Sonny Clark - Deep Night (1958)

From Sam Stephenson’s article, Sonny Clark: Melody and Melancholy, in the most recent issue of Tin House Magazine:

I asked the novelist Haruki Murakami, who once owned a jazz club, why Cool Struttin’ is so popular in Japan. He attributed it to the rise of the “jazz kissa” (jazz coffee shops) in the 1960s.

“The popularity of Cool Struttin’ was not driven by professional critics or by sales,” wrote Murakami by e-mail, “but instead by youths who didn’t have enough money to buy vinyl records, so they went to coffee shops to hear jazz on the house record player. This was a phenomenon particular to Japan, or at least very different from America.” 

Clark’s buoyant blues fit the underground mood of Japan’s postwar youth. It didn’t hurt that his tragic life made him an unconventional, forlorn icon, too.

Art Farmer during Horace Silver’s The Stylings of Silver session, Hackensack NJ, May 8 1957 (photo by Francis Wolff)

Hank Mobley - Base on Balls (1957)

What better way to saunter into this new year than with a languid jaunt down to first base with Mobley, Blakey, Silver and the boys.

Horace Silver - Safari (1958)

Hard bop at its most precise. Clifford Jordan cooks.

Two views of Art Farmer (photos by Roberto Polillo)

Hank Mobley - Fin De L’Affaire (1957)

Hank Mobley leads the Jazz Messengers through a few turns of this wistful strut.

Sonny Clark - It Could Happen to You (1957)

More sideman appearances from Mobley. He and Sonny Clark shared a special connection, appearing on a number of each others’ recordings during this fruitful 1957-59 period. I could listen to Clark and Mobley play ballads all day.

Hank Mobley - Darn That Dream (1957)

This is yet another Mobley session that sat on the shelves until the late 70s, which to modern ears makes no sense considering the personnel and the playing. Both are as good as any of Mobley’s recordings released at the time.

This particular standard receives a tender treatment from everyone, especially Sonny Clark, who seems to relish the opportunity to play a ballad. It’s also the first time the fiery Pepper Adams and his baritone sax appear here.

Sonny Clark - Cool Struttin’ (1958)

I’ve had Japan on my mind for obvious reasons. Sonny Clark is an American jazz pianist who might have fallen into a permanent obscurity if not for the intense interest that Japanese listeners developed for his piano sound, helping reinvigorate interest in his life and his records.

Much ink has been spilled over this LP, so I’ll leave it to the pros on this one.

From 100 Greatest Jazz Albums:

Jazz coffee shops (jazz kissa) in Japan had fostered a strong interest in hard bop. Rare Blue Note and Milestone albums became much sought after as collector’s items (“treasure albums”). And “Cool Struttin’” was sought after as a “treasure album,” as it was a firm favorite in the jazz kissas. As Blue Note Japan cottoned on and began re-releasing Sonny Clark albums, his music gradually became available once more to collectors in the US and Europe so that when the mainstream jazz revival of the ’80s began, Sonny Clark’s position as one of the great hard bop innovators was established.

From the AllMusic Guide:

One of the preeminent “swinging medium blues” pieces in jazz history: the title track with its leveraged fours and eights shoved smoothly up against the walking bass of Paul Chambers and the backbeat shuffle of Philly Joe Jones. Sonny Clark’s solo, with its grouped fifths and sevenths, is a wonder of both understatement and groove, while Chambers’ arco solo turns the blues in on itself.

(This song is for @emicoucou, a dedicated Japanese listener. I’m sending positive thoughts your way, and a little bit of jazz.)

Art Farmer - Mox Nix (1958)

An interesting combination of players from the late 50s, this record would precede The Jazztet for which Farmer and Benny Golson would work together for many years. The highlight of this record is the sublime Bill Evans, who never seems to play a note that’s out of place.