jeffcrom

Sidney Bechet - Inedits Vol. 1 (Nec Plus Ultra). 1939 recordings made by Bechet's friend and supporter John Reid. Reid used these recordings (successfully) as promos to convince Victor to sign Bechet to a contract.

Manute Bol Mr. Boll Weevil Charley Patton

Cool!

Paddock Jazz Band - 1953 (Biograph) This is basically Papa Celestin's band after his death, with Alvin Alcorn, a New Orleans trumpeter I've always like, in place of Celestin. It's always amazing and moving to me to hear recordings of those jazz musicians who were there at the beginning - the legendary clarinetist Alphonse Picou was born in 1878, only a year after Buddy Bolden, and he sounds great here, with his old-fashioned Creole style. Edit: I was wrong - Papa Celestin died in 1954. I'm not sure why Alcorn is on trumpet rather than Celestin. But I'll add that this is possibly the best example of Alphone Picou's playing on record. It doesn't swing like we're used to, but it's probably what jazz clarinet was really like around 1900.

Black Bands in Paris 1929-1930 (French Pathe). This is Volume 2 of the four-LP Le Jazz en France series. Lots of the stuff on these records is of more historical than musical interest, but it's all pretty interesting. The best tracks on this one are by Sam Wooding and His Orchestra, with Doc Cheatham, Albert Wynn, and Gene Sedric on board.

Joe Timer/The Orchestra - Willis Conover's House of Sounds (Brunswick)

Pops Foster Foster Brooks Dean Martin

Spinning one more of my J. M. Keith discs before going to bed. This one has the Charlie Fisk Orchestra on one side and the Adrian Rollini Trio on the other. The Rollini side is pretty interesting.

The Claude Thornhill broadcast recordings I just listened to put me in a mood to listen to one of my little treasures - a home-recorded disc of a broadcast by Ray McKinley and His Orchestra from August, 1947. There are two Eddie Sauter arrangements, including the amazing "Sand Storm." I also spun the flip side, by Skitch Henderson and His Orchestra. I write about these recordings here.

Claude Thornhill - One Night Stand (Joyce). Broadcast recordings from 1946, 1950, and 1953. Plenty of forgettable stuff here, but also several of those amazing Gil Evans charts. And there are some interesting musicians on the '50's material: John Carisi, Hal McKusick, Med Flory, Barry Galbraith. And Claude Thornhill was one of the few musical enthusiasms my late mom and I shared. She grew up listening to the big bands, and liked the rich sound of Thornhill's band; I was listening to the Gil Evans charts and Lee Konitz solos. But it was nice listening to this music with her. Edit: Gene Quill kicks ass on "Too Marvelous For Words," from 1953.

I think I remember loaning that one to you. I'd like it back now....

Lionel Hampton - sides G & H (from 1939) from the old RCA/Bluebird complete vinyl set.

Picked up a few "new" 78s at a local shop. Two feature Bix Beiderbecke: Paul Whiteman - Because My Baby Don't Mean "Maybe" Now/Just Like a Melody Out of the Sky (Columbia, 1928). Bix has 24 transcendent measures on the first side. This reminds me of why I like 78s so much. I've had "Because My Baby" on LP or CD since 1974. But it has always been just one track of an album, surrounded by lots of other tracks. Hearing it by itself, it came into focus in a way it never has before, and I heard how great Bix's solo really is. And the label is cool - it's a Whiteman "potato head" label, as 78 collectors call it. When Columbia lured Whiteman from Victor, they gave him his own picture label - one of the most colorful labels they ever produced. Here's an example from the Keep Swinging blog: Then on to: Jean Goldkette - Idolizing/Hush-a-Bye (Victor, 1926). I already had a copy of this, but I couldn't resist picking up a nice, very clean replacement for my rather battered copy. Bix solos on "Idolizing," and Eddie Lang plays a nice obligato behind the vocal. I ended with a surprise, to me anyway: Oliver Naylor's Orchestra: Sweet Georgia Brown/Benson Orchestra of Chicago - Riverboat Shuffle (Victor, 1925). I picked this one up for the Benson Orchestra of Chicago, a 1920's dance band I've always liked. (Frank Trumbauer was a member for a while.) And they're good here, but Oliver Naylor's band is better - this is a very hot side, with good solos. I looked this up in Rust, and I recognize several New Orleans names - was Naylor a New Orleanian? I can't find out. But there is a CD of his stuff on Challenge/Retrieval - I may or may not get that, but I'll definitely be on the lookout for more of his 78s.

Eddie Miller - The Uncollected Eddie Miller (Hindsight). 1944-45 transcription recordings by Miller's short-lived big band.

Hugh Masekela - The African Connection (Impulse). This is Impulse's reissue of the two-LP Blue Thumb album. I'm not an expert on Masekela's music, but I know that lots of it seems kind of lightweight. This one is fabulous, though, with Dudu Pukwana, Larry Willis, Eddie Gomez, and Nakhaya Ntshoko.

Other Dimensions in Music (Silkheart). Beautiful, melodic free jazz, improvised by Roy Campbell, Daniel Carter, William Parker, and Rashid Bakr.

Jimmy McGriff - The Way You Look Tonight (Solid State). A nice one from 1969.

My air conditioner has died (not a laughing matter here in Georgia in July) and I can't sleep. I'm in the mood for more African music, so I'm playing a Nigerian CD I got in Germany last year: King Sunny Ade: Ekilo Fomo Ode/Togetherness (Masterdisc) This is rawer and more stripped-down than the King Sunny Ade albums that were marketed in the U.S. during the 1980's and '90's. Very nice stuff.

I'm listening to an LP I just picked up today - La Kora de Sénégal by Lamine Konté on the Arion label. The subtitle is "Les rythmes, les percussions & la voix du Lamine Konté" on my copy - but not on the picture I found on the web! Otherwise the picture is identical to my LP. The stuff I could find on the web about Konté suggests that he was one of the first Senegalese musicians to put the kora into more "modern" contexts. But so far (I just finished side one), it all seem fairly traditional - the only "modern" touch I hear is the use of an electric guitar on one cut, and even that is well-integrated into the kora part, like Ali Farka Toure's playing with Toumani Diabate. Again, poking around the web indicates that there are at least two volumes of La Kora de Sénégal in CD form, but neither of them correspond exactly to this LP. The liner notes are in French, which I'm hopeless with, so they don't shed any light for me. There's a pretty cool stamp on the back of the sleeve, indicating that it was sold at a book/record store in Dakar: La Maison du Livre et du Disque. In any case, this is a beautiful record - I'm glad I found it. And thanks to The Magnificent Goldberg - without his guidance I wouldn't have enough knowledge to discuss a Senegalese record even to this extent. Come back soon, Allen!

Lester Bowie - The Great Pretender (ECM)

Mine sounds pretty good. I kind of miss my old eight-track tape of this one, bought for a dollar at Woolworth's....

Again - this is one of my favorite obscure local gospel albums, on the Atlanta Soul Liberation label. Couldn't find a picture anywhere on the web.

Speckled Red Cow Cow Davenport Bix Beiderbecke

I file multi-artist anthologies under the title, and I don't know how many times I've looked for an album and couldn't remember the title.

Didn't realize I had messed up your birthday plans. Thanks for taking one for the team.