jeffcrom

16 months ago I called this music "glorious." Yep. It's the Olympia on tour in Europe in 1968, not 1974 when the album was issued.

I was going to respond to recent developments in this thread this morning, but I'm glad I waited until this evening, after I visited one of my favorite Atlanta record stores, where I have bought 78s, 45s, LPs, and CDs. To each his own, of course, but I think that Bev is missing part of Paul's point. You can meet people all sorts of places, but record stores attract those who are as obsessed by music as we are. Today I poked around Wuxtry Records for 45 minutes, and only bought one record - a Lou Donaldson LP on Timeless. Wuxtry is a two-man operation; I've been buying records from Mark, the owner, since 1976, when he opened up a tiny shop in Athens, Georgia; he bought used records for a dollar and sold them for two dollars. He left five minutes after I got there today, wishing me a merry Christmas, and left the store in the hands of his one employee. He and I talked about Papa Lou - he was not aware that LD was still performing - and he told me a few stories he had heard from Wendell Echols, the late Atlanta record collector, producer, and character. One involved a Charlie Parker concert at the now-demolished National Guard Armory near Piedmont Park in Atlanta; Bird was wobbly, so the promoter brought out a chair for him to lean on between solos. And yes, there are many ways to sample previously unheard music now, but somehow nothing matches the impact of hearing some amazing music for the first time in a record store. I can't remember all the music that moved me so much that I had to have it after hearing it in a record store, but one recent example is the Von Freeman/Willis Jackson album on Muse that I bought off the turntable of the Jazz Record Mart in Chicago in March. And years ago in Atlanta, the version of Samuel Barber's Adagio conducted by Thomas Schippers brought me to tears right there in the store, so of course, I bought the CD, even though I had three other recordings of the piece at home. Everybody's different, but I'll be a sad MF if all the record stores in Atlanta close. Collectively, they are (as I think I've said earlier in this thread) my third place.

Bobby Hutcherson - Total Eclipse (BN). 1985 "new" Blue Note pressing - it sounds very good.

Gerry Mulligan - Butterfly With Hiccups (Limelight mono). A nice one - the quartet with Bob Brookmeyer; Art Farmer and Jim Hall are added on some tracks.

I've been enjoying a mix CD I put together a couple of years ago: Merry Christmas Baby - Willie Humphrey (from a Smoky Mary LP) Rudolph Got Drunk Last Night/Jingle Bell Boogie - Big Jack Johnson (from a Rooster Blues 45) White Christmas - Charlie Parker (from a Royal Roost broadcast) Christmas Eve Blues/Happy New Year Blues - Blind Lemon Jefferson Jingle Bells - Benny Goodman (great Bunny Berigan solo!) It's Christmas Time/Happy New Year to You - Sun Ra & the Qualities Back Door Santa - Clarence Carter Christmas Morning Blues - Sonny Boy Williamson I Silent Night/White Christmas - Sidney Bechet (from a Vogue 45) Did You Spend Christmas Day in Jail? - Rev. J.M. Gates Santa Claus Wants Some Loving - Albert King (from a Stax 45) The Christmas Song - Gene Ammons Sonny Boy's Christmas Blues - Sonny Boy Williamson II 'Twas the Night Before Christmas - Louis Armstrong (from a Continental 45) Merry Christmas, Baby - Charles Brown

The Complete Super Disc Recordings of Don Byas! Byas recorded two sessions for Super Disc, resulting in eight sides spread over five records (two have the Erskine Butterfield Quartet on the flip side). I just tracked down the last one, and spun them all today: Three O'Clock in the Morning/One O'Clock Jump Harvard Blues/Erskine Butterfield: St. Louis Boogie Slammin' Around/Erskine Butterfield: Anything Embraceable You/The Sheik of Araby Super Session/Melody in Swing The Byas sides are really nice, with Erroll Garner and Slam Stewart on the first four sides and Sid Catlett on the last four. The Butterfield sides have some good trumpet by Shorty Baker.

Dexter Gordon/Wardell Gray - The Chase and The Steeplechase (MCA). Although not credited on the front, some nice sides by Paul Quinichette fill out side two. Murray Lehrer featuring Dave Tarras - Freilach in Hi-Fi Volume 2 (Period). I've long had Volumes 1 & 3 of this great late-50s klezmer series, but I recently managed to snag a copy of Volume 2 in stone mint condition. If Naftule Brandwein was klezmer's Johnny Dodds, then Dave Tarras was its Jimmie Noone.

Andrew Hill Select #16 - the final unreleased Blue Notes. I'm listening to disc 3, the sessions with Robin Kenyatta and Sam Rivers.

I really like this session. Mine's a Pye Nixa edition. It's a cut l above a usual jam session. I agree - and you've given me the courage to ask a question I was too embarrassed to ask with my original post - does baritone saxophonist Bob Gordon really play on this session? He's listed on the back cover, but I didn't hear any bari on the record. My embarrassment comes from the possibility that maybe I zoned out for part of the record and missed it.

I was going to mention Blackwell's work with the pioneering New Orleans modernist group The American Jazz Quintet. This is another good one - studio recordings for AFO: And yes, From Bad to Badder is a reunion, with Earl Turbinton added: It was recorded in Atlanta in 1987 at a three-day Ed Blackwell Festival, which also produced Old and New Dreams Tribute to Blackwell album. The highlight was a performance by the Ornette Coleman Quartet with Cherry, Haden and Blackwell.

Jam Session Featuring Maynard Ferguson (Emarcy mono).

For years, when I'd bring home another cool jazz LP I had found and my wife would roll her eyes, I would say, "At least I'm not a 78 collector. Those people are nuts!" Then I saw the unreissued Boyce Brown "Collectors Item Cats" 78 on Ebay - at a time when I was trying to track down all of Boyce Brown's recordings. That's all it took. My wife still reminds me of that comment.

Giuffre

I'm in for a download. And thanks for giving me a little bit of a break on the distribution - I'll be visiting the wife's relatives, including the goddaughter, on the other side of the country. (But let me know if I can help with anything.)

Buddy Defrano - The Buddy DeFranco Wailers (Verve). A battered copy from the dollar bin. Benny Goodman - Chicago Jazz Classics (Brunswick 10"). Excellent late-20s jazz. And the one musical joke, "Shirt Tail Stomp," is pretty funny, in my opinion. James P. Johnson - Father of the Stride Piano (Columbia). I got this one around 1976, and it means a lot to me - beautiful stuff.

Since inquiring minds want to know - 1920s jazz-flavored dance music, mostly by the Benson Orchestra of Chicago. All of these are on Victor: Nobody Knows But My Pillow and Me/I Never Miss the Sunshine (1923) No No Nora (1923). I didn't play the flip side - it's by the International Novelty Orchestra, a Victor studio band. A bit much even for me. Wolverine Blues/ The Virginians: House of David Blues (1923) My Sweetie's Sweeter Than That/Wow! (1923) Riverboat Shuffle/ Oliver Naylor's Orchestra: Sweet Georgia Brown (1925) Frank Trumbauer is on all of the Benson Orchestra's 1923 sides, but the only improvised solo he takes is on "I Never Miss the Sunshine." It's pretty good for the time. It's interesting to hear such an early recording of a Jelly Roll Morton tune as "Wolverine Blues." The Virginians were clarinetist Ross Gorman's dance band. They recorded a lot of promising-looking titles, but all of their records that I've heard are pretty disappointing. The Naylor Orchestra, from New Orleans, is hotter than anything else in this lot - "Sweet Georgia Brown" is a nice side. My own comments and Chuck's comments earlier in this thread got me thinking about why I like this kind of stuff. Of course, I love the "real" jazz from this era - King Oliver, Jelly Roll, Bix, etc. But I also enjoy exploring stuff like the records above - music that the middle class thought of as jazz, stuff that we now consider closer to pop than jazz. The web of influences is interesting to explore, and the best of this hot dance music is pretty good music, even if it's not hard-core jazz. And the bottom line is that I just like it.

Clark Terry Sextet Featuring Ben Webster - More (Cameo mono)

Pete Seeger Sings American Ballads (Folkways mono). When I was a kid, my family moved to Alpharetta, Georgia. It's now part of the Atlanta metroplex, but it was a very different place then, and some of the older folks in the community still sang "Barbara Allen," which Seeger includes here.

Yeah, mine is visually NM, but really sounds awful. But hey, I'm just glad to have a copy.

Joseph Scianni - Man Running (Savoy mono)

Happy birthday, Jim! May your G sharp key never stick.

I was feeling restless tonight, and neither the Globe Unity Orchestra or Louis Armstrong on CD settled me down. So I retreated to the shellac, starting with: A wonderful two-pocket album of Illinois Jacquet on Savoy. I enjoyed it so much that I played my other Jacquet 78s: She's Funny That Way/12 Minutes to Go (Apollo) Pastel/All of Me (Mercury). Carl Perkins on piano! The Cool Rage/Lean Baby (Mercury). A slightly rare take of of "Lean Baby." Then the Coleman Hawkins sides from: The Dizzy Gillespie sides have been reissued together many times; the Hawkins sides, not so much. Then: Jess Stacy - Daybreak Serenade/It's Only a Paper Moon (Victor). A one-off 1945 session for Victor which produced only this one record. "Daybreak" made me laugh - I had forgotten that it's a blatant attempt to copy Frankie Carle's piano hit "Sunrise Serenade." "Paper Moon" is better, due mostly to a lovely Lee Wiley vocal. Great 1946 recordings, with a great Jim Flora cover. Barney Bigard is on clarinet, and Mutt Carey, whose lip was variable in those days, is in great form. Ended the evening with Jelly Roll Morton's Jazz Man session. Great music, lousy pressings: Winin' Boy Blues/Honky Tonk Fingerbuster/Creepy Feeling

Bird: The Complete Charlie Parker on Verve, disc six

A late night/early morning New Orleans 78 session; I've mentioned many of these before: Louis Armstrong: Basin Street Blues/No (Okeh, 1928). This one's reissue quality - just magnificent. Louis Armstrong: Squeeze Me/Two Deuces (Okeh, 1928) Louis Armstrong: It Takes Time/I Wonder, I Wonder (RCA Victor, 1947). The last days of the big band. Louis Armstrong: A Song Was Born/Before Long (RCA Victor, 1947). The early days of the All Stars. "Before Long," a Sid Catlett composition, is really beautiful. Louis Armstrong: Basin Street Blues, parts 1 & 2 (Decca, 1954). The All Stars plus Bud Freeman. Original Creole Stompers - B-Flat Blues/Baby Won't You Please Come Home (American Music, 1949) Original Creole Stompers - Eh, La Bas!/Some of These Days (American Music, 1949). The Stompers were Herb Morand on trumpet, trombonist Louis Nelson, Albert Burbank on clarinet, Johnny St. Cyr on guitar, Austin Young on bass, and drummer Albert Jiles. It's a fabulous band, and "Eh, La Bas" has never been reissued in any format. (The AM CD uses a rehearsal take.) Wooden Joe Nicholas - Ai Ai Ai/Holler Blues (American Music, 1949). The AM CD uses a different take of "Holler Blues." A.J. PIron's New Orleans Orchestra - Mama's Gone, Goodbye/New Orleans Wiggle (Victor, 1923) A.J. PIron's New Orleans Orchestra - Do-Doodle-Oom/West Indies Blues (Victor, 1923). I love the A.J. Piron recordings from 1923, and I learned a lot about New Orleans music by listening to them: hot and sweet are equally important, someone's always got to play the melody, but everyone else can improvise, and there are always at least two layers of rhythm going on.