Jumping over to the 1940's and the dawn of the Bop era tonight. Charlie Ventura And His Bop For The People with a 1949 recording done for RCA-Victor, Feather's Den.

Ventura recorded for a string of labels during his long and illustrious career. His RCA period netted some classics such as Ha and High On An Open Mike. Feather's Den is a tribute to Leonard Feather who was considered at the time to be the Major Domo of critics.

Here is one of the gems from that August 11, 1949 session.

Continuing our vault dig tonight with Charlie Ventura (minus his Bop For The People) and a session he did during his tenure with RCA Victor. Ventura, like a lot of Jazz musicians during this period, recorded for a lot of different labels. RCA-Victor was probably the most commercial and it was something of a sign that the genre of Be-Bop was heading into mainstream acceptance. Ventura was acknowledged as one of the prime movers and shakers of the form, and many of his recordings (most notably for Savoy) are regarded as classics. Ventura did cut some memorable sides for RCA though, among them "Ha" and "High On An Open Mike". This one, Feather's Den (an homage to the ever-present Leonard Feather) is from a session he recorded on August 11, 1949.

It speaks for itself.

(Charlie Ventura - Ever So Thoughtful)

Tonight begins a regular music series strictly off discs and from the record collection. A little change of pace and, as usual for this site, running the full musical spectrum.

So we're kicking the series off with one of my favorite discs, a 78 from Savoy records with Charlie Ventura on sax, Arnold Ross on piano, John Levy on Bass and Specs Powell on drums. "Ever So Thoughtful", recorded on August 28, 1945.

Enjoy.