jeffcrom

And here's a bit of annotation for my listening list: Abe Schwartz was the Quincy Jones of early 20th-century New York klezmer - bandleader, instrumentalist, producer, songwriter, and arranger. His band recorded scores of great records, often under pseudonyms. Anybody who was anybody played with Schwartz. Naftule Brandwein was the wild genius of early klez clarinet - an unpredictable, hard-drinking character who knew how good he was. He managed to work his name into his record titles as much as Dexter Gordon did on his early sides. Josef Rosenblatt was the Caruso of cantors - just an amazing tenor. The Met reportedly offered him a contract to sing opera, which he turned down. Morris Goldstein's "Die Greene Cousine" is an excellent, very interesting record. The song, about a visit from a country cousin, was a hit, and was a hit again 20 years later for Peggy Lee and Benny Goodman as "My Little Cousin," still with plenty of klezmer flavor.

Columbia used a green label (and occasionally a shade of blue) for their "E" series. "E" stood for "ethnic;" that series was replaced by the "F" ("foreign") series around 1923. Whenever I find a green-label "E" or "F" series Columbia, I buy it, even if I've got no idea what it's going to sound like. I've discovered some amazing world music that way, such as a Hungarian taragoto record, and a fabulous little rustic Ukranian band consisting of bass, two violins, and a clarinet.

Early klezmer, cantors, Yiddish folk & theater songs: Jewish-Russian Orchestra (actually the great Abe Schwartz Orchestra) - Tantzt, Tantzt, Yiddelach/Wedding Dance (Columbia, 1917) Naftule Brandwein - Bulgar ala Naftule/A Hore mit Tzibeles (Columbia, early 40s pressing of a 1925 recording). A Dance with Onions? Cantor Berele Chagy - Mai Ko Mashma Lon/Kum Zu Mire In Cheder'l (Columbia, 1919) Cantor Josef Rosenblatt - Tka B'Shofar/Uwyom Simchaschem (Columbia, 1915) Cantor Josef Rosenblatt - Es Zemach Dovid/Rezeh Asirosom (Columbia, 1917) Morris Goldstein - Der Yold is Mich Mekane/S'is Shoin Ferfallen (Columbia, 1920) Abraham Moskowitz - Die Greene Cousine/Nit Die Hagede, More die Kneidlech (Columbia, 1922). With Abe Schwartz on violin and some excellent clarinetist. Joseph Feldman - Mein Mames Liedele/A Yiddishe Chasene (Okeh, 1923) Naum Coster - A Mame's Laide/Die Alte Kashe (Victor, 1920)

Back to the original story - it's wonderful to live in a city with so little crime that the police can spend their time arresting musicians. Might just leave the doors unlocked tonight.

Yes, those original-issue Caruso 78s sound better than any reissue I've heard. I'm up to about 20, most in excellent condition - they were so expensive at the time that the original owners generally took good care of them. Almost all very early disc records were single-sided. Pressing music onto both sides of the record seems obvious to us now, but it's like anything else - somebody had to think of it. Columbia revolutionized the record business when they introduced the double-sided record in 1908. Victor followed suit a month later, but stubbornly refused to convert their Red Seal classical series to double-sided records. I guess that also applied to HMV in the UK. The Red Seals were prestige/luxury items, and Victor apparently thought that keeping them single-sided contributed to their snob appeal. They held out until 1923, when dwindling sales forced them to go double-sided with their classical records as well.

Bruce Banner Spider Korner Little Jack Horner

Ben Tucker - Baby, You Should Know It (Ava mono). So long, Ben.

Damn. Savannah is a strange and wonderful little city, and Ben Tucker made it more wonderful. He kept his jazz club, Hannah's (named after the vamp of Savannah, G.A. in the famous song) open for longer than I would have thought possible, although he changed locations a couple of times. He must have gotten sick of playing "Comin' Home Baby" at some point, but he would always answer requests for it graciously. I know - it was one of my first wife's favorite tunes, and I would always request it for her when we heard him play. RIP to a great bassist and a great man.

Le Jazz en France, Volume 1 - Paris 1919-1923: Premiers Jazz Bands (Pathe Marconi). Some very enjoyable not-quite-jazz-yet, at least to an antiquarian like me. This is the stuff that influenced Ravel and Milhaud.

Money coming in a day or two. Do I get a tote bag?

Some trad/New Orleans jazz on 45 RPM EPs, four tunes each. The Johnny Wiggs is actually a 7" 33.3 PPM EP. Edmond Hall - With Gustav Brom Orchestra (Czech Supraphon). Recorded in 1960 in Prague. Edmond Hall (Argentinian Columbia). Recorded in 1957 in Buenas Aires while on tour with Louis Armstrong. The sleeve of my copy is inscribed by Hall to his doctor. George Lewis and Papa Bue's Viking Jazzband (Danish Storyville). Got this one in Copenhagen, where this was recorded in 1959. Herb Morand and His New Orleans Jazz Band (UK Special Release). Dubbed from 1950 78s. I have one of the 78s; if I find the other one, I'll probably sell this EP. Johnny Wiggs and His Bayou Stompers (Jazzette). A fabulous little 1968 record by a four-piece band: Wiggs, with his cornet style influenced equally by Bix and King Oliver, the great Raymond Burke on clarinet, my man Danny Barker on guitar, and bassist Chester Zardis, who was in Buddy Petit's band in 1915,

The Weisberg "All Set" is certainly cleaner than the Brandeis version, and it's probably a "better" performance by classical standards, but the jazz players manage to inject a little grease into the earlier version. In an atonal way, of course.

Orchestra U.S.A. - Sonorities (Columbia mono). Guess I'm in third stream mood. I don't much like the Jimmy Giuffre piece from the last album, but I love his weird little "Hex" on this one. And Richard Davis is brilliant on Hall Overton's "Sonorities for Orchestra."

Modern Jazz Concert; the 1957 Brandeis Festival album (Columbia mono)

Me, too. Just spun the album again, inspired by this thread, and more than ever, I think the Modern Jazz Concert album is a magnificent achievement. More detailed thoughts on the album are coming soon, but probably not in this thread. I think I understand where y'all are coming from about "On Green Mountain." More than any other piece on the record, it contains passages of overt "classicism," some of which sound kind of stilted. I certainly don't think it's the best piece on the album. Before tonight, I would have put it at #4 (out of six pieces), but Gunther Schuller's "Transformation" went up in my estimation with this most recent spin. Just to engage in a kind of stupid exercise, here's my ranking: George Russell - All About Rosie Milton Babbitt - All Set Charles Mingus - Revelations Gunther Schuller - Transformation Harold Shapero - On Green Mountain Jimmy Giuffre - Suspensions Believe me, it hurts me to put Giuffre's piece last, because I truly love his music. But with "Suspensions," there's no there there. It's sound and tissue without music. And notice that i put George Russell before Milton Babbitt. Not by much, maybe. "On Green Mountain" is a very unified, well-constructed piece, to my ears. And Shapero uses improvisation in a very interesting way - in a compositional way, if that makes sense. For instance, he has Art Farmer begin his solo with the Monteverdi theme which is the basis of the piece, then move further and further away into free (non-thematic) improvisation. It works very well. And Shapero's harmonization of the Monteverdi at the beginning and end of the piece is brilliant and unusual. None of which means you have to like it, of course. On the other hand, Mingus' "Revelations" is kind of a mess, compositionally. It's not really a composition; it's a string of episodes. But what makes it such good music (and makes me rate it higher than the Shapero piece) is that the episodes are, for the most part, pretty amazing. It's a string of episodes written by Charles F-ing Mingus! And of course, Shapero deserves props for the title - calling a piece based on Monteverdi "On Green Mountain" is pretty damn funny.

My mom, who died of lung cancer in 2005, smoked pretty much her whole life, and I got turned off by the whole idea at a very young age. I remember being in the car with her in the wintertime while she smoked with all the windows rolled up. In those days when cars were not as tightly constructed as today, I would stick my nose in the crack where the window met the door, desperate for clean air.

That last post shows the original issue, a wonderful album, unless you can't abide third stream music. The picture in the first post was a 1960s reissue which added an album's worth of material which was unrelated, except that it was compositionally-oriented, third-streamy jazz. Three of the Brandeis Modern Jazz Concert pieces, including "On Green Mountain," also showed up on this 1981 issue: That's where I first heard the Shapero piece, back in the pre-internet days, when both of the first two issues were just impossible to find. Amazingly, the Modern Jazz Concert album has not been legitimately reissued in full on CD (although I think the pirates have gotten to it). Four of the pieces appeared on The Birth of the Third Stream, but not "On Green Mountain."

Happy Birthday, Durium! Stay flexible!

I'll take: Masada – “Live in Sevilla 2000” – Tzadik 7327....$8.00 I'll be in Lincoln in a little over a week - we should meet at the truck stop with the big coffee pot outside halfway between Lincoln and Omaha to make the deal!

Sorry to hear this, although this is one of those cases where I assumed he had already passed. I like "On Green Mountain," so when I found a 1957 MGM LP of his Serenade for String Orchestra, I grabbed it. It's a very nice piece, but those are still the only two compositions of his that I've heard.

Looks like a fun haul, Steve!

Gary Clark Jr. - HWUL Raw Cuts Vol. I (Warner Bros.)

My post about your choice of words was meant to be humorous/light-hearted, not a serious complaint. My tone just ain't coming throught the internet tubes these days.

Okay, Jim, you know I love you, but this is the worst sentence ever posted here!

Armand Hug - New Orleans Piano (Golden Crest). Someone was impressed with Hug's playing on my just-completed blindfold test. I like it, too - as influenced by Jess Stacy as by Jelly Roll Morton. The great Paul Barbarin is on drums here.