jeffcrom

Donald Byrd - Fancy Free (BN)

Daytrotter Presents Gary Clark Jr./Son House (Daytrotter). New blues, recorded at South by Southwest, 2012 on side one. Old blues, recorded the Ash Grove in LA, 1968 on side two.

Julia Lee - Kansas City Star (Bear Family). I've loved this stuff for 40 years; had the box set for almost 20.

Kevin Bacon Pigmeat Markham Robert Hicks, aka Barbecue Bob

Thanks for the link, jazztrain. I knew I had seen pictures of Roddy with the Eureka, but couldn't find them last night. And thanks for the info on a current source for the Blue Devils sides. I have them on a long-out-of-print Classics collection. And reading over my original post, I found an inaccurate statement. In addition to the Buster Smith alto and clarinet solos, Walter Page plays a baritone sax solo on "Squabblin'." Bassists in those days were often expected to play string bass, tuba and bass or baritone sax, and Page plays tuba on "Blue Devil Blues" and string bass and bari sax on "Squabblin'." A few minutes later: After listening again to confirm what I just wrote, it might be a bass sax that Page is playing. None of his notes go below the range of a bari sax, but it's a "heavy" sound, like a bass sax. We'll probably never know for sure, though.

I like the Blue Thumb album mentioned above quite a bit, at least as much for the ensemble (Dudu Pukwana!) and the tunes as for Masekela's playing. I have an anthology of South African jazz on the Music Club label - Freedom Blues. Masekela appears on three tracks. On two tracks (straight-ahead versions of standards) from a 1959 session led by pianist John Mehegan, Masekela is competent, but not impressive. The only musician who really has his own voice on these sides (including Mehegan) is Kippie Moeketsi on alto. Masekela is better a year later, on the Jazz Epistles' "Scullery Department." That's a nice track, with Moeketsi on board again, as well as Dollar Brand/Abdullah Ibrahim. I'm not really into the kind of pop-jazz that most of his output seems to be, but I'll turn up "Grazin' In the Grass" when I hear it on the radio.

HB, LK!

Okay, I'm back, after a hiatus of six weeks or so. I know that everyone missed my posts about unimportant minor figures in the history of jazz. So here's one. Reuben Roddy is about as minor as any jazz musician can be said to be - at least he's as "minor" as any figure who recorded with two of the greatest bands in jazz history. And that's why he fascinates me. Roddy was born in St. Joseph, Missouri in 1906. I don't know anything about his early career, and no one else seems to, either. But by the end of the 1920s he was a member of one of the legendary Kansas City bands, Walter Page's Blue Devils. He recorded with them on their only two issued sides, "Squabblin'" and "Blue Devil Blues," recorded for Vocalion in 1929. Roddy plays tenor sax on these sides, and does not solo - all the reed solos seem to be by the great Buster Smith on alto and clarinet. He reputedly also played with Bennie Moten's band during his Kansas City days, although he is not on any of that great band's recordings. Roddy next showed up on records in the 1950s, playing alto with the Eureka Brass Band and (although not issued until later) Kid Thomas's band in New Orleans. I had often wondered how this KC musician ended up in New Orleans, and Brian Wood's book on New Orleans musicians, A Song for Me, provides a clue - he was stationed in the city as member of the Algiers Naval Band in the early 1940s. Presumably, he stayed in the city after the war; Wood says that he joined the Eureka Brass Band in 1946. He was on the Eureka's first recordings (which were the first recordings of a working New Orleans brass band) in 1951, and he also played on 1956 sessions which showed up on Folkways and American Music, as well as playing on a couple of 1954/55 dance hall sessions with Kid Thomas. Roddy's New Orleans recordings show him to have thoroughly absorbed the New Orleans brass band and dance band styles. He is sure, but anonymous on the Eureka recordings, playing a strictly ensemble role. He knows just when to play the melody and when to play a harmony part. On the Kid Thomas recordings, his ensemble playing is very spare, and his solos don't stray too far from the melody at any time. Nothing in his recorded legacy suggests that Reuben Roddy was a great jazzman. But so what? Playing and recording with the Blue Devils and with the Eureka Brass Band means that Roddy was part of some amazing, transcendent music at several stages of his life. The rest of us should be so lucky. Reuben Roddy died in 1959 in New Orleans, and was buried in Holt Cemetery, where Buddy Bolden is buried. I'm going to make it a point to visit on my next trip to New Orleans. His most accessible recordings are on American Music - AMCD-48, Kid Thomas - The Dance Hall Years, AMCD-70, The Eureka Brass Band - New Orleans Funeral and Parade, and AMCD-110/111, The Eureka Brass Band in Rehearsal, 1956. Hooray for Reuben Roddy, a thoroughly minor figure in jazz.

Gotta dig my copy out. While this was playing this morning, my wife said that it reminded her of the gagaku music we heard in Japan. Not sure that I agree, but I'm glad she enjoyed it. Now playing: Paul Bley & Scorpio (Milestone). Viewed objectively, this is not the best Paul Bley album. But it's one of my favorites - partly because it was the first Bley album I bought, back in my freshman year of college.

Bobby Naughton/Wadada Leo Smith/Perry Robinson - The Haunt (Otic)

Halfway through the month, but could you send me the download link?

Release date will be March 14. If anyone is interested in pre-ordering, it'll be $14 in the US, including shipping. You can use PayPal [jeffcrom (at) bellsouth.net], or PM me if you'd like to pay by check. In the unlikely event that someone outside of the US wants one, PM me and I'll figure out shipping costs. I had a difficult time deciding which tracks to post as samples here. Every piece is different, but as you'll hear, if you don't enjoy the so-called avant-garde at all, you most likely will not like this album. And I've listened to this stuff so much during the mixing, editing, and mastering process that at this point every little flaw jumps out at me. Hopefully that won't be true for most folks. Anyway, here's one of my tunes and an improvisation. Swingbox Omen

Oddly I've never owned Apple Cores, though Charred Earth is pretty cool. It's the other way around for me - I picked Apple Cores out of the bins at an Atlanta record store when it was new. I read about Charred Earth back in the day, but have never seen a copy. And I like side one of Apple Cores more than Leeway - it's more conventional than you would expect from Murray, but with an edge. And hey - Frank Foster with Sunny Murray!

Twilight Monologues (Lunatic). One piano solo apiece by Masahiko Sato, Aki Takase, Ichiko Hashimoto, and Takashi Kako.

I have most of it on CD, too, thanks to King Jazz. But I'm grateful to have the rare tracks. Now playing: Dave Tarras/Abe Ellstein - Jewish Melodies (Period stereo)

Frank Teschemacher - Giants of Jazz (Time-Life). The coolest of the Time-Life Giants of Jazz series, because it contains all 34 verifiable sides Teschemacher recorded, plus six maybes. I'm listening to the third record, with the Elmer Schoebel and Cellar Boys sessions, plus the "possibles."

Bunky Green - My Babe (Exodus mono)

Don Elliott - Jamaica Jazz (ABC Paramount mono). I like this a lot more than JSngry did on his recent spin. The material is not great - certainly not Harold Arlen's best work. But Gil Evans' scores are full of fascinating details - stuff that nobody else would have come up with: English horn trios, a melody played by low-register guitar doubled by piccolo three octaves higher, and is that a bass clarinet quartet in "Ain't It the Truth?" I'm glad I pulled this off the shelf for the first time in several years.

Blues ladies today: Maggie Jones - I'm a Real Kind Mama/I'm Leaving You (Columbia, 1926) Maggie Jones - Undertaker's Blues/Northbound Blues (Columbia, 1925) Both of these are very worn. The first, with Louis Metcalf and Cliff Jackson, sounds as bad as it looks. The second, with Charlie Green and Fletcher Henderson, sounds better than it looks. Lillian Glinn - Doggin' Me Blues/Brown Skin Blues (Columbia, 1927). I love this record, which was recorded in Dallas. The New Orleans pioneer Octave Gaspard (how's that for a Creole name?) plays tuba on "Doggin' Me." Viola McCoy as Amanda Brown - Triflin' Blues/Chirpin' the Blues (Columbia, 1923) Trixie Smith - Desperate Blues/Trixie's Blues (Black Swan, 1922) Josie Miles - Baby's Got the Blues/Kansas City Man Blues (Gennett, 1923) Priscilla Stewart - You Ain't Foolin' Me/True Blues (Paramount, 1924). Another one that looks awful but sounds pretty good, with the great Jimmy Blythe on piano. And one instrumental from the same period: The Gulf Coast Seven - Daybreak Blues/Fade Away Blues (Columbia, 1923). A fine little record, with Gus Aiken and Garvin Bushell in the band.

Kid Thomas Valentine + The Hall Brothers Jazz Band (GHB mono). A 1964 meeting between four veteran New Orleans musicians and four (very) young Minnesota revivalists.

Murray Lehrer with Dave Tarras - Freilach in Hi-Fi Vol. 3 (Period)

Artie Shaw - The Sideman Years (Sounds of Swing). This has some rare tracks along with some more common stuff. I particularly like the 1934 Wingy Mannone session with Shaw, Dickie Wells, Bud Freeman, and Jelly Roll Morton.

Murray Lehrer - Freilach in Hi-Fi (Period). With the great Dave Tarras on clarinet.

The only journal I've ever kept is of my New Orleans visits; I realized pretty early on that I wanted a record of where I went and who I heard on my annual (and sometimes more-than-annual) visits. I see to my surprise that I've seen the Preservation Hall Jazz Band 37 times - 32 times at the Hall and five times on tour. Of course, that may not really mean anything, since the "Preservation Hall Jazz Band" is a brand more than it is a band - it was a different band almost every time. But among those concerts, I heard Percy Humphrey four times and Willie Humphrey three times, and those shows were as meaningful as all the others put together. I heard my hero, Steve Lacy, seven times. That may not sound like much, but - he's been dead for nearly ten years (which still seems hard to believe), he lived in Europe for most of my life, and I never heard him outside of the Deep South. So that's not bad. I'm grateful for each of those occasions.

Jimmy Giuffre's widow managed to buy a can of ravioli and two spoons due to the immense royalties that this set created. Really: what world do you live in? Or was this just an abysmal attempt at a joke? I must admit that I understand Paul's position more than yours. Are you saying that if a CD release is not likely to sell much, the record company is absolved of the responsibility to pay royalties? Today I mailed a check for $31.50 for a mechanical license to issue a Steve Lacy composition I had recorded, based on the 300 copies I am having pressed - probably a 10-year supply of inventory. I guess that the Lacy estate will get half of that. Yes, in a sense that's ridiculous, but I didn't really have the right to not pay it. The right this to do is still the right thing to do, even if the effects are minimal.