| Cross Country Suite | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Studio album by | |
| Released | 1958 |
| Recorded | 1958 |
| Genre | Jazz, big band |
| Length | 39:09 |
| Label | Dot Records |
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
Cross Country Suite is a studio album by clarinetist Buddy DeFranco, in a performance of the work of the same name, composed by Nelson Riddle.
Nelson Riddle composed "Cross Country Suite" in 1958 for Buddy DeFranco, who wanted a composition to play at a Le Blanc Clarinet clinic. DeFranco said he "felt it should be a combination of a big band, jazz, and an orchestra . . . [and] it turned out to be one of the best things [Riddle] ever wrote." The suite was also one of Riddle's favorite projects, which he intended to showcase the be-bop clarinetist's brilliance. [2]
The Riddle/DeFranco partnership had its roots in the Swing Era. According to the album liner notes: [3]
They played with and wrote for some of [the era's] giants: Buddy with the bands of Charlie Barnet, Count Basie, Gene Krupa, and Tommy Dorsey; Nelson with those of Charlie Spivak, Bob Crosby, and Tommy Dorsey. It was with the Dorsey orchestra some years ago, in fact, that Cross Country Suite was really born. Riddle and Defranco were contemporaries in that organization; each came to feel that musically he had something to give the other, and they spoke often of such future collaborations as this.
"Cross Country Suite" has been performed on only a few occasions. Portions premiered under Riddle's baton at the Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl on August 29, 1958, as part of a concert headlined by Nat King Cole. Nearly 50 years later, in 2006, Wooster College music professor Jeffrey Lindberg reconstructed the suite from incomplete manuscripts and his own transcription of the 1958 recording, and in 2007, conducted it with DeFranco and the Chicago Jazz Orchestra. In October 2015, clarinetist Ken Peplowski performed excerpts in a concert at the Los Angeles Jazz Institute. The Wooster Symphony Orchestra performed the suite in its entirety in April 2016, with Paquito D’Rivera as soloist, at New York City's Symphony Space. [4] Abroad, the suite was performed twice by the Radio Television Eire Concert Orchestra of Ireland, in 2006 and 2007. Nelson Riddle's son Christopher was conductor of the 2007 concert. [5]
At the first Annual Grammy Awards held on May 4, 1959, Cross Country Suite won the award for "Best Musical Composition First Recorded and Released in 1958 (over 5 minutes duration)." The album was deemed to be an artistic, though not a commercial, success. By 2001, however, 25 percent of the requests on Buddy DeFranco's website were for a compact disc copy. [2] The work was issued on CD in 2008.
The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album three stars. He said, "Buddy DeFranco's playing is typically fluid, swinging and explorative within the bop tradition. There are some short spots for trumpeter Don Fagerquist and altoist Herb Geller but DeFranco is the main star and the real reason to search for this long out-of-print rarity." [1]
Although "opportunities to hear the work have been rare," music reviewer Will Friedwald applauds "Cross Country Suite" as "quintessential American concert music, the kind that deserves to be heard more widely." [4]
Eric Allan Dolphy Jr. was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist and bandleader. Primarily an alto saxophonist, bass clarinetist, and flautist, Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gain prominence during the same era. His use of the bass clarinet helped to establish the unconventional instrument within jazz. Dolphy extended the vocabulary and boundaries of the alto saxophone, and was among the earliest significant jazz flute soloists.
James Peter Giuffre was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He is known for developing forms of jazz which allowed for free interplay between the musicians, anticipating forms of free improvisation.
Boniface Ferdinand Leonard "Buddy" DeFranco was an Italian-American jazz clarinetist. In addition to his work as a bandleader, DeFranco led the Glenn Miller Orchestra for almost a decade in the 1960s and 1970s.
John Daniel LaPorta was a jazz clarinetist and composer.
Russell Keith Procope was an American clarinetist and alto saxophonist who was a member of the Duke Ellington orchestra.
Jimmy Hamilton was an American jazz clarinetist and saxophonist, who was a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra.
William Overton Smith was an American clarinetist and composer. He worked extensively in modern classical music, third stream and jazz, and was perhaps best known for having played with pianist Dave Brubeck intermittently from the 1940s to the early 2000s. Smith frequently recorded jazz under the name Bill Smith, but his classical compositions are credited under the name William O. Smith.
Donald Alton Fagerquist was a small group, big band, and studio jazz trumpet player from the West Coast of the United States.
Georgie Auld was a jazz tenor saxophonist, clarinetist, and bandleader.
William Fredrick Bean was an American jazz guitarist from Philadelphia.
Donald Douglas Lamond Jr. was an American jazz drummer.
Mort Weiss was a jazz clarinet player. On his first album as leader he performed with Joey DeFrancesco on the Hammond B3 organ, featured also on his second album B3 and Me. According to Scott Yanow, "Clarinet-organ groups are far from common. In fact, prior to Mort Weiss' debut CD with organist Joey DeFrancesco, it is possible that combination had never been utilized before." Weiss has performed with Bill Cunliffe, Sam Most, Ramon Banda, Dave Carpenter, Roy McCurdy, and Luther Hughes and has written essays for the website All About Jazz.
Herbert Arnold Geller was an American jazz saxophonist, composer and arranger. He was born in Los Angeles.
It's D'Lovely 1947–1950 is a 2004 album consisting of a series of recordings by Tommy Dorsey from the late 1940s. It displays Dorsey's focus on the swing jazz big band style, despite the growing popularity of bop at the time.
Mihailo Živanović, known as Mika-Žuti (Yellow), was a prominent and one of the most inventive and best Serbian and Yugoslav clarinetist, saxophonist, a very prolific composer, conductor of RTB Light Music Orchestras and arranger.
The Glenn Miller Orchestra is a band formed after the loss of Glenn Miller, named in memory of him and the original Glenn Miller Orchestra.
Afro-Cuban Influence is an album by American jazz trumpeter and arranger Shorty Rogers which was released by RCA Victor in 1958.
The Wizard of Oz and Other Harold Arlen Songs is an album by American jazz trumpeter and arranger Shorty Rogers performing songs composed by Harold Arlen including several from The Wizard of Oz. The album was issued by RCA Victor in 1959.
Rugolo Plays Kenton is an album by composer, arranger and conductor Pete Rugolo featuring performances of tunes associated with Stan Kenton recorded in 1958 and first released on the Mercury label.
Blues Bag, subtitled Leonard Feather's Encyclopedia Of Jazz - Jazz Of The '60s, Vol. 2, is an album by clarinetist Buddy DeFranco recorded in Los Angeles in late 1964 and released by the Vee-Jay label the following year.
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)