Buddy Arnold & Vito Price - Presenting Rare and Obscure Jazz Albums: Wailing / Swingin' the Loop (2021)

Wailing
Tenor saxophonist Buddy Arnold (1926-2003) earned his chops in some of the most renowned bands of his time —Georgie Auld, Bob Chester, Claude Thornhill, Buddy DeFranco or Elliot Lawrence to mention a few. Finally, late in 1955, together with fellow trumpeter Phil Sunkel, he began to work with his own quintet, emerging as a prominent soloist. His playing was directly inspired by Lester Young, whose style was so pervasive that it became an almost universal language for many modern tenors. "Wailing" was Arnold's only album as a leader, fronting a septet of fine musicians, who all subscribed to the premise that emotion and swing are the key and character of jazz. Most solos are fluently in the neo-Basie-with-modern-twists-and-phrasing style, whereas the writing —by Nat Pierce, Al Cohn, Dick Sherman, Bob Brookmeyer, Phil Urso, and John Williams— is clear, and its approach conducive to direct swing and modern jazz.

Swingin' the Loop
Born in New York in 1929, Vito Price, née Vito Pizzo, began playing tenor sax at the age of fourteen. After high school, he apprenticed on the road with various bands, as well as with Chubby Jackson's small group. He finally settled in Chicago in 1955, and went on to become one of the Windy City's top tenormen. In essence, Price has always been an exceptionally smooth swinger with a warm-toned horn, somewhat in the Al Cohn tradition. "Swinging the Loop" was his first album, and a promising start. Price himself said at the time that he was “not trying to blaze new paths.” So while no new trails were blazed and no frontiers were opened, Price emerged from the recording session with a valuable set of originals and standards that swing loose and easy. Five of the tracks feature a 10-piece band with a big, bold tone that was surely enhanced by the writing of Bill McRae. The other five are elevated by the incomparable guitar of Freddie Green, who joined in to make the quintet tracks that much more of a delight.