The Skip-Jacks – Let's Get Away From It All A recommendation from Jazz Wax today. Unknown to me before. Five way close harmony singing on pop tunes and jazz standards with a big band behind. 

I had a lot of contact with Tony (Chaney) all those years ago, but at a certain point that stopped and I never heard from him again. I wonder what happened to him. I hope all is well.

Where did you get that one? Marquez' danzones are some of the most fascinating orchestral music I ever heard.

I hear you ! But I don´t think I needed to recalibrate my ears to new listening. Funky grooves and beats were around everywhere when I was a youngster. And Free Jazz had not completly died.  So it´s natural that I dug the Miles from 1975 and Ornette Coleman from 1977 and saw them live exactly in that period.  The first "jazz" I had heard when I was around 13 was Mingus with Dolphy. So it was the other way round: I "discovered" let´s say Bop and Bird THRU Dolphy, discovered acoustic Miles Davis or Ornette Coleman thru the way they played in the period of my youth. Later, becoming a jazz musician in the late 70´s I concentrated on acoustic jazz and still do, but had periods of electric only, and now I may have got back to more funky stuff, since you just get bored and tired of anything if there is no change, and I keep myself young and all my gang is much younger people.  But I must admit I prefer the later PrimeTime from the late 80´s into the 2000´s because I dig the more modern electric sound of let´s say an electric bass, of drums etc. much more than that old 70´s sound of electric instruments. And it got to be LOUD !!!!!! Because I am loud 😀 Oh I know what you are talking about !  Same here, the mature powerful tone. Yeah, those tracks with the choir are fun, and Old Folks is a cute tune !  And they recorded well for their time:  Let´s say compare "Swedish Schnapps" or other records with the weak sound of the Savoy records. On a Savoy Bird you never hear the drums properly, but on the Verves you hear them cymbals ringing.  Only one downer I have to add: I like the more spontanous Bird in live settings, but only in live settings with congenial partners. My favourite Bird is on that Columbia double vinyl "One Night at Birdland". The sound quality is terrible, but it get´s more in what I really need to hear as a musician......That´s the stuff from what I LEARNED to play. Play those tempos, play piano with similar passion like Bud, demand drummers to play LOUD etc.🤣

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