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Tokyo Rose Chicago Bob Nelson Philly Joe Jones

Those Brit EPs look very cool, Clunky. Now playing: The Original Tuxedo Jazz Band (Scepter). This 1966 album represents more or less the halfway point for the longest-running band in jazz history. Banjoist Albert French is the leader here; his grandson Gerald French now leads the band.

Happy, happy!

Just listened to Vol. 2 of the three VJM LPs of the Georgians' output, and thought that I should start a thread on Frank Guarente. I did a search, and saw that I had started one over five years ago! Nothing has been added to it since 2010, so it's no wonder that I forgot. But I want to add that the Georgians' version of "Old Fashioned Love" just jumped to near the top of the list of my favorite renditions of that James P. Johnson song. The band captures a wistfulness that I've never heard in any other recording of the song. The closest to the feel/emotional quality I can think of in early jazz is maybe the New Orleans Rhythm Kings' "Tin Roof Blues." And I enjoyed Guarente's muted solo work in "Dancin' Dan" - you can hear what he learned from Oliver.

The Georgians, Vol. 2 (VJM)

John Carter/Bobby Bradford Select. This has been on my want list for awhile; I ordered it as soon as it hit the "running low" list.

Okay, I'm going to start easing my way back in - continuing backwards, since I started that way. I'm reading everyone's comments, since I pretty much know what everything is. 18. I see that Thom Keith recognized Ed Hall. This is Sidney Bechet's "Petite Fleur," from Hall's wonderful 1958 United Artists album. This is a great demonstration that a master musician can keep pretty close to the melody and still produce great jazz. And I love Ellis Larkin's understated piano solo, as well as the rhythm section groove. Some of Hall's throat tones are a little sharp (clarinetists will know what I'm talking about), but who cares? Beautiful music; the only thing that sounds funny to me is the fact that your version is stereo; I'm used to the mono LP. 17. Then I said that I could ID "pretty much" everything else, I used that qualifying phrase with this track in mind, mostly. This is the one I'm least sure about. The tune is "Dippermouth Blues," aka "Sugarfoot Stomp." When I first heard it, I thought, "Oh - Bob Crosby." But I don't have this recording, and the arrangement doesn't seem to quite match the studio version. My favorite passage is the very creative piano solo, which sounds like Jess Stacy to me. (Does someone yell Stacy's name after the solo? I'm not sure). Anyway, by playing the tune this fast, they rob it of most of the depth the original King Oliver version(s) had - although the piano soloist adds some back, in a different way. But it is a fun, exciting performance. And while admitting that I'm not sure about this one, my "official" guess is that it's a live recording of the Bob Crosby Orchestra with Jess Stacy on piano. And no, I don't know the tune the band on track 21 is playing. It sounds very familiar, but I can't come up with a name.

Charlie Poole with the Highlanders - Complete Paramount & Brunswick Recordings, 1929 (Tompkins Square)

Was Turner playing French horn? He went through a period of embouchure problems, and was playing piano for awhile. No, Turner was playing tenor sax in both his own set and in the improv session. He seemed not to be having any difficulties. Jeez - I was being stupid. I was thinking of Mark Taylor, French hornist. Of course Mark Turner was playing tenor, because that's what he plays! D'oh!

Click the "Special BBCode" button above the text box (the third little symbol from the left). You'll get a window with a drop-down menu. Select "Media" from that menu and it will give you a box in which to paste the URL of your video.

Was Turner playing French horn? He went through a period of embouchure problems, and was playing piano for awhile.

I'm sure I've talked about this before in some thread or another, but it fits here. Samuil Feinberg recorded the Bach choral prelude "Allein Gott in der Höh' sei Ehr," BWV 662 twice - once in 1952 and again just before his death in 1962. And when I say "just before his death," I mean just a few weeks. Neither performance is historically "correct" in terms of Baroque style - Feinberg is very much the Russian romantic. But the 1962 recording is astonishing - slow, drawn out, and very emotional. At eight minutes and twenty seconds, it's almost three minutes longer than the earlier version. I may be reading too much into things, but I hear it as if Feinberg knew that this was likely to be the last time he would ever play this piece - so he lingers over every cadence and wrings every bit of feeling out of it. It's one of my favorite Bach recordings. Both versions are on the BMG Russian Piano School disc pictured above.

It has to do with the type of file. As far as I know, the only images that work here are those whose URL ends with .jpg or .jpeg. (Someone correct this info if it's wrong.)

I miss Bud's....

Bought my copy at the long-gone Peaches Records on Peachtree Street in Atlanta in 1978 or so. If I made a list of a dozen albums which changed the way I heard music, this would be on the list. Does your cover look like this picture? Mine is the unreadable yellow-on-white cover, which Chuck insists is not his fault.

I've always been kind of amazed when thinking about what December 21, 1960 was like for Eric Dolphy. He went from Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs, where he recorded Far Cry, to Atlantic's New York studio for Free Jazz. Not a bad day's work.

I hope you spoiled her yesterday.

:tup :tup I have all of these, but my copy of Spiritual Nature is the American Inner City LP, which sounds pretty crappy. (Was this Togashi's only American release?) At this point in my life, I'm going with it, though. Although, of course, I love the albums with Steve Lacy and other Western musicians, Spiritual Nature has a sound and approach that probably represents Togashi's essence better than any of the others.

Joe Newman - All I Wanna Do is Swing (RCA Victor). Just delicious.

I found a half dozen V-Discs in an album the other day. One was too warped too play, and one was broken (not easy to do - they were designed to be sturdy), but I've cleaned and played four. V-Discs were sometimes reissues of commercial recordings, but these were all made for V-Disc, with one exception noted below. Cpl. Ziggy Lane with Orchestra - Jumping to the Jukebox b/w My Pin-Up Girl. These were from a show called "Stars and Gripes," which I'll bet had a lot of appeal to the soldiers. Lane's voice isn't bad, and "Jumping" swings pretty well, with a hot trumpet solo. Hal McIntyre and His Orchestra - If You Please b/w Paper Doll and The Sheep in the Meadow. From a 1943 V-Disc session. I knew that McIntyre was a second-tier bandleader in the 1940s, but I don't think I had ever heard his band before. The only big name jazz sideman on board is bassist Eddie Safranski, but "The Sheep in the Meadow" is a nice swing instrumental, with good solos. Harry James and His Orchestra - Caprice Viennois b/w Feet Draggin' Blues. The very corny "Caprice" is from a 1941Columbia session, but was not issued by them. The much better blues is from a 1942 radio broadcast. Fats Waller - This is So Nice It Must be Illegal & Martinique b/w Waller Jive & Hallelujah. This is the most entertaining of the bunch; four one-and-a-half minute solo renditions with Waller's vocal interjections and spoken introductions. His playing is good, although not the best I've ever heard from him, but from the sound of his singing and (especially) his speaking, I suspect that he was very drunk during this session, which I believe was his final studio session.

Happy Birthday 2015!

Pharoah Sanders - Izipho Zam, disc 4 from the Clifford Jordan set. I'm guessing that this will be my least-played disc in the box in future years. I was listening to the Izipho Zam session in the car last week. The only track I found a bit 'challenging' on the ear was the one with the yodelling. Other than that - I like it. "Challenging" is not a problem for me. (I'm a big Ayler fan.) I just found the Sanders session uninteresting.

When I was dating my wife, she visited me one afternoon at the small apartment I was renting at the time. As she walked up, I was playing a recording of Haba's trombone quartet, replete with quarter tones. It was pretty loud, and I had the windows open. She was horrified. Now everying I play sounds "normal" to her.

Stan Getz - Cool Velvet (Verve mono)

The Bebop Boys (Savoy two-fer)