Three Little Bops Musicians

It took more than three of those little piggies to play Shorty Rogers' score for the 1956 Warner Bros. cartoon "Three Little Bops", which we discussed a while back. I found a credits listing on Wikipedia which you may take with a grain of salt as you should anything on Wikipedia.

The Shorty Rogers group was actually a sextet. At times the pigs are seen playing several different instruments depending on the scene.

Shorty Rogers is playing trumpet. That's the easy one.

Pete Jolly is playing piano, and Barney Kessel is definitely the guitarist.

The other instruments are a little more vague. The baritone sax is either Pepper Adams or Jimmy Giuffre (of "Four Brothers" fame). Drums may be Stan Levey or Shelly Manne; my money's on Manne just because of the whose West Coast Jazz brotherhood. (Manne's drumming is also heard on DePatie-Freleng cartoons of the late 60's.) Bass may be Red Mitchell or Red Callender, just call him Red.

And Milt Franklyn did slate the session - I finally tracked down the music-only tracks and he does indeed bellow "Production number 1429, the 'Three Little Bops'."