jeffcrom

Happy, happy!

Dixie Dregs - Night of the Living Dregs (Capricorn). Southern-fried instrumental prog rock, for those who aren't familiar.

That cover image cracks me up; it's been a google avatar of mine on some sites for a while now. Yet I have not heard the actual recording. The photo on the back is even worse - it's Makowicz in a truly awful 1980s sweater. My wife thought I should get rid of the album just due to that picture. Now playing: John Lee Hooker - Free Beer and Chicken (ABC). An odd and very fun album.

Rich Matteson/Harvey Phillips - The Matteson-Phillips Tubajazz Consort (Mark) Another possible discard, and another that I've decided to keep. I'm a sucker for groups of homogeneous instruments - this group consists of three euphoniums, three tubas, and a good rhythm section which includes Rufus Reid and Ed Soph. Hearing all those tubas play "Oleo" is pretty cool.

Leroy Vinnegar Art Pepper Basil Rathbone

Jimmy Lyons - Other Afternoons (BYG Actuel reissue)

Bo Derek Pope Pius X Malcom X

DL for JC.

Adam Makowicz - Naughty Baby (RCA Novus) I'm going through my LPs, trying to decide which ones to get rid of to free up some shelf space, and this one got placed in the "maybe" stack. I got it years ago, after reading Max Harrison's praise, but only listened to it a couple of times. Well, I'm not sure what didn't connect back then, because I really enjoyed it today. It's a program of Gershwin, with Charlie Haden on bass (sometimes joined by Dave Holland) and Al Foster on drums. Makowicz's playing is really interesting - he leaves lots of spaces for someone with so much technique. I hope I find some stuff I'm willing to get rid of....

Thanks Jeff; never realised how little gospel AM recorded. Strike that one out then As to the date, the only record dated in Galen Gart's ARLD is #533, dated as released in July 1949, so I just took that as the only reliable date. No details given of the proprietor. In about 1959, the address was 600 Chartres Street, New Orleans. Is that the same firm? MG American Music 533 is Basin Street Blues/Dinah by "Big Eye" Louis Delisle - indeed recorded and released in 1949. And yes, Bill Russell finally moved to New Orleans in the late 1950s. The label's activity in the fifties consisted mostly of issuing a few 10" LPs, which soon became as scarce and legendary as the 78s. AM was dormant in the 1960s, but in the '70s began leasing material to Storyville in Denmark and Dan in Japan. The Dan American Music series was excellent - lots of rare, previously unreleased material, with great pressings and packaging. Many of the tracks on the Dan releases didn't appear on the AM CD series that began in 1989, making them very desirable for American Music obsessives such as myself. And those last few words explains this somewhat off-topic post, I guess.

One correction and qualification: Bill Russell started American Music in 1944, not '49. And he never did more than dip his toe into styles other than traditional jazz. He issued two 78s by George Hornsby, a Pittsburgh gospel pianist, and one gospel side by Ann Cook. Cook had recorded a couple of excellent blues records in the 1920s, but twenty years later would only sing gospel songs. Russell never really got anything good enough to release out of Cook, but issued one side anyway. If you've heard it, you know that Ms. Cook drops beats and that trumpeter Wooden Joe Nicholas never did figure out what key they were in. But those two and a half records were the extent of AM's gospel issues, unless you count stuff like Bunk's Brass Band playing "Over in the Gloryland." Russell also released one 78 by an Alabama string band, The Mobile Strugglers. He recorded enough by them that, in the CD era, their stuff filled half a CD.

Jelly Roll Morton - The Complete Library of Congress Recordings (Rounder); disc six.

Swingin' With Terry Gibbs (EmArcy)

Bud Shank - Barefoot Adventure (PJ mono)

Gennett, Paramount, Black Swan

I thought about posting this in the "great finds" thread, but I'll put it here. A 78 I picked up today has got to be my all-time biggest "bang for the buck" find - it cost five cents! It's Velvet Tone 2453, by the "Tennessee Music Men," with vocals by "Jack King" - "Georgia On My Mind" and "I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me." I've been collecting 78s for long enough to know a pseudonym when I see one, so I grabbed it. When I got home, I looked it up in Rust and it's the Mound City Blue Blowers - the 1931 session with Muggsy Spanier and Coleman Hawkins. I should have known from the titles. There's a fair amount of surface noise, but lowering the 4 KHz band of the EQ cut a lot of that, while still leaving the wonderful "presence" that the record has - more than my LP issue, anyway. Five cents well spent.

Yes, that's pretty cool.

I imagine that there was some sort of pre-concert lecture/explanation about "modern jazz" - hopefully a short one. And was Mary Lou doing her "History of Jazz" medley at that point? I can see some narration on top of that.

Been spinning far more 78s than anyone wants to hear about. This afternoon it was obscure-ish big bands: Joe Haymes - I'se a Muggin'/Christopher Columbus (Perfect). "Christopher Columbus" is quite good. "Muggin'" is the silliest version of this silly song I've ever heard. Les Hite - T-Bone Blues/That's the Lick (Bluebird) Les Hite - Board Meeting/The World is Waiting for the Sunrise (Bluebird). Excellent band, which I've mentioned earlier in this thread. Britt Woodman is on trombone. Harlan Leonard - My Pop Gave Me a Nickel/"400" Swing (Bluebird). "400" is an early Tadd Dameron chart. Fred Beckett, whom J.J. Johnson admired, has great trombone solos on both sides. Dean Hudson - Blitzkrieg/You're Gone (Okeh). Hudson was based in Florida and Georgia; he ended up in Atlanta, where we was still doing big band gigs into the 1980s.

Jeez - do I have to do everything around here? It's "March 19th Blues" from The Private Collection Volume One: Studio Sessions Chicago 1956. The video starts about a minute into the tune. Amazon link (strictly legal, I think) here.

Marion Brown - Afternoon of a Georgia Faun (ECM). First spin in quite a while. I think I liked it more back in the day. Bob Cooper - Tenor Sax Jazz Impressions (Trend). A 1979 direct-to-disc record. Excellent music and sound.

Paul and I have already had our discussion about Mr. Rebennack's voice, so I won't get into that again. But I wouldn't say that he was a "minor leaguer" in his early days, unless you're talking about his own records, which certainly didn't sell a bunch. Starting when he was 16, he was a pretty busy studio musician, producer and songwriter - a role not unlike Toussaint's. And ironically, young Mac Rebennack seemed to agree with you about his singing ability. He sang on very few of his early records - most were instrumentals, which is probably why they didn't sell. And Rebennack wasn't supposed to be Dr. John. (Sorry if this story is common knowledge.) The "Dr. John" idea was cooked up by Rebennack, producer Harold Batiste, and keyboardist/singer Ronnie Barron. Barron was to be Dr. John, the Night Tripper; Rebennack was just going to play keys and guitar. At the last minute, Barron backed out, so they went ahead with Mac R. in the Dr. John role.

I'm with you - I like parts of it. There is one of the LP sides that I turn to with some regularity - the one that starts with a group including Don Cherry playing "A.I.R. (All India Radio)" and which goes on to a long rock piece with some good John McLaughlin and a great Jack Bruce vocal. I like that side a lot, even though Paul Motian was a lousy rock drummer.

I'm more than happy to take this opportunity to derail this thread, since you and Allen have hurt my tender feelings so badly. Congrats on snagging Fallen Heroes. Track 6, from the 1929 Zulu parade, is frustrating, but mind-blowing. You can only hear 30 seconds of music by a parade band, but those 30 seconds are a hot fragment of "Shake That Thing," with John Casimir's clarinet squealing over the top. And track 16 is the only issued recording of the George Williams Brass Band. It's a low-fi street recording, but Willams' influential bass drumming comes through pretty well.

How about: Anthony Braxton, Trio and Duet (Sackville), $7 Anthony Braxton & Derek Bailey - First Duo Concert (London 1974) (Emanem), $13