Army Times : 05/11/1957
Tom Scanlan

A new quintet worth hearing is the Curtis Counce group. In addition to the fine bass work of Counce, note the interesting trumpet solos by Jack Sheldon and the tenor sax of newcomer Harold Land. Well recorded, as is usual with Contemporary.

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Billboard : 03/09/1957
Score of 76

Take note of this group, for it’s gonna “happen.” Counce is one of the better bass men who has worked with many top jazz groups for years, and the organization of his own unit was a natural disk opportunity. The music abounds with great solos, it has excellent drive and falls into the “bread and butter” category of modern jazz. Harold Land on tenor, the great Carl Sheldon on trumpet set the mood with gusto. Cover art will also win attention.

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Playboy Magazine : June, 1957

Stan Kenton‘s ex-bassman, Curtis Counce, leads his own quintet in one of the most penetratingly masculine West Coast jazz LPs of recent months. In place of the usual clutch of overworked studio jazzmen you’ll hear trumpeter Jack Sheldon, who for our money can give Chet Baker a run for his; Harold Land, a tenor sax with intestinal fortitude, and a new and energetic pianist, Carl Perkins; all three contribute original tunes. As you might expect of a West Coast jazz group, the members hail from Missouri, Florida, Texas, Indiana and Kansas.

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San Francisco Chronicle
Ralph J. Gleason : 03/31/1957

Some excellent small band jazz sparked by the wonderful bass work of the leader and offering solos by a fine pianist, Carl Perkins, and a good tenor man, Harold Land. It swings all the way.

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Saturday Review
Wilder Hobson : 05/25/1957

A new small combination from the Pacific is headed by Curtis Counce and plays highly refined, rhythmic music in both brisk and languorous moods. The agile, silvery trumpet of Jack Sheldon is present, as well as Harold Land, tenor sax; Carl Perkins, piano; and Frank Butler, drums. This group might be said to veer somewhere between modern barrelhouse (I don’t find the popular word “funky” very suggestive in this connection) and the ultra refinement of much modern chamber jazz.

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Venice Vanguard
C.M. Weisenberg : 03/20/1957

One of the jazzmen in Hitz’s orchestra, Curtis Counce has recently made his first appearance on records with his own organization. Counce, who is an excellent bass player, has played with several bands and this is the first time he has led his own group into a recording studio.

The album features Counce on bass, Harold Land on tenor sax, Carl Perkins on piano, Jack Sheldon on trumpet and Frank Butler on drums. Counce turns in his usually fine performance and saxophonist Land contributes some excellent ideas and sounds. The group, which has only been organized a short time, does not always have the sound of a closely knit group which could be due to the fact that they have not been playing together very long.

The extended saxophone solo in Time After Time and the moving bass in Landslide are two standout numbers in the album. It was pleasing to note that the musicians had plenty of time to develop their ideas by placing only three numbers on each side of the 12-inch record. The extra time is used to advantage by the Counce Group and adds more body to songs like Time After Time.

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Down Beat : 04/30/1957
Nat Hentoff : 4 stars

This is the first LP by the new Counce unit, recorded last October when it had been organized less than a month. It comes through with powerful integration for so new a combo. An indicative sidelight is Lester Koenig’s liner note that for five or six of the numbers on the record, first takes were used. Of the frontline horns, Sheldon is the most individual and fresh. He has steadily developed, adding bones to his essentially lyrical, deftly probing style and some flesh to his tone. He moves with quick incisive ease on his horn, and his ideas are more identifiably his own than those of many of his contemporaries. Sheldon has a valid, quite personal jazz voice at 26 and should become a vital contributor.

Land has grown considerably, it seems to this listener, since his work with the Max Roach–Clifford Brown quintet in 1954-55. His tone is fuller while still vigorously muscular in the manner of a strong line of Bird-birthed modern tenors. His conception is more cohesive and more his own. As before, he has a wailing beat.

The members of the rhythm section listen to each other and to the hornmen, and their pulse is accordingly sensitized-to-context as well as strong. Perkins, who plays with left forearm parallel to the keyboard, swings in a rather arresting, springy way; and he’s rootedly authoritative on the blues-lined Sarah. He only misses in the too flowery punctuations of his solo on the ballad, Time. Counce has an excellently rounded, controlled sound and is an intelligent soloist. Butler, making his first record session, is a wonderful find. He’s a subtle drummer whose beat is constant and whose occasional commentaries help rather than distract. And he can solo, to quote Koening, “with astonishing effect” as on Fifth “in the course of which he goes from sticks to his fingers and knuckles and back to sticks.” And besides, he gets a very good, crisp sound from his set. Engineering is firstrate. The program is well balanced.

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Liner Notes by Lester Koenig
January 2, 1957

This is the first recording of The Curtis Counce Group, made when it had been originated less than a month, an extraordinarily short time for five individual musicians to develop a unified conception, musical personality and sound. Almost overnight they have become one of the most exciting groups of the mid-50s, with a fine book of original material, and a direct, basic, swinging approach to jazz.

The recording session was completely unlike the usual studio affair. The intimate atmosphere of Contemporary’s back room-warehouse relaxed the musicians. As Frank Butler set up his drums he said, “Man, I feel like cookin’ this evening.” It was Butler’s first record session. Recording director Roy DuNann had the setup for the band before they arrived. All they had to do was blow. And they did. They came on at once, appropriately with Landslide; that first take starts Side 1 of this album. There were no restrictions of time, number of solos choruses, or tunes. Curtis called them as he felt them, and everything they played cooked. Only one take was made of Jack Sheldon‘s blues Sarah, Carl Perkins‘ original Mia and Frank Butler’s extended, incredible drum solo A Fifth for Frank. Second takes were made on Landslide and Harold Land’s beautiful tenor solo on Time After Time, but the first takes of both were selected.

Curtis Counce was born January 27, 1926 in Kansas City, Missouri, and started studying violin, bass and tuba at R.T. Coles High School there. In 1942, at 16, he joined the union to play bass with Nat Towles band in Omaha, Nebraska. He left in 1945, moved to Los Angeles and a job with Johnny Otis at the Club Alabam. His first record date was with Lester Young in 1946. Since, he has recorded with most of the West Coast jazzmen. In 1953 he was on Contemporary’s first session with Shelly Manne (C3507), and in 1955 with Lyle Murphy (C3506). The Murphy album included two long bass solos: Sophisticated Lady & These Foolish Things. After several years with Shorty Rogers, Counce joined Kenton in 1956 for a tour of the U.S. and Europe. On his return, he formed his own group, opening at The Haig in Los Angeles in September.

Jack Sheldon, trumpet, was born November 30, 1931, in Jacksonville, Florida. He learned to play at the age of 12 at Cranbrook School in Detroit. Back in Jacksonville the next year, he started playing professionally in the dance bands of Gene Brandt and Tiny Moore. He moved to Los Angeles in 1947 when he was 16 and attended Los Angeles City College for two years. When he was 19 he joined the Air Force for two years and played in Air Force Bands in San Antonio, Texas, and later Muroc, California. On his discharge in 1952 he spent several months as a regular member of Howard Rumsey‘s Lighthouse All-Stars, then worked in and around Los Angeles at night clubs, dances and concerts with many of the leading West Coast musicians. He has made several long-playing albums under his own name for West Coast independents.

Harold Land, one of the most exciting of the younger tenor sax men, was born in Houston, Texas on December 18, 1926. He was raised in San Diego, California, and graduated from San Diego High School in 1946. He started playing tenor during his last year of school, got his first job in San Diego with Ralph Houston, and after several years of playing in San Diego and Los Angeles, joined the Max Roach–Clifford Brown group in Los Angeles in August 1954. He toured with them until November 1955 when he had to return to California. His early influences were Coleman Hawkins and Lucky Thompson; he now likes many tenor men, among them Thompson, Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, but considers Parker the greatest of all sax men.

Carl Perkins, piano, was born August 16, 1928 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He started on piano when he was 9. His family was interested in music: one brother was an amateur violinist, another brother, Ed, became a professional bass player, and his sister was an amateur pianist. Carl was self-taught, and has never studied. His technique is unusual; he plays with his left hand sideways, his forearm parallel to the keyboard. He explains, “When I was small my hand was too little to make the bass chords so I turned my hand around and used my elbow to make them.” In 1946 he graduated from Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis, spent two years in the Army, and in 1948 got his first job with Tiny Bradshaw. He played with various groups in the mid-West until he came to Los Angeles with Big Jay McNeely in 1949. Since, he has played as a single in many clubs in the Los Angeles area, also worked with Miles Davis, Max Roach, and other groups.

Frank Butler, drums, was born in Wichita, Kansas, February 18, 1928, raised in Kansas City, and began playing drums there in his high school band. When 13 he started playing professionally with U.S.O. shows and small dance bands. in 1949 he moved to San Francisco where he worked at the Black Hawk and Bop City, accompanying visiting guests, Bird among them. He also worked with Billie Holiday and Dave Brubeck before moving to Riverside in Southern California where he became one of the bandleader Edgar Hayes‘ “Stardusters” along with Curtis Counce. Later he toured the country with his own trio, and in 1954 joined Duke Ellington. After his return to Los Angeles he he worked with Pérez Prado before joining the Curtis Counce Group. A highlight of his work on this album is his solo on A Fifth for Frank in the course of which he goes from sticks to his fingers and knuckles and back to sticks with astonishing effect.