Jazz Focus

Two great sessions from August, 1955 with Billie Holiday backed by the same band - Harry "Sweets" Edison, Benny Carter, Jimmy Rowles, Barney Kessel, Ray Brown and Larry Bunker.  Holiday was at the tail end of her career, but the top-shelf accompaniment inspired her to some of her best singing - rerecording tunes for Clef in 1955 that she had done twenty years earlier for ARC and Brunswick.

Out and out jazz sessions led by the New Orleans pianist and entrepreneur Williams featuring mostly his own compositions/publications.  Ed Allen and King Oliver play cornet, Buster Bailey, Arville Harris, Russell Procope, Benny Moten and Carmelo Jejo play reeds, Cyrus St. Clair on tuba and Floyd Casey on washboard, giving the group its name!

Some of the first feature recordings made by Norman Granz on his various labels.  This represents three sessions led by Ben Webster (the last two of which were issued on LP as "King of the Tenors").  The first is 1951 with Maynard Ferguson on trumpet, Benny Carter on alto, Gerald Wiggins on piano, John Kirby on bass and George Jenkins on drums.  The others are from 1953 and feature Oscar Peterson on piano, Barney Kessel on guitar, Ray Brown on bass and J.C. Heard on drums on the first, with the second substituting Herb Ellis on guitar and Alvin Stoller on drums, with Harry "Sweets Edison and Benny Carter added on trumpet and alto.

Great records featuring the iconoclastic trumpeter playing with other groups, including Charlie Johnson's Paradise Orchestra (with Charlie Irvis, Benny Waters, Ben Whitted and Monette Moore), Duke Ellington (with Joe Nanton, Rudy Jackson, Otto Hardwick and Harry Carney), Charles Lavere and His Orchestra (Joe Marsala, Preston Jackson, Zutty Singleton, Boyce Brown), Banjo Ikey Robinson (Omer Simeon, Lawson Buford), the Louisiana Sugar Babes (with James P. Johnson, Fats Waller and Garvin Bushell), and Eva Taylor (Clarence Williams, Charlie Irvis).

These recordings from a septet through a full band feature the arrangements and some compositions by the great Mel Powell.  After he left jazz in the late 1950's he became well known as a serious composer and educator, but his arrangements for jazz groups demonstrate his earlier abilities as applied to more commercial ensembles.  The 1946 orchestra features Bernie Privin, Johnny Carisi, Lou McGarity, Cutty Cutshall, Bill Shine, Cliff Strickland and even Mitch Miller on oboe!  The septet from 1955 has Al Mattoliano on trumpet, Peanuts Hucko on clarinet, Nick Caiazza on tenor sax, Tommy Kay on guitar, Arnold Fishkin on bass and Bobby Donaldson on drums.  The quintet and sextet from 1947 has either Jake Porter or Frank Beach on trumpet, Bumps Myers on tenor, Red Callendar on bass and Lee Young.  All with the immaculate piano of Mel Powell!

Two of the stalwarts of Count Basie's band of the early 1940's, Clayton and Tate recorded many times in the 1950's and 60's, but these dates for Swingville really highlight their chemistry and affinity for the blues - with Sir Charles Thompson, Gene Ramey, Mousie Alexander and Gus Johnson.

Early sessions produced by Norman Granz for his Clef label featuring great Swing Era Stars - the Gene Krupa Sextet has Charlie Shavers, Bill Harris, Ben Webster, Teddy Wilson, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown and the leader while the various Hodges groups have Emmett Berry, Lawrence Brown, Hodges, Webster, Leroy Lovett, Cal Cobbs, Osie Johnson and others all playing standards and originals!

The original wild man of jazz - Purvis was an extraordinarily gifted trumpet player who spent time with most of the great white players of the pre-swing era and led several dates.  Here he is with his own groups (with J.C. Higginbotham, Coleman Hawkins, Frank Froeba and Adrian Rollini among others), Hal Kemp and His Orchestra, Ben Selvin and His Orchestra, Rube Bloom's Bayou Boys (with Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman) and Frank Froeba's Orchestra (with Slats Long and Herbie Haymer)

Three sessions all featuring Art Hodes, with Bechet on two . . the Art Hodes Blue Five with Max Kaminsky (tpt), Mezz Mezzrow (clt), Pops Foster (sb) and Danny Alvin (drums), the Hodes Hot Five with Wild Bill Davison (c), Sidney Bechet (clarinet and soprano sax), Foster and Freddie Moore (d) and the Sidney Bechet Blue Note Jazz Men with Davison, Hodes, Walter Page (sb) and Moore.  Terrific New Orleans-Chicago-New York dixieland!

Uncharacteristic sessions from two musicians unfairly pigeon-holed as dixielanders . . here playing superb mainstream Jazz with much more modern-sounding rhythm sections . .Russell's clarinet is heard with Buck Clayton (trumpet), Tommy Flanagan (piano), Wendell Marshall (bass), J.C. Heard (drums) and Freeman is on tenor with Shorty Baker (trumpet), Claude Hopkins (piano), George Duvivier (bass) and Heard.

Rex Stewart and His Orchestra - a septet of fine musicians touring France, Sweden and Germany in late 1947 through 1948.  Great arrangments fo swing tunes, novelties, some dixieland and even some bebop with Stewart, Sandy Williams (tbn), John Harris (clt and alto), Vernon Story (tenor), Don Gais (p), Fred Emelin and Ladislas Czabanyck (bass), Ted Curry (drums) and Stewart and Honey Johnson on vocals

Some of the New Orleans trumpet player's first recordings after being rediscovered . . with Kid Ory's band (Mutt Carey on cornet, Kid Ory on trombone, Wade Whaley on clarinet, Buster Wilson on piano, Frank Pasley on guitar), Ed Garland on bass, Everett Walsh on drums), Lu Watters Yerba Buena band (Watters on trumpet, Turk Murphy on trombone, Ellis Horne on clarinet Burt Bales on piano, Pat Patton on banjo, Squire Girsback on bass, Clancy Hayes on drums and vocal, Sister Lottie Peavey on vocals) and his own group recording for World Transcriptions (Floyd O'Brien on trombone, Whaley, Fred Washington on piano, Pasley, Red Callender on bass and Lee Young on drums)

Clarence Williams records not released under his name . . The Dixie Washboard Band, Bluegrass Feet Warmers and Seven Gallon Jug Band.  .featuring Ed Allen, Willie "The Lion" Smith, Buster Bailey, Carmelo Jari, Cyrus St. Clair, Floyd Casey, Benny Moten, Jasper Taylor, Arville Harris and others!

Three great mainstream sessions featuring the great Texas/Basie tenor sound of Buddy Tate (and clarinet on one number) with Claude Hopkins and Tommy Flanagan on piano, Emmett Berry, Joe Thomas and Clark Terry on trumpets, Wendell Marshall and Larry Gales on bass, J.C. Heard, Osie Johnson and Art Taylor on drums

Great small group sides made by the New Orleans pianist and entrepreneur Williams featuring many great black Jazz players of the day including Bubber Miley, Ed Allen, Tommy Ladnier and Louis Metcalf (trumpet), Joe Nanton and Charlie Irvis (trombone), Arville Harris, Ben Whitted, Don Redman, Buster Bailey and Coleman Hawkins (reeds), Leroy Harris and Buddy Christian (banjo), Cyrus St. Clair (tuba) and Floyd Casey (drums) with Eva Taylor and Kathleen Henderson on vocals

Drawn from three albums for Delmark and GHB, these records capture this classic trad band at its peak . . originating as a campus band at Purdue in the late 1940's, the Salty Dogs became the Original Salty Dogs by the mid 1950's and were one of the top two or three groups in the genre for decades.  Here, Lew Green (cornet), Jim Snyder (trombone), Kim Cusack (clarinet and alto), John Cooper (piano), Bob Sundstrom (banjo and vocals), Mike Walbridge (tuba) and Wayne Jones (drums) show how to reinterpret classic jazz.  On two tracks Clancy Hayes plays banjo!

Recordings by the Clarence Williams Blue Five and Red Onion Jazz Babies featuring Louis Armstrong during the year he spent in New York with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra.  Also involved are Charlie Irvis and Aaron Thompson (tbn), Sidney Bechet, Buster Bailey, Don Redman and Coleman Hawkins (reeds), Lil Armstrong (piano), Buddy Christian (banjo) and Eva Taylor, Alberta Hunter and Clarence Todd on vocals

Some of the early New Orleans Revival recordings by Kid Ory's band - for Exner and Decca in 1945 and Columbia in 1946.  Featuring Mutt Carey (c), Ory (tbn), Joe Darensbourg and Barney Bigard (clarinet), Buster Wilson (p), Bud Scott (bjo and guitar), Ed Garland (sb), Minor Hall or Alton Redd (d), vocals by Ory, Cecile Ory, Darensbourg and Helen Andrews.

Louis' regular band in Chicago recorded several dates in January and April of 1933 for Victor with tunes he had popularized as well as come new pop material.  In addition to his singing and playing (definitely at a peak, despite reputed chops trouble), we hear Keg Johnson on trombone, Scoville Brown on alto, Budd Johnson on tenor, Teddy Wilson and Charlie Beal on piano, Mike McKendrick on guitar and Yank Porter, Sid Catlett and Harry Dial on drums

Some sides for Hi-Lo and Dee Gee by the Milt Jackson Quartet at the beginning of the career of the Modern Jazz Quartet followed by the actual group in one of its first recording sessions for Prestige - with Milt Jackson on vibes, John Lewis on piano, Percy Heath and Ray Brown on bass, and Kenny Clarke and Al Jones on drums, standards an originals!