Don't let this one fall through the cracks! Willie Bryant's Orchestra
was an exceptionally fine big band, teeming with skilled jazz musicians
during the mid-'30s Bryant was born in New Orleans and raised in
Chicago. By 1926 he was dancing professionally and eventually appeared
in duet performance with Bessie Smith. His band came together towards
the end of 1934, and by the January 4, 1935 they were making great
records for the Victor label. Teddy Wilson and Cozy Cole were the
backbone, and recognizably strong players like Benny Carter and young
Ben Webster greatly fortified the ranks. While each solo by Ben Webster
is priceless, you'll get a lot out of meeting the rest of the guys in
the band, like Robert "Mack" Horton and his husky, growling trombone,
outrageously featured at the beginning of "The Sheik." Bryant's sense of
theater was highly developed, and it served him well during the more
topical numbers. Of all the humorous routines ever created in imitation
of a revival meeting, one of the very funniest and most solidly swung is
"Chimes at the Meeting." Bryant impersonates an oily, opportunistic
preacher who is obviously only interested in the contents of the
collection plate. Calling each member of the congregation by name, he is
soon inventing all kinds of characters while pointedly pronouncing
nicknames for each soloist in the band. At one point Bryant, lending his
voice to the imaginary individual "Brother Goldberg," sings an
imaginative scat vocal built upon the time-honored syllables "Oy" and
"Yoy." The bizarre vaudeville patter fits perfectly over an exciting big
band stomp that makes it very difficult to sit still! "Steak and
Potatoes" is a hilarious ode to the enigma of Love versus Food. Willie
makes it clear that he would always opt for a table full of greasy, hot
goodies rather than messing with Love, even if it does "make you feel
like a thousand Mickey Mouses running up and down your spine." Again,
the combination of top-notch big band swing and a humorous vocal line is
irresistible! Accessible to an even wider audience on Victor's
affordable Bluebird series during the year 1936, Bryant continued to use
this same formula with great success. There is a flute solo -- quite
rare in jazz back then -- by Charles Frazier during "The Right Somebody
to Love," which has a funky vocal by trumpeter Jack Butler. If Bryant's
polished southern drawl sounds a bit conspicuous at times, it definitely
conjures up a minstrel show when combined with Butler's enthusiastic
clowning on "I Like Bananas (Because They Have No Bones)." Taft Jordan
sings up a passion during "All My Life," a song made famous during this
same time period by Thomas "Fats" Waller. "Cross Patch" was also a hit
for Waller, but Bryant's band cooks it hotter, with a beefy baritone sax
intro by Stanley Payne. This music really grows on you. It occupies a
sort of limbo between the formative swing of the early 1930s and the
fully mature jazz of the early 1940s. Bryant only made a handful of
records after 1936 -- following one Decca date in '38, economic
pressures forced him to take his band apart. Given the smooth sound of
his singing and speaking voice, it is not surprising that Willie went on
to work as an emcee, a deejay and even in television. He did lead a
band in Harlem during the year 1946, and after hearing these wonderful
sides from the middle 1930s, you might ask yourself, did the 1946 Bryant
band make any records? This calls for further investigation. arwulf arwulf
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