jeffcrom

Today I spun all my 78s by The Louisiana Five, a very interesting early jazz band, although not a great one. It was a five-piece band with a front line of clarinet and trombone. The clarinetist was New Orleanian Alcide "Yellow" Nunez, born in 1884. The Louisiana Five and a few dance band records by Harry Yerkes are all we have by Nunez. Since he was the lead instrument, he played pretty much exclusively in the upper register on the Louisiana Five records. The band was a little on the corny side, but was often bluesier than the ODJB. And I love New Orleans clarinet so much that I'm glad to have these records. They recorded from 1918 to 1920 for Columbia, Edison, and Emerson. I have eight or nine tracks by the band on various LPs and CDs, but only one of the 10 78 sides I have is duplicated on those albums. I've got: Yelping Hound Blues/Just Another Good Man Gone Wrong (Columbia) The Alcoholic Blues/ (reverse is by Wilbur Sweatman) (Columbia) Slow and Easy/ (reverse is by The Happy Six) (Columbia) This is the only side they recorded with a trumpet. Summer Days/Golden Rod (Emerson) Weeping Willow Blues/Big Fat Ma (Emerson) Sunshine Girl/B-Hap-E (Emerson) A lot of these are originals by the band. Like I say, not a great band, but an interesting one.

Tonight, a recipe inherited from my mom. Chicken Niçoise - chicken cut up and cooked with tomato, artichoke hearts, ripe olives, and spices. I've cooked this several times in the past few years, but this was the first time it "flowed" - like playing a tune you really know as opposed to reading a lead sheet. Served it over yellow rice with a salad on the side. I wish I had thought to take picture. Thanks, Mom! Cooking music was provided by Dr. Lonnie Smith: Live at Club Mozambique (BN Rare Groove). Yeah!

They weren't recorded the same day. Moto Grosso Feio was recorded on April 3, 1970. The August 26 date was on the original LP issue, due to carelessness, I guess, and took on a life of its own. I love Moto - I had it on eight-track tape back in the day; LP now. Some of Shorter's best playing ever.

Lester Young.

I'm trying to control my enthusiasm for this thread and not just jump in to talk about every piece. I stayed away from this one, thinking it would attract lots of comments, but I'll jump in now. The chromaticism you're hearing comes from the use of minor chords with a major seventh on top - an unusual chord for the time. And ain't Ben Webster pretty here? I listened to two recordings of "Chelsea Bridge" which preceded the Victor studio recording - the Standard transcription and a live version from February, 1941. The biggest revelation is that Jimmy Blanton was featured in both in a dialogue with the reed section's variation in the second chorus. Since he was already ill and out of the band by the time of the Victor session, Strayhorn's piano "converses" with the reeds. I hope Junior Raglin's feelings weren't hurt. The live version is four and a half minutes long and has an entire extra chorus. Nothing too surprising - it's a pretty conventional statement of the melody by the full ensemble, although Harry Carney takes the bridge. A beautiful piece - and it's a lot of fun to play, too.

Raymond Burke - A Self Portrait (Land O' Jazz) A really nice quartet date by the New Orleans clarinetist.

Mojo Buford George "Harmonica" Smith Junior Wells

Larry Willis - Inner Crisis (Groove Merchant)

I don't think that it matched 1927-32 in terms of innovation, or 1937-42 in terms of consistent brilliance, but I agree that there was plenty of great Ellington music from this and every other period.

I like Vista, and don't really hear it as a "soul" album, even though there's a Stevie Wonder tune on it. It's neither as challenging or rewarding as his other Impulse albums, but it's good. And I like the Atlanta connections - there are several Atlanta musicians present. The vocalist on the Stevie Wonder tune, Allen Murphy, is a much-beloved drummer/singer here - still playing at age 72.

Marion Brown - Vista (Impulse) Re another thread, mine is a compatible quad issue, and sounds pretty good.

Sorry to hear this. What a great musician - and Phillips probably did more than anyone to collect and catalog the vast number of compositions that Alec Wilder wrote and just gave away to friends.

Probably not for the U.S. and Europe, but for those places on the planet where cassettes are still common (or were until recently). I bought a first-generation Walkman - it kept me sane when, straight out of college, I got a data entry job at the IRS. Once you learned the job, you could do it without thinking, so it was boring beyond belief. Once I got the Walkman, I'd listen to all the Beethoven symphonies one week, all my Herbie Hancock albums the next week, etc. It was great at the time.

It doesn't look like anybody is going to "bite" on "Sumpin' 'Bout Rhythm" from set 6, so here goes. The mid thirties, like the mid fifties, seem like one of those lesser periods in Ellington's career - but maybe only in retrospect. The innovations of the 1920s were past, but the brilliance of 1937 to 1942 was a few years away when "Sumpin' 'Bout Rhythm" was recorded. But it's still pretty good, just not a masterpiece. It's a nice little swing tune - Ellington features himself on piano more than usual, and there are some typically Ellingtonian tone colors. The sometimes-forgotten Freddy Jenkins is in what I think of as the "Rex Stewart" role - the quirky, but hot trumpet chair, as opposed to the growl trumpet chair (Bubber Miley, Cootie Williams, sometimes Ray Nance) and the sweet trumpet chair (Artie Whetsol, Wallace Jones, even Shorty Baker). Pretty good record - just not brilliant.

I've been waiting for someone to comment on Steve Lacy's version of "The Mystery Song," from his 1961 Evidence album. As far as I know, this is the only version of the piece other than Ellington's. I heard Lacy's version before the original. Of course, there's no way to reproduce the sound Ellington gets out of his band, but Lacy manages to capture the mysterious quality of the piece with only a quartet - Don Cherry, Billy Higgins, and bassist Carl Brown are the other musicians. They play a stripped-down version of the tune which, according to the liner notes, Lacy learned from the sheet music rather than from the recording. Higgins' drumming adds a lot to the atmosphere. A very cool recording, in my opinion.

Just to be pedantic, the spelling is actually "Delores" Parker. And that tune is the last one she ever recorded with the band. Where did you get that spelling? The album notes and Ellington's Music Is My Mistress both list her as "Dolores."

Thought I posted something like the following before leaving the house eight hours ago, but I guess I hit the wrong button: I listened to my mono Jazztone LP of this session today, and thought it sounded great - very natural sounding. But I have a Coleman Hawkins LP with an alternate take from the session, and that track sounds very cavernous and artificial. I'm guessing that someone made an "improved" master after the original issue.

I've got a couple of quad LPs, and they sound fine in stereo to me. One is the Gil Evans album mentioned by Ted. That one was reportedly a nightmare to record, anyway, so I'm not sure any version sounds great, but my quad copy sounds okay.

Too cool - I would seriously consider driving down if I didn't have a gig.

Bubber Miley and Friends 1929-1931 (French RCA)

According to the Lord discography, it looks like they're the original issue of these tunes from the September 8, 1949 session that was later released on Roost and Mercury. I did a word search for "3 Deuces" (the way the label is listed in the discography) and "Three Deuces" - this is the only session that came up. I'll bet it was a short-lived label sponsored by the club of the same name.

Since I had The World of Duke Ellington, Volume 1 out, I gave side four a spin. I had forgotten what an interesting song "I Could Get a Man" is. It's got a melody full of odd twists and unusual intervals, and a fun lyric. ("I could get a man, but the man I want is got.") Dolores Parker is the vocalist, and does a pretty good job with a song that couldn't have been easy to sing. There's a stunning Johnny Hodges solo - as much as I love Hodges, he could coast sometimes. He's fully involved here, though, and his solo kept me on the edge of my seat. Ellington is one of three composers (Hee and Cottrell) are the others), and I would love to know exactly who contributed what. I like this one. The track before "I Could Get a Man" is the 1947 version of "Don't Get Around Anymore," and, again, I had forgotten how good this version is. I don't like many version of this as a song (as opposed to "Never No Lament"), but this one got under my skin. It's sung by Al Hibbler, it's got more excellent Hodges, and the band swings like a MF. I may be tired of this song, but it doesn't sound like the band was at this point. And referring to another thread, this is the inexplicably shortest LP side I remember seeing on a major label. It's just over twelve and a half minutes long. Since this album collects tracks originally issued on 78s, I'm not sure why they didn't throw a couple of more tunes on.

Happy birthday! In terms of years, you're now playing with a full deck.

One thing I like about this thread is that it motivates me to listen to recordings that I haven't heard for awhile, like this one. "Stomp, Look and Listen" seemed to have been an often-played piece in Ellington's book from 1944 to the early 50s. I've got the 1947 Columbia studio version on volume one of The World of Duke Ellington. It's pretty good, but it's kind of anonymous - it doesn't sound very Ellingtonian. I can hear any number of late-40s big band playing this one. The band was up to five trumpets and four trombones by this point, so it's a "heavy" sounding band. There are other pieces from this period (like "Rockabye River") that have the same "weight," but retain more of an Ellington flavor. Anyway, it's a good enough piece. I know some folks here aren't crazy about Jimmy Hamilton, but his solo fits this piece perfectly - it's almost boppish. The 1956 version from the Historically Speaking album makes me nervous - it's too fast, and there's a killer-diller Cat Anderson high-note ending.

Like a lot of folks here recently: Marion Brown - Sweet Earth Flying (Impulse)