Billboard : 02/02/1957
Score of 75

A new group on the jazz scene, the Warne Marsh five definitely show strong possibilities for future fame on the strength of their first album. Most of the material is soft and subdued, yet there is plenty of vitality in evidence. The I Never Knew track is an excellent showcase, and more than adequately displays some fine talent. Assisting Marsh on tenor are Ronnie Ball, piano; Ben Tucker, bass; Jeff Morton on drums, and Ted Brown on tenor.

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San Francisco Chronicle
Ralph J. Gleason : 05/19/1957

Marsh and another tenor player, Ted Brown, in some interesting duets which seem to be more on the warm, soul searching side than Marsh’s previous efforts. The rhythm section seems to lack a certain extra kick here, but it’s not bad.

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Down Beat : 03/21/1957
Nat Hentoff : 4 stars

The “Two Cities” tag, I suppose, has to do with the fact that four of the quintet studied with Lennie Tristano in New York, and worked in the area before moving to their present west coast clime. Tristano’s influence is still apparent in the penchant for long lines and the kind of airy but wiry phrasing and logical, flowing conception that marked those Capitol sides like Marionette and Sax of a Kind.

Both tenors blow with admirable technical ease, empathic, and stimulating ideas and good if coolish sound. The notes goof in not providing a solo chart.

Their time is also precise and supple. The rhythm section is unerringly steady, but I occasionally wish for more vitality, an observation influenced by a personal preference for the kind of fires Max Roach and Philly Joe Jones set. But Morton does keep a light, authoritative, good-sounding beat going. Tucker is valuable in tone and time, and seems to fuse well temperamentally with this kind of section. Ball has become an excellent comper and a skillful soloist whose message on middle and up-tempos is more arresting cerebrally on this LP than it is emotionally.

All the originals come from within the group. Except for a relaxed, rolling Quintessence, these lines project a certain amount of brittleness to this ear, as if they were more a problem to solve than a story to tell. By contrast, Lover Man is the most moving track on the LP with an emotionally productive Ball solo and an absorbing, sinuous linear interplay between the horns. (I would have preferred more polyphony in the set and less unison blowing.)

But, criticisms notwithstanding, this is a lucid, intelligent session cut by a unit that certainly has its own style and sound although both have been significantly shaped by Tristano. And the standard of musicianship is very high.

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Liner Notes by Unknown

Whether it be jazz of Johnny Dodds, Duke Ellington or Dave Brubeck, jazz above all else must have vitality. That’s a polite way of saying that jazz has to swing. The degree of swing, like most things, can be measured only by the listener and judged by whatever message jazz holds for his ears alone.

The Warne Marsh Quintet is such a group, whose avowed musical purpose lies in just that swingin’ direction. Much of modern jazz today appears on the surface to be a mélange of discord to the uninitiated. Unity however, is obtained by freely improvising, perhaps not so much from arrangements, but rather, in the case of the Warne Marsh five, from an innate feeling for playing together, and above all else, swinging.

Though the group has been playing as a unit for a limited period of time, they have already attracted wide attention in jazz circles. Four of the members were students, as were many other jazz greats, of Lennie Tristano, and they have worked together off and on for a number of years.

Leader Warne Marsh, (tenor saxophone) has previously worked with Tristano, Leo Konitz and recorded with the Metronome All-Stars in 1952. Ted Brown, tenor, born in Rochester, NY in 1927, was a counterpart of Marsh, also working with Tristano and Konitz and a number of other prominent jazz musicians.

Ronnie Ball, piano, comes to the American jazz scene and the Warne Marsh Quintet via England, and at the age of 29, has already been recognized as one of the leading names among new school jazz pianists. In the United States for only four years, Ball has worked and recorded with Chuck Wayne, Dizzy Gillespie, Konitz, Kenny Clarke, John LaPorta, Donald Byrd, and the fabulous Jai and Kay group.

Ben Tucker, bass, joined the group shortly after his service career, and though he has worked around jazz for a good number of years, this marks his debut on records. Drummer Jeff Morton is among that young and ever-growing group in jazz to whom the appellation “rising star” has been affixed. Morton is an accomplished drummer first, a serious music student secondly and an ardent adherent of the new thinking so prevalent among jazz musicians today. Born in Brooklyn, NY in 1929, Morton has worked with the swingin’ Chubby Jackson, Max Kaminsky, Tristano, Woody Herman, Konitz and Mary Ann McCall to name but a few.

Though the group originally got together for the purpose of “jamming,” it was soon evident that they would stay together. A successful engagement at The Haig in Los Angeles only whet their enthusiasm and urged the group to go on.

Sound plays a very important role in the Warne Marsh Quintet framework. Notice the manner in which the two tenors are integrated with the piano voice in many of the selections, with a good deal of simultaneous improvisation throughout all the works.

Though most of the selections are original jazz pieces, they only serve to further highlight the stimulating musical effort of the musicians. Lover Man, and I Never Knew are the only standards in this album, the former piece so well associated with the late Charlie Parker, the latter a “head” arrangement allowing wide berth for lots of swinging and vaguely reminiscent of an older rendition by Lester Young a good many years ago.

You don’t have to be old in years to feel pain, and by the same line of reasoning, neither do jazz musicians need to be gray to be able to lay down what they feel. They feel, the sincerity of purpose and the inner knowledge that what they perform is true, is all important, and is perhaps the underlying force in jazz today.

Since high fidelity recording includes a true reproduction of all sounds without discrimination or distortion, the original recording was done on an Ampex 300-C Magnetic Tape Recorder at 15 IPS using Scotch Tape. To effectively record the full frequency spectrum Telefunken U-47M microphones were used. Tape to disc transfer employed an automatic Scully lathe with heated stylus using a Grampion feedback cutter system. Disc recording utilizes the standard RIAA recording curve.