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Jimmy Raney

Jimmy Raney began his jazz guitar career very early with the history showing he played in the Jerry Wald band in 1944 at age 17. Later that same year he went to Chicago where he worked in local groups and then in 1948 he did a brief stint with Woody Herman. He made some of his earliest recordings with Al Haig (Talk A Little Bop) and with Buddy De Franco (Extrovert) at about that same time in New York, and then joined the Artie Shaw Orchestra in 1949 at the age of 22.

He made a number of recordings with Shaw's orchestra often featured as a soloist. His solo on Fred's Delight from 1949 was an eight bar gem. In 1951 Jimmy Raney joined the Stan Getz Quintet and over the next three years produced, what some feel, his best work. The best examples of the collaboration of Raney and Getz were the live Storyville recordings. These sessions offered the first recorded examples of Jimmy Raney's ability to play chorus after chorus of creative, finely articulated solos.

Jimmy Raney's association with Stan Getz was only one of many associations he had with horn players. Beginning with Buddy De Franco, Raney seemed to like the small ensemble that included a horn. His recordings in this format from 1940, 1950, 1960 and 1970 far outnumber those he made as leader with trio or quartet. Like Barry Galbraith, he seemed able to blend his style, technique and sound into almost any venue, while distinguishing himself as an individual artist and soloist in those same venues.

Over the years, besides Getz, he performed and recorded with Bob Brookmeyer, Urbie Green, Bobby Jasper, Gigi Gyrce, Zoot Sims and Al Cohn just to name a few. And, although his association with Getz attained legendary status, his association with Bob Brookmeyer was equally productive and noteworthy. On the recordings made with Brookmeyer, Raney employed many of the same techniques he used so well on the Getz recordings; voicing his guitar with, or playing in unison with the horn, playing a counter melody behind the horn, providing a solid rhythm for the horn solos and of course, example after example of Raney spinning out his long solo lines.

Facing an alcohol problem and lack of work opportunities in New York, Raney returned to Louisville in early 1967. Between a 1965 Shirley Scott date, and the 1974 Momentum session under his own name, he didn’t make any jazz records. However, four titles from a 1967 concert in Louisville with hometown musicians later appeared as one side of “Jimmy Raney Strings and Swings” on Muse.

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Jimmy Raney and Brookmeyer

Jimmy Raney and Brookmeyer

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Jimmy Raney was one of the finest East Coast jazz guitarists of the 1950s. Raney possessed a terrific sense of swing, an urgent, lyrical technique and wonderful taste on solos. Two of his best albums at the start of the 12-inch album era were Jimmy Raney in Three Attitudes and Jimmy Raney Featuring Bob Brookmeyer. Recorded for ABC-Paramount in May, June and July of 1956, and produced by Creed Taylor, who had just joined the label from Bethlehem, the two ...

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Electrifying Track: A Primera Vez

Electrifying Track: A Primera Vez

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Two Jims and Zoot (1964) is a spectacular album that began as guitarist Jimmy Raney's idea. For some time, he had wanted to record an album with two guitars. When guitarist Jim Hall became available, the pair added tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims, bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Osie Johnson. On the album, the quintet takes on A Primera Vez (For the First Time) by Guy Mardel and Ralph Bernet. The ensembles opens the song swinging, with Sims taking the first ...

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