Moten Swing

[Peter Friedman]

A couple of other versions of Moten Swing that I like:

Basie Jam, #3 - Pablo

with Clark Terry, Al Grey, Benny Carter, Lockjaw, Basie, John Heard, Louis Bellson

Newport Festival All Stars (1984) - Concord Jazz

[Larry Kart]

One variant that sticks in my head is the Cy Touff-Richie Kamuca "Prez-ence," which begins with the horns playing Prez's solo on "You're Driving Me Crazy" changes and, I believe, goes out with "Moten Swing." Lovely relaxed-airy feel to that track.

[Kalo]

yes, I got to know Eddie a little bit when I lived in NYC in the middle 1970s and frequented the West End Cafe, where he played (trombone) frequently; nice man, though at that point he was alternately coherent and than somewhat confused. I had a very long talk with him one afternoon at a party at Loren Schoenberg's apartment; I think it helped that my very pretty wife was there, as Eddie always liked the girls; I remember he told me about getting a nice royalty check because there had been a disco version of one of his old swing tune/arrangements. Loren knew him a lot better than I did and is always talking about how inventive he was - like, for a simple example, if his car broke down, he would pop the hood and rig something up in about a minute to get it going; he also told us that day he had first amplified his guitar in the 1930s by constructing a resonator for it -

He was just a real personable, perceptive guy, easy to talk to - Loren once told me a great story I had forgotten until recently - there was an older bass player who used to work at the West End, a black musican named Jimmy Lewis - he could really play, but he was losing his hearing and kept playing louder and louder. Loren was in a group with Durham and some other (very young and white) musicians; things were getting tense on the gig because Lewis kept turning up his amp and all anybody could hear was BOOM BOOM BOOM from the bass. Loren was getting all upset so Eddie said to him "don''t worry, I'll handle it." Durham goes over to Lewis and says, "hey Jimmy, I think you're playing too strong. These young white boys can't keep up with you." So Lewis turned it down and the rest of the gig went fine -

Thanks, Allen!

[thomastreichler]

Yes indeed! I forgot about these (especially the two Jam Session versions).

And the Jay McShann All Stars version of 1972 (feat. Buddy Tate and Julian Dash) isn't bad either.

Speaking of Jay McShann, there is another fine version on "Paris All Star Blues" (Musicmasters).

[thomastreichler]

...I almost forgot the exciting rendition by Terry Gibbs and his Dream Band in 1959.

[Shawn]

Just pulled out the Buck Clayton Mosaic set to refresh my memory. Nice swinging arrangement plus Julian Dash on tenor sax. I think I'll listen to the rest of the disc.

[Chuck Nessa]

Stuck forever on the Moten original. That entire session "speaks" to me in a personal way.

[medjuck]

Stuck forever on the Moten original. That entire session "speaks" to me in a personal way.

I agree about that session but I'm surprised by how much I like most of the cuts from their earlier sessions even the ones without Basie.