This fourth volume in the complete recordings of tenor saxophonist Don Byas opens with 13 sides recorded for the Savoy label in May of 1946. On the opening session, three gorgeous ballads are chased with a blistering version of Ray Noble's "Cherokee" and a mellow stroll through "September in the Rain." About three months later the saxophonist resumed recording for Savoy, now backed by a tougher rhythm section in drummer Max Roach, bassist Leonard Gaskin, and pianist Sanford Gold. These deservedly famous sides represent Byas at the very peak of his early maturity. A rare parcel of four recordings originally issued on the Gotham label finds Byas accompanied by a trio including pianist Beryl Booker. A rather ominous reading of the notoriously suicidal "Gloomy Sunday" is colored so darkly as to suggest the subterranean. By December of 1946 Byas was in Europe making records for the Swing label with a group of musicians from Don Redman's entourage. "Working Eyes," which came out under trombonist Tyree Glenn's name, was written by Glenn but popularized by Duke Ellington under the titles "Sultry Serenade" and "How Could You Do That to Me?" "Peanut Butter Blues," sung in the manner of Roy Eldridge by trumpeter Peanuts Holland, was issued under his name, while the two remaining tracks -- a lush ballad and the feisty "Mohawk Special" -- appeared under the heading of Don Byas & His Orchestra. arwulf arwulf
Tracklist + Credits :
5.6.23
DON BYAS – 1946 | The Classics Chronological Series – 1009 (1998) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless
11.5.23
BERYL BOOKER – 1946-1952 | The Classics Chronological Series – 1415 (2006) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless
During a recording career that only spanned about 15 years, Philadelphia-born pianist and vocalizer Beryl Booker recorded some 45 titles. These fit nicely into two volumes released by the Classics label in 2006 and 2007. Recorded between October 8, 1946 and March 13, 1952, the 26 tracks that comprise the first installment elucidate Booker's stylistic solidarity with Erroll Garner. That similarity can clearly be heard in her upbeat playing on "I Wished on the Moon" and "Stay as Sweet as You Are," and on any of this compilation's 12 slow instrumental ballads. Also like Garner, Booker read no music and was almost entirely self-taught. Note that this compilation contains no less than seven examples of Beryl Booker the ballad singer. During the '50s she worked as an accompanist for Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington; their combined influences certainly colored her delivery, although Booker had her own earthily intimate style, which mingles beautifully with the mature Lady Day vibe on "You Better Go Now." As far as instrumentalists went, Booker almost invariably worked with some of the best on the scene. Tracks one through four -- her first session as a leader -- feature Booker in the company of guitarist Mary Osborne and bassist June Rotenberg. Recorded sometime during the year 1948, tracks five through ten bring on guitarist John Collins and bassist Slam Stewart, whose combo Booker joined in 1946 and with whom she would work on a semi-regular basis through 1952. Tracks eleven through fourteen represent recordings so rare as to be entirely absent from several standard discographical session indexes. Fifteen through eighteen showcase tenor saxophonist Budd Johnson and also feature Don Elliott, who blew the mellophonium and doubled on vibraphone. Only two of the last eight selections on this disc are upbeat; the rest are languid examples of Booker's dreamily lyrical approach to the art of the instrumental ballad, which again has a lot in common with the whimsicality of Garner. Perhaps the high point of her entire recording career was to take place in Paris in February 1954 when she had the opportunity to collaborate with tenor saxophonist Don Byas. Those recordings -- and what appears to be the rest of this woman's recorded legacy -- can be found on volume two of her complete works on the Classics Chronological Series. arwulf arwulf
Tracklist & Credits : 
BERYL BOOKER – 1953-1954 | The Classics Chronological Series – 1442 (2007) MONO | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless
Volume two in the complete recordings of Beryl Booker as presented in the Classics Chronological Series documents the adventures of the Beryl Booker Trio with eight titles recorded for Discovery Records in Los Angeles on October 14, 1953, material from two Vogue sessions that took place in Paris during February 1954, and six selections recorded for Cadence in New York during the summer of 1954. Booker's approach to the piano recalls her contemporary Erroll Garner; like him, she was a brilliant autodidact who didn't read music. Garner and Booker exist in the same swing-to-bop-to-cool constellation with Herman Chittison, Johnny Guarnieri, Mary Lou Williams, Bud Powell, Dodo Marmarosa, Al Haig, and Ahmad Jamal. Teamed with bassist Bonnie Wetzel and drummer Elaine Leighton, Booker handled jazz and pop standards with dazzling dexterity, humor, warmth and soul. When she sang she sounded more than a little like Dinah Washington, for whom she served as accompanist at the beginning and the end of the decade; on "One for My Baby" the similarity is uncanny. Be sure and cop a listen on the two instrumental selections recorded at the second Parisian Vogue date with tenor saxophonist Don Byas. Thanks to the increasingly popular LP format, each Booker/Byas performance is a little under five minutes in duration, allowing for longer solos and a more relaxed mood than was usually possible under 78 rpm three-minute constraints. Users are warned that "Beryl Booker's Byased Blues" and "Makin' Whoopee" will immediately seep into your bones and groove you out before you realize what has happened. Those two tracks are worth double the price of admission all by themselves. arwulf arwulf
Tracklist & Credits : 
1.10.17
TEDDI KING - 'Round Midnight [1953] STLP 302 / FLAC
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