jeffcrom

I agree that "Flippant Flurry" is kind of contrived and not totally successful, but it's an interesting attempt. I think of it as one of the several Billy Strayhorn compositions from this period where it sounds like he's trying too hard.

Well, I'll start with "Far Away Star" - one of Ellington's all-time least essential recordings, I'd say. He didn't write the song or the arrangement, and recorded it only once, late in his life. It was written by Swedish pianist and bandleader Nils Lindberg, with dreadful, melodramatic lyrics by actress Signe Hasso. Lindberg wrote the arrangement. Alice Babs, the remarkable Swedish singer with whom Ellington recorded a few times, performed at the 1973 Newport Festival, accompanied by Ellington's band. The next day they went into the studio and recorded "Far Away Star," along with three Ellington tunes reworked to feature Babs. I much prefer the Ellington pieces from this session - except for the sound of Harry Carney's baritone sax, nothing about "Far Away Star" sounds like Ellington. The session can be heard on an Alice Babs album called Far Away Star, on the Swedish Bluebell label. Later: As I was writing this, I see that you found out some of this info yourself.

Not much of it is jazz, if it matters. I like that one a lot.

Electrifying Sounds of the Paul Jeffrey Quintet (Savoy mono) Not only Jeffrey's first album as leader, this was his recording debut, period. Really nice, in spite of Jeffrey's use of an octave divider on some tunes.

Guess it's half over by now - hope you're having a great birthday.

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

Hard Hearted Hannah, The Vamp of Savannah, G.A. Sweet Georgia Brown Georgia O'Keefe

Great choice! There are some lesser tracks, as there would be with any such collection, but there are some real masterpieces there. I love "Creole Rhapsody."

Played some early ragtime today. I've probably mentioned some of these before: Prince's Band - Too Much Mustard/On the Mississippi (Columbia, 1913) Vess Ossman - Buffalo Rag (Tom Turpin) (Victor, 1909) Sousa's Band - At a Georgia Camp Meeting (Victor, 1908) Victor Military Band - Music Box Rag (Lucky Roberts)/Chinatown, My Chinatown (Victor 12", 1914) This led, through "Smiles and Chuckles - A Jazz Rag" and "Saxophone Sobs" by the Six Brown Brothers Saxophone Sextet, to a bunch of early 20th century saxophone music - ragtime, pop, and novelty. I'm not going to list it all, but in addition to a bunch of Brown Brothers, I spun Rudy Wiedoft, Fred H. Brown, and Paul Biese. Probably just for antiquarians and saxophone buffs, but I enjoyed it.

This will be corrected in a matter of days - Historically Speaking is on its way to me from an Amazon vendor. I resent that! Obsessive-compulsive disorder isn't the same as insanity. Is it? And I feel the sudden urge to enlist....

That entire session is amazing - even though it was recorded 1927, it seems to reflect what was going on in African-American music in the 1890s: slide banjo, picked banjo blues, banjo ragtime, and what (unfortunately) used to be called "coon songs." Amazing stuff.

I have a 45 from that session - "House Warmin'" parts 1 & 2, on the Winley label. The label credits Howard McGee (sic) with The Blazers.

Thanks for this wonderful thread, Bev. It really inspired me – I sat down and listened to every version of “East St. Louis Toodle-Oo” by Ellington that I had: 1. Vocalion – November 29, 1926 2. Brunswick – March 14, 1927 3. Columbia – March 22, 1927 4. Victor – December 19, 1927 5. Okeh – January 19, 1928 (“Harlem Twist”) 6. Cameo – March, 1928 7. Romeo – March, 1928 8. Diva – April 3, 1930 9. Victor – February 9, 1932 (stereo medley) 10. Master – March 5, 1937 (“New East St. Louis Toodle-Oo”) 11. Carnegie Hall – December 27, 1947 (Theme Medley) 12. Paris – January 30, 1965 The piece alternates two themes; the first features the spooky minor melody that was apparently written by Bubber Miley, and is played by him on the early recordings. It has a major bridge, which I suspect was written by Ellington, to round it out to a standard 32-bar, AABA theme. The second theme is a raggy major tune, played by trombonist Tricky Sam Nanton on the earliest recordings. The first seven versions differ from each other in various ways; I’ll just say that most of the differences involved the second theme. The only real change that shows up in the first theme is the trombone countermelody for the bridge; it appears for the first time on the Brunswick version. But the second theme is constantly being revised: clarinet solos, bari sax solos, trombone solos, brass trios, clarinet/soprano sax duets, woodwind trios, all come and go in different versions. I think the reason for this is that Ellington sensed that the second theme was not up to the level of the first; it’s kind of corny, even for the 1920s. But the composer in him knew that the piece needed some contrast, so he kept it in, even as he kept changing the details in an attempt to find the magic formula which would make it work. My favorite of these early versions is the Victor, which captures the eerie feeling far better than any of the others. And the sound is amazing for 1927 – Victor had the best engineers in the business at the time; their 78s sound better than any other label. I also love the first version on Vocalion for its freshness – it probably messed some folks up when it was released. The 1930 Diva version (available on The Okeh Ellington) is pretty interesting. Miley is no longer in the band, and Ellington gives the first theme to the entire brass section, to great effect. The saxes take the bridge. Most of the composed melody of the second theme is gone, replaced by improvised solos and duets. I like it – it provides the needed contrast, but the solos and duets are hipper than Ellington’s raggy melody. The 1932 Victor recording is part of the famous stereo experiment which resulted in two long medleys. Only the first theme is included, with the full brass section featured again. It’s pretty awesome in stereo. The “New East St. Louis Toodle-Oo” from 1937 is the version Clunky has on a Brunswick 78. I like this one a lot – it’s slow and majestic in a way that no other version is. Cootie Williams takes the Miley role, and Ellington solves the problem of the second theme by eliminating it. By this time his compositional skill had developed to the point that he could conjure up enough different colors to provide the needed contrast. There is a trombone section variation (with clarinet obligato on the repeat) of the first theme in the spot where the second theme would go. A really nice reworking of the piece, in my opinion. “Toodle-Oo” is part of the medley of Ellington theme songs that the band played in the 1947 Carnegie Hall concerts. This is the slowest version yet, with Ray Nance on the first theme. Surprisingly, the second theme is back, but with a modern scoring featuring Harmon-muted brass and unison saxes. It works pretty well. After that, “East St. Louis Toodle-Oo” seems to have disappeared from the book for awhile. Ellington recorded it for Bethlehem in the mid 1950s, but I haven’t heard that version. It shows up again as a Cootie Williams feature in the middle of the sixties. The version I have from 1965 is a short, 32-bar version – the first theme only. It sounds like it might be a head arrangement - Cootie, the saxes, and rhythm section only. Sorry about the long post. I really enjoyed hearing all of these back to back.

Okay, I've stepped in it. My feeble attempt at humor obviously didn't come across. Apologies to Michael.

I know - I was trying to be funny.

Zwerin did a good job in capturing the flavor of Vian's style and insults, but rendering them in a way that would make sense to English readers. (This opinion is coming from someone who only knows a few words of French.) Vian's insulting version of Panassie's name is translated as "Pain-ass-ie" - not bad!

One year I had Albert Ayler's "Witches and Devils" playing as I greeted trick-or-treaters. I turned it off after the first little girl who came to my door started crying.

I'd love to have this, as well as some of the sets others here are selling, but my new financial reality is not going to permit it.

I'm lucky to have a copy of Round About Close to Midnight: The Jazz Writings of Boris Vian, translated by Mike Zwerin, published by Quartet Books in London in 1988. It's funny, fascinating, and maddening. Vian writes with a lot of style and has some insightful things to say about the music, but he's also just wrong about a lot of things, and sometimes in embarrassing ways - his prejudice against white musicians is sometimes cringe-inducing. And there's too much ink spent on the trad vs. modern/Hughes Panassie vs. Charles Delaunay feud which was going on in France at the time. But the book is very entertaining. In the preface, Zwerin talks about how some of Vian's humorous articles were nightmarish to translate, since they were based on French puns. Amazingly, Zwerin was able to make them work in English, although some of them are obviously adaptations rather that literal translations. If you can find this book, I recommend it. Just don't take it too seriously.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the Lennie Tristano/Warne Marsh influence on Turner. He included a Tristano tune on his first Warner Bros. album, and he joins Lee Konitz on half of the latter's Parallels album. He sounds very good on Parallels, if more conservative than usual.

Tina Brooks arrived today - thanks.

Is that the 1944 concert, with Jacquet, McVea, Cole & co? MG Actually, it's Willie Smith, Charlie Ventura, Illinois Jacquet, Howard McGhee, Joe Guy, Red Callendar, Garland Finney (piano) and Ulysses Livingston (drums), on How High the Moon and Lady Be Good. Apparently, the rights to this issue was retained by Stinson Records. I'm not sure if this has subsequently been reissued (I don't have the JATP box set); I've never heard it before. I have the 78 RPM album of that session - King Ubu informed me that it is on the box set of early JATP concerts. It was never issued on Mercury/Clef/Norgran/Verve before that.

As I've mentioned before, some 78s find you. I get a lot of my 78s from antique stores, and antique dealers often sell them by the box or by the album, so I end up with lots of records that I wouldn't necessarily consciously pick. I have accumulated six late-forties Tommy Dorsey records that way, so I finally decided to clean and play them today. Half of them didn't pass muster, but I'm going to keep three RCA Victor Dorseys: Pussy Willow/Dream of You (1949) - Side one is an interesting Bill Finegan chart. Dry Bones/Summertime (1949) - Two more Finegan arrangements. But I Do Mind If Ya Don't/That's Life; I Guess (1947) This one was the real winner, in spite of the lousy songs. It's by the Clambake Seven, Dorsey's small group. Side one has a nice Teddy Wilson solo (he was guesting, I guess); the flip has some very interesting Billy Bauer guitar. I ended up with a record The Magnificent Goldberg just got on CD: Johnny Otis/Jimmy Rushing - Jimmy's 'Round the Clock Blues/Harlem Nocturne (Excelsior)

It's nothing unusual, although Moody's lowest note makes it sound a little exotic. It's F Dorian, which would be a common choice for a tune in F minor, as this one is. Moody plays it down to a low D, the lowest note of this scale/mode he can play on the alto saxophone. That means he ends on the major 6th of the key, which is not a "strong" note - that makes the scale sound more "foreign" that it really is.

Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra - "Lovable" from 1928, for Bix Beiderbecke's brilliant eight-bar solo. Bix is sometimes hard to appreciate, because so much of his best work appears like gems in a thrash pile - wonderful solos, sometimes very short, on lousy songs, with horrible singers, in dated, overblown settings. But it's worth the effort.