There is a long trumpet solo (0:09-1:28) in "I Cover the Waterfront," but as the
introduction suggests, it is played by Carter himself: at 0:37-0:40 he plays the
same phrase he played on alto saxophone during his solo on "I Can't Get Started"
from the Trianon Ballroom. Carter is also
the soloist on "Frim Fram Sauce" -- compare the phrasing at 2:35-2:40 with 0:34-0:37
of his "I Cover the Waterfront" solo.
McGhee solos on "Mr. Co-Ed" and "Back Bay Boogie." On the former, phrases repeated
in the last A section of his solo will appear in his solos during "Cheers" from
the February 26, 1947 Dial session with
Charlie Parker: take 1 (2:27-2:30) and take 2 (2:22-2:23 and 2:27-2:29). McGhee
ends his solo on "Back Bay Boogie" with a phrase he will use at the beginning of
his solo of "Carvin' the Bird," also from the February 26 Dial session -- compare
"Back Bay Boogie" 2:17-2:20 and "Carvin' the Bird" 1:50-1:52. (A very similar phrase
appears at 1:05-1:07 of "Mr. Co-Ed.")
Judging from the phrasing and choice of notes, Davis is the soloist on few of the
other titles. The short solo on "Cuttin' Time" contains phrases from the 16-measure
solo on "Just You, Just Me" from the March 31
Streets of Paris session (compare "Cuttin' Time" 1:18-1:23 and "Just You, Just
Me" 2:37-2:43), and at 1:10-1:13 Davis plays a phrase also used in his aborted introduction
to take 2 of "Thriving from a Riff" from the November
26, 1945 Savoy studio session (0:17-0:21).
The issued version of "Polishin' Brass" is about a half-tone sharp. On Jazz Door
it is listed as "Untitled Original" -- probably because of Whitman's introduction
("...a jump tune for which there is no title"). But Davis is clearly the soloist:
compare the phrasing at 2:14-2:21 with the trumpet solo from take 3 of "Thriving
from a Riff" from November 1945 (especially 0:31-0:34). There are other echoes as
well: at 2:16-2:18 Davis tosses off a phrase used both in the introduction to "Ko
Ko" (0:09-0:10) and in his solo on take 1 of "Thriving from a Riff" (1:47-1:49).
The same phrase appears at 1:09-1:11 of his "Anthropology" solo from a
live Parker date from around this time. Finally, the phrasing at 2:23-2:25 echoes
1:55-1:58 of take 1 of "Thriving from a Riff."
There is a lot of uncertainty about the Benny Carter recordings from 1946. 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. 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.
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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