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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZRANEY, Jimmy(b 20 August 1927, Louisville KY; d there 10 May 1995) Guitarist. His mother taught him chords and a local teacher played Charlie Christian records for him: 'I almost fainted,' he said later. He worked in New York and Chicago as a teenager, played with Woody Herman '48, with Stan Getz '51-2, followed Tal Farlow in the Red Norvo Trio '53-4, had a steady gig in a club with pianist Jimmy Lyon, also worked on Broadway and made friends with humorist James Thurber. He worked with Getz again '62-3 but had an alcohol problem, returned to Louisville and often worked outside music, but taught himself cello and continued composing. Raney was deeply inflenced by bop, with lyricism and rhythmic strength; the first quintet with Getz was legendary but Raney allegedly left because of Getz's heroin addiction. Its recordings (live and studio) were on Roost, Clef, Jam, Norgran and Prestige, collected on a three-CD Mosaic set '90, superb rhythm sections including Al Haig, Horace Silver, Duke Jordan, Tiny Kahn, Roy Haynes, Red Mitchell etc. Raney began touring again mid-'70s but towards the end of his life suffered from tone deafness (Meniere's disease of the inner ear). He recorded as a leader on Prestige '53-6, on Vogue in Paris '54, ABC-Paramount '56, Muse '57-9, Mainstream/Fontana '64 (Two Jims And A Zoot with Jim Hall, Zoot Sims, Steve Swallow and Osie Johnson), MPS '74, Xanadu '75-6 (including Solo), then several albums on Steeplechase and Criss Cross from '79 including duos with his son Doug Raney (b 29 August 1956; d 1 May 2016), who lived in Copenhagen: Stolen Moments and Raney '81 had rhythm sections, Duets and Nardis just the two guitars. The Date '81 on French Stil was a duo with Martial Solal, But Beautiful '90 on Criss Cross a trio with George Mraz and drummer Lewis Nash. Doug also made several albums for Steeplechase, Meets The Tenors on Criss Cross. |