Red Rodney "The New Sounds" on Prestige PRLP 122

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A sweet old Rodney 10”.

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Red Rodney was a great trumpeter. He was of course part of Birds band, and for good reason. A flamboyant player with plenty of charisma. This album is an early 10” Prestige with a great cover. The music is lovely with a mix of hard bop, cool and bebop flavors. A bit of an old timey feel to it all but in a good way. I have just one other Rodney LP, the one on Signal, which is superb. Need to explore a bit of his other stuff. He did some stuff with Ira Sullivan which I will check out. It’s about time, I’ve known of his excellent playing for a long time. There are just so many great players to discover and explore so I haven’t had the focus on him for real, but I’ll try and explore him further for sure.

I’ve not been collecting 10” albums for quite a while now. I dig the 12” format a lot more, but there’s something truly genuine about these old 10” albums. Let’s see if any other makes their way onto my shelves. Have you guys a lot of 10” records? Do you have any tips on other great Red Rodney albums? Looking forward to hearing from you.

Have a great weekend, cheers!

Red Rodney on Signal (S 1206)

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A great, very rare piece of jazz history.

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This album is very rare indeed. The superb Red Rodney on the short-lived Signal label. This is an extremely nice album, with amazing sound. The copy I have is nice with a M- vinyl and a VG+ cover. This almost never comes up for sale. I'm very happy to own this record. Red Rodney is, I feel, a quite underrated artist. He, of course, played with Bird, and that is for a reason. He's smokin' on the trumpet. Highly talented, brilliant tone, technique and lyricism. This original 1st pressing is an absolute must in any high-end jazz collection with good taste. I believe this LP is up there with the very rarest of the rare. Very difficult to find in any condition.

The personnel on this are Rodney on trumpet, Ira Sullivan on tenor sax (trumpet on Side B, track 1), Tommy Flanagan on piano, Oscar Pettiford on double bass, Philly Joe Jones on drums on Side A and Elvin Jones on drums on Side B. Very nice ensemble. Nice tunes all the way through. This is the only Rodney album I have, but this is something I have to remedy. I will try and get all the early stuff he did.

If you somehow have missed this amazing piece of jazz history, try and look it up. You won't be disappointed. Of course, the 1st pressing is so rare that you might have to settle for a reissue, but it's the music that matters. And the music on this is very enjoyable. If you do have the opportunity to get a 1st pressing, don't hesitate to add it to your collection.

More pieces of jazz history coming up, stay tuned.