Audio Magaizine
Charles A. Robertson : September, 1957

An addition to the Pacific Jazz line, the lower-priced M-IV series is introduced with this album. There is no discernible difference in packaging or pressing from the regular series, and the same fine sound prevails in the engineering by Val Valentin. It presents Bill Perkins on tenor, bass clarinet, and flute in a split bill with tenorman Richie Kamuca and the Hampton Hawes Trio on five tunes. Altoist Art Pepper, and a rhythm section headed by pianist Jimmy Rowles, join him on four others to complete the program.

It is an informal setting, with Perkins writing a smooth voicing for the two tenors on the standards: Just Friends, All of Me, and Limehouse Blues. His sonorous bass clarinet meanders through Sweet and Lovely and an original blues. Pepper contributes Diane-a-Flow and Zenobia, and is at his impassioned peak as a soloist. There is plenty of meat for the jazz fan and the sound fancier will like the flute and bass clarinet.

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Metronome
Jack Maher : 09/01/1957

A reviewer’s notebook of impressions:

Friends: Wonderful intertwining of two tenor lines by Perk and Richie Kamuca; good Kamuca solo that sort of bounces along. Good line going out in unison.

Foggy Day: Art Pepper joins for this one. He’s a little restrained. I wish Mel Lewis would have continued with brushes; the two-fouring on high-hat and in concept gets tedious.

All of Me: Ted Brown and Warne Marsh influence; two tenors and the concept of the line that moves forward wonderfully, never repeating itself. Fine Perkins solo. The two tenor chase chorus at the end interweave nicely, but get bogged down towards the close.

Diane: moves nicely, thanks to Lewis’ brushes and Ben Tucker, bass; Perkins seems to wander lightly in his solo. Art is quietly restrained and soothing.

What Is This Thing: Contrast here is between the alto of Pepper, which is high-strung, tensely nervous and highly rhythmic in figuration and Bill’s languid, rolling, relaxed tenor.

Sweet and Lovely: Bill plays bass clarinet and flute and sticks closely to the melody. Red Mitchell has a fine bass solo.

Zenobia: Actually, it’s Love Me or Leave Me, and features a particularly biting, pained Pepper.

A good album that is paced well and shows Bill Perkins to be a fine arranger by his work on All of Me.

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Miami Herald (Miami, FL)
Fred Sherman : 09/08/1957

The jazz reeds take the honors this week for an album called Just Friends (Pacific Jazz M-401). It’s Bill Perkins being convivial on tenor sax, bass clarinet and flute with Richie Kamuca on five tunes and with Art Pepper on four others. Mel Lewis is the house drummer with bass and piano duty shared by the teams of Hampton Hawes and Red Mitchell, Jimmy Rowles and Ben Tucker.

Perkins and Pepper did the arranging on the program that includes some swinging originals, some blues and ballads. I was struck by the emotional Sweet and Lovely. Perkins moves with the clarinet and over and around the Kamuca tenor sax. Other highlights of a high album: Rowles’ work on a Pepper piece called Diane-a-Flow, Mitchell’s solo on Limehouse Blues, the quintet friendship on Solid de Sylva, a Perkins composition.

There’s a wonderfully light and happy jazz feeling throughout the album.

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Oakland Tribune (Oakland, CA)
Russ Wilson : 08/11/1957

Tenor sax Bill Perkins appears on four tracks with altoist Art Pepper; on the other five he’s with tenor Richie Kamuca. Perkins shifts to bass clarinet on two numbers and also appears briefly on flute. The rhythm sections include pianists Hampton Hawes and Jimmy Rowles, bassists Red Mitchell and Ben Tucker, and drummer Mel Lewis. The blend of the horns, the counterpoint, and the fine solos, together with the piquancy supplied by the rhythm sections, results in a delightful warmly-swinging album that adds to the stature of all concerned.

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San Bernardino County Sun (San Bernardino, CA)
Jim Angelo : 08/04/1957

Versatile Bill Perkins, Cal Tech’s gift to West Coast music, plays three instruments, writes, and arranges—all fluently—on this session. Outcome is a prime example of music in the modern, not “way out,” idiom.

Attractive ingredients are sparkling arrangements, moving solos, an inspired tenor-alto blend, and an equable, unobtrusive rhythm section. Select tracks are Sweet and Lovely (charming bass clarinet-tenor interplay), A Foggy Day, and What Is This Thing Called Love (superlative Pepper alto here).

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Saturday Review
Martin Williams : 09/14/1957

Perkins seems one of the few (after Wardell Gray and Paul Quinichette) capable of understanding Lester Young’s tenor style and of using something besides its surface. He even has a discreet ear. Other virtues include Hampton Hawes and Red Mitchell, some good polyphony between Perkins and Kamuca, and Pepper’s feeling. Two groups: some affected scoring.

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Toronto Star (Toronto, ON, Canada)
Roger Feather : 07/27/1957
Four stars

When Stan Kenton played Toronto a couple of weeks ago the band’s best soloist was Bill Perkins. We are now able to have a longer listen to Bill’s work on a new LP on Pacific Jazz. under the title of Just Friends. Bill uses two different groups on this record; one with Richie Kamuka, a very under-rated swinging tenor-man, pianist Hamp Hawes, bassist Red Mitchell and drummer Mel Lewis; and the other with Art Pepper, the brilliant probing west coast altoist, pianist Jimmy Rowles, bassist Ben Tucker and again Mel Lewis. Both groups are very good but the sides with Richie have a slight edge. Perkins is one of the best tenor-men around today and he is just starting to come into his own. Although his roots go back to Lester Young he has a more vigorous style and muscular sound. He feels what he plays but it is a controlled and restrained emotion.

Richie is a pulsating booting tenorist slightly reminiscent of Stan Getz. Pepper has a pure quivering tone and swing in a more relaxed manner than the other horns.

The best tunes are a swinging All Of Me which almost becomes a brilliant original with Bill’s writing, a relaxed Diane-A-Flow charted by Pepper, and a beautiful Sweet And Lovely featuring Bill on bass clarinet and flute. Hawes plays pushing well-built solos and Lewis and Mitchell are superb. The other rhythm section is also superb. The variety of groups, instruments, and arrangements on this LP add to the interest.

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Down Beat : 08/08/1957
Ralph J. Gleason : 4.5 stars

Perkins and Kamuca are a pair of Brothers of the ’50s, lineal descendants of Pres by way of Stan and Zoot and containing elements of each in their sound and style. The Perkins solo sound is tighter than that of Kamuca, more nasal, perhaps, and a bit harder. Kamuca basically is a soft swinging tenor, closer to Pres than to Getz. However, it is fascinating how similar they sound and in this LP there is an excellent opportunity for comparison.

Perkins has devised a series of tableaux in which the similarity and differences of both can be appreciated. The backing is really first rate, with a fine swinging foundation by Lewis and excellent comping and solos from Hawes and Mitchell.

On four of the tracks Pepper replaces Kamuca to heighten the contrast and further offer intriguing comparisons. On two sides (tracks 7 & 8) Perkins plays bass clarinet and makes it sound very full, swinging, and valid on both the blues and the ballad.

The summation of this LP, as in most of Perkins and Kamuca’s work, is taste. The arrangements, by Perkins except for three by Pepper, are all crisp, economical, controlledly-emotional in concept. Aside from the fine passages when Kamuca and Perkins blow together and then swing out each on his own, I was particularly struck by the beauty of Sweet and Lovely, which has a fine bass solo by Mitchell and by the wonderful blues feeling of Solid DeSylva. Pepper’s best contribution is a moving solo on What Is This Thing in which he again lays claim to a high position among contemporary altoists. Hawes’ brief appearances throughout underscore what a loss his current absence from the jazz scene is. Highly recommended.

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Liner Notes by John Tynan

In jazz a musician is best known—and respected—by the company he keeps. He is also known by the context in which he works. It is true that in this stage of the music’s development both as art form and social adjunct there are still those stolid individualists who come to a record date with little thought except to blow. In many lucky cases what comes off is good jazz; but spur-of-the-moment dates are risky enterprises at best. Too often the session deteriorates into rambling nothingness. The basic attitude of the musicians is reflected in the quality of the music that goes on tape: Mediocrity is begat by Carelessness.

For the dates that constitute this album, tenorman Bill Perkins took care to select not only his companions but also the material—most of which he wrote himself. In five of the nine selections herein the “other horn” is that of Perk’s old buddy from the Herman Herd, Richie Kamuca.

According to Bill, “My object was to voice two tenors that would sound quite alike when playing together in the body of the arrangements, yet be distinctly individual in the solo work. For this purpose Richie proved ideal. You know, when Richie and I play together, I have quite a bit of difficulty telling who’s who. Of course, when we solo, he sounds like Richie and I sound like me!”

Perkins’ choice of Art Pepper for the other horn on four of the tunes is by no means haphazard. A second, no less important, goal of the leader was to achieve a sympathetic tenor/alto arranged passages and secure a marked stylistic contrast in the blowing. Since his return in mid-1956 to the jazz arena, Art Pepper has nobly re-established his title to the all-time honors list of alto men. Whether playing from the chart or in solo, Art’s is a voice of authority and crystal-clear conception, unbeholden to any obvious influence on his horn. No less skilled as writer, his ability in that sphere is more than attested to by his two originals, Diane-A-Flow and Zenobia.

Without a rhythm section capable of doing justice to the front line instrumentalists, a jazz performance rarely makes it. Happily, the respective rhythm sections enlivening Perkins’ Party prove to be nothing short of excellent.

Reunited for the date that went to make up about half the album is the original Hampton Hawes Trio—Hawes, piano; Red Mitchell, bass; and Mel Lewis, drums. Between Hamp’s fiery piano, Red’s amazing bass fluency, and Mel’s cooking, always so-right drums, a better rhythm team would be very hard to find.

Hardly less inspiring is the rhythm section backing the horn work of the Perkins-Pepper alliance. Pianist Jimmy Rowles is a swinging, tasteful veteran of the modern era who has kept pace with the latest musical innovations through the Forties and Fifties, yet retained his own marked individual style. Drummer Mel Lewis again sparks the blowing of all concerned. Note, for example, his crescendo roll on the intro to Perkins’ blues original, Solid De Silva, with high-hat setting the time from the first beat.

Bassist Ben Tucker, relative newcomer to the West Coast jazz scene, is a native of Nashville, Tenn., born December 13, 1930. After two years study at Tennessee State University, he served with the U.S. Air Force for over four years, discharged at Victorville, Calif. in July 1956. Immediately on discharge he joined the Warne Marsh Quintet in Los Angeles, and at time of writing was working an engagement at The Tiffany with Art Pepper. A vigorous proponent of the down-home, walking bass school, he started on the instrument in 1950 and has since recorded with the Marsh group, Red Norvo, Joe Morello, Pepper, Ronnie Ball and singer Josephine Premice.

Just Friends. Perk and Richie weave contrapuntally, free of the rhythm section, through 32 introductory bars to get the ball underway. As Hamp, Red, and Mel come belting in, the horns continue, verging more on the melody. That’s Richie in the lead for the first 16 bars. They switch, and for the second 16 Perk toys with the melody an octave down with Richie skittering around above him. Kamuca has the first solo; then Hawes; then it’s Perkins’ turn, after which the tenors return to a unison line with an open eight bars for Mitchell’s nimble break. In the closing eight, Kamuca again takes the tenor lead before the coda.

A Foggy Day. A walking ding-dong by Jimmy Rowles “intro-vigorates” this London sketch by Perkins. Some tugboat and taxi effects from the horns and a repeated staccato piano figure follow, then alto and tenor go into the melody. Pepper solos gracefully, is joined by Perkins at close of the chorus, and both horns embark on a short statement of the verse before Perk takes over for 16 bars. Rowles follows with a half-chorus (listen to his clearly audible “n-a-a-ah” in the seventh bar of the break. Whether it’s uttered in chagrin or satisfaction remains unknown). More foggy effects signal the close as Art and Bill swing it home.

Perkins is experimenting with time here as his writing for both horns and rhythm demonstrates. In order to achieve more flexibility and obtain a variety of musical effects, he has loosened the form, e.g., the return to the verse before his own 16-bar solo and the original line written around Tucker’s four-bar walking bass passages.

All of Me. Perk and Richie together follow a long, flowing boppish line for 32 bars, then break into a free-for-all around this colloquy before reverting to the melody and closing. “For all the effort I put into this arrangement,” reflects Bill, “I could have had an original. Others have done it on less writing.”

Diane-A-Flow. Dr. Pepper again is in the saddle in this sensitive reading of his original dedicated to the vivacious Diane. Sensitive would appear to be the signal word to Art’s delicate, introspective writing. He seems to possess a fine feel for the pretty, while Perkins’ cleffing leans more to the muscularly harmonic. Admirable indeed is the contrast of the two styles in this program. Rowles takes a short stroll in the sun and leads back to the horns and closing theme.

Limehouse Blues. Eerie overtones in the saxes cue in this uptempo vehicle for Perkins and Kamuca. Briefly opening to Lewis’ ringing cymbal, the tenors yield quickly to Hawes’ prancing piano. Back to the chart then till Perk breaks out for a hard, almost “pecking” solo. Perk, Richie and Mel trade fours—then it’s Richie’s turn to wail. Red Mitchell’s in for a whole chorus of fingerbustin’ comments before the tenors return to close with the first direct statement of the ‘Limehouse’ melody. It’s back to the opening figure as they wind up the first side.

What Is This Thing Called Love? Art Pepper’s most impassioned solo work of the entire party can be found in his lyrical arrangement of this oldie. After a rather straight first chorus by alto and tenor, Pepper sails in. His solo is a model of free, inventive jazz blowing. Perkins’ entry is notable, Lester Young-like in feeling. Art and Bill exchange fours awhile before returning to the theme with a 16-bar alto lead. Both improvise on the bridge without rhythm section before closing this wholly relaxed, swinging take.

Solid De Silva. Mel’s building roll initiates this funky blues original dedicated by Perkins to jazz disc jockey Walt De Silva, written while Bill was working with altoist Lennie Niehaus at Hermosa Beach’s Lighthouse. With Lewis an unwavering pacesetter, the tenors glide through the first couple of choruses till Perkins takes a short solo, followed by excellent Hawes piano. Kamuca then bows in for a chorus, chased by Perk wailing some bass clarinet blues. This instrument, seldom used for jazz solo work, proves an ideal communicative medium here. Mitchell brings his great bass technique and feel for this jazz form in a groovy chorus before Perk and Richie take it out.

Sweet and Lovely. This tranquil tone poem showcases Perkins again on bass clarinet playing some lovely figures behind Richie’s ultra-high register tenor. As this is probably the first time the bass clarinet has gotten such an airing on a jazz album, its sonorous, woody sound as it weaves cumbrously around the tenor will be deemed most valid musically and should stir interest among other jazz reedmen, leading to future exploitation.

Aft4er his 16 bars Hamp is tailed by Red for a lyrical eight on the bridge. Then, reverting to flute, Perk meanders around Richie’s lead for 16 before picking up the bass clarinet again to close.

With keen sense of humor, Perk remarks that his sound on bass clarinet, “Reminds me of the Queen Elizabeth coming through the fog. Incidentally,” he adds, “I’m known as the barnyard Shank on flute.” Bill also extends much credit to sound engineer Val Valentin for obtaining perfect balance between instruments.

Zenobia. Another Pepper original this, with a funky Art taking the first solo. Getting into the spirit of this medium jumper, Perkins follows with some probing remarks of his own. Art re-enters to lead off a section of two-bar breaks among himself, Perkins and Lewis. Jimmy Rowles slides suavely across the bridge before alto and tenor restate the theme. Ben Tucker walks the next release abetted by a couple of characteristic comments from Art before the horns take out the tune with a quavering coda.

This second album of Perkins as leader (the first was On Stage Pacific Jazz-1221) is more informal in setting and brightly displays his talents as one of our foremost contemporary tenormen. Perk is also heard to excellent advantage on Grand Encounter (Pacific Jazz-1217) in company of John Lewis, Percy Heath, Chico Hamilton and Jim Hall.