Joe

From "The Preacher" to actual preaching. (Not that I think this is preachy.) Makes sense to me!

Awesome; thanks!

My contribution. Jimmy Hamilton, "Mr. Good Blues." From It's About Time (Prestige Swingville, 1961). (Reissued on the Fantasy / OJC 2fer Can't Help Swinging.) Personnel: Jimmy Hamilton (tenor sax and clarinet) Clark Terry (trumpet) Britt Woodman (trombone) Tommy Flanagan (piano) Wendell Marshall (bass) Mel Lewis (drums) Colorful, as you would expect from this gathering of Ellingtonians. I picked this mostly as I wanted to showcase Hamilton's somewhat overlooked tenor playing. Plus, you do get a clarinet solo from him, so there's an opportunity to A/B his different horn-specific approaches. Also, let's give some props to one produce Esmond Edwards for his work here and on the entire Swingville series. Those records contain some of the best documentation of seldom spotlighted (or otherwise obscurish) musicians, all beautifully recorded by RVG.

It is!

More personality than you can fit into a microgroove for sure! Blue Friday for me.

Under normal circumstances, I'd vote Kenny Dorham. But that Booker Little record (rough sound aside) is transcendent.

I'd forgotten what a superb record this is.

Well, now that I'm seeing who the tenor is, I'm guessing this is a Verve date, meaning Ray Brown on bass. Probably Herb Ellis on guitar. Piano and drums, though... It's not OP, and I can't see OP being a good fit for a Jacquet date. Could that be Jimmy Jones? He made a lot of Verve dates during this era, and the comping here is in a Jones bag harmonically. Those bombs the drummer is dropping during Eldridge's solo... Louie Bellson? certainly a drummer with some significant big band experience. As in, he knows how to make a small combo as dynamic as a larger band. The more I listen, the more his work here impresses. If this is a big band drummer, I'm, thinking Basie, Jo Jones, but more by logic than ear. Whoever it is: 5 stars. But of course! This must be from an Anderson record I don't know (or own). Very curious now! Ah, I now see that a trumpet player from a recent BFT strikes again. And esteemed guest indeed.

Correction: NOT Trane. It finally came to me that this is based on Wayne's "Deluge," from JUJU. Man, the familiarity of that line was bothering me!