Nothing like finding old obscure recordings to freshen up your day! Bethlehem Records brightens the heart with three more reissues of arcane but wonderful sounds.
The front line of Donald Byrd/tp and Pepper Adams/bs leads a group of fellow Detroit musicians which includes Kenny Burrell/g, Tommy Flanagan/p, Louis Hayes/dr and Paul Chambers/b. The material on this 1960 date has some cooking tunes with a classic drive as on “Philson” which has Adams’ baritone percolating like freshly cooked oatmeal, while the gentler material such as “Stardust” is putty in the hands of the bel canto Byrd. Flanagan and Burrell have a velvet touch on “Bitty Ditty” and the rhythm section thrives under the guitarists bluesy lines on “Trio.” Where has this been all my life?
Zoot Sims had one of the warmest tenor sounds on the planet, and he uses it to wonderful effect on this uptempo 1960 set with Dave McKenna/p, George Tucker/b and Mingus associate Dannie Richmond/dr. Some Count Basie material gets the session off to a hep start, with “Jive at Five” and “Doggin’ Around” having the rhythm section ride Sims like a stamped scene from Red River. He’s got the classic two beat feel on songs like “Bill Bailey” and swings like there’s no tomorrow on “Avalon.”He wonderfully moans on his own “I’ve Heard That Blues Before” while slipping and sliding on “There’ll Be Some Changes Made.” This is how a tenor is supposed to sound, my friends.
Bobby Troup had the enviable life. He collected royalty checks for his composition “Route 66” while doing guest TV appearances on show like Mannix and then coming home to his dish of a wife Julie London. Here, in 1955, he mainly focuses on songs composed by Johnny Mercer on this low key session with Bob Enevoldsen/tb, Howard Roberts/g, Red Mitchell/b and Don Heath/dr. His vocals are like a laconic and avuncular Chet Baker, not unlike Hoagy Carmichael, but he makes material like “One For My Baby” and “I’m With You” sound comfy and cozy. More uptempo material such as “That Old Black Magic” has a sweet bounce, while the instrumentals “Laura” and “Jeepers Creepers” more late night hip than dramatic. A nice outing; now, if he did some duets with Julie…
Bethlehem Records