Complete Recordings
Excellent 2006 release that features the complete Ruby Braff Goes Girl Crazy on CD for the first time ever! The combination of Ruby Braff, an extraordinary trumpet player whose improvisational ability is matched only by his respect for a good melody, and George Gershwin, the acknowledged master of American popular song, is as natural as four and three on a pair of dice, and twice as nice if you also happen to like music. Ruby, who is almost single-handedly the reason why British Jazz publications invented the term 'mainstream' to describe traditionally-based modern playing, is a bug on the subject of melody and improvisation which refrains from distorting the composer's line. His enthusiasm for the score of George Gershwin's Girl Crazy pervades this entire album and is obviously shared by his cohorts: Al Cohn (tenor sax and clarinet), Hank Jones (piano), Jim Hall (guitar), Buzzy Drootin (drums) and bassists George Duvivier (who plays on But Not For Me, I Got Rhythm and Bidin' My Time) and Bob Haggart (who plays on the rest). Gambit.