Peanuts Holland – Buck Clayton – Charlie Singleton – Club Session – Jazz In Paris (1953-1955)(Gitanes–24-Bit Remaster)

These recordings came about because the directors of Club Francais du Livre decided to go into the record business. Their plan was to record the top French musicians of the time, each session having an American visiting guest star. One suspects that the documentation of each session was sketchy, for instance there is an unlisted Bass player on the Buck Clayton set and there are other similar anomalies.
This in no way detracts from the music, the Buck Clayton session is a classic of the great and often underrated Mainstream Trumpet Man. Michelle de Villiers acquits himself very well on both Tenor and Baritone and the rhythm section is clean and swinging. Andre Persiany is a class act on keyboards and it sounds like a session where everyone was enjoying themselves. 'Gift to the Club' turns out to be 'I've found a new baby', hardly a translation error!
On session 2 Peanuts Holland is the visiting star, he came to Paris in 1946 with Don Redman and stayed on in Europe, at the time of recording he was a Scandinavian resident. Flying Home has solos for everyone with Geo Daly doing the Lionel Hampton riffs. He also solos for most of That's My Desire. Peanuts Holland demonstrates his trumpet skills on S'Wonderful, Guy Lafitte is also well to the fore here with overtones of Coleman Hawkins. Blue Feeling is a lesser known Ellington composition, but it is easy to recognise the 'Dukal' style. Many musicians claim that Ellington tunes play themselves and I must confess his compositions are great favourites of mine. Holland is heard in a more restrained but effective mode in this one. For those who don't know of him Charlie Singleton played with Lou Donaldson in New York, he came to Paris to play in Bill Coleman's Band. He has the sound you would expect from a Kansas City tenor man, big and round! There seems to be something odd about 'These Foolish Things' either Charlie Singleton changes his sound in the middle of this piece or there were two saxophone players!
Another very enjoyable release from the excellent value Jazz in Paris series from a time when jazz was sophisticated but not over complicated.

Session 1 : Buck Clayton

01. Buck's bon voyage
02. Fast bus soft
03. Please don't talk about me when I'm gone
04. Easy to Riff
05. Gift for the Club

Buck Clayton - Trumpet
Michel de Villiers - Tenor and Baritone Saxophones
Andre Persiany - Piano
Jean-pierre Sasson - Guitar
Gerard Pochonet - Drums

Recording November 1953.

Session 2 : Peanuts Holland

06. Flying home
07. That's my desire
08. It's wonderful
09. Blue feeling

Peanuts Holland -Trumpet
Guy Lafitte - Tenor Saxophone
Geo Daley - Vibes
Jean-Claude Pelletier - Piano
Charlie Blareau - Bass
Jean-Babtiste "Mac Kac" Reilles - Drums

Recording 1954

Session 3 : Charlie Singleton

10. Lester leaps in
11. These foolish things
12. Purple sound
13. Lullaby of Birdland
14. Yesterdays
15. Blues a la Schola

Bernard Hulin - Trumpet
Charles Verstraete - Tenor Saxophone
Charlie Singleton - Tenor Saxophone Jules Dupont - Piano
Eddie de Haas - Bass
Reggie Jackson - Drums

Recording 1955