Charlie Ventura

condition (record/cover): NM / NM

Insert and obi included.

"Bop For The People" was the slogan and Charlie Ventura meant it. A tenor player out of the Gene Krupa band with an enormous sound and a showman's instincts, he spent the late forties trying to make bebop palatable to a general audience by adding vocalese, comedy and a great deal of energy, which purists found vulgar and audiences found irresistible. The live recordings are where it works best: a band running hot, an audience audibly having a good time, and a saxophonist who could genuinely play alongside the modernists when he chose to stop entertaining.

GNP Crescendo pressing. Bop as popular entertainment, from the brief window when that was a viable idea.