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Nat Pierce's "The Ballad of Jazz Street"


Larry Kart

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Picked up today this 1961 album (not released until 1980) by Pierce’s rehearsal band and was very pleasantly surprised by the writing and playing. I’ve thought of Pierce the composer-arranger as something of a journeyman, but his writing here recalls Al Cohn at his most inventive (very subtle arrangement of “Melancholy Baby,” of all things), while the three-part title suite is quite Ellingtonian. Personnel: Tpts: C. Terry, Burt Collins, Danny Stiles, Jerry Kail; Trbs: E. Bert Jim Dahl, Jimmy Cleveland, Bill Elton; reeds: Dick Meldonian, Keith Zaharia, Paul Gonsalves, Paul Quinichette, Marty Flax;  Rhythm: Pierce, Sonny Dallas, Turk Van Lake, Mousey Alexander. Both Pauls and Hafer, all in top form, are featured.

 
Here's the only track I could find on YouTube; the chart and piece are by Gene Roland, not Nat. Hafer follows Gonsalves, then it’s Terry, Stiles, and Collins.
 
 
Also, FWIW, here's Nat with Buddy Rich, Sweets, and Ike Isaacs in 1959, on a Lenny Bruce-hosted TV show.
 
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