Sweet Georgia Brown [3:32]
The Song Is Ended [5:11]
Peanut Butter [3:32]
Stolen Peanuts [2:41]
I Must Have That Man [4:38]
Cow Bell Serenade [3:10]
I May Be Wrong [3:00]
Someday, Sweetheart [2:50]
Sweet Georgia Brown [5:16]
Stand Still, Stanley! [5:06]
Peanuts Hucko – clarinet
and tenor saxophone
Max Kaminsky, Buck Clayton, Chris Griffin
– trumpets
Freddy Ohms, Herb Winfield, Jr. – trombones
Toots Mondello – alto saxophone
Bill Vitale , Cliff Strickland, Artie Drellinger
– tenor saxophones
Larry Molinelli, Ernie Cacares – baritone
saxophones
Mundell Lowe, Danny Perri – guitars
Charlie Queener , Lou Stein, Joe Bushkin,
Stan Freeman – piano
Jack Lesberg, Bob Haggart – double bass
Dave Tough, Morey Feld, Bunny Shawker – drums
Liza Morrow - vocals
As unjust as it is, Peanuts
Hucko is not a household name. He was easily
Benny Goodman's equal on clarinet and could
easily be mistaken for Stan Getz on tenor
sax when so inclined. He was Louis Armstrong's
clarinet player in the Louis Armstrong All-Star
band from 1958 to 1960. He played with bands
fronted by Goodman, Jack Teagarden, Glenn
Miller, and Eddie Conlon, and even led the
Glenn Miller ghost band for several years
in the 1970s, and all of that was in addition
to the work he did leading his own groups.
He should be remembered, and there should
be recordings to give listeners a good jumping-off
point for listening.
This album serves just that
purpose, as it spotlights Peanuts at the height
of his popularity and technical prowess. It
was recorded in 1947 and 1948, with a variety
of musicians at several locations. Due to
recording equipment of the time the album
suffers from some of the normal recording
limitations that must be expected. The trumpets
sometimes overpowered the microphones during
their solos, and generally the album pops
and cracks are in evidence. However, the sound
quality for most of the songs is certainly
better than many recordings of the era, and
record noise truly seems to add to the ambiance
of the recording rather than distract the
listener. The balance of the group is very
good, with the bass and drums much more prominent
in the mix than many recordings. This is definitely
nice, as a bass-boost equalizing effect isn't
needed in order to hear the full rhythm section.
The one place where the recording
seems to have noticeably degraded is in the
2nd recording of "Sweet Georgia Brown". This
recording was obviously included because Peanuts'
performance is notably inspired, and the band
is reduced in size to a quartet. The first
recording is done more in the style of a jump
band, with Peanuts on clarinet and at least
2 other saxophone players, a trombone and
2 trumpets in addition to the rhythm section.
Both are good renditions of the familiar favorite.
Peanut Butter is one of the
most forward-sounding of the tracks. The orchestration
is heavily influenced by west-coast swing
from the Cool school, featuring a guitar/clarinet
duet. The arrangement makes great use of the
dark sound of the clarinet in its lower register.
"The Cow Bell Serenade" harkens
to Raymond Scott songs like Powerhouse or
Square Dance For Eight Egyptian Mummies, and
allows Peanuts to show off his skills on tenor-sax.
"I May Be Wrong" features Liza Morrow
on vocals and uses the same jump-band orchestration
that was used on the initial recording of
"Sweet Georgia Brown".
The rest of the album is
done largely in Dixieland style, though not
in the sense of New Orleans riverboat dixie.
This is more like the refined Dixieland of
Teagarden in the '50s or Louis Armstrong in
the '60s. There are no tubas, and there is
piano accompaniment on every track, but the
group improvisation and bright clarinet driving
the arrangement is always in evidence. Sometimes
he's working with a quartet, other times with
a septet or larger, but there is no escaping
his influences.
As a general statement, Peanuts
Hucko deserves to be remembered. He was every
bit the equal of Benny Goodman or Artie Shaw.
The album is genuinely fun and upbeat, and
full of inspired solos and arrangements. There
are few clarinet albums that can claim the
level of inspiration and fun that this offers.
Patrick Gary
CD Reviews
Sounds
of Yester Year DSOY698 [39.02] AAD
