Requisites
Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie recorded the live bebop album Jazz At Massey Hall on May 15, 1953 in Toronto, Canada. With him on this date were bassist Charles Mingus, drummer Max Roach, pianist Bud Powell and saxophonist Charlie Parker who is billed as Charlie Chan for contractual reasons, an allusion to the fictional detective and to Parker’s wife Chan. It was the only time these five men recorded as a unit and the last recorded meeting of Parker and Gillespie.
The session was produced by Charles Mingus, and was originally released on Mingus’s label Debut, from a recording made by the Toronto New Jazz Society. Due to under-recording of the bass lines, Mingus took the recording to New York where he and Max Roach dubbed in the bass lines on most of the tunes, exchanging Mingus soloing on All The Things You Are. However, a 2004 reissue, Complete Jazz At Massey Hall contains the full concert without the overdubbing.
The original issue was as a two 10” LPs, 46:54 in length and and the cover design had five playing cards, with Gillespie as the Joker. The set on Volume 1 contains the tracks Perdido, Salt Peanuts, All The Things You Are and 52nd Street Theme. Volume 3 has Wee, Hot House and A Night In Tunisia. Volume 2 consisted of the trio recordings of Powell, Mingus and Roach from the same date all but I’ve Got You Under My Skin and one track by Billy Taylor with Mingus and Roach from a later date.
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Requisites
The first release of the album Afro-Cuban dates back to 1955 on 10″ Vinyl, featuring only four tracks by trumpeter Kenny Dorham. However, some time later, Blue Note decided to add three tracks, issuing what they felt was a more complete LP by the end of May 1957.
The original four tracks totalled 18 minutes and 53 seconds, with the first three composed by Dorham, the fourth a Gigi Gryce composition and were ordered as Afrodisia, Lotus Flower, Minor’s Holiday and Basheer’s Dream.
The musicians on the session were Kenny Dorham – trumpet, J. J. Johnson – trombone, Hank Mobley – tenor saxophone, Cecil Payne – baritone saxophone, Horace Silver – piano, Oscar Pettiford – bass, Art Blakey – drums, Carlos “Patato” Valdes – conga and Richie Goldberg – cowbell.
Gil Melle designed the cover and the photo was taken by Francis Wolff.
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Requisites
Chet Baker & Strings is an album recorded In Los Angeles, California by trumpeter Chet Baker in late December 30 & 31, 1953 and February 20, 1954 and released on the Columbia label. This quintet setting was augmented with a nine-piece string section and the easygoing strings support the cool bop giving it a light, airy though sometimes a melancholy film noir feel.
The 15 original track listing includes You Don’t Know What Love Is, I’m Thru With Love, Love Walked In, You Better Go Now, I Married An Angel, Love, I Love You, What a Diff’rence a Day Made, Why Shouldn’t I?, A Little Duet for Zoot and Chet, The Wind, Trickleydidlier, You Don’t Know What Love Is, You Better Go Now. A bonus track, an alternate take of A Little Duet for Zoot and Chet was reissued on the compact disc.
Joining the sessions were Bud Shank on alto saxophone and flute, Zoot Sims on tenor saxophone, pianist Russ Freeman, bassist Joe Mondragon, Shelly Manne on drums, Sam Cytron, Jack Gasselin, George Kast, Eudice Shapiro, Paul Shure and Felix Slatkin playing violin, Lou Kievman and Paul Robyn on viola and Victor Gottlieb on cello.
The four arrangers for the sessions were Jack Montrose, Johnny Mandel, Marty Paich and Shorty Rogers.
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Three Wishes
Pannonica asked trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie if he had three wishes what would they be and his reply was…
- “Not to play for money.
- “Permanent peace in the world.”
- “A world where you don’t need a passport.”
*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats – Complied and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Clyde Lee McCoy was born on December 29, 1903 in Louisville, Kentucky into one of the families in the Hatfield-McCoy feud. He begun mastering the trumpet when he was without formal instruction, after the family moved to Portsmouth, Ohio in 1912. This would lead to performing regularly at church, school affairs and on the Cincinnati riverboats five years later, becoming one of the youngest musicians on the river at age 14.
In 1920 he auditioned with an untried band for a gig at the Whittle Hotel and Spa in Knoxville, Kentucky. Approved by the owner and the patrons the two week job lasted two months and the Clyde McCoy Orchestra was officially launched. In Chicago, Illinois he performed his song Sugar Blues at the Drake Hotel in 1930 and his solo rendition of the song would garner him national radio exposure for the band and a recording contract with Columbia Records, selling in excess of fourteen million copies internationally by the time of Clyde’s retirement in 1985.
The Clyde McCoy Orchestra would have a long and successful run at various hotels, sign a five-year recording contract with Decca Records, recorded frequently for Associated Transcriptions during the Depression and the sessions were used for delayed radio broadcasts. Following the ASCAP recording ban in 1941 that halted recording of all songs composed by its members, Clyde recorded for LangWorth Transcriptions in New York as well as Mercury, Capitol, and Vocalion Records.
Trumpeter Clyde McCoy, who developed the signature “wah-wah” sound in the late 1920s by fluttering a Harmon mute in the bell of his trumpet and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6426 Hollywood Boulevard, passed away from complications of Alzheimer disease on June 11, 1990 at the age of 86 in Memphis, Tennessee.
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