Budd Johnson - Off The Wall + An Appreciation of Esmond Edwards

Budd Johnson with Joe Newman - Off The Wall - Argo LP 748 - Original Argo Pressing, Stereo, Blue Label

Budd Johnson - Tenor Sax
Joe Newman - Trumpet
Richard Davis - Bass on A1, A2, B3, B4
George Duvivier - Bass on A3, B1, B2
Grady Tate - Drums

Recorded - December 3, 1964, RCA Recording Studio, New York City

Produced by Esmond Edwards
Engineer - Ray Hall
Cover Design - Don Bronstein
Cover Photo - Esmond Edwards

Released - June 5, 1965

Here's a return to this blog's more familiar environs with the posting of another seminal Argo side: Budd Johnson's Off The Wall! Johnson was a really interesting player, a veteran big band tenor man which I think Argo got the most from with three quite varied sides on the label. "Off The Wall' is a quite killer track, almost crossing over to R&B/Blues territory, but there's still a noticeable and welcome soul jazz groove to hold it up. A quite enjoyable side overall, which always gives me a wide grin when I put it on the turntable.

However, I want to use the remaining space here to do some more long form commentary. This time I want to spotlight a crucial figure in the Chess Jazz - Argo/Cadet story; Esmond Edwards. Edwards is a peripheral figure in jazz history, quite unfairly so, as he was a trailblazing and pioneering African-American record company executive/record producer/a&r man for Prestige (1957-62), Chess, (1962-67, 1970-74), Verve/MGM, (1967-1970) and Impulse (1975-77), noted photographer, and even songwriter whose career essentially spanned the rise and fall of modern jazz from the late 1950s to the late 1970s. Edwards passed away in January 2007, but all the major tributes and official obit all noted his lasting influence in the record industry and in the jazz world. But what left out of his obit and even his standard all music guide biography was any mention of the perhaps most productive and artistically rewarding time of his long career - that of his first stint as A&R man/in house producer of Chess Records' jazz subsidiary of Argo, later Cadet records from 1962- 1967.

Edwards first began his jazz career at Prestige in the late 1950s, , after working himself up from freelance session photographer to A&R man, displacing the legendary Bob Weinstock. One of Edwards' first productions was John Coltrane's 1957's debut as a leader, John Coltrane (PR 7105), Despite these somewhat auspicious beginnings in terms of jazz history, Edwards' production talent though was scarcely on display though at first as Prestige's bare bones lack of production fostered a rather basic, low fi production style. Nevertheless, even on selected Prestige sides such as Shirley Scott+The Latin Jazz Quintet's Mucho Mucho, cut in July 1960, there's evidence of Edwards' nice production, nice arrangements contributing to an appealing soul jazz groove despite the limitations of the Prestige environment. Another favorite Edwards' production of mine from this Prestige era is The Latin Jazz Quintet's 'Latin Soul', cut in 1960/61, and later released on New Jazz in 1965. Both these sides preview the sound that Edwards would later fully develop at Chess/Argo. And connecting back to my last post - Edwards produced all five of John Wright's excellent Prestige sides including writing the title track of 'South Side Soul', expanding the soul jazz vocabulary to blues and gospel. And last by not least, Edwards was singularly responsible for the production of much of Eric Dolphy's output at Prestige - collected in Dolphy's Complete Prestige recordings now out of print box set : "Out There", "Far Cry" and both wonderful "Five Spot" live sets are all seminal Dolphy sides, but they also proved that Edwards could work in an avant garde/straight ahead vein if he had to as well.

Edwards later moved on to Chess/Argo in September 1962. Edwards only spoke specifically about his time at the label to Nadine Codohas for her wonderful biography of Chess Records, "Spinning Blues Into Gold" published in 2001. Most of his comments were along the lines of both Chess brothers being absolutely tough and ruthless businessmen, and of the difficulties of being compensated fairly. But he also relates that he was given absolute autonomy to run the subsidiary Argo as he pleased with little input from the Chess Brothers. As I really started my Argo crate diggin' and exploring its catalog sequentially last year, Edwards' constant credited appearances on various sides' sleeves clued me into the fact that there was a very subtle and quite unique type of jazz sound and production style evolving and being weaved on Argo from 1962-67. Yes, a type of soul jazz groove, but also quite distinctively Chicago hard bop-esque with also a nice quite Latin jazz influence . Not one Argo side from this classic era sounds alike, and I think it's testament to the talent and foresight of Edwards who forged a distinctive and special approach to jazz production - ranking with the best of the legendary jazz production men and executives like Alfred Lion, Francis Wolf, Lester Koenig, Richard Bock, Creed Taylor, and Bob Thiele.

You can roughly trace Edwards' first tenure at Chess by looking at the catalog sequentially: from (Argo) LP 704, Thornell Schwartz - Soul Cookin ; recorded 9/62 to (Cadet) LP 797, John Klemmer - Involvement; recorded 6/67. Some of my most favorite Argo sides - all three Gene Shaw sides, Bill Leslie and Thornell Schwartz 's 1962 collaborations, Ramsey Lewis' , Barefoot Sunday Blues and "Bach to the Blues'" , this Budd Johnson side, Illinois Jacquet's Spectrum, Ahmad Jamal's Roar of the Greasepaint' , lost Chicago soul jazz group The Interpreters' The Knack, Bennie Green and Sonny Stitt's My Main Man are all Edwards productions and are all quite representative of the many other fantastic Argo sides from this era. Notably Jamal and Edwards didn't get along as Edwards' quite clear commercial instincts which were often quite sound (ie. Lewis' The In Crowd live side) , but which sometimes got the better of him (i.e Soulful Strings) led to a major falling out with Argo's arguably major artist and biggest seller. Nevertheless Edwards delegated well and encouraged bassist-arranger Richard Evans to work with Jamal and to pursue other projects.

Evans replaced Edwards when he moved to brighter pastures in July 1967, following Creed Taylor at Verve/MGM. Evans then took Argo/Cadet in an explicitly soul and funk direction, leaving jazz behind. Edwards' later return to Chess in the post Chess brothers/GRT era from 1970-74, and a stint during the dying days of Impulse from 1975-77 all fizzled out and were not that all notable as Edwards struggled against the commercial tide and popular culture to make Jazz relevant again. I hope I've made the case that Edwards' place in jazz history is special, unique and deserves some recognition. I think Edwards' current lack of recognition is that for most of his career he was mostly a behind the scenes, industry type who didn't court much public visibility. But in retrospect, he didn't have to as the quality of his work on Argo from 1962-67 pretty much speaks for itself.

So, once again, a classic Esmond Edwards production of Budd Johnson's Off The Wall, nice fidelity off the original stereo vinyl -

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