Jazz & Pop '74

In a year when a Vice-President was forced to resign for being on the take, and when Watergate and its noisome ramifications brought down key Presidential advisors while the President himself was at bay, country music came on strong. Maybe it's because of that music's down-home verities and the reassuring straightforwardness of its performers; but, in any case, over 800 radio stations from New York to Los Angeles were all-country outlets by the end of the year (a steep rise from 81 such stations in 1961). And college campuses throughout the country also swelled the audience for true-grit sounds. As Buck Owens put it, "In the old days, the family that listened to me drove a broken truck and came from the fields. Now it has two cars and a TV set. The music hasn't changed much; the audience has. It's more hip, but it still wants music from the soil and the soul."

More cityfolk than ever before were picking up on Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash and his resplendent wife, June Carter Cash, Tom T. Hall and Charlie Rich. For the silver-haired Rich, it was the finest year of his performing life. After many, many nights of playing in nondescript lounges and saloons, he finally broke through to win Country Music Association awards as 1973's best male country singer and for the best album and single of the year (Behind Closed Doors).

Meanwhile, along with the continuing success of black country singer Charlie Pride, the year witnessed the arrival of the first purveyor of Jewish country music--Texas-raised Kinky Friedman and his Texas Jewboys. Their sound and rhythms are as authentic as the mesquite of the Southwest, but the mordantly witty lyrics are quite something else, as Friedman draws from both of his primary cultural roots. "Both Jewboys and cowboys," (text continued on page 149) he explains, "are wandering, soulful types. Both have their problems and know how to enjoy their suffering pretty well." As the year went on, Friedman was pleased to learn that his recordings were being played not only by city sophisticates but also on jukeboxes at Texas truck stops.

While increasing numbers of people turned to country sounds, the flow also went the other way. Merle Haggard, for instance, recorded a set in New Orleans that moved authoritatively and joyfully among Dixieland jazz, blues and country music. A particularly lively force in the outreach of country spirit was sizzling banjo picker Earl Scruggs, whose traveling Revue includes his two sons. In their early 20s, Gary and Randy Scruggs fuse the songs of Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and other inspirational sources of their generation with the driving bluegrass thrust of father Earl. The formula is working, for, as Scruggs says, "Last year was my most successful as long as I've been in the business."

It was also an encouraging year for jazz. There was a considerable increase in the number of jazz albums released as well as in the number of night clubs switching their policy to jazz. Especially important for the future was the youth of many new recruits to the music. On Sunday afternoons, for example, New York's Village Vanguard--which stayed with jazz during all the lean years--attracted listeners as young as 12 and 13. At another jazz club, Charles Mingus declared himself surprised at seeing in each night's audience "lots of those rock kids with long hair."

Among the explanations for this resurgence of jazz was pianist Marian McPartland's observation that "Rock groups like Mahavishnu and Weather Report have incorporated many jazz elements into their music and the kids have become sophisticated."

A second and particularly intriguing analysis of the greening of jazz came from drummer Chico Hamilton. "Jazz is a music of reconciliation," he says. "In some ways, rock was a rebellion against the tastes of parents. But now kids are listening to jazz and they find they have an area where they can relate to the older generation."

A growing number of kids, moreover, are also playing jazz. At the biggest and most diversified music communion of the year--the ten-day Newport Jazz Festival in New York from June 29 to July 8--one of the most rousing bands was a unit from housing projects on Staten Island with an eight-piece saxophone section whose members ranged in age from 10 to 18. At another concert, Youth and Jazz, there were three crackling bands of youngsters--the Jazz Interactions Workshop Orchestra (directed by trumpeter Joe Newman), the Jazzmobile Workshop Orchestra (guided by bassist Paul West) and the All-City High School Jazz Orchestra (coached by Marian McPartland and Clem DeRosa). Also participating in the festival were drummer Thelonious Monk, Jr. (son of the original, to say the least, Thelonious Monk), and 13-year-old singer Tom Littlefield, Jr. (grandson of Woody Herman).

Those ten days and nights of Newport Jazz in New York encompassed more than 1000 musicians of all conceivable styles in 56 concerts, some taking place simultaneously, throughout the city--from New Orleans--flavored boat rides on the Hudson to sessions at Carnegie Hall, the Apollo Theater, Central Park, Shea Stadium and a climactic final-night triumph in suburbia, Jazz and Soul on the Island, at Long Island's Nassau Coliseum. Total attendance for all the events was approximately 133,000--an increase of 31,000 from the year before. The revels cost more than $1,000,000, with musicians' fees coming to half of that. Impresario George Wein just about broke even with the aid (continued on page 178)Jazz&Pop'74(continued from page 149) of foundation and industry subsidies. As The New York Times reported, "Jazz critics and historians could think of no event to match it in scope since jazz was born."

In 1972, the Newport Festival's first in New York, there had been a rebellious counterfestival staged by the New York Musicians' Organization, 500, mostly black, "underground" players who felt that the festival was ignoring much of the more adventurous new jazz in the city. This past year, the rebels were an official part of the festival, while still producing their own series of sessions in all five boroughs of New York by scores of groups for whom no place had been provided in the Newport Festival's programs.

One of the more memorable performances at Newport in New York was that of Gerry Mulligan's 17-piece Age of Steam band, whose set included A Weed in Disneyland, which the bearded, longhaired leader dedicated "to the President of the United States." Among the avant-garde musicians, a festival standout was percussionist Milford Graves, a brilliantly inventive drummer who should finally attract larger audiences in the year ahead. Another powerful presence was Argentinian tenor saxophonist Gato Barbieri, a specialist in "Third World jazz," which, in his case, is deeply rooted in Latin-American traditions, including resiliently complex Indian rhythmic patterns. Barbieri was also responsible for the evocative score for the year's most controversial film, Last Tango in Paris.

Not only at the Newport Festival but also in other engagements throughout the year, the redoubtable Charles Mingus continued to demonstrate why his Jazz Workshop is, as one writer put it, "the Harvard University of jazz." Meanwhile, the permanent president and founder of the most prestigious of all traveling jazz universities, Duke Ellington, received an honorary doctorate in music from Columbia University. That makes 19 doctorates that have been collected by Dr. Ellington, in addition to his having been elected to the Royal Academy of Music in Sweden and to this country's National Institute of Arts and Letters. After the ceremonies at Columbia, Duke, never one to coast on his laurels, hastened to the airport to board a plane for Iowa City, where he was scheduled to play a college dance that very night.

During 1973, another veteran composer-arranger-leader, Gil Evans, after years of fairly hard times, was on the verge of attracting considerable popular interest in his blending of subtly shifting, multicolored orchestral textures with pungent jazz solos and an insistent rhythmic pulse that reached both jazz and rock listeners. With an Atlantic recording contract and a national tour that started in October, the former Claude Thornhill and Miles Davis arranger was further evidence of the year's jazz renascence.

Still on the way up and a force to watch for in 1974 is Dee Dee Bridgewater. A stunning singer, visually as well as vocally, she moves from a base in jazz and blues into a distinctly individual style, which, as Dr. Ellington would say, is beyond category. Already established, the softly intense "soul singer" Roberta flack branched out last year. Though still taking care of business in night clubs and on recordings, she also enrolled at the University of Massachusetts School of Education to begin work on a doctorate, with emphasis on studying ways to better teach disadvantaged children. Her schedule not being full enough, she also prepared for a three-week concert tour of Africa in February 1974 to raise money for Africare, an organization that trains local health workers in Africa in preventive medical techniques. She is making the trip, she noted, because "a resurgence of black pride has caused black people in this country to reclaim their long-suppressed African heritage."

Another affirmer of black pride was B. B. King, who in June figured prominently in Mississippi Homecoming, which commemorated the tenth anniversary of the death of civil rights leader Medgar Evers and the advances made in Mississippi since then through the vigorous persistence of Medgar's brother, Charles Evers. Joining the Staple Singers and Dick Gregory, among others, B. B. King helped mark what Mississippi governor Bill Waller had designated as Medgar Evers Memorial Festival Day. When it was over, King and Charles Evers started making plans for an annual Mississippi home-coming festival. Before that next journey home, King will take indigenous American blues to eight African countries under State Department auspices.

While blues and jazz continued to be exported, there was increased home-front support for America's true classical music. The National Endowment for the Arts awarded a total of $225,000 in jazz grants to 165 individuals and organizations. The Ford Foundation also recognized the cultural importance of jazz by giving a three-year grant of $140,000 to the New York Jazz Museum through its founding organization, the New York Hot Jazz Society. These funds, the Ford Foundation observed, are to enable the museum to "continue the expansion of its archives and publications; presentations of living musicians; a touring program for schools, colleges and universities; and other activities devoted to maintaining jazz as a living art form as well as a historical and cultural asset."

An equally important grant was one of $21,300 from the National Endowment of the Arts to New York's Jazz Interactions for a series of five-hour interviews with jazz musicians. These additions to the music's oral history will be kept in the archives of the Library of Congress.

One of the musicians interviewed in that series, the lustily swinging trombonist J. C. Higginbotham, died during the year. Also lost, at 86, was Kid Ory, who gave Louis Armstrong one of his first jobs and whose career spanned 75 years from New Orleans to Honolulu, where he died. At a New Orleans-style funeral, trombonist Trummy Young and a local jazz band played, as is the custom, a gentle hymn, followed by Ory's rollicking classic Muskrat Ramble.

Another name on the obituary list was that of Eddie Condon, a most dependable jazz guitarist and the sharpest of jazz wits. Years ago, reacting to the criticism of French jazz pundit Hugues Panassié, Condon observed: "He's a game guy, coming over here and telling us how to play jazz. We don't go over to France and tell them how to jump on a grape, do we?" It was with Condon that Gene Krupa made his first record date, in 1927. Toward the close of 1973, the flamboyant drummer, best known for his work with Benny Goodman, died.

Other casualties of time were Ben Webster, who set standards for quality of tone and breadth of expression for jazz tenor saxophonists, trombonist Wilbur De Paris and vintage Gospel singers Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Clara Ward. Also, lost in a plane crash was singer Jim Croce; and one of the favorites of rock aficionados, a founding member of the Grateful Dead, organist-singer Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, died at 27.

Life, including the Grateful Dead, moved on. The Dead was one of the cynosures at the year's biggest rock festival--and the largest music festival in the nation's history--at Watkins Glen, New York. More than 600,000 of the young came from all over the country to that town's Grand Prix auto race course. (By contrast, the seemingly epochal Woodstock Festival of 1969 drew between 300,000 and 400,000.) At Watkins Glen, the music was satisfying and the huge crowd, despite rain and mud, was content.

At Watkins Glen, as well as everywhere else during the rock year past, no new superstars rocketed into view. But among those on the rise during 1973 were: War; Earth, Wind & Fire; The Sylvers; Mandrill; Tower of Power; Bloodstone; Seals & Crofts; and humorist Martin Mull. In the rest of the field, popular taste by and large seemed to be moving, as Helen Reddy put it, "away from loud noise and back to melody and lyrics." Those artists who were already at that point--Carole King, Melanie, John Denver, Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson, Peter Yarrow, Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon (the last three now performing as singles)--became even more popular in 1973. And the newcomers who seemed most likely to stay around were also intriguing storytellers rather than electrified casters of thunderbolts. Among them: Jimmy Buffett, Michael Franks and, most notably, Steve Goodman. Author of City of New Orleans, Goodman is a deft, witty chronicler of our life and times. So well thought of is Goodman by his contemporary bards that Kris Kristofferson co-produced his first album and the pianist on the title song of last year's Somebody Else's Troubles was Robert Milkwood Thomas (also known as Bob Dylan). That sphinx-like antihero of the Sixties showed signs of restlessness in 1973. Occasionally slipping out of seclusion, Dylan wrote the title song and appeared with Kristofferson in the movie Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid; and also took part in Texan Doug Sahm's recording sessions that marked the former Sir Douglas' return to his mellow country-and-blues beginnings.

A lot of musicians and listeners were also looking back last year. One of the particularly pleasurable events at the Newport in New York Jazz Festival was A Thirties Ball at the Roseland ballroom with the bands of Woody Herman, Count Basie and Duke Ellington. For four and a half hours, some 3500 people crowded the sizable dance floor (10,000 square feet). As for country-music nostalgia, there was a steady rise in the number of authentic bluegrass festivals. "Hardly a weekend goes by from May to November," The Wall Street Journal noted, "without one or more gatherings of 'bluegrass people' somewhere across the country from Massachusetts to Texas, reviving a music that appeared to be dying a decade or so ago."

There was also a revivification of the rock past. One of the year's most critically acclaimed movies, George Lucas' American Graffiti, had as its sound track a cornucopia of "golden oldies" by such memory restorers as Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, the Platters and the still-thriving Chuck Berry. And Richard Nader profitably continued his Fifties Rock and Roll Revival tours. Said the successful promoter: "I put the revival together primarily to appeal to the over-25 age group who remembered when."

Nader not only harvests the past but also claims to be able to predict the future. Nostalgia will pass, he says, to be succeeded by a visual cycle during which the look of a group will be more important than its music. Nader points to the garish start of this wave of "glitter rock" in the performances of Alice Cooper, David Bowie, T-Rex and Dr. John. There will be, he asserts, even more emphasis on "elaborate costumes, freaky outfits, costume changes, lights, smoke and fire onstage, skits instead of songs, or skits to songs.... It's not enough these days in rock to just have an artist play. He or they have to be presented."

Bearing out Nader's prophecy is Alice Cooper, who, during a three-month, 56-city tour of the country, took with him, The New York Times reported, "an eight-and-a-half-ton stage on five levels with Plexiglas staircases that light up; two rotating mirror balls; 146 chase lights; four silver mannequins; a nine-and-a-half-foot mummy with 430 (count 'em) glass jewels that also light up, and laser-beam eyes ... a guillotine; an operating table; an outsize dentist's drill; a toothbrush and tube of tooth paste; a four-and-a-half-foot tooth worn by a dancing girl; 25 mannequins, flesh-colored, to be thrown about; swords; switchblades; a boa constrictor ... and an American flag." The rig costs $150,000 and it "takes 22 men five hours to put it all up and three to take it down."

As more of rock is aimed at satisfying what Nader foretells will be the "extremely violent and extremely humorous" show-business demands of the young, composer-performer Paul Williams asks in wonderment: "What will they do next, turn a member of the band into a pizza and fling him to the audience at the end of the show?"

Quite another kind of visual surprise during the music year was the presence for the first time in Stan Kenton's many bands of a sidewoman--20-year-old tenor saxophonist Mary Fettig. But, Kenton insists, her position in the reed section has nothing to do with women's liberation. "I don't believe in tokenism," he emphasized. Nor does sidewoman Fettig identify with what she calls "right-on women's libbers." What turns her off, she says, is that "they start clapping the minute I walk up [to the microphone]. It doesn't matter what I play."

Female consciousness raising did, however, make inroads into the music scene. Both New Haven and Chicago were home bases for women's liberation rock bands; and in Berkeley, a five-woman hard-rock group called Eyes was determinedly trying to proselytize while it played. In its lyrics, it's the man who gets kicked out ("I asked you over a month ago, please to move out your things;/You say you'd really like to oblige me, but your arm is still in a sling").

The most successful performer committed to women's liberation is Helen Reddy, who, in March, when accepting her Grammy award for I Am Woman, thanked Capitol Records; her husband and manager, Jeff Wald; and God ("because She makes everything possible"). Ms. Reddy acts on, as well as sings about, her convictions. After drawing large crowds during her first Las Vegas engagement, she proclaimed that next time she is booked into that city without clocks, she wants a clause in her contract requiring that a female bartender be hired at the hotel where she performs. Women's liberationist Reddy became a millionaire during the year. "I have to laugh when they say the American dream is dead," she says. "I am living proof of its reality." Adding to that proof was the summer-long Flip Wilson Presents the Helen Reddy Show on NBC-TV, where the exuberant Pointer Sisters, through guest shots, attracted national attention.

Along with Ms. Reddy's show, television last year gave more time to rock and pop music than ever before. NBC fielded The Midnight Special, while ABC countered with the regularly scheduled In Concert. A third entry is the widely syndicated Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. For his first program, music publisher and television producer Kirshner scooped the opposition by snaring The Rolling Stones. As for the coming year, indications are we'll be seeing more and more rock on the tube.

The year in television was also marked by Frank Sinatra's moving further out of retirement with a one-hour special on NBC in November. During the summer, he returned to the record studios and cut an album, Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back, for Reprise. Showing that he still pays attention to what's happening on the music scene, Sinatra included Kristofferson's Nobody Wins.

From Frank Sinatra to Alice Cooper, the record industry was prospering, with total record sales for the year likely to exceed the 1972 figures of more than a billion dollars in the United States and 3.3 billion world-wide. One musical import enlivening record sales during 1973 was reggae (pronounced ray-gay). Begun some 15 years ago in Jamaica, reggae is a haunting blend of West Indian and African rhythms, American soul and blues textures and absorbingly evocative lyrics, many of which reflect the rise of black political consciousness in the Caribbean. A number of artists explored reggae during the year--Johnny Nash, Johnny Rivers, Three Dog Night and Harry Nilsson among them--but the master of the form was Jimmy Cliff of Jamaica, who by year's end was spreading the reggae message and sensuous sound on Reprise.

Meanwhile, seemingly on top of the recording scene, Columbia Records' president Clive Davis, who in three years had doubled his company's share of the market, had a catastrophic year. In May, he was fired on charges of financial malfeasance--spending corporate funds on personal matters. His dismissal was followed by graver allegations against others in the recording and broadcast fields. The Internal Revenue Service began a nationwide investigation to determine whether or not record companies have hidden payola expenditures under the guise of legitimate promotion expenses. Simultaneously, the Justice Department was exploring allegations concerning drug use, organized-crime involvement and payola in the broadcast and record industries.

During the summer, Senator James Buckley of New York, while conducting his own investigation, called for "the broadest possible enquiry" by the Federal Communications Commission. In the months that followed, a growing number of record companies and radio stations were served subpoenas requiring them to produce their files for the edification of Federal investigators. At year's end, it appeared that these governmental probes would continue into 1974.

Except for that anxiety-making obbligato to the year's events, there were more pleasant auguries for the year ahead. Accelerating a trend going back to the late Sixties, music and musicians were coming together. For one thing, the internal jazz wars were coming to an end. An index of more broad-mindedness on both sides was the presence of such avant-garde jazz figures as Archie Shepp, together with traditional players, at the July fourth dedication of what is now the Louis Armstrong Memorial Stadium (formerly the Singer Bowl) in Queens, where Armstrong lived.

There was also greater contact between jazz and rock players. As jazz historian Nesuhi Ertegun, long in charge of Atlantic Records' jazz division, observed, "More and more I notice an increasing fusion between rock and jazz--these musicians want to play together, make recordings together." "Music today," tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins agreed, "is integrating." Also concurring was country composer-performer Charlie Daniels, who saw more than musical integration at work in what he prefers to call "Southern music." "The South is really changing," Daniels says. "People are becoming much more tolerant and the kids are growing up and becoming a majority that won't be pushed around. It's reflected in the music."

Not only has the South been changing. Throughout the country, the generation brought up on the barrier-breaking popular music of the recent past are generally less rigid and more open to whatever changes are to come in all aspects of their lives than preceding generations have been. And their common language continues to be the music they share across class and color lines. As Joseph Smith, a former disc jockey and now co-head of Warner Bros. Records, says, "Music is participatory now. You've got a generation buying it that has lived through ten years of craziness and crisis. Those kids need those albums. You can't separate it from their lives."

As has been strongly evident during the past decade, moreover, this multiracial, continually expanding music appears to be essential to many of the young elsewhere in the world. A member of the 5th Dimension, the first black pop group to be sent on a State Department tour of eastern Europe, reported back: "There's a lot of soul in Czechoslovakia." And deep in Siberia, a local rock group clearly influenced by Jimi Hendrix listens carefully to foreign radio to keep in touch with new developments. Also in Russia, in the suburban village of Barvikha, graffiti on the walls of the hockey rink bear the names, in bold lettering, of the Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Can China be far behind?

All-Star Musicians' Poll

Last year, when we expanded the electoral base of our musicians' poll by sending ballots to all those who placed in the previous tally--rather than just the medal winners--six categories saw a change of leadership. This year, there were eight (in two cases, former champs managed to regain their thrones). The results are still dominated by jazzmen, partly because rock musicians seem to have a harder time agreeing on who's best.

All-Stars' All-Star Leader: Ellington again (what else is new?). Quincy Jones moved past Count Basie, as did Doc Severinsen and Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, who didn't place a year ago; Stan Kenton dropped out. 1. Duke Ellington; 2. Quincy Jones; 3. Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, Doc Severinsen; 5. Count Basie.

All-Stars' All-Star Trumpet: Freddie Hubbard, a close second last time, passed Miles Davis; Dizzy and Doc held firm. 1. Freddie Hubbard; 2. Miles Davis; 3. Dizzy Gillespie; 4. Doc Severinsen; 5. Oscar Brashear, Jon Faddis, Clark Terry.

All-Stars' All-Star Trombone: Not surprisingly, there was some sliding around here. Perennial winner J. J. Johnson had no problems, but Urbie Green, George Bohanon and Al Grey failed to repeat; new contenders are Carl Fontana and Vic Dickenson. 1. J. J. Johnson; 2. Carl Fontana, Curtis Fuller; 4. Vic Dickenson, Bill Watrous.

All-Stars' All-Star Alto Sax: Cannonball Adderley, upset a year ago by Phil Woods, won the rematch; Hank Crawford, Joe Farrell and Lee Konitz didn't make the winners' circle this time. 1. Cannonboll Adderley; 2. Phil Woods; 3. Paul Desmond; 4. Ornette Coleman, Sonny Stitt.

All-Stars' All-Star Tenor Sax: Getz gets the medal again, but Stanley Turrentine exchanged places with Joe Henderson; Johnny Griffin and Wayne Shorter failed to make it back. 1. Stan Getz; 2. Stanley Turrentine; 3. Joe Henderson, Boots Randolph; 5. Sonny Rollins.

All-Stars' All-Star Baritone Sax: We could just wrap this one up and let Gerry take it with him. 1. Gerry Mulligan; 2. Pepper Adams; 3. Harry Carney, Charles Davis, Cecil Payne.

All-Stars' All-Star Clarinet: It was Benny Goodman's year, and the voters hadn't missed it; longtime leader Buddy De Franco slipped two notches, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Eddie Daniels moved into the top five, replacing Tony Scott and Pete Fountain. 1. Benny Goodman; 2. Jimmy Hamilton; 3. Buddy De Franco; 4. Eddie Daniels, Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

All-Stars' All-Star Piano: Oscar Peterson, who surrendered his title in 1971, took it back this time. Missing from last year's top five are Bill Evans, Hank Jones and Nicky Hopkins. Leon Russell must be lonely in this company. 1. Oscar Peterson; 2. Herbie Hancock; 3. Chick Corea; 4. Keith Jarrett, Leon Russell.

All-Stars' All-Star Organ: Jimmy Smith, who just celebrated his 20th year as a recording artist, won by a landslide, as he usually does. 1. Jimmy Smith; 2. Billy Preston: 3. Wild Bill Davis, Johnny Hammond, Khalid Yasin (Larry Young).

All-Stars' All-Star Vibes: Like Mulligan and Smith. Milt Jackson continues to win with ease. 1. Milt Jackson; 2. Gary Burton; 3. Lionel Hampton, Bobby Hutcherson; 5. Roy Ayers.

All-Stars' All-Star Guitar: George Benson, who vaulted to the top last year, consolidated his gains. The other names are the same; Joe Pass came up from fourth to take second place, as last year's runner-up, Jim Hall, slipped to fifth. 1. George Benson; 2. Joe Pass: 3. John McLaughlin; 4. Kenny Burrell; 5. Jim Hall.

All-Stars' All-Star Bass: Ray Brown, who'd held the top spot for some seasons, slipped a bit as Ron Carter took over. The five names are the same. 1. Ron Carter; 2. Ray Brown; 3. Chuck Rainey; 4. Stanley Clarke; 5. Richard Davis.

All-Stars' All-Star Drums: The big news here was Billy Cobham, who came from nowhere to tip Buddy Rich. Jack DeJohnette and Art Blakey also made the scene, at the expense of Bernard Purdie, Roy Haynes and Elvin Jones. 1. Billy Cobham; 2. Buddy Rich; 3. Tony Williams: 4. Art Blakey, Jack DeJohnette.

All-Stars' All-Star Miscellaneous Instrument: Rahsaan Roland Kirk continues to be our most miscellaneous musician; nobody joined the top five, though Paul Horn and Charles Lloyd, who tied for the fifth spot a year ago, dropped out. 1. Rahsaan Roland Kirk, flute, manzello, stritch; 2. Hubert Laws, flute; 3. Herbie Mann, flute; Airto Moreira, percussion; Jean Thielemans, harmonica.

All-Stars' All-Star Male Vocalist: Billy Eckstine retained his laurels, but the big story was the rhythm-'n'-blues revolution, led by Al Green, Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles--none of whom made the top five in 1973. 1. Billy Eckstine; 2. Al Green; 3. Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder; 5. Tony Bennett, Joe Williams.

All-Stars' All-Star Female Vocalist: The same ladies are all back again, but Sarah Vaughan and Roberta Flack have changed places. 1. Sarah Vaughan; 2. Ella Fitzgerald; 3. Roberta Flack, Aretha Franklin; 5. Carmen McRae.

All-Stars' All-Star Vocal Group: The 5th Dimension and the Staple Singers duplicated their one-two punch of '73, but the other contenders are new; they replace Bread, Jackson 5, Poco and Sly & the Family Stone. 1. 5th Dimension; 2. Staple Singers; 3. Stylistics; 4. Carpenters, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Temptations.

All-Stars' All-Star Songwriter-Composer: Stevie Wonder, who had a big--and creative--year, came from limbo to take second, as Ellington retained his honors in a very fragmented vote. 1. Duke Ellington; 2. Stevie Wonder; 3. Michel Legrand; 4. Carole King, Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson.

All-Stars' All-Star Instrumental Combo: In another diffused vote, a relatively obscure quartet organized by pianist Chick Corea came in first. The Freddie Hubbard group and the Crusaders are also new to the top five; among the missing are Miles Davis and The World's Greatest Jazzband. 1. Return to Forever; 2. Cannonball Adderley, Freddie Hubbard; 4. Chicago, Crusaders, Mahavishnu Orchestra.

Records of the Year

Readers were asked to pick the best LPs of 1973 in each of three categories--best record by a big band, best by a small combo (fewer than ten pieces) and best vocal LP. The results weren't too surprising.

Best Big-Band LP: Prelude / Deodato (CTI). That's Eumir Deodato, the young pianist/arranger from Brazil, who took a variety of themes--from Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001) to Baubles, Bangles and Beads--and found exactly the right men to make the backgrounds shimmer, the rhythms sparkle and the solos take off and go.

Best Small-Combo LP: Chicago VI (Columbia). Talk about self-sufficiency: These guys write their music, arrange it and record it at their own ranch. This LP, with the usual middle-of-the-road approach and the usual Chicago blend of horns and vocal harmonies, includes the Peter Cetera / James Pankow hit Feelin' Stronger Every Day and several tunes by Robert Lamm (Hollywood; Critics' Choice).

Best Vocal LP: Brothers and Sisters / The Allman Brothers Band (Capricorn). Actually, this group--like Chicago--sings and plays. Of course, most everyone knows that--and this LP, on which they did so much so well of both, certainly helped spread the word. The album includes some gritty blues (Jelly, Jelly) and some joyous country rock (Ramblin' Man).

Best Big-Band LP

Best Small-Combo LP

Best Vocal LP

Jazz & Pop Hall of Fame

A year ago, we implied that sentiment following the death of Duane Allman might have helped his second-place finish in the voting for our Jazz & Pop Hall of Fame. This time, however, Duane got across the goal line--his brief but illustrious career is detailed on page 148--and there's no longer any question about sentiment. Upward progress was also registered by Ian Anderson, Elton John, Paul simon, Ringo Starr and Buddy Rich, plus newcomers Cat Stevens, Stevie Wonder, B. B. King, John McLaughlin, Jimmy Page, Jerry Garcia, the late Jim Croce (we'll say nothing about sentiment) and a pair of jazz greats to bring up the rear: Charlie Parker, who's been dead since 1955, and Stan Kenton, who hovers over the music scene like the ghost of Hamlet's father. The most noticeable dropout from Hall of Fame contention was Burt Bacharach, tenth a year ago; exiting along with him were last year's bottom seven: Rod Stewart, Keith Richard, Stephen Stills, John Mayall. Dizzy Gillespie, Isaac Hayes and James Taylor. Here are the top 25 vote getters:

All-Star Readers' Poll

Once again, there wasn't much that the readers and the musicians agreed on. For the second year in a row, singer Billy Eckstine and guitarist George Benson won their categories in the musicians' poll; and for the second year in a row, Benson had to settle for a low rating in the Readers' Poll, while Eckstine failed to place. Return to Forever, voted top instrumental combo by the musicians, also failed to place; and several other winners in the musicians' poll--notably, Sarah Vaughan, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and (as a composer) Duke Ellington--did not fare too well in the Readers' Poll. On the other hand, most of the winners in the Readers' Poll did not get too much recognition from the musicians--whose voting tended to be much more divided. The only people who won in both polls were trombonist J. J. Johnson and the three saxophonists--Adderley, Getz and Mulligan.

If our readers don't agree with the musicians, they at least are consistent with themselves. Only four categories, out of 19, saw a change of leadership--and that's one more than a year ago. The changes were not without significance, however. Duane Allman's election to the Hall of Fame was complemented by the victory of his group, the Allman Brothers Band, in the vocal-group category. And complementing the fall of the group they displaced--The Rolling Stones--was the ousting of Mick Jagger as top male vocalist: he was knocked off by Neil Diamond, who finished in third place a year ago. The other changes were in the female-vocalist category, where Carly Simon came up from sixth to oust Carole King, and the songwriter-composer division, where Elton John and Bernie Taupin, third-place finishers in 1973, edged out last year's winning team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

The other pacesetters of '73 all stayed ahead. That means Doc Severinsen as leader and trumpeter; J. J. Johnson on trombone; Cannonball Adderley on alto sax: Stan Getz on tenor; Gerry Mulligan on baritone; Pete Fountain on clarinet; Elton John on piano; Keith Emerson on organ; Lionel Hampton on vibes: Eric Clapton on guitar; Paul McCartney on bass; Buddy Rich on drums; flutist Ian Anderson in the other-instruments category; and Chicago as the top instrumental combo.

So entrenched is the leadership in the horn categories that Miles Davis, Al Hirt and Herb Alpert kept their second-, third-and fourth-trumpet chairs in our All-Star band; tenor saxophonist Boots Randolph retained second chair in his division, as did altoist Edgar Winter; and Si Zentner held onto his place as second trombonist, with Slide Hampton moving up a notch to third and a resurgent Maynard Fenguson easing Kai Winding out of the section.

It wasn't quite that static down in the ranks, however. Some rather stylish listings were secured by entries who didn't place a year ago. They included Bette Midler's third-place finish among the female vocalists; the third-place rating achieved by veteran soul man Junior Walker on tenor sax; Karen Carpenter's appearance in 11th place among the drummers (all the more surprising since she dropped out of the vocalist ratings); Rick Wakeman's number-three finish on organ; Eumir Deodato's number-seven spot in the leader category; and the top-ten showings by male vocalists Robert Plant (of Led Zeppelin) and Stevie Wonder (where were they a year ago?). Other newcomers to the list include singers Al Green, David Bowie, Marvin Gave, Gladys Knight, Sarah Vaughan and Bonnie Raitt; violinists Papa John Creach and Doug Kershaw in the other-instruments category; Seals & Crofts. Stevie Wonder. Duke Ellington and Joni Mitchell among the composers; vocal groups Loggins &: Messina, Pink Floyd, War, the Temptations, Seals &: Crofts, and Sly & the Family Stone; and Hot Tuna, the Crusaders, Loggins &: Messina, Pink Floyd and Charles Mingus (who gained a few notches on bass, too) under the instrumental-combo heading.

Of course, when somebody new climbs on board, another someone has to go--and among our dropouts are some illustrious names. Such as songwriters John Lennon, Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman and Gordon Lightfoot; singers Bob Dylan, Joe Cocker, Stephen Stills and Andy Williams; the Jefferson Airplane, Ike & Tina Turner, Sergio Mendes & Brasil '77, Poco, Guess Who, and Kenny Rogers & the First Edition among the vocal groups; and, instrumentally, the Ramsey Lewis Trio, the Ventures (who had held onto a low spot in the ratings for quite a few years) and the Miles Davis and Cannonball Adderley combos. All missing from this year's results.

Here, in any case, are the artists who turned out to be the most popular in each category. Those in boldface make up our All-Star band; they will receive silver medals, as will the artists whose records were voted best of the year.

Big-Bamd 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 1974 Playboy All-Stars' All-Stars

The 1974 Playboy All-Stars' All-Stars

The Playboy Jazz & Pop Hall of Fame

The life of Duane Allman ended on the evening of October 29, 1971, when--after three hours of emergency surgery--he succumbed to massive injuries that he sustained when he swerved to avoid a truck and wound up getting pinned (and dragged) by his motorcycle. That wasn't the end of his story, however. His music continues to move lots of people, and the superb band that he put together--with brother Gregg as organist and lead vocalist--continues to overcome obstacles that would put almost any other out of business (such as the recent death of bassist Berry Oakley in an accident strikingly similar to Duane's). Duane and his brother grew up in Nashville and Daytona Beach, where they started to play rock music in their early teens, got a local hit, formed a band called the Hourglass and moved to L.A. There, the record company they signed with didn't know what to do with them (but that's where Duane started getting his inimitable slide-guitar style together). The group didn't last, but a demo it had cut at Rick Hall's studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, got Duane his break as a studio musician; and he made the most of it on sessions with King Curtis, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Clarence Carter and others. Eventually, he got together Oakley, guitarist Dickie Betts, drummers Butch Trucks and Jai Johanny Johanson, lured Gregg back into action and, presto: The Allman Brothers Band was born. At first, the guys lived together in Macon, Georgia--the headquarters of Duane's manager, Phil Walden (who also managed Otis Redding), and Walden's company, Capricorn Records--but later on, "home" became the giant camper, a ten-seater, in which they toured the country incessantly, bringing that good ol' Southern rock 'n' roll to the people, who, of course, just ate up the long guitar lines played in harmony and the rhythm that cooked no matter what the tempo or time signature. Duane was still in demand as a studio cat, however, and found time to cut some great sides with Delaney and Bonnie, then with Eric Clapton. Delaney and Dr. John were among the musicians who sat in with the band at Duane's funeral, held in Macon. Today, everyone who ever worked with Duane will tell you something nice about him--about how hard he played, how loyal he was, how he wouldn't play unless the feeling was right, how he was just a good ol' boy who was busy putting the South back on the musical map when he got cut down. But nothing can tell you more about him than those great guitar licks that he managed to get on record.

A year ago, in this space, we pointed out that since the Hall of Fame expanded to embrace pop music as well as jazz, only pop stars--most of them guitar pickers, too--have been elected. This year's mandate for Duane Allman, following that for Eric Clapton in 1973, leaves no doubt that the electric guitar is the instrumental voice of our time, and its language is rock music--at least as far as our readership is concerned.