UNITY

Kurt Nauck sent me my winning lot from his last Vintage Record Auction - a blue transparent flexible UNITY from ca. 1927-1928.

Most of you will know my passion for these very rare unbreakable 1920s recordings - Now I have, except for my Hit of the week - Durium collection of flexible card board records from the 1930s, about 35 Goodson's, Filmophones and Phonycords. All very rare collectors items. I've collected some of these rare items at my Flexible Records Project sites. Most of these records are so rare that the only way to collect it is collecting the colourfull images.

Isn't it cute? I found an image of a UNITY label some years ago somewhere on the internet, probably at eBay and posted it on my Flexible Records sites. Now I have that same record (same label - same titles - same copy) in my own hands.

One of those rare label, nearly mythically, is the Flexo label, an US flexible record from the 1920s. When I tried to get info about this record and asked great US record collectors about it, most told me that they never had seen one.
So ... I wanted to have a Flexo in my hands , smell it, taste ( ! ) it.

Somewhere in 1925 the Warner Record Company produced the New Flexo records. Strange, as there is no Old Flexo or even an early Flexo record known. (the Flexo records we know were released late 1920s - early 1930s). Later the company changed its name Warner Records to Wabine company and stayed in Kansas City until 1927 or 1928. They made regular New Flexo recordings from dance bands like Johnnie Cambell's. They also made custom records like the recordings for the Unity School of Christianity. These records were not labeled as New Flexo but as UNITY.


So .... at last I can have a Flexo in my hands, smell it, taste it .....

This is the discographical information:

MacDOWELL SISTERS "Sweethearts of the Air" Hawaiian Instruments Accomp. : Edith MacDowell hg, Grace MacDowell uk
Recorded ca. 1927-1928
256 IN THE GARDEN (C. Austin Miles) 402-A
258 GOD IS LOVE ( Clara H. Scott) 402-B


That's all information I have at the moment. Of course I'm anxious to learn, who where the MacDowell Sisters, probably a group of women vocalists known from a radio program. I found that they made records for Edison Diamond Discs and for Pathé, all in the Hawaiian styles.

Thanks to Curtis A. Beckwitch who sent me an image of the two MacDowell Sisters.

Thanks to Han Enderman who sent me an image of a slightly different UNITY 402-A label in a FLEXO cover.

Thanks to Malcolm Rockwell the names of these two charming ladies are known: Edith and Grace MacDowell ( Grace prob. plays the hawaiian guitar and Edith the ukulele.)

Bob Brookmeyer - The Blues - Hot and Cold

Bob Brookmeyer is one of those musicians that only seems to have a select group of admirers. He is the leading valve trombone player. In the early 1950s he belonged to the West Coast style jazz group with musicians like Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker. When Chet Baker left Gerry's pianoless quartet Bob took his place for some years. In the early 1960s he was one of the founders of the That Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra.

Bob Brookmeyer also played piano and got some popularity with a Bill Evans group in 1960.

I found myself an Verve LP ( 821 550-1) ( originally as MGV 8385) titled The Blues - Hot and Cold. This album was made in a period Bob was part of the Gerry Mulligan band as a musician and arranger. The members of the quartet are skilled musicians: Jimmy Rowles - an underestimated pianist, Buddy Clark on bass and Mel Lewis on drums.

At the recording session eight tunes were recorded and six are to be found on the album.
I liked the album that shows Bob in a good shape. The cover lines read: His considerable heat ( hot jazz ) as well as a superior melodic imagination and an overall sense of stucture. This album didn't become a hit, but as Nat Hentoff says it contains no wasted choruses, no strain, no guerrila warfare inside the rhythm seciton or between the section and the hornman.

According to his web siteBob is still active as a composer and arranger. Listen to some tracks from one of his last albums.

Bob Brookmeyer Quartet: Bob Brookmeyer (vtb) Jimmy Rowles (p) Buddy Clark (b) Mel Lewis (d)
Recorded Los Angeles, CA, June 16, 1960
( 23256-12 / They Say Falling in Love Is Wonderful - unissued )
23257-6 Hot and Cold Blues
23258-5 - On the Sunny Side of the Street
23259-7 - Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
23260-4 - Stompin' at the Savoy
( 23267 Like Be Good unissued )
23268-2 - Languid Blues
23269-7 - I Got Rhythm

Roy Hargrove's new albums

I started this daily web blog on the 18th February 2006, just for fun. If the statistics are right this blog is number 100 so, time for a special subject.

Yesterday I mentioned that I would dedicate this blog to Roy Hargrove. As you might know, Roy is, together with the Argentinean guitar player Oscar Aleman, one of my passions. Due to the fact that he visits the Porgy en Bess Jazz Club in Terneuzen (The Netherlands) almost every year we attended his concerts regular.
The first time we heard Roy at a concert in Porgy en Bess Jazzclub was in ( 9 Nov. 1997 ) with his Crisol band, the concert I mentioned in my last blog.

After that he returned almost every year with his quintet and the last two years with his RH Factor.
Other concerts with Roy were at the North Sea Jazz Festival.

Each concert with Roy is a special event - his trumpet playing reminds of the great hard bop musicans like Clifford Jordan, Clifford Brown, Kenny Dorham and Freddie Hubbard, but I am not prepared to say that he is a clones of them. As a rising star in the 1990s, member of the so-called Young Lions, he established his own style derived from the hard bop tradition, but he kepts his mind open for other developments along the way. In the early 2000s, while under contract of Verve records, he learned that sales figures of his records didn't rise anymore and he had to find new ways to count at the top. He formed his RH Factor, a mix of jazz, soul and funk, with guest stars like D'Angelo and Erykah Badu, Q-tip and M'Shell Ndesgéocello, names famous I'm not familiar with, but who are stars in the neo-soul scene of the 2000s.

We attended two concerts with the RH Factor and, although it is not to compare with his earlier hard bop quintets, we enjoyed the performances, with its catching rhythms and soulfull riffs. And, although Roy experiments with new musical sources, his trumpet playing style is still, like Miles in his electric period, knowable by his original playing.

What a surprise ......

Last week I learned that a new album of the RH Factor had been released, titled Distractions. It's the third one of this group although the second one, Stength, was labeled as an EP, midpriced, another way to tell that it only had a 45 minutes playing time. This new CD, priced at normal standards, however, only has 38 minutes. What a shame for such a band that hasn't any problem playing for two-and-a-half hours at stage without any intermissions. The record itself contains several titles performed at their last concert in Terneuzen, and although David Fathead Newman has been added and showss great mastership for me it didn't become a remarkable album. Renee Neufville sings on nearly all tunes and it seems even as if Roy only plays a modest part.

Another surprise .......

In the meantime Roy released another CD, titled Nothing Serious and, as the sticker on the cover reads The Acclaimed Trumpeter's First New Jazz Quintet Recording In Ten Years ! What a surprise. This New Jazz Quintet isn't as new as the title suggests. It contains Roy on trumpet and flugelhorn of course, Justin Robinson on alto saxophone and flute, Ronnie Matthews on piano, Dwayne Burno and Willie Jones III in the rhythm section - all musicans who performed with Roy before.

It is Roy as we hoped to hear him again - in a small setting - playing in the hard bop tradition. Maybe he felt that he lost part of his admirers with his RH Factory experiences. The music on this album, 45 minutes long / short, is great - it's Roy as he played in the 1990s although his music seems more arranged, settled and relaxed, without the strings used on Moment To Moment, for me an album he shouldn't have made. His great influence good old Slide Hampton is added on three of the eight tunes.

This is a must have ... so get your copy !!

At the Northsea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam this year Roy will perform with both groups, his RH Factor and his quintet, although with a different line-up. So seize the opportunity !!

Listen to the first track titled Nothing Serious or to one of the other tracks by clicking on the title bar.

Thanks for joining my first hunderd daily web blogs - I hope you'll enjoy the next ones too. Forward the address if you like and continue to feed me with your remarks, additions and comments.

Hans

Afro-Cuban Jazz - Scott Yanow

Last week I found myself at De Slegte in Breda a reference book about Afro-Cuban Jazz. It is written by Scott Yanow. It prides itself as the essential listening companion.

This kind of refrence works are very important if you are interested in all kinds of jazz music and jazz-related musicians. It gives you reviews of recordings and, although you may differ in opinion it can help to form a notion of a musician.

The first thing you do is turn over the leaves and take the entries of the book. Who's in the book and who's not. I'm not going to make a review, but reviewers seem to derive their opinion to the musicans who are NOT in the book. And of course some musicians catch attention.

Some remarks: I missed an entry for Ry Cooder. He is mentioned in as the one who organized the Afro-Cuban revival in the 1990s with the well known Buena Vista Social Club. Other musicians, like Jane Bunnett, who organized her Spritis of Havana band has an entry by herself. One section of the book is titled They Also Recorded Afro-Cuban Jazz , but no Ry Cooder entry either.

Roy Hargrove has, among a large number of jazz musicians, an entry as leader of the Crisol band, one of his greatest experiences in his carreer. This Crisol band ( Yanow miss spells it as Cristol, which is wrong) visited the Porgy en Bess Jazz Club in Terneuzen (The Netherlands) ( 9 November 1997 ) with great names in Cuban jazz, like Chucho Valdes, David Sanchez, Horacio El Negro Hernandez, Jose Luis Quintana and Miguel Diaz. The first two are, of course in the book.

I will return to Roy Hargrove tomorrow as that blog will be a very special one.

Horacio El Negro Hernandez returned in Porgy en Bess last year ( 6 November 2005 ) and I visited that concert with my nephew Elmer, who is an amateur drummer himself. Hernandez will perform on the 5th of June in Park Brakkenstein in Nijmegen ( The Netherlands).

Another entry is for the Brazilian trumpet player Claudio Roditi who was with his trio in our jazz club too ( 17 Oct. 2004 ), who sticks in my memory as a very gifted player and a great personality.

Find some impressions of the Claudio Roditi concert by clicking on the title.

Don't miss tomorrow's blog ... it will be special.

Clicquot Club Eskimos

CLICQUOT CLUB ESKIMOS: Andy Bosen tp, Matthew Collen tb, Joe Davis cl as Clarence Doench cl ts, Paul Rickenbach p, Harry Reser banj dir arranger, Paul Redmond b, Maurice Black tu, Tom Stacks dm vo

- Clicquot- 142263

Recorded New York City, 28 May 1926 for Columbia
Click on the title to hear the tune

This record, recorded 80 years ago, always has fasinated me as it was one of my first original 78rpm I bought on a record fair. The music was played in a straight way arranged with a little swing and the presence of the banjo was outstanding.

It must have been one of the first electric recordings as around 1926 most record companies had exchaned their accoustical record equipment for an electric system. I remember that I was fascinated by the sound of the barking dogs and the jingle bells of the eskimos sleigh.

The Clicquot Club Eskimos was the name of the orchestra that performed during the weekly W.E.A.F. radio program to provide the music of the day that included bright peppy numbers to go with the advertiser's sparkling Clcquot Ginger Ale. Clicquot was the name of the eskimo boy that was on the label of the bottles. During that radio program the popular Reser's band played live and the radio program was transmitted nation wide. When you see their picture, all dressed like eskimos, the listener could imagine how they must have been dressed in the radio studio.
Reser was association for ten years with his Clicquot Club Eskimos for this ginger ale.

Harry Reser made hundreds of records, always arranged around his instrument, the banjo. Later he played guitar too, but in the 1920s the banjo was his main instrument as it was more powerfull and clear in a period when recordings and performances were not electric amplified. Later the guitar pushed the banjo away having a more sophisticated sound.

Harry Reser's banjo work has been reissued on LP and so are his Clicquot Club Eskimos, even. like in the picture above, with more then one banjos.

( Listen to: Flapperette - 4991 (ca. 1930))

Listen to Tom Stacks singing in I'm Wild About Horn On Automobiles ( Harry Reser's Syncopators - 7 March 1929 )

Thank you Ric G. and Bud B. for sharing your MP3 file - it completes my blog.

Extremes meet at Breda Jazz Festival

Extremes meet at Breda Jazz Festival.... and that's the way a jazz festival should be is my opinion.

Beyond expectation the weather on Thursday (25 May 2006) was great at Breda's jazz festival so the streets, pavements and markets of the city were crowded with thousands of jazz fans and more rather normal people. There were live bands all over the city on stages and on the streets.

Extremes meet at Breda Jazz Festival should be a good device as there were streetparades, traditional jazz bands, blues bands, revival jazz, swing, but also DJ Ser-V and, although not part of the festival, a concert of James Carter at the Chassé Theater.

For me there were two concerts I love to share with you: Blue Rhythm Jugglers and James Carter Organ Trio.

The Blue Rhythm Jugglers is directed by Jack van Elewout. It's a retroband that plays the hot jazz and dance music of the 1920s. During their concert at the Kasteelplein they played tunes from McKinney's Cotton Pickers, Frank Trumbauer and the California Ramblers - hot dance music strictly arranged like the original recordings as it should be. Great music! The whole ensemble played a good match and performing this kind of stuff live gives it that extra dimension that is impossible to catch on a record. I should have a CD !

concert blog

The James Carter concert at the Chassé Theater was a complete different sensation.

James Carter is one of the great tenor saxophone players of the moment. With the complete woodwinds family under his arm he came on stage, dressed like a gentleman, and filled the complete stage of the Finntax Telecomzaal. His sound is strong and aggresive. To be honest it looked af if he and his backing group found it difficult to find the right sound in the first set. His accompanists, Gerald Gibbs on Hammond B3 and Leonard King on drums, seemed to have the same problem. Carter, who played the tenor and alto saxophone ( he didn't use his soprano) had a lot of trouble with his reeds - he changed reeds for five or six times which suggests that he wasn't content with his sound. James Carter also performed on the flute.

Although Gerald Gibbs showed in his solos that he is a gifted organ player, funky and groovy as a Hammond ought to sound, we had to wait for the second set to have some great moments. Moments that Carter sounded like Coltrane, Gerald Gibbs like Jimmy Smith or Jack McDuff and even the drummer man learned that he could make music instead of a lot of noise at his cymbals.

The James Carter concert at the Chassé theater was not his best, but I'm glad I was able to hear this great sax player perform live.

concert blog

First image: Happy Feet.

Breda Jazz Festival

Bill Bacon

The Breda Jazz Festival is organized in the four days at Ascension Day ( 25th - 28th May 2006). Although it was traditionally dedicated to the traditional jazz styles modern elements are sceduled too nowadays. A full program is to be seen at their informative and beautiful web site .

I'll hope to visit it today without having a special program in mind and tonight the James Carter concert at the Chassé theater will be my highlight I hope.

In the 1970s I visited the festival three times.
In remember the Dutch Swing College Band and the Albert Nicholas performances in 1972, the great concerts of the Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra in 1978 and 1979, the Claude Hopkins, Dickie Wells and Earle Warren concert in 1978 ( in fact I remember the fragile old man at the piano chair playing like a young guy ) and the concerts of Wild Bill Davison with the Classic Jazz Collegium ( 1978)

In the 1980s I remembered the great concert in 1981 of the Zimbabwean Neptune Band, pure New Orleans style and I must have seen Turk Murphy's band ( although I don't have clear remembrances to that concert) ( no ... not the alcohol !!). In 1985 the Portena Jazz Band from Argentina and the Dutch Gangbusters performed at the Turfschip in Breda and maybe it is an unimportant change that both Martin Muller of the Portena as Frenk van Meeteren and Ton van Bergeyk of the Gangbusters are great Oscar Aleman admirers.


I remember a weird story to illustrate how famous ( ! ) I was in the 1980s. We had planned to visit the night concert at the Turfschip in Breda somewhere in the 1980s, but, as usual we were much to early at the Turfschip. We dedided to drink something at the bar of the hall to kill time. While doing that a man, obvious an American ( coloured shirt, cowboy hat) came into the bar and filled the whole room. He came to sit next to me at the bar and said to me: You're going to give me a beer. Well, for me that's the wrong way to get a beer so I refussed it and after some time the man told me he was looking for a Dutchman; maybe I knew him. I told him that millions of Dutchmen live in Holland, so ..... He told the name of the man, the name of the street and the city and he even knew the zip code by heart. I grew pale and was very surprised as the man had told me my name and address without making a single hesitation. I considered his remarks carefully and told him that he had found the right man, but .... how did he know my name and all those other information? Well I knew I would meet that man, he said and took his bag. He delivered me an envelope with one of those typlically 1980s auction lists, filled with thousands of records typefaced with small letters. I don't have to pay for the stamps now. Now I remembered that I had asked someone in the US a long time ago for such a list. I returned my thanks and offered him a drink. Well, didn't I tell you you would offer me a drink? he said. The man was Bill Bacon from Texas, a regular visitor of the festival.

Everybody Loves My Baby

Enrico sent me an ad he found in a 1920s news paper from the song Everybody Loves My Baby. A well known tune that became a standard in the traditional jazz. The song was credited words and music by Jack Palmer and Spencer Williams, in 1924. The song was popularized by Ruth Etting

I jumped into my collection and found the following releases:

These are the lyrics in the Doris Day version, as she sung in the 1955 movie Love Me Or Leave Me:

Everybody loves my baby

but my baby don't love nobody but me nobody but me

Yes everybody wants my baby

but my baby don't want nobody but me

that's plain to see!

I'm his sweet Judy

and he is my loving man!

No time to do his duty

loves me like no other can!

Everybody loves my baby

but my baby don't love nobody but menobody but me

Everybody wants my baby

but my baby don't want nobody but me

that's plain to see!

Now when my baby kisses me

upon my rosy cheeks -

I just let those kisses be

don't wash my face for weeks!

Everybody loves my baby...

I jumped in to my collection and found the next versions:

everybody loves my baby - georgia melodians ny 240924
everybody loves my baby - clarence williams blue five ny 241106
everybody loves my baby - fletcher henderson o ny 241124
everybody loves my baby - georgians ny 241124
everybody loves my baby - goofus five ny 241125
everybody loves my baby - tennessee tooters ny 250216
everybody loves my baby - george olsen music ny 250304
everybody loves my baby - stomp six ch 250700
everybody loves my baby - earl hines o ch 290213
everybody loves my baby - taylor dixie o ca 310523
everybody loves my baby - boswell sisters ny 320224
everybody loves my baby - ramblers dance o ld 330523
everybody loves my baby - boswell sisters-ramblers dh 330718
everybody loves my baby - sharkey new orleans boys no 360321

everybody loves my baby - fats waller rhythm ny 401106 everybody loves my baby - sidney de paris blue note jazzmen ny 440621
everybody loves my baby - firehouse five + 2 hw 491008 ca111
everybody loves my baby - johnny wiggs new orleans music no usa 560526
everybody loves my baby - bragi jazzband gr nl 640414
everybody loves my baby - victoria varekamp friends zs nl 740928
everybody loves my baby - circus square jazz band mg nl 800622
everybody loves my baby - lillian boutte usa 821120
everybody loves my baby - harsenkrabbers dt nl 830302
everybody loves my baby - pichelour jazz-band sm f 830319
everybody loves my baby - nootenkraaksters rd nl 900506
everybody loves my baby - swing sisters ld 950000
everybody loves my baby - judy carmichael ca. 2004

If you want to hear how Dick Wellstood plays the tune at his album Live at Hanratti's click here or the title link.

Stan Kenton Band - El Congo Valiente

On 23 May 1956, fifty years ago, the Stan Kenton Orchestra recorded the tune El Congo Valiente at the Capitol Studios in New Your City.

The orchestra, directed by Stan Kenton, contained 18 musicians during this session and was one of the largest big bands of those days and could be enlarged to 26 or 30 men if necessary. The musicians to be heard as soloists are Lennie Niehaus, who playes a great solo on alto saxophone and Bill Perkins on tenor . Another great solo is for Ken Larsen, the trombone player. Vinnie Tanno, a not so well known trumpet player is responsible for the second solo.

The tune El Congo Valiente is part of the Cuban Fire suite, one of the most popular Kenton pieces. The arranger Johnny Richards just arrived at Kenton's band was reponsible for the latin sound. This suite became popular and it raised to number 17 in Billboard in a very short time.

I was lucky to see and hear the Stan Kenton band live in the Doelen 17 years later in Rotterdam September 1973 and what I remember was the great sound of the band and the typically effects the brass section made - the effects I identified with big band music. I was also impressed by the show - Stan staying before the exploding band as relaxed as a farmer feeding his chickens, directing with a simple move of his arm, the sections raising from their chairs when they played their parts. A great experience for a young adult !!

As I told before in my blog a few days ago when I reviewed the Marius Beets Powerhouse band record, big bands sometimes become a mush of sounds - not the Kenton band, this is big band music on a high level.

Enjoy a fragment: El Congo Valiente - Stan Kenton's Orchestra ( NYC 23 May 1956)

El indolo del Tango

Thanks to Eduardo I got a picture of the El indolo del Tango movie. This film was released in 1949.

The film was directed by Héctor Canzioni and, although it contains a lot of music like vocals of Julio Martel, it is not a very intersting comedy. Oscar only plays in one scene where he dances and sings in his typically Aleman way. ( Part of ) this scene is to found on the Django Music sites and if you have the latest Media player you can view this scene on that site.

Oscar Aleman in El Idolo del Tango (1949)

The cast contains: Julio Martel - Graciela Lecube - Héctor Ferraro - María Esther Buschiazzo - Gloria Ramírez - Manolita Serra - Héctor Gagliardi - Osmar Maderna - Domingo Federico - Óscar Alemán - Juan Carlos Barbará. Text: Alfonso Gárgano.

The film is originally released in Argentina in the Spanish language in black and white and has a runtime of 70 minutes.

Thanks Jørgen to post this link in the comments of the
Oscar Aleman blogspot.

Dizzy

Dizzy Gillespie is, in my case, an underrated musicians. I like his music, his humor and his charism, but only have few records in my collection.

Some times ago I found the Vogue recordings made in the early 1950s while visiting France. It is a great record and contains the music of three Vogue sessions.

At two of these sessions he recorded with Don Byas and a French rhythm group. It became two great recording sessions. Both Raymond Fol and Piere Michelot play a very good part on the tunes of the second recording session.

Dizzy Gillespie Jazz Ensemble: Dizzy Gillespie (tp, vo) Don Byas (ts) Arnold Rose (p) Joe Benjamin (b) Bill Clark (d) Umberto Canto (cga)
Recorded: Studio Jouvenet, Paris, France, March 27, 1952
Hurry Home
She's Funny That Way

Dizzy Gillespie Jazz Ensemble: Dizzy Gillespie (tp, vo) Bill Tamper (tb) Hubert Fol (as) Don Byas (ts) Raymond Fol (p) Pierre Michelot (b) Pierre Lemarchand (d)
Recorded Schola Cantorum, Paris, France, April 11, 1952
CCC Blues
Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams
Sweet Lorraine
Everything Happens to Me
I Cover The Waterfront
I Don't Know Why
Hurry Home
She's Funny That Way

The two recordings sessions were released on Blue Note

Six other tunes are from a session made some weeks after the 1953 Salle Pleyel concert. It contains Nat Peck, a New York-born Paris resident who later recorded with the Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland band. At these session Dizzy is the great star and critics think this session is the best he made during his 1950s trip to Paris.

Dizzy Gillespie Quintet: Dizzy Gillespie tp, Nat Peck tb, Wade Legge p, Lou Hackney b, Al jones dm.
Recorded Paris, ca. late March 1953
Always
Mon Home ( My Man)
This Is The Way
s' Wonderful
Moon Nocturne
Fais Gaffe.

Maybe someone can help me to date this session.

It's a great LP and I'm sure I need some more Gillespie recordings in my collection.

Six-and-Seven-Eighths

A 1920s String Band

Thanks to Jørgen I have learned a lot about rare guitar recordings. Recordings of groups I've never heard of and each record suprises me with unheard music.

Last night I tried to find out how the music of the Six-and-Seven-Eights String Band of New Orleans, as its full name is, sounds. A primitive, but good sounding kind of syncopated dance music. It was popular between 1910 and 1925 and normally the band included violin, mandolin, guitar, banjo and ukulele.

One of those popular early 20th Century bands was the Invincibles String Band, but no recordings of that gruop were ever made. A other one was the Six-and-Seven-Eights. The history of both bands is different. The Invincibles String Band enlarged by using horns, became a regular dance band and changed their names in the New Orleans Owls, playing straight arrangements. The Six-and-Seven-Eights survived and were recorded in the late 1940s by Dr. Edmond Souchon, who playes the guitar on that recordings. This group of New Orleans musician could survive as they were used in places where they needed "hot" music instead of "loud" . They became popular in Colleges and they became, Richard Sudhalter says in his great book Lost Chords the house band of the Navy houseboat Aunt Dinah.

If you want to hear some music click on this link containing fragments of the Folkways album FA 2671.

Thanks Jørgen for sharing this great music with me.

Marius Beets Powerhouse Big Band

Marius Beets is not only a gifted bass player he also has other talents. He is a composer, band leader, arranger and a record engineer. As a bass player he is to be heard on many productions and well known, but few people know that he is also a gifted composer and arranger. He say his arrangements are inspired by composers as Gil Evans, the man who gave big band music a new dimension in the late 1950s. Marius arranged for Trijntje Oosterhuis and the New Cool Collective Big Band.

The first CD that gives Marius Beets full play is his Maxander Records production Marius Beets And The Powerhouse Big Band Vol 1. ( CD MAX 75232 ). He told me it gave him the opportunity to express his talents and to compile his own big band. The Powerhouse Big Band is not an existing group - it is a studio orchestra that contains Dutch musicians backed up with his own rhythm sextion ( Peter Beets on the piano, Martijn van Iterson at the guitar, Martijn Vink on drums and of course Marius on bass.

The CDs is a surprise, as the arrangements are well done and make the band swing like hell. More then half of the tunes are compositions by the hard bop generatrion, like Lee Morgan, Horace Silver, Herbie Hancock and Hank Mobley. Three composition are made by Marius himself. The music sounds fresh and the recording is well done. I never had the feeling to listen to a dancing elephant or a porridge of sounds, something I dislike in many other big band recordings.

The addition Volume 1 indicates that we will hear more from Marius's Powerhouse Big Band in the futur and I hope not to miss it.

Advertising Edison Diamond Discs - early 1920s

At a garage sale some days ago I found a nice bound book called "Export Merchandising". It was published New York City at the Mc Graw-Hill building in 1922. As I knew that in that building the Durium firm had been established late 1920s I got anxious. When I turned over the leaves I found some nice pictures. One of the pictures was an early 1920s South African street car with bill boards to promote the New Edison discs - a so called Diamond Discs, as the letterpress told.


I bought the book and I love to share the picture with you.

*EXPORT MERCHANDISING / Walter F. WYMAN. - New York : Mc Graw-Hill, 1922. - xx, 405 p. - Released: 1922

Mc Graw-Hill building

An Edison diamond disc

Mysterious signs

Alex pointed me to some mysterious signs he found on some of his Hit of the week labels. I have worked it out and posted a message about these mysterious signs at my Hit of the week blog spot .

Thanks Alex.

Two Trumpets

Due to the problems with the provider I felt this weekend as if I was a participant in a Kafka movie. That's all I want to say about it now. I hope the problems will be solved very soon.

I bought myself a great LP at a garage sale last saturday that gave me some good feelings. An original Prestige called 2 Trumpets by Art Farmer and Donald Byrd. The 1956 recordings brings two great trumpet players together and although it was not their best albums for me it was a delight to listen to it. Other musicans on this album are Jackie McLean, Doug Watkins, Barry Harris and Art Taylor.

Northsea Jazz at Friday

The program of the North Sea Jazz Festival has been published and of course I was anxious to learn what artists will perform. This year the festival will be held in Rotterdam instead of The Hague. I was specially interested in the first evening, Friday, as this probably will become the evening to visit the festival.

First of all the great names in Jazz: Branford Marsalis, Artist In Residence, which means that he will perform three days in all kinds of bands and Herbie Hancock. Both are Plusconcerts which means that the perfomance will be in one of those giant halls, the artist as a tiny dwarf somewhere at the horizon while the camera's enlarge him on a giant screen and the music amplified to improbable scales. I don't know if I like that.

Some other names. James Carter will be there, but as you may know I have a ticket for the Breda concert at Ascension Day. Benny Golson, I have to see him ( again) and the Roy Hargrove Quintet. I'm anxious to learn if Roy will pick up his old quintet-style again. I hope so.

Some other names that attrack my attention: Brad Mehldau Trio ( I have to see him again), Bill Frisell, Yusef Lateef ( he's still alive?), Jasper van 't Hoff, Benjamin Herman, Piet Noordijk ....

Wel, I guess I have to order my ticket today ......

Gaston Bueno Lobo in the 1930s - 3

A few weeks ago Joergen Larsen told me that he had found some information about recordings made by Gaston Bueno Lobo, the companion in Los Lobos of Oscar Aleman.

If the above information was true it meant that the story Oscar Aleman told about the suicide of Gaston Bueno Lobo, dated early 1930s was wrong. So it was important to find out what year Lobo died.

Joergen started a research at internet and thanks to Daniella Thompson this week we found the year Lobo passed away.

Find all information at his new Gaston Bueno Lobo website !

Congratulations Joergen and Daniella.

This message is also posted at our Oscar Aleman blogspot

Maestro Sam Wooding y sus Chocolate Kiddies

The Sam Wooding Chocolate Dandies later renamed as Chocolate Kiddies has been a favourite band of mine for long time.

It was one of the first bands that made jazz popular in Europe. The band made a tour through Europe and visited the major cities between May 1925 and February 1927. The tour started at Hamburg on May 17th 1925 and ended in Paris. As far as I know they didn't perform in the Netherlands. The band brought us the Chocolates Kiddies Revue, a kind of musical show.

Some musicians of the band played in other orchestras before, like Tommy Ladnier who had played in Oliver's band and names as Herb Flemming. Garvin Bushell, Gene Sedric ( he was for a long time one of the members of Waller's Rhythm), Doc Cheatman and Freddy Johnson, became known for their recordings later.
The Biograph BLP-12025 LP gives us the opportunity to listen to the music this orchestra made and the 1925 Berlin recordings and a 1929 Barcelona recordings feel fresh and well arranged.

I had this record in my collection long time ago, taped it and sold it. Now I found myself a new copy again and I enjoyed it.

The 1929 Barcelona tracksI remember that it felt special to insert the Barcelona sides in my card-tray ( my database-before-the-computer-era) as the records were labeled as Maestro Sam Wooding y sus Chocolate Kiddies, a bit exotical for a fifteen year old boy !!

The Anachronic Jazz Band

I'd love to introduce you to the Anachronic Jazz Band. If you've never heard about it I'll give you some information.

It's a French band, that performed and recorded some albums in the 1970s. They are a traditional jazz band, featuring four horns and a five piece rhythm section with sousaphone and string base. So far not so different then other traditional jazz groups, but .... what makes it Anachronic Jazz Band so different?

The idea is very simple. The play melodies and sometimes the chord structures of bop tunes, making the 1940s and 1950s modern tunes sound as if they were recorded in the 1920s. This gives a very special effect as if the musicians are the wrong persons in the wrong time.

Although in the 1970s their must have been a much larger gap between traditional and m,odern jazz styles, the music still sounds as a Roman soldier walking through Manhattan.

Sad to say, but the band don't exist anymore and there are only few recorings left. Of course, some musicians are still active, but don't have plans to reissue the recordings again or set up a new Anachronic band. One of the musicians is the well known French trombone player Daniel Banda is now active in the Paris Washboard band and Daniel Huck is to found in the Petit Jazz Band de Mr. Morel.

If you've never heard this music now there's a change.
Enjoy their interpretation of Blue Monk , a well known Thelonious Monk composition.

The Shellac Stack Podcast

Nowadays podcasts are very popular. Podcast are, let's say it simple, private broadcasts to be downloaded from the internet. You can download the music and play it on your MP3 player, but with a modern burning program you also can make normal CDRs with it on your computer.

Collectors love to share their collections. So does Bryan Wright who makes a weekly podcast on his Shellac Stack podcast sites. He collects 78rpm recordings and gives information and comments between the tunes, like in a radio program. He made, up to now, 12 weekly podcasts.

I have posted the link of the fourth podcast in my Hit of the week blogspot as it contains one of the 5 minutes Hit of the week records. So if you love to hear a podcast right away go and visit that blog and enjoy.

Gaston Bueno Lobo in the 1930s - 2

Gaston Bueno Lobos keeps us awake. A week ago facts were discovered that made us doubt about the knowledge that Lobos comitted suicide in Brazil early 1930s.

Jørgen Larsen summarized the information as it reached us out of Brazil and posted it at our Oscar Aleman blog spot

Enjoy it.

Budget Getz at the supermarket

I bought myself a Stan Getz record, called Lady In Red at the local supermarket for a few euros. Twenty tunes for 15 cents each. You can find these mass productions in filling stations, Media Markets or drugstores. They are cheap, don't have any discographical information and contain tunes that are free of rights or stolen, shameless, from serious productions.

I bought myself Stan Getz's "Lady in Red"

If you should believe the cover it must be recent work from Getz, from the last decade of his life. On the cover Getz as he was playing somewhere in the 1980s or 1990s, but the recordings are from early 1950s, when Getz had left the Woody Herman band as part of the Four Brothers and recorded with his own quartet for Prestige and Roost. These early Getz recordings belong to the best he made and to be found for 15 cents-á-tune on this cheap budget CD.

I wonder if someone ever made a discography for this kind of ephemeral releases. Maybe I should do. It looks like the Hit of the week-Durium project to draw a parallel as the records don't divulge their secrets too. What would be a proper name for such a discography? Supermarket Jazz discography or Budget Jazz Discography or ......

Please send me your suggestions.

Gaston Bueno Lobo in the 1930s

This time a request for help: Jørgen Larsen wants to find out in what year the Brasilian steel guitar player Gaston Bueno Lobo died.

The discussion about the year of Gaston's pass away started some weeks ago in my Oscar Aleman blog spot. If you visit the blog you'll find in the contribution the story that Oscar Aleman told according his split with Gaston Bueno Lobo, his companion in the Los Lobos duo.

According to Hernan Gaffet's documentary Lobo went depressed to Brazil ca. 1931 and committed suicide. However Jørgen Larsen discovered some Lobo recordings in 1932 and 1938 ( ! ) which means that Lobo's dead might have been taken place not early 1930s, but late 1930s.

Joergen discusses all details extensive in that blog spot of 22 April and posted another indication today that might proof that Gaston Bueno Lobo was still active in the late 1930s.

Can someone give us more information about the period Lobo returned to Brasil until his death?

Visit our Oscar Aleman blog spot

Wat een meisje weten moet - Louis Davids - 2

A few blogs ago we introduced the Dutch Louis Davids advertisment record for Persil Wat een meisje weten moet. Thanks to Rinus Blijleven, Ate van Delden, Jerry Priessen and the information of Rainer Lotz we seem to make for complete information

Listen to Wat Elk Meisje Weten Moet

There are two different versions for the front of this picture discs and one for the reverse.


4921 Wat een meisje weten moet - Louis Davids
recorded ca. 1930-1931 in Berlin.

There are up to 9 different songs on the reverse.

1.
1n Herr, ich hab' Sie schon gekannt, als Sie so klein war'n - Foxtrot
M: Willy Rosen/T: Willy Rosen und Marcel Lion

2.
5087-B 01049 Donna Vatra Serenade Argentine Tango M: Otto Köpping Tango-Kapelle Morello [=Géza Komor]

Auch auf Tri-Ergon 5204; Colorit 3003 als "Tangokapelle Morello"; Colorit 3137 als "Tangokapelle Romeo"

3.
20001-B 02731 La Donna E Mobile [Ach, wie so trügerisch] (Comme La Plume Au Vent) a.d. Oper "Aïda" M: Giuseppe Verdi
Chanté par Salvatore Salvati avec accompagnement d´orchestre (Italienisch gesungen)

Auch auf Star S.5009 als "Cav. Salvatre Salvati, tenor med orkester"

4.
4656m1 Das Blumenmädchen von Neapel - Tango

5.
6843 (6783 crossed out)) Das Gibt's Nur Einmal - Foxtrot aus "Der Kongress Tanzt"

6.
Ein, zwei, drei die ganze Kompanie - Marsch-Fox - aus "Kaisermanöver"

7.

..287X (12227) There's Something In Your Eyes Tango, Eddy Wallis's Band

Recorded ca 7 Aug. 1931. Originally made by Artiphon

8.

(4063) Ach Otto, Otto Foxtrot nn (= Geza Komor Tanzorchester)

9.

4134m1 Im Rosengarten Von La Plata Tango

If you want to see Colorits and other Flexible records enjoy my web sites with more Flexible Records

Thanks to Ate, Jerry, Rinus and Rainer for their information.

Durium

Raymond Scott's Secret 7 "The Unexpected"

The music of Raymond Scott is always full of surprises and thanks to Basta, who released the 1960 Secret 7 tapes found in the Marr Sound Archive, the place where Raymond's private archive is to be found, we can hear it on CD.

Everbody who is familiar with Scott's music knows he was a remarkable writer of (film) music. His music is always full of humor and thanks to Gert Jan Blom and Basta records his music is available again on numerous albums.

I don't know how to categorize the music I write. I guess all I can say in terms of definition is that I write Raymond Scott.

This Secret 7 music was found on a binaural tape in Scott's private archive and was restored in Amsterdam. Scott says about this music that he wrote it because it's fun to write music, there are no holds barred and anything liable's to happen. As he continues he says that he can be himself in this music, leaving the period of the Quintette behind.

There were for me some surprises in this music. First of all it surprised me that some tunes made me think of the music of André Popp, the French composer who made his sound experiences around the same period. The practice using different speeds in recording gives the vocal part in Scott's The Cow Jumped Over The Moon and The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon a kind of bizarre effect as if a choir of aliens are performing. It is as if Popp composes again (although they were in fact contemporaries).

The other suprise is the presence of Toots Thielemans. He recorded, as he told, several times with Scott in the early 1960s and could identify the other eight ( ! ) musicians. The cover doesn't indicate what musicans were present (Jazz listeners should recognize the identity of most of the performers ) and the website that might give the answer doesn't open. ( so mind, the link don't work !! )

Has someone identified the other musicians?

Bill Coleman and Don Byas

This time my favorite CD is BILL COLEMAN AND DON BYAS, playing with some unknown bands in France around 1950. In fact there are two different concerts on this record.

When he arrived in the end of 1948 in Paris it was not the first time Bill Coleman visited France. He was in France in the 1930s when he made recordings with artists like Oscar Aleman see Oscar aleman Discography .

He played in 1948 with the house band of the Hot Club of France, the Edward´s Jazz Band , a band full of young French musicians like Michel De Villers, Geo Daly, Bernard Peiffer, Jean Bouchety and Roger Paraboschi. The name of the band was borrowed from the place where the Paris Hot Club was situated, the Edward VII Theatre. After a few rehearsals they started an extensive tour through Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. Don Byas, who also left the US to live in Europe, joined the group. Although they had a lot of success, the band didn´t last more then a few month due to a lack of bookings. There had been made some studio recordings early 1949 with a part of the band.

The recordings on this CD were probably made at the first concert on tour by some jazz fans. Of course this means that the sound quality isn´t studio quality, but it has become and unique document of an excellent vital band.

The final six tunes were made by Don Byas who playes with another house band, the Saratoga Jazz Hounds early 1951. No Bill Coleman on these tunes.

I like to listen to this spontaneous vital concerts that would have been lost forever if they weren´t reissued on this 1994 Clifford Records.