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Welcome to another 2 hours of jazz on Radio Mecha. As always, I'll be posting some links, comments and credits as the set plays, which I hope are of interest to those listening, as well as to those who come to this thread later.
In this program, I have an early jazz standard inspired by a silent movie heart throb and uniquely recorded by Sidney Bechet, a classic Gershwin tune interpreted by John Coltrane, and nice rendition of a Stevie Wonder tune by Carmen McRae.
Sidney Bechet and nobody else, in a very unususal "one man band" recording, made by repeated "overdubbing" at the RCA Studios in NYC, from an April 18, 1941 recording date. Basically, in this era before tape recorders using German technology that would be captured during WWII, the only way of producing an "overdubbed" record was to use two disk cutting tables. The first instrument track was cut on table #1, and then replayed while it and a new instrument track was fed to the cutter head of table #2. For instrument #3, the 2 instrument track from the record on table #2 was moved to table #1, and then it and the new #3 instrument feed were sent to table #2. Each additional "overdub" inevitably worsened the fidelity of earlier tracks, so 5 or 6 instruments was about the limit that could be done in such a "one man band" kind of record. In fact, if you can even hear the drums in this one, you win a cigar. The link above has a Real Audio version of this file (at the bottom of the page), for those that come along to this thread later. And here's a picture of a young Les Paul working in a studio set up to do something similar.
If boogie pianist Meade 'Lux' Lewis had a quiet side, this sweet, slow blues he wrote is surely it. From a January 6, 1939 recording date for Blue Note, this simple, gentle solo piano tune stands in great contrast to much of his other recorded work, and I like to think of it, as something he might play at the end of the night in a club, as a kind of apology to the piano, for beating it so hard all the rest of the night. From the 1998 Topaz compilation CD.
Rex Stewart (cornet), Barney Bigard (clarinet & drums), Django Reinhardt (guitar), and Billy Taylor (bass) with a tune by Stewart, recorded April 5, 1939 in Paris. From the "Django Reinhardt: All Star Sessions" CD.
Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra (being mostly Teddy Wilson's orchestra) in a July 2, 1935 recording for Brunswick, of the tune by Maceo Pinkard, William Tracey (lyrics) and Doris Tauber. Tauber also wrote with Johnny Mercer, and other composers, too.
Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet), Charlie "Bird" Parker (alto sax), Al Haig (piano), Curly Russell (bass) and Sidney Catlett (drums) in a May 11,1945 recording of a tune by Tadd Dameron, from the "Yardbird Suite" boxed CD set.
Miles Davis with a March 9, 1950 recording of a Gerry Mulligan tune, that would eventually be released in 1957, on the seminal "Birth of the Cool" album. With J.J. Johnson (trombone), Gunther Schuller (French horn), Bill Barber (tuba), Lee Konitz (alto saxophone), Gerry Mulligan (baritone saxophone), John Lewis (piano), Al McKibbon (bass), and Max Roach (drums).
Bill Evans (piano), Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Jim Hall (guitar), Percy Heath (bass), and Philly Joe Jones (drums) with a tune by Evans from a July 16, 1962 recording in NYC, originally released on the 1962 album "interplay" and here via the 1998 Riverside "Jazz Showcase: Bill Evans" compilation CD.
Carmen McRae with a 1971 recording of a Stevie Wonder tune, featuring Joe Pass (guitar), Ray Brown (bass), Dick Shreve (piano), and Frank Severino (drums). From the 1991 Laserlight CD reissue.
John Coltrane from his 1960 album "My Favorite Things" with the Gershwin tune, featuring pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Art Davis, and drummer Elvin Jones.
Tito Puente's Golden Latin Jazz All Stars from the 1992 CD "Live at The Village Gate", with a "tune," or perhaps better said "a phrase and a whole lot of timbales" by Puente.
Once again, The Bill Evans Trio, with Eddie Gomez on bass and Eliot Zigmund on drums, takes us out with the title track from the 1977 album of the same name. To recap, in this set, we heard:
1. McCoy Tyner - The Greeting (2:27)
2. Art Tatum - Stay As Sweet As You Are (5:09)
3. Sidney Bechet - The Sheik Of Araby / Sidney Bechet's One Man Band (2:11)
4. Meade 'Lux' Lewis - Melancholy (4:07)
5. Django Reinhardt - Solid Old Man (3:05)
6. Billie Holiday - Them There Eyes (2:48)
7. Charlie Parker - Hot House (3:09)
8. Miles Davis - Rocker (3:07)
9. Evans, Bill - Interplay (8:13)
10. Carmen McRae - You and I (4:47)
11. John Coltrane - Summertime (11:35)
12. Wes Montgomery - Gone With the Wind (6:22)
13. Ramsey Lewis Trio - Come Sunday (4:33)
14. Gary Burton - Futures (10:40)
15. Wynton Marsalis - The End of a Love Affair (3:14)
16. Tommy Flanagan - Good Bait (4:06)
17. Gary Burton - Panama (5:39)
18. Tito Puente - Skin Jam (5:17)
19. McCoy Tyner - Rio (5:00)
20. Joe Williams - Dimples (5:12)
21. Chick Corea/Gary Burton - Song to Gayle (7:16)
22. Pat Metheny, Dave Holland, Roy Haynes - Three Flights Up (6:11)
23. Diana Krall - The Best Thing for You (2:36)
24. Bill Evans Trio - I Will Say Goodbye (3:30)
See you soon, right here on Radio Mecha, with more jazz...