Pye Nixa NJE 1011
Nixa Jazz Today Series
7” EP
Recorded 16/3/55
TRACKS
Side 1:
Jimmy Skidmore: On The Alamo (Kahn & Isham Jones)
Cedric West: What’s New? (Haggart)
Keith Christie: Making Whoopee (Donaldson & Kahn)
Side 2:
Dill Jones How Long Has This Been Going On? (Gershwin)
Harry Klein: Sweet And Lovely (Arnheim, Tobias & Lemare)
Kenny Baker: I’m Beginning To See The Light (Hodges, Ellington, James, George)
SLEEVE NOTES
“Jazz Show Case” presents six outstanding soloists in extempore variations on tunes of their own choice. The framework within which these variations are set – the introduction, built up last chorus, modulations and background figures – are the pen work of leader Kenny Baker, whose trumpet brings the disc to a brazen finish.
It would be easy to describe this as an “All Star” combination, for with one exception – talented but comparatively unknown guitarist Cedric West – the soloists are all high ranking pollsters in the nationwide “Melody Maker” popularity referendum. Indeed, Kenny Baker holds what must be a world record in the popularity stakes, having topped the poll by an overwhelming majority for eight years running! Yet the idea was not to assemble a studioful of big names as such, but of musicians united in common purpose; men of high standing in the modern jazz field who have not allowed wayward experiment to lure them too far away from the mainstream of swinging creative jazz.
PERSONNEL
Sleeve:
Ian Bradbery (design)
Recording:
Bernard Marsden (balance)
Denis Preston (supervision)
Nixa Jazz Today 