No Count Sarah arrangers: Thad?

[Mark Stryker]

Trying to get definitive rulings on who wrote the charts on Sarah's Mercury LP "No Count Sarah," which was recorded with the Basie band (and Ronnell Bright/Richard Davis.) in August 1957. I'm coming this music for the first time, having just bought a used LP which I haven't been able to listen to yet since my wife is having a party and I'm seeking refuge away from the crowd without access even to headphones to listen via youtube and start trying to decipher for myself.

 I see listings that say Johnny Mandel, Luther Henderson, Frank Foster and Thad Jones all wrote charts. What I'm really interested in nailing down is what Thad may have written. The LP was recorded more than a year earlier than Basie's "Chairman of the Board," which contains Thad's first definitive charts for the band. So whatever he did for "No Count Sarah" would be his earliest big band arrangements that found their way to LP.  The tunes: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes Doodlin', Darn That Dream,' Just One of the Those Things, Moonlight in Vermont, No 'Count Blues, Cheek to Cheek, Stardust, Missing You.

I see that Thad appears to have written most of the charts on "Count Basie/Sarah Vaughan" (1961) -- don't have that one yet. I do have "Sassy Swings Again" from five or six years later that also has a lot of Thad's charts. which has a lot of Thad's chats.

Anybody know anything?

Update: Was able to listen to side one and the only chart that I think could possibly be by Thad is "Doodlin'" though something about to me suggests it might be more like to be Frank Foster.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 25, 2016 by Mark Stryker