Limited Edition 180 Gram Vinyl from Pure PleasureRecords! Audiophile Re-Mastering! Starring Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Henry”Red” Allen, The Jimmy Giuffre Trio, Jimmy Rushing, Mal Waldron & Featuring ManyMore!
“The Sound of Jazz” is a 1957 edition of the CBS television series Seven LivelyArts, and was one of the first major programs featuring jazz to air on Americannetwork television.
The one-hour program aired on Sunday, December 8, 1957 over CBS Televisionbetween 5 and 6 in the afternoon. The show was hosted by New York Herald-Tribunemedia critic John Crosby, directed by Jack Smight, and produced by RobertHerridge. Jazz writers Nat Hentoff and Whitney Balliett were the primary musicconsultants.
The Sound of Jazz brought together 28 leading musicians from the swing eraincluding Count Basie, Lester Young, Ben Webster, Billie Holiday, Jo Jones andColeman Hawkins; the Chicago style players of the same era, like Henry “Red”Allen, Vic Dickenson, and Pee Wee Russell; and younger ‘modernist’ musicianssuch as Jimmy Giuffre. These players played separately with their compatriots(see the song list below), but also joined to combine various styles in onegroup, such as Mal Waldron’s group and the group backing Billie Holiday on “Fineand Mellow”.
The show’s performance of “Fine and Mellow” reunited Billie Holiday with herestranged long-time friend Lester Young for the final time. Jazz critic NatHentoff, who was involved in the show, recalled that during rehearsals, theykept to opposite sides of the room. Young was very weak, and Hentoff told him toskip the big band section of the show and that he could sit while performing inthe group with Holiday.
During the performance of “Fine and Mellow”, Webster played the firstsolo. Hentoff remembered:
“Lester got up, and he played the purest blues I have ever heard, and [he andHoliday] were looking at each other, their eyes were sort of interlocked, andshe was sort of nodding and halfsmiling. It was as if they were bothremembering what had been whatever that was. And in the control room we wereall crying. When the show was over, they went their separate ways.”
Within three years, both Young and Holiday had died.
Features:
180 Gram Vinyl
Limited Edition
Pressed at Pallas in Germany
Audiophile Re-Mastering
Re-mastering by Ray Staff at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London
Musicians:
Ben Webster, tenor sax (Mal Waldron All-Star)
Billie Holiday, vocals
Coleman Hawkins, tenor sax (Henry “Red” Allen All-Star), (Mal Waldron All-Star),(Count Basie All-Star)
Count Basie, piano (Count Basie All-Star)
Danny Barker, guitar (Mal Waldron All-Star)
Dickie Wells, trombone (Count Basie All-Star)
Doc Cheatham, trumpet (Mal Waldron All-Star), (Count Basie All-Star)
Earl Warren, saxophone (Count Basie All-Star)
Eddie Jones, bass (Count Basie All-Star)
Emmet Berry, trumpet (Count Basie All-Star)
Frank Rehak, trombone (Count Basie All-Star)
Freddy Green, guitar (Count Basie All-Star)
Harry Carney, saxophone (Count Basie All-Star)
Henry “Red” Allen, vocals, trumpet
Jim Atlas, bass (Mal Waldron All-Star), (Mal Waldron All-Star), (Jimmy GiuffreTrio)
Jim Hall, guitar (Jimmy Giuffre Trio)
Jimmy Giuffre, baritone, clarinet, tenor sax
Jimmy Rushing, vocals (Count Basie All-Star)
Jo Jones, drums (Henry “Red” Allen All-Star), (Mal Waldron All-Star), (CountBasie All-Star)
Joe Newman, trumpet (Count Basie All-Star)
Lester Young, tenor sax (Mal Waldron All-Star)
Mal Waldron, piano, piano soloist
Milt Hinton, bass (Henry “Red” Allen All-Star)
Nat Pierce, piano, piano soloist (Henry “Red” Allen All-Star)
Pee Wee Russell, clarinet (Henry “Red” Allen All-Star)
Rex Stewart, trumpet (Henry “Red” Allen All-Star)
Roy Eldridge, trumpet (Count Basie All-Star)
Vic Dickenson, trombone (Henry “Red” Allen All-Star), (Mal Waldron All-Star),(Count Basie All-Star)
Selections:
Side I:
1. Wild Man Blues – Henry “Red” Allen All-Stars
2. Rosetta – Henry “Red” Allen All-Stars
3. Fine and mellow – Billie Holiday, Mal Waldron All-Stars
4. Blues – Pee Wee Russell, Jimmy Giuffre, Danny Barker, Jo Jones
Side II:
1. I Left My Baby – Count Basie All-Stars
2. The Train and The River The Jimmy Giuffre Trio
3. Nervous – Mal Waldron
4. Dickies Dream – Count Basie All-Stars
