jeffcrom

Art Farmer - Sing Me Softly of the Blues (Atlantic mono)

After a nice evening with friends eating, drinking, and listening to some of Atlanta's old guard straight ahead jazz guys: Wayne Shorter - Native Dancer (Columbia). I have qualms about this album, as I have had for 40 years. But Wayne Shorter....

I love the Punch Miller tracks. Punch had lost a lot of his fire by this time, but still had a hard, bluesy core.

Wildflowers 4 (Douglas). Tracks by Hamiet Bluiett, Julius Hemphill, JImmy Lyons, Oliver Lake, and David Murray.

I knew someone was going to call me on that! That most famous version is not on my shelves, as sacrilegious as that seems.

I'm reading Cecil Brown's Stagloee Shot Billy, about the incident, the legend, and the song, and made a playlist to go along with it: 13 versions of the song: Mississippi John Hurt (1928) Archibald Lucius Curtis and Willie Ford Washboard Chaz Blues Trio Ma Rainey R.L. Burnside Furry Lewis Champion Jack Dupree Woody Guthrie Cephas & Wiggins Bama (inmate at Parchman) Professor Longhair Mississippi John Hurt (1964)

Paul Chambers - Chambers' Music: A Jazz Delegation From the East (Imperial). As I understand, the third incarnation of this album, after the Jazz West and Score issues.

When I got into 78 madness a few years back I found a vintage Miracord turntable with 78 speed and set it up with a Grado 78 cartridge. I used that until a couple of years ago, when I got a very flexible Rek-O-Kut table (I hate the name, but it goes back for years) made by Esoteric Sound. I play LPs, 45s, and 78s of all types on it. I use an Ortofon Blue cartridge for LPs and 45s. When I'm ready to play 78s, I take off that headshell and put on the one with a Stanton cartridge (don't know the model). I have six styli of different sizes I can use with the Stanton - some 78s sound better with a larger stylus, some with a smaller one. It takes me about 45 seconds to change out the headshell and adjust the tracking weight, and just seconds to pop one stylus off and replace it with another. The Esoteric Sounds table gives me the flexibility to play every record with the ideal setup. I have half a dozen 12" hi-fi 78s made in the 1950s by Ewing Nunn's Audiophile label. They sound amazing when played mono with a microgroove stylus, as intended. They always sounded lousy on my Miracord table, with the 78 cartridge and larger stylus. I also have a few modern 78s that need to be played in stereo with a microgroove needle. I have a few 33 RPM discs of radio airchecks from the 1940s that I can now play with the larger stylus they need. So, yes, I'm either: A) a serious 78 collector B) insane C) both of the above.

J.C. Bach - Symphonies for Wind Instruments; Jack Brymer/London Wind Soloists (London LP). Really lovely suites for wind sextet. It looks like these recordings were reissued on a Testament CD.

A couple of months ago I acquired my first red-label Okeh Bix Beiderbecke 78 - Riverboat Shuffle/Ostrich Walk by Frankie Trumbauer. It's a little worn, so there is some surface noise, but with the right stylus and EQ, the sound is really vibrant.

Well, it's certainly interesting. Fun only in spots for me. It's still Hodeir, and the writing is pretty dense. His sense of humor comes through at times, but even though it's "fictionalized" jazz criticism, I still found it pretty hard reading much of the time.

Eric Dolphy - Stockholm Sessions (Enja) Ellington/Mingus/Roach - Money Jungle (BN, 2002 edition). I somewhat eccentrically listened to just the tracks that weren't on the original LP. It made a pretty good alternate version. Art Tatum - The Best of the Complete Pablo Solo Masterpieces (Pablo). I have the "group masterpieces" box set, but with all the other solo Tatum I have, I feel like this is all I need of the solo box.

I'm finishing up The Worlds of Jazz, Andre Hodeir's third and final book about the music. His first two were severe and uncompromising, but involved conventional criticism. This one is one of the strangest books ever written about jazz. I've read parts of it over the years, but finally decided to read it cover to cover. Hodeir puts forth solid ideas, and sometimes presents all sides of an issue (e.g.: What is a jazz composer?). But instead of straightforward critical writing, he presents his concepts in the form of fables, science fiction, lectures by fictitious professors, sermons, a play, etc. My favorite chapter is "Outside the Capsule," which I have read several times over the years. At some point far in the future, archeologists find a copy of Miles Davis' Bags' Groove LP, and painstakingly analyze the portion of the record that is still playable - Monk's solo on the title tune. Only our future researchers decide that the main musical/ritual thread in the music is the walking bass line, which they incorrectly analyze and interpret at great length. It's a nice, weird little parable about jazz criticism.

Brother John Sellers Soupy Sales Willy Loman

This stack of Red Nichols and His Five Pennies again. This time the arrangements, by Nichols and Fud Livingston, seemed even more striking - full of unusual voicings and tone colors, like Dudley Fosdick's mellophone, which shows up on many of these sides.

Orange Kellin Alcide "Yellow" Nunez William Thornton Blue (Okay, pretty obscure, but should be allowable on a jazz forum.)

Paul Robeson - Songs of Free Men, a four-disc album on Columbia. I needed this strong music today. It's hard to see in this picture, but the snake has a swastika on it. Also, for his birthday, a bunch of Louis Armstrong from the 1920s - original issues and American and British issues from the 20s and 30s, in varying conditions. It was all gorgeous, even my very scratched-up original Okeh of Beau Koo Jack.

Sun Ra - Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy, from this 1992 Evidence CD. Cosmic Tones is one of the strangest albums ever issued, so of course it is one of my favorite Sun Ra offereings.

The Roches Max Roach Kenny Clarke

So far tonight, two excellent piano trios (with some organ on the second), and a bunch of vibists: Dodo Marmarosa - Dodo's Back (Argo mono) Martial Solal - Son 66 (French Columbia/Pathe) Karl Berger/Dave Friedman/Tom van der Geld/Wolfgang Lackerschmid - Vibes Summit (MPS)

I'm signing in to this joint for the first time in a couple of months to respond to this. The Duke are pretty lightweight, for the most part. But here's the key: look at the clarinetists. I've had many Duke of Dixieland records over the years, but here are the ones I have have kept: An Okeh 78 with Harry Shields on clarinet. A 1955 Vik LP later reissued as The Dukes of Dixieland Featuring Pete Fountain on RCA Victor. I have the later version An Audio-Fidelity LP - the stereo version of You Have to Hear it to Believe It. The great Jack Maheu is on clarinet. This is a remake of a mono LP, and I'm not going to look up who is on clarinet on that version.

Cecil Taylor Quartet in Europe (Jazz Connoisseur). I find the performance on this bootleg more engaging than the three-record Great Concert album by the same Taylor/Lyons/Rivers/Cyrille quartet.

An unsung masterpiece. Now playing: Max Roach/Anthony Braxton: One in Two - Two in One (Hat Hut)

Sonny Red - Images (Jazzland mono)

Today I did something I usually don't do - play all my discs from one label, more or less. In this case, the Arto/Bell group, which operated through the 1920s. If anyone cares about esoteric record company history, Arto was formed first, and soon began making records for the W.T. Grant chain store, whose record label was called Bell. Ironically, Arto folded after a few years, but Bell lasted a decade; the later issues were pressed by the Plaza record group and Gennett. Arto / Bell's one big hit was "Arkansas Blues" by Lucille Hegamin. It was leased and issued by about a dozen labels; I have it on the obscure Famous label, which was apparently pressed by Paramount. (The relationships between record labels in the 1920s can bafflingly complex.) My one Arto, by Hegamin, a popular vaudeville blues singer, is pictured above. I have some really nice Bells, by the Original Memphis Five, the California Ramblers (as Golden Gate Orchestra), the Original Indiana Five (as the Red Hot Syncopators), and the anonymous but excellent Superior Jazz Band. I also have a fun little oddity - a 1924 demonstration record called "Broadcasting Grant's Greetings." It's a simulated radio broadcast with the announcer extolling the value and superiority of Bell records. The flip side is a dance band.