Vido Musso

Vido Musso was often a great tenor sax player (other times he was just good). He recorded with many of the big bands in the 30s, 40s, and 50s, and sometimes with his own group. Here is a brief biography:

He moved to Los Angeles in 1930, began an association with Stan Kenton and the two were sidemen in several of the same local bands. Musso and Kenton briefly had a big band in 1936 but then the tenor-saxophonist was discovered and became a bit of a name playing with Benny Goodman's Orchestra (1936-37). After a period with Gene Krupa's new band (1938), Musso rejoined Goodman a couple times (1939 and 1941-42). He also had stints with Harry James (1940-41), Woody Herman (1942-43) and Tommy Dorsey (1945) between attempts to lead his own big band (none of which succeeded). Vido Musso was at the peak of his fame during his two periods with Stan Kenton (1945-46 and 1947).

I mentioned my interest in Vido Musso a few months ago to Jack , who had never heard of him. I had had an LP of Vido Musso, which I wore out back in the 50s, and so I went to Amazon to see what I could find. Last week, I received this CD in the mail. What a nostalgic trip!

I mentioned it to "Pooh", who frequently comments here, and he has ordered a copy, too [though he now asserts that he bought it mainly for the album cover!]. The first 12 tracks are from the LP that I wore out in the late 1950s. The other 13 are from another LP and from some previously unreleased versions. It's big-band sound and style with a smaller group (including Maynard Ferguson on trumpet!), and sometimes not-so-great but other times terrific playing. My favourites as a kid were Jersey Bounce, Vido's Boogie, Russian Lullaby, but most of all, I loved the opening cut, "Sing, Sing, Sing," made famous, some argue, by Vido Musso himself.

In the college pep band at Carleton College, we did "Sing, Sing, Sing," and I insisted [as the drummer] that we have the tom-tom drum intro as I'd heard it on the Swingin'st Vido Musso.