Frank Hewitt - WE LOVED HIM (on smalls records)

[JSngry]

Mr. Luke Kaven, the producer/owner of this record and this label, mentioned this CD in passing a while back in the Gil Coggins obit thread, and his description of Hewitt as some sort of underground bebop legend caught my attention. I went to the CD Baby website, checked out the sound samples a few times, and they REALLY caught my attention. Finally ordered the CD, and I have to tell you - this is some REAL stuff.

Hewitt sounds to me to have be firmly in the lineage of Elmo Hope & Hassaan Ibn Ali, players who were "pure" bebop in conception, and players who followed their muse the very second it spoke to them, even if it was telling them to play "wrong" chords and lines that at times were more shapes than harmonic delineations of the chords.

There's more than a few times on this disc where Hewitt plays a change (or a series of changes) that on first listen appear to be TOTALLY wrong. But a deeper listening reveals that HE knew where he was, and that he never went anywhere that he couldn't get back home from. Some of these changes are actually very astute and erudite theoretically once the shock wears off and their logic becomes apparent, whereas others seem to be the "just because" answer to the "why did you play THAT?" question. It's an answer that is legitmate only if the player can offer proof that they aren't dicking around, and Frank Hewitt most certainly was NOT dicking around. Frank Hewitt was PLAYING! (and looking at the 3-star AMG review, I can only conclude that the reviewer had either a different record or a different set of ears than mine).

This music virtually REEKS of "the street", and for somebody like myself who has had more than enough whiffs of the scents of "jazz by the numbers" as played by well-groomed schoolboys, calculating careerists, and other walking corpses, it is a smell that I breathe deeply, thankfully, and with unbounded giddiness. Hewitt sounds like he's LIVED this music, not "learned" it, and if occasionally, like on "Cherokee", his right hand seems to be running to keep from crying, so be it. The street is what it is, and although admission is free, the cost is nevertheless steep. If it's "perfection" one wants, there are innumerable places to find it. But if one wants the uncensored flavor of life, jazzstyle, one must be ready to accept the fact that life is not perfect, and that their are musicians and musics that make no attempt whatsoever to avoid that fact. I think it's safe to say that Frank Hewitt was one of those musicians.

If you find later Bud Powell gripping, if you find Elmo Hope's later work compelling, if you know the difference between jazz as a style of music and jazz as a fact of life, then DO NOT MISS THIS RECORD.

Available HERE.

HIGHESTLY recommended.

Edited April 16, 2004 by JSngry

[JSngry]

Up, because I'm not letting this one go quietly into the night.

Up, because I listened to this one again 4 or 5 times last night, and each listen revealed new details and subtleties. Frank Hewitt was one of those guys who sounded pretty obvious and straightforward on a casual listen, but a close listening proves that his playing was anything but.

Up, because attention MUST be paid.

[Clunky]

It's my long list, Jazzreview were very positive about this one last month, I enjoy Elmo and will probably dig this too. How's the sound quality?

[JSngry]

I can hear all the instruments clearly.

[Eric]

I snagged this a few weeks ago from CD Baby, but have not had a chance to listen yet ... will go to the top of the rotation ... thanks for the heads up.

Eric

[lkaven]

It's my long list, Jazzreview were very positive about this one last month, I enjoy Elmo and will probably dig this too. How's the sound quality?

Was there a review on Jazzreview.com? I'd be very grateful if you could post a link to that, since I haven't seen it yet.

Luke

[Clunky]

It was in Jazz Review UK magazine, will need to check issue number,but they reviewed a number of Smalls cds

[Clunky]

It's issue 55 April 2004

reviews of

Across 7 Street

We Loved You

The Painter

all very positive, reviews not available on line as far as I'm aware...sorry

[Clunky]

Hewitt played at Smalls, a New

York club which flourished after

the repeal of the cabaret card

system, two or three nights a week

for nine years. These trios represent

working groups, and they recorded

these sessions ''as live". The first

five tracks, with Lovelace, were

recorded on May 16th, those with

Rosenfeld on June Sth 2001.

Hewitt died on Sth September 2002.

Since the majors ignored him,

friends and colleagues established a

label to release music by him and

other members of the Smalls

community. This release is puffed

as "the first volume of historic

recordings" and I very much hope

it will, indeed, prove to be the start

of a series. I only wish this could

have happened in Hewitt's lifetime.

I love his choice of songs. When I

first got into modern jazz, every LP

or gig included one of these tunes,

and usually three or four of them.

They have now been ousted from

their place in the repertoire by

newer, usually lesser, standards.

The only original is Hewitt's

"Frank's Blues", standing for all

those other bop twelve-bars, classic

or otherwise, that leavened every

session. Hewitt's playing brings

back all the enchantment of that

honeymoon period before I became

such a jaded old curmudgeon that I

turned to criticising albums in a

specialist magazine ... in 1966.

Hewitt cited Bud Powell, Thelonious

Monk and the somewhat neglected

Elmo Hope as his main influences,

but Tatum and Hines sometimes

make an appearance, too, Like

Monk, Hewitt can encapsulate the

essence of a piece with a string of

chords. He is a very lyrical player,

one of those musicians who insists

on giving as much weight to verses

as to choruses. He has a bright,

crisp right hand, but you'll find it

unusually rewarding to focus on

his Jeft-hand work, which goes

beyond supporting rhythm and

thickened harmonies. This is most

readily noticeable on "I Remember

You", where the counterpoint of

signpost chords and complementary

melodies is especially potent.

Finally, a nod to Roland, who is an

interesting soloist, almost always

using the bow for solos, sometimes

shifting rapidly from arco to

pizzicato within a single phrase,

and occasionally throwing in some

humming to boot.

OCR in my scanner not great so there may be typos

[lkaven]

It's issue 55 April 2004

reviews of

Across 7 Street

We Loved You

The Painter

all very positive, reviews not available on line as far as I'm aware...sorry

Dear Adrian,

Thank you for taking the time to scan the text of the review. I'm so glad to see reviews where the reviewer actually takes some care. I wish I could find a copy of this magazine and the other two reviews, but I don't know who has it in the US.

I expected the British reviewer to grasp the significance of Frank Hewitt. Only two journalists that I know ever interviewed Frank: Alyn Shipton and Elke Tschaikner from ORF. In America, while he did have audiences week after week at Smalls, he never even got reviewed. The obsession reviewers have today with the New Eclecticism in its simplistic forms (and not its more sophisticated forms, actual or potential) astounds me. Young, photogenic, and crossover is all the big labels want.

I get angry about the neglect of Frank during most of his career, and I've been trying to get the story out as a cautionary tale. For any who might be interested, I talk about this and related issues at length on May 6 on the BBC World Service where I was fortunate enough to be a guest on The Music Biz with Mark Coles. The story of the conflicts with Impulse Records in the production of the "Jazz Underground: Live at Smalls" disk is an interesting tale. Those who have this disk may note that Frank Hewitt appears on exactly two choruses in the middle of a sextet manufactured for the date. Whereas, two young crossover musicians being groomed for contracts dominate six tracks our of nine on the CD. This damned Frank's career with faint praise. The A&R guy (you will figure out who he is) didn't put in the time to listen to Frank, if he could have heard it in the first place. Agh. I'm very thankful to the BBC for believing in the story.

Luke

[Nate Dorward]

Luke--thanks for the story: I remember hearing that Live at Smalls disc when it came out, but Hewitt's appearance on it was so brief I don't even remember it!

[Nate Dorward]

Just got this in the mail today & listened to it several times. Yes, this is a remarkable disc, as Jim says. I'm reminded of the equally little-recognized pianist Chris Anderson--there's the same sheer follow-your-inner-ear audacity to Hewitt's playing, though Hewitt's more boppish, the debt to Bud Powell's crazychords coming through clearly (esp on "Polka Dots & Moonbeams"). Anyway, it's fascinating music. Aside from the minor flaw of the programming (which places a bunch of ballads in a row right at the start) which is easily fixed by putting your disc on shuffle play, this is a pretty outstanding release if like me you're an addict of this kind of "insider's" jazz piano. It's as deep as it gets.

I see there's now a review of this & other Smalls releases by Mwanji Ezana here--

http://www.onefinalnote.com/features/2004/smalls/

[JSngry]

Thanks for bringing this back up, Nate. I've been meaning to do so myself.

Yep, you hear it the same way I do.

[John L]

Thanks for the interesting discussion! I just ordered this one.

[DrJ]

Thanks for the tip Jim! This is the type of session I would never have even known about probably if not for this board.

I've been on an Elmo Hope kick since last summer, when I snagged the Celebrity and Beacon trios on vinyl. Most lately I've been marveling at his composition MINOR BERTHA as covered on James Spaulding's SONGS OF COURAGE (Muse) CD from 1991. Spaulding's group tears it up, and I am utterly hooked on the major/minor thing and hip bop rhythmic displacements in the composition.

Anyway, if there are some parallels with Hope, and also given the other nice things you say about Hewitt, I'm on it. Will order today.

Edited June 9, 2004 by DrJ

[paul secor]

I've listened to this recording several times before posting. Jim has written eloquently about Frank Hewitt's music, and I agree completely with his words.

I would like to add a few thoughts:

Frank Hewitt sounds like a man who was playing for himself. I'm sure he welcomed listeners, but it sounds to me that what he played was for himself. He was not playing to please an audience.

It's obvious that he was a master musician. He may not have been an innovator, but he was an individual. He sounds at one with his playing.

The introductions he plays to the tunes are fascinating.

Every time I listened to his recording I was surprised. I'd be listening to something he was playing with his right hand, and he'd play a different rhythm with his left. I would expect to hear a certain sort of pattern or rhythm in his playing, and he'd take me somewhere completely unexpected. That's what jazz is supposed to do, and it's not something you learn in academia.

I hope that at least some of the members of this board will listen to this CD. There's not a lot of newly recorded music like this these days, and unfortunately it seems to be growing scarcer every year.

[DrJ]

It's a very fine album, I echo what Paul and Jim have said about it. For some reason, more than Elmo Hope, I find myself thinking of Herbie Nichols when I listen to Hewitt. It really has very little to do with his actual approach (choice of notes, etc are not really anything like Nichols') but he's just that idiosyncratic and creative and refreshing to listen to. Brings the same stupid smile to my face.

The sound of surprise. What are we jazz fans to do when ALL of these fantastic, adventurous "old timers" eventually pass?

Edited August 25, 2004 by DrJ

[Nate Dorward]

Oh, don't worry, there's plenty of fascinating, idiosyncratic music being made out there by each generation, even if it rarely gets any more attention than Hewitt did during his lifetime. But in the meantime: enjoy the oldtime guys who are still around!

The Hewitt disc seems to me better & better each time I hear it.

[Clunky]

another brief and non eloquent for Frank, Received this disc only recently and it's a sublime piece of work. Frank sounds like his own man, can't wait for Vol 2. Did Frank compose much ?

[JSngry]

Happy (in a lot of ways) to see that people are responding favorably to this album.

I'm looking forward to hearing more too!

[Spontooneous]

Up, because I just heard this for the first time and I'm experiencing the same enthusiasm.

Gotta go play it again.

[Rooster_Ties]

Anybody heard this one yet??

I'm totally diggin' the on-line samples at CD-Baby.

Gonna have to pick up those two Hewitt discs sometime. They they only two that're out so far?? I understand from skimming this thread, and a couple other things I've found that there are a small few other recordings of his that will see the light of day, someday.

Oh, did he ever record as a sideman on anything??

Looks like there's one Hewitt cut (with horns) on this VA release...

Edited December 2, 2004 by Rooster_Ties

[relyles]

Not Afraid to Live is very good. Louis Hayes makes a big difference.

[Nate Dorward]

I like the new one with Hayes too, though it's a slightly oddball relationship--it's pretty obvious that Hayes didn't really know what to expect, & Hewitt apparently just picked the tunes on the spur of the moment & didn't work out arrangements in advance. So you can hear that Hayes isn't quite in sync with Hewitt--most notably, he either misjudges the tempo Hewitt wants for "Just One of Those Things" or else decides to rein it in (Hewitt launches into a really fast tempo after the intro, but Hayes comes in on brushes a gear or two lower, & Hewitt has to pull back). Nonetheless, it's a pleasure to hear another album's worth of Hewitt, & despite the rough edges it's got a lot of fine music on it. I think "I'll Remember April" is my favourite track.

[gslade]

I was going to order it when jim first posted this and just had it slip off my radar

thanks for the heads up Jim

I liked the samples at CD Baby

ordered it today