jeffcrom

Interpretations by the Stan Getz Quintet (Norgran)

Sidney Bechet - In Paris (Brunswick). One of those injection-molded plastic records that Decca/Brunswick did in the fifties. It doesn't sound bad, though. The music is pretty doggone good - Bechet is pretty fiery with Sam Price's band, the most interesting member of which is clarinetist Herb Hall, Edmond's brother.

Gil Evans (aka Synthetic Evans) (Poljazz). An excellent 1976 Warsaw performance.

Oh, jeez, I love New Orleans. When you know the dates, check out the music listings on Offbeat.com, or heck - just walk down Frenchmen Street and see what appeals to you at d.b.a., The Blue Nile, The Spotted Cat, Snug Harbor, etc. Almost any restaurant you walk into will be great, but when you go to Frenchmen St., eat at the Praline Connection - in spite of the less-than-promising name, it has great soul food. Olivier's on Decatur St. in the French Quarter is great for traditional Creole food. I like to stay at Le Richelieu, on the quiet side of the French Quarter. I won't say it's cheap, but it's reasonable for the Quarter, and it's walking distance of Frenchmen Street and about anywhere you would want to go in the Quarter. If you're there on a Tuesday night, go across town to the Maple Leaf. The Rebirth Brass Band plays there every Tuesday when they're not on tour, and it's an incredibly intense experience. They don't start until after 11:00, though, no matter what the listings say. You're a lucky dude.

First of all, Clunky, condolences on your loss. Since I started collecting 78s seriously about three years ago I've broken four or five. Only one really broke my heart (an unreissued American Music by St. Louis pianist Charles Thompson), and I recently found another copy of that one. I have that Skip Hall record. Bair-Bay seems to have been from Cincinnati - at least he shows up on a lot of King/Federal records recorded there in the 1940s. He may have been a "passionate Bird imitator," but on the Hall 78 he's more of an R & B-flavored player; he sounds a lot like Earl Bostic. He plays on at least one session from a Wynonie Harris collection I have - I'll check that out soon.

I'm not sure what/who nextbop.com is, but Abdul the Rabbi made their Best Jazz Albums of 2012 list, tied for #12 with Charlie Haden and Hank Jones. (How's that for ridiculous?) The album is getting lots of airplay, but none of this is translating to much in sales. For what it's worth, the vinyl LP is finally out, after six test pressings. Let me know if you want one.

Bobby Naughton with Leo Smith and Perry Robinson - The Haunt (Otic)

Johnny Dyani/Okay Temiz/Mongezi Feza - Music for Xaba (Antilles, from Sonet)

Steve Lacy - Moon (BYG Actuel)

I was going to mention this one - I've got this recording, on which the string Serenade (Op. 22) is paired with an equally wonderful wind Serenade (Op. 44):

Fats Navarro - Fat Girl (Savoy)

Inspired by this discussion, I played some of my better Ted Lewis records today. I only played one side of some, if I knew the flip side to be lousy. All are on Columbia. Ted Lewis Popular Favorites (Columbia "flags" sample record, 1923). This is an interesting record, made before Lewis started hiring real jazz players. The longest tune in the medley is a klezmer-ish version of "Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me." Some of These Days/Bugle Call Rag (1926). Sophie Tucker takes the vocal on side one, and I certainly would rather listen to her singing than to Lewis. Lots of George Brunies on "Bugle Call." Oh, Baby! (1928). Mentioned in a post above. Jungle Blues (1928). Ted Lewis plays Jelly Roll Morton. Who'd have thunk it? Clarinet Marmalade/Shim-Me-Sha-Wabble (1928). This is one of Lewis's better records, mostly because he's nowhere to be heard. It's mostly the Don Murray show. Unfortunately, there is one very non-swinging violin solo by Sol Klein. Farewell Blues/Wabash Blues (Ted Lewis picture label, 1929). It floors me that Lewis had the chutzpah to play along side of Frank Teschemacher. Could he not hear what he sounded like? Anyway, Tesch and Muggsy are in great form here. I'm the Medicine Man for the Blues (Ted Lewis picture label, 1929). This is a painful recording, for the most part, but there are some tasty Muggsy Spanier licks along the way. Someday, Sweetheart/Somebody Stole My Gal (1930 recording, 1937-38 pressing). Ted's singing is as awful as ever, but Muggsy, Brunies, and Jimmy Dorsey sound great. Yeah, Clunky, if you find a spare copy of "Ho-Hum," I'll swap you something for it.

Steve Lacy - Soprano Sax (Prestige OJC)

Jimmy McPartland/Dizzy Gillespie - Hot vs. Cool: A Battle of Jazz (MGM 10"). A hoot - McPartland's band and Ray Abrams' band (with Gillespie and Buddy DeFranco added) playing the same tunes at Birdland in 1952. So McPartland's guys have to play "How High the Moon" and the modernists have to play "Muskrat Ramble." This could have been a stupid album, but it's pretty cool.

I wasn't going to respond to this thread, because these recommendation threads always turn into lists of absolutely everything. But I wanted to put in a plug for the 1928 Sam Morgan recordings, since they've only been mentioned in passing. They're some of my favorite records, and are available on several CDs. And the early-20s Bechet/Armstrong recordings (Clarence Williams Blue Five and Red Onion Jazz Babies) are absolutely phenomenal! They're not easy to track down in toto, but they're worth the effort. I've got them all on the Media 7 complete Bechet CDs and the Louis Armstrong and the Blues Singers 6-CD set on Affinity, but I don't know what the easiest way to find them down now would be. But "Texas Moaner Blues" and the Okeh version of "Cakewalking Babies From Home" are as good as any jazz ever recorded.

You gotta be very wary of anybody who allowed himself to be called "the high-hatted tragedian of song" and then had the nerve to ask if everybody was happy. That whole thing just reeks of dickishness. Just sayin'. Yep. I'm looking for a 78 copy of Lewis's "Ho-Hum." As I understand it, during Benny Goodman's clarinet solo, Lewis himself interjects, "Play it, Ted!"

Muggsy Spanier and His Dixieland Band (Mercury). 1950-52 recordings; overall, not the equal of "The Great 16," but there are some nice ones here.

Bunky Green - Playin' for Keeps (Cadet mono). This could have been a routine soul-jazz album with Latin touches, but it's more than the sum of its parts - very good stuff. Red Allen Meets Kid Ory (Verve mono). This, on the other hand, is somehow less than the sum of its parts.

Lewis was a really horrible musician/entertainer who often hired some pretty good jazz musicians. George Brunies joined the band in the mid 1920s and stayed for ten years. Muggsy came on board in 1929; some of my favorite Lewis records are those with him. And TL hired Fats Waller, Benny Goodman, and Frank Teschmacher for record dates. So there are some really interesting Ted Lewis records out there, but it's a crapshoot. Avoid the blue-label and "flags" Columbias - Brunies didn't join until the "Viva-tonal" label era. If you find any of the grey Lewis picture labels (the one below is from my collection), that's the right time period for Muggsy to be present. Of course, any particular record may really suck.

Ellington - Complete Brunswick/Columbia/Master, disc one

Some 1920s jazz: Chas. Chreath's Jazz-O-Maniacs - Pleasure Mad/Market Street Blues (Okeh). Nice St. Louis jazz from 1924. "Pleasure Mad" is a Sidney Bechet tune which Bechet himself didn't record until many years later. Halfway House Dance Orchestra - Maple Leaf Rag/Let Me Call You Sweetheart (Columbia, 1925). Very worn, but the drive of the music comes through. Savannah Six - 'Tain't Cold/Hot Aire (Harmony, 1925). The Original Memphis Five plus banjo. The Emperors - Clarinet Marmalade/A Blues Serenade (Harmony, 1927). A Phil Napoleon big band; pretty interesting. Might as well mention a gamble which mostly didn't work out. I bought two 78s (for just a dollar each) in the little town of McCaysville, Georgia, on the Tennessee border: a 1928 Ted Lewis on Columbia and a 1929 Victor with Ben Pollack on one side. The Pollack is from the period when Jack Teagarden, Benny Goodman, and Jimmy McPartland were all in the band. Well, Goodman and Teagarden both play the melody solo, but perfectly straight; there's no jazz content to this record at all. The flip, by Ted Fiorito, is even worse. One side of the Lewis, "Oh, Baby," is pretty good, with George Brunies on trombone and Don Murray on both clarinet and tenor. The other side, "Start the Band," is Lewis at his worst, although the lyrics amused my wife. From memory, one verse went: If she plays hard to get, A hot cornet will make her pet. Alas, Muggsy Spanier had not yet joined the band; I'd like to hear his demonstration of those lyrics.

Thanks for this most odd and interesting of BFTs, Mr. Sangrey. I learned a bit, although that probably wasn't your intention, and enjoyed it, which was your intention, I think. And what we all hate happened to me here - the track which puzzled me the most is sitting on my shelves.

Steve Lacy - The Complete Jaguar Sessions (Fresco Jazz) Of course, this album really represents the complete recorded output of "progressive dixieland" trumpeter Dick Sutton and his six-piece (no piano or guitar) band. Sutton was kind of ahead of his time; he reminds me a little of Randy Sandke these days - you can hear both Bix and Miles in his playing. Anyway, it's fascinating music. Sutton and Lacy are the best musicians here, and I'm struck by how much Lacy improved between the August and November (1954) sessions. And his clarinet playing, recorded nowhere else, makes me smile.

John Butcher, Gino Robair, Thomas Lehn, and The Shaking Ray Levis - Barking Legs Theater, Chattanooga. Wolter Wierbos solo (and with local boys Alembic Circle for the encore) - Railroad Earth, Atlanta Slavic Soul Party - 529, Atlanta. Matt Moran's amazing Balkan band. Purkinje Shift - 529, Atlanta. Three-piece instrumental "math rock" from Atlanta. Saxopaths - Copenhagen Jazz Festival. I visited Copenhagen during the jazz festival, but that's not why I was there, and I only managed to hear a few bands. The best was a children's concert by this Danish sax quartet. Kebbi Williams Birthday Bash - 5 Spot, Atlanta. Great show by the manic Atlanta tenor player. And this was the last time time I saw my mid-40s Buescher baritone sax. I loaned it to the guy who plays bari with Kebbi, and he managed to get it stolen a couple of days later. Rebirth Brass Band - Maple Leaf, New Orleans. Nothing special, in a way - the Rebirth plays at the Maple Leaf every Tuesday night when they're not on tour. But I hadn't heard them for several years, and they were intense and overwhelming. Tin Men - d.b.a., New Orleans Rob Mallard/Andrew Barker - Bowmania, Atlanta. Two founding members of the Gold Sparkle Band reunited at the memorial concert for drummer John Bowman. It was righteous old-school free jazz at its best. And I immodestly think that the Edgewood Sax Quartet's second and final concert in Atlanta was pretty dang good.

Electrifying Sounds of the Paul Jeffrey Quintet (Savoy mono). Another one which the old Grado cartridge had major problems with.