Johnny Guarnieri led the last of the Tonight! America After Dark bands. Enjoying his tenure under Jazzbo Collins for the freedom he was allowed in performing on TV, Tonight! was a highlight of Guarnieri's second "career" as a staff musician. The first stage of Johnny Guarnieri's career was as a Swing pianist during the peak of the Big Band era with two of the era's most popular bandleaders: Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman. Despite Goodman's proclamation that Guarnieri was one of the worst pianists he'd ever employed, he earned a reputation as a swinger and held court with a number of small combos including his own Johnny Guarnieri Trio which released its only album Hot Piano in 1945 on Savoy Records.
The trio is Johnny Guarnieri on "hot piano," Slam Stewart on bass and Sammy Weiss on drums. The album starts generically with an approachable interpretation of "I'm in the Mood for Love." That is, until Slam Stewart introduces himself fully. As he will throughout the record, Slam's plucked bass becomes a bowed bass for his solos—and every song features a Slam solo—to which he hums along. His novel, nearly novelty, elastic bass style highlights Guarnieri's original compositions best and is a playful contrast to Guarnieri's own punchy wit on the piano.
Guarnieri's clear articulation on the piano begets a strange marriage of two contrasting styles: the minimal and fractured solos of Count Basie with the full and fluid Stride of Fats Waller. Guarnieri somehow makes the oxymoronic fusion work. Sometimes a song might bring out the Basie or the Fats more from Guarnieri, but he manages to find that balance through his minimalist approach to soloing, relying on repetition and slight variations that make witty the occasionally florid.
With Slam Stewart bringing in a humanly absurdist sense of humor alongside Guarnieri's more structured, punchline oriented wit (said three times so you know I mean it,) Sammy Weiss plays the straight man of the group: keeping the act together and on time, setting the tone of each "sketch," and occasionally given to fits of high energy surrounded by the madcap of it all. The result is a wonderful album that is contagiously fun, gregarious and surprising at all turns. And occasionally you hear the future, Ahmad Jamal's own landmark trios are a decade away but theoretically might start here.
Here is the discography surrounding the Johnny Guarnieri Trio's debut album:
Basie English (1944 single with his All Star Orchestra)
Salute to Fats (1944 single with his All Star Orchestra)
Bowing Singing Slam (1944 single)
Band Aid (1944 single)
I'm in the Mood for Love (1945 single)
Firebird (1945 single)
My Blue Heaven (1945 single)
Deuces Wild (1945 single)
Hot Piano
"Basie English" by Johnny Guarnieri's All Star Orchestra
"Salute to Fats" by Johnny Guarnieri's All Star Orchestra
Pass the Headphones!!
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