Excerpted from the wikipedia entry on V-Discs …
The American Federation of Musicians, under the leadership
of James Caesar Petrillo, were involved in a major recording strike against the
four major record companies. This continued until the intervention of recording
pioneer George Robert Vincent, who was at that point a lieutenant.
On
October 27,
1943, Vincent convinced Petrillo to allow his union musicians to
record sides for the military, as long as the records were not offered for
purchase in the
United States.
From that moment on, artists who wanted to record now had an outlet for their
productivity — as well as a guaranteed, receptive, enthusiastic worldwide
audience of soldiers, sailors and airmen.
Count Basie & His Orchestra: Count Basie p, dir / Harry Edison, Al Killian, Ed Lewis, Joe Newman t / Ted Donnelly, Eli Robinson, Louis Taylor, Dicky Wells tb / Elman 'Rudy' Rutherford cl, bar / Jimmy Powell as / Earle Warren as / Buddy Tate, Eli 'Lucky' Thompson ts / Freddy Green g / Rodney Richardson sb / Joe Marshall d / Don Redman a.
Recorded in New York on January 11, 1945.
Duke Ellington p, dir / Shelton 'Scad' Hemphill, Cat Anderson t / Taft Jordan t / Ray Nance t, vn / Tricky Sam Nanton, Claude Jones, Lawrence Brown tb / Al Sears ts / Jimmy Hamilton cl, ts / Johnny Hodges, Otto Hardwick as / Harry Carney bar, cl / Fred Guy g / Alvin 'Junior' Raglin sb / Sonny Greer d.
Recorded in New York on April 21, 1945.
