Vout For Voutoreenees

Vout for Voutoreenees is a semi-chronological dipstick sampler of Bulee "Slim" Gaillard's performing and recording activities during 1945 and early 1946. Throughout this period, Gaillard's primary quartet consisted of pianist Michael "Dodo" Marmarosa, bassist Tiny "Bam" Brown, and drummer Arthur James "Zutty" Singleton. When in December of 1945 that group was augmented with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and saxophonists Charlie Parker and Jack McVea, the recorded results were so inspired and in the groove that in retrospect, they seem to form the nucleus of Gaillard's achievement during the '40s. Considered in combination with the artists already mentioned, the collective personnel on this collection is somewhat dazzling and includes trumpeters Karl George and Howard McGhee; trombonist Vic Dickenson; clarinetist Marshall Royal; saxophonists Lem Davis, Jewell Grant, Lucky Thompson, Teddy Edwards, and Wild Bill Moore; pianist Fletcher Smith and drummer Leo Scat Watson, himself a direct predecessor of Gaillard in the art of jive vocals and creative nonsense. "Scotchin' with the Soda," by the way, is a cover of a Capitol recording by the King Cole Trio. This entertaining time capsule closes with Slim and Bam's complete Jazz at the Philharmonic performance at the Embassy Theater in Los Angeles on April 22, 1946. The duo improvised off of a seed bed of hip changes culled from Skeets Tolbert's "Hit That Jive, Jack," Gaillard's "Flat Foot Floogie," and Barney Bigard and Duke Ellington's "C Jam Blues." Known ever since as both the "Opera in Vout" and the "Groove Juice Symphony," this four-part concert exercise in flibbertigibbet tomfoolery is adorned with the following European classical-styled designations: "Introduzione-Pianissimo (Softly, Lost Softly)," "Recitative e Finale (Of Much Scat)," "Andante Cantabile in Modo do Blues (C Jam?)," and "Presto con stomp (With a Floy Floy)." ~ arwulf arwulf|