Big Band Jazz - Post 1950

I believe that Louie Bellson was one of the first drummers to use double bass drums in his set, and he was also an innovator with using tunable drums.

 

Eupher said:
Let's SWING!!!

An arrangement recorded in 2000 by Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band, based in LA. They're a contemporary band consisting of the creme de la creme of sidemen in LA. Album title: "Swingin' for the Fences". They're still smoking charts today.

Solos: Eddie Daniels, my favorite clarinet player; Arturo Sandoval, trumpet.

(Note: Arturo is a Cuban refugee who escaped to the U.S. back in the day -- maybe early 80s?. Notorious as an asshole in rehearsals and sometimes on stage, he could back up what he demanded from others. He seems to be much more of a colleague today in videos and recordings I've seen.)

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Hey @Kadee . What do you think of this song to dance to?
Hey @OneEyedDiva ! Here’s a thread for you. My jazz loving friend. Some good stuff here.
 
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The Holton Superbone is a hybrid valve/slide trombone. Maynard played the horn very well, but I'd posit that Ashley Alexander was mo' betta. Ashley was not a trumpet player of note, so there! LOL.

Anyway, the duet between the Superbone and the Badman (New Zealander Bruce Johnstone on baritone saxophone) is a real be-bop treat with the band cookin' behind.

Just hit the "play it on Youtube" button.

 
-Oy- said:
Another Big Phat Band fan here. Seen them a few times - and just Gordon and Eric guesting with others.

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Eric's alto always reminded me of David Sanborn's alto -- and vice versa. Strong, fluid, great altissimo playing. Great groove on this chart!
 
Yes, I am an unabashed Maynard fan. He didn't play well in the last 10 or 15 years of his life and died of kidney failure in 2006. And he wasn't a great announcer either, but he was one helluva band leader.

Gospel John, featuring Maynard in a gospel-oriented cadenza. He has fun with it, also with the "collection plate".

He plays melody with the alto player on what they call "baritone horn" but it isn't. It's a bell-front euphonium.

Solos Andy MacIntosh, alto.

 
hollydolly said:
I love this, Opus One....... just needs the Mills brothers to jump in...

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Very tight performance. And a Bösendorfer piano! What a great axe to play on! (In another life, I woulda been a bari sax player. Reedy, throaty, grab-you-by-the-you-know-what.)
 
PeppermintPatty said:
Hey @Kadee . What do you think of this song to dance to?
Hey @OneEyedDiva ! Here’s a thread for you. My jazz loving friend. Some good stuff here.
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Nah not our type of music for the ballroom dancing we do @PeppermintPatty …our music is whats called sequenced tunes because our dancing is not freestyle each of the dances we do has a different set of steps for (each dance )
We do blues / waltz’s / rhumbas / saunters / quicksteps / old time waltz’s.
 
horseless carriage said:
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The thread does say Big Band Jazz post 1950 and Louis Prima wrote "Sing,Sing, Sing" in 1935, but it's as popular today both at concerts and dances that it deserves poetic licence.
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I heard the great Jimmy Vincent do a drum solo in Prima's "Sing, Sing, Sing" in a video a number of years ago. I was impressed at how well he played. I can't find it anywhere, but here is a short clip of the tune at a break neck speed performed by Vincent and Prima's big band from 1946. Later they pretty much turned it into a novelty tune.
Sadly Prima died as the result of brain surgery in 1978-- the same year I quit the music biz...
 
Kadee said:
Nah not our type of music for the ballroom dancing we do @PeppermintPatty …our music is whats called sequenced tunes because our dancing is not freestyle each of the dances we do has a different set of steps for (each dance )
We do blues / waltz’s / rhumbas / saunters / quicksteps / old time waltz’s.
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My parents danced to big band music but that was their preferred type of music. It was also some of the music we played while in the bands we were in.
 
Within this thread I mentioned the band of Stan Kenton and his fascination and employment of the mellophone/mellophonium in his band. (I still can't identify the difference between these instruments as I never played either of them, though I have played -- briefly -- the French horn, which was pitched in F.)

This video demonstrates the instruments and their sound in the jazz setting. Typically played by trumpet players, it was generally conceded with the Kenton band that the "lesser" trumpet players would be expected to play the mellophonium, which was an incredibly difficult instrument to play. Often out of tune with itself, it took masterful musicians to tame that beast and bring it in tune with the rest of the band.

If you're so inclined, please note the comment section.

 
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An absolutely terrific chart, composed and arranged by Canadian Rob McConnell.

Solos: (I believe) - Moe Koffman, flute; Guido Basso, trumpet;

 
Speaking of waltzes, let's check out Louie Bellson's! Cinderella's Waltz, recorded 1979.

Composer - the great tenor saxophonist Don Menza; Solos: Frank Collett, piano; Bobby Shew, flugelhorn; Louie Bellson, drums

 
ChiroDoc said:
I heard the great Jimmy Vincent do a drum solo in Prima's "Sing, Sing, Sing" in a video a number of years ago. I was impressed at how well he played. I can't find it anywhere, but here is a short clip of the tune at a break neck speed performed by Vincent and Prima's big band from 1946.
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I respect that the focus of this thread is post-1950, but I found ChiroDoc's post interesting. I was always familiar with the Goodman Band version of the song, but here's the original by Louis Prima's band, if anyone is curious. Sing, Sing, Sing - Prima
 
ChiroDoc said:
The great Buddy Rich playing "Hawaiian War Chant", aged 69, only several months before his death. The guy still had the chops and the drive. Mel Torme hosts.
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Mel (the Velvet Fog) was also a helluva drummer as well as an incredible singer.
 


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