The 1957 Playboy All-Stars

All the cats joined in to make the first annual Playboy jazz poll the biggest, most successful popularity poll ever conducted in the field of jazz music. The last of the more than 20,000 ballots are in and the more than 430,000 individual votes have been counted. The winners, selected by readers for the 1957 Playboy All-Star Jazz Band, are a real Who's Who of jazzdom.

Stan Kenton, who has done as much to popularize jazz as any other man in America, is the readers' overwhelming choice for leader, and a number of musicians identified with early Kenton bands place high in the voting.

The readers' choices for the Playboy All-Star trumpet section represent a real cross-section of the jazz scene: the first chair goes to Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, born in New Orleans at the turn of the century along with the music itself, and more popular than ever in his 57th year; in the sharpest possible contrast, the second seat goes to boyish Chet Baker, just turned 27, and a leading exponent of the cool school; the third chair belongs to Dizzy Gillespie, he of the upswept horn, and the recognized baron of bop; the fourth seat goes to Shorty Rogers, who in addition to his swinging trumpet style was responsible for many of the best arrangements for the Herman and Kenton bands in the late Forties and early Fifties.

The four winners in the trombone section bring trammen J. J. Johnson and Kai Winding back together, with old-style dixielander Jack "Big T" Teagarden and young Bob Brookmeyer (like Baker, just 27 this past December) filling in the third and fourth chairs.

The sax section has Paul Desmond, of the Dave Brubeck Quartet, and Bud Shank, associated with Kenton and with Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All Stars, on alto; Stan Getz, described by Playboy Jazz Editor Leonard Feather in his Encyclopedia of Jazz as "a sound stylesetter in the post-bop 'cool' era," captures the first tenor spot, with Charlie Ventura taking the second; Gerry Mulligan, whose cool combos have included poll winners Chet Baker and Bob Brookmeyer, takes the baritone sax spot with the largest number of votes given any nominee.

Benny Goodman, the king of swing, has retained his popularity through all the phases of jazz that have followed since the big band Thirties, and walks off with clarinet honors.

Dave Brubeck is sitting in at the piano with the 1957 Playboy All-Star Band; Barney Kessel, with the Oscar Peterson Trio in '52-3, wins the guitar spot by a good margin; Ray Brown, with peterson since '51, slides into first bass just a bit ahead of Oscar Pettiford. Shelly Manne beats out Gene Krupa as the band's drummer, and Lionel Hampton and his vibes take the miscellaneous instrument category in an up-tempo breeze.

A band requires vocalists and the 1957 Playboy All-Stars have the best: Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. Frank, top pop vocalist for more than a decade, has never sounded better or been more popular and he receives almost as many votes as all other male singers combined; Ella, for many years the favorite canary of a majority of jazz musicians, ran into unexpectedly stiff competition from ex-Kenton chirper June Christy, but finishes first. Backing Frank and Ella in the vocal department are the Four Freshmen, a Kenton discovery, and the readers' favorite jazz vocal group. In addition to placing Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond on the All-Star band, Playboy's readers pick the Dave Brubeck Quartet as their favorite instrumental combo, to perform with the larger group.

Two jazz immortals, Art Tatum and Tommy Dorsey, died during the poll, but their votes are included in the listing. In accordance with the rules of the first annual Playboy Jazz Poll, only votes entered on the official jazz poll ballot in the October issue and postmarked before midnight, November 15th, were counted. In an unprecedented move to assure the authenticity of the poll's results, all ballot envelopes were turned over, unopened, to representatives of Arthur Pos & Co., certified public accountants, who supervised the tabulating and verified the final count. Votes were entered on punch cards and then tabulated electronically by IBM. The final results follow, with the top 15 listed in each category.

Norman Weiser, ex-publisher of Down Beat, and in charge of Special Projects for Playboy, has supervised this first annual jazz poll and is now meeting with jazz impresario Norman Granz, famous for his Jazz at the Philharmonic series, who will produce a Playboy All-Star concert and LP. The possibility of a TV spectacular is also under discussion.

Leader

Trumpet

Trombone

Alto Sax

Tenor Sax

Baritone Sax

Clarinet

Piano

Guitar

(continued on page 69) All-Stars(continued from page 24)

Bass

Drums

Misc. Instrument

Male Vocalist

Female Vocalist

Instrumental Combo

Vocal Group

Benny Goodman, clarinet

Shelly Manne, drums

Chet Baker, second trumpet

Dizzy Gillespie, third trumpet

Stan Kenton, leader

J. J. Johnson, first trombone

Shorty Rogers, fourth trumpet

Jack Teagarden, third trombone

Louis Armstrong, first trumpet

Bob Brookmeyer, fourth trombone

Kai Winding, second trombone

Gerry Mulligan, baritone sax

Lionel Hampton, vibes

Paul Desmond, first alto sax

Ray Brown, bass

Dave Brubeck Quartet, instrumental combo

Dave Brubeck, piano

Charlie Ventura, second tenor sax

Bud Shank, second alto sax

Frank Sinatra, male vocalist

Stan Getz, first tenor sax

Four Freshmen, vocal group

Ella Fitzgerald, female vocalist

Barney Kessel, guitar