SCOBEY'S BACK IN TOWN
Barry McCanna | Normandy, France | 03/04/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is an amalgam of four albums, all recorded in 1956, and features vocals by Clancy Hayes. Many of the tracks on the first side and a half are classic jazz titles, but the fourth album was recorded by an enlarged band which included Manny Klein, Abe Lincoln, Matty Matlock and Ralph Sutton, and all the tunes are associated with girls. Scobey learned his trade playing alongside Turk Murphy and Lu Watters in the latter's Yerba Buena Jazz Band, and they were key figures in the revival of traditional jazz in San Francisco. This is West Coast jazz at its best, boisterous without being rowdy, disciplined without being restrained. Splendid stuff."