jeffcrom

I was manufactured in the United States.

Tony Parenti - Jazz Goes Underground (Jazzology) Genial dixieland from 1969, recorded in Underground Atlanta - the entertainment district under the viaducts. Parenti is teamed mostly with local guys from the then-thriving Atlanta Dixieland scene. I was too young to catch much of that, although as a young man I did play a few gigs with Spider Ridgeway, who plays drums here. An interesting slice of history for an Atlanta guy.

Elvin Jones - Puttin' It Together (BN promo) A very nice sounding replacement for the battered copy I had for years.

Which I obviously didn't read very carefully....

I've got a book of Charlie Parker transcriptions I bought almost thirty years ago that includes six "unrecorded" Bird solos - presumably recorded by Bird on tape or acetate and transcribed by Gil Fuller. My book is in the Jazz Masters series, published by Amsco in 1979. In the forward is this paragraph: The first six solos in the book, "Oop Bop Sh-Bam," "Good Dues Blues," "One Bass Hit," "Ray's Idea," "That's Earl, Brother," and "Things to Come," are taken from a publication entitled Be Bop Instrumental Choruses for Alto Sax published by J. J. Robbins & Sons in 1949. These "6 original choruses on outstanding be-bop themes" were actually arranged by Charlie Parker and transcribed by Walter "Gil" Fuller. And it looks like Mr. Fuller selected six pieces for which he had a piece of the publishing action.

According to the Lord discography, it was reissued on IARJC, the label of the International Association of Jazz Record Collectors. I don't see any other Gillespie recordings on the Showcase label, although I just gave a quick look.

Too cool! I've been looking for a copy for years. Swedish trumpeter Bent Persson recorded these on four albums, now reissued on three CDs. This quote from Elmer Schoebel is from his website: " During the Chicago days I was sharing office with Walter Melrose of the Melrose Music Co.. One day, in 1927, Melrose said he was going to publish a set of Louis Armstrong breaks, but there was a technical problem of getting the Armstrong "hot" breaks down on paper. Finally, Melrose and I hit on the idea of having Armstrong record his breaks. We bought a $15 Edison cylinder phonograph and 50 wax cylinders, gave them to Louis and told him to play. The cylinders were duly filled up by Armstrong and the "breaks" were copied into written form. I transcribed the "breaks", which were published. These were not orchestrated at any time and were not made for that purpose. I had all the records (cylinders), later I turned them over to Melrose. When I was in Chicago, in 1949, a collector was offering £1.000 per cylinder but Melrose and I could not find them." The Elmer Schoebel story, Doctor Jazz No. 32 (Oct. 1968) Someone put some scans here.

King Oliver Oliver Cromwell Charles I

I can just hear Cecil's reply to this: "Whatever that means...."

John Graas - Premiere in Jazz (Andex) I really like Jazz Symphony No. 1.

Sonny Criss/Gerald Wiggins/Erroll Garner/Stan Getz - A Crown mishmash, with two tracks from 1947 Just Jazz concerts and two tracks by the Teddy Edwards Quartet (with Wiggins) from 1959/60. Garner is not even on any of these recordings, although he did play at least one of the Just Jazz concerts this is drawn from. This was the first issue of the Edwards tracks. Poorly recorded, poorly pressed, poorly put together - but some excellent music.

J. J. Johnson E. E. Cummings Dee Dee Bridgewater

Spun a bunch of shellac today, some recently acquired, some not. Today's highlights: Paul Whiteman - Lonely Melody/Ramona (Victor, 1928) The only Bix 78 I have. Wonderful, full sound. This record represents the best and worst aspects of Whiteman. Bill Challis's arrangement of "Lonely Melody" is quite good, as is Bix's solo. This is the first time I've heard "Ramona" in at least ten years. It'll be another decade before I spin it again. Cow Cow Davenport - Chimes Blues/Slow Drag (Broadway, 1929) My heart skipped a beat when I found this in a stack of two-dollar records recently. It's pretty worn, but what a cool record. It seems to have been issued on Paramount, Gennett, Broadway, and Champion all more or less simultaneously. Then on to some jump blues: Calvin Boze - Safronia B/Angel City Blues (Aladdin, late forties) Very nice. I think Safronia B was a minor R & B hit. Al Wichard Sextette - His Majesty's Boogie/Your Red Wagon (Modern, 1948) Somewhat uncertain personnel except for Jay McShann and Jimmy Witherspoon, who sings "Your Red Wagon." A good one. Harry the Hipster Gibson - Riot in Boogie/Stop That Dancing Up There (Musicraft, 1944) Silly fun, with Big Sid Catlett on drums. Speaking of whom, I'm mentioning the following disc because I had such high expectations, and it was so disappointing: Sid Catlett All Stars - Shirley's Boogie/Organ Boogie (Manor, 1946) Novelty boogie crap, and there's so much surface noise that you can't hear what Sid is doing - typical of Manor pressings, from what I've found. Jimmy Shirley is good on guitar, though. And I ended with a winner: Spirit of Memphis Quartet - Lord Jesus, parts 1 & 2 (King, 1952-ish) Recorded at Mason's Temple in Memphis, and the congregation is excited. One sister can't stop shouting. Great record.

The Buy It Now price has been cut in half since this morning. Someone should snatch this up.

Happy birthday! My forties were so much better than my thirties - hope yours are great.

This one's over $300,000 per minute of music. Free shipping, though!

So I read your post, the record sounds interesting, and I stopped at HPB on the way home and they had a copy for $4--I wasn't expecting it to be so easy. Wow - nice work!

Word Carr Mary McGoon Natalie Attired Natalie, say a song for me....

Played a bunch of 78s today - no rhyme or reason, except that most of these are recent acquisitions. The highlights: Johnny Smith Quintet: I'll Be Around/Cavu (Royal Roost, 1953) A good one, with Paul Quinichette on tenor. "I'll Be Around" is one of the best songs by one of my favorite composers, Alec Wilder. Dave Barbour: Little Boy Bop Go Blow Your Top/Ensenada (Capitol, 1949) Fascinating - I haven't decided how good it is yet, though. Barbour was a big-band and studio guitarist (and Peggy Lee's husband); this is one of the few discs under his name. It's Latin bop with Ray Linn on trumpet and a bunch of added percussion in the rhythm section. Definitely worth several more listens. Jean Goldkette: Dinah/After I Say I'm Sorry (Victor, 1926) Goldkette's band just before Bix joined. "Dinah" is one of the best things I've heard from this band - it's a Russ Morgan arrangement with solos by Jimmy Dorsey and Joe Venuti. The highlight, though, a slap/triplet passage by Steve Brown. It's the first time I really understood why guys from that era said he was such a great bassist. Vladimir Horowitz - Six Scarlatti Sonatas (RCA Victor, 1946/47) I usually don't listen to classical 78s from this era - who wants to change the records twelve times to hear a Beethoven symphony? This is an album of two 12" disc, though, and the pieces are short enough to fit one or two per side. Horowitz was a great Scarlatti interpreter, and this is a really beautiful album. I've got a CD with his late-60s recordings of three of these; I'm looking forward to comparing them.

Watazumi Doso - The Mysterious Sounds of the Japanese Bamboo Flute (Everest) Okay, it's a stupid album title. But I had been trying to find something by hotchiku flutist Watazumi Doso (or Watazumido-Shuso) after reading these passages by Steve Lacy. It's from the November, 2002 issue of The Wire, reprinted in the book Conversations With Steve Lacy. Doso was a great master for me. I took two lessons from his and studied his music a lot. He's one of the greatest improvisers I've ever heard in my life, maybe the greatest. He was the most modern improviser I've ever heard in my life. He surpassed anybody I could think of, including Braxton, or Derek Bailey. Doso, to me, was just... whew, outside all of that, really. Doso was like... whew, like Charlie Parker compared to all the other alto players, you know. Once I finally found this album, I was afraid (if that's the right word) that I wouldn't "get" it. I know just a little bit about Japanese music, and I have a few shakuhachi recordings. But Watazumi's playing is really stunning - I've never heard anything like it. I'm glad I finally got to hear it.

Whatever schlock he produced, I think of Mitch Miller as an important associate of Alec Wilder. They were classmates together at Eastman, Miller played on the early Wilder Octet recordings, and some of Wilder's earliest "serious" music was written for Miller as oboe or English horn soloist. They fell out latter, to an extent, when their careers went in such different directions.

Some more listening this afternoon, maybe more in line with the tastes of folks here: Med Flory: The Fuz/Straight Ahead (EmArcy) Nice big band sides from 1954. Besides Flory's alto, the other soloists are John Williams on piano and Doug Mettome (I think) on trumpet. Gerry Mulligan Quartet: My Funny Valentine/Bark for Barksdale (Fantasy promo) I don't know that I had ever noticed what a great solo Chico Hamilton plays on "Barksdale." Bob Mosely All Stars: Stormy Mood/Bee Boogie Boo (Bel-Tone) A great little 1945 record with solos by Lucky Thompson and Marshall Royal (on clarinet). Young Mr. Mingus is on bass. Dodo Marmarosa: Mellow Mood/How High the Moon (Atomic) I think I've mentioned this one before. Lucky Thompson is on "How High the Moon," but the trio side is fabulous. Wardell Gray: Blue Lou, parts 1 & 2 (Modern) This has appeared on various Crown LPs, but this was the first issue. Nice Wardell and Erroll Garner.

Over the last year I have gathered a small collection of Jewish 78s of various types - klezmer, cantors, theatre singers, folk singers. I only have about two dozen discs at this point, but there are no duds among them, and some real gems. I played five of my favorites today: Jewish Orchestra: Dem Pastuchel's Cholem/Kalman Juvelier: Moshiach is Gekomen (Columbia, 1917/18) The anonymous klezmer band on side one does an early version of "The Shepherd's Dream." Cantor Joseph Rosenblatt: Zaroh Ohayu/Zorea Tzedokos (Columbia, 1916) One of the great voices of his time. William Schwartz: Sh'ma Yisroel/In Hinderd Juhr Arim (Victor, 1919) I haven't been able to find out much about Schwartz, but he had a good tenor voice. If I'm still around on February 20, 2019, I'm going to play this record - the title of side two means "One Hundred Years From Today." Yiddishe Orchester: Keshenever Bulgar/Die Yiddishe Neshomoh (Columbia, 1917) This is a really nice early klezmer record by Abe Schwartz, who was the Clarence Williams of Jewish music in New York at the time - he played (violin), wrote songs, arranged, and produced records. Bracha Zfirah: Yesh li Gan/Bein N'shar Prath (Columbia, 1937) I was so taken with the Sephardic song on side one ("I Have a Garden") that I'm arranging it for the 4th Ward Afro-Klezmer Orchestra, with whom I play. Just beautiful.

Played some calypso 78s today. I'm always on the lookout for these, but I'm not the only one - they seem to be snatched up quickly by collectors. And since, for the most part, I don't pay collector's prices for 78s, I only have a few calypso discs. Sir Lancelot - Scandal in the Family/The Young Girls Today (Mercury, ex Keynote) Backed up by Gerald Clark's band with the great Gregory Felix on clarinet - thanks to Jazztrain for identifying the clarinetist back in my early days here. Sir Lancelot - Atomic Energy/Walk in Peace (Charter) Lloyd Thomas with Bill La Motta - Give Her the Number One/I Wanna Settle Down (Arco) A new acquisition, from the dollar stacks - and a nice one. Thomas was from Trinidad, and Arco was a subsidiary of the Newark label Manor. Then some Slam Stewart: Sherry Lynn Flip/Blue, Brown and Beige (Manor) A trio with Erroll Garner and Doc West. Coppin' Out/Blues Collins (Musicraft) Slam and Doc with Billy Taylor and John Collins. Billy Taylor sure was an interesting pianist back then.

Done - you've got February.