“Jazz Milieu”

By Herbert Nichols

from Music Dial (August 1944)

Herbie Nichols is considered one of the most brilliant but underrated pianist/composers of the postwar period. Two years younger than Monk, Nichols participated in some of the early bebop jam sessions at Monroe’s Uptown house, but had difficulty finding work and ended up playing with Dixieland and swing bands. He was a prolific composer, but he did not record as a leader until 1955. Nichols and Monk eventually became very good friends, and they occasionally played together at Monk’s house.

Many Nichols’s fans do not know that he was also a writer and critic. He wrote this article for the short-lived publication, Music Dial—the first black-owned jazz magazine. Nichols’s article is important in that it is Monk’s first write-up. At the time Monk was with Coleman Hawkins’s band.

During the days of the Inquisition, I am quite positive that the Holy Confessor would have cut the beards off and the faces, too, of any visiting jazzmen. In those days the Musical Chords that were used were prescribed by law. Any additions or malicious deletions were dealt with by means of the axe. But as we turn out gaze upon our present technological age, we find that many additions have been made. However, we still have many among us who are living in the former age and who would play Gregorian Chords and riffs in a night club.

The depression of Dante’s Inferno continues even unto today as piano players are concerned. Just imagine, hornblowers playing on an instrument with a faulty lower and upper register. Just imagine, violinists playing on an instrument that has just been painted over with white enamel paint. Just imagine, drummers playing on an instrument with a faulty pedal. Thelonious Monk of the “Downbeat Club” would probably lose his mind if he suddenly came to work one night and discovered an unpainted Baldwin Concert Grand on the bandstand.

To my mind Johnny Hartzfield is the greatest phenomenon that I’ve heard since Lester Young first crossed the horizon. He has been playing with Oscar Pettiford’s combination at the Onyx Club during the past few months. He is a great individual and is extremely sensitive to all of the modern jazz music played by the very few.

What Johnny, Joe Guy and Oscar are playing these days is a melange of rich chords, rhythm and fire. What the average person may overlook is the fact that there is no such thing as a jazz school: no one graduates into good Jazz. One has to cultivate extreme good taste and be especially observant and desirous of playing jazz on one’s instrument.

Hartzfield is a good subject to watch as he plays. He is very cool and sure of himself. He is not a poseur and his music is very individual and rich. His eyes stare fiercely and straight ahead at the audience and he blows and listens for the [illegible] behind him. Every note that is played on the drums, bass, and piano affects him. His uneasiness at times will always be justified by his fantastic greatness. This fellow plays in a million moods and hears everything and of all people he admits his smallness and willingness to grow bigger. He’s a fine tenorman.

Pettiford is an interesting subject. For the type of work that he does at the Onyx he can’t be beaten. He has authored some excellent rhythmical arrangements for his small group, has a good sense of pitch and plays his bars very much in tune. It is a pity that Oscar plays the bass. Naturally he’s limited by his instrument. But I know that he’s a great jazzist because I’ve heard his arrangements.

There’s a lot of rhythm and melody in his gutbucket bass playing as he stomps loudly and hums his riffs. Yes, indeed, he’s quite an energetic fellow. Oscar’s bass style may be just a trifle profuse at times when it comes to his bluebook accompaniment in a jam combination. This criticism is very slight and is neither here nor there as far as most of us are concerned. A bass player has to be careful at times and play just the right contrapuntal notes to a theme. Usually it is a matter of choice or one or two notes which will hold the body of music together.

Joe Guy is a brilliant consistent trumpeter. His style is great and very individual. His liquid legato style on ballads is clear and rich. This fellow plays brilliant jazz in the same category as the master, “Dizzie” [Dizzy Gillespie].

Thelonious Monk is an oddity among piano players. This particular fellow is the author of the weirdest rhythmical melodies I’ve ever heard. They are very great too. (Don’t ever praise Monk too much or he’ll let you down.) But I will say that I’d rather hear him play a ‘boston’ than any other pianist. His sense of fitness is uncanny. However, when Monk takes a solo, he seems to be partial to certain limited harmonies which prevent him from taking a place beside Art [Tatum] and Teddy [Wilson]. He seems to be in a vise as far as that goes and never shows any signs of being able to extricate himself.

And like Monk, Joe Johnston is a drummer who seems to have an uncanny sense of fitness. This fellow is ideal in a small combination. He gets soft at the proper time and knows when to use special effects.

Monk, Joe Guy, Joe Johnston, Johnny Hartzfield and Pettiford would be a tough combination to beat.

Finis.