Wynton Kelly - Smokin'

Try searching the internet for Wynton Kelly - Smokin'. You'll get a bunch of hits for his lp with Wes Montgomery..you know...the famous one. But you will not get anything for the cheapo Trip lp which actually has a couple of great sets from the early 60's.

I have rearranged the tracks into chronological order as opposed to the haphazard way they were compiled. Guess I'm just anal that way.

Sometime in the late 70's/early 80's you saw great sessions re-released on crazy little labels, and the digital phenonemon had not even set in. It actually cost a bit of green to release lps back then so I am hoping someone made money off this at some point, cuz you all are getting it for free.

Tacked on to the end are 2 tracks from a quintet session from 1959.

Wynton Kelly - Smokin'
4/27/60*
1. Temperance
2. Weird Lullaby
3. On Stage
4. Skatin'
5. Pot Luck


7/61**
6. Come Rain Or Come Shine
7. Make The Man Love Me
8. Joe's Avenue
9. Surrey With The Fringe On Top
10. Sassy
11. Love I Found You

8/12/59***
12. June Night
13. Wrinkles

* Wynton Kelly - piano; Paul Chambers - bass; Philly Joe Jones - drums
** Wynton Kelly - piano; Paul Chambers/Sam Jones - bass; Jimmy Cobb-drums
***Wynton Kelly - piano; Lee Morgan- trumpet; Wayne Shorter - tenor sax; Paul Chambers - bass; Philly Joe Jones - drums


Trip TLX - 5010
Pt 1
Pt 2
Pt 3

Sonny Rollins - Croydon 1986

Here's another thing that I had to transfer over from cassette. Got this as a member of IAJRC. They had a "lending library" where you could get copies of some odd shows. I got this, a Mingus Big Band show and a long interview with Hawkins, which I erased half of accidentally. Those were the days....

This is originally taken from a BBC radio show. The performance was recorded at Fairfield Hall, Croydon, U.K.

I have taken the original BBC intro and moved it to the end, as well as an interview with Rollins that was the radio "break". This way the concert is all in one piece and you can listen to the conversation separately.

I have not been able to identify a couple of the songs. Help requested.

Sonny Rollins Quintet
Croydon, 1986

Disc One
1. I'm Old Fashioned
2. Autumn Nocturne
3. UT
4. My One and Only Love

Disc Two
1. Don't Stop The Carnival
2. Isn't She Lovely

3. original radio intro
4. conversation Pt1
5. conversation Pt2

Sonny Rollins - tenor
Clifton Anderson - trombone
Mark Suskind - piano
Jerome Davis - bass
Connie Campbell - drums


Part one

Part two

The Soul Of Jazz Percussion

Here's one of those crazy WTF records. Who actually launched this idea? Anyone heard of this label? How did whoever get all these people together for, well for this?

Now I'm not gonna lie to ya, it ain't in the best shape but it is not bad. Records like these are only found in flea markets and garage sales.

While the potential for cheese can be high, just before it hits that point some tasty solos are dished out. No one performer stands out and decent solos are spread around. Even the arrangements are decent and interesting.

The Soul Of Jazz Percussion

1. Construction Crew (Waldron)
2. Ping Pong Beer (Chambers, Evan, Jones)
3. Call To Arms (Waldron)
4. Witch-fire (Little)
5. November Afternoon (MacIntosh)
6. Chasin' The Bird (Parker)
7. Prophesy (Levister)
8. Quiet Temple (Waldron)
9. Wee-Tina (Shaunessy)

(composers)

Curtis Fuller - trombone
Booker little - trumpet
Donald Byrd - trumpet
Philly Joe Jones - drums
Paul Chambers - bass
Pepper Adams - baritone
Bill Evans - piano
Mal Waldron - piano
Armando Peraza - congo
Marcus Belgrave - trumpet
Addison Farmer - bass
Don Ellis - trumpet
Willie Rodriguez - percussion
Earl Zindars - percussion
Ed Shaughnessy - drums

Warwick W5003 ST

This is not in great shape but not bad - I would love to see someone clean this up.

Artie Shaw and The Gramercy 5 - the last recordings

My first thought is "Who doesn't love a great Stone Martin cover?"

What I have here are apparently some of the last recordings made by Artie Shaw before he launched into star-studded retirement. Here's a fellow who knew how to go out on the top of his game. Or was the music world gonna leave him behind and he was smart enough to realize it? I recommend everyone read "The Trouble With Cinderella", a top notch autobiography. But back to the music at hand...

This shit swings. Swings hard. Small group swing. Which was terribly out of favor at the time. The first track "The Grabtown Grapple" wrestles with some new sounds (for the time,) but the rest is firmly entrenched in the swing era. Cool with me.

I know next to nothing about these records, and while the information is out there, I have only a couple of blank cassette cases, with no way of knowing which versions of the songs I am hearing.
Some I am confident on, some not so. Doesn't stop my enjoyment of these records one bit.

Years ago there was a fellow who sold records, jazz records through the mail, G's Jazz outta WI. Guy named Gary, but Gary was cool and if you couldn't afford some of the crazy prices that original jazz lps commanded, he would make you cassettes of them... for a price of course.

Unfortunately you got nothing but a cassette - no lp info. That's where these recordings come from. From his vinyl to my cassettes to disc to you.

Artie Shaw and the Gramercy Five
Sequence In Music

1. The Grabtown Grapple
2. Lugubrious
3.I've Got A Crush On You
4. Tenderly
5. I Can't Get Started
6. Lyric
7. Imagination
8. Sunny Side Up
9. When The Quail Come Back To San Quentin


1. Sequence in B Flat
2. The Sad Sack
3. Stop and Go Mambo
4. Love Of My Life
5. The Pied Piper Theme
6. Dancing In The Dark
7. That Old Feeling
8. Someone To Watch Over Me
9. Besame Mucho

Part One

Part Two

Charles Lloyd - Autumn In New York - Vol. 1

Here's a record I don't see around much. I'm pretty sure this is a private label release.
Man, these records with all those strings only work for me occasionally and this time of year seems best, so that would explain my digging this out about now.
Although no songs on here songs were composed by Lloyd, this is not just an album of standards, he has included songs by Coltrane and pianist Clare Fisher.
There are also a couple of vocal tracks that threw me for a bit of a loop, but I have since really come to enjoy them in the context of the whole record.
I wonder if Volume Two ever materialized?

Charles Lloyd
Autumn In New York

1. Autumn In New York
2. As Time Goes By
3. Wait Till I See Her
4. Nancy (with the laughing eyes.)
5. Naima
6. Stella By Starlight
7. But Beautiful
8. Pensativa

Charles Lloyd - tenor sax
Tom Grant - piano
Kevin Brandon - bass guitar
Kim Calkins - percussion
Suzanne Wallach - vocals

Produced by Charles Lloyd. Strings arranged and conducted by Clare Fisher.

1979 Destiny Records DLA-10003

Thanks porco for the cover

Phil Woods Quartet - Phil Talks With Quill

Can you tell them apart? I can't. No shit, their styles are that similar. It could have made for an outing that was more novelty than not, but these guys managed to avoid it and put out a great little straight ahead post bop lp.
Other than the Woods original, Hymn For Kim, all the other tracks are standards from the bop idiom, oddly enough bookended by a pair of versions of Doxie.
Both are sufficiently different from each other to make this an interesting idea in its own right.
This record is a perfect example of where jazz was at at the end of the 50's. This was recorded in 57 but not released until 60.
Very soon the real fire of post bop would start emerging and jazz would start growing again. Till then there were still some very good records being released. And while not all would set the world on fire, like this one, they still do not deserve to languish in complete obscurity.
Gotta say, I loved burning this record, seeing as how I had not listened to it in many, many years.

Phil Woods Quartet with Gene Quill Sitting In
Phil Talks With Quill

1. Doxie
2. A Night In Tunisia
3. Hymn For Kim
4. Dear Old Stockholm
5. Scrapple From The Apple
6. Doxie

Phil Woods - alto sax
Gene Quill - alto sax
Bob Corwin - piano
Sonny Dallas - bass
Nick Stabulas - drums

BN 554

for the record - Woods takes all the 1st solos except on Tunisia where Quill solos initially.

MRL-364 Yesterday

Here's something I have been carrying around awhile. I had no idea people were having trouble finding it so it is with great pleasure I present it here.

Make sure you jump over to the Shad Shack for more great stuff like this.

The Stan Getz sides were recorded in 1948 but there is no info on when the other tracks were recorded, but given the similarity of personnel, I would assume it was near that time as well.

Yesterday
1. Diaper Pin
2. Interlude In Bebop
3. Hot Halavah
4. Birdland Jump
5. In A Little Spanish Town
6. As I Live In Bop
7. Talk A Little Bop
8. Sleepy Time Gal
9. In The Merry Land Of Bop
10 Stoned

Personnel and Instrumentation
Diaper Pin, As I Live In Bop, Interlude In Bop
Stan Getz - tenor
Jimmy Raney - guitar
Al Haig - piano
Clyde Lombardi - bass
Charlie Perry - drums

Stoned
Wardell Gray - tenor
Al Haig - piano
Clyde lombardi - bass
Charlie Perry - drums

In A Little Spanish Town, Talk A Little Bop
Jimmy Raney, Terry Swope - vocals
Al Haig - piano
Don Russo - bass
Charlie Perry - drums

Sleepy Time Gal, Birdland Jump
Paul Qunichette - tenor
Freddie Green - guitar
Kenny Drew - piano
Gene Rainey - bass
Gus Johnson, Jr. - drums

Hot Halavah, In The Merry Land Of Bop
Dave Lambert, Buddy Stewart, Blossom Dearie - vocals
Allen Eager - tenor
Gerry Mulligan - baritone sax
Benny Green - trombone
Al Haig - piano
Clyde Lombardi - bass
Charlie Perry - drums

Mainstream MRL-364

Coleman Hawkins - accent on tenor sax

This is the last of the posts for Hawks birthday. While not the rarest, it is still not seen often, and remains one of my favorites as well.
This lp is a perfect example of how Hawk was straddling two camps. His playing is as lightning fast and full of ideas as any of the current (at the time) boppers and yet he could just as easily drop right back into swing mode, sometimes with in the same song as shown in the outstanding opening track.
Given the crew it sticks closer to the swing feel than anything but he still manages to slip in a bit of of samba, another nod to the then current vogue.


This is a solid lp that covers a lot of territory. Once again i apologize for the small imperfections through out. This is taken from the originally released lp and not a reissue.

Coleman Hawkins
accent on tenor sax

1. I'll Never Be The Same
2. Blue Room
3. When Your Lover has Gone
4. Running Wild
5. The Breeze and I
6. What's New
7. I'll String Along With You
8. My Own Blues

Coleman Hawkins - tenor sax
Ernie Royal - trumpet
Eddie Bert - trombone
Earl Night - piano, organ
Wendell Marshall - bass
Osie Johnson - drums
Sidney Gross - guitar


Urania Records UJLP-1201

Coleman Hawkins Quartet - The Jazz Version of No Strings

Here's another in honor of Bean's birthday this weekend. I really don't see this one about much, so here ya go. as usual, ripped from the vinyl.

This quartet is the same one that recorded Today and Now for Impulse and that record remains one of my favorites to this day. There is not nearly as much stretching out on this lp, not surprisingly as it was released under the Moodsville imprint.

Apparently No Strings - the play - has the distinction of being the first for which Richard Rodgers wrote both music and lyrics. Guess the lyric part is kinda pointless here.

If the liner notes are to be believed this lp was recorded within weeks of the show opening on Broadway. Rodgers moved the orchestra from the pit and behind the stage with soloists wandering on stage to accentuate certain moods. Sounds interesting. I wonder if it worked. The show itself opened 3/15/62.

The Coleman Hawkins Quartet
The Jazz Version of No Strings

1. Look No Further
2. La La La
3. Nobody Told Me
4. Maine
5. Loads Of Love
6. The Sweetest Sounds
7. Be My Host
8. The Man Who Has Everything
9. No Strings

Coleman Hawkins - tenor sax
Tommy Flanagan - piano
Major Holley - bass
Eddie Locke - drums

recorded 3/30, 4/4/62

Moodsville 25

Something New, Something Blue - Columbia Special Projects lp

Well isn't that a tiny little cover? Pretty cool lp though...for what it is. Columbia special projects? Whatever that may be. Was this stuff released elsewhere? I have no idea.

Basically a bunch of blues tunes, originals and covers arranged by 4 up and coming composers. All star casts were supplied. It may not be perfect but it actually works.

You really have to love finding this kinda thing in the dollar bins at local flea markets!

Something New, Something Blue

1. Night Crawlers
2. Tin Roof Blues
3. Blues for Amy
4. St. Louis Blues
5. Swinging Goatsherd Blues
6. Blues in The Night
7. East Hampton Blues
8. Davenport Blues

1-4 recorded 5/15/59

Manny Alban - leader
Bill Evans - piano
Art Farmer - trumpet
Phil Woods - saxophone
Frank Rehak - trombone
Eddie Costa - vibes
Al Cohn - saxophone
Addison Farmer - bass
Ed Shaughnessy - drums
Teo Macero - leader

5-8 recorded 4/30/59

Teddy Charles - vibes, leader
Bill Russo - leader
Ed Shaughnessy - drums
Mal Waldron - piano
Bob Brookmeyer - trombone
George Duvivier - drums
Donald Byrd - trumpet
Hal McCusnick - saxophone
Frank Socolow - saxophone

CL 1388