One of Shorty Rogers's finest albums was available originally in the new 10-inch LP format or as a pair of extended-play 45s. Cool and Crazy dates back 70 years to March and April of 1953 and features a slam-bang band at the dawn of West Coast jazz. Rogers' compositions and arrangements are glorious, with loads of contrapuntal lines, and his band delivers enormous instrumental punch.
His orchestra included: Shorty Rogers, Conrad Gozzo, Maynard Ferguson, Tom Reeves and John Howell (tp); Milt Bernhart, John Halliburton and Harry Betts (tb); John Graas (fhr); Gene Englund (tu); Art Pepper and Bud Shank (as); Jimmy Giuffre (ts,cl); Bob Cooper (bar); Marty Paich (p); Curtis Counce (b) and Shelly Manne (d).
The tracks are Coop de Graas, Infinity Promenade, Short Stop, Boar-Jibu, Contours, Tale of an African Lobster, Chiquito Loco and The Sweetheart of Sigmund Freud. The music was recorded at RCA Victor's Music Center of the World between NBC Studios and the Brown Derby on North Vine Street in Hollywood.
For me, there are only a handful of albums that sound like Hollywood in the early 1950s, when West Coast jazz was emerging and you could hear the elation of musicians in the recordings. In Los Angeles, they could earn a living on their own in recording studios; they no longer had to go on grueling big-band tours; the weather was perfect year-round; the beach was nearby; they could afford a nice house in the San Fernando Valley; and the highways were new and relatively free of congestion. All of this is baked into the sound of Cool and Crazy.
Here's Shorty Rogers's Cool and Crazy without ad interruptions...
His orchestra included: Shorty Rogers, Conrad Gozzo, Maynard Ferguson, Tom Reeves and John Howell (tp); Milt Bernhart, John Halliburton and Harry Betts (tb); John Graas (fhr); Gene Englund (tu); Art Pepper and Bud Shank (as); Jimmy Giuffre (ts,cl); Bob Cooper (bar); Marty Paich (p); Curtis Counce (b) and Shelly Manne (d).
The tracks are Coop de Graas, Infinity Promenade, Short Stop, Boar-Jibu, Contours, Tale of an African Lobster, Chiquito Loco and The Sweetheart of Sigmund Freud. The music was recorded at RCA Victor's Music Center of the World between NBC Studios and the Brown Derby on North Vine Street in Hollywood.
For me, there are only a handful of albums that sound like Hollywood in the early 1950s, when West Coast jazz was emerging and you could hear the elation of musicians in the recordings. In Los Angeles, they could earn a living on their own in recording studios; they no longer had to go on grueling big-band tours; the weather was perfect year-round; the beach was nearby; they could afford a nice house in the San Fernando Valley; and the highways were new and relatively free of congestion. All of this is baked into the sound of Cool and Crazy.
Here's Shorty Rogers's Cool and Crazy without ad interruptions...
This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved.
