jeffcrom

I thought you were a million miles away! Pre-digitized and iPod-stuffed long before my trip. I probably cheated in posting it to the vinyl thread, but I still think of it as vinyl, even when I'm listening on my iPod.

I thought you were a million miles away! Pre-digitized and iPod-stuffed long before my trip. I probably cheated in posting it to the vinyl thread, but I still think of it as vinyl, even when I'm listening on my iPod.

Mark Braud at Preservation Hall and Aurora Nealand at Mimi's. Nice to be back in my favorite city.

Teddy Riley - Honky Tonk Town '79 (504). Great New Orleans jazz, digitized and stuffed into my iPod.

Dang, Allen! I've got all of Jimmie Noone's recordings, but I'm 500 miles away from them, and the Laurie Wright King Oliver book, right now. Dang! I was this close to loading all my Noone CDs into my iPod before I left, but I ran out of time.

Dave Tarras and Naftule Brandwein were the Jimmie Noone and Johnny Dodds of klezmer clarinet. I love them both. And that's my irrelevant contribution to this thread.

PM sent on the Julius Watkins.

I have a copy. I'm considering having it dubbed to a CD. If I do, I'll send you a copy. I'll send one to Jeffcrom too. Dude! I'm about 2/3 of the way through the new bio - it's pretty short. Not bad - not a lot of detail, but I certainly know a lot more about Mr. Weatherford than I did.

Onward Brass Band - Last Journey of a Jazzman, Vol. 1 (Nobility). This is a pretty amazing document. The great New Orleans recording engineer Cosimo Matassa carried a fifty-pound "portable" tape recorder for two hours and recorded the great Onward Brass Band playing the funeral of pianist Lester Santiago in 1965. The music is amazing, but is marred by an overdubbed commentary by Grayson Clark, who ran Dixieland Hall - Nobility was the label associated with that venue, which was opened to compete with Preservation Hall. No matter - it's an amazing document.

George Girard - Stompin' at the Famous Door (Vik). One of the last recordings by the talented New Orleans trumpeter - he died of cancer seven months later at age 26. His music sometimes had too much of that Bourbon Street dixieland flavor, but at his best he was so tasty that I'll forgive him for a few lapses of taste. And Harry Shields, one of my favorite New Orleans clarinetists, is on hand. I've always thought that he was a much better player than his brother Larry, of the ODJB.

Earl Humphrey & Igor's Imperial Orchestra (Center mono). Dick Allen used to insist that Earl was the most talented of the Humphrey brothers. Don't think I agree - Percy was great and Willie was fabulous at his best, but I would at least pay attention when Dick Allen told me something. This 1966 album was Earl's first recording in 40 years, since the Louis Dumaine sides. All the Humphrey brothers could put away some Wild Turkey, apparently, but Earl was the only one for whom it was apparently something of a problem. His playing is rough, but appealing, and the band is good - DeDe Pierce in on trumpet and young Orange Kellin is the clarinetist. (I saw him at Preservation Hall last year.) Nice stuff.

Some New Orleans jazz in preparation for my visit to my favorite city: Jelly Roll Morton - Fingerbuster/Creepy Feeling (Jazz Man, 1938) Jelly Roll Morton - Whinin' Boy/Honky Tonk Music (Jazz Man, 1938) Excellent piano solos, which I don't have in any other format. Crappy pressings, though. Papa Celestin - Marie Laveau/Maryland, My Maryland (Regal, 1947) Papa Celestin - Eh La Ba/My Josephine (Regal, 1947) For some reason, I enjoyed this session more than I ever have in the past. It's really cool hearing one of the earliest jazz clarinetists, Alphonse Picou, sounding as good as ever at age 70. And Paul Barnes plays alto sax on his composition "My Josephine," just as he did on Celestin's recording of the song from 20 years earlier. Bunk Johnson - Swanee River/Runnin' Wild (American Music, 1945) I think I've mentioned here before that this take of "Swanee River" was never reissued in any other form.

Coleman Hawkins (Crown). A good one, with Thad Jones and Eddie Costa. Visually, it's near mint, but it's a pretty crappy pressing. (Surprise!) Dickie Wells/Joe Turner/Teddy Weatherford - Swing Sessions 1 1937/1939 (EMI/Pathe)

Jeff, you might be interested in this thread: Thanks, BroMo - I had actually already found that thread whilst poking around here for Wearthford info.

Oh, and Bessie Smith's "Gin House Blues" is one of her most harrowing recordings. She also has one called "Me and My Gin," which is more lighthearted.

Interesting topic. I was surprised about how little material I could come up with. I thought of "Prohibition Blues" by the Missourians, the band that basically morphed into Cab Calloway's band - it's a nice minor-key tune from 1930. If you want to delve outside of jazz, there's "Bootlegger's Blues" by the Mississippi Sheiks, the 1920's string band. It's basically the old song "Make it Through the World" with moonshine-related lyrics. And bluesman Tommy Johnson recorded "Canned Heat Blues" about drinking Sterno and "Alcohol and Jake Blues" about drinking Jamaica ginger, which caused slight problems like blindness and paralysis during Prohibition. The field of "jake-leg" songs would be worth looking into, but Tommy Johnson's is the only one I have in my collection. I'll keep thinking about it.

Thanks for the tip - just bought and downloaded. I love Weatherford and have been trying to track down his Indian recordings - there were a few on a Jazum LP in the public library of the little town where I grew up.

"Problematic" is a good description of the word. It could be considered kind of a loaded word, but I use "primitive" when there's no other word that works as well. Of the two artists from the Fahey anthology you mention, I wouldn't describe Patton as primitive at all, but it's a good description of Jaybird Coleman's music. And I can't think of any other word that better describes Othar Turner's fife playing, but when I'm talking about it I make it clear that I'm talking about the music, not the man.

I haven't been spinning 78s that often lately, and when I have, I haven't posted about it. But today I spun some gospel, starting out with three sermon records: Rev. J. M. Gates - Dead Cat on the Line/You Midnight Ramblers (Okeh, 1929). This one's fabulous - very entertaining. Rev. J.C. Burnett - The Downfall of Nebuchadnezzar/I've Even Heard of Thee (Columbia, 1926). Equally great - more serious. Rev. S. J. Worrell "Steamboat Bill" - Go Thou and Preach the Gospel/Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone? (Vocalion, 1926) Elder Charles Beck - I've Got Heaven on My Mind/Changes (Montgomery Ward, 1939) The Southern Sons - I'm Free At Last/One Day When the Lord Will Call Me (RCA Victor, 1946) Morris Brown Quartet - I Can Tell The World About This/Swing Low Sweet Chariot (Bluebird, 1939) Then on to something different - all of my Fiddlin' John Carson records: You'll Never Miss Your Mother Until She is Gone/Papa's Billy Goat (Okeh, 1923) Billy in the Low Ground/When You and I Were Young, Maggie (Okeh, 1923) Fire in the Mountain/Peter Went Fishing (Okeh, 1926) It's a Shame to Whip Your Wife on Sunday/Cotton Eyed Joe (Okeh, 1927) I really have to separate the man from the music when I listen to Fiddlin' John, but that's true of a lot of the musicians I like.

I think you linked to the wrong page.

"Snag It" was recorded for RCA Victor, not Decca. I have a Document CD (The Complete Deccas, Victors and V Discs) that has two takes of "Snag It" (plus a live version issued on V-Disc) and one take of "Franklin Street Blues." Here's a link to a later version of my Document CD. Bunk also recorded "Snag It" for American Music - one take is on Bunk Johnson 1944/45. See the Jazzology website. Many of his blues in the key of C that he made for AM turned into "Franklin Street," although I don't think any of them are actually called that.

I did end up posting "Dread" here. It somehow seemed important to me to type it up and post it today.

Dave Brubeck Quartet - Gone With the Wind (Columbia 6 eye stereo) In spite of reservations about Brubeck's musicianship, I find his music very comforting when I'm in certain moods. And it's probably morbid to say this, but I've been thinking a lot lately about his age and health, and how much I'll miss him when he's gone.

I don't want to answer a question that you haven't asked, so to clarify: are you trying to copy music from your iPod to your new computer?

I had forgotten about this thread - again. Tonight I thought of Ai - a "1/2 Japanese, Choctaw-Chickasaw, Black, Irish, Southern Cheyenne, and Comanche" poet who writes amazing, chilling character poems. The title poem of her 2003 collection Dread is on my mind tonight - it's a portrait of New York City policewoman Shirley Herlihy, who is obsessed with finding some trace of her brother's remains in the World Trade Center rubble. That poem is too long to post here, but here's another great Ai poem, from Killing Floor. THE GERMAN ARMY, RUSSIA, 1943 For twelve days, I drilled through Moscow ice to reach paradise, that white tablecloth, set with a plate that's cracking bit by bit like the glassy air, like me. I know I'll fly apart soon, the pieces of me so light they float. The Russians burned their crops, rather than feed our army. Now they strike us against each other like dry rocks and set us on fire with a hunger nothing can feed. Someone calls me and I look up. It's Hitler. I imagine eating his terrible, luminous eyes. Brother, he says. I stand up, tie the rags tighter around my feet. I hear my footsteps running behind me, but I am already going.