“In The Middle Of A Kiss”—Zoot Sims Quartet

Sam Coslow (1902-1982), the first Broadway songwriter to be hired by Paramount in 1929, has been writing songs from his teens. Later he came up with such songs as "Mister Paganini," "My Old Flame," "Cocktails For Two" (both with Arthur Johnston) and this one, "In The Middle Of A Kiss" which he composed for the 1935 Paramount comedy film "College Scandal".

Zoot Sims (ts, ss) Hank Jones (pf) Milt Hinton (b) Grady Tate (ds). Recorded at New York City's A&R Studios, August 9, 1973

John Haley Sims (1925-1984) was a saxophonist who played in the bands of Benny Goodman, Woody Herman and Stan Kenton and others. He was one of the original "Four Brothers" of the Woody Herman saxophone section -- together with Stan Getz, Herb Steward and Serge Chaloff.

Jack Sims was born in Inglewood, California -- like so many performers, as a son of two vaudevillians.

His musical career began in a band with his three brothers: Bob on trumpet, Gene on guitar, Ray (who became a professional jazz trombonist) on tuba, and Jack himself, initially on drums, later on a metal clarinet.

One of Jack Sims' big influences at the time was Sam Donahue, a tenor saxophonist in Gene Krupa’s orchestra. Sims also loved the tenor sound of Ben Webster and started to dream bout getting his own tenor saxophone.

With the help of his father, Sims finally succeeded in getting his favored instrument.

Sims once observed "When you begin, unless you’re a complete genius, you have to be influenced."

Despite being also strongly influenced by the flowing saxophone lines of Lester Young, in time Zoot Sims would developed a distinctive sound and style of his own with perfect structural concepts.

Jack Sims acquired his nickname Zoot when he was 15 and playing tenor saxophone in Kenny Baker's band in California.

Each music stand in front of the orchestra members was decorated with a hep nickname.

Sims sat down behind a stand that said "Zoot" and the name stuck with him.

In 1941, Zoot Sims began performing with the Bobby Sherwood orchestra. Two years later, Zoot Sims joined the band of Bob Astor. When Benny Goodman heard one of their late night radio broadcasts from The Pelham Heath Inn in the Bronx, he asked Sims to join his band.

Zoot Sims moved to the Benny Goodman band after a year and continued a lengthy association with the famed band leader, which included going on tour to the Soviet Union in 1962.

In 1953 Sims joined Stan Kenton in what many feel was Kenton's finest band, and then Sims formed a quintet with Al Cohn, who in 1948 had replaced Herb Steward in the Herman band.

Zoot Sims also made numerous recordings with well known artists like Gerry Mulligan and Astrud Gilberto.

Sims preferred playing in clubs above playing in concerts because "There's more communication in clubs."

Zoot Sims also loved it that he was the only musician the Muppet Show named a character after: the sax-playing Muppet "Zoot."