jazztrain

Quite common in Harlem, particularly in the 1920s. I remember reading in many places about the use of rent parties to collect money to pay for the rent. From what I recall, alcohol and some food would be provided along with the music. The institution of the rent party is reflected in some recordings, including possibly the following: House Rent Stomp - Virginia Liston - 1923 House Rent Ball - Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra - 1924 House Rent Rag - Dixieland Jug Blowers - 1926 House Rent Stomp - Big Bill Broonzy - 1927 Rent Party Blues - Duke Ellington and His Orchestra as The Jungle Band (1929) and as the Ten Blackberries (1930) House Rent Scuffle - Lil Johnson - 1929 Rent Party Blues - Johnny Hodges and His Orchestra -1939 House Rent Rag - Rufus and Ben Quillian - 1931 House Rent Party Day - Louis Prima and His New Orleans Gang - 1934 House Rent Party Day - Harlem Hot Shots (Wingy Manone) - 1935 Rent Party - Hal Singer House Rent Party - Champion Jack Dupree, Babs Gonzales, Slim Gaillard (may not all be same tune) Also, I suspect that a 1946 album set by Pete Johnson and others (the add an instrument session) was designed to simulated a housewarming (and perhaps a house rent) party. The version I have has the speaking parts edited out, so I can't confirm this. Does anyone have the 78 album set or the full version to verify whether it's intended to represent a rent party?

Obit from today's Boston Globe: Boston Globe obit

That's all I could find from a short search. I've never heard it but remember seeing it at least once and passing on it. Based on your description, I'd probably do the same the next time. I came across that site, too, and think it's pretty ridiculous. The "Morris Ferguson" track involves speeding up a tape, Chipmunks fashion.

I just picked up a Tony Zano LP last week (at Stereo Jack's). It's called "In Retrospect." Recorded in New York in 1983 and issued in 1987 on Mark MJS-57624. He's joined by Teddy Kotick on bass and Joe Hunt on drums. "In Retrospect"

This site suggests that Maynard Ferguson is on it: http://www.angelfire.com/ca/mferguson/Grants.html

Ray Smith, long time host of "The Jazz Decades" on WGBH-FM in Boston, has passed away: http://www.wgbh.org/897/programDetail.cfm?programid=282 He'll be missed.

For what it's worth, it appears that Lester's post on Sidney Bechet draws largely on information and, in some cases, misinformation that is posted elsewhere on the web. It's somewhat interesting and also maddening to try to track down the ultimate source of some of unattributed statements. The most frustrating one is the following assertion: >>> In 1944, 1946, and 1953 he recorded and performed in with Chicago Jazz Pianist, Max Miller, recordings which are part of the Max Miller archive and have never been released. These concerts and recordings are covered completely in John Chilton's great book on Bechet. >>> The same statement appears on numerous other on-line "biographies" of Bechet. However, if you actually look at Chilton's book, the concerts and recordings are not "completely covered." Max Miller is only mentioned on three pages of Chilton's book. On pages 157-158, Chilton recounts a June 18, 1985 conversation with Miller in which Miller describes sitting in with Bechet at a 1944 concert in Springfield, Illinois. Miller says "We hit it straight away and later, whenever Sid came to Chicago, we usually had a session." No mention of a recording. On page 158, Chilton describes a session that was privately recorded on October 8, 1944. Chilton cites the following report from the November 15, 1944 issue of Downbeat: "While in Chicago last month Sidney held forth musically in a private home. The session was organised by Paul Eduard Miller of Esquire magazine and featured Sidney Bechet (clarinet and soprano), Max Miller (piano) and Ken Smith (drums). Sidney went along with the advanced ideas and improvisations of Max Miller." The last mention of Miller is on page 189. Citing the same June 18, 1985 conversation with Miller, Chilton writes the following: >> At the end of his one and only week in the production of Hear that Trumpet Bechet took a Sunday plane flight to play at a concert held at the Civic Opera House in Chicago. His partners on the date were trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and reed player Eugene Sedric. The three imports from New York played on a bill that also featured an assembly of Chicago jazzmen, including pianist Tut Soper, cornetist Jimmy McPartland, guitarist George Barnes, drummer Ken Smith, pianist Max Miller and tenor saxophonist Bud Freeman. The concert gave Ken Smith and Max Miller the chance to re-establish the warm friendship tht had begun during their wartime meetings with Bechet. Sidney was happy to see these old friends again, and during the coming years took part in privately recorded sessions with them. Miller, who was then rated as one of Chicago's leading modernists, loved jamming with Bechet: "We'd book the Bachman Studio on Carmen Avenue and make recordings (78 r.p.m.), just for fun. I was never happy with the piano there, it was an iron-foot job, but the surroundings were great -- it ws a Frank Lloyd Wright house. Our sessions with Sidney were nearly all purely improvised; we literally made the tunes up as we went along. He played soprano mostly on the sessions we did together, and he did so wonderfully." >> Based on other information in Chilton's book, it appears that the concert referenced above was in mid October 1946, most likely on October 13 or October 20. That's it. No more, no less. No mention of whether the 1946 concert was recorded. No specific mention of any subsequent meetings or recordings, especially in 1953. So, where did this information come from if not from Chilton? And is there any information supporting these statements? Well, Mal Collings' excellent on-line Bechet discography at http://www.sidneybechet.org/sbr.html has a single entry that mentions Max Miller: >>> SIDNEY BECHET & HIS TRIO 441008 Sidney Bechet (sop-1/clt-2), Max Miller (pno), Ken Smith (dms). Private party @ home of Paul Eduard Miller. Chicago October 8 1944 *Blues at Sunrise -2 *Blues at Moonrise -1 *Liberty Street Stomp *Carmen Avenue Special No. 1 *Besame Mucho "Liberty" is identified as "Perdido Street Stomp" by D., who also indicates the 'private' location. >>> The source of the information ("D.") is Guy Demole. The personnel listed above is consistent with the description by Chilton. So, once again, what is the source of the information about Bechet and Miller and where and what is the "Max Miller Archive?" Poking around the web, I found the following: http://www.answers.com/topic/max-miller-musician The same information appears to show up in a Max Miller biography on wikipedia. Note this extract from the information at answers.com: >>> In 1943 he co-led a quartet with trumpet star Shorty Cherock. His first recording sessions with Sidney Bechet were in 1944 and included Tony Parenti on clarinet and Zilner Randolph on trumpet. Bill Funkey added alto and tenor sax and Ken Smith the drums. Bechet's powerful solo on Miller's song "Liberty Street Stomp" is a standout of those sessions. These recordings are part of the Max Miller Archive and are still unreleased. Billboard Magazines' December 15, 1945 issue featured a favorable review of Max Millers' concert performing with Bechet and Parenti. He first met Bechet in the summer of 1944 when he and Ken Smith went with Paul Edward Miller from Chicago to Springfield, Illinois to hear him in a club there and ended up sitting in for the rest of the night. They hit it off and played and recorded together as often as they could. >>> Well, "Cherock" should obviously be "Sherock" but that's irrelevant to the issue at hand. Although the session listed in Collings' discography includes a performance of Liberty Street Stomp (aka Quincy Street Stomp), that performance is by a trio and not by the group described above. The December 15, 1945 issue of Billboard is available on line from Google Books. It contains not a "favorable review" but rather a piece about a forthcoming (December 17, 1945) concert organized by Paul Edouard Smith. It's described as the opening concert in what may become a series of concerts "to present the lesser lights to the public." It goes on to say the following: "Only well known jazzman on the first date is Sidney Bechet, the New Orleans reed ace, with the remainder: Tony Parenti, white, N. O., clary; Bill Funkey, Gary, (Ind.) alto and tenorman; Max Miller, Chi pianist currently fronting his own cocktail trio; Kenny Smith, drummer, and several others filling out the program." I'm not sure if this link will work or not, but the Billboard piece is here: http://books.google.com/books?id=lhgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT17&dq=%22bill+funkey%22,+billboard&client=firefox-a&cd=1#v=onepage&q=%22bill%20funkey%22%2C%20billboard&f=false Chilton does not mention this December 17, 1945 concert. Nor does Collings. I'm unable to find any subsequent review of the concert in Billboard. Also in the information on Answers.com is the following concerning Max Miller: >>> Also on Oct. 13, 1946 he performed in a concert presented by Green Recordings at the Civic Opera House as pianist for the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet, the Sidney Bechet Sextet and his own trio as well. The concert also featured Bud Freeman, Jimmy McPartland and George Barnes. During Bechet's visit to Chicago, Max booked time in Bachman Studios on Carmen Avenue and again recorded private sessions with Bechet. >>> This is clearly the October 1946 concert that Chilton mentions and clarifies that the date was October 13. Note that this site claims that Miller played with Gillespie, Bechet, and with his own trio. Other sources, such as Ken Vail's "Dizzy Gillespie: The Bebop Years, 1937-1952)" and a prospective article in the October 12, 1946 issue of Billboard, confirm Gillespie's presence at the concert but leave unclear who played with Gillespie. The Answers.com piece also includes the following: >> In 1953 he again performed with Sidney Bechet. One of their concerts took place at Chicago's Kimball Hall and featured Max Miller on piano, Sidney Bechet on soprano sax, Bill Harris on trombone, and Big Sid Catlett on drums. The 1954 American Peoples Encyclopedia Yearbook, covering 1953 in the Jazz category cited the reunion of Max Miller and Sidney Bechet as the highlight of the year. Once again, they took advantage of the reunion to make some private recordings together. >>> Chilton mentions Bechet being in the Chicago area in late 1953 for a series of concerts, some with a small group drawn from Woody Herman's orchestra, including Nat Pierce. Therefore, it seems possible that Bechet and Miller played, and perhaps, recorded together in 1953. But again, what's the primary source of this information? Is it the "American Peoples Encyclopedia Yearbook?" Does anyone have access to this? Finally, there's this: >>> Max Miller died in Shawnee, Oklahoma in 1985, 4 days before his 74th birthday, after a long fight with congestive heart failure, leaving a large personal archive of unreleased live and studio recordings which includes musicians listed as among the "Giants of Jazz", including Sidney Bechet, Benny Goodman, Anita O'Day and Bill Harris. He was survived by his wife, the artist Juanita S. (Nita) Miller, the daughter of actor Glenn Strange, best known as "Sam the Bartender" on the long running western series "Gunsmoke" and his work in over 300 movies and television shows. She completed cataloging Max's work before her death in 1995. >>> Intriguing, isn't it? Despite the numerous inaccuracies in various on line postings, it appears plausible that these purported recordings of Bechet and Miller may exist, but where? Anybody know anything about this archive?

Chris: I'll be brief and then move on, since I don't intend to get drawn into any of the unpleasantness that, unfortunately, breaks out here occasionally to the ultimate detriment of everyone. My intent was to identify a few errors in the Sidney Bechet post, to illustrate how mistakes quickly get spread elsewhere, and, finally, to pass along the information that I found elsewhere concerning the "identity" of Lester. I thought that I did so in a "civil" and non-accusatory fashion. My question about the importance of the recordings with Max Miller was meant "constructively." I celebrate the music, black or white or whatever, in all months. Irrespective of Lester's motive, I see no excuse for not correcting errors which was what I was doing. If you perceive this as "nitpicking," then so be it. My post had nothing to do with other's motives or behavior, lewd album covers, politics, and whatever else you mentioned, and I don't intend to be drawn into those issues here. Over and out.

Chris, I think you need to at least acknowledge some of Allen's points. There is a difference between providing information and spreading misinformation, especially these days when material posted on line spreads like a virus and when misinformation soon becomes indistinguishable from fact. What you seem to dismiss as mere "nitpicking" could be characterized as striving for accuracy. Go back, for example, and take a look at the post on February 7 concerning Sidney Bechet. It's riddled with mistakes and odd observations. For example, look at this section that I've pasted below: >> In his career, Bechet composed many jazz and concert-work forms. His hits include 1923’s “Clarence Williams Blue Fice” with Louis Armstrong, popular 1938 “Summertime” and different recordings of his “Petit Fleur”. In 1944, 1946, and 1953 he recorded and performed in with Chicago Jazz Pianist, Max Miller, recordings which are part of the Max Miller archive and have never been released. These concerts and recordings are covered completely in John Chilton's great book on Bechet. >> OK, I won't quibble regarding a typo ("Fice" instead of "Five"), but even "Clarence Williams Blue Five" (which should be Clarence Williams' Blue Five (with the apostrophe, but I said I wouldn't nitpick) wasn't a "hit." It was the name under which many records were issued. The 1923 recordings by that group did not include Armstrong. The first recordings with both Bechet and Armstong present were from 1924. Bechet's recording of "Summertime" was from 1939, not 1938. The name of the referenced Bechet composition is "Petite Fleur" not "Petit Fleur." And where and what is the Max Miller archive? What is the importance of the recordings with Max Miller, especially if they have never been issued? Go and google "Max Miller Archive" and you'll find numerous websites that contain material remarkably similar to that posted here on Organissimo. It's not clear whether Lester is posting to numerous sites (which appears to be in part the case) or whether other sites are drawing from material posted on Organissimo. In either case, the effect is the same --misinformation is being disseminated widely. Oh, and there's this (see http://www.jazzonthetube.com/about.html): >>> Jazz on the Tube The Internet's jazz video search engine Jazz on the Tube is a labor of love by a group of friends and jazz fans who operate under the name of Lester Perkins. We love jazz and we love the fact that YouTube has made it possible to watch so many amazing jazz videos available for free. We truly live in an age of miracles. >>> Miracles indeed. But let's try to get the facts straight.

Well, we could go in with Willie "The Lion" Smith and go out with Donald ("The Lamb?") Lambert.

NPR had a story about Doris Day on this morning's "Weekend Edition."

Here's his website. It appears to be in German: http://www.richiebeirach.com/ According to All About Jazz: Since 2000, Richie Beirach lives in Leipzig and holds a professorship for Jazz piano at the Leipzig conservatory “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy”.

Oops. My mistake. Thanks to king ubu and brownie. You'd think I could remember a name in the time that it takes to scroll up or down...

Thanks King ubu and Niko! Much appreciated. Guérin would pronounce - very approximately - as Gaerhiiiyn

The Guerin sides were also included on an earlier LP (and then CD) on DRG/Swing under Benny Golson's name. Can anyone provide a pronunciation of his name? I want to get it right if possible.

KD sings on his album "This is the Moment!" on Riverside.

Pete B: Some of the information that you gleaned seems to be a bit garbled. Here are the leaders on the first five: PJFD 15001 Rod Cless, Hank Duncan, George Wettling, Cliff Jackson PJFD 15002 Dick Cary, Cliff Jackson, Art Hodes, Nat Jaffe PJFD 15003 Errol Garner, Gene Schroeder, Ray Stokes, Red Callender PJFD 15004 Barney Bigard, Cliff Jackson, Willie "The Lion" Smith PJFD 15005 Joe Marsala, Etta Jones

OK. Here's some more information. One website lists the following as the contents of the sixth Pickwick: >>> * 1. Eddie Condon & His Band / Indiana (2:49) * 2. Eddie Condon & His Band / Back In Your Own Backyard (2:57) * 3. Eddie Condon & His Band / That's A Plenty (3:11) * 4. Eddie Condon & His Band / Ja Da (2:49) * 5. Eddie Condon & His Band / It's Been So Long (3:05) * 6. Eddie Condon & His Band / Ballin' The Jack (2:17) * 7. Matty Matlock / There'll Be Some Changes Made (5:41) * 8. Matty Matlock / Jazz Me Blues (4:00) * 9. Matty Matlock / Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gave To Me (4:09) * 10. Matty Matlock / Ida (3:24) * 11. Matty Matlock / Shim-me-sha-wabble (5:52) * 12. Red Nichols / Should I (3:05) * 13. Red Nichols / Whispering (2:50) * 14. Red Nichols / Lazy River (2:26) * 15. Red Nichols / My Melancholy Baby (3:37) * 16. Red Nichols / At Sundown (3:14) >>> Regarding their merits, I'd say that they're all worth having. Some of the sides had never been reissued to my knowledge (such as the Cliff Jackson date with Pee Wee Russell). Others had been reissued but with inferior transfers. The material on the first five is all drawn from the Black & White label (although a few of the sides had not been issued previously). Some of the cd titles are obvious puns -- the reference to "Black & Whites" in some of the titles refers both to the label and to the keys on a piano, while the "Black & White & Reeds All Over" is an obvious play on the old "What's black and white and red (read) all over?" riddle.

There appears to have been a sixth one in the series. Based on some information on line, it was called "Dixieland Cajun Style" and subtitled "Hot & Spicy." Here's a description from Scott Yanow (All Music Guide): "This CD (one of six Pickwick releases taken from the Black & White catalogue of the mid-'40s) is the only one not to list the exact personnel and recording dates. The performances are in the Dixieland vein and include difficult-to-trace sessions by Eddie Condon, clarinetist Matty Matlock (with a septet including tenor-saxophonist Eddie Miller and trumpeter Dick Cathcart) and a mid-'40s version of Red Nichols's Five Pennies. The music is enjoyable enough although not as essential as the other CDs in the valuable series." I have the first five in the series and seem to remember having seen this one but passing on it, largely due to the lack of any information about who was on it.

Pickwick PJFD 15004 is "Greenwich Village Jazz."

I can field that question. There's the famous quote about Bix's cornet sounding like a girl saying "yes." Let me see if I can find it.... OK. It's in Condon's "We Called It Music:" >>> Beiderbecke smiled like an embarrassed kid and muttered something. Then he got up on the stand and walked over and sat down -- at the piano. "Clarinet Marmalade," somebody said. Bix nodded and hit the keys. Then it happened. All my life I had been listening to music, particularly on piano. But I had never heard anything remotely resembling what Beiderbecke played. For the first time I realized that music isn't all the same, that some people play so differently from others that it becomes an entirely new set of sounds. That was the first time I heard the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, except on records, but I actually didn't hear them at all; I listed to Beiderbecke. When we rushed out to grab out train I was completely confused. Trying to get to sleep in an upper berth I kept thinking -- what about the cornet, can he play that too? The next day we got up as the train came into Cleveland. With nothing to do but sit and stare at the scenery from there to Buffalo I began to wonder again about the cornet. I got out my banjo. Eberhardt dug up his saxophone and doodled along with me. Finally Beiderbecke took out a silver cornet. He put it to his lips and blew a phrase. The sound came out like a girl saying yes... >>>

My first exposure to jazz was probably hearing Beach's "Just Jazz" radio show on WRVR in the early 1970s. His program, in part, is responsible for the ensuing close to 40 years of my listening and collecting and to my own radio efforts. Thanks, Ed. Anyone else remember any of the pseudonyms he would sometimes use (like Ashley (or Ashly?) Seadrift and Desmond Ebbtide)?

Sad news indeed. I found a copy of Jazz Street years ago at a very reasonable price in a used book store on Cape Cod. I subsequently loaned it to a friend who, to the best of my knowledge, still has it. Figuring it would likely never come back, I tracked down another (albeit somewhat more pricey) copy a few years ago. Stock really had an eye.

Chewy: Nice find. Never have come across a copy. Steve: No to the born on the ocean liner question. Here's some information from John Chilton's "Song of the Hawk." >>> Late in life Hawkins became mysterious about his place of birth, and touchy about giving the date on which he was born. In 1956 he said he was born at sea, while his mother and father were returning from Europe: "On the Atlantic Ocean, on a boat. To me it's hard to say actually where my real birth would be." The truth was not quite as romantic. Coleman Randolph Hawkins was born on 21 November 1904 at 1713 Angelique in the Buchanan District of Saint Joseph, Missouri; he was delivered by Dr Preston Edwards. Coleman's parents, William and Cordelia, lived at 1713 Angelique with Cordelia's parents..." >>>

Jaffa: I had a longer response partially drafted, but it disappeared. I'll try again, but more briefly. Andrew and Gerhart Thrasher had performed and recorded as part of "The Thrasher Wonders" before Ahmet Ertegun joined them with Clyde McPhatter and others to form The Drifters. I found a few references on line to The Thrasher Wonders having been a family group and a few other references to a sister (Bernice) as being part of the group. I have been unable to find any connection between these Thrashers and the Thrasher Sisters. Here's a link to a page that lists 8 radio apperances by The Thrasher Sisters between 1941 and 1946. The page has a copyright notation, so I'll just paste the link and some summary information rather than all the information itself: http://radiogoldindex.com/cgi-local/p3.cgi?ArtistName=The+Thrasher+Sisters&ArtistNumber=39805 - The Show That Jack Built. January 30, 1941. WLW. Cincinnati. - The Fountain of Fun. October 11, 1942. WLW. Cincinnati. - The Fountain of Fun. October 18, 1942. WLW. Cincinnati. - The Fountain of Fun. October 25, 1942. WLW. Cincinnati. - The Fountain of Fun. November 1, 1942. WLW. Cincinnati. - The Kate Smith Hour. March 3, 1944. CBS with AFRS rebroadcast. - Music Depreciation. February 4, 1945. Mutual network, KHJ, Los Angeles. - Jubilee. February 1946. Program #178. AFRS. It appears that the October 11, 1942 broadcast of "The Fountain of Fun" may be available for listening from a link that can be found here (see link for 11-23-2008 broadcast of "Same Time, Same Station" program): http://vintageradioplace.com/broadcast/arcsametime0811.html. It also appears to be available as a podcast from this page: http://www.podcastblaster.com/directory/podcast-16888.html. Here's a link to radio listings showing an appearance by The Thrasher Sisters Trio at 10:30 am on May 14, 1945 on WMAQ (Chicago): http://jjonz.us/RadioLogs/pagesnfiles/logs_files_OCR/CDT/1940s/45-49/1945/%5bc%5d45-05-14-(Mon)ocr.pdf#search='wenrrhythm' Here's a link to another page that appears to list The Thrasher Sisters as guest artists on the January 16, 1945 broadcast of "The Roy Rogers Show." http://www.otrr.org/FILES/Logs_txt/The%20Roy%20Rogers%20Show.txt Here's a link to listings for the same program (see listing for WOR (New York) at 8:30 pm): http://jjonz.us/RadioLogs/pagesnfiles/logs_files_OCR/CDT/1940s/45-49/1945/%5bc%5d45-05-14-(Mon)ocr.pdf#search='wenrrhythm' Page 321 of John Dunning's "On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio" shows The Thrasher Sisters (DeeDee, Mary, and Betty) as having been singers between 1944 and 1945 on "The Hoagy Carmichael Show." That show aired weekly on Mutual on Sundays at 8:30 (presumably PM). The May 22, 1943 issue of Billboard (viewable via Google Books) contains the following: "SOPHIE TUCKER, stricken ill in her final weeks at Beverly Hills Country Club, Newport, Ky., last week, was replaced by the Thrasher Sisters, the WLW singing kiddies turning in a swell job." The Beverly Hills Country Club was in northern Kentucky, not far from Cincinnati (Ohio). My parents have told me about having seen shows there. Northern Kentucky at the time was "wide open" at the time, at least compared to Cincinnati. As I recall from the stories, Beverly Hills Country Club offered gambling in addition to food and entertainment. There's a listing from 2007 for a property in Monterey Park, California showing Mary J. Thrasher (Co Trustee) and Thrasher Sisters (Trust) as owners. It may not be current. Note also that these Trasher Sisters should obviously not be confused with "The Four Thrasher Sisters" (mentioned under Star Circuit in the May 1923 issue of "The Lyceum Magazine" (available for viewing via Google Books).