'No Room for Squares' was released in May 1964 on the Blue Note label. It was recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, in Englewood Cliffs, NJ (where else?), produced by Alfred Lion, and recorded by Rudy Van Gelder (who else?).
The album was compiled from two recording sessions:
- The first session took place on March 7, 1963, and has Hank Mobley on tenor sax (natch) with Donald Byrd on trumpet, Herbie Hancock on piano, Butch Warren on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. This session produced the tracks "Up a Step" and "Old World, New Imports"
- The second session took place on October 2, 1963, with Lee Morgan on trumpet, Andrew Hill on piano, John Ore on bass, and Philly Joe Jones once again on drums. This session produced the tracks "No Room for Squares", "Three Way Split," and two Lee Morgan penned tunes, "Carolyn" and "Me 'n You".
In addition to classic jazz, we also have one of Reid Miles’ greatest album cover designs.
The cover was designed from a Francis Wolff photograph of Hank from 1963. It was taken at the subway station outside the Huntington Hartford building on the south end of Columbus Circle, here in Manhattan.
The circular motif was
really on trend for the 1960s, and is also a playful nod to the album
title.
Blue
Note Japan, in the UHQCD format, from masterings that
Kevin Gray did for the Tone Poet and BN Classic LP releases. And
they sound sweet! If you freeloaded the previously posted 'Blue Note 85 Reissues', you know what I'm talking
about.
The usage of the word "Square" as an adjective to describe individuals who are disconnected from current trends and culture, or those who adhere to traditional or stereotypical thinking, originated in the American jazz community during the 1940s. It gained popularity through various counterculture movements. In 2025, the term "Square" isn't really used all that much.
So, for the free load, let's talk about slang words or phrases, that have gone "out of Vogue" so to speak, but were once commonplace.
Slang words and phrases? Sometimes they're the bee's knees, or even the cat's pajamas; other times, they make you wanna take a chill pill and M.O., duderonomy.
ReplyDeleteC in California
These days in New York, "take a chill pill" has been replaced with "Oh, take a freakin' sedative!"
DeleteFar out.
ReplyDelete"far out" is still in use here in the Air Raid Safety Enclosure, how about "mint"? I encountered that one in the mid-60s in British Columbia, it hadn't made the trip to Manitoba.
DeleteHank-enstein's monster of an lp (w/Andrew Hill!) and the cover is one of Blue Note's best as well. The circle reminds me of the Jefferson Golden Hour clock my parents owned which also ties into the Time in the title. Thanks for the subway picture and info. Have you ever heard The Squares' (aka Kenny Young, who also recorded as Jose Cool) 45 rpm "The Out Crowd"? As far as slang, how about the slightly before my time "groovy," and my kids' favorite, "sick."
ReplyDeleteMy daughters also said "sick".
DeleteAlmost forgot, I use "groovy" as verbal irony.
Delete"groovy sound, man, keep that in".
DeleteOuttasight chick nogoodnik over there. Daddy-O. Hipsville.
Ah yes, using "ville" as a suffix: Dullsville, Nowheresville etc.
DeleteThese are centered in the New Orleans' idiom, but they were commonly used up till probably the 90s, and now are seldom heard:
ReplyDeleteMakin' groceries - going to the supermarket
Meet me on the neutral ground - neutral ground is what the rest of the world refers to as the median between streets.
In New York, we used to say "packing groceries" for overeating.
DeleteNeutral ground is still used but pretty much only with regard to parades. When a float rider is telling someone where to find them, they will give the float number and also state whether they are on the sidewalk or neutral ground side of the float.
DeleteI still say "makin' groceries" if I don't catch myself
DeleteIn Kansas at the end of the 60's and the start of the 70's, good things were "choice". Thanks Babs
ReplyDeleteI remember (in SoCal) people saying, "I've got some choice buds!"
Delete"Pigs", "The Heat", and "Five-O"
ReplyDeleteANON RF: Bitchen; Radical; Slick... My grandfather (b 1892) used to still say (in the 1970s) Reet, Kiddo, Toots and Hotcha!
ReplyDeleteIn Australia if something was good we used to say it was Ripper or Bonza.
ReplyDelete"Catch you on the flip side"
ReplyDelete"Gnarly, dude! "
"Bad" (as in good or cool)
"Book" as in leave, or "Bookin'" going fast
Everybody was always bookin' in Kansas, somewhere else to be, somethin' else to do, most likely smokin' reefers! I had friends in high school, their last name was Book. Thanks Babs
DeleteI grew up about an hour north of pmac. "Allons"--meaning let's geaux--was a common slang word as was "cher" for dear or hon.
ReplyDeleteJake was big when I was in junior high--things were "jake." In high school we said things were "wet," which was a compliment. An attractive woman was a "tan," which we somehow imagined was a clever and subtle way of saying "ten." White teenage boys, what're ya gonna do. smdh.
A colleague once told me that in the 90's in, I think, North Carolina, if you said, "What's good?", it meant you wanted to fight. So of course we mumbled it to each other passing in the office or we'd say it loudly enough for the other to hear, to someone else in passing. Odd behavior. Thanks Babs
ReplyDeleteTabarnak! (Quebec - Canada)
ReplyDeleteAlso, pick a word from any Slim Gaillard song...
In the words of Austen Powers....
ReplyDelete'Groovy Baby'
"Crikey", or "Bloody Nora" both mild expletives or expressions of surprise.
ReplyDeleteLink
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/qU4Su72Lk6t
bakvis
ReplyDeleteit is Dutch word for a young girl 14-18 years of age, a tiny bit ignorant, innocent. Mostly because they weren't allowed education.
german: JWD = janz weit draussen (= very far away)
ReplyDeleteBerlin slang for my home region: Sigmaringen
1848 was a small revolution and the "Fürst" of this province city
was anxious and said now we belong to "Preussen", i.e. the
relatives of the Hohenzollern clan.
Berlin still has a Sigmaringen street.
in 1944 Sigmaringen was the "capital" of France.
utne supposedly means far away or far out in Norwegian slang...but consider the source (Eric Utne...)
DeleteBabs, sock it to me! Glad it didn't slip by without mention. Put that in your bippy! Thanks Babs. What a great place you've got here.
ReplyDeleteThe strangest slang expression I have experienced was while I was a pupil at Pretoria Boys High School in about 1973 or so. The word was "Un". It could be used as a prefix or on its own. It could mean good or it could mean bad, depending on context. I have never come across it anywhere else. Another South African slang term which was popular in the eighties was "lank", as in, "It was lank cool", or "shit that exam was lank difficult". I think that one came from the Afrikaans work "lank", meaning "long", but pronounced differently.
ReplyDeleteThanks for an interesting blog.
Duncan
The resident 12 year old hipped me to "cinematic." I think it means groovy. Then there's "riz" as in "charizmatic." I think it means "cool."
ReplyDeleteradical, bodacious and gnarly got a lot of use when I was in high school (early 80s)
ReplyDelete