Swing Stars in the 70s and 80s

[Brownian Motion]

I just bought a copy of this:

and I've really been enjoying it. It was recorded in 1975. Doc Cheatham is on trumpet, and he solos well and often. He even gets a feature track, "I've Got a Right to Sing the Blues", on which Buddy lays out. Johnny Guarnieri is on piano, and it's a pleasure to hear someone other than the usual crew, comping and soloing. Vic Dickenson was nearly 70 at the time, but he knew how to conserve himself, and George Duvivier and Oliver Jackson are steady, as always. Buddy of course plays beautifully throughout; he seems to have been inspired by the fresh company. Nice date.

Both Buddy--

and Doc--

went forward with other good outings during this period.

Any recommendations for other swing dates from these later years?

Edited February 1, 2009 by Brownian Motion

[Dan Gould]

My first thought is a couple of Flip Phillips releases but they don't actually fit your time frame:

Live at the 1993 Floating Jazz Festival (Chiaroscuro)

Swing is the Thing (Verve)

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Lots of excellent Al Grey albums, from the seventies to the nineties.

AL GREY/WILD BILL DAVIS - BLACK & BLUE 33041 7/1972

GREYS MOOD - BLACK & BLUE 33085 4/1973&10/1975

STRUTTIN AND SHOUTIN - COLUMBIA (A) 38505 8/1976

AT TRAVELLERS LOUNGE - TRAVELLERS 3001 3/1977

A GREY FEAT A COBB - BLACK & BLUE 33143 7/1977

TROMBONE FOR FIVE - BLACK & BLUE 33174 11/1977

LIVE AT RICKS - AVIVA 6002 7/1978

TRULY WONDERFUL - STASH STCD552 7/1978

NIGHT TRAIN REVISITED - STORYVILLE 8293 7/1978

GET IT TOGETHER - PIZZA EXPRESS (UK) PE5504 7/1979

OD (OUT DERE) - GREYFORREST GF1001 7/1980

JATP GREY/DAVIS/EDISON - PABLO 2310 882 1982

THINGS GETTIN BETTER - PABLO TODAY 2312 141 1/1983

JUST JAZZ - UPTOWN UP27.21 4/1984

GREY/THILO QUINTET - STORYVILLE 4136 8/1986

NEW AL GREY QUINTET - CHIAROSCURO 305 5/1988

AL MEETS BJARNE - GEMINI (NOR) GM62 8/1988

FAB - CAPRI 74038 2/1990

SWINGIN IN HELSINGBORG - FOUR LEAF (SWE) FLCCD119 2/1990

XMAS STOCKING STUFFER - CAPRI 74039 8&9/1990

90 FLOATIN JAZZ FEST - CHIAROSCURO 313 10/1990

ME N JACK - PULLEN MUSIC 2350 1995

CENTERPIECE - TELARC JAZZ 83379 3/1995

MATZOH AND GRITS - ARBORS 19167 1996

ECHOES OF NEW ORLEANS - PROGRESSIVE 7108 10/1997

Hope this lot come out OK

MG

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

One guy who is little known, but wonderful, is Candy Johnson. Johnson worked with Ernie Fields, then Tiny Bradshaw, then Andy Kirk in the forties. Led his own band in Detroit in 1945 and ’46. Joined Basie in the early fifties. Own band in Detroit 1954-57, then joined Bill Doggett until 1964. He made an album in Paris – “Candy’s mood” for Black & Blue in 1973, which would fit very nicely into this concept.

and joined Arnett Cobb on “Midnight slows” vol 3

He also made a record called “Peppermint sticks” IAJRC 47 – 11/1974

He’s a great player in the frame of Ben Webster, with a bit of Arnett thrown in.

Better known guys include Clark Terry and Harry Edison.

And don’t get hung up on the hornmen – there’s also Al Casey, Fats Waller’s guitarist. Here’s a list of his post-sixties albums:

Jumpin’ With Al - Black & Blue 33056 - 7&8/1973

Best of friends – JSP 1051 - 1981

6 swingin’ strings – JSP 1026 - Summer 1981

Genius of jazz guitar – JSP 1062 - Summer 1981

With Fessor's session boys – Storyville 429 - 10/1983&4/1980

Remembers King Curtis – JSP 1095 - 7/1985

A tribute to Fats – Jazzpoint 1044 - 5/1994

While on guitarists, don't forget the great Floyd Smith, the creator of the classic "Floyd's guitar blues" - a hit for Andy Kirk in 1940. He recorded for Black & Blue in 1972.

Floyds guitar blues - Black & Blue 33046 - 5&7/1972

Another great guitar player, Art Tatum’s man, was Tiny Grimes, and he made a few albums in this period

Frankie & Johnny boogie - Black & Blue 33030 - 10&11/1970

Profoundly blue – Muse 5012 - 3/1973

Some groovy fours - Black & Blue 33067 - 5/1974

Never too old – Sonet 736 - 4/1977

Back to the hornmen. Here’s a list of Buddy Tate’s post-sixties albums:

Unbroken – MPS 15281 - 6&7/1970

Broadway - Black & Blue 33054 - 5/1972

Midnight slows vol 2 - Black & Blue 33045 - 5/1972

Buddy Tate & his buddies – Chiaroscuro 123 - 6/1973

Midnight slows vol 4 - Black & Blue 33068 - 1/1974

Midnight slows vol 5 - Black & Blue 33075 - 1/1974

Kansas City woman - Black Lion BL312 - 7/1974

Texas twister - Master Jazz 8128 - 2/1975

Jive at five – Mahogany 558103 - 7/1975

Our bag – Riff (Du) 659003 - 9/1975

After midnight - CNR (Du) 540049 - 9/1975&3/1976

Jazz meeting - Riff (Du) 659012 - 9/1975

Tate a tete – Storyville 4030 - 9/1975

Kansas City joys – Sonet 716 - 3/1976

A soft summer night – Riff 190.002 - 11/1976&Early 1977

Buddy Tate meets Dollar Brand – Chiaroscuro 165 - 8/1977

Sherman shuffle – Sackville 3017 - 1/1978

Buddy Tate quartet – Sackville 3027 - 7/1978

Live at Sandys – Muse 5198 - 8/1978

Hard blowin’ at Sandys – Muse 5249 - 8/1978

Scott’s Buddy - Concord Jazz 148 - 8/1980

Great Buddy Tate - Concord Jazz 163 - 3/1981

Ballad artistry – Sackville 3034 - 6/1981

Buddy Tate meets Torsten Zwingenberger - Moustache Music 120159 - 10/1983

Just Jazz – Uptown Up27.21 - 4/1984

Long tall tenor – Calligraph 008 - 12/1985

Buddy Tate live - Nagel Heyer 80 - 1988

Just Friends (H Person & N Simpkins) – Muse 5418 - 2/1990

And, thinking of Buddy Tate, almost automatically brings thoughts of Arnett Cobb and Illinois Jacquet (doesn’t it?)

Here are Arnett’s albums from this period:

Wild man from Texas - Home Cookin' 114 - 6&7/1971

Again with Milt - Black & Blue 33052 - 7/1973

Midnight slows vol 3 - Black & Blue 33055 - 8/1973

Live in Paris 1974 - France's Concert (Fr) 133 - 4/1974

Jumpin’ at the Woodside - Black & Blue 33175 - 5/1974

Wild Man From Texas - Black & Blue - 33099 - 5/1976

Midnight Slows vol 6 - Black & Blue 33093 - 5/1976

Al Grey featuring Arnett Cobb - Black & Blue 33143 - 7/1977

Arnett Cobb is back – Progressive 7037 - 6/1978

Live at Sandy’s – Muse 5191 - 8/1978

More live at Sandy’s – Muse 5236 - 8/1978

Funky butt – Progressive 7054 - 1/1980

Live in France - Black & Blue 33306 - 3/1980

Live at "De Spiegel" – Timeless 174 - 11/1982

Keep on pushing – Beehive 7017 - 6/1984

Show time – Fantasy 9659 - 8/1987

Tenor tribute - Soul Note 1184/94 - 4/1988

And here’s a list of Illinois’ albums:

Genius at work - Black Lion 30118 - 4/1971

Illinois Jacquet with Wild Bill - Black & Blue 33044&33082 - 1/1973

Jazz at Town Hall – JRC 11433 - 7/1973

Illinois Jacquet’s birthday party – JRC 11434 - 10/1973

Illinois Jacquet with Milt & Jo - Black & Blue 33070 - 1/1974

Bottoms up - Black & Blue 33710 - 1/1974

At Minden - Rotary Club Of Minden Ke500 - 8/1974

The last blues album - Groove Merchant 3303 - 10/1974

Jacquet’s street - Black & Blue 33112 - 7/1976

Illinois Jacquet – Riff 658001 - 10/1976

Texas tenors – Riff 658006 - 10/1976

Live at Schaffhausen – Storyville 8357 - 3/1978

Midnight slows vol 8 - Black & Blue 33135 - 3/1978

God bless my solo - Black & Blue 33167 - 3/1978

Illinois Jacquet in swinging Europe - Skarby International (Swe) Slp00001 - 8/1978

Illinois Jacquet all stars – JSP 1014 - 6/1980

Battle of the horns - East World (J) 80189 - 9/1980

Jacquet’s got it – Atlantic 81816 - 8/1987

Most of those Black & Blue albums of Arnett, Buddy and Illinois feature the great Milt Buckner and here’s a link to Milt’s discography on the web (parts 2 & 3 cover this period).

http://www.jazzdocumentation.ch/buckner/di...y/buckner1.html

Plenty of choice there!

I sometimes think that Americans forget that a lot of the swing era players couldn't get gigs in the seventies and hopped it to Europe, where they were greatly welcomed, particularly by Black & Blue records.

MG

[Clunky]

In Barcelona last weekend and picked up a couple of LPs on Black & Blue which fall under this heading

Doc Cheatham- Hey Doc !

Charlie Shavers - Last Session

both very nice swinging affairs, very nice recorded sound too.

[Dan Gould]

Well MG gave a huge list - I'll recommend the Arnett Cobb's on Muse which, iirc, have Cleanhead, Buddy Tate and Ray Bryant in the band. Definitely second the Candy Johnson on Black & Blue recommendation, and I've yet to hear an unworthy Al Grey release from that era.

[Free For All]

Candy Johnson- wasn't he a porn star?

[papsrus]

Great idea for a thread, Brownian Motion. This is an area where I'm just getting my feet wet as well, so I'll keep a close eye on the suggestions here. I'll throw cornet player Ruby Braff's name into the mix. I just recently purchased the gently swingin' Ruby Braff, George Barnes Quartet -- "Live at the New School," featuring two guitarists (Barnes and Wayne Wright) along with bassist Michael Moore. Recorded in 1974, an excellent set of small combo swing.

[mjzee]

I've always enjoyed this album, originally released in the U.S. on Inner City:

Panama Francis & his Savoy Sultans

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I've yet to hear a bad Black & Blue album.

MG

[jazzbo]

Word.

[montg]

at the beginning of the decade, Ellington New Orleans Suite and Mary Lou Williams (Mary's Mass). Didn't Ellington say MLW was perpetually modern?

[Dan Gould]

I've yet to hear a bad Black & Blue album.

MG

Word.

No doubt. One of my best customers during the Stupendous days happily took every Black & Blue release I had.

[Hot Ptah]

Mary Lou Williams released several good albums in the 1970s. My favorite is "Free Spirits".

The "Roy Eldridge Big 4 At Montreux" (on Pablo) is a really good album.

Count Basie's Pablo output was often quite good. I really like his "Satch and Josh" with Oscar Peterson.

Harry "Sweets" Edison recorded some good albums for Pablo. My favorite is "Edison's Lights".

Jay McShann recorded a series of excellent albums in this period, including "Kansas City Hustle", "Last of the Blue Devils", "Man From Muskogee" (with Claude "Fiddler" Williams).

Benny Carter released some albums which I think are great, including "Montreux '77" on Pablo, and three albums in the 1980s: "Over the Rainbow", "Central City Sketches" and "A Gentleman and His Music."

I really like Jess Stacy's 1974 album, "Stacy Still Swings".

Edited February 6, 2009 by Hot Ptah

[Brownian Motion]

In Barcelona last weekend and picked up a couple of LPs on Black & Blue which fall under this heading

Doc Cheatham- Hey Doc !

Charlie Shavers - Last Session

both very nice swinging affairs, very nice recorded sound too.

I just bought "Hey Doc!", and it's great! 1975. My favorite track is "What Can I Say After I Say I'm Sorry". Doc sings a chorus, scats a chorus--his scat singing is a vocalization of his trumpet style--and then takes it out with two choruses of of choice trumpet. What pleasure for my ears.

[Joe]

Some fine Joe Venuti from this era, including...

Venuti / Hines, HOT SONATAS

Venuti with Zoot Sims

4 Giants Of Swing, S'WONDERFUL -- probably my favorite of the bunch, simply because of the unusual instrumentation (violin, mandolin, steel guitar, guitar + rhythm)

Also highly recommended are all 3 of the ROOSEVELT GRILL albums recorded by the Bobby Hackett / Vic Dickenson group.

[Ted O'Reilly]

MG's list of Buddy Tate's releases (in post #4) sent me to the shelves to listen to "The Ballad Artistry of Buddy Tate" (Sackville CD2-3034). I hadn't heard it in a while (it's a 1981 recording), and it was wonderful as I remembered.

Buddy's in great shape, and the gtr/bass/dms accompaniment by Ed Bickert, Don Thompson and Terry Clarke was "younger", and led Tate into directions he might not have gone on his own. A great tune list, too, including Isfahan which was a relatively unheard tune at the time.

Thanks for the reminder!