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Published: Jul 1, 2009
Category: Jazz
Cool, this week, was a frozen pomegranate margarita (or three) on the lawn (yes, a lawn) of a Rockefeller Center terrace overlooking the spires of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Later, cool was walking home at sunset, iPod amped high enough to blow out an infant’s ears, music streaming into my Shure E2c Sound Isolating Earphones.
The music: Herbie Mann. Recorded in 1962.
The first song on "At the Village Gate" is “Comin’ Home Baby”. It was an instant hit on the pop charts --- how often does an almost nine-minute jazz tune reach the top 30 singles? --- and then the album was a hit, and then it was elevated to the ranks of classic.
Almost six decades later, here’s how cool "Village Gate" is: It could have been made yesterday. That is, if there were a group around that dared to launch “Comin’ Home Baby” with a solid minute of stand-up bass playing a single note against subtle bop drums. By then, if you’re walking down the street, you can feel yourself starting to strut.
Restrain yourself, for here comes Herbie Mann.
The flute is not, they say, a jazz instrument. Well, it is here. There’s the lilt and trill of songbirds. But even more, there’s a killer melody, and Mann drives it hard, turning your walk into an outrageous thrust of hips.
“Comin Home Baby” is sexy and smart. "Summertime" and "It Ain't Necessarily So" show how you can take Gershwin into a delightful, Brazilian-tinged zone. Three songs, one of them indelible, two merely great. Half a million copies sold in the first year or so.
With this three-song album, 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.
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.
If you must know: 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, Mann 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.
Click on the link and listen to a bit of "Comin' Home Baby." Dollars to donuts, your feet will move, your mood will lift, and, no matter what your kids think about you, you'll know you're "cool".
To buy "At the Village Gate" from Amazon.com, click here.
To download "At the Village Gate" from Amazon.com, click here.