Excellent Good Fair Poor : COMPACT DISCS

“Just Buddy’s.” Buddy Childers Big Band. Trend. Another CD advantage: Two of these 10 cuts were not included in the original LP version. All 10 offer vibrant examples of big-band jazz played, surprisingly, by a group of Chicago musicians during Childers’ two-year residency there. His own contributions, as composer or arranger on some tunes and trumpeter or fluegelhornist on all, offer a needed reminder of his mature creativity. Other soloists, such as Mike Smith on soprano and alto saxes, show how much underexposed talent Chicago has to offer.