Re: Larry Adler NPR

[GREENWAY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Ken Ficara was curious about the recordings Larry Adler did with the great
jazz guitarist, Django Reinhardt. They met in Paris in the spring of 1938
and it seems that Django and his group backed up Adler at a recording
session for Adler's label at the time, ColumbiaAs far as I've been able
to find out, four sides were issued: "Body and Soul," "Lover Come Back To
Me," "My Melancholy Baby," and "I Got Rhythm." Adler doesn't refer to the
session in his autobiography--which is odd, because he's an incurable
namedropper--but he did say once that "No one flings a word like 'genius'
around lightly, particularly about a fellow artist, but Django is the one
person I wouldn't hesitate to call a genius. Playing with him didn't mean
just a few hours of excitement but a few far too short hours when I really
felt I'd learned something."

About 20 years ago I found an LP entitled "Larry Adler" on Music for
Pleasure (a subsidiary label of EMI), MFP 1408. It was a European import.
It has all four of the Adler/Reinhardt cuts as well as eight other fine
cuts. Django really brought out the best in Adler. Adler is not a jazz
player, but he really cut loose with Reinhardt. "I Got Rhythm" is a
particularly great cut. Hopefully these four tunes have been rereleased
and someone on this list has run across them.ent 

--Kim Field