Shorty Rogers

Great Britain's JSP imprint does its usual exhaustive job on this five-disc set by trumpeter, composer, and arranger Shorty Rogers. These discs contain material that dates back to the period Rogers spent with Woody Herman's Woodchoppers and Red Norvo's Octet in 1946 and 1947, through his own dates with the Giants in 1954 (in both original and augmented incarnations), with all kinds of stops in between. Certainly it's true that Rogers collectors may have most if not all of this material, but not arranged and presented in this way -- session notes are intact, as are credits, but as is the norm with JSP, liner notes are somewhat scant. The Herman years are all detailed on disc one, as well as the beginning of Rogers' years with Stan Kenton and Maynard Ferguson. The lineups in all of these bands are most impressive -- a virtual who's who of greats from the West and East Coasts alike, including Serge Chaloff, Billy Bauer, Jimmy Rowles, Ernie Royal, Terry Gibbs, Lou Levy, Don Lamond, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, etc. Rogers led his own big band during the time spent between Herman and Kenton, with Art Pepper, Bud Shank, Shelly Manne, and June Christy, to name a few -- a real West Coast all-star configuration in 1950. In the time he spent with Kenton and Ferguson, Rogers also led the first version of the Giants, featuring Pepper, Hampton Hawes, Gene Englund, Jimmy Giuffre, Manne, and others, in 1951. Other stints as a soloist and arranger with Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars in 1951 and 1952 were the bread ends of a sandwich that included the period Rogers played with Louie Bellson, in a band that also included Juan Tizol, Harry Carney, Billy Strayhorn, and Wardell Gray. The 1951 and 1952 years make up almost all of disc two, with another rendition of the Giants filling it out at the beginning of 1953. Discs three and four are all Shorty between 1953 and 1954. Some of the players in his employ during those years included Joe Mondragon, Bob Cooper, Curtis Counce, Herb Geller, Herbie Harper, Bill Holman, and Joe Flores, as well as many of the aforementioned players like Ferguson, Pepper, Hawes, Giuffre, Manne, and Shank. One of the more notable aspects of the 1954 Giants was the addition of a young pianist named André Previn on some sides, with a front line of horns that included Giuffre, Shank, and Cooper on saxophones; guitarist Al Hendrickson; and a rhythm section with Joe Mondragon and Manne. The final 12 tunes, on the fifth disc here, are with different editions of the Giants, including (as previously mentioned) the augmented Giants -- this band included Lennie Niehaus, Sims, pianist Pete Jolly, and guitarist Barney Kessel, to name a few. There are 96 cuts here, all of them remastered in fine if not pristine sound, but the price is certainly right. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide