CHUCK REDD/ROBERT REDD, WHEN REDD IS BLUE (Noteworthy 4093) 60:31 min.
Bood Dah; Lullaby of the Leaves; Flirt Bird; Limehouse Blues; Basically Betts; When Redd is Blue; Like Old Times; Blues for Night People; Sweet and Lovely; Trouble in Mind; Rocking Chair.

Reviewed by Will Shapira

The first thing that caught my ear listening to vibraphonist Chuck Redd is that he seems to be a disciple of my all-time favorite vibist, Milt Jackson, now deceased as are all other members of The Modern Jazz Quartet in which "Bags" performed for decades. However, Redd is a swinging cat, not a copycat, though he pads his mallets much the way Jackson did and achieves a lovely, soft sound (not the off-putting clangor some vibists favor), and his use of the sustain is exemplary. Also like Jackson, Redd has a strong command of the blues, likes to lag behind the beat at times and interpolates phrases from other songs with wit. The sum total of this album is a first-rate mixture of originals and jazz anthems.

Redd is accompanied here by brother Robert, piano; Harry Allen, tenor sax; Steve Abshire (a Noteworthy mainstay) guitar; Tommy Cecil, bass, and Howard Curtis, drums. Together, they blend into a well-drilled, hot mainstream swing band that fans of any age and genre preference cannot help but admire and enjoy. Allen has a beautiful tone and offers many gutsy solos while Abshire, Cecil and Curtis provide solid rhythm and the occasional brief but tasteful solo. My particular favorite is a catchy Latin version of "Limehouse Blues." Highly recommended.

This CD can be ordered from www.noteworthyjazz.com or www.cdbaby.com for $15.

CHECK REDD REMEMBERS BARNEY KESSEL: HAPPY ALL THE TIME (Arbors Jazz, ARCD 19314) 67:31 min.
Happy All the Time; Laura; Cry Me a River; On a Slow Boat to China; Tenderly; You're the One for Me; Love Is Here to Stay; Swedish Pastry; Sweet Baby; 64 Bars on Wilshire; Li'l Darlin'; Slow Burn.

Reviewed by Will Shapira

Boy, do I remember Barney Kessel! I recall several memorable concerts in my hometown of Minneapolis and many great recordings, perhaps the best on Contemporary with Ray Brown and Shelly Manne, "The Poll Winners" series. Chuck Redd evidently remembers Barney in the same way. The liner notes tell us Barney was "Happy All the Time," Redd's personal tribute composition, and that Kessel also was a long-time mentor to Redd. Without question, much of the Kessel ethos has been absorbed by his protégé.

Redd's collaborators obviously are most happy fellas, too: brother Robert Redd and Monte Alexander, piano; Howard Alden and Gene Bertonicini, guitar; Hassan Shakur, bass, and the more modern of the two Jeff Hamiltons on drums, plus Chuck on drums on two tracks.

Besides Chuck Redd's eponymous leadoff song, five Kessel compositions are included; the rest are more or less familiar standards. Each is performed with the intensity, sensitivity and mastery that characterized every performance and recording I've heard by the object of their affection. Men, you have done Barney Kessel proud, especially guitarists Alden and Bertoncini. Highly recommended.

Next, I'd like either superb label (Noteworthy or Arbors) do something with Chuck Redd that the late vibraphonist Cal Tjader used to do in person -- pay tribute to his favorite vibraphonists.

This CD can be ordered from www.arborsrecords.com or call (800)299-1930 or (727) 566-0571.

THE INFLUENCE OF BIX BEIDERBECKE, VOL. ONE USA, VOL. TWO EUROPE (Jass Masters JMS 1001-CD1)
VOL. ONE: You'll Never Get to Heaven with Those Eyes; Where's My Sweetie Hiding?; Doo Wacka Doo; Cataract Rag Blues; Riverboat Shuffle; Tiger Rag; The Co-Ed; Davenport Blues; A Good Man Is Hard to Find; Liza; Since My Best Gal Turned Me Down; Why Do I Love You?; Crazy Rhythm; Hula Girl; Out Where the Blues Begin; Wedding Bells; The Eyes of Texas; Broadway Rose; Alabammy Snow; When a Woman Loves a Man; Papa's Gone; No Trumps; Little Did I Know; Jazz Me Blues; The Blue Room.
VOL. TWO: Tiger Rag; Riverboat Shuffle; Somebody Said; Sugar; There's a Cradle in Caroline; Dance, Little Lady; Some Haunting Tune; I'm Glad; Nobody's Fault but Your Own; Louisiana; Oh! What a Night to Love; Forget me Not; A Dicky-Bird Told Me So; Gregorology; In the Moonlight; South Sea Rose; Every Day Away from You; The Song of the Dawn; I'm Singing My Way Around the World; A Miss Is as Good as a Mile; Minns Du?; A Ship without a Sail; Kalua; Follow a Star; With My Guitar and You; Whispering.

Reviewed by William J. Schafer

This is a thesis-driven 2-CD set that juxtaposes recordings of Bix-like cornetists from the 1920s and early 1930s and poses a quiz on them -- Bix or No? or Bixlike or Not? Most of the soloists sound at least a bit like the Davenport Demon, but I doubt if any are unlabeled Bix masterworks. The collection uncovers several interesting ideas: 1) a lot of mid-'20s cornet/trumpet players in the U.S. sounded a good bit like Bix, or vice versa; 2) a lot of European bands began assiduously absorbing and reproducing a generalized "Bix sound" that was a sort of subgenre, apart from cornet soloists.

Bix was clearly a startling phenomenon during his lifetime, known (especially) by college-boy jazz addicts (think Hoagy Carmichael) across the country as an "underground" musical hero, a wild boy with a horn and a bottle of rotgut. A few horn players clearly took up his style -- Red Nichols and Jimmy McPartland the best and best-known. His influence spread and swelled after his early death and his slashing, ripping but poignantly lyrical style quickly became a handy language for many discerning hornmen -- from John Nesbitt and Rex Stewart to Johnny Wiggs, Doc Evans and Bunny Berigan -- and, of course, spread like a benign virus through the trad jazz revival of the 1940s and '50s.

The sensationalizing of his life story supercharged by Dorothy Baker's melodramatic novel Young Man with a Horn made him (by name at least) a superstar after his death. The collection of U.S. sides here shows that a prevalent white lyrical trumpet style shaped up in the mid-1920s, sponsored by first-rate hot dance bands like Jean Goldkette's units, the California Ramblers, etc., and Bix was the epitome of this style, but by no means unique. Of the many trumpet-cornet players here, Manny Klein may be the most overtly Bixlike -- a great mimic. But most of these sidemen were not especially Bix-obsessed. Cornetist Bob Mayhew of the Hal Kemp band sounds much like Bix ("So you're the son of a bitch I'm meant to sound like," Bix said to him) and played beside him, as did Sterling Bose. But none of this adds up to a real Bix landslide, at least during his short lifetime.

October 2008 issue | © 2008 The Mississippi Rag

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