Slim Gaillard - Searching for You

The Guardian 80

(Sunset Blvd)

Something suitably cheerful and timelessly weird to see the new year in. All true jazz lovers know about Slim, the laid-back jester of the swing and bebop eras. He could play many instruments, including piano (with his knuckles) and guitar, and sang incomprehensible songs in a private language, called Vout-O-Reenee. His playing was ramshackle, but somehow never wrong, and his charm invincible. This collection of very rare singles from his later years, while not up to his records with Parker, Dizzy etc, is sufficiently inconsequential and off-the-wall to delight his admirers, and the enclosed booklet will sketch in the background for everyone else. Oh, and by the way, Slim was Marvin Gaye’s father-in-law.