Episode 287: Vocal Jazz Mix Tape From a Few Years Back.

Discovering Jazz

I've re-discovered a few old mix cassette tapes I made over the years. And I'm playing them.

This episode was inspired by one tape of mostly jazz vocalists--and mostly female, which I put together in 1988. What I realized in listening to it many years later is that it wasn't just the singing and even the song that made me want to record it onto the tape---but the terrific musicians who were backing the singer.

I'll make a list, in order, of the musicians playing on each track. Which isn't to say that the singers aren't also great; but so often those backup musicians go unhearalded. And I noticed the vast majority of these are on Mercury records.

1. Hank Jones, Ray Brown, and drummer Jimmie Smith.
2. Trumpet greats Clark Terry, Maynard Ferguson, and Clifford Brown---each taking a short solo. Along with Max Roach's drums.
3. Oscar Peterson and his trio with Herb Ellis and Ray Brown. And you'll be surprised who the singer is they are backing.
4. The Bill Evans Trio with Larry Bunker and a fine bass solo by Chuck Israels.
5. Charles Williams bass guitar really drives this one, as part of the Kirk Stuart Trio
6. Vancouverite Miles Black on piano and some great guitar from, I believe, Nanaimo's Pat Coleman
7. Acapella Vocals that sound like instruments backing up some lead vocalists on a Stevie Wonder tune
8. The smooth and flawless guitar work of Tuck Andress
9. Some unknown musicians for a rather obscure singer....about whom I can find virtually no information. 4
10. Count Basie Orchestra
11. Mundell Lowe's guitar and Blossom Dearie's piano, with Ray Brown (again) on bass and Ed Thigpen-drums
12. A self-taught Dutch guitarist name Wim Overgaauw. Also Pim Jacobs,Ruud Jacobs, and Kenny Clarke.
13. Shirley Horn on piano, with an orchestra led by Jimmy Jones
14. A Gil Evans arrangement, with a fine trombone solo by Jimmy Cleveland.

Singers include (not in any particular order) the likes of Dinah Washington, Blossom Dearie, Sarah Vaughan, Patti Cathcart, Ernestine Anderson, Christine Duncan, Helen Merrill, The Real Group. Oscar Peterson, Thelma Grayson, Monica Zetterlund, Joe Williams, Rita Reys, and Shirley Horn.