Jazz Focus

The great Basie trumpeter Buck Clayton took a band to Europe in the fall of 1949 for about nine months  - those recordings are elsewhere on this station!  These are appearances by Clayton with two other groups led by pianists - Willie "The Lion" Smith and his Quartet (with Claude Luter and Wallace Bishop) and Earl Hines (with Barney Bigard, Arvell Shaw and Bishop).  Four tracks by Hines with just...

Two sessions featuring the singer heading into her twilight years but still possessing great artistry and backed by great bands.  The first has her own group with Harry Edison on trumpet, Willie Smith on alto sax and Bobby Tucker on piano.  The second is the Tony Scott Orchestra with Scott on clarinet, Budd Johnson on tenor sax, Charlie Shavers on trumpet, Carl Drinkard on piano and Billy Bauer on...

Companion to the other program featuring groups with Webster as the only horn, this one has larger groups, but with the spotlight still on the tenor!  Webster's group nominally led by Bill De Arrango recording for Haven with Leonard Hawkins (Idrees Sulieman) on trumpet, Tony Scott on clarinet, Argonne Thornton (Sadik Hakim) on piano, De Arrango on guitar, John Simmons on bass and Sid Catlett on dr...

Great West Coast/Swing/Mainstream sessions led by guitarist Kessel (who also arranged and composed some of the tunes) for Contemporary Records.  The To Swing or Not To Swing album from 1956 featured Harry Edison on trumpet and either Bill Perkins or Georgie Auld on tenor sax with Shelly Manne on drums and Jimmy Rowles on piano.  The 1959 Some Like It Hot album has Joe Gordon on trumpet, Art Pepper...

Sides demonstrating the connection between trombonist Harris and tenor saxophonist Phillips recording for Clef/Mercury.  The first session also features Harry Edison, Hank Jones and Buddy Rich, the second Lou Levy, Gene Ramey and Jo Jones and the third is by the Nick Esposito Sextet with Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown JC Heard and Bennie Green replacing Harris on four tunes.

British drummer Tony Kinsey had a long career as a player, composer and arranger.  His mid-1950's groups played pretty uncompromising jazz but were commercially successful - a rarity!  This version of his group's records on Esquire and Decca features Jamaican alto sax player Joe Harriott, pianist/vibist Bill Le Sage (who composed half the tunes) and a variety of bass players.  Tenor player Don Ren...

More great bass clarinet performances by Don Byron, Eric Dolphy, Harry Carney, Joe Temperley, Hal McKusick, Gene Allen and Buddy De Franco!

Great period in the Calloway discography . . from June through December 1932 the band had a very stable personnel featuring Doc Cheatham, Ed Swayzee and Lammar Wright (tpt), DePriest Wheeler and Harry "Fatha" White (tbn), Eddie Barefield, Arville Harris, Andrew Brown and Walter Thomas (reeds), Benny Payne (p), Morris White (g), Al Morgan (sb) and Leroy Maxey (d) backing the leader's athletic vocal...

Great recordings for the French Vogue label featuring both Hines and Smith playing solo and a date (largely of his own originals) with Smith joined by Wallace Bishop . . stride and post-stride at its best!

Almost forgotten tenor sax player of the late swing and early bop periods in England, Tommy Whittle played with Ted Heath, Harry Hayes and other mainstream groups from his early teens.  By the late 1940's he was clearly influenced by bebop and these recordings demonstrate this.  With the Jack Parnell Quartet and Quintet (from Heath's band), Tony Kinsey's group (with Dill Jones on piano) and two se...

Kessel and his Charlie Christian-derived guitar playing was the focus of all these quintet sessions for Contemporary in the middle 1950's, but he gives good innings to Buddy Collette, Bud Shank and Bob Cooper on saxophones and flute, Claude Williamson, Arnold Ross and Hampton Hawes on piano, Red Mitchell on bass, Shelley Manne on drums and several others . . standards as well as original compositi...

Recorded for Down Home at Hambone Kelly's . . Watters on trumpet, either Don Noakes or Warren Smith on trombone, Bob Helm on clarinet, Wally Rose on piano, Clancy Hayes on vocals and banjo, Pat Patton on banjo, Dick Lammi on tuba and Bill Dart on drums.   A program of Watters' originals, blues and 1920's Jazz tunes.

Three sessions for Vogue and Swing in Paris, 1949 by two great Swing Era trumpets.  Buck Clayton's Sextet with Don Byas and Wallace Bishop, the Buck Clayton and Bill Coleman Orchestra with Alix Combelle, George Kennedy and Andre Persiany, and Bill Coleman with the Jack Dieval Quartet with Paul Vernon

Survey of the 1920's Hot Dance Band scene with all sides featuring a solo bass clarinet!  Paul Whiteman, Gus Arnheim, Jelly Roll Morton, Cab Calloway, Doc Cooke, The Harlem Trio, Eddie South, Ben Selvin, Jesse Stafford and Mal Hallett, among others . . . 

Big band formed at exactly the wrong time - Buddy Rich had a superb group he put together in the fall of 1945 . . .players like George Berg, Bitsy Mullins, Earl Swope, Allan Eager, Harvey Leonard and Tommy Allison played great arrangements by Ed Finkel, Tadd Dameron and Neal Hefti with vocals and drum features by the leader.  These recordings are from V-Disc sessions and three sessions for Mercury...

The great if unheralded pianist Mel Powell was better known after he left the jazz world as a classical composer and teacher, but in his late teens through his thirties he was a terrific piano player and an even better arranger.  These sides (for Vanguard and Capitol in 1947 and 55) show him playing solo in and in small chamber jazz groups featuring Ruby Braff, Bumps Myers, Oscar Pettiford, Skeete...

Virtually forgotten Jamaican player who dominated the London jazz scene in the 1950's and 60's with a style that encompassed trad, swing and free - although his primary sound was bebop.  Here he is featured with three different quartets in the mid 1950's and as a soloist with the Kurt Edelhagen radio band in Germany in 1959.   Dill Jones on piano, Phil Seamen on drums and many others are also feat...

Several classic Vanguard albums from 1955 featuring the duo of trumpeter Ruby Braff and pianist Ellis Larkins doing a series of duets.  Songs associated with Bing Crosby and composed by Rodgers and Hart are the feature . . .

From Sept 1933 through the end of January 1934 (when the band left for a European tour), the Calloway Orchestra recorded for RCA Victor, redoing some earlier hits (like "Minnie" and "Scat Song") and premiering some great jazz numbers by trombonist and arranger Harry "Father" White ("Fatha's Got His Glasses On," "Harlem Camp Meetin'," "Evening" etc).  Featuring Ed Swayzee, Lammar Wright and Doc Che...

Great mid 1940's sides featuring the tenor sax player soon after his tenure with the Duke Ellington Orchestra.  All these recordings feature Webster as the only horn with stellar rhythm accompaniment under his own name (with John Simmons, Al Haig, Johnny Guarnieri, Oscar Pettiford, Bill De Arrango and David Booth) and with Sid Catlett (with Marlowe Morris and Simmons).

Live airshots, mostly from the Dawn Club in San Francisco of Lu Watter's first Yerba Buena band, featuring himself and Bob Scobey on trumpet, Turk Murphy on trombone, Ellis Horne on clarinet, Forrest Brown and Wally Rose on piano, Clancy Hayes and Russell Bennett on banjos, Dick Lammi on tuba and Bill Dart on drums . . .a bonus wartime date during the summer of 42 without Watters, but with Benny S...

Three great (and vastly different) mainstream sessions featuring the alto of Hilton Jefferson, who was known more popularly as a lead alto player for Calloway, Henderson and Ellington.  Here he is featured with Rex Stewart on a Feltsted album with Garvin Bushell on clarinet and bassoon and Everett Barksdale on guitar; the Swingville All Stars with Al Sears, Taft Jordan and Don Abney and a differen...

A wide ranging survey of 1920's, Trad and Swing recordings featuring bass clarinet - with the Cotton Club Orchestra, PIccadilly Players, Monette Moore, Wilbur Sweatman, Anglo-American Alliance, Hoosier Hotshots and bands led by Lionel Hampton, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Ray Noble, Marty Grosz, Bob Scobey, Turk Murphy, Jean Morel, Humphrey Lyttleton and Ted Weems!

Selections taken from two lps featuring Taft Jordan playing Ellington tunes with a quintet including Kenny Burrell and Richard Wyands and the Swingville All Stars with Al Sears, Hilton Jefferson and Don Abney.

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.