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Kenny Clarke

Klook's the Man

Properbox 120

That great aficionado of jazz drummers, Charlie Watts, ranks Kenny Clarke above any other, miming the most delicate of swishes on a cymbal before saying: 'He had that touch ¡ he was Fred Astaire, the way he played and looked. Like Dave Tough, another of those subtle people, or Sonny Greer Đ'

Watts will presumably be first in the queue to buy this fascinating 4-CD compilation, which begins in 1938 with the great man on vibes backing an unremarkable singer in the company of fellow members of the Edgar Hayes band and follows the drummer's career to 1956, when he led a France-based band through Gerry Mulligan-influenced arrangements by the pioneering jazz writer/violinist Andr´ Hodeir.

In between, there are selections from the 52nd St Boys (including Bud Powell, Sonny Stitt and Fats Navarro), recorded for Charles Delaunay's Swing label in 1946; the Benny Bailey-fronted sextet, similarly formed of members of Dizzy Gillespie's outfit, that cut some sides for the same label in 1948; French bands featuring the likes of Hodeir (on violin) and alto player Hubert Fol, spearheading the bebop movement in Europe (intriguing, these); and a whole host of US Savoy recordings involving the likes of Detroit's finest (Tommy Flanagan, Kenny Burrell, Pepper Adams), the recording debuts of the Adderley brothers, altoist Cannonball and cornettist Nat, in the company of Horace Silver and Donald Byrd, Hollywood bands featuring Frank Morgan, Percy Heath, Frank Wess and Milt Jackson (the latter occasionally heard on piano in arrangements by Ernie Wilkins).

Also including rare and absorbing glimpses of players such as Algerian-born pianist Martial Solal, UK-born expatriate pianist and Lennie Tristano admirer Ronnie Ball and luminous trombonist Billy Byers, this is an exemplary compilation, shedding valuable light on the career of a man who not only quietly and elegantly revolutionised jazz drumming but also helped establish what many then saw as an 'alien' artform in Europe.

With extensive and characteristically thorough notes from Joop Visser (chief source ¡ to give a book I had a hand in a plug ¡ Mike Hennessey's Quartet biography Klook), this superb collection comes unreservedly recommended.