jeffcrom

Updated through February, 2011.

Sunny Murray - An Even Break (BYG) Byard Lancaster is so soulful. Marion Brown - Three for Shepp (Impulse) I was planning on listening to this even before DaveS's post. This is such a beautiful album. Stanley Cowell's stride piano on "Spooks" is just amazing.

Just made an intriguing find. I was in an antique store today, trolling for 78s. Didn't find any 78s, but there was a box of home-recorded 33 1/3 RPM discs, apparently from the late 1940s. There were about 50 records in the box, and many of the labels and/or sleeves were marked - often with just song titles, but sometimes with artists. I bought three of the most interesting-looking, for five bucks. Out of the six sides, one was blank, and three were just recordings of DJ/record shows from Atlanta radio station WSB. But two of the sides were recordings of NBC broadcasts with live bands. One side has two tunes each by the Adrian Rollini Trio and guitarist/vocalist Mary Osborne. The other side is the Latin band of Noro Morales. Rollini was an amazing bass saxophonist back in the 1920s, but had switched over to vibes by this point. The Osborne tunes feature her singing, but there are glimpses of her Charlie Christian-styled guitar. The Morales broadcast has a sappy ballad medley along with a good samba and an absolutely smoking "Caramba Bebop." With the possible exception of "Caramba Bebop," none of this music is earth-shattering, but it's a cool experience to hear these non-commercial recordings. Whoever made these recordings was a pretty serious hobbyist with good equipment and know-how; the sound is excellent, although the Rollini/Osborne side has a lot of surface noise. I'm going to go back tomorrow and look through the box more carefully to see what else I can come up with.

I guess I'm pretty lucky in this regard. My wife likes music in the mild way most people do. I remember being somewhat impressed the first time I went over to her house when we were dating. She had a small CD collection - about 30 discs - but it was pretty eclectic: Patsy Cline, Bob Marley, The Hackberry Ramblers. Music is a pleasant diversion to her. But she totally seems to get what music is to me - the focal point of my life, and has on occasion articulated it better than I could. I used to try to wait until she wasn't around to play the more outside stuff (Ayler, Cecil, etc.), but even that's not really necessary; she doesn't seem to think of any of my music as strange anymore. The one time recently that she shook her head over what was coming out of the speakers was when I was spinning a 78 by The Six Musical Magpies, a black vaudeville group from the twenties. When they started yodeling, she (humorously) complained to her friends on her Facebook page.

Johnny Hodges - Rippin' and Runnin' (Verve) My favorite latter-day Hodges, with a young (1968) rhythm section: Billy Gardner, Jimmy Ponder, Ron Carter, and Freddie Waits.

If you're not familiar with Raymond Burke, who never left New Orleans much, I think you're going to like his clarinet playing on the Hodes album.

For US buyers, I just found it here for $86.99.

I've been playing 78s daily - my 78 rig has been getting as much of a workout as my CD player and LP turntable. Over the past several days, I've listened to all of my Original Memphis Five 78s, ranging in date from 1922 to 1927. They are the most-represented artists in my 78 collection; I have 22 of their records, and that's not counting two discs by blues singers on which the OM5 are the backup band. I kind of made a conscious decision to "specialize" in this group, because: 1. I like them. They were excellent and consistent - more consistent than some more highly-regarded bands. 2. Since they are underrated, you can pick up a 78 in excellent condition by the OM5 for a few bucks rather than the three figues a King Oliver on Gennett will set you back. It was interesting to hear all of these records in more or less chronological order. I'd forgotten that trumpeter Phil Napoleon was pretty stiff on the early sides, but he had really loosened up by the end of 1923. And Jimmy Lytell was consistently excellent on clarinet - one of the unsung clarinet heroes of the 1920s. On the later records, the songs sound more arranged, but the band still sounded like itself - except on one 1926 record on which Red Nichols substitutes for Phil Napoleon. That one sounds like a Red Nichols record. I think my favorite session is a December, 1923 date for Cameo that produced two sides - "Hootin' de Hoot" and "Sweet Papa Joe." Perversely, they were issued on two different records, each backed by a pretty lame dance band. But everything is in balance, the band is swinging, and everyone's at the top of their game. Excellent music. Yeah, a mint 78 is a beautiful thing.

I don't know who this "Dave Holland" kid is, but I can't see him making it in the jazz business....

Did the guy at least sound embarrassed by what he was proposing?

After a lot of avant-garde, some grease: Hank Marr - Greasy Spoon (King) 1960-64 recordings.

One side each of: Anthony Braxton - Alto Saxophone Improvisations 1979 and For Trio (Arista)

John LaPorta - The Most Minor (Everest mono - before they became a bootleg/gray market label)

Great stuff, Bill. I've got to get that Varner. And I kind of hate to admit that there is one bandleader here I had never heard of....

Chico Freeman - Morning Prayer (India Navigation)

Tonight, an odd one I picked up in Sweden: Arne Domnerus 3 - Songs of Simon (Sonet) Domnerus, Rune Gustafsson, and Georg Riedel play Paul Simon songs, from 1972. It's kind of a period piece, but a well-done, entertaining one.

The tune is "The Peacocks," by Jimmy Rowles. Don't know the recording, though.

If nothing else, you should go back and get it to resell. It's pretty hard to find, and is in demand among Lacy collectors. One side is solo - it's good; maybe not the best solo Lacy performance. The other side is with two members of MEV - Musica Elettronica Viva. This side is not "typical" Lacy, if there is such a thing, and not particularly "jazzy." It is excellent avant-garde (for lack of a better term) music. The synth is used for color, not in any kind of pop/fusion fashion. This is Lacy's music at its most challenging - not for the Lacy neophyte. Like I say, it's a sought-after item. I bought a new copy back in the day, and it sounded like crap from day one - Horo pressings are famously poor. Great minds....

The Klezmorim - Metropolis (Flying Fish)

For anyone interested in New Orleans music (and who uses iTunes), I strongly recommend "It Ain't My Fault," the new single/video download by the Gulf Aid Allstars, consisting of Mos Def, Lenny Kravitz, Trombone Shorty, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. For two bucks you get the single and a pretty cool video of the band performing the old New Orleans song, which takes on a new meaning under the circumstances. Rather than a one-star-after-another, "We Are the World" type of thing, it's a well-integrated performance, with Mos Def in the spotlight most of the time, doing some very pointed rapping and beautiful singing. Joe Lastie's amazing drumming proves that New Orleans second-line drumming is way funkier than anything in conventional hip-hop. Proceeds go to the Gulf Relief Foundation. Sorry if I sound like a paid shill. This track really got to me; I highly recommend it.

Stan Getz - At Montreux (Polydor) The "Captain Marvel" band - four months later and really cooking. I don't know if this has been issued in the States - I picked it up in Sweden.

One reason I'm enjoying my 78 obsession so much is the sense of discovery - you never know what surprises await in the next stack of shellac in a junk store. When I can find them cheap, I buy 78s by dance bands from the 1920s. I do this because: 1) Excellent jazz bands sometimes used pseudonyms on small labels. I have a record on the Melotone label by "Earl Harlan and His Orchestra" that is really Don Redman's band, for instance. 2) Lots of otherwise ordinary dance records had good solos - sometimes from pretty big name jazz players. 3) Truth be told, I kind of like 20s dance band records, even if the above two conditions don't exist. I picked up a few such records from an antique store today, and a couple of them paid off. Nat Shilkret's band doing "That's My Weakness Now" has some nice solos - not by any really big names. But the real surprise was "What'll You Do?" by Johnny Hamp's Kentucky Serenaders. It's just okay until a spectacular trombone solo about halfway through. I thought it must be by some big-name studio guy - Teagarden, even - but from the research I've done it seems to be the Serenaders' regular trombonist, one William Benedict. I can't find any reference to him except passing mentions as the trombonist in this band. I'll be looking for more Johnny Hamp records to see if Benedict was really that good or if he got lucky in the studio that day in 1927.

Jeez - the numbering error is totally my fault. Clifford was going by the BFT number I gave him. I know what happened - it basically comes down to me not being very smart. This will be BFT #77, of course.

Ten years is a long time for band. Best of luck to all.

Not a bad introduction at all - it's some of his best mid-to-late 40's work, rivaled (and maybe surpassed) by the Aladdin and Keynote recordings. I particularly like the boppish 1949 session with Jesse Drake, Junior Mance, and Roy Haynes. (Edited because I can't spell.)