Ray Nance: The Complete 1940-1949 Non-Ducal Violin

[jazzbo]

Augustin mentioned this release on another thread, and mine arrived from Cadence last night and was eagerly listened to once through.

I can heartily recommend this to Ray Nance fans who don't mind a bit of sonic roughness.

The disc opens with an excellent Ray Nance feature with the Horace Henderson Orchestra, good in all ways, for the great Nance performance, for the band performance, and for the arrangement.

Then follows seven fascinating tracks with an Ellingtonian small group. . . Webster, Guy, Blanton (not on all numbers), Greer . . . . Sound is not GREAT, but not really bad for privately recorded sessions of this nature. Webster appears on both tenor AND clarinet, and is clearly in great form. Everyone is having fun. Relaxed. . . . This is the pearl of the necklace in many ways. . . though there are other highligts a plenty on this disc.

Two Earl Hines Orchestra (a very small one!) are included that can also be found on the Earl Hines Delmark cd of material with Ellingtonian sidemen (and vocalist Betty Roche, no sideman she!) Two very atmospheric Eddie Heywood Orchestra selections follow, in great sound. The disc continues with three very relaxed quintet selections on Esquire Records recorded in London with Dick Katz at the piano. Nance is definitely the focal point here! Relaxation continues to be the key with five selections by Ivory Joe Hunter as the bandleader; Ray really shines on these on violin, perfectly complementing the pieces and moods. The disc closes with a track from Babs Gonzales that had appeared on the Blue Note cd (now out of Print) and continues the relaxation in a Babs-orific way. . . .

This is a great addition to the scanty number of discs that feature Ray Nance as "leader". . . . Ray was one of a kind, and I'll continue to hope that more of his work is reissued!