jeffcrom

Don't know that piece, but I likes me some Karel Husa.

Yeah!

Wow - I stand corrected. Did not know of that connection.

There seem to be plenty of copies about at ebay, Discogs etc. Strange that none of the music is available for download at Smithsonian/Folkways. It seems to have been issued jointly by Verve/Folkways so I wonder who has the rights to it. Not that Folkways. Verve issued some blues stuff in a series called Verve Folkways. The slash I inserted was probably confusing and unnecessary.

It varies. They all involve improvisation, if that's part of what you're asking. The simplest is really just a sketch to guide the improvisation, but some are pretty elaborate - through-composed with spaces for solos. Some swing, and some are pretty abstract. I'll try to post some clips soon, but I've got a couple of pretty busy days coming up. We were originally a quartet. When the fourth guy quit, Ben, our tenor player, suggested that we continue as a trio. I was skeptical, but at our first rehearsal as a trio, it was immediately apparent that the collectively improvised passages were far clearer. Not only was there one less voice to contend with, but the three of us were on the same wavelength, which the former member never really quite grasped. It sure is harder to write for three saxophones than for four, though.

I'm pleased to announce that the first album by the Edgewood Saxophone Trio will be released in a few weeks. The EST is two of the best saxophonists in Atlanta, plus me; Ben Davis and Bill Nittler are the other guys. The CD has nine of my odd little compositions, two improvised pieces, and a Steve Lacy tune. I'll post the official release date soon, but wanted to put this out there to whet the appetite of those who don't have enough off-center, jazz-based saxophone trio albums.

Sonny Rollins Don Newcombe The Artful Dodger

I need to clarify - I don't like the way I worded that. Everyone's in excellent form on that record - I just thought Skip James was exceptional.

I don't remember that, but it seems like good advice!

On Fat Tuesday, March 4, Real Gone Music is reissuing Professor Longhair's The Last Mardi Gras on CD; it previously has appeared only as a double LP on Atlantic. Recorded at Tipitina's during Mardi Gras 1978, it features a hot band and great versions of many of Fess's signature songs. For years, it's been one of my most-played Fess albums - I highly recommend it. And you'll get to hear the bass player start "Jambalaya" in the wrong key. Here's the Amazon link.

This will probably be of no help to anybody, but my favorite latter-day Skip James is from this never-reissued Verve Folkways LP, Living Legends. Mr. James does "I'm So Glad" and "Devil Got My Woman" in 1966 at the Cafe-Au-Go-Go. To my ears, his performance is on another level from those by his record-mates Son House, Bukka White, and Big Joe Williams.

Chick Corea - The Song of Singing (BN). With that short-lived black and light blue Liberty-era label. I like pretty much everything Corea did up until Circle broke up. I hardly ever listen to anything he did after that.

Marion Brown - Solo Saxophone (Sweet Earth)

Frederic Rzewski - Attica/Coming Together/Les Moutons de Panurge (Opus One)

That's a shame. I buy 78s on line (usually from Ebay) all the time. They have always arrived intact when the seller knows how to pack them properly. When they're packed like LPs, (which some inexperienced sellers have done), they are broken about 40% of the time.

I have that Rosa Henderson, as well as several others by her. She's quite underrated, in my opinion. I also visited one of my regular haunts today, and walked out with a half dozen 78s for a dollar each. The first was is the real gem, and in excellent condition. I'm pretty excited about it. Rev. W.M. Mosley - Rev. W.M. Mosley's Prayer/Sin No More (Columbia, 1926). Rev. Mosley was from Atlanta, as so many of the great African-American recording preachers were (and still are). This was his first record. Also cleaned and spun: Memphis Minnie/Little Son Joe - Jump Little Rabbit/Tonight I Smile With You (Columbia, 1949). From Minnie's last Columbia session. It's not her best work, but Memphis Minnie 78s tend to be expensive when you find them, so I was glad to get this for a dollar. Boswell Sisters acc. by the Dorsey Brothers - It's the Girl/It's You (Brunswick, 1931). "It's the Girl" was the recording that made me finally "get" the Boswell Sisters and how brilliant they were, so it's nice to have a copy of the original record. Jimmie Lunceford - Well All Right Then/Uptown Blues (Columbia DJ promo). A later pressing, with excellent sound.

I did, for sure. i think this is much better than many would have you believe. At least I like it. And check out the Wilbur Ware's solo on "Decidedly" - the mono take, if I remember correctly. It's one of the great, odd bass solos in jazz. It's basically a "walking" solo, but at some point he turns the beat around so that he's walking on the upbeats.

San Antonio Jazz (IAJRC). This fascinating album has the complete recordings of Don Albert's big band on side one and a well-chosen selection of tunes by Boots & His Buddies on side two. I've always loved the Albert big band; he was from New Orleans, and his band was full of Crescent City musicians: Alvin Alcorn, Louis Cottrell, Herb Hall (Edmond's brother), guitarist Ferdinand Dejan, and even the venerable Jimmy Johnson, who was the bassist in Buddy Bolden's band 35 years earlier. (He's in the famous picture of the Bolden band.) And here's the first recording of of "True" (aka "You Don't Love Me"), which was a hit for New Orleanian Paul Gayten in 1947. And the great James Booker recorded a hair-raising version at Montreux in 1978.

Yes, Spelman is probably the most highly regarded HBCU (historically black college/university) for women in the U.S.

Thanks for the tip. Just ordered using a year-old Amazon gift certificate I just found in a box.

Bennie Green Select - the Soul Stirrin' session.

Yeah, that's a pretty great CD. No idea how hard or easy it might be to find these days.

I'm not Jim, but yes, it is.

Who is on that one, Paul?

To keep the historical record, because it's so important, here were my 78 spins today: Ray Charles - Someday/I'll Do Anything But Work (Swingtime, 1949) Ray Charles - Sinner's Prayer/It Should've Been Me (Atlantic, 1953) Ray Charles - Mary Ann/Down in My Own Tears (Atlantic, 1955) I think that last pairing would be the Ray Charles single I would take to a desert island. Dave Brubeck Trio - Body and Soul/Let's Fall in Love (Fantasy, 1950) Dave Brubeck Quartet - A Foggy Day/Lyon's Busy (Fantasy, 1951) Dave Brubeck Quartet - Me and My Shadow/Mam'selle (Fantasy, 1951) Dave Brubeck Quartet/Solo - The Trolley Song/My Heart Stood Still (Fantasy promo, 1953) I really enjoyed the quartet sides (and the solo); the trios, not so much. Jacques Thibaud, Pablo Casals & Alfred Cortot - Schubert Trio No. 1 in B flat, op. 99 (Victor, 1926) This is an early album in Victor's Musical Masterpieces series, with four 12" discs. Yes, you have to change sides every four and a half minutes, but it must have seemed miraculous at the time to listen to an entire thirty-plus-minute composition in your living room, especially one interpreted by these great musicians.