There is a lot of uncertainty about the Benny Carter recordings from 1946. Most
of the items usually associated with Miles Davis were Armed Forces Radio Services
(AFRS) "Jubilee" sessions which were transcribed on 16" 33-1/3 rpm LPs and distributed
to radio stations around the world. The four sessions in questions are numbers 184,
186, 191, and 193. Recording sessions were typically an hour, in front of live studio
audiences. The recordings were later edited and assembled into 30-minute Jubilee
sides. As a result of this, some announcements and introductions were used more
than once, and this contributes to the confusion. Recordings for program #184 were
made in early April at NBC Studios in Hollywood; the following titles were included:
"Who's Sorry Now?", "I Can't Get Started," and "Jump Call." Program #186 is usually
dated in May, and includes "One O'Clock Jump," "Just You, Just Me," "Lover Man,"
and "Bugle Call Rag." Program #191 has a recording date of April 29 and includes
the following titles: "Co-Ed," "I'm the Caring Kind," "Frim Fram Sauce," and "Polishing
Brass." Program #193 has the same recording date, and the titles listed are "Cutting
Time," "Stardust," "Prelude to a Kiss," "I Cover the Waterfront," and "Back Bay
Boogie."
Davis joined the Carter band after a January 1946 engagement at the Riviera Club
in St. Louis, and traveled to Los Angeles in February. In addition to playing with
Carter's orchestra and a smaller Carter group, Davis began sitting in with Charlie
Parker at the Finale Club. In March he became a regular member of the Parker Quintet,
and he participated in a Dial session on March
28. He continued to play regularly with Carter's bands, as evidenced by a March 31 broadcast from the Streets of Paris.
Eventually the musicians' union caught up with him and he was fined; he chose to
leave the Carter group. Exactly when this happened is not clear, but if Davis is
in fact present on "Just You Just Me," it must have happened after this recording
was made.
On April 12 Parker brought an eight-piece band -- Davis, Britt Woodman (tb), Parker,
Lucky Thompson (ts), Dodo Marmarosa (p), Arvin Garrison (g), Red Callendar (b),
and Perc White (d) -- to a concert at UCLA's Carver Club. Also on the bill were
Lester Young, the Nat Cole Trio, Herb Jeffries, and Kay Starr.
The trumpet solo on "Just You, Just Me" contains phrases also used in Davis's solo
on "Just You, Just Me" from the Streets of Paris recording from
March 31. Compare the opening phrase here (0:49) with that from the beginning
of Davis's second chorus from March 31 (at 2:28); and compare the phrase at 0:56-0:58
with the same phrase from Davis's solo on "Sweet Georgia Brown" from the Streets
of Paris (at 1:43-1:45).
The issued version of "Just You, Just Me" is about a half-tone sharp.
There is a nearly complete discography of the Jubilee series in Rainer Lötz
and Ulrich Neuert, The AFRS Jubilee Transcription Programs: An Exploratory Discography,
Vol. 1-2 (1985). Dennis M. Spragg has updated the discography and maintains
it on the Glenn Miller Archive website, http://www.colorado.edu/amrc/glenn-miller-archive/gma-catalogs/jubilee.
I am grateful to Craig Neilson for his help with these Jubilee sessions, and to
Tommaso Urbano for his expertise in identifying the trumpet soloists.
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