Classics
2001
1949-1950
About This Album
Whether you think you're already hip to James Moody, or if you aren't hip to him at all, be sure and check this stuff out! It's rare, it's beautiful and the solos are extraordinary. What you have here is essentially Moody's European tour journal. This phonographic diary takes us through Stockholm towards the end of 1949 and then to Paris in February and April of 1950. Moody is hanging with the French and the Swedes. They have been carefully studying the twists and turns of American bop. The arrangements are intricate and very contemporary. Don't worry about the goofy titles. "Three Bop Mice" and "Flight of the Bopple Bee" are actually fine pieces of work, hot and busy, composed and executed by this formidable sax and flute man from Georgia who got his start working with Dizzy Gillespie. Much of what we know about Moody comes from a stream of American records issued and reissued over a span of more than 50 years. His early European recordings are of inestimable value in their own light and as context for the rest of his work. "Three Bop Mice" seems to refer to the front line of three wicked tenor saxophones. Good thing this jam runs for nearly six minutes! It gives the guys kicking room.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,17,18 and 19)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.