Clyde Lombardi

Red Norvo: The Secret Session

by Pierre Giroux
February 11, 2026

Red Norvo's The Secret Session arrives like a message in a bottle, its cork finally loosened after more than 80 years. Recorded in late 1942, in the dead of night and against the grain of wartime caution and a recording ban called by the American Federation of Musicians union, these sides capture a septet caught between eras. Besides Norvo, the band featured musicians who would go on to become stars in their own right, including trumpeter Shorty Rogers, trombonist Eddie ...