Carmell Jones Quartet - Previously Unreleased Los Angeles Session (2015)

Carmell Jones (tp), Forrest Westbrook (p), Gary Peacock (b), Bill Schwemmer (d). Recorded at Forrest Westbrook studio, in Santa Monica, California, August 1960.

In August 1960, 24-year old trumpet player Carmell Jones left his Kansas City home-town and hopped a bus to Los Angeles, intent on hitting the West Coast jazz scene. There, his impact was immediate and would prove to be memorable. He was quickly part of a quartet with pianist Forrest Westbrook, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Bill Schwemmer.

They rehearsed at Westbrook’s apartment at 2021 Sta. Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, where this unreleased material was recorded at the end of that month. It was an amazing session, in which Carmell, oozing confidence and assertiveness, demonstrated a fresh, virile and imaginative style, with a warm ballad tone and an authoritatively implacable swing at up tempo. The highly responsive rhythm section locked right on him all the way, and also revealed Forrest Westbrook as a highly talented and sensitive pianist, with an advanced concept of improvisation, and a built-in propensity for swinging hard. Along with the pungently powerful Peacock and the driving Schwemmer, they provided an ideally vigorous support for Carmell Jones, who, unbelievably soon, would come to be regarded as among the finest trumpeters on the West Coast. These never before released recordings, his first on the Coast, show why.