Top 50 JAzz Blog

Monday, April 28, 2014

Dr. (Fud) Livingston, I Presume


Joseph Anthony (Fud) Livingston (April 10, 1906 - March 25, 1957), Charleston, S.C. was a clarinetist, saxophonist, composer and arranger whose hey day was the 20's and early 30's. Listening to his arrangements from 1926-1930 was an eye opener to me. Fud uses a variety of musical devices from the jazz world and the "modernist" school of composition, resulting in arrangements that are stylistic anomalies. There were elements that were adapted into the classic "swing" big band style or were transmuted into the more bombastic "concerto for trumpet/clarinet" approach that we see in the late 1930's, However, the form itself, with its rapid juxtaposition between earthy blues/jazz and expanded harmonic conceits, largely disappeared. 

Playlist:

Ben Pollack and His Californians "Red Hot"(1924) on Victor 

Ben Pollack and His Californians "'Deed I Do"(1926)  on Victor 

Ben Pollack and His Californians "He's the Last Word" (1926) on Victor 

The Charleson Chasers "Feelin No Pain" (1927) on Columbia 

Miff Mole and His Little Molers "Imagination" (1927) on Okeh 

Frankie Trumbauer and his Orchestra "Humpty Dumpty" (1927) on Okeh 

The Devonshire Restaurant Dance Band "Sax Appeal" (1927) on Zonophone 

All Star Orchestra "Alexander's Ragtime Band" (1927) on Victor 

Nat Shilkret And His Orchestra "Oh Baby"(1928) on Okeh 

Leonard Hayton’s Blue Four "Old Fashioned Girl (In A Gingham Gown)" (1928) on Vocalion 

Joe Venuti and His New Yorkers "Doin' Things"(1928) on Okeh 

Fred Elizalde and His Music "Singapore Sorrows" (1929) on Parlophone 

Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra "Choo Choo"(1930) on Columbia 

Bing Crosby "I'm Through With Love"(1931) on Brunswick 

Lily Pons "The Blues Danube" (1936) on RKO 

Fud Livingston "Moo" (1932) on Arc 

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