Les Thompson

["d.m.fairweather" <dmf273@xxxxxxxxx>]

I just received my copy of "Toots Blues - Toots Thielemans/Les Thompson 1950-1952, Les
Pionniers de L'harmonica Jazz".   This is a beautifully packaged CD produced by Paris
Jazz Corners.   I ordered mine online and it took about 3 weeks to get it.

I must confess that I haven't listened to the Toots sides yet, because I went straight
to cuts 15-22 which are from a February 24 1952, Gene Norman presents "Just Jazz"
concert in Pasadena, CA.   "The Les Thompson 7" featured Les Thompson (hca), Conte
Candoli (tpt), Wardell Gray & Dexter Gordon (ten saxes)!, Bobby Tucker (pno), Don
Bagley (bs) and Chico Hamilton (dms).

I am an avid collector of Wardell Gray and these tracks have not been previously
available on CD.  Up to now they were only issued on a rare 10" Les Thompson lp on
RCA-Victor.

The songs are

Take the "A" Train
Stardust
Robbin's Nest
I'm In the Mood for Love
Undecided
Over the Rainbow
Lady Be Good
Hot Harmonica

As the liner notes describe: "At the time he was announced (at the Just Jazz concert)
as a mouth organ player, all those jazz fans were ready to make a laughing stock out of
him, but Les didn't have to play more than a few bars before critical listeners were
sitting up in their seats in amazement."   Indeed you can hear the crowd cheering
loudly and you can almost hear the smiles on the faces of Wardell Gray and Dexter
Gordon and they supply the backing accompaniment to the brave young (22?) harmonicist.

Wardell & Dexter only play on the first three songs.  After that its just harmonica,
piano and drums.  But when they do play its really interesting, especially on "Robbin's
Nest" where there is some good interplay between them.  I had the pleasure of meeting
Les Thompson a few years ago, but at the time I had no idea he'd recorded with my man
Wardell!  If I ever meet him again, you can be sure I'll be quizzing him about this!