Bobby is a very dynamic player. Like Lester Young leading the way for extensions on his fresh approach with the tenor saxophone and like Coltrane setting things up for next steps.
- Cal Tjader
A couple of months ago, I was in Mill Valley, California visiting friends. After breakfast, my buddy, Dutch, and I were walking down the street when I noticed a bunch of movie posters down a long hallway. I went down and noticed this door.
I asked Dutch what’s this place, and he told me it was the famous Mill Valley record store Village Music, which was odd. I knew that Village Music had closed many years ago, at least at the location I used to go to….
In the 1990s, every month or so I’d truck up to Village Music and look for old Jazz and Blues music. Some years later, after I moved to Chicago, I noticed that Village Music had closed. So I was a little shocked to see this place tucked away down some hallway - no signs out front - just a little note on the door to inform people the store is “Open by appointment only.” I texted the number on the note and asked if someone would be around to open the store. I’ll be damned if John Goddard himself, longtime owner of Village Music, didn’t reply that he’d be down that afternoon.
John Goddard is a legend in the Bay Area and an awfully nice guy. He met me at the door and showed me around inside. I instantly knew I’d need much more time to dig his collection. I asked him if he’d be around again tomorrow, and he told me he would. So Dutch and I came back the next day. After much digging, I went on to score a major coup, which included autographs by Louis Armstrong, Clyde McCoy, Claude Thornhill, Hoagy Carmichael, Mel Tormé, and Sun Ra.
Goddard grew up in Mill Valley. He started working at Village Music when he was 13 years old and never left.
At that time, Village Music was a mom‐and‐pop music store in the Sequoia Theater building. In 1961, it moved to 9 East Blithedale Ave. In 1968, Village Music’s owner Sarah Wilcox decided to retire. She was in the process of selling the business to a retired sheet music salesman, but he dropped dead of a heart attack on the way to sign the papers. Goddard stepped in and bought it lock, stock, and smoking barrel.
While browsing the store, more like an overstuffed closet, I came across thousands of old DownBeat magazines with Herb Wong’s address label still attached. I bought a bunch and commented to John about the awesome DownBeat stash. He replied, “When Herb died, his wife brought them all down to me in a pick-up truck.” Like John, Herb Wong is a legend in the Bay Area.
When I was still living in the Bay Area, I used to listen to Herb Wong’s radio program Jazz Perspectives on KJAZ 92.7 FM out of Alameda California, the Bay Area's original jazz station.
In a 2014 article, A Life in Jazz: Remembering Dr. Herb Wong, 1926-2014, Gabe Meline wrote: “As a passionate ambassador for jazz, Herb Wong lived a life as one behind the scenes, and yet he was always shaping the scene. You can see these figures across history, those who turn their love of a subject into lifelong missionary work—pioneers like Branch Rickey in baseball, Jane Goodall in primatology, or Warren Hellman in bluegrass. Wong attained a similar stature, and his seeds of influence only grew over time. Just as Bill Graham served as the go-to for Bay Area rock, such was Wong at the Bay Area center of all things jazz.” You can read more about Wong’s wonderful jazz journey here.
If you were into the Bay Area jazz scene in the 1990s, Herb Wong was always in the background. Since then, I still run across Herb Wong’s spirit from time to time, like for example his DownBeat collection in Village Music and on album liner notes he wrote, like the one for Bobby Hutcherson’s seminal 1968 album Total Eclipse.
I first heard Bobby Hutcherson on Jackie McLean’s One Step Beyond (1964). I would later hear him on two more great albums Eric Dolphy’s Out To Lunch! (1964) and Joe Henderson’s Mode For Joe (1966). I fully disclose that those three albums are my favorite albums Hutcherson plays on; however, on this week’s journey, I want to only focus on the fine work he performed from 1968 forward. I also want to place particular emphasis on his work with “The Fox”, tenor player Harold Land, who was already a legend from working in the Clifford Brown - Max Roach unit in 1954 and 1955. Hutcherson and Land were both West Coast cats and first played together on record on Gerald Wilson’s Everywhere recorded in Hollywood in December of 1967 and that same month on Harold Land’s classic The Peace-Maker on the Cadet label.
Hutcherson recorded his post-bop jazz classic Total Eclipse for the Blue Note label in the Plaza Sound Studios in New York City on July 12, 1968.
Hutcherson and Land were based on the West Coast at the time and made the recording following three weeks playing in New York City - one week at Slugs’ and two weeks at the Village Vanguard.
I find this an amazing album. It brings together at one time a unique collection of great musicians. On this session, they are joined on acoustic piano by Chick Corea, who had just recorded on Miles Davis’ Filles de Kilimanjaro and later went on to form Return To Forever. The rest of the rhythm section consists of Reggie Johnson on bass and Hutcherson’s longtime partner Joe Chambers on drums.
This is an epic group and all the songs are wonderful and at times very free, like Pompeian, with Land’s exquisite flute playing. But I’ll feature here Chick Corea’s song Matrix:
I think this is one of Harold Land’s best post-bop solos.
In November of 1968 and August of 1969, the Hutcherson Quintet recorded Spiral and Medina, both of which were not released until 1978 and 1980, respectively. For these recordings, Corea was replaced by Stanley Cowell. Of these two releases, I prefer the second, Medina.
Here are two nice songs from Medina, both Hutcherson compositions. First, the intense Avis:
…and here is the peaceful Comes Spring:
It’s perhaps understandable that Blue Note shelved these albums for over a decade. Not fusion and not avant-garde, they didn’t fit the trends of the late 1960s. However, I’ll argue that they are excellent, both adventurous and challenging, and have stood the test of time better than many fusion and avant-garde albums all the rage back then.
Another great and underrated Hutcherson and Land album is Head On, recorded for Blue Note in July 1971:
For Head On, Hutcherson expanded from the quintet to a nineteen-piece ensemble that featured the debut recording of pianist and composer Todd Cochran, who contributes all but one of the compositions on the album.
From Head On, here is Todd Cochran’s At the Source, a fine contribution to modern music:
Incidentally, Hutcherson appeared on Cochran’s first solo project Worlds Around the Sun recorded the following year, which featured his big commercial hit Free Angela, written as an homage to political activist Angela Davis.
Into the 2000s, Hutcherson continued to record as a leader. I like this song from his 2009 CD Wise Ones, playing McCoy Tyner’s composition Aisha:
Here’s one more for the road. From another of what some would say are his other Blue Note albums, I like Montara, recorded in August 1975.
In 1972, on the success of his song Ummh from San Francisco, his 1971 album with Harold Land, Hutcherson bought an acre of land in Montara, California. He built a house on it and lived there until his death on August 15, 2016.
So it’s August, and it’s hot. Let’s mix ourselves up a nice cocktail, go out on the veranda, play the title track from Montara, and together toast the great Bobby Hutcherson:
In the 1960s, Jazz critic Bob Blumenthal once pointed out that Bobby Hutcherson “would probably be more widely recognized as one of the 1960s finest musicians if he didn’t play vibes.” Well, Bob, I’m here to tell you that even though he played vibes, he was not only one of the 1960s finest musicians, he is one of the finest jazz musicians ever.
Here’s to you, Bobby!
Next week on that Big River called Jazz, we’ll dig our paddles in and explore the West Coast waters of Harold Land before he joined Bobby Hutcherson’s group.
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Until then, keep on walking….