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Thursday, February 28, 2008
Jazz bassist and bandleader John Kirby had come up through Fletcher Henderson and Chick Webb's big bands in the 1930's.
He founded his own tightly swinging sextet around 1937.
With original trumpeter Charlie Shavers, that group had great success into the early 1940's.
Several personnel changes occurred during the course of
World War II. 1945 found Kirby leading a septet with only himself and clarinetist Buster Bailey remaining from the original lineup.
That year also found him recording with a new label.
Within the next couple of years, Asch records would transform
into the legendary Folkways Records label.
Personnel on these tracks:
John Kirby - bass
Emmett Berry - trumpet
Roger "Ram" Ramirez - piano
Bill Beason - drums
Buster Bailey - clarinet
Budd Johnson - tenor sax
George Johnson - alto sax
Listen to:
John Kirby and Orchestra -
K.C. Caboose
(Asch Records 78, circa 1945)
(click for audio)
Listen to:
John Kirby and Orchestra -
J.K. Special
(Asch Records 78, circa 1945)
(click for audio)
Listen to:
John Kirby and Orchestra -
920 Special
(Asch Records 78, circa 1945)
(click for audio)
Listen to:
John Kirby and Orchestra -
Maxine Dengoza
(Asch Records 78, circa 1945)
(click for audio)
- More info about these sessions can be found at an AllMusic.Com review of a
(sadly! now out-of-print) Kirby retrospective CD released by the Classics label.
