Johnny Keating -- "Swinging Scots"

[Larry Kart]

Bought this album when it came out back in 1957, when I heard it a record store and liked it. Then it went away, to linger very faintly in the memory, and now it's back in my hands and head, thanks to the Ronnie Ross compilation depicted below.  (Funny BTW how you recall every note of a solo or a chart you haven't heard in 60 years just as you hear those notes again.) In any case this is a perhaps surprisingly close to superb neo-Basie album that features, as the title suggests, British jazz musicians of Scottish origin, many of them then-members of the Ted Heath Band. Keating's warm, relaxed writing is quite something IMO; check out this track:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=johnny+keating+headin+north

The soloists are quite good and quite individual: baritone saxophonist Ross, trombonist George Chisholm, tenormen Duncan Lamont and Tommy Whittle (somewhat Ammons-like at times), and no less than four top-drawer trumpeters -- Jimmy Deuchar, Eddie Blair, Bobby Pratt, and Tommy McQuater. Speaking of which, if anyone has this album in its original form (it was on Dot in the U.S.), I'd love to know the solo order. Deuchar is easy to recognize, as are Lamont and Whittle,  and I think I can identify the fat-toned Pratt, but I'd especially  like to know when Blair and McQuater solo.

 

[sidewinder]

Glad to report that Duncan Lamont is still doing gigs. He also has this nice release inspired by music he recorded for a cult 1970s kids TV show.

 

George Chisholm used to crop up on TV variety shows a lot too, back in the day.

[JSngry]

Refresh my memory, please, but did Johnny Keating end up like Ted Heath and making a lot of MOR records of minimal "jazz interest"? Not that there's anything wrong with that, people need to eat. and of course, I could be wrong?

[Larry Kart]

I believe so, but I didn't keep track of him after this album, nor was I a follower of Heath.

[Teasing the Korean]

Why would anyone want a John Keating album with a guy in a kilt, when you can have this?

 

[sidewinder]

16 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Why would anyone want a John Keating album with a guy in a kilt, when you can have this?

 

Yep, most of his later stuff was on those Studio 2/Phase 4 MOR releases.

[Larry Kart]

Speaking of the brilliant Bobby Pratt (on "Swinging Scots" he sounds at times like  a cross between Bobby Hackett and Conrad Gozzo), let this be a lesson to us all:
 

http://henrybebop.co.uk/bpratt.htm

On the other side of coin, there's Tommy McQuater:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/jan/26/obituaries.mainsection

[Teasing the Korean]

 

[crisp]