• Track Listing

One of the great jazz trumpet players of the 20th century, Bobby Hackett started out in the 1930's as a follower of the highly influential Bix Beiderbecke and soon developed his own graceful, melodic style. Bobby worked with the Benny Goodman orchestra and in the late 1930's played lead trumpet in the Vic Schoen Orchestra which backed the Andrews Sisters. When Hackett developed lip problems following dental surgery, Glenn Miller offered him a job playing guitar with the Miller band. In 1947 he was recruited by Louis Armstrong for Armstrong's legendary Town Hall concert and the 1950's found Hackett fronting his own small bands with tours of America and Europe. In 1965 he toured with Tony Bennett and accompanied Bennett on two more successful European tours in 1966 and 1967. The classic album presented here features Bobby leading his own quartet which featured Billy Maxted (piano), Jack Lesberg (bass), and Buzzy Drootin (drums). Recorded live at the Grand View Inn in Columbus, Ohio on May 5, 1958, "Thanks Bobby" captures Hackett at the height of his powers, playing with a beautiful melodic sensibility and a full rich tone, never straying far from his Dixieland roots. All selections newly remastered.