Showing posts with label Sonny White. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sonny White. Show all posts

Jack Teagarden & Band / Benny Carter & Orchestra / Charlie Barnet & Band - V-Disc 823 (1948)

Took one of the boys to the flea market last weekend to find some old Sega cartridges after "finding" my old Genesis console in the garage and came away with five V-Discs...a pleasant surprise indeed.

Here's the first to be posted.

I Swung The Election (Glenn Miller)

Jack Teagarden tb, v, dir / Clair Jones, Bob McLaughlin, Val Salata, Vernon 'Tex' Williams t / Fred Keller, Ray Olsen, Wally Wells tb / Vic Rosi cl, as / Dale Stoddard as / Howard 'Gish' Gilbertson, Ken Harpster ts / Clark Crandall bar / Don Seidel p / Jimmy Lynch sb / Frank Harrington d.

Recorded in Los Angeles on August 24, 1944.

Hobson Street Blues

Ray Borden, Jerry Rosen, Tex Williamson, another t / Jack Teagarden, Palmer Combatelli, Jack Lantz, Wally Wells tb / Vic Rosi cl, as / Bob Derry, Dale Jolley, Bert Noah, Merton Smith as, ts / Norma Teagarden p / Charlie Gilruth g / Lloyd Springer sb / Frank Horrington d.

Recorded in Los Angeles c. March 1945.



Benny Carter as, dir / Paul Cohen, Ira Pettiford, Walter Williams t / Al Grey, Candy Ross tb / Willard Brown as, bar / Sonny White p / James Cannady g / Thomas Moultrie sb / Percy Brice d.

Recorded in Los Angeles 1946. 

Charlie Barnet (Still looking for discographical information)


Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra - Commodore 526 (1939)

From wikipedia…

Barney Josephson, the founder of Cafe Society in Greenwich Village, New York's first integrated nightclub, heard the song and introduced it to Billie Holiday. Other reports say that Robert Gordon, who was directing Billie Holiday's show at Cafe Society, heard the song at Madison Square Garden and introduced it to her. Holiday first performed the song at Cafe Society in 1939. She said that singing it made her fearful of retaliation but, because its imagery reminded her of her father, she continued to sing the piece making it a regular part of her live performances. Because of the poignancy of the song, Josephson drew up some rules: Holiday would close with it; the waiters would stop all service in advance; the room would be in darkness except for a spotlight on Holiday's face; and there would be no encore.

Holiday approached her recording label, Columbia, about the song, but the company feared reaction by record retailers in the South, as well as negative reaction from affiliates of its co-owned radio network, CBS. Even John Hammond, Holiday's producer, refused so she turned to friend Milt Gabler, whose Commodore label produced alternative jazz. Holiday sang "Strange Fruit" for him a cappella, and moved him to tears.

Columbia allowed Holiday a one-session release from her contract in order to record it and Frankie Newton's eight-piece Cafe Society Band was used for the session. Because he was worried that the song was too short, Gabler asked pianist Sonny White to improvise an introduction so that Holiday only starts singing after 70 seconds. Gabler worked out a special arrangement with Vocalion Records to record and distribute the song.

She recorded two major sessions at Commodore, one in 1939 and one in 1944. The song was highly regarded and the 1939 record sold a million copies, in time becoming Holiday's biggest-selling record.

Frankie Newton t / Tab Smith ss, as / Kenneth Hollon, Stanley Payne ts / Sonny White p / Jimmy McGlin g / John Williams sb / Eddie Dougherty d / Billie Holiday v.

Recorded in New York on April 20, 1939.