Buddy DeFranco was one of the few jazz clarinettists to come to prominence in the post-war era when the instrument saw a decline in popularity.

One of the only clarinettists to successfully find a role in the changing musical environment, brought about by the emergence of bebop, DeFranco enjoyed a long and fruitful career. His grounding was in the swing orchestras of Gene Krupa, Charlie Barnet and most notably Tommy Dorsey, but having left Dorsey in 1948, he led his own bands and performed with some of the leaders of the bebop era. In the 1960s and ‘70s he led the later incarnation of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, under the name, “The World Famous Glenn Miller Orchestra, Directed By Buddy DeFranco”.

This 2CD set selects recordings released on the Capitol, Columbia, MGM, Clef, Norgran, and Verve labels featuring DeFranco leading his bands and playing as a member of groups led by Count Basie, Lionel Hampton and Oscar Peterson. Among the top musicians of the day, with whom he plays alongside on the tracks featured here, are Art Tatum, Clark Terry, Buddy Rich, Max Roach, Kenny Drew, Curly Russell, Art Blakey, Milt Hinton, Eugene Wright, Ray Brown, Herb Ellis, Louis Bellson, Harry ‘Sweets’ Edison and Barney Kessel. It’s an entertaining collection which not only provides a showcase for DeFranco’s underestimated virtuosity as a clarinettist, but presents him playing on some notable recordings with some of the finest musicians of the post-war decade.

DeFranco, who continued to record into his 80s when he made music with younger exponents of the same lyrical jazz style that he loved, died in Florida at the age of 91.

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