How Long Was Roy Eldridge w/Basie in the 60s?

[JSngry]

And what albums, if any, besides that Broadway/Command thing? Any live stuff floating around?

[brownie]

Roy's stay with the Basie band was an unhappy experience.

It lasted some twelve weeks. From June to early September 1966.

In John Chilton's book 'Roy Eldridge Little Jazz Giant', Roy is quoted as telling Phil Shaap 'It was worse than being in a white band. I had buddies in the white bands, but in Basie's Band the only cat I was real tight with was 'Lockjaw'. When the band took an intermission, all the cats would split and I'd be left sitting up on the bandstand''

[JSngry]

Oh my...

But you know, I recall reading that the New Testament band was sometimes a bit chilly to some of the old folks...didn't they used to mock Prez from time to time, things like that?

And apparently, Lockjaw might not have been the "friendliest" man in the band, to the band. But he would hang w/Roy, eh? Hey, even more power to the Lock, then.

[Swinging Swede]

The Eldridge/Basie discography looks like this:

• Basie Swingin', Voices Singin' (20-22 June 1966)
  
  
• live performance at the Newport Jazz Festival (4 July 1966) [4 tracks have been on European bootlegs; most of this extended set remains unissued. Jimmy Rushing is also present.]
  
  
• The Nifty Cat Strikes West (July 1966) [Eldridge sextet album with four members from the Basie band (in addition to Eldridge himself also Grover Mitchell, Eric Dixon and Norman Keenan) plus a fifth (Louie Bellson) who frequently subbed in the Basie band in the 60s. The pianist (Bill Bell) naturally was the only non-Basieite.]
  
  
• Broadway Basie’s Way (18 Aug-8 Sep 1966)
  

By the way, Broadway Basie's Way and Hollywood Basie's Way (the latter recorded after Eldridge had left) were recently reissued on an Andorran twofer CD.

[John Tapscott]

I wonder if his gig with Basie was really meant to be long-term, or whether he was more of a temporary fill-in. By this time, Roy was well-established as a trumpet soloist in small groups (though of course earlier he'd played with Gene Krupa and others). It's hard to imagine that someone who was used to being out-front would be happy with a section job and 2 or 3 solos a night. Of course the bread would have been OK, but after a short while one might lose their appetite. Plus the Basie band had cliques like any other; it was tough apparently for new guys (no matter who they were) to be really accepted (and certainly not in 12 weeks). Guys can play tight on the stand but not be tight at all off the stand.

[JSngry]

I also wonder if Basie for a while had a plan to have one "old-timer" in the trumpet section, because on the Hollywood... album (early 1967), Roy's gone, but Sweets is in. Did Sweets do the road too?

[Swinging Swede]

Those were difficult times for Swing Era veterans. Keep in mind that Eldridge hadn't recorded an album under his own name since 1960, and, apart from that one Jonah Jones-styled affair, not since 1957. The Basie band may have provided a safe and stable income in what was lean times for Eldridge.

[Lazaro Vega]

1957, Count Basie at Newport (Verve): Roy and Illinois Jacquet are featured on "One O'Clock Jump."

[Swinging Swede]

I also wonder if Basie for a while had a plan to have one "old-timer" in the trumpet section, because on the Hollywood... album (early 1967), Roy's gone, but Sweets is in. Did Sweets do the road too?

That's an interesting theory. And if so, also somewhat of a deviation from the New Testament philosophy? Edison is on all Basie sessions for about a year until Fall 1967, including live ones, so he seems to have been a permanent member during that time. He would also occasionally sit in, both before and after, for example on Standing Ovation from 1969.