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SWING AT THE COUNTRY CLUB - Chet Grayson and the Country Clubbers


JSngry

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I smell a rat on this one...

Treasure TLP828, Treasure Productions, Inc. Mount Vernon, NY. The label seems to be an east-coast version of Crown, I swear...

No personnel listed, but instrumentation is clarinet (alto on one tune), vibes, piano, bass, and drums.

Repertoire is all stuff like "Undecided", "Stars Fell On Alabama", "Jeepers Creepers", "Don't Get Around Much Anymore", all stuff that can be swung "litely and politely". And is. Kinda like the Shearing group with a clarinet instead of a guitar. Nothing like the Rusty Bryant jazz sides on Dot that the cover photo of a tenor-playing brother leaning back and blowing had me hoping for, but still, not a waste of $2.98, although $2.99 would have been too much to pay.

BUT...

There's more than a few things on here that suggest that "Chet Grayson and the Country Clubbers" might be more than just some annoymous giggers who did the date for scale. Everybody sounds like they're "putting on" JUST a little bit, and everybody, the vibist in particular, gets off some licks (and with a swing) that I've never heard in a REAL country club band. And some of the "straightness" seems less than natural, if you know what I mean. So I'm thinking that this might be one of those dates that might have some "lesser" but still "known" jazz names on it. Nothing on the level of the Raymond Scott Secret 7, but still...

Does this item show up in any jazz dsicographies? If so, a listing would be much appreciated.

As always, thanks in advance!

(btw - other artists with albums on Treasure (MAKE EVERY RECORD A TREASURE $3.98 says the back cover) include Rudy Vallee (reading fairy tales!), George Jessell (singing tear jerkers of the not-so-gay- nineties!), Pianola (sic) Pete, The Dixieland Dandies, and Robert Alda (singing songs for Continental Lovers!))

Edited by JSngry
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  • 10 years later...

Going through one of the old racks of "get around to this at some pint", and started doing research to see if there was any indication of who "Chet Grayson" really was...and found this 11 year old thread. Geez....

Anyways, those first impression still hold, but the last tune on the LP breaks formula and is a very nice Hodges-esque reading of "Don't Get Around Much Anymore"...did Bob Wilber do shadow dates like this at any point?

Otherwise, elven years was not too long to wiat to give this its first full listen. In fact, eleven more would have been fine.

Full Treasure Records discography here: http://www.excitingsounds.com/treasure-productions/

Sure would like to hear this one...

il_570xN.615585708_o8gs.jpg

but instead have this one:

$_35.JPG

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Treasure, Mount Vernon Music, Fortuna, and Goosey Gander were all connected. There was something schlocky at best and perhaps shady (references to lawsuits for copyright infringement) about their operations.

I had started to try to compile lists of their releases a year or so ago out of curiosity. My recollection is that many of their releases made use of pseudonyms for the artists. I'll try to pull out my notes sometime if I can find them.

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