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JOHN KIRBY and his Onyx Club Boys The Biggest Little Band in the Land; his 28 finest, 1937-45
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RETROSPECTIVE RTR 4312 [77:32]
1 Undecided
2 Rehearsin’ For A Nervous Breakdown
3 Pastel Blue
4 From A Flat To C
Maxine Sullivan and “her Orchestra”:
5 Loch Lomond
John Kirby and his Onyx Club Boys:
6 Effervescent Blues
John Kirby and his Orchestra, with Nat Gonella:
7 Jeepers Creepers
John Kirby and his Onyx Club Boys:
8 Anitra’s Dance
9 Sweet Georgia Brown
10 Front And Center
11 Royal Garden Blues
12 Opus Five
13 Blue Skies
14 Rose Room
15 Jumpin’ In The Pump Room
16 Blues Petite
17 Chloe
18 Can’t We Be Friends?
19 Sextette
20 Beethoven Riffs On
21 Close Shave
22 It’s Only A Paper Moon
23 My Ideal (With Maxine Sullivan)
24 No Blues At All
25 St. Louis Blues
John Kirby and his Orchestra:
26 Nine-Twenty Special
27 At The Crossroads
28 Mop, Mop!
John Kirby and orchestras
Recorded 1947-45
With a front line of Charlie Shavers, Buster Bailey and Russell Procope it would be hard not to enjoy the tight, integrated well-arranged chamber jazz of John Kirby and his Onyx Club Boys. Its tag-line, The Biggest Little Band in the Land was, for once, no idle ad man’s boast.
Much of the sheer vitality of the band was engineered by the boys in the back room – Kirby himself on bass, pianist Billy Kyle, much later to join Louis Armstrong, and O’Neil Spencer, whose unostentatious but immaculate drumming ensured something of a dream rhythm section. In immaculate white jackets, this was not just a recording outfit but a working band, which set it apart from almost all other ensembles of its type. The repertoire it chose ranged from standards to ballads and to that somewhat bizarre vogue for Jazzing-the-Classics. Whatever they played, the sextet always turned out top-of-the-range performances for a variety of labels – they don’t seem to have been exclusive to any company, coming or going on a yearly basis, so you’ll find Deccas, Columbias, Vocalions, Okehs as well as a 1943 V-Disc.
Many of these tracks are so well-known as to defy renewed description, such as the perfect arrangement of Undecided, the sophisticated Pastel Blue, the jump classic From A Flat To C, and the kicking brio of Effervescent Blues (yes, indeed). The classical numbers began in May 1939 with Grieg’s Anitra’s Dance and continued with Donizetti and Beethoven – somewhat cruelly titled Beethoven Riffs On. The riffing, by the way, is on the slow movement of the Seventh Symphony. Incidentally one can hear the genesis of some Bop themes along the way; try the anticipations of the Salt Peanuts riff in Sweet Georgia Brown, for instance, or tune in to Charlie Shavers’ quite advanced Opus Five. The classic routine of the Jump Band is almost codified in Jumpin’ in the Pump Room.
Maxine Sullivan sang with the band. Therefore, Loch Lomond is here, but with a different personnel where Bailey, Kirby and Spencer are retained but the others replaced – mind you, the replacements were Frankie Newton, Pete Brown, Babe Russin and Claude Thornhill. She also sings My Ideal with that appealing tone of hers intact and here the backing is the regular band. The other interloper is visiting British trumpeter Nat Gonella who made a series of sides with the band. Here we have Jeepers Creepers, a track that is also on Retrospective’s Gonella disc. It’s not the most inventive example of Gonella’s trumpet playing in the session but it is buoyant. Gonella could certainly have enjoyed a place on the 52nd Street scene had he remained in New York. The V-Disc is from 1943 and shows a changed personnel, though the recording of Lecuona’s At the Crossroads shows Kirby hadn’t lost his thirst for (lighter) Classical offerings. Finally, shortly before the demise of the band, we hear Mop, Mop. Only the bass player now remains. The War was coming to an end and time was being called on the band and indeed on Kirby, who died in 1952 at only 43.
The notes are good, though not perhaps as exhaustive as usual when Digby Fairweather pens them, and the transfers smooth and efficient. This is a good selection from a great band.
Jonathan Woolf