Cab Calloway (featuring Chu Berry): Ghost of a Chance
Track
(I Don't Stand A) Ghost of a Chance
Artist
Cab Calloway (vocals)
CD
New York 1939-1940, Vol. D (JSP 2006)
Musicians:
Cab Calloway (vocals), Mario Bauza (trumpet), Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet), Tyree Glenn (trombone), Chu Berry (tenor sax), Walter 'Foots' Thomas (tenor sax), Danny Barker (guitar), Milt Hinton (bass), Cozy Cole (drums),
Lammar Wright (trumpet), Quentin Jackson, Keg Johnson (trombone); Jerry Blake (clarinet, alto sax), Hilton Jefferson (alto sax), Andrew Brown (alto sax, baritone saxes), Benny Payne (piano)
.Arranged by Andy Gibson. Composed by Victor Young, Bing Crosby & Ned Washington
.Recorded: Chicago, June 27, 1940
Rating: 90/100 (learn more)
If he hadn't died from a car crash at 31, Chu Berry might've joined the great first-generation triumvirate of tenormen Hawkins/Young/Webster. Here, in his feature with Cab Calloway recorded 16 months before his death, the big-toned Berry sashays through "Ghost of a Chance" much as Hawkins had plowed "Body and Soul" the previous year. Whether or not Berry would've followed his Calloway band mate, one D. Gillespie, into the uncharted rapids of bebop, this track proves that as the '40s dawned, Chu could chew the scenery with the big boys. If you dig the manly tenorman, Chu Berry's your man.
Reviewer: Alan Kurtz
Tags: ghost of a chance · tenor sax
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