Do Get Around Much...

Mosaic Records have long shone like a good deed in a naughty world. In September, their light will burn with a blue flame with the release of The Complete Woody Herman, Decca, Mars and MGM Sessions 1943-1954.

For collectors of Ellingtonia, it is interesting to note that the first disc is comprised entirely of sessions in which Ben Webster

participates and which were recorded for the Decca label in November 1943. The sides were also issued by the World Transcription service . Webster had left the Duke Ellington orchestra under something of a cloud in August of that year.  Coincidentally, Ellington himself recorded for World Transcriptions and his very first session for the label was on the same day that Webster was in the studio with the Herman Orchestra. From the ever-reliable Lord's discography, here is a 'screen shot' of the Herman sessions with Webster...

The Mosaic collection anthologises these recordings which are obtainable otherwise only across numerous obscure LPs. 

Outside of the collection's remit is one final encounter in the recording studio between herman and Webster in the forties which took place for a V-Disc session on 24 January, 1945, one title recorded: Somebody Loves Me. That particular track was published on the album Ben and the Boys.

An even more rare encounter between Herman and the Ellingtonians is also included on this seven disc set. Another session for World Transcriptions on 4 April, 1944 was recorded with a group that included Ray Nance and Johnny Hodges. From Lord, here are the details...

Twelve months earlier to the day, or as good as, Ben Webster had been a member of the Ellington Orchestra and they were appearing 'in residence' at The Hurricane Club, Broadway. Ironically, the Orchestra was again playing the Hurricane when Nance and Hodges must have 'moonlighted' to play the session with Herman. It's a small World!

Recordings of the Ellington Orchestra with Nance and Hodges at the Hurricane from that same week or so were included on a  CD released by Duke Ellington Society UK at the end of 2017.