I’ve you’ve only experienced jazz from the hard and raucous beats and intricate time signatures of technical acuity with now heart, you’re in for a treat with this 3 disc set from Fresh Sound Records.
Initially, jazz was defined by the pulse called “swing”, that lighter than air pulse that gloriously moves the songs forward. One of the proponents of what was called “Kansas City Swing” was Count Basie, with a gloriously easy 4 to the bar beat that was so distinguishable, that even my eight year old daughter could tell when a Basie record was playing. How, “It’s that ‘zoom, zoom, zoom, feel, dad” was her simple reply. It stands the test of time.
This album features six albums from Basie sidemen from the years 1954-55, a time when Basie was between big bands, slowly changing from his original band to the “Atomic Band” that would define his subsequent years. Alumni, charter members and Basie-inspired musicians are mixed and matched here, and the music is simply the definition of what we call “Swing”.
The first disc has a couple of sessions from December, 1954 to February 1955 led by Lester Young-inspired tenor saxist Al Cohn. The first session is a mix and match affair that includes Basie-ites Joe Newman/tp, Osie Johnson/dr as well as Gene Quill/as, Milt Hinton/b, Billy Byers/tb and Jimmy Raney/g among others. The cool breeze of swing is evident with the leader’s tenor cruising through “Cohn My Way” and the team digging in to “Move”. Cohn’s septet which includes Newman, Basie-inspired Nat Pierce/p, Frank Rehak/tb, Hinton and Johnson also brings in the heartbeat of Basie, guitarist Freddie Green, who is both heard and felt on classic KC sounds for “9:20 Special”, “Doggin Around” and the glorious “Jump The Blues Away”.
Disc two has trumpeter Joe Newman mixing four brass (including Thad Jones) and Al Cohn’s tenor and Dick Katz’s piano for peppy pieces like “Rosetta” and “Cohn Not Cohen”. Newman co-leads with Cohn for an octet session that is bubbling over with Basie gents. Ernie Wilkins plays alto sax and arranges along with Pierce, Green, Hinton, Rehak and Shadow Wilson/dr on Green’s classic “Corner Pocket” and the drummer classic “Topsy” are included here, as well as a velvety read of “Lullaby of Birdland”.
The third disc includes Newman’s octet with Urbie Green/tb, Quill/as, Cohn/ts, Katz/p, Wilson/dr, Green/g and Eddie Jones/b for a revisit of the Basie classics “You Can Depend On Me” and “Exactly Like You” while Newman’s own “Slats!” and “The Daughter of Miss Thing” get the toes tapping. Freddie Green is the leader for the last session, appropriately titled “Mr. Rhythm” which reunites him with drummer Joe Jones. This last session captures the jogger’s pulse of vintage Basie, particularly the vintage 1930s Kansas City Session days, with pieces like “Free and Easy”, ‘ Easy Does It” and “Back and Forth” defining the groove as Newman, Cohn and trombonist Henry Coker riding the current like a Class IV whitewater rafter.
The booklet of liner notes and session musicians are an excellent addendum to this 3 disc anthology of what is right and good about modern music. If this music doesn’t get you excited about the feel of jazz, may I suggest you take up another hobby like macrame.