miff mole

[mike casinghino]

a friend was asking me about miff mole cd's, she would like to get one for her dad, who is a big fan of his. i don't know squat about mr. mole. does anyone have a suggestion on any one cd to get? thanks in advance.

[alejo]

Get the two Miff Mole CDs on Frog Records.

Miff Mole: Slippin' Around

Miff Mole: "Slippin' Around" - Again

Great sound and great music.

Alejandro

[Mark J]

The Frog CDs are definitely the way to go, possibly the only way to hear concentrated prime era Miff. Miff was an excellent trombonist, his sides with Nichols are great as are many of his other recordings. He was the premier New York trombonist for a while until Teagarden broke on the scene and I guess Miff seemed old fashioned. Eddie Condon kept him going in the 40's and you can hear Miff on some of the Condon radio program transcriptions which are available on a big series of double CDs.

[Mark J]

In case you don't know, the photo I posted above is Miff in the 20s from the redhotjazz website.

[Harold_Z]

The sides Miff did for Commodore are excellent. Probably the only ones easy to find are the Muggsy Spanier sessions that are available on Chronogical Classics. There were also Commodore dates under Bobby Hackett and Miff himself. All excellent.

[brownie]

The Frogs (no laughs, please!) are hard to get here.

I'm happy with the Chronological Classics releases. Lots of Miff Mole on their Red Nichols and The Red Heads 1925-1927. Classics issued two Miff Mole, 1927 and 1928-1937.

[jazzbo]

I can heartily recommend the "The Immortal Miff Mole" cd on Jazzology, a quite late recording that represents a spirited ("well lubricated") band!

[mike casinghino]

thanks again, to all, for your suggestions.

[Mark J]

I forgot about his Commodore sides as mentioned above - I have them on a great CD that is unfortunately OOP from a great OOP series, back before Commodore's catalogue was owned by the Verve group.

The CD "Jazz in New York - Bobby Hackett/Miff Mole/Muggsy Spanier", Commodore CD CCD 7009 from 1988, has 5 1944 Hackett tracks, 4 Muggsy Spanier & His Ragtimers (with Miff) from 1944, and 4 Miff Mole & His Nicksieland Band sides, also from 1944. All are excellent Condon-style tracks featuring Condon and the usual gang, including Pee Wee Russell on all sides. If you can find this CD (try half.com) it is a keeper.

[AllenLowe]

this is one area in which Sudhalter has it right - read his chapter on Mole in Lost Chords - some of Miff's late work is astonishingly modern -

[jazzbo]

Hey Mark, wasn't that one of the Columbia Commodores (not Verve?)

Anyway, half.com has it but it's expensive! (25 bucks). Great music!

[Mark J]

Hi Lon!

25 bucks is too much for that. Sometimes they come up around 10 dollars, which is well worth it.

This Commodore series is definitely before Verve bought Commodore, all the CDs are from 1988 or 1989. I have 6 of them - none say Columbia, they all just say Commodore, copyright "The Special Music Co. and Pair Records, division of Essex Entertainment Inc. 87 Essex Street, Hackensack, NJ 07601".

The ones I have are:

7007 Jammin' at Commodore - Eddie Condon and Bud Freeman, which has the classic 1938 recordings which started Commodore records.

7008 Jess Stacy and Friends, which has 8 Stacy solos, the two classic tracks with Lee Wiley, and 6 tracks with Stacy and Specs Powell.

7009 Jazz in New York, the Miff Mole CD

7012 Willie "the Lion" Smith Piano Solos, which has 14 Smith solos and two with a small group - these are my favorite Lion recordings.

7014 Teddy Wilson Piano Solos, which has 10 Wilson solos and 8 quartet tracks with the Edmond Hall Quartet.

7015 Ballin the Jack - Eddie Condon and his band featuring Fats Waller, Joe Bushkin and Joe Sullivan, 14 excellent Condon tracks from 1939-1942 with the usual gang including Pee Wee, Max Kaminsky, Marty Marsala, George Brunis and George Wettling.

These CDs all have nice black & white photos on the covers (they look like Mosaic boxes) and have great sound, especially for their time. Their only problem is they are CD versions of LPs so they run short and have no alternates. Most of these recordings are probably available on the French Classics series, but the sound on these CDs is probably better and the notes, mostly by Gabler, are interesting.

Back to Miff Mole - his 1944 recording of "Peg o' My Heart" on the Jazz in New York CD is amazing. His solo is very advanced and it's unfortunate he didn't make more records.

[jazzbo]

Mark, thanks for the detailed information. I used to have a few of these series of Commodore material on cassette, and thought they were Columbia for some reason. I love the music, just amazing stuff that Gabler recorded for that label!

[Christiern]

I just received a 2-CD set of Paul Whiteman's December 25, 1938 Carnegie Hall concert. Miff Mole is on it, as are Jack Teagarden and Artie Shaw.

[Late]

I don't have Volume 1, but can highly recommend Volume 2 — listening right now. Great sound restoration, great music.

[brownie]

Don't have that Frog volume 2 but I do have (and can recommend) volume 1. That one plus the two releases from the Chronological  series (Too bad that label is gone by now).