track 2. Homesick Blues:
(Don Wilkerson)

tenor sax - DON WILKERSON
piano - SONNY CLARK
guitar - GRANT GREEN
bass - BUTCH WARREN
drums - BILLY HIGGINS

in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
at the Van Gelder Studio
on June 18^th, 1962

_____Blue Note has consistently led the field in presenting new jazz talent to lovers of the idiom. Its continual search for fresh jazz faces and creative innovations has reaped swinging harvests. Blue Note 4107 introduces a new dynamic tenor sax virtuoso in Don Wilkerson (bio). Though a new personality, he is truly concept-wise in the ways of the everchanging jazz scene.

_____Born in 1932 in the sleepy town of Moreauville, Louisiana, Don Wilkerson received early musical education at home. His educational itinerary, musical and formal, included brief high school stays at Shreveport, Louisiana and Houston, Texas. It was at Houston's Jack Yates High that Don Wilkerson began playing alto sax in a beginners band. He made his professional debut for a $3.00 gross in Dayton, Texas. In 1948, however, he earned a chair with Amos Milburn, then an up-and-coming pianist and band leader. Later, on the coast, he alternated between the bands of Amos Milburn and Charles Brown (of Three Blazers fame) and recorded with both. it was during this 1948-'49 period in Los Angeles that Don Wilkerson received his first jazz exposure by jamming with fast company such as Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray and Sonny Clark. Don Wilkerson left the West to return home to Houston.

_____Ray Charles had organized a band in the summer of 1954. By October of that year Don Wilkerson joined the band that was destined for greatness. Ray Charles's classics such as "I Got A Woman", "Come Back Baby", "This Little Girl Of Mine" and "Hallelujah, I Love Her So" feature Don Wilkerson tenor solos that are recognizable by all Charlesian devotées. Don Wilkerson's horn influences lie in the realms of both tenor and alto. He lists such tenormen as Illinois Jacquet, Arnett Cobb, Gene Ammons, Paul Gonsalves and Sonny Rollins; Parker and Hodges for alto inspiration. Special mention, however, is reserved for Sonny Stitt and Ike Quebec. Sonny Stitt is recognized by all as a great encourager. Don Wilkerson can attest to this. And it was Ike Quebec who brought this talent to the attention of Blue Note.

_____The listener will undoubtedly acquiesce to the fact that "Preach, Brother!", (Blue Note 4107), features six virile portraits of 'soul'. Although all of the featured tunes are Don Wilkerson originals, the general feeling of Ray Charles acts as an influential catalyst. Jazz-wise, the listener will react favorably to the expressive talents of Don Wilkerson on tenor; Grant Green (bio) on guitar, Sonny Clark (bio) on piano, Butch Warren on bass and Billy Higgins on drums. This session is distinctly a 'shouter' affair with down-home overtones. This should not prevent urbane cries of "OOWHEE!" from more sophisticated jazz aficionados, whether in a mass wild chant or individually.

"Jeanie-Weenie":
This brisk shuffler opens the session with Don Wilkerson's tenor vividly jumping for joy in the first chorus. This opus features good jazz guitar with bluesy connotations flourishingly displayed by Grant Green. Fluid Don Wilkerson tenor sounds permeate throughout.

"Homesick Blues":
Homesick Blues reminds this writer vividly of "Big Leg Woman", an anatomical survey in the form of an old blues classic. Don Wilkerson manages adequately to affect an alto sound in "Homesick Blues". This lush blues also features expressively, in solo, excellent piano and guitar by Sonny Clark and Grant Green, respectively. The insistence of Billy Higgins's drums pulsates throughout.

"Dem Tambourines":
A shouter enmeshed in what could be termed as Afro-Creole. Billy Higgins's drums parallel the tambourines, making this basically a rhythmical jazz 'troika'. The Don Wilkerson tenor concocts an uninhibited flow of ideas throughout ... Amensville!

"Camp Meetin' ":
A veritable 'wailer' that compounds solos between Don Wilkerson and Grant Green. Grant Green employs no boppish clichés as he displays Charlie Christian-like ideas. With all jazz systems in 'go', the listener will agree that these are no lazy lads.

"The Eldorado Shuffle":
Don Wilkerson opens this stanza creatively with a tastily contrived tenor solo. Grant Green's guitar seconds this funky motion. Sonny Clark comes in for a short, uncomplicated stay but makes his presence felt.

"Pigeon Peas":
This palatable jazz delicacy shows Don Wilkerson's preoccupation with the Arnett Cobb influence. This choice stomp waxes more in the modern idiom, especially in Sonny Clark's piano. Butch Warren's bass along with Billy Higgins's drums gives this opus great depth. Don Wilkerson's tenor leads this stanza home to its delightful conclusion.

_____We feel the listener in his pursuit in the field of 'digsmanship' will embrace the creative influence of Don Wilkerson. (...original liner notes from Dudley Williams...)

Don Wilkerson: a bio
______Don Wilkerson was born in 1932 in Moreauville, Louisiana and died on July 18, 1986 in Houston. The archetypal big-toned Texas tenor of Don Wilkerson was unfortunately not documented on record as much as the quality of his music deserved; he was an excellent, earthy soul-jazz saxophonist capable of playing blues, ballads, bop, swing, and gospel-tinged R&B. Don Wilkerson was born in Moreauville, Louisiana, in 1932, and first learned the alto sax; by his teens, he had moved to Houston and was accomplished enough on tenor to play with R&B outfits headed by Amos Milburn and Charles Brown.

______Don Wilkerson played on some of Ray Charles' earliest recording sessions in the mid-50s, taking memorable solos on classics like "I Got a Woman", "This Little Girl of Mine", and "Hallelujah I Love Her So". He also led a band in Miami for a short time, and participated in numerous jam sessions with Cannonball Adderley. Adderley produced Don Wilkerson's first recording session, a 1960 date for Riverside® titled "The Texas Twister". After another short stint with Ray Charles, he signed with Blue Note® and recorded three stellar, soulful albums over 1962-1963: "Elder Don", "Preach, Brother!", and "Shoutin' ", all of which featured Grant Green (bio) on guitar. Unfortunately, none was very successful, and Don Wilkerson didn't record any further as a leader. He remained in Houston for most of his life and passed away on July 18, 1986. (...from Steve Huey...)

Grant Green: a bio
_______Grant Green was born in St. Louis on June 6, 1931 and died in New York on January 31, 1979. He learned his instrument in grade school from his guitar-playing father and was playing professionally by the age of thirteen with a gospel group. He worked gigs in his home town and in East St. Louis, Illinois until he moved to New York in 1960 at the suggestion of Lou Donaldson. Grant Green told Dan Morgenstern in a Down Beat® interview: "...The first thing I learned to play was boogie-woogie. Then I had to do a lot of rock & roll. It's all blues, anyhow..."

_____His extensive foundation in R&B combined with a mastery of bebop and simplicity that put expressiveness ahead of technical expertise. Grant Green was a superb blues interpreter, and his later material was predominantly blues and R&B, though he was also a wondrous ballad and standards soloist. He was a particular admirer of Charlie Parker, and his phrasing often reflected it. Grant Green played in the 1950s with Jimmy Forrest, Harry Edison, and Lou Donaldson.

_____He also collaborated with many organists, among them Brother Jack McDuff, Sam Lazar, Baby Face Willette, Gloria Coleman, Big John Patton, and Larry Young. During the early 1960s, both his fluid, tasteful playing in organ/guitar/drum combos and his other dates for Blue Note established Grant Green as a star, though he seldom got the critical respect given other players. He was off the scene for a bit in the mid-60s, but came back strong in the late 1960s and 1970s. Grant Green played with Stanley Turrentine, Dave Bailey, Yusef Lateef, Joe Henderson, Hank Mobley, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, and Elvin Jones.

_____Sadly, drug problems interrupted his career in the 1960s, and undoubtedly contributed to the illness he suffered in the late 1970s. Grant Green was hospitalized in 1978 and died a year later. Despite some rather uneven LPs near the end of his career, the great body of his work represents marvelous soul-jazz, bebop, and blues.

_____A severely underrated player during his lifetime, Grant Green is one of the great unsung heroes of jazz guitar. Like Stanley Turrentine, he tends to be left out of the books. Although he mentions Charlie Christian and Jimmy Raney as influences, Grant Green always claimed he listened to horn players (Charlie Parker and Miles Davis) and not other guitar players, and it shows. No other player has this kind of single-note linearity (he avoids chordal playing). There is very little of the intellectual element in Grant Green's playing, and his technique is always at the service of his music. And it is music, plain and simple, that makes Grant Green unique.

_____Grant Green's playing is immediately recognizable - perhaps more than any other guitarist. Grant Green has been almost systematically ignored by jazz buffs with a bent to the cool side, and he has only recently begun to be appreciated for his incredible musicality. Perhaps no guitarist has ever handled standards and ballads with the brilliance of Grant Green. (...from Michael Erlewine and Ron Wynn...)

Sonny Clark: a bio
_______Sonny Clark was born on July 21, 1931 in Herminie, Pennsylvania and died in New York on January 13, 1963. Like Fats Navarro and Charlie Parker before him, Sonny Clark's life was short but it burned with musical intensity. Influenced deeply by Bud Powell, Sonny Clark nonetheless developed an intricate and hard-swinging harmonic sensibility that was full of nuance and detail. Regarded as the quintessential hard bop pianist, Sonny Clark never got his due before he passed away in 1963 at the age of 31, despite the fact that it can be argued that he never played a bad recording date either as a sideman or as a leader.

_____Known mainly for seven records on the Blue Note label with a host of players including such luminaries as John Coltrane, Art Farmer, Donald Byrd, Jackie McLean, Hank Mobley, Art Taylor, Paul Chambers, Wilbur Ware, Philly Joe Jones, and others, Sonny Clark actually made his recording debut with Teddy Charles and Wardell Gray, but left soon after to join Buddy DeFranco. His work with the great clarinetist has been documented in full in a Mosaic set that is now sadly out of print. Clark also backed Dinah Washington, Serge Chaloff, and Sonny Criss before assuming his role as a leader in 1957.

_____Sonny Clark classic is regarded as "Cool Struttin' " but each date he led on Blue Note qualifies as a classic, including his final date, "Sonny's Crib" with John Coltrane. And though commercial success always eluded him, he was in demand as a sideman and played dozens of Alfred Lion produced dates, including Tina Brooks' "Minor Move". Luckily, Sonny Clark's contribution is well documented by Alfred Lion; he has achieved far more critical, musical, and popular acclaim than he ever did in life. (...from Thom Jurek...)

---