JAZZ AT ITS ABSOLUTE FINEST

PE Hewitt Jazz Ensemble: Cat House Blues
From Winter Winds – The Complete Works: 1968-1970 (Now Again, 2010)

Phil Hewitt, aka PE Hewitt, is not a well-known music figure these days even though he has performed at The White House in his lifetime, an honor not bestowed upon just anyone. Despite that, he's never acquired a great renown. Perhaps it was because he only had a paucity of his albums pressed between 1968 and 1970. We're talking a maximum of 100 copies, and that was only for the last album of three (“Winter Winds”). The first two albums were in a press of only 50. Suffice it to say, if you have an original of any of these, you have quite a collectible.

For the rest of us, though, all three have just been reissued on wax and disc. The packaging shows what a labor of love this was for Now Again, with its replica of the original artwork as the mini-LP sleeves show for the CD version.

It would all be for naught, however, if the music wasn't up to par. What is mindboggling is that this music was composed by a teenager – A TEENAGER! - back in 1968 through 1970. The first two albums, “Jawbones” and “Since Washington,” have a rootsy feel as found on the bass line and swinging rhythm on “Cat House Blues” (from “Jawbones,” the first album in the series). The liner notes label the first two albums as more inaccessible compared to the third, although I feel they're more true to what people typically think of when they think of the sounds of jazz. “Since Washington” follows in many of the same footsteps as “Jawbones” with a grooviness you might pine for from quintet at a jazz festival.

With “Winter Winds,” the album not the collection, Hewitt moved in a more Gary McFarland approach with the scat vocals that were written and then performed to perfection by vocalists Nina Scheller and Sonia Valldeparas. The sound is a bit more pop-jazz, if you can call it that, mostly which can be attributed to the vocal stylings. The material sprawls across emotional boundaries from the heartbreaking “Ill Love Song” to the bouncy Latin jazz of “Bada Que Bash.”

“Winter Winds,” again the single album, was released last year by Now Again but only as an expensive Japanese import. It was enough to whet my appetite, and after the first listen had me wanting more of Hewitt's music. Now, a year later, you can get the entire 3-disc set for nearly the same cost.

Amazingly, Hewitt turned away from music not long after this fruitful period, a shame given his talent level, to pursue careers that would be more apt to put food on the table such as aviation and photography. While he's quite pleased that the albums are getting to be heard again (or for the first time for many), we, the music consuming public, are the true benefactors of this work.