Post cont
I was thrilled to see how many people enjoyed the last post, I’m Just a Lucky So and So featuring the Ray Bauduc combo. I decided to follow it up with one more Soundie from the Bauduc series before moving on to something new.
Solid Jive is the one instrumental piece in the set, and what it lacks in hummable melody or complicated harmony – it is just the most basic of twelve-bar blues changes – it makes up by providing the setting for some fine improvisation.
Ray Sherman opens the proceedings after the band’s theme statement, playing in a fluid style that recalls many swing-to-bop pianists; Billy Kyle and Clyde Hart come to mind. Al Pellegrini’s tenor sax solo is a high point for me. Pellegrini swings in a light, melodic fashion that clearly shows that he was listening closely to Lester Young. Paul Morsey’s solo on string bass, played in arco style, shows how hard it is to swing when playing with the bow. He does a good job, but with no disrespect meant to Mr. Morsey, Slam Stewart or Major Holley he is not. Joe Graves was a Harry James man during this period and would later lead the James ghost band. His solo here is inventive, and I like the way he ventures into the trumpet’s upper register.
Now, it is the leader’s tune, and it seems to me that the instant that Bauduc’s solo begins, the whole rhythmic feel of the band changes. We have moved from 1940s jazz to the Bob Crosby Bobcats of the 1930s. This is not to suggest that the solo is not swinging and musical, only that the feel is slightly different.
While a dancer is not really called for in this performance, African-American hoofer Charles Witty, Jr., is seen during the last two courses of the performance. Whitty is actually Charles Whittier, who spent time with Ted Lewis and danced the part of the shadow in Lewis’s “Me and My Shadow” routine. The fact that he was required to wear a bellhop outfit is unfortunate, if not surprising, and it sadly adds a layer of stereotypical imagery was absolutely unnecessary.
While Bauduc receives composer credit for the song, I would guess that pianist Ray Sherman did the arrangement for the combo. Bebop was in the air, and the octave leap from “Salt Peanuts” turns up a half-minute into the film. And at 2:39, Sherman inserts a segment from Bick Clayton’s arrangement of “It’s Sand, Man,” recording by the Basie band in July 1942.