Biography
Cootie Williams and His Orchestra 1941-1944 is a compilation album of recordings from 1941, 1942 and 1944 that jazz trumpeter Cootie Williams made with his orchestra and in smaller groups, released on Classics in 1995. The 1942–44 musicians' strike explains the lack of sessions from 1943.
History
Two firsts about this record concerning Thelonious Monk: one, the April 1, 1942 Chicago session is the first recording of "Epistrophy" (called "Fly Right" here) which Monk wrote with Kenny Clarke earlier the same year; and two, the August 24, 1944 session is the first recording of Monk's "'Round Midnight". Cootie Williams is often given a co-credit on both songs.
The January 4, 1944 session marks the recording debut of Bud Powell, aged 20 (Williams was his legal guardian at the time), while the January 6, 1944 session features two of Pearl Bailey's earliest recordings.
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