Philly Joe Jones - Philly Joe's Beat + A 1961 Unreleased Performance at Birdland (2023)

This CD contains the only two recordings of this Philly Joe Jones quintet, his working unit for just over thirteen months starting in January 1960. The first one is the album ‘Philly Joe’s Beat,’ recorded for Atlantic Records on May 20, 1960—a landmark ‘hard bop’ session centered around Philly Joe Jones’ bracing and sometimes intricate drum solos. The second is an unreleased recording of a performance broadcast live from Birdland on March 18, 1961, where, for the first time on record, we can hear Philly Joe Jones’ bopish composition titled ‘Bebe.’

The album’s rhythm section features Paul Chambers, Philly Joe’s favorite bassist, providing his driving and solid swinging foundation. Philly Joe and Chambers groove perfectly together with pianist Walter Davis Jr., who delivers solos in a fierce, percussive bop style reminiscent of Bud Powell.

On the horns, Bill Barron and Mike Downs shine—Barron with a ‘hard-nosed’ lyricism and irrepressible intensity on the tenor sax, and Downs, a brilliant young trumpet player from the Bay Area, practically growing up in the Virgil Gonsalves Sextet from 1956 to 1959. Philly Joe Jones heard Downs in a session after-hours in San Francisco, was impressed, hired him, and brought him to New York in December 1959. Downs' solos are vigorous and expressive, reflecting a pre-Davis style reminiscent of Clifford Brown. Unfortunately, these were his last recordings and, at the same time, the opportunity to remember and rediscover this little-known but talented trumpeter and cornetist from Oakland, who died forgotten in New York in 1968.

The Birdland performance is a first-rate document for hearing what this power house Philly Joe Jones quintet sounded like live.

—Jordi Pujol