Joe Venuti & Earl Hines > C Jam Blues
Composed by Duke Ellington

It was pretty clear to me in the last post that Hank had a hard time picking a favorite Joe Venuti track, so I figured I’d play the second one too. A classic in many ways.

Violin Week #4
Legends of the Violin #3 
Legends of the Piano #11 
Legends of Swing #5 & #6

Joe Venuti & Dave McKenna > At the Jazz Band Ball
Composed by Larry Shields & Nick LaRocca

Back in the day I spend some time around Chiaroscuro Records but was too self involved to realize the grandeur of the music going on around me. I’m making up for lost time which includes some bon bons by the great Joe Venuti. Being severely undereducated I asked Chiaroscuro owner/producer Hank O’Neal to suggest some tracks. This one caught my ear. From Hank:

“I’d take ‘C Jam [Blues]’ on the one with Earl [Hines] and ‘At the Jazz Band Ball’ on the McKenna. Both were remarkable dates for a lot of reasons. I just wish I’d had the opportunity to do more work with all of them, particularly Joe. I guess I was lucky to have gotten what I did.”

Violin Week #3
Legends of the Violin #3 
Legends of the Piano #10 
Legends of Swing #5

Duke Ellington > Solitude
Composed by Duke Ellington, Eddie DeLange & Irving Mills

Not being particularly a big band fan, and stereotyping much too easily without enough information, I never gave Ellington a tumble. Until I got older and wanted quieter music in my diet. This whole album turned around my Duke-ness.

(By the way, I realize it’s ridiculous to characterize Ellington as merely a Legend of Swing, but I couldn’t figure out anything else that would be more appropriate, except maybe Legend of Jazz. And almost every jazzbo here would qualify for that too.)

Ballads Week #1
Legends of Swing #3 
Ballad #31

Ella Fitzgerald > Too Young for the Blues
Composed by Biff Jones & Charles Meyer

Greatest Singers Week #13 (Girls Gone Wild Edition)
Legends of Swing #3

Billie Holiday > Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be)
Composed by Jimmy Davis, Roger (“Ram”) Ramirez, & James Sherman

Any arguments?

Greatest Singers Week #3 (Girls Gone Wild Edition)
Legends of Swing #2

Count Basie & His Orchestra > A Hard Day’s Night
Composed by John Lennon & Paul McCartney

The Beatles confused jazzmen across the world, especially the big band legends. It was years before they knew how to incorporate their melodies into more than just goofy arrangements (or even how to title their albums). It was kind of hard to find one than was less than completely embarrassing.

Some Beatles Covers (Instrumental Edition) #7 
Covers #21 
Legends of the Big Band #1