Joe Williams & Harry "Sweets" Edison - Have a Good Time Together

When singer Joe Williams left Count Basie's orchestra to go out on his own in early 1961, at first he co-led a group with veteran trumpeter Harry "Sweets" Edison. Their two joint recordings for Roulette have been reissued in full on this single CD. The Together set matches Williams and Edison with tenor saxophonist Jimmy Foster and a four-piece rhythm section that includes pianist Sir Charles Thompson. Among the highlights of the dozen standards are "I Don't Know Why," "Aren't You Glad You're You," and "Lover Come Back to Me." Have a Good Time has 11 songs performed by a mostly unidentified larger group arranged by Ernie Wilkins, including fine versions of "Sometimes I'm Happy," "Old Folks," "September in the Rain," and "Moonlight in Vermont." Throughout the sets, Joe Williams did his best to de-emphasize the blues (he wanted to be known as a well-rounded singer), instead choosing to uplift and personalize standards. Excellent music.

Scott Yanow

Source : https://www.allmusic.com/album/together-have-a-good-time-mw0000591021#review

Joe Williams

Harry "Sweets" Edison

Together

Have a Good Time

Tracks

1 Winter Weather (Shapiro)  1:52

2 I Don't Know Why (I Just Do) (Ahlert, Turk)  2:30

3 There's a Small Hotel (Rodgers, Hart)  2:19

4 Out of Nowhere (Green, Heyman)  2:14

5 Aren't You Glad You're You (Burke, Van Heusen)  2:27

6 Remember (Berlin)  1:52

7 Together (Brown, DeSylva, Henderson)  2:31

8 Deep Purple (DeRose, Parish)  2:51

9 Always (Berlin)  2:40

10 Lover, Come Back to Me (Hammerstein II, Romberg)  4:08

11 By the River Sainte Marie (Leslie, Warren)  1:59

12 Alone Together (Dietz, Schwartz)  2:35

13 Have a Good Time (Bryant, Bryant)  2:52

14 Sometimes I'm Happy (Caesar, Youmans)  2:45

15 Old Folks (Hill, Robison)  2:55

16 Until I Met You (Green, Wolf)  2:50

17 I Won't Cry Anymore (Frisch, Wise)  3:18

18 S'posin' (Denniker, Razaf)  2:22

19 A Blues Serenade (Grande, Lytell, Parish, Signorelli) 2:59

20 September in the Rain (Dubin, Warren)  2:12

21 Summertime (Gershwin, Gershwin, Heyward)  2:37

22 Moonlight in Vermont (Blackburn, Suessdorf)  2:17

23 Falling in Love With Love (Rodgers, Hart)  2:34

*

Personnel

[# 1-12]

Joe Williams - vcl

Harry "Sweets" Edison - tp

Jimmy Forrest - ts

"Sir" Charles Thompson - p

unknown - g

Tommy Potter - b

Clarence Johnston - dr

Ernie Wilkins - arr.

Recorded in Los Angeles ; January 31 & February 1 & 2, 1961

[# 13-23]

Joe Williams - vcl

Harry "Sweets" Edison - tp

Jimmy Jones - p

Joe Benjamin - b

Charlie Persip - dr

Others unknown

Ernie Wilkins - arr.

Recorded in New York City ; July 1961