Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band cover

Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band

Released

In some parts of America, the Whip Inflation Now era might as well have been another Great Depression — so why not let the drop-dead, burning-Bronx New York have a shot at putting together a good old-fashioned big band? The brainchild of Stony Browder Jr. and August Darnell, Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band thrived off a sardonic-yet-sincere disco-fied and Latin-inflected take on American jazz of forty years previous, with lead singer Cory Daye as the woman who’d lend them a voice to die for. That meant a great cover of “Night and Day” and six other songs that Cole Porter probably wishes he would’ve written — including the gorgeous love-conquers-malaise ballad “Hard Times,” the wobble-kneed zoot-suit-city swing of “I’ll Play the Fool,” and a hit in “Cherchez La Femme” that already sounded like a classic standard in Bicentennial America, even more so nearly a half-century later.

Nate Patrin

Suggestions
Black Blood cover

Black Blood

Black Blood
Taiyo cover

Taiyo

Loco Mía
Tom Tom Club cover

Tom Tom Club

Tom Tom Club
Cuba: The Conversation Continues cover

Cuba: The Conversation Continues

Arturo O'Farrill, Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra
Rock Your Baby cover

Rock Your Baby

George McCrae
Time/Life (Song for the Whales and Other Beings) cover

Time/Life (Song for the Whales and Other Beings)

Charlie Haden, Liberation Music Orchestra
Magic Journey cover

Magic Journey

The Salsoul Orchestra
Black And Blue cover

Black And Blue

The Rolling Stones