Dick Cary, best known as a utility pianist, trumpeter, and alto horn player with trad bands in the 1950s, was also an inventive arranger/composer. For years on Tuesday nights he had a rehearsal band that played his many charts, which literally numbered in the thousands. It was not until after his death in 1994 that his ensemble finally began to record. This release for the Klavier label finds the band led by Dick Hamilton (who, like
Cary, triples on trumpet, alto horn, and piano) and including such notables as trumpeter Jack Trott; Betty O'Hara on trombone, baritone horn, and double bell euphonium; clarinetist
Abe Most; and Tommy Newsome on reeds. The music mixes together aspects of trad and 1950s West Coast jazz with
Cary's own musical personality, and the swinging results sound both traditional and quite modern. Thirteen of the 16 numbers are
Cary's (two of the other pieces are unusual reworkings of "Black and Blue" and "Shimmy Sha Wobble"). The intriguing set is well worth exploring. ~ Scott Yanow