The Big Noise From Winnetka - Bob Haggart & Ray Bauduc

The Big Noise From Winnetka is barest of bones jazz rhythm stretched to its breathless breaking point. Bassist (and damn fine whistler) Bob Haggart and drummer Ray Bauduc made up the rhythm section of Bob Crosby's Bobcats, a swing band mainly active during the 30s/40s but have reunited endlessly over the years. During a 1938 performance at Blackhawks Restaurant in Chicago (the Chicago Loop area, to be precise), Crosby and the rest of the Bobcats were late returning from a break so Haggart and Bauduc began jamming. And what a big noise they made.

The song is thriller music incarnate. It's cool and classy while wired and paranoid. A bit like straddling a caffeine rush between the high and the jitters. Haggart's fine lines stride and shake, jumping up and down the neck like doped up fleas. Bauduc concocts a triptrapping rhythm that seems to utilize each section of his drumkit in a series of consecutive solos before turning into an EVEN BIGGER solo around the halfway mark. Then! The really cool part happens. Right around the 1:40 mark, Bauduc starts playing his sticks on Haggart's bass strings. Haggart in turn keeps fingering the neck, creating a fabulously percussive bass solo which becomes the ultimate stripped down expression of the rhythm section in a band.

The pair kept playing the song (Crosby loved it) over the years. It's been used in countless films, has been reworked with a full band and vocals (nowhere near as powerful as the genuine article), and has firmly entrenched itself in history as one of those songs where it just sounds so natural- so intuitive -that you can't help but think, "DAMN IT. I know this song from somewhere. But WHERE?"