jeffcrom

Horace Tapscott / Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra -- Live at I.U.C.C. (Nimbus)

For years, the Connecticut Traditional Jazz Club put out an annual LP of highlights from their concerts. There were at least 20 volumes. Some of this material later showed up on CD on the Jazz Crusade label, but most of it never appeared anywhere else. I have a couple of the LPs; I particularly like Volume 11, since side one is by the Onward Brass Band with a great lineup - a 1974 concert not to be found elsewhere. I'm looking for Volume 4, which has outtakes from Capt. John Handy's second RCA album. I'm not sure how they managed that.

George Lewis - Dr. Jazz (Verve stereo). With the underrated New Orleans trumpeter Andy Anderson on board. Albert Ayler - Witches & Devils (Arista Freedom). AKA Spirits. The first recorded manifestation of Ayler's mature style. Albert Ayler - Swing Low Sweet Spiiritual (Osmosis). Very different from the above, although supposedly recorded on the same day.

Inspired by the North Carolina gospel I was just spinning, I decided to move on the Devil's music and play my handful of Piedmont style blues 78s. Condition varies from V- to V++. Blind Boy Fuller - Truckin' My Blues Away / Babe You Got to Do Better (Conqueror) Blind Boy Fuller - Little Woman You're So Sweet / Step It Up and Go (Okeh) Brownie McGhee (Blind Boy Fuller #2 ) - Step It Up and Go #2 / Workingman's Blues (Okeh) Sonny Terry - Lost John / Fox Chase (Library of Congress) Buddy Moss - Someday Baby (I'll Have Mine) / Shake It All Night Long (Conqueror) Sonny Terry is on McGhee's "Workingman's Blues"; George Washington, aka Bull City Red, aka Oh Red, plays washboard on Fuller's "Step it Up" and both sides of the McGhee record. The Buddy Moss disc is one of the "best" 78s I own, in terms of musical value and rarity. I think I've mentioned this before - the Fuller Okeh disc is in pretty nice condition, except that "Jim," the original owner, carved his name into the grooves of "Step It Up and Go!" Amazingly, it plays through with no skips, but that section gets kind of noisy.

Just picked up three "new" discs by Mitchell's Christian Singers: New Dry Bones / Lord I Can't Turn Back (Conqueror) My Poor Mother Died Ashouting / Rock My Soul (Conqueror) The Saints Are Marching / Jesus Make Up My Dyin' Bed (Vocalion) None are is great condition, but are quite listenable with the right stylus and EQ. I played these and some of my "old" records by my favorite gospel group. I'm up to 18 discs, although a few of them are different-label issues of the same recordings. The picture above represents kind of a composite of my listening - the blue-label Vocalion issue of a record I have on Conqueror.

Thanks!

I just picked up an album I should already have been familiar with, A by Jimmy Raney. It has three Prestige sessions from 1954 and 1955. I was quite taken with the playing of trumpeter John Wilson on the 1955 sessions. He plays with a beautiful sound and nice imagination; he sounds like part of that New York cool trumpet school - Fruscella, Don Joseph, Phil Sunkel. If I hear any weakness in his playing, it's that he occasionally leaves a phrase sounding unfinished, or unlinked to the next phrase. But that's not often. Ira Gitler's original liner notes only state that Wilson was with the Les Elgart Orchestra at the time. A little poking around the web reveals that he played with lots of big bands, and taught at Duquesne University from 1970 to 1996. Here's a short article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette which gives a little of his history. The Raney session was apparently Wilson's recording debut. Is anyone aware of any other small-group recordings featuring John Wilson?

In "talking" to a Facebook friend about New Orleans brass bands and Donna's tonight, I had a realization about why that little bar was so special to me. Not only did I love Donna's - I felt loved there.

That $35 set seems to be the first LP issue, without all the bells and whistles of the original 78 set.

Bach - English Suite No. 2 in A Minor; Wanda Landowska, harpsichord, on two 12" British HMV records, recorded in 1936.

Bach - The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1; Glenn Gould (Sony)

I had forgotten that one - so Lacy has recorded at least seven All-Monk albums. Eight, if you count I Remember Thelonious (a duo with Mal Waldron), which includes one Bud Powell tune.

Illinois Jacquet - A two-record album on Savoy.

My booklet is fine. 32 pages including the cover.

I've spun hundreds of 78 sides since my last post here three months ago. So I'll just describe an avenue I've been exploring recently - mid-30s reissues of Okeh material from the 1920s. Many of the classic red or black label Okehs from the 1920s were reissued around ten years later on Vocalion and Columbia-owned purple-label Okeh, pressed from the original masters - so they sound as good as the original releases. But they can be had for a fraction of the cost of the original Okehs. Tonight's spins: Frank Trumbauer - Way Down Yonder in New Orleans / Clarinet Marmalade (Vocalion) Bix Beiderbecke - Jazz Me Blues / At the Jazz Band Ball (Vocalion) Louis Armstrong - Muggles / The Peanut Vendor (Okeh). One of Pops' best Okeh sides paired with one of his weakest. And not related to the above, an original issue "scroll" Victor of Fats on the pipe organ in Victor's Camden, New Jersey studio, which had been a church: Fats Waller - The Rusty Pail / .Sloppy Water (Victor)

I have suspicions that this is not really about his donkey. I have the original Guild 78 of this. That's the great Gregory Felix on clarinet.

I wanted to tell this story, and am doing it here instead of elsewhere on the web because I know that none of the principals involved (except for me) will ever see it here. Twice a week I take my 88-year-old dad out to eat - and his restaurant of choice is the local Chili's. If he's happy, I'm happy. For years, we have had the same waitress on most of our visits. She's amazing. She has our drinks ready when she sees us walking in the door, and her professionalism and kindness have really impressed us both. Lately, she and her family have had difficulties. Her husband was diagnosed with a benign, but horrifying tumor which was taking over his jaw. He finally had the 12-hour surgery required to remove it and replace most of his jaw. It will be six months before he is able to work again, and they have two small children. In the meantime, she has developed some health problems of her own. At the same time, she has started taking college courses in an attempt to better her life. She set up a GoFundMe account in an attempt to deal with the medical bills and lost wages. I contributed several times, as I was financially able. The day of her husband's surgery, I contributed again, and decided to share the fund drive on Facebook. About an hour later, there was a $2600 donation by an anonymous person. I was struck by the coincidence, but couldn't think of anyone I knew who had the kind of scratch ($) to pull that off. Today at Chili's, our emotional waitress told me who it was (with his permission). It's a local Atlanta musician who has family money. He, of course, had never met our waitress friend, but apparently my assertion that she is one of the nicest human beings on the planet was enough for him. I have contributed sax tracks to a couple of his projects, but now i have told him that he has earned free saxophone session work for life. I'm not sure why I'm posting this story - except as a reminder that life can be extremely difficult, but people can sometimes be unexpectedly amazing.

I have exactly one recording of a Wilson piece on my shelves - "Sometimes" for tenor and tape (1976), performed by William Brown on the CD shown above. It's 17 minutes long, to give you an idea of the scope. It's based on "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child," and I find it to be an intriguing and moving piece. Because of the source material, it's more tonal than many electronic pieces. The tape mixes pure electronics and processed vocal source material.

Old 10" LP time here at the Crompton house: Edmond Hall - Quartette with Teddy Wilson (Commodore) Louis Armstrong - New Orleans Days (Decca). I've had this for years, but I just put two and two together tonight and realized that this was Pops' first LP. Ken Colyer - Back to the Delta (London). Six tunes by Colyer's Jazzmen; three by his Skiffle Group. I've long enjoyed Colyer's personal take on traditional New Orleans jazz; the Jazzmen include Acker Bilk and Dis Disley. By the time he made this 1954 album, Colyer must have heard the 10" American Music LP This is Bunk Johnson Talking - in "Moose March" he reproduces a supposed Buddy Bolden lick that Bunk whistled to demonstrate Bolden's style. British skiffle amuses me no end. Maybe some of the Brits here can educate me - did people think that this bore any actual resemblance to any kind of American music, or was it just your own thing? Anyway, Alexis Korner is on board here, in an early recorded appearance.

Lyle Ritz - 50th State Jazz (Verve mono). I really like Ritz's ukulele playing - it actually reminds me of a little Johnny Smith's guitar style. But there are some pretty corny tunes and arrangements to contend with here. Max Roach / Archie Shepp - Force (Uniteledis / Base). Separated from the Ritz by a couple of hours, lest Paul give me too much credit.

Steve Lacy - Eronel (Horo) Willie Guy Rainey (Southland/Jazzology) Willie Guy Rainey lived in Rico, Georgia, a tiny community southwest of Atlanta. Until late in his life, he only played rural and small-town parties and dances, but he played fairly regularly in Atlanta for a few years after this album was recorded in 1978. At one gig, well into his 70s, he was apparently quite taken with my friend Janna, who would have been in her 20s at the time. She told me that he told her, "Honey, we would have pretty babies. I'd even marry you." She politely declined.

Without thinking about it very hard or looking on my shelves, I can think of six all-Monk albums by Mr. Lacy. I suppose Reflections, already mentioned, is the best known, but I kind of like Lacy's solo Monk albums - Eronel on Horo and Only Monk & More Monk on Soul Note. Of these, I prefer the Soul Notes - they are the work of a mature artist who had explored Monk's music deeply for many years. An unaccompanied soprano saxophone playing Monk makes for somewhat austere listening, but this is profound music, without a wasted note. And I suppose that many people here will already know that Lacy made it his business to learn Monk's complete output as a composer - including tunes that only came to light after Monk's death, like "A Merrier Christmas."

George Finola - Jazz of the Chosen Few (New Orleans Originals mono). A really nice one from 1965, equally influenced by Bix and New Orleans, and including Blue Lu Barker's first recorded vocals since the 1940s. Marion Brown - Three for Shepp (Impulse) Budd Johnson - Off the Wall (Argo mono). Just picked this one up. I have a soft spot for Budd Johnson, since his Argo album that preceded this one, Ya! Ya!, was the first jazz album I owned.

Looking at from a practical standpoint (meaning factoring in geography, even if that breaks Chuck's "rules"), I've managed to see/hear just about everyone I would have wanted to. The biggest exception is that I never heard Derek Bailey in person, and he played Atlanta and Chattanooga several times. Not sure why I never made it. Some near-misses: New Orleans trombonist Louis Nelson. On my first trip to the Crescent City in 1990, I saw Kid Sheik's band at Preservation Hall. Louis Nelson had been the trombone player with the band, but at that time he was in the hospital, where he died a few weeks later. Zydeco legend Boozoo Chavis. On another NOLA trip, I couldn't get my traveling companion to extend our trip one more day to see him at the Rock 'n' Bowl. And I missed John Tchicai by one day in Copenhagen. That one broke my heart.

The early bebop recordings on Savoy by J.J. Johnson, Fats Navarro, and Dexter Gordon are essential. And Lester Young's 1949 session that produced "Blues 'n' Bells" has some of my favorite Lester.