Melodie Jazz Classic
2002
1950-1951
About This Album
April in Paris, 1950. James Moody is making records with a band led by trumpeter Ernie Royal. While two originals by Royal are based on textbook bop themes, Moody's own "Date With Kate" shows greater depth of invention. "Mean to Me" prances at a healthy clip and "Embraceable You" is presented as a slow-dance delicacy. Jumping to July of 1950, Moody leads his own "Boptet" through four remarkable exercises in modernity. Marshall "Red" Allen, who subsequently worked for decades with Sun Ra, is heard in Moody's band playing alto saxophone. These must be Allen's earliest appearances on record. "Delooney" surges ahead with peculiar chords that do in fact slightly resemble what Ra's Arkestra would be playing by 1957. "Real Cool" features the celeste and piano of Raymond Fol and some lovely bass work by Buddy Banks. "In the Anna" is a slow and harmonically altered stroll through "Back Home Again in Indiana." Moody sings a chorus of rapid-fire bop scat on "Voila." After he blows his horn for a bit, several voices sing a background chorus, which continues during a fadeout, that new effect just beginning to occur on records in 1950.
Track List (try tracks 1,3,7,9,10,13,15,18,21 and 22)

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