Click on the highlighted words to link to the recordings.
\nMy hometown friend Bob Godfrey offered three nominations:<\/p>\n
Thelonious Monk and Pee Wee Russell<\/a>
\nCount Basie and Teresa Brewer<\/a>
\nCount Basie and Oscar Peterson<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nBasie and Peterson recorded Satch Meets Josh<\/em> in 1974 and followed it up over the years with four additional two-piano collaborations. For the 1998 reissue of Satch Meets Josh<\/em>, aka Count Basie Encounters Oscar Peterson<\/em>, I wrote:<\/p>\n
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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s direction is simply straight ahead, with the emphasis on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153simply.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the stronger piano player? <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Doug:
\nHere are two odd combinations that worked: Roland Kirk and Al Hibbler<\/a>…Joe Venuti and Zoot Sims<\/a>
\nOne that failed miserably was Benny Goodman and Stan Kenton singing together (!) on a Capitol record on which they spoofed each other. It was terrible.
\nJack Tracy<\/p><\/blockquote>\nMr. Tracy is a former editor of Down Beat<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n
Hi,
\nI very much enjoy reading your site.
\nI 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<\/em><\/a>. 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.
\nBest,
\nCaleb McDaniel<\/p><\/blockquote>\nMr. McDaniel is an historian at Johns Hopkins<\/a>. His blog fits the broad Other Matters category in which the Rifftides<\/em> staff assumes you are all interested.<\/p>\n