Oscar Aleman Promo Picture

( Naar de Nederlandse vertaling.)


Thanks to Waldo Fonseca from Buenos Aires (Argentina) I can show you an unknown publicity picture of Oscar Aleman. The picture is made while playing for one of his popular appearances at radio programs late 1940s.

When Theo van der Graaff visitied Oscar Aleman in his apartement in Buenos Aires, late 1979, he was allowed to make shots from his scrap books. One of the pages was dedicated to this period, with images and news paper articles about his radio performances. Oscar became very popular with his programs for Radio Belgrano ( LR3 ).

Thanks Waldo for sharing this picture with us

Nederlands ( To the English translation )

Dankzij Waldo Fonseca uit Buenos Aires (Argentinië) kan ik deze keer een onbekende publiciteitsfoto laten zien van Oscar Aleman.

De foto is waarschijnlijk genomen tijdens één van zijn populaire radio-optredens. Zijn programma's voor Radio Belgrano op LR3 werden veel beluisterd.

Dankzij Theo van der Graaff´s bezoek eind 1979 aan het appartement van Oscar Aleman kunnen we foto's laten zien uit één van van zijn plakboeken. Hierboven één van de pagina's waar Oscar krantenknipsels heeft bewaard van deze periode.

Bedankt Waldo voor deze foto !

This contribution was also published on my http://oscar-aleman.blogspot.com ( Oscar Aleman blogspot ),

MP Label

Dutch
Bob and Ken will receive their present soon. Thanks for your support !


The card board Hit of the week records were made by Durium, a firm established in the late 1920s in the US that made record needles and cheap unbreakable card board records. These card board records were cheap ( only 0,15 US$) , unbreakable, flexible and light weight. As they were made of card board with a layer of Durium, a kind of acetate, it was also a very durable record. They decided to make a weekly record that would contain the Hits of the that week, the HIT OF THE WEEK. This weekly series were released between 1930 and summer 1932.

To sell old stock Durium decided to export these records to Europe.They were sold as HIT OF THE WEEKS in most West European countries. In France they didn't want foreign influences and so the label print was erased and re[placed by a French label like SEFONO. Some dancings or record shops tried to sell their own labeled card board record. So did Le Metro Pelletiers, a venue for dancing, at the Rue de la Victoire in Paris, who published their MP label.

We don't know how many different MP records were released, but some have been listed. Thanks to Han Enderman, who is always searching for rare record labels on auction lists I got two nice pictures of these labels.

Information:

HIT-OF-THE-WEEK ORCHESTRA BERT HIRSCH, DIRECTOR [2tp-tb-2as-ts-3v-p-banj g-tu-dm-vo] Bert Hirsch dir., Mannie Klein tp, Dick Robertson vo.
Recorded New York City, c Sep. 1930
1106 B D / MY BLUEBIRD WAS CAUGHT IN THE RAIN {Mi pájaro azul se mojó las alas} Fox-Trot Creamer Rich - DR vo
Originally released as HOW 1106/ MP 1106

HIT-OF-THE-WEEK ORCHESTRA BERT HIRSCH, DIRECTOR. [2tp-tb-2as-ts- oboe-3v-p-banj hawaiian g-xyl-tu-dm-vo] Bert Hirsch dir., Mannie Klein tp, Dick Robertson vo.
Recorded New York City, c Oct. 1930
1111 C / IF I COULD BE WITH YOU ONE HOUR TO-NIGHT {Si pudiera estar contigo} Fox-Trot Creamer Johnson - DR vo <>
Originally released as HOW 1111/ MP 1111

(Source: Online Hit of the week Discography - Hans Koert. )

This contribution is also published at my http://hitoftheweek.blogspot.com


Dutch: De kartonnen Hit of the week platen zijn gemaakt door Durium, een bedrijf dat zich in de VS eind jaren twintig richtte op het maken van gramofoon naalden en goedkope onbreekbare platen. Deze kartonnen platen waren goedkop ( 15 dollar cent). onbreekbaar, buigbaar en licht van gewicht. Omdat ze van karton gemaakt waren met een harde Durium kunststof laag waren ze ook erg duurzaam. Men besloot wekelijks zo'n plaat uit te brengen met de hits van de week: HIT OF THE WEEK. Deze wekelijkse platen werden uitgebracht tussen 1930 en de zomer van 1932.

Men probeerde de voorraden te slijten door ze te exporteren naar Europa. Ze werden hier overal verkocht als HIT OF THE WEEK. In Frankrijk wilden ze geen buienlandse bemoeienissen en werd het label vaak gewist en onieuw bedrukt met Franse labels zoals SEFONO. Sommige danszalen of platenzaken brachten de platen uit onder hun eigen label, zoals Le Metro Pelletiers, een danszaal aan de Rue de la Victoire in Parijs, die het MP label uitbrachten.

We weten niet hoeveel platen er met het MP label verschenen zijn. Dankzij Han Enderman, die dagelijks de internet veilinglijsten af struint naar zeldzame plantenlabels kreeg ik twee mooie foto's toegestuurd. ( Zie boven voor de informatie van de platen)

Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra

This is my 183rd Keep swinging blog, which means that my webblog has been published today for more then a half year.
Hope you liked it and I hope to share my passion with you in the next blogs.

The concert of the Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra at the night concert of the Oude Stijl Jazz Festival in Breda ( The Netherlands) on the 6th of May, 1978, was a great event. The concert took part in one of the large concert halls in Het Turfschip in Breda.

On stage eight persons dressed as if they were dropped here as a part of an exhibition about the Roaring Twenties. The band, its official Czech name is ORIGINALNI PRAZSKY SYNKOPICKY ORCHESTR, was unknown to most people in the audience. When the concert started everybody was amazed by the 1920s sound the band produced. 


   

I still remember the moment when the tune Five Foot Two .....  was played and Ondrej Havelka started to sing the first lines of the theme. It was as if everybody in the audience got the same experience on the same time: this band were the California Ramblers alive, a rebirth from 1925. The screaming and yelling of the audience has been saved on the LP that was released of this event. Each tune they performed gave the same thrill. Sweet Henry, as played by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake was such another thrill and when the band played I'm Not worrying it was as if Clarence Williams in person entered the stage.
The enthusiasm of the audience was overwelming. The end of the concert was rather chaotic. When Pavel Klikar announced that the band would play its last number, the audience didn't except that and it had to play two or three extra tunes. You can hear the desperation in Klikar's voices when he says: Really really at last ..... as they runed out of repertoire.
The way the Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra performed was historically thought out in detail. The dress, the hair cut, the announcements, the instruments and the sound. The band members played their instruments like it was usual in the 1920s. No drums, for example. A (snare) drum, although used in those days on stage, was never used in accoustic recordings as its sound would upset the recordings. That's why these bands often used woodblocks or a cymbal for rhythm. But not the Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra.
Another remarkable instrument used is the violophon, the violin that uses a horn to amplify the sound. .
I remember that, I guess it was a year later at the same Oude Stijl Jazz Festival, when the band had to return of course, the musicians of the band where not content with the sound that was reproduced through the amplifiers, as it still had a kind of stereo-effect. It should be a pure mono-sound.
The 1978 concert was released on a Jazz Crooner LP ( JC 068578 ) and is now a collector's item too.
The complete information of the LP is:
ORIGINALNI PRAZSKY SYNKOPICKY ORCHESTR : Pavel Klikar dir-co-p, Thomas Velinsky tb, Frantisek Rubas cl-ss-bs, Jan Stolba cl-as, Zbynek Maly v-violophon, Jiri Gilik p, Jiri Sicha banj, Ondrej Havelka vo.
Recorded Breda, 6 May 1978
1 - Chinaman Blues
2 - Five Foot Two Eyes Of Blue
3 - I'm Not Worrying
4 - Sweet henry
5 - Up The Country Blues
6 - Mama Is Going To Slow You down
7 - Rough Bottom
8 - Harmonica Blues
9 - Love Found You for Me
10 - Salty dog
11 - I'd Rather Be The Girl In Your Arms
12 - Alice Blue Gown
13 - When Our Grammophone Plays Black Bottom
Released as JAZZ CROOMER vol. 11 ( JC 068578 )The Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra returned the next year to the festival and made a tour along some other venues. They also perfomed in Germany and other countries. Some more LPs were released ( like WAM 780.065 ) and also a CD, Jazz & Hot Dance Music 1923-31 ( Panton 81 0331).
As promissed I'll share some of these recordings with the loyal daily visitors of this blog who contacted me and I hope to share my passion, my knowledge and enthusiasm about jazz music as played between 1917 and 2017 in my daily Keep swinging blog: http://keepswinging.blogspot.com ( please book mark it, forward it to your friends, link it or use the RSS-function, which gives you the possibility to see automatically on your screen each new contribution that has been posted.
Enjoy the tune Five Foot Two Eyes Of Blue by clicking on the title bar or on the tune title.
Thanks to Jørgen too, who even visits my blogs even two or three times a day and replace me when I am unable to make my daily contribution. - I hope a present I promised him, will arrive today ( or tomorrow, or the day after ..... )
Keep swinging
Hans Durium Koert
keepswinging@live.nl

Cotton City Jazzband

Tomorrow this daily Keep swinging blogspot will have been a half year online. I'd love to thank the regular visitors for joining this blog for such a long time. Most of them are unknown for me, but few respond now and then. If you know what subject will be in my blog tomorrow ( I already gave three indications in my last blogs) or you just want to say hello, please mail me .

Find the three indications in the last three blogs.

The LP Emanuel Sayles and the Cotton City Jazzband is one of those key records I had in my collection. To be honest - I didn't had a copy of that Alpha Nº 7002 record, but I made a transfer on my reel-to-reel recorded from an LP I had borrowed from the Rotterdam Phonotheek.Of course I don't remember the circumstances after 30 years, but a fact is that I transfered five LPs of the Cotton City Jazzband on one tape, labeled as Band 44. I remember that I was fascinated by the music this band played and I must have borrowed all LPs within a short period. As the youngest LP was recorded in 1976 it must have been taped around 1976-1977.

I transfered the next records:

ALPHA 7001 - COTTON CITY JAZZBAND ( Rec. 27 Jun. 1969 )

ALPHA 7002 - EMANUEL SAYLES and the COTTON CITY JAZZBAND ( Rec. 11 Oct. 1969)

ALPHA 7004 - ALTON PURNELL and the COTTON CITY JAZZBAND ( Rec. 23 Feb. 1970 )

ALPHA 7005 - PERCY HUMPHREY and the COTTON CITY JAZZBAND (Rec. 2 Nov. 1970)

ALPHA 7006 - DON EWELL and the COTTON CITY JAZZBAND (Rec. 22 Feb. 1971)

ALPHA 7011 - FREDDIE KOHLMAN and the COTTON CITY JAZZBAND ( Rec. 5 Jun. 1976 )

The Cotton City Jazzband played in the New Orleans style and was founded in 1962 when seven musicians in Ghent (Belgium) started to play the black music of the 1920s, the music of musicians like Louis Armstrong, George Lewis, Louis Nelson, Fredie Kohlman, Don Ewell and Willie, Earl and Percy Humphrey. They invited musicians from New Orleans to come to Europe to make tours and records, like Rein de Graaff did during the past twenty-five years in bebop style. Some of these living legends are to be found in my compilation, like Percy Humphrey, trumpet player and singer, Don Ewell and Alton Purnell, both piano players, Freddie Kohlman who sung and played drums and Emanuel Sayles on the banjo.

The last one I remember the best. Not only because my brother had bought the Alpha Nº 7002 LP, but also because of the steady rather primitive sound of the vocals and banjo rhythm as played by Emanuel Sayles. I still can hear that sound in my head if I want to, even if I haven't heard the recordings for years and it became for me the symbol of New Orleans jazz.

New Orleans Jazz has never become one of my favorites, except these Cotton City Jazzband sides. Later I found some Sweet Emma (Barrett) recordings as my brother saw her perform at a trip to New Orleans and brought back one of her records. Later I bought another Sweet Emma LP at a flea market. I gues I may have no more but five New Orleans records in my collection.

The COTTON CITY JAZZBAND is still active. They performed at the fall meeting of the Doctor Jazz Reunion in 2000 in Wageningen ( The Netherlands ) and maybe it had slipped my attention as I didn't join that concert. What a shame !!

The Alpha records ( not to muddle up with the three Dutch Alpha records that later became the Grannyphone label) are now collector's items. Have they ever been reissued on CD?

The quality of the reel-to-reel recordings isn't very good, so I hope some of you can help me with some transfers of this excellent traditional New Orleans style band, the COTTON CITY JAZZBAND.

Bonbondoos

Thanks so far for the first reaction sofar. Who's next?
Within a few days this daily Keep swinging blogspot will have been a half year online. There are a dozen regular visitors I like to thank for joining it every day. To find them I made a small quiz. Today is the third day to post a part of a band name that will become the subject of the 183rd blog. If you can mail me that name you'll be in the race for a nice present. Good luck

third indication Prague

As it is a foreign group it is good to learn that it is also written as Prazsky

Record collectors are weird species of the human race. Their highest target is to find rare items that have a huge emotional values for them. The music on the records seems of minor importance.

I'm a record collector too, but not as weird as I wrote, although I see visitors knit their brows as I show them my card board Hit of the week collection and explain that I never play the record for fear of damaging the surface. I even have a pretty large collection of flexible records most unplayable after 75 years. Isn 't that strange?

When I was a teenager I started to buy my own records. I still cherish the first one I ever bought ( Jazz Session with Bobby Hacket). When I grew older I decided to sell most of my LPs as the CD became the new medium to publish music. It gave me some funds to sell CDs.

I allowed my brother to save some LPs for his own collection ( A collection who has been untouched and unplayed now for years ). Last week I discussed with him why I sold my collection as I'm now searching for LPs to complete my collection.

There are several LPs I'd love to have back in my collection. Not as an object, but for the music. Thanks to my brother Peter I could grabble in his collection to burn some of the most desired LPs. I burned the LPs A Day In Copenhagen by Dexter Gordon & Slide Hampton and The Viking by Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and Philip Catherine. I'm sure both are reissued on CD, but I never came accross it. The famous concert of the Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra ( oh boy, a giveaway ) in Breda was never reissued and I will discuss this record in one of my next blogs. And last but not least the great recordings of Emanuel Sayles with the Cotton City Jazzband, also one of the subject of a blog soon to be published.

When I was a teenager I joined all the concerts of the Instant Composers Pool, a Dutch free jazz group of musicians like Wilem Breuker, Han Bennink and Leo Cuypers while they performed at the concerts of Nieuwe Muziek in Middelburg (The Netherlands). In the 1960s they were all young musicians experimenting with free music styles. Most people labeled that kind of music as a bunch of noises - my brother and I were young adults and found it interesting to be part of that scene, I guess.

I remember to have bought two record boxes of that free jazz group, and in the last issue of the Jazz Bulletin was a small article titled Bonbondoos, about two boxes that are nowadays wanted objects for record collectors. I sold both boxes in the 1980s. One was the, now called, Bonbondoos ( Chocolate box), a beautifdul designed round box with two records titles simply ICP 007/008 and the other ones where the six flexible records, EP sized, made by Han Bennink and Misha Mengelberg titled Een Mirakelse Tocht Door Het Scharrenbroekse. (ICP 013 )

I'd love to hear the music of these two items again.

Can someone help me ?

I lost my interest for this free style jazz music during the 1970s. Once I overheared such a free jazz record in a record store in Middelburg - I liked the music I heard, but then the man in the shop told me that the forgot to change the button to 33 rpm ( he had just played a single on that gramophone). I guess that must have been the signal for me to start collection more traditional jazz styles.

Jazz Bulletin

Within a few days this daily Keep swinging blogspot will have been a half year online. There are a dozen regular visitors I like to thank for joining it every day. To find them I made a small quiz. The next three days I will post a part of a band name that will become the subject of the 183rd blog. If you can tell me that name you'll be in the race for a nice present. Good luck

first word: Syncopated

There are three or four serious jazz magazines in the Netherlands at the moment. Magazines released, not as a regular news sites or blog, but printed on paper, not addressed to a small group of persons.

There are two glossy magazines, dedicated to all kinds of jazz-related subjects ( like soul - blues - world - urban), titled Jazz and Jazz-ism. Both magazines have the same target group. I think one of the two won't survive.

Third one is the Jazz Bulletin, the informative magazine published by the Dutch Jazz Archive. Its subject are always related to the jazz scene in Holland.

Fourth might be the Doctor Jazz Magazine, the oldest magazine of the four mentioned and related to more traditional style jazz. I'm not sure if it should be in this small list, as it is related to a membership of the Doctor Jazz Reunion.

The first two magazines are, glossy ones, with articles about music, lifestyle, travel and gadgets. There are only a few articles each month, that interest me.

Some days ago the 60th number of the Jazz Bulletin was released. And to be fair, all articles interested me. The magazine has beautiful black and white photos ( shouldn't jazz photos always be in black and white?) and contains an interview with Yuri Honing, a Dutch saxophone player, an article about Fritz Müller, a Dutch clarinet player and jazz promotor, that passed away May 2006 and a very interesting article about the four tours early 1960s John Coltrane made in the Netherlands; about the confrontation with his new way to make music ( or noises, depending what critic you want to quote). There is an article about the leader of the Kovacs Lajos Band (dir. by Louis Schmidt) and an article about the jazz collection of Egbert de Bloeme, former chairman of the Dutch Jazz Archive. The regular colums, like Postuum ( = Phostumous) , Donaties (Gifts to the Archive) and Jan J. Mulder's column Jan J.Mulder blikt 50 jaar terug about the music scene in 1956.

It's a pity that the magazine is written entirely in Dutch. I think it should be ( partly) in English, like the areticles interesting for foreign readers ( like the Coltrane article)

For me the Jazz Bulletin is one of the best jazz magazine now available in the Netherlands.

Don't forget to open the blog tomorrow for the second word in our little quiz.

Charles Mingus

CHANGES ONE ( Atlantic / Rhino 8122-71403)

These long out of print recordings of Charles Mingus are now available on CD. They belong to the best Mingus made in the last years of his life. In fact two LPs were recorded at te same session, Changes One and Changes Two. ( Rcorded 27, 28 and 30 December 1974. )

Mingus himself said, hat these recordings were among the best he ever made. Because this band has been together longer than most of the bands I've had. Among the personnel we'll find George Adams on tenor sax. He also sings at Devil's Blues. Jack Walrath on trumpet, Don Pullen at the piano and Dannie Richmond at the drums.

Mingus was not only a gifted musician and composer, but also had political ideas. He wanted to express his ideas with his music. The tune Remember Rockefeller At Attica reminds of the fact the way Rockefeller suppressed a rebellion of prisoners.

On September 9, 1971, after four days of riots at the state prison in Attica, N.Y., Rockefeller gave the order for 1,000 New York State Police troopers and National Guardsmen to storm the prison. Over 40 people died, including 11 of 38 hostages (most of whom were prison guards), the largest loss of life in armed conflict between groups of Americans since the American Civil War. Most of the deaths were attributed to the gunfire of the National Guard and State Police. The prisoners had been demanding better living conditions, showers, education, and vocational training. Opponents blamed Rockefeller for these deaths, while his supporters, including many conservatives who had often vocally differed with him in the past, defended his actions as being necessary to the preservation of law and order. (Wikipedia)

The second tune, Sue's Changes, is a ballad, Nat Henthoff calls it in the liner notes one of Mingus's key works. the tune ( more than 17 minutes playing time) was recorded in one take - a further witness to the enormous musical advantage of having a band that has been together .... for two years. (Nat Henthoff)

The third track, Devil blues has George Adam's gravelly, shouting blues vocal and as I, personally, don't like this kind of blues singing I don't like it.

The last tune on this CD, Duke Ellington's Sound Of Love was made, just after Duke's dead. Mingus played for some time in Ellington's Orchestra. Mingus was a great admirer of Ellington's music.

Lost Concerts

When I started to create a web site of my own, several years ago, one of the subjects I wanted to share was a list of concerts, related to jazz, I had attended.

I remembered the concert of the Dutch guitar player Thom Kelling in Goes, a small city in the south west part of The Netherlands, to be my first one. It became the first item 1 Oct. 1960

It happend to be a long and still growing list. It was hard to find all information. I learned that I had a weak memory for concerts in the 1960s and 1970s. I was sure that the 1960 Thom Kelling concert had took place at the auditorium of one of the high schools in the city, but the entree ticket learned that it had been at the Prins van Oranje, the local theatre.

I had thought that most of the concert dates could be found easily on the internet or in the archives of the theatres, but ..... not a bit of it. We had seen Art Blakey and his Jazzmessengers at the Doelen in Rotterdam twenty five years ago, I even made slides at that occasion, but no one remembered the concert - nor the Dutch Jazz Archive in Amsterdam, nor the Doelen theatre in Rotterdam. Thanks to a research in local news papers done by the Gemeentelijk Archive in Rotterdam we found a small article about the concert and the date of the concert.

During the 1960s,1970s and 1980s we joined several concerts with my brother and sister-in-law. I learned some times ago that my brother had made a scrap book with all the tickets he had preserved from the concerts, sport events and museums he had visited in the 1960s up to 1980s. This weekend he handed me the ring binder with ...... the Doelen ticket and a lot more information about the lost concerts we had joined together.

I will update my concert list during the next weeks !

Thanks Peter for sharing the scrap book !!

......

What LPs?

Hans

Sweet Lorraine

Everybody recognizes this ! A smell can evoke certain remembrance of the past. When I smell parsley I remember the kitchen of my grandmother in Wolphaartsdijk or when I smell the flavour of a fresh bakend bread I see myself running home from school.

The same experience refers to sound. A tune can bring back remembrances too.

I have that experience with Sweet Lorraine. It was one of the tunes my brother and I played when we made music. It is a simple melody, but had enough chord changes to make it sound interesting. My brother Peter played the guitar and I touched the piano keys in a way Thelonious Monk would have found remarkable. ( We were contemporaries )
The tune was recorded by numerous groups and I found it in my collection several times played by: Jimmie Noone Apex Club Orchestra ( 1928) - Joe Venuti's Blue Six ( 1933) - Jimmie Nooneand his Orchesttra ( 1937) - Louis Bacon and his Orchestra (1939) - Minton House Septet (1941) - Dexter Gordon Quintet ( 1943) - Coleman Hawkins Swing Four (1943) - Art Tatum ( 1944, 1949 and 1954) - Metronome All Stars ( 1946) - Johnny Hodges and his Orchestra ( 1950) - Dizzy Gillespie and his Jazz Ensemble ( 1952) - Don Byas Quartet ( 1953) - Chet Baker Quartet ( 1956 - Earl Hines ( 1965) - Ben Webster-Trio Frans Wieringa ( 1969) - Andre Previn (1974) - R. Crumb Cheap Suit Serenaders ( 1974) - Hot Owls ( 1975) - Mick Pyne (1977) - Butch Thompson (1979) - Lennie Felix ( 1980) - Dorothy Donegan (1981) - Dixie Wanderers ( 1982) - Louisiana Repertory Band (1986) - Branford Marsalis-Ellis Marsalis (1995) - Hot 2 Plus One (2000) and Philip Catherine Quartet (2000)

The tune was written in 1928 by Clifford Burwell and the lyrics are by Mitchell Parish.

If you are acquainted with the tune you can sing along with the chord progression here or if you play an instrument sing along with the sheet music with words and chords here

Listen to a free interpretation of the lyrics as sung by Nat King Cole in the 1940s by clickng on the title bar.

The two depicted labels are both NOT in my collection - what a shame.

Luiz Bonfa

Today a 78rpm recording that surprised me.

LUIZ BONFA:

Recorded 1945

Remember To You

- * -

My Old Bass

Continental 15476

This recording, in fact both tunes, sounds great and I was astonished to learn the Luiz Bonfa made this record in ........ 1945. The way Luis plays these tunes feels as if it should have ben recorded somewhere in the 1980s I guess.

Great music made by a gifted musician.

Listen to it by clicking on the link hidden under the titles.

Thanks Jo ( http://www.choro-music.blogspot.com ) to bring this record to my attention

Gaston Bueno Lobo

Reconstruction of a 1930 picture of Oscar Alemán in a Dutch garden (2006) ( left)
The original image of Oscar Aleman made around 1930 probably in Jac Pet's garden ( right)

The El Redescubrimiento de Oscar Aleman project brought us a lot of fun and facts about the life and musical heritage of Oscar Alemán. In our Oscar Aleman blog spot we want to share our investigations about the research. In the mean time, Jørgen has specialized in Choro music, a Brazilian music style Oscar Aleman recorded together with Gaston Bueno Lobo around 1930. During that period Aleman and Lobo travelled through Europe with the Les Loups ( of Los Lobos) duo. During one of these trips Oscar Aleman visited his friend, Jac Pet, guitar player of the Original Ramblers, a well known Dutch jazz orchestra. The picture above ( thanks Ate) was made during that meeting.

Gaston Bueno Lobo returned to Brazil a year later, due to the fact that Oscar got a job at Josephine Baker's Baker Boys in Paris. Some sources say he committed suicide in Brazil, but Jørgen has doubts about that, as he found out that Lobo might have made some recordings late 1930s. He tells about this in his Choro blog spot.

He still has a lot of questions. A new find of records, which might contain Gaston Bueno Lobo, brought a lot of questions.

Maybe you can help him to find the truth !!

Leave a comment. Mind that it takes some hours before your comment is visible.

Frank Vignola

Sometimes you need to listen to new things - to new music - new artists.

The CD Blues For A Gypsy was such a new thing. It is played by the guitar player Frank Vignola, born in 1965 in Long Island (NY).

When he was a kid he grew up with the music of Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian and Wes Montgomery.

When he was 14 he won a price in a Canadian banjo contest and got a place in the New York Banjo Ensemble. At the age of 20 he had his own string band, the Hot Club. The group contained three guitars, one violin and an acoustic bass. It played, as the name suggests, the music of the Hot Club du France.
The five-piece band was rather succesfull as it was booked for several month at Michael's Pub in New York City and performed at the 1988 Newport Festival.

During his carreer Frank Vignola played with all kinds of famous musicians, from Leon Redbone to Milt Hinton and toured through Europe.


On Blues For a Gypsy Frank Vignola playes the guitar - it's a solo album. His style of guitar playing is charaterized as a combination of blazing right-hand strumming, blues-tinged single-note choruses and chordal improvisations.

Click on the title bar to listen to a fragment of Donna Lee, the first track. Enjoy it.

Thanks Jo for pointing me to this record. It's great.

Russell Malone

The new jazz musicians, that made a name for theirselves during the 1990s, are labeled as Young Lions. One of these young cats is Russell Malone, a guitar player born in the south of the US in 1963.

His carreer started in the Gospel Crusaders and with Al Rylander. In the 1980s he learned the jazz and played with Thumbs Carlisle and Clarence Carter. Late 1980s he spent two years with Jimmy Smith and early 1990s he was part of Harry Connick's orchestra and toured with Diana Krall. In 1992 he started to make his own recordings.

He says he wanted to play jazz at the moment he heard George Benson playing at a television program with Benny Goodman. He bought all records of him he could find.

In 1997 he is part of Roy Hargrove´s Crisol on his Habana album, but he is not in the band when they visit the Porgy & Bess Jazz Club in Terneuzen (The Netherlands) in November 1997.

Russell Malone is also one of the members of the jam band in the film Kansas City. A great film, especially the documentary Jazz '34 that was released after the film. I will reserve that documentary film for a blog later, as it contains a lot of great musicians, like Russell Malone.

Last night I enjoyed one of his own CDs, titled Playground. It is a great CD. Russell Malone plays with a quintet, featuring Martin Bejerano (p), Tassili Bond (b), E.J. Strickland (dm), Joe Locke (vib) and good old veteran Gary Bartz on alto. The music is well balanced and I love the solo pieces with Russell on guitar, like Remind Me.

It's a pity that nowadays producers, as usual in other music styles, leave the recording date from the liner notes. I think the recording date is essential information on a jazz CD. The CD must be from 2002 ( as the copyrights suggest)

Listen to the music on the MaxJazz site.

The CD contains also a video bonus track with a quartet.

Hans Koert

Strictly Confidential

BUD POWELL - STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL ( Black Lion BLCD760196 )

This CD contains private recordings Francis Paudras made in Powell's apartment in Paris during the years 1963-1964.

Francis Paudras loved to play the piano, took lessons and after the Second World War he studied music. At the age of 15 he heard a Bud Powell recording, All God Chillun Got Rhythm by the Bud Powell Trio and later he told ( in his book Dance of the Infidels ) about the impact this recording had. Bud Powell became his idol.

Although he loved to play the piano Francis became a designer and not a professional piano player. He learned from articles in magazines a lot about Powell's life, about how he struggled with his physical health. In 1956 Powell came to Paris for a concert and for the first time Francis heard his idol playing, seated on the back row of Salle Pleyel. Later he was able to find a seat near the piano and he stood near the keyboard at all concerts he was able to visit.

At one concert in the night club Le Chat Qui Peche, Bud recognized his faithful fan and asked him to buy him a beer. This scene repeated each night and Francis learned that Bud didn't got any money from his producer, Mrs. Buttercup. Later Francis invited Bud in his house and he and his wife decided that Bud could stay for some time to work on a come back.

Everybody who has seen the great jazz film Round Midnight with Dexter Gordon as the main actor, will recognize this script. Although Dexter Gordon plays a saxophonist Dale Turner, an old and lonely alcoholic jazz musicians in Paris, everybody knows that the story of Dale Turner is infact the life story of Bud Powell.

In the film Francis Paudras makes sound films of Dale Turner, while performing at stage. Around 1963 Paudras made recordings on his reel-to-reel tape recorder at Bud Powell's apartement. These recordings have been released on the Black Lion CD BUD POWELL - STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL ( Black Lion BLCD760196 )

To be honest - these recordings are a great document; it shows Bud playing the piano only for his friend, deep sensitive interpretations of his own ( and Monk's) compositions. I think it is remarkable that Bud's style of playing looks so similiar with Monk's at the end of his life. He even plays Francis favorite All God Chillun Got Rhythm.

In my opinion these strictly confidential recordings express an unique relationship between Powell and Paudras, during the hours both man were together. This document, although not his final one, is very valuable to understand Powell's life and music.

Sources: Dance of the Infidels by Francis Paudras
Idool Aan Huis by Coen de Jonge ( Jazz Nu nr. 231 - Oct. 1998 )

BUD POWELL - Strictly Confidential
Private Recordings by Francis Paudras, Paris ca 1963-1964
1. Cherokee
2. My Devotion
3. Idaho
4. Ruby My Dear
5. Conception
6. All God's Chillun Got Rhythm
7. Strictly Confidential
8. Deep Night
9. Thou Swell
10. It Could Happen To You
11. Wahoo

The film Round Midnight has been subject of one of my blogs.
Hans Koert

Dream of the Future

Ever thought about growing up in 2056?

You have to listen 24 hrs a day to the taste of the average cosmopolitan, characterized by a steady beat as that is the only vibration that can reach your damaged ears.

The iPod you found in the lumber-room of your parents doesn't work anymore as batteries are no longer allowed, and only available on the black market. The gramophone museum in the city couldn't survive and the dusty remains of the XXth century have been moved to dark cellars. The strange disc you found at an eBay auction seems to contain so called jazz music, but as your PC doesn't accept *.wav files anymore you use it as a beer mat.

You can update the music chip in your head at a refill station in the supermarket, but the files they store are more-of-the-same.

It seems that an expedition found somewhere in a deserted city in old Europe in an obscure, dark and smoky ( using fire is not allowed) cellar, a man, who seems to be able to play in a style of the music, as played by a small minority of mankind in the Twentieth century. The man, answering to the name of Byrd, who shouted incoherent talks while arrested, says to be the last one to play jazz music. The security forces have locked him up in a mental hospital.

Hidden Tracks

In a jazz forum Paul S. tells about an experience he had while playing the Charles Mingus CD: Pre-Bird (Mercury/Verve) - I guess I'd always shut this off when the music on Half-Mast Inhibition ended. I'd compared the timings with the old Mingus Revisited CD, and Half-Mast Inhibition on PreBird runs about a minute longer, although the music seems to be the same. This listen, I let Half-Mast play out, and after a silence, there's about 45 seconds of control booth/studio talk and a snippet of Lorraine Cousins singing Weird Nightmare - perhaps one of the edits in the released form of that track. The edits are displayed after the track listing as each track plays, which is interesting.

I had te same experiences with the Verve CD Baby Breeze from Chet Baker. When the last track Think Beautiful has finished ( 4: 18) the CD seems to have ended. If you don't stop it or change the CD at once because you love to finish the article in the news paper you're reading, studio noises and music starts again after one minute.

These hidden tracks kept me buzy for some times and thanks to an article in the IAJRC Journal ( and in Jazz) I could make a list of those hidden tracks.

These hidden tracks were added by Verve in some releases.These bonus tracks have all turned up at the end of the compact disc in question, not mentioned in the insert sleeve-notes, on the tray card, or listed in the track. The list below, made by some collectors, learn that also other record companies sometimes inserted hidden tracks.

It would be nice if I could enlarge this list with your hidden finds.

Louis Armstrong meet Oscar Peterson ( Verve 539 060)
Fred Astaire - Steppin' Out With My Baby
Chet Baker - Baby Breeze ( Verve 538 328)
Michiel Borstlap - Live Line ( EmArcy 159111)
Ray Brown/Milt Jackson - Much in Common ( Verve 533 259 )
John Coltrane - Kulu Se Mama ( Impulse 5434122)
John Coltrane - Interstellar Space ( Impulse 5434152)
Buddy DeFranco & Oscar Peterson play Gershwin ( Verve 557 099)
Duke Ellington/Ella Fitzgerald - At the Cote d'Azur
Ella Fitzgerald sings the Duke Ellington Song Book ( Verve 559 248)
Ella Fitzgerald - The Complete Song Books ( Verve)
Ella Fitzgerald/Count Basie/Joe Williams - One O'Clock Jump ( Verve 559 806 )
Paul Gonsalves- Tell it the Way / Cleopatra Feelin' ( Impulse 5479602)
Antonio Carlos Jobim - The Man From Ipanema ( Verve )
Branford Marsalis - Contemporary Jazz ( Columbia)
Wynton Marsalis - Black Codes ( Columbia)
Charles Mingus - Pre-bird ( Verve )
Gerry Mulligan/Paul Desmond Quartet (Verve 519850)
The Oscar Peterson Trio - Night Train (Verve 521 440)
Martin Taylor - Kiss and Tell ( Columbia)
Dinah Washington - What a Different a Day Made ( Verve 543 300 )
Dinah Washington - The Definitive ( Verve 589 839)

These hidden tracks were mentioned in the article Verve Records Bonus Tracks by David Griffiths ( Summer 1999 and Summer 2001 and in the article Geheime nummers by Bert Vuijsje ( Jazz #1-2003)

If you have found hidden tracks on CDs that are not in the list, please post a comment with your hidden treasures.

Steve Davis

If someone should ask me: What's your favorite instrument?, I guess I would answer like 75% of all jazz fans: tenor saxophone. This robust instrument, always in front of the band, always used in the spotlights is very favorite. But then I would be in doubt: Yes, but ...... Thelonious Monk or Brad Mehldau at the piano, and Roy Hargrove on trumpet, or on flugelhorn. Ray Brown on bass, and last but not least Oscar Aleman at the guitar.. Other instruments become favorite due to certain musicians who made an impression.

There is one instrument, seldom seen on stage, that might be the most difficult instrument to play, the slide trombone. And maybe that one should be my favorite, refering to musicians like Curtis Fuller, Slide Hampton or Steve Turre. And last night I was convinced what the answer might have been, if someone should ask me: Hans, what's your favorite instrument? The slide trombone.

Last night I listened to the new album of Steve Davis, called Update and it really gave me a thrill. To be honest, I'd never heard of this trombone player, but I bought it because Roy Hargrove was part of the band. So, my knowledge about this great trombone player needs some update, I guess.

Steve Davis was born in 1967 in Worchester, MA ( US) , started to play the trumpet and when he was 14 years old Curtis Fuller made him choose for the trombone. He studies at the Hartt School of Music at Hartford University and got the change to play with Jackie McLean, Pepper Adams and Eddie Henderson. He also recorded with Art Blakey. His style of playing was influenced by Art Blakey and is caracterized being fluid, melody-based, in a mainstream style. Ten years ago he made his first record as a leader, titled The Jaunt.

This album, Update, with great solos by Steve Davis, Roy Hargrove and Anthony Wonsey at the piano, is worth to search for. Steve met Roy for the first time at a jam session at Augie's in New York in the late 90s, but really their first meeting was in 1992 when Roy made a guest appearance at a recording with Jackie McLean. Steve Davis was part of McLean's band then.

Steve tells that he was impressed by Roy's trumpet playing: Everything Roy plays, to me, is the essence of what being an improviser and jazz musician is all about. His playing is soulful and intelligent. He plays what's supposed to be played at that moment. It so happened that Steve heard Moment to moment in the Roy Hargrove version, with strings, as arranged by Larry Willis, and decided to insert it on his album. It is one of my favorites.

STEVE DAVIS - update
Steve Davis tb, Roy Hargrove tp flh, Peter Bernstein g, Anthony Wonsey p, Nat Reeves b, Joe Farnsworth dm.
Recorded Brooklyn, NY,1 December 2005.
1. Marie Antoinette
2. Fenja
3. Bird Lives
4. Grove's Groove
5. The Maze
6. Daydream
7. Wildflower
8. Moment to Moment
9. Leanin' & Preenin'
Criss 1282 CD

Try to find your copy of this great record.
Find some music at Steve Davis' web site.

Ben Op Zijn Best

The LP record Ben Op Zijn Best ( WS 6802 656 ) of Ben Webster is one of my favorites. The music is great and Ben plays at his bests ( as the title suggests ). I love to play this record. It is as Michiel de Ruyter says in the liner notes: U zult hem veel draaien !

Although I touched upon this subject in a previous blog I love to tell you more about this recording.

This record was made at the time Ben Webster lived both in Amsterdam and Copenhagen. He liked both places and had friends to play.

In 1970 Albert Heijn, a well known Dutch supermarket, wanted to make a record to sell in its shops. There was but few budget for the record, so the tunes for the records should be public domain. The musicans were all Dutch, Ray Kaart p, Herman Schoonderwalt as, Rudy Brink ts, Cees Slinger p, Rob Langereis b and John Engels on drums. The recordings took place at the Sound Push studio in Laren 5th of Aug. 1970.

I read somewhere that one of the audio engineers present at the studio was not content with the results, especially with Ben's typically use of his instrument at the end of some tunes, like on Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen. He wanted to cut Ben's final tones. The musicans had to convince the technician that Ben's hissssssshes at the end of the tunes were well done and should be on the record. That happens if outsiders .....

DISCOGRAPHY:

BEN WEBSTER: Ray Kaart p, Herman Schoonderwalt as, Ben Webster ts, Rudy Brink ts, Cees Slinger p, Rob Langereis b, John Engels on drums.
Recorded Sound Push studio in Laren 5th of Aug. 1970.
Ben's Little Scheme
Billy Boy
Deep River
Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen
Steff's Shoes
Ida (Sweet As Apple Cider)
Carry Me Back To Old Virginia
Released at RWst 6802656 as Ben op zijn best - RCA 741060 and Black Elephant 822005 as Ben at his best.

Has this record ever been reissued on CD?

Ben in Amsterdam

The record was sold at Albert Hein supermarkets for Dfl 4.95. It was sold out within a few weeks.

So far so good.

A few month later the record was reissued in Paris as Ben at his best ( RCA 741.060 ) without the permission or knowledge of one of the musicians. Ben was furious and suspicious. He believed that the Dutch musicians sold the record without his permission. It gave a lot of trouble and finally the misunderstanding was accomodated, although Ben and the musicians never became close friends again.

If you want to read the complete story learn Dutch and find it in Jeroen de Valk's great biography Het Levensverhaal van Ben Webster. (or simply find the English version Ben Webster - His Life and Music. )

In the Dutch Jazz Archive in Amsterdam you can visit an exhibition called Ben Webster In Amsterdam with photo's made by Ton van Wageningen ( up to 1st October 206)

I used part of this subject already in a small blog 10 March 2006 ( Ben Op Zijn Best )

Bedankt Astrid voor je aanvulling !

Conversations with Michel

I bought the CD Conversations with Michel a few month ago at a sale in my record shop and yesterday I had the change to listen to it. The CD contains music and an interview Ben Sidran, the producer had with Michel Petrucciani September 1988 for a radio program. The other part of the CD are duets, conversations, from Bob Malach on tenor sax and Michel Petrucciani on piano of course.

I guess most of you remember Michel Petrucciani, who died 6 January 1999 at the age of 36. Born with the Osteogenesis Imperfecta syndrom he never became larger then 3 feet high and was unable to walk without crutches. Although a great jazz piano player his appearance was remarkable. I've seen several concerts from him on video, a little dwarf put down on the high piano chair, with adapted pedals, but when the concerts started the music won and his disabled body was completely forgotten.

During the interview Michel tells about his youth, about his successes and about the fact how happy he is now to be able to play with the heroes of his youth, musicians like Freddie Hubbard or Lee Konitz.

For me the interview on the CD ( nearly 13 minutes) is a bit excessive as it is also written down in the liner notes of the book.

On the other hand, the conversations between Bob Malach and Michel Petrucciani, the duo-performances, are great, especially the four takes of My Bebop Tune. Great music and worth to buy the CD for.

I believe that concerts with only two instruments belong to the most pure jazz music, as it forces you to listen to each other. I've heard that with concerts, like Bert van den Brink and Jesse van Ruller at Porgy en Bess Jazzclub in Terneuzen (The Netherlands) some years ago and these conversations, made by to equavalent musicans belong to the high lights of jazz.

If you want to hear him play, please click on this link or on the title bar.

Dr Zilch

The third EP of Dr. Zilch will be their last one, because the members of the band decided to stop.
Time to renew, they say on their web site; time to start other things. It might be the reason they titled it The Next Level.

Their last performance in public was a few months ago at Jazz in Duketown, a large music event in Den Bosch, one of the major cities in the south of the Netherlands.

They label themselves a group of young, pigheaded, ambitious musicians, who make the music they like, inspired by jazz, rock and funk as played by great stars like Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis and Frank Zappa.

They call their music: Grooving Funky Jazznoised Freakrock.

The members of the group as they played on their first two productions

The four members of the band are Paul Funke ( bass guitar), Jeroen Kant ( guitar), IJsbrand van 't Zand ( tenor saxophone) and Yori Olijslagers ( drums ). They decided to go their's own way and this demo EP, recorded October 2005, will be their final ones.

You can have an idea of their sound while listening to part of Conquerd Territory

The two previous released EP's are titled Super Sounds of the Hight-Fidelity generation and Flux.

Discography:

Super Sounds of the High-Fidelity generation: ( IJsbrand van't Zand ts, Jeroen Kant g, Paul Funke bg, Mark Scheepens dm.) Recorded 2003
1. Raul.
2. Phoenix
3. Fuzz
4. La Payetta

Flux (Paul Funke bg, IJsbrand van 't Zand ( as Ice-B To The Z.) s, Jeroen Kant g, Mark Scheepens dm). recorded ca. Oisterwijk ( The Netherlands), May - Oct 2004
1. Raul
2. Sweet Moving
3. El Cable
4. Flux

The Next Level ( Paul Funke bg, Jeroen Kant g, IJsbrand van 't zand ts, Yori Olijslagers dm). Recorded ca. Oisterwijk (The Netherlands) Oct. 2005
1. Conquerd Territory
2. 4 x 4
3. Holiday?
4. Seventeen: Almost Legal.
>

Of course we're anxious to learn more about the plans of these four boys, not only because they are young and ambitious, but also because Michiel S., here playing under his nickname IJsbrand van 't Zand happens to be my little nephew ( 6 feet high ). Their last CD, The Next Level, seems to be still available at their web site .

We'll keep in touch !

Modern Sax Stylists

MODERN SAX STYLISTS 1947 – 1953
( Audio Park APCD-6106 )

This CD opens with recordings Stan Getz made for the rare Sittin’ in with label October 1948 (The CD info gives November). Half a year later he’s also present on some Al Haig’s Quintet recordings for the Seeco label. Getz, who had been one of the so called Four Brothers in Woody Herman’s band started his own groups and his name was raising in the polls. His Royal Roost recordings are known and belong to the best Getz made. It is great to listen here to other, less known tunes from the same period.

Al Haig, was a skilled piano player, unknown to the general public. His exceptional technique gave him a flexibility and quickness of response that made him a fine accompanist to soloists as Stan Getz, Wardell Gray, Allen Eager and Herbie Steward, all on this CD. Haig is to be found on almost all recording on this compilation.

Wardell Gray is on five tracks. Gray, influenced by Lester Young, had experimented with the modern music styles in Benny Goodman’s small groups. He became, like Haig, undervalued, due to the fact that he died a few years later before he could make a name for himself.

Another remarkable sax player from this period is Allen Eager. He plays on this compilation in the bands of Red Rodney and Dave Lambert. Dave Lambert, one of the pioneers in bebop singing, became famous with his group Lambert, Hendricks and Ross.

The final tracks of this CD have been reserved for Herbie Steward’s Royal Roost recordings from the early 1950s. Like Stan Getz Steward was discovered by Woody Herman while they were in Butch Stone’s band. They became part of the Second Herd. Getz was impressed by Herbie Steward’s sax playing: Herbie’s got such beautiful soul. Even playing lead chair. His lead alto is the nearest thing to a human voice I’ve ever heard, he said about him. I like the tune Passport To Pimlico very much, a great performance with contributions of Herbie Steward, Al Haig and Jimmy Raney.

STAN GETZ QUARTETTE ( 25-26 Nov.( = Oct.) 1948) / 1. Pardon My Bop - 2. As I Live And Bop – 3. Interlude in Be Bop – 4. Diaper Pin STAN GETZ with AL HAIG QUINTET ( 12 May 1949) / 5. Poop Deck – 6. Pennies From Heaven WARDELL GRAY QUARTETTE (Late 1948) / 7. Light Gray – 8. The Toup WARDELL GRAY with BUDDY STEWART QUINTET (ca. Apr. 1949) / 9. Shawn WARDELL GRAY with AL HAIG QUINTET ( ca Apr. 1949) 10. Five Star – 11. Sugar Hill Bop ALLEN EAGER with RED RODNEY’s BE-BOPPERS ( 29 Jan. 1947) / 12. Elevation ALLEN EAGER with DAVE LAMBERT TRIO (ca. May 1948) / 13. Deedle ALLEN EAGER QUARTETTE ( Summer 1948) / 14. The Way You Look Tonight HERBIE STEWARD QUINTET ( 17 Jan. 1950 - * 9 Feb. 1951) / 15. Medicine Man – 16. Passport To Pimlico 17. T’ant No Use – 18. Sinbad The Tailor - * 19 My Last Affair – * 20. My Baby Just Cares For Me

Audio Park has create a great second item in its series of Modern Stylists (The first one was the Audio Park 6102 Modern Clarinet Stylists) and I’m anxious to hear their next Modern Stylists release.

Al Sexton

The Kungsholm Swedish-American Line was a direct ship line between Europe and the US. The shipping company used several ships all names Kungsholm at the time the line existed. In the early 1930s passengers could buy a Durium record as a souvenir for those who remained at home. The label of this record reads This Message and Record is Sent you by a Friend on Board THE "KUNGSHOLM" SWEDISH AMERICAN LINE.

Some weeks ago a copy of this record was offered on eBay and the seller mentioned some new information that needs to be confirmed. Although the record itself doesn't gives detailed information the seller states that the song on the record might be titled See The Sun and the artist should be Al Sexton backed by a band.

Al Sexton was a well known musical star during the 1920s and around the time this record was made ( June 1932) he seemed to be inactive in theatre. ( In 1935 he was part of the Thumbs Up cast. ) Of course it might be possible he was present as one of the artists at the ships entertainment.

Can someone confirm the presence of this artist on this song and what was his relation to the Kungsholm Swedish American Line? Was he aboard as one of the artists around 1932 -1933?

Can someone give me more information about Al Sexton?

Can someone help me to confirm above mentioned facts?

Can someone sent me a scan of a picture of Al Sexton?

Can someone send me an mp3 file of this record?

Detailed information

(source: Durium Advertisement and Custom records discography - Hans Koert )

This contribution was also posted at my Hit of the week blogspot