This impossible-to-find LP (which, like
Dizzy Gillespie's other Verve recordings, should be reissued on CD) features the great trumpeter with two different large bands: a string orchestra arranged by Johnny Richards and a big band with more standard instrumentation that plays charts by
Buster Harding. This music predates
Gillespie's globetrotting orchestra and puts the focus almost entirely on his trumpet. Most unusual is this version of "Roses of Picardy" (a song at the time closely identified with
Sidney Bechet) and
Gillespie's vocal on "'Lo Solo." ~ Scott Yanow