jeffcrom

On the outside chance that anyone was planning on attending the Chattanooga show on Friday, it has been cancelled, since the weather has made it impossible for the New York members of the GSB to get here on time. The Saturday night show in Atlanta is still on.

Coleman Hawkins - The Hawk in Holland (GNP Crescendo)

Just to clarify, Karen is now teaching psychology at Spelman College in Atlanta, and hadn't worked with the girls for several years. She's been exchanging Panzee stories with friends and is adjusting to the loss.

New York Percussion Ensemble - Bach for Percussion (Audio Fidelity mono). Okay, y'all know that I've got some odd albums. This is one of the oddest, but every once in a while it calls to me, begging to be played. It's four Bach pieces transcribed for non-pitched (!) percussion instruments. (Well, there is some tympani, but used in a non-melodic way.) So you've got the rhythmic skeleton of Bach's music, and Bach's complexity of texture, but "translated" with entirely different colors. And none of his harmonic or melodic content, of course. It ain't Bach, really, but it's pretty cool percussion music. It reminds me of John Cage and William Russell's early percussion music. This is not something I want to listen to often, but right now it's putting a smile on my face.

Okay, something I haven't done for awhile - post a pretty complete list of the 78s I've spun over the past couple of days. Jazz: Paul Quinichette - No Parking/People Will Say We're in Love (Mercury, 1953) Bud Powell - Bud's Bubble/Somebody Loves Me (Roost, 1947) Bud Powell - All God's Chillun Got Rhythm/Celia (Mercury, 1949) Kai Winding's New Jazz Group - Always/Grab Your Axe, Max (Savoy, 1945); with Getz and Shorty Rogers. Barney Kessell Quartet - East of the Sun/Heat Wave (Clef, 1953) ...and one I'm not going to list, because it's pretty rare and I'm probably going to include it on my next blindfold test. Classical: A bunch by the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra/Stokowski - Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (Victrola 12" one-sided, 1920) Wagner: Tannhauser Overture (Victrola, 1921); conveniently spread over three one-sided 12" records. No matter; it's a fabulous performance. Sibelius: Finlania/Moussorgsky: Entr'acte from Khowantchina (Victrola 12", 1921/1922) Handel: Pastoral Symphony from Messiah/Bach: Prelude in B Minor from the WTC (Victrola 12", 1929/1930) Stokowski was one of those artists, like Duke Ellington, who really understood the recording process, and knew how to make his records sound good. Even the acoustically-recorded discs by the Philadelphia Orchestra are state-of-the-art. Leopold Godowsky - MacDowell: Witches' Dance (Brunswick one-sided, 1920) Alfred Cortot - Liszt: Caprice Poetic (Victrola 12" one-sided, 1919) Efrem Zimbalist - Reger: Andantino from Sonata no. 2 for Violin Unaccompanied) (Victor one-sided, 1915). A beautiful little record. Marcel Moyse - Ibert: Piece for Solo Flute/Bach: Sarabande from Sonata in A Minor for Solo Flute (Columbia, 1935) And the two records that got to me the most, probably: Jussi Bjoerling - Puccini: Recondita Armonia/Verdi: La Donna e Mobile (Victor, 1936) Jussi Bjoerling - Puccini: Donna non Vidi Mai/Mascagni: O Lola (RCA Victor, 1948) Both of these were recorded in Stockholm, both are magnificent performances, and both have glorious sound.

George Russell Sextet - At the Five Spot (Decca mono)

Clark Terry Featuring Ben Webster - More (Cameo mono)

Papa Celestin and His Tuxedo Dixieland Band - Tiger Rag/At the Darktown Strutters Ball (Columbia promo 45). A 1953 single release, issued on 45 and 78 RPM records. It's a hot little record. I doubt most of the names of the musicians would mean much to most folks here, but I heard one of them, pianist Jeanette Kimball, several times at Preservation Hall 40 to 45 years later. And she had first recorded with Celestin in the 1920s!

Kid Howard - At Zion Hill Church: Great Spirituals (Nobility). A really beautiful album from 1964.

Sonny Rollins - The Freelance Years; the Way Out West session.

Well, damn. Chuck's post was the first I had heard this, but unfortunately, it's true. Here's the news from an English-language Swedish news site. I was enchanted by Babs from the first time I heard "Heaven" from Ellington's Second Sacred Concert. A truly amazing voice.

Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars - Music for Lighthousekeeping (Stereo). I mean "Stereo" is the label it was issued on - "Stereo Records S7008, In Association with Contemporary Records." I found this record today - in very nice shape, and for all of three dollars. It was news to me. Apparently Contemporary was recording in stereo before stereo LPs even existed - I know that Atlantic did the same. And apparently their first stereo issues were under a separate label name. And for such early stereo, it sounds very good. Then, something very different, but equally excellent: Joe McPhee & Chris Corsano - Scraps and Shadows (Roaratorio)

http://vimeo.com/8582666 This is Panzee as an adult, interacting with Karen's friend Mike. Karen has pages of the neat, meticulous "writing" you see Panzee doing at the 55 second mark.

Another sad day here. Karen's other "girl," Panzee (the chimpanzee in the pictures above) died of complications from diabetes this weekend in Atlanta.

The Olympia Brass Band of New Orleans (Audiophile). I've said it before here - this magnificent 1971 album has got to be the best-sounding New Orleans brass band recording ever made. And the music is worthy of Ewing Nunn's brilliant engineering. This session is available on a GHB CD, but the CD couldn't possibly sound better than this near-mint hunk of vinyl.

Andrew Hall's Society Jazz Band - Talk of the Town (Shalom). A 1981 recording by the British expat drummer and his band of obscure New Orleanians. This is an interesting album - most Europeans who come to New Orleans to play traditional jazz have pretty doctrinaire ideas about how the music should go. (I know I'm generalizing.) Hall and his band, though, play the kind of loose mix of trad, swing and R & B that Crescent City musicians gravitated to around that time. In the band are trumpeter Reginald Koeller, whom I heard several times at Preservation Hall, and the little-known, but excellent alto saxist Ernest Poree, who I unfortunately never heard in person. Poree, who also recorded with Dave "Fat Man Williams" and the Onward Brass Band, was famous for his stamina, sometimes playing two parades during the day and a dance gig at night - and still ready to play some more at the end of it all.

Joanne Brackeen - Ancient Dynasty (Columbia/Tappan Zee). I haven't spun this one for several years, but inspired by the resurgence of the Brackeen thread, decided to play it tonight. It has done more than wear well - it has really gone up in my estimation with this playing.

Starting your label was not financially wise. But we're glad you did.

Charlie Parker - Complete Dial Sessions (Stash). The Earl Coleman/Erroll Garner session from disc two. Might just let the disc keep playing and listen to the "Relaxin' at Camarillo" session as well.

James Houlik, probably the finest classical tenor saxophonist in the world, playing Russell Peck's concerto "The Upward Stream," with Ludwig Symphony Orchestra, an Atlanta ensemble which performs one concert per quartet, as far as I can tell.

The Gold Sparkle Band, which was formed in Atlanta 20 or so years ago, doesn't perform together very often anymore, since they are now split between Atlanta and New York. The core of the band from the beginning has been trumpeter Roger Ruzow, Charles Waters on alto sax, and drummer Andrew Barker, with a succession of bassists. The Gold Sparkle Band is playing two 20th year reunion shows in the southeast next weekend. On Valentine's Day, Friday, February 14, an expanded version of the band will play a concert at the Barking Legs Theater in Chattanooga. Ruzow, Waters, and Barker will be joined by the great bassist Evan Lipson, me on alto and baritone, and others, I think, but I don't really know who. The next day, Saturday, February 15, the "classic" quartet lineup, including bassist Chris Riggenbach, will play a set at the 529 in Atlanta, opening for the Tim Daisy/Mikaloj Trzaska duo. I know that there are at least a couple of Gold Sparkle fans here, and wanted to let folks know, in case you find yourself within driving distance.

Elvin Jones - The Prime Element (BN); record two - the session with Lee Morgan.

Tyree Glenn - At the Roundtable (Roulette mono). A very nice, not particularly profound album with a great rhythm section: Hank Jones, Mary Osborne, Tommy Potter, and Jo Jones.

Chu Berry - The Calloway Years (Meritt) and record two, the Chu Berry recordings from: The Commodore Years - The Tenor Sax (Atlantic) I appreciate Paul prodding me to listen to some Chu tonight and reexamine what I love about his playing. I sent him some thoughts about Chu privately, but I'll add here: listen again to "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You" from that Commodore album. Chu's solo is sophisticated and exploratory, but it doesn't sound much like Hawkins, to my ears. Leon Berry was his own man.

(Shaking head): Paul, Paul, Paul....