Voilà

Babs Gonzales

4**** By All Music Guide.

Babs Gonzales never made it big financially in the big bread, but his jazz style is being copied by some of the biggest names in the business. Babs has worked with all the big name in his twenty years of "out there".

Tracklisting:

01. Le Continental
02. Me Spelled, M-E, Me
03. Them Jive New Yorkers
04. Lullaby of the Doomed
05. The Preacher
06. A Nite in Tunisia
07. Movin' and Groovin'
08. You've Changed
09. Beginning of the End
10. Lonely One
11. Babs Mood for Love
12. Cool Cookin'


Original sources:

Tracks #1-7, originally issued HOPE LP 001.
Tracks #8-12 taken from EXPUBIDENT EXP 008.



Personnel on tracks #1-7:

Babs Gonzales (vcl), Johnny Griffin (ts), Charles Rouse (cl), Les Spann (fl), Ray Crawford (g), Horace Parlan (p), Peck Morrison (b), Roy Haynes (d), The Modern Sounds (vcl).
Arrangements by Melba Liston.

Recorded in New York City, on July 16, 1958.



Personnel on tracks #8-11:

Babs Gonzales (vcl), Ray Nance (v) with probably Hank Jones (p), Milt Hinton (b), Roy Haynes (d).

Recorded in New York City, 1958.



Personnel on tracks #12:

Babs Gonzales (vcl), Clark Terry (tp), Johnny Griffin (ts), Hank Jones (p), Buddy Catlett (b), Roy Haynes (d).

Recorded Live at Insane Asylum cabaret, NYC, ca. 1958.



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Biography:

A limited but enthusiastic singer, Babs Gonzales did what he could to popularize bop. He had brief stints with Charlie Barnet and Lionel Hampton, and then led his own group (Three Bips & a Bop) during 1946-1949. They recorded 24 numbers during 1947-1949, including the earliest version of "Oop-Pop-A-Da" and such songs as "Weird Lullaby," "A Lesson in Bopology," "Professor Bop," and "Prelude to a Nightmare"; among his sidemen on these dates were Tadd Dameron, Tony Scott, Roy Haynes, James Moody, J.J. Johnson, Julius Watkins, Sonny Rollins (making his recording debut), Art Pepper, Wynton Kelly, and even Don Redman. However, once the bop "fad" ended, Gonzales became more of a cult figure. He worked with James Moody (1951-1953), recorded with Jimmy Smith and Johnny Griffin, ran his own label (Expubidence), and wrote two autobiographies that were more colorful than accurate.

-Scott Yanow (All Music Guide)

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