Secondo "Conte" Candoli was one of the foremost trumpeters in Jazz. An able studio musician and bandsman and a striking soloist who combined the concepts of Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis into his own style.. Conte was born in Indiana but migrated to Los Angeles and made his mark basically in that city and was the epitome of an all-round musician. We lost him in December of 2001 at age 74. Tonight's Jazz Feature is a very rare and overlooked date that was issued on a small cut-rate drug store label so somehow it got bypassed undeservedly. It was recorded in 1960 in Los Angeles and featured a hand picked quintet of stellar players. Along with Conte's great trumpet work and his compositions and arrangements is the great Buddy Collette, a master of all the saxophones, flute and clarinet and the first African-American to work the Hollywood movie studios. Buddy is featured here exclusively on tenor saxophone and sounds his usual amazing self. On piano is the great Vince Guaraldi, of "Charlie Brown" fame who delivers some hard swinging piano in the Hampton Hawes/Horace Silver vein. On bass is "The Walker", Leroy Vinnegar laying down that solid bottom and last but not least is one of the finest drummers in Jazz, Stan Levey. The band is tight and plays Conte's original compositions as if they had been playing together for years. Enjoy an overlooked masterpiece of solid Jazz in "Little Band, Big Jazz".

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