The Remarkable Carmell Jones

Blue Note’s Tone Poet series is releasing so many high-quality reissues that it’s possible for record buyers to overlook some real gems. Take The Remarkable Carmell Jones for example. The record by the great trumpeter first came out on the Pacific Jazz label in 1961, and it’s seldom been reissued. If you haven’t heard the recent Tone Poet reissue, you’re in for a treat, if not a revelation.

Carmell Jones (1936–1996) isn’t as well-known as some of the other artists on the Tone Poets series, but he was a singular voice on the trumpet who ranked with the best players and could play ballads brilliantly. Recorded in June 1961, this performance finds Carmell and his associates at their very best, playing a cool-toned, blues-based jazz. The music is easy to listen to, yet it has a meaty depth created by the outstanding musicianship.

Carmell was completely unknown when he came to California from his native Kansas City in 1960. That move was partly due to the urging of his Kansas City friend, John William Hardy, a jazz critic and writer who subsequently wrote the original liner notes for this performance. Carmell, who is most famous for his work on Horace Silver’s Song for My Father, a 1965 masterpiece on the Blue Note label, can be counted as one of the finest trumpeters in the early 60s West Coast scene. Like the brilliant Clifford Brown, Carmell had a rock-solid sound propelled by a fluid, flawless technique that combines a beguiling sweetness with an adroit use of space. So why haven’t more listeners heard of Jones?  Mostly because he avoided the limelight throughout his career, preferring to live overseas much of his life, away from the hustle and bustle of a big city.

On The Remarkable Carmell Jones, listen to “I’m Gonna Go Fishing” and “Come Rain or Come Shine” for perfect examples of that extraordinary Carmell Jones tone and feeling. The other participants in this venture elevate this performance to even higher levels. For example, here we have a young, yet-to-be famous Gary Peacock on bass, whose foundational “walking” lays down a forceful and buoyant pulse, grounding the proceedings while propelling it forward. If you listen carefully, you’ll hear Gary’s uniquely prominent tone and astounding chops. Some readers may recognize Gary as Keith Jarrett’s bassist for over three decades. The other participants are Harold Land on tenor, Frank Strazzeri on piano, and Leon Pettis on drums. Land is in top form—just listen to his outstanding solo on “I’m Gonna Go Fishing.”

What makes these performances really stand out is this flawless Tone Poet release. Against a black noise floor, the sound is gorgeous and natural. The front cover is a beautiful reproduction of the original, and the back includes the original liner notes by John William Hardy. Also included on a separate sheet are very informative, retrospective liner notes by Thomas Conrad, who has summarized what you need to know about Carmell Jones, his fellow musicians, and the music. In short, a stunning release that has been a personal favorite since I first heard it in 1964, a few years after the original version of this vinyl came out. Interested in knowing more about this project and the Tone Poet series in general, I reached out to Joe Harley, the producer for the Tone Poet series. You may know Joe Harley due to his role at AudioQuest and AudioQuest Music; the sessions he produced for such labels as Telarc, GrooveNote, Enja, and others; and his involvement in Music Matters’ Jazz Blue Note program, Blue Note’s Classic Vinyl Series, and, of course, the Tone Poet series.

And one other thing: Joe’s also a huge Carmell Jones fan.

When did you first hear Carmell Jones?

I’m guessing I first came across that album around 1968 or so. I know it was after I heard Horace Silver’s Song for My Father album. I loved the trumpet playing on that album, so I was curious what else Carmell had done. “I’m Gonna Go Fishing,” which is the first track on The Remarkable Carmell Jones, had me hooked then, and it has me hooked now. What a great leadoff track to that album, which was on my list to be a Tone Poet reissue right from the beginning of the program.

Yes, that leadoff track is superb.  Carmell plays as if spreading butter on warm toast.  And yet if you zero in on his choice of notes, he is improvising gorgeously without clichés. And Gary Peacock’s bass walking is so powerful yet musical. This is when Gary was quite young and playing with the finest musicians in Los Angeles.

In addition to the remarkable interplay between Carmell Jones and Harold Land, you can really hear Gary Peacock blossoming on this album. He had made some prior sessions with Bud Shank, but he really starts to sound like the bass player we all know and love here. Peacock and Scott LaFaro had been close friends in LA. I’m not certain who influenced who, but that wonderful harmonic counterpoint is on full display here. It’s something that both musicians carried on with the rest of their playing careers.

I found it interesting that this performance, although done on the West Coast in the early 60s, sounds almost as if it were done right in New York for Blue Note. It is that same blues/gospel-based jazz (hard bop). It flies in the face of the West Coast jazz cliché.  

I hear what you are saying. Carmell was coming from more of a hard bop orientation, and of course, he then moved east and eventually ended up with Horace Silver.  Gary Peacock moved east as well. But it also points to another truth, that the cliché of all west coast jazz being of the “cool school” was far from the reality. Curtis Amy/Dupree Bolton’s Katanga is another prime piece of evidence.

What are the key factors in choosing a performance to reissue like The Remarkable Carmell Jones and what might cause you to reject or decline to reissue a performance?

It’s pretty simple, really—I spend a lot of time listening to my large collection of vintage Blue Note, Pacific Jazz, and other labels within the Blue Note family that I have access to. I’m listening for pleasure, of course, but there’s also a research component. I make notes after each listen and add to my master list of potential titles. As titles get approved and mastered, I remove them from the list.

My own taste in jazz runs very wide, so I can easily get into almost all phases of Blue Note, from the soul groovers to the most outside avant, and everything in between. I’m listening basically for titles that draw me in, that speak to me. And I do pay some attention to sound quality although there have been countless times when I’ve been a little iffy on the sound quality of my original pressing, only to find that the actual master tape sounds incredible. Happens all the time.

Remember, the vast majority of these were recorded in the era before multitrack. What you are hearing is the engineer (often RVG) mixing live, as the music is being played. There’s no “fixing it in the mix” afterward or punch-in fixes. As a result, there are occasional sonic anomalies like mic overload or tape saturation. It’s what happened that day. In a way, the engineer becomes like another musician.

Our goal is to present what was recorded that day in the highest fidelity possible. Kevin Gray is an invaluable part of that process of course. We’ve worked together for so long on these Blue Note tapes that we can practically finish each other’s sentences in the studio. He’s my brother from another mother!

Could you give an example of your interaction with Kevin Gray on one of your releases?

The moves are often fairly subtle. It really depends on what era of Blue Note or Pacific Jazz you’re dealing with. Rudy Van Gelder’s recordings in Hackensack have their own specific issues. Then, when he moves to Englewood Cliffs with a vastly larger, live room, other issues emerge. In addition, Rudy starts to move away a bit from the microphones he used in Hackensack.

There’s a period of time in Englewood Cliffs where some piece of gear Rudy was using is causing some extreme high frequency issues, issues that drive cutter heads crazy. We have to filter that out to get a clean cut. Then one day he must have figured it out since it simply disappears, never to be seen (on a scope) again.

As for EQ, once in a while we look at each other and kind of chuckle and realize there’s nothing to be done, the master tape sounds that great! But often it will be a little touch here or a small move there that can sometimes make a surprising difference. Kevin and I hear the same way almost one hundred percent of the time. He’ll make a move and we check it out for a bit with and without. I might make a suggestion and he does the same. We always end up agreeing on the final result.

We never, and I do mean never, use any kind of compression or limiting. As a result, you may have to turn our versions up a bit when comparing to original RVG cuts, because we let the natural dynamics captured on the master breathe.