The Odd Couples, Part 2

Click on the highlighted words to link to the recordings.

My hometown friend Bob Godfrey offered three nominations:

Thelonious Monk and Pee Wee Russell

Count Basie and Teresa Brewer

Count Basie and Oscar Peterson

Basie and Peterson recorded Satch Meets Josh in 1974 and followed it up over the years with four additional two-piano collaborations. For the 1998 reissue of Satch Meets Josh, aka Count Basie Encounters Oscar Peterson, I wrote:

If Art Tatum and Fats Waller had teamed up in a recording session, the results would undoubtedly have been something like this. Whether Waller would have induced as much restraint in the virtuosic Tatum as Basie does in Peterson is debatable, but the effect is not unwelcome. Peterson is not repressed, but there are times when you can almost hear him listening to Basie for direction. Basie’s direction is simply straight ahead, with the emphasis on “simply.” No pianist has surpassed Basie in boiling material down to its essentials. No pianist has surpassed Tatum in building material up from its essentials, but Peterson has come close. The joy of this album is not only in the contrast between style but in the compromises, most of which are made by Peterson. So who’s the stronger piano player?

Doug:

Here are two odd combinations that worked: Roland Kirk and Al Hibbler...Joe Venuti and Zoot Sims

One that failed miserably was Benny Goodman and Stan Kenton singing together (!) on a Capitol record on which they spoofed each other. It was terrible.

Jack Tracy

Mr. Tracy is a former editor of Down Beat magazine.

Hi,

I very much enjoy reading your site.

I don't know if this counts as an "odd" coupling, but one that has always struck me is Blue Note's pairing of Grant Green with Coltrane's classic rhythm section on Matador. Green's straight-ahead melodic lines worked wonderfully, I thought, with the dense, blockier sound of Tyner-Garrison-Jones. Green showed the subtle and subdued side of the section in the same way that Hartman showed the gentler side of Coltrane. And you have to respect Green for having the guts to record "My Favorite Things" with these guys right in the middle of Coltrane's heyday ... and pulling off such a great rendition.

Best,
Caleb McDaniel

Mr. McDaniel is an historian at Johns Hopkins. His blog fits the broad Other Matters category in which the Rifftides staff assumes you are all interested.

Doug:

I'd like to nominate for an "unlikely" duo the 1971 recording titled Giants, which featured Diz & Bobby Hackett backed by the extraordinary & undervalued Mary Lou Williams, George Duvivier & Grady Tate.

Not only do these gentlemen exhibit jazz & technical chops, they seem to fit together like a Stilton with a great port.Their remodeling of"Jitterbug Waltz" never fails to leave me breathless.

This session was recently reissued on the Lone Hill Jazz label, distributed by the Fresh Sound folks.

Dave Berk

The Overseas Press Club in New York, where Giants was recorded in concert in 1971, was just up 42nd Street from WPIX-TV, where I was employed. That evening, I took a leave of absence from preparation of my late newscast and caught as much of the music as I could. The fondness Diz, Bobby and Mary Lou had for one another was as visible as it is audible on the recording. A great event.

Doug:

I have followed your blog daily from its beginning and find it the most interesting thing on the internet. Thank you for starting and maintaining it. On the subject of albums that work but shouldn't, I would recommend the Verve label's Time for 2. The pairing of Anita O'Day and Cal Tjader and his group looks like a recording execs plan to put two people on the same label together and hope either name will draw. The results are a great vocal and small group combination with terrific efforts on everyone's part. People forget Tjader could play "straight ahead" with the best of them and was a very sensitive team-player. The recording represents many of the same musicial values the Brubeck-Rushing has. It was recorded in 1962 and has been out on cd since 1999.

Jim Wardrop

That brings the entries up to date, but there's no statute of limitations; if you have a favorite odd musical coupling, let us know.