Swing Music

This is the best Waller disc ever. The sound is excellent; the performances superb. It features very rare and unusual tracks of Waller playing quite a good pipe organ at the Lenox Avenue Baptist Church in Camden, New Jersey. The first two tracks--the classic standard "St. Louis Blues," and "Church Organ Blues"--have the strange ambiance of Tod Browning's "Freaks." The next half dozen tracks cheerfully lead up to the wonderful standard "Sugar" for solo organ. I could gladly wake up to this track every day! Waller's solo realization is followed by the great duo coverage with the incomparable Alberta Hunter: it doesn't get any better than this! "Beale Street Blues" gets the same treatment, followed by "I'm Goin' to See My Ma." Three tracks of Dixieland style jazz follow with Waller on organ, accompanied by clarinet, trombone, and drums. The last tracks find Waller on piano accompanying the little known Maude Mills in four bluesy songs in the Bessie Smith vein--which address and represent early 20th-century Afro-American cultural sensibilities. "Black Snake Blues," for example, recalls the almost contemporaneous "Black Snake Moan" of Blind Lemmon Jefferson and Leadbelly. This is the disc to get and to give!

This is the best Waller disc ever. The sound is excellent; the performances superb. It features very rare and unusual tracks of Waller playing quite a good pipe organ (of Estey Organ Co. manufacture) in Camden, New Jersey. The first two tracks--the classic standard "St. Louis Blues," and "Church Organ Blues"--have the strange ambiance of Tod Browning's "Freaks." The next half dozen tracks cheerfully lead up to the wonderful standard "Sugar" for solo organ. I could gladly wake up to this track every day! Waller's solo realization is followed by the great duo coverage with the incomparable Alberta Hunter: it doesn't get any better than this! "Beale Street Blues" gets the same treatment, followed by "I'm Goin' to See My Ma." Three tracks of Dixieland style jazz follow with Waller on organ, accompanied by clarinet, trombone, and drums. The last tracks find Waller on piano accompanying the little known Maude Mills in four bluesy songs in the Bessie Smith vein--which address and represent early 20th-century Afro-American cultural sensibilities. "Black Snake Blues," for example, recalls the almost contemporaneous "Black Snake Moan" of Blind Lemmon Jefferson and Leadbelly. This is the disc to get and to give!

This is the best Waller disc ever. The sound is excellent; the performances superb. It features very rare and unusual tracks of Waller playing quite a good pipe organ at the Lenox Avenue Baptist Church in Camden, New Jersey. The first two tracks--the classic standard "St. Louis Blues," and "Church Organ Blues"--have the strange ambiance of Tod Browning's "Freaks." The next half dozen tracks cheerfully lead up to the wonderful standard "Sugar" for solo organ. I could gladly wake up to this track every day! Waller's solo realization is followed by the great duo coverage with the incomparable Alberta Hunter: it doesn't get any better than this! "Beale Street Blues" gets the same treatment, followed by "I'm Goin' to See My Ma." Three tracks of Dixieland style jazz follow with Waller on organ, accompanied by clarinet, trombone, and drums. The last tracks find Waller on piano accompanying the little known Maude Mills in four bluesy songs in the Bessie Smith vein--which address and represent early 20th-century Afro-American cultural sensibilities. "Black Snake Blues," for example, recalls the almost contemporaneous "Black Snake Moan" of Blind Lemmon Jefferson and Leadbelly. This is the disc to get and to give!

This is the best Waller disc ever. The sound is excellent; the performances superb. It features very rare and unusual tracks of Waller playing quite a good pipe organ (of Estey Organ Co. manufacture) in Camden, New Jersey. The first two tracks--the classic standard "St. Louis Blues," and "Church Organ Blues"--have the strange ambiance of Tod Browning's "Freaks." The next half dozen tracks cheerfully lead up to the wonderful standard "Sugar" for solo organ. I could gladly wake up to this track every day! Waller's solo realization is followed by the great duo coverage with the incomparable Alberta Hunter: it doesn't get any better than this! "Beale Street Blues" gets the same treatment, followed by "I'm Goin' to See My Ma." Three tracks of Dixieland style jazz follow with Waller on organ, accompanied by clarinet, trombone, and drums. The last tracks find Waller on piano accompanying the little known Maude Mills in four bluesy songs in the Bessie Smith vein--which address and represent early 20th-century Afro-American cultural sensibilities. "Black Snake Blues," for example, recalls the almost contemporaneous "Black Snake Moan" of Blind Lemmon Jefferson and Leadbelly. This is the disc to get and to give!

This is a wonderful disc which features the "original" Grappelly & Reinhardt, namely Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang on violin and guitar. Venuti & Lang invented and perfected the light, jive-swing style a decade before G&R; in fact, it's almost entirely likely that Stéphane Grappelly got the idea for his style from listening to Venuti's records on the Okeh label from the '20s. This is really fine and mellow American music from a time before the effects of World War I were fully felt in transforming America from a quiet but potential power to the superpower which supplanted Britain in the 20th Century. Listen to this disc and mellow into an age gone by. Happy listening!

Jazz singer Waters on the edge of widespread stardom. She takes odd chances on a few songs -- her phrasing on "One Sweet Letter From You" and a couple of other tunes is simply distracting and bizarre, although you get the sense that she was trying to push at the boundaries of her craft, and have to admire her for the attempt. Other songs are closer to her blues roots, and a series of risque blues sessions recorded with the likes of James P. Johnson and Clarence Williams yield a several gems. Her version of "My Handy Man" is a triumph of the genre, while "Get Up Off Your Knees" is positively scandalous. A few other milder hokum tunes are more reserved, but similarly enjoyable. Recommended!

Ethel Waters is best remembered now as an actress, but in the 1920s she was second only to Bessie Smith as the most popular African - American woman singer. Where as Smith was primarily a blues singer (and even when she performed up - tempo vaudeville numbers her renditions were still blues - drenched), Waters was more at home with the popular song genre. Her voice was lighter than Smith's electrifying contralto, but she had great timing and a raunchy sense of humour (see "Take your Black Bottom Outside" and "My Special Friend Is Back In Town).

Of all her recordings, this CD is my favourite, thanks to the four outstanding 1928 tracks (15 - 18) Waters cut with the great jazz pianist James P. Johnson. Johnson, who also recorded extensively with Smith, was an outstanding accompanist, and these tracks are effectively vocal / piano duets. Johnson's characteristically driving two handed piano style is seen to best advantage on "Guess Who's in Town", where his solo is simply sensational. Wonderful double entendre lyrics by Andy Razaf delivered with enormous gusto by Waters make these among her finest recordings.

Just to demonstrate how great Johnson was, the next four tracks (19 -22) are accompanied by the jazz publisher, dubious entrepreneur and mediocre pianist Clarence Williams. Once described as playing piano as if he was wearing mittens, his pedestrian renditions contrast embarrassingly with Johnson's virtuosity.

Recommended!

Jazz singer Waters on the edge of widespread stardom. She takes odd chances on a few songs -- her phrasing on "One Sweet Letter From You" and a couple of other tunes is simply distracting and bizarre, although you get the sense that she was trying to push at the boundaries of her craft, and have to admire her for the attempt. Other songs are closer to her blues roots, and a series of smutty blues sessions recorded with the likes of James P. Johnson and Clarence Williams yield a several gems. Her version of "My Handy Man" is a triumph of the genre, while "Get Up Off Your Knees" is positively scandalous. A few other milder hokum tunes are more reserved, but similarly enjoyable. Recommended!

Spirited hot jazz from 1920s Chicago- "Mojo Strut" and "Washboard Wiggles" are worth the price of admission. Parham's music deserves a wider audience.

Spirited hot jazz from 1920s Chicago- "Mojo Strut" and "Washboard Wiggles" are worth the price of admission. Parham's music deserves a wider audience.

William's saxophone was probably out of date years before these recordings were made but if you can overlook the whinneying and slap-tougueing you'll hear a good band and some fine soloists in George Temple (tp) David James (tb) and Hank Duncan on piano.

This is the kind of set that gets my little heart thumpin' and bumpin'. It's total trivia without one single moment of genius in 156 minutes. But the late, lamented John R. T. Davies put all of his passion into making it jump off of the laser and it gives a real picture of what a typical evening in Harlem in the late '20's would have been like, musically. It's got its own special groove, although the leader's "novelty" playing is a risible bargain-basement version of such actual virtuosos as Dorsey and Trumbauer. One has to remember that the general public (white or black) has always had a large percentage of "squares" who are impressed with that kind of thing. Easy to imagine it was all Ellington and Armstrong. Well it wasn't. My only cavil: I wish Williams would have given the (near) - great Hank Duncan more chances to stretch out a bit. But this ain't that kind of band. For amateur sociologists (and I am one!) and completists only!

This is the absolute best single-disc collection to deal with Bing's great jazz recordings prior to his tenure at Decca records. The music has been lovingly transfered by the legendary John R.T. Davies, perhaps most famous for his excellent restoration of the Louis Armstrong Hot Fives and Sevens for the JSP label.

As the title suggests, the disc is a sampling from the 1926-1932 period, and features many classic performances along with a few rarities. Represented are numbers with The Paul Whiteman Orchestra (including Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer), The Dorsey Brothers, Duke Ellington and His Orchestra, Gus Arnheim and His Orchestra, The Mills Brothers, and Crosby's own trio, The Rhythm Boys. We also glimpse the likes of Red Nichols, Glenn Miller, and Joe Venuti, and guitar legend and Crosby pal Eddie Lang pops up on multiple recordings.

All the tracks are brilliant, so it is difficult to single out the best ones. One that does not appear frequently elsewhere is the jazz number One More Time with Gus Arnheim, a jumpin' track essential to any Crosby jazz collection. Another one we don't see represented often enough is the Rhythm Boys number So The Bluebirds And The Blackbirds Got Together, another version of which can be seen in the 1930 Paul Whiteman film, The King Of Jazz. There are so many classics here, Dinah with the Mills Brothers, St. Louis Blues with Ellington, The Spell Of The Blues with the Dorseys, that I could go on all day. You needn't take my word for it either, as this disc has also been recommended by Gary Giddins, imminent jazz critic and author of the masterful Crosby biography A Pocketful Of Dreams.

Other fine discs which help deal with this period, and would compliment this one, are Bix 'N' Bing, Lost Columbia Sides, and It's Easy To Remember(4-cd box). A fine disc dealing with Bing's later jazz work at Decca Records is Bing Crosby And Jazz Friends.

Enjoy.

I have several albums of early Bing Crosby recordings, but I have found this particular collection very likable. Historically, the most noteworthy recording is the unissued take of "Pretty Lips" featuring Bing and his partner Al Rinker. This was waxed in 1926 in the first sessions Bing made with Paul Whiteman in Chicago. It was also recorded prior to Bing and Al bombing in New York since the Paramount Theatre was so huge they couldn't be heard. But the two new singers honed their craft and with the addition of Harry Barris, Whiteman's Rhythm Boys were born, and the rest is musical (oh, that cliché!) history. Some very fine samples of Crosby with Whiteman are represented. I really like "Changes" since it features the first Bix and Tram recordings with Whiteman, who also had the Dorseys in the band. Bing's vocal is young, fresh, and jazzy. The album leads us through Bing's vocal development through 1932 wherein he is a major star. If you want to discover the Crosby vocal roots, the sampler of recordings herein is a must have for any serious collector.

It's hard to find records which showcase Crosby's work with the Rhythm Boys, but this record contains much of his seminal early work. Bing's voice was a breathtaking instrument in these years, as these songs amply prove. I think his absolute height in range and expression was in the years 1931-1936, but in the 20's he had a quirky, husky and marvelous quality to his voice, as this record amply proves. If you're only familiar with the Crosy voice from the 40's and 50's, then you're in for a special treat. These recordings showcase Bing's more husky, jazz-influenced delivery, replete with scat singing, improvisations, banter with sidemen and absolutely dizzying vocal virtuosity.

Perhaps the best song here is "One More Time," a jazzy, laid-back number which Bing sings with wonderful rhythm. "Make Believe" is another jazzy classic. Another gem is "St. Louis Blues," blessed with a killer vocal performance and jazz band backup. This is an outstanding collection and one which you transform a fence-sitter into a bonafide Crosby fan.