Pete Brown Group – Kai Winding Group – Live from Birdland – September 9, 1952 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection
Back over to Birdland in New York City this week for a club date featuring the inimitable Kai Winding and his group with the legendary Horace Silver on piano. Recorded by NBC Radio for it’s Stars In Jazz Series on September 9th 1952. The show opens with a set by The Pete Brown Group before Kai Winding takes over.
Pete Brown learned to play piano, trumpet, and saxophone while young. He played in New York City with Bernie Robinson’s orchestra in 1928, and played from 1928 to 1934 with Charlie Skeete. In 1937, he worked in the band of John Kirby; for several years in the 1930s he worked with Frankie Newton, who was also a member of Kirby’s band. Brown and Newton recorded often. In addition to recording under his own name, Brown also recorded with Willie “The Lion” Smith, Jimmie Noone, Buster Bailey, Leonard Feather, Joe Marsala, and Maxine Sullivan in the 1930s. He worked on 52nd Street in New York in the 1940s, both as a sideman (with Slim Gaillard, among others) and as a bandleader; he was in Allen Eager’s 52nd Street All-Stars in 1946.
In the 1950s, Brown’s health began to fail, and he receded from full-time performance. He played with Joe Wilder (1954), Big Joe Turner (1956), Sammy Price, and Champion Jack Dupree, and appeared at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival with Coleman Hawkins and Roy Eldridge. His last appearance was in 1960 with Dizzy Gillespie.
Kai Winding is probably best known for his collaboration with J.J. Johnson, as well as a brief foray into the Pop Music world for his rendition of More, the theme from the controversial film Mondo Cane, which became a huge hit for him in the early 1960s.
This set is pure Cool School, with Ed Shaughnessy on drums, Kenny Dorham on trumpet, Gene Ramey on Bass, the aforementioned Horace Silver on piano and Jackie McLean on Alto. All the key ingredients to a great set.
Sit back and give a listen.
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