Vout for Voutoreenees is a semi-chronological dipstick sampler of
Bulee "Slim" Gaillard's performing and recording activities during 1945 and early 1946. Throughout this period,
Gaillard's primary quartet consisted of pianist
Michael "Dodo" Marmarosa, bassist
Tiny "Bam" Brown, and drummer
Arthur James "Zutty" Singleton. When in December of 1945 that group was augmented with trumpeter
Dizzy Gillespie and saxophonists
Charlie Parker and
Jack McVea, the recorded results were so inspired and in the groove that in retrospect, they seem to form the nucleus of
Gaillard's achievement during the '40s. Considered in combination with the artists already mentioned, the collective personnel on this collection is somewhat dazzling and includes trumpeters
Karl George and
Howard McGhee; trombonist
Vic Dickenson; clarinetist
Marshall Royal; saxophonists
Lem Davis, Jewell Grant,
Lucky Thompson,
Teddy Edwards, and
Wild Bill Moore; pianist
Fletcher Smith and drummer
Leo Scat Watson, himself a direct predecessor of
Gaillard in the art of jive vocals and creative nonsense. "Scotchin' with the Soda," by the way, is a cover of a Capitol recording by the
King Cole Trio. This entertaining time capsule closes with
Slim and
Bam's complete Jazz at the Philharmonic performance at the Embassy Theater in Los Angeles on April 22, 1946. The duo improvised off of a seed bed of hip changes culled from
Skeets Tolbert's "Hit That Jive, Jack,"
Gaillard's "Flat Foot Floogie," and
Barney Bigard and
Duke Ellington's "C Jam Blues." Known ever since as both the "Opera in Vout" and the "Groove Juice Symphony," this four-part concert exercise in flibbertigibbet tomfoolery is adorned with the following European classical-styled designations: "Introduzione-Pianissimo (Softly, Lost Softly)," "Recitative e Finale (Of Much Scat)," "Andante Cantabile in Modo do Blues (C Jam?)," and "Presto con stomp (With a Floy Floy)."