The Big Bands at the Savoy, Vol. 1 (1999)

In 1999 Storyville dredged up an album's worth of vintage radio broadcasts from the Savoy Ballroom, "the home of happy feet, 'way up in Harlem" as the announcer says. The first nine tracks, recorded on February 12,1945, feature either the 15-piece Cootie Williams Orchestra or a scaled down version of the band in the form of a sextet including up-and-coming saxophonists Charlie Parker and Sam "The Man" Taylor. By this time Bud Powell had left the Williams Orchestra and had been replaced by pianist Arnold Jarvis. A supportive ... Read More

In 1999 Storyville dredged up an album's worth of vintage radio broadcasts from the Savoy Ballroom, "the home of happy feet, 'way up in Harlem" as the announcer says. The first nine tracks, recorded on February 12,1945, feature either the 15-piece Cootie Williams Orchestra or a scaled down version of the band in the form of a sextet including up-and-coming saxophonists Charlie Parker and Sam "The Man" Taylor. By this time Bud Powell had left the Williams Orchestra and had been replaced by pianist Arnold Jarvis. A supportive ally of innovative young musicians with exciting new ideas, Cootie Williams was himself a pioneering jazz musician who had replaced Bubber Miley in the Duke Ellington Orchestra some 15 years earlier. So too was Panamanian pianist, arranger and bandleader Luis Russell, whose amazing career had included collaborations with King Oliver, Louis Armstrong and Henry Red Allen. Russell's Orchestra as heard on a radio broadcast from November 7, 1945 sounds almost as modern as Cootie's, and considerably better than it would a few years later when crooners hogged the microphone to the point where instrumental solos became uncommon. The Luis Russell Orchestra heard on this night was a feisty swinging big band that went over big with the jitterbugs out on the dancefloor of the world-famous Savoy Ballroom. ~ arwulf arwulf, Rovi Read Less

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1999, Storyville UPC: 717101206421 CD See All