Homas Heywood

Eddie Heywood - Eddie Heywood (1955) {EmArcy Japan EJD-3076 rel 1990}
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© 1955, 1990 EmArcy / Nippon Phonogram Japan | EJD-3076
Jazz / Cool / Jazz Piano Trio

Compared with other Mercury albums by Eddie Heywood, this album (his first album on EmArcy) sounds more “Jazzy”. Very relaxed, fancy and smooth piano trio recordings, although there are few “thrilling” moments. The Eddie Heywood Sextet was very popular in the mid-'40s, playing melodic and tightly arranged versions of swing standards. Heywood's father, Eddie Heywood, Sr., was a strong jazz pianist of the 1920s who often accompanied Butterbeans and Susie. He taught piano to his son, who played professionally when he was 14. Heywood Jr. performed with bands led by Wayman Carver (1932), Clarence Love (1934-1937), and, after moving to New York, Benny Carter (1939-1940).

Eddie Heywood - The Touch Of Eddie Heywood (1957) {RCA Japan BVCJ-37090 rel 1999}
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© 1957, 1999 RCA / BMG Japan | BVCJ-37090
Jazz / Cool / Jazz Piano Trio

An extremely talented pianist, Eddie Heywood’s arrangement of Cole Porter's ''Begin the Beguine'' made his sextet one of the most popular jazz groups of the 1940’s. He also wrote the standard “Canadian Sunset,” in the 1950’s to add to his impressive resume. Heywood received his first piano lessons from his father, also named Eddie, who was a well-known band leader in the 20s. Heywood joined his father, playing piano in the pit band at an Atlanta theatre. He also accompanied singers, including Bessie Smith, and thereafter worked in various small jazz groups, including those led by Wayman Carver, Benny Carter and Don Redman.

If one was to interpret the whole output of EABS in general, an inquisitive listener would notice that each subsequent album stems from the previous one. The overtones are similar and they can be treated as variations on the same theme. The only thing that changes is the background of the story. It is all about life and death, the beginning and the end of the world, and the role of human beings entangled in all this existentially. Following the futurism lessons from Sun Ra, the band travels to the year 2061, continuing their mission in space in the company of a living legend, Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski.

Billie Holiday - The Complete Commodore Recordings, 1939-1944 (1997) {2CD Set GRP Records CMD 24012}
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© 1939-44, 1997 Commodore / GRP Records | CMD 24012
Jazz / Vocal Jazz / Swing / Classic Female Blues / Traditional Pop

Throughout these sessions, a window into Billie Holiday's creative process is provided by the inclusion of alternate takes. Many of them are rare, although all have previously been issued on one or another of the labels that have interacted with Commodore over the years. As alternates for records on other labels also reveal, once Billie conceptualized her approach to a song, she seldom varied the basic template. She seemed to decide the best way to organize the expressive gifts at her disposal and "photograph" in her mind a musical image of how she would do the number. Once that image was in place, subsequent versions for the most part differed only in matters of nuance or animation.