A solid exponent of the swing-to-bop approach, Herbie Fields came up in bands led by
Hot Lips Page and
Raymond Scott, replaced
Earl Bostic in
Lionel Hampton's orchestra, and led a series of small and large groups throughout the second half of the 1940s. One enduring claim to fame is the fact that he also made records with
Miles Davis. Released by Vintage Music Productions in 2001,
His Orchestra and Quintet combines selected vocal and instrumental cuts dating from August 1946 through November 1947.
Fields studied at Juilliard and was exceptionally adept with soprano, alto, and tenor saxophones as well as the clarinet, on which he sounded a lot like
Artie Shaw. The lineups in this portion of his discography include trumpeter Benny Harris, trombonist
Eddie Bert, and saxophonists Joe Garland and
Serge Chaloff. In addition to assorted pop vocals (including "A-Huggin' and A-Chalkin'," a crude musical joke fixated upon the circumference of an obese woman), there are several excellent instrumentals, ranging from a lovely "Come Back to Sorrento" and a cool, swinging "Blue Fields," to upbeat numbers like the "Soprano Boogie," "Cherokee," and this band's hit record "Dardanella." The
Herbie Fields story ended sadly after he withdrew from the jazz scene, moved to Miami, ran a nightclub, and slew himself with an overdose of sleeping pills in 1958. ~ arwulf arwulf