Tadd Dameron & Fats Navarro: A Complete Recording Date with Unissued Takes, 1 of 2

These materials were uncovered by the late researcher and radio host Phil Schaap (1951-2021), during a period when he was working in the Savoy Records archives. But they were never released. Today you’ll get to hear three new complete takes plus one that is only missing the closing theme—four new Navarro solos to enjoy! First, here is some background information from researcher Leif Bo Petersen, whose work you have read before in this series. Petersen and the late Theo Rehak are coauthors of the detailed Navarro biography, from which this information is adapted:

The Dameron 1947 Savoy Session, by Leif Bo Petersen:

Fats Navarro had an exclusive contract with Savoy, but Savoy had worked out a deal for him to appear on a Blue Note recording led by Tadd Dameron on September 26, 1947. In return, the Dameron group recorded for Savoy on October 28, 2:30–5:30 p.m., at the Harry Smith Studios, 2 West 46th Street, New York City. [Lew notes: These kinds of “trades” are common in the record business. Also, Schaap said that the correct date of the Savoy session was October 30, but he didn’t share his reasons, and Leif has even checked the recording contract, which says October 28.] Four sides including two of Dameron’s instrumental originals, “A Bebop Carroll” (sic) and “The Tadd Walk,” were recorded. The other two selections were features for vocalist Kay Penton, “Gone with the Wind” and Dameron’s own “There Must Be You.” It is interesting to notice that, as shown on the contract, Dameron had managed to negotiate a fee of $100 per side, or $400 total, which gave him a profit of $235 after the deduction of $41.25 union scale payment to each of the four sidemen. Separately, Kay Penton got $25, the union rate for two sides rather than four.

This session seems to have been planned for a broader commercial appeal than the Blue Note one. Teddy Reig always boasted that he did not interfere with the music, so this may have been Dameron’s own idea. He may have thought of coupling a vocal and an instrumental side on each of two 78 rpm discs; but it did not turn out this way. The instrumentals were not released until December 1948, and the vocals remained unissued until the LP era, despite the beauty of Dameron’s arrangements and Kay Penton’s warm and innocent voice, creating a romantic atmosphere that ought to have had some sales potential. In the final analysis, this session was a remarkable one mostly because of the masterful solos by the horns on the two instrumental pieces.

Thank you Leif for your excellent research, as always. Readers, the full personnel is listed here on the label of the 78 rpm disk—Navarro, Ernest “Ernie” Henry (alto sax), Dameron, Curley Russell (bass) and Kenny Clarke (drums; misspelled on the label):

About the spelling of “Carroll”: Remember that it was usually the label, that is, the recording company, that handled the copyright matters and in fact owned the copyright. Therefore, it is very likely that producer Teddy Reig simply misspelled the title when he copyrighted the piece seven months later, a few months before it was issued. You can see the copyright information below. The letter “m” stands for “music by.” Notice that the copyright is owned personally by Reig’s employer, the label’s founder and owner, Herman Lubinsky.

This was typical in those days. As I showed before, even the songs that were rumored—falsely—to have been “stolen” by Miles Davis were in fact owned by Prestige Records, not by Miles. By the way, one might think that the spelling “Carroll” was a reference to the singer Joe Carroll, since Joe was around New York at this time. But he really became known later, in 1949, when he started working with Dizzy Gillespie, and he was never associated with Dameron or Savoy Records. So I think the explanation above is more likely.

Now, at the session on October 28, 1947, we know the order in which the songs were recorded, because each one has a matrix number and those were always given in sequence, for record company convenience. However one cannot always be sure about the sequence of each take within a certain song, because many companies did not keep track of such things, but only indicated which take was selected for release. Often that was the last take recorded, because the producer and bandleader would say “Okay, that was a good one—let’s move on to the next tune.” But one can’t be certain, because sometimes they said, “You know what? The previous take was better. Let’s use that, and move on to the next tune.” Also, with short “false starts” of just a few seconds, and “incomplete” takes, which are usually a minute or more, it’s up to the engineer or producer to decide whether to call a new take number, or just say “Please start again, and we’re still on Take 4.” Starting in the 1950s, when tape allowed one to capture more of the session, you can often hear engineers say things like that. Finally, I knew Phil, and I can tell you that when he was dubbing from 78 rpm disks, if he slipped up, he sometimes just picked up the needle and started from the beginning again. That means that it’s possible that some of the “false starts” did not really exist, but were created while Phil was dubbing. However, until someone has an opportunity to re-examine the original disks, we will not know if any of the “false starts” are truly “false” (ha ha)—I mean, if the band really stopped, or if Phil restarted the playback. So for now we will list them all, and will not question them.

“A Bebop Carroll” was the first piece to be recorded. It’s an AABA piece based on the chords of “Mean To Me,” in the key of F. (Actually, as jazz historian and subscriber Carl Woideck points out, the A sections are closer to “The Glory of Love.”) First you will hear an alternate take that has been issued before. It’s considerably faster than the master take that was issued, which we’ll hear later, and it is missing the rhythm section introduction. I believe we can be confident that this was in fact the first take for those two reasons. It makes sense that after this take, Tadd would say, “Let’s slow it down to a more comfortable tempo, and let me add an intro.” It does not make as much sense to imagine it the other way around—that he or Reig said ”Let’s speed it up and remove the intro.” Here is that first take:

Next, we have about 12 minutes of new music, never issued. You will notice that Fats begins his solo the same way every time. That was his practice, and I totally “get” it. When asked to produce a short but very well-organized solo at a recording session, where several takes will be required and you want to be consistent, a good strategy is to have the first phrase planned out. On the other hand, Ernie Henry doesn’t do this—he plays something different every time.

Leif and I analyzed the contents of the session recording as follows. Remember, you just heard Take 1, and the assignment of the following take numbers is not absolutely certain, but likely. For many years, discographies have listed the take above as 1, and the issued take as 6. And they must have got that info directly from Savoy Records. So we have to figure out how the rest of the session fits in. Here’s what you’ll hear:

• Take 2. A complete take, never issued! This one is a bit slower, and there’s still no intro. Timing is 2 minutes and 58 seconds.

• Take 3. Almost complete. The intro first appears here. An enthusiastic voice is heard in the background at 4:30 and throughout much of the following session—possibly Dameron, or Ernie Henry? This take is almost complete, but Navarro misses a written entrance at 5:40, so they end it there. The cue to end would have been given by hand, by Dameron or Reig.

• Take 4. Incomplete. This one ends after the theme statement, lasting about 50 seconds.

• Still Take 4. False Start. Just two seconds of the intro. The engineer probably said “Keep going please.”

• Still Take 4. A good and complete take, never issued!

• Take 5. Incomplete. The theme statement is complete, but Henry has a bad squawk early in his solo and they end it. Again, I’m assuming that the engineer said “Keep going please.”

• Still Take 5. Another good and complete take, never issued!

• Take 6. False Start. Just one second of the intro. The engineer surely said, “Keep going—it’s still Take 6.”

  Let’s listen now to all of these items:

  Next was the master, Take 6—the one that was released and sold on 78 rpm disks. In recent years it has been remastered for better sound. Here it is:

We will hear the rest of this great session next time.

All the best,

Lewis