What 78 are you spinning right now ?

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I must do something about getting some of that group's material...

MG

[Clunky]

not played 78s for a month or so. Another burst of activity, flipping them over after 2 plus minutes.

Some shellac pulled at random off the shelf

Horace Henderson- -----Minnie the Moocher's weddin' day/ I'm rhythm crazy now------( Decca) 18171. Originally part of an album

Bud Freeman & his windy city five-----What is there to say/ Keep smiling at trouble---------(Parlophone UK) Freeman is always worthy of attention

[jeffcrom]

George Lewis' 1950 session for Good Time Jazz:

Mama Don't Allow It/Willie the Weeper

Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula/Burgundy Street Blues

Recorded by the late, great Cosimo Matassa; this session sounds much better on shellac than on the CD issue, which is very brittle-sounding. The second record is particularly good; the ridiculous-sounding title "Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula" turns out to be three minutes of hot collective improvising with no solos. This is the second (of many) recorded versions of "Burgundy Street Blues," the tune that led Bunk Johnson to sarcastically refer to Lewis as "The Composer."

Edited September 16, 2014 by jeffcrom

[jeffcrom]

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.

[jeffcrom]

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.

[jeffcrom]

Spent an enjoyable 40 minutes with Coleman Hawkins today:

I Cross My Heart / Can Anyone Explain? (Roost). Ballads, with Billy Taylor, John Collins, Percy Heath, and Blakey.

Memories of You / Step On It (Manor). This is a really excellent record. From 1944, with Charlie Shavers, Ed Hall, and Oscar Pettiford, among others.

Imagination / Cattin' at Keynote (Keynote). I found out here that the master take of "Cattin'" was left off the 4-CD Hawkins Keynote set, so it's nice to have an original.

Body and Soul / Fine Dinner (RCA Victor). A 1952-54 pressing, "Re-issued by Request." It sounds magnificent.

And the four Hawkins sides from the 1946 RCA New 52nd Street Jazz album. I particularly enjoyed Mary Osborne's contributions and Allen Eager's solo on "Allen's Alley," aka "Wee."

[jeffcrom]

Howard McGhee...

... and his Boppers - Mad Hype / Rummage Bounce (Modern)

... and His Orch. - McGhee Jumps / McGhee Special (Modern)

... and His Combo - Deep Meditation / Hadda Brooks - Blues in B Flat (Modern)

... 's Korean All Stars - Man With a Horn / 12th Street Bop (Hi-Lo)

[jeffcrom]

R & B today:

Fats Domino - Nobody Loves Me/Cheatin' (Imperial)

Fats Domino - Bo Weevil/Don't Blame It On Me (Imperial)

Fats Domino - So Long/When My Dreamboat Comes Home (Imperial)

Kid King's Combo - Banana Split/Skip's Boogie (Excello)

Kid King's Combo - Chocolate Sundae/Greasy Feet (Excello)

Joe Lutcher's Jump Band - Bebop Blues/Shuffle Woogie (Capitol). Some nice solos on side two - Lutcher on alto sax and Karl George on trumpet.

[Clunky]

On the road just now but before I left I was spinning half a dozen sides by one Frank Crumit. Comical songs with guitar and occasionally small group support. Crumit seems to borrow equally from spirituals and Scottish country music.

All modestly entertaining. All HMV issues suggesting his popularity was strong enough to cross the water.

[jeffcrom]

Happy 97th birthday to the spirit of Dizzy Gillespie!

Spun this four-pocket Musicraft album, as well as:

Our Delight/He Beeped When He Should Have Bopped (Musicraft)

Salted Peanuts/Be-Bop (Manor)

I Can't Get Started/Good Bait (Columbia, reissue from Manor)

Metronome All Stars - Overtime/Victory Ball (RCA VIctor)

[paul secor]

Happy 97th birthday to the spirit of Dizzy Gillespie!

Spun this four-pocket Musicraft album, as well as:

Our Delight/He Beeped When He Should Have Bopped (Musicraft)

Salted Peanuts/Be-Bop (Manor)

I Can't Get Started/Good Bait (Columbia, reissue from Manor)

Metronome All Stars - Overtime/Victory Ball (RCA VIctor)

A good way to celebrate Diz's birthday!

[jeffcrom]

I'm still spinning 78s several times each week - sometimes almost every day. I just love the little buggers. But posting here in detail takes time, and sometimes I don't feel like it. But I don't want this thread to go dormant. So some recent highlights:

One day, all my Original Indiana Five records. They were a decent little jazz band in the twenties, and I'm up to five of their discs on various labels.

Another day was devoted to dixieland on Commodore - Eddie Condon, George Brunies, Jack Teagarden, and The DeParis brothers were the leaders. That was the day that I discovered, alas, that my 12" Commodore "At Sundown/When Day is Done" was broken. No idea how it happened.

Lots big bands - Ellington from 1926 to 1946, in particular.

I don't know why I chose today to post in detail, since I just listened to classical shellac, and classical 78s are probably the least interesting to most folks here. But these were all great (they're all 12-inchers):

Stokowski/Philadelphia Orchestra - Rimsky-Korsakov: Festival at Baghdad from Scheherazade (Victrola one-sided, 1919)

Wanda Landowska - Bach: English Suite No. 2 in A minor (two British HMVs, 1936)

Heddle Nash with the Philharmonia Chamber Orchestra/Marice Miles - Handel: Comfort Ye and Every Valley from Messiah (British HMV, 1945)

And a gorgeous record I found on Friday:

Lina Pagliughi - arias from Rigoletto and L'Elisir D'amore on a British Parlophone, from the mid 1930s, I think.

I'll post about some jazz soon.

[JSngry]

I don't know why I chose today to post in detail, since I just listened to classical shellac, and classical 78s are probably the least interesting to most folks here.

Not necessarily...I've found a blog or two that specializes in those, and it has made for pretty interesting listening at times, especially older recordings of then new(ish) works...the arc that all music and its peoples takes, sometimes in response to the music itself, sometimes in reaction to what has been done to/with the music, I think that's interesting, especially with classical music, which came to recording not just as a game already well in progress, but also in a stadium that was really just beginning to be built.

[Clunky]

Hardly touched my 78s in several months. An upgrade to my vinyl phonostage had me hooked on vinyl for this time. One unexpected benefit of this upgrade was shuffling my Moon LP3 phonostage over to use for shellac. This has totally transformed 78 playback. Everything brighter , crisper and cleaner than before. Any sense of dullness has vanish. All other equipment ie Expert tipped stylii , MM Ortofon cartridge , Lenco TT , ultra cheap graphic EQ etc. remain unchanged.

I've picked up very few jazz 78s but have acquired some nice classical , comedy and cafe orchestra sides

De Groot and the Piccadilly orchestra----Lilac domino/Pamela----( HMV) UK B903

Dating from around 1910-14, society cafe band. Domino is very bland. Pamela much better, hints of restrained gypsy music , with some modern touches , written by F. Norton. Can't find much on him or the band.

[jeffcrom]

I sense more shellac in my future this afternoon, but this morning I did a 78 RPM tribute to Buddy DeFranco:

Tommy Dorsey - Tom Foolery (RCA Victor). DeFranco doesn't solo on this trumpet feature (Charlie Shavers, it sounds like), but plays in the sax section.

Metronome All Stars - Overtime/Victory Ball (RCA Victor)

Buddy DeFranco and his Orchestra - Out of Nowhere/Dancing on the Ceiling (MGM). Bland arrangements, but DeFranco's improvising is uncompromising. He is particularly impressive on "Nowhere."

Buddy DeFranco and his Quartet (sic - a quintet) - Pennywhistle Blues/Buddy's Blues (MGM). "Pennywhistle" is kind of gimmicky, with DeFranco staying in the upper register to suggest the instrument in the title. "Buddy's Blues" is really good, with an excellent Jimmy Raney chorus.

[jeffcrom]

1920s jazz today, from the silly to the sublime, and points in between.

Lanin's Southern Serenaders - Shake It and Break It/Aunt Hagar's Children Blues (Emerson, 1921). Kind of an "important" record in early white New York jazz, with Phil Napoleon, Doc Behrendson on clarinet and Jimmy Durante (!) on piano.

Connorized Jazz Hounds - Shake It and Break It Blues/Aunt Hagar's Children's Blues (Connorized, 1921). The same tunes by the same band, recorded for a different label. Connorized Jazz Hounds = Ladd's Black Aces = Lanin's Southern Serenaders. Make sense?

Jazz-Bo's Carolina Serenaders - Hot Lips/Country Club Orchestra - Broadway Blues (Muse, 1922). The above group has now morphed into the Original Memphis Five, although under another pseudonym here. The anonymous dance band on the flip side is not bad - not jazz, but jazzy.

Clarinet Joe and his Hot-Footers - Rabbit Foot Blues/What Kind of Man is You (Harmony, 1925). Clarinet Joe is Percy Glascoe, who recorded a few times between 1924 and 1926. This is the "silly" referred to above.

Jimmy Noone's Apex Club Orchestra - Four or Five Times/Every Evening (Vocalion, 1928). With Earl Hines. This and the record below are both very worn, but I play them occasionally for the "cool" factor.

King Oliver and His Dixie Syncopators - Someday Sweetheart/Dead Man Blues (Vocalion, 1926). I love guest Johnny Dodds on "Sweetheart."

King Oliver and His Orch. - Stingaree Blues/Shake It and Break It (Bluebird, rec. 1930, issued c. 1940). This is a reissue, but it's in really nice shape - great music and great sound. Both Oliver and Red Allen solo on each side - a very cool contrast.

Edited December 30, 2014 by jeffcrom

[jeffcrom]

Dizzy Gillespie with Joe Carroll - Lady Be Good/Kenny Clarke - Klook Returns (Dee Gee)

Then all my James Moody shellac:

Lester Leaps In/Out of Nowhere (Prestige)

Embraceable You/Two Fathers (Prestige)

Workshop/Keepin' Up With Jonesy (Prestige)

Serenade in Blues/Moody's Home (Mercury)

The first two are with Swedish bands. "Two Fathers" is subtitled "James Moody vs. Lars Gullin;" it's in the "Battle of the Saxes" series. This is kind of ridiculous, because it's a mellow record on which Moody and Gulling trade choruses on tenors.

[jeffcrom]

Bessie Smith:

Beale Street Mamma/Aggravatin' Papa (Columbia "Gold Band" label)

Ticket Agent Ease Your Window Down/Pinchbacks - Take 'Em Away (Columbia "Flags" label)

One and Two Blues/Honey Man Blues (Columbia "Viva-Tonal" label)

Sweet Mistreater/Homeless Blues (Columbia "Viva-Tonal" label)

[jeffcrom]

I found a half dozen V-Discs in an album the other day. One was too warped too play, and one was broken (not easy to do - they were designed to be sturdy), but I've cleaned and played four. V-Discs were sometimes reissues of commercial recordings, but these were all made for V-Disc, with one exception noted below.

Cpl. Ziggy Lane with Orchestra - Jumping to the Jukebox b/w My Pin-Up Girl. These were from a show called "Stars and Gripes," which I'll bet had a lot of appeal to the soldiers. Lane's voice isn't bad, and "Jumping" swings pretty well, with a hot trumpet solo.

Hal McIntyre and His Orchestra - If You Please b/w Paper Doll and The Sheep in the Meadow. From a 1943 V-Disc session. I knew that McIntyre was a second-tier bandleader in the 1940s, but I don't think I had ever heard his band before. The only big name jazz sideman on board is bassist Eddie Safranski, but "The Sheep in the Meadow" is a nice swing instrumental, with good solos.

Harry James and His Orchestra - Caprice Viennois b/w Feet Draggin' Blues. The very corny "Caprice" is from a 1941Columbia session, but was not issued by them. The much better blues is from a 1942 radio broadcast.

Fats Waller - This is So Nice It Must be Illegal & Martinique b/w Waller Jive & Hallelujah. This is the most entertaining of the bunch; four one-and-a-half minute solo renditions with Waller's vocal interjections and spoken introductions. His playing is good, although not the best I've ever heard from him, but from the sound of his singing and (especially) his speaking, I suspect that he was very drunk during this session, which I believe was his final studio session.

[jeffcrom]

As usual, I've played many more 78s than I've posted about, but this new find is pretty cool:

Eddie Bo - I Cry Oh/My Heart Was Meant for You (Apollo). Eddie's first record. Or not, depending on what source you go to. But I think it was his first, from 1955. IN any case, I'm a big Eddie Bo fan, so this was a fun find.

[Clunky]

I've been spinning a fair number in recent days too.

A recent "discovery" has been the British quartet Four Bright Sparks. (1930)Not listed in Rust but a very decent quotient of jazz especially Len Fillis (guitar). All six sides I've found feature some wooden vocalists but the band swing quite well .

Other recent purchases are some nice Jack Parnell quartet sides from 1946. Supposedly in a Chicago style they sound more modern. All UK band who swing well and make some very enjoyable if not especially unique sides.

[jeffcrom]

Over the last few days, I've been spinning Caruso 78s. Record collectors really differ over the desirability of these. Some are not interested because most Caruso titles are common; there are only about 30 really rare Caruso titles. But there are also Caruso enthusiasts who will only listen to his music on the original 78s.

I've got close to 30 Carusos, and I've got to say that listening to one of his 78s, pressed from an original stamper, in good condition, on good equipment, is a glorious experience. I won't list everything I've played the past few days, but one of the most interesting is Opera Disc 76062, "Mi par d'udir Ancora" from Bizet's The Pearl Fishers, recorded in April, 1904 in Milan. Here's the story:

American Victor and European HMV were sister companies; each issued Caruso's records in different parts of the world. This aria was issued in Europe shortly after it was recorded. It was given a Victor catalog number, but never issued in the U.S., for some reason.

Cut to 1914. One of HMV's major pressing plants was in Hanover. When World War I broke out, the German government took over the plant, and the Deutsche Grammophon company was formed.

Cut to 1921. A guy named Max Hesslein formed the Opera Disc label, and started issuing imported classical recordings in the U.S. He leased his material from DG, which had masters of all of Caruso's pre-war HMV recordings at its Hanover plant. So the Opera Disc "Mi par d'udir Ancora" was the first U.S. issue.

The Opera Discs pressed in Hanover sounded excellent - better than American Victors, according to many collectors. The problem was that Hesslein didn't pay Victor, HMV, or Caruso, so his products were bootlegs, even if they were high-quality bootlegs pressed from original stampers. By 1923 Victor had shut down Opera Discs through legal action.

But now the Opera Discs are prized by collectors. I have a couple, but I especially like this one, which is in excellent shape. I couldn't find a picture of 76062 online, but the label looks like the one above.

Edited January 26, 2015 by jeffcrom

[jeffcrom]

I found a dealer today who had a large number of 1950s blues and R & B 78s. He kind of knew what he had, but his pricing was all over the place; he had lots of records priced way over market value, but there were also some which were priced surprisingly low. I ended up making a deal for a dozen of them, all in strikingly good condition, and all underpriced to some extent. I've cleaned and played half of them:

Sonny Boy Williamson - Let Me Explain / Your Imagination (Checker)

Jimmy Reed - I Don't Go for That / She Don't Want Me No More (Vee-Jay)

Billy Boy [Arnold] - I Ain't Got You / Don't Stay Out All Night (Vee-Jay)

Billy Boy - I Wish You Would / I Was Fooled (Vee-Jay)

Jimmy Rogers - Walking By Myself / If It Ain't Me (Chess). Big Walter Horton's solo on "Walking" has long been one of my favorite blues harp solos.

And the gem of the bunch:

Elmore James - I Believe My Time Ain't Long / I Wish I Was A Catfish (Ace). This was Elmore's first recording (side one, anyway), leased from Trumpet, who called it "Dust My Broom," of course. He never made a follow-up side for Trumpet, so side two is actually by Bobo "Slim" Thomas, another bluesman who only made one successful side for Trumpet. In any case, this record sounds glorious, to use the same word twice in two weeks to describe 78s.

[jeffcrom]

I'm spinning a 78 that I've never been able to play previously - Ford Dabney's Band on a 12" vertically-cut Aeolian Vocalion from 1919: Feist's All-Hit Medley/Mr. Sousa's Yankee Band. My new turntable has a switch which enables playing vertical 78s. Dabney was one of those interesting pre-jazz New York bandleaders in the same circle as James Reese Europe.

[jeffcrom]

Duke Ellington - Black, Brown and Beige (Victor 12"). I've mentioned this set before, but, wow, this two-disc album sounds really good on the new rig.