What 78 are you spinning right now ?

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I ended up with a record The Magnificent Goldberg just got on CD:

Johnny Otis/Jimmy Rushing - Jimmy's 'Round the Clock Blues/Harlem Nocturne (Excelsior)

Haven't got it yet - waiting for the postman. At least it's coming from the UK, Amazon UK sez.

Didn't know Rushing recorded with Otis.

MG

[jeffcrom]

Played some early ragtime today. I've probably mentioned some of these before:

Prince's Band - Too Much Mustard/On the Mississippi (Columbia, 1913)

Vess Ossman - Buffalo Rag (Tom Turpin) (Victor, 1909)

Sousa's Band - At a Georgia Camp Meeting (Victor, 1908)

Victor Military Band - Music Box Rag (Lucky Roberts)/Chinatown, My Chinatown (Victor 12", 1914)

This led, through "Smiles and Chuckles - A Jazz Rag" and "Saxophone Sobs" by the Six Brown Brothers Saxophone Sextet, to a bunch of early 20th century saxophone music - ragtime, pop, and novelty. I'm not going to list it all, but in addition to a bunch of Brown Brothers, I spun Rudy Wiedoft, Fred H. Brown, and Paul Biese. Probably just for antiquarians and saxophone buffs, but I enjoyed it.

[jeffcrom]

Picked up a couple of "new" 78s today, so I spun them along with some old ones. It was a strange assortment: jazz, vaudeville, country, and New Orleans R & B.

Jimmy McPartland and His Sextet - Singing the Blues/Royal Garden (Unison, 1949) A nice one, with young Marian "Page" on piano.

Bert Williams - O Death, where Is Thy Sting?/When I Return (Columbia, 1918) Sly comedy.

McMichen's Melody Men - Sweet Bunch of Daisies/Let Me Call You Sweetheart (Columbia, 1926) Sweet country waltzes by one of Georgia's best fiddlers, Clayton McMichen.

Roy Brown - Rockin' at Midnight/Judgement Day Blues (DeLuxe, 1948) Somebody liked the follow-up to "Good Rockin' Tonight" - side one is really worn. They didn't play "Judgement Day" much.

Roy Brown - Party Doll/I'm Sticking With You (Imperial, 1957) This is one of the new ones, and it's pretty disappointing. Imperial was trying to turn Brown from a blues shouter to a teen idol.

[jeffcrom]

A very nice find today: a three-record Coleman Hawkins album on Asch, with a cool David Stone Martin cover. It's Bean's 1945 quintet, with Howard McGhee, Sir Charles Thompson, Eddie Robinson, and Denzil Best. Outstanding music, with "Bean Stalking," "Sportsman's Hop," and the rest.

The only drawback is that it's on Asch. As Clunky has pointed out, their records were really noisy. Even though these records are in excellent condition, they're some of the noisiest 78s I have. Whatever Denzil Best is doing is totally lost in the white noise. Still, I'm very happy with this find - some great playing by Hawk and Maggie.

[jeffcrom]

The recent George Shearing thread prompted me to play all my Shearing MGM 78s today. These are all by the Quintet except as noted:

September in the Rain/Bop, Look and Listen (1949)

Good to the Last Bop/You Are Too Beautiful (trio) (1949)

When Your Lover Has Gone/Carnegie Horizons (1949/50)

Tenderly/Summertime (both solo) (1949/50)

Roses of Picardy/Pick Yourself Up (1950)

I'll Be Around/Quintessence (1951)

To a Wild Rose/Swedish Pastry (1951)

Easy to Love/Wrap Your Troubles in Drums (1953)

All of this music was perfectly okay.

[Chuck Nessa]

A very nice find today: a three-record Coleman Hawkins album on Asch, with a cool David Stone Martin cover. It's Bean's 1945 quintet, with Howard McGhee, Sir Charles Thompson, Eddie Robinson, and Denzil Best. Outstanding music, with "Bean Stalking," "Sportsman's Hop," and the rest.

The only drawback is that it's on Asch. As Clunky has pointed out, their records were really noisy. Even though these records are in excellent condition, they're some of the noisiest 78s I have. Whatever Denzil Best is doing is totally lost in the white noise. Still, I'm very happy with this find - some great playing by Hawk and Maggie.

Perils of the WWII shellac demand.

[clifford_thornton]

Is it safe to assume that material has been reissued somewhere?

[jeffcrom]

Is it safe to assume that material has been reissued somewhere?

Somebody may have more information than I have, but it doesn't look like it would be easy to find. The Lord discography lists LP issues on Stinson and Queen Disc. It seems like this session would have been a natural for the Hawkins "Be-bop Years" Proper box, but it doesn't look like these sides are included.

Edited October 12, 2010 by jeffcrom

[jeffcrom]

Keeping up with current events around here:

Fisk University Male Quartette - Little David Play on Your Harp/Steal Away to Jesus (Columbia)

Andy Kirk featuring Pha Terrell - I'm Glad for Your Sake/Downstream, In My Wildest Dream (all Decca)

Don't have any 78s by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.

[Clunky]

Sonny Greer and His Memphis Men Saturday Night function/ Beggars Blues recorded 1929 , Columbia UK (1937 issue) , 2 melancholic sides by Ellington that I quite like, prominent bass , sounding very much better than the transfers on the OKeh Ellington 2CD set

negative review in Gramophone from 1937

[jeffcrom]

Today I spun all my 78s by The Louisiana Five, a very interesting early jazz band, although not a great one. It was a five-piece band with a front line of clarinet and trombone. The clarinetist was New Orleanian Alcide "Yellow" Nunez, born in 1884. The Louisiana Five and a few dance band records by Harry Yerkes are all we have by Nunez. Since he was the lead instrument, he played pretty much exclusively in the upper register on the Louisiana Five records. The band was a little on the corny side, but was often bluesier than the ODJB. And I love New Orleans clarinet so much that I'm glad to have these records. They recorded from 1918 to 1920 for Columbia, Edison, and Emerson. I have eight or nine tracks by the band on various LPs and CDs, but only one of the 10 78 sides I have is duplicated on those albums. I've got:

Yelping Hound Blues/Just Another Good Man Gone Wrong (Columbia)

The Alcoholic Blues/ (reverse is by Wilbur Sweatman) (Columbia)

Slow and Easy/ (reverse is by The Happy Six) (Columbia) This is the only side they recorded with a trumpet.

Summer Days/Golden Rod (Emerson)

Weeping Willow Blues/Big Fat Ma (Emerson)

Sunshine Girl/B-Hap-E (Emerson)

A lot of these are originals by the band. Like I say, not a great band, but an interesting one.

[jeffcrom]

Modern jazz time - I've probably mentioned all of these before:

Ahmad Jamal - Excerpts From the Blues/It Could Happen to You (Parrot)

Ahmad Jamal - But Not for Me/Seleritus (Parrot)

Dave Barbour - Little Boy Bop Go Blow Your Top/Ensenada (Capitol) Better than you would think from reading the titles.

Dave Brubeck Quartet - A Foggy Day/Lyons Busy (Fantasy)

Wardell Gray - Blue Lou, parts 1 & 2 (Modern) From a "Just Jazz" concert.

Johnny Smith Quintet - I'll Be Around/Cavu (Royal Roost) A nice one, with Paul Quinichette.

Gerry Mulligan Quartet - My Funny Valentine/Bark for Barksdale (Fantasy) I had never noticed how insane Chico Hamilton's "Barksdale" solo is.

[jeffcrom]

Picked up a few new 78s today - all from the 1920s, and very different from each other. Three of them are really fabulous, and the fourth is okay.

Sara Martin - You Got Ev'ry Thing a Sweet Mama Needs But Me/'Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do (Okeh, 1922) Sara's good, but 18-year-old Fats Waller is great.

Uncle Dave Macon - All I've Got's Gone/Hill Billie Blues (Vocalion, 1924) "Hill Billie" is Dave's version of "Hesitating Blues." The labels call these "Comedy," but "All I've Got's Gone" is mournful.

Bela Lam and His Greene County Singers - See That My Grave is Kept Clean/Row Us Over the Tide (Okeh, 1927) This was the gamble - I didn't know what I was getting. But it's great - raw white Virginia gospel, with banjo and guitar accompaniment. Wonderful.

Marion Harris - I'm a Jazz Vampire/Never Let No One Man Worry Your Mind (Columbia, 1920) Not great, but fun.

Not a bad haul.

[jeffcrom]

Cleaned a bunch of the 78s I picked up yesterday. They included about half a dozen acoustic Victor Red Seals - Caruso, Kreisler, Mischa Elman; I won't list them individually, but I wanted to point out something kind of mind-blowing. Victor had a sliding price structure for their Red Seals (which were one-sided records), from $2.00 for a 10" record credited to a single artist up to $7.00 for a 12" record by an operatic sextet. The Caruso and company "Sextet from Lucia di Lammermoor" record that I found yesterday cost me a buck. In 1908, when it was issued, someone paid the current equivalent of $165.00 or so for that five minutes of music, according to several inflation calculators I found online. I hope this makes you feel better about springing for that next Mosaic set.

Besides the Red Seals, I enjoyed:

Paul Robeson - Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen/Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (Victor, 1926). Beautiful.

Paul Whiteman - Ole Man River/Selections from Show Boat (Victor 12", 1928). Side one features Robeson again, and side two has twelve wonderful measures of Bix Beiderbecke.

Jean Goldkette - I'm Gonna Meet My Sweetie Now (Victor, 1927). Side two is by Nat Shilkret's band, and isn't much, but the Goldkette side is pretty hot; it has more Bix, along with Frankie Trumbauer, Jimmy Dorsey, and Joe Venuti.

[jeffcrom]

Just for kicks, I played the oldest record I own today - "Just For Today" by Harry Macdonough. It's a sentimental Victor Herbert ballad, recorded in May, 1901 by a singer who was popular in the early days of the recording industry. The record is on the Victor Monarch label and was actually manufactured in 1901 - Victor changed their label style before the end of that year. It's not very exciting musically, but it's touching to hold and listen to a recording from 1901.

This is what the label looks like, except for the song title and credits, of course:

[jeffcrom]

Two of the 78s I picked up last week have proved oddly affecting, and neither has anything to do with jazz.

Adelina Patti - Robin Adair (12" Victor "Patti" Record); Patti was one of the most renowned opera singers of the 19th century. Her debut was in 1859, but she lived long enough to make some records in the early years of the recording industry. This one is an English folk song, recorded in 1905. It was obviously intended to be a real prestige item - Patti has her own special label, her autograph is pressed into the dead wax, and the price was $5.00 - $117.00 in today's currency. And although it's a 12-incher, it contains just over two minutes of music. I paid $1.00 in today's currency. But it's beautiful - arranged and sung in a simple, touching style. It's a pretty cool glimpse into the 19th century.

Henry Burr (Saxophone obligato by Rudy Wiedoeft) - You Forgot to Remember/Alone at Last (Victor); Burr was one of the most prolific early recordings artists, but I picked this one up because of Rudy Wiedoeft, who was a very popular and accomplished saxophonist from around 1915 to 1930. Again, he had no connection with jazz. I half expected to play this 1925 record once, then discard it. But the first side turned out to be Irving Berlin's "Remember," which is a song I've always loved. (Remember Monk's solo version?) Burr and Wiedoeft perform it in an old-fashioned style, but they sound like they mean it, and it got to me. I'm keeping this one.

Edited November 17, 2010 by jeffcrom

[Clunky]

As I've no turntable at present to play LPs I've spun a fair number of 78s in the last few days, recent finds including

Jack McVea All Stars- Open the door Richard/ Lonesome Blues- Black& White - 1947 - quite a hit at the time , can't find out who the all stars were though. Really R&B-

The Jacque Rabbits Ladies Lullaby/ Illinois Stomp ARA

Lem Davis - Nothin from Nothin/My Blue Heaven- Sunset

Arne Domnerus Orkester- You can count on me/School Days- HMV Sweden - features Roffe Ericson

Murray 's Ragtime Trio -[b Beer and Turnips/ Hors d'oeuvres 12 inch HMV from circa 1918- my oldest 78- very restrained English ragtime - recorded 1915 I believe. Hadn't realised that ragtime had travelled that far so early . Tame but interesting.

Edited November 18, 2010 by Clunky

[jeffcrom]

Arne Domnerus Orkester- You can count on me/School Days- HMV Sweden - features Roffe Ericson

Murray 's Ragtime Trio -Trio Beer and Turnips/ Hors d'oeuvres 12 inch HMV from circa 1918- my oldest 78- very restrained English ragtime - recorded 1915 I believe. Hadn't realised that ragtime had travelled that far so early . Tame but interesting.

Cool! These two sound particularly interesting to me.

[jeffcrom]

Spun a bunch of 78s today, starting with some 20's/30's jazz:

Red Nichols and His Five Pennies - Dinah/Indiana (Brunswick, 1929) A larger "Five Pennies" lineup, with three trombones, which arranger Glenn Miller takes good advantage of. Good solos by Miller, Jack Teagarden (I think), Benny Goodman, and Babe Russin.

The Captivators - Building a Nest for Mary (Brunswick, 1929) The Captivators was the name Red Nichols used for his more pop-oriented records. This one has decent Nichols and Glenn Miller solos. The other side is by the Meyer Davis orchestra - not jazz at all.

The Captivators - What Good Am I Without You/We're Friends Again (Melotone, 1930) More good Benny Goodman and an early Eddie Miller solo.

Kentucky Grasshoppers - Makin' Friends/Fred Rich and His Orchestra - I Get the Blues When It Rains (Banner (1929) Side one is primo jazz, with Teagarden and Jimmy McPartland. Side two doesn't claim to be jazz, but it has solos by both Dorseys. One of the things I like most about collecting 78s is finding excellent jazz solos on routine dance band records from the 1920's and 30's. You'd be surprised how often that happens.

Wingy Manone - Tar Paper Stomp/Tin Roof Blues (Champion/Decca, 1930) Wingy with a bunch of now-forgotten musicians. Clarinetist George Walters had been listening to Teschemacher. "Tar Paper" is the first appearance of the "In the Mood" riff. Mine is not the original issue, it's a reissue put out by Decca.

Don Redman and His Orchestra (as Earl Harlan and His Orchestra) - Tired of It All/Keep on Doin' What You're Doin' (Melotone, 1933) Lousy songs, but solos by Red Allen and Benny Morton.

Don Redman and His Orchestra - Moonrise on the Lowlands/Lazy Weather (Perfect, 1936) Solos are by Sidney DeParis (I think) and Redman on soprano this time.

After that jazzfest, I spun some Jewish/Yiddish 78s, dating from 1914 to 1927. I won't list them all, but the standouts were by Cantors Berele Chagy and Josef Rosenblatt, Dave Tarras, and Abe Schwartz's great klezmer band (listed on the labels as "Jewish Orchestra" or "Yiddisher Orchester").

I just love 78s.

[jeffcrom]

In Columbus (Georgia) on Friday, I found a really nice album:

Four 12" 78s, by Benny Goodman, Fats Waller, Tommy Dorsey, and Bunny Berigan. Half of the material was new to me - I didn't have it in any form. And the records are in such good condition that it all sounds fresh. I'm enjoying this find.

Among the other records that I picked up was one of the 1920's dance band 78s that I'll always take a chance on if the price is right. One side paid off - Sam Lanin's Dance Orchestra on the Banner label from 1927, playing "Red Lips Kiss My Blues Away." The song is as bad as the title, but there are good solos by Red Nichols and an unidentified piano player.

[jeffcrom]

Since I got a "new" Sam Lanin, I spun all my 78s by this excellent 1920's dance band today. I've mentioned some of these before:

Oh! By Jingo/Rose of Chile (Columbia, 1920) - His first record. Not jazz, but nice early dance music.

After I Say I'm Sorry/Song of the Flame (Perfect, 1926) - Nice Red Nichols on the first side.

Blue Skies/Yankee Rose (Okeh, 1927) - No jazz at all here, but what a great-sounding record. This was a good band.

Red Lips Kiss My Blues Away (Banner, 1927) - Mentioned in the post above; more good Nichols.

Mona/I'm On a Diet of Love (Perfect, 1930) - Some fine Tommy Dorsey and a short trumpet solo which may or may not be by Jack Purvis.

This music isn't jazz, except in short spurts, but I like it.

[Clunky]

Dance bands with hidden jazz soloists sound much more interesting on 78 than on other media. For example the dreadfully titled

"When the morning glories wake up in the morning " by Jacques Renard & his coconut grove orchestra is one such case, perhaps it's because Bix is on the other side of the Victor.

Next a few random selections. I've around 250 78s, mostly in brown paper sleeves which arent ordered on my shelf.

Adrian Rollini- Lessons in love/ Tap room swing- Decca- quite commercial material but Tap's good

Edited December 6, 2010 by Clunky

[jeffcrom]

A small tribute:

James Moody - Lester Leaps In/Out of Nowhere (Prestige, 1949). Some nice Arne Domnerus on this Swedish recording.

James Moody - Serenade in Blue/Moody's Home (Mercury, 1951)

[jeffcrom]

Today's 78 RPM highlights were all Johnny Hodges:

It Shouldn't Happen to a Dream/A Little Taste (Mercer, 1947)

Let the Zoomers Drool/Searsy's Blues (Mercer, 1947)

Through For the Night/Latino (Mercury, 1952)

[jeffcrom]

In the digital age, is any recorded music really rare? About a month ago, I picked up a Victor Red Seal 78 album: four records of Puerto Rican danzas, composed by Juan Morel Campos (1857-1896) and played by Jesus Maria Sanroma. I finally got around to cleaning them and playing them today, and they're excellent, if a little carefully and politely played. Poking around the web to find more information about these recordings, I see that they were reissued on a Pearl CD, which means that they can probably be downloaded somewhere. So not as rare as I thought, apparently. Excellent, interesting music, though.

And the other day I picked up two Victor 78s by the Sandhills Sixteen, an African-American male choir performing spirituals. This led to my playing a string of large-group "concert" spiritual performances - polite, again, but still beautiful:

Sandhills Sixteen: Shine on Me/What Sort o' Robes Do de Angels Wear? (Victor, 1927)

Sandhills Sixteen: Hush! Hush! Somebody's Calling My Name (Victor, 1927)

Tuskegee Institute Singers: Swing Low, Sweet Chariot/Steal Away (Victor, 1916)

Tuskegee Institute Singers: The Old Time Religion/Heaven Song & Inchin' Along (Victor, 1916)

Dixie Jubilee Singers - I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray/Roll, Jordan, Roll (Brunswick, 1924-ish). I've had this last one since I was a teenager, but I didn't know anything much about the Dixie Jubilee Singers until I did a web search just now. They were led by Eva Jessye, an accomplished African-American choir director who studied under Will Marion Cook.