Friday, June 22, 2018

Happy Feet Friday

Metronome was a music magazine that was published for 80 years before closing down in 1961. From the 1930s onward, the magazine focused on jazz, and in the 1940s and 1950s assembled all-star bands based on reader polls which recorded many classic jazz pieces. Here is a recording of "Bugle Call Rag" performed by a band that included, among others, Count Basie, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Goodman,Harry James, Cootie Williams, and one of my favorite trombone players, J.C. Higginbotham.

3 comments:

bruce said...

I can recognise most of them, including Basie's plink plink style. Great trombone.

My town library subscribed to Downbeat and as a teenager I read every issue. Especially liked to read Blindfold tests.

Paco said...

One of Basie's drummers (can't remember which one) once said of Basie "That man's the laziest piano player I've ever known", jokingly referring to Basie's typically spare style.

bruce said...

Haha, yes. But it was the birth of the cool (and the best way to be heard in Basie's big band). He played a few notes with authority.

Then Ahmad Jamal made a career out of sparse rhythmic piano, with Nat Cole - Get my kicks on Route 66. I loved that 60s cool jazz r&b sound.