Search - Count Basie :: Too Marvelous for Words

Caravan with a drum sola

Matthew Watters | Vietnam | 11/15/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Count Basie drummer Jo Jones typically subsumed himself so successfully to the music, that he is sometimes overlooked in favour of more in-your-face drummers of his era and after like Gene Krupa or Buddy Rich. But this collection should erase any doubts that Jones truly was the greatest drummer of all time. For one thing, John Hammond records him in pristine sound, allowing one to hear for once all the nuance of his brush work and his subtle cross-rhythms and punctuations. He is the most astonishingly musical of drummers and here even gets the rare spotlight of a couple of extended solos, on "Caravan" and "Old Man River". It's the stuff from which legends can be made. The cuts are drawn from two albums from 1956-57 made for Vanguard Records: 'Jo Jones Special' which features a band of Basie veterans, plus the Count himself on an incendiary remake of "Shoeshine Boy"; and 'Jo Jones Plus Two', a rollicking and joyous trio outing with pianist Ray Bryant. That might be the only thing to fault this CD for. It just makes you want to go out immediately and get the full albums. Some remaining cuts are taken from a Buck Clayton album that also features Jones and some other former Basie band members, as well as some less spectacular cuts from a live album made at Count Basie's Bar. But, despite the slightly silly "Basie Bunch" moniker, Jo Jones remains the real headliner of this compilation."