Billboard : 01/19/1957
Score of 77

Dorham, original trumpet man in the Jazz Messenger group, is framed here with a group of up-and-coming but as yet not over-recorded youngsters simpatico with his approach. Sextet included J.R. Monterose, tenor; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Bobby Timmons, piano; Sam Jones, bass; Arthur Edgehill, drums. The music is “far out” modern, hard-driving and somewhat experimental and boppish in its underpinnings. The group sets Dorham up for some marvelous solo work (the brilliant, precipitous ride in Mexico City, for example), but does not always match his electric energy and technical command. Tho this is not an entirely satisfactory ensemble, there are moments enough of excitement to warrant great interest in this set by “modern” aficionados, anyway.

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Down Beat : 02/06/1957
Nat Hentoff : 4 stars

This lunar session was recorded May 31, 1956, at Café Bohemia in Greenwich Village (rapidly becoming a second studio for Rudy Van Gelder). Kenny, now with Max Roach, continues to be the most consistently underestimated modern trumpeter on the scene. His work here is well constructed, building, mature and of an absorbing consistency of invention at all tempos and moods. J.R., one of the younger tenors in the harder vein who shows considerable promise of evolving individuality, plays an intense, digging, funk-angled horn. He might (occasionally) flow more in less jagged lines, but he certainly has present power.

Burrell solos with brilliance and warmth. Pianist Timmons, 19, from Philadelphia, who later joined Chet Baker, is better than able from the evidence here and stirs interest in hearing more of his work. Jones and Edgehill anchor the night and also keep the fires alight throughout.

The program is well selected and balanced, and I found Kenny’s three originals of more than passing attraction. Good on-the-scene sound quality. About all that’s missing is owner Jimmy’s voice in assertive conversation at the bar.

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Liner Notes by Leonard Feather

In the course of introducing Kenny Burrell‘s initial Blue Note LP (BLP 5065) I felt obliged to point out that there was an artist who had been known too little for too long, whose fame had never quite caught up with his creative ability.

Happily, since that time, the situation has improved. While not yet ready to knock Louis Armstrong off his pedestal, Kenny has certainly made substantial inroads in the arena of public appreciation. At the time of the release of 5065 (Afro-Cuban) Kenny was working more or less regularly with a group that subsequently earned recognition as the Jazz Messengers (preserved for posterity on BLP 1507[/B] and BLP 1508.) The original Messengers have since splintered off into several directions, with Kenny now delivering his message, with his own group.

The shifting of personnel in name jazz groups often involves little more than a game of musical chairs; A quits B to replace C in D’s combo, while C leaves D to join B, etc. In Kenny Dorham‘s case the developments have been a little more imaginative, for you will find in this line-up several soloists who are relatively new to the scene and none who can be said to be overfamiliar or over-recorded.

It was only a year or so ago that jazz fans hearing the name of J.R. Monterose tended to think of a west coast musician, Jack Montrose, who had arrived in the limelight a little sooner. Today Frank Anthony Monterose Jr., who derives the “J.R.” from his junior status, is rapidly pushing to the forefront as a tenor saxophonist who will be confused neither in name nor in style with anyone else.

Like so many new jazz stars in general of late and Blue Note discoveries in particular, J.R. is a Detroiter by birth. Now 29, he was raised in Utica N.Y., played clarinet in the Utica Junior Symphony and began to work with territory bands around 1948. After working with the late Henry Busse in 1950, he came to New York, played in Buddy Rich‘s 1952 outfit, then spent a couple of years around Syracuse, returning to the Apple in ’54 with Claude Thornhill. For the past year or two he has been increasingly visible and audible on the Greenwich Village Broadway sound stages, gigging with Nick Stabulas, Teddy Charles, Dan Terry, Charlie Mingus and others.

The Dorham rhythm section that supports Kenny and J.R. is noteworthy not only for its collective cohesion but for the individual contributions of its gifted members. Bobby Timmons, from Philadelphia, whose piano reflects the intelligent absorption of a variety of modern influences rapidly evolving into a style of his own, is only 19 years old and had worked with Kenny’s group for barely two weeks when these sides were taped. He later left to join Chet Baker‘s combo. Kenny Burrell, the 25-year old guitar discovery from Detroit, worked with Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Peterson briefly, settled in New York a year ago and can be heard to full advantage in a fine session of his own on BLP 1523. Arthur Edgehill has been one of the lesser known but more swinging drummers on the fringe of the big time for some years, a familiar and welcome figure at Minton’s Play House, where nobody is welcome whose beat doesn’t meet the most rigid of requirements. Sam Jones, latest of the many fine rhythm men bearing this surname, worked with Tiny Bradshaw and more recently has been part of the Cannonball Adderley combo.

The session was recorded on May 31, 1956 at the Café Bohemia, when Alfred Lion, armed only with the redoubtable Rudy Van Gelder and with a battery of microphones, tape reels and recording equipment, stormed the Barrow Street citadel and won a bloodless victory in several hours of concentrated cutting.

An overall impression of the results points up one interesting fact; clearly Kenny has a predilection for tunes in a minor key, whether he is borrowing them from Dizzy or Monk (Night in Tunisia, ‘Round About Midnight) or writing them himself (Monaco, Mexico City, Hill’s Edge.) Far from tending toward monotony, the result leads lends homogeneity to the feel of the session and brings out in Kenny a certain cloudy charm that has long been a vital component of his work.

Monaco, which starts out with a slow and persuasive Latin beat, soon doubles up to produce a long, fleet solo by Kenny that demonstrates most cogently his personal qualities: long, flowing phrases, even strings of eighth notes interrupted appropriately by syncopations and grace notes, and an overall sense of continuity and mood. Though there are occasional forays into the higher register, these seem a natural part of the whole and are never included for melodramatic effect. J.R.’s solo immediately afterward follows like a logical extension of the same ideas, for his style in many ways is the exact tenor counterpart of Kenny’s own. Burrell also has an excellent solo passage later.

‘Round About Midnight follows what has become the traditional pattern for small-combo interpretations of the Thelonious Monk theme, with Kenny and J.R. digging deep into its pensive mood and Bobby Timmons contributing a sensitive 16-bar solo.

Mexico City, a crackling up-tempo minor theme with a boppish flavor, is perhaps the grooviest item in a generally exciting and consistent session. All four soloists are heard, while Edgehill and Jones keep a breathlessly intense beat going from top to bottom.

A Night In Tunisia, written almost 13 years ago by Dizzy Gillespie and now a modern jazz standard, has earned a standardized treatment in which the opening Latin rhythm soon gives way to straight four-four. Kenny Burrell plays an important part in this one with a jumping solo that evokes memories of the Christian beat; but my principal recollection of this particular Tunisian night will always be the fabulous solo break with which Kenny darts out of the interlude into the second chorus.

Kenny announces his own solo number, Autumn In New York, one of his most eloquent and tasteful ballad performances. Then Hill’s Edge, for which Kenny reversed his drummer’s name to produce a title, offers particularly apt vehicle for the work of J.R., who starts out easy and cool but later builds up an extraordinary tension, partly with the use of trills and a of very personal devices. Guitar and piano use of trills are heard at length, as well as the leader, and inevitably Arthur jumps over the hill’s edge in time to grab some solo space before time is up.

Ye Gods, is the session over already? Clearly time flies too fast around the Bohemia, especially when Mr. Dorham and his cohorts are on the stand. Pardon me while I reset the stylus – if it’s all right with you, I’d like to take it form the top.