Red Norvo swung it!

[Lazaro Vega]

As a teenager Red Norvo excelled in a novelty marimba ensemble, then he heard the music of Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Earl Hines and other early jazz greats and became a convert. Like the great Coleman Hawkins, Norvo was open to young musicians with new ideas, and though a swing player at heart, recording with Paul Whiteman and Benny Goodman, he was open to musical changes in the 1940's, bringing Dizzy Gillespie and Charlier Parker into his "Selected Septet," recording with Woody Herman, hiring bassist Charles Mingus, and recording with Shorty Rogers and Jimmy Guiffre. You could spend hours listening to the great recordings Norvo made in the 1930's, especially with his wife, vocalist Mildred Bailey (Mr. and Mrs. Swing). The xylophone and vibes of Red Norvo tonight, 10 p.m. - 3 a.m., on Blue Lake Public Radio, http://www.bluelake.org/radio.html

[Chuck Nessa]

Musically Norvo was one of the weirdest guys out there. From my limited experience he was also one of the real gentlemen of jazz.

Go Red!

[Fer Urbina]

An all-time personal favourite, precisely for his weirdness. He was consistently interesting, even in his late 1950s recordings with the sextet. From his first sessions (Dance of the Octopus, his take on Bix's In A Mist...), the free rein he gave to Eddie Sauter in the 1930s (check out his arrangement of Smoke Dreams), his trio recordings with Tal Farlow and Charles Mingus (quite a break for both Mingus and Farlow at the time), his "swing meets bop" combo with Bird and Dizzy, his presence in the last months of Woody Herman's First Herd... there's a great session with Ben Webster and Harry Edison for RCA in the 1950s...).

A very interesting figure with a lot of music to dig into.

F

[Lazaro Vega]

That's Ben with Harry and Red on that RCA session "Just A Mood"?

[Fer Urbina]

Yep. that's Ben Webster here.

F