As part of Lone Hill Jazz's
John Graas project, this CD reissues all of the music originally out on the LPs
Jazzmantics and
Coup de Graas, plus a leftover track from
French Horn Jazz.
Graas, one of the top jazz French horn players of the 1950s, was also a talented third stream arranger and composer. On these albums he is heard leading groups ranging from a quintet to a tentet, with
Art Pepper often being well featured. The music ranges from swinging, cool-toned hard bop to adventurous selections that hint strongly at classical music. In addition to
Pepper, key soloists include trumpeter
Conte Candoli, tenor saxophonist
Bob Cooper, and altoist
Herb Geller with
Red Callender having a prominent role on tuba. The formerly rare music from 1957 (with the French Horn jazz selection dating from the previous year) is well-worth discovering for it was overshadowed and somewhat overlooked even when it was released a half-century ago.