Gryce and Byrd's Jazz Lab

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

In the early 1950s, as the 10-inch LP began rolling out, leaders of jazz recording sessions were given top billing followed by the size of their ensemble. Hence the Miles Davis Quintet, the Thelonoious Monk Quartet and the Sonny Clark Trio. As the decade continued, jazz supergroups formed with multiple star soloists. Names were either created for the group, such as the Modern Jazz Quartet and the Jazz Messengers, or names were fused, like the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet. [Photo above of Gigi Gryce and Donald Byrd in 1957]

In 1957, Gigi Gryce and Donald Byrd formed a supergroup quintet to develop a new, more harmonic approach to jazz. Known as the Jazz Lab, the group was essentially a showcase for Gigi Gryce's original compositions and arrangements. Gryce—like Billy Strayhorn, Tadd Dameron, Quincy Jones and Benny Golson—had a more harmonic and romantic approach that emphasized pretty over power.

As Gryce noted in an interview with Nat Hentoff for the liner notes to one of the group's albums, "The title, 'Jazz Lab,' isn't meant to connote that we're entirely experimental in direction. We try to explore all aspects of modern jazz—standards, originals, blues, hard swing, anything that can be transmuted with jazz feeling. Even our experimentations are quite practical; they're not exercises for their own sake. They have to communicate feeling."

That feeling was captured on five albums by the Jazz Lab in 1957, excluding three tracks on Columbia's Jazz Omnibus, a compilation of music from new artists on the label, and the Jazz Lab at Newport, which was recorded in July 1957 and included three tracks from the group's live appearance joined by three tracks by Cecil Taylor.

In 1957, the relative newness of the12-inch LP enabled record companies to take risks on newly formed jazz groups with novel concepts. Unfortunately, the Jazz Lab was a short-lived experiment, dissolving in the fall of 1957. Based on Gryce and Byrd's discographies, the group folded as Gryce began pulling in more arranging work and Byrd started working more feverishly for Blue Note as a leader and sideman. In addition, the flurry of labels that recorded the Jazz Lab—Columbia, Riverside, Verve, RCA and Jubilee—probably indicates that no single company was interested in a prolonged relationship with the group.

Ultimately, the Jazz Lab accomplished what it had set out to achieve—to transform the sound of hard bop that Art Blakey and Clifford Brown/Max Roach were pioneering. In Gryce and Byrd's hands, jazz sounded more sophisticated and sexy—more French, if you will—rather than bombastic and searing.

After the Jazz Lab in 1957, ensembles began to move beyond the bump, beats and unison horns of R&B. Instead, jazz started to make room for a gentler school of East Coast jazz that had a cooler touch exemplified by Ahmad Jamal, Bill Evans, Eddie Costa, Don Elliott, Tony Scott, Hal McKusick, Clark Terry and others. The Jazz Lab approach also paved the way for the seductive, harmony-rich sound of the Jazztet (1959-62), a sextet co-founded by Benny Golson and Art Farmer, and the Quincy Jones Orchestra (1959-1961).

JazzWax tracks: You'll find the Complete Jazz Lab Sessions here.

JazzWax clips: Here are tracks from Jazz Lab, recorded in February 1957...

A special JazzWax thanks to David Langner.

Used with permission by Marc Myers