Benny Bailey @ 78

[stevebop]

Trumpeter Benny Bailey ( b. 8/13/1925. Cleveland, Ohio) is celebrating his 78th birthday this week. He's all but forgotten in this country because he's been based in Europe since 1953 when he left Lionel Hampton's band. The man is a genius on his instrument. He's recorded with everyone from Hampton to Dolphy and was a long time fixture in the Francy Boland/Kenny Clarke Big Band.

This Friday night, August 15th from 7p-12a I will present a 5-hour tribute to Benny and his music on my radio program on WGBH in Boston.

I have music by Benny from 1947 (in LA with Teddy Edwards ) to 2002 (his most recent with Kirk Lightsey and Strings on Laika Records). I hope you can listen! Benny Bailey deserves to be heard.

Any messages of good wishes to Benny ( he lives in Amsterdam and I spoke with him a couple of weeks ago) will be sent to him along with a copy of the show. I know it would mean a lot to him to hear from old and new fans alike.

Always Know,

Steve Schwartz

Jazz From Studio 4

Friday, 7p-12a

WGBH, 89.7FM, Boston

www.wgbh.org

[king ubu]

My best wishes to Benny!

I have heard him live a year ago with a very good local (swiss) band. He's still going strong.

And he's one of those were you need one or two notes to recognise him!

A very very stylish player.

His Candid album is one of my favorite records of that era.

and some more pics:

ubu

[brownie]

Had the pleasure of meeting Benny Bailey when he was in Paris in the winter of 1959 with

the big band that Quincy Jones was trying to launch. A very fine gentleman and a superb

big-toned trumpet player.

Make sure you play tunes from the albums 'Upper Manhattan Jazz Society' (Enja) by Charlie

Rouse and 'Grand Slam' by Bailey (with Rouse). The 'Grand Slam' album was reissued

by Storyville.

[JSngry]

Huge fan here. Not too many cats can excel as a lead player AND a soloist. Benny Bailey is definitely one of them.

[Larry Kart]

Had the good fortune to heard Bailey live in Chicago in the early '80s, I think. He was in great form. Of the recordings I know, I'm particularly fond of "For Heaven's Sake" (Hot House), with Tony Coe, Horace Parlan, Jimmy Woode, and Idris Muhammad, rec. 1988. I recall reading somewhere that BB tended to get a bit uptight when he was the leader on a studio date, but not this day. Very relaxed rhythm section and an excellent job of engineering too.

BTW, does anyone have further info on BB's claim, on page 99 of Ira Gitler's book "Swing To Bop," that Miles' solo on "Billie's Bounce"with Bird was a note for note re-creation of a favorite Freddie Webster chorus? Certainly that solo doesn't sound much like anything else Miles was playing at the time.

[DrJ]

Big fan of Benny. In addition to the Candid, one of the nicest places to hear his gorgeous and BIG tone is on an album called THE MUSIC OF QUINCY JONES PLAYED BY BENNY BAILEY... (there's more people then listed - one of the longer album titles ever, I think) on Argo. Both his lead playing and soloing are well represented. I think this is still available as a Japanese LP-sleeve reissue, came out late last year/early this year some time.

[brownie]

One of Quincy Jones' loveliest tune was 'Meet Benny Bailey' that Count Basie recorded

for Roulette and Quincy Jones recorded for Mercury. A beautiful tribute.

[Dmitry]

He does well on Eric Dolphy's Berlin Concert.

[sidewinder]

Not to forget his great lead work with the Clarke/Boland Big Band. All of those albums on MPS are worth checking out and the precision of Benny's lead work stands out. Great flugelhorn stylist too.

[JSngry]

Not to forget his great lead work with the Clarke/Boland Big Band. All of those albums on MPS are worth checking out and the precision of Benny's lead work stands out.

Ditto his lead work w/Dizzy's 40s big band. That band was ragged before Bailey came in, and it was ragged after he left, but when he was on it, well, it was STILL ragged, but in a totally tight way.

[catesta]

Sorry I missed this thread before.

I was just listening to Redd's Blues over the weekend.

Happy Birthday Benny!

[king ubu]

Big fan of Benny. In addition to the Candid, one of the nicest places to hear his gorgeous and BIG tone is on an album called THE MUSIC OF QUINCY JONES PLAYED BY BENNY BAILEY... (there's more people then listed - one of the longer album titles ever, I think) on Argo. Both his lead playing and soloing are well represented. I think this is still available as a Japanese LP-sleeve reissue, came out late last year/early this year some time.

C'mon, now bring us that "Complete Argo Jazz Sessions" Mosaic!

We could then just take that out of the shelf and spin, say, disc 23 holding that Bailey session, and could stop caring for Japanese, original vinyl, vinyl reissues or some few strange Keepnews CDs...

ubu