Introduction

First sessions by the Illinois Jacquet Orchestra in 1945 while he was between engagements with Cab Calloway and Count Basie . .eight piece band with his brother Russell on trumpet, Henry Coker or Vic Dickenson on trombone, John Brown on alto, Arthur Dennis on bari, Tom Archia occasionally playing tenor, Sir Charles Thompson on piano, Ulysses Livingston on guitar and Charles Mingus on bass with vocals by Russell and Wynonie Harris . .the focus is on the fleet and inventive tenor playing of the leader with a minimum of the showboating for which he was often criticized