SACD Illinois Jacquet – Swing’s The Thing (Mono)

Swing’s The Thing as a hybrid mono SACD from Analogue Productions’ Verve series: Illinois Jacquet with Roy Eldridge, Jimmy Jones, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown and Jo Jones, recorded in October 1956. All six pieces play in one sequence – from “Las Vegas Blues” to “Lullaby of the Leaves”.

Beyond the famous solo

Illinois Jacquet was nineteen when his tenor solo on Lionel Hampton’s “Flying Home” became a signature performance in 1942. Fourteen years later, Swing’s The Thing places him in a different setting: six musicians, six selections and enough room to follow the accompanists as well as the leader. Jacquet is in charge – but he is far from the only player with a story of his own.

Norman Granz assembled this sextet at Radio Recorders in Hollywood on 16 October 1956: Roy Eldridge on trumpet, Jimmy Jones on piano, Herb Ellis on guitar, Ray Brown on bass and Jo Jones on drums. Jacquet’s association with Granz reached back to the very first Jazz at the Philharmonic concert in 1944 – a bond between concert stage and studio that stands behind an album originally issued in the Clef catalogue.

A tune called “Achtung”

The opening composition belongs to the trumpeter: Eldridge wrote “Las Vegas Blues”. Later comes Jacquet’s own “Achtung”, its German title an unexpected detail in this American session, while standards such as “Harlem Nocturne” and “Can’t We Be Friends?” offer other starting points. Familiar songs and originals sit side by side without being forced into one narrative.

That variety makes it rewarding to follow the horns as partners rather than just waiting for their solos. Notice when Eldridge answers a tenor phrase, when either leaves an opening, and how the accompaniment prepares the next entrance. With only six players, these changes of responsibility are easy to trace – and the melody stays a helpful guide even on a first encounter.

Six players sharing the pulse

Eldridge helped connect the trumpet language of swing with the modern jazz that followed. Here he works in a band where both piano and guitar can accompany: Jimmy Jones and Herb Ellis occupy different registers and roles, while Ray Brown and Jo Jones – the drummer long associated with Count Basie’s orchestra – lay the rhythmic foundation.

“Have You Met Miss Jones?” and “Lullaby of the Leaves” are perfect places to return to on a second listen. Follow the guitar instead of the tenor, then the bass: an impressive personnel list becomes a set of individual decisions – who supports a phrase, who leaves space, who carries it forward. Six performances with plenty of ways into Jacquet’s music.

The hybrid mono SACD from Analogue Productions

CVRJ 8023 SA is a hybrid mono SACD from Analogue Productions (Verve). According to the publisher, George Marino at Sterling Sound mastered it from the original master tapes; the DSD version was made from a PCM transfer, for which Marino chose a George Massenburg GML 20-bit converter after comparing several. The SACD layer plays on SACD-capable players, the CD layer on any conventional CD player. The disc contains the six pieces of the original album.

You order from Michael 45 in Germany. We arrange the US import and ship from Hilden.

Also in another edition: Swing’s The Thing

Musicians

Documented selection of participating musicians. Personnel may vary by track; this list does not claim to be complete.