{"id":3572,"date":"2012-04-26T17:30:28","date_gmt":"2012-04-27T00:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=3572"},"modified":"2012-04-26T17:32:20","modified_gmt":"2012-04-27T00:32:20","slug":"shelly-manne-checkmate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2012\/04\/shelly-manne-checkmate\/","title":{"rendered":"Shelly Manne: Checkmate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Checkmate1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Checkmate1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Checkmate\" width=\"120\" height=\"117\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3577\" \/><\/a>The previous item about the Blackhawk triggered thoughts of Shelly Manne (1920-1984)<em><\/em> and the quintet he led in the late 1950s and early \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc60s. As chance would have it, this morning I encountered videos of a superb edition of that band. The pieces are from Manne\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1961 album <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Checkmate-Shelly-Manne\/dp\/B00006J3TR\/?_encoding=UTF8&#038;tag=rifftidougram-20&#038;linkCode=ur2&#038;qid=1335464971&#038;camp=1789&#038;sr=8-1&#038;creative=9325\"target=\"_blank\"><em>Checkmate<\/em><\/a>. The drummer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s group had pianist Russ Freeman, trumpeter Conte Candoli, tenor saxophonist Richie Kamuca and bassist Monty Budwig. For the 2002 CD reissue of the album, I wrote this summary:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Long before he composed the music for <em>Jaws<\/em>, the <em>Star Wars<\/em> series, <em>Harry Potter and the Sorcerer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Stone<\/em> and dozens of other major motion pictures, John Towner Williams was Johnny Williams, jazz pianist. He<a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/John-Williams.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/John-Williams.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"John Williams\" width=\"120\" height=\"121\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3574\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/John-Williams.jpg 120w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/John-Williams-70x70.jpg 70w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/John-Williams-110x110.jpg 110w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 120px) 100vw, 120px\" \/><\/a> began writing for films and television in the early 1950s, and in much of his earlier work the jazz influence was still strong. Shelly Manne worked with Williams on Hollywood sound stages and was taken with his music for the TV series <em>Checkmate<\/em>. Manne adapted seven of Williams\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s themes from the show for his band, Shelly Manne &#038; His Men. Because Williams was tuned in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Manne-head-shot.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Manne-head-shot.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Manne head shot\" width=\"120\" height=\"118\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3575\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Manne-head-shot.jpg 120w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Manne-head-shot-70x70.jpg 70w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 120px) 100vw, 120px\" \/><\/a>to trends in jazz, some of the pieces reflected modal approaches recently taken by forward thinkers like Miles Davis and John Coltrane. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The King Swings,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as an example, is nearly identical in form to Coltrane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Impressions.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Accordingly, Manne and his quintet, one of the best small groups of the 1960s, plumb Williams\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unusual television music for all of its considerable improvisational possibilities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Here is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The King Swings\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from a1962 installment of the excellent <em>Jazz Scene USA<\/em> program hosted by Oscar Brown, Jr. <\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"440\" height=\"355\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LrX6Dgaoa2Y\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><p>Budwig and Freeman introduce \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Isolated Pawn,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d also from the <em>Checkmate<\/em> album. The modal bent is again strong. Candoli\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s muted trumpet may not be the only thing that reminds you of another quintet of the era. <\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"440\" height=\"355\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/H3vU3A7OncE\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><p>Concord seems to have dropped <em>Checkmate<\/em> from the OJC catalog. It has become an expensive collectors item, although used copies of the CD or LP occasionally pop up for less than twenty dollars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The previous item about the Blackhawk triggered thoughts of Shelly Manne (1920-1984) and the quintet he led in the late 1950s and early \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc60s. As chance would have it, this morning I encountered videos of a superb edition of that band. The pieces are from Manne\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1961 album Checkmate. The drummer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s group had pianist Russ [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}