Jazz & Pop '70

The 1970 Playboy All-Stars' All-Stars

It was a Year of coming together--in the music, through the music. The apex of good vibrations: the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in Bethel, New York, where more than 300,000 came for nearly four days in mid-August to groove to sounds and to just being together. Up front were Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who, Joan Baez, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and many more. All around, in the mud, in the rain, with no place to sleep but on the ground or in cars, food coming from sharing, the largest group of young people ever gathered for a concert in the history of the country astounded their elders.

"We did not treat one single knife wound or a black eye or a laceration that was inflicted by another human being," said a doctor at the fair. "Can you imagine," another added, "what would have happened if we had had 300,000 hard-drinking adults here?"

At the end of August, on the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England, another 200,000 came together for a pop festival climaxed by the appearance of Bob Dylan and The Band. Once again, the mood was one of communal celebration. And at one point, as hundreds of the young were playing with balloons in a vast sea of foam provided as an extra environmental attraction by the management, a boy and a girl stripped, jumped into the foam and made love. That same day, at the Texas International Pop Festival in Lewisville, a baby was born. And in October, in the Berkshires in Massachusetts, Arlo Guthrie was married as two members of a rock band blew on conch shells and Judy Collins sang Susanne.

In a year during which the killing continued in Vietnam and the frost of repression was in the air as America moved to the right politically, music was the primary bond of expression for millions of the young. It was a source of warmth in a world preoccupied with the cold logistics of nuclear armament, a reservoir of humor in a time of Nixon and Agnew, and also a witnessing to a deep yearning for a new kind of society. As Ted Lewis, political columnist for the bristlingly conservative New York Daily News, wrote of the 300,000 at Bethel: "It was a chance...to express their emotional outlook on life which society fails to understand.... If music makes them one, someday a 'cause' will do the same, as the Politicians well know as they face up to the elections in the next decade."

But there was as yet no clearly detailed cause, no blueprint for that new society. The music, therefore, was all the more vital because it was so pulsatingly present, so affirmatively here. And in the music, at least, the barriers that divided this society--barriers of race, class, background--had dissolved. Significantly, the most celebrated and influential album of the year was The Band, a fusion of country music, rock, bluegrass, Gospel and vintage jazz. The musicians who are The Band--four from Canada, one from Arkansas--cannot and will not be categorized. Ten years of traveling through rural America, and now playing the big cities as well, have made them a reservoir of all the musical streams that flow through this country.

Another sign of these musically liberating times was the nature of Elvis Presley's appeareance as a performer before live audiences for the first time in nine years. When he opened in midsummer at the International Hotel is Las Vegas, Presley was backed by a black Gospel-based group, the Sweet Inspirations, and a white country-rock band driven by a crackling young Texas drummer, Ronnie Tutt. And the songs Presley chose further reflected his own awareness of the end of musical divisions--Hound Dog from his past, Ray Charles rhythm-and-blues classics, Beatles tunes and the urgently contemporary In the Ghetto. Later, he spoke of how the music had broadened and deepened in the past decade: "Young people today are wiser, smarter, better than they were ten years ago, and the music shows it."

Showing it, the music was in a continuous state of flux. Tony Williams, Miles Davis' prodigiously inventive jazz drummer, formed his own group, The Tony Williams Lifetime; and as an integral part of it, he chose a young British rock guitarist, Johnny McLaughlin. Williams, too, refuses to put a label on what he's creating, saying, instead, "To me, this is the best of everything, like a combination of the last 15 years, everything I've learned about Western harmony and Eastern harmony." Another new group, The Flock, from Chicago, spans rock, Coltranelike jazz, classical music, blues and radiations from the Beatles. And out of San Francisco, rising on the record charts and appearing increasingly on television was Creedence Clearwater Revival--a distinctive distillation of country sounds, rock, blues and the Cajun style of Louisiana. There were many more examples of continuous cross-fertilization, all exemplifying the credo best expressed by Paul McCartney: "We're feeling for many things, and in many directions. We're looking into new sounds and not looking down on anything."

One of those directions was back. As they open themselves to all kinds of possibilities, many of these musical explorers also search for roots. The Bob Dylan album of the year was Nashville Skyline, a gently sensuous blend of Dylan imagery and country music. Joan Baez also went to Nashville for David's Album. Dedicated to her husband, serving a three-year sentence for draft resistance, the music itself consisted of flowing, unadulterated country sounds. And a new phenomenon appeared--groups of young players, attuned to the ambiance of the present but also steeped in the country tradition. Among the best of those bringing fresh spirit and imagination to this lineage were The Blue Velvet Band and The Flying Burritos Bros. The latter was formed by Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman, former members of the Byrds. They were among many whose affections encompassed both rock and the new country sound.

The whole spectrum of country music flourished. From 81 radio stations playing country records in 1961, there are now 600 all-country outlets, with more than 1200 playing that music part of the time. To the young, Johnny Cash remains the pre-eminent force in the country-music movement. His album (Johnny Cash at San Quentin) and a single (Shel Silver-stein's A Boy Named Sue) were among the year's most durable hits, while Cash also headlined his own ABC-TV series. But that program, with its diverse (continued on page 177) Jazz & Pop '70 (continued from page 159) roster of guests--from Joni Mitchell to Charley Pride, a black man singing white country--reinforced Cash's own insistence that he, too, could not be easily pigeonholed. "I don't see trying to put something in a bag and keeping it there. My music--I just call it Johnny Cash-type music. I don't imitate anybody." And when Cash recorded 15 songs with his friend Bob Dylan in Nashville, they were, indeed, two unmistakable individualists who had nonetheless found a common bond.

This drive to find their own way while being nurtured by the past also characterized a growing number of those white players and singers immersed in the undiminished blues revival. There were still many white imitators of black bluesmen; but groups such as Pacific Gas and Electric, feeling the need for "our own interpretations of the blues," began to rely increasingly on original material created by the whole band in collaboration. And John Mayall, the continuously developing British blues player and singer, emphasizes: "The whole point of the blues is that it is supposed to be a man's personal expression. The blues has to be really part of you, the influences you've had, plus the fact of learing how to use them in your way."

Meanwhile, the huge size of audiences for all kinds of blues was attested to by Columbia Records' investing a $300,000 advance for a five-year contract with Johnny Winter, an albino from Texas whose blues trip to fame was the quickest of the year. On the other hand, basic black bluesmen also benefited from the revival. Their rewards were not as handsome as those enjoyed by Winter, but new territories kept opening up for Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, B. B. King, Albert King and such rediscovered blues bards of the past as Bukka White, Son House and Big Boy Crudup (a key influence on the early Elvis Presley). And in the blues, too, there was a unique coming together during the year--a meeting on record in Chicago of Fathers and Sons, Muddy Waters and his white spiritual descendants, Paul Butterfield and Mike Bloomfield.

Not only the blues was being revived. In a surge of nostalgia for the rock 'n' roll and rhythm and blues of the 1950s, relatively new combos, such as NRBQ and Cat Mother & the All Night News-boys, focused on the good-time feeling and uncomplicated patterns of the near past. Symbolic of this was an autumn event, 1950's Rock & Roll Revival, with the Coasters, the Platters, the Shirelles and--rescued from years of limbo in Europe--Bill Haley, rocking around the clock. Also on the bill, and on the way to national popularity, was Sha Na Na, 12 college students who look and sing as if time had stopped in the Fifties. Three wear gold-lamé jackets and pants, and the others come on like the prototypal "greaser" from the initial Elvis Presley days--dressed in tight black pants, T-shirts, pointed boots and sweat shirts, while chewing gum and applying grease to their hair. Their first album is logically titled Rock & Roll Is Here to Stay!; and Buddah Records has sufficient confidence in that prophecy to have guaranteed Sha Na Na $183,000 for the first three years of its contract.

But other groups were far from content to stay sequestered in the sounds of their own childhood. The Who, for example, was responsible for the first rock opera, Tommy, a challenging, resourceful odyssey of a deaf, dumb and blind boy who is finally cured in more ways than one. And the Jefferson Airplane, as evidenced by Bless Its Pointed Little Head and Volunteers, kept moving ahead as perhaps the most integrally unified group in all of rock. Its flights spiral into stunning, long-reverberating fusions of daring musicianship and multilayered lyrics that are powered--both literally and figuratively--by electricity. Simultaneously, as authentic rock figures of stature increased in number, they found their peers by forming new combinations--David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young, as well as Blind Faith (Eric Clapton, Jim Capaldi, Steve Winwood and Rick Grech).

With higher levels of musicianship and the ceaseless searching endemic to the new music, there was also a growth in the interaction between jazz and rock. These elements surged in varying combinations through the work of Ten Years After; Blood, Sweat & Tears: Colosseum; and Jethro Tull. Ars Nova included three highly inventive jazzmen--Flügelhornist Jimmy Owens, drummer Joe Hunt and guitarist Sam Brown. And Randy Brecker, a young trumpet player who has been with both Blood, Sweat & Tears and Horace Silver, speaks of what will surely continue to evolve in the years ahead: "Although the two forms are still pretty separate for many musicians, the cross-influences are growing. More jazz guys are getting with the rock feeling and are listening to more of rock. At the same time, rock bands are becoming looser in their improvising."

An example of the former is Miles Davis, one of the first jazzmen to pay serious attention to such performers as Jimi Hendrix and Sly and the Family Stone. Miles's most far-reaching album of the year, In a Silent Way, indicated that he had transmuted these and many other influences into his own utterly singular style, while changing his accompaniment to include electric guitar, electric piano and organ. From the other side, Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead looks beyond the intermingling of jazz and rock to even wider horizons: "Communication is getting so good, so much music is available on records and it's so easy to hear anything you want to hear that in another 20 years, every musician in the world will be able to play with every other musician in the world with no problems at all."

But that's 20--or more--years away. Meanwhile, although there has been growing intermingling of jazz and rock, there also remains a clear, independent jazz stream in current music. Not surprisingly, the year's most notable jazz figure was the redoubtable Duke Ellington. At 70, he showed no signs of reduced creativity or energy. And in that respect--his unflagging belief in possibility--he, too, shared a bond with the young at Bethel and at other gathering places of musical communion. "I'm always doing something new," Duke observed. "Every morning you wake up, it's a new day, isn't it? Is there any reason why a human being shouldn't be influenced by a new day?" Or by a new, giant leap into space by man. It seemed entirely natural when ABC-TV commissioned Duke to write a piece marking the ascent of Apollo 11 for man's first landing on the moon. The composition, Moon Maiden, was broadcast while the astronauts were on the moon's surface. There was also a special terrestrial honor for Ellington as he celebrated his 70th birthday in April as the guest of honor at a White House party where President Nixon presented Duke with the Presidential Medal of Freedom--the highest civilian medal the Government can grant.

In September, at the University of California at Berkeley, Ellington was the subject of the first full-scale academic symposium devoted to the work of an American jazzman. The lecturers included music critics, a sociologist, John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quarter and composer-musicologist Gunther Schuller, president of the New England Conservatory of Music, who declared that Ellington was "certainly the greatest American composer." The climax of the two-day event was a concert by the Ellington orchestra.

Although the Ellington symposium was the year's most prestigious academic event in jazz, another development in the colleges and universities underlined the rising importance of jazz and jazz musicians as vital elements in blackstudies departments proliferating on the nation's campuses. Archie Shepp, after having been appointed assistant director of the Experimental Program for Independent Study at the State University of New York at Buffalo, headed a jazz program involving more than 100 students. His operating credo was that "jazz is an art form with relevance not only to every other aspect of black experience but also to much of the larger American experience as well. "Among the faculty Shepp selected for the program were established jazzmen Jackie McLean, Joe Chambers, Ron Carter and Grachan Moncur III.

Another jazz musician, Ken McIntyre, was appointed assistant professor of music at Wesleyan University where he is conducting a course on black music history, as well as directing a laboratory band. And Cannonball Adderley's group spent an increasing amount of time as a traveling faculty, appearing at colleges and universities in a two-day program called Jazz: An Experience in Black Music. The most peripatetic of all those engaged in the vanguard of bringing jazz into the academy is Donald Byrd. The trumpeter-composer taught courses and conducted seminars at Columbia, North Carolina College, Howard, Hampton and Rutgers. He also gave a pioneering course for music educators at New York University in African and Afro-American music. Announcing the seminal event, Dr. Jerrold Ross, head of NYU's division of music education, noted: "Almost nothing is known in the schools about African and Afro-American music--except to say that this is the kind of music to which almost all teenagers listen when they are responding to rock 'n' roll and other jazz-influenced forms. Consquently, there is a great gap between music educators and their students."

Byrd and others predicated that this gap was going to close in the years to come. "I'm encouraged," he said, "by the growing number of young black and white jazz-oriented musicians who are going into education along these lines. And another of my own projects is the inauguration of the first jazz music camp to be run by young musicians of stature. We'll do a lot of ethnomusicology and, of course, a lot of playing. And it will be structured so that it will be low-cost."

Central to the growing role of jazz as an educational instrument is the intention of these musician-teachers to involve black communities in their work. At Buffalo, Archie Shepp announced that music workshops would be held in various community centers. And at NYU, an 18-man band was attached to the school as part of such an academic project. Many of its members were recruited from black and Puerto Rican neighborhoods, and the ensemble itself has devoted part of its time to performing in junior and senior high schools in New York City ghetto areas.

A precedent-setting start at creating a community-centered base for jazz is the Harlem Jazz Music Center, which has begun to take shape with the support of the Architectural League of New York and the city's mayor. Of particular significance is its inclusion in the official Harlem Model Cities Plan submitted to the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The center, initiated by Herbie Hancock, Milford Graves and other musicians, is intended "as a direct response to the need for creating a pilot project to provide a range of housing, commercial and cultural facilities that would stimulate the social, economic, physical and cultural development of the Harlem community.," With Harlem in the lead, the expectation is that similar jazz music centers will be formed in communities around the country.

Jazz, then, was in a newly transitional state throughout 1969. There was no question that audiences for jazz were small. Proportionately fewer jazz releases were issued than was the case five or ten years ago, and work opportunities for such persistent innovators as Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman and Pharoah Sanders were intermittent. But the future--as jazz took root in blackstudies courses and community centers--was hopeful, because the unstemmable tide of black clutural consciousness was likely to produce new, long-term audiences for jazz. The base would be black, but, as always before in the history of the music, there would also be a corollary nucleus of white players and listeners. And eventually, with the larger young white audience now being raised on rock and blues, there may yet be a more substantial coming together of audiences and musicians than has ever existed. As Nat Adderley says, "All the young white cats play the blues, and this in time is going to lead to a great meeting ground of the races--a jazz in which there will be a total equality." And it may well not be called jazz by then. As rhythm-and-blues guru Chuck Berry, looking far ahead, puts it: "Call it rock, call it jazz, call it what you may. If it makes you move, or moves you or grooves you, it'll be here!"

Expansion--in music and in consciousness through music--is the propulsive force that dominates all the sounds of now. And this music has inevitably moved beyond recordings and concerts into other expressions of this time. One of the year's most evocative movies, Easy Rider, for example, is unimaginable without the essential rhythms and colors woven into its texture by the Byrds, Steppenwolf, the Holy Modal Rounders, the Jimi Hendrix Experiene, the Electric Prunes and the Fraternity of Man. And Alice's Restaurant, another break-through into film of new life styles and values, is, of course, an extension of the inseparability of Arlo Guthrie and his music. And of what that music says. "The world is changing, man," Arlo points out, invoking the spirit of Bethel. "Kids are getting groovy all over the world. They're smiling in the streets and adults are getting worried."

The music is releasing, and those involved in it--as players and as listeners--are letting go of many kinds of restraints. Clive Barnes of The New York Times, reviewing the rock musical Salvation, one of the theatrical hits of the year, marveled: "The show accepts hardcore sex and what might be called softcore drugs as easily as a Gershwin or a Cole Porter musical accepted flirtation and cocktails." And the authors of that musical, C. C. Courtney and Peter Link, responding to charges that the show mocks religion, avow: "When we sing There Ain't No Flies on Jesus, that means Jesus moves! If Jesus were here today, he would have been at Bethel--with an electric guitar."

And in the theater itself, Salvation is a further sign of how the new music keeps expanding those frontiers. Courtney and Link are now working on a rock opera with no spoken dialog, using talking blues and other devices, instead. Rip Torn was preparing and acid-rock production of Richard III, while, at the Yale School of Drama, Kenneth Haigh was planning a Hamlet with rock music and a light show. And Joseph Papp, founder and producer of the New York Shakespeare Festival, is collaborating with Galt MacDermot, composer of Hair, on a rock revitalization of Troilus and Cressida.

Steve Winwood sums up the music year--and its auguries beyond music as well: "I feel that we're taking part in a great blend of music and everything. Things have gor to be blended together more." And the music of the present is performing exactly that function, because, as Winwood adds, "Music is all one thing."

It was not hyperbole when Donal Henahan, a classical-music critic for The New York Times, wrote during the year that rock had become "the most pervasive and perhaps most historically significant musical idiom of the century to date." Its pervasiveness is attested to not only by its enormous audiences but also by the fact that there are at least 300,000 rock bands in the country's junior and senior high schools. And its historical significance is shown by all the barriers of the past it has transcended; for in it is blended so much of the past--country, blues, Gospel, jazz--with the future entirely open-ended. What the music keeps saying in essence is, as in the Beatles' Revolution, "Free your mind."

In the spring of the year, Catholic Archbishop Don Helder Camara of Brazil used the Beatles as his text in speaking to 1300 students from 32 countries at a meeting in Manchester, England. "You must complete the message of the Beatles," he said. "You must eliminate racism and neocolonialism and promote the development of all mankind."

One of the Beatles, John Lennon, spent much of the year with his wife, Yoko, in bed-ins for peace in various cities. "We're all responsible for war," he said. "We all must do something, no matter what--by growing our hair long, standing on one leg, having bed-ins--to change the attitudes. The people must be made aware that it's up to them."

Will they be made aware? By the mid-1970s, the majority of the people will be those who last year grooved to the music at Bethel, on the Isle of Wight and wherever else they were. Then it will be seen whether their values will still be those of this music that is so life-affirming and so convinced of the perfectibility of man.

All-Star Musicians' Poll

Following our usual procedure, we asked our incumbent All-Stars to select their own All-Star Band. Eligible to vote were the medal winners of 1969: Cannonball Adderley, Herb Alpert, Louis Armstrong, the Beatles, Bob Brookmeyer, Ray Brown, Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, Buddy DeFranco, Paul Desmond, Duke Ellington, the 5th Dimension, Ella Fitzgerald, Pete Fountain, Aretha Franklin, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Jim Hall, Jimi Hendrix, Al Hirt, Milt Jackson, J. J. Johnson, Henry Mancini, Charles Mingus, Gerry Mulligan, Oscar Peterson, Boots Randolph, Buddy Rich, Ravi Shankar, Frank Sinatra, Kai Winding and Si Zentner. Here are the results.

All-Stars' All-Star Leader: The Duke and the count stayed on top, but Don Ellis and Buddy Rich slipped out of sight as Thad Jones-Mel Lewis moved up a couple of notches from last year and effective comebacks were staged by Woody Herman and Stan Kenton. 1. Duke Ellington; 2. Count Basie; 3. Thad Jones-Mel Lewis; 4. Woody Herman; 5. Stan Kenton.

All-Stars' All-Star Trumpet: The only activity among the trumpet men was by Clark Terry and Freddie Hubbard, who exchanged places. 1. Dizzy Gillespie; 2. Miles Davis; 3. Clark Terry; 4. Freddie Hubbard; 5. Doc Severinsen.

All-Stars' All-Star Trombone: Stability was the word for the bone men, as last year's top five all made it back. 1. J. J. Johnson; 2. Bob Brookmeyer; 3. Kai Winding; 4. Carl Fontana; 5. Urbie Green.

All-Stars' All-Star Alto Sax: Cannonball again led the way, as Phil Woods and Johnny Hodges traded spots and Sonny Stitt replaced Orenette Coleman. 1. Cannonball Adderley; 2. Paul Desmond; 3. Phil Woods; 4. Johnny Hodges; 5. Sonny Stitt.

All-Stars' All-Star Tenor Sax: Getz again, as Paul Gonsalves dropped from the charmed circle, and upward mobility was shown by Sonny Rollins, Zoot Sims and Wayne Shorter. 1. Stan Getz; 2. Sonny Rollins; 3. Zoot Sims; 4. Wayne Shorter; 5. Boots Randolph, Ben Webster.

All-Stars' All-Star Baritone Sax: Only in the fifth spot was there change, as Bud Shank ousted Charles Davis. 1. Gerry Mulligan; 2. Harry Carney; 3. Pepper Adams; 4. Cecil Payne; 5. Bud Shank.

All-Stars' All-Star Clarinet: Buddy DeFranco retained his laurels, but Jimmy Giuffre and Pete Fountain swapped chairs and Alvin Batiste replaced Tony Scott. 1. Buddy DeFranco; 2. Benny Goodman; 3. Jimmy Giuffre; 4. Pete Fountain; 5. Alvin Batiste.

All-Stars' All-Star Piano: There was ferment below the top as Roland Hanna and Chick Corea jumped into prominence, replacing Erroll Garner and Hank Jones. 1. Oscar Peterson; 2. Bill Evans; 3. Herbie Hancock; 4. Roland Hanna, Chick Corea.

All-Stars' All-Star Guitar: Herb Ellis, last Year's runner-up, took top honors away from Jim Hall, and Larry Coryell was passed by Joe Pass. 1. Herb Ellis; 2. Jim Hall; 3. Tal Farlow; 4. Kenny Burrell; 5. Joe pass.

All-Stars' All-Star Bass: Here, too, the fluctuation was in the ranks as Ron Carter and Richard Davis exchanged spots and Jack Six jumped into the top five. 1. Ray Brown; 2. Ron Carter; 3. Richard Davis; 4. Jack Six; 5. Charles Mingus.

All-Stars' All-Star Drums: Elvin Jones dropped from the list this year as Louis Bellson came from nowhere to place second and Alan Dawson made his first appearance. 1. Buddy Rich; 2. Louis Bellson; 3. Tony Williams; 4. Alan Dawson; 5. Roy Haynes, Mel Lewis, Grady Tate.

All-Stars' All-Star Miscellaneous Instrument: Reed man Roland Kirk, fifth last year, went all the way this time as Milt Jackson, Gary Burton and Jimmy Smith competed in new categories. Other beneficiaries of the fresh alignment were Jean Thielemans, Herbie Mann and Jean-Luc Ponty. 1. Roland Kirk, flute, manzello, stritch; 2. Jean Thielemans, harmonica; 3. Herbie Mann, flute; 4. Ravi Shankar, sitar; 5. Jean-Luc Ponty, violin.

All-Stars' All-Star Male Vocalist: Tony Bennett, Mel Tormé and Joe Williams all faded from earshot; they were replaced by a resurgent Billy Eckstine, João Gilberto and Tom Jones.

All-Star's All-Star Female Vocalist: Dionne Warwick moved from fifth place to a third-place tie with "newcomer" Nancy Wilson; missing was Peggy Lee. 1. Ella Fitzgerald; 2. Carmen McRae; 3. Dionne Warwick, Nancy Wilson; 5. Sarah Vaughan.

All-Stars' All-Star Instrumental Combo: The Adderley group, tops last year, slipped to third as the jazz-rock outfit Blood, Sweat & Tears came out of limbo to take the number-one spot, with the rock-oriented Miles Davis Quintet coming in second. Dave Brubeck returned to contention, at Gary Burton's expense. 1. Blood, Sweat & Tears; 2. Miles Davis Quintet; 3. Cannonball Adderley Quintet; 4. Dave Brubeck Quartet; 5. Modern Jazz Quartet.

All-Stars' All-Star vocal Group: The 5th Dimension copped first again, but there was much jostling elsewhere as the Association, the Beatles, the Hi-Lo's and the now-parted Diana Ross & the Supremes all moved upward. 1. 5th Dimension; 2. Four Freshmen; 3. Hi-Lo's; 4. Association; 5. Beatles, Double Six of Paris, Simon and Garfunked, Diana Ross & the Supremes.

All-Stars' All-Star Songwriter-Composer: To nobody's surprise, the Duke was the winner in this new category. 1. Duke Ellington; 2. Jim Webb; 3. Gil Evans; 4. Dave Grusin; 5. Burt Bacharach, Quincy Jones.

All-Stars' All-Star Organ: Here, too, the results were predictable, as Jimmy Smith outran the opposition. 1. Jimmy Smith; 2. Warren Bernhardt, Joe Mooney; 4. Jimmy McGriff; 5. Lennie Dee, Walter Wanderley.

All-Stars' All-Star Vibes: Again, no surprise, as this new category turned out to be Bags's groove all the way. 1. Milt Jackson; 2. Gary Burton; 3. Red Norvo; 4. Lionel Hampton, Bobby Hutcherson.

Records Of The Year

Readers were asked--as in past years--to vote for any LP they considered to be the best by a big band, the best by a small combo (fewer than eight pieces) and the best by a singer or vocal group.

Best Big Band LP: Blood, Sweat & Tears (Columbia). Blues, ballads and rock tunes such as Spinning Wheel proved suitable vehicles for the ample sound of the jazzrock nonet as they and singer David Clayton-Thomas really put it all together.

Best Small Combo LP: Memphis Underground / Herbie Mann (Atlantic). The nonpareil flutist--with Larry Coryell, Roy Ayers and Sonny Sharrock--tripped down to Tennessee to jam with a funky rhythm section on soul tunes such as Hold On, I'm Comin'.

Best Vocal LP: The Beatles (Apple). This four-sided, profusely illustrated venture by the M. B. E.s contained plenty of merrie melodies and loony tunes, plus such hits as Revolution and Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.

Best Big Band LP

Best Small Combo LP

Best Vocal LP

Jazz & Pop Hall Of Fame

A year ago, only three new contenders broke into the first 25 finishers in our Hall of Fame poll; this time, however. the gates swung wide open, as 13 of the top 25 vote getters are newcomers to the list: Janis Joplin, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jime Hendrix, the Beatles (as a group), Donovan, José Feliciano, Ginger Baker, Glen Campbell, Tom Jones, James Brown, Dionne Warwick and Mick Jagger. The pop-rock complex--officially included in the poll for the first time this year--clearly dominated the proceedings, what with Dylan, Lennon and McCartney winning, and Buddy Rich being the only straight jazzman who came close to being elected. Previous winners--Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Dave Brubeck, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Ray Charles, John Coltrane, Benny Goodman, Wes Montgomery, Herb Alpert and Miles Davis--were ineligible. Following are this year's top 25:

All-Star Readers' Poll

Following last year's pattern, pop-rock struck some fresh chords in the more volatile categories--male vocalist, female vocalist, instrumental combo, vocal group, drums, bass and tow of the new groupings, organ and songwriter-composer. The most noteworthy event, perhaps, was the end of Frank Sinatra's tenure as the readers' favorite male vocalist. The Chairman was toppled at long last by the strong-voiced Welshman, Tom Jones; 20th in last year's poll, Jones achieved new popularity with his ocean-spanning TV series. Video exposure also helped Johnny Cash, who leaped from obscurity to place eighth; he was followed by José Feliciano, who had lit no fires by this time last year. Other singers showing upward mobility were Bob Dylan, Donovan, Mick Jagger, Richie Havens, David Clayton-Thomas and O. C. Smith; prominent backsliders included Lou Rawls and Ray Charles.

Change was also rampant among the female vocalists, and "blue-eyed soul" again took the top spot in the robust person of Janis Joplin, who was third a year ago; last year's winner, Aretha Franklin, slipped to sixth after a year marked by a series of unfortunate events. Dionne Warwick maintained her runner-up position, followed by Grace Slick; significant upward progress was made by Judy Collins, who went from 22nd to 4th, and by Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro, Jackie De Shannon, Dusty Springfield, Nina Simone and Nancy Ames.

The rhythm section swung to a different drummer this year, as Ginger Baker--formerly with Cream, then with Blind Faith--topped Buddy Rich; and Beatle Paul McCartney, transferred from the other-instruments category (where, as an electrified performer, he had previously been listed), took the first bass man's chair from Charles Mingus. The percussionists were fairly stable below the top, as Ringo Starr, Gene Krupa, Joe Morello, Sandy Nelson and Charlie Watts all repeated in the top ten; advances were made by Art Blakey, Bobby Rosengarden and Joe Chambers, while Shelly Manne took the most noticeable dip. Following McCartney into the upper bracket among the bass players were electrified rocksters Jack Bruce, Noel Redding and Donald "Duck" Dunn.

In limbo a year ago, Blood, Sweat & Tears came on strong to become the top instrumental combo, displacing Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass (B.S. & T. sidemen placed high in several categories and the combo also did well as a vocal group); except for their ascent--and that of Pentangle, which wasn't on last year's list--this division was relatively calm. The vocal-group category proved much more mercurial; while the Beatles retained first place, no fewer than 11 groups jumped onto the list: among them were Creedence Clearwater Revival; Blind Faith; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Sly and the Family Stone; The Who; and The Mothers of Invention. Left by the wayside were the Rascals, the Union Gap, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Vanilla Fudge, Spanky & Our Gang and the Mills Brothers.

The Beatles also showed strength in the new songwriter-composer competition, as the John Lennon-Paul McCartney team sprinted away from a formidable pack; the top ten also included Burt Bacharach-Hal David, Bob Dylan, Jim Webb, Rod McKuen, Henry Mancini, Mick Jagger-Keith Richard, Frank Zappa, Johnny Cash and Donovan--a lineup that emphasizes both the dominance of the pop-rock world and the rich variety of styles it encompasses.

The old guard and the youth movement split the other new categories, as ageless Lionel Hampton outdistanced an assortment of vibists that included such up-and-coming modernists as Gary Burton, Bobby Hutcherson and Roy Ayers (veterans Cal Tjader, Milt Jackson and Terry Gibbs finished in the first five), and young Booker T. of the MG's beat out Al Kooper for the top spot among the organists; Jimmy Smith rated a surprisingly low third, trailed by Earl Grant, Ray Manzarek of the Doors and electronically inclined Dick Hyman.

The other category dominated by rock was Fretsville, as Jimi Hendrix retained his position as number-one guitarist, followed by Eric Clapton and José Feliciano, 17th a year ago. Newcomers included Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Johnny Winter, and Alvin Lee of Ten Years After. The other-instruments category, depleted by the creation of the organ and vibes departments, was again headed by sitarist Ravi Shankar, followed by flutist Herbie Mann; a pair of harmonica players, Bob Dylan and Paul Butterfield; another sitarist, George Harrison; and the surprisingly popular Dick Hyman, for his work with the Moog.

The remaining categories showed relatively little change--due, perhaps, to the fact that more young people are attracted to the guitar and the electric bass than to the saxophone or trombone. Henry Mancini, Doc Severinsen and Duke Ellington remained the top three bandleaders; Herb Alpert and Al Hirt again led the trumpeters, with Miles Davis, Doc Severinsen and Louis Armstrong again dominating; the trombonists, paced by J. J. Johnson, showed no change through the top six slots; the altoists were again led by Cannonball Adderley, Paul Desmond and Bud Shank, with Zoot Sims and Johnny Hodges slipping past Ornette Coleman; Stan Getz, Boots Randolph, King Curtis and Charles Lloyd repeated as the four main tenor men; Gerry Mulligan kept his baritone laurels, while the names below him shifted positions a bit but stayed the same; and clarinetists Pete Fountain, Herbie Mann and Benny Goodman facsimiled their one-two-three finish of last year. Dave Brubeck, Ramsey Lewis, Sergio Mendes and Ray Charles also made it back atop the piano division, although there was some fluctuation below, as Skitch Henderson, Otis Spann Floyd Cramer, Keith Jarrett and Les McCann dropped off the list (Roger Williams clung to the bottom rung) and such competitors as Nicky Hopkins, Dick Hyman, Sun Ra, Barbara Carroll and the resurgent Horace Silver climbed aboard.

Following are the top vote getters in each category. Those who earned a spot on our All-Star Band are listed in boldface type; they will receive silver medals, as will the Hall of Fame electees and those artists whose efforts were chosen by our readers as the best recordings of the year.

Big-Band Leader

Trumpet

Trombone

Alto Sax

Tenor Sax

Baritone Sax

Clarinet

Piano

Organ

Vibes

Guttar

Bass / Electric Bass

Drums

Other Instruments

Male Vocalist

Female Vocalist

Vocal Group

Songwriter-Composer

Instrumental Combo

Bob DylanHe changed his name in homage to the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and has already influenced many more people than his idol. A migrant from Minnesota to New York, Dylan first made his mark on the folk-music world as a rough-voiced young singer who wrote protest songs and accompanied himself on the guitar and harmonica. but Dylan's capacity for growth has constantly surprised his admirers. His conversion to electric music and a more personal lyric style shocked his purist followers, set the entire folk-rock phenomenon in motion and made Dylan a most unwilling rock star. After a near-fatal molorcycle accident and a long recovery at his retreat in Woodstock, New York, Dylan came back with a better voice and a Nashville-accented sound. While his most recent songs are relatively simple and earthy, Dylan's greatest contribution to modern music has been to show that popular-song lyrics can be poetry of the hightest order. His many pseudo-intellectual imitators frequently obscure that accomplishment, as do the scholars who write theses on his work; but the fact remains that Bob Dylan's songs, from "Blowin' in the Wind" to "Lay, Lady, Lay," are a living chronicle of his generation's collective trip.

John LennonThe Beatles, despite constant rumors that they are about to break up, apparently have no such intention; yet, while they continue to record and make films together, the individual members of the group get ever more involved in their own trips. For John Lennon--actor, author, guitarist and lyricist--the past year has been a fantastic voyage undertaken with his unconventional artist wife, Yoko Ono. Together, they held a weeklong bed-in in a Toronto hotel room, where--with a cluster of celebrities, including Tom Smothers and Tim Leary--they recorded "Give Peace a Chance"; the song was a best seller, as was "The Ballad of John and Yoko," which cast Lennon as a Christ figure. Making the surreal real, John and Yoko sent acorns to the world's heads of state to distract them from war. They recorded a series of unique albums chronicling their misadventures with unprecedented intimacy; their initial effort, "Two Virgins," bore a front-view photograph of the couple in all their undressed splendor. John's stature, however, is still due to his role in creating the Beatles' repertoire; and he made his credo clear when he told a revolution-minded critic that bombing buildings wasn't his shtick: "You destroy it [the establishment]; I'll build around it."

Paul McCartneyHe would have been the last to know, a tongue-in-cheek Paul McCartney assured the world, if he had really died. Yet it wasn't until a magazine reporter cornered him--and secured a statement to the effect that it was all "bloody stupid," he only wanted to be with his family, and if he had something to say, he would write a song--that the thousands of mourners were assured. The McCartney death flap had been sustained by a bizarre web of "evidence"that would have fascinated Edgar Allen Poe: mystic signs of demise discovered in the illustrations of Beatle albums; ominous messages in the lyrics of their songs; a montage that, when played backward, was shown to contain the sounds of an automobile accident; word that a McCartney look-alike had been sought, found and never revealed. It was all a dramatic illustration of the amazing degree to which the real or imagined events in the life of a Beatle--even a levelheaded, businesslike, retiring one like Paul--can affect the lives of young people around the world. The source of that power? As Paul implied, it's the good music that the Beatles continue to create--and there is no more vital element in the group's musical make-up than Paul's delicate, unpredictable melodies.