These Joe Newman Swingville sessions, an object lesson in relaxed and intelligent blowing, are among the happiest recorded by the trumpeter. All the elements fit compatible musicians, familiar material, congenial atmosphere dovetailed into a deceptively simple and always swinging whole.
The potential of a two-horn front line has rarely been exploited as brilliantly as it is here by Newman with Wess or Foster. The three Basie-ites are in top form, playing with more imagination and vitality than in most similar dates. Tommy Flanagan, present in all tracks, is a constant delight, sensitive, forceful when necessary, always sympathetic to the soloist, an essential part of the ideal rhythm sections employed. And the quartet session is a model of complete relaxation and how to assimilate individual expression into a collective wholein itself an ideal summation of what Joe Newman achieved on these dates.
Tracklist
Total time: 111:41 min.
CD 1
01. Taps Miller (Basie-Russell) 8:18
02. Jive at Five (Edison-Basie) 5:35
03. Wednesdays Blues (Newman) 9:05
04. More Than You Know (Youmans-Rose-Eliscu) 3:59
05. Dont Worry Bout Me (Bloom-Koehler) 4:39
06. Cuein the Blues (Newman) 4:33
07. A.M. Romp (Newman) 6:51
08. Loop-D-Loop (Newman) 6:50
09. Lil Darlin (Hefti) 5:42
CD2
01. To Rigmor (Newman) 5:10
02. Mo-Lasses (Newman) 6:26
03. Just Squeeze Me (Gaines-Ellington) 7:01
04. Oh Gee (Gee) 4:11
05. Dacquiri (Newman) 5:00
06. The Very Thought of You (Noble) 6:38
07. Strike Up the Band (G.& I. Gershwin) 3:01
08. The Continental (Magidson-Conrad) 3:20
09. Blues for Slim (Newman) 6:40
10. For You (Dublin-Burke) 8:11
Album details
Original sources:
CD 1, tracks #1-6 from "Jive at Five" (Swingville SVLP 2011)
CD 1, tracks #7-9 and CD 2, tracks #1-3 from "Good 'N' Groovy" (Swingville SVLP 2019)
CD 2, tracks #4-10 from "Joe's Hap'nin's" (Swingville SVST 2027)
Personnel on "Jive at Five":
Joe Newman (tp), Frank Wess (fl, ts except on #4), Tommy Flanagan (p), Eddie Jones (b), and Oliver Jackson (d).
Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on May 4, 1960
Personnel on "Good 'n' Groovy":
Joe Newman (tp), Frank Foster (ts), Tommy Flanagan (p), Eddie Jones (b), and Bill English (d).
Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on March 17, 1961
Personnel on "Joe's Hap'nin's":
Joe Newman (tp), Tommy Flanagan (p), Wendell Marshall (b), and Bill English (d).
Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on May 9, 1961
Original recordings produced by Esmond Edwards
Recording engineer: Rudy Van Gelder.
Cover photos & design: Esmond Edwards & Don Schlitten
Compiled for CD release by Jordi Pujol
Stereo 24-Bit Digitally Remastered
