jeffcrom

Is that an original Debut issue Brownie? Or one of those numbered limited edition 70s/80s reissues? Don't think I've ever seen that one (although at least one of the tracks is on the Debut Story CD set). I've got a copy of the original - found in a Savannah junk store 15 or so years ago. I might spin it tonight.

I've been on an Armstrong jag lately - listening to some Louis every day. Among my selections today was one of Armstrong's last albums: Disney Songs the Satchmo Way (Vista) from 1968. The title sounds pretty grim, and on the surface, it is: silly songs, trivial arrangements, sappy strings and choirs. But of course, it's Louis Armstrong, and he makes a piece of crap like "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" not only listenable, but enjoyable. And when he's confronted with good songs like "When You Wish Upon a Star" and "Chim Chim Cheree," he's brilliant. His first sixteen-bar solo on "Chim Chim Cheree" is stunning - it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

Woody Shaw - Love Dance (Muse)

I played several 1920's 78s by Nat Shilkret's dance band this morning. They're not jazz, except for a few hot solos, and those are by guys like Mike Mosiello and Andy Sannella, who were more dance-band players than jazzers. But it was a tight band, playing interesting arrangements of excellent songs like "Can't Help Lovin' That Man" as well as curiosities like "Lucky Lindy" - a real period piece. But by far the best of the records is a 1928 disc by Shilkret's Rhyth-Melodists - a little chamber dance group. "Chlo-e" is played by violin, piano, and pipe organ; "When You're With Somebody Else" has trombone, harp, piano and organ. The organist is no less than Fats Waller. Pretty cool little record.

It's been years since the question of what is and what is not jazz concerned me very much. But when I as a young man, I thought about it a lot, and here's what I came up with. Jazz is characterized by: 1. Swing, which I'll loosely define as a paradoxical blend of rhythmic relaxation and flowing forward motion. 2. An individual approach to timbre. 3. A heavy reliance on improvisation. To the extent that a piece of music has these characteristics, it's jazz. If it matters. Disclaimers and further explanation: I don't think of swing as limited to traditional walking-bass-driven 4/4. In my book, Cecil Taylor and Albert Ayler swing. Neil Young, and most rock, doesn't. The beat doesn't flow - it's marked; it's up-and down rather than forward-moving. There is jazz that doesn't have all of these characteristics, but the more they're absent, the less the music will sound like jazz. I can think of pieces by Anthony Braxton that have the last two in spades, but which don't flow rhythmically like jazz, even like the Cecil Taylor kind. I might think that it's still jazz, but wouldn't be particularly inclined to argue with someone who said that it wasn't. And the aspect of improvisation is not limited to solos - it includes the kind of group interaction as a pianist responding to a drummer while accompanying a horn player. This may all be BS, but it's what I came up with once upon a time.

Ellington and Hodges today; I've probably mentioned most of these previously: Duke Ellington - Solitude/Moonglow (Silvertone) A 1941-42 pressing of 1934 recordings, on Sears' label. Duke Ellington - Weely/I Never Felt This Way Before (Columbia, 1939) Duke Ellington with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra - The Minor Goes Muggin'/Tommy Dorsey with the Duke Ellington Orchestra - Tonight I Shall Sleep (Victor, 1945) Johnny Hodges - It Shouldn't Happen to a Dream/A Little Taste (Mercer, 1947) Johnny Hodges - Let the Zoomers Drool/Searsy's Blues (Mercer, 1947) Johnny Hodges - Through for the Night/Latino (Mercury, 1952)

Jazz - New Orleans, Volumes 1 & 2, side B of each (Savoy). These two records each feature Punch Miller one side and Mutt Carey on the other side. (More or less - there's one Punch track mixed in with the Mutt on Vol. 2.) Tonight I'm spinning the Mutt Carey stuff.

George Russell Sextet in K.C. (Decca mono). "Original Swinging Instrumentals," as the front cover states.

George Lewis Plays Hymns (Milneberg). Simple and beautiful.

Gerald Wilson Orchestra - Live and Swinging (PJ mono)

I'm in - looking forward to it.

I said in my post that 12-inchers were common for classical releases. I tend to avoid 78 RPM classical sets that involve breaking up long pieces onto several record sides, but I love those early Victor Red Seal 78s of the early 20th century classical masters - Caruso, Stokowski, Mischa Elman, Alfred Cortot, etc. To me, the original 78s are the best way to hear them. What speed was that? I'm aware of 78, 45, 33 1/3, & 16-ish RPM's (forget if the 16 had a fraction after it), but I've not heard of any other. Those would be 16 RPM releases. I never had any of the Prestige 16 RPM releases, but I had a few kids' records that played at 16 back when I was a tot.

Martial Solal - Solal: The Martial Solal Trio Recorded in Concert (Milestone mono). Eff-ing brilliant!

12" 78s were very common for classical releases, less so for other kinds of music. 12" jazz 78s were uncommon, but not unheard of - Blue Note and Commodore kind of specialized in 12" releases. A have a fancy Victor 12" album called Symposium in Swing with discs by Benny Goodman, Bunny Berigan, Tommy Dorsey, and Fats Waller. I can't speak to whether Getz's Prestige sides were issued on 12-inchers; I'm not aware of any 12" Prestige 78 issues, but that doesn't mean there weren't any. Three and a half minutes was about the limit of a 10" 78; a little over five minutes for a 12" disc.

George Van Eps - Soliloquy (Capitol)

Today's highlights from my new stash include two Lil Green Bluebirds - excellent condition, and Big Bill Broonzy is on guitar: Romance In the Dark/What Have I Done? and Give Your Mama One Smile/My Mellow Man. Both are wonderful. I had my biggest surprise from the new stack today. Among the records were three Korean discs. One was by Les Paul and Mary Ford(!), one was of Korean pop music (exotic enough to my ears), but the third one took the top of my head off. It features a female vocalist accompanied by a percussion, performing in an obviously traditional style that I had never heard before. A little research revealed that it's a genre called pansori. It's a striking and unusual record.

Jim Hall - Concierto (CTI)

Too cool!

Bluebirds I have are all excellent, quiet surfaces and excellent dynamics. Not sure how they were priced compared to other issues. Were they a "budget" label ? Yes, Bluebird was RCA Victor's budget line, introduced during the depression. The price of black-label Victor records stabilized at 75 cents in the 1930's, while Bluebirds cost 35 cents. In every respect they were as good as Victors in terms of sound. Bluebird was the label of choice for Victor's blues and country releases, but they also released plenty of mainstream pop on Bluebird. Most of Glenn Miller's records were originally on Bluebird, and they sold in the millions.

Today's winners from my recent find: Ida Cox and Her All-Star Band - Four Day Creep/Hard Times Blues (Vocalion, 1939). Really nice sides by the veteran blueswoman, with Hot Lips Page, J. C. Higginbotham, Ed Hall, and Charlie Christian, among others. Illinois Jacquet and His All Stars - She's Funny That Way/12 Minutes to Go (Apollo, 1946). Great playing by Illinois & Co. Six Brown Brothers - Chin Chin Medley/H. Benne Henton - Laverne-Waltz Caprice (Victor, 1916). I was really excited to find the Henton recording - he was one of the first saxophone virtuosos to record, and the first to use the altissimo register. This side ends with a beautiful high C, seven notes above the "normal" range of the horn. Nothing to do with jazz, or course. Gerald Clark and His Original Calypsos Featuring Macbeth the Great - Man Smart-Woman Smarter/My Donkey Want Water (Guild, 1945-ish). I love finding calypso 78s for a buck or two; they go for pretty high prices on Ebay. This one features the great Gregory Felix on clarinet; I'll always be grateful to jazztrain for identifying him for me.

This is true, and it's one reason that I often refer to on-line discographies. But I've learned so much (and derived much pleasure) from thumbing through printed discographies. I've kept all my out-of-date ones, and keep adding more. (Thanks, Paul!) I just bought a fairly reasonably-priced copy of Mr. Rust's two-volume Dance Band Discography, since many of the 78s I've been acquiring aren't listed anywhere else. The amount of work that went into this is staggering. I've already learned a lot.

Just remember (according to a joke my dad told me years ago): Pie are round; cornbread are square.

Since becoming addicted to 78s, I have been hitting every antique store I can find within driving distance of my house in Atlanta. About half of such stores have at least a few 78s on hand, but they're usually junk - Sammy Kaye, Perry Como, Frankie Carle, etc. Sometimes there are some decent records, but every once in awhile I find a great stash. Today was one of those days. I came home with around 30 records I got for a dollar apiece - jazz, blues, old-time country, pop, classical, and those 1920's dance bands I like. The highlights so far: King Oliver and His Orchestra - Stingaree Blues/Shake It and Break It (Bluebird). This is a reissue, not the original pressing, but it's in stone E condition, and sounds wonderful. Tommy McClennan - She's Just Good Huggin' Size/My Little Girl (Bluebird). A beautiful copy of an original pressing by the Mississippi blueman. My heart skipped a beat when I spotted this one. Scottdale String Band - Carolina Glide/My Own Iona (Okeh). Old time county by a band who worked in the Scottdale Cotton Mill, just a few miles from my house. Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers - Big Ball in Town/Old McDonald (Columbia). More old-time country from Georgia. Billy Murray - Big Bad Bill (Victor). A near-mint record of a vaudeville song I've played many times; I had never heard a recording of it from its heyday. The flip, a pseuso-Hawaiian song by Frank Richardson, ain't much. I'll clean and play some more tomorrow.

This is all incredibly distressing, even from thousands of miles away. The workers remaining in the failing nuclear plants are heroes.

The first music I thought of when I saw this thread a few days ago was the best of the King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band sides - "Canal Street Blues," "Dippermouth Blues," "I Ain't Gonna Tell Nobody," the Paramount "Mabel's Dream," take one, etc. This music is a continual source of wonder to me. It's not literally perfect - trombonist Honore Dutrey doesn't swing much and is sometimes out of tune, as is bass saxophonist Charlie Jackson on those sides he plays on, and all the musicians don't always agree on what the chords are supposed to be. But it doesn't matter - the best sides are perfect in the sense that you wouldn't want to change anything. This is music with lots of layers - I'll probably never get to the bottom, and I'm glad about that.