“Mr. Swing”   Harry “Sweets” Edison   Verve Records     I admit it.   I love Sweets!   Can’t get enough.   Illustration by David Stone Martin.   Here’s a classic Sweets Edison.   This and the Verve album “The Swinger”, both recorded during the same 1958 session has tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest joining Edison in the quintet’s frontline while pianist Jimmy Jones, bassist Joe Benjamin, drummer Charlie Persip, and rhythm guitarist Freddie Greene make up the rhythm section. (You can get both LP’s on a single Verve CD.)   Edison (who died of prostate cancer on July 27, 1999, at 83 years of age) was one of the acknowledged masters of swing trumpet.   His trumpet was a recognizable voice in the Count Basie Orchestra from 1938 until it broke up in 1950.   During that period, he was featured on many records, appeared in the 1944 short “Jammin’ the Blues” and gained his nickname “Sweets” (due to his tone) from Lester Young.   In the 1950s, Edison toured with Jazz at the Philharmonic, settled in Los Angeles, and was well-featured both as a studio musician (most noticeably on Frank Sinatra records) and on jazz dates. He had several reunions with Count Basie in the 1960s and by the ’70s was often teamed with Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis; Edison also recorded an excellent duet album for Pablo with Oscar Peterson. One of the few swing trumpeters to be influenced by Dizzy Gillespie, Sweets led sessions through the years for Pacific Jazz, Verve, Roulette, Riverside, Vee-Jay, Liberty, Sue, Black Blue, Pablo, Storyville, and Candid among others. Although his playing faded during the 1980s and ’90s, Edison could still say more with one note than nearly anyone.

(58 votes, average: 4.26 out of 5)

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“Music to Recline By (In a Berkline Chair!)   Music by Richard Maltby and his Orchestra

(51 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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TV’s “Lovable Lunatics”   Moe, Joe and Larry – The Three Stooges   “Crazy-Sing-A-Long”   With Orechestra Directed by Lew Douglas   Coral Records

(39 votes, average: 3.21 out of 5)

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Decca’s Record Hop “All-time Dance Favorites”

(35 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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Los 4 Amigos en el Espacio   Columbia

(47 votes, average: 3.68 out of 5)

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“A Divertirse con las Ardillitas”   Columbia Harmony.

(32 votes, average: 3.03 out of 5)

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“At Home With Dorothy and Raymond”   Dorothy Collins and the Raymond Scott Quintet.   Coral Records.   Scott married Pearl Zimney in 1935, and they had two children, Carolyn and Stanley.   In 1940, a talented 13-year-old Canadian named Marjorie Chandler came to live with the family.   Recommended to Scott by road manager Frank Herz, the girl had a lovely voice and became Scott’s protegee. By age 16, Chandler, re-named Dorothy Collins, was lead vocalist in Raymond’s big band. They toured together (often with Pearl along as stage-mom), and a mutual chemistry developed. In 1950, Scott and Pearl separated; two years later, he married Dorothy.   Bird Life in the Bronx / Dedicatory Piece to the Crew and Passengers of the First Experimental Rocket Express to the Moon /Ectoplasm / Snake Woman / Street Corner in Paris / Tiger Rag.

(36 votes, average: 3.78 out of 5)

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4 Asses.   (Me, Dave, Ken and Angelo.)   Ken never did have a good poker face.   Here we do our best not to acknowledge his “tell.”

(29 votes, average: 3.52 out of 5)

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“A Week-End with the Impacs”   The Impacs.   King Records. [1964]

(37 votes, average: 3.78 out of 5)

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Thurston Knudson “Rouses you with the Rhythm of Tropic Drums”   Tempo Records.

(69 votes, average: 4.48 out of 5)

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