jeffcrom

No input to offer except negative - it ain't Bird.

I tried to say something like that in my post above, but couldn't get it worded right. One reason I like to visit New Orleans regularly is that so-called "traditional jazz" is not relegated to the past there - it's a living, breathing music. At the very least, it's one of the options the musicians there can chose from, just as they can pick and chose what they like from later jazz styles. Many of the trumpet players I hear there seem equally aware of King Oliver and Clifford Brown, and I love that. I sometimes wish that New Orleans musicians showed a little more awareness of Ornette and later developments, but that's a different story. Yeah, there is plenty of tourist Dixieland to be heard there. But guys like Evan Christopher, Tom McDermott, Michael White, Gregg Stafford, and Matt Perrine can play tunes composed in 1910 and make them sound as vital and alive as any music you've ever heard.

Here ya go: Oliver’s later recordings are not really essential in the way the Creole Jazz Band sides are, but there is some good music among them. In 1926 he started recording for Vocalion/Brunswick with a big band of the time – three brass, three reeds, and a four-piece rhythm section. A simple (or simplistic) way to sum up the Vocalions is that they’re similar to Fletcher Henderson’s recordings of the time, but not as hip – they’re rougher and bluesier. Generally speaking, they’re fairly good and consistent, but not great overall. There are a few real dogs among them, and a few items that stand out and deserve to be remembered. At first, anyway, most of the guys in the band were from New Orleans, and this gave a nice, Southern funk to one of the standouts, “Snag It.” Also worth hearing are “Wa Wa Wa,” a stomping little tune that builds up a nice head of steam, and “Showboat Shuffle,” another blues with good solos by Oliver, Kid Ory, and Omer Simeon. “Jackass Blues” is pretty corny, but has a blues solo by the King that, even with a fluff, gives a hint of how powerful a blues player he must have been in his prime. Maybe my favorite is hardly even jazz at all: “Someday Sweetheart” doesn’t really have any improvisation to speak of. Oliver plays the melody on the verse and the first chorus is split between Bert Cobb’s tuba (!) and Barney Bigard’s very straight tenor. But the second verse is given to guest star Johnny Dodds, and it’s delicious; even though Dodds doesn’t stray far from the melody, his sound, phrasing, and vibrato put his own stamp on it Oliver’s later Vocalions, from November, 1927 on, are by pickup bands – his band had broken up, and the scuffling that would define the last eleven years of his life had begun. Some of these recordings are better than others, but they are all more anonymous sounding that his regular band. He recorded for Victor in 1929-1930 (more on that later), and had a few more sessions for Brunswick in 1931. On some of the later sessions, Oliver plays very little trumpet – at one session, only 16 bars. Louis Armstrong’s popularity had made Oliver’s playing sound pretty old-fashioned by this point, anyway. I find it (at its best) beautiful in the way an antique car is beautiful. Without thinking about it very hard, I can think of half a dozen similar bands of the time that were better than Oliver’s Dixie Syncopators. But if you’re into Oliver, you’ll want to hear at least some of these sides. It looks like the most available issue now is two volumes on Frog: Sugar Foot Stomp and Farewell Blues. The bottom line for me: I seldom listen to this entire series, although I did before writing this. But fairly frequently, I sit down with my Affinity set and spend 30 minutes or so with my favorites.

I have the vast majority of what has been issued by Bird, but I don't have this session. Just ordered the Royal Jazz CD - I've had Royal Jazz Vol. 1 for years; don't know why I never got Vol. 2. Thanks for the review. I listened to this set for the first time last night, and I agree with Paul that the music just smokes. The transfer drives me crazy, though - the pitch is between a half step and a whole step sharp. When I get a chance, I'm going to dump it into Audacity and try my hand at some pitch correction. Thanks again for the tip on this music.

That's a good collection. It allows you to hear Oliver clearly, without any other horns on many of the tracks. It does bring home the "fleas come with the dog" nature of much early jazz - a couple of the singers are just awful. But Sippie Wallace's "Morning Dove Blues" is a masterpiece - she's accompanied by Oliver and her brilliant, ill-fated nephew Hersal Thomas at the piano. And I've always liked Texas Alexander - a link to the earliest blues styles. It's pretty entertaining to hear Oliver and Eddie Lang try to figure out when Texas is going to come in with his next line. And for what it's worth, some authorities don't think that Oliver plays on the Blind Willie Dunn sides from that album; Laurie Wright tentatively identifies the trumpeter as Tommy Dorsey. Who am I to argue with Laurie Wright, but I think it's Oliver - I've heard him play some of the same phrases elsewhere. Yes, that's Metcalf on the Victor "West End Blues." Because of dental problems, Oliver didn't play on the first two Victor sessions, but he did some pretty impressive playing elsewhere in the series. I'll do a post on his late-twenties big band recordings soon unless somebody tells me to shut the hell up first.

As far as I have been able to tell, there hasn't been a thread devoted to King Oliver. There have been one or two talking about the merits of various reissues, but someone as important to the history of jazz as Joe Oliver deserves a thread, so here's a start: King Oliver’s reputation rests mostly on the 1923 Creole Jazz Band recordings, which are perhaps the zenith of the early New Orleans style. The personnel varied somewhat, and exact lineup of some of the sessions is still in dispute, but the basic band was: King Oliver and Louis Armstrong on cornets, Honore Dutrey on trombone, Johnny Dodds on clarinet, Lil Hardin (Louis’ second wife) on piano, Bud Scott or Johnny St. Cyr on banjo, and Baby Dodds on drums. Bill Johnson was the bassist, but did not play bass on any of the recordings, probably for technical reasons. He may have played banjo on the first couple of sessions. The primitive recording techniques of the time also limited Baby Dodds mostly to woodblock. As others have said, the 2006 Off the Record/Archeophone reissue is the one to get – you’ll never hear these sides sound better unless you have mint copies of the 78s. Once you get past the archaic sound, the Creole Jazz Band is worlds away from good-time dixieland. The blues content of the playing ensures that the music is deep and satisfying. The music worked so well largely because each player knew his place in the ensemble and didn’t step on anyone else’s lines. The ensemble excellence of the band carried it, even through its flaws: Dutrey was not as strong as the other players and sometimes played out of tune; Hardin and the banjo players didn’t always agree on the chords; the band’s tempo was sometimes less than perfectly steady. If you’re coming to this music for the first time, or it hasn’t grabbed you before, here are some suggestions/guideposts: Sample this band, don’t dive in. Listen for a few tracks at a time. If you try to listen to all of this music at one sitting, it will probably start to sound like a low-fidelity blur. Listen to the cornets. If you follow them, everything else might fall into place. This has been hard to do with some previous issues, which pretty much EQ’d out the cornets along with the surface noise. Listen to the deep blues content of “Canal Street Blues.” This one always gets to me. Listen to the drive of the band on “I Ain’t Gonna Tell Nobody.” It’s all ensemble – no solos – and they just get hotter and hotter for three minutes. This must have been overwhelming to hear live. The Creole Jazz Band version of “High Society” has got to be the best ever. Johnny Dodds plays a great version of the traditional clarinet solo while Armstrong dances under him. Listen for the passages where Oliver drops out and Louis takes over the lead: just before the famous muted cornet solo in “Dippermouth Blues” and the last chorus of “Riverside Blues,” for example – the whole texture of the music changes. And Armstrong has an amazing series of breaks in the otherwise forgettable “Tears” that provide the first recorded glimpse of what a genius he was.

Okay, I need some of you Brits to help me. I love P.G. Wodehouse, and have almost everything he wrote. I just finished one of his early "school" novels, A Prefect's Uncle - not up to the level of his later stuff, but still entertaining. Except that it seems to be written in another language. I mean, the long descriptions of cricket matches leave me baffled, and I can accept that, but what am I to make of the sentence below? Our hero is about to be harassed by one of the masters (and yes, I know that's a teacher): 'Be firm, my moral pecker,' thought Gethryn, and braced himself up for the conflict. ?????

Of the stuff that's only (readily) available from stockhausen.org, I'd go for either: Mikrophonie I/Mikrophonie II/Telemusik or Ylem. The first has some of his most "important" and influential electronic music. It's a double CD, and a little pricey. The latter is a fascinating, semi-improvised piece. It's particular interesting if you've read the chapter of Derek Bailey's Improvisation in which clarinetist Antony Pay describes the recording session. The CD includes the "outtake" where the trumpet player "broke the rules" in a way that Stockhausen really liked. I've ordered from stockhausen.org several times and found them very reliable. You won't hear from them or get an order confirmation, but you will get your CDs.

That's a great album, even if some of the unfinished stuff is kind of disposable.

Also Mangelsdorff, by coincidence: Tromboneliness (Sackville)

Open a thread, click on the "Options" menu at the top right, and change to "standard" under display modes.

This has: Peggy's Blue Skylight Self Portrait in Three Colors Nostalgia in Times Square I X Love Reincarnation of a Lovebird Pithecanthropus Erectus Free Cell Block F Goodbye Pork Pie Hat Remember Rockefeller at Attica A pretty demanding program.

Please add me to the list. I'll be glad to show off my lack of knowledge.

Miss Vicki Vicki Lawrence Baby Laurence

I was lucky enough to pick this one up a couple of months ago. It's a little-known masterpiece, in my opinion.

Tommy Turrentine is on that album, too.

There's a drummer named Billy Higgins on Blue Delight. Did he ever make anything of himself?

Al Green Grant Green Bunky Green

This could be never-ending, so I'll just throw out one: Thelonious Monk - Misterioso (Blue Note) Three minutes of semi-improvised perfection.

If you have or are getting some of the Blue Note recordings, you need some of his RCA Victor sides. The Legendary Sidney Bechet is a good collection and can be had cheap. Up a Lazy River has the great quartet recordings with Muggsy Spanier. Although I consider his early (1923-25) recordings with Clarence Williams' Blue Five, etc. stone cold masterpieces, a newcomer might be put off by the archaic sound - plus they're hard to find. There are a handful of these on the Ken Burns Bechet collection, but exploring these might be a project you save for later.

I have the vast majority of what has been issued by Bird, but I don't have this session. Just ordered the Royal Jazz CD - I've had Royal Jazz Vol. 1 for years; don't know why I never got Vol. 2. Thanks for the review.

Professor Longhair Delilah Edgar Sampson

All this Charlie Parker talk has put me in the mood for: Charlie Parker - One Night in Chicago (Savoy)

Hank Mobley - A Slice of the Top (1979 first issue) A little ensemble sloppiness at times, which I guess is why it wasn't released at the time, but who cares? Fabulous music.

Happy birthday to our genial host.