Elmo and The Fox

love the cover design

Birthdays may be increasingly difficult to endure as one grows older - you know I speak the truth - but it does afford one the opportunity to ask for new jazz as a gift. Helping to lessen the blow from Time was Harold Land's The Fox (1959).

I have been somewhat familiar with Harold Land, mostly from the quartet he shared with Carmell Jones, but I'm not sure I truly heard him until this album. What drew me to this disc was the piano player: the great Elmo Jones (who fit that jazz stereotype of not receiving the acclaim he deserved during his lifetime) who was a marvellously inventive pianist who had great melodic skills who isn't afraid of dissonance when the mood should strike him (a touch of Thelonius in his playing...) and while I adore his trio recordings, I was eagerly anticipating listening to him playing in a quintet setting.



plaintive Elmo

Have a listen to the title track and you'll instantly understand why a fan of Elmo Hope would be drawn to The Fox. The rest of the band is delightful and wasn't that a great discovery on a birthday? There is always new jazz to discover and doesn't that make the world a better place? The band may not have names that you are familiar with, but they are worth a listen:

Harold Land: saxophone

Dupree Bolton: trumpet

Elmo Hope: piano

Herbie Lewis: bass

Frank Butler: drums

Dupree Bolton plays with fire. It is a shame that he had such drug problems as it would have been nice to hear more recordings from him. How many great jazz albums were never recorded due to musicians being locked away in prison or sanitariums due to drugs?




the great and obscure Dupree Bolton

Most of the players often worked with Curtis Counce, (who was a bass master that we haven't spoken of before, but we should! After all, one of his album titles is a classic: "You Get More Bounce With Curtis Counce" which also features Jack Sheldon, another all time favourite, on trumpet) who was part of that great West Coast scene of the late 1950s along with Gerry Mulligan, Shorty Rogers, Chet Baker, Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, Jimmy Giuffre and Bob Brookmeyer.

I highly recommend this album for those of you who like exciting uptempo jazz played by a top notch band. Enjoy!