The Vintage Music Blog: Small Bands

Showing posts with label Small Bands. Show all posts

Sunday, November 17, 2024

Swing Groups 1931 To 1936 - various artists

1 The Benny Goodman Quartet– My Melancholy Baby

2 The Charleston Chasers– Beale Street Blues

3 Red Nichols And His Five Pennies– Fan It

4 Wingy Manone & His Orchestra– Never Had No Lovin'

5 Red Norvo And His Swing Sextet– Tomboy

6 Freddie Jenkins And His Harlem Seven– Toledo Shuffle

7 Bud Freeman And His Windy City Five– The Buzzard

8 The Mound City Blue Blowers– Muskrat Ramble

9 Gene Krupa's Swing Band*– Swing Is Here

10 Jimmie Noone And His New Orleans Band– The Blues Jumped A Rabbit

11 Mezz Mezzrow And His Swing Band– Mutiny In The Parlour

12 Barney Bigard And His Jazzopators*– Frolic Sam

13 Teddy Wilson And His Orchestra– Warmin' Up

14 Bunny Berigan & His Orchestra– Rhythm Saved The World

15 Fats Waller & His Rhythm– Paswonky

16 Jones-Smith Incorporated– Shoe Shiney Boy

Swing Groups 1931 To 1936

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Twelve piece “little big band” Swingadelic 8th album release "Bluesville"

The twelve piece “little big band” Swingadelic celebrates their 22nd anniversary with the release of their 8th CD, “Bluesville”. The band’s three previous CD’s on the ZOHO label were tributes to Duke Pearson, Allen Toussaint and Johnny Mercer. They continue to showcase their versatility on “Bluesville” with large ensemble versions of tunes by Ray Charles, Ruth Brown, Muddy Waters, Mose Allison, Count Basie and other artists. Ruth Brown's former tenor player, Bill Easley, is featured on track 2 and Mitch Woods is featured on Parchman Farm.

Swingadelic began in 1998 as the neo-swing movement was cresting. Upright bassist Dave Post gathered his jazz and blues playing friends together to play engagements at New York City's Supper Club, Swing 46 and Windows On The World, the former restaurant atop of the World Trade Center. As the swing scene waned the band was able to turn to swing dance groups, concerts, festivals, schools and private engagements to keep active.

Swingadelic has performed at Lincoln Center’s Mid-Summer Night Swing, NJPAC, and at many festivals, including Bele Chere (Ashville NC), MusikFest (Allentown PA) the CD 109 Jazz and Blues Festival (Red Bank, NJ) and the sanofi-aventis JazzFest (Madison NJ). The band plays over 100 dates per year and has traveled from Maine to Atlanta. They have maintained a residency for eight years at Swing 46 in NYC where it performs every other Monday as a ten piece "little big band." They have been recording for the ZOHO Music label since 2011. Swingadelic CDs have been in the JazzWeek Radio charts top thirty and garnered many critically acclaimed reviews in jazz publications such as Jazz Times and All About Jazz.

official website: www.Swingadelic.com

Marty's review: Swingadelic pump out big band style jump blues with a modern twist on their latest release "Bluesville". Showcasing tunes from the masters of the blues of the 50's and 60's, this album is upbeat, danceable, sleazy and just downright fun!

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Rhythm of the Day...Red Nichols and His Five Pennies

Ernest Loring "Red" Nichols (May 8, 1905 – June 28, 1965) was an American jazz cornettist, composer, and jazz bandleader.

Over his long career, Nichols recorded in a wide variety of musical styles, and critic Steve Leggett describes him as "an expert cornet player, a solid improviser, and apparently a workaholic, since he is rumored to have appeared on over 4,000 recordings during the 1920's alone."

Nichols had good technique, could read music, and easily got session and studio work. In 1926 he and Miff Mole began a prodigious stint of recording with a variety of bands, most of them known as "Red Nichols and His Five Pennies". Very few of these groups were actually quintets; the name was simply a pun on "Nickel", since there were "five pennies" in a nickel. "That was only a number we tied in with my name", Nichols once explained. "We'd generally have eight or nine [musicians], depending on who was around for the session and what I was trying to do."

Nichols recorded over 100 sides for the Brunswick label under that band name. He also recorded under a number of other names, among them, The Arkansas Travelers, The California Red Heads, The Louisiana Rhythm Kings, The Charleston Chasers, Red and Miff’s Stompers, and Miff Mole and His Little Molers. Some weeks, Nichols and his bands were making 10–12 records a week.

His recordings of the late 1920's are regarded as the most progressive jazz of the period in both concept and execution, with widely-ranging harmonies and a balanced ensemble.