Personnel:
Dick Collins, Don Fagerquist, Ruby Braff, Joe Newman, Cy Touff (tp), Bill Harris, Urbie Green, Frank Rehak, Billy Byers, Matthew Gee (tb), Richie Kamuca, Med Flory, Jerry Coker, Phil Woods, Hal McKusick (saxes), Freddie Green (g), Oscar Pettiford, Jimmy Woode (b), Jo Jones (d)
Reference: FSRCD 2232
Bar code: 8427328622325
Contains 3 albums and one EP in two CDs:
- Nat Pierce and the Herdsmen (Fantasy)
- The Nat Pierce Bandstand (Vanguard)
- Jazz Romp by Nat Pierce Jazzmen (Keynote)
- Kansas City Memories by Nat Pierce and his Orchestra (Coral)
In the mid Fifties jazz finally seemed to be emerging from its post-war confusion. A swinging beat was returning, and with it the interest of an ever-larger public. Nat Pierce, unhappy with the choppy, uncertain beat of the 'cool' rhythm section as many other fellow musicians, was able to fuse the advanced harmonies of the new with the rhythmic propulsion of the old. Although he and Woody Herman were conspicuously successful in achieving a distinctive style for the Third Herd, Nata Kansas City jazzman by absorptionyearned for the flexibility of the Basie formula, and he spent much of his time studying, and occasionally arranging for the Count's incomparable band. On most of these sides, you can hear the swinging beat that draws from these musicians surprisingly sharp Kansas City memories.
