jeffcrom

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.

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.