A nice wee interlude
Posted on April 28th, 2013 by Dearieme
One chantoozie o’day
Posted on April 7th, 2013 by Dearieme
Welcome to the new tax year. Billie Holiday was over-rated. Here’s a different drug addict: Anita O’Day. A gorgeous tune to start with.
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Livery Stable blues
Posted on February 24th, 2013 by Dearieme
In 1917 the first jazz record ever released was a smash hit: Livery Stable Blues by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. But it’s all a bit rattle-and-clang: there’s a far superior version by the excellent NORKs – the New Orleans Rhythm Kings. Just let youtube lead you through many of their other tracks. [Unfortunately, the [...]
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Post Odd Sax series
Posted on February 10th, 2013 by Dearieme
Odd sax [le finale]
Posted on January 27th, 2013 by Dearieme
Rollini considered turning toward the instrument of his youth: hear him on the xylophone here (along with his bass sax ): Lazy Weather, recorded 25/05/27 with the University Six.
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Odd sax [11]
Posted on January 26th, 2013 by Dearieme
Unfortunately, we have struck a problem – there’s high drama with the saxophones this evening. Tracks 1 and 3 below are not operating. Track 1 was Navy Blues and was up as part of a long, long series by Atticus Finch. When I got home just now, I saw that these two tracks were still [...]
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Odd sax [10]
Posted on January 23rd, 2013 by Dearieme
On Adrian Rollini’s return to New York he easily got a succession of dance band jobs and recorded with some fine studio groups. Here are three of my favourite hot jazz records of the period. Let’s start with Rube Bloom and his Bayou Boys playing merry hell with Mr Bloom’s composition The Man from the [...]
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Odd sax [9]
Posted on January 20th, 2013 by Dearieme
Adrian Rollini, along with ex-Ramblers Chelsea Quealey (trumpet) and Bobby Davis (reeds), set off for London to join Fred Elizalde’s orchestra at the Savoy Hotel, opening right at the end of 1927. They became instant stars. Their first recording session was on 15/1/28: here’s Sugar, swinging along nicely.
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Odd sax [8]
Posted on January 18th, 2013 by Dearieme
Bix had a love and fascination for the European Classical Music of his day: Holst, Ravel, Debussy etc. Since Holst taught my wife’s aunt the piano, I’ll claim a connection to Bix. Spooky! Back to work: on October 25th the Gang recorded Goose Pimples.
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Odd sax [7]
Posted on January 16th, 2013 by Dearieme
The records of the Original Dixieland Jass Band had been the original inspiration for Bix’s taking up jazz. So when he had the chance to record half-a-dozen tracks with Rollini and company it’s not too surprising that he started on 5th of October with three numbers from the ODJB repertoire. First, their own At the [...]
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Odd sax [6]
Posted on January 13th, 2013 by Dearieme
Odd sax 1 Odd sax 2 Odd sax 3 Odd sax 4 Odd sax 5 Rollini wangled the job of leading a band at the snazzy new Club New Yorker – all he needed were some musicians. Easy-peasy – the Goldkette band folded in Atlantic City after a last performance on the 18th of September, [...]
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Odd sax [5]
Posted on January 11th, 2013 by Dearieme
More New Matches Red Nichols (cornet) and Miff Mole (trombone) had the habit of recording acres of dullness, punctuated by some gems. Here are three pieces they recorded with Rollini in the summer-autumn of ’27. Sugar – one of two pop tunes of the era with that title – was recorded in the October. It [...]
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Odd sax [4]
Posted on January 9th, 2013 by Dearieme
You’ll have heard a plaintive mouth organ-like instrument there: that’s Rollini on “goofus’, another instrument of which he was sole master. Formally known as the Couesnophone, it looked like a miniature sax but it could play chords. Here it is again on Clementine from August ’27.
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Odd sax [3]
Posted on January 6th, 2013 by Dearieme
[The Ramblers] could also play their jazz at a slower, insinuating pace: here’s their Farewell Blues of February 1927, recorded as the Goofus Five. What you have to keep reminding yourself is that Rollini invented the bass sax as a jazz instrument; he had no model to copy.
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Odd sax [2]
Posted on January 4th, 2013 by Dearieme
On Wednesday, the question was asked: “What had changed?” Well, on 12/09/24, Bix Beiderbecke and the Wolverines had arrived in town: although Bix left within a month to join the Jean Goldkette Orchestra in Detroit, his music fascinated New York musicians. Then the second whammy; on 13/10/24 Louis Armstrong took the third trumpet chair in [...]
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Odd sax [1]
Posted on January 2nd, 2013 by Dearieme
As Bechet was to the soprano sax, and “Tram” (Frankie Trumbauer) to the c-melody sax, Adrian Rollini was to the bass sax: the only master. His rise started with the California Ramblers. To see the difference he made to the rhythm section of that fine dance band, just compare the next two tracks. In April [...]
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Dave Brubeck
Posted on December 6th, 2012 by Dearieme
Dave Brubeck, who has died aged 91, was one of the most famous jazz musicians of the 20th century. Brubeck, with his studious manner and earnest progressivism, aroused sharply conflicting views among musicians and critics. Charlie Parker admired him, whereas Miles Davis found his playing deficient in swing. Jazz aficionados, suspicious of his great popularity, [...]
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Dearieme and Ella
Posted on November 5th, 2012 by Dearieme
And one from me:
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Ease into Sunday
Posted on November 4th, 2012 by Dearieme
What to do with this embarrassment of riches today, music-wise? Dearieme has one hell of a piece, JD has some boogie-woogie and I already have two masses in place. Should we do the masses now and leave Dearieme’s for early evening or should we open with JD or what? Right – let’s open with Dearieme [...]
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Something uplifting
Posted on October 3rd, 2012 by James Higham
Bach download mania
Posted on August 29th, 2012 by Dearieme
A range of pieces is offered: “More, more” you cry. Oh all right.
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Suck that trumpet
Posted on August 6th, 2012 by Dearieme
Just discovered – weeping with laughter.
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Gershwin III
Posted on July 29th, 2012 by Dearieme
Until I started searching for good recordings of Fascinating Rhythm I’d no idea that Percy Grainger wrote some Gershwin arrangements. Wotcha fink of ‘em? First ‘The Man I Love’. Then ‘Love Walked In’.
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Gershwin Part II
Posted on July 25th, 2012 by Dearieme
I was going to do another “rhythm” piece, on “I Got Rhythm”, but then I decided that the tune was far inferior to “Fascinating Rhythm”, and rethought. We start with some fine pipes.
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Gershwin and the Rhythm Question: Part I.
Posted on July 22nd, 2012 by Dearieme
I came across a youtube of Goodman’s 1945 band playing Fascinating Rhythm: it’s vile – reason enough on its own for the demise of the Swing Bands. So how would I introduce the song to someone who didn’t know it (if such there be )? The best conventional recording I’ve found is not by a [...]
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Dearieme farewells Bix
Posted on July 18th, 2012 by Dearieme
Bye bye Bix. Bix drank himself to death of the screaming ab-dabs in August 1931, aged 28 years and five months. During Bix’s decline Tram had a living to make and recording contracts to fulfil – often, as here, without Bix. Here’s a jolly 1930 Dancing Feet, arranged by Roy Bargy, with Eddie Lang on [...]
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Dearieme on Sunday
Posted on July 15th, 2012 by Dearieme
Tram with the Goldkette Victor Orchestra and Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra. Just as the record companies were reluctant to record and release waltzes by the black orchestra of Fletcher Henderson, they shied from the hot music of Jean Goldkette. A crisp, if slightly restrained, track is this one from 1927, with Tram a leading light.
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Dearieme on Wednesday
Posted on July 11th, 2012 by Dearieme
To some extent Tram took Bix in hand. A good place to begin is with their successful small group recording, Singin’ the Blues(1927). Some people date the birth of “cool jazz” to this recording – it had a great influence on Lester Young, for instance. Another 1927 cracker was their I’m coming Virginia. Tram should, [...]
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Dearieme on saxophone
Posted on July 8th, 2012 by Dearieme
The commonest saxophones in jazz are the alto and tenor. We’ve just had lots of stuff from Bechet, the only Master of the soprano sax. Between the alto and tenor in size is the C Melody saxophone, which also had only one Master – “Tram” i.e. Frankie Trumbauer. Here he is in 1923, playing a [...]
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