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Jazz in Paris
Peanuts Holland
Buck Clayton
Charlie Singleton
GITANES 013 032-2
Crotchet  

There are three discrete sessions.

Session 1 : Buck Clayton

1. Buck's bon voyage
2. Fast bus soft
3. Please don't talk about me when I'm gone
4. Easy to Riff
5. Gift for the Club

Buck Clayton - Trumpet   Michel de Villiers - Tenor and Baritone  Andre Persiany - Piano   Jean-pierre Sasson - Guitar  Gerard Pochonet - Drums  
Recording November 1953.

Session 2 : Peanuts Holland

1. Flying home
2. That's my desire
3. It's wonderful
4. Blue feeling

Peanuts Holland -Trumpet   Guy Lafitte - Tenor   Geo Daley - Vibes   Jean-Claude Pelletier - Piano   Charlie Blareau - Bass   Jean-Babtiste "Mac Kac" Reilles - Drums
Recording 1954

Session 3 : Charlie Singleton

1. Lester leaps in
2. These foolish things
3. Purple sound
4. Lullaby of Birdland
5. Yesterdays
6. Blues a la Schola

Bernard Hulin - Trumpet   Charles Verstraete - Tenor   Charlie Singleton - Tenor   Jules Dupont - Piano   Eddie de Haas - Bass   Reggie Jackson - Drums  
Recording 1955

These recordings came about because the directors of Club Francais du Livre decided to go into the record business. Their plan was to record the top French musicians of the time, each session having an American visiting guest star. One suspects that the documentation of each session was sketchy, for instance there is an unlisted Bass player on the Buck Clayton set and there are other similar anomalies. This in no way detracts from the music, the Buck Clayton session is a classic of the great and often underrated Mainstream Trumpet Man. Michelle de Villiers acquits himself very well on both Tenor and Baritone and the rhythm section is clean and swinging. Andre Persiany is a class act on keyboards and it sounds like a session where everyone was enjoying themselves. 'Gift to the Club' turns out to be 'I've found a new baby', hardly a translation error!

On session 2 Peanuts Holland is the visiting star, he came to Paris in 1946 with Don Redman and stayed on in Europe, at the time of recording he was a Scandinavian resident. Flying Home has solos for everyone with Geo Daly doing the Lionel Hampton riffs. He also solos for most of That's My Desire. Peanuts Holland demonstrates his trumpet skills on S'Wonderful, Guy Lafitte is also well to the fore here with overtones of Coleman Hawkins. Blue Feeling is a lesser known Ellington composition, but it is easy to recognise the 'Dukal' style. Many musicians claim that Ellington tunes play themselves and I must confess his compositions are great favourites of mine. Holland is heard in a more restrained but effective mode in this one.

For those who don't know of him Charlie Singleton played with Lou Donaldson in New York, he came to Paris to play in Bill Coleman's Band. He has the sound you would expect from a Kansas City tenor man, big and round! There seems to be something odd about 'These Foolish Things' either Charlie Singleton changes his sound in the middle of this piece or there were two saxophone players!

Another very enjoyable release from the excellent value Jazz in Paris series from a time when jazz was sophisticated but not over complicated.

Don Mather

Don Mather is a saxophone player and Bandleader in Coventry