Five-Star Collection... Buddy DeFranco and Oscar Peterson

Buddy DeFranco

and

Oscar Peterson

Play George Gershwin

Most musicians when asked to give a list of their favorite composers will usually have at the top, or near the top of the list George Gershwin. They feel that Gershwin wrote in such a fashion that it gives them the most room for improvisation. You will always find that when people are asked to do albums of various composers, invariably Gershwin is on the list. (Singers, of course, are different, since they must consider lyrics as well as melody, but instrumentally, Gershwin is the boy for most musicians.)

Buddy DeFranco has recorded many albums for me and for two years has been insisting that he be allowed to do a Gershwin album, and this is it. After completing a tour with Jazz At The Philharmonic, Buddy had an opportunity to play with and listen to Oscar Peterson every night for several weeks and he insisted besides that Oscar Peterson be included in this album.

In this album, then, Buddy DeFranco and Oscar Peterson play Gershwin, with their jazz approach. Skip Martin arranged "I Got Rhythm", "I Was Doing All Right", and "The Man I Love", and the arrangements by Russ Garcia were "It Ain’t Necessarily So", "Bess", "Someone to Watch Over Me", "S’ Wonderful", "Strike Up The Band", "Porgy", and "They Can’t Take That Away From Me". *Norman Granz (liner notes)*

I regretfully have had to agree the last couple of years with those persons who complained that Buddy DeFranco's magnificent skill and improvisatory sense were dulled by his "cold" sound — that his music was lacking in emotion.

I knew it was not always so — I had heard him numerous times with the sextet Count Basie headed four years ago, and had heard his clarinet sound like a torch rather than an icicle.

Now comes this LP on which he, Oscar Peterson, and a large orchestra (including 14 strings) cruise joyfully through Gershwin, and it is the DeFranco I think of when I place his name in the clarinet slot in Down Beat's annual critics poll.

Perhaps it was the stimulus of Peterson, who has developed into one of the most capable and listenable pianists in all jazz. Perhaps it was the cushion afforded by the orchestra, which allowed Buddy to relax and not worry about carrying the entire load himself. At any rate, here is some of the tastiest music of this or any other year.

I Was Doing All Right is the best example of DeFranco's "new look"— he offers a pulsing, penetrating solo; Benny Goodman’s influence on him is much in evidence on Strike Up, where he and Oscar romp joyfully in counterlines before Buddy flashes off; Man I Love is some more superbly melodic pensiveness from Buddy preceding a doubletime offering from Pete, with Someone getting the reverse treatment — Oscar opens meditatively, then DeFranco kicks it up to comfortable blowing tempo.

Buddy is at home on this record and I suspect it is going to win him more fans and friends than most of his other discs put together.

By me, it's a gasser. *Jack Tracy (Down Beat, April 20, 1955 [5 stars])*

1 - I Wants To Stay Here (a.k.a Porgy)

2 - I Was Doing All Right

3 - 'S Wonderful

4 - Bess, You Is My Woman Now

5 - Strike Up The Band

6 - They Can't Take That Away from Me

7 - The Man I Love

8 - I Got Rhythm

9 - Someone To Watch Over Me

10 - It Ain't Necessarily So

11 - I Wants To Stay Here (a.k.a Porgy) (alternate take)

12 - Someone to Watch over Me (alternate take)

 

(All compositions by George Gershwin)

Buddy DeFranco (clarinet), Oscar Peterson (piano)

Herb Ellis (guitar), Ray Brown (bass), Bobby White (drums).

Russ Garcia Orquestra:

Harry Betts, Nick DiMaio, Murray McEachern, Dick Noel (trombones);

Dick Perissi (french horn); Jack Dumont (alto sax);

H.C. Gunkler (alto sax, flute); Julie Jacobs (tenor sax, oboe, english horn);

Marty Berman (baritone sax, bass clarinet);

Sam Caplan, David Frisina, Saul Grant, Henry Hill, Don Lube,

Ricky Marino, Mischa Russell, Ralph Schaefer, Eudice Shapiro, Marshall Sosson (violins);

Louis Kievman, Virginia Matewski (violas); George Neikrug, Kurt Reher (cellos).

Russell Garcia (arranger,conductor).

Recorded at Radio Recorders, Hollywood, California,

December 6 (#1, #3, #4, #9 to #12) and December 7 (#2, #5 to #8), 1954