An Interracial Tune a Day (#8)-The Duke and Der Bingle

By 1932, Bing Crosby was already a hit on radio, and was beginning to make his way in Hollywood. Ellington was also a national figure because of his radio broadcasts and had made some short films. 

The Depression caused a major slump in record company sales, which severed relations with about 90% of the musicians on their rosters. Crosby and Ellington were about as sure fire a commercial combination as a record company could hope to put together. 

Duke's soloists stake out their singular territory, Bing does some great scatting at the end and this commercial pairing turns out to be a creative gem.

Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra: Duke Ellington, p, a, dir Arthur Whetsel, Freddy Jenkins, Cootie Williams, t / Joe Nanton, tb / Juan Tizol, vtb / Johnny Hodges, cl, ss, as / Harry Carney, cl, as, bar / Barney Bigard, cl, ts / Fred Guy, bj / Wellman Braud, sb/ Sonny Greer, Bing Crosby, v. New York, - February 11, 1932.

•  St. Louis Blues– vBC0: Br 20105, Col 55003, DOX-560, SW-290, Lucky 17005;

•  St. Louis Blues– vBC: Br 20105, 0116, A-5115, 20098 (Italian), Col 55003;

•  A Creole Love Call: Br 20105, 0116, A-5115, Col 55003;

•  Rose Room (In Sunny Roseland): Br 6265, 01292, A-9230, A-500174, Col DO- 1131

Here's Take 2 of St/ Louis Blues, which I slightly prefer over Take One.

All entries are from my book “As Long as They Can Blow. Interracial Jazz Recording and Other Jive Before 1935.”

Great Pre-1930 Jazz Tunes

I solicited the favorite pre-1930 songs of the Hot Jazz Records (1917-1931) Facebook group and this is what that knowledgeable group of folks came up with. It represents an enormous variety of music, ranging from "dance" to "blues" to "hot."

People will know some of the names in the list, but I'm sure many more individuals and bands will be unfamiliar. Do yourselves a favor and check out what these musicians have to offer. All of the songs on the list are available online. They are in no particular order.

1.     Oreste's Queensland Orchestra-When The Morning Glories Wake Up In The Morning

2.     Frenchie’s String Band-Red Hot Hottentot

3.     Fletcher Henderson-Whiteman Stomp

4.     Luis Russell: Jersey Lightning

5.     Duke Ellington: Jubilee Stomp (Victor)

6.     King Oliver: Canal St. Blues

7.     Louis Armstrong: Hotter Than That

8.     Irving Mills & His Modernists (w Jack Pettis) - At The Prom-

9.     Red Nichols: Feelin' No Pain (Brunswick)

10.  Nat Brusiloff and His Orchestra-Out of a Clear Blue Sky

11.  Powell's Jazz Monarchs -Chauffer's Shuffle

12.  Original Dixieland Jass Band: Margie

13.  New Orleans Rhythm Kings: Panama

14.  Jimmy Wade: Someday Sweetheart

15.  Red Allen: Swing Out

16.  Clarence Williams: Longshoreman's Blues

17.  Bix: In a Mist

18.  Frank Trumbauer: Ostrich Walk

19.  Walter Page: Squabblin'

20.  Cecil Scott: Springfield Stomp

21.  Joe Venuti/Eddie Lang: The Wild Dog

22.  Al Trent: The Nightmare

23.  Benny Moten: Goofy Dust (1924 Okeh)

24.  Jabbo Smith: Bandbox Stomp

25.  Charlie Johnson: Walk That Thing (take one or 2)

26.  Bessie Smith: Backwater Blues

27.  James P. Johnson: Snowy Morning Blues

28.  Fats: Ain't Misbehavin' (solo piano)

29.  Ted Lewis: Milenberg Joys

30.  Jelly Roll: Black Bottom Stomp 

31.  Jabbo Smith and his Rhythm Aces-Take Your Time

32.  Jack Purvis either Copy'n Louis or Mental Strain At Dawn

33.  Harlem River Quiver" Duke Ellington And His Orchestra

34.  The University Six -San

35.  Benny Goodman and his boys-Jungle Blues

36.  Miff Mole & His Little Molers-Shim-Me-Sha-Wabble

37.  Albert Wynn's Creole Jazz Band-Parkway Stomp

38. Fats Waller - Lookin' Good But Feelin' Bad

39.  Junie C. Cobb & his Grains Of Corn - Shake That Jelly Roll

40.  Fletcher Henderson - Pensacola

41.  Henry Red Allen - Singing Pretty Songs

42.  Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orch. - Rumba Negro

43.  Johnny Dunn, "Sergeant Dunn's Bugle Call Blues" and "Buffalo Blues"

45.  Paul Howard-Quality Shout

46.  Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five-Struttin' With Some Barbecue

47.  Bix Beiderbecke & His Gang -Sorry

48.  Original Memphis Five -Fireworks

49.  Jabbo Smith -Michigander Blues

50. Benny Goodman's Boys-Blue

51.  Roy Johnson's Happy Pals -Happy Pal Stomp

52.  Freddie Keppard's Jazz Cardinals-Stock Yards Strut

53.  McKinney's Cotton Pickers -I'll Make Fun For You

54.  Brownlee's Orchestra Of New Orleans -Peculiar

55.  Fate Marable's Society Syncopators -Frankie And Johnny

56.  Golden Gate Orchestra -After You've Gone

57.  Original Dixieland Jass Band-I Lost My Heart In Dixieland

58.  New Orleans Rhythm Kings-Barataria

59.  Mississippi Maulers -My Angeline

60.  Red Nichols & His Five Pennies -Alice Blue Gown

61.  Jack Purvis -Copyin' Louis

62.  Maynard Baird & His Orchestra -Postage Stomp

63.  Jelly Roll Morton-Burnin' The Iceberg

64.  Tiny Parham -Washboard Wiggles

65.  Danny Altier -My Gal Sal

66.  Paul Tremaine And His Aristocrats -Four Four Rhythm

67.  Cliff Jackson-Torrid rhythm

68.  Duke Ellington - Immigration Blues

69.  Cliff Jackson-Ring Around the Moon

70.  Blue Steele Orch.- Sugar Babe, I'm Leavin

71.  Perdido St. Blues- Johnny Dodds

72.  Tennessee Ten-Long Lost Mama-augmented version of the Original Memphis Five

73.  Charles A. Matson & his Creole Serenaders-Tain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do

74.  Charleston Chasers -My Gal Sal

75.  Lou Weimer's Gold and Black Aces, "Merry Widow's Got a Sweety Now

76.  McKinney's Cotton Pickers - Shim-Me-Sha-Wabble

77.  Jelly Roll Morton - Hyena Stomp

78.  Jimmie Lunceford and his Chickasaw Syncopators-In Dat' Mornin'

79.  King Oliver's Dixie Syncopators-Wa Wa Wa

80.  Louis Dumaine's Jazzola Eight - Franklin Street Blues

Jimmy Hamilton Radio Show

The Duplex Mystery Jazz Hour of 05/25/2017, WZBC, featured the work of clarinet-saxophonist extraordinaire Jimmy Hamilton.

LISTEN HERE

PLAYLIST


Billie Holiday ft Teddy Wilson & His Orchestra "Jim" 1941 on Okeh
Jimmy Hamilton, Yank Porter, Teddy Wilson "Chinaboy" 1940 on Columbia
Lena Horne & Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra "Out of nowhere" 1941)on Columbia
Billie Holiday "I Cover the Waterfront" 1939) on Columbia
Duke Ellington & His Famous Orchestra "Rockin in Rhythm" 1943 on Ember  Duke Ellington & His Orchestra "Hop Skip and Jump" 1943 ‪
Duke Ellington & His Famous Orchestra‬ "Flippant Flurry" 1947 on Capital
Duke Ellington "Lady Of The Lavender Mist"  1948) on VJC
Duke Ellington "The Tattooed Bride" 1950 on Columbia
Duke Ellington "Monologue (Pretty And The Wolf)" 1950 on Columbia
Duke Ellington and His Orchestra "Mood Indigo"1952 on Snader
The Jimmy Hamilton Orchestra "Blues For Clarinet" from "Sweet But Hot" 954 on Jazz Kings
Jimmy Hamilton "Bohemia After Dark" from "Sweet But Hot" 1954 on Jazz Kings
Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn "Sonnet For Caesar" from "Such Sweet Thunder" 1957 on Columbia
Duke Ellington "Perdido" from "The Cosmic Scene" 1958 on Columbia
Duke Ellington "Clarinet Melodrama" from "Ellington Showcase" 1956 on MPL
Duke Ellington and His Orchestra "Toot Suite Pt. 1" from "Jazz at the Plaza"1958 on Columbia
Duke Ellington "Dance of the Floreadores (Waltz of the Flowers)" from "The Nutcracker Suite  1960 on Columbia
Jimmy Hamilton & His Orchestra "after You've Gone" from "Swing Low Sweet Clarinet" 1960 on Everest
Jimmy Hamilton & His Orchestra "I Didn't Know About You" from "Swing Low Sweet Clarinet" 1960 on everest
Duke Ellington "Never On Sunday" from "utube" 1965
Jimmy Hamilton "Mr. Good Blues" from "Can't Help Swingin'" 1961 on Prestige
Jimmy Hamilton "C Jam Blues" from "Live at St.Croix" 1985 on utube
Jimmy Hamilton "Pan Fried" from "Can't Help Swingin'" 1961 on Prestige

Jazz Soundtracks, II

Here's another DuPlex Mystery Jazz Hour about sound tracks, recorded on 3.16.17. So, close your eyes and let the cinematic images float through your mind.

LISTEN HERE


PLAYLIST (Theme music from the film, unless otherwise noted)

Elmer Bernstein, "The Man With The Golden Arm"  1955 on Spectrum
 ‪
Elmer Bernstein/Chico Hamilton‬ "Sweet Smell Of Success" 1957 on Decca
 ‪
Henry Mancini‬ "‪Touch Of Evil ‬" 1958 on Sarabande
 ‪
Lalo Schifrin‬ "Bullitt" 1968 on Warner Bros

Ella Fitzgerald "Pete Kelly's Blues"  (Jazz, 1955) on Decca

Eddie Sauter "Mickey One" (Jazz, 1965) on Polygram

Martial Solal "A bout de souffle" (Breathless) 1959 on Classic Soundtrack Collector

Gato Barbieri "Last Tango in Paris" 1972 on United Artists

Ennio Morricone "‪The Cat O' Nine Tails‬" 1971 on Colonna Sonora

Miles Davis "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud" 1961 on Fontana
 ‪
Quincy Jones "Hanging Paper‬" from "In Cold Blood" 1968 on Colgems

Duke Ellington "Happy Anatomy" from "Anatomy Of A Murder" 1959 on Columbia

Sonny Rollins "Alfie's Theme"1966 on Impulse

"Influence," Prince & Some Jazz Guys

There's been an enormous response to the death of Prince. An internet search leads me to think that he's been eulogized in every major media outlet in the U.S. and many abroad. Consistently, the emphasis is on his musical genius and his influence on popular culture. A common riff is that "pop music will never be the same," but details of what this means are sketchy.

The interplay between persona/projection/charisma and the music itself is always complicated. In the case of Prince, the music is both collaborator and counter-foil to the gender ambiguity of his look and style, the contrast between his stage presence and his reclusiveness and the tension between his Jehovah's Witness-straightness and his sexual explicitness.

These kinds of tensions were present in the work and very public lives of Ray Charles, James Brown and Michael Jackson. However, the cultural impact of these three resides more completely on the bedrock of their music. Prince is reckoned to have done everything supremely well; everything being the key word. Time will tell us if his eclecticism begat something musically new and reproduce-able, or if his influence will ultimately derive from his persona.

In the case of jazz, media saturation has always been quantum levels lower, especially for black musicians, and the paradigms I describe above were unlikely to play out as publicly. Still, there are parallels to be seen in jazz careers. Below are five important figures in jazz and brief descriptions of how I think the personal and the musical interacted to determine the scope and area of their influence.

W.C. Handy: His compositions, chiefly St. Louis Blues and Memphis Blues, were widely performed; he organized an orchestra that hovered between ragtime and jazz and he did have some influence within the world of popular music. However, his organizing and entrepreneurial skills brought him much wider cultural renown, to the point where he is widely known as "Father of the blues;" a phrase that both overstates and misplaces his musical importance.

Jelly Roll Morton: His work in the 1920's as pianist, composer, arranger and synthesizer of influences marks him as musically influential in jazz. However, his "re-discovery" and narration of jazz history through the Library of Congress recordings-inaccurate or not-broadened his influence into the larger cultural sphere. His gold teeth, braggadocio and pimp-style also played a part in keeping his name elevated above other contributors, like James P. Johnson.

King Oliver: A trumpet player who was influential musically in the late 19-teens to mid 1920's. You might liken him to Sidney Bechet in that respect, but unlike Bechet-a strong, sometimes volatile character who carried on for many years-Oliver's health issues, a lack of personal charisma and business naivete greatly shortened his career. Oliver's wider cultural impact has been largely relegated to "the man who brought Louis Armstrong to Chicago."

Duke Ellington: His work remains a perennial influence in jazz (not a word he cared for), but he has achieved wider cultural renown. Aside from songs and jazz compositions for his orchestra, he wrote film, television and sacred music and was compared with America's best "classical" composers. His persona is relevant. Ellington seemed perfectly comfortable performing for the rabble and for royalty and his elegant and somewhat enigmatic personal style had a lot to do with bringing him wider cultural acclaim.

Charlie Parker: The co-creator of Bop presents an interesting case. The jazz community acknowledges him as arguably its most influential musician. During his life, he was acknowledged by members of the wider cultural, non-jazz elite as an artist of the highest calibre. Yet, while his name took on a meme-like character ("Bird lives" graffiti) and many in the non-jazz community may say they have heard his name, the trappings of wide cultural renown aren't there. What do I mean? Streets, schools and scholarships very rarely if ever, carry his name. Chic chefs, fashion trend setters, politicians, advertisers and mainstream media seldom, if ever, refer to him as a cultural touchstone. Had his drug use not been so widely known, his place in the wider culture would probably be very different.

Extended Ellington

If you missed the Duplex Mystery Hour that played long-form works of Ellington-and Strayhorn-on Thursday June 5, 5-7 PM. check out the playlist below and listen to the audio, archived at http://wzbc.org/#archive. 

Playlist:

 Duke Ellington "Creole Rhapsody" from "Creole Rhapsody" (Jazz, 1931) on Brunswick 

 Duke Ellington "Reminiscing in Tempo" (Jazz, 1935) on Brunswick 

 Duke Ellington "Symphony in Black (A Rhapsody of Negro Life)"(Jazz, 1935) 

 Duke Ellington "Clarinet Lament" (1936) on Brunswick 

 Duke Ellington "Boy Meets Horn" From Fargo, 1940 (Jazz, 1940) on Jazz Classics 

 Duke Ellington "Harlem Air Shaft"(Jazz, 1940) on Victor 

 Duke Ellington "Jump for Joy (Jazz, 1941) on Victor 

 Duke Ellington "Black, Brown, and Beige" (1944) on RCA 

 Duke Ellington "The Harlem Suite" (Jazz, 1951) on Columbia 

 Duke Ellington "A Drum is a Woman" (Jazz, 1957) on Columbia 

 Duke Ellington "Such Sweet Thunder" from "The Queen Suite" (Jazz, 1957) on Columbia 

 Duke Ellington "Anatomy of a Murder theme" from "Anatomy of a Murder" (Jazz, 1959) on Columbia 

 Duke Ellington "Happy Anatomy" from "Happy Anatomy" (Jazz, 1959) on Columbia 

 Duke Ellington "Paris Blues" from "Paris Blues" (Jazz, 1961) on United Artists 

 Duke Ellington "First Sacred Concert" (Jazz, 1965) 

 Duke Ellington "Tourist Point of View" from "The Far East Suite" (Jazz, 1966) on RCA 

 Duke Ellington "Bluebird of Delhi" from "Far East Suite" (Jazz, 1966) on RCA 

 Duke Ellington "Isfahan" from "Far East Suite" (Jazz, 1966) on RCA 

Gopnik on Ellington; RIght and Wrong

Tricky Sam

Adam Gopnik's take on Duke Ellington is that his contribution should be measured not by that hoary yardstick:" a great American composer;" instead, by the work he did with source material that was often generated by others and by the fact that he "was a great impresario and bandleader who created the most stylish sound, and brand, in American music and kept a company of musicians going for half a century." OK. Work enough for any man.

However, Gopnik does need to be straightened out on some things. 

"Ellington was a dance-band impresario who played no better than O.K.piano, got trapped for years playing "jungle music" in gangster nightclubs and at his height produced mostly tinny brief recordings." Well, 3 minutes was the recording time restriction, his recordings are no tinnier than any of the day and he played fine piano. As for his "jungle music," soon after the previous quote you say, as a positive trait, that he was "unafraid of seeming too 'African.'"

You also say that Ellington's "first hits now sound dated and chi-chi." Mmm. Perhaps if you were a bit more specific. I don't want to hear Satin Doll anymore myself, but I don't think that's what you're talking about.

More egregiously, you make a point that from the beginning, to find his sound, he often hired not "up to-date urban players, but often less sophisticated New Orleans musicians..." A paragraph later, you say that his 1940 band was pretty much the height of his achievement and cite soloists in that band including Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney and Sam Nanton. Those "New Orleans" musicians came from Kansas City, Cambridge, Boston and New York City, respectively. What a buncha rubes. Guess when those johnnies-come-lately came on board? Webster: 1935, Hodges: 1928, Carney: 1927, Nanton: 1926.* 

Otherwise, good job.

*[Later editorial addition: I think it's reasonable to think of Ellington's bands as big tent operations harboring different schools of stylists; surely one element contributing to the singularity of his music].

Jazz Tribute to the Boston Red Sox

The Splendid Splinter

All hail the 2013 World Champion Red Sox. There's not a lot of tunes in the jazz repertoire that refer specifically to the Grand Old Game, but on my 10/31/13 program I did what I could to honor the Beards of Beantown.

Here's the Audio.

Bob Dorough “Right on My Way Home” from Right on My Way Home (Blue Note 1997)

Abbott and Costello “Who's On First”

Either/Orchestra “Unnatural Pastime” from Calculus Of Desire (Accurate 1992)

Miles Davis “Two Bass Hit” from "Round Midnight (Columbia 1957)

Jim Hall “You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To” from Concierto (CTI 1975)

Dr. John “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”

Joe Gordon “It Could Happen To You” from West Coast Days (Fresh Sounds 1960)

Dave Frischberg “Van Lingle Mungo” from Van Lingle Mungp SINGLE (Concord 1969)

Dizzy Gillespie “One Bass Hit” SINGLE (1947)

Count Basie “Swinging the Blues” SINGLE (Decca 1936)

Lambert, Hendricks and Ross “Swingin till the Girls Come Home” Hi-Flying (Columbia 1962)

Duke Ellington “It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing” (1943)

King Pleasure “Red Top (Sox)” SINGLE (1952)

Since the WZBC archive goes from hour to hour, there's a rather sudden cut off after Red Top, so you won't hear my fascinating out-tro.