#ruby braff

[jazzplusplus]

1961 - Essener Jazz Tage

14 april : Kenny Clarke, Bud Powell, Jackie McLean, Art Taylor, Jay Jay Johnson, Roland Kirk, Buck Clayton, ...

15 april : Rita Reys, Kenny Clarke, Francy Boland, Jay Jay Johnson, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Rouse, Ruby Braff, Jimmy Woode, ...

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

[dustedmagazine]

Thelma Gracen & Milli Vernon – The Best Voices That Time Forgot (Fresh Sound)

Tirelessly active in the increasingly thankless realm of classic jazz reissue stewardship, producer Jordi Pujol is deserving of both copious thanks for his efforts and no small amount of consternation at how he keeps at it. The Best Voices That Time Forgot embodies the latest in a long line of series proffered under his Fresh Sound banner. The mission is to mine the work of abandoned jazz singers of yore, aspiring talents who for whatever reasons failed to reach the professional heights of peers from their own era. The format is that of the two-fer, pairing vintage albums by singers who may or may not be stylistically similar. In the case of Thelma Gracen and Milli Vernon, names who fit the mantle of the forgotten without argument, the common ground is that of a combination of tiny label contracts and songbooks of standards.

Separated by coasts and the span of several months between 1955-1956 both women benefit from crackerjack backing bands on their respective sessions. Gracen, whose proclivities also included outright pop songs, negotiates a program also populated by a handful of jazz standards. Swing veteran tenorist Georgie Auld fronts the Los Angeles-based sextet in her service alongside guitarist Barney Kessel and pianist Lou Levy. The twelve tunes are all jukebox-sized with only two surpassing four minutes, which leaves the bulk of space to Gracen’s graceful and ingratiating interpretation of song verse starting with a suitably sultry take on “I’ll Remember April.” Limited in range, there remains lilting intonation to her confident phrasing that complements Auld’s assured, vibrato-laced support. Kessel and Levy’s gilded chords work well in tandem and apart and drummer Sid Bulkin (now as forgotten as Gracen) keeps supple swishing beat with brushes.

Vernon is a shade more openly emotive in contrast to the cooler shadings of her counterpart. Pianist Dave McKenna and guitarist Jimmy Raney join the indisputable ace on the roster that is Jo Jones, a swing drumming pioneer who brings his customary panache to the date despite receiving no sonic favors from the Manhattan studio engineer. Trumpeter Ruby Braff joins the action on most tunes and journeyman bassist Wyatt Rhuter who shared Bulkin’s anonymity even in the 20th century completes the combo. “Spring is Here” teams Vernon with Raney’s spare chords to winsome effect before Jones leads the delayed entry of the rest of the crew and the singer playfully tests her range with a couple of belted verses. “St. James Infirmary” proves her mettle on more antiquated if authentic fare, benefiting greatly from the bucolic Braff’s muted interjections and Raney’s clip-clop fret effects. Gracen and Vernon are gone, but thanks to Pujol, no longer forgotten.

Derek Taylor

[marxsound]

i would go out on new year^s eve if i could hear these guys again .....

[mosaicrecords]

NPR: Piano Jazz

Ruby Braff Visits Piano Jazz

Here’s a delight: a very comfortable meeting between Marian McPartland and Ruby Braff, who play some great standards, reminisce about days of jazz in Boston and talk of Ruby’s latest CDs.

-Scott Wenzel

Listen… Follow: Mosaic Records Facebook Tumblr Twitter

[greenpointchinaman]

Playing for the jazz audience of today — so-called — isn’t much fun, because the younger people in the audience are ignorant. They don’t know what to like unless a critic tells them its new, it’s old, it’s modern, it’s swing, it’s avante-garde, or whatever. They have no reference point. They have to look in books: ‘Oh, it says this guy’s great, OK.’ Jazz audiences once were the most knowledgeable audience in the world, because they participated in the music. They heard everything as it came out, danced to it, romanced to it, went to all the joints. You couldn’t fool them. They knew whether the tune was good, whether the band was good, whether the soloists were good. They knew everything.

Ruby Braff in 1989 (from Bebop and Nothingness by Francis Davis)

[jazzplusplus]

1965 - Jazz From Kansas City - tour of Great Britain

Ben Webster, Ruby Braff, Buck Clayton, Vic Dickenson, Joe Turner, Stan Tracey, ...

[jazzplusplus]

1975 - Jazz from Newport au Cirque Royal de Bruxelles / Brussels : Earl Hines, Benny Carter, Sarah Vaughan, Charles Mingus Sextet, the Music of Louis Armstrong