P.E. Hewitt Jazz Ensemble

[Stefan Wood]

I pulled the trigger on this set on Dusty yesterday.

From the Stones Throw website, describing the third album Winter Winds:

P.E. Hewitt’s Winter Winds is one of the rarest damn-good 70s jazz albums you could ever hope to come across. That’s a subtle, but important distinction. There are many rare jazz albums in every imaginable subgenre – funk, free, fusion... But Hewitt, a composer, arranger, vibraphonist, pianist and pilot, helmed a crack group of musicians and recorded a damn-good album ... Without ever taking the time out to name his record company. His three albums – pressed in a maximum run of one hundred pieces per album – recently surfaced after Bay Area collector Chris Veltri re-discovered an old find and sent music detectives on the hunt. You see, Hewitt’s “Winter Winds” album so damn-good that neither a micro press nor forty years of silence could suppress its reemergence.

Hewitt was only sixteen when he recorded his first album Jawbones in the auditorium of the Community School of Music and Arts in Moutain View, California, where he was an artist in residence. Part of his mission involved using music as a healing tool for those with degenerative neurological conditions. Another part, no less personal: the incessant need to document the songs and ideas welling up in his own young brain. Jawbones, pressed at Custom-Fidelity Records in Hollywood, California in a run of fifty pieces, paved the way for a second album, Since Washington, so named because the band had traveled to Washington, DC, to play for Richard Nixon. For his sophomore album, Hewitt pressed one hundred pieces.

Winter Winds, his third album, is the most “accessible” of the three Hewitt records. This is not to say that his previous albums are esoteric, just to say that this album appeals to those who might want to dance while having their consciousness expanded. Of the series of 4/4 numbers contained within, “Bada Que Bash,” a modal piece in a latin-tinged bag, stands out. Vocalists Sonia Valledeparas and Nina Scheller seem as if they’re speaking in an exotic language, amidst the band’s cavernous roar. “This is actually organized scan singing,” Hewitt clarifies. “Instead of incessant, skittly “do wap du bop,” I provided rhythmic words that sounded like a language.” Hewitt was not yet twenty when “Winter Winds” saw its small press run disappear into the ether, awaiting rediscovery decades to come.

Edited April 7, 2010 by Stefan Wood

[Joe]

Nice, fairly informative review -- with audio clip -- of this is a recent issue of DUSTED MAGAZINE... http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5627

[mjazzg]

Hi Stefan, I'd be interested in your impressions of this if you have tiem to post them.

I'm tempted by the description and as a down the line sucker for vibes-led combos seriously considering it. I'm just wondering whether the reason they became 'lost' is that they're actually not too great. Is the mystery of their disappearance adding a cachet to the music?

[chitownjazz]

Hi Stefan, I'd be interested in your impressions of this if you have tiem to post them.

I'm tempted by the description and as a down the line sucker for vibes-led combos seriously considering it. I'm just wondering whether the reason they became 'lost' is that they're actually not too great. Is the mystery of their disappearance adding a cachet to the music?

The clip above certainly gives a good taste. That primitive sax solo alone tells me that this music is far more obscure than excellent.

[clifford_thornton]

Sounds up my alley. Thanks for the tip.

[Stefan Wood]

Life got in the way, so I only have had time to listen to one disc. The sound on all of these were mastered from vinyl, not source tapes, as they could not be located. So there's a slight boxy sound, but the music is very good - very intelligent compositions and strong playing for such a young group. Different than the Bobby Hutcherson/Joe Chambers Blue Notes, but similar in that they are grounded in the bop tradition yet pushing outward, spiritually and in sound.

[mjazzg]

thanks for those initial impressions, Stefan.

I've risked it and bought on the back of some more samles here http://www.juno.co.uk/artists/Pe+Hewitt+Jazz+Ensemble/ so will be listening to my own soon....can hear the sound isn't audiophile by any means but sometimes the character just comes through. I, too, kind of like the idea of "more obscure than excellent". Sometimes its the 'vibe' or character, for want of a better term and excuse the pun, that makes the music for me.

With some spring sunshine here in London the idea of music that's "pushing outward, spiritually and in sound" seems just about right which has meant a lot of Steve Reid recently but now this as well

[tjluke68]

I know this is 3 years late, but I just picked up this release on Wednesday (used for $15) and can't stop playing it - well, I've actually only listened to Warm Winds (once) and Jawbones (3X times now) and am looking forward to spinning the final CD. I'm not a musician but am extremely pleased with my purchase - sounds great to me. It does sound a little tin-ny at times, but if I play a bit with the equalizer, it seems to fix the problem.

[T.D.]

A mere 10+ years later, I just bought this. 🤣

Heard Bada Que Bash on one of the "Spiritual Jazz" compilations, couldn't get it out of my head. Listened to a few more tracks online and figured "Why not?".

[mjazzg]

Thanks for resurrecting this thread, had fun reading mine and others discussion. I have to admit to not having played the discs probably in 10+ years 😁  

Maybe tomorrow...

[colinmce]

Nice stuff. It can still be had for $15 or less, I paid about 10 several years ago. Wouldn't pay more for it, but nice to have.

[felser]

I got this from another board member several years ago, and like it a lot.