Sonny Stitt - Deuces Wild

Sonny Stitt's 1967 Atlantic LP Deuces Wild found him in the familiar company of organist Don Patterson and drummer Billy James.

For the most part this is a typical tenor sax/organ date, but the participation of alto saxophonist Robin Kenyatta on the two original tunes he contributed takes the album into hard bop territory. There's also one track with Rufus Harley on bagpipes, definitely an acquired taste.

Although this album is billed as "Introducing Robin Kenyatta" this may not be his first recorded work. His discography lists earlier appearances on Atlantic LPs by pianist Valerie Capers and trombonist Roswell Rudd.

One of the Kenyatta originals on Deuces Wild is In the Bag, which was paired with the title tune on a promotional single for jazz DJs. Both tunes were severely shortened from the album versions.

Here's the version of In the Bag from the single.



Deuces Wild was released on CD in 2001 by Collectables Jazz Classics. It's still in print and available from Oldies.com at a reasonable price. The album is also easily obtained as a download from many sources.

From YouTube here's the title tune from Deuces Wild.

Georgie Auld - Manhattan with Strings

Toronto-born tenor saxophonist Georgie Auld (1919-1990) spent most of his working life in the United States. He was a product of the big bands, playing with the likes of Bunny Berigan, Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman.

The content of the LP is exactly what you might expect -- one dozen ballad standards, including Earle Hagen's Harlem Nocturne. The MP3 is taken from a 45 rpm DJ single.

Harlem Nocturne



(For a sample of Auld's R&B-tinged playing, read this earlier post.)

Manhattan with Strings has never received a digital release. A few of the same tunes are on a download album, The Very Best of Georgie Auld, available from iTunes and other sources. This appears to be of somewhat dubious origin and it's not clear to me whether these tunes are the Manhattan with Strings tracks as the running times vary by up to 10 seconds. Buy with caution.

Here's another slice of Mr. Auld. They Can't Take That Away from Me comes from the LP In the Land of Hi-Fi with Georgie Auld and His Orchestra (EmArcy, 1955).

Houston Person - Goodness!

Houston Person was very much in a funk/soul jazz vein for Goodness! (1969), his sixth album for the Prestige label. The tenor saxophonist was still relatively unknown at the time he recorded it.

Guitarist Billy Butler and organist Sonny Phillips were the prominent sidemen on the session, which also included Bob Bushnell on bass, Frankie Jones on drums and Buddy Caldwell, congas.

To promote the LP Prestige issued a single with severely shortened versions of Jamilah and the title song.

As you can see Goodness clocked in at just 3:50 on the 45. On the LP it was over nine minutes. The single version is below.

Goodness



The Goodness! album was released on CD by Original Jazz Classics in 1995 and cheap copies of it abound on Amazon and elsewhere. It isn't available as a download.

Here's the full length version of Jamilah from the LP.

R. Frechette - Sexy Sax

What can I tell you about R. Frechette? Not much, except that his first name was Roger, he played sax and was from Quebec. Perhaps the name is a pseudonym.

In any case there were half a dozen albums credited to R. or Roger Frechette in the 1960s and '70s. Among them were three volumes of Sexy Sax, all with cheesecake covers, issued by Franco FD Inc., a Montreal company. The first volume is pictured above. Some of the tracks had been issued earlier on LPs on the Trans-Canada Royal label.

The packaging of the LPs, and the music therein, were obviously aimed at the people who bought the seemingly never-ending series of albums by Italian saxophonists Fausto Papetti and Gil Ventura, which were quite popular in Canada, particularly in Quebec.

All that aside there's some great light jazz on the first Sexy Sax LP. Martha features some interesting guitar work and solos from both the sax and trumpet. None of the musicians are credited.

Martha



None of the Frechette tracks appear to have made it into a digital format although it's possible they may have been repackaged under another name.

Rusty Bryant - Fire Eater (45 single)

The tenor saxophone of Rusty Bryant (1929-1991) graced some fine soul-jazz albums for Prestige in the late 1960s and early '70s. He'd come up through the rhythm-and-blues ranks in the '50s, recording several sessions that were issued on Dot. Among the tunes recorded was a frantic version of Night Train that was re-titled All Nite Long and became something of a jukebox hit.

But ... back to those Prestige recordings. Fire Eater was the title tune of a 1971 album that included Wilbert Longmire on guitar, Leon Spencer and Bill Mason alternating on organ and Idris Muhammad on drums.

For jazz DJs Prestige issued a single, Fire Eater/The Hooker, with severely truncated versions of those album tracks -- three minutes as opposed to about nine minutes on the LP. Here's the Fire Eater single. Mason is the organist on this track.

Fire Eater



Fire Eater and another Rusty Bryant album from 1971, Wildfire, were combined on a 1991 Prestige CD, Legends of Acid Jazz, Vol. 2. You'll have no trouble scoring a copy of this as cheap copies (some for less than $5) abound online.

From YouTube here's a sample of Bryant's hard driving R&B style from 1956.

Georgie Auld - Cole Slaw (Sorghum Switch) (single)

Although Toronto-born tenor saxophonist Georgie Auld (1919-1990) was a product of the big band era (Bunny Berigan, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman), some of his 1950s recordings veered into rhythm-and-blues and rock 'n' roll territory.

Case in point is this 1953 recording that Auld made for Coral. Cole Slaw came from the pen of Jesse Stone, who wrote classic early rock 'n' roll songs like Shake, Rattle and Roll, Don't Let Go and Flip, Flop and Fly. When Stone composed Cole Slaw in 1942 the tune was known as Sorghum Switch, but by the time he recorded it  for RCA Victor in 1949 the title had changed. Tenor sax man Frank Culley waxed a competing version for Atlantic that made the R&B chart.

Auld's 1953 rendition was issued on both 78 and 45 the following year, with something called Dark Green on the flip side. Get his recording of Cole Slaw from the link below.

Cole Slaw



Georgie Auld's recording of Cole Slaw never seems to have made it onto LP or CD. But the flip, Dark Green, was on his 1956 Coral LP Lullaby of Broadway. Some of the tracks from that album, not including Dark Green, are included on a 2003 import CD, Double Image, available from several sources.

Neither Dark Green nor Cole Slaw are available as downloads.

From YouTube, here's composer Jesse Stone's vocal version of Cole Slaw.

And finally Frank Culley's 1949 hit recording.

Illinois Jacquet - Bottoms Up

Illinois Jacquet (1922-2004) is one of jazz's great saxophonists and his fiery tenor solo on Lionel Hampton's Flying Home in 1942 directly influenced such R&B honkers and shouters as Big Jay McNeely, Joe Houston, Rusty Bryant and Red Prysock.

Bottoms Up, the title track from a 1968 Jacquet album on Prestige, had been in the sax man's repertoire for more than two decades, making its first appearance in 1946 on an Apollo label 78. The track had been recorded in Los Angeles the previous year.

Although the jazz world was continuing to evolve around Jacquet in 1968 (avant-garde jazz was starting to have considerable influence), his own playing had changed little over the years, as you can hear in the updated version of Bottoms Up from the Prestige LP. The MP3 is actually taken from a DJ 45 single, which, since the tune is quite short, contained the full album track.

Bottoms Up



The Bottoms Up Prestige album is widely available on both CD (used copies are cheap) and as a download. Do yourself a favour: add this one to your collection.

In the Beginning...Bebop

Three leaders -- trombonist Kai Winding, trumpeter Fats Navarro and tenor saxophonist Brew Moore -- contribute four tracks each to this compilation on the Savoy label that documents the early days of the jazz style known as bebop.

Some of the performances, recorded between 1946 and 1948, are a bit raw and the recording quality is not all that it might be, but there's no denying the excitement this music generated. For me saxophonist Moore, with the help of pianist Gene DiNovi, comes off best with his more laid-back performances.

Moore (1924-1973), who was heavily influenced by Lester Young, never changed his style of playing throughout his entire career. Unfortunately that cool style went out of favour and he spent the last dozen years of his life in Europe. Here, then, is a sampling of that style from 1948.

Blue Brew

In the Beginning...Bebop was first issued by Savoy on LP in 1957. There was a 1994 CD reissue that is now out of print. However, used copies are available at a reasonable price in the Amazon Marketplace. Individual tracks from this collection may be available as downloads, but the album itself is not.

To finish things off here's a recent YouTube posting of Five Planets in Leo, from a 1956 performance by the Brew Moore Quartet.

Bob Bain's All Stars - Black Beauty

Bob Bain was Henry Mancini's guitarist of choice during the 1950s and 60s, appearing on the Peter Gunn, Mr. Lucky and Pink Panther soundtracks. Bain and his legendary modified 1953 Telecaster were profiled in the May 2012 issue of Vintage Guitar magazine.

Bain and Tommy Tedesco were the busiest guitarists on the Los Angeles session scene and neither had much time for a solo career. Bain recorded a few albums and EPs for Capitol, as well as some singles for various labels, but mostly he stayed in the studios.

This obscure single, one of at least two recorded for the Montclare label, probably dates from the early '60s. It's a showcase for another Mancini veteran, tenor saxophonist Plas Johnson. The label photo was originally published in the excellent Office Naps blog, which features obscure 45s, in 2006. The MP3 comes from the 45.

Black Beauty

To my knowledge Black Beauty has never turned up on a CD compilation (more's the pity) and it isn't available as a legal download. Copies of the single turn up occasionally on the auction sites.

If there's one Bob Bain album you should pickup it's his Rockin', Rollin', Strollin', released by Capitol in 1958. Here's a video sample:

Ike Quebec - Bossa Nova Soul Samba

The deep-toned tenor sax of Ike Quebec was featured on a number of albums for Blue Note in the 1950s and '60s, including Boss Nova Soul Samba. Released in 1962, this album would be the final outing for Quebec, who died of cancer the following year.

Despite having "bossa nova" in the album title (no doubt an effort to cash in on the then-current bossa nova craze) this is not a traditional bossa nova LP. Think of it as a bluesy blowing session with Brazilian overtones.

Guitarist Kenny Burrell is Quebec's co-star on this album and from it comes Blue Samba, with the MP3 taken from a promo 45. The full six minutes of the album track was squeezed onto a single side of the 45, a very rare occurence for a lengthy jazz track in the 60s. Usually, the longer cuts were split into two parts -- one on each side of the single -- in an effort to gain airplay from DJs who preferred shorter cuts. About seven minutes of music would fit on each side of a seven-inch 45, but this was rarely done.

Blue Samba

Bossa Nova Soul Samba is widely available on CD and as a download. Some new and used copies of this classic album are selling for less than $5 in the Amazon Marketplace.

From YouTube comes another track from Bossa Nova Soul Samba, Loie.