(Big Band) Bob Keene And His Orchestra — Big Band Bash — 1992, MP3, 320 kbps

Bob Keane had two very different careers. He began as a swing clarinetist who in the early '50s recorded Big Band Bash and a few years later cut a couple other jazz albums. But then after he discovered Ritchie Valens, he became a successful rock & roll producer in 1957, founding the Del-Fi label. Big Band Bash is from the beginning of his first career, with Keane leading a swing-oriented big band full of West Coast jazz studio players. Although the more familiar songs are given fresh arrangements (the arramgers are Bill Holman, Billy May, Nelson Riddle, Shorty Rogers, Gene Roland, Johnny Thompson, and Paul Villepigue), the music is mostly pretty safe and melodic. Keane plays well throughout, while there are short solos from some of his other sidemen. The final number, a Dixieland-ish "Lilly's Back," was not on the original LP. Overall, this is a pleasing and swinging effort.