jeffcrom

Today's favorite 78 spins, old and new: (Well, they're all old, of course, but some are new to me.) Victor Military Band - Chinatown, My Chinatown/Music Box Rag (12" Victor - 1914) I picked up this record because "Music Box" is a Lucky Roberts composition, and because I love those old concert band records of ragtime. Earl Hines Sextet- Life With Fatha/I Love My Lovin' Lover (Apollo - 1944) A great little pickup band with Ray Nance, Oscar Pettiford, and Johnny Hodges. I guess Hodges' name couldn't be used - he's listed on the label as "J. Harjes." The great Betty Roche does the vocal on the second side. Earl Hines Orchestra - Straight Life/Now That You're Mine (ARA - 1946) The last gasp of the Hines big band. "Straight Life" is really nice, with a killer Wardell Gray tenor solo. Earl Hines Swingtette - Lazy Morning'/Keyboard Kapers (MGM - 1947) Just Hines and a rhythm section - Floyd Smith, Arvell Shaw, and Sid Catlett. Bert Williams - It's Nobody's Business But My Own/Everybody Wants a Key to My Cellar (Columbia, 1919) I wonder how many of the white record buyers who laughed at this one realized what "Key to My Cellar" was really about. Teddy Wilson Quintet - I Surrender Dear/Runnin' Wild (Musicraft - 1945) Outstanding - with Red Norvo and Charlie Shavers. I've got to acknowledge that one line in Harry Hershfield's dated 1920 comedy record "Abe Kabibble Dictates a Letter" made me laugh out loud: "You bought us two tickets to the Metropolitan Opera to hear Mary Garden sing. I ain't goin' - I heard an imitation of her last night, and she was terrible."

Sidney Bechet - King of the Soprano Saxophone (Good Time Jazz) French recordings from the fifties. The standout session is the 1954 date with Jonah Jones and a French rhythm section - Sidney was at his best with a strong trumpet player to keep him in line. And it occurred to me that some here might not know that Good Time Jazz was Contemporary's traditional jazz subsidiary. I wish they had come up with a better name.

I just got back to Atlanta from Bellingham, Washington, halfway between Seattle and Vancouver. I watched Independence Day fireworks in a sweater and under a blanket. It's going to be 96 degrees F here tomorrow.

I guess this is the place to post this: The World of Duke Ellington, Vol. 1 (Columbia) The first of three late-40s/early 50s two-LP sets. In my case I'm listening to them digitized and dumped to iPod, since I'm away from home. Somebody in the world must have issued these on CD, though - iTunes recognized my home-made CDs. There is some absolutely brilliant stuff here from a somewhat overlooked period. The best tracks are as good as anything Ellington ever did, except for a handful of absolute masterpieces.

My first Al Cohn album was a three-pocket 45 RPM EP set - The Natural Thing to Do. I'm going by memory, but I think the personnel is Cohn, Joe Newman, Frank Rehak, Nat Pierce, Freddie Green, Osie Johnson, and (had to look this up) Milt Hinton.

I'm far from home, in Bellingham, Washington, which is halfway between Seattle and Vancouver. I visited an independent CD store in town and was very impressed by their jazz section. Even after putting half of my original stack back, I walked out with these used CDs: Archie Shepp - Steam (Enja) Don Patterson - Boppin' & Burnin' (Prestige OJC) When I had fewer than ten jazz albums, Don Patterson played on one of them - a Verve Gene Ammons/Sonny Stitt. Albert Ayler - At Slugs' Saloon (ESP) Joe McPhee Po Music - Linear B (Hat Art) Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet - The Year of the Elephant (Pi) Don Cherry - Live at Cafe Montmarte, Vol. 2 My favorite Atlanta CD store always has Vol. 1 & 3, but I've never seen Vol. 2. Coleman Hawkins - Big Band 1940 (Jazz Anthology) David Newman - Captain Buckles (Label M) Recommended by The Magnificent Goldberg. Several of these have been on my want list for some time, so this was a fun afternoon.

Classic jazz in two flavors: George Lewis at Dixieland Hall (Nobility) A 1965 recording from Preservation Hall's short-lived competitor. The little-remembered New Orleans trumpeter Josh Willis played with Lewis for much of the 1960s. I love his playing; he was a generation younger than Lewis, and showed an awareness of both Bobby Hackett and Dizzy Gillespie. Lester Young/JATP - Carnegie Blues (Verve) Prez sounds good on the 1946 tracks, fabulous in 1953, and kind of sad in 1957.

She'll always be Ms. "I'm Beginning to See the Light" for me.

George Adams/Don Pullen Quartet - Life Line (Timeless)

Stanley Turrentine - Another Story (BN) This one has been much discussed here lately. It really is a great album - right now it's my favorite Turrentine record, although that can change at any time, of course.

Okay, I had just posted a Roy Haynes album, but mjzee beat me by seconds with this one, so... My first Dave Holland album was Conference of the Birds: Holland, Barry Altschul, Anthony Braxton, Sam Rivers.

Okay, maybe this will take things in another direction. I had admired Art Farmer on other folks' records, but my first Art Farmer album was the Art Farmer/Jim Hall Big Blues album on CTI. Also on board were Mike Mainieri on vibes, the great, underrated Michael Moore on bass, and Steve Gadd (!) on drums.

I think I was inspired by feelings of jealousy of papsrus - he's in New Orleans and I'm not! Spring green/cucumber salad Grilled turkey smoked sausage (way less fat than the regular stuff, and really nice flavor) Red beans and rice I wish I was on Frenchmen Street right now....

My first Ron Carter - Where? It was actually half of an Eric Dolphy Prestige two-fer. On board were Dolphy, Mal Waldron, Charlie Persip, and George Duvivier (when Ron was playing cello, which he did for most of the album). And colinmce, Laymon Jackson is not considered obscure in Atlanta, where he was from. He was a much-beloved figure around here.

Abe Ellstein's Orchestra with Dave Tarras - Frailach Music (Banner) Another of those wonderful klezmer albums Dave Tarras made for cheap labels. Cheap pressing, crappy sound, wonderful music.

My first Bobby Hutcherson record was "Cirrus," which I no longer have, regrettably. It had Woody Shaw on trumpet and Harold Land and Manny Boyd on tenors, but I don't remember who else was on it.

Post deleted after reading the rules more carefully. I'll try again.

A great loss to Chicago and the world. My thoughts are with his family and friends, especially his friends here.

Without really trying to, I have accumulated four late-20s 78s by Boyd Senter, "Jazzologist Supreme," as some of the labels state. Boyd wasn't a very good clarinetist, but he hired good musicians for his records, so I enjoyed listening to them all today: Eniale Blues/Somebody's Wrong (Okeh) Original Chinese Blues/Prickly Heat (Okeh) No More/Original Stack O'Lee Blues (British Parlophone) Shine/Doin' You Good (Victor) Three of the sides are clarinet solos accompanied by Jack Russell on piano and Eddie Lang on guitar. Lang sounds great, and is mentioned by name (as Ed. Lang) on a couple of the labels. The other sides are by "The Senterpedes," which usually included the Dorsey brothers and drummer Vic Berton. Both of the Dorseys play really nice solos, and there is one clarinet duet between Senter and Jimmy Dorsey - it makes you wonder what Boyd was thinking. Could he not hear how bad Jimmy Dorsey made him sound? Anyway, I enjoyed this 24 minutes of music. Senter's playing hasn't survived the passage of time, but I'm glad to hear the other guys' contributions.

Dave Brubeck - Gone With the Wind (Columbia 6 eye stereo)

John Carter - Night Fire (Black Saint) The "horns" are Carter, Bobby Bradford, and James Newton - fabulous!

Happy Birthday, paps. Have a great time in New Orleans.

That's a great, raw record. It's got one of the only versions of "When the Saints" that I actually like listening to. Jazzology bought the session from Icon and used up all the leftover covers before printing their own. The Icon covers were really beautiful.

Kenny Dorham - Jazz Prophets, Vol. 1 - reissued on Impulse as half of The Bop Masters

I've cleaned and listened to about 50 of my new stash of 78s. Some more of the highlights so far: Carter Family - Worried Man Blues/The Cannon-Ball (Victor) Of all the old-time country in the collection I bought, I'm find that I'm responding to the Carter Family the most, and this is my favorite of the half-dozen of their records I bought. Carson Robison - Poor Man's Heaven/So I Joined the Navy (Champion) Robison was on the more commercial side of country music at the time, but this is a fun record with a fabulous musician (probably Frank Novak) who "triples" on clarinet, bass sax, and accordion. And the collector in me knows that the Champion 16000 series was pressed in very small quantities - the records are hard to find. Jarvis and Justice - Muskrat Rag/Poca River Blues (Brunswick) I know very little about these guys, but these are beautiful late-20s fiddle/guitar duets. Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra - Get Low-Down Blues/Kansas City Breakdown (Victor) I've said before how good Victor 78s sound, even when they're pretty worn, as this one is. Ethel Waters - Am I Blue?/Birmingham Bertha (Columbia) With the Dorsey brothers, among others. Whatever your definition of a jazz singer is, Ethel would have to make the list - fabulous singing. Earl Hines Swingtette - Lazy Mornin'/Keyboard Kapers (MGM) I've been concentrating on the earlier records in the collection I bought, but there are plenty of discs from the 1940s. This is from 1947 - it's a quartet with Sid Catlett on drums. He has a great solo on "Kapers." The Halfway House Orchestra - Let Me Call You Sweetheart/Maple Leaf Rag (Columbia) This one by a great little New Orleans band would be about my favorite of the entire bunch, except that it's so worn that the surface noise overpowers the music. That's okay - I've got the Frog CD of all the Halfway House material. I can listen to that while looking at the label of this record, which I'll be keeping as a cool object, not as a record I'll ever play again.