Summit Ridge Drive

Artie Shaw's Gramercy Five was named after a telephone exchange that serviced a rather affluent district near Manhattan's private-access Gramercy Park. Living Era's double-disc compendium Summit Ridge Drive traces the evolution of what was arguably Shaw's most artistically advanced musical organization from its inception in 1940 through the magnificent 1945 sessions to the very modern-sounding recordings of the "new" Gramercy Five in 1953 and 1954. Although Shaw's big band discography is richly stocked with suave standards and solid swing, it is a decidedly mixed bag; one must navigate between dynamic dance tunes, vocal ballads and sugary mood pieces garnished with strings. The consistently instrumental Gramercy Five sessions, on the other hand, form a seamless arc of 36 magnificent tracks charting a stylistic maturation from a sort of chamber swing to some very cool bop-inflected exercises in modernity. The eight initial sides, recorded in Hollywood on September 3 and December 5, 1940, are most notable for Johnny Guarnieri's handling of the harpsichord, and for the warm trumpeting of Billy Butterfield, who sounds a bit like Fats Waller's right hand man Herman Autrey on the Gramercy Five's marvelous rendition of Vincent Youmans' "Keepin' Myself for You." The stars of the half-dozen middle-period Gramercy Five sessions, which took place in January, July and August of 1945, were trumpeter Roy Eldridge, pianist Dodo Marmarosa and guitarist Barney Kessel. Here the influence of bebop becomes tangible, and the impact of new ideas upon the musical chemistry is fascinating. Note that on the first of this group's three sessions Roy Eldridge brought with him composer and arranger Buster Harding, a vibrant individual who helped to create the highly successful pairing of the zippy "Grabtown Grapple" and "The Sad Sack," a grooved-out blues named after Sgt. George Baker's WWII comic book character. Special attention should be paid to the mercurial mind of Dodo Marmarosa, for these are some of the best recordings he ever made with anyone under any circumstances. The Gramercy Five recordings of 1953 and 1954 document a brilliant phase in early modern jazz, manifested in the presence of pianist Hank Jones, guitarist Tal Farlow, bassist Tommy Potter and vibraphonist Joe Roland. The newly developed LP format allowed Shaw's quintet to record expanded performances of six, seven and eight minutes' duration. This compilation closes with five excellent Gramercy Five remakes of Shaw's most successful big band hits. Throughout all of these of collectively inspired masterpieces, Artie Shaw's clarinet wove its magic, moving in graceful patterns that were comparable with those conjured by Buddy DeFranco, Marshall Royal and Jimmy Hamilton. Even taking into account everything else recorded under Artie Shaw's name, the Gramercy Fives may be said to represent the very heart of his musical legacy.