Bands Music

Gertrude Pridgett was born in Georgia in 1886. When she was very young, she toured as a singer and performer. In 1904 she married Will "Pa" Rainey; as a result she would soon be known to the world as "Ma" Rainey, and, in her 30s, become one of the first recording stars.

MADAM GERTRUDE "MA" RAINEY 1923-1928 consists of 24 songs recorded December 1923 thru approximately September 1928; tracks are not in chronological order. Disc packaged in black jewel case; total running time: 71:53. Booklet includes a timeline of her life, recording dates, song writing credits, and musician personnel. Sound quality is poor (muffled and tinny) because Paramount produced inferior-sounding records due to the use of poor materials; listening to the CD is like listening to an old record. Ultimately the sound quality is good, given the age and circumstances of the recordings

Includes the famous and sexually provocative song "Prove It on Me Blues" that, in addition to some mean jug-blowing by Carl Reid, includes the often quoted lines "Went out last nite / With a croud of friends / It must be women / `Cuz I don't like no mens". She also mentions wearing "collars" and "a tie".

Musicians include Louis Armstrong (trumpet), Lovie Austin (piano), and Tampa Red (drums).

This is a 1997 release is a superior collection to the disc from the Shout! Factory/Retropolis/Sony 2003 "Heroes of the Blues" series. "Heroes of the Blues: The Very Best of Ma Rainey" has scratchy feedback that is not present on "1923-28"; it also has 8 more songs. Early Blues recordings from the 1920s are not for everyone, but for those who appreciate them, this is a good collection.

These are hot dance sides culled from the huge recorded output made by the California Ramblers, all featuring bass saxophonist Adrian Rollini. Rollini, a musical prodigy as a child, had joined Ed Kirkeby's Ramblers as a back-up pianist and xylophonist in 1922, but when the prospects for getting much work in those roles remained slim and talk of adding some bass instrument to the band grew, Rollini took up the bass sax and after only a couple of weeks was proficient enough to play the horn in the band.

The earliest sides here were made in 1924 and although they are good, by the time the last sides were recorded, in 1927, the Ramblers were a superb hot dance orchestra, one of the best in the land. Of the 11 pre-electric sides included, the best session is from May 4, 1925, and features Red Nichols on trumpet along with the Dorsey Brothers on trombone and alto sax. Tommy Dorsey has an excellent solo on TIGER RAG, as does Nichols, while Jimmy solos well on DOIN' THE DONKEY. Most of the solos on all these sides are relatively short, sometimes a half-chorus at the most, but the ensemble playing is high in quality and the arrangements allow for a great deal to be going on in only a 3-minute recording.

The first electric recording (use of microphones) found here occurred in January 1927, and the sound, of course, is noticeably better, but so is the overall playing. Chelsea Quealey, a swinging, hot player, is often featured on trumpet, though his section mate Nick Casti plays the excellent solo on LEAVE MY BABY ALONE. The finest session of all was made on June 24, 1927, and features two terrific versions of AFTER YOU'VE GONE, as good as any recorded. Not only does Adrian shine on bass sax, but he also whistles and plays the goofus, an instrument unique to his battle gear. Bobby Davis is the impressive alto man on these sides. The jazz quality of the Rambler's playing was very high by this point, and each recording is hot and swinging. The arrangement on FAREWELL BLUES is wonderful, very advanced. Rollini gets a lot of solo space on just about all of these later sides, and his driving bass accompaniment when not soloing is a constant presence and a persistent force behind the group's ability to play hot jazz. The CD is an excellent compilation. Anyone interested in early jazz should grab this disc as soon as possible.

However you want to call 'em, The Goofus Five, The University Six, The California Ramblers, The Varsity Eight, or--in this case--The Golden Gate Orchestra, this group of talented musicians organized by Ed Kirkeby turned out some of the swinginest, most tuneful pop-jazz of the 1920s. With band members including (at times) Red Nichols, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Fud Livingstone, Spiegle Willcox, Frank Cush, Chelsea Quealey, and of course the one-and-only Adrian Rollini, the group turned out some inspired, exciting performances. The arrangements are always interesting, with plenty of room for "hot" solos. At times, the vocals are less-than-stellar (Ed Kirkeby really mangles the rhythm in his singing of "I Ain't Got Nobody"), but those can easily be overlooked given the talent of the instrumentalists. The selections on this CD were recorded for the Plaza group of "budget" labels (Banner, Domino, Regal, etc.) between 1924 and 1927. The first handful were recorded acoustically, but most were made elecetrically. Considering the mediocre recording and pressing process used by Plaza back in the '20s, the sound quality on this disc is superb! Hans Eekhoff did the transfers and has done a marvelous job of extracting rich, full-bodied sound from the old 78s while keeping surface noise to a minimum and without any annoying digital artefacts that one sometimes hears on reissues of material from this era. Rollini's saucy bass sax sounds fantastic! This is a disc I play often--I regularly take it with me in the car and find it makes excellent music for the road. If you enjoy this CD, check out some of this band's other CDs under the pseudonyms listed at the beginning of this review. Highly recommended!

Ray Miller's Orchestra was one of the hottest white dance bands of the mid-late 1920s, and this CD contains a tasty sampling of the band's output. With sidemen like Frankie Trumbauer, Andy Sannella, Tom Satterfield, Larry Abbott, Rube Bloom, Charlie Margulis, Muggsy Spanier, and Miff Mole, how can you go wrong? There are some great "stompy" arrangements of some good tunes here, with plenty of room for jazz solo work. The two takes of "Cradle of Love" are notable for the possible presence of Bix Beiderbecke, who was on a short break from the Paul Whiteman at the time they were recorded in Chicago of January 1929. The "mystery cornetist" who solos after the vocal chorus on both takes is certainly a very creative fellow, and I remain undecided whether or not he is Bix. It doesn't matter too much to me though, whoever plays the solo turns an otherwise fairly ordinary record into something really special. Sadly, the sound quality on the disc is disappointing; everything is severely overprocessed, introducing some rather distracting digital artifacts at times and sucking the life out of the performances. I guess the good news is that if you detest hearing any trace of record surface noise, you won't have to deal with that here; every last bit of surface noise has been removed, but along with it went a good deal of music. What a shame. Generally, the people at the Timeless label produce excellent-sounding CDs, but their engineer goofed up this time. The musical material is excellent, and I hope the folks at Timeless (or another label) will revisit it again in the future with better transfers.