New Horizons and Potentials: A History of the Baritone Saxophone Retinue

New Horizons and Potentials: A History of the Baritone Saxophone Retinue
by
Ed Hazell

Pat Patrick’s Sound Advice is a marvelous album featuring the Baritone Saxophone Retinue, an unusual band of eight (!) baritone saxes plus rhythm section. The deep, imposing sound of the massed baritones is wildly attractive, the selection of tunes betrays a connoisseur’s knowledge of the bop idiom and its legacy, and despite the uniformity of the instrumentation, the distinctive solo voices provide plenty of lively contrast.

It’s also something of a mystery. First of all, it’s the only album Patrick made as a leader. Shouldn’t he have had more than this one opportunity to record under his own name during his 40-year career? Aside from this one LP, little is known about the group. Were they a working band or a one-off assembled to make a record? A founding member of the Sun Ra Arkestra, Patrick is most widely perceived as a leading voice in the band’s evolution to free jazz. However, Sound Advice is a straight-ahead post-bop album, not what you’d expect from a free jazz musician. Adding to its aura of mystery is it’s rarity. The album was released on Sun Ra’s El Saturn label in a limited run and is one of only two records on the label that isn’t by Ra. Even the 2015 Art Yard reissue is out of print. What is going on?

A chance to answer these questions arose in 2009 when Patrick’s son, then Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, with the support of his wife and siblings, donated his father’s papers to the Berklee College of Music’s archives. The huge collection contains material from Pat Patrick’s entire career. There is also a great deal about Baritone Saxophone Retinue, including newspaper clippings, gig flyers, Patrick’s handwritten records of gigs, musical scores, and other material. Bill Banfield, at the time of the donation Dean of Africana Studies at Berklee, produced a Patrick biography, Pat Patrick: American Musician and Cultural Visionary (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), based in large part on the archive material, which also provides perspectives on the man and his music. From these materials, it is possible to flesh out the history of Baritone Saxophone Revenue and to place it in the context of Patrick’s entire career.

To understand Pat Patrick as an artist, it’s essential to understand his devotion to Baritone Saxophone Retinue. Between 1972 and 1979, Patrick spent more time and energy to Baritone Saxophone Retinue than he did on any other band of his own or any band he worked in as a sideman, with the exception of the Arkestra. In an essay contained in the archive, titled “Our Music: Yesterdays, Todays and Tomorrows,” which Patrick wrote in 1973, soon after the founding of BSR, he gives a major motive for why he did. “At this time there is a definite need for Black people to know and understand, appreciate their own culture, to be able to recognize, desire it and not be ashamed of it in this environment we live, exist in, lest our own unique identity dwindle and disappear,” he writes. “Our job here should be to try to help in rebuilding a people’s culture that has been prostrated, raped for centuries, and yet is in this so-called space age, still a major source of ideas and inspiration.”

It’s an angry essay, bitter at times, lamenting the status of Black musicians and how their musical legacy is co-opted, exploited, and watered down for commercial appeal that is unrelated to its original purpose and meaning. But the anger is counterbalanced by an equally passionate Black pride and a defiant determination to assert the relevance and legitimacy of Black music. These ideas form the core of Patrick’s motives for founding and sustaining Baritone Saxophone Retinue.

For Patrick, Baritone Saxophone Retinue was his most personal expression of a larger musical and social mission. As his daughter Rhonda Sigh observes in an interview in the Banfield biography, “He tried to bring Black culture together through his philosophy, his wisdom, and understanding of how the Black community could be better through music. He wanted to ‘better’ the culture.”

Sometime in 1972, Patrick and Charles Davis came up with idea for the Baritone Saxophone Retinue (BSR). “Actually it was continuous of playing with Sun Ra because both of us used to play baritone with Sun Ra,” Davis told Monk Rowe in an oral history interview for the Hamilton College Jazz Archive. Although the album is billed as Pat Patrick’s, Davis deserves credit as co-leader.

It’s possible they were discussing how they could best pay homage to Ellington’s baritone saxophonist Harry Carney for an upcoming tribute concert. The band’s first documented gig was at a tribute to Harry Carney at the New Lafayette Theatre on Seventh Ave. on September 24, 1972.

Carney, the anchor of Duke’s saxophone section for more than 50 years, was naturally an inspiration to Patrick. In a profile by Tam Fiofori that ran in Melody Maker in April 1971, Patrick acknowledges how Carney influenced his early playing, noting that “I first dug the work Carney was doing; the role of the baritone saxophone in the reed section and its blend with the other horns and also his solo work. At first I used to mistake his baritone solos for tenor solos, because he is very fluent and his style is hip.”

A little over a week after their debut, the BSR played a benefit for Kenny Dorham on October 1, 1972. Charles Davis had played and recorded with Dorham, so there was a personal connection to the ailing trumpeter. Dorham, who suffered from kidney disease, would die just over three months later on December 5, 1972. The personnel for these two dates is not known.

The next BSR gigs documented in the archive are appearances on Imamu Amiri Baraka’s Black Newark TV show on February 24 and March 3, 1973. Baraka had moved to Newark after the collapse of the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School in Harlem in 1966. There, he continued his political and cultural activism. He opened a performance space called Spirit House and founded the Jihad Productions record label and book publisher.

Baraka, as one of the most prominent artists and intellectuals of the Black Arts movement, was very much a public figure, but Patrick knew him personally and they were friends. Patrick was with the Arkestra when they provided music for Baraka’s play, A Black Mass, which premiered in May 1966. (He also appears on the Arkestra’s 1968 Jihad LP of music and dialog from the play.) Sun Ra lectured at BART/S and the Arkestra performed there as well. Patrick’s own thinking aligned quite closely with Baraka’s on many points. Outrage at racist America, pride in African American heritage, and the creation of avant-garde music went hand-in-hand for both men. “You can see Pat’s ‘national consciousness,’ as well as his rebellious stance toward all ‘ready-mades,’ even religion and various traditionalisms,” Baraka said in an interview in Banfield’s Patrick biography. “He had no patience for those who did not question and innovate.”

Photographic stills from the broadcast show a six-saxophone edition of the band with Patrick, Davis, Hamiet Bluiett, James “Jabbo” Ware, George Barrow, and Kenny Rogers. These six horn players, plus Mario Rivera and Reynold Scott, formed the core of the band. The number of horns could vary from five to eight, and there were minor variations in personnel. For instance, on the album, there is a full complement of eight players, including Rivera and Scott, with Rene McLean subbing for Bluiett.

However, the band attracted a number of baritone players over the years, including elders Patrick admired such as bebop great Cecil Payne and Leslie Jonakins, who held down the low end of the Machito saxophone section for decades. There were younger players such as Bobby Eldridge, who later worked in the big bands of Frank Foster and Muhal Richard Abrams. Charles Tyler sat in with the BSR during a gig at The Brook, a loft space where he was the music curator. A list of the saxophonist members identified so far is provided below.

*Appears on Sound Advice.
** On several documents related to BSR, Patrick wrote first names only for a few musicians who appeared with the band at different times. Best guesses as to who they might be are given here.

On the television broadcast, pianist Bobby Timmons, bassist Ronnie Boykins, and drummer Al Harewood accompany the saxophonists. However, Hilton Ruiz was often the pianist (he appears on the LP). Ronnie Boykins was usually the bassist. As with the horns, rhythm section personnel could change from gig to gig. See the list provided for all the rhythm section members who have been identified so far.

Then there’s a two-year gap in the archive’s record of performances by the band. That doesn’t mean there weren’t any gigs; there’s just no evidence of them. A personal archive, even one as vast as Patrick’s, doesn’t necessarily provide complete documentation. It’s a collection of items that were meaningful to the person amassing it. It’s possible further research will fill in missing concert dates.

Whether or not the band was active during those two years, on July 8, 1975, BSR played a double bill with the Clifford Jordan Quartet on the opening night of a jazz festival at the Seafood Playhouse on W. 48th St. “The full group produced some muscular, rich-toned ensembles that sometimes had the commanding magnificence of sound one associates with the late Harry Carney, Duke Ellington’s baritone saxophonist, apparently the inspiration for the Retinue,” John S. Wilson wrote in a New York Times review of the gig, the first of just three Times notices the band ever received. “For this group, the customary routine of solos between ensembles is made a bit more difficult than usual because a succession of baritone saxophone solos tends to create a monotony of sound. But the members of the Retinue have enough individuality to create some distinctions ...”

In June of that same year, Patrick had submitted an application for the BSR to perform at FESTAC, the enormous festival of the arts and cultures of Africa and the African diaspora held in Lagos, Nigeria. A copy of the materials submitted with the application, hand-written by Patrick on Baritone Saxophone Retinue letterhead, shows signs that it was hastily put together at the last minute; he was writing in June and the festival was scheduled for November of that year. At one point he apologizes for not being able to submit a tape of the band “on this short notice.” In October, he received a letter telling him the band had not been selected. (Although he failed to bring BSR to Nigeria, Patrick did make it to the festival as a member of the Arkestra.)

Performing in Africa would have been especially meaningful to Patrick; an interest in African and diasporic cultures threads its way through his entire career. He was drawn to African music since early in his career in Chicago. Sun Ra was an early adaptor of African music influences in jazz, of course, and a pioneer in building awareness of African and non-Western cultures through music. Almost immediately after arriving in New York with the Arkestra in 1961, Patrick was on a session for Coltrane’s Africa/Brass, an album that draws a direct line between African and African American music. Patrick would have been sympathetic to that idea. He was a member of Olatunji’s troupe and performed with them at the New York World’s Fair in 1964. (He probably met percussionist Babafemi Humphreys, who’s on Sound Advice, in Olatunji’s group.) He played saxophone along with Yusef Lateef on A.K. Salim’s 1965 album, Afro-Soul/Drum Orgy, a kind of Afro-Cuban descarga with a more advanced jazz vocabulary and wider Afro-Caribbean percussion references than was traditional. He toured Egypt and Northern Africa with the Arkestra in 1971.

He also served as musical director of Afro-Cuban jazz conguero Mongo Santamaria’s band in the early ‘60s when they had their 1962 cross over hit, “Watermelon Man.” Patrick contributed original tunes to the band, including “Yeh, Yeh,” a minor hit that Jon Hendricks later wrote words for. A cover version of the song by British R&B singer-keyboardist Georgie Fame eventually became a number-one record in England in 1965. (Given his resentment of the ways in which mainstream rock culture appropriated Black music, you have to wonder how Patrick felt about that.)

Although Baritone Saxophone Retinue concerns itself primarily with the African American jazz heritage, Patrick’s interest in African and diasporic musics surfaces in BSR in several ways, such as the inclusion of percussionist Humphreys, and arrangements of Jobim’s bossa nova tune, “Sabia,” and Charlie Parker’s calypso flavored “Barbados.”

From mid-1975 until 1977, the Patrick archive once again falls silent about BSR activities. Currently, there’s no way to know how active the band was during the period. But Patrick’s handwritten notes about rehearsals and gigs in 1977 indicate they were very active indeed. Whether or not this was typical for the band is hard to say.

Between March 28 and the weekend of August 4 and 5, the band had six gigs, which isn’t bad for the loft period. Appearances at Warren Smith’s Studio WIS bookend this burst of activity. In between they played at The Brook (April 30), and a place called The Warehouse (May 8). They played a benefit for the Jazz Consortium at the Village Gate on May 16, and a jazz brunch at Jazzmania on June 5 during the New York Loft Celebration festival. In March and April, Patrick also called five rehearsals.

Rounding up so many baritone players and a rhythm section was no small task and Patrick didn’t always get a full band. For instance, George Barrow, Leslie Jonakins, Kenny Rogers, and Hilton Ruiz were all no shows at the Warehouse gig in May even though they were advertised on the flyer. And neither Patrick himself or Bluiett turned up at the Jazzmania Jazz Brunch even though the band was billed as Pat Patrick’s Baritone Saxophone Retinue featuring Hamiet Bluiett. Attendance at rehearsals was even spottier. Only James “Jabbo” Ware made it to every rehearsal in the spring of ‘77.

The BSR featured some of the most in-demand baritone players in New York, and undoubtedly if a job came up that paid better, a bandmember would take it. The band earned appallingly little money per gig, which was not untypical for the lofts. In his notes about the band’s activities in 1977, Patrick tallies up what they earned at several gigs. They raked in $10 at The Brook. After the weekend at Studio WIS, Patrick stoically notes, “Pd. Band $16.” At the Jazzmania festival brunch, they hit the jackpot – a whopping $130. Even the most dedicated musician might prefer to take a paying gig or even stay home every once in a while rather than perform for little more than subway fare.

All the activity in early 1977 could be attributed to Patrick preparing to record the band. The album is copyrighted 1977, an indication that it was recorded that year. But the recording date and location don’t appear on the album and there’s nothing about the recording session in the Patrick archive. However, there is a letter from Patrick to producer Alton Abraham dated July 28, 1979, which includes details about the track titles and composers, as well Patrick’s preference for the color of the LP label (red or beige). This would indicate a release date in the last quarter of ‘79. In light of the letter, which indicates the album was still in production during the summer of ‘79, it seems more likely that ‘77 is the year it was recorded.

The location was in all likelihood New York. Besides the appearance on Baraka’s Newark TV show, Davis mentions only one gig outside the city – an outdoor concert in Hartford, Conn. – in Banfield’s biography of Patrick. Patrick’s liner notes, written but never used until the Art Yard reissue (and then, only a portion of them is printed), say that Philadelphia percussionist Sonny Morgan was the recording engineer. The indifferent sound quality is partly attributable to the fact that the album was recorded live (some applause is heard after solos) and not in a studio.

Whatever the circumstances of the session, BSR recorded seven tunes for release, including originals by Davis and Patrick and a selection of jazz tunes by Jimmy Heath, Benny Golson, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Sun Ra. Ra’s “East of Uz,” was never recorded by Sunny himself. Uz, whose most famous resident was the Old Testament’s long-suffering Job, was an ancient kingdom in the Middle East.

However, their book of tunes was considerably larger. The Patrick archive contains a total of 26 arrangements including more Patrick and Davis originals, charts by James “Jabbo” Ware and others, and a decades-spanning selection of compositions such as Bill Lee’s “John Coltrane,” first recorded on Clifford Jordan’s 1974 masterpiece, Glass Bead Games, and Leo Parker’s 1947 grooving hybrid of bebop and R&B, “El Sino.” In an interview in Banford’s Patrick biography, Davis mentions his own arrangement of “Cherokee” and another of “Flying Fish” done by its composer, baritone saxophonist Cecil Payne. Neither is in the collection.

Two Patrick originals, “Sumptin’ Somewhere” and “A Hard Head,” come from music that Patrick composed for J.E. Gaines’ play, Sometimes a Hard Head Makes a Soft Behind, which premiered at the New Lafayette Theatre in Harlem in July 1972. Gaines, more often called Sonny, was better known as an actor, appearing later in films such as Malcolm X and The Pelican Brief and on TV shows such as Sanford and Son and Law and Order.

There’s also an arrangement by Harold Cumberbatch of “March for Percy,” composed by Joe Knight. The tune is dedicated to Percy Sutton, an unsuccessful candidate for NYC mayor in 1977 (the piece is copyrighted March 3, 1977). Sutton was a lawyer for Malcolm X, longtime Manhattan Burrough president, and a powerful figure in NYC politics. (Ed Koch won the mayoral election that year.) Cumberbatch was a Bronx-based baritone saxophonist who sometimes subbed in BSR. The identity of Knight remains a mystery. It's not known where or when the BSR played the tune. But it’s engagement with local mainstream politics is an exception in their repertoire.

In 1977, the band was still a work in progress for Patrick. In marginal notes on a page of his band records, he reminds himself to work on arrangements of Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation” and J. J. Johnson’s “Lament” and “Enigma.” None of them are in the archive.

In all cases, the compositions in the BRS book were selected with an emphasis on the high quality of craftsmanship and artistry in the writing and arranging and the high level of musicianship needed to play them. A wide historical range of material is also a notable characteristic. This is very much in keeping with Patrick’s desire to assert the quality of Black music and Black musicians as a component of the BSR’s presentation.

The full list of charts is provided below with composer and arranger credits included when known.

Note: With the exception of Stevenson’s arrangement of “Barbados,” arranger credits are not given on the scores. Arrangers of tunes that appear on the album are from Patrick’s liner notes. For other arrangements, the assumption is that if the composer is a bandmember, he is also the arranger.

After 1977, there’s not much evidence that BSR remained active. Patrick makes note of a gig at the New Muse in Brooklyn on July 9, 1978. There’s paperwork for the album from 1979 and a short New York Times review by Jon Pareles of a 1983 concert by Charles Davis and the New York Baritone Saxophone Retinue. The change of band name and leader credit makes it seem like a revival of the band rather than a gig by a working group. It appears that the band was largely inactive by then.

It’s interesting to note that BSR was formed in 1972 at a time when same-instrument ensembles briefly proliferated in jazz. Howard Johnson formed his pioneering all-tuba band, Gravity, in 1971; Lisle Atkinson brought together the New York Bass Violin Choir in 1969; and perhaps most prominently, Max Roach convened his percussion ensemble, M’Boom, in 1970. All these band were more than mere novelty acts (although the novelty of their instrumentation was an undeniable attraction). Each was dedicated to exploring the sonic possibilities of the featured instruments, expanding the instrumental vocabulary, and pioneering new roles for their respective instruments.

In his Sound Advice liner notes, Patrick was explicit these were also the goals of BSR. “SOUND ADVICE for new horizons and potentials from a less popular member of the saxophone family, the Baritone. To illustrate that an instrument with such a range of possibilities can do more than just function at the bottom of reed sections, is what this first release by the BARITONE SAXOPHONE RETINUE is about,” he wrote.

In the liner notes, he also cites the baritone players that he most admired—Carney, Jack Washington, Eddie Barefield, Leslie Jonakins, Leo Parker, and Charlie Fowlkes. He made sure live audiences heard these same names as well. The archive contains a crib sheet of things to say at the start of a gig, including baritone pioneers to mention, a statement of the band’s purpose, and a request for audience questions about the band. He even wrote down a few corny jokes to tell (“If you’re into lunch, stay away. If you’re out to lunch, welcome.”). It was vital that the music swing and uplift the audience, but it was equally important to build pride in Black music heritage.

Patrick’s focus on Baritone Saxophone Retinue is an anomaly in his career. No other band he led ever held his attention for so long. It went directly to the heart of why he made music and his pride as a Black musician. He saw it as a way to educate and uplift audiences. It was a way to evangelize about the instrument he loved and spent most of his life mastering and to expand its range and function. And he was able to foster a brotherhood of fellow musicians who rarely got to work together. As his son Deval Patrick says in the Banfield biography, “It is about the science of music, the artistry of it, but also music as a social tool.”

Special thanks to Jenée Force and Ashley Gray at the Berklee Archives for their kindness and professionalism in guiding me through the Patrick collection. It was a pleasure to work with them. Musicians Charlie Kohlhase and Bill Lowe also helped immeasurably with their knowledge and moral support.