Complete Big Band Recordings 1956-1957 - Double Cd

Peanuts Hucko

New Release Great Sound Quality!!!Some of the most melodically lovely but relatively neglected tunes on the roster of popular music… played by a galaxy of the more mellow fellows in jazz.
- John S. Wilson, from the original liner notes

A fast, clean and very personal player and bandleader, “Peanuts” Hucko (1918-2003) worked with several of the great swing orchestras in the forties, and became the star clarinet soloist of Glenn Miller’s Army Air Force Band. In the fifties, he worked in the studios, toured the world with Louis Armstrong’s All-Stars for a couple of years, and starting in the sixties, he led his own Dixie/Swing band. Member of The World’s Greatest Jazz Band, Hucko’s fluency and reliability may have got him further as a result.
This double CD contains all the swinging recordings made by the Peanuts Hucko Orchestra in the mid 50s, a period of great activity for big bands. The instrumentation is that of a jazz group, without violins: in some cases, they are not exactly big bands, but septets, octets, etc., although always seeking to sound like a big band; and so they do. The beat is that of a jazz group present, alive, finger-snapping. The approach is that of the jazz musician—creative, inventive, searching for the newly suitable instead of the safe and tried.
The participants in the making of this music are musicians such as Billy Butterfield, Don Ferrara, Bernie Glow, trumpets; Bob Brookmeyer, Urbie Green, Lou McGarity, Cutty Cutshall, trombones; Hal McKusick, Tony Scott, Hymie Schertzer, Ernie Caceres, Romeo Penque, Arthur Rollini, Al Cohn, saxes; Lou Stein, Dick Hyman, Hank Jones, piano; Barry Galbraith, Mundell Lowe, guitar; Milt Hinton, Arnold Fishkin, Jack Lesberg, bass; Osie Johnson, Cliff Leeman, Don Lamond, drums; Helen Ward, vocals… and a few others.

Tracklisting:

CD 1:

1. Moments Like This 2:41
2. Pastel Blue 4:12
3. Everything’s Been Done Before 3:34
4. Why Shouldn’t I? 3:39
5. Spain 2:40
6. Manhattan Serenade 3:04
7. Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen 2:51
8. A Foggy Day 2:27
9. Keepin’ Out Of Mischief Now 2:45
10. Robins And Roses 2:59
11. Morning Glory 3:21
12. I’ll Be A Friend With Pleasure 3:09
13. What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For? 3:12
14. What’s New? 3:25
15. Easy Now 3:28
16. Let’s Take The Long Way Home 2:49
17. I’m Shooting High 2:34
18. Lookie, Lookie, Lookie, Here Comes Cookie 2:46
19. I Get Along Without You Very Well 3:24
20. Lazy 2:35

Total time: 61:36

CD 2

1. Don’t Cry Baby 3:29
2. Suzukake No Michi (Platanus Road) 3:07
3. Gone With The Wind 2:11
4. Swing That Music 3:02
5. With A Little Bit Of Luck 2:42
6. Someday You’ll Be Sorry 3:02
7. This Nearly Was Mine 3:44
8. Let’s Dance 3:08
9. Bugle Call Rag 2:57
10. Don’t Be That Way 3:04
11. King Porter Stomp 3:13
12. Stompin’ At The Savoy 3:04
13. One O’clock Jump 4:20
14. I Found A New Baby 3:43
15. Seven Come Eleven 3:00
16. On The Alamo 3:04
17. Soft Winds 3:12
18. Poor Butterfly 3:20
19. Avalon 2:58

Total time: 60:23