Bob Howard did a lot of recording in the mid-'30s for Decca, with the hope that his
Fats Waller-influenced jive singing would catch on as
Waller's records had for Victor. It did not work out, but
Howard did record enough material to fill up three CDs. This particular set has the 21 selections that he cut during five sessions in 1936-1937.
Howard, who also played piano, sticks here exclusively to singing and is joined by sextets/septets that often include trumpeter Marty Marsalis,
Sid Trucker, or
Slats Long on clarinet and
Zinky Cohn or
Frank Froeba on piano. The music (which includes "Bojangles of Harlem," "Copper Colored Gal," "Me, Myself And I," "Penny Wise and Pound Foolish," and "He's a Gypsy From Poughkeepsie") is pleasing in small doses but a bit too derivative for extensive listening.