In July 1953, drummer Louie Bellson recorded an album in Los Angeles for Norman Granz's Norgran label called Skin Deep. For the big band tracks, he assembled quite a stellar showcase of talent. The band featured Harry "Sweets" Edison, Maynard Ferguson, Conrad Gozzo and Ray Linn (tp); Hoyt Bohannon, Herbie Harper and Tommy Pederson (tb); Benny Carter and Willie Smith (as); Wardell Gray and Bumps Myers (ts); Bob Lawson (bar); Jimmy Rowles (p); Barney Kessel (g); John Simmons (b) and Louie Bellson (d).
One of the tracks they recorded was Tadd Dameron and Don Redman's For Europeans Only. Unfortunately, the arranger wasn't listed. To my ear, though, the chart sounds as if it was scored by Dameron himself. Dameron wrote the original arrangement for Don Redman's 1946 live recording of the song in Denmark.
Here's For Europeans Only, with solos by tenor saxophonist Wardell Gray, tenor saxophonist Bumps Myers, trumpeter "Sweets" Edison and pianist Jimmy Rowles...
Bonus: Here's Illinois Jacquet's big band in 1947 (with a trumpet section consisting of Miles Davis, Fats Navarro and Joe Newman) playing For Europeans Only...
And here's the original in 1946, with Don Redman introducing the song and Tadd Dameron in Denmark in 1946...
