jeffcrom

One of my best friends described me as "a moody fuck," and I'm in a mood tonight. Some blues LPs are helping: Tabby Thomas - King of Swamp Blues (Maison de Soul) Johnny Littlejohn - So-Called Friends (Rooster Blues) Robert Pete Williams - Louisiana Blues (Takoma)

"Hot Sauce" by Elmo Hope, from Trio and Quintet on BN. It's simultaneously sophisticated and primal, and couldn't be by anyone other than Mr. Hope.

Sam Rivers - Contrasts (ECM). The kind of weird intensity I need right now.

Last night and this morning: Teddy Wilson - On Tour (Charlie Parker). Lo-fi tapes, great playing. Muggsy Spanier and His Orchestra (Jazum). Even lower-fi - broadcasts recorded by a microphone held in front of an AM radio speaker in 1953. Edit: paranoid, smart-ass comment removed.

To "reward" myself for giving blood today, I stopped in a local record store - I had decided to pick up a cheap Tabby Thomas blues album I had seen if they still had it. Well, they still had it, but they had just put out four Blue Note CDs which I didn't have: Elmo Hope - Trio and Quintet (Conn) Art Blakey - Orgy in Rhythm (Conn); sealed! Lee Morgan - The Procrastinator (Conn); sealed! Paul Chambers - Whims of Chambers (McMaster).

Humphrey Lyttelton - Jazz at the Royal Festival Hall (Parlophone 10" LP) Later: I love Bruce Turner's alto playing. Lyttelton and Wally Fawkes also sound good.

Martial Solal playing "Four Brothers" on harpsichord is amazing and hilarious.

I thought about it. For one thing, in the past I haven't had very good luck selling stuff here. Also, in the past, I've offered stuff that I didn't want to my friends here for free, just so that it would have a good home. This time, I'm culling around 200-300 CDs, some pretty cool/desirable and some pretty ordinary. And I want to get it all out of the house as soon as possible. In the end, it just seemed easiest to list everything on Ebay with low starting bids rather than try to figure out a set price for each CD, especially since many of the CDs probably wouldn't generate much interest here. Whatever sells, sells, and the rest will go to Goodwill or a local used CD store. No disrespect was intended by not offering them here first - I'm just trying to keep things simple.

I just read this thread for the first time. My comments: 1. This can be a really strange place. 2. The Jazz Record Mart is my absolute favorite record store in the world, although I live 600 miles away and have only visited a couple of times. The last time I was there, I walked out with a big stack of 45's, LPs, and CDs. 3. I really like John Litweiler's books. 4. I agree with JL about Reich's Jelly Roll book. I had to force myself to finish it, and when I did, I had a bad taste in my mouth. 5. I'm more resolved than ever to read Larry's Jazz In Search of Itself, which I somehow was unaware of until about a year ago. I doubt I'll be lucky enough to find a copy for 25 cents, but I'm still looking forward to reading it.

Somebody in northwestern Washington, where I bought some 78s last week, was a Charlie Ventura fan - I found four Ventura records on the National label to go with the one I already had. I spun them all today - genial bop, for the most part, recorded between 1946 and 1948. There's some nice Bennie Green trombone on several of them. A.M. - P.M. Song/F.Y.I. I'll Never Be the Same/East of Suez Baby, Baby All the Time/I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles Stop and Go/Pina Colada Euphoria/If I Had You

I've made the painful decision that I've got to get rid of some of my CDs - I'm just running out of room. The first 40 have been listed on Ebay, and I'm going to add ten each day for awhile. The starting bid for every CD: rare, common, mediocre, whatever, is $2.00. Sigh....

I don't know who it is, but he's got my horn! I have a Mark VI of about the same vintage, with the lacquer worn in similar spots.

The World of Duke Ellington, Volume 3 (Columbia) Beautiful music; this series was really over-processed, but a mono cartridge makes it much more listenable.

This is some strange, intense, powerful stuff.

Edmond Hall - Petite Fleur (United Artists mono)

Artie Shaw - The Sideman Years (Sounds of Swing). Some well-known sides here, but also quite a few unusual rarities. I particularly like the 1934 Wingy Mannone date with Bud Freeman, Dickie Wells, and Jelly Roll Morton.

George Girard - Stompin' at the Famous Door (Vik mono). Girard was a talented New Orleans Dixieland trumpeter. This album has one of my favorite New Orleans clarinetists, Harry Shields, but also, unfortunately, Paul Edwards on drums - he turns every tune into over-the-top Bourbon Street dixieland. Girard is a little over the top himself at times, but mostly sounds fiery and imaginative. I can only imagine how he would have sounded with a little more maturity - seven months after this album was recorded, he was dead of cancer at age 26.

Mose Allison - Lessons in Living (Elektra Musician). The Sage of Tippo, Mississippi live at Montreux, 1982, with Lou Donaldson, Eric Gale, Jack Bruce and Billy Cobham.

Bobby Hutcherson - Total Eclipse (BN 1985 "revival" pressing). This is my first hearing of this album - I was prompted to seek it out by the high esteem in which it's held around here. I'm not disappointed.

Sorry for the late reply - I somehow missed this post earlier. How is it? Short answer - disappointing. Bunk is not in good form, and there are only a few minutes of Leadbelly. I'm keeping it, because I'm kind of a Bunk Johnson completist, but I don't recommend it unless you already have most of Bunk's recordings and still want more.

Another Seattle find: Olympia Brass Band - New Orleans Street Parade (MPS) The mighty Olympia on tour in Europe, 1968.

Historically, very "important" stuff; musically, somewhat mixed. But with my affection for New Orleans music, I love them. Volume I contains "homemade" acetates from New Orleans, 1937-1940, when jazz wasn't really being recorded commercially in New Orleans. The first four tracks feature Kid Howard - young and strong, and very much in a Louis Armstrong bag. The other New Orleans tracks are by less well-known musicians. All are in a swing vein, and are good, although not well recorded. There are also five tracks by the mighty Punch Miller, recorded in 1941 in Chicago. These are very much worth hearing - there aren't that many recordings of Punch in his prime. I would say that this CD is not essential for most folks, but those particularly interested in New Orleans music, Kid Howard, or Punch Miller have got to have it. The meat of Volume II is the Delta session by the legendary trumpeter Kid Rena, along with some rehearsal acetates made a week earlier. Most critical opinion I've read focuses on what these recordings are not, rather than what they are. From all reports, Kid Rena was a fabulous, innovative trumpeter in his youth - possibly the equal of Punch, Lee Collins, or the unrecorded Buddy Petit. There's no evidence of that kind of greatness on these, his only recordings, so many listeners have been disappointed with them. But I love his playing here for what it is - a strong, straightforward New Orleans lead style - nothing virtuosic or innovative. Louis "Big Eye" Nelson and Alphonse Picou are both on clarinet, and I wish that the producers of this session had let them alternate on different tracks, rather than play together on every track. I guess they were carried away with that picture of the Buddy Bolden band that has two clarinetists. Anyway, I love the Kid Rena sides - although sonically, they have an unpleasant, metallic quality that I assume is the result of the studio they were recorded in. The rehearsal tracks don't have the same sound. There are also a few "homemade" records by Bunk Johnson - his first, recorded at his home in New Iberia. Nothing earth-shattering here, although they are interesting. Even more interesting are the tracks on The John Reid Collection (also on American Music) on which Sidney Bechet overdubbed a soprano part onto some of these discs.

A couple of LPs I picked up in Seattle a few days ago, starting with one of the unintentionally funniest album titles of all time: Johnny Hodges/Charlie Shavers - A Man and His Music (Storyville). Hodges has one side, Shavers the other. The heart of each side is a mid-50's broadcast by each man with Columbus pianist Al Waslon and his trio. Each broadcast is excellent and relaxed; the leaders sound good, as does the little-known Waslon, who I believe played with Jimmy Dorsey earlier. A personal note: my first wife, who was a Johnny Hodges fan, had this album, and for years I've been mourning my separation from it - not from her so much. Vernard Johnson - Live (Glori). He's introduced as "the world's greatest gospel saxophonist," and that's about right. This makes my fifth album by Brother Vernard - they're all great.

For some reason I recall one or two exceptions. Gotta think about it. This post prompted me to get up off my butt and actually check what I thought I knew. You're right. As far as I can tell, the bonus tracks on the CD's complete all the titles that were issued from these sessions, but not all the takes. A couple of minutes of checking reveal that a couple of Percy Humphrey alternate takes were on the double LP, but not on the CD. There may be others like this.

I just got back from visiting the wife's relatives in Bellingham, Washington. Much to my surprise, I found a record dealer with thousands and thousands of 78s. I spent about three hours over two days looking - it was mostly junk, but I found a few nice ones. Not much jazz, but I did pick up a some of what they had, which I'll report on later. I spun a few of the older records today; they will be of interest mostly to concert band geeks and wind players: Frank S. Mazziotta/Stephen Porpora - Voice of Love (Schumann) (one-sided Zon-o-phone, 1907). As a saxophonist, I'm fascinated by early saxophone recordings. This is a flute/saxophone duet; Porpora is the saxophonist. I can't find any information on him other than the fact that he made several recordings for Zon-o-phone early in the 20th century. I'm intrigued with how "plain" most of the playing is on my early sax 78s - vibrato didn't seem to come in until the 1920's. Herbert L. Clarke - Carnival of Venice/Stars on a Velvety Sky (Brunswick, 1922). This is a pretty amazing recording by the famous cornet virtuoso. Again, not jazz or anything like it, but jaw-dropping brass playing. Victor Orchestra - Black and White (Ragtime Two-Step)/Clarke and Lyons - The Land of the Swallows (Victor, 1909). I love early ragtime recordings, and this is an excellent one. The flip is more Herbert Clarke, in duet with a flutist. United States Marine Band - President Harding March/National Capitol Centennial (Victor, 1921). Then, as now, the Marine Band was the best concert band in the world. "Centennial" was written by William H. Santelmann, who was the band's director at the time.