jeffcrom

Globe Unity - Improvisations (JAPO)

George Lewis Plays Hymns (Milneburg)

New England Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble/Gunther Schuller - From Rags to Jazz (Golden Crest). Plucked from the dollar bin 15 years or so ago, this is an altogether fascinating and beautiful double LP.

Don Pullen with Famoudou Don Moye - Milano Strut (Black Saint)

RIP to a player I admired.

On to a 1947 four-record album of Alec Wilder Octets on Vox. I couldn't find a picture of it online, but the 1950s Mercury LP reissue used the same cover art.

White country gospel by Smith's Sacred Singers, from Braselton, Georgia, 50 miles northeast of Atlanta. Their first session in 1926 produced a hit in "Pictures from Life's Other Side." Most of these have nice guitar / fiddle accompaniment on one side and stodgy piano on the other. All are on the Columbia "Viva-Tonal" early electric label. Pictures from Life's Other Side / Where We'll Never Grow Old Shouting on the Hills / The Eastern Gate We Are Going Down the Valley One by One / If I'm Faithful to My Lord Life's Railway to Heaven / Jesus Prayed The Drunkard's Child / The Prodigal's Return ( by "J. Frank Smith of Smith's Sacred Singers") Since "Jesus Prayed" has a "scripture reading by Rev. M.L. Thrasher," I also spun my 1928 disc by Rev. M.L. Thrashers and his Gospel Singers: Just as I Am / We'll Drop Our Anchor

Caruso's first recording session - ten sides from April 11, 1902. Crude, with audible mistakes, but still amazing. You could say that this is the date that the record business grew up.

Tommy Dorsey - Who (1937). I don't have this on CD or LP, but I have a mid-50s RCA "shaded dog" 78 reissue - the same label that most of Elvis's RCA recordings appeared on in 78 form. Once the vocal is over, we have a good Tommy Dorsey trombone solo, sandwiched by absolutely stunning solos be Pee Wee Erwin on trumpet and Bud Freeman on tenor.

Okay, I think these are pretty special - Teddy Weatherford during his long exile from the U.S. My Blue Heaven / Ain't Misbehavin' (French Swing, 1937) Birth of the Blues / The Darktown Strutters Ball (Indian Columbia, 1942) How About You / Hoe Down (Indian Columbia, 1942) The first record is piano solo, the second a trio, and the third by a small swing band. These are pretty hard to come by, although the Swing sides have been reissued a few times over the years. The first Indian record showed up on a Jazum LP in the 1970s - I nearly bought a copy for big bucks to get these sides. I'm glad I didn't, because I picked up this 78 copy for a very reasonable price on Ebay. "Hoe Down," from the second Indian record, has been reissued on a CD collection of world music, but I don't think "How About You," the superior side, has ever been reissued.

I don't mind. There were so many folks crowded around him after his set that I didn't try to talk to him.

A couple of months ago, after listening to the great Panorama Jazz Band at the Spotted Cat in New Orleans, the band's virtuoso banjoist, Patrick Mackey, told me about the first New Orleans Ragtime Festival, which he was organizing for the first Saturday in April. It sounded intriguing, and I realized that I would be there for at least the first few hours, as my wife had a conference in New Orleans that ended that day. I heard three performances at the Old Mint before I had to leave for the airport. Tom McDermott, my favorite New Orleans pianist, opened with an all-Joplin program. He said that he wanted to make a point of opening with "Maple Leaf Rag," the piece that started the ragtime craze at the turn of the century. His version was wild and improvisatory, and wonderful. Half of his ten numbers were played straight, but the other five were heavily "McDermott-ized." It was a great set. I also heard Mackey's own Silver Swan Ragtime Quartet (banjo, clarinet, cello, tuba) playing arrangements of classic rags. I enjoyed them thoroughly, even though none of the other musicians was really on Mackey's level. But this was just the kind of small ensemble that might have played these rags around 1910 or so. This was followed by Opera Creole's presentation of excerpts from Treemonisha. Joplin's compositional and lyrical warts and all, this was exciting and moving music. I wish I could have stayed longer - the next group was a recreation of John Robichaux's Orchestra. Robichaux was the politer rival of Buddy Bolden, and I happen to know that some of his sheet music exists, 110 years later. Patrick announced that plans for next year are well under way. April 1, 2017 will be the 100th anniversary of Scott Joplin''s death, and the festival will be dedicated to him next year. For those interested in ragtime and the roots of jazz, this should be on your radar.

For what it's worth, a third Tallahassee performance has been added. Saturday night, April 9, RoboCromp will be playing at Grasslands Brewery at 8 PM. This is a duet with guitarist Rob Rushin, formerly of Atlanta and now of Tallahassee. RoboCromp is the longest-running ensemble I am part of; Rob and I have played together off and on for 28 years. It won't be Jazz with a capital "J," except at times. Rob calls it "chamber fusion," to which I say, okay, I guess. We play mostly stuff I have written; our "cover tunes" include "Bone" by Steve Lacy and "Ramblin'" by Ornette Coleman, if that tells you anything.

George Lewis - Keeper of the Flame (Storyville). I was completely unaware of this eight-disc set until yesterday, when I saw it in the Louisiana Music Factory. I went back to my hotel, looked up the contents, and saw that it had a bunch of sessions I had been looking for, like the 1954 Jazz at the Ohio Union date, as well as some very cool stuff that I was unfamiliar with. Very glad to have this.

Wayne Shorter announced on Facebook this morning that he would be making his debut on trombone with a solo recital at Carnegie Hall this summer.

I'm in New Orleans, and was walking on the levee in the French Quarter. I sat for a while to watch the river go by and to listen to the pre-boarding calliope concert from the steamer Natchez. The calliope player played the Patty Duke Show theme, which I thought was a sweet tribute. Then she played "Cakewalking Babies From Home," which was hip in a different way.

Which I skipped. And I only bought the one-disc version of Turn Out the Stars.

Chuck is correct - sister label of Asch. These tracks are on the "Chronogical" Classics Pee Wee Russell 1935-1946 CD, but are probably otherwise hard to find on CD, although I imagine there have been other reissues.

Lots of "new" shellac - including Pee Wee Russell's Disc album shown here. Here plays some pretty out-there stuff, even for Pee Wee. And that's a good thing. Also an Indian Columbia 78 of Teddy Weatherford that's very good, from the pianist's long career in that country.

I had reached the point where I was never planning to buy another Bill Evans album. Not that I don't like him - I just have enough. But I love the two issued live recordings with DeJohnnette - the Montreux album and the few tracks on The Secret Sessions. So I'm in.

This has happened to me numerous times over the years, and will likely happen to me again as I purge to keep my record / CD collection under control. (I have decided that it's like the House of Representatives here in the US, which has to stay the same size no matter how much the population of the country grows. No matter how many records I buy, my collection has to stay more or less the same size. And it's time for another purge.) An example that some folks here noticed is Red Allen's World on a String CD, recorded in 1957. I sold it here a few years ago, and someone expressed surprise that I would be willing to part with that one. Sure enough, my resolve didn't stick - I bought another copy a couple of years later.

A great album "to satisfy the old man's soul."

I have taken a break from posting about my own musical activities here, but I have several interesting things coming up. So y'all are going to hear about them. My saxophone/tuba/congas trio, Three Way Mirror, is performing at the Word of South Festival in Tallahassee on Sunday, April 10 at 3:30. We have a show we have created with Chattanooga poet Laurie Perry Vaughen. It's called Billie Holiday on the Radio, after one of Laurie's poems. The music is composed and improvised to interact with the poems and enhance their impact. It's not (except at a few points) a typical "jazz/poetry" performance. Laurie's poems touch on music, race, the South, and technology, but not in any kind of dry, academic way - they're very personal. Word of South is a festival which pairs music and literature; it's on April 9 & 10 in Tally. This is their second year, and hopefully they will have worked out some of the kinks. (I went last year as a spectator.) Here's the artist/writer listing. That night Three Way Mirror will be playing at Waterworks in Tallahassee, doing our usual jazz thing. I invite anyone in the north Florida area to check us (and Word of South) out.

Three seemingly unrelated albums I picked up in Seattle over the weekend. I hear plenty of connections between them. George Lewis - Shadowgraph (Black Saint). I had always regretted not getting this when it was there to be got. Nice to finally have a good-quality copy. Gary Burton - The Groovy Sound of Music (RCA Victor mono). Mr. Burton meets Mr. Swallow for the first time on vinyl. Preservation Hall Jazz Band - Live at Carnegie Hall (Preservation Hall/Rounder 10"). The PHJB's January 7, 2012 concert resulted in the St. Peter & 57th St. CD and this 10" LP, which was in print for about five minutes. I missed out four years ago, but I'm glad to have it now.

So I went to elementary school with Mike Mills. We did a science project together in sixth grade (and made an "A"). Then he moved away from the Atlanta suburb where we lived, and I didn't see him for years. The next (and last) time I saw him was when I was playing a concert with the University of Georgia jazz ensemble in Athens in the late 1970s. He came up afterwards and said hello. We talked for a bit, and he said, "I play bass now, and am in a band." What I should have said: "Cool! Maybe I could come by and jam with y'all next week." What I said: "Oh... cool." (Smiling politely, while thinking that every half-assed art student in Athens thought he or she was a musician at the time.)