jeffcrom

Lots of varied stuff tonight, but I ended up with New Orleans trad 45s. No usable pictures of many of these on the web. Armand Hug and His New Orleans Quartet (Southland four-track EP, 1954) Kid Thomas - New Orleans Jazz (Smoky Mary, 1973). With Willie Humphrey on clarinet and Sister Annie Pavageau on vocals. Clem Tervalon - Eh Las Bas / Streets of the City (Clemente, 1973). Clement Tervalon (1915-1989) was one of the unsung heroes of New Orleans trombone. Alvin Alcorn and Albert Burbank are on board here. Bill Matthews and His New Orleans Ragtime Band (Southland four-track EP, 1954). Not great - "racehorse Dixieland," as Bunk Johnson put it. George Lewis and Papa Bue's Viking Jazzband (Storyville four-track EP, 1959). Very nice collaboration, recorded in Copenhagen. Sidney Bechet at Jazz Ltd. (Atlantic four-track EP). Three 1948 tracks with a Chicago band and a later French side. Ken Colyer's Jazz Men (Storyville four-track EP, 1953). Okay, not a real New Orleans band, but my favorite European trad band. And dang - this is way better than the Bill Matthews EP, even though those guys are all New Orleans natives.

JJA Presents the Music of Alec Wilder. A late-70s promotional record (in a plain white sleeve) with 18 of Wilder's pop songs, put out by his publisher. The recordings are mostly taken from Wilder's NPR show, American Popular Song, which featured one Wilder song every episode. The quality of both the songs and the performances vary, but the best tracks are very good. I particularly like Johnny Hartman's " 'S Gonna Be a Cold, Cold Day," Marlene Verplank's "The Winter of My Discontent," Mark Murphy's "When Yesterday I Loved I Loved You," Woody Herman's "Baggage Room Blues," and Tony Bennett's "The Lady Sings the Blues."

Complete Atlantic Tristano, Konitz & Marsh - the Atlantic Warne Marsh album. The two tracks with Philly Joe Jones always make me nervous; Marsh sounds much better with Paul Motian.

Al Haig - Jazz Will-O'-the-Wisp (Everest). Much of this album superficially sounds like cocktail piano, but the more carefully you listen, the more it rewards you. I know that there are better-sounding issues out there than this cheap 1974 budget-label record, but this is the one I've had for years, and it will do for me. I learned a lot about jazz from cheap Everest records. I think this is the last one I have left.

Milt Jackson - Opus de Jazz (Savoy) Portrait of Cannonball Adderley (Riverside) Steve Lacy - Free for a Minute (Emanem) Raphe Malik - Sirens Sweet &Slow (Mapleshade)

What is this?

Charlie Parker/Dizzy Gillespie - Diz 'n Bird at Carnegie Hall (BN). One more Bird album before midnight. I've been listening to the quintet tracks that opened this 1947 concert for over 40 years; Bird's playing is still stunning.

Pee Wee Russell - Ask Me Now (Impulse). First listen in a couple of years. A conundrum: I would prefer this album with another horn partner for Pee Wee other than Marshall Brown - but without Brown, this group and album wouldn't have happened. All in all, I'll put it in the "win" column, with some gorgeous moments.

Charlie Parker - The Complete "Birth of the Bebop" (Stash). Bird's birthday, and I just read the section of Alyn Shipton's Dizzy Gillespie biography dealing with the 1943 Rob Redcross jam session recordings. This is an amazingly important (and just amazing) album.

Syl Johnson - Complete Mythology (Numero). An amazing 4-CD / 6-LP set - the same material, arranged somewhat differently. I'm listening to the first CD now, with Johnson's earliest recordings.

Charles Tyler - Saga of the Outlaws (Nessa). By far the best performance by Tyler I've ever heard; nothing else even comes close.

What Chuck left out is that is that Mitchell's concert celebrates 50 years of Nessa Records. http://jazzinchicago.org/jazzfest/roscoe-mitchells-quartets-celebrating-50-years-of-nessa-records/ Wish I could be there.

Dr. C.J. Johnson - In an Old Time Song Service (Savoy). Wax 'n' Fax Records in Atlanta has a small, but rich gospel section, with lots of turnover. And all the gospel records are four dollars. The title of this album attracted me right away when I spotted it today, and the notes on the back convinced me that I had to have it. I was right - this 1965 recording is remarkable. Dr. Johnson's idea was to record an album of "old-style" (really, early 20th century) spirituals with his Atlanta congregation, accompanied only by foot stomping and clapping. There's even one of those eerie, drawn-out lining hymns, where the preacher sings a line, which is answered by the congregation. Maybe I'm overestimating this album due to the impact it's making on me on this first hearing, but I would say that it rivals some of Alan Lomax's field recordings of spirituals made in Mississippi in the 1940s and 50s.

Geri Allen - Homegrown (Minor Music) The Fabulous Banjo of Danny Barker (Period mono) Both of these selections have to do with my periodic record purges - something I have to do, since I live in a very small house and keep buying records. I got rid of the Geri Allen in my last purge, and instantly regretted it. Today I bought back what I think is the same copy that I got rid of six months ago. I'm glad to have it back. I pulled the Danny Barker LP off the shelf and put it in the stack to sell, because I'm working on the next purge and it's frankly a kind of corny album. But I decided to listen to it first, and I just can't part with it. Corny it is, but I love Danny and I love this album.

Cherry/Tchicai/Schweizer/Franicioli/Favre - Musical Monsters (Intakt). From the 1980 Willisau Festival. And really good.

Today is Tim Green Day in New Orleans.

I know I've said this before, but Eloise looks so much like her grandmother! It wouldn't have occurred to me to post this here, but a friend suggested it. A lifelong ambition has been accomplished.

The Radiators - Wild & Free (Radz). I love this New Orleans rock band, but I just said to a friend that there's not one album by them that's great all the way through - one that would convince the nonbeliever. On listening to disc one of this 1978-2008 compilation of rarities, I have to say that Wild & Free comes pretty close, with a few caveats. Some of the tracks are low-fi live recordings, and there are still a couple of weaker songs, but there is much weird, funky, swampy goodness. Among other pleasures here is the only issued version of their song cycle (I don't know what else to call it - a suite, maybe) "Songs From the Ancient Furnace" - which ironically is not the album of that name.

Going by memory, but doesn't he play flute on "Like Someone in Love?"

It's right up there, I think. Musically and sonically excellent, as well, although there are one or two live solo records I like as well or better.

Arne Domnerus - Best of Dompan (Amigo). A nice two-CD retrospective of the Swedish alto player / clarinetist's work from 1949 to 2004 that I picked up in Stockholm. A lot of the material veers into easy listening pop territory, but I'm really enjoying that stuff this morning.

Steve Lacy - The Kiss (Lunatic). Recorded in Hiroshima in 1986.

For a while, I had that one as well, because it has an alternative version of one tune. At some point it just seemed silly to keep both. But yeah, I like this album a lot.

Edmond Hall - Rumpus on Rampart Street (Rae-Cox)

Very cool!