A celebration of the best popular music of the 20th century
Thursday, August 29, 2024
Thursday, January 30, 2020
Mary Lou Williams: Night Life
Mary Lou Williams is probably the most
important female African-American jazz pianist. Williams was also a fine
songwriter and arranger and she worked with major figures in jazz including
Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington. Williams was born Mary Scruggs in Atlanta , Georgia ,
in 1910.
Williams played with Duke Ellington’s band,
The Washingtonians, in 1925. By the late Twenties she was pianist in the Andy
Kirk’s band, “The Twelve Clouds of Joy.” While with Kirk, Williams supplied the
band with the songs, “Cloudy,” and “Little Joe from Chicago .” Williams made her first recordings
with Kirk in 1929/30 and recorded the piano solo sides, “Drag ‘Em” and “Night
Life.” These solo sides would see Williams become a national name and brought
her to the attention of Benny Goodman, Earl Hines, and Tommy Dorsey who all
hired her as an arranger.
Williams became involved in the bebop
movement of the Forties and wound up as a mentor of sorts for the likes of
Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.
In the Sixties, Williams began recording
religious jazz music, and she continued recording prolifically until her death
in 1981.
Williams best recordings can be heard on
the following albums: “Mary Lou Williams Trio” (1944), “Signs of the Zodiac”
(1945), “Piano Solos” (1946), “Black Christ of the Andes” (1964), “Zoning”
(1974), “Mary Lou’s Mass” (1975), “The Chronological Classics: Mary Lou
Williams 1927-1940” (1995), “The Chronological Classics: Mary Lou Williams
1944-1945” (1998) and The Chronological Classics: Mary Lou Williams 1945-1947”
(1999).
Friday, January 17, 2020
Dizzy Gillespie: Salt Peanuts
The great
jazz trumpeter, Dizzy Gillespie, was one of the musicians at the forefront of
the development of be-bop music in the Fifties. Gillespie was born John Birkes
Gillespie in Cheraw, South Carolina, in 1917. Gillespie earned the moniker,
“Dizzy,” for his ebullient personality and antics while performing.
After
hearing the great Roy Eldridge on the radio as a child, Gillespie decide then
and there that he, too, wanted to be a jazz trumpeter. Gillespie got his start
in New York City, in 1935, playing in the bands of Teddy Hill and Edgar Hayes.
It was with the Teddy Hill Orchestra that Gillespie would make his first
recording, “King Porter Stomp.” Gillespie stayed with Hill for one year and
then freelanced with several bands for a while before finally winding up in Cab
Callaway’s Orchestra in 1939. Calloway would fire Gillespie three years later
following an altercation between the two men.
In 1943, Gillespie
would join Earl Hines band which featured Charlie Parker and was beginning to create
a new music which would become bebop. From there, it was on to the Billie
Ekstine band, which also featured Parker. He would later leave the Ekstine band
because he wanted to play in a smaller ensemble.
In the
mid-Forties, Gillespie, Parker and other jazz musicians such as Max Roach, Bud
Powell, Thelonious Monk, and Kenny Clark would meet at clubs such as Minton’s
Playhouse and Monroe’s Uptown to jam and experiment. It was at these jams that
bebop was born.
Gillespie
would become a member of the “Quintet,” the legendary be-bop supergroup formed
in Toronto in 1953, with Parker, Powell, Charles Mingus and Max Roach.
Following his one-show tenure with the Quintet, Gillespie would form his own
Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra.
Among the
best of the classic sides that Gillespie recorded in the Forties and Fifties
are: “A Night in Tunisia,” “Salt Peanuts,” “Hot House,” “Manteca,” “Perdido,”
and “Night and Day.”
Gillespie’s
best albums begin with the Quintet. His “Salt Peanuts” from the album “Live at
Massey Hall” is perhaps the best moment of many brilliant moments on that live
recording of the Quintet’s only show. Other fine Gillespie albums include,
“Dizzy In Paris” (1953), “For Musicians Only” (1958), ”Gillespiana” (1960),
“Groovin’ High” (1953).
After Gillespie
had had his fill of bebop, he became interested in Afro-Cuban music. Gillespie
died in 1993.
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Skip James: Im So Glad
Nehemiah Curtis James was born near Yazoo
City, Mississippi, in 1902. James was raised just south of the Mississippi
Delta near Bentonia, on the Whitehead plantation, where his mother was the
plantation cook. James’s friends named him “Skippy” due to his peculiar style
of dancing. Skip’s father, a guitar-playing bootlegger, abandoned his family
when Skip was a young boy.
In 1931, after years of work as a laborer,
bootlegger, and sometimes musician, James entered a singing competition at a
store in Jackson, Mississippi. James had just begun to play his song, “Devil
Got My Woman,” when he was awarded the prize-a train ticket to Grafton,
Wisconsin, and a recording session with Paramount Records.
Paramount was famous for the poor quality
of its recordings, and sadly, many fine performances were poorly recorded by
the label, including those by James. James recorded several songs with guitar during
his first session, and eight piano songs during the second session. James
recalls recording 26 sides in all, though only 18 have been found. Among the
classic recordings he made at those sessions were, “Devil Got My Woman,” “I’m
So Glad,” “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues,” “22-20 Blues,” and “Special Rider Blues.”
James was only paid 40 dollars for his efforts, and as the recordings were made during the height of the depression, only a few sides were ever released. Disillusioned with the music business, James quit and turned to religion. Little is known about his life during the 33 years between his Paramount recordings and his rediscovery in the mid-Sixties.
James was only paid 40 dollars for his efforts, and as the recordings were made during the height of the depression, only a few sides were ever released. Disillusioned with the music business, James quit and turned to religion. Little is known about his life during the 33 years between his Paramount recordings and his rediscovery in the mid-Sixties.
James played his first show in 33 years at
the 1964 Newport Folk Festival. His performance was a brilliant one and it
seemed that his powers were still completely intact despite his long lay off.
Many believed that James performance at the festival topped all others who
appeared.
Despite his huge popularity at Newport,
James did not have a recording deal. When Cream recorded “I'm So Glad” on their
Fresh Cream album, James, now ailing, used his royalties to get into a good
hospital in Washington, DC, where he could have the surgery that extended his
life by three years.
James recorded the excellent albums, “Today!”
(1966) and “Devil Got My Woman” (1968). James died in 1969, in Philadelphia.
Sunday, December 22, 2019
Booker T and the M.G.’s: Green Onions
Booker T
and the M.G.’s was the house band for Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, and
as such they appeared on virtually every single that Stax released during its
heyday in the Sixties and early Seventies. The band can be heard backing Stax’s
star vocalists on recordings by Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, William Bell, Eddie
Floyd, Carla Thomas and others.
The band
consisted of Booker T. Jones on organ/piano; Steve Cropper on guitar; Donald
“Duck” Dunn on bass; and Al Jackson on drums. This versatile and talented ensemble
was equally comfortable providing accompaniment for blues or ballads, rock, or R&B.
In addition to providing Stax singers with a backing band, they released
instrumental singles under their own name including “Groovin,” Hip Hug Her,”
“Time is Tight,” and their biggest hit, “Green Onions.”
With the
addition of the Memphis horns, the band also recorded instrumental tracks as
the “Mar-Keys.”
In the
early Eighties, the surviving members of the band, Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn
were members of Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi’s Blues Brothers band and were
featured in the movie, “The Blues Brothers.” They returned with Ackroyd in
“Blues Brothers 2000.”
The band
recorded several fine studio albums in the Sixties including “Green Onions”
(1962), “Soul Dressing” (1965) and “Hip Hug Her” (1967), but “The Best of
Booker T and the M.G.’s” (1968) may be all you require.
Thursday, December 19, 2019
W.C. Handy The Father of the Blues
William
Christopher Handy will forever be remembered as “The Father of the Blues.” It
was Handy who was most responsible for taking this regional folk music of the
American South and turning it into another form of popular American music.
Handy
was working as a popular minstrel bandleader when he heard blues music for the
first time while stopping over in the Mississippi Delta. Handy would eventually
write the first popular blues songs, “Memphis Blues,” ”St. Louis Blues,” Yellow
Dog Blues,” and “Hesitating Blues.”
Handy
was born in Florence, Alabama, in 1873. His father was pastor of a church in a
nearby town. Handy’s upbringing was strict and his pious father viewed secular
music and anything associated with it as instruments of the devil. It was with
much secrecy then, that young W.C. Handy purchased his first instrument, a
guitar. When his father found the guitar, Handy was instructed to return it.
Handy moved on to organ and eventually acquired a cornet, the instrument with
which he would be forever associated.
Handy
joined a local band as a cornetist during his teens-a fact that he kept hidden
from his parents. During the 1890s Handy traveled around Alabama in various
bands playing the minstrel music that was popular at the time and working odd
jobs to make ends meet. He eventually became the leader of the Mahara’s Colored
Minstrels and toured The South with that band for three years.
From
1900-1902, Handy was recruited as a music teacher at the Alabama Agricultural
and Mechanical College for Negroes. Handy’s frustration with the college’s emphasis
on European classical music and apparent lack of appreciation for American
styles led to his resignation from his post.
Handy
quickly rejoined his old band and set off on the road again. It was while on
tour with the band in the Mississippi Delta that Handy heard the blues, a music
that he described at the time as “the weirdest music I had ever heard.” Handy
studied the blues as played by locals during subsequent visits to the
Mississippi Delta, and by the time Handy and his band had relocated to Memphis,
Tennessee, in 1909, the blues was part of his repertoire. Handy wrote what is
often coined as the first blues song, “Memphis Blues,” as a theme song for a
Memphis mayoral candidate, Edward Crump. The song was originally titled, “Mr.
Crump.”
Handy
wrote subsequent songs with “blues” in the title such as “Beale Street Blues”
and “St. Louis Blues” and became one of the first African-Americans to become
wealthy by publishing songs. Handy moved his publishing business to New York
City, in 1917, and set up offices in Times Square.
In
early 1917, The Original Dixieland Jazz Band had made the first jazz recording
with a side titled, “Livery Stable Blues.” Handy organized a band called Handy’s
Orchestra of Memphis to make his own recordings for Columbia. The resulting
sides contained music that was closer to blues than that which was recorded by
jazz bands. Handy was not enamored with this new music, jazz, and tried to
stick to tradition.
Handy
recorded for various labels from 1917 to 1924 and recorded versions of his own
songs, “Memphis Blues,” “Yellow Dog Blues,” and “St. Louis Blues,” among
others. Handy’s renditions of these classic tunes are not considered as
classics of the era, but they are of tremendous historical rather than
aesthetic interest.
Among
the limited compilation albums that may be found on Handy’s recordings are “Father
of the Blues” (1980) and “Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: A Musical Journey”
(2003).
Tuesday, December 17, 2019
Scott Joplin: Maple Leaf Rag
Scott Joplin, born in Linden, Texas, in
1867, was a pianist and the most popular artist of ragtime music, the forerunner
of jazz. Only Joseph Lamb, among ragtime performers, could rival Joplin’s
omnipotence. At the height of ragtime’s popularity, print was the only medium
for mass distribution of music, and ragtime compositions proved very popular
among amateur musicians. “Maple Leaf Rag,” first published in 1899, sold over
seven million copies and remains Joplin’s most popular work.
As player pianos became widely available in the early 1900s, piano rolls became another way of distributing ragtime music. Piano rolls, which were fed into the player piano, triggered the motion of the piano keys, allowed a performance to be accurately reproduced on any player piano at any time. Joplin made a number of piano rolls in 1916 with the selections, “Maple Leaf Rag,” “Magnetic Rag,” “Pleasant Moments,” “Something Doing,” and “Weeping Willow Rag.” Through these piano rolls, it is possible to hear the music just as Joplin played it at the time they were produced.
Joplin considered himself a classical composer, and sought to elevate ragtime to the status of a respectable art form. Fortunately, pianists such as Jelly Roll Morton and James P. Johnson would pull it back by improvising variations that defied Joplin’s limitations for the music. This improvisation ultimately led to the creation of jazz.
As player pianos became widely available in the early 1900s, piano rolls became another way of distributing ragtime music. Piano rolls, which were fed into the player piano, triggered the motion of the piano keys, allowed a performance to be accurately reproduced on any player piano at any time. Joplin made a number of piano rolls in 1916 with the selections, “Maple Leaf Rag,” “Magnetic Rag,” “Pleasant Moments,” “Something Doing,” and “Weeping Willow Rag.” Through these piano rolls, it is possible to hear the music just as Joplin played it at the time they were produced.
Joplin considered himself a classical composer, and sought to elevate ragtime to the status of a respectable art form. Fortunately, pianists such as Jelly Roll Morton and James P. Johnson would pull it back by improvising variations that defied Joplin’s limitations for the music. This improvisation ultimately led to the creation of jazz.
Joplin died in 1917, just as jazz was first
being recorded and beginning its infiltration of the American mainland.
Joplin’s music can be heard on several
compilations of piano roll recordings.
Monday, December 16, 2019
Captain Beefheart: Mirror Man
Captain
Beefheat, also know as Don Van Vliet, was one of the strangest artists in the
history of rock music. His music might be off-putting for those whose tastes
are limited to the mainstream, but for the initiated, his quirky and often
downright bizarre music is a source of infinite amusement. Beefheart has been
critically-praised for decades for his highly original music which incorporates
rock, blues, and avant-garde jazz. Beefheart was always supported on recordings
by various versions of his “Magic Band.”
Born Don
Glen Vliet, Beefheart started out with childhood friend Frank Zappa in local
groups such as The Omens and The Blackouts. Around this time he added “Van” to
his name and was thus named Don Van Vliet. His colorful moniker, “Captain
Beefheart,” came from Zappa who observed that he sang as if he had a “beef in
his heart.”
In 1965,
the first Magic Band was formed. They played blues and R&B, both covers
& original material, and scored a contract with A&M Records with whom
they released two singles. The first, “Diddy Wah Diddy,” became a minor hit,
but the label discarded them anyway.
In 1967,
Beefheart and the Magic Band landed a contract with Buddah Records and recorded
their brilliant debut, “Safe as Milk” (1967). The album was rooted in blues and
R&B, and while containing moments of slight weirdness like the track,
“Electricity,” the sound of the band was still palatable to mainstream
listeners.
This
changed with the release of the great and sometimes controversial, “Trout Mask
Replica” (1969), Beefheart’s masterpiece. It is one of the strangest recordings
in the history of popular music. The music is a synthesis of pure avant-garde
jazz and rock almost devoid of melody and harmony, featuring songs not so much
sung, as croaked by Beefheart, whose voice, at the best of times, could be
described as grating. As such, the album is unlistenable for mainstream music
fans, but it is over-flowing with creativity and humour.
Beefheart
would continue to release albums for the next 15 years which followed in a
similar vein. The best of Beefheart’s post-Sixties work is: “Lick My Decals
Off, Baby” (1970), “Mirror Man” (1971), “Clear Spot” (1972), “Shiny Beast (Bat
Chain Puller)” (1978), and “Doc at the Radar Station” (1980).
Beefheart,
one of the true originals of rock music, died in 2010.
Monday, December 2, 2019
Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers
Drummer Art
Blakey and his band, The Jazz Messengers, are the pioneers of a jazz sub-genre
called “hard bop”. Hard bop takes the fundamentals of be-bop and adds elements
of rhythm and blues. The idea behind hard bop was to make be-bop music more
danceable and perhaps, more palatable to mainstream music fans.
Art
Blakey was born in Pittsburgh ,
Pennsylvania , in 1919, and by the
Fifties, his virtuosic and incessant drumming would put him at the forefront of
the be-bop genre along with Dizzy Gilliespie, Thelonious Monk and others.
In 1954,
he formed the band, The Jazz Messengers, which became a training ground for up
and coming young jazz musicians. New
Orleans trumpet prodigy Wynton Marsalis would get his
professional start as a member of the band. Among the best of the Art Blakey
and The Jazz Messengers albums are “A Night at Birdland” (Volumes 1-3) (1954), “The
Jazz Messengers” (1956), “A Night in Tunisia” (1957), “Drum Suite” (1957), “Art
Blakey’s Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk” (1958), “Ritual” (1959),
“Moanin’”(1959), “The Big Beat”
(1960), “Mosaic” (1961) “Free for All,”
“A Night in Tunisia” (1961), and “Indestructible” (1965).
Monday, November 18, 2019
Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Singer
Ella
Fitzgerald is among the finest female singers in the history of jazz music. She
was the first female singer to make use of scat singing, a wordless form of
vocalization which Louis Armstrong had introduced with his Hot Five recordings in
the Twenties.
Fitzgerald
was born in Newport News, Virginia, in 1918. She got her first big break when a
friend recommended her to New York bandleader, Chick Webb. Webb was reluctant
to hire Fitzgerald due to her appearance, which he considered homely. However,
he relented and hired her and Fitzgerald became a big hit in the role of
vocalist. She recorded her first single, “Love and Kisses,” with Webb, in 1935.
Several more singles followed until she scored a massive hit with the song, “A
Tisket, A Tasket,” in 1938 with the Webb Orchestra. That song would turn her
into a star.
After
Webb’s death in 1939, his band was renamed “Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous
Orchestra”, with Ella taking the role of bandleader until the band finally
broke up in 1942.
In the Fifties,
Fitzgerald started to record her own full-length solo albums, among them, several
classics which are highly-recommended such as, “Ella Sings Gershwin” (1950),
“Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook” (1956), “Ella Fitzgerald Sings
the Rogers and Hart Song Book” (1956), “Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin
Song Book” (1958), and “Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song
Book” (1959).
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Dorsey Brothers Orchestra
Both
Dorsey Brothers were major figures in the development of jazz music and
especially, swing. Tommy Dorsey is the man who gave a young Frank Sinatra’s
burgeoning career a major boost.
Thomas
Francis Dorsey Jr. was born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, in 1905. He was the
younger brother of Jimmy Dorsey, who was born in Shenandoah the previous year.
Both brothers would become huge big band music stars. Both boys studied music
as children, with Jimmy playing saxophone, trumpet and clarinet, while Tommy
concentrated on trombone. At Jimmy's
recommendation, 15-year-old Tommy replaced Russ Morgan in the Scranton Sirens.
The
brothers worked with many bands during the Twenties including a stint with the
Paul Whiteman Orchestra, before recording their first side “Coquette,” on the Okeh
label in 1928. They were signed to Decca Records in 1934, and enjoyed a major
hit with “I Believe in Miracles.”
Conflict between the brothers, which at times escalated to fistfights, resulted in Tommy dissolving the partnership and forming his own orchestra in 1935. Teaming up with former members of the Joe Haymes Orchestra, he signed with RCA/Victor in 1935 and released the first in a string of major hits, “On Treasure Island.”
In 1940, Tommy Dorsey acquired Frank Sinatra from The Harry James Orchestra, resulting in more hits and the establishment of Sinatra as a star.
During the Forties, Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra featured some of the best musicians in swing such as Bunny Berigan and Gene Kroupa. Jimmy Dorsey dissolved his own band in 1953, and joined Tommy’s band, with the two becoming “The Dorsey Brothers” once more.
In 1956, Tommy Dorsey died of choking. His former orchestra has continued into the 21st century, with Jimmy Dorsey taking charge until his death, in 1957.
Conflict between the brothers, which at times escalated to fistfights, resulted in Tommy dissolving the partnership and forming his own orchestra in 1935. Teaming up with former members of the Joe Haymes Orchestra, he signed with RCA/Victor in 1935 and released the first in a string of major hits, “On Treasure Island.”
In 1940, Tommy Dorsey acquired Frank Sinatra from The Harry James Orchestra, resulting in more hits and the establishment of Sinatra as a star.
During the Forties, Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra featured some of the best musicians in swing such as Bunny Berigan and Gene Kroupa. Jimmy Dorsey dissolved his own band in 1953, and joined Tommy’s band, with the two becoming “The Dorsey Brothers” once more.
In 1956, Tommy Dorsey died of choking. His former orchestra has continued into the 21st century, with Jimmy Dorsey taking charge until his death, in 1957.
Compilations
of the Dorsey Brothers recordings and those of the bands of Tommy and Jimmy
Dorsey are easily found.
Sunday, October 27, 2019
the Allman Brothers: Ramblin' Man
Southern rock and blues rock legends the Allman Brothers were formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1969. The band was named after brothers Greg and Duane Allman, the band’s lead singer and lead guitarist, respectively. The Allman Brothers are perhaps the quintessential example of “Southern Rock.” Southern rock bands such as the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynard, and the Marshall Tucker Band all hailed from below the Mason-Dixon Line and infused their hard rock with elements of the blues and country music and often expressed the conservative or “redneck” outlooks.
The Allman Brothers were perhaps the most blues-influenced of southern rock bands. Their first two albums, “The Allman Brothers Band” (1968) and “Idlewild South” (1970) contained several blues cover tunes each. The ragged, soulful voice of Greg Allman and bluesy slide guitar of Duane Allman and Dickie Betts enabled the band to produce some of the best blues rock of the era.
The Allman Brothers Band was a tremendous live act, and live performances allowed the band’s instrumental highlight, Duane Allman to display his prodigious slide guitar technique. Two of the band’s finest albums, “Live at the Fillmore East” (1971) and “Eat a Peach” (1972) are live albums which feature long tracks which serve as vehicles for Duane Allman’s and Dickie Betts’ impressive chops. Duane Allman died tragically in a motorcycle accident in 1971, at the age of 23, when the motorcycle he was riding collided with a peach truck. Following the death of Duane Allman, Dickie Betts became the instrumental centerpiece of the band, and the Allman Brothers Band continued to record and tour. The band reached the height of their commercial success with the classic album, “Brothers and Sisters” (1973) ,which featured two of their best known tunes, “Ramblin’ Man” and the instrumental, “Jessica.”
Thursday, October 17, 2019
Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five
Louis Jordan is another of the key figures
in the development of rock and roll and R&B. He was a talented and colorful
figure who was a saxophonist, songwriter, and bandleader. He has been credited
with creating a style of music called “jump blues” which is the direct
forerunner of R&B, the music which would later morph into rock and roll.
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Art Tatum: Tea for Two
Art Tatum
is considered by many to be the greatest pianist in the history of jazz music
whose technical skills were unrivaled. Tatum’s unmistakable sound was the
result of his prodigious speed, harmonic inventiveness and swinging style which
featured the frequent use of thrilling cadenzas. He playing was drawn from the
stride style of James P. Johnson and Fats Waller and the more modern approach
of Earl Hines. When a young Oscar Peterson first heard a recording of Tatum and
was told that the recording was the work of a single pianist, Peterson refused
to touch a piano for a week.
Tatum was
born in Toledo , Ohio , in 1909. His parents were both
musicians at a local Toledo
church. As a child, Tatum developed cataracts and eventually lost sight in one
eye completely, while being left with only partial sight in the other. Tatum
was a child prodigy at the piano and learned to play by ear while listening to
church hymns and music on the radio. In 1925, he would begin learning music and
braille at a school for the blind.
By 1933, Tatum
was in New York City ,
and he began to make a name for himself at piano playing competitions known as
“cutting contests.” It was at one of these contests that Tatum famously
out-dueled stride legends James P. Johnson, Willie “The Lion” Smith and Fats
Waller with spectacular versions of “Tea for Two” and “Tiger Rag.” While Tatum
was working at the Onyx Club in March of 1933, he recorded his first four sides
for the Brunswick
label. For the remainder of the Thirties, he toured around the Midwest and had
stints in Chicago and trips out to Los Angeles before returning to New York .
In the Forties,
Tatum recorded with singer Big Joe Turner for Decca Records and formed a trio
with guitarist Tiny Grimes and bassist, Slam Stewart. By the end of the Forties,
Tatum had returned to solo performing and continued solo until his death in
1956.
Any
compilation of Tatum’s incredible recordings is a must-have. The best of these
include, “Piano Starts Here” (1968), “The Complete Capitol Recordings” (Volumes
1-2) (1989), “Classic Early Solos” (1991), “The Chronological Classics: Art
Tatum 1934-1940” (1991), and “The Complete Capitol Recordings of Art Tatum”
(1997).
Sunday, October 13, 2019
James P. Johnson: The Charleston
James
Price Johnson was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1894. He was a ragtime
turned stride pianist whose composition, “The Charleston,” became one of the
anthems of the “jazz age” of the Twenties. Johnson and Jelly Roll Morton were
probably the two pianists most responsible for taking ragtime music and turning
it into jazz via the piano.
Although
he started out playing ragtime music in the tradition of Scott Joplin, Johnson
became the innovator of a jazz sub-genre of piano playing that was dubbed, “stride.”
This piano style got its name from the walking or “striding” sound produced by
the pianist’s left hand. Stride piano incorporated elements of the blues and it
allowed for on the spot improvisation which is an essential characteristic of
jazz music. Ragtime was a rigidly composed form of music which stifled improvisation.
A future
jazz star, Fats Waller, would become Johnson’s protégé’, adopt his stride style,
and later expose it to the masses.
Johnson
was a prolific composer, and he wrote some of the most familiar compositions of
the roaring Twenties. Aside from the Charleston, he penned, “You’ve Got to Be
Modernistic,” “If I Could Be with You One Hour Tonight,” “Carolina Shout,”
“Keep Off The Grass,” and “Old Fashioned Love,” among others. In addition to
jazz and pop tunes, Johnson wrote waltzes, ballets and symphonic pieces.
Johnson’s
finest recordings can be found on a number of compilation albums including the
multi-volume “Chronological Classics: James P. Johnson” (1996) series and “Snowy
Morning Blues” (1991), “Harlem Stride Piano” (1992), and “Father of Stride
Piano” (2001).
Sunday, October 6, 2019
The Original Dixieland Jazz Band: Livery Stable Blues
The Original Dixieland Jazz Band was originally
an off-shoot of Stein’s Dixie Jass Band and started out under the leadership of
cornetist, Nick LaRocca. By 1917, the band had moved from Chicago to New York,
where in February of that year, they would make the first-ever jazz recording,
“Livery Stable Blues/Dixie Jass Band One Step” for Victor.
The recording was a huge commercial
success, and it introduced jazz to a nationwide audience. The huge sales of
that first recording motivated other record labels to record jazz and thus
sparked the spread of the music.
The initial incarnation of the band
recorded several other excellent sides including, “Darktown Strutter’s Ball,” “Ostrich
Walk,” and “Tiger Rag.” Their music was typical early Dixieland jazz, but the
ODJB had some of the finest musicians in jazz music at the time including
Larocca on cornet, “Daddy” Edwards on trombone, Henry Ragas on piano, and Larry
Shields on clarinet.
The ODJB was a white band, and Larocca was
a proud member of the white race who always maintained that it was not African-Americans
who had created jazz, but white musicians. Larocca’a overt racism has probably
hurt the reputation of the ODJB and encouraged many observers to write them off
as simply a bunch of second-rate white musicians who only had the opportunity
to make the first jazz recording due to the institutionalized racism of the
time. However, this is clearly not the case. Freddie Keppard, an
African-American cornetist, turned down the opportunity to make the first jazz
recording, in 1916.
The ODJB reunited several times in the Thirties and toured Europe. Drummer Tony Sbarbaro was the only original member to appear on all the band’s recordings between 1917 and 1938.
The ODJB reunited several times in the Thirties and toured Europe. Drummer Tony Sbarbaro was the only original member to appear on all the band’s recordings between 1917 and 1938.
Several compilations of the band’s early
sides can be found including, “The Complete Original Dixieland Jazz Band
(1917-1938)” (1995). The band also appears on several compilations of early
recorded jazz.
Django Reinhardt and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France
Guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grappelli were probably the two greatest European jazz musicians of the 20th century. Both men were founders and members of an outfit known as the Quintet of The Hot Club of France, a jazz ensemble that recorded during the Forties.
Reinhardt, born in Liberchies, Pont-a-Celles, Belgium, was a gypsy guitar prodigy. When he was eighteen, his hand was so badly burned by a fire in his caravan that two fingers on his left hand were rendered useless. His family and friends thought that any future career plans as a musician had been prematurely snuffed out, but Reinhardt adapted and learned to play with just the index and middle finger on his fret hand. Despite his handicap, Reinhardt still earned a reputation as one of the greatest guitarists in the history of popular music.
In 1934, Reinhardt, jazz violin virtuoso, Stephane Grappelli, brother and fellow guitarist, Joesph Reinhardt, guitarist Roger Chaput and bassist Louis Vola formed the “Quintette du Hot Club de France” and recorded some of the best jazz of the Thirties and Forties.
During his tenure with the Quintet of the Hot Club of France, Reinhardt recorded the classic selections, “Minor Swing,” “Djangology,” “Runnin” Wild,” “Paramount Stomp,” :Belleville,” and “Night and Day.” The Hot Club recorded in the swing style that was the vogue of the mid and late Thirties. The band would disband in 1939, only to reform in the Forties with a different line up of sidemen supporting Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli.
Reinhardt died in 1953 at the age of 43, while Grappelli would continue playing and recording until his death in 1997, a month shy of his 90th birthday. Django Reinhardt would leave behind a legacy of musical brilliance and serve as an inspiration and major influence on countless guitarists from rock, country, jazz, and even classical music. Rock guitarists, Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead and Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, both suffered serious injuries to their hands early in their careers and credit Reinhardt as a huge inspiration in overcoming their respective injuries. Reinhardt and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France appear on numerous fine compilation albums.
Saturday, October 5, 2019
Tommy Johnson: Canned Heat Blues
Tommy Johnson
was country blues singer and guitarist from Terry, Mississippi. Johnson was
born in 1896, and by the Twenties he was an established figure in Mississippi
blues. The Sixties blues rock band, Canned Heat, took their name from the
Johnson song, “Canned Heat Blues.”
Johnson was a
dissolute figure who actively cultivated a sinister image through excessive
drinking and stories that he had sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his
musical mastery. A similar mythology would later be attached to Robert Johnson.
Johnson made his
first recordings for the Victor label in 1928 with the sides, “Canned Heat
Blues” and “Big Road Blues.” Johnson also recorded for Paramount Records in two
sessions, one from 1928 and another from the following year. These recordings
proved Johnson to be a vocalist of great depth and a fine guitarist.
Unfortunately, his recordings for Paramount, are of lo-fidelity.
Johnson’s
classic sides can be found on the compilation, “Complete Recorded Works in
Chronological Order (1928-1929)” (1994).
Friday, October 4, 2019
Johnny Burnette and the Rock ‘n Roll Trio: The Train Kept a-Rollin'
Singer
Johnny Burnette was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1934, and was a boyhood
friend of Elvis Presley. Burnette and the Rock ‘n Roll Trio is often credited
as the “pioneers” of rockabilly music.
The
legendary album,
“Rock and Roll Trio” (1988), is one of the finest collections of early rock and
roll. The album collects the early singles of Burnette and the Trio and
contains at least three masterpieces, “The Train Kept a-Rollin’,” “Honey Hush,”
and “Lonesome Train.” The title of the song, “Rock Billy Boogie,” is believed
to be the origin of the name given to this style of music, “rockabilly.”
Thursday, October 3, 2019
Josh White: Jim Crow Blues
Josh
White, like Leadbelly, was a country blues singer from the early part of the 20th
century who found new life and success as a part of the Sixties folk boom.
White was born in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1915, and made his recording
debut in 1932 with “Baby Won’t You Doodle-Doo-Doo.”
White
recorded for number of labels including Perfect and Melotone in the Thirties
during his initial incarnation as a country blues performer. In the early
Forties White’s music became some of the first African-American music to find
acceptance among a white audience when he scored a million-selling single with
his song, “One Meatball,” in 1944.
By the
Forties White had become a civil rights leader, and in fact, became a close
confidant of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During the decade, White became
the first African-American performer to perform at previously segregated clubs,
and he later became the first folk/blues performer to appear on a U.S. postage
stamp. White also appeared on Broadway as Blind Lemon Jefferson in the musical,
“John Henry.” White’s appearance on Broadway brought him to the attention of the
New York City folk crowd which at that time included Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly
and Burl Ives.
By the
late Fifties, White was a fixture in the Folk revival and was recording more
folk-oriented material. White continued performing in folk music festivals and
toured the world up until his death, in 1969.
The best
collections of White’s music include, “Chain Gang” (1940), “Ballads and Blues”
(1946), and the great collection of civil rights tunes, “Southern Exposure: An
album of Jim Crow Blues Sung by Josh White” (1941).
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