Time for our fourth link in The Jazz Chain. This time we’ve got an intriguing bassist for our consideration. Wilbur Ware, had a 30+ year career and in that time he recorded with some of the best and most interesting performers of the time including Sun Ra, Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey, Lee Morgan and the great Thelonious Monk.¹One of the albums Ware played on for Monk, Monk’s Music, is an absolute masterpiece, it’s not the feature album this week, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t recommend you make sure to give it a listen. An absolute all star lineup including Art Blakey, John Coltrane, Coleman Hawkins and others. Not to be missed! This album though, was the only album he led himself.²Though I’ve seen Johnny Griffin given equal billing in some releases most sources seem to agree this was Ware’s album.

The Chicago Sound – Wilbur Ware – 1957

A few things set this album apart from the others we’ve listened to thus far. One of the most noticeable is that as a band leader Ware was clearly very generous. You will barely notice him on the first track of the album, “Mamma-Daddy” where he gives room to pretty much everyone else³Including some great drums by one of the album’s two drummers, Wilbur Campbell. to shine in a fun, fast, upbeat number. And two of the tracks, “Latin Quarters” and “Be-Ware” are credited to the album’s alto sax player John Jenkins. When Wilbur does feature, he tends to be pretty laid back.

Another interesting difference is that several of the tracks are not original to this album. In fact, Ware is only credited with two of these compositions, the aforementioned “Mamma-Daddy”⁴Which really is excellent. and “31st and State”⁵Which I don’t like nearly as much, and would call the weakest track on offer here, but which does feature a lot more of Ware’s own playing. The tracks “Body and Soul”, “Desert Sands”, “Lullaby of the Leaves”⁶Written by Bernice Petkere, who was apparently called the Queen of The Tin Pan Alley, wrote all kinds of music and passed away at 98 years old in 2000. I would like to learn more about her! and “The Man I Love”⁷A George Gershwin number! are all “jazz standards” and our first example of such showing up in The Jazz Chain.

The final standout difference for me in this album is that it is pretty much entirely upbeat and lively. There are some slower moments, such as “Lullaby of the Leaves”, but even there things are kept light and fun. There is nothing I would compare to “Buhaina Chant”, “Moon Black”, or “Martin Luther King, Jr.”⁸Tracks from each of the first three albums to form links in The Jazz Chain. here.

Altogether this a very enjoyable listen that, much like Cecil Payne’s Zodiac,⁹The last album we looked at for The Jazz Chain. is straight up Bop-style Jazz. It’s great for a variety of listening situations and it has excellent musicians doing their thing. Johnny Griffin is all over this album with his tenor sax, and it’s easy to see why he gets top billing with Ware. Ware himself gets credit for putting together a nice album and he particularly stands out in all the standards, but especially “Lullaby of the Leaves” and “The Man I Love”. I haven’t found room to mention him yet, but Junior Mance covers the piano on this album and is really, really good. Mance is still alive and making music today, has a large list of albums to his name as leader, and has played as a sideman with everyone from Art Blakey, to Dizzy Gillespie, to Cannonball Adderley, to Aretha Franklin.¹⁰He’s also worked with Johnny Griffin a lot. I can’t see how we won’t encounter him again further along The Jazz Chain.

That pretty much covers it for this link in the chain. Next time we’re going move on to a Johnny Griffin album. I was very tempted to choose Junior Mance for the next link in the chain but I really am confident we’ll come across an opportunity to highlight him again.

If you’d like to see a list of all the posts for The Jazz Chain you can find them at this page.

If you’d like to listen to check out a playlist of all the albums featured on The Jazz Chain¹¹Excepting those not available at Spotify. you can check them out at this playlist here.