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Harlem stride pianists


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Solo Art has just released a CD with the 1961 Circle recordings of stride pianist Donald Lambert.

DONALD LAMBERT AND HIS HARLEM PIANO:

GIANT STRIDE

SoloArt (SACD 44)

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It's a straight reissue of the original LP, so no additional material (just 40 minutes of music, not 50 as it's claimed in the Jazzology website). There's more material from those 1961 sessions and from a previous one in 1950, which they have left out. Hopefully there will be a volume 2.

Anyway, it's always a pleasure to see a CD release of the sadly underrecorded Donald Lambert.

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Looks like Chris Albertson is not round here anymore, but he has brought very interesting memories re Donald Lambert at AAJ:

Having spent many evening in a small New Jersey joint, listening to Lambert's amazing music, I asked Bill Grauer for permission to record him for Riverside. I don't recall the month, but the year was 1961 and I remember all too well waiting with engineer Ray Fowler at Plaza sound for Donald to show up. He didn't. Later, when I asked him what had happened, he told me that he was ready to go but that Rudy Blesh told him not to. I did not know Rudy at the time (we later developed a friendship), but I eventually asked to hear his side of the story. It turned out that Riverside owed Rudy money for some Jelly Roll orton material (the LoC recordings, I think) and this was his way of getting even with the label. Well, at least Donald was recorded, but we could have had Donald Lambert on Riverside as well as on Circle. Donald Lambert was, indeed, under-recorded, so I wish Rudy had kept his personal vendetta out of the equation and been more concerned about Lambert and the music.
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  • 3 months later...

My most-played disc of stride comes from Lucky Roberts and Willie 'the Lion' Smith. Killer stuff!

This was my introduction to stride and remains a favorite. I first came across mention of Lucky Roberts watching A GReat Day in Harlem.

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My most-played disc of stride comes from Lucky Roberts and Willie 'the Lion' Smith. Killer stuff!

This was my introduction to stride and remains a favorite. I first came across mention of Lucky Roberts watching A GReat Day in Harlem.

More Luckey Roberts to be heard on:

-The Circle Recordings (Solo Art), which pairs Roberts' 1946 recording session for Circle (classics like "Pork and Beans", "Ripples of the Nile", "Railroad blues"...) with two sessions of Ralph Sutton (1949 & 1952). Absolutely recommended.

e53364ipsb2.jpg

-The Jazz Age, vol.2 (Grammercy), originally Period RL1929 "Happy go Lucky", a trad jazz standard session with the presence of saxophonist and clarinetist Garvin Bushell.

luckey_roberts_traycard.jpg

-"This is Jazz", the Historic Broadcasts, vol.1 on Jazzology.

293612.jpg

Luckey Roberts is sadly underrecorded, mainly because he had great success composing musical comedies and leading society bands and didn't bother to visit the recording studios. Our loss!!!

Liner notes to Tom Roberts' "Roberts plays Roberts" (Stomp Off Records) -written by the same Tom Roberts- are the most scholarly researched profile we have of one of the fathers of the stride piano.

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My most-played disc of stride comes from Lucky Roberts and Willie 'the Lion' Smith. Killer stuff!

This was my introduction to stride and remains a favorite. I first came across mention of Lucky Roberts watching A GReat Day in Harlem.

More Luckey Roberts to be heard on:

-The Circle Recordings (Solo Art), which pairs Roberts' 1946 recording session for Circle (classics like "Pork and Beans", "Ripples of the Nile", "Railroad blues"...) with two sessions of Ralph Sutton (1949 & 1952). Absolutely recommended.

e53364ipsb2.jpg

-The Jazz Age, vol.2 (Grammercy), originally Period RL1929 "Happy go Lucky", a trad jazz standard session with the presence of saxophonist and clarinetist Garvin Bushell.

luckey_roberts_traycard.jpg

-"This is Jazz", the Historic Broadcasts, vol.1 on Jazzology.

293612.jpg

Luckey Roberts is sadly underrecorded, mainly because he had great success composing musical comedies and leading society bands and didn't bother to visit the recording studios. Our loss!!!

Liner notes to Tom Roberts' "Roberts plays Roberts" (Stomp Off Records) -written by the same Tom Roberts- are the most scholarly researched profile we have of one of the fathers of the stride piano.

Thanks! I'll have to check these out.

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  • 4 weeks later...

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CD Univese has STRIDEMONSTER on sale. I forget the exact price, but I ordered it a couple of days ago.

Anycomments on "Stridemonster", Harold? Very good or excellent? :)

Well, I'd say Excellent. But then, I did produce it. :D

Great to know that, Ted!

The StrideMonster in action, Bern International Jazz Festival (1986) :

Thou Swell

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CD Univese has STRIDEMONSTER on sale. I forget the exact price, but I ordered it a couple of days ago.

Anycomments on "Stridemonster", Harold? Very good or excellent? :)

Sorry to take so long to reply. I guess I somehow missed the Jan 18, 2006 post. :P

Yeah...it's excellent. Can't miss with Wellstood or Hyman.

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CD Univese has STRIDEMONSTER on sale. I forget the exact price, but I ordered it a couple of days ago.

Anycomments on "Stridemonster", Harold? Very good or excellent? :)

Well, I'd say Excellent. But then, I did produce it. :D

Great to know that, Ted!

The StrideMonster in action, Bern International Jazz Festival (1986) :

Thou Swell

That's great to see: I was at that performance, and it was one of the reasons I decided to make a record with them. They had done one in 1983 for Hans Ruland ("I Wish I Were Twins" Swingtime 8204) and I thought it was time for another...

I also recorded Dick Hyman with the equally great pianist Ralph Sutton, and that's available on Sackville SKCD2-2054 "Just You, Just Me". Also, look for Hyman and Sutton's Concord release CCD-4603.

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Jazzology has announced that they are re-issuing Dick Wellstood's 1974 "Walkin' with Wellstood" session from 77 records.

It will be coupled with only half of Lennie Felix's "In His Stride" LP.

http://www.jazzology.com/item_detail.php?id=SACD-155

The Wellstood's welcome. The Felix I can do without -- I've always found him to be a mechanical player, sans soul. It's as if he learned to play by following along on a player piano.

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  • 1 month later...
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The main problem with the younger pianists is that most only dip in + out of stride for a portion of the time, the exceptions being mazetioer and lhotzsky, but even the latter is broadebing his base . Both of these have a left hand equal to ANY stide player recorded and of course are much better recorded than most. ANYTHING by either is well worth having and its a shame some of lhotzky's early work is out of print. "echoes of caroline" (mazetier + rhilhac) absulute joy stride duetting with 3 tracks with clarinet, well worth downloading the mp3. wellstood and sutton were full- time striders and all their records are well worth having,but sutton tended to repeat himself a bit, both had amazing rythmn and left hands. I have found some of willie the lion's stuff surpisingly cautious tempo-wise but admittedly caught when he was older.The most perfect playing is on hyman's "fat's waller " cd on references- only 1/2 pure stride unfortunately, alternates his own versions but amazingly recorded with blistering tempi- matched only by lhotzky in " carolina shout"If I could I'd lock him up and force him to play stride for food... stridemonster is superb as is "striding the classics " duet with lhotzky should hear what he does to chopin's waltz opus 64/2 at 2 mins in! Desparately seeking s/h copy of "watch out " by lhotzky btw, i@ll not die happy without it. Can't stetch a tenth myself but nor could rilhac and he somehow managed stride..

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EUBIE BLAKE

eubieblake01-03.jpg

The ragtime piano player Eubie Blake, who passed away at the age of 100 ( and one week) was a remarkable musician and even started a comeback at his 85th.

Lee Munsick remembers the last 15 years of his life and loves to share his remembrances with us.

Eubie Blake Remembered-1

Keep swinging

Durium

Edited by Durium
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I'm not sure I want my ass blown from the piano - actually I'm not sure what that means, exactly -

sorry, but nobody gets to blow my ass unless they give me flowers and take me out to dinner first - and I don't care how many copies of Opus Caprice they own -

Got a sense of déjà vu...

:w

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  • 3 months later...

Louis Mazetier's last album on Arbors, "Tributes, portraits & other stories" is an absolute masterpiece.

19361.jpg

It features not only stride numbers (wonderful rendition of "Anitra's Dance", of Lion's "Sneakaway"...) but shows a wider range of piano playing. Mazetier has matured as a pianist and proves his taste on several ballads (wonderful high note punctuations, good use of space, sense of timing), but also as a composer (besides his classics "François" -rendition to the late François Rilhac- and "Tango Seville", he brings some interesting new compositions).

Highly recommended!!!

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