Misty - The "Groove" Holmes arrangement

[AndyV]

Some arrangements seem to gather a life of their own and eventually, become the preferred way to play a song. Some ballads lend themselves to alternate treatment as an uptempo swinger. Philly organist Richard "Groove Holmes' " version of Misty is one of those arrangements and there are probably lots more examples but here are a couple ......

RICHARD “GROOVE” HOLMES:

CHARLIE BATY: STARTS 5:20

LARRY CARLTON WITH TAL. FARLOW

[wintermoon]

being as how he was from Camden NJ just across the river I doubt you'll find anyone in the Philly area that doesn't play Groove's arrangement on that one, maybe everywhere else too. I think it was his only jukebox hit.

[JazzPadd]

Very nice, all three, but prefer the Holmes take if I had to pick one.

Thanks for posting this, it usually gets called as a ballad at jazz jam sessions here, but I’m definitely gonna call it this way next week.

IMHO, that’s perhaps the sign of a great tune, that it lends itself to a variety of musical contexts.

[Woody Sound]

Some arrangements seem to gather a life of their own and eventually, become the preferred way to play a song or at least, a very popular way to treat a ballad as an uptempo swinger. Philly organist Richard "Groove Holmes' " version of Misty is one of those arrangements and there are probably lots more examples but here are a couple ......

RICHARD “GROOVE” HOLMES:

It's interesting how "swing" and "shuffle" are often mingled. Any time you have a hard 2 & 4 in swing, you are entering into shuffle territory. Some of Buddy Rich's hardest swing beats could really be considered fast blues shuffles.

[AndyV]

JazzPadd, I agree. Holmes recording is perfect IMHO. I like Charlie's version but Larry's rock edge kind of rubs me the wrong way even though he's a masterful, grooving guitar player.

There seem to be a wide variety of feels that people count as swing as long as two and four are emphasized. Are there one and three feels that you could call swing?