Jazz Focus

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, Skeeter Best, Tommy Kay, Arnold Fishkin and Bobby Donaldson.

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 featured.

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 Cheatham on trumpet, White and DePriest Wheeler on trombones, Eddie Barefield on alto, Arville Harris on clarinet, Andrew Brown on bass clarinet, Walter Thomas on tenor and bari sax, Bennie Payne on piano, Morris "Fruit" White on guitar, Al Morgan on bass and Leroy Maxey on drums - all with Calloway singing!

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 Strickler on trumpet, Bill Bardin on trombone, Horne or Bob Helm on clarinet, Burt Bales on piano, Bennett and Clancy Hayes on drums

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 different Swingville All Stars date with Joe Newman, J.C. Higginbotham, Jimmy Hamilton, Coleman Hawkins, Claude Hopkins and Tiny Grimes.

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.