The pulse of jazz has come a long way from the combination of the basic rhythmic elements of the march, the polka, and our early jazzmen’s enthusiastic, if somewhat uncertain sense of rhythm. The wing of the jazz orchestra that propels and gives it rhythmic substance has grown hand in hand with the development of rhythmic conception, and its first rather pallid attempts compare as a Stanley Steamer would to any of today’s flexible, smooth-running sports-cars to take our analysis down a little further, each instrument in the rhythm section has undergone its own evolution... It is the sum of all these elements of growth that have made the rhythm section what it is today...
In the course of the discussion, it is our intention to touch upon turning points for rhythm and the men who make it... In this way, an understanding can be nurtured for the four men who create much of the charm of jazz... the rhythm section.
Throughout the early periods of jazz, the rhythm section functioned much as a gawky, sometimes grotesque adolescent who was seeking an appropriate channel for its energies. Nervous, enthusiastic and offtimes unstable, it continually probed toward setting the rib-like foundation that would come with time and maturity... Though the off-beat was favored by the drummer (whose work was confined primarily to the snare drum), the bass or tuba, the banjo and piano assumed no absolute identity... However, Jazz's beat (certainly a drummer's beat at this point), as raw and undeveloped as it was, established the meeting ground with a relatively unoriented public... The public took it to its bosom, and related the tensions it set up to a sensuality that was thought to be the complete frame of jazz... The rhythm of jazz assumed the guise, in the layman’s mind, of America's contribution to "Exotica" — the most pointed link with this folk manifestation that functioned in poorly lit cellars, and was at best, a fad???
With the emergence of Louis Armstrong in the late twenties and early thirties, the conception of rhythm and its sections took on an understanding for the continuity of the rhythmic phrase, and the idea of having rhythmic elements falling in the right places The beat started to even up and lose what French critic Andre Hodeir so aptly terms as the “waddling character” of New Orleans rhythm. The size of the rhythm section became more stable... The section grew from an indefinite 2.4 to a consistent four, much as the rhythms it purveyed did. (To clarifiy any possible misconceptions, the piano and bass had been frequently left out during the more primitive periods)... Rhythm sections started to intimate a swing, and began to feel the beginning of an integrated, if stiff, pulse mst important, however, the section started to play as a unit...
Burt Korall (from the original liner notes, booklet)
Hank Jones
The Rhythm Section
After Hours Jazz
Tracks
Cd. 1
1 Hallelujah ! (Robin, Gray, Youmans) 2:17
2 Mona's Feeling Lonely (Hinton) 3:44
3 Out Of Braith (Galbraith) 2:53
4 The Legal Nod (Johnson) 3:22
5 Polka Dots and Moonbeams (Burke, Van Heusen) 3:39
6 Minor's Club (Hinton) 3:57
7 They Look Alike (Albam) 3:23
8 Do Nothin' Till You Hear from Me (Russell, Ellington) 3:12
9 Kookin' in the Kitchen (Johnson) 3:20
10 Walk Chicken Walk with Your Head Picked Bald to the Bone (Hinton) 3:38
11 Ruby, My Dear (Monk) 2:52
12 Kookin' on the Settee (Johnson) 3:41
*
Cd. 2
1 Blues for Sal (Jones) 3:42
2 I'm Gettin' Sentimental over You (Washington, Bassman) 3:17
3 Milt's on Stilts (Hinton) 3:13
4 Southern Exposure (Burrell) 4:45
5 Bright's Bounce (Bright) 2:35
6 He Was too Good to Me (Hart, Rodgers) 3:44
7 Hum-Bug (Shihab) 3:37
8 Jimmy's Tune (Cleveland) 3:17
9 Ain't We Got Fun (Kahn, Egan, Whiting) 2:40
10 Tangerine (Mercer, Schertzinger) 3:25
11 Mamboisies (Johnson) 3:23
12 Bryant's Folly (Bryant) 4:50
*
Personnel
[Cd. 1, # 1-12]
Hank Jones - p
Barry Galbraith - g
Milt Hinton - b
Osie Johnson - dr
Recorded in New York ; April 16 [# 1, 5, 8], 1956 ; April 25 [# 2, 3 & 10], 1956 ; May 3 [# 3, 7 & 11] & 8 [# 4, 9 & 12], 1956
[Cd. 2, # 1-3, 6 & 8-11]
Same as above, except
Conte Candoli - tp, is added [# 2]
Jimmy Cleveland - tb, is added [# 8]
Gene Quill - as, is added [# 10]
Recorded in New York City ; April 16 [# 1 & 9] & 25 [# 3], 1956 ; May 3 [# 6] & 8 [# 11], 1956 ; June 11 [# 2] & 25 [# 8] & 26 [# 10], 1956
[Cd. 2, # 4 & 7]
Sahib Shihab - as
Eddie Bert - tb
Kenny Burrell - g
Tommy Flanagan - p
Carl Pruitt - b
Elvin Jones - dr
Recorded in New York City ; May 17, 1956
[Cd. 2, # 5]
Ronnie Bright - p
Wilbur Wynne - g
Willard Nelson - b
Recorded in Chicago ; June 12, 1956
[Cd. 2, # 12]
Ray Bryant - p
Wendell Marshall - b
Jo Jones - dr
Recorded in New York City ; 1955