Just One of Those Things
78 rpm MGM.565
I started to listen to 78 rpm records when my uncle found an album for me sometime in the 1960s. It contained mostly modern jazz. I enjoyed some of it but didn’t care much about Buddy DeFranco’s clarinet playing at the time. But things have changed. Today I enjoy his playing a lot with his technical facility and, above all, his energy.
Buddy DeFranco (1923–2014) was an American jazz clarinet player of Italian descent who became the major soloist on the instrument in the bebop era. A couple of years ago, I read an extensive biography written by Fabrice Zammarchi and Sylvie Mas.
Buddy had a great quartet for this 1952 session, with Kenny Drew on piano, Curley Russell on bass and Art Blakey on drums.