Monday, February 22, 2010

Classics 1422: Red Norvo Trio 1950-51


Classics 1422
Red Norvo
1950-1951
Release Date: 2006
Rating: A

Other notable musicians in this CD: Charles Mingus, Tal Farlow.

label(s): Savoy, Discovery
Number of sessions: 3
Unissued materials: None
Track Highlights: I've Got You Under My Skin, I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me, Move, Godchild.


Other issue or reissues:
The Red Norvo Trio (Savoy SJL 2212)
Red Norvo Trio, Vol. 2 (Discovery DL 3018)
Red Norvo - Move! (Savoy MG 12088)
I also hold a copy of a LP in my collection called Rare Transcription which includes 29 tracks from the same period.


About the period: Throughout the '40s and well into the '50s, Norvo seemed willing and eager to grow with the brisk and somewhat challenging patterns of the new music. Some of these rapid-fire bop lines might evoke the unprecedented velocities attainable on newly constructed highways, or maybe even convey a taste of Benzedrine.


music from almost the same period,  1950-52




The Album:

This set includes the studio sessions by Red Norvo's short-lived trio with Tal Farlow and Charles Mingus.

Red Norvo moved to the West Coast in 1947 where he also frequently worked on radio and in film studios. After many years on the road, he was looking for a way of making money somewhere closer to his home and family in California.

Since it was more difficult to find steady jobs with a bigger group, Norvo reduced his former sextet to a trio, and not just any trio: first it was Mundell Lowe on guitar and Red Kelly on bass, then Lowe was replaced by Tal Farlow and Kelly by Charles Mingus.

Farlow later remembered: "We developed our approach to tunes, emphasizing the strengths of each member of the group. The thematic sections and unisons were played pretty much the same each time. We had few arrangements. The basic freedom centered on the improvisation. And even there, ideas, phrases surfaced again an again because they worked so well on certain pieces."


Details:

Red Norvo Trio
Red Norvo (vib), Tal Farlow (g), Charles Mingus (b)


  • Los Angeles, CA, May 3, 1950 (listen to tape below/auto-played)

Swedish Pastry (take 1)
Cheek To Cheek
Night And Day
Time And Tide


  • Chicago, IL, October 13, 1950 (listen to side A of the tape above)

September Song
Move
I've Got You Under My Skin
I Get A Kick Out Of You
I'll Remember April
I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me
Little White Lies
Have You Met Miss Jones?
Zing! Went The Strings Of My Heart

  • Los Angeles, CA, April 13, 1951 (listen to side A of the tape above)

If I Had You
This Can't Be Love (probably take 1 from 3 takes)
Godchild (master take)
I'm Yours


  • Chicago, IL, October 13, 1950 (listen to side B of the tape above)

Mood Indigo
Prelude To A Kiss
Deed I Do


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