jeffcrom

Blues time with the 78 rig yesterday and today: Washboard Sam - Diggin' My Potatoes/Back Door (RCA Victor). Thanks to Paul for the discographical details on this one, and for this info that these are the only two of Washboard Sam's Bluebird sides to be reissued on RCA Victor. Big Bill Broonzy - I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town/Hard Hearted Woman (Okeh) Big Bill Broonzy - I'm Woke Up Now/Bad Acting Woman (Okeh) Big Bill Broonzy - I Feel So Good/Tell Me Baby (Columbia). Four of these six sides comprise the great March, 1942 session by Big Bill's Chicago Five, with Punch Miller on trumpet. Ida Cox and her All-Star Band - Four Day Creep/Hard Times Blues (Vocalion). And it is an all-star band, with Hot Lips Page, J.C. Higginbotham and Charlie Christian, among others. Lil Green - Romance in the Dark/What Have I Done? (Bluebird) Lil Green - Give Your Mama One Smile/My Mellow Man (Bluebird) Tommy McClennan - She's Just Good Huggin' Size/My Little Girl (Bluebird) Cow Cow Davenport - Chimes Blues/Slow Drag (Broadway). Broadway was a subsidiary of Paramount. This would be a great collectors' item if it was in better condition. Even in rough shape, it's pretty cool. B. B. King - Praying to the Lord/Please Help Me (RPM) B. B. King - Love You Baby/The Woman I Love (RPM) B. B. King - You Upset Me Baby/Whole Lotta Love (RPM) B. B. King - Sweet Little Angel/Bad Luck (RPM). It's easy to take B. B. for granted - it seems like he's been around forever. But these records are fabulous - intense vocals and blistering guitar.

Don't know that one, will have to check it out... I almost responded to this yesterday as well. The main melody of "Ife" is only four (or maybe three) bars long, but there are a couple of different bass lines and changes of feel and tempo. There's a lot more to the piece than just the melody.

Like lots of blues, it's a four-bar riff repeated three times, but with different chords for each repetition, so I think you'd have to call it twelve bars.

Stan Getz at Large (Verve stereo), sides 3 & 4.

Gil Evans - Live at the Royal Festival Hall London 1978 (Japanese RCA)

The Atlanta Braves. They moved to the city when I was seven, and I can still name the starting lineup of the 1966 team. I made myself a #44 Hank Aaron "jersey" with a t-shirt and a black magic marker, and got in trouble with my mom for wearing it under my white shirt to church. I can only name one member of the current team. I remained a pretty big baseball fan for years. I saw the Braves' first triple play, I was there when Otis Nixon made "the catch" (Braves fans will know what I'm talking about), and I attended a couple of World Series games in the early 1990's - a childhood dream. However, I totally lost interest in major league baseball after the 1994 strike. I don't even know who played in the World Series last year. I'll go to minor league games when I have a chance, but otherwise pro sports has lost me. I follow college football to an extent. I'm married to a Nebraska girl, so things get kind of intense around here on Saturdays during the fall.

That's a great one, and an "important" CD if you want to know what was happening in New Orleans in the 1920's.

Gary Burton Quintet - Dreams so Real: Music of Carla Bley (ECM). The band is Metheny and Mick Goodrick, Swallow, and Bob Moses. Hot Ptah and I both saw the Gary Burton Quartet (in different cities) right around this time. That was a long time ago, but I'm more convinced than ever that Metheny, Swallow and Moses were the other members of the Quartet at their Atlanta concert. Hot Ptah leans toward Goodrick as the guitarist at his show.

As you may know, Fred Hersch has lived with HIV for 25 years, and is active in AIDS charities. Back in 1994, he produced a beautiful album of ballads, Last Night When We Were Young, with the proceeds going to an AIDS organization. Gary Burton and Andy Bey are among the musicians who contribute.

Spun this Danny Polo album again tonight - I like it a lot. Then played a new find - Swinging on Central/I'll Never Be the Same on the Monarch label, from 1945. There's no leader/band name listed, but the personnel is given as: The "King" - piano Charlie Shavers - trumpet Buddy Rich - drums Herbie Haymer - tenor John Simmons - bass I believe this session was released under Herbie Haymer's name on the Sunset label, but I have no idea if this issue came before or after the Sunset releases, or if Nat King Cole was named on those issues. The label gives Linden, NJ as the location for Monarch, so maybe is was part of the Regal/DeLuxe company. In any case, this is a good little record.

A hollow-body electric guitar with the pickup turned all the way down is, in essence, an acoustic guitar. Sounds to me like Rudy put an extra microphone in front of the guitar, Green played the first few choruses with the pickup turned off, then reached down and turned the knob up for his solo. There certainly wasn't time for him to change guitars between the acoustic and electric sounds - the gap between the sounds is only a couple of seconds. Also notice that the "acoustic guitar" is in a different place in the stereo spectrum than the electric guitar. Rudy had the mic on the guitar and the mic on the amplifier panned differently.

I'm glad I'm not alone - some have reacted in disbelief at my affection for the Bobby Hackett/Henry Mancini album, which I have on LP. (The guy at the record store laughed out loud). But I really like it - it's an album which is entertaining on both ironic and un-ironic levels.

The Complete Emarcy Recordings of Clifford Brown, disc 10

Yes, I mean rhythm, but also just about any other aspect of Thomas' playing you can name. Crude tone, not interested in solo playing, harmonically unsophisticated, etc. (And I use all of these terms as descriptions, not criticisms.) Kid Thomas sounds completely untouched by Armstrong, and that's pretty unusual for trumpet player who didn't record until 1952.

Flabbergasting is the word for it, all right.

That was recorded by Bill Russell switching his disc recorder from 78 to 33 RPM and asking for a long blues, just to see what would happen. Since it was recorded several years before the introduction of the LP, he never expected it to be released. It's also one of my favorites.

That's a nice one - I've got it with a different cover. A little while ago: Ornette Coleman - Who's Crazy (Affinity)

I like that one, and I like the instructions to play one side soft and the other side loud. I felt the need tonight for some music simultaneously intense and relaxing. I immediately thought of what might be my favorite ECM album: Jack DeJohnette - New Directions, with Bowie, Abercrombie, and Gomez

One of my desert island discs.

Wooden Joe Nicholas, Vol. 2 (Dan). This Japanese LP contains many takes from Bill Russell's American Music recordings which do not appear in the AM CD series. Just wonderful.

I hope things turn around for you soon.

Welcome! Please send me that Donald Byrd album to make sure it's okay.

Genghis Blues - I know that some of you know this amazing film about the California R & B musician Paul Pena, who discovered Tuvan throat singing via the shortwave radio, taught himself the Tuvan style and repertoire, and eventually traveled to Tuva (between Mongolia and Russia), where he entered and won the Tuvan singing contest. A scene of Paul singing and playing the blues "Long Black Train" for a group of Tuvans is very moving, and the footage of his first appearance in the competition is stunning. Even as he approaches the stage, Pena is a nervous wreck, and has little idea what he is going to sing. He ends up singing a couple of traditional Tuvan songs, improvising a song in Tuvan and singing/playing a throatsinging blues. The crowd just went nuts. This is a beautiful film.

That's a great album. Myself, I'm going in a different direction tonight - I've moved on from jazz 45s to New Orleans R & B singles: Lee Dorsey - Get Out of My Life, Woman/So Long (Amy). I recognize composer/producer Allen Toussaint on piano. This record gets all over me. Jessie Hill - Ooh Poo Pah Doo, parts 1 & 2 (Minit) Roland Stone - I Can't Help It/Just a Moment (Ace). With all due respect to Bobby Charles, Roland Stone was the best blue-eyed soul singer in New Orleans. He recorded a fabulous CD, Remember Me, not long before he died. Red Tyler - Snake Eyes/Walk On (Ace). With Allen Toussaint on piano and Mac Rebennack on guitar. Ernie K-Doe - Mother-In-Law/Wanted: $10,000.00 Reward (Minit) Aaron Neville - Tell It Like It Is/Why Worry (Parlo). Oh my god, what a great record. Oliver Morgan - Who Shot the La La/Hold Your Dog (GNP Crescendo). The kind of bizarre, funky record that could only come out of New Orleans. I saw Morgan perform this song at the Rock 'n' Bowl with Snooks Eaglin and Eddie Bo. L'il Queenie and the Percolaters - My Darlin' New Orleans/Wild Natives (Great Southern). Originally released on Ignant in 1981, this is one of the great New Orleans singles. On my "45 nights," this is often the last record I play before going to bed - usually two or three times. And I didn't even get into my stash of Johnny Adams, Eddie Bo, and Chuck Carbo 45s.

My wife is out of town at a conference. As is not uncommon when she's gone, I'm having a drink or two more than usual and spinning 45s - jazz, tonight: Jack Jenney - a four-record Columbia box of stuff by his big band; what a great trombone sound. Tony Scott - Walkin'/A Night in Tunisia (Swedish RCA). With a Swedish rhythm section. John Grass - two EPs on the Trend label; the equivalent of his first 10" LP. Just great. A single on the Warwick label from The Soul of Jazz Percussion, although the labels don't mention that fact or list a leader. Some great Donald Byrd, Pepper Adams, and Booker Little here. Lou Donaldson - The Nearness of You/Mack the Knife (Blue Note) Horace Silver Quintet with Bill Henderson - Senor Blues/Tippin' (BN) Leo Parker - Low Brown/Parker's Pals (BN) Sonny Red - Stay as Sweet as You Are/Bluesville (BN) Freddie Roach - I Know/Googa Mooga (BN) Bunky Green - By the Time I Get to Phoenix/Sweet Inspiriation (Met). I'd love to know more about this record, which doesn't appear in any discography I've seen. Dexter Gordon - Isn't She Lovely (Columbia mono/stereo promo). As far as I can tell, this never appeared on any of Dexter's albums. Ray Bryant - Ramblin'/Ode to Billie Joe (Cadet). Ray does Ornette and Bobby Gentry. RIP.