The Eighty-Six Years Of Eubie Blake

[mjzee]

Found a copy in a local record store recently. I'd never heard it, wanted to for decades. What a hoot! Blake plays his great compositions with such verve and brio. The LP cover doesn't list where or when it was recorded, or who sings along with him (is it Noble Sissle?). The LP sticks mostly to the music; in this, it's different from The Autobiography of Willie The Lion Smith, which is more an aural history with accompanied music. Both are valuable, vital documents.

[Chuck Nessa]

Have not heard it in years but Bruyninckx says it was recorded in NYC on 12/26/68, 2/6/69 and 3/12/69. No additional vocalist is listed but I suggest it is Ivan Harold Browning who appeared on subsequent sessions.

[Larry Kart]

I had the good fortune to review it for Down Beat when it came out. Another earlier and excellent Eubie LP is "The Marches I Played on My Ragtime Piano" (Twentieth-Century Fox), with a quartet that included Buster Bailey and Kenny Burrell on rhythm guitar. Eubie is in great form, and it's fascinating to hear ragtime versions of marches by Sousa and others.

[mjzee]

I had the good fortune to review it for Down Beat when it came out. Another earlier and excellent Eubie LP is "The Marches I Played on My Ragtime Piano" (Twentieth-Century Fox), with a quartet that included Buster Bailey and Kenny Burrell on rhythm guitar. Eubie is in great form, and it's fascinating to hear ragtime versions of marches by Sousa and others.

I'd never heard of that title. Has it ever been issued on CD?

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I've never bought any of Eubie Blake's recordings. Back in the 70s, immediately following the TV version of 'Roots', there was a popular history documentary, which I watched as regularly as 'Roots'. Eubie was on that. I thought he was wonderful! A wizened old man of about a hundred and eighty, playing piano with the energy of Cecil Taylor and more full of life and joy than almost anyone I've ever seen.

MG

[jazztrain]

I saw Eubie Blake live a few times in the early to mid 1970s as best as I can recall. He was a delight. He also had the longest fingers that I had ever seen (probably still the case).

[sidewinder]

I've never bought any of Eubie Blake's recordings. Back in the 70s, immediately following the TV version of 'Roots', there was a popular history documentary, which I watched as regularly as 'Roots'. Eubie was on that. I thought he was wonderful! A wizened old man of about a hundred and eighty, playing piano with the energy of Cecil Taylor and more full of life and joy than almost anyone I've ever seen.

MG

Was that the Tony Palmer 'All You Need Is Love' series? That would have been around 1975/76.

[Larry Kart]

I had the good fortune to review it for Down Beat when it came out. Another earlier and excellent Eubie LP is "The Marches I Played on My Ragtime Piano" (Twentieth-Century Fox), with a quartet that included Buster Bailey and Kenny Burrell on rhythm guitar. Eubie is in great form, and it's fascinating to hear ragtime versions of marches by Sousa and others.

I'd never heard of that title. Has it ever been issued on CD?

Apparently not:

http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-marches-i-played-on-the-old-ragtime-piano-mw0000936982