PETE JOHNSON – 1947-1949 | The Classics Chronological Series – 1110 (2000) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Classics #1110 is the fourth installment chronicling 21 final key recordings of boogie woogie pianist Pete Johnson. 1947-1949 found Johnson leading three different quartets (the second with Al Mckibbon on bass and J.C. Heard on drums) for the Apollo, Modern, and French Jazz Selection labels, while the final session features a sextet on six tracks, blistering through the excellent "Rocket 88 Boogie, Parts 1 and 2" for the Down Beat/Swingtime label. These sessions have a common thread in the predominate use of guitar from Charles Norris, Carl Lynch, Johnny Rogers, and Herman Mitchell thoroughly featured alongside Johnson's piano throughout. Soon after these sessions Johnson left his West Coast home for Buffalo where he essentially retired, showing up occasionally at the odd live appearance or on other musicians' sessions. Al Campbell
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HARLAN LEONARD AND HIS ROCKETS – 1940 | The Classics Chronological Series – 670 (1992) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Harlan Leonard first showed up on traditional jazz radar as a member of Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra. He joined in 1923 and served as a vertebra in the backbone of the Moten reed section until 1931. Teaming up with another Moten veteran, Leonard worked with Thamon Hayes' Skyrockets, helping to steer this band until it too dissolved in 1937. Leonard formed his own Rockets in 1938. In 1940 they appeared at the Golden Gate Ballroom in New York, recorded about 23 sides for Bluebird, toured all over the continental United States, and finally disbanded in 1945 while working in California. This band contained a lot of young talent from Kansas City. Hearing all of their records in one package is a gas. Swing had matured. It was obviously ready to lunge forward into big-band modernity. Beginning with what is the only known recording of an electrically amplified guitar solo by Efferge Ware, "Rockin' With the Rockets" is as solid as its name, with a healthy dance tempo and hot solos from reeds and brass. "Hairy Joe Jump" is based on a simple line that might possibly have spawned the famous introduction to Charlie Parker's "Klactoveesedsteen." Bird almost certainly heard this band when he was still in Kansas City. Did he store this fairly flaccid melody in his brain along with hundreds of other "head arrangements," only to pull it out years later and transform it into gold? Who can say? "Contact" is a fine jam tune. The saxophones growl, and William Smith plays fine piano. "Snaky Feeling" has a cool vocal by trumpeter and arranger James Ross. "Skee" is a smoker, solid stuff for the jitterbug crowd. Myra Taylor sings a perky "World On Fire" and Ernie Williams hollers as hot as the band blows on "Ride My Blues Away." With the bouncy "Parade of the Stompers," listeners have arrived at a turning point, for the next session introduces the arrangements of Tadd Dameron, who also composed material for the Rockets. "Rock and Ride" and "400 Swing" are particularly invigorating. Suddenly, Myra Taylor is back at the microphone singing a song about pickles. Based on the 19th century melody "La Sorella," this pop tune would be irritating if the band didn't swing so hard. "Please Don't Squabble" has Ernie Williams sounding a lot like Jimmy Rushing. Tadd Dameron arranged "A la Bridges," a lush tenor saxophone ballad for Henry Bridges, who comes across like a Coleman Hawkins devotee. "Dameron Stomp" and "Take 'Um" are climactic achievements for this exciting, short-lived band. These recordings, existing at the stylistic crossroads of bebop and swing, are essential episodes in both the saga of the Kansas City scene and the rapid evolution of mid-20th century jazz. arwulf arwulf  
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RED NORVO AND HIS ORCHESTRA – 1945-1947 | The Classics Chronological Series – 1386 (2005) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

 Volume eight in the Classics Red Norvo chronology opens with two extended jams from Timme Rosenkrantz's Town Hall Jazz Concert of June 9, 1945. A wild romp on "Seven Come Eleven" runs for ten-and-a-half minutes while "In a Mellotone" lasts more than a quarter-of-an-hour. This particular Town Hall event was audio-documented by Milt Gabler and the recordings eventually appeared on his Commodore record label. Unlike most of the concerts held at Town Hall during the '40s and organized by staunch traditionalist Eddie Condon, this gig resounded with music of a slightly more modern and bop-informed nature, with Specs Powell, Slam Stewart, Remo Palmieri, Teddy Wilson, and Red Norvo providing steamy support for trumpeter Shorty Rogers, trombonist Eddie Bert, clarinetist Aaron Sachs, and tenor saxophonist Flip Phillips, who cuts loose in ways that anticipate his behavior at JATP concerts a few years later. The inclusion of these two precious live jams makes this installment in the Norvo chronology extra special. Most of the rest of the material was recorded for the Capitol label in Los Angeles between October 13 and December 18, 1947. For the October 13 session the band, billed as "Ten Cats and a Mouse," engaged in a peculiar experiment, as everybody swapped instruments. This meant, for example, that Red Norvo played piano, Paul Weston blew the clarinet, Benny Carter played tenor sax, and Peggy Lee (the "Mouse") played drums! On the following day, the instruments all returned to their rightful owners and Kansas City legend Jesse Price was behind the drum kit. On November 28, 1947, Norvo's Septet included cool guitarist Barney Kessel and young saxophonists Dexter Gordon and Jimmy Giuffre, as well as visionary pianist Dodo Marmarosa. Both "I'll Follow You" and "Bop!" are more modern-sounding than anything Norvo had previously presented to the public. The fascinating overlap between bop and R&B is evident on the other two tracks from this date, issued as by Jesse Price and his Blues Band, with shout blues vocals by Price. For the two ultra-modern sessions from mid-December 1947, Norvo switched back to the drier sound of the xylophone in front of smooth ensembles playing arrangements (suitable for film noir soundtrack purposes) written by Johnny Thompson. Even the old "Twelfth Street Rag," handled here by an ensemble equipped with a pair of French horns, comes across as bracingly futuristic. One expects Art Pepper and Warned Marsh to come in at any moment. This excellent compilation closes with two previously omitted V-Disc jams from November 1944 and February 1945, originally issued under Paul Baron's name but featuring the vibraphone of Red Norvo. arwulf arwulf  
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ELLA FITZGERALD – 1940-1941 | The Classics Chronological Series – 644 (1992) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

The sixth in Classics' six-CD series that completely reissues all of Ella Fitzgerald's early recordings has her final 23 performances as the head of what was formerly the Chick Webb Orchestra. Just 22 during most of this period, she is generally in superb voice and the ballads (highlighted by "Shake Down the Stars," "Taking a Chance on Love," "The One I Love" and "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man") are frequently exquisite; her expertise at scatting would come a few years later. It's recommended as are all of the entries in this valuable series (which is superior to GRP's Decca program). Scott Yanow
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JAY McSHANN – 1944-1946 | The Classics Chronological Series – 966 (1997) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Jay McShann played a pivotal role in the evolution of Kansas City swing, bebop, and R&B. The material presented in this segment of the McShann chronology is mostly based in the blues, with heavy emphasis on vocal talent. A session that took place in Kansas City on November 1, 1944 -- with the great Walter Page handling the bass -- resulted in four sides that were issued on the Capitol label. "Moten Swing" is mighty fine, and an elegant "Sunny Side of the Street" served as the flip side. Julia Lee hadn't recorded for 15 years when she sat in with McShann on this date. "Come on Over to My House" and "Trouble in Mind" turned out well enough that Capitol responded with a recording contract and her career took off anew. The rest of the music heard on this disc was recorded in Los Angeles in 1945 and 1946. Out of 19 tracks, only four of these -- all boogies -- are instrumental. A fifth boogie, bearing McShann's nickname, "Hootie," is nearly instrumental except for a bit of shouting done by someone in or near the band who remains unidentified. The vocalists who figured so prominently in McShann's Philo, Premiere, and Mercury recordings sang the blues exclusively. Numa Lee Moore sounds like a downsized Big Maybelle and Crown Prince Waterford has a bit of a rowdy bite in his voice. Jimmy Witherspoon, featured on no less than nine tracks, sounded something like Joe Turner at this stage of his career. McShann's sax and trumpet players interacted wonderfully with the vocalists, and present on the Mercury sessions was legendary Kansas City drummer Jesse Price. arwulf arwulf  
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STAN KENTON AND HIS ORCHESTRA – 1940-1944 | The Classics Chronological Series – 848 (1995) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Stan Kenton's earliest recordings as a leader make this first volume in the Classics Kenton chronology the logical starting point for anyone seeking to comprehend his life and work. Beginning with a long lost "Etude for Saxophones" and plowing through nine Decca sides from late 1941 and early 1942, the producers of this compilation shed light on Kenton's pre-Capitol period. With the exception of "This Love of Mine" (sung by tenor saxophonist Red Dorris), all of the Decca recordings are instrumentals that contain premonitions of Kenton's eventual obsession with stylized modernity. Parallels could be drawn with the music of Claude Thornhill, Larry Clinton and Raymond Scott. Frankly speaking, however, some of these early Kenton routines come across as rather self-consciously put together; the band goes through the motions but the overall approach to rhythm and swing feels rather forced. "Lamento Gitano" transcends these limitations, and the catchy "Concerto for Doghouse" is built around Howard Rumsey's excellent sung-and-plucked bass solo. By the time "El Choclo" was recorded, the band was clearly beginning to find itself and was ready for its next phase of stylistic evolution. The session that took place in Los Angeles on November 19, 1943 was Kenton's inaugural involvement with Capitol Records, an exclusive business arrangement that would continue for many years, superseded only by the occasional date for the United States Armed Forces V-Disc label. Kenton always listened carefully to other bands and learned his best lessons from African-American archetypes and innovators. His signature stamp of originality begins to materialize during the second half of this compilation, betwixt and between various well-chosen covers. Red Dorris does surprisingly well with Duke Ellington's "Do Nothin' Till You Hear from Me," and after two years of experimentation the overall sound of the band has improved noticeably. The very first recorded version of "Artistry in Rhythm" signals the true inception of the Kenton sound. Seasoned early modern jazz heads will want to listen carefully to the reed section as Kenton was already beginning to employ great saxophonists like Art Pepper, Boots Mussulli and Stan Getz. Admirers of Anita O'Day will appreciate an opportunity to savor four of the six songs she is known to have recorded with the Stan Kenton Orchestra. arwulf arwulf
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