Humphrey Lyttelton - High Class

A neglected gem of an album from Humphrey Lyttelton�s back catalogue reissued for the first time.Jazz musician and broadcaster, Humphrey Lyttelton, left huge legacy of recorded material. Within that body of work there are well-known and classic albums. Equally there are neglected ones which seem to get overlooked. One is the LP Humph made with the singer Cab Kaye (aka Quaye) in 1960. It is an absolute gem and forms the basis for this CD. Cab Kaye, born in London of African parentage, made his name singing with big bands (he made his recording debut in 1936 with Billy Cotton�s Band), but also performed with his own small groups (his sons Finley Quaye and Caleb Quaye are both well known musicians). As a singer his style and �sound� is similar to Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis or, even, Billie Holiday. He�s featured on ten tracks here. The collaboration with Humphrey Lyttelton was inspired: the singer sits well with the band and the band fits the singer perfectly. For most of the tracks Humph chose to use a quartet of just himself and his rhythm section. This works extremely well and it�s good to hear Humph in such an exposed setting.The last nine tracks on the CD are by the regular eight piece band and five of them have never been released before. The remaining four come from an obscure EP only issued in Germany.