No matter who you are: Herbie Mann 'At the Village Gate' should be in your collection.

 

With this three-song CD in 1962, Mann changed the look and sound of jazz. A flute as the lead instrument --- extra points to anyone who can recall the last time that happened. A solid bass section. And rhythms that had as much to do with Brazil as Birdland. New. All new.

 

The result: Music that gets under your skin. Music you take with you as you go about your day. Music you play at dinner, at parties, at late-night rendezvous.

 

And the best part: This music ain't cerebral. It finds a groove and rides it, toying with it just enough to keep you leaning in.

 

As someone wrote on Amazon: There are only three "cool" jazz records from the late '50s and early '60s that you absolutely must have: Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, Time Out by Dave Brubeck, and Herbie Mann At the Village Gate. Just so.

 

Herbie Mann was born Herbert Jay Solomon in 1930. He was a music-obsessed kid who picked up a sax at nine. By l4, he was in a band that played resorts in the Catskills. In the Army, he carried an instrument instead of a gun.  

 

In l953, a stroke of luck: A friend told him that a jazz band needed a flute player. Mann volunteered --- although he'd never played a flute. At the audition, he played sax. His flute, he said, was being repaired. Only when he got the job did he take a crash course in jazz flute.

 

By the late '50s, he had his own band and was getting somewhere. Again, good fortune: A friend suggested that he add a conga player. His music changed; he was, suddenly, among the first to draw on international sounds and play what is now known as World Music.

 

And then, in 1962, his band rocked the Village Vanguard. "Comin' Home Baby" was the hit --- as a single, it moved high up the charts. "Summertime" and "It Ain't Necessarily So" show how far you can take Gershwin. Three songs, one of them indelible. Half a million copies sold in the first year or so.

 

This album was the start of a career that would take Mann's music around the world for four decades --- and, now, guarantee that he'll be played wherever "cool" is a compliment.

 

Click on the link and listen to a bit of "Comin' Home Baby." Dollars to donuts, your feet will move. And your finger will want to click BUY.  

 

--- by Jesse Kornbluth, for HeadButler.com

 

To buy "At the Village Gate" from Amazon.com, click here.

 

Copyright 2006 by Head Butler Inc.