''Harry's Choice!'' is a studio album by American trumpeter

Harry James Harry Haag James (March 15, 1916 – July 5, 1983) was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band for a short period in 1947 but shortly after he reorganized ...

with The Harry James Orchestra. The album was recorded in Hollywood, California in June, 1958 and released by

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

on stereo LP (ST-1093), mono LP (T-1093), and a series of three

EPs EPS, EPs or Eps may refer to: Commerce and finance * Earnings per share * Electronic Payment Services, in Hong Kong, Macau, and Shenzhen, China * Express Payment System, in the Philippines Education * Edmonton Public Schools, in Edmonton, ...

(EAP 1-1093, EAP 2-1093 and EAP 3-1093). After coasting through the mid-1950s, James made a complete reevaluation of where he was heading in his musical career.

Count Basie William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and th ...

provided the impetus by making a significant comeback with his newly formed "16 Men Swinging" band, and James wanted a band with a decided Basie flavor. This album is the third of several released on

representative of the Basie style that James adopted during this period, with some of the arrangements provided by former Basie saxophonist and arranger

Ernie Wilkins Ernest Brooks Wilkins Jr. (July 20, 1922 – June 5, 1999) was an American jazz saxophonist, conductor and arranger who spent several years with Count Basie. He also wrote for Tommy Dorsey, Harry James, and Dizzy Gillespie. He was musical dire ...

, whom James hired for his own band.

Track listing

Personnel

*Harry James - leader, trumpet * Willie Smith, Bob Poland, Ernie Small, Herb Lorden, Sam Firmature - saxophone *Bob Wolfe, Nick Buono,

Ollie Mitchell Oliver Edward Mitchell (April 8, 1927 – May 11, 2013) was an American musician and bandleader. He was the son of Harold Mitchell, lead trumpeter for MGM Studios, who also taught Ollie to play the trumpet. Career Mitchell would go on to play in ...

- trumpet *Bob Edmondson, Ernie Tack, Ray Sims - trombone * Jack Perciful - piano *

Dennis Budimir Dennis Matthew Budimir (June 20, 1938 – January 2023) was an American jazz and rock guitarist. He was considered to be a member of The Wrecking Crew. Biography Budimir learned to play piano and guitar in his youth and first played profession ...

- guitar *Russ Phillips - bass * Jackie Mills - drums

References

{{Authority control Jazz albums by American artists 1958 albums Capitol Records albums Albums arranged by Ernie Wilkins Big band albums