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Dave Pell: Remembers John Kirby and Big Small Bands

By C. Michael Bailey
November 5, 2012
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Dave Pell: Remembers John Kirby and Big Small Bands

Historical recreations of music are nothing new. Every tribute recording ever released is one. In the 1980s and '90s, classical music went through its "period instrument-performance practice" phase, where the entire Baroque, Classical and early Romantic repertoires were recreated using instruments and metronomic markings from the 18th and 19th Centuries. In the late 1950s, jazz was going through an interesting transition that had its genesis a decade earlier in

Miles Davis

trumpet
1926 - 1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Miles Davis' famous Birth of the Cool (Capitol, 1957). In 1949, Davis, bored with be bop, assembled his famous nonet and with the help of arrangers

Gil Evans

composer / conductor
1912 - 1988

" data-original-title="" title="">Gil Evans,

Gerry Mulligan

saxophone, baritone
1927 - 1996

" data-original-title="" title="">Gerry Mulligan and

John Lewis

piano
1920 - 2001

" data-original-title="" title="">John Lewis, brought the bebop small combo back closer to the swing era big band, using the brass voicings (including French Horns) from

Claude Thornhill

vocals
1909 - 1965

" data-original-title="" title="">Claude Thornhill's popular and successful band.

West Coast multi-reedist Dave Pell has recorded a string of well-received octet albums based on Davis' nonet model. He extended this "big small band" philosophy to a project he recorded early in 1959 that was eventually released as The Big Small Bands (Capitol). What Pell did with the music chosen for this project—that comprises a dozen compositions recorded over the previous 30-year period (typically on 78 RPM discs)—was to have Jimmy Priddy and Bob Enevoldsen transcribe the charts note-for-note.

Pell termed these new recordings "musical recreations." The participants were all West Coast Jazz royalty—pianists

Marty Paich

composer / conductor
1925 - 1995

" data-original-title="" title="">Marty Paich and

Andre Previn

piano
1929 - 2019

" data-original-title="" title="">Andre Previn, trumpeter

Jack Sheldon

trumpet
1931 - 2019

" data-original-title="" title="">Jack Sheldon, and drummers

Mel Lewis

drums
1929 - 1990

" data-original-title="" title="">Mel Lewis and

Shelly Manne

drums
1920 - 1984

" data-original-title="" title="">Shelly Manne were all on hand. Alto saxophonist

Art Pepper

saxophone, alto
1925 - 1982

" data-original-title="" title="">Art Pepper appears on

Shorty Rogers

trumpet
1924 - 1994

" data-original-title="" title="">Shorty Rogers "Popo,"

Miles Davis

trumpet
1926 - 1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Miles Davis' "Boplicity" and

Gerry Mulligan

saxophone, baritone
1927 - 1996

" data-original-title="" title="">Gerry Mulligan's "Walking Shoes." Pepper was to rerecord the latter of these with a Paich-led ensemble that would become his famous Art Pepper + Eleven: Modern Jazz Classics (Contemporary, 1959).

Regardless of the recording proximity, The Big Small Bands could not sound more different from + Eleven. "Quaint" would best describe Pell's efforts and that is no slight. Pell is attempting to faithfully recreate music, almost making a historic document. Pell's touch is a soft one, treating all of this disparate music as, perhaps, trumpeter

Wynton Marsalis

trumpet
b.1961

" data-original-title="" title="">Wynton Marsalis has with the music of

Louis Armstrong

trumpet and vocals
1901 - 1971

" data-original-title="" title="">Louis Armstrong and

Thelonious Monk

piano
1917 - 1982

" data-original-title="" title="">Thelonious Monk. Projects like this have their place and should appeal to a broad number of jazz fans.

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Track Listing

Big Small Bands - Then I'll Be Happy; Smo-O-O-Oth One; In an 18th Century Drawing Room; Summit Ridge Drive; At the Codfish Ball; Jumpin With Symphony Sid; Popo; Boplicity; Dark Eyes; Viva Zapata; Walking Shoes; Mountain Greenery Dave Pell Remembers John Kirby - Rose Room; Royal Garden Blues; Anitra's Dance; It Feels Good; Tootsie Roll; Double Walk; Undecided; Blue Skies; Coquette; Opus #5; 20th Century Closet.

Personnel

Dave Pell

saxophone

Album information

Title: Remembers John Kirby and Big Small Bands | Year Released: 2012 | Record Label: Fresh Sound New Talent

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