LOUIS ARMSTRONG – 1950-1951 | The Classics Chronological Series – 1233 (2002) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

This chapter in the Chronological Classics Louis Armstrong series continues during a particularly fertile period with Armstrong surrounded by great sidemen and performing with others. A pair of tracks here, "Life Is So Peculiar" and "You Rascal You," showcase Satchmo in front of Louis Jordan's Tympani 5, and "Dream a Little Dream of Me" and "Can Anyone Explain?" are duets with Ella Fitzgerald. The sidemen on Armstrong's dates are a venerable crew from a fascinating era, and include Barney Bigard, Jack Teagarden, Cozy Cole, Hank Jones, Ray Brown, and Earl Hines, among others. There are also three Armstrong-led cuts featuring Velma Middleton on vocals: "Baby, It's Cold Outside," "The Hucklebuck," and the collection's closer, "Big Daddy Blues."  -> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa'<-
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JOHNNY GUARNIERI – 1944-1946 | The Chronogical Classics – 956 (1997) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

In addition to recording prolifically in the 1940s, pianist Johnny Guarnieri led a few record dates. This Classics CD has four septet numbers from 1944 that feature tenor saxophonist Lester Young and trumpeter Billy Butterfield as sidemen, four songs with tenorman Don Byas in superb form, and three trio sessions, including two that co-star bassist Slam Stewart. Guarnieri, who was versatile enough to be able to closely emulate Count Basie, Teddy Wilson, Fats Waller, and Art Tatum, also had his own swing-based style and is consistently creative throughout the performances. Highlights include "Salute to Fats," "Bowin' Singin' Slam," "Gliss Me Again," "I'd Do Anything for You," and "Make Believe"; all 22 selections are enjoyable. Scott Yanow   Tracklist + Credits :

SY OLIVER AND HIS ORCHESTRA – 1945-1949 | The Chronogical Classics – 1190 (2001) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Sy Oliver's main contributions to jazz history were his arrangements in the 1930s for Jimmie Lunceford and during the first half of the '40s for Tommy Dorsey. In 1947, he had a big band that recorded four sessions for MGM but quickly flopped, lacking its own musical personality and being born at a time when big bands were breaking up. This interesting CD is full of rare material. Oliver sings "Seventh Avenue" on a V-Disc from 1945, leads his big band on all 16 of its recordings from 1947, and heads a couple studio bands for sessions in 1949. Overall, Oliver has vocals on ten of the 23 numbers and also features singers Henry Wells, Tommy Roberts, Joe Bailey, Bobby Marshall, Charles McCormick, and the Aristokats. Although some of the sidemen are well-known swing veterans, in general they are confined to ensembles, with only a few of the tunes being worthwhile instrumentals. The music is enjoyable enough but one can easily understand why the Sy Oliver Orchestra never caught on. Scott Yanow
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COZY COLE – 1944-1945 | The Chronogical Classics – 865 (1992) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

This Classics CD reissues drummer Cozy Cole's sessions for Continental, Keynote, and Guild, most of which have been out of print for years. The two Continental dates feature overlapping all-star groups (with trumpeter Charlie Shavers, clarinetist Hank D'Amico, Coleman Hawkins, Walter "Foots" Thomas, and/or Don Byas on tenors, Clyde Hart or Johnny Guarnieri on piano, guitarist Tiny Grimes, bassist Slam Stewart, and the drummer/leader), but are sometimes a bit frustrating. Since every player is a potential soloist and the performances are limited to around three minutes apiece, the solos are almost cameos, generally eight or 16 bars apiece. The most memorable spot, Hawkins' exploration of "When Day Is Done," finds the great tenor doing what he can with his half chorus. The Keynote session is most notable for Don Byas' solos and for the recording debut of 20-year-old trumpeter Shorty Rogers. The Guild sides have Byas well showcased in a quintet, two extensive drum features ("Stompin" and "Strictly Drums"), and three dramatic vocals from June Hawkins. Overall, this is an interesting and enjoyable CD -- swing music with slight touches of bop. Scott Yanow  
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RED NORVO AND HIS ORCHESTRA – 1936-1937 | The Classics Chronological Series – 1123 (2000) FLAC (tracks), lossless

The first two selections on this chronological reissue of Red Norvo's early recordings has the xylophonist jamming "I Got Rhythm" and "Lady Be Good" in an octet in early 1936. Otherwise he is featured with his 12 to 13 piece big band on 21 selections, 13 of which have vocals by his wife Mildred Bailey (including "A Porter's Love Song to a Chambermaid," "It's Love I'm After," "Smoke Dreams," and "Slummin' on Park Avenue"). The instrumentals are highlighted by "I Know That You Know," "Remember" (famous for trumpeter Stew Pletcher's odd solo), "I Would Do Anything for You," and "Jiving the Jeep." Eddie Sauter's arrangements and Norvo's xylophone gave the big band its own unique musical personality. Scott Yanow
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RED NORVO AND HIS ORCHESTRA – 1937-1938 | The Classics Chronological Series – 1157 (2000) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

In this segment of the Red Norvo story, the xylophonist's collaborations with his wife, Mildred Bailey, predominate. This was a fine jazz orchestra with excellent soloists. One great and glowing jewel in the band was clarinetist Hank D'Amico, and Norvo's sparkling percussive passages are always a delight. Each of the five instrumental tracks resound with that fascinating combination of xylophone and big band, tidy brass over solidly arranged reeds, and -- beginning in January of 1938 -- precision drumming by George Wettling, that mainstay of Eddie Condon and his Commodore jam bands. With 16 out of 24 tracks serving as features for Bailey's pleasant vocals, this package will satisfy anyone who has a taste for her style and personality. As always, most of her material deals with romance or heartbreak. She sounds quite pleasant during a handsome treatment of George Gershwin's "Love Is Here to Stay," but if you scratch beneath the surface of Tin Pan Alley, things don't always look so rosy. Johnny Mercer's catchy "Weekend of a Private Secretary" seems at first like a cute description of a naughty vacation, but the lyrics, penned by Nebraska native Bernie Hanighen, reveal the mottled underbelly of old-fashioned North American bigotry. As Bailey shrewdly pronounces the phrase "Cuban gent," the song quickly evolves into a flippant essay on Caucasian infatuation with The Exotic Other. Ultimately, she presents a crude list of social stereotypes that a working girl would be likely to encounter while seeking out male companionship. These include a slicker, a hick, a Reuben -- this was originally a carnival or circus term for a rustic rube -- and even that time-honored American racial epithet, "darky." The band is tight, maracas and all, and Norvo's xylophone sounds great surrounded by Caribbean rhythm effects, but rancid social undercurrents leave an odd taste in the mouth. Further ethical/ethnic discomfiture may be experienced while listening to "There's a Boy in Harlem," which must be the most racist opus ever contrived by the otherwise admirable songwriting team of Rodgers & Hart. While accurately admitting that "all the writers copy" an unidentified Afro-American composer, lyricist Larry Hart describes the "boy" as sloppily dressed (!) and even paraphrases a nasty figure of speech by referring to him as "this person in the woodpile." The fact that "Mr. and Mrs. Swing" elected to record these vulgar songs speaks volumes about the prevailing social climate during the 1930s and momentarily sheds an unseemly light on their respective careers. arwulf arwulf  
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RED NORVO AND HIS ORCHESTRA – 1938-1939 | The Classics Chronological Series – 1192 (2001) FLAC (tracks), lossless

This is the fourth volume in the chronologically reissued recordings of Red Norvo on Classics. Norvo was married to Mildred Bailey from 1933-1939, and they made a lot of records together. Every side that appeared under her own name has been brought out in a parallel series, while all those originally issued under the heading of the Red Norvo Orchestra are woven into the Norvo chronology. That is why there are several volumes in the Red Norvo story that feel a lot like chapters in the life and times of Mildred Bailey. This feisty little woman was at her best when singing wistful songs of love and longing in her rather small, warmly pleasant voice. She would also dig right into a hot swing number and could occasionally be heard encouraging the band with little energetic exclamations, slightly off-mike. With one exception, all of her performances on this disc have merit. Unable to shake an apparent penchant for topical inanities caricaturing ethnic minorities, Norvo and Bailey opted for something called "Wigwammin'." Recorded in June 1938, this trite piece of rubbish trivializes life on an Indian reservation with stupid lyrics and periodic choruses of Hollywood-style "Indian" war whoops from the band. Bailey sings on 11 out of 23 tracks, and thankfully the rest of her thematic choices were more dignified. "Put Your Heart in a Song" and "The Sunny Side of Things" constitute a pair of optimistic essays brimming with good advice. "Jump Jump's Here" is a smart strut, sounding like one of Lil Hardin Armstrong's enthusiastic routines. "Cuckoo in the Clock" and "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" typify Bailey's approach to the silly novelty genre. Fats Waller's version of Ella Fitzgerald's "Tasket" tune, recorded in London exactly one month to the day after Mildred's, would out-swing everybody else's renditions, including Ella's original. Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer's "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby," introduced in the 1938 motion picture Jezebel, comes across like a charmingly antiquated piece of vaudeville, maybe even a throwback to the Paul Whiteman orchestra where Norvo and Bailey first met. This apparently deliberate spoof of older-styled entertainment features a rather funny, stilted vocal by "the Three Ickkies" -- Norvo, Bailey, and a guy by the name of Terry Allen. An ickkey, of course, was the official hep-talk tag for an un-hip individual. Speaking of ickkies, Norvo chose to sacrifice six entire tunes to Terry Allen, a morbidly tepid vocalist when left to his own designs. Only the band and the leader's xylophone solos redeem those ill-starred selections. Each of the five instrumental tracks are solidly swung, with the two Charlie Shavers compositions -- "Undecided" and "Rehearsin' for a Nervous Breakdown" -- sounding exceptionally fine. [Note that the enclosed discography contains a factual error, something relatively uncommon for the Classics label. Although personnel on the session dated September 29, 1938, lists essentially the John Kirby Sextet plus Red Norvo, this cannot be the case, as the Norvo big band is clearly audible, trombones and all.] The Norvo orchestra's personnel began to change, and irreversible damage was sustained when clarinetist Hank D'Amico left during the spring of 1939 to join Richard Himber. By June of that year, Norvo's orchestra would dissolve, paving the way for an entirely new phase of his career. arwulf arwulf  
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MILDRED BAILEY – 1937-1938 | The Classics Chronological Series – 1114 (2000) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Volume three in Mildred Bailey's Classics chronology revives 24 excellent recordings she made for the Vocalion label between January 19, 1937 and March 14, 1938. During this period, Bailey sang on quite a number of recordings issued (and subsequently reissued) under the name of her third husband, xylophonist Red Norvo. Everything on this compilation came out under the name of Mildred Bailey & Her Orchestra. A glance at the enclosed discography substantiates a claim made by producer Anatol Schenker in his liner notes: "The small band recordings made by Mildred Bailey in the late thirties certainly bear comparison with those made by Billie Holiday." Alternating throughout the discography with sessions featuring Red Norvo's big band, the septets heard backing Mildred Bailey are populated with accomplished improvisers like Roy Eldridge, Chu Berry, Buck Clayton, Scoops Carey, Herschel Evans, Hank D'Amico and Edmond Hall. The rhythm sections were driven by such master musicians as Teddy Wilson, Zutty Singleton, Freddie Green, Walter Page and Dave Tough. Anyone seeking particularly wonderful examples of Tough's marvelously controlled percussion artistry needs to listen to "I See Your Face Before Me," "Thanks for the Memory," "From the Land of Sky Blue Water" and "Lover Come Back to Me." Mildred Bailey was among the very first people in showbiz to recognize Billie Holiday's unique abilities as a jazz vocalist. This compilation demonstrates some of the songs, moods and instrumentalists that the two singers had in common. A more far-reaching assessment of their parallel careers is sobering; Billie Holiday struggled against racism, patriarchal oppression, entrenched conventions that made her feel like her own voice was "not legitimate," and a swarm of pernicious addictions that ultimately slew her. Mildred Bailey pioneered the feminine art of jazz singing and enjoyed enormous popularity for a while during the '30s; then, obese and diabetic, she found herself marginalized as an insufficiently svelte anomaly and was ultimately discarded by an entertainment industry that has always valued physical glamour over artistic ability. arwulf arwulf  
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MILDRED BAILEY – 1938 | The Classics Chronological Series – 1160 (2001) FLAC (tracks), lossless

This fourth volume in the Classics Mildred Bailey chronology presents all of her Vocalion recordings made between April 19 and December 8, 1938. This was the big time for Bailey and her xylophonist husband Red Norvo; of the many records they made together, those issued under Norvo's name appear in his own Classics chronology, and everything that came out under the heading of Mildred Bailey & Her Orchestra has been assigned to her own portion of this label's historical reissue series. Most of Mildred's 1938 recordings found her comfortably backed by Red Norvo's big band; two important names in this well-knit ensemble were clarinetist Hank D'Amico and drummer George Wettling. On September 29, 1938, Red Norvo and Mildred Bailey made an excellent pair of recordings with the John Kirby Sextet. Certainly this little group's rendering of W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues" belongs with some of Mildred Bailey's all-time greatest recorded performances. Human error presents collectors with a potentially confusing conundrum: according to a footnote amended to Classics 1225 [Mildred Bailey 1939-1940], the version of "St. Louis Blues" heard here was actually recorded on January 18, 1939, which means it should have appeared on Classics 1187 [Mildred Bailey 1939]. Initially rejected by the folks at Vocalion, the "St. Louis Blues" recorded on September 29, 1938 has been grafted onto Classics 1225. Both versions are excellent. Got that? arwulf arwulf  
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MILDRED BAILEY – 1945-1947 | The Classics Chronological Series – 1337 (2003) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

As she neared the end of her recording career, Mildred Bailey suffered from a steadily shrinking voice, but her interpretive powers were undiminished. The Classics volume 1945-1947 proves that point with a program of 25 performances backed by orchestras including Eddie Sauter's and Ted Dale's, and sidemen including vibraphonist Red Norvo (Mr. Swing to her Mrs. Swing), pianist Ellis Larkins, clarinetist Hank d'Amico, and trumpeter Dick Vance. Bailey reflects on her long professional life with a raft of melancholy standards -- "Lover, Come Back to Me," "These Foolish Things," and a tender "Can't We Be Friends?" John Bush  
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MAXINE SULLIVAN – 1941-1946 | The Classics Chronological Series – 1020 (1998) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Although not as essential as the first Classics Maxine Sullivan CD, this set has its strong moments too. Sullivan was always a simple and subtle singer who swung lightly and mostly stuck to the melody while uplifting the themes with her intelligent expressiveness. The first eight selections on this disc find her joined by the John Kirby Sextet on such numbers as a remake of "Loch Lomond," "St. Louis Blues" and "My Ideal." The two numbers from March 19, 1942 ("Beside the River Clyde" and "How Do I Know It's Real") list the singer as again being joined by Kirby's Sextet but the backup group is clearly larger and using slightly different instrumentation. Sullivan is also heard backed by a rhythm section and strings on four selections, on two numbers apiece with the Teddy Wilson Quintet and Benny Carter's Orchestra (the young tenor Dexter Gordon has a solo on "Looking for a Boy"), and performing six tunes (including several remakes) with strings, the prominent harp of Laura Newell, a rhythm section, and clarinetist Hank D'Amico. The 1944-46 titles have also been reissued by Tono, although the 1941-42 selections with Kirby have long been scarce. In her early to mid-'30s at the time, Maxine Sullivan sounds both youthful and mature during her interpretations, very much in prime form. Scott Yanow  
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JESS STACY – 1935-1939 | The Classics Chronological Series – 795 (1994) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Pianist Jess Stacy did not lead that many recording sessions during the swing era since he spent long periods playing with the big bands of Benny Goodman and Bob Crosby. This excellent CD contains his 21 selections as a leader from a four-year period. Stacy's three numbers from 1935 include a solo Bix Beiderbecke medley and two songs with bassist Israel Crosby and drummer Gene Krupa. In addition, this set has Stacy's eight piano solos for Commodore, a duet with Bud Freeman on tenor ("She's Funny That Way"), and eight very rare performances (plus an alternate take) cut for Varsity in 1939 that also feature trumpeter Billy Butterfield, tenor saxophonist Eddie Miller, and either clarinetist Hank d'Amico or Irving Fazola in an octet. This CD contains more than its share of gems. Scott Yanow
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WINGY MANONE – 1944-1946 | The Classics Chronological Series – 1412 (2006) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Volume eight in the Classics complete chronologically reissued recordings of Wingy Manone documents the singing trumpeter's recording activity during a time period extending from July 1944 to March 1946. Manone, a hard-swinging, husky voiced hipster with New Orleans roots, is at his best on a very funny rendition of "O Sole Mio," the rather libidinous "Where Can I Find a Cherry (For My Banana Split)?" and Slim Gaillard's "Cement Mixer," which Wingy makes sound like it was written expressly for him. Of all the instrumentalists who participated in these recordings, it is the clarinetists who seem to be pointing in a futuristic direction; not so much the merry Matty Matlock but rather Joe Marsala and Hank D'Amico, traditionally based individuals who were in the process of branching out onto adventuresome and distinctly modern stylistic turf. In addition to Wingy (and certain rather overbearing bandmembers whose chatty outbursts clutter up an otherwise enjoyable "Salt Pork West Virginia"), vocals are by Kay Starr and Kay Kyser's Gloria Wood. arwulf arwulf
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