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Monday, February 1, 2010

The Complete 1971 Pasadena Jazz Party Volume I

This recording is a real jewel I discovered not long ago in a usenet group. Not personally digitized and not sure of the source, but it sounds great. A lot of big names on this recording.

"The Blue Angel Jazz Club hosted an annual jazz party in Pasadena for a number of years. This two-record set contains highlights from the 1971 party, of which there are quite a few. Trumpeter Clark Terry steals the show with his lively trumpet in "The Theme" and hilarious blues vocals in his original "My Gal." Joe Williams makes his presence known with a powerful reading of Duke Ellington's infrequently performed "Rocks in My Bed," though he wraps it with a rather funny request for the location of the restroom. Flip Phillips' lush tenor sax is showcased in "Nuages," while trombonist Carl Fontana wraps the album with an exciting take of "Limehouse Blues." Among the other stars present are Jimmy Rowles, Peanuts Hucko, Sonny Criss, Herb Ellis, Red Norvo, and Harry "Sweets" Edison, to name only a few. The excellent engineering gives the listener a front-row seat. Sold via mail order and during the annual jazz parties." (Allmusic.com)

Here is the blurb from the back cover:

Breathes there a jazz lover with soul so dead that he has never to himself has said, "Boy, wouldn't it be great if I had a big living room with a good piano and could invite a bunch of my favorite jazz musicians over for a bash!"(?)

If you had done so, you certainly would have wanted to have the family tape-deck turning to capture the magic moments.

Well, this is exactly what the Blue Angel Jazz Club is all about, and these records are their souvenirs of what must have been a whale of a party!

The Blue Angels, for those of you who haven't heard, are a group of business and professional men with a scattering of professionals from the fields of music, radio, television, recording and advertising, who know and love jazz enough to pool their efforts for an annual marathon blast at which they invite not a few but 20 or more of their jazz favorites for a day of splendid music and frolic.

Professional equipment is brought in and the best of what happens is preserved on an annual set of high quality records like these.

How do these differ from any other live night spot location recordings? Well. to begin with, the artists are chosen because they admire and want to play with and for one another. Sometimes they are old friends and sometimes they have admired each other from afar over the years.

For another thing, musicians behave differently with a small audience of close friends than they might in a larger club facing the general public. Just as you might expect, they are more relaxed and the audience is more polite, more attentive and quite a bit more considerate as regards background noise.

And finally, the musicians play what they like and what their friends like with no commercial considerations involved. The editors simply pick the things that seem most appealing, and most memorable.

Do we think that these records will burn the varnish off record counters all over the country? Not at all. The records are souvenirs for the Blue Angels. For a!' others they simply serve as a reminder that living, breathing jazz music is very much alive and better than ever. We want you to organize a live jazz party of your own, or to go out and hear your favorite jazzmen and support them in any way you can.
 You might call this record a public service message on behalf of live music. We hope you'll enjoy what you hear and join us in preserving a truly American art form.

And the lineup, wow:

THE RED NORVO TRIO
HARRY "SWEETS" EDISON, trumpet
CARL FONTANA, trombone
JIMMY ROWLES, piano
CLARK TERRY, trumpet & flugelhorn
FLIP PHILLIPS, tenor sax
NICK FATOOL, drums
PEANUTS HUCKO, clarinet
MONTY BUDWIG, bass
SONNY CRISS, alto sax
MARVIN ASH, piano
BOB HAVENS, trombone
ROSS TOMPKINS, piano
DONALD BAILEY, drums
BOB HIGGINS, trumpet
RAY LEATHERWOOD, bass
HERB ELLIS, guitar
JAKE HANNA, drums
JOHN GUERIN, drums
and vocals by
JOE WILLIAMS, CLARK TERRY and LOU NORMS

Track Listing:

BAJC 510
SIDE ONE

KEEPIN' OUT OF MISCHIEF NOW (Waller-Razaf) Mayfair Music ASCAP
Ash, Leatherwood, Fatool, Higgins, Hucko and Havens

RUNNIN' WILD (Gibbs-Grey-Wood) Feist ASCAP
Red Norvo (V), Lloyd Ellis (G), Monk Montgomery (B)

EMILY (Mercer-Mandel) Miller Music ASCAP
Ross Tompkins, Monty Budwig, John Guerin

SIDE TWO

MEDLEY: Someone to watch over me (Gershwin) New World Music
Willow Weep for me (Ann Rondell) Bourne
Easter Parade (Berlin) Irving Berlin Music Co.
Body and Soul (Green-Heyman-Sour) Harms (all ASCAP)
Edison-Phillips-Criss-Ellis-Rowles-Budwig-Guerin-Fontana

BLAKEY'S THEME (Art Blakey) pub. unknown
Terry, Criss, Tompkins, Budwig, Bailey

TISHOMINGO BLUES (Spencer Williams) Marla ASCAP
Marvin Ash, Higgins, Havens, Hucko, Leatherwood, Fatool


BAJC 511
SIDE ONE

ROCKS IN MY BED (Ellington) Robbins Music ASCAP
Joe Williams with Edison, Criss, Ellis, Rowles, Budwig, Montgomery Phillips, Hanna

STEALIN' APPLES (Waller-Razaf) American Academy, ASCAP
Hucko, Norvo, Tompkins, Guerin, Leatherwood

SIDE TWO

MY GAL (Clark Terry) Pastel Music BMI
Clark Terry (tpt. & vocal) with Criss, Budwig, Tompkins, Bailey

DON'T TAKE YOUR LOVE FROM ME (Nemo) indano-Mogull
Lou Norris, vocal with Rowles, Ellis, Phillips, Edison, Budwig, Montgomery, Hanna

NUAGES (Ageron-Reinhardt) Francis, Day & Hunter ASCAP
Flip Phillips with same personnel as "Love" above.

LIMEHOUSE BLUES (Furber-Braham) Harms ASCAP
Carl Fontana with Ash, Leatherwood, Hanna, Higgins and Hucko

Recorded during live performance at the University Club of Pasadena, November 20, 1971

Download Link: Part 1, Part 2.

A selection of other recordings featuring the above artists:
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