Kenny Dorham was a solid and forward-thinking modernist when he emerged in the mid-to late 1940s. The trumpeter was overshadowed throughout his career by the likes of
Dizzy Gillespie,
Miles Davis,
Clifford Brown,
Lee Morgan, and
Freddie Hubbard, and became the epitome of the word "underrated."
Dorham never recorded as a leader for Savoy other than co-leading the Be Bop Boys with altoist
Sonny Stitt, so this single CD is just a sampling of his sideman appearances. Definitely not for completists since all but the Bebop Boys date issued here are incomplete, one wonders who the disc is aimed at, particularly since
Dorham's most significant work was made a little later on for Blue Note. The trumpeter is heard with the Billy Eckstine Orchestra playing "The Jitney Man"; performing eight numbers (plus two alternate takes) with the Be Bop Boys (a quintet also including altoist
Stitt and pianist
Bud Powell); on three songs with a band headed by vibraphonist
Milt Jackson and including the pioneer jazz French horn player
Julius Watkins; on three tunes from a February 12, 1949 broadcast by
the Charlie Parker Quintet (and available in much more complete form elsewhere), and on four of the selections from a 1956 album by baritonist
Cecil Payne. The bop and hard bop music heard throughout this CD is consistently enjoyable, but the reissue is a bit of a frivolity. The Be Bop Boys date should have been coupled with some other unrelated all-star sessions instead, with the other
Dorham sideman dates being reissued in full in more logical sets. ~ Scott Yanow