Given the misery in Los Angeles, I thought today's Backgrounder would cause us to take a moment and reflect on a period when the city and county were just coming into their own and to hope for the region's speedy return to its former glory.
Los Angeles was, is and will always be the world's epicenter of dreams, fame, sunshine and eternal youth. We need the homes, lives and that optimism leveled by fire to be rebuilt as soon as possible. We depend on Southern California to be a place of hope and possibility.
My Backgrounder today is classic West Coast jazz of the late 1940s, with its relaxed contrapuntal sound and upbeat feel. Jack Sheldon was a top West Coast jazz and session trumpeter starting in the 1950s and a favorite of arrangers such as Johnny Mandel and John Williams. His enormous appeal was his enormous talent, firm and straight-ahead tone, self-deprecating good cheer and reliability.
When Jack's Groove was released in 1962 on GNP Crescendo Records, it featured two different dynamic recording sessions. Side 1 was recorded in July 1957. The second side was recorded in March 1959. I'm guessing that the personnel on the first side was so busy with work that they couldn't regroup for the next date. So the LP lingered, half-fiinished, until it could finally be mopped up in 1959.
Now, here's the music (ignore the dates in the embedded clips):
Here's Side 1 (1957) without ad interruptions...
And here's Side 2 (1959)...
Los Angeles was, is and will always be the world's epicenter of dreams, fame, sunshine and eternal youth. We need the homes, lives and that optimism leveled by fire to be rebuilt as soon as possible. We depend on Southern California to be a place of hope and possibility.
My Backgrounder today is classic West Coast jazz of the late 1940s, with its relaxed contrapuntal sound and upbeat feel. Jack Sheldon was a top West Coast jazz and session trumpeter starting in the 1950s and a favorite of arrangers such as Johnny Mandel and John Williams. His enormous appeal was his enormous talent, firm and straight-ahead tone, self-deprecating good cheer and reliability.
When Jack's Groove was released in 1962 on GNP Crescendo Records, it featured two different dynamic recording sessions. Side 1 was recorded in July 1957. The second side was recorded in March 1959. I'm guessing that the personnel on the first side was so busy with work that they couldn't regroup for the next date. So the LP lingered, half-fiinished, until it could finally be mopped up in 1959.
Now, here's the music (ignore the dates in the embedded clips):
Here's Side 1 (1957) without ad interruptions...
And here's Side 2 (1959)...
This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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