Wynton Kelly & Cecil Payne Live

[king ubu]

Well, Collectables did lots of Atlantic and some Columbia material that wasn't that well-served by the labels' own outlets (Eddie Harris on both, for one, I also have a bunch of Ray Bryant discs on the label). At least later ones (prob. from around 2000 on?) were properly licensed (or at least stated so on the booklets), they also used original liner notes most of the time, but were always a bit shoddy on info).

I'm not sure if there's really all that much of a mystery to uncover there - maybe in the early days there is, but somehow this never bothered me, to me, from when I got involved (mid/late 90s) they always seemed to be a somewhat cheapo/weird but official outlet, at least with respect to the stuff I was interested in ... this also includes Slide Hampton and Art Farmer's Atlantic albums, plenty of Mose Allison (Atlantic and Warner, I think), the Atlantics by Hank Crawford, Ellingtons two "All Star Road Bands" (great stuff!), at least some of Bill Evans on Warner ...

[JSngry]

and then there's...

 

[mhatta]

I recently got a used CD cheap from Amazon Japan. Some thoughts.

I don't know so much about Cecil Payne's style, but I am pretty sure that the pianist is Wynton Kelly. I also think the drummer is Charli Persip. The trumpeter is boppish on the uptempo and a bit older style on the ballads, kind of like Clark Terry. I have no idea about bassist, possibly Ron Carter?  I think they are all seasoned pros, very skilled ones.

I think it may be a broadcast recording from a small club (Monday jam session nights from Birdland?), not a large venue.  Perhaps one from the Boris Rose collection? I think the end of the song is cut off because of the Symphony Sid announcements there.

The sound quality is no good, but the performance itself is not bad (although for some reason there is a track with only a woman's voice speaking).  I think it's unusual to see Wynton play Confirmation (although a Seattle performance was recently unearthed); the solo on A Night In Tunisia (labeled as Kelly's Rhythm) is especially good.