ROY ELDRIDGE

[paul secor]

Did a search and couldn't find a thread like this. If there has been one, it's worth doing again.

Name a favorite session or record by Roy Eldridge. Doesn't have to be your favorite or one you consider to be his best (that would be an impossible task, anyway). Just post a recording that you'd like to bring to the attention of fellow members.

No box sets, please. If you do list something from a box, just make it a single recording session or a single LP that might have been made up of more than one session.

I'll start with one that I've just listened to twice: the 1955 Session with Benny Carter which was released on Verve as The Urbane Jazz of Roy Eldridge-Benny Carter.

Everyone involved - Roy, Benny, pianist Bruce McDonald, John Simmons, and Alvin Stoller sounds like they were having a great time. Roy is on fire, and his enthusiasm seems to spur Benny into stepping out a bit more than usual. The rhythm section is excellent - perhaps Roy's enthusiasm carried over into everyone's playing.

I was going to pick out some favorite moments or tracks, but this record is so consistantly fine that it's pointless to try and do that.

I wasn't familiar with this recording until I heard it on the Eldridge Mosaic box. It's another reason that I'm thankful for Mosaic and, obviously, Roy Eldridge.

I hope that others will add to this thread. If so, I look forward to seeing what may come up.

[brownie]

'Dale's Wail' made me a convert in the Church of Little Jazz half a century ago!

My copy is pretty beat up by now. Fortunately the album is in the Mosaic box and is a pleasure to listen to!

[Dan Gould]

I'll start with one that I've just listened to twice: the 1955 Session with Benny Carter which was released on Verve as The Urbane Jazz of Roy Eldridge-Benny Carter.

Everyone involved - Roy, Benny, pianist Bruce McDonald, John Simmons, and Alvin Stoller sounds like they were having a great time. Roy is on fire, and his enthusiasm seems to spur Benny into stepping out a bit more than usual. The rhythm section is excellent - perhaps Roy's enthusiasm carried over into everyone's playing.

[golfcrazy1984]

I'll start with one that I've just listened to twice: the 1955 Session with Benny Carter which was released on Verve as The Urbane Jazz of Roy Eldridge-Benny Carter.

Everyone involved - Roy, Benny, pianist Bruce McDonald, John Simmons, and Alvin Stoller sounds like they were having a great time. Roy is on fire, and his enthusiasm seems to spur Benny into stepping out a bit more than usual. The rhythm section is excellent - perhaps Roy's enthusiasm carried over into everyone's playing.

I completely agree! In fact I just listened to a few tracks, and feel the same way (Benny getting spurred on by Roy). I don't have any of the original LP's but I have the Mosaic set. Roy is the essence of Jazz! Always going for it!

[Peter Friedman]

My pick is:

Roy Eldridge - Heckler's Hop - Hep

This cd includes material when Roy was with Gene Krupa's band, Chu Berry's group and tracks under his own name.

The 22 tracks all date between 1936 and 1939.

[BillF]

I like Roy best in the 50s. He blows beautifully on these albums:

Newport Rebels (Candid) His solo on "Mysterious Blues" is the ultimate!

Johnny Hodges, Not So Dukish

Herb Ellis, Nothing But the Blues

Roy and Diz

[Lazaro Vega]

Roy Eldridge and Coleman Hawkins at the Opera House.

[Chuck Nessa]

For later Roy:

[John Tapscott]

For later Roy:

I was just about to name that one.

Edited December 2, 2011 by John Tapscott

[CJ Shearn]

For later Roy:

I was just about to name that one.

A great album, his last one as a leader before he retired, right?

[Larry Kart]

This one:

(F) ROY ELDRIDGE AND HIS ORCHESTRA: Roy Eldridge (tp), Oscar Peterson (p), Herb Ellis (g), Ray Brown (b), Buddy Rich (d).

Fine Sound, NYC, September 15, 1954

1961-1 If I Had You

1962-2 Blue Moon

1963-5 Stormy Weather

1964-1 Sweethearts On Parade

1965-3 A Foggy Day

1966-1 I Only Have Eyes For You

1967-1 Sweet Georgia Brown

1968-1 The Song Is Ended

Note: All titles issued on Clef MGC683, Verve MGV8068.

P.S. Lots of individual tracks from the '30s and '30s, but Roy not only plays great on the one above, but the album also holds together as an album.

[bichos]

i was in my teens when i first heard "st. louis blues" from the arcadia ballroom, september 2, 1939. what a tempo and the vocal. the band swings like mad. i vote for this from his best band he ever had.

keep boppin´

marcel

[ValerieB]

alas, my favorite session is an unrecorded one: happened during a Sunday matinee in a Boston jazz club 'round about 1943. the story goes (as it's been told to me), Roy sat me up on top of the piano, played to me, and dubbed me "Little Jazz"! i was about 3 years old! can't say i remember much of it though!

[Brownian Motion]

I'm partial to the sessions Roy made as a sideman with Chu Berry and Coleman Hawkins for Commodore Records. Most, but not all, of the good stuff is available on this CD.

[Stereojack]

Roy Eldridge and Coleman Hawkins at the Opera House.

This came to mind first. Roy & Hawk are blistering on this session. (Actually it's two sessions, as the mono and stereo versions are from different nights).

Also love his playing on "Coleman Hawkins and Confreres" (Verve)

[Chuck Nessa]

Surprised no mention of The Nifty Cat yet. Another fine mainstream session from Bill Weilbacher. I bought all the MJR sessions as they were issued and think I have all the New World reissues.

[paul secor]

Surprised no mention of The Nifty Cat yet. Another fine mainstream session from Bill Weilbacher. I bought all the MJR sessions as they were issued and think I have all the New World reissues.

I was going to begin the thread by mentioning The Nifty Cat, which I like a lot. Went instead with Urbane Jazz. Glad you included it.

Edited December 3, 2011 by paul secor

[Harold_Z]

Surprised no mention of The Nifty Cat yet. Another fine mainstream session from Bill Weilbacher. I bought all the MJR sessions as they were issued and think I have all the New World reissues.

I'll second The Nifty Cat. It's a great, swingin', session.

[Larry Kart]

The first side of "Coleman Hawkins -- Disorder at the Border" (Spotlite 121), live at Birdland on 9/13/52, with Horace Silver, Curley Russell, and Connie Kay. You haven't lived into you've heard Silver comp behind Hawkins and Eldridge. Side two, from a week earlier and also on fire, has Howard McGhee, Silver, Russell, and Art Blakey!

[Peter Friedman]

This 1975 likely gets overlooked. It was primarily a vocal session and a very joyous one. Roy's singing is a lot like his trumpet playing.

The album title says it all.

Roy Eldridge - Happy Time - Pablo

[Gheorghe]

I like very much the 1947 WNEW "Saturday Night Swing Session", Roy Eldridge in very fine form with Flips Phillips. On "How High the Moon", Eldridge plays the "Ornithology" theme at the end. Anyway, he was ahead of his time. And his best solo is on "Lover". A great session.

[jeffcrom]

I guess I'm going against the grain here by choosing some early Roy. The first two sessions that popped into my mind were:

Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra - March 27, 1936; the "Christopher Columbus" session. Both Roy and Chu Berry are young, strong, and fabulous here.

Teddy Wilson - May 14, 1936; Teddy with a bunch of Fletcher's guys of the time - Chu, Buster Bailey, Sid Catlett, etc. "Blues in C Sharp Minor" is a masterpiece.

[fasstrack]

Did a search and couldn't find a thread like this. If there has been one, it's worth doing again.

Name a favorite session or record by Roy Eldridge. Doesn't have to be your favorite or one you consider to be his best (that would be an impossible task, anyway). Just post a recording that you'd like to bring to the attention of fellow members.

No box sets, please. If you do list something from a box, just make it a single recording session or a single LP that might have been made up of more than one session.

I'll start with one that I've just listened to twice: the 1955 Session with Benny Carter which was released on Verve as The Urbane Jazz of Roy Eldridge-Benny Carter.

Everyone involved - Roy, Benny, pianist Bruce McDonald, John Simmons, and Alvin Stoller sounds like they were having a great time. Roy is on fire, and his enthusiasm seems to spur Benny into stepping out a bit more than usual. The rhythm section is excellent - perhaps Roy's enthusiasm carried over into everyone's playing.

I was going to pick out some favorite moments or tracks, but this record is so consistantly fine that it's pointless to try and do that.

I wasn't familiar with this recording until I heard it on the Eldridge Mosaic box. It's another reason that I'm thankful for Mosaic and, obviously, Roy Eldridge.

I hope that others will add to this thread. If so, I look forward to seeing what may come up.

I like the one where they did a jokey 'false start' that made the record seem like it was skipping. I love the entertainment aspect of the swing era cats along with the virtuousity. They were real showmen. These kids nowadays.... I liked the Live at the Arcadia Ballroom. He recorded so much you can't really go wrong, but live is always best IMO. That's when you know where someone's really at, sans editing or other techno help.

[Big Al]

The sessions mentioned above by brownie & Larry are my favorites, as I first heard them on a wonderful Verve 2-LP reissue called DALE'S WAIL. Jo Jones swings like a bad muthashutyomouth! Wish he'd been on more tracks.

Roy and Diz also, ESPECIALLY on "Blue Moon" when the mutes come flying off halfway thru the track and the playing goes careening off into the stratosphere! I'm surprised the studio didn't burn down as a result of this track!

(Edited because I didn't realize there was a second page to this thread, which answered the question that was previously here.)

Edited December 6, 2011 by Big Al

[Big Beat Steve]

My pick is:

Roy Eldridge - Heckler's Hop - Hep

This cd includes material when Roy was with Gene Krupa's band, Chu Berry's group and tracks under his own name.

The 22 tracks all date between 1936 and 1939.

Seconded!

He has a "bite" there that somehow is mising (maybe MUST be missing) from carefully produced LP-length sessions of the 50s. Not that these 50s recordings would be bad at all - on the contary (in fact the above post has spurred me on to give that "Urbane Jazz" session for a spin), but there are moments (such as in this case) when the 78rpm-length confines really are an advantage for studio sessions as they "condense" the music into its most intense "essence".

My close second in this would be "Roy Eldridge at the Arcadia Ballroom" (Jazz Archives JA-14) - live recordings from 1939.

Edited December 6, 2011 by Big Beat Steve