4 Stars DownBeat Magazine - 4 Stars Peguin Guide to Jazz

INCLUDES 2 BONUS TRACKS

Serge Chaloff was one of the first baritone sax players to become proficient at bebop. This CD presents his two best albums in their entirety, Blue Serge (Capitol T742), which was his very last LP, and Boston Blow-up! (Capitol T6510), the LP that preceded it. Versions of “How About You?” and “Boomareemaroja” were recorded during these sessions but were omitted from the original LPs. Both songs have been added here as a bonus. Chaloff would die soon after these recordings were made, on July 16, 1957, at the age of 33, from cancer of the spine, which was aggravated by his drug addiction.

PERSONNEL:

ERGE CHALOFF, baritone sax
SONNY CLARK, piano
LEROY VINNEGAR, bass
PHILLY JOE JONES, drums

Los Angeles, March 14 (tracks 1-3, 5-6) & March 16 (tracks 4, 7-8), 1956.

Bonus Album (9-19): Boston Blow-Up!
Serge Chaloff (bs); Boots Mussulli (as); Herb Pomeroy (tp);
Ray Santisi (p); Everett Evans (b); Jimmy Zitano (d)
New York, April 4 (13, 15-16 & 18) & April 5 (9-12, 14, 17 & 19), 1955.

TRACKS:

01) A Handful Of Stars
02) The Goof And I
03) Thanks For The Memory
04) All The Things You Are
05) I’ve Got The World On A String
06) Susie’s Blues [Aka Funky Blues]
07) Stairway To The Stars
08) How About You? *
09) Bob The Robin
10) Yesterday’s Gardenias
11) Sergical
12) What’s New?
13) Mar-Dros
14) Jr.
15) Body And Soul
16) Kip
17) Diane’s Melody
18) Unison
19) Boomareemaroja*

TOTAL TIME 79:37
* bonus tracks: from the same sessions but not included on the original LP