With the rapid evolution of jazz and the emphasis on coming up with new ways to play the music, there have been periods when certain styles that had been considered fresh and innovative were thought of as old hat just a few years later. The collapse of the big band era during 1945-49 resulted in many of the orchestras’ sidemen being overshadowed by the younger bop innovators and, by the early 1950s, West Coast cool jazz. Those veterans seemed to have just four choices if they wanted to continue playing music: Master bebop, switch to Dixieland, simplify their playing to fit into r&b groups, or become a studio musician. Small-group swing combos were considered out of style. The fact that most of the top swing soloists were just in their forties (the elder statesman Duke Ellington was turned 54 in 1953) and very much in their prime was often overlooked by record labels.
John Hammond, the enthusiastic talent scout, record producer, and lover of swing, came to the rescue, at least for many of the artists who (unlike Lester Young, Billie Holiday, Roy Eldridge, Art Tatum and some others) were not part of Norman Granz’s tours and recordings. Hammond was hired by the Vanguard label in late 1953 to produce the Vanguard Jazz Showcase, a series that lasted into 1959. Hammond immediately hired some of the top exponents of the music he loved, the straight ahead swing often heard in the small group recordings of Count Basie.
While the liner notes to the admirable limited-edition seven-CD Mosaic box set Classic Vanguard Small Group Swing Sessions says that many of these sessions have been unavailable since their original issue, often as ten-inch LPs, I owned all of the music (with the exception of a single previously unissued alternate take) since they were reissued as double-LPs by Vanguard in the 1970s and ’80s. Quite a few of these dates were also put out as CDs along the way, so they are not as rare as stated.
However the quality is quite high and it is a joy to have this priceless music reissued in this fashion. Mostly consisting of medium or uptempo blues, standards, and originals based on the chord changes of familiar songs, the music is generally freewheeling with occasional arranged sections.
Reissued are sessions led by trombonist Vic Dickenson, trumpeters Ruby Braff, Joe Newman, and Buck Clayton, pianist Sir Charles Thompson, drummer Jo Jones, and singer Jimmy Rushing (who is featured on two CDs) plus a various artists album originally titled A Night At Count Basie’s. Most of the leaders are also heard as sidemen elsewhere and among the other stars are trumpeters Shad Collins and Pat Jenkins, trombonists Benny Powell, Benny Morton, Matthew Gee, Benny Green, Henderson Chambers, and Lawrence Brown, altoists Pete Brown and Earle Warren, tenor-saxophonists Coleman Hawkins, Frank Foster, Buddy Tate, and Lucky Thompson, Frank Wess on flute and tenor, clarinetist Edmond Hall, Ben Richardson and Rudy Powell, on clarinet and alto, Sam Margolis on clarinet and tenor, guitarists Steve Jordan, Freddie Green, Kenny Burrell, and Roy Gaines, pianists Nat Pierce, Johnny Acea, Jimmy Jones, Hank Jones, Sammy Price, Pete Johnson, Clarence Johnson, and Bobby Henderson, organist Marlowe Morris, bassists Walter Page, Gene Ramey, Aaron Bell, and Eddie Jones, drummers Osie Johnson and Bobby Donaldson, singer Joe Williams, and even Count Basie himself. While all of the horns and most of the rhythm section players have space, the soloists who make the biggest impact are Ruby Braff (who was not from the swing era and was a major new discovery), Vic Dickenson, Buck Clayton, Coleman Hawkins on his few numbers and Edmond Hall.
There will be another Vanguard set of six CDs put out by Mosaic in the near future that will focus more on pianists. While one looks forward to that box, this first Vanguard release is so consistently exciting that it will be difficult to top.
Classic Vanguard Small Group Swing Sessions
Various Artists
Mosaic Records Limited Edition Box Set (#280—7 CDs)
mosaicrecords.com
Since 1975 Scott Yanow has been a regular reviewer of albums in many jazz styles. He has written for many jazz and arts magazines, including JazzTimes, Jazziz, Down Beat, Cadence, CODA, and the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, and was the jazz editor for Record Review. He has written an in-depth biography on Dizzy Gillespie for AllMusic.com. He has authored 11 books on jazz, over 900 liner notes for CDs and over 20,000 reviews of jazz recordings.
Yanow was a contributor to and co-editor of the third edition of the All Music Guide to Jazz. He continues to write for Downbeat, Jazziz, the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, the Jazz Rag, the New York City Jazz Record and other publications.
