place up, and it’s entirely different.
An audience can easily be led. Once we get into a pack, we tend to lose our inhibitions. Those who are inhibited, if there’s just a few people around, might feel embarrassed to make noise, thinking somebody’s going to turn round and see them letting their feelings go. Whereas within a large audience no one can really dig me, I’m just a member of this pack, you see.
LAND: The strangest phenomenon that I can think of in regard to audience reaction is playing at a place where a sizeable audience doesn’t respond that strongly, but then when you come down off the bandstand people come up in droves telling you how beautiful the music was. There weren’t those type of loose individuals in the audience, apparently, to start the leadership that in some instances it takes to set a crowd off to responding in action, rather than just sitting there. This doesn’t happen that often, I would say, but it’s happened on enough occasions for me to take note of it and to be amazed by it.
HUTCHERSON: I can give you an example. One night just a little while ago, we were working in Slug’s and we had just started to play; there was a good crowd in the club, but nobody was really talking or making that much noise.
LAND: And in walked Ron—right?
HUTCHERSON: In walked Ron Jefferson, who is immediately into a lot of things. When he comes through the door he’s talking to the band, shouting phrases out. And just by him being in the club, he completely stimulated the whole audience and everything loosened up.
LAND: But I guess in most instances where you’re playing for a jazz audience, they’re usually aware and are there for that specific purpose; the situation I just mentioned is not a regular one.
A lot of jazz audiences get hung up on this idea that jazz is meant for studious listening; they feel they’ve got to take it all in, and make sure they don’t miss anything.
LAND: That’s just a segment of them. In the main, the strong jazz enthusiast is really loose. He’s got to be, because everybody he digs has got to be somewhat loose to be able to express themselves strongly jazz wise. It’s just a certain percentage that think they’re supposed to sit there and listen without moving a muscle.
Might this be connected with jazz playing so much in concert halls, rather than in clubs? Presumably you prefer to play to a more uninhibited crowd.
HUTCHERSON: Sometimes. People can be a bug; they can distract you.
LAND: Yes, it can be overdone. They might be jumping up and down right in front of you, touching your mstrument while you’re playing.
HUTCHERSON: If that happens, I feel as though I should stop playing.
LAND: When an individual gets that far out, he’s no longer really listening; music is secondary to his own exhibitionism. If a person is thoroughly involved in what’s going on, he might want to respond to it, but he doesn’t want to do anything that might detract or slow down the momentum of what he’s feeling and what anyone else might be feeling. He’s got to have that much insight to even be digging it.
HUTCHERSON: I’d rather have them listen without reacting than for them to react at the time they should be listening.
You must have both played in places where people were dancing. Do you like to see an audience expressing itself that way?
HUTCHERSON: Sure, if the music is bending itself towards that way, to be danced to, and they’re enjoying themselves. Like, if they’re in a club, it’s good to look out and see them using their bodies to express their feelings, instead of sitting there and clapping or saying things.
LAND: I feel the same way, but it would seem that the powers–that–be have put the thought down that jazz is completely undanceable.
It’s never made sense to me. When you think about the psychology behind pop music of the day, and rock, you’d be inclined to think from the promotional area of that phase of music that it’s exclusively dance music. Whereas jazz is represented as something apart.
HUTCHERSON: The thing is, the popular dances that are coming out now are all geared to records. They’ll say “Do the Boogaloo” and everybody will do it, because they associate it with a certain record.
LAND: So it’s a planned thing, not spontaneous.
HUTCHERSON: But if they put it behind a jazz record and said: “Do the such–and–such” it could be the same thing happening. Right now, you wouldn’t think of doing the Boogaloo to a jazz record.
LAND: You could have, though, if it hadn’t been psychologically planned that you’d be looking ridiculous doing it.
HUTCHERSON: A dance could be developed to go with a jazz record as it came out; then you’d have the relationship between the record and the dance step and the people.
It’s something that would just have to happen naturally for it to get as big as the popular dances are.
LAND: Yes, but my point is that it’s not going to be allowed to happen. Each new dance they come up with is another commercial proposition to stimulate a multimillion dollar capitalisation.
HUTCHERSON: See, there’s a lot of people who say that they can’t understand jazz. . . .
LAND: How can they, when they get so little chance to hear it?
HUTCHERSON: One reason for them saying that, I feel, is that in understanding something you have to be able to relate it to you personally. Like, there was a definite identification when they started rock’n’roll, as they were calling it then. Rhythm and blues was a different thing, but that’s where it all came from.
LAND: If you think back through the years, the strongest identification for jazz with the general public has been that every jazz musician is a dope addict. The biggest publicity is always given to the bad side; so that’s why the jazz artist’s stature has remained so far beneath that which he deserved. Because there have been other people, in many walks of life, who have risen to great heights and have received full recognition for their accomplishments, but who have also had problems with drugs.
In fact, with such as movie stars, they even seem to accept them even more. The more notoriety the bigger they get.
But it doesn’t work that way with the jazz musician; it just blackens his image to a greater degree.
The general public is sufficiently misguided not to know that they should listen to the individual’s contribution first, even if his personal life doesn’t fit their mould.
This is so unforgivable when you realise that jazz is possibly the sole original art form to come from the United States. Why should it be blackened, when all the jazz musician has done is produce it? Why should his reputation be lowered for giving one of the greatest contributions on the planet? I believe this can be said of jazz, not because I’m a musician myself, but just trying to be objective about it. It’s done things that other modes of communication between people all over the world haven’t been able to do. Jazz has made brotherhood meaningful, where politicians have failed.
HUTCHERSON: To show you how people in general look upon jazz musicians: when I first went to New York I wanted to get a telephone in my apartment. So I called the company. They said: “Okay, what’s your occupation?” I said “I’m a jazz musician” and they told me: “Your deposit will be 75 dollars,” So I said: “Well, I don’t think I’ll get a phone right now” and I hung up. Five minutes later I called back and, when they asked my occupation, I said “I’m a janitor at the Chase Manhattan Bank.” “Oh, well, your deposit is 15 dollars.”
LAND: That’s a perfect example of it. And what have you done to warrant that? The same applies for insurance; if you’re a musician, you have to pay more.
HUTCHERSON: And yet you’ll find these same people who are putting down these rules for the musicians are the ones, when they want to go out and enjoy themselves, who say: “Let’s go hear some music.” It’s utter hypocrisy—taking and not giving.
LAND: Jazz is not going to change, no matter how much anybody attempts to blacken it. Jazz has been here for quite some time, and it doesn’t seem to be rubbed out, despite the obstacles it has to get over. It still thrives; there’s still millions of youngsters in the new generation coming up who want to play jazz. Even though they know they can go out and get a guitar, learn three changes and make thousands of dollars, their ambition is still to be jazz players. Why? That shows what a strong quality jazz has as an art. It’s no mirage—it’s for real.
Copyright © 1969 Les Tomkins. All Rights Reserved.
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/30/arts/harold-land-73-saxophonist-who-made-a-splash-in-the-bop-era.html
Arts
Harold Land, 73, Saxophonist Who Made a Splash in the Bop Era
Harold
Land, a West Coast tenor saxophonist who had a brush with the jazz
pantheon through a brief tenure with the Clifford Brown-Max Roach
Quintet in the mid-1950's, died on Friday in Los Angeles. He was 73 and
lived in Los Angeles.
The cause was a stroke, said his wife, Lydia.
Mr.
Land was performing with great strength even until last year as part of
the Harold Land-Billy Higgins Quintet, a group that had come to the
Jazz Standard in Manhattan three times in recent years. His dire,
brooding sound began somewhere between rhythm and blues and Coleman
Hawkins, and after the early 1960's owed more and more to John
Coltrane's harmonies, phrasing and experiments with modalism.
Born
in Houston, Mr. Land moved with his family to San Diego when he was 5.
He began playing saxophone at 16 after hearing Hawkins's recording of
''Body and Soul.'' After high school Mr. Land worked in a band led by a
local bass player, Ralph Houston, who also helped him join the
musicians' union. Then he was in the trumpeter Froebel Brigham's band at
the Creole Palace, a jazz club. He made his first recording at 21 as
part of Brigham's band. He toured briefly with the rhythm-and-blues
bandleaders (and brothers) Jimmy and Joe Liggins and then in 1954 moved
to Los Angeles.
The
trumpeter Clifford Brown heard Mr. Land in a jam session at the home
music studio of the saxophonist Eric Dolphy, and Mr. Land was abruptly
hired into the Brown-Roach band, which already had a wide reputation,
replacing the saxophonist Teddy Edwards. For almost two years, based in
Philadelphia, far from his wife and young son, he contributed to some of
the finest records of the hard-bop era, including ''Study in Brown.''
He was becoming famous in jazz circles.
But in late 1955, when he learned that his grandmother was dying in Los Angeles, he quit and moved back there to be with his family. He was an archetypal example of a musician whose career might have taken off if he had stayed in the New York area.
Back
on the West Coast, he joined the bassist Curtis Counce's group,
recording with Counce and making his own records for Contemporary,
including ''The Fox,'' from 1959, a lesser-known classic with a number
of tunes written by the pianist Elmo Hope and Mr. Land's own tricky,
blisteringly fast title number.
He
recorded for Concord in the 1970's, and in the 80's he joined the
Timeless All-Stars sextet. He returned to performing on his own more
frequently and widely in the late 1990's. He had taught jazz at the
University of California at Los Angeles for the past three and a half
years. His final record, from last year, was ''The Promised Land,'' on
Audiophonic.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by a son, the jazz pianist Harold Land Jr. of Los Angeles, and a grandson.
Rock-Solid
Saxman Harold Land's Place Is Secure in the Jazz World, but His Family Is the Most Important Group
Harold
Land has been a member and leader of several important jazz groups. But
the one that probably influenced his career more than any other isn't a
musical group at all. It's his family.
"Yes, I've always been a family man," the 68-year-old saxophonist said in a phone conversation from his home in L.A. "They've always been very important to me."
"Yes, I've always been a family man," the 68-year-old saxophonist said in a phone conversation from his home in L.A. "They've always been very important to me."
Just
how important became clear some 40 years ago when Land, who plays
Sunday in Seal Beach, was a member of the groundbreaking Max
Roach-Clifford Brown Quintet. Living in Philadelphia in the same house
as pianist Bud Powell, Land was one of the fastest-rising figures in
jazz until called on to make a decision that was to influence the rest
of his career.
"My grandmother was very sick and in the hospital back in San Diego, and I felt like I had to come back and be with her," he explained. "When she passed, I looked at my wife and my son, and that's when I decided to give up what I was doing and stay [on the West Coast]."
Land may have given up his position on the highly visible East Coast jazz scene and promising work with such notables as Brown, Roach, pianist Thelonious Monk and guitarist Wes Montgomery, but he didn't give up jazz.
Associations with West Coast players including drummer Curtis Counce, trumpeter Blue Mitchell, vibist Bobby Hutcherson and pianist Hampton Hawes, as well as albums made under his own name with the likes of pianists Elmo Hope and Carl Perkins, drummer Frank Butler and others, kept him in the jazz public's eye.
Land, born in Houston and reared in San Diego, began playing the saxophone at 16. He made his first album, "Harold Land All Stars," in 1949 and got his big break five years later. That's when a South Central jam session he was participating in at saxophonist Eric Dolphy's home led to him joining the Max Roach-Clifford Brown Quintet.
"Brownie came by one day and heard me play, and so he came back the next day with Max," the soft-spoken saxophonist explained. "They listened and must have liked what they heard and signed me to be a member of the group. They picked up [bassist] George Morrow, who lived in Pasadena, at the same time." (Morrow stayed with the quintet until Brown's death in 1956.)
Soon, Land was touring with the quintet and living in Philadelphia with the group's pianist, Richie Powell, and his brother, piano giant Bud Powell.
"I guess I was star-struck," Land said about his relationship with the eccentric Bud Powell. "He was a character to say the least, but a genuine genius. We'd be here until midnight if I told you all the stories I have on him."
*
Land left the Roach-Brown ensemble in 1955 to return to his family, where he reestablished his West Coast contacts. He traveled to New York in 1960 to record his landmark "Eastward Ho!" album with the great trumpeter Kenny Dorham. It was Dorham who replaced Clifford Brown in the Roach-Brown ensemble after the trumpeter's death.
Land's dry, gentlemanly sound on the horn gained a newly expressive edge and toughness in the '60s under the influence of John Coltrane. The course of his development can be charted through a number of albums he recorded with vibist Hutcherson, including "Total Eclipse" from 1967 and continuing through the Land-Hutcherson collaboration from 1981, "Xocia's Dance."
More recently, Land co-led a quintet with trumpeter Blue Mitchell for the 1990 album "Mapenzi," made another with vibraphonist Charlie Shoemake, "Stand Up Guys," and, under his own name, released "A Lazy Afternoon" in 1995.
He's now part of Kenny Burrell's jazz faculty at UCLA, teaching a course on improvisation one day a week. He'll appear at Veteran Wadsworth Theater on Valentine's Day along with Burrell, pianist Herbie Hancock, drummer Billy Higgins and others to raise money for the school's jazz studies department. Land also does classes and clinics for younger students, as he will March 13 at Hamilton High School in L.A. under the auspices of the Thelonious Monk Foundation.
Land travels infrequently to Japan and Europe (he goes to Italy in April for a number of appearances), where, he says, audiences are more appreciative and more knowledgeable than those in the States.
He added that he's still surprised whenever he plays local gigs--he's a regular at the Club Brasserie in West Hollywood's Bel Age Hotel--and someone brings one of his old recordings for him to autograph. "Sometimes, it's something I forgot I'd even done," he said with a laugh.
His appearance at Spaghettini will, fittingly enough, be a family affair. His group includes respected pianist Harold Land Jr., for whom he decided to stay in California all those years ago. Another bonus: Drummer Billy Higgins, who's performing again after liver transplant surgery in 1996, will accompany his old friend.
"I've known Billy for ages," Land said. Then, in a statement that could as easily apply to himself, he added: "He's one of the underappreciated innovators, a very intelligent and unique individual, both musically and personally."
* The Harold Land Quartet, with Harold Land Jr. and Billy Higgins, plays Sunday at Spaghettini, 3005 Old Ranch Parkway, Seal Beach. 6:30 p.m. No cover. (562) 596-2199.
"My grandmother was very sick and in the hospital back in San Diego, and I felt like I had to come back and be with her," he explained. "When she passed, I looked at my wife and my son, and that's when I decided to give up what I was doing and stay [on the West Coast]."
Land may have given up his position on the highly visible East Coast jazz scene and promising work with such notables as Brown, Roach, pianist Thelonious Monk and guitarist Wes Montgomery, but he didn't give up jazz.
Associations with West Coast players including drummer Curtis Counce, trumpeter Blue Mitchell, vibist Bobby Hutcherson and pianist Hampton Hawes, as well as albums made under his own name with the likes of pianists Elmo Hope and Carl Perkins, drummer Frank Butler and others, kept him in the jazz public's eye.
Land, born in Houston and reared in San Diego, began playing the saxophone at 16. He made his first album, "Harold Land All Stars," in 1949 and got his big break five years later. That's when a South Central jam session he was participating in at saxophonist Eric Dolphy's home led to him joining the Max Roach-Clifford Brown Quintet.
"Brownie came by one day and heard me play, and so he came back the next day with Max," the soft-spoken saxophonist explained. "They listened and must have liked what they heard and signed me to be a member of the group. They picked up [bassist] George Morrow, who lived in Pasadena, at the same time." (Morrow stayed with the quintet until Brown's death in 1956.)
Soon, Land was touring with the quintet and living in Philadelphia with the group's pianist, Richie Powell, and his brother, piano giant Bud Powell.
"I guess I was star-struck," Land said about his relationship with the eccentric Bud Powell. "He was a character to say the least, but a genuine genius. We'd be here until midnight if I told you all the stories I have on him."
*
Land left the Roach-Brown ensemble in 1955 to return to his family, where he reestablished his West Coast contacts. He traveled to New York in 1960 to record his landmark "Eastward Ho!" album with the great trumpeter Kenny Dorham. It was Dorham who replaced Clifford Brown in the Roach-Brown ensemble after the trumpeter's death.
Land's dry, gentlemanly sound on the horn gained a newly expressive edge and toughness in the '60s under the influence of John Coltrane. The course of his development can be charted through a number of albums he recorded with vibist Hutcherson, including "Total Eclipse" from 1967 and continuing through the Land-Hutcherson collaboration from 1981, "Xocia's Dance."
More recently, Land co-led a quintet with trumpeter Blue Mitchell for the 1990 album "Mapenzi," made another with vibraphonist Charlie Shoemake, "Stand Up Guys," and, under his own name, released "A Lazy Afternoon" in 1995.
He's now part of Kenny Burrell's jazz faculty at UCLA, teaching a course on improvisation one day a week. He'll appear at Veteran Wadsworth Theater on Valentine's Day along with Burrell, pianist Herbie Hancock, drummer Billy Higgins and others to raise money for the school's jazz studies department. Land also does classes and clinics for younger students, as he will March 13 at Hamilton High School in L.A. under the auspices of the Thelonious Monk Foundation.
Land travels infrequently to Japan and Europe (he goes to Italy in April for a number of appearances), where, he says, audiences are more appreciative and more knowledgeable than those in the States.
He added that he's still surprised whenever he plays local gigs--he's a regular at the Club Brasserie in West Hollywood's Bel Age Hotel--and someone brings one of his old recordings for him to autograph. "Sometimes, it's something I forgot I'd even done," he said with a laugh.
His appearance at Spaghettini will, fittingly enough, be a family affair. His group includes respected pianist Harold Land Jr., for whom he decided to stay in California all those years ago. Another bonus: Drummer Billy Higgins, who's performing again after liver transplant surgery in 1996, will accompany his old friend.
"I've known Billy for ages," Land said. Then, in a statement that could as easily apply to himself, he added: "He's one of the underappreciated innovators, a very intelligent and unique individual, both musically and personally."
* The Harold Land Quartet, with Harold Land Jr. and Billy Higgins, plays Sunday at Spaghettini, 3005 Old Ranch Parkway, Seal Beach. 6:30 p.m. No cover. (562) 596-2199.
http://hardbop.tripod.com/land.html
Harold Land
"Harold's been one of the finest tenor players I've heard and I have hardly heard a write-up about what this man has been doing through the years. In New York he would have gotten more."
--Buddy Collette
A soft-spoken man whose personality rarely suggests the incandescence of his instrumental sound, Harold Land was born in 1928 in Houston, Texas. The family moved to San diego when he was five; it was during his high school years there he became interested in music and in 1945 was presented with his first saxophone.
His early influences were the big, warm tones of Coleman Hawkins and Lucky Thompson; later Charlie Parker's new concepts helped determine his direction. He was just out of high school when a bass player named Ralph Houston helped him join the Musician's Union.
After working in Houston's band, he spent a long while soaking up experience at the Creole Palace where a small combo, usually five or six pieces, was led by Froebel Brigham, a trumpeter. "During both these jobs my closest friend and musical colleage was the drummer, Leon Petties," Harold remembers. "We played the floor show and jazz sets too. Sometimes men like Hampton Hawes, Teddy Edwards and Sonny Criss came down from Los Angeles and worked with us--this provided a great stimulus."
Later, Land and Petties went on the road for about a year, first with a group led by guitarist Jimmy Liggins, and then in the band of his celebrated brother, Joe "Honeydripper" Liggins. Harold recalls this rhythm-and-blues experience as valuable in rounding out his musical education. After putting in additional time back at the Creole Palace, Harold decided in 1954 to try his luck in Los Angeles. For several months there were various odd jobs, none very rewarding.
The turning point came one night when Clifford Brown took his combo-leading partner, Max Roach to hear Harold play in a session at Eric Dolphy's house. "Eric had known me since the San Diego days, and after I moved to L.A. we became good friends," Harold says. "He was beautiful. Eric loved to play anywhere, any hour of the day or night. So did I. In fact, I still do."
The unofficial audition led to Harold's being hired by Brown and Roach. As jazz night club audiences around the country were exposed to the freshness and vitality of Land's playing, he seemed to be well on his way; but in 1956 he had to leave the quintet and return to Los Angeles because of illness in the family.
If, during the balance of the 1950s, he had continued to tour with name groups, there is little doubt that his reputation would have been established sooner and much more firmly on an international level.
--LEONARD FEATHER, from the liner notes,
The Fox, 1959, Contemporary.
The Fox, 1959, Contemporary.
Harold Land
Tenor Saxophone
December 18, 1928 -- July 27, 2001
http://www.thejazzrecord.com/records/2017/2/20/the-harold-landblue-mitchell-quintet-mapenziLegends Meet Up: The Harold Land/Blue Mitchell Quintet - "Mapenzi"
The Harold Land/Blue Mitchell Quintet • Mapenzi • 1977 • Concord Records. Recorded April 14, 1977 at Sunwest Recording Studios, Hollywood, CA
The Tracks:
A1. Mapenzi
A2. Rapture
A3. Habiba
B1. Blue Silver
B2. Everything's Changed
B3. Inner Voice
B4. Tres Senderos
The Players:
Harold Land - Tenor Sax
Blue Mitchell - Trumpet
Kirk Lightsey - Keyboards
Reggie Johnson - Bass
Al "Tootie" Heath - Drums
The Record
A1. Mapenzi
A2. Rapture
A3. Habiba
B1. Blue Silver
B2. Everything's Changed
B3. Inner Voice
B4. Tres Senderos
The Players:
Harold Land - Tenor Sax
Blue Mitchell - Trumpet
Kirk Lightsey - Keyboards
Reggie Johnson - Bass
Al "Tootie" Heath - Drums
The Record
Harold
Land's lyrical grace on the tenor is the perfect match for Mitchell's
fluid phrasing on the trumpet, and both men's style is a perfect fit for
the post bop they laid down on wax in 1977. This was still the era of
soft fusion and electric jazz, and the musicians are clearly having a
blast laying down some classic jazz licks during a time that the
commercial leanings of the jazz world was primarily fluff and easy
listening. Besides Land and Mitchell, both of whom shine, Kirk Lightsey
deserves some special attention for both his playing and a couple of his
compositions on the album. "Habiba" is a Lightsey tune that is not only
the longest track on the record, but also happens to be the highlight
of the proceedings. The group is on fire, and Lightsey's playing is
truly electric. It should also be noted that bassist Reggie Johnson had
some history with Land, he played alongside him on some of the classic
Land-Hutcherson collaborations LPs (Total Eclipse, Head On, Medina, Spiral)
and the two men clearly have a musical connection. Listen to how
Johnson's bass lines mirror the melody of the horns on another of the
album's highlights, the Land composition "Inner Voice," a great
opportunity for the bassist to shine. The track also reflects the vibe
of the album as a whole, this is a true group effort where all the
players contribute equally, a result - no doubt - of the lessons learned
by Mitchell and Land through their time spent playing with a couple of
the most legendary jazz quintets to emerge from jazz's golden age.
The Details:
Here we have an original pressing on the Concord Jazz label, other than
the music involved it can't be classified as particularly collectable.
While the Concord Jazz label may not be up there with other labels in
terms of desirability, Mapenzi is nonetheless on the rarer end
of the spectrum of late-'70s LP releases. Folks simply weren't buying a
ton of straight ahead jazz albums during this time, and definitely not
from an independent jazz label like Concord Jazz. Concord is anything
but a small boutique label these days, in 2004 they purchased Fantasy
Inc., who at the time owned the catalogs of Prestige, Contemporary,
Fantasy, Milestone and Riverside. Needless to say they are now the
caretakers of a massive amount of legendary and important jazz
recordings.
The Price: I picked this one up about 6 years ago for $9 from an online retailer, a more than fair price in today's market for a record that easily rates VG+ for the vinyl and NM- for the cover.
The Sound: Surprisingly loud analog playback with a nice wide soundstage, at least for a late-'70s vinyl release. The vinyl is actually of a nice weight compared to many others from the late-'70s, it is by no means equal to the thick heavy vinyl from the 1950s and '60s, but it is also not a flimsy piece of plastic like the major labels were shamelessly pawning off on the listening public during this time.
Final Thoughts:
Mapenzi seemed to go through a period of rediscovery when it was re-issued on CD, but not only is it no longer available on compact disc, it doesn't appear to currently be available on streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. It's a real shame that more folks can't be exposed to the great post bop played by a crack group like the one found on Mapenzi, it's a testament not only to the talents of Land and Mitchell, but also that straight-ahead jazz music was still alive and well at the end of the '70s, a time when it appeared that style may have been gone for good.
The Price: I picked this one up about 6 years ago for $9 from an online retailer, a more than fair price in today's market for a record that easily rates VG+ for the vinyl and NM- for the cover.
The Sound: Surprisingly loud analog playback with a nice wide soundstage, at least for a late-'70s vinyl release. The vinyl is actually of a nice weight compared to many others from the late-'70s, it is by no means equal to the thick heavy vinyl from the 1950s and '60s, but it is also not a flimsy piece of plastic like the major labels were shamelessly pawning off on the listening public during this time.
Final Thoughts:
Mapenzi seemed to go through a period of rediscovery when it was re-issued on CD, but not only is it no longer available on compact disc, it doesn't appear to currently be available on streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. It's a real shame that more folks can't be exposed to the great post bop played by a crack group like the one found on Mapenzi, it's a testament not only to the talents of Land and Mitchell, but also that straight-ahead jazz music was still alive and well at the end of the '70s, a time when it appeared that style may have been gone for good.
THE MUSIC OF HAROLD LAND: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH HAROLD LAND:
The Harold Land Quartet – Jazz At The Cellar ( Full Album )
Harold Land - The Peace Maker ( Full Album )
Tete Montoliu / Harold Land / "Speak Low"
Bobby Hutcherson et Harold Land Herzog
Harold Land and The Timeless All Stars: Invitation, 1986
Timeless All Stars Live in Hamburg March 9, 1986 part 1
Harold Land - Grooveyard
Harold Land - The Cellar Vancouver (Full Album)
Harold Land - Xocia's Dance (Full Album)
Bobby Hutcherson / Harold Land - Theme from "Blow Up
Harold Land – Take Aim (Full Album)
Bobby Hutcherson / Harold Land - Ummh
Harold Land - Terrain
The Harold Land Quintet – Jazz Impressions Of Folk Music
Harold Land Jazz at the Cellar 1958 Just Friends
Harold Land Quintet - The Peace Maker
Harold Land Quartet - Ugly Beauty
Bobby Hutcherson Harold Land Quintet 1969 Hamburg
Harold Land Summertime
Wes Montgomery, Harold Land, Freddy Hubbard, 1961
Harold Land, Blue Mitchell Quintet — "Mapenzi" [Full
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Land
Harold Land
Harold de Vance Land (December 18, 1928 – July 27, 2001)[1] was an American hard bop and post-bop tenor saxophonist. Land developed his hard bop playing with the Max Roach/Clifford Brown band into a personal, modern style; often rivalling Clifford Brown's instrumental ability with his own inventive and whimsical solos. His tone was strong and emotional, yet hinted at a certain introspective fragility.[2]
Biography
Land was born in Houston and grew up in San Diego. He started playing at the age of 16. He made his first recording as the leader of the Harold Land All-Stars, for Savoy Records in 1949. In 1954 he joined the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet, with whom he was at the forefront of the hard-bop/bebop movement.[3] Because of family problems he moved to Los Angeles in 1955. There he played with Curtis Counce, led his own groups, and co-led groups with Bobby Hutcherson, Blue Mitchell, and Red Mitchell. From the 1970s onwards his style showed the influence of John Coltrane.
In the early 1980s through to the early 1990s he worked regularly with the Timeless All Stars, a group sponsored by the Timeless jazz record label. The group consisted of Land on tenor, Cedar Walton on piano, Buster Williams on bass, Billy Higgins on drums, Curtis Fuller on trombone and Bobby Hutcherson on vibes. Land also toured with his own band during this time, often including his son, Harold Land Jr., on piano and usually featuring Bobby Hutcherson and Billy Higgins as well. During these years he played regularly at Hop Singhs in Marina Del Rey in the L.A area and the Keystone Korner in San Francisco.[3]
Land was a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. He joined the UCLA Jazz Studies Program as a lecturer in 1996 to teach instrumental jazz combo. "Harold Land was one of the major contributors in the history of the jazz saxophone," said jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell, founder and director of the UCLA Jazz Studies Program.
Land died in July 2001, from a stroke, at the age of 72.[1]
The progressive rock band Yes included a song "Harold Land" on their eponymous debut album in 1969. In a news/blog post on 20 September 2010, Bill Bruford commented about the song - "Harold Land was a hard-bop tenor saxophone player, dead now, but quite why we named a song after him I can’t remember."[4]
Playing Style
Land had an inimitably dark tone within the hard-bop and modal jazz paradigms. Over time this would contrast more and more with the brighter tonalities of more Coltrane-influenced saxophonists, although Land started to implement Coltrane's musical innovations. Land's "dire, brooding [tenor saxophone] sound began somewhere between rhythm and blues and Coleman Hawkins, and after the early 1960s owed more and more to John Coltrane's harmonies, phrasing and experiments with modalism."[5]
Discography
As leader
- 1958: Harold in the Land of Jazz (Contemporary)
- 1959: The Fox (HiFi Jazz)
- 1960: West Coast Blues! (Jazzland)
- 1960: Eastward Ho! Harold Land in New York (Jazzland)
- 1960: Take Aim (Blue Note) - released 1980
- 1961: Hear Ye! (Atlantic) as the Red Mitchell-Harold Land Quintet
- 1963: Jazz Impressions of Folk Music (Imperial)
- 1967: The Peace-Maker (Cadet)
- 1971: A New Shade of Blue (Mainstream)
- 1971: Choma (Burn) (Mainstream)
- 1977: Damisi (Mainstream)
- 1977: Mapenzi with Blue Mitchell (Concord Jazz)
- 1981: Xocia's Dance (Muse)
- 1995: A Lazy Afternoon (Postcards)
- 2001: Promised Land (Audiophoric)
As sideman
With Roy Ayers
- Virgo Vibes (Atlantic, 1967)
- Jam Session (EmArcy, 1954) - with Maynard Ferguson and Clark Terry
- Brown and Roach Incorporated (EmArcy, 1954)
- Daahoud (Mainstream, 1954 [1973])
- Clifford Brown & Max Roach (EmArcy, 1954–55)
- Study in Brown (EmArcy, 1955)
- Dolo! (Xanadu, 1976)
- The Curtis Counce Group (Contemporary, 1956)
- You Get More Bounce with Curtis Counce! (Contemporary, 1957)
- Carl's Blues (Contemporary, 1957 [1960])
- Sonority (Contemporary, 1957-8 [1989])
- Exploring the Future (Dooto, 1958)
- Quintessence (Fantasy Records, 1976)
- Vic Feldman on Vibes (Mode, 1957)
- Soviet Jazz Themes (Äva, 1962)
With Red Garland
- Red Alert (Galaxy, 1977)
- Chic Chic Chico (Impulse!, 1965)
With Billy Higgins
- Bridgework (Contemporary, 1987)
- ¾ for Peace (Red, 1993)
- Billy Higgins Quintet (Sweet Basil, 1993)
- The Elmo Hope Quintet featuring Harold Land (Pacific Jazz, 1957)
- Born to Be Blue (Pablo, 1982)
- Medina (Blue Note, 1969)
- Total Eclipse (Blue Note, 1968)
- Blow Up (Blue Note, 1969)
- Now! (Blue Note, 1969)
- San Francisco (Blue Note, 1970)
- Head On (Blue Note, 1971)
- Cirrus (Blue Note, 1974)
- Inner Glow (Blue Note, 1975)
- Farewell Keystone (Theresa, 1982 [1988])
- The Remarkable Carmell Jones (Pacific Jazz 1961)
- Business Meeting (Pacific Jazz 1962)
With Les McCann
- Les McCann Sings (Pacific Jazz, 1961)
- Thelonious Monk at the Blackhawk (Riverside 1960)
- Montgomeryland (Pacific Jazz, 1958)
- Wes, Buddy and Monk Montgomery (Pacific Jazz, 1959)
- Stratosonic Nuances (RCA, 1975)
- African Violet (Impulse!, 1977)
- Summer Soft (Impulse!, 1978)
- Ethiopian Knights (Blue Note, 1971)
- For Real! (Contemporary, 1958)
- It's Timeless (Timeless, 1982)
- Timeless Heart (Timeless, 1983)
- Essence: The Timeless All Stars (Delos, 1986)
- Time For the Timeless All Stars (Early Bird Records, 1991)
- An Invisible Orchard (RCA Victor, 1961 [1997])
- You Better Believe It! (Pacific Jazz, 1961)
- Moment of Truth (Pacific Jazz, 1962)
- Portraits (Pacific Jazz, 1964)
- On Stage (Pacific Jazz, 1965)
- Feelin' Kinda Blues (Pacific Jazz, 1965)
- The Golden Sword (Pacific Jazz, 1966)
- Live and Swinging (Pacific Jazz, 1967)
- Everywhere (Pacific Jazz, 1968)
- California Soul (Pacific Jazz, 1968)
- Eternal Equinox (Pacific Jazz, 1969)
- Lomelin (Discovery, 1981)
- Jessica (Trend, 1982)
- Calafia (Trend, 1985)
- Conflict (Contemporary, 1963)
References
- nytimes.com - accessed July 2017