Stompin at the Savoy

This is how I listen to music. I can't hear mids and trebles as well as I once could so I boost them with an equalizer. And play with the volume. Purists might sneer but it's nice to hear cymbals, rhythm guitar, etc

I am shocked that I find myself agreeing with McWhorter, who often comes up with rather right-leaning um, stuff. Iverson's reply was ill-advised, IMO.

There's good stuff on there, actually quite a bit better than I expected.

Some info here: https://musicbrainz.org/release/e7dc7e05-e4a0-4c51-a4c0-49356351abf1 https://musicbrainz.org/release/0f0affd0-c188-4ab2-bd65-6faedd76ff8d https://musicbrainz.org/release/82691ba5-937b-4ccd-ac1a-4f6db6ed6bd1 https://musicbrainz.org/release/fc5cf04e-820c-408a-a60c-f61b44502dbc (note: in the above entries from Chronological Classics and the JSP release, check the cover art, which often has very detailed discography) Al Morgan plays bass on probably all of it. Another player named Jimmy Smith may be on a few tracks.

Presto mentions these musicians for vol 1: Cab Calloway & His Orchestra, Charles L. Granata (director), Howard Fritzson (director), Cab Calloway & his Orchestra featuring Roy Smeck & Chuck Bullock, Roy Smeck, Chick Bullock, Arville Harris (alto saxophone, clarinet), Doc Cheatham (trumpet), Lammar Wright (trumpet), Edwin Swayzee (trumpet), Walter "Foots" Thomas (tenor saxophone, clarinet), Andrew Brown (bass clarinet, baritone saxophone, alto saxophone), Eddie Barefield (clarinet, baritone saxophone, alto saxophone), Cab Calloway (vocal, bandleader & vocals), Bennie Payne (piano), LeRoy Maxey (drums), Harry White (trombone), Morris White (banjo), De Priest Wheeler (trombone), The Mills Brothers & Cab Calloway with Don Redman & His Orchestra, The Mills Brothers, Cab Calloway and His Cotton Club Orchestra https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/mastertalent/detail/103488/Calloway_Cab Somebody will probably produce some notes for this pretty soon.

I like Benny Carter. Seems like his currently available discography is sort of falling into disrepair. He had his own orchestra at times. There are a few euro-compilations of his stuff, some individual albums, the Chronological Classics... I wonder if there isn't a Mosaic set or two worth doing in there?

Whoa, sounds awful! 😲 Glad you got out.

Scott Joplin wrote at least one opera, Treemonisha, and I seem to remember Eubie Blake had some big project too. The curious thing is ragtime, blues and jazz players often seemed to want the validation from the musical powers-that-were that they thought writing in longer European musical forms would garner. This was not their everyday music or their forte, really, but apparently they craved respect and recognition and this is one path they saw to those. For the most part it never seemed to work. Didn't James P. Johnson subtitle his big project "A Negro Rhapsody" or something like that? After Gershwin, I suppose. Somebody very kindly posted a clip with Gershwin playing his original arrangement on piano roll and I listened to that as well as a few other renderings, since this discussion came up. I haven't listened to RiB in years and now I remember why I liked it so much originally. He takes a very few melodic themes and then sort of runs the changes on them - as you might expect in classical music - but he keeps playing the same or slightly altered strings of the same notes while the chord, and thus the mood and emotion, keeps changing underneath. So there is this interesting sense of repetition of the same line on top of changes. As though he is showing you: look how different these same notes can seem with a different background.

When you get a chance, make a windows repair disk. (I think 7 may also allow a thumb drive repair disk). With a repair disk you can keep an aging hard drive limping along for quite a while. Keep in mind that all mechanical hard drives will fail completely sooner or later. How long depends on how much use. If you use it a lot, maybe 5 to 8 years. Assume it will fail and keep backups.

You never made a rescue disk for the win 7 machine? (In future, always make a rescue disk!) You can probably boot from any rescue disk or bootable disk you have around (not necessarily a win 7 disk) and at least get a look at your hard drive and see if you can get the files off. You can also try some generic emergency repair disks like this Think about getting a portable external USB hard drive, such as a 4TB drive. When you get your files back, back them up to the drive so you are not dependent on one drive.

Good program!

That's your assessment and that is fine by me. Nevertheless I find Rhapsody memorable and there are a few passages from it that I occasionally recall.

Hmnnn. Well I don't agree with you. And I reject the tune, which you seem to be moving towards, that Gershwin is somehow bad or undeserving (sung over rhythm changes).

Come on Jim, now you are not doing your homework or something. The piece was discussed to death at the time. Gershwin was the toast of Europe. At the time most black music was considered beneath consideration. A serious composer took black music seriously in a European musical context.

I sympathize with you insofar as I have heard Rhapsody several times and have no need to hear it again. And from a contemporary musical perspective maybe it isn't that interesting. In its time the piece was rather startling, even revolutionary, and had reverberations.

The article sets up a straw man argument that Gershwin is more highly regarded than Ellington. Apples and oranges! Rhapsody in Blue is a symphonic piece with elements and motifs from black music. It's not jazz. There is no conflict here. You can like Rhapsody in Blue and like jazz too. Just subscribe to the NYT already! It's worth it and important to support journalism.

http://ellingtonlive.blogspot.com/2024/01/discography-ellington-in-order-volume-7.html

Welcome back, Larry!

I was able to very significantly improve my hearing a few years back by removing a lot of wax that had accumulated in the forty odd years since I had them cleaned in college. But at 70, following the usual pattern, my mid and high frequency sensitivity is waning. I've been compensating by boosting mids and highs with equalizers when listening to music for the past few years. It's probably time to go get a hearing test and see if hearing aid might help.

The website says: https://www.mosaicrecords.com/product/classic-don-byas-sessions/ So keep an eye on the website and order when the next batch becomes available. Maybe create an id on the mosaic shop and sign up for email notifications...

An Australian airliner had landed and was proceeding towards the gate as the pilot concluded some announcements to the passengers. He forgot to turn off the microphone and caused some passengers to chuckle when he remarked to his co-pilot: "All I need now is an ice cold beer and a red hot Sheila!" One of the stewardesses ran toward the cockpit to inform the captain of his error and a passenger called out: "Don't forget his ice cold beer!"