What 78 are you spinning right now ?

[paul secor]

1 hour ago, jeffcrom said:

Inspired by the North Carolina gospel I was just spinning, I decided to move on the Devil's music and play my handful of Piedmont style blues 78s. Condition varies from V- to V++.

Blind Boy Fuller - Truckin' My Blues Away / Babe You Got to Do Better (Conqueror)
Blind Boy Fuller - Little Woman You're So Sweet / Step It Up and Go (Okeh)
Brownie McGhee (Blind Boy Fuller #2 ) - Step It Up and Go #2 / Workingman's Blues (Okeh)
Sonny Terry - Lost John / Fox Chase (Library of Congress)
Buddy Moss - Someday Baby (I'll Have Mine) / Shake It All Night Long (Conqueror)

Sonny Terry is on McGhee's "Workingman's Blues"; George Washington, aka Bull City Red, aka Oh Red, plays washboard on Fuller's "Step it Up" and both sides of the McGhee record. The Buddy Moss disc is one of the "best" 78s I own, in terms of musical value and rarity.

I think I've mentioned this before - the Fuller Okeh disc is in pretty nice condition, except that "Jim," the original owner, carved his name into the grooves of "Step It Up and Go!" Amazingly, it plays through with no skips, but that section gets kind of noisy.

Keep spinning 'em, Jeff. I can't hear what you're playing, except in my imagination, but that works out pretty well.

Edited July 30, 2016 by paul secor

[JSngry]

On ‎7‎/‎30‎/‎2016 at 7:31 PM, jeffcrom said:

 I think I've mentioned this before - the Fuller Okeh disc is in pretty nice condition, except that "Jim," the original owner, carved his name into the grooves of "Step It Up and Go!" Amazingly, it plays through with no skips, but that section gets kind of noisy.

 

 

Hey, she was telling me put your name on it so I left no doubt.

[jeffcrom]

American Music tonight. God bless Bill Russell.

Bunk Johnson - Tiger Rag/See See Rider (12" vinyl); AM V-251 - the first American Music release. Russell chose the catalog number based on Bunk's street address in New Iberia, LA.
Bunk Johnson - Careless Love/Weary Blues (12" vinyl)

Bunk's Brass Band - Didn't He Ramble/You Tell Me Your Dream. What a great record. "Didn't He Ramble" speaks to me about where jazz comes from - it's a 6/8 march with everyone improvising. Not jazz yet, but you can hear it around the corner. It sounds like Kid Shots Madison is playing first trumpet on "Dream," with Bunk on second. Shots only recorded three times, once in the 1920s and twice in the 1940s for Russell.

Charles Thompson - The Lily/Derby Stomp
Charles Thompson - Delmar Rag/Lingering Blues. Russell's preferred takes by the great St. Louis ragtime pianist were lost by the studio, so he remade them for these 78s. The originals turned up later, and were reissued on CD, which means that these takes are 78-only.

Wooden Joe Nicholas - Holler Blues/Creole Song. I've never quite figured out this record. "Creole Song" is the original take, for sure. This "Holler Blues" has never been reissued - although an American Music CD claims to include this take, it's a different one. This could be an error pressing - Wooden Joe leaves out a measure in one of the choruses.

 

[jeffcrom]

A Pete Fountain memorial 78 session. .These are all on Mercury, from 1950 or 1951.

Basin Street Six - Everybody Loves that Hadacol / Those Same Sweet Words

Santo Pecora - March of the Mardi Gras / My Lou'siana

Santo Pecora - Mahogany Hall Stomp / Listen

And for good measure, one Santo Pecora with Tony Costa on clarinet: Basin Street Blues / 12th Street Rag.

Edited August 15, 2016 by jeffcrom

[jeffcrom]

All three of Lennie Tristano's Capitol 78s. I found Wow / Crosscurrent and Marionette / Sax of a Kind in the wild, on opposites sides of the US. Intuition / Yesterdays, which is the hardest to find, arrived in the mail yesterday from an Ebay vendor. "Digression" never appeared on a 78.

Great music in great sound - I really enjoyed listening to it in the original format.

 

[Big Beat Steve]

Lucky you!

Keep on ...

 

[Clunky]

On 25 April 2016 at 3:41 PM, Clunky said:

Unfortunately we had to cancel going. Family illness prevented us going so going to be rescheduled probably for May. I'll keep the 78s I'd chosen aside as the choices still stand. 

Made the trip yesterday with my little portable TT plus around a dozen shellacs. Humphrey Littleton was particularly enjoyed as were some 1940s piano pieces by English pianist Myra Hess .

[paul secor]

2 hours ago, Clunky said:

Made the trip yesterday with my little portable TT plus around a dozen shellacs. Humphrey Littleton was particularly enjoyed as were some 1940s piano pieces by English pianist Myra Hess .

You're a truly good person.

[jeffcrom]

Buncha stuff for a couple of weeks now. Today: Alexander Borowsky playing Liszt, Art Tatum on ARA, and a bunch of early country. Among the later the highlight was Muskrat Rag/Poca River Blues by (Dick) Jarvis (guitar) and (Reese) Jarvis (fiddle). A couple of years ago I was invited to play some of my Irish 78s on the Celtic music show on an Atlanta radio station. I played this one at the end to show how American country music developed ouf of the of reels and ballads from the British Isles and African-American music. "Muskrat Rag" is actually the traditional Irish tune "Miss McLeod's Reel."

[jeffcrom]

Schubert - Trio No. 1 in B Flat, op. 99, played by Jacques Thibaud, Pablo Casals, and Alfred Cortot. An early Victor electric album, recorded in London in 1926. I've listened to this four-disc album frequently since I found it in an antique store in Michigan about ten years ago, but it has never before spoken to me like it did tonight.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

 

******have you guys been followin this on ebay, its really interesting, maybe some of you jazz ppl know FANIA, well this came out in 1967:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jeffcrom]

Oscar "Papa" Celestin's Tuxedo Jazz Band in the 1940s and 1950s:

High Society / When the Saints Go Marching In (New Orleans Bandstand)

My Josephine / Hey La Bas (Regal)
Marie Laveau / Maryland My Maryland (Regal)

Tiger Rag / Darktown Strutters Ball (Columbia)

This is not the most profound manifestation of New Orleans jazz, but it's still moving to me to hear some of the earliest jazz pioneers, like Celestin and Alphonse Picou, play with joyful abandon near the ends of their careers and lives. And these recordings are about 37 to 43 years into the longest-running jazz band in the music's history. Founded in 1910, the Tuxedo is still playing in New Orleans, and they are only on their fifth leader - Gerald French, the grandson of the Albert "Papa" French, the third leader, who plays banjo and guitar on the Columbia disc.
 

[jeffcrom]

After early jazz earlier today, it was Alec Wilder 78 night tonight. I didn't play any non-Wilder B sides. Several of the pop performances were studies in how not to sing Wilder - his songs are melodically subtle, and require sensitivity, not over-singing. Johnny Ray ran roughshod over "Give Me Time," which Mildred Bailey sang so beautifully. Tony Bennett and Rosemary Clooney did better.

Peggy Lee - While We're Young (Capitol)
Tony Bennett - While We're Young (Columbia)
Teresa Brewer - Goodbye, John (Coral)
Mills Brothers - I'll Be Around (Decca)
Mitch Miller Ensemble - Serenade for Horns/Horn Belt Boogie (Columbia promo) The four horns are John Barrows, Jim Buffington, Ray Alonge, and Gunther Schuller. Not bad!
Johnny Ray - Give Me Time (Columbia)
Rosemary Clooney - Love Among the Young (Columbia)
Frank Parker - Parker's Lament (Columbia)
Alec Wilder Octet - A Debutante's Diary/Neurotic Goldfish (Brunswick)

[jeffcrom]

  

Ten years worth of Ellinngton - 50 minutes of music, starting with "Move Over" on Cameo from 1928 and ending with "New East St. Louis Toodle-O" on Brunswick from 1937.

I've said stuff like this before, but it's a really different experience hearing this music as a series of singles, as originally issued.

 

Edited September 18, 2016 by jeffcrom

[jeffcrom]

I started collecting 78s too late to have a huge, comprehensive, breathtaking collection - and that's not what I want, anyway. But one goal is to have representative samples of important early jazz (and blues and country) artists on the original labels. I had been wanting some of the Okeh records of Clarence Williams' Blue Five with Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet, and today two reasonably-priced examples (from different sources) arrived in the mail. Armstrong and Bechet do not appear together, unfortunately - "Everybody Loves My Baby / Of All the Wrongs You've done to Me" has Louis but not Sidney, and Sara Martin's "Atlanta Blues / Blind Man Blues" (acc. by the Blue Five) has Sidney but not Louis. But that's okay - Martin's "Atlanta Blues" has long been one of my favorite early jazz recordings, and I'm tickled to have it in decent shape in its original form.

[Clunky]

On 18 September 2016 at 1:37 AM, jeffcrom said:

  

 

Ten years worth of Ellinngton - 50 minutes of music, starting with "Move Over" on Cameo from 1928 and ending with "New East St. Louis Toodle-O" on Brunswick from 1937.

I've said stuff like this before, but it's a really different experience hearing this music as a series of singles, as originally issued.

 

Nice, I've a few Cameo sides , all by the Varsity Eight and none sound too great despite being in decent condition. 

 

 

[paul secor]

Just want to mention that I appreciate Clunky and Jeff posting their 78 listening. I find it fascinating, even though I don't have anything to play 78s on.

Thanks, guys!

[jeffcrom]

Last night was piano night:

Teddy Weatherford on Swing (France) and Columiba (India);

Mary Lou Williams on Decca, Continental, RCA Victor, and King.

[Clunky]

Jack Hylton-----St Louis Blues/ Hylton Stomp -------(Decca UK) F3239

 

Big band leader Hylton had a number of jazz oriented releases. I suspect he didn't have that much jazz in is soul but relied on 'hot' players to add some hot solos to otherwise routine big band arrangements. The two sides above seem a bit different- hot all the way through with some great solos. Rust lists only brass bass but I hear only string bass slapped a lot!

[Clunky]

On 18 October 2016 at 7:26 PM, Clunky said:

Jack Hylton-----St Louis Blues/ Hylton Stomp -------(Decca UK) F3239

 

Big band leader Hylton had a number of jazz oriented releases. I suspect he didn't have that much jazz in is soul but relied on 'hot' players to add some hot solos to otherwise routine big band arrangements. The two sides above seem a bit different- hot all the way through with some great solos. Rust lists only brass bass but I hear only string bass slapped a lot!

I read elsewhere that string bass is none other than polymath Spike Hughes.

[Clunky]

More Jack Hylton. This time his Kit-Cat band . Confusingly filed under K for Kit Cat rather than H for Hylton in Rust. 

From August 1925. Two jazz sides with JRM's the clear winner. Joys is played slightly faster than NORK version from just 2 years earlier in July 1923. Perhaps not too astonishing given the warm London welcome given to ODJB a few years earlier but jone the less it strikes me as pretty incredible that Hylton should be recording this Morton composition in 1925.  Looking at Rust the July 1923 date by NORK was released only on Gennett at that time - meaning no UK  or European edition. The jazz message clearly spread fast.j

 

Jack Hylton's Kit-Cat band ---------Milenburg Joys/ My sugar------(HMV B2101) UK London August 1925

Edited October 20, 2016 by Clunky

[Clunky]

Nat Gonella------Jeepers Creepers/ Just a kid named Joe----------(Odeon Fr) rec. 20 th January 1939 in NYC

 

Allstar line up ( just about) including Buster Bailey, Benny Carter and Billy Kyle. Recorded just two days after Satchmo's version of Jeepers Creepers (Decca).   Gonella recorded just two further titles under his own name before heading back to London. I wonder which version of the song was the first to be released.? Gonella's version with Bailey's extraordinary clarinet certainly is easily as good as Armstong's , perhaps even swingers harder. 

[Clunky]

On 10/19/2016 at 6:37 PM, Clunky said:

I read elsewhere that string bass is none other than polymath Spike Hughes.

Spike Hughes best remembered (if at all) for his jazz career swan song - 14 sides recorded in NYC in April/May 1933. These excellent sides featured among others Benny Carter, Dicky Wells, Hawk, Wilbur De Paris and Big Sid Catlett. These have been reissued on LP and CD and well worth hearing. Equally good are his London recordings from 1930-1932. These haven't seen comprehensive reissue but figure among my favourite pre-war British jazz.  The earlier 1930 sides seem to be rarer and therefore more expensive. I have 16 records from his British Decca output and there isn't a dud amongst them. 

 

Philip Buchel with Spike Hughes and his three blind mice------------Happy Feet/ You know what I'll do-----------(Decca UK) F 1856. July 5th 1930

 

I can't find a sample of this one but the link below is Happy Feet recorded under Spike's leadership with a larger band a few days earlier . Norman Payne is the trumpeter of note on both versions and plays not unlike Bix ( to my ears). 

Happy Feet ( @3mins)

[jeffcrom]

Spent the afternoon hunting 78s, with a surprising level of success. I decided to start with the bop / modern sides:

Charlie Parker - Billie's Bounce/Now's the Time (Savoy)
Charlie Parker - Warming Up a Riff/Thriving On a Riff (Savoy). The second side, aka "Anthropology," is credited to The Be Bop Boys, not Parker - something I would never have known without seeing the original 78. "Warming Up a Riff" seems particularly magical on 78 - an amazing studio jam that wasn't supposed to be recorded.
Charlie Parker - Klaunstance/Stan Getz - Slow (Savoy)
Little Jimmy Scott - I'll Be Seeing You/I Won't Cry Anymore (Roost)

 

[Clunky]

10 hours ago, jeffcrom said:

Spent the afternoon hunting 78s, with a surprising level of success. I decided to start with the bop / modern sides:

Charlie Parker - Billie's Bounce/Now's the Time (Savoy)
Charlie Parker - Warming Up a Riff/Thriving On a Riff (Savoy). The second side, aka "Anthropology," is credited to The Be Bop Boys, not Parker - something I would never have known without seeing the original 78. "Warming Up a Riff" seems particularly magical on 78 - an amazing studio jam that wasn't supposed to be recorded.
Charlie Parker - Klaunstance/Stan Getz - Slow (Savoy)
Little Jimmy Scott - I'll Be Seeing You/I Won't Cry Anymore (Roost)

 

Great haul