Many many, thanks for giving me so many hours of pleasure, my friends!!! I cannot think of anything giving an old blindfold test nut like me more fun than your wild or educated guesses, logical conclusions, shots in the blue etc. If I turned you (back) to some good music that I love, it was worth it.
All the music on disc 2 was recorded in the 1940's or 1950's - a limit I simply set myself to come to terms with selecting only so much music. I tried to sequence it like a radio show and keep things interesting by contrasting or aligning pieces that made sense when listened to in close proximity. All is music that I love or find important or very interesting, and some that I thought would make great BFT items, which they did ...
Track 1: James Moody and his Modernists: I'm Gone (Quincy Jones)
Dave Burns trumpet; William Shepherd trombone; James Moody tenor sax; Pee Wee Moore baritone sax; Sadik Hakim piano; John Latham bass; Joe Harris drums; Quincy Jones arranger. Recorded at RVG Hackensack, January 8, 1954. Originally on Prestige single 881; available on Original Jazz Classics OJCCD-1837-2 Moody's Mood For Blues (1994).
I've always dug Moody's groove, propelled here by the great Joe Harris. That band swung, Moody played great solos. A nice example of early Quincy Jones, too. The three OJC CDs do a nice job of completing sessions, this here collects the first four of them recorded between January 1954 and January 1955.
Track 2: Ray Charles & his Orchestra: The Ray (Quincy Jones)
Joseph Bridgewater & John Hunt trumpet; David Fathead Newman alto & tenor sax; Emmott Dennis baritone sax; Ray Charles piano & celeste; Roosevelt Sheffield bass; William Peeples drums; Quincy Jones arranger. Recorded in New York November 20, 1956. Originally on Atlantic LP 1259, taken from CD 81731-2 The Great Ray Charles (1987).
Quincy Jones recycled his riff here, which indeed might be a couisin of Bags' Groove or just a generic blues phrase. I found it interesting how much more elegant and subdued The Ray's band plays here, trying to be real jazzy and avoiding any hard R & B pounding, whereas Moody's band hits it real hard - like the roles were reversed. The many different pianists Ray was taken for are a testimony of his jazz chops.
There is a newer Atlantic CD replicating the LP, but I prefer this one which completes the sessions scattered over several LPs and thus plays much longer - and pretty often, I must admit. I bought this immediately back then, long before the R & B sessions. The recording level is very low as usual on Atlantic sessions, but the sound is beautiful and natural (courtesy Earle Brown and the late Tom Dowd).
Track 3: Sir Charles Thompson: Mr. Big Horn (Charles Thompson)
Joe Newman & Taft Jordan trumpet; H.B. Mitchell trombone; Bob Dorsey tenor sax; Tate Houston baritone sax; Sir Charles Thompson piano; Hank Morton guitar; John Simmons bass; Shadow Wilson drums. Recorded in New York December 29, 1947. Originally on Apollo 78, available on Delmark CD DD-450 Takin' Off.
I love a meaty baritone solo, and this was in fact believed to have been played by Leo Parker, but when consulted for the Delmark reissue, Sir Charles (did you it was Prez who called him so?) remembered the underrated/underrecorded Tate Houston played on that session. I wish there were more of this, because it has the honking power and musical substance. Anyone loving this type of music will find plenty to digest on this fine reissue. Considering how many players on this session were members of the Basie band at some time, it is no wonder that name - or other big ones - came up; there were so many great bands around that time.
Track 4: Lucky Thompson's All Stars: Phace (Freddie Greene)
Karl George trumpet; J.J. Johnson trombone; Rudy Rutherford clarinet; Lucky Thomspon tenor sax; Bill Doggett piano; Freddie Greene guitar; Rodney Richardson bass; Shadow Wilson drums. Recorded in Los Angeles, probably September 1945. Originally on Exclesior 78 TR 146; available on Chronogical Classics 1113 Lucky Thompson 1944 - 1947 (2000) or IAJRC CD-1001 The Beginning Years (1991).
This is a welcome opportunity to sneak in a track of my second favorite tenor, Lucky Thompson (after Prez, of course!), from his tenure in the Basie band, of which all except Bill Doggett were members at the time. Guitarist Greene (sic!) wrote this hip tune between swing and bop for Lucky's very first session as a leader. The two issues listed here overlap only in two tracks from this session here; the Classics CD has his sessions as a leader while the CD from the label of the International Association of Jazz Record Collectors has very rare sideman dates from California - he recorded dozens of dates there. The Indigo CD brownie mentioned is a bootleg with incomplete credits and should be avoided, everything on it is taken from these two CDs except for a Buck Clayton track taken from his Classics CD. The IAJRC CD is available at CD Connection or Cadence - the society sells it only to its members.
Track 5: The Earl Hines Sextet: Blues On My Weary Mind (Earl Hines)
Ray Nance trumpet; Johnny Hodges alto sax; Flip Phillips tenor sax; Earl Hines piano; Al Casey guitar; Oscar Pettiford bass; Sid Catlett drums; Betty Roché vocals. Recorded in New York April 26, 1944. Originally on Apollo 78, available on Delmark CD DD-470 Earl Hines & The Duke's Men (1994).
I have to admit I wanted to test the ears of the Ellingtonians here - in the discussion about Duke's singers Betty Roché faired very well, and this is a fine example of her earlier work. BTW, it was that discussion that led me to check her out, and she grows on me more and more - thanks for pointing out this singer to me. The CD title is a little misleading, as the Earl is only on 6 of the 15 tracks, the rest being fine sessions of Sonny Greer & his Rextet (!) and Cat Anderson & his orchestra for Apollo. Roché lovers will not want to miss her four tracks.
Track 6: Jay McShann & his Orchestra: Swingmatism (Jay McShann)
Harold Bruce, Orville Minor, Bernard Anderson trumpet; Joe Baird trombone; Charles Parker, John Jackson alto sax; Bob Mabane, Harry Ferguson tenor sax; Jay McShann piano; Gene Ramey bass; Gus Johnson jr. drums. Recorded in Dallas, Texas, April 30, 1941. Originally on Decca 78 8570; taken from Decca/GRP CD 1-614-2 (1992).
This rhythmically unpredictable track gives me thrills every time I listen to it - I wish McShann had written more stuff like this, and then he would have been a tough competitor for Basie and Lunceford. But so we have dozens of dull blues vocals by Walter Brown, the one-pitch singer ... Of course this was included - besides me digging it to death - to test how many would know Bird's first commercially recorded solo. I was surprised so few actually did. To these ears, the freshness and excitement of this track is still evident after more than 6o years. You will want to kill me for this, but I would rather keep this CD than Basie's ... Listening to this is like witnessing the birth of bebop. There is of course a Classics CD with this.
Track 7: Pupi Campo & su Orquesta: How High The Moon (Hamilton/Lewis)
Probable personnel recruited from the following: Paul Cohen, Chubby Kuesten, Al Porcino, Bobby Russo trumpet; Johnny Mandel trombone; Joe Herde, Sol Rabinowitz, Joe Madera, Nat Cappi, Frank Socolow, Irv Butler saxes; Joe Loco or Al Ecsobar piano; Amadito Vizoso bass; Tito Puente timbales, musical director, arranger; Alex Campo congas; Chino Pozo bongos; Pupi Campo leader, claves, marracas. Recorded in New York, December 27, 1948. Originally on Seeco 78 and 10" LP; available on Tumbao CD TCD-007 Rhumbas and Mambos.
One can say many bad things about Jordi Pujol and the folks at Fresh Sound in Barcelona, but without them, most of this rare Afro-Cuban music would be lost or be available only in third rate crappy editions. It must have been mind reading: Just when I thought there should be a label devoted to reissuing Cuban Classic and christened Tumbao (the Cuban term for basic rhythm patterns), Pujol did exactly that. The Tumbao series is indispensable for any serious lover of Afro-Cuban music. Tito Puente, born in New York into a Cuban family, was a first class studied musician with a serious love of jazz, and countless big band veterans did time in swing as well as Cuban bands, and their solo contributions show they had their ornithology down. As this arrangement is written cleverly around the timbales breaks, I suppose it is Puente's work. Mandel is the trombone soloist, José Madera probably the alto soloist (he also played with Machito, as did Socolow). Chino Pozo is Chano's cousin. The basic recipe was an inspired Cuban rhythm section with jazz experienced horns. The band of Pupi Campo was one of many excellent dance bands in New York bridging the gap between Cuban dance music and bop in the late 1940's. Campo was leading his band much like Cab Calloway, without playing an instrument or even singing; legend has it he collapsed in 1953 from a stroke while dancing with a beautiful girl in front of his orchestra. Puente, the musical director, decided to take over completely the band he had already used for his own recordings and started a singular career as a Cuban bandleader; his early hit Ran Kan Kan (recorded for RCA Victor in 1949) is similarly written around the timbales solos.
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