Big Bam

This Month's Covermount CD is Glam Nuggets – 15 deep cuts of flash and boogie with New York Dolls, Sparks, Mick Ronson, The Damned, Hammersmith Gorillas and more.

Dizzy Gillespie - Groovin' High (1945-46) {Savoy Jazz Japan SV-0152 rel 1992}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 148 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 90 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 14 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1945-46, 1992 Savoy Jazz / Nippon Columbia | SV-0152
Jazz / Be Bop / Swing / Big Band / Trumpet

It's 1940s and Dizzy Gillespie's big band are at their absolute peak! Listening to this record makes me wonder why there ever became such a thing as jazz snobbery. This music doesn't sound like the domain for snobs. In fact it showcases jazz in a crucial and innovative place. Here we are in this place where swing and be-bop have long ago cross polinated eachother (one needed to have the other anyway:we all know in what way",you've got Dizzy whose at once both a great intellectual musician as well as being able to make it move. And here you have him playing with these…well nowadays you'd have to call them all stars such as Dexter Gordon, Milt Jackson, Charlie Parker, Cozy Cole, Sonny Stitt, Kenny Clarke…the list goes on like that and BIM BAM BOOM you've got big band be-bop!

This CD contains the best recordings from the early years of the fiery trumpeter Roy Eldridge. Eldridge, one of the great swing trumpeters and a powerful player into the 1970s, is heard with Teddy Hill's orchestra, backing singer Putney Dandridge, on four titles with Fletcher Henderson (including the hit "Christopher Columbus"), starring on a four-song session with Teddy Wilson, joining Billie Holiday on "Falling in Love Again," soloing on two numbers with Mildred Bailey (his "I'm Nobody's Baby" solo is years ahead of its time), and, best of all, leading a small group through six songs (plus an alternate) from his own explosive sessions of January 1937. This brilliant music is essential for all serious jazz collections.

This segment of the Teddy Wilson chronology contains 23 recordings made for the Columbia label in New York and Chicago between December 11, 1939 and September 16, 1941. The first eight tracks showcase Wilson's 12-piece big band, using arrangements by Wilson, Edgar Sampson and Buster Harding. This unusually upsized version of the Teddy Wilson & His Orchestra had Doc Cheatham and Harold "Shorty" Baker in the trumpet section, Ben Webster and Rudy Powell among the reeds, and Al Casey and J.C. Heard playing rhythm. Those who are accustomed to Wilson's customary small group sound will find this material pleasantly, perhaps surprisingly different from the norm. In December of 1940 Wilson led an octet with Bill Coleman, Benny Morton and Jimmy Hamilton in the front line…

Miles Davis - Complete Vocalist Sessions (2005) {Definitive Records DRCD44419 rec 1945-1950}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 248 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 144 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 24 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1945-50, 2005 Definitive Records / Disconforme | DRCD44419
Jazz / Bop / Vocal Jazz / Trumpet

A really unique set of work by Miles Davis – and one that focuses on a really neglected chapter of his career! As you'd guess from the title, the CD brings together an assortment of recordings that Miles made backing up jazz singers – mostly in the early years of his career, at a time when he was still working as a sideman in a variety of settings. The first 4 tracks on the set are from a 1945 date with saxophonist Herbie Fields, on tracks backing singer Rubberlegs Williams – including "That's The Stuff You Gotta Watch", "Pointless Mama Blues", and "Deep Sea Blues".