jeffcrom

Capt. John Handy with Kid Sheik - New Orleans and the Blues (RCA Victor stereo)

New Orleans is still on my mind after my trip: Baby Dodds' Jazz Four - Winin' Boy Blues/Careless Love (Blue Note) Baby Dodds - Drum Solos (Disc 2-record album) Bunk's Brass Band - Didn't He Ramble/Tell Me Your Dream (American Music) Bunk Johnson's Band - Runnin' Wild/Swanee River (American Music) Bunk Johnson's Original Superior Band - Weary Blues/Moose March (Jazz Man) Papa Celestin and His Tuxedo Dixieland Jazz Band - Tiger Rag/Darktown Strutters' Ball (Columbia) I have all the Bunk's Brass Band sides on CD, of course, but there's something magical about hearing this music on 78. One of these days I hope to find an affordable copy of the three-pocket American Music album with the booklet. The Celestin record is his last recording, and is kind of a mess musically, but it's still fun. The picture above is actually the 45 sleeve, but it's identical to the 78 sleeve, except for the "4-" at the beginning of the catalog number.

Wendell Eugene - West Indies Blues (NoLa)

Back from New Orleans. The (more or less) complete musical rundown: Panorama Brass Band (with Aurora Nealand and Matt Perrine) - a second-line wedding reception in Bywater. Wendell Eugene with clarinetist Brian O'Connell at the Palm Court. Trombonist Eugene is 90 and is now the oldest currently active musician in New Orleans. I had admired him on records for years and was very pleased to finally hear him in person. Young Fellaz Brass Band playing on the street on Frenchmen. A large, excellent pickup brass band at the Family Ties Social Aid and Pleasure Club second line in Treme. Wendell Brunious at Preservation Hall. Some of the best music I've heard there in years. The Hot 8 Brass Band at Howlin' Wolf. Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses at Maison. David Doucet at the Columns Hotel. The Rebirth Brass Band at the Maple Leaf. The Tin Men at d.b.a. - with the Best Tuba Player in the World, Matt Perrine, again. Not a disappointing performance in the bunch, if you allow for the fact that Mr. Eugene is 90, and not the trombonist he once was.

Atlantans my age fell in love with Jan Hooks when she was on a local comedy/variety show, Tush, hosted by Bill Tush. This was on WTBS, Channel 17, the original building block of the Turner broadcasting empire, in 1980 and 1981. Hooks was by far the best thing on this funny (but wildly inconsistent) show. Here she is doing a Helen Reddy parody written (or adapted) by my friend Darryl Rhoades, who is on drums. Another good friend, Jimmy Royals, is the middle backup singer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T7i7c6WrfQ

I have the Roach on vinyl, and I'm not at home right now, but Lacy plays on two tracks and solos on both, I believe.

Happy Birthday, Magnificent One!

I've only been in New Orleans 26 hours, but so far: A wedding reception second line with the Panorama Brass Band. That's the best tuba player on the planet, Matt Perrine. A great band with 92-year-old trombonist Wendell Eugene at the Palm Court. He's lost a step or two, but still has a strong tone. The Family Ties Social Aid and Pleasure Club annual second line parade in Treme.

Okay, this one is not cheating, like my Miles post was. New Orleans clarinetist Willie Humphrey, who was born in 1900, is one of my favorite musicians - he played a traditional style with a modernist imagination, if that makes any sense. His last album was with the Maryland Jazz Band, a very good German trad group. Yeah, Willie's playing is that of a 91-year-old: tone and pitch are sometimes querulous, and his fingers don't respond as well as they did when he was younger. But he plays like a passionate, imaginative 91-year-old, and this album, like practically everything Willie recorded, is well worth hearing. I heard Willie three times in person. The last time was in April, 1994, at Preservation Hall, three months before his death. He was still the most powerful player in the band. And a digression: I once sat next to "Doggy" Hund, the leader of the Maryland Jazz Band, in the late, lamented Donna's on North Rampart Street, listening to Evan Christopher and Tom McDermott. When he introduced himself (with a German accent) as "Doggy," I asked "Doggy Hund?" He seemed very surprised and pleased to meet an American fan.

Damn. RIP.

recorded miles shows after montreux '91 July 8, 1991 Casino, Montreux, Switzerland July 10, 1991 La Grande Halle, Villette, Paris, France July 14, 1991 Statenhal, Congressgebouw, Den Haag, The Netherlands July 16, 1991 Jardin des Arenes de Cimiez, Nice, France July 17, 1991 Jardin des Arenes de Cimiez, Nice, France July 19, 1991 Royal Festival Hall, London, UK July 21, 1991 Chapiteau, Andernos, France July 23, 1991 Stadio Olimpico, Rom, Italy July 24, 1991 Piazza del Giorgione, Castelfranco Veneto, Italy July 26, 1991 Wiltz Theatre, Chateau de Wiltz, Wiltz, Luxembourg July 27, 1991 Uno City, Wien, Austria August 22, 1991 Arvey Field, Chicago, USA August 24, 1991 Concord Pavilion, Concord, USA August 25, 1991 Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, USA http://www.kind-of-blue.de/seiten/sessions/1991.htm i'll try to check this paris concert out. i'd like to see All Blues and It's About That Time. So I cheated a lot. My point was that concert has a surprising, valedictory quality to it, as if Miles knew it was his last chance to play those old tunes with those old colleagues.

Dave Tarras - Freilachs for Weddings, Bar Mtizvahs and other Celebrations, Vol. 2 (Request)

Rudy Tepel - Chassidic Wedding (Collectors Guild) A pretty amazing 1962 album of Hasidic klezmer, by a clarinetist I was not familiar with until I found this album today.

I will say that my wife has totally acclimated to my music over the 14 years we've been married. She doesn't hear anything as "weird" anymore, whether it's King Oliver or Albert Ayler. She thinks it's strange when I listen to Dylan or the Radiators, or anything that "normal" people would listen to.

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

Gordon Jenkins Presents Marshall Royal (Everest mono). One more before bed: a new find - gloriously corny and great at the same time. And the horn Marshall is holding appears to be the exact model and vintage as my #2 horn - a Conn 6M from the mid-40s. (Apologies to all the non-saxophonists out there for this digression. But it's a great horn.)

Milt Jackson - Plenty, Plenty Soul (Atlantic black label mono). First time hearing this one in nearly 20 years - I lost it in the divorce way back when. (She was crazy, but I've got to respect her for appreciating Bags.) I've been looking for a decent, affordable copy of this for some time, and found it today.

Lars Gullin - Modern Sounds: Sweden (Contemporary 10"). Continuing my theme of "European jazz issued on Contemporary." Compared to the Jimmy Deuchar album, this music (from a couple of years earlier) isn't nearly as accomplished - it doesn't really have its own voice, except for Gullin's own playing.

Jimmy Deuchar - Pub Crawling (Contemporary). Spinning this recent acquisition in honor of the Kingdom remaining United, and in honor of good beer everywhere. (Each of the tunes is named after a British beer.) Derek Humble, Tubby Hayes, Victor Feldman, Stan Tracey, and Phil Seamen are on board.

Kid Thomas Valentine Kid (Avery) Howard Howard Shore

Sam Rivers Complete Blue Note; the Contours session

All my Dial 78s today: # 1037: Hank Jones - Night Music / Jean Germain - The Chase (Bartok). I think Ross Russell was trying to invent the Third Stream, ten years before Gunther Schuller. "Night Music," which is actually from a Howard McGhee date, is described as "Fantasy for Piano and Jazz Band." It's a moody piece based on "Body and Soul" changes. #1009: Bill Harris - Woodchooper's Holiday ("featuring Sonny Berman trumpet") / Somebody Loves Me #1023: Don Byas - Stormy Weather / Humoresque. French recordings licensed from Blue Star. #1001: Tempo Jazz Men featuring Gabriel on trumpet (Dizzy Gillespie): Dynamo A / Dynamo B. This is the only place in my collection that I have the B take of "Dizzy Atmosphere" (aka "Dynamo"). #1020: Sonny Berman - Nocturne / Howard McGhee - Thermodynamics #1035: Red Norvo All Stars - Congo Blues / Get Happy. Alternate takes from the 1945 Comet session. Russell really pushed the limits of 10" 78 playing time with this, at four minutes per side.

Bill Coleman - Paris 1936/38 (Swing/DRG). That's the title on the spine, not the front. Whatever it's really called, this is fabulous music.

Onward Brass Band - Last Journey of a Jazzman (Nobility). In January, 1965 Cosimo Matassa carried a "portable" 50-pound tape recorder for miles in the rain to record the great Onward Brass Band playing the funeral of pianist Lester Santiago. The recordings were issued on two Nobility LPs - unfortunately marred by overdubbed narration by A. Grayson Clark, the owner of Dixieland Hall (a long-gone rival of Preservation Hall) and Nobility Records. Clark felt it necessary to "explain" the proceedings. I played some of the hymns and dirges from the first disc and endured the narration, but really enjoyed the fourth side, which has the second-line numbers the band played after they left the cemetery. Clark introduces the side, then shuts up and gets out of the way.

Paps has been listening to some good classical vinyl lately!