Thursday, November 28, 2019

Happy Feet Friday

Drummer Cozy Cole and his band perform “Nice and Cozy” (1944). Other personnel are Fred Norman (trombone), Johnny Guarnieri (piano), Ray Coniff and Lammar Wright (trumpet), Teddy Waters (guitar), Billy Taylor (bass).



Bonus video! Gene Krupa, Lionel Hampton and Chico Hamilton in a three-way drum competition from a 1958 TV broadcast.

5 comments:

bruce said...

I like Chico's lyrical approach, have a few of his later albums and been enjoying them for decades, good compositions and good band. Was a Paul Horn fan in the 70s and worked back through his lps to his start with Chico, who also gave Gabor Szabo his start, so an important figure leading to later styles (Santana even).

Did not realise that Hampton was a front rank drummer, knew him as vibraphonist.

bruce said...

Chico even gave Charles Lloyd his start. Lloyd is a very fluent and enjoyable sax player, got better with age unlike many. But get this, due to common interest in meditation (Paul Horn had that connection too) Charles Lloyd was with the Beach Boys during the 70s and can be heard on their songs.

Paco said...

Hampton was also an outstanding two-finger piano player (not unusual, considering his skills at the vibraphone). Thanks for the additional info on Chico Hamilton.

Jonah said...

Was that Lionel verbalizing his drumming? I read many years ago that Benny Goodman had a hell of a time stopping him from humming or singing while he played.

Paco said...

You may be right. Hampton did have a tendency to hum along with the music. One thing I like about his bands from the late 40s was the unrepressed exuberance of the musicians. The music would frequently be punctuated with shouts and laughter.