Jazz Focus

Trumpeter Scobey did his apprenticeship with the Yerba Buena band, playing second to Lu Waters. By the late 1940's he was itching to start his own group and these 1950-53 recordings for Good Time Jazz show the first flowering of his vision of Traditional Jazz. With Jack Buck, Wally Rose, Burt Bales, Dick Lammi, George Probert and special guests Darnell Howard and Albert Nicholas, the band also served as a backdrop for the singing and banjo playing of Clancy Hayes

Three great sessions by the pioneering bebop drummer when he was visiting the US from his home in Europe. The first was in Hollywood and features saxophonists Frank Morgan and Walter Benton along with Milt Jackson and Gerald Wiggins. The second is in NY with the Kenny Clarke-Ernie Wilkins Septet featuring the alto and tenor of Wilkins as well as his swinging arrangements and compositions (and Cecil Payne, George Barrow, Eddie Bert and Hank Jones). In between is the last - the 1955 Savoy session that represented the debut of the Adderleys - Cannonball and Nat, along with Jerome Richardson, Donald Byrd and Horace Silver.

Underappreciated alto sax player Ernie Henry's last recordings before his premature death in 1957. . .featuring his Octet (with Lee Morgan, Melba Liston, Benny Golson and Cecil Payne), quintet (with Kenny Dorham) and quartet - also the Kenny Dorham Quartet . . groups including Wynton Kelly, Kenny Drew, Wilbur Ware, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones and Art Taylor

First recordings by the legendary band directed by Don Redman and featuring John Nesbitt, Claude Jones, Prince Robinson, Milton Senior, Todd Rhodes, Dave Wilborn, Bob Escudero and Cuba Austin . . great arrangements and fantastic playing!

Great and little-recorded clarinetist from the earliest days of the 20th Century in New Orleans . . Big Eye Louis was one of the busiest of the first generation of jazz players and exerted considerable influence on Sidney Bechet and Jimmy Noone, among others. Here are some of his very few recordings with Kid Rena's Delta Jazz Band in 1940 (with Alphonse Picou, Jim Robinson and others), John Reid's New Orleans Pioneers in 1944 (with Picou, Peter Bocage, Walter Decou, Pops Foster and Bechet on piano), Wooden Joe Nicholas' Band in 1949 (with Louis Nelson and Louis Keppard) and his own groups in 1949 (with Charlie Love, Louis Nelson, Louis Gallaud, Ernest Rogers and Johnny St. Cyr)

The Creole culture in New Orleans produced many musicians in the early 1900's who became prominent in jazz as band leaders, soloists and teachers. Violinist Piron led a legendary dance band (his New Orleans Orchestra, with Peter Bocage and Steve Lewis) that made two trips to New York in 1923 and 1924 to play and record. These recordings feature the also legendary clarinetist Tio who is better known for having been the teacher of virtually all the great Creole and black clarinet players in the New Orleans tradition in the early 1900's. In addition are some possible Tio items with Clarence Williams' Blue Five, Ida Brown and Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers (with Bubber Miley, Bernard Addison and Wilbur DeParis)

Sullivan was not well known, except for her classic recording of "Loch Lomond" which stamped her as a semi-classical/folk singer in a jazz style. That wasn't a fair assessment at all, as can be heard from these swinging sides from 1936-40, accompanied by Charlie Shavers, Bobby Hackett, Lloyd ReeseMannie Klein, Frankie Newton, Buster Bailey, Jimmy Lytell, Babe Russin, Toots Mondello, Claude Thornhill, John Kirby, O'Neil Spencer, Buddy Rich and many others.

Harry Hayes had a long career before beginning to record under his own name in 1944. Tours with Fred Elizalde, Louis Armstrong, Nat Gonella and Geraldo gave him a wide musical perspective and these 1944-47 recordings by Harry Hayes and His Band show a player comfortable playing ballads, up tempos swing, lead parts and even some early bop on alto sax. Accompanied by the cream of the British jazz establishment - Kenny Baker, George Chisholm, George Shearing, Tommy Whittle, Aubrey Franks and others - Hayes carved out an enviable reputation for musical quality!

Some of the first records under Turk Murphy's name done for Good Time Jazz in 1950 and 51 . . featuring at various times Bob Scobey, Don Kinch, Bill Napier, Bob Helm. Skippy Anderson, Wally Rose, Burt Bales, Pat Patton, George Bruns, Squire Girshback and others, these were highly influential recordings in the San Francisco traditional jazz style.

The peripatetic Mr. Wooding led bands in New York in the early 1920's, but left in 1925 to begin a world tour touching Berlin, Paris, Moscow, Scandinavia and even Argentina for the next ten years. His group (which initially accompanied the show Chocolate Dandies) was highly influential on the European jazz scene, bringing authentic African-American hot dance band rhythms and solos to a new audience. These recordings feature Bobby Martin, Doc Cheatham and Harry Cooper on trumpets, Al Wynn and Billy Burns on trombones, Willie Lewis, Jerry Blake, Ralph Jones and Gene Sedric on reeds, Freddy Johnson on piano, John Mitchell on banjo and guitar, King Edwards and June Cole on tuba and bass, Ted Fields on drums and virtually everyone singing.