Jazz & Pop '73

The Presidential campaign having spanned much of 1972, music people, too, were into politics. The fusion of music and message began well before the primaries, when, last January, Carol Feraci stunned the President at a White House performance by the Ray Conniff Singers. Speaking directly to him from the chorus, she said: "Mr. President, stop bombing human beings, animals and vegetation. You go to church on Sunday and pray to Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ were in this room tonight, you would not dare to drop another bomb. Bless the Berrigans and Daniel Ellsberg."

The counterculture, somnolent the previous year, began thereupon to return to "the arena" (as Saul Alinsky used to call the publicly partisan life). Carole King, Dionne Warwicke, James Taylor, Cass Elliott, Mary Travers and Art Garfunkel, among others, helped raise sizable sums for George McGovern during the primaries. In the main bout, they were joined by Tina Turner, Judy Collins and Joni Mitchell, to cite a few. McGovern himself closed his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention by quoting from Woody Guthrie's This Land Is Your Land.

Not all the year's singing and strumming, however, were for the Democratic nominee. Before he was wholly out of the campaign, George Wallace had such country singers as Tammy Wynette, Del Reeves and George Wallace, Jr. (the candidate's son), stumping for him. Nor was the incumbent bereft of musical support. While the President's rock backing was thin--the Osmond brothers being among the more prominent of that musical generation supporting him--Richard Nixon's most newsworthy musical coups were Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra. The latter briefly came out of retirement in October to sing a tribute to Spiro Agnew at a Republican fund raiser in Chicago.

Meanwhile, perennial Presidential candidate Dizzy Gillespie decided to forgo the 1972 contest. Describing himself as "the modern Norman Thomas," Dizzy said that his candidacy had always been based on "the dire necessity...of the unification of mankind." The Happy Warrior intends to continue working toward that goal. At the Indiana University press conference withdrawing his candidacy, Gillespie was asked if his growing number of campus appearances signified that jazz is coming back. "It ain't never left," he answered. But there were, indeed, signs of rising national interest in jazz--both in the cultural establishment and among the public. Dizzy himself was awarded New York's Handel Medallion--the city's most prestigious cultural diadem--by Mayor John Lindsay for his "superb and matchless contribution to the world of culture and music." The National Endowment for the Arts, after granting only $50,000 for jazz the preceding year, sprang for $246,925 to be shared by individual jazz musicians and composers, as well as by educational institutions (from elementary schools to universities) engaged in jazz education. Also included were such community organizations as the Black Arts Music Society of Jackson, Mississippi, and Young Audiences of Wisconsin. Appropriately, the one jazz force most signally honored by the official definers of American high culture was Duke Ellington. In July, the University of Wisconsin at Madison held a Duke Ellington Festival (Governor Patrick Lucey having proclaimed that period Duke Ellington Week in Wisconsin). For five days, there were concerts, open rehearsals, master classes and workshops--with academic credit for participation. Students came from a dozen states and (text continued on page 146) Canada, as well as from Uganda, Brazil and Switzerland.

Even more significant was the setting up by Yale University of a $1,000,000 Duke Ellington Fellowship Program. It will encompass a visiting-fellows project, the development of archives of Afro-American music (including films), a scholarship program and the provision for teaching fellowships for black musicians at Yale and in the New Haven schools. The Duke Ellington division of Yale was inaugurated on October sixth with a weekend convocation at the university where 30 black musicians--Ellington heading the list--received the Ellington medal from Yale's president, Kingman Brewster. (Among the other recipients: Willie "the Lion" Smith, Mary Lou Williams, Charles Mingus, Jo Jones, Max Roach, Dizzy Gillespie, Harry Carney, Marion Williams, and Bessie Jones of the Sea Island Singers.)

As for the widening audience for jazz, more jazz musicians were hitting the college concert circuit--with some of the tours promoted by their record companies. And predominantly youthful audiences thronged New York night-club appearances during the year by Charles Mingus and Sonny Rollins, among other jazzmen. More young listeners were also evident on the jazz-festival scene, most notably at Ann Arbor's September Blues and Jazz Festival, but also at celebrations in New Orleans, Houston, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Oakland (the Bay Area Jazz Festival), Monterey and at Hampton Institute.

The year's most encouraging jazz event, however, was the successful transplant of the Newport Jazz Festival from Rhode Island to the Big Apple. Ranging through nine days in July, the 19th annual event included midnight dances and jam sessions, boat rides, street festivals and Gospel and jazz concerts at a number of sites in New York City--from Carnegie, Philharmonic and Radio City Music halls to Yankee Stadium and a Lutheran church. The Newport Festival, forced to close prematurely the year before because a marauding mob of young people broke down the fences and seized the stage, had buoyantly resurrected itself. Over 100,000 people attended the 27 events, employing over 600 musicians; and even The New York Times was moved to editorialize: "The sound was everywhere, and nobody who heard it could keep feet from tapping and spirits from soaring like a slide trombone."

Impresario George Wein declared the Newport Jazz Festival-New York to be a permanent annual event, which this year may be extended to ten days.

Also certain to reappear in 1973 is the rebel New York Musicians Jazz Festival, which ran parallel to the Newport programs in July. Some 500 more-or-less "underground" jazz musicians, who felt that Wein's agenda insufficiently represented them, produced a busy schedule of improvisations at bars, churches, parks, music centers, and studios in Harlem and on the Lower East Side, in addition to a cracklingly exciting jam session on the Central Park Mall. This counterfestival, as Les Ledbetter noted in The New York Times, "gave rise to the possibility that festivals like Newport--with something for everyone--might not have much future in their present form if that everyone doesn't include the proud young black musicians."

Further evidence of the resurgent vitality of jazz was the creation by the New York Hot Jazz Society of the New York Jazz Museum--the first museum in America devoted to the whole living history of jazz. Rotating exhibits, regular film showings, live music and a "jazz store" are all part of the reverberating blue building in Midtown Manhattan. In another kind of institution long closed to jazz--the Catholic Church--black music scored impressive inroads, as jazz and other Afro-American forms increasingly mixed with traditional sounds of liturgy in many Catholic churches in black areas of the country. During the year, there was even a (text continued on page 194)Jazz & Pop '73(continued from page 146) week-long workshop at New Orleans' Xavier University to explore ways of encouraging more use of black music in the Mass.

In a Baptist church in Watts, meanwhile, Aretha Franklin climaxed her career thus far with a stunning album for Atlantic, Amazing Grace, that was clearly the year's most powerful soul stirrer. But, as Aretha says, soul music is not exclusionary: "White kids appreciate soul because they want honesty in their music and that's what soul is all about."

For many white listeners, kids and older, soul music did, indeed, continue to be a vital, multicolored element of the wide world of rock--a music that kept on truckin' during the year. There was a lot of listening to the past, with rock radio giving more time to "golden oldies" and rock-'n'-roll revival concerts drawing large audiences from Hollywood to New York. Yet another life in the limelight had been saved for such as the Shirelles, Chubby Checker, Bill Haley and the Comets, Chuck Berry, and Bo Diddley.

But there was also a revivification of support for newer rock; and the rock festivals--which seemed in danger of extinction after a number of ugly mishaps the year before--came back to glowing good health. More than 200,000 of the young recalled the spirit of Woodstock, coming from as far as California and Florida to camp on the Pocono International Raceway in Pennsylvania for a July communion with Three Dog Night; Faces; Emerson, Lake & Palmer; and other secular rousers of the spirit. The month before, in Dallas, rock went explicitly religious as the Jesus movement drew 75,000 high school and college students to what no less an evangelist than Billy Graham characterized as "a religious Woodstock." Indicative of the viewpoint of the bands at hand was a group called The Armageddon Experience. Elsewhere in the country, festival audiences, as at Pocono and Dallas, were notably nondestructive in their exuberance, the shared vibrations generally excluding violence trips.

Except, that is, for some of the stops on the Tour of the Year--The Rolling Stones' 30-city safari in June and July. There was tear gas in Tucson and Minneapolis, rock throwing in Vancouver and a brawl between the police and Mick Jagger and Keith Richard in Providence. But the over-all ambiance of the Stones' triumphant tour (500,000 applied for tickets for three Madison Square Garden concerts) was that of loud joy. After ten years, the Stones had proved to be the most ruggedly enduring of the superstar rock groups. And, as John Cotter of the Associated Press observed, although "they're nearing their 30s, fathering children, the flash is still there."

Aside from the Stones' proving their boss status, the other most marked phenomenon in rock during the year was an accelerating move by many groups and individual performers toward what some critics call "vaudeville rock." Don Heckman, the New York Times resident rock commentator, noted: "Theatricality is the idea whose time has come for pop music this season. Theatricality in dress, in manner, in presentation and in attitude."

Vivid, to say the least, illustrations of that point abounded--David Bowie; T-Rex; Emerson, Lake & Palmer; Alice Cooper; Dr. John, the Night Tripper; and Rod Stewart. The latter explained: "There are a lot of colored guys who can sing me off the stage. But half the battle is selling music, not singing it. It's the image, not what you sing. There are lots of guys who could sing Jagger off the stage, but there ain't many who could blow him off when it comes to lookin' at him."

And so, shaking his silver sequins, Rod Stewart tosses beer bottles and kicks red soccer balls into the crowd; David Bowie and his colleagues dye their hair various startling colors (the leader's is orange); Alice Cooper performs with a menacing 11-foot boa constrictor; and Keith Emerson pitches knives into his Moog synthesizer. Although theatricality is hardly new to rock (witness Little Richard, Jimi Hendrix and Peter Townshend), one reason for the current intensification of bizarre visual effects, according to the Times, is the "paucity of new musical inventiveness."

The year, however, wasn't all that limited in musical imagination. After all, it was also a year during which two strikingly original singer-writers began to impress themselves on the popular-music public. John Prine, for instance, a former soldier and mailman, emerged as a country-tinged bard with extraordinary ability to plumb the loneliness submerged in the silent majority. Loudon Wainwright III, a more comic but no less compassionate chronicler of his and our times, finally got it all together toward the end of 1972; and he is sure to be, along with Prine, one of this year's commanding presences. Another breakthrough was that of John Fahey, an astonishingly mind-expanding guitarist-composer whose knowledge appears to go back to the beginning of musical time.

Among the more appealingly fresh groups starting their ascent were the country-rocking Eagles; Clean Living, a serene and witty folk-rock unit from Amherst, Massachusetts; and Vinegar Joe, a driving, lusty British combo with a gloriously abandoned vocal soloist in Elkie Brooks. Also worth watching for in the year to come is English singer-composer Claire Hamill, who looks like the hard-times heroine of a Dickens novel but who sounds eerily far wiser than her 17 years. In another time, she might instead have been a writer of compelling short stories.

The ability to tell provocative tales and weave probing spells continued last year to define the growing maturity of a key sector of our popular music--as in the deepening work of Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson, Joni Mitchell, Roberta Flack, Tom Rush, Van Morrison, Kris Kristofferson and Melanie. In this respect, American music has finally matched and even excelled the French tradition of the chansonnier. We now have our indigenous equivalents of such musical psychohistorians as Charles Trenet, Georges Brassens and Yves Montand.

Quite outside any category, the Grateful Dead remained able to sustain a fuller and more satisfying communion with its audiences than any other American group. Also undisturbed in their places in the rock pantheon were Leon Russell and Carole King, the latter winning four firsts in the 14th annual Grammy Awards presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Neil Diamond, meanwhile, pointed a new direction for superstars--risking a 20-performance stand at Broadway's huge Winter Garden, the first such engagement by a rock performer at a New York legitimate theater, and then having all the tickets sold out by opening night.

One of the year's more remarkable musical, rather than showbiz, achievements was the artistic growth of Booker T. (Jones), once the chief alchemist of "the Memphis sound." In their A&M album Home Grown, Booker T. and his wife, Priscilla Coolidge, revealed new dimensions of soul expression through their richly intertwined black-and-white roots. A graduate of the same Memphis soul scene as Booker T., the shaven-headed Isaac Hayes, who had hit big the year before with the title song from Shaft, also continued to multiply his musical powers. Looking ahead, and not only for himself, the 28-year-old former sharecropper said: "The one thing I've learned from Shaft and from all my records is that pop music doesn't set any restrictions anymore. You don't just have to go up there and sing a song because that's the way it always was done before. Use whatever means necessary, be it rap, sing or arrangement, to get across to people. Styles are so broad now that you can use anything you want."

Isaac Hayes's dictum is clearly true in jazz and rock (witness the farther frontiers, transcending previous barriers between musical forms and cultures, being explored by Weather Report, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman and John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra). And now, some of country music is also getting decidedly broader. Ear! Scruggs and his long-haired sons, for example, juxtapose blues with bluegrass, rock rhythms and jazz lines with traditional high, lonesome harmonies. Merle Haggard is still faithful to the basic lineage; but last year he kept discovering new and wider sources of that tradition, ranging from a diversity of clapboard church sounds to ways in which to stretch the present boundaries of country storytelling in somewhat the same direction Kris Kristofferson has taken.

Additional signs of country-music expansion were evident in the inclusion of rock and jazz strains during what had been expected to be a familiar festival of country music at rural Dripping Springs, Texas, last spring. At this largest outdoor gathering ever held for country music, listening to the new fusions--as well as to Tex Ritter, Roy Acuff, Hank Snow and Loretta Lynn--were not only cowboys and farmers but also hundreds of long-haired youngsters. Earl Scruggs was not surprised, noting after his performance that 90 percent of his engagements are now played on college campuses and that some black students are beginning to come to hear this still-growing good old boy. "Matter of fact," Scruggs drawled, "I've got some banjo-pickin' buddies who are black."

In recent years, moreover, the breaking down of all kinds of boundaries through music has not been solely a domestic phenomenon. The impact of changes in music here is world-wide. An index of this long-distance effect on other cultures was the reporting from vast, remote Siberia, by Hedrick Smith of The New York Times who, upon visiting Novosibirsk last year, was asked by a college senior about the most recent records by Aretha Franklin and Blood, Sweat & Tears.

Another traveler was the indefatigable Pete Seeger, the Johnny Appleseed of folk music. He sang and strummed during the year in North Vietnam and China, among many other places. Naturally, in one North Vietnamese village, Seeger taught the kids, as so many American children have learned from him, how to join in Woody Guthrie's Put Your Finger in the Air--in voice and in gesture. In Peking, he gave sound advice to the U. S. State Department with regard to forthcoming cultural exchanges with China. "What [the State Department] should not send are large orchestras and ballets, things which require a lot of orchestration--although I am sure they will--but people who represent really traditional music."

It remains to be seen, of course, whether Seeger's advice is heeded so that the Chinese can be introduced to such of our artists as, let's say, Earl Scruggs, Ornette Coleman, the Staple Singers, the Grateful Dead and B. B. King. King, in any case, came close--performing in Bangkok and Hong Kong in October during his first world-wide concert tour, which reached from Japan to Israel to Europe.

Another 1972 B. B. King undertaking, one that was paralleled by other singers and musicians, involved an increase in the number of his performances in state and Federal prisons. King also joined F. Lee Bailey in setting up the Foundation for the Advancement of Inmate Rehabilitation and Recreation (FAIRR). Its intent, as noted on the floor of the House by Rhode Island Congressman Robert Tiernan, is "to expand prison programs by arranging appearances by other entertainers, lawyers, sports personalities, writers, musicians and a wide range of public figures, in a series of concerts, discussion groups and training programs."

Other musicians following B. B. King and Johnny Cash in expanding the prison concert circuit last year were Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, Link Wray, Taj Mahal and Elephants Memory (John Lennon's backup band). The New York State Council on the Arts, in a move that could well be emulated throughout the country, funded a series of appearances in that state's prisons by Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, Chico Hamilton, Marian McPartland, Earl Hines and Herbie Mann. Taking music beyond its customary audiences ought to be the kind of spirit-quickening activity that does not require a quadrennial Presidential election to be activated.

One singer who, for years, gave both her music and her enormous strength of spirit while performing in prisons was Mahalia Jackson. The inevitable choice to sing at the 1963 March on Washington (I Been 'Buked and I Been Scorned), Mahalia Jackson died in January 1972 at the age of 60. In Chicago, nearly 40,000 people stood in line to pay their respects. Among them were Mrs. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sammy Davis Jr., Ella Fitzgerald, Clara Ward and Aretha Franklin, who exemplified the continuing flow of Mahalia's soul force by her singing of Precious Lord, Take My Hand.

Another huge loss was the death of Jimmy Rushing at 68. One of the warmest and yet most poignant of all jazz, ballad and blues singers, Rushing, as Ralph Ellison wrote, imposed "a romantic lyricism upon the blues tradition, a lyricism which is not of the Deep South but of the Southwest, a romanticism native to the frontier."

But the beat of life goes on. Edward Ellington II, grandson of the Duke, an alumnus of Howard University and sometime guitarist with the Ellington orchestra, entered the freshman class of the Berklee College of Music in Boston last year. His major: instrumental performance. And playing in concert with Dave Brubeck at Carnegie Hall were two of his sons, Darius, 24, and Christopher, 20, both also leaders of their own combos. Among other playing sons of musician fathers on the scene during the year were the scions of Stan Getz, Jackie McLean and Jimmy Heath. And in the same Berklee class as Edward Ellington II were Edward Heywood, son of pianist Eddie Heywood, and Alan Dawson, Jr., son of the brilliant Boston-based drummer and Berklee faculty member.

The once and former Beatles are still too young to have performing progeny, but John Lennon and Yoko Ono did start a project during the year to open free music libraries--one in Greenwich Village and one in Harlem--that would include recordings of all kinds of music and provide free music lessons for all children who came. The music libraries would also function as day-care centers.

The Lennons, in addition, were embattled in the politics of nations, though not in the usual sense. The U. S. Immigration and Naturalization Service moved to deport them in April on the ground that Lennon had been convicted and fined in England in 1968 when a small amount of "Cannabis resin" (hashish) was found during a search of his home. (Hashish is not mentioned in the Immigration and Nationality Act, which denies residence to persons convicted of possession of "narcotic drugs or marijuana." An expert witness for the Lennons, Dr. Lester Grinspoon, testified that Cannabis resin is neither.)

Thousands of people put their names on petitions to stop the deportation proceedings and grant the Lennons permanent residence in the United States. Among their supporters, either as witnesses at the deportation proceedings or in public statements, were: Mayor John Lindsay; Dick Cavett; the Reverend Paul Moore, Episcopal bishop of New York; Saul Bellow; John Cage; Bob Dylan; Allen Ginsberg; Norman Mailer; the late Edmund Wilson; and Thomas Hoving, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ("If John Lennon were a painter," Hoving told the court, "he would be hanging in the Metropolitan Museum.")

Even The New York Times had been sufficiently touched by the counterculture to observe editorially: "The Lennons have been enthusiastically involved in projects which enlist music for the betterment of deprived children's lives. They came to New York as visitors three years ago and say that they have fallen in love with the city and its ways. It would be ironic if the guardians of this country's private morals and public safety were to become known as the authors of a new slogan: 'America--Love It and Leave It.' What the Beatles might have done with such a refrain!"

The hearteningly broad range of support for the Lennons was consonant with the letter--though not necessarily with the spirit--of what President Nixon told Ray Charles when they met in the White House in September to trade impressions of their travels abroad. The President noted that the Japanese "have become very Europeanized, but you don't see that in China. I think that's a good thing. We don't want everyone to be alike."

By year's end, a final decision had not been rendered in the case of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who surely animate--as does the jazz and popular music of the past decade--the President's point: "We don't want everyone to be alike."

Perhaps early in his second term, the President will involve himself in determining the justice of the ruling against the Lennons, as he has in the decision against Lieutenant Calley. But not even Dizzy Gillespie is advised to hold his breath until then.

All-Star Musicians' Poll

One of the annual highlights of our Jazz & Pop Poll is the balloting whereby the incumbent All-Stars select their own favorite musicians and groups. This year, in an attempt to render the All-Star club less exclusive, ballots were sent not only to last year's winners but to all musicians who garnered enough votes to be listed among the finishers. As it turned out, six categories underwent a change in leadership, and there was a lot of jostling beneath the top men, resulting in several multiple ties and a new catholicity of choices.

All-Stars' All-Star Leader: Ellington again set the pace, as Count Basie was tied for runner-up honors by Quincy Jones. A resurgent Stan Kenton entered the top five as Oliver Nelson and Woody Herman dropped out. 1. Duke Ellington; 2. Count Basie, Quincy Jones; 4. Stan Kenton, Doc Severinsen.

All-Stars' All-Star Trumpet: Miles retained first place but was closely pressed by Freddie Hubbard, as Dizzy Gillespie slipped to third. Clark Terry, third last year, slipped from the top five as Maynard Ferguson moved in. 1. Miles Davis; 2. Freddie Hubbard; 3. Dizzy Gillespie; 4. Doc Severinsen; 5. Maynard Ferguson.

All-Stars' All-Star Trombone: J. J. Johnson and Urbie Green remained the men to beat, but there was turmoil below as George Bohanon, Bill Watrous, Curtis Fuller and veteran Al Grey moved into the listings, displacing Kai Winding, Bob Brookmeyer and Frank Rosolino. 1. J. J. Johnson; 2. Urbie Green; 3. George Bohanon, Curtis Fuller, Al Grey, Bill Watrous.

All-Stars' All-Star Alto Sax: Phil Woods came on strong enough to edge Cannonball Adderley for first place. Paul Desmond dropped a notch to third and Hank Crawford, not among last year's leaders, took the fourth spot. Lee Konitz was tied for the fifth position by Joe Farrell and Sonny Stitt. 1. Phil Woods; 2. Cannonball Adderley; 3. Paul Desmond; 4. Hank Crawford; 5. Joe Farrell, Lee Konitz, Sonny Stitt.

All-Stars' All-Star Tenor Sax: The tenor men were again led by Stan Getz, but Zoot Sims and Eddie Miller dropped from contention as the next two chairs went to Joe Henderson and Stanley Turrentine. Johnny Griffin and Sonny Rollins, who didn't place last year, came on to tie Wayne Shorter to round out the division. 1. Stan Getz; 2. Joe Henderson; 3. Stanley Turrentine; 4. Johnny Griffin, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter.

All-Stars' All-Star Baritone Sax: It was Gerry Mulligan one more time, as Harry Carney and Pepper Adams, who were second and third a year ago, exchanged places. Howard Johnson replaced Benny Crawford in the top five. 1. Gerry Mulligan; 2. Pepper Adams; 3. Harry Carney; 4. Cecil Payne; 5. Howard Johnson.

All-Stars' All-Star Clarinet: Buddy De Franco stayed in charge, but there were changes below, as Tony Scott and Jimmy Hamilton moved into contention; Jimmy Giuffre and Alvin Batiste were the dropouts. 1. Buddy De Franco; 2. Benny Goodman, Tony Scott; 4. Pete Fountain, Jimmy Hamilton.

All-Stars' All-Star Piano: The younger generation made itself felt here. Herbie Hancock came up from second place to knock off Bill Evans, with Evans dropping to third and Oscar Peterson advancing a notch to second. Hank Jones moved into the top five, displacing Chucho for fourth place. The big news, though, was the three-pianist jam-up in fifth place, with a couple of rock musicians involved. 1. Herbie Hancock; 2. Oscar Peterson; 3. Bill Evans; 4. Hank Jones; 5. Chick Corea, Nicky Hopkins, Leon Russell.

All-Stars' All-Star Organ: Perennial winner Jimmy Smith turned the trick again--but, as in so many other categories, little else remained stable. Khalid Yasin came from limbo to claim second; Isaac Hayes also moved into contention as Groove Holmes, Owen Bradley and Keith Emerson got lost in the shuffle. 1. Jimmy Smith; 2. Khalid Yasin; 3. Billy Preston; 4. Wild Bill Davis, Isaac Hayes.

All-Stars' All-Star Vibes: The results here, strangely enough, almost duplicated those of last year. The only changes were in the fourth and fifth spots, which were traded by Roy Ayers and Lionel Hampton. 1. Milt Jackson; 2. Gary Burton; 3. Bobby Hutcherson; 4. Lionel Hampton; 5. Roy Ayers.

All-Stars' All-Star Guitar: George Benson, third last year, was a surprisingly easy winner. Last year's All-Star, Jim Hall, came in second; Kenny Burrell also dropped a notch, to third. Gabor Szabo and Herb Ellis faded as Joe Pass and John McLaughlin entered the top five. 1. George Benson; 2. Jim Hall; 3. Kenny Burrell; 4. Joe Pass; 5. John McLaughlin.

All-Stars' All-Star Bass: Ray Brown and Ron Carter matched their one-two finish of last year--but Miroslav Vitous, Eddie Gomez and Jack Six were blocked out by Chuck Rainey, Richard Davis and Stanley Clark. 1. Ray Brown; 2. Ron Carter; 3. Chuck Rainey; 4. Stanley Clark, Richard Davis.

All-Stars' All-Star Drums: Here, too, the first- and second-placers--Buddy Rich and Tony Williams--held on; but Bernard Purdie, Elvin Jones and Roy Haynes took over from Philly Joe Jones, Mel Lewis and Jack De Johnette. 1. Buddy Rich; 2. Tony Williams; 3. Bernard Purdie; 4. Roy Haynes, Elvin Jones.

All-Stars' All-Star Miscellaneous Instrument: Here, too, there was a collision in fifth place. Rahsaan Roland Kirk was unshakable at the top, but Hubert Laws made a strong showing in taking second place. Last year's runner-up, Herbie Mann, tied for third with newcomer Airto Moreira; Keith Emerson and Pharoah Sanders were among last year's leaders but did not make it this time. 1. Rahsaan Roland Kirk, flute, manzello, stritch; 2. Hubert Laws, flute; 3. Herbie Mann, flute; Airto Moreira, percussion; 5. Paul Horn, soprano sax; Charles Lloyd, flute; Jean Thielemans, harmonica.

All-Stars' All-Star Male Vocalist: Billy Eckstine, pressed by Tony Bennett, took the laurels as last year's leader, Ray Charles, failed to make the top five, and newcomers Leon Thomas and Donny Hathaway tied for third. 1. Billy Eckstine; 2. Tony Bennett; 3. Donny Hathaway, Leon Thomas; 5. Joe Williams.

All-Stars' All-Star Female Vocalist: This was Roberta Flack's show, as she came up from fifth place to take it all. Last year's winner, Ella Fitzgerald, slipped only to second; but Dionne Warwicke, third a year ago, dropped out as Carmen McRae moved up. 1. Roberta Flack; 2. Ella Fitzgerald; 3. Sarah Vaughan; 4. Aretha Franklin; 5. Carmen McRae.

All-Stars' All-Star Vocal Group: The 5th Dimension remained in first place, but the Staple Singers took over second as the Jackson 5 slipped into a four-group standoff for third. The Carpenters and the Four Freshmen, in the top five for 1972, did not return. 1. 5th Dimension; 2. Staple Singers; 3. Bread, Jackson 5, Poco, Sly & the Family Stone.

All-Stars' All-Star Songwriter-Composer: Ellington repeated his victory of last year, but runner-up Jim Webb fell to fourth, in another jam-up of major proportions--further evidence that today's music scene is remarkably diffused, with no particular style or idiom in a clear position of dominance. Prominent dropouts from last year's list were Burt Bacharach--Hal David, Henry Mancini and Johnny Mandel. 1. Duke Ellington; 2. Michel Legrand, Carole King; 4. Isaac Hayes, Quincy Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Wayne Shorter, Jim Webb.

All-Stars' All-Star Instrumental Combo: The All-Stars agreed with the readers this year as they made Chicago number one, over Miles Davis, who won last year. All of last year's other leaders--the Bill Evans Trio, Blood, Sweat & Tears, the Oscar Peterson Trio and the Modern Jazz Quartet--failed to repeat. 1. Chicago; 2. Miles Davis; 3. Cannonball Adderley Quintet, Mahavishnu Orchestra; 5. The World's Greatest Jazzband.

Records of the Year

As is our custom, we asked our readers to vote for the albums they considered tops for the year, in three categories--best LP by a big band, best LP by a small combo (fewer than ten pieces) and best vocal LP. Here's how it turned out.

Best Big-Band LP: Procol Harum Live in Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (A&M). Classical-rock--not to mention the fortunes of Procol Harum--got a big shot in the arm from this concert, which found the group getting assistance from 24 extra singers and 52 symphony musicians on such items as Conquistador (a hit single) and In Held 'Twas in I, a side-long medley including four of the group's tunes, plus a Grand Finale.

Best Small-Combo LP: Chicago V (Columbia). On its first release that didn't include at least two discs, Chicago didn't break any new ground but maintained its usual standard of excellence, combining the singing of Robert Lamm, Terry Kath and Peter Cetera with tight instrumental work; some of the highlights of the session were A Hit by Varese, Dialogue and Saturday in the Park.

Best Vocal LP: Harvest/Neil Young (Reprise). Aided at times on this LP by Crosby, Stills and Nash, at other times by such folk-rock luminaries as James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, and elsewhere by the London Symphony Orchestra, Young delighted his followers with yet another program of melancholic, deceptively simple songs, such as Heart of Gold, Old Man and the title tune.

Best Big-Band LP

Best small-combo LP

Best vocal LP

Jazz & Pop hall of fame

There were several new entries in this year's Hall of Fame sweepstakes--won by Eric Clapton, whose victory is celebrated elsewhere. Sentiment for the late Duane Allman undoubtedly played a part in his second-place finish, as it did a year ago in the strong showings by Jim Morrison (one of last year's inductees) and King Curtis. Chuck Berry, godfather of the rock generation, came into his own this year; he finished fifth, in his first appearance among the contenders. Other new entries are Ian Anderson, Leon Russell, Keith Emerson (who did well in several categories of the Readers' Poll, besides copping top spot among the organists), Rod Stewart, Keith Richard (no longer just another Rolling Stone), John Mayall, Dizzy Gillespie (the only bona fide jazzman on the list) and Isaac Hayes. Neil Diamond, Doc Severinsen, Elton John, Paul Simon and Ringo Starr moved up; backsliders included Carole King, Burt Bacharach and, most notably, James Taylor, who skidded all the way from eighth to 25th. Disappearing from the list altogether were B. B. King (tenth last year) and Joan Baez (13th), as well as Johnny Cash, Henry Mancini, Dionne Warwicke, King Curtis and Joe Cocker. Here are the top 25 vote getters:

All-Star Readers' Poll

The greatest surprise of this year's Readers' Poll, perhaps, is that there are no great surprises. Sure, there were the normal fluctuations of individuals and groups within the various categories, and some new heroes made the scene. But there were few startling leaps or falls and there was no change in the basic pattern established by the voting over the past several years, which has found rock people dominating the group categories, while jazzmen--mostly middle-of-the-road jazzmen--continue to hold their own in the horn sections. The only categories that saw a change of leadership this year were organ, with Keith Emerson ousting Booker T., who slipped to fourth, behind the advancing Isaac Hayes and Billy Preston; male vocalist, where Mick Jagger, third a year ago, bumped Rod Stewart off his throne (Stewart is second this year, while James Taylor, last year's runner-up, is down in the 14th spot); and vocal group, as The Rolling Stones ended the reign of The Moody Blues, who came in second this time around. Those who retained their laurels included big-band leader and trumpeter Doc Severinsen, trombonist J. J. Johnson, alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, tenor man Stan Getz, baritone man Gerry Mulligan, clarinetist Pete Fountain, pianist Elton John, vibist Lionel Hampton, guitarist Eric Clapton (also elected to the Jazz & Pop Hall of Fame), bassist Paul McCartney, drummer Buddy Rich, flutist Ian Anderson, vocalist Carole King, the songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and the instrumental combo Chicago. A number of newcomers made strong showings. Chuck Mangione came from limbo to place seventh among the big-band leaders; trombonist James Pankow, unheard from last year, made the fifth spot in his category; alto saxophonists Edgar Winter and Chris Wood, both nowhere a year ago, placed second and fourth, respectively, while Grover Washington, Jr., riding a string of soul-jazz hits, also came from obscurity to place 12th; pianists Robert Lamm (eighth) and Billy Preston (11th) made their first appearances, as did Donny Hathaway, in 24th place. Phil Kraus, 12th among the vibraphonists, and bassists Peter Cetera and Carl Radle (fifth and eighth, respectively) are also newcomers. So are Flgelhorn player Mangione and steel guitarist Rusty Young, both appearing for the first time in the other-instruments results. Among the drummers, veteran jazzman Billy Cobham came out of left field to take the tenth spot, thanks to his exposure with the Mahavishnu Orchestra, while Carl Palmer and Daniel Seraphine showed significant upward mobility. Guitarist John McLaughlin, leader of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, made his first appearance, in sixth place--a formidable entry and evidence that the Playboy electorate still has ears for a progressive jazz sound. The ninth, tenth and 11th spots under the male-vocalist heading show names that weren't on the list a year ago: freak-rocker Alice Cooper, songwriter Nilsson and the resurgent Van Morrison. Among the female vocalists, upward progress was made by Roberta Flack, Chér and Carly Simon; the newcomers were Helen Reddy and Merry Clayton. Also in ascendancy were two new entries, the Allman Brothers Band and Yes, among the vocal groups; first-timers Robert Lamm and Nilsson in the songwriter-composer category; and Weather Report and Danny Davis & the Nashville Brass--both new--among the instrumental combos. The gap between the readers' choices and those of the musicians themselves continues to be a noticeable one: For instance, Billy Eckstine, our All-Stars' All-Star as male vocalist, did not place in the Readers' Poll. Neither did Duke Ellington, the All-Stars' choice for songwriter-composer. And George Benson, voted top guitar picker by the musicians, could do no better than 24th in the Readers' Poll. (Speaking of guitarists, rock patriarch Chuck Berry, enjoying a new wave of popularity with My Ding-A-Ling, appeared in the results for the first time, in 20th place; he also finished fifth in the Hall of Fame balloting.) In some categories, the readers and the musicians agreed: J. J. Johnson, Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan and Buddy Rich took top honors in both polls. But the results differ in the other categories--and that, of course, is why we have two polls.

Listed herewith are the most popular artists in each category. The names in boldface are those of the All-Stars; they will receive silver medals, as will those whose recordings were adjudged best of the year by our readers. Eric Clapton will receive an additional medal in recognition of his election to the Hall of Fame.

Big-Band Leader

Trumpet

Trombone

Alto Sax

Tenor Sax

Baritone Sax

Clarinet

Piano

Organ

Vibes

Guitar

Bass

Drums

Other Instruments

Male Vocalist

Female Vocalist

Vocal Group

Songwriter-Composer

Instrumental Combo

The 1973 Playboy All-Stars

The 1973 Playboy All-stars' All-Stars

The 1973 Playboy All-Star Band