APRIL 13

           CHUCK WAYNE
           Tasty  Pudding
        
               Recording Date:
                   April 13, 1953
 
               Personnel:
                   Chuck Wayne       G
                   Zoot Sims            TS
                   Brew Moore         TS
                   Harvey Leonard    P
                   George Duvivier   B
                   Ed Shaughnessy    D

            LINK RETIRED

Chuck Wayne’s participation in some of the earliest bebop recordings have lead many to conclude that he was purely a bop-style guitar player. Yet on the recordings he made in the mid-1940s, first with the Billy Eckstine Band and later with Dizzy Gillespie, his swing-oriented guitar collides with the "new music" being played by the more modern musicians on the set. It was with George Shearing that Wayne had his greatest success, making a major contribution to the Shearing sound. This particular album reissues 1953 sessions with his Quartet featuring Zoot Sims and Brew Moore;. There are some standards along with seven originals, including five by Wayne. Words that can best be used to describe the latter are "innocuous," "pleasant," "nice background music." These arrangements could be heard in a hundred lounges and small clubs throughout the country during the years when this album was made. While there is virtually no inventiveness going on, the playing is entertaining. One quality that comes through with the Wayne guitar is its hornlike sound, which adds a dimension to his playing and is especially complementary when either Sims or Moore is soloing. Several of the players at these sessions were from the upper echelons of jazz; it’s regrettable they were not offered more interesting or challenging music to perform. -by Dave Nathan