jeffcrom

Charlie Parker - Bird Box, Vol. 10 (New Sound Planet). Three Spring, 1951 Birdland broadcasts - two with strings and the famous set with Gillespie and Powell.

Woody Shaw - Little Red's Fantasy (32 Jazz) Tom Harrell - Time's Mirror (RCA)

Blues night here in Candler Park, Atlanta. I don't have any Charley Pattons or Robert Johnsons, but I've got some good blues 78s, some in really nice condition, which is unusual for old blues records. Tommy McClennan - She's Just Good Huggin' Size / My Little Girl (Bluebird). Stone E condition. Buddy Moss - Joy Rag / Unfinished Business (Okeh) E- or so. Buddy Moss - Someday Baby / Shake It All Night Long (Conqueror) Jim Jackson - Jim Jackson's Kansas City Blues, parts 1 & 2 (Vocalion) DeFord Bailey - Evening Prayer Blues / Alcoholic Blues (Vocalion) Walter Roland - Schoolboy Blues / Screw Worm (Perfect)

Joe Henderson - State of the Tenor Volume 1 (BN). I hadn't spun this in quite a while. I'm really enjoying it.

Duke Heitger's Big Four - Prince of Wails (Stomp Off). I had forgotten that I had this CD, on which Heitger is joined by Evan Christopher, John Gill and Tom Saunders. I'm glad I found it while looking for something else - it's excellent latter-day traditional jazz. And the CD Japan order arrived today: Watazumi Doso - Watazumido (CBS/Sony). A recent reissue of a 1978 album by the Japanese master of the bamboo flute. Masahiko Togashi/Steve Lacy/Yuji Takahashi (Studio Songs). A new issue from Lacy's 2000 Japanese tour - recorded at the Egg Farm the day after 10 of Dukes and Apices.

Merle Travis - Folk Songs of the Hills (Capitol). This four-record album arrived yesterday. I've already listened to the whole thing twice, and "Dark as a Dungeon" four times. What a great song.

Earlier and now: Fats Domino Presents Dave Bartholomew and his Great Big Band (Imperial stereo). I want to go on record as saying that I'm pretty sure the excellent organist featured on this 1961 record, "Bobby James," is in fact the great James Booker. "Bobby James" never made another recorded appearance. Bartholomew used Booker frequently on record dates, but during this period Booker was under contract to Peacock Records, for whom he recorded "Gonzo" and several other organ singles. So he would have indeed needed a pseudonym for this record. Derek Bailey/Steve Lacy - Company 4 (Incus)

Friedrich Gulda at Birdland (RCA Victor Birdland Series). All the cool kids are listening to Gulda today. Great band, with Idrees Sulieman, Jimmy Cleveland, and Phil Woods on board. I'm pretty sure the only thing actually recorded at Birdland was Pee Wee Marquette's introduction.

Imperial Brass Band - A New Orleans Street Parade: Live in Paris (Sandcastle) Hamiet Bluiett Quartet - SOS (India Navigation) The Imperial BB was trumpeter Alvin Alcorn's group, visiting Paris in the mid 1970s sometime. Five of the seven tracks were obviously recorded in concert; they turn into the kind of string-of-solos brass band performances I don't much like. The last two tracks, though, were apparently recorded on the street and used for a radio broadcast. They are much better - ensemble all the way.

Leonard Feather also produced an "all female" session with Williams on Continental (I've got the 78s), with Mary Osborne, Marjorie Hyams on vibes, and Bridget O'Flynn on drums. Apparently, no female bassist was available, so Billy Taylor is listed on the labels as "Bea Taylor."

Eureka Brass Band - In Rehearsal 1956 (American Music). Documentary, to an extent. On some tracks the entire band isn't present; there are partial tunes, and between-takes dialogue is included. But there is much magnificent music here, including four of the stately, slightly ponderous dirges for which the band was famous. While looking for an online picture, I found Scott Yanow's one-and-a-half-star review at Allmusic. It made my heart hurt.

Feather also produced a Mary Lou Williams session with a mostly female band for Continental - I've got the two 78s. Apparently no female bass player was available, so bassist Billy Taylor - B. Taylor - is listed on the label as "Bea Taylor."

Richard Thompson - Two Letter Words: Live 1994 (Flypaper)

Preservation Hall Jazz Band - Shake That Thing (Preservation Hall). Recorded on one day in 2001, this remains one of the best traditional jazz albums of the 21st century so far. 21 musicians, all of whom played regularly at the Hall at the time, play in various combinations on eight tracks.

Louis Armstrong - Weather Bird / Dear Old Southland (Hot Record Society). The first reissue of Okeh 41454, pressed in 1939 from the original stampers. It sounds magnificent. This was waiting for me when I got home from a short road trip. Can't find a usable picture online.

I just had my second 22-hours-in-New Orleans-for-a-gig experience in two years. Along the way, we managed to hear three brass bands on Tuesday night. The Young Fellaz BB was playing for tips on Frenchmen Street. I don't love the one CD I have by them, but they were fun and exciting in person. The Treme BB was playing a d.b.a. - a larger group than they have brought to that gig in the past. There were two (later three) trumpets, a trombone, and two saxes (Roger Lewis of the Fats Domino band and the Dirty Dozen was one) in the front line. My buddy Bill took his mouthpiece and sat in on sousaphone at the invitation of Jon Gross, Treme's current tuba man. They were a little "touristly," but good. We ended the evening with Rebirth's regular Tuesday night gig at the Maple Leaf. It was just as intense as the first time I heard them there 25 years ago. The two trombones on opposite sides of the stage, Derek Shezbie in the middle of the trumpet section, the Frazier brothers in the back on bass drum and sousaphone, and all that brass hitting you in the face - for 75 minutes, all was right with the world. Then I slept for five hours and drove for nine hours. And I see that I never followed up on a post from three years ago. My wife Karen and I second-lined with the Prince of Wales Social Aid and Pleasure Club back in October, 2015. I tried to prepare her for the experience, explaining that the streets would be jammed with a thousand or so of her closest friends, but the crush of the crowd overwhelmed her for a few minutes. Then she got into the spirit of it, and danced a couple of miles to the TCB (To Be Continued) Brass Band. Later she said it was a check on her bucket list.

A masterpiece. Algiers Brass Band - Lord, Lord, Lord (SONO). I was in New Orleans for 22 hours Tuesday/Wednesday and managed to hear three brass bands - The Young Fellaz playing on the street, Treme at d.b.a., and Rebirth at their regular Tuesday night Maple Leaf gig. The latter was as intense as experience as is it was 25 years ago, when I first caught them on Tuesday night on Oak Street. I hadn't spun this Algiers BB for awhile. It's very good, a brief Louis Armstrong imitation aside. This was a neighborhood band, although they did club gigs and festivals, and nobody would recognize any of the names. But I miss them, and am glad I got to hear them in person a couple of times. I still sleep in an Algiers Brass Band t-shirt which has become too worn to wear in public.

I'm guessing that was added to boost sales in the St. Louis market. Civic pride and all that. There were other Okehs from the 1920s with that line on the label - like some early Lonnie Johnsons, if I remember correctly.

Lots of archaic music over the past couple of days, but here are two highlights (both from 1924) that I don't think I've mentioned before. The Doc Cook record is a recent acquisition; the Creath disc was in the first box of 78s my grandmother gave me when I was 15. Chas. Creath's Jazz-o-Maniacs - Pleasure Mad / Market Street Blues (Okeh). Really nice St. Louis jazz. "Pleasure Mad" is a Sidney Bechet composition; if I remember correctly, Bechet didn't record it himself until after he had moved to France. Doc Cook's Dreamland Orchestra - Moanful Man / Lonely Little Wallflower (Gennett). Side one is excellent, with Jimmie Noone and Freddie Keppard. The tune is the same as "My Daddy Rocks Me."

Hank Mobley - No Room for Squares (BN). The 1989 CD issue, with the entire Lee Morgan/Andrew Hill session.

Steve Kuhn - Trance (ECM)

Late night New Orleans brass band singles: Chosen Few Brass Band - Food Stamp Blues / Big Fat Woman (Syla) Olympia Brass Band - Mardi Gras in New Orleans, parts 1 & 2 (OBB) Olympia Brass Band - Gotta Woman / Tuba Fats and Drums (OBB). This record would be more accurately titled "I Got a Woman, parts 1 & 2."

Ike Quebec - The Complete Blue Note 45 Sessions

Complete Dean Benedetti Recordings of Charlie Parker. My most battered Mosaic box. I remember how magical it was when it was issued. It's not easy listening, for a variety of reasons, but when I feel like hearing concentrated Bird, it's still magical. I listened to disc one for the first time in a while tonight - 60 minutes of casual genius.

Sonny Rollins - A Night at the Village Vanguard (BN RVG). Disc two of the 1999 two-CD edition.