When LA was…LA!
Jazz musicians had it nice in LA in the 1950s and 60s, making good money playing in the studios for movies and TV shows and then hitting the clubs at night for hip gigs. And they could all afford to buy a house in the suburbs! What could go wrong?!?
Here are two reissues by Fresh Sound Records that prove jazzers didn’t have to suffer to be creative.
Playing flute and clarinet, Sam Most made a nice career as a studio stud, still finding time to put out an impressive number of his own albums. These sessions from 1952-54 (ironically recorded in NYC) start with Most with Doug Mttone/tp, Chuck Wayne/g, Dick Hyman/p, Clyde Lombardi/b and Jackie Moffett/dr with the leader’s flute sublime on “Undercurrent Blues” and his clarinet bouncy on “Taking A Chance On Love”. A larger band brings in Urbie Green/tb, Bob Dorough/p, Percy Heath/b, Mettome/tp and L ouie Bellson/dr for a classy take of “Scroobydoo” and classical “I Hear A Rhapsody”. The band further expand with some charts by Quincy Jones on a hip “Skippy” and suave “ Open House” with Jones’ own “Blues Junction” a nice showcase for Most’s licorice stick. Woodwind wonders.
You can argue until you’re blue in the face why Buddy Collette and Teddy Edwards didn’t become household names in jazz, but the probable reason is that they simply wanted to stay home in one place, and who wanted to leave LA in the 1950s?!? (people currently living under the governorship of Gavin Newsome may find this quite incredible) Buddy Collette, best known for his work with Charles Mingus and Chico Hamilton, is featured on the tenor on this swinging session with Angelenos Gerald Wiggins/p, Joe Comfort/b and Bill Douglass/dr. Collette is a master here, bopping on “What’s Up”, showing a big sound on “The Groove” and hip as all get out on “Hideaway”, with Wiggins sleek on “Evergreen” and Douglass digging in on “Reunion”. Edwards had a Lester Young tone and milked it for all it was worth (and it was worth a lot) on this bopping session with Joe Castro/p, Leroy Vinnegar/b and Billy Higgins/dr. Edwards floats over Higgins’ brushes on “The Grind’ and swaggers on the gunslinging “I’ll Get Away” hard hitting on the snappy “Across Town”.
When it was hep to be hip!