Cat on a Hot Fiddle

Cat on a Hot Fiddle Artist: Stuff Smith
Label: Verve Labels
Category: Music



Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Format: Original recording remastered
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1


UPC: 602498614877
EAN: 0602498614877
ASIN: B00014AUT6


Release Date: 2004-03-23

Related Categories:

General General
Related | Jazz | Styles | Music
Swing General Swing General
Related | Swing Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music
General General
Related | Pop | Styles | Music
Verve Verve
Related | Verve Music Group | Specialty Stores | Music

Listmania:

  1. Stream-of-Consciousness Summer Listening

Tracks:

  1. Undecided
  2. The Man I Love
  3. Oh Lady Be Good
  4. Nice Work If You Can Get It
  5. Take The 'A' Train
  6. Blue Violin
  7. They Can't Take That Away From Me
  8. Somebody Loves Me
  9. 'S Wonderful
  10. Nice And Warm
  11. Strike Up The Band

Similar Items:

  1. Duke Ellington's Jazz Violin Session
  2. Time and Again
  3. Jazz Violin Summit
  4. A Handful of Stars
  5. The Dark Angel of the Fiddle

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Sizzling Hot Jazz Fiddle!!!!.......2004-03-26


Jazz violinist Stuff Smith's career actually peaked in the 1930s and enjoyed a brief resurgence in the late 1950s. Without question he is one of the most underappreciated Jazz soloists of the twentieth and now twenty-first centuries.

A master violinist who used only the last six or eight inches of the bow of the violin to produce his signature melodic slurs and pizzicato staccato sound, he delivers again on this CD reissue of his 1959 album CAT ON A HOT FIDDLE. While there isn't a track to be ignored, some performances stand out. Smith absolutely swings and glistens on the Gershwin and Gershwin composition "They Can't Take That Away From Me" and he resorts to rapid fire improvisation on the Billy Strayhorn composition (and Duke Ellington Orchestra trademark piece) "Take The A-Train."

The Brothers Gershwin compositions make up most of this splendid outing that finds Smith accompanied on nine of eleven tracks by the saucy and always swinging pianist Shirley Horn along with bassist Red Mitchell who delivers a succulent bass solo on Strayhorn's "A-Train." Smith's own considerable skills as a composer are offered on the self-penned "Blue Violin" and "Nice and Warm." And his Satchmo-esque (and occasionally humorous) vocals are offered on "Oh, Lady, Be Good" and "Somebody Loves Me." This Verve reissue is a most welcome addition to the label's steadily growing catalogue. This perfectly remastered recording should satisfy the most discriminating Jazz fan and initiate the uninitiated listener into the sheer glory of Stuff Smith. But buyer beware: Once you hear Stuff, you'll have to buy some more Stuff!!!

Music CD:

  1. Ken Burns JAZZ Collection: Miles Davis ~ Miles Davis
  2. Soul Ballet ~ Soul Ballet
  3. Andre Previn Plays Harold Arlen ~ Andre Previn
  4. The Elegant Mr. Wilson 1933/1945 ~ Teddy Wilson
  5. Courage ~ Milton Nascimento
  6. O Universo Musical de Baden Powell ~ Baden Powell
  7. In the Zone ~ Wayman Tisdale
  8. The Very Best of Carly Simon: Nobody Does it Better ~ Carly Simon
  9. Ashes to Ashes ~ Joe Sample
  10. Collaboration with Almeida ~ Modern Jazz Quartet with Laurindo Almeida

Music CD

Music CD

Music CD

He's Watching You ~ Poett Posse

Still Waters ~ The Bee Gees

Siedah ~ Siedah

The Battle of Hastings ~ Caravan

Ultimate Rock Ballads Collection ~ Various Artists

Second of Nine ~ Jr. James & the Late Guitar

Make Yourself at Home

Official Fiction

Beep Me 911 Pt.2 ~ Missy Elliott

Kuntryversy ~ Darkbrown & Dru