jeffcrom

Louis Armstrong - Complete Decca Sessions (1935-1946); disc 4, with "I Double Dare You," "When the Saints Go Marching In" (the first jazz recording), and "The Song is Ended" & "My Walking Stick" with the Mills Brothers - all some of my favorite Louis sides.

Ted Curson - Flip Top (Arista/Freedom)

Kirk Lightsey - Everything is Changed (Sunnyside)

Bobby Hutcherson - Solo/Quartet (Contemporary)

The Jazz Crusaders - Lookin' Ahead (PJ mono) The December Band - Vol. I (Jazz Crusade). This one's legendary among trad fans. Four New Orleanians (Kid Thomas, Jim Robinson, Capt. John Handy, and Sammy Penn) toured New England with four members of the Connecticut-based Easy Riders Jazz Band in December, 1965. The tour resulted in six LPs, on Jazz Crusade, GHB, and Center. The best is probably The December Band, Vol. II - Capt. John is really on fire on that one. They were still warming up on this one, but it's still good. The picture is of the GHB reissue; I couldn't find a shot of the original Jazz Crusade, but it's similar.

One I know of is Gil Evans' Little Wing, which was originally issued on Circle and subsequently showed up on various other labels on LP and CD.

Yeah, that's a good one. I may play it tonight!

I'm with Clifford - a lot! Since I like both avant-garde and old New Orleans stuff, half a dozen things came to mind right away: Steve Lacy - Eronel (Horo) and Points (Chant du Monde). There's lots more Lacy that hasn't come out on CD, but those are two of his best. Sam Rivers - The Tuba Trio (Circle). Lots of other Circle stuff, too. Gil Evans - Live at Royal Festival Hall (UK RCA) Capt. John Handy's two RCA albums. This is the old New Orleans saxophonist, not the Mingus alum. The Pretty Baby soundtrack (ABC). Don't laugh. It's one of the great New Orleans albums of its time. And all three volumes of Freilach in Hi-Fi by Murray Lehrer and Dave Tarras on Period.

I have the Six 78 and it's pretty hot and as I've mentioned before I love it. I also have a version of "Is she my girlfriend" by the Golden Gate Orchestra , lame pop tune IIRC ! A lame song, but something of a hit apparently - I have several recordings of it.

Israel Gorman at Happy Landing (Center). 1954 New Orleans dance hall recordings.

Some late-night klezmer before bed: Naftule Brandwein - Bulgar a la Naftule/A Hore mit Tzibeles (Columbia). Early 40s pressing of 1925 recordings. Naftule remained popular among the twelve tribes for many years! Abe Schwartz (as Yiddisher Orchestre) - Noch der Havdoleh/Gus Goldstein - Yiddische Simcheh (Columbia, 1918) Abe Schwartz (as Yiddisher Orchestre) - Keshenever Bulgar/Die Yiddishe Neshomoh (Columbia, 1917) Abe Schwartz (as Yiddisher Orchestre) - Biem Reben's Sideh/Sadegurer Chused'l (Columbia, 1917) Abraham Moskowitz - Die Greene Cousine/Nit Die Hagede, More die Kneidlech (Columbia, 1922). Peggy Lee recorded "My Green Cousin" with Benny Goodman 20-odd years later. Cantor Josef Rosenblatt - Tka B'shofar from "Shofros"/Uwyom Simchaschem from "Shofros" (Columbia, 1915). Okay, not klezmer, but I wanted to hear something by the greatest of all recording cantors. Joe Feldman - Tzigan's Liedele/Gamzele Toive (Victor, 1922) All of the above are acoustic recordings; I ended with a couple of electrics: Dave Tarras - Runenishe Doina/A Rumenisher Nigun (UK Columbia, 1927). A wonderful record by the great clarinetist, with a sticker from a Tel-Aviv record store on one side. Bracha Zfirah - Bein Nehar Prath/Yesh li Gan (Columbia). 1940-41 pressing of 1937 recordings. I found this record in a Chattanooga antique store. Its beauty got to me right away, and I arranged the Sephardic song "Yesh li Gan" (I Have a Garden) for the 9th Ward Afro Klezmer Orchestra; it's on our new album, Abdul the Rabbi. I have a garden and I have a well. And every Sabbath my lover comes And eats from my garden and drinks from my well.

Doc Evans - Traditional Jazz (Audiophile mono) Ewing Nunn's Audiophile records always sound great. Knocky Parker's on board.

Fletcher Henderson All Stars - The Big Reunion (Jazztone)

Two by California Ramblers sub-groups and two Original Indiano Fives: University Six - Smile a Little Bit/Then I'll Be Happy (Harmony, 1925) The Goofus Five - Blue Baby/Is She My Girl Friend (Okeh, 1927) The Okeh is pretty hot, in spite of the vocals. Adrian Rollini has left, but his replacement, Spencer Clark, sounds pretty good. And those electric Okehs really sound good. Original Indiana Five - The Chant/Stockhom Stomp (Harmony, 1926) Original Indiana Five - My Melancholy Baby/Gotham Society Orchestra (Mike Markel) - Tomorrow's Tomorrow (Banner, 1927/28)

The idea that a “skills gap” is what ails the US labor market has become so widespread as to achieve one of the rarest conditions in contemporary American life: embracement by both political parties. There’s just one problem with this idea, according to longtime Wharton professor Peter Cappelli. It may largely be a myth. Cappelli, the George W. Taylor Professor of Management, is a connoisseur of job-hunting stories gone wrong. One of his favorites was related to him by someone in a company whose staffing department failed to identify a qualified candidate for a “standard engineering position”—out of 25,000 applicants. http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0113/feature2_1.html This is a long-ish article, but it's pretty interesting.

I don't know that one - sounds good. I like Louis Nelson a lot. During my first visit to New Orleans in 1990, I heard the Kid Sheik band at Preservation Hall; Nelson was the regular trombonist, but was in the hospital due to injuries suffered in a car accident. Unfortunately, he never recovered, so I never heard him in person.

Wingy Manone/Sidney Bechet - Together; Town Hall 1947 (Jazz Archives). Well, together for two tracks, anyway.

Not only do I love the music, I really like the Bob Thompson drawing of Lacy.

I only look at a few of them, but hey - if other folks enjoy 'em, they're fine with me.

If Chuck doesn't mind me answering.... Walked through the Garden District and French Quarter (George Lewis' and Danny Barker's houses - Danny's birthplace is now divided into condos, and a couple are for sale; an open house was going on, so we went in and looked around.) A little driving tour including Jelly Roll Morton's and Buddy Bolden's houses. Lafayette #1 and St. Louis #1 cemeteries. Homer Plessy (Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court case) and Marie Laveau are buried in St. Louis #1, as well as some pioneering musicians, like Louis Cottrell Sr. and Isadore Barbarin. The Krewe de Vieux parade, the first parade of Carnival season. It was vulgar beyond my wildest hopes, and featured lots of great brass bands - I recognized the Treme, the Hot 8, the TCB, and the Young Fellaz that I remember. I took a little digital recorder, and am going to put together an audio collage which I'll post somewhere. The Palmetto Bug Stompers at d.b.a on Frenchmen St.; trombonist Charlie Halloran was the musical hero. Meals at Olivier's, The Praline Connection, and Fiorella's, among other spots. Beignets at Cafe du Monde. CD/record shopping at the Louisiana Music Factory. There were no brass bands playing in Jackson Square when we were there, much to my surprise. No music tonight because I hit a fatigue wall and have to get up early-ish to drive back to Atlanta tomorrow. I've had the better end of this deal - lots of amazing stories, which I'll probably mangle and combine when repeating.

With some Nessas tonight, heard the Palmetto Bug Stompers at d.b.a. on Frenchman Street in New Orleans. The personnel had turned over almost entirely since the last time I had heard them, 15 months ago. Some of the changes were not for the better, but the always entertaining Washboard Chaz was on board, and tonight I realized just how good a trombonist Charlie Halloran really is - he also plays with the Panorama Jazz Band, and probably a few other bands as well.

An amazing place, indeed. I feel lucky to have visited.

The Clarinet Artistry of John LaPorta (Fantasy red vinyl). One side of Brahms and one side of jazz. Sonny Criss - his Peacock album reissued on The Dedication Series Vol. 1: The Bopmasters (Impulse)

Georgia blueswoman Precious Bryant died this past Saturday, January 12 at the age of 71. She was from Talbot County, east of Columbus, one of the few places in the country where the African-American fife and drum band tradition survived into the 20th century. Talbot County was a hotbed of blues and related music until around the 1970s; with Precious' death, it's all gone now. Precious was first recorded by George Mitchell in the 1960s; she appeared on various blues anthologies, but her first full album, Fool Me Good, didn't appear until 2002. I was lucky enough to hear her perform at the Northside Tavern in Atlanta (long before Fool Me Good), and I've been a fan ever since. Her music was a mixture of traditional songs from the Talbot County area, originals, and cover tunes learned from records, all delivered with equal conviction. We've lost a treasure.

Since I never really responded to this, I will now. I just listened to all the Sonny Clays that have Ernest Coycault on them. Since he reminded of Freddie Keppard, I followed this with the more-or-less complete works of Keppard. I called the Clay CD "good, solid, second-tier jazz of the time - worth hearing by anyone interested in 1920's/early 30's jazz, but not essential." That still seems pretty accurate to me, considering that there were lots of bands recording at the time who made better music. After doing some reading on Coycault, I will modify my opinion to the extent of saying that it's very interesting to hear a New Orleans trumpeter (Coycault didn't grow up in New Orleans, but St. Bernard Parish is close enough to count, in my book) whose style developed in the very early days of jazz. Listening tonight, I heard more similarities between Coycault and Keppard than I had noticed before. So then I turned to Keppard.... Okay, Keppard on record is pretty inconsistent. But on his best recordings, like the Cookie's Gingersnaps sides and his own Jazz Cardinals sides, there's a fire there - that same extra something that separates Coltrane from his imitators. This is getting into the mystical aspect of music - the part of music that goes past the notes into whatever is beyond that. But when Keppard was at his best, I couldn't keep still. "Love Found You For Me" is a really corny old song, but what the Gingersnaps played in the last chorus just got all over me - and Keppard was the major part of that. By contrast, I found Coycault interesting. Keppard gets under my skin 90 years after he recorded; Coycault doesn't. But he's interesting, and yes, anyone interested in early New Orleans jazz should check him out. And I would be very interested to hear what Gushee has come up with. Is there anything published about the Coycault/Bolden connection I could read? Nothing I've read about Coycault mentions Bolden.