Jimmy’s Idea
Take Me Back Baby
I Don’t Know Why
Avenue C
Step In Fetch It
Hob Nail Boogie
I Never Knew*
Jumping At The Woodside*
San Jose*
Tush*
Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone*
It’s Sand Man*
Jumpin’ At Ten.*
Theme: One O’Clock Jump*
Ed Lewis, Emmet Berry, Eugene Young, Harry
Edison (trumpet), Ted Donnelly, George Mathews,
Eli Robinson (trombone), Buddy Tate, Paul
Gonsalves (tenor saxophone), Elman ‘Rudy’
Rutherford (alto and baritone saxophones),
Preston Love (alto saxophone, clarinet), Count
Basie (piano), Freddy Green (guitar) Rodney
Richardson (bass), Shadow Wilson (drums),
Ann Moore, Jimmy Rushing (vocals); * add Dicky
Wells (trombone), Lucky Thompson, Illinois
Jacquet (tenor saxophone).
Recorded 1946, Avadon Ballroom, Los Angeles,
California; * 1946, Services Concert, Los
Angeles, California.
During the mid-forties, the
Basie band underwent many changes of personnel,
some of them due to key figures (such as Buck
Clayton and Jack Washington) being called
up for military service and others as a consequence
of the hard times the whole big band movement
was beginning to encounter. The band heard
on these recordings includes both older (Freddy
Green, Buddy Tate) and fairly new (Snooky
Young, Illinois Jacquet, Rudy Rutherford)
faces.
Complete with period radio
announcements, these broadcasts give a thoroughly
atmospheric sound picture of the band at work
outside the recording studio, playing material
both familiar and unfamiliar. They open with
an arrangement by Jimmy Mundy and it is clear
at once that the band has all the rhythmic
punch one might expect from a Basie orchestra
fuelled by the everlasting Freddy Green and
the admirable Shadow Wilson. Most of the tracks
are very short, but many find room for telling
solo contributions from such as snooky Young,
Dicky Wells, Eli Robinson, Paul Gonsalves
and Rudy Rutherford (on clarinet). And, of
course, from the leader himself. There are
vocals by the marvellous Jimmy Rushing and
the rather less interesting Ann Moore.
Highlights include a fiercely
swinging Avenue C, with Gonsalves in
full flow and the brass section a model of
controlled power; some lovely contributions
by the Kid from Red Bank, William Basie on
Step In Fetch It and Hob Nail Boogie;
a fine version of Jumping at the Woodside,
which never seems to lose its freshness; Snooky
Youmg’s work on San Jose; the interjections
by Dicky Wells (or is it Eli Robinson?) on
Tush; Rushing’s Please Don’t Talk
About Me When I’m Gone, authoritatively
good-humoured as always and beautifully complemented
by soloists and full-band alike. Shadow Wilson’s
work at the drums is a joy throughout (not
that he takes a single solo). But, in a sense,
the real ‘star’ of the proceedings is the
band as a whole, since so much of the ensemble
playing has passion, power, energy – and just
enough discipline.
The sound quality on the
tracks from the Avadon Ballroom leaves the
rhythm section rather indistinct, so that
one feels it more than one hears it. The sound
quality on the tracks from the Services Concert
is generally better, and a little more detailed.
The playing time is very
short, but what we have is very enjoyable,
and any admirers of the Basie band who don’t
already own these recordings will surely want
to acquire them.
Glyn Pursglove
CD Reviews
SUBMARINE DSOY694 [41:04] 
