Cootie Williams and His Orchestra 1941-1944 is a compilation album of recordings from 1941, 1942 and 1944 that jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 trumpeter

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

 Cootie Williams

Cootie Williams

Charles Melvin "Cootie" Williams was an American jazz, jump blues, and rhythm and blues trumpeter.-Biography:...

 made with his orchestra and in smaller groups, released on Classics

Chronological Classics

The Chronological Classics CD series is a collection of 965 compact discs that were compiled by Gilles Pétard in France from 1989. The original Classics music label never had a website, and it is hard to find reliable information about the history of the company and its series of recordings.The...

 in 1995. The 1942–44 musicians' strike explains the lack of sessions from 1943.

History

Two firsts about this record concerning Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...

: one, the April 1, 1942 Chicago session is the first recording of "Epistrophy

Epistrophy

"Epistrophy" is a jazz standard composed by Thelonious Monk and Kenny Clarke in 1942. It has been called "the first classic, modern jazz composition."Its 'A' section is based on a pattern of alternating chords a semitone apart....

" (called "Fly Right" here) which Monk wrote with Kenny Clarke

Kenny Clarke

Kenny Clarke , born Kenneth Spearman Clarke, nicknamed "Klook" and later known as Liaqat Ali Salaam, was a jazz drummer and an early innovator of the bebop style of drumming...

 earlier the same year; and two, the August 24, 1944 session is the first recording of Monk's "'Round Midnight

'Round Midnight (song)

Round Midnight" is a 1944 jazz standard by pianist Thelonious Monk. Jazz artists Cootie Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Pepper, and Miles Davis have further embellished the song, with songwriter Bernie Hanighen adding lyrics...

". Cootie Williams is often given a co-credit on both songs.

The January 4, 1944 session marks the recording debut of Bud Powell

Bud Powell

Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American Jazz pianist. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk...

, aged 20 (Williams was his legal guardian at the time), while the January 6, 1944 session features two of Pearl Bailey

Pearl Bailey

Pearl Mae Bailey was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968...

's earliest recordings.

Track listing

All songs were written by Cootie Williams

Cootie Williams

Charles Melvin "Cootie" Williams was an American jazz, jump blues, and rhythm and blues trumpeter.-Biography:...

, except where noted.

1. "West End Blues" (King Oliver, Williams) – 3:08
2. "Ain't Misbehavin'
   Ain't Misbehavin' (song)
   "Ain't Misbehavin" is a 1929 song written by Thomas "Fats" Waller, Harry Brooks and Andy Razaf . Waller recorded the original version that year for Victor Records and also later performed the song in the 1943 film Stormy Weather. It was used in the off-broadway musical Connie's Hot Chocolates...
   
   " (Fats Waller
   Fats Waller
   Fats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...
   
   , Henry Brooks
   Harry Brooks (composer)
   Harry Brooks was an American writer of popular songs, jazz pianist and composer in the 1920s through the early 1950s....
   
   , Andy Razaf) – 2:38
3. "Blues in My Condition" – 2:52
4. "G-Men" – 2:41
5. "Sleepy Valley" (unknown) – 2:54
6. "Marcheta" (Victor Schertzinger
   Victor Schertzinger
   Victor L. Schertzinger was an American composer, film director, film producer, and screenwriter. His films include Paramount on Parade , Something to Sing About with James Cagney, and the first two "Road" pictures Road to Singapore and Road to Zanzibar...
   
   ) – 3:02
7. "When My Baby Left Me" (Eddie Vinson
   Eddie Vinson
   Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson was an American jump blues, jazz, bebop and R&B alto saxophonist and blues shouter. He was nicknamed Cleanhead after an incident in which his hair was accidentally destroyed by lye contained in a hair straightening product.-Biography:Vinson was born in Houston, Texas...
   
   , Williams) – 2:38
8. "Fly Right" (aka "Epistrophy
   Epistrophy
   "Epistrophy" is a jazz standard composed by Thelonious Monk and Kenny Clarke in 1942. It has been called "the first classic, modern jazz composition."Its 'A' section is based on a pattern of alternating chords a semitone apart....
   
   ") (Thelonious Monk
   Thelonious Monk
   Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
   
   , Kenny Clarke
   Kenny Clarke
   Kenny Clarke , born Kenneth Spearman Clarke, nicknamed "Klook" and later known as Liaqat Ali Salaam, was a jazz drummer and an early innovator of the bebop style of drumming...
   
   ) – 2:30
9. "You Talk a Little Trash" – 2:59
10. "Floogie Boo" (Vinson, Williams) – 2:36
11. "I Don't Know" (Vinson, Williams) – 3:14
12. "Do Some War Work, Baby" (aka "Gotta Do Some War Work") – 3:06
13. "My Old Flame" (Arthur Johnston
    Arthur Johnston
    Arthur Johnston was a Scottish poet and physician. He was born in Caskieben near Inverurie in Aberdeenshire...
    
    , Sam Coslow
    Sam Coslow
    Sam Coslow was an American songwriter, singer, film producer, publisher, and market analyst. Coslow was born in New York City. He began writing songs as a teenager...
    
    ) – 3:16
14. "Sweet Lorraine
    Sweet Lorraine
    "Sweet Lorraine" is a song by the band Uriah Heep, first released on the album The Magician's Birthday. It was written by Mick Box, Gary Thain and David Byron. Sweet Lorraine reached #91 in the US. It is one of the better known songs by the band, famous, in part, for its Moog synthesizer solo,...
    
    " (Cliff Burwell
    Cliff Burwell
    Clifford R. Burwell was an American pianist and songwriter. His composition, "Sweet Lorraine" was popularized in 1928 by Rudy Vallee and made famous by Teddy Wilson and Nat King Cole in the 1930s and 1940s.-References:...
    
    , Mitchell Parish
    Mitchell Parish
    Mitchell Parish was an American lyricist.-Early life:Parish was born Michael Hyman Pashelinsky to a Jewish family in Lithuania. His family emigrated to the United States, arriving on February 3, 1901 on the SS Dresden when he was less than a year old...
    
    ) – 3:06
15. "Echoes of Harlem" (Duke Ellington
    Duke Ellington
    Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
    
    ) – 3:05
16. "Honeysuckle Rose
    Honeysuckle Rose (song)
    "Honeysuckle Rose" is a 1928 song composed by Fats Waller, whose lyrics were written by Andy Razaf. Fats Waller's 1934 recording was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999....
    
    " (Waller, Razaf) – 3:06
17. "Now I Know" (Harold Arlen
    Harold Arlen
    Harold Arlen was an American composer of popular music, having written over 500 songs, a number of which have become known the world over. In addition to composing the songs for The Wizard of Oz, including the classic 1938 song, "Over the Rainbow,” Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the...
    
    , Ted Koehler
    Ted Koehler
    Ted L. Koehler was an American lyricist.-Life and career:Koehler was born in Washington, D.C. He started out as a photo-engraver but was attracted to the music business, where he started out as a theater pianist for silent films. He moved on to write for vaudeville shows and Broadway, and he also...
    
    ) – 3:02
18. "Tess's Torch Song" (aka "I Had a Man") (Arlen, Koehler) – 2:33
19. "Cherry Red Blues" (Bob Haggart
    Bob Haggart
    Robert Sherwood Haggart was a dixieland jazz double bass player, composer and arranger...
    
    ) – 3:08
20. "Things Ain't What They Used to Be
    Things Ain't What They Used to Be
    Things Ain't What They Used to Be is a 1970 studio album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald. The final album that Fitzgerald recorded on the Reprise Records label. The album was re-issued on CD with alternative artwork, in 1989...
    
    " (Mercer Ellington
    Mercer Ellington
    Mercer Kennedy Ellington was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and arranger.Ellington was born in Washington, DC, the son of famous composer, pianist, and bandleader Duke Ellington...
    
    , Ted Persons) – 3:16
21. "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby
    Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby
    "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby" is a 1944 Louis Jordan song, released as the B-side of single with "G.I. Jive". "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby" reached #1 on the US folk/country charts. The Louis Jordan recording also peaked at number two for three weeks on the pop chart and peaked at...
    
    ?" (Louis Jordan
    Louis Jordan
    Louis Thomas Jordan was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the...
    
    , Billy Austin) – 2:46
22. "Somebody's Gotta Go" (Haggart) – 3:19
23. "'Round Midnight
    'Round Midnight (song)
    Round Midnight" is a 1944 jazz standard by pianist Thelonious Monk. Jazz artists Cootie Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Pepper, and Miles Davis have further embellished the song, with songwriter Bernie Hanighen adding lyrics...
    
    " (Monk) – 3:18
24. "Blue Garden Blues" (aka "Royal Garden Blues
    Royal Garden Blues
    "Royal Garden Blues" is a blues song composed by Clarence and Spencer Williams in 1919. Popularized in jazz by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, it has since been recorded by numerous artists and has become a jazz standard...
    
    ") (Spencer Williams
    Spencer Williams
    Spencer Williams was an American jazz and popular music composer, pianist, and singer. He is best known for his hit songs "Basin Street Blues", "I Ain't Got Nobody", "Royal Garden Blues", "I've Found a New Baby", "Everybody Loves My Baby", "Tishomingo Blues", "Careless Love", and many...
    
    , Clarence Williams) – 3:13

Performance

May 7, 1941, New York. Tracks 1-4.

• Cootie Williams
  Cootie Williams
  Charles Melvin "Cootie" Williams was an American jazz, jump blues, and rhythm and blues trumpeter.-Biography:...
  
   – trumpet
  Trumpet
  The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
  
  
• Lou McGarity
  Lou McGarity
  Lou McGarity was an American jazz trombonist, violinist and vocalist born in Athens, GA, perhaps most noteworthy for his works with Benny Goodman throughout the 1940s. During this period and throughout his career McGarity also collaborated often with Eddie Condon...
  
   – trombone
  Trombone
  The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
  
  
• Les Robinson – alto sax
  Alto saxophone
  The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
  
  
• Skippy Martin
  Skip Martin
  Lloyd "Skip" Martin was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and music arranger....
  
   – baritone sax
  Baritone saxophone
  The baritone saxophone, often called "bari sax" , is one of the largest and lowest pitched members of the saxophone family. It was invented by Adolphe Sax. The baritone is distinguished from smaller sizes of saxophone by the extra loop near its mouthpiece...
  
  
• John Guarnieri – piano
  Piano
  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
  
  
• Artie Bernstein
  Artie Bernstein
  Arthur "Artie" Bernstein was an American jazz bassist.Born in Brooklyn, New York, he started his musical career playing cello on board cruise ships to South America, and also studied law at New York University. However, by 1929 he had started playing bass, and began performing in clubs around New...
  
   – bass
  Double bass
  The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
  
  
• Jo Jones
  Jo Jones
  Jo Jones was an American jazz drummer.Known as Papa Jo Jones in his later years, he was sometimes confused with another influential jazz drummer, Philly Joe Jones...
  
   – drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  

April 1, 1942, Chicago. Tracks 5-8.

• Cootie Williams – trumpet
• Milton Fraser – trumpet
• Joe Guy – trumpet
• Louis Bacon – trumpet, vocals (track 6)
• Jonas Walker – trombone
• Robert Horton – trombone
• Sandy Williams
  Sandy Williams
  Sandy Williams was an American jazz trombonist born in Summerville, South Carolina, perhaps best-known for playing with the premier big bands of his day, especially the Chick Webb orchestra. Williams also recorded extensively with Ella Fitzgerald.- Early life :In his youth, Williams moved to...
  
   – trombone
• Charlie Holmes
  Charlie Holmes
  Charlie Holmes was an alto jazz saxophonist of the swing era. He also played clarinet in jazz and oboe for the Boston Civic Symphony Orchestra in 1926....
  
   – alto sax
• Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson
  Eddie Vinson
  Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson was an American jump blues, jazz, bebop and R&B alto saxophonist and blues shouter. He was nicknamed Cleanhead after an incident in which his hair was accidentally destroyed by lye contained in a hair straightening product.-Biography:Vinson was born in Houston, Texas...
  
   – alto sax, vocals (track 7)
• Bob Dorsey – tenor sax
  Tenor saxophone
  The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
  
  
• Greely Walton
  Greely Walton
  Greely Walton was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Walton played violin in his youth before settling on saxophone, and studied music at the University of Pittsburgh in the 1920s. He worked first with Elmer Snowden in 1926, then with Benny Carter and for an extended period with Luis Russell...
  
   – tenor sax
• John Williams – baritone sax
• Kenny Kersey
  Ken Kersey
  Ken Kersey was a Canadian jazz pianist who spent most of his life working in the United States....
  
   – piano
• Norman Keenan
  Norman Keenan
  Norman Dewey Keenan was an American jazz double-bassist.Keenan began on piano before picking up bass at age 15. He worked with Tiny Bradshaw , Lucky Millinder , Henry Wells , Earl Bostic, and Cootie Williams, and jammed at Minton's Playhouse around the same time...
  
   – bass
• George "Butch" Ballard
  Butch Ballard
  George Edward "Butch" Ballard was an American jazz drummer who during his long career has played with musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Count Basie and Duke Ellington.-Biography:...
  
   – drums

January 4, 1944, New York. Tracks 9-12. January 6, 1944, New York. Tracks 13-16.

• Cootie Williams – trumpet, vocals (track 12)
• Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson – alto sax
• Eddie "Jockjaw" Davis
  Eddie Davis (saxophonist)
  Edward Davis , who performed and recorded as Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.-Biography:...
  
   – tenor sax
• Bud Powell
  Bud Powell
  Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American Jazz pianist. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk...
  
   – piano
• Norman Keenan – bass
• Sylvester "Vess" Payne – drums

January 6, 1944, New York. Tracks 17-20.

• Pearl Bailey
  Pearl Bailey
  Pearl Mae Bailey was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968...
  
   – vocals (tracks 17-18)
• Cootie Williams – trumpet
• Ermit V. Perry – trumpet
• George Treadwell
  George Treadwell
  George McKinley Treadwell was an American jazz trumpeter....
  
   – trumpet
• Harold "Money" Johnson
  Money Johnson
  Harold "Money" Johnson was an American jazz trumpeter.Johnson first played trumpet at age 15. He moved to Oklahoma City in 1936 and played with Charlie Christian and Henry Bridges before joining Nat Towles's band...
  
   – trumpet
• Ed Burke
  Ed Burke (musician)
  Edward "Ed" Burke was an American jazz musician.Burke was adept at both violin and trombone, and played both professionally in jazz bands. He worked with Walter Barnes late in the 1920s, then with Cassino Simpson and Ed Carry in the early 1930s...
  
   – trombone
• George Stevenson – trombone
• Robert Horton – trombone
• Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson – alto sax, vocals (tracks 19-20)
• Charlie Holmes – alto sax
• Eddie "Jockjaw" Davis – tenor sax
• Lee Pope – tenor sax
• Eddie de Verteuil – baritone sax
• Bud Powell – piano
• Norman Keenan – bass
• Sylvester "Vess" Payne – drums

August 22, 1944, New York. Tracks 21-24.

• Cootie Williams – trumpet
• Ermit V. Perry – trumpet
• George Treadwell – trumpet
• Lammar Wright
  Lammar Wright, Sr.
  Lammar Wright was an American jazz trumpeter.Wright grew up in Kansas City, where he played with Bennie Moten's band in 1923. He relocated to New York City in 1927 to play with The Missourians, staying with the group after Cab Calloway became its leader...
  
   – trumpet
• Tommy Stevenson
  Tommy Stevenson
  Tommy Stevenson was a jazz trumpet player in the big band era. He was the first high note trumpeter to be featured on recordings....
  
   – trumpet
• Ed Burke – trombone
• Ed Glover – trombone
• Robert Horton – trombone
• Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson – alto sax, vocals (tracks 21-22)
• Frank Powell – alto sax
• Sam "The Man" Taylor – tenor sax
• Lee Pope – tenor sax
• Eddie de Verteuil – baritone sax
• Bud Powell – piano
• Leroy Kirkland – guitar
• Carl Pruitt – bass
• Sylvester "Vess" Payne – drums