Sudden Fear 1952

All of the music on this CD was recorded by trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie in Paris during a one-month period in 1952. The first half of the set teams Gillespie with tenor saxophonist Don Byas, who had moved to Europe from the U.S. six years earlier. The sextet alternates swing standards with some boppish originals and Afro-Cuban jazz pieces. The performances are pretty concise, and one wishes that Gillespie and Byas had had opportunities to really stretch out and inspire each other. The final dozen selections mostly feature the trumpeter backed by a string orchestra with arrangements from Jo Boyer or Daniel White. The repertoire is comprised of swing tunes, but Dizzy's melodic statements are still pretty adventurous…

All of the music on this CD was recorded by trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie in Paris during a one-month period in 1952. The first half of the set teams Gillespie with tenor saxophonist Don Byas, who had moved to Europe from the U.S. six years earlier. The sextet alternates swing standards with some boppish originals and Afro-Cuban jazz pieces. The performances are pretty concise, and one wishes that Gillespie and Byas had had opportunities to really stretch out and inspire each other. The final dozen selections mostly feature the trumpeter backed by a string orchestra with arrangements from Jo Boyer or Daniel White. The repertoire is comprised of swing tunes, but Dizzy's melodic statements are still pretty adventurous…

All of the music on this CD was recorded by trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie in Paris during a one-month period in 1952. The first half of the set teams Gillespie with tenor saxophonist Don Byas, who had moved to Europe from the U.S. six years earlier. The sextet alternates swing standards with some boppish originals and Afro-Cuban jazz pieces. The performances are pretty concise, and one wishes that Gillespie and Byas had had opportunities to really stretch out and inspire each other. The final dozen selections mostly feature the trumpeter backed by a string orchestra with arrangements from Jo Boyer or Daniel White. The repertoire is comprised of swing tunes, but Dizzy's melodic statements are still pretty adventurous…

These are the recordings that prompted Sun Records chief Sam Phillips's oft-repeated assertion: "This is where the soul of a man dies." Phillips oversaw sessions by the likes of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and B.B. King, but the guttural electric blues of Howlin' Wolf captured his fancy like nothing else–and it's not hard to see why. The Wolf of these '52 sessions was just a few years off the farm, having begun to play West Memphis, Arkansas, juke joints, and cat houses following World War II. Working with a small but feral band highlighted by lead guitarist Willie Johnson (called by some the Jimi Hendrix of his day), the already middle-aged singer and harmonica player created a sound in the early '50s that bridged the Mississippi blues that were his roots with the amped Chicago blues that were his destiny…