musicians playing an ENTIRE session NOT on their primary instrument

[Joe]

According to AMG, Jaki Byard plays tenor sax throughout on Herb Pomeroy's LIFE IS A MANY SPLENDORED GIG... can anyone here confirm?

Yes , keyboard duties in that band were handled by Ray Santisi .

Thanks. Very curious to hear this Pomeroy session...

[Chas]

Another entire session with a musician not playing their primary instrument is Rusty Dedrick's Salute To Bunny , which represents the sole recorded example of John LaPorta's baritone playing .

[Larry Kart]

According to AMG, Jaki Byard plays tenor sax throughout on Herb Pomeroy's LIFE IS A MANY SPLENDORED GIG... can anyone here confirm?

Yes , keyboard duties in that band were handled by Ray Santisi .

Thanks. Very curious to hear this Pomeroy session...

Don't have the album anymore (one of those that mysteriously evaporated at some point in my life) but recall liking it a good deal. On the other hand, I have no memory of any Byard tenor solos on it (all the tenor solos IIRC were played by ringer Zoot Sims), though there is a fine Byard chart on his piece "Aluminum Baby" (based on you know what). Also no longer have (for the same mysterious reason) its successor, "Band in Boston," on United Artists, which was also very good, though I do have the CD reissue of the Irene Kral-Pomeroy album "The Band and I."

[Larry Kart]

BTW, that Zoot Sims' alto solo I extolled on John Benson Brooks' "Folk Jazz USA" was on "Turtledove," not "Saro Jane." His "Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair" on that album is also very nice.

[Chas]

Here's an album featuring Bob Dorough on that favorite instrument of primary school music students - the recorder !

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Just been listening to

George Freeman - Rebellion - Southport

Von Freeman plays the entire session on piano - and it's bleedin' great!!!!

MG

[blajay]

According to AMG, Jaki Byard plays tenor sax throughout on Herb Pomeroy's LIFE IS A MANY SPLENDORED GIG... can anyone here confirm?

Yes , keyboard duties in that band were handled by Ray Santisi .

Thanks. Very curious to hear this Pomeroy session...

Don't have the album anymore (one of those that mysteriously evaporated at some point in my life) but recall liking it a good deal. On the other hand, I have no memory of any Byard tenor solos on it (all the tenor solos IIRC were played by ringer Zoot Sims), though there is a fine Byard chart on his piece "Aluminum Baby" (based on you know what). Also no longer have (for the same mysterious reason) its successor, "Band in Boston," on United Artists, which was also very good, though I do have the CD reissue of the Irene Kral-Pomeroy album "The Band and I."

Incidentally, I was reading John Litweiler's excellent book The Freedom Principle: Jazz After 1958 recently, and Jaki Byard is referred to in Chapter 10 as a "pianist-altoist." I noticed since then that Byard plays alto in On The Spot! (Prestige), but does he play alto in any other albums? I haven't heard his tenor or alto playing but am really curious to do so. Did he play anything else in the saxophone family?

[mikeweil]

And who can forget this Capitol session where the whole point was that all played instruments they weren't associated with:

TEN CATS AND A MOUSE

Los Angeles, October 13, 1947

Dave Barbour (tp)

Billy May (tb)

Bobby Sherwood (tb)

Paul Weston (cl)

Eddie Miller (as)

Benny Carter (ts)

Dave Cavanaugh (bari)

Red Norvo (p)

Hal Derwin (g)

Frank DeVol (b)

Peggy Lee (dr)

Is this available somewhere? The Mosaic Capitol box, I'm afraid ...

[mikeweil]

Herbie Mann on bass clarinet throughout, and doing nicely.

[king ubu]

Mann playes many instruments in the fifties... including bass clarinet, not just on that one album. Though in hindsight, it's clear whcih was his main axe. It used to tenor sax early on though, I think.

There's also a nice Bud Shank album all on tenor:

and thinking of altoists on tenor, Charlie Parker did a two sessions on tenor exclusively, both under Miles' leadership.