Interview: Anthony Ortega (Part 3)

Lionel Hampton desired Anthony Ortega’s personification in 1953, contrast his sound on a alto sax to Charlie Parker’s. There are indeed similarities, particularly a yearning, bluesy tinge and pulling off on a high notes. Anthony wound adult in Hampton’s rope during usually a right impulse in time, when an extraordinary collection of musicians had assembled—including Quincy Jones, Art Farmer, Clifford Brown, Gigi Gryce, Jimmy Cleveland and Monk Montgomery. 

In Part 3 of my four-part array on Anthony Ortega, a alto saxophonist talks about a Hampton rope of ’53—an knowledge that not usually authorised him to accommodate his destiny mother though also a few destiny employers…

JazzWax: How did we breeze adult in Lionel Hampton’s rope in 1953?
Anthony Ortega: Through Gil Bernal [pictured], one of my high school friends in Los Angeles. we initial met Gil during a talent uncover during Jordan High School. He did impersonations of singers and comedians. He also would sound sax solos from Woody Herman’s recordings. we suspicion he was flattering talented. Gil used to come over to my residence all a time. Humming those solos finished me think.

JW: About what?
AO: I said, “Gil we have a good ear. You should get your mom to buy we a saxophone.” The same line my cousin used on me [laughs]. So Gil asked, and he got a effort sax. In 1948, we motionless to enroll in a Army. One of my other sax friends, Maurice, talked me into it. He suspicion we would be means to get into a Army rope if we enlisted rather than watchful to be drafted.

JW: How does Gil figure into Hampton?
AO: Hang on. Maurice and we were told that if we enlisted, after simple training we would be able  to play in a rope in Pasadena [Calif.]. So we enlisted, took simple and afterwards wound adult in rope training school. we was in a Army for 3 years. When we was liberated in ‘51, Gil had already turn an glorious actor and had auditioned for Hampton [pictured], alighting a chair. When we ran into Gil dual years later, he told me that Hamp indispensable an alto saxophonist.

JW: What did we do?
AO: Gil told me to come down to a rehearsal. So we went, and Hamp hired me. we started personification one-nighters with a band.

JW: What did we consider of Hampton?
AO: He was great. His mother rubbed all a business, while he was totally into a strain finish of things. He was unpredictable, that is given crowds desired him. He would burst adult on a drums and afterwards start personification a vibes. It was wild. Hamp used to float on a train with all a guys while his mother rode in their Cadillac with a dancer Curley Hamner. [Pictured above: Anthony Ortega soloing in Lionel Hampton's band, pleasantness of Anthony Ortega]

JW: Was Clifford Brown with a rope yet?
AO: Not yet. Art Farmer was in a wail section. Quincy Jones, too. Quincy was arranging for a band. When we’d get on a stand, a rope would unequivocally let it go on a solos. What was good about Hamp was that he desired to have guys play solos and cut loose. The usually thing we didn’t like was carrying to travel around on theatre personification my Flying Home solo [laughs]. Hamp’s strain was between jazz and RB during a time. [Pictured: Anthony Ortega personification clarinet with Lionel Hampton, pleasantness of Anthony Ortega]

JW: What was Gigi Gryce like?
AO: Gigi [pictured] was a unequivocally mellow guy. Hamp didn’t caring for his complicated arrangements given they didn’t cocktail off enough. Quincy and Gigi were on conflicting ends of a celebrity spectrum. Gigi was unequivocally still while Quincy was flattering outgoing. He was always operative and arranging and essay on a bus.

JW: What about Clifford Brown?
AO: He was unequivocally bashful when he initial assimilated a band. He was kind of quiet, roughly like he had a complex. He was usually into his music. But he was unequivocally accessible and modest. He hung around a lot with Gigi. Gigi had left to a Boston Conservatory, and Clifford was from a East Coast, so they had a lot in common. [Photo: Gigi Gryce and Clifford Brown]

JW: Why didn’t Bobby Plater and Benny Golson go with a rope when it left for Europe in a tumble of 1953?
AO: Hamp didn’t wish to compensate a guys that most money. So Bobby didn’t go. Neither did Benny. Hamp put me on lead alto, holding Bobby’s place. Gigi was a other alto. we picked adult a some-more complicated sound on that band.

JW: Where was a band’s initial European stop?
AO: Oslo, Norway. That’s where we met my mother Mona [pictured]. She was a jazz piano actor and after took adult a vibes. we met her during a Penguin Club in Oslo. It was a jazz club. We were there station around examination a contingent with a clarinet, piano and drums. we asked her to dance. We danced a little, though we couldn’t dance unequivocally well. We became friendly, and we took her home in a cab afterward.

JW: When did we see her again?
AO: Hamp’s rope was going to seem during a Penguin Club a month later. When we came back, Mona was there.

JW: Yes, and in a meantime, Hampton’s rope went to Paris, where a garland of we snuck off in a night.
AO: [Laughs] Yes. Gigi was approached by a French Vogue tag to record compositions that were utterly opposite from Hamp’s foot-stompers. We available over a array of days in Sep and October. They were finished from around 2 a.m to 6 p.m. It was a sly thing.

JW: Because if Hampton had found out, we guys would have been in large trouble?
AO: That’s right. We didn’t wish Hamp to find out. We had played those arrangements once in a while with Hamp though they were headier than a kinds of things fans were branch out to hear so he never unequivocally built them into a book.

JW: What was it like in Paris?
AO: Oh, we were so enthusiastic. It didn’t matter that we didn’t get most sleep. We were in Paris, that was so uplifting. we have a solo on Purple Shades. Quincy had stoical and organised a song, and we Iearned after that Cannonball Adderley available it a same approach as we did.

JW: That rope had some wail section.
AO: Yes, Clifford and Art were both there with Quincy and Walter Williams. But there was no animosity. We were one unit, and everybody got along. You could unequivocally feel what was happening. The harmonies in those charts were so great.

JW: How did we breeze adult soloing on Purple Shades?
AO: When we had been roving on a bus, we listened a arrangement and remarked to Quincy [pictured] how most we favourite it. we didn’t know it was his. When it came time to record, he had me take a solo.

JW: Did Hampton find out what was going on?
AO: Yes and he was furious. The band’s highway manager George Hart had a fistfight with Clifford Brown on a bus. He  was so indignant that we had done this around Hamp, he grew belligerent. Hamp didn’t wish guys in a rope gaining too most exposure. Hamp didn’t glow us while we were in Europe, though everybody accepted that a rope was finished as shortly as we got behind to a States. And when we got back, we did disband, with everybody going their apart ways.

JW: How did Hamp find out?
AO: He got breeze of it somehow. It was tough to keep a recordings a tip for too long, given we were unctuous out in a center of a night and creeping behind into a hotel in a early morning. Guys who weren’t invited contingency have found out.

JW: What about Mona?
AO: I called her from Germany before we left for a States. Over a phone we due to her.

JW: What did she say?
AO: She said, “Yes.”

JW: What did we do next?
AO: we went home to my mother’s place in El Monte, Calif. Mona and we continued to correspond, and we saved adult adequate to go behind to Norway, where we were married. Her relatives took to me right away. Her father was a tip violinist there—Gunnar Orbeck. All of her family members were musicians, so we got along well.

JW: How prolonged were we there?
AO: I stayed in Oslo for a few months. When Mona got her visa, we changed to El Monte for a time before streamer to New York.

JazzWax note: If we missed yesterday’s installment, be certain to locate Andrew Rubin’s The Street We Took (2007), a 15-minute documentary on Anthony and Mona Ortega. Go here.

JazzWax tracks: Anthony Ortega’s marks with Gigi Gryce are: Paris a Beautiful, Purple Shades, La Rose Noire, Brown Skins, Deltitnu, Keepin’ Up With Jonesy, Strike Up a Band, Quick Step, Bum’s Rush, Chez Moi and All Weird. These marks are well-developed and in some respects chaperon in a new, regretful duration of arranging that was deeply shabby by arranger-composer Tadd Dameron. You’ll find these marks on Gigi Gryce in Paris during iTunes and Amazon.

JazzWax clip: Here’s Anthony Ortega’s superb solo on Purple Shades in 1953…