Jahresbericht 1954 55

Eddie Shu & Bob Hardaway - Jazz Practitioners (1954-55) {Bethlehem Toshiba-EMI TOCJ-62084 rel 2001}
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© 1954-55, 2001 Bethlehem / Toshiba-EMI | TOCJ-62084
Jazz / Cool / Bop / Trumpet / Saxophone

Not that this artist isn't pretty cool; far from it. Credited either as Bob Hardaway or Robert Hardaway, he spent much of the 20th century at the top of the studio musician scene in Los Angeles, playing a bewildering array of woodwind instruments — even bass clarinet, English horn, and alto flute — on a tall stack of records that stylistically give the impression of having been snatched at random out of a burning used record store, the Partridge Family, Dinah Washington, Bonnie Raitt, and his efforts with the Eddie Shu/Bob Hardaway Jazz Practitioners among them.

Mel Henke - Shock Treatment (1954-55) {2CD Set, Contemporary–Fresh Sound FSR-CD 529 rel 2008}
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© 1954-55, 2008 Contemporary / Fresh Sound Records | FSR-CD 529
Jazz / Mainstream Jazz / Piano

About the things I play: Id say my treatment of tunes should be classed as repertoire rather than a particular jazz style. This is probably due to the fact that years ago when I first started to play jazz, I would imitate various jazz greats such as Earl Hines, Tatum, and Cleo Brown. (She was the first musician Id ever heard who played eight-beat piano.) With imitation we can come close but we never really achieve what we try to achieve by imitation, at least I didnt. So I started to develop each tune as an individual composition rather than trying to play every tune in the same style. I had the best luck with this kind of approach, and now I have a repertoire built up over twenty years Incidentally, I usually write the piano parts out note for note even though when I play I never work from the music. This is a kick I got on years ago. I think we get the sound we do because a lot of our stuff is worked out carefully. It isnt what youd call free improvisation.

From December 1954 to December 1955, jazz producer Jack Lewis recorded a series of outstanding albums at RCA Victor’s famous Webster Hall Studios in New York City with Al Cohn and Joe Newman, each leading several small swinging bands, and as sidemen on Freddie Green’s only album as a leader.

From the Notes: Both the artists on these discs made their mark early on the musical scene. At the age of 17 Lili Kraus graduated with the highest honours from the Academy of Music in her native Budapest [where Kodály and Bartók had been among her teachers] and went on to study with Schnabel at the Vienna Conservatory, where, only three years later, she was appointed professor. Willi Boskovsky [her junior by four years] at the age of 17 won the Kreisler Prize at the Vienna Academy, where he became professor at 25. He was already a member of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, but in 1939, at the early age of 30, he was appointed one of that prestigious body's concertmasters, and remained in that post for 32 years. … Meanwhile Lili Kraus had toured the world in the early 1930's, gaining a considerable reputation as an interpreter of the Viennese classics from Haydn to Schubert….

Various Artists - Deutsches Jazz Festival, Frankfurt 1954-1955 (1990) {8CD Box Set Bear Family BCD 15430}
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© 1954-55, 1990 Brunswick / Bear Family Records | BCD 15430
Jazz / Traditional Jazz / Cool / Continental Jazz / Jump / Swing / Big Band / Third Stream

8-CD box (LP-size) with 47-page book, 137 tracks. Playing time approx. 725 mns. The third German Jazz Festival in 1955 was a four-day event that featured nearly 30 groups and soloists. It was recorded by Deutsche Grammophon for release on Brunswick, but only parts of it were released on long-deleted EPs. The complete tapes survived though. The 1954 festival was also recorded, but only the portion issued on an EP was saved. Now the surviving portion of the 1954 festival and the entire 1955 festival are issued complete by Bear Family on eight CDs.

Tony Fruscella & Brew Moore - The 1954 Unissued Atlantic Session (1954) {Atlantic–Fresh Sound FSR-CD 660 rel 2011}
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© 1954-55, 2001 Atlantic / Verve / Fresh Sound Records | FSR-CD 66
Jazz / Cool / West Coast Jazz / Trumpet / Saxophone

Never before released in any format! These recordings are among the rarest treasures in jazz, unseen and unheard since Atlantic produced them in 1954, and their release can be considered an event for all the jazz community. This was a relaxed and easy session, essentially valuable for the musicians involved, trumpeter Tony Fruscella (1927-1969), and tenor Brew Moore (1924-1973), most particularly for the former, who died at 42.

This early CD (1987) is hard to find, but if you see it at a price you can afford, it's a good value. You get a full hour of Garner's 1954-55 performances on the Mercury label. The 14 tracks present him solo, in a trio and as part of a quartet. His most famous composition, " Misty ", leads it off in his first recording of it, from 1954. The remaining 13 are all standards, presented Erroll's way, which is unusual. He often makes one piano sound like two, often strikes the higher notes firmly and fast. One expects every jazz pianist to have a distinct style, and Erroll does…